Untitled.

Song of the Day: Soldier On by The Temper Trap

Philip Seymour Hoffman: July 23, 1967 - February 2, 2014

I call this Untitled because I frankly don't know what I would call this post.

When my friend Patrick texted me to tell me that Philip Seymour Hoffman died, I was shocked. Then I thought Patrick was pulling some sort of terrible prank. Then I went online and was shocked once more.

I could go on and on about how much of a loss Seymour Hoffman is, as a great actor, and one of the most fascinating people of recent years. I probably won't, because anything I say won't match up to the truth. I was a huge Philip Seymour Hoffman fan. I first discovered him when he was well into his career, when I saw Almost Famous. Then again as Truman Capote in Capote. Then, as you do when you find an actor you really like, I started seeing him everywhere. I loved him in Catching Fire, the last movie in which I saw him, as Plutarch Heavensbee, and I was greatly looking forward to the kind of greatness he would add to Mockingjay.

He was an everyman, and not only a prolific screen actor but also a spectacular stage performer, director, and producer. And although I didn't know him personally, he was apparently a pretty great guy.

A pretty great guy who struggled with a drug addiction.

How many times have we been here before? How many great people have been taken too early, too much before their time, because of a drug overdose? How many people who aren't famous or known as everymen or nice guys have been taken, for that matter? How many headlines in the newspaper have said: So-and-So Has Passed Away At 46 (or 50, or 35, or 27), From An Apparent Drug Overdose. Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Chris Farley, Corey Monteith, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and the list goes on and on. It is a sad and repetitious opus. Drug and alcohol abuse is apparently as rampant as ever.

I'm not going to keep going on about this. I really don't have much to say, without turning into a cliche. Sad.