Passages

[swo17]

Aw man, he squeezed out some great solo albums near the end there

[L.A.]

Former Skid Row Singer Johnny Solinger Dead at 55

[dadaistnun]

Peter Zinovieff, founder of EMS (that's the VCS3 he developed Eno is playing on much of Taking Tiger Mountain and on Nico's The End).

[Blutarsky]

Peter Zinovieff, founder of EMS (that's the VCS3 he developed Eno is playing on much of Taking Tiger Mountain and on Nico's The End).

My dad would talk about his teenage years and how he watched Top of the Pops religiously. He always fixated on Eno’s use of gloves when playing the VCS3 during Roxy Music’s performance of “Virginia Plain”. Eno made the VCS3 look so freaking cool.

[agnamaracs]

Blackalicious's Gift of Gab

If you don't know already...

[MichaelB]

Menelik Shabazz, whose Burning an Illusion (1981) was only the second feature film to be made by a black man in Britain (after Horace Ové’s Pressure, several years earlier).

[Feego]

Stuart Damon, best known for the American soap opera General Hospital and as the prince in the 1965 TV production of Rodgers & Hammesterin's Cinderella. He also had a role in Star 80.

[swo17]

The star of some Errol Morris movie

[hearthesilence]

The star of some Errol Morris movie

LOL, I was going to post a reference to that as well.

Pretty good bet he'll get the same treatment from the Onion as several others before him.

[knives]

The star of some Errol Morris movie

One of Morris’ best movies.

[Fiery Angel]

The star of some Errol Morris movie

LOL, I was going to post a reference to that as well.

Pretty good bet he'll get the same treatment from the Onion as several others before him.

asked and answered

[hearthesilence]

The star of some Errol Morris movie

LOL, I was going to post a reference to that as well.

Pretty good bet he'll get the same treatment from the Onion as several others before him.

asked and answered

Aw, they did more than one!

[GaryC]

Australian actor Graham Rouse, aged 87.

[GaryC]

Australian actress Kate Ferguson, from cancer at age 66.

[colinr0380]

Australian actress Kate Ferguson, from cancer at age 66.

She was in the one Norman J. Warren film left out of that recent Indicator "Bloody Terror" box set, 1979's sci-fi sex comedy Spaced Out (very NSFW!).

[flyonthewall2983]

Reading some things on Facebook that original Mahavishnu Orchestra bassist Rick Laird passed away.

Peter Zinovieff, founder of EMS (that's the VCS3 he developed Eno is playing on much of Taking Tiger Mountain and on Nico's The End).

Pink Floyd (you can see Roger Waters fiddle with one in Live At Pompeii) and The Who used them as well on some significant records that introduced electronics to rock music right around the time Eno did in Roxy Music.

[Pavel]

Oscar-winning Russian director Vladimir Menshov

[Jack Kubrick]

Richard Donner

[Pavel]

Richard Donner

Damn, I love the Lethal Weapon franchise (especially the first film), one of the finest examples of an 80s action-comedy. Wasn't he supposed to direct a fifth one? I imagine work hadn't begun on it yet

[colinr0380]

They got less 'real' and more like cozily comfortable extended family gatherings as they went on but at least the first two Lethal Weapon films were great entries into the mismatched buddy-cop genre. Amusingly, Hideo Kojima basically ripped off the Riggs and Murtagh characters to act as the main characters in his Policenauts game!

I think I would have to highlight both 1985's Ladyhawke which is my favourite of the early 80s fantasy film cycle (with a great theme tune!), and I fondly remember being traumatised by being taken to the cinema to see Scrooged at too young an age to not be affected by the skeletally decomposing, mouse harbouring, arm snapping version of Jacob Marley (along with the much more scarring image of being cremated alive inside your own coffin!). Plus of course the delightfully slapstick violence (but with an edge of real anger) pummellings delivered by the fairy Ghost of Christmas Present. That was my mother's favourite thing in film, alongside the goofily crazy gremlin from Gremlins 2: The New Batch! I particularly love the Lee Majors-starring ultraviolent action film take on the Santa Claus movie!

And the original version of The Omen had just the right balance of horrific without being too goofy (spoiler) death scenes!

EDIT: Actually come to think of it he did a lot of films that delightfully traumatised me with skeletons and death traps, peril and danger as a kid, as I just remembered he directed The Goonies as well!

[knives]

And of course Superman needs no other words.

[Fiery Angel]

24-year-old NHL goalie dies in freak fireworks accident

[swo17]

That's terribly tragic, though I don't know that there's such a thing as a "freak fireworks accident." I've had several incidents of these things going off wrong, starting lawn fires, and even hitting family members (though thankfully not causing any serious injuries)

[therewillbeblus]

Actually come to think of it he did a lot of films that delightfully traumatised me with skeletons and death traps, peril and danger as a kid, as I just remembered he directed The Goonies as well!

The Goonies is a masterpiece that only gets better with age. I've revisited it several times in the last year, including last week, and might have to throw it on again tonight. It's certainly Spielbergian at heart, but coated in a hostility with raw stakes sans the cushion Spielberg usually provides, making it creatively exhilarating and jarringly haunting at once- imbuing a warmth that cannot be tonally sustained because that's not how a developing sentient emotional being functions. It's still the best depiction of a child's fantasy to will themselves through adventure ever made.

The Twilight Zone ep Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is one of the best samples of horror ever, I just wish I placed it on my Horror List ballot!

[dadaistnun]

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