WWW.RIDESIDE.NET

Posted by ConorClockwise on 2008-01-22 23:04:48 +0000

Totally sucks.

Posted by dyedon8 on 2008-01-23 03:52:37 +0000

R.I.P.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-01-23 07:54:59 +0000

Oh my god... I thought the title was a pointed barb directed at whatever HL had chosen as his post-Dark Knight venture. Shock doesn't even begin to describe it. I'm horrified.

Posted by Miriam on 2008-01-23 16:00:54 +0000

Serious shame. He was talented and seemed to be just started to hit his stride in the industry.

Posted by dyedon8 on 2008-01-23 18:41:41 +0000

Heath was a giant asshole if it turns out to be about this.

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-23 19:06:22 +0000

His body's barely cold! Sources close to the heartthrob actor say...

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-23 19:29:17 +0000

$20 bills rolled "in a certain way" with a "powdered substance"...

Posted by virtue on 2008-01-23 19:44:56 +0000

The comments are pretty funny though...I seem to remember some factoid to the effect that some very high percentage of the US bills in circulation all test positive for cocaine.

Posted by dyedon8 on 2008-01-23 19:45:49 +0000

I remember hearing something similar, too.

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-23 19:52:46 +0000

"don't knock him cause he snorts cocaine with a 20 bill. that fact that its a 20 means that he is a still good hearted down to earth guy."

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-23 19:54:19 +0000

Good article in the Daily Mail summarizing stuff.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-01-23 20:01:05 +0000

I can't agree that someone who commits suicide is an asshole. We don't know what he was dealing with, or even if it was suicide. Most sources are saying it seems accidental. Anyway, it's none of my business, but I've known suicidal people (including one "successful" one), and they aren't (weren't) assholes. Just ill.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-01-23 20:09:43 +0000

The New York Times' article is very nice.

Posted by tommy on 2008-01-23 20:43:32 +0000

Agreed, pamsterdam. When I was younger, I could never understand why people didn't kill themselves with more pizzazz. I thought that if I were to make the final decision to end my own life, I wouldn't just sulk around for a month and then slit my wrists in a bathtub or something. Before the suicide I would have a blow-out period where I do all the things that I avoid because they jeopardize my future well-being. Take drugs, give away all of my money, go streaking, assassinate the pope, etc. And, then... sleeping pill overdose??? Yawn. Why not drive your car off a cliff, or jump out of a plane, or make a CIA agent shoot you dead? Something fun. But generally suicidal people just aren't thinking that way, and it's not because they're killjoys, just ill.

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-23 21:04:07 +0000

Hear hear!

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-23 21:07:07 +0000

My theory (from the reports I've heard so far): Ambien + Zoloft + blow + pneumonia = bad news. I doubt it was intentional.

Posted by tendiamonds on 2008-01-23 21:07:26 +0000

It would be good if more suicidal people thought as you thought you would have. Years ago, I went through a seriously depressed phase. I wouldn't say I was suicidal, by any means, but I was massively depressed and had no idea what I was doing and why I was doing it... So one day, instead of going to work, I put all my shit in my car, closed my bank account, and drove to Colorado, figuring, I may as well blow it all. A couple of months later, I was pretty happy, and life went on.

Posted by Miriam on 2008-01-23 21:50:27 +0000

I had a cousin who sold as much as could possibly be sold, mailed another cousin the title to his car, and mailed enough to cover cleaning expenses to his doorman, shot himself, and they found him 3 days later. He lived life to the fullest until he started to run out of money, then he decided his life was over without the means to live it well. Not sure that I'd call it pizzazz-filled suicide; I think it's a little sad.

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-23 21:51:40 +0000

Recent reports are discounting this report.

Posted by Miriam on 2008-01-23 22:38:27 +0000

You know that mainstream media is in trouble when Perez Hilton is the one who has accuracy in his reporting.

Posted by dyedon8 on 2008-01-24 02:15:53 +0000

I wasn't saying suicide = asshole. I was saying Heath Ledger suicide b/c of a Nick Drake fixation = Heath Ledger is an asshole. Sorry about the confusion.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-01-24 10:24:18 +0000

Chuckle-inducing. But - I'd argue (in my most earnest voice) that a fixation with Nick Drake is more likely to be a symptom of illness rather than the cause thereof. No snarkiness intended, there - it's like being fixated on Sylvia Plath.

Posted by MF DU on 2008-01-25 04:12:51 +0000

The future of Batman is no joking matter.

Posted by 2up on 2008-01-25 16:03:54 +0000

i've been trying to figure out who the last young star to die was...i know it's a little f'd up, but hey, when young people die that's what i think about... anyone?

