The Swamp

Bensell wrote:I guess this is as good a thread as any for this: Fred Phelps dead.

How Should Gays Eulogize Fred Phelps?

1) They shouldn't.

Barring that...

2) Respectfully. Golden rule over golden casket shower.

Fuck that golden rule for this dead motherfucker. Stand on his grave and tramp the dirt down. No respect is warranted for hate mongering bigots. Fuck his rotting dead carcass, and fuck all who follow and do his bidding.

Veteran character actor James Rebhorn, who was to bureaucratic assholes what Olivier was to Shakesperean protagonists.

This guy:

Damn. The principal of the school in Scent Of A Woman. I wonder who else from that movie is going to die this year.

What do I remember that guy from? He's been in a ton of stuff, but I know there's a role I'm thinking of. Never mind, got it. He's the guy who calls Stiller, "Florence Nightengale" in Meet the Parents.

govmentchedda wrote:What do I remember that guy from? He's been in a ton of stuff, but I know there's a role I'm thinking of. Never mind, got it. He's the guy who calls Stiller, "Florence Nightengale" in Meet the Parents.

He also was on a handful of episodes of "Law & Order," mostly as a defense attorney or doctor. He was also in the MIchael Douglas/Sean Penn movie, "The Game."

Yep. I remember him in The Game as well. Talented Mr. Ripley is another one that I remember him from.

I remember him as the tire expert witness in My Cousin Vinny.

And the head of the CIA in Independence Day.

Dave Brockie, but you may know him as Oderus Urungus. Considering he was born about 43 billion years ago on a planet called Scumdogia, not a bad run (50-year old human form is a bit less impressive).

wlu_lax6 wrote:Dave Brockie, but you may know him as Oderus Urungus. Considering he was born about 43 billion years ago on a planet called Scumdogia, not a bad run (50-year old human form is a bit less impressive).

Noooo! He was the best one!

Johnny Carwash wrote:Veteran character actor James Rebhorn, who was to bureaucratic assholes what Olivier was to Shakesperean protagonists.

This guy:

His rather touching autoobituary.

Lynda Petty, wife of the King Richard Petty.

We can give some link love to our local on this one.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-fr ... 26263.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Joe McGinniss
Okay this name means nothing to most of you. However, Joe wrote an AMAZING soccer book. I just saw this in a WaPo soccer insider post.

soccer insider wrote:“The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: a Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy,” by Joe McGinniss (Broadway Books, published in 2000). The acclaimed author’s death two weeks ago stirred memories of his colorful work about a lower-tier club from a remote village that reached new heights. The book introduced a memorable cast of characters and chronicled both the passion and darkness of calcio.

Sure it does. Fatal Vision. The Selling of the President 1968 (you wonder 'why so cynical?' Try reading that book as a teenager enamored with our political system. Perfect preparation for Hunter Thompson's political work.)

I couldn't stomach his final political book, but I blame the subject (the reception by the american people of one Sarah Palin), not Joe's fault, he just told the story.

Graham Parker even had a song inspired by McGinniss' most famous true story, Under the Mask of Happiness.

She got colder with each incision
No one knew he had a fatal vision

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wlu_lax6 wrote:Joe McGinniss
Okay this name means nothing to most of you. However, Joe wrote an AMAZING soccer book. I just saw this in a WaPo soccer insider post.

soccer insider wrote:“The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: a Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy,” by Joe McGinniss (Broadway Books, published in 2000). The acclaimed author’s death two weeks ago stirred memories of his colorful work about a lower-tier club from a remote village that reached new heights. The book introduced a memorable cast of characters and chronicled both the passion and darkness of calcio.

Don't know how I missed this one.

A fantastic book.

Sandy Grossman (Madden and Summerall's Director--guy in the truck)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/04/sport ... ref=sports" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

John Pinette.

This news sucks.

Sabo wrote:John Pinette.

This news sucks.

Funny guy, but you just knew he wasn't built for the long haul.

That life on the road just isn't conducive to health. Late nights, drinking, eating bad food, lonelieness. Add in the fact that most comedians seem to have had emotional issues (leading to humor being the crutch/defense mechanism) and it just doesn't end well, even when it's natural causes.

wlu_lax6 wrote:Archie

I bet Reggie did it.

wlu_lax6 wrote:Archie

Why? He's not a super hero; I don't see why the series has to end with some sort of heroic death. Can't they just have him and Betty or Veronica get married and start a malt shop or whatever the fuck they do? I can't imagine flat-out killing him off going over well with the type of people who still read Archie comics (are there any?)

If they're going to do it, though, the only acceptable way would be for him to get hacked to death by a deranged lunatic who can't get "Sugar Sugar" out of his head.

Johnny Carwash wrote:

wlu_lax6 wrote:Archie

Why? He's not a super hero; I don't see why the series has to end with some sort of heroic death. Can't they just have him and Betty or Veronica get married and start a malt shop or whatever the fuck they do? I can't imagine flat-out killing him off going over well with the type of people who still read Archie comics (are there any?)

