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_entertainmen Characters 9 B^HV ^ ^ '^sill BBB ~ " - -_- r~ - , I I1'1 -- : ,, - rM^P^jgWIR ^"'^'"^^MMB" V-" -'-Vr;..-,:-. The U.S. scientific expedition makes a terri is playing at Fox and Spring Valley theaters. 'Stevie Wondei By Bernard K. Addison Recently the music industry has been ban releases from the muscle of the industry McCartney's stellar "Tug of War" is gracin charts, while singles from new LPs Mac and Donna Summer are generating imi and response. None of these musical giants has been m( excellence and creativity than Stevie Wond Wonder's Original Musiquarium I" is an alb who appreciates music should be without. This album explains and displays to a yo who Stevie Wonder is and why he is so admin throughout the world. Disregard that he had h he was 13. Disregard that he transformer American music, not just rhythm and blues, handedly in the early '70s. Disregard the 15 Gi 10 Ampriran Musir AwarHc anH nnnnHoc _ _ . .w... V.V V TV M>IV? WUIIVIV/UI bestowed to him throughout his career. "Musiquarium." This album shows it all, through you'll want to hear more. "Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I LP anthology containing 12 songs spannin; seven albums and four new songs. What m? more enjoyable than the average greatest 1 the placement and selection of the album's has carefully selected these gems, polish* digitally remixing them for a more fresh, c then placed them categorically on the album. Each side is representative of one of diffc Stevie Wonder: Stevie Wonder, the nrotPster/flrtivisit/nrp?rh*?r u/r^nH r_ , ?, pr. y T IV fl i/ilU romantic balladeer; Stevie Wonder, the mu and Stevie Wonder, the bubbling life-lovii sharing human being. It provides an excel listening to even the most overplayed materia "Superstition" sounds so much clearer ai "Tobacco Road' By Deb bie Conrad The USC Summer Repertory's production of "Tobacco Road" opens on a weatherbeaten shack and a bunch of red dirt. No doubt, this is a Georgia from a couple of decades or so ago. The Lester family lives in this shack, poor as people are allowed to be, and incredibly horny. From Jeeter Lester's first line ? something about the house fallin' down if Dude don't quit trowing dat ball aginst it ? I urns tfltrpn Hnrlt tr? n timp hpfnrp mint> w- V/ IBUIIV, TT IIV/11 Augusta was called a "big city" and you had to have a mule to have a crop. Bob Hungerford really showed his capabilities as the lead, Jeeter Lester. He jittered and stuttered a little as old men do on occasion; he cringed from the verbal assaults coming from Dude, his son, played by Jerry Heaton; and he swore more than old men are supposed to swear. Heaton was marvelous as Dude: impertinent and too young to be a man, more concerned with the baseball he was trying to pound into shape than with the woman he i in 'The T ? Jill I.. .Ill -llllli. W.v.l.mu. B ff fgi H ;;; : "'W -7'~^L\;~! X;: tying discovery in Antarctica in "The Thing," 's Original Mu: ?tt?- albun raged by major . Already Paul even though the song has be g the top of the the past 10 years, 01 by Fleetwood "Musiquarium" without ge mediate airplay There should be no soi these songs are woven to) >re consistent in would be to miss somethinj er, and "Stevie and understanding of the al >um that no one Much of Wonder's musi woman'' (from "Music of unger audience "Musiquarium" and a ma ed and repected the keyboard arrangemen lis first hit when listening. "Living for tl d the shape of desperation and cruel real; almost single- existence for poor and stag rammy awards, cities. "Isn't She Lovely" is s other honors birth of Wonder's daughter Just listen to And "Boogie on Reggae W and after it's commitment than it does or The four new songs comj " is a two-disc well and show there's mc g 10 years and career. ikes this album "Front Line" is as strong lits package is commentary. The song is songs. Wonder decorated and bitter Viet *d them up by "They had me standing on lear sound, and back of the Iine/When4t cor Unlike Charlie Daniels' jrent aspects of "Front Line" takes a physi black social veteran, who joined the An er, the naive less in the eyes of his neif sical historian; patriotic then Daniels'; h ng, experience- Dramwashed mat ne'll pi lent format for earthy, straight delivery a il. work gives this song the hai nd crisper that, "Front Line" may well c actors play we! was to marry, and completely nonchalai when he told a neighbor who asked about h mother, "I guess she's dead." As his mother, Ada Lester, Donna Wilsc did a reallv eoori ioh It surnri?f?s mo thj - */ O tl " I" '""v *" this was her only role in the repertoi company. Dede Corvinus' portrayal of Sister Bess rtice, Dude's betrothed, was what I consid< typical Pentecostal. (I guess I could dra fire for that.) She preached and prayed ar ranted and raved and tried to save anyor who sinned more than she did ? and thi rieant everybody. Truly funny. Ajl the pa^ts were placed well, and th jharacters were very real. I'm not sure wh the show was nearly boring. The plot wasn much; nothing really happened. And wil the exception of three or four fun parts, J i ?? * ? '? vjuuiu nave easily siepi mrougn tne entu production. "Tobaccco Road" is well doni but not the best production Longstre^ Theatre has offered. Directed by theater professor Russe Green, "Tobacco Road" will return Frida in the rolling repertory schedule. hind' sec B fer starring Kurt Russell. The movie .! ! It siquanum i n review