Noted Passings and Obits

Well, it happens more often that we like to think. Our heroes and influences dying off like butterflies in a killing jar.

Here's a spot to say a few words, send them on their way with a pat (or brickbat if you're a particularly insensitive bastard).

For instance:

Today it was announced that Patrick McGoohan has passed away. I'm a big fan of "The Prisoner" and have a badly dubbed copy of all 17 episodes. The sound is terrible but until I lay my hands on a decent DVD of the series, I'm hanging on to these like an original, first edition Tris Speaker baseball card:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/01/14/patrick-mcgoohan-obit.html

Ricardo Montalban also died. Now I should watch The Naked Gun again.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Ricardo_Montalban

"Khan!"

Now if only Rick Warren could slip on a banana peel, I'd feel much better.

"Wrath of Khan" is my favorite Trek.

With his health problems he lived to be 88. That ain't half bad. Another little piece of my childhood drifts off into the ether...

I felt the same way when William S. Burroughs passed ... or dissolved. He outlived nearly everyone. I'm still surprised Keith Richards is alive. He's the solution to the global drug problem. Call the ad campaign, "Give 'em to Keef."

Hunter Thompson was a tough one for me (Burroughs too). Thompson pulled me off the straight and narrow and encouraged me to experiment with--er, just a second, have to check the statute of limitations...

Claude Berri, French film director, also passed away. He made Jean de Florette and Manon des sources, among others.

Ah, that IS too bad. Berri was a good one. And yet Michael Bay lives on...

There is a perverse pleasure in reading the obituaries in the newspapers - half the time, my response is "I thought they died years ago".

Others I've noticed over the last week are -

Donald Westlake - he wrote lots of mystery novels under various pseudonyms;was possibly better known for his novels under the name Richard Stark, with the lead character, Parker - who became Walker in the great film, Point Blank.

Bernie Hamilton - Captain Dobey from Starsky and Hutch - "Now get outta my office before I change my mind!"

I opened this thread mistakenly believing it to be in the Bug Collectors group, and started wondering what solution you were going to propose to the problem of our heroes dying off like so many butterflies.

>8 Jargoneer: Jargoneer, have you seen Laurie Mann's Dead People Server? http://dpsinfo.com/dps/

They maintain lists of both actually dead people and people who are alive but who you thought "died years ago".

Anglemark: what a brilliant idea for a site! Two recent deaths that fall into the category of I-thought-they-were-gone-already were the actor Van Johnson (92 years young) and the legendary NFL quarterback, "Slingin'" Sammy Baugh.

Those ones made me go "Hmmm..."

...and further, I think our heroes SHOULD be preserved, like butterflies, pinned on a board in all their beauty, for all time...

UK bookmakers will take bets on the first famous person to die in a new year.

There are 3 Oscar winning actresses over 90 still with us - Luise Rainer (99), and the sisters: Olivia de Haviland (92) and Joan Fontaine (91). The latter two are kept alive by mutual hatred and refuse to die before the other.

I know the feeling. I intend to live long enough to piss on ___________________'s grave.

(Name deleted at the insistence of my solicitor)

Jerry Falwell? Good idea for a road trip. Maybe we could all rent a bus and micturate on the grave of that enlarded homophobic ponce.

Maybe Rick Warren can get hit by a bus driven by Michael Bay.

Ah, my old darlings, John Mortimer, the creator of "Rumpole of the Bailey" has joined the choir invisible. Funny man, smart, socially conscious. I could read the RUMPOLE books over and over again and, of course, the great Leo McKern was the absolute perfect actor to the play the irascible, poetry spouting Old Bailey hack.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/01/16/mortimer-dies.html

Andrew Wyeth passed away in his sleep last night at the age of 91. The museum at Texas Tech has a wonderful collection of Wyeth family paintings, etc. I loved to look at his father's paintings used in so many classic children's tales, and how the same light would be used in Andrew's work, and in his children's as well.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/16/andrew.wyeth.obit/index.html

Too bad there is no way to forecast famous births. This thread is a real downer - it would be great if we could point to "on the upside, the greatest artist of the 21st century was born in New York this morning at 7:38 a.m."

"In a manger on this day, in the city of David..."

(Headline in the JUDEA WEEKLY SUPPLEMENT)

Some time this weekend everyone here raise a glass of "Chateau Thames Embankment" in honour of our friend and colleague John Mortimer.

Bless his great heart...

I'll gladly raise one to JM

Reading his autobiographical stuff, I saw I would immediately like Sir John--his politics, his wit. Yup, we could have spent a great evening getting snockered together, taking turns making lacerating comments about the rich, famous and stupid.

Ah, well.

Here's to ya, Sir John...

Plonk!

I was surprised Wyeth was still ALIVE. Motalban, Mortimer, Wyeth. God's being a right honorable bastard this week.

Well, perhaps not a notable passing but...Bob May has died:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/01/19/obit-may-bob.html

i was worried there for a moment..first thought Brian May - guitarist for Queen and radio astronomer.

If one goes to a comic book store, check out the cover of the 5th vol(?) of AIR (G. Willow Wilson). The most famous of all Wyeth paintings is given homage.

Another John is dead, this time it's Updike:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012701656....

Imagine he's having a good time in the Great Beyond with Studs Terkel and George Carlin

Just read this myself. Whatever you think of his work, it's the passing of an era.

At least he had an active and searching mind, which is more than I can say about many of the scribblers and hacks plying their trade these days...

Wasn't an active and searching mind "treasonous, atheistical, and gay", at least according to our outgoing Misadministration? It's funny how similar the rantings of creationists are with Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

I remember in high school reading the Updike story about the teenagers in the convenience store. Forget the title, but my high school brain was like, "Whoa! This is cool!"

