A few clips by comedian, satirist, and ad man Stan Freberg, who died yesterday. His heyday was before my time, but we had several of his albums in my dad’s record collection, and I memorized […]
Category: obituary
Getting tired of these
Mortality is a real bitch— just in the past couple of days we’ve lost Idris Muhammad, and Frankie Dunlop. I can’t ignore their passing, but I’m no good at just showering superlatives on people, which […]
Charlie Haden 1937-2014
UPDATE: Haden remembered by some musicians who played with him. Very disappointed to find out that Charlie Haden, the bassist, died yesterday— he’s been one of my musical heroes for a long time, since I […]
Rik Mayall 1958-2014
Very sorry to have lost comic legend Rik Mayall yesterday. He was best known in the US for The Young Ones and small parts on Black Adder, but my favorite thing of his was The […]
Gordon Willis 1931-2014
Still from Manhattan, by Gordon Willis When thinking of an era in the arts where there’s a strong zeitgeist, I always feel that there a large field of people working within a style, doing this […]
Al Feldstein 1925-2014
A bigger cultural milestone than most people know has been passed today: Al Feldstein, the editor of Mad Magazine for many years, has passed away. From Huffington Post: Before “The Daily Show,” ”The Simpsons” or […]
You know what, I think I’m over this whole gun thing.
George Wasson Non-musical post today, sorry. A cousin of mine, and one of my older living relatives, was murdered with a gun this week in Eugene, Oregon, in the house where he lived since I […]
Sid Caesar 1922-2014
Very sorry to lose the great Sid Caesar today— even if it seems incredible we had him around as long as we did. I was a kid in the 70’s, and knew him best from […]
Dick Berk 1939-2014
Just learned that the drummer Dick Berk has died. He was best known for being Billy Holliday’s last drummer; he is also on recordings by Ted Curson, Nick Brignola, Milt Jackson, George Duke, Cal Tjader, […]
Lou Reed 1942-2013
It’s a good day to give White Light, White Heat a listen in its entirety— news that Lou Reed has died is breaking all over the Internet right now. I first heard this record on […]