Four Dead Bodies Found

Last week Ola Brunkert, 62, was found dead in the garden of his home in Mallorca, with multiple cuts to the neck. He hit his head on a glass door, then he wrapped his neck in a towel but collapsed from blood loss before help arrived. He was the drummer for wildly popular Swedish pop quartet ABBA. Think of him the next time you hear "Dancin' Queen", "Chiquitita" or "Fernando". Or the next time you get cut by glass.

More blood: Anthony Minghella, 54, died from a hemorrhage March 18 after surgery on a neck growth. He won an Oscar for directing "The English Patient", and also directed "The Talented Mr Ripley" (the film not the actual person, because who knows if Robert Ripley was talented or not), "Truly, Madly, Deeply" and "Cold Mountain". In addition he directed "Madama Butterfly" for the English National Opera and wrote for TV. Plus if, during a heated moment you jumped up from your chair and shouted "you're just a goddamn pianist!" at him, that would not be a lie. Because he was indeed that, too.

If you're 90 years old and wrote a novel called "2001 - A Space Odyssey", your name is Arthur C. Clarke and you're dead. You've had post-polio syndrome for the last 20 years, the last seven of those years spent suffering as a member of the British Knighthood. When your father died you were 13, and you had to help your mother run the farm, oh you typical cliche. Put down that hoe, Dave, because HAL has opened the pod bay doors.

To The Man Called Joe Gibbs: check I-self, farward come ya dread at the controls! Mikey Dread, 54, toaster, dj, mc, Clash co-conspirator passed on March 15. As a radio broadcaster on the Jamaican Bradcasting Corporation in the 70s he hosted a show called "Dread At The Controls", a tag that stuck with him the rest of his life. He claims to be the one to break "Uptown Top Ranking" (see March 4 post re: Joe Gibbs). He became known worldwide after a promotional trip to the UK, and a subsequent hookup with The Clash. That resulted in him co-producing their 3 records set "Sandinista!", their single "Bankrobber" and a Clash world tour. In late 2007 he began treatment for a brain tumor. Such is life inna rub-a-dub stylee.

Heaven just got a whole lot more interesting.