MEDIA COOL

MEDIA COOL

This Month�s Media Cool was written by Michael Upton, Bill Holdship, Richard Riegel and Thomas Anderson.

13TH ANNUAL CRITTER DINNER

CREEM readers undoubtedly remember last year�s coverage of this spectacular event in scenic Dunbar, West Virginia. Well, the pomp and circumstance surrounding the 13th annual critter feast proved that this is an event whose time has come. �This thing is getting bigger every year!� exclaimed Dunbar�s favorite critter, Mayor Frank Leone. A quick rundown of the menu included: elk, racoon, bear, deer, groundhog, squirrel, rabbit, trout, bass and ham. �We had the ham for those who were squeamish,� noted Leone. Regrettably absent from the year�s event was Opal Thompson and her famous dinner rolls. Her mother was ill, but Opal hopes to be back with her rolls next year. The Hansford Choir, a group of seniors from nearby St. Albans, belted out some inspirational hymns, including an outstanding �I�ll Fly Away.� Also on hand was Grace Heasley to lay down some fine electric accordion playing on "Darktown Strutters Ball.� Mayor Leone could not pick a favorite critter. "I enjoy all of them,� he said enthusiastically, �and I�ll eat any part of em!� M.L.

FACES AND STAGES: AN ELVIS PRESLEY TIME-FRAME

Compiled by Ger Rijff (Tutti Frutti Productions) One of the neatest things about being an Elvis fan is that just when you think you�ve seen everything there is to see on the subject, something else comes along to blow you away. Last year, it was Elaine Dundy�s extraordinary Elvis & Gladys. This year, it�s an import from Amsterdam. Ger Rijff has collected tons of rare photos tracing the early years through the army induction. There�s plenty here that even the most devout fan has never seen before (or at least hasn�t seen since the �50s), including a grade school Elvis in earmuffs holding a toy gun, as well as dozens (both offstage and on) from the days when Elvis was rock �n� roll and the final word on cool, ruling the entire Western world. Also includes a �56 interview from Seventeen magazine and newspaper accounts from the era. This may be an even more intimate glimpse of the man and the phenomenon than Private Elvis and Elvis '56 were several years ago. (Send $15 to Faces & Stages, Heanor Record Centre, Ltd., 4147 Derby Road, Heanor, Derbyshire DE7 7QH, England.) B.H.

OUR WORLD

(ABC-TV)

Call me a child of the �60s, but my adolescence happened to coincide with the prominence of such TV documentaries as 20th Century Project XX, Victory At Sea, etc., and I got fatally fixed on black & white footage, booming music, and Walter Cronkite voiceovers. Make mine history, thanks, and Our World focuses on a particular year of the American Century each week, resurrects that classic footage, yups it up with all kinds of nostalgia props—and I�m deep into my documentaries once more. However, Our World�s dispensed with the old Cronkiteian mechanical narration in favor of Linda Ellerbee�s and Ray Gandolf�s conversational/Sesame Street style. I get a kick out of Ms. Ellerbee, that dogmatic liberal who wears her red-boots-of-revolution every week, and who always finds some new opening to smear Nixon and/or Reagan (not that they don�t deserve it), no matter what year�s being featured. And ABC goes ahead and broadcasts it without a whimper (maybe the ABC execs are tuned to Cosby too.) Amazing! R.R.

HILL STREET BLUES

(R.I.P.)

I haven�t felt this bad about a TV show going off the air since Howdy Doody bit the dust when I was five—and I think I cried when that happened. Thanks to the magic of VCR, I�ve missed a total of two shows during Hill Street�s seven year run—and I really feel like I�m losing some good, good friends. Which says volumes for the wonderful ensemble acting that was always the primary strength here. And even though the show was a dying proposition this past year, the producers still strove to keep the quality and integrity high, including scripts by David Mamet and Bob Woodward, no less. People talk about favorite shows, but I really think the pursuits of Captain Furillo & Co. will go down in the annals as the greatest and most influential show in the history of television. Hopefully, they�ll pull a Star Trek and eventually do some reunion movies. Those who missed the experience, I feel sorry for you (catch it in syndicated reruns). Those of us who loved it will really miss it—and keep our fingers crossed the Beverly Hills Buntz spinoff will be even half as good. B.H.

ULYSSES

by James Joyce

This new edition of Joyce�s (in)famous masterpiece is being heralded as the end result of 10 years of scholarly research in compiling and correcting the errata of past publishings, which has evidently worked out to the considerable average of around several revisions per page. Not to worry, though. The book is still as baffling as it ever was, and still one of the greatest English novels ever written. Although it�s currently unavailable in a massmarket paperback format, the 13 dollar price tag on this trade edition ain�t bad considering that you�re getting over 600 pages of the most brilliant and innovative prose writing this side of CREEM�s letters column. T.A.