ypsi’s a sadder, more boring, place without him

One of our local readers, Raymond Masters, died yesterday. I’d only met him a few times, but he seemed like a very nice fellow. In addition to being an outspoken advocate for Ypsilanti’s creative community, he had a cutting sense of humor that I will remember fondly. (He was the fellow, if you’ll recall, who sent me an email not too long ago offering to lead me to a used condom that he’d found that was stretched to be “as big as a fisherman’s boot.”) The last time Linette and I saw him was nine months ago, a day or two before Clementine was born. I’d heard that he was sick a few days ago, but I didn’t imagine that this would be the outcome. It’s odd, and more than just a little surreal. Linette and I were planning to go and see him next week at the Riverside Arts Center, where he was doing something puppet-related… Raymond, as most of the local readers probably know, was a well-regarded puppeteer… He will be missed, and our thoughts are with his partner and friends… (For a better eulogy, check out the Maproom Systems site.)