Rolling Obituary Thread: 2019

Ah, shame, RIP Alasdair.

i saw him read once, a very long time ago. seemed like a good guy.

RIP fat Glaswegian pedestrian

Shame about his response to the queasy Hillhead Station mural.

bloody hell, that was a bit of rum business.

Oh bloody hell I am reading Lanark again at the moment, prompted, I have to say, by the thought that he couldn't be long for this world. Massive RIP

Very sorry to learn about the mural. I didn't know about that.

Oh no, now Vaughan Oliver

Desperately sad to announce that Vaughan Oliver died peacefully today, with his partner Lee by his side. Great loss of friend and design hero. Vaughan Oliver (1957—2019.

— Adrian Shaughnessy (@AJWShaughnessy) December 29, 2019

Oh fuck no, he was my friend.

I'm very sorry, suzy x

Wow, pretty young ... rip.

The first time I met him, the Guardian sent me to interview him at 4AD the morning after the Jarvis moons Jacko Brits, both of us had stinking hangovers and had to drink about a gallon of tea each to get through the task at hand. Still delightful and intelligent in an inclusive way, had zero side. Latterly he’d been head of the design department at UCA Epsom (and was posting absolutely as normal on FB on Thursday, so this must be sudden, which makes it worse).

Yeah just running through the classic covers in my head he did — what an achievement.

Alasdair Gray was maybe my first favourite author and a very important formative influence on my tastes and sense of humour. Was so good to visit Glasgow, my ancestral town, with my dad this summer and to see his murals
RIP

RIPs.

Trying to remember that Anthony Burgess pull-quote on the cover of Lanark. Something like “Heaven needed a shattering work from Scotland in the modern idiom. This is it.”

Interesting interview with Vaughan Oliver here: https://www.longlivevinyl.net/cover-star-vaughan-oliver-interview/

Simon Raymonde just now on Oliver:

https://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/story.php?story_fbid=10158151851003714&id=502913713

For a split second I thought Simon died, too ...

RIP Jack Scott , rockabilly singer who did “The Way I Walk”

Norma Tanega, folksinger and songwriter (including "You're Dead" the What We Do In The Shadows series theme). It seems she ended up teaching in Claremont, California, and knew a friend of mine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_Tanega

Simon Raymonde just now on Oliver:

is this publicly readable anywhere?

memorial threads by J0hn D4rnielle:

this is hard news. I will tell you a story https://t.co/4vdrQzvEro

— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) December 29, 2019

and Emma Anderson:

Absolutely gutted to hear about Vaughan Oliver.
Someone asked me recently if working with him had been ‘claustrophobic’ as he seemed to thrust his ideas onto the artists and he didn’t seem to care what they felt about his designs.
Well, I’ll tell you what happened.. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/hckA503rbe

— Emma Anderson 🇪🇺 (@evjanderson) December 29, 2019

Warren Defever:

he was a beast he used to send me naked selfies before it was cool. he put a wedding photo from his first marriage on the back of our single the b-side was called Your Word Against Mine. when i slept in the apt above the 4ad office you could hear him howling late into the night pic.twitter.com/3M8mgp2NsA

— Warren Defever (@hisnameisalive) December 29, 2019

Nice focus on Alasdair gray in the National today, if you can find it

Neil Innes

Deeply saddened by the death of Neil Innes. I fell for Neil’s humour and humanity with the Rutland Weekend Television album in 1976. Big fan ever since and saw/met him many but not enough times. Loved his brilliant witty music, loved him. Mankind will miss his wry sagely wisdom.

— Mark Lewisohn (@marklewisohn) December 30, 2019

Ugh. RIP :(

:(

great story-teller as well as a songwriter whose pastiches i often prefer to the original

RIP, but at least he’ll live on in the form of all the money Eric Idle ripped him off for over the decades

Oh fuck, what a way to end the year.

RIP Neil ;_; The Rutles are only the band the Beatles could have been.

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

RIP Neil ;_; The Rutles are only the band the Beatles could have been.

Sad news, he could probably have been a successful mainstream singer-songwriter if he'd so chosen, instead of being fleeced by the least popular member of Monty Python. Still, maybe Eric Idle could chip in for the funeral costs?

Horrible news. The Rutles yes, but he was brilliant in the Bonzos too. RIP.

F Eric Idle forever. I bet Innes never outed himself as a Tory either.

Is this where I mention his "Silver Jubilee" single?

Apparently, it was someone else's idea...

Seeing reports that legendary industrial artist/designer and film designer Syd Mead (BLADE RUNNER, TRON, ALIENS) has died but no confirmation.

I read there's confirmation on his Facebook but I can't see it

News was first reported by John McElroy, the publisher of Autoline, who has interviewed Mead on his webcast in the past. pic.twitter.com/e0ymc3SQzX

— cartoonbrew.com (@cartoonbrew) December 30, 2019

Jazz guitarist Vic Juris.

Norma Tanega

Wow, I like her music. I'd only heard the song from the tv show before. Definitely up there with E-40 among the great artists from Vallejo CA.

Former NBA commissioner David Stern

I made a new one.

Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/music/article_b3410680-2677-11ea-a4a7-e3253f3bf2f5.html

Obit for Haitian vodou percussionist Daman FanFan Louis who died earlier in December. He lived in Haiti, then NYC, and for the past 8 years in New Orleans. He received a second line sendoff.

listening to david klion and others discussing norman podhoretz's MAKING IT (1967) on their stitcher podcast know your enemy and looking up to check when norman p died (he didn't yet, he's 90!), when midge decter died (ditto, she's 92!!), when gertrude himmelfarb died (30 dec 2019 aged 97, hence relevant to this thread's interests if not ilx's politics)

if you want to live for nearly ten decades be a neocon :0

By coincidence, I too had cause to Google Norman Podhoretz recently. after reading Janet Malcolm's piece about the MAKING IT reissue, excerpted here https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/03/22/norman-podhoretz-making-it/

I do like this review Malcolm quotes (by 'Wilfred Sheed, a prominent critic and novelist of the time'):

In this mixture of complacency and agitation, he has written a book of no literary distinction whatever, pockmarked by clichés and little mock modesties and a woefully pedestrian tone…. Mediocrities from coast to coast will no doubt take Making It to their hearts and will use it for their own justification…. In the present condition of our society and the world, I cannot imagine a more feckless, silly book.

Besides seeing Podhoretz's name in things like MAD magazine, I had no idea who or what he was (maybe a figure like Lionel Trilling, who seems equally obscure in the UK?) so the right wing politics were something of a surprise.

the podcast is good and even (very briefly) mentions lionel trilling

I only know about Podhoretz, Decter, and Himmelfarb from reading Gore Vidal.

Does this mean John Podhoretz and William Kristol are going to be around another 30 years? Greeeeaaaaaat.

N Podhoretz's rag Commentary was skewered regularly in Woody Allen films