Collegian
Page 5
Paul Winter
Paul Winter- Music Review
0000
by Vail Weller
Feature Editor
teresting and educational bits and
pieces of other types of musical
culture. Some of these have in
cluded Broadway music, some jazz,
extensive classical, Baroque, and
I like the kinds of music most also New Age music.
college students do: rock, dance, New Age music is pretty much a
and new. But I have been new field. Not too many people of
privileged enough in my life to our age (at least that I have en
have been exposed to some very in- countered) know too much about it.
Only
Kiss, Heart, Yes - Videos
by Brett Taylor
Collegian Staff Writer
A political philosopher once claimed that the vision of the artist is 50
years ahead of the tangible societal reforms called for in his criticisms.
Keeping this in mind, let's watch some MTV and see what we'll be
doing in 2038.
Oh boy! Kiss is on, performing "Reason to Live." I'm told this
video is presently the number one request on MTV. We have the stan
dard shots of the band performing in an empty auditorium. Now we see
a girl in a bathtub. Then we see the same girl pouring gasoline over a
black Porsche 928. Now she's dancing naked in front of a mirror. Wait.
The car bursts into flames. The girl is back in front of the mirror, wrap
ped in a towel. I hope this means she took another bath, after pouring
that gasoline all over the driveway.
Picture the actress on the phone one month earlier.
"Mom, I did it! I finally got a part. I'm going to be an actress!"
"That's great, honey. Your father and I knew you could do it. What
part are you going to play?"
"Well, I take my clothes off, dance around naked, and set a car on
A loud thud is heard over the phone, then silence.
"Mom? Are you there, Mom?"
Maybe some clue to the meaning of this video can be found in the
lyrics: "Everybody's got a reason to live" except, maybe, the guy who
directed this video.
Film Enthusiasts 00
I would like to extend an invita- tuned to the Entertainment section
tion that I received from the Plaza in Behrend's Collegian where we
Cinema. Cinema World, Inc., is keep you informed with what's
beginning its 1988 Art/Specialty going on!
Film Series "Art 88" at the Plaza Trivia:
Cinema on West Bth street in the I have two Free passes to the
West Erie Plaza. They will be "Art 88" film series for anyone
showing the following domestic who can tell me the 1986 Academy
and foreign films: Barfly, Jean De- Award winning picture—it should
Florette, Maurice, Dark Eyes, be easy. Leave your name and
Hope and Glory, and Monon of phone number with the winning
the Spring. answer in the Collegian office be-
Be sure to check the Erie Times
for showtimes or call the Plaza
Cinema to confirm showtimes and
playdates. And don't forget to stay
BEER & POP
WAREHOUSE
'2701 Eim Street (Hills Plaza-East)
Phone 456-BEER
Largest selection and lowest Hours:
everyday discount prices on Mon.-Thurs. 9 a.m. - 10 p.m
Domestic and Imported Beer, Fri.-Sat. 9 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Pop and Snacks Sun Closed
Mazda SE-5: our
best-selling number 1
people-pleasing truck.
MAZDA TRUCKS ARE NUMBER 1- AGAIN -
IN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION!
For the second straight year, Mazda beat Toyota, --
Nissan and everybody else in pleasing owners
and now our 'BBs are here to please you! SE-5 is a
special favorite because it's priced near Toyota's
and Nissan's plain base trucks, yet you get a
5-speed overdrive, spoker wheels, raised-letter
radials, rear step bumper, sport mirrors, special
stripes, tinted glass, and more standard!
S-' D -----
..), D
2315 West 12th Street • Erie, PA 16505
(814) 452-6441
hind the RUB desk. Good Luck!
Matthew Filippi
Entertainment Editor
A Whale of a Musician
It's a type of music that appeals
greatly to yuppies, intellectuals,
successful business types, and to
me. It is a hard thing to explain- 7
not all mellow, and not all rock or
jazz. It has classical undertones and
is extremely experimental.
The New Age musician with
whom I am best acquainted is a
man named Paul Winter. He grew
On Television EA
I bled the Porsche. Let's give this one four stars
Next we're presented with Heart performing "There's the Girl." The
only interesting aspects of this video are the shots of rotund vocalist
Ann Wilson. In all of her scenes, the screen is compressed horizontally
so that everything appears tall and thin. Everything except Ann, that is.
This is pathetic.
I'll give this video four stars anyway, because the huge Egyptian
monuments on the set must have kept several Art Institute graduates off
of welfare for a month.
