Arts ©Entertainment
Tuesday, April 23, 1996 Page 12
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Cliff A. Hicks
Web offers
chance to
come alive
The week is dead. So am I.
Running on a few hours of sleep,
you need breaks to counteract the haz
ardous effects of studyinway
toomuchusitis, also known as “the
killer of students.”
So wander to your handy computer
and sneak onto the Web in the wee
hours of the night, between pots six
and seven of your Turbo Coffee-Man
Coffee and relax.
Here to satisfy your mindless
cravings are some suggestions for
ways to relax on the Web.
For the poetically inclined (and for
those who want to take a break from
all of the logical thinking of math and
science), try (http://www.shore.net/
~amb/), an Interactive Poetry site.
All you do is fill in some words and
suddenly, BAM!, you have a poem.
It’s just that simple.
(Cliff, we the remaining function
ing brain cells are trying to tell you
that you’re slipping into infomercial
impressions. Stop it.)
Sorry, me. Sorry, readers. I’ll con
tinue.
Interactive stories inhabit the net by
the dozen. There’s the Interactive
Novel (http://www.21aunch.com/
cypher/CYPHER.html), the Never
Ending Story (http://136.217.50.123/
story/), the Net-Novel (http://
www.aquanet.co.il/novel) and count
less others.
(Explain to the readers what an in
teractive novel is, Cliff. They probably
don’t get it. I know we don’t.)
[I told you we shouldn’t have let
him do the research without us.]
(Be quiet. You’re getting on his last
nerve.)
An interactive novel ... well, it s
exactly what the name implies. They
can be anything from a series of mes
sages left by various users that add up
into a story, to a Choose-Your-Own
Adventure type thing.
[Choose-Your-Own-Adventure?]
(He read those when he was little,
remember?)
[Oh yeah. 1 remember now.]
The Web-Zork site is a prime ex
ample of the Choose-Your-Own-Ad
venturc type of thing. It’s at (http://
www.ua.com/webzork.html/).
It’s hard to tell what is at (http://
www.netfict.com/) exactly, but it
seems to be some sort of interactive
fiction. I, personally, didn’t have the
patience to sift through the whole
thing, but you know ...
[He should be wrapping up,
shouldn’t he?] ,
(Last reference...)
One site that is worth looking at is
(http://www.ifnet.com), which is sort
of a virtual resort, where you can live
out a false life with hundreds of other
people across the world. Yep, it’s the
beginning of virtual reality.
(Autonomic functions kicking in,
subconscious taking over. Turn auto
pilot on. Give piece to editor. Go
home. Sleep. That’s a wrap.)
Hicks is a freshman news-editorial and
English major and a Daily Nebraskan staff
reporter.
Spaced out
WMTMa i——1^—— ^Mill'll1 1,11 iHfFU
Dexter X Cocothe Electronic Monkey Starcrunch Birdstuff
Wizard
* ■ » ■
Band presents fan with down-to-earth gift
By Brooks Hitt
Staff Reporter
Rumored to be the biggest Man
or Astro-Man? fan in the tri-state
area, I received the greatest gift that
a fan could receive last weekend —
the gift of mutual respect.
The day began with the much
awaited arrival of the Astro-Men at
Drastic Plastic, an Omaha record
store. I thought it was only going to
be an in-store signing, but as a pleas
ant surprise, the signing was post
poned until after the band had given
a wonderful performance.
The next stop was Sokol Hall.
The show had originally been sched
uled for the Cog Factory, but be
cause of higher-than-expected ticket
sales, it was moved to a larger venue.
Using my esteemed position as a
Daily Nebraskan staff reporter, I
was able to schmooze my way back
stage and learn intimate details about
the life and times of Man or Astro
Man?.
Some surprising facts that I
learned about the Astro-Men were
that bassist Coco and guitarist
Photo courtesy of Brooks Hitt
The members of Man or Astro Man? share a relaxing Sunday
mornina in Brooks Hitt’s Omaha home.
Starcrunch had both recently gradu
ated from Auburn University with
engineering degrees. This fact
helped cast a great deal of light on
the band’s live performance (in par
ticular, their use of a 200,000-Volt
Tesla coil).
The show was great, but the high
light of the evening, and of my life
to this point, was the band’s deci
sion to stay at my house.
We arrived at my house at 3:30
a.m., exhausted trom the amazing
performance that the band had just
put on. Agreeing to wake the mem
bers up in the morning so they would
have enough time to make it to Kan
sas City for their next show, I set out
to do the impossible — sleep.
