C01 001 **[072 TEXT C01**]
C01 002 *<*1Sir Robert Steps Into Spotlight*>
C01 003    |^*0The hips wiggled, the girls screamed and Sir Robert
C01 004 Muldoon did his thing under the spotlight.
C01 005    |^The former Prime Minister was put through his paces
C01 006 yesterday when he joined the wacky cast of the *1Rocky Horror
C01 007 Show *0at His Majesty's Theatre in Auckland to rehearse his
C01 008 role as narrator.
C01 009    |^He wore a sports jacket amid the cast dressed in leotards
C01 010 and jeans, but tonight he will make his debut in a velvet
C01 011 dinner jacket surrounded by characters in leather, lace and
C01 012 fishnet stockings.
C01 013    |^Sir Robert has been provided with a private tutor but
C01 014 yesterday he was still getting the steps sorted out for the
C01 015 modern classic dance, the *"time warp.**"
C01 016    |^*"A jump to the left, a step to the right, hands on hips,
C01 017 knees in tight.  ^Now do a pelvic thrust...
C01 018    |^*"But hang on a minute,**" protested the 
C01 019 politician-turned-star.
C01 020    |^*"I have to move from here to here.  ^Now if I trip over
C01 021 this thing [footlights], everyone is going to think it's great,
C01 022 except me.**"
C01 023    |^Sir Robert's role is a linchpin in the story of two
C01 024 ordinary youngsters who get lost and end up in the castle of a
C01 025 mad transsexual scientist in a world of rock music.
C01 026    |^Most of his role is reading a commentary on the story but
C01 027 the final lines of the show are his:
C01 028    |^*"Crawling on the planet's face, some creatures called the
C01 029 human race, lost in time and lost in space, and meaning.**"
C01 030 *<*1Funny Business Serious Work*>
C01 031    |^*4{0TVNZ} producer Simon Morris and his colleagues have
C01 032 been struggling to put a name to a bizarre comedy they are
C01 033 putting together in Auckland.
C01 034    |^*0Nothing seems to quite suit this strange mixture of
C01 035 sketches and skits.
C01 036    |^In all, seven titles have so far been rejected and Morris
C01 037 ventures *- uncertainly *- that this half-hour pilot will
C01 038 probably go to air called simply *1The Funny Business Show.
C01 039    |^*0After all, it does feature exclusively a team of
C01 040 Auckland funny men known as Funny Business.
C01 041    |^Funny Business have been triggering laughs around town
C01 042 since 1984, when they all met while competing as individuals at
C01 043 the Comedy Factory *- the city's first comedy venue.
C01 044    |^They started to experiment with stand-up comedy and double
C01 045 acts, finally deciding to join forces and form Funny Business.
C01 046    |^Four members (except Chris Hegan, who will not divulge his
C01 047 age) are all in their 20s and have vastly different
C01 048 backgrounds.
C01 049    |^William McGechie, who performs under the name Willy de
C01 050 Wit, earned his bread and butter as a comic waiter at an
C01 051 upmarket Ponsonby restaurant.
C01 052    |^Peter Murphy flagged away his {0PhD} in molecular biology
C01 053 at Otago University to start his act, following some experience
C01 054 in capping revues.
C01 055    |^Ian Harcourt works for a computer firm.
C01 056    |^Hegan is an experienced musician, juggler and clown.
C01 057    |^The team's youngest member, Dean Butler, is unemployed.
C01 058    |^The team began work on the pilot a month ago.  ^Final
C01 059 recording should be completed by late next month.
C01 060    |^Morris hopes this pilot will screen before the end of the
C01 061 year.
C01 062    |^And he is optimistic that it will result in a series.
C01 063    |^*"Shows like *1Billy \0T. James *0and *1McPhail and Gadsby
C01 064 *0are good shows but they have been going a long time,**" he
C01 065 says.
C01 066    |^*"We have to allow this second tier of performers to get
C01 067 better, too.**"
C01 068    |^He believes most homegrown comedies rely heavily on
C01 069 satire *"which usually means old jokes using well-known 
C01 070 names.**"
C01 071    |^*1The Funny Business Show, *0says Morris, is different.
C01 072 ^For a start, it is apolitical.
C01 073    |^*"It has some formal sketches, some 10-second skits, and
C01 074 most of it is done outside, in the street.**"
C01 075    |^Not only has {0TVNZ} snapped up *1Funny Business *0as a
C01 076 pilot, it has also used the team's talents in the rock and roll
C01 077 drama *1Heroes.
C01 078    |^*0Funny Business can be seen in a small role on that show
C01 079 this Sunday.
C01 080 *<*4{0NZ} *'Classic**' Filmed By German*> *- by Peter Calder
C01 081    |^*0It is, perhaps, ironic that an acclaimed novel by New
C01 082 Zealand's foremost writer should have been brought to the
C01 083 screen by a German director.
C01 084    |^If so, the fact that the result has never screened here is
C01 085 more ironic still.
C01 086    |^For *1Among the Cinders, *0which screens on \0TV-1 tonight
C01 087 at 9.30 as part of the *1New Zealand Cinema Season, *0is the
C01 088 only one of the five films this week that has had no public
C01 089 screening in this country.
C01 090    |^This is in spite of the fact that the 1965 Maurice
C01 091 Shadbolt novel on which it is based has been often referred to
C01 092 as a New Zealand classic.
C01 093    |^For 20 years after the novel was published, no New Zealand
C01 094 director showed any interest in filming it, but Rolf Haedrich,
C01 095 struck by the book's spectacular success in his native West
C01 096 Germany, picked up the idea in the late 70s.
C01 097    |^Shadbolt recalls having *"distinct reservations about the
C01 098 notion of a German directing a film based on a most
C01 099 idiosyncratically New Zealand story,**" but he was also aware
C01 100 that it would have been *"insular, immature and outside the
C01 101 true tradition of cinema to insist that all New Zealand films
C01 102 be made by New Zealand directors.**"
C01 103    |^In the event, Shadbolt was pleased with the film, which is
C01 104 notable for several features, not least the author's first (and
C01 105 last) screen performance as the father of the adolescent hero,
C01 106 Nick Flinders.
C01 107    |^*1Among the Cinders *0is also something of a family affair
C01 108 for three O'Shea generations.
C01 109    |^The lead role is played by Paul O'Shea, stepson of
C01 110 cinematographer Rory whose father, John, is the film's
C01 111 producer.
C01 112    |^It is a touching and simple tale of the love between a
C01 113 morose teenage boy and his gnarled renegade grandfather.
C01 114    |^The novel, simply told through the innocent eyes of its
C01 115 hero, is strongly New Zealand in character and it is, at first
C01 116 sight, hard to explain its rapturous reception by German
C01 117 audiences who read it as {*1Und er nahm mich bei der Hand} (And
C01 118 He Took Me by the Hand).
C01 119    |^*0O'Shea suspects that the positive attitude it takes to
C01 120 old-fashioned, even tribal, relationships between generations
C01 121 may have appealed to the world-weary Europeans.
C01 122    |^Young Nick is confused and unsettled by the accidental
C01 123 death of his young friend, Sam, during a hunting trip the pair
C01 124 take into the mountains.
C01 125    |^His grandfather, whose grizzled wisdom allows him alone to
C01 126 see that there is *"nothing wrong with the boy,**" takes Nick
C01 127 under his wing and the two set off on a trip of self-discovery
C01 128 in to the backwoods.
C01 129    |^It is also worth noting that Derek Hardwick's performance
C01 130 as the grandfather won him a best actor award at the Karlovy
C01 131 Vary film festival in Czechoslovakia.
C01 132 *<*1Music in the Breeze*>
C01 133    |^*0Thousands of people, young and old, crowded on to
C01 134 Cheltenham Beach and foreshore last night to enjoy a concert
C01 135 with a difference.
C01 136    |^As picnic teas were packed away and children shushed, the
C01 137 strains of Von Suppe wafted across the quietly lapping water *-
C01 138 the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra was at sea.
C01 139    |^The 90 musicians performed on**[ARB**]-board a barge,
C01 140 beneath gaily coloured wind socks and clear skies, with
C01 141 Rangitoto Island as a back-drop.  ^A string of lights cast a
C01 142 shimmering path from barge to beach.
C01 143    |^At times most of the onshore audience can only have known
C01 144 the orchestra was playing because the conductor was indubitably
C01 145 conducting.
C01 146    |^But the applause was enthusiastic as Grieg, Sibelius,
C01 147 Bizet and Tchaikovsky followed Von Suppe.
C01 148    |^The concert ended as the first stars came out and great
C01 149 showers of coloured lights soared from North Head in a
C01 150 fireworks finale.
C01 151    |^The concert and fireworks display were part of the
C01 152 Devonport Borough Council centennial celebrations.
C01 153 *<*4Rage, Indignation Fill *'Broken Treaty**' Show*>
C01 154    |^*4It is often hard to separate the message from the art.
C01 155    |^*0Sometimes the art *1is *0the message *- in other words,
C01 156 art about art.  ^At the other extreme is art that has a clear
C01 157 political message.  ^Here sympathy with the message may obscure
C01 158 critical assessment of the quality of the art.
C01 159    |^The exhibition by *4Emily Karaka *0and *4Norman Te Whata
C01 160 *0at the New Vision Gallery in His Majesty's Arcade in Auckland
C01 161 is an example of painting and sculpture dedicated to a political
C01 162 point of view.  ^Called *1Waitangi: A Broken Treaty, *0it is a
C01 163 show full of rage and indignation.
C01 164    |^It is also a very confusing show because there is little
C01 165 indication of which works are by which artist.  ^(One gathers
C01 166 that most of the sculpture is by Norman Te Whata and most of
C01 167 the painting by Emily Karaka.)  ^Some of the work is recent and
C01 168 some is from earlier exhibitions.
C01 169    |^The work is full of recollections of local artists *- from
C01 170 Colin McCahon through the late Phillip Clairmont to Allen
C01 171 Maddox and of English artists such as Francis Bacon.  ^The
C01 172 handling is wildly expressionistic *- full of impulsive
C01 173 brushwork, twisting and writhing, and passionate messages
C01 174 written across the paintings.
C01 175 *<*5Altar Lumps*>
C01 176    |^*0A typical work is *1The Treaty: Whose Liberty?  ^*0It is
C01 177 a painting in two panels.  ^One carries words from the treaty
C01 178 in English and the colour is lyrical and pastoral, the other
C01 179 carries the Maori text and is turbulent and troubled in colour.
