Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

Kaija Saariaho, composer, 70.

what????? Saariaho>?????? (also sad about Carstensen!)

Jesus, lots of great women dying tonight!

whoa Jesus died too?

Don't worry, he's coming back.

...and this time, he wanted to go back to the basics

Jesus with a four track in a cabin, stripping away all the embellishments

"I just wanted to get back to the sound of one guy on a cross"

"We need you for one more mission."

Cynthia Weil got out of this place

It was the last thing she ever did

I have romantic visions about Brill Building writers.. a spare office with a piano, just trying to hack out a hit for some up & comer; what a rad job

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I guess there was a better life for her and Barry.

I have romantic visions about Brill Building writers.. a spare office with a piano, just trying to hack out a hit for some up & comer; what a rad job

four guys in a room getting back to basics

Four guys in a room writing songs for four guys in a different room

RIP Saariaho. That’s way too young for a composer. Love her stuff.

Saariaho :-(

Oh and yes, Margit Carstensen :-(

Link to Saariaho family statement. She kept her illness a secret from the public. Although I had seen her acknowledge the audience on a live streamed concert in the past year and she looked very frail, much older than her actual age.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0376TLTbS9yeXxPeVMjfYEd4SCnCeLtbmyMY6k5EE3u4GPe3tgjqCC2ev7myW6Vpsbl&id=100057781852787&mibextid=qC1gEa

Thank you - I might not have seen that. She’s left us plenty but damn.

Innocence is her masterpiece, can’t wait to see it at the Met in…2025 :(

UK rock photographer Mick Hutson.

Barry Newman, actor in a lot of things:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/barry-newman-dead-vanishing-point-petrocelli-1235506906/amp/

Newman’s career was curtailed after he was diagnosed with vocal-cord cancer in 2009, but he recently reunited with writer-director Furie to star in the independent film Finding Hannah (2022).

52 years has to be close to a record for most years separating director/lead actor collabs, I'd think.

Guessing so!

RIP.

He’s awesome in The Limey! RIP.

Newman was a morning regular at Susina Bakery on Beverly Blvd (he was still working - guest-starring in The O.C. then). Totally nice guy - even loaned me a quarter for coffee once when I was short. Vanishing Point is all time

very funny obituary you have to say pic.twitter.com/wK6Sglqmw6

— 📻 Phoenician Snares (@nailheadparty) June 4, 2023

So who is Gazza then?

Never mind, I'm sure it's soccer related.

Eyeless in Gazza?

RIP to the kicking judge.

Robert Hanssen, FBI guy, Soviet/Russian spy, arguably the most damaging such figure ever caught. (If you're aligned to US interests, natch.)

He went to college with my stepmother (Knox). Odd dude. Because the FBI is a domestic-facing agency it seems strange that he was involved in foreign espionage, but whatevs.

FWIW I grew up around CIA folks. The spies I have known are, weirdly, pretty normal people. It's hard enough to live a double life - to live a triple life seems like it would be way too much work.

Let’s never forget he was a weirdo trad Cath who went to daily mass and took hookers with him.

Yes, he was involved with Opus Dei - but IIRC he was a convert! His wife was the original weirdo trad Cath. He converted upon marriage.

Also I believe he went to the same church as Antonin Scalia.

I don't think I ever met the Scalias, but we did have mutual Langley friends. Ditto the Quayles. Strom Thurmond's daughter was in my Government class. It was a weird time.

One of Scalia’s sons is big in the Diocese of Arlington hierarchy. According to my father in law he’s a dick too.

The infamous Chicago cop anti-icon JJ Bittenbinder, 80.

Astrud Gilberto

Oh man, one of my favorite singers. Hugely influential imo. R.I.P.

Aw. Corcovado = classic

Also, Reuben Wilson, soul-jazz keyboard maestro.

Tony McPhee, founder/leader of the terminally underappreciated Groundhogs.

I know he'd been ill for a decade and was more or less bedbound after a fall last year but a shock nonetheless. Will put on Split in his honour.

Aww, RIP Tony! Cherry Red still shits on 99% of all other rock music

RIP Tony - too weird for the blues crowd, not riffy enough for the hard rock crowd. Absolute guitar genius!

Only ever saw him once - he played with Current 93 on the same night where David Tibet coaxed Shirley Collins out of retirement. Crazy evening!

Oh no. RIP Tony :(

“Garden” is the jam imo