Obit watch: February 7, 2022.

February 7th, 2022

George Crumb, composer.

“Black Angels” (1970), one of Mr. Crumb’s best-known works and a reaction to the Vietnam War, was an early example of his imaginative eclecticism. It is scored for an amplified string quartet and features techniques such as tapping the strings with thimbles. A mournful fragment from Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” string quartet is interrupted by fierce bow strokes and human shouts.
The grimly claustrophobic music of the first movement, “Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects,” was deemed sufficiently scary to be used on the soundtrack for the horror film “The Exorcist.”

…

Other pieces were equally theatrical and sometimes featured ritualistic elements. A recording of whale songs made by a marine scientist inspired his “Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale)” for electric flute, cello and amplified piano (1971). The performers wear black half-masks; Mr. Crumb also specified that (where possible) the performance take place under blue lighting. He used various extended techniques, like strumming the piano strings with a paper clip, to create eerie sonorities.
Each movement of his orchestral piece “Echoes of Time and the River” (awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1968) features processionals in which small groups of musicians move around the stage in patterns and directions specified in the score — requirements Mr. Crumb later acknowledged were rather impractical.

Posted in Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Somebody ought to write a book. (Part 3)

February 4th, 2022

I don’t want to talk about this story, because maroons.

The only reason I even link is that it reminded me of a book idea I had a while back.

The inspiration for this idea was an article I read, which I can’t find now, about the extreme precautions taken to keep the identities of the celebrities appearing on “The Masked Singer” secret: the signed agreements never reference the show by name, the celebrities are picked up in obscure places (like in front of a 7-11) by unmarked vans and taken to unlabeled warehouses…

…so the basic idea is: celebrity gets invited to appear on a “Masked Singer” like show, goes through all the steps, gets picked up in front of a liquor store in North Hollywood by an unmarked van…

…and it turns out that there is no “Masked Singer” appearance, and the whole thing is an elaborate, carefully staged, kidnapping plot…

…and because the celebrity thought they were appearing on “Masked Singer”, and would blow their shot if they weren’t careful, they kept much of their interactions secret. Therefore the police have very few clues to work with…

I’m thinking of this as a kind of modern take on Westlake’s The Comedy is Finished except with a younger and fitter kidnap victim. Probably someone who, while being a celebrity, has a reputation for being a not-terribly-bright party person: but while being held captive, realizes that they have to reach inside and develop strengths they didn’t know they had in order to get themselves out alive.

Perhaps this person is a B-list celebrity: used to be big, is still recognizable, but now mostly gets one-and-done guest shots on TV shows. Why would kidnappers nab a B-lister? Maybe because they’re not bright. Perhaps they think this person has more money than they really do. Maybe they see it as a political statement inspired by something the celebrity said or did.

This could set up a mildly humorous bit where the FBI is talking to B-lister’s agent. “(X) thought they were going to appear on ‘The Masked Singer’? Seriously?”

Or maybe they are an A-lister, known to be difficult to work with, tending to rely on other people, and not able (or willing) to do anything for themselves. Perhaps they’re starting to alienate important people in the business: they haven’t slipped down to the D-list yet, but if they don’t change their ways…Maybe a hidden drug habit?

By the end of the book, they’re experiencing a career resurgence, thanks to the kidnapping and whatever happens after the kidnapping. Think Rick Dalton, but possibly female?

If you like this idea, I’m putting it out there for the taking. After all, ideas don’t matter: what you do with them does.

Posted in Books | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#80 in a series)

February 3rd, 2022

I wrote about Tennessee state senator Katrina Robinson’s indictment on theft, embezzlement, and wire fraud charges.

Unfortunately, I missed the results of her trial:

A judge acquitted Ms. Robinson of 15 charges against her, and a jury found her guilty last year of four counts of wire fraud, relating to about $3,400. Last month, a judge acquitted Ms. Robinson of two of those charges.

The facts that she was acquitted of 15 charges, and has had two convictions thrown out, do give me some pause. However, they apparently do not give the Tennessee State Senate pause: two is enough.

The Tennessee State Senate voted on Wednesday to remove a senator from office because of her conviction on federal wire fraud charges, the first time the chamber has removed a senator since at least the Civil War.
The senator, Katrina Robinson, 41, who was convicted of wire fraud involving federal grant money, was removed from the legislature after a 27-to-5 vote. The tally fell along party lines, with 27 Republicans voting for expulsion and five Democrats voting against, and split over arguments about whether the Senate should continue to let Ms. Robinson’s court case play out. One Democrat was absent for the vote, said Eddie Weeks, the legislative librarian.

