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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 1999)
A1F_MENT Siskel dies from brain tumor complications CHICAGO (AP) - Gene Siskel fell in love with movies as a child. Every Saturday the schoolboy Siskel would walk eight blocks to his neighborhood theater on Chicago’s North Side to catch the newest films with his friends. But it would be many years before Siskel would make movies his life’s work, giving the world the thumbs-up and thumbs-down film reviews he and colleague Roger Ebert created. “I can’t even imagine what it will be like (without Siskel),” Ebert said Saturday from his Michigan home as news of Siskel’s death at age 53 spread. SiskeEs death ended a quiet but strenuous battle against complications that arose after a growth was removed from his brain in May. Ebert said: “There was a history there, a respect that I’m never really going to replace in my life. It’s going to be tough.” Writing for rival newspapers, the young Siskel and Ebert were fierce competitors, each always trying to out-scoop the other. The icy relationship warmed when they reluctantly teamed up to co-host the public televi sion program “Sneak Previews” in 1975. “For the first five years that we knew each other, Gene Siskel and I hardly spoke. Then it seemed like we never stopped,” Ebert wrote in a column titled “Farewell, my friend” on the front page of Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times. “Siskel & Ebert,” as their show later was known in syndication, became a household name. Ebert said Saturday that the show would con tinue with revolving guest critics. “In the future, we will see,” he said. “The two thumbs up has become an icon in the film industry,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a spokesman for Exhibitor Relations Co., which compiles box office receipts. “The average per son would look toward them about whether to take their hard-earned dollars to the box office.” Despite his fame, Siskel stayed in the Midwest, resisting the lure of either coast. “The boys always wanted to stay in Chicago. They felt that was neutral territory,” said Mary Kellogg of Buena Vista Television, who devel oped a close friendship with Siskel in the 14 years they worked together on the show. Orphaned by age 10, Siskel threw himself into his family life with a passion that close friends were quick to remark on. He met and fell in love with Marlene Iglitzen while working at WBBM-TV in Chicago. They married in 1980 and had three children, a boy and two girls. His passions were for the movies he had loved since a boy, the words he grew to love as a newspaper man, the enjoyment he got as a Chicago Bulls fan and his family. At the time of his death, Siskel had taken a leave of absence from his work, not only with the “Siskel & Ebert” television show and the Chicago Tribune, but also as a film critic for “CBS This Morning” and WBBM-TV and as a columnist for TV Guide. Thousands of letters and e-mails from his fans poured into Buena Vista, which distributes his show, in’support of Siskel’s leave of absence. In Sunday’s column, Ebert recalled how Siskel strove to deflect attention away from his illness and toward his film criticism after his surgery. “Although it was obvious sometimes that he walked slowly and was in pain, I never once heard him complain. He carried on with a brav ery that is hard to imagine.” Ebert wrote. M Sno-Core Tour ’99 to feature diverse mix By Patrick Miner Staff writer The Levi’s Sno-Core Tour ’99 has a little something for everyone. Unlike last year, which featured a rock based lineup, the Levi’s Sno-Core Tour ’99 is packed with everything from rock to funk to electronica to rap. Today, the new version of the tour is hitting Lincoln’s Pershing Auditorium, 226 Centennial Mall South. The dizzying show features the main stream pop/rock of Everclear, the funkTock of Soul Coughing, the eclectic mixmaster DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, and even an established rapper in Redman. Everclear is returning to Nebraska for the third time in the past year. The Portland based act most recently headlined a sold-out performance at Omaha’s Ranch Bowl vol leyball courts last June. Everclear has had a string of radio sin gles in its career, including “Santa Monica,” “Everything to Everyone” and “Father of Mine.” The band’s concerts tend to revolve around the singles and feature considerable crowd participation. Soul Coughing has taken a very different road to get to the show today. The witty and funky New York-based foursome established itself almost solely as a live act. However, last year Soul Coughing released a new album, “El Oso,” which has received considerable notice at check-out counters thanks to the addictive first