— NEW RELEASES —
D’Angelo, Cure make two long-awaited returns
By Josh Krauter
Staff writer
The big odometer in the sky
turned to 2000 without causing any
major apocalypses, armageddons or
massive power outages.
The Y2K bug’s bark was much
worse than its bite, giving conspiracy
theorists and religious fanatics their
end-of-the-world version of Geraldo
opening A1 Capone’s empty vault.
School has started again, and normal
life has resumed.
Millennial fears aside, one ques
tion remains: What new music will
ring in the new millennium?
Judging by the new release sched
ule for the next few months, it’s going
to be a slow start for new music this
year. From hip-hop to country, rock to
jazz, mainstream to underground, rel
atively few high profile releases are
hitting the shelves. Here’s a smatter
ing of what’s going to be out there:
After a four-year hiatus, R & B
singer D’Angelo is returning to CD
racks with “Voodoo.” The album is
reported to sound similar to classic
soul singers such as Marvin Gaye and
Curtis Mayfield. It features guests
Lauryn Hill, Method Man, Redman
and members of the Roots. Originally
scheduled for Jan. 11, “Voodoo” has
been bumped until later in the month.
Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav drops
his solo album, “It’s About Time,” on
Jan. 18. Flav played all the instru
ments on the album, with the excep
tion of a cover of Chicago’s “Does
Anybody Really Know What Time It
Is.”
A lower-profile solo album also
hits stores the same day.
Chappaquiddick Skyline’s self-titled
debut is a solo project from Joe
Pernice, member of the underrated
indie bands Pernice Brothers and
Scud Mountain Boys.
Proving that New Year’s Eve was
n’t the last time artists could give
their albums stupid millennium
names, Big Punisher releases
“Endangered Species Y2K” on Jan.
25.
Ice Cube’s “War & Peace Vol. 2:
The Peace Disc” arrives in stores the
same day. The long-delayed album
was supposed to be released last
September. Also that day, Cornershop
side project Clinton releases “Disco
and the Halfway to Discontent.”
In the “who cares” department
and “used-to-have-talent” depart
ment, respectively, Barbra Streisand
releases “Timeless” and Tina Turner
releases “Twenty Four-Seven” on
Feb. 1.
Run-D.M.C. unleash a two-CD
package of both old and new materi
al, “Crown Royal,” on Feb. 8. Guests
on the album include the good (OF
Dirty Bastard, Beastie Boys), the
mediocre (Aerosmith) and the god
awful (Fred Durst, Kid Rock, Sugar
Ray).
Feb. 15 marks the return of The
Cure with the long-delayed “Blood
Flowers,” former Urge Overkill
singer/guitarist Nash Kato’s
“Debutante” and a covers album from
ex-Big Star and Box Tops singer Alex
Chilton.
Twelve-year-old boys should be
anticipating the Bloodhound Gang’s
“Hooray for Boobies,” available in
both clean and dirty versions, on Feb.
22. Everyone else shouldn’t.
A posthumous self-titled solo
album from INXS singer Michael
Hutchence also hits shelves Feb. 22.
Yo LaTengo follow up 1997’s fantas
tic “I Can Hear the Heart Beating As
One” with the equally unwieldy title
“And Then Nothing Turned Itself
Inside Out.”
February ends with new releases
from Smashing Pumpkins
(“Machina”), Oasis (“Standing on the
Shoulders of Giants”) and a newly
reformed Steely Dan (“Two Against
Nature”).
Later in the semester, tentative
releases may include new albums
from Lou Reed, L’il Kim, Built to
Spill, Duran Duran and, the one
we’ve all been waiting for, the musi
cal debut of L.A. Laker Kobe Bryant.
All release dates are subject to
change.
—GALLERY PREVIEW—
Fetish translates into art medium
for star-crossed artist John Spence
By Josh Krauter
Staff writer
The first thing,<5ne notices when
viewing John Spence’s art pieces is the
stars. Lots of stars.
Stars made out of nails. Stars
made out of buttons. Little stars. Big
stars. Ragged-looking stars. Elegant
stars. Stars splattered with paint.
Silver stars. Corrugated metal stars.
Spence’s collection of star-shaped
art, “Geometric Fetish Objects,” is on
display at the Haydon Gallery until
Jan. 29.
So, with all the emphasis on stars,
what’s with the title of the exhibit?
Spence said the title came from a
couple of different sources. He has a
fascination with found objects and
thought about what would happen if
his art was found by anthropologists.
“How would somebody who did
n’t know they were art describe
them?” he said. “They would describe
it in science terms - as a geometric
object.”
