Farewell — Remembering Rob

Rob died in February 2026. What followed wasn’t one goodbye but many — a crematorium ceremony, a gathering at a friend’s garden, a cocktail party in his apartment with Bartendro serving drinks one last time, and a morning on a hillside above Barcelona where his friends planted a lime tree with his ashes.

The Eulogy

Read by Fi at the crematorium.

Rob was the rare kind of person who made the world both more interesting and more connected.

Anyone who met Rob remembers his unmistakable presence: the bright coloured hair, the mischievous smile, the sense that something creative was just about to happen. He delighted in bringing people together. His monthly cocktail parties became legendary. Not only for the carefully curated drinks served up by Bartendro, the cocktail robot he co-created. But also because those he brought together relished one another’s company and Rob’s generous hospitality, with conversation flowing easily throughout the evening.

As the founder, and lead geek behind the MetaBrainz Foundation, Rob believed that music should belong to everyone. What began as a bold idea grew into a global open source project that countless people enjoy today.

But Rob was never just building a database — he was building a community of curious minds, generous contributors and passionate music lovers.

Rob’s creativity reached far beyond code. At Burning Man and Nowhere he built art, experiences and friendships, becoming a beloved member of communities that value imagination, generosity and radical self expression.

Whether in California, Barcelona or somewhere new on his ever-growing travel map, Rob thrived on discovering the culture and cuisine of the world and sharing that excitement with others.

Those who knew him will remember not only what he created, but how he lived: with curiosity, with kindness, and with a playful sense that life should be explored fully and shared generously.

Rob left behind projects, communities and traditions that will long continue. But more importantly, he left behind countless people whose lives are richer because they knew him.

He will be deeply missed and warmly remembered.

First page of a handwritten eulogy for Rob in purple ink on white paper, beginning with the words Eulogy for Rob.

The Farewell

February 28, 2026. A garden in Catalonia. Friends came from everywhere.

Two people with freshly dyed blue hair, foreheads touching, eyes closed, at an outdoor gathering. — They dyed their hair for him. Blue on blue, foreheads together. Rob isn’t in this photo. His influence is.

Large red stuffed hippo wearing a yellow beaded necklace, lounging on an outdoor seat at a garden gathering. A man in a full-length purple faux-fur coat stands beside it. — Rumpskins holds court at the farewell — yellow beads, purple fur coat for company, and the calm gaze of an evil mastermind who’s gotten away with everything.

A woman with bright orange-red short hair raises a glass of rosé wine at an outdoor gathering decorated with orange paper pom-poms and string lights. — Orange hair, orange pom-poms, rosé raised to the string lights. A farewell that looked like a party because he would have wanted it that way.

The Bartendro Party

March 27, 2026. Rob’s apartment in Barcelona. Orange walls, purple walls, blinky lights, Bartendro pouring drinks one last time. About thirty friends came, cooked together, wore costumes, read tributes, and danced until late.

The apartment

Rob’s portrait glowing on a screen beside a warm globe lamp and scattered objects in his red-lit apartment. — His portrait on a screen, a lamp still warm, 3D-printed creatures on the desk. The room kept being his even after he left it.

A bed heaped with costumes in orange, blue, magenta, and faux fur against a purple and yellow wall. — The Burning Man wardrobe, unpacked and piled on the bed. Every color he ever wore, all at once.

A sign reading “Reserved For Theme Camps” mounted above a doorway, with red and purple light spilling through from the room beyond. — A Burning Man sign above the doorway. Of course he hung it in his apartment. Of course it stayed.

Barcelona rooftops seen from Rob’s apartment terrace, apartment blocks and a cypress tree under a contrail-streaked sky. — The view from his terrace. Barcelona rooftops, a cypress, a contrail dissolving overhead.

Bartendro

The Bartendro robot glowing blue in darkness, with the neon Bartendro sign and cocktail glass lit in red, yellow, and blue on the wall behind. — Blue pump orbs, warm neon script, and Rob’s light installation spokes fanning out from the left. Three of his creations in one frame.

