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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 1996)
Giants take big steps on new tour with Hootie By Cliff Hicks Staff Reporter The last time They Might Be Gi ants were in Omaha, they had problems enjoying it. They were 214 miles above the city. “I flew over Omaha once, and I knew that because I was looking at a map and I looked down and the city on the ground looked exactly like [Omaha],” John Linnell said. Linnell is one of the two founding members of the group. Even though they ve seen Omaha, they’ve never played there. In fact, They Might Be Giants will make their first appearance in Nebraska when they open for Hootie and the Blowfish this Saturday at Omaha’s Civic Audito rium. The new tour had not yet begun two weeks ago, when Linnell first spoke about it. He said he agreed that the combination of the two bands was in triguing, to ay the least. “I know very little about their (Hootie and the Blowfish’s) music,” Linnell said. “Basically this is not our regular, audience. It’s kind of an oppor tunity to try and convert an enormous bucket of people or try and get them to remember us. It’s kind of a shotgun effect.” The Gants themselves have a large number of solo appearances under their belts. In fact, they have played on Conan O’Brien’s show twice, “The Tonight Show” twice, David Letterman’s show three times, once on “The Today Show,” once on “Good Morning America” and even twice on “Tiny Toons” — two songs from their 1991 album “Flood” were used in the car toon series — “Particle Man” and “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” The Giants have just released their seventh album, “Factory Showroom,” which is their second album with a full band. Originally, They Might Be Gi ants was simply a duo comprised of Linnell and his partner, John Flansburgh. Linnell said that playing with a full group is quite different. “It changed our performance and it’s continuing to change the way we perform. We can improvise a lot,” Linnell said. As much as the Giants have changed, however, in many ways they still remain the same. Their Dial-A Song program, which was started in the fall of 1983, still is in operation. Dial-A-Song is a standard long-dis tance call to Brooklyn, where the Gi ants have a machine set up to play a new song every hour. The number is (718) 387-6962. “It’s just a phone machine you call up and get to hear songs by us,” Linnell said. “They’re unreleased songs or songs that haven’t come out on their own yet, so that’s the peg.” The Giants also have many other things to keep themselves busy: The duo recorded a track for the XTC trib ute album, Flansburgh has directed music videos for bands such as Soul Coughing and Frank Black, and both of them have, in one way or another, rnrrxr r txtxt™ rt COURTESY Photo elUHN LINNEL, left, and John Flansburgh are the two members of They Might Be Giants. been involved with the Hello Record ing Club. The club, which is run by Flanburgh and Marjorie Galen, offers 10 CDs a year. Linnell recently recorded an EP for the club called “House of Mayors,” songs about and by the mayors of New York. As for their audience, Linnell ad mits that if is quite broad. “I think normally bands play to kids who are between 18 and 25, and we certainly have that predominantly,” Linnell said. “But we have a lot of re ally young fans and a lot of people our age. “Iajathekwords—old.” &&& The two Johns went to the same elementary school in the mid-’70s, then went to high school together, which is where they became friends, Linnell said. “We both worked on the high school newspaper together and we had a bunch of friends in common. We kept in touch after that and we both ended up in New York in the early eighties. That’s when we started doing this stuff,” Linnell said. Tickets for the Saturday show at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha are still available. They are $27.50 and the show starts at 8 p.m. ‘Sleepers’portrays tale of sexual terror, redemption By Bret Schulte Film Critic Seldom are we told a shining tale of redemption through revenge and friendship despite misunderstanding, but then again, only seldomly has Hol lywood relied on reality. Based on the best-selling autobiog raphy by Lorenzo Carcattera, “Sleep ers” is the powerful re-telling of a story of friendship, revenge and sexual ter ror. Opening in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen 1966, an ethnic ghetto tightly woven with Puerto Ricans, Italians, Jews and other people of Eastern Eu ropean descent, the four boys divide their time between attending church and petty juvenile criminal activity. Father Bobby, wonderfully played by Robert De Niro, is the local Catho lic priest. Being raised in Hell’s Kitchen himself, Ire is a resilient, hard nosed man who understands the pres sures and escapes