The King Is Dead - Long Live The King (In The Afterlife - Right?)

Umberto I or Humbert I of Italy (Umberto Ranieri Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio of Savoy), (14 March, 1844 – 29 July, 1900). Officially nicknamed "the Good", was the King of Italy from 9 January, 1878 until his death. He was deeply loathed in left-wing circles, especially among anarchists, because of his hard-line conservativism and support of the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan. He was killed by anarchist Gaetano Bresci one year after the incident. He was the only modern King of Italy to be assassinated.

By the look in his eyes, Umberto I saw it all coming too... And he has this dubious -and lugubrious, not to mention mortiferous- distinction today, but back in 1900! Talk about coming close to seeing the 20th Century... But no cigar. And cigars were *truly* appreciated back in those days... But that is another story...
One of these days, and upcoming posts here, I will talk at length about Umberto I's contemporary and true illuminary of his era (even more so than if he had had royal blood coursing in his veins...) the Portuguese miracle-worker, Dr. José Tomás de Sousa Martins!

For those who are curious about royal lines... A little extra:

Italian Royalty ~ House of Savoy
*Victor Emmanuel II
Children:
Princess Marie Clothilde
Prince Umberto
Prince Amadeo
Princess Maria Pia
*Umberto I
Children: Prince Victor
*Victor Emmanuel III
Children:
Princess Yolanda
Princess Mafalda
Prince Umberto
Princess Giovanna
Princess Maria
*Umberto II
Children:
Princess Maria Pia; Prince Victor; Princess Maria Gabriella; Princess Maria Beatrice

Still want more? Go here!

Heatwave: A New Disaster Movie in the making... in real life.

Photograph of Chicago's mass grave for its 1995 heat-wave victims by Beth A. Keiser/AP. No less than sixty-eight people are buried there.

1999 - 110 Chicagoans died during a heatwave

And this year, over 130 have died in California from the most recent nationwide heatwave...

The 68 dead buried in that site are by no stretch of the imagination the total number of victims that year - for in a single week of July 1995, 739 Chicago residents —the majority of them home alone— died in one of the greatest and least-known American disasters in modern history.

The fact of the matter is, heat waves kill more people in the United States than all of the other so-called natural disasters combined. Hurricanes are more spectacular, that's all. You can see a hurricane coming - you don't see the heatwave, you feel it, and you make the mistake of assuming that your air conditioner will be up to snuff to fight off any discomfort it may bring in the long run, which you would qualify as "slight" even... The problem is, one will have to get around with one's daily business - leaving home will be akin to crossing the desert with no oasis in sight. And, as we get older, such a daunting feat is less and less feasible...

More than 400 Americans die from heat-related illnesses in a typical year. Annual mortality from tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods together is under 200. - Eric Klinenberg, associate professor of sociology at New York University and the author of Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago.

That says it all right there.

http://www.slate.com/id/2068612/

....

Andrea Doria

Now THIS is lugubrious and downright eerie - a commemoration for the survivors and, certainly, the ones who perished on the Andrea Doria, on this day 50 years ago, was postponed and rescheduled because a diver and researcher actually DIED HIMSELF earlier this month while going under the water to visit the shipwreck of the legendary Andrea Doria (only the Titanic and the Lusitania top it, in my estimation)
Plans for the commemoration shifted after July 8, when Andrea Doria researcher David A. Bright died after diving into the wreck. Bright was the 14th person to die following a dive to the shipwreck, which is said to be 250 feet below the surface.

Still, today, remember the Maine - and the Andrea Doria.


Copyright 2004-2006 by Lucian Millis.
All postcards in this gallery from the private collection of Lucian Millis.

Dangerous -And Deadly- Sports...

From pro-athletes collapsing and never rising again (it has happened in NBA and NFL training camps, in track-and-field olympic-caliber training and elsewhere) to retired athletes attempting comebacks only to fall dead on the gym floor... Sports kill folks. They may make you healthy for a while - but the human machine has its limits that should not be stretched or too overtly tested.
And it is not just a risk that only the "all-pros" take...
A Rhode Island bodybuilder planning a comeback recently collapsed and was pronounced dead within minutes.
Against all odds and mathematical chances that it would ever occur, a professional skydiver saw her main and back-up parachutes malfunction, back-to-back - and she fell to her death.
This happened a mere 24 hours ago too...
A neophyte skydiver in Edmonton made statistical numbers mean even less as he was unfortunate to the extreme, dying in his very first jump, five years ago this week.
Makes one want to quit sports and just take it easy all heatwave long by the pool... hmm? But, of course, the water isn't much safer...
So many children drown each and every summer - parents that maybe should not have been parents share the blame with manufacturers of faulty pools there...
And then there's this swimmer -to veer back to sports per say- who died in a 130m fall last January 16... Training, again, for an event that this athlete will never be a part of, in the end...

