The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 3, 1997 - 9A
'Luke'
0e
sends big
B l
message;
By Evelyn Miska
For the Daily
Kellogg Auditorium was packed with
both the curious and followers of Luke.
No, not Luke Skywalker, but rather
Luke the Apostle, as found in the Bible.
R.E.M. mocks Oasis on 'New Adventures'
'Luke' star Bruce Kuhn made his one-
man biblical production a hit.
By Aaron Rennie
Daily Arts Writer
For those of you who frequently listen to either
"modern" or "classic" rock stations, you likely have
heard - and perhaps sung along to - "The Wake Up
Bomb," the oft-played second song on R.E.M.'s latest
album, "New Adventures in Hi Fi What you might
not have noticed, however, is the vast number of
derogatory references toward another critically-
acclaimed, success-£
ful British rock ' '
band, Oasis.
Neil McCormick 4 Y
of The London
Times noticed the
abundance of thin-
ly-masked allu-
sions to the
Manchester bad
boys back in
August (after hear-
ing a promotional
copy of "Hi-Fi"),
and wrote an article
about it, entitled Oasis is snotty and irreverent.
"Shiny Snappy
People'" which listed a compelling amount of evi-
dence that R.E.M. was indeed dissing the brothers
Gallagher. Since the mainstream press has inexplica-
bly not brought this issue up, I thought I'd bring some
of McCormick's points to light.
Some of Noel Gallagher's lyrics to Oasis' first
Broadway actor Bruce Kuhn brought great deal of attention, as well as other
his one-man show, "The Accounts of groups not usually highly esteemed.
Luke," to the University to teach about Children, the poor and the disrep-
the life, death and resurrection of Jesus utable also are of great importance in
£Srist. his accounts. Luke is believed to be a
e 90-minute show flew by in what careful and highly reliable historian
seemed like an extremely short time. by scholars and archeologists, as well
Kuhn did an outstanding job in many as an artist. All this was made clear in
different ways. Not only is the mere act Kuhn's performance. Treating even
of memorizing the entire gospel of the lowest of society with care and
Luke an incredible compassion, Kuhn
feat, but portray- R E V I E W demonstrated a
ing numerous love not found all
characters was The Accounts that often in
amazing in and of of Luke today's society.
lf. Kellogg Auditorium Kuhn gave plenty
Beginning with Jan. 31, 1997 of opportunity for
the births of both audience members
Jesus and John the Baptist, the show to ask questions. Earlier in the day, he
Sfollowed the life and experiences of held a "preview" and question-and-
Jesus and his apostles. Kuhn showed answer period in East Quad. Although
the kindness and compassion of Christ, not highly attended, Kuhn was more
as well as retelling his important teach- than happy to answer the questions stu-
ings. Dealing with problems such as dents posed. Kuhn was charming and
unmarried mothers, prostitutes and open in answering the questions, most
jealous sons, almost every situation of which delt with his acting experience
ossible was approached and discussed and what "Accounts" was like.
example or parable. Following the performance, there was
Kuhn kept the audience mesmerized, yet another question-and-answer peri-
perhaps because it really seemed he od. Questions addressed several issues,
believed what he was saying. With no from acting experiences to his religious
f Tabulous costuming, and only a simple beliefs. The actor paid each question its
bench and podium as a set, the audi- proper consideration and answered
ence relied on Kuhn to give the perfor- even the hardest question.
rnance everything necessary to make Overall, "Accounts" was a wonder-
tem see what was occurring. Kuhn did ful performance. What many might
"nrt disappoint. Through mime and have expected to be a dry and boring
masureless energy, he went from old recitation of the Bible was much,
an to tax collector to haughty magis- much more. Kuhn attacked the materi-
ttte, playing each character convinc- al with incredible enthusiasm and
'1ly. made the audience believe he was all
"-Written by Luke, a cultured and the people he was trying to be. The
sell educated man, the gospel has a cast may have been small, but the mes-
lque perspective. Women are paid a sage was huge.
lebrate with the 'Melrose' crew
single, "Supersonic," include: "I'm feeling super-
sonic / Give me gin and tonic / You can have it all /
But how much do you want it?" In "Up in the Sky,"
another song off the group's 1994 debut album,
"Definitely Maybe," Noel's brother Liam sings,
"Hey you, up in the tree / You wanna be me / Well,
it's not gonna be."
In "The Wake Up Bomb," R.E.M. lead singer and
lyricist Michael Stipe responds to the younger British
upstarts, "I've had
enough / Seen
enough / I had it all
/ Gave it up / Won
the race / Broke theY
cup / Drank it all/
Spit it up / Yeah,
the tonic /
Supersonic / What
a joke! / I don't
wanna be ya!"
