In the past few weeks, many states, including Georgia, Texas, and Ohio have lifted stay-at-home restrictions and steadily begun to reopen non-essential industries. In upstate New York, rural, less-affected areas have slowly reopened select retailers, and construction and manufacturing sectors. Governor Cuomo’s blueprint for reopening New York State divides the state into regions, each with specified timetables and guidelines. The detailed plans announced that restrictions will not be eased until the region meets specific criteria, including available hospital beds and programs for COVID-testing and contact-tracing. New Yorkers, living in the metropolitan area, can expect the economic shutdown and stay-at-home mandates to extend through June 13.
Native New Yorker and host at WFMU, Dave the Spazz, is one of many recovering COVID-19 patients, living in the epicenter of novel coronavirus cases. Dave launched his radio career in 1982 at WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and now hosts the popular radio show, Music to Spazz By. The weekly show consists of music from an eclectic mix of genres, ranging from R&B and soul sounds to garage punk and live R&R bands.
We spoke to Dave the Spazz about music, politics, antibody testing, and adjusting to the at-home DJ-life, following a long bout with COVID-19. Our conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Park Slope Reader: Can you tell us about your radio show, Music to Spazz By?
Dave the Spazz: I’ve been hosting a weekly show at WFMU in Jersey City (91.1 FM) for the past 33 years. WFMU is a listener-supported, non-commercial, freeform radio station that encourages DJs to push the boundaries of entertainment, creativity, and sometimes, taste. Music To Spazz By is a fast-paced party that features rock & roll from the past 100 years. Bingo the Chimp produces the show, or at least he thinks he produces the show, but he’s frequently more trouble than he’s worth. And he files my records away upside down and out of order.
PSR: In a social media post, you explained that both you and your wife, Nancy, were infected with COVID-19 in late March. There were statewide shortages of test kits and PPE at that time. Were you and Nancy tested?
Dave: In the second half of March it was nearly impossible to get tested. I’m an “essential worker” at my day job, Broadcast Engineer at WNYC/WQXR, and I still didn’t qualify for testing. One of the few ways to get tested was to check into an ER but only if you were at death’s door.
PSR: Do you know how you contracted the virus?
Dave: I probably contracted COVID-19 from my morning C-train commute. It’s always packed at 6 am.
PSR: How has the pandemic disrupted your radio show?
Dave: With the exception of a tiny, brave skeleton crew, WFMU has cautiously put our Jersey City location on lockdown for the next 12 months. In an unheard rally of competence, most of the DJs are broadcasting from their ratty apartments/sprawling mansions either live-to-tape or live-to-air. It’s a real achievement for a legendary gang of underachievers to quickly embrace this technology. WFMU is more of a community than just a music station. The listeners are happy that we’re still on the air, mostly in real-time, cranking out their favorite noise.
PSR: You have described the symptoms of COVID-19 as, “unrelenting misery” and wrote in a social media post, “Neither of us could have been prepared for symptoms that were this insane.” Can you further explain the intensity of COVID-related symptoms?
Dave: We would get winded just walking across the room. Nancy had respiratory issues, exhaustion, and dry coughs. We both had fevers, chills, body aches, no appetite, and the lack of smell and taste. Lack of taste was a truly odd sensation. It turns out that eating is a disgusting act that many of us do several times a day. Even drinking water was difficult. Five days in, one of my lymph nodes swelled up to the size of a ping-pong ball. One night, Nancy woke up in agony as her inflamed lungs pressed down into her stomach. That was almost an emergency room night.
We lived with COVID-19 in its full glory for about 10 days or so. During that period I got slammed with four days in a row of the worst bout of blinding headaches I’d ever experienced in my life. Each session was six hours long with two in particular that were especially brutal. The COVID-headache was an odd, ruthless sort of duck. It laughed at the Tylenol I was throwing at it; chewed it up like Pez and spat it back at me. It felt like there were blowtorches behind each one of my eyeballs, with an elephant firmly seated on my forehead. I’ve had broken bones, concussions, been doored by cars, and tossed out into traffic, yet I have never experienced pain as excruciating as those headaches.
Six weeks after recovering, we still can’t shake off some lingering symptoms. Nancy’s congestion issues and my headaches. I still have daily headaches although they are not nearly at the “blowtorch” and the “elephant” intensity. I’ve been diagnosed with the post-coronavirus complication, Sinusitis. Fluid was detected behind my right ear. It’s usually a dull pain that migrates to different parts of my skull, bouncing around like a barely working string of Christmas lights.
PSR: While NYC remains the epicenter of COVID-19 cases, testing-sites are becoming increasingly available, with more than 1.4 million already tested in the state. You were not tested for COVID-19 infection; have you been tested for antibodies?
Dave: Yes, I eventually got an antibody test and the results, if their accuracy is to be believed, are perplexing. The antibody test looks for the presence of short term (IGM) and long-term (IGG) antibodies. Short-term antibodies detect that COVID-19 was in the body within the past 14 days. Long-term antibodies confirm that one had COVID-19 at some point.
