Happy birthday SG! We miss you.
November 13th is just one of the things I shared with Steve Gilliard. That and complete contempt for President Codpiece, disgust with the Republicans, anger and frustration with the Democrats.
So, Happy Birthday to us, Steve! I miss you and the News.
One of my favorite co-workers and my dearest friend in the world also have birthdays today.
I didn't know it was Steve's as well, but now I have yet another reason to remember it.
Happy birthday, Steve. Wish you were here. 
Happy Birthday Mr. Gilliard.
After I visited the United States in 2001, I began to take a very close interest in events and the situation there.
A childhood spent during the 1980s in awe of what America claimed to be through music and film led to a teenage period in which I grew accustomed to the concept of the Ugly American and all it represented. During my university years I was told during a long discussion in a bar that what we consider to be the Ugly American tended to be those of a conservative bent who could afford to travel outside the continent but had little respect for the world outside and that *real* Americans usually could not afford such luxuries and were a wonderful, friendly people by and large. When I could finally afford to visit the country, this was proven true in spades.
I was turned on to Steve's writing via the original Smirking Chimp site and I found myself actively seeking his writing out - it had a fire and passion, and just as importantly, if not more so *wisdom* that utterly floored me. I was enough of a casual history student to know about the military history of the continent, and the foreign conflicts the United States was involved in, but Steve's writing brought it home to me in such an incisive and visceral way that textbook knowledge appeared a washed-out, faded negative in comparison. I used to check his old Blogger site and later the News Blog domain compulsively every day in the hope that I might learn something new, that even academics would have passed over in their desire to cram as much dry detail into their version of events as possible.
When he first posted of his illness I remember feeling almost incredulous that the man behind a voice of such strength and purpose might be ailing physically, and that every day he was in hospital, even towards the end, I held out hope against hope that he would pull through. Having never met the man and never even engaged in online conversation with him, willing him to pull through every day was like a mantra, as I'm sure it was to everyone who read his words, and when the end came it was a suckerpunch to the guts in every sense of the phrase.
It says a lot for the man that it takes four people - five if you include Drifty - to heft the torch he carried with Jen and carry it forward in his memory.
The video doesn't fit, and technically the song is about losing a father, but this is for Steve Gilliard tonight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z...h?
v=ZBvfGnTQnWM
Yeah, The Steve was destined for greatness and getting there fast when Fate stepped in. I'm glad that you remember him so well LM and I'm glad the Group is carrying on. Excelsior!
All the same, I miss the brilliance too, and often, very often, I still think, now what would Steve say about this latest twist?
I shall shed a tear now.
Let us not forget on this day of celebration and remembrance something that surely has Steve smiling above...
The fucking Yankees are fucked. :D
We miss you Gilly. And Jen, if you peek in today, you're always in our thoughts, too. We hope the Wheel of Karma has finally turned a smile in your direction.
All,
THANK YOU.
Stuck at a weeklong offsite in Boston. Just wanted to say thanks to all.
I really miss Steve. There doesn't seem to be a day that goes by that I don't catch myself saying:
-What would Steve think of this?
-It's a pity Steve wasn't around to see his predictions come true.
-I read this, cooked this, did this because Steve turned me on to it.
-Well as Steve said.
I never met him nor even saw a clear photo of him while he was alive, but he's influenced me more than most people I see everyday.
While I wish he'd stayed with us longer, he really made an impact with the time he had and did many of the things he wanted to do.
In retrospect the saddest (in retrospect) and happiest thing he ever wrote is here:
At 35, I've figured out that this is it, at least for now. Anything I do, any life I make, is going to revolve around words and computers and strange, bright people. ...
Which means whoever enters my life has to embrace these things. It's a sobering constraint. You confront your mortality, and then how you want to live that life. The odds are, unless you get real unlucky, you'll see 70, and do you really want to have most of that 70 years devoted to shit and not people. You may have the greatest record collection in the world, but that record collection is shit other people did. It never once traded it's jacket for another kid's or decided to not go to school.
He certainly lived that way and despite having not had 70 years he did make sure what he had was not devoted to shit.
Steve was the first blog I went to, sometimes even before Big Orange. He inspired me, comforted me, and always managed to hit the nail on the head.
When he fell ill, I hoped against hope that he would turn it around. During those dark days Jen and the crew helped keep the group together. The day he passed away I was in the emergency room wondering about my own health. Probably at the same time I was leaving, Steve was passing away.
That cemented a decision I was pondering for a long time-to go back to College. I decided life was too short not to get the A&S degree I really was more suited for than the Paralegal degree I got. Thanks to Steve, I now major in Communications, and get to write as a major.
Thanks, Steve, wherever you are now.
Thanks LM.
I think of the big guy all the time.
This place is a worthy legacy.
