Buzz Magazine: Jan. 18, 2007

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Cover Photo • Amelia Moore Cover Design • Nikita Sorokin Editor in Chief • Tatyana Safronova Art Director • Nikita Sorokin Copy Chief • Meghan Whalen Listen, Hear • Anna Statham Stage, Screen & in Between • Elyse Russo Around Town • Evangeline Politis CU Calendar • Annette Gonzalez Photography Editor • Amelia Moore Designers • Monica Betel, Renee Okumura Calendar Coordinator • Brian McGovern Photography • Amelia Moore Copy Editors • Lisa Fisherkeller, Emily Ciaglia, Ilana Katz, Whitney Harris Staff Writers • Brian McGovern, Carlye Wisel, Amy Meyer Contributing Writers • Michael Coulter, Seth Fein, Mike Ingram, Kim Rice, Kate Ruin Sales Manager • Mark Nattier Marketing/Distribution • Brandi Wills Publisher • Mary Cory

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This Modern World • Tom Tomorrow Life in Hell • Matt Groening First Things First • Michael Coulter

AROUND TOWN Laughing with the Sinners • Tatyana Safronova Community Spotlight:Woodsy’s Gearhead City • Tom Lange

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tatyana safronova EDITOR’S NOTE

I

have been Obamified.

The past four months of my life have been heavily infused with Barack Obama and the future doesn’t look much d if ferent; he just announced he’s creating a “presidential exploratory committee,� and on Feb. 10th he will hopefully conf irm that he’ll try to win the Democratic nomination for president. But let us put his much-anticipated presidential plans aside.

The Illinois senator has been a frequent mention in one of my journalism classes over the past semester because my professor interviewed Obama for a profile. The infusion mostly hit me, however, after I started reading The Audacity of Hope, Obama’s second book, in the middle of December. I read it on the warm beach and in my overly air-conditioned room in Mexico. I read it on Amtrak rides into Union Station in Chicago.

I read it in a quiet cafe on Green Street in Champaign. Last week, as I was finishing the book, I’ve been bombarded by his smiling face, by his name and his influence from every side.

I arrived at my home in Elgin, Ill. for the weekend and was greeted by a seated Obama on a page of Vanity Fair. His was the opening photo for the magazine’s article about the Democrats’ takeover of Congress at the midterm elections.

Then, reading the roster of who would be in attendance the following day at an annual journalistic meet-and-greet event in a downtown

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Chicago gallery, I stumbled on a UIUC alumna and current employee of the WVON radio station.

The letters rang a bell. WVON is a small Chicago AM radio station with a sizeable black audience, not to mention a large political influence. In his book, Obama mentioned how the station was one of the first vehicles that gave him publicity in Chicago. Originally, I read about WVON in 2006 in the Chicago Tribune Magazine, and as I flipped through the story again, I discovered that the first quotation in the article came from, who else, Obama himself.

Perhaps living in Illinois guarantees that I’ll be continuously confronted by my Democratic senator. But this has gotten out of hand. Just last Friday, I had a dream about the Senator. It was an unfavorable, creepy dream that has made me just a tad scared every time I look at him. And he won’t leave my head because everyone’s talking and writing about him: there are his books, the Vanity Fair article, the various media outlets, a Harper’s magazine article about him in their November edition, and even candid photos of the Senator splashing around on the beach shirtless that seemed to cause a stir on the Internet.

Obama deserves all this attention. At 45, he has already written two books and, outside of government, worked as a civil rights attorney and community organizer. He has lived abroad and taught at the University of Chicago. It’s good to know that Barack Obama thinks he is ready to be the president. I hope that Americans are ready for him too. sounds from the scene

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INSOMNIAC BEARS SAUNTER THROUGH THE WOODS.

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michael coulter FIRST THINGS FIRST

A Chevrolet country Mellencamp speaks for the big man, not the working man

S

undays this time of year are sort of nice.

I sleep in, have a little lunch while I watch a football game, and then spend the rest of my afternoon trying to convince myself that no matter how much fun it seems, it’s really not a sound idea to go out and have a couple of beers which will inevitably lead to a couple more on a Sunday afternoon because this eventually leads to a long Monday. It’s not my fun day like it is with the Bangles, but I don’t hate it. Sunday isn’t all good, however, because I also know I will have to sit through countless viewings of that goddamned Chevrolet/John Mellencamp commercial. Geez Louise, for a guy that supposedly sticks to his principles, he’s more than happy to saturate my day with a freaking car advertisement.

You may ask yourself, why is Coulter picking on this dipshit from Indiana? Is it because he sold out? Is it because the song really sucks? Is it just because Coulter is some sort of a rat bastard?

Well, let me tell you, all of those things are true, but that’s not quite it. I’m picking on him because of his complete about-face on the issue.

For shitsake, in the first verse of the song he says “I can stand behind ideals I think are right.”

Um, really not so much there, suck boy.

As you may recall — probably not — but a few years back, Mr. Mellencamp criticized Bob Seeger for allowing Chevy to use his “Like A Rock” song in truck commercials. Now, all of a sudden, it’s apparently okay to peddle a few trucks. Well, which is it, John Cougar Mellencamp? Corporations good or corporations bad?

Is this judgment based almost solely on whether or not you’re involved in any way? His music sort of sucks now, your music sort of sucks now, so really what is the difference?

Well, John would be happy to make an attempt to explain. “It was a whole different scenario back then ... there were many avenues at the time for people to get their music on the radio, and MTV was big. There were a whole lot of ways to get your music played then, as opposed to now.”

Oh, see, he’s not selling out and we should all feel sorry for him because no one will play his music on the radio anymore so he was forced to turn to truck ads.

Let me just be devil’s advocate here for a minute. They don’t play your music on the radio or MTV and now you’re reduced to shilling for a

car company to get your work heard. It might be time to look inside and realize that maybe you’re not quite as talented and important as you thought you were. Look, I appreciate your efforts towards Farm Aid and I honestly think Rain on the Scarecrow is a fucking great album. Just be truthful; you did it for the money. Don’t shit in my mouth and tell me its pumpkin pie.

John Mellencamp always thought of himself as a voice for the working man and I think he sort of was. Well, I’m guessing most working folks would have been okay with the sellout if he simply came out and said “Look, I have a shitbox full of money, but I’m getting older and I’d like to pass down some generational wealth so I’m doing a crapass car commercial and I’m getting boatloads of cash for it. I don’t feel all that great about it, but c’mon, it’s a whole damned lot of money.” I still wouldn’t like the commercial, but I might have a little more respect for the guy than I do right now.

What makes the ad even worse for me is that he’s singing about “our country” sitting on the hood of a truck and they start flashing pictures of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and showing videos of Katrina damage and Vietnam.

What the hell is this supposed to mean exactly and how should I come away from it? I admire Martin and Rosa, so should I get my ass to a dealership and buy a new truck? I think Hurricane Katrina and Vietnam were tragedies, but is it my duty as an American to at least put a down payment on a Silverado? It’s one thing for him to push trucks, but does he have to bring all these other people into his disgrace?

Look, I don’t blame him for what he did. Hell, if I had anything corporations wanted to buy, I’d be selling the piss out of it. “Did I sell my soul to Chevrolet? You bet I did. They gave a ton of cash. I feel like sort of a whore, but I also feel like one rich bastard.”

I don’t know, I suppose I wouldn’t be all that upset about it if I didn’t at least care about the guy a little. He always seemed sort of decent and I think he sincerely tried to help farmers and I think he believed in what he was singing. I don’t know, now maybe he really believes in Chevy trucks. I know people change and so do their attitudes, but just be honest about it. If you’re sleeping with people for money, don’t call yourself an escort, because we all see what you’re doing. We just happen to call that a word other than “escort.”

OOPS! WE MADE A MISTAKE • Although buzz strives for accuracy, we sometimes make mistakes. If you catch something we didn’t,

please let use know at buzz@readbuzz.com. When a correction is needed, it will be listed here.

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around town

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY NIKITA SOROKIN AND AMELIA MOORE

TATYANA SAFRONOVA • EDITOR IN CHIEF

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spi has a handsome face with jet-black eyebrows, beard and moustache. His long black hair is tied back into a ponytail. In the past two decades, Espi has become a bar junkie and has worked as a disk jockey, a bartender and a bouncer. And for the past six years, he has been working as a doorman at the Highdive nightclub, where his portliness hides behind a glass counter at the unimpressive, cavernous entrance. Deeper in the nightclub, the red light floods the darkness.

Red is the color of passion, says Espi, and passionate colors drive people to drink and to have fun. And by that logic, Espi goes on, red is the color showing up on most beer labels and glowing in bars. Perhaps, then, the bright red walls at the nightclub where Espi — his “bar-given name” — works provide motivation for the club’s patrons to buy more booze and spend evenings and nights consumed by the nightclub’s throbbing music.

When Billy Joel sang his ode to hell on the album that earned him the first two of his six Grammies, he was perhaps referring his listeners to the inconspicuous nightclub on the far east end of Main Street in downtown Champaign on a night of a concert.

“They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait/Some say it’s better but I say it ain’t/I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints/the sinners are much more fun.”

Half of the club’s walls are splashed with blood-red paint while the other half is exposed red brick that is rough to the touch. In the daytime, it is a home to stale cigarette smoke, black leather bar stools and couches, each couch coiled around an iridescent, cold metal table. And in the evening, a red candleholder in the center of each tabletop serves as the tiny home to an insignificant flame.

The two-story building on 51 E. Main St. has been home to the devilish, the godly and the commonplace. In 1888, the corner of Main and Chester Streets was one of the locations proposed for the construction of the City Building. It didn’t win the honor.

In 1910, the Varsity movie theater opened on the spot. By 1982, INTRO | A ROUND TOWN | L ISTEN, HEAR | CU CALENDAR | STAGE, S CREEN &

the location had been home to the oldest operating theater in Champaign-Urbana. It soon closed to make way for a church, and a marquee and a maroon ticket booth at the entrance to the Highdive still hint at the distant history of the building on 51 East Main.

Dan McCol lum, who grew up in Champaign and served as the city’s mayor for three terms from 1987 to 1999 and as Champaign’s f irst histor ian, says the Varsity was the first theater to open in Champaign.

Then came Boardman’s Art Theatre, followed by the Orpheum Theater in a close third. The last and most grand theater was the Virginia, which opened in 1921. Its façade was modeled on the style of the Italian Renaissance, and its seats were placed closer to the front than its rival, the Orpheum. McCollum’s first memory of the Virginia was when he stood waiting in a line that stretched around the corner to see Disney’s Bambi, which premiered in the U.S. in August of 1942, when he would have been almost five years old. The Virginia was unbeatable. “The grandest theater ever built,” he says. And then there was the Varsity. “(It) was the bottom of the heap.”

In the late 1940s, the Varsity became an adult movie theater.

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In the mid-1950s when McCollum was still a teenager, the venue tried to establish itself as an art theater, showing films like the comedies of English actor Alec Guinness. McCollum watched every single one of Guinness’ films that was shown at the theater, and took in between 35 and 40 films at the Varsity altogether.

There was British actor Terry Thomas, memorable for the gap in his front teeth. McCollum watched Thomas’ film “School for Scoundrels” in the early ’60s, even though he wasn’t as impressed as he was with the work of Guinness. He remembers watching one of these comedies when a large furry animal — “almost the size of a small cat” — with a naked tail ran across the stage. He turned to his friend and said, “I’ve never seen a rat before, but I think that’s a rat.”

