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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1992)
Comstock Continued from Page 9 Backstage, in a fiberglass tent, Roger McGuinn sat out of the wind, signing a few autographs, talking about guitars and hotels, waiting calmly for his turn to play. A little after 4:30 p.m., McGuinn and his 12-string guitar took the stage. By then, the crowd had peaked at about 150 people. McGuinn, affable, charming and approachable, talked briefly between songs, telling where, how and what inspired the tunes. He played a few of his Byrd favor ites, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” “Eight Miles High” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Strumming softly, he told the story of how Peter Fonda, in search of a song to use for a movie, had ap proached Bob Dylan. Dylan Scribbled a couple of lines on a piece of paper, gave it to Fonda and told him to give it to McGuinn. From those two lines, “River flows, flows to the sea/Wher ever that river goes that’s where I want to be ...,” McGuinn composed the “Ballad of Easy Rider.” McGuinn looked over the audi ence, smiled and sang a stirring narra tive of “Chestnut Mare,” another Byrd hit. He played a couple of new songs, laughed and admitted that “Loving You” was a song he wrote with two guys who wrote songs for Madonna. From his latest release, “Back From Rio,” McGuinn played “Someone to Love,” a song he had co-written with his wife of 14 years, Camilla. Although the size of a audience doesn’t really matter to McGuinn, he said, Comstock might have been the smallest group he’s played to for a while. However, he plays “as long as someone is out there,” he said. Book Continued from Page 9 lo read will be all the more deeply affected by their directness. Rodriguez achieves some of his best effects by operating on several levels at once, as in the story “Ba bies,” told by a heroin junkie who aborts her baby after witnessing a friend being discarded following her pregnancy. Both characters arc far loo young to be involved in such issues. Pregnancy also figures in “The Lotto,” which doubles as a portrayal of one woman’s irrational hopes of leaving poverty by winning the lot tery as her daughter and a friend take their chances with birth control. The story “Short Stop” offers one of the few bits of hope in the entire collection, yet it is tinged with de spair. A potential suicide is prevented by the brakeman on a subway, but he knows, as the reader knows, that she will find another way and will suc ceed” even if several attempts arc needed. The reader is repeatedly struck by the youth of Rodriguez’s characters — the fact that so many lives arc permanently disrupted at so young an age. Such a theme runs through “Birth day Boy,” which also provides a fine sample of Rodriguez’s style, taken straight from the isolation and con frontation of the grooves of a punk record: “My mother was a real flower, man. The pictures I saw of her make Iris Chacon look like some kinda fly shit.” None of the characters seem to be involved in deep personal relation ships. The collection closes with “Elba,” which follows the story of a girl who lost the lottery and her friend. She keeps the baby but the father leaves. He re-appears after a year, then mar ries and beats her, leaving her to care for the baby and house. Free! Double Prints I At Northridge Photo Center Just MenUcn This Ad. 14 lx. 1 Hour S9.1S Same Cay S€-7<5 We Make Better Pictures At Better Prices! Offer axpIrM May It. 1M2 ^^l4tti&Superler*477-7^e^ I Your Career in Law I in Just 5 Months. With a 4 year college degree, you can begin working in the fastest growing profession - paralegal - in just 5 months. • Approved by the American Bar Association • Free lifetime national placement assistance • Financial aid to those who qualify • Includes a 100 hour internship Call today for a free video "Your Career In Law" 1-800-848-0550 DENVER PARALEGAL INSTITUTE 1401 19th Street Denver, CO 80202 □ Please provide information on the paralegal profession. Please send free video "Your Career In Law" Name_:- - Address__ City __ State _ Zip_ denv» paralegal tcmure nLnno 1401 19th StflMt Phone - Age Denver. CO 00202 Graduation Date_WttMWWxao Jeff Haller/DN Lee Willett walks down the runway displaying “Rawhide” from Charlotte Wittig’s collection, “Organic Ornamentation.” Wittig’s garments were displayed at a fashion show at the East Union Sunday. Fashion impressionists Clothing designers tailor works of Monet By Mark Baldridge Senior Reporter Colton denim, rayon and raw silk were featured heavily in this year’s Advanced Apparel Design II fashion show. The course, which is offered through the Department of Tex tiles, Clothing and Design in the college of Home Economics, has been taught for the