behrcolls@aol.com
Diesel falls 'Apart'
by Jackie Loohauis
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
les" a good thing for the makers of
"AMan Apart" that Vin Diesel can al
ways be counted on to inject some oc
tane into a film.
Because Diesel is one of the few
things that really plays in this movie,
thich has been held out of theatrical
Iblease for two years.
One might have hoped that Direc-
F. Gary Gray had used that time
wisely to adjust the picture.
Instead, Gray and his first-time
screenwriters simply sat on a flawed
project, one with a plot seen so often
that audience members could have
chanted it out together.
Tough, eccentric cop Sean Vetter
(Diesel) does the right thing by bust
ing a drug cartel kingpin named
Lucero (Geno Silva). But Vetter pays
for his devotion to duty when gunmen
murder his beloved wife. The question
is, who ordered the kill: Lucero or a
mysterious new drug lord named El
Diablo?
Another question is: Could the
scriptwriters have come up with a
lamer villain's name than "El Diablo"?
Probably not,, given the lack of imagi
nation displayed in the rest of this
screenplay.
Vetter teams up with Lucero to find
(sigh) El Diablo, and finds himself bat
tling not only vicious drug dealers but
his own mental anguish. It's a race to
see what will unravel first, Vetter's
mental stability or the story.
Bet on Vetter. This plot has holes in
it you could drive a Hummer through,
but Diesel soldiers on trying to hold it
all together.
The most watchable action-star to
come along in years, he combines
muscular good looks with edgy humor
JUST BECAUSE IT'S
ON SALE DOESN'T MEAN
YOU CAN AFFORD IT.
Learning responsible financial behavior now will keep you out of trouble In the
future. Find out how to manage debt, avoid default on your student loan and
live comfortably within your means at the online source for smart students.
cunt
77,71117777771111
Vin Diesel and Larenz Tate dish-out justice,
execution-style.
and brings the movie the only air o
street-smart believability it can boast.
Cinematographer Jack N. Green
does give "A Man Apart" an interest
ing look, gray and grimy as the inside
of an old warehouse. And Gray pro
vides the requisite number of shootouts
and car crashes to keep action fans
happy.
But the movie is overlong, filled
with so much narration and explana
tory datelines ("Baja, Mexico") that it
begins to feel like a travelogue. The
soft ending has the scent of an after
thought.
In short, this is a production yearn
ing for DVD release. And we can bet
it won't take two years to happen.
"A Man Apart"
directed by F.
Gary Gary, star
ring Vin Diesel
and Larenz Tate is now playing
at Tinsletown.
*tom
out of
4 stars
-" --- " •M , ::'.". , OK , * ~•,.:•,,,,„
•.i-: - 'i - ::e.
...:.:.,'..,-..........;!.;.......,,,,., -r , .. ir, j oi r ,., •
.;.-4010,3 •. m" " , ',-- ,' ,
mi. 4" . '''''.,
Friday, April 4, 2003
Grateful Dead lyricist forges
out on his own
Few major bands have divided listeners as decisively as
the Grateful Dead once did. The San Francisco prank
sters attracted a legion of rabid followers and repelled
just about everybody else who didn't have the patience to
plumb the intricacies of their one-of-a-kind sound: coun
try, folk, blues and rock as viewed through the kaleido
scope of psychedelia. . .
Their style favored lengthy jams and winding improvi
sation, but underneath the noodling was a sturdy founda
tion: melodic songs, usually with lyrics written by Robert
Hunter. Though not a band member, Hunter was Dead
patriarch Jerry Garcia's closest musical collaborator and
friend. Hunter's often profound words gave the Dead's
tunes a depth that eluded even the most ambitious rock
bands. Alongside such '6os icons as Bob Dylan, Pete
Townshend, Lou Reed and a handful of others, Hunter
opened a new world for rock lyricism with his surreal
wordplay, evocative imagery and cosmic Beat-inspired
poetry.
The songs he wrote with and for the Dead-" Dark Star,"
"Uncle John's Band," "Ripple," "Bertha," "Casey Jones,"
"China Cat Sunflower," "U.S. Blues," the epic "Terrapin
Station," "Touch of Grey" - are the foundation of the hand's
legacy.
That legacy lives on, even after Garcia's death in 1995.
The survivors have regrouped as the Dead, and will tour
this summer. Meanwhile, Hunter has forged a solo career.
In an interview from the road, the guitar-playing trouba
dour assessed the state of his world, and ours:
Guitar playing: "I practice two to four hours a day, and
my fingers are obeying me at long last. I started at 15 which
makes 45-plus years of practice. I figure I'm a late bloomer.
I've been driving across the country listening to Miles Davis
and John Coltrane. I could never borrow from them, but
the freedom with which they approach their instruments is
sinking in. They're giving me permission to go ahead and
just open it up. The other night I discovered three new
melodic possibilities in 'Reuben and Cerise,' just letting
my fingers go where they wanna go."
by Greg Kot
Chicago Tribune
Do you want to join the Beacon?
The following positions will be available
Editor-in-Chief
Managing Editor
News Editors
Sports Editors
Editorial Editor
The Beacon provides a great place, for all majors, to get real world
experience. Letters of application for the edKop.inachief position
are to be submitted to: Ken Miller / Office of Student Affairs by
April 11th at 5 p.m. Letters of application for all other positions
should be submitted to the Beacon office.
Touring during wartime: "There is a fear, a nervousness
about us congregating. But I feel we need to be out there.
It's important to be out there. There's nothing more impor
tant than to be playing music in these dangerous days. I
guess my statement, to be quite hippie dippy about it, is
that we are all one, and half of me is beating the hell out of
the other half of me. I have not turned on the television
once. I did that during the last war, and wrote a book about
it (' A Strange Music'). From what I read and what I hear
about this one, it's the same war."
Protest songs: "I usually start my sets with 'Standing on
the Moon,' which I wrote around the time of the (1991
Persian) last Gulf war: 'I see a shadow on the sun/Stand
ing on the moon/The stars go fading one by one/I hear a
cry of victory/And another of defeat/A scrap of age old
lullaby/Down some forgotten street.' That just addresses
it. I can pour all my feelings into that."
The Internet: "If music is free, less crap will be made. I
hope it will become less market-oriented, where music will
make it on its individual merits rather than its commercial
push. This could auger augur a golden era for music. But
it will kill the record companies, and I'm delighted to see
them crumble."
The Dead without Garcia: "When I was writing songs
for him, I was writing songs that he could wrap his mind
around. They weren't just a bunch of wild turkeys. Now
there is a weeding-out process of songs of mine the hand
can and can't handle. I'm doing a lot of the things they're
not doing, like 'Days Between' or 'Candyman,' real lyric
heavy songs. Vocally, the Dead aren't as strong as they
might be, so they're going to take Joan Osborne out on the
summer tour. She can add to them. The new band is about
as close as we're going to get to what it was without Jerry's
sweet melodic guitar thing behind it."
Writing with Garcia: "Telepathy? There was a lot of un
spoken communication. But for (the Dead's classic 1970
album) ' Workingman's Dead,' we were living in the same
house, and I was banging away on guitar, writing songs
like 'Dire Wolf upstairs. By the time I'd give him the lyr
ics, he'd already thought of a better approach to the melody.
That wasn't exactly telepathy. It was more like thin walls."
for the Fall 2003 semester:
The Behrend Beacon
Features Editor
Advertising Manager
Calendar Page Editor
Distribution Manager
Public Relations
Staff Writers
Page 9