He made me laugh.
If I've learned nothing else in the past couple years, and I'm fairly sure I've learned next to shit, then I at least learned the following: Jim Carruthers was one of the funniest motherfuckers a fella could hope to encounter on the web-net or anywhere else. Even when he was being serious, he still had a way with an obscure reference that couldn't help but crack me up. Sometimes he maybe appeared snarky, or bitter, or xenophobic even, but I think the worst I ever saw in his comments and articles here and there, maybe on Blogcritics or Resonation, was a mischievous desire for to rile things up as best he could. Jim liked nothing better than to get up a nose or six.…
Article comments
126 - The Demigodd
I would laugh...
But I don't understand.
127 - Joe
... No class.
you can thank Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
128 - FilteringCraig
Like school in summertime...
no class.
129 - Joe
Or as an alternate, they could call you plastic cup.
130 - The Demigodd
Thank you for ruining my composure. I will now proceed to self-termination.
131 - Eric Berlin
This post is discussing a long-time member of BlogCritics.org and someone who recently passed away. It is akin to a wake, so can everybody not talking about Jim with some modicum of decency and respect get out?
Thank you.
132 - DrPat
Robert Heinlein had one of the most sensible comments about suicide I've ever seen. I paraphrase here, but it was something like, "You cannot know the extent of another person's pain, nor how much power he has to deal with it."
The why of Jim's suicide isn't important, even if it was despair rising from his blogging. His pain, its extent, and his inability to cope with it were personal to Jim.
133 - Mike Kole
Wow. I just found this item and am quite saddened. I had the privilege of sparring with Jim on a handful of occasions, and while we did not agree on much, I enjoyed his writing very much. Jim made me sharper in general, and was the inspiration for the funniest post I ever submitted here (an US v. Canada insult-fest), because I had to at least try to top him. A real bummer and a loss.
134 - andy marsh
EB - if people were only allowed to post on here when they had nice things to say, I'd bet BC would be a much quieter place. And you know what? We would never have met JC on here!
Just a thought!
135 - Eric Olsen
The point isn't whether or not only positive things are said about Jim - there is nothing wrong at all with painting as complete a picture as possible, which would include negatives. The point is that this IS about a specific person, and is not the place for paranoid fantasies about homicidal blogs
136 - Eric Berlin
People are allowed to do just about whatever they want Andy. I'm just saying on this particular post, it would be nice to keep the discussion to Jim, what people thought about him (good, bad, and ugly), and show some small level of respect for a human being who interacted with many of us, if only electronically, over a period of time.
137 - andy marsh
I've already added my 2 cents on Jim.
I do find it amusing that I personally will miss his rants. I guess I'll always have to wonder if he really hated us 'murricans that much or if he was just playing devils advocate. I'd like to think it was the latter.
138 - RJ
In Jim's honor, how about we create a monthly award on BC.org for the most blatantly anti-American post?
The only requirements would be that it is well-written, humorous on some level, and utilizes extreme hyperbole in deriding the United States.
I don't mean this as an insult to Jim in any way. In fact, I rather think he'd be proud of a monthly "Honorary Jim Carruthers Award" being given every 30 days on BC.org.
In that way, he could live on, in a sense...
139 - imelda
I met Jim a few times. He was at my house for dinners & a couple of parties. And, I can't say that I knew him. I know he was a really bright guy, who came across a bit stand-off-ish.
What makes me really sad/mad is that none of us who "knew" him in the meat world bothered to get around the stay-away vibe and get to know something, anything about his life. Hell, no one even knows what exactly happened, are there any relatives? Did he have anyone at all to take care of stuff? I don't know. In my case, he was a friend of a friend - who ceased being a friend - so Jim went that-away.
& as a by the way: some of our (Canadian) anti-murican sentiments arise out of sheer exasperation with the state of things. No one disputes the Americans' right to protect themselves (or just get revenge), but holy fuck kids!, this hunt for "evil-doers" (which is not actually getting any, unless collateral civilians are inherently evil & there are no innocent by-standers) is just nuts.
Isn't there some ancient (probably Chinese) saying that goes like this: "You are what you hate." Ethical warfare is an oxymoron.
