Les Paul Dies.

Les Paul, a name every guitarist knows because of the iconic Gibson Les Paul guitar, a blazingly powerful rock guitar, died at 94 today. Every major rock guitarist has played one. They have a distinctive "fat" sound, thanks to his genius as an inventor. He created the "pick-ups" that capture the sound of the solid body guitar, another invention of his. (There was a time in my life, when I traveled with a rock band, that I could identify just about any electric guitar on the market by hearing just a few seconds of sound. Les Pauls were my favorite.)

He also was an early pioneer in multi-track recording, which made it possible to not have to sit in a room all together while making a recording. He and his wife, Mary had a number of hit records as "Les Paul & Mary Ford."

Read the Rolling Stone obit.

Mr. Blackwell died.

Mark Evanier says it best on his blog:

Mr. Blackwell, who was known for issuing his annual "Worst Dressed List" and for nothing else, has passed away at the age of 86. Born Richard Sylvan Selzer, he had a brief acting career before turning to fashion design. In 1960, he came up with the idea of his list and it proved to be a great publicity-getter...which, of course, was the whole point of it.

We had a few encounters with him back when TLS won the GLAAD Media Award where he prounounced us "fashion perfect."

Obviously, he didn't look at my worn out shoes.