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University Daily Kansan, November 19, 1982
Entertainment
Four Georgia boys drive R.E.M. with hot rpm
Mike Mills, Michael Stipe and Peter Buck, members of R.E.M., played fast-paced music before a group of fans Tuesday night at the Lawrence Opera House. They met at the University of Georgia.
and have been playing together for two and a half years. R.E.M recently released the LP "Chronic Town."
The Lawrence Opera House sounded Tuesday night to the shadowy sound of R.E.M., a hot tub with a jacuzzi.
By BONAR MENNINGER Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
More than 300 people crowded into the dance hall to bactuver to galloping sound that made at least a few screechers laugh.
The concert, promoted by KJHK radio, opened with a solo ase by Peter Hobasik guitarist with a solo ase by Karen Hobasik.
But he soon slipped from the edge, changed his style of singing and settled into a monotonous,
Accompanied by only an electric guitar, Holsaple started strong with a love ballad called "Not Cool." His voice, for that song anyway, was a taut, powerful cross between John Prine and raspy Richard Bulter of the Psychedelic Furs.
apathetic delivery. With his songs draped in the languid remnants of folk rock, Holsiap indulged his ego for a little while longer before departing the stage.
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NEXT TIME he should bring his band, or play his soles at home for his parents.
After a restless interlude, R.E.M. took the stage around 11 p.m. The dance floor was filled with people dancing.
The fourstone is composed of vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills.
The scruffy looking, grey, and black-clothed boys hurtled around the stage dancing with each other, grimming and crashing up and down, seemingly carried off by sheer joy.
The joint was rocking
R. E.M.'s music at its best has a spiritual clarity, honesty and leanness that reminds the listener of bands like U2, the Cure and the Psychedelic Furs.
The sound rolled along, soaring, ebbing, melodiously crashing in chords and words before regrouping to build again. The vocalist shouted, guitars rang out, drums thudded. The drummer stopped as the smoky dance floor.
The lyrics were hard to find, but words surfaceed as in one reasuring refrain, "I, I can
Out of context, such a phrase sounds pretty hokey, but coming from these unpretentious Georgia boys, it sounded as if it were about the best thing you could tell someone.
AFTER SEVERAL encores, the crowd filtered out to the street.
"I just think they're a fantastic band. I really enjoyed myself tonight," said Ethan Smith, city
"There is nothing weird or strange about this music. It is just good. This is what's going to eventually take over, this kind of music," said Kelly Dodd of Lawrence.
"I was real surprised by the turnout." Stipe said after the show, quailing a cold Guinness Stout. "It was a lot of fun. It seems to me that in the Midwest, you can't be guaranteed as many people, or as great of a PA system, but the people that do show up it seems to me a lot more sincere than the people who go out to shows in New York or Los Angeles
During the show, the band sometimes dropped into a listlessness that was probably due to the colds and flu that the members have had, according to a sniffing and hoarse Stipe.
The Georgians seemed to enjoy playing in Lawrence.
"I lived in the Midwest for five years and I know what it is like to be really dying to hear your voice," she said.
Guitarist Peter Buck said simply, "It's a real good scene here in Lawrence."
Said drummer Bill Berry, "The similarities between the Midwest and the Southeast are good ones. It's not the jaded thing you find on the coasts, where unless you play at mach 10 volume or look like you just walked out of a sewer or something people think you are weird."
Live theatre strong in China, actor savs
Live theatre is more important in China than it is in the western world, Ying Ruocheng, an actor from the People's Republic of China, said Wednesday. As a result, film actors are rare compared to stage actors in Chinese theatre.
Ying received international acclaim for his portrayal of Emperor Kublai Khan in "Marco Polo" a mini-series for television.
"There were five different languages on the set and many interpreters," he said about working on the series. "Differences in culture were also a problem."
Ving spoke to audiences yesterday and Wednesday in a series of lectures about Chimichangas.
