Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 13, 1997, edition 1 / Page 5
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pi'Crs/'ens Weekly Entertainment Section ★ The Daily Tar Heel Two trends have surfaced in this lovely decade known as the nineties which at first seem to have little in common. The first is America’s preoccupation with angels, the second, America’s preoccupation with aliens. .Perhaps it is incorrect to deem either a trend, since both have been around for a while. Angels were around when Lucifer fell from heaven, and everyone knows that aliens built the pyramids. Still, it is only recently that angels and aliens have entered the T shirt business. - You know what I’m talking about: those two cute little Renaissance cherubim that are literally plastered all over everything. My mom even has them hanging on the wall in our house. And aliens with huge almond shaped eyes who were once home to supermarket tabloids and “Unsolved Mysteries” are now being sported by those bastions of style, the Chapel Hill Post Office skaters. I guess that means aliens are officially cool. Hollywood, of course, has to milk every trend for aJJ it is worth. . “Independsfi£g.'Day” provided ns.witKscary,aliens, fancy high-tech looking spaceships and patriotism all rolled into two loud, star-studded hours of celluloid delight, while the movie “Michael” presented a charming portrait of Michael the archangel that had little, if any, basis in biblical tradition. Angels and aliens are also on that barometer of public inanity, the television, in shows like “Touched by an Angel” and “The X-Files.” I feel compelled to mention that my goal here is not to dis “The X-Files” for fear that the people inhabit ing the suite next to mine will eat me for dinner. I just wtmt to know why we feel such a connection to them, add what they have to do with one another. *1 think we just want to know that there is some thing else, and depending on your personality type yOu choose alien or angel. :Do you want to know there is more to the vast uni verse than just Earth, whatever those certain conse quences may be? Do you feel, ahem, alienated? Then you probably choose alien. ;Do you want to feel reassured that God is watching o!ver you, and that the nonhuman beings floating abound are good and bathed in silvery light? You probably choose angel. Both serve the same purpose. They are basically messengers from another world unlike our own, and from them we hope to learn the secrets of the universe. ; Despite our longing to be visited by an angel or kid napped by an alien, we confront the reality with a degree of skepticism. “Who really thinks that Bubba from Comhusk, lowa, was taken into outer space for ten years with no discemable elapse of time? - Who really thinks it was an angel that pushed the hide old lady’s cat from the path of an oncoming vehicle? Actually, from what I can tell, the number of believers is growing. -1 heard recently that more people in their twenties believe in aliens that that they will ever receive social security. So, the angels and aliens keep coming in movies, books and T-shirts, growing in time with our disillusionment. £ As life in the real world gets more complex, I too hfcve turned my eyes to the skies. Douglas Adams’ Guide to the Galaxy” summed it up bfcst when it deemed Earth “mostly harmless.” It’s a riice enough place to hang around while I’m waiting for my ride. The Weekly Barometer Flying to the top Patricia Cornwell still tops the bestseller I I fIT list with ’Hornet’s Nest’ while Michael Crichton enters in with ’Airframe.’ BUgJ Author Title Patricia Cornwell “1110 Hornet's Nest' Michael Crichton ‘’Airframe” Richard North Patterson “Silent Witness' Diana Gabaldon “Drums of Autumn” Jonathan Kellerman “The Clinic” tNOK£ ENTEBIUNMENTWHEKLr mk w j. • y Time for romance ladies and gents. Dress your best and get busy lovin’. BYTODD “THE LOVE DOCTOR” GILCHRIST ASSISTANT ARTS AND DIVERSIONS EDITOR Valentine’s Day rears its sugar-coat ed, mass-marketed head once again in the lives of millions of single people this Friday and intimidates the hell out of them. Why? Well, the whole premise of Valentine’s Day suggests, no, insists, that we have another person to be with, but it also places extreme duress on those who have companions and whose idea of romance is “the old ball and chain," a six-pack of Bud and some pork rinds. Yet in spite of all of this pres sure, we’re addicted to the holi day. We buy chocolate hearts, ‘ candy hearts", cOokie hearts, paper hearts, Whitman’s i samplers (Russian roulette