RIP's keep a-rollin'

Artist/designer Tom Wilkes died unexpectedly last Sunday, June 28, at the age of 69 in his home in Pioneertown, California. He won a Grammy Award in 1974 for Best Recording Package for the Who's "Tommy," as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Choir. He was also known for designing the cover art for hit albums by artists like Neil Young, John Prine, Emmylou Harris, George Harrison, Leon Russell, the Rolling Stones and many more. A press release about Wilkes' life and career (from Billboard Publicity Wire) is below:

Pioneertown, CA (Billboard Publicity Wire/PRWEB ) July 5, 2009 -- Thomas E. Wilkes was born July 30, 1939 in Long Beach, California and was raised in southern California. He attended Long Beach City College, UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in the 1950's and 1960's.

In 1967 Wilkes was the art director of the Monterey International Pop Festival. He created all graphics and printed materials for Monterey Pop, including the program book and the festival's psychedelic and iconic foil poster.

From 1967 through 1969, Wilkes was the art director of A&M Records. He was partner with Barry Feinstein from 1970 through 1973 in Camouflage Productions, which became record label Blue Thumb's house art department.

He was partner in Wilkes & Braun, Inc. from 1973 through 1974, and art director of ABC Records from 1975 through 1977. In 1978 he started Tom Wilkes Productions and became President of Project Interspeak, a not-for-profit environmental and human rights organization devoted to planetary enhancement programs.

Wilkes designed and directed such hit record covers as Rolling Stones' "Flowers" and "Beggars Banquet", Neil Young's "Harvest", and George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh" and "All Things Must Pass."

He received a Grammy Award in 1974 for Best Recording Package for The Who's rock opera "Tommy," as performed by the London Symphony

Robert McNamara, who gave us the Vietnam War, which gave us the counter-culture movement.

"Robert McNamara, who gave us the Vietnam War, which gave us the counter-culture movement."

And one really bad Simon and Garfunkel song. "A Simple Desultory Philippic", which is itself a bad Bob Dylan parody.

Fog of War is a must-see documentary about him, though.

I rented Fog of War from Blockbuster once, but when I got it home I discovered that the DVD in the case was actually Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. So never have seen Fog of War yet.

I've always wondered what my unfortunate counterparts who thought they were renting a Lindsay Lohan movie thought when they instead ended up with a documentary about Robert McNamara.

I bet they complained about the mix-up a lot more than you did.

So what did you think of Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen?

It was a pleasant enough trifle, made watchable by the fact it featured Lindsay Lohan in her approximately one month era of being damned cute and legal in all 50 states, before she descended into a seemingly permanent & seemingly inescapable personal quagmire. Not unlike the quagmire McNamara steered the US into in Vietnam, which I'm sure seemed like a good idea for about a month in 1964, also.

So in the end, I feel that Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen was in fact a worthy substitute for The Fog of War, and whoever switched the DVD cases knew what they were doing.



Post Edited (07-08-09 12:54)

Mean Girls is much better, and with less fragging of officers. Nice metaphoric stretch, though.

Actually, Mean Girls is all about fragging officers, from Lohan implying Tina Fey is a drug dealer to taking out Rachel McAdams as the head of the clique. Hell, that entire movie is Platoon with push-up bras.

Now I just need to figure out the Vietnam metaphor in Herbie: Fully Loaded.

Well, I imagine there was probably at least one soldier named Herbie who spent his tour in the Nam fully loaded. So check that one off, too.



Post Edited (07-08-09 12:53)

Herbie works better with the Kraftwerk analogy of the man-machine wishing to get in the human machine.

And note that I said less fragging. And note that I would watch Platoon with an all push-up bra cast. The Christ metaphor would be extremely touching, that way.

As long as it's not the original cast of Platoon in the push-up bras, I'm with ya.