Archive for September, 2023

Thomas Hardy

Posted in Westminster Abbey with tags , , on September 25, 2023 by Cade

June 02, 1840 – January 11, 1928

You can take the boy out of Wessex, but you can’t take the Wessex out of the boy.

Victorian novelist, poet and lover of old buildings, Thomas Hardy, wrote often about the fantasized English county of Wessex in his works. Though the places he referenced were real (including his home county of Dorset,) he recalled the archaic name “Wessex” to incorporate it all into an idealized whole. The themes and arcs of his stories played heavily on the country life of his youth. When he relocated to London in his 20s, the stark difference between the metropolitan privilege of the capital and the struggles of his beloved rural stomping grounds became a central tenant in his writings.

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Frédéric Chopin

Posted in Père Lachaise Cemetery with tags , on September 18, 2023 by Cade

March 01, 1810 – October 17, 1849

Polish composer and general virtuoso, Frédéric Chopin, is one of the most well-regarded 19th Century Romantic composers. Predominantly written and performed on piano, Chopin’s catalogue of waltzes, études, preludes and mazurkas (folk songs popular in his native Poland) remain amongst the most popular of their kind to this day.

Chopin began taking piano lessons at a very young age and it was immediately clear that the boy possessed genius-level talent. It didn’t take long for him to become fairly well-known and regarded throughout Europe and he soon became of the earliest living music celebrities.
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Samuel Beckett

Posted in Montparnasse Cemetery with tags , , , on September 11, 2023 by Cade

April 13, 1906 – December 22, 1989

Samuel Barclay Beckett was born in 1906 in Foxrock, Ireland, just outside of Dublin. He studied literature at Trinity College. He played cricket. He traveled. He wrote. While teaching in Paris – a city that would eventually become his full-time home – Beckett met fellow Irish author James Joyce and their interactions and relationship would eventually solidify the direction of Beckett’s literary career. By the time he was 40, he realized that, while Joyce pushed for knowledge as fuel for his creativity, Beckett himself was better suited to embrace his own “ignorance”. This decision freed Beckett up to concentrate his writings on the everyday absurdity and bleakness of life.

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Keith Moon

Posted in Golders Green Crematorium with tags , , on September 4, 2023 by Cade

August 23, 1946 – September 07, 1978

Keith John Moon is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock and roll drummers of all time, if only because of his wholly unique playing style and over-the-top behavior. Moon joined London-based band, the Who in 1964, just before they recorded their debut album and took their place as one of the tent poles in what would become the legendary “British Invasion” era of rock and roll. Though he often quipped that he “was just filling in” on drums with the band (he claims he was never formally asked to join) Moon played with the iconic group for nearly 15 years…through the absolute height of their productivity and popularity.

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