C01 180    |^The next work on the wall is a triptych with hacked lumps
C01 181 of flesh on altars labelled Anzus, Waitangi and Gleneagles.
C01 182 ^Beneath them are pages stained with blood and there is hectic
C01 183 carry-on all around.
C01 184    |^Two other themes emerge in the show.  ^One is crucifixion.
C01 185 ^A huge wooden cross dominates the exhibition.  ^On it hangs a
C01 186 figure with a crown of thorns made of steel cut with a torch,
C01 187 huge bolts through the hands and feet, chains, barbed wire and
C01 188 a body made of sacking shaped like a singlet.
C01 189    |^This Christ-figure represents the Maori people betrayed by
C01 190 the treaty.  ^But other works like *1Red Blanket Exchange *0are
C01 191 specifically anti-church.  ^The emphasis in the big crucifixion
C01 192 and in *1Broken Treaty is on Christ as victim.
C01 193    |^Confusion exists about the sacrifice of Christ, which was
C01 194 a conscious sacrifice, and about the purpose of redemption and
C01 195 consequent harmony and peace.  ^Here the emphasis is on
C01 196 victimisation, rage and disharmony.
C01 197    |^The figure of Spartacus, a warrior who was crucified,
C01 198 might have more pertinent references than that of Christ.
C01 199    |^Another theme lettered largely on the paintings is *"Holes
C01 200 in the Ground.**" ^The reference here is to buildings and
C01 201 images which are set in the ground, leave holes when they have
C01 202 passed and that these holes are covered or filled by new
C01 203 developments.
C01 204    |^In both the painting and the sculpture the best work is
C01 205 where the message is least explicit and the materials and the
C01 206 painting speak for themselves.  ^*1The Cloak of Tane, *0made of
C01 207 kauri bark from the Waipoua Forest, has spirits above and below
C01 208 and is a highly original and very moving work.  ^The very dense
C01 209 and closely worked *1Karaka Tree-Wai-Tangi Tree *0and the
C01 210 drawings, *1Volcano Death Mask *0and *1Goodbye, *0are also
C01 211 original.
C01 212    |^The exhibition has energy enough to make trivia of most
C01 213 shows and is a big advance on the same artists' work at the
C01 214 Auckland City Art Gallery a couple of years ago.  ^The feeling
C01 215 of artists fighting, like pathfinders, hacking their way
C01 216 through undergrowth, towards some seen, but as yet unattainable
C01 217 goal, is a very potent one.
C01 218 *<*5City Photos*>
C01 219    |^*0The sense of issues is present, though not so strongly,
C01 220 in the exhibition of photographs at Real Pictures Gallery on
C01 221 the third floor in the same arcade.
C01 222    |^The bits and pieces of demolition material strewn about
C01 223 the floor and the title *1Someone's Scheming *0suggest a tirade
C01 224 against the tearing down of so many of our inner city
C01 225 buildings.  ^But the exhibition is in many ways a celebration
C01 226 of Auckland and the feeling is of nostalgia rather than
C01 227 indignation.
C01 228    |^Though it might have had more impact had there been more
C01 229 anger, the show is, nevertheless, a fascinating and 
C01 230 not-to-be-missed event because of the quality of the photography.
C01 231    |^*4Gary Baigent's *1The Unseen City *0we have seen before,
C01 232 but *4Deborah Smith's *0wide curves and tilted images which
C01 233 complement the roads around the Tepid Baths and the Civic
C01 234 Theatre are new.
C01 235    |^*4Derek Smith, *0in his colour work, has caught the clash
C01 236 between old and recent in his shots of the redevelopment of
C01 237 Durham Lane, and *4John Reynolds *0has a wonderful image of the
C01 238 late, lamented Carpenters Arms against a starry sky.
C01 239    |^*4Paul McCredie *0has a fine eye for the patterns of light
C01 240 and shade and well records the flat soullessness of glass
C01 241 facades.
C01 242 *#
C02 001 **[073 TEXT C02**]
C02 002 *<*5Life in *'Dallas**' Without The Good Guy*>
C02 003    |^*1Dallas *4returns for its eighth season tonight on
C02 004 {0TV}-1 without its resident good guy Bobby to ride herd on the
C02 005 nasty {0JR}.
C02 006    |^*0Bobby, alas, is no more.
C02 007    |^He was run down and killed in last year's final episode.
C02 008    |^The Ewings are taking his death hard.  ^Pam (Victoria
C02 009 Principal) blames herself for the tragedy and {0JR} (Larry
C02 010 Hagman) recalls his many fights with his young brother and
C02 011 regrets that they never made peace.
C02 012    |^Larry Hagman apparently gives the performance of his life
C02 013 as he breaks down at Bobby's grave.
C02 014    |^It is distressing, too, for Barbara Bel Geddes, making her
C02 015 first appearance in a year as family matriarch Miss Ellie.
C02 016    |^She goes to her weeping son and tries to pull him away
C02 017 from Bobby's coffin.
C02 018    |^*"I've gotta stay, Momma,**" he cries.  ^*"I have to.**"
C02 019    |^But this change in {0JR} is nothing to worry about.  ^He
C02 020 soon returns to his bad old ways and his new enemy will be none
C02 021 other than his wife and mother of his child, Sue Ellen (Linda
C02 022 Gray).
C02 023    |^And {0JR} is apparently upset by Bobby's last will and
C02 024 testament.
C02 025    |^Dack Rambo has been introduced to the new series as the
C02 026 Ewing cousin Jack *- the man producers have groomed to replace
C02 027 Bobby at the Ewing Oil empire.  ^It is hoped that Rambo and
C02 028 Pam's pregnancy *- the result of her final night with Bobby *-
C02 029 will keep the ratings soaring.
C02 030 *<*4New Programme For Polynesians*>
C02 031    |^*0Big changes are promised in the Polynesian information
C02 032 programme *1See Here *0next year *- its name, duration, format
C02 033 and placement will all be different.
C02 034    |^Producer Michael Evans said they were changes which many
C02 035 Pacific Islanders had been waiting for since the programme
C02 036 began six years ago.
C02 037    |^*"The main criticisms have always been that *1See Here
C02 038 *0is too short, it is on at the wrong time and should not be
C02 039 100 per cent studio-based.**"
C02 040    |^{0TVNZ}'s top brass has approved the proposed alterations
C02 041 which will see it become a half-hour programme at the weekend.
C02 042    |^*"I believe that the climate is politically ripe for a
C02 043 change,**" said Evans.  ^*"It has taken six years to get
C02 044 this.**"
C02 045    |^He is excited by the greater freedom that the changes will
C02 046 allow.
C02 047    |^*"Since the establishment last year of the Maori
C02 048 Production Department programmes like *1See Here *0and *1Koha
C02 049 *0are able to grow more because they are not under the wing of
C02 050 general and special interests where they competed with other
C02 051 programmes.**"
C02 052    |^Another advantage of the time change was being able to use
C02 053 a bigger studio not available on week-days.
C02 054    |^Evans said introducing location work in the new format
C02 055 would push up the programme's budget but costs would also be
C02 056 cut if, and when, video replaced film.
C02 057    |^*"As it is for *1See Here, *0it costs *+$32 for 30 metres
C02 058 of film *- that is about two minutes and 40 seconds of shooting
C02 059 *- and things often have to be filmed several times.  ^So it
C02 060 gets expensive.**"
C02 061    |^The title *1See Here *0will be dropped in favour of
C02 062 *1Tangata Pasifika (*0*"People of the Pacific**").
C02 063    |^*"The life, culture and traditions of the various Pacific
C02 064 Island communities will be covered both in New Zealand and from
C02 065 their homelands,**" said Evans.
C02 066    |^*"In having a totally studio-based programme, you have the
C02 067 difficulty of trying to get people to reveal themselves in what
C02 068 is an alien environment.**"
C02 069    |^Although the target audience is a minority one, the number
C02 070 of Pacific Islanders migrating to New Zealand is growing.
C02 071    |^There are about 21,000 Cook Islanders living here now and
C02 072 only 19,000 back on the islands,**" said Evans, *"and five
C02 073 times as many Niueans are here than in Niue.**"
C02 074    |^Evans cites the shortage of land and hunger for the city
C02 075 life and money as the reasons for the growing influx.
C02 076    |^*"The proposed 10.30 {0am} Saturday slot is ideal because
C02 077 many people are out working during the week, playing sport on
C02 078 Saturday afternoons and attending church on Sundays.**"
C02 079    |^The new format will retain the basics of *1See Here,
C02 080 *0with greater emphasis on items from around the country and
C02 081 overseas.
C02 082    |^Foufou Suzanna Hukiu will present *1Tangata Pasifika
C02 083 *0fulltime with another presenter yet to be announced.
C02 084    |^Evans will meet Pacific Island representatives to gauge
C02 085 what sort of items people want.
C02 086    |^Producer of *1See Here *0since it began in 1980, Evans
C02 087 said he was continually fascinated by the different Pacific
C02 088 cultures.
C02 089    |^An Englishman who has been in New Zealand since the age of
C02 090 19, he said he had had a few problems with activists who were
C02 091 suspicious of his motives in working within their communities.
C02 092    |^Evans said he had plenty of ideas for next year's
C02 093 programme.
C02 094    |^*"People will expect more from the new-look show and they
C02 095 are going to get it.**"
C02 096 *<*4*'Te Karere**' Looks To the Future With Confidence*>
C02 097    |^*5Te Karere, *4the weekday Maori news programme, begins
C02 098 its fourth year on \0TV-2 at 5.30 tonight.
C02 099    |^*0The programme's presenter and producer, Whai Ngata, sees
C02 100 *1Te Karere *0as fulfilling an important role.
C02 101    |^*"It's been a magnificent success for the Maori-speaking
C02 102 population,**" he says.
C02 103    |^*"Maori people need to know what is happening in their
C02 104 world and they now have an opportunity to actively participate
C02 105 in the television news.**"
C02 106    |^The *1Te Karere *0team will now consist of five reporters
C02 107 in Auckland, newcomer Ral Makiha, plus Pere Maitai, Wena
C02 108 Harawira, Tuku Morgan and Waihoroi Shortland; two reporters in
C02 109 Wellington, John Tahuparae and Tawiri Rangihau (replacing Hone
C02 110 Edwards, who has gone to the regional news programme 
C02 111 *1Today-Tonight,) *0and a new reporter in Christchurch, Anahera Bowen,
C02 112 who was responsible for the Maori inserts in *1Sesame Street.