I tested positive on both short and long term antibodies. Long term wasn’t a surprise but the short-term positive reading didn’t make sense. I haven’t had COVID within the past 14 days–it has been more than six weeks. Based on those odd findings, my doctor administered the classic footlong swabs up the nose, COVID-19-style. I’m currently waiting for the results.
PSR: In a social media post you wrote, “This pandemic was tragically avoidable. COVID-19 is like 9/11 in slow motion.” Many New Yorkers who experienced 9/11 have compared the two events. Can you further explain this analogy?
Dave: Both tragedies were brought upon by a deadly combination of incompetence and evil. Warning signs for each tragic event were dismissed for lazy and/or nefarious reasons by our elected officials. I was in NYC around 9/11 and worked at two jobs, both near West Canal Street. The initial impact of the airplanes hitting the World Trade Center was over in minutes but the health consequences that followed will continue to last for decades. On a more simplistic level, COVID-19 is a slow-moving beast. Its devastation crawls along like two airplanes stuck in aspic.
PSR: What are your thoughts on the federal government’s response to the pandemic?
Dave: Our president and his toadies dropped the ball on this one through ignorance and shortsighted greed. They have a lot to answer for, and in a just world, they would be held accountable for their actions, or inactions. Trump’s a madman but I blame his yes-men, cretins, even more for having his back and legitimizing all of this.
PSR: What about New York State’s response?
Dave: Andrew “I’ll change my name to ‘Amazon’” Cuomo certainly appears rational and oddly comforting these days, especially in comparison to Trump’s insanity. However, the NYC and NY State response was slipshod and late to the pandemic. For the most part, I blame New York’s dysfunctional and bickering parents, de Blasio and Cuomo. Schools and playgrounds should be open or closed, subways cleaned or not cleaned, St Patrick’s Day parade or not– these were only a few issues that were botched by their mismanagement.
More importantly, I think that along with other politicians and corporation owners, Governor Cuomo is underreporting the numbers of confirmed and probable COVID-19 associated deaths. Deaths at home or outside of the health care system, false negatives on tests, and infections after testing are all variables that may not be accurately figured into the total count. For any plan to reopen schools and businesses, and not have it be an even worse catastrophe, we need accurate information. Cooking the books won’t save our asses this time.
PSR: The pandemic, and first-hand experience with the COVID-19 infection, have disrupted your life in ways that many people cannot imagine. What has been the greatest challenge for you and Nancy during this time of unfortunate adversity?
Dave: In April, Nancy’s eldest sister contracted COVID-19 and died a week later. She was living in a step-down care facility after a brief hospitalization in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The nurses said that no one at the facility had COVID-19, although no tests were performed.
It was heartbreaking for Nancy’s family to not have a funeral, and not be able to console each other in person. There was no opportunity to look a loved one in the eye and ask, “What the hell just happened?” To hear that someone you know is sick is an almost daily event. It’s worse than catching it yourself.
PSR: In a recent post, you wrote, “The mystery of what each day brings can be confounding and agonizing.” I am assuming you still feel this way. Is there anything keeping you hopeful?
Dave: What we don’t know about this virus outweighs what we do. This is a mysterious and serpentine virus that continues to outwit us at every turn. Ignoring its global impact is a fool’s errand and currently, fools are at the wheel.
I’m hopeful that a vaccine at some point will rein in COVID’s obliterating destruction, or at least slow it down. If we’re ever going to beat this, it means being patient and settling down for the long haul. This will be a protracted process and the sooner that we acknowledge that the rest of 2020 is a bust, the better we’ll be able to cope with uncharted days ahead.
PSR: Which musicians are you listening to off-the-air? Has the pandemic changed your musical selection?
Dave: Aside from WFMU, New Orleans music really pulled us through the worst of this. Josh Paxton is an amazing piano player in the James Booker, Allen Toussaint, and Fats Waller style. His Saturday night streamed solo shows direct from NOLA were a party and a tonic. Also, in place of this year’s Jazz Fest, WWOZ aired rare Jazz Fest broadcasts with Irma Thomas, Dr. John, Fess, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Music to Spazz By is a listener-supported, non-commercial, freeform radio show, hosted by Dave the Spazz and produced by Bingo the Chimp. Tune in to WFMU (91.1 FM) on Thursdays from 9 pm- Midnight for the best tracks in late-night R&R.
During this time of uncertainty, we at the Park Slope Reader are committed to continuing to serve our community. Please follow us each week as we catalog changes in our neighborhoods, while providing the latest medical developments and valuable resources. Park Slope and adjoining areas are unique to the New York City landscape, and we will continue highlighting our neighbors through weekly editorials. This is a challenging and historic time; please know we are committed to getting through this together.
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Julia DePinto
Julia Innocenza DePinto is a visual artist and writer. She has exhibited her art internationally and has attended artist residencies in the US and Europe. Julia lives between Brooklyn and Los Angeles.