News

Jason Pollock passed away, as most of you already know. He was a giant of art in this country and in the world. He helped define the modern era. But he was someone I admired from a distance. There is power in his art, but it captured my mind, not my heart. Art touches you in different ways. Some of it goes for your emotions, for me Pollack’s art hit my head, not my heart, but you couldn’t look at his art and not have it impact you somewhere. His passing, seems to diminish things.

Then Robert Aspirin died, and that was closer to home. His MythAdventure books were some of the first books that my ex and I shared. We didn’t read them to each other, but we traded them back and forth. Dueling bookmarks, until one of us gained a head of steam and devoured the book making the other wait. We were poor college students, or just after college, still poor, so we couldn’t afford the luxury of buying a book a piece.

I heard Aspirin read from one of his books at a convention. I no longer remember if it was Capricon, or World Fantasy, or even, the World Science Fiction Convention, but I remember the reading. He did voices for his different characters. A talent that I still have not mastered, and have pretty much given up on. The book was one of the MythAdventure books, so it was funny to begin with, but his reading made it funnier. He had that comedy timing down. It was a wonderful experience, marred only by the chain smoking that he did. I hadn’t seen that much smoke outside of a busy bar. I sat near the back, and breathed in the smoke, as did the room full of other people. We all thought hearing him read was worth the smoke. It was. This was before I got allergy induced asthma, now I couldn’t have sat through it, and breathed.

My ex is reading the MythAdventure books with our daughter, Trinity. I haven’t told her that Aspirin passed away. I read hundreds of books and didn’t know the fate of their author, and I think I’ll leave it that way. A little piece of joy has gone from the world to know that there will be no more Robert Aspirin books.

They say that deaths go in threes, and sometimes they do. Number three on this list is Harvey Korman. Remember him from the Carol Burnett show? I loved that show. Every Saturday of my child one of my priorities was being able to watch Carol and the gang make us all laugh. Harvey Korman was the long suffering straight man, except as with all the best straight men, he was hilarious, too. Would Tim Conway have been so funny without Harvey to play off of? Maybe, but Harvey Korman was a perfect comedy foil for Carol Burnet, and Tim Conway, and Vicki Lawerence, and all their guest stars.

One of my daughter’s favorite movies stars Harvey Korman. “Dracula: Dead and Loving It,” is written by Mel Brooks, who also plays Van Helsing. Harvey is his usual understated self, and it just flat works.

I don’t know if I have the words to tell you what the Carol Burnett show meant to me as a child. The whole Saturday night line up back then, was magical, but it was her show, Carol’s show, that really made the weekend for me. I understand why people think they know the actors on television shows so well. It is an illusion, because they aren’t their characters, or their television persona’s, but I remember that feeling that Carol, Tim, Vicki, Lyle, and Harvey, were my friends. They made me smile when I was down. They made me feel better about myself. That is magic, not the grab a wand kind, but magic all the same.

Jason Pollack made the world a bigger place for me. There was something about his art that just made my mind think things it hadn’t thought before, and see things in ways that I hadn’t seen before.

Robert Aspirin made me laugh, and helped bring my first husband and I a lot of joy. It actually helped make us a couple, our shared love of his books. Now, our daughter is discovering them, and the happiness just keeps going. Aspirin said, in an interview that the MythAdventure books were inspired, in part, by a marathon of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby road movies. Is there any happier beginning than that for a fantasy series?

Harvey Korman never knew me, and even if he had lived another hundred years, we probably never would have met, but he was my friend when I was a little girl. His talent made me laugh, helped me like myself better, and see that you didn’t have to be perfect to be loved. Does that seem too much for a comedy show? It isn’t, or wasn’t for me. Every Saturday night, that magic box in the living room had my friends on it, and for an hour a week things were better.

Fair winds and a following sea to all of you guys. You are all missed by people you either never met, or wouldn’t remember. But we remember you, with fondness and respect for your talents, and your gifts to us all.