Notable passings and obits (III)

Sylvia Kristel, RIP, actress of many fine films from the 1970s:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-sylvia-kristel-star-of-emmanuelle,87572/

Lovely, lovely gal.

George McGovern RIP:

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-george-mcgovern-20121021,0,4225248.story

Had his faults but none other than Bobby Kennedy called him "the most decent man in the U.S. Senate".

Not that there's a lot of competition for that title...

Yeah um, that is sort of a low bar especially these days. Ah well.

Interesting that he died within a day or two of Russell Means, the American Indian activist.

I think they'll have a lot to talk about. Two Dakota boys.

I think I still have some McGovern posters in the attic, some looked good in black lights way back when. ;-)

Time to haul 'em out, along with your favorite bong and Jimi Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland" album. Send George off in style.

Any friend of Hunter Thompson's...

Is Electric Ladyland a trip or what? Jeez, talk about visiting another world!

It really disgusts me to think/fantasize about what our country/world could have accomplished in lieu of having the war in Vietnam. As a highlight, I am sure we would have a manned moon base reeking with age by this time and better environmental and research gains.

LBJ called it "that bitch of a war" and could never escape its dark shadow, for all his talk of a "Great Society". The warmongers will have their pound of flesh and the military industrial complex must be maintained at peak level. All other considerations secondary.

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in." George McGovern

Defence spending in the US is a farce - according to the latest 2010 figures the US spends more money on defence than the rest of the world combined. It seems incredible that the arguments are about the cost of welfare and tax cuts while the pink elephant in the room continues tap-dancing. But then no US government has ever had the nerve to increase tax on petrol which could have wiped the out the deficit years ago.

11. Caro gives good insight into this mess. On the one hand, LBJ was viscerally afraid of failure (i.e. losing Vietnam like Truman "lost China"). On the other hand, he was ruthless, duplicitous, and deceptive in his handling of the Gulf of Tonkin "incidents" (ironic quotes intended).

12. And why the US defense budget is stupidly high is definitely a farce. All that money to bankroll our fleet of gold-encrusted Death Stars and the like, especially since our enemies of late have been entirely lacking in air capability. Instead of sinking money into more aircraft carriers, F-22s, and other boner-inducing tech, we should invest a few hundred grand into safehouses, agents, and good ole reliable Human Intelligence. Am I the only who picked up that lesson from the movie adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy? Terrorism will always exist, but I'd rather put money into getting to "the guy who knows the guy" rather than drones that can accurately hit the wrong target or civilians that get retconned into being terrorists.

Lena Horne, RIP:

http://thegrio.com/2010/05/10/legendary-singer-and-actress-lena-horne-dies-at-92...

Jacques Barzun, RIP:

http://news.yahoo.com/cultural-historian-author-jacques-barzun-dies-031105921.ht...

Makes it past the century mark. Way to go, Jacques...

New York Times Barzun obit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/arts/jacques-barzun-historian-and-scholar-dies...

The great Michael Marra - a Scottish singer-songwriter who deserved much wider (or some, to be more precise) success.

A very gifted and beautiful singer - Terry Callier - originator of the New Folk Sound in the 1960s and a great songwriter of significant influence to the likes of Beth Orton, Beck, and others. Aged just 67. I was fortunate enough to have met Terry once and he was a true gentleman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Callier

Didn't know the work of either one of those chaps. Thanks.

18: My favourite Michael Marra song is Mother Glasgow, particularly the Eddi Reader version here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVQW7Efz-ZI
I find the weaving of the city's motto and coat of arms into the lyrics strangely moving. I have no idea why. Nice that it was actually written by someone from Dundee.

A true (secular) humanist has died:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-paul-kurtz-20121028,0,3355069.story

Fans of THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER will know this chap.

(Thanks, Gord)

21 - strangely, I Belong to Glasgow was also written by a Dundonian.

Sometimes it takes courage to be a writer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20135824

24: To join the likes of Garcia Lorca, Rimbaud, and Ambrose Bierce

#11 Here ya go Cliff. I had to fetch some Halloween stuff from the
attic.  I only had one poster left evidently.  Amazing McGovern could
lose so badly and ironic that Nixon was subsequently impeached.

Wow, that is a real relic from bygone days. Wunnerful, just wunnerful.

Penguin/Random House merger - is that a death or a birth? Can one less big publisher be good for writers or readers?

>28 Waywiser_Tundish: - it's already upsetting me, choosing Penguin Random House as the name instead of Random Penguin, which sounds strangely 'cool'.

29: It does sound cool. As does "Penguin House." Even "Random House Penguin," if you think about it.

> 30

Yes, I vote for Penguin House. Somebody has already designed a logo: http://stocklogos.com/sites/default/files/styles/logo-medium-alt/public/penquin-...

29: I like Random Penguin. It reminds me of the late Douglas Adams for some reason.

Myself, I prefer "Sub-Literate Corporate Scum-Suckers Press".

Closer to the reality of book publishing these days.

33: Not everyone shares your optimistic worldview.

So should Disney/Lucasfilms be Disney Wars or Disney Whores.

35: Disney should fire Lucas, and restore the original trilogy to its original form, then lock it in the vault so George Scissorhands can't get his incompetent paws on it. Treat Star Wars the same way it treats Snow White, with a little goddamn respect. Disney doesn't get its jollies by crapping in the mouths of its fans like Lucas is wont to do.

