Recently in R.I.P. Category

I was saddened today to learn that Dr. Robert Thomas, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, with whom I worked closely during my time at the university, overseeing the Music Learning Center which he established in 1978, passed away in September, 2009.

Dr. Thomas was a kind, gracious gentleman with a distinguished, almost old world manner and a rich command of all things exquisite. He was a collector of fine art, both sculpture and painting, antique china, and furniture, to only name a few.

The world needs more people that exhibit the qualities Dr. Thomas exemplified. May he rest in peace.

On a related note, Professor Emeritus Eunice Boardman, also part of the powerhouse of music educators at the U of I during my doctoral work there with the late Charlie Leonard (who I've mentioned before), also passed away in 2009. To date now, most of the most influential professors under whom I studied, have passed away. I'm getting old.

Zelda Rubinstein, the diminutive character actress with the childlike voice who was best known as the psychic called in to rid a suburban home of demonic forces in the 1982 horror movie "Poltergeist," died Wednesday. She was 76.

Over the years I've blogged many times about The Silver Grill, a midtown Atlanta institution that started in 1946 and remained in the Walton family until it closed 60 years later in 2006. [I started eating at the grill in the early 90's and immediately became addicted to the fried chicken. I probably ate there at least twice a month. The "meat and three" was that good--and a terrific bargain.] The grill reopened, under new ownership, in 2007, with several of the old timers returning to continue working there, including Peggy Hubbard.

I've blogged about Peggy before. She was very well know in the midtown community as she worked at The Silver Grill since she was a teenager. "Hun, it's all I've ever known." I just loved her. She spoke her mind. She didn't put up with any foolishness. She was incredibly kind hearted, hard working, full of down home wisdom, and seemed to know absolutely everyone in all of midtown. In fact, if you were a regular at the grill, as most customers were, you were like one of her grandchildren.

After my father passed away, my mother came up to visit for the holidays. We went to The Silver Grill for dinner one evening. And while it was a busy shift, Peggy took the time to sit down at the table for a moment and say to my mother, "I just love your son. And he looks just like you."

She loved and helped out everyone: homeless people, gay people, professional types, the Atlanta police officers, young people starting a family, good old boys--made no difference to her. To be such a small establishment, the grill attracted a large and remarkably diverse and colorful crowd, and she was simply good to everyone.

Well, sadly, I'm told The Silver Grill (part II) closed its doors again a couple of months ago: this time, probably for good. But, even sadder still, about a month after it closed, on January 3, 2010, Peggy, at age 76, passed away as a result of lung cancer.

Peggy was famous for her eyebrows, her blunt language and her big heart. As I wrote before, she assumed the role of surrogate mother for many young gay men. When AIDS hit the city, infecting and eventually killing many of her customers, Peggy delivered food to them, visited them in the hospital and attended their funerals."

[Source: Peggy, the Silver Grill Lady, Dies | Creative Loafing.]

I didn't know that about Peggy but am not at all surprised. I will always remember her fondly and am certain her funeral was attended by many, many people from all walks of life. You can sign her guestbook at this legacy.com link. She, like the institution at which she worked for so many years, was part of the very fabric of Atlanta.

She did a lot of good in this world.

May she rest in peace.

but not for this man whom I consider less than a charlatan. Oral Roberts needs to rest in shame as far as I am concerned. He created an entire generation of religious leaders who cared more about money than they do helping people--the sheer nonsense and evil of "the prosperity gospel": give me enough of your money and God will bless you. His influence, in my humble opinion, has had a deleterious impact on this nation beyond measure, substantially empowering the extremist religious right to have enough cash to wield its divisive and hostile influence. Evil!

He lied to people, millions of them. He took millions of dollars from good people who did without (I happen to have known some of them!) to live life large.

He supposedly healed the sick. Yet, when organizations publicized giving $1,000 to anyone who could provide medical evidence they had truly been healed by Oral Roberts, not a single person in the whole world came forward to receive the money.

He was the patriarch of the "prosperity gospel," a theology that promotes the idea that Christians who pray and donate with sufficient fervency will be rewarded with health, wealth and happiness. Mr. Roberts trained and mentored several generations of younger prosperity gospel preachers who now have television and multimedia empires of their own. Mr. Roberts was as politically conservative as his contemporaries in what became known as the "religious right," but he was known more for his religious style than for his political pronouncements. He was widely lampooned after he proclaimed on his television program in 1987 that God would "call him home" if he did not raise millions.

