Wednesday, October 1, 1980
page 12
daily nebraskan
Individual taste is deciding factor in Zangari poll
Well, it could have been worse-the whole campus
could have answered en masse about what they've been
doing in the dark all these lonely years. Then I might have
had to really work. As it was, the results of the first Zan
gari poll (the "Where do you go when there's no San
Francisco" poll) were entirely manageable and polite.
I only had to tango with 22 of you. Probably the best
cross section of UNL ever assembled in one card board
box.
a
Most of the answers fit into five categories. Three of
the five were within three votes of being the top category.
On top with whipped cream and a cherry was the private
business sector, who rally the time and money of our poll
bearers. Bars and restaurants are it. Forget ethnic
clothiers. My alma mater, the Zoo Bar, tied one on with
the Village Inn with a deafening two votes. Everyone else
came in second. No losers in this poll.
The others, with one vote each were The Cellar, The
Underground, Neilsen's Restaurant, Country Kettle,
Brannigan's, Soul Food Kitchen, The Green Frog, and
Spaghetti Works. Customers of these places generally re
frained, from making any comments. Not so for the other
categories.
The second category by a nose, was the private sector.
Favorite places to be include: bed, the bathroom, home,
apartment, my basement (even the roaches respond) and
one's own head (where else can you watch the sun rise or
Delphi?") Lest you think all respondents are heathens, the
family is well represented with votes for brother and
sister's house and grandmom's house. The former because
"one of them will usually have dope to smoke so we can
all get stoned, watch the tube and mellow out." The latter
because "Grandma makes a wicked pork chop.
University third
The university inches in at third with some informa
tion the NU Board of Regents should take note of next
tune they are budgeting. The Sheldon Gallery gets the
most votes (three) followed by Memorial Stadium on a
football Saturday (One comment-The stadium is not too
much fun when there is no game"). Other hot spots on
campus include Abel ("the Zoo") Hall, Andrews Hall,
the Ferguson Hall computer room, and Broyhill Foun
tain.
Lincoln (or part's thereof) gets a vote of confidence in
the next category. Places include the bus stop at 14th
and O Streets, any street downtown on a Friday night,
and the Lincoln Municipal airport.
Finally the last category, (do I hear champagne corks
popping?) those whose favorite place is not in Lincoln. They
where else. One individual poses a question that might
be suitable fodder for a follow-up poll when they ask
"Why do all of you wear feed lot caps?" Where do you
hang out?
a ,nu rati there vou are. and you deserved it too.
Incidently along with a comment on the Zoo Bar, I got
this review of San Fransisco.
Zoo unique
"When 1 went to S. F. I couldn't find anyplace like or
similar to the Zoo Bar. Then again, if I had spent more
time outside of the hotel (and Chinatown) I'd have found
a few good places. Actually, after seeing the places that
we did, I'm relieved tofind nothing like them in Lincoln.
"One example is the Blue Lamp Lounge on the 600
block of Geary Street. You walk in and its dark, dim. There
is a cop in a corner, couched by the fireplace. It seems
very relaxing. The blue lamp is an Organ bar. "Joyce on
Wurlitzer," it says outside the door. Go inside and there's
Joyce, a sultry faggot who is pounding out a steamy ver
sion of "Mood Indigo" on the mighty Wulitzer to absorb,
the Radio City bass effect the management covered the
ceiling with what looked like 10-foot long Hostess Ho
llos. "Our waitress for the evening was a pretty young
Oriental girl in a skintight fire-engine red dragon-lady
dress. What topped the, evening off was the lady who
brought her laundry into the place and threw it on the
flood by the mighty Wurlitzer. Oh. Yes. The mirrors in
the ladies room were waist high."
I guess it all depends on personal taste and chance
where we end up. All answers, those tongue-in-cheek and
those waving freely out of cheek were most welcome. The
poll box remains open for comments and ideas.
A Confederacy of Dunces 9 rich in characters, wi
By.Pat Higgins
A Confederacy of Dunces by John
Toole, is quite likely to become an instant
cult favorite, particularly among collegians
chiefly for two reasons.
The first reason is that this richly
comic and well-written novel that can fav
orably be compared to the efforts of Von
negut and Brautigan. It resembles Catch 22
in its excellence of characters and sharp
wit. The wit of course, does not diminish
the seriousness of the work.
enough for mass hysteria to break out;
he is quite obese and dresses in a totally
ridiculous manner.
