Archive for December, 2021

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Obit watch: December 15, 2021.

Wednesday, December 15th, 2021

Frank “Frankie” Little Jr., a guitarist and songwriter with the O’Jays.

Little, born in 1943 and raised in Cleveland, was a guitarist and songwriter for The O’Jays in the mid-1960s. Eddie Levert, the lead singer for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band, told WEWS-TV Little moved with the group to California that decade, but didn’t stay on the West Coast.

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“He could have been a great entity in the music business, but he was in love and love drove him back to Cleveland,” said Levert, who lost track of his one-time bandmate in the ensuing years.

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Little was only with the band for a short time, The O’Jays said in a statement to Rolling Stone. He worked with Levert on a handful of songs, including 1964’s “Do the Jerk” and 1966’s “Pretty Words.”
“He came out with us when we first ventured out of Cleveland and traveled to Los Angeles, but was also in love with a woman in Cleveland that he missed so much that he soon returned back to Cleveland after a short amount of time,” the band said.

Mr. Little died sometime around or prior to February of 1982, but his death was not announced until recently, when his remains were identified.

The partial remains — first discovered in February 1982 in a garbage bag behind a now-shuttered business in Twinsburg, Ohio — were identified as Little’s using DNA provided by a close relative, police said in a statement Tuesday.
“In October 2021, the DNA Doe Project provided the names of potential living relatives, who were able to provide Frank’s name,” Twinsburg police said, adding that Little’s identity was later confirmed by a medical examiner who ruled his death a homicide.

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Little’s partial remains were found in a garbage bag after a worker discovered a skull in snowfall behind the business, WEWS reported. The bones and body were “cut up” prior to being placed in bags, according to an original coroner’s report obtained by the station.

Cara Williams, actress. 55 credits in IMDB.

High points include “The Defiant Ones”, “We Go to Monte Carlo”, “The Man From the Diners’ Club”, and the wife of Harry Morgan’s character in “Pete and Gladys”.

Posted in Law, Movies, Music, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Look! I made a thing!

Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

Well, I followed through on at least one of my threats:

Onion dip, made from scratch using Alton Brown’s recipe.

I was genuinely surprised at how much liquid the onions gave up after I added the brown sugar, salt, and baking soda and let them sit for about 15 minutes. I was also a little surprised at how long it took to cook them down.

How does it taste? Well, in keeping with our Jeremy Clarkson theme…(warning! Language!)

(more…)

Posted in Food | Comments Closed

Tweet of the day.

Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

There’s a backstory to that tweet.

Here it is.

Matthias said he was struck by how well Cashe knew his soldiers — their strengths, weaknesses, and whatever challenges they were facing — and how much he cared for them. He “talked about them like they were his children,” he said. Dodge who was a squad leader under Cashe, recalled once having marital problems while he was deployed to Iraq. While they had some — very rare and brief — down time, Dodge said Cashe “called my wife from Iraq and talked to her at length.” He then came and told Dodge to call her as well.
“‘I know you’re having problems, and I want you to have your head clear while you’re out here doing stuff,’” Dodge recalled Cashe telling him. “At the time I was kind of angry because I was tired, I just wanted to sleep. But he had taken his time when he could have been sleeping … to try to take care of me. And that’s something I’ll never forget.”

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Once Cashe was loaded onto the medevac with the rest of the wounded, they were flown to the nearest military hospital in Iraq. Dodge recounted the medevac flight to Balad Air Base where the wounded were triaged and treated. “Sgt. Cashe, the whole time there, I could hear him yelling ‘how are my guys? What’s going on with them? Where are they at?’ Kind of refusing, almost, treatment until he knew that we were all being taken care of.”

Posted in Heroism, History, Leadership | Comments Closed

Department of I Am Required To Blog This.

Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

Even though (as I have said in the past) I find CrimeReads 50% worthwhile and 50% pretentious annoying crap. This falls on the worthwhile side:

“Mannix Was Vintage TV’s Perfect Savvy PI“.

I particularly approve of the author calling out Gail Fisher’s contribution, and his mention of the recurring “old Army buddy” trope.

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, TV | Comments Closed

Very quick note on film.

Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

I initially wasn’t going to blog this, but decided to throw it up here just for the sake of discussion:

The 2021 list of films added to the National Film Registry.

My quick takes: I like “Stop Making Sense”, and it is a great concert film, but is it of “cultural, historic or aesthetic importance”?

I approve of “Strangers on a Train”, but I haven’t seen that since the days UT had a film program…

“The Long Goodbye”? Seriously? Do not get me started on that one.

I have never seen “Pink Flamingos”, and I’m not really that interested in John Waters films in general. But I’m reminded of Roger Ebert’s review:

Note: I am not giving a star rating to “Pink Flamingos,” because stars simply seem not to apply. It should be considered not as a film but as a fact, or perhaps as an object.

Posted in Movies | Comments Closed

True crime watch.

Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

The Maund Automotive Group runs a lot of automobile dealerships, many in the Austin area. Erik Charles Maund is a partner in the group.

Erik Charles Maund has been indicted on murder for hire charges.

Allegedly, he asked a former girlfriend in Nashville if he could see her while he was in the area. Her new partner replied back and tried to blackmail Maund (who is/was married).

As a result, Maund is accused of hiring Peled and Brockway, in addition to North Carolina resident Adam Carey, 30, to help him deal with the threats and demands. Peled is a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces and owns the Austin-based Speartip Security services business. The DOJ says the business advertised it helped clients respond to extortion demands.
The department says Maund withdrew $15,000 from his account on the same day an “intelligence report” was prepared and given to Peled. Next, the department says Carey and Brockway traveled to Nashville to watch Williams and Lanway.