McCollum’s 68-year-old successor as mayor, Jerry Schweighart, also grew up going to the Varsity. In the theater’s early years, he would pay a quarter for a cowboy film and popcorn. Eventually when the theater reverted to adult films, its nickname would become the “Bucket of Blood.” Along with a dirty movie theater, the building housed a hotel on its upper floor.

“It was mainly a flophouse hotel, a lot of drunks and junkies there,” Schweighart said. Was it like the images of Western saloons?

He laughed at the comparison and responded, “Below that, even.”

In the ’70s, the theater began to show the movies of French sex starlet Brigitte Lahaie, who was also known as Brigitte Bordeaux.

According to Schweighart, however, her films were tame by today’s standards of adult cinema. “About all you saw was a distant shot of her breasts.”

Before becoming mayor in 1999, Schweighart was a police off icer, like his grandfather who served as the town marshal, his two uncles who served in the Second World War and then worked on the Champaign Police Department and like his brother. He began his career on the force at the age of 21, serving as a patrol off icer. Two years into the job, he was working night shifts. Eight years later, he became a detective and 20 years later he took charge of the night shift. In the 1960s, Vietnam protests enveloped the University of Illinois campus and the Black Power movement produced violence

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on the north side of town. Even calls for help into the area turned into battles.

“We would respond with, you know, one guy driving the car, one guy sitting in the back with a shotgun, and then another car r unn ing (a long the) para l lel street so sounds from the scene

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that if you became under ambush, you had cove r,” S chwe i g h a r t r e me m b e r s . “O ne night there was over 200 rounds of gunf ire exchanged, one guy killed.” In a city with a population Schweighart estimates to have been approximately 60,000 residents, “the local people, you know, who weren’t involved in it, just regular citizens, couldn’t sleep in [their] beds. A lot of us slept on the f loor or in the bathtub, because they would just randomly fire through the house.”

In the later years of the 20th century and in the early years of the 21st, violence moved directly onto Main Street. Since 1898, the building next door to the theater was a popular confectionary store known as Vriner’s. Even now, a turquoise mosaic with the Vr iner’s logo laid out in white tiles greets people at the entrance. But when the owner died and his sons took over, the business degraded. Before the Highdive bought the building and called it “The Sidebar,” the building was occupied by people with no bar experience who “turned it basically into a bar with hip-hop-type music, and whenever a bar does that here in town you immediately have the gangster elements and the shootings and the whole nine-yards, and (the bars) don’t last long,” Schweighart said. The current occupant of the space, Tom Sellers, who opened the Memphis on Main bar one year ago, remembers the violence and drug-use that dominated the area before the old Vriner’s Confectionary building made its brief transition into the Sidebar. Soon, the bar that brought so much concern to the area closed down, and the violence stopped.

Long gone are the days of the Bucket of Blood, too. The Highdive is clean, stylish. It took the efforts of the building’s owner, Dr. William Youngerman, and the owners of the nightclub to revive the building that was abandoned by a church in 1996. In 1997, two years before the building was to be rented to brothers Carlos and Marco Nieto and to their business partner Tiffany Moon, Marc Miller, the attorney who represents Youngerman, wished that the abandoned structure would soon see a rebirth.

“The Illini Theater building, which dates from

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AQUA-HISTORIANS DRIVIN DELOREANS.

Before and after the Highdive existed as the Harvest Church, it was an adult film theater. In the 1940s, the “Varsity” adult theater paved the way for the one pictured above, the ‘‘Illini Adult Theater,” during the 1970s. the turn of the century, has some unique tin ceilings, woodwork, fireplaces on the second floor and a beautiful staircase that deserves restoring,” Miller said in a winter issue of the local newspaper, the News-Gazette.

Marco Nieto was more blunt. “Wow,” he had said at the time. “How do we take this old decrepit building and make it work for us?”

Before it opened on the first day of July in 1999,

The “Harvest Church” is shown in this historical photograph from the 1980s where “The Highdive” nightclub is located today at 51 Main St. in Champaign. sounds from the scene

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the Highdive was an eight- to ten- month project. The tin ceilings were restored when the building’s new occupants gutted the place that had only recently been classified unsafe and condemned by the city. After the building’s owner brought it up to code, “We came in and put a lot of ‘sweat equity’ into the place,” says Marco, the Nieto brother in charge of the Highdive’s design and architecture.

Marco Nieto’s family moved to the U.S. from Peru, and he was born at Champaign’s Burnham City Hospital. Carlos, Marco and Tiffany became involved in the bar and nightclub business when they built Jupiter’s Bar in Champaign — building and all — from the ground up 14 years ago.

From his perch on one of the club’s leather couches that line the brick wall opposite the bar, Marco admires the original paintings of artist Heidi Kellner hanging high up on the wall. The sweet smell of tobacco smoke thickens the air. For Marco, sitting here is a short pause in an otherwise booked day; even his new cell phone, clasped in his hand, is ringing constantly.

The club looks darker in the daytime. There is no longer the contrast of red and orange lights against the darkness, no longer the glow of spotted, red glass lamps peering down at the bar, or the golden illumination of the liquor bottles that are lined up behind the bartenders. Up the stairs to the disk jockey’s booth, the red, bulbous Christmas lights that surround the ceiling of the mezzanine have been turned off and the far corners of the club are immersed in black.

But the evening’s concert changes everything about the Highdive, turning it back to its hellish sense of spiritedness. Tonight is just another night for rock ’n rollers, the Billy Joel types who would rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The Tom Castro Band is playing its rock and blues to an aging crowd of cool cats clad in tapered jeans and accessorized with glasses, some coddling cigars and twisting canes, and others downing bottles of beer — there are more than 20 different beers to try (and only three of them aren’t decorated with even a hint of red).

Back at the solitary entrance, Espi sits on a stool behind the glass counter. Its surface is cluttered with bright-blue, 15-dollar tickets for the show and a lamp that illuminates his face from below. There is a wooden box that contains sticks of gum on his right — Espi keeps the gum handy for bartenders because he doesn’t like bad breath. And among the mess there are two rubber stamps, a red Ying and Yang symbol for those not yet allowed to drink, and a blue pair of dice for the older crowd.

Tap. Tap. Tap, the rubber stamp lightly sounds, leaving colored imprints on hands. An air force brat, Espi moved continuously farther and farther away from his original home in Utah with his family. Tap. Tap. After growing up in Europe, he wound up in Champaign after his own stint in the military. Tap. Tap. He only planned to stay six months. Tap. Tap. That was back in 1989. Tap. Now, he’s made his own imprint on the town. Tap. Tap. He’s the unforgettable face of the Highdive.

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GREASED UP GARGOYLES GARGLING TURMOIL.

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community spotlight TOM LANGE • STAFF WRITER

C

entral Illinois may not be known as the place to go for classic cars, but David “Woodsy” Wood may very well change all that. As the owner of Woodsy’s Gearhead City, located 20 minutes outside of Champaign in Philo, Wood spends his days putting together cars for auto enthusiasts from around the country.

Wood’s shop, a red shed just off of Route 130, is nearly indistinguishable from any of the other ordinary looking structures one might expect to see on such a road. Inside the shed, however, is where hot rods are born.

Woodsy’s Gearhead City has been working to bring classic cars back to their former glory since 1997. Along with his apprentice Rory Meier, Wood puts together automobiles for customers as close as Danville and as far away as Texas. At one end of the shop are cars clearly in their initial stages of assembly, such as a ’70 “Eleanor” style Ford Mustang, not yet painted and without an interior. However, after seeing some of Wood’s work that is closer to completion, such as the cherry red and white ’40 Chrysler Desoto, one has full faith in Wood’s abilities.

Wood has been working with automotive assembly virtually his whole life. The oldest of five siblings, Wood was a Marine brat and consequently he moved a lot, spending a lot of time in Hawaii and California. With his father constantly busy, Wood spent a lot of time with the older kids

woodsy’s gearhead city PHOTOS BY AMELIA MOORE

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HAIR OF THE DOG THAT BIT ME, LLOYD.

David “Woodsy” Wood sits inside of a hybrid hot rod he’s been working with on and off since 1987, when he decided to “graft” an ’87 Cougar undercarriage and interior with the body of a 1940 Ford Pinto. “I believe in recycling and I’m not talking about plastic bottles,” explained Woodsy in regards to the oncejunked Pinto body he has resurrected into a fully functioning automobile. in the neighborhood, helping them as they worked on their cars. Ultimately, Wood attributes his mechanic’s knowledge to “a gift” he has of picking up knowledge from whatever he is doing.

Wood ’s f irst sale came during his sophomore year of high school. After his father forbade him to get a car after turning 16, Wood took matters into his own hands. He built himself a mini-bike, using lawn chair furniture for a frame, wheels from a go-cart and finding power in the form of a chainsaw engine. While this design might sound crude, it impressed one of the other kids in Wood’s neighborhood so much he traded two of his own motorcycles for Wood’s mini-bike.

The day after graduating high school, Wood left home.

After bouncing around for a bit and serving in the Air Force as an aircraft mechanic, Wood got a job working as a machinist at the now defunct Stewart Auto Parts shop in Rory Meier, 23 of Royal, Ill., works on a hot rod he and his employer, Champaign. This was the first “Woodsy,” are “blinging” with a new interior and aluminum engine on of many jobs Wood would Jan. 9 at Woodsy’s Gearhead City in Philo, Ill. hold; over roughly the next sounds from the scene

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classic combinations. “‘Hot rod’ is a vague term,” said Wood. Essentially, any new car modern with components is a hot rod, whether it’s a ’57 Chevy or a Pinto with a Ford V8 engine.

It should also be noted that Wood does not do full restoration, a term which is often misused. To fully restore a car would be to assemble it exactly as it would have been coming off of the line during its original production. What Wood does is assemble the car in its same likeness, but with a few modern upgrades, such as the dual master cylinder he added to a ’36 Oldsmobile, which will greatly improve the car’s breaking system.

“I don’t restore them, I make them better than they ever were,” said Wood.

Wood currently has four projects taking up most of his time in the shop. There’s the ’40 Desoto Chrysler, a car that is just about finished and of which Wood is proudest. “I got to exercise every one of my abilities in building that car,” said Wood.

In addition, Wood is working on the ’70 “Eleanor” Mustang, a ’36 Ford pick-up for a customer in California and a ’36 Oldsmobile business coupe for a customer in Danville. Wood admits that as time goes on, it takes him longer to do a job, but he uses that time to incorporate everything he has learned into that particular car. While it is difficult to estimate exactly how long a job will take, he says a complete job, one that involves building a car from the ground up, takes around two to three years. But with Wood’s commitment to detail and satisfaction, it’s a safe bet that the wait will be worth it.

“When I do something,” said Wood, “I do it to improve it. I’m a craftsman.”

25 years Wood worked as everything from a motorcycle technician to driving a snow plow.

Wood even spent 10 years working as a stand-up comedian. “If I didn’t like where I worked, I’d leave it,” said Wood, who also notes that he never wanted for work. “I’ve never been without a lack of job offers; I’ve been very fortunate.”

Wood saw his routine of changing jobs as a good thing, as it helped him learn more about the automotive trade. Whatever his day job was, Wood spent his spare time working on rods and motorcycles.

In 1997 Wood opened Woodsy’s Gearhead City on Hickory Street in Champaign; however, the location left something to be desired.

“Custom car work isn’t something people [in Champaign] are standing in line to get done,” said Wood. In addition to a slow market, Wood was also making a fairly lengthy commute from his home in Philo. After three years at the Hickory location, Wood moved the shop to Neil Street. But the problem of location was still an issue, and the cost of maintaining the shop, along with slow business, was making it almost impossible for Wood to turn a profit.

