John Strausbaugh (born, 1951) is an American author, cultural commentator, and host of the New York Times "Weekend Explorer" video podcast series on New York City.
Strausbaugh's books have examined the history of recreational drug use (The Drug User: Documents 1840-1960, co-edited with Donald Blaise, with an introduction by William S. Burroughs, 1990), the intersection of politics and popular culture in the White House (Alone With the President, 1992), the priesthood that spreads the gospel of Elvisism (E: Reflections on the Birth of the Elvis Faith, 1995) and Rock and Roll's infidelity to the youth culture that created it (Rock 'Til You Drop: The Decline From Rebellion to Nostalgia, 2001), which was declared "the definitive word on the senescent Rolling Stones" by The New York Times.
Strausbaugh's next book, the controversial, Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture, 2006 explored race relations in popular culture, including the pervasive and long-lasting impact of black-face performance in rock and roll, hip-hop, advertising, "gangsta-lit" and contemporary Hollywood film-making. His new book, Sissy Nation: How America Became a Culture of Wimps & Stoopits, will be released on February 5th, 2008.
Strausbaugh is a regular contributor to the New York Times, The Washington Post, and Cabinet Magazine. He also worked as a contributor and editor of The New York Press from 1990 until late 2002, when the paper was sold to Avalon Equity Partners. He established the paper as an independent thinking and often irreverent voice, which directly competed with the city's more traditionally liberal downtown paper, The Village Voice.
External Links: John Strausbaugh's Website [1]
Giorgio Gomelsky is an influential music manager and record producer. His owned the famous Crawdaddy Club where The Rolling Stones were hired as house band, and he was involved with their early management. He hired The Yardbirds as a replacement and managed them. He was also their producer from the beginning through 1966. He apparently currently owns all of The Yardbirds tapes, although legend has it that the actual multi-track tapes are in the pocession of Gomelsky's divorced wife. In 1967, the started Marmalade Records (distributed by Polydor), which featured "Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity", The Blossom Toes, and early recordings by Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who later became 3/4's of 10cc. The label shut down abruptly in 1969 under confusing circumstances (some say Gomelsky simply shut the doors and disappeared without notifying Polydor or any of his artists). Giorgio was also instrumental in the careers of the following artists: The Soft Machine, Daevid Allen & Gong and Magma The Soft Machine's first single (EP) was produced by Giorgio. Gong's first 5 LP's were created under Giorgio's auspices. The Gong LP's from France were on Giorgio's experimental label BYG also called ACTUEL Later GONG's trilogy was released among the first titles at VIRGIN records, UK. The French band Giorgio produced, MAGMA, was almost an orchestra of rock sound and recorded in its own language! (no libretto or translation provided!)