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Peter Yarrow
Nostalgia-time!
This being my sixth year on this campus I look back and
see how life has changed over the years. And it has changed.
I've seen warmth and love and sunrises as well as bitterness,
hurt and the fall of Camelot.
But somehow, those first years of mine on campus were
special. Back then, we were living in the "coffeehouse-folk era."
I wonder how many remember the Tradewinds Coffeehouse,
with its steaming cider, or the Hungry Id, when it seemed as if
someone was strumming a guitar down there every night?
Everyone seemed to love one another back then. Friends
were friends you could trust; and peace and happiness and
contentment ruled our little world. We were among the first
"peace-freaks," tenderly huddling together like a family when
it's cold. . .keeping warm through each other's body heat.
Simon and Garfunkel, the Smothers Brothers, Peter, Paul
and Mary, Dave Van Ronk and others were our favorites. Their
songs voiced our displeasure with the world, life and politics,
and our hope for the future. We would gather around a record
player or one of our own with a guitar and listen. . .and feel
. ... .and hold hands.
But that world is gone now. My friends from that period of
my life are gone. Some graduated. . .some dropped out . .
some were drafted. . .the others just seemed to fade away.
What made me think of all those memories? An album on
the Warner Brothers label by the simple title of Peter by Peter
Yarrow of the now defunct Peter, Paul and Mary.
Just like the trio pleased us five and six years ago, so does
Yarrow now. His first solo record is again, a record for people.
People-to-people. For people to listen to, relax, dream about a
better world.
Yarrow's songs aren't meant to hit people over the head
with a message Utopia is still a long way off-nd Yarrow it
simply content to gather people together.
As you have guessed, there isn't one thing bad that I'm
going to say about this record. The songs and their lyrics are
some of the most beautiful and pleasing that I've heard. And
Yarrow's vocals and the instrumentation takes me back to
those warm, happy years of the mid-60's.
" Everyone has their favorite cuts on an album, but in this
case, I like every song on the record no two ways about it.
But special recognition must be given to "Goodybye Josh,"
"Take Off Your Mask" and "Wings of Time" on Side One and .
'Tall Pine Trees," "Greenwood" and "Plato's Song" on Side
To, as six of the best songs I've heard in a long, long time.
- Nostalgia! Well, I suppose you're right. But what can I say?
In any case, I urge everyone to get hold of this album,
gather your friends together, put it on a record player, think
back to the past and care about one another.
"But oh, when I think of the tall pine trees growin',
The silver mists of snow all around me biowin',
I'll miss the gentle times and the fireplace awarmin',
Perhaps I'll turn my head away to hid the tears alallin'."
Some exciting events are coming up in the next few weeks.
The Free Theatre is coming up with a passle of shows to be
performed in theNebraska Union.
Kicking off the series is Pinter Sketches, directed by Cindy
Murphy, to be performed in the South Crib at 7:30 p.m. on
Saturday, Feb. 26, and Sunday, Feb. 27. This play, like all
Free Theatre productions is exactly that-FREE-so there is
no excuse for not seeing the show.
Following Pinter Sketches, the Free Theatre will present
Antigone on March 2 and 3, Cop-Out on March 10 and 1 1, and
Keep Tightly Closed In a Cool Place on March 1 8 and 19.
Also, let's not forget Three Dog Night at Pershing or Clark
Terry at the Portraits in Jazz Concert at the Kimball Recital
Hall, both Friday night. Catch one of them.
New film genre
in 'Straw Dogs'
Review by Jim Gray
Straw Dogs is, quite simply, the best film
to play in Lincoln in some time.
Not that some good films haven't hit the
screen recently. The year has produced a
good many high-quality examples of the best
of their respective genres Summer of '42 in
its return to classic romanticism. Dirty Harry
and The French Connection in capable
handling of the cops-and robbers media and
Fiddler on the Roof in bringing back musical
extravaganza.
Even among those notables, however.
Straw Dogs is head and shoulders above the.
rest, simply because it goes beyond
perfecting an established genre and opens a
new one of its own.
That genre is one which combines the
best of several established media combining
social commentary with suspense and
black comedy and waxing the entirety over
with a thin veneer of violence.
Director Sam Peckinpaw establishes this
new genre in a graceful but deft manner,
combining beautifully-composed vignettes of
British country life with strongly developed
characters and a biting, sharp-witted human
emotion.
The tightly-knit plot revolves around a
period in the life of a young American
mathematician who, along with his
beautiful-but-childish wife, "escapes" from
his troubles to a small British hamlet. Dustin
Hoffman, 8S the mathematician gives an
excitingly masterful performance. Rather
type-cast (quiet, studious) in what could
have proved a shallow role, Hoffman
manages to give a complicated and
consistent performance. -
Susan George, as the wife Amy, is indeed
one of the more talented rising artists. In an
ambiguous-at-best role, George displays an
amazing variety of emotions which,
surprisingly, seem to fit like puzzle pieces
into her character.
The plot soon branches out into several
interrelated areas, all of which appear rather
irrelevant at first, and later piece together to
form a complex and powerful statement on
the rites of masculinity. A crowd of rowdies
sneer from the corners of a pub, laborers
crack coarse jokes, servants laugh at the
mathematician behind his back all
desperately trying to prove to some unseen
witness their "masculinity."
Hoffman, ignoring these attempts, is an
outcast from society. He is shunned and
cajoled from all sides, including his wife,
simply because he refuses to play the
"masculine" hero.
When he is finally pushed into a hunting
expedition to prove his manliness, he is
forced to escalate the proceedings into a
full-scale battle of first wits and later, at the
expense of his principles, the body. In the
bloddy climax, Hoffman winds up proving
just the premise he's been trying to
disprove that a man ' must prove his
manliness to survive in this world.
The minor characters all play their'parts
exceedingly well, adding a great deal of
depth to the movie. Imaginatively portrayed,
they make the British background come to
life. The uncomfortable realization one .
comes to after viewing them, however, is
that they are exact duplicates of people
everywhere-constantly pushing toward
conformity in the rights of some ill-defined
"masculinity."
One is constantly shocked to find the
people up on the screen are little or no
different from the folks back in Weeping
Water or Red Cloud. By forcing the viewer
into this realization, Peckinpaw has tapped a
forceful vehicle of impact a new genre.
Straw Dogs is the best movie to hit town
in a long time. See it while you have the
chance.
:
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With four Gold Record singles to their credit, the
seven-man Three Dog Night will be appearing at
Pershing Municipal Auditorium at 8 p.m. Friday.
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PAGE 10
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25. 1972
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