Dirk had cancer. He also had one of the best mp3 blogs around, Cities on Flame with Rock'n'Roll. Somehow, in between bouts of chemotherapy and getting one of legs amputated, he found the time to post album after album of the best, most obscure, most rare and sought-after and utterly desirable oddities in the history of rock music -- in particular Japanese weirdstuff.

Dirk had the best attitude towards his health problems too. Nothing much seemed to faze him -- not losing a limb, not any of the other tedious and debilitating effects of his treatments -- just as long as he got to keep rocking the weird music on his blog. Just the other day he mentioned that he was heading into hospital for his seventh (and hopefully) last round of chemo, after which he said he "didn't want to see the inside of a hospital for a very long time".

The next post was from his mother, saying that the doctors had found a huge tumour in his lungs. A few days later there was another post from her, to tell us that Dirk was dead.

If you feel like it, please leave a message on his blog to support his family and friends.

They really can use some friends now.

Labels: eulogies, heroes