M4rk Cr4ig (aka Bimble) RIP

ok np

Never got to know him as I tend to lurk ILM more than really interact but he was one of my favorite characters around those parts. RIP dude.

― °⌉ 3⊥∀N (╓abies), Thursday, August 6, 2009 12:42 PM (1 hour ago)

RIP

btw, even though he was banned, he could still vote in poll threads. That made him happy!

Fuck. I didn't interact with Bimble outside ILX at all, and not all that often on ILM itself either, although we did have similar tastes in many ways and crossed paths a lot. He (caps lock) shouted at me the other month for saying PJ Harvey had mellowed and that this was OK; he didn't think it was OK. I would have agreed a few years ago but I got old. He didn't. In some ways. I don't know what he thought of me; probably that I was an idiot or cynic. Suddenly it almost seems important to me to hope that he thought I was a good guy. He was OTT a lot of the time, a hundred posts in a row on Kate Bush or whatever, but, as I said, a few years ago I'd have done that too but I got old. He didn't. He seemed like a good guy to me. I don't really talk to many people off-board unless I've met them IRL and even then not much; the whole social... politics seems the wrong word. The meta-networks that exist beyond... not just ILM or ILX, but beyond the threads I read, is quite a mystery to me. This has made me very sad. I guess if I'd paid more attention I'd have taken his OTTness for the kind of mania that does often have a counter-balance of deep, deep sadness. What has been said about his physical problems is mysterious to me as I don't know the details but, having had a couple of (minor) operations myself this year I know that feeling as if you're body isn't working, or is working against you, or isn't you anymore, is a horrible, horrible thing. I remember the black flow of dread that came up through my gut and over my shoulders when I read about hernias online and realised I had one and needed an operation and it could go wrong and fuckfuckfuck and that was a very minor problem, easily fixed, and if he experienced that feeling often then I have... or had... no, I still have, massive, massive empathy and sympathy for him. But that's speculation. He was, definitely, a huge character on ILX, a massive presence. I know other posters, much loved posters, have also died before, but this odd, distant, abstracted death of someone you only know through text on a forum doesn't get any easier to get your head or heart around. I'll miss seeing his name on the new answers page as the last person to have posted to a thread. Seeing that used to make me click a thread.

RIP Bimble. Surprised and saddened.

Saw this thread two hours ago and still don't know what to say. It's sad to think about how much he was hurting.

first time i remember noticing bimble was during all the 'in rainbows' polling being done right after the album's release. he had such a spirited presence on those threads. i never interacted w/ him directly but i definitely remember his enthusiasm for music. i'd check ILM first thing in the morning and see all these threads revived throughout the night about bands i liked. i'd open them and see bimble's exuberant posts.

rest in peace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YZk-2mVB5o

Pour one out.

There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far, very far
Over land and sea
A little shy
And sad of eye
But very wise
Was he

And then one day
A magic day he passed my way
And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"

"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"

He was 39.

i got the idea he was older -- in 2008 he started an ILE thread for "ILXORS in their 50s" (basically me & aimless) though the last post there was me asking bimble how old he was. he didn't answer and i thought it was a faux pas on my part. this is all so sad.

First post I remember reading by him was something like "Chic are better than the Beatles," which was the kind of ultimate challops that brought me here in the first place.

I remember asking him wtf he ever did before youtube and he said it was a long apprenticeship in record shops and asking questions, and I guess its really just making me sad that someone who had so much enthusiasm and energy, also had a black cloud that, in the end, blocked everything else out, even if it was just for one deciding moment. I don't think anyone should be blaming anyone else here, nobody can like everyone and its pretty hard to really reach out to someone through the internet. And those that really did make some sort of meaningful connection with him, it makes me glad to know that he knew you were there, even if he was done with this world.

I'll miss seeing his name on the new answers page as the last person to have posted to a thread. Seeing that used to make me click a thread.

Yes, this. Thanks Nick, so otm.

Fuck.

