Flailing and Railing: Brendan Mullen, 1949-2009

BEST KNOWN as a catalyst and chronicler of the late '70s L.A. punk scene centred around the Masque club, Brendan Mullen died suddenly of a massive stroke while on a weekend trip in southern California celebrating his 60th birthday. No overtones of death by misadventure or a predictable one–the doctors were perplexed by the absence of indicators and one neurologist was quoted as saying, "Sometimes your number is just up." Some solace in that, I suppose, but still a serious body blow out of the blue at 5 a.m.