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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1995)
Jerky Boys’ acting is lacking By Joel Strauch Film Critic “The Jerky Boys” are a laugh riot with prank calls, but they should hang up their acting desires. Johnny B and Kamal, who rose to infamy with their comedy albums of illicit phone calls, try to bring their unique brand of humor to the big screen with this film. The film has its funny parts, but the dialing duo re-use a lot from their two albums. If the movie contained more original material, it would be worth staying on the line for. The plot is nothing new, except for the interesting angle of the prank ish pair calling all the time. Two “lowlifes from Queens,” Johnny (Johnny Brennan) and Kamal (Kamal), have been unable to hold down decent jobs because of their practical-joking attitudes. Meanwhile, their childhood rival Brett Weir (James Lorinz) has found success with his mob connections. “The Jerky Boys” Rating: R Grade: C Stars: Johnny Brennan, Kamal, Alan Arkin, William Hickey Director: James Melkonian Five Words: Fruitcakes should stick to phones. Johnny decides to call the local mob boss Lazarro (Alan Arkin) as one of his characters, Frank Rizzo. Rizzo intimidates Lazarro into show ing The Jerky Boys a night on the town. Of course, Johnny calls back and Rizzo pushes it too far. The Jerky Boys end up fleeing from the mob and have to use their wacky talents to save themselves. Unfortunately, most of the funny lines have been heard by fans of The Jerky Boys many times before. Even Lazarro and other characters use parts of old Jerky Boys calls in the movie. People seeing the movie also were prepared to use their knowledge of Jerky Boys lore as they viewed the film. One apparently intoxicated member of the audience amused and annoyed with a constant barrage of drunken mumblings of famous Jerky Boys lines. The acting is nothing to call home about. Johnny B and Kamal are mas ters of audio humor, not visual. But special appearances by Tom Jones, Ozzy Osbourne and Helmet liven up the film a bit. ' The show’s music is very impres sive. Featuring Helmet, Collective Soul, Tom Jones, House of Pain, Green Day and L7, this soundtrack is well worth a listen. If you’re an ardent Jerky Boys fan, you might need to see the movie. But if you’re not, go buy their comedy albums instead, sit at home and laugh ‘til you’re blue. Renowned poet visits UNL I ByJeffRandall Staff Reporter Hayden Carruth has spent most of his years writing outside of a university setting, but this week he is making an exception. Carruth, a world-renowned poet, essayist and critic, will dis rcuss his work and give a poetry ' reading this week at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Greg Kuzma, a UNL English professor and five-year fan of Carruth, coordinated the writer’s visit to Nebraska with financial help from the Nebraska Humani ties Council and University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Research Council, English Department and Arts and Sciences Department. Kuzma said Carruth's success could be attributed to both basic and more complicated aspects. “He’s good, and he’s a very committed writer,” Kuzma said. “But he’s not just committed to himself, as some writers are. He’s committed to people. He reaches out to others and their own work.” Carruth’s writing career is ex ceptional, Kuzma said, simply be cause he has been able to make a career of his writing without rely ing on university support. “He is very passionate about what he does,” Kuzma said. “He thinks being a writer is important, even though America doesn’t tend to reward writers.” Carruth’s UNL activities will include a discussion of his work tonight in Andrews Hall and a po etry reading Thursday in Love Li brary. Both events take place at 7:30 p.m. Kuzma said Carruth’s appear ances would do more than help people understand his poetry; they would encourage others to write. “He inspires everyone who is a writer to think that what he or she is doing is useful ” he said. Yalentme’s Day is CORNY THAT'S WHY WE DEUVER on Valentine's Day. COLBY RIDGF. C POPCORN « ICE CREAM « YOGURT ) Phone orders: 476-7800 48th & Pioneers 55th & Holdrege 1417 “N” St. 233 North 48th 1126 South St. 70th & “0" 33rd & Hwy. 2 Music festival tickets on sale From Staff Reports Tickets are on sale for an event being bi lied as Nebraska’s largest Christian music festi val. Spiritfest ’95 will be held July 8 at Omaha’s Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum. It will feature award winning Christian superstars DC Talk, Steven Curtis Chapman and Audio Adrenaline. Also performing will be Phillips, Craig & Dean, Point of Grace and Newsong. Larry Schweinsburg, concert director, said he expected the 8,000 tickets to sell quickly. To charge by phone, cal1402 449-2830. To order tickets by mail, write: Grace University Concerts, Ninth & William streets, Omaha, Neb., 68108. IN GO THE BALLS, OFF COME THE CLOTHES! STRIP POOL Two luscious lovelies engage in the ultimate “how-to” video! Send $19.95 check or M.O. + $4.50 S & H to: BIMBEAUX VIDEO 13601 Ventura Blvd., Suite 427 Sherman Oaks, CA 91423-3788 Calif, residents add $1.65 tax. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. See us on the internet. http://kspace.com Select screening room, e-mail bimbeaux@earthlink.net 9th Street Blues & Boon's 5th Annual Valentine's Day ' FASHION SHOW We never forget the lingere! Wednesday, Feb. 8-8:30pm 9th Street Blues-9th & L | Featuring World Famous Boog's Male ! &Female Models Doing Their Things! $2 at Ihe door registers you to win GREAT PRIZES, 9th Street Blues inducing $75 COStl!! Boog's 9th & L Lingerc, Swimsuits, Dresses 477-3467 122 S. 52nd 483-BAND I An You Care lb Eat Artists’ rainbow brushes make splash By John Futwider Staff Reporter Jay Miller, director of the Haymarket Art Gallery, has a soft spot for pastels. The gallery, 728 Q St., is featuring “Hard & Soft in the Haymarket Art Gallery,” a month-long exhibition of pastel and ceramic art by regional artists. Featured pastel artists are Barry Monohon, T. Parish McGaffm, Donna Barger, Linda Benton and Linda Meigs. Ceramic art is on display from John Dennison, Ervic