Arts & Entertainment
Comstock concerts captivate small crowd
By Jill O’Brien
Staff Reporter
They came from the University of Nebraska
Lincoln, City Campus, East Campus, the neigh
borhood, downtown, uptown and out-of-town.
Bicyclists, motorcyclists, faculty and students.
They came to hear Lucky Peterson, The Mil
lions and rock star Roger McGuinn.
A micro-sized crowd of 60 people congre
gated at 1 p.m. Friday in an East Campus
parking lot to hear the first musician on this
year’s Comstock billing.
Amiableand smiling, blues musician Lucky
Peterson, wearing a white baseball cap, rocked
the crowd with fast-paced blues, including a
couple of tunes by Muddy Waters.
For the first two hours of the festival, stu
dents and faculty filtered in gradually. The
crowd stood a safe distance— 12 feet — from
the stage, hands in pockets, hips sway ing, heads
bobbing and feet lapping to the music.
Nearby, a white Red Cross van stood parked
and aqua-colored Trafcon portable potties dotted
the horizon. Police and security volunteers
from the University Programs Council almost
outnumbered the crowd.
Rick Ossian, an English graduate student at
UNL, worked security during the four-and-a
half hour festival.
“I love Lucky Peterson,” he said. ‘‘And I’m
an old fan of the Byrds.”
By 2:30 p.m., the crowd had swelled to 100
to hear The Millions, an alternative music
group originally from Lincoln.
Lori Allison, lead vocalist, dressed in black
lace and black tights and bools, danced com
pulsively, sometimes hopping down from the
stage to dance alone off to the side. She danced
on the asphalt parking lot, twirling and swirling
in front of the audience as she sang tunes from
the band’s latest release, *‘M is for Millions.”
Allison’s uncategorizcd voice was pleasing
to hear, clear and high. For one song, she
crm unger/urM
Larry Jacoby, left and Lucky Peterson, right, bang out a riff at Comstock. The concert was on East Campus and
drew about 150 people by the day’s end.
instructed the Comstock crowd to close in and
encircle her in the parking lot while she sang a
sorrowful tune about death and love. Harry
Dingman III accompanied her enchanting voice
on his acoustic guitar.
By 3:25 p.m.. The Millions had sufficiently
warmed up the audience as a handful of brave,
uninhibited souls danced to the rhythmical
guitar licks vibrating from the speakers.
Derrick Dibbcm, a local acoustic player,
took the stage next with his guitar. He an
nounced that his scheduled partner had just
sold his guitar and would not be performing
with Dibbcm. Dibbcm apologized for having
to play solo.
No apology needed. Dibbem’s originals were
as welcome as the sun — if there had been any
sun. As gray clouds took precedence over a
hopeful blue sky, Dibbcm sang, “I’m a rain
drop falling down/Fly from the heavens into
the ground/Flow from the river out to the sea/
That makes you and me.”
See CORNSTOCK on 10
Director
announces
new Lied
schedule
From Staff Reports
The roundup of performers to grace
next year's Lied Center stage was
announced Friday by Robert Chum
bley, executive and artistic director
of the Lied.
The 1992-1993 season, which
boasts 52 performances on the main
stage alone, will feature both new and
returning acts, Chumblcy said.
“1 got just about everything I
wanted,” he said.
The Lied Center’s season will offer
a balanced schedule similar to past
years, he said, with four to six jazz
and pop acLs, three to four symphony
orchestras, two Broadway snows and
a ihree-io-four-pcrformancc family
series.
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
students might be most interested in
performances by Pat Mctheny, Kathy
Mattea, Bobby McFcrrin, the musi
cal “Lcs Miserablcs,” the Hubbard
Street Dance Company and a one
woman show by internationally ac
claimed British actress Claire Bloom.
One of the season’s artistic high
lights, Chumblcy said, will be “Pilo
bolus” April 23-24. The modem dance
group emerged from a college dance
class and has been using human mo
tion to forge a new vision of modern
Sept. 16- The Incomparable Rad Stare Rad Army Chorus and
Dance Ensemble, 130-member music and dance company from
the Commonwealth of Independent States. _ _ _
Sept. 26 - Pat Metheny, guitarist, composer, producer, synthesizer
pioneer and Grammy Award winner. w _
Ocf. 11 - Kathy Mattaa, two-time Best Female Country Vocal Performance
Grammy winner. • . .,.. . „
Oct. 17- Mbmaaota Opera, with newly commissioned creation From the
Towers of the Moon."
Ocf. 23 and 27- American String Quartet, UNL s quartet in residence.
