KU Weekend INDIGO GIRLS
Kansan staff writer Jake Arnold finds different interpretations of the group's popular music and offers some opinions of his own about the music's meaning.
The Indigo Girls concert tomorrow at the Lied Center sold out in a week. And the many different interpretations of their songs maybe why
one reason why.
Jamie Plesser, live-music coordinator for SUA,
said people had camped out to buy the $19 and $23
tickets.
if past shows are an indication, more than 75 percent of those ticket holders are women. The
Indigo Girls, who are open about their homosexuality, have a large and loyal fan follow-
sexually, have an image and joyful knowing because their music speaks to the audience, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
But what is it saying?
I wondered if a conservative, white, middle-class heterosexual male such as myself would be able to relate to music by lesbians.
I asked Christy Morris, Englewood,
Colo., senior, to give me her personal interpretation of "Love's Recovery," off the Indie Girls' self.
titled album, Morris, like me, had a strict Catholic, middle-class upbringing — except she is female and she is a lesbian. It made a difference in interpretation. The song opens:
During the time of which I speak it was hard to turn the other cheek
To the blows of insecurity ..
Meannahile our friends we thought were so together
They've all gone and left each other in search of fairer weather
Emily Salers
And we sit here in our storm and drink a toast
To the slim chance of love's recovery
We agreed that we were the I in the song. From there, we related it to our own lives.
Morris saw the we as her and a close female friend, not necessarily a sexual partner. During the time ... blows of insecurity was the time of her coming out.
"It was when I was first discovering for myself that I could love someone of the same sex and convince myself that was not wrong," she said.
I saw the we as me and my fiance, and I related the hard times to when we had fought and she had said things that hurt me.
Morris saw the friends of the song as those who had left her because she was a lesbian.
Friends to me were just my friends who hadn't stuck it out through tough spells in relationships.
Morris saw love's recovery as the possibility that former friends would learn to accept and come back to her.
To me, it was my fiance and me making up. Later the song says:
There I am in younger days, star gazing.
Painting picture perfect maps of how my life and love would be
Not counting the unmarked paths of misdirection
Morris remembers past illusions of a possible marriage and heterosexual lifestyle
"Not counting the unmarked paths of misdirection" was ignoring the signs that I was gay early on," she said. "Homosexuality is not an option in high school."
I thought of the dreams I had as a kid and how they didn't come to pass. Paths of misdirection were failed romances that I don't worry about because they would have kept me from my future wife.
At times, our interpretations were nearly opposite. The song speaks of not bending to the whims of culture. To her, whims of culture are heterosexual marriages and religious dictates. To me, whims of culture are radical lifestyles and loose morals.
Afterward, Morris and I agreed that neither interpretation was the intended one but that both were valid.
Music is in the eye of the beholder.
Amy Ray
It's an unusual creation when punk meets folk
Big Fish Ensemble is a really good band if you are somewhat tone deaf. And for them it works.
Their discordant mesh of sound matches well with lyrics that go from wise to weird to wild within a single stanza.
They were created when members of a law-school punk band, Wall of Shit, combined with Sofa, two members of which had been in the Indigo Girl's 'backup group
"Usually folk guitars and punk bands don't mix well," said Leigh Finlayson, one of the band members.
However, if you make the band mostly violin-driven and add in trumpets, drums,
a xylophone, a $10 garage sale trombone and a hummingbird, you create a working band that will release its third album, "Lucky." in Mav.
"It is an elaborate and scientific effect made by blowing through your hands," said Finlayson, who plays bass and trumpet.
What is a hummingbird?
BFE is a five-person band, but through the course of a show it might run through 15 different instruments and other sound effects. It also has been known to throw in home movies, popcorn machines, a chef cooking omelettes for the crowd and a
game of Twister in its live shows.
BFE is touring with the Indigo Girls, who sometimes come on stage and perform with them.
They will play at a sold-out show in the Lied Center tomorrow and will return to Lawrence March 8, without the Indigo Girls. When they play at Mulligan's, the 1016 Massachusetts St., it will be their third appearance in Lawrence. So look out. They don't like to spring their surprises on new audiences because it distracts from the music, but familiar venues beware.
"We'll just say there could be some surprises," said member Paul Schwartz.
Big Fish Ensemble
Laugh-Paks: life's alternative to sitcom laugh tracks
By FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer
But the folks who create sitcoms such as "Seinfeld" and "Mad About You" (not to mention duds like "Martin" and "Living Single") aren't taking any chances. Why not? Consider the two laws of sitcoms:
NEW YORK — Big sitcom night tonight, with laughs aplenty. Maybe even yours.
Enter the laugh track, which, next to a living room couch, is the most important component of the typical sitcom.
— Laughter is contagious.
Maybe the sitcom laugh track you hear on your TV contains the recorded sounds of a studio audience that, after hours of stops and starts in the staging of that sitcom,
— Lack of it is deadly.
In any case, the laugh track is the Wonderbra of mirth. It transforms comedy that, au natural, would play as thin as Kate Moss into something that purports to be voluptuously funny.
is rendered sufficiently giddy to laugh at almost anything.
But remember, the laugh track is not there to make you laugh or make you think what it's applied to is genuinely funny. It's there to mark each place where the writers meant for laughs to be. Just so you know.
