As"THE MICHIGAN DAILY
rts Entertcinm ent Wednesday, February 4, 1976 Page Five
AER PERFRaAnntE:ry
. . . . . .d y w , .S h . .r crc t 5 Y ยข ' w .i xn.z G y IAR K P E R F O R MA C E :
Tom Paxton
By STEPHEN SELBST man with a thatch of dark hair
and a lean look.
PAXTON, strode to the
the microphone Monday HE IS NO longer either of
night at the Ark and faced the these; 15 years on the folk club
packed house. "I think it's only circuit have left him mostly
fair to mention that my alma bald and thicker. But in place
mater is Oklahoma," he an- of the kid with the hot guitar
nounced, to which some heckler whose strings echoed the pro-
quickly rejoined, "Well, walk test of his lyrics, the Ark audi-
on back." ence got a poised, matured pro-
fessional.
That's not the recommended
way to make friends in a town Paxton has aged gracefully
where football is taken serious- and joined the subterranean
ly-especially for a first-time class of American troubadors
visit. But by 'the end of the who never metamorphasize into
evening Paxton had made so superstars, but who stay close
many friends he would have with pure folk music, and like
drawn applause if he had an- wine, mellow with the passing
nounced he was changing his of time.
name to Woody Hayes. He was He was at his professional
that charming. best Monday night mixing his
Older
and
better
and "Whose Garden was This?" Because his act is so light- treated to a panopoly of new
his haunting hymn to the earth. hearted, the tone is quite loose, material because Paxton has
And like the seasoned trouper which is just how he likes things. been writing heavily recently.
he is, he dutifully paid homage His song selection, he said after "I've written 27 songs since mid-
to a folk music deity, Missis- the show, is always spontaneous, November," he allowed, with
sippi John Hurt,, before playing and varies from night to night. the professional pride creasing
his ode to the legendary mu- ? j his face with a smile.
sician.
Paxton came to play a bene-
fit for Sing Out magazine, and'
he told the crowd "it was cer-
tainly my Bible when I was
growing up," and urged the
audience to peruse the periodi-
cal at the end of his perform-
ance.
The old folky's style has al-
ways leaned heavily on satirical
material, and he kept the crowd
amused with his pungent, clever
rhymes. "Bring Back the Chair"
is a typical example, whose re-
frain, in part, goes like this:
Bring back the chair
zap someone there
medium rare
Bring back the chair
His aim is to make the act as
unstructured as possible. "It's "My goal is to write five songs
something less than a musical a week, but when you travel;
act, it's kind of a living room like I did today, that just can't
thing," he explained. It was that be done," he noted wryly.
desire for intimacy, he explain-
ed, which prompted him to fore- Paxton plans to polish his new
go backup players and just use songs and "record a live album
his guitar for accompaniment. as soon as possible." Then he
Paxton said he thinks it givesI wants to take some time off to
him a freer rein. go home and write some
more." The troubador's work is
1O 0 N D A Y'S audience was never done.
_
dia presents
UAC Ars Come
Paxton looks different now
than he did in the early sixties;
when he first emerged as a
major folk singer. The posters!
around town which heralded his
appearance portrayed a young,
raconteurs stories with topical
humor, and alternately pleasing
the crowd with old favorites and
new tunes.
FOR HIS old fans he played
"The Last Thing on My Mind,"
Daily Photo by STEVE KAGAN
Tom Paxton, a little balder and thicker, performed Monday night at the Ark. His songs of
gentle protest made him one of the folk leader s of the 60's.
THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE
An original adaptation
of four one-act comedies.
Feb. 19 thru 22-Mendelssohn
Tickets on sale Feb. 5, Hill Aud.
FOR MORE INFO: 763-1107
Improe 'your game
BRIDGE:
avoidance play
By MARK FRIEDLANDER --3
North small club, there was a g r e a t
4 62 4 risk that - East would win the
V 5 3 trick and rattle off three more
f A K 10 i heart tricks. So South led a
4. K 10 9 6 4 2 rdiamond to dummy's ten and
West East led the ten of clubs. W h e n,
I4 9 5 4 3 A K Q 10 East correctly refused to cover,
r 8 2 V K Q J 10 4 declarer let it ride.
4 98 65 2 f 7 3 West won an unexpected trick
4. J 7 4 Q 8 5 with his jack of clubs, but the
South defense did not relish the gift.
A A J 8 7 Trying to put partner in, he led
1A 9 7 6 a spade, but South won and took
f Q 4 ten tricks-five clubs, three dia-
EsA 3 monds, and the two major suit
East South West North aces.
