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It's coming up on 15 years since my sweet grandfather passed away. Living near us in L.A. at the time, Saba was laid to rest on a green, shady hillside at a scenic cemetery alongside an empty plot intended for his wife. When Safta died last month, my parents decided it would be too great an undertaking (no pun intended) to move her to L.A. and instead planned to bury her in their adopted home of Reno. That is, when the ground saw fit to thaw itself (when we all gathered there for the memorial, there remained a good foot and a half of snow and ice on the ground and no man would be fool enough to try and dig a grave through that shit).
After some careful consideration, the decision was made to move Saba to Reno as well, and earlier this week, he and Safta were reunited at last. We're not by any means a religious family, but anyone with half a beating heart can derive some comfort in knowing that two people who were so devoted to one another in life will spend the rest of eternity just a few feet from each other.
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Late last night, a local radio DJ played Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith back to back (for anyone who wasn't suicidal enough, I suppose). He then attempted to compare the two, his basis for comparison limited to "they both died young, tragically, under mysterious circumstances." Oh yeah, and they both wrote "moody pop songs," as Mr. DJ somewhat simplistically noted.
Buckley's drug of choice was life-sucking alcohol, while Smith's close, personal relationship with heroin was, shall we say, less than discreet. Yet both succeeded countless times in moving me to tears, long before I was disheartened by their deaths. For that, and for the immeasurable other works likewise enhanced, I must tip my hat in appreciation of the various intoxicants that so influence the creative world. That's not to say great works of art aren't possible without the aid of artificial stimulants, but... that list is (curiously) considerably shorter, isn't it?
Posted by ayelet at February 18, 2005 05:22 PMNot to trivialize the two artists at all... but I thought they were both murdered. Jeff Buckley just walks into a lake? Elliott Smith stabs himself in the chest repeatedly? I mean, I knew they were depressed, but come on...
The question is, who would want them murdered, and why?
Sorry to bring my paranoid fantasies here, but you gotta admit-- wouldn't it have made more sense for them to do themselves in with overdoses? Jeff could've drank himself into a stupor, Smith could've shot up a large amount of smack...
As a former suicidal teen, I can think of better ways to off myself.
Posted by: james at February 18, 2005 05:47 PM