Bart Cummings. It's pretty strange. He's been in the news on a regular basis since I can remember. He's one of those people that make you think, "how can he be dead? He's always around! He's been there forever!" And then you think some more, "Oh, wait- if he has been around forever, mustn't it mean that he's really old?" And then you think, "Oh."

So old Bart's gone to the big racing track into sky. Who knows, maybe he'll even meet Phar Lap there?

Scott Weiland, former lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, died yesterday at age 48.

Robert Loggia, whose name you recognize but can't remember a thing he's in(Scarface, Prizzi's Honor), died today at age 85.

David Canary, who I know as Adam and Stuart Chandler from All My Children (but others may know him as Candy Canaday from Bonanza), died November 16th at age 77. Fun fact: he is the great-great-nephew of Calamity Jane.

Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, of Motorhead, aged 70.

WAIT WAIT WAIT WHAT THE FUCK DAVID BOWIE IS DEAD?

I was sure this was a hoax last night. So weird. I want to watch the Ziggy convert film and The Man Who Fell to Earth soon, in remembrance.

I'd been crying off-and-on for the last three hours because a friend of mine wrote an amazing post about what David Bowie meant/means to him on Facebook, and it just fucking wrecked me.

RIP, Alan Rickman

Mocha, you took the words out of my mouth. I very much admired David Bowie; loved the shit out of him in a few of the movies I'd seen him in and knew he was important in the history of rock and pop culture. Also he was mega hot in red suits.

But...But....

Alan Rickman...no....

I know at this point everyone will remember him as Snape, and he was awesome as hell as Snape, but there were so many roles that he just nailed so hard. I watched Die Hard at work over Christmas with a coworker, and remembered, again, that he made that movie work. He made an awesome Captain Nottingham, redeeming what would otherwise have been a pretty meh movie. And he was god damn amazing as Rasputin, which as an HBO movie that predates major DVD release, is a lost gem that I encourage anyone to track down now and see. (Bonus Ian McKellen!!) I could just keep going. He was such a talented actor, and not always a villain! Sense and Sensibility would have been a much less interesting movie without him. That said...as a connoisseur of villainy, he will be sorely, sorely missed by me.

But you know what? It sounds like they both had pretty god damn amazing runs, and neither spent years and years in misery, decline, and senility. And that, from my background as a nurse, is a blessing in itself. Godspeed you two.

What a week.

I was really surprised that Alan Rickman died, too... it felt so so sudden ((

We lost two beautiful men today to cancer.

And now Glenn Frey from the Eagles is dead too. Oh, and Celine Dion's husband and brother within two days of each other.

Also, Gary Loizzo, founding member of the band American Breed had died. They're the band that sings "Bend me, shape me, any way you want", which through a continuous series of lineup changes became Chaka Khan's band, Rufus.

Oh, and the drummer from Mott the Hoople, Dave Griffin also died today. Their big hit was "All the Young Dudes", which was written by David Bowie, who had actually offered them "Suffragette City" first, but they turned it down.

Seriously, is the Afterlife organizing a supergroup or a music festival, because this shit's getting way out of hand.

Which is sad, but to be fair he was like 94 during the filming of The Godfather. He had a great sense of humor though, I've seen him pop up here and there perfectly happy to make fun of himself.

Harper Lee D:

TKAM wasn't an all-time favorite of mine, but I still really respected it and it's a shock that Lee's no longer with us If anything, this'll probably give the people against Go Tell A Watchman more ammunition for the publisher interference theory...