Shirley Manson of Garbage puts the celebrity deaths in perspective

[Cali]

Shirley Manson of Garbage blogs about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and others.


'I am not there

So yesterday I attended the funeral of a sweet little boy called Pablo Thraikill Castelaz. He was six years old.

How can one make sense of such a thing?
I'm not sure it's possible to do so.

Last Thursday, on June 25th 2009, I woke up to an email from my former press officer in the UK, informing me that journalist Steven Wells had died from cancer aged 49 a few days previous.

Steven Wells was a journalist whom I'd first met when he interviewed Garbage for the N.M.E sometime in the mid nineties. I respected him enormously as a writer. He was opinionated in the extreme,hilariously funny and was never afraid to cut his own path as a music critic,often publicly at odds with his own paper's taste-making obsessions. Never afraid to stand alone in support of music that he cared for, he was a true renegade and I admired him for his guts,his convictions and his general depth of character.

I was genuinely saddened to learn of his death last Thursday. Journalists like Steven Wells are as rare as alexandrite and the music world is a lesser place without him.

Later on in the day I heard the news of Farrah Fawcetts death from rectal cancer. I was a huge fan of Charlie's Angels growing up. Somehow learning of her death felt as though a little something, pure and lovely, died in me. The fact that she had also fought a particularly public and traumatic war with this insideous disease was not lost on me and I hope her death was dignified and graceful as she deserved it to be.

A few hours later the news began to spread like wildfire that Michael Jackson, King of Pop had died at the age of fifty from cardiac arrest. It felt unsettling and frightening- the way it always does when a public figure of extraordinary fame passes into the afterlife.

Think Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain or Lady Di etc etc.......

And yet somehow I couldn't quite muster up the same kind of hysterical grief that was overtaking the media and as a result the entire world.

I felt like death in some sense had already claimed Michael Jackson years ago.

For a long time I felt like he was a dead man walking the earth. Hounded and wounded and pained..... shrunk and receded, afraid of life itself.

Nevertheless his death affected me and I was freaked out by the fact that I had heard of three deaths since waking up that morning.

Just as I got into bed that night, relieved that such a sorrowful day had come to an end, I read the news that Pablo was dying. Of all the deaths I had learned of that day, they were nothing compared to the tragedy of a six year old losing his life.

There is no sense to be made of it.
None at all.
We just have to accept that life is fleeting.
Life is fragile.
Life is precious.
It can be random and senseless
Turtles can live over a hundred years.
Rose blooms can last a day.
Mums can live until they are 72
Husbands can die when they are 40.
And children can die while they are still children.
They remain as they were when they were born.
Innocent and lovely as angels.
Rest In Peace sweet Pablo.
x
Close your eyes
Have no fear
The monsters gone
And he's on the run.........
Beautiful beautiful beautiful darling boy.


I just want Pablo back.
Healthy and happy and full of Chilli and Beans..
Shirley Manson's Notes | Facebook

Here's a bit more info on how the Pablo:
"The Pablove Foundation is named after Pablo Castelaz, the son of Dangerbird Records co-founder Jeff Castelaz and his wife Jo Ann Thrailkill. On May 17, 2008, Pablo was diagnosed with bilateral Wilms' Tumor, a rare form of children's cancer. The cancer appeared out of nowhere, with no warning signs in Pablo's general demeanor or health. He underwent treatment at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. On June 27, 2009, Pablo's individual fight with cancer ended. But we fight on in his name, with the spirit of love that Pablo embodied and inspired."

TO DONATE:
The Pablove Foundation

[celeb_2006]

She's just jealous.

[Cali]

She's just jealous.

Take that back! Shirley is jealous of no one!

[celeb_2006]

Take that back! Shirley is jealous of no one!

I know I was being sarcastic.

[DolceVita]

She has hit the nail on the head for me-MJ had been dead for years in a way. I used to love Garbage!

[Cali]

I know I was being sarcastic.

I know, but I had to have a moment of fangirlitis.

[Let It Be]

Great article. Now would someone hand that girl a vial of Visine eye drops.

[WhateverLolaWants]

That sweet little boy...so sad

[MoodyJenny86]

I've always liked her.

I loves me some Garbage musikz.

[Cate]

I like her, and that was well put.

[chartreuse]

I like her, and that was well put.

agreed on both points.

and, i can't believe how awesome she looks for her age. she looks nowhere near her mid 40's.

[Mr. Authority]

[mrs.v]

I love Shirley.

[Wiseguy]

Shirley summed it all up very well.

[rebelpleb]

She rocks ...

... and, sadly, like this poor boy, cancer is going to take us all - before even climate change is able to bear its horrendous effects - because we refuse to acknowledge or eradicate its obvious causes ...