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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 24, 1996)
Arts ©Entertainment Wednesday, April 24, 1996 Page 12 the glassy eye Patrick Hambrecht Too much TV can be haunting Verily I say unto you, there arc a few television shows I’ve seen that were so unearthly, they still haunt me today. I wouldn ’t even try to estimate how many hours of television I’ve watched since birth, but the figures must easily rank in the millions. All told, I’ve probably spent about a month of solid hours with the “Happy Days’” Cunningham family, a week be bopping with Sha-Na-Na, and at least another month watching blind people accidentally burn their houses down on “Little House on the Prairie.” But despite the time I devoted to them, none of those shows really stayed with me. Like lettuce, they just passed through my system harmlessly. But there are £ome things I’ve seen on summer afternoons that were so ar resting that they are still with me to day, like that mythological piece of swallowed gum that supposedly takes 30 years to be finally digested in the stomach. The first sticky piece of spiritual Hubba-Bubba I swallowed was in Texas, while my mother was out wash ing dishes at the military base. I had just finished watching “Happy Days,” when 1 turned the channel to PBS and saw a man with his face obscured, walking down an endless forest path. “He looked for his brother,” a PBS narrator told me. “Eerie voices called back as he cried out, looking for his brother.” j nc image cnangcu to scary-ioox ing Chinese masks as maniacal voices laughed, and then the man dangled from a noose at the end of the forest path, atop a narrow hill. Did this show really exist? I’d crack jokes about it, but I can find absolutely nothing funny about it. I must have been only 5 or 6 years old, but I remember how intense that feeling of scared reverence was when it swept over me. Is it sick that some of my most spiritual experiences have happened in front of a television set? At this point, what does it matter? Better a syndicated religious Epiphany than no Epiphany at all, I guess. Here arc some other shows that filled me with that same ghostly feel ing. I don’t know their names, and if you do, leave a message for me at the Daily Nebraskan. 1. A Christian claymation Easter show, featuring a boy’s grandmother who died and went to heaven. Later the clay boy wandered between rubber tombstones under a yellow sky. 2. A man drivinga space sled, pilot ing his two children through a Christ mas-themed holiday wasteland to see his wife. 3. A show in the late 1980s called “Mr. Smith,” about a talking monkey who performed brain surgery on ter minally ill children. 4. Dot. Does anyone remember a minimalist cartoon featuring a talking dot called Dot? I am not going crazy. I really did see them. Hambrecht is a senior news-editorial major and a Daily Nebraskan senior re porter. Womanstock to show off feminist bands By Cliff Hicks Staff Reporter Tonight, Mudslide Slim’s, 1418 O St., will be loud and proud as it plays host to the third annual nr--— Womanstock Concert concert. Praifiouf Womanstock riCVICW ■ benefit held for the Lin coln Chapter of the National Or ganization for Women. Womanstock was founded in iyy4 by iNUw member Eldonna Rayburn, accord ing to Tiffany Mullison, NOW’s coordinator. “She just wanted to bring together acelebration forwomen,” Mullison said. “It’s traditionally been femi nist bandsas well as womcn-fricndly organizat ions who donated their ser vices or items for the silent auction.” This year, the silent auction will feature items and services from about 60 Lincoln businesses and individuals, Mullison said. “They range from gift certificates from Euphoria to bicycle equipment to a black-and-white photo of Chim ney Rock by Roger Bruhn,” Mullison said. Several other gift stores such as Hearts & Flowers, The Flicker Shop, The Oven and Mystic Dreams also have contributed to the auction. The starting bids are at 1/3 of the estimated value of the item. “So, if it’s like a $25 gift certifi cate, it’s possible to get it for a lot less than that,” Mullison said. In addition to the auction, there will be music. Three separate acts will play tonight, Alias Jane, an all woman band; Lori Allison, former lead singer of the Millions; and Can vasback with Jumpin’ Kate. The festival, which has been held at Duffy’s Tavern the past two years, has been moved to Mudslide Slim’s because Duffy’s no longer features live music. Attendance is expected to be fairly high because the show has already sold more than 100 tickets, Mullison said. “The highest has been 300. Typi cally, ticket sales boom on the last day. Traditional ly we have sold more tickets at the door than we have before the event,” Mullison said. This year’s event will feature more artwork for sale than in previ ous years and for the first time in Womanstock’shistory, T-shirts will be available. The show will start at 8 p.m. and will