Albano, 76, was best known as a legendary WWE wrestling manager and for playing Cyndi Lauper’s dad in her video for “Girls Just Wanna (Have Fun).” He died this morning. 

William Safire, a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon and a Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for The New York Times died on Sunday. He was 79.

His conservative politics aside, it’s pretty badass to be remembered as the “oracle of language” upon passing away:  “There may be many sides in a genteel debate, but in the Safire world of politics and journalism it was simpler: There was his own unambiguous wit and wisdom on one hand and, on the other, the blubber of fools he called ‘nattering nabobs of negativism’ and ‘hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.’”

And the guy was like, “I used to fuck guys like you in jail.”  And then Swayze was like, “huh.”  And then he ripped out his throat.

They’ll never be another one quite like Patrick Swayze, so badass he could dance with Jennifer Grey and make her look sexy.

The LA Times has a lovely remembrance of the man.  Okay screw it, just thinking about Patrick Swayze, it’s hard to imagine a guy with more talent to either be an action hero, sensitive leading man, or just flat out funny.  So here he is with Chris Farley.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jim Carroll, punk poet and musician has died at age 60 from a heart attack at his home in Manhattan over the weekend.

In 1978 he published “The Basketball Diaries”, an autobiographical account of being a teenage basketball star in New York City, which in 1995 was made into a film staring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg.  In 1978 he also formed his punk rock/new wave group The Jim Carroll Band, which released the single “People Who Died” in 1980.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The lion of the senate, and my senator for most of my life has passed away. He was 77. Kennedy family statement:

Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.

Kennedy’s passing also marks, in many ways, the passing of the political Kennedy dynasty.  As much a part of Massachusetts as the Red Sox, Harvard, MIT, et. al. What always amazed me about Ted Kennedy, aside from his political acumen, desire to pass legislation and respect he held in the Senate, is how he never had to campaign for the Senate.  It was a given every six years that his name would be on the ballot and Massachusetts would vote for him in record numbers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Truly, truly, sad news.  This is the first time during the summer of death that I feel devastated.

He was 94.

Paul pioneered the development of guitar sounds that came to define rock music and is also widely credited as being the innovative mind behind studio recording techniques such as overdubbing and delay effects.

If you’re playing the guitar you pretty much go for a Fender or a Les Paul, no?  That says all you need to know about the man.  [AP]

I am sorry it took Billy’s passing to inspire me to write this long overdue account of our friendship, but his passing on August 2 was overlooked by most in this summer which has claimed so many people.

Go on iTunes and buy “Red Hot” or “Flying Saucer Rock and Roll” by Billy Lee Riley and see if you can tell where raw, high energy punk music reared it’s ugly, but cool, head.

I last spoke with him when I heard he was diagnosed with colon cancer two or three years ago. He had kept up with and sent prayers for my own treatment for leukemia and kept in touch until he became sick himself. I am sorry I did not maintain the friendship over the years.

I had an interesting but rocky friend/manager/producer situation with Billy but when I think back to it, I only remember the fun times and the incredible music he made. Despite the usual disputes over money and booking dates (Billy had to have at least 1000.00 to leave his house and, due to his Seven Day Adventist faith, could not perform on Saturday nights – for any amount of money), we never had cross words or got angry about anything. Frustrated, but not angry.

Billy was one of those rare talents that could be the 1950’s equivalent of Axl Rose but with a good personality and great sense of cynical humor. I have a treasured copy of a letter the legendary Cowboy Jack Clement gave to me from his landlord in 1957. Jack was politely but firmly asked to vacate his Memphis apartment following an evening of drinking wine spodeodee, (yes, there is such a thing), and concluding with Billy jumping naked off the balcony and into the pool a couple of stories below. He was not hurt, thanks in part to the wine, but the other apartment complex guests were not amused.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Billy was determined to sabotage his career from the start reportedly pouring whiskey over Sam Phillips recording desk and trashing the studio because Sam chose to promote Jerry Lee Lewis over himself (”Great Balls of Fire” or “Red Hot”). Sam could not afford to promote both and had to choose between the two rivals. Imagine the outpouring of love and remembrances that would have happened last week for Billy had the choice been reversed. 

It would be years before Billy would forgive Sam and I am happy to be the one to bring them together for a friendly but sometimes tense, confrontation some 32 years after the fact. They didn’t quite kiss and make up but it felt like there was peace and it is one of those magic moments when you thank God that a camera is rolling with the subjects only focused on each other.

