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Sunday, January 03, 2010
I hate to break out that hoary, Dickensian quote about the best and worst of times, but it seems applicable for the year 2009. It was an outstanding year for books and movies. Horror Drive-In flourished and my Cemetery Dance column finally became a reality.
My personal life wasn't so good, though. I tried like hell to save my marriage all through the year, but it came to no avail. Sometimes, no matter how badly you want something and no matter how hard you try, things do not come together.
I had thought that my machinist day job was nearly recession-proof, but things have been looking bad there, too. Hours have been cut and the future is uncertain. I like horror, but this is a little too scary for me.
Yet I had a better year than some. Death, as always, claimed a lot of people. I think that the older we get, the more we experience death. The loss of loved ones, public figures we looked up to, and our own faltering mortality tell us that Death is never far from our backs.
The biggest one for me came in February. Lux Interior, lead singer for the band, The Cramps, died suddenly. Everyone was shocked and it was a rare heart disorder that took his life. Lux embodied the very spirit of rock and roll. Music, and my life, will never be quite the same without him.
Then there was David Carradine, a hero of mine from Kung Fu and great exploitation films. He died in a particularly undignified way. It was simply tragic.
I met Joe Christ in 1998, but I had been a fan of his movies for a while before that. We became friends and he introduced me to my wife, Tanya, who was appearing in one of his productions. Joe passed away in his sleep. Again, it was sudden and shocking.
Another big blow was filmmaker John Hughes. His movies meant more to me than anyone else's. They may seem quaint to people now, especially younger people, but movies like The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off were vital helped many of us make sense of our own messed-up lives.
There were others. Michael Jackson's death got the biggest reaction from the public, and while I never thought much of him, it took me aback
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