for lovers), jewelry, and pass out roses like the petals are bacchanalian aphrodisi acs. And is it worth it? Absolutely. Nowadays, it reminds one of the days when valentines were a demonstration of friend ship. You spend all night with paste and plastic scissors trying to cut apart a large sheet of Garfield pictures, attaching those tiny, car- cinogenic candy message hearts that say “HUG ME” and placing the whole mess in an envelope exactly two mil limeters smaller than the valentine. Licking the poison adhesive, you have a lumpy, fingerprint-smudged envelope . ready to be delivered into the construc tion paper mailboxes of your fourth grade classmates the next morning. For us adults, Valentine’s Day is the only licensed holiday for men and women to approach the mate of their dreams, hand them a flower and say, “Uh, I think, um, you’re pretty neat.” There’s a sense of accomplishment that comes with stepping out on that narrow ledge to tell this person over whom you’ve been obsessing you think they are “the bees’ knees.” Judging from the sleepy-eyed drones running around in sweatpants and Big Johnson t-shirts, “dressing up” is an infrequent practice on this campus. February 14 is the day you can set aside those oversized Carolina sweatshirts and slick yourself down with an outfit that will attract more looks than if you Sweet gives crowd new, fresh sound You might be able to relate to this. You go on a car trip with your parents and don’t want to spend six hours listening to the Boston Pops doing the “Best of Star Trek,” but 90% of your CDs would cause major inter-generational embarrassment. So, you try to chose something cool, but parentally approvable. Because of this, STEVEN FERRARA] Concert Review Matthew Sweet Matthew Sweet’s third album, “Girlfriend,” my sister’s all-time fave, became the sound track of College Tour ‘93. Fast forward to February 8, 1997. Matthew Sweet, 2 albums later (and one due out in late March), hits Carrboro, NC and rocks Cat’s Cradle with his previously men tioned brand of guitar heavy, alternative pop fun for the whole family. Backed by a tight touring band, Sweet blasted through all the hits, stopping only to have a laugh with his bandmates and to change guitars (he played about 10). Playing Thursday, February 13,1997 ■ A relationship with Vahi ttine'& T)ay/ ran, screaming and on fire, through the middle of the Pit. The frat boys will be drooling on their khakis as you, in your best dress, saunter past the Pit, calling for men with only the krinkle of a fin ger. Oh, yeah, then there’s that crazy thing called love. Love your friends, your companion, your relatives or (God forbid) your boss, ists, that boss, k % w 1) Don’t be alo rith, but i- % take this as havin; those the arm: us M m J' tfl BP wi &/; Wv-j) ™ fin i■, _ th t *® V Wm y° u ha ‘ i eld n write tl Car " a / • paper that tha ‘ say ipr month and ’ whole theory that i wo go away. Before dentine. it \ P* * be the 15th of Feb be :nvelope just - 1 in 3) Do someth! onstruc- love. On I Ji s Pl as h‘ you wouldn’t norm r fourth U \ es of red what your friends, .mg. For Valentine’s and pink: say and go get th; ie only Day, tell your best Valentine’s that CD The less omen to friend you love him Day. Some about what some dreams, or buy your workout would rather be you, the better. “Üb, I friend that little gift she burned alive at the 4) Avoid talk sh< rhere’s a mentioned; these small stake than to watch vision. When yoi t comes tokens of esteem are the founda- this yearly ritual. For at about love, a surpr >w ledge dons of long and lasting relationships, least a week preceding on Ricki Lake or a i you’ve and it’s not stretching too far to say that v Valentine’s Day the public is inun- “One Life to Live we all want to be able to talk, think, and relate to other people at more than an immediate level. There are few holidays as a pre-pack aged and plastic-wrapped as Valentine’s, but the ideas upon which it was found ed are connected to the heart of each of us. Now I’m sliding into pretentious sentimentality, but that’s okay. After all, it’s almost Valentine’s Day to a noticeably older crowd, Sweet drew equally from his last three albums (ignoring completely the synth-pop disasters that were his first two records), mixing in some new material to keep the crowd on their feet. Kicking off with “Dinosaur Act,” the band immediately showed the crowd what was in store for the evening: crunchy rhythm guitar, tight drumming, and his saccharine sweet vocals topped off with gigantic hooks and the appropriate backing harmonies. While all