page 8
daily nebraskan
friday, march 3, 1978
arts and
O
Bluesman Allison highlights feeding time at the Zoo
By Michael Zangari
It's feeding time at the Zoo.
Actually, anytime is feeding time at the
Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St. The energy le
vel borders on the insane, and one of it's
chief instigators is back for the weekends.
Lufher Allison and his Blues Band will be
at the Zoo through Saturday.
Allison is perfectly suited to the bar. His
3"
Photo by Ted Kirk
Luther Allison gets down at the Zoo
Students become the critics,
Academy Awards predicted
By J. Marc Mushkin
- Now that the Academy Award nomina
tions for 1977 have been announced, it
would be interesting to take a look at the
movies of the past year and see what UN I
students thinks of them.
I am not a supportei of the Oscars, or
any other awards voted on by agents and
clerks instead of artists and critics, but
interest in them is so massive that I want to
head off the barrage of questions I have
started to get.
One close look at the nominations will
reveal that they reflect only a tiny fraction
of the good commercial movies made and
that box office success often is a ticket to
several nominations. It also is clear that the
big studios dominate the lists.
But given these limitations, over the
past eight months that I have been a
reviewer. I have .compiled the following
accounting of students' opinions. (Aster
icks mark my personal choices.) Note that
the balloting has not been tabulated by
Price Warehouse & Co. The envelope
please . . .
Best Actor: Of the five nominations,
two (Richard Burton in Equus and Marcel -lo
Mastroianni in A Special Day) have not
been shown in Lincoln, so the choice is be
tween Woody Allen in Annie Hall,
Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl,
and John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.
Woody is the clear choice among the stu
dents I've met. His growing cult easily
eclipses Travolta's one-film flash in the
pan.
Best Supporting Actor. No need to
mention the candidates because Star Wars'
Alec Guiness wins automatically. Any
mention of that film whips about a zillion
people into a frenzy to find the ticket
office. (The Stuart Theater reports selling
136.000 tickets to the show )
Best Actress Here ir probably tie
toughert choice The favorites are Shirk y
Madeline. The Turn in? Point, and Annie
Hall s Diane Keaton For those who have
gone to Omaha to sec Julia. Janc Fonda
also is popular. Keaton probably has a
slight edge at UNL.
Best Supporting Actress: Quinn Cum
mings, the 10-year-old in 77?? Goodbye
Girl, is the favorite here. Vanessa Red
grave has a slight chance for her part in
Julia.
Best Director: Among people who pay
attention to these things. Woody Allen.
for Annie Hall, and Fred Zinnemann. for
Julia, get the most suppoit. but once again.
George Lucas' Star Wars has an incredible
tollowing and would win here.
In some of the minor awards: Steve
Martin's The Absent Minded Waiter would
run away with Best Live Action Short
Film. Best Visual Lffects is a head-on ciash
between Close Encounters and Star Wars
with guess which one winning0
In the Best Original Screenplay cate
gory. Woody Allen's nomination, for Annie
Hall, added to Best Actor and Director
marks only the second time in Oscar
history that one man has received three in
dividual nominations in one year. Orson
Welles was the only other, for Citizen
Kane, in 1941 .
Now, the award that gets the most
attention Best Picture. I was surprised this
year to see that there actually were some
good pictures nominated. Usually box
office returns roughly determine the
nominations in this category.
Among the nominations, here at UNL
The Turning Pfint doesn't have a shot be
cause most students have to be chained to
their seats to see a ballet.
The Goodbye Girl was well liked, but it
really can't compete with the big pictures
such as Julia Julia, however, hasn't even
made it to Lincoln yet. so that rules it out.
Annie Hall, the vastly superior film,
has Woody's big following, but the weight
of 136,000 Darth Vader and Han Solo
fanatics will rumble over the other films.
Star Wars is the movie phenomenon of the
year, so I guess in a democratic judgement,
reluctantly, it has to be recognized
Well, those are the major awards and
how I see UNI students voting on them.
The real awards will be televised live on
ABC April 3.
work with the band is just tight enough to
shift tempo and segue songs in midset.
They also are sloppy enough to keep the
sound sufficiently raw and not altogether
predictable.
