2DO Before I Die

Dead Man Laughing' - Jokes Run Through A Family

Zadie Smith has a great piece in the latest issue of the New Yorker, entitled "Dead Man Laughing." It concerns her late father and a particular passion of his: "My father had few enthusiasms, but he loved comedy. He was a comedy nerd..."

Excerpt: "It turns out that becoming a comedian is an act of instantaneous self-creation. There are no intermediaries blocking your way, no gallerists, publishers, or distributors. Social class is a non-issue; you do not have to pass your exams. In a sense, it would have been a good career for our father, a creative man whose frequent attempts at advancement were forever thwarted, or so he felt, by his accent and his background, his lack of education, connections, luck."

Another: "At the extreme end of this sensibility lies the anti-comedian. An anti-comedian not only allows death onstage; he invites death up. Andy Kaufman was an anti-comedian. So was Lenny Bruce. Tommy Cooper is the great British example. His comedy persona was “inept magician.” He did intentionally bad magic tricks and told surreal jokes that played like Zen koans. He actually died onstage, collapsing from a heart attack during a 1984 live TV broadcast. I was nine, watching it on telly with Harvey. When Cooper fell over, we laughed and laughed, along with the rest of Britain, realizing only when the show cut to the commercial break that he wasn’t kidding.

There was an anti-comedian at Edinburgh Festival this year. His name was Edward Aczel. You will not have heard of him — neither had I, neither has practically anyone. This was only his second Edinburgh appearance. Maybe it was the fortuitous meeting of my mournful mood and his morbid material, but I thought his show, “Do I Really Have to Communicate with You?” was one of the strangest, and finest, hours of live comedy I’d ever seen." 

Click 'continue reading' below for the rest of the excerpt. Or go here for the full piece by Zadie Smith. And below is a clip of 'anti-comedian' Edward Aczel...

John Lennon Died 28 Years Ago Today - Video of the making of 'God'

I remember the day very clearly - and the reaction of my parents. I was just a small boy watching tv when cartoons were interupted with the news of John Lennon's murder. My parents walked in to the room, and asked me what was happening. I said, 'Someone named John Lennon has been shot.' The look on my parent's face - absolutely shocked, stricken. They sat down beside me to watch the breaking news and I remember thinking - who was this person that has had such an impact on my mom and dad?

That was my introduction to John Lennon and to the Beatles. He was always my favorite of the four. One of my all-time favorite albums remains the one he made just after the Beatles broke up. It's the intensely personal John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. If you don't have it already, get yourself a copy today and listen straight through - it works as a piece.

Today's the anniversary of his death. There are of course countless videos one could choose of John Lennon, but I thought I would include one which featured him doing what he did best - making music, making art. Here's a clip about the making of 'God' from the Plastic Ono Band album.  - Mike

'If I'm killed, let that bullet destroy every closet door'

Columnist John Patterson this weekend on the life and times of the late San Franciso politician Harvey Milk: "Liberal hero, political pioneer, assassination target - Harvey Milk was the Barack Obama of his day."

Actor Sean Penn plays Milk in a acclaimed film just out - Patterson has written a profile in the Guardian (link to it here) of a man who in finding his true calling made history - "In 1977, he was the first openly gay man elected to US public office. A year later, he was shot dead.".

"A Quest To Bring A Man Back To Life" - A Letter To A Son About His Father

A documentary about a murder, a son, a friend and a father, Dear Zachary explores the short life of Dr. Andrew Babgy.  By all accounts a dark, heartbreaking tale, everyone who has seen it says it's an exceptional piece of work. Particularly interesting to us here at 2DO in that it's a film made by the victim's oldest friend, Kurt Kuenne, who began making a film for Bagby's son, young Zachary, as a way for him to get to know the father he’d never meet. The story has some real twists and turns.... Trailer below:

Dear Zachary has been making the film festival and art house rounds, but it airs this Sunday at 9 EDT on MSNBC. If you happen to see it, let us know what you think.

Exactitudes - A Photographic Study of Identity

Interesting photographic study of people and group identity found here called Exactitudes. Here's their pitch: "Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 14 years...

..They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people's attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element." See for yourself. 

The Postcard Life Stories Project

From the Guardian, a piece on the intriguing Postcard Life Stories Project: 

"Michael Kimball began writing people's life stories on the backs of postcards as a joke at a performance arts festival in April. "I thought it would be fun and funny, and that I'd ask a few questions and write a few postcards and that would be that... When I looked up, a line had formed." 

