ENTERTAINMENT
The University Daily KANSAN
September 12, 1983 Page 6
SPECIAL TO THE KANSAN
Butch Hancock, Austin, Texas, plays some of his tunes at Marvin Grove after judging the first annual Kaw Valley Singer-Songwriter Festival. Dave Leach of Lawrence won yesterday's festival.
The Alarm eyes American approval
By GUELMA ANDERSON
Staff Reporter
Despite its British origins, the Alarm wants to be an all-American band.
Nigel Twist, Eddie MacDonald, Dave Sharp and Mike Peters, members of the progressive movement tonight at the Kansas Union with one goal in mind—building a rapport with an American audience.
Fran MacFerron, director of special events for Student Union Activities, which is bringing The Alarm to the University, said that progressive trips like The Alarm were popular in Lawrence.
"Advanced ticket sales have been about 200, and we think that it's very good," he said. "We are anticipating a big walk-up at the door. At the last concert we had, 200 tickets were sold in advance and 600 people walked up the night of the concert."
PETERS, LEAD SINGER and guitarist for the group, said in a telephone interview Friday that they purposefully avoided all the pre-publicity booths that usually surrounded new British bands.
"We wanted to try to build up the band like we did in Britain and become a local American band," he said. "We didn't want to come to the States with guns blazing, announcing how great our music is because we wanted to get an honest reaction from the audience.
"We wanted to come and blow the place apart, and it's really been paying off. We've sold out all over."
THE ALARM STARTED playing at a local disco in their hometown of Rhyl, England, and it gained a great following. Then, with money from the club, tickets in the summer, the band moved to London
The Alarm is making its first headline U.S. tour since its formation in 1981. The group made its American debut as the opening act for U2 last year.
"We decided not to make any 'demo' tapes like millions of other bands did," Peters said. "We used the money to record 2,000 singles of the song and hand them out, handed them out to whoever would take them."
The group's reputation spread across London until the band began receiving club dates and recording contracts. However, The Alarm did
not accept many of its first offers for recording contracts.
Finally, the band received an offer from the International Record Syndicate, a small recording company that was more interested in the group's music.
"THEY WERE ALL young people who tended to get left with the groups that the big companies didn't want." Peters said. "But they were like a music group because they were interested in music and fans."
The sound of acoustic guitars is the hallmark of The Alarm, but it did not evolve as a dimmick, he said Three of the band members are who write songs using the solo instrument.
The startling sound of the acoustic guitar music is the perfect backdrop for the rousing music that follows.
"We believe that the songs have to be played in the most naked form," he said. "It is an odd experience."
"All of our messages are of hope," he said. "We believe in people, so we try to uplift them. We also had hopes that one day our dreams would come true, and we told them if they have faith, their will too."
Hitchcock's style inspires local film makers
By PAMELA THOMPSON
Staff Reporter
Alfred Hitchcock would probably have said,
"good show."
Using many of the visual techniques and recognizable trademarks from the British film director's spine-chilling movies, two Lawrence Grosso films and one Pazuzu film direct and produce a mystery movie about spies.
Syverson, who worked both behind the camera as a production assistant and in front of the camera in a small, non-speaking role, said that the big market for film expression today was the feature film. The television movie will be broadcast Nov. 20.
Mark Syverson, Topea graduate student, said that he became inspired to make the movie "Foreign Agent" after being involved with the 1986 film *The Number of the ABC Circle Film*. The "Day After."
HE AND HIS FRIEND David Coyle, 134s
worked on "Foreign Agent"
for eight months.
"Dave and I are not avant-garde," Syverson said. "We are into the well, old-established vein of movies with a story. If an artist has something to say about life, he is successful in saying it, the audience will respond."
The public premiere of the 26-minute movie, which took a total of 300 hours to film and edit, will be at the Kansas Film Institute's film studio in Downers Grove in 21 in Dows Auditorium in Dyche Hall, he said.
The film makers also plan to enter Fortune Agent" and another movie that is still being made, "Dutch Uncle", in other film festivals across the country.
SYVERSON, WHO IS working toward earning his master's degree in film studies in 1985, said
Although the film makers are ambitious, they said that making films in New York was not their usual goal.
he and Coyle would like to collaborate on a feature film that would be released to American television networks and cable systems, and would be distributed to foreign audiences.
"We have a great partnership going." Syerson said. "We both work on writing the scripts, directing and shooting the scenes, and composing and recording the music tracks."
Coyle and Syverson formed their film production operation. Juggernaut Pictures last
Like Hitchcock, who is remembered as a perfectionist, Coyle and Syverson think that preparation is one of the important elements of film making.
