Updates on the Life of Jos Claerbout
(and some mysteries)

Nearly every picture on this web site is a link. Try them!

Welcome!   It's gotten very lonely here.   We're very glad you've come.   Anything new with you?
(Site maintained by Jos' dad, Jon Claerbout, claerbout AT stanford DOT edu.)

6/08

Jos's old friend Rosey is on the national TV nightly news reporting from Afghanistan.

1/08

Old memory released for the first time!   She said, "Oh, no, do I really want to hear this?"

1/08

Old picture released for the first time! "Oh, I think Jos would be disappointed if you screened out something so ridiculous as him dressed as a woman!"

1/08

Newly received memory!   "Whenever he saw me he would bellow "Young Mr. Anonymous!" or something similar."

1/08

Kind words arrive from a teacher using Jos's Oop tutorial. It warms our hearts to hear that work Jos did a decade ago still brings smiles and useful education to young people today. The teacher says, I changed "whisky" to "soda" and "drunkenness" to levels of "having to go to the bathroom" to keep it high school appropriate .

12/07

Some friendships are so strong they entertain themselves pointing insults of a religious nature against one another. A letter arrives from Jano. Hooray!

11/07

A picture emerges, probably from his high-school drama group. Click to see the whole group.

10/06

His mother found a quilt maker to make a Memory Quilt from his shirts.

9/06

Big story told only now!   Jos and Jano spring an elaborate hoax on college radio.

7/06

Jos's dear friend Rosemary Stasek [1], [2], continues to amaze us with her adventures every day in Afghanistan as reported by San Francisco Magazine, June, 2006

4/06

Anne-Marie Davidson writes of Jos's radio station days, of being a conservative (what a freak!), of Jos choosing the name Dianovich.

1/06

Jonas Schwab has joined the namesakes page. From namesake Johanna comes a picture that reminds us of Jos.

1/06

Jos enjoyed a commentator, Joanne Jacobs, in the local newspaper dad remembers.

8/05

Rear Cubicle is now available in Windows .asf format at Chucklehound Entertainment, a tiny film company Jos formed with a college friend, Padgett Arango.

7/05

Wow!!   Wow!!   An asteroid named for Jos, thanks to Joe Dellinger. We stand in awe!

6/05

Another photo surfaces: Jos meets his brother's baby, Hanna. I found a lullaby that went perfectly with this picture so I went to a web site to tell me how to add music to a web page. The first thing they said was, Most people get annoyed when they find music on a web page! I did it anyway. It is here. The music lasts only about two minutes. You might like it.

5/05

We uncover a missing picture of Jos. In March 1996 we drove from his college to sightseeing in the west including Las Vegas, the location of this water slide.
As you have come to this lonesome place, I'll reward you with a hither untold Jos story: He went to work at WebTV in the early days of the web which was a hotbed of tech and semitech information. On the water slide at Disneyland (or Knotts), young ladies would sit in front of their boyfriends. Just before the picture was taken the rash young man would momentarily lift the young lady's blouse flashing the camera. Disneyland being Disneyland, such pictures were not put on display for sale, instead they collected in a drawer behind the counter -- until one day a prankster put the whole collection on the web!!   Of course us guys each had to pick our favorites :-)   Now you'll want to know the web site. I doubt it is still around. I seem to remember the word "splash".

2/05

I have begun work on a new page, the namesakes page, for children named after Jos.

12/04

We receive a PowerPoint version of Jos's OOP tutorial from one of its admirers Pierre Dagher. He writes, "Within my department, we organize a monthly get-together during lunch where one of us presents a work related topic. I have been asked lately to explain what Object Oriented Programming is to a bunch of people coming from all kinds of backgrounds: junior and senior conventional and OO programmers, non-programmers and managers. I found the task quite impossible until I came across your son Jos's tutorial. I re-edited his excellent work to fit into a PowerPoint presentation. I presented it yesterday to a delighted audience, they all enjoyed it tremendously with no exception."

7/04

Jos's parents, Diane and Jon(me), travel to Alaska and meet some of Jos's old friends, Joni Whitmore, Dave Thorp, Bob Jacobs, Simon Rackower, Ralf und Marrianne, who were all kind, thoughtful, and dear.

