Dr. Morbius (Bill Weber) RIP

If we can draw a lesson here, it's to meet as many ILXors irl as possible.

Despite what you're reading, we're all still figments of your imagination, Ned.

It is (or at least was) easy to do if you live in a big city that attracts tourists and have a social life that's built around cultural events, and it certainly sounds like Morbs had that.

It's also astonishing to think that you can post on the same message board as someone for 15-20 years and still miss aspects of their character that are there plain to see, I had no idea he was one of ILX's go-to baseball experts, for example.

Very sad news. You all who knew him off the board have my sincere sympathies--I'm also jealous, these stories about him are deeply touching and we shared a lot of interests (we also clearly read many of the same blogs during the W years--e.g., I had actually heard of Perrin before ilx). As many have said, he was a pillar around here and, due to my habit of reading old threads after watching classic movies, I may have read more from him than almost any other poster. I doubt I registered much as a poster for him, but I will miss him.

Did Morbs post on music threads?

I can't think of any specific examples, but sometimes in his very infrequent appearances on ILM, I think you saw a bit more clearly the gentleness others have been giving such wonderful testimony to.

Despite what you're reading, we're all still figments of your imagination, Ned.

I have met Ned in person, and let me tell you, you never forget how lovely and luxurious that mane is once you witness it

Essential to understanding Bill was his coming of age in every sense at the dawn of the Reagan era. The Democratic Party he read about and experienced -- the union-strong FDR coalition -- was in its death throes. Then AIDS happened. There's no way around the fact that he came across as a irascible curmudgeon because he grew tired of having to repeat himself as the consequences of those death throes and Reagan's influence spiraled past the GOP and into younger Dems and liberals. That's why I keep coming back to my definition of a cynic: a closet sentimentalist frustrated by the stubbornness with which life doesn't match one's ideals. Lord knows we fought in person and on this board: we shared a sensibility but not taste. But I know he respected and loved me, and part of those things means annoyance that I couldn't see things his way lol.

To his immense credit, Bill's passion for film and baseball kept him alive in every sense until his body couldn't anymore.

RIP to the good Dr Morbius. Condolences to those who knew him. Will miss him here, especially on baseball threads. He got me to dip my toe into sabermetrics, before i found myself overwhelmed and dipped out again. So many great reminiscences itt. Thanks especially to j0rdan for his.

I think his presence on ILM is more focussed than infrequent - 36 posts on the 2020 WFMU Fundraising thread.

I think you saw a bit more clearly the gentleness others have been giving such wonderful testimony to.

Yeah, up to a point: Regis Philbin "When You're Smiling"

I just meant he was obviously less invested in ILM. And while Regis Philbin isn't really the kind of ILM thread I had in mind, I did say "sometimes" :)

rip morbz!

Believe there will be an WFMU tribute early next month. I can say no more.

It's no exaggeration to say that I've slowly come to take those scratchy, juddering, old-timey no-color films more seriously in part due to his needling. I doubt I would have so much pre-WWII film in my collection without his influence.

I love when I go to log some obscure '30s short subject on Letterboxd and see that Bill was among the single-digit number of people who've done likewise. It happens a lot. And I hope it continues to happen a lot.

When it comes to Jerry Lewis there's only the French left now :(

Did a Gmail search and found an 2008 email from Bill, subject line "Indie Juno crap," with a link to an article about what "indie" means in the context of the movie Juno (a very 2008 topic and one I was especially interested in at the time). "Wow John," he wrote, "better your interests than mine..."

It's a small thing, but I think it says a lot about him: He couldn't help being dismissive, but I'm touched that he saw something and thought to send it to me.

Gutted. I've got nothing more to say other than The King of Comedy is as great as he promised.

Heartbroken

He also seemed to have more than a passing familiarity with and affection for pre-rock modes of popular music and cabaret culture. I remember him once praising the lyrical stylings of Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

This is very sad, I will miss Dr. Morbius very much.

thanks to everyone who knew him irl for your posts, he always seemed the curmudgeon with a heart of gold and i'm glad to hear that he was.

don't have anything to add other than he will be greatly missed, i consider him one of the handful of real ilx legendary posters and the few times i sparred with him sufficiently in a politics thread to have him snap back at me i was secretly kind of thrilled to be on the receiving end one of his volleys.

RIP morbs the internet won't be the same without you.

Sad to hear this. It's really nice to read all of these beautiful remembrances.

Oh, Bill. He let me like my dumb martial arts movies and even took me to a kung-fu film fest once--pearls before swine, given my ignorance about any kind of film. Another time, we saw "Kiss Me, Kate" in 3-D at the Lincoln Center Theater just because we could, on a week day when everyone else was working and the other 5 people in the theater were obvious retirees.

