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