University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 26, 1991
Arts and Entertainment
9
Day on the Hill to feature music from folk to rap
By Rick C. Honish
Kansan staff writer
SUA has created a monster
It will rise from the ground and come alive at the base of the Campanella hill at noon Saturday for its third consecutive year.
It thrives in the sun, ignores the rain and doesn't go away until long after the sun has set.
People will scream. They will run. They will jump.
They will not hide.
Paris, a performer from San Francisco, will lead the 1991 Day on the Hill. Paris will speak at 5 p.m. today in Alderson Auditorium
And the monster has evolved this year into something bigger and better than previous beasts.
This year's monster is not just a monster of rock. It is rap, it is funk, it is dancing. It is laughs, reggae and gospel.
It is Day on the Hill, and this year’s free 10-hour music festival, sponsored by SUA, Black Student Union, UJIMA, Black Men of Today, Native American Student Association and RKFE, features more acts than ever before.
Juliane Kochenour, coordinator of bands for Day on the Hill, said that her committee wanted to bring in groups with more musically diverse backgrounds in an effort to bring older a more varied crowd for the event.
Sue Murrell, SUA program director, predicted this year's show would draw 3,000 to 5,000 people.
Headlining the show is Paris, a San Francisco-based writer, arranger and producer who plays a blend of rock, hip-hop spiced with rock and jazz.
Paris also will speak at 5 p.m. today at the Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union about the message in his music.
"It's my responsibility to avoid promoting the frateradic violence and glamorization of the drug trade in the Black community," he said. "I have got to step up and convey positive messages to the people and at the same time make the best possible music."
Opening up for Paris is the Denver-based DOPE (Disciples of Peace and Equality). DOPE consists of two rappers whose sound has been described as being like an "in-your-face slam dunk."
The band's mission is to bridge the gap between rugged rappers such as Public Enemy and Ice Cube and the Tie Called Orest and De La Soula.
Preceding DPE on the lights is Az-One. A reggae band from Kansas City, Az-One last set foot on Lawrence turf in January when they opened up for Culture at Liberty Hall.
Beginning Day on the Hill will be four Lawrence bands, chosen by a 14-member panel to kick off the show. Kochenour said that controversy about how the bands were chosen in earlier years prompted her to use a large panel. She said about 40 of them were submitted for the panel to judge.
"It worked really well," she said. "There were a lot of great acts."
The first of the four to perform will be Now See Hear, a six-man "power-
funk" outfit which uses four vocalists and diverse instrumentation
perform, Formerly a "treble band," as guitarist Mark Marken said, Zoom has completed its line-up with the addition of bassist Jeremy Sidner. The band's sound is not always danceable, Henning said, but "it will make you want to get up and do something."
Next up is an acoustic folk act, Two Guitars and a Short Guy. Guitarist/singer John McKenna said the band originally formed for last year's Rock Chalk Revue, and things went well so they stayed together. Their tape, "Dusty Road," has sold nearly 100 copies through word-of-mouth alone.
Zoom will be the third group to
The final Lawrence act is Mutt Finicky, a four-month-old trio that bassist Todd Risley said combined influences from such diverse acts as
Fishbone, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimmi Hendrix. Their self-described "psy-chrizz-riddle-funk" will be unleashed on Lawrence for the first time Saturday.
Between-act shows will be FKM Explosions (comedy and music), the Inspirational Gospel Voices and the Miss Haskell Dancers and Singers.
Morrell said that Day on the Hill's ancestry could be traced back to
spring of 1978, when students were treated to the "Jayhawk Jam" on the lawn in front of Allen Field House.
In May 1979, memories of the previous decade prompted "Wheat stock."
Since then, outdoor festivals at KU have had different names and appeared at different times.
Since 1989, it has been called Day on the Hill.
Abuse theme falls flat in 'Thoughts'
Glenne Headly, left, and Demi Moore have a moderately interesting friendship in the new film "Mortal Thoughts," which Moore co-produced.
By Amy Robinson
I blame Farrah Fawcett
First, "Sleeping With the Enemy." Now Mortal Thoughts.
Why does every new, hot, young starlet run off and play an Earth woman involved with abusive men? Farrah went off and did "Extremities" and "Burned Bed" and,poof she,is a serious actress. I know, I forgot about her days as a jiggle girl on "Charlie's Angels." I think Julia Roberts and Dern Moore said to me "We're so stupid that more than polystyrene stuff, but damn it, I'm a serious actress. I want some respect, and I want it now."
These flicks are about spousal abuse in the same way that "Pretty Woman" is about prostitution and "General Hospital" is about medicine; pretty people play-acting about serious subjects with serious consequences. Then again, probably no one would sit through two hours on the realities of domestic violence or be able to deal with such clout to haul people into the theater to see shows on real domestic violence. Maybe one of them will make such a show someday.
In "Mortal Thoughts," James Urbanski (played by Bruce Willis) beats wife Joyce Glenne Headly. Tries to rape wife's best friend Cynthia Kellogg (Demi Moore). Turns up dead OK by me. He's such an irredeemably repulsive character that the question is not so much why anyone would want him, but why didn't anyone off him sooner?
