daily nebraskan
monday, teptember 17, 1979
String hand performs women 's viewpoint
By Kathryn Haugstatter
What is "Women's Music?"
"It's anything we want to do," Martha
Haehl answers.
Haehl Is a member of Rosy's Bar and
Grill, a feminist trio that gave a benefit per
formance Saturday for the Women's Re
source Center.
Rosy's is an acoustic string band from
Kansas City, Mo. Martha, Carol Smith and
Joyce Constant play the guitar, bass fiddle,
dulcimer and flute.
Their program combines original mater
ial with folksongs from the women's move
ment, the labor union movement and jigs
and reels from the British Isles.
"Most of the stuff we do is pretty
obscure," Constant said, "because most
well-known folksongs were written from
the male point of view."
The women said it is hard to find tradi
tional tongs they can use, since so many
are about women throwing themselves into
a river for love.
Although the traditional folksongs
might have been unfamiliar to the crowd at
Jesse's 14th St. Lounge Saturday, the
response was good. Especially popular was
an anti-nuclear reactor song, and one
Martha called "the original I Hate House
work song."
The group started almost three years
ago, when the women, all members of a
folk collective called "Foolkiller," decided
to work together for one concert. They
liked it so much they decided to continue.
Haehl said they wanted a name that
would combine the members of the group
but wouldn't be too heavy or too liRht.
They finally chose "Haehl, Rejoyce, the
Okay Kitchen Carolers from Rosy's Bar
and Grill," which eventually was shortened
to "Rosy's Bar and Grill."
Shortening the name made billing a
If trie easier but problems still exist.
"In one place we were billed as an all
girl bluegrass band," Constant said. "Pco
pie came in expecting girls in satin hot
pants, white cowboy hats and fringed
shirts."
Instead, audiences find women doing
songs about women, songs that often arc
controversial.
"Our most requested song is 'Did
Jesus Have a Baby Sister?' by Dory
Previn," Haehl said. "But we are often
asked not to do it."
The trio cut an album in August for the
Biscuit City label. They expect it to be
released around Christmas.
"It's a good representation of what wc
do in concert and we hope it docs well,"
said Constant, "but given the kind of music
we do, it's hard to see us becoming rich
and famous."
Smith said she'd rather continue as they
are and be comfortable with what they do
than go the way of other groups.
"Look at what happened to Reggae.
When it started it was good. Political state
ments were made. But it was taken up and
made slick. We don't want to be made
slick."
The women said It is important to them
to keep growing and challenging themselves
musically. Once, singing was their main
interest but they have branched out. They
experiment with different instruments to
obtain different effects.
They said there is a lot of work involved
since the women do their own booking and
publicity. They work mostly in the Missou
ri, Kansas and Nebraska area because they
have other jobs. Haehl teaches business
math part time at the University of Missou
ri in Kansas City. Constant teaches band
and chorus in a grade school and Smith
works in a women's bookstore.
Mime group sophisticated in Kimball Hall performance
By Penelope M. Smith
A mime gives his own imagined reality tangible form,
but a successful mime does more with his art: he allows
die members of the audience to integrate their own reality
with his, creating an essential symbiotic relationship be
tween performer and audience.
The Claude Kipnis Mime Theatre reached this level of
sophistication in some of their pieces Friday night at
Kimball Hall.
a
Alone on stage, Kipnis performed ""ITie Party." We are
treated to problems with preparatory grooming, the ex
cessively enthusiastic handshakes of fellow guests and the
dance partners who are never quite the right height. These
are cliches we've seen a dozen times. The novelty is that
the mime presents us with an invisible, highly malleable
reality.
His world and our world operate on the Hitchcock
premise that what we don't see is far more entertaining
than what we do. see,
"The Box" was an offering of a slightly different sort.
It consists of the advances made by a small benevolent
box with hands and feet toward a clown.
The overtures of the box are often comic. In one in
stance, the boxrubs against the clown's leg as if begging
for affection. There is a heart-tugging moment when the
box seems hurt, but then all ends well when the lid of the
box opens and the clown disappears inside.
THE MAGIC lies in the Kipnis, troupe's ability to turn
an emotionally-void geometric object into one with the
impulses and body language of a human. Without the re
cognizable form, the message of humanity still is appar
ent. "The JJox" illustrates how much we depend upon our
emotional gestures to accomplish succesful communica
tion of our feelings and desires and the mime's ability to is
i - i
' ' to h
. ' , ; . . , w; $,,-.
tr, '
J, v -
1.1' " , ,
. ...
i
, Photo by Marte-Bii!ingsley
A member of the Claude Kipnis mime troupe . . . shares some secrets with a UNL dance class Friday before the
performance.
isolate them.
