Old School Pink Floyd (L-R) Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett and Rick Wright
Pink Floyd keyboard player and founding member Richard “Rick” Wright has died on September 15th, 2008 after a short struggle with cancer. He was 65. Wright was a member of Pink Floyd from their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in 1967 alongside lead guitarist Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason. David Gilmour joined the band at the start of 1968 while Barrett left the group shortly afterwards. Wright penned songs on classic albums including The Dark Side Of The Moon – “The Great Gig In The Sky” and “Us And Them” – and Wish You Were Here.
Legendary artist Robert Rauschenberg has passed away on May 12th, 2008.This is Sad News, because Robert Rauschenberg was awesome. I took a lot of Modern Art classes in college and his combine paintings definitely opened my eyes to different ways of seeing and thinking. I was actually just at LACMA out in Los Angeles on Friday and saw some of Rauschenberg’s work up close, and it still blows me away. Sad.
March 31, 1993: Brandon Lee, whose father, martial arts legend Bruce Lee died at age 32, dies during the filming of what proves to be his final movie, The Crow, after a freak accident in which a prop gun loaded with blanks fires a bullet that had previously been lodged in its barrel. He was 28 years old.
I took today off work because I had to get some “personal business” taken care of this morning, and I knew I just wouldn’t feel like going into the office after that. So I stopped by Trader Joe’s for provisions on the way home and then spent the afternoon shuttered up in the chickpad writing an article on my new friend, Gene “The Machine” Hoglan. Gene is best known for his tenure on the drum throne of great metal bands like Dark Angel, Death and (my personal favorite) Strapping Young Lad. But lately he is getting all kinds of well-deserved kudos for playing drums on the Dethklok album, which to me is just the most ridiculously insane and cool thing in the world. Gene is so rad.