When Star Wars first came out, it was widely reported that it stood roughly at the middle of three trilogies and that Lucas had a grand plan for a total of nine films. My main worry is that Disney will apply the same marketing insight and in depth knowledge of audience expectations that they did with 'John Carter'...

37: In that they'd demand the screenwriter to write a second draft? I'd say that's a massive improvement over the three crappy installments we've had to endure. Yes, Disney is no corporate angel here, but anything to disparage Disney's decisions about Star Wars, in light of Lucas's meddling, awful direction, and awful writing ability, will seem like notable improvements. They might even hire directors who aren't the American version of Uwe Boll's less talented fat cousin. If Lucas was any more out of touch with reality, we'd have to call him Michael Jackson.

Patton Oswalt explains:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDCjIjsZp_Y

Disney can only make Star Wars better. The screenwriting has nowhere to go but up.

Star Wars Expanded Universe is an all-devouring monster that has eaten much of the written sf market. At least with three 30-year old films and three awful prequels, the films couldn't do the same to cinema sf. But now that Disney has its hands on the property, and has plans to extend it... It will only get worse.

40: But now that Disney has its hands on the property, and has plans to extend it... It will only get worse.

How? Seriously, I'm asking. Lucas hit the bottom of the barrel years ago and now is using Chunnel technology to bury into earth's core. How can Disney possibly "make worse" something that is has become a kind of metaphysical constant for cinematic awfulness? Even the cinematic masterpieces of Ed Wood and Uwe Boll can't hold a candle to the epic awfulness, soap opera-style blocking and just-plain-lazy screenwriting of Lucas. The franchise is one thing and I'm not going to complain about the massive marketing juggernaut it's become -- I'll leave my King Lear vs. the Sea routine for things that actually matter in life -- but I do like how Disney handles its cinematic properties, especially the ones it considers "classics." Disney actually has writers, directors, and animators of talent ... unlike Lucas. I'd say, with the next trilogy of Star Wars films, if they have to happen, hand them off to Brad Bird or another Pixar alum. Those fellas can actually handle spectacle, human emotion, and action sequences in a non-pedestrian manner. Lucas would just fuck it up for everybody.

Not worse artistically in terms of each indiviual film. Worse in terms of a commercial tsunami that washes over everything in sight and drowns the entire genre in fatuous action-adventures in space.

42: OK, now that comes across like criticizing Westerns for the focus on agricultural issues. I'm not going to critique a juvenile action-adventure franchise for being aimed at juveniles who like action-adventure. Come on now, this discussion is getting ridiculous.

http://www.cclapcenter.com/2012/11/personal_essay_lucasfilm_the_a.html

Hopefully someone notable will die so we don't have to prolong this silly conversation any further.

Plenty of Star Wars fans are in their forties - because they were juveniles when the original was released. Put Disney commercial muscle behind something that half the male population of the western world views through rose-tinted glasses and you're going to see other areas of science fiction art wither and die through lack of attention.

I hate franchises.

If it isn't hand printed and assembled in a basement, then it's untrustworthy, eh? No wonder I'm a SubGenius, I find this faux authenticity -- and its opposite, Too Big To Fail -- tedious and off-putting. Hey, I'm going to stop whinging on about arcane pop culture flotsam and check out my new copy of Chris Ware's Building Stories

To get this thread back on topic, Janos Rozsas RIP:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_R%C3%B3zs%C3%A1s

Award winning American composer Elliot Carter at age 103.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-05/entertainment/sns-rt-us-usa-music-...

Valerie Eliot, widow of T.S. End of a strange and rather moving love story.

Probably a good thread to post this: What we shouldn't feel nostalgic for:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-we-need-to-stop-feeling-nostalgic-for/

Boris Strugatsky (1933-2012):

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/11/boris-strugatsky-1933-2012/

I was thinking of "Stalker" just the other day.

Farewell, Boris.

Larry Hagman, RIP:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-larry-hagman,89060/

Boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho.

Bryce Courtenay, author of The Power of One, died on November 22nd.

Comix artist Spain Rodriguez:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-comics-artist-spain-rodriguez,89429/

A sad day for music. Dave Brubeck.

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=778419&ocid=ansent11

oh no!

Sad indeed.

This happened yesterday.

Three Cups of Tea' Co-Author Relin Kills Himself

"David Oliver Relin, co-author of the best-selling book "Three Cups of Tea", said in legal filings about a year before his recent suicide that his career suffered from allegations of lies in the story of a humanitarian who built schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan."

59: Allegations of lies never seemed to bother James Frey

Architect Oscar Niemayer at age 104. An atheist who designed churches, and possibly the last Communist on Earth. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-06/brazilian-architect-oscar-niemeyer-dead/44...

I thought that, according to Sarah Palin, Obama was the last communist on Earth. As well as being the Anti-christ, Hitler etc., etc.

60:  I leafed through that one while perusing a bookstore.  Interesting, to say the least.  I read Three Cups of Tea, though.  Maybe I should read Three Cups of Deceit to see what the big deal is?

I think the accusations mostly focused on Greg Mortensen, who was the one who claimed to have built all those schools. Relin was just the co-writer, presumably hired to polish up Mortensen's words. A suit against him was dismissed by the court. Kind of sad that he felt stigmatized as well.

Sir Patrick Moore:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20657939

One of your heroes, Ian?