MOVIE REVIEWS
BEFORE THEY BEGAN shooting "Foreign Agent," the two men developed a shooting script with 98 specific shot descriptions, a shot notations list with the precise details of each frame, and a master shot list outlining the camera angles necessary for each frame.
Rating System
Nightmares
"Nightmares" is an inappropriate title for this movie. Not that the movie isn't scary; it is. But the movie was more like "Tales of the Unexpected."
The movie had four different stories, or chapters, as the movie put it. The chapters, which were each supposed to represent a horrible nightmare, did not relate to each other at all. And I considered only the last story to be a real nightmare.
In Chapter 1, an escaped lunatic terrorizes a community by brutally stabbing people in their homes. But even after a sherif's officer is horribly stabbed in one woman's neighborhood, she decides to go to the store to get a carton of cigarettes.
In Chapter 2, a teenager is hooked on a video game that he can't seem to stop playing. He tries to get to level 13 of the game, which is supposed to be impossible to reach. The special effects are very good. Every video game addict ought to see this movie before they insert their next quarter.
In Chapter 3, a priest decides that he doesn't have faith in God anymore. He leaves a small
church and is suddenly pursued by what seems to be a driverless pickup. The chase seems are
Aahh, but this is no average rat. It can chew gaping holes in a wall in minutes and knock over giant wooden cabinets. By the way, ever seen a cat get killed by a rat (that's right, a single rat?) But if you think you could handle something like that, maybe this is the movie for you.
Finally, in the Night of the Rat chapter, even I, the brave, modest soul that I am, got a little squamish. Your average American family has a not-so-average problem — rats.
The acting in the show was very good and as a whole the movie went along very smoothly. I think everyone will enjoy this movie. For you to be able to watch it on TV, you won't be able to pull her off you.
Victor Goodpasture
Independence Dav
Unrealized potential
That's the most that can be for the film "Independence Day." It's one of those films that leaves the viewer wondering why it had to be so bad, when it could have been very good.
Some of the cinematography is wonderful, and the directing by Robert Mandel is at least competent. But the screenplay is a real dog — there are at least six plots going on at once, and only a couple ever interrelate. And some of it is downright insulting.
The movie centers on two young people in a small New Mexico town. At least, the producers tell us through the dialogue that it is a small town in New Mexico. There's nothing else that would lead you to believe that. All of the houses are frame. There's absolutely no adobe or Spanish
architecture, and no Hispanics. Oh, well.
The two young characters are as different as two young people from one small town can be. The young lady is a sophisticated, highly talented photographer who tosses around French phrases and wears a beret. She is a graduate of Western University who has been accepted to study photography in Los Angeles. The young man has just returned to the town after dropping out of trade school; he's a slightly redneck racer and is naive about some emotional realities.
The film is disappointing from the outset. The two characters are drawn together like oppositely charged magnets. Remember, these are two vastly different personalities, and at least one of them is extremely resentful of the backward and repressive social structure of the hometown. But the two have absolutely no trouble striking up a fight after he nearly runs her down with his hot rod.
This could have been much more interesting had the screenwriter, Alice Hoffman, created a little more tension between the characters and a little less stilted dialogue. The audience knows what they're going to do and say, and it's really surprising that a screenplay of this low quality could be produced and released to the American public. Happens all the time, though, huh?
After about an hour of this film, the viewer begins to get an idea of what the movie is about. That's quite a wait. Then we find out there are an awful lot of plots. Let's see, there is the boy-meets-girl, his emotional need to redeem himself by winning a local drag race on the Fourth of July, the solution of a hateful prank, and then he gets into the boy's sister and her husband, the girl's attempt to get into the photo school and on. What's the real point of this movie?
— Mike Cuenca
SPARE TIME
Items for the On Campus portion of the calendar must be open to the public. Lawrence and region activities must be open to the public. The deadline for calendar items is 4 p.m. Wednesday for Friday's paper and 4 p.m. Thursday for Monday's paper.
ON CAMPUS
RICHARD GANGEL, former art director of Sports Illustrated, will speak on "The Art of Sports Illustrated" from 6 to 8 p.m. today in 3140 Wescoe
THE BUTA AND OTHER Images: Paisley and Cashmere Shaws by Eileen Murphy will be displayed at the Art and Design Building gallery, starting today.
A VIRTUAL ARTS education show will start today in the Union Gallery.
EDWARD LAUT WILL will a faculty recital on the cello at 8 p. m. today in Swarthout Recital
KU SWORD AND SHIELD will meet at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Walnut Room of the University Building.
THE TAU SIGMA STUDENT dance club will meet at a p.m. tomorrow in Robinson Center in
Dallas.
THE LUTHERAN STUDENT Bible Study will be
taken 7 a.m. Wednesday south of Wescoe
cafeteria
A LINGUISTICS COLLOQUY will take place
RICHARD WILL WELL will give an organ recital at 8 p.m. tomorrow in the Swarthout Recital Hall.