Time to dig out my copy of The Centaur and Couples. My dad read the "Rabbit" books.

Updike was a giant!

>30 Porius: - that's going to make burying him difficult. Where do you get a coffin for a giant?

Joking aside, when Updike was good he could be very good indeed but he had difficulty whenever he left his comfort zone. His nonfiction is worth reading, he was an excellent critic.

I agree he (Updyke) was a very knowledgeable and erudite critic. I once heard about a short story he wrote about a woman who is drunk and loses her child in the bath tub. If anyone knows the title of that one or the collection it's from, let me know.

I'm not sure I'd want to be known as a writer who couldn't compose a decent sex scene...then again, that probably describes about 99% of the SF-horror-fantasy scribblers out there.

Said in an Ed McMahon voice: "Hey-oooo! You are correct, sir!"

Cliff, that also puts Updike in the company with Mailer, although Ancient Evenings had its moments. Gore Vidal had the best description for Mailer: "He wasn't a macho writer, he was a butch writer." Interpret that however you like ;)

Vidal seems like the last of the Sixties titans. Here's a great essay on Updike, Roth, and Mailer by the also late David Foster Wallace:

http://www.badgerinternet.com/~bobkat/observer1.html

Does anyone actually read Vidal's novels anymore? It seems everyone now knows him through his essays, media work, and anecdotes.

There was no love lost between Mailer and Vidal - Mailer punched Vidal during a tv interview: unfortunately youtube removed the footage.

I have both Ancient Evenings and Creation in my TBR pile.

His work (Vidal's) has never "spoken" to me so I've always given him a pass. He's quite the raconteur in person but I can't comment on the greatness (or otherwise) of his work...

I enjoy his essays, especially when he's on a rant about religion and/or politics. I have yet to read his novels. I am interested in reading his "American Chronicle," since they look like a fascinating underground history of the American Empire. (For all my leftist bluster, I have never read any Howard Zinn.)

Yeah, I'd like to tackle Zinn's HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES some time...

Re Vidal: I've read Burr and Lincoln. They were both good. I could not get into Empire but will keep trying. He writes good, readable historical fiction.

He is a very good essayist as well.

I read Zinn's People's History of the United States and loved it. Also, my younger son's history teacher has it as a textbook along with the regular one.

That's cool. Maybe as a historian myself, I'm just skeptical of the hype that surrounds the book. Ronald Takaki is another good historian.

This also gets into the fracas between academic historians and pop historians. Like literary vs. mainstream fiction, it's the eternal struggle. I did love Schama's "UK History" miniseries for the BBC.

It's kind of my like my resentment against David McCullough and Ken Burns monopolizing the pop US history field. How can one even begin to compete with that?

There must be something to Zinn's history. The conservatives in this country all swear it is the spawn of Satan. I think it has the temerity to say that America, like all countries, has a few warts, a few shameful spots, and the occasional wrong-headed policy in its history.

I enjoyed Burr a great deal. (it happens one of our close friends is one of the last of a direct line from ol' Aaron. we're godparents to her kid)

I read Burr ages ago and didn't all that much care for it, but I did read Julian rather recently and thought it was pretty decent.

I remember reading Messiah back in the 60s, though and it's one I'd like to do a re-read of sometime.

>42 geneg:: But America is the bestest nation 4evR! Anyone who doesn't love America is dum.

"Four more years! Four more years!" -- the mating call of the conservative lemming.

I just wish liberals had the heart and initiative to kick conservatives when they are down. We're too nice, we want to hug our oppressors. I blame those damn pot-addled hippies and their jam bands. Then again, I got my political education by listening to the Dead Kennedys and MC5 at maximum volume ;)

If you like Zinn you should also read the stuff by William Blum. I used to have two, Killing Hope and Rogue State - As I remember RS sort of took up where KH left off.

@41: Do you consider Chomsky's poli sci writings to be more "pop"? Given that his actual academic background is linguist?

I have a degree in linguistics and yet of all the stuff by Chomsky I have read, it has all been out of field.

kswollf, I don't remember if I've seen you participate in the Pro & Con group yet. but if you want to see someone beat the Republicans when they are down, check it out.

Somewhere I have a first pressing of "Kick Out the Jams" I think I paid $3.95 in a record store for it in 1969. the first punk album.

For the SF minded there's the classic "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)". Such a great group and one of the most seminal in all of rock history.

I've read Killing Hope, quite a bracing read. I guess the only reason I haven't read Zinn is because I've so much similar stuff from various other sources during my stint as a teaching assistant and undergraduate in history.

My blood gets angered up enough these days, I don't need to join another explicitly political group ;) Plus the reek of Beltway fanboys would drive me insane.

"Obama is kewl!"
"Nuh uh, Bush is the greatest."
Etc. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Maybe that's why I enjoy reading about British politics, since American politics is an idiotic circus and moral freak show. Politicians trying to Out-Jesus or Out-Poor each other in their race to the top to be County Alderman or whatever. Ack, I'd rather read about Jennifer Aniston saying not nice things about Angelina Jolie. At least celebrity gossip is honest about its frivolity. American politics is like celebrity gossip, minus the pretty people, intelligence, wit, and self-restraint ;)

Best t-shirt slogan:

Bland
Compromise
2008

Billy Powell, member of Lynyrd Skynyrd is gone:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/01/28/skynyrd-powell.html

And Terry Brooks is still alive. There is no justice.

John Martyn gone too apparently.