We might as well stick to practicing team sports I think, quietly in our backyards - frisbee tossing, volleyball, soccer... Oh, wait - it was playing soccer that my father broke his leg once!
Oh well - there's always risks, no matter what we do.
Qué serà serà.

Heaven couldn't wait any longer for this ol' fox

Jack Lebzelter is no more... of this lousy earth that is! Why lament the fact that one is no longer earthfolk - but of, in all likelihood, quasi-angelfolk category now? Rejoice for Mr. Lebzelter, I say...
Aye, some of you knew him as

Songs to the Key of... Doom & Gloom!

If we cannot lure Juno Reactor out of mothballs to do the OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK TO ARMAGEDDON... Maybe we can goad Ultravox out of retirement to put such a soundtrack album together... hmm?

Death Anthems - A Tale Of Two Demises

Marjorie Fair's Death Anthem Titled "Empty Room"...



And Death Cab For Cutie's Impending Death of a Relationship Anthem Titled... "Your Heart Is An Empty Room"

Papa was a rollin' stone...

Depp praises gorgeous Richards - 09/07/2006 9:30:00 AM

Actor Johnny Depp thinks Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards makes a "gorgeous" pirate, and admits he is delighted the legendary musician accepted the offer of a cameo in the third 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film.
(BANG) - Johnny Depp thinks Keith Richards makes a "gorgeous" pirate.
The Rolling Stones guitarist has a cameo in the third 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie playing the father of Depp's character, Captain Jack Sparrow.
Depp has revealed he played dress-up with the legendary musician to help him prepare for his role, and claims Richards looked amazing as a haggard sea scoundrel.
He said: "We did get together in a hotel room and dress up as pirates. He looked beautiful in the clothes and his hair was in dreads. Gorgeous! Simply gorgeous!"

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Richards wanted The Rolling Stones to star alongside him in the third 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie.
The 62-year-old guitarist wanted all his bandmates in on the act, but there were no parts for them in the film.
A source said: "Keith wanted Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts to be in it too. He was hoping they could be this vile pirate crew but the script doesn't allow for it.

"He was disappointed but he wasn't going to pass up the chance to play pirates with Johnny." (C) BANG Media International

Well, I think that Keith will be happier still when he realizes that there will be another Rolling Stone on the set with him! Yes! And I do not mean that Jagger will get a parrot part at all... although he might, thanks to his Brazilian paramour Luciana Moraz! Ronnie and Charlie can always play the parts of aristocratic cadavers freshly killed for both bounty and booty! Their sheer inexpressiveness will do splendors for this type of all-important part... And guess what - if Keith's tagged as the ORIGINAL JACK SPARROW... well then it is fit that he's joined by the ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE (no, not Muddy Waters but really...) BRIAN JONES! Expect the 62 year-old guitarist to feel a major malaise at the sight of his former "guitar-playing soulmate" whose girlfriend Anita he stole way back then... And whose 1969 funeral he and said Anita did NOT attend, to add insult to injury... Verily, we can expect that the third Pirates movie will be as ominous as "Twilight Zone - The Movie" became - with Vic Morrow's accidental death, back then. Here though, it will be no accident. After all, the thrid installment is to be titled "At The World's End" I do believe...? In a nautical sense, I am sure, but double entendre is always preferred... (By the way, what a queer expression "double entendre" is! The French word "entendre" is the verb "to hear" which is like saying "double hear", uh, here! When what is really meant is "hearing double" as in twice the same word or expression but with two different meanings... French was so poorly adapted by English aristocrats! Just had to get that off my chest - a living man's chest! ;) Double meaning here too - ha ha! But I digress... again.) Let's carry on now with the task at hand, shall we?
Hence, as surely as his band's chart-topping days are themselves gone for good, Keith Richards will end up in Brian Jones' locker (!) sooner or later - by hook or by crook, he will!
Death by drowning would be ironic - "Death by Misadventure" would be so to the utmost!
That's Anita Pallenberg there, on the second last picture, with the late Brian Jones who, one would have to admit, would make for a much improved on prototypical realistic "water-logged ghost" than even Bill Nighy's Davy Jones in Dead Man's Chest - if only because he has both motive and a "background" here...
And that is Bill Nighy on the very last pic, pictured in yet another baddie role from his seriously type-casted, storied and illustrious career!
I looked long and hard for a picture of Davy Jones from the Disney movie (he who arbors definitive and distinct Lovecraftian features (...) - to the scale too! (No pun intended!)
Evidently, I gave up the search for such a pic - it belongs on my aqua musings blog anyway! As this very post could have been elsewhere too...

