Now my name is MCA, I got a license to kill: Adam Yauch R.I.P.
Now my name is MCA, I got a license to kill. I think you know what time it is, it’s time to get ill!
Vor genau einem Jahr erlag Adam „MCA“ Yauch seinem Krebsleiden. Heute an seinem ersten Todestag findet in Brooklyn der MCA Day statt, gestern morgen hat man dort den Adam Yauch Park eröffnet und weil wir alle nicht dort sein können, lasst uns Ärsche im Namen des MCA treten mit dem kompletten Wahnsinns-Livegig in Glasgow von 1999, gibt’s hier als MP3. Unfassbare Show, so eine Band werden wir nie wieder kriegen. Und dass der Mann ohnehin unsterblich ist, wissen bereits kleine Mädchen:
The centerpieces of “MCA Day” will be the various visual installations displayed throughout the space. Attendees will get to see rare photographs of the band by renown music/skateboard photographer Glen E. Friedman who shot MCA, Michael “Mike D” Diamond, and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz before the trio became superstars. Pics by Sunny Bak, the photographer who captured the iconic image of the Beasties in front of the World’s Fair Globe, will also be a part of the exhibit.
Brooklyn artist and co-creator of the Jam Master Jay Foundation for Music’s “Jam Awards” Michael “Mr Kaves” McLeer will show some of his work, and fans will have the opportunity to present their pieces as well. The Beastie Boys fanthology project, Keep It On and On, will be showing artwork created by fans from around the world. For those people who will not be able to make it to New York City, Keep In On and On will run the images on their Facebook page throughout the day and provide free downloadable PDFs of the art.
“MCA Day” Celebrating Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch Hits Brooklyn This Weekend
R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman
Slayer.net: „Our Brother Jeff Hanneman, May He Rest In Peace (1964 – 2013)“ Nachruf bei Metal Hammer:
Der König des Thrash hat das Zepter niedergelegt. Jeff Hanneman starb im Laufe des gestrigen Tages im Alter von 49 Jahren an Leberversagen. Eine Verneigung vor einem der Größten, die unsere Szene jemals gesehen und gehört hat.
RogerEbert.com relaunched:
Roger Ebert hatte bis zu seinem Tod an einem Relaunch seiner Website gearbeitet und den haben sie jetzt trotz’ der traurigen Nachricht durchgezogen. Finde ich toll, die neue Website ist sowas wie sein Erbe für jeden Cineasten da draußen:
Roger was an innovator in so many ways. From democratizing movie criticism and bringing it to a more mainstream audience, to publishing his reviews to Compuserve at the dawn of the Internet, Roger was always pushing the envelope. It was a great challenge to develop a product that would meet his exacting standards, but he loved the site when he last saw it, and we’ll do our best to continue to develop something he’d be proud of.
Maggie Thatcher R.I.P.
Margaret Thatcher ist im Alter von 87 Jahren an den Folgen eines Schlaganfalls gestorben. Da dürfte es in den nächsten Tagen jede Menge Kram über konservative Politik im England der 80er geben, spannend wird sein, wie man die faktische Entmachtung der Gewerkschaften damals darstellen wird. Oben ein Video von ihr, als sie im Parlament auf einer Conservative Party Conference Monty Pythons Dead Parrot-Sketch rezitiert hat.
Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died at 87 following a stroke, her spokesman has said.
Lord Bell said: “It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning.”
Ex-Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher dies
[update] nicht-freischalten-nachruf-thatcher.jpg:
[update] Die Leute denken aufgrund des Hashtags #nowthatchersdead, Cher wäre gestorben…
Carmine Infantino R.I.P.
Carmine Infantino, Legende unter den Comic-Zeichnern, ist vergangene Woche im Alter von 87 Jahren gestorben. Die Karriere von Infantino begann im Golden Age, am bekanntesten war er allerdings für sein Redesign des Flashs (einer meiner Lieblingsfiguren im DC-Verse) und von Batman, die zu einem Superhelden-Revival führten und das Silver Age einläuteten und letztlich auch für den Launch des nicht unwichtigen Verlags Marvel Anfang der 60er führte. R.I.P.
