iA Take a Chance at the Ark Mike Younger and Lori B perform at "Take a Chance Tuesday." Younger and Lori B bring an eccentric blend of contemporary folk music. The Ark, 8 p.m. (7Ie £idigun latg I.kitww Tomorrow in Daily Arts: Check out an interview with author Gregg Oppenheimer, reading tomorrow night at Borders Books & Music. 0 8 Tuesday October 26, 1999 Eclectic Frisell brings variety to Power SO- Adlin Rosli Daily Arts Writer Bill Frisell is easily one of music's most eclectic gui- tarist around today. His recorded works showcase a talent with a remarkable ability to create musical journeys that encompass a wide range of musical styles. Frisell contin-- ually makes weird and sometimes whimsical sounds on his instrument and has the ability to sound like a Nashville country session guitarist, a Bill Frisell metalhead, a jazz or an avant-gard musician. He brings this variety to Power Center his performance with his new quartet situra a~t R m. at the Power Center Thursday at 8 genre of music and cater to only audiences of that style of music, Frisell has been able to musically do anything he wants. "Of course I want people to like what I do, but at the same time I can only do what feels good to me. I feel exceptionally lucky that I have the support I have from the fans and the record label," Frisell said. Frisell had to endure many hardships to get to the posi- tion he is in today. It was not an easy undertaking to break into the music industry and still keep his musical integrity intact. Frisell said, "I guess I was always really stubborn. I remember when I was around 18 or 19. 1 was in college and I had this really intense feeling of being not sure with what to do with my life. After I realized what I wanted to do, I just kept going at it, I would teach guitar and play in any gigs I could get." He also mentioned that it's been a while since his days of playing "crowd pleasing" music to make ends meet. "I haven't had to play for a wedding or anything like that in a long time now. I've had to play in all sorts of groups, from a polka group to an Elvis impersonator's band. When you're a struggling musician. you'll do any- thing!" Frisell exclaimed. Frisell also stresses the importance of believing in yourself and encouragement in doing well as a musician. "I remember in college one teacher dismissed this piece I wrote and I was so discouraged that I didn't write anything for like 10 years. When around that college age, you're already so unsure of so many things, and com- ments like what I got can really set you back," Frisell said. "At the same time I had friends who were telling me that I really had something worth developing, and that helped. Most of all being stubborn really helped." Inspiration comes to Frisell at different times. He said that his most inspiring moments are usually on stage. "When you're onstage playing with people you love, you can have just the tiniest spark of inspiration, but because you have all these other great people with you they can really help set that spark off." Other times when he's at home, Frisell still finds inspi- ration but it doesn't come as simply. "When I am at home working on an idea on my own, I have to work on it a little more," he said. "It doesn't develop as easily." Regardless of how Frisell comes up with his ideas and songs, Thursday's audience can be certain that they will have that firm personality stamp Frisell manages to work into his concerts. They can probably catch Frisell having some moments of inspiration at his performance at the Power Center. I raurwdy dC 0 p.m p.m. Frisell credits his wide musical vocabulary to keeping an open mind to different musical styles. "I just like to open myself up to things," he said. "I've been playing the guitar for a long time now and I see my progression as me constantly something new for myself musically. trying to uncover It's as though I am chipping away at something to even- tually get to what I am looking for." While most musicians are usually stuck in only one Courtesy of Nonesuch Bill Frisell will bring a variety of musical styles to the Power Center when he performs on Thursday. College anecdotes join Soup' series "Chicken Soup for the College Soul" Dan Clark Health Communications, Inc. "Chicken Soup for the Soul," "Chicken Soup for the Women's Soul," "Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul," and now finally, "Chicken Soup for the College Soul." "Chicken Soup for the College Soul" is full of stories that are short enough to read at any time of the day, yet touching enough to make you laugh or cry. "Chicken Soup for the College Soul" is written by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Kimberly Kirberger, and Dan Clark. Dan attended college at the University of Utah; he