6The Daily Tar HeelFriday, September 29, 1989
t
Spotlight
Cannibals serve up tasty show despite shortcomings5
The Fine Young Cannibals put on a
competent if not passionate show
Thursday night in Durham.
But the Cannibals, touring in sup
port of their top-selling album The Raw
and the Cooked, played at a much-less-than-packed
Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Perhaps the English dance band
would have filled the 5,500-seat con
cert arena if the cost of tickets hadn't
been so exorbitant. Even for a band
with a No. 1 album, $20 is too steep a
price for less than two hours of enter
tainment. Just because the Stones charge too
much doesn't mean everybody else has
to, too. If Mick and Keith jumped off a
bridge, would well, you get the
point.
Widow's
Author Allan
)itj
Band to perform for human kindness
By VICKI HYMAN
Staff Writer
The Bo Lozoff Band, in its only
1989 public performance, will play in
the name of human kindness tonight at
Under The Street in Durham.
All proceeds from the dance concert
will go to the Human Kindness
Foundation's fourth annual N.C. Prison
Tour.
The 15-year-old Human Kindness
Foundation is a non-profit organiza
tion working to encourage more kind
ness throughout the world. Its main
consideration at the moment is the
Prison-Ashram Project, directed by
Lozoff and his wife Sita.
The focus of the Prison-Ashram
Project is a spiritual rehabilitation of
inmates though music, as well as
through books and workshops aimed at
helping prisoners to "quiet their minds,
open their hearts, and develop simple,
classic qualities which guarantee a
happy life; qualities such as self-honesty,
courage, kindness, humor and
wonder."
This year, Lozoff and his band are
touring six adult male prisons, two
women's prisons and two youth facili
ties, where they spend the entire day in
each facility, setting up an elaborate
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FALL COLORS OF BENETTON.
Benetton
South Square Mall
Upper level near Belk
Durham Telephone: 489-1917
Tom Parks
Concert
Tragically, the scheduled opening
act, Neneh Cherry, was a no-show, and
last minute rumors that hip-hop stand
outs De La Soul would open proved
untrue.
Young MC, a straightforward rap
per who was "born in London, raised in
Hollis," took Cherry's place for the
night and played a short set which in
cluded his MTV hit, "Bust a Move."
The song details Young's advice on
picking up women, dancing and the
interrelatedness of all things.
tales span generations in powerful new nove
OS?
Gurganus
sound system and rehearsing with
inmate musicians, singers, and rappers,
who perform in the concert later that
day. This year's tour runs through Oct.
7.
According to Lozoff, the philosophy
behind the project is clear. "Imagine a
prisoner who has maybe screwed up
every part of his life except that he's
great at playing the guitar or singing;
yet we put him in a place where he can't
even do the one thing that gives him
self-esteem. That doesn't make sense
to me," he said.
"People need to feel good about
themselves. I wish the general public
could feel the hope, gratitude and love
we inspire in many inmates simply by
hanging out with them a while and
making music. That's the kind of
emotional opening where true rehabili
tation can begin."
Sita Lozoff agreed. "Most people
take the philosophy that you should
throw prisoners in jail and treat them
cruelly. But they are going to get out ...
We should set kindness as an example.
It works. It's the only way the system
will work."
Carol Caldwell, recreation director
for the N.C. Division of Prisons, is very
enthusiastic about the project. "I have a
"You got no money," raps Young,
"you got no car and you got no woman
so there you are." He then slammed on
women, calling them sadistic, materi
alistic and opportunistic.
Still, Young is a feminist compared
to rappers like N.W.A., who "spell girl
witha'B.'"
After Young left the stage, the crowd
was treated to more than half an hour of
silence as the Cannibals played rock
stars and procrastinated. Once on stage,
the band was greeted with shouts of joy
as Roland Gift, Andy Cox, David Steele
and a backup band of four launched
into "Johnny Come Home" off FYC's
self-titled debut album.
Gift enjoyed himself and played to
the crowd. During "Good Thing," off '
You've all heard that old joke about
life. You know the one. You've proba
bly heard it a million times.
Well, those of you who need a little
help remembering should spend a few
hours with Allan Gurganus' epic first
effort "Oldest Living Confederate
Widow Tells All." True to the title, the
Confederate widow Lucy Marsden pulls
out all the stops, and then some.
Lucy has lived a long time 99
years to be exact. She's lived through
most of the 20th century, and she's
watched the things that have changed
and the things that haven't. If she seems
to know everything and everyone, it's
because she's seen it all.
When Lucy was 15, she married a
Confederate veteran 36 years older than
she. She raised nine children. She lis
tened to her old husband's war tales.
She watched the old man as he died
slowly and painfully.
