doily if slc
(Hi n
A poet
and life
of prison
A collection of poems by David Rice is now available for
$1. it's well worth the buck and the reading.
Rice is imprisfonedV in the Nebraska Penal Comples after
being convicted fn connection with the death of Omaha
policeman Larry Minard. The 32 poems in the collection are
called Prison Writing But they aren't bitter rantings by any
stretch.
But, as ftk write in the introduction, he is "A poetartist
I am close to. nature, I try to interpret all things that surround
me into a most musicflowing way as possible, everyone must
have a song to sing, as a poet, i must show t&cple the inside
(sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly) of things, which we
generally only see the outside of. that's where i be coming
from."
And he's as good as his word. Some of the poems deal with
particulars, like the fatal shooting of Vivian Strong by an
Omaha policeman several years ago in "Braids in the Sunset:"
"there are pigtails sticking up out of the graveyard little girl
died years ago blackchild breasts barely formed lips barely
having touched the taste of lifepigtails coated and
witheredby f?e mystic fingers of death... "
As Rice says, life is sometimes ugly. And he doesn't flinch,
he faces it. He writes of his American experience in "Hell
Hole:"
"what we gonna dowith a new hell holewhat about the
one we got nowisn't this fire hot enough. ..but preachers
saywe cusswe go to hellwe f-kwe go to hellwhen we
die strange we in hell now still alivegot to scratch my
headthey got another hell for you when you dead. "
Alonq with the aut-tearina reality of some of the poems,
Rice also dreams off on some fine fantasies. In "Which Way to
the River" he wirtes:
"we was out in the field, me and this pair of new boots that
i had bought just on monday. i had my toes inside wigglin,
try in' to get the new to wear off. that's what i was doin.J
noticed this dude crawling around covered with water and
gasping for breath with water gushing out of his mouth, now i
couldn't understand this thing that was happening there did
not seem to be any water around, yet the dude had all this
water covering all over him like rippling, transparent clothes
and was crawlin' and stumbin' like a person having become
crazed by the pungency of a scorching desert. .."
Several of the poems, of course, deal directly with the
prison experience, and several deal directly with the black
American experience. But Rice also writes of the music he
hears, of small town sheriffs, of "Misdirected Anger," and ends
the collection with "Om:"
"for you, mu friends,! build this great monumenti build it
from the softest things of earththe softest living partsof this
universe... for you i create life from the newness of these new
fruits. . . and we are the fermen t..."
The collection of Rice's poems was produced locally,
published by the Gazette Collective and printed by Rainbow
Studios. All proceeds from the sale of the collection are slated
to go to the David RiceEd Poindexter defense fund and to a
special fund administered by inmates for the publishing o
original work by inmates of the Nebraska Penal Complex.
Paul Butterfield Buried Alive in the Blues'
If winter's beginning to get you
down, here are some red hot
mini-reviews of the latest in was to
warm you on those cold nights.
Dory Previn
Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood
Sign. (United Artists, UAS-5657) Dory
Previn is an easily misinterpreted
artist. She refuses to sing about
happiness or normal events. Instead,
she focuses on the strange and
grotesque abnormalities of libe the
maladjusted, the whores, the junkies,
jfrie dwarfs, the blind.
-But Previn goes a little deeper. Her
songs all comment on a world which
sadistically delights in hurting the
defenseless, yet turns its head with
disgust in the other direction when it
doesn't want to see the depravity it's
created.
Previn's songs all fit together, so
there are no singularly outstanding
ones. On the other hand, her overall
concept " it exceedingly dramatic.
Anyone who fistehs to Previn will
think again" before resuming their life
patterns.
. , Larry Kubert
Prerin Roger Powell
Cosmic Furnace. (Atlantic, SD7251)
This entire album is composed of
music via an ARP synthesizer.
Unfortunately, the musical concepts
proposed by Roger Powell are not
only antiquated, but immature. Powell
tries to explain away the defects in the
record by saying that "This is music
for those who can see best with their
eyes closed." Rather, this is music for
those who can hear with their ears
closed. Save your money.
LK
Paul Butterfield & Better Days
Better Days. (Bearsville BR2119) Paul
Butterfield always plays the blues, and
lJ7
Paul Butterfield
he reiterates the fact on this fine new
release. Although Better Days leans
slightly to other forms, (big horm
arrangements on "Please Send Me
Someone to Love" and "Broke My
Baby's Heart"), it it blue as can be.
Better Days, the band, is quality.
Geoff Muldaur on guitar, piano and
vocals comes by way of the Jim
Kweskin Jug Band. Amos Garrett
honed his guitar work with Ian and
Sylvia's Great Speckled Bird. Ronnie
Barron did his keyboard
apprenticeship in New Orleans.
Bassist Billy Rich grew up in
Omajia and was a part of Taj Mahal's -big
band. And Christopher Parker has
been drumming for 18 of his 22 years.
Together they make nice sounds,
including Robert Johnson's "New
Walk in' Blues," Big Joe Williams'
"Baby Please Don't Go," and Nick
Gravenites modern "Buried Alive in
the Blues."
Bart Becker
V
Artist Morman Rockwell's
portrait exhibition of
"ordinary people in everyday
situations," is showing at the
Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5
p.m. Tuesday through
Saturday and 1 to . 5.p.m..
Sunday. The Rockwell showing
will be on exhibit until Feb.
25.
Violinist Emanuel Wishnow
will give a Faculty Recital in
Kimball Recital Hall at 8 p.m.
Tuesday. Admission is free.
Tuesday's foreign film is
Resnis' Hiroshima Mon Amour.
The Queen, showing
Wednesday at Sheldon Art
Gallery, is about a Miss
all-America transvestite beauty
pageant. Frank Simon's 1967
film was shown at the 1968
Cannes Film Festival.
'Also showing Wednesday is
Jean Genet's short feature, Un
Chant O 'Amour. Produced in
1950, the silent, black and
white film explores the
homosexual prison experience.
Both films will be shown at 3,
7 and 9 p.m. in the Sheldon
Auditorium,
Thursday. Dribbling along with
them is Nebraska alum, Nate
Branch.
J
Feb. 19: B.B. King, Kansas
City; Feb. 20: Fanny,
Oklahoma City; Ravi Shankar,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Feb. 21:
Fanny, Wichita; Feb. 22: Sha
Na Na, Denver; Feb. 23: Billy
Preston, Chicago; Feb. 24:
David Bromberg, Minneapolis;
Merlfi Haggard, Tulsa;
Raspberries, Kansas City; Feb.
25: Merle Haggard, Oklahoma
City; Nitty Gritty Dirt Band,
Greeley, Colo; Feb. 26: John
Hartford, Cedar Falls, Iowa;
Neil Young, Kansas City.
The UNL Symphonic Band
will present a concert at
Kimball Recital Hall at 8 p.m.
Thursday. Admission is free,
For those who haven't
heard yet, the Grateful Dead
will be at Pershing Auditorium
Monday, Feb. 26, Show.timj it
earn'; .v7p.m. :' ;
Quick concert notes, within
driving or hitching distance;.
Bill. Monroe, thir -father of
bluegrass, will be appearing at
Tolag i on.the Hi It ft'BoOldtr-
DEAD
I
j -.is
f v ill s O
Oi Jifll r m
I n l po
m .m m m v- w - ua
109
Books priced fiom$1-$2
be t rott e rs. hit Pehhifi 8 SO ' p Miy M :wTm
at 7:30
CO
Glo
Auditorium
p.m. Monroe is Kajsa Ohm'an.
.Recycle M
rS
Q
331 NORU4 12 th
page 6
daily nebraskan
monday, february 19, 1973