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Friday, February 4, 1983
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Lloyd J. Harris, author of "The Book of Garlic," at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
By Steve Abariotes (with inspiration
on "Garlic" from Chuck Jagoda)
Werner Herzog sits in the back seat of
a moving car, expounding on topics such as
life, love and the vampire in his film
"Nosferatu." The interviewer is able, at
last, to pose the question he has come to
ask, the question that should come next
Film Review
in the logical direction of a professionally
conducted interivew. Herzog's reply : why
do you ask me this?" His bewiderment is
understandable. Well, what do you think
about garlic? C'mon, what do ya think?
Les Blank's documentary film, "Garlic
is as Good as Ten Mothers," (the first
of a double feature tonight at Sheldon
Film Theatre), reveals garlic, for some, as
a political, social and personal life force.
We discover that garlic (genus Allium Sati
vum) is not an only herb contemptible to
vampires, a bread seasoner, or a maker
of breaths afoul. It is a quintessential
c Unary ingredient of different cultures
from all over the world. From Berkeley,
Calif, to Morocco, from Spain to Mexico,
we are shown' thousands of consumptive
users for garlic.
One can nearly smell all the cooking,
roasting, basting and frying. The film is
immersed in the preparation of all the
garlic dishes, highlighting texture and
transition. The meatgriner scene is spell
binding. The film is not serious in a serious way
- serious in its loyalty to its subject, yet
laughing at itself and finally resorting to
lots of fun.
Comedy fooppe gives chance
to Lincoln ioEies's and wlis
By Jeff Goodwin
So you thought the only stand-up
comedian in Lincoln was the wisecracking
bartender at O'Rourke's. Not anymore.
Wednesday night marked the first night
of The Comedy Shoppe at Larry's Show
case. The Shoppe, scheduled for the first
Wednesday of each month, features local
comedians and groups. Even a few acts
from Omaha braved the weather Wednes
day to appear.
UNL senior Kirk Benson one of a group
of six former and current UNL theater
students who performed Wednesday night,
said he was surprised at the size of the
audience.
"I never thought we'd have this big a
crowd for the first one," Benson said,
"especially with the weather like this."
Benson said he and his group, which
includes students Todd Hambrick, Dave
Broughn, Jon Ratliff, and Chris Wineman
and Chris Darga had been considering the
idea for a long time.
"We came down and talked to Larry
Boehmer (owner of Larry's Showcase)
about it and he fell for it head over heels,"
Benson said. "The only problem was that
we wanted to do it the last Wednesday of
each month and he said, 'How about the
first Wednesday?' So we only had two
weeks to throw it together."
Benson said his group, which is still
unnamed, knew most of the other comed
ians who performed from similar events in
Omaha and a series of Comedy Nights put
on by O.G. Kelly's.
"We'd met everybody before and had
mentioned to them the possibility of put
ting this on ," Benson said .
Other performers included UNL senior
T. Marni Vos, a renowned expert on
Mexican cuisine; the indescribable Rolling
Ray; and Bud Anderson and John Menzies
from Omaha.
Benson said this was the first time his
group had performed publicly, even though
the members have known each other for
about three years.
The group's humor is very topical,
Benson said.
"We get a lot of our ideas from reading
the newspapers, watching TV, things like
that," he said. "We get a big idea and then
weed it down. We just sit down, turn on
the tape recorder, grab a few beers and
start rambling."
The group's emphasis on topical humor
was amply displayed Wednesday night in
several of its skits, including a takeoff on
movie reviwers Roger Ebert and Gene
Siskel and another satiric skit based on
ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Pro
gramming Network).
Continued on Page 1 1
The annual Gilroy Garlic Festival
zestfully celebrates this healthful heib,
which can even be applied as a special
suntanuing mixture. Few people know the
instrumental role of garlic during the
construction of the pyramids or its place in
past presidential administrations.
