Arts & Entertainment
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John Bruce/Daily Nebraskan
Computer pom exists
for mature customers
By Micki Haller
Senior Editor
Despite newspaper tales of
computer pornography, Lincoln
software merchants say they don’t
think there is a problem.
“There’s a game on the market
called Leisure Suit Larry,” said Ed
Moss, corporate accounts manager
at Connecting Point.
He said the game has an adult
theme with some graphics, but
“really it’s not that bad at all.”
Larry is a 40-year-old character
who has been thrown out of the
house by his mother and tries to pick
up women.
Moss said Larry gets slapped a
lot.
Adults arc the primary buyers of
the game, Moss said, but he said one
woman bought Leisure Suit Larry
for her son in junior high school.
“Other than (Leisure Suit
Larry), there’s really nothing else,”
he said.
Moss did mention a Dr. Ruth/
Good Sex game for computers that
asks questions like the tafk show
and tests the player’s knowledge.
Moss said there are more adult
themed computer programs on
underground bulletin boards, but
nothing really marketable.
Six games of Leisure Suit Larry
have been sold since December,
Moss said.
Leisure Suit Larry seems to be
one of the most popular computer
sex games in Lincoln.
Gary Mays, manager of Hob
bytown at East Park Plaza, said the
game is one of a few sexually ori
ented programs.
“The one that gets the most re
quests is Leisure Suit Larry, be
cause it’s a funny game,” he said.
Mays said the game is bought by
people one would never suspect
would purchase it. He said some
times wives come in and buy the
game for their husbands.
Hobbytown also sells strip
poker games. Mays said the game
has strippers of both sexes, an
“equal opportunity stripper.”
“If you’ve got a good relation
ship, it’s nothing that’s going to
interfere with that relationship,”
Mays said.
Computer programmers might
invent the games for the challenge,
Mays said. An attractive represen
tation of a human needs extremely
good graphics or an extremely good
programmer, he said.
“And some of the computer guys
are introverts who like to look at a
nice body,” he said.
Mays said the store docs not sell
explicit materials to anyone under
18.
By that age, he said, “they’ve at
least seen some health films.”
Overall, kids simply aren’t inter
ested in the games, Mays said.
Mike Adams, a salesperson at
the Computer Swap Shoppe, said
the store has sold eight games of
Leisure Suit Larry in one month.
Most customers who buy the
game are 25 or older, Adams said,
and the store won’t sell the game to
younger people.
Paula Schach, a bookkeeper at
Nordic Software, said the company
didn’t sell any sexually oriented
programs.
Nordic Software, which also
designs software, might make such
a program for a customer, she said.
“It depends — they would have
to discuss the costs and all that,” she
said.
Bev, a salesperson from Com
puter Systems who refused to di
vulge her full name, said, “I have
not seen any (explicit games). We
try to cater to businesses and fami
lies.”
Don Borer from the computer
department at Nebraska Bookstore
said the siorc carries no porno
graphic computer programs.
Cult film star Divine dies,
female roles brought fame
By Geoff McMurtry
Senior Iulitor
Underground film star Divine was
found dead Monday from asphyxi
ation in his/her Los Angeles motel
room. Divine had apparently died the
night before. An LAPD investigation
was still underway at prcsslimc.
Bom Glenn Milstcad, the 350
pound transvestite actor had been
active in film for 24 years, landing his
first feature role in 1966’s “Roman
Candles.” It took him until 1985 to
get his first male role in “Trouble In
Mind,” with Kris Kristoffcrson and
Keith Carradinc.
Divine rose to cull prominence
through female roles in trash
filmmaker John Waters’ movies, in
eluding “Eat Your Makeup,’’“Mondo
Trasho,”“Pink Flamingos,” “Female
Trouble,” and the recently released
“Hairspray.” Starring Debbie Harry,
Sonny Bono, and Pia Zadora, among
others, “Hairspray” is Waters’ first
mainstream feature, and is expected
to make household names out of
Waters and Divine.
The name Divine was bestowed
upon Milstcad by Waters, who took it
from a transsexual character in
French surrealist poet Jean Genet’s
novel “Our Lady of the Flowers.”
While known in America mostly
for his underground films, if at all, he
was well known in Europe as a caba
ret singer, and was a member of the
nightclub drag act “The Cockctlcs.”
‘You too can be a non-conformist
OK, OK, so I bought a Banana
Republic Israeli Paratrooper Brief
case like a million other students.
Trendy or not, 1 just plain like it. It
was quite a thing for me, spending
money on such a luxury. You know,
the die-hard anti-system guy sells out
and all.
Anyway, now Banana Republic
sends mccatalogs full of wonderfully
trendy articles of clothing and oh-so
hip travel stories— liberal escapism
at its best. It reads like a prescription
to soothe post-Yuppie angst. Tired
after a hard day of pushing numbers?
Slip into your Walter Milty shirt and
dream in the comfort of your own
condo.
Just what bothers me so much
about such a benign little catalog? I
opened it up to a “Save the Crocodile
Bag”— imitation croc skin made of
leather. They have the gal 1 to “appeal
to consumers of conscience” to save
crocodile hides by buying cow hides.
Why bother maintaining the idea that
crocodile skin is somehow exotic?