Billy provided me with a favorite moment in my life on the night I first met him. The BBC/Wales were doing yet another Sun Records/Elvis documentary and had contacted me about bringing Scotty Moore over to Sun Studio in Memphis for an interview. Although not having met Billy, I was well aware of his creed of never doing anything for nothing so I asked the BBC producer what Billy was getting for the interview and a solo performance at Sun. He told me they did not usually pay for interviews since it was considered “news” or “promotion.” Billy had told him that, at his age and stage in his career, he did not need more promotion much less news. We were able to come away with a couple of grand for Scotty plus rooms, food and travel expenses for both of us. The shamefully tight BBC had to fork out more than they planned but they came away with some fiery performances from Scotty and Billy and great candid interviews. I even got them to pick up a bottle of Scotty’s favorite, Johnny Walker Black. It certainly made his portion of the interview go much more smoothly.

Waylon's last session (L to R): Left to right: Eugene the trained cat, Dan Griffin, Ray Walker of the Jordainares, Cowby Jack Clement, Billy Lee riley, Waylon Jennings, Bruce Sinofsky

Toward the end of the evening I needed to stretch my legs, but did not want to wander far since Sun Studio is not in the best part of Memphis for late at night. Instead of coming back through the front entrance, I decided to enter through the back door that leads directly into the control room where Scotty and Billy were standing there listening to playbacks. I didn’t want to startle them so I just stood there casually. During a quiet moment, Scotty turned to Billy and asked if he expected to be doing this so many years after they started. Billy said he was excited to be getting the new-found attention as well as much better wages than he received in the 50’s and 60’s. Scotty turned to Billy and said, “I’m having a lot more fun now than I ever did with Elvis.” He never would have said that if he knew I was standing there – I was beaming with pride for being involved in any way with both of these talented and influential men. Billy soon asked me to help him put together a new record and help him with live gigs. I was too busy with Scotty Moore and D. J. Fontana’s promotion of the “All the King’s Men” CD and Scotty’s biography, “That’s Alright Elvis.”

Skipping ahead a few years to 2000, I was still working with Scotty, D. J. Fontana, Sonny Burgess and Paul Burlison, and recently added Cowboy Jack Clement and the man himself, Sam Phillips. Against the advice of all of the above, I agreed to take on Billy when he asked. In theory, I had the dream of a lifetime working with the real founders of rock and roll, the ones that gave the front men the boost and kick they needed at just the right time. Even though Sonny and Billy each had hits under their own name on Sun, they made strong impressions as backing musicians for artists as diverse as Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin and more.

I had the brainstorm of putting together a duo record for Sonny and Billy performing all new songs with the great Cowboy Jack Clement producing. I booked two days in Nashville at Cowboy Jack’s Clementvision Studio and a stellar backing band – Ben Folds on piano, Garry W. Tallent (of the E Street Band) on bass, Cowboy Jack on acoustic guitar, Nashville musicians and artists Bill Lloyd and Tim Carroll on electric guitars and Mark Horn, of the country-rock band The Derailers, on drums. The sessions also being filmed for a segment of “Good Rockin’ Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records.”

I had gladly taken the job as associate producer in charge of securing the Sun artists and some of the special guests for the film which was a co-production with then strong indie film company, The Shooting Gallery, and PBS’ American Master’s series and the award wining documentary director, Bruce Sinofsky. By piggy-backing both projects we could all save money, or so we thought. Sonny and Billy, as well as the entire Sun Records “B team” did far better in Europe than in the US. A good portion of the recording and backing musician expenses were to be taken on by a European record company interested in releasing the duo CD. that soon changed. I would take my advance from the film company to pay for the studio sessions and a live performance to be filmed and I would recoup my investment from the CD sales and promotional events.

Sonny called from along the road to Nashville from Newport, AK to Nashville to say he had stopped off at a hospital emergency room because he felt like he was having a heart attack. He felt OK but had to cancel his participation in the sessions that week. Although we were all concerned, everyone was assembled and we had to go on with the sessions – I had already paid everyone but Sonny. Billy always wanted me to keep three different hats on: friend, manager and producer. In other words, I gave him a check for 2500.00 at the start of the sessions as a producer but he would pay me 15% of my own money for booking the gig for him and then he would pick up the tab for dinner as a friend. I guess that makes sense though I doubt Colonel Tom Parker would have ever agreed to it. Sonny, while being genuinely concerned about his health, was more concerned with tying himself to Billy Lee for an indeterminate amount of time in the studio and on the road.

