Author Topic: Dropping Like Flies  (Read 2547605 times)

Jaguär

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #90 on: June 03, 2005, 03:25:00 am »
Quote
Originally posted by Ellis D. Fleischbach:
   
Quote
Originally posted by Jaguär:
  I'm more a Beverly Hillbillies fan myself.
The Beverly Hillbillies was unique...a parody of The Grapes of Wrath.   Who would've thunk it?   I don't know how they pulled it off.  Even Hogan's Heroes was tasteful, by that standard. [/b]
Oh, Hogan's Heroes is another favorite of mine!

vansmack

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #91 on: July 01, 2005, 07:39:00 pm »
R&B Crooner Luther Vandross Dies at 54
 - By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer
 Friday, July 1, 2005
 (07-01) 15:55 PDT New York (AP) --
 
 Grammy award winner Luther Vandross, whose deep, lush voice on such hits as "Here and Now" and "Any Love" sold more than 25 million albums while providing the romantic backdrop for millions of couples worldwide, died Friday. He was 54.
 
 Vandross died at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, N.J., said hospital spokesman Rob Cavanaugh. He did not release the cause of death.
 
 Since suffering a stroke in his Manhattan home on April 16, 2003, the R&B crooner stopped making public appearances â?? but amazingly managed to continue his recording career. In 2004, he captured four Grammys as a sentimental favorite, including best song for the bittersweet "Dance With My Father."
 
 Vandross, who was still in a wheelchair at the time, delivered a videotaped thank you.
 
 "Remember, when I say goodbye it's never for long," said a weak-looking Vandross. "Because" â?? he broke into his familiar hit â?? "I believe in the power of love."
 
 Vandross also battled weight problems for years while suffering from diabetes and hypertension.
 
 He was arguably the most celebrated R&B balladeer of his generation. He made women swoon with his silky yet forceful tenor, which he often revved up like a motor engine before reaching his beautiful crescendos.
 
 Vandross was a four-time Grammy winner in the best male R&B performance category, taking home the trophy in 1990 for the single "Here and Now," in 1991 for his album "Power of Love," in 1996 for the track "Your Secret Love" and a last time for "Dance With My Father."
 
 The album, with its single of the same name, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts while Vandross remained hospitalized from his stroke. It was the first time a Vandross album had topped the charts in its first week of release.
 
 In 2005, he was nominated for a Soul Train Music Award for a duet with Beyonce on "The Closer I Get To You."
 
 Vandross' sound was so unusual few tried to copy it; even fewer could.
 
 "I'm proud of that â?? it's one of the things that I'm most proud of," he told The Associated Press in a 2001 interview. "I was never compared to anyone in terms of sound."
 
 Vandross' style harkened back to a more genteel era of crooning. While many of his contemporaries and successors belted out tunes that were sexually charged and explicit, Vandross preferred soft pillow talk and songs that spoke to heartfelt emotions.
 
 "I'm more into poetry and metaphor, and I would much rather imply something rather than to blatantly state it," he said. "You blatantly state stuff sometimes when you can't think of a a poetic way to say it."
 
 A career in music seemed predestined for the New York native; both his parents were singers, and his sister, Patricia, was part of a 1950s group called the Crests.
 
 But he happily toiled in the musical background for years before he would have his first hit. He wrote songs for projects as varied as a David Bowie album ("Fascination") and the Broadway musical "The Wiz" ("Everybody Rejoice (Brand New Day)"), sang backup for acts such as Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand, and even became a leading commercial jingle singer.
 
 Vandross credited singer Roberta Flack for prodding him to move into the spotlight after listening to one of his future hits, "Never Too Much."
 
 "She started crying," he recalled. "She said, `No, you're getting too comfortable (in the background). ... I'm going to introduce you to some people and get your career started.'"
 
 Vandross' first big hit came as the lead vocalist for the group Change, with their 1980 hit, "The Glow of Love." That led to a recording contract with Epic Records, and in 1981, he made his solo recording debut with the disc "Never Too Much." The album, which contained his aching rendition of "A House is Not a Home," became an instant classic.
 
 Over the years, Vandross would emerge as the leading romantic singer of his generation, racking up one platinum album after another and charting several R&B hits, such as "Superstar,""Give Me The Reason" and "Love Won't Let Me Wait."
 
