Goodbye Betty, Goodbye Phoebe, Goodbye Amy

As is the custom for the cold last week of December, television and radio news programs pulled out the list of famous men and women who died throughout the year.

I was almost ready to hop out of bed the other day when NPR did an audio montage featuring musicians and songwriters we lost in 2011. Listening to it cast me into one of those bittersweet moments when the corner of my lips turn up into a small smile while my heart aches just a bit.

This may sound terrible, but my favorite part of the yearly Oscar show is when the glitterati take time out from honoring one another to remember the movie stars and filmmakers who died throughout the year. Watching the clips from old movies is like thumbing through a family scrapbook and being reminded of long forgotten friends.

I don't know exactly when it started to happen, but gradually the faces of those who passed away during the year have moved from being almost exclusively from my mom and dad's generation, to include many from my generation.

Of course, my generation has long been represented. We've lost many to tragic overindulgences and the inability to cope, like Mama Cass, John Belushi and Richard Brautigan. Others, like John Lennon, were taken from us far too soon.

However, for the longest time these were the exceptions. For every one from my generation who left us early like the shooting star you catch out of the corner of your eye, there were ten from my parents' generation.

I knew them too. I've always loved old movies and music. I'll still watch just about any Cary Grant movie they queue up on AMC and I've been downloading a lot of Louie Armstrong music to my iPhone lately.

When noted artists from my parents' generation died, I could look back and appreciate their entire body of work and see how much they contributed to entertaining us through the years. But, when someone like Jimi Hendrix was included in the montage, it was different. The influence was huge, but somehow incomplete.

Today notable men and women from my generation are beginning to pass on who have had enough time to let us know what they were capable of doing. Steve Jobs gave us an entire digital lifestyle starting with the humble Apple II computer and moving on to the iEverything. Gil Scott-Heron and Phoebe Snow created truly singular music and sounds that both inspired and entertained. (And, for those of us who appreciated Phoebe Snow, there are many things unsettling about losing Amy Winehouse in the same year.)

There are still many from my parents' generation making the year end roster; James Arness, Jackie Cooper and Betty Ford, are a few names included in most of the 2011 lists.

But my generation is catching up fast and very soon we'll be dominating.