If they're going to do it, though, the only acceptable way would be for him to get hacked to death by a deranged lunatic who can't get "Sugar Sugar" out of his head.

It's only happening in a series that is designed for adult readers. Which means they have decided to wrap that particular arc up.

lou hudson

Ah, one of my favorites. He lit up the Pistons many a time in the late 60s and early 70s. But with so much grace, it was a pleasure to watch him operate. Lou Hudson versus Dave Bing was a thing of basketball beauty. Jumpers falling from heaven.

Reading his obit, I was surprised to see he was a city council member in Park City. It's hard to imagine an elegant politician. But if it's possible, he was probably the one.

Back in the mid-1980s, I was a big fan of the English situation comedy, The Young Ones, which featured among others, Rik Mayall, and played on MTV in those days. Dead today at age 56. The guy was awesome. He was in lots of other stuff, too, mostly British, notably The Black Adder.

sancarlos wrote:Back in the mid-1980s, I was a big fan of the English situation comedy, The Young Ones, which featured among others, Rik Mayall, and played on MTV in those days. Dead today at age 56. The guy was awesome. He was in lots of other stuff, too, mostly British, notably The Black Adder.

Just saw this. I loved The Young Ones and Black Adder and a big reason of it was Rik Mayall.

This was my favorite scene of the one Black Adder season I watched. Should probably get around to the others someday.



The other thing I remember him from is Drop Dead Fred, which got some of the most universally negative reviews of any movie I can remember, but I thought was funny (I was 13 at the time).

Bob Welch, last 25-game winner.

AB_skin_test wrote:Bob Welch, last 25-game winner.

Bob Welch was a damned good pitcher for both the Dodgers and the Athletics. By all accounts I've read, a good and well-liked man, too. He fought alcoholism, and wrote a frank autobiography discussing it. RIP.

Bobby Womack, dead at 70

Severely underappreciated talent. Should've been a huge crossover star, white folks never did catch on. Wrote tons of hits for other artists as well, including the Rolling Stones' first #1 record (I Used To Love Her, But) It's All Over Now. Y'all may know this tune used over the opening and closing credits of the film Jackie Brown.

Red Klotz at 93.
3rd shortest NBA player ever
shortest player to win an NBA Championship (Baltimore Bullets 47-48)
However, he is more famously known as the head coach of the Washington Generals, Boston Shamrocks, New Jersey Reds, New York Nationals, International Elite, Global Select and World All-Stars. At age 51 he hit a game winner while player/coach for the New Jersey Reds to be the Trotters.

He was still playing pickup a few years ago
http://www.southjersey.com/lifestyles/i ... leID=18810" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ear ... ies-at-93/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

JoePoz with a wonderful column about Louis 'Red' Klotz. And the time his team beat the Globetrotters. Answers the eternal question, "what is the difference between a winner and a loser?"

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/rip-red-klotz/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

howard wrote:Bobby Womack, dead at 70

Severely underappreciated talent. Should've been a huge crossover star, white folks never did catch on. Wrote tons of hits for other artists as well, including the Rolling Stones' first #1 record (I Used To Love Her, But) It's All Over Now. Y'all may know this tune used over the opening and closing credits of the film Jackie Brown.

I'm not a big Womack fan. But this was one of my favorite soul songs back in the day. As good as several by the Four Tops and Temps that hit. I never understood how it didn't get a lot of play. I think it was used -- well before Jackie Brown -- in the NYC-cop-mafia movie of the same name, starring Yaphet Kotto and Anthony Quinn.

DC47 wrote:As good as several by the Four Tops and Temps that hit. I never understood how it didn't get a lot of play.

I have a couple of guesses. First, the classic Motown sound was pretty much in the past by 1973; The Four Tops had not had a big hit in a couple of years, The Temptations had done their final #1 hit, Papa Was A Rolling Stone the year before. Motown had moved to Los Angeles, were pushing Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder and their leading edge of R+B hits was a significantly different kind of single than Across 110th Street. Second, more important, Womack was not a Motown artist; this great tune was released by United Artist Records, a crap label that probs had no clue how to push the soul single, being more versed in Broadway/movie soundtracks and jazz records. (I dealt with these UA clowns back in the 70s--one of their acts was Brinsley Schwarz, a UK band whose members formed the core of Graham Parker's backing band The Rumour. But I digress--I just never liked that label.)

But even though soul music tastes were changing, in the context of Superfly released six months earlier, of course this could've/should've been a huge hit. I really don't remember the film--I caught it on tv a couple of times (I was not big on the blaxploitation genre unless Pam Grier was in the picture). I gotta try and catch it on Netflix or whatever, see how it has held up.

I heard the song on FM radio in NYC. I barely registered the movie, except that the bebop trombonist J.J. Johnson scored it. I was an aspiring jazz trombonist, and he was my favorite player. Apart from the fusion variety (which I passionately hated), as you probably know well, jazz was pretty much dead in the early 70s. I think J.J. Johnson had left NY for LA and wasn't playing jazz in any way that I could detect. So hearing that he was doing the music for a cop movie was just another nail in the jazz coffin as far as I was concerned.