conclude at midnight. Tickets are $8 at the door, with all proceeds going to NOW. The show is 21 -and over only. Carman R.I.O.T. a spiritual fantasy By Patrick Hambrecht Film Critic To witness how the contemporary Christian music industry has lost its mind, watch Carman’s “Carman r—---1 R.I.O.T. (Righ MOVie teous Invasion Of RpviPUf Truth) The K6VI6W Movie, Part 1. Far from being an effective evan gelical minister to the mainstream, the Carman entity makes it hard to tell if it is even human. From his off-kilter facial expressions to his willingness to pop into a spontane ous hip-hop dance routine, this man is bizarre. In the span of an hour, the man with no last name shows he can do it all—from rapping about demons in a ridiculously affected A1 Capone accent, to wrestling gang members, to leadinga discofied country dance. Carman is clearly a man for all sea sons, in a world very different from our own. In “R.I.O.T.,” Carman plays a spiritual but feisty Christian cop who’s trying to rid the Chicago streets of drugs. He is bizarrely named Vic Rizzo, perhaps in a very strange allusion to Dustin Hoffman’s character Frank Rizzo in “Midnight Cowboy.” He also is one of the few Chicago cops who exist in this alter native universe without a southern accent. Film: “Carman R.I.O.T. —The Movie, Pari 1” Stars: Carman, T-Bone, Julie Soper Director: Stephen Yake Rating: (not rated) Grade: A Five Words: What galaxy is Carman from? This film is insane in the truest and most unsettling way imaginable, bested perhaps by “Hee-Haw” and “Mr. Smith” alone in terms of grass roots styled surrealism. Why are 28-year-old drug deal ers hanging out in a junior high bathroom? Why is a bull drinking at a country bar? Why arc gang mem bers crawling out of the sewer in an old lady’s backyard? It’s impossible to tell in this fre'aked-out gospel odyssey, as Carman literally banishes demons into his television set and then sits next to God on a plane, flying to heaven. Like few other artistic achieve ments, it is impossible to judge Carman’s film by present standards. In whatever alternate reality he re sides in, this film could be sublime genius or sleazy, sordid blasphemy. If Carman even really exists, maybe you can ask him some day and let me know. Bret Gottschall/DN Reruns hinder networks’ Nielsen ratings NfcW YORK (AP)—Network TV ratings fell and bottom-dwelling CBS swapped places with ABC for a sec ond straight week, finishing second to season-winning NBC in the rerun riddled, presweep doldrums of spring. NBC won the week of April 15-21 but finished even lower than the week before, 2.2 rating points off its season to-date average, with a 9.5 rating and a 17 percent share of the TV audience. CBS, with a 9.2 rating, 16 share, finished just 3/10 of a point back with its “Hallmark Hall of Fame — CBS Sunday Movie: Harvest of Fire,” fin ishing second for the week, and a Sun day special, “Touched By An Angel,” at No. 9. Look for more family-fare Sundays from CBS, which came within 4/10 of a point of delivering its season-to-date average in a week in which the four major networks delivered just 59 per cent of TV households. ABC earned an 8.5 rating, 15 share, also 2.2 points off its season average, and the Fox network earned a 6.0 rat ing, 11 share while programming only 15 ot tne ll prime-time hours. The networks failed to earn their - seasonal averages, and reruns ac counted for 27 of the top 50 shows. It was the last full week before the May ratings sweep, one of three, month- ( long periods of intensive ratings mea surement — characterized by spec tacular programming and stunts—that help set local station ad rates. One rating point equals 959,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 95.9 million TV homes, as estimated by Nielsen Media Research, a division of Dun & Bradstreet. Hollywood’s “emerging” networks also turned in sub-par performances, with UPN earning a 2.7 rating, 5 share on six hours of programming, and The WB a 2.2 rating, 4 share with five hours of shows. Among the evening newscasts, ABC’s “World News Tonight” was No. 1 for the 189th time in the past 190 weeks, with an 8.6 rating and a 19 share; “NBC Nightly News” had a 7.6 s rating, 17 share; and “CBS Evening News” had a 6.8 rating, 15 share. TVs Top Ten Below are listed the top 10 television shows for April 15 21. The list include the week's ranking, with rating for the week, season-to-date rankings in parentheses, and total homes. A rating measures the percentage of the nation's 95.9 million TV homes. Each ratings point represents 959,000 households. 1. (2) "Seinfeld," NBC, 17.9,17.2 million homes & million homes 3. (4) "Caroline in the City," NBC, 16.1,15.4 million homes 5. (7) "Home Improvement," ABC, 14.9,14.3 million homes 14 (3) "Friends,'' NBC, 14.5,13-9 miffion homes §> 7. (8) "Boston Common," NBC, 13 9, 13 3 million homes W&SflVtSlM12.4 million bonus 9- (X) "Touched by an Angel," CBS, 12.5, 12.0 million homes fv ourcerAP Aaron Steckelberg/DN