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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1996)
Stonf soup1 By Bret Schulte Student leams true meaning of happiness One frequently hears a lot of gripes about Nebraska, i.e., there’s nothing to do, it’s flat, I just lost another friend to frostbite. But I’ve always believed that one is only as happy as one wants to be, even at the risk of losing an apendage. It took me a long time to realize this myself. After high school I fled this state and went all the way to ... Iowa. I know, I know. Leaving Ne braska to go to Iowa is as about as effective as going to South Dakota to get away from all the empty space. Anyway, the point was to get away from home for a while, to get out of the high school mode of life and to feel part of something big ger. Well, Iowa was the wrong choice. So, after a year there, I signed up with an exchange pro gram and the very next semester I was whisked off to South Carolina. At Columbia, S.C.„ I became lost in the greater scene of things and I loved it. There were shows, poetry readings, plays and every where American history was look ing you in the face. And for the first month or two it was a complete dream. But there was something still missing, a void that I couldn’t ac count for. And after the shiny new ness of South Carolina wore off, I still was unhappy and I still was confused. Then (me day I was sitting in the student union, bemused and con fused, and a thought came to me— nothing terribly original, but nev ertheless important to me at that place and at that time. I simply re alized that I can’t go 1,000 miles from home to find happiness. If I ever hope to achieve any sense of actualization or consciousness, it must be done on the inside. And it must be done with action and in volvement, and not by running far ther and farther from home. 1 returned to Neoraska me roi lowing semester. And it is here I plan to stay, at least for a little while. The lesson was important, though. Happiness doesn’t come with a road map and location doesn’t guarantee contentment No matter where you are, even Nebraska, there is a way to be fulfilled. Force yourself to smile at strangers. Spend more time outside. Read books that change your mind about popular conven tion. See movies that star people who aren’t multi-millionaires. Talk to the kid next to you in class, and copy his or her notes. Get involved in a group. If you care about the poor, sign up with the local Habitat for Humanity chapter and build a house for someone. Or walk into the DN, plop down in a chair and bang away at the key board, filling a column full of ego tistical, self-righteous sermons. But never run away and never feel that there is nothing to do. Schake is a junior English major and a Daily Nebraskan staff re porter. Hron’s ‘Stages’ big on brightness, small on imagination, art content By Fred Poyner Art Critic “Mixed Blessings” would probably better describe the collection of new works, titled “Stages,” by Vincent Hron on display at the Haydon Gallery until Sept. 28. Hron’s colorful paintings are, for all of their brightness, drab and lack ing in imagination. Images of house exteriors, kitchen sinks and toilets demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the mediums utilized, and little more for the viewer. It appears that in some works, such as “Kitchen Window,” and in the “House” color lithographs, Hron has tried to imitate the vibrancy found in the works of artists such as Leroy Nehman, with a limited measure of success. At other times, the artist experi ments with different elements, such as skewing the picture contents, or add ing a graininess to the colors, with little gained from the added effects. Shown amidst these wanting works are an assortment of smaller, black and-white lithographs and monoprints. The adage “less is more” would seem to apply to Hron, regarding this second set of haunted house-type im ages. In the “Dark Neighborhood” series, brooding, monolithic houses defined by only two or three “windows,” at once convey both place and presence. The use of light spaces has been minimized, while the image itself fills the border, to create images both iso lated and magnetic. The darkness of these works is also heightened by the feeling that one is looking out of a win dow at a passing and foreboding land scape. Again, when commonplace interi ors are rendered in these deliberately restricted, black-and-white gestures, the scenes created evoke the same fore boding uneasiness, only on a domestic scale. The viewer is on the inside, look ing in at bleak interiors which in turn lode out on an equally empty world. Perhaps Hron intended to draw at tention to his more somber works with the inclusion of pointless, colorful paintings, but this is doubtful. It is in stead more likely that the weaknesses