Passages

[swo17]

Charles Grodin discussion moved here

[flyonthewall2983]

Paul Mooney

[beamish14]

Paul Mooney

The Richard Pryor Show was an amazing program; just remarkable how that was able to be broadcast on American television. I forgot that he had published his autobiography not too long ago.

[knives]

This is kind of an aside thing, but he’s one of the proofs of Chappelle’s greatness for putting these hard working comics and making sure everyone knew their face and often times name. Those Paul Mooney at the movies segments were gold.

[hearthesilence]

Paul Mooney

Both he and Chevy Chase claimed authorship for what may be SNL's first truly great sketch, but I'm much more inclined to believe Mooney over Chase based on their other work. A lot of what SNL did in the '70s falls a bit short of their lofty reputation, but even today this sketch remains bold and tense for how far it was willing to go. Maybe that has more to do with Pryor than SNL - his comedy albums (as well as the great film Richard Pryor: Live in Concert) still beat out SNL as my favorite comedic work from the '70s.

[therewillbeblus]

Mooney's segments on Chappelle's Show were gold, and of course he was a great writer in general across comedy. I'm normally a pretty vocal advocate of separating art from the artist, but did not realize the molestation accusations against Pryor's son until recently, which seem to be substantiated beyond mere he said/she said, and are obviously rather alarming...

[dadaistnun]

The great Yoshi Wada.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

The great Yoshi Wada.

Literally was listening to him this week. A real loss. Sort of the last of those post-Harry Partch style musicians born from the fluxus movement. I think all that really remains is Akio Suzuki, who's also up there in age. I remember buying the reissue of Off the Wall the day it came out. He'll be missed.

[Big Ben]

Kentaro Miura, author of Berserk.

[hearthesilence]

Bob Koester, owner of the Jazz Record Mart and founder of Delmark Records. A local Chicago legend as well as a legend among jazz enthusiasts, people all over the world would make the pilgrimage to his store. I think it moved a few times, but I remember it being very close to the Billy Goat Tavern and Michigan Avenue, and whenever I swung through I stopped by both. Great guy, very nice to talk to, I'm sad that he's gone but he lived a long and full life.

[colinr0380]

Kentaro Miura, author of Berserk.

I'm not hugely familiar with Berserk outside of the 1997 anime TV series adaptation of it which (like the later 2010s re-adaptation) covers the "Golden Age arc", but in circles where people were really into the story and Miura's manga this was one of the notorious works that people were worried would never be finished (especially when the story apparently spent seven years on a boat inspiring several "when will we get off the boat?" memes), with people speaking of it in the same worried way of what would happen if/when George R.R. Martin never finishes Game of Thrones.

[Big Ben]

Kentaro Miura, author of Berserk.

I'm not hugely familiar with Berserk outside of the 1997 anime TV series adaptation of it which (like the later 2010s re-adaptation) covers the "Golden Age arc", but in circles where people were really into the story and Miura's manga this was one of the notorious works that people were worried would never be finished (especially when the story apparently spent seven years on a boat inspiring several "when will we get off the boat?" memes), with people speaking of it in the same worried way of what would happen if/when George R.R. Martin never finishes Game of Thrones.

Everything you've said is true down to a tee. Miura had been writing Berserk for over thirty years and would take long breaks in between chapters which lead to it's infamous reputation. In addition to being a well known manga and anime Berserk is also known for being influential on the Soulsbourne series right down to character design and some plot points.

What's most upsetting is that he died so young. I imagine had he lived he would have had a better chance of finishing Berserk than Martin does Game of Thrones.

[MongooseCmr]

Kentaro Miura, author of Berserk.

I'm not hugely familiar with Berserk outside of the 1997 anime TV series adaptation of it which (like the later 2010s re-adaptation) covers the "Golden Age arc", but in circles where people were really into the story and Miura's manga this was one of the notorious works that people were worried would never be finished (especially when the story apparently spent seven years on a boat inspiring several "when will we get off the boat?" memes), with people speaking of it in the same worried way of what would happen if/when George R.R. Martin never finishes Game of Thrones.

Every time I see this thread updated there’s a part of me preparing to see Eichiro Oda has died and that One Piece will similarly never be finished.

