New scandal added
to exhibit controversy
NEW YORK (AP) - City offi
cials have fired another round in
their escalating fight with the
Brooklyn Museum of Art, accusing
the museum of displaying contro
versial work to drive up its value.
The accusations made
Wednesday by Deputy Mayor
Joseph Lhota and the city’s top
lawyer, Michael Hess, came a day
after the museum sued to stop
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani from
freezing its funding over the dis
pute.
Giuliani has threatened to cut
city funding to the museum because
of its decision to display an exhibit
that includes a black Madonna dec
orated with elephant dung and
pornographic cutouts. The funding
amounts to $7 million or about one
third of the museum’s budget.
The pieces are from advertising
executive Charles Saatchi’s collec
tion. Lhota and Hess said the muse
um planned the “Sensation” exhibi
tion, working behind the scenes
with Christie’s auction house, so the
works would fetch high prices at
auction once the show closes.
Christie’s is helping sponsor the
exhibit.
The museum’s board members
are “shilling for a British subject
who is a multimillionaire and trying
to enhance his art collection,” Lhota
said.
He cited a New York Observer
article that said after the show
closed in London, Saatchi auctioned
128 pieces from his collection,
many of them by artists in the show.
Giuliani, on a fund-raising trip
A W
in California, said he had been in
touch y^ith Lhota and Hess about
their accusations. He said the pro
ject raised the question whether a
publicly funded museum should
engage in “shock commercializa
tion.”
Frederick Goetzen, spokesman
for Christie’s in London, said that in
December 1998, “We sold 130
works from the Saatchi collection to
create bursaries (scholarships) for
young artists.” He said none of the
works sold were in the “Sensation”
exhibit, but a number of them were
by artists featured in the show.
But Andree Corroon, a spokes
woman for Christie’s in New York,
said the house had no plans for an
auction afterward.
“This bewildering accusation
has absolutely no substance, is
absolutely not true,” she said.
In a statement, the museum
called the accusations “preposter
ous and misleading.”
Meanwhile, a federal judge has
been asked to decide whether to
restore the museum’s funding. The
museum sued the city on Tuesday,
saying Giuliani’s act violates the
First Amendment.
In Washington, the Senate
agreed unanimously Wednesday to a
non-binding measure calling for the
withholding of federal funds from
the museum unless it cancels the
exhibit.
Independent Sen. Bob Smith of
New Hampshire said the museum
had received $500,000 from the
National Endowment for the Arts in
the last three years.
*Alison’s House’ opens
at Wesleylan tonight
HOUSE from page 13
forming the play in New York now
too, Chipman said.
The play highlights the fourth
year of Wesleyan’s commitment to
present historic plays by women
playwrights.
Chipman said the 12 cast mem
bers had impressed him with their
dedication.
“We put it together in just over
four weeks. They’re an excellent
cast dealing with a difficult produc
tion and the language of the 1890s,”
he said.
Theatre Preview
The Facts
What: “Alison’s House”
Where: McDonald Theater
When: 8 p.m. tonight, Saturday and Oct. 8-9,
2 p.m. Oct. 10
Cost: $5
The Skinny: Nineteenth century family
contemplates the arrival of the 1900s.
“Alison’s House” will be per
formed tonight and Saturday, and
Oct. 8 and 9 at 8 p.m., and on Oct.
10 at 2 p.m. For tickets, call the
McDonald Theater Box Office at.
(402) 465-2384.
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I Watson to perform at Lied
■ The musician, b®st
known for his modem
jazz group, Horizon, is a
UNL graduate.
By Danell McCoy
Staff writer
Bobby Watson’s love for music
began during elementary school and
continued well after that.
“I was very ambitious,” Watson
said in a press release. “By the time I
was in junior high, I had learned the
fingering on the French horn and
flute and the slide position on the
trombone.”
Even before learning all of these
techniques, Watson had already
learned to play the piano, clarinet
and tenor saxophone.
Tonight, Watson will show off
his talents in a performance at the
Lied Center for Performing Arts,
301 N. 12th St.
Although Watson is known to
play works in various contexts, he is
best known for his modern jazz
group, Horizon.
Horizon, which includes a 17
piece ensemble known as the Tailor
Made Band, was formed by Watson
shortly after he left another group in
1981.
But his performing abilities go
way beyond the Horizon.
Watson co-formed his own
record company, New Notes, in
1983, played lead alto for the Spike
Lee film “School Daze” and has
served as Bill Cosby’s musTcM part
ner.
Watson’s newest releases,
“Midwest Shuffle” and “Urban
Renewal,” are his 18th and 19th
recordings and represent his individ
ually flexible style with sounds that
include pop, swing, classical and
funk.
“I’m discovering that my mis
sion is not only to make music but to
reach out to people of different
backgrounds, touch them through
music and maybe help bring them
together,” Watson said in a press
release.
Joining Watson for his perfor
mance will be acclaimed percus
sionist and composer Victor Lewis,
Omaha native and former University
of Nebraska-Lincoln student.
During his senior year at UNL,
Lewis left school and moved to
Minneapolis. There he worked with
a cabaret show to earn enough
money to move to New York.
Lewis, who began studying
music at the age of 10, arrived in
New York almost a year later in
1974.