Look, here's Yes performing "Rhythm of Love." A series of red vel
vet curtains is drawn back from the screen, exposing yet another blond
video babe. She's smearing motor oil (40 weight, I believe) all over her
naked body. That's original.
After walking around town a bit, the girl straps on safety goggles and
a leather bra and goes to work in a factory. She cranks a couple of
widgets off the assembly line, and soon our heroine is back on the
streets, now pursued by a stop-motion robot composed of household
appliances— in particular, a power drill and a blender. Unaware of the
danger, the girl takes a shower while a mechanical fish has a seizure in
his bowl. I'm getting scared.
Now the drill/blender is roaming the corridors of the girl's apartment
building. Don't worry, though. She escapes, straddling a rocket which
she had stashed in the garage. Meanwhile, the drill/blender vaccuums
her apartment.
If this isn't art, I don't Know what is— four stars all the way.
Excuse me now. I've got to go unplug all my kitchen appliances
the
VIAA CINEMA
` presents
Ipresents
SS
the
Art/Specialty
Film Series
Acoustically Sound
Michael Hedges, Live from the
Double Planet
000
by A. Thomas Mamaux
Collegian Staff Writer
Michael Hedges comes out of
nowhere. Luckily, I stumbled
across his latest album. He is a con
temporary jazz guitarist that is on
the verge of being recognized in the
same class as Pat Metheny or
George Benson. The album was
Review Ratipgs:
00 Average
000 Above Average
0000 Excellent
Vglf - T,Gcfliz.
Music Reviewer - someone to write'a review on
an album evert] two weeks
Video Reviewer - someone to review music
videos -must have access
to MN-at kast one review
every two weeks..Ti
Play Reviewer -
Book Reviewer -
Art Reporter -
Anyone who would like to write stories olmusicsi
events, for example, the Grsneriles.
Anyone may contribute snicks anytime:prough
out the semester. it you have shy enter
. tainment news information or reviews
teel free to submit!
•If interested call Matt 6662 or leaye your
name and phone number in the collegian
office. Thank you.
0 Poor
someone who scivelysees
plays -contributereviews
wheneverpossible.
someone who ac&elyneeds
new books. -contribute as
many's possible•
someone to report on art
events, galaties„?Showings
etc.
entertainment
up (as a good friend of my father's)
in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Winter
attended the University of
Michigan, where he formed a jazz
group which won the collegiate
award for best jazz ensemble. This
led to greater recognition and upon
graduating, the State department ar
ranged for Winter to tour through
Latin America. He became very in-
Dan Akroyd or Dr. Ruth?
The Couch 'Drip- Movie
00 %
by Darrell Freund
Collegian Staff Writer
Did you ever wonder where
psychologists and psychiatrists go
with their problems? Are they
simply charlatans? Do they know
any more than we do? Why are
these so-called "professionals"
qualified to handle our
schizophrenic, megalomaniac ten
dancies? Who handles their tenden
cies? The movie The Couch Trip
presents a situation in which such a
"specialist" turns out to be your
recorded in a Boston bar. M.H.'s
guitar (acoustic only) is very good.
His singing range is wide and
phenomal. Because of this he is a
solo performer. He uses nothing
electric except the microphone. He
borrows material from the Beatles,
the Rolling Stones, and Jimi
Hendrix.
The album takes off with "All
Along the Watchtower." Wholly
acoustic, he does not lack the
power that Jimi Hendrix put into
Feb.l2
13
Sting at Public Hall, Cleveland_
Earth, Wind and Fire at Richfield Coliseum,
Cleveland _
25 Frank Zappa at Syria Mosque, Pittsburgh.
Mar_ 2 Barry Manilow at Civic Center, Erie_
5 Frank Zappa at Music Hall, Cleveland_
10 George Thorogood and the Destroyers at Shea's
Theater, Buffalo_ •
12 Starship at Music Hall, Cleveland_
13, 14 Bruce Springsteen at Coliseum, Cleveland_
13 Jeffery Osbourne at Front Row, Cleveland_
15 INXS at Coliseum, Cleveland_
29, 30 Michael Jackson at Coliseum, Cleveland
(Tentative).
Apr_ 16 Tiffany at Warner Theater, Erie (Two Shows).
9, 10 Oak Ridge Boys at Front Row, Cleveland_
terested in the music there, and
when he returned to the United
States he composed music which
led to the popularization of the
"bossa nova" beat. Later, he for
med the Paul Winter Consort, a
group of musicians with which he
records most of his music.
These days it is very hard to
keep track of Paul Winter. When he
is not at his farm in Conneticut, he
travels extensively and experiments
with many types of music. He has
done a lot with African influences,
Russian influences, Spanish in
fluences, and classical as well. He
is the Artist-in-Residence at St.
