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Conference to celebrate tradition of Southern sound By LISA ANTOKUCCI Staff Writer The rich heritage of traditional music from the American South will be the focus of "Sounds of the South," a three-day conference marking the official opening of the Southern Folklife Collection. Nearly 250 scholars, collectors and musicians have gathered at UNC to join in the "celebration." "The conference lets people across the country even in other countries know that we are here," said Daniel Patterson, chairman of UNC's Curriculum in Folklore and a Kenan professor of English. "Sounds of the South" has received positive response nationally as well as internationally, according to George Holt, director of the Folklife Section of the North Carolina Arts Council. "We have a wonderfully diverse group of people attending the con Nationally By JESSICA YATES Staff Writer Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry Taylor will kick off a new series of poetry events at UNC with a special reading of his poetry today at 4 p.m. in 203 Bingham Hall. Taylor, who is the co-director in the creative writing department at American University, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for one of his poetry collections "The Flying Change." James Seay, the director of creative writing at UNC, invited him to launch the opening of the Blanche Armfield poetry fund. Sports Padires outeuim rest In a fickle sport where it's best to stay away from blanket state ments, one such all-encompassing remark may safely be uttered: baseball's toughest division is the National League West. The Los Angeles Dodgers won the West by seven games on the way to their improbable world championship last season, but a, mere five games separated the next four teams. This year's race should be just as tight and even ' more fun to watch, thanks to the importation of such American League super stars as Eddie Murray, Jack Clark, Bruce Hurst and Todd Benzinger. Here's how it will turn out: 1. San Diego Padres "Trader" Jack McKeon has done it again, continuing a trend of winter wizardry which has the Padres, absolutely abominable this time last year, sitting atop a heap of divisional contenders heading into this season. McKeon's offseason acquisitions of slugging first baseman Jack Clark as well as top-notch starting pitchers Bruce Hurst and Walt Terrell were just what the Padres needed to make it back to the postseason for the first time since 1984. Incidentally, before that season McKeon picked up Steve Garvey, Goose Gossage and Graig Nettles. Is this deja vu or what? Mainstays Tony Gwynn (who is going for his third straight batting title), Roberto Alomar, Benito Santiago, John Kruk and Carmelo Martinez (super spring) will sur round Clark in the league's best batting order this side of New York. Vastly underrated hurlers Eric Show (1611) and Dennis Ras mussen (16-10) round out the rotation. And in the pen, McKeon has lefty Mark Davis (28 saves, 2.0 1 ERA) to snuff out enemy rallies. 2. Cincinnati Reds There's nothing funny about Pete Rose's alleged gambling problem, and I wish people would stop mocking a man who was once America's greatest sporting symbol. At this . point, odds are good that Rose will Benefitting the UNC Memorial Hospital Department of Pediatric Oncology Race Day Registration Begins 9 am First Race at 1 1 am Race Site: Municipal Road off Airport Rd. in Chapel Hill Pre-registration:$10 Race Day Registration: $12 Prizes Include: Misc. Cycling Equipment, Records, Tapes CsfA Grand Prize! Divisions of Recreation and Competition for youth, men, women and teams. All participants are entered in Grand Prize and receive an of f icial Race T-Shirt. Pre-RegUtration with any Phi Delta Theta member or call 929-6093 for more information. Sponsored by Of fTffTl Ifl f!rf X)flf 9 The Newt and Observer, Performance Bicycle Shop. H Checker! Pizza. School Kid Records, Univeral Printing ference," Holt said. "Many influential people are coming just to be in the audience. "The North Carolina Arts Council recognizes the collection as a tre mendous resource for the state. UNC will become a major research insti tution for this type of study and We are happy to support it." The collection was established in 1968 by some of the UNC faculty members who began using long playing albums in their classes. Since then faculty, graduate students and others have donated material to build on the collection. With the purchase of the John Edwards Memorial Collection in 1983, the archive has grown to contain nearly 38,000 recordings. Music ranges from blues to Cajun to Tex-Mex, but the col lection is strongest in its number of country music recordings. According to Patterson, the collec tion and the work that it represents known poet to read Seay said he selected Taylor because of his national recognition and stature. He admires Taylor's works for their clarity. "He has a very keen sense of the formal attentions of the poetry. It strives