…

Ms. Robinson has consistently denied any wrongdoing, said Brandon Puttbrese, a spokesman. In an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Robinson, who is Black, denounced the vote, calling it racist.
“I think the vote today was an attack on the Black vote, Black political power,” she said. “I think it is misogynistic. I think it was racist.”

Posted in Law, Politics | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: February 3, 2022.

February 3rd, 2022

John C. Koss, headphone innovator.

Mr. Koss and his friend Martin Lange Jr., an engineer, developed a portable stereo phonograph in 1958 that they called a “private listening station.” It had a turntable, speakers and a privacy switch that let users plug headphones into a jack. But most of the headphones available, like those used by telephone operators, shortwave radio users and pilots, were incompatible and not stereophonic.
So they rigged up cardboard cups that contained three-inch speakers and chamois pads from a flight helmet, and they attached them to a headband made of a bent clothes hanger covered with a rubber shower hose.
“And, oh man, whew, it was just bouncing in my ears,” Mr. Koss said in an undated video interview on the Koss Corporation’s website. “It was a great sound. Now the whole thing was there. Anybody that listened to it, it was like the first time you drove in a car or the first time you did anything.”

…

“For many industry professionals, the Koss Pro/4 headphone was the entry into good stereophonic sound that could be heard on headphones,” Jim Anderson, a professor at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, said in an email, referring to a product first produced in 1962. “Koss set a standard for construction quality and audio for many years and had the market virtually to themselves.”

Jean-Jacques Beineix, French director. His first movie was “Diva”.

I wanted to see “Diva” when it was theatrically released because: moped chase in a subway. But at the time, this was impossible for me. I don’t recall it ever playing when UT had a film program. But now, it is available in a reasonably priced Kino Lorber blu ray (affiliate link). And I believe it is on the list: if not, it will be shortly.

He also directed “Betty Blue”, which seems to have divided critics. Interestingly, before “Diva”, he worked as a second assistant/second unit director on several films…including “The Day the Clown Cried”.

Sister Janet Mead, Australian nun…and, with all due respect, musical footnote.

Sister Janet’s recording of “The Lord’s Prayer,” which featured her pure solo vocal over a driving drumbeat — she had a three-octave range and perfect pitch — became an instant hit in Australia, Canada and the United States. It soared to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 during Easter time in 1974, and she became one of the few Australian recording artists to have a gold record in the United States.
The record sold more than three million copies worldwide, two million of them to Americans. Nominated for the 1975 Grammy Award for best inspirational performance, it lost to Elvis Presley and his version of “How Great Thou Art.”
Along with Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” famously covered by the Byrds in 1965, “The Lord’s Prayer” is one of the very few popular songs with lyrics taken from the Bible.

…

She later described the period of her record’s success as a “horrible time,” largely because of demands by the media.
“It was a fairly big strain because all the time there are interviews and radio talk-backs and TV people coming and film people coming,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Shunning the spotlight, she declined most interview requests and all offers to tour the United States.

…

Sister Janet later withdrew from the public eye almost entirely, and her third album, recorded in 1983, was filed away in the Festival Records vaults. The tapes, including a 1983 version of “The Lord’s Prayer” and covers of songs by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Cat Stevens, were rediscovered by Mr. Erdman in 1999 and included on the album “A Time to Sing,” released that year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sister Janet’s hit single.

Posted in Movies, Music, Obits, Religion | Comments Closed

Noteworthy II.

February 3rd, 2022

I used to pay a lot of attention to the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship awards (the “genius grant). I don’t pay as much attention these days, because reasons.

However, I did know that Josh Miele, who I have written about before, was one of last year’s recipients.

Here’s a pretty cool profile of Mr. Miele and what he’s doing now. In brief, he’s working for Amazon on accessibility.

For example, when Miele joined Lab126, the group was working on Show and Tell, an Alexa feature for Echo Show devices that uses the camera and voice interface to help people who are blind identify products. Employing advanced computer vision and machine learning models for object recognition, Show and Tell can be a vital tool in the kitchen of a customer who is blind or has low vision. A person holds up an object and asks, “Alexa, what am I holding?” and gets an immediate answer.

…

Miele helped the team understand that they needed only to provide useful context, even just a word or two, for a person who is blind or visually impaired to identify the product. The team focused on kitchen and pantry items — things that come in cans, boxes, bottles, and tubes. The goal: Recognize items in Amazon’s vast product catalogue, or if that wasn’t possible, recognize brands and logos that could give the customer enough information to know what they held in their hand.
“If I touch a can of something, I know it’s a can,” Miele explained, “but I don’t know if it’s a can of black beans or pineapple. So, if I’m making chili, and I open a can of pineapple, I’m going to be pretty irritated.”

