Celebrity death that bummed you out the most... - Page 9

Elspode · 08-21-2005, 11:06 PM

For most of you, the passing about which I am going to write probably wouldn't be a blip on your sociological radar. For me, it is a passing of tremendous enormity...the loss of a visionary giant whose very name is synonomous with innovation and creativity; a man who almost single-handedly changed the musical world with his creations.

Today, Dr. Robert Moog, the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, died of a malignant and aggressive brain tumor at his home in North Carolina. Bob Moog was 71 years old. In those 71 years, Bob was an inventor, a self-made, humane, universally loved and admired engineer and scientist whose youthful fascination with electronics led him first to building theremins and selling them to help pay his way through school. Today, those early Moog theremins bring almost unimaginable prices as collector's items, examples of both ingenuity and vision, a vestige of simpler technological days when erstwhile youths could still cobble together something in their basements and amaze the hell out of their friends and neighbors.

While Moog afficionados have long known of Bob's fascination with the theremin and those who play them, the world at large usually thinks of the Moog Synthesizer when they think of Bob at all. So revolutionary was this device, that the name Moog has become almost generic for synthesizers, much like Kleenex is for tissues. While Bob did not invent the synthesizer, he did something much more meaningful and important - he made these devices practical for use by musicians. Before Bob's advent, synthesizers were enormous devices (the earliest true example, the RCA synthesizer, literally took up two large rooms due to the fact that integrated circuits had not yet become commonly used when it was built).

Bob engineered synthesizers into boxes that were at least marginally portable at first. At the very least, they were suitable for installation into recording studios and universities. Synthesizers are, in their most basic form, devices that produce and manipulate the various parts of a musical event such as note generation, breaking the event down into its component parts. For each portion of that event, a different part of the synthesizer generates or controls an aspect of each part of the sound - an oscillator creates the pure tone, a waveform generator gives the wave a distinctive shape, imparting color and harmonic content, an envelope generator controls the rise, decay, sustain and fall of the sound, a filter strains out the more desireable harmonics or imparts resonance...and so on and so on. Bob Moog took this rather simple yet complex set of parameters and unified them into hardware modules capable of producing the necessary part of the equation, and which could then be assembled (patched) in the manner necessary to produce a simulation of an instrument...or some sound that no one had ever even imagined.

The impact on music was immediate and profound. Once the creative minds of the music world got their hands on these devices, nothing was ever the same. While truly avant garde types had played with various forms of electronic music for over sixty years, no one had ever had so much raw sonic power at their fingertips before the Moog Synthesizer, and it began to show up in popular music almost immediately. Synthesizers didn't really come into their own, though, until an album entitled "Switched on Bach" was released. In one fell swoop Walter (now Wendy) Carlos turned the classical and popular music world on its collective ear, thanks to a large, custom specified Moog modular synthesizer rig.

Wendy Carlos has remained friends with Bob for nearly forty years, as have others with whom Bob worked over his stellar career. Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Dick Hyman...the list goes on and on. These people were not just customers of Bob Moog, not just admirers, not just adopters of his technology. They were truly his friends and confidantes, part of the extended Bob Moog family of musicians and technicians, music lovers and gear heads. Of all the things I have ever read about Bob Moog, he has never been characterized as anything except kind, loving, gentle, friendly, sincere, devoted, dedicated. Truly, he was a man for whom superlatives fail.

Bob Moog always said that he was not a musician, he was an engineer. But he was an engineer who observed what musicians wanted and needed, and then strove to give it to them, because in the end, what he created wasn't about IC's and knobs and voltage control. What he created was a new way for musicians to bring into being sounds which existed only in their heads, and give those audio visions to the world.

As I mention from time to time, I am utterly consumed by synthesizers. I have owned several over the years, including a couple of Bob's most successful and well-known units, the MiniMoog, still the most coveted portable synthesizer in the world today, and regularly selling for more at 30 years of age or older than they did when they were new. The passing of Bob Moog is, for me, the passing of an era, a turning of a page in history. He is the father of a major portion of the soundtrack in my mind, and I will always, always remember him fondly for that.

To expand upon one of my favorite Gary Larson cartoons - "Welcome to Heaven...here's your harp."

"Welcome to Hell...here's your accordion."

"Welcome to the Universe, Bob. Here's your Moog."

(Picture below - Dr. Robert Moog with a Mini Moog Model D)

Hobbs · 09-06-2005, 03:37 PM

Most of us grew up watching "Gilligan's Island" after school on our local afternoon tv channels. The most recognizable character dressed in white pants, a red shirt, and a white sailors hat was of course Willie Gilligan. The actor who played him, Bob Denver, passed away today at the age of 70 of complications due to cancer.

