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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 2004)
Oregon Daily Emerald Thursday, September 30, 2004 “I’m just skin covering coffee and some real nervous teeth. ” Bill Hicks | Comedian ■ In my opinion RYAN NYBURG BUDGET RACK New year, new job, same A&E insanity This being the first official Pulse issue of the year, as well as my first issue as editor during the academic year, I figured 1 should take the opportunity to introduce myself to all you folks out in Readerland. If it seems a little self-indulgent to spend a column talking about myself, that’s be cause it is. Oh well, let us move forward. I’m tired, I’ve ingested too much coffee, I have a head cold and no better column ideas are coming to mind, so I might as well look into the deep, terrifying void of my soul and come up with some preten tious self-congratulation to ease my chron ic deadline stress. I’ve been playing the old A&E game since my days in high school, when I somehow got it into my head that journal ism was a viable career option. I came to college and slowly worked my way through the ranks of the Emerald with a combination of Machiavellian political ma neuvering and criminal malfeasance. (Do you think last year’s editor, Aaron Shakra, simply graduated and moved on to greener pastures? The details of my daring kidnap ping scheme will stay with me to the grave. Which brings us to the present date and the big question: Why am I here? What could possibly make me qualified for the job I am currently filling? The best excuse (sorry, I mean “reason”) is that I have whittled away countless hours of my life enjoying, examining, discussing and thinking about the wide range of artistic artifacts of our cul ture. It’s obsessive and occasionally resem bles the behavior of long-time heroin or * nicotine addicts. I no longer am capable of walking, driv ing or simply sitting at home without listen ing to music. Nary a Friday night goes by without three movie rentals and a pizza. I cannot walk into a used bookstore without causing my bank account to disappear into the ether. That I haven’t started mugging people in the street with a butterfly knife in order to afford Frank Zappa albums is a tes tament to the power of human self-control. I know these are pathetic qualifications for a human being, but they’re great if you want to write about arts and entertain ment. (Does self-deprecation alleviate pre tentiousness? Does mentioning my own self-deprecation make it invalid? Did that last sentence just invalidate itself? Did that one? How many times can I repeat this be fore I invalidate my entire personality? Self analysis is a bitch.) You have to be really obsessive about these kinds of things in or der to be good at this job. If you’re not, you might as well give up now and join a pub lic relations firm. At least you’ll get a de cent paycheck. Most of the journalists I have observed are the same way about their specialties. The hard-core newsfolk love nothing more than NYBURG, page 16 Graduate student concerts and an Oregon tour keep University performances close to home Katie Kornberg, above, reaches during a bar work exercise in the Gerlinger Annex Friday. Below, students perform ballet as part of a tryout. Professors will attempt to place them in the appropriate dance classes. BY NATASHA CHILINGERIAN SENIOR PULSE REPORTER University dance students and faculty are preparing for a year of steady performances — a change of pace from last year when the department focused on hosting guest artists. Currently in the works for the academic year are tours around Oregon and productions in the Dougherty Dance Theatre, the Hult Center for the Performing Arts and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. “Last year we had a lot of guests, and we were produc ing,” dance professor Walter Kennedy said. “This year is more home-grown.” On September 24, dance stu dents attended the department’s placement audition, where faculty evaluated students’ dance abili ties and placed them into appro priate class levels. The depart ment has several additions to its class offerings this fall: Tango II and Salsa II, which Dance Profes sor Amy Stoddart said were of fered last spring for the first time and were “a big hit,” as well as extra sections of hip hop classes. Kennedy will kick off the year of performances with a collection of modern works at the Hult Center on Nov. 12 and 13. Professional dancers from around the United States will dance in a tribute to late modern dancer and choreographer Bella Lewitzky. While in Eugene, the performers will participate in residency activities. Kennedy said the choreography includes restruc tured versions of Lewitzky’s work. Graduate dance student Marco Davis plans to celebrate the grand opening of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in January with a show at the museum by his dance group, the University of Oregon Repertory Dance Company. He said the performance, which he choreographed, is inspired by “bu toh," a form of dance developed in Japan during World War II that features symbolic moves in slow motion. The UORDC will also tour around Oregon in the spring, when it plans to visit more cities than usual this year. Tour activities in clude lecture-demonstrations at high schools and middle schools and formal concerts. Dance Africa, the University’s African dance group, will adjust to a new schedule this year. They will hold a large celebration in the Dougherty Dance Theatre for Mar tin Luther King Jr. Day, where they will perform and host a guest artist. In past years, they held two smaller shows: one in the fall and one in the spring. “We are combining our guest artist and celebration for Martin Luther King weekend so we can DANCE, page 13 ■ CD review Green Day's daring new sound scores "American Idiot" overshadows Phil Collins' loveless compilation and Louque's unimaginative, unmemorable new release BY RYAN MURPHEY PULSE REPORTER Choosing albums to review can be hard, but this week, the music practically chose itself. 1 had long been waiting to decry the hype sur rounding Green Day’s new album, and I just re cently added ownership of Phil Collins’ complete works to my five-year plan, right alongside pet ting a bear and purchasing a Gucci suit with a briefcase full of $1 bills. To round off the selec tion, 1 chose Louque’s album “So Long” because the cover was pretty. First up is Phil Collins’ “Love Songs: A compila tion ... Old and New.” At some point in every pop star’s career (usually the later years), an age-old problem must be addressed: What do you do when you need to make a record but you are so far past your prime that you can’t even write bad music anymore? Release a compilation, of course. Already have two greatest hits compilations and two live CDs? Not a problem. Put together some less-memorable songs, add a few live tracks, cov ers and one track that wasn’t good enough to make it on to a real album, and call it a collection of ballads, rarities and live performances. The once great, now marginal, Phil Collins scrapes the bottom of the barrel to bring you “Love Songs.” Don’t get me wrong, Phil Collins is one of but a handful of artists (including Iron Maiden, Public Enemy and David Hasselhoff) that I would ever pay more than $30 to see, but this album is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to squeeze every last drop of royalty val ue out of the same old songs. Of the 25 tracks on the two-disc set, 24 have appeared on previous albums. Several of the tracks have also appeared on the “Hits” and “Platinum” compilations. Hmmm... “rarities?” Wouldn’t the plural suggest that more than one of these tracks would be diffi cult to find? 1 love you Phil, but perhaps a less misleading title would have been appropriate. Maybe you could have called it, "I’m out of mate rial, but I got bored, and since I’ve sold millions of records, 1 can do whatever 1 damn well please.” Moving on, 1 like Green Day and I always have, but with the hype surrounding "American Idiot,” 1 couldn’t wait to tear into this album like a starv ing, rabid badger into the leg of a careless out doorsman. I’ve heard the words “punk-rock SOUND, page 9