It was during his first gig that
Lewis met trumpeter Woody Shaw.
He joined Shaw’s band and made his
recording debut on Shaw’s classic
album “The Moontrain.”
It didn’t take long for Lewis to
make a name for himself in the
Ued Center I
The Facts
What: Bobby Watson and Horizon featuring
Victor Lewis
Where: Lied Center, 301 N. 12th St.
When: Friday 8:00 p.m.
Cost: $30, $26, $22
The Skinny: Bobby Watson and Victor
Lewis return with their jazz group
music business.
Soon Lewis was busy playing
with such musicians as Joe Farrell,
Earl Klugh, Hubert Laws, Carla
Bley and David Sanborn.
It was while playing with
Sanborn that Lewis’ writing skills
were first noticed.
By the end of the ‘80s, Lewis
was one of the busiest jazz freelance
musicians in the music business.
Lewis acts as a co-leader with
Watson for Horizon and also plays
with the Kenny Barron Quintet.
Watson, Lewis and the Kenny
Barron Quintet first appeared at the
Lied Center in November 1993.
Tonight Watson and Lewis will
be performing with Horizon.
Before the performance, pre
performance talks will be held in the
Lied’s Steinhart Room at 55 and 30
minutes before curtain.
Tickets for the 8 p.m. perfor
mance are $30, $26 and $22.
Student tickets are available for half
price.
Breathtaking docudrama
tells stirring Tibetan tale
WINDHORSE from page 13
half of the cast chose to withhold
their names from the credits.
One of the film’s four main
actors is a woman named Dadon
who fled Tibet by crossing the
Himalayan Mountains on foot, as
many other Tibetans have over the
years. - "\
The film itself is breathtaking, in
the truest sense of the word. It is an
homage to the 1.2 million Tibetans
who have been killed by government
forces since China first invaded
Tibet. The film also comes as a cry
for help from the millions who face
assimilation or extinction every day.
The Chinese government has
condemned “Windhorse” and has
continually taken steps to prevent it
from being shown at film festivals
and theaters around America. We
should feel lucky the Mary Riepma
Ross Film Theater is showing it,
even though it’s playing only this
weekend.
A portion of the profits from the
film go to some of the main Tibetan
charities in Nepal.
T Am The Walrus’ lyrics
auctioned off for $129,000
LONDON (AP) - Sold! Goo goo
ga joob.
The lyrics for John Lennon’s “I
Am the Walrus” sold for $ 129,000 in
an auction at Christie’s on Thursday.
The lyric sheet contains 20 lines of
the 1967 Beatles classic and was
sold to an anonymous telephone bid
der.
The sheet contains Lennon’s
notes and changes, including the
deletion of the word “policeman,”
which was changed to “priestess.”
The lyrics are believed to have
been inspired by the Lewis Carroll
poem “The Walrus and the
Carpenter.”
George Harrison’s 1962
Rickenbacker guitar also went to an
anonymous bidder for $92,900.
Other top sellers included an
Elvis Presley shirt, worn in the 1970
movie “Elvis - That’s the Way It Is.”
It went for nearly $32,900.
Presley’s cream-colored stage suit
sold for $20,800.
Playboy
interview
nets Ventura
enemies
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Anyone
who was NOT offended by Gov. Jesse
Ventura’s Playboy interview, please
raise your hand.
The former pro wrestler gave an
interview in which he aimed barbs at
religion and fat people and declared the
Navy’s Tailhook scandal was
overblown’.
On Thursday, the morning after the
interview became public, Ventura got
the tag-team treatment from both his
political opponents and his own party.
State Republican chairman Ron
Eibensteiner said Ventura should con
sider stepping down because his
“attacks show he has a fundamental
lack of understanding of the world he
lives in.”
The Body defended his comments
by saying: “This is Playboy. They want
you to be provocative.”
In it, Ventura called for the regula
tion of illegal drugs, with the creation of
“places where the addict can go get it.”
He pronounced organized religion
“a sham and a crutch for weak-minded
people,” and blamed it for the unpopu
larity of legalized prostitution. He
declared Tailhook was “much ado
about nothing” and claimed fat people
“can’t push away from the table.”
I
Motorist who hit Stephen King indicted
■ The driver was charged
with aggravated assault,
which carries a maximum
penalty of 10 years in prison.
PARIS, Maine (AP) - The driver
who hit horror writer Stephen King
was indicted by a grand jury Thursday
on charges of aggravated assault and
driving to endanger.
The Oxford County grand jury
found that Bryan E. Smith “did reck
lessly cause serious bodily injury to
Stephen King” as the author was
walking along a country road June 19
in Lovell, Maine.
Aggravated assault carries a max
imum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The other charge could bring Smith
up to iix months in prison.
King, who was walking against
traffic while reading a book, was
thrown 14 feet and suffered multiple
broken bones and a collapsed lung.
He is recovering at his home.
King has said he believed Smith
was a danger to himself and others
and should not be allowed to drive.
Smith, 42, told police he lost con
trol of his Dodge Caravan because he
was distracted by his dog and has
called the incident “an accident with
out a cause.” Smith has said that he
was very sorry for what happened but ^
that the accident should not be treated
as a crime.
District Attorney Norman
Croteau said the case was not
reviewed differently than any other
case in which a pedestrian was
injured.