Midwest comedy radio staple Ron Sexton aka "Donnie Baker." He was still scheduled to play some shows this weekend. The even poorer man's Larry the Cable Guy.
Sinead O’Connor https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/...oconnor-acclaimed-dublin-singer-dies-aged-56/ Definitely didn’t see that one coming.
Her mental health struggles have been on display for a while now. Curious if it was some unreported illness.
With her history of mental illness, it’s not really that surprising. It’ll be interesting to hear what the cause of death was. Sorry to hear it, she was very talented.
Randy Meisner, founding member of the Eagles, who sang “Take It to the Limit” https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/27/entertainment/randy-meisner-death/index.html
With how bad he abused alcohol after Walsh fired him, it’s a miracle he wasn’t the first to go. He was probably the best singer in the Eagles, but had zero confidence in himself.
He said in an interview he was annoyed that it was played off as “not wanting to do rock.” He just was ready to get away from the drugs and what we all know was a pretty toxic atmosphere. Also, I can’t recommend enough the Documentary Now! spoof “Gentle and Soft: the Blue Jean Committee.”
You mean the charges that were later dropped to an obscenity charge? His wiki page summarizes what went on fairly well, but here's the gist: "The district attorney looked at Reubens's collection and computer and found no grounds for bringing any felony charges against him, while the city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, formally charged Reubens on the last day allowed by statute"
Yeah, dude had some kink shit going on privately (or in a sex theatre, whatevs), but I think he was being gunned for based on his children's show, etc. He was weird, no doubt, but I wouldn't call him a pedophile.
There are things you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand. Things, you shouldn't understand.
Color me in the camp of "if you're going to play, play privately. No issues. If you're playing publicly, be prepared for public." It's really, really, really, REALLY hard to be a guy, work with kids, AND be a member of the scene in any capacity. I don't know the specifics, and I'm not interested in learning them. Chances are there's a handful of folks who were charged with pedophilia based on some unsavory stuff that wouldn't fall into any other category, just like there's some innocent folks falsely convicted guilty of any crime. The "moral decency" laws in any given place can be fucking insane. In the time he was on tv, I'd wager the public associated him with children, and any of his play not falling into the strictly private or engineered anonymous categories got him that kind of attention. If you work with kids, it's not entirely a tall order to ensure people from work don't know what you're up to. The investigation is very much a Catch 22: lie and arouse suspicion beyond what you've actually done, or tell the truth and incur the wrath and breach of privacy....and learn you immediately lost control of the narrative, and you're a sex criminal, etc. As far as we may have progressed on these issues, not a lot of folks are comfortable with openly LGBT or queer folks in education. I can certainly see the 1980's being VERY uncomfortable with it, especially since the pedophilia panic the moral majority engineered needed some high profile cases. A Jewish guy who has a kids show? Happened in Aus or NZ around the same time, and I think one other guy on a UK show...Actual pedophiles are wildly rare, but it's pretty easy to catch a guy working with kids in a situation with lots of money, attention and a "he said/they said" stalemate with a bunch of character witnesses. I'd REALLY feel better if what happened to PR is the latter, but.... There's a fine line to work with kids and be in the scene, and most dudes have a hard time navigating that kind of nuance. Fuck, even the simplest decision of "to lie or not to lie?" is a nightmare, assuming you're capable of lying. Doing that sort of dance back then, with those stakes? It's no wonder those cases were very messy.
He did have pictures of underage kids as "art." If he wasn't actually a pedo, he was damn close. That is pretty disturbing.
Don't get me wrong, I was never a fan, but I also draw the line at labelling someone a pedo based on a "gut feel". Nothing official came of it, so he was just weird to me, not a pedo.
Ah yes, the Pete Townshend strategy. Wait, his were research. For the record, I loved Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, and his Big Adventure.