toward an excellence." In addition, a well-defined sense of place characterizes Taylor's works, he said. Taylor, who grew up in rural Virginia, describes his own poems as having "a feeling of fullness about them. The style tends to be more accessible, not influenced by modern ism." He has based many of his poems Mike Berardino N.L. West be suspended for the season, but that definitely should not prevent him from entering the Hall of Fame on his first try in 1992. Preaching aside, the Reds are my pick to finish second for the fifth straight season. That's right, the dominant team of the 70s has become the Alydar of the 80s always close enough to sniff the stogie, but never able to taste it. In fact, it's been 10 years since Cincy last won the division. Whoever manages this team will delight in filling out a daily lineup card with names like Eric Davis, Kal Daniels, Paul O'Neill, Todd Benzinger, Barry Larkin and Chris Sabo, last season's top rookie. They will score runs, no doubt, and in Danny Jackson (23-8, 2.73 ERA), Tom Browning, Jose Rijo and stopper John Franco (1.57 ERA, 39 saves), they have the pitching talent to protect even the slimmest of leads. So why not pick them to win? Two reasons: the distraction of the Rose situation and the Tom Kite Factor. Explanation for the latter reason: some people, like the unlucky golfer, are just meant to finish second. 3. Houston Astros Bob Knepper has a point. If Astros, owner John McMulleri was really serious about winning it all, he would have resigned the ageless Nolan Ryan instead of letting Houston's heart and soul become a Texas Ranger for a few extra dollars. And don't think for a minute that newcomers Rick Rhoden and Jim Clancy (com bined 23-25, 4-plus ERA) will offset Ryan's loss. Glenn Davis (30 HR, 99 RBI) and Gerald Young (65 SB) are very productive, but not enough to hide gaping holes at shortstop, third base, catcher and in the bullpen. 4. San Francisco Giants The 1987 West champs could reclaim is a "window into a culture that may have passed away. This conference therefore is a time to look back at our strengths and weaknesses, achievements and failures." Scholars like Patterson and David Whisnant, an English professor who teaches a class in country music, believe their major strengths have been in documenting, collecting and recording. "We captured so much before it faded away," Patterson said, "which is a real accomplishment considering that for a long time, many were ashamed to admire such music." The conference is also a time to reminisce over the last 60 years, back to when the record companies dis covered there was a market for this music and people spent their own. money and .personal time to create these new music genres. "Most of this work was done outside an institutional context since the information was not of value at on the years he spent growing up on a farm, but he is careful to point out that he is not an overly reminiscent person. "I sort of like cities, as a matter of fact," Taylor said, "though it is easier to find the solitude to work in the country." He said he felt that governmental and economical forces have made life harder for farm people although he himself doesnt feel these effects. "I didn't come from a hard-scrabbling background or anything like that." Taylor's experiences growing up on a farm have had certain advantages. of West their lofty throne this season on one condition: that manager Roger Craig stop teaching that awful, elbow-shattering split-fingered fastball to his poor impressionable staff. Mike Krukow and Dave Dra vecky have already been irrepara bly damaged by the tinkerings of their well-meaning skipper, and the tender joints of Kelly Downs, Atlee Hammaker and Scott Garrelts can't, be fa behind in the twinge, parade., Things have gotten so bad that the new stopper is Mike LaCoss, a man whose career has been recycled more times than a Pepsi can. The Giants do have plenty of hitting, led by the potent bats of first baseman Will Clark (29 HR, 109 RBI) and left fielder Kevin Mitchell (19 HR, 90 RBI), but all too often Craig's overmanaging runs them out of big innings. 5. Los Angeles Dodgers After going from worst to first, the Dodgers will fall back in the pack. Tommy Lasorda's win-with-mirrors policy of last year will be shattered by the harsh realities that Willie Randolph is old, Fernando Valenzuela ' is washed up, John Shelby is painfully mediocre and World Series hero Mickey Hatcher is just plain horrible. 6. Atlanta Braves Earlier this decade, the Braves were billed as America's team. With visible assets like that, it's no wonder the dollar is worth around two quarters and the Japanese now own every U.S. company that's in the black. Fortunately for Superstation subscribers, the youth movement is on. Only on WTBS can we follow a Triple-A team on a daily basis. Tune in and watch Tom Glavine, Pete Smith, Derek Lilliquist and Jeff Blauser take their lumps in the majors against vastly superior competition. Trading Dale Murphy and Zane Smith for a truckload of talent is an essential step in the renovation of baseball's most laughable bunch of losers. But not surprisingly, GM Bobby Cox doesn't seem able to pull the trigger on any deals. 