Dr. Morbius (Bill Weber) RIP

Ha that’s amazing,

of course it took a few minutes to figure out who Halston was

ahahahaha

I still laugh every time I remember him referring to the MoMA theater as “God’s waiting room”

j0rd thx for sharing those memories <3

hen I saw him that last time , he asked if I’d seen The Love Parade, Ernest Lubitsch’s 1930 musical starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. I hadn’t. He scoffed — not because he had something on me, but because he knew I could do better.

I should’ve watched it by now.

*when

I'm glad I got to read his film takes on FB these last few years

RIP to a true iconoclast with a good heart

Lol

lovely post j0rd <3

I'm so sorry to hear this, and Kevin thanks for posting the news. Morbs was one of my favorite ilx personalities, including all his endless arguments and snark. When I lived in NYC we hung out a few times and saw movies and had drinks, and he was a great conversationalist and a deeply interested person. Smart and funny and much more warm-hearted than he liked to pretend. And as others have said, an old-school New Yorker through and through. A fine mind and a better person and we'll all miss him.

I wish I'd taken him up and made some plans.

fuckin killing me how many times morbs and i threatened to meet up at a screening on this board and we never fuckin did it

quoted from the revived Morbs poll thread bc its too perfectly Morbsian not to share:

i'd tell you to go fuck yourself, but you wouldn't have a good time.

― playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, July 24, 2013 9:36 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

via his sister just now:

It is with great sadness that I share the news of Bill's passing today. He faced Multiple Myeloma bravely for 8 years; the last 5 months were very difficult. Gary, Christy and I want to thank all of you for your support - the money you so generously gave helped Bill feel some independence and get things he really needed that were not covered by insurance. He was able to live a little, enjoying some good food, films, books and music and getting outdoors to our yard for some evening fresh air. Bill's unique point of view on life gave all who knew him reason to smile; a wry smile, but a smile nonetheless! He will be greatly missed, fondly remembered, and always loved.

I opened the politics thread and started reading, with increasing dread, posts about Morbs. I never met him, but like many of you, found myself butting heads with him from time to time. Over the years it became clear that there was a lot more heart in that fighter's instinct than I had first understood. He liked to throw bombs, but he did it because he truly cared, and wasn't going to let you forget that.

:(

I'm so sorry to his family and all of his close IRL friends -- Bill was the best. He was brilliant and hilarious, and I'll never forget him. I feel lucky to have drunk beers and gone to baseball games with him. RIP Dr Morbius.

I never fully appreciated until the remembrances shared itt how the tenor and style of posts made on here can give you a sliver of insight into the actual people who make them - if only a sliver.

Oh man! I never met him, but he was definitely one of the greatest presences for me on the board other than the people I have met, like someone I really had a distinct mental image of without knowing him in person. A witty curmudgeon with a heart of gold is how he came across to me. Very sorry for Kevin's and everyone's loss

i didn't know bill irl but i loved morbs. reading him in movie threads was one of the things that drew me to ilx. when i was 17 and trying to understand what i liked and didn't i looked up to him as someone who could figure that out without the use of dogma. once he called a post i made "perceptive" and i'm still proud of it. (same goes for when he called me an "obama lackey".) he was almost always otm, including about spielberg and american politics. even online it was clear he was full of love for what he loved. i wish i coulda gone to a movie with him and yall who did are really lucky. rip.

rip to the good doc, always a distinct and welcome presence even (especially) when he was being a crank. will miss him in the baseball threads and everywhere else.

Aw man

RIP

I have heard time and time again before this day even started the same thing: "Oh, you wanna know something about Morbius? He's like the nicest guy IRL. I know!"

Armed with that info, and I dunno, projecting Paul Lynde behind each of his bloodthirsty posts, it all came together for me too. Something else that I realized was, you know what? This guy is right a lot more times than he's wrong.

From one of the few last remaining chickenshit hillbillies posting on this rotten message board, I echo what the rest of you are saying tonight. We lost a real one.

https://i.imgur.com/4yQWKvy.jpg

i take my big-dicked swagger in and out of the clinic, pp

― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Friday, June 5, 2015 2:18 PM

RIP Morbs and if there's a god I hope he lets you pop back to fuck with Quentin Tarantino a few times.

adding to the thanks pile for J0rdan's post

Something else that I realized was, you know what? This guy is right a lot more times than he's wrong.

