University Diaries » Amy Winehouse has died.

A gifted writer and singer, she tried but failed to overcome drug and alcohol addiction.

UD thanks David for letting her know.

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Ms. Winehouse has often sung about harmful appetites, not just in “Rehab” but in “Addicted” (about a freeloading pot smoker) and in “Back to Black,” in which she sings, “You love blow and I love puff/And life is like a pipe.” Back when the album was released, it sounded as if she already had some wry perspective. She didn’t have to get any more “real” than that… [Why did Winehouse let] someone shoot video, in a private setting, of her puffing [a crack] pipe …? Maybe it’s some version of “keepin’ it real,” the fallacy that insists art must be autobiographical to be worthwhile, as if art were documentation rather than storytelling. Maybe it’s obliviousness, although, since the camera followed her around, she was likely to know it was there. Maybe she mistakenly trusted that whoever made the video would resist another temptation: the potential profit to be made providing it to a tabloid.

Perhaps Ms. Winehouse misunderstood what should be clear in the age of the Internet: Everything recorded can be duplicated and distributed. And possibly the video was, in its own bleary way, a kind of performance. She is keeping her audience informed if not exactly entertained.

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cloudminder Says:
July 23rd, 2011 at 5:08PM

everyone’s into talking about the “27 club” thing this morning (cobain, morrison, joplin, hendrix ..)

but, for me, i can’t stop watching/listening to her doin’ this number:
The DL – Amy Winehouse ‘Valerie’ Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqSKVv6YO8g

11 million views- it’s fucking brilliant- the msm just got hung up on appearance-what a mess she was… the bad photos

her duet with Tony Bennett comes out in Sept- he talked to her about his friendship with Dinah Washington- makes me wonder what if she’d done a full load of Dinah covers –

its a mess – a lot of things played a part – but definetly also includes the number done on women
‘gavin newsom’s wife’ (ha!) just did a movie on it :

http://www.missrepresentation.org/welcome.html

yesterday looked up Band Aid history and present day Horn of Africa famine stuff (yep, light and cheery stuff-not – its a long story)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGYzs8XaH9E

and ended up all sorts of other places e.g.:

could not stop playing :
Elton John – Someone Saved My Life Tonight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIvKDs7cSN4
and
promising myself to learn “Victims” on piano – favorite version (he’s kinda got a Liz Taylor thing goin’ on):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQhMrj2dTa0
– and really thinking Adele should cover it if she hasn’t already -I hope the UK press doesn’t do the same number on her- but I think she also has a different deal going on so she can handle it)!

gawd i love the brits– and so the loop to the winehouse news this morning just … well.

(likely could have come up with some sort of six degrees of separation of all this to UC — but don’t have the energy – so thanks for the space)

Margaret Soltan Says:
July 23rd, 2011 at 6:53PM

My pleasure, cloudminder, and thanks for the link to Valerie.

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