Actor and comedian -- via Fox.
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.
Monday, August 11, 2014
WEEKLY READER: Roundup of stories on death, mourning, and more
Photo courtesy Ding Rui/CNN |
TOP STORIES
New “death
simulator” is a new escape-room game due to open in September, per Maggie
Hiufu Wong on CNN
In the pages of Cracked, Himanshu Sharma outlines “The
5 Creepiest Death Rituals from Around the World (Part 2)”
Corpse stolen from
mortuary after four months reveals family feud: via Nkem Ikeke of naji.com.
DEATH
In Time magazine, John Sanburn reveals Emily
Kinni’s remarkable photo essay on former places of execution
From Confessions of a Funeral Director, “5
Fantastic TED Talks on Death”
Richard Harris of the Wall Street Journal reports on the
growing momentum of the aid-in-dying movement
Brittany Goodin writes about death and Beat
literature in the Artifice
Daniel McConnell of Ireland’s Herald on the
Irish government’s implementation of a “short-form” death certificate that
omits the cause of death
Death
in Gaza, from AP via Fox
Peter Dominiczak and Dan Hyde in the Telegraph meld the two
inevitables – death
and taxes
In The Nation, Nicholas Tufnell describes digital
methods of dealing with death
Michel Koh on Thought Catalog, on the
death of friends
‘Lethal neglect’? A
nursing home nightmare
Mary Awad in The Artifice analyzes anime and childhood death
In the Ernest Becker Foundation, H. Talat Halman reviews “Beyond
Death Anxiety”
Oh dear.
Taxidermy as a “creative hobby,” from Laura Secorun Palet on NPR.
MOURNING
Memory
and loss: mourning the dead of World War I, from Ian Bell of the Herald.
In the Guardian, Laura Barnett writes about Hannah
Moss, who performs a silent play about her father’s death
Elon Gilad of Haaretz discusses Tisha
B’Av, a Jewish day of mourning
Fear
of death and the silence of life, from Daniel Coffeen in Thought Catalog
OBITS
Marty Kaplan in HuffPo gives
Warren Bennis a different kind of obituary
Esteban Parra, in the News Journal, on more
kooky obituaries
FUNERALS
Church
cancels funeral ceremony for gay man – from Shannon Behnken of WFLA
Rude Pundit recalls a
loving funeral for a gay man in 1989
Crowdfunding
funerals, from Kayleigh Kulp of Fox Business
Want
to spend summer vacation interning as a mortician? – from Lin Hui-chin and
Jake Chung of the Taipei Times.
The Sun Herald relates the death of funeral director Jesse
Richmond, Jr., a
pioneer of the drive-through funeral home
Wrong
body. Via EURWeb.
Better late than never: remains
of nine Jonestown victims found in abandoned funeral home after 35 years:
Randall Chase, AP, via ABC
From the Better Business Bureau via the Topeka
Capital-Journal, “planning
funerals saves stress”
Tampa
funeral home robs clients, per Elizabeth Behrman of the Tampa
Tribune
MISC
The
mystery of the misplaced, duplicate tombstone found 35 miles north of the grave
– from Saundra Sorenson of the Portland Tribune
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Henry Stone
Music producer and label owner -- via Billboard. First recorded Ray Charles, signed James Brown, and later became a big wheel in the disco scene.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Menahem Golan
Director and producer -- via Haaretz. Hey, remember the oft-seen logo for Cannon Films, or the credit that read "a Golan/Globus Production"? He's Golan. Directed 44 films, and produced more than 200, including "New Year's Evil," "Death Wish II," "Love Streams," "Breakin'," "Missing in Action," "Runaway Train," "The Delta Force," "Superman IV," "Barfly," "Bloodsport," any and every thing.
Here's a recent presentation of a documentary on Golan/Globus, at Cannes
Here's a recent presentation of a documentary on Golan/Globus, at Cannes
FRIDAY BOOK REVIEW: 'American Afterlife'
By BRAD WEISMANN
American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning
By Kate Sweeney
2014
University of Georgia Press
What is the landscape of death and mourning in America?
Given our potpourri of cultural traditions, the general ebb of religious
impulses, and the uniquely American terror of aging and mortality, it’s
difficult at best to sketch an outline of it. However, if anyone can delineate
its dimensions, it is Kate Sweeney.
