I know, I know, I go away to Italy and then don't write anything for a month. No trip reports, no photos, no nothing. You know how it is-- when you get back (in our case after missing the flight back because of a 3 hour traffic jam, and even an average speed after of 150 kph isn't enough to catch up) you spend all your time fixing the things that exploded while you were away, and then you can't find the right thing to come back on, because if you blog about this then you really should have said something about that, and more things pile on and on and on and on...
But I couldn't let George Carlin's death go unremarked.
I first was exposed to George Carlin by watching an HBO special of his when I was really young, probably around six or seven. I snapped up as many of his albums from the local library as I could, which, let's face it, is probably not the sort of thing someone under the age of ten should be taking out of the library. I first saw him live in 1983 or so (an advantage of being big for my age, no one looked askance at me) and the last time I saw him live was at the Stardust in Vegas about two years ago. (It's not there anymore either.)
Carlin worked long enough that you could see his thinking evolve, and he always thought about his work and what he said to people, what he inspired and what he left behind. He got angrier over the years, and hell, didn't you? He kept seeing things break down and people getting deceieved by others, and deluding themselves constantly, and it pissed him off. Even his acting, which he only did occasionally, showed constant evidence of thought. He once commented on how he got the role of a fifty year old gay man in The Prince Of Tides, by going into the audition just thinking of one word, over and over, inspiring his delivery of lines: lonely.
Mark Evanier had the best comment: there are seven words that come to mind and are appropriate on him dying. Carlin had a few thoughts on dying himself recently, and you should see them now. (No, of course it's not safe for work. Jesus wept, don't you know anything about this man?)
Comments (2)
Inappropriate or promotional comments may be removed.
dan mcfan (4:10 PM on Tue Jun 24, 2008)
Thanks for another George Carlin obit. By the way, although
doug wead (12:50 PM on Sat Jun 28, 2008)
Hi Glen:
Hope you are having a ball in Italy.
This is my second letter to you, asking for your help. I write this kindly and respectfully, in hopes that you will consider what this means for my immediate family, my income and my in-laws in France.
You have an Internet Blog posting about me, made in 2005, that contains errors. Specifically you state that in the 1990’s the French government issued a warrant for my arrest and that I fled the country and have never returned. This is not true. Nor is it true, as you quote, that I co founded Amway in France. Nor is it true that I am a Baptist minister. But it is the charges of criminal conduct that continue to effect my income and my life.
Glen, I don’t know if you have ever been the subject of false information, either in your personal or public life or on the internet, but I appeal to you, as a fellow human being, to correct this.
It is very easy for you to confirm or deny any of the information you wrote about me. Amway would confirm that I did not start their company in France. The French Embassy would confirm I am not “wanted.” And I can certainly prove that I have been going to France regularly since the 1970’s and it has been uninterrupted. (My wife and her family live there.)
I am certainly a flawed person and there is much, rich, negative things that you can say to attack me if this is your wish. But please correct, this false information. (A mutual friend says you are in WOW, I appeal to your nobility as a citizen of Azeroth. You would certainly not steal someone’s kill, or loot out of turn. So why this?)
Thank you for your consideration of this.
Doug Wead
The link in question is: http://www.glennhauman.com/news/2005/02/22/doug-wead-amwa...
Thanks