"We found a common artistic language. We knew as we worked what we wanted artistically, and these things came out to be the same."
His lectures were titled: "Chinese Theatre Today," "Chinese Theatre in Changing Society: Its Role and Function;" and "My Experience in Working for 'Marco Polo.'"
IN HIS LECTURE Wednesday, Ying said that traditional theatre made up 80 percent of Chinese theatre today. It consists of singing drama, which began about 1,000 years ago.
Traditional drama is free of space and time on the stage, he said. It ignores the apparent limitations of the medium.
"In traditional drama, everything must be done by the actor," he said.
He said story telling was the reason that peasants knew about the history of China.
Ying also discussed the art of story telling in China. He emphasized that storytelling is practiced throughout China.
"We profit by studying our own traditions," he said.
Ying is known for his translating skills as well as his acting
ru used to translate Shakespeare into Chinese, he said. Now he devotes his efforts to reconstruct it.
Ying's visit to the University was sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies and the International Theatre Studies Center in New York, Mid-America. State Universities Association.
Conductor applauds art as 'lodestar of humanity'
By DAWN GRAHAM Staff Reporter
Every man is an artist, whether he wants to be or not, and expressing art may be the only way to preserve the human race, the conductor of the Atlanta Symphony said recently in a speech at
Robert Shaw, who is world-renowned for conducting classical and orchestral groups, spoke to a crowd of about 250 as a guest speaker of the Humanities Lecture Series.
Shaw has been teaching KU students and lecturing on campus throughout a week-long
On Sunday, he will direct the combined KU choral groups and orchestra, with faculty and guest solists, in Beethoven's "Missa Sollemnis" at 3:30 p.m. in Hoch Auditorium.
The concert, sponsored by the office of academic affairs, the executive vice-chancellor's office and the Endowment Association for performance for KU's Music Scholarship Fund.
IN HIS SPEECH Tuesday, Shau said that the liberal arts, which he did not list or define because "there's a little uncertainty as to where in the world he was where the most powerful form of communication."
Shaw's deep voice rang with reverence as he spoke of the arts. He defined it in such terms as "flesh become word," and said that "man in all his glovy is clothed only by such as these."
"I believe that the arts are a lodestar of man's humanity, perhaps even more than religious or spiritual."
He added that art is "the most pervasive, persistent, powerful affirmation of the life force" of human beings, and said that it reached across differences in time and culture.
Shaw described a tour of Russia in 1962, where
"The tour corresponded precisely with the sharp edge of the Cuban crisis," he said, "but where we might have expected to meet with demonstrations or picketing, there were only affectionate greetings of 'bravo' and 'thank you.'"
Shaw said he had encountered similar experiences in other foreign countries, and expressed the hope that an international organisation could bring countries closer together politically.
he conducted a choral chamber group whose programs largely consisted of religious music
"My point in passing is certainly not that political and economic problems of the world are going to be solved by singing," he said. "But if we understand each other so warmly and naturally in these areas, we may one day be able to compose political and economic differences."
THE ARTS ARE not always used to pursue noble goals, Shaw said. He outlined recent trends in commercial art and music, and said that the business community is the art and shredded the essence of communication."
But Shaw said those who used the arts for commercial gain rather than the pursuit of truth had only learned to manipulate skills, and had not taken on art's "relentless and unreliable" nature.
Though humans are as capable of cruelty as of kindness, Shaw said, they were a "plus on creation's side," and could not undermine the true purpose of art: communication.
"Every man is an artist, whether he wants it or not," he said. "The only question is whether he's enough of an artist to fulfill his humanity — and to fill full his short mortality."
Shaw has been part of that attempt to communicate for more than forty years, and at Sunday's performance he will continue his musical conversation with fellow man.
On campus
TODAY
CATHOLIC CENTER WORSHIP will be at 12:30 p.m. in Danforth Chapel
BIOLOGY CLUB will meet at 4 p.m. in the Sunflower Room of the Union.
