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12 Arts & Entertainment Wednesday, November 7,1990
Courtesy of Xena Madia Manipulations
Nik Fiend and Mrs. Fiend
Horrifying Alien Sex Fiend
will crash-land in Lincoln
ay rvocnaei ueeas
Senior Editor
England's monstrous Alien Sex
Fiend, rock ‘n’ roll’s most ghoul
ish creature, will crawl into Duffy’s
Tavern, 1412 O St., Sunday night
as part of the band’s first North
American tour in seven years.
Alien Sex Fiend is a horrific
musical entity that offers 2 1/2 live
hours of pure insanity, comprised
of a dangerous crossover of muti
laied, brain-smearing noise and
mind-blowing visual confusion.
A European cult god, Alien Sex
Fiend is made up of Frankenstein
couple Nik Fiend (vocals), and Mrs.
Fiend (keyboards/bcat box/fuzz
guiiar/backing vocals). The two arc
accompanied by Igor-typcs Rat Fink
Jr. and Dr. Milton, who lake turns
on guitar, percussion and beat box.
The Fiend is touring in support
of “Curse,” which was released in
October on Sinclair Records. A
special highlight of the lour is the
marvelous introduction of Nik
Fiend, art behemoth. In addition to
the wild stage set that he designed,
two mini-an exhibits were held on
Oct. 28 at Limelight, New York
City, and Oct. 31 at Manray in
See FIEND on 14
‘Don Pasquale’ provides
sitcom for opera lovers
By Julie Naughton
Senior Reporter
The UNL School of Music’s inter
pretation of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Don
Pasquale,” might have its composer
twitching in his grave, according to
the school’s special projects and pro
motions coordinator.
“Don Pasquale” is “like a contcm
tJiealsfeZ
porary sitcom,” John Whiteman said.
The opera is performed in the “corn
media dell’arte” style, a comic style
of 16th and 17th century Italy, he
said.
The opera, to be performed in
English, tells the story of Don Pasquale,
a rich, crotchety landowner, and his
nephew and heir, Ernesto. Ernesto
wants to marry a woman named Norina,
but Pasquale is against the marriage.
Norina enlists the aid of a friend, Dr.
Malatcsta, in making the marriage to
Ernesto happen. Ernesto fails to hear
of the plan and confusion ensues.
“It’s not a meaty plot — just a
light, fun comedy,” Whiteman said.
The strength of the opera is in its
comedy, Whiteman said.
“Our performance tries to capture
all of the fun and excitement of this
theatrical style, and although Don
izetti might twitch in his grave at our
commcdia interpretation, he would
have to be reminded that his 1834
audience did not accept it as a sit
com,” Whiteman said.
The opera premiered in 1834, when
people went to the opera for enter
tainment, Whiteman said.
The cast includes visiting assistant
Pasqualc and recent University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln graduate Tim
Konvalin as Dr. Malatcsta.
UNL graduate students arc included
in the cast: Crystal Rook and Shan
non Stoddard as Norina and UNL
graduate student Daniel Kurck as
Ernesto.
Whiteman said that faculty is added
to the opera’s cast because it is hard to
find an opera perfect for only stu
dents.
“It’s tough to find an opera perfect
for every student, ’he said. “We try to
use students as much as possible, but
we do add faculty to round out the
cast.
“We try to find operas that will
showcase the students.”
Whiteman said that students will
enjoy the opera because the charac
ters are “fun to watch.”
“The characters arc mischievous,
witty comic figures,” Whiteman said.
“At some points the comedy is almost
slapstick, but it is very light and fast
moving.”
The School of Music stages a fall
and a spring opera each year. Past
productions included “Die Flcdcr
maus” and “The Consul.” “Don
Giovanni” will be performed this
spring.
The UNL production is directed
by David Bartholomew, UNL associ
ate professor of music. Bartholomew
directed the production at the New
England Conservatory. The costumes
are by Judith K. Hart, and the lighting
is by Laurel Shoemaker.
Tickets still arc available for the
production. They are S10 and S8;
half-price for all students. Tickets arc
available at the Lied Center for Per
forming Arts Box Office.
