fi
| The Week in
Preview
! MUSIC
i
Duffy’s Tavern,
1412 0 St.
(all shows start around 10
i P-m.)
I Monday: Comedy
Workshop
I Thursday; Live karaoke
j with Shi thook
I
Knickerbockers,
901 O St.
(all shows start around
10:30 p.m.)
I Saturday: Goldfinger
! and the Skeletones (early
i show, doors open at 6 p.m.)
i
The Zoo Bar,
136 N. 14th St.
(all shows start around 9
p.m.)
H Monday: Ripple Effect
I Tuesday: open stage
■ Wednesday: Rhythm
! Method
I Thursday: Steady Rollin
Bob Margolin
■ Friday and Saturday:
Charlie Burton and the Texas
; Twelve Steppers
THEATER
The Lincoln
I
Community Playhouse,
2500 S. 56^ St.
H “Amadeus” runs
Thursday through Sunday
ART
GALLERIES
Metro Underground
Gallery,
1316 N St.
I Gallery Walk reception
Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
featuring John Carlini.
Sponsored by the Nebraska
Arts Council.
The Week in Preview runs
Mondays in the Daily
Nebraskan and is compiled by
members of the arts and enter
tainment staff. Send all listings
to:
The Week in Preview
j c/o Daily Nebraskan,
Nebraska Union 34, 1400
R St. Lincoln, NE 68588
\ 0448
!
1______
‘Half Baked’ is burnt-out comedy
Weed-inspired film fails to reignite drug-abuse genre
By Jeff Randall
Film Critic
Ever since the counter-culture
movement of the 1960s reared its
head, the use and abuse of drugs
has held a special place in the
hearts of many Americans.
But as the '60s and hippie cul
ture waned the openly positive atti
tude toward narcotics that many
held m that decade went along with
it.
Films such as “Trainspotting"
anu “Panic in Needle Park." as well
as countless films depicting the
tragedies that accompany alco
holism. took over mainstream film
making. Most of these films pre
ferred to examine the dark under
belly of drug abuse.
“Half Baked” has no such illu
sions.
Granted, the drug in question in
this film marijuana - is not as
widely abhorred as heroin, crack
cocaine or even, in some circles,
alcohol. But director Tamra Davis
and screenwriters Dave Chappelle
and Neal Brennan have taken a
renewed crack at drug abuse as a
form of low comedy, a genre from
which such behavior has been
noticeably absent for quite some
time.
Following in the footsteps of
Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong,
“Half Baked” is the story of a
group of unabashed pot heads who
must sell off a stash of marijuana
m order to bail their friend out of
jail.
The friend in question is
Kenny (Harland Williams), a fel
low stoner who is arrested after
feeding junk food to a policeman’s
horse. Unfortunately, the horse is
diabetic and keels over shortly
after receiving Kenny’s offerings.
Kenny, who is a kindergarten
teacher, quickly shows he is not
cut out for prison life, and his
friends - Thurgood (Chapelle),
Scarface (Guillermo Diaz) and
Brian (Jim Breuer) - hatch
a plan to raise the
$ 100 000 for his
bail.
Their plan
is to start a
home-delivery
weed service,
unknowingly
supplied by the
government
funded research
lab in which
Thurgood works
as a janitor.
It's a light
hearted, bangin'
with-friends-type
comedy, so the plan
works after a dozen
or so loosely
connected
scenes of comic mayhem take
place, most of which revolve
around one character or
another being exces
sively high.
A series of genre-friendly
cameo appearances aids in this
quest; the most notable of these
include Snoop Doggy Dogg, Chong
and Willie Nelson.
For the most part, “Half Baked”
is, as its trailers would indicate,
chock-full of politically incorrect
behavior, foul language and gra
tuitous nudity. And while there
ly is nothing truly wrong
th any of that, “Half
Please see BAKED
| on 10
Courtesy Photo
THE CAST OF “HALF BAKED” includes (clockwise from bottom left) Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams
and Guillermo Diaz.
Dust Bunnies emanate warm, fuzzy feelings
gsgsaaasasgiaaBsaftMmtiiMrawii’firiiiiffliiiniiM—in mu ni iiiiiimmi......
Album has soul-searching sounds
Bettie Serveert
“Dust Bunnies”
Matador Records
Grade: A
It is an easy guess that Bettie
Serveert turns the large downstairs
room of the Middle East Cafe in
Boston into a sweaty, crowded
bohemian haze.
During the emotional climax of
such an evening, one envisions a
mop-topper losing his spectacles on
the dance floor because of a crazy
urge just to shake it during a flailing
fuzz guitar melody reminiscent of
some acne-plagued MIT student
named Mascis.
Like the melody just mentioned,
Bettie Serveert’s ‘"Dust Bunnies”
feels like an old, warm blanket quilt
ed from the Dinosaur Jr./Pixies gen
eration; it is manufactured from the
heart.
In Beantowm, reinventing 1980s
college rock is nothing less than a
credible folk tradition with the snotty
attitude of a junior high clique.
Through Cambridge and through
Brookline these smart, safe sounds
are revered as much as Richard
Lloyd's bodily fluids were in
Manhattan during the swaggering
heights of Television.
However, Bettie Serveert is nei
ther from Boston nor New York. In
fact, they’re from the Netherlands.
From the slow and sultry “Sugar
the Pill” to the ballad-like “Fallen
Foster,” Bettie Serveert’s newest
offering avoids being a one-note
bunny hop, which seems to be a trend
for many groups of three or four peo
ple calling themselves bands these
days.
“Dust Bunnies,” however, is
mainly a collection of soul-searching
punk rock tunes. Every song clings to
honesty and traditional rock ‘n’ roll
topics such as love and powerless
ness.
“Pork and Beans” systematically
builds into nice, dissonant indie rock
guitar-speak as singer Carol van Dijk
reinstates her ability to carry a song
by the graceful innocence of her
voice and words: “Let me have this
cutest little thing I ever did see in my
life.”
“Story in a Nutshell,” arguably
the best song on the album, clocks in
far shy of two minutes and reminds
one of a short, relentless pillow fight.
For good measure, the entire
record seems to fly by just as fast.
- Chris Heine
Courtesy Photo
BETTIE SERVEERT is (from left to right) Herman Bunskoeke, Carol van Dijk,
Peter Visser and Berend Dubbe.