Tag Archives: 1938

RIP Diana ‘Emma Peel’ Rigg (1938 – 2020)

Diana Rigg (1938 – 2020) was an English actress perhaps best-known for playing Emma Peel in the British TV series The Avengers (1965–1968).

Here,  Emma Peel, the rather amusing final scene from the “Something Nasty in the Nursery” (1967) episode of The Avengers.

What do you see Madame Peel?

I see you and I on the scene.

Something lurking in the background?

Yes, I see you attacked by two large…

What?

Things.

I dispose of them?

I do dispose of them?

No. I do.

RIP Simeon ‘Silver Apples’ Coxe (1938 – 2020)

“Gypsy Love”, from their first album.

Simeon Coxe (1938 – 2020) was an American composer and musician known as a founding member of the electronic rock ensemble Silver Apples.

I guess I first stumbled upon Silver Apples when I bought the Underground Moderne cd by Nova Records. It had the track “Gypsy Love” on it, and I always skipped it. Silver Apples were undeniably of great influence, but none of their records would end up in my desert island selection.

RIP Philippe Nahon (1938 – 2020)


Philippe Nahon was a French actor known for his roles in French horror and thriller films.

Nahon was has been described as the fetish actor of maverick director Gaspar Noé, playing a nameless butcher in no less than three films: Carne, I Stand Alone, and Irréversible (cameo).

Above is the gimmicky “30 seconds to leave this film” scene from I Stand Alone (1988).

The film is especially bleak.

Not surprisingly, because it focuses on several pivotal days in the life of a butcher faced with abandonment, isolation, rejection and unemployment.

There was a time when I relished these kind of films. I remember seeing a trailer for Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and absolutely wanting to see it.

The attraction for this fare has largely faded.

Nevertheless, watching scenes from I Stand Alone, one cannot help being immediately intrigued.

RIP Joe Frank (1938 – 2018)

This happened two years ago but I only found out today.

Also, I had never heard of Joe Frank.

Today, I googled for Ken Nordine and ASMR (one of my guilty pleasures) and I found Joe Frank.

I listened and liked immediately and immensely. Frank is an absolute genius.

Up there in absurdity with the likes of Roland Topor.

Joe Frank was a French-born American writer radio performer known for his philosophical, humorous, surrealist, and absurd monologues and radio dramas, says Wikipedia.

Typical radio dramas include “Bad Karma” (2000) and “That Night” (1994).

“Bad Karma” (2000)

“Bad Karma” opens with:

“I’m sitting at a dinner party attended by Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Seated at another smaller table are Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milošević, Pinochet and some others I don’t recognize. And then there’s a third table, sort of a children’s table, it has shorter legs and smaller children’s chairs. And sitting there are Richard Speck, Gary Gilmore, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.”

“That Night”

Synopsis from “That Night”:

“Joe’s uncle drowns while fishing a week after retiring, urban animal criminals, voyeur complains about a nude woman, sex with nuns in a limo, an elderly marching band and homecoming parade has been lost for 40 years and is being chased by homecoming queen’s fiance, creating life-size maps, to Jesus: why is there so much suffering, we’re on the edge of chaos, it’s great to feel a part of nature monologue with traffic background, monologue on sleep (repeated in other programs).” [3]

“That Night” also mentions maps on a 1:1 scale, just as Borges did in his one-paragraph story “On Exactitude in Science”.

RIP Bill Withers (1938 – 2020)

“Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?” (1972)

Bill Withers was an American singer-songwriter known for songs such as “Lean on Me”, “Use Me” and “Ain’t No Sunshine”.

I give you “Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?” (1972) because it’s one of the best adultery songs ever with the unforgettable opening lines:

A man we passed just tried to stare me down
And when I looked at you
You looked at the ground

While researching this death, I came across a rather smart piece of music criticism by the American author Robert Christgau (born 1942):

“Withers sang for a black nouveau middle class that didn’t yet understand how precarious its status was. Warm, raunchy, secular, common, he never strove for Ashford & Simpson-style sophistication, which hardly rendered him immune to the temptations of sudden wealth—cross-class attraction is what gives ‘Use Me’ its kick. He didn’t accept that there had to be winners and losers, that fellowship was a luxury the newly successful couldn’t afford.

RIP Kenny Rogers (1938 – 2020)

Kenny Rogers was an American singer mainly known for his work in country music.

Since I have but a flimsy a connection with that genre, my lemma on Mr. Rogers is satisfyingly brief.

However, early in his career, Kenny put out two quirky and interesting records.

“Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” (1967)

The first is “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)“, a song that reflects the LSD experience and captures the short-lived psychedelic era of the late 1960s.

“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town”

Then there is “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town“, a song about the male angst of a paralyzed Vietnam war veteran and his wife who goes to town to find a lover.

The “Ruby” song concludes with the darkly ominous words “If I could move I’d get my gun and put her in the ground.” Bit of nasty femicide threat there for ya.