departed

anastasia romanov

Memorial dedicated to the Czar’s children is located on the premises of the Ganina Yama church complex where the remains of the imperial family executed by the Bolsheviks were found.

Memorial Day, WAR HEROES, WAR CRIMINALS

    MEMORIAL DAY

+ Mary McHugh mourns Her slain fiance, Sgt. James Regan, a US Army Ranger killed in Iraq, at Arlington National Cememery +

Why Bush, Blair should be charged with war crimes over Iraq invasion

WAR HEROES, WAR CRIMINALS REMEMBERED ON MEMORIAL DAY

"Memorial Day, an American holiday observed on the last Monday of May, honors men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, at least, it marks the beginning of summer" H I S T O R Y  + stats

How to deny your crime and relieve conscience
"George Bush takes some of the veterans he sent into illegal wars to have their limbs blown off for a bike ride. Oh, well that should make up for everything!"

Dave Brubeck Legendary Jazz Pianist and Composer RIP

Dave Brubeck    Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91

DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET - Take Five

Official site for the jazz pianist and composer. 

Offers complete biography, itinerary, news, gallery, and streaming audio.

Dave Brubeck, a jazz musician who attained pop-star acclaim with recordings such as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk," died Wednesday morning at Norwalk Hospital, in Norwalk, Conn., said his longtime manager-producer-conductor Russell Gloyd.
Brubeck was one day short of his 92nd birthday. He died of heart failure, en route to "a regular treatment with his cardiologist,” said Gloyd.

"Born out of a post-adolescent loathing and hatred of all things disco, I discovered an album at my local record store that I still have to this day: "Adventures in Time," a sort-of greatest hits two-record album with the Dave Brubeck Quartet that absolutely floored me when I listened to it. And listen to it I did, over and over again. Thanks to Maestro Brubeck and the amazing music he wrote, I discovered his amazing saxophonist, Paul Desmond, and subsequently Stan Getz, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Duke Ellington (one of America's greatest composers, by the way), Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, and the rest of the pantheon of jazz gods that I've come to love as much as my beloved classical music.

Thanks, Dave, for lighting the fire in me. Godspeed and may you rest in peace."  By George Moneo

The seminal album "Time Out," released by the quartet in 1959, was the first ever million-selling jazz LP, and is still among the best-selling jazz albums of all time.

Kennedy Center honoree Dave Brubeck stands for the National Anthem at the Kennedy Center Honors gala in Washington in 2009.

Ambassador of jazz.

Douce France

Liza Minnelli 1969

Life really is a cabaret!

 Liza Minnelli surprises flamboyant fans

 by hopping on stage during a bar drag queen competition

cabaret

RIP MARVIN HAMLISCH: Liza Minnelli lead mourners at 'people's composer' Marvin Hamlisch's funeral

Maybe it’s true that life begins at fifty.. but everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out.

Comedian Phyllis Diller dies 'with a smile on her face'

 Legendary comic Phyllis Diller — who Joan Rivers says “broke the way for every woman comedian” — died today in her sleep.
She was 95 and had been in a hospice care since a recent fall. 

Actress, Comedian Phyllis Diller Dies At 95

Phyliss Diller ~ wikipedia ~ July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012

Her memoir Like A Lampshade In A Whorehouse

Groundbreaking comedienne

Barbra Streisand and Phyllis Diller

FROM HOUSEWIFE TO COMIC

Comedian Phyllis Diller, known for her trademark cackle and bizzare looks

“it will be all right by and by”
Anna Piaggi Italian fashion editor who died in Milan on Aug. 7 at age 81.

Helen Gurley Brown  February 18, 1922 – August 13, 2012
RIP Helen Gurley Brown: The Cosmo Editor’s Sassiest Quotes
Welcome Back, Kotter star Ron Palillo dies at 63 ‘after suffering heart attack’

William Windom  September 28, 1923 _ August 16, 2012

Tony Scott  21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012

This will put the sunshine back in your step!

Writer, critic, bon vivant and television personality Gore Vidal has shuffled off this decaying mortal coil.

If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,  There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats

Read the New York Times obituary here.

Flashback: Gore Vidal Nearly Comes To Blows With ‘Crypto-Nazi’ 

William F. Buckley In 1968

Gore Vidal, the elegant, acerbic all-around man of letters who presided with a certain relish over what he declared to be the end of American civilization, died on Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles, where he moved in 2003 after years of living in Ravello, Italy. He was 86.

Gore Vidal Memorial to be Held August 23rd at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre

born Eugene Louis Vidal in West Point, New York, 
October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012

WIKIPEDIA

Gore Vidal

Grandfather, Thomas Gore  (December 10, 1870 – March 16, 1949).  He was blind and

 served as a United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1907 until 1921 and from 1931

 until 1937.  Oklahoma History