Every month, Cosmik Debris brings you many CD and record reviews, but the writers manage to find a little time for other pursuits, like reading, going to movies and watching videos. That's where Everything Else In Review comes in. .


MOVIE: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson,
Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman,
Robbie Coltrane John Hurt and Ian Hart
Directed by Chris Columbus,
Screenwriter Steven Kloves
Warner Brothers
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

The release of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone was preceded by thousands of beaters in the media bush, so many that you might wonder how the movie itself could measure up to such noisy advance notice, but it looks like the hunt was successful. Special kudos to J.K. Rowling for sticking to her guns. Her original story could have been terribly botched by Hollywood, but surprisingly the movie hews very closely to the book. How do I know that? Hell I've got two pre-teen kids and it's been required reading the last couple of years. Yeah, I know a little about Harry Potter. But I did learn something new - that Hagrid is pronounced with a short "a," not long.

Anyway, keeping close to the original book is a good thing because that means it's a not a gore-infested gross-out, or a fatuous fart-joke fest. This ain't no I-Know-What-You-Screamed-On-Halloween-Street Part 45; this is a family flick. There's nary a burp joke, even from the troll. A bit of drool from the dog, Fluffy, is the only nod even in the general direction of bathroom humor. No, the movie depends largely on beautifully gothic, minutely detailed sets and LOTS of vividly imagined magic tricks. In fact there are so many computer generated effects the movie ought to qualify as animation. Fortunately it's handled extremely well and they add to the overall impact rather than detract from it. For $126 million, it had better.

The characters are also richly drawn and very, very English throughout. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry handles the role quite well. With the circular glasses and the long Anglo nose, I kept seeing John Lennon in his face. Who knows, if he keeps developing he may play in John's biography someday. More interesting however was Emma Watson as Hermione, Harry's Griffindore classmate. Refreshingly, J.K. Rowling made sure that males do not overpower the story; the girl's a natural and her character was easily as strong as Harry's. Other notables include one of my favorite actors, Alan Rickman as the sinister Professor Snape. He looks like he's at home as a potion expert. Richard Harris looks appropriately Merlin-like and probably was their first choice because they didn't have to dye his hair any whiter. Especially endearing is Robbie Coltrane as the mountainous Hagrid, who interacts with Harry and his friends more than any other character, always letting slip important information with a chagrined, "I shouldn't have said that!"

Director Chris Columbus, best known for Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire, has done a first rate job with Rowling's work. Which is to say he's declined invention in favor of letting her story speak for itself. His visualization is superb, but I found myself asking for better use of the THX sound effects. Quibbles. In a similar vein, you could say John Williams missed an opportunity to make a dark and mysterious score, or that magic demands the wizardry that modern synthesizers bring, but his full symphony soundtrack is the epitome of the Hollywood Class Act. Likewise Steven Kloves kept his script so close to the original book that it means the nearly three hour movie moves forward at a ponderous pace, packing in every little bit of Rowling's exposition. You learn so much about Harry's background, Hogwart School and the game of Quidditch that the Sorcerer's Stone part of the story almost gets buried. Almost. Harry's final confrontation with the evil wizard Voldemort is rousingly heroic and possibly the only thing in the movie nasty enough to give very young children nightmares, though it's not as disturbing as the final scenes of Mummy or even Raiders of the Lost Ark

And of course Harry doesn't win a final victory so everyone is certain there will be sequels. Clearly Warner Brothers and company are playing this for the long haul. Sure I could moan about commercialism, but how can you quibble with such a fun movie? Rest assured it's much more than popcorn, but Rowling's work is still a kid's story at the end of the day. Lord of the Rings is a much more monumental work, full of archetypes for the ages. Let's hope J.R.R. Tolkien's story gets at least equal treatment in the upcoming movie. If it does then Lord should be the better movie, but it will be interesting to see which wins over more hearts. As it stands now, Sorcerer's Stone just might be the Wizard of Oz for the kids of our new century. And that's no small feat of magic itself.


(C) 2001 - Rusty Pipes



BOOK: The Indie Bible - Third Edition
Editor - David Wimble
Big Meteor Publishing
ISBN 0-9686214-1-4, 322 pages, $25.95 US
Reviewed by Bill Holmes

Crammed with thousands of listings, contacts, web sites, phone numbers and contact names, The Indie Bible is a massive 9x12 tome that no musician or industry person should be without. By it's nature, any contact or mass marketing list is only as good as its database, and we all know that those change daily. Maintaining thousands of contacts is a daunting task, let alone creating one in the first place, so the thought behind this book is that the musician or publicist can spend less time gathering the information and more time using it. After selecting fifty entries at random, I logged on to the Internet and was pleased to get forty-nine successful hits, which is a strong result. To maintain a high rate of accurate returns, Editor David Wimble, in his introduction, asks that corrections and additions be forwarded to his attention (www.indiebible.com) has a community message board as well as detailed information about the book itself).

