RIP

[DapperButch]

Man. My sister and I used to love to sing to the Everly Brothers when we were kids. Mom and Dad used to play the tapes in the car.

[PearlsNLace]

Carl Goodman

Co-founder of Act Up

http://oblogdeeoblogda.me/2014/01/06...mmits-suicide/

[Kobi]

Russell Johnson, who played Professor Roy Hinkley on Gilligan's Island, has passed away at age 89.

Johnson was a busy but little-known character actor when he was cast in the slapstick 1960s comedy about seven people marooned on an uncharted Pacific island.

His character, high school science teacher Roy Hinkley, built generators and other gadgets out of scraps of junk found on the island. Johnson later joked that the one thing The Professor never figured out how to do was to fix the leaky boat so the group could get back to civilization.

[Kobi]

NEW YORK (AP) — The actor who played the agent on the hit 1970s sitcom "The Partridge Family" has died in Florida. Dave Madden was 82.

Madden was best known for his role as Reuben Kinkaid, who managed the family band and clashed with the precocious pre-teen bassist played by Danny Bonaduce (bahn-uh-DOO'-chee).

Before "The Partridge Family," Madden was part of the comedy ensemble on the "Laugh-In" variety series.

He later had a recurring role as a customer at Mel's Diner on the long-running sitcom "Alice."

Madden was born in Ontario, Canada, and grew up in Terre Haute, Ind.

He began show business as a nightclub comic and landed his first acting job on the short-lived sitcom "Camp Runamuck" in the mid-1960s.

[Jesse]

RIP

Geez, I remember him from all three of those shows. I don't feel old until I have a moment like this.

Originally Posted by Kobi

NEW YORK (AP) — The actor who played the agent on the hit 1970s sitcom "The Partridge Family" has died in Florida. Dave Madden was 82.

Madden was best known for his role as Reuben Kinkaid, who managed the family band and clashed with the precocious pre-teen bassist played by Danny Bonaduce (bahn-uh-DOO'-chee).

Before "The Partridge Family," Madden was part of the comedy ensemble on the "Laugh-In" variety series.

He later had a recurring role as a customer at Mel's Diner on the long-running sitcom "Alice."

Madden was born in Ontario, Canada, and grew up in Terre Haute, Ind.

He began show business as a nightclub comic and landed his first acting job on the short-lived sitcom "Camp Runamuck" in the mid-1960s.

[Jesse]

'Wizard of Oz' Munchkin dies

The Associated Press


LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ruth Robinson Duccini, the last of the original female Munchkins from the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz," has died. She was 95.
With her death, only one actor who played one of the original 124 Munchkins in the movie remains alive.


Duccini died of natural causes in Solari Hospice Care Center in Las Vegas on Thursday. Her death was confirmed by Stephen Cox, author of "The Munchkins of Oz." He says he learned of it from Duccini's son.
Duccini, born in Rush City, Minn., traveled to California with a troupe little people, and was cast in the MGM fantasy movie starring Judy Garland. Duccini was 4 feet tall. Cox provided a recent statement made by Duccini about her time on the movie set.
"It was long hours and heavy costumes. We didn't have much time for ourselves. It was all new to me then, and I loved being a part of what is now a classic," she said.


Duccini met her husband while working at MGM, and the two had a son and daughter. She worked as a "Rosie the Riveter" in Santa Monica, California, during World War II, using her short stature to squeeze into hard-to-reach parts of planes. She also appeared in the spoof "Under the Rainbow" starring Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher.


In her later years, Duccini appeared at festivals and screenings celebrating "The Wizard of Oz."


The only surviving original Munchkin is Jerry Maren, 93, of Los Angeles, who portrayed a member of the Lollipop Guild.

[Kobi]

Pete Seeger, the banjo-picking troubadour who sang for migrant workers, college students and star-struck presidents in a career that introduced generations of Americans to their folk music heritage, died on Monday at the age of 94.

Seeger – with his a lanky frame, banjo and full white beard – was an iconic figure in folk music. He performed with the great minstrel Woody Guthrie in his younger days and marched with Occupy Wall Street protesters in his 90s, leaning on two canes.

He wrote or co-wrote "If I Had a Hammer," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine." He lent his voice against Hitler and nuclear power. A cheerful warrior, he typically delivered his broadsides with an affable air and his banjo strapped on.

"Be wary of great leaders," he told the Associated Press two days after a 2011 Manhattan Occupy march. "Hope that there are many, many small leaders."

With The Weavers, a quartet organized in 1948, Seeger helped set the stage for a national folk revival. The group – Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman – churned out hit recordings of "Goodnight Irene," "Tzena, Tzena" and "On Top of Old Smokey."

Seeger also was credited with popularizing "We Shall Overcome," which he printed in his publication People's Song, in 1948. He later said his only contribution to the anthem of the civil rights movement was changing the second word from "will" to "shall," which he said "opens up the mouth better."

"Every kid who ever sat around a campfire singing an old song is indebted in some way to Pete Seeger," Arlo Guthrie once said.

Pete and Toshi Seeger were married July 20, 1943. The couple built their cabin in Beacon, N.Y., after World War II and stayed on the high spot of land by the Hudson River for the rest of their lives together. The couple raised three children. Toshi Seeger died in July at age 91.

His musical career was always braided tightly with his political activism, in which he advocated for causes ranging from civil rights to the cleanup of his beloved Hudson River. Seeger said he left the Communist Party around 1950 and later renounced it. But the association dogged him for years.

http://www.people.com/people/article...s-topheadlines

[The_Lady_Snow]

Award-winning Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead in Manhattan

Seems it was a drug over dose

>linkyloo<

[Mopsie]

Originally Posted by The_Lady_Snow

Award-winning Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead in Manhattan

Seems it was a drug over dose

No!!! I love him!

