Exploring the intrigue of death...
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Iain (M) Banks, fine Scottish writer, gone today at 59 from cancer of the gall bladder…
“People can be teachers and idiots; they can be philosophers and idiots; they can be politicians and idiots… in fact I think they have to be… a genius can be an idiot. The world is largely run for and by idiots; it is no great handicap in life and in certain areas is actually a distinct advantage and even a prerequisite for advancement.” ― Iain Banks, The Crow Road
Gone, April 22, 2013, aged 72 - Richie Havens, musician and activist…
Rock-writer Paul S. Williams, author and creator of CRAWDADDY magazine, passed away yesterday, aged 64, after having suffered from debilitating dementia for a number of years, brought on early by a brain injury sustained in 1995…
Paul Williams in Crawdaddy office - photo by David Hartwell
Follow the last chapters of the Paul Williams story on his wife Cindy Lee Berryhill’s blog
Uncle Walt died on this day in 1892, aged 72…
“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
Spare a thought for psychedelic maestro Kevin Ayers who transitioned to the great hippie band in the sky on Feb. 18, 2013….
Kevin Ayers: Only Heaven Knows - from The Unfairground, 2007
Butch Morris, leader of large improv ensembles, creating music somewhere between contemporary classical and free jazz: d. Jan. 29, 2013, aged 65, from cancer…
Morris referred to his method as “conduction,” short for “conducted improvisation.” He defined the word, which he trademarked, as “an improvised duet for ensemble and conductor.”
Photo: Chad Batka for The New York Times
Hank Williams: Won’t You Sometimes Think Of Me - from Rare Demos - First to Last
(via drnguyenvanthoc)
John William Alcock was a British airman who piloted the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic:
“On 14-15 June 1919 he and Arthur Brown as navigator made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic in a Vickers Vimy, a journey which took 16 hours 27 minutes. He was knighted that year, but died in a flying accident on December 18, 1919.”
Above: Sir John William Alcock by Ambrose McEvoy - oil on canvas, 1919 (National Portrait Gallery, London)
26 dead in Connecticut…
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Robert Gibbons: Funeral of the Innocent
Trying my damndest to get as far away from it as I can, but can’t. No, I don’t want to revisit it, the death of the innocent. But someone asked for words from here, while adding at the same Time, “There are no words…” to which I would agree. Don’t let these be words, then, but drumbeats, caisson wagon wheels, imperfectly circular, rumbling on cobbled ground. In the background listen to Reverend Gary Davis moan, Death don’t have no mercy in this land. Even my own old man knew better, saying, (when in my teens I shelled out all of twenty-five dollars for an oil painting at a Cambridge thrift shop titled, Funeral of the Innocent, eight primitive hands holding a totally shrouded figure toward the sky), that he could think of no worse subject. Eventually, threw the work away. There’ll be no ten-gun salute. Death will go in any family in this land. I’m lost, where is Newtown, Connecticut? Pass through it on the way to New Haven or Manhattan? The job of mourning pays black wages. Could not fathom depths of those who experience no worse subject. Again, & again they must return to toil. Death never takes a vacation in this land. It’s dirty work. Mourning. Heft that weight. Strong that back. Primitive those hands. Unarmed that heart. Nothing but Time. After Time…
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Audio - Reverend Gary Davis: Death Don’t Have No Mercy
The great sitar master Ravi Shankar passed away yesterday, December 11, 2012, aged 92…
Photo: Ida Kar, 1960s - vintage bromide print (National Portrait Gallery, London)
Oscar Niemeyer, visionary Brazilian architect, went Dec. 5, 2012, at the fine age of 104…
Above: Museu de Arte Contemporânea (MAC), Niterói
Goodbye Dave Brubeck, d. Dec. 5, 2012 at age 91…
(via clicknick)