Colombian nightmare shown
through painting sculpture
BOGOT A, Colombia (A P)- his a
slill life of sorts: a baby's crib made
of tightly bound strands of metal and
a little cloth. It is a square cage in
which nothing goes in and nothing
goes out.
Artist Doris Salcedo sculpted this
work about a woman who continually
washed her dead baby, who had been
killed by death squads in northern
Colombia. She bathed the infant’s
cadaver, applying creams and oint
ments.
The crib symbolizes the mother’s
desperate acts, which Salcedo called
“useless, but dignifying.’’
Bombs, massacres, kidnappings and
disappearances arc causing angry
Colombian artists to illustrate their
country’s nightmare in paintings and
sculptures.
These artists paint scenes of army
soldiers hovering above dead bodies,
animals devouring other animals and
bleeding women crying out for help.
Sickened by Colombia’s trauma, they
say they want to wake people up to
the country’s bloody reality.
“I want to sensitize people to the
violence we’re forced to live in,’’
Salcedo said. Many of her sculptures
contain membrane material (cloth
made from the lining of animal intes
tines) because she wants people to
perceive the pain “at skin level,” she
said.
Tens ol thousands of Colombians
have died in the past decade in vio
lence ranging from peasant massacres
to bombings by the Medellin cocaine
cartel.
Much of the bloodshed has been
blamed on right-wing death squads,
leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers.
Colombia also has a long history of
strife between political parlies.
A war between the country’s two
biggest parties, the Conservative and
the Liberal, took at least 250, (XX) lives
in the early 1950s.
Atrocities in that war were com
mon, such as spilling live captives
from a dump truck over cliffs.
Many artists who illustrate violent
themes must make their living by
teaching, or rely on pri/e money.
Their works don’t sell.
Enrique Jaramillo set up a display
See VIOLENT on 13
‘Sibling’s’ plot so thin, one could blow nose in it
By Sean Green
Staff Reporter
“Sibling Rivalry” has all the ele
ments of a mystery, a comedy and a
love story.
The movie starts out as a mystery,
but the plot is so simplistic it falls
apart. At the same time, it tries to be
funny, apparently to keep the audi
ence from realizing the plot sucks.
Finally it tries to pass itself off as a
love story, seeming to say, ‘WcM, it
doesn’t matter that you didn't laugh
at that, or that you knew what was
going to happen, because love con
qucrs all, right?’
Wrong. Not love, not laughter not
anything could have saved this movie
from being the disaster it is.
The movie revolves around Kirslie
Alley, who plays a frustrated house
wife who takes the advice of her free
living sister and has an affair.
But the man she chooses to sleep
with has a heart attack, and dies after
having sex with Alley. Granted, there
arc probably worse ways to go.
Unfortunately, all hope for a movie
with an interesting plot die with Al
ley’s lover, because the rest of the
show focuses on Alley running around
hysterically, and not hysterically in
the sense of too funny for words.
The story twists when a window
blind salesman stumbles on the body
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in the hotel room. After dropping a
curtain rod on the corpse, he thinks he
has killed the mystery man.
He finds Alley’s wallet, which she
conveniently dropped in her hurry to
leave the hotel, and together they
come up with a plan to make the
whole thing look like a suicide.
The olficcr investigating the hotel
death turns out to be the brother of the
window blind salesman. Whileon the
ease, he meets Alley’s sister and they
fall in love.
1 hen Alley discovers that the man
she killed with kindness is her hus
band's brother who was expected to
return from his travels around the
world and have dinner with Alley’s
in-laws.
Obviously, the movie gets its name
from the contrived idea that each of
the main characters involved in a
bi/zarc turn of events is the sibling of
one of the other mam characters.
' i • » * \ # f •* *,
The plot is so contrived and pre
dictable that viewers should consider
themselves slow if they can’t figure
out where the whole movie is going
by the time the opening credits are
over.
Alter each new discovery or reve
lation, Alley goes into one of her
trademark fils of whining and reeling
Irom the shock while the only surpris
ing revelation for the audience comes
in lmding out their tickets are not
refundable.
The movie does have a few good
See SIBLING on 13