 Yet, while Vandross was a household name in the black community, he was frustrated by his failure to become a mainstream pop star. Indeed, it took Vandross until 1990 to score his first top 10 hit â?? the wedding staple "Here & Now."
 
 "I just wanted more success. I didn't want to suddenly start wearing blond wigs to appeal to anyone," he told the AP.
 
 "This is the same voice that sang Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, NBC 'proud as a peacock,' ... America, the world, has heard the voice, so there's no reason that that music shouldn't have gone the complete distance, I mean, to number one."
 
 Another frustration for Vandross was his lifelong battle with obesity. Health problems ran in his family, and Vandross struggled for years to control his waistline. When he first became a star, he was a hefty size; a few years later, he was almost skinny. His weight fluctuated so much that rumors swirled that he had more serious health problems than the hypertension and diabetes caused by his large frame.
 
 Vandross' two sisters and a brother died before him. The lifelong bachelor never had any children, but doted on his nieces and nephews. The entertainer said his busy lifestyle made marriage difficult; besides, it wasn't what he wanted.
27>34

HoyaSaxa03

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #92 on: July 01, 2005, 08:00:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by vansmack:
  In 2004, he captured four Grammys as a sentimental favorite, including best song for the bittersweet "Dance With My Father."
 
it feels like every fucking grammy is awarded to "sentimental favorites" ... it doesnt happen as much in any of the other big, reputable awards
(o|o)

RonniStar

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #93 on: July 04, 2005, 01:17:00 pm »
First, Luther Vandross! Now,  Obie Benson of The Four Tops has passed away.

hitman

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #94 on: July 04, 2005, 09:45:00 pm »
Shelby Foote
   Brian Pohanka
 
 For anyone interested in the Civil War.

ggw

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #95 on: July 06, 2005, 02:18:00 pm »
James Stockdale, Perot Running Mate, Dies
 
 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 Published: July 6, 2005
 Filed at 11:41 a.m. ET
 
 SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Retired Vice Adm. James Stockdale, Ross Perot's 1992 presidential running mate who received the Medal of Honor after enduring 7 1/2 years in a North Vietnamese prison, died Tuesday. He was 81.
 
 The Navy did not provide a cause of death but said he had suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died at his home in Coronado.
 
 In the 1992 presidential election, Stockdale became independent candidate Perot's vice presidential running mate, initially as a stand-in on the ticket but later as the candidate.
 
 Stockdale gave a stumbling performance in the nationally televised vice-presidential debate against Dan Quayle and Al Gore and later said he didn't feel comfortable in the public eye.
 
 "Who am I? Why am I here?" he asked rhetorically in his opening statement. Toward the end, he asked the moderator to repeat a question, saying, "I didn't have my hearing aid turned on."
 
 During the Vietnam War, Stockdale was a Navy fighter pilot based on the USS Oriskany and flew 201 missions before he was shot down on Sept. 9, 1965. He became the highest-ranking naval officer captured during the war, the Navy said.
 
 Stockdale was taken to Hoa Lo Prison, known as the "Hanoi Hilton." His shoulders were wrenched from their sockets, his leg had been shattered by angry villagers and a torturer, and his back was broken. But he refused to capitulate.
 
 Rather than allow himself to be used in a propaganda film, Stockdale smashed his face into a pulp with a mahogany stool.
 
 "My only hope was to disfigure myself," Stockdale wrote in his 1984 autobiography "In Love and War." The ploy worked, but he spent the next two years in leg irons.
 
 After Ho Chi Minh's death, he broke a glass pane in an interrogation room and slashed his wrists until he passed out in his own blood. After that, captors relented in their harsh treatment of him and his fellow prisoners.
 
 Stockdale spent four years in solitary confinement before his release in 1973.
 
 He received 26 combat decorations, including the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest medal for valor, in 1976. The citation reads, "By his heroic action at great peril to himself, he earned the everlasting gratitude of his fellow prisoners and of his country."
 
 He retired from the military in 1979, one of the most highly decorated officers in U.S. Navy history, and became president of the Citadel, a military college in South Carolina. He left in 1981 to become a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
 
 Stockdale came to know Perot through Sybil Stockdale's work establishing an organization on behalf of families of prisoners held during the Vietnam War.
 