[colinr0380]

It is interesting to hear that Berserk itself apparently had quite a big influence on the styling of many videogames. The funniest seeming reference to Berserk (and long running manga series in general) came in the recent Yakuza 7 game when its main protagonist who has just spent eighteen years in jail finds out the manga series he was reading still has not concluded!

[Lemmy Caution]

Paul Mooney

Both he and Chevy Chase claimed authorship for what may be SNL's first truly great sketch, but I'm much more inclined to believe Mooney over Chase based on their other work. A lot of what SNL did in the '70s falls a bit short of their lofty reputation, but even today this sketch remains bold and tense for how far it was willing to go. Maybe that has more to do with Pryor than SNL - his comedy albums (as well as the great film Richard Pryor: Live in Concert) still beat out SNL as my favorite comedic work from the '70s.

That sketch reminds me of an incident which occurred when I was at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1989, a black female law student went for a follow-up interview at a big Chicago law firm. A senior partner noticed on her resume that one of her hobbies was golf, and commented that there weren't many golf courses in the ghetto. Followed that up by asking her how would she respond if an opposing attorney called her a "black bitch." She was shocked and reported the incident afterwords.

The partner was put on leave and subsequently retired/squeezed out. The law school stood by the student but was all conflicted since that particular law firm had very close ties to the law school. After much hand-wringing, they were suspended from on-campus recruiting for 3 years.
The coda: some felt that Obama's hiring two years later was partly an attempt to patch things up and repair some of the damage, partly acknowledging the way that black law students were treated and diminished (including within the law school, which I could go into further ...).

[Michael Kerpan]

I finished UC Law School in 1979.

[Lemmy Caution]

I imagine there were not many black law students back then, and significantly fewer female law students than my run from 1988-9, when the gender ratio was close to even.

[fdm]

Recent jazz passings: Curtis Fuller and Mario Pavone

[colinr0380]

Paul Mooney

Both he and Chevy Chase claimed authorship for what may be SNL's first truly great sketch, but I'm much more inclined to believe Mooney over Chase based on their other work. A lot of what SNL did in the '70s falls a bit short of their lofty reputation, but even today this sketch remains bold and tense for how far it was willing to go. Maybe that has more to do with Pryor than SNL - his comedy albums (as well as the great film Richard Pryor: Live in Concert) still beat out SNL as my favorite comedic work from the '70s.

I just remembered about his brief appearance in Hollywood Shuffle as the Head of the Hollywood branch of the NAACP! (NSFW!)

And his role as Sam Cooke in The Buddy Holly Story. Mooney's performance of You Send Me is up here

[MichaelB]

Distributor and Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles co-founder Bonnie Bunyik, who did as much as anyone to raise the profile of Hungarian cinema in the US (and considerably more than most).

[CSM126]

Samuel E. Wright

[knives]

Eric Carle

[jazzo]

A favourite mainstream comic book artist of mine, John Paul Leon, passed away a couple weeks ago after a 14 year fight with cancer.

His artwork thrilled me, the noir-inspired inks always giving the imagined worlds he drew so much weight and depth. He didn’t work on things for very long or, for that matter, very often, but when he did, you couldn’t help but notice because his work stood out from everything else surrounding it on the stands.

Like Darwyn Cooke, he passed much too young.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/rip-john-paul-leon/


And if you can find a copy, his book with writer Brett Lewis, The Winter Men, is probably my favourite modern superhero comic, mostly because it’s not really a superhero comic, but an original and rather tense Cold War thriller that just happens to have superhero stuff in it.


https://www.comicsbeat.com/the-strange- ... inter-men/

[Calvin]

Marcell Jankovics

Son of the White Mare, perhaps his most famous film, has recently been restored and re-released by Arbelos alongside his debut feature János vitéz, which also has the distinction of being the first Hungarian animated feature film. His short film Sisyphus was nominated for Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and his subsequent short, The Struggle, won the Short Film Palme d'Or in Cannes 1977.

His last film, The Tragedy of Man, based on the play by Imre Madách, was released in 2011 after being in production for 23 years.

[swo17]

Son of the White Mare will be out in a couple weeks. Also, I've mentioned this before, but his short films (including both of those mentioned above, plus one more) are among the highlights of the fascinating Gems of Hungarian Animation set. And my brother says he's enjoyed his work on this series