By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
David Bradley has been in Eu
gene for almost two weeks, and the
rainy days are already starting to
get to the San Diego resident. As
the Creative Writing Program’s dis
tinguished visiting professor in fic
tion for spring term, Bradley is in
town to acquaint himself with oth
er faculty and some of the students.
After he gives a reading tonight
in the Knight Library, Bradley can
escape back to sunnier climes un
til his graduate class in fiction
Reading
Who: Award-win
ning author
David Bradiey
What: Reading
and book signing
When: 8 pm to
day
Where: Browsing
Room of the
Knight Library
writing ue
gins in late
March. No
matter where
he goes,
however, the
author of a
PEN/Faulkn
er Award
winning
book titled
“The
Chaneysville
Incident”
and such
magazine articles as “Black and
American” and “The Nonexis
tence of Black History and Other
Tales From the Road” won’t be
able to change what he sees as a
critical issue in this country.
“When a citizen is pulled over
for a traffic violation, he should be
absolutely certain that that’s the
reason,” Bradley says. “As soon as
a citizen suspects that the reason
he’s been pulled over is because
he happens to be driving while
black, the entire fabric of law en
forcement starts to break down.
“Our process is so flawed by
racism and has been so flawed by
racism in the past that we can’t gov
ern the population. We have some
serious resentments in this coun
try, and we have to deal with them.
It’s going to get people killed. ”
In casual conversation, Bradley,
who spent 20 years teaching Eng
lish at Temple University in
Philadelphia, really isn’t this doom
and gloom. Oh, he certainly has
strong opinions, and he isn’t afraid
to tell a person what’s bugging him.
Yet, after nearly 50 years on the
planet, Bradley has also learned to
keep things in perspective.
Take the John Rocker incident,
for example. Last December, the
Atlanta pitcher caused an uproar
across the land when he dispar
aged just about everyone except
the Dalai Lama.
So what, Bradley muses, laugh
ing at the idiocy of Rocker’s com
ments, as well as the backlash.
“I always get along better with
bigots than I do with liberals be
cause you know where the bigots
stand,” he said. “I don’t think that
in order for America to be Ameri
ca, truly America, that everybody
has to love everybody. I don’t care
what some bigot in a white sheet
says; I don’t even care what he
teaches his children about superi
ority of the white race. I mean I
hear what a lot of black people say
about black pride, and it makes
me feel uncomfortable.
“When you whip out your guns,
though, I got a problem because
this country’s based on tolerance.”
That distinction between speech
and action seems very clear to
Bradley and usually guides how he
responds to any specific situation.
He also stays well-informed on
current issues and takes communi
ty leaders to task for resorting to
headline-grabbing antics to make a
point, instead of waiting until all of
the shoes drop.
“No sooner had they dragged
[James] Byrd down that [Jasper,
Texas] highway behind the pick
up truck, then Jesse Jackson was
flying in to start the healing
process,” Bradley says, referring
to Byrd’s dragging death in June
1998 and Jackson’s trip to a com
munity that reacted with shock
when such a horrific incident
happened there. “It turns out that
[Jasper] had a segregated ceme
tery, and it was only a year after
wards that they thought they
should take down the fences.”
Bradley admits to experiencing
David Bradley will be the Creative Writing Program’s distinguished visiting writer in
fiction for the spring term. Bradley’s writing has received a multitude of awards.
a slow bum when it comes to race
relations and unfulfilled promises.
He is bitter that America hasn’t
fixed a flaw that he believes can be
repaired. Bradley’s next non-fic
tion book, “The Bondage Hypothe
sis: Meditations on Race and His
tory,” deals with that failure.
“The real impulse behind the
book is my being pissed off that
they told me [racial discrimina
tion] was going to be over in my
lifetime, and it’s not,” he says.
“We’re not even close. ”
Although Bradley has spent just
a short time on campus — he did
visit in 1996 to give a talk with the
theme of “What would Martin
Luther King say about race rela
tions if he were alive today?”—his
overall impressions are favorable.
