Dr. Morbius (Bill Weber) RIP

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

xp: He was from Newark iirc... Essex Co for sure.

does Pseu post here anymore?

for his dislike of the zing thread, he landed quite a few great ones. this one still makes me giggle
--------------------------------------------------------------------

i'd call faster melting of the icecaps a result

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Saturday, April 1, 2017 11:56 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That tends to happen each spring no matter who the president is, though.

― Frederik B, Saturday, April 1, 2017 12:10 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that's how you were freed from that glacier

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Saturday, April 1, 2017 12:27 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hahaha yes

i met bill a few times i think all in bars that no longer exist, he was quite gregarious and did not wish physical harm upon me even once, damn this is sad

I just realized

Eric H, Morbs, and I will never trade inapt All About Eve quips again

fuck

Ah hell. RIP. Loved talking with him about 80s NYC downtown performance art and so on. A blazing emblem of that city’s accessible, rent-controlled culture, now going away.

When the next Tarantino movie gets announced, the new thread will be agreeable and missing his horseradish.

he was quite gregarious and did not wish physical harm upon me even once

he had so many opportunities to introduce jon williams to the pavement, and yet

damn, rip morbs. this place won't be the same without you

rip morbs. i hope the mets pull one out for you soon. 💕

I don't really have any worthwhile words to add. I got to meet Morbz just a couple of times in NYC - one or two FAPs, and one time, sitting down at BAM to watch a program of Mabel Normand silent shorts, and lo and behold who was in the seat right next to mine. "Bill?" I said, and he remembered who I was. He posted once about hoping to see me at a movie again sometime, even though that post was, I believe, mostly about thinking my opinion that day was fatuous nonsense. I wish I'd taken him up and made some plans.

Everyone is completely right about what he was about. Meeting him for even a couple hours, your whole perception of his writerly and ILX persona reoriented itself, came into focus as a specific kind of carefully-cultivated, irascible crank tone. It stemmed from genuine high standards for how things ought to be in a more decent world with a greater appetite for both art and for intellectually honest discussion of it. If you just read him on here it was easy to sketch in a blustering, self-satisfied grouch who would be impossible to be around, but in person he was an old-fashioned gregarious enthusiast, unashamedly opinionated but not vitriolic or difficult to talk to at all.

All of you all otm, Alfred especially. He was a tremendous guy. I wish I'd spent less time being pissed off at him for things posted on this board, but I think he liked it that way. RIP Doc. You gave me a lot to think about, and this place will truly, immeasurably, not be the same without you.

RIP Morbius, condolences to his family and to all who knew him here

For all his vinegar, he rarely took things personally, which, from what I knew about him, confounded him about The Kids with their Cancel Culture. Lord knows you can ctrl-F a million threads in which we pound each other to sauce yet not once did he hold a grudge.

One thing I really loved about him other than his absolutely exquisite grasp of movie history was his very un-American trait of freely expressing his loathing of shite US politicians and political parties. And his delightfully Morbsian worldplay like: Toady Blair etc! I've barely ever conversed with him on here tbh, but it still feels like a death in the family:( RIP Morbz

and twat

Oh fuck. We only ever really interacted in the midst of general film sparring, but he was an institution. This news is so awful. RIP man, and love to all of you who knew him well.

“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.“

Hell fucking yeah man. I really only interacted with him on the politics threads but he was such a vital presence. He gave no quarter and sometimes that was frustrating but goddamn it makes me cry to think how beautiful this world could be if everyone was half that fierce

he had so many opportunities to introduce jon williams to the pavement, and yet

― mookieproof, Wednesday, October 21, 2020 10:34 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

missed connections...

his delightfully Morbsian wordplay

lol fair

Ah I was thinking about you, Morbs. Wondered where’d you gone to since you’d been so quiet on here. May they show no kiddie garbage where you are now and may the seats always be comfortable - but only just enough to keep you from dozing during those film marathons. Rest In Peace, Doc.

I never met him IRL but he was a distinctive presence on this board and I’ll miss him.

the man was truly one of a kind. moreso than even his opinions or personality, what i will remember most about bill is that he was a walking history book. it's not an exaggeration to say that a piece of new york died today as well. it will surprise no one who knows either him or me that he was constantly incredulous over me not knowing basically anything about much of the pop culture that made him who he was -- our conversations were classes for me, punctuated by impressions of bygone actors whose lines he would recall from memory and with recite relish. many ppl know he once dabbled in stand up comedy -- he was in his own way a performer at heart. he soaked up such an incredible amount of new york culture that you cannot access online -- mets games from the 60s, richard pryor stand up sets from the 70s, yo la tengo hannukah shows, WMFU call in shows, leather parties... i'm barely scratching the surface. his memory of these things was so clear. and he never let up, even as he got sick and the world became cruel to him. i was decades younger than him, much healthier, and he made me feel like i was wasting my life in this city. he would drag me to mets games, to movies, even when it was obvious that simply climbing the concourse stairs at citi field was taking its toll. there simply isn't very many people like him left in new york. there are many things killing this city, but people like bill are taking history with them, and we will never get it back.

his appetite for introducing ppl to things was just voracious. i believe the last time we saw each other was earlier this year when he took me to see gregg araki's "totally fucked up" at moma. loved it, still think about the movie often, and it's something i never would have done otherwise. lord knows how many times he had seen it, how easy it would have been to not ride the subway an hour into manhattan on a cold weeknight. i got there late (typical), and since bill proudly refused to own a cell phone, i wasn't sure if he had actually made it. even as the lights went up, i thought maybe i would just be left to walk out alone into the night. but of course, that was never the case. a hand shot up and waved at me.

i will miss his companionship, i will miss knowing i was even a small part of what made him want to criss cross brooklyn queens and manhattan, and i will miss learning from him. he had an incredible run given the cards he was dealt, and yet it's still far too soon. he was a legend to everyone who knew him. rest in peace morbs <3

For all his vinegar, he rarely took things personally, which, from what I knew about him, confounded him about The Kids with their Cancel Culture. Lord knows you can ctrl-F a million threads in which we pound each other to sauce yet not once did he hold a grudge.

― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, October 21, 2020 10:37 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

ha i remember really getting into with him on here once then he said something to the effect of i know you dont really mean it just like i dont and we both clocked out like the loony tunes wolf and sheep dog

Oh man. Never met him but at times felt like I’d become him in 20 years or so, what with the shared love of the Mekons, Yo La Tengo, Bob and Ray, etc. He always seemed like an essentially kind person and it’s very nice to see that so widely confirmed. It’s so sad, makes me wish I had lived in NYC, I feel like I would have inevitably met him even if I never posted here.

thanks for that post, jordan

Yes thanks jordan

I just found out and am so sorry to hear this. While I never got the chance to meet him I know others who did and they all spoke so highly of him. Reading through these posts it’s clear that so many people loved him. Rest In Peace Dr M.

Jordan, very well said. Bill's enthusiasm about classic film and his truly encyclopedic knowledge of so many things were an education for me too.

That was really lovely Jordan

and we both clocked out like the loony tunes wolf and sheep dog

― lag∞n, Wednesday, October 21, 2020 10:44 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

also i love this image and it's such a perfect metaphor for his online persona