Archive for December, 2023

George Michael

Posted in Highgate Cemetery with tags , on December 25, 2023 by Cade

June 25, 1963 – December 25, 2016

From the years 1987 to 1992, there were 2, maybe 3, entertainers in the world more famous than George Michael. As one half of the ubiquitous ’80s English pop-duo, Wham!, Michael was already a household name when he launched his solo career. Wham! spawned a Gold album (Fantastic), a 6x Platinum album (Make it Big) and 11 Top-10 singles in the UK (6 in the US). George was the primary songwriter for the group and never hid his ambitions to be a solo artist.

In 1987, with bandmate Andrew Ridgeley’s blessing, Michael recorded his first foray into post-Wham! superstardom: A duet with Aretha Franklin called “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)”. As was the trend, the song hit #1 in both the US and the UK. Later that year, he released his first solo album, Faith, and his meteoric rise hit the stratosphere.

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Stephen Hawking

Posted in Westminster Abbey with tags , , on December 18, 2023 by Cade

January 08, 1942 – March 14, 2018

Stephen Hawking’s story began unremarkably. As a young boy in Hertfordshire, England, Stephen played games with his friends. He built model boats and made homemade fireworks. He was, in every way, a normal kid. But, he also was profoundly interested in mathematics. He began attending his father’s alma mater, University College at Oxford at the age of 17. Since math wasn’t an available area of study, he majored in physics and chemistry.

It was immediately apparent that he was a gifted thinker, though he had to make a considerable effort to enjoy his university experience. But once he committed, he made friends, took up rowing and found interest in other subjects like music and literature. He fell in love with theoretical physics and eventually earned a degree in physics as well as a doctorate in applied mathematics and theoretical physics from Cambridge. He then went on to blow our understanding of the universe out of the proverbial water.

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M. de Voltaire

Posted in The Pantheon with tags on December 11, 2023 by Cade

November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778

There’s a part of me that just wants to list pop-culture references to Voltaire and move on. Considering his name has been bandied around as an indirect punchline in everything from Les Misérables to Swingers, it would be easy enough. The name alone has become shorthand for philosophy the way “Shakespeare” has become a snarky characterization for someone who writes or “Einstein” has for someone who thinks they’re smart.

But alas, the point of this blog is to outline the person, not the caricature. So, François-Marie “Zozo” Arouet was born into low-nobility in Paris at the end of the 17th century. Educated by Jesuits and forced to hold desk jobs by his father, all young Zozo wanted to do in life was write.

And write, he did.

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Douglas Adams

Posted in Highgate Cemetery with tags , on December 4, 2023 by Cade

March 11, 1952 – May 11, 2001

Lying on his back in a field in Austria, drunkenly staring up at the vast universe of stars above him, humorist and writer, Douglas Adams, had a thought that would change his life forever. He was traveling through Austria with a book entitled Hitch-hiker’s Guide to Europe and he suddenly thought how interesting it would be to write a similar guidebook…for the entire galaxy.

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