"...a maverick in the music industry..."

And so his loss is all the more sad and depressing.

The world NEEDS more mavericks, they're a counterbalance to the hidebound shitheads that protect the status quo and celebrate the derivative.

Indeed. And it was derivatives that got us into this financial mess we're in...

John Martyn is one of those artists who I always feel I should I like more than I do.

But without the status quo, we wouldn't be able to feel snobbish. Without snobbery, I wouldn't have met you guys.

C'mon, bear hug!

PS: Did you notice the new Dead or Alive meme? They listed the Catholic Church in the "unknown." I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere.

#55 - agreed - i bought the odd John Martyn album after reading reviews several times in the 70s and never really enjoyed them, however much i appreciated his musicianship.

I think all institutions are listed "unknown". The Onion, which was the "author" of one of my books, is also "unknown."

Bearders has left us. Any cricket fans out there?

Is that really a sport? Then again, I'm an American. I'm still grasping the complexities of the metric system and Copernican astronomy ;) Real 'Murricans don't need no science or book-learnin', we gots the Bible and AM talk radio. (This is called Reverse Snobbery.)

Cricket is like baseball, but it requires more intelligence to play and appreciate...

Cricket is an annoying bug, drawn to basement and damp that squishes with a pleasing crackle of carapace.

Well, that would explain the cucumber sandwiches and the silly knee-pads ;)

Cricket is a loser attempt at creating a baseball-like game. It's harder to learn, ridiculous to play, and never ends. Just as rugby is a poor imitation of football, it's the British attempt to show the world how the Brits can improve on American sports and gets it all wrong. Just like Quidditch, a bastardized form of lacrosse.

Oh, when will these insufferable Brits come to appreciate the superiority of all things AMERICAN! Jeez, you'd almost think they were there first.

At least cricketers can count to higher than three. They can count to six.

I'm counting to ten right now, Sales...

See just another attempt to outdo the Americans. We'll just double what they do and that will make it better.

BTW, ;-)

What's longer? An average cricket test, or a tome by Tad Williams? Both take forever to finish and have an undeserved reputation. Is there a cricket equivalent to Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb? Chauncey Fauntleroy-Dinglederry, IV, Earl of Cravat ;) And Cobb was a violent racist lunatic, but what a hitter.

#68 - there ARE cricket equivalents of Ruth & Cobb...cricket fans can name names..but the neat thing is they come from all over..Pakistan, India, NZed, Oz, Caribbean islands, GBritain. I've been bereft since WUNC stopped reporting the BBC sporting news.. I LOVED the BBC's 5 minutes of sporting news.. The words were all words that i recognized..but put them in a cricket sequence / sentence i was was totally bewildered. Maybe one reason i enjoyed Netherland so much.

I grew up hating baseball..my eyesight was so bad that when friends took me to a Washington Senators game i never actually saw the ball..just heard the ball being hit a few times. (i'm sure that's why i swam competitively..except for hitting the wall w/ my head/mouth a few times, being more or less blind didn't matter).

#68 Gary Sobers, WG Grace, Geoff Boycott, Ian Botham... And I can't even stand cricket.

Anyway, baseball's not a sport - it's an excuse to get fat on hotdogs and try to get pissed on beer-flavoured fizzy water...

You just be nice about our morbid obesity and I won't say anything about British teeth ;)

Talent scouts are finding fewer and fewer American kids playing baseball. Their deficient attention spans make it impossible for them to stand in the outfield or wait patiently on the bench for their next at bat.

Increasingly, ball players are emerging from Latin America and there are a growing number of first-rate Japanese players. "America's national past-time" is losing out to faster, more high-scoring games like basketball. There's also a disturbing trend among the 18-35 male demographic, guys tuning in in growing numbers to those stupid UFC ("Fight Club") legalized bar brawls.

Fucking savages...

One of the most interesting Bollywood movies I've seen was one about cricket. Of course it had the usual Romeo and Juliet type love story going on, but the cricket part was actually kind of fun. I don't understand the game at all, seems like very complicated baseball, but anyhow, I enjoyed it.

Tangentially related to this, I just watched my very first (and probably last) Super Bowl game yesterday. Sports fan I am not. Also, I am not understanding the hype about the commercials. Seems like they are now more of an event than the game.

Cast your eyes downward and prepare to weep real tears:

Ray Steckler is dead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/movies/01steckler.html?_r=1

“weird, individualistic and radical" -- Now that's 3 wonderful words to describe his films.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, or as Don McLean said, famously, the day the music died.

And then Lux Interior dies. Total buzzkill.

a couple of months ago i put together for my own edification a selection of songs that reflected the importance of Buddy Holly on subsequent R&Roll...Well, the importance to me! Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry were key. Carl Perkins was good too but not as "important." Elvis was important but not esp. good.

1. Buddy Holly - Maybe Baby (2:05)
2. Buddy Holly - Everyday (2:10)
3. Bobby Fuller - I Fought The Law (El Paso) (2:15)
4. The Beatles - Crying, Waiting, Hoping (2:11)
5. Fleetwood Mac - Buddy's Song (2:14)
6. Beatles - Tell Me What You See (2:41)
7. Fleetwood Mac - Mission Bell (2:35)
8. Blondie - Picture This (2:59)
9. Go·Go's - This Town (3:20)
10. Cars - My Best Friend's Girl (3:45)
11. The La's - There She Goes (2:44)
12. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Greenshirt extended play (2:23)
13. Blondie - I'm Gonna Love You Too (2:12)
14. The Magnetic Fields - Young And Insane (2:31)
15. THE NUN'S LITANY - THE MAGNETIC FIELDS (3:00)
16. The Raveonettes - Dead Sound (3:35)
17. Longships - Not Really Sorry (3:49)
18. Marty Stuart / Steve Earle - Crying, Waiting, Hoping (3:55)
19. Kelly's Heels - Light In The Dark (3:30)
20. buddy holly - peggy sue2 (2:32)
21. The Raveonettes - Here Comes Mary (Album Version (3:04)
22. Wil Kimbrough - Goodnight Moon (3:42)
23. Big Daddy - A Day In The Life (5:00)

Not a bad roster o' songs to add to yer iPod, Robert.

