Rolling Obituary Thread 2025

Wayne Osmond, 73, of the Osmonds

also

Russ North, 59, former singer of Clover Hoof, and runner-up to replace Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden.

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

Jocelyn Wildenstein has sadly used up the last of the 9 lives

Pippa Garner, whose work i only encountered for the first time at the most recent hammer museum biennial

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/pippa-garner-dead-1234729124/

David Lodge

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2025/01/david-lodge-obituary

Someone who felt everywhere when I was an Eng Lit teenager, & I read and enjoyed the campus trilogy, but then never anything else.

Britt Allcroft, creator of Thomas the Tank Engine.

RIP, David Lodge. Read most of what he wrote through the campus trilogy and then a few things after that. Seem him give a reading from Paradise News at Books, Inc. on the Upper East Side when it came out.

I gave up on him after his terrible book ‘Thinks…’. He was good when he was at his peak, but he couldn’t seem to shake off his rather tiresome obsessions in his later work.

Yeah, he became a bit of an old bore, sorry to say.

Adam Roberts said it better in his review of his H.G. Wells book.

Mick Hobbs of the Work, Officer! And other This Heat type adjacent arty stuff.

Soulman Brenton Wood

https://variety.com/2025/music/news/brenton-wood-dead-the-oogum-boogum-song-soul-singer-1236265160/

"CheckOutTheBootsEh CheckOutTheBootsEh CheckOutTheBootsEh"

Heh, Adam Roberts wrote something nice about David Lodge in his new(ish) substack and now says his H.G. Wells book is “better than its reputation.”

Jeff Baena, 47, filmmaker and Aubrey Plaza’s husband

Absolutely tragic. Reports suggest it was suicide

Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman who was the world's oldest person according to Guinness World Records, has died, an Ashiya city official said Saturday. She was 116.

https://abc7news.com/post/is-oldest-person-alive-tomiko-itooka-japanese-woman-was-worlds-116-has-died/15751689/

I wish I could have the extra years now, not when I'm 112

The Jeff Baena thing is mind wrecking

The Vivienne, winner of Rupaul's Drag Race UK Season One, 32.

this is just awful

Experimental playwright and one of the real heroes of the Downtown scene, Richard Foreman.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/theater/richard-foreman-dead.html

Per a post from Steven Krakow just now on FB, ESP-Disk veteran/painter Ed Askew, who had a good second run these past twenty five years with a full series of albums following the debut back in 1968.

xp wow i was just talking about Richard Foreman with someone the other day. learned about his work from my favorite college professor who had us read pages from some of his scripts. RF more or less retired from theater while i was living in nyc; sad i never got to see any of his productions, they seemed like quite the trip.

Think I only ever got over to see one production of his, which I enjoyed, but always found him interesting and intriguing. RIP.

Per a post from Steven Krakow just now on FB, ESP-Disk veteran/painter Ed Askew, who had a good second run these past twenty five years with a full series of albums following the debut back in 1968.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, January 5, 2025 4:00 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I shared a bill with him at a Greenpoint loft party about ten years ago now— Ka Baird introduced him. Tons of people came out despite what was essentially a hurricane going on outside. He was a lovely person, chatted with him for a while. RIP.

"Goin' Down" Dude Don Nix

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2025/01/01/don-nix-obituary-stax-artist-songwriter-producer/77388086007/

Alfa Anderson, the lead singer of Chic from 1978-1983, aged 78

https://ra.co/news/81880

Alfa Anderson passed in 2024 and already posted on the old thread.

oops i missed that!

Mike Rinder, 69, ex-Scientologist and Leah Remini’s co-host on several shows.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, French fascist, 96

good

Good riddance.

God that fucker was still hanging around, huh

Gunvor Nelson, one of the greatest experimental filmmakers. would encourage everyone to seek out red shift

Reuters describing him as an unabashed nationalist (not like those many meek, humble ones) and a 'pugnacious mix of populism, eloquence and charisma'.

