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Friday, September 5,1975
University Daily Kansan
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
JUICE
Nitty Gritty earthy showv Dirt Band
By TIM BRADLEY
There was a time in music when any halfit back could toss off a dozen tunes about what a drag the city is or my city is, but now it seems in some trendy pedal steel guitar and some holky harmonies, and the record company would have itself the latest band to play on country-rock band. The sort of "country" music these bands produced hailed more from Hollywood than the hills, more from Cashville than Nashville, more from The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is something quite the else. For the past decade, it's managed to
maintain its integrity and to remain faithful to the traditions of its uniquely American music.
Lawrence fans will get to see this showy group in concert again at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, at the Avery Off-The-Dir Band. Appearing with the Dirt Band, in the first SUA Concert of the year, will be Danny Cox, a local singer-guitarist who's national reputation of his own.
Since its inception in late 1965, the Dirt Bard has been through six incarnations. In various capacities, members of the band have served as careers of Jackson Browne (a former member), Linda
Ronstadt, Andy, Williams,
Kenny Loggins, Michael
Murphy, Gregg Allman and
many others.
At one time, William McEuen, the Dirt Band's manager and mentor, managed Gregg and Duane Alman's Nitty Gritts, whom the Nitty Gritts released a house in the Hollywood hills.
Each of the band's four members is multi-instrumental. Jeff Hanna and Jim Ibbotson rotate guitar, drum and bass chores with the other two group members. Jimmie Fadden is one of the best honk harpists in the bliz. John McEuen, who double-
handedly brought the banjo out of the Beverly Hills hillbiles realm and into the public ear, is a virtuoso mandolinist, fiddler, steel guitarist and accordionist. All members sing and write.
Virtual ninty veterans, the Nitty Gritter Dirt Band has nine members. The Nitty Gritter ditters include "Some of the Shueles' Blues," "Mr. Bojanjes," "Cosmic," and "Houses at Poo Corner."
The disc that has probably been the biggest boon to the Nitty Gritty has been its ex-creation, but it was unbroken" for United Artist Records in 1972. A triple-record set, the album features a
plethora of pluckers and pickers from Nashville's finest. For many of them, including Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson and Vassar Clements, it was their first gold record and first across-the-board national exposure. The album was heralded by Nashville bears as the important event in that city's history, and it certainly is a tasty little devil.
Plastic saucers invade nation
After tiring of the LA. lust, in 1971, group members moved to Colorado, where they have resided ever since. Life in the Rockies proved to be an almost perfect band and its music projects the outdoorsy exuberance that Colorado seems to stand for. Their fast numbers, such as "Rave On" and "New Orleans," quicken the pulse and the head; ballads like "Proprieting" mist the eye; and they all warm the heart.
By WARD HARKAVY
Contributing Writer
FRISBEE, by Stancil E. Johnson. New York: Workman Publishing Co., 1975.
By WARD HARDY Contributing Writer
Some years ago, a toy company brought to the market an item that promised to be fun, but also cost a lot of money. That item was the Fri胜er.
Now there are Fastback Frisbees, Moonlighter Frisbees, and Even Frisbees, Master Frisbees and even Biocentennial Frisbees. As the kinds of Frisbees have changed, the plastic saucer's popularity.
Doctoral dissertations have been written about Frisbee aerodynamics; two expert Frisbee players tour the field; four teams in audiences; Frisbee leagues have even been formed.
For those people, Frisbean fanetics, there is finally a definitive book about Frisbees. "Bee," by Stancil E. Johnson.
The history of Frisbees and how to throw them would be enough for most Frisbees for larger children have progressed far beyond the very simple instructions emerged on the underbelies of Frisbees.
What we have in this country is a generation of people who have overdeveloped wrists, calluses between the first and second fingers of their hands and put them down and catch a plastic saucer.
different Frisbee models, as would a consumer testing report, even provides explicit explanation for why and how Frisbee fly.
There are sections on various Frisbee games to be played, and on the infinite number of challenges just waiting for us to master.
It's an unusual book, surely the best book ever written on Frisbees. It is, of course, the story of a frisbee player. Frisbees, other than an occasional pamphlet published by some hopelessly addicted Frisbee player interested in playing the game into a sport.
But this book categorizes the
There's ever a section in the book on how to train your dog to play Frisbee. If you've never done it, you are not interested in a strange experience. If you have a dog, you might be interested in training it to play Frisbee with you. Anyway, this is a book that will tell you how to do it.
