death of Bill Pisarri (Flying Luttenbachers) :(((
traurige nachricht kam vorgestern abend herein. Die mail von Mark Fisher (Skin Graft) grossteils im Original:
" ...*...Our Friend Bill Pisarri...*
*Hi Everyone, *
*This is Mark writing. This is the most horrible news update I've ever had
to write. Bill Pisarri, best known to you guys as the bass player of The
Flying Luttenbachers on the "Revenge" and "Gods Of Chaos" albums, has passed away. He died of a heart attack. *
*This has come as a shock to everyone that knew him. I'm struggling to wrap my head around this... but I want share with you what Bill meant to me...and I think it's indicative if what he meant to so many others. *
*Bill was a genuine friend and an inspiration. He was full of energy and
ideas - a remarkably talented artist, musician, filmmaker and performer -
who was always extremely generous with his time. His involvement in Skin Graft was significant and went way beyond the role of a typical member in a typical band on a typical record label. His work in the Flying Luttenbachers has been well documented, and as much as I love what Weasel has done (and continues to do) with the various incarnations of the band - the Trio with Weasel, Chuck and Bill will always be my favorite. *
*Bill was a great graphic artist - in the fine art sense. His artwork on the
Gods Of Chaos CD set a high water mark for albums designed on this or any other record label. The fold out front cover was a huge, incredible cut and paste collage with only the gentlest of retouching in Photoshop. Up close and personal, it was a real sight to see.*
*T**here was a time in the mid-to-late 90's where Bill played a big part in
the construction of the artwork for many Skin Graft releases. At the time, I
didn't have a computer set up that could handle designing albums in-house, but Bill and his roommate Colm did. Bill designed Colossamite's Economy of Motion LP, and assisted me in assembling many others, including the original pressing of Ruins "Refusal Fossil", You Fantastic! "Homesickness", and the Camp Skin Graft "Now Wave" compilation, which also featured an incredibly cool track by Bill's solo project ZZZZZ. *
*I spent many, many days and nights at Bill's apartment working on cover art with him during this period, And all throughout our "work" we would goof off and talk about our favorite topics. With Bill there was never an uncomfortable silence because there was always so much to talk about - everything from obscure comic artists to even more obscure musicians, "art" - was always a favorite topic - and movies, everything from Japanese Monster mashes to French New Wave Cinema.*
*Even more unknown to most is Bill's work on the Skin Graft Oops indoors shows. Bill was a key player in our Oops Theater Group, which would perform all kinds of theatrical bits and stunts throughout an evening of bands. He played lots of different roles over the years and was a big participant in generating the ideas behind the skits. He also created the costumes for the two "Mighty Fucking Robots" - I still have the cardboard heads of each with me here. One night Bill dressed up as "Grampa", set up in a corner of the now defunct club Lounge Ax, and berated attendees to sit and have their portrait drawn. When Grampa would finally corral a willing customer, the portrait was always unflattering to the subject, but even moreso to Grampa. Grampa was up there in years and he couldn't see very well. His hand was shaky and the portraits would never come out quite as Grampa had planned. He
played the character perfectly. *
*But as much as I loved the character of Grampa, my favorite Bill Pisarri
creation was his "Swami". The Swami played a pivotal role in an entire
series of Oops theater sketches performed in various cities. The scenario involved a character called Pete Panty Monster and Pete's inner struggle to rise above his addictions - with guidance provided by the Swami and Straight-Edge Santa. Rather than go into detail on the story, I think it's enough to say that Bill's Swami was hilarious. No matter how tightly we plotted the storyline, when performing the stuff live, the actors would always have to deal with the unexpected. Bill would often have to improvise his way through difficult situations and no matter what happend, he'd never break character. He'd somehow find a way to make it a memorable moment. *
*After awhile, we retired the Oops Theater Group, the Luttenbach**ers trio that Bill was a part of disbanded, and I finally got a computer to handle album layouts on my own. In 2000, I moved away from Chicago and since then have lived between St. Louis and Vienna, so I haven't seen terribly much of Bill in the last few years. But through it all, he remained a part of this label. Bill had been working in advertising and focusing on filmmaking. If through these avenues an opportunity came his way that he thought might benefit Skin Graft, Bill would always take the time to share it with me. He often let me know how proud he was of his association with this label. And that meant the world to me. *
*I last saw Bill about a year ago, when I returned to Chicago for a Skin
Graft art show. Bill came to meet me and brought me a DVD full of his short films and copies of other things he thought I'd appreciate - the 70's Marvel TV production of Dr. Strange, the Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell Pre-Evil Dead films, and a copy of Stuart Gordon's From Beyond. He had borrowed a stack of Kamandi comic books from me years ago and remembered to return them (all in excellent condition by the way!). Bill was the kind of guy that even if we hadn't spoken in months or seen each other in years - there was never any awkwardness - we'd always pick up right where we left off. *
*After years of "we have to do it" talk, just last month Bill and I spoke
again about buckling down and assembling the old Skin Graft Oops indoors footage with the intention of building a DVD release around it. He was also working on a Flying Luttenbachers documentary, assisting fellow filmmaker Rusty Nails on what promises to be an incredible George Romero documentary, and developing about a dozen of his own films. Every time I spoke with him he was brimming over with projects. Alive, Bill had so much to do and so little time. It seems so unfair that his time was cut short. *
*We're all stunned by this. I'm so sorry for his family - so sorry for his
friends. And I'm so sorry for me. I won't have another chance to share wild and crazy ideas with him. I won't get to work with him again.*
*I miss my friend.*
*I'm fortunate to have known Bill. He's one of the people that really had an impact on my life. I'm fortunate that he was part of the group that huddled around Skin Graft and put so much into it, knowing all along that the financial benefits were slim - the world was just too short on nuts like us to expect much. Now, it's one nut shorter - and the world is all the worse for it. *
*But Bill was here - and I'm grateful he left me with some of himself that I
can share with you.*
*Bye for now, *
*Mark *
