Passages

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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: Passages

#6701 Post by hearthesilence » Thu Sep 14, 2017 5:27 am

Grant Hart of Husker Dü.

One of my favorite bands, I just saw Hart this summer. He looked thin and pale, but otherwise played well - would never have guessed he'd be gone so soon.

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Roger Ryan
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city

Re: Passages

#6702 Post by Roger Ryan » Thu Sep 14, 2017 8:27 am

hearthesilence wrote:Grant Hart of Husker Dü.

One of my favorite bands, I just saw Hart this summer. He looked thin and pale, but otherwise played well - would never have guessed he'd be gone so soon.
I was able to hang out with him before and after his last Detroit-area shows (12 or 13 years ago now) - appearances so low-key that he asked if I could help him carry his amplifier to the car. He was greatly enthused to have found a first edition of Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" on his way to Michigan and he said that fortunate turn made the whole trip worthwhile. He got most excited when talking about the album artwork (he was responsible for the Husker Du LP covers) and went into detail about how some of the designs were achieved. His Husker Du songs were wonderfully melodic and hook-filled; he really was the "McCartney" to Bob Mould's "Lennon". But his solo work was far more diverse and ambitious; I'm pleased he was able to complete and release the epic "Paradise Lost" - inspired album "The Argument" which felt like a summation of his songwriting concerns. RIP.

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mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Passages

#6703 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Sep 14, 2017 10:05 am


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ando
Bringing Out El Duende
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:53 pm
Location: New York City

Re: Passages

#6704 Post by ando » Fri Sep 15, 2017 3:17 am

colinr0380 wrote:
antnield wrote:Sir Peter Hall.
I hadn't made the connection until the BBC News obituary mentioned it, but as well as his theatre and opera work he directed Akenfield (which was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD by the BFI) at weekends and with amateur actors.
Well, it was monentary slip, yes? Anyone whoever appreciated Shakespeare productions from the mid twentieth century could not help but be exposed to the remarkable director.

Sir Peter Hall Remembered

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FigrinDan
The Immortal Dead
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2016 2:43 pm
Location: Hawaii

Re: Passages

#6705 Post by FigrinDan » Fri Sep 15, 2017 1:27 pm

Iconic illustrator of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, Basil Gogos.

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swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
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Re: Passages

#6706 Post by swo17 » Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:43 pm

Harry Dean Stanton discussion moved here.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Passages

#6707 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Sep 17, 2017 3:42 pm

Dr Amicus wrote:
antnield wrote:Brian Aldiss.
A huge loss, one of the key figures in post-war British Science Fiction not only as an author but as a critic, historian and anthologist. The Helliconia Trilogy was one of my favourites as a teenager, with Hothouse, Frankenstein Unbound and Non-Stop as later discoveries. His history of SF, Billion (Trillion) Year Spree, is also a great, hugely entertaining read.

Incidentally, as at last night certainly, many of his books are available on the Kindle for a very low price.
hearthesilence wrote:"Supertoys Last All Summer Long" can be read at Aldiss's own site. This, of course, was developed by Stanley Kubrick into A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.
The recent passing of Brian Aldiss prompted me to go back for yet another re-viewing of one of my favourite documentary series as a teenager, the three part New Nightmares series, which accompanied the "Movie Nightmares" season on Channel 4 back in 1993. This took a different topic each episode and used interviews with scientists and science fiction authors (with wonderful readings from their books), stock footage, film clips (from films in the accompanying series) and dramatised parts in a great manner. There are lots of interviews with authors who have sadly passed on over the years including Brian Aldiss, J.G. Ballard, Thomas Disch, Michael Critchton, John Brunner, Kurt Vonnegut, etc (there's even a brief clip from Robin Williams Live At The Met, when he was doing 'edgy' environmentalist stand up!)

I also did a check on YouTube and whilst the first episode "Man-Machine" isn't on there (which traces the developments of artificial intelligence in science and fiction from Alan Turing, through Crash and plastic surgery, and into virtual reality and Neuromancer), the other two episodes are. The second episode is the environmental/genetics one, "Nature Says No" which Brian Aldiss features the most in (I love his praise for Greg Bear's Blood Music, and he gets the touching final moments of the episode too). And the third episode, "Them!", is about the fear of the 'other' from other races to aliens, to political ideas and the nature of crowds.

Even 24 years on I still find myself coming back to the episodes, if just to hear the readings from the novels!

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Yakushima
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:42 am
Location: US

Re: Passages

#6708 Post by Yakushima » Sun Sep 17, 2017 5:31 pm

colinr0380, thank you for sharing these great documentaries!

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Passages

#6709 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:42 pm

Thanks! If I knew how to I'd try to put up the Man-Machine episode, but unfortunately I'm not that tech savvy, so I'm grateful that someone at least put these two episodes up! I can only assume that the reason why the Man-Machine episode isn't there too is because its the most film clip heavy episode of the three (Maximum Overdrive, Scanners, 2001, Akira and so on) that might make it a problem. I note that the "Them" episode has its clips from The Day The Earth Stood Still truncated a bit, including the final one that threatens humanity with destruction if we don't learn to curb our violent ways!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:12 am, edited 2 times in total.

flyonthewall2983
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
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Re: Passages

#6710 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:43 pm

Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, according to Jim Ross' Twitter. There's nothing official on it, but I'd have no reason to believe he'd report something false like this.

