memorial

Today, I honor our fallen soldiers with a MEMORIAL:

These are not small names, although you may not have heard of many of us. I consider every single one of these names to be absolutely among the most talented artists I have ever known. These are some of our greatest minds, who have died far too young... from suicide, murder, drugs, disease, or other mysterious causes. Almost everybody on this list passed away before or during what would be considered "middle-age" (with the exception of a few suicides, who deserved so much better.)

The following are personally influential to me, and yet the list could go on & on. I encourage others to contribute to this memorial:

Kelly Fraser, Kurt Cobain, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Sylvia Plath, Billie Holiday, Ian Curtis, Mia Zapata, Vaughn Benjamin, John Berryman, Kristen Pfaff, Phil Hansford, Tupac Shakur, Christopher "Notorious BIG" Wallace, Darby Crash, Chuck Wagon, Mac Miller, Frederick "Aloe Wishes" Kobrick, Big L, Paul C, Jeanine "Singing Nun" Deckers, Jack Sousa, Bob Marley, Fred Hampton, Nipsey Hussle, Jahseh Onfroy, Chris Cornell, Sulli, Goo Hara, Juice WRLD, John Singleton, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Karen Carpenter, Martin Luther King Jr., Oscar Wilde, Sappho, Layne Staley, Marilyn Monroe, Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Isadora Duncan, Joan of Arc, Jesus Christ, Malcolm X, Elliott Smith, Poly Styrene, Ernest Hemingway, Whitney Houston, Capital Steez, Keith Flint, Donny Hathaway, Aaliyah, Jeff Buckley, Wendy O. Williams, Federico Garcia Lorca, Socrates, Mata Hari (please stop slandering her), Nick Drake, John Coltrane, Vincent Van Gogh, John Balance, Sam Cooke, Richard Farina, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Otis Redding, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Yukio Mishima, Randy Rhoads, Anne Sexton, Rozz Williams, Abbie Hoffman, Hunter S. Thompson, Gary Webb, Prince, David Foster Wallace, Daniel Johnston, Bruce Lee (and Brandon), Virginia Woolf, Sara Teasdale, John Lennon, Proof, Hank Williams, Easy-E, Freddie Mercury, Selena, Mama Cass, Magnolia Shorty, Gandhi, Buddy Holly, Bill Hicks, Tammi Terrell, Chester Bennington, Vic Chesnutt, Ephraim Lewis, Phil Ochs, Dave Mirra, Lenny Bruce, Aaron Swartz, Robin Williams, Maria "Tristessa" Kolokouri, Genevieve Castree, Woody Guthrie, Scott La Rock, Jam Master Jay, Andre Waters, Bernie Mac, Sacco and Venzetti, Voltairine de Claire, Chantal Akerman (Just found out about her passing while putting together this list 😿 and on that note... I'm done for now 💔)

I just named about a hundred people incredibly dear to my heart, for various reasons... including people I was personally close with.

Let's create a better world for our children, yeah? Fuck drugs. Fuck murder. Fuck poverty. Fuck abuse. Fuck suicide (this is every person's sacred right, to end their life...and I don't want to be one more person telling you how to feel. But, because we live in a time of extreme bullying and intoxication and slander, I consider this way too close to murder for comfort). Most of all? Fuck apathy!

I would also like to shout-out Andre Waters in particular, who drew attention to the fact that athletes face extraordinary physical trauma, and deserve to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect, with special regards for their personal health and safety. And to Kobe Bryant and his daughter 😿 Sometimes it's better to miss the damn flight/event, a heartbreaking number of artists have died in small planes and helicopter crashes due to travelling in unsafe conditions (including several on this list, Buddy Holly, Aaliyah, SRV, etc.) Health is wealth. Everything else is secondary!

And a very special mention to artists who were brave enough to survive penniless/disinherited/lobotomized/mistreated/blacklisted until old age, despite revolutionizing world culture (Pamela Coleman Smith, Frances Farmer, Roky Erickson, Rosa Parks, Emma Goldman, Nina Simone, Muhammad Ali, Nicolai Tesla, Nelson Mandela, and Paul Robeson come to mind). All of the unknown witches who were burned, drowned, and tortured for protecting Earth's sacred traditions. To victims of genocide, including my ancestors, and to indigenous peoples wiped out by imperialism. I also left off the names of several artists who have had their reputations ruined with conflicting evidence (Michael Jackson, for example). And to all those currently in jail, who claim innocence, I send my love. "See you when I free you... if not, when they shove me in."

I am not claiming any of these people were perfect. This might shock you, but artists don't believe in perfection or censorship. We believe in evolution...healing, dialogue, inspiration, innovation. That's why we speak. That's why we listen. We are among the most sensitive people born into this world (that is our role, that is why we are so perceptive and connected to source consciousness). And we have been dropping like flies, while the rest of you argue over lies and semantics. You love our work, but neglect to join us in healing the world. Suicide is almost 3X more prevalent than homicide, in these United States, so you can eat your gun politics, like you ask us to eat bullets.

This isn't about politics, it's about honoring our fallen soldiers. And asking for a far more compassionate world.

End the war.

RIPVIP 💖