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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1997)
Beat poet Allen Ginsberg dies at age 70 By Larry McShane Associated Press NEW YORK — Allen Ginsberg, the coun terculture guru who shattered conventions as poet laureate of the Beat Generation and influ enced the next four decades of art, music and politics, died early Saturday at age 70. The bearded, balding Ginsberg died in his Lower East Side apartment surrounded by eight “close friends and old lovers,” said his friend and archivist, Bill Morgan. The poet was diag nosed eight days ago with terminal liver can cer, and he suffered a fatal heart attack, Mor gan said. “He made us see that poets were pop stars,” said Lenny Kaye, guitarist with the Patti Smith Group and a recent Ginsberg collaborator. “He had a sense of liberation — sexual liberation, philosophical liberation.” Ginsberg, whose blend of drug-inspired vi sions, hedonistic sex and gut-wrenching auto biography first emerged during the 1950s, spent several days in a hospice after his diagnosis. On Thursday, he suffered a stroke, fell into a coma and never regained consciousness. He returned to his apartment a day earlier after expressing a desire to die at home. He wrote about a dozen short poems—one titled “On Fame and Death”—and “wore him self out talking to friends,” Morgan said. David Cope, a friend and fellow poet, re ceived one of those phone calls. “He called all of his old friends from many generations personally to make contact with us one last time, voice to voice,” Cope said Satur day. “To me, it was a beautiful gesture.” Ginsberg’s influence was almost inesti mable. His extraordinary list of acolytes ran the gamut from Abbie Hoffman to Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan, Czech President Vaclav Havel to punk poetess Patti Smith, Yoko Ono to Bob Dylan. “Dylan said he was the greatest influence on the American poetic voice since Whitman,” said Gor don Ball, Ginsberg’s editor and friend of 30 years. “I think that’s certainly true.” During the conserva tive, McCarthy-era 1950s, when TV’s married couples slept in separate beds, Ginsberg wrote “Howl” - a profane, graphic poem that dealt with his own homosexu ality and communist up bringing. “Howl” then careened wildly through scores of sur real images: “a lost battalion of platonic conversationalists jumping down the stoops off fire escapes,” people who “walked all night with their Please see GINSBERG on 10 Mk %, lifl Courtesy photo ALLEN GINSBERG (pictured here in 1996) was one of the foremost poets of his generation, and hls work contlnnes to influence countless artists and social activists. Courtesy photo JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME (left) and Dennis Rodman (right) star in the new action-thriller “Double Team.” Double Ifeam’ lacks originality, story line By Patrick Kelly FUm Critic If you love a good cliffhanger, a suspense ful and action-packed film with just the right blend of wit and romance added, “Double Team” is not the picture for you. This film is the predictable story of a highly trained special forces agent named Jack Quinn (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who wants out of the spy ring so that he can start a family with his wife. His last assignment is the assassina tion of an international terrorist, Stavros, played with flavorless mediocrity by Mickey Rourke. But the plot thickens (or curdles) when Stavros gets away and Quinn gets injured. Van Damme wakes up on an island clinic/prison inhabited by spies who are too valuable to kill and too dangerous to be free. Quinn trains to get back into shape and—with Bond-like pre cision — escapes the island and meets up with weapons-dealer/technology expert, Yaz (Den nis Rodman). Meanwhile Stavros has kidnapped Quinn’s pregnant wife, forcing Quinn and Yaz to go from Antwerp to the French Riviera to Rome. The film ends with a ridiculous martial arts showdown (surprise) in the Roman Coliseum. Usually action movies rely on breakneck speed, but this movie seems to be one long di rection-less action sequence with no real sub stantial story line. Bizarre camera angles, meaningless slow motion shots and idiotic dia logue add to the loss of direction. Film: “Double Team” Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Mickey Rourke Director: Tkui Hark Rating: R (language, violence) Grade: D It’s hard to tell if Rodman will ever have a substantial career in acting, but he will not be the last roundball player to cross over (or cross dress, as the case may be) into film. I can see it low: Summer 1998 — Scottie Pippen is ‘Shaft”! Double feature productions hit and miss By Liza Holtmeier Theatre Critic This weekend’s Theatrix Double Feature — which ran last Thursday through Saturday at the Studio The ater — sparkled because of the indi vidual performances of several actors. The first show of the evening, “Savage in Limbo,” revolved around the lives of five desperate and disillu sioned people. During the play, they attempt to move their lives in a new ana more promising airecnon. Kristin Hensley gave an outstand ing performance as the fierce and fran tic Denise Savage. Her passionate por trayal of the contrasting dimensions of Savage’s inherent toughness and fear was powerful. Her aggressive and sometimes halting steps illustrated Savage’s explosive energy level, while allowing the audience to see her con fusion. Leticia Martinez struggled with her physicality in the opening of the play, lacking the lusty rhythm needed to portray Linda Rotunda. But she improved as the play progressed, and her swaying hips and scoffing head tilt soon symbolized Linda’s inner fire and passion. Though the connection be tween her and Hensley sometimes wavered, her relationship with the character Tony maintained its dynam ics. Please see THEATRIX on 10