…

“I realized that the work I was doing in accessibility was both rewarding to me and something that not many people could do at the level I was able to do it,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘There are plenty of people who could be great planetary scientists but there were not a lot of people who could design cool stuff for blind people and meet the needs of the people who were going to use it.’”

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

Noteworthy.

February 3rd, 2022

I don’t listen to any gun related podcasts on a regular basis these days for reasons. However, I do go out of my way to listen to individual episodes of podcasts if someone brings them to my attention and if I think they’re worthwhile.

In this case, Mike the Musicologist brought to my attention the latest episode of the Texas State Rifle Association’s “2A Ricochet” podcast. This episode features FotB and official trainer to WCD, Karl Rehn.

You can go here for the podcast, or search for it in your favorite podcast client. Or you can watch it on YouTube. Or you can watch it here:

This is about 55 minutes long, and is part one of two. I have listened to all of it, and think it is worth your time if you carry.

Posted in Guns, Holsters | Comments Closed

Norts spews.

February 2nd, 2022

The Brian Flores lawsuit against the NFL is mildly interesting, but it is also being well covered in other places, and I don’t know what I can say about the suit itself.

However, there is one aspect of it that I think isn’t getting as much coverage as I’d like:

Flores claimed that [Stephen] Ross [owner of the Dolphins – DB] said he would pay him $100,000 for each game the team lost in 2019, his first year with the Dolphins. Flores refused and when the Dolphins started winning games, Flores said he was told by the team’s general manager, Chris Grier, that Ross was “mad” that the team’s victories were hurting the team’s position in the draft position.

…

Flores’ lawyers said his experience was not unique and that other coaches have reached out to them with similar stories in regard to being incentivized to tank as well as enduring discriminatory hiring practices.

I have to wonder: if paying coaches to lose is a common practice, why haven’t we seen more 0-16 (or 0-17) teams? Is there so much “respect for the game” out there that nobody’s willing to take the offer? Even if you’re going to end up with a #1 draft choice?

Edited to add: Well, this is interesting:

In the wake of Brian Flores’ bombshell discrimination lawsuit against the NFL, former Browns coach Hue Jackson suggested Tuesday that he too was paid to lose games for his former organization.

Posted in Law, Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 2, 2022.

February 2nd, 2022

Bob Wall, noted ass kicker.

He was in three out of five Bruce Lee films post 1968: “The Way of the Dragon”, “Enter the Dragon” and “Game of Death”. (He played O’Hara, the bad guy’s bodyguard, in “Enter the Dragon”.)

A 9th degree black belt, Wall for years trained alongside good friend Chuck Norris; they first met in the mid-1960s and were business partners in a chain of karate studios. In addition to Way of the Dragon (1972), they appeared together in Code of Silence (1985), Invasion U.S.A. (1985), Firewalker (1986), Hero and the Terror (1988), Sidekicks (1992) and in episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger.

…

Inducted into the Professional Karate Hall of Fame in 1975, Wall taught combat skills to the likes of Elvis Presley, Steve McQueen, Jack Palance, Brian Keith, Freddie Prinze Sr. and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also hired Jackie Chan as a stuntman for Enter the Dragon.

Monica Vitti, Italian actress. She was in Michelangelo Antonioni’s movies (“L’Avventura”, “La Notte”, “L’Eclisse”).

A romantic relationship blossomed between Ms. Vitti and Antonioni during the filming of “L’Avventura” and grew stronger in the years that followed. At one point, before their relationship became widely known, Ms. Vitti lived in an apartment just below Antonioni’s in Rome, and the director had a trap door and spiral staircase installed so they could see each other whenever they liked without rousing outside notice.

She was also “Modesty Blaise” in the 1966 movie.

Posted in Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Music news.

February 1st, 2022

By way of great and good Friend of the Blog (and official trainer to WCD) Karl Rehn, we have learned that Hookers & Blow are touring.

As you may recall, Hookers & Blow is a band formed by Dizzy Reed (former Guns ‘N Roses keyboard player) and Alex Grossi (former Quiet Riot guitarist). I assume their March 2020 tour went the way of so many other things during the early days of the Chinese Rabies, but they’re back now.

Even better, they’re getting out of California, but only to Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and Utah. No Texas shows. Yet.

Also unfortunately, there does not seem to be a Hookers & Blow t-shirt. Yet.

