friday, december 15, 1978
page 20
daily nebraskan
arts & entertainment
Administrators' memories of Santa Claus diminish
By Mary Fastenau
Santa Cluas may be coming to town,
but his visit will not be financed by UNL
officials, according to the results of an in
formal phone survey.
Seven out of 10 people interviewed said
they did not believe in the "jolly old soul",
but five of those seven do not remember
when they stopped believing.
Suzanne Brown, said she does not re
member the time she stopped believing but
recalls it as a gradual process.
The Assistant to the Vice Chancellor of
Student Affairs said her son is now in the
process of learning to not believe and she
thinks it has been "a two year process."
Frank Hallgren, director of Career Plan
ning and Placement does not remember not
believing as a gradual process, he simply
does not remember.
"Good heavens," Hallgren said. "It
has been so long ago I have no memory of
it."
David Sellmyer, chairman of the Physics
Department, also fails to recall the time he
stopped believing.
.i ,4
"Who can remember that far back?"
Sellmyer said.
Dan Ladely does not remember an exact
date, but he said he is sure he was "pretty
young."
The director of the Sheldon Film
Theatre said his suspicions were confirmed
when he was in high school and he played
Santa Claus in a local grocery store.
The dean of the College of Home Eco
nomics also does not remember an exact
date, but she said the "final blow" was
when she saw the mailman deliver her
younger brother's present, that had been
on the top of his list to Santa Claus.
But Hazel Anthony said she wishes she
could still believe.
Bob Moodie believed for a long time,
but it was college that disillusioned him.
The first vice president of ASUN said lie
stopped believing when the Board of Re
gents abolished the speakers' program.
It was also reality that made Gary
Schwendiman stop believing in Santa
Claus. The dean of the College of Business
Administration said he was six years old
when he realized the jolly old soul existed
only in fantasy.
He said he stopped believing when he
saw his parents putting his skis underneath
the tree. Schwendiman said it was about
2:30 a.m. when he took the skis outside to
test them and returned to the house at
about 3:30 a.m.
After that incident, Schwendimar. said
he found it hard to believe when his
parents told him the skis were from Santa
Claus.
Don Bryant said he still believes in
Santa Claus because he does not want to
disillusion his sons. His sons are 26 and 22.
The sports information director said he
believes in St. Nick because "he's always
been so good to me."
Bryant admits he is concerned if the
twinkling eyes and bowl full of jelly will
make the trip this year.
He said old St. Nick has never forgotten
him, but there is always the possibility lie
may be snowed in or that his reindeer
might go on strike.
If Al Dittmer did not believe in Santa
Claus. he would have to find another rea
son to explain all the presents under the
tree.
The ombudsman said he has revised his
notion about the man whose clothes mark
him as Big Red's biggest fan, but he still
believes.
The director of the School of Journal
ism also said that he still believes in Santa
Claus, but admitted his ideas have also
changed.
"I still believe in Santa Claus in some
form," Neale Copple said. "After all, if
there is no Santa Claus, there is nothing."
Sometimes parting is sweet
and only tinged with sorrow
Photo by Mark Billingsley
If Santa brings four-year-old Aaron Roux an R2D2 robot, Aaron's Christmas wishes
will be fulfilled.
When the ax fell, we were sitting at the
local Uncle Chicken scarfing down two and
a half orders of ultra crispy, and watching
the clock.
Her plane left in a couple hours, mine in
a few days, but by all indications we were
both already gone. Some unconcious bit of
masochism made us choose the greasiest
possible fast food slop shop. Conversation
was fragmented between efforts to mop
the grease off of any bit of flesh that
Reviewer summarizes some 'interesting records
By Jeff TaebeL
In my three semesters of tenure at the
Daily Nebraskan, I have come across a con
siderable variation of opinion as to what
the function of a record reviewer should
be.
Some seem to feel that a reviewer
should concentrate primarily on popular
material that a large number of readers
would be familiar with, while others con
tend that he should open new doors for
listeners by making them aware of artists
who have not achieved any degree of
commercial success.
album review
I have tried, not always successfully,
to maintain a middle ground between the
commercial and avant-garde ends of the
music spectrum, although I have been sub
jected to far more examples of the former,
and with so many imitators of not -so -original
superstars flying around these
days, a lot of releases tend to get lost in the
shuffle, quite deservedly so.