I loved his astronomy programs when I was young, one of the early science popularisers. A weird eccentric with a bizarre mix of right-wing and liberal views rightly a member of The Official Monster Raving Looney Party.

One of a kind that's for sure. Dab hand on the xylophone too. Possibly the last of the monocle wearers? Good innings though.

The world is definitely a less colourful place without him. There was something wonderful about having the mysteries of outer space explained to you by someone who looked like he might be speaking from first hand experience.

Ravi Shankar, 92.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/sitar-icon-ravi-shankar-dead-92-article-1....

And whilst we're on the musical side: Galina Vishnevskaya, 86:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20681654

Charles Durning is dead. Loved this guy:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/12/25/charles-durning-obit.html

And Jack Klugman.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/24/showbiz/jack-klugman-dies/index.html

Hollywood character actors are dying out in more ways than one.

In re 6 & 7. Whatever else his virtues were -- and they were numerous -- the Senator's record on Native affairs was -- how shall I put this? -- aggressively indifferent. But peace to them both, even so. -- Goddard

While most of the world was paying attention to the death of that great artist Ravi Shankar, somebody else had just left this poor planet a much poorer yet place by her departure. The Swiss soprano Lisa della Casa was a consummate artist, of the sort to appear only two or three times (if at-all) in any generation. She was always a joy to the ear, to the eye, to the heart, and to the mind. God rest her, and may those of us who knew her art never let it be forgotten by those who haven't yet had the priviledge.

Well put, Harry.

Aw, shit, Gerry Anderson has died. Another chunk of my past, lopped off:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20846670

Cross-posted from the SF Fans group:

I grew up on Anderson's shows. Later, I realised that the science in them was pretty shaky; but as a model builder I appreciated the work that went into them (especially how difficult it is to scale down water).

Giventhe time that they were made - and all without CGI! - they still often look good today. In particular,the title sequences to Stingray and UFO were masterpieces - Stingray's often being better and more exciting than the rest of the show! (We'll ignore the earliest appearance of the aberrant apostrophe in the title sequence of UFO...) And Lady Penelope in a negligée toting a Thompson sub-machine gun did funny things to my peace of mind as a twelve-year-old.

I've recently been re-watching UFO on DVD, and feel that it was so close to being game-changing sf television. If only Anderson had taken on a scientific advisor and been allowed to do as he liked with the show/not been pushed around by executives who insisted on so many changes for season 2 of UFO that it became another show altogether (Space:1999). UFO had a lot going for it: a story arc, the possibility that there were factions amongst the aliens who wanted to make peace, some genuine interpersonal conflicts amongst SHADO personnel, even storylines that tacked issues such as racism (a bit daring for 1969). Though the distant future year that the show was set in, 1980, looks distinctly odd to us now...

Well said, Robert!

I particularly agree with your comments on "UFO", which was, at least in that first season, a surprisingly sober, even downbeat series, featuring Ed Bishop as Straker, a commander with a cold ruthlessness it was hard to relate to. Loved the model and miniature work (I have been and still am the occasional model builder)--remember the great sound fx they used for the spinning alien craft?

"Space: 1999" was not, in retrospect, a quality show but it featured some good acting in supporting roles--especially Barry Morse, who once kindly answered a fan letter and sent along a photograph to a star-struck 13 year old on the prairies (still have the letter & pic). My favorite episodes are all in the first season, "War Games" and "Black Sun". The second season, when Fred Freiberger took over as producer, is utter crap, trying to sex up the leads, make everything look more glossy and bright, dumb and dumber storylines. Eck.

Terrific reminiscence, Robert. Thanks.

As far as I recollect, UFO was made in two production runs, because of the closure of the original studio used for indoor filming. They were only shown as one continuous run on first showing in the UK. In a way, life imitated art in that just as Straker was going for a massive budget increase to expand SHADO at the end of the series, so Anderson wanted to move the show up a gear for a second season, and he did a lot of development work on that concept but the costs escalated too much for the networks. In the end, GA used the development work to promote a new show, with bigger US stars (and don't forget, with Martin Landau you got Barbara Bain half-price!) and by the time they'd finished they had a wholly different show, alas.

The first production block had better scripts than the second, which may have hastened its demise.

Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-snakes-on-a-plane-director-david-r-ellis,9059...

>81 kswolff:: I always liked imagining the pitch: "Well, there's these snakes. And they're on this plane."

I thought with all the movie buffs in this thread this would have been mentioned - Harey Carey Jr. May not mean a lot to some people but for lovers of westerns this was notable.

I hadn't heard about Carey--that IS the passing of an era.

Evan S. Connell. I never read the Custer book but highly recommend Mr. and Mrs. Bridge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/arts/evan-connell-88-novelist-in-multiple-genr...

Love this description from the obituary: "Until the success of “Morning Star” when he was 60, he lived modestly, working at whatever job he could find — reading meters, delivering packages, accepting résumés at an unemployment office — so that he could devote himself to writing."

This has always been one my pet peeves -- writers today are more likely to live and work within academia, to the loss of some kind of important contact with the world.

Terrific author.

I think your final point is valid, as well.

> 85 Excellent observation. I think Sherwood Anderson was an insurance salesman. It would be interesting if we could compile somewhere the myriad careers people pursued in order to live while they were writing.

eta - Though that's not one of his careers listed on his LT bio. I believe I had an English prof tell me that 35 yrs ago.

