RIP Les Paul

Les Paul, creator of one of the first solid body guitars, a musical innovator who developed multitrack recording and audio effects like reverb, passed away at 94 yesterday. While the signature Gibson guitar named after him has changed the way music sounds, I think his contributions to recording are even more meaningful. I hope he's rocking out, wherever he is.

RIP Bea Arthur

Bea Arthur has died. Whether you loved her in Golden Girls or my personal favorite, The Star Wars Holiday Special, she will be missed. Gotta fire up TSWHS now and drink a 40.

Oh No! He Was Not A Number!

Yikes, Patrick McGoohan died too! I guess he was getting on in years. I will always remember being up really late at night in college and catching this really weird show about The Island and trying to figure out WTF was going on. Later I thought he made an excellent Edward Longshanks in Braveheart. A coworker remarked, "He died as he was born, a free man." Be seeing you, Patrick.

Khaaaan!

RIP Ricardo Montalban. Hopefully you will not stab at me from Hell's heart or curse me with your last breath. I have fond memories of Star Trek II (the best Trek movie), The Naked Gun, and Rich, Corinthian Leather. Vaya con dios.

RIP Rick Wright

Rick Wright, keyboardist in Pink Floyd, has passed away. I hope he's giving a spectacular performance in the The Great Gig in the Sky. This news made me very sad for about half a day when I heard.

RIP Bo Didley

Sigh. Another musical pioneer has passed away. I imagine that up in heaven they're playing his trademark bomp bomp bomp bamp-bomp Bo Didley beat. He should get his props up there, since he never got the recognition he expected down here.

RIP Harvey Korman

Right on the heels of Robert Asprin's death, I learned that Harvey Korman had passed away. I loved him as a kid on the Carol Burnett show. As I got older, I loved him as Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles and Dr. Montague in High Anxiety. Sigh.

RIP Robert Asprin

Robert Asprin, author of the Myth Adventures series of books (as well as the Phule's Company series) has died. When I was a kid the adventures of Aahz, Skeeve, and the others was one of my favorite reading subjects. The stories were very lighthearted and punny and I looked forward to new ones whenever they came out. Another part of my childhood has passed away.

RIP E. Gary Gygax

E. Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons failed to make a saving throw versus death today and passed away at 69 years of age. Nerds everywhere are in mourning. I myself have whiled many a happy hour fighting drow, giants, slavers, demons, etc. I hope you are in a happier place now Gary. You will be missed. [article]

WTF!?!? Lolrus is dead!

Actually, I guess Minazo (really an elephant seal), aka the Lolrus died in 2005, at age 11. We can only hope he got his bukket in heaven.
[article]
[Lolrus Candle In the Wind]

It's Over: The Fat Man Has Sung

Luciano Pavarotti has passed away at 71. He had pancreatic cancer. Poor bastard, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. He wasn't my favorite tenor, but he was clearly one of the greats. He brought opera to the masses in my lifetime and was generally regarded as a great guy. There will not be another like him. Vaya con dios, Luciano.
[official site]
[news article]

Quick Update

I haven't blogged in a while, a lot of stuff has been going on. Went to St. Maarten at the end of April. Beautiful beaches. The island was pretty nice. Diving was fantastic (very warm water, lots to see). I got certified again while I was there. They have some great restaurants on the French side. Traffic sucked. About halfway through the trip we got a call from home that Noelle's apartment had had a fire. A lot of her things were destroyed, but the worst thing is that her three kitties died. Needless to say that put a damper on the whole trip. I was very upset and Noelle was inconsolable. Our friends were great though, they did a lot of cleaning before we got back and helped with the moving afterwards to make that experience relatively painless. We had planned to move Noelle in by the end of May anyway, this just accelerated plans. What stuff that survived the fire has been moved to my place and Noelle and I are now cohabitating. There's still a fair amount of things to do to finish with the unpacking, but most of the rooms in the house look decent.

Noelle and I took a weekend trip to Monterey/Carmel and that was pretty fun. We stayed in an Alice In Wonderland themed B&B. Went down to San Simeon for a day trip to see Hearst Castle. Went to a couple of concerts, most notably The Police last week. Very strong showing by the boys.

Anyway, I'll probably get back to blogging now that things seem a little less crazy.

Auf Wiedersehen, Kurt

Kurt Vonegut has passed away at 84. He was the author of many influential pieces of 20th century literature, including Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions. Vonnegut had sustained head injuries in a fall recently and they ultimately did him in. I first read Vonnegut in high school (Slaughterhouse Five I think) and have deeply enjoyed his work. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak while I was in college. He was a smart and funny guy, as well as a talented writer. He will be missed.[Vonnegut obit]

The Wheel Goes Round

My gram died a few days ago. Growing up, she was probably the adult I was closest to after my parents. We moved from Ohio to her house in Maine after my grandfather died back in the 70s, so I spent a lot of time there as a child. Even after we moved to our own place I used to go visit there on weekends a lot. She was pretty much exactly what someone would want a grandmother to be: unconditionally loving, wise, interested in me, and a darn good cook to boot. She tried to make sure I turned out to be an ethical human being (she was my godmother too, I think). Sadly the church part didn't really take, although I think I do pretty well as a person. Now she's gone and I'll never see her on this world again. It sucks. But she was 88 and had a full life and died in her sleep, so I guess that's about a good a way to check out as any. I am grateful that I got to talk to her the day before she passed, even if I didn't know she was going away. Right at the end she knew I loved her and that's somewhat satisfying. Today I fly back to Maine, where it hopefully is not snowing. The funeral is Monday. It's hard to even imagine a world without my gram, but that's the one I live in today. Wherever you are gram, you are loved and missed.

Remember kids, never forget to tell your loved ones you love them. You never know how long we'll all be around on this big ball of dirt.