The session turned out to be a historic one musically but it would have made for a great reality TV show or an episode of Jerry Springer without the chair throwing. All the musicians and guests agreed to having cameras record their every move for two days. The first day we would lay down all the tracks and record vocals on the second. Billy had brought along four exceptionally good songs that he had written but not recorded. They ranged from straight ahead country to boogie to gospel tinged rock and roll. The first track, “Walk, Talk & Sing” went flawlessly with every one of the musicians locking into a perfect groove with Billy singing a scratch vocal that was so good we kept it as a final vocal. I could see in his face and in the face of his wife/personal manager, Joyce, that he was stunned at how it clicked. Ben Folds was just leaving his Ben Folds Five band and about to embark on a great solo career as a solo artist and producer. He presented his Southern Gospel roots by playing such an amazing piano part on Jack’s Baldwin baby grand that he even surprised the Cowboy himself.

Unfortunately, the next tune, “Hillbilly Rockin’ Man” did not go quite so well. Ben was perfect on the first track but country rock was not quite his style on piano. Between repeated takes Billy and Jack called me over and told me to casually get rid of the kid. They had no idea who he was and the value, at least with music critics, of having him on all the tracks. I was saved from an embarrassing situation when Ben, on the same wavelength, told me he did not think he had the right feel for the track and it would work better with just guitars.

On the following day we scheduled vocals, both Billy’s lead and the background vocals by anyone we could get into the studio. When I arrived at the studio at 10:00 AM, Bruce Sinofsky casually said, “Waylon’s coming… maybe Johnny & June too.” Jack had made personal calls to his friends who were also old friends with Billy and Sonny. We had to arrange recording the background vocals in Jack’s downstairs office as Waylon could not climb the stairs to the studio due to his diabetes that would soon take his right leg and then his life. It turned out to be a more casual, festive atmosphere than the studio. Johnny and June could not make it but John Carter Cash came along with some gospel singers he knew and I had been able to get Ray Walker, bass vocalist for the Jordanaires, in for the session. D. J. Fontana showed up but when he discovered it was only a singing session, he bowed out and went to WalMart.

The background vocals for “Walk, Talk & Sing” would rival anything any gospel vocal group could do and included all the musicians as well as me, Joyce and director Bruce – and Jack’s trained cat, Eugene. After a couple of quick takes, we had what we needed for the song and settled into Jack’s office for Waylon holding court over all of us telling stories of working with Buddy Holly, opening for Elvis and about two hours worth of material picking Jack and Billy’s brains about what they remembered from those classic days. Sadly, this would be Waylon’s last recording session and all that is readily available is the music which I co-own with Jack since Billy was paid in full up front. No footage of the office talks made it to the final film and all of the tapes have been lost in the limbo between PBS and the now-defunct Shooting Gallery film company who went belly-up before the year was over.

A couple of weeks later when we assembled Billy Lee and the now-recovered Sonny Burgess to headline a supergroup of Sun Records surviving musicians and artists for a concert at Bob King’s King of Clubs landmark roadhouse in Newport , AK. This is the club that gave Sonny & Billy as well as Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash and a young Elvis Presley a venue to play as long or as much as they liked. Bob discovered Conway and was his first manager and continued to run the club for the next 52 years. He would proudly point out to anyone who listened about the night Elvis played there. He had replaced the dance floor and stage area many times over 5 decades but kept the 4 foot by 4 foot square where Elvis stood and sang in a pool of sweat. He would even move his jukebox over the spot so no one would scuff it up. One more bit of trivia, the King of Clubs was just down the road from the Silver Moon where Elvis first played in AK and the inspiration for the Porky’s movie series of the seventies and eighties.

The show was another of those once in a lifetime magic moments on par with the recording sessions in Nashville. While the names may not be important to contemporary US music fans, it was a final meeting of the gods and goddess (singular), of rockabilly and Sun Records. In addition to co-headliners, Sonny & Billy, we had Grammy winning saxophone player Ace Cannon, Sun’s only female artist to have a substantial hit, Barbara Pittman, Elvis’ sometime girlfriend and the subject of Johnny Cash’s “Ballad of A Teenage Queen”; keyboard players Kern Kennedy from Sonny’s 50s band, The Pacers, and Jerry Lee “Smoochy” Smith, piano player of the Mar-Keys and one of the co-writers of the hit, “Last Night”‘; Cowboy Jack came along to produce the music and supervise the recording and agreed to a solo turn on a couple of the songs he wrote for George Jones and Johnny Cash. He also played the first song he wrote while a kid living at his grandmother’s house in that very town in the forties, “The Air Conditioner Song,” recorded by David Allen Coe. Bill Lloyd supplied co-lead guitars with Sonny Doug Greeno, provided the bass in place of Garry Tallent who had just gotten called back to the Springsteen fold. Mark Horn was once again along for drums.

