Lessons from the dead beat
16 June 2007. Inspired by the obit crowd.
Things we have learnt at the Ninth Obit Writer's Conference in Alfred (photos here btw, for now at least):
Paris Theodore, a former CIA hitman, died in November. When he hung up his gun, he decided instead to design more, including his patented Uzi in a Briefcase and a lighter that also fired bullets. He called it the "Zappo". Steve Miller's marvellous obit is currently the only content available on the mysterious company website.
Pulitzer Prize-winner and all-round top fellow Jim Sheeler's first book has just come out in hardback. The deal was signed before he won the prize, and it's published by a small press. The paperback, however, will be published and distributed by a different company by the name of Penguin. It's bloody good too, so get your limited edition hardback now for future ebaying fun.
The rather talented and very lovely Marilyn Johnson's book The Dead Beat has now been translated into Chinese. For fans of Sino small print, I'm thanked at the back. She also has more groupies than anyone else in the field (at least, until Jim's next book on the Iraq War comes out). Some of her groupies get very drunk very quickly.
The man from Auntie describes Liz Taylor as someone who "has caught every disease apart from the one she campaigns on". The line may not, however, make it into the final obit.
Obit magazine is in fine online fettle, and about to relaunch as the grim reaper's version of Slate. Can't wait.
For the latest about who's died or on the way, the gang at alt.obituaries are unbeatable.
John Wilkes Booth's thorax! Slices of real human head! A plaster cast of Chang and Eng! Skeletons of conjoined twins! So, it turns out that The Mutter Museum is one of Teller's favourite places in the world, and it might just become mine too if I can myself get to Philadelphia. The museum's talented curator died a few years ago; her obit revealed that, as a child, she used to collect conjoined M&Ms. Must visit.
Through their eagerness to score points, experts in the Deadpool know a lot about a lot, in the hope that it might explode/crash/die in the next 12 months. I have it on good authority that the lake next to Mt. Nyiragongo is one to watch (but not get too close too).
No-one shouts the words "Lazlo Biro!" like Andrew McKie.
All of which has been well worth the trip to find out. Toronto next year, anyone?