Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

RIP Ian Hacking.
Feb 18 1936 - May 10 2023
A very bright light has gone out. pic.twitter.com/Ukcuuw52Z6

— Cheryl Misak (@MisakCheryl) May 10, 2023

Oh wow - I read Mad Travellers a couple times, I recommend it to people all the time... his hypothesis about transient illnesses occupying a certain space & time is more germane than ever

Co-sign on the John Albert piece, I like that first CD album a lot (if I succeed in ignoring some of the lyrics).

Holy shit, Heather Armstrong, aka Dooce, one of the (the most?) formative mom bloggers. 47.

Yeah that shocked me. I hadn't followed her or anything, I just remember when she was a big deal. Sounds like she'd had a hard go of things. Sad.

Apparently suicide, after years of struggling with depression, something I believe she'd written about a lot. I had forgotten all about her, but her impact on internet culture felt pretty huge.

based on this later-deleted post from nine months ago, she was . . . not in a good place

xxxpost a very appealing Amazon customer review of Hacking's book ends with mention of follow-up:

For an updated account on contemporary travel madness, "Global Nomads" by Anthony D'Andrea is a must-read on how mobile practices in exotic lands gradually affect and transform the self.

hfs that armstrong post. peace to you, peace.

re: Hacking.

Ian Hacking, who died yesterday aged 87, wrote 28 pieces for the LRB between 1986 and 2013, on the philosophy of mind, deafness, Iris Murdoch, metaphysics and organ transplants, among other things.

You can read Hacking’s pieces in our online archive here:https://t.co/q59rA8TNQ4 pic.twitter.com/F63cdg9qQt

— London Review of Books (@LRB) May 11, 2023

Jack Rebney aka Winnebago Man

R.I.P. Jack Rebney, the '80s RV salesman whose hilarious, profanity-strewn, on-the-job meltdown was a forerunner of the viral video and became the subject of the documentary WINNEBAGO MAN.

We encourage you to read this moving note his friend Keith posted on Facebook. pic.twitter.com/77AKwQbuN5

— Kino Lorber (@KinoLorber) May 11, 2023

a student wrote an essay about this guy as an example of going viral pre-internet, wasn't a great essay tbh

Found out today that a friend's teenage daughter died of something brain-related — cancer, a tumor, something like that — back in April.

https://wtop.com/entertainment/2023/05/jacklyn-zeman-veteran-general-hospital-cast-member-who-played-bobbie-spencer-for-45-years-dies/

Jacklyn Zeman. I remember her from when General Hospital was a thing. But apparently she was the spouse of DJ Murray the K.

Are soap operas even a thing anymore? I used to watch General Hospital when I had sick days as a kid, but I don't remember her character

I can't even imagine doing a show for 45 years, I guess it's like being in Aerosmith or something

I think ‘Days of Our Lives’ and ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ are still a thing, the former allegedly better

Always good to remind ourselves that Snoop did brief stint on One Life to Live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQJrnHh9jaQ

Found out today that a friend's teenage daughter died of something brain-related — cancer, a tumor, something like that — back in April.

oh jesus, that's awful - I'm sorry, Phil.

yeah, sorry to hear about that Phil. truly one of those things that makes me shake a fist at God.

My main association with GH is Jack "All I Need" Wagner.

I'd never seen that Winnebago Man video before. Amazing.

oh just seen jock from masterchef australia, only 46

Mary Turner, pioneering KMET disc jockey who ruled L.A. rock radio, dies at 76

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-05-12/mary-turner-dj-kmet-dies

Poker legend Doyle brunson, 89

Whoa damn

Dude has been a legend for so long, literally wrote the book on Texas Holdem, and despite those strategies being massively outdated the man was still surprisingly sharp even into his late 80s. Somehow the game did not pass him by. Maybe the last of the old guard?

