Arts ©Entertainment
Monday, November 27, 1995 Page 9
Paula Lavigne
Holiday
traditions
redundant
Our bodies are going through tur
key withdrawal . The leftover broccoli
and cheese casserole is slowly mold
ing in the fridge.
The jolly fat guy comcth.
Yep, kids and kidettes, the Christ
mas season lurks around the corner,
but with few surprises.
At no other time in the year is there
a season filled with boring traditions.
It’s the festive season of reruns, re
plays, redundancies and re-fried fruit
cakes.
It’s not that tradition is a bad thing,
but there’s only so many times you .
can see “A Christmas Carol” and not
start mouthing the words in pig latin
because you’re so bored.
You start writing a role for Slimcr
(you know, the oozy green glob from
“Ghostbusters”) as the Ghost of New
Year’s Eve to spice up the plot a bit,
while you’re slowly sinking intoyour
chair with visions of sugar plums do
ing the tango in your head.
Then there’s always the Jimmy
Stewart and Bing Crosby marathons
and the string of Christmas music from
“Silent Night” to “Grandma Got Run
Over by a Reindeer.”
Christmas dictates five staple
events from which you cannot escape:
“The Nutcracker,” “A Christmas
Carol,” “Mannheim Steamroller,”
“The Star City Holiday Parade,” and
driving aimlessly around “ooo-ing and
aaaah-ing” at people’s Christmas
lights.
W ith my tirade of Christmas enter
tainment over, there is some salvation
in this sleigh ride ‘o’ fun.
“The Nutcracker” is worth seeing.
It’s the same story, but the Joffrey
Ballet will be performing it with Bal
let Omaha. The Joffrey Ballet could
even make midnight Mass rock.
And while you’re in Omaha, there
are other festive time-killers, includ
ing Dickens in the Old Market on Dec.
2 and Dec. 3, and the Omaha Sym
phony from Dec. 14 to 17.
Mannheim Steamroller has re
leased a long-awaited new album
“Christmas in the Aire,” which main
tains the signature sound of the Omaha
based band but is refreshingly new.
The Star City Holiday Parade al
ways has new things, but it’ll be even
more fun to see how many of those
jumbo balloons bite the dust going
under the O Street skywalk.
But you could also stay at home
and make your own Christmas fun,
like seeing how long it takes for a 6
foot Scotch pine to bum to the ground.
(Make sure you don’t cut one down
from university property, because
they’re said to be sprayed with “stinky
fox urine.”)
Making cookies can be fun if you
have cookie cutters in the shape of
your favorite world leaders and have a
gingerbread Boris Yeltsin smacking a
glob of frosting on a butter-rum Bill
Clinton.
Then again, you could always watch
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” with
your head stuck in a bowl of chocolate
covered cherries, eggnog and mm in
hand, singing“0 Christmas Tree” until
your lungs bleed.
Lavigne is a junior news-editorial ma
jor and a Daily Nebraskan senior reporter.
Courtesy of The Walt Disney Co.
Rival Toys Woody the cowboy and Buzz Lightyear join forces in a fast-paced finale to reunite with their owner Andy in Disney’s
latest animated feature, “Toy Story.”
‘Story’ a delightful haven of animated fun
By Brian Priesman
Film Critic
Wow!
‘Toy Story,” the latest animated film from
Wall Disney Pictures, is nothing short of a break
_through.
Movie Proving once again that
w _ Disney is tops in animation,
Review the movie’s characters con
sist of everyday toys, includ
ing Mr. Potato Head, Slinky
Dog and 1 ittle green army men.
“Toy Story” is the tale of
Woody the cowboy, voiced
wonderfully by Tom Hanks.
Woody was the favorite toy of
— Andy, but he’s just been de
throned oy me new nign-teen tsuzz Ligniyear,
voiced to perfection by the hilarious Tim Allen.
Problem is, Buzz doesn’t know that he’s a toy.
Woody’s jealousy grows as all of ihe other
toys become Buzz groupies, until Woody tries to
get Buzz stuck behind a desk. Instead, Buzz is
knocked out a window and Woody is forced to try
to rescue him from the real world.
“Toy Story” takes computer animation to new
heights. Each finished frame takes up five mega
bytes of storage. Multiply that by the 110,064
frames in the movie, and you get an impressively
huge number.
The neat part of all this is that by watching the
film, you wouldn’t even know it was animated.
The images on the screen seem more realistic
than those in many live-action movies. The tex
ture and colors are as vibrant as any in real life,
and the sky looks like it was filmed for real.