"The Bottle (A Fantasy on Alcohol)," another solo
piece performed by Kipnis, is an initially humorous piece
with a chilling conclusion ofentrapment. As a drunken
man dreams he is caught in ajbottle, Kipnis, submerged in
a shaft of green light, feels the sides of the "bottle,"
attempting to find his way out. The audience experiences
a momentary feeling of relief when Kipnis awakens to dis
cover the bottle was just a dream. This relief is shattered
when Kipnis again is enveloped in the glass-green shaft,
symbolic of his addiction.
"The Body," a six-part work in which the muscles,
brain, lungs, heart, stomach and reproductive system all
are brought to life, ould be considered the troupe's
exhibition piecev Many of the technical aspects of mime
were present, such as the difficult problem of whether one
should personify (in the case of the body parts) an object
or its function. Such standard fare as slow motion move
ment also was demonstrated when air sacs in the lungs
slowly were choked to death by figures in black represent
ing cigarette smoke. The piece was a marvelous demon
stration of technique and thoroughly enjoyable, but was
more instructive than conducive to constructive thought
or emotions.
It is good entertainment but it lacked Kipnis'
"from the heart" that is so apparent in the other works.
Pershingflea market booth features diverse collections
By ;AIice Hrnicek
The atmosphere was one of unhurried
activity.
Toddlers accompanied by their parents
and seasoned shoppers meandered through .
the rows of booths.
More diverse than the crowd itself were
the subjects of their attention. The booths
were piled with an odd collection of valu
ables, ranging from antique wicker lunch
boxes to classic turquoise jewelry.
It was the opening hour of Pershing
Auditorium's monthly flea market .
Pershing ticket manager John Grady
estimated as many as 2,000 people viewed
tne assorted items last weekend. About 40
dealers participated, fewer than usual
because of competition from nearby flea
markets, one booth holder said.
LINCOLN S FLEA markets are the
third Sunday of each month. The ihpw.
which started a year ago last June, has
hosted a-continually changing array of sel
lers, as well as a number of circuit regulars,
Grady said.
A regular at the flea markets, Joyce
Mosier, described the experience as a fine
art. Mosier and her husband, Kenneth,
travel between Fremont, Yankton, S.D.,
and Cherokee, Iowa, with their collection
of Depression-era glass. Between trips, she
said, the "two do not unpack their mer
chandise. "We set up eight to ten tables in one to
one -and-a -half hours and we've been travel
ing for six or seven years," she said .
Mosier said her husband has a full-time
job in Norfolk, which limits preparation
time for weekend excursions. The couple
collects goods from other dealers and from
sources in the East, she said .
'! "We meet tremendous people she said.
They ask why prices go up. Teenagers buy
to collect and young married couples col
lect sets. There's no.way the bottom will
fall out of the market.
The Mosiers said they prefer to set up
at small flea markets because the booth
rental fee is much less. , ,
ALICE M. MILLER of Ashland dtes a
love of displaying and explaining to people
about her wares as a reason for trying to
establish herself as a regular in her third
appearance at the Pershing show.
She has added to a collection of valu
ables inherited from three families by pur
chasing plates from Denmark. The plates,
along with a rusted iron schoblbell made in
1886 and other assorted odds and ends, are
only part of the items she stores, some of
which she said are too precious to sell.
Dot Williams and her con, Ed, of Lin
coln, arc another pair with a general collec
tion. Like some of the other "regulars,
they do not own a store. Their items run
the gamut from antique to modern.
Coin collecting, the specialty of the
younger Williams has a guaranteed market,
he said.
"In fact, I sold $300 worth in the first
five minutes, he said.
He is majoring in public health and
education at UNL and has been selling
coins for about a year. It took him five
years to gather his collection.
Dealers out for the first time said they
didn't know the volume of business to
expect.
J. David Rossi of Pennsylvania offered
three weeks' work of opaque watercolor
paintings.
ROSSI, A RETIRED art instructor, con
centrated on subjects from the era between
1800 to 1915. Common objects included
carriages, racehorses, houses, cars and his
favorite,a 1913 model firetruck.
In a booth next to Rossi's, another new
comer displayed clothing from the 1940s
era. Sh'ila Murray of Las Crusas, N.M., said
she had been selling objects for almost five
years.
Most of the clothing she found in the
older cities of New Mexico, she said. Typi
cal of her collection were a pink synthetic
silk blouse, a black cotton mourning dress,
a black silk suit and a large pair of silk
pants.
"I like the fabrics of the older times,
because they are more pure," she said.
Booths across the market area were scat
tered with farm antiques, doll houses, an
autoharp, afghans, pottery and more.
Dealers displayed signs stating that they
would buy, sell or trade. The people moved
in circles, caught between the variety. The
day had just begun.