Gawker
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and now he's dead
Robert McNamara: 1916-2009
Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the "architect" of the Vietnam War, died this morning. He was 93. More »
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By PareeneComment by The Lone Scout: At one time, Howell Raines wrote on the editorial page of the New York Times, "Mr. McNamara must not escape... 10 Responses | Other threads
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and now she's dead
Bea Arthur, Beloved Gay Icon, 1922-2009
Golden Girls star Bea Arthur, née Bernice Frankel, died at home in Los Angeles at the age of 86 today. She passed away surrounded by family members. She will be loudly mourned by the gays. More » -
obit
Former NBC News Business Correspondent Irving R. Levine Dead at 86
Irving R. Levine, NBC's reserved, bow-tied business reporter during the '70s and '80s, has died, partly of old age and partly of shame at the way his former beat is being covered by tools. More »
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By John CookComment by Spirit Fingers: Aw, that's a shame. partly of old age and partly of shame at the way his former beat is being covered... 3 Responses | Other threads
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Fauxbit
Charlie Rose Kills Filmmaker Friend On Air
George Butler, who documented Arnold Schwarzenegger's early career as a bodybuilder in the documentary film Pumping Iron, was one of the notables who died in 2008, according to PBS host Charlie Rose. Oops, wrong Butler!
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By Owen ThomasComment by Quilt: Was there an apology to the family of the deceased George Butler? 3 Responses | Other threads
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and now he's dead
Studs Terkel, 1912-2008
Studs Terkel, Chicago's beloved author, interviewer, activist, radio host, and historian, died today at 96. Terkel's books Hard Times, Working, and The Good War are essential reading for students of American history in the first half of the 20th Century. He was a legendary storyteller and interviewer, and it's amazing to remember that not only did he publish his first book when he was already 55, but he then lived on to publish a dozen more, including one, P.S. Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening, set to be released next month. "Take it easy, but take it." [Chicago Tribune, Related]
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By PareeneComment by rosaluxembourgeoise: I'm inclined to reproduce, with tremendous chagrin, this best post-script in the history of post-scripts; written by Terkel, from a... 4 Responses | Other threads
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and now he's dead
Fred Baron
Fred Baron, the attorney who rebuilt the Texas Democratic party and became famous, late in life, for his unfortunate help in covering up the extramarital affair of former Senator John Edwards, died Thursday of cancer. He was 61. Baron made a fortune in asbestos litigation, and used the funds to found the Texas Democratic Trust in 2005, among countless other philanthropic causes. In the Edwards affair, Baron was revealed as the source of the supposed "hush money" keeping mistress Rielle Hunter living in relative luxury. Baron fought corporations to the end, demanding that a pharmaceutical company allow him to use an experimental drug in his treatment. He won, but it didn't work. He won, but it didn't work. He is survived by his son Andrew, founder of the dumb internet video program Rocketboom. Andrew organized a movement to get his father the drug, enlisting Bill Clinton, Lance Armstrong, and John Kerry to help. [DallasNews]
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By PareeneComment by Our Lady of the Massacre: Regardless of what he did in life, 61 is too damn young. :-( 3 Responses | Other threads
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and now it's dead
'Sun' Failed For Good Reason
When we remember the New York Sun, we'll try to remember the great local reporting and the fantastic sports page and the serious and smart arts coverage. Not so much the ideological inanity and loud constant taking of the precisely wrong side of every important issue of this miserable era. In trying to remember them that way, of course, one is best advised to skip most of their farewell edition. The goodbyes are not self-pitying, at least, but they reveal a newspaper that imagines it had some small role in the destruction of this country while turning a blind eye to the many myriad ways they could've continued on their crusade if they hadn't been so utterly out of touch. More »
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By PareeneComment by Edward Lionheart: I'll keep saying it and I'll keep saying it. Never say "good riddance" to a daily paper. New York used... 2 Responses | Other threads
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and now he's dead
Voice Actor Don LaFontaine
