Sunday, December 31, 2017

The Last Sound You'll Hear

 - O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again*

Another tough year in America, another list chronicling the demise of people of whom you and I might both have heard. Some of the deaths this year surprised me, mostly because I wasn't sure they were still alive. Some death notices made me consider whether I'd already bought their albums, as the prices would most likely go way up. I was also a little more selective with this year's list. Collecting the death of every famous I'd ever heard of, even if I couldn't recall any context or recollection of their face seemed to cheapen a list of people I did remember, and at least one of whose death affected me viscerally.


Miguel Ferrer
Mary Tyler Moore
Bob Anderson
John Hurt
Packy
Richard Hatch
Dick Bruna
Kuno Maliepaard
Bill Paxton
Judge Joseph Wapner
Chuck Berry
Sib Hashian
Don Rickles
Jim Marshall
Charlie Murphy
Robert Persig
Chris Cornell
Roger Moore
Gregg Allmann
Jonathan Demme
Adam West
Chester Bennington
George Romero
Glen Campbell
Jerry Lewis
Walter Becker
Tobe Hooper
Hugh Hefner
Tom Petty
Gord Downie
Malcolm Young
Charles Manson
Della Reese
David Cassidy
Fats Domino
J Geils
Sue Grafton

This year even brought about the deaths of several breweries in Portland. I've been to each of them, and could probably tell you the highlights and deficiencies of each.

BTU
Amnesia
Fat Heads
Commons
Widmer's Gasthaus
Ross Island
Tugboat

I made my usual list of albums that came out twenty years ago and was stunned that an album I loved in high school could have been released in the same year and month as another that influenced me when I discovered it in college. Imagine my surprise then, when I found a third contemporaneous release that I bought a month ago. This section of the annual wrap-up has become a favorite, but I predict its appeal will thin once 2020 arrives and the best decade for music is more than twenty years old.

Our Lady Peace - Clumsy
Silverchair - Freak Show
Offspring - Ixnay on the Hombre
Strapping Young Lad - City
Live - Secret Samadhi
Elliott Smith - Either/Or
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call
Guster - Goldfly
Morphine - Like Swimming
Aerosmith - Pink
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
Radiohead - OK Computer
Snot - Get Some
Days of the New - Days of the New
Creed - My Own Prison
Blink-182 - Dude Ranch
Hammerfall - Glory to the Brave
Limp Bizkit - Three Dollar Bill Y'all
Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
311 - Transistor
The Tea Party - Transmission
The Crystal Method - Vegas
Kenny Wayne Shepherd - Trouble Is...
Green Day - Nimrod
In Flames - Whoracle
Mogwai - Young Team
NOFX - So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes
Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
Metallica - ReLoad

The records I accumulated this year are as follows:
Miles Davis - Someday My Prince Will Come (LP)
Steely Dan - The Royal Scam (LP)
Morphine - Like Swimming
Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home (LP)
Rush - Permanent Waves (LP)
Ramones - Leave Home
Ramones - Ramones
Shining - Within Deep Dark Chambers
Bathory - Hammerheart
Drudkh - Autumn Aurora
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
Bolt Thrower - Honour, Valour, Pride

Final section, the books I read this year:
Osamu Tezuka - Phoenix Book 2 
Joe Kelly - I Kill Giants 
Brian Michael Bendis - Powers Vol 1 
Brian Michael Bendis - Powers Vol 2 
Brian Michael Bendis - Powers Vol 3 
Junji Ito - Gyo 
Junji Ito - Uzumaki 
Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis 
Osamu Tezuka - Phoenix Book 4 
Grant Morrison - All-Star Superman Vol 1 
Neil Gaiman - Norse Mythology 
Charles Dickens - Bleak House 
Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes 
Osamu Tezuka - Phoenix Book 6 
Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist 
Alexandre Dumas - Edmund Dantes 
Grant Morrison - All-Star Superman Vol 2 
Osamu Tezuka - Phoenix Book 7 
Andrew Lang - The Green Fairy Book 
Osamu Tezuka - Phoenix Book 8 
Sir Walter Scott - Quentin Durward 
J M Barrie - Peter Pan 
Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire 
A A Milne - The Original Winnie-the-Pooh Collection 
Philip K Dick - Ubik 
Sir Walter Scott - Ivanhoe 
The Book of Genesis - illus. Robert Crumb 
James Dashner - The Maze Runner 
Jeff Smith - Bone: Complete 
John Cheever - The Stories of 
Marcel Proust - Remembrance of Things Past Vol 1 - illus. Stephane Heuet 
E B White - Charlotte's Web 
Dayal Patterson - Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult 
Raymond E Feist - Magician: Apprentice 
Sir Walter Scott - Kenilworth 
Stan Lee - The Mighty Thor Vol 1 
Stephen King - The Gunslinger 
The Iliad - Homer, illus. Miguel Sepulveda 
Raymond E Feist - Magician: Master 
Homer, illus. Greg Tocchini - The Odyssey
Stephen King - The Stand 
John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces 
Fyodor Dostoevsky - Notes From Underground 
Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose 
Craig Thompson - Space Dumplins 
The Arabian Nights 
William Gibson - Neuromancer 
Alan Paton - Cry, the Beloved Country 
Joan Didion - The Last Thing He Wanted

*Thomas Wolfe

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