There was talk of special guests including Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash and Bob Dylan showing up. Dylan was a huge fan of these guys and had been to see Sonny and Smoochy in the Sun Rhythm Section several times over the years and had specifically asked for Billy Lee to open a tour for him in the mid nineties. As it turned out, it was only rumors since Johnny was sick once again and Bob, who had been in Memphis some 50 miles away the night before, had let for Europe. We rehearsed several hours on the night before the performance and the show quickly came together featuring all of the Sun hits the various performers were known for along with a few select Sun Records covers new songs.

On the day of the show, it was announced over a couple of local radio stations as a special performance with surprise guests. Some people had heard about the plans so we already had a crowd from Memphis and even flying in from other parts of the country. It was a free show and I am quite sure we exceeded the fire code but Bob King did not believe in turning anyone away with drinking money. As it was a taping for the PBS documentary and a recording for a live album, once again to be co-owned by Cowboy Jack and myself (meaning, I pay for it and Cowboy keeps the tapes!), we had to inform the audience that we may need to repeat key songs a few times to get the right take for the film. The only retakes were due to bad camera angles or lighting, not the music being played – that was spectacular and flawless for over two hours. I am thankful I had a rolling tape machine for the rehearsals and the show in addition to Jack’s multi track recordings. Jack doesn’t lose tapes, they just have a tendency to go into his vault and not come out for years, if ever. At least my tapes exists as, once again, the film footage is lost to the legal wranglings of the entertainment industry.

Billy and Sonny took command of the stage right away trading off their Sun hits, “We Wanna Boogie,” “Red Hot,” Red Headed Woman,” “Flying Saucer Rock & Roll” and playing a new song each before becoming backing musicians for Ace, Barbara and Jack. The tightness of the band and the charisma of the artists made for a special night that can never be repeated. Newport, AK had not seen such a spectacle on a late Summer Tuesday night in many years – if ever.

The following day, everyone assembled at Sonny’s house for an old fashioned southern barbeque/group interview session to be filmed for the documentary. Despite Sonny and Jack’s attempt at stirring the conversation in different ways, Billy Lee and Barbara used the forum to vent decades-long resentment of Sam Phillips for ignoring their promising careers in favor of his top four – Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. I understand their gripes but Sam had such limited funds as it was, he had to go with what he felt in his gut and was told by Dewey Phillips (no relation) and other prominent D. J.s in the Memphis area. History does tell he made the right choices. As Sonny often says, Sam, along with current Sun Records recordings owner Shelby Singleton, are to be credited with their careers later in their lives after kids are grown and they have the luxury of playing live with great pickup bands around the world.

The group scene was reprised a couple of weeks later at the Blue City Cafe on Beale St. in Memphis. This time it included more key artists such as Rufus Thomas and some obscure but important ones such as Malcolm Yelvington and Ray Harris, and Sun session drummers J. M. Van Eaton and W. S. Holland. After an impromptu jam session in the music room of the cafe we started filming individual and small group interviews where the Sam Phillips slamming continued along with a bit of W. S. Holland venting over his lawsuit with his longtime boss, Johnny Cash and yours truly for not including him in the recording session and live show. Rufus told his same tired stories of being ignored by Sam when he found Elvis – but only when the camera was on. I had the pleasure of having a great personal conversation with him later in the day when he told a different story – he admired and respected Sam and understood his methods as a businessman – and he loved Elvis. Rufus was thrilled to be included in our project and we started making plans for a tour of Europe with him, Billy Lee, Sonny and Jack, possibly with Sam as moderator of a sit down discussion of the Sun Records era. Sadly this would not happen since both Rufus and Sam would soon fall ill and would not undertake any more public appearances. Sam made his only public appearance in the UK with author Peter Guralnick for a conversation before a sold out audience at the Royal Albert Hall.

The tenor of the group discussion turned in a different direction when Sam arrived for a filmed lunch gathering of Sonny, Jack, Billy Lee and Scotty Moore. The reminisces of this team were more valuable to me than anything in the project so far, and not just for the camera and film. Billy took it upon himself to publicly confront Sam with his grievances. Sam took it in stride and made a surprising apology and statement that he wished he had paid more attention to both Billy and Sonny as well as Barbara and the other Sun artists. Sonny had never complained to me or anyone about Sam and needed no apology of any kind but Billy wanted to hear Sam say it and – especially on camera – it meant much more.

