I’ve been listening to a lot of Beastie Boys music since the rap trio was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 14. I had a sinking feeling when the Beasties’ MCA, aka Adam Yauch, skipped the event for health reasons. Unfortunately, Yauch died today at age 47. Yauch first announced…
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Dick Clark, Madonna and My 1980s Jewelry
Dick Clark — the host of American Bandstand and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve — died yesterday at age 82. You’ve probably seen his famous Bandstand chat with Madonna a thousand times in the past 24 hours, but I’m going to link to the clip again anyway. I was glued to the television when this originally…
Whitney Houston Is Gone
There are people who believe that the real Paul McCartney died in a car accident in 1966 and was replaced with a lookalike. I’ve always felt that way about Whitney Houston. I was never able to reconcile this Whitney — — the bubbly, bow-wearing Whitney of 1985’s “How Will I Know” — with what she…
Meet the WendyB Team and Bid Adieu to Steve Jobs
After I asked for pictures of people wearing my team colors of black and denim, I didn’t get any photos right away. Instead, I got a couple of comments from fashion bloggers who said they didn’t have any solid black tops or never wore jeans. I started thinking, “Wow! I thought I was dressing in…
Requiescat in Pace, Andy Whitfield
I’m so sad to read that actor Andy Whitfield, the star of the first season of Spartacus, has died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 39. My stepdaughter and I watched when Spartacus premiered on STARZ in January 2010. The first episode was truly terrible — something that deserved a “Worst!TV!Show!Ever! comment — yet something drew…
10 Years Later: “Essential Acts of Witness”
I’ve been thinking about the tenth anniversary of 9/11 for a year, especially about a 2003 story by Tom Junod, published in Esquire, called “The Falling Man.” The story is about a photo of an unidentified man plunging from the World Trade Center — one of the many people who jumped from the buildings to…
I Hoped It Was a Hoax, but Amy Winehouse Is Dead
Sure, she was a wreck for years, but people have come back from worse places, so I always hoped Amy Winehouse would pull herself together. Like MichaelK of Dlisted said, “I thought Amy Winehouse would outlive us all and make a million more albums and throw spit bombs at a million more bitchy fans. You…
Peter Falk Rejoins the Angels
Actor Peter Falk has died at the age of 83. He was best known for playing the disheveled homicide detective who was the central character in the ’70s television series Columbo, but my favorite role of his was in the 1987 Wim Wenders movie Wings of Desire. In that film, he plays himself, actor Peter…
Farewell, Poly Styrene and Phoebe Snow
I was shocked to read that punk icon Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex died of breast cancer at 53. I frequently listen to X-Ray Spex at the gym to get revved up. In other sad songstress news, ’70s singer Phoebe Snow died of complications from a brain hemorrhage she had last year. She was 60….
From The New York Times: Remembering Violet Cowden
In November, inspired by the New York Times obituary for Norris Church Mailer, I wrote about how helpful it is to read newspapers on actual newsprint. I said: “I enthusiastically use teh Interwebs to stay informed, but I’m highly aware of how easy it is to select only what you want to read. That’s why…