85: This has always been one my pet peeves -- writers today are more likely to live and work within academia, to the loss of some kind of important contact with the world.

That seems like an awful broad generalization, although the MFA factories have the unfortunate effect of making "literature" a hermetic, "special" genre catering to college-educated middle classers, resulting in a lot of boring mediocre fiction that only speaks to a certain socioeconomic demographic. See Jonathan Franzen and the rest of the bourgeois pellet pushers.

Not a person, but an online erotica publisher, Oysters & Chocolate:

http://www.oystersandchocolate.com/Tags/161/EditorsLetter.aspx

Kind of bittersweet, since I got my first paid writing credit via O & C. But it's not all bad, since it looks like the editors have plans for the future.

The Japanese director Nagisa Oshima:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21030965

They didn't cut off his....No, probably not.

The late, great Conrad Bain:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-conrad-bain-diffrent-strokes-star-and-america...

Robert F. Chew, who played Prop Joe, on the Wire, RIP:

http://www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/tv/tvguide/article/Robert-F-Chew-The-Wire...

Film director Michael Winner:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21123532

Maybe convenience and good housekeeping (the habit, not the magazine) might warrant starting a new thread before this one becoems un-manageable?

Antonio Frasconi:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/arts/design/antonio-frasconi-woodcut-master-di...;

And some of his work:

http://www.drawger.com/kroninger/?article_id=13307

(Thanks, Gord)

Stanley Karnow RIP:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/stanley-karnow-journalist-and-vie...

I have his book on Vietnam. Superb.

98: Agreed. Read it to prep for when I was a teaching assistant for a History of Vietnam War class and it proved invaluable. Like The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Shirer, it's an excellent book to use as a starting point.

The great Ohio Players frontman and guitarist LeRoy Bonner died last Saturday at age 69. A friend passed me some paragraphs that were cut out of the Times obit. I posted on my blog (http://wp.me/p2BVwT-8X) and here:

A family member said preliminary tests indicated Mr. Bonner had died from the residual effects of a lifetime addiction to funk.

“They said they had never seen a man with such a pronounced case of funk. It was everywhere. His clothes, his heart. All his major organs were covered in funk, just like the vocals, horn charts, and guitar riffs of the Players’ songs. Not to mention the album covers. Those covers were 100% funk.”

A source in the medical examiner’s office noted that most of Mr. Bonner’s funkiest work was recorded before the music video era, a fact that probably added years to his life.

“Look, if the band had made a videos for ‘Fire’ or ‘Honey’ or ‘Love Rollercoster,’ it would have exposed Bonner and his band to dangerously high levels of funk. Remember, this was 25 years before internet porn. The average human couldn’t cope with that kind of funkiness back in the day.”

Symbolist poetry scholar Bernard Le Pretense noted that funk did not just consume the band’s sound and looks, but also their lyrics. “Just look at the opening lines of “Fire’” Le Pretense said, pinching his nose and declaiming:

Hey, now, huh-huh
Hey, hey, hey, no, (Ow, now)
Hey, now, huh-huh
Hey, hey, hey, no

Fire (Uh) Uh
Fire (It’s all about) Uh, uh
Fire (Woo, woo, woo)
Fire

“As you can hear, it is really a cri-de-coeur for more and more funk,” Le Pretense explained.

David Stock of the CDC, and an avid record (“well, CD”) collector, expressed mild surprise at the longevity of funkateers. ”Frankly I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen more funk-related deaths. But I suppose the Eagles and Air Supply really cut down on airplay back in the 70’s. Which ruined radio but saved a lot of lives.”

If Tommy Pynchon wrote an obit, it would read like that.

Cheers, Seth. A fitting tribute.

100: That is really great.

85, 86, 87 -

Just catching up with things a little here - I quite enjoyed Evan Connell's White Lantern which I found new in the Soho Book Shop (Brewer Street?) some years ago for about 2 quid - with a lovely Pimlico soft cover. Had never really encountered him before or since, but sorry to hear he's passed.

94 -

Well at least us Brits won't have to ever experience his insufferably annoying car insurance adverts again.

Thank you, Cliff and Anna. I actually still own the 45 of "Fire." I think they were a truly great band. And I feel a little bit weird goofing on a hero, but sometimes your read an obit and it just doesn't match the man...

The last of the Andrews sisters:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21271637

Off to meet up with that Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. There was a great story about the Andrews Sisters on NPR this morning too with some interesting videos. http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/01/31/133568889/patty-andrews-leader-of-...

I remember them best from the Abbot & Costello movie, "Buck Privates".

The Andrews gals...lovely harmonies.

From Dario Fo to Flash Gordon - Marinagela Melato.

The one, the only, Ed Koch:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/01/16804705-irrepressible-icon-former-ne...

Ironically, this week also sees a documentary released about the former NYC Mayor:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/koch,91780/

I'm not sure how much of my memories of Koch are creeping nostalgia. At the time -- NYC in the 80s -- I had very mixed feelings about him. The corruption scandals in his third term and the feeling that things had just gone to pot. At the same time very fond memories of him waving from the steps of City Hall, appearing on tv outraged over movie ticket prices ("$8.50 for a movie! It's outrageous!), the feeling that he was very involved in the life of the city. I miss that in politicians.