Rest in peace, Bimble, you full-on, old-school, Factory-loving star.

We had occasional off-board correspondence and even from those brief e-mails it was obvious that he was a tremendously troubled soul. And I realise from this thread and from others that I didn't even know the half of it.

I think Curtis is absolutely right: regardless of what was sometimes a difficult relationship with ILX, he knew there were people here who really cared for him. And that's what matters: that so many of you were friends to him and did everything you could to help him.

Nobody here has let him down; no matter what support ILXers offered him, his troubles transcended that.

He will be thrilled to meet tony wilson and ian curtis at last. I hope they appreciate him

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

Two sentiments beautifully put.

RIP, Mark.

I never had contact with Bimble outside of ILM either, but he always seemed to be around in the middle of the night (which I now realize is because Seattle is 3 time zones west of me). I was there when he'd get really excited about some band and create a thread just for them, asking for recommendations or when he'd play a record and essentially live blog the experience through successive posts. Our tastes were very similar, and I appreciated that a great deal.

Still, even without ever really knowing Bimble/Mark, he reminded me of another person I knew only by online contact a few years ago. There was a sadness behind his mania/enthusiasm, and I always feared there would be a thread about his death one day. It's something I have experienced before with someone who behaved similarly, but that doesn't make me any less sad.

RIP Mark. I enjoyed you a great deal.

Aw man, rest in peace

does anyone know what Bimble meant, where it came from?

Often wondered that.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bimble

pretty sure it was the 4th def?

RIP

All of them seem oddly appropriate.

omg, one more reason to miss him. Figured it was a Joy Division lyrics or something

aw for fuck's sake, Bimble. want you and your spirit back. RIP.

a song for you. hope the afterlife is better to you than this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5gFAiPJhvI

Bimble was so 100% full-on in chat that I regretted anytime I had to block him just so I could get some work done. Of course he'd figure that out and he'd email me something like "christ, Chris you don't understand... lou reed!"

I'll miss talking about old Simple Minds and oddball Mitch Easter productions with him and the ongoing comedy of errors any time I tried to send him a mp3.

I think my favorite chat with him was the one time he logged on, IM'ed me "Fucking Peter Gabriel" and then logged off.

This chat outburst is great too

bimble78: MANIACS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bimble78: MANIACS
bimble78: MANIAC
bimble78: Fuck me up the butt! I have to see early Natalie on You Tube
bimble78: holy god
bimble78: she was so hotttt
bimble78: And they were so hotttt

I got a call from a Seattle investigator last night asking if I was related to M4rk Er1c Cr4ig. I said no and the investigator apologized and hung up.

I got a call too...I had no idea it was Bimble the guy was asking about.

RIP

mental ilness makes me so angry... it's this evil force that takes people who would probably otherwise be happy and destroys their lives and makes them think and do horrible things. i don't know the specifics of bimble's situation but he was obviously not well. i can't say i'm shocked by this news, but i'm mad about it.

the idea that his name will never be on my AIM buddy list again is really eerie.

My inbox used to be routinely filled with excitable missives from Mark, invariably composed after several drinks. I took a break from ILX in 2006 to go work for MTV News (yeah, that really worked out well), and he kept me apprised for a while.

Still cannot fathom it all. Again, his last message to me (July 25) spoke of getting excited about some Duran Duran re-issues. Clearly, he was looking toward a future.

If anyone in the U.S. is feeling freaked out or unable to deal w/this, this is a good hotline to talk to. They're always sharp and helpful and empathic but never condescending:

1-800-784-2433

also they won't send cops to your house like some suicide hotlines (!!!)

oh this is awful, awful

R.I.P.

This is terrible. RIP Bimble, still more goth than all of us here

I can't help but feel horribly guilty and shitty about all of this.

If you mean because you could see he wasn't well but didn't know what the hell you could do about it then I can understand.

As pointless as it is for me to say - don't feel like that. No-one knew this was going to happen.

R.I.P. Bimble. Best wishes to those who knew him.

