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.


A TALE OF TWO TOWERS - The World Trade Center One Year Later

DVD: World Trade Center: A Modern Marvel 1973-2001
A&E Television Networks/History Channel
50 minutes

Reviewed by Bill Holmes

Playing both these DVDs one after the other was like experiencing the yang and yin of the World Trade Center with only a brief intermission. The A&E collection (originally broadcast on The History Channel) is a story about the concept, design and creation of one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks, while the Docudrama release is an eerie, frightening look at the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack one year ago. Both are emotional tributes to a building that, for many people, defined the city of New York.

The A&E video, as Harry Smith mentions, was filmed prior to the attack and was originally slated to be a tribute to the majesty of the buildings, "but now it’s an obituary." The footage of the project at its inception is eerily like the scene at Ground Zero today, where a huge crater in Lower Manhattan seems oddly out of place in an otherwise crowded landscape. The story about the design team is extremely interesting and informative, showing how engineers had to prevent the site from flooding when digging the foundation or how they worked around a fully-functional subway tube from New Jersey and never interrupted service for a minute. The automated window washing system that was designed because the architect was afraid of heights! There is great footage and interviews with several people who worked at the Towers, a couple of whom are sadly among the missing. These interviews include a chilling comment by the building manager that the towers could probably withstand the impact of a commercial jet plane and survive. There are no real extras on the disc, although there is a brief interview filmed after the attack where Smith and his guest ponder the impact of the destruction. I lived in New York when the buildings went up and remember Channel 11 (WPIX) using the twin towers as their logo, and I can’t get my head around the event either.

DVD: WTC: The First 24 Hours
Docudrama
48 minutes

The second DVD is more like a science fiction film, where the viewer will feel like Charlton Heston’s character in The Omega Man wandering through a post-apocalyptic planet. With no narrator, music or subtitles, WTC: The First 24 Hours is a collection of film clips and images filmed near, through and around the rubble. The audible sounds are predominantly sirens, hoses, fires and the crunch of work boots in inches of soot and debris. It’s an unflinching look at the depth of the destruction and the tireless efforts of policemen, firemen and medical staff who can only be pondering how they will ever be able to make headway. Two images were particularly emotional; the first panned across a room impacted by a blast that looked to be a bathroom until you realized the wall units were all that remained of a room full of exercise equipment in a health club. The latter was a tripod shot of the burning tower collapsing, filling the frame with fire and smoke and ash, which eventually blew away to leave nothing but a silent, perfectly blue sky. It was as if nothing was out of the ordinary, but you know that below the camera, life would never be the same. This DVD contained a sticker that states "10% of all proceeds donated to the Twin Towers Orphan Fund (www.ttof.org)."


(C) 2002 - Bill Holmes



CONCERT: The Guess Who
with Eric Burdon And The New Animals
Darien Lakes Amphitheater, Darien Lakes NY
Sunday August 18, 2002
Reviewed by Bill Holmes

Thanks to the generosity of a friend I wound up with a great seat to this double bill show at one of upstate New York's finer theme park performing arts facilities. Yes, I know that was a limiting statement. But despite the occasional roller-coaster noise and fireworks at 10:00pm, it really is a good place to see some of the better artists touring the summer venues, and on this particular night (the new) Mother Nature was cooperative - the weather was perfect.

I've not seen Eric Burdon live in decades, but I have bought and/or heard enough sad re-animations of his catalogue to know that he has been burnt as toast for a long time. He no longer could hit notes, he rambled incoherently in songs, and he'd occasionally do some horrid soul scat thing that would stretch out a tune beyond belief. Arguably one of rock's better singers in his prime, this apparent combination of years of hard living combined with his ego/delusions led me to write him off years ago as an acid casualty. Had someone given me the choice to stay in the parking lot and pound a few beers or catch the set, I would have asked where the bottle opener was. Thank god my friend did not bring beer.

Burdon has apparently cleaned himself up over the past few years, and his voice is back. Not "better than last time," but back! The band (featuring solid Hammond organ work and a phenomenal drummer) was tight and focused and Burdon himself kicked ass. No mid-song rambles, no hippie recollections, just a cohesive group ripping through a set of Animals hits, solo hits and even a new song that sounded great. They played for an hour and had the audience eating out of Burdon's hand, yet he was humble, thanking the audience between songs and looking genuinely moved. I'd go back to see him again in a heartbeat, and if anyone has had a similar past experience and have written him off, I implore you to give it another try.

