Takes one to know one

I still can't believe Amy Winehouse is dead. I always knew it was a matter of time, but not this soon. Her legacy is 2 measly albums and a shitload of pictures of her looking like shit warmed over. 

Surprisingly (for me), Russell Brand's blog/letter was uncommonly articulate and compassionate:

All addicts, regardless of the substance or their social status share a consistent and obvious symptom; they're not quite present when you talk to them. They communicate to you through a barely discernible but un-ignorable veil. Whether a homeless smack head troubling you for 50p for a cup of tea or a coked-up, pinstriped exec foaming off about his ‘speedboat' there is a toxic aura that prevents connection. They have about them the air of elsewhere, that they're looking through you to somewhere else they'd rather be. And of course they are. The priority of any addict is to anaesthetise the pain of living to ease the passage of the day with some purchased relief."

...

Whether this tragedy was preventable or not is now irrelevant. It is not preventable today. We have lost a beautiful and talented woman to this disease. Not all addicts have Amy's incredible talent. Or Kurt's or Jimi's or Janis's; some people just get the affliction. All we can do is adapt the way we view this condition, not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill.

To put it mildly, it was a welcome relief from the moronicity of tweets from the likes of Rihanna or Kelly Clarkson, to name just two. Essentially: "I don't understand how such things like this can happen... I'm soooooo devastated. Condolences to her family."

Honorable mention goes to Rick Ross (who?) for the following:

Wanted to collab w/ Amy Winehouse...r.i.p...smoking 1 in your memoryyy!!

Mate, really?