I still took my doomed run at being a NYC jazz musician shortly after this. But it led to the usual result -- playing lots of bad music (e.g., off-broadway shows) and working in restaurants. I should have learned from J.J., the master, that this was a futile path, at least at that time.

But yeah, the Womack tune was the real deal. I was surprised to see that a director I didn't appreciate would uncover this gem so many years later and feature it in a movie. What I should have done in 1973 is buy an electric guitar and a wah-wah pedal and get into the soul scene. But of course, as you say, that music genre too was about to take a turn for the worse (from my point of view) just about then.

Jazz trombone--that is tough, not much work to be found. Not since the Big Bands died after ww2. The funk bands that had success, Tower of Power, Earth Wind and Fire, Blood Sweat and Tears, James Brown and Sly Stone, few and far between. Average White Band, Gap Band, Cold Blood (which used the Tower guys half the time.) Even Mic Gillette of Tower played trumpet/flugelhorn. And Southside Johnnie, Chicago, on the rock side.

Could've switched to bass guitar. My trombone-playing buddy did that (and went to med school for a day job, but he still plays out with a rock cover band, and occasionally whips out the 'bone.)

I went through my jazz phase in the late 70s, when I was at Santa Barbara. I was amazed at how many good players and groups there were in LA, and how sparse the crowds in the clubs. Not too many horns, beyond sax (yes it is not a horn, but most people think it is).

ETA: almost forgot, I heard JJ Johnson play, somewhere back then in LA. I remember I impressed my dad, who had crossed paths with Johnson back in NYC in the 40s. (My dad was a working musician when he was a kid, but dropped to go to school and a get a straight career.)

howard wrote:Jazz trombone--that is tough, not much work to be found. Not since the Big Bands died after ww2. The funk bands that had success, Tower of Power, Earth Wind and Fire, Blood Sweat and Tears, James Brown and Sly Stone, few and far between. Average White Band, Gap Band, Cold Blood (which used the Tower guys half the time.) Even Mic Gillette of Tower played trumpet/flugelhorn. And Southside Johnnie, Chicago, on the rock side.

The Big Bands certainly began to die off after the war. But even into the mid-60s there were functioning professional Big Bands in many parts of the country. Certainly the east coast. By the 70s though, times were tough. The big-name Basie and Ellington bands even down-sized a bit, and couldn't fill their calendars. That meant that all the lesser bands were dead or scuffling. I played one night with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band. Dee Dee Bridgwater handling the vocals. This was a crack outfit. To me, the best of the era. But it was shocking what they had to do to make a living circa 1974. They blew up a few years later.

My favorite gigs were basically filling that niche at a very local level -- playing Big Band charts at events organized by fraternal organizations (e.g., Lions Club) and their equivalent in the NYC area. The old Italian couples wanted to dance the way they did in 1947. They loved us, even though we were a big scruffier than Glen Miller and the like. And I loved them, because I loved those charts. Still do. But this world was waning too, and making $10-15 per man every night (even small Big Bands are relatively big) wasn't going to cut it economically in the long haul.

Looking back, I wonder why I didn't try to get into a rock band or R&B that used horns. On a practical basis there were many barriers -- I didn't have connections in that world. But the bigger problem was that while I liked the music of many of these bands, I didn't like the trombone parts. Too repetitive and little or no improvisation. But still, there would have been a lot of fun in that world for a young guy with no roots.

Could've switched to bass guitar. My trombone-playing buddy did that (and went to med school for a day job, but he still plays out with a rock cover band, and occasionally whips out the 'bone.)

Probably a good idea. I was so disgusted with the state of music back then that I took up bluegrass guitar when I moved to Northern California. You could play with just a banjo player -- no need for a larger band to get the right sound. That musical genre was equally dead from a commercial point of view, but I was beyond the dream of being a professional musician by then.

Last weekend, I got a real blast from the past watching Nickle Creek play the local restored theater-with-pipe-organ. They seem to have considerable commercial success, and yet they started as a simple, traditional bluegrass band in California. Of course, they are very talented, led by a musical genius (Chris Thile), and started playing together before they were teens. So they've got chops and have had the space to develop. But times have certainly changed in favor of bluegrass music from a commercial point of view. The very best could be found playing pizzerias (in the north) and Howard Johnsons lounges (in the south) back in my bluegrass days.

ETA: almost forgot, I heard JJ Johnson play, somewhere back then in LA. I remember I impressed my dad, who had crossed paths with Johnson back in NYC in the 40s. (My dad was a working musician when he was a kid, but dropped to go to school and a get a straight career.)

I'm envious! I wish I had seen him in person to grasp how he was playing bebop lines at a Parker temp on a trombone. I hear the recordings, but can't figure out how he did it. King Oliver and Louis Armstrong were said to have played with their valves covered with a handkerchief when they were back in New Orleans. They didn't want to give up their fingering secrets. But JJ couldn't have pulled that off with a trombone. I'm still curious. Perhaps I'll go off now to ramble through youtube in search or a rare clip of JJ playing bebop so I can try to discern what he knew that I could only guess at.