{"id":4779,"date":"2009-08-18T15:51:48","date_gmt":"2009-08-18T19:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/?p=4779"},"modified":"2009-08-18T15:54:47","modified_gmt":"2009-08-18T19:54:47","slug":"allen-shellenberger-1969-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/?p=4779","title":{"rendered":"Allen Shellenberger, 1969-2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"screen8\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Usually, when I write an obituary in MEDIA ASSASSIN, it’s for someone whose work has affected me in a profound way over time. People who come to mind include comedians Bernie Mac<\/a> and George Carlin<\/a>; writer Arthur C. Clarke<\/a>; dancer Cyd Charisse<\/a>; chanteuse Eartha Kitt<\/a>; architect J\u00f8rn Utzon<\/a>; and, obviously, singer Michael Jackson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"281x211\"<\/a>In the case of Lit drummer Allen Shellenberger, right, who died last Thursday in his mother’s home of brain cancer, a month before his 40th birthday, I’m familiar with, literally, three minutes and forty-eight seconds of his output. But even though I couldn’t have named the drummer or his band from memory this morning, what I knew of him affected me enough to, a decade later, instantly recall that I could dig up more about him by Googling “Lit, Pamela Anderson.”<\/p>\n

I’m speaking of the band’s hit single, “Miserable,”<\/a> from the Orange County natives’ 1999 platinum album, A Place in the Sun<\/em>. Most of all, though, I’m talking about the track’s eye-popping music video<\/a>, top, by director Evan Bernard.<\/p>\n

\"screen7\"<\/a>In the short, sex vixen Anderson plays a bikinied, 50-foot woman, while the band, reasonably, plays their song from the pedestal of her Caucasianesquely complanate butt. They alternate this with forays about Anderson’s body, including a memorable march across Mt. Anderson’s Grand Tetons, right. (That’s Shellenberger, holding up the rear in blood-red shorts.) Though, in the end, they’re all consumed by Anderson \"screen17\"<\/a>like hors d’ oeuvres, right, spending one’s last four minutes on Earth climbing all over the pneumatic pinup is, from the perspective of pubescent American male fantasies, what a way to go<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Despite what you may think, however, when I saw “Miserable,” I was less moved by the vision of 1999’s go-to girl than the way she was used as a cipher for shiny, pop specularity\u2014bearskin rug and all\u2014there to be coupled with the clip’s seamless technical virtuosity.<\/p>\n

That wouldn’t have been enough to keep my attention, however. In the late ’90s, Anderson was, again, everywhere, \"screen18\"<\/a>and every other everybody had pushing-the-envelope, proto-digital effects in their videos. What really pulled me in was the track’s fuzzy, beat-grinding groove, capped with the delectable form of lead vocalist A. Jay Popoff’s scowling hook, right: “You make me come…you make me complete…you make me completely <\/em>miserable.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the other half of Lit’s rhythm section, bassist Kevin Baldes would have inevitably enjoyed a unique relationship with Shellenberger. Also, the percussionist, like he, was not related to the band’s other two members: A. Jay and guitarist Jeremy Popoff are brothers. According to The L.A. Times<\/em><\/a>,<\/p>\n

Shellenberger, who was born Sept. 15, 1969, in Long Beach, brought humor and “a certain calm to the band,” said Baldes, the group’s bass player.<\/p>\n

“He was a very peaceful guy,” Baldes said Friday. “He didn’t like arguing, didn’t like confrontation; he just liked to have a good time<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Even after Shellenberger was no longer able to play with the band, Baldes said, “he’d be in the garage with his drum pads trying to keep it up.<\/p>\n

“Allen I don’t think ever really knew that he was as sick as he was. To him, it was like, ‘When I get better. . . .’ And that’s what we promoted to Allen — when you get better.”<\/p>\n

Shellenberger is survived by his daughter, Giovanna Mackey; his mother, Connie James; and his father, Paul Shellenberger.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video<\/em><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Usually, when I write an obituary in MEDIA ASSASSIN, it’s for someone whose work has affected me in a profound way over time. People who come to mind include comedians Bernie Mac and George Carlin; writer Arthur C. Clarke; dancer Cyd Charisse; chanteuse Eartha Kitt; architect J\u00f8rn Utzon; and, obviously, singer Michael Jackson. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,39,56],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4779"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4818,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions\/4818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}