The Michigan Daily-Thursday, January 18, 1979-Page 7 Futurestarving artists honored Hot Koko served at the Earle d~ By ERIC ZORN "It's pleasant to win," smiled David Berkman, top prize winner in the Hopwood Underclassmen Awards Contest for Creative Writing. NBerkman, a talented LS&A sophomore who is also a jazz pianist interested in musical composition, took away $250 from yesterday's award ceremony for his portfolio of "Six Poems." Before the awards presentation' at which poet Kenneth Rexroth gave a reading, Berkman admitted that he is undecided about ae career, but would like to see whether it's possible to support himself writing. "I'm not very interested in teaching at a University," he said. "I'm looking for some sort of alternative English degree here, with a focus on creative writing." Sixteen other Michigan students shared the $1,700 Hopwood prize money which was doled out yesterday. In addition, three special poetry prizes were awarded as well as the Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship. Tush Ezekiel, a graduate student from Ann Arbor won $500, and LS&A sophomore Victor Cruz won $250 from the cowden fund, an award financed by past Hopwood winners and ex-students of former Hopwodd program director Professor Cowden. THE AWARDS, which Hopwood room director Hilda Bonham has called "the richest amateur prizes in the country," were founded in 1938 with an endowment from Avery Hopwood, a 1905 Michigan graduate and successful playwrite. Judges in the Underclassmen contest, which is to be followed by the Upperclassmen contest later this term, were University English professor Robert Haugh, lecturer Katherine Sorensen, Alexandra Aldrige, and poet Rosamond Haas. In a break with past tradition, the freshman essay awards were presented along with the Underclassmen awards, and this allowed Tina Datsko, LS&A student, to be the day's only double winner. Datsko won a total of $150 for essays with the scholarly titles of "Epic, Tragedy, and Dialogue," and "The Greek Historians." Writing on an apparently similar theme to very good result was Howard Witt from Chicago's North Shore. His essay, "Creon as the Main Character of Sophocle's 'Antigone,' " while not exploring a particularly new idea, was worth the top prize of $100 in the Freshman Essay contest. Isabel Bradburn, also from the Chicago area, and Stephen Southard, a Residential College freshman from Whittier, California, shared the second prize of $75 in Freshman Essay. THE EZEKIEL family of Ann Arbor had two winners on Wednesday, with the elder brother Tish awarded the' Cowden fellowship, and younger brother Josh winning $50 in the Freshman Essay Contest for his essay on "Oedipus: King and Man." Rounding out the contest were fifty dollar winners Murray Howe and Sue Savas. Digging for slightly bigger potatoes were . the Underclassmen essay winners: $200 to Rich Loranger for his provocatively titled "Three Essays," -and $150 each to Sarah Kellogg and Kathryn King, /S&A sophomores. Angela Harris, winner of the top prize in fiction, has been writing since she was three years old. "Illusions and Circumstance," her entry, is actually three stories, one of which was written last year, one this summer, and the last during her freshman term at the RC this fall. "I'D LIKE to be a .writer," says Harris, who took home two hundred iron men for her efforts. "But I realize the financial aspects: That's why I'm in college, not just sitting around writing." Three one hundred dollar awards finished up Underclassmen fiction: Casey Briskin, LS&A sophomore from Ann Arbor, for "Desert Rose;" Craig Piper, LS&A freshman, for "Mocturnal Child;" and Helen Gammie, RC sophomore from Tulsa, for "Sever- ed." In the end it was the poets, those hardest to employ of all creative writers, who walked home through the evening chill with the most cash in hand. Behind top prizewinner David Berkman in poetry were Phil Harper, R.C. freshman, who won $200 for "Poems/7," and Ann Arbor's own Anna Nissen, a $150 winner for "Angels and Air and Other Poems." THE ACADEMY of American Poets had $100 for Law School Freshman John Glowney, and an honorable mention for Ellen Zweig, an English doctoral candidate. The Bain-Swigget Poetry Prize for undergraduates went to Jeff Baron of Oak Park, Illinois, for "Kinneret," "The Messiah," and "The Length of Days." The story of the day may' well have been David Victor's award of $100 