In all seriousness...

20 September 2004.

The most honest, caring and sincere man that I have had the privilege to call my friend passed away on that day. A man so comfortable with himself that he never had a bad word to say about anyone, not even those who would have deserved it. He had time for everyone, even those who hadn't always had time for him. I only had the chance to share in ten years of his life, but he found a way to cram a lifetime of meaning into that decade. He battled cancer three times before it took him at the far-too-young age of 38. He lived every minute of his life, not knowing if it might be his last. He never gave up.

He pursued his passions without concern for what life or others threw in his way. When I get down on myself. When I think that I'm wasting my time, spending my days pursuing something that I love, but that faces heavy odds against success. I think of my friend and I push on. I can't, in good conscience, let failure stop me. I will use every chance that comes my way to achieve my dreams. Every day is another day that I have another chance. Another chance my friend never got.

I miss you, my friend.

Guido the Plumber-boy (1966-2004). You know who you are...

"I want to kill everyone. Satan is good. Satan is our pal. "

Today's 'honoree' isn't actually responsible for the quote that comprises today's title. So shoot me. He didn't pass away yesterday, either. He passed on the 14th, although reports didn't surface until late yesterday.

Henry Gibson, born James Bateman in Philadelphia, died of cancer at his home in Malibu, California. He was 73.

Gibson created his comic persona, a pun on playwright Henrik Ibsen's name, while working as a theater actor in New York. It doesn't surprise, when one admires the stunning range of roles Gibson would inhabit, to find that he served as an Air Force intelligence officer in his younger years.

My first memories of Gibson (to date myself a bit...) are from the hilarious "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and over the course of a 40-plus year career he turned in strong performances in many classics, including "The Blues Brothers", "Wedding Crashers", the Pauly Shore epic "Bio-Dome" (did Pauly just gnaw on Stephen Baldwin's toenails?) and of course the masterpiece from which our title's Rick Ducommun quote is pulled from, "The 'burbs".

His towering presence overshadowed the diminutiveness of his 5' 3'' frame. He was a comic giant. He will not soon be forgotten.


"I've never seen anybody drive their garbage down to the street and bang the hell out of it with a stick. I-I've never seen that." - Ray Petersen (Tom Hanks, yes Tom Hanks, in "The 'burbs")

Henry Gibson 1935 - 2009

Leaving his 'Brand' on collegiate sports.

OK, so two posts, two violations of the blog's title. Today's subject didn't die yesterday, but today. One of these days I'll get it right.

Today we mark the passing of NCAA president Myles Brand, who passed away today of pancreatic cancer at age 67. While he made great strides toward cleaning up the image of college athletics (not that there aren't decades of bad publicity still to atone for...), his most lasting legacy may be that of "the man who fired Bobby Knight", while President of Indiana University, from 1994 to 2002.

Knight's outrageous antics on the college basketball sidelines provided highlight reel material for decades. After the 2000 firing, Knight supporters burned Brand, in effigy, outside Brand's home, the Bryan House, to protest.

One of Brand's most notable, and possibly controversial, moves as NCAA president was the decision not to hold championships on the campuses of institutions who use nicknames representing (positively or otherwise) American Indians.

Brand was also the president of the University of Oregon from 1989 to 1994.

Let's all join Bobby Knight in tossing a plastic chair across our local basketball courts, in honor of a great collegiate sports administrator.

Myles Brand 1942 - 2009

"People Who Died"

It's kind of sad that on my first ever posting I'm going to cheat. Not cheat death. Just cheat. Today's subject didn't actually die yesterday. As a matter of fact, even though his death was announced on Monday, he passed away in his LA home last Friday. But seeing as how his biggest accomplishment in life (to me, at least, as I'll explain later) was a song called "People Who Died", who better to kick of the morbidity with than poet, musician, actor and all around swell ex-junkie Jim Carroll?

I first learned of Jim Carroll in 1981, the year after his first album "Catholic Boy" was released. Many a night was spent cruising in Mark Sieben's purple Chevy pickup with "People Who Died" cranking, repeatedly, through Pioneer TSX-80 speakers mounted one inch behind my head. I believe I have Steve Bratke to thank for discovering this ode to friends passed on. Or possibly (and more likely...) his older brother Mike.

I know many would propose that "The Basketball Diaries" (the book and/or the film) would be the pinnacle of Carroll's creative output, but I beg to differ. For me, there are few bonding experiences that I recall more fondly than searching out high school parties with Mark, Steve, D'arcy, et al, while singing:

"Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died"

Thanks for the memories...

Jim Carroll 1950 - 2009