MetaFilter

Rooster Teeth is shutting down. Warner Bros. Discovery is ending the Austin-based media enterprise after 21 years.
comment posted at 8:09 AM on Mar-7-24

Dexter Romweber, singer-guitarist of influential rockabilly band Flat Duo Jets, died on Sunday. He was 57. They don't make 'em like Dex anymore. Godspeed, pal.
comment posted at 10:28 AM on Feb-21-24

Wisconsin couple has tens of thousands of old phones — and nobody to buy them. From the Wisconsin State Journal, the story of Ron and Mary Klappen, who've been selling vintage phone and phone equipment since 1971. But their business may now be at the end of the line.
comment posted at 4:06 PM on Nov-10-23

Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, a.k.a. The Iron Sheik, one of the most hated villains in professional wrestling history, has died at the age of 81 according to his official Twitter account, where he had enjoyed a second career of rants and insults.
comment posted at 5:02 PM on Jun-7-23

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - White Rabbit (Live) (SLYT)
comment posted at 4:21 AM on Apr-8-23

Lance Reddick, ‘The Wire’ and ‘John Wick’ Star, Dies at 60 [Variety] Lance Reddick, who appeared in major TV series like “The Wire,” “Fringe” and “Bosch” and films like the “John Wick” franchise, which is set to debut “John Wick: Chapter 4” next week, died of natural causes Friday morning, Variety has confirmed with his reps. He was 60.
comment posted at 7:12 PM on Mar-19-23

It's Day 2 of spring training games and the pitch clock is already wreaking havoc. It's the bottom of the ninth in yesterday's Spring Training game between the Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves. The bases are loaded, two men are out, and the Braves' Cal Conley has a full count. What happens next? Conley is given a strike by the umpire for taking too long to get ready and the game is over. Welcome to the new MLB season and the new rules.
comment posted at 4:44 PM on Feb-26-23
comment posted at 4:47 PM on Feb-26-23

Jeremiah Green, founding member and drummer for Modest Mouse, has died at age 45. Green performed only at the start of the band's 25th anniversary tour of their much-acclaimed album, The Lonesome Crowded West, and left to undergo treatment for cancer.
comment posted at 4:08 PM on Jan-3-23

Barbara Walters has died.
comment posted at 7:00 AM on Dec-31-22

R.I.P. an American science fiction writer. Winner of Hugo and Nebula awards, Bear wrote more than fifty books.
comment posted at 5:11 PM on Nov-20-22

May her memory be a blessing.
comment posted at 6:29 AM on Sep-3-22

Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max is removing 36 movies and TV series from its platform. There are three main reasons why it’s happening.
comment posted at 10:47 AM on Aug-20-22
comment posted at 10:50 AM on Aug-20-22

Nichelle Nichols, best known for playing Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek series and in six movies, has died at the age of 89. After her work as one of the first non-stereotypical Black women to star in a network television show (a role that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. implored her to stay in), Nichols set out to "help recruit women and people of color into the space race." Additionally, Nichols was a darling of the convention scene, embracing her status as a beloved role model.
comment posted at 4:41 PM on Jul-31-22

Dave Smith, Music Technology Pioneer, Dead at 72 Known for his popular Prophet brand synthesizers and pioneering work on MIDI and music technology, Dave Smith has passed away at age 72.
comment posted at 10:27 AM on Jun-2-22

The Future is Here! Actor Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education) has just been announced as the new Doctor in the TARDIS, after Jodie Whittaker's final episode later this year.
comment posted at 5:08 AM on May-8-22

Bad Gear is a YouTube channel by AudioPilz that repeatedly tries to determine- is it the gear that is bad, or just the musician? Spoiler alert: it’s usually the musician.
comment posted at 3:44 AM on Feb-11-22
comment posted at 5:38 PM on Feb-11-22

RIP Betty Davis, the Trailblazing Queen of Funk and former wife of trumpeter Miles Davis. They said she was different, and they weren't lying. You can learn more by watching the 2017 documentary (Betty: They Say I'm Different), or maybe just playing some of her tunes (a lot of which really are NSFW). More here, here, and hear the last song she wrote here.
comment posted at 12:29 PM on Feb-10-22

