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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 1992)
Arts & Entertainment Ray Charles to bring his legend to Lincoln By Andrea Christensen Staff Reporter According to Lincoln Symphony Orchestra official Richard Frevert, when you’ve got rhythm and blues legend Ray Charles as the guest artist at a pops concert, you’ve got the right one, baby. “Ray Charles is a legend in his own time,” Frevert said. “If people waht to hear somebody who started rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll, they should come and hear this guy. If they want to hear where a lot of current music has its roots, they need to hear Ray Charles.” Charles will bring his distinctive sound to the Lied Center for Performing Arts tonight and Saturday. He will join the Lincoln Sym phony Orchestra for their annual Spring Pops Concert. Charles will bring his own rhythm section, and his ensemble will perform several pieces with the full orchestra. Frevert said the orchestra was looking for ward to performing with Charles. “The orchestra will have one rehearsal with Mr. Charles before Friday’s performance,” Frevert said. “It is a little nerve-wracking, but we’ve done this kind of thing successfully before with guest artists like Ben Vereen and Steve Allen.” Frevert said the Lincoln Symphony Orches tra, under the direction of University of Ne braska-LincoIn professor Robert Emiie, would perform the first half of the concert. The or chestra will perform the “William Tell Over ture” by Gioacchino Rossini and “An Ameri can in Paris” by George Gershwin. Charles will join the orchestra after inter mission and play selected pieces from through out his career. Charles’ musical career spans four decades. During that time, he has experimented with several styles of music, from jazz to country to commercial jingles. “Ray Charles has been really flexible musi cally,” Frevert said. “He started rhythm, and blues, then moved into country and pop. He has been really sensitive to changes in the public’s musical taste, and he gives the people what they want to hear.” Charles was not always rich and famous, or blind. He was bom on September 23, 1930, during the Great Depression. He began to lose his sight at the age of 4 and was completely blind by age 7. He studied music at St. Au gustine state school, and in 1848 he formed the McSon Trio with Gossady McGee and Quincy Jones. Charles went solo in the 1960s and produced his first hit records, “Georgia” and “Bom to Lose.” He has used his fame to raise money for the civil rights movement. Charles was a personal friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and has gar nered several awards for his activism, includ ing the B’nai Brith Man of the Year Award in 1976. The Lincoln Symphony Orchestra Spring Pops Concert will be tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $40, $30, and $20. Student discounts are no longer available. Courtesy of the Lied Center for Performing Arts Rhythm and blues legend Ray Charles will perform tonight and Saturday at tne Lied Center for Performing Arts. Dogs exception to quiet week By Anne Steyer Staff Reporter With the exception of Walt Disney’s “101 Dalmatians” this week is filled with movies that didn’t cause much of a stir at the box office. Some proba bly for good reason. “101 Dalmatians” (G) Now cele brating its 30th anniversary, Disney’s classic animated tale of the famous spotted dogs finally comes to home video. Pongo and Perdita are the two adult Dalmatians at the heart of the story. Their new litter pf pups is stolen by thugs hired by the evil Cruella De Vil who has set her sights on an authentic Dalmatian coat. Pongo and Perdita chase the dognap pers across the English countryside, enlisting the aid of numerous colorful canine characters and the aid of their human pets, Roger and Anita, of course. (Available now) “Black Robe” (R) Named one of 1991’s ten best films by Time Maga zine, this film chronicles the struggles of a young French missionary in the Canadian wilderness of 1634. Starting in Quebec, the young Jesuit Father Laforgue travels up river with an Algonquin Indian envoy in the hopes of finding fellow missionaries who may have perished and native souls in need of saving. All he takes with him is a pompous attitude about his faith, a little to- : bacco for trade and a translator (Aden Young) who falls for one of the Al gonquins. None of these things help i when they are captured by hostile i Iroquois. This is also a film about the strength of the Native American spirit, which probably accounts for the compari- i Courtesy ot Paramount Pictures Scott Bakula and Kathy Ireland get a leg up on the competition in “Necessary Roughness," in video stores this week. ions with “Dances With Wolves.” “Black Robe” is visually stunning, with sweeping views of the magnifi cent countryside. But it also seems overwrought with unnecessary vio cncc, nudity and sexual situations. The film is directed by Bruce Beresford (“Driving Miss Daisy”). ;Available now) “Hangin* With the Homeboys” (R) This semi-autobiographical work by director Joseph Vasquez tells the story of four friends from the Bronx who take a joyride to Manhattan. There they spend all their money and have a fateful time. Their little See VIDEO on to Phoenix in ‘Idaho’ turns in superb performance “My Own Private Idaho” By Mark Nemeth Staff reporter Great performances abound, as standout River Phoenix produces masterful acting in his portrayal of a narcoleptic homeless teenager from Seattle in “My Own Private Idaho.” “My Own Private Idaho” tells qf the lives of two kids from Se attle, played by Phoenix and Keaunu Reeves, who meet on the street as male prostitutes. They and their companions live in an old building with a street guru, Bob. They ex change stories and support in an entertaining dialogue that is imagi natively linguistic and full of lines from Shakespeare. Reeves plays Scott, who antici pates a large inheritance from his father and experiences prostitution as a phase of fantasy. Although Scott sleeps with men only for money, Mike, played by Phoenix, wishes to sleep with Scott out of love and questions his own sexual ity. With rarely filmed poignant intensity, Phoenix draws the audi ence into his character’s life, strug gling with suppressed emotions and the unfolding memories of an in cestuous family. Many times, the intensity of his everyday life causes him to shake violently with a nar coleptic seizure and then fall asleep. The result is entertaining and de pressing. A colorful array of interesting characters intermingle with the lives of Mike and Scott as they travel through Seattle, Portland, Idaho and Italy. Almost all are men; gener ally unique and sometimes per verse. The experiments of Director Gus Van Sant Jr. (“Drugstore Cowboy”) generally add to the film’s overall success. We see scenes of salmon swimming upstream as Mike and Scott struggle to survive on the road and a visually descriptive scene of a house crashing from the sky as Phoenix has an orgasm. Two experimental scenes fail, however, by dragging down the generally upbeat tempo of the film as Van Sant, Jr. depicts sex through a scries of albeit beautiful nude photographic poses. “My Own Private Idaho” is comic and tragic. Although the lives of its characters are often bleak, the homelessness of these teenagers, who are mostly from wealthy families, is somewhat successfully romanticized as more spirited in relation to their parents’ world of money and manipulation. There is a careful handling of the dichotomies between these worlds, and though clearly the socially mobile life is criticized, “My Own Private Idaho” is more the telling of a talc than a social or political allegory. While not a masterpiece, “My Own Private Idaho” is a free-spir ited and quirky fantasy road film with great performances and fresh ideas. “My Own Private Idaho” is now showing at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater Friday through Sun day and April 16-19. Contact the theater for film times.