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The indictment says Maund transferred around $750,000 via wire from his bank account to an account controlled by Peled — as payment for the kidnapping and murder of Williams and Lanway.
According to the arrest affidavit, Brockway and Carey murdered Lanway and Williams with several gun shots to the head before disposing of them at a construction site.

Of course, Mr. Maund and the other parties involved are entitled to the presumption of innocence. But the news coverage of this should be interesting to watch…

Posted in Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 12, 2021.

Sunday, December 12th, 2021

Anne Rice.

Everybody’s been on this like flies on a severed cow’s head in a Damien Hirst installation, but I wanted to note it for two reasons:

1. The hysterical record.

2. When I looked early this morning (probably around 7:30 AM) the NYT had what I thought was a very brief and superficial obit up, with no mention that a longer one would be coming. When I checked later in the afternoon, that one has been slightly expanded and the usual “a fuller obituary will be published soon” note was there. The current obit seems to be the end product (modulo any corrections that come in).

Noted:

By her late teens, she had become disillusioned with the Catholic faith.
“I have a great deal of anger against a church that would teach kids a 7-year-old could burn in hell for French kissing, right alongside a Nazi sadist,” she told The Times in 1988. In the late 1990s, though, she would return to a belief in God after decades of atheism; over the next several years she wrote two novels inspired by the life of Jesus, as well as a memoir, “Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Journey” (2008).

Posted in Books, Obits, Religion | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 11, 2021.

Saturday, December 11th, 2021

Michael Nesmith, of the Monkees.

The four members were picked to fit types. Davy Jones, a British vocalist, was the cute scamp; Micky Dolenz, the drummer and primary lead singer, was the wild jokester; and Peter Tork, the bass player, was the lovable dim bulb. Mr. Nesmith, a guitarist and occasional singer, was variously described as the cerebral Monkee, the introspective Monkee, the sardonic Monkee, the quiet Monkee.
“He has that dry Will Rogers sense of humor,” Mr. Dolenz told Rolling Stone in 2012, characterizing Mr. Nesmith’s real persona. “That’s probably one of the reasons they cast him.”

He was also a music video pioneer:

In 1977 he recorded a song called “Rio” for the Island Records label, which asked him to make some kind of promotional film for it.
“They wanted me to stand in front of a microphone and sing,” Mr. Nesmith was quoted as saying in the 2011 book “I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution,” by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum. But he did something different.
“I wrote a series of cinematic shots: me on a horse in a suit of light, me in a tux in front of a 1920s microphone, me in a Palm Beach suit dancing with a woman in a red dress, women with fruit on their head flying through the air with me,” he said.
“As we edited these images,” he added, “an unusual thing started to emerge: The grammar of film, where images drove the narrative, shifted over to where the song drove the narrative, and it didn’t make any difference that the images were discontinuous. It was hyper-real. Even people who didn’t understand film, including me, could see this was a profound conceptual shift.”
Almost by accident, he had made one of the first music videos as that term came to be understood. It got some play in Europe, but Mr. Nesmith was struck by the fact that there was no outlet in the United States for showing such works, which a few other pop and rock stars were also beginning to make (and some, like the Beatles, had made earlier).
In 1979 he and the director William Dear developed a TV show, “Popclips,” for Nickelodeon, a recently inaugurated channel for children that was looking to add teenagers to its audience. “Popclips” showed nothing but music videos, introduced by a V.J. The show is often said to have helped inspire the creation of MTV in 1981, although accounts of the various people who claim to have had a role in MTV’s emergence differ widely.

Posted in Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Tweet of the day.

Friday, December 10th, 2021

I don’t live in NH, so I don’t have a roo in this fight. But I did read the text of the proposed legislation.

While I am generally supportive, my one concern is that the appeal process for denial of a permit is to the state fish and game commission. I think it would be better if the appeal process was handled by a separate dedicated judicial body…

…a “kangaroo court”, if you will.

(I’ll see myself out.)

Posted in Law, Mammals, Politics | Comments Closed

Super quick legal note.

Friday, December 10th, 2021

21 new charges against Alex Murdaugh.

Posted in Law, Murdaugh | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 10, 2021.

Friday, December 10th, 2021

Al Unser Sr., one of the greatest racing drivers ever.

Unser’s four Indianapolis 500 wins came in 1970, 1971, 1978 and 1987. The final victory made him the oldest driver, at 47, to win the United States’ premier auto race.

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Al Unser first competed in the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, running the race 27 times, the third-most in history. He led for 644 laps over his career, which remains a record.
“His quiet and humble approach outside of the car, combined with his fierce competitive spirit and fearless talent behind the wheel, made Al a fan favorite,” J. Douglas Boles, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said in a statement.
Unser’s four wins at the Indianapolis 500 is a record shared by A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves, who won this year’s race.

Demaryius Thomas, former wide receiver with the Denver Broncos. He retired earlier this year, though he did not play in 2020.

Noted here because he was only 33. I don’t want to speculate, but other reports I’ve seen quote his family as stating he was having medical issues.

Posted in NFL, Obits, Sports | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: December 9, 2021.

Thursday, December 9th, 2021

Lina Wertmüller, Italian director.

In the broad sense, Ms. Wertmüller was a political filmmaker, but no one could ever quite figure out what the politics were.

By way of Lawrence, Christos Achilleos, SF artist.

Posted in Art, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

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