Greg Davies, a long-time Geeks of Doom contributor and friend, passed away Tuesday. He was one of the first internet friends I made at the dawn of the social media and news-sharing era over a decade ago. He went by the handle cgt2099 and regularly used a silver alien head as his avatar. He immigrated to America from his home down under in Australia, and often ended discussions with the word “Dilligaf*.” And unlike the majority of folks I encountered in those early days of the social web, this guy was always hyper interested in two things: the most important news of the day, and figuring out a way to build a community around it that had more humanity than a rowdy comment section.

Best known for playing a young Pavel Chekov in the rebooted Star Trek franchise and for roles in films such as Terminator Salvation and Green Room, actor Anton Yelchin died this morning. He was 27.

The cause of Yelchin’s death, according to his representative, was a fatal traffic collision at his San Fernando Valley home. The rep stated, “His family requests you respect their privacy at this time.”

Vilmos Zsigmond, the legendary cinematographer who brought an unmistakable gift for gorgeous imagery to some of the greatest motion pictures ever made, died on January 1, 2016, according to Variety. He was 85 years old.

Born in Hungary in 1930, Zsigmond left the country at the age of 26 along with fellow future cinematography great László Kovács (Ghostbusters). His early years in the U.S. were spent working as a still photographer and lab technician and filming exploitation features such as The Sadist, Psycho a Go-Go, and Five Bloody Graves.

This week we lost a giant of the metal community. Bassist Frank Watkins was, for 20 years, a member of Tampa, Florida death metal pioneers Obituary. He had split from the band on bad terms in 2010, and more recently was a member of another groundbreaking band, Norwegian black metal titans Gorgoroth.

The 47-year-old Watkins had been battling cancer in recent years, but remained active musically right up to his passing. For a more lengthy look at his career, check out this article by our friends over at Blabbermouth.

Our massive Metal Monday Track for this week is the title track of Obituary’s second album, Cause of Death, which was released in 1990 and was Watkins’ first recording with the band. So, help us in celebrating the life of one of death metal’s founding fathers by blasting “Cause of Death.”

When composing an obituary, it is customary to include life accomplishments, surviving relations, and generally create a bubble in which to compress a person’s entire life, so that the reader gets a synopsis of who the real person was beneath it all. I am choosing to walk a different path today, while I talk to you about Seth Kushner. Seth was a great photographer and a spectacular writer/creator, make no mistake about that. His peers and his friends have been properly forthcoming on his Facebook page, and in other social media. But what struck me most about this amazing guy was his genuine love of his family, and of life itself.