Well, my friends, a lot of people have remarked sadly that it’s been a tough year. And I have to agree. Today the world is purple while we come to terms with having lost one of the rare true originals. I try to use the word “visionary” sparingly but there’s no other way to describe Prince. I have a few special items to share with you. Let’s get to them.
Prince’s Style Through the Years is a gorgeous slide show of 25 images, many of which I’ve never seen. I think you’ll really enjoy this.
Dearly Beloved: the RogerEbert.com staff remembers Prince. Wonderful, thoughtful pieces by a handful of exceptional writers. So many great quotes but a favorite is from Matt Zoller Seitz’s memory of high school with everyone trying to work out their identity and orientation and how “new and dangerous” Prince was 32 years ago; “We all understood, on some deep and mysterious level, that he spoke for the future, when a scenario like the one at our school would seem boringly typical.”
Jon Pareles gives us this encompassing piece. Prince was an artist who defied genre.
Along with George Clinton and David Bowie, Prince was an important figure in fantasy.
In memory of Prince — a purple nebula from NASA.
In honor of the bicentenary of her birth on April 21, I give you Charlotte Brontë’s brushes with science..
Please enjoy The Hypnotic Portrait Paintings of Film Noir. Via Adrienne @Figusss
And in a belated nod to 4/20, The Fractal Is A Beautiful Gift To Mathematicians And Stoners Alike.
A former Manhattan synagogue transforms into a Game of Thrones exhibition.
Dearly Beloved: MTV News remembers Prince — a podcast celebrating the his life and legacy. Soundcloud.
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Featured image is by Deborah Feingold/Corbis.
The backstory:
Prince poses backstage at the Bottom Line on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village in 1980. He didn’t make it to the pages of The New York Times until December 1981. “The fact that Prince can do everything makes him one of the most impressive new pop talents of the past few years,” wrote Robert Palmer of the then-21-year-old. “It’s also the secret behind his apparently effortless fusion of black and white pop styles. The music transcends racial stereotyping precisely because it’s almost all Prince; Prince himself transcends racial stereotyping because, as he once put it, ‘I never grew up in one particular culture.’”
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