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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1996)
Tuesday, February 6,1996 Page 9 Doug Kouma A zippy Web quest with Doug Anyone named Doug can’t be half bad, I figured. So in perusing the web the other night, I couldn ’ t help but wonder what other Dougs were out there. What their lives were like. Whether they, too, have ever no ticed that if you stand on your head inside McDonald’s, you can see the word “Doug” in the decal on the win dow. The World Wide Web has quite a few Doug pages, but I found none so exciting as “The Wide World of Doug,” (http://www.inforamp.net/ ~doug/). It has no substance, really. Just link after link to sites that, as a whole, make up the essence of all that is Doug. ' Some of the sites are questionable, I suppose. Tasteless as it may be, though, “Things People Have Put Up Their Butts” is good for a laugh or two. - As is “Bill’s Colon,” graphically and pictorially portraying all the gory details of “Bill’s” colon surgery. Doug’s link to the “Barney Page” is especially fun. Now, I realize this old Barney is not what he used to be, not what he used to be, not what... uh, sorry. But the page is pretty dam crazy cooky cool. Two of Doug’s links—“Find the Spam” and “Decapitate an Angel”— are sure to provide hours and hours of interactive fun for all. rina me spam tmip-'' spl.berkeley.edu/fmdthespam.html) is a challenging game of skill requiring a keen sense of detail. Hidden within a wondrous work of art, a can of Spam lurks, and the web crawler must find it and click on it. Finding the Spam will win you acco lades. Miss the Spam, though, and you’ll be given words of encourage ment and asked to give it another try. “Decapitate an Angel” (http:// www.halcyon.com/maelstrm/ angel.html) is not nearly as forgiving. Point and click on the angel’s head to lop it off. A word of caution, though. Clicking on other parts of the angel— such as the so-called “naughty bits” is likely to get you condemned to Hell. “The Wide World of Doug” is not all fun and games. A link to “The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project” (http://www.rice.edu/ ~gouge/twinkies.html) is really quite educational. A group of science students teamed up to conduct such experiments as the “rapid oxidation test,” the “gravita tional response test,” and the “maxi mum density test” on everyone’s fa vorite snack cake. The tests yield amazing results, complete with full color pictures of blended Twinkie goo, melted creamy filling and charred sponge cake. The “Wide World of Doug” is a wonderful world, indeed, a shining example of the contributions Dougs make to society everyday. But, j ust as with your typical Doug, don’t take it too seriously. Konma Is a senior news-editorial major and die Daily Nebraskan managing editor. Photo courtesy of Gramercy Pictures Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn share a laugh in the new film from director Tim Robbins, “Dead Man Walking.” Death penalty alive in ‘Dead’ By Gerry Beltz Film Critic It wouldn’t be a Tim Robbins film without an issue with questions, and “Dead Man Walking” certainly fits the bill. Robbins already has shown his deftness for quality film direction with the satirical “Bob Roberts,” and now focuses his attention on a hot topic — the death penalty. Based on a true story, Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) is called upon by death row inmate Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) to provide counseling and increase the hopes of a successful clemency hearing or possibly a reprieve from the gover nor. “Dead Man Walking” looks far beyond the issue of whether the death penalty is right or wrong; Robbins covers both sides ofthe issue evenly and fairly, showing what the death penalty can bring out of people. As time passes, Prejean meets the parents of the two teen-agers Poncelet is convicted of murdering. The girl’s father eventually forms a ffiendshipwith Prejean,but the boy’s parents are not thrilled with Prejean’s See DEAD on 10 % — The Facts Film: “Dead Man Walking” Stars: Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Lois Smith Director: Tim Robbins Rating: R (subject matter, language) Grade: A Five Words: Death penalty film raises questions. Oboist to play in faculty recital By Kevin Bensley Staff Reporter William McMullen, associate professor of oboe and music theory, will perform tonight in Kimball Re cital Hall. The recital, one in a series of faculty performances at Kimball, will feature music from a variety of different periods in music history. The program includes “Fantasy,” a solo piece by Georg Philipp Telemann and a composition by a famous late Hungarian conductor, Antal Dorati. McMullen’s wife, Catherine Herbener, will accompany him on piano. The couple has performed together all over the countiy for about 10 years. They plan to perform the same program in New Jersey later this year. “It’s easy to rehearse, living in the same house,” McMullen said. The faculty recitals at the Kimball Recital Hall are a form of research as well as art, McMullen