Saturday, November 15, 2014

Glen A. Larson

TV writer and producer -- via the Hollywood Reporter. He was the creator of a remarkable string of hits, including "Knight Rider," the original "Battlestar Galactica," "Quincy," "B.J. and the Bear," "Magnum, P.I.," "The Fall Guy" . . . and "Manimal." Larson was expert at retooling winning concepts, usually from feature films, for TV.

Fun fact: he started off in show biz as a singer and songwriter with the Four Preps -- their big hit "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)."



Friday, November 14, 2014

Ernest Kinoy

Writer for radio, TV, film, and stage -- via Variety. He joined NBC as a staff writer in 1948; he worked on shows such as "Dimension X," "Rocky Fortune," and "NBC Prsents: Short Story." In TV, he wrote for "Studio One," "Playhouse 90," "The Defenders," "Naked City," "Route 66," and much more. Films: "Buck and the Preacher," "Leadbelly," "Raid at Entebbe." Awards won for "The Defenders," "Roots," and "Skokie."

Little Joe Washington

Bluesman -- via the Houston Press.

Ravi Chopra

Film director and producer -- via NDTV Movies. Best known for his direction of the rpic Indian TV series, "The Mahabhrata."

Mike Burney

Saxophonist -- via thejazzbreakfast.

Carlos Emilio Morales

Jazz guitarist -- via Prensa Latina.

FRIDAY REVIEW: 'Being Mortal' -- America's End-of-Life Challenge


Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
Atul Gawande
Henry Holt and Company
2014
New York

 Review by BRAD WEISMANN

Dr. Atul Gawande is a model writer of non-fiction, a game-changing analyst of the medical scene, and an honest and appealing narrator. In his fourth book, he details his investigations and experiences in the land medicine can’t touch – mortality and death.

With a huge bulge of 64 million Baby Boomers (myself included) in America destined for geriatric status and death in the next few decades, a corresponding upswing in interest in end-of-life decision-making, death, and what was known as ars moriendi, the art of dying, is taking place. This movement is beginning to counter a long-standing cultural abhorrence of aging and death, and the decades-long relocation of the elderly and the dying from the home to medical facilities.

“Being Mortal” is the most effective examination of the problem I have read to date. Gawande explores the problems and frustrations of a system that institutionalizes the elderly, because it has no viable alternative mandate. Gawande illustrates his conclusions with several threads of narrative – persons failing and succeeding at achieving a “good death,” and includes his own story, of his father’s passing, in clear-eyed but heart-rending detail.

Along the way, we are given illuminating historical context. Modern medicine’s life-saving technologies made the hospital the logical destination for the dying in the 20th Century (most people died at home until after World War I). However, by 1954, the chronically ill and elderly were taking up all the hospital beds, and “custodial units” were created by mandate. These morphed into nursing homes.

For those of us who remember some of the places in which our ancestors and relatives were warehoused, the idea that no real planning went into their creation is transparent. Additionally, the resources and knowledge to help the aging simply doesn’t exist.

“I asked Chad Boult, the geriatrics professor, what could be done to ensure that there are enough geriatricians for the surging elderly population. ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘It’s too late.’”

But Gawande is not content to bemoan the state of things. First, he cites the stories of many innovators who bucked the system to create new living systems and concepts that provide the elderly with purpose, choice, community, information, and autonomy. People such as Bill Thomas and Keren Wilson, and places such as NewBridge on the Charles and Peter Sanborn Place, and groups such as Eden Alternative and Beacon Hill Villages, all of whom/which have developed viable alternatives that actually extend participants’ lives, improve their heath and sense of well-being, and, ironically, cost less to boot. (He even includes Chad Boult’s solution to the dearth of geriatricians – have them train all doctors and nurses in elderly care!)

These aren’t theories. They are proven methods, spelled out in a practical and they radiate out from the central concern of humanizing the medical process. Gawande neatly summarizes the medical profession’s aversion to acknowledging death – to it, death signifies failure. He outlines his own painful lack of experience in discussing unavoidable death, or the more excruciating task of helping patients evaluate when to stop requesting medical procedures that might prolong life, but at a debilitating and painful cost.

He comes up with essential questions: “What is your understanding of the situation and its potential outcomes? What are your fears and what are your hopes? What are the trade-offs you are willing to make and not willing to make? And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding?” (Again, cited studies in the text demonstrate that discussing the inevitable improves health and prolongs life.)

Despite the plethora of proactive benefits to be reaped from reading “Being Mortal,” the real pain and dismay of families forced to face an impending loss, the agonizing change of dynamics as the children become caregivers for parents, is not avoided or minimalized. However, in contrast to much of the challenging material I plow through in my efforts to understand and communicate on this subject, here is sense of hope and achievable positive change.

And in the broadest sense the book reminds me that the elements enumerated as essential to quality of life at its end is equally valid for all ages. “Human beings . . . have a need for both privacy and community, for flexible daily rhythms and patterns, and for the possibility of forming caring relationships with those around them.” At the end at always, we need not just safety and protection, but worth and freedom, meaning and purpose, what Gawande calls “shaping our stories,” within the limitations imposed by our bodies and the dimensions of human life.


The perils and possibilities are still there, but “Being Mortal” gives us some tools with which to work.

Leigh Chapman

Screenwriter and actress -- via the Hollywood Reporter. She was in a lot of '60s television, but moved on to writing scripts. She's best known for writing "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry," "The Octagon," and other action films, as well as many TV episodes.

