Eh, if you're callous I'm callous. I wasn't too familiar with her either, but I liked this excerpt from an introduction to one of her books that Norbizness shared yesterday:

Having being properly reared by a right-wing family in East Texas, how'd I turn out this peculiar? I believe all Southern liberals come from the same starting point--race. Once you figure out they are lying to you about race, you start to question everything.

I suspect there are a couple of other factors accounting for the odd hitch in my getalong. Being female, for starters. Can't say I've ever come to any particularly cosmic conclusions about gender, but when you start out in a culture that defines your role as standing on the sidelines with pom-poms to cheer while the guys get to play the game, it will raise a few questions in your mind.

--so now I'm thinking it's past time I familiarized myself with her. She's right; it's like an onion of lies and once you peel off the outer layers reading "White Males Only" it all starts falling apart.

I was just a teensy bit older than you were when Marvin passed. All I can say is that was not right. Too soon, too wrong, too few like him.

She gave me hope for Texas. Too bad exceptions such as her are not the rule.

You shouldn't have got hung up on moderation that time, PseudoAdrienne. Sorry about that, I fixed it.

and ilyka, you are right. those quotes say a lot. i bet i'd enjoy reading some of her work.

Never offer a tribute that is less than heartfelt, Nezua.

I mourn the senseless loss of Marvin as well....And Peter Tosh, John Lennon, Jam Master Jay and Jaco Pastorius, among far too many others...But it must be said that he authored his own demise - Knowing what would happen if he raised his hand to his father in his own home, buying his father a handgun...And then performing the exact act that he knew would lead to such a tragic denouement.

I worked with people who knew Marvin intimately...with great talent, so walks the shadows of instability.

But we will always have his light to shine upon us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvVzaQ6i8A

Pax

Thank for the link and the muy macho delivery of posting etiquette, commander darkblack! I see the intent behind crafting such a phrase. Of course, I guess it goes without saying (but maybe NOT!) that I reserve the right to make the most casual and heartless tributes I like, booyah, etc, etc ad nauseum infinitum....

I agree that Marvin Gaye, and other artists I greatly admire (Layne Staley, Kurt Cobain, Bon Scott, Hendrix, Joplin) brought about their own demise. To me it feels all the more tragic...or just doesn't figure in to my feelings about them at all. Don't most of us bring about our own demise? Some are more honest about it.

'Posting etiquette'...Horrors!

Baby, it's your blog...I'm just spectatin', and sometimes expectoratin'. ;>)

If I'm coming across as telling you what to say, It's neither my place or my intention.

IMO, someone's death is never the measure of their life, whether it be justice or injustice.

When I think of Jimi, I think of Little Wing from Hendrix In The West, not him choking to death on wine and reds in the back of a London ambulance, and the same with any other artist...We all author our own demise, eventually, just by being there when it happens.

Pax

sure, baby. we know what's up. i think its assumed that its my blog, which i guess is why absolute imperative statements always feel a bit odd, you know? but i do realize so many things are in how we receive them. and i "get" wielding the feeling of surety and power in using such phrases. i use them too, from time to time. they slip in, they are very much a part of a view i play with, too. but on this end, i can't help but feel the need to state my unbound stance as it applies to public approval of my style at a given moment. i am open to change, i like to always consider it. i did. and replied. i think we're cool. :)

i agree...a person's death is just a moment. sort of why i feel like no matter what i write here about anyone, i can't hope to define them. no license for insensitive or willful hurt. just saying that my stance on something is just that.

word up on wine and reds and birds in the wind.

It's okay, Nezua :-)

I loved Molly Ivins. goddamit. she was one of the few genuinely small-d democratic voices i'd seen/heard in mainstream media--hell, pretty much anywhere. even if you didn't agree with her every position (although i usually did i expect), you knew it was coming from a good place. and, she was hell funny.

goddamit.

and d00d, you are quoting from the Chronicles of Narnia. not even that Wardrobe one. d00d. duuuuuuuuuuude.

the more i read of her the more i love her.

and YOU just won the NLXJ hidden quote award!