Been and Gone: David Rakoff

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David Rakoff
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Ugh, this is just terrible. David Rakoff?! I knew he was fighting cancer but for some reason I thought he was in the clear. It just never made sense that he could actually die. What a sad, sad thing. I remember seeing him hanging out at the UCB Theater one time soon after I moved to NYC and felt like I should probably resist the urge to say hello and declare my devotion to him because, hey, it's New York, and folks are more sophisticated here. I've since realized that NYC is just as full of stone-cold starf*ckers as any other place and I should have totally just jumped in his lap and whispered my name over and over in his ear and it would have all been fine. I really wish I'd done that now because at least then I'd be able to say I once talked to one of the most hilarious writers of our time.

What a loss to the world. And guess what boneheads are still alive across this great nation. That's right: all of them, Katie.

I don't even know what to say, this is so sad. But, hey, let's take comfort in this quotation from the man's very own adorable mouth nozzle:

“There are many things in this world that are an outrage, to be sure, but death at our current life expectancy doesn’t strike me as one of them. Maybe I sound like some Victorian who felt that forty years ought to be enough for any man, but one of the marks of a life well lived has to be reaching a state of finally getting it, of not needing more, and of being able to sign off with something approaching peace of mind.”

Wow. Words to shoot for. RIP, Rakoff.

Been and Gone: Gore Vidal

The great Gore Vidal, a spectacularly talented screenwriter, novelist, and hilariously bitchy critic of American politics and culture, has died, so See Tim Blog has a sad today. There'll never be another like him--he lived nine lives and was a pioneer in, as conservative icon William F. Buckley would put it, being an enthusiastic apologist for the homosexual "affliction."

Below is a snippet of an interview with him for the film The Celluloid Closet, in which he discusses how he got Charlton Heston to unwittingly play a big old gay homo in the movie Ben Hur. The whole movie (Celluloid) is a must-see, especially the exquisite few seconds where Vidal describes a Disney exec as "looking not unlike Mickey Mouse."

Also, read Myra Breckinridge. It's a hoot.

Been and Gone: Elizabeth Taylor

Some would argue that the performance she'll always be remembered for is the one she gave in her Diamonds commercial ("These have always brought me luck"), but that is wrong. Her best-ever appearance on film and the one that has earned her her own private steam room in heaven was her role as the scenery-chewing harpy in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. This is the movie that made me want to be a sloppy alcoholic when I grew up.

RIP, Liz.

Been and Gone: Trish Keenan from Broadcast

You know what I'm really tired of? People dying. Trish Keenan was the lead singer of woozy drugged-out retro-futurist space poppers Broadcast and she has died at the age of 42—42!—from complications from pneumonia. So sad. Just not right at all.



R.I.P., Miss Keenan.

Stay alive, folks.

Been and Gone: Satoshi Kon

This is depressing. Legendary Japanese anime director Satoshi Kon has died of cancer at age 47. His movies were incredible: Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress (trailer above), Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers (trailer below)... ugh, it makes me sad just recounting them. Rich, complex, gorgeous movies that demand multiple viewings.

Way, way too soon.

R.I.P. Kon-san.

Gaymerica Mourns: Rue McClanahan RIP

This Golden Girls death trend absolutely must stop because it's getting depressing. Rue was only 76! She did a sex scene in that Sordid Lives cable series just a couple years ago!

But now all we have is memories. I remember when I was just a young boy five years ago and I'd just moved to NYC. I was starting a new job in Chelsea and I had to be there on my first day at 1:30. Tragically, Rue, Betty, and Bea were appearing at Barnes and Nobel on 6th Avenue to sign copies of their recent DVD at 12:30. Not enough time! I decided to go and at least get some photos. But the ladies took their sweet time coming out to the table, and by the time 1:15 rolled around I knew i would have to leave without even getting a glimpse.

But then, like the Angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary, Rue McClanahan descended from a side entrance and started making her way through the crowd toward me (and toward the back room where Bea and Betty were camped out, probably sipping vodka and insulting each other). My sweaty fingers snapped a few priceless pics as she waltzed through her sea of fans smelling of Mint Juleps and collard greens. After a few quick snaps, I dashed off to work, satisfied that I'd just been within a few feet of the great lady who once uttered the immortal words, "Let's rent an adult video, drink mimosas, and french kiss the pillows!"




Let's honor our Rue by watching one of her best ever Golden Girls scenes, from the season 1 episode "A Little Romance."

Been and Gone: LOST!!!

God knows what Jimmy and I will obsess over now. Maybe Cougar Town?

Srysly, life is completely empty now, booh.

Best quote in the history of television:

"“I just got pounded, man."
--sidewise Boone

Been and Gone: Zelda Rubenstein

Oh, Zelda. Everything I've ever learned about poltergeists, bringing rubbers to the gay bar, not going into the light, and dealing with Craig T. Nelson I learned from you. RIP, baby.



Y'all hang back. You're jamming her frequencies.

Good Lord, Everyone's Dying

Teddy, John Hughes, Dominick Dunne, Billy Mays, Walter Cronkite, Robert Novak, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson. This is the summer of death is it not? There's only one thing to do to stave off despair: someone needs to hurry up and remix the above speech into a hot dance track. Hurry up!

Been and Gone: Michael Jackson

So I was at work typing 'n stuff when I get the above picture message from my friend Kristen. I think to myself, "wow, that's kinda tasteless, cause isn't he in the hospital or something?" Then, within one or two seconds, I get a message from the Associate Press in my email inbox with the subject line "Michael Jackson Dies."

So my friend Kristen, a painter, scooped the AP, an official news source.

Kristen probably also knew last week that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was "hiking the Appalachian Trail" in Buenos Aires and just didn't tell anyone.

Been and Gone: Bea Arthur

Who the hell says "thrice"?

Bye, Bea!

Been and Gone: The Cramps' Lux Interior

God bless him, Lux Interior was a beautiful nut. I got my love of shiny shiny black jackets from him, oh yes I did. He apparently had a heart condition, which is poetic, I guess, but obviously still very sad, as he was only--oh, shit, he was 62! Still, he was only 62.

RIP, Lux, you nasty, wonderful man.