Daily
Nebraskan
Monday, April 11,1904
ArtsSEntertainment
Alternative rock singer ‘sweet’ on Nebraska
Courtesy of Zoo Entertainment
Lincoln native Matthew Sweet will bring his music home, performing both at an
Omaha and a Lincoln concert.
Indian music recitals aiming
for culture in Lincoln youth
By Joel Strauch
Senior Reporter
“44
The sarod is in an
instrument that represents
a combination of Arabic
and Indian culture.
—Balasubramanian
faculty supervisor
-tf -
Silling cross-legged on a raised platform
and fronted by flowers, an incense lamp and a
rice powder floor drawing, Rajeev Taranath
plucked out haunting melodics of India on his
25-string sarod.
Taranath’s recital was the first in a series of
performances that will promote Indian classi
cal music and culture among Lincoln youth,
said Radha Balasubramanian, a professor of
Russian here at the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln.
Balasubramanian. a native Indian, is also
the faculty advisor of the Society for Promotion
ofl ndian Classical Music and Culture Amongst
Youth (SP1C-MACAY).
This event was co-sponsored by the Indian
S tudent Organization and the Office ofl nterna
tional Affairs, she said.
“The goal of SP1C-MACAY is to arrange
mus ic performances that will make young people
more aware of the different aspects of Indian
culture,” she said.
One of the more important aspects of I ndian
culture is music and ceremony at religious
festivals.
“The rice powder drawing is a freehand
design done by Indian women on auspicious
occasions or outside the home every day to
signify that everything is going well.”
At the performance, Taranath and his ac
companist Swapan Kumar Siva sat cross-legged
on a raised platform instead of in chairs or on
the floor. Balasubramanian said musicians re
ceived much respect in India.
“We cannot make them sit on the ground,”
she said. “Back in India we would squat below
them on a lower level in the temples.”
Taranath’s sarod is itself an example of the
culture of India and Arabia, Balasubramanian
said.
“The sarod is an instrument that represents
a combination of Arabic and Indian culture. It
is similar to the sitar of India, but it has many
Arabic influences, like the sheepskin cover
ing.”
Taranath hasn’t spent his life playing the
sarod. A professor of English for 12 years,
Taranath was advised by Ravi Shankar, one of
the most popular Indian musicians in the United
States, to give up teaching and play the sarod
full time.
“Shankar told Rajcev that there were enough
teachers and not enough sarod players,”
Balasubramanian said.
Siva, Taranath’s accompanist, played the
tabla, a set of two hand-beaten drums from
North I ndia. The smaller drum produced sharp,
metallic sounds, and the larger drum carried
the bass.
The combination of sarod and tabla pro
duced a brand ofmusic that could be intense and
moving, as well as soothing and melodic.
The duo’s recital was self-supporting. How
ever, Balasubramanian said, “The more sup
port we get, the more we can do.
“We are trying to run these performances on
donations as well as university and community
support.”
For its summer recital, the group wants to
bring in Pandit Jasraj.
“He is one of India’s greatest vocal musi
cians. Hearing his name will make any Indian
stand up,” Balasubramanian said.
Concert
preview
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
Situated in the heartland of America, the
fertile soils of Nebraska boast more than corn,
wheat, beans and livestock. Flowering in musi
cal stardom, alternative rocker Matthew Sweet
traces his roots back to the Midwest.
Born and raised in Nebraska’s capital city.
Sweet takes pride in his “exotic” Nebraskan
heritage. He’ll come back home for two con
certs in Omaha and Lincoln this week.
“When I got my first record deal, 1 still
wanted to say I was from Nebraska,” he said. “It
was sort of exotic because a lot of people didn’t
know where Nebraska was.”
With the initial success of Sweet’s “Girl
friend,” followed by the popularity of his fol
low-up release “Altered Beast” plus a live re
mixed “Son of Altered Beast,” this Lincoln
native continues to bring notoriety back to his
hometown.
“1 think Lincoln is a really good-sized city,”
he said. “If it was more closely located to a
music industry center, I’d probably live there.
People don’t realize how safe it is and how cool
the standard of living is there.”
The singer/writer/guitarist said Nebraska
wasn’t the cultural wasteland a lot of people
made it out to be.
“Lincoln is as good a college place as any
where,” he said. “There were always cool mov
ies going to the Sheldon (Memorial Art Gal
lery) and import record stores.”
Sweet said the only thing Lincoln didn't
have compared to big cities were the slums and
excessive crime.
As a senior at Lincol n Southeast H igh School,
Sweet said he took a few classes at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln. Although he’s re
planted himself in Athens, Ga., with his wife
Lisa (another Nebraska native). Sweet’s friends
and family roots remain in Nebraska.
“Everybody’s really supportive of me,” he
said.
“In the beginning, they were worried about
how I’d make my way i n music, and now they ’ re
glad to see I’m getting some attention.
“I don’t think they take it too seriously.”
He said his success had given his mother
some serious bragging rights.
“My parents are really proud of me, and they
just have to talk about it a lot,” he laughed.
Although it has given his parents something
more than good grades to tack on the refrigera
tor, their son’s “Sweet” success has caused
subtle problems, he said. However, he said the
problems weren’t too serious.
“When I first started having success, I never
admitted anything was going on, because when
I did accept it or admit it, it made me feel like
a creep,” he said. “I don’t think 1 handled it too
well, and in a weird sort of way I didn’t want it
to be true.
“I shunned that concept and blocked it out.
and I started getting more pent up and troubled
over lime,” Sweet said. He said touring and
working on his albums occupied all his time.
Eventually, he did reach a point where he could
manage his day-to-day life on and off the road.
Sweet’s staiggle to deal with his success
came right alter his hit release “Girlfriend” and
may have contributed to the dark overtones of
his next release “Altered Beast.”
However, Sweet said he himself didn't see
that much difference between “Girlfriend” and
“Altered Beast."
“All my songs were not that different, not
that weird,” he said. “It is kind ofa darker side,
and it got into more sorts of questions and
metaphysical topics than “Girlfriend.”’
Sweet said the devilish attitude on “Altered
Beast” didn't correlate with his altitude on life
at the time it was written.
“There’s a lot of me in my songs, but what I
couldn't understand about ‘Altered Beast' was
that things were going really good (dr me in my
life at the time.
Nerves and anxiety followed Sweet with the
release of “Altered Beast.” The curse ofa new
artist reaching a climax of fame and popularity
and then fading from existence hounded him.
See SWEET on 10
Pesci unwise to take
role in terrible film
F I‘L
“Jimmy Hollywood”
A wise person once said that good movies
fly by timewise, and bad movies seem really
long.
In that case, “Jimmy Hollywood” goes on
forever.
Joe Pesci, a talented performer who has
delivered brilliant performances in movies
like “Goodfellas” and “JFK,” must have lost
a bet with someone to end up in this mess.
For that matter, Christian Slatcr(“Heath
ers”) must have had the same bookie as
Pesci, because he's as out of place in this
mess as Pesci.
Director Barry Levinson (“Rain Man”)
has recovered somewhat from his mega
bomb “Toys,” but he still seems to be relying
on star power to overcome bad writing.
Jimmy Alto (Pesci) is an aspiring actor in
Hollywood, and he has invested in a bus
bench advertisement in the hopes that some
one important will discover him. He has his
head firmly stuck among the clouds, lost in
the glamour of yesterday’s Hollywood, a
Hollywood not polluted with drugs, violence
and crime.
His sidekick William (Slater) is great
with a camcorder and an electronic labeling
machine, but he can’t remember why he’s
doing something or what day it is.
Together, they form a vigilante task force
known as SOS (Save Our Streets) that video
tapes the criminal acts, along with the sub
sequent capture by Alto, who uses the name
“Jericho.”
Naturally, the police are more concerned
with finding Jericho than fighting crime,
and this puts the public behind the SOS. This
feeds Alto’s ego that he is in the “role of a
lifetime,” and he can’t stop.
As said before, Pesci and Slater must
have been asleep when this script came by.
They do the best that they can, but “Jimmy
Hollywood" just keeps going on and on, and
leaving the theater early becomes a much
more likely prospect.
However, if the temptation to escape is
resisted long enough, there’s a surprise guest
appearance at the end of the flick from ...
someone you’ll recognize.
That surprise appearance, plus a couple
of good previews, keep “Jimmy Hollywood”
from falling into the cinematic Pilof Despair
and garnering it a single star.
It’s not worth even the matinee price, but
maybe getting together with a bunch of
friends, you can all pitch in some spare
change and rent it when it’s released on
video.
— Gerry Beltz