C02 113 *<*4Short*>
C02 114    |^*0Even with two more reporters than last year, the team is
C02 115 still one short of its staff quota.  ^*"They produce almost
C02 116 half of the New Zealand content of network news *- 10 minutes
C02 117 of television each weekday,**" says Ngata, *"and that is a lot
C02 118 of television to fill.**"
C02 119    |^Former presenter and producer Derek Fox will also be
C02 120 working on the programme from time to time, dividing his time
C02 121 between *1Te Karere *0and working on the application for the
C02 122 Aotearoa broadcasting system.
C02 123    |^Ngata has had a lot of positive feedback since the
C02 124 programme began.
C02 125    |^*"In many areas people tell us they drop whatever they are
C02 126 doing to watch the programme.  ^And I know that in some places
C02 127 meetings are held either before or after Te Karere.
C02 128    |^But not everyone had been happy with the programme in its
C02 129 present form.  ^*"It's a matter of frustration for the 
C02 130 non-Maori speaking population,**" Ngata says.  ^*"From the number
C02 131 of letters and telephone calls we get we know that many Pakeha
C02 132 are interested in *1Te Karere *0and would like to see it
C02 133 subtitled.**"
C02 134    |^But for a number of reasons, that will not happen.
C02 135    |^Ngata explains: ^*"The programme is ostensibly for 
C02 136 Maori-speaking people; secondly, you cannot learn a language from
C02 137 subtitles.
C02 138    |^*"Logistically it is impossible.  ^We are working up to
C02 139 deadline.  ^Sometimes we are still working on an item as the
C02 140 programme goes to air.
C02 141    |^And there are technical difficulties.  ^*"With a reporter
C02 142 speaking at about three words a second it is impossible to
C02 143 translate, and anyway, we do not have the technology to do
C02 144 it.**"
C02 145    |^Looking ahead, Ngata has several developments in mind, for
C02 146 the programme, building on *1Te Karere's *0present success.
C02 147    |^*"We would like to see an increase in the daily time
C02 148 allowance, and a weekly current affairs programme where some of
C02 149 the issues raised on *1Te Karere *0would be expanded and
C02 150 developed in more depth.**"
C02 151    |^He sees this as a natural progression from *1Te Karere's
C02 152 *0inception.  ^*"The service needs to be developed.  ^Otherwise
C02 153 we are standing still.**"
C02 154 *<*4Ruatoria*>
C02 155    |^*0Whai Ngata comes from Ruatoria, from the Ngati Porou
C02 156 tribe, but has spent most of his time in Auckland.
C02 157    |^He worked as a journalist on the *1Auckland Star *0for
C02 158 four years, then went to the Thomson group of trade magazines,
C02 159 writing for *1South Pacific Travel Trade News *0and editing
C02 160 *1{0NZ} Export Review, *0before starting up a magazine of his
C02 161 own, *1Marae, *0which lasted for four issues.
C02 162    |^He then went to Radio New Zealand, working on the Maori
C02 163 news and weekly programmes, then joined {0TVNZ} in 1983 to help
C02 164 to set up *1Te Karere.
C02 165 *<*4at the cinema*>
C02 166 *<Ponderous pace farce's failing*>
C02 167 *<*6MICKI AND MAUDE*>
C02 168 *<*4Directed by Blake Edwards Written by Jonathan Reynolds*>
C02 169    |^*0Cuddly Dudley woos the women in *"Micki and Maude**"
C02 170 (Regent), which should help attract the fairer sex to this
C02 171 otherwise undistinguished comedy.
C02 172    |^Our cheeky chappie (Dudley Moore) chatting up a couple of
C02 173 cuties (Ann Reiking and Amy Irving); their adjustment to the
C02 174 prospect of having babies; the final, farcical scenes at the
C02 175 hospital, with both due to give birth at the same time; and the
C02 176 father ending up with a bevy of babies, is just the kind of
C02 177 stuff that women's dreams are supposed to be made of *- and for
C02 178 whom this film seems to have been specifically crafted.
C02 179    |^It would be churlish to argue that Moore is not a likeable
C02 180 fellow; that Irving's blue eyes do not qualify her as his 
C02 181 come-hithersome Spouse \0No.  2; or that Reiking's splendid teeth
C02 182 and hair do not make her the ideal girl next door *- in some
C02 183 suburb of *"Dallas.**"
C02 184    |^In fact, they make an attractive trio, but Blake Edwards,
C02 185 who has directed several glossy but crude Hollywood comedies
C02 186 (*"10,**" *"{0S.O.B.}**") since the death of Peter Sellers and
C02 187 the end of the *"Pink Panther**" series, has nothing much
C02 188 besides their personal appeal to keep this film going.
C02 189    |^The story is simple, but preposterous:
C02 190    |^Moore is a young husband desperate to be a father, but who
C02 191 certainly does not plan on having babies by two wives *- both
C02 192 pregnant at the same time.  ^His first wife, Micki (Reiking),
C02 193 is a lawyer more interested in her career than children; Maude
C02 194 (Irving), whom he married illegally after an affair, is a
C02 195 musician who wants only to be a housewife and mother.
C02 196    |^This dilemma poses both a criminal *- and a moral *-
C02 197 problem which this film never satisfactorily solves.
C02 198    |^One feels that the film's premise, if handled adeptly by a
C02 199 British writer and director, could turn into fine farce.
C02 200 ^Coincidentally, just such a piece, *"Run for Your Wife,**" is
C02 201 now being presented as a live production at the Theatre Royal.
C02 202    |^*"Run for Your Wife**" also is based on the theme of
C02 203 bigamy, with the husband and his friend running between his two
C02 204 wives' homes to keep him out of double trouble.
C02 205    |^This play is handled in the proper, fast-paced way that
C02 206 such farce should be, never giving the audience time to think
C02 207 about how silly the original premise and subsequent
C02 208 developments are.
C02 209    |^Blake Edwards, however, does not have the instinct to
C02 210 present such rapid-fire farce.  ^The only Hollywood director I
C02 211 can think of who could handle such stuff was Billy Wilder
C02 212 (*"One, Two, Three**"), but he was of European origin, who based
C02 213 his *"Some Like It Hot**" on a German {0U.F.A.} comedy of the
C02 214 1930s.
C02 215    |^In *"Micki and Maude,**" the characters and plot (such as
C02 216 it is), are slow in being established, and the only truly
C02 217 farcical situation occurs in hospital while the father-to-be
C02 218 runs from room to room during his wives' throes of labour.
C02 219    |^I do not know whether to feel sorrier for poor Dud or the
C02 220 women he has wronged.
C02 221 *<*6BRAZIL*> *<*4Directed by Terry Gilliam Screenplay by Terry
C02 222 Gilliam, Tom Stoppard and Charles McKeown*>
C02 223    |^*"Brazil**" (Midcity) has been reviewed before, but its
C02 224 return *- after belated critical acclaim in the United States
C02 225 *- does deserve further comment.
C02 226    |^This is particularly relevant after last week's comments
C02 227 on comedies, and the relative merits of *"Spies Like Us**" and
C02 228 *"Prizzi's Honour.**"
C02 229    |^Different things do make differing people laugh: ^My sense
C02 230 of the comic *- my silly perception of life *- is personal, and
C02 231 not necessarily in harmony with that of other people.
C02 232    |^Therefore, I can state that *"Brazil**" was the funniest
C02 233 film of 1985 without having to justify it for people that do
C02 234 not see it.
C02 235    |^*"Brazil**" was screened at the Savoy for only a week,
C02 236 almost setting a record with virtually as many people walking
C02 237 out of the cinema before it ended than entering after it began.
C02 238    |^Most of the people who walked out seemed to take
C02 239 *"Brazil**" as a back-dated version of *"1984.**"
C02 240    |^It certainly was, but it also included a reference to the
C02 241 Odessa Steps sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's *"Battleship
C02 242 Potemkin.**"
C02 243    |^*"Brazil**" is so rich that it is no wonder that most
C02 244 people could not digest it at one sitting.
C02 245 *#
C03 001 **[074 TEXT C03**]
C03 002 *<*4Thursday review*> *<*0By Post television critic Irene Gardiner*>
C03 003 *<*4Quality viewing brightened wintry weekend*>
C03 004    |^*0For those of us who stayed in Wellington for the Easter
C03 005 holiday weekend the wintry weather conditions made staying home
C03 006 and watching the telly seem like a pretty good idea.  ^And
C03 007 {0TVNZ}'s Easter programming did us reasonably proud.
C03 008    |^Rather than just Easter programmes for the sake of Easter
C03 009 programmes, there was a concentration on giving us some quality
C03 010 television specially for the long weekend *- lots of movies and
C03 011 other good one-off programmes.
C03 012    |^The Saturday Premier Movie was the much-loved Tootsie
C03 013 (1982).  ^We got an Ingrid Bergman film (The Inn of the Sixth
C03 014 Happiness), the famous Laurence Olivier-Marilyn Monroe movie
C03 015 The Prince and the Showgirl, and a particularly fine film in
C03 016 the World Cinema slot *- Death of a Bureaucrat, made in Spain
C03 017 in 1966.
C03 018    |^And, in keeping with the religious significance of Easter
C03 019 weekend, there were The Song of Bernadette, The Ten
C03 020 Commandments and Jesus Christ Superstar.
C03 021    |^Superstar sounded a little sick in the sound-track
C03 022 department, which is a bit of a worry for a musical film.
C03 023 ^Another musical film over the weekend, without the sound-track
C03 024 problems but with rather less religious significance, was The
C03 025 Rolling Stones' in-concert movie Time Is On My Side, which
C03 026 provided an Easter special for the 12 O'Clock Rock slot.  ^It
C03 027 was hardly the Stones at their best, but living legends are
C03 028 always worth at least half an eye and ear.
C03 029    |^Tucked away in an afternoon slot was Kid Creole's There's
C03 030 Something Wrong in Paradise *- not a musical film exactly, but
C03 031 *"an original musical made for television.**" ^Basically, the
C03 032 show was a good idea that didn't really work, but it was still
C03 033 a musical curiosity that I hope fans didn't miss out on because
C03 034 of its rather out-of-the-way time-slot.
C03 035    |^From pop-rock musicals to {0TVNZ}'s handsome production of
C03 036 the opera Hansel and Gretel, which screened on *2ONE *0on
C03 037 Friday night.  ^This was a credit to all concerned.  ^It was
C03 038 well-cast, well-performed and sumptuously-produced.
C03 039    |^The New Zealand bush location probably wasn't how the
C03 040 Brothers Grimm pictured their story, but it provided a
C03 041 beautiful setting for the opera.  ^This, combined with
C03 042 effective make-up, costumes and sets, made {0TVNZ}'s Hansel and
C03 043 Gretel a visual treat.
