Bring Out Your Dead! The celebrity death thread....

I had never put a name to the licks in these songs until now. What a catalog compiled by Reggie Young.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.billboard.com/amp/articles/news/obituary/8494209/reggie-young-session-guitarist-obit

Russell Baker. One of my grandmothers was a huge fan and gave me a couple of books of his columns and his memoirs when I was a lad. I’ve always treasured them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/business/media/russell-baker-dead-pulitzer.html

This one was a favorite:

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/28/archives/sunday-observer-the-way-it-was.html

Beautiful guitarist and singer/songwriter, Oliver Mtukudzi aged only 66years

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46976005

His music regularly enriched our lives and is shared around our global village community. I’m sure there are many in MOL who will also mourn his loss. 

May his memory live on.

joanne said:
Aged 113years and with a sweet tooth, Masazo Nonaka has passed away.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/20/worlds-oldest-man-masazo-nonaka-dies-in-japan-at-113

In his lifetime, not only did the world change enormously, Japan’s culture changed, too. Even sumo wrestling, one of his favourite things, has undergone massive changes in the last decade. 
May we all go peacefully, and loved by our families. 

 Has anyone noticed that the "worlds oldest people" seem to be getting younger?  Its seems like we had a streak of 117 year olds a couple years back.  I suspect the sample size is so small as to defy study but I wonder what is up with that.

There’s a batch in the current ‘oldest-olds’ where birth records can’t be confirmed - wars, natural disasters and poor record keeping mean that official records are interrupted for a couple of decades. So the ages aren’t heavily disputed, but are approximated within a couple of years, depending on location (which country/region and social class) and how well organised that country was at the time and since. 

Also, FWIW, we have something like 4000+ people aged over 100 years here in Australia (pop 24 mil I think) so the population sample isn’t quite as small as everyone suspects. 

Yeah, I remember back in the 80's they found  valley somewhere in the USSR where there were a ton of people in their 140s.  For a while people were trying to suggest that the yogurt there was a miracle cure for aging.  Eventually, they realized that all the oldsters had changed their ages to get out of being drafted.

Now there are serious studies around a couple of islands in Italy and the Black Sea, as well as Japan and a mountain village in Turkey (?) Macedonia(?). 

Hard physical work at a regular pace in clean conditions, with sparse (not rich) diet seems to help. A deep sense of belonging, even after ‘retirement’, laughter, a small vice (a little gamble, or a small daily brandy, etc), seem to help.

Blue Zones?

This is probably not the place for the discussion, however in my 'frail aged seniors' activity groups, I have 95+ yrs olds who can walk the socks off my careworker staff. A few months ago, our oldest died at 104 years old, having just moved of his own home. Just about no-one sticks to the Blue Zone diet advice; they all love their well-done steak, deep-fried golden chips (thick fries), lots of salt and sugar, olives, cheese... They also adhere to vegan fasting for the religious calendar, several weeks at a time. 

They don't feud, don't waste time on pettiness and anger, don't go to bed grumpy. Say thank you every time they wake up, and kiss their families.  They sing.

So sad to read Michel Legrand has left us

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jan/26/michel-legrand-oscar-winning-composer-dies-aged-86

Some wonderful musical memories, forever timeless

Trevor, the lone duck of Niue, was attacked by dogs. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-27/niue-says-goodbye-to-trevor-its-only-duck/10754258

. 

Loved his voice. 

internet is full of rumours of brain cancer

Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, 83, only player ever named MVP in both leagues, first African-American manager in both leagues, only player to hit a run smack out of Baltimore's old Memorial Stadium

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-frank-robinson-20190207-story.html

Not sure I can put my finger on why, but some actors I can describe only as lions of the screen.

Albert Finney is one of those.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47175304

Awww. A master for sure! Brought sexy back big time in “Tom Jones”!

Two for the Road is one of my all time favorites. 

You know those times when you pass someone and 2 seconds later recognize them? In the early 1980's, I was going into my hotel in London and AF was standing outstanding smoking a cigar - he had put on a little weight.

Actor Albert Finney, gone at the age of 82.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/08/albert-finney-dies-film-tom-jones-orient-express-millers-crossing

Lee Radziwill, 85.

Karl Lagerfeld. Designer extraordinaire 

Bruno Ganz, the Swiss actor who played Hitler in the movie 'Downfall', has died from cancer at the age of 77.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/18/bruno-ganz-obituary

Oh, that's sad.  I really like Bruno Ganz.  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/peter-tork-endearingly-offbeat-bassist-and-singer-in-the-monkees-dies-at-77/2019/02/21/479cf4ae-35ee-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html

I burst out crying. I saw him and the guys at Forest Hills  Tennis Stadium when Jimi Hendrix opened for them. Did you know that Pleasant Valley Sunday was written for them by Carole King and was about West Orange?   May his memory be for a blessing. Go catch that Last Train to Clarksville Peter !

RIP Peter Tork of the Monkees.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/peter-tork-endearingly-offbeat-bassist-and-singer-in-the-monkees-dies-at-77/2019/02/21/479cf4ae-35ee-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html?utm_term=.b18188ede0a8

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That's sad about Peter Tork.  I knew one of his relatives a long time ago.  He seemed like a decent guy and I liked the Monkeys.  

been playing Monkees music all day, desperately trying (like I have been all week) to get back to MOL to mourn these losses with you. For some reason, Peter Tork’s seems to hit the hardest just now, the memories connected with teenage years and livelier yet more secure/hopeful times. 

It’s somehow heartwarming his family can celebrate his ‘silliness’ in the face of terminal cancer. 

Jean Burgdorff who passed away in January at the age of 94. She donated The Burgdorff Center to the town of Maplewood. A truly honorable woman in the field of real estate.