I never knew how important Buddy Holly is to the development of rock and roll until I moved to Lubbock, TX (his hometown) and one of my friends worked for the Buddy Holly museum. He wrote over 40 songs, several top 10 hits, in an 18 month professional career and dead at 22.

...and now Paul McCartney collects his royalties.

Gak!

God does have a good sense of irony.

"Dear God,

You took the wrong two Beatles.

Sincerely,
Everyone"

My wife might take issue with that.

>81 CliffBurns: - that's a slur on McCartney: it was only after he purchased the copyright that Holly's wife actually received any royalty payments. He saved Holly's musical legacy from a bunch of crooks.

Oh, I'll slur McCartney. Slur and slag that worthless tin pan alley fucking hack until the day all the saccharine in his system finally backs up into his bile duct and chokes him.

Any more and I'll start flagging MYSELF...

It's funny how McCartney's reputation has plunged so much - when the record-buying audience were given a choice in the 70s, they chose McCartney over the other three.

They also chose the Beatles over the Velvet Underground, but that's another discussion.

"I'm waitin' for my man, got twenty-six dollars in my hand...".

I think they both had their place. By the time VU came out the Beatles were living on their reputation gained by SINGLE HANDEDLY SAVING ROCK AND ROLL.

I enjoy both "Venus in Furs" and "Day in the Life," "Sister Ray" and "Revolution."

VU* and the Beatles are both great. But the Beatles did more and they did it first.

*as THE one out of the 1000 people who bought the 1st VU album...and didn't start a band. The songs too often forgotten by VU are the "quiet" ones.."I'll be your mirror", "Sunday Morning", Jesus(!) etc.
but.."one fine day she turned on a new york station, she couldn't believe what she heard at all/ she started dancing to that fine, fine music, her life was saved by Rock and Roll....despite all the amputations, she could dance to the radio station."

>90 bobmcconnaughey:: Debatable, but I'm not in the mood to argue minutiae.

VU did have an advantage in that when I WAS in a band later on, i could sing Reed's songs while i couldn't possible sing a Beatles song. I guess it's a good thing when strangers come up afterwards and tell you that you sound "JUST like lou reed" - which, since i have a high tenor speaking voice - is pretty weird.

>90 bobmcconnaughey:, bobmac said, "The songs too often forgotten by VU are the "quiet" ones".

Ah, yes, just like Jimmy. The songs everyone wanted to hear from "Are You Experienced" were "Purple Haze" and "Foxy Lady", while I kicked back with "Hey Joe" and "The Wind Cries Mary". Ohh, those were the days, my friend, I'd hoped they'd never end. Oh, well!

Whenever "The Wind Cries Mary" comes up on the radio, I immediately switch the channel. Who wants to hear a slow Hendrix song while driving? Ugh. Makes me drop out my monocle in extreme snobbish dismay.

Anyone for some Gray Poupon? ;)

I liked "Along the Watchtower". Probably because I went through a brief Dylan fan phase in college. (I still like his songs of course, but he has just had too long and varied a career for me to put the necessary energy into remembering all the albums and which were from what life cycle phase he was in.)

"If I don't see ya no more in this world
I'll meetcha in the next one and don't be late!

Don't be late!

Cause I'm a voodoo child voodoo child
Lord knows I'm a Voodoo child yeah!"

(insert screaming guitar shredding fiery solo here)

all-time favorite Hendrix song

As for Lou Reed, give me "Sweet Jane" live off "Rock and Roll Animal"! I think I will play it now...

SWEET JANE but make some room for Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.

"American Poet" is a wretched title..but it's imo easily the best live recording Reed ever made. In a radio studio w/ the Tots just after Transformer came out. Satellite of Love, Rock and Roll, Vicious, White Heat White light. And some very rude comments about Doug Yule during the interview portion of the show. And yes, Sweet Jane.

Have you heard Lou's album dedicated to the prose of Edgar Allan Poe? It is absolutely dreadful. And, y'know, what has Lou done lately, in the past 20 years that really does credit to his early-won reputation? The last song I can recall liking by the man was "Dirty Boulevard"...

he hasn't done much that i care for (or have on my mp3 player!) since New York..that's for sure.

Did anyone notice James Whitmore, the sheriff in "Them" died yesterday?

At a ripe old age. One of those old pros the screen will miss.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-james-whitmore7-2009feb07,0,1015401...

Sudanese novelist dies:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7896724.stm

Wow, Tayyib Saleh was very well-known though I have not read his book. I think I have read some short stories by him. That's too bad, it's really the end of a generation, what with Mahfouz dying a couple of years ago.

A few that I have noticed in the last couple of weeks -

Lux Interior - singer with The Cramps.

Edward Cartier - artist on The Shadow and for Unknown magazine.

Edmund Upward - novelist, contemporary with Isherwood.

Edmund Upward--what a great name!

