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By Joshua Gillin
Entertaining
ads end with
campaigns
Today marks the temporary end
of perhaps the most entertaining
form of advertising in the history of
broadcast media.
I am referring to, of course, the
dreaded campaign advertisement.
These little tidbits of near-slan
derous sound bites and mudsling
ing have graced the airwaves since
earlier this year, and they’ve gotten
more and more creative as the cam
paigns have progressed.
This candidate said this. This
candidate voted for that. So-and-so
is a liberal. What’s-his-name is a
conservative. This guy is a right
wing extremist who married his
third cousin. That guy is a left-wing
extremist whose father was a com
munist sympathizer during the Viet
nam War.
The most peculiar thing about
these ads is that they all say then
candidate is the one who will lead
this city or state or country or what
ever to the best of their ability. The
ads all claim that the person they
are endorsing will be better than the
other candidate, who already claims ,
the other person is a no-good, two
timing, double-dealing, mudsling
ing liberal or conservative.
Inis year campaign ads have ad
dressed the “new” phenomenon of
voter dissatisfaction with negative
campaigning. Several commercials
and slogans have tried to steer the
public toward the candidates in
question by establishing them as
worthy and upstanding members of
society... not like that “other” guy.
This may sound strange, but
isn’t that negative campaigning?
It’s not like the good old days,
when candidates went at each other
with two-fisted and foul-mouthed
campaign ads. My personal favor
ite was a Republican ad for Gene
Spence when he was running
against incumbent governor Ben
Nelson.
You know the one—an elderly
woman talking about Nelson’s
record on property taxes or health
benefits or some such issue, chas
tising that evil Nelson guy for the
radical liberal changes he wanted to
enforce on the good citizens of Ne
braska.
Now all I have to look forward
to is Chuck Hagel standing around
a bunch of bales of hay, addressing
the state’s farmers. Hmmm; not
quite the urban setting I’m used to.
And I’m reluctant to even men
tion the presidential ads. I just want
to grab Bob Dole by his ears and
say, “What’s wrong with being a lib
eral?”
And the answer is, there’s noth
ing wrong with it, and that’s what
campaign advisers will say on MY
commercial if I run fa- political of
fice. That is, of course, if I don’t
run as a Republican.
Otherwise, it’s a negative point
on my platform, right?
Gillin is a junior news-edito
rial and English major and the
Daily Nebraskan arts and enter
tainment editor.
-
Matt Haney/DN
Largest doll factory
still best-kept secret
NEW YORK (AP) — This is no
storybook castle.
The nondescript brick building is
wedged between a meat warehouse and
an auto repair shop in Harlem, with
elevated train tracks loaning nearby.
The old, rickety elevator opens onto a
shabby, blue and pink lobby.
But beyond the door lies the
fantasyland of every little girl, and
many a big girl, too: the Alexander Doll
Company.
Three huge floors hum with activ
ity as hundreds of workers paint faces,
glue eyelashes, coif hair, sew minus
cule sequins on elaborate costumes, cut
patterns and cobble tiny boots and
shoes.
Completed, the sweet-smiling, in
nocent faces of some 200 different
types of dolls peer out from all around
the cavernous room.
“We’re the best-kept secret in New
York City,” said Patti Lewis, the presi
dent and CEO of a company that has
brought magic to generations of doll
lovers for 73 years.
Alexander’s founder, Beatrice
Alexander Behrman—known as Ma
dame Alexander — was the daughter
of Russian immigrants who ran New
York’s first “doll hospital” above their
Brooklyn tenement.
Madame, as workers still affection
, ately refer to her, was apetite woman
who gave herself a grand name to fit
her grandiose ideas at a time when
women’s suffrage was just beginning.
Madame Alexander “survived all
the economic downturns of the com
pany,” Lewis said. “She survived work
ing with unions. She got a manufac
turing organization operating in a very
challenging city. She sold products to
very tough retailers. She bid for fab
ric, secured designers ... all this in a
day when women didn’t do it.”
After Madame Alexander died in
1990 at age 95, the company remained
a family held enterprise until 1995,
when it was purchased by Kaizen
Breakthrough Partnership, a New York
private capital fund managed by
Gefinor Acquisition Partners.
Please see DOLLS on 10
Honored music professor
to play cello at Kimball
The UNL School of Music pre
sents guest artist David Littrell to
night at Kimball Recital Hall.
The cellist will play various
pieces for the solo cello at the 8 p.m.
recital, which is free.
“He’s going to be playing every
thing on the modem cello,” said
Karen Becker, assistant professor of
cello. “His pieces exemplify a wide
range of techniques.”
That range includes Littrell’s
performance of two complete Bach
suites played in the Baroque style,
Becker said.
