the ravaj may be back. a bit.

have been off sick. lots of things i wanted to blog, but did not have enough oxygen to the brain to get it done :-) here are links to some obits that caught my eye:

alexander courage - a composer who was responsible for the theme tune of the original star trek tv series

"“I have to confess to the world that I am not a science-fiction fan,” Courage admitted in an interview eight years ago. “Never have been. I think it’s just marvellous malarkey.” That malarkey, in turn, found something defining in an A-flat for flute that led into a piece born out of optimism and a belief in the progress of mankind. Courage’s Star Trek theme achieved its effects with endearing simplicity and ease. The celebrated “whoosh”, for instance, accompanying the first appearance of the swooping USS Enterprise is a sound that was, in fact, voiced by the composer himself."

will elder - a cartoonist and colleague of jules feiffer and rene goscinny

"Born the youngest of five children to Polish Jews in the Bronx, New York, the slight Wolfgang Eisenberg fended off bullies and garnered popularity by honing his caricaturing skills and playing pranks. Once, when he failed to turn up at school, his teacher found him in the cloakroom, seemingly hanged by the neck, his face pale with chalk dust. At home, he put the blackened soles of his father's shoes on the end of a broomstick to capture footsteps walking across the ceiling. His relatives called him Meshuggah Villy, Yiddish for Crazy Willy."

kermit love - costume designer, and creator of big bird

"Love, who also appeared from time to time on Sesame Street as “Willy the hotdog man”, was not the inspiration for Kermit the Frog — Henson said that he did not adopt Love’s first name for his frog, which had already been so named before Love and Henson began to collaborate."

elizabeth spriggs - actress (and my favourite from the children's programme 'simon and the witch' )

"But the performance which stuck longest in most playgoers' memories came with the whip and riding breeches she sported opposite Donald Sinden in London Assurance. As Lady Gay Spanker in Dion Boucicault's 19th-century comedy in the Restoration style, she addressed her friends and relations as if they were quadrupeds; her acting was a triumph of high comedy."

rest in peace one and all.