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, July 13, 2014
Lorin Maazel
Conductor, composer, musician ,and music director; former leader of the New York Philharmonic -- via the New York Times.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Charlie Haden
One of the great bassists in jazz history -- via the Ottawa Citizen. His deft touch, superb musicianship, and ability to lead, follow and meld with his fellow players makes him an exemplary figure in music history for me. He made his name with Ornette Coleman, led the Liberation Music Orchestra, numerous ensembles, and nearly countless collaborations with the best musicians on the planet. Among my favorite recordings of his: "Haunted Heart," "Beyond the Missouri Sky," "Come Sunday," "Steal Away," "The Shape of Jazz to Come," "Farewell to Philosophy," "Pop Pop," "Sarabande," "Living Legend," "Jasmine" . . . and many more. From Yoko Ono to Gavin Bryars, he could play any- and everything, his talent and dedication expanding his musical circle ever wider. Can't really express how much I will always love him.
Zohra Sehgal aka Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan
Actress and choreographer -- via the Times of India. Best remembered for roles in "Bend It Like Beckham," "Bhaji on the Beach," and "Neecha Nagar."
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Ken Thorne
Oscar-winning composer -- via soundtrack.net. He won the Oscar for his wonderful adaptation of the score for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"; he wrote the (non-Beatle portion of) the score for "Help!"; also wrote great scores for such films as "The Bed Sitting Room," "The Magic Christian," "Juggernaut," and "Superman II" and "Superman III." Also did the scoring for TV's "The Persuaders." Quite good, actually!
Rosemary Murphy
Emmy-winning and multiple Tony Award-nominated actress -- via the New York Times Best remembered as Maudie Atkinson in the film version of "To Kill a Mockingbird"; FDR's mom in "Eleanor and Franklin"; she originated the role of Claire in "A Delicate Balance" onstage.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Death and Beyond: 'December Project' reviewed
The December Project: An Extraordinary Rabbi and a Skeptical
Seeker Confront Life’s Greatest Mystery
By Sara Davidson
2014
HarperOne
There’s thinking ahead, and then there’s thinking beyond.
Sara Davidson’s new book is the product of a two-year,
face-to-face collaboration with one of the leading lights of modern Judaism, Rabbi
Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, who died on July 3. The radical and innovative
spiritual leader, foreseeing his upcoming demise, which came at the age of 89,
wanted to treat the subject of mortality, the end of life, and spiritual
preparation for it. She quotes him: “What is the spiritual work of this time,
and how do you prepare for the mystery?”
The result is this remarkable collaboration, a dialogue that
splits into a multitude of levels, but doesn’t fail to cohere. Readers will learn
about the author and her interlocutor, and measure with them insights,
conjectures, lessons, and musings about the thin interface between human death
and human life.
In case you are allergic to self-help books, this is not one
(even though she includes spiritual exercises one can try at the end of the book).
Davidson has the good sense not to write prescriptively, but to listen and
solidify thought into cogent and compelling prose. She does not idolize Reb
Zalman, nor is she merely transcribing his pronouncements . . . not that he was
given to make them. She honors him more by transmitting her perceptions of him
as a complex whole.
An outline of and illustrative highlights from Reb Zalman’s life
are interwoven with Davidson’s. Here are beautifully articulate and brutally
honest accounts of her thoughts and feelings surrounding her mother’s death,
her own feelings of being increasingly ignored at a professional level as she
ages, the frustration of increasing physical limitations.
We read about the insanity and randomness of sudden death,
whether experienced by Zalman at the hands of the Nazis, or by Davidson’s happenstance
escape from slaughter by terrorists in Afghanistan.
What surfaces from these contemplations? Unlike as in
Christian and some other religions, there is no proffering of hope of
salvation, or promises of bliss in an afterlife to come. The refusal of most Jewish thought
to assert a definitive post-mortem reality is strongly here. Instead, there’s
the calm assertion that the essence of a soul persists despite physical reduction
or disability, that an essential unity with the universal has always and always
will exist, and that relation to God is all.
Actions that Zalman advocates to reconcile himself with the
end of his earthly life are just as applicable to anyone seeking peace at any
stage of life – “December Project” creates a shorthand list of concepts and
intentions that can guide us. Rather than try to retail them all in this
review, I will enumerate them as involving the development of intuition, useful
solitude, gratitude, disengagement from negativity, accepting the path one’s
life has taken, overcoming fear, particularly the fear of giving one’s pain to
God, and threefold forgiveness: to others, from others, and from oneself.