But the eponymous Hookers & Blow album is available from Amazon as a MP3 download, CD, or vinyl (affiliate link).

Thanks to Karl for the heads-up on this. We will be waiting eagerly for news of Texas tour dates.

Posted in Music | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 1, 2022.

February 1st, 2022

Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub (United States Army – ret.) has died. He was 100.

General Singlaub trained resistance fighters in German-occupied France and rescued Allied prisoners of war held by the Japanese during World War II. He conducted intelligence operations during the Chinese Civil War and in the Korean War while assigned to the C.I.A., and he commanded secret Army forays into North Vietnam and neutral Laos and Cambodia during the 1960s to ambush Communist troops.
A sturdy 5-foot-7 with an enduring military brush haircut, General Singlaub seemed fit for combat long after his last war. He was “the kind of guy you’d like to have on your side in a barroom brawl,” Pat Murphy, an acquaintance and the publisher of The Arizona Republic at the time, told The New York Times in 1986.

…

But for all his military feats, General Singlaub’s career ended over issues of grand strategy.Mr. Carter removed him as the military’s chief of staff in South Korea in May 1977 after he told a reporter for The Washington Post that the president’s plan to withdraw American troops there could lead to another North Korean invasion.
General Singlaub later maintained that his remarks were off the record, an assertion disputed by The Post. But Mr. Carter was outraged at what he perceived as a challenge to civilian authority.
His order recalling General Singlaub from Korea was the first action of its type since President Harry S. Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur as the Pacific commander when MacArthur advocated extending the Korean War into China.
After being reassigned to Fort McPherson in Georgia, General Singlaub criticized the Carter administration’s military policies again in April 1978, in a talk before R.O.T.C. cadets at Georgia Tech. He called Mr. Carter’s decision not to produce a neutron bomb “ridiculous” and “militarily unsound” and criticized the administration’s efforts to give up control of the Panama Canal.
The Army ordered him to report to the Pentagon immediately, announcing a day later that it had accepted his request to retire.

He was also involved (as a private citizen) in the “Iran-Contra affair”.

General Singlaub told Congress that Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, while a National Security Council staff aide, had approved of his being highly visible in his support for the contras. The goal, General Singlaub testified, was to take public attention away from the secret government program. Colonel North was eventually convicted of obstructing Congress, destroying official documents and accepting an illegal gift, but the convictions were later overturned on appeal.
General Singlaub, who acted as a private citizen in helping the contras, was never accused of wrongdoing in the investigation. But in his 1991 memoir, “Hazardous Duty,” written with Malcolm McConnell, he bristled at what he considered the defaming of his character.
“For a decade I’d been smeared as a right-wing fanatic, even a crypto-fascist, by some members of the media,” he wrote. “I’d always found this ironic, considering the fact that I was one of a handful of American soldiers who had risked torture and execution by both German and Japanese fascists while serving behind enemy lines in Europe and the Far East.”

Moses J. Moseley, actor. He was a “pet zombie” in “The Walking Dead”.

The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside of the United States or are looking for other help, TVTropes has a good page of additional resources.

Posted in History, Obits, TV | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: January 31. 2022.

January 31st, 2022

NYT obit for Howard Hesseman, which was not up when I posted yesterday.

Mike the Musicologist sent this over, with the observation that it had been posted yesterday:

Cheslie Kryst. She was Miss USA 2019, and worked as a lawyer and a correspondent on “Extra”.

The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside of the United States or are looking for other help, TVTropes has a good page of additional resources.

Hargus Robbins, noted session pianist in Nashville.

A longtime member of Nashville’s so-called A-Team of first-call studio musicians, Mr. Robbins appeared on thousands of popular recordings made here between the late 1950s and mid-2010s.
Many became No. 1 country singles, including Hank Snow’s “I’ve Been Everywhere” (1962), Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” (1966) and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” (1974). Several also crossed over to become major pop hits, Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” (1961) and Kenny Rogers’s “The Gambler” (1978) among them.

…

Mr. Robbins’s influence was maybe most pronounced as the Nashville Sound evolved into the more soul-steeped “countrypolitan” style heard on records like George Jones’s 1980 blockbuster single, “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”
Mr. Robbins’s rippling, jazz-inflected intros to Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors” (1973) and Crystal Gayle’s “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” (1977) became enduring expressions of the Southern musical vernacular of their era. Both records were No. 1 country and crossover pop singles.