loved his experience there and writes of many fond college memories in his book. Dan never thought he would be a writer. But he was in a football accident, which paralyzed him for two years and also inspired him to write. Clark empha- sized that "Chicken Soup for the College Soul" is for many: teenagers, to motivate them to go to college, college students, to give them hope, and parents, to help them through the separation process as their child goes to school. Whether you're homesick, having boyfriend/girlfriend problems, stressing about grades or just need to smile, you will find a story to meet your needs. Each chapter is a differ- ent category, such as Lessons from the Classroom, Love 101, Mind Over Matter and Friends. The chapter on Friends talks of new friends you will meet :and old friends not to be for- gotten. Lessons from the Classroom makes you feel better when you think you are failing every class, while Lessons from Outside the Classroom reminds you that class- rooms are by far not the only place we learn things. In the Love 101 chapter, there is a story by Dan Clark, "The Mirror," which every one can relate to. Dan was totally infatuated with a girl, Jilliene Jones. He investigates what she likes and where she goes, and even begins to change himself into a person that he thinks she would like. After finally getting a kiss, he real- izes she is not the girl for him, and he looks in the mirror and takes off his fake nose ring, rips off his heavy metal shirt and washes the grease out of his hair. When he looked into the mirror again, he sees himself, some- one he had not seen a few moments before. "Chicken Soup for the College Soul" also has poems, drawings and quotations within each chapter that pertain to that particular subject. The chapter titled Transition includes a paper, "The Times I Called Home From College," by Scott Greenburg. His paper makes one think of all the times you have called home, for instance, "when I changed majors, when I needed money, and when I wanted to tell my family I loved them." As "Chicken Soup for the College Soul" makes you laugh and cry, so might one of the authors, Dan Clark. His advice to college students is to "take classes outside of your major, go to speakers, museums, concerts, different restaurants, get involved and do more than just study." The book "Chicken Soup for the College Soul" is recommended for everyone; the stories are inspiring and make one think of the important aspects of life. Clark concludes that "If one note on the piano is out of tune, you don't throw away the whole piano. Likewise, throughout life, if one thing goes wrong, there are still many more things to think about, as there are keys on the piano." - Shannon O'Sullivan :,.. .'' Courtesy ofrWaitisney Pures 79-year-old Richard Farnsworth plays Alvin Straight in David Lynch's "The Straight Story," a simple, charming film about a man who drives a tractor from Iowa to Wisconsin. Compellig Farnsworth reveals beauty in.'Story Los Angeles Times Richard Farnsworth shows up at the L.A. Equestrian Center looking every inch the cowboy, from his broad-brimmed hat to his crisp blue jeans to his handsome leather boots. On his right hand, he wears a huge turquoise ring. The setting seems appropriate for an interview with Farnsworth; he's been riding horses his whole life and the Equestrian Center is one of Farnsworth's old stomping grounds. "This was the river bottom," the 79-year-old actor says, staring out the window of a small reception area. "We had (horse) races here in the late '30s, all the way up to the early '50s," he says. "I kept my horses here up until 1989. 1 can't ride now (he has a bad hip), but I keep them as pets." So it's ironic that in perhaps the role of his 60-plus- year movie career, Farnsworth is riding again, but instead of a horse, he's on a beat-up John Deere lawn mower. And instead of Western plains and mountains, he's traveling along rolling state highways through the Midwest. The film is "The Straight Story," and in it Farnsworth plays Alvin Straight, who travels for six weeks on his lawn mower to visit his estranged older brother who has suffered a stroke. The elegiac drama, directed by David Lynch - his first G-rated film - is based on a true story. Farnsworth says it was easy for him to fit into Straight's shoes. For one thing, both men relied on canes to get around. "I saw the condition he was in," he explains in his gentle, rather high-pitched voice. "It kind of gives you a feeling of what he went through sitting on the (mower) every day. It wasn't very hard for me to do frankly. Even the dialogue seemed to go so smooth for me. I am kind of limited (as an actor). I do rural things. I couldn't do a Philadelphia lawyer or a nuclear physicist. But