single, “Circles.” DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, or Paul Miller, is a Washington, D.C., native who grew up listening to everything from rap to hard-core punk. DJ Spooky fused those styles into each of his first three albums and mostly notably into Courtesy Photo RAPPER REDMAN has finally been receiving some recognition after putting out four solo albums and working as a member of Def Squad. Courtesy Photo DJ SPOOKY THAT SUBLIMINAL KID, voted one of the top 10 most influen tial artists by Spin magazine, has worked with Thurston Moore, Metallica and on the soundtrack for the award-winning film “Slam.” his latest electronica release, “Riddim Warfare.” The wildest performer tonight should be New Jersey-native Redman. A member of the Def Squad Redman seems to be up and coming, even though the rapper already has four solo albums to his credit. Influenced by N.W.A. and Ice Cube. Redman recently released the fourth album that features Busta Rhymes and Method Man. On stage tonight, Redman should get Courtesy Photo A NEW YORK BAND abroad, Soul Coughing is making its way to Nebraska for the first time. The band tours in support of its popular 1998 release “El Oso.” heads bobbing with fierce rhymes and danceable beats. The Levi’s Sno-Core Tour ’99 isn’t all about the music, however. BoardAID for LIFEbeat is the concert’s official charity; a donation of $1 from each ticket w ill help the organization’s fight against HIV and AIDS. Tonight’s concerts starts at 7:30 with doors opening an hour ahead of time. Tickets are $25. Soul Coughing ‘thrilled’ to be playing Lincoln By Bret Schulte Senior editor The name itself - Soul Coughing - implies a confiised marriage of base corporeal reality and pop spiritual belief. You would never guess that it refers to a poem inspired by Neil Young barfing from the back of a bus. Whatever the origin, it’s an appropriate title for a group whose bassy acid-jazz sound is too post-modern for lofty critics to simply dub “underground” and too catchy for the swarming pop audiences to ignore. The group continues to defy expectations by teaming up with the sun-dried punk populists Everclear for Levi’s Sno CoreTour, which blows into Lincoln’s Pershing Auditorium tonight. With indie rapper Redman and hip-hopper DJ Spooky rounding out the bill, the Sno-Core tour demonstrates the latest in music industry trans-genre trends. Soul Coughing, which is trans-genre in and of itself, has no qualms with the tour’s bill, said bass player Sebastian Steinberg in a phone interview from his hotel room in Salt Lake City. “The tour’s been basically fine.” he said, resting the day after the Utah show. “Not the snowiest or the core-iest... but hanging around with Redman is one of the greatest things ever.” Steinberg described Redman as one of the main reasons he wanted to do the show; one of the “real deals.” Redman and Soul Coughing share the same turf: New York City, which Steinberg credits as the primary cultural influence for the band whose members come from Israel (drummer Yuval Gabay), Kentucky (vocalist M. Doughty) and San Francisco (keyboardist Mark De Gli Antoni). Steinberg, the only member of the “New York band” who has Manhattan roots (although he grew up mostly in Massachusetts), firmly believes the band would not exist without the city. As he says, only in New York would lour people witn such completely different tastes and backgrounds meet, become friends and finally gel into a band. “New York is good Idee that.” Steinberg said, "taking four disparate personalities and jamming them together.” And as a result of what he calls “the concentration” of New York, Soul Coughing was born out of four different visions and became something of a successful enigma in the rock world. On the upright bass, Steinberg is the “visual representa tion” of the instrument, although the guitarist, keyboardist and drummer all contribute to the bands profound pounds and rumbles. In contrast to the classic giant bass is the group’s true musical centerpiece, the keyboard, which hums at the hands of De Gli Antoni. He is also the prime loop and sample man. accounting for much of Soul Coughing’s bebop and hook. While singer/guitarist M. Doughty undeniably serves as the trippy creative tour guide (“Your words bum the air like the names of candy bars,” he postulates), Gabay assists with beating out the emphasis on his drum set. “New York is the reason that an upright bass and a sam pler can be in the same band together. You walk down the street and one guy has John Coltrane blasting from his win dow and another has some sort of bass machine.” M. Doughty (M. is for Michael) was working at a club when he brought the four future members of Soul Coughing together to jam one night. New York is nddled with side pro Please see SOUL COUGHING on 13
