Tag: RIP

RIP Ben

America’s dog, Ben, who travelled the country as an officially accredited regular on College GameDay, died on Thursday of cancer at the age of 10. He was a very good dog.

And speaking of dogs and cancer, one thing we’ve learned is that the combination of radiation, Ivermectin, and an all-meat diet can be extremely effective. If you’ve got a dog who has been diagnosed with cancer, it’s definitely worth trying the latter two at the very least, in combination with whatever standard vet-recommended treatments are prescribed. Or, in lieu of them if you can’t afford the vet’s recommendations. However, don’t expect your vet to endorse the alternative treatments; it’s best to keep quiet about them.

DISCUSS ON SG

RIP James Earl Jones

The man truly was a legend. In addition to all of his acting accomplishments, he was a lieutenant in the US Army. 93 is a very respectable run, and it’s not as if they’ll be needing him for Star Wars anymore. To cap it all off, that appearance on The Big Bang Theory was an incredibly funny take on celebrity and fandom. Even if you don’t like the show, you really have to see that episode.

Right across the border from my favorite city on Earth…

DISCUSS ON SG

An Elegaic Opus

Some artists just know how to exit stage left.

A celebration of an artist’s life in the purest sense, Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus is the definitive swan song of one of the world’s greatest musicians. In late 2022, as a parting gift, Ryuichi Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave us with one final performance: a concert film featuring just him and his piano. Curated and sequenced by Sakamoto himself, the twenty pieces featured in the film wordlessly narrate his life through his wide-ranging oeuvre. The selection spans his entire career, from his pop-star period with Yellow Magic Orchestra and his magnificent scores for filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci to his meditative final album,12. Intimately filmed in a space he knew well and surrounded by his most trusted collaborators, including director Neo Sora, his son, Sakamoto bares his soul through his exquisitely haunting melodies, knowing this was the last time he would be able to present his art.

I’ve loved Sakamoto since he was teaming up with David Sylvian, who is probably my all-time favorite musician and singer. Not that I’m any expert on pianists, but he’s my second favorite after my friend Cornelius. I think this documentary will be a must-see.

Recorded and filmed as he was dying of cancer, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Opus” — the Japanese film composer’s posthumous album and documentary of the same name — is clearly meant to be his final farewell.

As an album, it is fitting that the 20-song, hour-and-a-half recording of sparse piano played by Sakamoto is a retrospective, taking the listener on a journey through his half-century career.

One standout is the first-ever recorded version of the playfully lyrical “Tong Poo” from his early days with techno-pop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, also known as YMO. They were pioneers of 1970s electronic music and a Japanese act that landed on the global stage.

The album “Opus” is set to be released Friday from Milan Records. It showcases solo piano versions of the film scores that form the pillars of Sakamoto’s legacy, starting with the majestic theme for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor,” a film set in the final days of imperial China leading into its communist rule.

It won an Academy Award for best original score, making Sakamoto the first Asian to win the honor. The 1987 film, starring John Lone, also won best picture. The score also won a Grammy.

Elsewhere, the track “BB” is Sakamoto’s homage to Bertolucci, a tender love poem for his brilliant collaborator.

“Opus” also features the forlornly pensive music Sakamoto did for Bertolucci’s 1990 “The Sheltering Sky,” which juxtaposed emotionally lost American travelers with the ruthless vastness of northern Africa.

And it includes the music for “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,” a 1983 film about a World War II prisoner of war camp, directed by Nagisa Oshima, in which Sakamoto also acted. It has become his signature piece.

Sakamoto’s sound has an unmistakably Asian feel that’s challenging to define, but evident through the utilization of certain harmonies, pentatonic motifs or scales. His sound is also evocative of Debussy but, to be fair, this is all Sakamoto.

Minimalist is another way some have described his ability to speak in the silences between the notes.

All the songs on “Opus” were immaculately recorded in Tokyo’s NHK 509 Studio, performed without an audience in 2022. The piano pedal shift, and, at times, his breathing, are present.