3/10/04

We learn that Jos's college buddy, Jano Cabrera, has become the National Spokesman for the Democratic Party!!  Before this we couldn't guess where Jos would have gone. Now, we can guess that with his interest in American Culture Wars, with his love of writing, and with his Jano Cabrera connection, he might today be researching and writing speeches -- warm speeches that would entertain and would inform. Jano wrote of Jos the wonderful story, Moist and Fresh.

1/13/04

Checking the web accounting I discover that Jos has acquired some new and different fans. Now people often come to hear him speak about the evil effects of alcohol.

8/20/03

High school theater friend Andrew S. Brown recalls Jeremy's unforgettable preformance of Zoo Story.

8/14/03

Some happy senior citizen cyclists visit Jos's trailhead. Look at the bottom of the trail page.

6/21/03

Much video added. If you have DSL and Quicktime, you'll have fun here.

6/20/03

The audio here is refurbished and expanded in MP3 format. His Alaska recollections, Fishing and Fishermen (41 minutes), Alcohol (2 minutes), Tour Guiding (9 minutes), Heart Beat (2 minutes). His piano composition as rendered by Abby Al-Doory. The last recorded "look forward to today".

6/02/03

We have received word that a 45' container of 500 used bicycles, 318 boxes of parts, and 17 sewing machines is on a container ship on its way to Latin America. Jos's spirit is there with it , undoubtedly with new adventures every day.

3/10/03

Helen Wang writes, "We had a fun time. As short as our path crossed, it left a very lasting memory."

2/5/03

It's getting lonesome here on the Jos Updates page. I had to do something to reward those of you who do come by. A movie of Jeremy 17, clowning in a dress!

2/2/03

Dad remembers 1991, Report to the Academy on My Former Life As an Ape.

1/25/03

Perhaps to remain anonymous but more likely in the spirit of silliness that preceded the dot.com bust, Jos registered some web domain names under the name of "Jose Caribou". In the land rush to register domain names, there was a rumor that he had cooked up a raunchy name for potential use in the "adult entertainment industry". He likely did, but the bills come here and no such bill ever arrived. [Dad tells more.]

1/9/03

Quicktime video from Alaska now on line. Jos cracks an Exxon joke, guides Mother up Mt.Marathon trail (nearby picture), and shows us MonkeySwing Lodge (Girdwood).

12/1/02

College buddy Jano Cabrera writes, "The People's Guide to Mexico, Carl Franz's definitive and irreverant tome on traveling through my home country, Jos let me borrow this guide the first year we met in college. He didn't so much as lend it as much as he pitched it, preached about it, proselytized. It was almost as if he had written it himself. It had a certain flair, a different way of looking at life."

11/1/02

"The 'Worst Hawaiian Shirt' contest at Web-TV? I thought I surely had the prize clinched, until I saw Jos in a Muumuu! I won a small potted flower for second place," recalls Zonker Harris.

10/31/02

Here are three old stories of Jos having fun on Halloween.

10/30/02

Jax Red on "Using JavaScript Linked Files" says The present MSN-TV Developer JavaScript Website is not as inclusive and informative as Jos Claerbout's original article about WebTV javascript support. Jos' original works are archived at Stanford University by friends of Jos' family. Here is a link to Jos's original article. [tears when we notice the date]

8/21/02

He always called me "Miss Petite" says Christiane Petite. For some fun, click on her picture.

8/19/02

Michael Cooke wrote a song "Early Exit" about the day Jos died. It will be broadcast tomorrow (August 20). Thank you Michael.

8/05/02

We took a few pictures at the trail head. Joel recalled that Jos had had an ordinary day which Jos recounted to Joel as a wonderful day, a day filled with many adventures.

7/01/02

Jan Lieberman (librarian, story-teller) recalls (Fall 2000) that his goal in life seemed to be to make everyone he met feel so good about themselves that they believed their dreams could be realized (more).

6/17/02

Found some Alaska pics of Jos, operating a snowblower, Jos at the Homer fisherman's memorial and Jos ice climbing.

