And now, for the part of 2009 that really didn’t personally concern me.  Macabre as it may sound, the part of the Oscars that I most enjoy is their tribute to the stars that have died that year.  Well, this year, I found a list of those who left us this year, and decided that some of them were worth mentioning here.  I think it is a true sign that I am getting older that I actually knew who more than half of the people were, and even had an opinion on most of them.  Not that my opinion matters much, but I do remember many years in which I had no idea who all those people were who had died, or why anyone would care.

So, I am categorizing them in my own way:  The “Greats” (Those who really made a difference for this world, and often risked their lives in doing so, or who just lived that long), The “Too-Young-To-Die” (Those who should have lived a few more decades, at the very least), The “Well Known and Loved” (I think that one is pretty self-explanatory), The “Rich and Powerful” (again, self-explanatory, except that these may not have bee so well-loved, at least not by yours truly!), and The “Not Well-Known-But-Important-Anyway” (maybe not household names, but still famous in their own right).  There is, of course, some overlap, but I’m generalizing, so please allow me some discrepancies.

GREATS

Marek Edelman (Last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis); Harry Patch (Last surviving British trench soldier from World War I); Millvina Dean (Last survivor of the Titanic); Maria de Jesus (World’s oldest person, age 115)

TOO-YOUNG-TO-DIE

Brittany Murphy (Actress, age 32);  Chris Henry (Bengals, age 26); Stephen Gately (Irish Pop Singer, age 33); Andy Kessler (Skateboarding Pioneer, age 48) Michael Jackson (Superstar, age 50); Dolla (Roderick Anthony Burton II) (Rapper, age 22);

WELL KNOWN AND LOVED

Roy E. Disney (Nephew of Walt Disney); Patrick Swayze (Actor; and he could qualify for “Too-Young-To-Die”, as well); Farrah Fawcett (Actress); Ed McMahon (Sidekick on the Tonight Show); David Carradine (Actor, Martial Artist);  Dom DeLuise (Comedic actor, director); Bea Arthur (Actress); Natasha Richardson (Stage and screen actress, qualifies for “Too-Young-To-Die”, as well); Paul Harvey (Broadcasting Pioneer); Ricardo Montalban (Actor);

RICH AND POWERFUL (Well-Known, but Not Necessarily Well-Loved)

Oral Roberts (Evangelist); Edward Kennedy;  Walter Cronkite (Legendary Anchorman);

NOT WELL-KNOWN-BUT-IMPORTANT-ANYWAY

Don Hewitt (Creator of 60 Minutes);  Les Paul (Guitarist & Inventor); John Hughes (Director of “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club”, two of my favorite movies); Billy Mays (TV Pitchman); Jack Kemp (Congressman and NFL quarterback);  Dave Arneson (Co-creator of the game Dungeons & Dragons);  Alan Livingston (Creator of Bozo the Clown; former president of Capitol Records who signed the Beatles and Frank Sinatra);  Millard Fuller (Habitat for Humanity founder)

I felt very sad when Farrah Fawcett died, and I think I actually grieved when Michael Jackson died.  No, I was not a huge fan, and I really never cared for much of his music, at least not anything he did after “Thriller”.  But growing up, Michael Jackson was as much a part of our lives as school, or dinner.  He was everywhere, and everyone knew him.  Listening to his songs that came out in the early 1980’s brought back so many very good memories.  How could I not grieve?  And, like him or not, he was freakishly gifted.  And finally, for what very little it’s worth:  I do not, and never have, thought he was a child molester.  If you want to know my reasoning behind that (and I would be shocked if anybody even cared!!) then email me, or leave a comment, and I’ll explain.  I also loved Dom DeLuise.  He was just somebody you wanted to hug!  And finally, I felt a tremendous amount of sadness when Paul Harvey died.  I knew his voice as well as my own father’s, and probably welcomed it more.

So, tomorrow is a new year, and a new decade.  Thank God!!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving! There is so much horror in our world, I am grateful to have at least one day out of the year to just focus on blessings. I am grateful, most of all, for my Husband, my Children, and my Mother. Running a very close 2nd are all of my wonderful and amazing friends who have supported, comforted, and lifted me up in prayer over this past year. I would surely be in a padded cell by now, if it weren’t for them!

We are headed out in a couple of hours to our friend, Tiffany Galozzi’s home, where we are going to enjoy her wonderful cooking and hospitality. Woo Hoo! Then, tomorrow, we start decorating the house for Christmas, and finish the day up at the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert down in Greenville.

. . . taking my boys to the KISS concert down in Greenville tonight.   I will probably loose over half of my readers over this, but I may as well be totally honest here.  I’ve been a KISS fan for, ah, well, uh, a really, really, really long time.  Let’s just say that the first KISS concert I went to was 25 years ago, and I’d already spent the seven years prior to that concert trying to convince my mom to let me go to one!  So, uh, yeah.  Long time.  Gene and Paul don’t look quite as good as they used to, but then, I don’t either.  I’m thinking they look a lot better than me!