It was Infantino whose redesign of The Flash in 1956 brought such a new, super-sleek line and a sense of science-fiction to the superhero. So much so that we still class this point as the start of the “Silver-Age” of comics, a move away from the tired and stuffy comics of the 40s, a shift towards the future.
And it was Infantino’s incredible design sense that came up with so many iconic and memorable images, especially on covers, where his skills seemed without match. He was responsible, either as artist or designer, for so many iconic covers, especially at DC in the late 60s when his role as DC Editorial Director included designing for the entire line.
But his design and artistic skills are only part of the legacy. Infantino’s time at DC was a time of great innovation, of introducing new artists (Neal Adams, Denny O’Neil), bringing Jack Kirby over from Marvel and giving him license to create his Fourth World saga, and of revitalising old characters.
His career at DC culminated as publisher from ’71 to ’76, after which Infantino returned to art, producing fondly remembered runs on Star Wars, Spiderwoman, and a second run on The Flash. He retired in the 90s.
Forbidden Planet: Carmine Infantino R.I.P. (1925 – 2013)
The Comics Journal: The Carmine Infantino Interview
Martyl Langsdorf, Designer of the Doomsday Clock, R.I.P.
Martyl Langsdorf, die die weltberühmte Apokalypsen-Uhr gestaltet und damit eine eigene Metapher geschaffen hat („5 vor 12“), verstarb vor zwei Wochen im Alter von stolzen 96 Jahren. Das Design entstand für die Juni 1947-Ausgabe des Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, zwei Jahre nach den Atombombenexplosionen von Hiroshima und Nagasaki. Die Uhr wurde seitdem in „echt“ nachgebaut und die Zeiger wurden bislang 18 mal umgestellt, derzeit steht sie wieder auf „5 vor 12“.
Die Dame war die Ehefrau von Alexander Langsdorf Jr., Mitarbeiter des Manhattan Projects, der mit dem ersten Bit tatsächlich nutzbaren Plutoniums für die Einsatzfähigkeit der ersten Atombombe sorgte – und sich danach gegen den Einsatz der Bombe eingesetzt hatte.
Nachruf bei der Washington Post, der Design Observer hatte vor zwei Jahren anlässlich der „Zeitumstellung“ ein längeres Stück zur Uhr:
Martyl had set the minute hand at seven to midnight on that first cover “simply because it looked good.” Two years later, the Soviet Union tested their own nuclear device and the arms race was officially launched. “We do not advise Americans that doomsday is near and that they can expect atomic bombs to start landing on their heads a month or a year from now,” wrote the Bulletin’s editors. “But we think they have reason to be deeply alarmed and to be prepared for grave decisions.” To emphasize the seriousness of the moment, the Clock was moved forward to three minutes to midnight. The static graphic emblem was thus transformed into a sort of political performance art, and the clock has been moved 18 times since, each time signifying an intensification or moderation of nuclear tensions.
With each change, Martyl’s Clock became more deeply entrenched in the public imagination. The Doomsday Clock has been referenced in songs by Iron Maiden, The Who, and Bright Eyes. As a theme it dominates Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen and Senator Tom Harkin’s treatise Five Minutes to Midnight. Over the years, the non-specific simplicity of the symbol was able to accommodate the new threats of climate change and bioterrorism.
Roger Eberts Sex Pistols-Movie: Who Killed Bambi
Wusste ich bis eben grade noch nicht: Der heute verstorbene Roger Ebert war nicht nur einer der einflussreichsten Filmkritiker der Welt, sondern auch Drehbuchautor. Unter anderem schrieb er unter anderem die Scripts zu Russ Meyes „Valley of the Dolls“, „Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens“.
