Singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her home Saturday. She was 27, so much is being made of her consequent inauguration into the 27 Club, which includes Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain.
An autopsy is scheduled for today. There are all sorts of disturbing potential causes of death that, in Winehouse’s case, would only generate an “oh, of course.” The only shocking finding would be one not directly connected with the merciless ravages of substance she inflicted upon her body. (You don’t casually happen upon an emphysema diagnosis at 24.)
I’m heartened to see a bit more prudence and common sense in the coverage of Winehouse’s death than I remember in Cobain’s. Now by and large, we’re not going to get all the way to a straight “this could happen to you if you don’t straighten up, young people,” because well, that’s judgmental and moral, and you know, God forbid. We are seeing, though, a sustained lack of surprise that’s getting some traction. Perhaps this is crass nonchalance, or perhaps it’s as close as we’ll get to a good societal lesson from this.
After all, stolen life starts as stolen potential, and stolen potential doesn’t care how famous you are.
RIP.
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Over/under on the time for this autopsy is like 30 minutes. And that’s wuth 20 minutes of paperwork.
“Eternal cab into the Vertiguous Abyss, Miss Whitehouse?”
It always sucks when bad choices lead to addiction and addiction leads to the cutting short of potential. For what it’s worth, she had a God given talent and I feel badly that she just couldn’t shake her demons. I doubt the lack of shock is so much that we’re calloused as that her very public train wreck started long ago. Everyone could see where it was heading and hoped things would right themselves, but we couldn’t stop watching as her life completely derailed. At some point it was really only a matter of time.
Replace wuth with with and Whitehouse with Winehouse and you have a post. Geez, I blame the iPhone.