Dr. Morbius (Bill Weber) RIP

He was probably one of my best-known ilxors, I have lost track of how many times we have hung out and if he wasn’t present at my very first ilx hangout (2007? 2008?) it was very soon after. I loved how he was like basically doing a stand up routine 24/7, he was so full of wit and commentary and humor, so observational, so much fun to be around, so full of warmth and kindness towards those who deserved it and an incredibly righteous anger to those who did not. I loved how unwavering he was and how steadfast he was in his worldview, and I truly admired how left-leaning he was for someone his age. He was really, really, really super, I loved him a lot and I’m gutted I’ll never get to have drinks with him at Julius again.

Omg ha ahahahaaa!

:D

Bill more than any ilx0r I have ever met was someone who once you met him you were like “ohhhhh now I get it” and then all of his posts made sense

I4n trailed this effect at my first American FAP, saying something like "once you see the twinkle in his eye IRL, you can never take his threats of murder seriously again." Stevie has summed it up even more perfectly.

Yeah, that was an excellent summary steve

Until you met him, you realized not so much that his ILX persona was "bluster" but that the bluster was his way of forcing me not to take shit for granted, whether Assayas films or life.

<3

Will miss his withering contempt in general, but especially for people that don't appreciate Spielberg.

"I loved how he was like basically doing a stand up routine 24/7, he was so full of wit and commentary and humor, so observational, so much fun to be around, so full of warmth and kindness towards those who deserved it and an incredibly righteous anger to those who did not. I loved how unwavering he was and how steadfast he was in his worldview, and I truly admired how left-leaning he was for someone his age. He was really, really, really super, I loved him a lot and I’m gutted"

loved reading this Stevie

Bill more than any ilx0r I have ever met was someone who once you met him you were like “ohhhhh now I get it” and then all of his posts made sense

this is incredibly otm; i feel like it’s somehow damning with faint praise to talk about what a nice guy he was IRL, but he was a really nice guy IRL!

aww, Dan M thank you for finding that. it's perfect.

i've been typing and erasing and typing and erasing and... idk... no matter how clearly he told us this was coming, there's a part of me that truly believed he'd survive us all through sheer cussedness and bc there was still so much more to drink in.

such a generous spirit, deeply written into the walls of this place... wishing peace and comfort to his loved ones and better days for us all.

The best way to honor Morbs without schmaltz? Fucking watch an early '30s John Ford film tonight.

and give Dennis Perrin tweets a few clicks

Well, shit.

yeah i could never get seriously mad at his posts here after meeting him. we met up again in boston in 2015 and had a couple beers on a sunday afternoon and he was the same old bill, attending baseball stats conferences and catching up with friends. i guess in the back of my mind i thought we would hang out again someday but isn't that how it always is.

and watch a lubitsch movie

When we finally arranged to watch a movie in Manhattan a decade ago and he wanted to nail down meeting details, I said, "You talk as if you don' own a cell phone."

"I don't," he said.

I love that this was the first post in his own thread, Brigitte Mira 1910-2005:

Someone who was associated with more great films than Tarantino or Teresa Wright...
http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,345411,00.html

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, March 9, 2005 1:33 PM (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Teresa Wright, who died the day before.

Essential morbius

"I’m gutted I’ll never get to have drinks with him at Julius again"

co-sign

co-sign

I’m so, so sad. We only hung a couple times but he was absolutely the sweetest. Love to Cathy and Stevie and those of you who were closest to him

When we finally arranged to watch a movie in Manhattan a decade ago and he wanted to nail down meeting details, I said, "You talk as if you don' own a cell phone."

"I don't," he said.

and give Dennis Perrin tweets a few clicks

― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

doug henwood's reach is going to be cut in half overnight

<3

RIP Morbs, one of my favorite posters

as a millennial it was SO baffling and also like “wow so this is what people did, huh”

lol stevie d

by the time i met him (2016) he had a cell phone, but proudly not a smartphone! <3

A flip phone in 2017 lol

he'd still be like every action movie film character in 2020 who inexplicably has an LG flip

he actually had a laptop in the hospital! but i couldn't walk him through opening the baseball book epubs i sent him

fuck

this is awful, i'm so sorry. good bye and take it easy, Dr.

Awful news. Never got to meet him in person, but he was very clearly a passionate guy and I learned a lot from him. RIP.

by the time i met him (2016) he had a cell phone, but proudly not a smartphone! <3

factual error! my brooklyn stint was 2014-16, so that was 2014

one of the few people who drove me up a fucking wall but i read everything he wrote. and, if it matters, he would probably get the last laugh as my politics have gotten closer to his as years advanced. what an awful thing.

I’m going to honor his memory by trying my best to move further to the left as I age. Not joking. If we all try to be a little more Morbius we can start to fill in a little bit of the gap that’s left today.

Bill Weber was an example of Catholic dialectical grace: fight tooth and nail, offer words of comfort you wouldn't think are possible.

― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, October 21, 2020 8:57 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Beautifully said.

rip bill

Here are the charitable organizations that Bill asked us to support: WFMU, Amnesty International, Society for American Baseball Research, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, Silent Clowns Film Series.

he was a sweetheart. gutted. i don't think he was a big biden guy but i wish bill could still be here on nov. 3rd to see trump get socked in the jaw.

Goddamit all anyway. I’m glad he’s not in pain anymore.
I liked you bill.

He and I met here sparring on the Brokeback Mountain thread. I admired his prose here enough to ask him to write for the long defunct Stylus Magazine as a film critic. He genuinely scoffed at this job and what he did in Slant, but he was no fan: an incisive, precise writer who'd spent decades thinking about shit in film to know what worked and didn't. I especially admired him for throwing GREAT and GOOD at everything. "Don't lose your cool until you have to" is not a bad way to approach art.

uh for NOT throwing

That makes a lot more sense.

Oh, no.

Even if I hadn't been able to see through his cantankerous persona to the frustrated idealist underneath, the numerous indications from those who knew him as a person offboard were enough to tell that he was good and well-loved.

I mentioned to him recently that I dreamt I'd met him irl (which I never actually did, unfortunately) and sang the opening refrains of 'Wedding Bell Blues' to him. He has the distinction of being the only ILXor to appear in my dreams.

Bill, I love you so and always will.

I'm really sad right now.

I met Bill pretty soon after I moved to the city - maybe 2005 or 2006?
I can't articulate anything but he was one of the best people I've had the privilege to know. Fierce af and also hilarious and kind and so smart.

Love you Bill.

but i wish bill could still be here on nov. 3rd to see trump get socked in the jaw.

I thought this too, but didn't post bcz it'd be even better to have him still here on Jan 3rd 2025, shouting about Biden

fuck, RIP

I thought this too, but didn't post bcz it'd be even better to have him still here on Jan 3rd 2025, shouting about Biden

― Un-fooled and placid (sic),

otm

Ahh reminds me of morbs in the noise board days xxp

damn. really sorry to hear this. loved chatting with him on the Brewers threads. I assume he was a Wisconsinite??

bumped WFMU, demanded that they air a once-a-month hour of mekons called the king morbs flower hour

ok not really but definitely the first part

was anyone else surprised that Justice Stevens didn't hand Biden his robe and say "I quit" the second the VP oath was done?

― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, January 20, 2009 12:35 PM (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol there it is