This quote from Davidson is a sample of the wisdom found in
this book, one that has resonated profoundly with me and with everyone I’ve
shared it with to date: “ . . . you have the capacity to forgive everyone. All
you have to do is release the negative energy that keeps you bound to that
person. You don’t need them to apologize, discuss it, or see your point of
view. You don’t have to condone or forget what they did, understand it, see
what in their childhood caused them to act that way, or become friends with
them. You just let go – of the resentment and anger you’re holding.”
Easy? No, like most things that sound simple, it’s not. A
lot of the information in “The December Project” may confuse you, irritate you,
bother you, and upset you. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. For those seeking
answers, Davidson and Schachter-Shalomi’s work together will help you get to
work on figuring them out for yourself.
William Gugi Waaka
Guitarist -- via Maori Television.
http://www.maoritelevision.com/mi/purongo/a-motu/kua-hinga-william-gugi-waaka-he-pou-no-te-whare-tapere-maori?utm_source=brightcove&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=share%20this%20video
http://www.maoritelevision.com/mi/purongo/a-motu/kua-hinga-william-gugi-waaka-he-pou-no-te-whare-tapere-maori?utm_source=brightcove&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=share%20this%20video
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Monday, July 7, 2014
OBIT READER: Our weekly roundup of stories on death, dying, mourning, and more
TOP STORIES
Let’s put the fun back in funeral? From Jaleed Kaleem in
the Huffington Post:
Denver trumpeter writes his own threnody – an account
by David Hill on Colorado Public Radio https://www.cpr.org/news/story/trumpeter-joshua-trinidad-writes-music-his-own-funeral
Valentina Zanoni
announces on Swide that the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s fall
exhibition concerns the history of mourning attire http://www.swide.com/art-culture/met-museum-fall-2014-exhibition-mourning-dress/2014/07/03
DEATH
Death on Pike’s Peak: a firsthand account http://www.motorsport.com/hillclimb/news/witnessing-death-at-pikes-peak-a-first-person-account-of-bobby-goodin-s-final-moments/
Jenny Che of the Wall Street Journal reports on a Copper Age funerary ware exhibit http://online.wsj.com/articles/masters-of-fire-spotlights-the-copper-age-1404421180?mod=rss_Books
MOURNING
A heartrending photo essay from NBC shows us those mourning a teen who died en route to America http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/family-mourns-guatemalan-boy-who-died-border-n146636
From Funeral News: Maintaining a relationship with the dead: an African
perspective http://funeralnews.co.za/top-scholar-explains-african-way-of-mourning/
Patti Woods of NPR reports -- Mourning under cover: when a lover had to pretend to be just
a friend http://www.npr.org/2014/07/02/327404618/mourning-in-the-closet-she-was-more-than-my-best-friend
From TaketheGate blog: Mourning father tasered in hospital http://takethegate.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/mourning-pittsburgh-father-tazed-and-arrested-at-hospital-132/
The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation tell us that Ebola victim families are warned to avoid traditional mourning
practices to prevent spread the epidemic http://www.gbcghana.com/1.1773089
OBITS
How does it feel to read your own obituary? Roz Warren tells us in the digital pages of Viva Fifty! http://www.vivafifty.com/reading-my-obituary-online-1265/
Slavik Boyechko & Travis Gilmour of Alaska Public Media meet the town obituarist http://www.alaskapublic.org/2014/06/29/i-am-the-town-obituary-writer/
Slavik Boyechko & Travis Gilmour of Alaska Public Media meet the town obituarist http://www.alaskapublic.org/2014/06/29/i-am-the-town-obituary-writer/
FUNERAL HOMES
Why can’t she get her husband’s death certificate fixed? Jon Yates of the Chicago Tribune wants to know http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/problemsolver/ct-death-certificate-error-problem-0701-biz-20140701,0,5645740.column
Funeral business drawing new recruits, says Jim Ryan of the Columbus Dispatch http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2014/07/01/a-renewed-undertaking.html
Robin L. Flanigan of the Rochester, NY Democrat & Chronicle interviews an undertaker http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/money/business/2014/06/30/funeral-director-love-embalming/11259461/
In the People's Post, Henry Booysen reports on a horrible funeral in South Africa http://www.peoplespost.co.za/articles/articledetails.aspx?mode=news&id=161947
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