Rolling Obituary Thread: 2021

The would be edgy ilxor takes are coming thick and fast on twitter.

Joan Didion made no secret of her small-c conservatism, which was, and will remain, the thing that made her worth reading She could see what sentimental leftists could not. Most sentimental leftists loved her, without noticing that she eviscerated them in every piece

— Kevin Power (@KevPow3) December 23, 2021

can we give it a day or so before posting these stupid “hot takes”

it’d be nice to have more than hour to be in my feelings

yeah srsly

feeling gratitude toward her for writing slouching towards bethlehem, which i happened to read right at the moment in my life when i most needed it, and that’s kinda where I’m content to leave it for now

i only got acquainted with her in the last few years & i was so blown away, like i was honestly left breathless by her writing, i cannot explain it. and a wee bit thrilled to learn she was from Sacramento.

VG otm

I'm sure the 'personal essay' existed before JD, but she pretty much owns the genre, at least in the english language

can we give it a day or so before posting these stupid “hot takes”

it’d be nice to have more than hour to be in my feelings

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 23 December 2021 bookmarkflaglink

Ok. You've got 18 hours.

Joeks! I will take it to the Didion thread.

Like sands through the hourglass...

Just remembering that she also wrote The Panic in Needle Park screenplay with her husband

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xwwccJQ9_s

Grace Mirabella, former US Vogue editor, 92.

Ray Illingworth, 89. Thought he'd conked it years ago tbh.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/25/ray-illingworth-former-england-cricket-captain-and-coach-dies-aged-89

I heard he had been Illing for some time now.

Some year for Yorkshire cricket.

getting some karmic payback for the time the Yorkshire crowd at Headingly were chucking a pig's head about during a test match against Pakistan.

That were just someone's pack lunch, lad.

lol!

I'm guessing she could have had a driver and lived in Los Angeles or anywhere in California but she chose to remain in New York City (and remain independent). I wonder if the death of her husband and daughter made her less so or made her question her freedom. I guess she is up for reevaluation now and there are harsh critics and material for easy bait when she compares herself in a bikini to a woman in a muumuu at a Ralph's in Los Angeles but I also remember something about shopping with an empty shopping cart (for oneself), which I think is from Play it as it Lays, but which I could not verify, and to which I think many peoply who have experienced insatiable hunger and a feeling of abandonment could relate. If she had been born a generation later perhaps she would have attempted to address her critics and their criticisms more effortfully and with her full attention and engagement (assuming she has not done so).

RIP Wanda Young of the marvelettes

Wanda Young, a member of Motown's chart-topping The Marvelettes, has died in suburban Detroit at 78. In 1961, the group's “Please Mr. Postman” became Motown's first No. 1 pop hit. https://t.co/NtDMYqcIzS

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 25, 2021

Seems there's some rumours about Janice Long?

Fairly conclusively false news about Janice Long. She is still with us.

Desmond Tutu

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/26/archbishop-desmond-tutu-giant-in-fight-against-apartheid-south-africa-dies-at-90

:(

Definitely one of those people you were surprised to hear was still alive.. but not now. RIP.

BBC has confirmed Janice Long

6music has often claimed to have modelled their approach on John Peel, but I believe it was much more likely Janice Long. I daresay they'll have a fulsome tribute now, but it'd have been better to have had them before...

No mention on 6music news, just now.

C'mon...

RIP Janice.

Aw fuck, really sad about Janice :(

Tom, didn't you do a few sessions for her?

My sister used to hang around outside the BBC in the 80s in search of pop star autographs, she said that JL would always check up to make sure they were okay - probably because she knew what a lot of the other presenters were like. Not the musicians btw, who were all pretty harmless.

Shame - feels like part of the 1980s died... I liked her energy and openness. And she was a good foil for Peel's ostensibly dour humour.

Have all of The Fall’s Janice Long sessions been officially released now?

Wayne Thiebaud apparently.

damn :(

he was pushing 100 iirc but still, sad loss. one of my favorite artists.

Confirmed:

Wayne Thiebaud, who painted shadows better than anyone, was such a gifted still-life painter that even avant-gardists eventually fell in love with his undisguisedly sweet subjects. He died yesterday, at age 101. RIP pic.twitter.com/a8nyaIOr3h

— Deborah Solomon (@deborahsolo) December 26, 2021

Director Jean-Marc Vallèe

https://deadline.com/2021/12/jean-marc-vallee-dies-58-year-old-director-dallas-buyers-club-big-little-lies-sharp-objects-1234901961/

Evolutionary biologist, chronicler of complex animal social behavior, and champion of biodiversity E.O. Wilson.

Sarah Weddington

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/26/sarah-weddington-attorney-who-won-roe-v-wade-abortion-case-dies-aged-76

Re Jean-Marc Vallèe: Don't know if I've liked anything the past three or four years as much as Big Little Lies, first season especially. (Also, a little less so, Sharp Objects).

yeah otm

Apparently Andrew Vachss has passed:

Gutted to learn of Andrew Vachss’s passing. In 2010 I interviewed him. In the first 5 minutes I thought he was going to hang up on me. We talked for more than an hour and he said one of the most goddamn important things I’ve ever heard as a writer starting out. Sharing it here. pic.twitter.com/lyRADeWiga

— Rob Hart (@robwhart) December 28, 2021

Wow, good quote. RIP.

I've only read two or three of his books but always meant to read more.

Grichka (of the Bogdanoff twins, french science fiction/pseudoscience broadcasters/nerds) died of Covid : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_and_Grichka_Bogdanoff

RIP Andrew Vachss. Years and years ago, I went to a James Ellroy signing for the UK launch of LA Confidential, at the specialist crime bookshop Murder One. It was, slightly bizarrely, a joint signing with Ruth Rendell who, outshouted and outraged by a VERY full-on Ellroy, quickly stopped signing and left. After queuing for a while I got to Ellroy, and he asked me my name for the dedication. When I said 'Andrew' (cos that's my name) he immediately roared back, "WHERE'S THE EYEPATCH?"

His dedication? 'To Andrew - blood rage in a poodle's cage'.

Okay that's an anecdote for the ages.

April Ashley, trans pioneer.

i will never forgive vallèe for making dallas buyers club and also i found his aesthetic generally repellant but it sucks he died so young