Monday, August 25, 2014

Bohumila Grögerová

Writer -- via kultura.idnes.cz.


Adyar K. Lakshman

Dancer and choreographer -- via The Hindu.



Richard Dauenhauer

Terry Kyne

Anton Buslov

Astrophysicist and blogger -- via The Moscow Times.




Tom Pevsner

Odessa Sathyan

Maruxa Vilalta

Playwright and director -- via exelsior.com.mx.

Caterina De Nave

TV producer and executive -- via nzonair.govt.nz.

Miodrag Pavlovic

Poet -- via InSerbia.

WEEKLY READER: Our roundup of stories on death, dying, mourning and more

TOP STORIES

Photographer makes series of before-and-after-death photos – reported by David Rosenberg in Slate

Grief shaming: judging others’ mourning by Caleb Wilde in Confessions of a Funeral Director


DEATH

The Death of Balzac, by Victor Hugo – from balzacbooks.wordpress.com

Is death a path to political power? In Brazil, perhaps – via Dom Phillips in the Washington Post



Death in the digital age – an infographic from Robin Hyde-Chambers in SiteProNews

Arwa Salah Mahmoud talks about her laissez-faire affair with death

MOURNING



In Medium’s Bereavement and Mourning category, talking about the dead with Charles McCullagh

OBITS

Are digital-age obits an improvement? – Mario Garcia of Garcia Media weighs in

Delightful self-penned (if a bit lengthy) obit – from Ann Brenoff at the Huffington Post

FUNERALS

Crowdfunding funerals – by Jodi Helmer in Forbes

From Lynn Haney-Trowbridge in the Shoreline Times, how to write a eulogy

A very civil British funeral – from Judy Batalion in Modern Loss



Sunday, August 24, 2014

Richard Attenborough

Actor, director ,and producer -- via the BBC. An Oscar-winner for his direction of "Gandhi," he made a number of good films, inlcuding "Oh! What A Lovely War," "Young Winston," "A Bridge Too Far," "Magic," "Chaplin," and "Shadowlands." However, his work as an actor was incredible, spanning 60 years. He could play drama, comedy, and melodrama. Among his best roles: The young stoker in "In Which We Serve" (his name was mistakenly omitted from the credits), Pinkie Brown in "Brighton Rock," Roger Bartlett in "the Great Escape," Billy in "Seance on a Wet Afternoon," Frenchy in "The Sand Pebbles," and Christie in "10 Rillington Place." He is best known in America for his roles as John Hammond in "Jurassic Park" and Kris Kringle in the 1994 remake of "Miracle on 34th Street."

"In Which We Serve."
































Mary Whitaker

Violinist -- via The Buffalo News.

Michael Hoey

Dan Haulica

Art critic -- via ziaruldeiasi.ro.

Ger van Elk

Artist -- via nrc.nl.

Boris Dubin

Sociologist and translator -- via gazeta.ru.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Charles M. Young

Journalist -- via Rolling Stone. A very funny and vibrant writer! Here's a link to his classic story about the Sex Pistols, "Rock is Sick and Living in London," from Rolling Stone of Oct. 20, 1977.

Candida Lycett Green

Writer and journalist -- via the Guardian.

Samīħ al-Qāsim

Poet -- via Asharq al-Awsat.





Imogen Bain

Actor -- via The Stage.


Jerome Ehlers

Actor and writer -- via Film Link.

FRIDAY BOOK REVIEW: 'The Long Goodbye'

The Long Goodbye: A Memoir
Meghan O’Rourke
2011
Riverhead Books
New York

“If the condition of grief is universal, its transactions are exquisitely personal.” This statement, with its somewhat Tolstoyan echoes, perfectly captures the spirit of the author’s narrative of her mother’s decline and death, and the year following it, in “The Long Goodbye.” This painfully honest and eloquent account is well worth reading on its own merits.

This is not expiation, or a dispassionate self-observation. As O’Rourke observes, mourners enter a special kind of separate reality, one that often makes others uncomfortable and awkward. Her prodigious and detailed collection of memories, reactions, reflections – self-destructive, enlightened, baffled, supportive, and combative – it’s all here.

Given that I lost my mother almost two years ago to a debilitating cancer similar to that suffered by O’Rourke’s mother, the parallels are striking. Hearing from a writer whose feelings echo mine validates them immensely. The author’s clear and direct voice brings new insights, explodes myths that make mourners feel inadequate (the Five Stages of Grief? Real life is not so orderly), and makes human a process that is usually conceptualized as elevated and somehow sacred.

It’s particularly interesting to be given access to the unique challenges of losing a same-sex parent – the overlap and transmission of identity. “The Long Goodbye” is no therapeutic exercise, but a patch of biography, a passage that is endured but not conveniently completed by book’s end. That O’Rourke has the sense not to impose an artificial sense of closure is one of the book’s many virtues.


O’Rourke’s assessment of “Hamlet” in the book describes him as “radically dislocated, stumbling through the days while the rest of the world acts as if nothing important has changed.” Likewise, “The Long Goodbye” gives us an unflinching look at the derangement that a family death imposes . . . and how one person struggled through, back to the life of every day.

Simin Behbahani

Poet -- via the New York Times.






Madeleine Collinson

Model and actress -- via Brutal As Hell. With her twin sister Mary, was the centerpiece of the Hammer horror film "Twins of Evil." It's an absolutely ridiculous movie, and of course one of my favorites.

Edward G. Leffingwell

John Blake Jr.

Outstanding jazz violinist -- via the New York Times.





Dick Teed

Former MLB player -- via legacy.com. Had one at-bat for the Dodgers in 1953!

Helen Bamber

Psychotherapist and human rights campaigner -- via the Guardian. In 1945, she was one of the first to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in aid of its survivors. She went on to be a founder of Amnesty International; her work included helping victims of torture, rape, genocide, kidnapping, slavery, and oppression.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Jean Redpath

Folk singer and musicologist -- via the BBC. A peerless exponent of Scottish song, she was very familiar to listeners of "A Prairie Home Companion," and did much more, saving thousands of songs from oblivion.








Joseph 'Powda' Bennett

Musician -- via Yahoo News.



Ralph Morman

Pierre Vassiliu

Singer and songwriter -- via Le Monde.




Billy Rath

Bassist who replaced Richard Hell in Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers -- via Ultimate Classic Rock. Later became an addictions counselor and minister.



Nery Soto

Journalist -- via Fox News Latino.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Brian G. Hutton

Director and actor -- via Variety. After many years as a an actor on film and TV, primarily in Westerns, Hutton directed nine films -- including two of my favorite guilty pleasures, "Kelly's Heroes" and "Where Eagles Dare."





B.K.S. Iyengar

Pioneer yoga educator in the West -- via the New York Times.



Francine Beers

Actress -- via sephintazarka.net.


Hashim Khan

Master of the sport of squash -- via the Washington Post.

Joanie Spina

Marta Bohacova

Opera singer -- via lidovky.cz.

Simone Camilli and Ali Shehda Abu Afash

Afash (left) and Camilli.
Journalist and translator -- via the Washington Post.

Phil Mottram

Cinematographer and teacher -- via the Guardian.

William J. Brennan

Priest and activist -- via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.


Dorothy Schwieder

Historian and writer -- via the Argus Leader.

Charles Bracelen Flood

Writer -- via the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Alan Landsburg

TV director, producer, and writer -- via the Hollywood Reporter. Created films such as the Emmy-winning "Bill," and shows such as "That's Incredible!" and "In Search Of . . . "







James Foley

Journalist -- via the Huffington Post.

Laurence Mee

Marine scientist -- via the Scotsman.