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Friday, November 19, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Study essential for smart stereo buying
By STEVE FRAZIER
Staff Writer
A fine stereo system can be one of the most enjoyable purchases a student consumer can make-yet the selection process can be terrifying.
Tremendous competition in the electronics industry has resulted in an initially bewildering array of equipment. Each manufacturer is eager to show the potential customer why his products, among the others available, represent audi perfection.
Combine the maze of lights, switches, dials, filters, gauges and meters with unscrubulous dealers, and the consumer's prehension climbs.
First, recognize your goal. As a local audio dealer said, good stereo equipment
snound enable you to "listen to music clearly, comfortably, for the least amount of money and over the longest period of time."
**LEARN THE basics and get some idea of what is on the market. Thumb through catalogues and buyers' guides, read a few copies of Stereo Review or High Fidelity, and do some preliminary browsing in stereo stores.**
You won't have to become an electrical engineer, but you should have a basic understanding of technical specifications as a basis for your work. You don't let specifications be your only guides.
"Hunting for power in a stereo system is like hunting for power in a car," the dealer said. "You don't buy a b Chevy because it has five horsepower more than a Cadillac."
ALSO, AVOID the brushed-stel syndrome. Component designers have created impressive-looking, beautiful equipment, but behind those computer facades and
Know myself. After you've investigated available equipment in a general way and brought your checkbook up-to-date, acclimate decide your equipment needs and budget.
beneath the walnut veneers are some real
dews.
Don't be a sucker for salesmen pushing speakers that come complete with fully automatic shoe polishers unless you either rich or have a foot fetish. Here's where you might have to fight to remember the purpose of a stereo: accurate music technology. You can't possibly prevent you from affording better quality equipment with less frills.
ON THE other hand, don't be a Spartan unless you're really tough. It you've decided that automatic tone arm lift on a turntable is a frill, remember that at the end of every record you'll have to lift the tone arm before it hits the record's nano label.
As you decide your budget, know what your money will buy. For less than $300, any turntable you buy after selecting passable speakers and a receiver will chew the
groves off your records. With $900 to $800 and a little care, you can select a fine system to please you now and, even as your ear for stereo becomes more refined, in the
A good dealer is no more noble than his less satisfactory colleagues; he just realizes that if he treats his customers right he will still be in business when they come back for more expensive equipment. A well-financed dealer can buy good quality equipment and provide good service if anything would go wrong after the purchase.
Start looking for the right dealer by asking your friends with stereos whether they like shopping at a store or buy, but whom to see. Shop with an open mind. Look for a salesman who makes a
sincere effort to determine your wants and needs. Avoid those who follow a standard routine - a salesman should treat you as an individual.
*Sales are sales for a reason. Santa Claus has yet to establish an audio decoder.*
FOR THE most part, you'll have to trust your ability to judge character when searching for the right dealer. Don't automatically distrust all salesmen, but be sure.
The reason for a sale might be obsolete equipment, damage or unrealistically high retail prices. You can buy good equipment online and sell it on the internet selling it for what it's worth. Expect some discount, particularly on lower quality equipment which has the highest retail markup, but realize that you'll save money in equipment with real value on the first try.
- A word about buying quad;don't.
WORD BORDERING quad short.
THE FLURRY of excitement over quadrophonic sound has passed, and today's quad buyer is saddled with a
technological cripple. Also, only a small percentage of recordings are available in
Paying for the extra equipment needed for quad reproduction would severely cut sound quality at any price level. Consider a pair of speakers with $200, two $200 speakers and four $100 speakers.
THE HUNT is part of the fun of stereo, and the more you shop the more you'll learn. Good stereo systems might be so expensive that it's hard to know to that it could take some time to become accustomed to fine gradations in quality. A dealer who tries to rush your decision
- Don't hurry, because time is on your back. In the past few years, technological advances have led to more efficient and accurate data processing.
A dealer who tries to rush your decision doesn't deserve your check.
