In Memoriam-Gone by not forgotten 2

[Reply #600 on:]

R.I.P Detective Munch.

Richard Belzer, 78 years old.

One of a kind. 'Homicide: Life on the Street' remains one of the best cop shows.

"Remember: Photocopies are not admissible as memories" (different show)

It must be noted that the man's last words were reportedly "Fuck you, motherfucker." Way to go out a legend, Belz.

[Reply #601 on:]

His book UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe is a fun read if you're interested in UFOs or the Kennedy assassination.

In other news, Leiji Matsumoto has passed away.  Some of you may not recognize his name, but I know that Javier Lopez is a fan of his work.  R.I.P.

[Reply #602 on:]

Al Jaffee, King of the Mad Magazine Fold-In, Dies at 102

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/10/arts/al-jaffee-dead.html

There's some poetry in the fact that he will be remembered for the fold-in, a thing that prevented Bender from being remembered.

[Reply #603 on:]

Dame Edna, RIP

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/barry-humphries-creator-dame-edna-dies-89-sydney-morning-herald-2023-04-22/

[Reply #604 on:]

R.I.P. Harry Belafonte.

[Reply #605 on:]

^I know nothing of Mr. Belafonte's life or career, may he rest in peace, but I live about ten miles away from a town called "Bellefonte" (pronounced "bell-font") that I often theatrically over-enunciate as "Belafonte." Call it a tribute, I suppose.

In other morbid news: Kind of surprised to see Jerry Springer died. He'd actually been on my mind lately because I recently watched some Vice documentary series about the '90s and the rise of "trash TV," of which his eponymous talk show is the prime example. Feels like the end of an era or something.

[Reply #606 on:]

One can only hope, but I just don't see the worms ever getting packed back into that particular can.

Humanity has been awful for the entirety of its existence but over the course of my life the veneer of civility in ordinary discourse in America has abraded away almost completely. I don't know whether any meaningful recovery is possible.

[Reply #607 on:]

Well, shit

Gordon Lightfoot. November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023

If you find me feeding daisies
Please turn my face up to the sky
And leave me be
Watching the moon roll by
Whatever I was
You know it was all because
I've been on the town
Washing the bullshit down

[Reply #608 on:]

His book UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe is a fun read if you're interested in UFOs or the Kennedy assassination.

In other news, Leiji Matsumoto has passed away.  Some of you may not recognize his name, but I know that Javier Lopez is a fan of his work.  R.I.P.

yeah... and his passing was relativy unknown surprisingly.. he had a huge impact in japanese sci-fi and fantasy.. nearly every anime watcher had watched at least one of his works one way or another

[Reply #609 on:]

Even the ones who have never seen any of his works have almost certainly seen works that were inspired by his works.

The man was a legend.

[Reply #610 on:]

R.I.P. Tina Turner.

[Reply #611 on:]

Well, fuck. One of my favorite guitarists. I hadn't realized that he was that much older than me.

*  edit  *

whelp, nevermind!

[Reply #612 on:]

Well, regardless of who it was, I think that counts as Good News! Reminds me of the story from a few weeks ago about the lady in South America who knocked on her coffin to get out.

[Reply #613 on:]

Yes, I too-hastily assumed the death of a Canadian entrepreneur was that of a beloved English rock guitarist. Oops.

Reminds me of the story from a few weeks ago about the lady in South America who knocked on her coffin to get out.

I remember reading that, and thought back to all the patents in the 1700s and 1800s of coffin mechanisms for the presumed-deceased-but-not-really-dead person to signal to anyone aboveground that they were, in fact, still alive. Pretty disappointing for medical professionals to be wrongly declaring people dead in the 21^st Century.

[Reply #614 on:]

A followup to the post I made in May regarding Gordon Lightfoot.

I've listened to his music on and off again since the early 1970s, and first heard The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald on a progressive college radio station in Rhode Island about six months before it became popular nationally. If you've never listened, the song is captivating and emotional, and even a bit haunting in parts. Regarding the lyrics:

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald

In honor of the folk rock legend, who passed on May 1^st of this year, on May 2^nd the Mariners’ Church of Detroit (The "Maritime Sailors' Cathedral") rang its bell, 30 times. It's tough to convey the depth of emotion to people who didn't grow up listening to the songwriter, and that song in particular. But the story hits hard.

https://eu.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/brian-mccollum/2023/05/02/gordon-lightfoot-mariners-church-detroit-bells/70175392007/

The song, with its original lyrics. My understanding is that Gordon reached out to the families of the victims as he was writing the lyrics, to assure them that he was being respectful of the memories of their loved ones and so they wouldn't be blindsided when they first heard it. A class act. I just played it now for the first time in maybe a year. And it still hits home.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Youtube

[Reply #615 on:]

R.I.P. Tony Bennett.

