Passages

[hearthesilence]

Modest Mouse drummer and co-founder Jeremiah Green. (It was announced a week ago that he had been undergoing chemotherapy for stage 4 cancer.)

[L.A.]

Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters.

[Computer Raheem]

Gangsta Boo, prominent Memphis rapper and member of Three 6 Mafia, at 43.

I'm not certain the percentage of rap fans on this forum, but I imagine those of us who are understand just how much of a loss Boo's passing is, both for hip-hop in general and especially Southern hip-hop in particular. This one is particularly shocking given that she was still releasing music and featuring on other's tracks as recently as a few months ago. Just tragic all around, though it's at least heartening to see the condolences being expressed throughout the Internet.

[MongooseCmr]

Her verse on Live By Yo Rep is so good, I had no idea she was just 15 on that first album

[GaryC]

I can't see any obits online, but according to his daughter's Facebook page (public post), Bert Deling, director of Pure Shit and others, died on 14 December at the age of eighty.

[beamish14]

Alan Rankine from The Associates

[hearthesilence]

Fred White, drummer for Earth, Wind & Fire. The group was founded and led by his half-brother Maurice (who passed away in 2016), but the first album to feature Fred White was That's the Way of the World which is more or less the album where the group really took off - White was only a teenager then and would remain with the group until the mid-'80s.

[beamish14]

Frank Galati, Tony-winning Broadway director who co-scripted The Accidental Tourist

[GaryC]

Australian actress Joan Sydney.

[colinr0380]

The author Fay Weldon whose work The Life and Loves of a She-Devil was adapted into a BBC TV series in 1986 which was then remade by Susan Seidelman in 1989 as She-Devil with Roseanne and Meryl Streep. She also wrote Puffball, which became a Nicolas Roeg film in 2007.

[senseabove]

Michael Snow

[Red Screamer]

In addition to the obviously monumental films, Cover to Cover has to be the most mind-blowing photography book I’ve ever come across.

[Lemmy Caution]

Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters.

I saw the Pointer Sisters live in Reno early Sept 1991. They put on a fun energetic show, with plenty of recognizable tunes. It was all a bit surreal as I had a lot of major life things going on, but my brother and I came directly from a week of camping in Yellowstone. He knew that the casinos maintain very cheap elaborate buffets to draw in fools and their money, so after a full night of driving, and smelling rank, we found ourselves in a Reno casino for a fancy breakfast. Saw that the Pointers were playing that night, slept all day and then went to the show. We were right up front. Before the gig, I went to find the bathroom, dawdled by the bar to watch baseball highlights and when I came back my brother was frantic. A few attractive girls sat at our long table, but only spoke Spanish. My brother knew I had a smattering of Espanol. Too little I guess. The girls were nice enough but not interested in us. The Pointer Sisters were real pros, knew how to work an audience, structure a show, keep it fun and lively.

[Aunt Peg]

Due to the lifting of COVID restrictions in China masses of people are dying. Amongst them are naturally people who have had an impact in the arts. One will be hard pressed to find individual obituaries but here is an article that mentions some of them including Ni Zhen, 84, who adapted Raise the Red Lantern to the screen: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... death-toll

[Lemmy Caution]

A resurrection!
Indie Romance Author Susan Meachen Accused of Faking Her Suicide
She's claiming she tried to commit suicide and her family put out the word she died, while she was recovering. She resurfaced after more than a year with a different authorial name. Some question as to where the money raised for the funeral went, why she suckered other writers into editing her last unfinished work, or why "her family" claimed bullying by other authors led to her offing herself.
Relatively easy to fake your death to an online community. Would make for a good book/movie.

[MichaelB]

Ironically, this very week ITV in the UK broadcast their dramatisation of the life of former MP John Stonehouse.

(Which was very enjoyable, not least thanks to Matthew Macfadyen's title-role performance, although it was pretty much impossible to make Stonehouse seem anything other than a greedy, gullible idiot. Mainly because that's what he was.)

[hearthesilence]

Michael Snow

A gut punch, though given his age not entirely surprising. He was supposed to appear at the retrospective Anthology held for him last year, but he ended up staying at home due to the COVID surge. Wish I could've seen one of his live performances. IIRC he's made several appearances in NYC the past ten years, but I regret not being able to make any of them or finding out about them too late.

[soundchaser]

Earl Boen, known for (among other roles) voicing LeChuck in the Monkey Island series of games.

[GaryC]

Si Litvinoff, aged 93.

[Lemmy Caution]

Didn't realize that the Pointer Sisters were related to Paul Silas, NBA tough guy noted for defense and rebounding, who just died a few weeks ago, December 10.
Silas made 5 NBA all-defense teams and was a 3-time champion in the 70's. Silas was the maiden name of the Pointers mother. And when the Silas family moved from Arkansas to Oakland, when Paul Silas was 8 years old, they stayed with the Pointers for a couple years. Paul Silas was a no-nonsense NBA coach. His son Steven Silas is the current head coach of the very young Houston Rockets.

One interesting Paul Silas story, he got his final head coaching job because he had season tickets to the Charlotte Bobcats, a team he coached for a handful of years a decade prior, and struck up a friendship with the owner, one Michael Jordan, during games. Silas was a man of dignity and spoke his mind, and MJ appreciated his old school ways. Unfortunately, that 2011 Bobcats team set the record for worst winning percentage ever -- a combination of injuries, MJ cheaping out, and tanking for a high draft pick.

[beamish14]

Si Litvinoff, aged 93.

One of those people with a small but unbelievable body of work. I’m so glad that The Queen has been rediscovered

[thirtyframesasecond]

Alan Rankine from The Associates

Sulk is one of the greatest and most unique sounding albums of the 80s.

[DarkImbecile]

Owen Roizman, cinematographer for The Exorcist, Network, The Heartbreak Kid, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and The French Connection

[therewillbeblus]

Wow, just before jumping right into the spotlight with Oscar-nominated work in The French Connection and never turning back, Roizman started his career shooting Bill Gunn’s Stop! (eligible for the current 1970 year project, after finally seeing the light of day a couple years ago). I never would’ve guessed that- though he impressively communicated a tone of psychedelia in Gunn’s film that adds a lot to a great movie

[therewillbeblus]

Russell Banks, author of The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction