Richard "Rich" Dangel, 60, played a huge role in the original Northwest rock 'n' roll scene. As a founding member of the Fabulous Wailers (started in Tacoma in 1958), he helped devise what DJ/promoter Pat O'Day called the "gut-bustin' guitar sound" that characterized such groups as the Sonics and Paul Revere & the Raiders. Dangel wrote the Wailers' first hit, the instrumental "Tall Cool One." He also wrote the first rock arrangement of Richard Berry's pop-reggae composition "Louie Louie"; the Portland-based Kingsmen made it a worldwide hit. Dangel left the Wailers in 1963; he later played in a number of blues and rock bands and occasional Wailers reunion gigs. Dangel died in his North Seattle home from an aneurysm on December 3, two days after performing at his own 60th birthday party at the Swiss Club in Tacoma. Fellow ex-Wailer Buck Ormsby said, "It's been a long run, and always an honor to perform with Rich as a fellow Fabulous Wailer."
Tekbug, "The Tech-Savvy Lifestyle Magazine," is ending publication with its December issue. The free monthly tabloid began in September 2001, when the publishers of Computer Source acquired the distribution boxes of the defunct Metropolitan Living magazine. They also hired Alison Peacock, who'd worked at Metropolitan Living, to edit their new endeavor. The result was a peculiar combo of articles about movies, music, food, cars, health, and weekend getaways, juxtaposed with ads for external hard drives, motherboards, wireless networking systems, and Internet service providers. In recent months the editorial focus hewed closer to a consumer-technology theme, emphasizing video games (including a regular column for female gamers), popular PC software, cool websites, and home high-tech gear, but it still couldn't attract many advertisers beyond the core Computer Source clientele. The tekbug.net website will remain up; the publishers promise to keep posting new content on it. But Tekbug's chief legacy may be its unapologetic insistence that people who buy replacement hard drives do, indeed, have lifestyles.
