I thought the news coverage of Prince’s death was over-the-top, too. An amazing number of diverse artists have paid tribute to his influence which has surprised me, to be honest. Predictably, some are contemporary pop stars like Jennifer Hudson and Jessie J. But others are totally unexpected. Over the last several days, artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Mumford & Son, Pearl Jam, Old Crow Medicine Show, even Jimmy Buffet have done Prince covers in concert.
David Bowie was a bit older and had cancer so while his death was sad it didn’t come as such a shock. Prince was younger and had been performing right up until the day he died. Regardless of the autopsy results it can’t help but feel a bit more tragic because you know he would have been performing all last week if he could.
I saw Purple Rain at an AMC theater yesterday. The musical performance is still truly outstanding, especially moving now that he’s gone, BUT I had forgotten the too, too misogynistic elements, the stiff acting in the spoken parts, and that 80’s hair. I’m glad I saw it again, but happy to leave the 80’s in the dust. I recommend a viewing to see and hear the artistic genius of Prince anew, but also to see how far we’ve come in 2016, women.
Just talked to my brother in the Twin Cities. If you think we’re hearing a lot of Prince, it’s nothing compared to what is on the news there.
Some things he mentioned, that may have been mentioned earlier;
-Prince’s sister’s husband used to work for him and sued him over something at one point. Both the sister and husband are now deceased, but the attorney spoke out saying some of the grounds for the earlier lawsuit involved Prince’s drug use.
-The pilot of the plane reported he was unconscious before landing.
-The reason he wouldn’t check himself into the hospital in IA was because they didn’t have a private room.
-Prince followed the Jehovah Witness practice of going door to door, trying not to give away his identity.
-He walked with a cane in recent months, due to a hip injury from wearing platform shoes.
-He hadn’t slept in the 6 days leading up to his death.
-Some people are talking about making Paisley Park into something similar to Graceland.
Wow. REM sleep deprivation can kill you and it likely is what pushed Michael Jackson over the edge - he had been on some prescription called propofol which makes you feel like you’re asleep, but you can’t ever go into REM mode while taking it.
^^^^He was getting IV propofol (a general anesthetic, not really a prescription med) in his home, which is an unbelievable deviation from standard medical practice. His physician was not trained as an anesthesia provider, he did not have the proper monitoring equipment, and he left MJ alone for a while during a phone call. And yeah, MJ wasn’t getting REM sleep over a period of 2 months.
I know this because about 75% of my FB friends are in MN, and I still read their papers online. I mentioned early in this thread that my FB was insanely flooded the first couple days. It is has slowed down, but not stopped.
@NJSue Thanks for the reminder of the Prince-Kate Bush connection. She posted a heartfelt tribute to him, saying among other things that he was the best live act she ever saw. That’s a lot, coming from her. They are similar in some ways–enormously creative, nonconformist, yet found a way to keep their personal lives under the radar. Coincidentally, they were very nearly the same age: Prince b. June 7, 1958; Kate Bush b. July 30, 1958.
I see Bremer Bank has been appointed to oversee his will and estate. Bremer is a small regional bank (I used to work there - they are only in 3 states) – this is going to be a huge deal (and a huge headache) for them.
@intparent – Bremer is small yes, but as a resident of one of those three states, I would say that it has a better reputation than many of the bigger multistate banks (who tend to pay to stick their names on the sides of stadiums)–particularly its foundation and philanthropic arm. Yeah, this one is going to be tied up in courts for years–not just the distribution of the current liquid assets, but who gets to say what happens to the music in the vault?
It really is unfortunate that Prince did not leave a will. He seemed like he had some philanthropic interests and could have left money to numerous causes he cared about, in addition to leaving some for family members. As it stands now, I assume his family gets it all?
@Bekp2018, I worked there for a couple of years fairly recently. It is actually owned by the Otto Bremer foundation (not a normal bank configuration at all). There are things I like about it, but I just don’t see them as well prepared to deal with a high visibility, large asset, messy estate like this. It is kind of a small town place – mostly in a very good way (I have had accounts there). I did just find an article saying that it is the Bremer Trust division that is handling it, and it is temporary - six months until a personal representative can be appointed (I have been one – WOW, who would want that job?? I assume it will be an attorney, but who will pick them?) @Sevmom, it appears that way.
Fentanyl is especially dangerous because the lethal dose is so close to the therapeutic dose. The margin for error is tiny, and a small excess of drug can lead to death.
I work in a health care setting and we’ve had two nurses in the past decade terminated because they stole fentanyl patches from patients. From what I understand, you can chew them. Your addiction to opioids has to be extremely strong to get to this point I would imagine. Not only are you withholding pain treatment from someone who obviously needs it but you are chewing something that’s been attached to someone elses skin, gross.
I have a bit of a quibble with the use of the term “accidental” with this death. I guess we need a term somewhere between that and intentional. Prince had just been hospitalized for an overdose of opioids but left against medical advice and, apparently, continued on with his unsupewrvised use of Fentanyl. His behavior was reckless, to say the least.
Well, he didn’t OD on purpose, so hence it was accidental. Don’t know if “inadvertent” , “reckless”, “unintentional” “careless” or my personal favorite, “feckless” would be better choices of words.
My brother died of an opioid overdose. We say he died “accidentally on purpose.” Opioids are a really bad thing for certain people. My brother was one of those people - he could not kick the habit after being prescribed opioids when recovering from shoulder surgery. He got multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors & even got some “off prescription.” When he died, the police saw all of his bottles … but no one cared to look into who gave him his meds (after all, he wasn’t famous … and he did live in Vegas).