DISCUSS ON SG

Adieu, Old Friends

This one stabs the heart a little bit. Paul was my best friend’s younger brother’s best friend, so I’d known him since I was around 13 or so. Andy, I met through Paul not long after GI got rolling. We played games with them many times, both in the Digital Ghetto and at their offices; I saw Andy’s band play his fantastic THREE-CHORD SONG at the Fine Line, and they both came to our epic Christmas parties back in the day.

Paul’s been gone for a long time and now his legacy is at an end too. Then again, at 33 years it was the longest-running game publication and it lasted a lot longer than our game company did, so I guess you’d have to say the Pro Player won one last game.

DISCUSS ON SG

RIP Bob Newhart

The Dark Herald provides the eulogy:

It was easily the greatest ending to a television comedy in history. I never even heard the lines I was laughing so hard. It was without question a “you had to be there” to understand moment. There had been all kinds of rumors going around about how Newhart would end. Mostly they’d promised something really intolerable. That Bob, who had been a fixture in our lives throughout the 1980s was going to be killed by a golfball in the series finale.

That final scene transporting Bob Newhart back to his bedroom and wife from his previous TV series left the country howling.

It was the perfect way to end a TV show that had been in the background of our lives for eight years. It kind of understated but it was always reliable for a good laugh. You could say the exact same thing about the Bob Newhart show (1972-1978), for that matter you could say the same thing about Bob Newhart himself.

RIP Willie Mays

Willie Mays was a genus of one. He was a bolt of lightning, a game-changing force of athleticism and beauty on the diamond that snapped you to attention. There is no second strike of his kind of lightning. The likes of Willie Mays were seen never before and will never be seen again. Mays passed away at age 93 Tuesday, just two days before he and his fellow Negro Leaguers are to be honored at a game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field. Opened Aug. 18, 1910, Rickwood is the oldest ballpark in America. It is the Mother Church of baseball. It is the cradle of the career of the greatest all-around player who ever lived. And now it is where we say goodbye.

Willie Mays haunted my teen years. Not because I watched baseball, but because my younger brother loved a song called “Say Hey Willie” that was sung by some little kid. No sooner did we get into our Oldsmobile station wagon – the white one with the fake wood panels – than he would start calling “Willie, Willie!” And so we’d have to listen to it three or four times every time we got in the car to go anywhere.

Total nightmare. But I did read up on Willie Mays as a result of wondering why there was this song about a baseball player, so it wasn’t a total loss. Requiescat in pace Willie.

DISCUSS ON SG

RIP The Logo

Jerry West, one of the most important figures in the history of the NBA, has passed away at the age of 86. West, the inspiration for the silhouette of the league’s logo, was a 14-time All-Star during his playing career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

🔸1972 NBA champion
🔸1969 NBA Finals MVP
🔸14x All-Star
🔸12x All-NBA Team
🔸5x All-Defensive Team
🔸8x NBA champion as executive

Jerry West was so well-respected by his opponents that his longtime rival Bill Russell of the Celtics paid his own way to attend West’s memorial game in LA before his retirement.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Feast of St. Harambe

Sadly, Dope John Paul’s unforgettable memorial to the greatest ape of all has vanished from the Internet, so we’ll be firing it up on tonight’s Darkstream. It’s been eight years already, but it seems like just yesterday…

I was really shallow, now I’m deep for Harambe.

Let’s just be humble. I believe the customary way to commemorate St. Harambe is to eat a cup of banana yogurt, although I’m told Orthodox Harambeans insist on also eating an entire banana.

DISCUSS ON SG

RIP Bill Walton

Bill Walton, a two-time NBA champ and Hall of Famer who later became a legendary announcer, died Monday after a battle with cancer, the NBA announced. He was 71 years old. Walton won two national championships under John Wooden at UCLA and was the No. 1 overall pick by the Potland Trail Blazers in the 1974 NBA draft. He led Portland to a NBA title in 1977 and was later the sixth man for the 1986 Boston Celtics team that won the championship.

If you weren’t an 80’s basketball fan, you’d have to read the chapter of Bill Simmons’s book on basketball devoted to his pilgrimage to Bill Walton’s house and subsequent interview of the man to understand what a unique athlete, and unique individual, he was.

DISCUSS ON SG