Ray Liotta was the lead in Goodfellas, which I believe is the greatest film Martin Scorsese has ever made. It is imminently re-watchable, and Liotta was one of the reasons why. He drifted into TV several years ago as he did all three seasons of the Jennifer Lopez vehicle Shades Of Blue. And while that show lost its way after its dynamite first season, his intensity, just millimeters from going out of control, was something you don't see on broadcast TV a lot. I hear that he was shooting a move in the Dominican Republic, and yesterday morning, he just didn't wake up.
I heard the news of Liotta's death in the afternoon while surfing the Internet at work. Later, while on Facebook at home after work, I saw a fanatic of Depeche Mode post the news that keyboardist and co-founder Andy "Fletch" Fletcher died. (A cause of death, nor circumstances of his death, have yet to be released.) To me, when it comes to synthesizer-based alternative music, Depeche Mode is the start, the source, the power, and if the band's calling card is the synthesizer, that makes Fletch the heart. Violator is an essential album to many suburban teens, so much so that, back in its heyday, it felt as though the album was issued to every household with a disaffected adolescent. I will also insist that Ultra is an underrated masterpiece in the DM oeuvre. And Fletcher's work on the keys on those albums and all the others of his legendary band is ubiquitous and indelible.
Again, I wasn't hardcore stans of Liotta and Fletcher. But I liked their creative work, a lot. Their deaths, as far as I know, came out of nowhere, and even if they were in their sixties, they died way too soon. Plus, after another American school shooting, I've been faced with even more death that feels so goddamn unfair.
The shitty day snuck up on me. But yesterday was kind of shitty, no lie.
RIP to all of them.
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