Was this World Cup fever = or World War fervor?!?

As Italy beat France in a shootout (how appropriate and even allegorical) to capture the World Cup Sunday, all of this was happening all around the globe...

Shiite-Sunni Violence Kills Dozens in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Masked Shiite gunmen roamed through west Baghdad's Jihad neighborhood Sunday, dragging Sunnis from their cars, picking them out on the street and killing them in a rampage that police said killed 41 people...

Brakes Eyed in Deadly Siberia Plane Crash
MOSCOW (AP) - The brakes on a Russian plane may have failed as it landed and careened into garages in a fiery crash that killed at least 122 people in the country's second major commercial airline disaster in two months...

Israel Vows to Press Gaza Offensive
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday he would push ahead with the army's widescale offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying the fight to free an abducted soldier and stop militant rocket fire would last for a "long time."
The 12-day-old operation has caused widespread destruction in Gaza, left 51 Palestinians dead and led to international complaints that Israel was using excessive force. (My - yes. Maybe Ehud saw "Saving Private Ryan" one too many times there... hmm?)

1 Cdn soldier dead, 2 more injured in Afghanistan (CTV) -
A Canadian soldier has been killed in a gun battle west of Kandahar City, Afghanistan, and two more Canadian soldiers have sustained injuries.
The soldier has been identified as 21-year-old Cpl. Anthony Joseph Boneca, a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment of Thunder Bay, Ont.
"He died in an ambush just about 200 metres away from where our patrol was," CTV's Steve Chao told Newsnet Sunday.

And, of course, this saga continues...

North Korea condemns Japanese penalties over missile testing (CBC News) -
A North Korean envoy warned Friday that Japan's imposition of sanctions against Pyongyang in response to its missile testing may yield "catastrophic effects."
Japan, which has been pushing the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on North Korea, announced today it has prepared a draft resolution that would cut off food aid to that country. Japanese officials said Tokyo may also restrict agricultural and fisheries trade.

Krazy Kim Jong-il will not like that - no he won't!
I once had a crazy girlfriend named Kim too... but that is another story.
As for the point of this post - the morale here is that there should not be any doubt about the futility of Futebol at this point... Just don't say it to your friendly (usually) Italian zaftig neighbor or you might get a pizza in the face! Heck - the whole pizzeria!

London observed not one but two minutes of silence and several more of teary-eyed reminiscence as the first anniversary of the London terrorist bombings became official right at the stroke of noon. July 7th, 2005, 52 persons lost their lives in the cowardly terrorist attack. The King's Cross train and Underground station were the focal point of the mourning as they were the focal point of the attacks one year ago too - hence the image of a cross hanging from the end of a rosary, left along many floral tributes to the victims of that infamous day...

Death of a Salesman... a scummy salesman, but still...

Portrait of a scumbag - and what did the fraudulent maneuvers that he made do for him in the end? Did it prolong his lifespan? No. In fact, it might have shortened it! All the cash flow that he re-directed into his pockets was for NAUGHT - as he dies way before his time (or the time he figured he had) and profits no longer from any embezzled funds or whatever else he did "all for himself"...

Seeing scum last considerably less time than my recently departed dear one does strike me as poetic justice - and I see great comfort in that for me!

Don't Fear The Reaper

Although, I would've put alongside Jerry Garcia, Elvis Presley, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison and the like, the gracious Ofra Haza and unforgettable Dalida too - and even Michael Hutchence, since Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin are there... Oh, and why not add the Rolling Stones' own Brian Jones, who was found dead in a swimming pool on this date, back in 1969...