2024: Notable deaths, eulogies for the departed

Who will be the first of the glitterati, entitled and (in)famous to be tapped on the shoulder by the guy with a razor sharp scythe in 2024?

Kissinger's departure long overdue and welcomed with dancing in the street, but there are a few others I have on my death watch...

Apparently, Howard Waldrop died this week.

Michael Sugrue passed today.

Tom Purdom died, same day as Waldrop.

And Terry Bisson.

Sugrue sounds like a fascinating guy. Not familiar with Tom Purdom's work, but I enjoyed efforts by both Terry Bisson and Howard Waldrop over the years.

The year is still young and all those individuals would definitely qualify as 'notable" passings.

Note: interview with Bisson here: https://kpfa.org/area941/episode/terry-bisson-1942-2024-any-day-now-2013/

Farewell SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.

Death by capitalism and predatory hedge funds:

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/sports-illustrated-layoffs-iconic-ma...

>7 CliffBurns: And this: "Authentic Brands Group, it must be said, is a chilling name in an inauthentic age where brands are more valuable than human beings."

I repeat: curse all hedge funds and the hyenas and jackals that accompany capitalism.

Some time ago I met a businessman from Australia who used to work with "venture capitalists" (see: hyenas and jackals) but had to leave the business because "I couldn't deal with all the psychopaths".

Nuff said.

Film director Norman Jewison:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68064514

Apparently Brian Lumley died in early January.

https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/1adfi7x/author_brian_lumley_dead/?rdt=4...

Stanley Crawford, writer and farmer. Author of Log of the S.S. the Mrs Unguentine Travel Notes & Some Instructions to My Wife among others. https://twitter.com/willevans/status/1751024086426239225

Carl Weathers has left the ring.

Gotta say, he was very funny in a guest appearance on "Arrested Development".

Loved him in the Rocky movies, was great to see him again in the Mandalorian.

Yesterday: Christopher Priest, at the age of 80.

I first met Chris Priest in about 1977 when I was running the then Newcastle Polytechnic SF Society and we invited him to come to Newcastle to give a talk. I went to the station to meet him off the train, in the company of local Gannetfan Rob Jackson, who had met Priest before. But it was me who spotted him first, recognising him from a Jim Barker cartoon that had appeared in a fanzine a few weeks earlier.

Bearing that in mind, I was surprised, when he was GoH at Novacon in 2021, that I didn't recognise him at first.

I still have a lot of his books on the TBR pile; I would describe his work as "clever". Time to move them up the stack.

My obituary here: https://robertday154.wordpress.com/2024/02/03/christopher-priest-1943-2024/

American novelist and poet N. Scott Momaday:

https://www.axios.com/2024/01/30/n-scott-momaday-native-american-writer-dies

>15 RobertDay: I heard it secondhand, and I've no idea how true it is, but... In the early 1960s, Chris Priest took his then girlfriend to see a band at a club in Liverpool. After the gig, he went to fetch his car. When he returned, he found the band's guitarist chatting up his girlfriend. There were words. So he punched the guitarist. It was George Harrison.

Mojo Nixon has left the building:

https://boingboing.net/2024/02/08/psychobilly-rocker-mojo-nixon-has-died-at-the-...

John Clute remembers Christopher Priest:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/04/christopher-priest-obituary?utm_so...

>19 CliffBurns: I put Chris Priest to sleep once. He and Nina Allan were GoHs at Fantasticon in Copenhagen. I was the only person present they knew, so we spent a lot of the weekend together. One programming item was me being interviewed about the Apollo Quartet. Chris Priest sat in the front row. And fell asleep halfway through my interview.

Now, see, I would take a certain measure of satisfaction from that.

But, speaking as a guy getting a bit long in the tooth myself, naps (voluntary or otherwise) are becoming more common with me.

I'm guessing Monsieur Priest had a late night and it caught up with him.

>19 CliffBurns: >21 CliffBurns: Rather that than someone on a cellphone

I attended a church service over Christmas (just accompanying family, people, nothing to get worried about) and the minister had to remind parishioners to put away their phones.

Incredible.

I don't even own one of the fucking things--I see too many people wandering around with their faces stuck to their screens, oblivious to the outside world. Sitting at a bar with friends, separately texting or checking messages.

More fodder for my rampant misanthropy.

Damo Suzuki, vocalist with Can. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/10/rock-singer-damo-suzuki-dies-aged-...

>23 CliffBurns:, I resisted as long as I could, only succumbed because of my wife's insisting I have to be reached in an emergency. If you have to go that way then get a flip phone or something, otherwise it takes over your life as you say.

Comedian Richard Lewis, good pal of Larry "Elmo Strangler" David.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/richard-lewis-obit-1.7128664

As Robert has already noted in another thread, Brian Stableford has died:

https://erldc.org/obituary/brian-stableford-obituary/

Canada's jazz great, Eleanor Collins. She was 104.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O-Cq4XsltA

Steely Dan keyboardist Jim Beard has died at 63.

Although Beard worked with Becker Don Fagen was Steely Dan's keyboardist and he's still alive.

Shigeichi Negishi (1923-2024), responsible for uncountable crimes against humanity

>31 supercell:, good one. Had me stumped until I followed the link.

M. Emmet Walsh--one of the all-time great character actors:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/21/m-emmet-walsh-dies-aged-88-actor-ca...

Vernor Vinge https://www.wired.com/story/vernor-vinge-obituary-singularity/

Dedicated thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/359473

John Barth author of The Sot-weed Factor, aged 93. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/03/john-barth-death-american-novelist...

Akebono (Chad George Ha'aheo Rowan), the sumo wrestling legend, born in Hawaii and rose to the top of the sport in Japan. The occasion of his becoming yokozuna is the only 1990s instance I can think of when I saw serious western media headlines about Japanese sumo: https://people.com/akebono-sumo-legend-who-competed-in-wwe-wrestlemania-21-dead-...

I would love for this to overshadow O.J. Simpson's passing, but that's probably wishful thinking.

Paul Auster is gone. Sad day.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn3de800ykko

Oh, no! Just recently got Baumgartner and have 4321 on my audio pile. One of the few authors who could do a good job narrating their own work. Bad news.

My faves are his "New York Trilogy" (obviously), THE INVENTION OF SOLITUDE, THE MUSIC OF CHANCE and his collection of essays THE ART OF HUNGER.

A writer infatuated with language and it shows in every book he wrote.

Haven't read him yet but have meant to, maybe this will finally prompt me.

Rock guitar icon Duane Eddy:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68940716

Actor Bernard Hill has died. He had the best lines in every movie he was in. And Rohan will answer. 😢
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68962192

A lot of famous directors, writers and actors cut their teeth under this guy:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-17127556

Great saxaphonist David Sanborn has passed at age 78.

Alice Munro (1931-2024), the Canadian Nobel laureate

OH, no. Just picked up her collected short stories recently.

Dabney Coleman
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/17/arts/television/dabney-coleman-dead.html

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock at 53-
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nnz3ze3l7o

Richard Sherman, remaining half of the Sherman brothers songwriting team. I liked their fictional portrayal in "Saving Mr. Banks".
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/richard-m-sherman-obit-1.7215221

John Burnside, Scottish poet and novelist at age 69. https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2024/05/john-burnside-1955-2024

Friends and colleagues remembering Paul Auster:

https://lithub.com/remembering-paul-auster/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=e...

Salman Rushdie cites Paul as a friend and mentions his diagnosis, in his recent memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (and the passing of another friend, Martin Amis.)

Another of my Apollo guys is gone:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw99wj5e5q8o

NASA tribute to Bill Anders:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onY-J1Pvegk