of growing up in the ghetto. Father Bobby serves as a men tor for the boys — Shakes, Michael, Tommy and John. The boys love Fa ther Bobby and what he does for them, but his influence extends only so far. One day, as the boys are roasting in the concrete-amplified New York City heat, they decide to rip off the lo Film: “Sleepers” Cast: Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Ba con, Minnie Driver, Ron Eldard Director: Barry Levinson Rating: R (violence, profanity) Grade: A Five Words: Glimmering tale of re venge, pain cal hot dog vendor. The plan meets with limited success and the boys end up rolling the concession stand down the steps of the subway. The conces sion stand slams into a bystander, caus ing a near-fatal injury. The boys are quickly sentenced to spend at least a year in the Wilkinson reformatory school. It is at Wilkinson’s that the boys experience the extreme sexual abuse which will disfigure and haunt the rest of their lives. Kevin Bacon, as the reform school guard, plays a frightfully sick, power hungry sexual pervert who molests the boys duringtheir stay. It is Bacon’s ma niacal acts of pedophilism that success fully establishes the ambiance of sick perversion and terror roaming the school. “Sleepers” relies heavily on the caliber of its players. Despite the all _ Photo DUSTIN HOFFMAN, left, Ron Eldard and Billy Crudup star in Warner Bros.’ new drama, “Sleepers.” star cast of huge names and huge sala ries, the true heroes of this movie are the young actors enduring the torture of the reform school. Of the four, young Joe Perrino is a stand-out as the lead character, Shakes. “Sleepers” could have easily been packaged as a slick, Grisham-esque stray of shallow characters and smil ing endings. Instead, Levinson directed a movie cut with sharp angles, gritty flashbacks and constant crescendos. The most powerful emotions of this film are those that are alluded to. We hear the screams of the boys echoing through still hallways, and we see Fa ther Bobby’s eyes as he hears about the terror of the reform school. “Sleepers” is a powerful movie ex uding both dark style and subtle nu ances. It is a movie that successfully relays a story of friendship and pain, neither of which die easily. UNL operas give students opportunities By Emily Wray Staff Reporter Folk songs and seances high light UNL’s operas for the fall se mester. The operas, “Down in the Val ley” and “The Medium” play today, Wednesday and Friday at 8 p.m. Sunday’s performance starts at 3 p.m. Educational opportunities abound in the two operas. Since stu dents who don’t have mature voices get to sing with piano accompani ment, more undergraduates can par ticipate, said William Shomos, di rector of opera. “We as a university are commit ted to giving performance opportu nities to undergraduates,” said Wil liam Shomos, assistant professor of voice and opera. “You don’t always find this in institutions with gradu ate programs.” Performing two operas also gives students chances to sing, he said. “If someone is going to be in the voice program for four years, they ought to have some operatic expe rience,” Shomos said. ~ - Casting two peop&m the same rofe for different performances, or double casting, adds more oppor tunities for education, Shomos said. The casts alternate perfor mances, so each cast performs two operas. Shomos chose to double cast the main characters in “Down in the Valley” but left the ensemble the same. In the “Medium,” the lead character is not double cast but ev eryone else is. “My mission for the first opera (of the season) is to give as many of our young students the opportu nity to perform as possible,” Shomos said. “Down in the Valley,” composed by Kurt Weill, shows that love en dures. The opera is about two young people named Brack and Jennie who fall in love. After Brack acci dentally kills another man who’s in love with Jennie, their lives take a tragic turn. En Liang Ching and Jill Beran play Jennie while Mark McCue and Joseph Lott play Brack. “Weill uses the ensemble to nar rate the story,” Shomos said. “The chorus gives the frame, puts in the story from Brack’s perspective and Brack has a flashback.” The two-act opera “The Me dium,” by Gian Carlo Menotti, also ends with death. Baba, played by Rebecca Kouma Shane, pretends to contact the dead and swindles people out of their money by fraudulent se ances. She then experiences her own connection with the other side when she hears voices and feels a hand around her neck. The second act is Baba’s effort to come to terms with what’s going on, Shomos said. “‘The Medium’ ends in uncer tainty and despair while ‘Down in the Valley’ is a positive story of hope and faith,” Shomos said. Tickets for the four perfor mances are $8 and $4 for students with ID. Tickets may be obtained by calling the Lied Center Box Of fice at 4.72-4747.