Page 6 University Daily Kansan, February 2, 1982
Spare time
Special to the Kansan
Human Switchboard members, left to right, Ron Metz, Myrna Marcarian, Bob Pfeifer, and Steve Calabria.
Contrasts spell success for Human Switchboard
By BLAKE GUMPRECHT Contributing Reviewer
Human Switchboard is a hand hard to figure. Melodies and lyrics that sometimes baffle and often don't jibe in a traditional context. Occasional nonsemenical vocals seemly thrown in simply to create a feeling. One moment they'll have the crowd dancing fast, furious, and—wham—they'll stop ice cold with a jolting change of pace.
Yet somehow it works, at least most of the time.
Human Switchboard is a four-piece band from Cleveland who have received nothing but critical raves all over America and abroad, especially since the release of their long-overdue debut studio album, "Who's Landing in My Hangar?", in November.
They'll appear at Lawrence's Off-the-Wall
book tour of Middle America,
brought to tour of Middle America.
The band has been together since 1977. Guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter Bob Pfeifer grew up two doors down from drummer Ron Metz in suburban Cleveland. Pfeifer and keyboardist Myrna Marcarian met as students at Syracuse University. Pfeifer was an honors philosophy student, Marcarian was studying classical piano.
SWITCHBOARD GOT ITS START without playing a note live; saving Lives and putting out a single on their own label. Two 425 and several trips to the East Coast later, the group has been plaued several times by the Village Voice, New York Times, and England's largest music weekly, New Musical Express. Next month they'll be on the cover of New York Rocker.
"We just did it for fun—we saw what was happening. Pfeffer said by phone from Ohio last week. Then the first record got great reviews, and then the more interested and quit what we were done."
For those who haven't heard, or even heard of, Human Switchboard—and, indeed, most haven't it, to no fault of the band's—their sound is closest to the 60s garage band genre, but with updated tapes and endless twists thrown in that defy classification.
Pteifer plays a nervous, scratchy, frantic guitar and sings in a voice off-compared to Lou Reed, without sounding affected. Marcarian's Farisa organ is cheese and sometimes even
church-like; she sings in a voice both beautiful and penetrating. Metz directs the unpredictable, stop-and-go part that's normally called the beat. Steve Calabria, who plays on three album tracks, has just been added as the band's permanent bassist.
SONGS LIKE "CAN WALK ALONE," { Used To} Believe in You, and the title track are filled with urgency and desperation, while "Saturday's Girl" is a beautiful, delicate song that sounds like a chorus vocals. The song could be a Top 40 hit if radio programmers would give it a chance.
Switchboard has the ability to be fragile and violent, grasping and disturbing. The vocal backtalk between Pfeifer and Marciarian works best on "Refrigerator Door," *7*-minute i-picture of frustrated communication with stinging realism and haunting silence, sometimes coming out as screams. We've told us, as though we've walked in on a lover's quarrel, the couple oblivious to our presence.
"I believe a lot more in people than in causes," Pfeifer said. "Their commitment and how they treat each other has a hell of a lot more to do with the world will end up than stopping the bomb.
THEIR SONGS DEAL PERSONALLY and introspectively with relationships. In the strictest sense, Switchboard isn't political, but the songs can be interpreted more broadly.
"We deal with economic problems, but by talking about the immediate problem of how to pay the rent, as opposed to 'why do we spend $75 billion on defense. I think that question occurs a little bit differently. That's the kind of thing I talk about with my friend. The kind of thing that makes me happy or sad."
"What's important to me . . . I can accept it if someone says 'I don't like the band, or the music—at least these believe in what they're doing.' "Pfeffer said. "Sincityer. That's what I'm going to think." That's what it's been missing in music. I know too many bands whose major goal is to make it.
Sometimes it doesn't work, though. Some of the songs seem repetitive. The quick halls sometimes simply irritate the confusion falls apart. Lines go on where they should end. "Book on Looks," a rave-up testimonial, comes across as an obnoxious parody.
HUMAN SWITCHBOARD isn't perfect. But they are real.
By MIKE GEBERT Contributing Reviewer
'Prince of the City' good, not perfect
PRINCE OF THE CITY
Starring Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Bob Balaban, Lindsay Crouse. Written by Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet. Directed by Diluvet Lumet.
It is difficult to review a motion picture like "Prince of the City"—difficult to watch as a film with so many good things in it falls short of greatness; difficult to explain why that happened without turning people away. To begin with, then, let it be said: for all of its flaws, "Prince of the City" is well worth going to. You may even have a moral obligation to go, and to go to "Heartland" and "Reds" and "Ragtime," as well as flawed they are all, if you want local theaters to show anything that doesn't have either axe murders or cute robots, that is.
Moral obligation, of a somewhat different kind, is what "Prince of the City" is about; the guilty compulsion of a cop who can no longer stomach the fact that he and his partners are crooked, and so becomes what they consider to be the worst kind of crook—an informant.
DANNY CIELLO (TREAT WILLIAMS) agrees to inform, agrees to be outfitted with a tape recorder, and becomes the middleman for police corruption with the mob, with which he has family ties, chiefly a cousin. He lays down some initial rules—he refuses to go after part-
prosecutor in In absence of Malice," as a-you-guessed it—federal prosecutor. He's better here, even if it seems like he'is in a contest with Albert Finney and Kenneth McMillan (the fireman "Ragtimate") to see who can play in the movies in one year. He's better here, even if seems like he's in a contest with Albert Finney and Kenneth McMilan (the fireman "Ragtimate") to see who can play in the movies in one year.
ners. But, as the case gets more involved, he loses control to unofficial federal prosecutors, and eventually finds himself the target of their efforts against him. He also his friends and imprisoned by federal custody.
