Lost (For Brittany Murphy)

Brittany Murphy
November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009

Rest In Peace

Brittany Murphy appeared in this blog a few times. She had what I think of as an “idiosyncratic” kind of beauty. To me it’s the most striking kind of beauty, something almost hypnotic, something magical. When I look at her I have a hard time taking my eyes away.

Back on my birthday in 2007, I wrote about an extraordinary movie Brittany starred in, “Cherry Falls,” in my post The Rate of God.

Also back in 2007 Communication Arts magazine singled out a GAP ad that featured Brittany and I talked about it in Communicating The Arts Of Brittany Murphy.

Although I didn’t mention her by name, I just talked about one of her movies last week. She recently was in an awful earthquake movie called “Megafault,” where she played a scientist. Unfortunately the production people on that film did nothing to acknowledge the idiosyncratic nature of her beauty and she looked terrible throughout.

Beyond her beauty, Brittany was an amazing actress. The movie “Cherry Falls” presents itself as simply a teen slasher film, a “Scream” rip-off, but Brittany’s incredible performance of being confused and torn between her stumbling boyfriend and her troubled English teacher turns the film almost into something like an art-house project. And Brittany’s haunting performance as the disturbed young woman in “Don’t Say A Word” is the very heart of that movie.

I never followed gossip stories about Brittany but apparently she lived a turbulent life, getting involved with odd, manipulative men.


Brittany Murphy is beyond the turbulent grief of this world now. She is with God and now she knows what we don’t, now she knows what’s really going on. I’m glad she is free from the wretched sadness this world inflicts on so many people and I’m glad she is in the place where all questions are answered. But I wish she was still with us, still here, still trying to figure out everything the hard way with us, and still sharing what she could with us through art and entertainment.

Lost


I was drawing a cartoon
about a woman who played
with monsters, monster games made
to play out under the moon,

not described in word or rune,
where blood is black, colors grayed
by full moon light, blood is trade
by new moon dark, death a boon.

Real monsters took a woman away.
I didn’t know her. I knew her art.
She tried. Played what no one wins. She lost.

I wish more than anything today
we could help each other win our part.
We can’t. We’re alone with monsters. Lost.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Normally on Monday I put up a cartoon or some kind of artwork
that’s an attempt at something amusing or silly. On Sunday
I was almost done with a cartoon for today when I saw the news
about Brittany Murphy. I’m glad I was almost done
because I completely lost the desire to try to be funny or silly.
Tomorrow I’ll put up what I had prepared for today.


Tuesday’s cartoon:

In Kimberly’s Game Vampires Don’t Count