Friday, June 6, 2014

From Upworthy: How many died on D-Day?

A visceral art project shows us. Film by Finn Varney. For more info, go to thefallen9000.info.



The Fallen [Trailer] from Finn Varney on Vimeo.


Gustavo Lezcano

Tito Torbellino aka Tomas Tovar Rascon

Banda singer -- via Billboard.



Antonin Viktora

Jazz guitarist -- via rohshlas.cz.


Miljenko Prohaska

Composer and bandleader -- via 24sata.hr. He could do jazz, classical . . .



Joan Lorring aka Mary Magdalene Ellis

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Don Zimmer aka Zim aka Popeye aka The Gerbil

Former MLB player, manager, and coach -- via the New York Times. The reason for the batting helmet. Wish he had dug Bill Lee.



James Alan Shelton

Alexander 'Sasha' Shulgin aka the Godfather of Psychedelics

Psychedelic pharmacologist who synthesized more than 230 pschoactive compounds, most notably MDMA or "ecstasy" -- via the Independent. "Our entire universe is contained in the mind and the spirit. We may choose not to find access to it, we may even deny its existence, but it is indeed there inside us, and there are chemicals that can catalyze its availability."



Anna Berger

Actress -- via the New York Times.




Lee Chamberlin aka Alverta La Pallo

Actress who was a charter member of educational series "The Electric Company" -- via the New York Times. A wonderful performer, she was also quite memorable as Cordelia to James Earl Jones' Lear in 1975; also figured in Sidney Poitier's ubran films of the 1970s and much, much TV.







Barbara Murray

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

‘Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?’: Roz Chast’s rueful comedy of death

By BRAD WEISMANN

 Can’t we talk about something more PLEASANT?
Roz Chast
2014
Bloomsbury USA

Do you parents make you crazy? You are not alone. After you escape your childhood home, the pressure abates for a while, but unless they are victims of a tragic accident or you are successfully estranged from them . . . you will have to deal with their end-of-life issues. Someday. Sooner than later. It will not be pretty.


Enter Roz Chast, long-time cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine, whose neurotic musings have long reassured me that I am not alone. Once again, she steps up to provide much-needed laughter and recognition of the difficulties of caring for aged parents, and dealing with their passing, in the sad-but-funny-but-true “Can’t we talk about something more PLEASANT?”

Let's get this straight -- this is not a cute, whimsical, perky little story. Her exquisitely honest account of the ends of her parents’ lives and the repercussions thereof seemingly makes for a  God-that’s-not-funny book. With a deft mingling of narrative, graphic panelwork, and archival photographs, Chast is able to transmit the complexity of the experience into graspable, human terms, and those terms can be instantly appreciated by any reader who has gone through a similar experience.

Parents – what can we do with them? The reversal of roles, in which the children become caretakers, is at best awkward and at worst extremely painful, wrought with anger and shame. The figures that stood over us, shaped us, approved of us or not, are now in our shoes and we in theirs. As their bodies decay and their minds unravel, we are forced to take charge, making decisions, closing doors and opening doors, smoothing the path to death. With them fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting every proposal every step of the way.

What a riot? The humor in Chast’s new book comes from the relief of simple empathy. She outlines her background and childhood, provides sketches (literally and figuratively) of her parents – neurotic, apartment-dwelling New Yorkers, her mother domineering and violently emotional, her father sweet but passive. Starting with the registering of accumulating piles around their home, and untended layers of grime, Chast realizes that intervention needs to take place.

Parental taboos on discussing death, the afterlife, money, plans must be overcome. Her father’s senile dementia, coupled with her mother’s increasing bouts of disability, begin to eat up Chast’s time, thoughts, and resources. Her suppressed resentment is palpable on every page, as she deals with the increasingly catastrophic consequences of their denial of inescapable reality.

Along the way, she gives us unflinching looks at such things as the detritus left in her parents’ place (eight pages of color photographs!), dealing with mounds of incomprehensible paperwork, trying to guess what level of care can eat up how much money for what length of time, and asides regarding “assisted-living” facilities (“As Places went, it wasn’t bad. It didn’t make you want to kill yourself”). Chast is very up-front about her conflict between loveing her parents and resenting them, between revealing all and feeling that she is exploiting her situation for material. But her catharsis is real, and the reader is better for it.