of this was going on, guitarist Ivan Julian was busy layering on his omni-directional Stratocaster-toned leads, all of which blend ed together to create a tasty pop confection that could only be described as, well, Sweet (ugh). Matthew Sweet has stumbled upon a great formula for songwriting, a formula he does n’t seem ready to give up (as his new songs demonstrated), but his incredibly strong pop sensibilities keep the songs fresh and varied. This could be seen in the quirky opening riff of “Divine Intervention,” the semi-funky Dance Pulk ~ Page 5 Love? Tell old Cupid to talk to the hand; Valentine’s Day has no point. BYTODD “COLD FREEZE” DARLING ARTS AND DIVERSIONS EDITOR Once again, it’s that special day of the year when love reigns supreme and Hallmark stores across the nation are aglow dated with advertisements calling them to “show that special someone you care.” Gross, many people would say. Shouldn’t there be a day celebrating loneliness and celibacy? It is baffling to figure out why we need a holiday to spout off silly romantic words that usu ally don’t even make sense the next day. What about the other 364 days out of the year? And if things weren’t bad groove of “Girlfriend,” the harder rocking chords that drive “Sick of Myself” and the pensive strumming of “(I Need Someone to) Pull the Trigger," the latter getting my vote for the feel-good-hit of the year. The band sounded great, and their enthu siasm carried over into the music, raising even the blatant mediocrity of a song like “Does She Talk?” to a higher level than I ever thought possible from the recorded ver sion. Sweet came back for two encores, rip ping through a Sweet-ened cover of David Bowie’s “Moon-Age Daydream,” with Sweet and Julian swapping lead and rhythm duties back and forth, and the crowd favorite “Evangeline” (which had so many couples going at it that I thought Barry White was on stage). A show highlight came at the begin ning of the second encore, though, when Sweet and Julian strapped on hollow body acoustic-electrics for “I Thought I Knew You,” a song he announced that they hadn’t See SWEET, Page 8 Graceful umwSi terrific tutus The Royal Winnipeg Ballet showed off their flair to UNC on Friday with a show that incorporated several different styles of ballet ranging from classical to modem. The show was a beautiful display of ballet at its finest. 9m enough, we have to make a holiday out of it. If schools were cancelled and peo ple got off work for it, I could possibly see the reasoning for it. Since I don’t foresee the end anytime soon, here are some things you can do to make it a lit tle more tolerable (and remember, always keep a paper bag handy for those times when you see a couple happily sucking face and you have to retch.) suciang race ana you nave to reten.j 1) Don’t be alone. Some might mis take this as having to go and jump into the arms of the first man or woman they see. For those of “"us who aren’t suicidal, this means just hanging out with someone else. Go with your friends to rent a movie (preferable find that its more fun not worrying about a cum bersome significant other. 2) Use the time to get other things done. Catch up on those 200 pages you had to read for class or write that ever-so-important paper that’s not due for another month and a half. Believe in the theory that if you ignore it, it will go away. Before you know it, it will be the 15th of February and your trou bles will be behind you. 3) Do something for yourself that you wouldn’t normally do. Forget about what your friends, parents, etc. would say and go get that new outfit or buy that CD. The less you need to worry about what someone else says about you, the better. 4) Avoid talk shows and daytime tele vision. When you’re trying to forget about love, a surprise wedding proposal on Ricki Lake or a gushy love scene on “One Life to Live” will not help you. Try watching the X-Files and ponder the question if there really is any intelli gent life out there. The art of avoiding Valentine’s Day like the plague is one to be perfected. Just don’t worry about the lovesick fools walking around. For V-Day this year, just hang on tight and it will be over before you know it. And hey, there’s always Halloween to look forward to. Matthew Sweet rocked the Cradle Saturday with his pop sounds. something in the non-romarice"‘genre such as, _ “The Exorcist”), explore the bottom floor of Lenoir Hall or sim ply hang out. You’ll
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Feb. 13, 1997, edition 1
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