In 2003, Wood decided to eliminate the commute entirely by building the red shed that now serves as the company’s shop. A closer location means Wood is now free to work on the cars whenever he likes, not just during the regular business hours of 8 a.m. to 5p.m.

By his own estimation, Wood has worked on roughly 100 hot rods, some of which were partial jobs, others he worked on from the ground up. While his favorite models tend to be Mustangs, Wood has worked on a number of

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listen, hear

BEST

DAMN

BAND IN TOWN ASHLEY KOLPAK • STAFF WRITER

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BIGDAMNBAND.COM

P

Check out the husband and wife duo of Reverend and Breezy Peyton tonight at the Canopy Club. Five dollars allows you to see the washboard played like it’s never been played before. repare yourself, Champaign-Urbana. Something wicked is coming this way. A wicked fusion of backwoods country, old-time blues and southernsoaked soul, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is performing tonight at the Canopy Club.

The band, consisting of husband and wife duo Reverend and Breezy Peyton (guitar/vocals and washboard, respectively) and the Reverend’s brother Jayme (drums) spent a large part of 2006 on the road, traveling steadily for six months.

During this time, the Big Damn Band has worked to spread

Start your semester off right with the best live show to come through the Midwest — Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band.

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the infectious sound of their new record, Big Damn Nation.

The record, the band’s second release, is an outrageous, entertaining concoction of country tales. The band is greatly inspired by both their rural upbringings and the old blues performers of the early 20 th century. “Older than Muddy Waters, way before all of that,” the Reverend said about the band’s influences. Think Deliverance, only not quite as frightening, and set to a frenetic beat. The first track, the spirited “Old Man Boogie,” tells the tale of the brothers’ father showing up drunk to a live show.

From the Peyton brothers’ humble beginnings in rural Indiana, the Big Damn Band has gone on to develop a considerable niche in today’s music scene, due in part to their eclectic, rambunctious live shows — so rambunctious that live chickens have been known to make appearances on the Big Damn Band stage.

“We’re an acoustic blues band. You know that really sad, cryon-the-porch kind of music — we’re nothing like that. Our live show is like a dance show. It’s Saturday night, jerk house, party music,” the Reverend said.

Over the past few years, the Big Damn Band has brought their slow-cooked brand of funk all over the nation.

“My brother loves South Dakota; Breezy loves North Carolina. Central Illinois has been great. The Canopy Club is one of our favorite places to play. People have been really kind,” the Reverend said.

Along with playing shows across the country, traveling in a “giant ’95 Chevy conversion truck,” the Big Damn Band has appeared at prestigious festivals such as SXSW and Milwaukee’s Summerfest. Through touring, the band has had the opportunity to connect with a wide variety of people.

The Reverend said, “We love the people, we love the fans.

We meet a lot of interesting musicians. It’s kind of inspiring, sounds from the scene

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J a n ua r y 2 4 , 2 oo7

being on the road and getting to play with and know artists we admire.”

The Big Damn Band has had the chance to play with some of their own personal heroes, including Robert Belfour. Tonight, they’ll be sharing the Canopy stage with the Flatland String Band.

A major milestone for the band was this year’s European tour. This experience resonated deeply with the Reverend. He said the European audience “really loved it. They were really perceptive. Going to it, you’re not sure what’s going to happen. They were excited to see an American band play American roots music ... it was a magical experience.”

Reverend Peyton rocks not only a sweet guitar, but a sweet beard as well.

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24 BEERS IN A CASE, 24 HOURS IN A DAY... COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!

This gracious and humble attitude is what makes the members of Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band so engaging. Talking to the Reverend, it is easy to observe that he is passionately pursuing what he loves and is doing so with great gusto. Every experience is part of the ride. During his on-the-road interview with buzz, the Reverend remained calm, attentive, considerate and cheerful even when he drove the tour van past the exit he needed to take. His appreciation for the job he does and the people around him is extremely evident.

“We know so many bands that just go from show to show, not taking advantage of the time in between. We like to adventure,” the Reverend added cheerfully.

Just log on to the band’s photo blog at www. bigdamnband.com. There you can indulge in an eloquent story, threaded together by both photographs and text. It’s a glance into what life is like on the road from show to show, and everything that falls in between. You can see passionate musicianship, camaraderie, and family love that is shared by all that surround the Big Damn Band.

So what’s next for the Big Damn Band in ’07?

According to the Reverend, “We’ll be in the studio in February. Maybe record an EP record. We hope that our fans spread the word, hope to go to some new places, maybe even back to Europe.”

Check out Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band (with the Flatland String Band) tonight, Jan. 18, at Canopy Club. The show starts at 9 p.m. and tickets are $5.

album REVIEW THE BEATLES LOVE [Capitol]

CAITLIN CREMER • STAFF WRITER

LOVE. I just can’t get enough of it.

This album is addicting — not something to be taken lightly. It is def initely not for someone who is not an avid Beatles fan (do those even exist?).

My d ad , a g re at mu sic i a n h i m sel f , i s exceptionally taken with the album. He says

MIKE N MOLLY’S ADVISES YOU:

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sounds from the scene

it’s like this album is a new release for The Beatles — something to get excited about, almost as exciting as the time in 1968 when fans were going nuts for The White Album. I like that idea, considering I never got to be a part of Beatlemania way back when, due to the unfortunate circumstance of not existing.

When I try to pick a favorite, my first instinct is the remix of “Here Comes the Sun/The Inner Light Transition,” or “Get Back,” or “Octopus’s Garden,” or the mix of “Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing” or, OK, any of them. The album begins with “Because,” which, especially for the first listen, builds the anticipation for the experience you are about to undergo. The album then jumps into the remake of “Get Back,” giving me instant gratification for owning the album, and thanks to my parents for sending it. By the 26th song, you’re probably thinking about how you want to go back to whichever song you can’t get enough of, but hold out because the last song takes the cake. Go buy it and see for yourself which song it is.

I may even go so far as to say that the remixes of some of these songs could be considered better than the originals. Yeah I said it: Better.

Than. The. Originals. A bold statement, I know. But, this is a bold album created by a bold man, a Mr. George Martin — a man some call the unofficial fifth Beatle.

So what am I getting at? Well, what I’m saying is that this is the best thing anyone has heard since November of 1968. Buy it, borrow it, whatever it. Just get it. You won’t regret this decision, I promise.

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J a n ua r y 18

Thursdays Fridays

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mike ingram CU SOUND REVUE

To beard or not to beard

T

he 16th Annual Great Cover Up is not this week (it’s next weekend), but let’s talk about it anyway.

For those who have never attended the event, here’s what you’re missing. Each year, the best and brightest of local bands are invited to participate in the event, which is always a benefit for a local charity. Bands then select an artist to cover, and come up with a five-or-so-song set to perform. During the show they dress and act like the band they are covering, performing only songs by that band. Artists being covered are generally kept secret until the band actually hits the stage. Past years have seen bands take on some very diverse cover sets, like Temple of Low Men performing as Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Rage Against the Machine and Stone Temple Pilots. Last year was one of the most popular years, with bands like Poster Children (doing the Rolling Stones), Terminus Victor (Fugazi), elsinore (David Bowie), Beat Kitchen (Queens of the Stone Age), Lorenzo Goetz/Goldfronts/ Brandon T. Wash ing ton ( Publ ic Enemy) and many more.

Bands are encouraged not to repeat any bands that have been covered in the last 15 years, so getting creative becomes a factor. Some big names will be missing this year, including Headlights, who (while still called Orphans) did Bjork a few years ago in one of my all-time favorite performances. Also, the event will only be over three nights this year, not the four that were planned, as last-minute cancellations are as much of a tradition as the actual shows. Next weekend ( Jan. 25-27), the Cover Up will take place at two venues. Thursday and Friday will utilize the Highdive’s big stage and space, while Saturday will be at Cowboy Monkey. Check out cowboy-monkey.com, thehighdive.com and openingbands.com for more info and lineups (which will probably change three more times before next week). To keep your ears occupied until next weekend, here’s what you’ll fi nd happening in CU this week: Tonight (Thursday) marks the return of Indiana’s Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band to the Canopy Club in Urbana. The Big Damn Band (actually only consisting of three people) puts on one of the most energetic and electrifying shows you’re likely to see, with drums, guitar, vocals and an honest-to-God washboard.

The Rev has become quite popular all over the Midwest, and he has brought his show to CU on several occasions, often creating quite a buzz. The man also has quite the beard. Go marvel at it, it’s epic. See what all the fuss is about for only $5, with a set from the Rev and also from openers the Flatland String Band. Start time is 9 p.m.

Not looking for big beards tonight? Well, Larry Gates does not have one. Hell, he’s not even big in general, just in case you don’t like that. He’ll be playing a three-set acoustic night at Bar Louie (in the old Panera on campus) for free (10 p.m. to 1 a.m.). Mad Mardigan drummer Joe Funderburk

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has a beard, but it’s pretty under control. It’s also red, and who couldn’t like a red beard? His band (also featuring singer/guitarist Jack Marck and bassist Rory Grennan) will be playing at Cowboy Monkey with Drakkar Sauna for $5 with a 10 p.m. start time. Check out myspace. com/madmardiganmusic.

Friday night there’s an excellent show at the Iron Post in downtown Urbana. Local altcountry/country/indie/rock/folk/hillbilly band the Tractor Kings will share the stage with the Chemicals and Scurvine. Says Tractor Kings lead singer Jake Fleischli: “Yeah, I think we have a show that night.� Dynamite stuff , Jake! He and bassist Aaron McCallister (don’t ask to borrow his bass, ladies!) will attempt to make it through an entire set without smoking.

Expect breaks every three songs. The Chemicals will add plenty of indie rock goodness, while Scurvine will simply dominate all. Cover is either $5 or $7, but really, either is worth it.

Showtime is 10 p.m.

Not a fan of the 17 genres listed above? No problem! At Mike ’N Molly’s you can catch a hard rock/metal/experimental show with Roberta Sparrow, f iref lies and Unique Chique for $5. At Cowboy Monkey, you can catch Santa with Hotter Than June and Dorian Minor for $7.

Saturday’s best bet is the Fotamana/Krukid show at Cowboy Monkey. Fotamana, a local band of eclectic style will play a set from 9:30 p.m. to midnight, which will be followed by a set from one of CU’s finest hip-hoppers, Krukid.

This will be an excellent night to hear several kinds of music from many excellent musicians.

And the cover is only $5. Get there early and stay there late to see all of the goodness. Ask about the “Country Craft� song.

Sunday w i l l br ing another 7-9 Sunday performance from Triple Whip drummer Jane Boxall. This week’s show will feature Ghost In Light, Sanya N’Kanta and Angie Heaton.

The show will run from 7-9, and carry only a $3.50 cover charge. You’ll see three very different acts in two hours, and still get you home in time for bed (or in time to watch your Tivo’d Desperate Housewives episode before bed — you know who you are).

For the rest of the week, you’ve got Rehersal Space at the Canopy with 56 Hope Road on Tuesday (for free, even), and then DJ LEGTWO (Lorenzo Goetz’s Larry Gates) on Wednesday at Cowboy Monkey (again for free — get there early to tango!). Also on Wednesday, one of my favorite bands, Summer Hymns, returns to CU. They play at the Canopy Club with Lucky Mulholland, Angie Heaton and Folklore (9:30 p.m. start, $7). I had the privilege of sharing the stage with Summer Hymns a few years back, and they are absolutely fantastic live.

Check out myspace.com/summerhymns.