…

Afforded the chance to stretch out stylistically on “Blonde on Blonde,” Mr. Robbins played with raucous abandon on “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” the woozy, carnivalesque No. 2 pop hit hooked by the tagline “Everybody must get stoned.” He employed a tender lyricism, by contrast, on elegiac ballads like “Just Like a Woman” and “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.”

Posted in 1970s, Music, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 30, 2022.

January 30th, 2022

Booger.

Howard Hesseman.

In other eccentric turns, Hesseman played hippies in Richard Lester’s Petulia (1968) and on NBC’s Dragnet (he was billed as Don Sturdy back then); a patient suffering from writer’s block on The Bob Newhart Show; a psychiatrist on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; a pimp opposite Dan Aykroyd in Doctor Detroit (1983); and a shock rocker in This Is Spinal Tap (1984).

I didn’t watch “Head of the Class”, and, while I may have watched the original “One Day at a Time”, I’m pretty sure I had checked out by season 9. (We were actually discussing that show last night at dinner: I believe we all watched it, but with the mitigating excuse that there were only three channels at the time.)

I can’t find my favorite Dr. Johnny Fever moment online. (Johnny takes a sobriety test, and the drunker he gets, the better his reaction time gets. This is the kind of humor you could get away with in the late 1970s/early 1980s, before joyless fun suckers sucked all the fun out of everything.) And I don’t want to use the turkey drop stuff, because overused and it isn’t Thanksgiving.

So here’s a nice golden moment for you.

Edited to add 2/7: Lawrence pointed out something over the weekend that was quite a surprise to me (I should have checked his credits more closely): Howard Hessman did a “Mannix”. (“A Ransom for Yesterday“, season 8, episode 17. We watched it Saturday night: given that it was so close to the end of the series, it is actually a pretty good episode, and Hessman’s role is substantial. It also isn’t an old Army buddy episode, thank Ghu.)

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

That old devil is at it again.

January 29th, 2022

Four Arizona State coaches are no longer with the program.

According to reports, offensive coordinator Zak Hill and tight ends coach Adam Breneman “resigned”: wide receivers coach Prentice Gill and secondary coach Chris Hawkins were fired.

Why? Everybody’s favorite reason: recruiting violations.

Sources told ESPN that part of the NCAA’s investigation involves Arizona State hosting prospects during the recruiting dead period, which lasted from March 2020 to June 1, 2021. FBS programs were prohibited from having recruits on campus during that period. Several sources in the Pac-12 told ESPN that Arizona State also faces allegations about recruiting practices that occurred when the dead period ended, including possible improper contact with prospects at an off-campus recruiting camp in June.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch (#61 in a series)

January 29th, 2022

Damien Hirst has done other works than “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living“.

One of those was a diamond encrusted skull called “For the Love of God”.

Back in 2007, Hirst’s market was exploding. The same year he said he sold For the Love of God, his work made a total of $86.3 million at auction, according to the Artnet Price Database. The following year, he notoriously sold his work directly through Sotheby’s for a whopping $201 million. But his auction sales never approached those heights again. (Last year, his work generated $38 million, a 13-year high.)

Hirst has claimed for a while now that he sold the work for $100 million in 2007.

Turns out…

In a profile published in the New York Times on the occasion of his first New York show in four years, Hirst said the work, titled For the Love of God and allegedly made from more than 8,600 diamonds, was sitting in a storage facility in Hatton Garden, London’s jewelry district.
According to Hirst, he still owns the bauble in partnership with his gallery, White Cube, and a group of unnamed investors.

More:

In the recent Hirst New York Times profile, the newspaper took at face value the artist’s claim that he sold around 80 new works for between $750,000 and $3.5 million each.
“We could have sold many, many more,” Larry Gagosian told the Times. “People were literally begging to buy these paintings.”

ArtNet article. Some people have told me they have trouble with this link, so here’s an archive.is version.

NYT profile.

“He’s a talented artist, but this? Really?” said Alan Baldwin, an art collector, looking down recently at a fluffy black sculpture of a spider with bow legs and googly eyes. Back in 1992, three years before winning the prestigious Turner Prize, its creator had astounded the art world by displaying a real 14-foot tiger shark embalmed in a tank of formaldehyde.

Archive version of the NYT profile.

Posted in Art | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: January 29, 2022.

January 29th, 2022

Today is just quick follow ups from the paper of record:

Carol Speed.

Peter Robbins.

And, astonishingly (to me), the NYT actually ran an obit for Ron Goulart. Not that he doesn’t deserve it, but this is the same paper that still (to the best of my knowledge) has never run an obit for Gardner Dozois.

Posted in Obits | Comments Closed

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