{"id":14242,"date":"2026-01-08T17:04:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T00:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/?p=14242"},"modified":"2026-01-08T17:04:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T00:04:32","slug":"rip-mike-braunthal-brown-aka-pieman-mike-performance-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/?p=14242","title":{"rendered":"RIP:  MIke Braunthal (Brown) aka Pieman  Mike &#8211; performance artist\u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MIke_PieMan_portrait.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1014\" height=\"1066\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MIke_PieMan_portrait.jpg 1014w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MIke_PieMan_portrait-285x300.jpg 285w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MIke_PieMan_portrait-974x1024.jpg 974w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MIke_PieMan_portrait-768x807.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MIke_PieMan_portrait-300x315.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MIke_PieMan_portrait-850x894.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1014px) 100vw, 1014px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWell, they tell me of a pieman in the sky<br \/>\nWaiting for me when I die\u2026&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With the tears of a mournful clown, we are saddened to report that <strong>Pieman Mike<\/strong> passed away a few months ago.\u00a0 While people remember <strong>Mike Braunthal<\/strong> primarily as <strong>the Pieman,<\/strong> he was also a musician, a poet, a professional gardener, and a generous friend.<\/p>\n<p>Today, we\u2019re celebrating his life with the premiere of a video clip that showcased his music talents, as he assembled a performance of a special song that was designed to be part of a documentary project I\u2019m quite attached to.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Yes, it\u2019s THAT special song written by <strong>Richard Berry<\/strong> and performed by <strong>PieMan Mike and the Palo Alto Jazz Band<\/strong>!!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PieMan Mike and Palo Alto Jazz Band - LOUIE LOUIE!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/q8tI-TZK2_8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Mike had this thing where he loved to get his face splattered by whipping cream pies thrown by beautiful women.\u00a0 He labelled himself \u201cpie-sexual.\u201d  He first felt excited about such things when he was a young kid watching some films by <strong>the Three Stooges<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u00a0It all seemed a bit goofy to me, but who was I to judge?.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPie-berspace\u201d, coined by Mike, was a unique cream-splattered world promoted with t-shirts, buttons, video and swag for his supporters.\u00a0 By the\u00a0 fortitude of his promotional skills, he even got mentioned in the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abebooks.com\/book-search\/title\/encyclopedia-unusual-sex-practices\/author\/brenda-love\/\">Encyclopedia Of Unusual Sex Practices<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14249\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14249\" style=\"width: 1208px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieman-kim-myke-marsugis.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1208\" height=\"798\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieman-kim-myke-marsugis.jpg 1208w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieman-kim-myke-marsugis-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieman-kim-myke-marsugis-1024x676.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieman-kim-myke-marsugis-768x507.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieman-kim-myke-marsugis-350x230.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieman-kim-myke-marsugis-850x562.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1208px) 100vw, 1208px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14249\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Kim Shattuck (Pandoras, Muffs, pre-Coolies), Pieman Mike and Myke Destiny (KFJC DJ) at Marsugi&#8217;s, San Jose, CA sometime in 1990s?)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Championing his involuntary baldness, Mike had a distinctive \u201cavant-garde\u201d look that he took to the stage, performing improvised pie throws  in the middle of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll shows, doing occasional photo spreads in fashion magazines and even some acting in a few independent short films. <strong>Herb Caen<\/strong> &#8211; San Francisco\u2019s legendary newspaper columnist would sometimes mention Mike\u2019s escapades.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieMan-montage.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"888\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieMan-montage.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieMan-montage-300x178.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieMan-montage-1024x606.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieMan-montage-768x455.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pieMan-montage-850x503.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of which, here\u2019s another short video we created &#8211;  starring Mike and produced by yours truly.\u00a0 This particular film is entitled \u201c<strong>Downo &#8211; the World\u2019s Most Depressing Clown<\/strong>&#8220;.\u00a0 \u00a0This is also being premiered online for the very first time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WARNING:\u00a0 the language in this film is a bit nasty and not fit for young ones.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Downo,  the World&#039;s Most Depressing Clown\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cW5gDwhg96Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Rest in peace, Mike Braunthal<br \/>\nMay 16, 1952 &#8211; July 5, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re going to miss you, my friend.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>E.P.<\/strong> of LouieLouie.net<br \/>\n<em>(* with big thanks to the late Jimmy Cliff for the inspiration of the first words on this little obituary for our friend.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Reference Links<\/strong>:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/pieman.com\">Pieman.com<\/a> (his official webpage &#8211; even thou he never used a computer)|<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Encyclopedia_of_Unusual_Sex_Practices\">Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices (Wikipedia)<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abebooks.com\/book-search\/title\/encyclopedia-unusual-sex-practices\/author\/brenda-love\/\">Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices (AbeBooks)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWell, they tell me of a pieman in the sky Waiting for me when I die\u2026&#8221; With the tears of a mournful clown, we are saddened to report that Pieman Mike passed&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,5,30,11,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-louie-universe","category-new-versions","category-obituaries","category-production-at-louie-central","category-san-francisco-bay-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14242"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14254,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14242\/revisions\/14254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}