George Jonas died on January 10th in Toronto. The Hungarian born Canadian writer, who was a brilliant and successful journalist, broadcaster, essayist, librettist and poet, died at age 80. No cause of death has been given, but he had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Jonas, who was well-known throughout Canada, was the subject of numerous newspaper obituaries and fond remembrances there.
There are few modern actors or famous entertainers who have as much effortless charisma as Alan Rickman. There aren’t many people who could narrate about a tortoise munching a strawberry and make it entertaining. But Alan Rickman can pull that off, as he did when he lent his voice to this video just last month, […]
Dusty records, news movies and comic shows + this day in history w/Black Dahlia and our song of the day by She-Devils on your Morning Monarchy for January 15, 2016.
It’s really weird when someone like David Bowie dies, because he’s one of those people who seems immortal, like they’ll be around forever; like he’s such a permanent part of the cultural landscape that he couldn’t possibly not be there anymore. It’s as if the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty were suddenly gone […]
El Chappo, China meltdown and the global goals + this day in history w/Aaron Swartz and our song of the day by the late, great David Bowie on your Morning Monarchy for January 11, 2016.
E.H. Carr suggested in his lectures that formed What is History? that one can only really understand history through understanding the historian. To understand the historian, one then casts an eye towards circumstances, the background of gestation, product and ultimate shaping behind that process.
E.L. Doctorow, one of our important left novelists—and for a long time one of my favorite American authors—died this past week. He was 84.
Over the course of his career, Doctorow accomplished a rare feat, not only weaving pronounced radical and historical themes into innovative contemporary fiction, but managing to win both popular success and mainstream critical accolades in the process.
As with everything to do with “The New Iraq”, the death, on June 5th, 2015, of the country’s former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Tariq Aziz, 79, was announced with a lie.
The Deputy Governor of Nasiriya, Adel Aldikhaly, stated that he had died of a heart attack after “a long term incurable disease.”
Michael Blake died last week.
You probably don’t know the name.
You probably don’t know about his life.
You probably don’t know most of what he wrote. That’s probably because he didn’t write diet and exercise books. Or cookbooks. Or “feel good” books. Or books about celebrities. Or books that advanced junk science or conspiracy theories.
Michael Blake fused history and social issues, writing about social justice. Writing books that mattered. Writing screenplays that were never produced and then discarded.
We are opinionated, yet we cannot offer our opinions. We have a right to the echo, not to the voice, and those who rule praise our talent to repeat parrot fashion. We refuse to accept this mediocrity as our destiny.
— Eduardo Galeano, opening speech at “Chile Creates,” an international meeting in support of Chilean democracy, July 11, 19881