The director, Sidney Lumet, has made a career out of New York-oriented material, as in "The Pawnbroker," "Sericpo," "Dog Day Afternoon," and, "regrettably," the Wiz. Similarly, much Prince flavor, most of the small roles are perfectly cast, with the sorts of faces one won't find much in the days of William Hurt.
**IF A MOVEMENT COULD be a made of saving graces,“Prince of the City” would be nearly perfect; it has a gritter street feel, looks good, and is intelligent enough to avoid all but a few cheap shots. But it centers on one character, one actor, and Treat Williams isn't the right actor. In most cases, he is not with underwider low-life, he has the right phony bravado; but as he becomes the craven pawn of prosecutors, he doesn't have the ability to let us know what's going on inside—and as the plot gets wrapped up in judicial maneuvers at the same time, it's easy to get as lost as he does. The part needs an actor who can achieve instant rapport with his audience. Treat Williams is simply not of their caliber.
one actor in this film does have that kind of rapport—Jerry Orbach, who plays one of Williams' buddies, Gus Levy. And other parts are well cast, even Bob Balan, the federal
THE COMPARISON with Pacino is most ap-
however, because Lumet and Pacino d'
"Sericpo," which was also about corrupt copr
This film, even though it was conceived for Jor-
Travolta and director Brain DePalma (who did
clever rip-off of the theme in "Blow Out"
seems to be aiming for that kind of high-mine
seriousness and the attendant prestige (o
that's why you don't want him superior)
for Lumet, who's a good director when he ha
good material, and helpless when he doesn't
because the best things in the film don't function
on that simple level.
A great asset of the film is that it has the courage to take the time it needs to tell its story. It lasts two hours and forty-five minutes and covers a period of some years. In doing so, it plays its theme out fully, never taking shortcuts. And it makes all sides of the issue more accessible, even if you feel that it lives on a cop's salary and, that crooked or, not these cops get results to the morality of informing and the impossibility of anybody in this kind of work staying clean.
With Big Brother-Big Sisters a little time goes a long wav
By BARB EHLI Staff Reporter
When students move away from home, not many people refer to them as "big brother" or "big sister" any more. For those who miss monster, there is a campus program called just that—Big Brother-Big Sister—that encourages people to make younger friends.
"The program takes volunteers and assigns them students from the Lawrence school district." Kari Dyck, a member of the program, said yesterday.
"Once a month, the organization has activities planned. It included a skating party, a picnic party, a dance party."
"The volunteers are asked to spend two to three hours a week with the children doing things that involve learning."
THE BIG BROTHER-BIG SISTER PROGRAM is a national organization, Rick Lingene, Great Bend senior, said, but “it's run differently in different places.”
Lingreen said that KU sororities and fraternities and some church groups have donated to it in the past and that the Student Senate also funded it.
The program has been at KU since the early 1980s, and its office is in the Kansas Union.
Tony Andersen, Salina junior, said that his fraternity had sponsored the haunted house for several years as part of their national philanthropy.
"We converted a couple of rooms upstairs into mini-haundown houses and scared a lot of them."
One prank had a fraternity member dressed as a mummy; another, wearing the costume of a demented doctor, and told the kids that the mummy was fine as long as he was kept in chains. The mummy would then break the chains.
Brothers and Big Sisters last semester and that 50 more would be paired up this spring.
"Anyone that wants to be a volunteer has to attend a workshop," she said.
beneath workshop, she said:
AT THE WORKSHOPS, the volunteers fill out evaluations and may indicate what type of child they are interested in befriending. Dyck said.
Counselors from the schools attended by the children come to give an explanation of what the child expects and what is involved with the program.
"We also suggest activities so they aren't totally on their own to find something every week. We stress that they're not a parent or not a disciplinarian, just a friend." Dyck said.
School counselors recommend children to the program and the program uses the counselors
"Sometimes the kids will have behavior problems and the volunteer won't know how to handle them, or sometimes the child's home life alarms the volunteer," Dyck said.
If the problem is severe, the child is recommended for professional supervision rather than observation.
Dyck said that the children involved were from broken homes, have had trouble adjusting to new housing.
Dvck said that there are 60 pairs of Big
THE VOLUNTEERS ARE ASKED to join the program for a school year, but can participate for a longer time if they wish. Dyck said. She asked everyone who knew him had a little brother for four years.
Lingere was once a Big Brother and is now a staff member.
'MY LITTLE GUY had to move away after his mother died of cancer,' he said.
Lingreen added he had felt close to the little boy and his mother.
on campus
TODAY
THE NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENTS ORGANIZATION will sponsor a DUTCH LUNCH for members from 1 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Cork II of the Kansas Union.
There will be a HILLEL LUNCH from 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. in Cork I of the Kansas Union. Morris Kleiner, associate professor of law, will speak on "Jewish Ethics and Business."
THE COLLEGE ASSEMBLY will meet at 4 p.m. in the Forum Room of the Kanass Union.
THE TAU SIGMA DANCE CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in 242 Bonion Center.
THE JAPANESE FILM SERIES will
crowdron "King of the Pier" Gent-
lemen, 17 in La Plata, Chile.
There will be a STUDENT ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP at 7 p.m. in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union.
There will be a FACULTY RECITAL performed by Timothy Timmons on saxophane at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
TOMORROW
There will be a BLAK HISTORY MONTH
LUNCHCORE ROUNDTABLE at 11:30 a.m. in
the Meadowlark Room of the Kansas Union.
milestones
The Kansas welcomes items for inclusion in this column. Information concerning outstanding accomplishments of KU students, faculty and staff should be submitted to the Entertainment Editor no later than 5 p.m. Wednesday.
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