Gary S. Vasilash

Latest by Gary S. Vasilash in Chronicles

• Vital Signs

  August 1989

  Adverpop Rock

  Doctors are prohibited from hawking products in television commercials. It's a question of ethics. So, since the real ones can't do it, stand-ins are asked to fill the prescription. Marcus Welby was never jumpy, so Robert Young became a very appropriate shill for Sanka.

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• Vital Signs

  May 1989

  Detroit Shakedown

  Stevie Wonder wants to become mayor of Detroit. He's had some trouble determining precisely when the election will be held, but no matter. He believes that he can be the mayor of Motown in the 90's.

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• Vital Signs

  November 1988

  Surfin' Safari

  Mike Love's churlish behavior at the third Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies should not have come as a surprise to anyone. His outlash against everyone from Paul McCartney to Diana Ross could have been predicted by Nancy Reagan's astrologer.

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• Vital Signs

  August 1988

  The Grammys' Growl

  It is encouraging to see that Michael Jackson is still capable of something more than Pepsi commercials. That he didn't pick up an award is, as many have suggested, a backlash against the success of Thriller.

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• Vital Signs

  May 1988

  Music of the Peers

  I recently attended a performance by the quartet known as Montreux, a group which, as you may know, records for Windham Hill. I had first seen Montreux perform a couple years back during Detroit's international jazz festival that's called, coincidentally enough, Montreux/Detroit.

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• Vital Signs

  March 1988

  Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo

  You don't hear much about groupies anymore. This is strange, since the demographics of the rock audience—ranging from about 40 to 10—suggests there ought to be more groupies than ever slithering around out there.

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• Vital Signs

  February 1988

  The Null Set

  Tom Waits recently suggested to Musician magazine that if John Lennon knew that Michael Jackson would control The Beatles' music, Lennon would "kick his ass—and kick it really good."

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• Vital Signs

  January 1988

  Future Shock?

  This won't be easy. But, it may be the future, at least according to a number of science-fiction writers collectively known as the "cyberpunks." More disturbingly, there seems to be a number of scientists and researchers who agree. Hang on.

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• Vital Signs

  November 1987

  Summer of the Snake

  In "Life-Line," a story by Robert A. Heinlein, a scientist describes a man in the present as a "space-time event." He explains, "Imagine this space-time event which we call Rogers as a long pink worm, continuous through the years, one end at his mother's womb, the other at the grave.

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• Vital Signs

  October 1987

  Gluttons for Punishment

  Recently, NBC News, and the Wall Street Journal devoted features to what they claim, to an editor, is an American "obsession" with being thin.

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• Cultural Revolutions

  September 1987

  Equal Opportunity Killer

  It's hip to be square—Huey Lewis' new gospel—may have been announced prematurely. George Michael has a different message: "I can't think of a better question for a 13- or 14-year-old child to be asking than 'What does monogamy mean?'"

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• Vital Signs

  August 1987

  The Righteousness of Rock?

  The Fox Theatre—a grand movie palace of Detroit's 1920's, which is now used primarily as a venue for acts that won't fill an arena—contained a chronologically mixed crowd in mid-March.

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• Vital Signs

  July 1987

  Fillet of Soul

  Entertainment industry awards shows are, almost by definition, public orgies of televised backslapping. Still, TV viewers stick with them, not so much to discover what the best movie, TV show, or record is, but in order to see personalities in environments that put them out of character and in competition with other celebrities.

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• Vital Signs

  June 1987

  Rock Around the Bank

  Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" ironically sums up the popular attitude toward the music business. After all, performing on stage for an hour or two a night does not seem all that tough.

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• Cultural Revolutions

  June 1987

  Death and Taxes

  Death and taxes are only a little more predictable than the art of Andy Warhol. Just one month after Warhol's death in Manhattan at age 58 from a heart attack the morning of February 22, the day after otherwise successful gall bladder surgery, the artist was back in the news.

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• Vital Signs

  April 1987

  Desire & Death

  Back in the days before OPEC became a notable force on American street corners, high school, for most of us growing up in Detroit, meant one thing: a driver's license.

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• Vital Signs

  January 1986

  Out of Balance

  Ray Pentzell, head of the Hillsdale College theater department, attended university during the heyday of improvisational theater off-Broadway.

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• Vital Signs

  December 1985

  Teenagers and Lower Forms of Life

  While Teen Wolf was opening this past summer in 1,500 theaters. Kiss of the Spider Woman found only 15 receptive movie houses.

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• Reviews

  November 1985

  The Cult of Personality

  The author is not dead. Barthes's continuing success proves that beyond a doubt.

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• Reviews

  August 1985

  Bookshelves

  Nightfall for Liberalism? Daring Moderation Mocking the Booboisie

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