Thursday, October 28, 1982
Arts & Entertammeiiit
Concert a whopper
Daily Nebraskan
I 1 . ItlS :- J.imWA
Big Mac pleases tastes
By Pat Higgins
If you like Fleetwood Mac's records,
you would have thoroughly enjoyed
their concert Tuesday night. An appre
ciative full house at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center lustily roared as Big Mac
went through 20-some tunes. Fleetwood
Mac, undoubtedly the premeire adult
Concert
4 '
n hit.. tt-tr- v
'St. Ei
By David Wood
pop group of the last few years, is a band
with personality, three ditterent singer
songwriters, along with a rhythm section
that has been playing together since the
British Invasion, add up to an interesting
blend of talent.
Stevie Nicks seems to have captured
the public's fancy with her mystical
songs and fashion sense, but Lindsay
Buckingham is the unsung first-among-equals
in Fleetwood Mac. Wearing a
cowboy hat, Buckingham provided the
enthusiasm for the band, as he played
guitar, sang and did funky little dances.
"Second Hand News," a Buckingham
song, kicked off the evening's entertain
ment From then on, Fleetwood Mac
reached back as far as the late '60s with
"Oh, Well" in playing all their hits up to
the most recent off their latest album,
"Mirage."
Nicks did a lot of popular favorites
including "Sara," "Rhianon," and "Land
slide." Her voice wasn't quite up to par,
but that was evidently secondary to her
custume changes, as she would duck into
a tent at the side of the stage to change
her outfits. She floated around the stage
banging a tamborine and looking spacey
a lot.
Christine McVie displayed hex throaty
vocals on "Hold Me" and "You Make
Love Fun" and provided a pleasant con
trast to the others. McVie wore a black
minidress that perhaps dated back to when
she was known as Christine Perfect be
fore marrying John McVie. McVie ap
peared content to let the others take the
spotlight and sat behind her keyboard.
John McVie, while playing a typically
competent bass, was completely in the
background and could have phoned his
part in.
Mick Fleetwood had the biggest drum
kit seen since the late Keith Moon and
used it quite effectively, as a lot of the
tunes featured the African rhythms that
Fleetwood has been delving into lately.
As good as Linday Buckingham's solo
album "Law and Order" was, Fleetwood
Mac is better as a whole than as the sum
of the parts. .
If they could use the University of
Southern California marching band when
they cut "Tusk," they should have trot
ted in the Husker marching band here.
It's perfectly understandable why Fleet
wood Mac is one of the most popular
groups in the world. They combine di
verse talents and Buckingham's enthu
siasm to make well-crafted, appealing
pop music.
isewh
ere9 suffers from bad case of blues -
St. Eligius Hospital is a rat hole compared to the big
ger, more modern Boston General Hospital. Lacking the
prestige that top money brings, the hospital has a grow
ing reputation for being a dumping ground for the dregs
of society. Small-minded Bostonians are calling the hos
pital St. Elsewhere.
St. Eligius' corridors of anguish and solitary rooms of
agony are the setting of the new dramatic series "St. Else
where" (Tuesday, 9 p.m., NBC). The show is a first-
" Television
L XJ Review
generation clone of "Hill Street Blues," the pet program
of the critics that swept the Emmys in its first year. As
such, even though it is only an episode oldf "St. Else
where" already is garnering acclaim.
This is all well and good, but the similarity between
the styles of the shows has its downside, too. "Hill Street
Blues" isn't enormously popular. It has only stayed on
the air by force of its breakthroughs or "break-froms" in
the TV formula. The drama is serious in technique as well
as in tone.
"St. Elsewhere," on the contrary, can't lay such grand
claims. The style is no longer breakthrough. It is spin-off.
If its ratings lag, the show has no historical grounds on
which to preserve it and, no doubt, "St. Elsewhere" will
close down.
Stylistically, "St. Elsewhere" reeks of "Hill Street
Blues." In both, the action isn't so cosmetic and sanitized.
Events bustle by in no particular order. The conflicts
aren't always straightforward and don't focus into simple
story lines that run their course to resolution in a matter
of an hour. The episodes aren't narrative. They are a slice
of life. Instead of weekly plots, multiple plots are distri
buted through several weeks and are resolved, compli
cated or just fade away. The texture of the programs is
the day-to-day ebb and flow of bedlam.
Likewise, characters are more true to life. They aren't
crystalizcd nuggets with a known number of facets. They
are personalities in the rough. Their relationships aren't
rigid structures into which plots are injected. They
change, individually and as a group. As in life, the sig
nificance of their roles shift, too. The camera often
leaves one character and follows another when they pass
in a chaotic scene.
