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RSS icon Comments on RIP Tuba Man (and Rot in Hell, Tuba-Man Assaulters)

1

What a horrible story. Tears are streaming down my face as I write this. I saw that guy all the time. How can people be so fucking awful?

Posted by kerri harrop | November 4, 2008 9:28 AM
2

Sad. He was a reliable, heartwarming presence. He also had the best hats.

Posted by Aislinn | November 4, 2008 9:28 AM
3

This absolutely stuns me and breaks my heart -- it literally brings me to tears! He was just such a kind and friendly guy! RIP, Tuba Guy, you will be missed!

I hope there is a community Memorial Service or something for him, because he brought joy to so many of us before and after sporting events and the opera! I was wondering where he was just this weekend, after the opera and before the Seahawks game . . . what has happened to this city?

Posted by Murgen | November 4, 2008 9:29 AM
4

Bad link to the PI article.

Posted by Anonymous | November 4, 2008 9:29 AM
5

WTF.

Posted by Original Monique | November 4, 2008 9:33 AM
6

Link isn't working for me.

Posted by Leslie N. | November 4, 2008 9:33 AM
7

Whoa.

Posted by Mr. Poe | November 4, 2008 9:35 AM
8

The link is missing the leading h in http. Just edit it in your browser.

or here:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/386267_robert04xx.html

Posted by kinaidos | November 4, 2008 9:36 AM
9

The original link is missing the 'h' in 'http'

It should be:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/386267_robert04xx.html

Posted by Curmudgeon | November 4, 2008 9:37 AM
10

Terrible.

Posted by DOUG. | November 4, 2008 9:40 AM
11

I cried a little myself when I saw the article in the PI. It's so frustrating to see so many of the good and unique things about Seattle fade away over the years, and now something like this. It's hard to put into words.

Animals.

Posted by Matthew | November 4, 2008 9:40 AM
12

The blind lady who sings in the Market, now Tuba Man. What the hell is wrong with people?

Posted by Fnarf | November 4, 2008 9:43 AM
13

Wow. RIP.

One of the enduring memories from M's games as a kid was coming out of the Kingdome or Safeco and listening to him for a bit with my Dad (who always gave me a buck to put in his case).

Posted by md | November 4, 2008 9:43 AM
14

Link fixed.

Posted by David Schmader | November 4, 2008 9:43 AM
15

testosterone should be carefully regulated. some young males can be trusted with it. others not. i'd wager that these idiots have no idea who they beat to death, and didn't intend to kill him. they did it for fun & to impress each other.

Posted by max solomon | November 4, 2008 9:44 AM
16

Given the rise in violence lately, when is anyone going to start putting Kerlikowske's feet to the fire?

Posted by davmorgan | November 4, 2008 9:46 AM
17

this is fucking terrible. tuba guy was a seattle institution and everyone had a story about him. he will be missed.

Posted by Bellevue Ave | November 4, 2008 9:50 AM
18

this is fucking terrible. tuba guy was a seattle institution and everyone had a story about him. he will be missed.

Posted by Bellevue Ave | November 4, 2008 9:51 AM
19

rest in peace, tuba man

Posted by jared | November 4, 2008 9:56 AM
20

I don't really care what else happens to those kids after they get done with their man-sized prison sentences, but they should definitely be banished from Seattle. Or maybe Washington entirely.

I'd like to see more banishment these days. If you can't follow the big rules, get the fuck out.

Posted by Matthew | November 4, 2008 10:00 AM
21

Fucking hell.

Posted by Dan Savage | November 4, 2008 10:02 AM
22

i always remember the multiple containers of liquid. the man had a thirst that needed to be quenched.

Posted by beef | November 4, 2008 10:05 AM
23

He graciously played Dvořák's New World Symphony every time I saw him with a wink and a smile. He was the best of this town. He can not be replaced. I hope someone recorded him out there.

Posted by john | November 4, 2008 10:05 AM
24

This is truly awful and ruins my week.
I'll never go to another event D'town and not think of him.
@17 is right, everyone has a story about the Tuba Man. (Did he call all the gals a Baroness?)
This is sadder then sad. . .poor, simple, sweet ol' guy. . .
RIP Tuba Man

Posted by irl | November 4, 2008 10:11 AM
25

No stats needed. There's some screwed up stuff going on. Rough economic times equal rough social times. Poor tuba guy. He had fun while it lasted.

Posted by gentle tuba | November 4, 2008 10:22 AM
26

Fnarf, what happened to the blind lady in the market? I swear I've seen her as recently as a month ago.

Posted by paulus | November 4, 2008 10:31 AM
27

first, of course, this is incredibly sickening.

but also: did the PI seriously use the terms "toughs," "lowlifes," and "thugs"? was the crime perpetrated by sharks and jets?