 When Perot ran again in 1996 as the candidate of his Reform Party, Stockdale had rejoined the Republican Party.
 
 He is survived by his wife and four sons.

beetsnotbeats

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #96 on: July 06, 2005, 02:38:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  James Stockdale, Perot Running Mate, Dies
 
 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 Published: July 6, 2005
 Filed at 11:41 a.m. ET
 
 SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Retired Vice Adm. James Stockdale, Ross Perot's 1992 presidential running mate who received the Medal of Honor after enduring 7 1/2 years in a North Vietnamese prison, died Tuesday. He was 81.
 
GRIDLOCK!!!

HoyaSaxa03

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #97 on: July 06, 2005, 02:39:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  James Stockdale, Perot Running Mate, Dies
phil hartman did one hell of a james stockdale
(o|o)

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #98 on: July 14, 2005, 05:35:00 pm »
<img src="http://www.tonkco.com/computercoach/graphics/charlie-tuna.png" alt=" - " />
 Charlie the Tunaâ?? creator drowns

Chip Chanko

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #99 on: July 14, 2005, 10:06:00 pm »
Q and Not U broke up.
 
 edit: oops...old news.

SPARX

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #100 on: July 17, 2005, 10:37:00 pm »
Driver charged with triple murder in crash
 Woman allegedly had a death wish
 
 By Brian Cox and Lolly Bowean, Chicago Tribune.                                            
 Three Chicago musicians who worked regular jobs by day and rocked at
 night were killed when a young woman bent on ending her life barreled
 into their car on a Skokie street, law enforcement officials said
 Friday.
 
 Jeanette Sliwinski, 23, has been charged with three counts of
 first-degree murder after telling police investigating Thursday's
 crash at Niles Center Road that she had been in a fight with her
 mother and "wanted to end it all," authorities said.
 
 Sliwinski, of the 8900 block of Parkside Street, Morton Grove, was
 going at least 70 m.p.h. eastbound on Dempster Street and had run
 three red lights when she rammed her 2000 Ford Mustang into the car
 carrying the three co-workers who were out for lunch, authorities
 said.
 
 Killed were Michael Dahlquist, 39, of the 4800 block of South Ashland
 Avenue; John Glick, 35, of the 2800 block of West Palmer Street; and
 Douglas Meis, 29, of the 4500 block of North Lincoln Avenue, all in
 Chicago. Condolences buzzed across music-related Web sites as
 friends and fans shared the news. The men were in the prime of their
 lives, and more concerned about touching people with their art than
 making hit records, friends and relatives said.
 
 "They were people who were so smart and brilliant and amazing," said
 Rebecca Crawford, Glick's wife. "Everyone feels cheated that they
 haven't been able to accomplish what they set out to do."
 
 Dahlquist, who moved to Chicago from Washington state five years ago,
 played drums for Silkworm, a band praised by critics for its
 independence and eagerness to experiment.
 
 Glick grew up in Boston and moved to Chicago six years ago. He was a
 guitarist and singer with the Returnables. Meis played drums with
 Glick's wife in a band called The Dials, described by Matt Priest, a
 talent buyer, as "loud and noisy but super melodic and super poppy."
 
 "Michael was friendly to an extreme. He was a very outgoing and upbeat
 guy," said Tim Midgett,who played bass and guitar with him.
 
 Without Dahlquist, the band is over, he said. "He can't be replaced."
 
 By day, the three worked together at Shure Inc. in Niles, which
 manufactures microphones and other audio electronic products, said
 Paul Applebaum, company vice president.
 
 The deaths "really devastated a lot of people here," Applebaum said.
 "We are trying to make some sense of it ourselves. These people were
 highly respected and well-liked around here."
 
 Sliwinski, who is in fair condition at St. Francis Hospital in
 Evanston, declined to be interviewed, hospital spokeswoman Christine
 Rybicki said. Sliwinski also has been charged with two counts of
 aggravated battery, authorities said.
 
 People who answered the door at her Morton Grove home declined to
 comment.
 
 Skokie police said Sliwinski was not tested for alcohol or drugs.
 
 Police did not say if she was wearing a seat belt at the time of the
 crash.
 
