'Mermaid Girl' Shiloh Dies at 10

Master flatpicker changed folk music forever

(NEWSER) - No history of American folk and country music would be complete without a mention of blind guitar wizard Doc Watson, who has died at the age of 89. His rapid-fire flatpicking style influenced generations of musicians, and helped elevate the guitar to lead instrument status in the country music of the '50s and '60s, AP notes. Watson—who grew up in a corner of North Carolina that has produced countless folk musicians—lost his eyesight when he was just a year old, and was playing the banjo by the time he was five. More»

Troubled five-time world champ found dead at home

(NEWSER) - The boxing world is mourning five-time world champion Johnny Tapia, who was found dead at his Albuquerque home on Sunday. The prizefighter, whose career was marked by drug and alcohol addiction, arrests, and depression, was just 45. Police say foul play is not suspected. Tapia's mother was murdered when he was just eight years old, and he said the raw fury he displayed in the ring came from the horrific memory of seeing her kidnapped, the New York Times reports. More»

Eugene Polley created the Flash-Matic for Zenith in the 1950s

(AP) - Couch potatoes everywhere can pause and thank Eugene Polley for hours of feet-up channel surfing. His invention, the first wireless TV remote, began as a luxury, but with the introduction of hundreds of channels and viewing technologies it has become a necessity. Polley died of natural causes at a suburban Chicago hospital over the weekend. The former Zenith engineer was 96. More»

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau excelled at Schubert lieder

(NEWSER) - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, perhaps the greatest singer of art songs in the 20^th century, died yesterday at home in Bavaria, the New York Times reports. He was 86. The German son of a classical scholar and a schoolteacher, Fischer-Dieskau (pronounced FEE-sher DEES-cow) studied voice in Berlin and got two years of unexpected practice singing for fellow POWs during World War II. Returning to Germany at age 22, he quickly became a singing sensation. "I passed my last exam in the concert hall," he said. More»

DC's funk pioneer is gone

(NEWSER) - Chuck Brown, who created the "go-go" genre of funk in DC in the 1970s and remained a mainstay of black Washington's culture ever since, has died at age 75, reports the Washington Post . A snippet from the paper's obituary, by Chris Richards:

• "Like a DJ blending records, Mr. Brown used nonstop percussion to stitch songs together and keep the crowd on the dance floor, resulting in marathon performances that went deep into the night. Mr. Brown said the style got its name because 'the music just goes and goes.'" Full piece here .