Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

one thing with both Takahashi and Sakamoto is that apparently they'd both passed days before the public found out, big difference than with American celebrities where you're not even halfway to the light and it's all over Twitter

― frogbs, Monday, April 3, 2023 2:33 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Japanese funerals tend to take place the next day or near enough, so maybe this is to give time for the family to organise and conduct the ceremonies? No pomp and circumstance for them!

Jewish funerals, too.

I believed the situation with Jewish funerals is because they're opposed to any kind of embalming/preserving, so best to get the body in the ground asap. However in my recent experience, especially particularly reformed temples/rabbis/cemetaries, that's not a strict rule so much.

also pine caskets, to accelerate decomposition (and emphasize modesty). but yeah, there are always exceptions.

When I say my recent experience, I don't mean to imply I died and was recently buried in a jewish cemetery btw. I'm referring to my grandmother, who passed a few months back at the age of 104!

Wow! 104!

(that of course is the traditional Jewish consolation)

Photographer Kwame Braithwaite, 4/1

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Brathwaite

Nigel Lawson, 91

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/apr/03/former-conservative-chancellor-nigel-lawson-dies-aged-91

Green burial for that climate change denying fucker!

Thatcher's favourite chancellor, climate change denialist cunt, nigella's dad.

Douglas Hurd still hanging in there at 93.

SF drag superstar Heklina, per a post from Peaches Christ:

https://48hills.org/2023/04/sf-drag-legend-heklina-reportedly-has-passed-away/

oh my god, how awful. my husband went to T-shack a lot when he lived in SF, he always gushed about her performances.

Japanese funerals tend to take place the next day or near enough, so maybe this is to give time for the family to organise and conduct the ceremonies? No pomp and circumstance for them!

― inky pinky voulez-vous (Matt #2), Monday, 3 April 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Setsuko Hara (actress on many of Ozu's films, other classic Japanese films too) passed away and I think it was several weeks before it was revealed to the Japanese press, never mind the West.

Nigel Lawson, 91

Not soon enough.

Leonard Abrams, founder and editor of the East Village Eye

My friend & former editor Leonard Abrams passed away suddenly yesterday. We met in 1990 when he was the US editor of Soul Underground. I'm in shock; he and I were just writing one another a few weeks ago and now he's gone. https://t.co/19WRYjCB2d @lithub @villagevoice pic.twitter.com/NY0mfpmqRO

— gonzomike (@gonzomike) April 3, 2023

I hope Nigel Lawson can somehow die again today.

It happened, the only thing that could stop the BBC inviting him on to talk about him not believing in climate change. https://t.co/sSBZm9eoNh

— Metatone (@Metatone2) April 4, 2023

Klaus Teuber, creator of the CATAN boardgame

60s singer Chris Farlowe

Was the first choice to be the singer of Led Zeppelin, according to him

the definitive version of 'Handbags and Gladrags'

Wait.. is there any confirmation on Chris Farlowe? The wiki ghouls have not yet killed him off, and I see nary a mention of his passing anywhere

Farlowe still alive, apparently.

that's good! loads of tributes to him on twitter last night.

not quite out of time yet then

Bokito the gorilla (Rotterdam zoo), who got his claim to fame by once escaping his pen and beating up a woman.
I still saw him last January, a very impressive animal with a back full of silver grey hair.

As my friend pointed out, he's now a member of the 27 Club.

Richard Dillard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._H._W._Dillard?wprov=sfla1

I did not know him, but moved in some of the same circles and knew of him (of course Annie is one of my personal heroes, but that's a story for another day).

One of the saving graces of this depraved world is that there are people who decide that their best and highest purpose is teaching others.

That's someone for the "poets no one ever reads" club! Haven't even heard his name in about 20 years.

I have only the haziest memory of his poetry. But a heck of a lot of my fellow Virginians thought he was a brilliant teacher.

And, for white male writers of his age and class and temperment, he might be considered reasonably restrained because he only married two of his students.

I have only the haziest memory of his poetry. But a heck of a lot of my fellow Virginians thought he was a brilliant teacher.

And, for white male writers of his age and class and temperment, he might be considered reasonably restrained because he only married two of his students.

1/2 Rest in Peace Nora Forster

It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that Nora Forster - John Lydon's wife of nearly 5 decades - has passed away. Nora had been living with Alzheimer’s for several years. In which time John had become her full time carer. pic.twitter.com/MmQQdtmrjG

— John Lydon Official (@lydonofficial) April 6, 2023

Sorry, that's Nora Foster, John Lydon's wife and Ari Up's mother, also led an interesting life on the London scene in the late 60s / early 70s.

Apparently also made them both miss Pan Am Flight 103 due to excessive packing, or so I read recently. RIP.

that’s terrible, but also imagining John Lydon being a carer is either impossible or hilarious to imagine, in my opinion

Whenever I've seen him speak about Nora, particularly as she became seriously ill, he displayed a tender side you might not expect from his records or his tedious and try-hard recent TV appearances.

he's spoken very lovingly in interviews about that role for quite a few years

possibly the one thing he's not a prickly troll about

I remember an intervew in Q a couple decades ago, long before her illness, where he briefly dropped his mask to state his love for his wife.

i don’t think i ever realized she was Ari Up’s mom

Johnny Rotten, Full-Time Carer

I remember an intervew in Q a couple decades ago, long before her illness, where he briefly dropped his mask to state his love for his wife.

was that one of those "who does he think he is?" pieces? I remember that too. He also waxed lyrical about the first Led Zeppelin album iirc.

His track “Hawaii” was unexpectedly lovely and as a tribute to his wife seems all the more poignant now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HURFlF8CyV8

tears for sid vicious vs full time carer FITE

The way Mr. Lydon went from icon to pariah so quickly is one the major wtf moments from 20th century cultural history. That Mr. Morrissey and Mr. Morrison have followed him down that path just makes it more head-scratchy than it already was.

Shoot yourself in the foot/dick enough times, people will start to be reluctant to stand too close to you, lest you miss.

I feel like there's still a bit of provocateur with Lydon - like "how can I piss these people off like I did in the 1970's"

I don't see that being the case with Morrissey or Van the Man

Definitely not with Van Morrison. RIP Nora.

Friend who's worked w/John reckons his entourage are at least part of the issue, that he feels the need to play up to a certain side of his politics they agree with.

I've never been a Sex Pistols guy (tho PiL are pretty awesome), but I love the Lydon of The Filth & The Fury.