Source: The New York Times

I can think of nothing worse than to use people in the name of God for your own selfish, greedy gain. Therefore, I find Oral Roberts loathsome and detestable.

May he rest in the shame he deserves!

The Silicon Alley Insider posted an article, 21 Things That Became Obsolete This Decade. These are some of the things from their list that I won't miss:

• Glad to see the stylus go. The finger is so superior!
• Since I lived by Emory University in Decatur, I was able to get rid of dial up in the mid 90's! It's hard to remember those days. The sound alone was so annoying.
• Developing film: I would never, ever have developed the over 35,000 pictures I've shot since 2003! Ever!!
• I can't believe using a paper map inside a moving car was ever even legal!
• I ditched the landline back in the Decatur days as well. Remember paying a premium for all of those "features" just to get caller ID and call waiting. God I hate AT&T. And then there was/is the constant spamming sales/solicitation calling. Pay more to block it. Spammers, you can pay even more to get through the block... Evil!
• VHS tapes! I was always afraid my VCR would eat them, though I don't recall it ever did.
• Phone books, dictionaries, encyclopedias... I'm getting a cold and had 2 prescriptions here at the house: one was a decongestant, the other an antibiotic. But which was which? I don't recall. So just tonight I had to look it up on the internet. I wondered to myself, "How did I live before search engines?!"
• I hated paying for 411! What a ripoff!! And then I would be driving and not be able to remember the stupid number to dial while driving the car!! I don't remember the last time I used 411. God, the iPhone is so awesome! Search, phone numbers, maps, touch to call...
• I hated buying whole CDs (for insane amounts of money: $14.95 - 24.95.and that was 10 - 15 years ago!) when all I wanted was that one track!
• Backing up your data on floppies or CDs? I adore BackBlaze--affordable, automatic, off offsite backups! Never worry. Just click "restore" in any browser, anywhere, anytime.
• Paying paper bills? Does anyone still use a stamp for those?? I hated paying bills!!!

They say the use of paper is on life support. I'm not so sure about that one. I've seen too many printers and copy machines about to burst into flames from over use. Maybe they are referring to newspapers, magazines, books: as a corporate business model, yes, probably. But I suspect we are making up for that decline in paper use on a personal level.

Photo credit: René Elhardt

without Walter Cronkite (92). Unlike the opinion peddling oafs that we have in the tabloid television news machinery of today, Walter had a sense of deep integrity to his craft, to an inclusive audience, and to the facts. As news anchor from 1962 - 1981, he was respected for that integrity and sense of fairness. The American people rewarded his craft with trust. He was not about promoting himself. He was about advancing journalistic integrity. This is who he was and what we need in news reporting today--a dead craft now solely focused on shaping opinion and maximizing profit through higher ratings and entertainment--truth, integrity, grappling with complexity be damned.

I feel as though I grew up with Mr. Cronkite, who walked with the nation through the civil rights era, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, landing on the moon, the war in Vietnam, the impeachment of a crooked president. I will miss him.

But you know, If there's anything I've learned, it is that we Americans do have a way of rising to the challenges that confront us.

Just when it seems we're most divided, we suddenly show our remarkable solidarity.

The 20th century may be leaving us with a host of problems, but I've also noted that it does seem darkest before the dawn

There's reason to hope for the 21st century.

And that's the way it will be."

Walter Cronkite 1916 - 2009

Odd, actually. I just happened to be at UCLA today when Michael Jackson died. The receptionist in the building where I was, reading her cell phone, gasped as she exclaimed his death. She had just been texted by a friend of hers working in the medical complex where Jackson had just been pronounced dead.

I've always liked most of Jackson's music, but I've also always thought him to be a tortured soul, never having known happiness in his life. All of the money he sunk into recreating his physical appearance. I just don't think he was ever happy with the fact that he was a black man. I think that's really sad.

I've always thought he was most likely a pedophile and got off because of his money and influence. I also think that the parents of the child he was alleged to have abused were just as complicit as he may well have been as they knew full well of the previous allegations made against Jackson and allowed their son to be placed in a situation from which no good could have ever come, only lots of money. I find their conduct despicable.

All in all, a tragic life that had amazing talent. Maybe he will now have the peace he lacked in life.