Many might not realize that he had a fairly robust career both before and after his stint on "Gilligan's Island" as well. He played Maynard G. Krebs on the show "Dobbie Gillis," along with many guest appearences on shows like "Love American Style," "Fantasy Island," "Roseanne," even "Baywatch."

There aren't very many actors that I have a desire to meet in person, but I would have loved to have met Bob. He always seemed to me to be genuine and friendly. He will be sorely missed.

Elspode · 09-06-2005, 03:58 PM

RIP, little buddy.

Bob Denver was a fine comic actor whose career was severely truncated by the inevitable typecasting brought on by having had the fortune (or misfortune) to have played such an iconic character. If you ever get the chance, catch old reruns of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", in which Denver played, to hysterically good effect, beatnik Maynard G. Krebs. Hysterical.

Beestie · 09-06-2005, 04:08 PM

That is a real bummer. I pretty much grew up with Gilligan, Mr. Rogers and Kaptain Kangaroo. Yeah, the show was dumb but it was great for kids.

About seven months ago, I got in touch with him and bought a pub photo from the set of the GI which he was kind enough to autograph.

I guess his little break from having the skipper smack him with his captain's hat is over

lumberjim · 09-06-2005, 04:13 PM

HEY.

richlevy · 09-06-2005, 09:09 PM

He was a great comic actor. He was typecast from his two best roles and his career ended after Gilligan's Island, but while he was on he really made it seem effortless. I really think that he was as good as Jerry Lewis and Buster Keaton at physical comedy.

By all reports, he was a nice person who cared about his community.

Goodbye, little buddy.

wolf · 09-07-2005, 01:58 AM

He was always the famous person I was proudest of when I would rattle off my "shares my birthday" list.

I always liked the one with the Trans-Pacific phone cable best ... and the orange ... and the irradiated seeds ... and ...

lheene · 09-13-2005, 09:18 PM

Kurt Cobain.... I have never been much of a Nirvana Fan but.... there's something about his passing and the desolation of his suicide that struck home with me. It really made me believe in the power of compassion.

wolf · 09-14-2005, 12:52 AM

Within two days we had someone admitted to the unit wearing a Kurt Cobain suicide tee shirt (The NYT Obit, IIRC). Yes, we made them take it off.

I was looking for a picture of that on Google Image Search, but instead I found what purports to be a hospital pic. Shotguns are very, very messy. Not for the fainthearted. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Mary Jane and Me · 09-17-2005, 06:05 PM

Kurt Cobain........not only was he a good musician....but i found him very interesting too......

Silent · 09-27-2005, 06:00 AM

Agent 86 is no more.

In the end, KAOS gets us all.

Beestie · 09-27-2005, 07:15 AM

86 86'd.

I read yesterday that Don Adams was a pretty smart guy. Apparently, he never read the scripts. He would have someone read the script to him once or twice and that was all he needed. The crew would take bets that he wouldn't be able to finish the shoot without having to review his lines. Another actor done in by doing too good a job with his character - all he was able to get after Get Smart were voice jobs (including Inspector Gadget) excluding a few B-movie parts and some reunion stuff.

Get Smart took in a total of five Emmy Awards: Three for Don Adams (best actor in a comedy) and two for the show (best comedy).

For extra credit, which two people came up with the idea for the series and wrote the pilot? (Answer below - highlight from here down)

Mel Brooks and Buck Henry
(Answer just above)

Hobbs · 09-27-2005, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beestie

For extra credit, which two people came up with the idea for the series and wrote the pilot? (Answer below - highlight from here down)

Mel Brooks and Buck Henry
(Answer just above)

I was surprised when I found this out. You only see Mel Brook's name mentioned once in the credits in the begining of the show. If you miss it, you'd never realize he had anything to do with it.

glatt · 09-27-2005, 09:48 AM

When I first heard this, I was surprised, because I didn't know Buck Henry did anything other than host SNL in the good old days.

Fleur · 09-27-2005, 12:28 PM

you hand upon the wheels, for the future's uncertain and the end is always near.....

