26 REDS & A BOTTLE OF WINE

1) Princess Diana
I was in the student lounge of Leo J. Pantas Hall at Pratt Institute hitting on a freshman when someone, I don’t remember who, came in and told everyone about what happened. We were drunk as fuck and I remember everyone being freaked out but I was like: “Whatever! I’m trying to get some ass here!”

2) Kurt Cobain
I was a freshman at Pratt and I was sitting in the film department’s equipment office when someone who worked there, an upper classmen made a joke about suicide and Kurt and I remember saying to myself “That joke doesn’t even make any sense, Kurt Cobain isn’t dead.” He was.

3) Jam Master Jay
For some reason I remember that it was close to Halloween and I was Djing at Passerby when some random guy came up and said “Did you hear that Jam Master Jay just got killed?” Naturally I assumed he was being a drunk asshole but I played a whole bunch of Run DMC songs just in case.

4) Hunter S. Thompson
How’s this for tying thing together? I met Hunter S. Thompson on Halloween night the year Princess Diana died. I am a meta God!!! No but I did. It was at a Barnes and Noble at Union Square. Benico Del Toro was there and Hunter introduced him to me as his punch-man. “This is Benico, my punch-man.” I was drunk so I just nodded. Anyway, I read this one on CNN.com.

5) Rick James
Don’t really remember. Must have read it online but I remember not being that surprised. Usually when someone dies, even someone very old, you think: “I haven’t heard that name in a long time. How random.” As if God was up there going. “Shelly Winters! I haven’t seen her in years. Is she still alive? Let’s kill her.”

6) William Burroughs
Like lots of people who fancy themselves a writer I went through a period of intense interest in the beats. Burroughs in particular. It’s a little like being into The Doors or Bob Dylan. It’s a little obvious. Maybe not but it seems that way to me now. Anyway he died at the high point of my interest in him. This was in 98 I think and I was at my mother’s house on Long Island. I was sitting at the dining room table writing one of those overwrought journals people write in their early twenties. NPR was on and during a break in All Things Considered the local newscaster started with “William Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch…” and I thought “Shit, guess he’s dead too.” I still like Burroughs but I think he’s sort of full of shit.

7) Elliott Smith
I read this on Tiny Mix Tapes about ten minutes before I had to go deejay. I was never obsessed with Smith but his suicide hit me as a sort of horrible inevitability. I was overcome by notions of fate and unavoidable destiny. Maybe the quantum physicists are right. Maybe there is no free choice. Maybe we are all trains on a track, unable to change our destinations. It was very sad for me. I played either the worst of the best set of my life, depending on whom you ask.

8) John Belushi
I am about three weeks older than Saturday Night Live. It’s a fact that will haunt me on the show’s 50 anniversary in 2025. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I was a fame on the show from as early as I can remember, in particular a Belushi fan. There was something insanely childish about him. I remember watching the blues brothers and thinking: “This guy is hilarious.” I never had that reaction to Dan Ackroyd, who I will think is a bit of a pencilneck. I was at home and heard it on the radio. I was sort of walking around the house aimlessly, I think it was a Saturday. I remember having a sudden and unexplainable rush of fear and panic. It’s a feeling I still get. Like when I listen to The White Album and think about the Manson murders.

9) John Lennon
I don’t remember hearing about it at the time. I was a massive Beatles fan at the age of 5 (I had a strange affinity for Revolver) so I think my parents tried to keep this from me. I think my reaction upon learning about this was “Really? When? Really? Are you sure?”

10) Abraham Lincoln
President Lincoln died 110 years before I was born so I’m guessing I heard about this one in history class.