mu;H u-;i-;vi ■ . . FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2000 Lennon by Erin McCarty staff writer Thirty years after the break up of the Beatles and twenty years after his murder, John Lennon lives again in a year-long exhibit occupying three floors of Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Lennon: His Life and Work,” a vast collection of artifacts donated mostly by his widow Yoko Ono, opened October 19, ten days after what would have been Lennon’s 60th birthday. Although it is his time with the Beatles that most people associate him with, these early years are not the focus of the display. Rather, it concentrates largely on his solo efforts, his paint ings and sketches, and his home life with Yoko Ono. An entire floor is dedicated to his songs, and hand penned lyric sheets cover the walls as his music plays in the back ground. Other items include the leather jacket he wore in Hamburg as a young Beatle, report cards which warn of Lennon’s unrealistic ambi tions, collages he created for George Harrison and Ringo Starr, a bed that he and Yoko Ono made out of church pews, his Academy Award for “Let it Be,” and several of his ROCKY HORROR Anniversary marks 25 years of Time Warp This year marks the 25th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s original release. The movie that was originally referred to as a “sleeper" by Rocky Horror actress Patricia Quinn, is still being shown in movie theaters at midnight around the world. Over the weekend of October 13 and 14. the 25th Anniversary convention was held in Las Vegas. This weekend, VHI aired a portion of the festivities showing live performances of the movie's songs, including original cast mem bers Richard O’Brien (Riff Raff/creator of the movie), Patricia Quinn (Ma gehta),and Nell Campbell (Columbia) performing “The Time Warp." Also airing 6n VHI this coming week is the movie itself and special Rocky Horror episodes of “Where Are They Now?” and “Behind The Music.” Also cel ebrating the 25th year of Rocky, the musical opened on Broadway and a spe cial .videocassette and DVD showing previously unreleased scenes is now available. Originally released in 1975 and starring Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Tim Curry and Meat Loaf, the movie flopped. It was not until later when theaters began airing it at midnight and the audience participation lines were added that the movie became one of the most popular cult films to date. Par ticipation began in the late seventies and involved throwing everything from fOpd 10 playing cards. As the original video tells us, “Dream it in your living room, Be it in the theater!” A sequel entitled Shock Treatment was released in the early eighties but missing most of the original cast. Quinn, O’Brien and Campbell stayed onfbr thO project, but the movie failed. A more solid script was written for a Revenge of The Old Queen, a more accurate sequel to Rocky Hyrrof However, the film got put in turn around (Hollywood-ese for “ain’t and was never developed. The script, however, is available tt]t http://www.angelfire. com/movies/RevengeOldQueen/rotoq.html. Rocky Horror Picture Show web site can be found at i|iy?amckyhprrof.com. On this site you can find a list of props to do the aufltehdfparticipation, as W ell as theaters where it is shown and information the fan dub. haven’t seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show, definitely do so this Wwa&em. Remember to keep an open mind and feel free to do “The Time to}/}*- S Syt ' A, i ' - * Watp’* alon|gyrith the characters on TV. Now, “Let there be lips.” Movies The Legend of Baggar Vance (may not open in Erie) 11/3 * release date 11/7 Arts & Entertainment T 1 7 J New exhibit opens at Rock Remembered: and roi Lennon and wife Yoko Ono guitars. The most upsetting artifacts greet visitors right at the outset: John Lennon's blood-flecked sun glasses and a bag containing the clothes he was wearing when he was shot. Two of Ono’s art pieces are also on display. One is a tele phone; if it rings, she will be on the by Susan Taylor staff writer Newb i Releas Video* Dexter y s Laboratory: Ego Trip Joseph: King of Dreams P owe rpuff Girls: Birthday Bash and Dream Scheme other end of the line, ready to talk to whatever guest picks up the phone. The other is the Wishing Tree, upon which visitors hang their wishes written out on slips of pa- The opening of the exhibit also coincides with the publishing of two Play Station Let the games begin The pandemonium started last Wednesday as droves of people seeking out this year’s “It” toy crowded stores looking for one of only 500,000 Play Sta tion 2’s. The consoles are in short supply due in part to strategic marketing, but moreso because of an industry wide shortage of parts needed for the sys tem. Experts say of the suspicious shortage that it is "conveniently true.” Thanks to the high demand, a large black market has already opened up for the system. Retailing at $299 in stores like K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Target, analysts expect they will triple in cost over the Internet. Within the first week of availability, however, this figure seems conservative. Those lucky enough to snatch up a console have received bids through Ebay topping out at $4lOO so far. Sony expects to release 1.3 million systems to the U.S. by Christmas, creating a particularly stressful season for parents and potential PS2 owners. Music * Blink 182 (Live) Ginuwine Jennifer Lopez R. Kelly Rugrats in Paris