So many dead people....

[Ed Hocken]

I figure Clinton is going to want to go the same way. Just with much uglier women.

[Ingrid]

I (sadly) put 'RIP Teddy' as my status update and a friend(obviously not a close one) responded "I'm so sorry to hear that!". I guess she thought Teddy was a family member?

[BudLeonard]

Dominick Dunne died today, too. I'm sure I'd get laughed at for posting this elsewhere, but his death hits me harder than Ted Kennedy's does.

There are lots of guys -- James Ellroy, Stephen King, Truman Capote -- who made me want to be a writer. I think, though, Dunne was the guy who helped me figure out what kind of writer I want to be. I know that seems kind of silly -- of all the guys in the world to do that, why an ex-Hollywood producer/alcoholic/crime chronicler, right? Sometimes we can't choose these things.

I often wonder why it was him, too. I read Season in Purgatory -- his book about the Martha Moxley case -- as a freshman in high school. Like a lot of authors that I admire or who have a lot of love for, the book resonated with me because of the situation I found myself in. I was fifteen, coming from an extremely liberal household, the only kid from my small Ohio redneck town at one of the top prep schools in the area. A Catholic school. A Jesuit school no less. And all around me, I was confronted with privilege and the power around it. And that pissed me off.

Season in Purgatory showed me that rich people don't have to get away with everything.

That idea, of very black-and-white, Biblical justice, is a theme in Dunne's work. His unwavering belief that O.J. Simpson was guilty is what makes "Another City, Not My Own" (his last novel) so powerful. I read it again recently, and it's a helluva pageturner and a little star-fucker-y at times (as a lot of his later stuff was; his columns for Vanity Fair that weren't about crime was often undreadable), but man, he knew how to tell a story. And he really gets across just how all-consuming O.J. was at the time -- he met Princess Diana during the trial, and what did they talk about? The Juice.

Last year, I read his most recent collection "Justice," which collected the best of his columns from Vanity Fair, including the one that started his second career as a crime writer. Obviously, if you're an internerd, you know the story of Dominque Dunne, and how her killer basically got off scott free*, but the fact that Dunne dedicated the rest of his life to writing about cases like that is pretty remarkable.

That's what I think I mean when I say "he taught me what kind of writer I'd want to be." He took his anger, his rage -- and used it for good. He took it, combined it with his talent, and made it work for him. I don't think that rage ever left him, but he mastered it. He knew how to use it. (There's a great John Walsh** about this, but I don't have it on hand.)

And sure, a lot of my stuff has plot similiarties -- the script I plan on directing next year is about rich people getting away with murder -- but I think that idea of taking your anger, mastering it, and directing it, is what Dominick Dunne taught me about what kind of writer I wanted to be.

Also, he was fucking loaded and hung out with Liza. Always a plus.

*Fun fact: George Clooney was in Dominque's acting class, and chased her abusive boyfriend through a mall at one point. I always thought that tidbit was fascinating, and I've got a play based around that, and the whole Dominique case.

**I did not know that they officially closed the Adam Walsh case and that, yes, the real life Otis from Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer did it. I knew he was a suspect, but thanks, Wikipedia!

[Abraham Smashington]

RIP Jim...

I loved his poetry. He lived quite the life.

[ScooterLaBeef]

RIP Jim...

I loved his poetry. He lived quite the life.

Sad, music and poetry was great

[ScooterLaBeef]

RIP Swayze!

[B_Metal]

RIP Swayze!

Fuck. I thought if anybody would kick cancers ass it would be Swayze. :-(

[ScooterLaBeef]

I figured he would go all Jack Dalton on cancers ass! Shit sucks

[B_Metal]

Seriously, fuck you cancer!!

[Abraham Smashington]

RIP YOU SEXY MAN YOU

[B_Metal]

Happier times.

[blainegarrett]

Swazey's pancreas - what a bastard.

[Anderson]

Nobody puts Baby in a corner. But, a fucked up pancreas can sure put the Swayze in the ground.

This is the Superstation's 9/11.

[ScooterLaBeef]

Nobody puts Baby in a corner. But, a fucked up pancreas can sure put the Swayze in the ground.

This is the Superstation's 9/11.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to PAULINE KAEL again.

[Anderson]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to PAULINE KAEL again.

I know I shouldn't give the Swayze shit. But, I'd easily trade a million Swayzes for 1 Jim Caroll.