I don't have much more to say about Adam Yauch's death on Friday than has already been said. And now I see that Maurice Sendak has also died, today. He was a complete badass, as I suspect you know. But just in case:

Now, my guess is that if you read here, you probably know Sendak's work better than that of the Beastie Boys, and my goal is always to put things in front of people that they might not encounter without me. So this post in memory of two badasses from Brooklyn is going to emphasize the Beastie Boys just in case you're wondering what that sadness has been about. Keep in mind that MCA was their bassist and one of the anchors of their politics:

(That moment at 2:55 has always been one of my favorites in their repertoire.)

I've been so numb about this since I received the news from my brother on Saturday morning in London. I know that no one death is necessarily more tragic or more to be mourned than any other death; we're all humans, and all lives matter. But I also don't know that I could tell you, or anyone else, how much these guys and their sounds are wound up and in and through and around the past quarter-century of my life. They are an enormous part, even the dominant part, of my soundtrack.