ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE TO REMIND ME
It’s easy to forget that the way media silently, relentlessly re-write actual history is a central fact of life today. Whether you work within or without the worlds of TV, radio and print, their continuous colorful technobabble insidiously suckers you in further than you can realize.
ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE TO REMIND ME
LETTER FROM THE BRITAIN
Cynthia Rose
It’s easy to forget that the way media silently, relentlessly re-write actual history is a central fact of life today. Whether you work within or without the worlds of TV, radio and print, their continuous colorful technobabble insidiously suckers you in further than you can realize. At least until you get a slap directly in the memorybank; something which makes your very reflexes scream ERROR.
Something like coming home to the States for Christmas and seeing Billy Idol on the cover of Rolling Stone. According to his profile inside, Idol (“rock star...video star and soon-to-be movie star’’) is the living -metaphor for Anglo post-punk punk. He growls, spouts a “basic” vocabulary, and—here’s the slightly startling assertion— left the U.K. after his former band accrued “seven hit singles” because punk “got played on the radio.” Billy left, we’re told here, because a)he “got bored”; b)the “old free exciting times” came to an end; and c)it “seemed like a great idea” to hook up with Kissmaker Bill Aucoin’s management and “start all over again” in the U.S.