Furthermore,
while Liam sings
a melody "bor-
rowed" from the
New Seekers' "I'd R.E.M. is snott
Like to Teach the
World to Sing" on "Shakermaker," Stipe, as
McCormick succinctly puts it, mocks "the naive
ambition of would-be rock stars" (read: Oasis), and
counters with "I had to teach the world to sing by
the age of 21 / I threw up when I saw what I had
done."
Now, Stipe subsequently denied he was attacking
Oasis, but c'mon, the barbs thrown at the lads are
obvious if you do even a remedial job of analyzing
them. Besides, there's even another "Wake Up Bomb"
lyric that is condemning of Liam: "Practice my T-Rex
moves and make a scene." See, Liam has been known
to act infantile at timnes and cause many a ruckus, such
as displacing hotel furniture and punching paparazzi,
not unlike Sean Penn.
Perhaps Stipe is
annoyed that
Oasis' popularity
exploded out of
nowhere in only a
couple of years;
while R.E.M.
toiled around the
underground for
nearly a decade
before the main-
stream noticed
them, but I believe
that, more funda-
mentally, Stipe
about Oasis being irreverent. simply feels that
Oasis is just an
immature pretender to his band's mythical throneof
"biggest band in the world."
In either case, it is strange that nobody in the rock
press on this side of the Atlantic has paid attention
to this issue at all, given the size and the respective
merits of each band.
ty
Some non-fiction works are stranger than fiction
Scott's Last Expedition:
The Journals
Robert Falcon Scott
Carroll and Graf
"It seems a pity, but I do not think I
can write more."
Those words mark the close of
Robert Falcon Scott's journal, as he and
two companions froze to death in
Antarctica. Scott is already known to
many as a famous polar explorer; in this
new edition of his journals, he is
revealed further as a consummately
heroic man.
Scott's journey began in 1910, as he
and a 66-member crew sailed from
New Zealand to Antarctica. Scott was
an English naval officer who had
already taken part in one Antarctic
expedition. Now, he was racing
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen
to the South Pole.
As the team arrived, they busied
themselves building a hut and preparing
for the Antarctic winter. Scott described
their activities and surroundings in
detail, and much of the journal is a fas-
cinating account of everyday life in the
Antarctic. Scott's crew played football
until the four-month Antarctic night
made it impossible, and regarded a meal
of seal soup as a rare treat. Living com-
fortably in spite of the hostile environ-
ment, they conducted scientific experi-
ments, collected rock specimens and
took turns giving educational lectures.
These sections of the journal also
reveal much about Scott's character.
Perhaps because he didn't expect to be
writing for publication, his journal
entries are completely honest and
straightforward, making the book high-
ly realistic. Scott relates both his metic-
ulous plans for the polar journey and
the many troubling obstacles he
encountered; we see him as thorough,
bright and enthusiastic.
Above all, Scott's optimism pervades
much of the book; he feels sure that
every obstacle can be overcome, and
has nothing but praise for his crew. As
he stated before the polar journey, "It
would be impossible to imagine a more
vigorous community, and there does not
seem to be a single weak spot in the
twelve good men and true who are cho-
sen for the Southern advance:'
Yet in the last sections of the book,
this optimism dissipates. Scott's team
set off for the Pole in late 1911, and met
with unforeseen problems: The weather
was much worse than expected, and the
carefully calculated supplies somehow
ran short.
The final blow fell in early 1912.
"The worst has happened, or nearly the
worst," Scott wrote. Amundsen's team
had beaten him to the Pole. Yet even
then, Scott's determination never
wavered. His team stoically traveled on
to the Pole before facing the 800-mile
trek back to their camp.
Later that year, a search party found
the remains of Scott's crew. Two had
died on the return journey. Scott and
two others were in the tent where they
had finally run out of fuel and food,
only a few days' journey from a store of
supplies. Scott's journal was still intact,
tucked under his arm.
This journal makes
enthralling reading
for numerous :;
reasons - the
adventures it
relates, the
small details it
describes. But Scott's
personality is what truly
animates the book, making it read like a
conversation with a living person.
As both history and narrative,
"Scott's Last Expedition" seems com-
parable only to "Anne Frank: The Diary
of a Young Girl." Both Frank and Scott
died horrible, deaths. But when reading
the memoirs they each left behind, their
deaths seem almost incidental. As in
Anne Frank's diary, what comes
through most strongly in these journals
is Robert Falcon Scott's intense and
immensely vivid life.
- Elizabeth Lucas
Making Waves
Anna Seaton Huntington
Summit Group
"Was it unrealistic to expect to pro-
duce a winning women's team with a
system designed by men for men and
run by men?" That is the ultimate ques-
tion in "Making Waves: The Inside
Story of Managing and Motivating the
First Women's Team to Compete for the
America's Cup," Anna Seaton
Huntington's account of her experi-
ences in the 1995 race as a member of
the America3 team.
