Rolling Obituary Thread 2024

Darren Ellis aka Splash RIP

all time classic

Shit, missed this. Few tunes captured so perfectly the balance of everything that scene represented at the time.

Keyes, sorry for opining on the Obit thread— you are perhaps right that I was too harsh. I could have simply left it at “controversial critic Marjorie Perloff” or something to that degree.

That said, check out the receipts from above and I think your opinion about her might be changed— the moment during the Rethinking Poetics conference left the room speechless, the bald racism was so shocking.

Sorry for popping off.

Coincidentally I guess, when I was reading Perloff I was in class with the Jen Hofer from the link you posted.

Jen and I have only met a few times— she once gave a bilingual reading with Mexican poet Dolores Dorantes, whom she translates, that was among the most intense and memorable readings I have ever attended. You could hear a pin drop by the end.

Jen is a dear friend and neighbor, and also the person i was referencing in my last post lol

Cool!

Richard Serra, 85

RIP. Can only imagine the headstone.

RIP! I have enjoyed a number of Serra installations.

Loved his work. Have at least 3 or 4 photos of myself standing in front of his pieces; I use them for author photos and on LinkedIn and whatnot.

Yeah, my favorite of those associated with capital-M Minimalism

The Times obituary (gift link) finds several graceful ways to discuss the fact that he was a huge asshole.

That Chuck Close quote.

To be fair, his work doesn't make me think "This guy is probably super fun."

have always liked his film/video work from the 70s - thought about this one a lot at the onset of covid when zoom calls started to become ubiquitous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z32JTnRrHc

as much as i want to hate big dick work by grumps i can't deny richard serra. he was the real deal as they say. that picture of tilted arc in the times obit is so damn cool. his drawings were awesome too.

https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_LotDetailMainImage/v1/auctions/UK010721/158693_001.jpg

Big Dick Work by Grumps is actually one of the most underrated albums of 1996.

Daniel Kahneman, of Thinking Fast and Slow, 90.

Joe Lieberman

Are we allowed to say anything bad about this guy then?

"He hated healthcare until the end"

(He died from "complications from a fall")

Go ape on this clown

He was great on ALF...

No more Joementum
Was hoping for Joementia

At least he lived long enough to enjoy the genocide

Eric Morecambe's widow, Joan.

i'm kinda glad i never need to hear that slow-ass voice again. ugh. not a fan.

Alas, no more Joementum

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/03/27/joe-lieberman-senator-vice-president-dead/

He died again.

Not to be weird, since it’s not a person, but RIP to Small Press Distribution, the longest-running distributor of independent presses in the US. 55 years. A real loss to the literary world.

Just in time to impact the release of my wife's second book. It's been very frustrating.

and my fourth, the one about nearly dying of cancer. i am furious

Louis Gossett, Jr.

https://apnews.com/article/louis-gossett-jr-dies-1e86e1441ec8b614a282f3de22490a07

Gossett was booked into the Beverly Hills Hotel and Universal Studios had rented him a convertible. Driving back to the hotel after picking up the car, he was stopped by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s officer who ordered him to turn down the radio and put up the car’s roof before letting him go.

Within minutes, he was stopped by eight sheriff’s officers, who had him lean against the car and made him open the trunk while they called the car rental agency before letting him go.

“Though I understood that I had no choice but to put up with this abuse, it was a terrible way to be treated, a humiliating way to feel,” Gossett wrote in his memoir. “I realized this was happening because I was Black and had been showing off with a fancy car — which, in their view, I had no right to be driving.”

After dinner at the hotel, he went for a walk and was stopped a block away by a police officer, who told him he broke a law prohibiting walking around residential Beverly Hills after 9 p.m. Two other officers arrived and Gossett said he was chained to a tree and handcuffed for three hours. He was eventually freed when the original police car returned.

In August 1969, Gossett had been partying with members of the Mamas and the Papas when they were invited to actor Sharon Tate’s house. He headed home first to shower and change clothes. As he was getting ready to leave, he caught a news flash on TV about Tate’s murder. She and others were killed by Charles Manson’s associates that night.

But the murders weren't known about until the following morning

rip louis gossett jr., or as i first knew him, the voice of the vortigaunts in half-life 2

https://ychsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/71DA300F-6E32-4ABA-9647-142F118F8319.jpg

One of the great TV "What If...?" stories was the Rockford Files spin-off w/Gossett & Issac Hayes.

I was literally scrolling down to write a variation of your post, C. Grisso. RIP, Louis.

(Particularly in a world where friggin' Richie Brockelman, Private Eye actually did become a reality somehow. Injustice.)

Yeah that Rockford spinoff wouldve ruled. RIP Gandy :(

Also grebt in Officer & a Gentleman

Marian Zazeela, visual artist and wife/artistic partner of La Monte Young, 83.

Drummer Gerry Conway, who played with Fotheringay, Steeleye Span, Cat Stevens, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson et al (and was married to Jacquie McShee).

https://atthebarrier.com/2024/03/30/thank-you-gerry-conway/

Great drummer.

Clare Elliott, singer of NZ punk band Suburban Reptiles https://www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/zero-s-hour-the-punk-pioneer

Chance Perdomo from Gen V and Sabrina, in a motorcycle accident. He was 27.

Just saw that, awful