 The three men were stopped at a red light at about 12:20 p.m. when
 their Honda Civic was rammed from behind, said Colleen Daly, Cook
 County assistant state's attorney.
 
 Daly said Sliwinski made no attempt to stop. Her car pushed the Honda
 into the car in front of it, injuring two others, and a fourth vehicle
 received minor damage, the prosecutor said.
 
 The Honda and Ford went airborne and flipped over, with one of the
 victims being ejected. The brakes in Sliwinski's car were functioning
 properly, Daly said.
 
 The Cook County medical examiner's office Friday ruled the deaths
 homicides.
 
 "She said she wanted to end it all when she ran into the back of the
 car," Daly said.
 
 
 Cook County Circuit Court Judge Consuela Bedoya ordered that Sliwinski
 be held without bond Friday. She is under guard at the hospital.
 
 Prosecutors may seek the death penalty, Daly said.
 
 Cook County court records show Sliwinski pleaded guilty April 5, 1999,
 to retail theft and was sentenced to community service. On Jan. 21,
 2000, she pleaded guilty to consuming alcohol as a minor and paid a
 $100 fine, records show.
 
 Applebaum said grief counselors were helping Shure employees Friday.
 
 "Some people who knew them had to leave work," said Applebaum, adding
 that customers also were upset and offering sympathy.
 
 "The remarkable thing is how many people said they knew these people
 personally," he said.
 
 Glick was a senior marketing specialist and had been with Shure since
 June 2001. Dahlquist was a senior technical writer who started with
 the company in October 2001. Meis started in December 1998 and was a
 customer service specialist.
 
 Crawford said she was still in shock over the deaths.
 
 "The three of them created an enormous amount of laughter and
 happiness in others lives," she said. "They had a certain exuberance
 about life that is really hard to come by."

chaz

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  • este lugar es una mierda
Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #101 on: July 17, 2005, 10:53:00 pm »
That is really fucking sad.  I hope that bitch rots in jail for a long long time.

amnesiac

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #102 on: July 18, 2005, 10:06:00 am »
Motorist held in fatal crash seeks forgiveness
 
 By Brian Cox
 Special to the Tribune
 Published July 18, 2005
 
 
 A woman accused of killing three Chicago men in Skokie last week when she rammed her car into their vehicle in an alleged attempt to kill herself issued a statement from her hospital bed asking for forgiveness.
 
 "I pray and beg for forgiveness from everyone who is saddened by the deaths," Jeanette Sliwinski said in a written statement. The statement was released Saturday by attorney Thomas Needham on behalf of Sliwinski and her parents, Ted and Ursula.
 
 On Friday, Sliwinski, 23, of the 8900 block of North Parkside Avenue, Morton Grove, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery in connection with the fatal crash Thursday at Niles Center Road and Dempster Street.
 
 Killed were Michael Dahlquist, 39, John Glick, 35 and Douglas Meis, 29, police said. The three were friends and part-time musicians. Police said they worked at Shure Inc. in Niles.
 
 Prosecutors said Friday that after the crash Sliwinski told investigators she intentionally drove her speeding car into the men's vehicle in an attempt to kill herself.
 
 They said witnesses reported that Sliwinski drove her 2000 Ford Mustang at least 70 m.p.h. eastbound on Dempster and that she ran three red lights before she hit the men's vehicle, which was stopped at a red light.
 
 "If we had an explanation for what happened, we would tell you what it is, but we have no explanation. We have only our heartfelt grief and prayers," the statement said. "We are all praying for the families of these fine young men and for the many friends whose lives were touched by their music and love."
 
 Two people in another car stopped at the intersection received non-life-threatening injuries in the crash, police said.
 
 Needham said Sunday that Sliwinski was under police guard at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston in fair condition.
 
 On Friday, a Cook County judge ordered Sliwinski be held without bail when she is released from the hospital.

Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #103 on: July 18, 2005, 10:08:00 am »
I was saddened, and I forgive her, but she still must do her time for the crime.

hitman

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Re: Dropping Like Flies
« Reply #104 on: July 19, 2005, 02:22:00 am »
Jim Parker from the Baltimore Colts dead at 71.  
 
 I actually met him, and he was such a wonderful person.  It's a true shame.  Present day football players can't hold the jockstraps of these old gridiron greats.
 
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