Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 1979)
mondav, november 5, 1979 daily nebraskan Kottke gaita By Casey McCabe . Leo Kottke is as much at home with the strings of his guitar as most of us are tying Our shoelaces. One never doubts that Kottke knows exactly what he is doing. On the guitar, that is. The highly respected guitarist made his fourth appearance in Lincoln Friday night to an appreciative crowd at ODonnell Auditorium. Between his unfinished narrations and dreary -eyed, laid-back banter with the crowd, Kottke would shake himself out of his delirium to show the fine concert capabilities of one man and his instrument. Opening the show, as he did for Kottke 's last Lincoln appearance, was local juggler Jek Kelly. Preparing the audience for what was to come, Kelly warned that if any rple uses crowd, vocals lacking of his juggling apparatus were to fall on the floor, the blame must be placed on Sir Isaac Newton. But the crowd didn't seem to care if an object slipped out of his reach, for Kelly's fine stage presence and his handling of such varied juggling props as flaming Indian clubs, Bowie "knives, a bowling ball and a rubber artichoke, provided a unique and entertaining opening act. Kottke entered the stage looking both shy and mischievous. Without a word he opened the show with his 12-string guitar and an acoustic cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Embryonic Journey." FOLLOWING THE APPLAUSE, Kottke apologized and then launched into a lengthy tuning session with the hard-to-tune 12-string.-He described the difficulty in getting the perfect sound out of the instrument "like almost being able to sneeze." But when he got down to performing a song, Kottke's face gained intensity. His fingers controlled the guitar and moved up and down the neck like a crazed spider. He changed tempo and volume with incredibly smooth transitions. Touching on only a fragment of his repertoire, Kottke nevertheless hit on a number of crowd pleasers. His music is hard to define, because besides having an admirable following and long list of albums, Kottke's music has appeared everywhere from television sermonettes, to the Dating Game. But he does have a certain style that is distinctively his own. Most often it is associated with his use of a finger slide. Indeed, the "mere slipping of the "device on to his finger brought applause from the crowd. c v -mm o II 1 mm k II i V Mi 1 1 4 V " Pi , t ' ( w .. ... PGUC3UJ . Photo by Mark Billinjjsley Guitarist Leo Kottke performed before an appreciative crowd Friday at Lincoln's O'Donhell Auditorium. And Kottke's insights into his songs always prove enlightening. He described "A Little Snow Starts to Fall Again," as accompanying a movie where a man skiis down a snowless mountain, and told the crowd that "Learning The Game" had always reminded him of "a canal full of drunks." HE PERFORMED PART of the souiidtrack he provided for Terrence Mallick's "Days of Heaven," prefacing it with some background to the movie, which Kottke interpreted as being about "three people from Chicago who go to harvest winter wheat in Texas to cheer 'UP." , . . He rounded out the evening with his classical six -string, and some beautiful finger work. He was brought back for an encore of "Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach. Whether Kottke is shy of his voice , or just feels it may distract from his guitar, he disappointingly avoided much of his vocal work. His deep, rich voice did deliver two of the night's best moments on "Eight Miles High" and his highly ironic signature song, "Pamela Brown." But Kottke is first and foremost a guitarist , and he left ' no doubt Friday night as to his outstanding capabilities with the instrument. Retired NATO chiefs book is picture of future war By Scott Kleager Multi-leveled, from descriptions of the smallest caliber round to accounts of the largest of the land, air and naval forces involved, General Sir John Hackett's The Third World War August 1985 is a new novel that tells nearly everything anyone would care to know about the charac teristics of a third global war. The work could be called a factually-based historical fiction. It also could be called a horrifyingly well-written fantasy, too, but fantasy it is not. In fact, because of the author's experience, military professionalism and his seemingly unending knowledge of modern weaponry, the novel is as real as a slap in the face. General Sir John Hackett is retired commander of the Northern Army Group in NATO as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine. He knows his stuff and this book is proof of it. IIS BEGINS BY looking back at the military, political and economic situation in the countries of the NATO alliance and the Warsaw Pact countries in 1978. Connect ing these two super-powers with their respective policies regarding the Middle East and Africa, Hackett relates that during 1978-1985 the NATO alliance nations experience a resureence in the fear of the Soviet Union felt in the 1950s. This causes Increases in military spending and an upgrading of the NATO forces and equipment in general. "Thus, in the late 1970s, the overhauling of the NATO defenses so long sorely needed was put into train at last . , , and was not in the event enough wholly to deter the Soviet Union. But it happened, and was. to prove the West's salvation." Then, coupling the Kremlin's realization that an im proved NATO would only get better in time with actual insurrection in Poland and East Germany, the invasion of West Germany and the destruction of the Western Alliance is put into action by the USSR. Things begin to happen: the President of Egypt is assassinated by left-wing extremists , and a new Soviet backed government is formed. This is immediately follow ed by Egypt's military takeover of Iraq and Saudi Arabia, putting into the hands of the Russians the vast oil fields there. A Soviet submarine sinks an Iranian transport, an American intelligence-gathering ship is attacked by the Russians, the President of Mexico is assassinated by communists and in East Berlin a bloody riot is witnessed bv a worldwide television audience. Part of Yugoslavia de clares independence and the Red Army invades that country from the east; the United States responds militar ily and the war has begun. THE NOVEL, though extremely competent and documented to the point of being overly technic 1, is too optimistic in several respects. To begin with, one only has to look around to see that less and less people are really afraid of Soviet intentions-only a pocketful of politicians and the military. Our Democratic congress seems to have : no intentions of drastically increasing military spending or reinstituting the draft. Secondly, in the novel, Iran is still ruled by the Shah and his henchmen and is, therefore, still pro-western. Thirdly, the Warsaw Pact alliance, after only minor mili tary movements against it and two isolated insurrections, falls apart. Finally, and most unbelieveably, only two nuclear strikes are precipitated during the entire war. These four situations on which much of the novel depends appears to be unrealistically hopeful and, in Iran's case, either written before the Shah's abdication or a miscalculation by the author. STYLISTICALLY, WHAT can one say about a novel written in the mold of a historical text book, except that it's as dry as this review and in most cases much more arid. It's hard reading and long, but for those who enjoy war games and stories, it will probably move quickly. All in all, the novel is not fun reading. The advances in modern warfare and the power and speed possessed by just about everyone these days make for a frightening turn of the page. But Hackett consoles the obviously distressed reader by making the war rather short and comparatively mild in destructive consequences. "Kassel, Nurnberg and Munchen had all suffered, and the great cities of the Rhineland had not been spared, although the spire of Koln cathedral had again surprisingly survived." No cities in the United States had been . touched, which, as was reiterated before, seems highly unlikely in the face of the novel's protrayal of the condi tions of the military. But, if you enioy watching Rat Patrol on television and yearn for replays of DDav on the late show, then read this novel. On the other hand, if you gave up hunting pheasants for moral reasons, this novel may make you
