page 12
Wednesday, november 28, 1979
daily nebraskan-
9 ,
Authentic old time
music reappears
fiddle
By Mary Kay Wayman
The Nebraska Old Time Fiddlers Asso
ciation will be fiddling around for the
public again after an eight-year absence,
the associations's founder, "Fiddling De,"
said.
The fiddlers will perform old time
country fiddle music from 10 a.m. to 5
pjn. Sunday, Dec. 2 at the Dodsworth and
Sons Farm Store, 6L32 Havelock Ave.,
DeRyke said.
All old time fiddlers, pickers and singers
are invited to participate in Sunday's
performance. The 15 -year-old organization
is reorganizing after losing many original
members, she said.
"We're trying to get young people in.
volved," she said, adding all ages are repres
ented in the association.
"This is the kind of music to which
your great-grandparents danced, listened
and performed," she said. The authentic
music must be at least 50 years old,
DeRyke said.
The public is invited to bring all the
food it wishes for a potluck luncheon at
noon, she said, adding that dishware, silver
and hot beverages will be provided. A
collection will be taken to defray expenses.
. DeRyke 'said she founded the, asso
ciation before the Nebraska Centennial to
prevent exploitation of fiddlers such as had
taken place in other states.
"I decided it wasn't going to happen
here and it didn't ," she said .
DeRyke has been fiddling for 42 years
and teaches fiddling at Southeast Commun
ity College.
"They call me Fiddling De," she said.
"A saddle-maker out in Idaho hung that on
me in the late '50s and it kind of stuck."
The Nebraska fiddlers dress in pioneer
style costumes, long skirts, bonnets and
western shirts. DeRyke said those attend
ing the performance should wear such cos
tumes if they have them.
Food and beverages Sunday will be
heated on wood -burning stoves. The Farm
Store itself is heated by wood fuel .
"We're going to kind of go back to the
rustic. We've kept it that way from the
beginning," DeRyke said.
She described the old time fiddlers'
brand of music as different from Huegrass,
Western swing or Nashville styles.
"Fiddling must be for dancing," she
said. "You must keep that dance beat so
it's very clear." Jigs, reels, hornpipes
waltzes and polkas are among the dances
played by the old time fiddlers, she said.
Difficulties finding halls to rent for per
formances and illness kept the fiddlers
playing only twice a year in DeRyke's base
ment, she said, just to stay together.
"We seem to be over our spell of ill
ness," she said. "We're bringing it (the
music) out into the public more."
Photo courtesy of Sheldon Film Theatre
Knife strife
"In the Realm of the Senses," is part of the Sheldon Film
Theater's Japanese Cinema series this week. Three films
by director Nagisa Oshima will be shown Thursday, Friday
and Saturday at the Sheldon Film Theater. "Boy," a 1969
film in color and black and white, will be shown Thursday
at 5 p.m., Friday at 9 pm. and Saturday at 7 p.m. "The
Ceremony," a 1971 color film, will be shown Thursday at
7 p.m., Friday at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 9 p.m. "In the
Realm of the Senses," a 1976 color film, will be shown
Thursday at 9:15 p.m., Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at
3 p.m. .
Observation of music trends key to Blondie's success
By Casey McCabe
It seems as though the members of the, rock group
Blondie have been spending the last 25 years inside a
portable radio, picking and choosing influences in antici
pation of the day they would be able to hit the airwaves
with their interpretation of what it is all about.
That is why the music that has enabled Blondie to rise
to. the top of the ever-widening New Wave category
doesn't come as a slap in the face, but as a signal that the
music ot the last three decades is heading for a melting
pot in the '80s.
Last year's Parallel Lines shot the band into the
national spotlight at a time when it already was the
darling of the smaller punkNew Wave cult scene. In
terestingly enough, it was Blondie's blatantly danceable
"Heart of Glass" that broke them open, and one of the
distinctions that arose out of this was being included
in a K-Tel Disco Explosion record package.
Fans at this point could be excused for wondering who
the hell Blondie was trying to kid. To some, passing disco
off as New Wave represented the lowliest depths a band
could sink to.
But save for the occasional surfacing of a funky
rhythm line, Blondie's latest album, Eat To The Beat
should quell the fears that the band has contracted some
horrible disease, the kind that gets you mixed up with
K-Tel.
mm
CCUCGt'J
It is irrelevant to classify the band, as they touch" on '.
several bases of the old. and new wave, and lay some
strikingly different tracks back to back. What does be
come apparent after several listenings is the band's affinity
for the romantic ideals pop and rock music supposedly
have been striving for all along.
WHILE THIS includes playing on a few cliches, ,
Blondie is smooth enough to appear original where others -would
come off pretentious. . 1
Hie key . to the- band's musical and popular image
is New Wave dream girl Deborah Harry, certainly one of
Documentary on Asian Americans begins
t Charlie Chan, Suzie Wong and Fu Manchu are among
the countless screen characters stereotyping Asians as
exotic, erotic, karate-chopping villians, geishas, or heavy
weights of mystey and intrigue.
Pearls, a new six-part documentary series combining
. historical facts with personal accounts, looks at the heri
tage and real lives of Asian Americans when the series
premieres on Sunday at 6:30 pjn. on the Nebraska
Educational Television Network.
Focusing on the life of a particular person or group,
each 30-minute program attempts to combine the clarity
of historical facts with the richness of people's lives.
The principle subjects for the different episodes of the
series are from diverse walks of life. One is an actor in
Hollywood, another a fisherman who works the coastal
waters off Southern California. Another is a Filipino old
timer in Seattle's International District. Two are teachers
in New York's Chinatown. There is an organization of
Asian American women, and lastly, a Nisei woman who
returns to Manzanar internment camp and other places of
her past.
the more recognizable audio-visual talents to emerge this
last year. ' "' '
An extremely adept vocalist, she gives a Connie Francis
touch to. side one's "Shayla" and side two's "Sound-A-Sleep,"
only to follow them up with the primal scream
antics of Patti Smith on "Eat To, The Beat" and "Victor."
"Dreaming" comes off as the epitome of pop music
from the mid-60's standpoint, with its machine-gun drum
ming and dissonant recording quality.
BLONDIE LAYS down its nastiest rock 4n' roll on the
title track, "Victor," and "Living In The Real World,"
while keyboardist Jimmy Destri gives that uneasy, stalk
ing quality to two of the albums stronger cuts, "Acci
dents Never Happen" and "Atomic." "Atomic" is built
around a Ventures style guitar lead and once again, De
borah Harry adapts to the occasion with fitting vocal
quality. .
They touch on reggae effectively with side -two's
opening cut "Die Young Stay Pretty," and while a
underlying disco beat threatens to invade "The Hardest
Part" on side one, it is offset by the knife-edge vocals
and lyrics by Harry.
All this could serve to alienate the listener. Someone
attracted to the sheer punk of "Eat To The Beat"
probably will not know how to take the sugary lullabye of
"Sound-A-Sleep," certainly the biggest question mark on
the album. The fact that all six members contribute
compositions helps explain the diversity, but there is some
hard to explain cohesion in Blondie that prevents it from
scattering into too many unidentifiable parts.
With this album Blondie will probably strengthen the
wall between fans and critics, for those looking for a hard
cut label of pop, rock, New Waveor disco will not find
one to comfortably fit the band on Eat To Vie Beat.
Given the circumstances of the current music scene, avoid
ing a label is an admirable trait.
