8
Friday, February 16, 1979
University Daily Kansau
Collages alive with color
BY SARAH ILES JOHNSTON
Reviewer
Last semester, AI Loving led a hectic life. He was an artist-in-residence at the KU School of Fine Arts, as well as a "sleep-inservient"; his studio in the Art and Design Building became his living quarters for the semester. Loved spent his weekends飞到 New York City, his home, where his work is well known.
Loving was in Lawrence Saturday night to open an exhibition of his work at the 7E7 Gallery, 7E. Seventh St.
It's difficult to describe Loving's work—a characteristic in his favor—but it can perhaps best be compared to Monet's water lily series and Matisse's later collages.
Loving sprays handmade watercolor paper with bright or pastel hues before or after tearing it into strips and abstract shapes.
The pieces then are assembled between two plates of pixieglass and sometimes are stroked with charcoal. The interwoven plates, with charcoal, are filled with cream which suggest water lilies, evoke an image
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of layers of plant and animal life that live beneath a pond.
LOVING'S COLORS are vibrant; his collages have the idea of a pond without being restricted to pond colors. Each torn paper shape is lit by several tones; violets melt into paprika reds and saffrons. The fluxes of color give the individual pieces of paper and the unified look a work of flickering ink onto darker or lighter areas in each collage, and help push those areas of the composition forward or backward.
A problem in Loving's collages is the clearness of the plexiglass. The arrangements of paper strips are fluid, not creating definite outlines. Tentacles of color reach out from the central groupings of shapes.
The somewhat ragged outlines would not be distracting against opaque, pauce.
backgrounds, which would better define the borders of the pictures, but the clear plexiglas may cause the viewer's eyes to be led away from the compositions by the outstretching tentacles. There aren't decisive lines between the wall and the collages to pull the eyes back into the compositions.
THE PLEXIGLASS causes another problem by introducing the texture of the wall into the pictures. 7E7 walls are white and smooth with a light yellow surface, successfully to become part of the collages.
This problem is alleviated in the collages which Loving has backed with white, instead of clear, plexiglas. Although the milky opaqueness does not form strong enough borders to overcome wandering eyes, the collages feature makes these collages less cluttered.
These problems are not large, though—the weaving sensation of the strips and energy of the colors are invigorating enough to earn praise. If the disadvantages of the clear plexiglas could be overcome, the collages would be dynamic.
The exhibition will run through March 7.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Arts & Leisure
Guest artists to perform
William Albright and the McLean Mix will be the guest artists at the 1979 Symposium of Contemporary Music Monday through Wednesday in Murphy Hall.
The symposium will feature new music by KU students and composers from around the country, along with performances by Albright, a keyboard composer and performer, and the McLean Mix, a husband and wife duo.
Charles Hoag, chairman of the symposium committee in the School of Fine Arts, said new ideas in music would be exchanged during the three-day event through a series of informal gatherings, lectures and recitals.
all symposium events are free and open to the public.
Albright, who specializes in performing contemporary music for organ and piano, has given premieres of more than 30 new works in this genre as well as posers. As a composer, he is best known for
Albright is a faculty member at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he is also associate director of the Electronic Music Studio.
has keyboard works, although he has produced works for almost all instruments.
THE MCLEN AIX is a husband and wife duo formed in 1974 by Barton and Priscilla McLean. Since then, the McLean Mix has performed electronic music in cities throughout the United States. The duo has recorded 11 works on big record labels and have performed on National Public Radio and the Voice of America.
Edward Mattila, professor of music theory, said he wrote a computer program to simulate analog devices such as musical instruments and added to that a program for the musical
Some of the new compositions by KU students and faculty members that will be performed are the first pieces generated by KU's computer.
score. An analog computer represents numerical data as electrical signals.
From his program, the computer produces a punched tape that must be fed into a digital-to-amalgam converter, which can then be used with the use of a speaker, Mattila said.