the way it was written, it just felt fine." Farnsworth's subtle, moving performance won raves at film festivals and generated talk of an Oscar nomi- nation. The Disney film opened Oct. 15. "He doesn't consider himself an actor, which is a real shame," says Lynch, who's best known for such violent cult classics as "Blue Velvet" and "Eraserhead." "As many times as I told him he's full of baloney, he probably never will believe it. He started out in rodeo and stunts and came to acting (late). He doesn't realize what a gift he has, which is the gift of a true actor. He's got it." Because of his bad hip, says Lynch, Farnsworth was in a lot of pain during the shoot. "A lot of times we had to help him get out of the chairs," he says. Sissy Spacek, who plays Straight's childlike daugh- ter, Rose, felt Farnsworth really was like the character he played, making it easy for her to bond with him both on and off screen. "They don't make men like him any more,"she says with much affection. "He is very funny and a very humble man. There are some people that you feel awkward about even touching and he's not one of them." Because the film follows Straight's route from Iowa to Wisconsin, Farnsworth got to meet a lot of the peo- ple who helped him on his journey back in 1994. "They had a good word to say for the old man," he says. "He was very independent." Before the film began, Farnsworth asked Lynch why Straight just didn't take a bus to visit his brother. "David said he made up his mind that this was his last big chore and he's going to do it on his own," Farnsworth says of Straight, who died in 1996. 'He was a very hard-headed old guy. I might have played him a little softer than he was." From his Oscar-nominated role in 1978's "Comes a Horseman" to his acclaimed performance in 1983's "The Grey Fox" to "The Straight Story," Farnsworth has demonstrated an uncanny ability to express more emotion with his face than in reciting pages of dia- logue. With his twinkling blue eyes, white hair and mustache, and leathery but still handsome face, Farnsworth calls to mind such old western film stars as William S. Hart. Even when Farnsworth speaks. dialogue, LX says, "a word starts inside of him and by the time it comes out, he has made it is own. He's made it real. He has colored it with a facial expression and some- thing in the eyes. It becomes just kind of a magic act." "The Straight Story" screened at the Cannes film festival in May. Farnsworth was overcome with emo- tion at the standing ovation he received. "It was thrilling," he recalls. "The standing ovation really got to me, I tell you. It went on and on. I could- n't get over it." Farnsworth began his movie career as an extra e 1938 costume epic "The Adventures of Marco Po' Being a stuntman in Hollywood in those days, he says, was wonderful. "I was an athlete. I found out early in my career I wasn't accident prone. I didn't want to do anything but stunt work." Farnsworth, in fact, was Montgomery Clift's stunt double on the 1947 western classic 'Red River." "In all fairness, he looked pretty darn good," Farnsworth says of Clift's performance as a cowboy. Henry Fonda, whom he doubled in the 1948 John Ford western, 'Fort Apache," was his favorite act- work with. "He was a loner but I liked his style. Farnsworth was also a gladiator in Stanley Kubrick's epic "Spartacus." The only reason he was considered for the role of Jane Fonda's dedicated ranch hand in "Comes a Horseman" was that director Alan Pakula had previ- ously produced the 1969 Gregory Peck western "The Stalking Moon," in which Farnsworth uttered a few lines as a cavalry soldier. Pakula remembered Farnsworth's brief scene. "They called me in and showed me the script. I said, 'Look there's too much here.' They said to talbt home. I took it home and my wife, Margaret, looked at it and said, 'You can do this. We'll practice.' They called me in a couple of days later and I read.6ne scene with Jane. Alan said, 'That's it.' I got the job" Farnsworth's eyes twinkle. "When the acting cane up, it was a miracle," he says. "I was about to retik.:.. I would have been out of the business." Always thought about writing for Daily Arts, but don't know how to get started? i~~N 1 ~"J"~ fV~~~ Call 763-379 tifor information! ... .. .. .. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND PACIFIC STUDIES (JR/PS) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO (UCSD) IN / PShas established itself as a leader in training people to compote in the global arena. The 1998 program graduates are employed in media/telecommunications, international trade, manufacturing/high technololm. financial services. consulting. government and nonvrofit u'rmrmimtrunt's KlznQs Iland wHi hoste. . . __ _ _. .. _ ,, , . ..., t * Iii, M I*