Don LaFontaine, one of the best voice actors in history, is dead at 68. LaFontaine began writing and voicing movie trailers in the late 1960s, inventing, supposedly, most of the beloved and hilarious cliches ("in a world," "one man stands...") that still introduce us to whatever summer Hollywood garbage we'll be enjoying this Fourth of July. There are countless amusing LaFontaine parodies, commercials, and jokey news segments available on YouTube, but it seems more appropriate to enjoy his work on its own merits, not just as camp. So here's the classic theatrical trailer for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
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By PareeneComment by MsMuffinMcGuffin: I always thought it was cool that his contract required that he was driven by limo to every single job. 4 Responses | Other threads
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r.i.p
Isaac Hayes, Legend of Soul
Some weekend. Isaak Hayes died today at his home in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 65. His wife found him unconscious next to his treadmill, which was still running. Paramedics could not revive him and he was pronounced dead shortly after 2:00 p.m., according to the Shelby County Sheriff's Department. Among the highlights of his career, Hayes won an Oscar for his extraordinary theme to 1971's Shaft. And won over a whole new generation of fans with his role as the beloved Chef on South Park. Cause of death has not been reported yet, but foul play is not suspected. I'll update as details come in. [CNN]
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Comment by Botswana Meat Commission FC: South Park? I guess that's what most people remember him for, but his entrance onto the stage in "Watt-Stax" is... more » | Other threads
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r.i.p.
Bernie Mac, Comedian
Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away in a Chicago hospital this morning a week after being hospitalized with pneumonia, his publicist Danica Smith confirmed. He was 50. The sad news comes as a shock since newspaper reports just yesterday stated that he was responding well to treatment and would be released soon. More »
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Comment by HK_Guy: ^^^ wow, I thought it was one of the worst things I'd ever seen. Talk about a horse race ... more » | Other threads
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obit
Tony Snow, Former Bush Press Secretary
Conservative talking head and former George W. Bush press secretary Tony Snow died of colon cancer today. He was 53. After a decade at Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, Snow served 17 months in the Bush administration, from May 2006 through September 2007. "Although a star in conservative politics, as a commentator he had not always been on the president's side. He once called Bush 'something of an embarrassment' in conservative circles and criticized what he called Bush's 'lackluster' domestic policy." More »
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Comment by strangebrew: @dennisofelsinore: His comment about needing to make more money should probably be viewed as he knew he was probably going... more » | Other threads
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and now he's dead
Rocky Aoki, 1938-2008
Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki, the wrestler and restaurateur who essentially introduced America to Japanese food with his Benihaha chain, died today in New York. He was 69. Aoki raised the money to start his first Benihana by driving an ice cream truck in Harlem, which is awesome. More recently, he's been known to New Yorkers through his children, model Devon and annoying scenester DJ Steve. He faced deportation in 2006, and you could do worse for an introduction to his colorful life than this New York story on that incident. It begins, ominously: "'My daughter Grace is telling me, Daddy, your wife is going to poison you to death. Be careful what you eat,' says Rocky Aoki with an odd, amused grin." [AP]
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By PareeneComment by Freshrinse: I'm sorry, but that NY Mag article was the most entertaining story I have read this month. What a life... more » | Other threads
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obit
Florent Exits Not With A Whimper, But With A Typography Joke
Restaurant Florent, a foot soldier in the gentrification of the Meat Packing District, has closed its doors, and with the removal of a single letter from the window, declared itself vacant. Alphabetical flourish is an appropriate goodbye for the 24-hour French restaurant as known for its matchbooks as its boudin noir. Tibor Kalman's bold typography and design was an important part of Florent's image, including an iconic 1985 menu which featured images culled from the Yellow Pages and matchbooks printed with the glossy images on the inside. Looks like New York Magazine will have to find a new stop number 10 on their Design Maven walking tour. [via Coudal.com]
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By mr.guyballComment by brionity: @Bell County: I will forever miss the cheese log. more » | Other threads
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obit
Clay Felker: 1925-2008
- Tom Wolfe Remembers Clay Felker[New York Magazine]
- New York Magazine Founder Felker Dies at 82[WaPo]
- New York magazine founder Clay Felker dead at 82 [Reuters]