An oft-told myth was put to rest during the Memphis power lunch – Billy never actually poured whisky over Sam’s recording console, Sam would have shot him, but he did throw a few things around the studio in a drunken jealous rage. If you ever get the chance to see the seldom shown American Masters/PBS film, “Good Rockin’ Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records,” check out the expression on Jack’s face as Sam tell his version of Elvis getting the idea of his hairstyle by copying him. For every fence that was mended and tale set straight, there was a new one supplied by the master of ceremonies, Sam Phillips. I wouldn’t take a million dollars for being one of the catalysts in making this happen

My days in business with Billy Lee Riley did not last a lot longer although the friendship remained from a distance. The attention I paid to Billy, Sonny, Jack and Sam had strained my relationship with Scotty & D. J. and then, just as the premier of the film and release of the soundtrack CD, the film company went bankrupt over night and PBS was left holding the bag. I had used all the money I was paid and due by putting together the extra events such as the recording session at Jack’s and the live show in Newport. Bruce Sinofsky and Susan Lacy at American Masters/PBS were left holding a much bigger bag but I can proudly say, all the musicians were paid in full – even for the interviews that are not usually included in payment.

One more funny Billy Lee story and I will close: Phil Carson, working with both the Shooting Gallery and PBS had arranged for Scotty & D. J., Sonny Burgess and Billy Lee to play the legendary Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The backing band was another dream crew: Jimmy Page, Chris Spedding and Johnny Kidd and the Pirate’s Mick Green on guitars, Chris Stainton on piano and Robert Plant on vocals. Partially due to Billy’s religious requirement of no Saturday night performances, Billy insisted he play his set on Friday but then an unexpected invitation came from the next night’s headliner, Bob Dylan. The Bobness had personally asked Billy to stay over another night and sing with him on the encores. Dylan offered to pay for the flight changes and extra hotel night in the expensive Swiss city. Billy turned the offer down on his firm religious beliefs although sonny still thinks he was holding out for money. I tend to believe Billy’s convictions kept him firm since he loved Dylan and would have been thrilled to share the stage with him one more time at any price, just not on a Saturday night.

The opening and closing scenes in the Sun Records film features Billy Lee Riley alone in the rain on Beale Street blowing a plaintive harmonica that, in it’s own way, is a fitting, soulful closure to a great chapter of American musical culture. Billy refused to be locked into one style or be termed a rockabilly – something all of these guys hated – they considered themselves musicians, first and foremost. Billy made a great soulful blues record, “Oh, Yeah,” on a tiny Memphis label and, even during the years when he worked manual jobs while raising two daughters as a single dad, never lost sight of his music and through all of his ups and downs, that was most important to him.

I am sure going to miss him in the coming months and years but for now, I am thankful for having known him.

At the time all I could find was a snippet on TMZ, but late in the night it was confirmed by just about every news outlet. The director, writer, producer, definer of high school in the 80’s died yesterday at the age of 59 of a heart attack.

He hadn’t directed a movie since Curly Sue is 1991, but he still wrote several screenplays under the psuedonym Edmond Dantes.

But, this is the gentleman who directed The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, She’s Having a Baby, Uncle Buck and Planes, Trains, and Autombiles. And that’s just what he directed, never mind wrote or produced.

I know everybody will be talking about the first four movies mentioned on that list, but for my money John Hughes will always be the guy that directed the last four.  Call me crazy, but even as an eight-year-old I recognized the perverse genius that was Uncle Buck and PT&A.  Besides that, Sixteen Candles was the first movie I saw with boobies in it, so thank you John Hughes for that.  I must’ve worn out my parent’s VHS copy of that movie as a kid.  Well, at least the first fifteen minutes, when Molly Ringwald is checking out Haviland Morris in the shower.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The summer of 2009 will forever be remembered as the summer when everybody died.

Seems as if another day, another day famous person passes away.  This time it’s Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Frank McCourt, best known for his 1996 memoir Angela’s Ashes. He was also a longtime teacher at New York’s Stuyvesant High School.  He died Sunday at age 78.

A rather different version of his upbringing, however, emerged from local sources. After the publication ofAngela’s Ashes, the local newspaper, the Limerick Leader, published a photograph showing the youthful McCourt and his younger brother Malachy, smiling and smartly dressed in their scout uniforms – and not just of any scout uniforms, but those of the St Joseph’s Boy Scouts, the elite of Limerick. Another picture showed their mother Angela, whose plump figure would appear to belie McCourt’s claims of his family having suffered constant hunger.Yet for all the factual inaccuracies that were unearthed, part of McCourt’s account was undoubtedly accurate. He did lose three siblings. His father was a notorious alcoholic and Frank himself did suffer a number of eye infections, ultimately resulting in the loss of his eyelashes.

McCourt left school at 13, and at 19, as Angela’s Ashes records, he left the poverty of Limerick and his family behind, after saving enough money for a ticket to New York from a job with the Post Office. His brothers, Malachy and Michael, followed him soon after, as, eventually, did Angela.

