Arts & Entertainment
Nebraskan discovers
success in poetry
By Anne bteyer
Senior Reporter
Although Nebraska native Kath
leenc West always loved books, she
had no idea she would end up a pub
lished poet. And she didn’ t expect her
work to be the subject of a musical
composition.
A selection from “Water Witch
ing,” one of West’s earlier collec
tions, has been set to music by Ran
dall Snyder, a music professor at the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln.
“By Water Divined” will be per
formed by the Broyhill Chamber
Ensemble on Sunday at 8 p.m. at the
Lied Center for Performing Arts. It
will be the fourth and final part in a
“musical suite”composed by Snyder.
“It comes out kind of like a mini
ature opera,” Snyder said.
All the poets featured arc Nebraska
natives. In addition to West, works by
Susan Deal, Marjorie Saiser and Hilda
Raz will be set to music.
West, an associate professor of
English at New Mexico State Univer
sity in Las Cruces, N.M., will attend
the performance. She will be in Lin
coln this weekend to give a poetry
reading at the YWCA, 14th and N
streets.
The YWCA reading will be in the
Georgian Room on Saturday at 7:30
p.m. West will read poems from her
newest collection, “The Farmer’s
Daughter,” as well as selections from
previous volumes.
“I thought, ‘Wow, (the musical
suite) is more than I expected,’” West
said from her home in New Mexico.
West grew up on a farm outside
Genoa, where her parents still live.
Farm life was hard, West said, and
she always looked ahead to a differ
ent way of living. But she said she
never expected that way of life to
include writing.
“I think as a child I wrote one or
two poems in the way every child in
existence writes one or two poems,”
West said.
An avid reader, West didn’t begin
seriously writing poetry until she had
graduated from college. Then 19, she
began writing in a journal, which she
kept to “maintain her sanity” while
she worked as a high school teacher.
“(The poetry) was terrible,” West
said. “It was full of moaning and
groaning, how miserable and lonely I
was, and how awful the world was.”
But writing in this manner devel
oped her interest in poetry. She left
her teaching position and enrolled in
the master’s program at the Univer
sity of Washington where she studied
poetry andadvanccd writing. Shcalso
received a Fulbright Fellowship to
attend the University of Iceland in
1983.
After her time abroad, West re
turned to UNL to finish her Ph.D. and
to participate in “Poelry-in-the
Schools,” a government-funded pro
gram thatscntpocts to public schools.
The program, which was based in
Wayne, offered West an opportunity
to work with children at small public
schools and at American Indian res
ervation schools.
“I’d be there fora week and by the
end of the week, I had essentially
taught the students something about
writing poetry,” West said.
She continued teaching when she
moved to New Mexico. West teaches
courses in creative writing, literature
The poetry of Nebraska native Kathleene West will be set to
music by the Broyhill Chamber Orchestra on Sunday night.
and honors classes in Norse mythol
ogy and the Icelandic sagas.
Although she has published seven
successful volumes of prose and poetry,
she holds onto her early work, using it
as a teaching source.
“It keeps me humble,” West said.
“And it helps me a lot with my stu
dents. It shows them we all start from
the same place.”
The Judds
bid their
farewells
From Staff Reports
They had all the makings of a
dream come true until last Octo
ber, when Naomi Judd, half of the
the country duet, The Judds, was
diagnosed with chronic hepatitis.
Tonight’s performance at the
Pershing Auditorium, 226 Centen
nial Mall South, will be the last
Lincoln appearance for the mother
daughter team. The Judds arc tour
ing in support of their album, “Love
Can Build a Bridge.”
The Judds arc based in Ken
tucky but received their first big
break in Nebraska. In 1984, the
Statler Brothers requested The Judds
as their opening act at the AK
SAR-BEN Festival in Omaha.
Since then, The Judds have been
going full steam.
The Judds’ lour, and their ca
reer, will end Dec. 4 at Middle
Tennessee State University, located
just outside of Nashville. The con
cert will be available on pay-per- j
view TV.
Wynonna, the daughter, plans
to continue her solo career under
the close scrutiny of her mother,
who plans to continue writing songs
for her daughter.
Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are
$19.50and$24.50. They areavaiV
able at the box office by cash pur
chase only.
