From Negativland’s Facebook page:
CANCER IS STUPID
Richard Duaine Lyons, a founding member of the group Negativland, died peacefully and pain free at age 57 at eleven (“it’s not even funny”) PM on his birthday, April 19th, 2016, from complications due to nodular melanoma. He successfully fought off this cancer over 12 years ago, but it had recently returned, with inoperable tumors on his spine, liver and brain, and nothing succeeded in stopping it. […]
Known for his role in finding the Estus W. Pirkle LP sampled in Negativland’s 1987 “Christianity Is Stupid” track (and, in turn, originating the idea of Negativland’s ax murder hoax), and for taking the wrecking yard photos that inspired the 2002 Negativland project “Deathsentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak,” he was also known for such darkly funny and contrarian alter egos as his has-been radio personality Dick Vaughn, righteous religious preacher Pastor Dick, ace used car salesmen Dick Goodbody, master debater Dick Bush, good Christian lady Marsha Turnblatt and crazed DJ Jack Diekobisc (pronounced Dickobitch). His “actions” on our Over the Edge radio show became the stuff of legend, crafting such memorable events as the 1982 “format change” to an all-1970s-nostalgia station (documented on our “Dick Vaughn’s Moribund Music of the ‘70s” release) and a disastrous “live broadcast” from a Walnut Creek bowling alley on Thanksgiving, 2001 (soon to be released on CD as “Ultimate Pinsmack”). […]
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