RIP Reg Presley of the Troggs:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-reg-presely-singer-for-the-troggs,92011/

Stuart Freeborn, one of the great makeup men:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21357301

#111: For Reg:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/feb/05/reg-presley-troggs-songs-c...

(A Gord find.)

Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda's body to be exhumed:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-09/chile-court-orders-remains-of-poet-neruda-...

Canada phasing out pennies:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/canada-begins-phasing-out-pennies,31178/

Unofficial spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill dies of a heart attack:

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/13/1587531/heart-attack-grill/?mobile=nc

Johnny Rendall--a sad death:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/feb/09/jonathan-rendall

(From Gord)

The blue/green screen guy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21463817

Michael Bay could not have existed without him.

Hmmmm...

The best homage of the blue screen is from Wayne's World:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQEwJdhfddk

Country artist Mindy McCready takes her own life.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/02/18/country-singer-mindy-mccready-de...

Incredibly sad story and yet another example that, yes, fame does not guarantee happiness and a fulfilled life. All those arseholes out there who think they're missing out on something because their lives aren't as interesting as the people they read about in tabloids should take heed of these incidents (but, of course, they don't).

Remember that quote from Mill about "success disclosing faults and infirmities which failure might have concealed from observation".

Two other quotes come to mind as well:

"From the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made." (Kant)

&

"Little is needed to make a wise man happy, but nothing can content a fool. That is why nearly all men are miserable." (La Rochefoucauld)

Richard Briers, 79. A sad day for comedy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21498077

Oh, no! Brilliant as Bertie Wooster and let's not forget his turn in "Wind in the Willows". Very sad indeed. Fabulous voice.

121> Agreed. We see so many of these "successful" people who work so long and hard to achieve their dreams then piss it away and disappoint us by being as weak and flawed as the rest of us.
Money can also exacerbate problems.

#123 I recently played Reg in Table Manners, one of Alan Ayckbourn's Norman Conquests so of course I watched him in the TV version with Penelope Keith and Tom Conti. Marvelous timing, great comedian.

Very sad to hear about Richard Briers. Anyone living in 1970s Britain can't fail to have been charmed by his Tom Good in the excellent 'The Good Life' sitcom. Also, he was very good in 'Ever Decreasing Circles' in the '80s as well as countless other fine productions, including 'The Wind in The Willows' and several Shakespearean productions on both stage and screen. One of the best.

Ray Cusick, designer of the Daleks. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21563344

RIP Van Cliburn:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-classical-pianist-and-cold-war-hero-van-clibu...

Alan Westin, creator of modern privacy law. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/us/alan-f-westin-scholar-who-defined-right-to-...

Allan Calhamer, inventor of the board game "Diplomacy"
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/938021/allan-b-calhamer-passed-away-monday-desig...

130: I still have that game somewhere. It used to take days to finish a game. Everybody playing had to be prepared to make a commitment.

Hugo Chavez. Love him or hate him...
A couple months ago I read The Dictator's Learning Curve which had an interesting chapter of life in Chavez' Venezuela.

Count me among the Chavez fans--flawed, but he did more for the poor and forgotten of his country than most political leaders (the majority in thrall to their corporate masters). A true revolutionary...and, God knows, the world needs a few more of 'em.

This one for you 'ugo, from the Kinks 1967 Death of a Clown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK-Po-IGY8k

Agree with 133.

133: A horrible little thug, unbearably self-important and in love with himself, unable to formulate coherent thoughts, supporter of Mugabe... there is much to loathe. And he has left his country to clean up the mess he created.
On the other hand, he wasn't actually evil, he did make the poor in the country visible and redress some of the gaping inequality that existed and still exists. Maybe someone more competent can build on that and something better will emerge.

It is amazing that dictators come across now as clowns rather than pure evil: Chavez, Amadinejad, even Bashar Assad looks like an Arab version of Jacques Tati. The one who comes closest is Putin but even he, with his cowboy strut and shirtless muscle man poses, has strong elements of clownishness. They still cause great suffering and choose to disregard the rule of law when they feel like it.

What is the definition of dictator now? I thought it was someone who seized control without being chosen by the people but evidently I have missed a memo.

ETA: http://fair.org/take-action/media-advisories/in-death-as-in-life-chavez-target-o...

138: A dictator can be chosen by the people. He becomes a dictator if he then decides the people don't need that choice any more. I'm not saying Chavez was a dictator. He clearly showed totalitarian tendencies, tried to seize power in a coup, and described Cuba as being a "revolutionary democracy," which doesn't augur well, but his democratic credentials were not put to the test.

137: I had just been thinking the same thing. Add to that list Mugabe, "Emperor" Bokassa, Tyrolean Hat Saddam, Gadaffi, and Mussolini. Even Hitler was ridiculous to those peoples blessed with a sense of humour. Perhaps there is an evolutionary basis to coulrophobia.

Stompin' Tom Connors:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/stompin-tom-connors-dies-at-77-1.1185264

#138 I think it helps when you shut down the Free press, arrest your political critics, appoint all the judges, erode the separation of powers (etc., etc.) as per Chavez. Putin was elected by popular vote but since all real opposition parties were shut down or intimidated by him was this really a free election?
As Marx said nobody knows what socialism looks like. All so called socialist systems are really variants of State capitalism - another way for politicians to grab power and at their heart no different from the crony capitalism and pay-to-play political corruption practiced in the US.