In interviews he always came across as a warm-spirited raconteur.  Here he is with schmaltzy memoirist Mitch Albom.

Click here to view the embedded video.

News legend Walter Cronkite has died at the age of 92. Once known as “the most trusted man in America” Cronkite anchored the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981 with his trademark sign-off, “And that’s the way it is…”

According to the NY Times and Cronkite’s son, Chip, the cause of death was from complications of dementia.

LA Times Critic Robert Lloyd has a terrific appreciation:

The rolling rise and fall of his voice and the rhythms and pauses he built into his prose gave his reporting the subtle weight of blank verse. Cronkite cut his teeth telling stories in print and over the radio; he knew how to make pictures from words. Similarly trained reporters dominated TV news for the medium’s first decades; it was an oratorical era. But as they aged and retired, the networks turned to more telegenic models, to prettier people and — reasonably enough — a more visual approach to the news.

Network news anchors still aim for that mix of eloquence and authority that Cronkite embodied, but they compete, at a disadvantage, with the noise of an ascendant punditocracy and the mountain-from-molehill nattering of cable news organizations that live on crises — it’s not the old voice of reassuring honesty that they cultivate, but one of perpetual anxiety. There are many more rooms in the mansion that is television news nowadays, but they have grown proportionately smaller; they are no longer fit for giants.

But perhaps, the oddest and most telling tribute to the talents of Walter Cronkite, lay in this nugget from the NY Times obituary: “He was so widely known that in Sweden anchormen were once called Cronkiters.”

And since this is the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, here is “the most trusted man in America” as it happened live on tv.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The famous product spokesman was 50-years-old.  It’s like God woke up on the wrong side of the bed this week or Death has been given the green light.

Tampa police said Mays’ wife found him unresponsive Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m. It was not immediately clear how he died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and his wife, Deborah Mays, told investigators he didn’t feel well before he went to bed about 10 p.m. that night.

There were no signs of a break-in at the home, and investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department, who wouldn’t answer questions about how Mays’ body was found because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner’s office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.

”Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days,” Deborah Mays said in a statement Sunday. ”Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times.”

The King of Pop died today from cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, the L.A. Times and TMZ report.   He was 50.  Jackson was in the midst of preparing for a series of 50 sold-out shows in London’s O2 Arena and had the makings of a stirring career comeback.

Make whatever jokes you want, and lord knows I’ve made a few today at Jackson’s expense, but there’s no denying his musical legacy, cultural impact, or importance.  In a manner of speaking — personal tragedies and life craziness aside — he is 100% bona fide.

Also?  The first time he moonwalked performing “Billie Jean” at the Motown 25 celebration is still jawdropping today as it was back then.

The Charlie’s Angel died of Cancer at the age of 62.

David Carradine, a talented actor whose list of credits includes the ’70s series Kung Fu and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill was found dead in Thailand of an apparent suicide.  Here’s a photo gallery that takes you through his career, and here’s a roundup of Carradine’s film projects that haven’t been released yet.

From MSNBC:

It said a preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a cord used with the room’s curtains. It cited police as saying he had been dead at least 12 hours and there was no sign that he had been assaulted.

A police officer at Bangkok’s Lumpini precinct station would not confirm the identity of the dead man to The Associated Press, but said the luxury Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel had reported that a male guest killed himself there.

DeLuise was best known for his frequent collaborations with director Mel Brooks and actor Burt Reynolds. 

Brooks cast him in several of his films, including “The Twelve Chairs,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Silent Movie,” “History of the World Part I” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.” DeLuise was also the voice of Pizza the Hutt in Brooks’ “Star Wars” parody, “Spaceballs.”

Opposite his friend Burt Reynolds, DeLuise starred in, “The End,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” ‘Smokey and the Bandit II,” “The Cannonball Run” and “Cannonball Run II.”

Even more, some might know him for his two cookbooks or frequent appearances on morning shows, whiping up his favorite dishes. 

Also?  There was always that unmistakable chortle. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Golden Girls and Maude star Bea Arthur died today at age 86. Thank you for being a friend.  I don’t know why I’m crushed about this more than I should be.  [Los Angeles Times]

Click here to view the embedded video.

The author died yesterday.  Some considered him our greatest author.  I’ve never read anything by him, to be honest, but I was deeply moved by the obituary from Tomorrow Museum.

There is a distrust of technology and human nature in Ballard’s novels, a sense of the absurdity of shopping malls and an intuitive understanding how architecture, especially in its most banal forms, affects our emotions. Ballard shunned email and Internet, it was irrelevant to his obsessions. His concern was space, the body, travel, the dark underbelly of a suburban tract housing development.

