Too soon?

Rest in peace James Garner

One of my favorite actors passed away this past weekend.  I always wanted to be Jim Rockford when I grew up.  Too bad I never grew up.

So long Delores

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Filmmaker, Olympic historian, glasses wearer, and cool old bald guy Bud Greenspan passed away on Christmas Day. I'm a huge Olympic nut and I've seen many of Greenspan's films about the Olympiads. I'll miss him and his work. Rest in peace Bud.

Goodbye to a class act

Rest in peace Elizabeth, no one deserves peace and rest more than you. The thought of your sleazy husband raising your children makes me ill.

Rest in peace

In the summer of 1980 I had just gotten dumped by the girl who lived across the street from us. I was taking it badly because I was still very shy around and with women back in those days and I was convinced that I'd never find another girl who would go out with me again. I decided to get my mind off the dumping by going to the movies, so I walked down to the Cameo Theatre in downtown Bristol and I saw one of the funniest movies I had ever seen. That film was Airplane! and I laughed so much and so hard during that film that I forgot all about being dumped by Debbie Jones.

The biggest reason why I laughed so much and still laugh when I see Airplane! is because of this guy,
Leslie Nielsen. His deadpan delivery and his slapstick were out of this world funny in Airplane!.

I followed his comedy career for many years. I loved him in the Naked Gun movies and the TV version of it as well. I even watched some of his painfully unfunny movies just because he was so good in them. I really liked him in the quirky little film called Men With Brooms.
For me, his last great performance was in Scary Movie 3, which I saw right after my bypass surgery. I remember laying on the couch with a chest full of pain and high in Oxycodone and laughing my ass off while he stole that film from everyone except Anna Faris.

Leslie died from complications of pneumonia on Sunday. I'll miss him but I'll always have his great comedy performances to make me laugh when I'm down. If anyone deserved to go on to better things after this life, then it's Mr. Nielsen. Farewell sir, fare well.

Goodbye my friend

Marie aka Themom passed away last night. She was a great blog buddy and a swell Facebook friend. She'd been battling heart related issues for the past 8 months. She's left behind a slew of kids, grandkids, and a funny and touching blog. It was my privilege to have known her and it was my honor to have been her friend.

Rest in peace Marie, you'll be missed by many many people.

Goodnight Howard

America's greatest historian has passed away at the age of 87. Howard Zinn taught us that history is more than just the story of the rich ruling elites and the machinations of the military industrial complex. He showed us history from the view point of the people who got trampled by it (black folks, native Americans, the poor, the working class), who tried to correct it (socialists, radicals, feminists), and perhaps most importantly, he didn't just sit on his bony academic ass and and write books and teach history, he went out in the streets and made history. He was a crucial player in the early civil rights struggles, his anti war activism took him out of his cloistered office and into the fight against the travesties we know as the Vietnam war and the wars of terror on Iraq and Afghanistan, and he was a voice for those who thought they had no voice. He was a pioneer in telling the story of this country not through dewy eyes that were shaded by rose colored glasses, but through the clear strong lens of truth. And most of the time that lens showed us that the Untied States of America wasn't this do gooder nation that we heard so much about in school, it showed that our country was in fact an empire that was responsible for death, destruction, and despair for those who crossed us or who didn't see things the way we saw them.

There was no one like Howard Zinn before but I hope now that we have his works and his example, there will be many more like him. Goodnight Howard, rest in peace sir. You will be missed.

Now it's just Peter and Paul

Mary and these Van Dyke wearing dudes helped make Bob Dylan famous, their cover of Blowin' in the Wind helped put him on middle America's musical map, and they turned Puff the Magic Dragon into a huge hit. Mary has left on her last jet plane, she's takin' the dirt nap now. Goodbye Mary, you were big part of the soundtrack to my early childhood and one of my first crushes. Thanks for all the great music and for rockin' those early '60's fashions.

Go gently in to that good night

Teddy's dead. That's what I said.

He had his faults and all but coming from a privileged background like he did, he did a hell of a lot for the working people of this country. He'll be missed.

Expect the hate for him by the right to bubble up like lava in a volcano. I imagine they'll be dancing in the halls at Liberty University, the 700 Club, and Focus on the Family.

Rutless exploiter of the mentally and physcially handicapped laid to rest

Rest in peace Eunice Shriver and thanks for giving back way more than you took.

Farewell sir

John Hughes has passed away. I didn't like all of his movies but I did love Sixteen Candles and most of the stuff he wrote for National Lampoon. His impact on people who grew up or came of age in the late '70's and '80's is huge, he will be missed. Go gently into that good night sir.

Good riddance

Vietnam war architect and self professed World War 2 war criminal Robert McNamara
is finally dead at age 93. The average age of the boys he sent to die in Vietnam was 19. Go figure. No rest in peace for you Bob. It's times like these I wish there was a hell so he could rot in it forever. Good riddance you murdering old blood thirsty bastard, this world is better off without the likes of you in it.

And then there's Maude

Bea Arthur died today. Cancer got her at age 86. I know most of you know her from The Golden Girls, frankly I never liked that show much, I thought all the characters were too broad (no pun intended). I preferred her in Maude. Her character of Maude was a role model for feminist women in the 1970's.

From what I can tell Ms. Arthur had a great sense of humor and she knew of all the jokes about her having a penis or her actually being a guy because her voice was so deep. So I'm pretty sure she wouldn't mind me putting a photo of this John Curin painting in a post about her death:
It's called Bea Arthur Nude and at one time it was in a Tate Gallery show, Tate Gallery for those of you who don't know is the comparable to our Museum of Modern Art in New York city.

Rest in peace Bea.

Rest in peace

Say goodbye to two icons of the 1970's:
Fidrych was killed in in an accident on his Mass. farm. His baseball career was cut short due to injuries and now his life has been cut short due to his dump truck. RIP Bird.

And Marilyn Chambers has passed away as well. Behind the Green Door and Insatiable were some of the first adult films I ever saw. I don't care what you think of porn or porn stars, I always thought Ms. Chambers was beautiful and I'll miss her greatly.

********

I hope both she and Mark Fidrych get reincarnated as something or someone really cool sometime soon.

RIP

Actor, humanitarian, wife, mother, sister, daughter, Natasha Richardson is dead at age 45. What a shame. I feel for her sons because my mother was in her 40's when she died. Rest in peace Natasha. I hope you get reincarnated as some thing or someone really cool.

Farewell Andrew Wyeth

American artist Andrew Wyeth has passed away at age 91. His most famous painting is the iconic Christina's World but my favorites of his are his Helga series of paintings.The women I used to see on TV and in magazines always looked too pretty and perfect, they did not look normal. The woman Wyeth painted in his Helga series looked not only real she looked like women I knew. I love the way he played with light and shadow on her body and her face in this series. Wyeth was the son of an artist and his son also became an artist. He will be missed but we've got his huge body of work to appreciate forever.

RIP Donald Westlake

One of my favorite writers, Donald Westlake, has died. He wrote all kinds of crime fiction under a few different pen names. You can read his obit here. If you've never read a Donald Westlake/Richard Stark novel, then please do so soon. He was a master storyteller and he'll be missed, especially be me.

RIP Nurse Chapel

One of the women I had an inappropiate crush on when I was a young monkey, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, has died. She played Nurse Chapel on the original Star Trek and she played Troi's mother in Star Trek: TNG. Rest in peace Majel, maybe in another life you and I can hook up and make the beast with two backs.

RIP Ms. Page

In the pin up world she was second to none.

In the world of Playboy magazine she was second to one, and that one was Marilyn Monroe.

Now she's gone.

Rest easy Bettie, I hope you come back real soon.