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GeekNights 090625 - Celebrity Deaths

AprecheApreche
edited June 2009 in Everything Else
Tonight on GeekNights we discuss celebrity deaths. We also announce that the next book club select ion is Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse.

Rym's Thing - Hodgman
Scott's Thing - Demolished!
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Comments

  • Kate MonsterKate Monster
    Even the death of celebrities that create work that I find moving or relevant don't really effect me on more than an abstract level. They aren't my friends or relatives. I mourn the loss of any future works and I feel sympathy for their families, but I don't feel a personal loss. It seems odd to me when people get worked up about the death of someone they never knew.
  • gomidoggomidog
    Yeah. I'm the same way. I feel bummed that "no more art," but at the same time I don't feel very emotional about it.
    I do feel a pang of sympathy when someone dies tragically, but they don't have to be a celebrity. We just hear about celebs, because they are in the news.
  • RymRym
    It seems odd to me when people get worked up about the death of someone they never knew.
    That's basically the topic of this show.
  • CremlianCremlian
    It seems odd to me when people get worked up about the death of someone they never knew.
    I think it has a lot to do with how much that person's work influenced their lives. I mean, if a Michael Jackson song is what brought you back from the verge of committing suicide or helped you through a really tough time or their first concert was Michael Jackson. I can see how those people would form a attachment to Michael Jackson even if they never met him. However writting off those important reasons a vast majority are just attention whores :-p
  • chaosof99chaosof99
    Rym, just so you know, "Hesse" is pronounced with an e in the end like you pronounce the first e in the word. Similar to "essay" with an h in front of it and without sliding into the y in the end.
  • RymRym
    Rym, just so you know, "Hesse" is pronounced with an e in the end like you pronounce the first e in the word.
    Wow. In my entire life, including my schooling, I have never once heard it pronounced that way.
  • chaosof99chaosof99
    Rym, just so you know, "Hesse" is pronounced with an e in the end like you pronounce the first e in the word.
    Wow. In my entire life, including my schooling, I have never once heard it pronounced that way.
    Made a quick YouTube Search and this german girl pronounces it correctly:
  • TheWhaleSharkTheWhaleShark
    It seems odd to me when people get worked up about the death of someone they never knew.
    That's basically the topic of this show.
    So you prove how odd it is to put a lot of energy into talking about celebrity deaths by...putting a lot of energy into talking about celebrity deaths? :P

    I've always found the phenomenon of the celebrity to be fascinating, particularly the way in which society will venerate their celebrities as though they're gods, and then in the next moment they'll tear that person down, ruining their fame and sometimes their lives. We put them on pedestals to please us, and then knock them off when they displease us.
  • RymRym
    putting a lot of energy into talking about celebrity deaths?
    Listen to the show, and you'll see. ;^) We barely talk about the people themselves, and more about the idea that one's persona can outlive the person.
    Made a quick YouTube Search and this german girl pronounces it correctly:
    Oh, I didn't doubt it was correct. I was just noting that I had never encountered the correct pronunciation before.
  • Kate MonsterKate Monster
    To amend my previous statement, I do care deeply when certain great thinkers, leaders or humanitarians pass away or when people meet violent or long suffering ends (regardless of their level of fame).
  • chaosof99chaosof99
    edited June 2009
    Apparently there were also a shitton of rumors about Jeff Goldbloom falling to his death yesterday and today. However, they turned out to be a hoax.

    @ Rym: I just put up a video so you could actually hear it once in your life ;)
    Post edited by chaosof99 on
  • Kate MonsterKate Monster
    edited June 2009
    Apparently there were also a shitton of rumors about Jeff Goldbloom Goldblum falling to his death yesterday and today. However, they turned out to be a hoax.
    THAT would be a tragedy. He is sex on a stick.
    Post edited by Kate Monster on
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited June 2009
    Apparently there were also a shitton of rumors about Jeff Goldbloom falling to his death yesterday and today. However, they turned out to be a hoax.

    @ Rym: I just put up a video so you could actually hear it once in your life ;)
    The Australian version of the Today show reported it as fact. -10 points for fact checking there, Today Show.

    Also, I hear MJ fans in LA are giving tribute on the wrong walk of fame star, with MJ's real star being under the red carpet for the bruno premier - they're actually putting tributes on the star of Michael Jackson, a famous LA radio presenter.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • AndrewAndrew
    image
  • SchnevetsSchnevets
    I'll never forget when Steve Irwin died. That night, I was in a McDonalds with friends. A group of older kids from my high school, drunk as hell, come in and yell out "Anyone hear about Steve Irwin!?" Tables of people (it was full of drunk high school kids) replied "Yeah! Holy shit!" as they all preceded to tell legends about the man and his crocodile hunting ways. I felt like I was warped to ancient Greece, and a sailor had just entered the local bar/bath house/whatever place ancient Greeks hung out and got drunk at/brothel to tell the news of Achilles' death by arrow.
  • Kate MonsterKate Monster
    edited June 2009
    Haha... Steve Irwin's death always makes me chuckle. It isn't that I find him being dead funny, but the circumstances under which he died, his ridiculously unsafe behavior with his child, and his show (Crikey! There's a Rhino. Let me insert a giant log into its anus and see what it does!) make me laugh.

