For most of my life I went along with the mob consensus that Yoko Ono was to be dissed because “she broke up the Beatles” and because (to quote my brother, Mike Donsky, Esq. about another artist) her singing “sounded like someone was killing a cat”.  Have a listen here at Youtube

HOWEVER, last summer I participated in an artwork that Yoko had originally created in 1953 and my opinion of her artistic merit changed.  For years I thought of Yoko only in musical terms. I had forgotten that before she started singing with John she was a well-respected conceptual artist (there is a good article about Yoko’s art here in the New York Times). Yoko was part of the Fluxus group of artists and they were super-cool.  (You can read about another Fluxus piece I did here.)

Anyway, on the first day of the summer, last June, I went out into Central Park at 5 a.m. to participate in a Yoko Ono artwork called “Secret Piece”. The piece was part of Make Music Day. Here are the instructions they gave us beforehand:

We will meet at Columbus Circle starting at 5AM. Bring any musical instrument or just your voice, and we will send you to a secluded part of the park to play the note of your choice to the accompaniment of birds.

At 8AM we will all return to Columbus Circle for hot green tea.

When I arrived, volunteers gave me this “score” to the piece and then I set out into the park on my own.

I wondered whether it was a good idea to be wandering in Central Park by myself  so early in the day- it was eerily deserted – but I really wanted to try Yoko’s piece so I headed  towards Strawberry Fields .  There was the most beautiful sunrise on the way.

Sunrise on the Solstice 2011

When I got to the Imagine mosaic, there was already a guy there with his instrument, a rainstick.  I sat down and rather than play the stupid recorder I’d brought, I  listened to the guy’s rain.  He played the stick very slowly,turning it over and over, making that rain sound in the empty, quiet, oval.

After a while, a wonderful feeling of  contentment and gratitude washed over me.  Yoko was onto something.  It was blissful to be outside in the serenity of an early morning, in the glory of nature in early summer, concentrating on nothing but the “one note” .  It was magic.  It made me happy and relaxed and not even worried about the fearless free-range rats and rabid raccoons that call the park home.

Yoko did not show up in the park that day, but her art spoke for her and I must allow that it was brilliant.

Click for source

I have been remembering John Lennon today especially, on the anniversary of his death.  Most geezers my age can recall exactly where we were when we learned the heartbreaking news of his murder by the mad gunman, Mark David Chapman – it was on a Monday night, December 8, 1980 around 11 p.m. EST.

Like it was yesterday….

John was 40 when he died.  He died testate, with a sturdy estate plan that we dissect every semester in my Estates, Trusts and Wills classes. Lennon’s will is a superb one for us to study because it is elegantly short and relatively simple to read and yet contains sophisticated planning. After countless classes spent analyzing Lennon’s testamentary clauses, I have decided on:

 FIVE REASONS WHY I LOVE TEACHING JOHN LENNON’S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT:

5. It’s got savvy tax planning.

The draftsman of this will was focused on estate tax avoidance. You can see the tax planning right from the start – in fact,  the first article of the will is the Tax Clause:

FIRST: The expenses of my funeral and the administration of my estate, and all inheritance, estate or succession taxes, including interest and penalties, payable by reason of my death shall be paid out of and charged generally against the principal of my residuary estate without apportionment or proration. My Executor shall not seek contribution or reimbursement for any such payments.

Wow.  Different lawyers prefer different clauses right up front in a will, but I haven’t seen a lot of wills with the tax clause in first place.  In effect, the tax clause says which beneficiary is going to bear the burden of all taxes on the estate.   Almost always, (as in John’s will) the residuary beneficiary  (in John’s case, a trust) bears the taxes.

Article Two contains a lesson in estate tax history and gives me nostalgia pangs for the estate tax law I studied in law school, when the marital deduction was not unlimited. This article is old-timey tax planning aimed at maximizing the use of the marital deduction to ensure that Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, inherited as much as possible outright, with a minimum of estate tax imposed.  The estate tax was robust back in the day – Lennon’s estate would have been subject to a maximum rate of 70% as opposed to the measly 35% our richies pay today when they cannot claim the unlimited marital deduction.

SECOND: Should my wife survive me, I give, devise and bequeath to her absolutely, an amount equal to that portion of my residuary estate, the numerator and denominator of which shall be determined as follows:

1. The numerator shall be an amount equal to one-half (1/2) of my adjusted gross estate less the value of all other property included in my gross estate for Federal Estate Tax purposes and which pass or shall have passed to my wife either under any other provision of this Will or in any manner outside of this Will in such manner as to qualify for and be allowed as a marital deduction. The words “pass”, “have passed”, “marital deduction” and adjusted gross estate” shall have the same meaning as said words have under those provisions of the Untied States Internal Revenue Code applicable to my estate.

2. The denominator shall be an amount representing the value of my residuary estate.

Lennon’s will also had a simultaneous death clause that would kick in if he and Yoko died in a common accident.  Lennon’s lawyer wisely reversed New York’s default simultaneous death law to avoid estate taxes in the event husband and wife perished together:

FOURTH: In the event that my wife and I die under such circumstances that there is not sufficient evidence to determine which of us has predeceased the other, I hereby declare it to be my will that it shall be deemed that I shall have predeceased her and that this, my Will, and any and all of its provisions shall be construed based upon that assumption.

