Arts & Entertainment
Midwesterners should have cultural pride
Mark
Baldridge
It takes a lot of courage to move to a new
place where you have no friends. It can be
especially difficult when you are entering a
new culture. It’s hard to get adjusted — and too
easy to succumb to a paralyzing nostalgia.
Look what happened to the hippies; and they
didn’t go anywhere.
This is what happened to an old friend of
mine, a professor of English literature by tall
women writers currently at Harvard Univer
sity. For several years she taught at Kearney
State College (now the University of Nebraska
i
at Kearney).
Before heading east she was really excited
about the prospect. She thought it would be a
real learning experience, but soon found her
self feeling ostracized and alone.
She found no hints of her rich Nebraskan
heritage. There was nothing she could relate to
— even the English slje heard spoken every
where was like a foreign tongue.
And though there were a few pickup trucks,
the ones she saw around were those fake toy
Japanese ones, all cherry red.
My old lriend will be delivering a speech to
the Society for Transplanted Midwesterners at
Princeton this weekend.
Her presentation deals with the feelings of
alienation suffered by many of us from the
central states when encountering the Oriental
strangeness of the East Coast. She will focus on
the need to sustain a sense of “roots” and
community in foreign and sometimes hostile
surroundings.
She has been kind enough to lend me an
abstract of her speech for reprint here. So
without further ado, I’ II turn over the rest of this
column to my friend and mentor, Judy Judy:
It’s very kind of you, etc. etc.
(Insert joke here.)
There are many myths about Midwesterners
that prevail in the East. They are so strong and
so pervasive that they often go unnoticed and
are accepted without question—even by those
that suffer most — us. We, Midwesterners,
ourselves.
I’d like to examine today some of those
myths — expose them. Sometimes the facts
may be things we don’t like to hear, but this is
our heritage and we need \o possess it whole
and amended.
Myth: Midwesterners are all white male
supremacists named Billy. They drive pickup
trucks with rifle racks and shoot things.
Fact: Many Midwesterners have more than
one name. My ex-husband for instance is Billy
Blume.
My parents gave me two names, or really,
one name twice. (Wait for laughter.) And many
of us have three or more. For instance, Billy
Roy Hughes, with us this morning; and the*
unforgettable William “Bill” Orin Otis Pusscr,
the famous Oklahoma highway patrolman.
Of course, he shoots things, criminals. But 1
personally haven’t shot anything since I was a
little girl and I think that my presence here
refutes the all-malp myth I spoke of.
See BALDRIDGE on 3
uance group
to interpret
social issues
By Anne Steyer
Senior Reporter
Artistic expression responds to the
changing world surrounding it.
Modern dance is an extension of
this expression, turning social issues
into fluid, dynamic motion. The Ki
netic White Girls, a dance troupe from
Salt Lake City, will bring their inter
pretive responses to Lincoln this week.
Formed by danccr/choreographer
Mary Johnston-Coursey, the Kinetic
White Girls will perform Tuesday
and Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. in the
Johnny Carson Theatre, 301 N. 12th
St. The performances will be free.
The dancers will stop in Lincoln
on their way home from a perform
ance in Chicago. The dancers will
perform “In Full Sun,” an offering
that has been described by Dance
Magazine as “engrossing.”
Also included in the presentation
are two new works: “The Dreaming
Time,” a trio that explores the meta
physics of reality and dreaming; and
“Between Love and Madness,^ a
quartet that explores how struggle k
can be converted into freedom.
See KINETIC on 11
Characters,
film’s subplot
lack depth
“Little Man Tate”
By Anne Steyer
Senior Reporter
“Lillie Man Tale” (Douglas 3,
Edgewood 3), Jodie Foster’s directo
rialdebut, is not the masterpiece it is
touted to be. Still, it is a nice film that
touches the heart strings, if not quite
plucking them.
In addition to directing, Foster stars
as Dede Tate, a young, working-class
single parent. Her son Fred, played by
I newcomer Adam Hann-Byrd, is a
E gifted 7-year-old.
Fred is amazing: a child prodigy
who plays piano at competition level,
paints in watercolors and oils, writes
poetry, composes music and calcu
lates complicated math and physics
problems in seconds.
Ho also worries about the dcplc
I See TATE on 10
Child steals audiences ’ hearts
“Curly Sue”
By Robert Richardson
Senior Reporter __'
Almost a year ago John Hughes helped
America fall in love with child actor Macaulev
Culkin, the star of “Home Alone.” Now with
Hughes as writer/director/producer of “Curly
Sue” (Douglas 3), America is introduced to
Susan Dancer (Alisan Porter).
There isn’tmuch similarity between the two
children’s dilemmas. Kevin was left in his
home and Dancer is homeless. But both chil
dren capture the hearts of audiences with style
and out-of-this-world behavior.
Dancer’s story begins with her adopted
guardian Bill (James Belushi). The two travel
from town to town hustling rich, gullible people
and living from meal to meal. Both are very
happy and carefree. Sue doesn’t have to go to
school and Bill doesn’t have to work.
But the duo is quick to point out that they
don’t steal. They only break the little laws, not
the big ones and lie just a bit more than that, but
they DON’T steal.
Hughes does justice to this parental rela
tionship. The picture he paints is one of devo
tion and love — the only responsibility the two
vagabonds have is for each other.
But as protective as Bill is of Susan he
realizes that she needs a mother figure in her
life. So the two embark on the last scam of their
career and meet Grey Ellison (Kelly Lynch).
While faking an accident with Ellison’s car,
Bill and Susan find that Ellison is a high
powered, no-nonsense attorney who has no
human side. Ellison, caught up in her job, has
pul emotion on the back burner.
And while Bill and Susan’s main interest is
a free meal, they get much more out of this re
lationship, more than Ellison bargained for and
much more than the Dancer clan ever ex
pected.
But Susan and Bill help Ellison as much as
she helps them. The trio takes off on a tour of
the city for a night on the town. Bill has no
money, but he uses his ability as an artist of
deception. And through the experience and
interaction, Ellison becomes more human; her
career is no longer so important as it once was.
Hughes’ movie could be called predictable,
but the beauty that he captures is simple: people
helping people. Sincerity flows like a river
through ,:Curly Sue,” and Susan, Bill and Grey
aren’t just along for the ride.
From left, Rush members Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart and Geddy Lee will
perform tonight at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. s
Omaha to host legendary Rush trio
From Staff Reports
The Canadian power trio Rush, one of
the most enduring rock bands to emerge
from the 1970s, will perform tonight at the
Omaha Civic Auditorium.
Rush, which recently released its 18th
album “Roll the Bones,” is on the first leg of
its North American tour. The LP is nearing
the platinum mark in sales, and the first
single, “Dreamline,” has occupied the na
tional album rock charts for the past month.
Bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist
Alex Lifeson formed the band in 1974,
releasing their self-titled debut that year.
The follow-up, “Fly by Night,” gained the
trio a loyal following, as well as a reputation
as musicians’ musicians.
Drummer Neil Peart, whose tempo changes
and tricky rolls are legendary, is widely
regarded as the most skilled drummer on
Earth.
Opening for Rush is guitar wizard Eric
Johnson, whose instrumental album “Ah
Via Musicom” is in heavy rotation on al
bum-oriented rock stations.
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert are
available at all TicketMaster outlets. All
seals are reserved.
