Another couple of rough days. This past Sunday, Malcom Jamal-Warner died. I can’t decide whether it’s more tragic that he died in a random accident or if it had been some illness he’d been dealing with. According to the reports I read, he was dragged out by an undertow. He was under water for a bit and then bystanders pulled onto the beach and couldn’t be revived. It wasn’t even something like a car accident where someone could be blamed for something. I was always a fan. I used to watch that one show, everyone older than thirty-five knows what I’m talking about and everyone younger than thirty-five can’t do anything with it, and I just feel personally that there’s no real reason to discuss it by name. I also watched some of Malcolm and Eddie. I’d caught a couple episodes recently and still, it holds pretty well judging by a small sampling. My favorite work of his, though, is on The Resident. That, in and of itself, is a great show but his character specifically with him portraying that character, always added to the whole of the show in no small way. Ever a talent, he always managed to find a special little something in his characters. He is surely no less missed than any of the other great talents and just good people we’ve lost in recent years.
I was planning on this and then finding something fun to write about now but then earlier this afternoon while I was sitting at the airport, the news broke. Ozzy Osborne died today. You know I’m as attentive to music but god damn it, Ozzy was objectively great. Sure, he had his issues and then got kicked out of his own band but then, went on to release a number of high scoring tracks and albums on his own. Despite his problems. He’s one of those generational minds who had that one defining moment where he thought to himself “Fuck that, I’m going to do it now.” And then he did it. I was listening to a bit of Black Sabbath’s titular album and was impressed. Yeah, I’ve heard at least bits and pieces of those songs over the years but this album is not what I expected. Being more familiar with Iron Man and Crazy Train, that first album was more melodic and the real distinctive talent was in the lyrics. Again, I’m not an expert or even really inclined musically so, this opinion is in every way not-so-much informed. But I’ve always tended to gravitate more to lyrics of songs rather than instrumental mechanics. So, hearing more closely the lyrics of those earlier works have made me more intentionally a fan. I wasn’t paying attention to whether I listened to that whole album right then but Rush’s Tom Sawyer kicked in with shuffle and I went back to listening to podcasts. But the important thing is that he’s biting the heads off of angels now.
Ok, I’m currently on my way to Cincinnati so, I’ll definitely be writing more later this week, I just wanted to address these more recent tragedies and you may know, that’s not a word I use lightly. Until then.