4.  The Pour over. 

Testators who care about their privacy often use a pour over estate plan which employs a short, simple will that makes a disposition of their entire estate to an inter vivos (created during the grantor’s lifetime) trust.  The will is a public document once it has been admitted to probate (after the testator’s death), but in a perfect world, the trust remains a private instrument. Michael Jackson and James Brown (stayed tuned for future posts) used pour overs too.  Here’s John’s residuary clause:

THIRD: I give, devise and bequeath all the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, wheresoever situate, to the Trustees under a Trust Agreement dated November 12, 1979, which I signed with my wife YOKO ONO, and ELI GARBER as Trustees, to be added to the trust property and held and distributed in accordance with the terms of that agreement and any amendments made pursuant to its terms before my death.

A few weeks ago, Forbes magazine published a list of the Top-Earning Dead Musicians in 2011, and Lennon was #3 (after Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley – how excellent that we study their wills too!).  According to Forbes, Lennon’s estate earned $12 million in 2011 alone.  Since Yoko is co-trustee of John’s trust, she controls that income as well as the trust principal (I’ve read so many different values placed on Lennon’s estate that I’m only willing to report that it may be somewhere between $400 and $800 million, maybe).  The trust itself remains private – there are no copies on the web or Westlaw.  Yoko may be the sole beneficiary.

Eli Garber, Yoko’s co-trustee, was the Lennons’ accountant.

3.  The In Terrorem clause.

Lennon’s lawyer included this clause to try to prevent contests of John’s estate plan.  It’s a clause that says that if anyone challenges the will or trust (and they lose the contest), they lose their inheritance. Although no-contest clauses are disfavored in some states, New York law honors them, with some exceptions.

EIGHTH: If any legatee or beneficiary under this will or the trust agreement between myself as Grantor and YOKO ONO LENNON and ELI GARBER as Trustees, dated November 12, 1979 shall interpose objections to the probate of this Will, or institute or prosecute or be in any way interested or instrumental in the institution or prosecution of any action or proceeding for the purpose of setting aside or invalidating this Will, then and in each such case, I direct that such legatee or beneficiary shall receive nothing whatsoever under this Will or the aforementioned Trust.

Who did the attorney suspect would cause trouble?  Perhaps Julian Lennon, John’s first son (with his first wife). According to this Youtube television interview Julian had to bring a lawsuit to get a share of John’s estate.  The litigation was protracted and it ended in a secret settlement for an undisclosed amount. A lawsuit means the in terrorem clause did not have the desired effect.  It may have been that Julian had nothing to lose by suing, so the clause had no teeth.

In the interview, Julian clearly dislikes Yoko.  He calls her “very manipulative“. He adds “She knew what she was doing since day one.  She had it all planned“.  He was particularly angry that Yoko had auctioned off a lot of John’s tangible, personal property (including postcards that Julian had sent to John and John’s musical instruments).  Julian bid on the property and he said it was ironic that “I’m buying his stuff back with his money”.  He added that he had “been dealt an interesting hand”.   Julian is correct, of course, but at least he wasn’t born Saif Gaddafi

A bright spot in the Julian interview was that even while Julian was slamming Yoko, he had only very nice things to say about his younger brother, Sean Lennon.  They get along swell and in recent years at least, Julian and Yoko appear to have made peace according to this 2010 article and photo in the Daily Mail.

Sean, Yoko and Julian, 2010

Julian really looks and sounds like his dad.  Gives me the chills.

2.  The Fiduciaries

Click on this cool image to see its source and read more about fiduciaries.

I like how John named successor executors – three different ones in order of preference.

FIFTH: I hereby nominate, constitute and appoint my beloved wife, YOKO ONO, to act as the Executor of this my Last Will and Testament. In the event that my beloved wife YOKO ONO shall predecease me or chooses not to act for any reason, I nominate and appoint ELI GARBER, DAVID WARMFLASH and CHARLES PETTIT, in the order named, to act in her place and stead.

As noted, Eli Garber was the Lennons’ accountant, David Warmflash (who has the greatest name) was one of their lawyers and Charles Pettit remains a mystery to be researched further.  (So far I have verified that Pettit is not currently licensed as an attorney or a CPA in NYS. He doesn’t have a phone number listed in the area and a Westlaw search turned up nothing promising. Nothing panned out on Google either.  I even checked him out on the Social Security Death Index and he didn’t die in New York State, at least.  Mr. Pettit, where are you?)

Lennon also nominated a guardian for his son Sean Lennon, in case Yoko was unable to act.

SIXTH: I nominate, constitute and appoint my wife YOKO ONO, as the Guardian of the person and property of any children of the marriage who may survive me. In the event that she predeceases me, or for any reason she chooses not to act in that capacity, I nominate, constitute and appoint SAM GREEN to act in her place and stead.

Sam Green - Click on photo for source

Sam Green was an art dealer and a wildly successful social climber.  He died last year and although there was only one obituary for him, in a London paper, the New York Times ran a wonderful story about Green a month after he died. You must read this entire article – Green led a charmed life that begs for a screenplay (he was BFF’s with Great Garbo!). But, if the Times article is true, it is shocking that John would entrust his beloved younger son Sean to Sam Green.   The Times does not paint a pretty portrait of Green, calling him a “social adventurer, a collector of people who approached the wealthy and famous with the ardor of a lepidopterist wielding a butterfly net.” (Man, isn’t that great writing?) The article quotes people who knew him saying things like:

-  “At the very least, Sam Green was a fabulist, an unabashed poseur blessed with good looks, a natural flair for storytelling, a knack for self-promotion and a markedly elastic relationship to the truth.”

- “the last of the con men”

- “Sam Green could be so much to so many, handsome and charming, gay and straight, serious and frivolous, anything you wanted him to be”.

- “He had a glib, offhand way of making everything seem like a lark. Like any high-end operator, he’d claim credit for things he didn’t do and disclaim things he did, but in the end he was somebody: one of the most seminal peripheral figures of our time.”

