Alain Delon

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2n6y4g700o.amp

Phil Donahue is now best known as one of the only mainstream media figures to risk his career by opposing the Iraq invasion of 2003 (and he was duly fired by MSNBC for his efforts that year).  Although I don't have many clear memories of the man, since he was predominantly a daytime broadcaster when I was in elementary school, he was an assumed presence of daytime TV long before that format became dominated by Springer drama and paternity tests.  As middle-brow as Donahue was, it's hard not to feel the loss of even the modest integrity that he represented.



 

I watched Donahue, and he definitely eventually fell down the "I Love My Dog's Beautiful Cock" Jerry Springer rabbit-hole too. You could tell his heart wasn't in it though.


 

In an interesting cultural convergence, Bill Burr, on his podcast, was defending La Piscine which he watched recently on Criterion, because after Delon's death someone was virally spreading a bad review of the film on social media.  Burr said it was the NYTimes, but trying to find it, I think he must have been referring to Richard Brody's pan in The New Yorker when the film was rereleased in 2021.  What Burr was calling out wasn't just that the critic didn't like the movie, but had gone further by insinuating the false motives of those who did like the movie.

One thing I know for certain, I do not trust any critic who claims that the remake, A Bigger Splash, is the better film.
 

Rock wrote:

Not his finest hour by any means, but I do think it’s a testament to his greatness as an actor that he steals the 3 hr Guyana Tragedy TV movie from Powers Boothe in his few minutes of screentime.

Nice.




And I confess I had completely forgotten that was him in Dr. Strangelove. 

Hate to change the subject, but a few days back we lost Herbie Flowers, a prolific session bass player from the '70s.

The indisputable classics to his name include his easily recognizable contributions to Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side", Harry Nilsson's "Jump Into The Fire" and David Essex's "Rock On".  He also played on "Space Oddity", "All Those Years Ago", "Burn Down the Mission" and many others.
 

This is turning out to be a good week for Death. 



Man that moment at 4:20, oooh! Makes me shiver every time!

I guess Mister Beverly wasn't too interested in a world without James Earl Jones in it. 
I feel like spending just a little more time on James Earl Jones. There's no question he's earned it. If I attempted a proper eulogy I'd die before finishing it, but some good folks still exist who can handle the job. Lots of corporate slime machines opted to claim his ass instead, rather than show some respect and express gratitude for their good fortune in having been blessed by his greatness (Walt Disney Company scumbags released a headline calling him "Disney Legend James Earl Jones," and CNN called him "The Voice of CNN"). But some worthwhile pieces were published showing the proper respect, including those by NPR and Lucasfilm. 

YouTube is full of compilations and we can always click our way over there if we so choose. But I see no reason to not include one worthy of the halls of Plato Shrimp:


 

Let's not act like we actually think that Tito Jackson ever really contributed anything musical to the world.  He didn't have the best voice, and session musicans played all of that stuff on the records (and background musicians on the live shows).  Isn't it enough that Tito created the meme of the perfectly superfluous Jackson?

If you're curious, this is the only real Tito Jackson song that he ever produced for the group over their existence, and so, if you will indulge, let's just raise the glasses for old times sake and repeat, "Tito, get me some tissue."




 

Nick Gravenites, "Gravy", is another figure who's known more as an insider than a performer, but was a resident blues freak on the Haight-Ashbury scene, contributed important songs, "Born in Chicago" and "East West", to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and later joining forces with the PBBB guitarist Mike Bloomfield to form The Electric Flag, which was Gravenites' most prominent success.  He is considered to have composed most of The Trip soundtrack.  Gravenites also produced and wrote for Quicksilver Messenger Service and Janis Joplin's Kosmic Blues Band.

Made it to 85.