ASTRONOMY CLUB will meet at 8:30 p.m. in
500 Lindley Hall if it is a clear night.
SUNDAY
PRAYER will be at 10 a.m. at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.
Robert Shaw, music director and conductor of the Atlanta Symphony, spoke on "The Conservative Arts" Tuesday in Woodruff Auditorium. His lecture was part of the Humanities Lecture Series.
'My Favorite Year' avoids cliches of era
Movie evokes laughter, but avoids glamorizing '50s
By VINCE HESS Staff Reporter
The song played during the opening credits is not a modern-day Top 40 hit but "Stardust," an old, familiar but still popular song.
The first four minutes or so of the movie, which is set in the year 1954, prepare the viewer for the surprises in the rest of the 90-minute film.
"My Favorite Year" is an unusual movie
However, the version used for the movie was
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sung by Nat King Cole — who died nearly 20 years ago.
Also unusual about the movie is its plot — or,
rather, combination of plots.
contemplative song by a deceased singer, the movie switches to bawdy comedy.
A group of comedy writers for "Comedy Cavalcade," a weekly prime-time show performed live for a national audience, joke among themselves as they prepare for the week's show.
After the rather somber beginning with the
Soon the scene changes to a luxurious motel room, where the showguest a guest of the week is staying.
ONE OF THE WRITERS, Benji Stone, portrayed by Mark Lim-Baker, is assigned to watch after the guest star, a famous movie star named Allen Swann. Swann, portrayed by Peter O'Toole, eventually leads the young, innocent Stone on a wild tale of alcohol, women and adventure.
Amid all the fun and games, however, is serious, thought-provoking dialogue between
Swain is an unusual figure. He has starred in numerous daring-do roles, fighting evil kings and monsters.
Indeed, in one of the movie's more touching scenes, Swann explains his greatest problem to Stone, even as a female admirer asks for Swann's autograph. Swann says he does not want it. Rather, they marry him — and they are disappointed when he does not live up to their expectations.
turns into a drunken, lewd temperament backstage. In addition, he is plagued by fame
Stone makes his own revelations to Swam — he changed his name from Benjamin Steinberg to enhance his career, and the woman he loves is his girlfriend. Stone swam during his first rehearsal for the TV show.
The sobriety of such a scene is mixed well with the comedy and satire of other scenes by director Richard Benjamin, who himself is known as a comedian actor.
IN ONE OF THE more clever scenes, Swann eats with Stone's parents and relatives in a Brooklyn apartment. Stone's step-father, a
The movie also saturates the television business as well as union bosses.
The cook replies, "Parrot!" The camera shifts to several horrified dinner guests seared near an oven.
former Filipino prizefinder, serves mealofat as the main course. Swann asks about the cooking process.
The ending of the movie — a grand finale that combines the bummer, drama and high adventure
Another strong point of the movie is its fabulous shots of scenery in New York City, especially Central Park and 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a near-palace of a building that still today is headquarters to NBC-TV, the network of "Comedy Cavalcade" in the movie.
The plot is entertaining, but the changes from seriousness to comedy are confusing at times. However, the acting by O'Toole and, to a lesser extent, Baker, salvages any weaknesses in the script.
present, but separated in the rest of the movie—will likely leave most viewers cheering.
VET ANOTHER interesting aspect of the movie is the moviemakers' reveling in the particulars of the 1950s — clothing fashions, mobilities and live national network television shows.
As the title suggests, "My Favorite Year" is a nostalgic look at a past time. Yet the movie's nostalgia is of the clear-eyed, not starry-eyed or dead-eyed. It was a period when history remembered, but the wars are not forgotten.
The movie might not win any awards, but it is entertaining, probably appeals to a wide and varied audience and will someday make an excellent late-night show on TV.
However, a question lingers — are the moviemakers merely projecting the attitudes of the 1950s onto a 1950s setting, or are they showing unusual insight in revealing the similarities today and yesterday? The 1950s generation needs to be heard from on this question.