Passages

[TechnicolorAcid]

O.J. Simpson

Now we’ll never know who did it. Joking aside, he had a good charisma and his Naked Gun role is pretty fun so I will be rewatching them in tribute.

[Randall Maysin Again]

I believe the second Naked Gun movie includes jokes about his character's marital problems and even about murdering his wife... It's quite prescient!

[colinr0380]

He's also one of the supporting cast members in The Towering Inferno.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Norm Macdonald had OJ's number. Ryan Murphy's The People vs OJ Simpson had an oddly muted 'Juice' (Gooding Jr) but Schwimmer/Travolta/Vance were on great form.

[Lemmy Caution]

My father was a Hertz lifer from circa 1965-2000. So my parents met OJ a few times over the years at corporate events. Especially in the 70's & 80's when the corporate HQ was in midtown Manhattan, 660 Madison Ave just south of Central Park.

My only OJ story:
When the US Tv network cut away from the NBA Finals to show the White Bronco slow speed chase presuming there was a real chance OJ might suicide out on live TV, I was watching in China where they continued to show the hoops action uninterrupted, just without announcers.

The trial was interesting. Good lawyers and significant financial resources can unearth all sorts of investigation missteps. Look at the Baldwin Rust case for the past year or two. One good result is that most police crime labs improved their methods, handling and documentation. Some police departments started checking for known racists among their number, and adding more training.

Otherwise, OJ was perhaps the best running back I ever saw. Such a combination of power, speed, balance, vision. Earl Campbell was stronger, Barry Sanders more elusive, Walter Payton more durable. Eric Dickerson was quite similar to OJ's strength and skill. Too bad the NFL stopped handing the ball off. But it was thrilling watching OJ blaze through a frozen field in Buffalo. Sort of the football counterpart to Dr. J in his physicality and grace.

Lastly I always remember a joke from OJ's SNL opening monologue. He's made up as a Conehead for some pleasant helmet jokes. Then says that as he got famous playing football reporters started asking his opinion of the situation in the Middle East. "I was a bit overwhelmed. I mean, I've been to Detroit once or twice but ..."
I liked the skewering of celebrity culture, and his willingness to play into the dumb jock stereotype. That joke's stayed in my head for nearly half a century.

[The Curious Sofa]

He's also one of the supporting cast members in The Towering Inferno.

Which inspired one of the best scenes in Alan Parker's Fame.

In any case, good riddance to bad rubbish.

[hearthesilence]

There's no question the guy was guilty of horrendous spousal abuse over the course of their entire relationship. No conspiracy fantasy is going to erase that.

Robert MacNeil, journalist and co-founder of the show that would eventually become the NewsHour on PBS.

[flyonthewall2983]

Eleanor Coppola

[hearthesilence]

I think she had been sick for a while. Sofia missed the NYFF premiere of Priscilla to be with her.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, Sofia mentioned she was in very poor health last fall in her New Yorker interview. It's actually kind-of touching, she says something like.. while she usually is the one feeling connected to her characters, she didn't feel as much of a connection to Priscilla, but was drawn to how her mother and other ancestors likely connected with that experience. She talks about bringing her mother to set and her reactions and everything. A nice sendoff love letter of sorts, intentional or otherwise

[esl]

Composer/Film Scorer Richard Horowitz dies at age 75 reportedly from Parkinsons. Best-known for his soundtrack to Oliver Stone’s 1999 film "Any Given Sunday."

[ellipsis7]

Adriano Apra

[flyonthewall2983]

Dickey Betts

[hearthesilence]

Dickey Betts

Love the Allman Brothers. Betts probably wrote their best songs. Those first four studio LP's (and of course their legendary Fillmore recordings from 1971) are all essential, IMHO.

Having said that, one of my biggest regrets in terms of live shows is never seeing them play at the Beacon even though half of their famed original line-up had already departed one way or another. Their latter day line-up with Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes never recorded a classic studio album, but they actually challenged the original group when it came to live performance.

[FrauBlucher]

I too regret never catching any of their shows here in NYC. For decades they would have these annual long engagements at the Beacon. Live at the Filmore East is one of my favorite old school rock albums

[hearthesilence]

I was stunned (several years ago) to find out that footage exists of one of their Fillmore performances with Duane. Part of “Wolfgang’s Vault” which is an enormous stash of video recordings Bill Graham had the foresight to make of a ton of shows that took place at one of his venues. Duane and Dickey play some great solos here. (This was just days after Hendrix died and months before they recorded the shows for their official live album.)

[hearthesilence]

Barbara O. Jones, who emerged from the L.A. Rebellion movement of Black filmmakers at UCLA in the 1970s to star in Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust

[swo17]

From a couple weeks ago--Graeme Naysmith, guitarist for the pretty great 4AD band Pale Saints

[Big Ben]

Daniel Dennett

[hearthesilence]

From social media:

We are heartbroken by the news that our dear friend, the revered producer & Blue Note historian Michael Cuscuna, has passed away at age 75. It would be impossible to overstate Michael’s importance to the Blue Note legacy, which he worked tirelessly to fortify for nearly 50 years going back to the mid-1970s when he began a series of reissues & archival discoveries that brought to light numerous treasures from the Blue Note vaults. He continued to release Blue Note catalog reissues on his own Mosaic Records during Blue Note’s dormancy in the early 1980s & was by Bruce Lundvall’s side as the label was relaunched in 1985. Plainly stated, Blue Note Records would not exist as it does today without the passion & dedication of Michael Cuscuna. RIP…

Michael was recently awarded a DownBeat Lifetime Achievement Award. Read more about his life & work: https://downbeat.com/news/detail/michae ... -recording

His contributions to jazz is incalculable but they’re not limited to jazz. One that sticks out is his work as a producer on Bonnie Raitt’s second album, still her best.

[beamish14]

Lourdes Portillo

[hearthesilence]

Chan Romero, who wrote and recorded "The Hippy Hippy Shake."

[MichaelB]

Laurent Cantet, one of the most incisive contemporary chroniclers of everyday working life.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Laurent Cantet, one of the most incisive contemporary chroniclers of everyday working life.

Indeed, Human Resources and The Class were fantastic films.

[colinr0380]

Time Out as well. The great majority of them collaborations with Robin Campillo (Campillo may be best known outside of his work with Cantet as the writer/director of the unforgettably eerily abstract sudden (re)immigration crisis film Les revenants/They Came Back, which is up there with Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse on that topic. And more recently for 120 BPM)

For UK forumites, the film of Cantet's that has been getting the most exposure on UK television in recent years is 2017's The Workshop (co-written by Cantet and Campillo), which regularly turns up on the BBC, so that may turn up again soon in the wake of this news.