― pplains, Wednesday, October 21, 2020 11:40 PM (thirty-seven seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

one of the funny things about the ongoing degradation of our world is how its proven the cranks right

oh shit. Yeah, i'd see him in the politics threads here and there and did not recognize him as the same person I'd met many times IRL. There is/was a contingent of ILXors who'd come to my little DJ nights now and again and he was often there and always a total sweetheart, though last time I ran into him was a coincidence when we both ended up at Jupiter Disco where a common friend was DJing a happy hour. He was always a total sweetheart and seemed quite cheerful to have a beer and hang out.

Bill was a mensch and the most passionate devotee of baseball and film I'll ever know. He gave our kid a talking Mr. Magoo doll that caused him to develop a Jim Backus impression basically the moment he learned to speak. Love you Bill. https://t.co/O6EcYrfcFu

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) October 22, 2020

Do you guys know who took that picture?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Paley

all i can think about right now are all the times morbs would reach out to see if i wanted to catch a movie and me turning him down because of, i don't know, some bullshit . i hate this. rest in peace, bill.

It’s been a few years now, but Bill was truly kind, fun, good company, full of thoughtful and funny conversation, and was, yes, utterly sweet and charming. Also crucially self deprecating! I had a vague idea that we’d continue to encounter each other from time to time, so this is a terrible shock. A unique good presence in the world, now gone. I honestly can’t believe it still. Just saw reference to him in the politics thread and got real worried. His crankiness re: politics probably made me laugh as much as anything on ILX!

reading and refreshing this thread and crying and thinking about how i love y'all very much

<3

aw, a beautiful picture in which a beautiful soul comes through

thanks guys... it helped me remember him more clearly getting those words out

it might sound crazy if you just read his posts on this board or knew morbs the character, but we would all do good to live like bill. it's so easy to live a sedentary existence now (i'm not talking about covid), to feel like there's so much culture at your fingertips that you might as well be drowning in it. bill was from a different era, he never changed, and his rigidity and pride in being that way came thru loud and clear even if you barely knew him. but behind that was someone who valued tangibly experiencing the things that mattered to him, even when that thing was watching the sorry ass mets score 2 runs on a windy april night. (and btw he would never leave early.) i'm posting this as a reminder to myself as much as anything

hope he's still here in the ether, seeing that this thread is already up to 200+ posts, and realizing how beloved he is.

This is crushing. Someone I was never lucky enough to meet but I appreciated the contribution he made to ILX and will miss him deeply and watch a Marx brothers film this weekend.

RIP, this place is worse without him

https://i.imgur.com/fDcHvui.jpg

oh no! not morbz. I don't know what to say....this is so sad

fuck

This is such terrible news... all kinds of tears reading this goddamn thread
Only met him once (the same time treeship met him, when wins was in NYC. Dr C was there too)
Motherfucker was alive

oh man, RIP legend.

i only really know him from the movie threads. his posts usually pissed me off. for whatever reason, i'm really affected by this news. i know very few ilx people irl but it's somehow helpful for me to have occasional remote anonymous conversation, specifically on here, and it's all much appreciated.

his very un-American trait of freely expressing his loathing of shite US politicians and political parties

Until our current era I thought Morbs' dogmatic rage about, and cutesy nicknames for, Democratic Party politicians was as tedious and ill-directed as general US poster consensus held. When I became aware of how general US poster consensus also treats politicians as a murmuration of Tinkerbells, all requiring baseless faith to be vocally expressed lest we cause them to let us down, I realised he had been OTM all along.



Except about the nicknames.

Toady Blair is pretty good, though.

it's true, the nicknames were terrible

also fitting

Why is Morbs dead

Morbs and I never tangled over anything directly. I'd be surprised if he even knew me on ilx, but we all knew him. Endlessly infuriating and, in retrospect, one of the pillars of this entire place. Cancer is a fucking menace.

ha i remember really getting into it
with him on here once then he said something
to the effect of i know you dont really mean it
just like i dont and we both clocked out
like the loony tunes wolf and sheep dog

― lag∞n, Wednesday, October 21, 2020

<3

ILX has its "the day lady died" now is how i break it down to an extent

Multiple Myeloma