[Source]

Arthur C. Clarke has died in Sri-Lanka, at age 90.  Now I’m by no means a big reader, I’d love to be, but I really never have the time.  Still, from where I’m typing this I can count 25 books authored by Mr. Clarke on my bookshelf.  His stories are an amazing blend of science [...]

Wow, here’s an unexpected blast from the past, Paul Raven, bass player for industrial bands that I used to love like Pigface and Murder, Inc., as well as Killing Joke and Ministry contributer, has died in his sleep of a heart attack in France at the age of 46. “MINISTRY bassist Paul Raven was [...]

Hard bob pioneer Max Roach died last week at 83 in Manhattan. His contributions to Jazz are immense, as he likely played on far more Jazz recordings than I knew about, over 70 in all. He’ll always be one of the top Jazz drummers, and someone I’ll listen to for the rest of my days, [...]

I’ve been reading a bunch of reviews about Elliot Smith’s new release, New Moon while playing it on the iPod. It’s a compilation of mostly acoustic bsides and demos from his fertile period between 1995-1997 when he recorded for Kill Rock Stars, and includes gems that folks familiar with Elliot’s music will enjoy uncovering. [...]

UPDATE 10/31/2007: “Jeanette Sliwinski of Morton Grove was found guilty of three counts of reckless homicide with mental illness, as a grueling two-week trial concluded in the Skokie courthouse. Her sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 26, where she could receive up to 10 years in custody, prosecutors said.” Full coverage 
Also, a fellow poster on digg.com [...]

Writer Kurt Vonnegut has died at age 84. “Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night [...]

Sol Lewitt, a great American artist whose work covered minimal and conceptual abstract expressionism, died Sunday morning in New York City at 78. “LeWitt is one of the key artists of the 1960s. His work bridges Minimal and Conceptual art, movements that abandoned the emphasis on psychological content and gestural form typifying Abstract Expressionism [...]

While certainly putting the cart before the horse, Morrissey has chosen where he wants to be buried; Los Angeles celebrity cemetery Hollywood Forever, right next to Johnny Ramone. “I like that cemetery. I stumbled across Johnny Ramone’s stone and thought it was very nicely placed,” he told The Daily Express. “I sat there for [...]

When I was a kid Cheerios were my favorite cereal, hell, I remember ~10 years back eating them at night after my wife and I would get home from bars, and I still eat them off an on to this day. Any parent is going to have a personal relationship with them since it’s [...]

While it’s old news now, legendary soul singer James Brown passed away early in the morning on Christmas Day in Atlanta. He was 73. I found it funny that there was an article out yesterday stating that James Brown may ultimately have been more influential than Elvis. Uh, *may have been*? WTF, [...]

Not much to say on this one, while it’s shame it closed, I sure am glad it opened; it changed a lot about rock, giving bands like Television, Talking Heads, Blonde and (of course) The Ramones, a fighting chance against Disco and Donnie and Marie. “It was the final last call at CBGB last night. [...]

From Austin the sad news comes that Don Walser has died at 72, from complications from diabetes. “Walser, who turned 72 last Thursday, was a country music icon in Austin. He had the fortune of a late-life career revival. He was a regular performer at Jovita’s, The Broken Spoke, the Continental Club. And he was [...]

Sleater-Kinney is breaking up, or going on ‘indefinite hiatus’, but either way, this is disappointing news, especically since their last release, The Woods, was their first on big label, and so well recieved by critics (not to mention making my ‘Best of 2005‘ list). The posting on their site tells it all, “After eleven [...]