Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Nov. 1, 2001, edition 1 / Page 5
Part of University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
001 November 1,2001 The Blue Banner Pages Features \bwell, RakoflF perform shrewd, biting c»medy MIRIAM BARLOW/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Sarah Vowell (left) and David Rakoff (right), who both contribute to “This American Life,” performed at UNCA in Lipinsky Auditorium Oct. 26. The well- publicized event almost filled the 700-seat auditorium. ‘'This American Life” commentators come to UNCA Sachie Godwin Features Reporter When I first heard that Sarah Vowell was coming to UNCA, I was so excited I put the flyer up in my house. I wanted to be sure I would not schedule anything else on the night of the event. However, by the time Oct. 26 rolled around, I was so sick of seeing her face in that oh-so-glam- our-shot pose with the word shrewd" declared subtly in 46- point font underneath it, I thought I would spontaneously excrete from any and all available orifices. Obviously, the public relations people did their jobs well, though, because Lipinsky Auditorium was almost full, impressive for a 700- seat venue. For those not familiar with the unique experience of hearing the self-proclaimed “least likely person to be a radio commentator,” it must have been quite a shock. Vowell’s voice is possibly the squeakiest and most nasal on the seven continents. She is a great storyteller once you get past the voice. Vowell has the kind of arid wit that is usually reserved for hyper- intelligent teenagers, most perfor mance artists and the British. She has written mostly autobiographi cal material, but there is always a strong attention to history in her stones. Reading from a story about her life-long obsession for Teddy Roosevelt, Vowell mockingly de scribes gawking at buffalo with her sister on a vacation to North Da kota (to visit Theodore Roosevelt State Park, of course), and then, sitting down to a lunch of beefalo burgers. I got the impression that nothing is sacred to Vowell, yet at the same time her reverence for Roosevelt is palpable. It seemed fueled by the notion that he is a tough geek, someone who read “Anna Karenina” on a cattle run. Her humor is sharp and, at times, ruthless, but she is never afraid to put herself under the microscope for self effacement. Her descriptions of growing up in Montana and working in the ser vice industry, while the rich made a playground of her mountain ham let certainly resonated with me, as it probably did with many others in the audience. Never ceasing to show the irony of a situation, Vowell reflects that the young woman working at the sou venir stand in Medora, N.D. is spending her time the way most Americans do, the way she herself has: working an unfulfilling, low- paying job they hate and making lots of money for someone else. Vowell buys her nephew a Teddy Roosevelt teddy bear and says, “Here’s your imperialist, capitalist, sweatshop-made stuffed animal, honey.” David RakofFs association with fellow “This American Life” per former and North Carolina native, David Sedaris, is easy to see because of their kindred sense of humor. Rakoff took aim at some easy tar gets in the television industry, de scribing working on sitcoms and the kind of characters lurking in that pond. Rakoff also described, with glar ing precision, the perils of search ing for enlightenment at costly spiri tual retreats, an apt topic for Asheville. Rakoff s story about the “Omega Hug Compassion and Clarity” retreat, “taught” by Steven Segall, who he described as looking like Gloria Vanderbilt on cortisone, got an abundance of well deserved guffaws. Both of these writers are worth checking out, as is the public radio show, “This American Life,” to which they are both contributors. UNCA chorus, jazz band play Duke Ellington Megan Fazekas Features Reporter “Celebrating the Duke” was a lively concert performed by the UNCA Community Chorus and the Jazz Lab Big Band Oct. 21 in Lipinsky Auditorium. The show presented music by the famous composer, Duke Ellington. The concert highlighted many UNCA musicians and other mem bers of the community, whose work md effort really paid off I enjoyed the show, especially the Duke Ellington selections that were azzy and fun. Ellington’s timeless music was appropriately selected for the show. The UNCA Community Cho rus, directed by Chuck Taft, was the first group to perform. Mem bers of the College for Seniors joined the chorus for the first three num bers. It was their first live show. Their presence made the chorus seem full and diverse. The show started out slow, with a lethargic version of “America the Beautiful.” The song was tedious and corny because the audience was asked to sing along. It felt like I was at church singing a hymn. The song seemed out of place for such an upbeat concert. The second song was fun. I sat up in my seat as soon as I recognized one of my favorite songs, “Begin ning to See the Light.” The chorus became much more animated and lively. Once the college for seniors exited the stage the rest of the chorus became livelier. Maybe it was due to the fact that there was more room on the stage, and I was able to check out all the singers. During the rest of the selections, there were some impressive solos. I was glad to see UNCA students show off their talents. There was a trio that sounded wonderful during one of the songs. The range of voices from the cho rus was diverse, but sometimes it leaned toward the high-pitched side. I watched the animated faces of the performers and secretly wished they would start dancing. The performers looked happy, and I could tell they were