“In a sense, death in today’s America
is always unexpected. Even when it’s
not a literal surprise, it has a power, when first encountered, to deeply jar
people who have come of age bathed in the deep unspoken conviction: This is not
what is supposed to happen to us. To me. Like those strange dreams in which we
find ourselves pushing open the door of a wing of our house we didn’t know
existed but now realize was there all along . . . “
Combining the thoroughness of a beat reporter with the skill
of an eminently readable social historian, she sets out a clear and densely
factual assessment of mourning practices, punctuated with vibrant portraits of
such industry-related individuals as a memorial tattoo artist, a funeral
chaplain, an obituary writer, an online baroness of crematory appliances, and a
photographer who has made memorial portraits of deceased newborns.
Sweeney’s ability to listen and judiciously present leads to
a plethora of diverse voices coming through, loud and clear – but it does not
exempt an appropriate and apt amount of personal statements by the author in
relation to the subject.
Sweeney’s abundance of historical detail contextualizes the
state of the art today. The Puritans had no funeral ceremonies – they buried
their dead in silence. (They did, however, love to compose funeral elegies.)
The double sweep of the evangelical Second Great Awakening and the rise of
gloomy, death-obsessed Romanticism led to a revolution in the consideration of
death and in the commemoration of the dead. Graveyards became cemeteries;
undertakers became funeral directors. In Christendom, at least, the rituals of
mourning, the length of the mourning period, and sumptuary customs as rigid as
though regulated by law.
Another shift Sweeney clocks is that of the casting aside of
Victorian era’s thanatological obsessions in response to the wholesale
slaughters of World War I. Multigenerational families, long the norm in American
life, began to fragment. Old people were a newly segregated underclass. The
aged no longer died at home but in rest homes, nursing homes, retirement homes,
old folks’ homes, senior centers . . . Likewise, the body didn’t sit up all
night on sawhorses in the front parlor.
Sweeney’s travels lead her to folks who can shoot your
remains into space, on put some of you into a necklace or brooch (the
Victorian-era funeral jewelry making a comeback!), or bury you in a nature
preserve in a wicker basket, or do it “right,” the old-fashioned way, complete
with a top-line casket (aka coffin), makeup and fine clothes for the deceased,
a viewing, a funeral, a burial. (Thanks to Sweeney, I finally understand the
transition from funeral chapel to funeral parlor to funeral home to funeral
service. Did you ever wonder why your childhood funeral homes always seemed to
be Victorian mansions? “The large houses provided social prominence, expansive
living areas upstairs for the directors’ families, and large basements that were
ideal for embalming.” Shiver.)
The stats point to a marked increase in cremations and a
decline in funeral ceremonies. All aspects of the American death industry are
in flux. Like many others, it has undergone a radical consolidation in recent
years, one largely overlooked. The old-school family businesses are falling to
corporate protocol. [NOTE: A note from Sweeney herself, just in, clarifies that this last supposition is incorrect. After inroads in the 1990s and 2000s, the preponderance of independently-owned and -run funeral services is restored.] Meanwhile, the market fragmentation has led to a lot of
non-standard, cut-out-the-middleman approaches toward the care and deposition
of the dead, and the observances and needs of the mourning. Even a seeming
firefight between obituary writers and their enthusiasts fades to nothing as
market realities destroy the beat. Death is certain, but a business model never
is.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Karen X. Gaylord aka Jane Goerner
Actress. Her death is asserted but unsubstantiated on IMDb; still searching for third-party confirmation. However, here is an excellent page of information on her, courtesy obscureactresses.wordpress.com.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Jake Hooker aka Jerry Mamberg
Guitarist and songwriter; best known for co-writing "I Love Rock 'n' Roll"! -- via Highlight Hollywood. PLEASE NOTE: Sharp-eyed reader Viv Holt corrects me -- Jake co-wrote the rock anthem with Alan Merrill, aka Allan Sachs, of the Arrows, who sings the original version shown below.
Marilyn Burns
Actress; best known for her central role in the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" -- via Hollywood Life.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Steve Post
Radio host -- via the New York Times. Just one of those wonderful, intelligent, funny, descriptive voices that make radio so enchanting. A long-time staple of mornings at classical radio WNYC-FM. Here's a great profile of him by that station:
Velma Smith
Guitarist and songwriter -- via tasteofcountry.com A session player, she worked with Willie, Waylon, Hank Snow, Eddy Arnold, Roy Acuff, Jim Reeves, Porter Wagoner, and Patsy Cline!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)