I'll miss Jim's posts, they always made me look stuff up, & that was a gift.
140 - Bonnie
I have been a personal friend of Jim's since our days working at PolyGram together, which makes 15 years. I am not a blogger and though I know that Jim had a strong presence in the online communities, my interaction with him was entirely not on that level, but on a warm personal one.
I will miss Jim and am as shocked as I am sad at his passing. Perhaps he came across as snarky and bitter sometimes, but I knew him as a kind, gentle soul, someone who would be there for you in a second and was always up for a good laugh. I wish he had reached out, or perhaps I wish I had known better how to reach in.
Jim was a truly remarkable and unique individual, exceptionally talented and simply brilliant.
I will miss my friend dearly.
141 - Eric Olsen
thanks imelda and Bonnie, much appreciated
142 - Carolyne
I knew Jim since Universiy. He was a few years older than myself. He was like the brother I never had. When my Mum and I would travel, he would house-sit. When I lived overseas, he visited us. When my marriage broke up, he accompanied me back to that country to assist me in collecting my items. When I moved to this city 10 years ago, I slept on his sofa-bed for a few months, while looking for work and a place to live.
I am still surrounded by many memories of Jim - photos, CD's, books. I can recall many CARE packages that he sent me to keep me abreast of arts and music in North America.
Yes, almost 3 months have passed now since I received a phone call from the Police, informing me of his death. I was one of four people that were listed in the journal that he kept for the last month of his life. The other two individuals were his sister and mother and the other individual was Mose. I met his sister at Jim's loft a couple of days after his body was found. I won't even begin to speak of his sister. I trust her concern at being saddled with Jim's estate and specifically his debts wasn't too onerous for her (insert sarcasm here).
I found this Blog and was heartened to see that he had a community - albeit a cyber one - that cared and appreciated his intelligence and wit. Too bad that in reality, after informing some people of Jim's demise, not one goddamn single person attempted to organise a get-together in Jim's honour. I tried. I am shocked and sad that his so-called friends were too bloody busy with their own bourgeois lives to even bother scheduling a few hours to meet and raise a few glasses to Jim. I find this reprehensible and shabby.
I am sorry Jim. I loved you like family, my extended family misses you and enjoyed your company at Christmas. I think of you daily and my life is emptier without your presence. You were an inspiration and, apart from my family, the kindest and gentlest soul I have ever met. You gave to others,yourself forgetting.
Sincere thanks to those I contacted that posted to this tribute thread.
Rest in Peace, Jim.
143 - lasertrotsky
Carolyne, thanks for the nice post about Jim. If you still check this blog on occasion, please rest assured that several of us who worked with him in Toronto got together and toasted him within a couple of days after we heard from Mose about what happened, and we toasted him again on a patio in Yorkville a couple of weeks ago. Jim is missed, and will continue to be missed.
Mose mentioned that he'd been in touch with you in the weeks afterward. I don't think he'd mind me saying that you can get back in touch with him anytime you want to toast Jim with a group of people who knew him and miss him, even if we didn't know him as long or as well as you and Mose did.
All the best.
144 - Natalie Davis
Missing you a lot today, Jim.
145 - Eric Olsen
I was thinking about Jim today too, Nat - he's kind of lodged in there in my brain
146 - Bonnie
Funny ... I guess the 28th was a Jim-thinking day ... and now it's the 29th and I am still thinking about him ... Jim, I wish you would have known how much we'd miss you.
xoxo
147 - Scott Butki
Jim sounds like a fascinating, complex, witty, dark-humored guy. I think I might have liked him.
148 - Eric Olsen
it's terribly terribly sad - that picture at the top of the page absolutely haunts me sometimes
149 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Scott, i think you would've too.
Eric, you summed up a hell of a lot of my own feelins there - "that picture at the top of the page absoloutely haunts me sometimes". most times if there's a comment here i flick that page to the bottom the second the page refreshes, long before the photo has had time to load.
what's incredibly incredibly confusing an amazing an strange is that this incident still hangs about me, an i hardly KNEW the fella. i knew nothin about him that's of any real worth, most of what i knew about his actual life was picked up in these comments. al i knew was his opinions on stuff an what tv shows he liked an how funny he was, maybe that's enough. it must be, since regardless of the meagreness of the connection, i still think about this a hella lot. an what is terrifyin is that it's almost a year since his final post.
