Thursday, January 28, 2010

J.D. Salinger, 91


When I was around six so Santa brought me a record player and a bunch of Disney LP’s to play for Christmas. Of course my parents weren’t as generous as Santa and those were the only two records I owned for a long time. I started pulling stuff from my Dad’s old collection like Alan Sherman, Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass Band and (now) one of my all time favorites The Beatles 'Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band' and on it, the last song on the second side, “A Day In the Life” is one of my all time favorites. I remember listening to that very last cord fade out into nothing… so awesome.
I was in third grade when Lennon got shot. I brought the Sgt Pepper album in and Lori G. colored John Lennon’s face in with red crayon. I was sooooo mad. Years later that album, with Lori’s artwork, disappeared out of the family stereo record rack my Mother had No idea where it went to . Years later, right before vinyl became extinct, I bought another copy. I went looking for it before I went away to college and that to was gone (along with my Led Zeppelin ‘Houses of the Holy’ but not my two Poison LP’s) again my Mother had No clue where it went to.
OK rant over… The point of all of this is that I really liked The Beatles so in seventh or eighth grade after hearing all about Mark David Chapman I went out and bought Catcher In The Rye just so I could find out for myself why this asshole would want to shoot Lennon… I didn’t get it… not sure if I even do now.

One of J.D. Salinger was a published author before he was drafted in the army in 1942 some of his works appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker and The Saturday Evening Post. He wrote his most famous and controversial novel Catcher in Rye in 1951. He received a lot of unwanted attention after Catcher was released and in 1953 fled Manhatten to New Hampshire and became somewhat of a recluse and was seen rarely in public but often riding his Jeep on his Cornish, NH compound. He married his second wife in 1955 and they had two children a son and daughter. At this time he continued to write for a few hours a day but not specifically for publication but just because he loved to. One of the few novels he published after (which was actually a bunch of previous released short stories) Catcher was ‘Franney and Zooey’ (funny I lent that novel out and it to disappeared… seems to be a reoccurring theme).

He was approached by Hollywood numberous times to make Catcher into a movie but rejected them all (one of the letters can be read here).

Salinger passed away of natural causes at his home in Cornish.

January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010
R.I.P.

Sources

Wikipedia

New York Times

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# posted by fluffy-bunni @ 11:47 PM ::

Zelda Rubinstein, 76

I was raised in a two-paycheck household. Mom & Dad both worked and for awhile there Mom was working full time as well as going to college. Because of this situation I grew up in one big hurry-up-and-wait atmosphere. It was like “Hurry up, get ready we had to leave the house now, now, now!!!! I’m already 10 minutes behind schedule and I still have to drop you off at school!!!! Spoiled brat!” and then 20 minutes later was “Quit whining!!! I don’t care if it’s 6:45 and they don’t unlock the doors until 7am and school doesn’t start until 8:30 get out of the car and sit outside in this 50 morning weather and wait”.

So as life would have it I was 12 and my friend K had a slumber party on a Friday night. Everyone else’s parents picked them up by noonish on Saturday leaving just me hanging out which wasn’t a bad deal because K was my bestest friend in the whole wide world. It was the middle of November and we were stuck out in a house in the middle of Armada so K’s dad took us out, rented some movies and got some pizza. The first movie was FireFox with Clint Eastwood and then, after it got dark, we watched the second movie, Poltergeist. I remember my mom coming in during the middle of it, talking with K’s mom (loudly) and then asking me if I was ready to go… Now. I started to get up but K’s mom AND dad both said that we were in the middle of watching a movie and I couldn't leave now. It was awesome… I got to sit around until I was ready to go. I got to watch that entire movie, uninterrupted and the only time I was scared was when that creepy psychic lady was on the screen. That creepy psychic lady was Zelda Rubinstein.

Zelda Rubinstein attending both the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California and had been a technician at a blood bank before changing career paths and entered acting at age 47. Her first major screen role was in 1981’s awesomely craptastic film "Under the Rainbow” (“The peweral is in de liver”). In 1982 she was cast as Tangina Barrons in Poltergeist (25th Anniversary Edition) a role that she reprised in two sequels.

She was advocate for little people’s rights (she was 4'3") as well as one of the first actors involved in promoting public awareness and education for HIV/AIDS.

Ms Rubinstein suffered a heart attack in December and had been hospitalized at Cedars Sinai in Los Angles. From all that I’ve read is that she didn’t have any family but it was reported that her family and a close companion decided to remove her from life support due to kidney and lung failure shortly after her heart attacked. It seemed like she was making some improvement but on January 27, 2010 she passed away.

R.I.P. - March 28, 1933 – January 27, 2010


SOURCES: PICTURE, IMDB, WIKIPEDIA, NYT


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# posted by fluffy-bunni @ 9:56 AM ::

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Pernell Roberts, 81


I've been watching M*A*S*H since I was in utero. Seriously. I, like many others, have probably watched every episode made like 10 times. I firmly believe that I understand the complexity of the characters and because of that I stand by the fact that the Henry Blake years were the best and that was mainly because of the Wayne Rogers and his IN-credible performance of Trapper John (B.J. blows).
The sad thing is as much as love Trapper I never knew until a couple of years ago that Trapper John M.D. was kind of a M*A*S*H spin off. I know it seems pretty obvious... how many people are named Trapper... let alone the Trapper John.
Anyway... the actor that played Trapper John M.D., Pernell Roberts, was a real life Koren War Vet. I'm not sure if any of that experienced crossed over into the hospital melodrama but it couldn't have hurt, right.
Mr. Roberts started his acting career onstage in the 50's, graduating to movies in 1958 and then easing into the role of Adam Cartwright on the long running series Bonanza. In addition to acting he was also a the captain for "Battle of The Network Stars" for a couple of seasons as well as a civil rights activist and marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama in 1965.
The actor was married four times and had one son (who was killed in motorcycle accident in 1989).
He passed away on January 24th after battling pancreatic cancer in his home in Malibu, his fourth wife Eleanor was by his side.


May 18, 1928 - January 24, 2010
R.I.P.




Sources:
Stupid Celebrity Gossip
Wikipedia
NY Daily News

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# posted by fluffy-bunni @ 12:57 PM ::
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