Littrell serves Kansas State Uni
versity as an associate professor of
music. He teaches cello, bass and
viola da gamba and conducts the
KSU Orchestra.
He also conducts the Gold Or
chestra, a youth string orchestra that
will tour England in June 1997, in
addition to directing the String
Fling, which attracts’over 800 string
students from Kansas.
Littrell has received numerous
awards and honors, including the
Kansas Chapter of the American
String Teachers Association’s high
est honor, the Certificate of Merit.
— Emily Wray
311 does their fans right
with new package release
By Patrick Miner
Music Critic
The ska band 311 is a group that
shows true dedication to their fans —
they’ll do anything to get their product
out to the public.
“Enlarged to Show Detail,” a col
laboration video and accompanying
EP, is the fourth major label release
from the band in the last four years.
The package hits the stores today.
The video is a 50-minute collection
of concert footage, backstage antics
and interviews with the band members.
The film was shot from shows per
formed over the summer at Red Rocks,
Sandstone and a show in San Fran
cisco.
The band uses the video as a ve
hicle to show fans what the band is all
about. Highlights include the tremen
dous drum solo from the song “Applied
Science,” as performed by Sexton at
recent shows. P-Nut reemphasizes his
role as the band’s main madman, and
Tim points out he is not the nice guy
everyone may think he is.
Live performances permeate the
video. “Do You Right,” “Freak Out”
and “Visit,” among others, are per
formed in front of huge crowds at the
venues. The videos to “Down” and
“Homebrew” are also in the video, as
well as interviews with people who
make the band what they are, from
manager Adam Raspler to drum and
guitar techs Yetti Ward and Trevor
Cole.
The four-song EP contains songs
not yet released, like “Gap,” “Firewa
ter” and “Let the Cards Fall,” as well
as “Outside,” a song the appears on the
“National Lampoon’s Senior Trip”
soundtrack. The album will only be
available with the video for a limited
time.
Three-band show punks up Omaha crowd
Too Skinnee J’s, the
Urge and Phunk
Junkeez enliven their
audience.
By Patrick Miner
and Chris Thomas
Music Critics
OMAHA — The Urge’s drummer
John Pessoni described his band’s
sound in five words last Wednesday as
the band awaited the show with the
Phunk Junkeez.
“It’s rock music with horns,” he
said.
Also featuring the Too Skinnee J’s,
the three-band show has toured since
Oct. 4, with the final show scheduled
in Omaha.
The Urge opened with “Take
Away,” a song written in December of
last year and featured on the new ver
sion of their fifth album, “Receiving
the Gift of Flavor.” The song sums up
the Urge’s style of ska, metal and
reggae, and the crowd was wild right
from the start.
Heading into such songs as “Open
All Night” and “Brainless,” the band
had to save some of the audience’s en
ergy by not playing their punk song,
“Drunk Asshole.” Performing what
lead singer Steve Ewing calls “their
mostjammin’ song,” “Gettin’ Hectic,”
as well as renditions of “Ali Baba and
the 40 Thieves” and “Gin and Juice,”
the Urge easily made up for the $ 12.50
admission on their own.
The Phunk Junkeez were not to be
outdone, however. They jumped to the
stage and kicked off their set with “B
Boy Hard,” a song off of their second
album “Injected.” To keep the adrena
line flowing at high levels, they then
responded with “Radio Sucks,” a track
off of their first release, “Phunk
Junkeez.”
Their set featured a good mix of
songs from both of their albums, as
well as four tracks off their upcoming
record, which is due out in March. New
ones like “Paranoid” and “It’s On”
should be highly anticipated.
“White Boy Day” was a definite
highlight of the show, with Soulman
rapping about trailer parks. “Chuck”
is always a great song to bounce around
to (especially live), and “Me and Yer
Girl” dished out the funk.
Soulman was very impressive by
not only rapping, but occasionally get
ting on the speakers and showing all
that he is the break dancing king. DJ
Roach Clip is one of the best on the
turntables around, as he cut it up and
got the crowd into a frenzy.
Too Skinnee J’s, a funk/rap band
with a trombone out of New York city,
opened the show. Frontman Special J,
a graduate of Omaha Central high
school, got the crowd bouncing well
before the Urge and Phunk Junkeez hit
the stage. Their final song, “Seven One
Eight,’ shook the hail and left several
young fans running over to their booth
to buy the J’s first release, “Return of
the New and Improved.”
The Phunk Junkeez are awaiting
their upcoming album, while The Urge
are set to shoot their new video, “All
Washed Up.” They also started a tour
with Kom last Friday. Too Skinnee J’s
are planning to release their next record
in two weeks.
