Section A · Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, November 16, 1998
Entertainment
Chad Dempsey, Maryville, Mo., senior, plays the trombone. Dempsey is a member of the Lawrence Bar Band that played at local bars on Friday nights during the weekend of KU football home games. The band won't play again until next year's football season. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
Lawrence Bar Band sounds off for the year
By Augustus Anthony Piazza Kansan staff writer
Every Friday night before the University of Kansas football team takes the Memorial Stadium field for battle on Saturday, horns blare, drum beat and cymbals crash at some local drinking establishments.
But bar patrons looking for the Lawrence Bar Band this weekend were out of luck because the home football season has ended.
For three years, the band has performed Friday nights at local bars.
The group of 13 musicians has played at The Sandbair, 117 E. Eighth St.; The Wheel Cafe, 14th and Ohio streets; and The Crossing Inc., 618 W. 12th St. The band tends to perform the
most at the Sandbar because the bar sponsors the band.
The band, which is composed of students and University of Kansas alumni, plays KU fight songs, the fight songs of other schools, the KU alma mater song Rock Chalk Jayhawk and Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet.
The Bar Band, which doesn't get paid for its performances, was organized by Chad Dempsey, Maryville, Mo., senior.
Despite the presence of some KU band members in the group, Dempsey, the Bar Band director, said that the group was not affiliated with the University.
Pat Mushrush, bartender at the Sandbar, said that the band played for about 20 minutes.
"It gets people into the spirit of things." Mushrush said. "They come in, get on the bar counter and play fight songs and Margaritaville for us."
Mushrush said that the bar patrons often would sing the words to the songs as the band played.
Dempsey said that the members of the group had no aspirations to play at other times besides the Friday night before football games.
Mushrush said that he wanted to see the band expand their schedule to include weekend nights throughout the rest of the year.
"There has never been a bar band that played here," Mushrush said. "It would be kind of cool if they played every Friday night."
Brad Pitt doesn't save Joe Black from agony
Review
By Jeremy M. Doherty
Kansan movie critic
Some movies earn the privilege of surpassing the customary two-hour running time, and Meet Joe Black is not one of them.
happens to look like a golden-haired movie star. Death makes a deal with the guy: Give me a four of the world of the living, and I'll spare you for a few days.
This 180-minute beast barely has
enough ideas to sustain a 90-minute movie. Did Kevin Costner, the king of three-hour epics, sneak into the Meet Joe Black editing room and sabotage, what might have been a cute romance?
Parrish agrees, and Death, now calling himself Joe Black, invites himself into every facet of the older man's life. He attends board meetings, marbles about
MEET JOE BLACK
The movie begins simply, focusing on Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins).
Kansan rating: **out of ***
Running time: 3 hours
Rated: "PG-13" for pranfity and 90 minutes of unnecessary footage
"Isn't it enough to be on the earth for 65 years without being reminded of it?" Parrish mutters in an exasperated moment.
the owner of a media empire who's about to hit his 65th birthday. But Bill isn't ready to begin enjoying his golden years: He's on the verge of selling his business to a greedy competitor, and Parrish's oldest daughter (Marcia Gay Harden) continues to pester him with plans for his upcoming birthday gala.
As luck would have it, Parrish's bad heart kicks in, prompting a visit from the Grim Reaper (Brad Pitt), who just
peanut butter and falls in love with Parrish's other daughter (Claire Forlani).
As three-hour movies go, Meet Joe Black possesses a simplicity that at first is charming but gradually becomes frustrating. Director Martin
Brest (Scent of a Woman) has a fondness for long, static conversations between his characters. Character A will murmur a question, and Character B pauses for about 90 seconds before replying. Or worse, Character B might even repeat Character A's question, and the viewer's rear end grows ever tougher.
Parrish either is enlivened or depressed by Joe Black's presence; Hopkins' performance seems to suggest both, depriving the audience a chance to connect with his character.
Pitt is as watchable as ever, but he's playing an entity here instead of a true
Claire Fortani shares a dance with Death (Brad Pitt) in the romantic drama Meet Joe Black. The movie also stars Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins, and was directed by Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman). Contributed photo.
character. I never believed that I was gazing upon the Angel of Death — the actor has just too earthy a personality.
The movie looks splendid, though, with vivid cinematography and sets that enhance Bill Parrish's excessive lifestyle. But Brest and his crew of four screenwriters can't find the balance between that and the New Age sappiness that accompanies Joe Black.
Meet Joe Black is not intense, engaging or even funny. I can't remember the last time a movie took so long to say so little.
Pitt 'searches' for answers amid life of fame
By Ric Leyva The Associated Press
NEW YORK - For Brad Pitt, it's all about "the search."
"The search for why you're here, what you're doing and who you are." he said.
And part of this search for self, he said, is that he refuses to make any excuses.
"It's hard not to believe the hype, the good and the bad," Pitt said. "It's hard not to get
"I don't know what fame is, first of all. I have no idea." Pitt said. "I could never have been prepared for it, for the mind games that come with it."
sucked into it, and if you get sucked into the good, it means you're going to get sucked into the bad."
When lightning struck, he was blinded.
"It was just a confusing, confusing time. And it's still confusing," he said. "People are telling you that you're much better than you certainly feel
and people are saying you're much worse than you certainly are. And you're just trying to find out who... you are."
Shunning the ease of playing stereotypical matinee heroes, Pit's work has ranged from the lovable but doomed fly fisherman of *A River Runs Through It* to the psychotic killer of *Kalifornia*. He was the babbling maniac of 12 Monkeys, for which he received an Academy Award nomination.
But his resume isn't always
what people want to talk — or read — about. It's his love life that lures readers.
Pitt is reluctant to discuss his personal life, fearing a repeat of what he went through with ex-fiancee Gwyneth Paltrow. A worldwide audience followed the couple's every move, at first sighing over their storybook romance, then clucking and wagging fingers over their sad breakup.
Now he's dating actress Jennifer Aniston.