Remember, I will still be here as long as you hold me in your memory...
Goodness, I hear it's been a whole year since Heath Ledger died. It doesn't feel like that long. I remember when I first heard about the news, I was in the Turing Room in King's checking my e-mails, and toft_froggy had posted about it. I found it very hard to believe, and spent much of the rest of the day, which was bitterly cold and very Cambridgey IYKWIM (it's funny what sticks in your mind), feeling a bit spaced out and sad. I'd first watched Heath Ledger in the 90s in Roar, an Australian Xena-esque show about a fictional Roman invasion of Ireland[1], and he was just a teenager and very stunning and smiley and deep and emotional. It was like a secret then - this great actor, who really deserved to go on to bigger and better things. And he did, and he was wonderful, and then it all ended. How sad.
It all reminds me a bit of when River Phoenix died in 1993. It was Halloween (or possibly the day after when I heard the news), and I was going to the school[2] Halloween party, and read it in the paper - and again I was saddened, though I was much younger then. I'd known him best as the brilliant young incarnation of Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, and had had a crush on him for a while[3]. So sad.
But isn't it nice that film allows a kind of afterlife that wasn't possible before the advent of the movies? Heath Ledger, like River Phoenix, will always be young and beautiful in our eyes, and that's a good way to be remembered. That's exactly what Achilles chose.
[1] Can't you tell how brilliant it was just from the set up?
[2] Primary school - yay, I feel all young again now :)
[3] I started having crushes very early IIRC.
P.S. What better time to quote the lyrics of that haunting song at the end of Tory sung by Josh Groban?
Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me, in your memory
Remember, when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
Just remember me
I am the one star that keeps burning, so brightly,
It is the last light, to fade into the rising sun
I'm with you
Whenever you tell, my story
For I am all I've done
Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me, in your memory
Remember me
I am that one voice in the cold wind, that whispers
And if you listen, you'll hear me call across the sky
As long as I still can reach out, and touch you
Then I will never die
Remember, I'll never leave you
If you will only
Remember me
Remember me...
Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory
Remember, when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
I live forever
Remember me
Remember me
Remember... me...
It all reminds me a bit of when River Phoenix died in 1993. It was Halloween (or possibly the day after when I heard the news), and I was going to the school[2] Halloween party, and read it in the paper - and again I was saddened, though I was much younger then. I'd known him best as the brilliant young incarnation of Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, and had had a crush on him for a while[3]. So sad.
But isn't it nice that film allows a kind of afterlife that wasn't possible before the advent of the movies? Heath Ledger, like River Phoenix, will always be young and beautiful in our eyes, and that's a good way to be remembered. That's exactly what Achilles chose.
[1] Can't you tell how brilliant it was just from the set up?
[2] Primary school - yay, I feel all young again now :)
[3] I started having crushes very early IIRC.
P.S. What better time to quote the lyrics of that haunting song at the end of Tory sung by Josh Groban?
Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me, in your memory
Remember, when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
Just remember me
I am the one star that keeps burning, so brightly,
It is the last light, to fade into the rising sun
I'm with you
Whenever you tell, my story
For I am all I've done
Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me, in your memory
Remember me
I am that one voice in the cold wind, that whispers
And if you listen, you'll hear me call across the sky
As long as I still can reach out, and touch you
Then I will never die
Remember, I'll never leave you
If you will only
Remember me
Remember me...
Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory
Remember, when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
I live forever
Remember me
Remember me
Remember... me...