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Arts ©Entertainment
Monday, February 19, 1996 Page 9
Cliff Hicks
'% ■
Noir music
has become
part of past
Read the following two paragraphs.
Imagine them as being read by
Humphrey Bogart and try to imagine
the music playing in the background.
“It was wet outside. And raining.
The dame had come to me, asking to
take her case. She had long legs and a
pair of blue eyes I just couldn’t resist.
“She told me she had a case that
needed doing, and didn’t know who
else to turn to. She put her hand on
mine, and it was all over. Falling for
the skirt was my first mistake.”
Can you see it? Detective, private
investigator, gumshoe, dressed in a
trench coat and fedora, carrying a thick
stogie.
Now find that music you were asked
to imagine. Anywhere. Go on, look!
Call a fcw music stores, ask around at
a few places, then pick this column
back up.
Back,eh? Didn’t find any,eh? Now
you know the frustration of trying to
locate noir music.
The film style is known as noir. It
means black. Perhaps the description
applies to the very bleak tone that
these films take. Or perhaps to the fact
that the heavy shadowing made these
black and white films more black than
white, something uncommon.
They really don’t make these things
anymore. No more Sam Spade films.
It’s kind of saddening, really. The clos
est popular film anywhere close was
“The Usual Suspects.”
So what does one do to find the
music that summons Raymond Chan
dler to mind? Search, and still it may
not be enough. You might need your
own gumshoe to find any.
My personal quest has seen no frui
tion. It began by asking several em
ployees of many different stores—in
a couple of different cities.
One store’s employee recom
mended John Zorn, a jazz musician.
After little more than five minutes, it
was obvious that this wasn’t too far
off. If the musicians would remove the
caffeine coursing through their blood
and the thrash from their music, it !
might have worked.
Needless to say, it was not right, j
What makes detective noir music?
A piano, first off. Not some flashy
keyboard, but just a plain piano. And a
saxophone. Gotta have sax. Without
good sax, I’m left unsatisfied. Plus
bass. No electric. A big stand-up,
slappable bass.
Oh yeah, there should be a guy in
t he back going “yeah!” when they play
the more upbeat stuff.
Where to look? It’s probably in the
jazz section somewhere, but the ques
tion is where? The jazz section of any
music store is a big area. Have you got
30 hours to listen to all of Blockbuster
Music’s selections?
So, what is there to do? “The Mal
tese Falcon” doesn’thaveasoundtrack,
or, at least, not one that I could find.
There are about 40 seconds of noir
music on the “Scores of Humphrey
Bogart,” from “Casablanca.” I’m sure
you know the line.
Can you play it again, Sam?
...... ; ’
Hicks Is a freshman news-editorial and
English major and a Dally Nebraskan staff
reporter.
Kt.
Fhoto courtesy of Castle Rock Entertainment
John Cusack (left) and Al Pacino get to the point in the new political thriller from director
Harold Becker, “City Hall.”
Chaos consumes ‘City Hall’
By Cliff Hicks
Film Critic
No matter what a politician does,
someone is going toeomplain. Some
complaints,
however, arc
louder than oth
ers.
In “City Hall,”
the complaints
are about as loud
as they can get.
Mayor John
Pappas, played
by A1 Pacino
(“Scent of a
Woman,” “The
Godfather”), is
sitting pretty. His popularity rating
is extremely high, he’s made the
cover of Time magazine ... things
couldn’t be better.
His deputy mayor, Kevin
Calhoun, played by John Cusack
(“Bullets Over Broadway,” “Say
Anything”), is an idealist who be
lieves politics is black and white.
Then, on a rainy morning, a cop
and a drug dealer get into a shootout
that results in three dead bodies. The
third is that of a 6-year-old black
child.
Suddenly, Mayor Pappas is not
sitting pretty any more, and the line
that Calhoun thought he knew isn’t
so clear anymore.
“City Hall” is a fascinating movie.
At the beginning, things start to move
slowly. Very slowly. That’s perhaps
the movie’s biggest flaw.
But once the plot does get roll
ing, it becomes messier than a plate
of spaghetti. Things get confusing
and motives get blurred.
Pacino gives a masterful perfor
mance as Mayor Pappas. He is pow
erful, moving, angry, inspiring, un
derstanding and forceful. The subtle
ties of politics arc well-captured by
Pacino, as are the different coats a
mayor puts on for different people.
Even though the main focus of
the story is on Calhoun, Pappas is
central to the movie. He is the axle
around which the story revolves.
Cusack’s performance isn’t bad;
there arc times when his southern
drawl simply becomes too much to
be believed.
Beyond that, however, Cusack
portraysa Boy Scout fairly well. His
character is about as naive as they
come when it comes to politics. Ac
Film: “City Hall”
Stars: A1 Pacino, John
Cusack, Bridget Fonda
Director: Harold Becker
Rating: R (language,
violence)
Grade: B
Five Words: Politics is a dirty
word
cent aside, Cusack also is convinc
ing.
Why Bridget Fonda is a head
liner for this movie is unclear. She
isn’t on camera a great deal, she
isn’t all that essential to the plot and
she doesn’t act all that great in the
movie.