According to the Times, Sam Green and Yoko began a “long and ultimately disastrous relationship”  in 1976, three years before John executed his will.   To be fair, John was not faithful to Yoko either, but dang, this Sam Green sounds like a sociopath!  What was John thinking?

1.  My Beloved Wife

Despite the infidelity John seemed to really love his wife.  He loved her so much he adopted her last name!  How common is that in the world?  Do you know any other men who have done that?  Check out the title and preamble to John’s Last Will and Testament.

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF JOHN WINSTON ONO LENNON

I, JOHN WINSTON ONO LENNON, a resident of the County of New York, State of New York, which I declare to be my domicile do hereby make, publish and declare this to be my Last Will and Testament, hereby revoking all other Wills, Codicils and Testamentary dispositions by me at any time heretofore made.

Not only did John take Yoko’s name, but he effectively left her his entire estate.  Every time we read Article Five in class I smile when I get to “my beloved wife, YOKO ONO” because in this case, I think the words are surely true.

I understand that many believe that Yoko was some miraculously powerful Svengali who brainwashed/hypnotized/mesmerized/bewitched/glamoured/entranced/zombified/duressed/unduly influenced Lennon to obey her every command.  As much as I feel for Julian (and I do so much),  Yoko was John’s wife of more than ten years, the mother of one of his kids and his artistic collaborator.  He signed what most people do – an ” I Love You Will” (leaving everything to the surviving spouse) and there is nothing terribly suspicious about that.

click for source

Last summer I think perhaps I gained an inkling of why John was so smitten with Yoko. I hope you will read my next post “My Beloved Wife, Yoko Ono” for more on her.

*Thank you to my student Mr. SorryIForgotYourName from last semester’s day class for the title of this piece.   Mr. Sifyn was a Lil Wayne/Rick Ross fan and he steered me to their song John, which includes the lyrics “If I die today, remember me like John Lennon, Buried in Louie, I’m talking all brown linen”.   Not Donsky’s cuppa,  I much prefer Imagine.

By the way, Mr. Sifyn also did some research and reported to the class that John Lennon was cremated and not buried after all.  Nice work!

I tried to post this photo in our Blackboard class, but it didn’t format nicely, so I’m posting here in the blog instead.  I am so proud of all the students who joined me at the museum for my semi-annual tour “Honoring the Dead in Art Across Time and Cultures”.  We started in stone-age Greece, and then visited the Romans, the Fang people of Gabon and the Kings of Benin in Africa,  the Asmats of Papua New Guinea, pre-Columbian South America (gold!!!), Europe in the Middle Ages and ancient Egypt. After losing half the class in the pyramids, we caught up with each other upstairs where we visited India and China as well.  As an extra bonus, we stopped off at the special exhibit of Romare Bearden’s collaged work. The museum is honoring the 100th anniversary of Bearden’s birth by displaying his entire “The Block”series.  Here is my favorite:

I have really wonderful students.  It is sweet that they are highly motivated by “extra credit” because it gives me a chance to show them cool stuff in one of the greatest museums in the world.

ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ

What do these mysterious words mean?  What language is this anyway? And most importantly for our purposes, why are these words etched into a plaque on Jim Morrison’s grave?  Keep reading, all shall be revealed.

The Rock Star

For those of you in my oldster generation, it might have blown your minds to realize that last July 3, 2011 marked FORTY YEARS since Jim’s death. Time has gone super-sonic, no?

For those of you who were born after Morrison died in 1971 (most of my students), I perhaps need note that Jim Morrison was the singer in a band called The Doors.  Here are the words of a California judge describing Jim Morrison and his critical importance to The Doors in a 2008 judicial opinion, Densmore v. Manzarek, 2008 WL 2209993 (Cal App 2d Dist.) (unreported).

The Doors, as a rock-and-roll band, rose rapidly to great heights of success. In 1966, The Doors signed a six-album deal with Elektra records that would include such hits as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman” and “Riders on the Storm.” Morrison played a pivotal role in the growing fame of The Doors. According to Nigel Williamson, a British critic and writer, “… the musical vision and the power of ‘The Doors’ came specifically from Jim Morrison. I’m not denying the contribution that the other three musicians in the group made. But I think without Jim Morrison there would not have been a group as we know ‘The Doors’ to have been. The music would not have existed in that shape or form.

The judge doesn’t really give a sense of Jim’s wide appeal and immense popularity (The Who opened for The Doors in 1968).  Jim helped shape the world’s conception of  a “rock star”

•  rail thin  (at the height of his powers he weighed 145 pounds at 5’11″)
•  sexy leather trousers
•  long flowing hair (Jim’s celebrity hairdresser was one of the victims of the Manson family at Sharon Tate’s house)
• and a general reckless disregard (Morrison had several famous run-ins with the law and he was not averse to drugs or drink).

From an infamous arrest in Miami

If you have never heard a Doors song, you should check them out. Francis Ford Coppola used a Doors song, The End, to establish the mood in the beginning of the best movie ever made, Apocalypse Now.  Listen, watch, it might change your life or something.

Tragically, Jim Morrison was a member of the “27 Club”.

It’s not a real club of course, but a group of very famous rock stars of Morrison’s generation who all died at age 27 including Brian Jones (an original Rolling Stone), Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin (and later, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse). Morrison died in Paris and he was never autopsied.  The most widely accepted story is that he died from an overdose of drugs, but I have read so many different versions of how Jim died that I’m not sure we will ever truly know the cause of his death.  If you are interested in the various stories, I can recommend  the books The Lizard King and Break on Through for some of the versions of Jim’s last days. And the web is, of course, chock full of gossip, slander and conspiracy theories surrounding Jim’s demise.  Google away.

