Dead Celebrity Sunday
Two of the most important things in my life are fashion and music. Recently we lost two icons from these industries.
Thank you for the enormous amount of pleasure you have given me over the years:
Bo Diddley (79) singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat, and, with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ‘n’ roll itself. The legendary singer and performer was known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses, and black hat. Along with Chuck Berry, Diddley was recognized as one of rock’s most influential guitarists. In recent years he had suffered from diabetes. In 2007, he suffered a heart attack in Gainesville, Fla. and was hospitalized after a concert in Council Bluffs, Iowa. On May 13, 2008, he had a stroke in Omaha, Neb. He died of heart failure in Archer, Florida on June 2, 2008.
Yves Saint Laurent (71) French designer who rewrote the rules of fashion by putting women into elegant pantsuits that defined how modern women dressed. Saint Laurent exploded on the fashion scene in 1958 as a boy-wonder successor to Christian Dior and became one of the best-known and most influential couturiers of the second half of the 20th century. He created a bold new dress code for women during the feminist revolution of the ’70s and helped to launch the era of the celebrity designer with his jet-set lifestyle. He died in Paris, France on June 1, 2008.
And now, George Carlin. And the forbidden words seem suddenly more virulent, as their champion goes on to whatever it is that comes after.