Posted by ellensburg | November 4, 2008 10:33 AM
28

@26, she was "lucky"; she didn't die. She was viciously assaulted on a Metro bus by a kook shouting some kind of bullshit about God wanting the deformed (i.e., blind) to die. But it's still an assault by an asshole on a Seattle streetlife institution.

Posted by Fnarf | November 4, 2008 10:35 AM
29

This is crazy! I've known Ed for several years, he was one of my favorite customers where I worked.

Posted by curiousadam | November 4, 2008 10:40 AM
30

When I was a little kid and my folks would drive us up from Vancouver, Wash. to watch the Mariners, I always would slow down as we passed Tuba Man outside the Kingdome. This is really sad ... long live Tuba Man.

Posted by superyeadon | November 4, 2008 10:44 AM
31

My heart is hurting with this news.
I feel helpless - no one deserves to die that way.

Posted by milieu | November 4, 2008 10:48 AM
32

This is very sad. I knew him as "Tuba Guy" and the "Lunch-Time!" guy. I'd see him walking around my work, stopping at Zeek's or Taco Del Mar on Cedar & Denny, and occasionally shouting "lunch time!".

Posted by erik | November 4, 2008 10:50 AM
33

That is fucked up. Who's the Tuba Guy ever fucked with? People with their life on their sleeve like that get a permanent pass from shit like this. That's the rule. It's always the biggest pussies that mess with people that have no chance. Goddamn it.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | November 4, 2008 10:55 AM
34

RIP Tuba Man

About 12-14 years ago he would come into Skipper's every tuesday for the Fish and Shrimp all you can eat. His voice was as booming as his tuba. "MORE SHRIMP PLEASE!" he would bellow from his table. It always felt good to serve him.

Posted by tictoc | November 4, 2008 11:01 AM
35

There's still Downtwon Shaved Head Violin Guy with a Bulldog for Christmastime.

Posted by The CHZA | November 4, 2008 11:04 AM
36

Anyone who gives the standard line about the perpetrators being "victims of poverty and injustice" needs to... well be betten to death themselves. Women are more likely to be poor than men, older people more likely to be poor then younger people, and gays and women are victims of injustice all the time on every corner of the planet. Yet these crimes are always committed by young men not 65 year old lesbians.

Posted by jane doe | November 4, 2008 11:14 AM
37

I hope his tuba is donated to MOHAI or displayed somewhere in Seattle Center permanently. I remember him on his tuba blasting Wagner outside the opera house the last time Seattle Opera did the Ring.

Just sadness.

Posted by Joe M | November 4, 2008 11:19 AM
38

@ 36 - nobody's said anything but "Wow, the Tuba Guy is awesome" and "the people who did this are assholes," but way to inject your reductive dogma bullshit into the thread.

Posted by UnoriginalAndrew | November 4, 2008 11:25 AM
39

A bullet to the back of the head would be best for the murderous fucks who did this. I don't understand how these bastards can be allowed to live after this.

I sincerely hope these cowards are mercilessly beaten and raped in prison. I hope they are so miserable, that they hang themselves with a bedsheet.


Posted by chaosbound | November 4, 2008 11:33 AM
40

So where should people donate to in his name?

Tuba Guy was a local legend and his death saddens me. RIP.

I would wera a black armband today on his honor, but I don't know if that would be right on Election Day. =\

Posted by zachd | November 4, 2008 11:34 AM
41

Thanks for using our picture (and for the link) Slog. Condolances to Tuba Guy's family, and I hope that this is finally rock bottom for the world of Seattle sports.

Posted by Sager Bombs | November 4, 2008 11:41 AM
42

At 31 and a Seattle sports fan my entire life, I can not recall a game where I did not see 'Tuba Man' playing. The last game I went to I made sure my family stopped to listen to him play, and gave my son money to tip him. I am glad we made that stop, and that my son got that experience.

I just learned of this at lunch today... It will be a sad night at my house when I tell my wife. Having worked across the street from the Kingdome, where he went to eat during the game, she spent a lot of time talking to him. She will be devasted by this.

I look forward to a GREAT memorial in his honor. The City of Seattle owes this great man that honor. He will truly be missed.

Posted by Derek FIke | November 4, 2008 1:09 PM
43

a friend of mine from work was jumped by a bunch of kids like 4 blocks from there on sunday night. what the fuck is going on in that neighborhood.

Posted by jfresh | November 4, 2008 1:10 PM
44

Back when the Sonics game was a working mans crowd, before the Doctors Lawyers and business executives started going and networking on cell phones instead of cheering for their team, there was Tuba Man. A loyal street musician that actually made enough to go to the game. I sat near him on occasion and would hear his one word monotone protest to a refs blown foul call as loud and deep as his beloved tuba DISAGREE! Would be his simple cry. To "RIP Tuba Man (and Rot in Hell, Tuba-Man Assaulters" I moan a deep and heart felt reply for our Tuba Man..."AGREE"

Posted by 67kevin | November 4, 2008 2:58 PM
45

I can't imagine going to a baseball game and not hearing that tuba. Or driving past Safeco on game days on my way to work and not seeing him there on First Ave. What awful, awful news. RIP Tuba Man.

