u n i v e r s i t y d a i l y k a n s a n
entertainment
Friday, January 31, 1997 11A
Ray Bradbury labels Internet users morons
CUPERTINO, CALIF. — Ray Bradbury has a few words of advice about the internet: "Stay away from it."
The increasingly popular global computer network is great for some practical things, such as finding information, he said. But it can't offer the intimate and aesthetic experience of books.
"You've got to be able to take a book to bed with you," he told a Silicon Valley audience Wednesday. "You can't get that on the Internet. You can't hold the Internet."
the science-fiction writer, best known for his novel The Martian Chronicles, spoke to about 1,200 people in an appearance to benefit the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. The audience applauded Bradbury's remarks about the Internet, including his barb about the Internet's ability to let people in different parts of the world communicate.
"Who do you want to talk to?
All those morons who are living across the world somewhere?"
he said. "You don't even want to talk to them at home."
Designer takes stalker to court for harassment
PARIS — Fashion designer Paco Rabanne has taken a woman to court for alleged stalking and insulting him for nearly four years.
Josiane Pasquier, described in the French news media as a bourgeois 50-year divoree who lives outside Paris, went on trial this week for "acts of violence and premeditation."
Rabanne — the 62-year-old Spanish Basque-born couturier known for his designs of everything from chain-metal and shiny futuristic clothes to easy knit tunics — dismisses her as a disturbed person.
trio person.
"She's been at it for years, has called me an agent of Satan, the anti-Christ, a pedophile, an organizer of black masses, you name it," Rabanne told The Associated Press. "She was coming almost daily to the Cafe Flore, where I liked to lunch, insulting me loudly, and she often left messages at my boutique."
She also threw holy water at his shop windows, and she once posted a picture of the Virgin Mary in the shop.
"He's been sent by Satan; it's he who's harassing me," Pasquier was quoted by the Figaro daily newspaper as saying. She also claimed that Rabanne tried to kidnap her daughter, Caroline, 24, in a raid by hooded men.
The Associated Press
The prosecutor has asked for a one-year suspended sentence.
Swinging the night away, Abby Kevka, Ellsworth sophomore, and Shane Haas, Wellsville senior, spend their Sunday night dancing with friends at the Bottleneck during Swing Set. Recently, the Bottleneck has started playing swing music every Sunday night.
Students swinging back to 1930s
Jazzy tunes invade bars nationwide
By Jeff Ruby
Kansan staff writer
Swing parties with overflowing gin and tonics on Saturday night. Swing Set with Benny Goodman at the smoky Bottleneck on Sunday. Swing dance lessons Monday nights at Liberty Hall.
is this 1997 Lawrence, or have we swung back to 1937 Chicago?
back to 1801 Chicago.
The resurrection of swing music and swing dancing nationwide has found excited ears and feet in Lawrence.
"It's been around for a long time, but it's never been more popular than it is now among young people," said Katie Stolz, a 1989 KU graduate who teaches a weekly swing dance class at Liberty Dance, 2 E. Seventh St.
The comeback of swing's jazzy, improvisational dance steps and lifestyle are gaining steam among a generation long removed from the scene's original heyday.
Drue Kennedy, a doorman at the Bottleneck, said Swing Set throw a welcome change-up at the predictable local music scene.
Tvler Wirken / KANSAN
of cigarettes and the drank a fifth of whiskey before they took the stage."
"Swing Set's where it's at, Daddy-o-," he said. "It's a nice, mellow change from go out, throwing ebbs and sweating to some band that sounds like they smoked six packs
Doug Richards, coordinator of Swing Set, said that the weekly celebration — which is free to people who work in restaurants or bars — was a tongue-in-cheek joke for people who are tired of rock 'n' roll.
The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. holds Swing Set at 10 p.m. every Sunday, transforming the popular music venue into a candlelit swing dance speakeasy, right down to the stiff highballs, card games and Count Basie blaring on the speakers.
pie who are cheerful for rock music." "It's kind of a joke, kind of serious," said Richards, who, along with Josh Hunt, chooses the mix of ska, swing, big band jazz and rockabilly on Sundays. "This is like practicing to be an adult. It's just nice to have a night where people can sit down and talk again."
Kennedy said that swong music's resurgent popularity — led by such bands as the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Royal Crown Revue — was a natural reaction to grunge rock.
was a natural talent.
"It's classy and fun music," he said. "Grunge was dirty. We're going through a rebirth of people dressing up and looking nice. And it also ties in to the whole ska thing. All the original ska bands were jazz musicians."
In a revival of a rage of the 1930s and '40s, Ashley Grill,Topeka sophomore, and Shane
Bitsy Taylor, Overland Park junior, said she and her roommates had been throwing large "swing parties" for two years.
"There's no skill level required," she said.
swing parties.
"Instead of your normal kegger, people dress up and dance and drink cocktails," she said. "I've noticed a big rise in swing music's popularity. It used to be just our friends would come. Now all these random people show up that we don't know."
Whitney Black, Wichita junior and Taylor's roommate, said she took the dance class last fall at Liberty Dance and has been a swinger since.
Stolz said her six-week dance class, which had 30 students, was popular because the steps she and fellow instructor Aaron Stroglow taught were diverse.
"The instructors were really good. They understood that people weren't as good dancers as they were."
dancers as they were. Kory Wills, manager of Love Garden Sounds, 936 IJL Massachusetts St., said the record store sold lots of Western swing, big band jazz and contemporary bands drawing their roots from the clubs of the 1920s and 1930s.
"It's flexible; you can do it to lots of different types of music," she said.
"A lot of kids got into it through their parents." he said.
Haas, Wellsville senior, dance to big band swing music.
Kennedy said he wondered if swing's renaissance was a passing fad that would die out after receiving excessive attention nationwide.
"If you start seeing a bunch of crappy swing bands on MTV, you'll know it's played itself out," he said. "But swing is hard to play, so there's not going to be a Silverchair of swing."
COME CELEBRATE LOVER'S NIGHT AT THE CASTLE
RELISH IN DINING ECSTASY AT
1307 MASSACHUSETTS BY RESERVATION ONLY (913) 843-1151
The Castle Tea Room
Kansan Ads Pay