Tag Archives: May 18th

Music, Pop Culture

Remembering Ian Curtis

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July 15, 1956 – May 18, 1980

One This Date, May 18th in 1980: Joy Divison vocalist, Ian Curtis committed suicide by hanging himself in the kitchen of his home. Curtis, who had suffered from epilepsy and depression, was just 23 years old. To all his fans, and to those that didn’t really know anything about him or the band’s music, but who still love a compelling and beautifully directed / photographed biography, I highly recommend the film Control, directed by Anton Corbijn, which is just excellent and available now on DVD.

Music, Pop Culture

Happy Birthday, Rick Wakeman!

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Rick Wakeman, enigmatic and Arthurian keyboard player for Yes, was born on this day, May 18th, in 1949. Favorite massively overwrought Wakeman-era keyboard riff from a song by Yes: the climax to “Heart of The Sunrise.” Wakeman also appeared as Thor in the 1975 Ken Russell-directed Film, Lisztomania. Happy Birthday, Rick!

Design and Innovation

Happy Birthday, Walter Gropius, Founder of the Bauhaus

Gropius

Walter Gropius, German Architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, was born on this day, May 18th, in 1883. I admit to feeling a special sort of insider kinship with the Bauhaus, not only because I love band that took its name from this forward thinking movement of Architecture and Design, but because I once worked for an architectural firm whose founding partners has previously worked with another great Bauhaus architect, Marcel Breuer. Breuer designed those cool chairs that everybody has in their kitchens.