If you're like me, you've played Frisbee for years without knowing that the game has a language of its own. That language, including names for birds and fish, is what you didn't know Frisbee had parts), is also in Johnson's book.
The last thing we need is another specialized language. For that reason, you'll have to read the book yourself and decide whether to adopt its larger.
about Frisbee could take much of the mystery and fun out of playing Frisbee, in much the same way that books that analyze humor often are dull reading and make humor no longer the delightful surprise it often is.
But this isn't so. The book shows Frisbee fanatics that other people share that fanatism. For those not in it, the book is a social phenomenon, the book is important because it so
thoroughly documents an activity that consumes many people's time. This book somehow legitimizes Frisbee.
One might think that a book
If you've seen a stumpy guy practicing an overhand wrist flip Frisbee on the lawn in front of Flint Hall, you'll know that "Frisbee" has had some success adding to your repertoire of throws and catches, this book will help you. If you're looking for an unusual diversion, this book will amuse you.
When the music biz is rife with bands whose members play like they have toes for fingers and whose singing voices prove that Darwin was right, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, after a decade of experience in the index by which to judge the progress of everyone else. No matter how bleak the week, a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concert will surely brighten it.
Rin Tin Tin comes of age in kinky 'Boy and His Dog'
Screenwriter-director L. Q.
Jones (who has done some
By CHUCK SACK
Reviewer
It's difficult to comprehend how, much less why, 'A Boy and His Dog' has gained its cult status in the months since it was released. It has no bright new stars the director is an admirer of. But it breaks no new ground. The only big name connected with this film is that of Harlan Ellison, the controversial science fiction writer whose work varies from brilliant to sophomoric. The novella on which this movie is based is a classic category, and banality pervades every aspect of the production.
interesting character acting in winters like "The Wild Bunch") has faithfully adapted Ellison's story of a futuristic juvenile and his telepathic canine. Vic, the boy (Don Johnson), is a rover in post-war California. HI! restructuring of the adventurers who roams the nuclear wastes above ground. Vi's all-American pastimes are pillaging, murdering and raping.
Blood, the dog (Tiger the Dog), does the duo's brainwork. in exchange for the food that Vic provides. Blood locates Humans for his symbiont partner's more animal pleasures.
kinky roles (leads in "Zachariah," "The Magic Garden of Stanley sweetheart" and "The Harrad Experiment"). Vic has been Johnson's most demanding role. He must be as flexible to do, play straight man to a poker-faced dog.
Tiger the Dog is not one of the better dogs to be featured in a full-length film. In fact, without an able assist from the voice of McIntimie, he would be just another over-over. Blood becomes a cross between Lassie and Francis the Talking Mule.
1975-76 University Theatre and Inge Memorial Theatre Series
The dramatic conflict, such as it is, develops when they encounter a bitch of the human variety who comes from Down Under. Vic follows the girl to underground Phoenix and a man who was her friend. Topeka, while Blood is left to ford himself in the desert.
The Time of Your Life
Telemachus Clay
No Press, the Wolf and the Firebird
Annie Get Your Gun
Compersonas
Scarecrow
Jest, Sirt, Irony and Deeper Significance
Stunce on the Killing Ground
Sacramento 50 Miles
Pieces
The Changeling
Colonel Sellers: An Entertainment
Pieces
The acting in this shaggy dog story is mediocre at its apex, and the not for best acting must go to Don Johnson, if only limits the selections to the human actors. Some members of the KU theater faculty grudgingly asked Ms. Johnson to student here, though they hasten to add that he didn't graduate. Still, he has been one of the University's more visible students, specializing in slightly
Comparing Blood to his acting competitors is especially revealing, for only within the context of traditional Hollywood boy-dog relationships like Hugh Dancy's and BoobyDaddy's slightly tart comments seem at all humorous. Without such a framework there's nothing especially funny about Blood and Vic. (But just for a touch of joy to imagine Rin Tin Trak checking down a girl for Rusty.)
