Michael Jackson: Dead at 50
Yesterday, people began gathering in front of UCLA Ronald Reagan medical center to pay homage to a man who gave new meaning to the word "iconoclast. " Michael Jackson first came onto the world stage...
Category: Obituary
Michael Jackson: of mortal coils and music
Back when the Soviet Union was crashing around our ears, Michael Jackson was cool. I distinctly remember when, as a pre-schooler, I enraged my parents by refusing to get out of the car mid-song. It...
In memory of Anastasia Baburova and Stanislav Markelov
This is a special edition of this column. Yesterday, in broad daylight, in the center of Moscow, a human rights lawyer and a journalist were gunned down. Lawyer Stanislav Markelov was most famous for...
The death of Duanna Johnson
To be born a woman of color in this world is a difficult thing; as cumulatively we occupy the bottom of the race and class hierarchy. We are unique in that we have no institutionalized other. Our...
In memory of Paul Newman
Paul Newman is dead. He died of lung cancer at age 83, at his home in Connecticut. He is survived by his wife, five children, and two grandchildren. He was one of the last of the great old stars, the...
On the passing of a hip hop icon
Today marks the passing of an artist and a legend. Some of us were able to call him our brother, or our son. Another five people called him husband. But one thing we could all call him was......
The deaths that bind us: Solzhenitsyn, Pugovkin, Mordyukova
It feels instinctive to say that the death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn marks an end of an era. Which era, though? Solzhenitsyn's life spanned many eras: WWII, the gulag, the Khrushchev years,...
Heath Ledger was the cat’s meow
Did I seriously just write the above headline? Heath Ledger was? He was? People die young all the time. There's nothing new under the sun, and tragic death in one's prime is no exception. In many...