The Bartendro neon sign in red script with a blue cocktail glass, above a tablet showing a “Trending drinks” dashboard listing cocktail orders and volumes. — One hundred and sixty drinks poured. “Never gonna give you up!” was the most popular. He would have loved that.

The light installations

Any evening Rob wasn’t with somebody, he’d be in his maker space — pipe smoking, soldering, building things that glowed. At the party, they switched them all on.

Orange and cyan LED light rays radiating from a central hub against a dark background — one of Rob’s handmade lighting installations. — He built these by hand. LEDs, circuit boards, fifteen rods on the wall. They outlasted him.

Close-up of a magenta LED starburst installation with fifteen spokes radiating from a dark center against a black background. — Magenta mode. Fifteen spokes, one center, no wasted light.

A full-spectrum rainbow LED starburst installation glowing cyan, yellow, green, red, and magenta, with two partygoers standing nearby. — Every color the LEDs could make, all at once. He built these himself — wires, circuit boards, and the conviction that a room should never be boring.

A starburst LED sculpture radiating from a central point, its rods glowing in warm colors against purple and red light. A silhouetted figure stands behind it. — Fifteen rods, one center, someone standing right behind it. The way light holds the shape of the person who made it.

A grid of glowing colored LED squares mounted on a dark wall — greens, purples, pinks, blues, oranges cycling through a rainbow pattern, with a cyan LED strip above. — Another thing he built. A grid of colored light, still cycling through its little rainbow in the dark.

Cyan, purple, and gold LED rays fanning outward from a central point against black — another angle of Rob’s lighting installation.

Close-up of a neon spoke light installation radiating orange, red, and cyan beams from a central hub against a dark room. — Orange and red and a single cyan spoke breaking rank. The light installation doing what Rob did best.

The party

A person in a striped shirt preparing food in a small kitchen, blurred with motion, in black and white. — Someone in the kitchen, mid-chop. Thirty people to feed and the cooking started before the guests arrived.

Overhead view of a food spread with bowls of sliced cucumbers, green beans, salads, and tapas arranged on a counter, in black and white. — Cucumbers, green beans, salads lined up in mismatched bowls. A memorial that started with chopping vegetables.

Three friends seen from behind, standing before the Bartendro neon sign and a large painting, one wearing an orange fuzzy hat, another in a colorful silk shirt. — Three friends, backs to the camera, facing the neon sign and one of Rob’s paintings. The kind of photo where you don’t need to see their faces.

Two silhouetted figures embracing in a hallway beneath a “Jupiter 6:30” sign, lit by a single warm wall sconce. — An embrace in the hallway, under the Jupiter sign. The kind of hug that doesn’t let go quickly.

A silhouetted figure reading or looking down at something, backlit by a deep red wall, in Rob’s apartment. — Reading something by the red wall. The whole apartment glowed like this — warm enough to hold everyone in it.

Lower body shot of someone wearing black combat boots, a magenta baroque-print skirt, and a colorful headscarf, standing against a purple and yellow wall. — Combat boots and a magenta skirt against his purple wall. The dress code was exactly what Rob would have wanted.

A dimly lit room with a geometric paper globe lamp, a silhouetted figure, and pink-red ambient light casting warm shadows. — The paper lamp, the pink glow, someone quiet in the corner. Rob’s apartment holding its people the way it always did.

Close-up of layered fabrics in motion — a black-and-gold fern-patterned wrap over a red paisley skirt, blurred figures and warm light behind. — Fern print over paisley, caught mid-turn. The party dressed up for him.

Abstract motion blur of swirling red and orange fabric or movement, with a neon sign faintly visible in the background. — A skirt, a turn, a blur of red. Someone was dancing.

A hallway bathed in red light, the word “jupiter” mounted above a doorway. Inside, a Burning Man sign reads “NO Driving on the Playa,” a mirror reflects a figure, and toiletries line the sink. — The room called Jupiter, washed red, with a Playa sign on the wall. Even the bathroom was his.

