Passages

[Forrest Taft]

Luke Perry!

[bearcuborg]

Wow. That’s way too soon. I remember really loving his brief appearance in Oz. And then his Simpsons cameo...he never seemed to take himself too seriously. He definitely had a lot to offer as an actor...

[swo17]

Had he finished shooting his scenes for the new Tarantino film?

[Never Cursed]

The movie wrapped in early November

[bearcuborg]

Well, knowing what Quentin is capable of, he will most likely go out on a high note. Sheesh, a friend just texted me his Howard Stern appearance at the MTV Movie Awards, the guy definitely got it...

[colinr0380]

Wow. That’s way too soon. I remember really loving his brief appearance in Oz. And then his Simpsons cameo...he never seemed to take himself too seriously. He definitely had a lot to offer as an actor...

His disgraced televangelist in Oz and his Simpsons guest star role were the performances that immediately came to my mind as well.

[Feego]

My only familiarity with Perry's work is his role as the boyfriend in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, but that was such a prominent part of my childhood that it hurts the just the same. He was appropriately laid back and unafraid to look goofy, which made him immensely appealing to me.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Keith Flint, man. He was probably the last pop star who made Middle England collectively shit themselves when he'd appear on the TV. I probably prefer the Music for the Jilted Generation type stuff, but The Fat of the Land was huge, epic music. They were a dance act with a rock band's energy. I've read so many comments where people have said they watched them support Oasis at Knebworth and were so good and so loud that Oasis stood no chance. And that album got to number one in America when NO UK artists could buy a hit there. It was such an influential sound too on more modern dance music - whether you like your Pendulum types or not. I'm thinking back to watching Top of the Pops when the Firestarter video came on, the sample from the Art of Noise....

[CSM126]

King Kong Bundy

[flyonthewall2983]

Sad but not surprised considering he kept the weight on. I’ve seen a couple interviews with him lately and he seemed way smarter than he would probably appear to people.

I heard that when he did a commercial for Apple Computers in the 80’s, he was given stock options.

[hearthesilence]

My only familiarity with Perry's work is his role as the boyfriend in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, but that was such a prominent part of my childhood that it hurts the just the same. He was appropriately laid back and unafraid to look goofy, which made him immensely appealing to me.

I don't think I've ever seen 90210 or Riverdale, but I do remember seeing him in three other things: The Simpsons as Krusty's half-brother, on SNL with Phil Hartman as Obi-Wan Kenobi's spirit, guiding him through hecklers during his monologue ("kick his ass, Luke"), and on Conan when Alyson Hannigan of all people came on as a second guest and embarrassed Perry. Apparently, when they rode up the elevator together, she told him "oh, we're going to the same place!" but Perry, hiding under a baseball cap and without looking at her, replies "I DOUBT it." He was a good sport though, and it's very awful he died that young - I know people who weren't much older when they passed away from a stroke.

Someone posted this from Joss Whedon elsewhere:

The first time I met Luke Perry we talked about what kind of movie we wanted “Buffy” to be. I asked if he’d ever seen “Near Dark” and he gave me a look of HOW DARE YOU SIR.

[MichaelB]

Once ubiquitous British youth-TV presenter Magenta Devine.

[Dylan]

Composer Jacques Loussier, who did a brilliant job scoring Jack Cardiff's Dark of the Sun (the main title of which is memorably featured in Inglourious Basterds).

[kubelkind]

Carolee Schneemann http://www.artnews.com/2019/03/06/carol ... inist-art/

[Adam]

Peter Mays, who was a long-time figure in the Los Angeles experimental film world, a founding member of the Single Wing Turquoise Bird Light Show, projectionist at the old Fox Venice Theater and at CAA. I don't know if anyone will run an obituary for him. We're doing a couple of tribute shows for him, and there is more of a bio on our site. His film Death of the Gorilla is the source for the cover image for Taschen's Art Cinema book by Paul Young. Link to Los Angeles Filmforum screening:
https://www.lafilmforum.org/schedule/wi ... re-part-1/. He passed away on May 4, 2019.

And the loss of Carolee Schneemann is a tremendous blow. She was wonderful in person.

[Reverend Drewcifer]

Sid Sheinberg https://variety.com/2019/film/news/sidn ... 203158148/

Dear Sid Sheinberg, When Are You Going To Release My Film Brazil?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZpHHRc83kk

[Buttery Jeb]

Jan-Michael Vincent. Looks like he actually passed away back in early February.

[colinr0380]

Jan-Michael Vincent. Looks like he actually passed away back in early February.

That is sad to hear, especially that he seemed to have been ill for a long time. The John Milius film Big Wednesday is probably his best film, but interestingly the last film he was in the not great looking White Boy aka Menace in 2002 which was the first film that Abel Ferrara produced.

Very strangely I got to the episode of Rick & Morty last night that features its own weird tribute to the actor! I was never that into Airwolf as a kid (aside from its great theme tune of course!), which felt a bit too much in the vein of Knight Rider mixed with The A-Team (as well as its high tech helicopter feeling a bit too indebted to Blue Thunder, just on TV), though of course anything with Ernest Borgnine in cannot be all bad!

But he did head up some interestingly offbeat films in his time, particularly 1977's post-apocalyptic Damnation Alley and the really bizarre Canadian film Shadow of the Hawk in which he wrestles a bear!

It looks as though there are more than enough Jan-Michael Vincent films to keep Red Letter Media going through multiple Best of the Worst episodes at least! They have covered his Fred Olen Ray film Alienator already!

[MichaelB]

Albert Marenčin, at the age of 97. Primarily known as a writer (poet, essayist, screenwriter, translator), but he was also a critically important figure in 1960s Slovak cinema who in his capacity as head of the First Creative Group at the Koliba Studios in Bratislava helped facilitate work by many of its leading lights - Elo Havetta, Juraj Jakubisko, Štefan Uher - as well as overseeing international co-productions such as Alain Robbe-Grillet's The Man Who Lies. In later years he was an active member of the Czechoslovak Surrealist Group alongside the likes of Jan Švankmajer.

[hearthesilence]

Hal Blaine

As heard in "Be My Baby."

[bearcuborg]

Gambino crime boss, Frank Cali, whacked...

From a few days ago, the always excellent Selwyn Raab, on the passing of Carmine Persico

[Big Ben]

That's interesting insofar that whacking a crime boss is a big deal. He must have really pissed some big people off. They not only shot the dude but ran him over just to make sure he was dead.
.

[bearcuborg]

Yeah, there’s been a bit of activity lately.

[colinr0380]

It sounds as if there have been significant upheavals all over, at least suggested by the BBC:

The Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese, Colombo and Bonanno mafia families are believed to have controlled organised crime in New York for decades.

Last week, Carmine Persico, the 85-year-old former boss of the Colombo organisation, died after serving 33 years of a 139-year prison sentence.

On Wednesday, two heads of the Bonanno family, Joseph Cammarano Jr and John Zancocchio, were acquitted in a Manhattan court of racketeering and conspiracy to commit extortion.

Last October, 71-year-old Sylvester Zottola, a reputed associate of the Bonanno organisation, was shot dead at a takeaway restaurant in the Bronx, New York. The attack came three months after Zottola's son, Salvatore Zottola, was also shot, but survived.

[Aunt Peg]

American independent director Barbara Hammer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hammer