Even if you’ve never read anything from Ballard, you might be remotely aware of Empire of the Sun. That fictionalized novel was turned into a movie by Steven Spielberg.  You might also be vaguely aware of Crash, his 1973 novel, which posited modern society found traffic accidents sexually stimulating and was turned into a movie by David Cronenberg.

After reading Joanne’s obituary for him though, I feel deeply ashamed to never getting around to reading him.  Why is it that in many of these cases an artist’s death is what finally pushes us into exploring their creative work?

The literary legend passed away today at the age of 76.  Updike will best be remembered for his series of Rabbit novels: Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, etc.

It was lung cancer that struck down the titan at his howe in Beverly Farms, Mass., according to his longtime publisher Alfred A. Knopf.

A literary writer who frequently appeared on best-seller lists, the tall, hawk-nosed Updike wrote novels, short stories, poems, criticism, the memoir “Self-Consciousness” and even a famous essay about baseball great Ted Williams.

He released more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s, winning virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for “Rabbit Is Rich” and “Rabbit at Rest,” and two National Book Awards.

Although himself deprived of a Nobel, he did bestow it upon one of his fictional characters, Henry Bech, the womanizing, egotistical Jewish novelist who collected the literature prize in 1999.

His settings ranged from the court of “Hamlet” to postcolonial Africa, but his literary home was the American suburb, the great new territory of mid-century fiction.

Born in 1932, Updike spoke for millions of Depression-era readers raised by “penny-pinching parents,” united by “the patriotic cohesion of World War II” and blessed by a “disproportionate share of the world’s resources,” the postwar, suburban boom of “idealistic careers and early marriages.”

He captured, and sometimes embodied, a generation’s confusion over the civil rights and women’s movements, and opposition to the Vietnam War. Updike was called a misogynist, a racist and an apologist for the establishment.

On purely literary grounds, he was attacked by Norman Mailer as the kind of author appreciated by readers who knew nothing about writing. Last year, judges of Britain’s Bad Sex in Fiction Prize voted Updike lifetime achievement honors.
But more often he was praised for his flowing, poetic writing style. Describing a man’s interrupted quest to make love, Updike likened it “to a small angel to which all afternoon tiny lead weights are attached.”

It’s time to dust off that collection of Rabbit novels and a few short story collections. It’s been too long since I’ve strolled down the literary cobbelstone with Updike – the finest example of literatary writing blended with an acute populism.

He also had a hilarious cameo on The Simpsons once, as the ghost writer of Krusty the Klown’s autobiography.   So, you know, that makes his doubly awesome.  He leaves behind four children and his second wife, Martha.

For now you can chew over Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu - a profile between Ted Williams and his relationship with Red Sox fans.

Page was placed on life support last week after suffering a heart attack in Los Angeles and never regained consciousness, said her agent, Mark Roesler. He said he and Page’s family agreed to remove life support. Before the heart attack, Page had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia.

“She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality,” Roesler said. “She is the embodiment of beauty.”

Page, who was also known as Betty, attracted national attention with magazine photographs of her sensuous figure in bikinis and see-through lingerie that were quickly tacked up on walls in military barracks, garages and elsewhere, where they remained for years.

The influential comedian and all-around badass died yesterday at the age of 81 due to complications from diabetes.

“Moore starred in dozens of films but is best known for 1975’s “Dolemite,” a low-budget mix of kung fu and bawdy humor that he wrote, produced and starred in as the titular wisecracking pimp,” wrote MTV News. “The film was a huge hit, spawned many knockoffs (not to mention a few sequels of its own) and was declared — many years later, of course — to be “the ‘Citizen Kane’ of blaxploitation films” by The New York Times.”

I remember renting Dolemite one year in college, probably cause I was drunk and thought the cover of the movie was humorous, but it’s easily on par with Superfly and Shaft. Just an all-around great movie.

Yes, Don LaFontaine is best known as “the movie voiceover guy” but also as the man who coined the phrase “In a world…” but that’s probably not the best thing to put in an obituary.� He died of complications from pneumothorax yesterday at the age of 68.�

LaFontaine most recently spoofed his own image for Geico, perhaps lending himself the most notoriety of his career. It is said he would record about 60 promotions in a week, sometimes as many as 35 in one day. The guy was a beast, the highest compliment I could give someone.

His deep and thrilling voice and particular diction could make any crap movie seem important and the good ones seem legendary.� His voice was one of the reasons to watch and love trailers in the first place.� Not surprisingly, he narrated a video about his own biography.

