i
Cliff Hicks
Ethics aside,
trip to LA
successful
I went to Los Angeles — for
FREE! It could happen to you. You,
too, could be living the good life in
88-degree weather in November.
I had an offer I couldn’t refuse,
and I took it. Someone mentioned
something about ethics, too, but
they’re overrated. I’ll get to that in
a minute, anyway.
“So, Cliff,” I hear you asking,
“how DID you get to L.A. for free?”
Paramount Pictures. The offer
went something like this — come
to LA. (our treat), stay in a four
star hotel (our treat), see two films
before they come out (our treat), get
lots of free stuff (our treat) and write
some articles about it (your treat).
I would leave the morning of Fri
day the 8th and get back very late
the evening of Sunday the 10th.
They’d cover everything—all I had
to do was watch some films and talk
to some people.
Sure, sounded easy enough. It
wasn’t like I was selling my soul or
anything (though when I signed for
my plane ticket, the FedEx guy did
have me sign the form in blood). So,
to keep things in perspective, I de
cided to keep track of all the money
Paramount Pictures spent on me fry
ing to buy me off.
The flight to LA. (roughly $350
round-trip) was a typical plane
ingiu. w ncn i muciieu uuwn in l.a.
(after a stop-over in the Mile High
City’s mile-wide airport), I had to
take a cab to the hotel. The cab
driver’s Russian was great, but his
English wasn’t as smooth. I got
there fine ($26).
Before we saw the unfinished
version of the Beavis & Butthead
film that evening, they gave us sacks
of goodies, with promotional cop
ies of the soundtrack ($15), a
mousepad ($10), books (around
$40) and other stuff at a cocktail
party they held (maybe another $60
or so).
Late that evening, a group of us
sat in the hotel lobby having drinks
—all on the credit Paramount had
given us. Tack on another $20.
The next morning, we got up and
were divided into groups of 20 for
interviews with Mike Judge, creator
of Beavis & Butthead.
At lunch ($15), I changed circles
a bit and starting hanging out with
three people from California: Shane
from San Jose, Mike from Davis
and Melissa from Sacramento.
We then saw “Star Ttek: First
Contact” ($7.50 again) in its com
pleted form in the same theater we’d
seen “Beavis & Butthead Do
America.” It was a nice comfy the
ater an the Paramount lot.
Shortly after that, there was a
news conference with most of the
cast of the film. I’m looking forward
to transcribing a lot of it. Tfiey were
nice people and funny to listen to.
We also got sacks with Star Trek
stuff in them—the sweat shirt I’m
Please see TREK on 10
‘First Contact’ meets theaters
By Cliff Hicks
Staff Reporter
LOS ANGELES—The cast mem
bers of “Star Trek: The Next Genera
tion” said at a news conference they
are ready to take the helm with “Star
Trek: First Contact.”
“This movie was really pivotal,”
said Levar Burton, who plays Geordi.
“This is, at its essence, our coming-out
party. None of us wanted to feel like
we screwed the pooch on our watch.”
The conference included: Burton,
Patrick Stewart (Picard), Rick Berman
(producer and “heir” to the “Star Trek”
throne), Jonathan Frakes (Riker, also
director), James Cromwell (Cochrane),
Marina Sirtis (Troi), Alice Krige (the
Borg Queen) and Michael Dorn
(Worf).
The villains of this film are the
Borg, a cybernetic race of beings who
are attempting to “assimilate” the en
tire galaxy. Because of this, according
to Berman, the film can seem darker
than previous “Star Trek” efforts.
“During our press interviews today,
I was struck by a number of people
referring to this movie as having a dark
side to it,” Berman said, “and I think
the dark side doesn’t really exist in
terms of the characters.
“By bringing the Borg back and by
doing them properly, it gives a certain
sense of suspense and maybe even hor
ror to the film, but I don’t think it has
anything to do with trying to put a
darker turn on things.”
To make the Borg even more men
acing, the audience is treated to a new
side of them—the Borg Queen. Krige
spent 7 hours getting into costume and
make-up for this role; but she said it
was worth it.
“It was quite wonderful to watch
her appear every day,” Krige said. “It
was the most wonderful tool that I was
given as an actor. When she was there,
the door opened and someone else
walked out.”
Much of “First Contact” centers on
Picard’s battle with the Borg, as he is
the only being ever to be “de-assimi
lated.” This personal struggle is prima
rily the focus of the film.
“I had some fairly strong feelings
about how Picard’s storyline had de
veloped,” Stewart said. “Once the Borg
came on board, then there was a ter
rific opportunity for them to wind him
up in a way that little else could.”
“First Contact” is also Frakes’ first
time directing a motion picture. Previ
ous to the film, Frakes had directed a
number of episodes for television.
“It was a gift that was given to me,
this film. It was a great show of faith
on Rick’s part and the studios part and
my comrades, and I’m fortunate that it
came out as well as it did,” Frakes said.
The Film opens with a 23-million
to-one zoom-out shot, that took longer
than any other shot in the Film, accord
ing to Berman.
“That shot took almost four months
to complete,” Berman said. “And the
fact that it doesn’t look as remarkable
as it is makes it even better.
“It’s literally impossible to move
out of an eyeball and go to a distance
of three miles, as that does in 40 sec
onds, without going close to the speed
of sound and we managed to do it with
continually changing speeds, but with
out it looking like the speed was chang
• _ »
ing.