Mike Ingram loves El Ă‘ino and long walks. You can reach him at forgottenwords@gmail.com. sounds from the scene

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SPIN IT ROUND FLIP IT AND REVERSE IT CARLYE WISEL AND BRIAN MCGOVERN

:

Greatest Hits albums

• STAFF WRITERS

Mandy Moore. The Offspring. Hilary Duff. Nope, this isn’t a list of musicians who are easily forgotten about. It’s a small sampling of artists who have released their very own Greatest Hits albums. Who knows, maybe Moore is the new Dylan, and Duff is the new Hendrix. Or, maybe not. Come join Brian and Carlye on their journalistic journey of Greatest Hits albums — Hit or Miss?

Carlye: HIT! While perusing through the “Great Gift Ideas!”

CD display at the Virgin Megastore in Chicago last week, I came across

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SOME MISTAKES ARE TOO FUNNY TO ONLY MAKE ONCE.

something quite puzzling. There, near some Beatles’ LOVE discs and My Chemical Romance’s newest release was an *NSYNC Greatest Hits album. Yes, an album dedicated to the chart-topping singles from three of their albums.

After exploding with my typical cynicism, I slowly came to realize that, hey, maybe excessive Greatest Hits albums aren’t so bad after all. I’m a poor college kid, and I can barely afford one C.D., let alone three or four. Now, though, due to Best Of compilations, I am left with 30 extra dollars to buy my poor college kid survival accessories, such as a brick of Keystone Light or McDonald’s Snack Wraps. Also, if I wind up hating the band, I only have one disc to regret purchasing, instead of a handful.

Another bonus is that it can definitely highlight the accomplishments of a band that has some mediocre material. While *NSYNC struck gold with their singles, various tracks off their albums, such as, “Space Cowboy (Yippie-Yi-Yay)” are appreciatively forgotten. Thank God. So, fuck it, I love Greatest Hits albums. After all, if I don’t have a three-disc CD changer, how am I supposed to get my f ill of Justin Timberlake in his blond crunchy-curls phase?

I mean, seriously. Best Of collections aren’t a convenience or just a good purchase, they’re an absolute necessity — they save me money, especially if I end up hating it, and they forgo those embarrassing songs that we all want to forget about, like “Digital Get Down.”

Brian: Miss There are two reasons Greatest H it s a lbu m s are the bane of my existence: Mu s ic i a n s a re either not deserving of them or they’re belittled by them. I don’t mean that certain bands or entertainers aren’t worthy because of my personal taste, but by the pure mathematics of not having many/any

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hits. I’m not a huge fan of Britney Spears or Sher yl Crow by any means, but the Greatest Hits format was made for them; mediocre artists with tons of hit singles and tons of rad io-play. Because, honestly, who rea l ly wants to trudge through Spears’ In the Zone to get to “Toxic?”

But, when, as mentioned previously, The Offspring releases a greatest hits compilation, my brow gets furrowed. They’ve really only had one hit, maybe t wo if you count the embarrassing “Hit That.”

Besides aggrandizing unworthy acts, Greatest Hits releases trivialize the best of the best.

Reducing Bob Dylan to “Tambourine Man” and “I Want You” seems comical. Ignoring the depth and complexity of an album artist like Dylan, contractually obligated to release “hits records,” turns the poet of rock into elevator muzak. Greatest Hits not only emphasize the money grubbing tendencies of record labels, but they also allow novices to think they’re true fans. Snobbish? Most def initely. But, real fans don’t listen to Greatest Hits. Overall, the concept is wea k sauce. Re-relea si ng music is a lazy way to make money off of lazy people who don’t want to take the time to know an artist.

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THU. JAN 18 Live Bands Panacea Goes Acoustic Aroma Cafe, 8pm The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Flatland String Band Canopy Club, 9pm, $5 U of I Concert Jazz Band Iron Post, 9pm Mad Mardigan, Molehill, Drakkar Sauna Cowboy Monkey 10pm, $5 Doxi at Joe’s Brewery [Local band Doxi plays their unique blend of funk, pop and rock.] Joe’s Brewery 10pm Bar Larry [With Larry Gates of Lorenzo Goetz.] Bar Louie, 10pm, free DJ DJ Khiladi Highdive, 10pm, $5 DJ Asiatic Soma Ultralounge 10pm, free Limbs [Hip-hop and party jams.] Boltini Lounge 10:30pm, no cover Lectures/Discussions “Horseshoes and Hand Grenades: Settlement Success and Evolving Transportation Systems on the Midwestern Frontier” [A lecture by Mark C. Branstner, historic archaeologist at ITARP/UIUC. The success of early settle-

ments was often directly linked to their positioning within an evolving transportation network. Founded around an Illinois sawmill site in the mid-1830s, the community of Rocky Ford/ Shelbum was initially located at a strategic wagon road intersection and river ford. Within 20 years, however, the introduction of the railroad had radically altered its logistical position and ensured its ultimate decline. Using archival and archaeological data, this locale is presented as a type site for a myriad of small, failed communities on the Midwestern settlement frontier.] Urbana Free Library, 7pm Film Smokin’ Aces Sneak Peek [“Smokin’ Aces” is a new dark action comedy of high stakes and low lifes. Mob boss Primo Sparazza has taken out a hefty contract on Buddy “Aces” Israel.

When word of the price on Aces’ head spreads into the community of ex-cons and cons-to-be, it entices bounty hunters, thugs-forhire, smokin’ hot vixens and double-crossing mob-

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sters to join in the hunt.

This rogues’ gallery collides in a comic race to hit the jackpot and rub out Aces.]

Carmike Beverly Cinemas 18, 7pm Sporting events Illinois Women’s Basketball vs. Minnesota Assembly Hall 7pm Family Fun Group Funfare [Preschool groups are invited to come and are asked to register with the Children’s Department in advance.

The program will feature stories, songs, puppets and films.] Urbana Free Library 9:45am Mind/Body/Spirit Meditation and Yoga Classes [Free Meditation and Yoga classes that include meditation exercises, yoga postures, deep relaxation and yoga philosophy.] Ananda Liina Yoga & Meditation Center, 6pm

FRI. JAN 19 Live Bands Billy Galt Sings the Blues Blues restaurant, 11:30am Jeff Helgesen Jazz Quintet Iron

Post, 5pm, free The Prairie Dogs Cowboy Monkey, 5:30pm, $3 Maximo CD Releaase Show [Featuring Maximo, The Signal, Seldan, Good Night and Good Morning.]

Independent Media Center 7pm, $5 Martini Brothers Hubers 8pm Panacea: Electric [Southern Illinois-based trio delivering a wide variety of covers and originals from light acoustic to hard rock, rockabilly and even some country.] The Phoenix, 9pm Old Style Bowl [With Roberta Sparrow, fireflies and Unique Chique.]

Mike ‘N Molly’s, 9pm, $5 Hotter Than June, Santa, Dorian Minor Cowboy Monkey, 10pm, $7 Tractor Kings, The Chemicals, Scurvine Iron Post 10pm, $5/$7 DJ Elise [Soul, house.]

Boltini Lounge, 6pm, no cover DJ Dance Party Canopy Club, 9pm DJ Delayney, DJ Persist Highdive, 10pm, $5 DJ Bozak Soma Ultralounge, 10pm, $5

Mertz [House, funk, electro.]

Boltini Lounge, 10pm, no cover Deeplicio.us [House music with DJ Mambo Italiano.]

Ko.Fusion, 11pm, no cover Dancing Contra Dance [Singles, couples, groups and families are invited to come dance to live music. All dances are taught (walked-through) prior to dancing. Wear comfortable clothing and bring a pair of clean, soft-soled shoes to protect the wood floor.] Phillips Recreation Center, 8pm Sporting events Illinois Wrestling vs. Northwestern Huff Gym, 7pm The Harlem Globetrotters [The original Harlem Globetrotters have entertained more than 121 million fans in

117 countries, and now they are coming here. This is an event you don’t want to miss!] Assembly Hall 7pm

SAT. JAN 20

Sporting events Illinois Men’s Basketball vs.

Wisconsin Assembly Hall 1pm

Live Bands The Painkillers Iron Post 6pm Fotamana, Krukid Cowboy Monkey, 9:30pm, $5 Doxi, Staci Anderson Iron Post, 10pm DJ DJ Dance Party Canopy Club 9pm DJ Tim Williams Highdive 10pm, $5 DJ Bozak Soma Ultralounge 10pm, $5 Limbs Boltini Lounge, 10pm no cover

Habitat for Humanity: Family Selection Committee You can make a real difference in the community by volunteering with Habitat! Every volunteer plays a part in helping low-income families realize their dream of decent, affordable housing. The family selection committee seeks and selects families for Habitat homes, advises applicants about various affordable housing options and provides selected families with support and assistance on matters ranging from financial planning to home maintenance.

This is one of many volunteer opportunities with Habitat for Humanity. If your are interested and want more information, contact Eileen Gebbie at director@ cuhabitat.org or 355-6460, ext. 13.

Dancing Tango Lesson & Dance [Intro tango lesson with Ron & Susana.] Phillips Recreation Center, 7:30pm $5/$7 with lesson

Workshops The 7 Yogic Secrets of Success [Workshop (including Book Signing) on self-realization and living one’s mission with yogic monk and local author Dada Madhuvidyananda.] Borders Books Music & Cafe, 2pm Recreation Festival of Maidens 34 [The local branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) will hold a demonstration of medieval combat. The SCA is a medieval living-history and re-creation organization.] Lincoln Square Mall, 10am Family Fun Gingerbread [Children 5 years old to second grade are invited to come hear stories and songs about that naughty gingerbread man who runs away. A craft and snack will be included.]

Urbana Free Library, 11am

SUN. JAN 21 Live Bands Ghost in Light, Sanya N’Kanta, Angie Heaton Iron Post, 7pm $3.50

Concerts UFLive! with Oberon, The Possum King Urbana Free Library, 2pm The Family Concert: See the World-Through Your Ears [Maestro Steven Larsen will conduct as well as provide narration for the program.]

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 3pm

art & theater

Film “In Search of Mozart” [The Prairie Ensemble is proud to present the major new documentary film by award-winning British director Phil Grabsky.

A reception featuring fine coffees, teas, pastries and chocolates will follow the showing. Proceeds from the event go to offset operating costs of The Prairie Ensemble.] Faith United Methodist Church 2pm, adults $20/students $10 Sporting events Illinois Wrestling vs. Indiana Huff Gym, 1pm Family Fun Slither and Stomp: Experiencing African Animal Masks [Celebrate our “Where Animals Dance” exhibit of African masks with an afternoon of crafts and activities for the whole family. Pre-registration is required.] Spurlock Museum, 2pm, $2

The Tractor Kings The Chemicals Scurvine Jan. 19, 10 p.m.

The Iron Post, $5 in advance/ $7

The Tractor Kings If your ears had little teeth right in the opening of the ear canal, what would they eat? What sounds would make them lick their caliginous lips and spit and request a Q-tip immediately? To answer this pressing and extremely culturally significant question, one must objectively break down music and evaluate it in a culinary fashion.

The crunked out beats and ritualistic shouting of Li’l Jon would be crunchy and robust in flavor, like a smoked piece of jerky. Pavement’s rambling and post-pop melodies would slide down like a hot cup of coffee. Fall Out Boy’s latest single, “This Ain’t a Scene,” with its out-of-place beats and awkward hook would taste like someone burned Easy Mac mixed with undercooked hamburger meat.

Taking the pieces of songs and placing them on a plate could really change what you’d want your ears to swallow down. So here’s a tasty recommendation: The Tractor Kings, The Chemicals and Scurvine are playing at the Iron Post Friday, where they will be blended together into a conveniently priced Sonic slurpee.