    I will never understand the mass-hysteria of Princess Di's death. People still flip out whenever she is mentioned.
    Post edited by Kate Monster on
  • kiwi_birdkiwi_bird
    Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse.
    Steppenwolf is pretty much my favorite book. I can't wait to hear what you have to say...
  • ChurbaChurba
    I'll never forget when Steve Irwin died. That night, I was in a McDonalds with friends. A group of older kids from my high school, drunk as hell, come in and yell out "Anyone hear about Steve Irwin!?" Tables of people (it was full of drunk high school kids) replied "Yeah! Holy shit!" as they all preceded to tell legends about the man and his crocodile hunting ways. I felt like I was warped to ancient Greece, and a sailor had just entered the local bar/bath house/whatever place ancient Greeks hung out and got drunk at/brothel to tell the news of Achilles' death by arrow.
    I must admit, it annoyed the hell out of me - Instantly, everyone went from making jokes and going on about how He's an absolute nutter, over to crying and defending him as a national hero.
  • SchnevetsSchnevets
    I'll never forget when Steve Irwin died. That night, I was in a McDonalds with friends. A group of older kids from my high school, drunk as hell, come in and yell out "Anyone hear about Steve Irwin!?" Tables of people (it was full of drunk high school kids) replied "Yeah! Holy shit!" as they all preceded to tell legends about the man and his crocodile hunting ways. I felt like I was warped to ancient Greece, and a sailor had just entered the local bar/bath house/whatever place ancient Greeks hung out and got drunk at/brothel to tell the news of Achilles' death by arrow.
    I must admit, it annoyed the hell out of me - Instantly, everyone went from making jokes and going on about how He's an absolute nutter, over to crying and defending him as a national hero.
    Hey, Michael Jackson has almost been exonerated as well. For the first time since the nineties, people are putting together the King of Pop and Wacko Jacko. Just makes me wonder how the media would try to act solemn if Paris Hilton or another media punching bag died at the height of their career (which just reminds me of the media coverage around Anna Nicole Smith's expected and fitting demise).
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Rym, Scott! No offense intended, but this episode had the lamest opening for a loooong time.
  • solarplexus7solarplexus7
    Regarding the book club:

    I've recently become interested in some modern pop-sci books. Things like the Malcolm Gladwell books, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely (You may recognize him from TED. A GREAT read.), How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer, Nudge, among others.

    But if you want to stick with fiction, perhaps some Chuck Palahniuk, the book version of Battle Royale, or Let the Right One In.
  • HankHank
    I was shocked and saddened (OK, not really saddened) to hear that Rym & Scott didn't know what Abe Vigoda was known for. I guess it just reinforces their point about what a difference in pop culture context a few years makes.

    Abe Vigoda played Tessio in the first Godfather movie (1972?). I was technically around for that, but far too young to notice it. I've since seen the movie, and read the book. As I remember, his character hoped to take advantage of the death of Vito Corleone to start his own crime family, and plotted with some of the other families against the Corleones. He ended up on the wrong side of Michael Corleone's consolidation of power: Dirt Nap City.

    More well known (at least to me) is his role as Detective Fish in "Barney Miller", a great show I still enjoy from time to time. His character Fish was an older guy even then, and Vigoda played him as a gruff, cynical guy, probably always thinking about "kids these days". That ran in the mid-to-late 70's, and I think there was a spin-off called "Fish" that went nowhere (& Wikipedia confirms). I used to watch that when I was a kid, and still hear the bass solo that starts the show's theme (it started in my head as I wrote this, and will likely be there all day now).
  • ErynEryn
    Don't forget Abe's important role in the immortal classic Good Burger.
  • Li_AkahiLi_Akahi
    Don't forget Abe's important role in the immortal classicGood Burger.
    Why, Abe? Why would you ruin your career?
  • SailSail
    Why, Abe? Why would you ruin your career?
    Hey.

    Fuck you.
  • Li_AkahiLi_Akahi
    Why, Abe? Why would you ruin your career?
    Hey.

    Fuck you.
    That was from the Nostalgia Critic review.
  • SailSail
    That was from the Nostalgia Critic review.
    It better be.
  • Li_AkahiLi_Akahi
    That was from the Nostalgia Critic review.
    It better be.
    I think Good Burger is a terrible movie, though.
  • SailSail
    I think Good Burger is a terrible movie, though.
    Do yourself a favor and go face the wall.
  • TheWhaleSharkTheWhaleShark
    I think Good Burger is a terrible movie, though.
    Do yourself a favor and go face the wall.
    His facing the wall does not stop Good Burger from sucking.
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