CDA x 2: Cliff and Kier

My brother Howard alerted me to two celebrity deaths, one person I didn't know, one I did. The unknown person (for me) was Jimmy Cliff (age 81). I'll quote the jam-packed first sentence of his NY Times obit: "Jimmy Cliff, a onetime choirboy who emerged from the rough quarters of Kingston, Jamaica, riding a rebel spirit and a fierce sense of social justice to help make the supple, bobbing sounds of reggae a global phenomenon with songs like 'You Can Get It If You Really Want' and 'The Harder They Come,' has died."

I love the bright, sunny spirit of this song. And maybe it's the trumpet, but it sounds a bit like Burt!

The other person, the one I knew, was German actor Udo Kier (also age 81). He was a darling of international avant garde cinema. I first saw him in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho. I didn't know quite what to make of him, which I think was exactly the point.

And then so many other movies, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Ave Ventura: Pet Detective, Johnny Mnemonic, Breaking the Waves, The Shadow of the Vampire, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Manderlay, Nymphomaniac, and a cameo in the faux trailer Werewolf Women of the SS in the Grindhouse double feature. Five of the movies in the list above were by Danish sadist Lars von Trier, a favorite of mine. Anyone who makes five movies with that weirdo has to be pretty weird themselves.