A ramshackle set of rock portraits, charming though stingy with context.
Boston—home turf for photographer Grecco, whose work from the late 1970s through mid-’80s is showcased here—was an underrated punk and new wave epicenter. It boasted its own top-tier acts—most prominently, the Cars and ’Til Tuesday—and was often where U.S. and U.K. acts kicked off their tours. So one pleasure of this collection is that it spotlights a host of major artists in the early stages of their careers: Elvis Costello, the Plasmatics, New Order, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Devo, and more. Because most of the venues they played were smaller clubs, Grecco captures a distinctly uninhibited, before-they-were-famous vibe, shooting his subjects goofing off in grimy dressing rooms, snorting cocaine, or lounging in radio stations. The concert photos show Grecco’s knack for making his subjects look larger than life; shots of the Ramones and the Dead Kennedys have a live-wire energy, and Public Image Ltd’s John Lydon looks at once manic and imposing. Somewhat oddly, Grecco chooses to arrange his photos by venue, which gives a sense of the size and relative sleaziness of each club but little other information. (Frustratingly, captions are largely absent, though presumably any interested reader would recognize most performers on sight.) In the later pages, Grecco captures the Clash at the height of their fame and David Bowie at Foxboro Stadium (“It was the only time I saw him, but it was still magical”). Introductory essays by the B-52s’ Fred Schneider and longtime journalist Jim Sullivan set the scene well, convincingly positioning Boston as “a microcosm for a youthquake that was happening in cities across America, England, and Europe."
A ramshackle set of rock portraits, charming though stingy with context.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4854-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.
The Chicago Bulls stalwart tells all—and then some.
Hall of Famer Pippen opens with a long complaint: Yes, he’s a legend, but he got short shrift in the ESPN documentary about Michael Jordan and the Bulls, The Last Dance. Given that Jordan emerges as someone not quite friend enough to qualify as a frenemy, even though teammates for many years, the maltreatment is understandable. This book, Pippen allows, is his retort to a man who “was determined to prove to the current generation of fans that he was larger-than-life during his day—and still larger than LeBron James, the player many consider his equal, if not superior.” Coming from a hardscrabble little town in Arkansas and playing for a small college, Pippen enjoyed an unlikely rise to NBA stardom. He played alongside and against some of the greats, of whom he writes appreciatively (even Jordan). Readers will gain insight into the lives of characters such as Dennis Rodman, who “possessed an unbelievable basketball IQ,” and into the behind-the-scenes work that led to the Bulls dynasty, which ended only because, Pippen charges, the team’s management was so inept. Looking back on his early years, Pippen advocates paying college athletes. “Don’t give me any of that holier-than-thou student-athlete nonsense,” he writes. “These young men—and women—are athletes first, not students, and make up the labor that generates fortunes for their schools. They are, for lack of a better term, slaves.” The author also writes evenhandedly of the world outside basketball: “No matter how many championships I have won, and millions I have earned, I never forget the color of my skin and that some people in this world hate me just because of that.” Overall, the memoir is closely observed and uncommonly modest, given Pippen’s many successes, and it moves as swiftly as a playoff game.
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982165-19-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
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