Kobe Bryant!
Kobe Bryant too.
Brian?
Don’t. You. Wish.
Hate to ruin the fun.
I was thinking about this today. It may be right that this is the case, it may be wrong.
Our generation only has two “super-celebrities”
Michael Jackson (who died 12 years ago)
And
Michael Jordan (who’s still alive)
Me being a 43 year old man, it’s very likely that I’ll hear of Michael Jordan’s’ death before I die.
I can’t say I felt strongly about Kobe Bryant. I recognize his greatness on the court and he seemed to be potentially a decent guy off court - which is not necessarily common, since you have to be obssessed to get a very specific set of skills like he did. Horrible that his daughter died with him, as such things are horrible when they happen to anyone, poor or rich, skilled or not.
But I have been thinking that part of the horror of this event - apart from the star identification and worship - is that he had it made compared to pretty much everyone. He was incredibly rich. We was loved. He had managed to make the hard transition from sport to his next phase of life, not easy. He had things he wanted to do and was passionately engaged in (it seems) and he had a family that seems to having been going well.
So, what we see is someone who had managed to lift himself out of all the shit we deal with.
And yet, he gets smacked down, dead.
So, it puts all our struggles in a context where no one is safe. We know this of course in the thinky bits of our brainpans, but this kind of death brings it home. It’s certainly no worse a death than someone who is less famous and skilled, but it highlights how even the most driven, organized, talented, skilled, flexible, loved person has not (at least seemingly) extricated him or herself from
the core situation.
I think that is the underlying shock for those who did not specifically know or worship him or were not particularly interested in basketball. How unsafe we are, if even the kings can be flyswatted out of existence. (if that’s what death is)
It would be very similar for me if Michael Jordan died. I have little feeling for him. Some famous basketball players would carry a bit more weight. Like Magic Johnson, say. Muhammad Ali did from the sports world. Musicians stand a much greater chance of affecting me if I loved their work. I felt quite sad when Robin Williams died and I realized it was not because I was especially a fan - I wasn’t - but through parts of his performances he called up and archetype of a caring father gestalt. I have no particular sense either way that he was one, but piece of different performance raised the presence of this, and this is what I mourned
since we are at least in large part hallucinating these famous people we do not know.
Heath Ledger, Phillip Seymor Hoffman, Stanley Kubrik, and others, some dying like Kobe fairly young some not, also affected me, though around the loss of talent or someone who, ongoing, deepened my experience of life. Likewise writers and other artists.
RIP Kirk Douglas, born of Russian-Jewish immigrants, who died yesterday at the age of 103.
Michael Douglas said of his father “He could be aggressive, and there were many affairs.” Sounds like my father, but not so much of the many, but of a few.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YBt0RVFtM4[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyKpILK_4g0[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajomkkDgq5A[/youtube]
RIP Caroline Flack…
…www.telegraph.co.uk › news › 2020/02/19 › caroline-flack-inquest-o…
Caroline Flack inquest: Love Island presenter hanged herself
7 hours ago - Caroline Flack hanged herself at home, an inquest into her death has heard. Coroner’s officer Sandra Polson said police had been driving through Northwold Road in Stoke Newington, north-east London, when they were flagged down on Saturday February 15. Officers followed "informants …
Caroline Flack
Television presenter
Caroline Louise Flack was an English television and radio presenter. She began her career as an actress, starring in Bo’ Selecta! and presented various ITV2 spin-off shows including I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! NOW! and The Xtra Factor.
Wikipedia
Height: 1.63 m Trending
Born: 9 November 1979, Enfield
Died: 15 February 2020, East London, London
Movies: Is Harry on the Boat?
Books: Storm in a C Cup: My Autobiography
I could’ve saved her. What she needed was me in her life. I’m a suicide intervention machine, bro.
…an unnecessary loss of a life through suicidal, of a now accumulating number of many.
I only wish that she had stayed strong and got herself through this testing time, as… like with all things, it would have passed. The judge is probably a misogynistic prick, in not dropping a case that was withdrawn. Is that even permissible? 
On a side note: I didn’t know that she had gone white-blonde… a big departure from her usual brunette and honey brown combination. Much prettier without make-up too… it happens to some.
I’m not sure the news media has covered Coby Bryant’s death enough yet. I’d like every major network to continue doing so for the next seven months.
they included Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, a budding basketball player who was ready to follow in her father’s footsteps; baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their basketball-playing daughter Alyssa; mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester; Mamba Academy basketball coach Christina Mauser; and pilot Ara Zobayan.
There were six adults in that helicopter and every time I think about it, I am capable of becoming very angry. Does anyone understand why???
Because 6 is too many for a helicopter, and in doing so sealed their own fate?
I thought of this, when watching the story break on the news, but our thoughts can’t save them now.
Perhaps not for the type of helicopter which it was but that is not what angers me and breaks my heart…that is not what I am referring to.
How often do we act with stupidity and not with common sense!
I believe that that is what sealed their fate.
If only…
In what way stupid and senseless… for them?
It seems the whole world is thriving on doing that… good call, Arc.
RIP the current toll count of Covid-19 victims, and hope that the current combative measures slows-down and halts the spread of the virus. [-o<
Y’all ain’t even gonna say any words for Kenny Rogers?
Because of Kenny Rogers alone, we know when to hold em… know when to fold em… know when to walk away… and know when to run. But how easily you forget this wisdom and show no appreciation for the man who brought it to us.
Bill Withers has passed away and will no longer be available to lean on.