​UPDATE APR. 18 8:45 P.M.: Host and TV producer Dick Clark died Wednesday of a heart attack at the age 82. He was best known for his role in turning the American Bandstand television program from a local to national phenomenon during its continuous thirty-year run on ABC from 1957-1987. Nicknamed the 'world's oldest teenager,' Clark promoted a format aimed at a youth demographic and its appetite for popular music. American Bandstand became iconic, but was it really an early promoter of racial integration?

The claim is one that Clark had repeatedly made himself. Upon news of his passing, the Christian Science Monitor republished a 1986 article where he states in relation to Bandstand during the mid-1950's that, "The first time that black and white kids got on the dance floor together on social occasions...was on that show."
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Monica Page

Millsap at Meltdown Comics, March 10

​Cartoonist Lonnie Millsap (yes, he's aware that his name rhymes with a country singer's, so if you chat with him you can skip the "Any Day Now" reference) can frequently be found in Los Angeles comic book shops at book signing events.

He is the author of two cartoon collections, My Washcloth Stinks!and I Hate My Job!

Last year, Millsap's art was featured at the American Visionary Art Museum's special exhibit "What Makes Us Smile?" co-curated by Matt Groening, Gary Panter, and AVAM founder/director Rebecca Hoffberger. He is working on his third book, tentatively scheduled for a July release, with the working title I Stepped on a Duck! More >>

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scrippscollege.edu

Matt Delmont: Scripps Associated Students Professor of the Year 2011

​Yesterday, we published the first part of an interview with Matt Delmont, author of The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'n' Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950's Philadelphia, where, contrary to Dick Clark's claims, he reveals how the iconic television show discriminated against black youth during its early years.

Read the first part of the interview with Matt Delmont here; in this second installment, Delmont speaks about the influence of Soul Train, what it would have meant had American Bandstand truly racially integrated its program at the time, and how he hopes his book's findings will be received.
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​Dick Clark's American Bandstand television program is iconic, but was it really an early promoter of racial integration? The question is one extensively delved into by Scripps College American Studies Professor Matt Delmont in his new book The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'n' Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950's Philadelphia. Released just last Friday, as Black History Month comes to a close, the research compiled by the author reveals a hidden history of racial segregation on the United States' first television program centered on the teenage population.

Sorting through interviews, newspaper articles, census data, countless photographs and more, Delmont concludes that the dance show was in fact actually a step behind and out of rhythm with the later claims of Clark as host. UC Santa Cruz Professor Herman Gray says of the book, "The Nicest Kids in Town shows how the nexus of sound, place, race, and space operated together to create and reinforce a myth of national memory and belonging. Just as importantly, this compelling cultural history demonstrates the importance of the youth market as a theater of struggle where brave young men and women--outraged by the discrimination and racism they faced for the simple act of enjoying music--refused to have their bodies, tastes, or desires policed."

The Weekly spoke with Professor Delmont about his provocative new book and brings you this first of two installments of the interview. (Read part two of the interview here.)More >>

​ Damion Young, aka Damizza, has done it all. He started in radio when he was 12 and his drive, passion, and ambition launched one of the most interesting and diverse careers in the music industry. He's worked with legendary greats like Michael and Janet Jackson, Dr. Dre, Mariah Carey, Tupac, Biggie, Hootie and the Blowfish. His latest project is a book, Guilty By Association, and if the hype surrounding this book is anything like the hype he's created in the music biz over the years, Damizza just might have yet another hit on his hands...and a new career path!More >>

​UPDATED, NOV. 10, 9:08 A.M.: $7,000 goal reached as of 9 A.M.--$7,184!

ORIGINAL POST, NOV. 8, 10:35 A.M.: Jack Grisham, T.S.O.L. frontman, Weekly coverboy--is following up his first novel An American Demon with a work of fiction that he won't tell us the title of ("because it's cool and I don't want people to steal it") or describe the plot of (same reason).

But he is asking supporters to back his work financially via a Kickstarter campaign (he's currently about $2,200 shy of his $7,000 goal) so he can finish the book.

"I can tell you the kids live in a fictional 1960s Northern California town. I can tell you there are as many cemeteries in the story as there are boys, and I can tell you that it's an American Gothic coming of age tale--although the children are much more mature than I'll ever be," he says in the description of the book.

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Photo courtesy of Gianna Gianna

The birthday girl!

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Gianna Gianna, the unmistakable blonde from BLOK, is celebrating two milestones at the Detroit Bar on Thursday: she's turning 21 years old and releasing her first book. All Encompassing is an exploration of metaphysics and philosophy through the young local musician's poetry. The book-release party will offer copies of her book for sale along with a free copy of her solo song, also called "All Encompasing." The David Liebe Hart Project (of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) will perform along with Fullerton's zombie-punks Death Hymn Number 9 and more. If all that doesn't sell you, Gianna Gianna promises cupcakes and cookies will be served! Read our interview conducted via email below.

OC Weekly: Where did the idea to write a book come from?

Gianna Gianna: It came from an overflowing surge of creativity and the need to share and provide truth, which is always love. I feel a lot of people lose faith in values and morals because of perpetuated prejudices and stereotyping, formed to protect themselves, and eventually conform in some way or another to survive. So, I'm just here to spread art, love and consciousness. To encourage others to live and thrive. I live what I preach. I am exactly who I say I am, with no exceptions. It's the only thing that feels right to me.

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​Multi-platinum-selling rapper Game can now add published author to his credit. Released today, the rapper's first book, The Making of Game's The R.E.D. Album, chronicles him as he creates his oft-delayed fourth studio album. (It's available in most digital formats with paperback forthcoming.)

"With my book I wanted to give my fans the behind-the-scenes look of how my new album came to be," says Game. "These are my stories in my own words. This book is only place where you'll learn all the stories behind the music--how I got the beats, what inspired my lyrics and how the album was put together."

Game joins a long list of rappers who've picked up a pen and have actually published books. OC Weekly compiled a short list of some of the most popular/interesting ones you might considering throwing in the basket along with Game's if you're planning to cop:

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​ In 2005, author Colby Buzzell gained national attention with My War: Killing Time in Iraq, his memoir of serving as an infantryman in post-invasion Iraq. Buzzell, an avowed fan of punk rock and metal, wrote with a directness and humor absent from mainstream war reporting, earning him praise from major publications and novelist Kurt Vonnegut.

Buzzell returns this month with Lost in America: A Dead End Journey, an account of his cross-country voyage in a problematic 1965 Mercury Comet. Although the book began as an effort to retrace Jack Kerouac's trip from On the Road, Buzzell flipped the assignment on its head by driving from the West Coast into America's midsection.

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