The fetish aspect comes from an
experience he had at the Des Moines
Art Center in Des Moines, Iowa. He
said he was viewing an exhibit of
African art objects when he spotted a
group of small, wooden figurines that
were studded with old, rusty nails. The
power of this image impressed him
and so did the title: “Nail Fetish.”
“I immediately stole the idea of
using nails and the title,” he said.
So why use a star and not some
Dther shape?
“I guess I’ve just always liked the
geometry of the star,” he said. “Not
many artists used it, so I just latched
an to it.”
Spence’s fascination with found
objects also comes through in his star
art. The stars are juxtaposed with
pieces of cloth, sticks, buttons, wall
paper, wire screens, barbed wire and
newsprint. Personal photos and phras
es are interspersed with nods to other
artists, such as Jasper Johns and
lackson Pollock.
“He uses a lot of art historical ref
erences thrown in with personal
abjects,” said Anne Pagel, director of
the Haydon Gallery. “He uses a lot of
different media to address one type of
image.”
Another medium Spence explores
in “Geometric Fetish Objects” is one
that hasn’t been tapped by too many
Dther artists: teddy bears. Spence
takes teddy bears, removes the stuff
ing and then glues the bear to a canvas
with its back facing the observer of the
piece. Spence said using the back of
the teddy bear was intentional.
“I think the analogy is making a
photograph of someone with their
;yes closed or their hand held up in
front of their face,” he said. “The eyes
•A.
are the entry point to the soul, the per
son. If you deny that entry point, what
are you left with? The shape.”
Spence’s photograph analogy isn’t
just talk. He is also an accomplished
landscape photographer.
“He photographs with a big box
camera,” Pagel said. “The photos
haven’t been cropped or altered in any
way.”
Spence, who was bom and raised
in Beatrice and received both his grad
uate and undergraduate degrees from
UNL, photographs the landscape of
the Nebraska countryside. But he says
he avoids the cliches of cornfields and
bams.
He says the star art represents
what he can’t do in his photography,
and the idea came from objects he
found when he was photographing his
landscapes.
“The material 1 found out there led
to beginning to make something with
them,” he said.
Spence said there was a connec
tion between the art and the photos,
even if it’s not readily apparent to oth
ers.
“There’s a thought process that’s
shared,” he said. “In the landscape
photos, I deal with icons of the
Nebraska landscape ... I wanted to
develop my own visual language.
With the star art, I’ve developed my
own set of icons.”
Designers debut new fashions
MILAN, Italy (AP)- Italian design
ers are playing a game of cops and rob
bers in men’s fashion for the winter ol
2000-2001.
The setting is the Milan runway
where good guys in ties and jackets are
battling thugs in studded black leathei
for fashion supremacy.
Kicking off five days of preview
showings that began Saturday.
Donatella Versace outfitted the streei
fighters while Dolce and Gabbana or
Sunday backed the law-and-order boys.
Gucci designer Tom Ford, whc
showed his collection Sunday, stayed
out of the fight with designs for ver>
exclusive neighborhoods only.
Donatella’s bad boy wears his pants
slim, tight-fitting and very low-waisted
He likes them zipped not only up the
front, but also the back.
His style is razor sharp with silvei
blades adorning the collar of a black
shirt or the lining of a leather coat.
Donatella claims she drew inspira
tion for her tough look from Brad Pitt’s
film, “Fight Club,” in which yuppie
guys fight boredom and malaise with
fisticuffs.
The usually extreme Dolce and
Gabbana duo opted this round for a cool
look for good guys.
Uncomfortable on any street but
Wall Street, the Dolce and Gabbana
man wears three-piece suits in oversized
pin stripes with a cashmere turtleneck
or a white shirt and colorful tie, croco
dile belts and loafers and a trim, gray
flannel, double-breasted overcoat.
Rather than a dark alley, he likes the
light of day, with bright colors, flashy
prints and trendy details like zipped or
snapped trouser cuffs.
To mark the current Jubilee year,
which celebrates 2000 years of
Christianity, the designing duo created
three pairs of “Jubilee Jeans” crafted
from antique gold-threaded Venetian
fabric used for religious vestments. The
price is as lofty as the inspiration:
$25,00CLa pair.
Tom Ford’s fashion is so upscale it
makes the word luxury seem impover
ished. Crocodile bags, silk scarves,
embroidered velvet jackets and big bow
ties combine to create a new Gucci look
that outdoes even the noblest style of
Gucci’s heyday in the 1960s.
.
Beat the
. Y2K Bug...
Be A Y2RA
RA Information Sessions
Wednesday, January 12th
3:30 pm, City Union
Thursday, January 13th
7 pm, Selleck Large CDR