Michael R. Gutterman award in Poetry. Victor, who hails from Cincinnati and is a recent University graduate, completes the "Triple Crown" for student poets, having already won the Academy of American Poets award )1977) and the Bain- Swiggert prize (1976). A former editor of "Rising Star," he has also won other Hopwood prizes, and written music reviews for campus publications. By R.J. SMITH An often suitable way to gauge a singer's talent is to observe how he or she reveals their vocal weaknesses, and how they deal with them. A lesser singer as old as Ella Fitzgerald might not attempt the same marvelous flights of voice that Fitzgerald still does, which test the boundaries of a voice that many say has weakened over the years. And yet Fitzgerald does. On decidedly a smaller scale, Koko Taylor joyfully overcomes her vocal limitations. Pulling a growl up from her diaphragm although her throat cannot produce it, or reaching high for notes out of her range, the very exuberance of her effort, apart from the outcome of the attempt, made her performance at the Earle Tuesday night an infectiously invigorating one.; TAYLOR IS A traditional urban bluesperson steeped in the sounds of the Chicago blues scene, a locale which became a hub for just the sort of tight, clattery blues that Taylor delivers in abundance. She is called "The Earthshaker," and for good reason; when most effective, she bellows snarling lines that boom off the back of the room. And although it is an effect that might soon become tedious when done by a less talented performer, it never was less than wrenching Tuesday at the Earle. Each of Taylor's three sets was preceded by a half hour of music performed by her band, the Blues Machine. While at first the collection of blues songs by the group was smooth and undistinctive to the point of being. bland, after the first link-up with Taylor the unit proved capable of pounding out extremely physical and absorbing electric blues. Although it possessed three vocalists, who each took turns singing, it was the singing that proved the weakest portion of the group's sets. At the other extreme, it was the two guitarists who transformed the sets, consisting of such standards as "Stormy Monday," "The Thrill Is Gone," and "Little Red Rooster," into performances worth hering even without the promise of Taylor's singing. IN THE SECONI) set the rhythm guitarist, who had neither sung nor played any noteworthy solo in the first set or when Taylor first joined them, stepped up to the microphone shortly after the first number and proceeded to deliver, perhaps the best singing, heard from the group, and certainly the finest instrumental work. His long, tense guitar lines jaggedly punctuated the others' vamping, and possessed a cohesiveness and impact lacking in those of the lead guitar. Sadly, the lead player handled almost all the solos when the group supported Taylor. Taylor's performance similarly accumulated energy as it progr sed However, from the very start her .wa highly-charged. Besides being a cdown and-dirty growl, her voice rings'-wit clarity and zest. When she wants t bend a note, she employs her whol body (including a rather massiv trunk) in the task, even when singin the most withering of put-downs to an imagined lover, there is a toothy grin on her face. HER SHOW WAS a well-balance selection of hard-edged blues, including a fierce rework of "Mannish Boy"' ("I Muddy Waters can be a man," Taylor exclaimed with a laugh, "I guess I 'can be a woman!"), and a rugged song;with the fun title of "You Can Have My Husband, But Please Don't Mess With My Man." She also did a version of "Hey Bartender" that puts to sleep the cover offered by those pretenders the Blues Brothers, which one hears on the radio these days. Koko Taylor is a singer of great directness, one who has naturally eschewed flamboyance and sophistication for the kind of sudden directness that can only come from such a form of music as the blues, and a particular style of singing such as hers. Her impact is never simplistic, never banal; she is satisfying, simply, entertaining. Bulgarian ensemble, cuts delightful rug By ANNA NISSEN In the first dance concert of the season, the Power Center boasted a full audience to honor the Pirin Bulgarian National Folk Ensemble, who perfor- med Tuesday evening. No one left disappointed at the extravaganza of colorful costumes, festive music, and first-rate