Arts & Entertainment
i SHKf jy^; C rj_
^ Erik Unger/DN
Pepsi’s “Uh-Huh” girls, who accompanied Ray Charles during his trip to Lincoln, sign
autographs at Rock ‘n Roll Runza on Friday.
Charles’ soulful, rousing show
‘the right one’ for Lied audience
By Steve Pearson
Staff Reporter
The Lincoln Symphony Orchestra
brought the king of soul, Ray Charles,
to the Lied Center for Performing
Arts Friday and Saturday night for its
annual Pops Concert.
In the first half of the concert,
Conductor Robert Emile and the LSO
presented Rossinni’s popular “Wil
liam Tell Overture” and the Gersh
win classic, “An American in Paris.”
, Each piece was sensitively interpreted
and performed, providing a pleasing
appetizer of orchestral classics for the
main rnnrsA rtf «rtnl that fnllnwp/1
Charles earned ihe first of his three
standing ovations just by walking onto
the Lied Center stage at the beginning
of the second act and flashing his
trademark smile.
Performing with his own conduc
tor, drummer and guitarist, in addi
tion to the LSO personnel, Charles
immediately displayed the talents that
have kept him at the top of his profes
sion for decades.
Charles’ soulfully communicative
voice is a collection of amazing con
trasts — alternately raspy and clear,
piercing and gentle, high and low.
His astonishing vocal control is com
plemented by a near perfect sense of
intonation.
His work on the piano and key
board disnlaved the connection he
seems to have with the music. He
seemed to writhe with pleasure as he
drew the music out of the keys.
Charles displayed his musical tal
ents on yet another instrument, play
ing an incredible improvised solo on
the alto saxophone.
Musical highlights included the
Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” the Ker
mit the Frog tune “It’s NotEasy Being
Green,” a soul version of Hank Wil
liam’sclassic” Your Cheatin’ Heart,”
a rousing rendition of “America the
Beautiful,” and his own signature
ballad “Georgia.”
As Charles left the stage, he wrapped
his arms around himself and smiled,
seemingly wrapping himself in the
aDDlause of his adoring audience.
Student literary
talents unveiled
By Mark Nemeth
Staff Reporter
UNL students read their poetry
and fiction Friday afternoon to
celebrate their publication in this
semester’s “Laurus,” the creative
writing magazine of the Depart
ment of English.
Although many of the writers
did not read their work with a great
deal of passion, the overall spirit
and personality of the writers and
the readings was comforting and
inspiring.
“Laurus, Spring 1992” features
many talented student writers and
their moments of great creativity:
poignant, perceptive, experimen
tal and entertaining.
Cinnamon Dokken’s “The Card
house” resonates with a destruc
tive power describing well the bit
terness that comes with the end of
a relationship. Linguistic violence
sits with the fragility of a card
house in this disturbing, beautiful
poem.
“Are you hitting on a leggy stew
ardess, your pocketknife aching to
slit the seam of her skirt as she bobs
by with Bloody Marys?” writes
Dokken in “The Card-house.”
Lenora Prue’s “Cloud Wor
shiper” tells of a childhood adjust
ment to school and a move from
Mexico to the United S tales. Prue ’ s
kindhearted and spiritual story
features interesting changes in style,
language and timing. “I am a wor
shiper of clouds,” begins “Cloud
Worshiper.” “As a child, 1 worked
in the sun.”
“The day was huge, sprawling
long and blue, pressing everything
down flat,” writes Kjell Cronn in
“Walk Into Town,” about a seem
ingly mythical, windy day by the
train tracks.
Bob Dutton shows a talent with
language in “Fish Wish Penny,” a
poetic set of word plays describing
a conversation between grand
mother and grandson.
Ginger K. Dzerk’s “Innocuous
Things” features some grand
moments as she writes, “You are
that bump on your knee ... when
you adjust your cap ... and stare
off absently as if you were alone.”
Kiric Johnson writes, “My car,
parked in 50cornfields, smells like
smoke,” in “Sitting In A Bar at a
Tableful of People.”
There are many more outstand
ing moments in “Laurus, Spring
1992.”
