I Hope They Have Some Bubble Gum In Heaven: An Obituary for Rowdy Roddy Piper by J.C. Rebstock

“Just when they think they got the answers, I change the questions.”

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper was a bad man. You didn’t have to watch him long to learn that; he’d tell you straight to your face. “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka, Greg Valentine, Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, it didn’t matter to the Hot Rod who you were, how good you thought you were, what you’d done in the ring, on TV, whatever. If you crossed his path, if you fell into Piper’s Pit, he would tear you a new one. Or he’d clunk you with a coconut; that worked, too.

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Maurice Sendak: The Author Of My Favorite Children's Book Dies At Age 83

I will never forget the first time I saw the famous cover of 'Where The Wild Things Are', with its sleeping monster in Maurice Sendak's unique artistic style. I was 5 years old, walking into Mrs. Adler's Kindergarten classroom at P.S. 207 in Howard Beach, NY. My dad was NOTORIOUS fr always being late, but this was my first day of school and he wanted to get me there early. I arrived first, and was met at the door by Mrs. Adler. She smiled at me, welcomed into my first classroom, and told me to go take a book as I was waiting for my fellow classmates to arrive. I said goodbye to my pops, moved across the strange place to the book shelf, and scanned the titles for something interesting to peruse. My eyes immediately locked on to "Where The Wild Things Are". The sleeping monster had such a unique look and I needed to see more. From that moment on anytime we had a chance to free read a book from the shelf I chose that book. There were other great ones (Danny & The Dinosaur, The Bernstein Bears, multiple Dr. Suess books, etc), but I always rotated back to Sendak's epic book. It had my heart...

Click after the jump for more from Mike D

R.I.P. Adam Yauch - Gone Way To Soon

I have been away from this blog over the past few days, so I have not really had the chance to convey just how sad I am over the death of Adam Yauch, aka MCA, of The Beastie Boys. I have been a fan of the Beasties since the tender old age of 7. Yeah, I said it. SEVEN. I was in second grade at P.S. 207 elementary school in Howard Beach, NY when 'License to Ill' was released back in 1986. Even though I may have been a bit young for the crazy sentiments contained on the album, but I had an older sister, Oona, who was in the 6th grade. Her and her friends embraced 'License To Ill' with a furor that only teenagers could do, and the album was EVERYWHERE. It was so popular it was trickling down to the kids in school who were still in single digits. Man was that album epic....

Click after the jump for more words from Mike D...

R.I.P. Mr Monkee aka Davy Jones...

Another one bites the dust... this time way to soon. Davy Jones, lead singer of 60s group The Monkees, has passed away due to a heart attack. The Monkees had quite a few hits back in the (Daydream Believer is one of my all time favorite songs), but for kids in my generation we got to know Davy & the gang through the TV. My first experience with Davy was as the object of Marcia Brady's obsession on The Brady Bunch. Marcia loved her some Davy... And secondly I know him from the kooky 60s Tv show that only lasted two seasons but has long been showed in syndication. I always loved that show for its weird sense of humor and the cool camera techniques that were used. It is a sad day for people my parents age, especially the ladies! Davy, you will be missed. CCD salutes you!!! Click after the jump for a few videos in Davy Jones's memory...

R.I.P. Wizard Magazine...

So, it appears that Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard World Inc, has decided to take the comic book magazine in a new direction... and by new direction I mean he is shutting the printed version of the mag down and turning it into a digital magazine in the future. They will also focus on expanding their mega conventions that they throw, which can not be a bad thing (I love comic cons!) This is pretty big news since I kind of grew up reading the magazine. It really pushed Indy companies like Image and Dark Horse to amazing heights. I will never forget the Special Edition: Image Comics issue that had a foldout cover that I bought way back in 1992. I still have it, and I keep it with all my autographed books. I pulled it out to write this post... god, I honestly used to love this magazine! Look at all the Image heroes in their glory... phenomenal. I may have not read every issue of Wizard ever, but I always smiled when I did. Also, Mr. Shamus and the Wizard crew (whatup Jerry Milani!!!) were the first people to ever welcome CCD as a member of the press... and for that I will be forever grateful. I am looking forward to seeing what the Wizard crew has planned for the electronic version. Who knows... maybe they will need a blogger over there. Wink, wink... hint, hint. (I'm available... call me!!!)