THE SPENCER MUSEUM OF Art will exhibit "Eldred and Nevelson: Another Dimension," through Sept. 25. Also on display are "Influences: Antique and Contemporary Quilts" and "Early Modern Art from the Guggenheim Museum."
OWL SOCIETY WILL have a brown bag lunch at no Wednesday in the Sunflower Room of the Union. The speaker will be Peter Casagrande. Mr. Casagrande will speak on "Mayans, Megaliths & Man." An Ancient Look at the sky" at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Museum of Natural History.
at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in Room 207 Blake Hall.
at Chow-Kou Oh will give a speech "Why
Must You Give Up"
LAWRENCE
ENROLLMENT FOR AUTUMN art classes at the Lawrence Arts Center is taking place from 9 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday until the first day of classes on Sept. 19.
THE ELIZABETH M. WATKINS Museum is displaying its permanent collection which includes a 120 electric car, Old Watkins Bank and a 19th century survey in a 19th century survey with the fringe on top.
A GENERAL MEETING of the Ortea Neighborhood Association will be at 7:30 p.m. today at the South Park Recreation Center. The meeting will feature a slide presentation and
narration of the history and development of the neighborhood.
REGION
JOIN LEISENRING will give a trombone recital at 7:30 p.m. today in the University of Missouri Kansas Conservatory. Admission is free.
ROBERTA PETERS, SOPRANO will perform at 7:30 p.m. today in the conservatory as a guest artist. Artist/Conservator
ROGER WHITTAKER WILL perform at the
Museum Center for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m.
friday.
"MARJANA'S WORLD": Strawberry Hill will be displayed in Kansas City Museum through the end of September.
"ANIMALS FROM THE Collection of the Kansas Grassroots Art Association" will be presented through Friday at the Thornhill Art Gallery.
Choir members perform historic chordal songs
Staff Reporter
By PHIL ENGLISH
The director feverishly snaps his fingers to keep the music going at a swift pace. His broad hand gestures and forceful pronunciation of the melody, he is making the attention of all performers focused firmly on him.
Although the composition is only three minutes long, Mitchell Brauner falls in his chair after the song is finished as if he had been conducting for hours.
Brauner, the director of KU's Collegium Musicum Choir, a vocal and instrumental group which is part of the department of music history, said the group performed music written by Medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque musicians.
Although participation in the choir is part of a class that is required for music history majors,
THE 15 MEMBERS OF the vocal group meet twice a week to run through some of the more popular songs of the mid-1500s, Brauner said. The group will make its fourth yearly appearance Sept. 24th at the Renaissance Festival in Bonner Springs.
"This is not considered the nicest or smoothest music according to 20th century standards."
"EARLY BAROQUE IS the most coloristically exciting music that one can hear," said Brauner, who is replacing Daniel Pol吐馨斯 as director for "BAROQUE." He added that this music had died and needed to be reborn.
The time he is speaking of it the first half of the 16th century — the days when Josquin des Prés and Adrien Willaert were topping the Baroque and Renaissance new music charts.
The 10-piece instrumental group of the Collegeium Musicum tries to recreate the music of the Renaissance period by using instruments such as crumhorns, sabkuts and recorders, he said.
Brauner said that although the music was not modern, it had increased in popularity in the last decade. He added: "The whole of
Brauner said that although the music was not brauner, it had increased in popularity in the last decade. "I think it's very important."
"It does have a following," he said. "There is more interest in this music today than in the past."
"It does have a following," he said. "There is more interest in this music today than in mid-19th century music, as far as publishers and performances go. The music of the 1600s has a richness of tone color, unparalleled in any other time in music history."
1
MANY OF THE PEOPLE who participate in the chair sing for personal enjoyment.
"I knew some people in the group last year, so I went to a lot of the performances," she said. She said she liked the choir because it was small and closely knit.
Linda Knappenberger, Valley Falls senior,
that said although she was not a music history
major, she had heard about the choir from
friends so decided to take the class.
"I've always enjoyed this kind of music," she said. "It's light and fun."
Virginia Dowling, Sweetheart, Oregon, senior;
is a veteran of the Collegium and says she enjoys
themselves.
"IT PROVIDES ME WITH a good repertoire for my music degree." she said.
"The Collegium is not as structured as a chorus, it's more of a lecture demonstration," she said. "I enjoy learning the history, it's almost like living in the past."
She said the chair was professional and that she liked the relaxed atmosphere in which pratic
An added benefit of the class is that the performers get to learn a foreign language because most of the compositions are in French, German and Spanish. You can deal with concentration goes into each rehearsal.
BLOOM COUNTY
BY BERKE BREATHED