🤮🤮🤮

Fascist ghouls tend to live forever unfortunately, or what seems like it. Unless they're shot and hung upside down from a lamppost first of course.

"oh I'm angin from a lamppost at the corner of the street .."

© Alexei Sayle

Peter Yarrow, 86

Wow!

Aww, the Italian 'Robinson Crusoe' Mauro Morandi has died... they killed him when they forced him off his island

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/07/hermit-guardian-budelli-island-off-sardinia-dies

Beej Chaney from Minneapolis greats the Suburbs:

https://www.startribune.com/beej-chaney-suburbs-death-guitarist/601203171

I just bumped the Suburbs thread to post this. I’m really sad.

RIP Pete Yarrow bc Peter Paul & Mary were a childhood cornerstone … but it’s hard to square that with the fact that Carter pardoned him for his ~admitted~ sexual assault of a 14yo girl and not scream into the void

Just read this now. So weird--I was in a theatre yesterday rewatching A Complete Unknown (Yarrow's in there two or three times, including the guy who reintroduces Dylan for his crowd-calming acoustic number at Newport '65). Fan from childhood too; didn't know about the assault at all.

apparently there may have been other incidents

https://web.archive.org/web/20210517122113/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/05/17/peter-yarrow-carter-pardon-assault/

wow just read some of that, he was puff the magic scumbag

Thin Lizzy / Whitesnake / Tygers of Pan Tang guitarist John Sykes, 65

https://blabbermouth.net/news/legendary-guitarist-john-sykes-dead-at-65

There’s some epic shredding from him on that whitesnake self titled

Whoa RIP - loved his run in Whitesnake and I kinda (with reservations) like his 1989 iteration of Blue Murder

I knew that Sykes & Coverdale would prob never patch things up, but man that was a killer combo while it lasted.

Killer hairdo back in thhe day too. That’d be at least 5 bags of hair these days.

jules feiffer

Oh man, RIP Feiffer. When I was in high school and would go to a newsstand to read the Village Voice, Feiffer's cartoons were among its hallmarks. I didn't exactly love them (or necessarily get them), but they were sort of beacons of a form of urban/urbane intellectualism that I aspired to. I didn't want to be like the people in Feiffer cartoons, but I wanted to be the kind of person who read them knowingly.

Feiffer’s passing really hurts. I own a few pieces by him, including a 1987 strip.

Bertrand Blier has passed as well

https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/01/21/bertrand-blier-realisateur-et-scenariste-auteur-des-valseuses-est-mort-a-85-ans_6508368_3382.html

RIP Jules Feiffer. The work that immediately leapt to mind was his 1965 edited collection The Great Comic Book Heroes, which fascinated me as a child and which helped revive interest in Golden Age comics and especially the work of Will Eisner.

His earliest comic “Sick, Sick, Sick” were pretty great.

Feiffer was just an incredible novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. Alain Resnais, Robert Altman, and of course, Mike Nichols, all leaned on his amazing talent

Garth Hudson

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/garth-hudson-the-last-living-member-of-the-band-dead-at-87/article_983498e8-d7fc-11ef-ac3c-4b6836c7f137.html

oh :( rip garth xxx

Oh bummer. Last of the band. RIP Garth.

RIP :(

RIP :(

RIP Garth, legend

aw

Another full band down :(

RIP

My living room piece is now officially a memorial
https://i.imgur.com/NvcfZ5C.jpeg

Garth was one of those living links to original rockabilly, not many of those left around

My living room piece is now officially a memorial
🖼

The Last Waltzer

xpost Yep! It's one piece, I guess a ... quintych?

It's beautiful, Josh. I am experiencing considerable envy!

Yeah, cool piece.

Years ago, when I got my first real job and steady paycheck, I knew I wanted to eventually buy something from Langford. My wife had sort of worked with him or around him at her old job, and we had a few friends in common, so when I got a tax refund one year I dropped him a line. I'm not sure I had seen this Band piece somewhere already, but I noticed it when I got to his studio, and iirc he told me it had sold already, but he was able to find or create another version/edition of it for me, for a fair price. I love seeing it every day, even if it's sad that three of the five have passed since I purchased it.