There are no Hollywood ending in the ordinary lives of those we love. There is no magical closure.


“. . . I cried. The bellowing quality of the sobbing and the depth of the sadness I felt surprised me. I was angry, too. Why hadn’t she tried harder to know me? But I knew: if there had ever been a time in my relationship with my mother for us to get to know one another – and that’s a very big ‘if’ – that time had long since passed.”


The most horrible thing I could think would be to summarize by declaring chirpily that this is a book everyone will love. No, you won’t. This is NOT a book you should rush out and buy copies of for all your friends and relatives, as though it were some kind of magic palliative for the grief, confusion, anger, and sorrow everyone must wade through to get to The End. But -- if you have dealt with this subject in any way shape of form, you will find it a great comfort. And maybe it will help you deal. And that’s not an inconsiderable achievement.


Oscar Dystel

Publisher who saved Bantam Books; master of the paperback -- via the New York Times. Among his big bestsellers: "Battle Cry," "Valley of the Dolls," "The Exorcist," "Catcher in the Rye," and "Jaws."




Johnny Gray

Former MLB pitcher -- via the Palm Beach Post.


Franz-Paul Decker

Antanas Å urna


Actor -- via lyrtas.lt.

Mario Missiroli

Director -- via Il Secolo XIX.



Monday, June 2, 2014

Storme DeLarverie

Eldred "Griff" Blakewood IV

Tommy Blom

Singer and radio host -- via hd.se.

Percy Tuesday aka The Reverend

Jayalakshmi

Singer -- via kutcheribuzz.com. Half of the noted Carnatic vocal duo Radha Jyalakshmi.



READER: World roundup of stories on death and dying

The death mask of Han van Meergeren, notorious forger. Repurposed into a work of art itself, is its purchase by one museum he defrauded the ultimate act of revenge? See story below.

From Blunderbuss magazine, a reprint of of Essay Liu's 2005 award-winning piece "Seven Days After Father," which became the 2010 film "7 Days of Heaven"



From rabble.ca, Azeezah Kanji wonders why some victims of violence are remembered, and others are not.

From the Seven Ponds blog, a look at Victorian-era grief as social spectacle and wellspring of art

Daniel Lowe of the British Library discusses the political uses made of the death of Queen Victoria

From The Artifice, death as origin source in comics  -- and as circulation-raising gimmick

In the Toronto Star, Megan Ogilvie begins a series of stories on confronting the end of life, and making decisions concerning it; the story contains several links to related stories as well

From artnet news, a museum collects the death mask of a famous forger who fooled it and others with fake Vermeers

Via Alltop, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a handy and comprehensive graphic breaking down causes of death round the world, and through a variety of categories

A promotional video for a new episode of "The American Experience," via PBS -- "Death and the Civil War"



From the Times of India, Purnima Sharma talks about how that county faces the digital aftermath of death

In Time magazine, Lia Zneimer explores mourning in the age of social media

In an episode of Creepy Corners, Louise Hung reports on an outing with Caitlin Doughty of "Ask a Mortician"

From the Gothamist, Mark Yearsley's brilliantly written meditation on the funeral industry's recent convention in Las Vegas






Sunday, June 1, 2014

Ann B. Davis

Actress, later minister; best known for her iconic portrayal of housekeeper Alice Nelson in "The Brady Bunch" -- via the New York Daily News. One of America's most loved character actresses, she got her big break as Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz in "The Bob Cummings Show" (aka "Love That Bob") from 1955 to 1959. In 1969, she gained immortality as Alice. In 1976, she went to work full-time for the Episcopal Church.










Mike Gordon

Former catcher with the Cubs -- via legacy.com.

Michael Schmidt

Photographer -- via the Independent. His latest work, Lenbenssmittel, was a seven-year study of the global food industry, which won him the prestigious Prix Pictet award -- three days before his death.

Michael Schmidt - Lebensmittel from Institut für Kunstdokumentation on Vimeo.

(Mariano) Uña Ramos

Lakshmi Kumari Chundawat

Writer and politician; preserved Rajasthani folklore and rejected purdah -- via the New Indian Express.

Father Shaheed aka Scott Phillips