Und dann schrieb er zusammen mit Sex Pistols-Manager Malcolm McLaren das Drehbuch zum Pistols-Film „Who Killed Bambi“ (Arbeitstitel „Anarchy in the UK“, Regie ebenfalls von Russ Meyer, auf dem Bild links, rechts Roger Ebert via Suicidewatch), der von 20th Century Fox abgesägt wurde, weil „[they] were shocked by what they read in the script“. Die hatten dann die komplette Finanzierung gestrichen und die Filmsets wurden vernichtet. Im Trailer zu „The Great Rock’n'Roll Swindle“ sieht man bei 3:38 eine kurze Szene aus dem Film.
Who Killed Bambi? was to be the first film featuring the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and was due to be released in 1978. Russ Meyer was due to direct from a script by Roger Ebert and Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren. The film was intended as a punk rock version of A Hard Day’s Night. Ebert has claimed that only a day and a half’s worth of shooting took place, although this is contradicted by Julian Bray, who supplied location services to McLaren’s Matrixbest company. The filming was halted when 20th Century Fox, who were shocked by what they read in the script, pulled all funding. Sets that had been built at Bray Studios in Berkshire were destroyed. (Wikipedia)
Roger Ebert hatte den Script-Entwurf vor drei Jahren in voller Länge auf seinem Blog veröffentlicht, hier hatte er die Story dazu aufgeschrieben. R.I.P. Roger. See you at the Movies.
Roger Ebert R.I.P.
Roger Ebert, einer der weltweit einflussreichsten Filmkritiker überhaupt, ist heute im Alter von nur 70 Jahren an den Folgen seiner Krebserkrankung gestorben (die genauen Umstände sind nicht bekannt, gestern hatte Ebert noch gebloggt, ich tippe auf Komplikationen während einer OP oder ähnliches). Der Mann hatte 2006 seinen Unterkiefer an den Krebs verloren und war seitdem online sehr aktiv und bloggte regelmäßig Filmkritiken und Reviews. Unter anderem schrieb er über seine Alkoholkrankheit und seinen Kampf gegen den Krebs.
Der Tod von Ebert kommt trotz der bekannten Erkrankung sehr überraschend, gestern erst hatte er eine Online-Pause aufgrund neuer Geschwüre angekündigt, eine „leave of presence“, während der er unter anderem seine Website relaunchen und ein Geschäft unter Ebert Digital aufrollen wollte.
What in the world is a leave of presence? It means I am not going away.
Die letzte Zeile seines Blogeintrags: „So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.“
Mach’s gut, Roger. Wir sehen uns im Kino.
Aus dem Nachruf der Chicago Sun-Times, für die er seit 1967 schrieb:
Roger Ebert loved movies. Except for those he hated. […]
He lost part of his lower jaw in 2006, and with it the ability to speak or eat, a calamity that would have driven other men from the public eye. But Ebert refused to hide, instead forging what became a new chapter in his career, an extraordinary chronicle of his devastating illness that won him a new generation of admirers. “No point in denying it,” he wrote, analyzing his medical struggles with characteristic courage, candor and wit, a view that was never tinged with bitterness or self-pity.
Always technically savvy — he was an early investor in Google — Ebert let the Internet be his voice. His rogerebert.com had millions of fans, and he received a special achievement award as the 2010 “Person of the Year” from the Webby Awards, which noted that “his online journal has raised the bar for the level of poignancy, thoughtfulness and critique one can achieve on the Web.” His Twitter feeds had 827,000 followers.
Roger Ebert dies at 70 after battle with cancer
Mehr Links nach dem Klick: Gib mir den Rest, Baby…
Jess Franco R.I.P.
Jesús „Jess“ Franco ist heute im Alter von 82 Jahren an den Folgen eines Schlaganfalls gestorben. Der Mann hat mehr als 200 Filme gedreht, in seiner Hochzeit ungefähr zehn Stück im Jahr. Der Mann hat Exploitation auf die Spitze getrieben, hat Pornografie mit Horrorfilm vermischt, Spaniens ersten Porno gedreht und Christopher Lees Lieblings-Dracula gefilmt („Count Dracula“, dt. „Nachts wenn Dracula erwacht“, Christopher Lee mit Schnurri). Jess Franco steht im Guiness Buch der Rekorde als produktivster Filmemacher der Welt, von dem Mann stammten Perlen wie „Oasis of the Zombies“, „Die Säge des Todes“, „Vampyros Lesbos“, zwei Fu-Manchu-Filme oder „Mondo Cannibale“. Der Vatikan nannte Jess Franco „den gefährlichsten Regisseur der Welt“ und alleine dafür gebührt ihm schon jeder erdenkliche Respekt.
