You know of course that Rush Limbaugh is gone. You also know that many people are dancing on his grave singing hallelujah. You might be one yourself.

I am not hear to dance upon his grave, as I’m generally not into grave-dancing. Actually I normally wouldn’t post anything at all, but as a political junkie who worked in radio (to include news/talk ( Read more... )

Eddie Van Halen is gone. And, well, Van Halen were such a fixture of the pop culture landscape I grew up in that it's impossible not to blog something about him. 
So this is where I tell you that my first exposure to Van Halen was a fake radio show.

To explain: when I was in 9th grade or so, I had aspirations to be a radio DJ. So did an erstwhile ( Read more... )

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is gone. I have thoughts:

1. I’ve always been amazed and impressed at how RBG became an icon for so many people in the sense that I can’t think of any other Supreme in my lifetime that had a fanbase like hers. Granted, that’s largely to do with the fact that she built up her rep as a champion of gender equality and human rights ( Read more... )

Terry Jones has passed away and it’s very sad, not least because he’d reportedly been suffering from severe dementia the last few years.

If you haven't guessed by now, I’ve been a Monty Python fan pretty much since high school (so 35 years or so, then). It’s hard to pick just one of his wonderful performances and characters, so here’s a less ( Read more... )

Stan Lee is gone, and even if I wasn’t late to the game, I don’t know what I could say that hasn't already been said.

My own experience is similar to others of my generation - by the time I started reading superhero comics, Stan Lee wasn’t writing so much anymore, and pretty much all of his creations had been taken over by other writers. But I knew ( Read more... )

John McCain left us last month. I’ve been preoccupied with other things, but I did have a few comments.

1. Personally, I’ve always had respect for him. Which is not to say I’ve always agreed with him, or that he’s always made good choices (see: Sarah Palin). But he came across to me as someone who didn’t just follow the bullet points - he actually ( Read more... )

Art Bell is gone, which means finally he may finally find the answers he was looking for.

If you don’t know, Bell was the late-night talk radio host of Coast To Coast AM, in which he and his guests and callers explored UFOs, aliens, Bigfoot, various supernatural and paranormal phenomena, and government cover-ups of all the above. Bell was X Files ( Read more... )

I found out yesterday that Mark E Smith passed away last week.

It probably says a lot that I somehow totally missed this on my various social media feeds - hardly anyone seemed to notice outside of the UK. Which I guess makes sense because The Fall were never more than a minor cult sensation in the US - you either heard them on college radio or you ( Read more... )

If you read science-fiction/fantasy, or know/follow people on social media who do, you know that Ursula K Le Guin is gone.

The fan tributes have been pouring in, illustrating clearly just how big a deal she was as a writer and how influential her writing has been on multiple levels. (Jo Walton has written a fine tribute on that score.)

Consequently ( Read more... )

You probably have heard that Charles Manson passed away.

Which is mainly worth blogging about for a couple of reasons: (1) I’d rather forgotten about him, and (2) Manson’s strange role in the pantheon of pop culture. At least for my generation.

To be clear, he was a dangerous lunatic who deserved to stay in jail until he died. Which he did. I ( Read more... )