Cliff Hicks
Web sites:
Everybody’s
doing them
All right. That’s it. Everyone else
in the world has a web page, so why
don’t I?
Seriously! Name a company. Wait,
let’s categorize it. You want to start
with the television networks?
ABC (http:ZAvww.abctelcviaon.com),
CBS (http://www.cbs.com), FOX (http'Jl
www.foxnetwraic.com) and NBC (http://
www.nbc.com) have their own web
sites. Even QVC has one at (http://
www.qvc.com) for home shopping on
the net.
OK, so that was an easy one. All of
the television stations should have
their own pages. I mean, everyone
needs to get television schedules. At
least these sites are helpful.
Magazines arc informative as well,
so they all have web pages too. Time
(httpy/www.timcinc.com/time/magazine/
magazinc.html) and Entertainment
Weekly (http://www.timeinc.com/ew/) are
two of the best. Each has information
that someone somewhere can use.
. What about some not-so-helpful
sites? Oh, there arc plenty, but let’s just
stick to companies.
Thirsty? Yes, refreshment compa
nies have web pages too.
Pepsi (http://www.pepsi.com),
Coke (http://www.cocacola.com). 7
Up (http://www.7up.com), Jolt (http:/
/www.joltcola.com), Budweiser (http:/
/budwciscr.com) and Jack Daniels
(http://www.infi.net/jackdaniels) have
their own web offerings.
Do you see what I mean? Are you
starting to understand why I’m start
ing to wonder why I don’t have my
own web page? Certainly I have much
more important things to talk about
than the ingredients of a soft (or hard)
drink.
Ail I should have to do is start a
company, and someone will give me
a web page. If it doesn’t work this way,
it most certainly should.
Like automotive companies.
They’ve all got their own homepages.
Honda (http://www.honda.com), Ford
(http://www.ford.com), Toyota (http:/
Avww.toyota.com), BMW (http://
www.bmw.de), Chevrolet (http://
www.chevrolet.com), Cadillac (http:/
/www.cadillac.com), General Motors
(http://www.gm.com), Volkswagen
(http://www.volkswagen.com),
Pontiac (http://www.pontiac.com) and
Saturn (http://www.saturncars.com)
all have homepages.
If you own a car company, you own
a homepage.
But it’s not just car companies. The
government has several homepages. If
they have an abbreviation, they have
a homepage.
The FBI (http://www.fbi.com), the
CIA (http://www.odci.gov/cia), the
IRS (http://www.irs.ustrcas.gpv) and
the National Security Agency (http://
www.nsa.gov:8080//) all have pages
as well.
Even Viewmaster has a homepage!
(http://circa.com/viewmaster).
I’ve got it! Go drive the new
Hicksmobile, buy Cliff-Cola, get
watched by C.A.S.I.O. (Cliffs Agency
for Spy Intelligence and Operations)
and read the Daily Nebraskan. I’ll
have that web page any minute now.
Hicks is a freshman news-editorial aad
English major and a Daily Nebraskan staff
reporter.
Scots’ honors: ‘Braveheart’ wins 5 Oscars
By Bob Thomas
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -
“Braveheart,” the epic about a 13th
century Scottish patriot, won five
Oscars Monday night, including best
picture and best director for its star
Mel Gibson.
Best acting awards went to Su
san Sarandon for her performance
as a nun trying to redeem a con
demned killer in “Dead Man Walk
ing” and to Nicolas Cage as the al
coholic intending to drink himself
to death in “Leaving Las Vegas.”
In a year when no picture was an
odds-on favorite, “Braveheart”
proved to be the biggest winner. It
collected Oscars for makeup, sound
'Diabolique’
story line
drags along
By Cliff Hicks
Film Critic
effects editing and cinematography,
too.
The battle-filled saga tells the
story of Scotsman William Wallace,
who fought the English for freedom
for his people.
Gibson, a plaid vest flashing from
between the lapels of his tuxedo,
thanked writer Randall Wallace and
producer Alan Ladd Jr. for bringing
the script to a “fiscal imbecile.”
“Like most directors, what I re
ally want to do is act,” Gibson joked.
He granted his own wish, cast
ing himself as the wild-haired war
rior who drove the English from
Scotland.
“Braveheart” was Gibson’s sec
ond outing as a director, the first
being “The Man Without a Face” in
1993. He follows a line of actors
turned director who have won Os
cars: Robert Redford, Warren Beatty,
Woody Allen, Kevin Costner.
When Sarandon’s award was an
nounced, she kissed her director,
writer and lover, Tim Robbins, and
walked to the stage to a thunderous
ovation.
She thanked many co-workers
and Sister Helen Prejean, who she
portrayed. Then she drew a laugh
with an accolade to Robbins, her
unmarried partner.
“To my partner in crime and all
things of the heart, the writer, the
producer the director, the spirit, Tim
Robbins.... Thank God we live to
gether”
Cage breezed to the podium and
marveled that “Leaving Las Vegas”
could be made for $3.5 million, and
on 16mm film stock when most
movies are made on 35 or 70mm
film.