08-21-2005, 11:06 PM	#121
Elspode When Do I Get Virtual Unreality? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Raytown, Missouri Posts: 12,719	How to Memorialize a Genius? For most of you, the passing about which I am going to write probably wouldn't be a blip on your sociological radar. For me, it is a passing of tremendous enormity...the loss of a visionary giant whose very name is synonomous with innovation and creativity; a man who almost single-handedly changed the musical world with his creations. Today, Dr. Robert Moog, the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, died of a malignant and aggressive brain tumor at his home in North Carolina. Bob Moog was 71 years old. In those 71 years, Bob was an inventor, a self-made, humane, universally loved and admired engineer and scientist whose youthful fascination with electronics led him first to building theremins and selling them to help pay his way through school. Today, those early Moog theremins bring almost unimaginable prices as collector's items, examples of both ingenuity and vision, a vestige of simpler technological days when erstwhile youths could still cobble together something in their basements and amaze the hell out of their friends and neighbors. While Moog afficionados have long known of Bob's fascination with the theremin and those who play them, the world at large usually thinks of the Moog Synthesizer when they think of Bob at all. So revolutionary was this device, that the name Moog has become almost generic for synthesizers, much like Kleenex is for tissues. While Bob did not invent the synthesizer, he did something much more meaningful and important - he made these devices practical for use by musicians. Before Bob's advent, synthesizers were enormous devices (the earliest true example, the RCA synthesizer, literally took up two large rooms due to the fact that integrated circuits had not yet become commonly used when it was built). Bob engineered synthesizers into boxes that were at least marginally portable at first. At the very least, they were suitable for installation into recording studios and universities. Synthesizers are, in their most basic form, devices that produce and manipulate the various parts of a musical event such as note generation, breaking the event down into its component parts. For each portion of that event, a different part of the synthesizer generates or controls an aspect of each part of the sound - an oscillator creates the pure tone, a waveform generator gives the wave a distinctive shape, imparting color and harmonic content, an envelope generator controls the rise, decay, sustain and fall of the sound, a filter strains out the more desireable harmonics or imparts resonance...and so on and so on. Bob Moog took this rather simple yet complex set of parameters and unified them into hardware modules capable of producing the necessary part of the equation, and which could then be assembled (patched) in the manner necessary to produce a simulation of an instrument...or some sound that no one had ever even imagined. The impact on music was immediate and profound. Once the creative minds of the music world got their hands on these devices, nothing was ever the same. While truly avant garde types had played with various forms of electronic music for over sixty years, no one had ever had so much raw sonic power at their fingertips before the Moog Synthesizer, and it began to show up in popular music almost immediately. Synthesizers didn't really come into their own, though, until an album entitled "Switched on Bach" was released. In one fell swoop Walter (now Wendy) Carlos turned the classical and popular music world on its collective ear, thanks to a large, custom specified Moog modular synthesizer rig. Wendy Carlos has remained friends with Bob for nearly forty years, as have others with whom Bob worked over his stellar career. Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Dick Hyman...the list goes on and on. These people were not just customers of Bob Moog, not just admirers, not just adopters of his technology. They were truly his friends and confidantes, part of the extended Bob Moog family of musicians and technicians, music lovers and gear heads. Of all the things I have ever read about Bob Moog, he has never been characterized as anything except kind, loving, gentle, friendly, sincere, devoted, dedicated. Truly, he was a man for whom superlatives fail. Bob Moog always said that he was not a musician, he was an engineer. But he was an engineer who observed what musicians wanted and needed, and then strove to give it to them, because in the end, what he created wasn't about IC's and knobs and voltage control. What he created was a new way for musicians to bring into being sounds which existed only in their heads, and give those audio visions to the world. As I mention from time to time, I am utterly consumed by synthesizers. I have owned several over the years, including a couple of Bob's most successful and well-known units, the MiniMoog, still the most coveted portable synthesizer in the world today, and regularly selling for more at 30 years of age or older than they did when they were new. The passing of Bob Moog is, for me, the passing of an era, a turning of a page in history. He is the father of a major portion of the soundtrack in my mind, and I will always, always remember him fondly for that. To expand upon one of my favorite Gary Larson cartoons - "Welcome to Heaven...here's your harp." "Welcome to Hell...here's your accordion." "Welcome to the Universe, Bob. Here's your Moog." (Picture below - Dr. Robert Moog with a Mini Moog Model D) Attached Images __________________ "To those of you who are wearing ties, I think my dad would appreciate it if you took them off." - Robert Moog Last edited by Elspode; 08-22-2005 at 12:16 AM.

09-06-2005, 03:37 PM	#122
Hobbs Professor for the school of ass-clownery Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Surprise! Posts: 404	Gilligan finally gets rescued. Most of us grew up watching "Gilligan's Island" after school on our local afternoon tv channels. The most recognizable character dressed in white pants, a red shirt, and a white sailors hat was of course Willie Gilligan. The actor who played him, Bob Denver, passed away today at the age of 70 of complications due to cancer. Many might not realize that he had a fairly robust career both before and after his stint on "Gilligan's Island" as well. He played Maynard G. Krebs on the show "Dobbie Gillis," along with many guest appearences on shows like "Love American Style," "Fantasy Island," "Roseanne," even "Baywatch." There aren't very many actors that I have a desire to meet in person, but I would have loved to have met Bob. He always seemed to me to be genuine and friendly. He will be sorely missed. Attached Images __________________ That's it! Send in the chimps!