The book is separated into different media - radio, magazines, etc. - and then into musical genre within those parameters. Naturally there are entries that span categories, and Wimble has used a judicious eye to make this easy for the reader. Some entries list only a web address, while others have complete contact information and/or a short description of the listing. It appears that the comments were supplied by the person submitting the listings rather than by the Editor, and the book makes no effort to editorialize on the competency or reliability of the specific contacts. While I'm certain any responsible Editor would weed out known fraudulent entities, it's virtually impossible for anyone to maintain that level of information on a go-forward basis. So, buyer beware.

The Indie Bible claims that it lists "2300 publications that will review your music, 2700 radio stations that will play your songs, and 440 services that will help sell your CDs". If I have to be the one to tell you that claims like those are hogwash, you need this book more than I thought. There is no way in Hell that you will get a guaranteed review, or airplay, or distribution, and if you were to press 5000 CDs and cover the radio stations and publications listed, you'd be sorely disappointed at the results, unless you had a plan of action. As a former Artist Manager and booking agent, I can tell you that the number one cause of failure is that the musicians are too inept - or too busy - to handle the business end of "show business". Music styles may change, even the way we do business, but the smart and persistent players will always rise above those who expect the world to ring their doorbell. Here's where the book really shines, with thirty-three excerpts and articles written by industry people that (for the most part) spell out some great ground rules for managing yourself as a player. While a lot of it may be common sense - follow up your calls, always be polite and on time, etc. - you would be amazed how many people fail at the first rung of the ladder. I don't want to turn this into an industry lesson - I'm available for those types of consults elsewhere - but do want to stress that that section of the book alone is worth ten times the cover price if it sinks in.

There are many books on the market for venue, magazine, club and other listings, and depending upon your goals you may need more than one. But in this day and age, if I were an independent musician (or a publicist/manager who worked with one), I'd grab this book in a heartbeat. It's only a starting point, however, and how you use the information (and whom you put your trust in) will ultimately tell the tale. Good luck!


(C) 2001 - Bill Holmes



BOOK: Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey
by Bill Wyman with Richard Havers
Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2001
Reviewed by Eric Steiner

Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey is one of the best introductions to the blues I've ever seen. Not only is the content first-class, but the layout and graphics include photographs and copies of the center labels of old 78 s and 45 s from Wyman's own extensive blues collection, in addition to personal vignettes of Bill's moments with such bluesmen as Furry Lewis, John Lee Hooker, Howlin Wolf, and Muddy Waters. Many of these stories include glimpses of life backstage with the Stones, and it's a real treat to hear how Mick and Company honored the roots of rock and roll as they grew into the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band. More than once, Bill recalls that the band had started out as a blues band.

Sure, I wish Bill would've included Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers or Lonnie Brooks in his journey, but the blues is one of the most diverse forms of American music there is and it would be hard to catalogue all of the best regional players that America has to offer. The sheer scope of the book is overwhelming: The book chronicles the blues from its beginnings in Africa and the slave trade, to England's skiffle craze in the late 1950's and 1960's, and not surprisingly, there're many stories about such legendary British bluesmen as Alexis Korner, John Mayall, and Eric Clapton. In tracing the roots of the blues on slave ships to blues on the Internet, Wyman's succeeded in documenting the history and future of the blues. Along the way, we visit Stovall's Plantation in Mississippi, and take side trips to Beale Street, and of course, Chicago's South Side, one of the most exciting urban blues incubators that propelled the careers of Snooky Pryor, Buddy Guy, and the King Bee himself, Muddy Waters. There's also chapters linking what Nat Hentoff once called "the white man's blues," or country and western, to the blues, and an excellent survey of blues from a women's point of view that recognizes the achievements of Memphis Minnie and Victoria Spivey, among others.

One of the many visual innovations in Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey is the way he inserts short, two-page biographies and suggests Classic Albums and Essential Recordings under the headings of Blues Greats or Blues Legends. These short profiles are inserted in each chapter, and we get a glimpse of blues notables like Bessie Smith, Blind Willie McTell, Otis Rush, Elmore James, Buddy Guy, and many others who've landed on critics' "best blues" lists. In addition, Wyman also has Classic Blues Songs, like "Mystery Train," "Statesboro Blues," "Dust My Broom," among many others, with unique facsimile pictures of original or artists' renderings of what the song looked like in the pen and paper of the original author.

This coffee-table tome deserves a rightful place on my bookshelf between Alan Lomax classic The Land Where the Blues Began and some of my favorite blues CDs. It's no coincidence that some of these CDs are some of Wyman s favorites, too, as Wyman and I share a very strong passion for the blues. Lomax helped America discover the blues, and this 1993 National Book Award winner shows how he captured the early work of Muddy Waters and others, for the Library of Congress, against considerable odds in an American South dominated by Jim Crow laws and customs that forbade blacks and whites from mixing on any side of tracks. On my blues shelf, Wyman's book sits right there up next to CDs like Muddy Waters at Newport, The Sky is Crying, The History of Elmore James, and Howlin Wolf's Moanin at Midnight.