1 r 1 No trp. pass 3 No trp. It is equally vital that the
All Pass defense realize the imporrar ce
Opening lead: 8 of V of the avoidance play so tnat
Normally a bridge player does they may frustrate it. -Even as-
not care who wins a given trick tounding plays become under-
as long as it is his partner or standable in this light.
himself, for tricks are accumu- North
lated by partnerships, not by in- A S 8 6 3
dividual players. Sometimes, V A K 10
however, it is dangerous to put * K 7 4
one defender on lead and safe 4 Q 10 9 6
to let the other. In such a case, West East
declarer has to be careful not A 10 A A K 7 5 4 2
only to avoid losing too many V 9 8 6 5 2 V 7 3
tricks, but also to lose them to 4 10 8 5 3 4 9 6 2
the right person. This is called 4 A K 3 4 J 8
an avoidance play. South
West opened the e i g h t Q J 9
of hearts, his partner's suit.
South ducked the first round but ; A Q J
won the second. This cut off .7 5 4 2
West from the long hearts and North East South West
made East the danger hand. Any 1 4 2 Spades 3 NT All pass
tricks lost by declarer would Opening lead: 10 of 4
have to be lost to West, who When this hand was actually
could do no harm. played, East overtook partner's
lead of the ten of spades, cash-
DECLARER set about his task. ed another spade, and led a
He had seven top tricks a n d third one, clearing the suit. On
would have to develop any oth- the last two spades, West dis-
ers from the club suit. B u t j carded two hearts. South wen,
there were hidden dangers. If and needing two club tricks, led
he led out the ace, king, and a See BRIDGE, Page 8
INGMAR BERGMAN NIGHT 1957
WILD STRAWBERRIES
(AT 7)
Old silent movie director, Victor Seastrom, plays a doctor
who has just won an important award and, on his way to
receive the honor, he takes a psychic journey through
his past.
1949
TO JOY
(AT 9:05)
In the midst of performing Beethoven's 9th Symphony
("Hymn to Joy") Stia Eridsson is. informed by phone that
his kerosene stove has exploded and killed his wife.
CINEMA GUILD Both Shows OLD ARCH. AU.
Campus Flicks
Elite'-Peckinpah's last gasp
-
by James Valk
r r n w wr ri
UST A FEW weeks ago, dur- Lucien Ballard, he probed anI
ing the mad December era long lost with a precision
rush, United Artists released the and feeling since missing from
latest chapter in the story of his work.r
Sam Peckinpah's demise, The
Killer Elite. Word leaked out Not long after Peckinpah'
that UA wasn't overly enthusias- abandoned the early 1900'sI
tic with the initial cut and had movies, his weaknesses becamer
the film trimmed from an R rat- apparent. He is a director of thec
ing to the more lucrative PG. West; his roots reach back tof
scriptwriting for Gunsmoke. His
Unfortunately, the final prod- talents are best exploited when
uct has confirmed some of my paired with his keen eye for thet
darkest fears about Peckinpah; visual changes of the West, and'
fears that began to rumble in so his attempts to trace Ameri-
early 1972 upon release of The can culture through the Seven-:
Getaway, pretentiously labelled ties have proved futile.
"a film by Sam Peckinpah."
JUNIOR BONNER, basicallyt
Coming after a hot streak of, the same tale Peckinpah has!
success and notoriety generated told in his earlier films, arises
by The Wild Bunch and Straw as a fable of the contemporary
Dogs, Peckinpah gambled with West, undermined by the wash-I
his newly - acquired acclaim, ed-out metaphors of rodeos and!
reeling off two hours of com- bulldozers. Gone was the old
mercial claptrap starring Steve Peckinpah, and like the rene-f
McQueen and Ali McGraw. To gade protagonists of his films,t
label The Getaway a disappoint- the feisty director was frustrat-
ment would suggest wrong- ed by his inflexibility toward-
tv that it' even resembled some- the changing times.
thing expected.1
It was in the interim between
WHATEVER happened to the Junior Bonner and The Killer
Sam Peckinpah of the pre-Get- " Elite that Peckinpah suffered
away period? That is the ques- his worst setback. Pat Garret
tion to be reckoned with. As and Billy the Kid, a film un-
early as 1962 he had proved him- mercifully mauled by MGM
self an artist of merit with a housecleaner James Aubrey, is
rarely seen film entitled Ride a twisted mess that is virtually
the High Country. pointless, exploiting the names
of Bob Dylan and Kris Kristof-
But Peckinpah knew his mi- ferson as its major attractions.
lieu then-that transitional pe-'
reiod of the American West It was then, with the mangled
around the turn of the century copy of Pat Garret and Billy
that was so exquisitely captured the Kid under his belt, that
in his only great film, The Wild Peckinpah chose to thumb his
Bunch. W i t h cinematographer: nose at the movie industry.
THUS ARISES the mysteryI
surrounding Peckinpah in 1976.
There are three possible theo-
ries-the first dismisses him as.
a commercial pimp, the second
describes him as a "maverick
dissident," who expresses his
rage at the motion picture in-
dustry by m a k i n g "private
films" whose purpose is so in-
comprehensible t h a t mortals
can only gape in awe-possibly:
the silliest excuse for shoddy
filmmaking yet.