And Stephanie Meyer is still alive, which is tragic and unfortunate. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

"It fills me with grief and sadness that your beloved daughter, Stephanie Jezebel Meyer, continues to write and publish her stupid books about passive female protagonists in love with sparkly abstinent vampires.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to you in this difficult time. May the Prophet, his many wives, and his spiritual underpants, give you comfort during these dark days.

"Sincerely,
"The Reading Public"

RIP Philip Jose Farmer:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-philip-jose-farmer,24338/

Phillip Jose Farmer was a fantastic writer. He will be missed.

Loved the RIVERWORLD books when I was a kid--and his novel IMAGE OF THE BEAST is one of the most bizarre vampire novels ever committed to print.

Some fine short tales in his RIVERWORLD AND OTHER STORIES, well worth seeking out.

Just finished Nazi Literature in the Americas by Bolano and then I find out Miguel Serrano dies. Turns out Serrano was a Chilean poet and adherent of Esoteric Nazism:

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

Yes, Virginia, literary monsters are real.

Yes, I mentioned Serrano earlier. I have a couple of his books - Nos: The Book of Resurrection, El/Ella: Book of Magic Love, The Visits of the queen of sheba and The Ultimate Flower. He is completely bonkers. Bit like Jodorowsky, I suppose.

Bonkers is fine. Bonkers with clout makes me a little scared. Although I'll remember to look for his stuff. I'm always interested in crackpots, lunatics, and other eccentrics. Donna Kossy's Kooks and Strange Creations cover a number of wacko philosophies and hateful lunatics. Heck, I even own The Urantia Book, which is Flash Gordon meets Racist Eugenics, but written in legalese and is over 2000 pages.

The books I have by Serrano are just mangled Eastern mysticism - none of the Esoteric Hitlerism. I don't think Serrano's main work in that field has ever been translated into English - Hitler, The Last Avatar.

Just give it time. Maybe the dittoheads that listened to Rush the other day are looking for something to put beside their copies of Atlas Shrugged and Soldier of Fortune magazines. Not like they'd ever read it though. Hypocritical philistines.

Horton Foote, playwright and screenwriter (he adapted TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD) has died:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29530454

Another type of loss/tragedy:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/06/heinrich-boll-archive-cologne

I heard about that from my parents. It's awful. All the more important to secure funding to preserve old buildings.

Or at least digitize the archives for off-site storage before placing them in a shaky building.

And a SAD day for literary genius Clive Cussler:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/03/10/cussler-legal-fees.html

Clive Cussler is a literary genius? I didn't get the memo ;) And I agree, that Sahara movie looked awful. Then again, it had Matthew McConaughey in it, so it is pretty bad by default and probably involved gratuitous shirtlessness.

Gratuitous shirtlessness on the right women has its place.

"I'd do a nude scene. If it was valid. If the money was valid." -- Merchant Banker in Monty Python sketch

120: Interesting that you chose to post it here. Did Clive Cussler keel over from the shock of having lost the suit?

>121 kswolff: hey..you stop dissing my bongo playing cuz!

Nah..he's been lame for years. 15 yrs or so ago when MMcC (he's missing an "n"..the "mcconnaughey society of america" has 2 N's for a reason) one of the folks i work with was..taken aback by Matt's looks, i guess..anyway Allen, more or less out of the blue, tells me.."You know, that Matthew McC is really good looking." I think the unintended implication being that he didn't look much like me. I really didn't have much of a response, but "huh?"

Anna: I just wanted to give any Clive Cussler fans (heh heh) in the group a place to come to, to share and grieve with their hero...

I used to enjoy Cussler's novels. The early ones were fun thrillers, but the quality dropped off with Sahara and plummetted soon after to barely literate levels. I think by that point he was employing random homeless people to write them, and he just stuck his name on the manuscript.

If Cussler could pretend to be an agent (in the early days) surely he could pretend to be the author.

It's the film company's contention that he grotesquely inflated sales of his books that amused me the most.

I've never heard of him. Yay! Triple points!

# 107. You left out magical, as in "magical spiritual underpants".

Without the magic there is no point in having special underpants. Unless you have a pair of Brady Bunch Underoos, but I digress...

When I was living by myself in Germany and very depressed and alone, I read quite a bit of Clive Cussler. They are exciting, and score well on the cost/page number ratio. They were what I needed at the time

I had to drive from Santa Fe to Oklahoma City through the night once. Clive kept me (mostly) awake and entertained. Sometimes it was actually entertaining, other times it was ridiculous enough to be entertaining.

Edited to say: This was the audio book, natch.

Robert Venturi house sold for $1:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090313/ap_on_re_us/moving_historic_house

I'm also an architecture geek. It's sad when this has to happen. At least it didn't collapse or worse:

http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/todays-news/kate-chopin-house-bu...

Dear Group,

I must confess, many of the names mentioned, I do not know.
BUT I thought I might point you towards a topic (about dead people) I do care for.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/54762

Yours , Guido.

Ah, old soldiers always bring a tear to my eye.

Thanks for the link.

Ron Silver RIP:

http://www.legacy.com/LADailyNews/Obituaries.asp?page=lifestory&personid=125...

I enjoyed his work on Reversal of Fortune and "The West Wing."

Film-maker and cinematographer Jack Cardiff has died:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/04/22/cardiff-obit.html

J.G. Ballard, ‘Empire of the Sun’ Author, Dies at 78.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aDPzKGystZzg&refer=m...

Jack Cardiff's work was amazing. I rate The Red Shoes as one of the most beautiful films ever made

THE BLACK NARCISSUS was a beautiful work. Deborah Kerr and Gene Simmons!

Ken Annakin, R.I.P.:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/04/24/annakin-obit-director-film.html

Paul Harvey...
...Good day

Bea Arthur too!

