Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

Yeah, that news is making the rounds now -- a terrible shock. Lovely insta-thread by Sonic Cathedral with some of her best performances:

RIP Denise. No one person has sung on so many of my favourite records ever. Including this one. What desperately sad news 💔 https://t.co/wsm0EGZe4c

— Sonic Cathedral (@soniccathedral) July 27, 2020

Fuck

RIP

The Guardian and The Independent both using pictures of a woman who isn't Denise Johnson in their reports

Elijah Cummings in a wig?

Thanks for the Carl Gafford remembrance, Wm - I know him from Paul Levitz' 1980s run on the various LSH books, which can't have been an easy gig.

I met Denise when she sang with A Certain Ratio at one of the two Part Time Punks fests in LA (was that the one where I met Ned, or the other, I can't remember). My friend Adesh helps them out so we hung out with them. Right before ACR's show she had a crazy allergy attack so I had to drive her back to the Standard LA to get her inhaler or something. Had a nice chat, she was charming. Her loss is being felt big-time esp amongst manchester music world.

xp thanks, sic. From Dwight Decker's obit thread on Faceache, Gaff didn't like the name Carl (and liked the original spelling of Karl even less), so later in life he took the name Douglas (his middle name) Jones (his wife's last name). He always went by Gaff on K-a though.

Danish Pianist Bent Fabric

Miss Mercy of The GTOs

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/miss-mercy-gtos-obit-1034820/

Gisèle Halimi, Tunisian-French lawyer and highly influential feminist activist who campaigned for the right to abortion and who defended Algerian freedom fighters during the War of Independence. She was 93. RIP.

Malik B :(

Fuck. :(

RIP

He was only 47.

herman cain

for real?

I’m very saddened to learn of the passing of my former boss, Herman Cain. I’m bracing for the cruelty online about how he deserved to get COVID and die because of his politics. We’re living in a dark time. But, they didn’t know him. I did.

— Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) July 30, 2020

I didn't know him but I do know it's funny that he's dead

He didn't deserve to get COVID and die because of his politics, but he did get COVID and die because of his politics. And lots more people will get COVID and die because of his politics.

“He died doing what he loved: sucking up to racists.”

— Kashana (@kashanacauley) July 30, 2020

Irl lols Simon

harsh but fair

He didn't deserve to get COVID and die because of his politics, but he did get COVID and die because of his politics. And lots more people will get COVID and die because of his politics.

extremely well put

Yes, sums it up nicely.

He didn't deserve to get COVID and die because of his politics

not sure I agree with this but it's a fair point to diverge pn

*on

ghouls

Keep the obit thread clean I've already removed bookmarks from almost everything

*hits start button on Roomba*

https://i.gifer.com/IbFo.gif

this guy sucked

If only Herman Cain had become president, the President of the USA would now be dead of COVID. Makes u think!

Cain had attended a Trump rally in Tulsa on June 20 without wearing a mask or socially distancing.[114] On the day he was hospitalized, Cain praised South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for not requiring masks at an upcoming Trump campaign event, tweeting "Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!"[115]

he totally deserved it

Balla Sidibé, founder member, lead singer, percussionist and composer of Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab passed away at age 78

https://pitchfork.com/news/balla-sidibe-orchestra-baobab-singer-dead-at-78/

(This was back in May, but only learned of it now)
https://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/people/derek-underdown-designer-iconic-vox-amplifiers-has-passed-away-aged-92-2661041

Derek Underdown, chief engineer for Vox amplifiers during the swinging sixties, lived in Aylesbury in the latter part of his life. He died this week after a short battle with Covid-19 at the Freemantle Court care home in Stoke Mandeville. An integral figure in the Vox’s history, he helped design the iconic sound of the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Shadows and Hank Marvin, to name but a few.

Alan Parker

was reading his wikipedia page less than 24 hours ago

3 decades of bad filmmaking

I was going to get mad but then I realized I was thinking of Alan Rudolph.

I have a soft spot for Angel Heart though it is quite clearly Not Good.

The Commitments and Bugsy Malone were enjoyable enough when I saw them about 25 years ago.

There are many good things about Angel Heart, not including "Louis Cyphre."

Never saw Fame, fond of Birdy and Shoot the Moon to varying degrees. Didn't get the ballyhoo around The Commitments.

He once said something like: "I can't bear to be in Britain while Peter Greenway is allowed to make films" which always stuck with me

I'd willingly re-watch Angel Heart, Pink Floyd - The Wall, and Midnight Express, and will eventually get around to Mississippi Burning; I've seen enough YouTube clips of Gene Hackman's performance to know he rules in it.

Oh, there's even an ILE thread about it

Taking sides Alan Parker vs Peter Greenaway

i'd very much like to 'cancel' Mississippi Burning and its civil-rights crusading FBI agents

Didn't get the ballyhoo around The Commitments.

It's not a Big Film, but a Pleasant Diversion. Pleasant diversions are much too rare and always easy to like.

Has anyone seen Melody (1971), which Parker wrote and turned into a massive hit in Japan but flopped in the west?

Is that the film the Bee Gees did the soundtrack for? It's almost certainly been on Talking Pictures.

The Road to Wellville vs A Zed and Two Noughts - don't take sides!

I have indeed seen Melody. I was in my teens. I think it was... OK?

I've seen it within the last 10 years. It's incredibly sentimental, and IIRC it's one of those films with the message that love overcomes everything in the end - but it does have some really nice photography of the area inLambeth I live in. And again IIRC, it has a sunny optimistic early 70s bright sunshiny optimism and innocence that gives it a quaint feel.

Terry Cannon, who started the Pasadena Filmforum (later Los Angeles Filmforum) and the Baseball Reliquary.

https://www.facebook.com/LAFilmforum/posts/10158347042342211?__tn__=K-R