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Arts ^Entertainment
Wednesday, April 10,1996 Page 9
the glassy eye
Brian Priesman
Landmarks
on television
bond people
Something is very wrong here ...
I have all of this space to fill with
fun little factoids about TV and TV
culture and actors and shows and the
like and I can’t think ofa darn thing to
say.
Maybe 1 can’t think of anything
because I spend all of my free time
sitting on the couch, eating bon-bons
and watching reruns of “Silver
Spoons,” “21 Jump Street” and “Star
Trek.”
I was there when Sam Beckett made
his last leap. I was there when J.R. got
shot. I was there when Mr. Hooper
died and everybody, even Oscar the
Grouch, cried a little. I was there when
the Challenger exploded on lift-off.
Television has shaped my life. I
think it’sbccausc I’m part of the origi
nal MTV generation. I am part of the
original cable generation. I’m not a
member of Gen-X; I’m a member of
Gcn-TV. (Gee, maybe when the name
Gen-TV has caught on, I can sue for
back royalties and get on cither “The
People’s Court” or “Court TV.”)
Who else other than the people
who are now age 18-25 can honestly
say that they are part of this strange
experience called TV? Sure, our par
ents had TV first, but the shows they
grew up with —“Howdy Doody” and
“The Donna Reed Show” — are very
different from the MTV/Cable revo
lution we experienced in the early
’80s. And the generation after us will
experience a kind of TV unlike any
that we know.
Wc already see it changing. Our
age groups complain about the lack of
videos on MTV, but the kids who arc
first experiencing it think it’s great.
We talk about “Cheers” and “Who’s
the Boss,” but the kids only know
“News Radio” and “The X-Files.”
Historians talk about generations
being tied together by common expe
riences — air raid drills and JFK and
Martin Luther King Jr.
Our common experiences are elec
tronic. We’ve got MTV, HBO and
ESPN.
We’re joined by images we’ve seen.
Our parents and our grandparents re
member where they were when
Kennedy was shot or when Pearl Har
bor was attacked. But we remember
where wc were when we saw the Chal
lenger explosion.
Wc can say where we were when
Alex Keaton left hontc and when Tony
and Angela finally tied the knot and
when Sam “Mayday” Malone closed
the doors at Cheers for the last time.
Heck, v o can even remember when
“Saturday Night Live” was funny.
It’s kind of scary when you think
about it.
At the touch of a but ton, wc can sec
what’s happening around the world
courtesy of CNN. We can catch the
latest scores and stats from all of our
favorite teams thanks to ESPN. We
can sec the world and experience other
cultures and times, all without ever
leaving our living rooms.
Maybe that’s why I can’t think of
anything to say because Dan Rather or
Tom Brokaw hasn’t told me yet.
Prtcsman is a freshman news-editorial
and theatre major and a Daily Nebraskan
staff reporter.
UNL ‘blocks’
students from
f
seeing movie
By Patrick Hambrecht
Senior Reporter
Dan Polk’s new movie, “Sofia,” tells the excit
ing story of a surrealistic ’70s-styled chase
through the streets of Lincoln. But students in
UNL’s residence halls won’t be able to sec it.
CableVision’s channel 20, the community
access station, is being blocked on campus by
UNL’s closed circuit television. This double as
signment for channel 20 effectively bars the com
munity access station from all campus televi
sions, including those in the residence halls.
And that has Polk angry.
“As a student artist, I think it’s very disapX-*
pointing that my work and the work o t'other local
producers are being blocked,” Polk said.
“Why is that? Why arc we being
marginalized?”
Ken Johnson, the telecommunications direc
tor for UNL Nebraska Educational TV, said he
would investigate the overlapping programming
situation on channel 20.
“I have to sort through this, but we’re not
trying to block anything,” Johnson said.
“1 don’t live in the city and I don’t routinely get
CableVision, so that’s why I’m a little dumb
about this. But 1 don’t know the politics and the
reason.”
CableVision had made a legal request to with
draw its obligation to provide public access tele
vision. That request was followed by the block
ing of the station on the UNL campus because of
“technical reasons,” said Joyce Magorian, an
NETV programmer and scheduler.
Later, public access was moved to channel 78
and community access was then moved to chan
nel 20, where it also was blocked by university
programming.
The confusion created by the channel changes
and the current situation, which keeps residence
hall students from seeing Polk’s show altogether,
have the student filmmaker frustrated.
Polk described his show, “Bohemian Televi
sion,’’as “a mix of music, comedy and drama.”
His new short film, “Sofia” is his most exten
sive project so far, involving more than 100 hours
of shooting and editing.
Polk stars in the film as himself. In the film,he
is a guitar player who is making a short music
video with a beautiful Spanish dancer. As the two
leave, she slips a cassette tape into his pocket.
“The tape could be anything,” Polk said. “There
are a lot of things that aren’t explained.”
Polk is subsequently pursued through the
streets of Lincoln by a killer who wants the tape.
Scenery blurs together extra-dimcnsionally, as a
leap over a wall in the Haymarket takes the two
characters to a rural field.
“Taxi Driver” and other films from the 1970s
are a strong influence on his directing, Polk said.
But costs prohibited Polk from usingany medium
but video.
“It’s an imperfect medium,” he said. “Other
wise though, we would have used about $20,000
worth of film. With video, you get immediate
feedback. You can even watch stuff in the cam
era.
Polk graduated from UNL in 1987 with a
degree in leaching. Alter teaching in Oregon for
eight years, he came back to UNL to do graduate
work.
“Teaching really helped me as an artist,” he
said. “For kids, everything is new. It helped me
keep a fresh perspective on everything.”
“Sofia” can be seen in upcoming weeks on
“Bohemian Television” at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays
and Saturdays, CablcVision channel 20.
Photo by Peter DeMarco
Dan Polk (foreground) is chased through the streets of Lincoln by Troy Montanez
in a scene from “Sofia,” a short film directed by Polk, a Graduate student at UNL.
The film will be shown in coming weeks on channel 20, cableVision’s community
access station.
Blues band ready to howl at the Zoo Bar
By Cliff Hicks
Staff Reporter
Thursday night at the Zoo Bar,
136N. 14th St., Omar and the Howl
ers will tear into a “World Wide
Open.”
A blend of blues and rock, “World
Wide Open” is Omar and the Howl
ers’ second alburn on the Water
melon label. The band’s first album
on the label was “Muddy Springs
Road.’’
« ‘: ■
The band members are: Kent
“Omar” Dykes, guitars and vocals;
Paul Junior, bass; Steve Kilmer,
drums; Gary Primich, harmonica;
Nick Connolly, organ; Robert
McEntec, guitar; Bradley Kopp,
guitar; Mark Hallman, percussion;
and Chris Scarles, percussion. Omar
and the Howlers have a lineup
packed with talent.
Dykes was born and raised in
McComb, Miss., the small town
where Bo Diddley was bom. He
started playing guitar at age 13. There
was only one place to play — the
black clubs at the edge of town.
“I played there as the only white
guy with the black musicians. We
played a very rough kind of blues. In
fact, I understood very little of it; I
was only a kid,” Dykes said. “Look
ing back on that period, it must have
been a bit like Hound Dog Taylor,
but even more primitive.”
In 1976, Omar and the Howlers
moved to Austin, Texas, where they
quickly began to gain an audience.
Since then they have changed labels
four times and released nine albums.
“Well, you know I’ve been lots
of places,” the title track of Dykes’
last album, “Muddy Springs Road,”
reads, “and you lmow I’ll always
sing the blues.”
Omar and the Howlers will take
the stage at 9:30 p.m. The show has
a cover charge of $6.