Kirsty Allison – photo by Stephanie Correll http://tinyurl.com/d3zqjp5
I’ve been caught out and given a good telling off by Ramana in India of the Loose Bloggers Consortium for not talking properly about epitaphs. Which was a bit silly of me given that I’ve written a book called The Obituarist.
I also used to make an obituary programme for radio called Brief Lives. It wasn’t musty and dusty. Dead people need not be boring. I had happy days whizzing around London trying to find the late Idi Amin’s widow or a couple who had conceived their child to the music of the late Barry White. It was enormous fun.
The problem with writing my own epitaph is that, like Robert Emmet, I’m not yet ready to dictate it. I hope that this will get me off the hook and appease Ramana instead –
It’s a link to a radio programme called Art Saves Lives that I took part in at the weekend. (I’ve mentioned Art Saves Live before – visual art and unexpected drama off stage.) This show was broadcast on London art radio station Resonance FM 104.4 – but you can also find it here. I recommend listening to it all – though I pop up near the end at 48’30-ish in.
But there are loads of other interesting people first – including playwright Mark Ravenhill, post-pop artist Duggie Fields, Gemma Peppe from the Hepatitis C Trust, singer songwriter Aletia Upstairs (video below) from Cape Town and Nepalese poet Yuyutsu Sharma (who also translates Donegal Gaelic poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh into Nepali).
The presenters were the irrepressible impressario and playwright Dean Stalham, and poet and film producer Kirsty Allison who “combines the cerebral with the carnival” according to the Sunday Times.
You can even see photos of it all by Stephanie Tesse/Correll here.
Am I forgiven Ramana?
Blackwatertown 
More than forgiven, you are now in the list of Ramana’s world of Immortals. With the kind of pedigree on public display here, nothing else will do.
Ramana’s World of Immortals? Ah, I know – it’s an idiosyncratic waxworks collection, isn’t it? The likenesses are so vague that whenever anyone guesses, you can simply say “Yes, you’re right.” So no one ever really goes out of fashion – there’s no need for a back room shelf of discarded heads – everyone is immortally indistinct or vaguely immortal.
My favourite epitaph – two words.
http://photopol.com/signs/maureen.html
As Abba said – that’s simply soo-puh-per.
And great films of early TV links if you click on again from Polo’s link.
It was lovely to hear your voice, as real and relaxed as if you were here in the room with me.
I could feel the clock ticking towards the end of transmission.
Forget your epitaph, HH. You can stay on the radio with your smooth, enticing voice. Good job.
Blessings ~ Maxi
Phew – I’ll try to hang around a while longer so. Thanks.
Enjoyed your radio interview, it resonated with me, It sounded almost as good as the written word. Encore!
Glad to hear that resonance FM is resonating so widely.
Well done. Cool to put a voice with the virtual image. The Obituarist was a great story.