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8.16pm
31 March 2008
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Here’s a general thread for people to mention their lost loved ones, be they people or pets, or famous people they admired. I know this stuff comes up Now And Then , so let’s have a thread for it. I know it can help to discuss these things, and hey, we’re all one big family, right?
I’ll start. My dear friend James died earlier this month in a road accident. He was 34 and a brilliant writer and rock journalist. His cremation took place yesterday. We met as students but remained good friends after university, lived together on two occasions, and eventually I offered him a job and became his line manager at work. That was a bit weird at first but it worked out well.
34 is a stupid age to die – he had loads of potential, but also packed in masses in his short life. It was a life well lived.
We’re organising a concert in his honour – over a dozen bands have already offered to play. The current issue of Kerrang! (a rock music magazine aimed at teens) is dedicated to him, which he’d have been amazed by. Most of us will, if we’re honest, be only remembered by a few people when we go, but he really made his mark (admittedly mainly in the small pond that is south Wales, but also way beyond there).
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9.32pm
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline A nice idea for a thread, Joe. Let us hope it is used as little as possible.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
10.50pm
23 January 2011
Offline Nice thread, Joe, and I’m sorry about your friend.
My dad died when I was 13, about 10 years ago. He was a brilliant man with an incredible brain, but we have addiction problems in our family. He drank too much of that strong water, and we all paid the price. He was sweet and loving, though, and I wish he could have reached his full potential in life.
My daddy loved music more than anything. He couldn’t play, but boy did he love to listen! I have recently inherited his record collection from my sister. There were only 2 Beatles albums (the White Album and Let it Be), one Paul album (Tug Of War ), and one John album (Double Fantasy ), but it helps me feel closer to him knowing that we have listened to the same music.
I find it odd that my little sister and I do the same thing John and Paul did when talking about their mothers with other people…we make jokes and make them uncomfortable. There is nothing funnier (and meaner) than watching someone’s face go dark when they ask you, “What does your dad do?” and you bluntly answer, “My dad died.” It’s so mean, but it’s how I deal.
If you ever get a chance, check out the song Box o’ Bones by Dick Smith. It was written for my dad by his friends (who are Dick Smith band members) and played at his funeral. It’s not uploaded to youtube, but I think you can listen to part of it on amazon.
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Beatlebug"You can manicure a cat but can you caticure a man?"
John Lennon- Skywriting by Word of Mouth
8.56am
3 May 2012
Offline kedame said
Nice thread, Joe, and I’m sorry about your friend.My dad died when I was 13, about 10 years ago. He was a brilliant man with an incredible brain, but we have addiction problems in our family. He drank too much of that strong water, and we all paid the price. He was sweet and loving, though, and I wish he could have reached his full potential in life.
My daddy loved music more than anything. He couldn’t play, but boy did he love to listen! I have recently inherited his record collection from my sister. There were only 2 Beatles albums (the White Album and Let it Be), one Paul album (Tug Of War ), and one John album (Double Fantasy ), but it helps me feel closer to him knowing that we have listened to the same music.
I find it odd that my little sister and I do the same thing John and Paul did when talking about their mothers with other people…we make jokes and make them uncomfortable. There is nothing funnier (and meaner) than watching someone’s face go dark when they ask you, “What does your dad do?” and you bluntly answer, “My dad died.” It’s so mean, but it’s how I deal.
If you ever get a chance, check out the song Box o’ Bones by Dick Smith. It was written for my dad by his friends (who are Dick Smith band members) and played at his funeral. It’s not uploaded to youtube, but I think you can listen to part of it on amazon.
I’m sorry about your dad, I can sort of sympathize because although my dad is alive, he’s an alcoholic and he isn’t the same person that he used to be. My mom is worried that he won’t be around for much longer if he carries on the way he is now (eating and drinking to much etc..). Your dad sounds like a really nice man and I’m glad that you still see him that way despite things, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to.
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
2.27pm
23 July 2012
Offline Aw, this is all so sad. 
Thankfully, I haven’t lost anyone too important yet. I could’ve lost my brother last year when he was diagnosed with brain cancer, as I know people whose loved ones have died of cancer. He’s doing fine now, thank God . He currently is the only bald nine-year-old in his class, but it’s better to be bald than gone.
