It's Day 353 of the Year 2018 CE
So, December 19, 2018 - for my reference if nothing else.

ex·is·ten·tial·ism
/?egz?'sten(t)SH??liz?m/Submit
noun
a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.

Who? Whom? Which? What? WTF, it's Jean Genet, born 12/19/1910.

Existential writ large, compadres, writ large. Petty criminal, ne'er do well, novelist, poet, essayist, playwright, absurdist, and political activist. The scope of his activism would surprise you. A supporter of Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Danny the Red), The Black Panthers, Angela Davis, George Jackson, Yasser Arafat, as well as Michel Foucault and Daniel Defert's Prison Information Group and others. Such of his writings asOur Lady of the Flowers, The Balcony and The Blacks perhaps less so, unless you haven't read them, in which case, do so.

We can add another who lived quite a life. She wasn't known as an existentialist, but nonetheless:
Milord:

padam padam:

La Vie en Rose:

Edith Piaf (aka La Piaf), born 12/19/1915. Abandoned by her mother and raised in a brothel until she became a street performer at an early age. Lost a daughter and a lover, was seriously injured in a car wreck, then survived two other near fatal crashes and struggled with morphine and alcohol addictions as a result. She eventually became France's national songstress with somewhat augobiograpical songs and famously declared, in song, Je Ne Regrette Rien:

So, just as one may sing the tale of one's life, one might also sing the tales of one's lifetime, and be a 'singing journalist". That is how the illustrious Phil Ochs, born 12/19/1940 described himself and his work. A prolific writer of what he called "topical music", he is best remembred as a protest singer, even though much of his work was social and/or political commentary, much of it still as relevant as it was then.

And then again, I and many of my generation followed his call to arms and swore to forsake the natinal pastime no matter what the cost

Existentialists? Well, Sartre thought Genet was, and his writings and life fit the pattern, though he was no "philosopher". A list of famous or great existentialists usually contains almost exclusively philosophers and maybe Kafka and Sartre. But if you ignore that shitty definition up there, yeah, for sure they were. The word is invariably defined as a school of philosophy or philosophical inquiry and those who dabble in it. But that very school of thought, itself, holds that it is individuals, and they alone who give meaning to their lives and existence by living and living authentically in the face of the absurd world that envelops them. In that respect, they all more than qualify, and I'll suggest one more, one who lived authentically and died on 12/19/1997. I believe his output established well enough his awareness of the absurdity abut him.

Perhaps you've heard the term "Chicago Blues". That was Jimmy Rogers, at least far more so than anybody else. Born in Mississippi and raised in Georgia and Tennessee, he leaned to play harmonica as a kid and guitar as a young teen, playing in Est St. Louis along with the likes of Robert Lockwood Jr. He moved to Chicago and joined Muddy Waters and Little Walter in what became Muddy's band and the three of them pretty much created and defined South Side Chicago Blues. He stuck with Muddy and did some solo work, then eventually played with Howlin' Wolf for a while before he finally quit, drove a cab and started a clothing store that burned down. At that point he started up as a solo artist again. His best known songs are probably "That's All Right" and "Walking by Myself", but if you really want to get a feel for his work, get a copy of "Blues, Blues, Blues" by "The Jimmy Rogers All Stars" (Jimmy Rogers, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Lowell Fulson, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Jeff Healey, Johnnie Johnson, Freddie Crwford, Ted Harvey, and Steven Stills are credited, and who knows who else sat in).

(Image: manet_balcony_1869 in "Art Gallery ErgsArt" )

OK, it's an open thread, so go for it ...