Nachrufe auf spOnline, Twitch und bei Thomas’ Filmtagebuch, nach dem Klick die 1999er Doku „The Diabolical Mr. Franco“ und jede Menge Poster. Rest in Peace, Jesús.
James Herbert R.I.P.
James Herbert, einer der erfolgreichsten Horror-Schriftsteller unserer Zeit und Autor des modernen Klassikers „The Rats“, ist im Alter von nur 69 Jahren verstorben. Vor ein paar Monaten hatte er erst eine Jahre alte Wette mit Stephen King gewonnen, weil er angeblich zuerst einen Geist gesehen hatte. R.I.P.
James Herbert, one of the UK’s most popular novelists and the writer of bestselling horror books including The Rats, The Fog and The Survivor, has died at his home in Sussex aged 69.
His publisher Pan Macmillan said Herbert, the author of 23 novels which were published in 34 languages and sold over 54m copies worldwide, died peacefully in his bed.
Tim Berners-Lee mourns Aaron Swartz
Ich hab’ heute einige Postings zu Aaron Swartz viel zu frühem Tod gelesen, aber dieses kurze Stück Hacker-Poetry von Tim Berners-Lee hat mir grade das Herz gebrochen.
Aaron is dead.
Wanderers in this crazy world,
we have lost a mentor, a wise elder.Hackers for right, we are one down,
we have lost one of our own.Nurtures, careers, listeners, feeders,
parents all,
we have lost a child.Let us all weep.
timbl
Mehr:
Lawrence Lessig: Prosecutor as bully.
Cory Doctorows Nachruf auf Boing Boing
EFF: Farewell to Aaron Swartz, an extraordinary hacker and activist
My Aaron Swartz, whom I loved
NYTimes: Aaron Swartz, Precocious Programmer and Internet Activist, Dies at 26
Internet-Archive: Aaron Swartz, hero of the open world, dies
Gigaom: The web responds to the death of hacker-activist Aaron Swartz
Guardian: Death of internet activist Aaron Swartz prompts flood of Twitter tributes
[update] Rick Perlstein: Remembering Aaron Swartz: „we are all Aaron Swartz“:
I remember a creature who seemed at first almost to be made up of pure data, disembodied—a millionaire, I had to have guessed, given his early success building a company sold to Condé Nast, but one who seemed to live on other people’s couches. (Am I misremebering that someone told me he crashed in his apartment for a while, curling up to sleep under a sink?)
Only slowly, it seems, did he come to learn that he possessed a body. This is my favorite thing he wrote: about the day “I looked up and realized I couldn’t read the street sign. I definitely used to be able to read that sign, but there it was, big and bright and green along the highway, and all I could make out was a blur. I had gone blind.” Legally blind, it turned out; and then when he got contact lenses, he gave us an account of what it felt like to leave Plato’s cave: “I had no idea the world really looked like this, with such infinite clarity. It looks like a modernist photo or a hyperreal film, everything in focus everywhere. Everyone kept saying ‘oh, do you see the leaves now?’ but the first thing I saw was not the leaves but the people. People, individuated, each with brilliant faces and expressions at gaits, the sun streaming down upon them. I couldn’t help but smile. It’s much harder being a misanthrope when you can see people’s faces.”
This man is dead now.
Aaron Swartz, Co-Founder of Reddit, R.I.P.
Aaron Swartz, einer der Gründer von Reddit und Entwickler der RSS-Spezifikationen (mit 14!) und Internet-Aktivist, hat sich mit 26 Jahren das Leben genommen. Sad Day.