The Tractor Kings are Champaign’s little Wilco. Since all the way back in the late ’90s, the T. Kings have been tossing out their mad Americana skillz in the CU. I’ve often judged a band’s worth by their hypothetical ability to fight. I’d imagine these guys could take down most anyone in the area. Not angry or hard, their folk rock seems naturally gruff and down to earth — therefore they can probably throw down.

Moscow Festival Festival Ballet Ballet Moscow [Two beloved beloved ballet ballet classics classics [Two will be be brought brought to to life. life. will Under the the artistic artistic direction direction Under of legendary legendary Bolshoi Bolshoi and and of performance by

by Sergei Sergei performance Radchenko, the the Ballet Ballet unites unites Radchenko, leading dancers dancers from from across across leading Russia in in one one extraordinary extraordinary Russia company. Known Known for for its its company. new productions productions of of timeless timeless new classics, the the company company brings brings classics, its own own sense sense of of magic magic and and its adventure to to “Cinderella” “Cinderella” and and adventure “Don Quixote Quixote.”] .”] Krannert Krannert “Don Center for for the the Performing Performing Center Arts, Jan. Jan. 18, 18, 20 20 Arts, Woyzeck Woyzeck [Woyzeck makes makes aa living living as as [Woyzeck the all-purpose all-purpose servant servant of of the German Captain Captain and and also also aa German makes money money by by allowing allowing aa makes doctor to to experiment experiment on on him. him. doctor He has has eaten eaten nothing nothing but but He peas in in order order to to prove prove some some peas unstated scientifi scientificc premise. premise. unstated Woyzeck discovers discovers his his Woyzeck girlfriend, Marie, Marie, with with whom whom girlfriend, he has has had had aa son, son, having having an an he affair with with the the drum drum major. major. affair He brings brings Marie Marie to to the the side side He of aa pond pond and and slits slits her her throat. throat. of After getting getting drunk, drunk, Woyzeck Woyzeck After realizes that that people people are are realizes looking at at him him suspiciously suspiciously looking and he he returns returns to to the the pond pond and and and presumably drowns drowns himself.] himself.] presumably Station Theatre Theatre through through Feb. Feb. 33 Station

The Body Sublime [“The Body Sublime,” a group show featuring artists generating work related to the human body, includes a wide range of interpretations: microscopic examinations, full body studies, translucent portrayals and precision drawings. These works focus on impacting our senses with a visual dialogue that attempts to broaden our conceptions of what the body is.] Parkland Art Gallery through Feb. 8 Small Work Plus: A Display of Quilt Art by Mary McDonald [McDonald’s quilts and fiber art are inspired by life events: a meaningful book or piece of art, the natural world, the transition to a new life stage or the gift of friendship.]

Pages for All Ages through Feb. 14 Wall Paper Weights [A show of recent sculptures

by Todd Frahm and drawings and paintings by Lara Nguyen.]

Cinema Gallery beginning Jan. 20 through Feb. 24

Surrealist Interventions: Selections from Krannert Art Museum and the University of Illinois Library [This exhibition pairs Surrealist paintings, photographs, prints and drawings from the Krannert Art Museum collection with the movement’s experiments in print culture from manifestos and single-page tracts to elaborately designed serials and limited-edition books on loan from the University of Illinois Library. With guest curator Jordana Mendelson.]

Krannert Art Museum through March 4 Where Animals Dance [“Where Animals Dance” is a discussion of contemporary masquerading traditions of West Africa, featuring masks and related shrine artifacts and focusing on the place of these traditions in belief, social structure and daily life. The exhibit also includes discussion of the Ci-Wara complex, age sets, secret societies and initiation practice.] Spurlock Museum through March 4

The Chemicals have a little bit of every great alternative rock group in them. You can hear R.E.M. or Pavement, even a smidge of The Kinks. They’d taste like a bacon cheeseburger too.

SPECIALTY MARTINI LIST

Just a sampling of the buffet that is the CU, these two bands should put on a great show. This being my last Buzz Pick, I’d just like to encourage you to watch what you feed your ears and to floss regularly.

FRENCH MARTINI

—Brian McGovern

ECON 101 - Intro to Economics Final Exam - One Question (100 points)

NAME

UI administrator

GREY GOOSE VODKA, CHAMBORD w/ Pineapple Juice

BLACK RASPBERRY TRUFFLE

MON. JAN 22

CHAMBORD, CRÈME DE CACAO & STOLI VANIL w/ BAILEYS & BUTTERSCOTCH LIQUEUR

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE BAILEYS, SKYY VODKA & BUTTERSCOTCH LIQUEUR w/ Pineapple Juice

CHERRY CHEESECAKE SMIRNOFF VODKA & FRENCH KISS VANILLA LIQUEUR w/Grenadine and Cranberry

FLIRTINI ABSOLUT RASPBERRI VODKA w/Lime, Cranberry and Pineapple Juice

CARAMEL APPLE ABSOLUT CITRON, APPLE & BUTTERSCOCTH LIQUEUR w/ sour mix

WATERMELON COSMOPOLITAN THREE OLIVES WATERMELON VODKA, TRIPLE SEC & Cranberry

BLUE RASPBERRY-CHAMPAGNE BLUE RASPBERRY LIQUEUR & SMIRNOFF topped with CHAMPAGNE

STRAWBERRY CHAMPAGNE SMIRNOFF & STRAWBERRY LIQUEUR, TOPPED WITH CHAMPAGNE

THE ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE MARTINI

Barfly Cocktail Lounge

120 N. Neil (Downtown Champaign) 217.352.9736

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BAILEYS, ABSOLUT VANILA, CRÈME DE CACAO W/ a splash of cream

Live Bands Old Style Bowl [With Roberta Sparrow, fireflies and Unique Chique.] Mike ‘N Molly’s, 9pm Open Mic Night Cowboy Monkey, 10pm, free

TUE. JAN 23 Live Bands Billy Galt Sings the Blues Blues restaurant, 11:30am Rehearsal Space in the Void Room [With 56 Hope Road.]

Canopy Club, 9pm, free DJ DJ Delayney Cowboy Monkey 10pm, free SubVersion: DJ Evily, DJ Vermis Highdive, 10pm, $2 Chris O [A blend of downtempo and deep house.]

Boltini Lounge, 10:30pm, no cover Karaoke Karaoke with Randy Miller Bentley’s Pub, 9:30pm, free Sporting events Illinois Men’s Basketball vs.

Indiana Assembly Hall, 6pm

sounds from the scene

Recreation Women-only fitness camp [Strength training, plyometrics, cardio intervals, stretching and calisthenics.

Appropriate for all fitness levels.] Channing-Murray Foundation, 7am Family Fun Babies’ Lap Time [Babies and their parents or caregivers are invited to this program of songs, stories and rhymes for young patrons, birth to 24 months.] Urbana Free Library, 9:45am Mind/Body/Spirit Introduction to Aromatherapy & Essential Oils [Come learn about what aromatherapy really is or isn’t. You will learn how essential oils can change moods, thinking and health. Registration recommended.] IllumiNation Institute, 7pm, $10

WED. JAN 24 Live Bands Jazz Mayhem Iron Post, 5pm Summer Hymns, Folklore, Lucky Mulholland, Angie Heaton Canopy Club, 9:30pm, $7

Concerts Bang on a Can All-Stars with special guest Iva Bittova [Part classical ensemble, part rock band, part jazz band and totally unique. The AllStars join forces with Czech violinist and singer Iva Bittova, whose music merges avant-garde with folklore and whose formidable technique is matched by the range of her imagination.]

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30pm Community/Campus Women’s Music Series, Concert I [Concert series to promote local women in the arts. Also a fundraiser for the Center for Women in Transition.]

Independent Media Center 8pm DJ DJ Stifler Highdive, 8pm $3/$5 DJ Bris, DJ Delayney Soma Ultralounge, 10pm, $5 DJ LEGTWO Cowboy Monkey 10:30pm, free Bozak [Hip-hop, funk, turntablism.] Boltini Lounge 10:30pm, no cover Dancing Tango Dancing Cowboy Monkey, 7:30pm, free

Lectures/Discussions “The Evolution of Internet Threats: A Perspective-Aware Approach to Network Security in the Botnet Era” [Farnam Jahanian from the University of Michigan will present.] Coordinated Science Laboratory, 4pm Family Fun Toddler Time: Summer in January [Children ages 2-4 years old, with an adult, are invited to enjoy summer during this program with stories, songs and a craft.] Urbana Free Library, 10:30am Babies’ Lap Time Moonlight Edition [Before going to bed, babies and their parents or caregivers are invited to this program of songs, stories and rhymes for young patrons, birth to 24 months.] Urbana Free Library, 6:30pm

1 - Write a simple equation that represents a graduate employee earning a living wage in Urbana-Champaign.

estimated cost-of-living* $13,572 minimum stipend - $12,586

F

- $986

debt, This is e!! ing wag v li a t no

An d you did n't inclu de fee s.

*(www.oar.uiuc.edu/current/financial/grad_expenses.html)

CLOSE THE LIVING WAGE GAP G.E.O. GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING WED, JAN 24 - 5:30 - UNIVERSITY YMCA

FAIR CONTRACT = A BETTER UIUC www.uigeo.org / geo@shout.net / (217) 344 8283 INTRO | A ROUND TOWN | L ISTEN, HEAR | CU CALENDAR | STAGE, S CREEN &

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14 •

buzz weekly

GREAT PARTY, ISN’T IT?

J a n ua r y 18

•

J a n ua r y 2 4 , 2 oo7

THIS WEEK AT

K R A N N E RT C E N T E R F O R T H E P E R F O R M I N G A RT S

FEATURED EVENTS Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company Marquee Fusing the power of theatre and dance, the choreography of Bill T. Jones becomes an extraordinary tool for probing life’s big questions. His newest evening-length work, Blind Date, is a provocative rumination on the state of our society within a highly troubled global context. It contains a rich multimedia environment, a wide-ranging sound score from Daniel Bernard Roumain, and the stunning technical skill of the dancers of this company.

Saturday, January 27 at 7:30pm Tryon Festival Theatre Flex: $32 / SC & Stu 27 / UI & Yth 14 Single: $34 / SC & Stu 29 / UI & Yth 16

Th Jan 18

Th Jan 18

Sa Jan 20

We Jan 24

Krannert Uncorked with Crow Quintet 5pm, free

Joan Hickey, jazz piano 7:30pm, $2-$8

Moscow Festival Ballet: Don Quixote 7pm, $16-$38 Patron Co-sponsors: Janet and Ralph Simmons M. Gay Roberts Corporate Platinum Sponsor:

Chip McNeill, jazz saxophone 7:30pm, $2-$8

Th Jan 18

Fr Jan 19

The Symphonica Moscow Festival Ballet: Toscanini Cinderella 7:30pm, $10-$50 7pm, $16-$38 Endowed Sponsor: Patron Co-sponsors: Doloris Dwyer Janet and Patron Co-sponsors: Ralph Simmons Carolyn Burrell M. Gay Roberts Judy and Daniel Corporate Platinum Sponsor: Dethmers Pamela and E. Phillips Knox Sylva Walker Lead Corporate Sponsor: Corporate Silver Sponsors:

Patron Co-sponsors: Jerald Wray and Dirk Mol Talkback with moderator Sara Hook: after the performance, free Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Curtain Call Discussion: after the performance, Lobby, free

Corporate Silver Sponsors:

Bang on a Can All-Stars with special guest Iva Bittová 7:30pm, $16-$34 Patron Sponsors: Deborah and Stephen Rugg

Th Jan 25 Krannert Uncorked 5pm, free

Su Jan 21

Festival Dance 2007 University of Illinois Black Chorus Ollie Watts Davis, conductor Department of Dance Always a highlight of the dance year, the Department of Dance’s annual Festival features a new work by faculty member Sara Hook and New York choreographer David Parker; a collaboration between Cynthia Oliver, Ollie Watts Davis, and the U of I Black Chorus; and premieres by Erika Randall, Linda Lehovec, and Rebecca Nettl-Fiol.