When asked about that “hot but
ton” topic, diversity, he pointed
out that the University’s low num
ber of black professors — 12 as of
last year—isn’t unusual compared
to other state’s public schools.
While stressing that he disagrees
with the basics of affirmative ac
tion, Bradley elaborates to say that
students do need to see people of
color leading lectures, acting as au
Tum to Bradley, page 8B
Woody’s ‘Sweet’ film follows fictional musician
By Yael Menahem
Oregon Daily Emerald
In Woody Allen’s latest film
“Sweet and Lowdown,” Sean
Penn’s character Emmet Ray is fic
titious, but you’d never know it.
This recent offering from Allen
follows a jazz guitar genius*, Ray,
who can never quite make it to the
top. Penn plays the character with
such realism that you think you’re
watching the real Emmet Ray, even
though there never was such a per
son. For the part, Penn learned to
play the guitar just weeks before the
shoot, yet his facial expressions and
hand movements match perfectly
to the music.
Allen’s life-long love of jazz mu
sic couldn’t be more apparent
Leo:
What are you doing
this weekend?
Check your
with the best of the genre featured
throughout the film.
The film is a docudrama set in
the 1930s, just after the Depres
sion. The storyline follows Ray’s
turbulent life, which includes lots
of drinking. He also does a little
pimping but with class — he in
sists on using business cards to re
cruit clients.
Although he devises many
ways to support his rich lifestyle,
Ray’s favorite pastime is watching
the trains pass by and shooting
rats at the local dumpster. Penn is
nicely complemented by the tal
ented British actress Samantha
Morton, who plays Hattie, a mute.
Ray meets Hattie, who is a laun
dress, on the boardwalk, and al
though she is a mute and doesn’t
initially appeal to him, the two stay
together for almost a year. Ray
warns Hattie not to fall in love with
him, as many women have, but his
tough exterior seems comfortable
with her even if he doesn’t admit it.
Their often heartbreaking
scenes together are reminiscent of
silent films, and Morton’s facial
expressions defy any dialogue.
Uma Thurman’s character,
Blanche, is introduced late in the
film as a curious writer/socialite
with an extravagant taste for life
equal to Ray’s. The two marry, and
their turbulent lives collide, but
their marriage doesn’t last.
After Ray is fired from a night
club where he is a regular enter
February 2 - 19, 2000
Soreng Theatre, Hult Center
Helen Keller’s dark, silent world is
unlocked in this compelling drama that
will leave 'you with tears of joy.
Tickets at The EMU or The Huit Center
Wi Itimtt11 tepertor-j jktilrt
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SOUTH UMPQUA
tainer, Blanche gets his job back. At
the club, she meets mobster Al Tor
rio, played by Anthony LaPaglia,
and the two have an affair.
Blanche is bored with her mar
riage, and, always the writer in
search of a character’s true soul, she
is fascinated by the mind of a killer.
Allen is often a character in his
films and he appears in “Sweet and
Lowdown” as a jazz biographer
who comments on Ray’s life. Cult
director John Waters also makes a
surprise appearance in the film.
The music of legendary jazz
guitarist Django Reinhard is
played throughout the movie —
Ray says that Reinhard’s music
brings him to tears. The biogra
phers believe that Ray came close
to meeting Remnant twice but
fainted both times.
Throughout the film Ray is nev
er too shy to boast that he is con
sidered the greatest guitar player
around, but he never fails to men
tion Reinhard’s name in the same
sentence, recognizing that his tal
ent is second to Reinhard’s.
“Sweet and Lowdown” is not a
typical Allen drama, one set in
New York that follows the lives of
several neurotic people.
Fortunately, Allen has changed
his style without losing any of his
enormous talent in filmmaking,
comedy, drama and his love of
jazz.
“Sweet and Lowdown” opens
Friday at the Bijou Art Cinema.
Ballroom
march 8 8pm
1 flcou/ticSet
2 Electric Set/
Ticket/: $ I 0 UO/ SHOP
@ Emu Boh Office
& fO/tiHK
Coll S'16'l J7 J for info