Univerity Theatre, Sept. 5, 6
Iugate Theatre, Oct. 1-11
Iugate Theatre, Oct. 1-4
Univerity Theatre, Oct. 17-19, 24-26
Univerity Theatre, Oct. 28-Nov. 6
Univerity Theatre, Nov. 7, 8, 14-16
Univerity Theatre, Dec. 3-4
Univerity Theatre, Feb. 13-15
Univerity Theatre, Feb. 7
Iugate Theatre, March 3-12
Univerity Theatre, April 1-4
Univerity Theatre, April 20
Univerity Theatre, April 23, 24, 30
University Theatre, April 23, 24, 30, May 1
Obviously, "A Boy and His Dog" is not *f**r*ly farse, despite the deceptively heart-warming tone of her story with profanity, has occasional muddy and–without dwelling any more on the idiot plot—a "shock" ending is ultimately a grade school dirty joke.
TV deals empty band this fall
The scene is a small room off a suite of offices near Rockefeller Center in New York. The men are around a triangular table, a stack of large cards precisely placed equidistant from them. The men are scheduling television networks. The game they wait so eagerly to begin is Contemporary Catatonia, a novel by Keith We join the group as Executive A draws his first card.
By EVIE RAPPORT Entertainment Editors
"This is always so exciting." A says, "Such a relief from the old days when we had to come up with ideas on our own. Well, here goes. Our first new fall show."
He turns his card up, revealing to the others the brightly colored figure of Charming Rogue, one of 10 executives who will construct their fall television schedules.
"AHA," he exclaims. "One of my favorites. I happen to have in my briefcase a contract signed just this week by Tony
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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"Not to worry," he assures his fellow gametakers. "You may ask for help. If the police show, but we’re still in there slugging. We’ve got this—a street cop uses his wits to fight an apartment riot in the big city streets."
Franciscoa for 13 shows of "Matt Helm." Youremember the Dean Martin films—so sophisticated and exciting. Yourhomefree."
Executive N, undaunted,
takes his turns with the fates,
drawing a card illustrated by a
Policeman.
Editor
Dennis Elwisworth
Associate Editor
Campus Editor
Debbie Gump
Carl Young
Business Manager
Chris Loy
Assistant Business Manager Advertising Manager
Jet Kedel Rouris
Parris
The others groan in dumay.
Executive C, down two
stocks so he sees the evening,
rashen by the next day. His
face glows with delight.
"Hold it," Executive A challenge it, "what about police Story, to fair justly, without something you've alreadyKKd something you've alreadyKKd
"You dim bulb," Executive N scoffs. "*Pollice* will go on just before this. I'm talking to you in the clincher here, there's the clincher. We've got Lloyd Bridges to play Joe, the street-wed cap."
"Eat your hearts out. I've got
a Mirror card, and we're ready for it! My network is proud to present “Beacon Hill,” a precise and authentic replica of ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’—except, of course, we’re throwing out all that dreary social comment and some good of American sex. You may as well go home—you’ll never top that,” C. Gloats.
"Don't be so sure," says A, who takes his turn confidently. "You're counting your boobies before they're hatched. We just drawn a Combo card. My network is prepared to offer a wide variety of training requirements. We have a street-wise cop who fools the criminals and corruptors by assuming a number of brilliant disguises."
"Barretta my cockatoo!" A squirches. "This will be set in the late 19th century, not the present day."
"Oh, no you don't," C warns. "We own the rerun rights to 'Wild, Wild West.'"
"Not it, hold it hold it hold-
'you're not going to sneak
'Baretta' past us again,
protests N.
"This isn't 'Wild, Wild West.'"
"It's 'Barbary Coast—and it's set in San Francisco, and it gets an undercover investigator in front of me. If you can top that, I'll eat my videotape machine."
"Fooled you all," says A.
N is shaken, but determined,
"I can't believe it!" he gasps.
"Who shuffled these cards?
These is too much! I, too, have
drawn a Combo card—be
prepared to salt your cassettes,
"I offer you, gentlemen, my network's ultimate Combo. I trump your aces, I scorn your meager pretensions. I give you 'The Family Holkvak.' Beyond your inspir "Waltons" and your boorish "Koijk." We've co-originated the Glenn Ford will star as a preacher fighting crime and corruption in the streets of a small Southern town during the Depression. We conquer all!"
And so it goes, far into the night. The cards come up—
the ball is pitched out and in Macho Dream—until the schedule is filled once again.
Thank you, ABC, NBC, CBS.
For nothing.
A comfort of quilts
Staff Photo by DAVID CRENSHAW
Anv Evans, director of the Lawrence Arts Center, displays several of the examples from the Historical Quills Exhibit, opening Sunday concurrently at the Center and the Watkins Community Museum. The quilts shown, which range from 50 years to 120 years old, include one belonging to the family of Del Shankel, executive vice chancellor.
