R.I.P. Cedric Sharpley Author: breno Date: 03-15-12 09:51

Don't see any confirmation of this online anywhere except that John Foxx just posted an R.I.P. for him on Facebook. Beyond that, I can't find any other details or mentions.Sharpley was the pretty badass drummer for Gary Numan during his glory days and ended up becoming a significant but under-sung influence in the development of hip-hop. I can't remember if it was Afrika Bambaata or Sir Mix-A-Lot who was raving about having their mind blown by the rhythm track on "Films" and immediately lifting it as often as they could. Or it may have been Grandmaster Flash, I don't remember. One of those guys, anyway.Sharpley was definitely underrated as a musician, I guess because the press at the time was too busy slagging off Numan in general to pay much attention to his backing band. But listening to The Pleasure Principle now, one could make the same argument for it being a "drummer's album" as people do for Blondie's Eat to the Beat.

Cartoonist Fran Matera, Stratford Native, Dies in Florida Versatile
cartoonist, he drew the 'Steve Roper and Mike Nomad' syndicated comic strip from 1984 to 2004. By Fred Musante 12:42 pm Cartoonist Fran
Matera, who died in Florida, graduated from Stratford High School in 1940.
Stratford has been the home of a number of cartoonists,
including Fran Matera, who drew the "Steve Roper and Mike Nomad" adventure
series strip.The Tampa Bay Times reported that Matera, who began drawing
as a teenager at Stratford High School, passed away March 15 at age 87 in
Florida where he lived.The obituary said Matera wrangled a cartoonist
job in New York shortly after graduating from high school in 1940. He enlisted
in the Marine Corps in 1943, but although he volunteered for combat the Corps
employed him instead as a cartoonist for the Parris Island Boot, a camp
newspaper.In 1984, he took over the Steve Roper strip, which was
syndicated in 250 newspapers, and drew it until it ended in 2004.http://stratford.patch.com/articles/cartoonist-fran-matera-stratford-native-dies-in-florida