Deaths Out of Left Field

I didn't even know he was sick

I added "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert's name to a mental list I've been keeping for a while now. The list contains names of famous people who died unexpectedly and made you say, "wow I never expected (insert deceased name here) to die." But, as with most of my lists, I do have rules. Celebrities over a certain age are not eligible (ie Bob Hope , George Burns, etc.). Presidents, world leaders, and politicians are off the list for obvious reasons. Cancer victims and celebrities who contract AIDS or other diseases are also off the list. The announcement of the illness may be unexpected but by the time the death comes we're prepared. Finally, the entire Kennedy family is ineligible. That family is cursed and unexpected Kennedy death is a expected.

So here's the list starting with the most recent unexpected death and then grouped according to cause of death. Please feel free to comment.

• Tim Russert (heart attack)
• Robert Palmer (heart attack)
• Richie Ashburn (heart attack)
• Elvis Presley (heart attack)
• Jim Fixx (heart attack)
• Elvis Presley (heart attack)
• Jerome Brown (car accident)
• Pele Limburgh (car accident)
• Jessica Savage (car accident)
• Princess Grace Kelly (car accident)
• Princess Diana (car accident)
• Jayne Mansfield (car accident)
• James Dean (car accident)
• Patsy Cline (plane crash)
• Jim Croce (plane crash)
• Ricky Nelson (plane crash)
• Roberto Clemente (plane crash)
• Payne Stewart (plane crash)
• Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, Big Bopper (plane crash)
• Lynyrd Skynyrd band members (plane crash)
• Aaliyah (or is it Ashante?) (plane crash)
• Rocky Marciano (plane crash)
• John Denver (plane crash)
• Stevie Ray Vaughn (helicopter crash)
• Bill Graham (helicopter crash)
• River Phoenix (drug overdose)
• Heath Ledger (drug overdose)
• Marilyn Monroe (drug overdose)
• John Belushi (drug overdose)
• Chris Farley (drug overdose)
• Michael Jackson  (drug overdose, June 25, 2009)
• Tim Buckley (drug overdose)
• Jeff Buckley (drowning)
• Natalie Wood (drowing)
• John Marzono (fall)
• Ahmet Ertegün (fall)
• Dr. Robert Atkins (fall)
• Phil Hartman (murdered)
• John Lennon (murdered)
• Lee Harvey Oswald (murdered)
• Selena (murdered)
• Jim O'Brien (skydiving accident)
• Reggie White (cardiac and pulmonary sarcidosis)
• Sonny Bono (skiing accident)
• John Ritter (aortic dissection)
• Steve Irwin (stingray barb)
• Jim Hensen (streptococcus pneumonia)
• Duane Allman (motorcycle accident)
• Berry Oakley (motorcycle accident)
• Bruce Lee (brain aneurism)
• Brandon Lee (misfired prop gun)
• Freddie Prinze (suicide)
• Nick Drake (suicide)
• Budd Dwyer (suicide - shot himself in the mouth with a revolver on TV)
• Mama Cass Elliott (cardiac arrest)
• Johnny Ace (accidental self inflicted gun wound to the head)
• Terry Kath (accidental self inflicted gun wound to the head)
• Keith Relf (electrocution)
• Jimi Heselden, owner of the Segway (fell off a cliff while on a Segway)

This list represents unexpected deaths that you knew were eventually going to happen:

• Kurt Cobain
• Anna Nicole Smith
• Janis Joplin
• Jim Morrison
• Keith Moon
• Dennis Wilson
• Brian Jones
• Jimi Hendrix
• Sid Vicious
• (reserved for Amy Winehouse)

Smitten In Seattle

Jimi Hendrix: An Evolution of Sound

Last week I attended a conference in Seattle. From the moment I landed in Seattle I could feel that I was really going to enjoy this city. And I did. In fact, I'm down right smitten with Seattle. I'd go back in a heartbeat if I could. After the conference I had some time kill before my flight home so took in two of Seattle's famous attractions: Pike Place Market and The Experience Music Project Museum.

As a Philadelphian, "The Market," as the locals say, reminds me of a Ninth Street and Redding Terminal Market mash-up. It's made up of commercial businesses, craftspeople and farmers who rent table space by the day.

One of the Market's major attractions is Pike Place Fish Market, where employees throw three-foot salmon and other fish to each other rather than passing them by hand. When a customer orders a fish, an employee at the Fish Market's ice-covered fish table picks up the fish and hurls it over the counter top, where another employee catches it and preps it for sale.

