Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Columbia has surprisingly good music By KIPP SHIVES Staff Writer Some say that every band was a local band at sometime 01 another. While this may not be true for Madonna or Nelson, it is the case with now populai groups like R.E.M., Metallica and Jane's Adiction. Well, often we overlook some truly talented folks right here on our doorstep. These bands don'i wear spandex or make millions on their latest release. They do hold down jobs in restaurants and libraries. They do sometimes play for next-to-nothing. They don't have huge air-conditioned buses and their vans break down on regular intervals. Some of my favorite bands are right here in Columbia. Now don't get me wrong. I'm nol claiming that Columbia is the cultural mecca of the Southeast I'm just saying there are a few locals worth checking out Going to shows is not only enlightening, but rather enjoyable. It beats watching Wheel of Fortune with Aunt Tilda or sitting around at Circle K. You may remember Denielle Howie from Bob Dylan's May performance as the high-strung country gal who opened for the folk legend. Denielle has been around for some time now. She has sung for now-defunct local acts The Blue Laws and Lay Quiet Awhile in the past Since Lay Quiet Awhile's breakup, she has learned to play guitar and now she is a one woman act. Denielle has opened for others too, including Husker Du frontman Bob Mould and Athens singer Vic Chesnutt. Tonight, at Rockafellas', she opens for the Black Girls, three white girls from North Carolina who mix violin, piano and guitar into their own brand of ear-pleasing chamber music. This is not to be missed by acoustic lovers. The show starts around 10 p.m. Columbia's very own Blightobody returns to Rockafellas' Saturday night with a unique blend of funk, rock and nonsense. If their van cooperates, they will be finishing out a week-long tour of the Southeast. Blightobody provides great music to boogie to, as well as an occasional story or poem. Blightobody's new tape Modern Pressure Vessel should be back from the tape plant rathei soon. It was recorded in a 24-track studio in Charleston and features eight new songs. Opening for Blightobody will be something a little different for the masses, Living Room Wrestling. Living Room Wrestling is not a band, but two rather warped gentlemen from Florence who wrestle live in a living room setting. Saturday's matchup, Wrestlefest 5, will feature Hank the Tank Buchanan against Trump Tower$. Even if you aren't a wrestling freak, this show should be a lot of fun. Sunday night at Greensteets, two fantastic acts grace the Columbia venue. Sub Pop-rockers fmm Caaui m ? ?? * """ -"*uue, iaa will open tor the San Francisco-based thrash/ funk trio Primus. Primus recently made the Bin and Ted's Bogus Journey soundtrack with a cut off their latest release, "Sailing the Seas of Cheese." This show starts around 9 p.m. and isn't for the faint at heart. Bring your boots. O How We Need You! If you have O type blood, you are rare and O so special. Give the gift of GIVE BLOOD! + American Red Cross South Carolina Regional Blood Services In new i c. f * Hjjj| Bill (Alex Winter, left) and Ted 1 Reaper (William Sadler). i Startlin i By DAVID BOWDEN Editor in Chief Being a WASP, I don't know what it's like to live in a neighborhood where there is a real danger of my getting shot every day. I don't see gang members or crack dealers on the way to school. I live a relatively safe life. Seeing a great movie like Boyz N The Hood shows how America can be just as brutal and dehumanizing as the worst war-zone. Few movies really make the _ i _ 11 f viewer ieci wiuu n is iiKe 10 live in a different place, to live a different life. Boyz is one of those rarities. The movie is set in South-Central L.A., but it could be any urban ghetto. As the late comedian Robin Harris says, this is a 'hood where "the cost of living is going up and the chance of living is going down." Boyz touches on all the modern problems of Black America, including gang violence, teen pregnancy, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, police harassment, culturallybiased education and the gentrification of black neighborhoods, where the poor are kicked Fox neft By The Associated Press Fox Broadcasting Co., which gloats about its reputation as a bras reverent network, displayed a diffe of attitude at this summer's annual of television reporters: Humility. It's a special kind of humility, a ing version evident more in action: words. But, for Fox, it was humility none At last summer's gathering, a rec ber of shows ? 