The Testator

Remarkably for such a young man, Jim died TESTATE, with a very simple two page will that  he had executed when he was 25 . His will notes that he is a “single man” and it makes only one disposition – of the residuary of his estate to Pamela S. Courson.  Pam was his gorgeous girlfriend. From all accounts they had a tumultuous relationship.  To say they were polyamorists would not be unfair.

According to the will, if Pamela were to predecease Jim,  his residuary estate would pass in equal shares to his brother and sister.  He left nothing to his parents (who would have inherited his entire estate if he had died intestate).

Just last year, a great new documentary about Jim, “When You’re Strange” (narrated by Johnny Depp!!!) was released. It helps to explain the omission of Jim’s dad, who was an Admiral in the Navy during the Vietnam war.  He is interviewed in one of the extra scenes on the DVD and he admits to advising Jim to forget about a musical career because he believed that Jim “had no vocal talent”. That must have stung. I did not find any dirt on Jim’s mom, any reason why she too was disinherited, but he didn’t leave her a cent either.

Pam Courson survived Jim.  In fact, she was living with him in Paris when he died. Pam inherited his entire estate – $80 million plus annual millions more from continuing music sales, according to Johnny Depp in that documentary.  Pam was only 24 when she came into all that wealth. She and Morrison had been a couple for five or six years. Sadly, Pam died of a heroin overdose almost three years after Jim, also at the age of 27.  She died unmarried and childless and INTESTATE.

My students can tell you that it was Pam’s parents who ended up legally entitled to all of Jim’s estate! Wow. Do you think Jim would have considered them the natural objects of his plentiful bounty? Of course, this did not sit well with Jim’s family who attempted to contest Jim’s will after Pam died.  Weirdly, a probate court in California ruled that Jim and Pam had entered a common-law marriage in Colorado although neither of them resided there (perhaps the court was making the point that even if the will were deemed invalid, Pam would still inherit everything as the surviving spouse, so Jim’s parents’ were screwed, legally). Regardless, according to the court in the Densmore case, Pamela’s parents “Pearl and Columbus Courson, and Morrison’s parents, Clara and George Morrison, resolved their differences and agreed to share equally in Morrison’s interest in The Doors.”

Isn’t it ironic that although Jim died testate, his estate is being enjoyed by the parents he effectively disinherited and some legal strangers/common-law in-laws?

By the way, the Densmore case was a trademark/publicity rights case, dealing with whether two of the surviving Doors, Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger, could hold themselves out as “The Doors” and use Jim’s image at their concerts. The court ruled, NO – they could not hold themselves out as The Doors and they could not use Jim’s image without compensating his estate.  The court also awarded Jim’s “heirs” $3.2 million from the two survivors.

The Tourist Attraction

Most geezers of my generation can tell you that Jim Morrison was buried “in that cemetery in Paris”. Somehow, we all know that.  And when you visit Paris, images of Jim are everywhere (just as NYC sells our tourists boatloads of John Lennon crapola, Paris specializes in Jim Morrison tat – posters, t-shirts, fridge magnets, coffee-mugs and even grave-rubbings). Last winter when I was in Paris, I resolved to go find Jim’s grave and pay my respects. I learned that the name of that cemetery that holds Jim Morrison  is Pere Lachaise .  It is situated at the eastern edge of the city.  I found I could  take the No. 69 bus all the way from the Eiffel Tower to the cemetery.  It was a great ride through the heart of Paris. You don’t even need exact change on Paris buses – the drivers pull out these darling change purses and make your change while everyone else cools their heels – can you imagine that system in NYC?  There would be blood.

Pere Lachaise turned out to be the Disneyland of Cemeteries!  Seriously, it’s a real cemetery with over 300,000 permanent guests but it’s also a huge tourist attraction!

When you arrive, they provide you with a map of the crowded cemetery, which is built on a rather steep hill.   The map points out where many famous people’s tombs can be found.

Pere Lachaise is not the kind of “lawn cemetery” that we are used to, with grass between rows of headstones, but rather there are lots of large monuments and sculptures and mausoleums that hold entire generations of families as well as individual grave sites.  Here is what one entrance looked like.

I imagined that Jim Morrison would have a really large and cool mausoleum. I was psyched to find him. I went looking for Jim on a cold day in January and yet Pere Lachaise was buzzing with tourists.  It was a bit reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead movies except the people lurching around the cemetery on the uneven cobblestones were all clutching maps.  In my random wandering, I ran across Chopin’s grave!

But, I couldn’t seem to find Morrison.  I stumbled around for quite a while until I saw lots of people all converging on a particular spot.  I joined them and we arrived at a knot of others who were patiently waiting turns to get a glimpse of……Jim’s grave.  It wasn’t at all what I imagined it would be – in fact, after all the grand mausoleums and monuments, it was rather modest and crowded in between other graves.  Here’s is a photo I took

Here it is with the zoom.

If I had a better camera you would be able to read the inscription on the plaque on Jim’s grave that some other tourist was able to snap

The plaque was commissioned by Jim’s father in the 1990′s.  In the Johnny Depp documentary, Admiral Morrison said that he “went to his old Greek teacher” for the saying that is inscribed on the plaque, “ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ” which he said means “True To His Own Spirit”.  Wikipedia notes that the words literally mean “According To His Own Daemon”.  So there you have it – a tribute in Greek from the disinherited father to his son who showed the world how to be a rock star.

Click on photo to read more about the launch at Discovery News.

