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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1995)
Arts ©Entertainment Wednesday, November 15, 1995 Page 9 the glassy eye Mark Baldridge Watchin’ on a television wonderland Some people considered television a fad, back in its early days — and maybe a time will come that will prove that sentiment belatedly true. You can never be too sure about these things. But TV shows a remarkable adaptivity that seems to ensure its continued fitness; it’s come a long way from the days of live shows and three channels. Cable television and the appear ance of the affordable video recorder have fundamentally remade TV in just the last 20 years. This most recent evolution makes the transition from black and white to color look like a shave and a haircut. We no longer watch TV — we create TV. Try this simple experiment: Mix and match, using two VCRs, favorite scenes from a favorite series into one big complicated episode. Watch that. Show it to your friends. When you’re good enough at that you can try taking shots from one show and mixing them with another — Frasier cracks wise with Bundy. Stick in a tape, program the VCR (ifyou’ve figured out how) and by the time you curl up in front of the TV you have an entire programming day, cooked up according to your own recipe and ready to eat. Busy people watch a month ’ s worth of “Seinfeld” on Saturday afternoon between lunch and taking the kids to soccer practice. Fans of “Star Trek” compose per sonal libraries of episodes, carefully excising all the ads, which they can replay at leisure. Some shows you can see every day in syndication, and some you can see twice a day, on different channels—if you can take that kind of repetition. When 1 was a kid a show called “Battlestar Galactica” made news when a young fan, despondent over i ts cancellation, leapt to his death from a bridge. Today he might have lived, end lessly fast-forwarding through videos worn almost brittle through use —or the show might have been picked up on the Sci-Fi Channel to run endlessly in rotation with “The Prisoner” and “The Bionic Woman.” The new TV is more user-friendly — it caters to special interests. I imagine that if you decided you were never going to watch anything without Jimmy Stewart in it you could still watch a good deal oftelevision— if you could afford the dish antenna. And someday, so we’re told, we’ll get 500 channels, 24 hours a day. So you can see how things have changed. Just a tew years ago you watched what they gave you when they gave it to you and the devil take the hindmost. It was an ugly time, no day workers ever got to see their “The Young and the Restless”—no second shiftwork ers got to see “Mannix.” • When a show was canceled it was pretty much sayonara. We are living in the science fiction era our parents dreamed of. It’s a TV wonderland, a new golden age. And discontents had better damned well get used to it. Baldridge Is a senior English major and the Dally Nebraskan Opinion Page editor. Courtesy of Nebraska ETV Arthur Agee, 22, and William Gates, 23, share a goal of aspiring to play professional basketball in “Hoop Dreams.” ! oop-la Acclaimed film takes air tonight By Gerry Beltz Senior Reporter “Hoop Dreams” — one of the year’s most talked about films—will be broadcast tonight at 7, on the Nebraska ETV network. The film—a three-hour documentary follow ing the lives of two young men who hope to one day play for the National Basketball Association — has received great amounts of praise and numerous awards, despite being virtually over looked at the Academy Awards. Jack Huttig, a publicist for Nebraska ETV, said the broadcast of this film is a major produc tion nationwide. “It originally started as a 30-minute piece for public television on street basketball in Chi cago,” Huttig said, “but it grew beyond the film makers’ wildest expectations.” Since “Hoop Dreams” was originally intended for public television broadcast, Nebraska ETV received the initial opportunity to air it before the pay-per-view and movie channels, he said. “We’ve got first crack at it.” “Hoop Dreams” condenses years into minutes and shows what these two young men faced both on and off the court, such as crime, drugs and other problems in their inner city Chicago neigh borhood. The film deals with some real issues, and is an important film to see, he said. “There’s no sex or violence, and there might be an off-color word or two,” he said, “but cer tainly nothing excessive. “Ifanything, it talks about the importance and need for strong family ties, paying attention to education and the value of hard