Tag Archives: death
Gone Roeg
This week we lost the cinematic master, Nicolas Roeg. The British auteur practically defined cinematic counterculture in the 1970s and his groundbreaking filmography includes David Bowie’s turned as a lonely alien in The Man Who Fell To Earth, Donald Sutherland’s searing, anguished performance in the unforgettable Don’t Look Now, and the mysterious parable of Walkabout. [...]
Indonesia’s Walking Dead
I’m still bummed-out over the passing of Anthony Bourdain. There are some Tony-was-murdered-conspiracy-theories floating around, and even though I love conspiracy theories, I haven’t been able to even look into those because I’m still wrapping my head around his suicide. CNN has been airing the last episodes of Parts Unknown Bourdain completed before his death, [...]
Hey Joe Strummer
Over the holiday I missed out on posting about the 14th anniversary of Joe Strummer’s death from an un-diagnosed congenital heart defect on December 22, 2002. I celebrated The Clash’s 30th birthday with a slew of posts this last summer and I wanted to revisit this Joe-centric notice to recognize his passing last week. Here’s [...]
Adios, Fidel
This past Friday afternoon I read an article reporting that Fidel Castro had bid the Cuban people adios as he felt he would be dying soon. Early Saturday morning I found out the former lawyer/revolutionary fighter/prime minister and president had indeed passed away. Castro was a complex man who lead a complex life in complex [...]
So Long
Antonia and I had been talking about Leonard Cohen tonight, eating a hotdog down the street, watching television screens displaying both Agnes Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7 as well as the original Highlander film. With the sound off – Cleo had subtitles – it was interesting to see the parallel themes of the existential [...]
Death of Kane
Today we remember the death of the late, great Orson Welles who exited this stage on October 10, 1985. The date of Welles’ death makes October a great time for looking back at the genius, but an even better reason is his War of the Worlds broadcast from October 30, 1938 — probably the greatest [...]
Bye Bye Baby
45 years ago, October 4, 1970, Janis Joplin died of an overdose in a Hollywood hotel. On May 2, 20016 I published a review of the then-new Janis: Little Girl Blue DVD in The Contributor. On the anniversary of Joplin’s death, here’s another look at that review. The film is currently streaming on Netflix… Academy [...]
Jimi Jams
Over the weekend Open Culture pointed back to one of its own posts to remember Jimi Hendrix’ death in London on September 17, 1970. Here are a couple of great acoustic performances with some words from Open Culture… Solo acoustic recordings of Hendrix—film and audio—are incredibly rare. In fact, the only other footage may be [...]
Gene Gone Wilder
I was bummed to find out that Gene Wilder died on Monday. Wilder hasn’t been on our screens in years, but I grew up during the actor’s run with Mel Brooks, and I’ll never forget watching Stir Crazy on my uncle’s Betamax machine. I watched Wilder’s iconic turn as Willy Wonka continuously as a preteen, [...]
Legend Falls
I was taken by surprise over the weekend by the news of the death of Jim Harrison. Harrison was a Michigan literary legend whose poetry and championing of the novella form won him wide, high praise. Harrison’s Legends of the Fall was his best known work, earning big screen treatment with a script by Harrison [...]
