RIP Irm Hermann (1942 – 2020)

Irm Hermann was a German actress best known for her films with Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

In Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), she is the girlfriend of racist Eugen (Fassbinder).

Things come to a crisis when her mother (Brigitte Mira) falls in love with a Moroccan Gastarbeiter (migrant worker).

Researching this death, I came across an interview with a very lovable Brigitte Mira and her relationship to director Fassbinder.

RIP Mark Barkan (1934 – 2020)


Mark Barkan (1934 – 2020) was an American songwriter and record producer.

In 1966, Barkan produced the album Psychedelic Moods by The Deep, credited as the first psychedelic album.

While researching his death, I came across the song “A Great Day For The Clown” (1967) which is a song not hard to fall in love with. It is also supposedly an Northern soul classic. Love the horns. Who does the horns?

RIP Michel Piccoli (1925 – 2020)

Michel Piccoli was a French actor of the generation of Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort and yes, Yves Montand.

Of note is his work with Marco Ferreri (Dillinger Is Dead, La Grande Bouffe, The Last Woman and Don’t Touch the White Woman!); with Luis Buñuel (Diary of a Chambermaid Belle de jour, The Milky Way, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Phantom of Liberty); and Jean-Luc Godard (Contempt).

In The Milky Way (1969) he plays Marquis de Sade.

Then there is the iconic La Grande Bouffe (1973), the story of three bourgeois men who decide to eat themselves to death.

Later I saw Themroc (1973), one of the strangest counterculture films where he played opposite the tragic but delightful Patrick Dewaere.

Watching clips on YouTube, you see him with Romy Schneider in The Things of Life (1970), my god what a beautiful woman she was.

RIP Monique Mercure (1930 – 2020)

Monique Mercure was a Canadian actress.

In the scene above she is Fadela, the housekeeper in Naked Lunch (1991) who chases away the penis-buttocks-cartilage centipede.

The scene is known as the mujahideen’s scene, because that is the name of the typewriter.

In this particular scene actress Judy Davis sits on the lap of Peter Weller. They represent Burroughs and his wife. They take a drug named majoun. Judy Davis is typing on a typewriter. On the paper Arabic words appear. Peter Weller tells her to write dirtier prose, meaning more erotic, more pornographic. As the words become filthier the typewriter starts to enjoy the prose more. It starts undulating under her fingers, giving way, until it finally opens up and shows its fleshy vaginal innards. Judy Davis introduces her hands. She licks Peter Weller’s fingers. A penis emerges from the innards of the typewriter. They start kissing and making out.

Next scene. Judy and Peter are in bed together. Clothed A penis-like centipede with buttocks and cartilage jumps from what appears to be a cupboard with them in bed. We Just before it jumps there is a shot of ‘it’ showing other vagina-like orifices. It flaps around them in bed in a bizarre threesome, making squishy sounds.

A woman comes in with a whip. This is Fadela played by Monique Mercure. She chides the centipede, chasing it outside. It jumps from the balcony and when it hits the ground, it transforms into the typewriter.

RIP Betty Wright (1953 – 2020)


Betty Wright was an American composer and singer.

She rose to fame in the 1970s with hits such as “Clean Up Woman” (1971) , “Shoorah! Shoorah!” (1974) and “Tonight Is the Night” (1974).

Born in Miami, she was married to King Sporty and was part of the Henry Stone, TK Records and Peter Brown circle. She was the vocalist for the latter’s “Dance with Me” (1978) single.

Her voice and the sound of the seventies material is similar to that of personal favorite Loleatta Holloway