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.

Rick Rosas

Bassist; highly regarded session musician -- via Ultimate Classic Rock. AKA "Rick the Bass Player."

S. Donald Stookey

Inventor of superstrong glass ceramics (CorningWare) -- via the New York Times. BTW, he invented photosensitive glass as well. Not bad!


Michael Alsbury

Test pilot -- via the Independent.


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.

Chris Bracey

Wilfred Saunders

Violin maker -- via the Guardian.

Pierre Daix

Kazuko Yanaga

Voice actress -- via Anime News Network. AKA Kazuko Ohtsuka


Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Michael Coleman

Mariam Fakhreddine

Actress -- via naharnet.com.

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! 




Jeremy Dale

Comic book artist -- via Comic Book Resources.


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!)




Brad Halsey

Former MLB pitcher -- via MLB.

Zella Mae Cox

Gospel singer -- via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Augusto Martelli

Composer, conductor, and arranger -- via La Repubblica.

David Trendell

Choirmaster -- via the Telegraph.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Beverly Blossom

Dancer and choreographer -- via the New York Times. AKA Beverly Schmidt.

Renato Sellani

Jazz pianist and composer -- via avvenire.it.

Anna Vejvodova

Actress -- via super.cz.

Sadashiv Amrapurkar

Actor -- via the Times of India. AKA Ganesh Kumar Narwode.

Drusilla Campbell

Novelist -- via utsandiego.com.


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.

Wayne Static

Singer and former frontman for Static X -- via the Telegraph. AKA Wayne Richard Wells.

Larry Latham

Animator -- via News from ME.


Lawrence Solomon

Dermatologist and bibliophile -- via the Chicago Sun-Times.

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.




Jean-Pierre Roy

Former MLB pitcher -- via Radio Canada.

Bob Henry

TV producer and director -- via the L.A. Times.

Ari Hoogenboom

Historian -- via legacy.com.

Eunice Betances

Merengue singer -- via diariolibre.com.

WEEKLY READER: Our roundup of stories worldwide on death and dying

TOP STORIES


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


Pagans observe Samhain – from Katie Bailey at the Citizen-Times


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



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




FUNERALS


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



Tom Magliozzi

Herb Schapiro

Francoise Bertin

Actress -- via purepeople.com.

John Solomon

Croquet champion -- via the Telegraph.

Vic Ash

Jazz clarinetist and saxophonist -- via the Guardian.

Jenny McCrindle

Actress -- via The Herald (Scotland).

Matthew Naegeli

Actor -- via utsandiego.com.

Ian Fraser

Lee Kinney

Masterful bootfitter -- via the Denver Post.

Bernard Mayes

Romualdas Granauskas

Writer -- via vz.lt.

Rhiannon Davies Jones

Writer -- via the Independent.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Jimmy Trujillo

Edward Donno

Stuntman -- via startrek.com.


Ted Beniades

Actor -- via the Hollywood Reporter.


Galway Kinnell

Poet -- via the New York Times.