I’m astounded that he was only 67. Somehow they always seemed old.
Odd, I was just playing some Steely Dan a couple nights ago. Hadn’t listened to them for ages.
Another pioneer of modern standup.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/01/547974050/comic-shelley-berman-dies-at-92
You can only choose one. If your favorite is something like Rikki, suck it up or make your own poll.
- My Old School
- Hey Nineteen
- Any Major Dude
- FM (No static at all)
0 voters
It was a long time before I could tolerate Steely Dan, much less enjoy them. I’ve posted here before about being in elementary school, around the time Gaucho came out, and we had a very irascible gym teacher who made us line dance to “Peg” and “Hey Nineteen.” I could not hear Steely Dan without imagining her going apoplectic, ranting raving and shrieking (at all of us) over some perceived infraction (committed – or not – by one of us). When I found out what “Steely Dan” meant it raised them in my estimation some, but it wasn’t until I was listening to large doses of both jazz and R&B that I liked their music at all. They’ve since become one of my favorites.
Something surreal about that I think they’d appreciate.
I can’t hear Eddie Money’s “Two Tickets to Paradise” without reflexively jerking into jumping jacks.
Earl Lindo, keyboard player for Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Not a good week for musical legends. Holger Czukay, one of the founders of Can, has died aged 79.
Probably more familiar to @GilbertWham and myself
He was one of the people who Roger Mellie (The man on the telly) was based on (Although Mike Neville was not a racist misogynist as far as I know).
John Ashbery. In my world, poets are celebrities.
Years ago my spouse and I went to see A Prairie Home Companion. We hung around after the show and Garrison Keillor came out and talked to us. He and I started talking poetry and he said “I’ve started reading Ashbery. He’s challenging but I like it.” I asked if he’d read Self-Portrait In A Convex Mirror.
He hadn’t and I said “You’re in for a real treat.”
Of course given the circles Keillor travels in he probably met Ashbery.
And I remember the thrill years before that I felt when I first read The Lonedale Operator in a Norton anthology. That was my introduction.
Thank you for that.
Balls… Just found out about that.
Lofti Zadeh, who invented fuzzy logic. Ironically, his death was prematurely announced last August by Tehran University.
Not my personal choice of science fiction or politics
As far as I know he wasn’t the first person to write a novel on a computer, that was Len Deighton who wrote Bomber on one in 1968-70
Edith Windsor worked for equality.
Rick Stevens, former Tower of Power vocalist
Grant Hart has died.