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Friday, September 12, 2003
I wake this morning to find that Johnny Cash and John Ritter have both left us. Died within hours of each other. Hard to find two more completely diverse public figures, and today they'll be tied together in their passings.
It's unfortunate that the news stories of Ritter's death will no doubt be overshadowed by coverage of Mr. Cash, but I admired them both. John Ritter... been watching him since I was a little kid. When you're eight years old, raised in no small part on television, and you see the preacher from the Waltons transform into Jack Tripper, you can't help but be completely confused and eventually impressed. Can't say the man had range. In every interview I saw or read of his, he struck me as one hell of a nice guy. As an eleven year old comic book fan, I especially loved him in Hero at Large as Captain Avenger. I lost track of him over the years, but it was a nice surprise to see him eventually show up on Buffy, and it'll be cool to see him in his last role in Terry Zwigoff's next film, Bad Santa. What more can I say about Johnny Cash that others won't say better today? I went through an obsessive Cash phase in college, treated him almost as a required course. An undeniable legend, hugely influential, a creative genius until his very last days. Respected by nearly everyone who'd heard him, and his recent priase at the MTV awards showed the generational and categorical boundaries the man broke. Tough news to take this morning. So long, John & Johnny. Thanks for everything.  |
 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac...
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