Oct. 24-25- "An Evening With Claire Bloom," internationally acclaimed
British actress Claire Bloom wW performs different drama es<*everting~
the work) of women as seen by Wlfiiam Shakespeare and Charlotte Bronte.
Oct. 30-31 - Hubbard Street Dance Company, a Jazz-dance company.
Ho*. 4-6-Btaraof the Bolshoi Ballet, featuring Prima Balterlna Ase^gta
Ekaterina Maximova and her partner Premier Dansuer and leading
choreographer of the Bolshoi Vladimir VasHiev.
Nov7i2- Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Queen s own orchestra
under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy. . , ..
Nov. 20-American Men Dance Theeter, the flmt to present the
American Indian culture In a professional theatrical environment.
Dae. 10-13 - The Christmas Carol, the classic Dickens tale.
Jan. 09 - The Jungts Book, has been adapted from the book for the
ataoe.
Jan. 23 - Bobby McFerrin. vocal performer. . • ^ ^ ^
10 ipoHit Folciortco Naclonal da Mtudoo, considered the most
Fab. 13 -8X. Louis Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Music
Director and Conductor Leonard Slatkin. . . _
Fab. 14-18- FWkRer on the Roof, a Tony award-winning musical from New
^Fab. 20-21 - Pickle Family Circus, a San Francisco-based traveling
dance, daring physicalily, wit and
imagery.
Also a highlight will be an adapta
tion of James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s
Wake,’’ which was commissioned by
UNL and the universities of Iowa,
Minnesota and Arizona. The show
will be developed in New York City
and Iowa.
“Finnegan’s Wake’’ is a huge, in
ternationally visible project that will
be an educational experience for the
universities involved, Chumblcy said.
For UNL specifically, Chumbley
Scott M*ur«r/UN
said the UNL dance department may
have the opportunity to watch the
performers of "Finnegan’s Wake”
develop a new piece.
Only season subscriptions will be
available through the summer. Re
maining individual event tickets will
go on sale at a later date in August.
The first week of the fall semester has
been set aside as a time when only
students can purchase single tickets.
For more information on the up
coming season call the Lied Center
Box Office.
Author tells stories
in urgent, fury tone
(booksMT
The Boy Without a Flag
Abraham Rodriguez, Jr.
Milkweed Editions
By Bryan Peterson
Staff Reporter •_
“The Boy Without a Flag” is a
collection of seven short stories by
South Bronx resident Abraham Ro
driguez, Jr., better known as the gui
tarist of the punk rock band Urgent
Fury.
Rodriguez’s stories all arc set in
the South Bronx neighborhood where
he lived his entire life. They arc filled
with violence and despair, but are
also accurate portrayals of the char
acters involved, revealing all the hopes
and fears one might find among char
acters in a more familiar selling.
Milkweed Editions isa small press
in Minneapolis much respected for
the consistently high quality of the
books and writers it presents.
This collection of stories is not at
all typical for a small press, since its
urban war zone setting and upfront
style are far from the usual serene,
suburban prose of most contempo
rary American short fiction writers.
Rodriguez’s success lies in his
ability to do more than create a scries
of portraits of despair. The unceasing
presence of violence, drug abuse and
poverty in this collection easily can
overwhelm the reader, but beneath
these surface currents lies a piercing
glimpse into the lives of the charac
ters trapped in this neighborhood.
The sense of being trapped runs
\r
through these stories and even helps
lure the reader on to the next talc.
From outside, the reader can look into
this world and wonder w hy people do
not leave such a concentration of
misery.
The characters do try to escape,
but escape only in the most tempo
rary of manners, turning to gambling,
drugs, sex and violence — things
which only serve to further enmesh
them in their misery and hopeless
ness.
The reader wonders at first why
the characters do not try to make the
big escape, to permanently leave their
neighborhood. As the book progresses,
Rodriguez makes this clear.
As much as it pains him and hurts
the people around him, Rodriguez
loves his neighborhood. These arc his
people, his abandoned buildings, his
littered alleys. He is too much a part
of it to leave, as arc the people in
Rodriguez’s stories.
If there is a flaw in this collection,
it is Rodriguez’s tendency to be too
strong or blunt in his writing, occa
sionally spelling things out loo clearly
for the reader rather than allowing for
the subtleties needed to enrich writ
ing.
But this may not be a flaw, consid
ering Rodriguez’s background. The
name of his band. Urgent Fury, fills
these tales with its passionate anger.
And that is the whole punk approach,
being direct and angry, leaving noth
ing unsaid or compromised.
Punk rock is not subtle, nor are the
living conditions of the South Bronx.
Poverty and crime arc immediate and
call for being handled in a direct,
immediate manner.
The lone of these stories, like the
punk rock sound, may restrict them to
a limited audience, but those willing
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