The Guess Who were outstanding, as I had hoped. With little fanfare they plugged in and started plowing through hit after hit after hit, and they have quite a canon to draw from. Burton Cummings avoided the higher register for the first few songs, but by mid-show he was in classic voice, nailing long, high notes on "Undun" and others. The musicianship was better than any prior incarnation of the band (indeed this tour features the classic lineup from their heyday). People tend to forget just how good a piano player Cummings is, and the occasional four and five part harmonies (i.e. "These Eyes," "Share The Land") were spot-on perfect. They did get a nit cheesey when they made a big deal about gathering crowd noise to "prod" Randy Bachman into doing BTO tunes, but the fans ate it up anyway. And by the time they did the third BTO song - "Takin' Care Of Business" - I thought the roof would launch off the facility. The audience screams were deafening to the point of white noise, and the song got the biggest ovation of the evening (I would love to know how Burt feels about THAT). When I saw Bachman backstage I realized he is half the size he was in BTO - he looks healthy and happy. Although no new material was performed during the set, they did select material from all over the catalogue, including the Chad Allen era, as well as perform a stripped-down set mid-show.

The crowd was a good sampling of all ages, too - many people who were probably conceived to the material were now dancing to it. My pal commented about the strength of the material and I wondered whether the emotions we felt were because we grew up on the songs or they were just better written songs than most of what is floating out there today ("Clap For The Wolfman" excepted, of course!). I think it's a little of both.


(C) 2002 - Bill Holmes



DVD: Waking Life
Directed by: Richard Linklater
CBS/Fox Home Video
Reviewed by Karl Cable

Despite all the crabbing I do in my column, when I review something, I prefer to do reviews of stuff that I really, really like. It's like the fun of sharing something special with a friend.

So it's with pleasure that I come to inform you about a film that quite possibly slipped under your radar. Far too many things these days are praised far too highly, so I will try to restrain myself as I tell you a few things about Richard Linklater's Waking Life. I don't want to tell you too much, though. One of the best things about this movie is letting it unfold in front of you, and having little prior knowledge of what you're in for.

Waking Life is an animated film, but it's like no other animated film that I know of. Linklater had his basic story worked out, and shot it on digital video using small handheld cameras and live actors. He then edited together a completely finished feature-length video piece. When this was done, that finished product was then turned over to a team of twenty-five animators who digitally rotoscoped the video. Each animator took chunks of the finished video of roughly three-minute lengths. Some animators did several segments, and others did only one. Several times in the film, though, the animation style will change, sometimes abruptly, sometimes subtly, in the middle of a scene. As a result, this film is a feast for your eyes that few cinematic experiences can equal. Bob Sabiston supervised the animation, and that was a good idea since he wrote the software that turned video into so many vivid, mind-boggling images.

You can choose to watch Waking Life strictly on the eye-candy level and that would work for you, but there's WAY more going on here than mere visual stimulation. Watching and listening carefully bring some real rewards. I'm loath to disclose much of anything about the story of the film, because I think to tell you about it does a disservice to you by denying you the right to figure out things for yourself. There is a protagonist, played by a young actor named Wiley Wiggins (who also did some of the animation on the film). He wanders in and out. Sometimes he isn't on screen for quite a while. Lots of times when he is on screen, particularly early in the film, he says little or nothing. At times the film seems like nothing more than a series of disjointed vignettes, but be patient. Slowly, Linklater builds a compelling - and quite possibly shattering - thesis.

In my opinion, this movie is hitting on every possible cylinder. Another element that makes the film work so well is the music. Glover Gill's evocative score, performed by the Tosca Tango Orchestra, bonds seamlessly with this film and its story, and enhances everything that you see and hear. [Ed. Note: See last month's interview with Gill Glover about scoring this film: http://www.cosmik.com/aa-august02/glover_gill.html.] The DVD does the film justice with superb sound and picture quality, which is becoming the norm more and more with DVD transfers.

I will also say that it's entirely possible that you will in no uncertain terms hate this film. At times Waking Life is intensely visceral. At other times, it is densely cerebral. No matter how you watch it, no matter what levels of appreciation you may wish to engage with this film, I doubt that you've seen anything quite like Waking Life. I rented it, and told the video store when I returned it that I wanted to buy their copy.

