missing you missing me

in my stunted nasal airflow state i had the pleasure of watching the roky erickson documentary you're gonna miss me with a good buddy of mine. the film painfully follows roky, his mom and his brothers, struggling with with roky's schizophrenia as well as his mothers lack of resources and ability to properly care for her son. only happy when he's surrounded by squelches and squeals from multiple tvs, radios, amps, and any other device that will produce a cacophony of noise. roky has also amassed a rather large collection of mail order trinkets and rubbish in his close quartered apartment.
his brother sumner has a sincere interest in taking roky under his wing and bringing some "normalcy" back to his life. the family as a whole has dealt with their fair share of an alcoholic, unresponsive, and (by choice) an uncommunicative father who lives next door to the very son that is trying to pull roky from his mental abyss. yet the family still tries to work together, only to (in an almost sisyphean way) fall back to their old ways and allow the matriarch to keep roky in her care.

the love sumner has for his sibling and the notion that all he wants is to help roky to return to playing music, is nothing short of awe inspiring. music, being the one thing he knew would bring his brother a modicum amount of joy, despite roky's diminished interest. the true story is the battle sumner has over his own unfortunate upbringing, and how he makes a life for himself (and eventually roky) with the help of his mentor and thier love for music.