Rolling Obituary Thread 2024

Groucho Marx, for example. Died 2 days after Elvis.

There was a massive fuss! My grandfather knew him a bit when young, so that might have some effect on my memories.

Peter Crombie, "Crazy Joe Davola" from Seinfeld
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/peter-crombie-dead-seinfeld-1235871063/

oh damn. I just posted in the Seinfeld thread about how this dude was so good that it actually changed the tone of the show during his scenes. idk if anyone else on the show was able to do that. I was pretty stunned that he never really appeared in anything else.

just hung up from talking with my niece and we agreed how incredible he was and perfectly casted. Maybe the greatest/ our fave non-regular on Sein. am deeply/maybe irrationally saddened, RIP

xpost

I'd read a book / watch a documentary / whatever about the casting of Seinfeld. They never missed.

Crombie was indeed great. Not sure where you draw your line re: the definition of "non-regular" but I'd rank it:

1. David Puddy
2. Frank Costanza
3. Newman
4. J. Peterman

with Davola not far behind. Which is no insult ... that list is a Murderer's Row of side characters.

Most impeccably cast (casted?) sitcom - maybe show - ever.

Not that anyone asked, but my own personal favorite celebrity death trilogy was Miles Davis / Klaus Barbie / Dr. Seuss. September 1991.

I'd read a book / watch a documentary / whatever about the casting of Seinfeld.

Read this a few years ago; very good, and lots about the casting, as I remember it.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Seinfeldia/Jennifer-Keishin-Armstrong/9781476756110

Howard Waldrop, American sf writer of note. After Terry Bisson’s passing, this is a hard month on this front! (Seek out Waldrop’s “The Ugly Chickens.”)

RIP. Pretty famous story, haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. Same with other guy actually/pvmic

Fact mix

Our first mix of 2024 will be the last mix of this series in its current form. After 16 years of mixes, Fact’s pioneering music program will no longer continue in its current iteration.

— 180.Fact (@180fact) January 16, 2024

I missed this one, Georgina Hale. Great, quirky (and sexy) British actress.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/10/georgina-hale-obituary

T-Bag!

Peter Schickele

https://wapo.st/3tWqUkj

RIP, person I thought was already

AKA PDQ Bach---haven't heard it, but really liked the idea of his album about the NPR station that was proudly "All Pachebel, All The Time." Think this was after Eno covered the "Canon" on Discreet Music, a teen choral version was the theme of Redford-directed Ordinary People, and it went on and on---in the late 80s or early 90s, a rapper sampled it, and why the fuck not, But Kyle Gann took a class taught by Peter S., said he was a rainy day at best--reminding me of what somebody else said about Donald Barthelme, and I think it was Thurber who wrote about what dark or gray miserable bastards so many humorists are. Maybe it's true of comedians as well, having to be funny.

Pachelbel, excuse me! And Eno recorded Variations on:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Pache%3Bbel+Brian+Eno&oq=Pache%3Bbel+Brian+Eno&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160l3.22601j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:6d711571,vid:nPesTx4yb3g,st:0

The PDQ Bach stuff was amusing, but I also loved Schickele Mix, a radio show where he could just ramble on about whatever music he wanted to talk about.

He introduced me to this fabulous song about dust mites by Heywood Banks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG0e6KOIZAI

"“Recognise the faces but can’t place the names?” Among the list of Britain’s top 10 great unsung television character actors that followed was Georgina Hale."

...

"This article was amended on 10 January 2024 to change a picture that did not show Georgina Hale."

Hale was a good Alma Mahler too

Brilliant dhrupad singer Amelia Cuni:

Blank Forms is deeply saddened by the death of Amelia Cuni (1958–2024), vocalist, composer, writer, teacher, well-known as one of the greatest contemporary Western proponents of dhrupad singing. More here: https://t.co/UZcxrIRjzl pic.twitter.com/c5Sgh6crTY

— Blank Forms (@BlankForms) January 17, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEKShVBmQr8

Aw, I love Amelia Cuni... she wasn't very old, either!

Juan Mendez aka Silent Servent. Way too young.

https://ra.co/news/80120?fbclid=IwAR3UTHIIGS3JYsnaBVfbnQ-TNNH8QXi2cntJ1IaCXOUBz-6tDdg2VU6YaeY_aem_AbfBjSE8TJBieOgzmOh05CatAjiAVXQ6Lqvi5Ch2KdUxyVg9C9NgeIcHIMtWTqJO21U

Ah wow :( Rest In Peace. Chatted with him once a couple of years back - nice guy.

Never met him but he gave props to Acute in an interview or something somewhere and had friends in common. He definitely defined a very influential aesthetic visually as well as musically.