6/4/02

Roy Speckhardt recalls: Next to The Interfaith Alliance office where we worked was another office with people who were in charge of Metro Bus advertisements. Jos referred to this (all female staff) as the Tall Lovely Ladies, and would greet them as such (to their delight) every day. Jos reminded us how rare tall women are and that it was absolutely necessary to show the proper appreciation. We ended up getting a number of fine Metro-Bus Station signs for decoration in our office, our homes, etc. in return for his warm relations with them -- we who never took the time to talk to them before Jos's arrival.

6/1/02

New medical evidence shows that exercise related fainting is the best noninvasive predictor of sudden cardiac arrest. Jos fainted once in the year of his death, but he gave us no details.

5/11/02

"Jos in Alaska, 1994" video released on DVD!
Jos: "See this sign that says UNMAINTAINED TRAIL? We're going to head up that trail. "
Mother: "It looks like Hansel and Gretel here! Wait a minute!"

4/8/02

Michael Cooke writes, "I used to work with Jos. He used to call me "Professor" when he had a question for me. I'm a jazz musician. I just finished a new CD. One of the songs I wrote and perform on the CD is about the day Jos left us. I thought you might be interested in hearing it."

4/8/02

An amazing high school picture showed up of Jos and Larry Flechner. Be sure to click on the pic to see an enlargment with even more chicks. We hope to find out the names of some of these people.

3/6/02

His Alaska business cards were added to the Green Party story and the American Country Music story. At American Country, he billed himself a "shitkicker's shitkicker".

2/14/02

Jos composed a piece for the piano called Tough Women II. We received the sheet music and put it with the story.

12/10/01

Misa Nishio recalls, "... One evening he sat with my little daughter Mona and watched a children's ballet lesson video. I don't think it was interesting to him, but he sat with her and watched the whole thing."

10/22/01

Edward Sugimoto, 8th grade class president, says, Jeremy was taking on so many projects and responsibilities by the year's end, some may argue that he became the class president!

9/04/01

Had Jos lived to be a father, how would he have handled adolescent behavior?   Here is how he handled a cousin.

8/23/01

New picture of namesake baby Johanna Speckhardt-Gomes. More!

8/20/01

On this second anniversary of the tragedy we made some video captures of him. The best one is here and the remainder are here. Also added some words to Sairam's recent photo contribution.

8/15/01

Ashton Treadway (see Ashton on the Toessel Site) remembers that "Jos didn't just do things. He embarked upon expeditions". Ashton paints a picture of how Jos inspired us.

8/15/01

Lauren Half (Warren) writes, "I went to Gunn high school with Jeremy ...(more)... I can't quite remember why, but for some reason I called him "Q" and he called me "P". You had to yell it across the quad, though--

"KYOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

"PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE".

8/9/01

Two nice Jos pictures arrived from Sairam. They are nearby. Click on them.

6/15/01

"Frinkster" (Sharon Frinks) tells us Jos renamed her "Jar Jar" after Jar Jar Binks in the latest Star Wars movie. More!

6/14/01

We celebrate Jos's birthday with a new water fountain on Stevens Creek Trail.

6/03/01

New Jos-in-toessel pictures uncovered by Lisa Lee.

5/24/01

Padgett Arango completes some screen plays he had begun with Jos.

4/28/01

From: Roy Speckhardt & Charlene Gomes: Charlene and I are proud parents! Baby Johanna

2/8/01

Sairam says, It felt great when I returned the favor ... and, in a small way, passed on his kindness.

1/19/01

We found the photo props that appear in Jos's movie, Rear Cubicle. It is mostly the view from the Muffy The Vampire Huntress web site.

12/04/00

We receive news of Jos's best college buddy Alejandro ``Jano'' Cabrera pulling tricks on the 2000 presidential campaign. Hard to know where Jano ends and Jos begins. Jano is here at [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ].

11/29/00

"He literally gave me the shirt off his back," Andrew Long adds to his memories.

11/21/00

You might also wish to know that my wife Charlene is to have a baby late in April (2001). If its a boy we'll be naming him Johannes after Jos,'' writes Roy Speckhardt, ``I know Jos told me about the origins of the She's Alive! but ...''