■ Finally, beware of "How to Buy a Stereo" articles, including this one and especially those printed in manufacturer and store catalogues. Anything less than a stereo can cost you a short space a writer can inject most of his own blases about stereo components.
Arts & Leisure
Skeptical student eyes Japanese kimonos on display in the Union Gallery
Reviewer
By CHUCK SACK
Movie policy remains bad
Several weeks ago in the Kansan, Eldon Harwood, the city manager for Commonwealth Theatres, was quoted as saying that he preferred a steady influx of customers. "We have a schedule I wonder what he's recommending this week.
Tonight, assuming that you've seen "Marathon Man" in the first two weeks of its run, you can choose from the three films: "Wear Warning," a pastiche of gratuitous violence that might well be subtitled: "S.W.A.T. Goes to a Football Game" and gives new meaning to the sport's sudden death play on the field, indicative adaptation of an eight-year-old song; "The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones," an R-rated conglomeration of suggested sex (called a "skincheater" in the trade, because it involves nudity); and "Pony Express," a family western.
SINCE "ODE" is a returning feature, one would suppose that there is simply a dearth of films where this has happened. Commonwealth is just waiting for the Christmas releases, which will begin around Thanksgiving. But what about the movies haven't even been shown here?
"Smile," "Stay Hungry," and "Killing of a Chinese Bookie," all titles that I suggested in my first column this semester, still. These films have already been released off as failures elsewhere, and after months of precrastinating, Commonwealth has finally dropped them from the schedule. Ironically, in a week later the same films would probably do a respectable amount of business.
WHICH BRINGS me to my main point: Commonwealth simply doesn't seem to know its business. In Junction City last year there was a local movement that succeeded in
halting the X-rated films, which had become a staple of the theaters exploiting the military audience of nearby Ft. Riley. Many of the supporters of the movement were less concerned about the X-ratings than they were with the monetwealth was ignoring its responsibility to the rest of the community.
Here in Lawrence, there is a variation on this type of exploitation in Commonwealth's handling of foreign films. Last year, after coming under fire for a film about the French Lawrence Journal-World's film critic, and myself, Commonwealth brought five foreign films. But each time there was a condescending "Challenge to Students" printed in the Kansas Journal where weren't 1,000 paid admissions, there would be no more foreign films.
EVIDENTLY, the corporation has no sense of how to cultivate an audience. Proof of this came this year, when he and his friend—three-year-old "Love and Anarchy" and again issued its tired challenge. The film drew slightly more than 1,000 people, but the offer was apparently made in bad faith, for the promised continuation of films hasn't materialized.
True, last month Hillcrest did book "Hedda," but every movie buff I know classified that as "filmed the theater," even if it was made in England. If Commonwealth felt that this was a mistake, it is another indication that they don't know their business.
WORST OF ALL, this negligence affects other outlets in Lawrence. Last summer, SUA booked Lina Wellermiller's "Seven Beauties" for showing this semester, only to have the film cancelled from the series when learners of the film didn't been shown commercially in Lawrence yet. It still has:"
I doubt that Lawrence can
support more than one foreign film a month, but it can definitely do that much. Commonwealth must be made to realize that the 1,000 admission requirement is simply intellectual blackmail. Plenty of these films are about 1,000 people, some of them in the second and third weeks of their guaranteed runs.
BESIDES, for all their meaning, Commonwealth must be making some profit in Lawrence. This fall it was announced that they would build a new twin-theater in south Lawrence. But there is no issue with the bookstore's promise to improve bookings. If present policy is continued, one of the theaters will probably
be given over to more skin-cheaters and the other will become the depository for hand-me-down films from the downtown theaters and Hillcrest.
I'm not lobbying for more foreign films again, I'm really asking Commonwealth to be more responsible. In their bureautricap pyramid it is the dollar that is cited as the basis for all decisions. But for some reasons, many of us are put in the position of begging Commonwealth to take our money.
success are mutually exclusive. I don't think that "Last Stop Greenwich Village" is too esoteric for the majority audience, and I feel like a fool having to plead to get it here.