Monday: The McLean Mix at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
The symposium schedule is:
Tuesday: an informal gathering and coffee at 10 a.m. in the Murphy Hall Lounge; Albright will lecture on "The Organ and Mr. Albright." at 10:30 a.m. in Swarthout, and concerts of new music at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Swarthout.
Wednesday; *Coffee at 10 a.m. in the Murphy Hall Lounge; a panel discussion at 10:30 a.m.; new music concert featuring the Kannas Woodwind Quintet at 2:30 p.m. in Swarthworth; and a final concert at 6 p.m. in Congregational Church, 925 Vermont St.
Tolkien characters come to life in animated 'Lord of the Rings'
Reviewer
By RON BAIN
Frode lives. And so do Bilbo and Gandalf on the silver screen in Ralph Baskin's animated version "Lord of the Rings," a film that was directed by Bill Murray.
Baksi, who also directed the animated fantasy adventure "Wizards," has created a milestone in animation history with the technical quality of the art in "Lord of the Rings." Rarely has such realistic, absorbing animation been seen in a motion picture.
Bakshi also has remained faithful to the detail and dialogue of Tolkien's books by presenting the hobbits, wizards, elves and other assorted characters just as Tolkien fans have imagined them for years. The series is called The Ring, in which the ring's history and then moves into Bilbo's 113th birthday party.
Biblo delivers his farewell speech in exactly the same words that Tolkien wrote in the beginning on "The Fellowship of the Ring," and that is how he ends it.
'My dear people! Eleveny-one years is too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits.
"I don't know half of you as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
Such attention to detail helps the Tolkien kit, as well as the viewer unacquainted with the famous trilogy, to enjoy the movie. However, without warning, anyone who sees the movie might be disappointed with its cliffhanger ending. The film encompasses only about half of the trilogy's entire story, and ends abruptly with a velled promise of a sequel.
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In doing so, Bakhi has raised the animation film to adulthood—this is not a cartoon meant only for children. It depicts battle scenes where blood is spilled, and the sinister black beasts that represent the forces of darkness in Middle Earth could certainly frighten a small child. Bakhi makes Tolkien's black riders and orcs appear scary enough to make adults nervous.
The film's finest point is the superior quality of its animation art. Much of the art is almost photograpically realistic, and the action and flow of the movie is neither slitted nor stiff. Bakski has achieved a breakthrough in the animation film industry. Even Walt Disney, who developed animation from a hobby into an art form, never produced so realistic a cartoon.
The background scenery showing Middle Earth is stunningly beautiful, especially in the depiction of the elven lands, Rwendell and Lothlomer. Baskin employs lighting and contrast effects that mimic the viewer's scenes stand out on the screen almost three-dimensionality.
However, Tolkien fans will have to remain on the edges of their seats until Baksi finishes the sequel, "Lord of the Rings, Part II."
Lawrence discos are thriving but town's tempo is way behind
暂
By KATHLEEN CONKEY
Staff Writer
"Give the people what they want when they want and they want it all the time." Parliament, one of the first bands to concentrate on democracy in 1972, when deozo was beginning its rise.
Parliament knew what it was talking about. Since the beginning of the disco age, which has also been dubbed the age of narcissism, it has been all-important to give the people as much of what they want as is possible—and in ever increasing dosse. What they want is to party, to fantasize, and to scream. Some call it decadence. Others, disco.
The people intimately involve with disc (and their legs are growing) don't seem too concerned with the moral aspects of a music genre that is often considered degrade. They are just plain dumb. Or perhaps they are enthralled by disc's supposed decadence.
Whichever the case, in the past five years the disco beat has invaded the minds and pocketes of people from every demographic corner. Disco's influence is growing, in the clubs where it is being played, and the ones we listen to, the way we entertain ourselves, even in the drugs we use.
Disco, with all its computerization,
represents the mood of America in the 70s.
But it's not hot enough. It has hit
Lawrence has seen the opening of four new discs, G P Loyd's, Bullwinkle's, Mingles and The Sanctuary, all private titles. He also opened a new Disc 12, Shemanigans, an 18 disc, opened in 1976.