Dixon, Gary Martin, George Sample and Mem McConnell, Each artist has something unique to offer through his or her work. Miller said Lincoln artist Barger’s use of color made her work stand out. “Donna has a really strong sense of color,” he said. “She’s not afraid to use different mixtures of color.” Monohon, another Lincoln artist, does pastel art as well. He uses strik ing brush strokes reminiscent of the French impressionists, Miller said. This is in contrast to Barger, who traditionally has used softer, blended strokes in her paintings, he said. Dennison, of Omaha, has two kinds of ceramic art on display: functional glazed bowls and pots and masks. Miller said Dennison made the bowls for profit and the masks for artistic expression. Miller compared Dennison to cartoonist Matt Groening, who draws “The Simpsons” for a living and “Life In ~ Hell” to express himself. Raku pottery by Mike Bush, a former Lincolnite now living in Okla homa, can also be seen at the gallery. Miller said raku was an Ameri canized style of Chinese pottery. It’s a process of firing that yields a wide variety of colors. The raku artist never knows what colors he will get. A primitive, textured look also distin guishes raku from other styles of pottery, he said. PFR “Great Lengths" Vireo Grade: A Almost immediately after PFR released their Grammy-nominated album “Goldie’s Last Day,” their fans began praying, “More PFR, more PFR!” Now their prayers have been answered by the three-man band formerly known as “Pray For Rain.” PFR’s latest, “Great Lengths,” is even better than their sopho more effort, “Goldie’s Last Day.” Sure, it seems unlikely. Three singles from that album shot to No. 1 last year on the Christian music charts, and “That Kind of Love” was Christian radio’s No. 1 single in 1994. But it’s true. “Great Lengths” is an enormous achievement for the rock band composed of Joel Hanson (vocals and guitar), Patrick An drew (vocals and bass) and Mark Nash (drums). The album’s most appealing quality is its genuine, insightful lyrics. The lyrics are also very personal, especially on the title track, written by Andrew. Hanson displays his songwriting ability on “The Love I Know,” about how human love sometimes fails but God’s never does. “She bet all she had upon the lo,ve/now she’s holding her cards/ And lost her turn ... Could true love have fled so easily/Leaving both broken from the fall/ Not the love I know...” Musically, the album is refresh ingly diverse; songs range from PFR’s blues-rock cover of Keith Green’s ‘Trials Turned to Gold,” to the distorted-guitar grind of “Last Breath” to the slow piano/ acoustic guitar melody of “Life Goes On.” About the guitars ... Hanson and Andrew aren’t spectacular guitar players, but they are good. They manage to make one chord sound great in “Merry Go Round,” even though it’s played over and over (and over and over) again. There’s only one problem with the entire album. Effects are used excessively. Electronically echoed lyrics give an artificial feel on “Great Lengths” and “Wonder Why ” detracting from the overall clean sound of the album. But that shouldn’t keep people from wearing out their stereo play ing it. And you will wear out your stereo playing it. — John Fulwider Sunrise Continued from Page 9 Ethan Hawke does an adequate job of portraying the cute, “ugly American.” His “but hey, I'm charm ing” demeanor works within the framework of the film. Delpy performs admirably con sidering the script calls for her to use volumes of American slang, and she has some difficulty spitting it out. Fortunately, she brings consider able presence to the film. She con veys emotion with her eyes, which draw the viewer into the action' and assist Hawke, who struggles at times. For fans of Linklater’s first two films, “Slacker” and “Dazed and Confused,” “Before Sunrise” is a dis appointment. It appears that another promising, young director has jumped onto the money bus, leaving his fresh ness and inventiveness behind in or der to join the mainstream. In that respect Linklater does a good job using his key players in a story meant to rake in the big bucks at the box office. The film’s saving grace occurs, of course, at the end. After a ponderous, conversational two hours, the sequel door is left wide open. The closing scenes are beautifully filmed with all the emotion the rest of the film lacked. The final scenes are so strong, they are almost worth the wait. Austin Continued from Page 9 that first shift for The Blaze was not an ideal first time out. “My first night sucked. I made so many mistakes. It was unbelievable.” He was just nervous, he said. “There’s a lot of people listening here,” Austin said. After 16 months at The Blaze, Austin said he was enjoying himself working up to three shifts a week, usually the overnight weekend shift from midnight to 6 a.m. But his odd hours don’t annoy him. “The overnights don’t bother me,” Austin said. “It’s hours that wouldn’t be used for much else, so I can use them to make some money and get a little experience in case I choose to do this later as well.” The strangest part of the job is some of the phone calls, Austin said. “You get calls from people once in a while that you can tell are pretty well-baked,” Austin said. There are also a few irritating phone calls, Austin said. “The occasional annoying ones who call every five minutes to hear a certain song, or girls that will call to ask you to come over after work. They’ve never met you, don’t know you, and don’t know what you look like.” Austin is also a Sony college mar keting representative, representing Sony at KRNU and music shops fre quented by college-aged students, as well as handling promotions for Sony sponsored bands that play locally. Although he would prefer to move up in the world of Sony, Austin said he isn’t planning on leaving The Blaze any time soon. “Barring getting fired. I’ll be here till I graduate at least. If I get a better job with Sony, then I’ll move on posthaste.” Austin said he couldn’t hope for an easier job. “I come here, play music and talk a few times an hour.” Amid all the fun and experience his job at The Blaze has brought him, Austin singled out one great benefit. “Lots of cool t-shirts.”