I AGREE with Mr. Harwood that "quality" is what's needed, but with the Commonwealth's efforts to improve that quality and financial
Like most film-goers, I enjoy a wide variety of films, but I prefer to criticize only the better offerings, and I disdain the stream of pap we've been served lately. Normally, on Wednesday go to the opening of the best new film in town. In his week I stayed home to rest, and then watched "The Disappearance of Aimee" on television
For a good quality evening, the local theaters couldn't begin to compete.
KU's musical groups to perform joint concert
By MERLE GOLDMAN
"You scream at them to watch!" James Ralston, director of choral activities, said Tuesday.
How does a conductor get 292 singers and about 70 instrumentalists to perform like one musical instrument?
THE "TE DEUM" will be conducted by Burt Allen.
Any screams that Ralston may have uttered in rehearsals this week with the University of Kansas combined choirs and choruses and the University Symphony Orchestra should play music in a concert at 3:30 p.m. in Sunday in Auditorium.
That is when the groups will make their once-a-semester joint appearance. The ensemble will perform Joseph Haydn's *Marie Therese* and Mozart's "Grand Mass in C Minor."
assistant instructor of ensembles, as part of his course work for a doctorate in music. The "Grand Mass," which will feature four soloists, will be conducted by Ralston.
"These are some of the great art works of history so it is a tremendous thrill to pull off one of these," Ralston said. "It's a very exciting sound when you get about 300 people singing."
Those who will be performing Sunday belong to the choral groups in the School of Fine Arts and the University Symphonica Stratha. Membership in these organizations is open to KU students.
only one of the 120 members of the University Chorus give, Ralston said, and they have been practicing for it all semester. The University Chorus is that doesn't require an audition.
Ralston said that the Chamber Choir and the Concert Chorale, the number one and two choirs in the choral hierarchy, had already given two performances of the "Ballroom Dance" in September with the Chamber "City Philharmonic."
George Lawner, professor of ensembles and director of the University Symphony Orchestra, said that the concert of many that the orchestra had performed this semester.
Pattern and color of kimonos shown
THE CONCERT Sunday is the
The Concert Choir and the University Singers, he said, had worked during the semester for them to set their own individual concerts.
THE SOPRANO and also solistes for the "Grand Mass" are Lora Culmer and Inci professors of performance. Professors of performance. Singing tenor and bass soles will be Thomas Harper, assistant performance, and Augustus Pearson, Topeka graduate student.
By LEROY JOHNSTON
Western eyes are easily boggled by the flamboyance of the Far East. The elegant temples, sederic customs and attire all contribute to the feeling that the Far East is a world apart.
Take the kimoon, for example. These loose, wrap-around robes hitched with a sash are the everyday clothing you wear at work. They are light years away in concept from a western suit or gown.
The 32 second-hand kimonos now on display at the Kansas Union gallery hardly look as if they're ready to throw away, but in them they were picked up and Hurst in a flea market in Japan.
HURST SPENT two years in
Kyoto, Japan, and is now a
graduate student in textile
design at the University of
The exhibit, which runs through Dec. 12, contains underkimos, outkeriminos,
Colorful floral designs are clearly the most popular, as are patterns of goldfish, butterflies and birds.
According to Hurst, all of the examples on display are from the 20th century, but you wouldn't be able to find that out by visiting the exhibit. In an effort to get the viewer to notice the details, no information about the history, meaning of the kimonos on display can be found in the gallery.
children's clothes, jackets and two highly-embroidered wedding kimonos. All of the clothes are lavishly patterned, some with scenes reminiscent of the ballet paintings, others with geometric
THE VIEWER is urged to concentrate on the patterns without the benefit of historical perspective or special instruction. Hursley said she was the only person he has fascinate the eye with color and to intrigue the mind with pattern."
The two wedding kimonos are the most spectacular items in the display. In the larger one, the sunny window creates a winter scene of pines overhanging a rushing stream. In the other, a rich blue background provides a setting for bustling clucking among painted flowers.