“I know its not hip to say it but I
just love acting and I hope that there
will be more encouragement for al
ternative movies where we can ex
periment and fast-forward into the
future of acting,” he said.
Like Gibson, Emma Thompson
also received an Oscar in another
area of her craft, adapting the Jane
Austen novel “Sense and Sensibil
See OSCARS on 10
Despite the fact that, at first, the
pace of “Diabolique” moves about
as quickly as six dead men racing to
a coffin by themselves, it’s actually
a pretty good film.
The premise is simple. Guy
Baran (Chazz
Palminteri) is
a jerk. He’s
married to
Mia (Isabelle
Adjini) and is
also having an
affair with
Nicole
(Sharon
Stone).
Mia and
Nicole kill
Guy. They put the body in a pool
and wait for it to resurface. Then the
body disappears.
After a while, Mia tries to play
up the illusion of innocence by hir
ing an off-duty cop (Kathy Bates)
to investigate. This is where things
start to get interesting.
“Diabolique” suffers from near
rigor mortis toward the beginning,
as the setup for the film plods on and
on. Toward the beginning of the film,
despite gratuitous skin shots of
Adjini and a brief flash of sex be
tween Palminteri and Stone, there’s
nothing to snare the viewer.
Photo courtesy Morgan Creek Productions
Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjini are a pair of murderous women scorned in the new film
from director Jeremiah Chechik, “Diabolique.”
Not that it’s really anyone’s fault.
Stone plays the heartless Nicole
fairly well and Adjini looks like a
deer caught in headlights for the first
half of the film.
Palminteri is easy to hate with the
way he carries himself, and the little
time we see him before the murder
gives the audience more than
enough to despise.
About the time the off-duty po
lice officer, Shirley, walks into the
picture, things begin to get interest
ing. Bates is marvelous, the only
well-done thing in a medium-rare
film.
She plays Shirley up as a cancer
survivor crossed with a character
from “Cagney & Lacey.” Her per
formance is impeccable, and every
time she appears, the film brightens
significantly.
At times, the best thing about the
film is the camera work, with beau
tiful shots slowed down for added
effect. After a while, it gets repeti
tive trying to blend a suspense film
with an art film, and the film simply
doesn’t offer enough action to bal
atipp mit
Film: “Diabolique”
Stars: Sharon Stone, Isabelle
Adjini, Chazz Palminteri, Kathy
Bates
Director: Jeremiah Chechik
Rating: R (nudity, violence, lan
guage)
Grade: C+
Five Words: “Diabolique” starts
slow, ends well
Photography influences artist
By Patrick Hambrecht
Senior Reporter
Before the opening reception
Monday of his gallery show “Pho
tographs: The Paradox of Space,”
artist Steve Yates told an audience
about both his recent experiences in
Russia and why his photographic
installation work transcended all
boundaries of language.
Yates’ show is chi display today
and Wednesday in Richards Hall.
Although Yates is also a museum
curator for photography in the Mu
seum of New Mexico, he said his art
could not be defined in the “mod
ernist” terms of textbooks and art
critics.
“I just don’t see that it is con
nected to much of anything,” Yates
said about his art. “1 think it goes .
beyond the post-modern. I think it’s
beyond ‘isms.’”
Yates’ installation consists of re-1
peated photographic images, each
made slightly different through
darkroom manipulation.
“/don't know an artist
in Russia ivho’s not
dipping into ? , ;
photography. But I
couldn't call them
photographers. I
wouldn’t dare!"
STEVE YATES
s artist
With no relationship to the im
ages photographed, Yates bums pri
mary-colored lines and dots on top
of his pictures, as though confetti
were dropped in front of his camera
lens.
Geometric shapes are also physi
cally cut out of the photos and oc
casionally pasted back onto diem at
random. The photos themselves are
always arranged in grids, forming
non-linear squares and rectangles.
Yates said he was influenced
heavily by the 1920s photography
of the Russian avant-garde. Re
cently, he has traveled back to the
country, participating in interna
tional art projects and educating the
citizens about their own cultural
heritage.
Russians arc enjoying the begin
ning of a new cultural renaissance,
Yates said, and they depend on coun
tries like the United States to “main
stream them into the world.” Artists
in Russia are moving beyond the for
mal art movements of yesterday,
synthesizing old art traditions into
dynamic new combinations, he said.
“I don’t know know an artist in
Russia who’s not dipping into pho
tography,” Yates said. “But I couldn’t
call them photographers. I wouldn’t
dare!”
But no matter whatYates said, he
cautioned his audience to take his
descriptions of the installation with
a grain of salt.
Gallery hours at Richards Hall
are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is
free.
Military
ensemble
will play
The Air Combat Command of
the Heartland of America Brass
Ensemble will perform tonight at
Kimball Recital Hall at 8. Admis
sion is free._
John Whiteman, promotions
and publications coordinator for
UNL’s School of Music, said the
six-person ensemble—five brass
performers and one percussion
ist — would play more than just
the standard military music.
“They play a variety, includ
ing classical music, jazz and the
standard brass ensemble music as
well,” Whiteman said.
— Gerry Bettz