It felt like Christmas, and when I
woke up I was sure to look out the
window to see if their van was still
there. Wanting to leave a lasting im
pression with the band, I then pro
ceeded to make them pancakes and
serve them coffee.
I never asked them for anything,
but they were more than willing to
give me anything that an Astro-Fan
could want, a T-shirt, signed press
photos, and putting up with being
photographed early on a Sunday
morning.
On MTV and in Rolling Stone,
“rock stars” may have a certain im
age they have to uphold—drug use,
alcoholism, and a pompous attitude.
Man or Astro-Man? is reportedly
from outer space, but for a bunch of
aliens, they were really down to
Earth.
‘Kids’ fail on the big screen
New videos
chock full
of romance
By Gerry Beltz
Film Critic
It’s a good, solid selection of
movies this week, heavy on drama
and romance, light on action-adven
ture and a purr-feet animated re
lease. The pick of the week is a com
edy classic
from one of
the masters of
camp, Mel
Brooks.
“Waiting To
Exhale” (R) —
As a year
passes, we see
how the lives
of four women
drastical ly
change.
Starring Angela Bassett and
Whitney Houston, we have drama
and heartache with some wry humor
mixed in. When Bassett’s character
“bums some trash,” it is particularly
difficult to not crack a smile while
watching.
It’s heartwarming, but a lot of
guys will miss the point.
“The Bridges of Madison
SeeNEWVIDon 13
By Jeff Randall
Rim Critic
The idea was a noble one. Thke a
quintet of Canadian white guys who
have a penchant for dressing in drag,
put them in a movie about a wonder
drug that makes Bayer look like
Sweet Tarts and watch the sparks of
hilarity fly.
But when the Kids in the Hall
(David Foley,
I ■■_I Bruce
McCulloch,
Kevin
McDonald,
Mark
McKinney,
Scott Thomp
son) actually
do hit the sil
ver screen, the
.__ sparks prove
to be few and
far between. And as a result, “Brain
Candy” has become just another sad
reminder of television’s utter lack of
big-screen friendliness.
“The Kids in the Hall” was un
doubtedly one of television’s great
comedy achievements, right up there
with the early years of “Saturday
Night Live” and “Monty Python’s
Flying Circus.”
For a number of years, the Kids
provided audiences in their native
Canada and the United States with
neatly packaged half hours of scath
ing satire, off-the-wall craziness and
pinpoint comedy that rarely missed
its mark.
The Kids parted ways recently,
heading for greener (if not quite as
funny) pastures. “Brain Candy” was
to be their reunion, a last-ditch ef
fort to capture the old magic and a
few more dollars.
Needless to say, just about every
one who loved the television series
eagerly awaited the film.
But high hopes are often the easi
est to destroy, and if “Brain Candy”
does anything, it disappoints.
The film follows the meteoric rise
to fame of nerdy scientist Chris Coo
per (McDonald), a pharmaceutical
wizard who creates a little pill that
will come to be known as
Gleemonex. Pressured by the
money-hungry executives who con
trol his job. Cooper hastily sends
Gleemonex (a super-duper anti-de
pressant) to the shelves of pharma
cies nationwide.
All seems to go well at first.
People are happy, depression is
cured and Cooper is getting rich. But
when an unfortunate side effect to
the drug starts to surface, Cooper’s
conscience gets the best of him and
he is forced to fess up to his care
less ways.
The scattershot satire the Kids
employ — a technique well-suited
to five-minute comedy sketches —
simply gets too broad to be effec
tive in the feature-length format.
When the Kids do get a hit, they do
Film: “Kids in the Hall: Brain
Candy”
Stars: David Foley, Bruce
McCulloch, Kevin McDonald,
Mark McKinney, Scott Thomp
son
Director: Kelly Makin
Rating: R (language, subject
matter)
Grade: D
Five Words: The Kids aren’t all
right
it well (Thompson’s stabs at homo
sexual culture, McKinney’s ruthless
corporate giant). But more often
than not, the laughs are deadened by
the mess that-surrounds them.
Director of Photography David
Makin (who held the camera for 104
“Kids” sketches) is the exception, as
he makes an outstanding transition
from the small to big screen. His
style expands from modest to
sweeping, turning the Kids’ happy
go-lucky world into a beautiful se
ries of widely varied picture post
cards.
Maybe the problem is that the
Kids have grown up, and the smart
but-innocent comedy they thrived on
in the past has become just plain
smart — too smart to be funny any
more.