John Furia, who wrote for some classic TV shows like "Twilight Zone" has died:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/05/09/furia-obit-screenwriter.html

David Eddings has died:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/fantasy_author_david_eddings_has_di...

I'm trying desperately to think of something nice to say.

I'm sure he was a good man who loved gerbils.

'I'm never going to be in danger of getting a Nobel Prize for literature.' -- David Eddings

Since I've never read any of his stuff (I blame the consistently awful cover art and stupid plots), I can't say I'll miss him. In the words of Dennis Miller, "Sometimes God gets his aim right." Too bad in our culture, dead authors mean they suddenly become profound and brilliant.

Will he be buried in a transparent crystal with Renaissance Faire knights as pallbearers?

***

Koko Taylor also died:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/koko-taylor-dead-at-80,28776/?utm_source=newswire...

Now Koko's passing is a REAL loss to culture.

That woman could sing.

Saw David Carradine died in a hotel in Bangkok.

Naw, it was his bro, David, star of "Kung Fu". An apparent suicide.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/06/04/david-carradine.html

So Grasshopper has gone to the great meadow in the sky.

Death could have been caused by exhaustion - according to IMDB he has 14 films coming out this year.

Had a soft spot for him because of Kung Fu and some quirky films like Death Race 2000 and Circle of Iron.

Never cared much for him, although he played Woody Guthrie well enough.

His Dad, now there was a real creepy fellow. The Harry Dean Stanton of his day, or is Harry Dean Stanton the John Carradine of his day? Oh well, you get the picture.

I read an interview with David Carradine years ago. Seemed like an interesting, unassuming fella. No doubt hounded by personal demons and a very sad end (for anyone). You gotta REALLY want to die if you hang yourself.

Gene: loved your comparison between old John and Harry Dean Stanton. I think you might have something there...

It's the 50th anniversary of the death of Raymond Chandler this year. And, of course, my buddy Gord Ames is on top of things, as always, sending me this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jun/05/raymond-chandler-double-indemnity-cam...

Just found this obit for Barbara Wright, a brilliant translator of Genet, Queneau, etc. Very sad, a real loss to literature:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/barbara-wright-translator-of-french...

Ed McMahon also died.

I heard earlier today that Farah Fawcett died. It was expected, she had suffered from cancer for quite a while, but then I heard the shocking news, all you out there might need your hyperbaric chambers checked out, it seems someone found Michael Jackson unconcious and not breathing. My wife just gave me the news -- he's dead.

My, My two icons of the seventies, dead on the same day!

And Michael Jackson makes three.

"The World Mourns Michael Jackson" (Newspaper headline)

Not in my house.

>160 CliffBurns: - I was slightly surprised he died, but I never liked his music (nor his dancing) anyway. Can't say I cared.

>160 CliffBurns:

I'm with you. It could be that I simply missed the boat being born a few decades too late, but I knew Michael Jackson as Wacko Jacko not the King of Pop.

There's something just SLIGHTLY freakish about a fifty year old man who acts and sings like a four year old girl with super-enlarged adenoids, don't you think? Pardon me if my tear ducts obstinately refuse to well up for someone who had absolutely NO influence on my life, dreams or philosophies.

>163 CliffBurns: - Yes, shame on you, Cliff!

(And very freaky, in my opinion.)

Michael Jackson is a true American tragedy. I was too old for the Jackson 5, after hearing my daughter play the Thriller album 5,000 times in two weeks, told her I was going to break the record if I heard it again, and enjoyed several of Weird Al's take-offs on his stuff, but Michael Jackson was pure genius, and like so many geniuses was excruciatingly painful to watch. A true slow-motion train wreck.

I hope he has found the peace that eluded him in life.

MJ's album 'Dangerous' is awesome.

Sorry, guys, "genius" and "awesome" are two adjectives I'd never slide alongside MJ's name. Never liked him or his music, not a single lick. It never spoke to me and I never grasped what could make people listen to it of their own volition--same with the Bee Gees or Bay City Rollers or New Kids on the Block...bubble gum pop with no distinguishing characteristics except massive over-production, synthesized instruments, childish notions and themes ("girl you done me wrong"), manufactured like a tool and die factory.

So does that mean MJ was sent to the same place in the Afterlife as those child-raping priests?

>167 CliffBurns: - but pop music is all about manufactured sound, about fun and simple emotions - that's it's strength and why the really good stuff survives. It is an antidote to the pomposity of rock. Off the Wall and Thriller will survive because they are great pop albums - great production, great singing and great songs. There is more musicianship, more interest nooks and crannies in Billie Jean than 99.9% of rock music; Eddie Van Halen's finest moment on record is on Beat It, not on his own albums.
There is a real snobbishness about rock, that somehow it is about something profound and genuine musicianship. You see in all these polls where the best guitarists, bass players and drummers are all from rock bands. And it's all bollocks - most of them don't have a fraction of the intelligence and skill of players on the good pop/soul/funk records. As for the lyrics - when it's not about girls or hobbits it's a constant stream of woe is me.

169: Yeah, we're all snobs about rock here. When I read my Mies van der Rohe monographs in the original Dutch, I listen to John Cage and Philip Glass.

Just kidding. I'm totally with you re: pop and rock music. (Although I see American Idol as a profound waste of time and the apotheosis of family-friendly interchangeable mediocrity.) Just because it is pop and has synthesizers doesn't make it inherently bad. If we want to talk about disposable pop artifacts, the name Dickens springs to mind. Capital does prove to be a corrupting agent in aesthetic production, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. This shouldn't be an ideal, but perhaps rather the works of commercial success and subversive genius Oscar Wilde, the Warhol of his day.

