Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

Man.

blood meridian took me 3 attempts but once i got it, goddamn that thing will be printed on my brain forever

and i love the border trilogy

yep

I remember it! I actually used to get my hair cut by the cranky old barber in that piece until he said a couple of racist things while I was in there. (Haircuts were terrible too, but at least they were cheap.)

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra),

so is racism

One of my favorite NPR voices, Wade Goodwin

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1167837454/wade-goodwyn-npr-correspondent-dies

So was Walter! I think he’d been keeping his combs in the same jar of suspect greenish disinfectant for years.

(x post)

RIP Cormac

For more Counselor discourse, there’s:

The Counselor = Cormac McCarthy + Ridley Scott + (Fassbender + Pitt + Cruz + Bardem et al)

The director’s cut is better, though I noticed it also keeps in a racist joke or two cut from release (and coming from the Brad Pitt character who would credibly tell them).

I've never actually seen The Counselor, but we have a DVD of it we picked up for a dollar at AmVets. Maybe time to watch it!

Here's my only Cormac McCarthy story: I know someone who worked at The Strand bookstore. Once, he spotted McCarthy there, grabbed one of his books from the shelves, and asked if he might sign it. McCarthy smiled and politely said that only his kids have signed copies of his books

— Luke Epplin (@LukeEpplin) June 13, 2023

OK I'm gonna do a little brag here — nobody break into my house please. I'm friends with Cormac's brother and his wife from when they lived in Knoxville — they moved to Santa Fe to live near Cormac some years ago — and since they couldn't make it to our wedding reception, they sent us a signed copy of Suttree. I don't know how they finagled it out of him or if he even knew they were giving it away, but it's in a slip cover on our bookshelf. My wife and I have always joked that we definitely can't split up because we'd never agree on custody of the book.

Reminds me of that possibly apocryphal anecdote about Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick splitting up and neither giving an inch about giving up their copy of Henry Adams' The History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

xpost holy shit tipsy that is cool as hell!

Strand story is cool but needs more Tom Verlaine to really make it work.

excellent story

Just got done with the Treat Williams episode from 2019 of the Gilbert Gottfried podcast and it's highly recommended if you haven't heard it before or haven't in awhile. Lots of stuff about Prince of The City and Hair, plenty of other great/fun stories etc.

I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who has never read Cormac McCarthy but would like to thank him for a certain movie.

Actually just got out that signed book and I'd forgotten it's actually signed TO us by name, which is even sweeter. (And twice as much means nobody can ever sell it, which I guess I'll have to impress on my children at some point lol.)

Apparently McCarthy was working on a Blood Meridian screenplay at the time of his death, to be directed by John Hillcoat. Starring Dave Bautista as the Judge, I hope.

Wasn't Billy Bob Thornton trying to get a Blood Meridian movie off the ground for years? So don't hold your breath.

lots have tried, even James Franco, I think a version may be in development right now.

This isn't the first I've heard of the Hillcoat version. He directed the movie of The Road.

blood meridian is notoriously unfilmable, there's always a version at some stage of development hell over the past 30 years or so

His death might actually help it get financed, I'd think. I'm just so skeptical. I feel like the only way to do it would to try to recreate the spirit of the book more than just recount its events. If you take away the language, it's just basically one massacre and atrocity after another. It could feel nihilistic easily, but I think the book isn't nihilistic. It's humanistic, just from someone with a dark view of humanity.

On the other hand, maybe just having a good performance as the Judge would be enough. It's a great character.

I'm just so skeptical. I feel like the only way to do it would to try to recreate the spirit of the book more than just recount its events. If you take away the language, it's just basically one massacre and atrocity after another.

It would also be about 19 hours long. It's a shame the guy who directed Hard To Be A God is dead...

Late news for the day but: legendary comic artist John Romita Sr.

RIP to THE Spidey artist (for me). One of the last remaining Marvel Bullpen legends.

RIP Jazzy John.

Oh damn rip john

RIP to the guy who drew my two favourite comics scenes
https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/the-untold-truth-of-mary-jane-watson/mary-jane-was-the-literal-girl-next-door-1563835317.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/2af5a5f398345612e81cd8d59e992f53/82067adf6939eaa8-c7/s1280x1920/e88a7783742b43a5d8283fac42c6ef9fb4a501b4.pnj

ROMIta did draw the first one, right? Just panicked and thought it might be Ditko

First one is definitely Romita - the second one is definitely pencilled by Gil Kane! (Probably inked or touched up by Romita)

Argh no!

https://deadline.com/2023/06/jacques-rozier-dies-french-new-wave-96-obituary-1235408761/

Jacques Rozier, last surviving French New Wave director, 96

John Rowan aka Blackie O. from Urge Overkill

oh shit no way :(

No exact details but I hadn't realized his story went so grim

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-06-14/blackie-onassis-urge-overkill-john-rowan-drummer-dies

Ronnie Knight, dodgy fucker and ex-Mr Barbara Windsor, 89

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/14/ronnie-knight-obituary

Didn't know Blackie sang The Mistake. Goddamn that's a beautiful and very sad song on a wonderful and mostly sad album.

also Dropout

Fuck, I hadn't heard that Romita died. The old guard is dropping one by one.

That last series of panels is just brutal.

Robert Gottlieb, editor:

He was a giant of our profession, and what a career. https://t.co/hLhF48xavO

— Benjamin Dreyer (@BCDreyer) June 14, 2023

Mr. Gottlieb edited novels by, among many others, John le Carré, Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Joseph Heller, Doris Lessing and Chaim Potok; science fiction by Michael Crichton and Ray Bradbury; histories by Antonia Fraser and Barbara Tuchman; memoirs by former President Bill Clinton and Katharine Graham, the former publisher of The Washington Post; and works by Jessica Mitford and Anthony Burgess.

Glenda Jackson

:(

RIP

RIP Glenda

Here she is, pissing on Thatcher's coffin.

RIP Glenda Jackson

Here she spoke about the impact of Thatcherism in the 1980spic.twitter.com/kK1L8UswRG

— Tides of History (@labour_history) June 15, 2023

damn

That second Oscar for Best Actress, awarded so soon after Women in Love, remains one of the great wtfs.