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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1994)
Daily Nebraskan Thursday, April 28,1994 Arts^Entertainment Dylan pleases Lied crowd I’60s singer s music appeals to all ages Concert review If I blinked twice, I thought l might b transported to the middle of a cornfield i upstate New York, surrounded by free lovt loose joints and the harmonious discord of young Bob Dylan. Back to reality. It wasn’t Woodstock c 1969, it was the Lied Center 25 years later, an a wiser, older Bob Dylan took the stage for yt another generation of committed fans. It was like peering into a lost dimension c time, as the mystical folk singer commanded a almost reverent swell of applause and shouts When his harmonica started to translate hi emotional, musical message, the aud icncc agai roared. tjcspite an me notoriety, uyian cnosc t shun the crowd’s attention by purposely avoid ing the spotlight and turning his back to th audience. His drawn-in and reclusive persona coul not entrap the caustic powcrofhispocticmagii Andy Wilcox, a junior at Lincoln Southcas High School, said the concert was great, but wasn’t what he expected. “It wasn’t a greatest hits package,” he saic Dylan seemed to purposely avoid the popi lar tunes, moving more toward some of hi more recent work. The tyrannical “Masters of War” strength cncd Dylan’s force and proved yet again th timeless message ofhis lyrics. Dylan played hi songs as if they were an old pair ofjeans he ha grown accustomed to over the span of decades - (( His music will never go out of style. It’s timeless. —Anna Wedberg Dylan fan V w Within those decades lies a generation gap that breeds Dylan fans from the ’60s to the ’90s. Anna Wedbcrg, a sophomore at Millard North High School in Omaha, came to the „ concert with her father. Chip. Anna said her " father was a Dylan fan and passed the tradition 1 on to her. “His music will never go out of style,” Anna * said. “It’s timeless.” Chip Wedbcrg said he was 17 when he saw r Dylan perform at Pershing Auditorium. Now that he’s 46, Wedbcrg said it was difficult at first to adjust to Dylan’s new style. r “I thought I missed the old style,” he said. “But 1 found out I did like hearing the songs in 1 a new style.” For many people, Dylan planted the seed for s the growth of a musical rebellion. n Jeremy Bracken, a freshman art majorat the y University of Ncbraska-Lincoln, said Dylan _ was “what started this whole thing.” e “He was just around when music became big with Woodstockand all that," Bracken said. He j said the concert proved Dylan’s everlasting hold on the era. “Everybody out here is having a good time, 1 and it’s the music that does it,” Bracken said. . Adam Petsch, a junior at Lincoln Southeast J High School,said hestarlcd 1 istening to Dylan’s ’ music when he was 12 because of his father. Petsch said Dylan wasdifferent from today’s _, musicians because he spoke more of the truth. c “He was definitely not out to make a buck s when he was young, either,” Petsch said. — Paula Lavigne James Mehsling/DN New releases can relieve semester-end blues It’s always good to end a school semester on a high note, and this semester is no exception. We have two highly recommended releases, one pretty good release and another that should be sent into the sun’s core to make sure it is destroyed once and for all. The final pick of the week for this semester is one that was released back in 1986 and is a classic, with some thing to please even the most finicky film appetite. The twocxlrcmcly good flicks were released on Tuesday, and the other two showed up on Wednesday. “Mrs.Doubtfirc”(PG-13)—This was another smash hit for Robin Wil liams, the comcdic genius that helped make “Aladdin” the huge success it was. Williams plays a man going through a divorce from his wife (Sally Field). She gets custody of the chil dren, so he puts on some makeup and applies for the nanny job that his wife has advertised so he can spend time with the children. The film is hilarious from start to finish and throws in some nice heart wrench ing segmen ts as well. It is worth driving around the city to rent. “Batman: Mask of the Phan tasm” (PG) — Sadly, this one only played in Lincoln for two weeks. Using the same characters and animation from thepopular“Batman: The Animated Series,” the Caped Crusader is now chasing a mysterious vigilante known only as the Phan tasm. Even if it’s not on the big screen, it’s still worth seeing. “Josh and S.A.M(PG-13) — Believe it or not, this is a good kid flick that isn’t a complete no-brainer with bad acting. Talented young actors Jacob TiemeyandNoah Fleiss portray broth ! Movie satirizes real life “Serial Mom” A movie in which “The Brady Bunch” meets “Taxi Driver,” “Se rial Mom” is worth seeing—if not for the plot, then just for watching someone get beaten to death with a leg of lamb to the tunc of “Tomor row” from “Annie.” John Waters, who has come to personify weird cinema, tries some thing a little different from his pre vious works such as “Hairspray,” “Mondo Trasho” and “Pink Fla mingos." This time around. Waters takes a stab at reality, going