I send my wishes to everybody, and the families of those who have passed.
Stay strong.
Love,
Elise
“I was special. I always have been. Why didn't anyone notice me?"
-John Lennon
5.02am
23 January 2011
Offline fabfouremily said
kedame said
Nice thread, Joe, and I’m sorry about your friend.My dad died when I was 13, about 10 years ago. He was a brilliant man with an incredible brain, but we have addiction problems in our family. He drank too much of that strong water, and we all paid the price. He was sweet and loving, though, and I wish he could have reached his full potential in life.
My daddy loved music more than anything. He couldn’t play, but boy did he love to listen! I have recently inherited his record collection from my sister. There were only 2 Beatles albums (the White Album and Let it Be), one Paul album (Tug Of War ), and one John album (Double Fantasy ), but it helps me feel closer to him knowing that we have listened to the same music.
I find it odd that my little sister and I do the same thing John and Paul did when talking about their mothers with other people…we make jokes and make them uncomfortable. There is nothing funnier (and meaner) than watching someone’s face go dark when they ask you, “What does your dad do?” and you bluntly answer, “My dad died.” It’s so mean, but it’s how I deal.
If you ever get a chance, check out the song Box o’ Bones by Dick Smith. It was written for my dad by his friends (who are Dick Smith band members) and played at his funeral. It’s not uploaded to youtube, but I think you can listen to part of it on amazon.
I’m sorry about your dad, I can sort of sympathize because although my dad is alive, he’s an alcoholic and he isn’t the same person that he used to be. My mom is worried that he won’t be around for much longer if he carries on the way he is now (eating and drinking to much etc..). Your dad sounds like a really nice man and I’m glad that you still see him that way despite things, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to.
I’m sorry about your dad. I know it’s tough. I was about 11 when my parents divorced, and it was really hard to deal with the alcoholism before that. He would yell and was angry a lot, and he got put in jail for stealing a few times (I’m pretty sure that’s how I got my first Harry Potter book…and an Enrique Iglesias cd. lol). I wasn’t quite old enough to honestly hate him for what he did to his life and ours, but my older sister was. She regrets that so much now because she thinks she was a bad daughter…but she was just a teenager, 16, when he died. I always try to tell her it wasn’t her fault they weren’t close. It was his. He was the adult.
I think it helps knowing that alcoholism is a disease, and I know he tried to conquer that disease. He had a lot of mental health issues, too, that exacerbated the drinking. I think I see it now as more of a really sad thing than something to be angry about.
I know it’s hard, but I hope your dad has some redeeming qualities that you can appreciate him for. Maybe you should try talking to him about why he drinks, and tell him how it makes you feel. I know that can be hard, too, because you don’t want to say anything to start a confrontation.
I really hope he gets better. If you ever need to talk, I’m here. I’ve been there, and maybe I can help if you need it.
"You can manicure a cat but can you caticure a man?"
John Lennon- Skywriting by Word of Mouth
12.27pm
3 May 2012
Offline kedame said
fabfouremily said
kedame said
Nice thread, Joe, and I’m sorry about your friend.My dad died when I was 13, about 10 years ago. He was a brilliant man with an incredible brain, but we have addiction problems in our family. He drank too much of that strong water, and we all paid the price. He was sweet and loving, though, and I wish he could have reached his full potential in life.
My daddy loved music more than anything. He couldn’t play, but boy did he love to listen! I have recently inherited his record collection from my sister. There were only 2 Beatles albums (the White Album and Let it Be), one Paul album (Tug Of War ), and one John album (Double Fantasy ), but it helps me feel closer to him knowing that we have listened to the same music.
I find it odd that my little sister and I do the same thing John and Paul did when talking about their mothers with other people…we make jokes and make them uncomfortable. There is nothing funnier (and meaner) than watching someone’s face go dark when they ask you, “What does your dad do?” and you bluntly answer, “My dad died.” It’s so mean, but it’s how I deal.
If you ever get a chance, check out the song Box o’ Bones by Dick Smith. It was written for my dad by his friends (who are Dick Smith band members) and played at his funeral. It’s not uploaded to youtube, but I think you can listen to part of it on amazon.
