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HEATH COLE (left), singer and gnttarfst for Wide, Jams with bass player Jimmy Webb during a practice session Ibesday night.
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I
pite
, diverse past
~ \
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
Heath Cole is losing at gin rummy.
Not tha| it really matters — rock stars
don’t need to be good at card games. All
right, so maybe the frontman for Wide isn’t
exactly a nick star, but not for lack of try
ing.
Cole is at his drummer Jason Anderson’s
house, playing gin and listening to Jimi
Hendrix. Anderson’s dog, Oscar, wheezes
and gnaws at his bone on the floor, while
Anderson takes a drag from his cigarette and
beats Cole at another round.
Cole was a bass player with Lincoln’s
Manic Beach before starting Wide iti 1994,
simultaneously switching to guitar and pick
ing up the vocal chores. Wide’s current
lineup, which includes the for-now absent
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N
It’s like a soap opera.
It’s just rock ‘n’ roll, for
God’s sakes ”
• • .... ■ ' .. - 7. - .. > -■ *, t'
Heath Cole
singpr/guitarist forWrde
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* • „
bassist Jeremy Webb, is actually in its fourth
generation.
. “It has to do with me wanting to be able
to keq> going if someone else doesn’t Want
to do it anymore,” Cole
Please see WIDE on 13
Popul appear at Lied
mission aance trg&pe stages acclaimed performance in first American tour "
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7 BrLane Hickenbotkmk
Staff Reporter
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Lied-goers will be romanced Friday and
Saturday night as the 50-member Moscow Fes
tival Ballet brings the classic story of “Giselle”
to Lincoln.
The ballet troupe is performing “Giselle”
in its first tour of the United States since the
company was founded in 1989. Reaction to the
company has been extraordinary kits two tours
ofEurope.
“Giselle” is among the most fhmous ballets
from the Romantic era. First seen in Moscow
hi tU4i, foe story involves aryoufig peasant girl,
Giselle, who foils in love with a man she be
lieves is a common villager, Loys. After find
ing out that her love is really a nobleman, Count
Albrecht, she tries to kill herself with his sword
but ends up dying of shock.
The second act includes Albrecht visiting
Giselle’s grave, where her ghost appears to him.
There is an attempt on Albrecht’s life, but
Giselle pleads for him to be saved.
Aside from razor-sharp dancing, audiences
at the Lied Center for foe Performing Arts can
expect to find athletic artistry, magnificent
floor-length costumes ^uid immaculate back
ground scenery.
Directing the Moscow Festival Ballet is the
formerprincipal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet,
Sergei Radchenko.
Starring in the performance will be leading
dancers from across Russia, with members of
the Bolshoi and Kirov ballets. Kirov prims bal
lerina Lubov Kunakova has helped to establish
this exciting new company.
Tickets to Friday and Saturday's 8 p.m.
shows are available at the Lied Crater for $38,
$34 and $30. Tickets are $18 for students and
those under 18.
*V
Family unites
with distress,
anxiety, lies
By Ann Stack
Film Critic
This movie lives up to its title ... it’s filled
with secrets and lies.
I gave this flick a “B” sheerly on the basis
of its maudlin British blathering. I think it had
a happy ending, but I’m still not quite sure ...
it’s one of those where you’re left scratching
your head at the end, feeling emotionally
drained and glad itfs over.
The plot is promising: Hortense (Marianne
Jean-Baptiste) is a successful black optometrist
living in London. After her adoptive mother
dies, she decides To find her birth mother. In
the course of her search, she stumbles across
some disconcerting information: Her birth
mother is white.
Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is a lonely, bro
ken woman who works in a box factory. She
lives in a run-down flat with her ungrateful
daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook), a road
sweeper.
Not too far across town is Cynthia’s younger
brother Maurice (Timothy Spall). He’s a suc
cessful portrait and wedding photographer
married to Monica (Phyllis Logan), an interior
decorator who can’t have children.
Hortense finally gets the courage to call
Cynthia. What ensues is the typical, “You’re
not my daughter,” “Yes, I am,” “I think I would
remember sleeping with a black man,” etc.
Eventually Cynthia coughs up a deeply sup
pressed memory, and admits that, yes, Hortense
is her daughter. The whole situation is played
out in a very realistic manner, with no sappy
boo-hooing.
There are awkward moments and plenty of
distress between the two women. For a while,
it looks as though they’re just going to give up,
but they plug away and eventually establish a
loving mother-daughter relationship. Problem
is, they have to keep it a secret, because
Roxanne doesn’t know she has a half-sister
knocking about.
Maurice decides to throw a barbecue party
for Roxanne’s 21st birthday, and Cynthia in
vites Hortense along, introducing her as a
“friend from work,” But the strain of keeping a
secret is too much for her, and she spills the
beans. That’s when the you-know-what hits the
fan.
Other secrets and lies come out during the
aftermath, although we never find out who
Hortense’s father really is. Other questions re
main unanswered as well.
Blethyn was honored as JBest Actress at the
1996 Cannes Film Festival for her portrayal as
the highly neurotic, disturbed Cynthia. She does
an excellent job; she’s just pathetic enough that
the audience doesn’t want to sympathize with
her.
"Writer and director Mike Leigh milks the
title for all it’s worth — it takes forever to get
to the meat of the plot. Although a bit over
done in some places, the movie was amazingly
well put together, and deserves a look-see.
“Secrets and Lies” is being shown at the
Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater tonight
through Sunday and again Jan. 30 through Feb.
2. Screenings are at 7 p.m. on Hiursdays and
Fridays; at 1 and 7 pjn. on Saturdays, and at 3,
6:30 and 9 p.ra. on Sundays. Admission is $6
for the public, $5 for students and $4 for se
niors, children and members of the Friends of
the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.
Film: “Secrets and Lies”
Stars: Brenda Blethyh, Timothy Spall,
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Director: Mike Leigh
Ratrng: R (language, adult content)
Grade: B
Five Words: Flick’s feel-good factor falls short