Corporate Silver Sponsors:

Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra: See the World Through Your Ears!

3pm, $7-$15

Tu Jan 23 William Heiles, piano 7:30pm, $2-$8

Thursday-Saturday, February 1-3 at 7:30pm Colwell Playhouse Flex: $15 / SC & Stu 14 / UI & Yth 9 Single: $16 / SC & Stu 15 / UI & Yth 10

333.6280 8 0 0 . K C PAT I X

Patron Season Sponsors Dolores and Roger Yarbrough

Marquee performances are supported in part by the Illinois Arts Council— a state agency which recognizes Krannert Center in its Partners in Excellence Program.

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Corporate Power Train Team Engine Members

40˚ North and Krannert Center, working together to put Champaign County’s culture on the map.

sounds from the scene

15

stage, screen & i n b e t w e e n

Classic Ballets with New Twists The Moscow Festival Ballet dances its way to the Krannert Center this weekend.

MEGHAN WHALEN • STAFF WRITER

B

allet is an art form which has been beloved around France, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan. In addition to the world for centuries. Yet while some enjoy seeing Cinderella and Don Quixote, they have also performed new prothe same productions performed again and again, ductions of Romeo and Juliet, Giselle and Carmen. others desire to see new choreography, music and “Moscow represents the best in classic ballet,” said Lee-Calfas, staging. This weekend will bring new productions explaining the reasons why they were chosen to come perform of ballet classics to Champaignin Champaign-Urbana.

Urbana, as dancers spin, kick Dance, she says, plays a vital role and leap across the stage, when in bringing culture to the University the Moscow Festival Ballet and to the community. performs Cinderella and Don “For those that already know Quixote at the Krannert Center these pieces, it is a celebration of for the Performing Arts. their longevity and their timeliThe company, which is under ness,” she said. “For those who —Bridget Lee-Calfas, Director of the direction of Russian ballet aren’t as familiar, beautiful pieces dancer Sergei Radchenko, such as these are a compelling Public Relations, Krannert Center features dancers from all across point of entry into the world of Russia and the former USSR. classical ballet.”

The Moscow Festival Ballet was formed in 1989 by RadThe Moscow Festival Ballet will chenko with the intention of combining “the highest classi- be performing Cinderella on Jan. 17 and 18 and Don Quixote cal elements of the great Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet companies,” on Jan. 20 at the Krannert Center. For ticket information, conaccording to a press release from the Krannert Center. These two tact the Krannert Center’s Box Office at 333-6280 or go to www. classical ballet companies have been renowned throughout the krannertcenter.com for details. world since their early days in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Radchenko, a former dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet, used his 25 years of experience as a professional ballet dancer to create the Moscow Festival Ballet. Having danced many principal roles with the Bolshoi, he set out to form a company that would bring new life to the dances he once performed. (Below) A scene from the Moscow Festival Ballet’s production of He ser ves as the A r tistic Director of the company and Don Quixote. (Right) Cinderella and her prince in the Moscow continues to teach Russian classical ballet to dance teachers Festival Ballet’s production of Cinderella. around the world.

Bridget Lee-Calfas, director of public relations for the Krannert Center, explained that the Center decided to book the company as part of their Dance Immersion initiative for the 2006-2007 season.

“We set out to bring a broad variety of types of dance companies, each among the best in the world to provide our audiences with a year-long celebration of the breadth of dance today,” she explained.

In this case, it’s an appropriate choice, considering the ballet company’s young yet dynamic history.

By combining the elements of classic ballet companies, the Moscow Festival Ballet brings a new twist to an old art form.

The company also shows its versatility and by performing two different ballets in three days, with the same cast in different sets, costumes and choreography.

Cinderella, which will be performed Jan. 17 and 18, tells the classic story of a young girl’s journey from rags to riches with the help of her fairy godmother. The ballet, however, adapts the story to the stage by making a few changes, including new characters and scenery.

Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes’ story of a rich man attempting to win the heart of a beautiful woman, is being performed on Jan. 20. The most popular version of the ballet features music by Leon Minkus and choreography by Marius Petipa.

The Moscow Festival Ballet, however, takes components of these traditional ballets and uses new staging and production elements to infuse new life into them.

In addition to touring the United States, the company has also been featured around the world, appearing in Italy, Spain,

“Moscow represents the best in classic ballet.”

sounds from the scene

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE COLUMBIA ARTISTS MANAGEMENT INC.

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J a n ua r y 18

EVERYBODY IS SOMEBODY ELSE’S WEIRDO.

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J a n ua r y 2 4 , 2 oo7

FILM

FREEDOM WRITERS SYD SLOBODNIK • STAFF WRITER

Freedom Writers would be a very significant fi lm about modern education if it wasn’t so superficial.

Like most Hollywood depictions of public education systems, this fi lm glosses over many of the daily realities of dedicated teachers’ routines.

It provides only snippets of troubled situations, fancy, simplified views of gimmicky teaching strategies and the illusion of magic that a gifted teacher performs, all condensed in a less than two-hour viewing experience.

This is not to say that Freedom Writers doesn’t have an emotional heart as big as the state of California; it is based on the experiences and diaries of Erin Gruwell’s Woodrow Wilson High School freshman English class from the mid1990s in the post-Rodney King riots days. Oscar winner Hilary Swank plays Gruwell, an idealistic fi rst-year teacher, whose father was a 1960s civil rights advocate. She is inspired to teach because she sees the fight her father fought can be most

WE ARE MARSHALL JENNY MCCARTHY • STAFF WRITER

You’d probably think that a movie with Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox, as well as Golden Globe winner David Strathairn, would be worth watching. Sadly, it’s not. We Are Marshall tells the tragic tale of the plane crash that killed 75 team members, coaches and fans of Marshall University’s football team and of the town’s aftermath. What results is a deeply depressing fi lm that leaves almost no chance of hope at the end.

McConaughey plays the strongest role as Jack Lengyel, the man who comes to Marshall to become the new head coach and to keep the football program alive. This is not his typical role, however — he actually keeps his shirt on in this film. He performs well; hey, it’s not his fault that all of his

effectively addressed in the high school classroom teacher experiences. And Gruwell is only shown — and not in the courts or jails. teaching this one class of 30 students; what about Writer/director Richard LaGravenese shows her other four classes?

Gruwell as she goes from her rough fi rst days On a positive note, Swank and the cast of young to winning over a class of sad, poor, troubled actors who play her students are mostly effective and undereducated Hispanic, Cambodian, showing the passion and emotion of these people’s African-American and white students without lives. However, teaching and learning isn’t just demonstrating much substantive teaching other magic. It’s hard work, and Freedom Writers doesn’t than an occasional list of questions on a blackboard. care to show this.

Ninth grade English is one of the most challenging classes to teach even in more ideal circumstances.

LaGravenese provides slick, musically accompanied time-lapse montages of class activities and field trips that lead to Gruwell’s central assignment of an autobiographical diary/journal, which opens her freshmen to the wonders of selfexpression. But never is there any mention of the numerous second language and dialect difficulties that these students face — let alone simple grammar — and Hilary Swank, as tough teacher Erin Gruwell, puts a student in his tremendous hurdles a freshman place in the movie Freedom Writers.

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lines are sports fi lm clichÊs. The same goes for lost in that event be tarnished in a McG fi lm is Matthew Fox, who plays the assistant coach who distasteful. Sure, you may laugh once or twice at decided not to get on the tragic fl ight. Racked the clichÊ sports moments that crowd the story, with survivor’s guilt, Fox’s scenes are mostly full but in the end you will just feel depressed. Take of tears and anger. David Strathairn is the most my word for it and pass on this fi lm. honorable actor out of the cast, but even his performance seems banal and forced.

While I don’t want to place all the blame on director McG for making this f ilm a two-hour sobfest, I have to. Some directors h ave r a nge, a nd some don’t.

McG clearly falls in the latter categ or y. H i s re su me boa st s Charlie’s Angels a nd mu lt iple music v ideos; clearly tur ning one town’s tragedy into a McG f ilm was a mistake.

What happened to Marshall Matthew Fox (left) and Matthew McConaughey play coaches who University was tragic and terrible, try to revive a tragically broken apart football program at Marshall and to have the memory of those University in We Are Marshall.

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KERI CARPENTER • STAFF WRITER

Don’t you ever get sick of happy endings in movies? I mean, how many times have you watched people in movies get the guy (or girl), job, promotion, house or dream they have been wanting their whole lives and said to yourself, “That only happens in movies.�

In Happily N’Ever After, Frieda, Cinderella’s evil stepmother (voiced by Sigourney Weaver) is sick and tired of happy endings in fairy tales. When the Wizard (George Carlin) goes on vacation and leaves his two little helpers in charge (one of which is a cat, voiced by Andy Dick), Frieda steals his magic staff from his helpers which controls all fairy tales, and promises that from now on no one in

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TBUVSEBZ KBO

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HAPPILY Nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;EVER AFTER

fairy tale land will live â&#x20AC;&#x153;happily ever after.â&#x20AC;? Cin- as Rapunzel, Snow White and Little Red Riding derella (Sarah Michelle Gellar), then takes things Hood) was a great idea and would have made a into her own hands in order to find her prince so great movie, but the director didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fi nish the he can save Fairy Tale Land and they can live hap- idea. Happily Nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ever After gets an A for effort, pily ever after. but I recommend spending your money someThough there are some twists, funny lines and where else. a somewhat unexpected ending, this movie ends before anything is developed. The movie, totaling 75 minutes (15 of which are previews), had lots of potential, especially considering the talented cast of voices, but was not planned very well. To be honest, I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t catch any of the actors/actresses voices during the movie. I almost caught Dickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because he made me laugh a few times, but I had to look at the credits at the end to see who was who.

The idea of changing, twisting and r uin ing a l l the fair y Sigourney Weaver voices Cinderellaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s evil stepmother, Frieda, in tales we are familiar with (such this animated flop Happily Nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ever After.

WILL HOGE

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J a n ua r y 18

â&#x20AC;˘

J a n ua r y 2 4 , 2 oo7

buzz weekly â&#x20AC;˘

WHEN Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;M NOT IN MY RIGHT MIND, MY LEFT MIND GETS PRETTY CROWDED.

17

THEATRE

Playing at the LaSalle Bank Theatre in Chicago JEFF NELSON â&#x20AC;˘ STAFF WRITER

At Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newly made-over Shuber t Theatre, now the LaSalle Bank Theatre, is John Patrick Shanleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Doubt, and until Jan. 28, you have a chance to disprove the constant complaint of theater-goers that â&#x20AC;&#x153;nobody writes good scripts anymore.â&#x20AC;? This collector of awards from the 2005 season grabbed a Pulitzer Prize and the Best Play award from both the Drama Desk and Tony Award voters. One viewing will tell you they were right.

Many know Mr. Shanley from his nine or so screenplays which include such gems as Moonstruck and such horrors as Joe Versus the Volcano. He has done some fine television writing, producing the likes of Live from Baghdad, but few realize his first love is the stage. He has written 21 plays and none better than Doubt. Here, he takes an old story and twists it to the sensitivities of our hypertense age.