The Mary Worth comment board is unhinged and, frankly, a little frightening. “Honestly, the fervency of their devotion to this comic strip is impressive, and we should all wish for this kind of action.”
comment posted at 6:45 PM on Jan-15-22

“With infinite love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” Monkees singer and guitarist Michael Nesmith, a pop visionary who penned many of the group’s most enduring songs before laying the groundwork for country rock with the First National Band in the early Seventies, died Friday from natural causes. He was 78.
comment posted at 6:20 AM on Dec-11-21

The truth is we are always litigating how we feel about a piece of music, revising opinions based on context, culture, who we’ve become, who we once were. We can’t change what we said, but we are almost always changing how we feel about it in ways both small and large. Pitchfork Reviews: Rescored. In which Pitchfork goes backs and revises 19 album review scores...
comment posted at 6:10 PM on Oct-5-21

Farewell to songwriter Tom T Hall, who wrote one of the most absolutely perfect “fuck you, you smug, highfaluttin’, morally super hypocrites” songs in history. I’m talking, of course, about “Harper Valley PTA”, which was a hit song on the country charts back in 1968, and snuck onto pop radio as well, I do believe. Always LOVED that song, ever since I first heard it at the tender age of 11. Ever hear it? Give it a spin. And after that, maybe raise a glass of your favorite beverage to ol’ Tom, and, extra points if it’s beer.
comment posted at 4:01 AM on Aug-21-21

Obsessive Gabriella Paiella asks how Frasier could afford it all on a radio show salary. Paiella explains her inspiration to ABC Australia’s Jonathan Green.
comment posted at 7:19 AM on May-16-21

An $80,000,000 Glass Mansion with Everything Left Inside. That is all.
comment posted at 10:53 AM on Mar-20-21

Sickening as it is watching Larnell Lewis hearing "Enter Sandman" for the first time and immediately nailing the drums when you yourself struggled for three years learning to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the guitar --badly--, you can't deny the man's talent, not just in being able to play a song perfectly after hearing it once, but also in how he breaks it down beforehand while listening to it. (Via.)
comment posted at 2:56 PM on Mar-17-21

Actor Yaphet Kotto has died at the age of 81. He was known for a variety of roles, including Alonzo Mosely in "Midnight Run", Parker in "Alien", Al Giordello in "Homicide: Life on the Street." Also, a few years ago he posted a heck of a story about a road trip he took with Robert Mitchum.
comment posted at 5:44 PM on Mar-16-21

“Almost a decade after Microsoft terminated the brand, there is a small bastion of diehards who are still loving and listening to their Zunes. If you talk to them, they’ll tell you that these MP3 players are the best pieces of hardware to ever run a Windows operating system. Preserving the Zune legacy has just become another part of the hobby.” Luke Winkie reports on the denizens of r/Zune (The Verge). Previously.
comment posted at 10:19 AM on Jan-23-21

"Now that his retirement is imminent, we must start working on a festschrift for our distinguished colleague Prof Henry Walton 'Indiana' Jones, Jr., provisionally titled 'You Call This Archaeology?'. Submit chapter proposals here"
A Twitter thread by Almost Archaeology.
comment posted at 3:55 AM on Dec-13-20

Ben Bova, six-time Hugo-Award-winning editor and author of 140 futurist fiction and non-fiction works has died.
comment posted at 7:35 PM on Nov-30-20

With Wonder Woman 1984, Hamilton, and Soul all launching away from movie theatres this year, Sam Adams worries that smaller movies will be drowned out by online blockbusters and the algorithmically-recommended firehose of mediocre content from streaming giants.
comment posted at 4:28 PM on Nov-22-20

Introducing Joe Biden, The 46th President of the United States MSNBC Says Biden is President Elect Saturday morning
NYTimes calls it for Biden
comment posted at 9:15 AM on Nov-7-20
comment posted at 10:30 AM on Nov-7-20

As the US 2020 national elections head into their third day of counting and updating vote totals in the remaining battleground states, a nation waits anxiously to see if mail-in ballots will be enough to allow former Vice President Biden to clinch the Presidency.
comment posted at 6:36 PM on Nov-5-20
comment posted at 5:09 PM on Nov-6-20