Valery Senderov

Dissident and human rights activist -- via Radio Free Europe.

Daniel B. Meltzer

James Erb

Composer, arranger, musicologist, and conductor -- via the Richmond VA Times-Dispatch.

Manoel de Barros

Poet -- via http://www1.folha.uol.com.br.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Alvin Dark

All-Star, pennant- and Series-winning former MLB shortstop and manager -- via the Sporting News. AKA Al, Blackie, the Swamp Fox. Won the '54 Series with the old New York Giants; won the '74 Series as manager of the A's. His service in WWII might have kept him out of the Hall of Fame, according to Bill James. He was accused of racist comments in 1964, but was defended by Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson. His autobiography bears a title that is testimony to his coaching career: "When in Doubt, Fire the Manager."




Harry Pearson

Journalist and audiophile -- via the New York Times. He founded the magazine Absolute Sound, and crusaded against the playback limitations of CDs.

Raleigh Trevelyan

Writer and historian -- via the Telegraph.


Oriel Malet

Writer -- via the Telegraph. AK Lady Auriel Rosemary Malet Vaughan.




Kelvin Moore

Former MLB player -- via the San Jose Mercury News.

Christiane Minazolli

Actress -- via purepeople.com.


Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Carol Ann Susi

Actress -- via The Wrap.

Allen Ripley

Former MLB pitcher -- via the Attleboro Sun Chronicle.


Warren Clarke

Actor -- via the Mirror.

Rebekah Gibbs

Actress -- via the Independent.

David Watson

Actor -- via hollywood.com.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

John Doar

Lawyer with the Justice Department who stood up to racism and the imperial presidency -- via the New York Times. He prosecuted the men who killed Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner, and Viola Liuzzo. He was on the Freedom Ride. He lived with James Meredith while the latter was integrating the University of Mississippi. Later, he helped make the case for Nixon's impeachment.

Steve Dodd

Actor -- via the South Coast Register.

Abdelwahab Meddeb

Nikola Simic

Actor -- via Focus Information Agency.

Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz

Surfer -- via the Times of Israel. Perhaps the greatest Jewish surfer to date, he is believed to have introduced the sport in Israel.

Big Bank Hank

Rapper -- via the New York Daily News. AKA Henry Jackson, Imp the Dimp. One of the founders of the Sugarhill Gang; a pioneering rap group whose "Rapper's Delight" is a classic! He had a degree in oceanography, but found it hard to enter that vocation. Grandmaster Caz insists that Hank plagiarized his unpublished lyrics for this song, but the controversy has never been settled.





Tomas Young

Anti-war activist and disabled veteran -- via the Standard Examiner. A very noble individual.



Maggie Boyle

Folk singer and musician -- via the Guardian.

Geoffrey Clarke

Sculptor and stained glass artist -- via the Guardian.

Vivienne Price

Jonathan Athon

Bassist for Black Tusk -- via the New York Daily News.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Jerry Tallmer

Journalist, theater critic, editor, and writer -- via the New York Times. He pretty much put the Village Voice together at its beginning; he started Jules Feiffer's career, among many others; and he invented the Obie Awards (Off-Broadwy theater).

Geula Nuni

Actress -- via ynetnews.com.

Gary Lane

Gary is far right in this picture.
Bassist for the Standells; their big hit was the ever-popular "Dirty Water" -- via Ultimate Classic Rock. AK Gary McMillan.

Michael Lennick

Documentary filmmaker -- via Yahoo Movies.

Zoltan Gera

Actor -- via origo.hu.

DEATHCETERA: A weekly roundup of death-related news from around the world

(Editor's note: After some feedback, trying a new title for this weekly feature. "Deathcetera"? It's corny, but a bit better than Weekly Reader.)

TOP STORIES

A top-notch multipart digital feature from Consumer Reports: “A Beautiful Death”

Jenny Gold from Kaiser Health News talks about the Institute of Medicine’s recent report, “Dying in America”. You can download a free copy of the report here. Gold interviews the report’s author, Nancy Metcalf, here.



DEATH



That Victorian terror of being buried alive – by Ella Morton at Atlas Obscura, via Slate



MOURNING


Stained-glass windows memorialize war dead – from Anne Fletcher at the Vancouver Courier


FUNERALS

Funeral home launches mobile showroom – via Craig Hlavty at the Houston Chronicle

Zoroastrian sky burials – from Ella Morton at Atlas Obscura, via Slate

‘Amusement and Contradiction in the Contemporary Funeral Industry’ – a paper by George Saunders in Critical Sociology


END-OF-LIFE ISSUES

Pro-Death with Dignity op-ed from Dr. Peg Sandeen, Executive Director of Death with Dignity National Center


Gwendolyn Crenshaw

Librarian -- via the Denver Post.

Tolbert N. Lester Jr.

Automobile restorer -- via legacy.com. He restored the 1949 Hudson Commodore used in the film "Driving Miss Daisy."


Lee Young-ok

Beloved neighborhood store owner -- via the Korea Times U.S.

Alok Nembang

Film director -- via eKantipur.com.

Big Paybacc

Rapper -- via the Chicago Tribune. AK Habeeb Ameer Zekajj

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Francis Harvey

Poet, playwright, and writer -- via the Irish Times.

Alexei Devotchenko

Actor and activist -- via the Independent.

William Rosenberg

Actor -- via dr.dk.

Magrai Jain

Social activist -- via Business Standard.

Lawrence J. Quirk

Journalist and writer -- via askgaydbill.blogspot.com.