RIP to an absolute Legend.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/04/10/mad-cartoonist-al-jaffee-dead/
Mad Magazine loomed large in my life and the lives of my family.
Al Jaffee, the ingenious Mad magazine illustrator who was as adept at creating wacky cartoon gags as he was at producing caustic social commentary, and whose drawings, he cheerfully suggested, helped corrupt the minds of generations of young Americans, died April 10 at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 10
He was still 10 at heart.
multiple organ failure
I canât deny, if not for that one scene in Beetlejuice, would I have known as much about Harry Belafonte as I do now? One way of looking at that is itâs kind of sad. Such an incredible artist and person, and I only know them because one of their songs was used in a funny scene in a popular movie.
But looking at it another way, itâs much less sad. Thanks to the soundtrack selection for a movie I spent way more time in my life paying attention to Belafonteâs work, in and outside of music, than I otherwise would have. RIP to a legend.
About two weeks ago I spent a full day listening to him. He brought so much joy you the world.
Jerry Springer
Thatâs a name I havenât heard in a long time. Didnât realize he was that old either.
It was not until recently that someone let me know of his follow-up show, baggage. It is a good watch if you are into reality-based dating game shows.
People outside of the CT/NY area probably donât know anything about Stew Leonard. Iâve definitely talked about it on GeekNights at some point, but his store is quite significant in my life.
The man himself I know little about other than that he started the store, put his name on it, and also went to jail for tax fraud at some point.
The stores are really something special I think. When I was still living at home the family would go there regularly as a special event. Imagine going to a grocery store being something the whole family loves to do together. And then you get special foods there that canât be easily gotten anywhere else that you can enjoy, that make the next week or so just a little bit more special than the average week.
When I went to college I missed that store, but we had Wegmanâs. Wegmanâs is an amazing grocery store, but it wasnât, and still isnât. Stew Leonardâs. Itâs not an entertaining place to go. It doesnât have that many special foods you canât get at other groceries. Trader Joe does have the special foods factor, but going to the store isnât an enjoyable event in and of itself.
Once I was living in Beacon, and had a car, I was able to conveniently drive past one of the few stores on the path between Beacon and my childhood home. Iâd often stop there very late at night shortly before they closed. I would breeze through a mostly empty store, loading up on all the good stuff in a short amount of time.
The man made the store, but to my knowledge he hasnât been super directly involved in quite some time. The store lives on, so I donât really care too much about a rich old dude who did crimes. That said, the stores wouldnât be there without him, so I do thank him for having that impact on my life.
Fellas, itâs been good to know ya
https://itrwrestling.com/news/wwe-hall-of-famer-superstar-billy-graham-passes-away-at-age-79/ Iâm putting this here because anyone who is a fan of Hulk Hogan needs to realize this was the wrestler he got the majority of his persona from.
Truly the greatest running back in NFL history. Pretty impressive acting career as well, considering. Quite a handful of people have taken the career path from athlete to actor, but Jim Brown maybe the best I can think of other than maybe Dwayne âThe Rockâ Johnson.
For as great as Jim Brown was, we canât ignore that he had a host of inexcusable domestic violence issues. It doesnât excuse it one bit, but you gotta wonder how much CTE and other brain-related trauma affected him considering the era in which he played, and the length of his career.
At least within the realm of sports I think Jimâs accomplishments are underappreciated by the youth. He wasnât a QB, he played in Cleveland, and he stopped playing before most (all) of us were born. But back in those days, there was a lot more run game and a lot less passing game. He was probably the most impactful and important player on the field in most games he played in.
Iâve always found it interesting that his career wasnât ended by injury, contract negotiations or some league violation. He had to announce his retirement due to the movie he was in, The Dirty Dozen, was running over shooting schedule and would conflict with training camp.
Nowadays I feel like itâs very easy to know of popular musicians without actually knowing them. Iâve heard of people like Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Drake, The Weeknd, etc. But I could not without the aid of the Internet recognize any song by any of them. I could probably guess, but I canât name or sing one from my head.
That wasnât as true in the pre-Internet times. When people got music from radio and television, big artists were big. You knew them and their sound whether you were directly their fan or not.
Was I ever a Tina Turner fan? No. I didnât buy any of her albums, go to her concerts, or seek her out at any point in time. Yet somehow of course I know her songs. I can recognize her voice anywhere. If her music is on, of course itâs a great pleasure to hear it.
RIP to one of the all time greats. Here is a song of hers most appropriate for this community.
Iâm always a little embarrassed how shallow my knowledge of Turnerâs discography is. I know a handful of tunes from her time with Ike and some of her Renaissance hits, and I donât particularly care for the latter, but my favorite cut by her is an exceptionally deep cut to the point where I have to upload it to Google Drive to share it with you all because copyright bots keep taking it off Soundcloud even when I upload it privately. Itâs a rendition of Come Together (which I am aware was a standard of her set for decades) backed by both her usual band and the London Symphony Orchestra. It was recorded for the titanic flop of a film All This and World War II which has a stellar soundtrack that has never and probably will never be rereleased. This is my own personal rip from the vinyl.
My first experience with Tina Turner was from her MTV video Whatâs Love got to do with it. This and her role as the villian in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and the title song she did. R.I.P