The following are from the Wikipedia article on Chavez:

On Press Freedom:
"Although the freedom of the press was mentioned by two key clauses in the 1999 Constitution of Venezuela, in 2008, Human Rights Watch criticized Chávez for engaging in "often discriminatory policies that have undercut journalists' freedom of expression" Freedom House listed Venezuela's press as being "Not Free" in its 2011 Map of Press Freedom, noting that "the gradual erosion of press freedom in Venezuela continued in 2010." Reporters Without Borders criticized the Chávez administration for "steadily silencing its critics". In the group's 2009 Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders noted that "Venezuela is now among the region’s worst press freedom offenders."

He has been cited By Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch for human rights abuses and violation of civil rights.

#140 Thanks, Harry. Ol' Tom was a proud Canadian lad. Never heard a bad word about him.

141: Well do not even get me started on Freedom House. As for the rest I am not saying his era was perfect but compared to Venezuela before him, he helped the poor more. I remember how the Sandinistas were criticized for freedom of press issues when the oligarchs next door to them were murdering nuns. There should be perspective and balance.

When one ponders the regimes in that region of the world, the juntas and disappearances, bodies dumped out of helicopters over the Pacific, the terrible eras of Somoza, Pinochet, the "dirty war" in Argentina, Hugo Chavez's excesses seem pretty tepid by comparison. I recall (in Venezuela) no unmarked vans pulling people off the street, no bulging political prisons, summary executions, other hallmarks of truly godawful regimes. He won elections that were generally well-conducted and fair--his brilliance lay in getting the poor to register as voters, giving them some hope of truly impacting affairs in their country that until Chavez's Bolivarian came along were in the hands of the military and their rich, elite cronies (assisted by a cowed parliament and appointed, compromised judiciary).

Give me Chavez over the Bush family of fuckheads any day.

However, there was a clear skyscraper gap.

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2013/03/worst-chavez-obit/comment-page-1#com...

144: When one ponders the regimes in that region of the world, the juntas and disappearances, bodies dumped out of helicopters over the Pacific, the terrible eras of Somoza, Pinochet, the "dirty war" in Argentina, Hugo Chavez's excesses seem pretty tepid by comparison.

Well, Hitler's excesses, when compared to the millions killed under Mao and Stalin, seem pretty tepid by comparison.

Blech, what vomitous moral cowardice wrapped in the faux pieties of the Left. It's the same reasoning Kissinger uses for supporting Francisco Franco -- playing the relativist numbers game. Here's a little nugget to chew on from historian Simon Schama, talking about the historian Pierre Caron's martyrology of the French Revolution and the September massacres:

"The book that resulted, and which is still cited reverentially by historians, is a monument of intellectual cowardice and moral self-delusion. ... The overall effect is meant to be comforting for the revolutionary historian: the scholarly normalization of evil."

Good riddance to that pompous thug. Hopefully Castro will join him soon enough. I'm still hoping for a Vatican Spring, that will plow that dictatorship under the soil once and for all.

Well, Hitler's excesses...

I'm invoking Godwin's law.

I was just gonna say...

Karl, I missed the point of 146, except that you don't like Chavez. As far as I have heard, he was not exactly either Hitler or Robespierre - what is it about him that you didn't like and that is qualitatively different/worse than U.S.-supported regimes in the region? Or for that matter, qualitatively different/worse than previous Venezuelan administrations, none of which have been criticized here as ferociously? Seems to me his major crime in the eyes of Americans is being anti-US foreign policy.

149: I for one, have no problem with people taking issue with US foreign policy. Chavez's major crime in my eyes was being a pompous, attention-seeking arse. This ranks far below genocide. It did make him hard to like, however.

150: Fair enough. I think it is sort of common disease of politicians. Anyway I don't want to keep harping on this, except that I react because I find hyperbolic ad hominem stuff a little weird.

Not you, actually, but for example, #146. What's with the strong language here? And why do people who didn't absolutely despise Chavez get called such nasty names? I don't see people in the US who are *not anti-chavez* (which does not exactly equate to being cheerleaders, just people who understand nuance and context) as moral cowards - after all, it's not exactly a popular view, much easier in my view to call him a strongman etc. and move on just like they do on NPR.

Anyhow this is getting tedious and I would like to move on, so can people either defend the nastiness with actual horrible things Chavez did, that are worse than what US friends do, or lay off?

Yeah, let's move on. Lots of other passings, I fear, to record in the days/weeks/months to come.

147: Well, Hitler's excesses...

I'm invoking Godwin's law.

Exactly. When defending a toad like Chavez, we might as well take it to its irrational conclusion. But hey, there were less mass graves under Chavez than under other dictators, so he must be A-OK! (Cue Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover photo op.)

149: As far as I have heard, he was not exactly either Hitler or Robespierre - what is it about him that you didn't like and that is qualitatively different/worse than U.S.-supported regimes in the region? Or for that matter, qualitatively different/worse than previous Venezuelan administrations, none of which have been criticized here as ferociously? Seems to me his major crime in the eyes of Americans is being anti-US foreign policy.

