M4rk Cr4ig (aka Bimble) RIP

I never interacted with him, but this is incredibly sad news. RIP Mark.

I just remembered my last conversation with him in which he shocked me with the news that he loved Dolly Parton.

Only been on this board a few years, but the man's posts were as entertaining as **ck. All of a sudden this day's come to a grinding halt.
rip Bimble

Wow. Reading this thread, I had no idea that so many of y'all were so close to him (at least as far as online acquaintances go), but it makes me really glad that ILX gave him an outlet and a support system for a while. RIP.

let's face it, they don't come much more goth than Dolly. xxp

I'm in shock....I'll think of a good mini-soliloquy for him when I can move & think better...

shit. RIP Bimble :(

i didn't interact w/him much at all, but he struck me as a troubled soul and an essentially good-hearted person. hope he's at peace now.

Man, just started downloading the "Fotheringay 2" album he posted to the group some of us belonged to... weird

To interject one dissenting note here, I didn't much like his inclination to hide behind victimhood whenever one of us called him out on dumb shit; he and J0rdan fought about a month ago on the gay thread over this same problem. Also, his actual problems aside, I can't imagine hanging out with someone responding to stimuli at such a level of intensity; maybe he was just that way with us. Obviously the inclination had roots, and, we now see, tragic consequences.

I know it's pointless to think this way, but I just have to wonder - if he had a clue how many people here absolutely adored him, would he still have done it, drunk and impulsive though it might have been?

Except that kind of thing doesn't actually matter when you're in that long dark night of the soul that drives you to something like this. All you see is pain and you want it to end.

People online or at the end of a phone are not people standing next to you, holding your hand or looking into your eyes.

But you can't think like this, you just can't. You just have to believe that he is out of pain. And hope that there's a really good juke box wherever he has gone to.

ILX will be a decidedly less colorful place without him.

Masonic Boom, just so you know, he mentioned you over the phone around 5 days ago and said how much you rocked. Ditto, Alex in NYC. He loved you guys.

He was deeply upset about having been banned from ILX. I'm glad that certain people have had the civility not to post phony condolences in this thread, because they were frankly jerks to him.

I don't think I ever even talked to Bimble on the board, but he was a really interesting dude. I loved his takes on music, even (especially?) when I disagreed with them. I'm pouring out a 40 for ya, B.

so sad. RIP.

Also, his actual problems aside, I can't imagine hanging out with someone responding to stimuli at such a level of intensity; maybe he was just that way with us.

I can, though. I know few people like that, but they are the BEST people in the world. And it's sometimes frustrating or exhausting, but it's also totally worth the rollercoaster for the joy and the beauty and the insights and the... *fun* that they can bring. People like that let you see the ecstacy of life. As well as the pain.

Masonic Boom, just so you know, he mentioned you over the phone around 5 days ago and said how much you rocked.

That makes me a bit happier but also very very sad. I just HOPE HOPE HOPE that he KNEW that I felt the same way.

Of course he knew, Kate. And Alfred, no one wants your opinion.

i'm not sure, alfred, if it's necessary to point out what you disliked about him at this time. this thread is for honoring the death of a sad man, not for digging up old news.

Piss off, Turangalila. My feelings about Bimbs are pretty clear to anyone who reads English.

Alfred, well, it was painfully clear to him that you didn't like him. Do you get something out of reiterating it? What's exactly the point of your 'dissenting note'? Just wondering.

please don't do this on this thread guys

To interject one dissenting note here

If you have to preface your post with this, maybe this isn't the proper time or place.

I hadn't much direct interaction with Bimble, if any at all, but I always admired the gusto with which he threw himself into whatever it was he was currently loving. This is sad sad news.

RIP Bimble

how sad.

rest in peace.

i always liked his posts about music.

it's weird to realize how little you really know people online.

i hope everyone is okay and on the whole a vast majority of you seem like real nice folks.

He used to chastise me for signing off IM without saying goodbye; I think he took it personally, even though it was really just me being a flake. Either way, he topped me with this stunt. I just really can't believe it.

He was deeply upset about having been banned from ILX. I'm glad that certain people have had the civility not to post phony condolences in this thread, because they were frankly jerks to him.

― Turangalila, Thursday, August 6, 2009 12:18 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

alright look: i was not a jerk to the guy. i think he deserved a stern talking to with regards to his posting on a particular thread, and i was very much not alone in this. for as enthusiastic as his posting was, the flip side of that coin was that it eventually tired many people, and he was a very stubborn person and refused to tone down his posting, even when he was reasonably asked to do so.

i don't want to turn this thread into a thing about what happened on ilx before he was banned but i felt the need to respond to this. i think it's fucked up that he felt the need to do this. suicide is generally a bummer.

nah he didnt take it personally, most aim folks got mad at you doing that!
xpost

This is awful news, rest in peace. I never interacted him outside ILX, but here he always seemed like a very intense, obviously troubled, but also immensely sympathetic fellow. I do hope Jordan and other people who argued with him on ILX are not feeling guilty because of this, because the sort of problems he obviously was having are not something people on message board could ultimately solve, or be blamed for. No offense, Turangalila, but I didn't notice anyone really being a jerk to him. Even in the cases where people were (understandably) critical towards certain things he'd do, it was obvious they still had respect for him.

remember curtis, bimble said he was still more goth than you ;)
xpost

Oh man. I didn't know him well, but always loved his posts - they may have frequently been over the top, but were never mean spirited. This is really really sad.

