RIP, Harvey Pekar (1939-2010)
Enough people, Clevelanders and non-Clevelanders alike, have reminisced about Harvey in the day or so since he died that my reflections won't add much. I've put links below to some of my favorite commentaries.
I did want to note his passing in tribute, in much the same way as we fly the flag at half mast to commemorate the death of someone meaningful to the society at large.
The words above, written by Harvey, seem to fit the occasion. I found it searching through my archives from the lecture series I ran at Tri-C for several years, Geeks & Gurus. Harvey and his long-time collaborator Gary Dumm made a joint appearance in 2004.
I once heard that art makes the ordinary extraordinary and the extraordinary ordinary. Harvey did that for life in Cleveland. We'll miss him.
About Harvey
Plain Dealer news coverage, includes video
Anthony Bourdain's eloquent Goodbye Splendor, maybe the best of all that I've read
They will, however, remember Harvey Pekar, whose life and works will surely remain an enduring reference point of late 20th and early 21st century cultural history. Like those other giants of their eras, Twain, Whitman, Dos Passos, Kerouac, Kesey, the times he lived in cannot adequately be remembered without him.
| Michael Heaton pays tribute to Harvey Pekar |
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