deaths

[xen0phile 596]

Peter Mayhem, of Chewbaca fame.

 

[Boogerhead 391]

Tim Conway died.. .

I knew him from Carol Burnett, but there's a whole generation that knows him as "Barnacle Boy".

[Boogerhead 391]

God damn he was a funny man.

[Boogerhead 391]

[Boogerhead 391]

RIP Tarder Sauce...

[heavyboots 456]

I had no idea he lived in Tucson until yesterday…

[Boogerhead 391]

she.

[Boogerhead 391]

Damn, the old school music scene has taken a couple recent hits..

 

My namesake, Mr. Leon Redbone passed last week

And today goes Dr. John the Nite Tripper.

 

Sad times.

 

[Boogerhead 391]

R.I.P Rip.

 

 

[Boogerhead 391]

Chris Kraft, NASA's 1st flight director.

[editengine 249]

RIP Roy Batty

 

 

 

[Boogerhead 391]

[xen0phile 596]

Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-52564281

 

 

 

 

[Psychophant 261]

One closer to home, from June last year. Gil Williamson, aka Gil here and in the original board. 

 

The new Mythaxis has an in Memoriam piece and I think it fits here. 

 

Quote

An editorial in memoriam

Gil Williamson began Mythaxis in 2008 with the intention of delivering a simple, fiction-focused genre magazine without the usual trappings of the web – minimal advertising, if any at all, and as little visual clutter as possible to distract from the stories he chose to publish. Ten years later, he released the 21^st issue on the anniversary of the first. Under his editorial guidance, Mythaxis featured one hundred and sixty-five original stories, six classic reprints of old masters, and a dozen cartoons or short comic strips. Some of those original pieces also represented the first publication of their authors, mine included.

 

 

Sadly, in the summer of 2019 and a little over a year after that anniversary issue, Gil passed away following a period of illness. To say that he lived a full life would be an almost criminal understatement. He studied astrophysics at Edinburgh, but instead went on to enjoy a long professional career in the world of computing. With his wife Beryl, he created a software company named Amazon Systems (long before any upstart global behemoth began trading under a similar banner) which delved into fields as diverse as medicine, banking, security, word processing, and computer games. Mythaxis itself is published via software written by its editor.

 

He was a polyglot of European language, on one occasion translating the user manual of a medical computing system developed by Beryl from Swedish to Danish. He also spoke Malay, a skill no doubt of passing use when he navigated the Limbang river between Malaysia and Brunai in a dug-out canoe. As well as an amateur small-vessel sailor he was a racing enthusiast, as can be seen below, so crossing Istanbul during rush hour at the wheel of someone else’s car likely did little to raise his heart rate.

 

 

A life rich with experience, yes, but perhaps most of all Gil was modest, so understand that this shameful act of praise is committed only out of a sense of admiration and affection, one I’m sure is shared by far more people than those who knew him as their editor. I first met Gil as a member of the long-running book-lovers forum Palimpsest, where his passion for science fiction, in particular that of William Gibson and Iain M. Banks, made his a voice I always watched out for.

 

His championing of Patrick O’Brien’s epic Aubrey & Maturin sequence, the most famous of course being “Master and Commander”, introduced me to a series of books I now cherish. And in a different way I also cherish Mythaxis, now most of all as a legacy to the man who created it. When illness and the demands of operating the magazine became incompatible, Gil asked if I would take over editing duties, and I was proud to have been given that trust. It gives me great pleasure to be able to continue what Gil started, my only regret is not being able to do so while he was still with us.

 

So, our salute to Gil Williamson is this: eight stories and a cartoon by past contributors we hope you will enjoy, and which we hope he would have too. And we will keep on saluting. Mythaxis will persist in his mission, to seek out great speculative writing by authors new and old and let it distract you from the world, just for a little while.

 

~ Andrew Leon Hudson

Mythaxis editor

 

Rest in Peace

 

 

[Psychophant 261]

He is one of the few posters that I believe everybody liked. A true gentleman. We exchanged some e-mails in 2008 about writing for Mythaxis, but I was not fully sure of my writing in English. And we met every time (except last time, of course) there was a board meet in London. I really looked forward to those brief talks, because he always had so many things going on. 

 

I dare to say I am a better person for having met him. He will be remembered fondly.

 

[db 427]

Oh! I did not realize! Thank you for sharing. 

 

I am so very glad to have met him, what a lovely man he was. I hope Beryl is doing OK 😢

[heavyboots 456]

Damn, that's definitely some disheartening news… deepest condolences to Beryl too.

[xen0phile 596]

wrong thead, sorry

Edited May 22, 2020 by xen0phile
wrong thread

[Garage_Rubin 148]

@xen0phile, this morning.  Please don't refer to him by [real] name or mention this on social media, until his whole family's been notified.  This wouldn't be a good way to find out.

 

He had diabetes and high blood pressure, then pancreatitis, then organ failure, including eventual heart failure.  But no CV-19 , which is almost strange these days.

 

He was kind to cats and [mostly] nice to people.  You all know he lived under a heavy load of depression and disappointment.  I hope he's free now.

 

Sing with me.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Patrick.

[heavyboots 456]

Oh man… he was so freaking young! This is very sad news indeed. Deepest condolences to his family. 😿

[db 427]

WHAT?? How did you hear, GR?

 

(And thanks for letting us know. I hope he didn't suffer much )

[Garage_Rubin 148]

2 minutes ago, db said:

WHAT?? How did you hear, GR?

 

Heard about his condition from a mutual friend named Chris, but I don't think you know him.  Later heard he'd died, from his cousin.

 

 

Patrick.

[s.smigiel 54]

Well, shit...  

[Garage_Rubin 148]

9 hours ago, db said:

[...]

(And thanks for letting us know. I hope he didn't suffer much )

 

Didn't see this part at first.

 

I don't know if he was even feeling that sick before a heart attack on New Years day.  From that point he was pretty out of it, so... no?  Hopefully not.

 

 

Patrick.

[InfinityCircuit 13]

Like I said on the FB post, fuck. I just was thinking of him recently since he mentioned being in the hospital and I was hoping he'd gotten better. 

 

Also very sad to hear about Gil. Though I never got to meet him he seemed like a genuinely kind and person and would have been great to chat with in person.