Or maybe a laugh track consists of canned audience responses dubbed in after filming is complete.
Here, for example, is a bona fide example of sitcom give-and-take. The laugh track (shown here graphically) indicates the punchline:
Usually, it's some of both.
Meanwhile, you're out in the kitchen looking for a snack. Not to worry if you miss an exchange like "I handle small, fragile antiquities;" "Please, I'd rather not discuss your bathing rituals." The laugh track (HAHAHAAHAHAHA) acts as your proxy.
"Miss me?" "As much as I miss my acnee!" HAWAHAHA.
But where does that leave you when the TV is switched off? As the Bard wrote, all the world's a stage. As you go about your business away from the tube, you're just as much an actor as Jerry Van Dyke or those women on "The Mommies" (maybe more). In this comedy you call life, you deserve a little backup, too.
If instant, push-button, never-
mind-there's-nothing-funny-going-
on-here laughter is good enough for
the likes of "Full House" and "Muscle," why shouldn't it be available to you?
You're trying to impress a date with your cleverness, and your joke falls flat. No matter. You press a button on the Laugh-Pak. Instantly, her ears are ringing from the laughter of amused multitudes.
So get yourself a Laugh-Pak, and,
wherever you go, you'll have audience
responses at your command.
The Laugh-Pak: it's the all-purpose,
portable, personal laugh track.
Or maybe you hurl a zinger at your husband, something about not only does he have a spare tire around his waist but it needs a retread. Never mind that your wristcrack doesn't make any sense. Just push the "Gotcha" button on your Laugh-Pak, and out comes a resounding
You say something tender and loving to your child. But of course, he's not listening. Who cares? With the press of a button, the Laugh-Pak emits an appreciative "Awwwwwwwww."
"Wooooooooo!" You've scored a bull's-eye.
For the cost of a Laugh-Pak, you are spared the obligation to be truly clever and engaging — and spared that sense of failure when you're not. Meanwhile, the people with whom you come in contact are spared the obligation to listen and react to you.
It's a good deal all around. Sort of like watching the typical TV sitcom. Watch Lush Pak you get the last
With Laugh-Pak, you get the last laugh, at last.
Batteries and bad jokes not included.
Events
Tonight
Fast Johnny's, 9:30 p.m.,
$2, at Johnny's Tavern, 401
N. Second St.
State Line, 9:30 p.m., $3 at
Cadillac Ranch, 2515 W.
Sixth St.
Fast Johnny's, 9:30 p.m.
$2, at Johnny's Tavern.
Carson Shoefly, 9 p.m. on cover charge, at Full Moon Cafe, 803 Massachusetts St.
Teddy Morgan and the
Sevilles, 10 p.m., $4, at The
Jazzhaus of Lawrence, 926
1/2 Massachusetts St.
Einstein, 9 p.m., no cover charge, at Full Moon Cafe
Tomorrow
Steve Ferguson and the Midwest Creole Ensemble, 9:30 p.m., cover charge, at The Grand Emporium, 3832 Main, Kansas City, Mo.
Freddy Jones Band with Cherry Poppin' Daddies, 10 p.m., cover charge, at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. (18 and over)
kats, 10p.m., cover charge, at Duffy's in the Ramada Inn, Sixth and Iowa streets.
Salty Iguanas, 10 p.m., $4,
at The Jazzhaus of
Lawrence.
The Reverend Bill C. Wirtz with himny D. Lane and Blue Earth, 9:30 p.m., cover charge, at The Grand Emporium.
Sunday
Monday
John Paul and the Hellhounds, 9:30 p.m., cover charge, at The Grand Emporium.
Cretin 66 with Formaldehyde 5 and Outouse, 9:30 p.m., cover charge, at The Grand Emporium.
Loaded in Lawrence, featuring Shag, Brandos, Amputatoe and Mountain Clyde, 9 p.m., cover charge, at The Bottleneck (18 and over)
Tuesday
Loaded in Lawrence, featuring Bubble Boys, Action Man, Acoustic Juice and Vitreous Humor, 9 p.m., cover charge, at The Bottleneck, (18 and over)
Moose Costello, 8 p.m., no cover charge, at Full Moon Cafe.
Nigel Mack, 8 p.m., cover charge, at The Grand Emporium.
Wednesday
Loaded in Lawrence, featuring Velvet Teens, Blueshead Beggars, Means to an End and Frogpond, 9 p.m., cover charge, at The Bottleneck. (18 and over)
Jay Keim, 8 p.m., no cover charge, at Full Moon Cafe.
AZ One, 9:30 p.m., cove
charge, at The Grand
Emporium.
Thursday
Loaded in Lawrence, featuring Priss, Gospel Porch Singers, Power and Fear and STICK, 9 p.m., cover charge, at The Bottleneck (18 and over)
Michael Hedges in concert, 8 p.m., tickets $18 and $22, at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St.
Down to Earth, 9 p.m., no cover charge, at Full Moon Cafe.
Frogpond with Hefer, 10 p.m., cover charge, at The Jazzhaus of Lawrence.
Tenderloin with Smack Dab, 9 p.m., cover charge at The Grand Emporium.