If you're not democratically elected and rule autocratically for life, does it matter? Rightwing, leftwing? About the only difference between the two is how they groom their facial hair. Granted, Chavez wasn't a garden variety fascist meat puppet the US is so enthusiastic about supporting. And can one be both anti-US foreign policy and equally against the dictators, autocrats, and theocratic thugs who are anti-US foreign policy? It's a quite sad state of affairs when one can't be against a rights-shredding dictatorial thug without being called into question for it. Back in the day, there were Leftists and Socialists who were anti-Stalinist. I am anti-dictatorship and anti-anyone who supports them or makes excuses for them, either from moral cowardice or semantic hair-splitting. I know my being anti-Batista and anti-Castro confuses the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers who haunt the Occupy Wall Street areas on Facebook. At some point, Star Wars fanboys and Chaves fanboys become indistinguishable from each other.

***

Sybill Williams died, the 1st wife of Richard Burton

I know we should move on, but this New Yorker piece written just before Chavez moved on paints a portrait of Venezuela as one of the worst places on the planet. Don't know if you can access it for free, but it was really eye-opening. We "first-worlders" take rule of law for granted. I can't help but worry that we're just a massive economic collapse away from living in a world where that faulty-but-precious safety net vanishes and life becomes rock bottom cheap...

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/01/28/130128fa_fact_anderson

154: The only addition I can make to that is certain first worlders of a comfortable socioeconomic tax bracket take rule of law for granted. Everyone beneath the amorphous amoebic middle class is still struggling to keep their head above water, by hook or crook. Just watch The Godfather, Part II

155: I actually have a little bit of experience being in the poor and rural tax bracket (though I realize part of my impression may be due to white privilege) and don't think the majority of the American poor are, generally, involved either directly or indirectly in a criminal or "lumpenproletariat" underclass in a country that has basic rule of law like the US.

I think most poor people in the US are/were probably a lot like the poor described in Adam Bede (paraphrase from memory) who aren't gaudy, interesting (she uses the word "romantic") criminals but rather hardworking, luxury-less, but essentially honest and upstanding people who may even have a greater horror of petty crime than many richer people do. I believe the way she puts it is something like a "proud class" that "pays the most poor-rates and has the most horror of ever needing to live off the poor-rates".

155> Thanks for that. I fall into that category.

156: Nobody ever admits they are a member of the underclass and the "middle class" seems to get larger and larger, despite economic indicators to the contrary. So I guess, The American Middle Class, RIP.

Really? I grew up poor. I would not have identified as middle class and even now feel disturbingly close to the edge because in our country most people no matter what class they think they are a part of are one or two paychecks from the street. I was just pointing out that I think most poor are "working poor" rather than petty criminals.

That said I do think that there should be more class awareness in America and I think that is one of the good things to come out of the Occupy movement: that now there is more of a conversation about income disparities, the safety net, etc.

Just found out that James herbert has died aged 69, he was a truly great writer and will be sadly missed.

Along with Harry Reems, 70s cinema icon:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-harry-reems-legendary-porn-star-of-deep-throa...

"Brother number 3," Pol Pot's brother-in-law, and co-founder of the Khmer Rouge, Ieng Sary:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9931092/Ieng-Sary.html

The penultimate sentence is telling: “I am a gentle person. I believe in good deeds,” he claimed.

#160 While James Herbert might have had some entertainment value, is he truly a "great" writer?

I read him "back in the day" and even then (25 years ago) there was a sense that his was pure hackwork. Horror has never been a genre that benefited from literary genius; like fantasy fans, horror buffs are willing to forgive any shortcoming, as long as the story is fun.

the photo of the Pol Pot leader, Ieng Sary shows someone so bland and normal looking that we are reminded that brutality and an inhuman dictatorship can look deceptively banal and ordinary, yet what a horrible legacy left in Cambodia . You travel there today and are still reminded of the horrors of civil war, the wiping out of millions and the struggle to overcome the gouged history of the past . Yet it is a country worth visiting despite its appalling past leadership and tragic history. A passionate commitment to an extremist ideology and a belief in simple solutions to complex social problems leads to wicked deeds under the cover of goodness and reform. How could this man have survived this long and not been held accountable for his crimes?

So strange. I was just talking to my Cambodian-American coworker and he says he went back to Cambodia and people asked him when he was born, when he said "1978" they said "no, it can't be." He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. An entire generation missing from a country. So strange.

#160 I reread The Spear and The Survivor a couple of years ago, and they really are quite badly-written. Neat plots, but Herbert's prose was terrible. Apparently he did get better...

163: I read him "back in the day" and even then (25 years ago) there was a sense that his was pure hackwork. Horror has never been a genre that benefited from literary genius; like fantasy fans, horror buffs are willing to forgive any shortcoming, as long as the story is fun.

Right on, Cliff! Now where's the nearest bonfire, so I can get rid of my Edgar Allan Poe Talk about a talentless hack.

One of my friends on LT did a funny anti-review of the Murders on the Rue Morgue. He thought the story was the dumbest thing he'd ever read. I am very fond of Poe's florid style but it is true that detective fiction improved as it went along.

Without sound too pedantic, can we define what exactly is meant by "literary genius" and "horror"? I stand by Harold Bloom's kabbalistic-inspired mosaic of voices and visions in his book, Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds While I throw out "Saw" and the torture porn subgenre, and Steven King's prodigious, albeit incredibly lazy, hackwork, I stand by Clive Barker and David Cronenberg as "literary geniuses" working within the horror genre.

Without sounding pedantic? Isn't that the whole point of this group? It was not named "Literary Lightweights" after all...