The delight ful story was accentuated by Randy
Newman’s wonderfully lush score, including three
original songs performed by Newman himself.
A treat for all ages, Disney’s “Toy Story”isan
incredible story that confirms what most of us
Film; “Toy Story”
Stars: Voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen,
Annie Polts
Technical Director: William Reeves
Rating: G
Grade: A
Five Words: Brilliant animation in
breakthrough film
already knew — our toys really do come to life
when we’re not around.
And if“Toy Story” has any fault at all, it’s that
it’s over too soon.
Morissette lights up Civic
By John Fulwider
Music Critic
The cigarette smoke was thick and the crowd
impatient when Alanis Morissettc’s band took
the stage.
The sweating sell-out crowd of mostly leen
agers at Omaha’s Civic Audi
torium Friday night pressed
——ever harder against the barri
—PgM cades in front of the stage,
—r|M| which had been moved back
—i-pp—i earlier to allow the bouncers
plenty of room to catch crowd
J surfers.
g*M A (The tickets said “No crowd
j" ■ surfing allowed.” Yeah, right.)
KGVICW A deafening cheer erupted
-when Morissettcjoggedtothe
stage, dressed in a white silk poet’s shirt and
black leather pants.
The crowd cheered even louder when
Morissette burst immediately into “All 1 Really
Want,” the first song off her new album, “Jagged
Little Pill.”
Nine songs later, Morissette sang one line
from the song that made her famous: “I want you
to know.”
Then she stopped, and theaudience, in unison,
sang the rest of the first verse of “You Oughta,
Know,” otherwise known as the “I Hate My
Boyfriend” song.
“What are you so angry about?” Morissette
asked jokingly before finishing the song herself.
The audience’s reaction to that song vividly
illustrated just why Morissette is so popular. Her
lyrics tell vividly how bad life can get at times,
and she sings with raw, gut-level emotion.
Morissette delighted the crowd by playing all
but one song from “Jagged Little Pill,” plus a
couple of new ones. She didn’t give a name for
the first new song, but the second one, “The
Death of Cinderella,” was a haunting ballad with
chillingly morbid guitar work.
Morissette performed two encores, the first
beginning with a sparklingly clean cover of
Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Love.”
After she left the stage, her stage manager
motioned from center stage for the crowd to cheer
louder for a second encore. They did, and out she
came again, bursting into “You Learn.”
She wrapped up her hour-and-a-half set with
her album’s hidden 14th song, “Your House.”
She sung the first half a cappella, and the rest with
only her lead guitarist accompanyingher on acous
tic guitar.
Morissette’s opening band, The Rentals, de
serve some recognition. Their performance was
energetic, and while their musical talent may be
questionable, they’re a fun band to listen (and
crowd surf) to. Their performance of “Friends of
P,” was delightful.
The entire night was a crowd-friendly experi
ence. The bouncers politely (if a bit brusquely)
caught crowd surfers as they hurtled toward the
stage, then escorted them to the side of the crowd.
But Morissette’s stage manager was the best.
He got the crowd laughing during a horrendously
long 45-minute set change when he told them to
step back so the barricades could be moved.
“You can always come forward and crush
your neighbor still,” he said. Later, when he told
the crowd to take another step back, they screamed
“No!” and pressed harder against the barricades.
“I hear your love. I feel your love,” he said.
Temptations
satisfy fans’
soul hunger
By Jeff Randall
Music Critic
The golden age of soul music may be long
gone, but some of its original participants are
still touring and keeping the glorious past
alive. The Temptations did just that last Tues
-day night at the Orpheum
Theater in Omaha.
Although only one origi
nal Temptation—first/sec
ond tenor Oti s Wi 11 iams—
is left, the group still man
aged to electrify the al
ready-enthusiastic crowd.
As the opening act, the
wpncvn Laura Love Band held its
K6VI6W own. Playing a seamless
-combination of African,
Zydeco, Celtic, blues and polka sounds that
Love described as “Afro/Celtic,” the band got
the crowd clapping on more than one occasion
and brought forth cheers from the anxious,
Temptations-hungry audience.
And, after a brief intermission, the wait was
over. The band struck up a funk-heavy intro
ductory instrumental and the crowd went wi Id.
After a few minutes of further anticipation,
the awaited men took the stage. They then
proceeded to tear wholeheartedly into old
favorite after old favorite, getting the crowd
See TEMPTATIONS on 10