Rest In Peace, Nanoo, Nanoo, Robin Williams

We lost a national treasure on August 11 with the death of Robin Williams. :( I share the same birthday, July 21, and that connection always made me smile.

That Williams chose to take his own life is a horrible tragedy, yet how can we judge him? Not only was he suffering from depression, but also from the early stages of Parkinson's disease, a malady he knew all-too-well after making the film "Awakenings," in which he played a caring doctor who dealt with the most desperate form of that disease. He knew that any cure was a stop-gap measure at best.

Michael J. Fox, another actor stricken with Parkinson's had this to say:

Stunned to learn Robin had PD. Pretty sure his support for our Fdn predated his diagnosis. A true friend; I wish him peace.

— Michael J. Fox (@realmikefox) August 14, 2014

To some, Robin Williams will always be the inspirational teacher from "Dead Poets Society," or the caring psychiatrist in "Good Will Hunting." Some choose to recall his more hilarious moments, such as "Mrs. Doubtfire" or "The Bird Cage." My kids loved him as the aging Peter Pan in "Hook." But for my 70s generation, Robin Williams will forever be Mork from Ork, the whimsical alien trying to understand humanity while falling in love with Pam Dawber in "Mork and Mindy."



Williams was an entertainer first and foremost. Yet like many actors and comedians he put on a jovial face to mask his depression and anxiety. Whatever lesson we get from his death, one thing we have to understand - every human being has pain of one kind or another, and all the success in the world is often not enough to kick depression.



Sarah Michelle Geller, his costar in the recently cancelled comedy "The Crazy Ones" made this statement via People

"My life is a better place because I knew Robin Williams," Gellar said. "To my children he was Uncle Robin, to everyone he worked with, he was the best boss anyone had ever known, and to me he was not just an inspiration but he was the Father I had always dreamed of having. There are not enough adjectives to describe the light he was, to anyone that ever had the pleasure to meet him. I will miss him everyday, but I know the memory of him will live on. And to his family, I thank them for letting us know him and seeing the joy they brought him. Us crazy ones love you."

From CNN

Actor Robin Williams was cremated and his ashes were scattered in San Francisco Bay, according to his death certificate.
Williams was found dead in his Northern California home August 11 from what investigators suspect was a suicide by hanging. The certificate, obtained by CNN on Thursday, says his ashes were scattered off the coast one day later.
It also says the cause of death is "pending investigation."
According to Marin County Assistant Deputy Chief Coroner Lt. Keith Boyd, investigators believe Williams used a belt to hang himself from a bedroom door.
Boyd would not confirm or deny whether Williams left behind a letter, saying that investigators would discuss "the note or a note" later.
The coroner's investigation "revealed he had been seeking treatment for depression," Boyd said.

From NBC

Robin Williams was sober but struggling with early stages of Parkinson’s disease at the time of his death, his wife said Thursday.
“Robin spent so much of his life helping others. Whether he was entertaining millions on stage, film or television, our troops on the frontlines, or comforting a sick child — Robin wanted us to laugh and to feel less afraid,” his wife Susan Schneider said in a statement.
. . . “Robin's sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson's Disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly."
. . . Parkinson’s is caused by the loss of brain cells that produce a message carrying-chemical, or neurotransmitter, that is important for movement. Symptoms can start with a barely noticeable trembling but worsen to difficulty walking and talking, depression and other disability. There’s no cure and the drugs used to treat the condition usually stop helping over time.

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday - Sarah McLachlan

Popular artist Sarah McLachlan provided two songs to the Buffy series, and both seem appropriate for Easter Sunday.

"Full of Grace" is about being strong in difficult situations, and was played in "Becoming, Part Two," in Season Two when Buffy has kill her lover Angel in order to save the world. The song plays as Buffy leaves town. The song is found on McLachlan's 1997 album Surfacing






"Prayer of St. Francis" is from Season 6, "The Grave." It's included on Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Radio Sunnydale



This song seems even more significant now, since the new Pope just took the name of St. Francis of Assisi who wrote the prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen




Three big things happen while this song is playing at the end of the show. Xander is able to stop Willow from destroying the world, Buffy and Dawn emerge from graveyard hole - appearing resurrected into a scene that looks like the Garden of Eden, and Spike the Vampire painfully gets his soul back, which Buffy doesn't find out about until Season 7, "Beneath You" when Spike explains it in the church and throws himself of the cross. While smoke rises around him from the cross, he isn't destroyed like other vampires because his soul protects him.





From Buffy Wikia "The Grave"

Buffy comments to Giles that she feels that when she crawled out of her grave, she left part of herself behind. At the end of this episode, she must once again crawl out of a grave, this time with Dawn. The first time, she was disoriented, it was night, and Sunnydale had been overrun by demons. This time, it is morning and she is with Dawn, and they look out over a beautiful forest. It is a chance for her to start over, and really live for the first time since she was brought back to life at the beginning of the season - thus completing the circle begun with her resurrection the previous fall.