Juan's wife and Luis Vasquez of The Soft Moon also passed away.

I just saw that on the Soft Moon facebook page. Terrible and sad news.

What the hell? ;_;

absolutely heartbreaking

that's terrible, wtf happened??

car accident?

there are rumors of it being fentanyl related, but i feel guilty spreading that as i have no idea if it's true

Was pretty weirded out to find that Juan's last record as Silent Servant came out last year and was called In Memorium

awful news. met him one time and bonded over early foetus 7"s chat. loved his music.

how awful :(

there are rumors of it being fentanyl related, but i feel guilty spreading that as i have no idea if it's true

Nothing official-official yet, but seeing some reports from people who would know on FB that Mary Weiss from the Shangri-Las has passed on.

RIP :(

Light In The Attic is also reporting that Seattle music scene Legend Susie Tennant of Sub Pop Records has passed away.

It’s with heavy hearts we share the news that Susie Tennant passed away yesterday. Susie was a giant inspiration for so many within the Seattle music community and far beyond. While interning at Sub Pop in the mid-90s, Susie handed me a 7" by the Fastbacks, released on Munster Records in Spain. She said to call the phone # on the back of the record jacket, tell them Susie sent me, and ask for an internship. I immediately did just that, trying to explain to Francisco (or was it Íñigo?!) at Munster the definition of the word “internship.” Six months later, I was in Madrid, interning for Munster and my life would never be the same. Without a doubt, there’d be no Light in the Attic without Susie. Susie, we’ll miss you. Thanks for all you did for us and thanks for all you did for so many others. Rest in Peace. Our hearts go out to Susie’s family and friends.

OMG Mary Weiss, what a heartthrob, RIP!

there are rumors of it being fentanyl related, but i feel guilty spreading that as i have no idea if it's true

Also have heard this rumor :-/

it would appear so - https://www.hollywoodlanews.com/jose-vasquez-dead/

such a tragedy

FUCK FENTANYL.

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

Is he a good danceuh?
Whaddayamean, is he a good danceuh?
Well, how does he dance?
Close, very, very close!

Wow, RIP :(

FUCK FENTANYL.

FUCK FENTANYL.

FUCK FENTANYL.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/mary-weiss-the-shangri-las-dead-obituary-1234950474/

Mary Weiss's death brings to mind an ongoing issue with the baseball HOF: their habit of not inducting some obviously qualified people while they're still alive (Ron Santo, Buck O'Neil, Leo Durocher, Dick Allen), then inducting them soon after they die--or, in Allen's case, not even then. (He'll be inducted eventually). I bet the Shangri-Las go in within two or three years; they should have been in long ago, and from all reports (by which I mean Greil Marcus), going in was something that was actually important to Weiss.

otm

i'm sorry that that was important to her

i've complained about the baseball HOF often enough, as clemenza is well aware -- it does less to celebrate greatness than to punish non-inductees (who were all great players!) for not measuring up, for years on end. (and then slips harold baines in via a back door because tony la russa liked him)

and the R&RHOF is ten times more arbitrary and racist and sexist. no one should care about it

otm as well

Halls of Fame are shit.

God bless the Shangri-La's. Rest in Peace Mary.

I’M JUST HERE FOR DICTATION
I DON’T WANT TO BE A SENSATION
BEING ON SIXTY MINUTES WASN’T
WORTH YOUR 15 MINUTES
DON’T TOUCH MY BREAST
I’M JUST WORKING AT MY DESK
DON’T PUT ME TO THE TEST
I’M JUST DOING MY BEST
SHOPPING AT MAXFIELDS
POWER FOR YOU TO WIELD
I DREAMED OF GOING TO THE GRAMMYS
TILL YOU POKED ME WITH YOUR WHAMMY
YOU USED TO SPIN THE DISKS
NOW YOU’RE MOURNING YOUR WRISTS
I’M JUST FROM ENCINO
WHY ARE YOU SO MEANO
I’M JUST HERE FOR DICTATION
IM NOT YOUR SUMMER VACATION
YOU REALLY LIKE TO SMOORE
WELL NOW YOU’RE ON THE NEWS
I’M FROM SHERMAN OAKS, JUST A WHEEL IN THE SPOKES
BUT I AIN’T GIVING YOU HEAD
IN A SUNSET BUNGALOW
ROSHUMBA, JUDIT, PAULINA, KATHY,
VENDELLA, NAOMI, ASHLEY, ANGIE, STACEY,
GAIL, I’M SWIMMING, I’M SWIMMING (US WOMEN)

Marlena Shaw, 81.
Pluto Shervington, 73.