I’ve been listening to The Beastie Boys and watching the occasional interview. I briefly found myself drawn to Adam Yauch (aka MCA, aka the dead one). This made me wonder if I was drawn to him because he’s dead. I love a challenge, and there’s no one more inaccessible than a dead guy. Just kidding. I actually hate a challenge. Kidding, again, I prefer AdRock.
I have an uncle who died at 27, so I only knew him before I was old enough to understand him. We had a quick succession of deaths in our family around that time, and his funeral was small and humble. It didn’t have the flowers, songs, or long tributes that my grandmother and aunt had had before him. Had they’d simply run out of steam by then? Were they angry it was self-inflicted? That was the last time our whole family had been together.