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 Outstanding 8-week girls' camp in Maine needs female and male counselors for the following activities: *Tennis *Dance *Horseback *Swimming *Pottery *Riding *Waterski *Fine Arts *Softball *Sailing *Newsletter *Basketball *Canoeing *Arts & Crafts *Soccer *Kayaking *Silver Jewelry *Lacrosse *Outdoor *Copper *Field Hockey *Living *Enameling *Golf *Ropes/Rocks *Gymnastics *Photography *Video *Archery *Nanny *Secretarial Positions also available Red Cross Lifeguard Certification (LG) or equivalent required for all waterfront positions. Excellent salary*Travel Allowance*Room/Board Laundry*Uniforms & Linens Provided /u;& Zak easy 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 TED. COLLEGE HOCpt ITS BEST Volunteers for Sleep Research Studies Men and Women Men and Women (ages 1&45) (ages 21-55) Who Have: Who Do Have: No Difficulty In Sleeping Difficulty in Sleeping ..........U e e " \ 1 1 a Volunteers needed for a study of the common cold on sleep. (You do not need to have a cold in order to participate) Wanted: Men and Women (ages 1&45) " . ' 7 . A 711 I THI S MONTH ONLY III