The first postcard was for a painter who had quit art school in Dublin to work as an ice-cream man in Ocean City, Maryland, a few hours from Baltimore, where Kimball lives. By the end of the night, he'd written dozens. "I was struck by how eager people were to share their stories, how grateful they were for their postcard. My mind was racing with all the details - the secrets, wonder and pain they revealed - and the hope that I'd done justice to their stories." I can testify to what Kimball calls "the unexpected intimacy" of the Postcard Life Stories project, which includes a blog of the biographies. Recently he wrote my life story. 

"Curiosity Didn't Kill This Cat" - The 'Great Chronicler' Dies

Widely credited with transforming oral history into a popular literary form, Pulitzer-prize winning author Studs Terkel  died this past Friday. A giant in the world of journalism, Mr. Terkel, as the NY Times put it, was "a gifted and seemingly tireless interviewer who elicited provocative insights and colorful, detailed personal histories from a broad mix of people.

“The thing I’m able to do, I guess, is break down walls,” he once told an interviewer. “If they think you’re listening, they’ll talk. It’s more of a conversation than an interview.” Mr. Terkel succeeded as an interviewer in part because he believed most people had something to say worth hearing."

Studs Terkel was/is a hero here at 2DO Before I Die. His ability to capture peoples' stories, allowing them their own voice, has long been an inspiration to us. On his death at 96, the Chicago Tribune commented, "It is hard to imagine a fuller life."  Terkel's own epitaph? "Curiosity didn't kill this cat."

This is a nice piece below from Sasha Abramsky: 

There are some people you think will live forever; and when they finally die, before you had a chance to say hello, you wish you'd made that extra effort to meet them.

Studs Terkel, the greatest English language oral historian of our age, was one of those men. He seemed immortal, seemed like he'd always be there in his Chicago radio studio, ready to meet someone new, to discuss the state of the world with them in his wonderful, gritty, voice. His hospitality, his generosity with younger writers and journalists, was legendary. But of course, he was, in reality, a mortal. 

Personal Histories - Tales from the Past Preserved for Families

“This is an incredible profession, work I would do for free if I could afford it, and I think many of us feel that way."

So says Susan Owens, owner of Tales for Telling, based in Lexington, Kentucky. Ms. Owens is part of a growing trend of entrepreneurs who act as personal historians to capture stories for future generations.

Owens - and the emerging industry - are profiled in the Fresh Starts column of today's New York Times. The full story can be read here, following the jump.

We've been following this trend for a while - some call it life caching - as it's akin to the approach we took for our 2DO BEFORE I DIE book - capturing people's stories that provide insight into what make people tick. We're curious to hear of other innovative ways people are capturing histories - if you know any or can share any links, do let us know in the comments below.

Hard Won Lessons - Wisdom from the World's Most Famous Over 65's

From Huffington Post: "Andrew Zuckerman, a 30-year-old photographer and film-maker has spent the past year travelling the globe, photographing some of the world's most iconic faces, but with a catch: all of them were born before 1942.

Zuckerman's cites America's obsession with youth as inspiration: "We're doing a disservice to ourselves by not looking to our elders. We should be saying, 'What have you learnt?' and seeing what we can pick up from that."

His subjects in the resulting book Wisdom, include such luminaries as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Willie Nelson, Madeline Albright, Dame Judi Dench, Clint Eastwood and Nelson Mandela."

Some excerpts:
Nelson Mandela: “It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another."

Clint Eastwood: "Take your profession seriously; don't take yourself seriously."

Comedian Billy Connoly: "I try to tell my children, ‘Just try to see what you’re drawn to – the type of store window that you’re drawn to.’ Because it’s no mistake when you’re drawn. Something’s telling you, ‘This is the direction you should be going.’"

For the full piece from The Times, click continue reading below.

Guidance from the Grave - "Ad Man Turns Advice Man"

'Uncanny' in its relevance to Chris' post yesterday about untimely demises is this month's Vanity Fair interview:

"When Brian Sack’s (of CNN's Glenn Beck show) mother passed away of breast cancer, in 1983, she left him only two mementos: a letter and a pink cardigan. He threw the cardigan into a closet and forgot about it, but the letter became one of his most treasured possessions. Spanning several pages, the letter contained his mom’s posthumous advice, providing her son with the life guidance she would have liked to give him in person.

Twenty-five years later and now a father, Sack decided that he wanted to do the same thing for his son. So he sat down and wrote a list of everything he knows about life. Some of it’s obvious: High school is probably going to suck. Marriage, like a needy actress, requires constant attention. You can get out of almost any fight by acting crazy. But some of his counsel is, to say the least, unconventional: Never make a major life decision based on a Morrissey song. Ignore college professors who’ll tell you that the Empire State Building is a phallic symbol. You haven’t lived until you’ve called your dad from a Viennese whorehouse to tell him everything’s O.K..."

Read the rest of the interview at the link below - or link to the VF piece here.