"Last week I promised Lou to get him out of the hospital and come home to Springs. And we made it!"

"Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature."

He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air. Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life.

Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us.

For reference: This isn't Lou, but is the 21 form:

"Lou Reed, a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, died today."

"The cause of his death has not yet been released, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May."

He was 71.

I'm so sad to hear this. He has meant a lot to me for more than 40 years.

Lou Reed gets a liver transplant.

His wife Laurie Anderson said: "It’s as serious as it gets. He was dying. You don’t get it for fun."

She described the operation as “a big surgery which went very well”, adding: “You send out two planes – one for the donor, one for the recipient – at the same time. You bring the donor in live, you take him off life support. It’s a technological feat. I was completely awestruck. I find certain things about technology truly, deeply inspiring.”

The linked article, in the UK Telegraph, brings up this old quote of Reeds':

"I take drugs just because, in the 20th century, in a technological age living in the city, there are certain drugs you have to take just to keep yourself normal like a caveman, just to bring yourself up or down. But to attain equilibrium you need to take certain drugs. They don’t get you high even, they just get you normal."

That made me think of the old Velvet Underground song "Train Round the Bend":

I'm sick of the trees
Take me to the city...
Hey, I am just a city boy
And really not the country kind
Oh, I need the city streets and the neon light
To see the train comin' round the bend...

Yes, I've heard about that light you see coming.

"One of the reasons I love living in New York is that no one gives a shit about celebrities."

"Susan Sarandon comes to your deli, Lou Reed's in your kickboxing class, David Mamet flips you off, whatever, most New Yorkers really don't care."

A stray line from an article that's basically about "7 Reasons Child Stars Go Crazy (An Insider's Perspective)."

Personally, I don't care about celebrities, but somehow I care that Lou Reed is kickboxing.