Cintra Wilson writes about the MJ phenomenon:

http://www.cintrawilson.com/dregs/2009/06/rip_michael_jackson_ye_poor_we.php

Lucius Shepard writes about MJ: http://community.livejournal.com/theinferior4/500606.html

I agree with much of what he says - much of the reaction to Jackson's death is OTT (it reminds of me of Diana) but when they were discussing Jackson on Radio 4/5 they did discuss all aspects of his life. (Shepard's description of Lewis Carroll as a paedophile is interesting).

I'm not sure about his knowledge of music though - his statement about liking African pop and not Afropop is just plain stupid. Afropop is an umbrella term for all African contemporary popular music. He criticises the Beatles and then mentions Alex Chilton, a man who created a band in order to sound like the Beatles and other British Invasion bands. Much as I also like Big Star and some of the Box Tops material, Chilton hasn't released much of any worth in the last 35 years.

According to FOXnoise Billy Mays has died at age fifty.

I wonder what the ShamWow guy is feeling right now?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0327092sham1.html

That's exactly what I'd expect someone who's been in a 4 a.m. fight with a hooker to look like.

The star of one of the earliest TV sitcoms, My Little Margie has died. Gale Storm was 87.

This means much more to an old coot like me than the death of Michael Jackson.

Gene, me too.

Robert

I too remember Gale Storm.
I was just a tadpole, but I think I was
in love with her. :-)

Guido.

PS. But there was another actress, who played a series called "my dear margie..," or something like that , I suspect it was in the late 60's early 70's. And was probably set in the 30's If you can remember the series I
would be most appreciative.

Never mind. Nothing to see here.

Charles Brown, longtime publisher of LOCUS, has died:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/editors/editor_charles_n_brown_has_died_121...

Phyllis Gotlieb has died. Longtime fans of Canadian SF might be familiar with her work:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/author_and_poet_phyllis_gotlieb_has...

A bit more on Phyllis Gotlieb's legacy:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2009/07/15/phyllis-gotlieb.html

Richard Feynman.

That's a big one.

What a great obit. Thanks, Gene.

Walter Cronkite RIP. Yet Robert Novak still walks the Earth, poisoning everything he touches and spinning apologetics for genocide with double-tongued disingenuity and perversions of rhetoric more foul than Satan's discharges.

Ugh, sorry, I need to lay off the Rabelais

Walter belongs to the "Honorary Astronaut Fraternity". Proud to wear the pin of that organization myself...

Frank McCourt died:

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1911633,00.html?iid=tsmodule

>187 kswolff: - Cue books revealing that he was actually Welsh.

"Oh snap!"

Screenwriter Budd Schulberg is dead:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/08/05/arts-schulberg-obit080509.html

>190 CliffBurns: - sad news: wrote at least two great books - Moving Pictures, his memoir of growing up in early Hollywood; and, The Disenchanted, his novel based on working on a film with an ailing Scott Fitzgerald.

Good on you for mentioning them.

John Hughes died:

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1915147,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

I grew up on his films, but found them generally overrated. Then I discovered Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and the French New Wave. 80s teen angst seems pretty meaningless, especially after I saw Godard's "Weekend."

What surprised me was that he only directed eight films.
His films did give some exposure to decent bands that otherwise struggled to get heard - The March Violets, Lords of the New Church, Killing Joke, B.A.D., Dream Academy, etc...

>193 kswolff: - 'overrated' - that also sounds like the last 25 years of Scorsese and Coppola.

Who can resist watching The Breakfast Club when it comes on AMC, though?

Have to confess, I detested John Hughes' movies. All of 'em.

And as for Coppola, Scorsese going downhill: Yup. (Sadly)

Scorsese has only gone downhill because he stopped making the same damn film over and over again.

Cliff, Ian, I can't disagree. But doesn't Pynchon write the same book over and over again? The funny names, the conspiracies that lead nowhere, the pot and anarchism? The letter "v" in nearly every novel title?

Just sayin'.

Salman Rushdie describes spending an evening together with Tommy P. revealing little about it except saying "it was very Pynchonesque".

Oh, to sit around for a couple of hours, talking about Americana, weed and hidden histories with the Pynch...

Pynchon might be like William S. Burroughs: bland, boring exterior -- Burroughs always looked like a Kansas insurance agent -- hiding a psychotic, brilliant, iconoclastic soul.

Pynchon / Salinger 2012: Reclusive geniuses from secure, undisclosed locations. I nominate William Vollmann as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

This guitar freak is mourning: Les Paul is dead.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/08/13/les-paul-obit.html

I'm listening to "An American in Paris" when my wife gave me the newa about Les Paul and the music went from upbeat to very bluesy riff, as if God were mourning too.

Vaya con Dios, Les. The world will wait no more for the sunshine. Les joins his wife and partner Mary Ford.

Black-hearted silvertongued CIA-agent-outing fascist troll Robert Novak died. Good riddance!

And you know what, Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson and friends are going to have a dance party at the cemetery when he's good and planted.

Another journalist who sold his soul for access. Lot of good it did him.

198> Where does Mason and Dixon fit into that?

Pynchon uses lots of reoccurring characters and literary devices (finding these is a lot of fun), but he hardly writes the same book every time...

Richard Poirier, founder of The Library of America, passed away on Saturday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/books/18poirier.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

A real loss to the world of letters. We can ill afford to lose good, smart men and women...

>207 CliffBurns: - A pity we end up losing them all the time.

206: His casket should be as richly appointed as the books he published.

