The Loss of Eight Great Artists

Somehow I will remember January of 2016 as the month we lost seven great members of the arts culture. From music to stage acting to t.v. and movies to management the arts have been touched by these losses as never before in my lifetime. The month is not over but I pray the loss is done.

In life we all try our damnedest to accept death as part of the process. We know that it is a part of life. We know it is the end of our corporeal state, the end of living as we know it and the end of our person existence. We fight it, we hate it, we live with it, we learn to live without people in our lives, we suffer it’s effects on ourselves and others, and we believe that we will be punished after it or cleansed of our nasty behaviour and will live is glory or in dire. Some of us are touched by the deaths of people we have never met and some of us move on easily and our own lives carry on without too much disruption.

In early January we heard of the death of David Bowie one of the world’s most prolific rock artists. Many of us listened to his music. There was almost a cult following, you were a Bowie fan and you knew how to pronounce his name, you dressed the part of Ziggy Stardust at Halloween, to the dismay of many of the adults, but Bowie fan. His music rang out loud for a generation breaking as many boundaries as possible.

 

William Needles

Brian Bedford

But it is not just Bowie we lost, it is two great stage actors from Stratford. William Needles and Brian Bedford both died this month as well. I remember seeing both perform in The Taming of the Shrew when we attended in high school. If you do not know who these t men are or were look up their names and find a photo you more than likely will recognize them from other works they have done. I remember them both from interviews and from other t.v. shows. Now the count is three.

As the number keeps climbing the next on the list was Glen Fry from the Eagles. A talent silenced far too early. Like Bowie, unmatched as a musician the legacy of Fry will live long after the generation has passed. My daughters are already a fans, a new generation listening to the twisted story of Hotel California. May it continue to haunt well into the future and his legacy remain alive.

 

Glen Fry

 

Next to leave was another of music’s great people and a Canadian. Rene Angelil, husband to Celine Dion and manager died just last week. To top off Celine’s pain her brother had died as well. I can only imagine the break in her heart and hope that she comes through this time to sing again. Rene was not only a manager and producer but also an a stout singer in his own right. His legacy lives on in the career he built for his wife.

Rene Angelil

Then one morning I wake up and check in on the news only to hear of the death of Abe Vigoda. One of my childhood memories has died, but at a ripe old age. Living into longevity and passing with grace. It will forever be the voice she used as that character that will ring in my ears and make me laugh. I have plenty to say about Abe Vigoda and how he made me laugh as well. His portrayal of Fish in Barney Miller was one of my favorite characters on t.v. as a child. His career was just as powerful as all that I have mentioned today and stands alone in his own right as one of the many greats who have come and gone in this world.

Abe Vigoda

John Alaskey, his name may not be familiar but his voice would be. He was the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird and Sylvester. Saturday mornings will never be the same again to know that this comical genius has been silenced. The banter between characters and the ability to make us laugh as both children and adults was his true gift. If you listen closly to some of the tracks you find some truly adult messages hiding in the slurp of Sylvester or the lisp of a Tweety Bird. Have fun with that one. Now the count is seven.

John Alaskey

 

We moved into the month of February and the first few days were calm, but I wake again to the news that another of the great artists had left us. Maurice White from Earth, Wind and Fire has died too. The soulful sounds of his voice are again for me precious childhood memories and I will always enjoy dancing to the music he was a part of creating.

Maurice White

 

But all-in-all I know we come and we go but I will remember the beginning of 2016 as the year we lost eight beautiful artists. I suppose as an artist I am hit with the loss in a way that I can relate or maybe not. But my heart feels heavy and my eyes are saddened with tears, may you all rest in peace and live long in your legacies.

I believe this blog post is not over yet. I am very sorry to say…

 

 

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Thoughts, the Negative and the Positive

 

While dabbling in thoughts about what today’s topic should be I came across an old thought. A thought about someone I had not seen in what seems a life time. Now it is a good thing I have not seen this person as I do not want too, but just what is in a thought and how do we manifest odd from bad or indifferent?

 

 

I have never given much thought to thought. It occurred to me there was a process for it but I never minded to investigate the process, obviously it occurs in the brain of humans and maybe some animals. But thoughts come in many shapes, sizes and also emotion levels. The thought I had of the person earlier left me feeling somewhat angry as this person had done something to injure me in the past. But it also left me wondering if the old crow was now bald and wrinkled and gave me a good snicker at the mental image I had formed, not a good one.

 

 

As a thoughtful person I try my very hardest to have only good thought about people and for the most part I do. It saddens me to think that there are such toxic people out there that when thought of all the thinker wishes is to expel the thought and move onto something more positive, but there are those people that stand in the way and sometimes hijack our thoughts no matter what we do to remove the toxicity the thought remain. It is a fight within ones soul to eliminate the thought that hurt or is binding us mentally to an incident. I personally like to use the red circle and stroke method and then I shrink into the tiniest of pieces and flick it away.

 

 

My eldest daughter seems to be the target of bullies at school and she struggles with the thoughts they create and the hurt. We have given her a super power to deal with the remaining hurtful backlash that occurs in her mind. We have talked about her bringing forth her inner Velociraptor. I am not sure why she a lines with this creature but she does and her use of this creature in changing her thought pattern works. It is not in violent thought but thought of strengths and agility and an ability to get away from what is hurting and distracting her from her school work.

 

 

It seems to me that we all have our own unique and individual thought patterns and use varied techniques to get through our thoughts and keep them as positive as possible. But is the power of thinking as strong as we have been lead to believe? I have no proof, scientifically anyway about that being true or not, but I do believe that if we think great things it can happen. What I mean is if we constantly look for bad and negative that is all we will find being a pessimist. But if we look to the bright and shiny side of life we could and just might find out that there is a glory out there that belongs to us in a pocket. Something we can own without too much struggle, something we are good at and the world notices, something that is positive. Let’s look at the motivation to loose weight. It takes a thought to get going with the process. It then takes more thought to get to the gym and choose a trainer to help. Then beyond that, we are looking at changing eating habits and relearning to live life without the junk and the television so much and becoming healthy. Keeping those thoughts alive by feeding them with more positive thinking. Yes I do believe that thoughts can and do help us change our lives. The funny thing is though…we must recognize there is a problem to begin with…

 

 

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The Silencing of the Lights - A New Year

 

After a month of parties and bright lights it is time for them to be silenced. It seems so short a time, a time that we prepare for in great length and a time that we live in so briefly. The glory of the holiday is over and now the lights will be silenced.

There are always the stragglers that keep the colours and a glow for some time afterwards that remain with the decorations frozen into the ground as winter progresses and  are waiting for the thaw of March and April to release their Christmas hostages and package them away for another eight months until they are needed again.

I look forward to the quiet of the deepest days of the winter when things inside the house get done and changes in lifestyle are made. Trying to keep up with New Year’s resolutions and fitting in gym time into an already very busy schedule. Health and fitness at the forefront of many changes that people want to make it takes dedications and rest to make these things happen. Clean eating, more exercise, and quitting bad habits seem to top the cake of changes we all want to make. But no matter what we decide and follow through on, the lights will be silenced.

 

Moving forward into a new year with new promise and hope. Well-deserved issues and broken promises left behind in a single night the human race works itself into a tizzy of change in just a few short hours. The old year’s calendars chucked in the garbage and new ones hung in their place bring a glory of the lights that reminds us of the days just past and the promises made to change. It is a time of cleansing the soul and purging the pain of a year that may not have been stellar. Expelling the memories of hurt that were shameful gifts thrust upon us by others and closing the doors on such behaviours. A time for improvement has come.

 

 

Whether that improvement comes from within yourself or is announced and followed through upon with other that support you, we all have a great deal of work to be done. I can feel the excitement in our home of returning to school and the dance studio refreshed and ready to strive for excellence. The last days of the holiday remain as holders of a place in time when we can recreate ourselves as better, improved, learning and striving.

The cold and bleak winter’s day reminds me that one more night the lights will shine bright and then be silenced for the long stretch ahead. The days will come when we all walk in the sunshine and warmth again but until then we must rest, recoup and move forward in this new year. The ability to start over with a fresh slate truly does not exist but we can try and we can hope and do our very best to improve our own corner of the world. Leaving the hurt and disappointment of others and ourselves behind us. There is nothing anyone can do to change the past but taking on a new approach and following through in a new way is always a good start. Maybe the lights are not silenced after all, maybe they just shine a little differently.

Happy New Year and may all your dreams come true!!!

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