C03 044    |^Hansel and Gretel was a television production of an opera.
C03 045 ^The ballet Swan Lake (Television 2 the following night), on
C03 046 the other hand, was a stage production videotaped for screening
C03 047 on television.  ^The Royal New Zealand Ballet's production of
C03 048 the famous ballet last year wasn't one of the company's finest
C03 049 efforts.  ^But it's still good to see our national ballet
C03 050 company on television.
C03 051    |^A bouquet to {0TVNZ} for televising the ballet, but make
C03 052 that paper roses for scheduling it against the blockbuster
C03 053 movie Tootsie.  ^I can accept that ballet is minority viewing,
C03 054 but why make it the smallest minority possible?
C03 055    |^The highlight of my Easter viewing was the British
C03 056 television adaptation of Graham Green's novel Monsignor
C03 057 Quixote, which screened on *2ONE *0on Sunday night.
C03 058    |^This Bafta-nominated production was almost perfect
C03 059 television.  ^It had a great story and a good script, was
C03 060 beautifully-shot, and lead actors Alec Guinness and Leo McKern
C03 061 were well cast as the priest and the communist.
C03 062    |^While getting dangerously close to hamming it up at times,
C03 063 overall the pair just managed to pull off the right mixture of
C03 064 funny and sad as their characters questioned their opposing
C03 065 beliefs while going on a bizarre holiday to Madrid.
C03 066    |^Monsignor Quixote was deeply moving and thought-provoking,
C03 067 but also had a rich, warm funniness *- an unbeatable
C03 068 combination.  ^My only reservation (slight) is that the
C03 069 portrayal of the religious *"baddies**" was perhaps just a
C03 070 little close to caricature.
C03 071    |^After Easter, the other important event of the \0tv week
C03 072 was the screening of {0TVNZ}'s first documentary on the Rainbow
C03 073 Warrior bombing.  ^I'm instantly suspicious of documentaries
C03 074 that claim to have new and exciting revelations.  ^The timespan
C03 075 involved in making a proper job of a documentary programme
C03 076 often precludes this.
C03 077    |^Consequently, I feared the Rainbow Warrior Affair was
C03 078 going to suffer at the hands of its own pre-promotion.  ^But,
C03 079 with its information on the *"third team**" of French agents, I
C03 080 guess the programme just managed to make good its claim that it
C03 081 would *"highlight new and as yet unrevealed facts.**"
C03 082    |^That aside, New Zealand can't lay claim to a great
C03 083 tradition of real-life spy stories, and the Rainbow Warrior
C03 084 Affair's reconstruction of the whole story of the bombing was
C03 085 dramatic stuff.  ^In fact, it was a little overly dramatic in
C03 086 its presentation at times.
C03 087 *<*4Students display composition skill*>
C03 088 *<Music*> *<By Owen Jensen*>
C03 089    *<*0A concert by the finalists of the Student Composition
C03 090 Competition Music Department Victoria University; at the
C03 091 Memorial Theatre Saturday.*>
C03 092    |^*4For several years Victoria University Music Department
C03 093 students have given an account of their year's composition work
C03 094 in a private wind-up recital.
C03 095    |^*0So much has the standard risen and the diversity of the
C03 096 work become more stimulating that it was thought time the
C03 097 students went public with their compositions.
C03 098    |^This they did on Saturday morning at the Memorial Theatre.
C03 099    |^With a gift of *+$300 from an anonymous donor came a
C03 100 suggestion that a composition competition be held.
C03 101 ^Of the compositions submitted 10 were selected as 
C03 102 finalists.  ^The adjudicators were Ashley Heenan, Ross Harris 
C03 103 and Jack Body.  ^Twenty student performers brought the music to 
C03 104 life.
C03 105    |^The works all showed a sensitive feeling for and
C03 106 understanding of the instruments and voices used.  ^In no way
C03 107 could any of them be dubbed typically New Zealand music.
C03 108 ^(What is typical New Zealand music anyway?)  ^Nor did they
C03 109 obviously reflect their teachers.
C03 110    |^In fact, the most refreshing aspects of the music were the
C03 111 individuality of each work and the overall feeling of
C03 112 spontaneity.
C03 113    |^Some, like Martin Lodge whose Wind Quintet was placed
C03 114 first equal, were skilled to the point almost of having an
C03 115 academic flavour.  ^The Lodge Quintet was for flute, oboe,
C03 116 clarinet, horn, bassoon.
C03 117    |^The other first equal composition was an 
C03 118 electronic-acoustic piece called Of Cabbages and Kings.  ^Composed by
C03 119 David Downes this said what it was meant to say clearly and
C03 120 succinctly all cleverly put together.  ^But after all, skill
C03 121 does not count for much without imagination.  ^This is what
C03 122 gave an endearing charm to Jane Coxon's Smokey Moon for horn,
C03 123 piano and harp.  ^This work received the reward for the best
C03 124 composition by a first year student.
C03 125    |^Imagination of an especial line illumined Gary Armstrong's
C03 126 Momentum for piano percussion and a mobile which danced to the
C03 127 music.
C03 128    |^A touch of humour enlivened some of the music too, like
C03 129 Danny Poynton's Moa for clarinet, bassoon, timpani, percussion,
C03 130 piano and narrator.  ^Helen Fisher's trio for bassoon, flute
C03 131 and clarinet caught the ear as music that had something simple
C03 132 and significant to say by a composer who knew how to say it,
C03 133 and most important when to stop saying it.
C03 134    |^The heroes and heroines were the student performers who
C03 135 had to cope with styles and technique outside their more usual
C03 136 musical experience.  ^Theirs was high quality work.
C03 137    |^Some of the performers were also composers.  ^Danny
C03 138 Poynton (Moa) was a bright pianist.  ^Other performers who
C03 139 added that little bit extra were Sarah Castle (bang on with her
C03 140 percussion) and Donna Livingstone (violin) and Nicola Averill
C03 141 (horn).
C03 142    |^The performer's award went to the players who presented
C03 143 Martin Lodge's Wind Quintet *- Joanna Averill (flute), Gundy
C03 144 Scharnke (oboe), Erin Cormack (clarinet), Nicola Averill (horn)
C03 145 and Michael Burns (bassoon).
C03 146 *<*4Franco-American look to New York filmfest*>
C03 147    |*2NEW YORK. *- ^*0The New York Film Festival, now in
C03 148 progress, takes moviegoers on a decidedly American cinematic
C03 149 journey this year, but it also has a strong French emphasis.
C03 150    |^Three offbeat comedies are the highlights among eight
C03 151 home-grown movies out of the festival's 24 feature films.
C03 152    |^Francis Ford Coppola's sad and funny romantic fantasy
C03 153 Peggy Sue Got Married, stars Kathleen Turner as a woman in her
C03 154 40s who gets a second chance at her life.
C03 155    |^Jim Jarmusch opened the festival with a quirky fairy tale,
C03 156 Down By Law, about three prisoners on the run.  ^Rock Star
C03 157 David Byrne, of Talking Heads, makes his film-making debut with
C03 158 a surreal comedy, True Stories.
C03 159    |^*"I like them because they're odd,**" festival director
C03 160 Richard Roud told Reuters.  ^*"Nowadays if things aren't odd,
C03 161 they're kind of boring.  ^The old days of nice, 
C03 162 middle-of-the-road films are over.**"
C03 163    |^The festival continues until October 5.
C03 164    |^There are six French movies and one of the American films,
C03 165 Round Midnight, is directed by leading French director Bertrand
C03 166 Tavernier.
C03 167    |^There are also British, Swedish, West German, Brazilian
C03 168 and Polish films but the emphasis is definitely 
C03 169 Franco-American.
C03 170    |^In Peggy Sue Got Married, Turner plays a woman who thinks
C03 171 a second chance at high school days will let her avoid marrying
C03 172 her husband, be nice to her little sister and invent tights.
C03 173    |^Coppola, acclaimed for The Godfather, The Conversation and
C03 174 Apocalypse Now, hesitated before offering Peggy Sue to the
C03 175 festival because of the way his last film was treated.
C03 176    |^His 1983 film Rumble Fish was hissed at its festival
C03 177 screening for the press and otherwise poorly received.
C03 178    |^But Roud says Peggy Sue is a *"movie movie**" that should
C03 179 do well.
C03 180    |^Unlike Coppola, Jarmusch, 33, says he likes the New York
C03 181 festival.  ^His Stranger than Paradise was shown here two years
C03 182 ago after winning the Camera d'Or at Cannes.
C03 183    |^As he did in Stranger and his first film, Permanent
C03 184 Vacation, Jarmusch looks at a foreigner in America.  ^This time
C03 185 it's an Italian tourist with a notebook of cliches, played by
C03 186 comedian-director Roberto Benigni in his first American film.
C03 187    |^A small-time pimp (John Lurie), an unemployed disc jockey
C03 188 (singer-actor Tom Waits) and the Italian are jailed unfairly
C03 189 and escape into the swamps of southern Louisiana.
C03 190    |^When word got out that David Byrne was making his own
C03 191 movie, Talking Heads fans knew it would be something to see and
C03 192 hear.
C03 193    |^Byrne directed and narrated True Stories, a travelogue
C03 194 about a few days in the lives of some people in Virgil, Texas.
C03 195    |^Byrne wrote in the book True Stories, being published by
C03 196 Penguin next month: ^*"I stay away from loaded subjects *- sex,
C03 197 violence and political intrigue... I deal with stuff that's too
C03 198 dumb for most people to have formulated opinions on.**"
C03 199    |^Another American highlight is Tavernier's Round Midnight.
C03 200 ^A black bebop musician (legendary tenor saxophonist Dexter
C03 201 Gordon) joins other expatriates in Paris in 1959 and is saved
C03 202 from alcoholism and death by a young Frenchman.
C03 203 *<*5City still alive*>
C03 204    |^*6A*2LTHOUGH *0the arts festival has finished, the city is
C03 205 still alive with entertainment.
C03 206    |^Classical guitarist *4Jonathon Harper *0is in town after
C03 207 recently completing a University Campus orientation tour.
C03 208    |^Harper has just finished his first recording session and
C03 209 hopes to release his record in July.
C03 210    |^He is billed to play at the Provinicial Hotel in Upper
C03 211 Hutt tonight, tomorrow and Saturday and will be joined by
C03 212 English guitarist and songwriter *4Stephen Delft *0at the
C03 213 Ohariu Country Club on Sunday.