R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen Dead At 84 Years Old

On November 28th, 2010 the world lost a great acting talent when Leslie Nielsen succumbed to complications from pneumonia. He was 84. Nielsen was known for many roles, having gotten his start in the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. He was in the original Poseiden Adventure in 1972, and after appearing in the parody film Airplane! in 1980 he was constantly looked at as the go to guy in the parody genre. His role as Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun series and his take on the priest in the possession film parody Re-Possessed are some of the funniest performances I have ever witnessed in my life. Yet by far, I love the calm, cool, calculating murderer that Nielsen played in Creepshow. Burying Ted Danson up to his neck in sand was awesome... untiil he came back from the dead!!!! You will be missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

As a tribute, I give you guys the Baseball clip from The Naked Gun. One of the funniest sequences in history. Enjoy. "Enrico Palatzo???"... LOL. R.I.P. funny guy!!!

So Long, Easy Rider... Hope You Find Your Way To The Other Side

So by now you have probably heard the fact that film legend Dennis Hopper has passed on. He died of complications from cancer on Saturday, My 29th. Recent pictures of the film great show him to have been suffering greatly from the disease, and I for one am extremely sad to see him go. On the other hand, I am glad that he is no longer suffering and he has moved on to a better place. After appearing in the great James Dean's films Rebel Without a Cause and Giant back in the mid 50's, he portrayed many memorable film roles over the next 5 decades. His biggest role was as 1/2 of the cross country motorcyle riding team that he played with Peter Fonda in Easy Rider (pic to the left) and that is how I will always remember him. He also played some very memorable roles in films like True Romance, Apocalypse Now, and Speed. He also played Stanley the crazy referee in an ad campaign for Nike, which we did a story on that you can see here. Most recently he has appeared on HBO TV show Entourage as himself, and in a starring role on the Starz show Crash. We will truly miss such an outstanding actor and our condolences go out to his family. This is a clip from True Romance that he shared with co-star Christopher Walken... and I feel it best sums up Dennis Hopper the actor. Enjoy the clip... and so long Mr. Hopper, hope you find a nice long road ahead for you to cruise on.

Walken vs. Hopper

Throwback Thursdays Vol #12, 4/22/2010

GangStarr Has Got To Be The Sure Shot!!!!

This week we lost a true Hip Hop pioneer in Guru of the group GangStarr to cancer. He was only 43 years old. So in honor of this musical giant, Throwback Thursday is all Guru today... R.I.P. kid....

Gang Starr - Mass Appeal

Gang Starr - Code Of The Streets

Gang Starr - Just To Get A Rep

Gang Starr - Ex Girl To The Next Girl

Gang Starr ft. Nice and Smooth - Dwyck

Gang Starr - You Know My Steez

You will always be missed my man!!!! Keep spitting those bars up in heaven!!! R.I.P

"Leavin' The Bodega, I Say Suave..." R.I.P. Guru

Guru, the lyricist for the influential 90's hip hop group Gangstarr, has passed away due to complications from cancer. He was 47 years old. Growing up a teen in NYC during the 90's meant you had to respect Gangstarr for the way they made music. Their style was hard enough to rep NY, yet the lyrics had a level of inteligence to them that made you clearly envision what Guru was trying to say... and the beats... oh, wow were the beats fire!!! That was courtesy of DJ Premier, the other half of the duo. They released at total of 6 studio albums together, as well as Full Clip: A Decade of Gangstarr, which was a double cd packed with their greatest hits as well as some new material. It is by far one of my favorite albums to listen to ever... every track is a heater.

 Like all people in Hip Hop, Guru and Premier's star burned bright for a bit, and then they fell off the main rap radar. But Guru had a love for jazz music and he created the Jazzmataz series of cd's, 4 volumes of collaborations with jazz greatest like Bradford Marsalis and Roy Ayers. This showed another side of the talent that Guru had, and he will truly be missed. I had the pleasure of meeting him back in 1996 at Club Boca in Florida (Thats a 16 year old Mr. Mike D in the grey shirt behind the girl with the crazy eyes!!!) . The cat was mad cool and posed for pictures with us after the show. He was friends with my boy DJ Skribble and we had a really cool conversation about Florida... a short time after that I saw him on the South Beach Strip and he told me he had moved there for awhile. Anytime I seen him out he always said whatup and knew my name... that made me realize that he wasn't another one of these famous dickheads out there. He might not of been in his prime, but he was still a titan in my eyes. That gave me so much respect for him. He will be missed.

I would like to send condolences to his family from the whole CCD staff and from myself especially. A legend of NY hip hop died, and he will never be replaced. Words I Manifest, Just To Get A Rep, Who's Gonna Take The Weight, Step In The Arena, Take It Personal, Ex Girl to Next Girl, Code of the Streets, Dwyck, Mass Appeal, Royalty, You Know My Steez... Wow!!! So many hits... just remember: "Gangstarr has got to be the sure shot!!!"