- RIP Clay Felker (1925-2008)[Village Voice]
- New York magazine founder Clay Felker dies at 82[AP]
- Clay Felker: The Best Interview Advice I Ever Got[Huffington Post]
- Clay Felker of New York magazine dies[UPI]
- New York Magazine Founding Editor Dies[Post]
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By mr.guyballComment by Mike_Jahn: @Mike_Jahn: All of them Upper East Siders. more » | Other threads
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cyd charisse
The Rule of Three Claims Cyd Charisse As Latest Victim
Death completed its triple crown of taking down talented people that we actually like and respect. First, came Tim Russert, whose passing was quickly and sadly followed by Stan Winston. Now comes news that Cyd Charisse, the actress and dancer perhaps best known for her role in Singing In The Rain, passed away today at the age of 86. More » -
obit
Tim Russert, 1950-2008
In what may or may not be an irony of some kind, but should probably not actually be noted, because it's sort of ghoulish and in poor taste, political journalism superstar Tim Russert went out today with a Friday newsdump, that hallowed Washington DC practice of burying news no one wants to see. Earlier today, June 13, 2008, Russert suffered a fatal heart attack. While working, obviously. Because he worked a lot, and he always looked like he loved it. More » -
and now it's dead
The Clinton Campaign: 2006-2008
Hillary Clinton's race for the presidency is OVER. It's DONE. The primaries are finished! The Associated Press has just crowned Barack Obama the official Democratic nominee for President. The wire story is an amusing 'fuck you' to the Clinton campaign, which spent the morning crowing about how the AP got their earlier story wrong. Also it's long and they've clearly been saving it for when they could finalize the math. Like an obituary. Which it effectively is. [AP] -
and now he's dead
Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley, whose role in the invention of rock and roll as we know it is matched only by Chuck Berry, died today of heart failure. He was 79. His innovations included flashy custom-built electric guitars and, obviously, the famous Bo Diddley beat (though, as Robert Christgau once noted, "there are as many diddleybeats as there are Diddley songs"). He was also an emotive, inspired singer. Here's one of my fave Diddley performances, of Willie Dixon's "You Can't Judge a Book By Looking at the Cover."
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By PareeneComment by DoctorEcks: [www.dustygroove.com] Greatest album cover EVER! RIP Dearest Darlin' more » | Other threads
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and now he's dead
John Phillip Law
John Philip Law—you know him as Pygar, the blind angel in Barbarella—died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 70. He was gloriously wooden in so many other nutty '60s cult classics, like The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming and Skidoo. [LAT] -
and now he's dead
Robert Rauschenberg, 1925-2008
Artist Robert Rauschenberg, the man who saved us from abstract expressionism, died Monday at the age of 82. The Times describes him as a "brash, garrulous, hard-drinking, open-faced Southerner." People used to care way more about art when it was made by people like that instead of twee New School students. Rauschenberg started out making art out of junk he found on the streets of lower Manhattan, announcing that if you didn't find "soap dishes or mirrors or Coke bottles" beautiful than you must be a miserable bastard. So go to the Moma this week and see First Landing Jump, which is made of "a rusted license plate, an enamel light reflector, a tire impaled by a street barrier, a man's shirt, a blue lightbulb in a can, and a black tarpaulin." And some paint and canvas, sure. [NYT] -
and now she's dead
DC Madam Deborah Palfrey: 1956-2008
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the "DC Madam" who was convicted in April of charges related to her famous prostitution ring, died today in an apparent suicide at her mother's house in Florida. She was 52. Palfrey was busted in October of 2006, and it wasn't long before she captured national attention by threatening to release her phone records—records that could've destroyed the careers of hundreds of Washington politicians and officials. Or so went speculation at the time.
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By PareeneComment by Buzz Killington: @SuperBien: Oh yeah, the Law & Order episode is going to be classic. It'll turn out to be the governors... more » | Other threads
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pagesix.com
The Last Post
Here's a measure of the loss the American reading public has suffered with the abrupt closure of Pagesix.com. The New York Post's round-the-clock gossip site is down, but we still have a copy of what is believed to be the last post ever published on the site. At 1.07pm this afternoon, Jarett Wieselmann (awesome name for a gossip writer, by the way) explained Pete Wentz's affection for Jessica Simpson's shoes, and illustrated the Fall Out Boy bassist's cross-dressing tendencies with this useful exercise in Photoshop. And on that note, Pagesix.com was dead.