into the songs. My other favorite songs were “Hit Me with a Hot Note and Watch Me Bounce,” by Don George and Ellington, and “Take the A-Train,” by Billy Strayhorn. The UNCA community chorus performed well. It seemed as though they put a lot of time and effort into preparing the show. The music was carefully selected, and mixed fast, jazzy songs with slow, sexy songs. The UNCA Jazz Lab Big Band performed after the intermission. The .small ensemble, directed by Tim Haden, was phenomenal. The most interesting part about their performance was that the di rector arranged all of the songs. This works to the band’s advantage because Haden is able to feature certain instruments or cover parts that are not filled by the original arrangement. North Carolina's Oldest Gay Bar Is Now Open At Their New Location Faces With A Vew AHr+(/le” Come In And Visit Us... 237 Haywood Street Downtown Asheville ■ Convenient Access From 1-240. Remember To Drink Responsibly Tickets $12.50 general admission $10 seniors $5 students Tickets may be purchased at the Jewish Community Center of Asheville,236 Charlotte St.; Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe, 55 Haywood St.; and the UNCA Office of Student Life, 27 Highsmith Center. Voice of the Sunday, Nov. 4 Concert 7 p.m. ■ UNCA Lipinsky Auditorium The Voice of the Turtle performs a special and exotic form of folk music, which has lived for more than 500 years, music born of the pain of exile, music of the Sephardic Jew. Sephardic Music Workshop for instrumentalists and singers 11 a.m.-l p.m. • 018 Lipinsky Hall For more information, call the Center for Jewish Studies at UNCA, 251-6576.Visitwww.unca.edu/cjs ashevTlle Student exhibits include disturbing, intricate and bright, eye-pleasing art Lynne Fox Features Reporter Three UNCA art majors, Eo Trueblood, Catalina Lina DiBiase and Celeste Howie, opened their senior exhibits last week. Owen Hall’s University Gallery features Trueblood’s work. His sculptures generated feelings of gross disgust. There were sculptures of skulls, mutilated body parts and a gothic horror that, taken at face value, were not something I wanted to stay around. Some of the images are stomach-turning. That is exactly what they are sup posed to be, and with this in mind, the exhibit must be considered suc cessful. These pieces were not produced with the thought of selling them to customers for their living room. At least, I hope not. With apologies to the artist, I couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever had a happy successful birth day party as a child. Where do these images come from? It is very difficult to tour Trueblood’s exhibit, and I tried to get out quickly. Nothing was ap pealing at first. “Appealing” is not the right word for this room, but I made about four tours of the room before leav ing. Revulsion from the content drove me away, but the skill of the artist held my attention. The artistic talent became appar ent after I viewed each piece closely. It was just the content that was disconcerting. Getting past the con tent to the deeper meaning allowed the viewer to appreciate the indi vidual pieces. On the second floor of the same building, DiBiase’s paintings lined the walls. Herworkwas compelling A statue that was part of Eo Trueblood’s exhibit, called, “Angst.” and more pleasing to look at. Her exhibit was a breath of fresh air compared to the Trueblood’s work. She used lots of Caribbean colors. The paintings are done in oils or acrylics on canvases ofvarious sizes. Several of her paintings are as small as a sheet of paper. Her abstract style, in even the smallest paintings, allows the viewer to take plenty of time to enjoy the images. Her paintings have more commercial value, meaning that more viewers could live with these images in their home. They are soft on the eye and thought-provok ing in content. There is a lot of texture added to her paintings, which grabs the interest of the viewer. This rough texture contrasts with the fluid lines of the painting. It seems to further highlight those lines. Most of her work is untitled, but that seems to add to the con tent and pleas antness of the painting. If a title is necessary, the viewer can pro vide their own. The third col lection, in Ramsey Library’s Blowers Gallery, displayed the paintings of Howie. Her collection is called, “Abstrac tion and Pop Culture.” The focus of her paintings is a combination of color and realism. The colors are primary and second ary, and the images are chopped into sections in the form of a col lage. Her technical skill is evident in the detail of the pictures. Commenting on her style, she said, "In my paintings, I want to break the images into displaced sections, like the organization of memories in the mind." These displaced sections are, on their own, interesting features, but taking them as a whole are much more impressive. All in all, each exhibit has merits which appeal to a variety of art appreciation styles. JAMES PRITCHITT/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Tunatini's 161 Biltmore Ave. 285-9110 Mil I NFL Football 0pen@12:30 Appetizer Bar Begins at Kickoff Domestic Bottles $1.50 Build Your Own Bloody Mary from Our New Bloody Mary Bar with All of the Fixins! 1PM-5PM 2’S Day— 2 Domestic Bottles, 2 Well High Balls for the Price of 1 80’s Music 'T'lr n $2.50 Cosmo’s and Kamikazee’s Howlin’ Howie FREE APPETIZER BAR!!! Monday Night Football on Big Screen $1.50 Domestics $1 Budweiser Bottles DISCO NIGHT Live Entertainment... 11/2 Scoll Jeffrey’s Band A MUST SEE!!! 11/3 Chris Rhodes on Guitar
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 1, 2001, edition 1
5
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75