From tabularasa.net

As Buffy and Dawn emerge from the grave-like hole in the ground, Sarah MacLachlan chimes in, singing the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi ("make me an instrument of your peace..."). It seems, largely, that everyone is where they are supposed to be. Buffy is back on good terms with Dawn (the best part of herself, as she described her last year). Xander is consoling Willow, who is most likely finally allowing herself to grieve for Tara, not to mention regretting her actions. Anya is helping Giles out of the ruins of the Magic Box. Jonathan and Andrew are nervously sharing a ride with a too-friendly trucker. As the song reaches it's conclusion, Buffy and Dawn walk in a graveyard far more scenic (and Garden of Eden-like) than we have seen before.
"And it's in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.", the song concludes, as we see a badly beaten Spike lying in the cave. The demon informs him that he has endured the trials. Spike demands what he wants - "make me what I was - so Buffy can get what she deserves". The demon agrees, grasping his chest - "we will return your soul".

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ "Danse Macabre"

The memorable episode "Hush" in Season 4 is considered by some Buffy fans to be the scariest of the whole series. A group of creepy floating demons known as "The Gentlemen" are haunting Sunnydale in order to capture the voices of sleeping people. As part of their evil plans they also begin to harvest the hearts of various poor souls for a ritual.

source: Wikipedia

The Gentlemen, called the "creepiest villains we've ever done" by series writer Doug Petrie, were inspired by a nightmare Whedon had as a child, specifically one in which he was in bed and approached by a floating monster. Whedon fashioned The Gentlemen as something from a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, intending them to be frightening to children — monsters who carve out people's hearts, smiling as they do so. Nosferatu, Pinhead from Hellraiser, and Mr. Burns from The Simpsons all served as physical models for The Gentlemen.
Elegantly Victorian in costume and demeanor, Whedon found their politeness and grace especially unsettling. Their metallic teeth were inspired by the intersection of Victorian culture with the height of the Industrial age, an era that Whedon considers "classically creepy". For Buffy studies scholar Rhonda Wilcox, The Gentlemen and their straitjacket-wearing minions, who clumsily flap, gyrate, and crouch as they move, are representative of class disparity and patriarchy: The Gentlemen, with their Victorian suits, move effortlessly to accomplish what they set out to do while their minions, whom Whedon called "footmen", do the "dirty work".

This episode was nominated for Emmy Awards in the categories Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series and Outstanding Cinematography. It also received a Writers Guild of America Award.

A little girl appears in Buffy's prophetic dream singing a song about The Gentlemen:

Can't even shout

Can't even cry

The gentlemen are coming by

Looking in windows

Knocking on doors

They need to take seven

And they might take yours

Can't call to mum

Can't say a word

You're gonna die screaming

But you won't be heard

When Giles has to silently explain his discoveries about The Gentlemen using an overhead projector, for background music he plays "Danse Macabre" - a classical work by the composer Camille Saint-Saens, inspired by Medieval morality plays and paintings about Death:






Source: La Mort Dans L'Art

The dances of death were mostly painted (or more rarely carved) on the outside walls of cloisters, of family vaults, of ossuaries or inside some churches. These frescoes represent an emaciated corpse or a skeleton coupled with a representative of a certain social class. The number of characters and the composition of the dance vary. The dance of death often takes the form of a farandole. Below or above the picture are painted verses by which death adresses its victim. He often talks in a threatening and accusing tone, sometimes also cynic and sarcastic. Then comes the argument of the Man, full of remorse and despair, crying for mercy. But death leads everyone into the dance: from the whole clerical hierarchy (pope, cardinals, bishops, abbots, canons, priests), to every single representative of the laic world (emperors, kings, dukes, counts, knights, doctors, merchants, usurers, robbers, peasants, and even innocent children). Death does not care for the social position, nor for the richness, sex, or age of the people it leads into its dance. It is often represented with a musical instrument.

Dance Macabre is better known today as the background music for several Halloween cartoons. Americans may remember the one that was shown on PBS, along with the classroom filmstrip with Harold Dexter Hoopes watercolors, which reminds me the most of The Gentlemen because of the big clock tower. The last one is a fantastical award-winning animation from Ireland. It's very Buffy-esque, with skeletons popping up out of the graveyard - enjoy! :)

Joss Whedon Talks Avengers II

Joss Whedon's modern update of Much Ado About Nothing opened in Ireland today, and he did a press interview which mentioned his attitude towards The Avengers II:

From ComicBookMovie:

Responding to questions about doing more Shakespeare, Whedon says he doesn't want to do another one exactly like he did Much Ado About Nothing. He says that he needs to keep trying different things from a creative standpoint. From there, the discussion turned to The Avengers sequel.

Whedon: When I first considered doing Avengers 2, my first question was what can I do that's new? Because I can't make it bigger....but I can make it better.

The moderator asks about his philosophy for Avengers 2.

Whedon: Death, death and death. (Crowd applauds madly.)