The Sanctuary, which opened in November, used to be The Stables, a large bar. Ace Johnson, the owner, explained why he went disco.
"If I'd known it would be this successful,
I have done it years ago, I thought discusc
was just a fad five years ago. But when
Gilbert-Robinson pours half a million
dollars into a disco (Blias Disco, which is
Kansas City, Kansas) Mo, you can't be it a fad."
Disco seems to have surprised many people. It's hard to remember when the songs we danced to changed from soul and rock to disco. But many people will remember thinking, "I'll never last" when Gloria told us that Can Say Goodbye! in the top of the charts.
That was 1974. Five years later, the disco boom is finally pounding in Lawrence full force. But, that boom mixes agony with ectasy. The ectasy, because at least there are places to dance. The agony, because of the general ineptitude of those places.
In example, except for Shenanigans, the Lawrence discs are bars that have merely squeezed in a dance floor. They feel like bards with舞 floor factors rather than places meant to be disco. The floors are tiny, most of them smaller than 15 by 20 feet.
Even with five discos in Lawrence, the floors fill fast on weekend nights. Of course, crowds are essential to disco, so that the dancer can feel he has an audience and so he can move freely from room to move, to be creative. The tiny Lawrence floors don't afford that space.
Another problem is operating hours. Eighteen bars can't serve beer after midnight and private clubs can't serve drinks after 2:30 a.m. in cities where disco is really happening, go home before 4 a.m. in cities where everyone does everyone do, after 2:30 in Lawrence?
A severe drawback to Lawrence disco is the dated styles of most of the disc jockeys. Except for the DJs in the Sanctuary, by far the best disco in town, Lawrence DJ's announce titles and artists to almost every event. Their music should play as one continuous song and should build to climaxes with only occasional slowdowns.
Besides bad timing and unnecessary voice-overs, the DJs are plagued by either bad taste in music or a poor selection to choose from. Lawrence plays exclusively top 40 discs. If you hear it in a Lawrence show, you've probably heard it on the radio first.
Another bad habit of Lawrence DJs is accepting requests. It please the request-maker to hear his favorite song, but it doesn't allow the music to flow. A Chicago song does not belong sandwiched between a Donna Summer and a Grace Jones.
However, The Sanctuary is taking giant steps to catch Lawrence up with the rest of the disco world Johnson said he interrupted a concert and would play the kind of music he wanted.
"I knew that New York disco was different from what you hear in the midwest," he said. "I wanted a classier disco with New York style music."
One of his DAs, Tom Franz, criticized the way other Lawrence discs are announced.
"I don't even consider them discos," Franz said. "Sometimes they are 15 or 20 second pauses between songs. They sometimes don't even use two turtles. They often sometimes sing of songs, I wish I had three turtles for all theaking I want to do."
On weekend nights when Franz is spinning the discs, the evening sounds like one long song. One can't stop dancing. He doesn't take requests. The music he plays is current, but often never heard in Lawrence before.
"When I planned my disco, I placed the DJ above the crowd so he could control it." Johnson said. "Torn can really bring the people to a peak and keep them there, then when they're ready, he lets them down easy."
Johnson said many customers at the
Sanctuary had never heard New York style disco and didn't understand it.
"At first we got a lot of flak from customers. We had to educate them. But going disco and playing good music has paid itself in increased business," Johnson said.
One problem that no disc in Lawrence is immune to is a pervasive midwestern unreasonable about anything that is different. This sensitivity inhibits the complete abandon and innovativeness that makes disco, disco. You can't find disco freedom in Lawrence. We have it at the Kansas Services of Kansas disco, held in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
These are undoubtedly the best discos in Lawrence. There is no problem with space. The DJs are masterful and play the newest disco works. But most of them, a are frenzied, wild excitement at the Gay Services' discos.
