Rock Stars

  Free, the complete 1979 book Rock Stars (on Amazon. com up to $999.99)

Rock Stars Scholastic Book Services New York, Toronto, London, Auckland, Sydney, Tokyo. Copyright © 1979 by Steve Ditlea

Popular music at a crossroads of styles near the end of the eclectic 1970s.

Called a “classic of kitsch” by one contemporary reviewer, the “rock stars” chosen survived the test of time, or at least four decades.

• KISS: Rock ‘n’ Roll All Nite
  See Gene Simmons without his makeup backstage at Madison Square Garden—like a teacher!
• Fleetwood Mac: Thinking About Tomorrow
  Just 7 years after their appearance in their Circus article, the band has grown bigger and older.
• Billy Joel: The Piano Man
  He recalled his best night for tips tickling the ivories in lounges, starting with a major scare…
• Stevie Wonder: Life In The Key of Songs
  With sightlessness his filter, this survivor of a faulty baby incubator kept growing his songbook.
• KC: The Sound of Sunshine
  Living by retirement communities, Harry Wayne Casey is still rocking, like many musicians in the book.
• Sha Na Na: The Peaceful Greasers
  A fond look back at how a college prank turned into the most widely-seen rock music TV series ever!
• Afterword: Punk, Funk, and Future Stars
  Lenny Kaye, guitarist for the Patti Smith Band, explained how rock was about to change, again.

Digital Deli

  The comprehensive, user-lovable menu of computer lore, lifestyles and fancy.

Workman Publishing New York, Copyright © 1984 by Steve Ditlea

The Conservative Computer © 1984 Wm. F. Buckley, Jr.

It Didn't Come From Outer Space © 1984 William Tenn.

A now-classic compendium of emergent digital culture, at its beginnings in 1984. “Digital Deli” was created by 140 writers and artists. What a breadth of topics: digital history, hardware hackers, young software moguls, electric words, buzzy arts, micro music, binary brains, money and finance, kids, games, predictions back then!

Soon out of print, the book survived online due to diligent efforts by K. Savetz and the crew at atariarchives.org who digitized it--hosting since 2008. Our free links go there. (Thanks, K.!) Start with a good look at the MENU. Then try some of our more future-forward suggestions below.

•   MENU
•  HOMEBREW AND HOW THE APPLE CAME TO BE by Stephen Wozniak
  The “Deli’s” most linked-to content, in which Steve Jobs’ tech partner explained their origins.
•  PERSONAL COMPUTERS / PERSONAL FREEDOM by Timothy Leary
  The multi-media professor of psych and sentience waxed wise, ending with Talking Heads.
•  THE CONSERVATIVE COMPUTER by Wm, F. Buckley, Jr.
  Editor of National Review Bill, the voice of the Smart Right, archly skewered Luddites in his midst.
•  COMPUTOPIA NOW! by Ted Nelson
  Polymath and enfant terrible, this son of Hollywood royalty predicted the Web.
•  COMPUTERS, CABLE AND THE FUTURE by John Gabree
  A journalist, organizer and activist predicted streaming video and everyday invasion of privacy.
•  ON SOFTER SOFTWARE by Bill Gates
  Scroll down: Pre-Web, the Chairman of Microsoft, Inc. intuited cookies, tracking and AI aps.
•  THE TIMES GOES COMPUTER by Carla Marie Rupp
  A transition in NYC journalism, by a KU grad & sole inputter of every word in “Digital Deli”.
•  THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD HIPPIE BRINGS THE COMPUTER AGE HOME by Ted Richards
  Transitioning from the We Age to the dig-it-all Me Age, an Underground Comix icon matures.
•  THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD HIPPIE AND THE CRUNCHY COMPTER by Ted Richards
  Semi-autobiographical: Ted was marketing czar for Atari. Now the designer of this Web site!