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thursday, november 12, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 9
I I
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Readings both energetic, slow-paced
By Chuck Lieurance
Tuesday night's poetry reading at the Zoo Bar was a
success mainly because Lincoln gets few chances to hear
the poetry that is written by its major poets. Whereas
other large cities have poetry readings as part of their
artisitic culture, they have long been alien to this city,
finding only a few havens such as the Glass Onion and the
Zoo Bar.
But the Zoo's support of poetry is quite encouraging
and Tuesday's show, which included Warren Fine, Sally
Herrin and Lincoln's master, Bill Kloefkorn, proved that
the reading of poetry is not boring at all.
In this age when art forms are so saturated into main
stream culture that it is hard to keep them from melting
into one another, (music into theater,, literature into
poetry, poetry into music, etc.), a reading of poetry is
as exciting as the opening night of any play.
Sally Herrin, a professor of English at UNL who was
recently published as Sally Cottonwood in Greg Kuzma's,
Forty Nebraska Poets, introduced a style of poetry she
calls "Chicken Shack."
These poems are basically blues lyrics with a feminist
perspective, replacing the music with a very rhythmic
reading. Her poems reflected this stylization very well,
but the words themselves were practically emptied of life
and imagery by the restrictions inherent in the form.
Obviously the style is not perfected, but it was interesting
to be given a chance to hear the experiment in progress.
Fine seems stereotyped
Warren Fine, also a professor at UNL and a recent con-
New wave.
Continued from Page 8
999 has a penchant for off-the-wall covers, including
such fabulous choices as "Little Red Riding Hood" by
Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs. Their latest release is
"Indian Reservation" from Paul Revere and the Raiders,
which debuted at number 74 this week in England.
"We're probably going to fly back and do a video pro
mo for some of the programs," Cash said.
999 called their live album The Biggest Tour in Sport
which Cash said is an English euphemism for sex which
may top baseball as a national pasttime.
tributor to Forty Nebraska Poets, seemed the most
stereotyped of poets in the perfect Bukowski school of
cultlife-weary poets. The major problem here was that
Fine's poems tended to be shorter than the tedious in
troductions which proceeded them. It was easy to see
that the poems did not stand well on their own because
the explanations of the poems were almost crucial.
Fine read a series of poems based on the love poems of
Catullus written in ancient Rome to a woman named Les
bia. Fine's rather clumsy rewritings to a woman named
Barbara were void of fresh imagery, but portentous with
sadness.
Fine, the haggard, quietly sardonic, experimental
prose writer read and explained with a restrained monoto
nous voice that did nothing to add life to poems that died
as he read them. His poems gravitated, or levitated, some
where between the excruciating and the shallowly glum.
Kloefkorn energetic
By far the best of the reader of the evening was Bill
Kloefkorn, who basically performed instead of read.
Kloefkorn's poems are light and energetic, with child
like energy, exuding an energy level unparalleled in the
evening's readings. Kloeikorn sang some poems aca pelia
and used totally captivating vocal inflection and gestures
to put across his fresh metaphor and unique eccentricity.
The best poems of his reading were from his collection
about a young boy, Ludi Jr. Ludi infiltrates the Boy
Scouts, seeks revenge against a hostile dog, and offends
the crowd at a Pentecostal Church Rally. Kloefkorn
comes off as an ordinary man with endearing quirks,
without having the omnipresent shadow of intellectual
ity hanging over him as with Herrin and Fine, who seem
to be afraid of being too simple or ordinary.
Hopefully, more establishments will follow the initi
ative of the Zoo Bar and Glass Onion and provide nights
for poets to read, perhaps in an open-stage setting. As
businessmen, proprietors should note that the Zoo Bar
was full on Tuesday night thanks to this reading. This
should be enough to generate some commercial interest.
Red Cross is counting
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This country's foremost
touring theatre company
returns to Lincoln
THE ACTING COMPANY
John Houseman, Artistic Director
Midsummer Night's Dream
November 12 & 13 at 8pm
Waiting for Godot
November 14 at 8pm
II Camplello
a Venetian Comedy
November 15 at 8pm
II CAMPtEUO (THE LITTLE BELL SQUARE) consists of four houses
and an inn that face out onto a piazza in Venice. Each house is oc
cupied by a marriageable young person and a parent or auardian.
These residents devote the better half of their days flirting, squab-
Dimg, gossiping, maicnmaKing, ana playing games or chance.
These daily activities are interrupted by a wedding feast, but they
manage to erupt again as the festivities come to a close. Colorful
appeal, comedy, and general pandemonium race through this
evening of fun and laughter.
UNL Students 4.00
Regular 8.00
KIMBALL
HALL 11 &R
Box Office (11-5)
113 Music Bldg. 11th & R
472-3375
mm
8
University
of Nebraska
Lincoln
Special Thursday Nov. 12 - Wednesday Nov. 18
Old fTlilwaukee . . . Loose C&n warm
24 cans . 5.75
Kegs A vailable E veryday
640 West Van Dorn Next to Dutton's Den
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An Engagement Ring...
visit with a Wright's Diamond Expert
Wntfhts
The Bright Idea1
13th & P St.