I like Clive Barker too.

Being a snob doesn't automatically make one a pedant. More of an attitude thing. The Aesthete vs The Puritanical Scold. At root, it's about the pleasure we extract from literature. Some just enjoy keeping the bar unrealistically high, installing some gilded idols on very high pedestals, and then chastising anyone who dares fall below such nosebleed-inducing standards. Pedants are like hipsters with ready access to $10 words, eternal reactionaries waiting to needlessly correct and preen about how they liked such-and-such "before it was cool." As a snob, I could give less than a damn about what everyone else thinks, nor am I scrambling for acceptance by groveling before the usual band of icons. I still don't see why Paul Auster is worth my time. But I like Kathy Acker and Andrew Vachss

... this conversation is getting off track.

Yes let's get back to dead people.

Yep, almost got it worked out about this Group/thread/recent posts.

OK. Who is taller? kswolff or cliffburns? the peasant is just one/all of us :-)

Only problem is, there seems to be some sort of 'copyright' issue with the original tape. Watch it while you can. I don't think it is complete.

Chinua Achebe
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21898664
I only read one of his books Anthills of the Savannah. Really enjoyed it. Now maybe I'll try to find Things Fall Apart.

Oh heavens. I didn't know he was still alive actually. I read Things Fall Apart for a college history course and still remember how sad it was.

A great man of the African continent . We salute Achebe .

Things Fall Apart is truly marvelous, I've always meant to read more of his books.

Did Goodreads die today? Or just have eternal life bestowed on it?
And will this bring a new crop of snobs? Hark!

R.I.P Richard Griffiths who played Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films and was also seen on television and the London Stage and i believe he was to appear on Broadway in the autumn with an american friend of his in a production they had appeared in in London. Thanks for the memories Richard, you will be sadly missed.

His "Uncle Monty" will live forever.

I enjoyed him as Dr. Meinheimer from the Naked Gun movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6DFHh2XxLk

I will always remember him from the TV series "Pie in the Sky", where he plays an Inspector and a "bantum chicken" loving restauranter. No car chases, no guns or fights just "cooking" and "detecting" and an occassional "sigh".

Grindhouse auteur Jess Franco:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-jess-franco,95996/

Some afternoon schadenfreude ... LucasArts RIP:

http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20130403&id...

I'm starting to come around to this whole Disney buying Star Wars thing. Maybe Jar Jar will be next on the chopping block?

Roger Ebert.... the end of an entire era of movie reviewing, I think.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/04/roger-ebert-dead/63892/

The Iron Lady has rusted away:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

#186 - sad for her family but as an ex-miner have no comment about her for what she did to british industry.

Mouseketeer and film star Annette Funicello:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/04/08/obit-funicello-annette.html

186: I'll always remember Thatcher from Spitting Image:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU9lv_WqK6k

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, author of Heat and Dust and screenwriter for a number of Merchant Ivory films, passed away on April 3.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/03/local/la-me-ruth-prawer-jhabvala-2013040...

Now she was one of my favourite authors .. Great film scripts of EM Forster novels. Said she understood him and his view of India and she made a brilliant trio with the Merchant Ivory team.

Documentary film-maker Les Blank:

http://www.cp24.com/entertainment-news/documentary-filmmaker-les-blank-dies-at-7...

Peace to all the departed spirits. Meanwhile, Cliff -- presumably in the Land of the Living -- is it perhaps time to start-up a new thread, if only to keep things manageable? Peace, brother.

Yes, she really had a great vision and love for India. And for the upper crust and class conflict, too. I should watch 'em again. (like so many other movies that fade in my memory.)

Glenda Jackson salutes Baroness Thatcher:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDtClJYJBj8

Delighted to return to this thread for the first time in a while to see that the disturbing level of hagiography (in the UK mass media at least) at the recent demise of Thatcher has not been repeated on the discerning LT!

I won't be in London on Wednesday when her state-funded "it's-not-a-state-funeral" procession will march past, but if I was then I'd join those in turning my back on her. I'll be working in the south Welsh valleys where you can see the living proof of how she systematically destroyed much of what had once been decent and dignified in these parts...

Austerity measures: brutal.
Working-class Britons shoved on their asses because of it: millions.
Having a state-funded funeral at the tax-payer's expense during the worst economic meltdown in history: PRICELESS!!!
--Brought to you by the Tories and their parasitic fellow travelers.

Sad news for Trailer Park Boys fans, Richard Collins, who played Philadelphia "Phil" Collins, died today:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Collins_%28actor%29

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evCj25UtfLM

Pat Summerall reaches the end zone:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/broadcast-icon-pat-summerall-dies-at-age-82-0...

"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child"

Ritchie Havens R.I.P.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/arts/music/richie-havens-guitarist-and-singer-...

Sad loss. I heard some of his more recent music on the radio in the last year or two and it was brilliant. So soulful and still very vibrant.

A sad day.

Just read that the actor Alan Arbus who played Dr. Sidney Freedman on the TV series M*A*S*H* has passed away at the age of 95.
I recall his advice to the MASH unit, "Pull down your pants and slide on the ice!"

I saw an interview with him a few years ago. Apparently he was so convincing in his role as the good psychiatrist that people would still come up to him years later and ask mental health questions.

Surprised no one mentioned Chrissy Amphlett

Check the new "Obits" thread.

Dr. Joyce Brothers.