It is with a very heavy heart that I share the passing of Todd Stadtman, author of this blog as well as “The Lucha Diaries”. He passed away in Brooklyn, New York on January 9, 2021. We have lost a brilliant mind, a generous and forgiving soul, and someone who produced a staggering amount of creative work that lacked neither quality, nor quantity.
Todd dedicated his encyclopedic knowledge of all movie genres, his dark sense of humor and pure passion for world pop cinema and music to this blog for the last 12 years. His brilliant, maniacal obsessions for Turkish horror films, Egyptian dramas and Filipino superhero movies are captured here forever.
His first blog, “The Lucha Diaries”, was born in late 2006 – the year before we were married. For those of you who thought that a nerd of this proportion had to have been living alone in his mother’s basement surrounded by 10 of his favorite bootlegged Incredible Hulk action figures, you are sadly mistaken. We shared a lovely home together for the last 18 years and there were actually 12 bootleg Hulks.
Having satisfied his appetite for Mexican Luchador films, he began 4DK in February of 2008 to inform his readers where his work was available once he began writing for Teleport City, a site he was honored to be a part of.
Not only did 4DK serve as an outlet to share Todd’s movie reviews and his favorite pop songs of the week, but it also introduced him to a community in which he found his brethren – erudite folk with a wellspring of passion for cult cinema and clever repartee. Below I’ve shared some links to tributes to Todd, by writers far more competent than the person left with the responsibility of submitting the last 4DK post.
https://teleport-city.com/2021/01/19/bahut-yaarana-lagta-hai/
https://hifilmfest.com/present-fears/2021/1/10/goodbye-todd
http://tarstarkas.net/2021/01/remembering-todd-stadtman/
https://culturalgutter.com/2021/01/26/remembering-todd-stadtman/
Given this is Todd’s blog, he should have the last word. So, I will leave you with some lyrics to one of Todd’s songs, “Everything There Is to Have”, from the last band he was in, ZikZak. Not the most recent, not even my favorite song of his, to be honest. But the most appropriate for me right now, as it conveys my grief brought on by the loss of a loved one who left us so much, yet far too soon.
Everything there is to have is had
And
you can’t feel anything but sad
Yet
satisfied somehow
Well,
it might not have been everything that you wanted
But it was everything
© 1999 Bitter Twins Music (BMI)
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