10 ? were whe only to go flat. This time there are i fresh series slated so far for the fall: This time, there was talk about t ferent, about debuting no show b time, about aggressively advertising duct instead of making more of it. In short, Fox is talking qualit quantity. Quality is something F< m Fabulous play Laura Chapman plays the bl Fable Factory," a musical by many of A.A. Aesop's well kn 18-19. GAIN VALUABL %WOI&g^.FOR,' Call 77 movie, B V| !! ? V -Xy t y ? m ' i bb- "wj ^Bt J ^Hk. Bp ^*BMK|. y imiks^jb^b B (Keanu Reeves) with the Grim g urban out to make room for richer, paler folks. However, even with such a wide agenda, the movie almost never seems preachy. The reason for this is the development of characters that the audience can care about. There are three teenagers that the plot of the film Concentrates on: rv^..^kU^.. /_1 1 l P..L?\ j^uugnuuy flayed oy i<-e \~uucj, Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and Rick (Morris Chestnut). Rick wants to be a football star in the NFL. Tre wants to get out of his crummy neighborhood. Tre's tough father Furious (played by Larry Fishburne) keeps Tre in line by emphasizing education and integrity. Some of the best scenes in the movie are Furious' dialogue with his son. The third friend, Doughboy, is a trash-talking, malt-liquor drinking, gun-toting loser who is Rick's half-brother. Despite his faults, Ice Cube makes the character likeable with his dirty sense of humor and loyalty to his friends. The ending of the film shows Doughboy has a sensitive side as well. Writer and director John Singleton has created such a well-crafted work trie; use. For the 1989 season, usually Emmy nominations. For tl h and ir- received 11. rent kind Fox, which claims to be gathering work to everyone except Federal Communications < decide such all-important swagger- Fox has to play by the sa s than in NBC and ABC), repeated! strategy last week during tl ;theless. mifvt ' 1 ho nour pf*A nMnO LHU iiuiii- xiiv iivty atiua eled out, tactic in a new suit ? n, only four series when the Big Thr schedule, works are knee-deep in r< >eing dif- ever, Fox has stuck a ne efore its "year-round programming' ; its pro- Barry Diller put it, " business." y versus Also, Fox adamantly ins dx could rush series onto the air an; iSyWa mm /^m Andrew Kercher/The Gamecock onde mouse, in "The Fabulous USC Theatre which re-enacts own fables. The play ran July ^experience jSie gamecock f '7-7726 ill, Ted g< By KIPP SHIVES Staff Writer Unprecedented. Bill S. Preston, Esquire, and Ted "Th first graced the silver screen four years debut Bill and Ted's Excellent Ad: they've returned with the sequel, Bill ar Journey. Last time, the two traveled through ti booth to collect famous people from th could get an A on their history proje there is more of a plot as they make the the underworld and back to save the wo and Earth from the forces of evil. This flick is truly hilarious and spoof: as an evil Bill and Ted are sent from destroy the real Bill and Ted. Bill and good Bill and Ted robots to battle the Ted. What could be more classic than bea Reaper in a game of Battleship? Or drama d movie, it is hard for me to praise all of the movie's good points. I especially liked that Singleton did not create cardboard characters. He made none of them totally good or m bad. All have flaws. The movie is m also not sexist, as it includes sev- r eral strong women characters (especially Tre's mother). Finally, this is not a white- ~~ bashing film. An abusive cop that threatens Tre at the point of a gun is black, not white. Where the film ft does address black-white relations, it is in a brilliant opening scene in a classroom, where a white teacher m lectures an all-black class on the ^ Pilgrims. Never before have I seen A so eloquently demonstrated how ir- ?j relevant white-dominated educa- ? tion can be to black students. . Boyz N The Hood marks the debut of a visonary new black filmmaker. Singleton will inevitably be compared to Spike Lee, but for all p< the hype of Lee's work, he has ih never created a film this deep and th thought-provoking without being sk antagonistic to white people in p< general. Compared to Boyz, Do M The Right Thing seems racist and gl cartoonish. It s