Authority figures
Authority figures, such as policemen,
seems to be magnetically attracted to him.
This leads ReiUy to threaten the police
with his (non-existent) high-powered legal
hot shots. Reilly decides to subvert from
within, on the job. He appears to be a
zealously-loyal robot to his employers
while sabotaging the firm. He obtains a
position of authority at a factory.
There he remembers his days as a lib
eral academician and decides to rally the
black factory workers into a proliterian
revolution against the management that
fe reussrj
The second reason for conferring cult
status are the circumstances surrounding
the publication of the novel. Walker
Percy, a noted literary figure, describes
how he personally ensured that A Confed
eracy of Dunces was able to come to the
attention of the public, in a forward to
the novel. The author committed suicide
several years ago. His mother began badg
ering Percy incessantly to read the work,
Percy said he expected nothing and was
totally shocked to discover the quality
he had stumbled upon and quickly found
a publisher.
The novel is set in New Orleans and
Toole seems to have captured the manner
in which people speak there. Humor is ram
pant throughout the book, there is a guar
anteed guffaw on virtually every page.
However, this is definately not a light
weight comedy, but a statement on what
the author feels are the authentiv horrors
of the modern world.
Characters are highlight
The characters are the real highlight,
chief among them is Ignatius J. Reilly,
who is an unemployed, 30-year-old dead
beat freeloading off his mother's social
security, Reilly is not the most sympathet
ic figure the literary world has produced.
He is an utter bore, alternating between
complaining and threatening. His life con
sists of consuming prodigious amounts of
junk food, viewing TV and composing a
treatise on the absurities of modern civil
ization, Reilly is an educated person who spent
a decade in college and subsequently be
came a teacher, but his outrageous behav
ior quickly led to his ouster.
After enjoying a leisurely period of un
employment, Reilly is forced to rejoin the
working class. He holds a succession of
jobs that becomes a ridiculous disaster.
Reilly' mere appearance on the street is
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Cover photo courtesy of Ed lindloflSU Press
A Confederacy of Dunces is the recently-released novel of John Kennedy Toole.
becomes a hilarious fiasco. His next
job is as a hot dog vendor. He dresses
in ridiculous pirate garb that causes no
little amusement to onlookers. After his
failure to lead a black revolution, Reilly
decides to move to another oppressed
minority, gays, and lead them into a
demented and perverse plan to underrrune
the military.
The supporting characters have their
moments also. Patrolman Mancuso is forc
ed by his sergeant to stake out a bus term
inal bathroom on a daily basis.it leads him
to near psychosis. Jones, an underpaid
-black janitor, interested in sabotaging
his employer and Reilly adds the key in
gredients. Reilly s radical girlfriend is also
pleasantly ridiculous.
Newsweek and Rolling Stone have al
ready extravagantly praised this novel and
deservedly so. It is a quite impressive
effort and it is a tragedy that the author
is dead.
Omaha Ballet
opens season
The Omaha Ballet will open its season
with performances tonight and tomorrow
at the Orpheum Theater. Feature guest
artists will be Leslie Browne and Patrick
Bissel in two pas de deux.
Leslie Browne joined the American
Ballet Theatre as a soloist in 1976. Her
debut rnovie perfonnance in The Turning
Point earned her an Academy Award nom
ination as Best Supporting Actress.
Browne, daughter of former American
Ballet Theater dancers Kelly and Isabel
Browne, received her early training at the
Phoenix School of Ballet. Her studies
continued at George Balanchine's School
of American Ballet in New York, generally
viewed as a training ground for the New
York City Ballet.
In addition to her performance in The
Turning Point, in which she co-starred
with Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine
and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Browne regular
ly performs roles such as Clara in The Nut
cracker, Moyna in Giselle, Prayer in! Cop
pelia, and the pas de trois in Swan Lake.
Patrick Bisell joined the American
Ballet Theatre in May 1977 and has per
formed major roles in La Bayadere, Mik
hail Barishnikov's full-length productions
of The Nutcracker and Don Quixote,
and George Balanchine's Theme and Vari
ation. Tickets for the performances are $12,
$9 and $6, and are available at Brandeis or
the Civic Auditorium or call the Omaha
Ballet at 551-7968.