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dx23
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:52 pm
Location: Puerto Rico

Re: Passages

#6711 Post by dx23 » Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:44 pm

FigrinDan wrote:Iconic illustrator of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, Basil Gogos.
Basil Gogos was a regular every year at Heroescon. It was always a pleasure to talk to him as he had some great stories of the comic book and "monsters" industry. When he missed this year's show because he was ill, I kinda felt in me that he wouldn't be around much longer. Really sad that my feelings came true as he was an amazing artist and a great person.


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dx23
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:52 pm
Location: Puerto Rico

Re: Passages

#6713 Post by dx23 » Sun Sep 17, 2017 11:10 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, according to Jim Ross' Twitter. There's nothing official on it, but I'd have no reason to believe he'd report something false like this.
It's been confirmed by WWE. Heenan was the best manager of all time and the best heel commentator ever. He had been very ill for the past 10 years.

flyonthewall2983
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Re: Passages

#6714 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Sep 17, 2017 11:16 pm

Longer than that. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in around 2001-2. He recovered well enough initially but over time he started to lose the lower half of his mouth.

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CSM126
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:22 am
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Re: Passages

#6715 Post by CSM126 » Mon Sep 18, 2017 6:36 am

Heenan was the all-around best at what he did. A fabulous rat-fink heel manager, a witty promo, and the best, funniest, most wildly entertaining color commentary man there will ever be. Heenan was an integral part of wrestling when I was growing up, and he's one of the biggest reasons I'm a fan. I'm glad his pain is over, but I'm terribly sad to know he's gone.


flyonthewall2983
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Re: Passages

#6717 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 7:08 pm

Image

Image

Found this online today, just to give you a good idea of how hated he was.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Passages

#6718 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 12:25 pm

Jake LaMotta, whose life Robert De Niro portrayed in Raging Bull. But as well as the boxing career he also made a few acting appearances: in a small role in the Michael Winner film Firepower and in Maniac Cop.

But probably his most interesting appearances are in a couple of films from the mid to late 1960s: in the Most Dangerous Game-like exploitation film Confessions of a Psycho Cat from 1968, and especially the PTSD drama piece The Runaways from 1963 (which I'd like to see in full some time, though its a film whose original negative was apparently destroyed in a fire in the early 1980s).

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Re: Passages

#6719 Post by Matt » Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:00 pm

Lillian Ross, longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, and author of the incredible book Picture, on the making (and unmaking) of John Huston's The Red Badge of Courage, age 99. If you care at all about classic Hollywood filmmaking, you need to have read that book (plus maybe her amazing article on the cowardice of Hollywood during the Red Scare).

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lacritfan
Life is one big kevyip
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:39 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Passages

#6720 Post by lacritfan » Wed Sep 20, 2017 9:16 pm


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MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
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Re: Passages

#6721 Post by MichaelB » Thu Sep 21, 2017 2:09 pm

Grzegorz Królikiewicz, probably the greatest Polish filmmaker to pass almost entirely under most film buffs' radar. Poland is not short of important experimental filmmakers, but Królikiewicz was one of the few who made the transition to fiction features without any visible compromise. He was very prolific, and the five features that I've seen only scratch the surface of his vast output, much of which is off limits to non-Polish speakers, but 1977's Dancing Hawk is one of the all-time classic Eastern European "wtf?" films, a political satire so insanely off-kilter both visually (future experimental-video giant Zbigniew Rybczyński was the cinematographer) and tonally that it's hard to believe it was ever greenlit by anyone, let alone the system in Communist Poland at the time. It's the best "Second Run" film that the label never actually distributed - but I hear that this certainly wasn't for want of trying. RIP.

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GaryC
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:56 pm
Location: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK

Re: Passages

#6722 Post by GaryC » Thu Sep 21, 2017 3:09 pm

William G. Stewart, UK producer and director of sitcoms (including the 1973 big-screen spin-off of Father Dear Father) and game shows. In the latter capacity he was also the presenter of 15 to 1 between 1988 and 2003. I met him twice, when I was on the show, in 2000 and 2003.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Passages

#6723 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Sep 21, 2017 4:00 pm

I've got to ask how far you got in your apppearances! And did you get involved in those gruelling looking dragged out battles between people bouncing questions back and forth to knock each other out?

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GaryC
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:56 pm
Location: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK

Re: Passages

#6724 Post by GaryC » Fri Sep 22, 2017 2:23 am

colinr0380 wrote:I've got to ask how far you got in your apppearances! And did you get involved in those gruelling looking dragged out battles between people bouncing questions back and forth to knock each other out?
The first time I got my first two questions wrong so went out in the first round. The second time was after they allowed people to re-audition if they'd appeared before but hadn't won their heat. That time, I was fourth, i.e. last one out before the commercial break.

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dadaistnun
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:31 am

Re: Passages

#6725 Post by dadaistnun » Sun Sep 24, 2017 5:08 pm


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