10/25/00

"`Caryn is the most beautiful 40 year old woman in Palo Alto,' he said. Of course, I loved it! How could a 24 year old come up with that?-- and why would he? I'll never forget it. Even now, Jos is with me every day, particularly when I laugh at something quirky or outrageous."

10/12/00

New pictures: his gravestone (many tears), Jos on boat, of highschool Jos, with dad, of Tasha, of Jessica, of Ben, of Erica, (we lost Deb :-( ).

9/07/00

"Jeremy loved the chaos and hysteria of mosh pits. He nearly worshipped his steel-toed Doc Marten boots that saved his big toes from being trampled on many moshing occasions. He even persuaded me to buy a pair of 'rugged shit-kickers' as he called them. We would emerge from the crowds with limbs bruised and faces nearly bloodied, but our feet were fine, save a blister or two." Larry Flechner writes more.

9/05/00

Dan Lavery remembers, "I was always curious about what he was up to."

9/02/00

Make your screen big for a new picture collage slide show of standing Jos.

8/20/00

Eleven friends journey to the unveiling of his gravestone. Mother and father speak.

8/19/00

"As I think back on this last time I saw Jos, I am awestruck. In just a few hours, he had taught me so much -- purely through his example -- and forced me to reflect on my life and choices," writes Layne M o s l e r.

8/13/00

Jos with an unknown young lady (thought to be from Pomona College) at a WebTV party. If you know who she is, please send email to claerbout @ stanford . edu To enlarge the pic, click on it.

8/5/00

I (Jos's dad) announce our privacy policy.

8/3/00

"Then lo and behold, there he was, this 6 foot tall Greek God of a 14 year old stranger returning ...", says Kate Price.

7/20/00

His music teacher Genevieve Lee writes, "The unusual title for his piece 'Tough Women II' came about ..."

7/14/00

"Jos, don't think I just love you for your body...", says Rosemary Stasek.

7/10/00

Mother's stories at the Toessel Tree dedication, Jos at an early age.

7/8/00

Chris McCamic sez, "Jos's contribution to my senior project was a really brilliant turn as a tyrannical professor..."

7/04/00

A long awaited video tape arrives from Alaska and is transcribed here:   J."Hoss" Claerbout sets up the American Country Magazine, gets his boss thrown in jail, and celebrates his 21st birthday.

7/03/00

A video tape transcribed: J e t Villavicencio talks of working with jos. "That one piece of email just set off a complete huge, huge email bomb to the rest of the company where people were replying back and forth and peoples' email boxes were getting flooded with like, you know, 500 messages. Because of that, people are no longer allowed to send email to the entire company."

7/01/00

Workmate Paul Rybicki remembers Jos, "So Mr. Paul, are we going to have fun today?

7/01/00

A memory arrives from Brian Bock .

6/28/00

Jos with an unknown young lady. If you know who she is, please send email to claerbout @ stanford . edu To enlarge the pic, click on it.

6/26/00

Matt Dingee is experimenting with some Jos audio. Internet audio is somewhat experimental, so let's not get our hopes too high too soon. First will be piano. Later will be Alaska stories.

6/21/00

Our accounting shows that not many people find the best gems on his toessel site, his rants.

6/19/00

Steve Wasserman tells of us of Jos learning how TV works.

6/14/00

For Jos's 26th birthday, WebTV dedicated its Toessel Tree and gave its creativity award, "The Jos". [about 250Mb of photos]

5/30/00

Discovered a Jos article entitled Jos Claerbout's Greatest Hits. Maybe he was planning to apply for a new tech writing job?

5/30/00

Memories typed from video tape of Hilari H a r d i n. "Hil-Bop, we have to go out tonight."

5/22/00

Jos teaches English to Ecuadorian automechanics students

5/12/00

The videotape was transcribed of WebTV's farewell to Jos
"Man, this is one ANGRY toothpaste."
"He'd lick your bald head. He'd give you a back rub."
"...and you are still trying to open your bag of Cheetos."
"What's that?"   "I think I am just menstrual."
"... and interrogated her like Barbara Walters on amphetamines."
"Would it be appropriate if I brought a massage table to my cubicle?"
"I had a vision of Jos towering above me looking down at me and shaking his head..."
"Oh come on Stonesy! You can bleed a little faster than that."

