by Hank Brockett
Fresh-faced rock reporter William Miller (Patrick Fugit) finds himself inside the whirlwind of entertainment. Everywhere he looks, another page in a rock magazine springs to life. The women, the peculiar roadies and the larger-than-life performers all contribute to the scene.
To stand out in the scene...well, you must be pretty special.
William finds that standout in Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), the lead singer of a band called Stillwater and a purveyor of the most incendiary guitar-playing around. He’s an artist, he’s a performer and to many in the audience he’s a god.
You have to believe this is the type of wonderful world - cinematic though it may be - Louie Armstrong sang about if these two can meet.
The scene, my scene, involves a simple conversation. Before stepping on stage and creating a thousand memories, he talks to William. The question: Why do you love music? The answer:
“But, it’s not what you put in, is it? It’s what you leave out. Listen to ... listen to Marvin Gaye ... a song like What’s Going On. That single ‘woo’ at the end of the second verse - you know that ‘woo,’ that single ‘woo?’”
To which William replies, “I know that ‘woo’”
To me and others afflicted with this disease, life is full of these “woo’s.”
They’re found in a DVD collection growing every week. Turn on the television and you’re liable to hear one. And in the leaning tower of CD jewel cases, there are woo’s still waiting for discovery.
In the weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, there was much hand-wringing about what the entertainment world would become. In our numb and accepting state, we even allowed lamebrained folks to say things like, “You know, the world wants to heal by watching Keanu Reeves in Hardball.”
We’ll never reach that point.
You can’t just turn off decades of believing that pop culture news is somehow relevant to our worlds. And that’s okay. More than anything, entertainment gives the uncaring something to care about.
This isn’t about escapism, this is about release. The great tragedy of many lives is that we’re not doing what makes us happy. We’ve been forced (or think we’ve been forced) into a job, a friendship, a marriage, a life.
But in entertainment, there’s nothing but choices. Don’t like something? Turn it off! Change the channel! Hooray!
Of course, we don’t realize this when switching between the Cubs game and a Spanish soap opera. The true fun, though, comes in trying to explain why each of us makes these choices.
What type of psychology is at work when a man can’t say “love” to a woman, but says it repeatedly when referring to the training scene in Rocky IV or the bench players on the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals team?
What cruel tricks are at hand when a wife says, “Take my husband, but don’t take my Rolling Stones albums, please!”
These questions of b-sides and b-movies affect all of us, with various levels of involvement. At the core, though, remains the search for artistic work that speaks to us and our experiences.
In college, I majored in media studies (that television-watching class was a killer). I’ve decided to make it my life’s work to figure out the fickle tastes for pop culture.
Therefore, this column will look at the latest in entertainment from all media. And with fingers crossed, you may even find all-new “woo’s” to add to your collection.
The Northern Star Home Page
The Internet Movie Database
What other critics think - The Rotten Tomatoes Site