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IDIOT'S DELIGHT Everyone is an idiot about something: remodeling, Shakespeare, alternative medicine or dating. Even a certified genius may need help learning magic tricks or how to interpret dreams. Take a poll at a Mensa meeting; chances are, members of the smartypants club will riot for a guide to amazing sex or improving one's IQ. The Complete Idiot's Guides help people from all intelligence levels master new skills and gain knowledge. "When you're smart enough to know, you don't know it all," the series' slogan declares. Brainiacs and blockheads alike can benefit from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jazz or The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Spanish. But lately, the series takes unfair advantage of true nincompoops with such new titles as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Angels and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beanie Babies. The books, published by Macmillan, range from $16.95-$18.95--a bargain if the guide can really teach you to be psychic or handle a break-up, as promised. With luck, the series will produce some titles that will appeal to local idiots: Imagine how our lives would improve if every Portlander read a complete idiot's guide to merging on the freeway, driving in the snow and not talking in the movie theater. Susan Wickstrom Hip Hop America by Nelson George (Viking, 226 pages, $24.95) HIP-HOP, YOU DON'T STOP "Every time I read a piece attacking hip-hop, its makers, and its audience, no matter how much truth it may contain, I get upset," Nelson George writes in the introduction to his 10th book, Hip Hop America. This lack of love has assailed hip-hop for all of its 20-year existence, and the attacks, notes George, "quite often from black people my age, are often indictments full of legitimate and well-articulated anger but no love." George, a writer who has covered black culture since 1979 in publications such as The Village Voice and Billboard, takes a careful look at these criticisms and enlightens readers uninformed about the art form. He presents many of the key personalities and incidents that kept hip-hop moving forward from its humble beginnings in the Bronx to the most dominant musical force of today. The more thought-provoking passages deal with the effects of the post-Civil Rights degradation of black youth and how this is reflected in hip-hop. In another successful section, George makes pointed comparisons of mass marketing hip-hop to the pilfering of '60s soul/R&B music by major record corporations. Though hip-hop's detractors claim that the music isn't original, George points out the technological advances in music production brought on by beat headz. He even makes forays into areas unknown to folks outside the 'hood, scrutinizing the connection between drug dealers, basketball players and rap artists and noting how the intertwining of the three groups has touched the social fabric of America. George's role as an observer, rather than a peer, of the culture gives him a bird's-eye view of the continuing influence the dynamic, constantly changing energy of hip-hop will have on American pop life for many years to come. Hip Hop America makes it clear that the sights and sounds of the music are inescapable, whether you enjoy it or not. H.V. Claytor, Jr.
SCHLEMIEL, SCHLIMAZEL Straight outta Hymie Town (and being a Member of the Tribe or MOT, I can say that) comes Plotz, a 'zine that gives props to Jewish culture through the eyes of the young and the yid. This charming little stapled jobby now in its 10th issue is the brainchild of Barbara, an East Village hipster who can kibbutz and kvetch with the best of them. Plotz features such things as interviews with the famous (a standard question is "What did you wear to your bar/bat mitzvah?"); a section called "Out the Jews," which lists the hidden yids in our midst; a "Yiddish-isms" page that defines old old-school slang; and first-person articles that breezily take on the cultural implications of things such as Jew wannabes, why Jews drug rather than drink and where the kosher laws really came from. Some critics might read its semi-slapstick tone as Jewsploitation, but this critic says, "So what?" Isn't even Fiddler on the Roof funny at this point? Plotz is deliciously un-PC and adamantly anti-academic in its approach and presents a certain slice of Jewish culture (in this case lifestyles of the 25- to 35-year-old and suburban-bred) in all its splendid glories and gories. All this and to a beat you can dance to! Barbara's is a strong, honest, humorous voice that leads the charge in defining modern, assimilated Jewish life. You got a problem with that? Write to Barbara, PO Box 819, Stuyvesant Station, New York City, NY 10009, or pick up the latest issue at Reading Frenzy (921 SW Oak St., 274-1449). Caryn Brooks
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