January 30, :1970 Too Many Meanings Cause 'Breakdown' - The words we use to Communicate in our everyday lives have reached a point where they are approaching uselessness. No long er may we be certain of what is meant when many words are spok en. We have allowed our language to expand a single word to con tain many meanings. Very often these meanings differ by only fine shades of meaning, while at other times the possible ways of tak ing what has been said may border on the extremes of what could have been meant. Think of the many times you have wondered what was meant by something someone has said to you and of the times you have been misunderstood or misunderstood what some one else -has said. These words which contain more than one mean ing are aiding in what can. only be described as a "communication breakdown." This "breakdown" is evident in the generation gap, the grow ing number of broken marriages, the wars of the world, and in the state of the world in general. If the people on the opposing sides of the generation gap could only be made aware of the fact that many of the things they are saying are really very similar, they could then be brought together to communicate with each other. Most parents do not understand exactly what their sons and daughters are trying to say to them. The larger portion of their ignorance is due to the attitudes they have and to their narrow-minded ways of looking at things, but the basis for their attitudes is that they sim ple don't know what their kids are .talking about. Parents have dif ferent connotations for words than we have, in fact our everyday use of language is in many ways very different than theirs. . The number of unhappy marriages outnumber the number of divorces in this country and taken together they would probably outnumber the number of happily married couples. There are any number of reasons -for these ill-matched couples. Perhaps if they had better understood each other, verbally, they would have rea lized before they were married that they were not suited for each other. Concerning the differences of opinion involving the nations of the world .we find -an even larger breakdown in the ability to com municate sensibly. The differences involved in translating thoughts from one language to- another is a difference which does exist. Even if -the obstacle of translation could be overcome we would still be confronted with the remaining problem of the ambiguity of the al lusion- contained- within the words. , If you would stop and take the time to think seriously about the donation which we have allowed our language to degenerate to, you might not think the- examples mentioned- are so ridiculous. The problems encountered= while our language•-system remains as foul ed up as it is are our own fault. As /thinking beings we do possess the capability to communicate with each other clearly. One answ er may be to speak as the Eats of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" spoke. Their tongue was one which so explicitly and intricately spoke of things that in its clear complexity it was impossible to un derstand. On the other extreme is the laconic way of speaking which was how the Spartans of ancient Greece: spoke. The Spartans used few words and wheri they spoke they were concise and to the point. Either extreme is an improvement over the way we speak. We could best improve our language by aiming towards either extreme and hopefully by attempting to attain 'the extreme we will find the mean. PRINCE VULGAR by chart WANT ADS New York to London—Summer Va cation Trips—Round trip $169. Now filling—small deposit and payments— send for free details—Student Globe Roamers, Box 6575, Hollywood, Fla. 33021. Diamond Rings by en nge blossom diamond rings , Art Carved ° DIAMOND RINGS K.... 7lSTERE 4. 6 ticie. ® DIAMOND RINGS only at Seymour s__ Jewelers Since 1936 708 STATE ST. • by Gary Thornbloom The Erie Book,Store -717 French Street Erie, Pa. - 16501 452-3354 - MARTIN - RIELL'S MR. SHOP Smartest in Young Men's Styles Liberty Shopping Center DOES A COMPUTER 'HAVE A HEART? IHOW TO GET A COMPUTER DANCE DOCTOR OF DIVINITY DEGREE _ Doctor of divinity degrees are issued by Universal Life FEBRUARY 14, 1970 9:00 P.M. - 1:00 A.M. Church, along with a 10-lesson course in the procedure - Music by of setting up and operating a non-profit organization, EPIGENISIS For a free will offering of $20.00 we- will send you, im • mediately, all 10 lessons in one package along with the $l.OO advance sale and fill D.D. certificate. out questionaire - UNIVERSAL LIFE CHURCH - - Sponsored by BOX 6575 - - PSI SIGMA UPSILON- SORORITYHOLLWOODi-- FLORIDA 33021 • THE NITTANY CUB Star CUB reporter Charly Lee Charly Lee Super-star Where's Charly? Why, he's re hearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing! Not only does he have