My Favorite KISS Album Cover

Anyway, we’re gonna have a blast, and we are really looking forward to the pyrotechnics and the ‘experience’.  I will be the first to admit that musically, KISS is not so great.  But second only to Alice Cooper, they are the original Glam Rock Superstars, and put on a show that just has never been beat. (Sorry Crue and Nickleback!)  Kendall is excited that Buckcherry is opening for them.  I think I got a better deal last time when Poison opened, but then I am really showing how old I am.

I just wish I still had the picture of me and some friends dressed up like KISS, one Halloween, many many moons ago. 1985?? Me, Michael Meader, Charlie Reppond, and Chad Coe.  It took me and Gaylon three days to wash all of that black hairspray out of my hair!! LOL

Like most moms, I think my kids are pretty amazing.  But I have to say that Alex and Faith are outdoing themselves, as I type.  I am upstairs, Photoshopping old family photographs and working on my new Genealogy Website.  Alex is downstairs, playing piano. I love listening to him play as I work on my computer, cook dinner, or whatever.  His songs are beautiful and haunting, and somehow, his music turns the mundane chores of my daily life into something holy and perfect.

But this afternoon is different.  It is better than I ever thought it could be.  Alex is giving Faith notes to play on her violin, while he plays piano, and she is sitting on the floor, beside the piano, eagerly gliding her bow across her strings, as he writes down the notes for her on a piece of paper he found.  I can hear them discussing their composition, talking about which notes are best, and how long to hold them. He is teaching her music theory as they work.  It is more precious than I can express.

Yes, there is a God, and He is amazing beyond my ability to describe.  Perhaps His perfection is best experienced in the song of my children.  Not only are my children playing a beautiful song together, they are putting my world in perfect harmony with each note they play.

The human mind has to be one of the most powerful, and yet most fragile things known to man.  People have been known to stand up to incredible stress and duress, and come out on the other side empowered and strong.  Others have cracked under seemingly very little stress.  And each of us handles it in our own unique way.

There have been many cases in history of famous people who were insane.  So many of them were great artists, dreamers, poets.  Perhaps there is something different about the way their minds work.  Maybe that’s why they were able to leave us with such amazing legacies, while they quietly succumbed to the darkness inside them.

This month’s Rolling Stone Magazine features a cover story on the band Pink Floyd.  Most people today don’t know the tragic story behind this iconic band.  They just know they wrote odd lyrics, and had a killer light show.  And probably everyone has heard of their blockbuster album, "The Wall". 

But few people are aware of how they got their start, of who the band members are, and the pain they walked through on their way to the stars.  Syd Barrett should be a household name.  But it isn’t.  Syd died in quiet solitude last summer, his life almost like the passing of a forgotten dream.  The Piper finally reached the Gates of Dawn. Yet is was Syd who created Pink Floyd.  It was Syd who named the band.  It was Syd who was the driving force behind their avante garde psychadelic style of rock-n-roll back that rocketed them to the top in the 1960’s London Underground. 

It was Syd who wrote and sang the songs, who came up with the idea of their incredible light show, who played lead guitar in a way that nobody before had ever dared.  It was Syd that went insane.

Nobody knows what really happened. Syd was described as charismatic, outgoing.  He was friendly and always the life of the party.  He took the Pink Floyd to the very pinnacle of rock-n-roll stardom, then disappeared.

He not only physically dropped from sight, he mentally went away.  He was, without question, a genius. He was rich, famous, and beautiful. But apparently his mind couldn’t reconcile with his reality.  Perhaps he used the LSD to escape from the blinding glory of who he’d become, of what he’d created.  Perhaps the LSD opened up the escape hatch in his mind, and once he’d stepped through, he didn’t want to come back.  But was that all?  Roger Waters thought the LSD triggered some sort of dormant schizophrenia.  Maybe so. 

I think what haunts me most are the unanswered questions.  Was he really crazy, or did he just decide that the world inside his own mind was more interesting than ours?  Did he know who he was?  Did he choose his path, or did it choose him?  What sort of intuition drove him to appear at the recording studio in 1975 when the band was recording the song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", written by Roger Waters for Syd?  Did he know it was about him?  Did he know why they were crying?  Did he care?

I have to wonder what it would have been like if Syd Barrett had not gone mad.  Would he still be with us today?  Would the direction of Pink Floyd have changed completely?  And are any of us all that different from Syd?  He was unrealized potential.  An unfulfilled fantasy.  Can we not all say that, at least to some degree, we too have not realized our potential to its fullest?  Have not dared to live our dreams?  Just a thought. . .

So often, out of great tragedy emerges great art.  I think that is the case with Pink Floyd.  The Rolling Stone Magazine article even goes so far as to use the term "hubris" in describing them.  I think this is accurate on many levels.  The band itself has always been both mystery and paradigm.  But they would have been neither, had Syd Barrett not birthed them.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond
by: Roger Waters

Remember when you were young,
You shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Now there’s a look in your eyes,
Like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

You were caught in the crossfire
Of childhood and stardom,
Blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon,
You tried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Threatened by shadows at night,
And exposed in the light
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Well you wore out your welcome
With random precision,
Rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

Remember when you were young
You shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.