[Arwen]

Originally Posted by The_Lady_Snow

Award-winning Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead in Manhattan

Seems it was a drug over dose

>linkyloo<

That is such a waste of life. I liked him as Plutarch. Pisses me off to know we lost him to drugs.

[musicman]

I loved his portrayal of Truman Capote. He did a fantastic job. Was a gifted actor.

[Leigh]

So sad to know Philip died ~ very gifted actor

[C0LLETTE]

aaaargh...

[hagster]

I don't read this thread; I've been here once before and don't know why I poked my head in today. I'm literally in the middle of The Master, I pulled it up this morning because of him. I still have his imdb.com tab up because I was searching for the name of this movie. I had paused it to talk with a friend and jumped here to the planet before resuming.

WTF? I read Snow's headline, set the laptop aside before even knowing details and ran upstairs repeating, "No, no, no, no, no..." I'm beside myself right now. He's one of my favorites and once the denial wears off I'm really going to freak. Herion? God damm it!

[nanners]

Gwen Avery, singer/songwriter/musician, has died at the age of 71. Avery was best known for her composition “Sugar Mama”, which was featured on Olivia Records’ groundbreaking collection, Lesbian Concentrate, in 1977. Originally slated to release a solo album on Olivia, she toured with her labelmates Linda Tillery and Mary Watkins on the Varied Voices of Black Women Tour, which also featured poet Pat Parker and Vicki Randle providing supporting vocals and percussion.

Avery stood apart in the Women’s Music Movement: a woman of color who understood the connection between her grandmother’s juke joint and the women’s music movement that Olivia Records was at the center of. Avery was quoted as saying “I dressed differently. I would wear satin suits and platform shoes with an afro with neckties and beautiful silk shirts. They were wearing plaid shirts and blue jeans.“ In an interview with the San Francisco Gate in 2002, she maintained that “the same issues of race and classism that confounded the early feminist and gay rights movements also infected the women’s music scene. I’ve always felt like a warrior or soldier. I’ve learned to deal with separation, isolation in the crowd, rejection in the abandonment.”

Her solo album never came to be via Olivia Records, but she continued to work on the road until her debut solo album, Sugar Mama, was released independently in 2001.

She spent the last decade of her life performing in the Bay Area’s Russian River region, bridging the gap between the blues and gospel, continuing to thrill audiences with her distinct interpretation of the rich heritage of black music. She performed numerous times at June Millington’s Institute for the Musical Art as well. Millington recalls “Gwen used to come to IMA to hang and rest her weary bones. We’d laugh—a lot! Then we’d jam and she’d let me play bass. She’d look at me and say ‘Wow! You can really play this!’ I didn’t even hear the blues until I was 19 or so, certainly not growing up in the Phillipines, but somewhere we met and knew without words. It was strong and true.”

Grammy nominated singer/songwriter/producer Linda Tillery reflects:

Gwen Avery was an authentic blues and gospel singer. She was raised in a juke joint, where from an early age, she heard first hand, the sounds of Black Troubadors weaving tales of love, passion, frustration and pleas to God - any god, for release from Jim Crow, segregation and the horrible legacy of racism in America.

Lesbian yes, Black woman yes, real deal soulful singer, yes. Yet I wonder how many people really understood her gift? You would have had to listen to Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Mahalia to recognize the "time stamp" that marked her unique style. She became the "Sugar Mama" of Women's Music, no longer a prisoner of love denied but a champion of love out in the open - raw and unashamed. That was her gift to us all.

Jazz vocalist Rhiannon describes her as “a tough, fragile woman..an open book in a way, with such tender passion for music and life. Vulnerable, flawed, capable of singing all that complex, powerful feeling. Not easy for her, and what she gave us was unique.”

By Tim Dillinger

[C0LLETTE]

The name Gwen Avery rang a bell with me and then I remembered where I saw her: at the Michigan Women's Music Festival. And yes, there are many who will never go there because of its policy regarding trans women but it should also not be forgotten that this is where Gwen Avery, Linda Tillery and Rhiannon found an audience of 12000 and, for me, where I first saw that women's bodies could be beautiful in 12000 versions. I've not gone back in many years, for many policy and personal reasons, but I do not regret that I once had a chance to see these remarkable women perform.

[candy_coated_bitch]

I am more upset about Philip Seymour Hoffman than I perhaps have been about any other celebrity death ever. I LOVED him SOOOO much!!!! I'm so sad. And actually really surprised about the drug overdose thing. He seemed really grounded.

[Martina]

Originally Posted by candy_coated_bitch

I am more upset about Philip Seymour Hoffman than I perhaps have been about any other celebrity death ever. I LOVED him SOOOO much!!!! I'm so sad. And actually really surprised about the drug overdose thing. He seemed really grounded.

Heartbreaking. What a waste.

[TheLoneStranger]

Originally Posted by candy_coated_bitch

I am more upset about Philip Seymour Hoffman than I perhaps have been about any other celebrity death ever. I LOVED him SOOOO much!!!! I'm so sad. And actually really surprised about the drug overdose thing. He seemed really grounded.

I was also shocked...he was one of my favs.

God bless you, Philip.

[Arwen]

Gwen Avery was an AMAZING singer. The Sunday morning gospel set at the MWMF was always thrilling. Her voice was one of THOSE voices. Such a gift to our world.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrK5p-OTu5k"]Gwen Avery - Sugar Mama (1977) - YouTube[/nomedia]

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbVsyw308sQ"]Gwen Avery- Sugar In My Bowl - YouTube[/nomedia]