said. By playing and rehearsing these pieces, performers get a better un derstanding of them and can com municate this knowledge to their students. McMullen said the experience was similar to the way a chemistry professor might conduct experiments and report results. A grab bag of musical styles, including Baroque, Romantic and contemporary, will be exhibited to night through four pieces McMullen described as “all beautiful and all fun.” Tonight’s free recital begins at 8. New videos you can’t refuse By Gerry Beltz Film Critic The new video releases for this week fall into three categories, great, decent and sludge. And, although the pick of the week is a bit long, its is undeniable. e Usual Suspects” (R) — “Hoop Dreams” was ignored by the Academy Awards last year, and this year, “The Usual Suspects” prob ably will be overlooked. Featuring an all-star cast — in cluding Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey and Kevin Poliak — “The Usual Suspects” weaves an intrigu ing and hypnotic tale of robbery, deception and the ever-mysterious Keyser Soze. Director Brian Singer hit the nail on the head with “The Usual Sus pects.” It's worth the price of rental and the time of going out to find it— definitely. “Under Siege 2: Dark Territory” (R) — Steven Seagal finds trouble ... again. This time, on a train with terrorists and computer hijacking. Eric Bogosian plays the main baddie, and Everett McGill is his strong-arm henchman. Overlooking the barely-average special effects, the movie itself isn’t too bad. The “Die Hard” formula, how ever, is starting to wear VERY thin, and this movie is no exception. The movie is recommended because Seagal (allegedly) wore a girdle during filming to avoid “throwing his weight around,” so to speak. “Bushwhacked” (PG-13) — Yeech. This movie played for about a week, and even the kids didn’t like it. Daniel Stem plays a man on the lam who ends up leading a scout trip in the wilderness. Your typical out of-element stuff here. Better to play Scrabble with your alphabet soup than to rent thismovie. PICK OF THE WEEK — Who could forget “The Godfather”? In perhaps Marlon Brando’s greatest performance ever, this three hour epic follows the ups and downs of the Corleone crime family, and also features the familiar faces of James Caan and A1 Pacino. Ifyou’re feeling REALLY brave, find “The Godfather Epic,” which splices the first two “Godfather” movies together for one long epic spanning generations. (Note: this will be a full day and then some. Check out the running time and be ready to order pizza and schedule potty breaks.) Enhanced CDs cany music, data Editor's note: This is part one of a series designed to take a look at enhanced compact discs, their fu ture, their past, their features, theirproblems,their creators and the musicians who have used them. By Cliff Hicks Staff fteporter What people thought yesterday would happen tomorrow is the mu sic industry’s today. Compact discs aren’t just for music anymore. Enhanced CD's 1995 may have marked the beginning of an era, where com pact discs have more than just music on them. At first, it was bands on indie labels: Civilization, 1_;_itsouea in Lead, Bahu Baru and Emergency Broad cast Network. Then big names such as Sarah McLachlan, Moby, Sugar, Soundgarden, Bush, Todd Rundgren, Bob Dylan, Alice In Chains, Toad the Wet Sprocket, the Cranberries and the Rolling Stones got involved. From here on out, things get a little hectic. The idea, at its core, is simple. Mark Waldrep, President of AIX Entertainment, a company that has put out almost 40 Enhanced CDs, explained the basics of the format as such: A compact disc holds 70 or more minutes of space on it for audio recording. The typical release from any group is between 45 and 60 minutes, which means there are at least 10 minutes of extra space on the disc. Singles often have only 10 or 20 minutes on them, leaving al most an hour’s worth of empty disc space. So, what do you do with all the empty space? Fill it with CD-ROM material for your computer. That’s the current thought of the industry. These com pact discs have several names. Sony originally called them CD+, but changed the name to CD Extra be cause of a legal dispute. The univer sally accepted name now is En hanced CD. Track One The earliest projects using CD/ CD-ROM technology include Sarah McLachlan’s “The Freedom Ses sions” and the Cranberries’ “Doors and Windows.” One of the best indications of the time frame for these products is that they both utilize the track one solu tion. , On both of these discs, track one contains all of the information for the computer to process, and the actual music itself begins with track two. This solution, however, causes some problems with standard music compact disc players. Depending on the brand of player, the results can be anything from dead silence to speaker-blowing static. Discs such as “The Freedom Sessions,” which use the track one solution, often bear warnings to this effect. But recently, the track one solu tion has become obsolete. “There’snoreason for usingtrack See CD on 10