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"r~ The Gutenberg Exi Judg emei Dear Diary, Tom and I were sitting around the house today wondering where Sherry Shealy got her hair waxed when the phone rang. It was that cuty little Danny McLeod. I thought at first he was going to tell us about abortions but then Tom dropped the phone into the guppy tank and turned green. He stam mered out something about the university having to reveal Dietzel's salary and started saying that when people find out that Bear Bryant only gets paid $23,000 somebody is going to get crucified. I told Tom he would look terrible in a loincloth and ed en. Hand took the cadillac away from me. Anyway, there were phone calls on top of phone calls and I told everybody that Tom was off in Pine Ridge getting his bow tie clip adjusted. Tom didn't think that was funnyt at ll and finally stopped cringing in the corner and wan dered into the den when a big flaming arrow came flying through the window and somebody Earl Scrugg Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt's old-time partner and one of the premier pickers of all time, appears on a new album with, get this, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Now it seems that this album, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" on United Ar tists came about when the Dirt Band decided to go to Nashville and record with some country artists. And by that I don't mean Con way Twitty or Donna Fargo. I am talking about heavyweights; Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Mother Maybelle Carter, Merle Travis. Scruggs deserves a lot credit for getting this album together. He had to lo4' 4-A --,. peri ment nt comes outside yelled "Im James Dickey and I'm the greatest poet in the world." We let him in anyway and he began berating Tom fiercely. "I'm the greatest poet in the world and one hell of a boozer so how come I don't get paid that kind of money," he said. Tom was trying to pacify him when he picked up a briefcase full of copies of "Deliverance" and threw it at him. Tom said something about Burt Reynolds and Dickey calmed down a bit. In fact, he said something about making an ob scene phone call to Arthur Smith. Just when Tom was about to stop him, Hal Brunton walked in and said he still couldn't find that million dollars but he was going to keep looking. I said maybe he lost it when Witten, Alexander and Nick Mitchell threw him in the reflecting . pool. He didn't ap preciate that and stalked into the kitchen for some peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches. About that time, the doorbell s, Dirt Bond m talk some of the country all stars into messing around "with those hippies." Roy Acuff was finally talked into it but Bill Monroe could not be persuaded to walk into a studio with the Dirt Band. Even so, Acuff said, "Well, you're supposed to know a man by the character of his face, but if he's got your face all covered up with something, well..." This tension sometimes comes across on the album in the intros with the Dirt Band making wise cracks and people like Doc Watson freezing them out with a tone of voice that says "Get serious, kid.' But when they put something down it is all serious. Most of the cuts on to Dietzel rang. I let Jim open it and Dietzel walked in wearing sackcloth and ashes and crying out loud about the day of judgment is at hand, but he wasn't going to worry because he could fall back on his radio and TV contracts. Paul and Tom and Jim and Hal all sat down and Paul cried and Hal said he was still looking for the money and Jim wanted to know if I had anything to shoot atkrows -into and Tom just sat and looked pretty disgusted by the whole thing. At last Paul stood up, took the nails out of his hand and thrust his defiance in the direction of The State newspaper office and said his salary is none of the taxpayers' business. I didn't get rid of those dumwads for four hours. Finally they left and one of them ripped off my best Ramada Inn ashtray. Tom had fallen asleep on the floor a long time before so I left him down stairs - wait, he's coming up now. Uh-oh, good night, Mary. the Dheiecretere rag.het Jirt opnBand ietkind walked in hen sidekinothisn aheuan bcnaute d u thesn way yo'r going to wrybcueh cold t fal iac ho hse o ys.T coTracs.i t-ontymsc aluerat s Itois anu critorica said hAstl lo okio theseae' hagating to shotarod into andger. Jusanooukey, prtty diged by te wole thiner Atls completiood upofo the ts nais othis handsic thrut his Startenead ofc mad saioui felyi oeod.Ilstnt theipaes buins tedofPconw Int gtways o thoe dmwadse foourhr. itnal theyking ad onfasthem anpand Dof mybtso tight tefre soilet him don atstai v at hescoigupnd -Opinions Beauty, sexuality Balanced in movie This article is basically a reprint of a review of "Death In Venice" that I wrote for the November 20, 1972 Gamecock. Since it is playing Friday and Sunday night at the Russell House Theatre, I am using a critics prerogative to add a few words in retrospective defense. "Death In Venice" is not a search for ideal beauty, not a story of "latent homosexuality." It is a delicate balance between the two. Luchio Visconti is no dreamy idealist but a director with a firm grasp on reality and motivations. The total disintergration of the composer could not be due solely to a dedication to his concept of an ideal beauty, that ideal had to be combined with a driving motivation. I interpreted' that motivation as being a basically sexual one. Visconti shows us what he, himself, is saying, not what Thomas Mann tried to say in the novel on which the movie is based. They are saying quite different things. I do regret that I used a sarcastic tone in this review, for it does detract from the content of the article. I was, however, most depressed with the lack of appreciation of this movie shown by the general public. My con clusions in this article are justified, however, "Death In Venice" was the greatest film of 1970. "Death In Venice" is one of the greatest films I have ever seen. It has, however, the misfortune of being a brilliant film of emotion rather than action, and consequently, will be disliked by the great unwashed. In the opening minutes of the movie, the actions of the characters are inexplicable. This is calculated to produce a sense of unease and frustration (or boredom) in the audience. This sets the pattern of the entire film, for the director, Visconti, uses every device available to manipulate the audience's emotions. The theme of the movie is loneliness, not a physical loneliness but a spiritual loneliness and lack of identity. The protagonist is a German composer who has had his basic principles shaken by the death of his family and his own blossoming doubt as to his abilities. He travels to Venice in an attempt to reestablish to himself the validity of his beliefs. As he enters into the lobby of his hotel, he is struck by a fleeting homosexual attraction toward a teen-aged boy. This is totally irrecon cilable to his past, for he supposedly incapable of feeling and terribly moral. Frightened by this new emtion, he attempts to run fro these decadent feelings and escape into his past. Visconti uses color intensities to signify the inner turmoil the composer goes through, and this scene is climaxed by one of the greatest phallic shots I have ever seen as the composer returns to his hotel with a changing outlook on life. Through the use of flashbacks and parallel scene structure, Visconti compares the new feelings of love toward the boy with a degrading ex perience that happened to the composer in a whorehouse. This parallel forces the composer to wage another battle with himself that is slowly lost. Total defeat comes when he succumbs to the decadance of the Venetian style of painted eyes, painted faces, and painted lips on men: Visconti uses the music of Gustav Mahler's 3rd and 5th symphonies at situations like this to emphasize the incongruity of the transformation. Now that the composer has become "Venetian," it is obvious that either he or someone he knows.will be affected by the plague that is sweeping Venice (as in Farewell to Arms.) Visconti again uses washed out color in close-ups to show the lack of identity and shalowness of the composer. His newfound identity is totally against his basic nature. The movie closes with the composer entering a Venetian beach which is as barre as his life. He is a totally broken man whose principles have been broken and abandoned as he has failed at everything he has tried. His hair dye begins to run and represents the disintergration of his life. As he exerts himself for one final grasp at life (youth, truth, beauty), he sees his life as an expression of futility. Still, there is one last expression of freedom, of hope, which is then denied him. Thus totally destroyed, he dies. "Death in Venice" is a movie which will not be enjoyed by the majority of the huddled massed. It is, despite its flaws, a masterpiece. Help us help you. Sen d anews tip Drawer A, campus mail. Organization SEvent Time Date Place