Dr. Morbius (Bill Weber) RIP

couldn't find a matt dc + morbs photo, but here he and laurel are behind ridiculous hippie max the same evening

So this thread is the motherlode for pictures/memories of that night, although it appears to be 90% pictures of Max.

Also it contains this truly iconic picture of Morbs.

to the extent that Morbz thought of me at all, i'm sure it wasn't pleasant. the two of us really pissed off each other here and got into some nasty fights. so it's strange to think that we did meet IRL once and he was very nice and pleasant. and i did think that his posts on movies were always interesting and insightful.

after reading all of the touching testimonials here, i really wish that i could have patched up any bad blood that existed between us before he passed. perhaps we could've done so at a Phillies-Mets game at Citi Field, or at an old-timey movie in NYC or Jersey City.

RIP, Bill -- i will contribute some money to WFMU in your honor.

Aw, hello Tadeusz xx

Thanks Kevin. Lots of good organizations there that could always use donations, for Bill or for anyone.

Memorial page: I learnt of Paul in Santa Cruz's death a few months ago.

Oh shit, that guy was an amazing poster too. Awful news!

I had no idea that Paul in Santa Cruz was Paul Nauert-- a friend who teaches disability studies with a focus on art practices has written about him, so I've known of his work for a while.

damn... RIP, Paul.

Yeah Paul was great, we even ‘collaborated’ for the Wire tribute though he did the work, really. I last spoke with him some years ago and he was already very ill.

ALS is just awful

It is. A music writing colleague in the Terrastock fanbase -- one of the best of them, Lee Jackson by name -- died of it early last decade, a horrible thing to contemplate. We ended up putting together a tribute for him as a fundraiser.

https://forleejacksoninspace.bandcamp.com/

watching movies is depressing knowing that he's dead

― flappy bird, Friday, October 23, 2020

i've had the opposite reaction--i watched Ernst Lubitsch 'To Be Or Not To Be' (which morbs once recommended to me) and relished every second of it with renewed zeal :)

i also saw "Tetsuo: Iron Man" at the local rep/art house theatre and made a donation in Morbs' name. not sure what he thought of j-horror tho

I could take a guess.

(Actually, I vaguely remember him loving Pulse, but that could've just been his hatred of cell phones/internet/etc.)

i've had the opposite reaction--i watched Ernst Lubitsch 'To Be Or Not To Be' (which morbs once recommended to me) and relished every second of it with renewed zeal :

So you're the one they call "Concentration Camp" Ehrhardt!

on the topic of Morbs being cantankerous on ilx, imho his combo of crankiness and thick-skinnedness created a foil for everyone to lob zings at. his foul mood was a fuel for comedic banter; morbs was anti-cuddlestein par excellence <3

_i've had the opposite reaction--i watched Ernst Lubitsch 'To Be Or Not To Be' (which morbs once recommended to me) and relished every second of it with renewed zeal :_

So _you're_ the one they call "Concentration Camp" Ehrhardt!

lol :)

I had a few work colleagues with whom I would always often do this bit. We would both do it, as kind of a greeting.

watching movies is depressing knowing that he's dead

― flappy bird, Friday, October 23, 2020

i've had the opposite reaction--i watched Ernst Lubitsch 'To Be Or Not To Be' (which morbs once recommended to me) and relished every second of it with renewed zeal :)

That and a certain scene from Twentieth Century.

I don't really think of him as thick-skinned though? He was always leaving forever.

loved to exit with a dramatic flounce, he did

Performative thin-skinnedness. As everyone who's met him can attest, he was a sweetheart in person, albeit still quick with a quip.

He may have recognized that as part of his schtick, and gradually ran with it?

He was furious at me in 2012 (in private FB msgs) when he was tempbanned but it was all water under the bridge within a few months. His willingness to let it all fall away (and to regather it as needed) gave me a bit of insight. Crabby or not, inconsistent or not, I'll miss him as long as I post here.