last 25 years by Dr. Robert Hillestad. This year’s show, “The Monet Collection,” included four garments and an accessory from each of 10 student designers. The show began with the pres entation of a videotape on the life of Claude Monet. Tnc designers studied Monet’s paintings as inspi ration for their designs. Students in the Advanced Fiber Art, Apparel Design by Flat Pat tern and Apparel Design by Drap ing classes made a brief showing of their work. If this show is any hint, the next generation of designers will be heavily influenced by the fashions of the 1970s. Above the knee hemlines and textured fabrics, billowy tie-died wraps and silk drapes were remi niscent of garments that might have been worn by stylish steppers on the ’70s T.V. show “Rhoda” — designers innovated in the area of materials and dying. Nice silk and leather pieces seemed almost to constitute a trend. Chad Kassmeier designed “The Celcbrauon,” a strapless gown made from metallic balloon string and Christmas package curling ribbon. More garments, though, were made from hand-dyed and painted textiles. Perhaps because of Monet’s influence, the show highlighted floral patterns and pastel colors. In many works, the impact of impres sionist painting was evident. The designers influence on one another was also apparent. Several works were so similar, they might have come from a single mind. However, each designer’s set also included .something unique. • Some of the garments presented were intended for eye-catching, one time wear. Others were more func tional. And many pieces appeared both beautifully unique and wear able, including such pedestrian niceties as pockets and warm inner linings. The show was well attended, filling the Great Plains Room of the East Campus Union. Beastie Boys getting serious KCiliCii/yJ, “Check Your Head” The BPastie Boys Capitol Records America Why exactly this group continu ally ends up drawing comparisons to people like Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch is simply astounding. Little Marky, for instance, is pretty much a clueless mimic with expensive pro duction, fourth-rate rhyming and a famous brother. The Bcaslic Boys, on the other hand, make no qualms about who or what they arc, they’re just themselves and pay respect to an art form they feel passionate about. Oh, but they’re both white. What ever. The same people that form that comparison arc probably identical to those journalists who compare Body Count to Brand Nubian. Oh, but they’re both black. Whatever. For the uninformed, the three Brooklyn boys who make up the Beasties don ’l ever try to come across as hard or political or Afroccntric (though those pangs seem to surface in their music anyway), they simply fuse the music they’ve been bred on into a jagged, towering shot of b-boy prowess. “Licensed to 111,” the 1986 multi plaunum effort that was infinitely funny but ultimately doomed to just be a soundtrack to bad fraternity parties, showcased little tangible talent but loads of attitude. A rap Sex Pistols, if you will. If “punk” wasn’t such an unhip term back then, that’s what the ^ f music would have been. Then, foreshadowing the slew of retro- 1970s acts to come in the future emerged 1990’s “Paul’s Boutique,” a seamless groovcfest that knocked the critics on their collective ear but sold about 13 copies worldwide. After being everybody’s favorite brats, the Bcasties got what they deserved: exclusion from the mediocre. “Check Your Head,” the group’s third full-length release, stands poised to knock some more heads around, perhaps in the consumer market this time. It is an exceedingly funky batch of punk tunes anchored in rap's atti tude and deft wordplay. This outing, the Boys attempt to mix inventive sampling with live action instrumentation, and they do so with panache; these tunes, like all the best funk, start with the booty, then head up to the heart and head. From the opening slither of “Jimmy James” to the raggedy thrash “Biz Vs. Courtesy of Capitol Records the Nuge”( which features Biz Markie in a painfully funny sing-along) to the bobbing credo “Namastc,” there's a communal thing going on: a party with all the band's influences invited over to jam. There is no preoccupation or prob lem with being bom of the Caucasian persuasion here, and consequently there is nothing to prove, really. And, un like while gangster acts, which make little sense, there’s no “I’m so hard, I shot eight suckas before I woke up, man.” Oooh, OK. There’s attitude here, but it is a delicate balance be tween making fun of and paying re spect to the formulas of rap. If you arc one of the unfaithful, you’re forgiven. Just don’t be on the outside of the gag this time. The boys are getting senoui— seriously great. It’s a cold disc for the dead of sum mer. — Paul Winner