In Doubt, a priest is accused of an â&#x20AC;&#x153;improper relationshipâ&#x20AC;? with an ostracized young boy by a control freak principal, who sees everything in life as obvious issues of right and wrong. The dialogue between the priest and the principal creates some astonishing f ire-

Here is a timely play with some timeless ideas. Packaged with this wonderful cast and performed under Doug Hughesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; outstanding direction, the only regrettable aspect of Doubt is its closing on Jan. 28. But such a show will be revived, no doubt.

The LaSalle Bank Theatre is at 18 West Monroe in the heart of Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Loop. For tickets, go to www.broadwayinchicago.com or call 312-977-1700.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CRAIG SCHWARTZ PHOTOGRAPHY.

DOUBT

works as the overbearing principal possesses nothing but the worst in the best of intentions. When a confession is demanded for suspicion of wrongdoing, there is no correct response. When suspicion dominates proof, there is only doubt.

Shanleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Catholic school setting, no doubt from his own youth in the Bronx, is perfect for such a story, and has a universal ring. The awkward position of defending yourself when already judged is contrasted with the accuser who goes too far to pursue a suspicion. Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes masters all the drama in these conversations and brings off a superb ensemble performance from this cast of four. Every scene builds the story and the characters, and every scene works as director Hughes works his magic.

Cherry Jones reprises her Drama Desk and Tony Award-winning performance as Sister A loysius, the pr incipa l who doubt s there is any good in certain relationships in her school. Her powerful performance with this road company is possibly even more gripping than it was on Broadway. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let the words â&#x20AC;&#x153;road companyâ&#x20AC;? deter you. In addition to the original director and lead, the critical parts of Father Flynn and Mrs. Muller are played wonderfully by Chris McGarr y and Caroline Stephanie Clay, who understudied those parts on Broadway. Lisa Joyce, as the young nun Sister James, rounds out this very convincing ensemble that could be one of the f inest acting ensembles Chicago has seen for quite a while.

Chris McGarry and Lisa Joyce are two actors from the ensemble cast of four in the LaSalle Bank Theatreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prodution of Doubt.

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CONSTANCE BEITZEL â&#x20AC;˘ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Robert Falls graduated from UIUC in 1976 with a BFA in Performance Studies. He is the Tony Award-winning director of the revival of Arthur Millerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Death of a Salesman, starring Brian Dennehy. Falls has been the artistic director of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago for over 20 years.

He was named a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Chicagoan of the Yearâ&#x20AC;? by Chicago magazine in 2000. His recent productions include a reworking of King Lear and Frankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home, about an aging Frank Lloyd Wright.

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precursor to what we think of now as â&#x20AC;&#x153;black comedy.â&#x20AC;? It has an ironic, existential slant that is most evident in the characters of the Fool, Edmund (Gloucesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bastard son) and, toward the end of the play, Lear himself. In the course of preparing for my production, I studied Emir Kusturicaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s f ilm Underground, which contains many of the same thematic elements found in King Lear, and which also blends comedy and tragedy brilliantly.

Your latest production, Frankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home, deals with an older man experiencing the not-sosweet fruits of his labor and has many of the same themes as Lear and Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. What does this particular genre of protagonist mean to you, especially as your career and prestige continue to grow? (Especially since you and Wright share the same town and society â&#x20AC;&#x201D; although almost a century apart.)

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J a n ua r y 18

I POURED SPOT REMOVER ON MY DOG. NOW HEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GONE.

UIUC alumnus and the current Artistic Director at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Robert Falls.

What are your favorite memories from the time you spent at UIUC in the theatre department?

I have many fond memories, particularly because of the people I met and worked with, many of whom are stil l close fr iends and professional associates. In addition to acting, I was one of the first undergraduates to direct in the Krannert Center. The two plays that I directed there were Jules Feifferâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The White House Murder Case (the playwrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s direct response to Watergate, which happened while I was in school) and Eugene Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ah! Wilderness, which began my life long love of Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. I also directed a couple of plays offcampus at The Depot (now called The Station), including Michael Wellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Moonchildren, which quite literally launched my professional career.

I was granted a special leave during my senior year in order to go to Chicago and remount a professional production of Moonchildren. Once that was up and running, I had to return to school to finish my classes while living out of my car.

You made Lear, classically a tragedy with little comedic release, very funny. Why and how?

I have to take issue with your description of King Lear as having â&#x20AC;&#x153;little comedic release.â&#x20AC;?

Actually, the play has quite a lot of humor, albeit bleak humor, and is in many ways a

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T he cl a s s ic t r a d it ion of bot h l it er a r y and dramatic tragedy tends to focus on the downfall of great men, and it seems to me that Arthur Miller and Richard Nelson follow in that tradition. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel that my con nec t ion to t he se work s i s e spec i a l ly autobiographical, but I do like plays that are both personal and political. I am fascinated by the stories of f lawed men who are literal kings (Lear), f igurative kings (Frank Lloyd Wright) or everyman types (Willy Loman), and who must simultaneously do battle with destructive forces in their societies and in their families.

I really canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t psychoanalyze beyond that.

You recently received the Alumni Achievement Award from the College of Fine Arts here in Chambana; how has the city changed since you attended?

To be quite honest, other than my visit last year to accept the award, I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t spent much time in Chambana since graduating from college. I did notice that campus has g row n t remendou sly. Su r rou nd i ng a rea s t h at were once l a rgely f a r m l a nd when I was a student are now occupied by campus buildings devoted to technology, computer science, and engineering. I also noticed that the architecture is considerably different.

Just for fun, what were your favorite places to relax while you attended school here? Bars?

Wild Nightlife?

I spent many days and evenings next door to the Krannert Center in Trenoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, a beer and pizza joint that was a popular â&#x20AC;&#x153;living roomâ&#x20AC;? for the theatre department. I also enjoyed the Red Lion, a music club that featured great local bands. Finally, in what seems like the age of the dinosaurs now â&#x20AC;&#x201D; when there were no videos or DVDs and you often had to seek out f ilm societies and f ilm revivals in order to stay abreast of great f ilms made by directors such as Francois Truffaut, Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles and John Ford â&#x20AC;&#x201D; attending campus screenings was very important to me. sounds from the scene

J a n## ua r y 18

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kim rice & kate ruin DOIN’ IT WELL

the stinger

Controversial words Queer: Good term or bad?

jonesin CROSSWORD PUZZLE

“Re: LAX”--know the code,

23 Rice dish nickname, upon landing?

27 Lay down rhymes Across 30 De-classify?

1 Succumbed 31 Successful quarterback 7 Tic ___ sneak results: abbr.

10 Some mags found in 32 The Raelians, e.g. salons 33 Phrase seen after a list 13 Narcotics Anonymous of people figure 35 Some elements 15 Fragrant 36 Harry Potter title phrase, 17 Beginning of a miniseupon landing? ries, usually 39 Self-satisfied 18 Elvis song/movie, upon 40 Paul Gauguin’s island landing?

41 Letters on Soviet 19 Mo. Japan celebrates posters and rockets “Health and Sports Day” 42 Jean-___ Picard 20 “Don’t do drugs!” ad, 43 Trumpet tools for short 46 LPGA golfer Se Ri ___ 22 Monopoly card 47 American historical

and you’ll land safely.

event, upon landing?

50 James of “The Godfather” 52 ESPN reporter Paolantonio 53 “Ay, dios ___!” (Fericito catchphrase) 54 Late folk singer, upon landing?

57 Informant 60 ___ tract 61 Track marks maker 62 Generational divide 63 Mao ___-tung 64 Sites for strikes Down 1 Elusive pleasure zone 2 Military helicopter 3 Maelstrom

4 Doc for head colds 5 Bar introduction?

6 With even positive and negative charges, as some molecules 7 “Mazel ___!”

8 Word on shoes and t-shirts 9 Break a commandment 10 What people would do for a Klondike bar?

11 Sine ___ non 12 Cobra warning 14 Take ten 16 Singer Corinne Bailey ___ 21 Museum pieces 24 Accelerated 25 Honored with a party 26 “Dingbat,” to Archie Bunker 28 Trivial Trebek 29 Scorecard nos.

32 Word after “per” 34 Yoga position 35 Crazy-looking outfit 36 Willzyx the whale from a “South Park” episode, e.g.

37 Windshield striker, sometimes 38 Everest or K2 39 Angel dust 42 Unlikely partygoers 44 Weasel who’s white in winter 45 Not sharing 47 Not so great with, as with a sport 48 Prince Charles’s really stand out 49 Symbols of servitude 51 ___ Taylor LOFT (clothing store) 54 Instrument in backwoods bands 55 “...man ___ mouse?”

56 “Science Guy” Bill 58 Carson Daly’s former MTV show 59 Chick-___-A (mall eatery) Answers pg. 21

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Dear Rice and Ruin, I was offended by your use of LGBQ instead of LGBT in the Dec. 21-Jan. 3 column entitled “Don We Now Our Gay Apparel.” See the definition on Wikipedia: “LGBT is an abbreviation used as a collective term to refer to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people.

It is an adaptation of the abbreviation LGB.While still controversial, it is considered less controversial than ‘queer’ ... and is more comprehensive than ‘homosexual’ or simply ‘gay.’” “Queer” has many negative connotations to older people who remember the word as a taunt and insult, a usage of the term which has continued. Many younger people also understand “queer” to be more politically charged than “LGBT.” —M. Kate’s Response Hi M., Thanks for writing in! I understand how the word “queer” may have been offensive so let me explain why I chose to use it. As a member of the “gay” community, I understand that this community is huge and incredibly diverse. I don’t expect every person to be in agreement on what terms to use. I do know that I need to respect how others identify and I deserve the same.

I am a queer woman. “Queer” is the term I feel most comfortable using to describe my sexual orientation and gender expression. While some may not like how I identify, it’s my right to use that term to describe myself and my community.

By community, I mean there are a lot of folks who, like me, feel the terms “lesbian,” “gay” and “bisexual” are too limiting or just don’t fit as a way to describe who we are or what we’re about.

There is a g row ing number of people, especially younger folks, who use “queer” in an empowering way. But language is loaded and “queer” has an intense history. Even today it is used as a way to gay bash. But a negative history isn’t all the word “queer” has.

Gay rights activists began reclaiming the word “queer” during the late ’80s and early ’90s as a new umbrella term that folks could come together and organize under. It has been reclaimed and used with pride by many ever since.

Is there controversy surrounding the word queer? For sure. Is it politically charged? You bet. It is in part due to that controversy that I appreciate the word ... let me explain. Being queer in a straight world is politically charged.

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When I kiss my girlfriend in public it is considered by many to be controversial. I appreciate a term that acknowledges the controversy I live through every day and connects me to a past of social justice activism and empowerment.

I advocated that Kim and I not include the “T” at the end of “LGB” in this column because nowhere in the column did we address coming out as transgender, so I felt it would be inaccurate and dismissive to simply tack on the “T” without allotting the space to truly address coming out as trans, which can be a very different process than coming out as lesbian, gay, queer, bi, etc. This difference is in part due to the fact that our society has even stricter standards and expectations around gender than it does around sexual orientation.

I fully support trans rights and inclusion, and I believe that trans issues need to be given space for discussion and not just added to the mix in a tokenizing way. In the past Kim and I have devoted entire columns to gender identity and trans issues, including a recent column in which we outlined local resources for trans folks and anyone questioning their gender identity.

Peace, Kate Ruin Hi Kate, Thank you for responding. I wasn’t offended by the use of “queer,” but was concerned about the replacement of “transgender” in the LGB acronym. Based on your explanation, I now understand your reasoning.

