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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1992)
Arts & Entertainment Starship Nine blasting off into downtown theater scene By Gerry Beltz Staff Reporter * At noon today, the new Starship Nine, 1311 Q St., will launch into orbit as Lincoln’s largest movie complex. Known to many people as simply the “big pink theater” (for its highly noticeable outside decoration), the Starship will offer nine screens showing second-run movies at a discount rate of $1.50 per scat, an ‘express’ concessions center and about 20 video games and pinball machines. The interior decor of the Starship Nine has a cosmic feel. In some of the theaters, and the entire length of the hallway leading to the various theaters, black lighting has been in stalled, causing all while clothing to glow, as well as the multi-colored carpeting that was especially selected to go with the black light ing. Four of the theaters have hanging decora tions of stars, planets, and a replica of the Starship Enterprise, all of which pick up the black lighting as well. All the theaters will feature the ultra-sound system, for a full stereo surround-sound envi rnnmnnl Debbie Mardock, vice president of Douglas Theaters Company, said the express conces sions stand would have a station concept simi lar to the concession setups at the Lincoln and Edgcwood Theaters. The Starship will have one central conces sion location with four stations, each covered by one employee. Instead of having to run back and forth to fill a person’s request, everything will be right there and the employee need only turn around for the desired itcm(s). Scaling capacity at the Starship varies from about 210 to 300, depending on the theater. Each seat is padded and body-contoured, Mardock said, and also features a cup holder built into each armrest. Byron Bonsall, manager of the Starship Nine, noted the advantage of the same-day advance ticket sales option that the Starship would offer. With this option, a movie-goer may buy a ticket anytime for a later showing that same day. Bonsall also said discount theaters such as the Starship attracted a wide variety of people. “We sec business people, fixed-income families, senior citizens,” Bonsall said, “but our biggest draw here will probably be college students.” On weekdays, the Starship will show one midday matinee, about 3 p.m., along with the typical three evening showings. Mardock and Bonsall said they thought the Starship would not damage the business of the first-run theaters in downtown Lincoln. “We arc strong supporters of downtown Lincoln,” Mardock said. Bonsall also said the Starship wasn’t limited to recent movies, but also may run movies of classic or cult status, such as “Pink Floyd, The Wall,” “Heavy Metal,” and “Rebel Without A Cause.” Included in its opening movie lineup will be such Oscar winners as “Bugsy,” “The Silence Of The Lambs,” and “City Slickers,” as well as box-office hits like “The Addams Family” and “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.” Head Chef Russ Weddington is surrounded by his cookware at the Elleven Restaurant and Lounge, 11th floor, 1240 O St. Culinary creator Chef strives for good taste, look PEOPLE ^ By Mark Baldridge Senior Reporter Chef Waldington runs an informal kitchen. “My employees call me ‘Chef’ or ‘Russ’. But I don’t like titles much, or last names. “In some kitchens the only way you address a chef is ‘Chef’,” he says. Russ is an executive chef. That’s one step below master chef, as high as you can go in the world of culinary preparations. And he’s the head chef of Ellevcn, one of Lincoln’s finer restaurants. 1 had a chance to talk with him recently in the Sky Room of Ellevcn about food, art and management. Russ says there’s a tendency uy“focuson just the food and not the other parts of the job.” “There’s menu planning,” he says, “deciding what’s going to be on the new season menu. “There’s buying produce, cost manage ment— accounting type work — and com munication.” He says a large part of his job is creating See CHEF on 10 Australia’s baby animals will cry out to Omaha fans Down-under appeal helping Van Halen’s opening band garner American success By John Payne Senior Reporter Time was, you could count the number of big-name Australian rock bands on one hand. There was AC/DC, Air Supply . . . let’s sec, who else? Oh yeah, the Little River Band, let’s not forget the Little River Band. Then, in the mid-’80s, INXS emerged from down under and opened doors for countrymen like MidnightOil,Crowded House, the Church and the Divinyls. Add the Sydney, Australia, quartet baby animals to the growing