[Reply #616 on:]

It seems Paul Reubens has died of (previously undisclosed) cancer. I’m no big Pee-wee aficionado—I’m more part of the generation that associates him with the, uh, movie theater incident—but I know he had a huge impact on comedy and (nominal) kids’ entertainment and that 70 years old is too freaking young. May he rest easy.

[Reply #617 on:]

Even if you're not a fan, you should at least watch Pee-wee's Big Adventure if you haven't already.

[Reply #618 on:]

I'm so sad Paul Reubens died. I had just been thinking about Big Adventure just a few days before. That movie freaked me out as a kid, and of course, I totally love it now.

[Reply #619 on:]

R.I.P Johnny Hardwick writer for King of the Hill and voice of Dale Gribble.

[Reply #620 on:]

It's getting harder and harder to enjoy watching reruns of that show with so many of the cast members passing on prematurely.  It's not quite at the level of Babylon 5 yet, but it's heading in that direction.

[Reply #621 on:]

Yeah, B5 came immediately to mind as I was reading your post. I don't know how most people feel about it, but even though no one lives forever, the words you speak and the actions you take through life have effects which persist. After you are no longer corporeal you still live on in a way, in the memories of others.

If I were an actor I'd be thrilled if after I passed, people who enjoyed my work still watched and and enjoyed the things I had a hand in creating and (hopefully) still thought of me fondly, rather then shelving those shows because they're sad that I died.

[Reply #622 on:]

I don't actively avoid watching these shows.  It's more like, I'll be flipping through the channels looking for something to watch, and I'll stop at a King of the Hill rerun, and it'll be an episode in which Lucky appears, and I'll be amused all over again by the fact that they got Tom Petty of all people to voice a recurring character on the show, and then I'll remember that he's dead, and my amusement will be tempered by sadness.

It's not a reason to not watch the show.  I mean, I'm just as likely to be reminded of old Tom having shuffled off this mortal coil by hearing one of his songs at the grocery store, which actually happened to me today.  I'm not going to stop shopping for groceries either.

[Reply #623 on:]

I definitely understand where both of you are coming from, Tachy and David. On the one hand, and especially as someone with vague ambitions of producing art that outlasts my silly little time on earth, I agree that enjoying media produced by those who are no longer living is a tribute to their life's work and the closest thing we humans get to immortality. On the other hand, the real-world context of an artist's death—particularly with TV shows or movies, and particularly when the person died a rather unusual, gruesome, or upsetting death (which certainly includes Brittany Murphy in KotH, and is best exemplified for me by Phil Hartman on The Simpsons)—definitely bums me out in a way that can impact my enjoyment of the show or movie.

The only solution, I guess, is for people to just stop dying. Alas...

[Reply #624 on:]

I only found out about Brittany Murphy dying very recently. Not sure how I missed that news at the time, was a bit of a crazy story with the conman boyfriend and he himself dying suspiciously a few months later.

Phil Hartman was a right bummer too, I often wonder how Futurama would have turned out with him as Zapp. I think its messed up they spread his and his murderer's ashes together. Hers should have just been flushed down the toilet.

[Reply #625 on:]

R.I.P. Tom Jones.

[Reply #626 on:]

Huh, TIL there are two Tom Joneses operating within/adjacent to the music industry—and the one I'm familiar with, of "It's Not Unusual" fame, is not the one who died.

In any event, rest in peace to this Tom Jones. I haven't seen any of the shows he worked on, but apparently he wrote an adaptation of Harold and Maude (a film of which I'm quite fond) in 2004, so good on him.

[Reply #627 on:]

Yeah, it's a different Tom Jones.  I probably should have specified that in my post instead of just posting a link.

[Reply #628 on:]

Bob Barker has died at the age of 99. Just a few weeks ago I had looked him up precisely to determine whether he was still among the living—not for much longer, it turned out.