Posted by litlnemo | November 4, 2008 3:06 PM
46

Oh, I just found, buried in the P-I's Sound-Off for this story, that some guy wrote Tuba Man a rather sweet eulogy:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundoff/comment.asp?articleID=386267&page=5#601589


Posted by litlnemo | November 4, 2008 3:14 PM
47

This man was an institution. He brought that beautiful low rumble to the crowds and smiles to strangers' faces.

I'm with @17 & 24:
Everyone has (or should have had) a Tuba Man story.

Posted by MDP | November 4, 2008 3:36 PM
48

Sad to read this today. You'll be greatly missed on the streets of Seattle, Tuba Man. Violent combative dirtbags, you won't.

Posted by Adam Bernstein | November 4, 2008 3:46 PM
49

Is there any possible way the Stranger could lead the way to organize some kind of public memorial service for Tuba man, who was a Sports Icon in Seattle???
As for those "f****n".. Punks ..who beat him up, Charge them as adults with 1st degree murder, try them, convict them, sentence them to life without the possibility of parole,then let the inmates at them. Let's see how tough they think they are in prison !

Posted by Craig | November 4, 2008 4:12 PM
50

If ever there was a time I think a gun is a good idea...

Posted by Diana | November 4, 2008 5:14 PM
51

My Tuba Man story:

I used to ride the 16 bus from Wallingford to M's games. A couple of times, Ed "Tuba Man" McMichael was on the bus, heading to the game. One time, someone asked him where his tuba was (not with him on the bus).

His response: "I keep my tuba at Tony Roma's so I don't have to take it on the bus."

Anyone who ever heard Ed talk knows how that sounded, and how it took almost 30 seconds for him to say.


I'm starting to think this guy was a savant, not a simpleton. That particular type of tuba emits sounds that humans can't make. You can hear it rather clearly across a crowd of talking people. It appears that Ed could play a lot of instruments: he chose the one that could be heard by the most people and played it in front of the city's biggest crowds.

There are plans already for some sort of memorial, such as a bronze tuba on Occidental that serves as a collection box for city music programs.

I suggest a living memorial, playing off the "More Cowbell" sketch of SNL fame: Whenever you walk through one of those crowded areas where you used to hear his tuba, say loudly, "Needs more Tuba!"

Posted by Sir Vic | November 4, 2008 5:20 PM
52

Ed was a very special friend. I was in kindergarten and Ed was in 9th grade when we rode the same bus to school together. We played in church softball league together and later when I worked at Winchell's Donuts on 45th St., we would open up after hours and Ed would serenade us long before the Seattle public came to know him as the "Tuba guy".
If you've heard him play a Christmas carole or "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" (in his unique way) you were touched. Ed once called me with a 2 for 1 coupon to a Mariner's game. When we got to the Kingdome he told me that I had to pay and he got the free ticket. Ed, only you could get away with that! He would love to tell Edgar Martinez to "Punch out a B flat" or after someone stole a base he would shout out, "How does it feel?" and then ask me how many rows down did people turn around to see who just yelled out.
Words might have come slow for Ed but he was a musical genius and when you heard him play his tuba did his talking for him. Ed, I will miss you greatly and can't wait till I hear in heaven (like only you can say) "HEEEYY KAAARRRLLO" and you'll hear me say, "Hey Edward," and you shout back, "WHATWARD". Seattle has lost a true icon, a selfless man and I have lost a true friend.

Posted by Karl Beals | November 4, 2008 8:29 PM
53

Memories aren't enough. This was a brutal murder on Mercer Street, two blocks from the Opera. These thugs deserve life sentences (actually, they deserve the same or worse). The punishment will never fit the brutality of this crime, but can we at least give them life, as we try them as adults for murder? Imagine if that was your father, or your brother lying there. This is an outrage that demands severe punishment. Thrill killing is the worst sort of misanthropy. Taking his wallet was an afterthought.

Posted by Richard | November 4, 2008 11:54 PM
54

I'm really down about this, too. Beyond punishment for these individuals, we have to come up with some plan to cut down youth violence. The straight punishment model ends up as a breeding ground for making the culture of violence seem cool.

It really made an impression on my middle school son. There are a lot of guys in his school who claim gang ties and act like being tough and ready for violence is cool. My son recalled the Tuba Man and it really brought home to him that violence is real, not a movie or video game.