collection of great bands from the southern hemisphere. “I guess there hasn’t been that many,” con cedes baby animals bassist Eddie Parisc. “People arc starting to hear more about Australian bands, but music is still dominated by American and English bands." Sunday night, the baby animals will per form at Omaha’s Civic Auditorium, opening for the biggest of American bands, Van Halcn. The show is sold out. wnuc playing Australia s pubcircuit last year, the baby animals caught the car of Terry Ellis, president of the upstart imago record label, and the band was quickly signed. Powered by vocal ist/songwritcr/scxpot Suzc DeMarchi, the band’s debut album recalls the best work of Lone Justice or the Motels’ Martha Davis. Their emphasis on no-nonsense guitars, coupled with DcMarchi’s tough-chick appeal, make the animals suitable for both AOR radio and college rock markets. In fact, their LP recently went double platinum in Australia. Still, the baby animals isn’t the first band you’d expect to lour with metal giants like Van Halcn. “I actually asked Eddie (Van Halcn) this question,” Parisc recalled. “Because we won dered about it, too. “I guess what happened was they all sat down to figure out who they could tour with. They wanted a new band, and his wife Valerie (Bertinelli) bought our cassette and they all liked it. They went through about 12 other bands and finally decided on us. We were really lucky.” Lucky or not, the video for “Painless,” the first single from “The Baby Animals” was added to MTV’s“Buzz Bin” last month, while the band broke away from the Van Halcn lour for a handful of European shows. Parisc said the transition from clubs to are nas had been a smooth one, made easier by a lour with Bryan Adams last year. “We learned a lot on that tour, and we got accustomed to the big arenas,” he said. “We still like the clubs better, though, be cause everything sounds so much tighter, and the people arc really close. It’s just a different atmosphere. The atmosphere may be different, but the band’s outlook has remained the same. With a mixture of rock V roll altitude and Aussie charm, Parisc still refers to a 12,000-seat con cert as “a gig.” It may have been that sort of See BABY on 10 ‘Mambo Kings’ sparkles with melodramatic potency “The Mambo Kings” By Paul Wlimw^ Staff Reporter While a sizzling mambo number pulsates in a Havana nightclub, a man’s throat is being slit in a scuffle in the backroom. The in-your-face opening of “The Mambo Kings” (Lincoln) preludes and sets the tone for the movie, which never once lets its audience get bored. Based on Oscar Hijuclos’ novel, the movie tells the story of two Cuban musician brothers who flee Havana amid mobster tensions to find their dream in the glittering nightclubs of 1950s New York. The boisterous ri valry between the two headstrong men is as tense as the love they have for each other and the dreams they long to realize. With winning enthusiasm, Cesar and Nestor Casullo (Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas) play their way to the top of Manhattan’s mambo heap, which in the ’50s was a pretty hip place to be. Along the way, they make enemies with a big-time mambo manager, yearn for their homeland, fall in love and jam quite impres sively with Tito Puente. Novice director Arne Slimacher has crafted an unpretentious but styl ish period piece with the help of dash ing performances by the two lead brothers. Banderas, making his American Film debut, has Nestor’s sweet naiv ete and conflicting soul down pat. Assantc, who is often reduced to portraying minor historical figures on NBC miniscries with Jane Seymour, seems to relish his role as Cesar. His trademark style of lucid bravado is perfectly suited to Cesar’s tragic swagger. Their performances elevate the story above the melodrama it is destined to be. Adding to the brothers’ inbred tension is the relationship Nestor forms with Delores (a startlingly radiant Marulschka Delmcrs), a young girl who falls for the younger Castillo but harbors a strange affection for his charismatic brother. All three sparkle with genuinely moving passion on screen, uiougn men rcuuiuiiMiip i> somewhat abridged. Their emotions cut deep through the noise of the swirling Latin music playing in their heads. In condensing Hijuelos’ story, the film sacrifices a certain level of psy chology and emotion that the book spelled out in technicolor detail. What is (thankfully) retained onscreen is the breathtaking pace and vibrancy of the mambo kings’ songs of love, especially the poem “Beautiful Maria of My Soul,’’ wh ich becomes Nestor’s swan song. When the film builds it See MAMBO on 10 i. t