Yesterday, November 26, 2011, NASA launched a new rover on a voyage to Mars.  You can watch the launch on NASAtelevision at Youtube  The rover is named Curiosity (so-named by a 12 year old girl from Kansas, who won the naming contest) and it’s mission is to seek out life on Mars. This August, 2012 it’s going to undergo a new-fangled method of soft-landing (via  parachute and jets) into a crater that held water millions of years ago.  Curiosity is going to land near a mountain and over the next few years, it’s going to climb three miles up the mountain, examining the rock layers as it goes.

This rover is AMAZING.  It can pick up specimens to examine back inside the vehicle or shoot a laser at something thirty feet away to analyze its contents.  It can test the air and it has a  high resolution camera as well. They say it can function for several years in the brutal Mars environment.

If you are like me, interested in space stuff, you should get over to the American Museum of Natural History to see the new exhibit Beyond Planet Earth.  The exhibit tells the history of space exploration so far, as well as about future plans for exploration of the moon, asteroids, Mars, and Europa.  And coolest of all, it has a life sized copy of Curiosity!

Curiousity at the American Museum of Natural History

There is A LOT to see in this exhibit – several videos, an interactive test to see whether you would make a good space traveler and lots of stuff used in space exploration – including the spacesuits of the future:

Spacesuit of the future

Quite Lost in Space-ish.  The visors are lined in gold and man, they are cool.

As you exit the exhibit, there is a nice little gift shop with loads of excellent space-related swag.

The exhibit will remain at the museum until August, 2012. when the real Curiosity will land on Mars, fingers crossed.

The Blind Man's Meal by Pablo Picasso

A while ago I went to Dialog in the Dark, a newish exhibit down at the South Street Seaport.  What a cool experience!

When you enter, they give you the type of cane that blind people use and they teach you how to use the cane.  Then they lower the lights until you are sitting in a pitch black room.  You can’t see anything.  A guide (who is visually impaired) then leads you on a tour of New York City as it is experienced by the blind.  You walk through what feels and sounds and smells like Central Park, then through a Fairway supermarket and then the subway (very scary going up and down stairs and approaching the edge of the platform) and finally, a diner.

I must admit to being absolutely petrified when the lights first went out.  I was thinking of aborting the experience but there was a woman in my group who was even more scaredy–cat than me and somehow, that made me braver.  Once we stood up and moved about, the terror abated and I loved the adventure. I was in a small group with three others, but our wonderfully calm and sweet guide said that the groups can be as large as ten people.  I think a large group would be more challenging because as it was, we kept hitting each other with our canes and bumping into each other repeatedly.  I am now more in awe of the visually impaired than ever, having a better understanding of what it must be like to negotiate the city without sight.

If you are considering visiting Dialog (it’s $18 for students) you might consider going at an “off” time to try to be in a smaller group.  You may bring children, but it could also be a really fun date, nudge-nudge-wink-wink.  I’m not sure how long Dialog in the Dark will be there, but its sister show (the unconscionable, tortured and executed prisoners’ Bodies) has been there for years.

John Lennon's Tooth courtesy of Rolling Stone

Recently John Lennon’s tooth sold at auction in London for more than $30,000.  A Canadian dentist, Michael Zuk, bought the decayed molar which had been put up for sale by the daughter of Lennon’s former housekeeper.  Back in the 1960′s, Lennon had asked his housekeeper to throw out the tooth but then he told her to give the tooth to her daughter, a Beatles fan. (For other Beatles fans, you might enjoy my next post, FIVE REASONS WHY I LOVE JOHN LENNON’S WILL and ONE REASON WHY I LOVE YOKO ONO. Yes, seriously.)

Dr. Zuk (who has written a book about celebrity teeth) announced that he would display the tooth in his office and take it on tour to other offices and dental schools.  This news has made me ridiculously happy because Dr. Zuk is doing just what our ancestors did when they preserved and venerated the body parts of beloved decedents!  The bones, teeth, hair (and other human bits) as well as the belongings of these decedents were housed in  beautiful containers called reliquaries. According to Wikipedia,  many cultures and religions have a tradition of creating reliquaries. In fact, I would wager that most major museums have some reliquaries in their inventories because there are so dang many of them.  Last winter I used up my camera battery at the Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris, just taking photos of all the Roman Catholic reliquaries there.

Here are just a few of them. Note that some reliquaries (like the one in the middle) have a window that made seeing the relic possible, but other reliquaries do not.

One of the reasons that there are so many reliquaries is that relics were “big business” in Europe during the Middle Ages.  People who needed help, would go on pilgrimages (which they still do today, see Santiago de Compostela and the Hajj)  to churches all over Europe and the Holy Land to pray for help from the saints whose relics were housed in the churches.  The churches made money from the pilgrims, so it paid to have a relic or two on hand.  It cracked me up to learn that souvenirs were popular even back in the Middle Ages, when churches used to sell “badges” that pilgrims would sew to their clothing, as souvenirs of their visit.  Here are two badges that were mementos of a pilgrimage to the relics of St. Adrian during the mid-1400′s:

We are at the Cloisters

According to historian Vanessa King, who gave a great lecture  about British pilgrims at  the  British Museum last summer, there were a lot of fake relics floating around.  For example, more than a dozen churches in Europe each claimed to have Christ’s foreskin!  Other churches claimed to have pieces of his umbilical cord and hair from his beard.

I really hope we get to see the reliquary that Dr. Zuk selects to  house his costly tooth.  I’d love to give him some ideas – for example, many reliquaries actually resemble the body part they contain.

Here is the arm-shaped reliquary that contains St. Valentine’s arm bone (it has a window on the other side).