Huntington, a former Olympic rower,
investigates the dilemma of attempting
to prove that female athletes can com-
pete equally with men while at the same
time remaining feminine.
"Thankfully," says Huntington in her
introduction, "stories of women break-
ing through gender barriers are becom-
ing more and more rare. But until our
team entered the race nearly 150 years
after it began, women hadn't managed
to gain a toehold in the chase for the
America's Cup."
The America3 team was not the first
all-female team to attempt to enter the
race, but it was the first to succeed in
gaining enough funding and support.
Huntington was one of six women
originally approached by Bill Koch, the
winning America's Cup skipper in 1992
and chairman of the America3
Foundation. She was invited to try out for
the team as a grinder; at the time, she had
no previous sailing experience and was
unaware of how the sport worked.
After five months of "false starts,"
announcements were finally made and
tryouts were organized. A team of 24
women was chosen,
including a college
football coach, a
full-time mother, a
NASA engineer
and an American
Gladiator.
H untington
describes the
women's transfor-
mation into "real sailors" on the Mighty
Mary. Although she made the team, she
did not decide to join until 5 1/2 months
into the project, and she was placed on
the B ship as a reserve.
Huntington was surprised by the
sailors' preference for calling them-
selves "girls." While the word appeared
to her to be a regression; a reflection of
the idea that the women's team was
there to change, the others disagreed.
As another member of the team said, "I
hate it when people call me 'woman.'
It's an insult" She was a real sailor, and
she felt in order to be taken seriously
she should be called a "girl"
The women of the Mighty Mary
became part of a unique experiment.
Huntington examines their work as a
team, and is able to contrast it with that
of the typical all-male boat.
She describes in detail the ways that the
two different groups work together, and
admits that the reason the America3 team
did not immediately come together was
the necessary change in leadership style.
America3's strongest challenger was
Team Dennis Conner, the defending
champions of the America's Cup, who
Huntington says were proud believers
in sailing as the sport of the wealthy
white male. Beating "the Fat Man"
became the obsession of the team, and
Huntington refers to their defeat as
"one of those painfully regrettable
times when Goliath had won."
"Making Waves" presents a well-bal-
anced look at the life of an athlete com-
bined with the life of a woman. It
addresses questions of feminism well,
without attempting to take sides.
- Jessica Eaton
INSTRUCTORS
Summer Employment
Taking the phrase "Mondays are a bitch" to a new level, "Melrose Place"
marks a milestone today as It celebrates its 150th broadcast with a two-hour
special episode. Over the course of its nearly four year run, more weddings,
divorces, murders, resurrections, catfights, births, miscarriages, psychos,
explosions, car wrecks and tumbles down the stairs have occurred in the
trendy apartment complex than at any other address on television. Break out
your short skirts, get a free beer at Shooters and just be a part of a very back-
stabbing birthday. The party begins at 8 p.m. on Fox.
komance novels are
more than smutty trash
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Newsday
Popular fiction often becomes more
*portant in retrospect.
Many of Charles Dickens' novels
began as weekly serials. Jane Austen's
novels were dismissed as romances in
their day. And the works of Victor Hugo
and Alexandre Dumas were seen as just
adventure stories. A century later, their
works are revered as classics -not just
because they tell interesting, moving
stories, but because they illuminate a
time, a place and social issues or ills
t help us to understand the human
Mdition.
In a hundred years, people may say
the same of today's romance novels.
Responsible for almost 50 percent of
the mass market paperback sales and
generating more than $1 billion annual-
ly worldwide, they go well beyond love,
sex and happily-ever-after. In some
ways, the best of them are a sociologi-
cal blueprint of how we live and love.
n the '70s, when the modern
romance genre began, many of the
books were historical "bodice rippers"
filled with turgid writing and one-
dimensional characters. By the '80s the
books had evolved, according to Claire
Zion, executive editor of women's fic-
tion for Warner Books, to include some
pretty explicit sex and heroines who
were independent enough to rescue
themselves without waiting for the
hero.
"I was at Yale in the late 1970s, and a
lot of women were talking about femi-
nism, and I remember thinking how lit-
tle of what they were talking about had
to do with women's lives today," Zion
said. "They were talking about taking
power. ... These books were teaching
women that sex and orgasms were OK."
According to Kay Mussell, professor
of literature and American studies at
American University in Washington,
D.C., and an expert in romance novels,
the first "modern" romance novel was
"Pamela," written by Samuel
Richardson in 1741. More than 200
years later, Mussell says ro'mance nov-
els are still "flexible and resilient and
can confront issues that women are
interested in."
Pd4adt.
W44-te
For Application & Interviews call: 1-800-997-4347 or
800-580-6999 anytime.
WVA
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