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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1993)
Arts ©Entertainment sfe Anti-porn legislation misguided Yesterday the Nebraska Legislature’s Judi ciary Committee heard arguments for and against LB272 and LB546. The proposed bills would increase the penalty for store owners’ improper display of pornographic material, and they would set new definitions for how such material should be displayed. According to the guidelines set forth in LB546, store owners who sell materials which depict frontal nudity, sexual acts, etc., must store those materials behind a blinder so that only the logo of the material shows, or else shrink-wrap the material with black plastic so that the cover photo cannot be viewed. These bills propose toprotectchildren from seeing the materials. That was one thing that was emphasized several times throughout the hearing: “Protect our children from this filth.” Under the veil of protecting the nation’s youth, the right wing once again attempts to censor what can and cannot be viewed, read or -44 it is acceptable to go after what one thinks causes the ills of society. Burning witches used to be (a) socially acceptable way of getting rid of the ills of society. — McCallum owner of Twisters Music and Gifts -ft - listened to in this country. Sure, the notion of hiding this material from kids is a noble one— and probably justified. But is that the real goal? LB546 docs not seek just to mask the con tents of magazines like Playboy, but also says that any material that may be harmful to minors falls under this law. That includes comic books, music record ings, books and video cassettes. And this is what concerned John McCallum, owner of Twisters Music and Gifts. McCallum testified against both LB272 and LB546. “It is acceptable to go after what one thinks causes the ills of society,” he said. “Burning witches used to be (a) socially acceptable way of getting rid of the ills of society.’ McCallum said that although he thought the people in support of such bills thought they were doing society a favor, they were actually imposing their moralistic views on others. “That is unconstitutional,” he said. The entire entertainment industry recently has come under fire from family groups who oppose violence and sex on television, in mov ies, etc. See PORNOGRAPHY on 11 The name game Name presents more problems than benefits for columnist I am going to legally change my name. When 1 was a lump of growing cells in my mother’s belly, my parents were pondering over what name they should give their first child. After hours of painstaking decision, they decided to name me after a Czech premier. The man’s name was the local version of John. It was spelled J-a-n and pronounced “yawn.” 1 have been stuck with that name ever since. Naturally there are three resulting problems with that title. The first is mispronunciation. Anyone from Germany, the former Yugoslavia, the former Czechoslovakia or Sweden knows exactly how it is said. Anyone else is out of luck. Most people, upon seeing my name, pro nounce it like Jan Brady’s first name. They therefore assume I am female. The summer after my junior year in high school, I registered for journalism camp. When the camp started, I went to the registration table in our assigned dorm to get my room key. My j'V^BP room was on the second floor. Name’s Calingcr, I said. The lady at the table went through all the keys on the fourth floor. “I can’t find your name on any of these keys,” she said. That’s because I’m assigned to the second floor, I said. “Lef me see ... yes, you sure are. But the second floor is for girls. You’re not a girl.” And I could have proven it, loo. But I settled for wailing 20 minutes while I was reshuffled into the proper room. All because whoever processed my form didn’t read my circled “M” for “Male.” M jan i/1 VALDEZ The second problem is that my name sounds like the sound one makes when tired. This means people who think they have a sense of humor come up to me and yawn. I am disgusted, but not because I’m insulted. People thought of that joke when they were 5 years old. Another aspect of the problem is that my name rhymes with John and any other name that rhymes with John. Thanks to the creativity of my Daily Nebras kan colleagues, I have an entire section of bulletin board dedicated to plays on my name. One picture has me with drawn-on, heart-shaped sunglasses and a beret. The caption reads: “Elton Jan.” The last problem is that, when people finally do learn to read and pronounce my name, they often think I am from a foreign country. (Not so; ELTON JAN I was bom in West Virginia — not quite for eign.) There is, however, one advantage. One night, when eating at a diner with a friend, I saw some girls sitting at a nearby table. My friend re marked that, with my name, I could probably sound like an exchange student from Germany. I don’t know German, I said. “That’s OK. You can fake it.” My friend and I went over to the table and my friend started to talk. "This is Jan,” he said. “He’s a student from Germany.” Fahrvergnugen, I said. Braunschweiger. Volkswagen. “He says you’re all very beautiful,” my friend said. Frankfurter. Schwarzenegger. Berliner. “He wants you to come home with us to night,” he said. Unfortunately, one of them spoke German. And I didn’t And so, when I gel the money and