Wednesday was just another day, but the world lost a visionary, a pioneer. One of the most important and seminal scientists of our age, Francis Crick, died on Wednesday. Crick and his colleague, James Watson, are credited with the discovery of deoxyribonucleic acid, a substance that we, today, casually refer to as “dee-enn-ay” (DNA) . How much richer is our understanding of the world, our understanding of science with this acronym in our collective lexicon? Any biologist can tell you that - Crick and “DNA” defined the boundaries, the terms, the task of biology in the 21st century. But let me ask, “How much richer are so many non-scientific disciplines with only the mere idea of this substance?

The man who taught a generation to “wax on / wax off” has gone on to that great koi pond in the sky. Farewell Noriyuki “Pat” Morita.

My good friends The League of Melbotis and his wife, Jamie, experienced the passing of their beloved Golden Retriever, and blog site namesake, Melbotis. Mel and Dr. McBride I remember following the link from Jim’s old blog site and finding The League and his adventures in Arizona almost 4 years ago. “Such an odd name for a dog,” was my, and many others’, initial thought. Roughly 2 years ago Ryan and Jamie moved to Austin and Lauren and I had the chance to make the acquaintance of that shaggy ball-hog. To see Mel was to make an instant friend. There was something about his golden fur and ambling canter that just made you want to wring his furry middle.

Patrick McGoohan, actor, director, producer and man with the most stunning elocution of the English language has crossed over.

So long, Starman. We all owe you so very much. #davidbowie

Bowie singing “Heroes” in German: Ich Ich glaubte zu traeumen

In my memories, all the best songs happened at night in Austin. I swear it was a wintery night and I was running up I-35 from around Oltorf and I heard that simple guitar by another one of the Townes van Zandt / Doug Sahm / Gram Parsons coterie on KGSR. I was struck by how perfectly constructed the song was (Steve Earle, I now recognize being a master of the form) and how the angel’s voice (Emmylou Harris, of course) rode like a feather atop the remembering man’s voice: a voice that sounded like the lands West of Abilene wrapped in the that warm tenderness of Fort Worth uncles and that sadness of survivors at southern Baptist funerals.

I bought “Cold Dog Soup” a few years ago. Clark was a pretty moody cat, but he also sang some toe-tappers about a remembered, rural past that’s fast vanishing.

Father of C and Unix, dead. https://www.wired.com/2011/10/dennis-ritchie/

Oh for fuck’s sake this day. Tom Petty dead.

I simply wanted to note that one of my favorite musicians, when I was growing up, Tom Petty, has departed this world. Video Artist I first came to know Mr. Petty as a kid because of his iconic videos. He embraced MTV in its early days and is forever tied to that medium’s infancy by releasing truly iconic videos. In the early 80’s we saw “Don’t Come Around Here No More” with its delightful Lewis Carroll theme. So my first recollection of this man was the grinning Mad Hatter visage. In the early “heavy rotation” of my mind’s eye it’s this video, The Cars’ “It’s Magic,” The Go-Gos “Head over Heels,” Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wana Have Fun,” and Van Halen’s “Jump.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/anthony-bourdain-found-dead What a loss. He would seem to have had so much to envy, but existence is so hard for so many.

Visited @xianfoods on the Upper West Side on Broadway in memoriam to Mr. Bourdain who promoted them during a visit to Queens. Mr. Bourdain was remarkably sensitive and perceptive in his writings. I hope he’s found peace.

Dick Dale, the guitar player and singer-songwriter known as “the King of the Surf Guitar,” has died. Dale’s live bassist Sam Bolle confirmed the news to The Guardian. He was 81. https://pitchfork.com/news/dick-dale-surf-rock-icon-dead-at-81/

Prine’s and Iris DeMent’s “In Spite of Ourselves” was in heavy rotation at KGSR when I moved to Austin the first time. A bramblier, scrub-brush and Lone Star-ier version of Austin vanishes with him.

https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/05/r-i-p-florian-schneider-kraftwerk-co-founder-dies-at-73/ So strange. So weird. So wonderful. So unique. So futuristic. So proudly German in a time when that was still not so cool. When, in your lifetime, you got a hat tip from Bowie, you knew you were an original.

I’ve recently been remembering and exploring the “modem age” I was lucky enough to live through in the 90s. It shaped both my career and personal destiny. Ultimately all that was started by my using a modem to connect to my first bulletin board system or BBS.