The Experience Music Project Museum (EMP) should have been called The Experience Hendrix Museum. I had contemplated renting a car and visiting Hendrix's grave but this was better. Everywhere you turned you saw Hendrix. His guitars, stage costumes, notebooks, song lyrics, album covers, pictures, and video. Even better, you heard Hendrix all over the museum. There were huge screens and televisions at every turn and each tv featured Jimi live and doing what he does best - playing the guitar like nobody before or after him. It really was great and because I was alone I didn't have to worry about boring anyone with how long I sat and watched.

Now, I'd like to point out that the EMP is located at the foot of Seattle's Space Needle. The EMP is a building like no other. The physical structure of the building was akin to The Guggenheim - in that the building is an attraction in its own right.

The Experience Music Project Museum

One other joy associated with my trip was that my business colleague and long-time friend, Matt Henry, joined me at the conference for a few days. One particular evening we went to a vendor party at the top of the Space Needle. We ended up playing poker for charity. Matt kept saying to me,"You and me at playing poker in the Space Needle!"

Paul Altobelli and Matt Henry ripping Seattle a new one.

Seattle's famous Space Needle.

Listen / Download:
Jimi Hendrix - Driving South (BBC)

India: Day 5

Paul, Frank, and The Beatles visit the Maharishi

Paul, Frank, and The Beatles in search of the inner light.
(click image to enlarge)

Listen / Download:
Beatles - The Inner Light
Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows (Love version)

India: Day 4

An American's View of India

One's first impression of India is literally a shock to your senses. All five are jolted almost the second you land in the country. As a way to convey what my colleague Frank and I experienced we put together a list of a few of our observations in order of the five senses:

Sight

• Stray animals are everywhere. We saw cats, dogs, chickens, goats, cows, and animals I forget the names of. I even saw a camel walking along the road.
• Here in the states when you agree with something you shake your head up and down. In India people will shake their heads from left to right. Think Katharine Hepburn in her final years and that's what the left to right shake looks like.
• At almost every turn one will see a piles of garbage, trash, and construction debris on the sides of roads, in streams, up against buildings and homes, and in fields. This trash is either burned or left where is was dumped indefinitely.
• On a few occasions I saw mothers and their children picking through the garbage for food.
• Poverty is rampage. People are forced to live in communities of aluminum structures and tent cities. Someone told me he once looked inside one of the tents and saw roughly ten people living in one. Interesting to note, we saw a few homes that looked like they were plucked right out of Beverly Hills. Less than three hundred yards away we saw a tent city
• India is in a constant state of construction. Everywhere you turn you can see buildings being built, torn down, or gutted. You could tell what building have been renovated because piled in the front is construction debris.

Smell

• Combine smog, traffic exhaust, garbage, body order, animal and human waste, and you have a recipe for what Bangalore smells like. It was horrific. I saw people walking around with masks and others actually holding their noses. Let me put it this way - there is a certain odor associated with New York City on a hot August day. Take that smell and times it by ten and that equals the stench of Bangalore.

Touch

• Many of the streets we traveled on were lined with long ditches on either side. The overturned dirt would get picked up by the wind and coat everything with a layer of dust. Combine that with the film of pollution and you have a sticky dirty mess that covers cars, buildings, windows, and your skin.
• We found that every public restroom we went in (including, airport, restaurants, offices, hotels) would have electric hand dryers (blowers) instead of paper towels. I have no problem with this at all except for the fact that many times the dryers did not work or they’d only dry you hands for a few seconds at a time. Inevitably, you’d walk out of the restroom with wet hands. Interesting to note – the “Men’s Room” is referred to as the “Gents Room.”

Taste

• Indians add curry to many of their dishes. Now, I can’t fault them for that. Its what they do and what they like. Italians do the same thing with garlic. But for the first time American in India and amount and intensity of the curry is overwhelming. My very first meal in India was some combination of chicken, curry, and Krishna knows what on white bread with no crust. My first bite sent a shock to my system that made my stomach scream. I immediately wanted to spit out my bite into my napkin but I did not want to offend my host. I did, however, only eat one half of my sandwich. Frank, on the other hand, ate the whole sandwich and paid the price for the next twenty four hours.
• We were told over and over again NOT TO DRINK THE WATER AND NO ICE IN YOUR DRINKS. As such, we drank a lot of bottled water and warm soda.

Sound

• In my last post I wrote how many drivers continuously honk their horns. Combine that the sound of cars, auto rickshaws, motor cycles and you have a noise so loud I could hear it from the 27th floor of my hotel in Hyderabad.

Now, combine the above with the 24 hour long trip and 10.5 hour time difference and you’re setting your body up for quite a jolt. Its times like this when its okay to say YES to drugs. Take along sleeping pills, aspirin, Claritin, Pepto Bismol, eye drops, and anything else your body can withstand because India is unlike anything you’ve ever known in your entire life...except for, perhaps, New York City.