Damn right. Happy Birthday, Steve.
It's a very odd feeling to miss someone you never met.
As Steve mentioned a few times, God forbid you get on James Wolcott's shit list:
SG, 25 June 2005: "Wolcott? Shit. If I hammer people, he slices them up like a samurai master. There is NO day I want Jim to speak ill of me." (http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2005/06/corner-
begs-for-cash.html)
Being a humble soul, Steve would probably shrug off what struck me as the ultimate compliment from Wolcott recently, 4 Nov 2007: "...but if life were fair Steve Gilliard and Joe Strummer would still be alive." (http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott/
2007/11/it-would-be-a-w.html)
I agree with J Wolcott.
If life were fair, we'd still have these two giants with us in the flesh, inspiring, teaching, chiding, amusing and puzzling us.
Since it ain't always fair, we are sadly stuck with nothing more than our happy memories.
Also, cheers to Jen, hope all is going well!
.
Christ, what a Braveheart he was!
Happy Birthday Gilly. Love to Jen. Thank you to LM, Hubris, Jesse, Sara and the incredible NB family, for continuing to build this place I call home...
Happy Birthday, Steve.
We miss you, and there's not a week where I'm not thinking "Steve would have had a field day with this" or "Well, what would Gilly write about this?".
All my sympathy to his family and to Jen. Take care of you.
He was one of the good and great guys, he loved his country and fought for what it was meant to be, he lived free, and he died young.
He didn't live long enough to see the fall of the GOP Reich, but he knew it would come, sooner or later, and I hope that we all will see it, at long last.
And fuck the fucking Yankees.
Altercation was the first blog I ever ran across. A couple of days later they had a link to something Billmon had up at the Whiskey Bar. A couple of days later I found Steve's blog, and in turn a whole world of other great sites. It's taught me to be a much more critical thinker and raised my awareness of world issues to a far greater degree than I could have thought. I know he would approve of what you guys are doing here. In honor of his birthday I think I'll take off work a little early tonight and help close down a bar somewhere.
Happy Birthday Big Fella - feel the love...
Happy Birthday Steve!!
LM- I know I bugged you now and again to start your own blog, and I am enriched by the words you share here. I'm sorry about the circumstances that puched you into the limelight, but not sorry that the spigot is rust-free. The world is richer for it.
Jen- Blessings, as always!
Thanks, LM, Jesse, HS, and Sara:
You're doing a great job. Steve would be proud.
I'm sipping some George Dickel, listening to Johnny Adams, and thinking of Steve. You guys carry on, and thanks again.
I first encountered Steve at Netslaves. He was a pioneer. It was an eye-opening experience because of the interactivity of his words. He forever changed my perspective as a reader and a writer. Steve was the first person that I had an ongoing conversation through the written word instead of a sender to reciever relationship. He opened up the concept of internet communications for me and I guess many people.
Still have a chuckle when I think about that buffoon Jonah Goldberg not realizing that Steve happened to be black.
Wow could the man write with clarity and focus. Never met him in person and it is my loss. Didn't always agree with him but always respected his viewpoint, that was part of the beauty of his personality. I miss him and his smart ass New Yorker persona.
Happy birthday Steve! I followed him from the Big Orange to his own site. Jen and Steve's blog became the first I visited for the day. I still have a bunch of his posts (the food ones especially) bookmarked.
I'll go get a glass of Caribou (Quebecois mulled wine) and raise it in his memory.
PS- I've included an old photo link from a very happy time at the blog.
Happy Birthday, Steve, and fuck the fucking Yankees!
FWIW, I turned 44&1/2 Nov. 13.
Happy Birthday Big Guy.
I assume you have found the best corner bar in the Hereafter -- one with beer-can chicken and screaming wifi -- have spent awhile getting the lay of the land, and have begun at least one post about the political going's on in the Elysium Fields with "Can you believe this fucking shit?"
I miss my daily Gilly fix, and yes, the crew here is sowing hella good crops in sod you busted.
steve is missed. he gets his well deserved rest now
"Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men."
Steve, "Hey man nice shot"
Thanks for all that, LM.
I didn’t know that November 13th was Steve’s birthday. My Mom passed away two years ago on November 13th. Now I have a reason to feel good about that day.
And thanks to you, Hubris, Jesse, and Sara for carrying it on.
There is no death. Love carries on and Steve (and Jen) are loved, and we carry on Steve's work.
damned allergies... LM, thanks for the post and to y'all for carrying on Steve's work.
Happy Day Big Guy!
Both your ferocity and compassion are missed. As many have said above; It's hard to believe I have such feelings for a man I never met. I am glad to have had a few online talks with him, though I wish I could've made it to Shea with him one time.
Be in peace my friend.
happy birthday, steve. miss you!
best to all here at GNB.
jim in la
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