Besides her, other spectacular
performances come from actors with
smaller parts, namely Danny Aiello,
Martin Landau and David Paymer.
Landau plays Judge Walter Stem,
whose involvement in the parole of
See CITY HALL on 10 j
i
Folk singer Pleasant
returning to Lincoln
By Cherie Krueger _
Staff Reporter
His fans are in for a “pleasant”
surprise.
Yes, Wally
"^7 7 Pleasant is back
boncert in Lincoln for
Pr6Vi6W second ap
pearance in as
many months.
After a suc
cessful maxi
mum-capacity
concert on Jan.
12, he is return
ing once again
for two perfor
mances tonight at Mudslide Slim’s,
1418 0 St.
Pleasant, who is quickly becom
inga mainstay in Lincoln’s live music
scene, will perform an all-ages show
beginning at 7:30 p.m. and a 21
and-over show at 10:30 p.m.
The shows are not the only events
that Pleasant has planned for today.
He will visit KRNU this afternoon
and will stop by Homer’s, 1339 O
St., around 5 p.m. for a mcct-and
grcet with the public before his
shows.
KRNU is where his popularity in
Lincoln began. After playing his
song, “She’s in Love with a Geek,”
the station received requests for his
other witty folk songs. Local music
stores started to carry his albums,
and now he has an impressive group
of followers in Lincoln.
Pleasant, a Detroit native, has a
great amount of appeal among
Lincoln’s young people.
Kristi Lankford, a sophomore ad
vertising major, said she and her
friends had been listening to
Pleasant’s music since last year.
“He’s really funny, and he’s got
great hair,” she said. “His lyrics are
just hilarious.”
Pleasant is. now touring for his
third album, “Houses of the Holy
Moly,” which is his most successful
album to date.
There is a S3 cover for both
shows.
| Art work j
on display
tells story
: . : ■ ■ ■ ■ •
From Staff Reports
If you think the story behind art is
| as important as the art itself, an exhi- I
bition now on display at UNL’s Home ;
Economies Building, on East Campus
at 35th and Holdrege streets, should
have plenty to offer.
The Cultural Survival Project is a
collaboration of the works of recent
immigrant and refugee children with
that of Shelley Fuller, assistant pro
fessor of art and art history, and Wendy
Weiss, associate professor of textiles,
clothing and design.
In addition, a guest exhibition by
Linda Anfuso will document the de
sign process behind the creation of
jewelry.
The Cultural Survival Project will
be on display through March 7. Gal
lery hours arc 10 a.m. to4 p.m., Mon
| day through Thursday.
Academy
ends tour
with thrills
By Emily Wray
Music Critic
Many came to the Lied Center
hungry for classical perfection on
Saturday. A
Isold-out crowd
__ were thrilled by
_M the Academy of
_L St. Martin in the
_L Fields’ presen
tation on the
flT ensemble’s last
tour stop.
Concert The ensemble
|^0^l 0\\f offered inspired
_I energy and tech
nical know-how
for all in attendance at the Lied
Center for Performing Arts.
The energy level was evident
throughout the entire concert, mani
festing itself many times with the
performers barely able to stay seated.
Artistic Director Kenneth Stillito
led the ensemble by setting tempos
and providing cutoffs. But St. Mar
tin in the Fields went for the most
part without a conductor, developed
to reflect a performance practice of
the Baroque era.
This technique afforded the en
semble an almost effortless famil
iarity with the audience.
It seemed that the performers
were engaged in playing for the sheer
joy of it; the audience was not a
burden. Quite to the contrary, the
audience rightly acknowledged the
ensemble’s offerings many times.
The first piece, written by Johann
Sebastian Bach, set the tone for the
entire evening’s performance. Writ
ten for three equal choirs of violins,
violas and cellos, with double bass
and continuo, the concerto swelled
over the audience, enveloping it in a
brilliant sound.
The “Suite from Don Quixote
dcr Lowenrittcr,” continued with the
exuberant feel of the concert. The
20-piece ensemble had no difficul
ties infusing the piece with a for
ward motion and adding the appro
priate texture and artistic feeling,
while excelling in telling the story
found in the piece.
Dmitri Shostakovich’s powerful
“Chamber Symphony in c minor,
Op. 110a” was next on the program.
Fortunately, Stillito warned the au
dience by moving the intermission
to after the piece instead of before.
He said that everyone would need
a break after this piece, and he was
right.
Powerful, terrible, brilliant and
horrible do not even begin to de
scribe this piece. Having experi
enced it is akin to the Holocaust
Museum in Washington, D.C., or
watching documentaries against any
number of social injustices. In fact,,
this piece may be the most musical^
indictment of the Soviet Union’s
regime.
The final piece, by Piotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky, was slightly anticli
mactic. Of course, almost anything
is anticlimactic after Shostakovich.
There were a couple of technical
lapses, but overall, it was quite solid.
After three short and swe^t en
core pieces, the crowd’s hunger w^s
satisfied through the classical per^
fection of the Academy of St. Mar
tin in the Fields.
