Moog: I have a brain tumor

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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This is not new news; a couple of web sites announced Ashvegas resident Bob Moog’s illness more than a month ago. But it saddens us that a seminal figure in the world of music technology faces dire straits.

Through the web sites (links below), Moog says he’s bedridden with a brain tumor after first noticing something was amiss in April. He had trouble with his left arm, then lost the function of his left leg. The docs say the tumor can’t be operated on because of its location.

Then there’s this, a post from last week, from his wife:

Because of his degree of fatigue and confusion, beginning in the last week of radiation, our radiation oncologist moved Bob’s MRI up to last Wednesday. On Thursday we found out that the tumor has not shrunk. It has actually grown a bit. ‘We’ was me and two daughters, as Bob was so tired I didn’t want to put him through the stress of another trip to the hospital. He and I talked about this on Sunday. We are trying to figure out what to do next. Our doctor has recommended that we ask again about surgery–the location of the tumor made Dr. Friedman at Duke decide against surgery in May–and we will hear in the next day or two from him and from the neurooncology team at Duke. There are many possible things to try, but his fatigue is making it difficult for Bob to eat and to take supplements, let alone travel or try chemo.
Despite this discouraging news, we believe in a good outcome. We ask you all to send good thoughts, positive energy, love our way. We can beat this!

Moog (sounds like “vogue,” people) may not be known to many people, especially young folks. But you’ve heard the sounds of the synthesizers that he invented. I can’t say it better than Salon put it in their profile from a few years ago:

These days, Moog is accorded the respect and admiration of a great American inventor. In the fall of 1994, when the excellent documentary “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey” had its debut at the New York Film Festival, Moog was greeted by warm applause when he was recognized in the audience by the film’s director, Steven Martin, during a post-screening Q&A. If most musically inclined people have some familiarity with the Moog, that’s because Moog became a de facto leader when it came to introducing electronic music technology into the public consciousness.
Moog also helped forever alter the creative process of music making. It’s easy to forget that music was once an elite art, the province of those who could liberate the scrawl of notes on a page through specialized and sometimes highly technical mechanical expertise. Today, Danny Elfman, who composed the scores for the “Batman” movies, “The Simpsons” and countless other productions, has an advantage Beethoven and Mozart probably never dreamed possible: creating full orchestration with technology instead of sheet music.

Folks, send your good vibes, appeal to your goddesses, seek counsel in the Great Spirit, do whatever you do to keep Bob Moog in your thoughts. Aside from his music genuis, this is a sick man with a family who needs our thoughts and prayers.

For more, go here here and here.