C03 214    |^Heavy rock at its best is being offered at the Cricketers
C03 215 this weekend.
C03 216    |^Hamilton band Knightshade is performing tomorrow and
C03 217 Saturday supported by local Wellington band Tokyo.
C03 218    |^*4Rick Bernard, *0vocals and guitar, who has played with
C03 219 Strikemaster and Bronx, is Knightshade's most recent addition.
C03 220    |^An early week gig at the Cricketers sees the Ewings
C03 221 (former members of the Mockers) join up with Flesh D-Vice for a
C03 222 one night only performance next Wednesday night.
C03 223    |^For what is termed *"power pop**" or unashamedly
C03 224 commercial music, be at the Clyde Quay tomorrow and Saturday.
C03 225 ^{0ESP}, who merge technology with music, perform with Grace
C03 226 Under Pressure.
C03 227    |^The Wellington Folk Centre have *4Vin Garbutt *0at the
C03 228 Cricketers next Tuesday.
C03 229    |^Vin Garbutt is said to be an itinerant musician who sings
C03 230 songs from the traditional as well as from his own pen.
C03 231    |^He sings strong songs which often analyse controversial
C03 232 issues of the day and adds spice to his performance with a
C03 233 touch of zany humour.
C03 234    |^Freds... and all that jazz have guitarist and singer Mark
C03 235 Palmer tonight followed by Barry Oswick and Nick Curtis
C03 236 tomorrow.  ^Sheila Graham returns next Wednesday with her
C03 237 *"Muddle of the Road Music.**"
C03 238    |^Powerful Maori theatre group Te Ohu Whakaari are coming to
C03 239 Wellington soon to perform during their first national tour
C03 240 since 1984.
C03 241    |^The collective is made up of Tina Cook (Ngapuhi), Esther
C03 242 Fala (Nga Rauru), Neil Gudsell (Kaitahu) and Paora Maxwell
C03 243 (Ngati Rangiwewehi).
C03 244    |^Te Ohu Whakaari will be presenting a show that draws on a
C03 245 collection of stories written by writers like Hone Tuwhare,
C03 246 Patricia Grace, Apirana Taylor and other material written by the
C03 247 group itself.
C03 248    |^Something else to look forward to is an evening of blues
C03 249 at the Railways Hotel.
C03 250    |^*4Neil *'Invercargill**' Jones *0has teamed up with bass
C03 251 player *4Les Knight *0and drummer *4Malcolm Reid *0to perform
C03 252 together and to show-case his solo abilities next Wednesday and
C03 253 Thursday night.
C03 254 *#
C04 001 **[075 TEXT C04**]
C04 002 *<*4Mozart may have liked these flute renditions*>
C04 003 *6MOZART.
C04 004 *4Flute Quartets \0Nos. one to four, played by Richard Adeney,
C04 005 flute, with the Melos Ensemble.
C04 006 *6WORLD RECORDS {0WR} 9499 *0from {0ASV}.
C04 007    |^*0As far as can be fairly reckoned, the viola was one of
C04 008 Mozart's favourite instruments and at the other end of the
C04 009 scale the flute was the least favoured.  ^Because of this much
C04 010 has been written about his *"Flute Quartets.**"
C04 011    |^Some say they feel the composer's *"scorn, rage and
C04 012 anger**" in these pieces, two of which are generally regarded
C04 013 as lightweights.  ^The original buyer, a wealthy Dutch amateur
C04 014 flautist, refused to pay the full commission for the works,
C04 015 expressing his disappointment at the quality he received.
C04 016    |^In spite of all the conspiring factors against his flute
C04 017 music, Mozart did manage to hold his own in what must be
C04 018 regarded as *"middle of the road Mozart,**" music that charmed
C04 019 most of the time, and at least made passable listening the rest
C04 020 of the time.
C04 021    |^His reputed disregard for the instrument could have been
C04 022 influenced by the limitations of the eighteenth century flute
C04 023 mechanism.  ^He may have warmed considerably to hear exponents
C04 024 of the calibre of Richard Adeney or Aurele Nicolet playing the
C04 025 quartets so stylishly.
C04 026    |^Certainly, the music comes up well under the conditions
C04 027 here, with the D major piece being neither greater nor lesser
C04 028 than its companions.  ^They will please the eager listeners of
C04 029 today more than the devotees in Mozart's time.
C04 030 *6TCHAIKOVSKY.  *4Symphony \0No. four played by the Oslo
C04 031 Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mariss Jansons.  *6WORLD
C04 032 RECORDS {0WR} 9770 from CHANDOS.
C04 033    |^*0It is appropriate that this version precedes one from
C04 034 Karajan and comes only two months after others by Solti, for
C04 035 the sheer excellence of the lowly-rated Oslo Orchestra can be
C04 036 matched against the might of the Vienna and Chicago Orchestras
C04 037 with the balance firmly tipped in favour of the Norwegian
C04 038 players.
C04 039    |^This may be hard to accept, but hearing is believing.  ^In
C04 040 almost all departments, Mariss Jansons beats Karajan hands
C04 041 down.  ^Moreover, it makes my ancient Munch recording, so
C04 042 highly-rated at the time, seem thin and lifeless.
C04 043    |^No doubt, the superb quality of the Chandos digital
C04 044 processing has a good deal to do with final judgments here, but
C04 045 one has to respect the young conductor's handling of the work
C04 046 *- trim and crisp with plenty of electricity flowing
C04 047 throughout.
C04 048 *6MOZART.  *4Arias sung by Thomas Allen, baritone with the
C04 049 Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Richard Armstrong.
C04 050 *6WORLD RECORDS {0WE} 9444 *4from {0EMI}.
C04 051    |^*0It would be hard to imagine a finer set of Mozart arias
C04 052 sung better, or played better than this batch from *"Don
C04 053 Giovanni,**" *"Zaide,**" *"Cosi Fan Tutte**" or *"Le Nozze di
C04 054 Figaro.**"
C04 055    |^Fresh from his personal triumph on the recorded
C04 056 *"Giovanni**" set with Bernard Haitink/ Glyndebourne for World
C04 057 Records, Allen is just as good with the Scottish players and
C04 058 the brisk tempi set by Richard Armstrong.
C04 059    |^The unmistakeable Welsh timbre of Thomas Allen's voice is
C04 060 eminently suited to Mozart, his splendid diction a treat after
C04 061 hearing more famous singers recently, where it was impossible
C04 062 to decipher any trace of meaning in the obscure language used.
C04 063    |^The brace of concert arias to close the recital is a bonus
C04 064 *- *"Un Bacio di Mano**" {0KV}541 and *"Ich Mochte Wohl der
C04 065 Kaiser sen.**" ^Regardless of the possible duplication of the
C04 066 issue of the sets of *"Figaro**" and *"Giovanni**" this one is
C04 067 a must for all collectors.
C04 068 *<*4{0T.J.} McNamara on *6ART*>
C04 069 *<*4Garcia-Alvarez Shows Colour Sensitivity*>
C04 070    |^Fiesta or not, this is a very quiet week on the Auckland
C04 071 art scene.
C04 072    |^*0The most substantial single show is by *4Alberto 
C04 073 Garcia-Alvarez *0at Artis Gallery in High \0St.
C04 074    |^Although he is an influential teacher at the Elam School,
C04 075 the artist rarely exhibits.
C04 076    |^His paintings in the past have been big, hard-edged,
C04 077 minimal abstract works.  ^But the six paintings at Artis show
C04 078 great freedom and dash in the brushwork.
C04 079    |^The hard-edged manner has been abandoned in favour of an
C04 080 abstract expressionist style.
C04 081    |^There was a foreshadowing of this change in his exhibition
C04 082 of lithographs a couple of years ago at the Auckland City Art
C04 083 Gallery.  ^The lithographs were colour exercises absolutely
C04 084 true to the nature of the medium.  ^The forms were dictated by
C04 085 the ink, the paper and the stone.
C04 086 *<*4Seductive*>
C04 087    |^*0These paintings are equally puritan.  ^They are about
C04 088 the act of painting and about colour.  ^Drawing, or any attempt
C04 089 at image-making, is right out of court.
C04 090    |^The colour in these works is sensitive.  ^In most of the
C04 091 paintings there is a shift from dark to light across the
C04 092 canvas.  ^Occasionally, there is a hint of a light source such
C04 093 as a window.
C04 094    |^As well as the colour, there is a seductive surface that
C04 095 comes from using dry pigment.  ^That gives a combed effect that
C04 096 emphasises the movement of the brush.  ^The surface takes on a
C04 097 particular quality, too, because the painting is done on paper.
C04 098    |^The direct approach used in these paintings makes for a
C04 099 narrow line between success and failure.
C04 100    |^*1December 10 *0has particularly fine, pale colours.
C04 101    |^*1Ultima Merienda *0is more open than the other works,
C04 102 with hectic dashes of white giving an agitated effect, as if
C04 103 the colours were arguing with one another in a neurotic,
C04 104 nagging fashion.
C04 105 *<*4Confidence*>
C04 106    |^*0Most successful of all is *1From Three to Five *0where
C04 107 the colour is deeply loaded, notably in a richly intense red
C04 108 and in the tumultuous crowd of darker colours that move in from
C04 109 the left.
C04 110    |^On the other hand, in *1From Four to Five *0the colours
C04 111 are pushed about, but confusion rather than mood and atmosphere
C04 112 emerges.
C04 113    |^To paint in this way, and on the scale of these works,
C04 114 requires great confidence.  ^The unhesitating drive of the
C04 115 handling in this exhibition shows Garcia Alvarez painting with
C04 116 uncompromising vigour.
C04 117    |^One of the exhibitions designated a Fiesta exhibition is
C04 118 at the Whitecliffe Galleries in Parnell.  ^It is a group
C04 119 exhibition by artists invited to submit work which had some
C04 120 connection with Auckland.
C04 121    |^Predictably, most of the works are landscapes.  ^Some of
C04 122 the most pleasant are by *4Shona McFarlane *0who uses the curve
C04 123 of Tamaki Drive to good composition effect.
C04 124    |^The shape of Rangitoto exerts its usual fascination and is
C04 125 at its most spectacular in *4Harold Coop's *0big screenprint of
C04 126 the harbour alive with vivid sail colours.
C04 127 *<*4Contrasts*>
C04 128    |^*0In the midst of all these landscapes, *4Nigel Brown's
C04 129 *0very intense, moody blue image of loneliness, night and the
C04 130 moon, called *1Night Street, *0is the best thing in the whole
C04 131 show for all its small size.