53ia KIsmq .IP Available in 6 styles with many colors to choose from including UWUSl tumbro 133 W. Franklin St. Open: ai - M-F 1 0 am -7 pm Sat 10 om-G pm V 3 the time," Whisnant said. "People would come home from their 'real' jobs to this enterprise that they loved and work on it with incredible persistence and dedication." The conference also allows an opportunity to assess the collection's flaws. Patterson said he believed some of the most obvious weaknesses have been the failure to record and document people who did not seem to be important at the time, or the failure to record the music without finding out about the musician. Whisnant, who will address the conference this afternoon, goes further in his assessment of their weaknesses. "Our enterprise has been shaped by racism, sexism and pol itical conservatism. I would like to see a deeper study of the relationship between the black and white artists as well as more attention paid to the role of women not only as per formers but also as subjects. from his For instance, "it came to be useful to have been a competitive horseman during my youth," he said. "It helped to develop patience at an early age." Taylor has now applied this habit to poetry writing by not hurrying to finish a poem. "A poem can never be exactly what you thought it would be before you started writing." Since poetry is language, and what is in the writer's head are feelings, "finding the right words is sometimes nearly impossible," he explained. He regards this, however, as part of the challenge, saying "it keeps it interesting and sometimes makes it better." Well-amed Mets rale N.L East In the baseball world, or the Land of No Repeat, no team has won back-tb-back division titles since way back in 1980-81, when the New York Yankees pulled the trick in the American League East. This year, at the other end of the New York subway, another team has what it takes to close out the 80s in similar fashion. ' 1. New York Mets This team is about as close as youH come to seeing a modern baseball dynasty. Five consecutiye , seasons . of 90 or more victories, with an average of 97 in the W column. Still, in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately sports world, numbers from 1985 don't win you a pennant in 1989. With the Mets, though, that brings us to a somewhat scary, thought. What they have done in the past might not be as impressive as what they are capable of doing in the future. The Mets have eight proven winners on the staff to go with some talented youngsters. The biggest problem with the starting rotation is figuring out who's the ace. Dwight Gooden (18-9), David Cone (20-3, 2.22 ERA), Ron Darling (17-9), Bob Ojeda and Sid Fernandez are second to none. In the bullpen, Randy Myers (7-3, 1.62 ERA, 26 saves) and Roger McDowell make up the best lefty righty combo in the league. The Mets' offense, which led the league in runs, homers, slugging and on-base percentage last year, could be better this year. Kevin McRey nolds (27 HR, 99 RBI), Darryl Strawberry (39 HR, 101 RBI) arc joined by upstarts Gregg Jefferies and Kevin Elster in the explosive lineup. Strawberry, McReynolds, Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and How ard Johnson provide speed arid defense. Veterans Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez are tailing off, but they're both in the option years of their contracts. Look for the salary drives. 2. Montreal Expos The Expos were right with the Mets last year until mid-August, but they're still just a notch below the New Yorkers. The starting rotation finished second to the Mets last year in ERA, before workhorse Kevin Gross and tonnS University Square IUfci VISA. z& ri The Daily Moreover, there is a whole genre of politically influenced music that needs to be dealt with." The third aspect of the conference is planning for, the future. Whisnant said he felt this "enterprise has been one of cultural resistance. We've pulled our wagons in a circle and turned inward. Now that we have decided who we are and that this music is good, it is time to turn outward." . What happened in the South the conditions that led to the creation of this music is now happening elsewhere in the world, Whisnant said. "Those threatened, enclaved, marginalized, stigmatized minority cultural systems must begin to under stand the commonalities of their interests and begin to relate to each other. Without making these connec tions, without pooling together our energies, we cannot retain the strength and vision to carry this prize - winning work In addition, some of Taylor's poems are the result of a unique writing technique. "They don't seem to be the result of endless cutting down, but rather, some are the product of the direct opposite," he said. Taylor felt