work.” Also, following the film, Nebraska ETV will air the half-hour special “A Hoop Dreams Re union” at 10 p.m. The special reunites the two aspiring basketball stars from the first film and they discuss how it has affected their lives. Connick gets intimate with Lied crowd „ By Brian Sharp Music Critic Ain’t nobody like Harry. The Lied Center was stomping and dancing Tuesday night as Harry Connick Jr. and his funk band jazzed, rocked, dixied and partied with the sellout crowd for more than two and a half hours. _ And they left ‘cm danc ing on the stage. —— Literally. —P It was music for the soul —r —and they played it in ways —r that music ain’t never been jJ- played before. At times it seemed more ^ like a jam session than a VO nee n concert. Tlie four-man band, Review plus Connick, played off -one another, joked and told stories. “I just don’t wanna get off this stage,” Connick said, his No. 15 Tommie Frazier Cornhusker football jersey drenched in sweat. He sang a eappella. He sang the blues. He sang the old songs from New Orleans and Mardi Gras tunes that shook and rattled the Lied like nothing before. The Lied seats were never unfolded once the show began, as the floor crowd stood and fans rushed the stage, Filling the aisles and spilling out near the towers of speakers. Halfway into the concert, Connick warned those who hadn’t come to rock ‘n’ roll that it was time to leave. He then introduced the crowd to yet another musical style few fans had ever heard from him before — head bangin’ Harry. The song? He called it “I am Tommie Frazier.” 1 can out-throw him, Connick said later in the show. Then he laughed. “That guy is gonna kick my ass.” Connick showed off not only his talent to perform anything from spirituals to New Or leans funk, but his ability to play any instru ment placed before him. Aside from his nor mal seat behind the piano, Connick took his turn at drums, trumpet, guitar — basically every instrument on stage. He talked aimlessly throughout the night — “listphus,” so to speak. The crowd was introduced to Connick’s dog, Samantha. It was a concert, yet it wasn’t. It was more like an intimate night with Harry. As the show drew to a close, Connick played one last Mardi Gras tune for the crowd. One fan jumped to the stage and started dancing in the far corner, as Connick had done so many times throughout the night. “Yeah, he’s got the right idea,” Connick said. He then began helping people to the stage. As the band finished its final number, the bars trailing away off stage, more than 100 fans were left dancing under the hazy, colored stage lights to the thunderous echo of ap plause. Concert to follow rap censorship debate By Jeff Randall Senior Reporter Censorship,racism, violence and sexism are all issues that are virtu ally guaranteed to stir up a heated debate. And if that’s the case, tonight’s event in the Nebraska Union ball room should reach the boiling point relatively quickly. A rap censorship debate will be held there, followed by a rap con cert. The University Program Coun cil sponsors the event, which will feature Professor Griff and Curtis Sliwa in the debate, and Heather B. in the concert. Griff, a professional lecturer and organizer of several rap-oriented educational presentations, will speak in opposition ofcensorship. A former member of the Nation of Islam, Griff now speaks throughout the country on the values of racism, family, so cial responsibility and related sub jects. His argument against censorship will center on the racist slant present in many of rap’s would-be censors. Griff believes the censorship of rap music has been more vigorously pursued than that of music usually performed by white artists. Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, will speak in favor of cen sorship in some cases. Sliwa’s argument will center on rap’s less savory subject matters, including the glorification of vio lence, sexism and drugs. The concert will follow the de bate and discussion. Heather B., who many may remember from MTV’s “The Real World,” promisesto bring a considerable amount of energy to the stage. Since leaving the “Real World” behind, Heather B. has made a name for herselfas a strong and outspoken hip-hop artist in a vein similar to more established artists such as Queen Latifah and Salt ‘n’ Pepa. The concert’s opening acts in clude New Jersey’s Rowdy Pack, The No Good Hoods, 54th Regi ment, The Balix and Gridlock. The debate will begin at 7 p.m., followed by music at 9 p.m. Tickets for the debate are $3, tickets for the concert are $6 and tickets for both are $8. Students with valid identification receive $1 off all ticket prices.