I can't give Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey higher praise than that. Put on some of your favorite blues, turn the pages, and learn something new about a uniquely American music. For more information, check out www.dk.com.


(C) 2001 - Eric Steiner



BOOK REVIEW: Nankering With The Rolling Stones:
The Untold Stories Of The Early Years
by James Phelge, acapella press,
ISBN 1-55652-373-4, 304 pages, $16.95 US
Reviewed by Bill Holmes

Phelge roomed - in absolute squalor - with Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Keith Richards for over a year starting in 1963. He's also the "Phelge" from "Nanker- Phelge:" the pseudonym you'll find credited with writing several of the early Stones songs. When you consider that "nankering" meant making a disgusting face by upturning your nostrils and pulling your eyelids down while making inhuman noises, it makes sense that it is aligned with Phelge, whom Keith calls "absolutely the most disgusting human being you ever met." Not much of a sales pitch, is it?

But Nankering is one of the most honest, well-written glimpses behind the rock curtain I've ever read, and it's not just because the author was truly an insider to the subject. Phelge is a great storyteller, but wisely never tries to make himself the center of attention, even when the anecdote focuses upon around him. Unlike most hack rock books, Phelge never tries to psychoanalyze others' unspoken thoughts, recount transcripts of events he was not privy to, or repaint the past using future events. Instead, his unselfish style places you into the scene as a fly on the wall - as disgusting as the floor in this flat - and allows you to savor the moment as an unbiased observer. You learn that Bill Wyman was never an early favorite, sense when Mick started to make his moves against Brian, and pity Ian Stewart's ouster from the band, all calculated moves made by young men who wanted success at any cost. Phelge never really takes sides, preferring to let the events speak for themselves; they speak volumes. So do his vivid descriptions of their surroundings, from the dilapidated chip shops and tiny diners to the scum-filled sinks and hallways of their abysmal flat. It's difficult to put the book down once you start reading it.

Although the book covers only a short period of time, it's a critical juncture in the band's history, tracing their leanest years. The Beatles transform from contemporaries to idols and then back to contemporaries as the Stones find their earliest success. The stories about practical jokes played on the other housemates are hilarious, but Phelge also manages to communicate the quiet desperation of the band who skirted with implosion so many times. After sifting through so many horrible tomes written by chauffeurs, drug dealers and security guards trying to stretch their fifteen minutes of association into a tell-all novel, what a refreshing change it is to see a writer not try to make himself the star of the book. Phelge's foreword says it all: "If your name is John Grisham or Robert Ludlum, this is what writing is all about, not that tacky crap about lawyers and spies that you two turn out. So eat shit."

I'd love to hang out with James Phelge. I just wouldn't want him as my roommate.


(C) 2001 - Bill Holmes



BOOK REVIEW: New York Is Now! The New Wave Of Free Jazz.
By Phil Freeman with photos by Susan O'Connor
The Telegraph Company, 212 pages. US $16.95
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

Phil Freeman became a music journalist the same year (1995) that Cosmik Debris had published issue number one, so I feel a bit of a kinship with the author right off the bat. He's chosen one area of study, and that's free jazz, an area in which he is carving his niche quite nicely. This book, which focuses on the work of seven of the most important artists in the genre, is written in a style that is at once scholarly and evocative on the emotional level that this music creates for each individual listener. Your ultimate experience may vary from Freeman's, but his words make you want to go there, make you strap the helmet on and wade into the scene. As the book was written after Ken Burns' Jazz series aired on PBS, Freeman takes a chapter to say what many of us have wanted to say ever since: "Bullshit!" Okay, admittedly Freeman says it in classier terms, but he takes Burns, the Marsalis brothers and all other guilty parties to task for the travesty they laid on the public, and especially for completely dismissing free jazz as garbage. On the positive vibe side, Freeman teaches us about the work of Joe Morris, David S. Ware, Matthew Shipp, Roy Campbell, Charles Gayle, Daniel Carter and William Parker, analyzing each player's methods and philosophies as well as the effects their music might have on you. I must admit I found myself a bit annoyed by his attack on The Beatles, in which he points out that much of their music was disposable crap and that we're unable to tell this because we've all been told it's not (my paraphrasing, not his exact words). He goes on to state that Sgt. Pepper is far from being a timeless rock classic, and I can only assume that all of his Beatles opinions are based on the theory of mass hysteria lasting 38 years and extending to young children who fall in love with the music today. I guess you, me and millions and millions of others have no ear for good songs. However, Freeman, while he may be opinionated beyond reason and logic at times, does have a good ear for free jazz. His recommended listening list at the end of the book, while by no means the only list you should stick to, is filled with magic music by creative geniuses. I've been doing some following of this list when I can, and I thank Phil Freeman for putting it together. I'd return the favor, but I figure he's already heard Revolver and Rubber Soul.


(C) 2001 - DJ Johnson