Special Features

This disc is packed with excellent features. There are two commentary tracks, one with Richard Linklater, Bob Sabiston and Wiley Wiggins, the other from the animators. There is also a severely compressed "greatest hits" version of the film seen as video only and without the animation. There's a lengthy but fascinating "Animation Tutorial" from Bob Sabiston showing how his amazing software works. There's another entire animated short called "Snack and Drink" from the same animation team, and featuring a person who plays one of the minor characters in Waking Life. You can see some of the "animation auditions" that Linklater looked at while working out the look of the film. There are also some deleted and longer-than-used scenes, as well as the usual trailers, etc.


(C) 2002 - Karl Cable



BOOK: Go
Author: John Clellon Holmes
Published By: Thunder Mouth Press
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

Just as Ernest Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises is considered the luminary novel of post-WWI's 'Lost Generation,' works On The Road and Naked Lunch and Howl hold similar torches for the Beats in the 1950's. Movement pioneers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs are lauded as the "big three" and although there is credence given to the contributions of others that were there, the ink spilled in their collective names has paled their contemporaries.

John Clellon Holmes' oft-neglected novel Go is no pale work however. Integral to Beat enthusiasts, but steps behind even Kerouac's minor works in mainstream recognition, Go represents the real launching point for fiction with the budding group. Written a scant few months before On The Road made them all celebrities, Go depicts the major characters in their hungry, struggling skins. The fiction employed is honest and unflinching, forgoing indulgences and experimentation in the interest of capturing the events and emotions surrounding that furious time. Where Kerouac celebrates the hearty, devil-may-care attributes of friends like Neal Cassidy, Holmes clearly is interested in nestling behind the persona and unearthing their frailties.

Go is the story of young author Paul Hobbes (Holmes) and his attempt to balance his literary aspirations and marriage to wife Kathryn with the legendary late night lifestyle of his rowdy compatriots. With his marriage on the rocks because of infidelities, Hobbes works to keep up with his novel and a step ahead of destitution. Holmes allows Stofsky (a wonderfully fragile depiction of Allen Ginsberg) to act as a second primary character, guiding the reader through hallucinations brought on by the poetry of William Blake and dealings with arch criminal Ancke (Herbert Hunke). Kerouac appears as Pasternak and acts the self-centered cheer leader role, trailed by Hart Kennedy (Cassidy) and the pack of women drawn to their robust egos. Go doesn't showcase one specific person's travails, rather, it holds each accountable for their unique contribution to the highs and lows they encounter collectively. Stofsky is beautifully mystic, yet too curious about Ancke for his own safety; Hobbes is a good husband and friend, but holds too long to his college crush; as a leader, Pasternak keeps the party moving, but the liberties he takes with women paint him as a cad.

When Kerouac wrote Big Sur he described his alcoholism and the burden of his literary rock star status in great detail. Go shows in no uncertain terms that the seeds for the genius and deconstruction of both Jack and the others were sown long before their ascension to fame. Holmes conveys the message that these Beats were no Supermen, rather an enthusiastic, yet fragile group of uncommon energies. In the interest of that crucial understanding, Go is a must read.


(C) 2002 - Erick Mertz



DVD: Don't Look Back
Starring: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bob Neuwirth,
Alan Price, Albert Grossman, Donovan
Directed by: D. A. Pennebaker
Distributed by: New Video/Docurama
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

D.A. Pennebaker is not exactly a household name but there are three important documentaries that he made: Monterey Pop about the ground-shaking festival of 1967 that introduced so many artists to the world, The War Room that chronicled the 1992 Clinton Campaign, but the first and arguably the most influential was Don't Look Back, his 1965 chronicle of Bob Dylan on tour. If you are a Dylan fan, you've probably heard of the movie before. It's a fascinating look at one of music's giants at a relatively early point in his career. It's also historic because this tour of various halls in England, on the eve of the release of Bringing It All Back Home, turned out to be Dylan's last solo acoustic concert tour. The movie will always be remembered for that alone, but Pennebaker's use of then-new handheld cameras to catch so much behind-the-scene verity was also a milestone in cinematic history.

If you're expecting to get music all the way through, ala the Last Waltz or other concert movies, you've come to the wrong place, however there are snippets of various shows sprinkled liberally throughout that are not found anywhere else. There's even a flashback sequence of early early Dylan singing to a voter registration rally in Greenwood, Mississippi - one guitar, one mike and no stage. Other wonderful bits are the famous opening cue card sequence over the tune "Subterranean Homesick Blues" which also has poet Alan Ginsberg in the background.