C04 132    |^The same artist's *1Fiesta Auckland *0is, by contrast,
C04 133 trivial.  ^By contrast, again, his *1Auckland Map *0is
C04 134 interesting not only in its composition but also in its lavish
C04 135 use of gold paint.
C04 136    |^Others who break away from the landscape image are *4Greg
C04 137 Whitecliffe *0himself with his neatly characterised *1At the
C04 138 Market *0and *4Penny Otto *0with her very direct *1Another Day
C04 139 Another Dollar *0which shows a press of anonymous half-formed
C04 140 faces.
C04 141    |^Another group show is an exhibition of drawing at the
C04 142 Society of Arts Gallery in Eden \0Cres.
C04 143    |^This is the strongest exhibition that has been mounted at
C04 144 the society for some time.
C04 145    |^Contributing to its quality are three of *4Mary McIntyre's
C04 146 *0resonant drawings of figures in front of One Tree Hill.
C04 147 *<*4Colour*>
C04 148    |^*0More theatrically powerful are the three splendid
C04 149 drawings by *4Jill Carter-Hansen.
C04 150    |^*4Ruby Huston's *0exact draughtsmanship and admirable colour
C04 151 have seldom been better shown.  ^There is delicacy and poise in
C04 152 *4Geoff Tune's *0abstractions and the tight, painstaking detail
C04 153 of *4Mark Cross *0in a work like *1Scrub Hills *0to add
C04 154 variety.
C04 155    |^And, establishing some sort of outer perimeter, is an
C04 156 image by *4Dellyn Williams *0of a woman on a bed with a banner
C04 157 of corsets planted firmly in her navel.
C04 158    |^The Aberhardt North Gallery on College Hill and a show by
C04 159 *4Jane Pountney, *0a Wellington artist.
C04 160    |^Like the work of Alberto Garcia-Alvarez, this, too, is
C04 161 abstract painting done with considerable attack but this time
C04 162 in thick pigment that gives a deep texture to the work.
C04 163    |^Most of the paintings are small.  ^They all have a
C04 164 landscape beginning.  ^Jane Pountney is obviously a talent to
C04 165 be watched but at the moment the prevailing small scale and the
C04 166 curious extra dabs show a little less real authority of
C04 167 approach.
C04 168 *<*4Impressive history*>
C04 169    *<*3THE HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND AVIATION, *1by Ross Ewing and
C04 170 Ross Macpherson; Heinemann; 286 pages; *+$34.95.  Review by
C04 171 Frank Glen.*>
C04 172    |^*0For a country of just over 3-million people we produce a
C04 173 great number of amateur historians *- at least historians who
C04 174 don't have a university as an address.  ^Among these, New
C04 175 Zealand must have a world record percentage who manage to get
C04 176 their work published.
C04 177    |^Ewing and Macpherson have had the distinct advantage of
C04 178 working most of their lifetime with aircraft, and flying for
C04 179 both of them has been more than a pastime.
C04 180    |^Something of the tenacity in both is exemplified by \0Dr
C04 181 Ross Ewing.  ^He joined the {0RNZAF} and flew as a forward air
C04 182 controller in South Vietnam.  ^After this experience he left
C04 183 the {0RNZAF} and trained as a doctor of medicine.  ^He has now
C04 184 rejoined the {0RNZAF} and specialises in aviation medicine.
C04 185 ^Macpherson has a history {0MA}, and has chosen to become a
C04 186 full-time aviation writer.  ^Aviation is, as a consequence,
C04 187 close to the professional working life of the joint authors.
C04 188    |^This is an impressive book.  ^It is one of several in
C04 189 recent months written by a wide range of authors, and published
C04 190 by different publishing houses which will set the tone for a
C04 191 very interesting challenge for best authors of the year, and
C04 192 finest book production off the press.
C04 193    |^*1The History of New Zealand Aviation *0is surely a
C04 194 contender.  ^The sheer quality of the workmanship, both
C04 195 editorial and publishing, leaves very little to be desired.
C04 196 ^Yet, even in the best of titles some of the *"bloopers**"
C04 197 survive.  ^Everybody knows that King George the *=IV (page 118)
C04 198 did not approve the warrant for the establishment of the Royal
C04 199 New Zealand Air Force.  ^It was King George *=V.
C04 200    |^Other historians have passed the way of Ewing and
C04 201 Macpherson, notably Loe White with his *1Wingspread *0of over
C04 202 45 years ago.  ^That book was thought by many to be the history
C04 203 of our aviation origins, until its errors were compounded by
C04 204 other writers.  ^There runs a strong stream of certainty
C04 205 throughout the record, beginning with the well known historical
C04 206 \0Dr {0A.C.} Baker, Christchurch, who wrote to his brother in
C04 207 England sometime in 1868:
C04 208    |^*"My notion of flying would be to raise the machine
C04 209 somewhat like a rocket.  ^Then as the ascending power becomes
C04 210 exhausted, the wings should expand to a fixed degree... which
C04 211 would enable the machine to be propelled by gravity along an
C04 212 incline plane, until the proximity of the earth required fresh
C04 213 explosive power to raise the machine to a summit of a fresh
C04 214 incline plane...**" ^Quite a radical notion from a colonial New
C04 215 Zealander of that time.  ^It became a reality in a German
C04 216 fighter of the Second World War.
C04 217    |^Along with Richard Pearce is a new name *- Harry Head.
C04 218 ^Apparently around 1869 in Canterbury, Harry Head broke an arm
C04 219 trying to get into the air via some contraption.  ^The
C04 220 Canterbury museum has his notes and I have little doubt that
C04 221 students will want to research further this figure from our
C04 222 aviation past.  ^The authors give us Maori kites, and it's
C04 223 quite amazing how some of the Maori designs show close
C04 224 resemblance to early gliders which actually flew under power.
C04 225    |^The idea of Vogel's airships defending New Zealand is
C04 226 revived from the pages of dusty newspapers, along with the
C04 227 great airship saga in 1909 when from the Bluff to Auckland
C04 228 strange and odd-looking airships were sighted in unusual
C04 229 places.  ^These sightings were not the ravings of imagination,
C04 230 but had the support of persons of rank and distinction.
C04 231 *#
C05 001 **[076 TEXT C05**]
C05 002 *<*4Henare looks cuddly among joyful Penzance pirates*>
C05 003    *<The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan, \0dir and
C05 004 \0choreo Craig Schaefer; at the State Opera House.*>
C05 005    *<By Laurie Atkinson*>
C05 006    |^*0What is surprising about this joyful production of The
C05 007 Pirates of Penzance is that so little of the original has been
C05 008 changed.
C05 009    |^The instruments used in the orchestra would have shocked
C05 010 Sullivan, but his music comes through largely unscathed.
C05 011    |^Gilbert would have missed the point of some of the comic
C05 012 business but he would have been more than happy with the roars
C05 013 of laughter and the rhythmical applause that greeted the cast
C05 014 at the finale.
C05 015    |^The spoof of operatic characters and conventions is still
C05 016 there, but now, for example, Mabel's trills during Peer
C05 017 Wandering One (which is beautifully sung by Jane Gregory)
C05 018 signify how attractive she finds Frederick, the renegade pirate
C05 019 (Peter Noone).
C05 020    |^The secret formula that makes this version so much fun is
C05 021 the humour derived from the early days of the cinema, with one
C05 022 or two more recent additions thrown in.
C05 023    |^The policemen owe a lot to the Keystone Cops when they
C05 024 are not tapping their way through a dance that looks like
C05 025 something out of 42nd Street.
C05 026    |^And the pirates show they can hoof it along with the best
C05 027 of them in a grotesque parody of the finale of A Chorus Line.
C05 028    |^The Pirate King (Andy Anderson) attempts the macho antics
C05 029 of Douglas Fairbanks but he is as disaster prone as Frank
C05 030 Spencer in Some Mothers Do Ave 'Em.
C05 031    |^The police sergeant, brilliantly played by Tim Tyler,
C05 032 combines the leggy ludicrousness of John Cleese with the
C05 033 suppleness of a vaudeville clown.
C05 034    |^The first half is thoroughly enjoyable but the second half
C05 035 takes off into the realms of delight when the policemen sing
C05 036 about their unhappy lot and the pirates steal upon them with
C05 037 the subtlety of charging rhinoceroses.
C05 038    |^Dorothy McKegg as the pirate maid, Ruth, bears the brunt
C05 039 of Gilbert's unkind jokes about middle-aged women by giving a
C05 040 spirited and stylish performance, while George Henare, looking
C05 041 like a pillar *- a cuddly one *- of the British Empire in
C05 042 darkest Africa, but never descending to so easy a caricature,
C05 043 is captivating as the slightly dotty Major-General.
C05 044    |^I suppose it is wasting time to complain about the use of
C05 045 microphones in musicals today, so I will complain about their
C05 046 being turned up so loudly that they distort some of the sounds
C05 047 they are intended to enhance.
C05 048    |^If you wonder why there is a tribute to Queen Victoria and
C05 049 President Hayes in this version of The Pirates, the reason is
C05 050 that the very first production took place in New York in 1879,
C05 051 and the most successful production since then was produced by
C05 052 the New York Shakespeare Festival.
C05 053    |^The New Zealand version of this happy Anglo-American
C05 054 accord is now at the Opera House.
C05 055    |^It's expensive, though not by overseas prices, and worth
C05 056 every cent, Curtain 10.30{0pm}.
C05 057 *<*4All hail, Saint Dylan*>
C05 058    *<Bob Dylan with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, alone and
C05 059 together, at \0Mt Smart last night.*>
C05 060    |^*4Bob Dylan *0and *4Tom Petty... *0a marriage made in
C05 061 heaven.
C05 062    |^Well, knock knock knocking on heaven's door.
C05 063    |^No doubt about it, they make fine music together but one
C05 064 can't help wondering whether Petty feels fulfilled in this
C05 065 union.
C05 066    |^Four of his numbers in a 145-minute set wasn't enough to
C05 067 satisfy the Petty-lovers in the 30,000-strong crowd, so what
C05 068 must the man himself feel?
C05 069    |^However, I guess even someone of Petty's status in rock
C05 070 must defer to a man who long ago achieved musical sainthood.
C05 071    |^Like it or lump it, Tom, it was Dylan most of last night's
C05 072 audience was there to see and his music they were there to
C05 073 hear.