Novak, on the other hand, will be buried in a casket made from the bones of dead Iraqi infants. Hope he likes having Roy Cohn and Hermann Goering as bunk-mates in the True Believer Hell. Hopefully Don Imus can join them shortly.

Everyone probably knows by now, but I'll mention Senator Ted Kennedy's passing anyway...

Anyone mourning Dominick Dunne?

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2009/08/26/dominick-dunne.html

As for Ted Kennedy, dunno what to think. I know he worked hard for important legislation but his always seemed like a life of should have been's and also ran's. A great talent thwarted by darker urges, hubris and character flaws of Grecian proportions. The ugly genes of his rum-running, skirt-chasing, racist father competing with a genuine compassion and decency.

His courage on the issue of race relations (for instance) as opposed to the cowardice he displayed that night for a few critical moments at a little out of the way spot called Chappaquiddick.

A mixed legacy, one that history will buff up for the sake of posterity. A statue on Capitol Hill, warm obits and tearful eulogies...but he never earned the status of his brothers Robert and JFK, never had their ambition and drive. Teddy was the glad-hander, the one who fixed stiff drinks and could lay on the brogue when telling a joke about his beloved Micks. The story I'll always remember is the time he was caught screwing a waitress at a popular Boston watering hole. Never made the papers, thanks to the weight the Kennedy name swung in those days but those present still whisper about it years later.

That Ted. Wotta guy...

Forgive me if I don't care about hyper-wealthy political dynasties. I think Cromwell and Robespierre were on to something ...

The songwriter Ellie Greenwich has died. Alongside her husband, Jeff Barry, she worked a lot with Phil "she was cleaning the gun" Spector. Among the songs they wrote are: "Be My Baby", "Da Do Ron Ron", "Baby I Love You", "Then He Kissed Me", "Chapel of Love", and "River Deep, Mountain High".

River Deep Mountain High. Give it a chance to get started.

213: My class feelings are why I am really conflicted about Ted Kennedy. If he hadn't been a Kennedy his behavior at Chappaquiddick would probably have been punished and prosecuted. I know he went on to do lots of important things as a Senator and I am glad he was around to do them. But it bothers me that there are such different rules for elites like that family than there are for the rest of us.

Ted Kennedy was voted "The Kennedy Least Likely to Succeed" by the press of the mid-sixties. He succeeded and the press since then has experienced massive, massive fail.

#215 Wow, Gene, never heard this version before. It's still rocking away from my computer monitor speakers as I type this. Winding up now...

217: Kennedy was also a member of the Senate since 1962 -- not sure if the Mob also helped purchase that seat of power too? -- but Ted Kennedy has basically been a Senator-for-Life, a term I have real problems with, since I'm a small-r republican. People like Kennedy, Byrd, Thurmond, and the rest of the Rich White Boy Club (TM) have helped ossify and retard our democratic growth, leading to our dismal health care system and laughable political system.

Mel Brooks had it down:

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

Keyboardist from Echo & the Bunnymen killed in motorcycle crash:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/09/04/bunnymen-keyboardist-dies.html

--and for those who wanna pay tribute with a little music:

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

Keith Waterhouse, author of BILLY LIAR, dead:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2009/09/04/keith-waterhouse-dies.html

The "Thunderbirds" aren't GO.

Ray Barrett, who supplied voices for a couple of Gerry Anderson shows, has died:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/09/09/ray-barrett-obit.html

Larry Gelbart has died:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/09/11/larry-gelbart.html

"MASH" fans everywhere are in mourning.

It isn't often someone's credited with saving a billion lives but...

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/09/13/obit-borlaugh.html

Lyn Hamilton:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2009/09/12/hamilton-obit-mysterywriter.html

Ms. Hamilton was noted for mentoring young and upcoming authors and for that she is to be commended. Condolences to her fans...

Jim Carroll, author of BASKETBALL DIARIES, has died:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/books/14carroll.html?_r=1&hp

>227 CliffBurns: - that was an interesting obit. I wondered why he was being compared to Bob Dylan, and Patti Smith saying he was the best poet of his generation, and then it started talking about his music. I didn't realise he had released albums, may have to try and check them out.

Eh, I dunno about Carroll. He's one of those "post-beats", like John Giorno (though not as bad) who rode on the coat tails of far better writers. He also, I think, to some extent aided and abetted the notion of junkie life having a romantic or non-conformist aspect to it , which I find revolting.

Have a feeling Carroll is one of those guys (like Kerouac) you have to read before you're 20, otherwise you're offended by the over-writing, stylistic lapses and solipsism of the author.

Here's "People Who Died", his most famous song, (along with Catholic Boy):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bOjc70f4p8

Patrick Swayze, RIP, to pancreatic cancer. Here he is in Roadhouse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX7W7wt7aRg

And Crystal Lee Sutton, the real "Norma Rae", like organized labor, has also died:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32842182/ns/business-us_business/?gt1=43001

Dear God, can you please, if not too much trouble, lance James Dobson with a lightning bolt already! Stop taking away the good ones.

Norman Borlaug, the man who fed the world.

Yeah, one of those unsung heroes. I consider myself fairly informed but this chap slipped below my radar.

I'm paraphrasing but somebody once wrote of "The best portion of a man's life: the unremembered acts of kindness and love".

True charity, selfless service is anonymous, seeks no credit or congratulations...

Unsung seems a little, I don't know, overstated. A Nobel Prize isn't canonization, but nothing to sniff at either. Do you hear me Sartre? But, please don't misunderstand me, Borlaug probably deserves more.

Good point. A Nobel is a nice pat on the back.