Oh well, 1 am wearing my leather
shoes at the moment.
Then I found “Existential Trou
sers.” ARGH! Sartre, Nietzsche,
Camus — they all wrote of nausea. If
only they had known this would
come about. It is supposed to tic in
with “Being and Nothingness” some
how, but I do not quite follow. And
for women, Banana Republic oilers
“Empirical Trousers,” which, in
accordance with John Locke, recre
ate the “original happy slate of na
ture” by harkening back to the idea
that “all knowledge is derived from
the senses.” Yeah.
And what a spirit of rebellion the
folks at Banana Republic possess! It
begins with 1 (X) percent cotton jeans
that arc recommended to “rebels
without a pause.” Then there is the
“No-Horse Shirt.” Yes, you loo can
be a non-conformist. Revolt against
knit sport shirts with pictures of ani
mals as logos by wearing your own
knit sport shirt without a logo.
The “Populist Pants” arc sup
posed to lie into traditional values of
durability and workmanship. Fine,
but pants arc pants, not some celebra
tion of lhe “raise less com and more
hell” slogan. And of course there is
the “newly amended ERA Skirt,”
which is “a full eight inches shorter
than its antecedent” and has “equal
opportunity pockets.” Thai’s really
stretching the theme.
The above examples may be mat
ters of personal taste, but I think just
about everyone is upset by getting a
catalog with SOLD OUT stamped
across the picture of some product or
another. In thiscasc, it is the suddenly
revived leather flight jacket. At least
they didn’ sell it with prefaded
patches already attached.
Dotted through the catalog are bits
of wit and wisdom from current
popular figures like Bcrkc Breathed.
I can imagine Tama Janowit/. plug
ging a “Distraught Author Hairspray
Case” in the next catalog. But to keep
in line with more mundane readers,
Banana Republic offers the tradi
tional T-shirt, billed as a 1 (K) percent
cotton jersey, for only S20.
The extravagant prices do not
bother me nearly as much as the
imaginary travel stories. Products are
sold as travel accessories with cute
little names and stories — pure form
over function. The Banana Republic
catalog comes across as imaginary
escapist drivel rather than an interest
ing alternative to the usual catalog
fare. I can dream up better stories
drifting through second-hand cloth
ing shops anytime.
Peterson is a sophomore philosophy and psy
chology major and a Daily Nebraskan stafT
reporter.
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Andy Manhart/Daily Nebraskan
‘Psycho,’ ‘Book of Imaginary Beings’
presented by Music Now! Sunday
By Micki Haller
Senior liditor
From the fanciful “Book of Imagi
nary Beings” to the frighteningly
familiar “Suite” from Alfred
Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” Music Now!,
the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln’s Twentieth Century Scries,
presented modern pieces of music
Sunday night at Kimball Hall.
The first piece, “Chamber Con
certo II” by Elliott Schwartz, was
seemingly a futile search for mean
ing, directed by Harold Levin and
guided by Ed Love, solo clarinetist.
Instruments took turns conversing,
interrupting and sometimes erupting
into a cacophony of sound.
I
Sounds were nol fluid and beauti
ful, but they weren’t supposed to be.
A fluttering of the wind and brass
instruments warped the usually clear
tones and elicits a sense of despair.
“The Book of Imaginary Beings
(after J.L Borges),” a piece for harp
sichord by Randall Snyder, seemed
like the Addams family revisited.
The 15 short movements, played by
Harvey Hinshaw, were based on
character sketches ol mythological
creatures. “Kraken,” an “enlarge
ment of an octopus,” sounded like a
mysterious creature of the deep sea,
and “Perylon,” a half-dccr, half-bird
creation, moved with a light,airy, yet
monstrous gracefulness.
However, the musicoftcn failed to
evoke the creature. At least, my
mental musical images of a roc or a
unicorn were nothing like the sounds
that were played.
After intermission, members of
the Lincoln Youth Symphony Or
chestra played “Charybdis,” written
by UNL graduate David Dean.
Starting with an ominous presen
timent of dread, the piece turned into
a rich, easy swirl of sound. A siren
song played on the trumpet ended the
piece.
From the loudest, grating
screeches of “The Murder” and “The
Knife” to the pianissimo of “The
Cellar,” the symphony displayed
excellent control of dynamic ranges.
While most people’s exposure to
modem music has been movie
soundtracks and slick crime shows,
it’s a pleasure to hear it performed
live, and maybe this is the whole
point of the Music Now! series.
KZUM trying for $20,000
From Staff Reports
KZIIM, 89.3 FM, began its bian
nual over-lhc-air fund-raiser Sun
day and will continue it through
March 13.
This spring’s goal is to raise
$20,(XX). Coffee mugs and T-shirts
-1
will be given lo certain contributors.
The non-commercial public ra
dio station is celebrating its 10th
year. KZUM’s mix of alternative
music and information is the work of
volunteers. Programs include jazz,
comedy, blues, folk music, soul,
reggae, salsa, women’s music, pro
gressive rock and informational
features.
KZUM finished fourth in a Sun
day Journal-Star reader’s poll for
favorite radio stations. The number
of KZUM listeners has grown in
recent months since a power in
crease from 10 to 1,500 watts.
KZUM now broadcasts to all Lan
caster County.