Click on photo to read more about this reliquary housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

And this reliquary contained St. Adelbard’s foot -  it is in the Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris.

This reliquary contained St. Bridget’s shoe.  I found it in the National Museum of Ireland, in Dublin.

On the other hand, some reliquaries resemble (realistically or not)  the decedent whose relics they hold.

These reliquaries contain the skulls of three Belgian saints from the early 1500′s.  You can visit them at the Cloisters, here in NYC.

And this beautiful and extremely important piece is a Fang reliquary sculpture from Gabon.  You can read more about her by clicking on the photo.

Check out this blingy reliquary containing bits of Saint Yrieix (what a great name).  It was made of silver, gold and gems in  France in the early 1200′s.

You can visit me at the Cloisters.

Sometimes whole buildings were erected to house relics. Buddhists fashioned beautiful structures called stupas to house relics from the Buddha and other holy people.  Here is a photograph of the oldest stupa in existence – the Dhamek Stupa in Sarnath, India (where the Buddha famously gave his first sermon after attaining enlightenment).  It was originally erected in the year 500!

Click on me to read more about this stupa.

Here’s another photograph of a cool stupa that I liberated from Wikipedia:

The main Stupa crowning Borobudur, the largest Buddhist structure in the world, Java, Indonesia.

Someday I would love take a stupa tour, but for now, I can say the most remarkable relic-containing building I’ve ever seen in person is the Church of Sainte Chapelle in Paris.  This church was built by King Louis IX in the mid-1200′s to contain his ginormous collection of relics.  Louis IX was really aquisitive and he spent bazillions of “livres”  buying relics and constructing the church.  His grandest acquisition was the Crown of Thorns.  The guide books advise to visit Ste. Chapelle on a sunny day and man, I was glad I did as instructed.  It was a real pain in the derriere to gain access (long lines, Fort Knox-like security) but it sure was worth it.  The church seems to be made mostly of Gothic stained glass.  It was almost like being inside a kalidescope – the beauty takes your breath away.  My photos do not do this place justice:

So Dr.Zuk has his work cut out for him.  What form of reliquary will he select?  A big bejewled tooth?  A guitar-shaped container?  A bust of Lennon with his tooth in situ? Or a stupendously ornate dentist’s office complete with Beatles muzak and stained-glass windows featuring extractions and implants?  We can only wait and hope….

Rouby Jackson

Stetson Kennedy

Stetson Kennedy was born on October 5^th 1916 and died on August 27^th, 2011. He could be known as the man who made a racist secret society, not so secret. However, speculation and doubt also looms over the authenticity of his contribution. (William Grimes, Stetson Kennedy, Who Infiltrated and Exposed the Klan, Dies at 94,NY Times, Aug.30,2011http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/us/30kennedy.html).

In the NY Times obituary article the author highlights his legacy as a writer, researcher, and Human Rights activist but also tries to close the book on years of debate over whether Kennedy really went undercover in the Klan.

Stetson Kennedy made himself a significant mark in history. As a folklorist, he recorded the         oral accounts of the personal history and hardship of African American Floridians during the Great depression (Grimes, 2011). As a Human rights activist, he began authoring publications that focused on speaking out against the deprivation of liberty at the clasp of Jim Crow laws, and the Klan who thrived under its auspices. Kennedy’s 1954 publication  entitled the “Klan Unmasked”, recounted information he obtained while infiltrating the violent racist organization group, which helped weaken it forces.(Emily Langer, Stetson Kennedy, author of Klan unmasked, dies at 94,Washington Post, Aug.28, 2011,http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/stetson-kennedy-author-of-klan-unmasked-dies-at-94/2011/08/28/gIQAKi1plJ_story.html) . After an investigation of these accounts by Florida writer Ben Green, Kennedy admitted in part that there were some information used from an informant and put into first person.( Grimes, 2011)

Mr. Kennedy was graced by many great people who shared his passion and talent, notably his travels collecting folklore with Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston (Grimes, 2011). He walked with Martin Luther King during the freedom marches and even ran a write-in campaign as governor of Florida (Grimes, 2011). Kennedy’s publications span from 1946 to 2008. His works have earned him several honors and awards through the decades and continues to to influence literary history . Among them,  in 2005 he received a life estate of his home that sits among 4 acres, now called Beluthahatchee Park. His  home has become a Literary land mark and historic site in St. Johns County of Florida. (Susan D. Brandenburg, Stetson Kennedy is Still Beluthahatchee Bill, Oct.22, 2004,      http://staugustine.com/stories/102204/com_2654623.shtml). In 2006, At the age of 90 Stetson had his seventh wedding ceremony to Sandra Parks. Kennedy Stetson died at a Jacksonville Fl. Hospital. (Emily Langer, 2011) The cause of death was due to complications of bleeding of the brain (Grimes, 2011.)He is survived by his wife, son Loren, grandchildren and several stepchildren (Grimes, 2011). He  is also related to cowboy hat maker John B. Stetson on this mothers side of the family (Emily Langer, 2011).

Ryan Dunn by Wolf Pamphile

Wolf Pamphile

Ryan Dunn

Ryan Dunn was born in Medina, Ohio on June 11, 1977 and died on June 20, 2011. He was one of the original members of the world wide known group Jackass. Dunn was mostly known for his great TV personality and for pulling the best pranks on his fellow co-stars.

