#m.e.

I'm writing this on behalf of my bestie who is currently in fits of despair. She's in the UK. Her long term partner lives in the US She only gets to see him a couple of times a year, but they are very much in love.

She has type 1 diabetes. He has quite severe ME.

She was looking to emmigrate abroad after they got married (which already worried me, of course, as you hear of diabetics dying all the time in the US because of the ridiculous cost of insulin) but she had looked into it, and with health insurance she *should* be able to get from her job (she works from home for one of the larger computer game developers and thinks she could maybe swing it as a benefit from them if she moved over) she thought she'd be able to manage.

However, it looks like type 1 diabetics are frequently refused spousal green cards.

I suggested he move over here, but she's insistant that it would be absolutely impossible for him to even visit the UK (he's never been here, she's only ever been over there) let alone move, even with lots of help.

I'm just wondering if there are a) any type 1 diabetics who managed to emmigrate to the States, and what advice you might have for her, or b) anyone with quite severe ME who managed to emmigrate/travel elsewhere, and any advice you would have for him attempting it.

Virgo 4 - "Blue Mood" Lost Trax Song recorded in 198? Compilation released in 1993. House / Deep House / Acid House

The confusingly named Chicago duo Virgo 4, who are also referred to as Virgo, but are not be confused with the other Virgo who were on the same Trax label that consisted of local legends Marshall Jefferson and Adonis, are more or less representative of the quintessence of Chicago house music's own alluring mystique. Their coveted compilation album, Virgo, which was originally released in the UK in 1989, and comprised of their first two 12-inch EPs, is often rated as being one of the best Chicago house releases ever made, even though Eric Lewis and Merwyn Sanders never really ended up releasing all that much, either together or individually. You'd think two guys who crafted some of the scene's most acclaimed music would've proven to be more prolific in their output, but the lack of it is essentially what contributes to their status as legends anyway. Every enthusiast loves finding that group that makes one or two things that're so breathtaking and then they go away forever, because there's something that's just so cool and irresistible about that, and for Chicago house, no entity seems to suit the whole of this concept better than Virgo 4 aka M.E.

And to that end, here's more Virgo 4 mystery: a track called "Blue Mood," which was released exclusively in '93 on a vinyl v/a compilation called Lost Trax, naturally on the Trax label, but whose date of recording is not actually known. It sounds like some cutting-room floor stuff that got salvaged and packaged onto a record with other cutting-room floor stuff from other artists, but its total rawness and lack of crispness would have me thinking that it was recorded at some point in the 80s, perhaps in '88, when Trax's head honcho, Larry Sherman, agreed to first start releasing Virgo 4's music, after having turned them down a few years prior, when house had barely distinguished itself, and Merwyn and Eric were even more of an unknown entity than they were in '88.