dancers who seem to love what they do. The troupe performed with sustained vigor from beginning to end, opening with the traditional Kopanitsa, an an- cient East European folk dance with origins in Dionysian ritual. Singing Pirin IPo wer en 'teCr or the Pe'r fornn, .it s Bulgarian NationalIFolk Ensemble Kiril Stefanov, Chief Artistic Director and Conductor Kiril Haralampiev, Chief Choreographer Stovan stouanov. Radko Ivanov, Conductors Tpdor Bekirski, Peter Petrov, Halletmasters KostadinI Rouitchev, Choreographer Vassil Dokev, Designer Neva 'fouzsuzova. Kitsa Daskalova, Snezansa Tilencheva, Costumes maidens bore breadloaves and flower baskets ceremoniously downstage and left them as offerings to the audience, implicitly transforming the sloping or- chestra and balcony into the foothills of their native Pirin Mountain. THE BULGARIAN village at- mosphere was convincingly main- tained: it is a festival day, and the robust Brueghelesque townspeople are bursting to ,celebrate. Linked arm in arm in- a foot-stamping circle dance typical of the Balkan region, twelve dancers broke out of the circle and traced grapevines, spirals and figure eights across the stage floor. The line dance became a frenzied crack-the- whip as the company musicians challenged with accelerated tempo. In Kopanitsa and other numbers, folk dance enthusiasts could appreciate the superhuman coordination of the men, who danced chain-gang style with arms yoked in a "basket position" which was made to look deceptively unhampered by the Pirin men who bounce, polka, and two-step with the sprezzatura of popping corn. Other demonstrations of male virtuosity included brisk duck- walking, consecutive Russian leaps, and' balancing done on large, upended bass drums. Dance pieces were interspersed with several Bulgarian national folk songs which, with the exception of a hokey, English rendition of "Red River Valley," were quite entertaining. The accompanists used an eclectic variety of instruments: the lute, tamboura, kaval and - believe it or not - the ?bagpipe! DANCERS AND musicians shared the stage and enjoyed good-natured rivalry throughout the show, especially when the musicians egged on the dan- cers by playing impossibly fast. In one number the situation was reversed: three strapping shepherds from the Thracian district produced pipes from their pockets and tooted at the bagpiper, who must literally dance to his own tune. Any competition, however, was feigned; chief choreographer Kiril Haralampiev tac- tfully incorporated the relatively static musicians into the eye-catching motion by placing them, whenever possible, in the conspicuous center of whirling carousels of dancers. Many of the vocalists also doubled as dance chorus seconds. The program was spiced with superb genre dances, among them the inevitable dance of flirting couples: maiden elicits kisses, shepherd threatens to comply, maiden repels him, etc. In the Bulgarian version, the frustrated shepherd and three sym- pathetic comrades break into a staff- tapping pastoral vaudeville act, step- ping out to a humorous prototype of the Charleston. In a similar comic romance, two mischevious girls experated a clownish boy by playing monkey-in-the-middle with his cap. A program note informs, "Woe to him, who loves two girls." Shopski Moods paraded the rural characters from the villages surroun- ding the capital city of Sofia. Merchant, peasant, and gypsy populations were distinguished by their costumes and footwork, and three buffoons fresh out, of the marketplace tavern drunkenly bungled the most basic of dance steps. Puppets was the audiences uncon- tested favorite. Four mechanized dolls - a cordial ship captain, a buxom matron, and a picturesque young couple - sashayed with a convincing mannequin stiffness. Despite the highly regulated action, the Pirin dolls managed to convey a sincere joy of movement. Prize-winning costume coordinator Neva Touzsuzova spared no limits with colors, cost in materials, and needlepoint-hours. Profuse with lace, ribbons, bangles and embroidery, these costumes epitomized the troupe's am- bitious gypsy spirit. In the last three years the Pirin En- semble has toured more than twenty countries, and been enthusiastically applauded in each. This is not at all surprising if their previous performan- ces matched the one given here. Women's & Men's Pocket Billiard Tournament ACU- Sign-up Union Billiards Open 