A few days ago, I had written a short draft about the deaths of so many celebrities this summer, but then deleted it. It wasn't going anywhere and I was hot & humid-blitzed and still am.
Ironically, our current culture is one of a denial of death at all costs. Yet the media that we have created only serve to heighten our awareness of the deaths of many more people around the planet on any given day or month. The ghost in the machine seems to reflect another opposite facet of the obsessive cult of immortality and the puer aeternus.
It was when I saw this "Abundance of Death" post on Kottke that I started to think about the big D again, as I am wont to do every now and then. Coincidentally, this past winter was pretty deadly for friends and relatives, one of the more plentiful crops for the grim reaper in recent memory. Last February, I remember looking at my cousin's obit photograph in The Westerly Sun. I couldn't have seen that picture on the web say 10-15 years ago.
On August 20, 2009, I heard on NPR that the average life expectancy in the USA has risen to 78 or so. Men clock in at 75+. Women at 80+. Women have always and still rule. According to NPR's 2007 stats, we are still 3rd on the planet in terms of life expectancy. But the ever reliable Wikipedia, ranks us as #50. The figures are from the 2009 World Fact Book. Big discrepancy. I'll try to look into this slight gap.
The Daily Death highlights an increasing awareness of the deaths of celebrities and micro-celebrities due to the convergence of 24-7 news, gossip web sites, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds et al.
Kottke wrote about the future obituary glut in 2005:
"Frankly, I don't know how we're all going to handle this. Chances are in 15-20 years, someone famous whose work you enjoyed or whom you admired or who had a huge influence on who you are as a person will die each day...and probably even more than one a day. And that's just you...many other famous people will have died that day who mean something to other people. Will we all just be in a constant state of mourning? Will the NY Times national obituary section swell to 30 pages a day? As members of the human species, we're used to dealing with the death of people we "know" in amounts in the low hundreds over the course of a lifetime. With higher life expectancies and the increased number of people known to each of us (particularly in the hypernetworked part of the world), how are we going to handle it when several thousand people we know die over the course of our lifetime?"
On my Google home page I have the NY Times obituaries in a side bar. Sometimes I find out about a death otherwise, e.g. Manny Oquendo who died on March 25, 2009, and wondered why his obit didn't get into the NY Times until April 12th. Here is one of the premier Latino bandleaders and timbaleros of all time and it took over two weeks for his obituary to show up in the NY Times! He was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, not that far from West 43rd St. in Manhattan, as the crow flies. But when a pioneer of the study ulcers dies it takes less than a week for his death to make the obituary hit list. WTF? I mean come on. I wonder how long it would take for Joey Shithead's death to make it into the NY Times obits?
In today's NY Times obit, there's a entry for Larry Knectel. Who the hell is he? He was part of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound group, The Wrecking Crew. How would I have know this unless I was a knowledgeable fanatic? I vaguely remember his name on the credits to some albums. The web makes us aware of the deaths of people we would never had known shit about. I have bought cd's as a result of the NY Times obit of a musician that I had heard of but did not own any of his/her work.
Lots of Death ahead. But the one death of the summer of 2009 that keeps on giving will never die, really. His death is the only one to bring down the mighty Twitter. Not many or any will do that again. Wait, it's Michael Jackson's birthday. On which day he was supposedly buried.
P.S. If it wasn't for the web, I think the death of Ellie Greenwich would have gone largely unnoticed. I didn't know who she was, but the music that she wrote, ah...
And Eunice Shriver and Ted Kennedy, the 3rd longest serving member of the US Senate? Who were the other two who served longer? One of whom is still a senator.
It's telling that when one mentions celebrity deaths, people take notice. During 2009, many people anonymous to the internet have died while struggling to make a life. Most of these deaths go unchronicled and unnoticed. Some of these people have created a life of service to humanity. They don't receive headlines and would shun it if they did. These people are the ones who pass the cup to the next generation.
On MSM, at the end of the year they show the faces of the people who died during 2009. It will be something else this year.
P.S. I know that this is choppy and doesn't flow very well. That's because I had a very stolid boring high school English teacher. His nickname was "Tiger Lowry" and he had halitosis.
Update: The Awl is upset about coinage of the phrase "Summer of Death."
Was it NY Magazine?
I believe it was The Awl.
Update: The summer of death ain't over, yet. Ismael Valenzuela died yesterday.
Update: Mr. D has about a week left to the summer of 2009. In the interim Larry Helbert, Patrick Swayze, Sheila Lukins and Norma Rae.
Omission: Reverend Ike died on July 28, 2009.
Update: The Grim Reaper's swath of the summer of 2009 isn't over yet. RIP Mary Travers and Henry Gibson.
Update: Kottke spots Kurt Anderson quoting David Kipen on Twitter.
The Awl on the NY Times getting in on the act too.
I forgot about James Luther Dickinson and David Carradine.
The autumnal equinox is at 5:18 pm September 22, 2009.
The 2009 Summer of Death is now officially over.
