Rest In Peace

[chancery]

Bought the oratorio The Seasonings when I was a teenager, and had the good fortune decades later to see one of his Town Hall concerts.

The NYT obituary was written by Margalit Fox, who is a fabulous writer. She did a very good job on this one.

Off Topic

The New York Times assigned the obituary of Carolyn Bryant to one of their best writers, Margalit Fox, and she brings it.

I've read a fair bit about Emmett Till's murder, and this is the clearest short account I've seen.

But you should also read it-- to the end -- for the straightforward, simple-sounding prose. She makes it look easy.

Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/us/c ... =url-share

[northland10]

I always enjoy the sensitive and emotional performance of the air horn at the end.

[Dr. Ken]

[AndyinPA]

RIP

[Volkonski]

AP
19 minutes ago

Norman Jewison, the acclaimed director of "Fiddler on the Roof" and “Moonstruck,” has died at 97

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Love Jewison's films!

[johnpcapitalist]

Ruth Ashton Taylor, pioneering female radio/TV journalist, dies at 101:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/busi ... -dead.html

Ruth Ashton Taylor, who was the only woman on the CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow’s postwar radio documentary unit and was widely believed to be the first female newscaster in Los Angeles, died on Jan. 11 in San Rafael, Calif. She was 101.

“Ruth showed what women could do,” Liz Mitchell, who worked with Ms. Taylor as a production assistant and writer at KNXT-TV in Los Angeles, said in a phone interview. “She could cover small events and huge events — all different subjects — and nothing stopped her.”

As one of the few women in TV news in the 1940s and ’50s, Ms. Taylor dealt with institutional biases about what she should cover and what her reports should sound and look like.

I still remember hearing her as a kid on KNX radio in LA and KNXT TV, the local CBS affiliate. She was very clear, insightful and made it so I could understand what was going on, but she didn't sound like she was talking down to anyone.

[MN-Skeptic]

Charles Osgood of CBS Sunday Morning. I always enjoyed watching him on that show.

CBS Sunday Morning
@CBSSunday

Award-winning journalist Charles Osgood, who anchored "CBS Sunday Morning" for 22 years and was host of the long-running radio program "The Osgood File," died Tuesday at home in New Jersey. He was 91.

[AndyinPA]

I liked him, too. RIP

[RTH10260]

[pipistrelle]

Melanie, 76.
https://variety.com/2024/music/obituari ... 235886892/

[Estiveo]

Chita Rivera, 91

https://people.com/chita-rivera-dead-at ... IRYw6bCdDE

[AndyinPA]

RIP

[AndyinPA]

Joe Madison, radio host, civil rights activist. RIP

[optimusprime]

Joe Madison, radio host, civil rights activist. RIP

This was shocking to hear. I listened to his program on Siriux XM at least three times a week. RIP

[Dr. Ken]

Carl Weathers, 76

[johnpcapitalist]

Carl Weathers, 76

Gift link to NYT obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/arts ... =url-share

[Slim Cognito]

Oh man! I loved him in Arrested Development.

[Dr. Ken]

[bill_g]

Animator Mark Gustafson passed away at 63.

RIP

If you've watched TV and movies in last thirty years, you've seen his work.

[RTH10260]

Bob Beckwith, Firefighter Who Stood With Bush After 9/11, Dies at 91
Photographs showing him with the president atop a rubble-strewn destroyed fire truck came to represent America’s fortitude in the aftermath of the attack.

By Sam Roberts
Feb. 5, 2024

Bob Beckwith, a retired firefighter from Long Island who aided in the search for survivors after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and who was catapulted to fame after photographs showing him and President George W. Bush standing atop the rubble-strewn remains of a fire truck became symbols of the stunned nation’s grit, died on Sunday in Rockville Centre, N.Y. He was 91.

He died in hospice care after being treated for cancer, his grandson Matthew said.


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/05/nyre ... -dead.html

[MN-Skeptic]

Country singer Toby Keith dies at 62 after battle with stomach cancer

Country singer Toby Keith died Monday at the age of 62 after a battle with stomach cancer.

“Toby Keith passed peacefully last night on February 5th, surrounded by his family. He fought his fight with grace and courage. Please respect the privacy of his family at this time,” a statement posted to Keith’s website and social media said.

Keith was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2022.

Keith performed at the 2023 People’s Choice Country Awards in September and received the Country Icon Award.

He released his debut album in 1993 and is known for hits including “Red Solo Cup” and “I Wanna Talk About Me.” Keith’s 2002 song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American),” released in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, made him a household name.

[Mrich]

On the Late Show last night:

[Volkonski]

Seiji Ozawa, a Captivating, Transformative Conductor, Dies at 88
He led the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 29 years, toured widely and helped dispel prejudices about East Asian classical musicians.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/arts ... -dead.html

Seiji Ozawa, the high-spirited Japanese conductor who took the Western classical music world by storm in the 1960s and ’70s and then led the Boston Symphony Orchestra for almost 30 years, died on Tuesday at his home in Tokyo. He was 88.

The cause was heart failure, according to an announcement released on Friday by Veroza, his management office.

Mr. Ozawa had experienced years of health problems beginning in early 2010, when he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He never fully rebounded from cancer surgery or from back problems that were made worse during his recovery, and he was hospitalized with heart valve disease later in life.

Mr. Ozawa was the most prominent harbinger of a movement that has transformed the classical music world over the last half-century: a tremendous influx of East Asian musicians into the West, which has in turn helped spread the gospel of Western classical music to Korea, Japan and China.

For much of that time, a widespread prejudice even among knowledgeable critics held that although highly trained Asian musicians could develop consummate technical facility in Western music, they could never achieve a real understanding of its interpretive needs or a deep feeling for its emotional content. The irrepressible Mr. Ozawa surmounted this by dint of his outsize personality, thoroughgoing musicianship and sheer hard work.

With his mop of black hair, his boyish demeanor and his seemingly boundless energy, he captured the popular imagination early on.

Ozawa became conductor of the BSO while I was in graduate school. It was an exciting time for Boston's music lovers.

[Volkonski]

Alexei Navalny, prominent Putin foe, dies in Arctic jail

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ja ... 024-02-16/

Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's most formidable opponent, collapsed and died on Friday after a walk at the "Polar Wolf" Arctic penal colony where he was serving a three-decade jail term, the Russian prison service said.

The death of Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, robs the disparate Russian opposition of its most courageous and charismatic leader just as Putin prepares for an election which will keep the former KGB spy in power until at least 2030.