Showing posts with label Death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Death. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Death as a Character

I just finished reading Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job, about a man who discovers he has a new job he describes as like being one of Santa's Helpers...  only it's not Santa he's helping out.

Very funny.  Lively writing.  There is a description I just love of a 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham.  Here's a snippet (not the best part, the last sentence is the real kicker):  "...and a 325 horsepower V8 with such appallingly bad fuel efficiency that you could hear it trying to slurp liquefied dinosaurs out of the ground when it passed..."  The book has equally entertaining and outrageous monsters (especially the chicken-feet ones), but also many insights into dying and grieving.

Here's the art - by Monique Motil - that inspired the book's good-guy monsters:
"Sartorial Creature" image courtesy of artist Monique Motil's webpage

Death as a subject fascinates us. Death also makes a fascinating character himself (or herself, see Neil Gaiman's Sandman series).  In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Death is a recurring character, along with his sidekick Death of Rats, Death's Granddaughter, Susan, plus Death's faithful pale-horse, Binky.  The guy is one of my favorite characters.  He can show up in any Pratchett book (as death does), possibly carrying a folding chair and a book so as not to, you know, rush anybody.  You have to like the guy - he likes kittens.

Some Pratchett books where Death is the leading character and my latest recommended  read, by Moore :
  

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Strike

A sad day - Strike.  That set that you only finished it seems like minutes ago, now has to be dismantled.

For the black & white show, Death is No Small Change, tonight is the last performance and the strike.  The set designer has to show up and collect her stuff.  Which means I'll get my studio trash can back!  Wahoo!

Otherwise sad.  Quite sad.  Very sad.

Some shows you miss long afterwards: I still miss long ago Sweeney Todd and Urinetown, and the recent Charm.
Charm at Kitchen Dog Theater