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By Nick DentonComment by avianponcho: pete also prefers maxis to tamps, much like jessie more » | Other threads
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arthur c. clarke
Arthur C. Clarke, Futurist and Scifi Legend, Dies
Arthur C. Clarke, author of scifi classics Rendezvous with Rama and 2001: A Space Odyssey, died today at the age of 90 in Sri Lanka. Not only did Clarke create a legend with 2001 (he worked on the film with Stanley Kubrick too), but he also predicted many of the scientific inventions of the twentieth century such as telecom satellites. He was even knighted in recognition of his many mind-bending contributions to the worlds of literature and science speculation. [LA Times] [io9]
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Comment by parnote: What a loss! I JUST heard! I have read many of his works, and remain enthralled with the legacy and... more » | Other threads
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obit
Radar's Chris Tennant
It's the end of one of the great magazine marriages: deputy editor Chris Tennant, right-hand viper to Radar's Maer Roshan, is leaving the magazine. The move isn't entirely surprising. Tennant (whose brain is an encyclopedia of who's fucked whom, literally and metaphorically) has lasted longer than any other veteran of the long-suffering magazine. (In the photo, Tennant is to the right.) More » -
and now he's dead
William F. Buckley, Crypto-Fascist, Is Correcting Usage In Heaven
Conservative author, essayist, columnist, pundit, smug asshole, gadabout, secret spook, and blue-blooded creep William F. Buckley is dead. Buckley, 82, suffered from diabetes and emphysema, though his cause of death is not yet known. And with him died respectable, intelligent, genteel-but-cut-throat New York Conservatism.
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By PareeneComment by MiniMencken: Gosh! We exchanged letters in around 1980 or so and Buckley advised me, a suck-egg dog, do-good, nigger-lovin' liberal, that... more » | Other threads
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and now they're dead
Attention Ladies: at 75, You Might Still Be a "Wild Child"
Drinking and slutting your way through your twenties on the downtown artclub scene? Party on! But listen, if you get famous, your NYT obituary will most definitely remember you as a wild one. Like Dorothy Podber, "artist and trickster", whose obit ran today. The first sentence tags her as "wild child of the New York art scene in the 1950s and '60s who is probably best known for brandishing a pistol and putting a bullet through the forehead of Marilyn Monroe's likenesses on a stack of Andy Warhol's paintings." That's a helluva reputation, sugar! More »
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By SheilaComment by Charlotte Rae's Web: @onebadclam I think she's of a different caliber than the twits in trouble today. The Hilton/Lohan crew is just made up... more » | Other threads
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final verdict
Maureen Dowd: Not Necessary
The influence of Maureen Dowd, formerly important New York Times opinion columnist, is dead, at the age of 13. The Pulitzer-winning columnist is still blamed, in some circles, for killing Al Gore's shot at the presidency with her relentless, belittling, emasculating, and most importantly media consensus-shaping columns. She used to be inescapable—on the Times home page, on Sunday morning politics shows, in every political blog on Earth—but now it's hard to gin up outrage about her scrubbing negative quotes from columns or mistaking black women for other black women. In 2004, those stories would've been all Atrios talked about for days. (Maybe they still are, does anyone read Atrios anymore either?) In 2000, they wouldn't have been outrages at all, because everything she said was immediate conventional wisdom. So what happened?
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obit
Heath Ledger, Actor: 1979-2008
Australian-American screen actor Heath Ledger is dead. Ledger was an Oscar-nominated leading man with an admirable career both artistically and at the box office—he may currently be seen in 2007's art-house sleeper I'm Not There and he'll soon be opening across the nation as the iconic Joker, the lead villain in next chapter in the Batman film franchise. He died in Manhattan. He was 28.
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obit
Anita Rowland, the Seattle-area blog pioneer who served as an inspiration to Robert Scoble, among others, died last week. [Seattle P-I]
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