years ago

I have/had a rotating set of musicians I used to love - still do - who's photos rotate through at the top of the blog. Once I can remember how I made all of that happen I'll update the rotation. I can do it!

Let's talk obituaries. Over the last two years I've been hit smack in the face with what I'll call, innocuously, shitty obituaries of folks that I really admired. The lack of newspapers - actual handheld paper - has created a massive gap in the historical record. When someone used to die we'd pay for an obit to be put in one or two local papers relevant to the deceased. It wasn't perfect, but it did notify at least some people, likely got passed around, and eventually would become a part of our collective records when digitization started. What's happening now is two fold: First, social media has become a bit of an excuse to not write a proper obituary for someone with an assumption that there is somehow now a record of their life. Second, and it follows directly, is that if one is written it's not only a lame excuse for that person's life it actively creates a void where they once lived. It's depressing. Imagine 50 years from now your grandchildren trying to piece together your life and finding only "Lived. Died. Service on Sunday" in some shit online database. I'm willing to let some of this slide if we'd take it upon ourselves to write proper summaries of someone's life; I don't need the paper to necessarily be alive to contain it. But, as noted, it's the missing tactile medium that has somehow forgiven us the duty to record history. It's someone's duty, let's call it yours and mine.

To the three folks in the last two years who've been failed by our laziness, I'll try to set it right. If and when I see you again, we'll talk.