Arts
Williams's new CD will be short-lived
BY ANDREW SHAW
As Chumbawumba once put it,
"We’ll be singing when we’re winning.”
Robbie Williams is taking those
words to heart.
Williams realized bis success with
last year's release of “The Ego Has
Landed” and the pressure that comes
with a follow-up album. He seems to be
taking it all in stride with “Sing When
You're Winning,” his second major,U.S.
album, which was released Tuesday.
Williams made a timely move in 1999
with the release of his hit single
“Millennium” at the height of the New
Year’s hysteria. The British pop star
appealed to his older, sappier audience
with the single “Angels,” an Elton John
like ballad.
After gaining a diverse following,
Williams seems to have thinned out his
latest album, providing one or two songs
for each section of his listening base.
The overall sound of “Sing When
You're Winning” displays the talents of
Guy Chambers and Steve Power, the
album’s two producers, more than
Williams’s own talents. The synthesized
instruments, string ensembles and elec
tronic beats overshadow Williams’s con
tributions, but this problem is nothing
new in pop music.
The light-hearted energy ofWilliams
is captured in the album's first single,
“Rock DJ,” though the album doesn’t
include the silliness factor that the pun
filled “The Ego Has Landed" does.
In “Rock DJ,’’Williams makes a feeble
attempt at white British rap, which ends
up sounding more like the British ver
sion of “Patty Cake.” But the song has
such a careless groove that the poor per
formance in the verses is forgotten by the
end of the song.
To see the true colors of Williams,
one must see this single’s video. He was
created to perform with his entire body,
not just his voice, and the music video
shows him doing just that.
As Williams is surrounded by beauti
ful women, he feels compelled to strip.
But after his clothes are completely
absent, he proceeds stripping, starting
with his skin, then ripping off his mus
cles until all that is left is a happy dancing
skeleton.
This is how Williams must feel after
the success of “The Ego HaS Landed” -
everyone wanting to hear more and
expecting more - and he is willing to rec
ognize the pressure publicly and pass it
off in a joking manner.
The most enjoyable song on this
lukewarm album gains praise for its nov
elty. “Supreme” has a string loop, which
at first sounds strangely familiar but later
sounds deliberately so. The basic chord
progression is a mirror of “J Will Survive,”
the disco hit by Gloria Gaynor.
The lyrics play with the structure,
placing words that rhyme with “survive”
where the word would appear in the
original song.
Finally the song succumbs to its
shoplifted base with an instrumental
solo exactly like the original.
It’s this kind of musical playfulness
that makes "SingWhen You’re Winning”
worth listening to once or twice, but the
songs lack any staying power, just like
Williams’s previous work.
i
Schedule change lets
Lied patrons out early
■ Now that 8 o'clock shows start at
7:30, theatergoers can get their 40
winks at home instead of falling asleep
at the show.
BY MAUREEN GALLAGHER
The Lied Center for Performing Arts
hopes to have found a solution to the prob
lem of eyelids drooping during long per
formances.
The curtain time for Lied performances
this season will be a half-hour earlier than in
the past.
Performances will start at 7:30 p.m.
instead of 8 p.m., but Sunday shows will pre
serve their 7 p.m. curtain time.
Charles Bethea, the Lied’s executive
director, said earlier starting times are a
trend in the theater business.
“Most of the organizations in the com
munity are moving toward earlier start
times," Bethea said. “We were one of the last
organizations to start performances at 8.”
Bethea said the earlier starting time will
result in shows ending earlier, which will
benefit most patrons.
“Sometimes our events run late in the
evening, lasting for more than two and a
half hours,” he said. “It makes quite a late
night, especially during the week."
The Lied began considering the change
from the traditional curtain time last year,
Bethea said.
“We polled our advisory board and sev
eral support groups and got a positive
response,” Bethea said.
Bethea said the move will especially
benefit families with small children, stu
dents with early classes and patrons from
out of town.
Carolyn Taylor, a Lied patron from
Friend, a small town west of Lincoln, said
the earlier curtain time makes the 40
minute commute easier to bear.
‘Tve gone to many years of performanc
es at the Lied Center and, being from out of
town, this is really nice,” Taylor said.
The new curtain time should also bene
fit students who patronize the Lied. Maggie
Blomgren, a sophomore architecture major
who tries to attend several Lied perform
ances each year, said the change would help
ease her busy schedule.
“It will be much easier to attend per
formances during the week, especially
when you have an early class or a lot of
homework,” Blomgren said.
So far this season, three performances
have begun at the earlier start time, and
Bethea said there have been no complaints.
“The majority of people are probably
glad to get home a few minutes earlier,” he
said.
Outlet
Editors try to get the word out to more students
BY MELANIE MENSCH
Put those college essays,
poems, short stories and other
various scribblings to work after
class is over this semester.
"Lauras,” the University of
Nebraska- Lincoln English depart
ment's literary magazine, gives
undergraduate students a chance
to publish their writings or art
work.
Available each fall semester,
“Laurus” has served as a creative,
public outlet for more than 25
years.
“Laurus” used to publish the
works of only graduate students
until English Professor Greg
Kuzma took over in 1994.
Since, the creativity of under
graduates has filled the literary
magazine's pages.
This year, 30 student writers
contributed to the 168-page edi
tion. Readers can buy the maga
zine for $5 at Barnes & Noble, die
Nebraska Bookstore, the
University Bookstore and A Novel
Idea, 118 N. 14th St
“Laurus” tends to contain the
written words of just English
majors, but the editors for next
year’s edition hope to broaden its
authorship to include students
from other departments.
Sean Murray, a senior English
major and “Laurus" editor for next
year, said many students outside
of Andrews Hall have never heard
about “Laurus.”
“Its nature as an artistic jour
nal floats below the radar screen of
many students,” Murray said.
“The dilemma is that not enough
people know about the ‘Laurus.’
We want it to be a broad inclusive
of all colleges, not just the arts and
sciences college.”
To entice more students from
other departments to submit writ
ings, next year’s six editors will ask
professors to encourage students
to submit exceptionally written
class assignments.
“Students don’t seem to want
to do a lot of writing outside of
class, and that’s understandable,’’
Murray said. "This way, if students
hand in the best student assign
ments, it goes somewhere other
than the professor.”
This year’s edition relies heavi
ly on poetry, Murray said, because
many of the contributors came
from Kuzma’s poetry classes.
Next year, the new editors
want to include more than just
poetry. Other writings, such as
political essays, short fiction sto
ries and chunks of novels can fill
next year’s edition.
Joe Fraas, also a senior English
major and a new "Laurus” editor,
said he also hoped the writing
selection of "Laurus” would
expand beyond poetry.
"We want to get die word
out on what kind of writing goes
on here at the university/' Fraas
said. “If it’s well-written, powerful,
entertaining, original, submit it If
you’ve written something (for
class), the work is already done.
Just submit it”
Students can submit entries
for next year’s edition in Room 123
of Andrews Hall. The new editors
are planning a Web site so stu
dents can e-mail their works to
“Laurus.” M
Murray said the editors are
taking an aggressive approach \
through radio, posters and adver
tisements to promote “Laurus”
submissions and readership.
“We want to up circulation
and publicity, maybe through
mass media,” Murray said. “You’ve
got to shout a little to be heard.”
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