Radio Gods lose audience
_ Lank Hickenbottom/DN
CHRIS O’CONNOR, member of
Primitive Radio Gods, reaches into
his pocket for a lighter Wednesday.
By Bret Schulte
Staff Reporter
Wednesday night’s concert at the
Ranch Bowl didn’t do a lot to dispel
the public’s conception of the Primi
tive Radio Gods as the latest of a long
string of one-hit-wonder bands.
Playing to a crowd of about 75
people, The Primitive Radio Gods tried
to compensate with raucous guitar
noise, black leather, an ominous key
board shadowing the stage and flipping
hair, a good idea—about seven years
ago. Chris O’Connor, front man for the
Primitive Radio Gods, is quite aware
of his image.
“I’ve taken a lot of flack from my
friends and whoever for using a key
board,” O’Connor said. “I’ve heard all
about the one-hit-wonder thing, but we
released a second song, “Mother....er”
but, uh, it didn’t get a lot of air time.”
-■ •*
O’Connor s ‘one-hit wonder,’
“Standing Outside a Broken Phone ?
Booth With Money in my Hand” was
released in late May and quickly
climbed the top 40 charts. Its hypnotic
beat and mildly existential lyrics sin
gularly turned the album, “Rocket,”
gold and led to a national tour.
“The tour so far has been somewhat
mixed,” O’Connor said. “Some nights
the crowds are great, other nights the
place is only half full.”
O’Connor said that after the first leg
of the tour the band was simply worn
out from the publicity. The ex-air traf
fic controller was quickly over
whelmed by the sudden flush of star
dom and the subsequent two months
on the road supporting the album.
“It automatically became a job,”
O’Connor said. “Not a lot of reality to
Please see PRIMITIVE on 10
• i
Dickinson work to be recognized
By Emily Wray
StaffReporter
The UNL School of Music will
bring Emily Dickinson to life Sunday
night in Kimball Recital Hall.
The free concert starts at 8 and is
the primary part of a multimedia event
planned by a committee with represen
tatives from the School of Music, Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
and English department.
The UNL School of Music and
Friends of Love Library sponsor Sun
day night’s event in commemoration
of The Lowenberg Collection of Emily
Dickinson Materials, which was do
nated to the UNL Libraries by the
Cliffs Charitable Foundation.
“We were working from the point
of view of the scores contained in the
collection,” said Margaret Kennedy
Dygas, co-chairwoman of the commit
tee and associate professor of voice.
“We were interested in having works
featured that might not otherwise be
heard.”
An introduction by Chancellor
James Moeser will open the concert
that features texts by Dickinson.
“Route of Evanescence” by Randall
Snyder, professor of theory and com
position, will be premiered.
Kennedy-Dygas is the soprano so
loist for Snyder’s piece while the cham
ber ensemble includes pianist Ann
Chang-Bames, oboeist William
McMullen and cellist Karen Becker.
They will be conducted by lyier
White.
The UNL Chorale, under the direc
tion of Carolee Outright, professor of
music education, will present choral
works for women’s chorus featuring
Dickinson’s poems.
“We are doing a nice variety of
pieces,” Outright said. “The setting of
poetry is done well. That’s what is im
portant, to get the poetry and language
across.”
Before the concert, a film about
Dickinson called “Magic Prison” will
be shown at 6:45 pun. in Westbrook
Music Building, room 119.
In addition, UNL artist David
Routon will showcase'five sets of
sketches based on photos of Dickinson,
her family and her friends. The
sketches will be displayed in the base
ment of Kimball Recital Hall.
Sunday night’s concert also will be
heard over the World Wide Web cour
tesy of Pinnacle Broadcasting and
David Hibler, assistant professor of
English.
The web page, built by Hibler’s
survey of literature class as a class
project, includes a short movie from
the concert dress rehearsal, biographies
and pictures of the performers. The
page may be accessed at
wwwJiuskerwebcast.com.
Orchestra hails
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
Husker hype.for the Ne
braska-Colorado game is already
starting in Omaha.
The Omaha Symphony Or
chestra is presenting its annual
pep rally to set the stage for fifth
ranked Nebraska’s Nov. 29 foot
ball game against No. 6 Colo
rado. The tribute will begin to
night at 8 at the Orpheum The
ater in Omaha.
The Husker extravaganza
will include video footage from
past Husker-BufFalo games, as
well as a tribute to Coach Tom
Osborne. Footage from the 1996
Nebraska vs. Florida national
championship game also will be
included in the highlights.
The film experience will be
set to the music of the Omaha
symphony Orchestra, conducted
by guest conductor Ernest
Richardson.
The program includes a
comic performance of
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
with Gary Java and Adrian Fiala
of 1290-AM (KKAR).
“It’s a play-by-play descrip
tion incorporating all the usual
sports analogies set to a musical
performance,” Good said. “It’s
the only time I’ve ever seen my
viola section do push-ups.”
The University of Nebraska
Comhusker Marching Band will
perform the opening segments
and will join with the symphony
for a finale of Tchaikovsky’s
“1812 Overture.”
The show is general admis
sion, with prices ranging from
$10 to $20. Tickets can be pur
chased at die Omaha Symphony
ticket office or at any Hy-Vee
Food Store.