Posted by cracked | November 5, 2008 9:32 AM
55

I was privleged to play alongside Ed in the North Seattle Community College concert band in '77-'78, though it wasn't always easy to keep a straight embouchure when he'd be polin' me in the ribs yellin' "Play it AS WRITTEN!" or yelling out, "Yeah, let's play ORGY an' Bess! HA HA HA HA HA!" I mean, Gawd, who was this geek? Well, sure, Ed was ugly, slow, awkward, socially-challenged. But he was a good, pure soul, intensely lonely, who overcame his loneliness by taking his music to an often indifferent and sarcastic public--and that made him very brave. Dammit, Ed was an honest-to-God WORKING musician who was extremely proud of making a living playing the tuba. Well he should have been. I will surely miss seeing him outside the Opera House--"Hey Kurt, let's play some CORALS--HA HA HA HA!!!" You were one of a kind, Ed, and you made our little city a better place. We will never forget you.
Your old section mate, Kurt.

Posted by kurt e. armbruster | November 5, 2008 10:41 AM
56

While I'm extremely happy by yesterday's change in the direction of our country, I am extremely saddened by what happened to Ed. Something good has been robbed from our city. I'd really like Ed the Tub Man to be remembered.

A memorial fund has been set up in Edward McMichael's name to offset the costs of the funeral and hopefully establish some sort of memorial for him. You can make a donation at any Bank of America or send a donation to:
Edward the Tuba Man McMichael Memorial
P.O. Box 4985
Federal Way 98063

I made a donation this morning, and I think it would be really great if others followed suit. How great would it be walk by a brass statue of Ed the Tuba Man every time you walked down 1st Avenue.

Posted by Lets remember this man | November 5, 2008 10:58 AM
57

I played sousa marches with him once at a SYSO alumni concert. He had a huge heart.

Posted by jackie treehorn | November 5, 2008 11:01 AM
58

Where's the FBI? Isn't this a hate crime? Silly me. I forgot. That would only apply if he had been black and his killer's white.

Posted by Shoehorn | November 5, 2008 1:44 PM
59

So shocking. Ed is a BIG loss for us.
somebody please tells Mariners or Seahawks owners if next time they need to make a stadium giveaway item to the fans, make a "Ed McMichael the Tuba Man" Bollehead, talk about him before the game, let everybody remember how wonderful this Seattle icon "The Tuba Man" is!

Posted by ilom55 | November 6, 2008 9:28 AM
60

There will be a Public Memorial Service for Tuba Man at Qwest Field Wed. Nov.8 5-8 p.m.

Tuba Man:
The man loved what he did and died for a hat of $. At the hands of cruel,heartless,teenagers. Such a shame and sad loss. Did the ruthless brats not get Guitar Hero for their birthday? So this was the easy way to get it?
I hope they get the full-life sentence doubled!

Sadly- What they don't realize is that they "Stole" and "Killed" from the citizens of Seattle. "Tuba Man" was and always will be a piece of Seattle's history.. An Icon that will sadly be missed. R.I.P.

Posted by Karleen Brigham | November 6, 2008 3:05 PM
61

Ed has been my neighbor over the last few years. Since I work the graveyard shift, I don't get out much during the day or to games in person. But as my neighbor, I'd always cross him in the hallway and he was always very friendly to me. To find out that he was the tuba guy I'd walked past a few times on my way back home from Safeway through Seattle Center, only breaks my heart a little more. When I saw him last, he was in the lobby of my apartment building talking with several people, showing them the hat he was wearing. If I'd known it would be the last time I would see him I would've offered him a hug. He's the kind of guy that would've given you one too. What a truly sad story.

Posted by Matthew | November 6, 2008 3:58 PM
62

The memorial is on Weds Nov. 12th

Here is the info link from the Seahawks web site:

http://www.seahawks.com/news/articles/article-1/fans-invited-to-public-tribute-for-tuba-man/467f4be2-c87a-4330-8cb3-cf7420d0aa4c

Also there is a musical tribute outside McCaw Hall on Saturday Nov. 8 here's the link for that as well:

http://www.riptubaman.org/

I will miss my periodic chats with Ed....our loss is heavens gain.
I'll be wearing one of my many crazy hats in Ed's honor on next Wednesday!

Posted by MissBeth | November 6, 2008 7:39 PM
63

This is truely shocking to me,Edward has always been part of my sports memories and for this to change in this cruel violent manner leaves me hurting and apalled. What the hell is happening to this city? These attackers are not human beings,so they deserve to be treated like animals. "Put them down" like you would a pack of pit bulls who have attacked for mere amusement. I would always ask Tuba man to play" Flight of the bumble bee" every time I saw him,and he always gave me that same ED look every time before he'd say "o k" and proceed to fill the air with beutiful tuba music, I will miss this man and his contribution to my and our lives.

Posted by William R Polk | November 8, 2008 2:56 PM

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