MOST of the kimonos in the display, especially the lighter "Yuzen" method. Rice paste is used as a resist, and dyes are applied through a tube or a cover to affect resembles block printing.
Two methods of tie dying are used. In the Kasuri method, the fabric is woven into a pattern and then woven into a pattern. A more conventional method involves tying the fabric into loops and then submerged in dye.
Hurst said the market for used items was so small in Japan that the kimono she had would have ended up as rags.
POT LATCH plays country music tonight from 9 to midnight at On The Wailer with OD BREED and OPEN RANGERS plays country music tomorrow night from 9 to midnight. RODGER BAIN plays folk music for the Hall Tuesday night from 9 to midnight. Country music night is the Hall's FREE FOLK JAM from 7 to midnight.
THE TOM MONTGOMERY TRIO plays contemporary jazz tonight from 9 to midnight at Paul Gray's Jazz Place. The band performs Dixieland jazz tomorrow from 9 to midnight.
Highlights
Nightclubs
DESTINY, a folk duo, plays tonight and tomorrow night from 9 to midnight at the Brewery.
MAX TENANT, guitarist,
MAX TENANT, guitarist,
7th Spirit and the TOMMY
JOHNSON EXPERIMENT
JOHNSON EXPERIMENT
30 tomorrow night at 30
30 tomorrow night at 30
Theater
This Week's
"RASHOMON" a Japanese drama, is performed tonight and tomorrow night at 8 and 10 in theaters and 2:30 in the University Theatre.
"DON'T BOTHER ME, I EAT MUSIC," he sang on a musical, will run. Thursday through Sunday nights at 8 at the Lyric Theater, Kansas City.
Exhibits
PAINTINGS by Michael Off are on display at the 7E7 Gallery
"FIRE! FIRE! THE STORY OF THE LAWRENCE FIRE DEPARTMENT 1859-1976," is on display at Spencer Research.
KIMONOS are on display at the Union Gallery in the Kansas Union.
S,
Concerts
MARY LOU ROBINSON performs a faculty recital on the organ tonight at 8 in the concert Recital Hall in Murphy.
THE UNIVERSITY CHORUS
AND UNIVERSITY
ORCHERSTA perform a joint
Sunday at 3:30 in Hochurdium.
CHRISTINE ALLEN performs a senior recital on the piano Monday night at 8 in Swarthout Recital Hall.
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DEVIL WATER, by Anya Seton (Crest, $1.95)—Another blockbuster by Anya Seton, a historical novel set in the days of James II, last of the Shuars, and England both Ilupe in this one.
TO SEE A FINE LADY, by Norah Lofthus (Crest, $1.75)—Another romantic tale, set in 19th century England, and written by her husband and a handsome young nobleman. Honest to the Lord.
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THE MATTER OF PARADISE, by Brown Meggs (Great, $1.50); THE SIXTH DIRECORATE, by Joseph Meese (Great, $1.50); THE RETaliATORS, DOMINO CONTRACT, by Phil Atlee (Gold Medal, $1.50); THE RELATIOATORS, Medal, $1.50); HELL IS TOO CROWDED, by Jack Higgins (Gold Medal, $1.50)—Splies, suspense, intrigue, private clitement, improbabilities, great fun. The Matter of Paradise is about a music critic who meets members of his class in college are wiped out, and he begins to figure that he's on the list, too. He's written a stuff—a well-written drama about directorates within the Soviet KGB and the sixth one, the KGB. He throws the Soviet dictatorship. The Last Domino Contract has Joe Gall back in action, on action, in the classroom. He is an evangelical minister; tracing down some missing plutonium. The Retaliatus is enough to be a contemporary of James Bond, having his fun south of the border. And Hell is waking up and finding cops all over the place and his girl friend—deying near him because he tells us what the fellow wants after he busts out of prison.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas daily August 15, 2016
June and July are excited Saturday and Sunday and Holiday Weekend. Subscriptions by mail are $1 per member or $15 for a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are a year outside the county. State student subscriptions are a year outside the county.
Editor Debbie Gump
Publisher Business Manage
David Dary Terry Hannon