MEDIA COOL

MEDIA COOL

This Month’s Media Cool was written by Bill Holdship, J. Kordosh, and Dave Segal.

PEPSI’S WALK THRU ROCK (Walk Thru Entertainment, Inc.)

Walk Thru Entertainment, Inc. received a million-dollar corporate sponsorship from Pepsi to back its first undertaking which, supposedly, “captures the 30-year evolution of rock ’n’ roll.” The exhibit received loads of hype when it recently invaded Detroit, but there was nothing here I haven’t seen numerous times before, often for free. The exhibit consists of 18 portable theaters which consistently run 12-minute laser disc videos representing various segments of rock’s history. In addition, each major record company has a theater hyping their current hottest acts (seen every hour on MTV), as well as local radio stations hyping their “hipness.” Things I didn’t see represented include the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, the Beau Brummels, Love, Frank Zappa and numerous other acts that fit into many people’s personal interpretation of rock history. A display in the center of the exhibit hypes the book Rock Stars by Timothy White, who happens to be one of Walk Thru Rock’s two “rock consultants.” Skewed history, “corporate rock” at its worst—a giant rip-off at $8. Oh well, at least the Pepsi was free. B.H.

SAN FRANCISCO NIGHTS: THE PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC TRIP 1965-1968 by Gene Sculatti & Davin Seay (St. Martin’s Press)

Hard to beat the timing of this slim retrospective. Consider: hordes of Midwest suburbanites don paisley shirts ’n’ skirts; a multimillionaire pop star from Minnesota cuts a psychedeadlick LP; and dozens of young bands are trying to capture (down to the swirled graphics) every detail of psychedelia’s progenitors. For neo-psyche addicts who missed it all the first time, S.F. Nights stylishly relays the excitement, behind-the-scenes maneuvering and groundbreaking spirit of what is arguably rock’s most revolutionary phase. For aging hippies closing in on 40, it all may be old news. Gratefully, the authors never bore and—except for their “Oh wow, isn’t this too much” approach in recounting the years ’65 and ’66—dole out abuse when it’s due. Color photos would’ve improved S.F. Nights by about 1,000 percent, seeing as

how color was so important to that whole milieu. In sum, this informs and entertains but it’s nowhere close to being the definitive statement. D.S.

CIDER HOUSE RULES by John Irving (Wm. Morrow & Co.) This is a wonderful book, and everything a great novel should be—funny, sad, entertaining and very moving. It’s many times better than The Hotel New Hampshire, and every bit as good as The World According To Garp—building on Irving’s developing theme that sexuality can sometimes be barbarism in disguise, causing as much pain as pleasure in the end. Irving’s purpose was twofold: to create a Charles Dickens/Charlotte Bronte “orphan” novel for the 20th century, and to show how abortion (or at least “freedom of choice”) can, in certain cases, also be considered “the Lord’s Work.” The plot is joyfully complicated, the characters colorful, the themes numerous—and, stylistically, no one captures the tragicomic duality of life any better than Irving does in his novels. It’s also a timely book that should be considered by everyone, especially at a time when the Reagan administration is once again trying to play God and legislate “morality.” B.H.

FUNNY PAPERS by Tom De Haven (Viking)

De Haven’s previous novels (Freaks’ Amour and Jersey Luck) were offbeat, comic works—a description that could apply to Funny Papers, as well. The time here is the turn of the century and the milieu is the birth of the newspaper comic. The protagonist, Georgie Wreckage—now there’s a morality play name for you—is a gifted artist working for Joseph Pulitzer’s World. (In those bygone days, artists served the function of modern photogs.) Georgie’s happy with his job, but when he draws an editorial cartoon of a boy and his dog (“Pinfold & Fuzzy”), its popularity is such that the ol’ rag puts him in the funnies—a socially humiliating positipn—posthaste. Funny Papers follows the travails of Wreckage as he becomes a celeb and then (natch) a drunken celeb. In other words, the times they ain’t achanged a whole lot. De Haven puts it neatly and ambiguously enough through Pinfold & Fuzzy: “Dis is America, ain’t it? Ain’t dis America?” J.K.

THE BILLBOARD BOOK OF NUMBER ONE HITS by Fred Bronson (Billboard Publications)

This really fun book features historical and biographical detail (with great photos) of every number one American hit single between July 9, 1955 (“Rock Around The Clock”) and April 13, 1985 (“We Are The World”). A lot of the info is designed for trivia buffs, and the rarely-seen photos of “one-hit wonders” are a joy (the only—albeit big—factual error I spotted was listing “8-Teen” by Question Mark & The Mysterians and Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen” as the same song). It’s also a valuable, enlightening and somewhat suprising history book—and it helps deflate the myth that only worthless pop music was being produced between 1960 and the Beatles’ arrival. Since Bronson lists the top five songs of each week, it also puts your own musical history into perspective, recalling exactly when, in the words of Jonathan Richman, you “fell in love with the power of the AM.” ’Course, as the book illustrates, if it was between ’75 and the present, you understandably may have never fallen in love at all... B.H.

THE MOTOWN STORY by Don Waller (Scribners)

Most Motown histories thus far have focused primarily on the soul hitmakers, but Waller’s book is literally the Motown saga, examining every detail of Berry Gordy’s multimillion-dollar phenomenon.

There’s plenty on Smokey, Diana, the Temps, Marvin, Stevie, Michael and the rest of the crew— but Waller also brings up such historical footnotes as the Mynah Birds (featuring Neil Young, Rick James, Bruce Palmer and Steppenwolf’s Goldie McJohn), the Underdogs (a Grosse Pointe white garage band that had a regional semi-hit in Michigan with “Love’s Gone Bad”), Soupy Sales, Paul Peterson (“My Dad”), Irene Ryan (of The Beverly HillbilliesI), Billy Eckstine, Scatman Crothers, Richard Pryor, Stokely Carmichael and Martin Luther King—all of whom released records on the label. The numerous never-beforeseen photos are great, as are the behind-the-scene details, and the exhaustive discography should alone be worth the price to Motown aficionados. B.H.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (DC Comics)

Celebrating their 50th year in the comics biz, DC has issued the maxiest maxi-series ever: a 12-issue extravaganza that attempts to reconcile the accumulated inconsistencies of the various DC storylines over those five decades. And it works, mainly because they’ve used just about every cool character ever—Rip Hunter, Time Master, Detective Chimp, J’onn J’onnz, the Challengers of the Unknown, the astonishing Deadman, and many, many more. Plus they do cool stuff like go back to the beginning of time, where the Spectre modestly rearranges the history of everything. Not only that, DC’s killed off Supergirl and the Flash (!) in this anything-goes spectacular. Hot damn! Pick up on the doublesized finale (which should be on the stands as you read this) and update your knowledge of the Green Lantern corps, the cosmic treadmill and the “one Krypton concept.” And don’t panic: DC has promised that, no matter what, Krypto will live to romp again! Yip! J.K.