Purple rain
Ah, Prince. Little man! You are missed.
So, I wish I was posting Minnesota Vikings pictures in their purple uniforms today. We are hosting the Super Bowl here in our fabulous city this afternoon, and it's a mob scene downtown, but as you probably know our purple team came this close to being the first team to play the Super Bowl in their home state, and sadly muffed it in the final play-off game.
Anyway.
I love purple. It's my favorite color. The pictures here are photos I took of the Prince memorial a little over a year and a half ago.
The Prince memorial
Our beloved Prince died on April 21st, 2016. Here in the Minneapolis area, the devastation was unfathomable. The world grieved, and our state went into long-term deep mourning over the passing of this phenomenal artist. I have friends who could not utter his name without bursting into tears. They can tell stories of the night they sat in a bar until 2 a.m., on a rumor that he might show up to play. And he came. And they were there.
A memorial area sprang up around his Paisley Park compound, which is a 15 minute drive from my house, out near the University of Minnesota Arboretum in Chanhassen. Prince-worshiping pilgrims came in droves. Most days you could barely drive by because the traffic was terrible. They had to designate a special parking area and put traffic cops on long-term assignment.
But one gorgeous, cool, May afternoon, I took a long lunch and strolled down along the path and under the bridge to the compound, taking pictures and feeling the feelings.
People had created artwork of all kinds, some of it childish and sweet, some of it professional quality and mind-blowing.
Balloons and streamers lined about 50 yards of fencing enclosing his property. The outpouring of love was really beautiful.
Grief is a terrible thing. It takes us by storm. But writing, creating art, and finding solidarity with others who share the same sense of loss can help us at least get started on the road to healing.
Cheers--to life, music, the arts, the color purple, and a little man who wowed us with his music.
The death of prince hit me hard, along with Chester Bennington and Robin Williams.
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May I add David Bowie (but what an unforgettable last act) and Alan Rickman (a laudable king and a lieutenant till the very end), plus George Michael (not a great fan, but he was a phenomenon of his time). They were all relatively young, so now they are dead it, oddly, makes me feel very old.... additional edge to grief.
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I so agree with your list! So many lovely artists, gone too soon. I couldn’t believe we lost Bowie and Rickman in the same year. And more recently, Tom Petty. I also still grieve Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hard to believe he passed away in 2014. Okay, that’s enough sad stuff! Let’s think of all the wonderful musicians and performers who are still living. Looking forward to the Oscars?
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I will never recover from the loss of Robin Williams!
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Well said, Jayna. I'm still not really over it. I find myself to the old Prince stuff like Controversy and 1999 more than ever. So sad when we are losing so many people to the opiod epidemic.
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Yes it really is. My understanding is that he just made a mistake—he thought he was taking one thing and the dose would have been appropriate; but he took an opiate by mistake, and it was an overdose. I know the medical community is working on a lot of fixes. I hope this is one of them. A simple mistake cost us a legend.
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Oh my God, my heart is broken again. Thanks D:
My brother and I loved him to death. His music just kept getting better and better and he was so talented.
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He really was astounding. What did you think of JT’s Super Bowl halftime tribute?
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I just wish it was actually Prince :( He did okay, I guess.
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Often grief is a good thing because it makes us feel the other, and it makes us keep our relationship and make us know the value of others..And grief makes us take out what's inside our hearts. Without courtesy... We express our feelings and sometimes we are creative in expressing our feelings.... This is the beautiful grief.
beautiful post @jayna... thank you for sharing this with us
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Thank you, @yagoub. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on grief. It does have many facets.
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I never was a huge Prince fan, but I know he was absurdly talented, and I've only just started to appreciate his skill. All that is gone now; a terrible loss for music.
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I feel exactly the same way! I wasn’t his biggest fan. His sound was very interesting, but it didn’t reach into my soul as it did for so many. I envy them that, to be so moved. He was an incredible musician and devoted to his art. If every state has its bird and its flower, Prince was Minnesota’s musical artist; he was part of the fabric of life here and represented who we are in some profound sense. That is the loss I feel.
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Karl Kopinski, UK Nottingham artist, painted a picture of Prince shortly after he Passed, which went viral. Worth checking it out. Amazing image
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Wow, he is talented! I looked through many images, but I didn't see the one of Prince. If you're on Discord, you could DM it to me. :-)
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I'm glad you went looking and yes, he is very talented. Here's the picture he painted & posted when Prince died.
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Wow, oh my gosh. That captures him so perfectly. Thank you very much for finding it for me. It’s wonderful!
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You're welcome :)
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It's kind of odd, but understandable, to see these devotions by fans. It's nice that some people feel so moved by art that they would travel there and leave a token of their love.
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Yes, the pilgrimages were a phenomenon of their own. It was pretty remarkable.
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