Mostly though it's footage from back stage and hotel room conversations we see. In the early part of the film Joan Baez is often there, alternately mugging for the camera and occasionally singing. At one point we see Dylan and Baez singing a duet of Hank Williams in their room. There are quite a few interesting interview sequences as the Fleet Street folks grapple with the young poet. One frumpy Brit journalist didn't even recognize Baez standing in front of her. John Mayall is seen riding in a car between the pair, Alan Price of the Animals is in many scenes, but the most interesting sequence is when up-and-coming singer Donovan gets to trade songs with Dylan. Earlier in the movie Dylan had been making quips about him and indeed the film's title may be a backhanded reference to Donovan's emerging popularity. The overall effect is to record a true portrait of the artist as a young man. Dylan had already penned many of his most memorable songs at this point, but his towering stature in music in the decades since has only increased the power of this movie.

The Extras

Special features on the DVD include an alternate soundtrack with scene-by-scene commentary by Pennebaker and Bob Neuwirth, Dylan's road manager who also appears in many scenes. There's also five audio-only tracks taken from the tour, but they won't play in a regular CD player. Perhaps the oddest thing about the DVD was one of the stills of Dylan used for the audio tracks had Dylan face looking so much like Adam Sandler it was scary. Scary in the sense of Sandler being cast one day in some crass remake of Dylan's life. Please don't bother, Hollywood, we have the real thing here.


(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes



CONCERT: Cheap Trick
Cole Muffler Court @ NYS Fairgrounds,
Syracuse NY
Sunday August 25, 2002
Reviewed by Bill Holmes

I've always respected the work ethic of Cheap Trick, which remains intact with the four original members after all these years (slight Tom Petersson absence excepted). And unlike many bands from the 70s, who haven't done a damned thing since but are regrouping to cash in on nostalgia, Cheap Trick continues to tour every year and play with as much energy, chops and fury as they did in their prime. In fact, one could argue that the rhythm section of bassist Petersson and drummer Bun E. Carlos has never been better. But everyone comes to see if Rick Nielsen will do something goofy and whether Robin Zander is still the Brad Pitt of rock and roll. The answers are yes and yes.

Nielsen, who thankfully shaved that ridiculous ponytail/goatee off his face, changes his guitar after every song and still bounces around with great abandon (albeit not quite so high in the air as before). With Zander playing more rhythm guitar nowadays, he gets the opportunity to flesh out some strong solo efforts. Buried in his lead work are snips of classic rock and roll guitar lines, from Bo Diddley to Chuck Berry to Jimmy Page, like he's quickly flipping through the rock and Rolodex in his head and briefly stopping at certain names to pay homage. His support vocal works with Zander's lead much the way Pete Townshend matches Roger Daltrey; seamless and full, and always justifiable. Zander still looks the part of the pin up rock icon, though the swooning women are a little older than they used to be. But what a voice! Most vocalists from the older bands have dropped an octave or have someone else take the high notes when necessary, but Zander reaches back and lets you have it full-throat. Amazing. Petersson played extremely well but should be kept away from the microphone at all costs - his one solo turn was uninspired.

With two free shows as a sideline attraction at the Fair, most acts repeat the set verbatim, but Cheap Trick only repeated two songs ("Surrender" and "I Want You To Want Me") which was a real treat for the huge crowd. I was surprised to hear them perform "The Flame," their lone #1 song that they resented playing for years, but Zander sang the hell out of it that night like it was his own song. Nielsen toyed with the audience, flipping hundreds of guitar picks (as always) and baiting them with lines like "this song was number one in Australia but didn't even chart here, so thank you for your support!" He also noted that since it was a family show, "you people should all pair off and start making families right now." It was also obvious that Carlos has every fact and statistic about the band's history memorized, as he bailed Nielsen out several times when Rick tried to get specific about anything.

It was great to hear two hours of great music covering most of their catalogue, but there was no new material at all. Cheap Trick did issue a new album in the late 90s, but the years since then have been filled with boxed sets, live records and DVDs. Word has it that the band expects to release a new record in the Spring of 2003. I think if they don't, they run the risk of getting lumped into the very nostalgia circuit that they are trying to avoid. They easily were the hottest band of the ten-day Fair, and maybe with some new product someone will start booking them into the major venues again rather than these low-rent affairs. But until then, here they are, working the room, as always.


(C) 2002 - Bill Holmes