I was a jerk to Bimble sometimes! A lot of the time! Other times I would see things his way and reminisce about Cabaret Voltaire or Psychic TV with him. If I had thought "wow, a stranger being uncool to another stranger on an internet message board could make him kill himself," obviously I would have shut the fuck up, but sometimes we got along - he called me "a big hunk" a month ago or so. I felt like, after a lot of sparring, we had sort of found a way to get along.

I hope that when I die nobody chastises anybody who wasn't always 100% nice to me for sharing their feelings. I am sad that Bimble is dead, that he was in all that pain.

sad news. one of those posters who had definite character. rip.

My heart goes out to his family and those of you who were close to him.

This is very sad news. He was one of the true characters of ILM for sure. RIP

I hope that when I die nobody chastises anybody who wasn't always 100% nice to me for sharing their feelings

OTM.

(and I'm playing H&O's "Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid" in his honor as I type)

"wow, a stranger being uncool to another stranger on an internet message board could make him kill himself"

That's not what I suggested, John. He was just surprised at certain comments that were made *after* he was banned. He understood perfectly why he was banned.

Anyway, his problems obviously went much deeper than this and had little do to with ILM. Lately, they were mostly of a purely physical nature---something regarding a risky surgery---and that affected his mood a lot.

There's a terrible asymmetry to suicide. The final, irrevocable act on one side, and the messy little memories of particularly good days and particularly bad days on the other. I liked a world with Bimble in it better than I like the world without Bimble, but I don't have to live Bimble's life. Only he knows why made this choice and now we can't ask him about it.

Awful news.

RIP.

What I meant about people not being jerks is that I never noticed anyone being more nasty towards him than they'd be towards any other ultimately likable poster. No one was harassing him or anything. If he couldn't handle any criticism towards him, then I think it was because he was the sort of personal problems no one here was in any way responsible for. It's just very very sad he never got over those problems, because whenever he wasn't haunted by his demons, he seemed immensely likable.

"he was having the sort of personal problems no one here was in any way responsible for"

RIP

i never argued w/bimble but I may have teased him a few times about his intensity and as I gradually realized he was a troubled soul this made me feel guilty. but I felt a kinship w/him too, as one of my few age-group peers on the ILX. recently, since he disappeared from posting, it occurred to me what an influence he's been on my own musical thinking esp w/r/t his beloved early 80s. his infectious enthusiasm, as many have pointed out, and his incredible OPEN-NESS to musical/cultural stimuli was no IS inspiring. at the risk of sounding corny, he will live on here every time a thread revive pulls up a flurry of bimble-ness. still, he will be missed. one of the fucked up things about life is you really don't appreciate some people until they're gone. RIP, dude.

Anyway, his problems obviously went much deeper than this and had little do to with ILM. Lately, they were mostly of a purely physical nature---something regarding a risky surgery---and that affected his mood a lot.

This is so frightening to me. Without over-disclosing, a lot of physical problems over the past two years have had me in & out of really crippling depression - moodiness is one thing, but feeling abandoned by one's own body is another. Sad to know a little about what that must have been like.

I had hoped some time to see him at a show so I could tell him Christian Death stories.

Yeah, one could find his posting style occasionally exhausting etc without being his enemy; he tired me out on the gay thread (I never knew him from ILM). But I wish he had found a way to still be here.

xxpost Tuomas:

And I haven't stated otherwise.

I just think it's particularly distasteful to come into a thread like this and go "he was such a victim." It strikes me as hateful and pointless. The guy's dead and obv. that's the sort of thing you say to someone who's living as constructive criticism, but I fail to see the the goal in saying that in a thread about his death. Is that so hard to understand? To me, it's basic fucking etiquette.

I only interacted with him a couple of times on ILX and not at all off it, and we didn't really see eye to eye on those occasions. Like many people it was clear he had problems, but I had no idea what they were, or that they were this bad. You can never really tell what's going on behind the screen name and no one should beat themselves up over this.

Still, for anyone to get to this point is a horrible, horrible thing to happen. RIP. And I hope his family/loved ones are coping okay.

I chatted with Bimble a few times over AIM, and he was a really sweet and fun person. I'm crying right now typing this so I won't belabor the post. Rest in Peace, Bimble.

I'm not sure if they've been able to find family yet - when I called I got the impression that they're still looking

i basically campaigned for him to get SBed off the board, but i talked to him every weekend and we loled a lot together. anyone acting like someone doesn't have the right to post condolences on this thread is experiencing a case of "R.I.P./this-is-about-me." what kind of etiquette, turangililia, are you displaying in pointing fingers on your friend's R.I.P. thread? Let people talk about Bimble whatever way they want to. He would have loved it anyway.

This is awful - I didn't have any dealings with him outside ilx but he was always so enthusiastic about the music which seemed to me much more important than if he went over the top. And I loved it when he went over the top about JD/NO because it reminded me of what a fan should be like, what I was like, in love with the music. And his youtube thread of women in music was one of my favourite threads. Glorious in it's mess. RIP for sure.

please for the good of all concerned lets not turn this into judging how people react to news like this.

this sort of news is always terrible. RIP.

I'm not sure if they've been able to find family yet - when I called I got the impression that they're still looking

Do the police know his birth name? Does anyone here?

I don't - I'd always been curious but never asked