09-06-2005, 03:58 PM	#123
Elspode When Do I Get Virtual Unreality? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Raytown, Missouri Posts: 12,719	RIP, little buddy. Bob Denver was a fine comic actor whose career was severely truncated by the inevitable typecasting brought on by having had the fortune (or misfortune) to have played such an iconic character. If you ever get the chance, catch old reruns of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", in which Denver played, to hysterically good effect, beatnik Maynard G. Krebs. Hysterical. __________________ "To those of you who are wearing ties, I think my dad would appreciate it if you took them off." - Robert Moog

09-06-2005, 04:08 PM	#124
Beestie -◊\|≡·∙■·∙≡\|◊- Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Parts unknown. Posts: 4,081	Goodbye little buddy... That is a real bummer. I pretty much grew up with Gilligan, Mr. Rogers and Kaptain Kangaroo. Yeah, the show was dumb but it was great for kids. About seven months ago, I got in touch with him and bought a pub photo from the set of the GI which he was kind enough to autograph. I guess his little break from having the skipper smack him with his captain's hat is over __________________ ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦

09-06-2005, 04:13 PM	#125
lumberjim I can hear my ears Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 25,571	HEY. __________________ This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality Embrace this moment, remember We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion ~MJKeenan

09-06-2005, 09:09 PM	#126
richlevy King Of Wishful Thinking Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Philadelphia Suburbs Posts: 6,669	He was a great comic actor. He was typecast from his two best roles and his career ended after Gilligan's Island, but while he was on he really made it seem effortless. I really think that he was as good as Jerry Lewis and Buster Keaton at physical comedy. By all reports, he was a nice person who cared about his community. Goodbye, little buddy. __________________ Exercise your rights and remember your obligations - VOTE! I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. -- Barack Hussein Obama

09-07-2005, 01:58 AM	#127
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	He was always the famous person I was proudest of when I would rattle off my "shares my birthday" list. I always liked the one with the Trans-Pacific phone cable best ... and the orange ... and the irradiated seeds ... and ... __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

09-13-2005, 09:18 PM	#128
lheene Resident Denizen Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 60	Kurt Cobain.... I have never been much of a Nirvana Fan but.... there's something about his passing and the desolation of his suicide that struck home with me. It really made me believe in the power of compassion.

09-14-2005, 12:52 AM	#129
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	Within two days we had someone admitted to the unit wearing a Kurt Cobain suicide tee shirt (The NYT Obit, IIRC). Yes, we made them take it off. I was looking for a picture of that on Google Image Search, but instead I found what purports to be a hospital pic. Shotguns are very, very messy. Not for the fainthearted. Don't say I didn't warn you. __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

09-17-2005, 06:05 PM	#130
Mary Jane and Me IS IN HIDING.............CAN YOU FIND ME??? Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Clarksville, Ar Posts: 28	Kurt Cobain........not only was he a good musician....but i found him very interesting too......

09-27-2005, 06:00 AM	#131
Silent Romanes Eunt Domus Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 702	Agent 86 is no more. In the end, KAOS gets us all.

09-27-2005, 07:15 AM	#132
Beestie -◊\|≡·∙■·∙≡\|◊- Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Parts unknown. Posts: 4,081	86 86'd. I read yesterday that Don Adams was a pretty smart guy. Apparently, he never read the scripts. He would have someone read the script to him once or twice and that was all he needed. The crew would take bets that he wouldn't be able to finish the shoot without having to review his lines. Another actor done in by doing too good a job with his character - all he was able to get after Get Smart were voice jobs (including Inspector Gadget) excluding a few B-movie parts and some reunion stuff. Get Smart took in a total of five Emmy Awards: Three for Don Adams (best actor in a comedy) and two for the show (best comedy). For extra credit, which two people came up with the idea for the series and wrote the pilot? (Answer below - highlight from here down) Mel Brooks and Buck Henry (Answer just above) __________________ ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦

09-27-2005, 09:48 AM	#134
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	When I first heard this, I was surprised, because I didn't know Buck Henry did anything other than host SNL in the good old days.

09-27-2005, 12:28 PM	#135
Fleur drama queen Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Cherry Hill, NJ Posts: 36	Keep your eyes on the road,........ you hand upon the wheels, for the future's uncertain and the end is always near.....

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