1Oam BOWLING LEAGUES FORMING LAST CALL-Sign-up now UNION LANES Mixed Women's and Men's 60C per game Open 10 am Mon-Fri 1 pm Sat & Sun PLAY PINBALL at Union Lanes & Station 35 machines POETRY READING with ED BURROWS Reading from His Works Thursday, Jan. 18-7:30 p.m. at GUILD HOUSE 802 Monroe (corner of Oakland) ADMISSION FREE F 1 r. PRESENTS, PPA SUPERSTAR WEEKEND! Tickets at PTP Office-764-0450 and at Hudson's Stores AN ALL SHAKESPEAREAN KRoll over, Jeff Lynne PROGRAM ABOUT PARENTS AND CHILDREN - Nicholas Pennell Marti Maraden By TIMOTHY YAGLE (with wire reports) The rock group The Electric Light Orchestra, has been named in a federal suit which charges its show last summer at the Pontiac Silverdome was pantomimed. The band was accused in the suti filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit of playing a tape recording while faking its tunes to 60,000 fans who paid $12.50 each to hear the concert. BRASS RING Productions, which produced the August 12 and 13 concerts made the charge in a countersuit against the band's U.S. operating company. "It's not clear yet whether fragments or the entire concert was faked, such as some songs or just the string parts," commented Robert Fox, President of Brass Ring, who said he "confiscated" the tapes. "But we have plenty of evidence," Fox said. "I don't know if the audience was aware of that or not, Fox continued. "This kind of stuff has happened in the past. Other bands have done it." According to Brass Ring's attorney, Patrick Fredyl, litigation began on August 22, nine days after ELO's second and last concert at the Silverdome, when ELO sued Brass Ring, claiming the firm owed them $145,000 of a $250,000 contract for the two shows. Brass Ring contended in their countersuit that it didn't owe the band any money because costs for the advertising and an elaborate stage set- up involving a 60-foot space ship and lasers exceeded what the band estimated in its agreement. JOHN DOWNING, ELO's tour -manager, said "That's the first time ACU-I R [IN Mt; we've ever had heard a promoter accuse us of that. If we were going to sit around and play tapes all night, we wouldn't need to haul millions of dollars worth of equipment around." Downing said the band does use taped music to introduce certain numbers, but no attempt is made to hide it. "If we went on stage with the basic set-up, 'we could never come close to producing recording-quality sound;" he continued. Many bands heighten sound during live performances with electronic gimmicks. "Other than these taped introductions, everything is live," Downing claimed. inT THIS FAIR CHILD OF MINE Friday & Saturday Jan. 19 & 20, 8:00 p.m. Trueblood Theatre Tom Wood the Collaborative winter art & craft classes Classes and workshops including: Calligraphy & Leaded Glass REGISTER NOW-CLASSES BEGIN JAN. 29 U-M Artists & Craftsmen Guild 763-4430 2nd Floor, Michigan Union Ann Arbor Civic Te$tre Auditns LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC JANUARY 17-MASS MEETING-7:30 pm JANUARY 17, 18, 19, : 20th call backs ROLES AVAILABLE 6 WOMEN ages 13-70 3 men ages 20-50 The Liebeslieders, persons of the community (2 sopranos, mezzo, Tenor, Barine) ALL ROLES ARE SINGING ROLES THE MUSIC IS SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT Auditions by appointment only, sign up after the mass meeting. There are a few non speaking roles, call the director if interested. Anyone interested in participating in the A.A.C.T. production of Little Night Music-is invited to come to the A.A.C.T. Workshop Bldg., 201 Mulholland (off W. Washington) Wednesday, January 17th-7:30 pm sign up for an audition time for cast and orchestra. All interested in set building, costume construction, light, make up, prop crew, programs, publicity, box office, ushering are cordially invited. Director Susan Morris-761-6086 (H) 764-5345 (W) Producer Carol Deniston-761-2247 after 3 pm Musical Director Bradley Bloom e!' ' ' Y.. .y g' , i i.. t Vanessa Redgrave's Film m.uln. Inn. 10 C...muirln Inn III -" WIVE RSITY c fUSICAL OCIETY pres en ts The Plillidor Trio Former members of the N.Y. Pro Musica, soprano Elizabeth Humes; harpsichordist Edward Smith; and Shelley Gruskin, recorder and baroque flute will play the music of C.P.E. Bach; Haydn, Tele- mann and other composers of the "Splendid Century." Check for ticket ., 3, availability at Burton Tower, weekdays <9-4:30,Sat. 9-12. Phone: 665-3717.