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.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Alan Douglas aka Alan Douglas Rubenstein
Music producer -- via the Guardian. Valued highly for his bold and progressive work in jazz and proto-rap poetry; controversial for his reworkings of late-period, incomplete Jimi Hendrix recordings.
Horace Silver aka Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva
Composer and pianist; one of jazz's greatest figures -- via NPR. He created hard bop, the Jazz Messengers, and so much more . . . (confirmed his death as he was mistakenly reported as dying on Dec. 17 of last year).Can't name a favorite album, as I have loved every one I've ever spun.
David Nadien
Masterful violinist and former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic -- via the New York Times.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Steven H. Scheuer
Film and TV historian and critic; as creator of "Movies on TV," pioneered the concept of capsule previews and listings to aid viewers, a miniaturist art form in itself -- via the Hollywood Reporter.
Karl Schanzer
READER: Weekly roundup of end-of-life stories
Bosnian war dead -- photo by Paolo Pellegrini/Magnum, for the New York Times |
Rabbi Micah Peltz in Haaretz asks: is the Jewish calendar obsessed with mourning?
In the Toronto Star, Nancy J. White profiles a funeral director
Via NPR, a funeral for a home in Philadelphia
From the Toronto Star, Stephanie MacLellan discusses virtual mourning
From Scott Anderson in the New York Times magazine, the ongoing mission of finding and burying the Bosnian war dead
In the drug-war landscape, a business in repatriating corpses of the slain -- from Karla Cornejo Villavicenio in The New Inquiry
Agnes Chew in Live Learn Evolve equates mortality and motivation
Yikes! A Massachusetts funeral home has its license suspended for letting its clients waste away -- via the Miami Herald
And Jason Kotowski of the Bakersfield Examiner reports many irregularities in area funeral homes, including inaccurate death certificates, overcharges, fraud, and negligence
Kentaro Koyama reports in the Asahu Shimbun that Chinese officials are suppressing the public mourning at a tragic death site
And at Tiananmen Square, another crackdown on mourners at the 25th anniversary of the infamous massacre
Conflict over funerary rules in Australia, per AP
According to Allison Quinn in the Moscow Times, in Russia funeral services have a gangsterish tinge
On YouTube, a unique Ghanian funeral dance
Monday, June 16, 2014
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Casey Kasem aka Kemal Amin Kasem
Radio host, voice actor, producer, and actor; long-time host of "American Top 40" -- via ABC News. An essential part of American pop culture, his distinctive voice was the template for the cheery, earnest, crisp "puke voice" used in AM radio for decades. His cheesy "American Top 40" was a show we loved to hate.
He shone in early Roger Corman biker films ("The Glory Stompers," "Wild Wheels") and "The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant"; was the voice of Robin in the animated "Batman/Superman Hour" and lead role in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion classic (?) "Here Comes Peter Cottontail."
Most of all, though, he was Shaggy Rogers, the perpetually scared, perpetually hungry hippie/beatnik/slacker of "Scooby Doo."
Thanks, Casey. "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!"
He shone in early Roger Corman biker films ("The Glory Stompers," "Wild Wheels") and "The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant"; was the voice of Robin in the animated "Batman/Superman Hour" and lead role in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion classic (?) "Here Comes Peter Cottontail."
Most of all, though, he was Shaggy Rogers, the perpetually scared, perpetually hungry hippie/beatnik/slacker of "Scooby Doo."
Thanks, Casey. "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!"
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Svyatoslav Belza
Scholar, critic, essayist and TV host -- via direct-beauty.ru. He did much to popularize the arts in his region!
Yuri Kochiyama
Human rights activist -- via the Independent. After being interned as a Japanese-American during World War II, she went on to aid other movements such as black nationalism, Puerto Rican independence, and the anti-Vietnam War protests. Most memorably, she held Malcom X's head in her hands as he died.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
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