jen played constantly on radio for le cannot help listening to tting hooked on it again, lg-skipping on "Musiquarium"; gether too well, and to skip one g essential to the total enjoyment bum. c improves with age. "SuperMy Mind") is the oldest cut on gnetic beauty and elegance is in it, engrossing the listener every he City" recreates the same ity of the age-old hope of a better nant Southern blacks in Northern ; still a beautiful celebration of the and, in a way, the birth of us all. toman" plays with more fun and i "Fulfillingness' First Finale." dement "Musiquarium"'s format >re growth to come in Wonder's r (it AI~? nu-.n _*. ; -1 , da ljiviug iui uie ^ny ai suciai . a rock-inflected track about a nam veteran who realizes that the front line/Now I stand at the nes to gettin' ahead." recent single "Still in Saigon," cal look at this wounded-in-action ny to be a man, but ends up much ;hborhood. Wonder's song is less is veteran states that "he's so robably do it again." Wonder's nd Ben Bridges' excellent guitar rd edge it needs. ontain the best lyrics Wonder has Bp KW t / "i it B S2 is |U|pH||^K y B . K W ^ ^ mm ^ ,jj Bobby Bare and his band F iy Camp Saturday. July 3. Ban Wothin' to lota." at tho.conc :ond to I By Richard Culbertson Director John Carpenter ("Halloween," "Assault on Precinct 13," "Escape from Nlmir Vnrlr'M Knc HVfT A V4IV / tic*<3 uaicu trendy hokum at the expense of characterization in his new film, "The Thing." The story is about a group of Americans at an Antarctic base confronting an alien stranded in the wasteland by a crash landing and frozen in ice for 100,000 years. This "Thing," once thawed (by some ill-fated Norwegians), begins to kill and digest humans. What makes the Thing particularly difficult to destroy is its ability to assume ine appearance of ai.y type and any number of the living creatures it slays. Kurt Russell is the lead in a cast that includes some good actors (Donald Moffat and Keith David among mem;; no one in me cast has much more to do than struggle with their illrealized characters and explain the Thing for the audience's benefit. Caring about the caracters is difficult, and they don't con vincingiy care about each other. Instead of developing its characters, the film showcases the Thing's atshows Wc written in the past six years, an( and arrangement, represente< steadily improved. "Ribbon in the Sky" is a te taining some of Wonder's b presentation of romantic love though it's not as intricate as Sr presses the strength of romar hear since so many other ar James, describe romance as for The third song, "That Girl,"l ear for commercialism, as he { rnytnm to produce an excellent i The fourth track, "Do I arrangement techniques. The combination of big band swing and his band tear into this track that the performance seems wit! This cut has everything: Woi performance in years, a hori Gillespie and Wonder's humor master Flash, beware). Oven piece, one that defies all categ< It's sort of a combination of Phil Solar Records-meets-Motown. The material on "Stevie Wor I" is much too strong for an Double-record albums are a rs times, and a greatest hits pa< Wonder has taken a lot of can fhoir mnnnu'o viBvit iiiv/n^jr o W KJL 111. Anyone buying "Musiquariur and more. The engineering is s the material is first-rate. Let's enough to produce "Musiquarir Meanwhile, go get "St Musiquarium I." |Ky 'ulleyhone performed country mui i performed three new songs fror art hokum tacks and transformations. The suspense that should be generated by the Thing's Q Kill fir f A mimin V*? 1 KM nMfi uuinvj iv Hilling IIUIIICIIIO, IW appear and act as anyone, is half-hearted, clumsy (slow pans across dramatically suspicious faces) and unsuccessful. "The Thing" fails to produce a cohesive tension, a strong unifying sense of a desperate, inexorable confrontation between a group of wellrounded characters and the alien invader. Carpenter's direction is a naftarno/t mnnfiTmnnt |/MVVV& I1VVI liiU WlllCllt II KJltl one short thrill to another as the Thing makes showy attacks on cardboard characters who bite the dust. "The Thing" is erratic, uneven and, quick thrills notwithstanding, not scary. The mechanical and makeup effects, accomplished with skill by Roy Arbogast ("Jaws") and Rob Bottin ("The Howling") respectively, slickly provide the quick thrills and represent another attempt in the Hollywood quest for the ultimate grotesque. "The Thing" fails, even with the clever mechanical effects, to be involving, interesting or even deft. John Carpenter's latest film is uniformly disappointing. inder's all i his knowledge of production i in these four songs, has nder, heartfelt ballad contest piano work. Wonder's i has a storybook quality; nokey Robinson's, it still exice?a refreshing quality to tists, like Prince and Rick eplay. lighlights Wonder's uncanny >oes for hooks and infectious radio single. Do," showcases Wonder's song is a 10-minute ditty, a , pop-rock and funk. Wonder with so much energy and fun hout effort. rider's most exuberant voonl i solo by jazz great Dizzy ous attempt at rap (Grandill, the song is an excellent orizations by meshing them, adelphialnternational-meetslder's Original Musiquarium y record buyer to pass up. irity in these tight economic ckage is a risky venture , but 3 in making sure buyers get a" gets their money's worth, uperior, and the handling of hope this genius cares long mil." evie Wonder's Original tic for a small crowd at Bell n his recent LP "Ain't Got