perceived in the latter are just more obvious when viewed alongside the former. Perhaps also, Hrori intentionally selected uninteresting scenes and im ages for his color works. But an unin teresting image cab stfll have an artis tic content, or meaning, which “Stages,” and the Hayden Gallery have neglected for the larger part of this show. Family holds services for slain Shakur LAS VEGAS (AP)—The fam ily of Tupac Shakur had his remains cremated over the weekend and held their own private services for the slain rapper. Shakur died six days after he was shot near the Las Vegas Strip. “It was the wishes of the family that nothing be done. It’s done and over with. There will be nothing more. The family doesn’t want us to say anything else,” said a Davis Funeral Hone spokeswoman. Shakur, one of rap’s most suc cessful and notorious singers, was shot following a boxing match Sept. 7 in Las Vegas. Marion “Suge” Knight, the head of Death Row Records, was driv ing when another car pulled up and Shakur received multiple gunshot wounds. Police continue to investigate the shooting that left Knight with minor injuries, but have few clues. On Sunday the slain 25-year-old rapper was mourned during a me Death Row Records, which pro duced his music, is reportedly con sidering its own memorial service. Theater REVIEW Disgruntled logger makes discoveries about self, others and environment in play “Betty the Ifeti’ By Bret Schulte Theatre critic A play like “Betty the Yeti” is as rare as a yeti itself. For those who are unfamiliar with the vocabulary, “yeti” is die Tibetian slang wordfor an abomi nable snowman. The yeti in this pro duction happens to be Betty, who re sides in the Pacific Northwest, stands a towering 5-foot-2, and eventually develops an affinity for windsocks and Sears catalogues. The {day is showing at The Futz theater, an intimate place with two rows of seats hugging a modest stage. The set of “Betty” is simple yet sufficient. It consists of a camp site that features a canvas tent, a column representing a tree and a fire pit. As for the story, Russ is a dis gruntled logger who recently has lost his job because of the spotted owl and environmental groups. And, with an irony Alanis Morrisette would be proud of, Russ has lost his wife, Tara, to the same environmentalists, particu larly a pretentious, pony-tailed yuppie named Trey. Russ has set up a refuge in the very u It might be a play about forbidden love between a man and his yeti. But bestial ity, no matter how passionate, rarely makes a great play.” Bret Schulte Theater Critic forest he destroys to get away from re ality for a while. It is in this forest where he encounters the yeti wham he later dubs “Betty.” Russ and Betty be come great friends, and erne evening they are feeling particularly frisky. Betty begins a low husky groan and gets down on all fours, waiting. Russ gets the hint, and after a few seconds of contemplation, he succumbs to the call of the wild and proves that he re ally does love nature. Now that their relationship has been consummated, Betty moves into his tent. She quickly becomes spoiled by human amenities, and forgets what it means to be a part of nature. Eventu ally Betty is discovered and exploited by the press; then she is quickly for gotten. Although “Betty the Yeti” has ob vious environmental overtones, it isn't really a play about saving the planet. Nor is it a play about the working class victims of environmentalists. It might be a play about the forbidden love be tween a man and his yeti. But bestial ity, no matter how passionate, rarely makes a great play. Even so, “Betty the YetT is all about self-discovery. Kuss discovers that although he is a logger* he truly loves nature, which he destroys (I can only assume that this love of nature is manifested by yeti sex). And he now has witnessed first hand the poisons that crane with hu man civilization. Betty became rotted by society, and she forgot how to live in her natural habitat. Thra realized that Trey was simply a self-absorbed media machine who cared more about politics and is sues than trees and animals. I enjoyed the destruction of stan dard stereotypes in “Betty the Yeti.” Although the play obviously contains a strong message about the regrettable destruction of the forest, the environ mental protagonist, TVey, is a complete schmuck. And Russ, although an abra sive and somewhat violent logger, truly does have a soul, and through Betty he becomes aware of the beauty and life logging destroys. Sometimes the simple gags and light-handed dealings of serious issues detract from the movement of the play; but overall it proves there never are absolutely bad or good persons on any issue, and that we can find the humor in just about anything. “Betty the Yeti” is playing at The Futz today through Saturday at 8 pjn. and Sunday at 7:30 pjn.