—
‘Key Largo’ part of actress’s film festival
By Mark Baldridge
Staff Reporter
This weekend, the Ross Film
Theater will be host to one of Holly
wood’s most enduring actresses. “The
Claire Trevor Film Festival” is play- i
ing this week, featuring some of Tre
vor’s classic films of the 1930s and
1940s.
“Stagecoach,” “Bom to Kill,” “Key
Largo” and the lesser-known “The
Amazing Dr. Cliltcrhdiifcc” are all
graced by her sometimes brief pres
ence. For some reason, Trevqf was
considered the kind of actress who
“died” well. She also played “bad
women” and alcoholics to good ef
fect. Well into her career, she still had
great legs, and one wonders why she
was never cast as a leading lady.
Throughout her life, Trevor played
often and well with cinema greats
like Edward G. Robinson and
Humphrey Bogart. She’s outlived all
of them, however, and will be present
at the Ross on Saturday for the 6:00
p.m. showing of “Bom to Kill.”
Admission is SI5.
Perhaps the best known of her films
is John Houston’s “Key Largo.” Also
staring in this 1948 release arc Bog
art, Lauren Bacall and Edward G.
Robinson as “Rockic.”
The story takes place just after the
Second World War, when all the good
guys are still high on the Allies’ re
cent victory. Bogart is a war hero
who’s finding it difficult to adjust to
civilian life. He continues to assert
that he’s disillusioned, but we know
better. The character he portrays is a
far cry from the convincingly burnt
out Rick of “Casablanca.”
Bacall is the wholesome widow of
Bogart s old war buddy, and Edward
G. and Trevor make up part of an
entourage of gangsters who have holed
up on Key Largo to transact some
business before heading back to Cuba.
The dialogue is remarkable in that
almost everyone gets to make a little
speech about good and evil and the
fight to make the world safe for
rvir^See TREVOR on 10
Courtesy ot Warner Brothers Pictures
From left, Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor and Lauren Bacall starred in “Key Largo.”
New band’s isolation, darkness convey optimism
“Ten”
Pearl Jam
Epic Records
Rarely does a premiere LP by a
bunch of funky surfer dudes knock
you for a loop and make you want to
scream for joy. But the members of
Pearl Jam play with the kind of prow
ess and finesse that would normally
suit musicians twice their ages. Pearl
Jam is stunning.
Even though these guys are from
the swirling murk of the Seattle grunge
scene, which berthed such bands as
Soundgarden and Nirvana, the musi
cianship and primal sonic blast evi
dent on “Tenf’ would be immensely
impressive even if Seattle was as
inconspicuous as Toledo.
Hastily formed a year or so ago
from members of Seattle’s now-de
funct Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam is
a confident and forceful new edition
of musicians with enough communal
vibe and deft interplay to make you
wonder why they didn’t hook up ear
lier. Even though the band members
keep their songs rooted in themes of
darkness and isolation, the music
conveys a strange but obviously un
bridled sense of optimism.
“Alive,” the album’s first single,
is a riveting piece of saturated blues,
a powerful melody lilting over a bot
tom-hcavy backbcal. “Is there some
thing wrong, she said/Well of course
there is/YouTe still alive/Do I de
serve to be?/Is that the question?”
begins the second verse, riding on a
mopey, existential wave..
Then vocalist Eddie Vedder drops
the load with “And if so, then who
answers?/Who answers?/I, I’m still
alive ..throwing the subject a life
buoy to pull them out of their misery.
Not many bands bother to rise above
petty and simple themes of pain (that
everybody else bleats about) and go
the extra step.
The guitar work of Mike Mac
Cready and Slone Gossard can rip
through the air faster and dirtier than
the Black Crowes, while still leaving
room for melodic psychedelia remi
niscent of The Church’s finest mo
ments.
By itself, the music’s awfully
impressive — but it then gets tied
tight at the scams and takes on an
other life with the vocal presence of
Eddie Vedder. He has a beautiful
balance of the primal yowl of Metal
lica’s James Hetfield and the throaty
sensuality of Concrete Blonde’s
Johnette Napolitano.
The band members recently em
l(^p>See PEARL on 10