What Morbs/Bill was going for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJOn9DFeINo
How he often came across:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MULMbqQ9LJ8

RIP fellow Mets fans & WFMU lover. This place won't be the same....

I always loved Morbs "leaving" a thread forever aka 12 hours

ya lol

45 minutes morelike

A brimful of Morbius.

Sunday morning in Australia. I was hoping that was a suitable amount of syrup and end up glad I bought another bottle.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jtymkwcs4h3x13n/IMG_8457.jpg?raw=1

xp lol yeah for real.

although we had irl mutuals i never got to meet him in person, to my great regret now. so while i never got to experience the irl sweetness that made his online persona click into place for so for many people, the longtime consistency of his character on ILX sort of ended up serving that function for me. Early in my posting career (an amount of years ago i dont even want to count rn) he threw some nasty stuff at me that really hurt my feelings, but as the years went on and I got a sense of the way he operated it took the sting out of it - called a worthless shithead for saying something nice about a movie he didnt like? morbs being morbs man, he's forgotten it already, so should you. I'm not sure how much I ever totally understood how sincere or in-character his posting style was or wasn't, but the fact that it was so consistent that you could set your watch to it made me understand that it was never really about 'me' - the guy liked what he liked, hated what he didnt, and if you understood that and still got into it with him, well, thats on you. He put himself out there and the rest was your move.

Pancakes and Lubitsch not a bad idea for a sunday tradition.

:) Ed

although we had irl mutuals
This is always interesting, how it works.

RIP Morbs. I had drinks with him once in Park Slope and can say he's a much more charming presence irl. ILX won't be the same without him

really happy to see you post here Extended Mix

He was almost always angry at the right things and for the right reasons, even his relentless hate-on for Obama, the most effective liberal (well, center-left) president of my lifetime. I never met him in person, and read his abrasiveness the wrong way plenty of times, but more often than not his rage was cleansing. I’m going to miss his presence here terribly.

"i have a confession to make to you, baron: you are a CROOK!": the ERNST LUBITSCH poll

I just wrote 2,500 words about Bill and I'm tapping out before I add links and more quotes. I'll post when it's up on Monday. Obviously won't mean anything next to Alfred's or anyone else's, but he really was my cinematic North Star the last five+ years. And the figure I invoke is Ben Johnson's Sam the Lion, and his final speech to the boys once they've taken advantage of Billy: direct, forthright, unsparing, never mincing words and using even fewer, indignant and disappointed about things that mattered. We have this archive on ILX, but I'm not sure I'll ever go through another end-of-year movie roundup without wondering what he would've thought about this or that movie, whether by a new filmmaker or one he liked (or loathed). Not something that can be quantified or predicted. He's had more of an influence on me than most, and Alfred is sooooo otm that one of his great attributes was NOT using "good" or "great" very often. Because when he did, I took notice.

making a half-past midnight offering to the avatars of NYC countercultural comedy

https://i.imgur.com/2tMMbTm.jpg

I do not usually have this amount of maple syrup https://i.imgur.com/W01NkXe.jpg

Never met him (or anyone else here) in real life, never interacted that much (other than a stretch where I’d fp every Nixon/Perrin tweet) but it’s always sad and endearing to see people memorializing someone they knew and loved / respected.

Fuck cancer - a former colleague, a former colleague’s husband, a good friend’s wife, and my dog have all died this year from it. Pointless and stupid and brutal.

We often make pancakes on the weekends, but I don't usually partake. Made an exception this morning. I'm not slurping down the leftover syrup, though. (Sorry Morbs.)

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

spaced out and forgot to take my picture but did join the pancake session.

re: Morbs walking out of threads: it plays better if you imagine him knowing that some variation on "i'm out" was the catchphrase for his vaudeville comedy character

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

I don't understand pancakes, so I'm glad my and Morbs' differences persist.

what’s to understand? carb & maple syrup delivery system

Eating dessert for breakfast.

I don't understand waffles, blintzes, or French toast either. I do like jam!