John the Divine, a huge cathedral
in New York City, where he per
forms often. It is thought that Win
ter is mostly responsible for the
bringing-about of New Age music.
He fits the category, but as you can
see, he is also much more.
I own three of his albums. My
personal favorite is Common
Ground. The best track is called
"Wolf Eyes." There is a
photograph on the album sleeve
which shows Winter and his
musicians playing while a wolf
(which can't be more than four feet
away) howls along. To produce this
song Winter went to a wolf
preserve in North Dakota where he
did something that to my
knowledge has been attempted
before. The saxophone and the wolf
sing (and I do mean sing) a duet.
There comes a point when you
can't differentiate between the
animal and the instrument. It is
truly amazing and spellbinding.
Winter has the ability to make a
variety of instruments sound like
anything he wants them to. In this
case he turns a saxophone into a
normal everyday person. That is if
you are willing to consider Dan Ak
royd, in any movie, your average
person.
Akroyd plays a not so crazy
prisoner (actually he is just plain
lazy) who, through a series of lies
and manipulations, manages to get
his own talk show on the radio.
This talk show, borrowing the
sexual and social overtones from
Dr. Ruth Westheimer's now defunct
show, has Akroyd addressing the
problems of the Los Angeles
population.
The situations Alaoyd confronts
would put any psychicanalysis in a
his version nor does he lack the does not sound anything like
emotion that Hendrix posesses. Prince. Here, M.H. takes his voice
When Hedges needs some percus- from the lowest to the highest oc
sion, he just slaps the guitar with cave. When he can't use his guitar
his thumb and fingers. "Ready or on a lead (it needs distortion) he
Not" is one of his own corn- uses his voice. The best (debatable)
positions. M.H. sings "lasers start song is a remake of John Lennon's
tracking acid of industry as the "Come Together." Here M.H. has
whole world turns us around I keep the whole bar join him on the
hearing life's echo sound." You can chorus. Hehdoes ithvery intensely.
make your own interpretation of his The rest of the Album will give you
lyrics, but his lyrics arc just as violent flashes of M.H.'s guitar
complicated as the music he writes. prowess. Look for Michael Hedges
"The Love Bizarre" is the next to soon be on the charts and on the
standout song. It was written by radio.
Prince, but the finished product
Ce&.("/t.TW,Y.Ce2*Z , tv&'t,*?ki',/ *?
Force M_D. at Holiday House, Pittsburgh..
Dio, Megadeth, and Savatage at Public Hall,
Cleveland.
Earth, Wind and Fire at Civic Arena, Pittsburgh
Yes at Richfield Coliseum, Cleveland_
14
16
17
19
wolf. The song is so hauntingly
beautiful that I honestly get chills
every time I hear it.
Another track on Common
Ground involves the use of
humpback whale songs. If you've
ever heard any, you know how
drilling they can be. Winter turns
the sound into an unbelievable bal
lad which really affected me. Win
ter is very involved in ecological
concerns—he conducts whale
watching tours on the Baja Penin
sula in California.
Another example of Winter's in
genuity can be found in his album
Canyon. It is a celebration of the
Grand Canyon. Recording began in
1980 with the Paul Winter Consort.
The entire album was recorded
while they rafted on the Colorado
River. A lot of the tracks are im
provisations—for instance "Raven
Dance" in which they capture a
raven's cry. This album is also
amazing. There arc a lot of unusual
percussion instruments included: a
desert drum, a pandereta (which is
an 18 inch frame drum from
Central Spain), Hopi and Ponca rat
tles, and a gaval (which is an Azer
baijani tambourine). The music is
all beautiful and as - I mentioned
earlier, it is very hard to classify.
The music is all (for the most
part) extremely relaxing— I always
feel like a better human being after
listening to Paul Winter. I have
never found anything that I enjoy
listening to more and it never gets
old to me. I highly recommend the
purchase of any Paul Winter
product and I will personally
guarantee satisfaction, pleasure,
relaxation, and a new understand
ing of what music can be.
bind. Through his basic understand
ing of people, and pseudo-per
sonality, Akroyd manages to fool
all of those around him.
The movie tends to wonder from
scene to scene. The audience is
reminded of Akroyd's days on
Saturday Night Live. The humor
tends to get dry at times, with the
theater goers more concerned with
Akroyd's motion than his
monologue. But, The Couch Trip
manages to strike the funnybone. It
is a movie no comedy fan can take
lying down.