Slotnick, D. (2011, June 20). Ryan Dunn, Daredevil Comedian, dies at 34. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/arts/television/ryan-dunn-daredevil-comedian-of-jackass-dies-at-34.html?_r=1

According to the police report from West Chester, Pennsylvania, acquired by ABC News, Dunn and a passenger died in a car accident after leaving a club. Police believes that excessive speed and alcohol were the main causes of the accident. Ryan Dunn blood alcohol level was .196, twice over the legal limit, which is .08. Dunn’s 911 Porsche was also traveling at least at 130mph, when it went off road into the woods, and quickly engulfed in raging flames.

Fisher, L. (2011, June 22). Ryan Dunn Was Drunk and Speeding: Police. ABC NEWS. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/ryan-dunn-jackass-blood-alcohol-level-limit/story?id=13902127

Ryan Dunn is survived by his parents, Ronald Dunn and Linda Piscitello; a stepfather, Thomas Piscitello; a stepmother, Lynn Dunn; a fiancé, Angela Cuturic; a sister, Brandi Berman; a brother, Eric Dunn; two stepbrothers, Thomas and Joseph Piscitello; and a stepsister, Nicole Filippelli. However, Dunn did not have a will.

Slotnick, D. (2011, June 20). Ryan Dunn, Daredevil Comedian, dies at 34. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/arts/television/ryan-dunn-daredevil-comedian-of-jackass-dies-at-34.html?_r=1

Rupert M. McAllister

Zachery Tims

Dr. Zachery Tims was the pastor of the New Destiny Christian Center located in Orlando, Florida. He founded the eight thousand member church with his then wife pastor Riva Tims in 1996. They were divorced in 2009 after it was revealed that he had a yearlong affair with a Paris prostitute. Dr. Tims and his former wife Riva Tims had four children. He was a very renowned televangelist, who regularly appeared on the Christian television network known as Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).

In an article entitled “Mega church Pastor Zachery Tims found Dead” available at https://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/August/Megachurch-Pastor-Zachery-Tims-Found…, it was revealed that the very popular pastor was found dead on Friday, 12^th August, 2011 in a New York hotel room. He was forty two years old at the time of his death. It was also revealed that he had a troubled past, including attempted murder charges and drug addiction.

In another article entitled “Death of Pastor Zachery Tims May Be Drug Related”, and available on the internet at http://www.transworldnews.com/863527/c10/death-of-pastor-zachery-tims-may-be-drug-rel…, it stated that police found a glassine envelope with a white powdery substance inside the right pocket of his shorts. It also stated that a substance believed to be narcotics was discovered with his body. The article also stated that he started New Destiny Christian Center In 1996 after overcoming a troubled past, and that he regularly appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network program “Praise the Lord” by which his sermons reached millions of people around the world.

He was famous for his inspirational style of preaching, and the Will Smith lookalike. He should be celebrated for his selfless acts, but he will ever be remembered, as the pastor who probably died of a drug overdose. The cause of death has still not been determined, neither is his net worth. A very thorough search is needed to ascertain his net worth, including whether or not he had any investments such as stocks and bonds.  After the completion of a thorough search, then the true value of his entire estate, both real and personal properties will be known.

Betty Ford by Elva Heather Chichester

Elva Heather Chichester

Betty Ford

Elizabeth Ann (Betty) Bloomer Warren Ford was born on April 8, 1918 in Chicago Illinois. Ms. Ford was married to William C.Warren from April 23, 1942 until his death on September 22, 1947. There were no children from the marriage.
In 1948 Ms. Ford married Gerald R.Ford who later went on to become the 38th president of the United States. Presiding over the country from 1974 to 1977. Mr. Ford passed away on December 26, 2006 at age 93. As the former first lady, Mrs. Ford was a staunch supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment Act. She was a leader in the Women’s Right’s Movement and a staunch supporter of a woman’s right to an abortion. Not one to shy away from controversial issues, Mrs. Ford is remembered fondly for her outspokenness on such topics as equal pay, The Equal Right Amendment, sex, drugs, abortion and gun control. Mrs. Ford also raised awareness about breast cancer when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974 and underwent a mastectomy. Mrs. Ford also announced her long-standing battle with prescription pill addiction and alcohol dependency.
Mrs. Ford is the co-founder of the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage in California, an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center. Throughout her lifetime she has won several awards in recognition of her contributions to society, most notably, BETTY FORD (Sept. 1, 2011), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Ford. The Women’s International Living Legacy Award in 1998. In 1975 she was named Time Magazine woman of the year. She was the first recipient of the National Women’s Party Alice Paul Award. In 1983, she received the Susan G. Koman Foundation Award in recognition of her contributions to this group. The award was later renamed the Betty Ford Award. She was also awarded the Presidential Medial of Freedom from former President George H. Bush in 1991, The Congressional Gold Medal from former President Bill Clinton in 1999. She was also a recipient of the Smithsonian’s 2003 Woodrow Wilson Award.

Mrs. Ford passed away quietly in her sleep at her home in Rancho Modesto, California, she was 93. Mrs. Ford is survived by four children from her marriage to Gerald R.Ford Jr., Michael Gerald Ford, Born March 14, 1950; John Gardner Ford a/k/a Jack Ford, born March 16, 1952; Steven Meigs Ford, born My 19, 1956; and Susan Elisabeth Ford, born May 19, 1956. She is also survived by seven grandchildren and several great grandchildren.
At the time of this writing, information on the size of her estate and her last will and testament were not available, but it was reported. Betty Ford Will Dedicates $500,000.00 To Namesake, Huffington Post (Aug. 11, 2011, 11:39 AM ET), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/betty-ford-will-500000_n_924365html. that at the time of her death Mrs. Ford was worth twenty million dollars, $500.000.00 of which was left to the Betty ford Center to ensure that the center continued to help drug and alcohol dependent individuals.

