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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 2001)
Arts Students tuned in for cable BY CRYSTAL K.WIEBE Basic cable just isn’t enough for some people. Dorm rooms at the University of Nebraska Lincoln are set up with basic cable, offering about 50 channels, including MTV, but some students are willing to fork over 515.95 per month for addition al premium channels. Ann Shrewsbury, public affairs manager of the Nebraska division of Time Warner Cable, said col lege students were interested in the movies and television series offered on the premium channels. “‘The Sopranos’ and Sex in the City’ are both programs that are attractive to the college-age stu dents,” Shrewsbury said. Time Warner makes cable subscription easy for students by having a promotion at the beginning of the school year so students can pick up their cable converters when they sign up for a cable package on campus. Students then turn in their converter boxes during a pick-up day on campus at the end of the school year. Freshman Chris Kerr said he and his roommate bought extended cable so they could catch the end of the baseball season last fall and watch programs on channels like TLC and the Discovery Channel. “We don’t just have it because we thought it'd be nice to have cable," the anthropology major said. As the school year drug on, though, Kerr said he realized he had little free time to spend watching cable television. “The only thing I have it for right now is The Sopranos,”’ Kerr said. The HBO series also influenced Sirwavne Warelow’s decision to pay for cable. “I can’t miss 'The Sopranos. ”’ said the freshman history major. But other than “The Sopranos," Warelow also said he had little time for television viewing. “I don’t even really watch the movie channels," he said. Freshman general studies major Grant Eberly said he sometimes regretted buying extended cable because he mostly watched MTV, which came with basic cable. “I could use that $20 per month for something else,” Eberly said. He also said he resented the additional month ‘It’s not essential to my survival here, but I enjoy it when / watch it.’ Sirwayne Warelow freshman history major lv charges Time Warner put on his remote and con verter box. If Eberly buys any kind of extended cable next year, he said it would be digital. "Time Warner sucks,” he said. "They rip you off.” Warelow said even though he didn’t get a lot of use out of his television, having extended cable made dorm life more like home. "I’ve always had movie channels and stuff. I’ve never had just basic cable," Warelow said. Kerr said despite the additional cost, he would probably buy cable again next year. “It may be a waste of money,” he said. “It’s not essential to my survival here, but I enjoy it when I watch it.” Restaurants share block's gyro business BY ALEXIS EINERSON Two gyro restaurants, The Gourmet Grill and Ali Baba’s Gyros, are positioned side-by-side at 14th and O streets, but Hamid Nader, owner of The Gourmet Grill, said it was not his neighbor that was his com petition. “I don’t consider (Ali Baba’s) my competition,” Nader said. “It’s every restaurant in the downtown that is your competition.” Naqibullah Attaie, owner of .Ali Baba’s Gyros, said he felt the same way as his neigh bor. “There are three gyro places - Papa John’s, Gourmet Grill and us t nere a KB - in one block,” Attaie said, “but three great that doesn’t matter to me.” A gyro is a chunk of meat, 15 percent lamb and 85 percent beef places ... in according to Nader, that cooks nrip UflnrL while rotating between grills. UL ' A famous food in Greece and but that the Middle East, the word gyro lit- doesn t erally means rotation in Greek, Nader said. matter tO But don’t be fooled into think- wie. ’ ing .Ali Baba’s and Gourmet Grill are the same just because they Naqibullah serve the same food. Nader said. Attaie He compared the two restau- owner Ali rants with fast-food places. Ra. ... r ’ . "It’s like having a Big Mac and --- a Whopper,” Nader said. “They taste different, they have different combination and different quality. “I personally don’t go to McDonald’s, but that doesn’t mean they have bad food.” Actually, the two locations have an unusual his tory. Nader used to own the building Ali Baba’s is in now, and it used to be called George’s Grilled Gyros. Nader said he decided to move one building over to the corner of 141*1 and O streets in 1988 and opened The Gourmet Grill because he felt the loca tion was better and it was a bigger place. Each restaurant has one big thing in common, however. They both deal with the bar crowd on a reg ular basis. Being positioned downtown, both The Gourmet Grill and .Ali Baba's stay open later on certain nights, usually on the weekends, to accommodate people at night. .Although Nader said the majority of his business didn’t necessarily come from the night crowd, most of the hassles did. In the 13 years The Gourmet Grill has been open, Nader said each of its glass windows had been bro ken from fighting outside the restaurant. Attaie said he felt downtown had gotten safer, however, because police officers position them selves so there was one officer on almost every block. Nader said he did want to leave one piece of advice with the night crowd. "Ask night people to have one less drink and instead have a gyro at Gourmet Grill,” Nader said. That would save them a lot of headaches.” Guided By Voices cling to indie rock credibility BYNEALOBERMEYER _ The New Musical Express once called Bob Pollard “the next Paul McCartney,” referring, of course, to his proven abilities to write catchy singalong two-minute pop songs. On Guided By Voices’ new album, “Isolation Drills,” Pollard and the gang put that epithet to the test once again, as they do every few months or so when they release something new. So remember the ’60s (and part of the 70s) when Paul McCartney was pretty cool? Well, heck. I'd love to be called the next Paul McCartney. Then remember Paul’s output in the ’80s and '90s? I hope you don’t either. Paul got old, and Paul got boring. You hit somebody who calls you "the next Paul McCartney ... of the ’80s and ’90s.” Bob & Co. had quite a bit of indie cred ibility going into their last album, “Do the Collapse.” They built a reputation of cranking out 20-something songs per album around two minutes each, sound ing like they were recorded in a basement (because many were) but boasting golden melodies and catchy enough hooks to make you understand the ’60s Liverpool comparison. ^ But then they got Ric Ocasek to pro duce the last album, and it got a bit slick and overproduced. Warning sign No. 1. And the catchiest song on the album was actually written years earlier. Warning sign No. 2. So, this time around they got Rob Schnapf to produce. He’s worked with EUiott Smith (OK ...) and Beck (hmmmm ...) and the Foo Fighters (ouch ...). To his credit, the sound on this album is a bit dirtier, crunchier and punchier. In a good way. And there’s even a less-than-one minute home-produced Bob solo track, too, so that sonic indie cred has basically been re-established. Oh yeah, except for the songs where they have the string quartet. String quar tet, you ask? What is up with that, you ask? 1 don’t know I reply. The strings fit as well as one of those wacky, distorted hairband guitar solos that you’d always find in '80s Whitney Houston songs. Only without the ironic value. .Many of these songs simply lack ener gy. And for a band with as much of a live reputation as GBV, that can be a problem. The frustrating thing about this album is that, even though it is a healthy 16 songs long, you have to get about 75 percent of the way through it to get past the filler. “Skills Like This,” “Chasing Heather Crazy,” “Glad Girls,” “Pivotal Film,” “How’s My Drinking?,” “The Brides Have Hit Glass” and “Fine to See You” would have made an incredible mini-album like last year’s “Hold On Hope” ER "Brides” and "Heather” are great examples of that classic Liverpudlian sim ple sing-along songwriting. “Fine to See You” is a lovely tribute of sorts in the vein of the aforementioned “Hold on Hope.” So all is not lost. The dung in the feed lot next door isn’t stinky enough to spoil the picnic, but it is enough to make you worry about the wind changing direc tions. It’ll be sad if Bob loses his touch, but if he does, he does. You know, "Flaming Pie” w-asn’t too bad. Guided By Voices “Isolation Drills” TVT Records Mulvey a true poet's musician BY ANDREW SHAW In a world of a million guitar players it is still stunning to find a musician with the command of the instrument like Peter Mulvey. During his two sets at the Lincoln Association For Traditional Arts House Concert on March 9. Mulvey changed the tuning of his guitar between every' song, never to the standard, which explains the amazingly rich and per sonal sound he produces on “The Trouble With Poets,” his latest release. On the opening title track, Mulvey pokes fun at himself saying poets “talk too much,” and “see poetry' everywhere." then goes on to perform 11 spngs whose lyrics could stand alone as a small chapbook of creative writing. But like all good poetry’, the truest meaning is discovered only when the poet performs their works out loud. Mulvey’s recording of “Words Too Small to Say" is one of the most intimately poetic tracks on the album, a brave feat for the second track of any album. His young and weathered voice seems to whisper the verses to you in an excited yet laid-back rhylhm, but w'hen the chorus turns and the har monies chimes in, the sound makes one’s blood run warmer. As Mulvey holds out the important words on a thin string of air, any fan of folk-inspired acoustic rock can feel their hairs begin to rise. But Mulvey's intimacy is not just an act. He lives in the mood of his music, traveling America and Ireland six months out of every’ year, performing in venues for small audiences, like the 25 of us seated snugly into Rebecca Carr’s living room that rainy afternoon. Between sets, Mulvey joined the audience in Carr’s kitchen for a cookie and pop, chatting with the audience about everything from what it’s like to be away from his wife 180 days of the year to his expe riences at college in Milwaukee. His love of music isn’t braced by a desire for fame, but for the human energy' that he shares with those wiio choose to listen. The energy' captured on “The Trouble With Poets" isn’t a fluke. One can tell by the holes he has worn into his guitars that Mulvey plays with a bridled passion. The entire album was recorded in nine days, and the sense of urgency comes through in on all tracks, no matter how mellow their foun dation. “Wings of the Ragman,” a waltz-infused ballad, opens with intricate chords that seem to settle below Mulvey’s voice and push it sky ward during the l - fXr X- X X rising chorus. ^ ^ “All The Way Home" feels the same windy inspiration both in the lyrics (“a rope is slapping a flagpole in the dark and driving snow") and in Mulvey’s fluid mastery of his instrument mixed with Chris Smither’s soothing yet fright eningly blue vocal additions. Yet these observations only scratch the finish of Mulvey’s inspiration and effect. After being an Irish street performer. Bostonian subway musician, recording four albums, and having his Geo broken into three time while on tour, once resulting in the loss of a handmade guitar and all the change in his ash tray. Mulvey has experiences to fill a hundred more albums. And if we’re lucky, he’ll take that as a challenge and keep writing lyrics with meaning and style, songs with purpose and poise, and music with skill and inspiration. Peter Mulvey “The Trouble With Poets” Signature Sounds/Black Walnut Records 2000