View from outside through slatted shutters into a lit room, silhouettes of people gathered inside, a faint green glow among them. — From outside, looking in. The party through the slats, the way you remember a room you’ve already left.

Barcelona rooftops at night, dark silhouettes against a deep blue twilight sky, with fairy lights strung on a distant terrace and warm windows glowing. — Barcelona after midnight. Fairy lights on someone else’s terrace, a blue hour that wouldn’t quite end.

The Lime Tree

March 28, 2026. A hippie commune garden on a hill above Barcelona, with allotments and a hot tub and a view of the whole city. About ten people came to plant a lime tree with some of Rob’s ashes.

The garden

A Mediterranean hillside garden with stone buildings, tall cacti, olive trees, and citrus trees on a terraced slope. — The commune garden on a hill above Barcelona. Stone walls, cacti, citrus trees, and a plot that was about to become Rob’s.

A Barcelona park with a shallow reflecting pool, palm trees, a large boulder, and a modern canopy structure. Apartment towers in the background under a partly cloudy sky. — Parc de Diagonal Mar, halfway between his apartment and where everyone was heading. Spring, overcast, the kind of walk you take slowly.

A narrow hillside path between old brick buildings and a metal railing, with a view across trees to distant towers and the sea. A person walks ahead in a striped shirt. — The path up to the commune. Brick, railing, Barcelona below, someone walking ahead.

A Barcelona park on an overcast spring day with budding trees, green lawn, and a colorful apartment tower with orange and yellow balconies in the background. — The walk to the garden. Spring in Barcelona — new leaves, overcast sky, the city giving way to the hills.

Colorful plastic chairs — green, white, yellow, turquoise — arranged in a circle around a fire pit in an overgrown hillside garden, with the Barcelona skyline visible in the distance. — The garden above Barcelona where they planted his lime tree. The chairs were already in a circle, as if the place had been waiting.

A rustic wooden door and glass-paned window set into a cob building, with a gnarled bare tree, an insect hotel, and a broom beside the entrance. — A cob building with a wooden door, a bare vine, and an insect hotel nailed to the frame. The kind of place Rob would have walked into and never left.

A cob and adobe building facade with earth-toned walls, a bare climbing vine, and a small window, surrounded by green growth. — Earth walls, a lattice for climbing plants, everything built by hand. The garden was that kind of place.

A rustic outdoor wood-burning stove made from brick and reclaimed metal, with an active fire burning inside, in a garden setting. — The communal stove, still burning. Brick, corrugated metal, and a fire someone kept going all afternoon.

A campfire burning in a ring of stones, a woodpile stacked beside it, someone in an orange shirt and pink skirt standing close. Green garden surrounds them. — Firewood, flames, someone standing close enough to feel it. The garden did what gardens do.

Planting

Kirsten walking toward the camera on a garden path, wearing a magenta jacket over a dark top, her orange hair bright against the green foliage, smiling warmly. — Kirsten on the path to the garden. Magenta jacket, orange hair, the same warm smile she brought to everything Rob loved.

Kirsten standing in a green garden holding a bottle, wearing a purple sweater, her hair bright orange against the foliage. — Kirsten in the garden, the day they put him in the ground for good.

Close-up of hands arranging potted flowers — pink geraniums, orange marigolds, and lavender — in fresh soil around a young tree trunk. — Geraniums, marigolds, lavender, all placed around the trunk by hand. Every flower chosen, not just bought.

Close-up of several pairs of hands — one with a tattoo — holding a plant with exposed roots over freshly turned soil, surrounded by pink and orange flowers. — Four pairs of hands, one plant, the soil still loose.

The orange RUMP! ceramic plaque with a small hippo figurine on top, placed at the base of a newly planted lime tree surrounded by fresh pink, orange, and purple flowers and straw mulch. — Rumpskins found his spot. Lime tree, fresh flowers, a little plaque that says RUMP! — right where he belongs.

Photos from the Bartendro party and lime tree planting shared by Kirsten. Farewell gathering photos by Mark. Eulogy by Fi.