C05 074    |^And he gave us the latter in bulk *- a mix of then and now
C05 075 favouring earlier material *- from a gospel-flavoured rendition
C05 076 of *1Positively 4th \0St *0and *1You Got A Lotta Nerve *0at the
C05 077 start of the show to vintage Dylan, *1Blowin' In the Wind,
C05 078 *0the first encore song, performed as a duet with Petty.
C05 079    |^Some bands have to scratch around to find the material to
C05 080 pad out a concert (and come on stage with a lot more fanfare
C05 081 than the low-key Dylan).  ^Dylan must have a task deciding
C05 082 which chunks of his musical life to leave out.
C05 083    |^The huge mine of material not played is more awesome than
C05 084 the songs that joined the smoke in industrial Auckland's night
C05 085 air.
C05 086    |^The sight and sound of Dylan alone with his acoustic
C05 087 guitar, tossing off a wonderful delivery of *1It's All Right,
C05 088 Ma, *0is why masses flocked to \0Mt Smart like worshippers to a
C05 089 temple.  ^Another solo, *1The Times, They Are a Changin', *0with
C05 090 its haunting harmonica and the classic *1Just Like a Woman,
C05 091 *0were standouts in a powerful show.
C05 092    |^That melodic interlude contrasted with the rocking
C05 093 *1Moving On *0and *1When The Night Comes A Callin' *0and *1Shot
C05 094 of Love *0showcased the talents of the four feisty female 
C05 095 back-up singers.  ^They weren't aided by *4Stevie Nicks, *0despite
C05 096 the possibility that the former *4Fleetwood Mac *0vocalist
C05 097 might lend a voice to a Petty number.  ^It seems she just came
C05 098 to New Zealand for the ride.
C05 099    |^The Dylan-Petty partnership began at the Farm Aid concert
C05 100 for starving American farmers, so the rhythmic country sound of
C05 101 *1Lonesome Town *0was a fitting addition to the set.
C05 102    |^Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a competent backing band
C05 103 for Dylan and willing participants in duets, got two two-song
C05 104 shots in the limelight with the familiar *1American Girl
C05 105 *0going down well and *1Refugee *0shaking the stadium.
C05 106    |^The Dylan-Petty union is really more of a honeymoon than a
C05 107 true marriage but it's sure sweet while it lasts.
C05 108  *- *4Marianne Norgaard.
C05 109 *<Paramount story told*>
C05 110 |^*6L*2AVISHLY *0illustrated books on the cinema proliferate
C05 111 and vary widely in quality.  ^But there is no doubt about the
C05 112 worth of *1The Paramount Story *0by John Douglas Eames
C05 113 (Octopus, *+$39.95).
C05 114    |^In a series that began 10 years ago with *1The {0MGM}
C05 115 Story *0and has since dealt with others of the major Hollywood
C05 116 studios, *1The Paramount Story *0is outstanding.
C05 117    |^Eames is the man who conceived and wrote the book on
C05 118 Metro-Goldwyn Mayer: an instant success *- in terms of its
C05 119 knowledge, candour and judgment as well as in the book market.
C05 120    |^The attributes that produced a best-seller in its class
C05 121 are just as evident in *1The Paramount Story.
C05 122    |^*0The book arouses instant interest.  ^Open it at any page
C05 123 for immediate attention to picture and text.
C05 124    |^Eames faced a bigger problem than he and the other authors
C05 125 of the series experienced in preparing previous volumes.
C05 126    |^Formed in 1916 by the amalgamation of Adolph Zukor's
C05 127 Famous Players and the company that bore Jesse Lasky's name,
C05 128 Paramount is among the oldest of the studios and mustered a
C05 129 total of 2805 films up to 1984, the *"end date**" of the book.
C05 130    |^The jacket announces *1The Paramount Story *0to be *"the
C05 131 complete history of the studio and its 2805 films**" *- an
C05 132 exaggeration, but pardonable in an account of a studio that can
C05 133 muster more feature titles than any other.
C05 134    |^To make reasonable space for all of the important and hit
C05 135 films of their day, Eames has contracted perhaps half of the
C05 136 huge total to summary mention.  ^He thus gives himself room to
C05 137 illustrate and say what matters about the rest.
C05 138    |^The result meets most requirements, whether of browsing,
C05 139 sustained reading or casual selection of famous titles.
C05 140    |^One of the surprises of my earlier years of film reviewing
C05 141 was the candour of big people in the film industry.  ^I first
C05 142 experienced this in Hollywood in 1946, when an executive of
C05 143 {0MGM}, referring to a British production of the day, remarked:
C05 144 ^*"That was a subject we should have considered, but I doubt if
C05 145 we could have done it as well.**"
C05 146    |^Eames, who has spent a lifetime in *"front offices**" of
C05 147 {0MGM}, has the same candour, plus three qualities that shine
C05 148 throughout the book:  enthusiasm, judgment and a gift of phrase
C05 149 that makes the text arresting, enlightening and intensely
C05 150 readable.
C05 151    |^His continuing references to celebrities *- stars,
C05 152 directors, producers and others *- are authoritative and
C05 153 frequently entertaining.  ^A random example:
C05 154    |^*"Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire were dreaming of a White
C05 155 Christmas in *1Holiday Inn *0(1942) and the crowds attracted by
C05 156 the screen's most popular singer and best dancer, as well as
C05 157 that song (certainly the biggest record seller of all time, and
C05 158 possibly the dreariest tune Irving Berlin ever wrote) were
C05 159 overwhelming.
C05 160    |^*"Berlin, who provided 12 other numbers... won an Oscar for
C05 161 *1White Christmas *0and was nominated, rather absurdly, for
C05 162 another as author of the story, adapted by no less a playwright
C05 163 than Elmer Rice.
C05 164    |^*"Aside from the novel idea of an inn open only on
C05 165 holidays (when it staged spectaculars that would have
C05 166 bankrupted any hotelier), the tale of two show-biz pals and
C05 167 their gals was strictly a time-filler between numbers...
C05 168    |^*"Producer-director Mark Sandrich, who made five 
C05 169 Astaire-Rogers pictures, harvested another walloping hit here.**"
C05 170    |^Briefer judgments:
C05 171    |^*"*1Double Indemnity *0(1944) had all the suspense of a
C05 172 handgrenade with the pin out.  ^The fact that it still grips
C05 173 after several viewings, hooking attention from first scene to
C05 174 last, gives it a claim to rank as one of the most brilliant
C05 175 examples of story-telling in movie history.**"
C05 176    |^*"*1Red Garters *0(1954, a send-up of musical
C05 177 Westerns): ... ^It turned horse-opera cliches upside down, but
C05 178 ultimately wore out its own joke.**"
C05 179    |^*"Cecil \0B. DeMille's second crack at the *1Ten
C05 180 Commandments *0(1956) was so festooned with publicity
C05 181 superlatives and money records that its audiences expected to
C05 182 be not so much entertained as stupefied.
C05 183    |^*"It was the longest (3\0h39\0m), most expensive to date
C05 184 (over *+$13 million) picture in Paramount's history and it
C05 185 returned more than three times the company's previous record
C05 186 receipts (DeMille's *1Greatest Show on Earth) *0to top *+$80
C05 187 million...**"
C05 188    |^*"...The film itself?  ^Undeniably impressive, even though
C05 189 there were moments when the story seemed to be lasting as long
C05 190 as it took Moses (Charlton Heston) to live it.**"
C05 191    |^For all of his experience, Eames confesses to having
C05 192 occasional difficulties in defining a Paramount picture,
C05 193 particularly in recent years when he encounters overseas
C05 194 productions that may or may not have been made with Paramount
C05 195 backing.
C05 196    |^His solution is to include all overseas films released
C05 197 under the Paramount screen credit in the United States.
C05 198    |^There are thus some surprise titles, especially among
C05 199 British films released in England and New Zealand under rival
C05 200 labels.  ^But the bonuses are Eames' racy accounts and acute
C05 201 judgments of films like *1Gallipoli *0(Australia) and the
C05 202 {0EMI} (Britain) productions of the Agatha Christie yarns,
C05 203 *1Murder on the Orient Express *0(1974) and *1Death on the Nile
C05 204 *0(1978).
C05 205    |^All this and much more makes *1The Paramount Story *0a
C05 206 paramount book in its class.
C05 207 *- *4Don Lochore.
C05 208 *<*4Films*> *6A*2FTER *0starting as a promising, if pedestrian,
C05 209 display of gauche American slapstick, *1Summer Rental *0(Mid
C05 210 City, {0GY}) soon degenerates into moralistic sentiment laid on
C05 211 with a trowel.
C05 212    |^Funny man John Candy, whose hysterical and obese presence
C05 213 helped to save *1Brewster's Millions *0and *1Splash *0from the
C05 214 obscurity they so richly deserved, stars as an overworked air
C05 215 traffic controller ordered on holiday by his superiors.
C05 216    |^For almost half the film, Candy's attempts to battle with
C05 217 the Florida sun, the pleas of his importunate children and the
C05 218 assorted paraphernalia of family seaside holidays make an
C05 219 amusing diversion which would strike a chord in the harried
C05 220 heart of any parent who has just returned, relieved, to the
C05 221 grindstone.
C05 222    |^But the inexorable descent into moral fable, which pits
C05 223 family man with the heart of gold against greedy and arrogant
C05 224 patrician, hamstrings the humour and frustrates our
C05 225 expectations.
C05 226    |^The script soon ventures into areas which test the most
C05 227 excessive credulity, although a bevy of oddball characters *-
C05 228 an incomprehensible Scot and a silicon-inflated housewife *-
C05 229 ease the trek towards the final credits.
C05 230 *- *4Peter Calder
C05 231 *<*4Marc Knowles' Movie guide*>
C05 232 *<Voight stars in chilling thriller*>
C05 233 *<*6OPENINGS*>
C05 234    |^*4Runaway Train (*0at the \0St James; rated \0R13,
C05 235 violence may disturb):  ^Hollywood-produced suspense thriller
C05 236 directed by celebrated Soviet filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky
C05 237 (Siberiade, Uncle Vanya), based on an original screenplay by
C05 238 Akira Kurosawa.  ^With Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca 
C05 239 De-Mornay.  ^Music scored by Trevor Jones (The Dark Crystal, and
C05 240 Jim Henson's upcoming Labyrinth).
C05 241    |^*4About Last Night... (*0Regent Three and Lower Hutt's
C05 242 Odeon; \0R13, some content may offend):  ^Danny (Rob Lowe) and
C05 243 Debbie (Demi Moore) find they are still attracted to each other
C05 244 on the morning after the night before.  ^Thank God for that.