the time, I will go to court and put something differenton my license. I don’t know what I’ll change my name to. Probably John, so as not to confuse everyone who knows me. Maybe Jon, in order to change only one letter. Maybe even Rush. . . . No, probably not. Anyway, I have plenty of lime to decide. Jan Calinger is a freshman news-editorial major and a Daly Nebnokan columnist. Opera version of famous play opens at UNL The UNL Opera Theatre will present “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by 20th century composer Benjamin Britten this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in Kimball Hall. The opera by the acclaimed avant garde composer is based on the play by William Shakespeare and, while reorga nizing the dramatic sequence of the play, sticks closely to the original language. The play tells the classic tale of Tour lovers and a group of workmen from Athens who stumble into a forestand the domain of fairies one summer’s night. The results are some very confusing and funny romantic situations, with one unlucky workman having his head re placed with a donkey’s. Britten *s music does much to describe these humorous situations and provide a sense of desperate romance. A pre-performance talk will be given both nights by Stephen Buhler, UNL professor of English, at 7:25 p.m. in Westbrook Music Building’s room 119. The production is directed by UNL theatre professor Alex Gclman and fea tures UNL voice students and some guest artists. The University Orchestra will be conducted by Robert Emile. — George K. Stephan -m or Modem dance on tap at Lied Master choreographer Mark Morris is bringing his New York-based company to the Lied stage Saturday night. —~ The current star of modem dance, Morris has been called “what Twyla Tharp was to the 70’s.” Morris’ troupe is touring the country for the first lime since his exit as director of dance for the prestigious Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. The 8 p.m. performance at the Lied Center for Performing Arts comprises five pieces. Pre-performance talks by Kit Voorhees will begin at 7:05 and 7:30p.m. Tickets are available at the Lied box office. Sunday, Morris and his company will host classes from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. in Mabel Lee Hall and the Johnny Carson Theatre. At 3:45 p.m., a video showing/ question and answer session with Morris will begin in the Carson Theatre. An informal showing of the company’s per formance of “Gloria” will follow this session, also in Carson Theatre. —Sarah Duey Reading is key to becoming sci-fi expert “Living in the Future” By now, after a few excursions into the future, via SF fandom and science fact, you’re asking yourselves, “How can I, too, become an SF guru and amaze my friends and impress people at parties (or Star Trek conventions)?” It’s not easy. I’ve arrived at this higher plane of existence after a de cade and a half of voluminous read ing, hours spent glassy-eyed in front of the TV, and countless dollars spent at theaters. I have become a sponge for all that is the future, training my ears to perk up whenever I hear a “Science and Technology Today” re port come over CNN when I’m in the shower. So, in a rare magnanimous spirit, I offer a few hints on “How to Become an SF Guru and Amaze Your Friends and Impress People at Parties.” First, if you’re going to be believ able when you talk about SF, or even understand it in the first place, you have to know about science. Merely knowing that £=mc2 is not enough, but it’s a start. You don’t have to be able to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem, but you ought to know about such things as worm . holes, black holes, neutron stars, brown dwarfs, time dilation at light speed, accretion theories of planetary forma tion, the Big Bang, chaos theory and other universal phenomena. It helps to know the difference between a meteorite impact and a supernova when discussing why the dinosaurs died out. Get your hands on a few issues of Scientific American, Astronomy or some other such maga zine. Reading is essential. Read all you cm check out from the library or buy at a used bookstore. The classics — Burroughs, Asimov, Heinlcin, Clarke — must come first since they are the foundation upon which all else is built Then you can be credible and geta few nods of the head when you say, “This book is Heinleinian in plot and execution.’’ I do itall the time and cm get away with it because I’ve read Heinlein and recognize his style. What about ‘‘Star Trek”? A good ruleof thumb is: Never wear your own personal set of Spock ears to any event where you want to be taken even mildly seriously. People automatically assume you’re a geek, someone who can tell you in a minute the exact number of nibbles that were in the grain bin on • Space Station K7, but who lacks basic social graces. Even if you have all the overpriced novels Pocket Books publishes, that’s borderline, but acceptable. Just leave the ears in your sock drawer. The flip side of reading is watching SF movies — especially the old ones that USA Network runs at midnight or on Sunday mornings. Be able to dis cuss ”2001” and‘The Blob." And if you want to get some laughs, just mention “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and the incredibly bad editing job or the pie-plate flying saucers (the string is visible — really). You’ll See FUTURE on 11