I skated over his most venomous posts because they just didn't register as coming from the gentle, affable friend I knew, who knew everyone, it seemed, and knew a lot about everything. His lifelong rejection of cell phones and his perambulations around NYC while he waited for the rest of us to show up to places are just a small piece of the legend.

before then I don't think I'd appreciated the obvious and visible love and affection in which he was held by a group of people much younger than him

Bill met all of us where we were and whatever we were interested in, generously sharing everything he knew on a variety of subjects, and never foregrounding himself. It was years before I realized, as someone whose gay friends were mostly much younger, that Bill had lived through AIDS in NYC when a generation was lost, and what that meant to who he became.

As always, he's gone down the road a little ahead of us and will no doubt have some caustic observations to share when we catch up.

I think I think of "how fast could i k.o. this chickenshit hillbilly?" about once a month

RIP Morbs
In honor should post some Dennis Perrin tweets

wow in orbit thank you for writing that ;_;

RIP. Dr. Morbius. A legend of ILX.

Damn, this thread makes me misty all over again every time I open it.

I think I think of "how fast could i k.o. this chickenshit hillbilly?" about once a month

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, October 22, 2020 11:00 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It only grows more relevant with time. That and "you *will* sequentially meet me and Brooklyn pavement" are evergreen.

may some of y'all's consciences be very heavy on you for a bit.

― Three Word Username, Thursday, October 22, 2020 7:36 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

one of the things that made Morbz great is he would never post something this smarmy

Agreed.

For real. Morbs was not afraid of conflict and he was always 100% himself whether people liked it or not. He wasn’t some wilting flower people should feel guilty about arguing with.

We mourn the loss of Bill Weber, a beloved member of the WFMU family. His sister wrote: "A champion of the oppressed, Bill fought for the rights of all people 'othered' - LGBTQ+, Black, Brown, disabled, imprisoned, asylum seeking. Bill loved his NY Mets, WFMU, SABR, & film." 1/2. pic.twitter.com/QxlldOWvBN

— WFMU (@WFMU) October 22, 2020

Bill was a dedicated WFMU supporter and volunteer for decades, and a welcome presence at our Record Fairs and fundraising marathons. He was also a big part of the ILX community, and we share in their sorrow over his passing after facing a challenging illness for many years. RIP.

— WFMU (@WFMU) October 22, 2020

<3

just donated $20 to WFMU

$20 that won't go to Joe Biden, no better tribute.

This is heartbreaking. And there’s so many lovely posts in this thread.

I thought of Morbs frequently while reading the compilation of NY Press movie reviews, musing that Morbs really seemed like the best kind of synthesis of '90s-era Cheshire and White sensibilities.

x-post Nah, some of you are playing like it was loving fun and on your part it very clearly wasn't. There was real nasty, nasty shit aimed at Bill and it's self-serving to pretend there wasn't. I said you consciences should be heavy, but I have no reason to expect it will happen. Just expressing my disgust at some of the self-serving hagiography the way Bill would, I like to think.

shut the fuck up

There's the true face, you shitbirds.

cool tribute you sanctimonious prick

fp-ing and moving on

Just saw this. I'm a sporadic poster and had few if any direct interactions with him, but I knew he was dealing with cancer and was glad that he'd gone to be with family — was glad to know that he had family who'd care for him! Always sensed the world had really changed in a profoundly dispiriting way for him, as Alfred suggests, and admired his sheer persistence despite it. I read the occasional review he did on Slant and would be kind of surprised by how smart and sensible he sounded when here he seemed so much to be a needle in people's sides! But he was a quintessential presence on this board, and I'm particularly sorry to hear of his passing for all of you who've been close to him over the years. RIP.

fp-ing and moving on

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson)

otm. neither the time nor the place for that kind of thing.

I knew he was dealing with cancer and was glad that he'd gone to be with family — was glad to know that he had family who'd care for him!

We commiserated a couple times on how our nieces charmed and exasperated us as gay bachelors.

Alfred, your tribute was lovely. Slow curtain. The end.

I detest cheap sentiment.

Thanks, Eric. It's you and me now, kid.

Killer to killer.

I remember us throwing back G&Ts at Julius', and very shortly after that seeing Julius' major supporting role in "Can You Ever Forgive Me" and realizing CYEFM is as much as a Bill Weber New York Fever Dream of a movie as I've ever watched -- it's utterly within his universe. That stubborn tenacity of being the kind of aging New Yorker who writes Tallulah Bankhead biographies no one reads and chats with the bartender as the afternoon light streams through the window of the battered old gay haunt.

Was happy when he finally started The Sopranos (library copy) and for once had nothing snarky to say about contemporary television, since he knew and recognized the New Jersey terrain so well. Good to see a different side of him in those threads.