I’m sorry about your dad, I can sort of sympathize because although my dad is alive, he’s an alcoholic and he isn’t the same person that he used to be. My mom is worried that he won’t be around for much longer if he carries on the way he is now (eating and drinking to much etc..). Your dad sounds like a really nice man and I’m glad that you still see him that way despite things, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to.
I’m sorry about your dad. I know it’s tough. I was about 11 when my parents divorced, and it was really hard to deal with the alcoholism before that. He would yell and was angry a lot, and he got put in jail for stealing a few times (I’m pretty sure that’s how I got my first Harry Potter book…and an Enrique Iglesias cd. lol). I wasn’t quite old enough to honestly hate him for what he did to his life and ours, but my older sister was. She regrets that so much now because she thinks she was a bad daughter…but she was just a teenager, 16, when he died. I always try to tell her it wasn’t her fault they weren’t close. It was his. He was the adult.
I think it helps knowing that alcoholism is a disease, and I know he tried to conquer that disease. He had a lot of mental health issues, too, that exacerbated the drinking. I think I see it now as more of a really sad thing than something to be angry about.
I know it’s hard, but I hope your dad has some redeeming qualities that you can appreciate him for. Maybe you should try talking to him about why he drinks, and tell him how it makes you feel. I know that can be hard, too, because you don’t want to say anything to start a confrontation.
I really hope he gets better. If you ever need to talk, I’m here. I’ve been there, and maybe I can help if you need it.
I appreciate your advice and concern a lot, it´s sometimes very difficult to deal with as I haven´t got the nerve to tell my friends so I can´t talk to them. I don´t know why, I suppose I´m embarassed although I know that it´s not me, it´s him that has the addiction. I talk to my sister sometimes but if you remember me saying in another thread a while ago, she´s going to another country to uni next year. So, usually I don´t have anybody to talk to about it, which makes me feel as if I have to deal with it on my own. Thank you.
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
4.26am
1 May 2010
Offline
I’m so sorry for your loss Joe.
And Kedame that story of your Dad… gosh.
Here comes the sun….. Scoobie-doobie……
Something in the way she moves…..attracts me like a cauliflower…
Bop. Bop, cat bop. Go, Johnny, Go.
Beware of Darkness…
1.56am
1 November 2012
Offline Celebrities passing on: A place to reflect, ruminate, pay respects
Of course, by “celebrities” I don’t mean to limit it to the likes of Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga (who, Allah willing, will not die in a skateboarding crash or wardrobe malfunction, respectively, any time soon), et al.
This topic can include anyone well known, including those who actually deserve their fame (accomplished artists, writers, poets, musicians, activists, etc.) — and it can include those who are known far and wide by a limited number of people, but may not be “famous” per se.
Anyway, when mja wrote on another thread about a novelist’s passing (Iain Banks, whom I have never read), I reflected on how so many greats have passed in our young century — Johnny Carson, Jack Lemmon, William F. Buckley, Heath Ledger, Roy Scheider, Arthur C. Clarke, Richard Widmark, Charlton Heston, Sidney Pollack, Harvey Korman, George Carlin, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Paul Newman, Sidney Lumet, Tom Snyder, Kurt Vonnegut, Ingmar Bergman, Ravi Shankar, Merv Griffin, Phoebe Snow, Chet Atkins. George Harrison …
And that’s just a tiny sampling.
(Then there are all those people who have died of whose passing I was unaware — like George Fraser, chess genius Bobby Fischer, Isaac Hayes, Eartha Kitt, Harry Morgan, Vaclav Havel, Marcel Marceau…).
Anyway, that’s just by way of introduction to this topic. While of course all deaths are sad, some mean more to me than others, because of various reasons. For some reason, the death of Jack Lemmon (2001) was particularly bittersweet for me, and I had to drink a toast to his memory. Peter Falk was another (died 2011).
I’d like to end for now to say that one celebrity’s passing in particular, when it happens, will be poignant for me: the great actor Albert Finney. Born in 1936, one of the last of the great generation of old school UK actors, he’s still kicking in his robustly inimitable way at 77! (Peter O’Toole, too, is remarkably lasting at age 81, and while he’s wonderful, he doesn’t quite touch me as does Finney.)