The nature of the show is to build on itself and evolve,
making it hard to pass judgment on "St. Elsewhere" from
the evidence of one show. It is perhaps for this reason
that the first episode seemed more tied to a single charac
ter and a single plot and subplot than a typical "Hill
Street Blues" episode would be. However, the reason for
this may instead be that "St. Elsewhere" is less daring and
making its stand halfway between convention and inven
tion. The latter seems the likelier bet, as the palette of
scenes is less jarring than it is in "Hill Street Blues."
So far, Jack Morrison, a soft-spoken, husky-voiced
first-year resident, appears to be the central character. He
suffers a conflict between youthful optimism and the es
tablished St. Eligius grind. He lets himself get involved,
and he is tortured by the anonymity 6i patients in the
face of hectic "hospital administration. In episode 1, by in
sisting on a preliminary biopsy, he saves a smart 15-year-old
from what might have been fatal surgery.
Seeds for many future plots also were planted in the
hopscotch of scenes. One rakish young doctor has to in
form various women in the hospital that he has gonorrhea,
but he has trouble remembering who and how many he
has successfully landed in bed. There is a disturbed path
ologist who might develop an inclination for nympho
mania in the future. There is a female doctor who is as
idealistic as Morrison but who is more at tfdds with the
hospital than with herself.
There is an utterly crass doctor, too. He prides him
self on the donations he wheedles out of patients, and he
wants to turn the hospital's ugliest cases into advertising
and thinks Indian anesthesiologists are the downfall of
Western medicine. Also, of course, there is the wise
chief who oversees the crew.
"St. Elsewhere" also introduced a few trademark ele
ments. Periodically, hospital time is digitally displayed
in the bottom corner of the picture. The effect is neg
ligible. Twice in the show, busy scenes were overlaid
with music, first the Police's "Do-Do-Dah," then Spring
steen's "Born to Run." The effect here is questionable.
The fate of "St. Elsewhere" is in the air, despite
that it tries to be more honest than the average smat
tering of doctor shows. If it docs succeed, expect to see
detective, lawyer and newsroom shows in the same ein.
"Hill Street Blues" ' deviations from traditional formula
will become a formula in its own right.
Confused voters need some election day clues
"I voted today."
"Gosh, is it voting day already?"
"No, the election isn't until next
Tuesday.
"So you just went ahead and voted
d MaryLouise
j? Knapp
f 1 ji 1 n 1
anvwav. None ol those suly election
rules for you, huh?"
"No, 1 used an absentee ballot and
voted in my hometown. I wish I hadn't.
I don't know any of the people running
for office. Anyway, why should I care
who gets on the Weed Control Board in
Hick County?"
"Yeah, it's too bad you can't come
vote with me Tuesday, I was planning to
buy some beer this weekend and get
drunk just before going to the polls.
It'd be really great. All those old ladies
on the Election Commission probably
will shake their heads and say, 'And
these are the ones that actually bothered
to vote!"
"What do you do when you don't
know anybody on the ballot? I finally
resorted to closing my eyes and pointing."
"Well. I always vote against the incum
bent. Iliat scans like a good rule of
thumb."
"That's always been my plan. I usually
vote for any women who might be running,
especially in western Nebraska. 1 1 icy
need all the help they can get out there
where men arc men ..."
"I generally vote for anyone who
sounds like they belong to a minority
group. If their name sounds Czech, they've
automatically got my vote. I don't know
why. I don't have a drop of Czech blood
In me."
"I'm glad you feel that way, too. I
think one of my relatives ran for, office
this year. Just to be on the safe side, I
voted for him. His last name roughly
corresponded with my mother's maiden
name.
"Ordinarily, I wouldn't recommend that
kind of voting practice. Hut in this situa
tion, it was probably a good move. I've
had to do it myself a couple of times."
"I If y to vote for anyone who sounds
young. Like, if a candidate goes by Tim
instead of I imothy, I assume he is under
35 and therefore more amenable to the
wishes of younger constituents."
"If they haven't run for office before,
I vote for them. That way I can be sure
they haven't been corrupted by long years
in the political arena. They also might
be honest enough to say what they really
mean."
"I don't know if this voting is worth
all the trouble. There's so much to remem
ber!" "Maybe I won't vote this year. It won't
Ik any fun without you along. And all
my other friends are cither tn young
lo vote or illegal aliens. Maybe I should
just stay home."
"Look al il this way. Lither way you
vote, government will win."