I’m NOT Dead – By Brian (No Relation To Alan) Rickman
On January 14th, I awoke to sad news. Alan Rickman had died.
This depressed me. Not because I was a big Harry Potter fan. I kind of missed the boat there. I'm just old enough to not have read the books/obsessed over the movies myself and my kids are just young enough that they don't care.
My favorite Alan Rickman movies included Galaxy Quest and, obviously, Die Hard. Also, you might think it's a lame chick flick (and it kinda is) but he was awesome in Sense & Sensibility.
Alan Rickman was an incredible actor.
2016 (and cancer) was quickly eating a lot of my favorite people alive.
Lemmy had died. Bowie passed away the same week. Now, Alan Rickman?
I was bummed.
It was about 7 in the morning when the first notification came in from Facebook.
Ha! Someone goofed. That's funny. Typo.
Let me preface the rest of this story by being a self-promoting whore.
I've worked in radio for a while. We DJs tend to bounce from city to city, much like carney folk. Over the years, I've built up a “fan base” because of that. It happens.
Also, I have a hobby. I write Science Fiction novels. I have a publishing contract and a big-time literary agent who says things like “we're pitching to committee on Monday!!” and “your stupid radio job is getting in the way.”
So, I have weird, goth kids that follow me on Facebook and Twitter too. That's cool. I like them OK.
Because of all of the above, I have “fan accounts” on both Twitter & Facebook in addition to my personal accounts.
I'm not too shabby in the follower-department. About 10K people, if I do say so myself.
Yeah. I'm kind of a big deal.
But nothing like Alan Rickman.
My “followers/fans” are a strange mix of metal heads, old school-stoners, pre-school teachers and the aforementioned kids in all black. Plus, a lot of people in Brazil.
(I'm big in Brazil. We don't know why yet).
I'm assuming that some of the kids that read the Harry Potter series maybe also read a few of my books? I'm not entirely sure how this happened.
But, for a brief moment, #AlanBrianRickman started trending.
This has much to do with the “auto-fill” feature on cell phones.
Because they were, perhaps (?), fans of both the great Mr. Rickman and I on FB, for example, in their lovely attempt to post a tribute to Alan – they also included me.
#AlanBrianRickman #Neverforget #Always
Now, for the record – Alan Rickman's middle name was not Brian. It was Sidney-Patrick.
And, before you ask, no – we're not related. I don't think. Probably distant cousins or something, maybe.
I'm also a bit of a geneaology geek. The Rickman surname isn't all that common. I'm a descendant of Dr. William Rickman, the first Surgeon General of the United States.
Could be that Bill was Alan's distant Uncle? I dunno.
Bottom line, I won't be invited to the wake.
It didn't take long for people to latch on to the goof on my own accounts – most of them sending very appropriate, grammatically incorrect condolences to my family...
"I am sorry for your family's lost #AlanBrianRickman"
Others said they loved me in Die Hard.
It was kinda silly and it made me smile in an otherwise downer of a week.
Anyway, a toast to a great man and a wonderful actor!
You always entertained me in life – and in death, you gave me a laugh...because of a few some typos.
#RIPinPeace
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