Eartha Kitt Dies at 81

Eartha Kitt, photo posted by anovelista on Flickr

We lost the legendary Eartha Kitt on Christmas Day to colon cancer. Such a great voice and inspiration. She had many wealthy suitors throughout her life. The founder of Revlon, Charles Revson for one. Yet she chose to maintain her independence to the end. Here is what the AP Wires put out right after the news broke:

Once dubbed the "most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, she spent much of her life single, though brief romances with the rich and famous peppered her younger years.

Anti-War Comments

Kitt was plainspoken about causes she believed in. Her anti-war comments at the White House came as she attended a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson.

"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," she told the group of about 50 women. "They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

For four years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas. She was investigated by the FBI and CIA, which allegedly found her to be foul-mouthed and promiscuous.

"The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth — in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth — you get your face slapped and you get put out of work," Kitt told Essence magazine two decades later.

May she rest in peace.

Book Review: When the Kissing Had to Stop

Photo of Pacific Coast Highway taken by Spoon Monkey (Flickr)




I am reading a book by John Leonard called When the Kissing Had to Stop. Leonard wrote for the New York Times Book Review and other literary publications. My hero Kurt Vonnegut said Leonard was the smartest and most well read person he had ever met.

Any friend of Kurt Vonnegut's is a friend of mine. Sadly, Leonard died recently. I am reading him for the first time and so glad to have discovered him. He writes at rapid fire speed. While reading him, I feel like I have had 20 espressos. He is brilliant. And funny as hell. I highly recommend this book of essays.

Leonard keeps referring to the Joan Didion book, Play It As It Lays. I don't know about any of you, but I have had plenty of Joan Didion "Play It As It Lays" moments.

In case you haven't read the book, in short, Joan is driving the freeways of the L.A area aimlessly to escape her mundane reality. I usually drive Pacific Coast highway down to Laguna Beach or up PCH through Malibu. A much nicer drive than the freeways. Cool ocean breeze and spectacular views. I roll down all the windows, listen to music real loud and dream.

Here is a link to an article in The Nation where Toni Morrison, et al, share their thoughts and feelings about John Leonard.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081208/john_leonard

Kurt Vonnegut Dies

All photos of Kurt Vonnegut (Posted by Lorac, Flickr)

Words cannot express my sorrow. As vonnegut wrote or said, "artists are like the canary in the coal mine. The canary keels over if there is a gas leak warning the miners to get out." Sort of an alarm system for the miners. We just lost a great alarm system, humanist, humorist, and very good man. Like he said in his novel, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, "Goddamnit! You'vegot to be kind." Lets remember that and him always.
His books changed my life. He was my greatest teacher. I look at the world and life differently because of his books. If you like my emails, and some of you have told me you do, you can thank Mr. Vonnegut. I stole his short sentence and short paragraph style from him. If you want to become kinder and gentler or view the world differently, and if you never read him, I highly recommend you do.












In his autobiography of sorts Palm Sunday, he gives a list of must read books. I read that book while living in London and started power housing through that list. A couple of years later, I was back in college after a ten year leave. He inspired me to finish my college education.

Kurt Vonnegut's drawing of an a**hole in Breakfast of the Champions (Posted by Andisheh on Flickr)




I still use an asterisk in front of names or after names of memos or notes I write to folks I don't like. Got that from his book Breakfast of Champions, he draws an asshole in that book that looks like an asterisk.

I miss him so. I left work early. I could not stop the water works. I compulsively read everything I could find on him on line. The best obit I read was the first I read in the L.A. Times by Elaine Woo. We just lost such a powerful and wonderful voice for our time. No one can replace him.

If you have not read him and are interested, here are some of my favorites:
Slapstick
Breakfast of Champions
Galapagos
God Bless You Mr. Rosewater
Jailbird
Bluebeard
Palm Sunday
Slaughterhouse Five
Welcome to the Monkey House
Timequake
Mother Night



I really wanted to meet him one day. I did send a birthday email this past year to In These Times. I told him in that email that I used his asterisk. I thanked him for everything.






Photo of Kurt Vonnegut running on beach on left, with wife, Jill Krementz, on right

Jean Baudrillard Dies

Jean Baudrillard, Soho, London, Photo taken by Cromacom (Flickr)

Baudrillard quote from photo:

"The skyline lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert, and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them: the mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitice night."

I heard yesterday on my little radio in my office on NPR that Baudrillard died. He is famous for his book Simulacra and Simulation. The film, The Matrix, makes many references to this book.

Baudrillard believed, "we live in a world saturated by imagery, infused with media, sound and advertising. This simulacra of the real surpasses the real world and thus becomes hyperreal, a world that is more real than real." Scary business.

Here is one paragraph from an obituary I found in a newspaper:

Jean Baudrillard, Posted by Radio Nacional, Colombia (Flickr)











"Baudrillard argued that mass media and modern consumerist society had built up such a complex structure of symbols and simulated experience that it was no longer possible to comprehend reality as it might actually exist."