Now, old but never weary, Lucy has
retired to a charity home. But she's not
dead yet, and she finally has the chance
to tell not only the tales that she has
heard but also tales of her own life.
And does she have some great tales.
Her tales are spicy, raunchy, often
gruesome but never dull. No one is
exempt from her scathing wit; every
thing is fair game.
Her stories span several generations
and she incorporates an unconventional,
unpretentious wisdom. She tells the
stories in the voices of the people who
originally told them, but she adds a flair
and humor you wouldn't expect out of
great appreciation for the volunteer
work that Bo brings to the prison sys
tem and for the correspondence he
maintains with the inmates," she said.
Tonight's dance conceit will feature
original songs as well as rock V roll
and rhythm and blues standards. The
musicians include Lozoff on lead vo
cals and rhythm guitar, Armand
Lenchek on lead guitar, Chris Turner
on harmonicas, Alison Weiner on key
boards, Ben Palmer on bass and John
Hanks on drums.
Lenchek, who helped organize and
start the N.C. Prison Tours in 1986, is
appearing for the first time with the
band duringthis tour. "This is the fourth
year in a row for the prison tours, and
many people know about it," Lenchek
said. "We're expecting a very large
crowd."
He described the tour as "a really
amazing experience. It's a really differ
ent world. I've played music in differ
ent situations ... bars, festivals, wed
dings, but this is a totally different
experience it's a whole different
type of communication."
The dance concert will begin at 9
p.m. Admission is $5 at the door of
Under The Street in Durham.
Benetton
Northgate Mall
Near Thalhimers
Durham Telephone: 286-5548
the band's latest album, the multi-talented
singer pounded out the piano solo
with both hands and his right foot.
Cox, the band's virtuoso rhythm
guitarist, and Steele, who played bass
and keyboards (but not both at the same
time) were one third of the English
Beat.
The two former Beat-ers, though
accomplished musicians and songwrit
ers, looked more like Gift's sidemen
than true members of the band. For
some reason, the bass and guitar were
not mixed high enough to be distin
guished through the whole show.
For at least three songs you wouldn't
even know Cox played except that his
fingers moved. But that wasn't his fault.
When his playing was audible, it was
Hasie Sirisena
Book
someone who has seen so much pain.
The novel is set in rural North Caro
lina in the fictional town of Falls, a
generic name for your typical Southern
town. Many of you will probably rec
ognize the other places mentioned:
Rocky Mount, Raleigh, Castalia. You'll
probably even recognize some of the
characters.
There are three main voices through
out the novel: Lucy's husband, her
friend Castalia, and Lucy herself.
When the novel opens, her husband
is already dead. Captain Marsden fought
in the Civil War when he was only 13,
never having the chance to enjoy being
young. He's introduced to death early
when, during the war, he loses his young
friend Ned.
Ned has the voice of an angel and is
as pretty as one. The Captain has never
forgiven himself for Ned's death, and
he has never gotten over the loss of his
youth. Lucy sets out to try to make up
for both losses; "I still believed I could
rescue the boy in him," she says.
But she only succeeds in losing her
own youth.
Then there is Captain Marsden 's
housekeeper and ex-slave, Castalia,
who uses her alter-ego figure Reba to
relate a powerful tale of subjugation.
Reba is a witch-queen, a representative
Group merges diverse talents
By ELIZABETH MURRAY
Staff Writer
They are writers and readers, ac
tors and singers, dancers and speak
ers. And along with words they speak,
talent and pride fill the room every
time they perform.
The group is Ebony Readers, a
black rhetorical group that performs
black poetry, prose, plays and any
other form of black literature.
Ebony Readers was formed in 1 974
when a group of black students was
asked to present some works by blacks
at the Black Student Movement
(BSM) ball, said Cheryl Grant, presi
dent of Ebony Readers. "The crowd
liked the performance so much that
the students formed a permanent
organization called the Ebony Read
ers Honors Theatre."
Now the group makes up one of
four parts of the Black Student Move
ment on campus; the others are the
Opeyo dancers, the Black Ink and
Black Women United.
Usually Ebony Readers performs
by invitation and puts on a major
production once a year. 'Two years
ago we did 'A Walk Down 125th
Street' in the Cabaret and got a really
big turnout for that," Grant said.
The group has not decided what
this year's production will be.
Ebony Readers welcomes students
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crisp and cutting.
Cox's two solos were brief, to the
point and a refreshing change from the
self-indulgent, 10-minute solos most
rock guitarists feel inclined to share
with the world.
The band played all its hits over the
course of the show, including "Suspi
cious Minds," made famous by Elvis
Pressley.
Steele's bass playing on "Don't Look
Back" was his finest moment of the
show. He finally broke through the mix
and put down a funk-laden beat.
