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Editorial Reviews
From The New Yorker
In the late nineteen-sixties, Mike Stevens, a teen-aged ghetto daydreamer in Washington, D.C., imagined a fabulous existence as Mingering Mike, a soul-music superstar, and he hand-painted a series of colorfully exuberant record-album jackets representing his explosive career. Between 1968 and 1977, he painted some fifty LP covers and nearly as many 45 r.p.m. picture sleeves (inserting cardboard disks with labels and even painted grooves). Into this fictive discography he wove an elaborate personal mythology; pictures, titles, and liner notes incorporate many references to his neighborhood and his family. The covers were discovered at a flea market by Hadar, an R. & B. record collector who subsequently tracked down Stevens. Hadar has clearly discovered a true outsider artist, and the naïve charm of the album covers is a reminder that the greatest pop musicians succeed at implying an entire world as dazzlingly seductive as their songs.
Copyright © 2007 Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker
Review
...done with infinite passion and imagination. Strauss compares Mike to Henry Darger, a janitor whose work was only discovered after his death. The difference is that this artist is still alive, and has met Hadar, but prefers his anonymity. Mingering Mike, however, has finally become a star. -- Under the Radar, July 2007
Hot Wax! In Mingering Mike, Hadar presents the life story and 50-plus "albums" of the pseudonymous star and the outsider artist who created him. -- Entertainmanet Weekly, March 30, 2007
It doesn't matter that none of these albums are real, by the end of the book you feel like you've heard every last song. -- The Fader, Feb. 2007
Mingering Mike is a fitting homage to its subject's ambition and creativity--he even gets a discography in the back--but there's a sadder power in the records' nonexistent existence. These images are bursting but fragile, full of meaning and utterly inconsequential, nothing but promise. -- PopMatters.com, September 25, 2007
One friend of ours explained his artwork as "the black Marcel Dzama or Jockum Nordstrom." We just call it the best music we'll never hear. -- Tokion, March 2007
Thanks to Hadar, almost 40 years later, the "patron saint of crate-digging" is finally able to celebrate his musical career, even if not a single note was ever played. -- Stop Smiling, October 23, 2007
Tracing his amazing journey and collecting together a wealth of Mike's art, Hadar's book is part monograph of an outsider artist and part detective story. It also charts a love affair with that area of graphic design that really reaches out to people: the humble record sleeve. -- Creative Review, June 2007
Ultimately, the man comes across as sweet creative, and goofy--he's no scary, Darger-like shut in. . . The book does an excellent job of highlighting what it is about Mingering Mike that elicits both pathos and wonderment: the fact that his creator's funny and bizarre hobby fantasty is as vivid and affective a document of black cultural experience as the soul music he obsessed over -- BOMB, Spring 2007
See all Editorial Reviews
In the late nineteen-sixties, Mike Stevens, a teen-aged ghetto daydreamer in Washington, D.C., imagined a fabulous existence as Mingering Mike, a soul-music superstar, and he hand-painted a series of colorfully exuberant record-album jackets representing his explosive career. Between 1968 and 1977, he painted some fifty LP covers and nearly as many 45 r.p.m. picture sleeves (inserting cardboard disks with labels and even painted grooves). Into this fictive discography he wove an elaborate personal mythology; pictures, titles, and liner notes incorporate many references to his neighborhood and his family. The covers were discovered at a flea market by Hadar, an R. & B. record collector who subsequently tracked down Stevens. Hadar has clearly discovered a true outsider artist, and the naïve charm of the album covers is a reminder that the greatest pop musicians succeed at implying an entire world as dazzlingly seductive as their songs.
Copyright © 2007 Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker
Review
...done with infinite passion and imagination. Strauss compares Mike to Henry Darger, a janitor whose work was only discovered after his death. The difference is that this artist is still alive, and has met Hadar, but prefers his anonymity. Mingering Mike, however, has finally become a star. -- Under the Radar, July 2007
Hot Wax! In Mingering Mike, Hadar presents the life story and 50-plus "albums" of the pseudonymous star and the outsider artist who created him. -- Entertainmanet Weekly, March 30, 2007
It doesn't matter that none of these albums are real, by the end of the book you feel like you've heard every last song. -- The Fader, Feb. 2007
Mingering Mike is a fitting homage to its subject's ambition and creativity--he even gets a discography in the back--but there's a sadder power in the records' nonexistent existence. These images are bursting but fragile, full of meaning and utterly inconsequential, nothing but promise. -- PopMatters.com, September 25, 2007
One friend of ours explained his artwork as "the black Marcel Dzama or Jockum Nordstrom." We just call it the best music we'll never hear. -- Tokion, March 2007
Thanks to Hadar, almost 40 years later, the "patron saint of crate-digging" is finally able to celebrate his musical career, even if not a single note was ever played. -- Stop Smiling, October 23, 2007
Tracing his amazing journey and collecting together a wealth of Mike's art, Hadar's book is part monograph of an outsider artist and part detective story. It also charts a love affair with that area of graphic design that really reaches out to people: the humble record sleeve. -- Creative Review, June 2007
Ultimately, the man comes across as sweet creative, and goofy--he's no scary, Darger-like shut in. . . The book does an excellent job of highlighting what it is about Mingering Mike that elicits both pathos and wonderment: the fact that his creator's funny and bizarre hobby fantasty is as vivid and affective a document of black cultural experience as the soul music he obsessed over -- BOMB, Spring 2007
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book
(learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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original soundtrack, really sing Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mingering Mike, Joseph War, Howard Theater, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Can Minger Mike Stevens Really Sing, Roots of All Evils, The Drug Store, Audio Andre, Footsteps Away, Nations Capitol, Bloody Vampire, Minger's Gold Supersonic Greatest Hits, Our Side of the Track New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
original soundtrack, really sing Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mingering Mike, Joseph War, Howard Theater, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Can Minger Mike Stevens Really Sing, Roots of All Evils, The Drug Store, Audio Andre, Footsteps Away, Nations Capitol, Bloody Vampire, Minger's Gold Supersonic Greatest Hits, Our Side of the Track New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 11
books:
See all 11 books this book cites
- Into It: Poems by Lawrence Joseph on page 58, and Back Matter
- Stars and Superstars of Black Music by Pascall on page 125
- Young Frankenstein: A Novel by Gilbert Pearlman (Adapter) on page 97
- Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye by David Ritz on page 125
- Our Love by Fern Brown in Back Matter
See all 11 books this book cites
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