AP reporting that Isaac Hayes was found dead at home in Memphis. He was 65.
I found this account of a Hayes appearance in New Orleans in 1970, written by Kalamu ya Salaam:
I remember seeing him in 1970 at an event in New Orleans called the Soul Bowl. It was about four o’clock on a Saturday afternoon when Ike took the stage on the infield of the once-famous, now-demolished, Sugar Bowl stadium at Tulane university. The program had been going since noon and would not end until near midnight; I didn’t know how Ike was going to pull off doing 15 minute ballads in that atmosphere….
Even if an artist was inclined to do so today, I don’t believe this kind of music making could be pulled off on a regular basis. In many ways, Ike is a throwback to the Big Band era, a period that we will never see again, not only because of the economics of carrying such a large number of musicians, but also because of the prevailing musical tastes and the prevailing sound which is heavy on electronically-produced and electronically-augmented music.
This, of course, on the news of Bernie Mac’s passing at the age of 50. Damn.
And I don’t want to believe this news about Paul Newman. I hope the Rule of Three holds off.
When I was a kid, I lived for Sunday mornings and the funny pages. Not any more. They’ve got a lot of problems — they’re stale, they require a Hubble telescope to read them — but the biggest problem is that the funny pages are no longer funny. (I’m looking at you, 