The reason for this, in part, is because the gay community created disco and brought it to prominence in the first place. The gay community sets discs trend and often makes or breaks disco releases. It naturally discurses the most vibrant, exciting discs are gay.
People who go to the Gay Services' dances (many are straight) create excitement through the clothes they wear, the way they dance, their less than discreet use of 'discenses' and their openness to nitrate substitutes—and their openness to just about any expression of feeling good.
However, Gay Services sponsors discs only once a month. In the meantime, people often take their discs to Lawrence's five dance spots. With all their problems, the Lawrence discs are well-decorated, have friendly atmosphere and provide an unforgettable experience. Needed release from the tensions of the 70s.
Groups, such as Disco Sucks, and people who are outraged at a trend they are powerless to stop, will continue to lament the disco era and its accompanying "mindlessness." ("Isn't Disco Sucks a rather mindless slang?")
res, disco is extremely mechanized. Many disco hits emerge only after a great deal of studio mixing. Often the rhythm sections are not drummed by human hands.
But to say all disco sounds alike is similar to the kind of prejudice expressed in statements like "All blacks look alike." One needs to be sensitive to the differences and find ways to discover and enjoy the beautiful throb of disco music.
r nose who rail against disco might as well face facts. When such bastions of rock as the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart turn to cutting disco tracks and sell more albums by doing so, it's a sign of disco's strength, not its impending death.
you can't beat the disco beat. Why not dance to it?
Bonnie Jo Hunt, native American opera singer, pauses backstage
before performing a concert at Haskell Junior College auditorium.
Soprano aims voice at Indians
By RHONDA HOLMAN Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Bonnie Jo Hunt was a Sioux Indian long before she ever sang on an opera stage.
Remembering that was what brought Hunt back to sing for the people she said needed her most—the American Indians.
"I wanted to continue singing and I wanted to sing to the people, not the critics," said Hunt, a lyre soprano who sang at Haskell Instrumentalist Awards.
"I decided my greatest contribution could be to the Indian people. I feel that they are very musical people, but they are not endowed with that kind of talent."
Hunt, who is supported by the Ford Foundation, performed two concerts at Haskell earlier this week, spoke to music and humanities teachers at Haskell and entertained Indian children and adults in a celebration of Indian men at the Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth tomorrow.
"The Scandinavians in the Dakota country used to call the Indians names," she said. "That encouraged me to work harder so I could have a profession and competence of my own, so I wouldn't have to take a second seat to anybody."
HUNT, WHO GREW UP in North Dakota and Montana, said she decided to be an opera singer when she was 10 years old. She won a talent contest when she was 12 and continued to sing, despite her difficulties against Indians in her area and lack of support from her parents.
"My parents still don't understand why I wanted to be a singer.
They say they're still afraid I'm going to fail."
Hunt has sung with the San Francisco Opera Company and the University of California Balshi Theater in Moscow and the Conservatory of Music in Cairo.
Hunt, who acts out her songs, said communicating to the audience was her main goal.
SHE SANG songs from Broadway musicals and traditional opera arias Monday and Tuesday night, as well as several Indian and American folk songs.
In her Haskell concerts, she first came out on stage in a traditional Blackfoot Indian buckskin dress, letting her long black hair hang in pigtails. She later changed into a concert gown and wig to show the audience what an opera singer usually wears.
"To say, communication is the most important thing. Music students often get so tied up with technique and the correct production of tone that they are not taught to communicate and make the words clear."
Hunt speaks French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Latin, English, Sioux and Arabic and has lived in Egypt and South Africa. She now lives in Albuquerque, N.M., so she can be with many Indians.
She said she hoped to encourage young Indian students to hard on their musical talents and feel confident about them
narr on their musical talents and feel confident about themselves.
"I've noticed that Indian children are so vivacious," she said.
"The they have no limit between kindergarten and the third grade, but then each year they grow up hungry for knowledge or a lot of things. Their vivaciousness seems to get subdued somehow. It's a cultural thing, a stereotype. I want to work on that with them."