The film features Lloyd J. Han is,
author of The Biok Of (iarlic, as well as a
jumping, hand-clapping soundtrack that
includes a wide variation of ethnic music.
Mirana Hirsch did the research for the
film. "Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers"
was produced, directed and photographed
by specialty filmmaker Blank, in English
with questionable subtitles.
The second documentary film is "John
lleartfield: Photomontagist." Filmmaker
Helmut Herbst breathes cinematic life into
the work of this enigmatic, antifascist
lleartfield, a German refugee who angli
cized his name, first attacked the German
Weimar Republic with his Dadaist -influenced
photomontages. Later, his cut-and-paste
caricatures of Nazi leaders were
published in "Workers Illustrated Maga
zine (A1Z)," to the disgust of the German
leaders who, ironically enough, found it
difficult to locate a word low enough for
lleartfield.
The film examines the three elements
of Heartfield's artistic and revolutionary
process: aesthetics, politics and mecha
nics. Old newsreels of Weimar leaders
are also incorporated into the film.
Nothing about the photographic process
is left to question - even the silver partic
les on the surface of a piece of film are
suspect. Hitler became glorified somehow
when photographed or filmed. The camera
created an aura around him, encompassing
him, creating a presence that was not
necessarily there. His fiery, clenched
fisted speeches were certainly responsible
A
for many of his reactionary followers.
When llerbst slows Hitler down, running
the film in slow motion, this impassioned,
stormy speaker, this insane orator,
becomes a monster. His shrieks evolve into
one low, dull, horrifying screech, and he is
transformed into pure evil.
Heartfield's intentions were political;
his assault on the Weimar Republic was
first priority. He collaborated with
cartoonist and expressionist George Grosz,
who expressed extreme hatred for the
German middle class by depicting them in
his own grotesque and nightmarish fashion.
lleartfield collected thousands of photo
graphs to use in his clever, and many times
grim collages, recalling a specific photo out
of an entire stockpile of prints with his
precise memory. He combined completely
unrelated photos in his collages, just as
Sergei Eisenstein combined unrelated
"shots" together in a film, creating an
abstract message as well as visual impact.
The painstaking, technical process of
developing and printing a photomontage
was of great importance. The collage
prints had to be of very high quality to
ensure that all the subtleties would survive
the printing and publication of the
magazine. Only then could it be effective.
The print developed in the demonstration
depicts Hermann Goering putting a torch
to the entire earth.
The film stretches it just a bit, purport
ing to show other examples of oppression
and violence in other parts of the world -and
using photomontage, perhaps with
television as the medium, as a possible
option or solution.
"Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers,"
and "John lleartfield: Photomontagist"
show tonight at Sheldon at 7 and 9:15.
The running length of the two films
totals two hours.
Photomontagist John Heart
field used his creations and
images to further his anti
fascist campaigns. At left
is a reproduction of a Heart
field work that appeared
on the cover of AIZ maga
zine in Germany.
J
ECZUM ete plans to celebrate
its nappy Monday mao'afnon
By Jeff Goodwin
KZUM, Lincoln's only non-profit com
munity access radio station, will be cele
brate its fifth birthday with a marathon
starting today and running through Feb.
14. KZUM first went on the air on Feb. 14
1978.
Because of the positive response KZUM
received to their live performances that
were aired last fall, the station will once
again broadcast live for their fifth birth
day marathon.
Bill Stoughton, chairperson of KZUM's
programming board, said the station
hopes to appeal to a broader audience
through the live broadcasts.
"The live performances are sort of
like featured specials during the
marathon," Stoughton said. "As far as I
know, no local radio station has done
this before, at least not for a long time."
All of the live performances will be
broadcast from Larry's Showcase.
Among the performances are concerts
this Saturday featuring Kansas City jazz
great Claude Williams and a performance
Thursday by the Crap Detectors.
Another performance a week from
today features the reggae group Caribe.
Continued on Page 1 1