The RIP thread...

The sun ain't gonna shine for Scott Walker anymore.

Bummer. I was well into his Brel period when I was a teenager.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LDgfdU-RLg

Oh nooooooo :(

His solo stuff was very obscure but absolutely amazing. And his work with Sunn O))).

Scott Walker, noooo :(

A true, bona fide genius.

Genuinely saddened to hear about Scott Walker. I've beed a big fan for the past 10+ years. Hearing the opening track from Tilt for the first time, after first becoming familiar with his older work, was a significant moment.

Sad news, such a visionary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdEieO7lqBQ

https://youtu.be/OBL0ZHXbzYg

Argh. Loved his stuff. This particular track has been stuck in my head for years. Was doing my best version of it on the bike once, thinking no-one could hear me only to realise a dude had been riding behind me the whole time.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=cVwB1cjBs00

RIP Ranking Roger, The Beat :(
Sad times only 56

https://youtu.be/nkC-vEQRN8w

A favorite modern track

That is terrible! An amazing voice is lost.

You can't knock Nip's hustle, but you can shoot him dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMq8mY4h-I8

Bill Heine, who fought the law (or at least Oxford City Council's planning department) and won.

Going past that house as a kid is one of my earliest memories. I mean, I still get excited as an adult seeing it, but imagine being four years old and your parents pointing it out and saying "Oh no, look what happened!" I actually thought it was a real shark for quite a while.

So, thanks Bill!

He did it as a protest against the local council’s absurd planning laws, and it actually worked. He did plan to take it down later but such was local support that he just kept it there. Good man.

There's a web-site about it:

http://www.headington.org.uk/shark/

From that, it seems he didn't specifically do it as a protest against the council's planning guidance (or indeed national planning legislation), but ...

The shark was to express someone feeling totally impotent and ripping a hole in their roof out of a sense of impotence and anger and desperation…. It is saying something about CND, nuclear power, Chernobyl and Nagasaki.

The subsequent planning battle was fairly predictable, really, except for the Planning Inspector's unorthodox ruling.

RIP.

Pete Cashmore, good writer on all kinds of subjects including his own struggle with depression. Suicide.

Another article on the Headington shark:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/07/it-went-in-beautifully-as-the-postman-was-passing-the-story-of-the-headington-shark-bill-heine

Rex Garrod

The Secret Life of Machines with Rex and Tim Hunkin was an amazing documentary series.

Rex was a one-off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfr3_AwuO9Y

Comedian Ian Cognito - I saw him years ago he absolutely tore the roof off the place

https://www.beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/7036/news-ian-cognito-dies?fbclid=IwAR3nE3kgpOAXpXzaMtn7w_cHtEKSv1XN9dkL0-JBg3grmeDijM2cL7vuYJU

Star Wars, by the look of the new trailer

Gene Wolfe, yesterday.

If only the canon law would suffer that fate.
Sad to see such a beautiful structure gone of course.

My french wife is openly weeping tonight :(