5/2/00

Old memories released!   "...watching you make alterations to the dress your son was wearing as non-chalantly as if you were making him a sandwich for lunch."

4/30/00

New memories found!   "Lichtman, what are you doing here?"

4/2/00

Aunt Lorna has High Tea with Jos, age 5.

3/19/00

Abigail Al-Doory tells us, "Jos composed 'Tough Women II' for the piano."

3/16/00

While in High School, Jos was hired as a tutor and became a family friend to the Rosas. This led to his Mexican farm job. Christina Rosas tells us of Jos and her children.

3/7/00

Widen your window for this collage of standing Jos pictures. It includes a few you may not have seen before.

3/1/00

Dad expands his cardiac summary page from the view of clinicians, to the view of biophysicists, mathematicians, engineers, electrophysiologists, and pharmacologists. Their view begins with spiral waves.

2/27/00

Jos hosts a lad fresh from the Cote d'Ivoire

2/24/00

Gym talk: Captain Protein!

2/23/00

Gwen: The antics of Jos at Pomona College.

2/20/00

It is six months since Jos's life was taken from him. Dad recalls himself with Jos.

2/9/00

By digging deeper into our webserver accounting files I discovered a "silent majority". Outnumbering the knitters and webscissors people are Jos's OOP tutorial readers. In these first 8 days of February, 690 people read the first page of his OOP tutorial and 156 of them made it all the way to the 12th page. I improved the accounting and retold the story.

2/6/00

I learn that you should now be able to see Fear of a Black Toessel streaming over the web. Follow this path.

1/26/00

Knitters! The long lost Fall '98 Preview has been found and fully restored. There Yossel tells us how he learned to crochet, a skill that ultimately led to the Viagra.

"It took a young Rastafarian on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley to teach me the error of my ways. This man, Roosevelt by name, had a new deal of his own: he could sell hand-crafted hats for only ten dollars - because he could make one in only a half hour. Watching his skilled hand work faster than I could think, I was intrigued."

1/24/00

Although Jos seemed to gravitate towards the techie life doing more coding, we find him telling us of the bittersweet life of a coder, giving us reason to wonder how long he would have held on to that life style.

1/20/00

Brother Andrew recalls his Jos memories.

1/8/00

Heather gives Jos a haircut and tells him to tuck in his shirt.

1/7/00

Dax tells us one side of the inquisition story.

1/6/00

Dianovich?

1/5/00

Dad writes a memory for brother Andrew with a little blink movie.

1/3/00

Yet another new ending for the webscissors story. A new pic of Jos there. Arrival of the webscissors community bearing kudos to Jos and his webscissors. Also added a memory from a secret admirer Beth and her gift to the webscissors community.

12/31/99

This page, "What's new?" has been added.

12/28/99

New photos from Jano Cabrera added to his Moist and Fresh story, his Portable Massage Table story, and a potential new story on the Inquisition of Alex Cabrera. The picture includes both Dax and Gwen. A bathroom story by Jenifer Berman as well as more of her memories. At the end of the Portable Massage Table story we now find an admonishing letter from Jos's father and a supporting memory of Jenifer Berman.

12/27/99

Added memories of cousins David and Tess. Added memories of aunt Lorna including a good picture.

12/23/99

Lisa Lee got her toessel by trading Jos for an original painting of special interest to knitters. She also tells a "silly putty" story on Jos.

12/16/99

Jos loved his job at the WebTV developer site. It is now described in great detail including articles he wrote and his participation at forums. His business card. Home baked cookies. His patented color picker tool.

12/16/99

We succeeded to get his internal web site from his "sophomoric" early days at WebTV.

12/9/99

Many more memories from his college radio station days.

12/1/99

We nominated a charity that we think Jos might have chosen himself.

11/22/99

Josh Allen sends us a truly moving tribute to Jos's life. Popster added some photos to match the mood.

11/16/99

A heart-warming letter arrives from his senior year college sweetheart, Amanda.

11/0/99

We cannot find his friend, Brandon Wagman (Branbran). Hope he's safe.