Aint It Cool has rounded up a nice sampling of his work. He will be missed. [via]

Here’s the band performing Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” in what would be Leroi’s final concert. Listen to the way the saxophone on the song just hits all the right moments.

M4a: Dave Matthews Band – “Bartender (Lillywhite Sessions)”

Soul legend Isaac Hayes was found dead today at his home in Memphis, TN. He was 65. His wife found him unconscious next to his treadmill, which was still running. Paramedics could not revive him and he was pronounced dead shortly after 2:00 p.m., according to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department. There is no foul play, but cause of death details are not known.

He was the larger than life soul singer, perhaps best known as the composer for the blaxploitation flick Shaft, for which he won an Oscar and recently as the voice of Chef on South Park. His passing somehow seems more sad and devastating than yesterdays passing of comedian Bernie Mac.

From CNN:

Hayes was a longtime songwriter and arranger for Stax Records in Memphis, playing in the studio’s backup band and crafting tunes for artists such as Otis Redding and Sam and Dave in the 1960s.

He released his first solo album in 1967, and his 1969 follow-up, “Hot Buttered Soul,” became a platinum hit.

In 1971, the theme from “Shaft” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and won an Academy Award for best original theme song. The song and the movie score also won Grammy awards for best original score and movie theme.

Hayes won a third Grammy for pop instrumental performance with the title track to his 1972 “Black Moses” album.

From the late 1990s through 2006, Hayes provided the voice of “Chef” for Comedy Central’s raunchy animated series “South Park,” as well as numerous songs.

The role introduced him to a new generation of fans, but he left after the show lampooned his own religion, the Church of Scientology.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. In a CNN interview at the time, Hayes credited his success to “adjusting and constantly evolving, expanding and trying to stay as young as I can.”

The new generation of popular musicians, he said, “could use a little more substance like we had in the day.”

“They’re standing on our shoulders. Some of them don’t realize [it] because they sample me so much,” he said.

His soundtrack for Shaft is perhaps one of the greatest things in life, a record that is constantly on at parties, while I’m cleaning, driving through town. There is no end to how much that record owns, just straight kills almost anything released currently. Isaac Hayes you will be missed.

Also, the track he did on South Park for “Chocolate Salty Balls” is one of the funniest thing that show has ever done. I think it was the same episode Cartman found out his mom was a German porn star because she was sleeping with everyone including Chef.

The obviousness of Chef singing about the recipe for his chocolate salty balls and how we should suck on them and put them in our mouths. Genius. They weren’t even trying to hide the subtext, which would have been one way to go, but going for the obvious sexual innuendo put it over the top. There is no denying this. There is no way you can say this song is not funny.

“I’ve played mothers to heroes and mothers to zeroes. I’ve played Irish mothers, Jewish mothers, Italian mothers, Southern mothers, mothers in plays by Neil Simon and Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. I’ve played mother to everyone but Attila the Hun,” she said famously about her career. It was the role of Bea Arthur’s mother that made us fall in love with.

I might be able to think of a reason or two why you’re crying buddy. And it doesn’t have anything to do with Brittany Spears playing as background music. Dude, man up. I know we’re all gonna miss Estelle Getty, but seriously. He’s probably crying because we’re about seven days too late with this lame obituary.

Carlin was to be awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on November 10th. He’s the award’s 11th recipient and it should be a teary affair. Previous winners include Richard Pryor, Carl Reiner, and Bob Newhart.

Carlin will best be remembered for his “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television” routine. Of course, those seven words, still to this day can’t be uttered, I think. Though I could be wrong. Regardless, he was full of piss and vinegar and the world loved him for it.

“When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail and exonerated when a Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying it was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.

“When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government’s authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.

“So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I’m perversely kind of proud of,” he told The Associated Press earlier this year.“

Stand up routine highlights after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stan Winston, 62, an Oscar-winning special and practical effects wizard, died today from Cancer at his home in Malibu.

Winston learned from the great Ray Harryhausen and brought to life the creatures in people’s favorite movies.� Whether it was the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the robots in The Terminator, the aliens in Alien, the monsters in Monster Squad and many many more Winston managed to make the unbelievable not just believable but terrifyingly real.

“The entertainment industry has lost a genius, and I lost one of my best friends with the death Sunday night of Stan Winston,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “Stan’s work and four Oscars speak for themselves and will live on forever. What will live forever in my heart is the way that Stan loved everyone and treated each of his friends like they were family.”

Sadly, Winston along with his team of coworkers from the Winston Effects Group were hard at work helping to bring alive G.I. Joe, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, Martin Scorcese’s Shutter Island and James Cameron’s Avatar. His most recent work was on this summer’s smash hit Iron Man.