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-25 16:07:49 +0000

The first name that came to mind when I heard about this was River Phoenix, but there had to be someone more recent. River Phoenix was '93, Chris Farley was '97. Are there any other young celebrities cut down in their prime in the past 11 years?

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-25 16:11:11 +0000

Aaliyah.

Posted by G lib on 2008-01-25 16:30:17 +0000

Posted by cdubrocker on 2008-01-25 16:53:45 +0000

Not young. At heart, maybe, but she was 40.

Posted by mahatma chani on 2008-01-25 17:25:58 +0000

Timmy Taylor from Brainiac?

Posted by G lib on 2008-01-25 17:59:11 +0000

(I know it's really bad to make fun of the dead, but it was a joke....)

Posted by Miriam on 2008-01-25 22:17:58 +0000

Brad Refro last week.

Posted by dyedon8 on 2008-01-26 05:46:28 +0000

With all due respect to Mr. Renfro, no.

Posted by tgl on 2008-01-26 14:15:16 +0000

Well, he outlasted Cobain.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-01-26 15:35:26 +0000

This is rather macabre, but Big Gay Mark and I were stoked when we hit 30 (almost 5 years ago now), because we'd safely negotiated the Bermuda Triangle of the late 20's. It's a risky age, apparently. Or maybe everyone's been following the trend JC set.

Posted by ConorClockwise on 2008-01-27 07:10:53 +0000

If I live to be 35, I owe tendiamonds $10.

Posted by MF DU on 2008-01-27 14:53:50 +0000

Wow - I never realized Jimi and Janis died within 2 weeks of each other.

Posted by tendiamonds on 2008-01-27 22:36:48 +0000

I had to pay Eric Page when we turned 30.

Posted by Miriam on 2008-01-28 15:30:45 +0000

That he wasn't a star, or that he didn't die? I think both are true.

Posted by ConorClockwise on 2008-01-28 16:14:02 +0000

Well, I had never heard of him till he died.

Posted by dyedon8 on 2008-01-28 18:25:39 +0000

Common reaction when he died was "Oh wow. What was he in again?"

Posted by Miriam on 2008-01-28 19:14:34 +0000

The Client Apt Pupil

Posted by dyedon8 on 2008-01-28 19:36:07 +0000

Let it go, Indiana.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-01-28 19:52:46 +0000

...until I read the obit I thought he played for the Mets.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-02-06 19:40:07 +0000

Accident.

Posted by MF DU on 2008-02-06 19:41:58 +0000

Crazy combo - how can one expect to combine all that shit and expect a sunny outcome?

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-02-06 19:48:48 +0000

I have to say, now into my third damn week with the flu (note to CTP: yes, Huzb also insists that it's just "flu") - I can completely understand what sleep deprivation does to you. Last week, about 3am, 4 hours after I'd gone to bed, 3 hours before I had to get up, still coughing my lungs out non-freaking-stop and utterly exhausted, I took my third double-dose of codeine, the last of my (codeine-laced) cough suppresant (again, my third dose within the recommended one-dose window), an allergy pill (I had them on hand, and the coughing was starting to feel asthmatic), a mug of hot whisky, and lined all the boxes & bottles up next to my pillow, so that - in case I went into some kind of coma or seizure - the paramedics would know what was in my system. I was desperate to get to sleep, absolutely desperate. And I was thinking of Heath Ledger at the time, but a week into not sleeping more than 3 hours a night... consequences get cloudy. As far as I understand it, Heath had been sleeping poorly for months.

Posted by MF DU on 2008-02-06 19:54:19 +0000

Fair point. I'm not trying to be insensitive to his specific personal conditions - my first reaction to seeing all those drugs on paper (ok I mean electronic monitor, not paper) was one of "ohh-that's why". Being 100% free of Ledger's context will do that, I spose.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-02-06 19:57:47 +0000

Oh, sweetpea, I didn't think you were being insensitive! Sorry if I came across as a nutso fan - just definitely feeling the sleep-dep angle. Gah - stupid flu. And yes - those were some serious drugs. Trouble is, a number of them are also addictive, in that you take one pill one night and it works, the second night it doesn't, so the third night you take 2... and so on. It's a slippery slope, and someone should've been keeping a better eye on his meds. Since he's regularly living on 3 separate continents, I guess his primary physician may very well have been 3 people.

Posted by Miriam on 2008-02-07 15:07:47 +0000

Hope you feel better soon and start getting some regular sleep! I've been having sleepless nights for almost a month now, so can definitely relate! Haven't managed to take any pills or whiskey yet, but you never know if it keeps up.