Doug McCune Is Not Dead

Doug McCune is not really dead, but I gave his eulogy this morning as part of a prank that Nate Beck organized, produced and masterminded this morning at 360|Flex. Nate and Doug have had something of a prank war going in their sessions at 360|Flex over the past year and this was Nate's latest salvo, based on my April Fools Day post "RIP Doug McCune" earlier this year.

Here's the full text of the eulogy. It was immediately followed by this video that Nate posted to weheartdoug.org, which was in turn followed by Doug himself, giving his part of the keynote here at 360 | Flex.

Friends and honored guests, members of the Flex community. I stand before you today to with a message of sadness. Our once merry and mirthful friend, Douglas Quincy McCune, passed away last week and so will be unable to give the keynote here this morning. I know that Doug was a good friend to many of you and an honored member of the Flex community, remembered for the fanciful (if occassionally inappropriate) titles he gave to his sessions and frequent exhibitionism. There is no doubt that Doug will be sorely missed this weekend.

Though details of Doug's demise and the real reason for his passing are not available at his time, I would ask that we all honor his memory by thinking more about the happy times we had with him than the surely tragic and unfortunate events that surround his shuffling off of the mortal coil. For myself, the thing I remember most about Doug was the way he filled a room - how his presence permeated the place. Though I know Doug has passed on, in a weird six-sense sort of way I can still feel that presence, that warmth, that joy of his here with us know - as if he were sitting right in the front row.

Many of you know that Doug and Nate Beck had a prank war going. It started when Nate threw rubber balls at Doug during a session. Doug retailiated by having a man dressed as marilyn monroe sing happy birthday to Nate in the middle of his session at the last 360 Flex. Nate Beck was planning a masterful rebuttal; an epic final stroke to end the war by escalating it so far that Doug couldn't possibly respond. He'd hired a troupe of dancers to can-can out during this very keynote. They were to be lead by Michael Labriola who, contrary to common misperception, is quite a nimble ballerina. But due to Doug's passing Nate immediately dropped the prank plans and focused all of his efforts on rallying the Flex community in memorial with Doug. He's prepared a short memorial video, which we will watch together now.

We <3 Doug - In Memoriam from Nate Beck on Vimeo.