David Handelman, 1961-2024

 

I met David Handelman in the early days of NYCD. He loved to talk music. Over the years, we became friends, dining occasionally, attending concerts, that sort of thing. But it seemed like I talked to David, either through an email or a text, almost every day for the last 25 years. I was certainly in touch with David more than I was with a number of my closest friends or family members. It was his doing, not mine. He was always checking in.

He was a big supporter of my writing and would often let me know it. I showed him a piece I had written about the end of my retail business and he gave me a number to call. He thought it was good enough for publication. That piece ended up in Newsweek. I showed him something I had written about the state of music, and how I missed the suits at the record labels, the old guys who knew how to separate the wheat from the chaff. He told me where I needed to tone it down, that it sounded too angry, but ultimately, he liked it enough to suggest sending it to the New York Times. I did and the NYT published that Op-Ed.

David has championed this blog from Day One, occasionally commenting when he found the time, and often sharing links to posts with his friends, colleagues, and music loving nerds who he thought would enjoy what I had written.

If David saw the most trivial post about Todd Rundgren, or New Orleans, he'd make sure he'd send me the piece. An article about vinyl? He'd get it to me. I wasn't special. David was special. He did things like this for all of his friends.

I knew he was sick, but you could never tell from his Instagram posts. If he wasn't at the theater, he was swimming in lakes across the country. Or, seeing his beloved Wilco in concert, most recently at this year's Solid Sound festival. 

Here we are in the lobby of Radio City Music Hall, a photo taken by David's lovely wife Syd Sidner from the top of that gorgeous staircase, right before Wilco took the stage.

I noticed he had been quiet on social media, so I texted him on Sunday, the 11th. He said he had been in the hospital since Monday. That's it. No other details, except that he'd be there until he could get better treatment for the underlying cancer.

"We won't have any new information for a while, so we’re gonna just send out group emails from time to time when we actually have something to say."  

I found out David Handelman passed on Thursday, August 15th, while scrolling through Threads. Paul Myers had paid tribute. It was a shock, to say the least. I had to ask Paul, "Where did you hear this???" He said John Stirratt, Wilco's bass player, had paid tribute, as did Mark McKinney of Kids In The Hall, who David had championed in a piece for Rolling Stone in 1988.

My phone won't be buzzing as often as it once did. I'll miss that and I'll miss David.