Poet, playwright, and writer -- via the Irish Times.
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.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Friday, November 7, 2014
FRIDAY REVIEW: 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' -- Working toward the Good Death
By BRAD WEISMANN
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: and Other
Lessons from the Crematory
Caitlin Doughty
W.W. Norton & Company
2014
New York, London
OK, you really need to read this
one.
At first I thought it was
postmodernist standup comedy. A gag, a gimmick. A very vibrant, droll, and
personable young lady was posting videos online titled “Ask a Mortician,” and
representing something called The Order of the Good Death. Was she for real?
She is. Caitlin Doughty is a
visionary, licensed mortician with a great story to tell and an inimitable
style in which to tell it. Her new book “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” does many
things – lays out a rollicking bio of its author and details her adventures in
the death trade, all in a clear, polished and hilarious style.
If that were it, it would be
enough. However, Doughty is serious about her profession and wants to transform
it. She doesn’t want to be some kind of celebrity mortician (there are a few, actually).
Starting as a crematory operator, her experiences led her to formulate contempt
for what she sees as “our society’s structural denial of death,” aided and
abetted by the funeral industry.
Her impeccably researched
observations on our culture, which she sees as largely lacking the traditional
religious frameworks for dealing with death and mourning, ring true. “Smoke” is
a manifesto. Doughty asks for, first, thinking about death; and rethinking
attitudes about and approaches to the end of life, its observances, and
repercussions.
That Doughty overcame her
resistance to the standard way of doing things, entering the belly of the beast
and attending mortuary school, becoming licensed, is a testament to her
seriousness. As Mark Mothersbaugh said, “If you hate elevator music, you should
write your own.” Doughty, simply on the strength of her excellent rhetoric and
self-presentation, charms the reader ad presents a compelling case for solving
this problem at the same time.
Even if you do not agree with her
alternative ideas for disposing of the dead, her warm wit and clear-eyed
sincerity makes “Smoke” a pleasurable and thought-provoking read. And who
knows? With the approaching demise of 64 million Baby Boomers, maybe the time
has come for a revolution at the far end of life. Caitlin Doughty makes
excellent company there.
Jeanne Black
Singer best known for "He'll Have to Stay" in 1960 -- via the Williamson Herald. AKA Gloria Jeanne Black Shipley Strange. "He'll Have to Stay" is what is known as an "answer song"; this was written as a follow-up to Jim Reeves' "He'll Have to Go," a hit released earlier that year.
S. Donald Stookey
Inventor of superstrong glass ceramics (CorningWare) -- via the New York Times. BTW, he invented photosensitive glass as well. Not bad!
Manitas de Plata
Flamenco guitarist -- via the New York Times. AKA Ricardo Baliardo. His stage name means "Little Hands of Silver".
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Richard Schaal
Improvisational performer and actor -- via the L.A. Times. One of the first generation of Second City performers, Schaal ws in films such as "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" and many MTM TV productions, including the Bob Newhart and Mary Tyler Moore shows.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Voytek
Masterful production designer: director, producer, and writer for television -- via the Guardian. AKA Wojciech Roman Pawel Jerzy Szendzikowski. Equally adept at film, TV, and the stage.
Donald Saddler
Saddler's famous "Conga!" number from "Wonderful Town" with Rosalind Russell. |
Tony-winning dancer, choreographer, and director -- via the New York Times. Oh my God, he did it all. Listen to this -- he starts off in the chorus at MGM in 1936(!), appearing in films such as "Rosalie," "The Great Ziegfield," and "The Wizard of Oz." He was a founding member of the American Ballet Theatre. He was in "Giselle," "Pillar of Fire," and "Fancy Free." He then moved to musicals, winning his first Tony for his first choreographing gig, "Wonderful Town." Going back to film, he choreographed such films as "April in Paris" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon." He won his second Tony for choreographing the 1971 revival of "No, No Nanette!" Then he directed a ton of stage and TV musicals and more, straight plays, opera, as well as a critically acclaimed dance adaptation of "Winesburg, Ohio." He was dancing at 81 in a Broadway revival of "Follies." What a lot of wonderful creation he was capable of!
Renee Asherson
Actress -- via the Guardian. AKA Renee Ascherson. She will be best remembered for her role as the French princess in Olivier's "Henry V" in 1944. However, her work on stage and screen is much broader. She was the first Stella in the London premiere of "A Streetcar Named Desire"; she appeared in B-movie classics such as "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" and "Rasputin: The Mad Monk." Her last role was the medium in the 2001 horor film "The Others." (Interesting fact: her mother and father were booked to take a honeymoon passage on the Titanic, but had to cancel. Whew!)
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Brittany Maynard
Death with Dignity practitioner -- via the New York Times. Faced with inoperable and debilitating brain cancer, she chose to end her life on Nov. 1.
Joel Rosenzweig
Director -- via Yahoo News. Worked a great deal in television, but got his start by staging the world premiere performance of "Tommy" for his master's thesis at USC!
Monday, November 3, 2014
Acker Bilk
Clarinetist; best known for his big 1962 hit "Stranger on the Shore" -- via the BBC. AKA Bernard Bilk. 50 years after he wrote his signature tune . . . he was thoroughly sick of it.
WEEKLY READER: Our roundup of stories worldwide on death and dying
TOP
STORIES
Brittany
Maynard, Death with Dignity advocate, ends her own life – Catherine Shoichet
at CNN
The
rise of the pauper’s funeral – via Amelia Gentleman at the Guardian
“Decoding
the Food and Drink on a Day of the Dead altar” – by Karen Castillo Farfan
at NPR
DEATH
The
cult of Santa Muerte in Mexico – by Michael Schulson at the Daily Beast
Clive
James faces death – interviewed by Steven Erlanger at the New York Times
How do
nurses deal with patients’ deaths? – from Scrubs magazine
Pagans
observe Samhain – from Katie Bailey at the Citizen-Times
Funeral
and Memorial Information Council puts on p.r. push to have families have that “talk
of a lifetime” – that is, about your death. From Jay Levin at northjersey.com
Memento
mori: medieval images of death – via medievalists.net.
MOURNING
More
on the mourning ensemble show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – from the New
York Post, Vanity
Fair, Jezebel,
Racked,
Paste,
Thought
Catalog,
Mourning
in the digital age – via Bella Mackie at the Guardian
Writing
and loss
– from Carol McGranahan at Savage Minds
Mourning
customs changing on the subcontinent – from the Times of India
Italian
cemeteries contain moving art, significant architecture – by Anna Madgwick
in Italy Traveller
Digital
methods of mourning – from Karen Heller at the Washington Post
FUNERALS
Black-owned
funeral homes in decline – from Lewis Wallace at WYSO
The
booming funeral business – a report from NBC News
END-OF-LIFE
ISSUES
Daughter
charged for helping father end his life – via inquisitor.com
You are
diagnosed with terminal cancer. What do you do? How about paddle board down the
Ganges! – from Jacque Wilson at CNN
FUNERALS
How
does a mortician get a date? At death-meet.com, of course! – from Dan
Bowens at myfoxny.com.
Mortician
Q & A conducted by Jonathan Anker at HLN TV
Ancient
Pangasinan burial rites discussed – from Gabriel Cardinoza and Yolanda
Sotelo at inquirer.net.
OBITUARIES
An
amusing self-penned obituary – via Robbie Gonzalez at io9
OTHER
Death
cakes! From Confessions of a Funeral Director
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