I'm not a big ILM reader, but I always checked out his threads and revives. That series of THE STEVIE NICKS THREAD revives are some of my favourite posts on ILX.

Never knew Bimble and I can't recall seeing his posts here, but just from reading this thread it seems like he was an incredible dude and the world is lesser for his not being here anymore. RIP dude.

Suicide is such a shit...

RIP Bimble....

My thoughts are with those who knew him better than me...

Don't feel like I have anything else to add but this is very sad.

RIP.

a youtube post for the master of youtube posts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5P0v0kGauc

It seems as if anything I write here will only add to my already gargantuan self-absorption (even with this sentence...is using "self-regard" chickenshit? is wondering if it's chicken shit just more self-absorption?). But what can I say? Bimble hurt me and I responded in kind. After the SB, I opened up communication with him again and it seemed as if things were going well. And by "going well" I mean that it seemed as if he was making an effort to relate on a less manic level. But deep, deep down, I suspected that Bimble might not have wanted that, that banal, even-keeled communication was a sort of end for him. Or maybe he couldn't find a midpoint. I don't know.

Maybe saying nothing at all would've been the best tribute to him.

Holy shit, this is awful.

Bimble was an ilxor to whom I felt a tiny connection because of some silly decided minority shared opinion (we both liked a Police song that everyone else hates) and his quirky posting style became comforting in its familiarity and frequency. So much enthusiasm - it'll be hard for me to read his old posts as threads get revived and not wonder how much of that was desperation.

My condolences to Mark's friends and family members, including the ones who already posted here. This is really sad.

RIP Bimble (more goth than anyone)

(yeesh, prolly should've changed that display name before posting)

Incrediby sad news. Poor fella. RIP.

it might be a compliment to surmounter that i always regarded him and bimble as a kind of enthusiasm tag team and on the days when both were simultaneously *on* it was fun to watch.

very sad, take care

one of us

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

i definitely was a dick to him once or twice, but backed off. it seemed like he mostly posted on ILX while drunk, and internetting while drinking is something I was definitely guilty of in the early/mid-90's when I still drank. I think what I probably reacted to in him was seeing some parts of myself that I didn't really care for; he was mostly enthusiastic, but it seemed a bit like a train wreck. I backed off when I realized that, because random stranger being a dick isn't really helping. I hope he found whatever peace he was searching.

maybe he loved music too much. he was so incredibly serious about it. in the last couple of years i have been fighting with my fading interest in music. somehow i adored his enthusiasm but on the other hand i found it rather immature, it reminded of the joni mitchell song from "hejira" where she shouts "grow up". maybe that is a good tribute to bimble. which must mean straying around, looking for something and not finding it. and going on.

A Strange Boy

A strange boy is weaving
A course of grace and havoc
On a yellow skateboard
Thru midday sidewalk traffic
Just when I think he's foolish and childish
And I want him to be manly
I catch my fool and my child
Needing love and understanding

What a strange, strange boy
He still lives with his family
Even the war and the navy
couldn't bring him to maturity

He keeps referring back to school days
And clinging to his child
Fidgeting and bullied
His crazy wisdom holding onto something wild
He asked me to be patient
Well I failed
"Grow up!" I cried
And as, the smoke was clearing he said
"Give me one good reason why!"

What a strange, strange boy
He sees the cars as sets of waves
Sequences of mass and space
He sees the damage in my face

We got high on travel
And we got drunk on alcohol
And on love the strongest poison and medicine of all
See how that feeling comes and goes
Like the pull of moon on tides
Now I am surf rising
Now parched ribs of sand at his side

What a strange, strange boy
I gave him clothes and jewelry
I gave him my warm body
I gave him power over me

A thousand glass eyes were staring
In a cellar full of antique dolls
I found an old piano
And sweet chords rose up in waxed New England halls
While the boarders were snoring
Under crisp white sheets of curfew
We were newly lovers then
We were fire in the stiff-blue-haired-house-rules