Other students who contributed
to “Laurus 1992” are Julie Ogg,
Brian Fitch, Ray Ronci, Elizabeth
Callaway, Biljana D. Obradovic,
Season Harper Dowell, ann doren
bach, Jean Delahant, Matthew
Miller, Roberta Bailey, Terri Brown
Davidson, J. Kuzma, Jan Armstrong,
Kate Flaherty, Paul Brooke.Trisha
Martin, Kirstin Cronn, Chris
Burchard and Debra Cumberland.
This semester’s student editors
are Mark Baldridge, Lee Martin,
Kim Ports and Tim Skeen. The
Laurus faculty adviser is Marcia
Southwick.
Copies of Laurus are available
for $3 through its editors and the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Department of English.
Angry music, lyrics define hard-core album
“Body Count”
Body Count
Sire Records
Turn to the inside of Body Count’s
self-titled debut album, and you find
yourself confronted with back-cover
art that blows your mind. An ex
tremely realistic, hand-drawn black
man points the barrel of a revolver
straight at your head.
It is so realistic that no matter how
many times you look at it, it gives you
the same eerie feeling each time.
That is what Body Count’s music
is all about. It’s threatening. It comes
at you with a vengeance that is as
effective as it is driving.
Body Count is an all-black thrash
band whose roots extend back to the
playground of Crenshaw High School
in South Central Los Angeles where
?;uitarist Emie-C and rapper Ice-T
irst met.
Last summer’s LollapaloozaTour
introduced Body Count to the public.
With heavy, heavy guitar, driving
basslines and lyrics to give your par
ents heart attacks, Body Count is a
natural showcase.
Although Ice-T wrote the lyrics to
all but one of the songs, this is not a
rap album. If anything, it is post-punk
speed metal delivered by a very out
spoken lead singer.
Reminiscent of old Suicidal Ten
dencies but with a vocalist more ar
ticulatc than ST’s Mike Muir, “Body
Count’’ is a CD meant to be played
loud. In fact, it would be practically
impossible to play this stuff softly —
it would lose nearly all its impact.
Body Count confronts a number of
problems in our society, including
racism (“Momma’s Gotta Die To
night”), drugged-out friends (“The
Winner Loses”) and police brutality
(“Cop Killer”).
“Bowels of the Devil” is an anal
ogy that compares prison to the devil.
“Listen close, ‘cause I’ve been there
before/You don’t wanna die there/
They call it goin’ out the back door,”
Ice-T yells on this hardcr-than-hard
core song. It explains what events led
to his imprisonment, then gives a new
description of what it’s like inside.
Body Count also gives its opinion
on why men arc constantly looking
for sex and different sexual partners.
“Late at night evil dick he comes to
mc/Hesays, ‘Don’t sleep alone, don’t
sleep alone,”’ Ice-T moans on “Evil
Dick.”
“There Goes the Neighborhood”
is the first single off the CD, and the
video is already out. Directed by Matt
Mahurin, who has worked with Mel
allica and Primal Scream, this song
and video are bound to cause contro
versy. The song concerns African
Americans’ inclusion in the “white
scene” and “stealing” white men’s
Courtesy of Sire Records
Rapper Ice-T’s thrash-metal project Body Count.
girlfriends.
Many of the lyrics to “There Goes
ihe Neighborhood” were changed for
ihe video. The actual song contains
an extreme amount of profanity. So
do all of Body Count’s songs, so it
might be impossible for these guys to
make another video without spending
a lot of time in the editing room.
Of course, this is nothing new to
Ice-T fans. If an Ice-T album has a
‘Parental Advisory, Explicit Lyrics”
sticker on it, it s with good reason.
Body Count lakes on other issues
such as the Ku Klux Klan in “KKK
Bitch” and voodoo magic in “Voo
doo.”
Some of the songs are just plain
guitar-ripping anthems which cele
brate the group’s name with chants of
“Body Count’'or “B.C.”
One must keep in mind before
listening to “Body Count” that this is
not an average rap album. Most of the
songs run five minutes in length with
guitar and drum solos sprinkled
throughout.
Body Count uses the music to vent
its anger at the system and ultimately,
that’s what makes this album work.
There are not many metal bands out
there that can really call themselves
“heavy.” Body Count, however, can.
— Garth Lieneman