Friday, August 15, 2014

Licia Albanese

Soprano -- via Parterre. Best remembered as one of the most definitive Cio-Cio Sans, she sang for Toscanini, and with Corelli, Gigli, Bjorling, and Pavarotti, among others. Her singing career stretched from 1934 to 1987 -- 53 years!








Diann Blakely

Poet, essayist, and editor -- via legacy.com.

Maria "Tristessa" Kolokouri

Musician and vocalist -- via Loudwire.

Andre Bush

Jazz guitarist -- via the Fresno Bee.

Gabrielle Blunt

Actress -- via Equity Magazine.

Robert Boehm

Rights activist -- via the New York Times.

FRIDAY BOOK REVIEW: 'The Death Class'

The Death Class: A True Story about Life
By Erika Hayasaki
2014
Simon and Schuster

By BRAD WEISMANN

Dr. Norma Bowe’s death class at Kean University in New Jersey is the ostensible subject of this new book. However, the book quickly becomes a portrait of Bowe, as well as ones of selected members of her class. “The Death Class” is about overcoming tragedy, cruelty, the randomness of life, but to me it’s not that compelling, unfortunately.

Hayasaki’s prose suffers from both stiffness and self-importance. When she gets caught up in her parallel narratives in the center of the book, that awkwardness fades and we get a real flow of story, but it comes back in fits and starts towards the conclusion. At points, staggeringly awful sentences sit next to sublime observations. The jolting quality changes, as well as the up-close-and-personal revelations that stoke the narrative turn “The Death Class” into a long, haphazard feature story full of too many predictable moments.

It is very hard for a journalist not to track into the well-worn and effective template of personal suffering and redemption, but the cumulative impact of “The Death Class” is blunted severely simply by not showing readers the shape and content of Bowe’s course. It becomes the disjointed account of various field trips Bowe takes her class on. In fact, the writer falls for Bowe and what might have been a more effective look at an innovative teaching method turns into a mushy tribute. The reader deserves better.



Hans V. Engstrom

Actor -- via expressen.se.

Val Eddy

Musician -- via the Quad City Times.  AKA Valentino E. DeCastris


Gretta Bader

Sculptor -- via the Washington Post. AKA Margaret Marie Lange.

Guillermo Larrea

Actor -- via TV Notas.

Gunther Junghans

Actor -- via westenboothill.blogspot.com.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Myrtle Young

David Weidman

Ann Rowan

Actress -- via rte.ie.


Tommy Gill

Jazz pianist -- via the Charlestown Post and Courier.


Shree Krishna Shrestha

Actor -- via My Republica.

Arlene Martel aka Arline Sax aka Arlene Sax aka Tasha Martel aka The Chameleon

Actress --via treknews.com. Best remembered for her role as T'Pring in an episode of Star Trek-the Original Series, she also had a prominent role in one of the best episodes of "The Outer Limits" -- "Demon with a Glass Hand."






Ed Nelson

Actor -- via the New York Times. Best known for his lead role in TV's "Peyton Place" in the 1906s, he appeared in hundreds of B-movies and TV episodes.







Robert "Red" Wilson

Former MLB player -- via madison.com.

Jim Commnad

Former MLB player -- via Michigan Live.

Bob Wiesler

Former MLB player -- via baseball-fever.com.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Lauren Bacall aka Betty Joan Perske

Actress -- via TMZ. One of the last great performers from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Bacall started as a model, then got cast in "To Have and Have Not," which sparked both her career and her romance and eventual marriage with Humphrey Bogart. Since then, she did great work in film, on radio and stage, and on TV. Some other highlights: "The Big Sleep," "Key Largo," "Written on the Wind," "Applause," "Murder on the Orient Express," "Misery," and "Dogville." She even made fun appearances on such shows as "The Sopranos" and "Family Guy." She could act, she was funny, and she was smokin' hot.





















JJ Murphy

Actor -- via the Independent.

Scott Ciencin

Yvette Giraud

Singer -- via Liberation.





Craig Whittaker

Saxophonist -- via the Greensboro News & Record.

Luis Fernando Muñoz Castro

Musician -- via the Latin Post.





JT Edson

Johnny Ray Allen

Chapman Pincher

Journalist -- via the New York Times.

Gunnel Linde

Writer -- via Aftonbladet.

Marianne Edwards Provencio

Child actress -- via voy.com.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Robin Williams

Actor and comedian -- via Fox.

WEEKLY READER: Roundup of stories on death, mourning, and more

Photo courtesy Ding Rui/CNN
TOP STORIES

New “death simulator” is a new escape-room game due to open in September, per Maggie Hiufu Wong on CNN

In the pages of Cracked, Himanshu Sharma outlines “The 5 Creepiest Death Rituals from Around the World (Part 2)”

Corpse stolen from mortuary after four months reveals family feud: via Nkem Ikeke of naji.com.

DEATH


From Confessions of a Funeral Director, “5 Fantastic TED Talks on Death”

Richard Harris of the Wall Street Journal reports on the growing momentum of the aid-in-dying movement

Brittany Goodin writes about death and Beat literature in the Artifice

Daniel McConnell of Ireland’s Herald on the Irish government’s implementation of a “short-form” death certificate that omits the cause of death

Death in Gaza, from AP via Fox

Peter Dominiczak and Dan Hyde in the Telegraph meld the two inevitables – death and taxes

In The Nation, Nicholas Tufnell describes digital methods of dealing with death

Michel Koh on Thought Catalog, on the death of friends

‘Lethal neglect’? A nursing home nightmare

Mary Awad in The Artifice analyzes anime and childhood death

In the Ernest Becker Foundation, H. Talat Halman reviews “Beyond Death Anxiety”

Oh dear. Taxidermy as a “creative hobby,” from Laura Secorun Palet on NPR.

MOURNING


In the Guardian, Laura Barnett writes about Hannah Moss, who performs a silent play about her father’s death

Elon Gilad of Haaretz discusses Tisha B’Av, a Jewish day of mourning

Fear of death and the silence of life, from Daniel Coffeen in Thought Catalog

OBITS


Esteban Parra, in the News Journal, on more kooky obituaries

FUNERALS

Church cancels funeral ceremony for gay man – from Shannon Behnken of WFLA


Crowdfunding funerals, from Kayleigh Kulp of Fox Business

Want to spend summer vacation interning as a mortician? – from Lin Hui-chin and Jake Chung of the Taipei Times.

The Sun Herald relates the death of funeral director Jesse Richmond, Jr., a pioneer of the drive-through funeral home

Wrong body. Via EURWeb.

Better late than never: remains of nine Jonestown victims found in abandoned funeral home after 35 years: Randall Chase, AP, via ABC

From the Better Business Bureau via the Topeka Capital-Journal, “planning funerals saves stress”
Tampa funeral home robs clients, per Elizabeth Behrman of the Tampa Tribune

MISC



Charles Keating

Actor -- via the L.A. Times.



Bari "Bea" Silvern

Philip Hurlic

Child actor -- via ourgang.wikia.com.

Dennis Lipscomb

Actor -- via legacy.com.

J.W. Hastings

Biochemist -- via the New York Times.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Henry Stone

Music producer and label owner -- via Billboard. First recorded Ray Charles, signed James Brown, and later became a big wheel in the disco scene.

Norman Skaggs

Actor -- via legacy.com.

Ruth Sacks Caplin

Writer and screenwriter -- via the Washington Post.

Jim Frederick

Journalist and writer -- via the New York Times.

Li Hu

AIDS activist -- via the New York Times.