Some interest
However, there have been a number of
interesting record releases in the past four
months that deserve brief mentioning.
David Bowie has come up with a sur
prisingly strong album, entitled Stage.
Bowie runs through some of his best mat
erial on this two -record set and his band is
very tight throughout the album. However,
it is a shame that Bowie did not maintain
his short -lived association with Robert
Fripp, whose titanic guitar explorations
would have propelled this record to the
level of stratospheric intensity that a
performer like Bowie deserves.
Former Return To Forever drummer
Lenny White continues to blend funk with
fusion on his latest effort, Streamline. The
blazing guitars of Nick Moroch and Jamie
Glaser dominate the album , although White
gets plenty of chances of display his own
unique brand of drum pyrotechnics. The
hard-rocking "Twelve Bars From Mars,"
which highlights the first side, is certainly
one of the strongest things White has
recorded since leaving RTF.
Ecology record
Captain Beefheart has emerged from
hibernation with another bizarre treat
for listeners, called Shiny Beast (Bat
Chain Puller). The album dedicated to
wildlife preservation, is not on a par with
earlier works, such as Trout Mask Replica
and Lick My Decals Off Baby, however, it
is much stronger than either of his last
two albums or his brief collaboration with
Frank Zappa. Shiny Beast should signal
that the Captain is alive and well indeed.
As far as musical trends, 1978 has been
a rather depressing year. While the Bee
Gees are still outselling everyone, purvey
ors of pap like Linda Ronstadt continue
to churn out mundane instant hits at
an alarming rate. Even the Good Of
Grateful Dead appear to have hit rock
bottom as far as creativity. However,
the Dead are not alone in their fall from
musical grace, as many other formerly
innovative artists appear to have fallen
by the wayside of late.
Dying early
Unfortunately, the two musical trends
which appear destined to save us from all
this, fusion and New Wave, seem to be
nipping themselves in the bud.
Disappointing releases from Weather
Report, certain Return To Forever alumni
and other one-time fusion mainstays have
turned many listeners back to acoustic
jazz, which is perhaps all for the best.
The New Wave explosion seems to have
defused itself, partially as a result of the
dissolution of the Sex Pistols, Television
and other seminal New Wave bands. It also
seems as though much of the spectacular
advance publicity that punk bands have
received is dying down, which may cause
it to go the way of other musical styles
(remember reggae?).
One can only hope that strong albums
by DEVO, Talkings Heads and tlvis
Costello will help pull the New Wave
back ashore.
Until then, this seems like a good time of
year to sit back with your old favorites.
happened to be exposed. Finally we just
gave up. Greased tension and tight lips.
She stared at the Christmas tinsel
in the window and watched the light play
with the plastic Christmas balls in the door.
I read the chicken box.
Something wrong
"Uncle Chicken was born on a cold
morning and wrapped in swaddling cloth
es "
Something was definitely wrong.
We were both spending a month on the
coast. Opposite coasts. Her west, me east,
and there were oceans between the two.
"Now it starts," I thought.
"You'll more than likely end up playing
beach blanket bingo with some bronze, and
rogynous Greek God you'll meet at the
airport . . . ."
michael zanaari
"AND you," she began," will meet
some pretty and probably neurotic New
York debutante who will feed you French
food and whisk you through a torrid affair
The chicken was getting greasier all the
time.
It's alright
Obviously what we both needed to hear
was an affirmation of how miserable we
were both going to be without one
another's company. The problem with that
was that it just wasn't true. We were both
primed for what appeared to be an incred
ible couple of weeks away from anything
that resembled anything.
She read the chicken box. and I looked
out the window.
The Christmas tape in the background
was dragging through a rendition of "It
Came Upon a Midnight Clear" followed by
an "Uncle Chicken Likes You" commer
cial. "I think we better hit it," I said and
made to leave.
Continued on Page 21
