"Dan was always into something, in the work he was doing and more broadly as a way of being in the world. Long before I became his editor at Defector, I knew that the ideas he pitched were not like everyone else's, and that he was not like everyone else. At the old site, he would come up with video concepts and message me things like "Hey, do you want to look at some Ryan Klesko cards with me for a thing?""
"The ideas he had were so clearly the result of his own specific obsessions that there was no reason to say anything else. He'd already worked that new T-shirt idea all the way out in his head; there just needed to be a blog tying it all to the 1995 film Hackers, and that would be along in a little bit."
Today is Dan McQuade's funeral. Support is available for his widow Jan and his son Simon. Dan pursued projects with intense curiosity and distinctive obsessions, generating unusual ideas and video concepts. He pitched ideas like examining Ryan Klesko cards and staging playful jersey mockery, and he salvaged small projects into polished pieces. At Defector he expanded those ideas without old constraints, dreaming bigger and weirder. He researched thoroughly—reading contemporaneous reviews on Newspapers.com, attempting to contact Matthew Lillard—and he continued investigating a topic until he had cracked it to his satisfaction. Drafts sometimes took longer, but the extra time made each post distinctly his.
Read at Defector
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