As you know, Adam West is gone.

Like a lot of people, West was a pop culture icon of my childhood thanks to the syndication of Batman. And whatever his qualities as an actor, he was perfect for the role - too perfect, perhaps, although West was able to reconcile himself with it. And that’s good.

Also, like a lot of people, he was my first Batman ( Read more... )

Chris Cornell is gone.

And of course I have to blog about that because the very first time I heard Soundgarden … I wasn’t that impressed.

Not that I thought they sucked. Far from it. I just didn’t quite get what they were doing.

This was 100% my problem. I was writing album reviews for the college newspaper at the time, and I was very heavily into ( Read more... )

As you all know, Mary Tyler Moore is gone.

I don’t have much to say that hasn’t already been said - she was a TV staple of my childhood, and I do remember that final episode and what a big deal it was.

And with everyone talking about how revolutionary the show was in terms of featuring a female lead who wasn’t a housewife, I suppose it had some ( Read more... )

And so 2016 is done.

Here’s how a lot of people feel about it.


( Read more... )

And now Carrie Fisher is gone.

And somehow this pic just seems appropriate.


( Read more... )

Well, I can’t post something about George Michal and not do the same for Leonard Cohen, who did a Bowie last month by releasing a great new album on his birthday and passing away shortly afterwards.

The title track is very apropos - not just of Cohen’s passing, but 2016 in general.

Click to view

It’s a high note to go out on - even this late in the game, Cohen ( Read more... )

And so 2016 gets one more boot in with George Michael.

I have to confess, I’m one of the few people on the planet who wasn’t a big fan. Which is not to say I don’t think he was talented. He was a fine singer and a showman, and I can prove that with this video of him performing with Queen for a Freddie Mercury tribute/AIDS awareness fundraiser.

Click to view

Sure ( Read more... )

Obviously a lot of people are assessing his legacy via their own narrow political filters. For some people on the Left he was a symbolic hero with good intentions who gave Conservative Self-Righteous America the finger for decades - oh, and great healthcare system. For some people on the Right he was an evil, ruthless murderous Commie ( Read more... )

Gene Wilder is gone, as you probably know.

I should probably say something - partly because I’m a fan of many of his 70s films, but also because the very first film I remember seeing in a cinema was Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

Or at least it’s the first live-action film I remember. My parents may have taken me to see a Disney film or two ( ( Read more... )

Elie Wiesel did it all the way up to July 2, 2016, when he passed away at age 87.

I felt like I should say something, even though I only read one of his books: Night, which I read way back in my college days (on purpose, not for credit). It’s a brilliant and harrowing book that somehow manages to compress all of the horror of the Holocaust into a ( Read more... )