Bruce's performance is cut mercifully short by his brutal death, but it is seared forever in my brain. See Bruce swagger. See Bruce sneer. See him leeer. Bruce is so over-the-top with this sleazoid number that it is completely unbelievable when Cynthia says that James used to be a happy go-luck guy. She must be one lousy judge of character.
Bringing us to Joyce. Joyce and James actually are perfectly matched. She is violent.
her own right — paranoid, homicidal. At one point, Joyce coolly plays chicken with an oncoming truck. Cynthia is appalled. James is orgasmic.
Demi starred in and co-produced this baby. She wanted to prove that she could do more than cry on cue. Well, she does cry, but she also gets to rant and rave and butter a New Jersey accent, like a serious actress. But why is it that when Hollywood makes films about ordinary, world-weary women, it casts them with glamorous young thines?
The friendship between Joyce and Cynthia is moderately interesting, if only for its vague, purely unintentional implications of something more than a friendship between the two.
To be fair to the performers, the script by Claude Kerven and William Healy does abate its length.
Alan RudolphDid this sucker. What was he thinking? My favorite shot was the slo-
mo of Harvey Keitel drinking water. You know how you can fudge on the length of a paper by changing the fonts? Well, Alan fudged on the running time by inserting unnecessary slomoes. Come to think of it, all of Alan's stylistic touches were unnecessary. Why the hand-held camera in the bedroom? The bizarro camera angles? The fade ins, the fade-out, the inappropriate close-ups? Alan used every trick in the book to revive this pie except order a rewrite Hey, that's so crazy, it just might ve worked.
Extra bonus points for the luridness of the Christmas lights. No matter how skillfully applied, no matter how quantitate the surroundings, you won't be able to match the mood for Las Vegas, not for the holiday spirit.
To steal from “Bloom County” and paraphrase that noted film critic, Opus, “Mortal Thoughts’ may not have been that bad, but Lord, it sure wasn’t good.”
CALENDAR
■ "House Party," SUA Movie, 7 and 9:30 p.m., Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas City. $2.50
Fridav
■ Uncle Tupelo with The Wannabees
9:30 p.m., The Bottleneck, 737 New
Hamshire St. $4
Ida McBeth and Friends, 9:30 p.m.
The Jazzhaus, 926½ Massachusetts St.
$4
The Hollow Men, 9:30 p.m., The Mad Hatter, 749 New Hamburg St. $3
"Rock 'n' Roll High School." SUA Movie, nightburn,木ruffruit Auditorium, Kansas Union, $2.50
Saturday
SUA Day on the Hill, featuring Paris and other bands, noon to dusk, Campaigne Hill, free.
■ "The Gods Must Be Crazy," SUA
Movie, 4 p.m., Woodruff Auditorium,
Kansas Union, $2
**English Alternative Theater, readings from play" *Comedores/Lovers*, "about life of Walt Whitman* 8 p.m., Downs Auditorium, Natural History Museum, $2; discounts apply.*
■ "House Party," SUA Movie, 7 and 9:30 p.m., Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union, $2.50
■ Killibilly with Filter Kings. 9:30 p.m.
The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St,
$4.
Ida McBeth and Friends, 9:30 p.m.
The Jazzhaus, 926½ Massachusetts St.
$4.
Poetic Justice, 9:30 p.m., The Mad Hatter. 704 New Hampshire St., $2.
- "Rock 'n' Roll High School," SUA
Movie, midnight, Woodruff Auditorium,
Kansas union, $2.50.
Sundav
Monday
■ "House Party," SUA movie, 2 p.m.
Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union,
$2.50
**Spring Concert Combined Choirs and University Symphony Orchestra. "A Celebration of the Lives of W. A. Mozart."**
2 p.m., Hoeh Auditorium, free.
3:30 p.m., Hoch Auditorium, free.
Open mike, 9:30 p.m., The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. free.
Wednesday
Helen Keller Plaid with the Mahoots,
9:30 p.m., The Bottleneck, 737 New
Hampshire St. $3.
Tuesday
KU Jazz Ensemble, 9:30 p.m., The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. $3
Thursday
"Alums Come Home Il." KU Theatre Alumni and Student Performances, 8 p.m., Crafton-Preyer Theatre, Murphy Hall tickets, at Murphy Hall Box Office, $10 for public, $5 for KU students, all seats reserved.
■ Monks of Doom with No Man, 9:30 p.m., The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., $6.
Sons of Rex, 9:30 p.m., The Jazz zhaus, 926½ Massachusetts St., $3.
NOTICE
Thank you to all who helped us since the fire, and thank you for your patience while we were rebuilding. All memberships will be extended Our new temporary location is SOUTHERN HILLS MALL 23rd & OUSDAHL (same complex as Benchwarmers and Arby's). We are located inside the entryway east of Pizza Shuttle.
REOPENING SPECIALS New customers or renewing customers who purchase this week will receive
2 FREE TANS and/or $5 off a HAIRCUT
This offer also applies to members who bring in new customers