150 - Scott Butki
What's the story on the photo? Is that the one referenced in the comments that was taken much earlier?
151 - Scott Butki
Deaths of posters and births of their children often cause virtual communities to grow and mature and shift in surprising ways. I've seen it happen in places I've been at and it looks like it happened here as well.
Jim would probably sneer at that concept but it's true.
And Duke, there's no right amount of time to grieve or a right way to do it. It's especially elusive in a format like this particularly because some of the usual signals - facial expressions, gravestones, funerals - aren't physically seen.
I did like the idea mentioned of a Jim Carruthers award to someone with a dark wit like him.
152 - Bonnie
I still miss Jim. I still think about him. I still come back from time to time to check on this blog. And I notice I'm not the only one still thinking of him. I wish I could give you a hug right now Jim and pretend you never left us.
You're right, Scott ... "there's no right amount of time to grieve or a right way to do it. It's especially elusive ..." I have the feeling that I will never find closure about my friend ... I never got to tell him how special, unique and talented I thought he was ...
153 - Scott Butki
Maybe not but you're witnessing him well this way
154 - Mark Saleski
dammit. i still remember very clearly when i found out about jim on resonation...and then fired an email off to eric o.
i had that super-jolt of metallic tasting adrenaline going on and felt kind of sick.
crap.
155 - Natalie Davis
I still get queasy thinking that he is gone. Of course, the more we keep talking about him and remembering him, the longer he lives, in some cosmic sense.
156 - Scott Butki
Nobody ever completely dies or is forgotten on the Internet.
157 - Carolyne
Jim's b-day was at the end of March. I still think of him and am heartened that some of you still do also.
158 - mose
I have re-opened Resonation. Well, sort of?
http://www.whatswiththat.ca
You can read all about it there - and I found a picture of Jim I had from 2000.
In Jim's memory we continue.
159 - justin
I knew Jim online and offline in the 90's. First encountered him on a new music mailing list / community that we were both members of. We'd meet up in person sometimes, usually with the whole group, for beers, new music discussions, and cynical debates. At one point we even collaborated a bit on a few of his BrainGarage projects. Our little online community has drifted a bit over the last few years, and our meetings have became further and further apart. We now meet up maybe only once every couple of years, and it's been a couple since I last saw Jim.
Recently there's been a flurry of activity on our little list. We've been chatting about getting together again and everyone wondered whatever became of Jim. Unfortunately that question was answered when we found this blog.
:(
We are still going to get together for drinks, and yes, we'll raise a few rounds for Jim. As Jim said once in a greasy little place on College West, as he raised his glass, "Beer, it's not just for breakfast anymore."
160 - Bonnie
I still miss you Jim and I still think of you ... we would have known each other for 17 years around this time ...
161 - Bonnie
And I am still thinking of you, Jim ... Rest in peace ... xo
162 - Carolyne
I wish you could travel and visit me in Oz. You'd be pleased with the life I have made here. You are sorely missed. You were family.
163 - mose
www.resonation.ca is ours again. Yay!
This was the site Jim Carruthers and a few of us maintained many, many moons ago. Jim met with a sad an untimely death. He owned the URL, I did the hosting and a bunch of us did the writing. When Jim passed he took his passwords with him. The URL was with Network Solutions - I spoke with them - but there was nothing they could do. I set up a Pool.com account and waited til it was available - it went to some guy who registered it on Internic - I tried to track him down, but he would not respond to my queries. I spoke with Internic as the guys account was in question - prolly not a Canadian citizen etc etc. Who knows?
Well, thanks to Internic (I have used them for years and have a bunch of URLs there) it came open - we have it back.
The site has been kept going here at www.whatswiththat.ca I am going to park the domain here and revive it.
It feels very good!
In honour of Jim.
Cheers
mose