I am not fond of the RIP stuff that happens on Facebook and Twitter. To me it's akin to those roadside memorials. Tacky. A need to become part of a personal, private tragedy. I am a judgmental fuck. I come from a world where emotions are best suppressed and life is to be faced with a thin-lipped grimness. To intrude on someone else's loss is gross. I don't want to be a part of it and I am embarrassed for the multitude of strangers who feel it necessary to voice their grief or even acknowledgment of a celebrity's passing.
But today, learning of the death of Amy Winehouse, whose music touched me at a time when I lived with my own dangerous addiction, I saw the point. This is a person who had an impact on my life and it didn't matter that she never knew. The lyrics onBack to Black were stories lifted from my life.
Such a shame, such a waste of talent. I agree with you completely on the public RIP declarations, but I don't think there's anything wrong with expressing sorrow over the loss of someone who did indeed touch us all. Addiction is truly a horrible disease.
She's always been a train wreck (which is sad in itself), and I know we ALL saw this coming...but still, it's sad.
I STILL can't believe Heath Ledger is dead. I did not see that one coming...he was so healthy, young, full of life and talent. And he had a young daughter. That was the first time a celebrity death really surprised me.
Usually you can see it coming. I mean any day now I expect to hear Lindsay Lohan is dead or Andy Dick or Courtney Love or any number of sadly self destructive and over privileged celebs.
I don't mind how people show their grief, especially for young people. I think roadside memorials can be healthy for those who feel the need. But when I die please don't let anyone in my family put one of those horrid RIP memorial stickers on the back of the car window!
I've missed you too, btw. I hope life is treating you well, Lisa.
I was surprised by this news, honestly. I suppose I can use it for what they call these days a teachable moment. See Slim, see what drugs do to you? Still, though, fuck it all. It's just sad.
Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Brian Jones. Kurt Cobain. And now Amy Winehouse. All dead at the age of 27. Tragic and, one can't help but to admit, statistically strange.
I agree wholeheartedly with the facebook/twitter mess. How do you memorialize someone like that? It seems so...disgusting.
Yet, there was something about this one. Her path was so clear and yet no one could do anything to help her. No amount of money or rehab could save her from herself. And what a tragedy that is because she was someone's child and the older I get the more I can't help but not be moved by that one fact if nothing else, yet there is just so much else. May she find the peace she sought but could never attain.
So very sad. I wish I were surprised. I'm more surprised when famous addicts remain with us into older age, wondering how their bodies hold up under all that abuse.
As for the Twitter/Facebook commentary, all they do is piss me off. No matter how well-meaning, they seem short and trite. But then I think everything on Twitter/FB sounds short and trite, so there you go. I don't get it.
I was so jolted to read of her sudden death - at age 27. Chilling. And under that emotion was the deeper memory that I have been expecting this somehow. I love her music and her complete spending of herself in her life and art - but I also somehow knew and feared that it would end in tragedy, and I was dismayed to find that I had been braced for years for this news. I'm angry that this has come true.
I also love Back to Black - nearly every sound and word on it. She was bent and broken and beautiful and lived it to the hilt - and she turned it into art.
Such a shame, such a waste of talent. I agree with you completely on the public RIP declarations, but I don't think there's anything wrong with expressing sorrow over the loss of someone who did indeed touch us all. Addiction is truly a horrible disease.
ReplyDeleteThere is a horrible underside to brilliance that curses those who are truly gifted.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI really LOVE her music. And it's sad, because sometimes the demons just win.
ReplyDeleteNow she's in the "27 Club" along with other great ones that lost the battle like: Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin & Kurt Cobain.
To me, RIP stands for
ReplyDeleteRot Into Pieces.
She's always been a train wreck (which is sad in itself), and I know we ALL saw this coming...but still, it's sad.
ReplyDeleteI STILL can't believe Heath Ledger is dead. I did not see that one coming...he was so healthy, young, full of life and talent. And he had a young daughter. That was the first time a celebrity death really surprised me.
Usually you can see it coming. I mean any day now I expect to hear Lindsay Lohan is dead or Andy Dick or Courtney Love or any number of sadly self destructive and over privileged celebs.
I don't mind how people show their grief, especially for young people. I think roadside memorials can be healthy for those who feel the need.
But when I die please don't let anyone in my family put one of those horrid RIP memorial stickers on the back of the car window!
I've missed you too, btw. I hope life is treating you well, Lisa.
Hugs,
Lola
I was surprised by this news, honestly. I suppose I can use it for what they call these days a teachable moment. See Slim, see what drugs do to you? Still, though, fuck it all. It's just sad.
ReplyDeleteI heard of Amy Winehouse through you a way back and want to thank you for it. I am humbled at the utter gravity of diseases of addiction.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, I'm not big on public memorializing but felt I needed to yesterday. I loved me some Amy and wish it had turned out differently.
ReplyDeleteJimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Brian Jones. Kurt Cobain. And now Amy Winehouse. All dead at the age of 27. Tragic and, one can't help but to admit, statistically strange.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with the facebook/twitter mess. How do you memorialize someone like that? It seems so...disgusting.
ReplyDeleteYet, there was something about this one. Her path was so clear and yet no one could do anything to help her. No amount of money or rehab could save her from herself. And what a tragedy that is because she was someone's child and the older I get the more I can't help but not be moved by that one fact if nothing else, yet there is just so much else.
May she find the peace she sought but could never attain.
So very sad. I wish I were surprised. I'm more surprised when famous addicts remain with us into older age, wondering how their bodies hold up under all that abuse.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Twitter/Facebook commentary, all they do is piss me off. No matter how well-meaning, they seem short and trite. But then I think everything on Twitter/FB sounds short and trite, so there you go. I don't get it.
I was so jolted to read of her sudden death - at age 27. Chilling. And under that emotion was the deeper memory that I have been expecting this somehow. I love her music and her complete spending of herself in her life and art - but I also somehow knew and feared that it would end in tragedy, and I was dismayed to find that I had been braced for years for this news. I'm angry that this has come true.
ReplyDeleteI also love Back to Black - nearly every sound and word on it. She was bent and broken and beautiful and lived it to the hilt - and she turned it into art.
Another member of the 27 club. Sad to lose such a vocal talent.
ReplyDelete