RIP Doyle, felt like the last link to the old world of illegal card games in a seedy back room stretching back to the wild west.
he was a decent athlete when younger, he would often joke it came in handy when a game got shut down in the early days.

wonder if he's the last remaining dude from the era when the primary form of poker was Stud

my roommates and I used to watch so much televised poker from 2003-2006...Doyle was on nearly all those shows. crazy that he actually outlived a bunch of them.

Pioneering LA Politician Gloria Molina Has Died At The Age Of 74

https://laist.com/news/gloria-molina-dies-los-angeles-pioneer-lawmaker-latina

Francis Monkman, keyboardist for Curved Air. Saw it the Canterbury Scene fb group, reported by Bill MacCormick.

also the (good) soundtrack for the long good friday :(

Indeed, "Long Good Friday" main theme still in my head, 40 years after hearing it last. R.I.P.

Also on the first two Sky albums! Met him briefly once, he was very dapper. RIP

Swedish jazz saxophonist Bernt Rosengren, 85. Played on Krzysztof Komeda's soundtrack to Polanski's The Knife in the Water and Don Cherry's Eternal Rhythm, and made a ton of albums on his own going back to the '50s. In the mid-2000s he started leading a quartet that put out four studio albums and a live disc; I have them all, they're mainstream/straightahead but great.

I thought for sure Doyle Brunson was in California Split, but checked the credits and he isn't. He'd been playing professionally for a few years at that point.

Super-sub bassist John Giblin, 71. Played with Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel, Brand X, John Martyn, you name it. That's also him playing fretless on "The Lady in Red", for better or worse.

And Kate Bush's "Breathing"...

(not just "Breathing" but also in the band for the Before The Dawn shows)

And Scott Walker's Tilt, The Drift, Bish Bosch

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/605092/remembering-beloved-sound-engineer-shawn-gus-vitale/

Shawn Gus Vitale from cancer. Was lead sound engineer at 930 Club in Washington DC for 30 years, prior to that did sound for Fugazi benefit and protest gigs and at other dc area clubs

RIP John Giblin

Wasn’t familiar with Vitale but when he passed the outpouring of memorials from people I know who were musicians, engineers, etc was immense. Seems like he was hugely loved.

Giblin also played on the first two Phil Collins albums, a few Judie Tzuke records including the great 'Ritmo', and the odd David Sylvian track in the Dead Bees era. Been aware of him most of my life because he was the guy who replaced Derek Forbes in Simple Minds, and then was one of those names that just kept popping up all over the place after that. RIP

That's also him playing fretless on "The Lady in Red", for better or worse.

I always thought this was Pino!

UK film critic Alan Frank, whose 1970s books on horror movies were incredibly important to a whole generation of pre-video/internet Brit monster kids

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fmovie-treasury-horror-movies-terror%2Fdp%2F0861780914&psig=AOvVaw2htbh6DB_sG9PH9SwXj4dP&ust=1684415146469000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBAQjRxqFwoTCICE7MW1_P4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAF

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514oKDUDbtL._SX368_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Russ Nicholson, illustrator for Fighting Fantasy and Warhammer books and games

Very sad news about the death of Russ Nicholson, quite simply *the* White Dwarf artist.
Massively influential. RIP. pic.twitter.com/buEoTBLyfd

— Daily Dwarf (@DailyDwarf) May 17, 2023

Very famous New York Red-Tailed Hawk Pale Male, 30 (!!!), of old age

https://m.facebook.com/1462569636/posts/pfbid09mrTZG9ZSVWwqFGhKV6FbiPGePHUfRRf5JUQZ4JrjRXQD4h7WAnTCjBfo64nuEFSl/?sfnsn=mo

Did yall see about 30th birthday of Bobi, the world's oldest living dog? Still in fairly good shape, still in Portugal. Go Bobi! Or rather, stay.

https://www.eonline.com/news/1374667/comedian-andy-smart-dies-unexpectedly-at-age-63-eddie-izzard-and-more-pay-tribute

RIP Helmut Berger, 78.

That dickhead Sam Zell.