The first thing I learned about the Dulwich was how to pronounce it – the “w” is silent, so you say “dull – itch”.  The second thing I learned was that the Dulwich Picture Gallery is the oldest public art museum in England.  The story of its creation is wonderful:

Late in the eighteenth century, two men, Noël Desenfans (a French guy) and Francis Bourgeois (a much younger Swiss guy) were partners in a London art dealership.  They lived together with Noel’s wealthy Welsh wife, Margaret Morris, in a house, where according to the Dulwich website,  “they entertained with a well-heeled informality”.  Hmmm.

Noel and Francis got their big break in 1790 when the King of Poland asked them to amass an art collection fit to be the national collection of his country.

King Stanislaw II August Poniatowski - Image Liberated from Wikipedia

They worked to gather a collection of old masters and five years later they had acquired a spectacular collection of paintings and sculptures.  Ironically, by then, the nation of Poland didn’t exist – it  had been taken over and carved up by other countries.  The King abdicated and fled to Russia penniless.  The partners tried to flog the art collection to other countries and individuals, but there were no takers.

So, the partners sold off some of the best stuff and used the proceeds to buy even more art.  When Desenfans died, Bourgeois became the sole owner of the art and tried to find a suitable repository for it.  He approached the British Museum and its trustees were snotty to him.  He claimed they were “arbitrary and aristocratic”.  So, in his will Bourgeois  left the collection to Dulwich College on the condition that the art be publicly displayed.  The Dulwich Picture Gallery was founded after he died in 1811.  Bourgeois, Desanfans and his wife are all buried in the Mausoleum attached to the museum. Hmmm.

Here’s a photo I took of the outside of the Dulwich Picture Gallery

The Gallery is crammed with great art. Until pretty recently its security system has sucked and according to Wikipedia,  it has been the target of several art heists.  In fact,this Rembrant portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III has been stolen (and recovered) FOUR times – it’s in the Guiness Book of Records!

Image Liberated from Wikipedia

There was one piece I especially loved at the Dulwich,  a portrait painted by a very famous Flemish -born artist named Anthony Van Dyke.  The subject is a decedent named Venetia Stanley, as she lay on her deathbed, two days after she mysteriously expired  in 1633.

Venetia Stanley on Her Deathbed

Venetia had a short and interesting life, but the life of her husband, Sir Kenelm Digby could be subject of an epic motion picture,  I wish I knew how to write a screenplay…..

Sir Kenelm Digby was born in  1603 to a noble, but  not so wealthy family.  Digby was brilliant, but perhaps touched with a bit of the bi-polar.   He attended Oxford, but never graduated.  Over the course of his life thereafter he became involved in seemingly everything.  For a while he was  a pirate (or “privateer” the fancy word) and his ship would attack and plunder non-English ships. At another point in his life he was England’s head of  lighthouses.  He also wrote a whole bunch of books on various topics (including two books on philosophy and a cookbook).  Digby was also an inventor – he owned a glassworks and he designed the modern wine bottle that we still use today.  My favorite of Digby’s  many and varied pursuits was his investigation into Powder of Sympathy. (He believed that an injured person could be healed by rubbing a special powder pn the object that injured them).

Digby fell in and out of favor with the English  government.  Sometimes he got arrested, sometimes he had to flee the country, sometimes he changed his religion but then other times he changed it back – he even killed a man in a duel  and brawled with a sword in the streets of Madrid.   Digby was acquainted with many of the famous intellectuals of his age, including  Pierre de Fermat, the mathematician and  Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher.

So now back to the Venetia chapter of his life…

When Digby was in his early twenties, he became absolutely smitten with a beautiful young woman named Venetia  Stanley.   Venetia had been born into a not- so- important noble family of some wealth.  She left home and moved to London by herself when she was a teenager. Imagine what bravery that must have taken  in the 1600’s – she was gutsy.   Then again,  Venetia was extremely beautiful and clever. She became an infamous party girl.  She had a really racy reputation.

Venetia as a Girl, Possibly

Despite her reputation (or on account of it – who knows?) Venetia and Digby fell in love and entered into a super-secret marriage (because neither set of parents would have approved). Digby kept a juicy  journal of their courtship and marriage and eventually his memoirs were  published as a novel with the naughty bits expurgated.  They had four sons.  And then seven or eight years into their marriage, Venetia was found to have suspiciously “died in her sleep”.   She was only 33. There was an autopsy performed (which was rare back then) and the physicians reported she had “but very little brain”.  Some suspected that Digby poisoned her or that she committed suicide. Neither theory was ever proven.

Digby was distraught after Venetia died. He must have  really wanted to remember her, because he had artisans make plaster casts of her face, hands and feet.  He  also asked his friend, Anthony Van Dyke, to paint Venetia on her deathbed.  Van Dyke “drew her on the second day after her death “.

Digby mourned Venetia dramatically. He gave her a spectacular night-time  funeral and commissioned a grand monument for her grave. He dressed all in black and ceased cutting his hair .  He wrote a book called in Praise of Venetia and he obsessed over the deathbed portrait.  He wrote: “It standeth all day over against my chair and table…and all night when I go to my bedside, and by the faint light of candle, me thinks I see her dead indeed…

Did he top her?  Did he drive her to take her own life? Was he truly in mourning or was his melancholy guilt-driven?  We may never know.

In any case, the painting is hauntingly gorgeous, befitting a great beauty.

Digby lived to love again and  he had many more adventures.  He died “of stone” and was buried next to Venetia many years later (sometime between 1665 and 1668 – I’ve read three different dates for his death so take your pick).