new apt Fox received 26 run the same numbe le 1990 season, it boys who run ABC, < In fact, Fox is up] i a television net- established series I officials from the prime-time order usii Commission (who case of "America's things as whether paying for 50 installr me rules as CBS, Fox's plans for a ly stressed a new though, remain far fr le press tour. Friday it may take a Fox to come up wi lly is an old Fox national news produi amely, premiering lay on the recession, ee broadcast netjruns. Now, how- The four Fox sei w label on it ? been given definite s ' or, as chairman are: It's a 52-week ? "Oh No, Not E Coleman in his returi ists that it will not "The Slap Maxwel ^more. Nor will it Bill." Coleman sta 5 I > Buy One ; One FR] i i Buy one Philly Cheese Steak Sand wic i sauted onions, peppers and mi Open till 101 i , After 2pm J 919 Sumter St. (across from Ho d to hell. goodly at the gate: Bill and Ted are Pauly Shore run fc eodore" Logan Bill and Ted ca ago with their carelessness that e venture. Now haps there is a lit! id Ted's Bogus one of us. This adventure i alike Alex Winter me in a phone the first Bill and e past so they Squeal of Death, h cl. This time, Keanu Reeves, wh ir way through Break with actor I men they love and River's Edge Rush" video. > Terminator 2 Although this m the future to classic scenes, the Ted construct silly attitude of th evil Bill and too critical since v lost guys who tra1 iting the Grim But based on the b mugging the and Ted. eserves m Jr i VMM i i'P'x^nK /riter/director John Singleton (2nc :e Cube (in driver's seat) and Cu Jood. But comparing the two most imjrtant black film-makers today is self racist, implying that they are eir own little category. Gene Si:el and Roger Ebert rightly comired Boyz to Martin Scorsese's rean Streets, another slice of letto-life, this time dealing with alians instead of blacks. Despite )roach: c :r of repeats as the big crankv sn 3BS and NBC. but doesn ping the orders of some ? "R< 0 30 episodes (a full Broadwa lally is 13 or 22). In the Emerson, Most Wanted," Fox is suing hi: nents. dream, network, news division, om finalized. Diller said ? "He s long as four years for Herman, th a widely distributed, have a fi :l Diller blamed the de- where chi tue, hedor ? 'Th ries that thus far have week stui pots on the fall schedule will take own bran >rexell," starring Dabney capturing n to television following will act ( 1 Story" and "Buffalo wrestling irs as Otis Drexell, a aircraft ca Tim 1 Get : EE! : I I :h w/ dill wedge, spicy fries, ishrooms, get one free. PM. . i i Expires 8/15/91 J i rseshoe) Phone 256-1442 ? J , etc. 5 of Heaven to sneak past St. Peter? so undeniably cool that they make ir his covers. ipture that true American spirit of mbodies every young person. Per:le Bill and Ted in each and every is directed by the Sean Penn look(Bill) who's other movies include Ted saga, Rosalie Goes Shopping, 'aunted Summer and The Lost Boys. o plays Ted, has appeared in Point ^trick Swayze, Dangerous Liasons as well as Paula Abdul's "Rush ovie begins well and contains many ending is a ludricrous return to the e first movie. Perhaps this is a bit re are talking about two completely vel though time in a phone booth, egining, I expected better from Bill hype * i . hB II ? ^ji ?!? LIm^ * jHH^.1 I from r.) discusses a scene with ba Gooding Jr. (r.) in floyz n the the different skin colors, the message, of course, is the same: If poor people don't get more opportunities in society, they will become frustrated and violent at being kept in place. This message needs to be brought out in more films the quality of Boyz N The Hood. Grade: A-pIus quality nart-aleck who teaches fourth grade 't much like children. 3C," starring Charles Dutton from y's "The Piano Lesson," as Roc a dedicated garbage collector purs own version of the American rman's Head" chronicles the life of an ambitious editor. Viewers also ront-row seat in Herman's brain, iracters personify traits such as virlism and intelligence, e Ultimate Challenge," where each nt professionals and thrill seekers on sports competitions and their d of fun, from bungee jumping to crocodiles. Celebrity co-hosts also )ut their fantasies, including sumo and piloting a jet fighter from an irfier. ISjJuniorWalkerl I 24 I and the all stars B .ujiyI loohp 1W27\ ' " | i july i sonic Soils i |s j Pacific Fleet j Isat hootic and the i a?r | bwfuhl I mom i aug. channel xebo i