Films
This Week's
JAWS-Director Steven Spielberg calls this "an exertion of intellect" and strenuous exercise in viewing, Starring-in order of achievement-Richard Dreytus, Roy Carney, James Crawford, sharks and Robert Shaw.
HIGHLIGHTS
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL — The English book about the Knights of the Round Table. Fragmented and occurrences rather like watching clips from Marx Brothers' routines without being familiar with the book. Don't miss the opening credits.
ROLLERBALL--The game of the future is competitive mayhem. James Caan possesses the feeble-minded robot superstar, Norman Jewison's direction mucked up pilot choice, and intended for those who enjoy gathering at traffic accidents.
THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER — Peter Sellers giving his best comic performance in years. The script leans heavily on his talents and the longer exposure but, Sellers' slapstick compensates for most of the defects.
A BOY AND HIS DOG—Man's best friend in future shocker.
WHAT'S UP DOC and THE THIEF WHAT CAME TO THE THIEF WHAT GOOD, good, the latter is bad, and Ryan O'Neal is dull in both.
-Check local advertisements for times and locations.
(Af 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in Woodruff Auditorium.)
EVOLUTION and RUN
WILD, RUM REE
Darwin's short about Darwin's evolutionary theory. The second is a 1969 movie that follows the life of Adam and his troubles, directed by Richard C. Serraflan and
THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT-Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy portray bandits. Isn't that wonderful?
(At 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Woodruff Auditorium.)
starring Mark Lester and John Mills. Give your kids a break from TV.
(The double bill begins at 7:30 p.m. Monday in Woodruff Auditorium.)
DESTINATION MON—An early American science fiction movie, shot on a modest budget and very entertaining. Directed by Michel Pichol in 1950. Starring Warren Anderson and Tom Powers.
GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE—This fantasy, directed in 1992 by Gregory Brown, is about a President who seizes unprecedented power to solve the nation's lills. Are you watching, watching, watching? Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, C. Henry Gordon and Samuel Dudley, in a bizarre film, Doubleday billed with the Moonon "月夜 on Monday."
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS—From the Hemingway pain "spain" struggle with fascism, from a headhead by Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Tarja Otterson and Katina Pavinow, and a beautiful Victor Young score highlight this excellent movie. Directed by Sam Wood
(At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday In Woodruff Auditorium.)
THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER—1962 British film directed by Tony Richardson. Starring Tom Courteney as a prison inmate completes a in race. A drama lens.
Exhibits
(11 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays,
1:30-4:45 weekends in Weaver
FOLK ART SCULPTURE-
LAND goulds and other miscellany collected and reorganized into the works of their respective speciates. By the late Dave Woods, Humboldt joint sculptor. Co-sponsored by the Kansas University.
Sculpture Court, adjacent to the Museum of Art, Sept. 7-Oct. 5.)
THE ART OF THE INDIAN BASKET IN NORTH AMERICA-IA The basic basket refined to beauty.
(Through Oct. 5 in Museum of Art.)
CONTEMPORARY IMAGES
—Recent acquisitions of works by Oldenburg, Krebs, Stella, et al.
(Print Room, Museum of Art, through Nov. 30.)
HISTORICAL QUILTS—Hand-made examples owned by Douglas County residents, organized by the heritage subcommittee of the county's Bicentennial Commission. Concurrently at the Lawrence Arts Community Museum. Walkins Community Museum.
(Opens at 2 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 7, at the Arts Center, and the Watkins Streets, and the Watkins Streets, and Massachusetts Streets.)
F I V E A R T A S T S
i c o e r i c a l w e e p w e e p,
p o c e r i c a l w e e p,
banks and screen printy by the
Midwest and South by the
Midsouth.
(Opens at 2 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 7, at 7E7 Gallery, 7 East 7th.)
Theater
THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE-William Saroany's award-winning 'dramatic comedy about a motley group of San Francisco saloon patrons. An anorex of the fine summer that was memorable for its strong cast and brisk direction.
(8 p.m. tonight and Saturday in University Theatre.)
Lectures
THE NEW PIONEER:
INHIBITS
WILLA CATHER—Bernice Slate, professor of English at North Dakota, discusses one of the great women authors. First in the 1975-76 Humanities Lecture
(8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, in Woodruff Auditorium.)