The Useless Critic 2.0

I say "recently" because there are a ton of dead people throughout time , and I doubt I will be writing about some singing bard from the Middle Ages. I was supposed to do this before Halloween. Sorry! Let's start with Amy Winehouse and her melancholic break-up anthem, "Back to Black." What makes his gut-wrenching is the decision to film it at a funeral. So watching it now when Amy has been dead for two years is unsettling, to say the least. Classic tale of substance abuse destroying a person full of potential.  Wilco's Jay Bennett- It's easy to gloss over Jay's death now, but Wilco is a great American rock band and Jay deserves to be remembered. Ah, man. Learning of Adam from the Beastie Boys' death was quite a shock. Hopefully, he's kicking it in the afterlife. There are a myriad of dead musicians, you know. So I'm trying to stay away from people like John Lennon and Kurt Cobain. Albeit, they are legends, it's ...

As you all probably know by this point, there was a huge earthquake in the poorest country on the nation, Haiti. (which makes you wonder about things like nature and fate- WTF? can't they get a break?) Over 100,000 are reported to be dead/missing. Now typically I try to focus on music and literature and nice alternatives to the bleakness of everyday life (really that's how I see it) but I can't really like, let this go by without posting this: http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=haiti%20humanitarian Google collected shortcuts to all these various charities that are helping with the victims in this situation. It makes it easy to donate money, fast. Barack Obama has done a nice job of reacting swiftly. his speech yesterday, I think, was one of his best by far. And also, this tragic event gave Pat Robertson a big chance to exercise his anus. Oops I meant mouth! keep Haiti in your thoughts an...