“He didn’t make it to a hundred,” my boyfriend noted when he shared the news with me…which I realize now I might have responded to by saying, “But he was the closest he could possibly get without going over.”

Too soon?

[Reply #629 on:]

Sad to hear this news. The Price Is Right with him was a good show, all the more impressive for the fact that it generally kept its clearly dated look and format but remained popular, proving that trends don't have to be followed for a show to remain well-liked.

I worked for a while in a place that had a common break room, with one TV. The Price Is Right was one of only three shows that everyone could agree on.

I think he would have liked that joke.

(The other two generally-liked shows in the breakroom being Takeshi's Castle, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show (this was before the unpleasantness around that show was made public)).

[Reply #630 on:]

I don't care what anyone says about it, I still like Takeshi's Castle.

Not only would Bob Barker have liked Gorky's joke, it's probably one that he would have told himself, if he were somehow able to do so.

[Reply #631 on:]

R.I.P. Arleen Sorkin.

She'll always be the only real Harley Quinn as far as I'm concerned.

[Reply #632 on:]

It seems Jimmy Buffett is drinking margaritas (and eating cheeseburgers) in heaven now. Rest in peace to the chillest of dudes.

[Reply #633 on:]

Bob Barker has died at the age of 99. Just a few weeks ago I had looked him up precisely to determine whether he was still among the living—not for much longer, it turned out.

“He didn’t make it to a hundred,” my boyfriend noted when he shared the news with me…which I realize now I might have responded to by saying, “But he was the closest he could possibly get without going over.”

Too soon?

LMAO

[Reply #634 on:]

It seems Jimmy Buffett is drinking margaritas (and eating cheeseburgers) in heaven now. Rest in peace to the chillest of dudes.

I just remembered that the last margarita I drank was in the early 2010s at Universal in Florida. At the Jimmy Buffet restaurant. Was stalked and eventually pounced on by a youngish cougar. She lured my to the dance floor and latched on and I barely managed to extract myself from her clutches. Thank goodness my brother was there.

The food was unexpectedly good, with a pretty decent band.

To have entertained millions of people and brightened their mood from time to time is a great legacy, Jimmy.

[Reply #635 on:]

Oof, tough long weekend for musicians: the former lead singer of Smash Mouth, Steve Harwell, has died. Rock on, you shooting star, you.

[Reply #636 on:]

Yeah, I own Fush Yu Mang and jam to it on occasion, and I'll cut him some slack for playing at a festival that was basically COVID central and giving Nazi salutes to the right-wing crowd if it turns out that his behavior was driven purely by his illness. In vino veritas, though.

Show spoiler

[Reply #637 on:]

Yeah, I was completely unaware of that controversy prior to reading about it in the Rolling Stone write-up. (My knowledge of Smash Mouth and its players is absolutely arrested at about 2003.) I don’t doubt the guy had some, shall we say, Kid Rock-style politics and impulses, but he was responsible for a song that will never exit my brain as long as I live and for that I suppose he deserves some recognition.

[Reply #638 on:]

A la Wagner, I guess. I will forever adore the first three Men In Black movies regardless of what heel-stain Will Smith does elsewhere in his professional or personal life. Not every entertainer can be a Gary Sinse, Milla Jovovich, Keanu Reeves, or whoever. Hell, I enjoy those quirky Blade movies despite Snipes being a complete obnoxious ass, but I won't feel an iota of sadness if he happens to pass, either.

Show spoiler

P.S. I feel the same towards Clarkson, as well.

[Reply #639 on:]

Oh, I’m a big proponent of separating art from artist, but will also not be especially saddened when certain vile people whose good art I enjoy meet their maker. Woody Allen is my go-to example here: Annie Hall is my favorite movie but I have no doubt Allen himself is a monster.

One of the most frustrating things about cultural consumption is that a person’s moral goodness is in no way related to the quality of their art: lovely human beings can make lousy art, and awful human beings can make beautiful art. The beautiful art doesn’t absolve the awfulness, but the awfulness should not preclude the acknowledgment and enjoyment of the art’s beauty. Or at least that’s how I approach these things.

Not to call “All Star” high art, but it made a lot of people really happy and that’s not such a bad legacy, you know? It doesn’t negate the bad stuff, but it does have real human value on its own.