Two Words: Jerry Springer In the April 29-May 5 New York Press there's a very long story about Rolling Stone magazine on the occasion of its 30th anniversary. Press Executive Editor John Strausbaugh's well-reported essay looks at the magazine today and through its long history, taking the time along the way to dish the dirt. Our favorite part: Editor and Publisher Jann Wenner delaying for a year, and then publishing in attenuated, denatured form, Mark Hertzgaard's expose on sexual harassment at 60 Minutes, mostly due to Wenner's friendship with producer Don Hewitt. To Riff Raff, this and myriad similar tales that have emanated from the magazine's New York offices over the years symbolize well the corrupt nature of the modern Rolling Stone: an institution that once redefined journalism now not even practicing a legitimate form of it. New York Press isn't on the Web; with the newspaper's permission we can send you a copy of the story if you drop Riff Raff a line c/o SF Weekly or e-mail Lelania Sperrazza at lsperrazza@SFWEEKLY.COM. DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE A MAILING ADDRESS. (B.W.)
TRIVIALITIES RIFF RAFF GENERALLY LOATHES PUBLIC RELATIONS STUNTS GENERATED BY RECORD COMPANIES, BUT WE ADMIT WE'RE SUSPENDING A LITTLE DISBELIEF OVER THE RHINO RECORDS MUSICAL APTITUDE TEST, SCHEDULED FOR NOON ON SUNDAY, MAY 17, THE LOCAL SITE FOR WHICH WILL BE THE TOWER RECORDS STORE AT COLUMBUS AND BAY. THE TEST LOOKS LIKE A REALLY GOOD -- AND PRETTY DIFFICULT -- MUSIC TRIVIA CONTEST WITH EXCELLENT PRIZES. (SAMPLE QUESTIONS FROM LAST YEARo What group scored the most No. 2 Billboard singles without ever having a No. 1? Which Monkee once dated Mama Cass?) There are testing sites in seven U.S. cities, and there will be a simultaneous live Internet test. Winners in each of the cities get a CD player and 100 CDs, $100 bucks from Tower, a snowboard, magazine subscriptions, and software. The grand-prize winner gets placed on the Rhino new release list for life, plus all of the other stuff. The test is open book, but there are 300 questions and you only have an hour -- that's five questions a minute. Call (888) 846-3848 by 5 p.m. May 14 to reserve a seat locally, or visit www.rhino.com for info on the Internet version. (J.D.P.)
Riff Raff's First-Ever Big Contest: Your Last Chance Looking rather lame in comparison to the grandeur of a Warner Bros. subsidiary, we remind you that we're having a big name-that-dumb-quote contest. We, of course, are doing it for love, not money. For the past five months we've closed this column with an inane remark made on a live concert album. All we want you to do is identify those remarks. (Hint: You can find back issues of the Weekly online.) The prizes are pretty spectacular -- even if you don't stand a chance of winning a snowboard -- and, judging from our mailbox, you won't have much competition. The grand-prize winner gets a priceless night out on the town with Night Crawler and -- if you're fun or interesting -- a pleasant write-up in that column. As we said, first prize also includes pairs of tickets to any show in the next six months at the Great American Music Hall, the Bottom of the Hill, and the Fillmore. (Six tickets total!) And finally, we'll let you write your own Riff Raff item about whatever you want. (Accompanying this prize is another: an awesome session with the Riff Raff editors.) The second-prize winner gets a random assemblage of rock books, some kung fu movies and strange documentaries on videotape, and no less than 40 high-quality, top-of-the-line promotional CDs, most of them produced by international music conglomerates. The third-prize winner gets 50 of said CDs, a bunch of cheap promotional items lying around our offices, and a stack of Bay Guardians piling up in the corner. The winning entry will have the most matches between the 22 quotes that this space has printed and the names of the albums they came from. Get your entries to Riff Raff, c/o SF Weekly, 185 Berry, Suite 3800, S.F., CA 94107 (or jstark@SFWEEKLY.COM), BY MAY 15 (ONLY THREE DAYS LEFT) AND WE'LL PRINT THE WINNERS NEXT WEEK. (J.S.)
RIFF RAFF RIFFRAFF: Robert Arriaga (R.A.), Johnny DiPaola (J.D.P.), Karl D. Esturbense (K.D.E.), Jeff Stark (J.S.), Silke Tudor (S.T.), Heather Wisner (H.W.), and Bill Wyman (B.W.). Send Bay Area music news, band stories, or petty gripes to jstark@sfweekly.com, or mail it to Riff Raff, c/o SF Weekly.