I particularly appreciated your “I fully support trans rights and inclusion ...” statement because my son fits in that category and luckily he has a mother who is very open-minded.

—M. Hi again M., Not only does your son have an open-minded mom, he has an ally who is willing to stand up for transgender inclusion! That is truly amazing and much needed. Thanks for your correspondence, and keep on speaking up!

Sincerely, Rice and Ruin Kim Rice and Kate Ruin are professional sex educators. Send comments, questions and fan mail to riceandruin@yahoo.com.

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CATS IN CASTS.

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free will astrology JAN. 18 — JAN. 24 ARIES

March 21 – April 19

In recent years, groups of students at Yale and other Ivy League universities have pioneered a unique cultural trend: naked parties. Those in attendance at one of these invitationonly affairs agree to spend the evening in their birthday suits.

“The dynamic is completely different from a clothed party,” reports Yale coed Megan Crandell, quoted in The Scotsman. “People are so conscious of how they’re coming across that conversations end up being more sophisticated.” Your assignment, Aries--should you choose to accept it--is to bring the phenomenon of the naked party to your own locale. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you’re meant to be a social catalyst who inspires people to strip away their defenses and practice the art of radical authenticity.

T A U RU S

April 20 – May 20

GEMINI

May 21 – June 20

Your web of allies is a crucial part of your pursuit of happiness.

The stimulation and support you ask them for are vivid evidence that you love life and have a strong sense of what’s good for you. Every now and then, however, you need to remember that it’s important to avoid falling completely under their influence. You’ve got to resist peer pressure, and declare your independence from the crowd’s power to shape you. Now is such a time, Taurus.

“Never eat food you did not prepare yourself,” wrote journalist David Filipov about the lessons he learned while traveling in the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, “and never eat out of the same dish as 12 paramilitary stormtroopers you’ve just met.”

Draw inspiration from Filipov’s approach, Gemini. Dare yourself to explore an exotic frontier, but exercise great discrimination while you’re learning the ropes and getting the lay of the land.

CANCER

June 21 – July 22

It’s Be Your Own Muse Week, Cancerian. How should you observe this festival? Here’s one suggestion. First, visualize in detail your dream lover . . . your ideal soul mate . . . the embodiment of everything you find attractive. Second, imagine that though this person feels the same way about you, there is a very good reason why the two of you can’t make love or be together as a couple for a long time. Next, feel the sweet torment of your unquenched longing for each other, the impossible ache of fiery tenderness. Finally, picture all the ways you will work on yourself in the coming years to refine your soul and perfect your love, so that when the two of you can finally be united, you will have made yourself into a gorgeous genius--a pure blessing and exquisite gift for your beloved.

LEO

Aug. 23 – Sept. 22

The swan is a beautiful bird, right? If you see one gliding across a pond, it evokes in you a feeling of calm. In fairy tales, it’s a symbol of natural grace, an emblem of animal elegance. But those lovely associations are becoming irrelevant in England, where swan populations have grown so massive and voracious that they’re threatening ecosystems and damaging biodiversity. I guess we could say that their destructive overabundance exemplifies the theme of too much of a good thing. It’s an apt metaphor for the challenge I believe you’ll face in the coming days, Virgo.

LIBRA

S AG I T TA R I U S

Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

CAPRICORN

Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

AQUA R I U S

Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person,” observed Oscar Wilde. “Give him a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” Using that as our hypothesis, Sagittarius, I urge you to adopt playful disguises to help you express yourself this week.

You could go to a costume store and buy a mask of one of history’s great communicators. (How about Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, or Eleanor Roosevelt?) Or you could simply pretend to be a slightly different person than your normal self.

Speak in a foreign accent. Take on the body language of a hip-hop artist or professional wrestler. Or imagine that you’re already the person you’ll be three years from today.

My analysis of the astrological omens suggests that you’ll be more animalistic than usual in the coming weeks. Your instinctual intelligence will be high, which means you’ll have a good sense of who to trust and who not to trust. In fact, your body will be offering you a stream of valuable information about other matters as well, from tips on how to rise higher in the pecking order to clues about where to find the best hunting grounds. It’s also likely that you’ll be hornier and wilder than usual. That could be quite fun or it could get you into trouble.

Which way it goes will depend on how well the human in you both respects and controls the animal in you.

The cosmic powers-that-be are encouraging you to be a brazen instigator of novelty, a pioneering magician who dares to initiate inspired trends that may upset the status quo. If you can summon the charismatic nerve to cooperate with this prod, Aquarius, there’s no telling what drastic acts of benevolent disruption you could conjure up. And they would ultimately lead, I have little doubt, to constructive innovations. (P.S. Would you believe me if I told you that a previously dormant section of your genetic code is primed to spring into action?)

PISCES

Feb. 19 – March 20

In her book Frankenstein, Mary Shelley created a monster who was smart and sensitive. He felt empathetic pain for the suffering of Native Americans. He desperately wanted a mate. He read Milton’s Paradise Lost, and felt a grieving kinship with the struggles of Adam depicted therein. In accordance with current astrological omens, Pisces, I encourage you to acknowledge and express love for your own inner Frankenstein monster--the tormented, disfigured, and yet powerful part of your psyche that needs your compassion. I’m sure that this will prevent it from doing what Shelley’s fictional character ultimately did, which was to go on a rampage--and will maybe even set it on a course to become a force for good.

HOMEWORK: WHEN THEY SAY “BE YOURSELF,” WHICH SELF DO THEY MEAN? TESTIFY AT HTTP://FREEWILLASTROLOGY.COM.

Sept. 23 – Oct.22

You recently went through a phase whose quality I might compare to a dry, crunchy, bran-heavy breakfast cereal without milk. It fed your hunger, though it wasn’t particularly tasty or thrilling. It was highly concentrated and good for your digestion.

Now you’re slipping into a kind of Cracker Jack mode, with lots of airy puffs of popcorny sweetness and an occasional nut, climaxed by a toy surprise. The Cracker Jack phase will be more like a snack than a meal, though, and it won’t last too long. By next week at this time, I’m guessing your life will have resemblances to a hearty, organic, five-grain hot cereal sweetened with maple syrup and cinnamon.

sounds from the scene

Oct. 23 – Nov. 21

Don’t feel bad if you come from a dysfunctional family. Studies done by The Institute for the Study of Universal Addiction indicate that 97 percent of all families are dysfunctional.

You should, however, feel bad if you pass up the opportunities you now have to heal the ravages caused by your dysfunctional family. Here’s a good place to start: By trying to dissolve your habit of feeling victimized, damaged, or burdened by the people with whom you shared your original home, you could release yourself from a curse you’ve been casting on yourself--and magically set in motion overdue changes in your other family members.

July 23 – Aug. 22

Chinese scientists have discovered that the behavior of snakes is a reliable predictor of earthquakes. In the lead-up to a temblor, the reptiles act oddly, slithering frantically out of their nests if they’re in their natural habitat, or hurling themselves head-first against walls if they’re being kept in laboratories or zoos. I mention this, Leo, because I’ve had two dreams recently about snakes wearing party hats, sipping cocktails, singing karaoke, and dancing on tabletops. Each dream also featured several of my Leo friends acting pretty much like the snakes.

If I factor in these nocturnal portents with my analysis of the current astrological omens, I interpret them as prophecies that the Leo tribe will soon be experiencing metaphorical “earthquakes” of liberatingpleasure and cathartic fun.

VIRGO

SCORPIO

Puzzle pg. 20

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JESUS IS COMING AND HE IS PISSED.

J a n ua r y 18

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J a n ua r y 2 4 , 2 oo7

LIKES AND GRIPES LET IT OUT

MEGHAN WHALEN Copy Chief GRIPES 1) George W. Bush: OK, this is a serious gripe. The man — along with his idiocy, igno rance and complete lack of common sense — makes me want to puke.

Let’s kill more people our age for his bullshit war!

Wooohoo!

2) Parking tickets: Over break, I received two in one day. Covering all my bases, I got one from Champaign cops and the other from Urbana cops.

I got one last summer for my permit being “improperly displayed.” It’s just another example of the big man ripping off the little guy to make a quick buck. Jerks.

3) Facebook: It’s like a creepy high school reunion every time I log on. I don’t care what people from my high school are doing now. And I don’t want to “de-friend” anyone because I’m afraid that they’ll be offended. Stupid Internet politics.

ELYSE RUSSO Arts and Entertainment Editor

GRIPES 1) The moms on “The R e a l H o u s e w i v e s”: Damn these 40 -yearold moms with hot bodies. We all know that real housewives don’t really look like that.

2) Cold weather: Is it spring break yet? Chambana hasn’t gotten any really bad weather, but I still want spring to come as soon as possible.

3) Grad school applications: These puppies are twice as bad as undergrad applications; they require longer essays, more busywork and more recommendations than I’ve had professors. With only one more application to go, I really hope I get in somewhere so I don’t have to apply anywhere else ever again.

NIKITA SOROKIN Art Director LIKES 1) Taco Bell’s secret subliminal ad campaign vs. D u nkin D o nu t s’ secret subliminal ad campaign: Last night I had a dream that I walked into Dunkin Donuts and ordered a Mexican pizza. Half of the Mexican pizza I got had been eaten, and the other half had Boston Kremes on it. Fascinating.

2) Geese: the only animal that instinctively knows the letter V. 3) Dennis Hopper hunting Giant Squid: He didn’t catch one, but gosh dern it, he tried.

RENEE OKUMURA Designer GRIPES 1) We i r d w e a t h e r : What I hate the most right now is this freakin’ weather that’s so messed up. I may not miss the snow that much, but snow is normal during this month of every year. On Sunday it was pouring rain like no other as if it was spring. I say “screw you!” to global warming! It scares me to think that one year we may not have any snow at all.

2) Second semester begins: I can’t believe second semester is already beginning. I barely even got to enjoy my winter break because I was working everyday and all. So another semester of pulling all-nighters, eating boatloads of carbs, and just missing home sweet home. But whatever interesting events come my way, I guess I just have to suck it up and make the best of it.

3) Getting adjusted: So it has been about a month since I’ve been away from campus and I think I’ve lost my marbles. Just yesterday when I was walkin g up to my ap ar t ment ro o m I could’ve sworn I lived on the third floor. So I go to the same corner room that I’ve been living in for the past semester and when I open the door another man was in there. “Who the heck are you?” I said and figured out five minutes later that I was on the wrong floor. Honestly, that was one of the most embarrassing moments in my life and the guy looked at me in the funniest way! I seriously hate that period where I’m still getting adjusted to campus life after break.

ANNA STATHAM Music Editor LIKES 1) “The O f f ice”: Usually I am skeptical about hyping things up too much, but this show is amazing. I just recently discovered it over break amongst my brother’s DVD collection and I think it is the most hilarious, brilliant show ever to appear on primetime television.

Never have I laughed so hard while seated in front of a TV. 2) Dryer sheets: I like to think of these as portable washing machines. Just one swipe over a dirty shirt and it smells like fresh laundry again. Also, I do not know this from experience, but I heard from a reliable source that you can wipe a dryer sheet on your hair if it is greasy and end up with an Herbal Essence-like shine.

3) David Sedaris: If you are ever looking for a quick read, pick up one of David Sedaris’ books. Each chapter is a different short story and each one is funnier than the next. And, when I use the word “funny,” I mean it in its most hilarious sense.

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WWW.LABAMBABURRITOS.COM

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THEM GODDAMN THINGS GOT NO RIGHT TO BE RUNNIN THE DEPOT!

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NOW THAT’S AN OOGIE MESS.

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