honored in winning the Pulitzer Prize, but said he had no idea why he was awarded the prestigious prize. "Prizes like this are sort of like a lottery. I was extremely lucky in that they just happened to like my kind of thing." Joseph Flora, chairman of UNC's English department, said the new Dave Glenn N.L. East impressive rookie Randy Johnson jumped aboard. TheyH join stalwarts Pascual Perez (2.44 ERA), Bryn Smith (3.00 ERA) and Dennis Mar tinez (15-13, 2.72). Tim Burke (18 saves), Andy McGaffigan and lefty Joe Hesketh man a solid, but unspec tacular, bullpen. Runs will come courtesy of super star outfielder Tim Raines, plus a couple of guys who would be raeg astars if they could get out of Canada. Cornerstones Andres Galarraga (.302, 29 HR, 92 RBI) and Tim Wallach join Raines and Hubie Brooks (20 HR, 90 RBI) to give the Canadians an excellent nucleus. 3. Pittsburgh Pirates The Bucs will go only as far as their pitching will take them. That can be a long way especially if the likes of Doug Drabek (15-7, 3.08), John Smiley and Mike Dunne can turn a string of excellent performances into year-long consistency. The bullpen, impressive last year with journeyman Jim Gott (34 saves) having a career-year, will be hard pressed to duplicate last year's numbers. Even if the starters come through, look for the Bucs to blow a lot of late-inning leads. Gott and Co. will probably have a lot of leads to protect, though, with a 1 -2-3-4 combo of Barry Bonds (.283, 24 HR), Jose Lind, Andy Van Slyke (25 HR, 100 RBI, 30 SB) and Bobby Bonilla (24 HR, 100 RBI) smashing opposing pitchers into oblivion. 4. St.Louis Cardinals This team has the starting eight to challenge the Mets. Unfortunately for Whitey ii i?i " fail r i FHEE TRAVEL CATALOGS Cole Glen 7,,- t Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Tar Heel Thursday, April 6, 19897 enterprise forward." "Sounds of the South" is no ordinary academic conference. The passion and commitment infused in ? this "enterprise" have carried it' beyond scholarship to the hearts of. the people involved. Patterson recalls" talking to a religious singer who" "began to weep when she sang. i. don't know if I can finish, she said..' 'It means so much to me.' It is that ' meaning that's worth finding out' about. It's profound." In conjunction with "Sounds of the South," a concert of Southern tra- ditional music will be held at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro Friday at 8 p.m. It will feature artists such as blues guitarist Etta Baker; Doug Wallin, an English and Appalachian song and ballad singer; and Mike Seeger, Tommy Thompson and Alan Jabbour of the string band music revival. Tickets are $8 and are available at the ArtsCenter. Blanche Armfield fund would be announced at the reading. He ; explained that the fund is designed : to "allow the department to regularly have poetry readings, contests for , students and many other related -activities." The department hopes Taylor's, visit will be the first in a long series of events involving poetry. Flora indicated that Armfield would be on hand for Thursday's reading. Arm field is closely tied with the University because she received her master's degree in poetry from UNC. She lives in Washington, D.C. Herzog and friends, all teams are, required to put a ninth man on the. field, on top of a large mound of dirt, in the middle of the infield. Well, it's not really that bad. The Cards do have ace relievers Todd; Worrell and Ken Dayley, but even; they are coming off mediocre years. Jose DeLeon, with a team-high 13 wins last year, needs help from Joe: Magrane (2.18 ERA) and no-longer-- m. - u "T 'T 1 youngsters ukc ocoii lcriy, juuii Costello and Greg Mathews. The Redbirds will be off ' arid, running again this year with neweb-: uici inn JUUC5 yjy jd) juiiuug iiic Stolen Base Express of Vince Cole man (81 SB), Ozzie Smith (57 SB) and Willie McGee (41 SB). With the big bats of Pedro Guerrero and Tom Brunansky behind the roadrunners, Herzog will have a productive offen sive blend. 5. Chicago Cubs The Cubs will score some runs, with Ryan Sand berg, Mark Grace and Andre Daw son leading the way. There will be a lot of dead grass between the dugouts and the batter's box at Wrigley Field this year. Unfortu nately for the Cubs, their opponents will be doing a dance of their owri as they parade around the diamond. No. 1 starter Greg Maddux (18 8) can't reproduce last year's numbers. The rest of the staff prob ably wouldn't want even want to look at last year's numbers. i 6. Philadelphia Phillies The Phillies farm system has produced more major leaguers than any other. The problem is, most of them are playing (and doing very well) for other teams. With Juan Samuel, Von Hayes, Ricky Jordan and a rejuven ated Mike Schmidt leading the way, they'll score some runs. But they have no pitching. None. Travel Lennox Shopping Center Phone: 967-8888
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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