Computer activist Aaron H. Swartz committed suicide in New York City yesterday, Jan. 11, according to his uncle, Michael Wolf, in a comment to The Tech. Swartz was 26. […]
The accomplished Swartz co-authored the now widely-used RSS 1.0 specification at age 14, was one of the three co-owners of the popular social news site Reddit, and completed a fellowship at Harvard’s Ethics Center Lab on Institutional Corruption. In 2010, he founded DemandProgress.org, a “campaign against the Internet censorship bills SOPA/PIPA.”
[update] Cory Doctorows Nachruf auf Boing Boing:
Aaron accomplished some incredible things in his life. He was one of the early builders of Reddit (someone always turns up to point out that he was technically not a co-founder, but he was close enough as makes no damn), got bought by Wired/Conde Nast, engineered his own dismissal and got cashed out, and then became a full-time, uncompromising, reckless and delightful shit-disturber.
The post-Reddit era in Aaron’s life was really his coming of age. His stunts were breathtaking. At one point, he singlehandedly liberated 20 percent of US law. PACER, the system that gives Americans access to their own (public domain) case-law, charged a fee for each such access. After activists built RECAP (which allowed its users to put any caselaw they paid for into a free/public repository), Aaron spent a small fortune fetching a titanic amount of data and putting it into the public domain. The feds hated this. They smeared him, the FBI investigated him, and for a while, it looked like he’d be on the pointy end of some bad legal stuff, but he escaped it all, and emerged triumphant.
[update] Lawrence Lessig: Prosecutor as bully.
Aaron had literally done nothing in his life “to make money.” He was fortunate Reddit turned out as it did, but from his work building the RSS standard, to his work architecting Creative Commons, to his work liberating public records, to his work building a free public library, to his work supporting Change Congress/FixCongressFirst/Rootstrikers, and then Demand Progress, Aaron was always and only working for (at least his conception of) the public good. He was brilliant, and funny. A kid genius. A soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think? That person is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent society would only call bullying. I get wrong. But I also get proportionality. And if you don’t get both, you don’t deserve to have the power of the United States government behind you.
Dave Brubeck R.I.P.
Ich kenne mich im Jazz wahrlich nicht aus, aber den Namen Dave Brubeck kenne sogar ich. Der Mann hat Jazz dem Mainstream nähergebracht und mit „Take Five“ wahrscheinlich den Klassiker des Genres geschrieben. Brubeck verstarb heute morgen an Herzversagen, einen Tag vor seinem 92sten Geburtstag. Mach’s gut, Dave!
Youtube Direktdave, via Brooklyn Vegan
Dave Brubeck, a jazz musician who attained pop-star acclaim with recordings such as “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” died Wednesday morning at Norwalk Hospital, in Norwalk, Conn., said his longtime manager-producer-conductor Russell Gloyd.
Brubeck was one day short of his 92nd birthday. He died of heart failure, en route to “a regular treatment with his cardiologist,” said Gloyd.
Chicago Tribune: Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck dead at age 91
R.I.P. Catman
Dennis Avner, besser bekannt als Stalking Cat wegen seiner Extrem-Bodymods, hat sich vergangene Woche das Leben genommen, der Mann wurde nur 54 Jahre alt.
Dennis Avner, better known under his Native American name Stalking Cat, died November 5. He was 54. […]
A former U.S. Navy sonar technician, and programmer, Stalking Cat was famous for having had extensive cosmetic surgery to adopt the likeness of his totem animal, the tiger, in accordance with Huron traditions. His body modifications included a split lip, labret-based whisker-holding implants, dental surgery, and silicone injections. He was also extensively tattooed.
R.I.P. Marty, the original Nyan Cat:
Marty, das Vorbild für Chris Torres’ Nyan Cat, ist am Donnerstag leider verstorben. Von Mashable: „Marty, the cat which inspired the 8-bit rainbow meme Nyan Cat, passed away Thursday, leaving many heavy hearts in the Internet world.“