for the jup 1 ar of wh i tc-brcad America that has frui t sal ad a nd comfl akes for break fast and the world’s most perfect meatloaf for dinner. The family of focus is the Sutphins, with Beverly (Kathleen Turner) as the quintessential mom who makes June Cleaver look like Cruclla DcVillc. She and her hus band Eugene (Sam Waterston), a dentist, have two fine children. Misty (Ricki Lake, a John Waters film veteran) is constantly dealing with flea markets and problematic boyfriends, while Chip (Matthew Lillard) is obsessed with watching gore flick after gore flick. However, all is not well in sub urbia; Beverly is not the dream mom that everybody sees. For a variety of reasons, she kills people, i ncludi ng teen-agers l hat don ’ t wca r seat belts and women who wear white shoes after Labor Day. She docs eventually get caught, and amid an Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuoco-type media circus, Beverly represents herself at the trial. Waters’ entire film is satirical of real life, taking the extremes of all characters (video store customers, housewives, teachers, etc.) and do ing to them what he thinks needs to be done. Lake looks like she’s having fun in a couple ofspots in the film, but she mostly appears to be awaiting a paycheck and reluming to her suc cessful talk show “Ricki.” The performer who is the most fun to watch is the marvelously overacting Turner, again playing her “deadly woman” role, but this lime with a satirical twist to the blade. She goes absolutely over board for the picture-perfect mother/ housewife, and she also has some hilarious high jinks going on in the courtroom. Part of these involve doing briskly paced Thighmaster exercises to distract a witness. Unfortunately for Waters, the film runs long in a few spots and sometimes takes too much time going from Point A to Point B with little to keep the audience’s atten tion in between. Overall, “Serial Mom” is worth seeing. Cheek it out. — Gerry Beltz crs on the run Irom a bad home envi ronment. Twelve-year-old Josh (Tierney) is a pathological liar and has convinced his younger brother S.A.M. (which means Strategically Altered Mutant) that they must go to Canada. It’s pretty good; just keep an open mind. “Ernest Rides Again" (PG) — UGH! This is one of those movies that makes movie critics wish they had gone to law school instead. Ernest is looking for the British crown jewels and is a bumbling idiot for the entire length of the film. It’s just like his umpteen other appear ances doing the same dumb act. The kids will enjoy it, but you can go in the other room and watch “MacGyvcr” or something. PICK OF THE WEEK — It’s a movie that gave us quips and pieces of wisdom that arc still used today, and i t gave mill ions of people the dream of leading a big parade in a lip-sync of the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout.” Yep, it’s “Ferris Bucller's Day Off." It’s one of the films that propelled Matthew Broderick into stardom and utilized the funny tool of the film’s star talk ing directly to the audience— something that has helped the film to stand the test of time. This is one of those films to watch with a group of friends, and it’s a great film to watch after finals. Gerry Beltz Shallow hotel anthology lacks a strong foundation “Hotel Andromeda** Jack L. Chalker Ace Science Fiction There has been a particularly an noying form ofanthology on the loose for the past several years: the “shared universe” book. In this, an editor out lines a universe (or planet, or whal cvcr)and gets other writers to contrib ute stories to flesh out the story line. “Hotel Andromeda” is the latest effort, and it just docs not work. It’s a shame, too, because Jack Chalker is a fine writer. Not many writers can make the transition to editor success fully — Isaac Asimov and Mike Resnick are the two most conspicuous examples. “Hotel Andromeda” is a scries of 12 stories telling about the largest, most elegant hotel in the known uni verse. This may be part of the prob lem, because a hotel is a rather weak hook on which to hang an anthology. The hotel becomes a backdrop, and sometimes a minor one, for stories which could stand on their own with no mention of the Hotel Andromeda. Some of the writers Chalker pre sents are well-known. Kevin J. Ander son (“Builders of Infinity”), Kristine Kathryn Rusch (editor of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine) and Dave Wolverton arc among the better known, and their contributions arc not totally wasted on this effort. Chalker himself is not to be found within these pages — no story, not even a lousy introduction. That alone ought to tell the reader something. Most of the other stories, though, are concerned with presentingasmany different and bizarre aliens as pos sible. There’s nothing wrong here — it’s what science Fiction issupposed to do, after all — but the fascination for weirdness takes over and becomes a form of name-dropping. One is left with a miasma that is often broad but very shallow. “Hotel Andromeda” isa halfhearted effort that barely succeeds. Even die hard Jack Chalker fans can give this one a miss. — Sam Kepfield