Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

Sadly, the author Kurt Vonnegut died today at age 84. What does this have to do with music? Well the Grateful Dead publishing company was called Ice Nine Publishing, a direct reference to Cat's Cradle. I never understood what it meant until I read the book (which I highly recommend). Pretty cool.

Today I was trying to figure out if the band, The Dresen Dolls, was a reference to Slaughterhouse Five. In that Vonnegut book the main charecter survived the bombing of Dresen in WWII by hiding out in a meathouse, called Slaughterhose Five (which really did happen to Vonnegut). Anyway I found this in a chat on the Dresden Dolls web site:
Q. "Where did the band's name come from?"
A. Dresden is a city in eastern Germany that was known widely for it's delicate china and porcelain, and for the delicate and innocent “dresden dolls” made from said stuffs. Ironically, many people also associate Dresden with the not-so-delicate firebombing that took place at the hands of the allies towards the very end of WWII in 1945, practically levelling the entire inner city (and it's unparalleled architectural beauty) within a few short days and killing thousands of men, women and children. If you're interested in an excellent book touching on the subject, written from an American soldier's artistic perspective, check out “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Finally, when looking for that answer I stumbled across this site which tries to track down all the Vonnegut music links. So I guess I wasn't the first to have this idea!