Sadly this leaves only one
viable alternative: Sam Peckin-
pah is burned out. I can't help
but think that his greatness is
derived from his ability to per-
ceive the American Frontier.
But his talents were removed
from their natural domain in
order to create the great Ameri-
can chronicle, and thus his
films became sermons, lacking
thrust and showing Peckinpah
out of step with the times.
Straw Dogs was his only film1
that even hinted at an untapped I
genius independent of the dying
West. But just as the modern
era overcame the unchanging
h e r o e s of Peckinpah's best
works, so has Peckinpah fallen
prey to his inability to adapt-
a filmmaker who has ceased to
function in the Seventies.
Study in
Guadalajara, Mexico
The GUADALAJARA SUM-
MER SCHOOL, a fully
accredited UNIVERSITY OF
ARIZONA program, will of-
fer July 5-Auqust 13, on-
thropolomy, a r t, education,
folklore, history, political
science, Ianciuace and litera-
ture. Tuition and fees, $195;
board and room with Mexi-
can family $280. Write to
GUADALAJARA SUMMER
SCHOOL, Office of Interna-
tional Proqrams, University
of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
85721.
THE COMIC OPERA GUILD
OFFENDACH s 'RFSENTS
H ELENE
OPERETTA IN ENGLISH
FEBRUARY 4,5,6,7 LYDIA MENDELSSOHN THEATRE
EVENINGS $3.50 MATINEE: $2.50 TICKET INFORMATION: 763-1085
l5
I ,
_,
THE MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE COLLEGIUM
Announces a NEW MINI COURSE
University Course 320, 1 credit hour, pass/fail
FEBRUARY 9th-MARCH 3rd, 1976
Title: COURTLY LOVE SONG IN FRANCE AND
GERMANY IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Four hours per week, Monday and Wednesday Evenings from
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., in the Cook Room of the MARC House
(N-Entryway, Law Quad)I. Students will be required to write
one paper and attend all the lectures. Course will be taught
by Professor Duncan Robertson (French) and Dr. Martha
Hinman (German); guest lecturers will include Professors
Gwynn McPeek (Music History) and ChristineuBornstein
(History of Airt). Students may register for the course in the
MARC Office (N-12, N-Entryway, Law Quad: tel. 763-2066)
until February 9th or at the first class meeting.
I
E
r
s
I
I
i
f
i
the " ar 3b' 811m coopertive
TONIGHT-Wednesday, Feb. 4
EAST OF EDEN
(Elia Kazan, 1955) AUD. A-7 only
Set in California's Monterey Peninsula durin the First
World War, this adaptation of Steinbeck's novel. has
JAMES DEAN as Caleb Trask, a teenager envious of his
brother Aaron, the favored son of a well'-meaning but
overly pious father. Jo Van Fleet's exceptional perform-
ance as the mother who left the family earned her an
Academy Award. Kazan also received an Oscar for riis
direction. RAYMOND MASSEY, BURL IVES.
ELMER GANTRY
(Richard Brooks, 1960) AUD. A-9 only
Traveling salesman BURT LANCASTER, teams up with
evangelist JEAN SIMMONS, in this Sinclair Lewis story.
Their rapid rise to prominence leads Gantry to search for
the real truth in this film that won both Shirley Jones
and Lancaster, Oscars.
AUD. A, ANGELL HALL
$1.25 SINGLE SHOW-$2.00 DOUBLE FEATURE
THURSDAY: BLOW UP
mommons
ENDS SOON!
Shows Today at
1:35, 3:15, 5:10, 7:10, 9:10
Open at 1:15
All seats $1.00 till 5:00
I
COMEDY PREMIERES!
THE PROFESSIONAL THEATRE COMPANY
THE ACTING COMPANY
premieres in their repertoire
CONGREVE'S
'The Way 0 the World
Feb. 6 and 7 at 8 p.m.
Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. & 8 p.m.
Directed by NORMAN AYRTON
is
1!
i
a
E
i
E
4
POWER CENTER
Tickets at the PTP Ticket Office, Mendelssohn Lobby,
Mon.-Fri.. 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 2-5 p.m. and all Hudson
Stores. Call (313) 764-0450 for info.
t
Texas Instrument
SALE !!
SR-50A -$6200
SR-51A $9200
Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman
OE M, tv Last Day Today!
Shows at
1:30, 4 :00, 6:30 & 9:05
Open at -1:15
Today-ail seats $1 till 5:00
THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST CHANCE TO
SEE IT ON THE WIDE SCREEN
Paramount Pictures presents the return
of the greatest love story of all time.
PARAMOONT PiCTURES pernt.
A B FI ILM
FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI
Prodution of
ROMEO
JULIET
l / DIRECT FROM NEW YORK CITY 1 ff
Ui~i -KM tW OR Il IUrAwil