Comedian, writer, and actor -- via the BBC. Best remembered in America for his work on the pioneering, anarchic sitcom "The Young Ones."
Interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the world, as they happen, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died. Member, Society of Professional Obituary Writers.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Hanna Maron aka Hannele Meierzak
Legendary actress -- via the Jerusalem Post. More significantly, even after losing a leg in a terrorist attack in 1970, she continued as a vocal activist for peace.
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.
The Fallen [Trailer] from Finn Varney on Vimeo.
Gustavo Lezcano
Harmonica player and music teacher; long-time member of the Miami Sound Machine -- via the Miami Herald.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Samuel Newbury
Producer best known for his work on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" -- via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
http://exhibit.fredrogerscenter.org/groundbreaking-work/videos/view/963/
http://exhibit.fredrogerscenter.org/groundbreaking-work/videos/view/963/
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.
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."
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.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
‘Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?’: Roz Chast’s rueful comedy of death
By BRAD WEISMANN
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."
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