Page 6
The Blue Banner
November 1,2001
0
Features
I
Anne Frank exhibit details history with dense reading
Sarah-Vance
Goodman
Features Reporter
The Anne Frank exhibition, run
ning through Nov. 15 at the
Biltmore Square Mall, is more for a
student of history than someone
seeking to be entertained.
Although I learned a great deal, I
was discouraged and impatient with
the amount of reading and work I
had to put into my visit.
Located directly outside Profitt's
department store, the exhibit was
held in a space that used to befit a
mall shop.
A folding table was set up at the
entrance where my three-dollar
donation was collected.
An extremely nice middle-aged
woman gave me instructions,
guided me to the first numbered
panel and showed me how the tour
would progress.
It was a well-organized self-guided
tour.
Each panel of information, begin
ning with Anne Frank's early child
hood history, was numbered. As
long as you could count, you would
not get lost.
I entered enthusiastically, started
at the first numbered board and
read the English version in its en
tirety (the panels were also trans
lated into Spanish).
I proceeded in the same manner
through the first 10 sections, read
ing not only about Frank's younger
years, but also getting a better un
derstanding of the parallel events
occurring in Germany which led to
World War II.
Excerpts from Anne Frank's diary
jogged my memory, taking me back
to middle school, where I first en
countered the book.
I realized then how small of an
impact this diary had on me at that
time in my life; I do not think I fully
understood the situation and con
ditions which surrounded it.
This exhibit recapitulated on what
Fifth Annual
Jingle Bell
Walk/Run
TO Cure
Arthritis
On November 4th
runners and walk
ers of all ages will
don holiday cos
tumes, put silver
bells on their
shoes and take to
the streets of
UNCA, taking steps
to cure arthritis.
To register for the
event please call
1-800-883-8806.
The registration
fee is $25 in ad
vance or $30 on
November 4th. For
more information
contact Kevin
Plate at 1-800-
883-8806 or
kplate@arthritis. org.
I had missed. It filled in the histori
cal gaps and helped to awaken my
awareness as to what was going on
simultaneously outside of the
Frank's hideaway.
I had previously read “The Diary
of Anne Frank” as required reading
for seventh grade English class.
As I made my way through the
words and photographs of this
archive, I began to see how impor
tant this child's diary is to our
understanding of Jewish persecu
tion by the Nazi regime. Had I not
been patient enough to take the
time to investigate each numbered
display, I do not think I would
have gotten as much out of it.
After viewing about 10 panels, I
glanced over to an adjoining room
of similar displays, and realized I
had a long way to go.
I read "48" at the bottom of one
of them, and it was then that I
decided to skim the historical as
pects of the exhibit, instead of bog
ging myself down as if I were going
to have to take a pop quiz.
In the middle of the self-guided
tour, there was an opportunity to
view various video interviews of
the Shoah Foundation, an archive
founded by Steven Spielberg to
urgently chronicle first hand ac
counts of the Holocaust.
Not only was this a good chance
for my eyes to rest from reading,
but these testimonies gave further
insight into the injustices experi
enced in concentration camps.
I listened to Rena Kornreich
Gellisen, an elderly lady born in
Poland.
Through her rich German accent
I gathered that the German lan
guage was taught to her despite her
Jewish and Hebrew background.
I could see a passion in her eyes for
her heritage and a disgust at the
hideous practices that took place
during the war when she was a
child.
Although I only watched a seg
ment of video, there were numer
ous clips available to be viewed.
I continued my tour with renewed
interest after hearing from Gellisen.
"Therefore itis
impossible for
me to come
^dseeit-'
ERIK JACOBS/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
One man takes a close look at part of the Anne Frank exhibit.
I realized Frank's diary itself has
become an archive, a living legacy.
The tour comparatively drew ex
cerpts from her journal about with
events happening in the war and in
concentration camps.
This historical content took me
through the end of the war, Anne's
death to typhus fever in one of the
camps, and her father opening up
their house as a museum in I960.
Much has been done in memory of
the Frank family, including the pro
duction of a stage play and a movie.
The exhibition concluded with
panels containing photos of people
around the world who, in all their
diverse natures, speak out against
prejudice in any form.
This was not only a history lesson
about World War II and a young
girl who eloquently writes her feel
ings in a journal, but it was a pro
motion for worldwide tolerance and
understanding.