Bernard Blier's Buffet Froid is one of my favourites, I'd put it up with the best of Buñuel. None of the other films of his managed to capture that perfect, funny dreamlike atmosphere, and I think he ended up relying too much on "outrageous" premises to carry the films.

Bertrand Blier, sorry; Bernard was his actor father.

RIP Bertrand Blier.

Brian Bothwell of Boston industrial band Manufacture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqcq1SOSKK8

I had a single when I was new to "industrial" music. It's pretty dated, like a parody/pop version of skinny puppy or soemething. But listening now this pop song with Nettwerk label mate Sara McLachlan is absolutely lovely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqcq1SOSKK8

sorry, first link should be:

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/brian-bothwell-obituary?id=57310371&fbclid=IwY2xjawH99jVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHX0z6547oFG2n4bhPR4wwYcU90HRr1uayVhVlgatQwnanf_uv4oZgzIVJA_aem_l-xEV9_I2T2IPbkzh6QvHQ

Guitarist Elliot Ingber, of The Mothers of Invention; Fraternity of Man; and as "Winged Eel Fingerling" in the Magic Band.

Charlotte Raven, 55, after dealing with horrific disease Huntingdon's

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jan/22/charlotte-raven-exhilarating-trail-blazing-journalist-dies-aged-55

This column she wrote in 2023 about the need for legal assisted death is linked in that obit, it is so maddening that there are so few places where it's available. Just incomprehensible that we all choose to put our loved ones and ourselves through agonies that we routinely spare our beloved dogs and cats, because of misbegotten religious notions of "the sanctity of life." If you really value life, you should allow it a good ending.

Oh, forgot the link: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/02/author-charlotte-raven-at-this-point-of-no-return-assisted-dying-feels-like-the-best-solution

can't imagine the suffering that poor woman went through, having a relationship with Julie Burchill

J Nash - cult hero computer games writer best known for Your Sinclair and Amiga Power
https://kotaku.com/jonathan-nash-games-critic-amiga-power-obituary-1851745081

The Center for Visual Music list is reporting that early San Francisco liquid light show pioneer Bill Ham has passed at age 92.
https://billhamlights.com

xxp

I figure it's not too soon for the Lool, now!

Edweena Garrity, aka Edweena Banger, ex-Nosebleeds/Slaughter & the Dogs

https://www.nola.com/news/pableaux-johnson-dies/article_8dcbe608-dc49-11ef-93af-ebc56bc9752d.html

Oh no, photographer Pableaux Johnson known for his second line photos and his red beans and rice dinners for guests at his home died after collapsing at a second line while taking photos. My wife and I met him once years ago and he was such a nice and interesting person. He was just 59

The now late Pableaux is getting lots of praise online from the foodie community, New Orleans second line fans, people who attended his his traveling red beans and rice dinners, and city of New Orleans fans. His Facebook, Instagram, and website have lots of impressive photos

Marianne Faithfull, aged 78.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8k931j423o

Oh no, just noticed it on the news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIg49PAM2CY

I was thinking about her this week and wondering how her health was doing... I think she was pretty much a lifelong smoker

I think she was pretty much a lifelong smoker

Don't forget the years of heroin addiction.

She nearly died from Covid.

Barry Goldberg, of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag, and tons of sessions

https://variety.com/2025/music/news/barry-goldberg-dead-blues-keyboardist-bob-dylan-newport-electric-flag-1236282797/

xpost RIP. I was just thinking about her, too. I interviewed her hears ago. It was half her answering a handful of questions for me, and half her yelling at her manager Francois, telling him how to arrange and where to put some flowers she had been sent.

A horrible timing given the DC crash and some of the people on it but: Dick Button, the acerbic master. 95!

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/sports/dick-button-dead.html