Soundtrack Hall of Fame major volumes concerning Lennon. The Beatles' Anthology is a 350- page retrospective on the group in which Lennon has equal represen tation with his living counterparts. Hundreds of pictures are inter spersed with interviews of the four Beatles as the band’s story unfolds in their own words. Lennon Re- members is an exhaustive series of interviews Lennon did in 1970 with Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner. In it, Lennon, engulfed in the throes of the primal scream therapy he was practicing at the time, comes across as bitter and resentful of his Beatles fame, and the book adds a good deal of insight into this public man whose private thoughts were so of ten unknown. A special tribute edition of Roll ing Stone has been published for November, and includes memories of Lennon by such varied person alities as producer Phil Spector, ac tor Peter Fonda, and singer Art (iarfunkel. Fans who would like to share their own sentiments about FILE PHOTO Lennon can do so at www.rollingstone.com. "Lennon: His Life and Work" will remain at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame un til next summer. , iX ■. S' Joseph: King of TMS PHOTO DVD* Dreams Em Fido by Deanna Symoski Primetime Politics How the media helped me choose the president Tuesday night, I sat among my peers in our weekly staff meeting, as we desperately tried to agree on a staff editorial. Suddenly, words like “run-off vote” and “electoral college” were being flung around the room and I nodded like I understood what people were saying, but really it was gibberish to me. Maybe I learned this stuff in sixth grade social studies, because I vaguely remember hearing that thing about “college,” but like the rest of politics has done, this discussion, too, left me feeling kind of tired. I know 1 am supposed to care about the issues and the candidates, but I don’t have time to remember all this mumbo-jumbo, and 1 certainly can’t figure out who the best candidate is when these are our choices. So I’ve done what l think most Americans have done-turned to the media for help. Thanks to outlets like Saturday Night Live, Jay Leno, Rolling Stone and Snickers commercials, I’ve learned more about the candidates than fever could have gathered by watching the debates or reading the paper. I learned that of my two choices, one is dumb and the other lies. Actually they both tend to lie, so 1 guess I should go with the one who is only a liar instead of the one who is dumb and lies. Or is it better to vote for someone who is too dumb to realize he’s lying? See how complicated this politics stuff is. But just as we like our “fast food” news, we like our fast food candidates. I like that in a thirty-second Snickers ad, my choices have been clearly defined without all the rhetoric that clouds both fact and opinion, and I like that the voter looks as confused as me. (It makes a non-political person like myself feel smarter). The ad goes like this: A guy walks into a voting booth and a cartoon elephant and a cartoon donkey climb over his shoulders, spouting off why each is the better candidate. It’s not because of their respective stance on foreign policy or domestic spending (more gibberish, if you ask me). No, the elephant (Republican George Dubya) says that he wears the same pants as his dad (George Bush, in case you’re even more clueless about this stuff than me), while the donkey (Democratic Gore) claims he invented pants. And there you have it. The future leaders of this country debating as they really meant to, and would have, I suspect, if some speech writer had not composed their answers for them. So again, am I voting for the dumb one or the liar? Rolling Slone has tried to help. They took the time to list all of the moronic things G. Dubya has said so that I may peruse it at my leisure probably sometime right before I hit the voting booth. They, too, have realized the difficulty of my choice and conducted the kind of research perhaps Gore’s camp could’ve used. Forget the issues that the candidates will forget about as soon as they hit the Lincoln bedroom, and let’s talk about what really matters. For instance, does G. Dubya have any idea how to form a coherent sentence and does A 1 Gore really believe he invented the Internet? God help us! Saturday Night Live and Jay Leno also understand the complexity of my choice. By their humorous vision of each candidate, they have not only informed me, but added a little laughter to my life during this very serious time for our country. Now, I’m not advocating this path to voting for president, and I would like to say that this isn’t really how I’ve gone about making a decision, but it kind of is. Like most Americans, I have formed an opinion through these mediums, not because they were the most accurate, but because they were the most entertaining. Unfortunately, I think 1 am representative of the average voter. I wish a hero was running; the choice then would be easy. But the candidates, once again, are no more than fodder for the late night funny man. And I make light of the sterotypes of each hopeful, but, sadly this is all most people will know of them. They will get their information about the candidates the same way I did —through the media’s simple breakdown of personalities. Those of you in the know will say that they—and me-are what is wrong with the system. I would have to agree. But we still get a vote. Ain’t America great!
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