Free Solo climbing - climbing without a rope, partner or protection - is clearly the most dangerous form of rock climbing. When practiced at the highest level it demands peerless physical skill and stamina and unshakable nerves. Few climbers have ever taken soloing to the extremes that John Bachar did. [more inside]
posted by tim_in_oz on Jul 7, 2009 - 79 comments

Billy Mays dead at 50 But wait, there's no more! [more inside]
posted by majikstreet on Jun 28, 2009 - 176 comments

Pere Ubu guitarist Jim Jones dead. Jones also played in The electric eels. [more inside]
posted by klangklangston on Feb 20, 2008 - 33 comments

James Brown ...just died
posted by hortense on Dec 25, 2006 - 284 comments

Adios Viejo! Pinochet dies!
posted by DieHipsterDie on Dec 10, 2006 - 111 comments

Sven Nykvist leaves us. A master at the subtle manipulation of light, the multiple academy award winner and longtime Ingmar Bergman collaborator (including Persona, and the Through a Glass Darkly/Winter Light/The Silence trilogy) has passed away at 83.
more obits [1] [2] more about him [1] [2]
posted by juv3nal on Sep 21, 2006 - 22 comments

"Life is wise to deceive us," he once wrote, "for had it told us from the start what it had in store for us, we would refuse to be born." --Naguib Mahfouz, RIP --and more from when he won the Nobel in 1988
posted by amberglow on Aug 30, 2006 - 20 comments

Novelist Saul Bellow is dead. "Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love." Interviews: 1965, 1982, 1987. Partial bibliography. Saul Bellow Society. Wikipedia entry.
posted by Mo Nickels on Apr 5, 2005 - 53 comments

Rick James dead. Big red breaking news box at CNN.com, also here. :(
posted by adampsyche on Aug 6, 2004 - 64 comments

RIP Francis Crick. The man who helped discover the secret of life is dead.
posted by rushmc on Jul 29, 2004 - 31 comments

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time.
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line.

RIP Johnny Cash. He died last night at 71.
posted by PrinceValium on Sep 12, 2003 - 9 comments

Mordecai Richler dead at 70. Noted Canadian man of letters, political commentator, frequent imbiber and author of "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," "Solomon Gursky Was Here," "Oh, Canada! Oh, Quebec!," and "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang." He was undergoing cancer treatment.
posted by galachef55 on Jul 3, 2001 - 5 comments