Actor -- via Variety. An exemplary leading man who could sing and dance, he did great work in a significant number of good films and with some great directors: Fuller's "The Crimson Kimono," "Flower Drum Song," Pollack's "The Yakuza," Vice Admiral Nagumo in "Midway," and of course Mr. Takagi in "Die Hard."
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, July 28, 2014
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Carlo Bergonzi
Tenor -- via the New York Times. While not often ranked with the Big Three tenors of the mid-20th century -- Corelli, di Stephano, and Del Monaco -- he was a supreme interpreter of Verdi.
Friday, July 25, 2014
FRIDAY BOOK REVIEW: 'The Book of the Dead'
By BRAD WEISMANN
The Book of the Dead: Lives of
Justly Famous and the Unreservedly Obscure
John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
2009
Crown Publishers
New York
When I was a kid, the most
prevalent form of literature in our house was the Reader’s Digest and its
assorted ancillary products, derivatives, and uncategorized spawn. Condensed
Books. Spring 1961 through Autumn 1968? Check. Treasury of Great Operettas,
Mood Music for Listening and Relaxation, Joyous Music at Christmastime? On my
turntable.
One of these was what first
spawned by interest in biographies, and eventually obituaries. “Great Lives,
Great Deeds” is an out-of-print Readers Digest compendium of more than 80
little inspirational life sketches of heroic figures – sans warts,
contradictions, controversy, or depth.
These mini-hagiographies first inspired
me, and later confounded me. The chasm of cognitive dissonance between our
official narratives and the textured, ambivalent truths of lives lived made me
want to crack jokes, or read a corrective.
Subsequent journeys through
Vasari, Plutarch, Suetonius, and modern counterparts such as Schonberg’s “Lives
of the Great Composers” and the Durants’ “Interpretations of Life” have proven
to be tasty samplers for me, gateway drugs that encourage deeper investigations.
How pleasant it was to find this
gem in a street rack a few weeks ago. “The Book of the Dead” is a delightfully
readable, completely disrespectful – and still thoughtful – mashup of bios from
across the historical spectrum.
It helps that the authors are the
redoubtable John Lloyd (Britain’s “Blackadder” TV series) and the master
researcher John Mitchinson. Between the two of them, they subsume a plethora of
fascinating facts about each subject into a charming, provocative, and
sometimes silly narrative.
Rather than categorize their
subjects by nation, vocation, or other criteria, the duo engages our minds by
lumping them together under unlikely banners such as sex, food, questing,
particularly rotten childhoods, imposters, and those who kept monkeys. Somehow,
it all works. For those who might otherwise fail to consider figures such as
Benjamin Franklin and Moll Cutpurse, St. Cuthbert and Bucky Fuller, or Oliver
Cromwell and Frida Kahlo as people with something significant in common, well.
(And for those intrigued by the outlandish details, there is a helpful list of
sources for further reading in the back of the text.)
The unifying element of this brisk,
absorbing read is its tone. “The Book of the Dead” is shot through with the
sheer pleasure of storytelling, the high spirits that come from shedding light
on dusty, musty old exemplars, and a kind of bitter optimism – the faith that
mankind’s peculiarities lead as often to good as to evil, and that the
unexamined life is not worth laughing at. This cheeky cynicism animates the
book and makes it something to purchase, hold onto, share, and read aloud to
someone who is easily upset by such things.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Panna Rittikrai
Martial arts choreographer, stuntman, actor, and film director -- via the Bangkok Post. The stunt coordinator behind the epic four-minute one-take fight sequence in "The Protector."
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Curt Gentry
Award-winning writer; co-writer of "Helter Skelter" -- via sfgate.com. A native of Lamar, Colorado, he was a graduate of CU.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Edward Clay "Tap" Canutt
Stuntman and actor; son of Yakima Canutt -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com.
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