a number of roles in Behrend's presenta tion of "Feiffer's People" . . he's also playing Rolf in The Erie Civic Theatre's "The Sound of Music." Of course, we mean Charly Lee! You . know Charly. He's that sophomore that changed his maj or from meteorology to theatre. You've got to admit, that's some change! Charly is minoring in broad casting and plans to go to. Uni- Versity Park next year. He play ed in Jim Dandy" and "J. 8." and would you believe he is the pres ident of Delta Psi Omega? "The Sound of Music" will be presented at the - Erie Playhouse from January 30 through Febru ary 8, with the exception of Mon day and Tuesday. Student tick ets, •at $3.25, are available for the Wednesday and Thursday per formances. The box office is open daily from 10 to 5. FEIFFER'S PEOPLE ARE COMING ! .:,...--.-.2"...: : ,,- 1 z~~'~~s THE LARGEST STOCK of In Northwestern Pa. at. Isaac Baker & Son State at 7tk. Christ You. Know It Ain't Easy B. B. KING, COMPLETELY WELL . . . BLUESWAY 6037 Everyone knows by now that BB King is THE guitar player s even teenybopper's have heard of him, and his TV appearances draw a bit of a crowd to most middle class tubes, unfortunately if all the people who he his importance were out there BUYING his albums might be able to relax a bit more. Admitted ly I'm guilty, I haven't bought one of Bs- albums in close to a year, and now I honestly think I've been missing too much, because if his past few releases have been as good as Completely well some of the best music anyone made has been going unnoticed. One of the reasons for people ignoring B is that lie is simply always there, every guitar play er in rock (and a decent amount of jazzmen too) is influenced at least twenty percent by Bs tech nique, and besides, Bs imitators have supposedly honed off the rough edges of his sound and made it palatable. That of -course is not true at all, Mike Bloomfield, the most easily recognized 8.8. Sing imi tator hasn't created anything worthwhile since he left the But terfield band, the reason being, that he lost that "rough edge." That rough edge, you know, is a euphemism for BALLS! which is my own euphemism for that over used term, soul. The great thing about B is that he's not a living relic, that you push out on stage, push a button that says ON, and it sud denly begins to sing blues, B has been able to adapt himself to most of the - changes that have happened in music (I once heard that he was studying some Ravi Shankar stuff, that's not entire ly unbelievable, as he does listen to flamenco guitarists), this al bum, Completely Well is a mod ern album in every sense of the word. The band on this album is a traditional blues band, two gui tars, a keyboard, bass, and drum mer (I wish there was a harp somewhere though, I've never heard B record with a harp, may be it would sound too old, but then again, maybe it wouldn't.) The drummer, Herb Lovelle, McDprva *s r -, : -;: t*;:'"4-'4.,0-4,44:',71.44 by Charles Peter Eschweiler AT., =ME any Keyboard man, Paul Harris are two of the oldest young ses sion men around (Harris was probably about ten when he first sat in on someones recording) second guitarist Hugh McCrack en is fine, as is bassist Gerald Jemmot. The communication B sets up here is unbelievably good, con.. sidering he is used to playing live with his own band, Harris, Lo velle and company have a bit wider musical background though, and give B the courage to get in to unknown things, such as dou ble tracking, overdubbing, wah wah pedals, and using feedback. That's really weird, I never thought B would do those things, and what's weirder.is that being a blues purist I never thought I could enjoy such antics. Bs use of the wah wah pedal on So Ex cited is the best use of that some what useless piece of equipment I've yet heard. I don't think I would want to hear more than one or two wah wah tracks by 13 though. (B uses a horn technique with the wah wah and regulates his phrasing in a manner not un like Cootie Williams, Clark Ter ry, or any of the Duke Ellington horn players, who used plunger mutes in their trumpets for a. wah wah effect.) The longest track on this al bum, You're Mean, (about ten minutes) features everyone in the' banddoing a little something, then B comes charging in, over dubbing his original track, the overdub ends, and he suddenly starts tearing the strings apart and c ompletely flipping out, playing faster than Alvun Lee 02 Bloomfield, yet hitting every note as clearly as you'd want until the whole thing stops and he says to Harris "Damn, what you all try ing to do, kill me?" After such a. workout I'm sure Johnny Winter, Bloomfield, Jimmy Page, or Jeff Beck would be pretty much kill ed, but Bs hardly out of breath. The communication here is al (Continued on Page 4) Page Three
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers