Word: vapid
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...themselves. Many of the conversations are really just strings of quotations, supplemented only by some remarkably vivid photographs by Jill Krementz. This approach usually proves successful, thanks to the caliber of the interviewees; unlike Rex Reed, Shenker doesn't have to resort to bitchy observations to spice up vapid quotes. Inevitably, some of the conversations are not all that fascinating, and at least one--a piece on Noam Chomsky as a linguist--is downright boring, an object lesson in how words can get in the way of an explanation. But the book as a whole is remarkably rich; most...
...more vapid excuse for a mass circulation magazine would be difficult to imagine. Americans supposedly have an unmet need for heroes. The astronauts did not pan out; the current president has turned out to be a criminal; Vietnam produced only careerists. People zeroes in on celebrities, not on generals and space cadets. And it tries to manufacture celebrities...
Died. Billy DeWolfe, 67, veteran stage and screen comedian who started out in show biz as a theater usher; of cancer; in Los Angeles. DeWolfe and his drooping mustache appeared in numerous vapid Hollywood comedies (the first: Dixie, in 1943) before hitting the big time with an impersonation of Mrs. Murgatroyd, a matronly tippler, in Blue Skies (1946) and later with a performance as a stuffy diplomat in Call Me Madam (1953). His successes on the stage included his role as J.B. Biggley in the London production and New York revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying...
...Look, Life, The Reporter, even The Saturday Evening Post. None of them were very good but they at least provided some antidote to the relentless drone of television; they at least marked out a conception of the world less fleeting than a half hour of network news sandwiched between vapid and escapist situation comedies and cop shows. Now they are gone, and we are left with a choice among Walter Cronkite, Time magazine and the local newspaper with its wire service copy. We are fed an increasingly standardized and bland diet of news and comment, and the portions of hard...
Well, for one thing, the Me-Books so far prepared (by writers and artists who have wisely remained anonymous) are unattractive and vapid, a sad blend of box-top realism and the kind of plastic fantasy that Ronald McDonald might use to flog hamburgers. Moreover, unlike the stories that parents make up for their children, weaving in the details of private life, Me-Books are standardized...