A careful study of the war, along
with Frank's writings, reveals a
yearning for humanity in the wake
of tragedy. We could all use a dose
of this, presently.
Idiot s advice column
Margaret Lee
Features Reporter
“Dear Alice.. .Rejected Letters to
Advice Columns from Completely
Insane Idiots,” by Steven Ryniak,
made me laugh and stop every two
seconds to read another letter out
loud. Stories containing R-rated
language, sex and drugs fill the pages
of this book, made up of rejected
letters to columnists.
“I answered an ad in the newspa
per to take part in these federal
studies and get paid $500 a week to
get drunk and do drugs for only 20
minutes a day, and now they won’t
let me out,” reads just one of the
hilarious stories found in “Dear
Alice.”
Ryniak, while a student at Towson
University, began writing to “stave
off the furiously pacific onslaught
of ennui while sitting in lecture
halls and classrooms as a student.”
This is his first book, and I found
every letter, each beginning with
“Dear Alice,” funny and thought-
provoking.
Letters range from people asking
what to do about their “stoner” cat,
to pondering whether a waiter
should have be fired after making a
man choke to death at a restaurant
and if a pilot should continue using
crack and other hard core drugs
while flying.
A two-page, ridiculous math ques
tion makes up one of the letters,
which Ryniak admits he actually
asked his calculus professor, the
professor “did not think it was
funny.” I wondered how he could
come up with such a question
About 70 stories make up the
book, which is dedicated to every
one who has “ever written a letter to
an advice column, only to be mer
cilessly sodomized by the suffocat
ing frustration of never receiving a
response to your urgent plea foi
help.”
Several stories deal with extreme
and improbable situations, but the^
are, nonetheless, funny.
One begins, “Squirrels always re
member where their nuts are bur
ied in the winter, but can they 1 ^|.
remember where other squirrels are liri
buried?” The letter then describes a
fourth grade teacher who posed such
a question to her class and brutally
killed squirrels in class.
She was fired when parents callec
her science experiments “inhu
mane” and asked if chipmunk:
would have been better. Who think;
about crazy things like this?
Everything in the book is fiction
from the letters to the commentar)
found on the back cover. Alar
Demerol from The New York Gooc,
Server says, “Dear Alice” is “not toe
bad, not too good,” which is made
up by Ryniak, but I agree.
I found some letters funny, some
offensive, and I thought others were
dumb. The book is a quick read and
will certainly provide some spicy
conversation-starters at parties.
As I read, I continuously stopped
to read them out loud to my room
mate.
However, I would not recommend
this book for everyone, due to the
drugs, sex and bad language Ryniak
uses. I recommend this book but
with a caution.
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MOSCOW STATE
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
VLADIMIR FELTSMAN, piano soloist
Thursday, November 8, 2001, 7:00p.m.
The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra is a marvelous instrument - La
Journal a Geneve (Switzerland)
Fletsman is, quite simply, an amazing pianist - The New York Times
TEN TIME GRAMMY AWARD WINNER
BOBBY McFERRIN
“DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY”
A
NEW DATE & TIME
Sunday, November 18, 2001,
2:00 p.m.
Bobby McFcrrin is presented with support from the
Susannc Marcus Collins Foundation
THOMAS WOLFE AUDITORIUM
ASHEVILLE CIVIC CENTER
Tickets $20, S30, $45, $55, half price for children & full time
students at the Civic Center Ticket Office or
Ticketmaster 233-2525
Info: 828-299-0820
Save $$$$$ - Season Tickets Still Available
MOSCOW STATE SYMPHONY
BOBBY McFERRIN
H.M.S. PINAFORE - NEW YORK GILBERT & SULLIVAN PLAYERS
Saturday, January 26, 2002, 7:00 p.m.
SAINT PAUL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Saturday, March 2, 2002, 7:00p.m.
CINDERELLA- NORTH CAROLINA DANCE THEATRE
Sunday, March 10, 3:00p.m.
From $80 - $170 FOR ENTIRE 5 CONCERT SERIES
Asheville Bravo Concerts is supported in part by Asheville Area Arts Council United Fund Drive
P.O. Box 685, Asheville, NO 28802
828.299.0820 www.ashevillebravoconcerts.ore
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