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Matt BusbyFaded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
1.58am
17 January 2013
Offline Very nice idea for a thread! 
"Please don't bring your banjo back, I know where it's been.. I wasn't hardly gone a day, when it became the scene.. Banjos! Banjos! All the time, I can't forget that tune.. and if I ever see another banjo, I'm going out and buy a big balloon!"
2.01am
1 November 2012
Offline Thanks, LHL!
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
2.05am
1 November 2012
Offline I found a very useful website to find deaths (or still livings!) of anyone of note (sorry, late Aunt Ruth, but you weren’t famous!) —
— a perhaps rather macabre website, or just interesting, depending on whether you sleep in a coffin during the daylight hours…
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
9.43pm
3 May 2012
Offline Seems like a good idea for a thread (though, of course, I hope it’s not touched much) because there seems to be a lot of posts on the ”derail” thread about people sadly passing away.
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
4.39am
1 November 2012
Offline True. I noticed how people were occasionally using that monster thread for mentioning famous passings; so I thought I’d set up a more formal place to do it. And let’s hope we rarely have the need to use it, as you say…
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
1.26am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Tony Soprano is dead!
Sad news from Rome in the last hour, the great James Gandolfini, at the age of 51, suffered a massive heart attack earlier tonight. He sadly did not survive. I was never really a Sopranos fan (apart from the theme tune) but recognised it for the great TV it was, and it would not have been without him. A fantastic character actor, it’s such a shame that “fame” only came to him later in life.
Perhaps the biggest tragedy is that he became a father last October.
Sad to be the first person using this thread in “anger”, so to speak.
James Gandolfini (18 September 1961– 19 June 2013). RIP.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
2.32am
1 November 2012
Offline That’s a great shame. 51 is way too young for such a talented actor. I was a big fan of The Sopranos. After I got hooked on the first season (it took me a few episodes), I never watched it on cable. I was a late bloomer: I only discovered it when it was nearing its end, so I could rent whole seasons on DVD — which is what I did. I would rent the entire season 2 and watch it all in a span of a few days (and season 3, 4, 5, 6).
The one problem Gandolfini had has burdened some actors out there: he was too good in his role, and the role was too iconic — which meant he would likely never find another role to live up to it.
Very rarely, actors find a second chance, a second role as iconic as their first ( like William Shatner as Capt. Kirk, then decades later, as “Denny Crane” on Boston Legal).
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
11.16am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Time Team‘s Professor Mick Aston passed away yesterday at the age of 66. The archeologist and presenter helped create the programme when he told a TV producer friend that it was possible to evaluate a site in three days. Beginning in 1994 its final episodes were shown earlier this year after 19 series. Aston quit last year after accusing the channel that showed it, Channel 4, of “dumbing it down”. He helped introduce archeology to a whole new audience. It was one of the (increasingly) few programmes I would always watch on the channel. Sad that they treated it, and Aston, so shabbily. He’s probably only really known in the UK, though I know the show was shown elsewhere.
RIP Mick.
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
5.18pm
31 March 2008
Offline I merged the celeb RIP thread with this more personal one, as it seemed to make more sense to have just one all-purpose commemoration place.
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5.30pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline There was a discussion in the thread that can’t be derailed a while back about whether this thread should be used for marking the passing of famous people and it was felt that it shouldn’t. I still kind of feel the same, feeling it was nice to have a thread that when used by somebody people would know they were talking about something personal rather than commenting on the death of someone in the public eye. I felt both served different purposes, and looking to the original comments responding to your loss, Joe, got different responses.
I think I’ll go back to using the thread that can’t be derailed for the passing of those in the public eye.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
11.00pm
21 November 2012
Offline I can see your point, but I can also kind of see why Joe wouldn’t want to have multiple threads to talk about the passing of people.
I also don’t really care where it’s posted, as I’m more often in the impossible to derail thread than I hope to be in this thread. I just don’t see myself visiting different threads to read about who died this time, even though I’d like to know.
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