Allison fronts the band on harp, vocals,
and guitar. Although his vocals certainly
are adequate, it is his guitar playing that
really carries the sets.
music
He owes an obvious debt to B.B. King,
stylistically and in his expression. You get
a good chance to compare the styles of the
two bluesmen during Allison's version of
"The Thrill Is Gone." The opening lead is
King's, note for note. When Allison ex
tends the solo later in the song, you get a
good idea of how he differs. Speed is the
most blatant difference. Allison is fast, and
takes more chances in his extension.
He also is more of a showman. While
King tends to stay back. Allison is all flash.
During "Red Rooster" he makes' the gui
tar "cluck" like a chicken.
I overheard somebody in the back of
the bar comment that Allison doesn't get
good "until he sweats." While this is a little
base, it is probably close to what happens.
Allison gets better as the evening wears on,
although judging by the reaction of the
crowd, he certainly is no slow starter. By
the end of the evening Allison is dancing
and playing on top of the bar, and outside
in the snow. Allison has more guts than I
do, electric guitars and snow are a com
bination I would just as soon avoid.
The band-drums bass, and an out
standing' keyboard man on organ fill out
Allison's music very well. The organ carries
at least half the lead most of the evening.
Together the dominant mood is very up
beat. Three-hour sets stroke the crowd
all evening, although the breaks tend to
cool things off.
The Z(X) is a small bar, and usually is
packed to the rafters. Wednesday night was
no exception despite the S3 cover charge.
I spent most of the evening wedged in back
of a pinball machine in the rear of the bar.
Still, people managed to find room to
dance, and dancing, it seems, is a communi
cable disease in tight quarters.
The music certainly is infectious. It is
loud enough so that you are feeling not
only every bass line, but each individual
lead note. This is not a typical Rolling Stone
line about feeling the music, I mean it liter
ally. You catch the vibrations in the pit of
your stomach and it is hard to keep stiU.
The Zoo is the loosest place in town for
pure musical escapism. It has an atmos
phere all its own and there seems to be a
definite sense of community in the place,
especially when the music is good. And the
music is good.
f& VSTSii
e CD U
Photo courtesy of Kolmar Luth Entertainment, Inc.
Nebraska natives perform
with Young Pennsylvanians
Fred Waring is a 62-vear veteran of
show business and his traveling musical
variety program covers more than
40,000 miles yearly to perform before
tens of thousands of fans. His show will
be in Pershing Auditorium at 8 p.m.
when the Lincoln Community Concert
series presents Fred Waring and the
Young Pennsylvanians.
Waring was the leader of one of the
best "big bands" during the vaudeville
days. At that time he combined a large
chorus and band for performances on
stage, radio, movies and records. The
Pennsylvanians did songs by Richard
Rodgers, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin and
Cole Porter.
Today, Waring owns one of the
world's largest choral music publishing
companies and is headmaster of a sum
mer musk camp with a 31 -year tradit
ion at East Stroudsburg. Pennsylvania
The show this year is titled "It's All
About Love" and the company includes
two new singers Sue Stanaway, Miss
Montana 1977, and Suanne Bunker.
Miss Oregon. 1977 Both women parti
cipated in the Miss America Paceant.
Two Nebraskans also sing with the
Young Pennsylvanians. Brian Breed, a
first-year member of the show, is a
Lincoln native who won the Lincoln
Sunrise Optimists Club's "Outstanding
Musician Award." He received his
bachelor of music degree from Hastings
College and appeared in leading roles in
My Fair ldy. Three Penny Opera and
A Thurber Carnival.
The other Nebraskan is Fritz Mount -ford,
a native of Red Cloud. Mountford,
a second -year veteran of the Fred
Waring Show, also graduated from Hast
ings College. His experience includes
playing Horace Vandergelder in Hello
Dolly, being program director for the
Mahpiya Luta Dancers, being musical
director for Charlie Brown and playing
piano for the Crystal Palace Revue in
Ogallala
The concert is open only to members
of the Uncoln Community Concerts
Association Members of other Nebraska
concert associations may attend the per
formance for a fee with proof of their
association membership