Because of the ongoing vote counting in the US Elections which may take additional days to resolve, and the groaning size of the original US Election 2020 thread (excellent FPP here), this post is “Part Deux”. Let the MeFi servers and mobile devices everywhere rejoice!
comment posted at 4:03 PM on Nov-5-20

Glenn Greenwald on Thursday announced that he had resigned from The Intercept—the digital outlet he founded in 2013 with fellow journalists Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill, and with funding from First Look Media—claiming “repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity” at the publication. (The Daily Beast no-paywall link. more here.)
comment posted at 3:10 PM on Oct-29-20

Despite a poor box office reception to its 2003 premiere, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World has become a beloved movie, with more in common with classic historical epics than contemporary action thrillers. On its 15th anniversary, producer Duncan Henderson and actor James D’Arcy reminisced about what made the movie special, and the Friendly Fire podcast examined its unusually immersive audio and its ideas of patriotism. Previously.
comment posted at 5:27 PM on Oct-24-20
comment posted at 5:27 PM on Oct-24-20

"He Said the Things that Needed to be Said" Eugene Kane, famed Milwaukee journalist, has died at age 63. Eugene Kane wrote for many Milwaukee publications, including the Milwaukee Journal (later the Journal-Sentinel). A quote from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett: “Eugene was an incredibly gifted writer, and more importantly than that, he was an incredibly passionate person about equity and justice in our society, and specifically in our city."
comment posted at 7:10 PM on Apr-17-20

Joe Diffie, prominent voice of 90s country, is dead at 61. King of the mullet and good-hearted drinking songs, Joe was known for his working-man vibe and intricate song lyrics. Many of his songs are still played on country radio today. He was still working in Nashville, having released his first vinyl record Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie in 2019.
comment posted at 2:26 PM on Mar-31-20

Writer, director, and producer Stuart Gordon has died. Best known for his work on a pair of mid-80s H.P. Lovecraft adaptations, Re-Animator and From Beyond, he worked on many other projects in and out of the horror genre, including Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Gordon was a fixture at conventions and widely profiled and interviewed. Memorials rolling in online from fans and past collaborators have focused on his film career, though he had a long track record in theater and experimental film, and he did at times engage with politics of the day. His legacy will presumably rest with his films, which have been variously praised or reviled, often on account of their gore, or sexual violence and transgression. CW: some links include gore, sexual violence, NSFW imagery
comment posted at 1:44 PM on Mar-25-20

Dec 5 1979 (missed it a bit!), ABC, John Denver And The Muppets: A Christmas Together [50m]
comment posted at 9:13 AM on Dec-16-19

Yesterday, on a 2,500 comment AMA, Jimmy Wales announced the launch of a new social network concept, independent from Wikipedia or Wikia and an as outgrowth and continuation of the WikiTribune pilot project
comment posted at 2:43 PM on Dec-5-19

A mouse tidies up an electrician's mess
comment posted at 2:15 PM on Dec-4-19

Elon Musk surprised the automotive world in a few ways with the unveiling of the Tesla Cybertruck. Sporting a very angular look, the design immediately set off comments about low polygon counts while Musk hyped up the vehicle's performance with the optional tri-motor configuration and its bullet resistance - which wound up leaving egg on Musk's face when the supposedly "unbreakable" windows failed to live up to that claim.
comment posted at 6:13 PM on Nov-22-19

Ah, it's that time again. John Denver gets together with his Muppet friends to have a great holiday together. Except, wait! It's summer, John is taking everyone camping, and it's a Rocky Mountain Holiday! [48m] Break out the tent stakes and build a fire pit!
comment posted at 2:15 PM on Dec-16-18

Born in the Manitoba prefecture of Canada, Steve-san Onotera, a.k.a. samuraiguitarist, answers the age-old question: What do 37 guitar pedals sound like when played at the same time?
comment posted at 5:50 AM on Dec-2-18

Magician, historian, and actor Ricky Jay has died at the age of 70, or thereabouts, his origins being appropriately shrouded in mystery.
comment posted at 5:04 AM on Nov-25-18