But the show's highlight was "I'm
Not the Man I Used to be." Gift dedi
cated the song to "all the men in the .
audience and all the women who have
to put up with them."
of the collective unconscious of all
slaves.
In one of the most moving parts of
the book, Castalia tells of a slave auc
tion that is made all the more tragic by
Reba's refusal to accept the situation:
"We soon gone meet in the Court of
Our New Whitenesses. We just ... being
led off to go get dressed up something
fine, to sleep some."
And finally, there is Lucy herself.
Married off too young to know what is
happening to her, she finds herself trying
to comfort and live with a man almost
three times her age.
If her story is tragic, she asks for no
pity. She does admit to a tendency to
"embroider on the decent musl in truth,"
but a fundamental honesty and percep
tiveness remains.
And there is, in all these tales, a
unifying thread.
Lucy subtly draws connections be
tween the loss of the youth of her char
acters and the loss of the youth in the
present generation. For instance, she
notices how her husband's reaction to
the Civil War is much like the reaction
of the soldiers who served in Vietnam.
She also is able to convey effectively
to us the horrible cruelty that spans over
two centuries. She's been afforded an
opportunity that very, very few of us
can claim. She has seen cruelty repeat
itself in wars, in marriages, in institu
tions and in life. She retells the suffer
ing with compassion and her own brand
of understanding.
Her novel contains an eloquent and
from any cultural or ethnic background
who have some interest in the theater,
Grant said.
"You don't have to be black to be a
member of Ebony Readers, although so
far we've only had black members,"
she said. "It's for anyone who is inter
ested in black literature, who wants to
find out more about black culture. I
wish people other than blacks would
come to audition, because then we'd
get a different perspective from the
way a particular piece is presented."
Auditions are held every year usu
ally during the fall semester, Grant said.
Auditions consist of a prepared and an
impromptu selection, and students are
judged according to articulation, char
acterization, poise, stance and the over
all presentation of the piece.
It does look like more students from
various backgrounds will be audition
ing in the near future, Grant said, be
cause the group is growing and becom
ing more popular both on and off cam
pus. "Right now we're changing and
getting a lot more invitations to do
things, and we're performing, not only
for things happening on campus, but
also for formal functions."
Recently, graduates from the Delta
Sigma Theta chapter of N.C. Central
University asked the group to perform
at their ball at the Omni Europa Hotel.
The sone was even more revealing
considering Gift told Rolling Stone '
magazine he had only this year made . ,
the "transition from boy to man."
The Cannibals played for just over
an hour, and returned for only one two
song encore, which left a lot to be
desired specifically, more songs. .
But if the audience and band were
not in sync, it was mainly because
Cameron was a poor location for the
concert.
Dance music sounds better when you
are dancing, and an auditorium with
seats is a far cry from a dance floor.
After paying the price of admission, the
Cannibals' fans at least deserved to
dance in the aisles.
important message. In the face of all
that she has known she draws on one ,,
warning, " Honey? we've got to be
real careful what we can get used to." ;
Yet this work, though often brilliant, .
is definitely not for everybody. First of
all, it's long about 700 pages.
Also, Lucy refuses to use proper ,,
grammar, since her prim mother tried
to force it on her at a young age. Unfor
tunately, anyone who is not familiar -with
the regional accents used might,
find the book hard going.
The book is also not for the weak of
heart. It's very explicit surprisingly
so. Lucy's account of her honeymoon
is enough to leave even the most jaded
of us cringing.
For those willing to take some time,
the book is well worth it. Lucy's wis--dom
is enlightening and refreshing. .
She's a constant reminder that, what
ever life has in store for us, it's up to us
see the humor in it, and survive. ' ;
Oh, and the punchline to the joke for - '
all of you who don't know it. Well, it
(life, that is) is a joke, and the joke's on
you or so Lucy would say.
The books we
review are
provided
courtesy of
the Bull's
Head
Bookshop,
located in the Student Stores.
Increasing publicity and more fre
quent performances will probably
bring a dramatic change in the iden-;
tity and function of Ebony Readers
over the next several years, Grant
said. "Later maybe five or 10
years down the road I can see us as
more of a traveling group. I can see
people across the nation asking us to
perform."
But whether the group makes it to
Broadway or not, students who are a
part of Ebony Readers will gain
experience in the fields of public
speaking and acting as well as a broad
knowledge of black culture.
Nicole Majette became interested
in the group when it performed at her
freshman orientation. The junior
RTVMP major from Ahoskie said
she auditioned at the beginning of
last year and has been involved ever
since.
"You get to put a lot of feeling into
what you do out there and I enjoy it,"
Majette said. "I've also learned how
to communicate better because of my
involvement."
Ediedra Coble, a sophomore physi
cal therapy major from Atlanta, also
became involved when she saw the
group perform her freshman year. "I
saw what they did and was so in
spired and interested."
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