Oh, I am so sorry, CD. Were you two friends?

I'd only been working here for a month or so when he became really ill. He was a really cool guy and we went out to lunch a lot, but I guess I never got to know him too well. Still, I can feel how much everyone around here misses him. By reputation, he was one of the nicest people in the department. One of the things he said when he was admitted was that he felt bad that he couldn't help me get started on a project, that he hoped I'd still have my job, since I'm technically the only employee in his lab. So yeah, wish I would have gotten to know him better.

He does sound like a pretty cool guy. Well, maybe you'll get a chance to meet him again, in an entirely different context.

Yeah, maybe. Thanks.

Julia Child at 91

I just read about that. What a remarkable life she lead, and what a great legacy. She'll be missed, but never forgotten.

If it weren't for Julia Child, there never would have been an Iron Chef.

Think about THAT, people.

No Food Network, no Bobby Flay, no Alton Brown, no Mario Batali, no Rachel Ray, no Shirley Corriher. Well, they'd be alive, I just wouldn't know about it.

I wouldn't know how to make lasagna, I'd still buy taco spices in a little paper packet all the time, I wouldn't know the difference between saute and simmer.

We have a ongoing dead pool at a local bar that my brother and I hang out at, which officailly restarted (someone won on Brando) on Sunday night. Well, some of my family got together on Sunday afternoon and my brother and sister-in-law were asking who we (my girl and I) wanted to pick. I was thinkin' Peter O'Toole is getting up there or there's former Pres. Ford, who's not looking too good. Suddenly, my brother blurts out Julia Child.
Weird.
I know he hasn't left town in the last week, so I know he couldn't have whacked her but I guess he could have hired someone.

Oscar-winning composer dies
Elmer Bernstein, the versatile, Oscar-winning composer who scored such movie classics as The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Escape and True Grit, has died. He was 82.

Bernstein died in his sleep at his Ojai home, said his publicist, Cathy Mouton. She said Bernstein had been in failing health for some time.

Bernstein was nominated for the Academy Award 14 times, most recently in 2002 for Far From Heaven.

Oddly enough, his only win was for the 1967 film Thoroughly Modern Millie, one of his weaker works.

Among his more notable efforts were the scores for Some Came Running, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Great Escape, Hawaii, The Great Santini, Cast a Giant Shadow, My Left Foot, A River Runs Through It, Devil in a Blue Dress and The Gangs of New York. He also composed several works for symphony orchestras.

Considered a revolutionary by many in the business, Bernstein began film composing in 1950, a time when the field was dominated by the lush, symphonic scores of central European emigres like Erich Korngold, Miklas Rosza and Max Steiner.

Although Bernstein often employed full orchestras, he also experimented with other techniques, seeking to fit a film's music to the action occurring on the screen.

For The Man with the Golden Arm, in which Frank Sinatra played a heroin-addicted jazz musician, he discarded the studio orchestra for a jazz ensemble. He used the same technique for two other contemporary films, The Sweet Smell of Success and A Walk on the Wild Side.

For the landmark western The Magnificent Seven, Bernstein composed a galloping march that remained famous for years afterward in TV ads for Marlboro cigarettes.

A piano prodigy who studied composing under Aaron Copland in New York, Bernstein moved to Hollywood in 1950 to work on his first movie score, for the football film Saturday's Hero.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

quote:

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Asked if she had regrets, she said: "I'm sorry I don't play an instrument. I would love to play and sing. (When I die) I'm going to dance first in all the galaxies ... I'm going to play and dance and sing."

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Godspeed, Elizabeth. I get the feeling you're going to be meeting many many folk who'll be wanting to thank you.

My boss/ friend's mom died yesterday- her leukemia had gone into remission, when suddenly last week it came back without any warning, and she died. I'll be running the store all this week for Lori while she deals with the funeral and viewing and stuff. Poor Lori. She's 28- too young to deal with crap like this.

I'm so sorry--that's terrible. And you're right that is a horribly young age to deal with things.

johnny ramone

whoa.

*lights a candle*

There is a big-ass Ramones reunion tour happening in Rock-n-Roll Heaven right now.

So are there any Ramones left now?

Only one left: Tommy.

Poor lonely Tommy.