C05 245 ^More coming-of-age rompings in this comedy-drama screen
C05 246 adaptation of David Mamet's one-act play Sexual Perversity In
C05 247 Chicago.  ^(Now, that would have been a title for a movie!)
C05 248 ^With Jim Belushi (the late John's lookalike little brother),
C05 249 and introducing Elizabeth Perkins.
C05 250 *#
C06 001 **[077 TEXT C06**]
C06 002 *<*4Oratorio opens festival*>
C06 003    |^*0The opening night of the Whangarei Music Festival '86
C06 004 was marked by a thunderous rendition of the oratorio, *"\0St
C06 005 Paul**", by Mendelssohn, performed by the Whangarei Choral
C06 006 Society and orchestra director Malcolm Bury.
C06 007    |^The usual small but appreciative Saturday night audience
C06 008 heard the musical story of Saul who, having been a persecutor
C06 009 of Christians, on hearing the voice of God on the road to
C06 010 Damascus is converted to Christianity and baptised Paul.
C06 011    |^The work opened with a quiet overture followed by the
C06 012 chorus *"Lord Thou Alone Art God**" in which the choir and
C06 013 orchestra displayed enthusiasm and precision which set the
C06 014 general style for the whole work.
C06 015    |^Three points of criticism worthy of mention are diction
C06 016 which, as in most amateur choirs, can always be improved;
C06 017 tuning which wavered a little in the tenor line; and balance.
C06 018 *<*4Soloists*>
C06 019    |^*0More depth of sound through sustained phrasing from the
C06 020 men would have provided a more satisfactory overall sound.
C06 021    |^Respective performances by local soloists Alison Sargeant
C06 022 and Robert O'Hara of the arias, *"Jerusalem**" and *"Oh God
C06 023 Have Mercy**" were particular highlights, while Jill Clarke and
C06 024 Auckland tenor Kenneth Cornish added a sensitive narrative to
C06 025 the work.
C06 026    |^It seems a pity that there are not more opportunities for
C06 027 local artists to appear on the professional platform in
C06 028 Whangarei.
C06 029    |^The orchestra leader Lawrie Wordsworth complemented the
C06 030 choir and it was pleasing to see that the strings have been
C06 031 strengthened in the lower register and that the orchestra now has 
C06 032 a full complement of flutes, oboi, clarinets and trumpets.
C06 033    |^Whilst providing great support to the choir in the
C06 034 choruses, both conductor and players seemed to struggle in
C06 035 predicting the recitatives.
C06 036    |^But it is pleasing to see local amateurs having a crack at
C06 037 the less well-known items, thereby giving the audience a chance
C06 038 to hear less well-known major works.
C06 039    |^The concert was the last appearance with the choral
C06 040 society of conductor Malcolm Bury who leaves New Zealand at the
C06 041 end of September.
C06 042 *<*4Ho hum Silver!*> *<*7FILMS*>
C06 043    |^*0A horse opera with imitative style and buckshot
C06 044 storyline, *"Silverado**" gallops through practically every
C06 045 cliche in its tumbleweed homage to western movies.
C06 046    |^It is obvious from start to finish that writer and
C06 047 director Lawrence Kasdan loves the western.
C06 048    |^This action-adventure movie opens with a blazing gun duel.
C06 049 ^Soon we are thrust into Big Country where Big Vistas resound
C06 050 to Big Music.  ^By the end, though, viewers are likely to be
C06 051 saddle-sore with familiarity, confused by muddled intentions
C06 052 and ready to hang up their spurs and six-shooters until a
C06 053 western appears that has ingenuity *1and *0originality.
C06 054    |^This story of four drifters reluctantly drawn together in
C06 055 the 1880s' frontier town of Silverado, where they become
C06 056 heroes, has several problems.
C06 057    |^Chiefly (although, thankfully, there are no Indian chiefs
C06 058 in this movie), they are:
C06 059    |^The film's story is too diffuse and sprawling, as are the
C06 060 characters and their relationships.  ^Stretched thin, they
C06 061 provoke ambivalent feelings and lack a focal point.  ^There is
C06 062 no Wayne or Eastwood here, no solitary person or pair with whom
C06 063 we can ride.
C06 064    |^Kasdan has gone for the ensemble effect again, as he
C06 065 successfully did in the splendid *"The Big Chill**".  ^But that
C06 066 movie brought together eight people in one house for one long
C06 067 weekend, reacting and interacting with the past, present and
C06 068 future.  ^Here, a similar number of characters are linked more
C06 069 tenuously; the cast play together but without a sense of
C06 070 cohesion.
C06 071    |^Most successful in the cast are Brian Dennehy as an
C06 072 unscrupulous, ruthless sheriff and Linda Hunt as a wise and
C06 073 courageous hostess of a saloon.  ^But, disappointingly, many
C06 074 actors are wasted.
C06 075    |^Jeff Goldblum, as a slick, untrustworthy gambler, is
C06 076 underused (he has about three lines).  ^John Cleese makes a
C06 077 momentary appearance as an English sheriff; one wonders why he
C06 078 was even included.  ^Rosanna Arquette, as a lovely and
C06 079 determined homesteader, has about three awkward scenes.
C06 080    |^Even the principals often appear uncomfortable.  ^Scott
C06 081 Glenn looks miscast as a pragmatic and resolute cowboy; Kevin
C06 082 Kline as a drifter of unpredictable loyalties, Kevin Costner as
C06 083 the happy-go-lucky, trigger-happy daredevil Kid and Danny
C06 084 Glover as a man of quiet strength trying to reunite his family
C06 085 all perform adequately but without the indefinable extra
C06 086 quality that lifts characterisations above the ordinary.
C06 087    |^But that is what the script gives them *- hackneyed
C06 088 familiarity embellished with feelgood appeal that results in
C06 089 comicbook deja vu.
C06 090    |^It is this lack of originality that is most disheartening
C06 091 from Kasdan, who as writer or co-writer showed such strength in
C06 092 the Star Wars trilogy, *"Raiders of the Lost Ark**", *"Body
C06 093 Heat**" and *"The Big Chill**".
C06 094    |^The story becomes a chain of cliches rather than a chain
C06 095 of events.  ^It includes the barroom confrontations, jailbreak,
C06 096 posse chase (with Keystone cop slapstick), wagon train rescue,
C06 097 cattle stampede, cattlemen versus homesteader antipathy and the
C06 098 town showdown and shootout.
C06 099    |^Kasdan shows wit and quips and a sense of humour that
C06 100 comes close to spoofing western cliche situations; he is also
C06 101 ingenious in direction and depiction but he rides his horse too
C06 102 lovingly and too much without spur.
C06 103    |^The problem is he has chosen to give a good-humoured
C06 104 tribute to westerns and that requires caution: he wouldn't want
C06 105 viewers to think he was making fun of a movie genre he admires.
C06 106    |^The limitations imposed by homage therefore help produce
C06 107 cardboard stereotypes, from the mythically heroic to the
C06 108 archetypal villain *- in other words, standard good guys and
C06 109 bad guys.  ^And the feelgood incredulity reaches nonsensical
C06 110 levels.
C06 111    |^The movie is briskly edited; the action sequences are
C06 112 well-conceived and performed without exploiting violence but
C06 113 tending towards silliness.
C06 114    |^The story's rather complicated plot about pioneers,
C06 115 cowboys and desperadoes withstanding or imposing hardships in
C06 116 the Old West has winning virtuous themes; the heroes are all on
C06 117 (life) journeys, seeking ways home, and the story is not only
C06 118 of their connections but of the fabled code of honour and
C06 119 friendship in the Wild West.
C06 120    |^The first line in the movie is *"^Pleased to meet you**" *-
C06 121 and pleased we are too because we expect much from a writer and
C06 122 director of Kasdan's calibre.
C06 123    |^The movie ends with the line *"We'll be back**" ringing in
C06 124 one's ears, which makes one hope it comes back with a fresh,
C06 125 innovative style.
C06 126    |^It seems unfortunate that Kasdan chose an imitative
C06 127 tribute because what is good in this western eventually
C06 128 crumbles on the movie's foundations of feelgood escapism and
C06 129 make-believe incredulity.  *"Silverado**" makes one yearn for
C06 130 John Ford.
C06 131    |^It also just goes to show that when a writer and director
C06 132 loves a western the audience with similar affection can still
C06 133 be left feeling unrequited.  *- David Manning.
C06 134 *<*2LAST NIGHT'S REVIEWS*>
C06 135 *<*5Trio's Magic Still Shines*>
C06 136    *<*4Peter, Paul and Mary, live in concert, at the Logan
C06 137 Campbell Centre last night.*>
C06 138    |^*0The roof is probably still resounding to the applause
C06 139 which farewelled this evergreen trio last night.
C06 140    |^For almost two and a half hours, the folk group warmed the
C06 141 hearts and fired the spirits of a large and lively audience
C06 142 with new *- and, at last, classic *- material.
C06 143    |^If, on occasions, the harmony was a little frayed along
C06 144 the edges, it didn't matter; the warmth and sincerity, the pure
C06 145 humanity of these three battlers shone through, undimmed by
C06 146 their 17 years away from New Zealand stages.
C06 147    |^Peter Yarrow, the doleful, wry philosopher, was neatly
C06 148 balanced by Noel (Paul) Stookey's limber stage antics and brief
C06 149 flashes of the old stand-up comic genius.
C06 150    |^Mary Travers, meanwhile, has lost little of her vocal
C06 151 range and has picked up on the power without losing subtlety:
C06 152 her high-camp swing sound in the skiffle number *1Big Blue Frog
C06 153 *0would have done Debbie Harry proud.
C06 154    |^There were moving moments *- a smooth reworking of the
C06 155 Phil Ochs classic *1There But for Fortune *0with a rich bridge
C06 156 passage dedicated to Harry Chapin.
C06 157    |^And there were rousing renditions for 5000 voices of *1If
C06 158 I Had a Hammer *0and *1This Land Is Your Land.
C06 159    |^Other delights were the comic hymn for all klutzes
C06 160 (nerds), *1Right Field, *0and the masterpiece rendition of
C06 161 Dylan's *1Blowing in the Wind.
C06 162    |^*0It is hard, in the end, to work words like *"nuclear
C06 163 free**" and *"social justice**" into song lyrics without
C06 164 sounding pious or crass and some moments suffered for that.
C06 165 But the overwhelming honesty of the singers made up for any
C06 166 clangers in the songs.
C06 167    |^The punchy *1El Salvador *0and the rousing *1No Easy Walk to
C06 168 Freedom, *0for Nelson Mandela, may not become the classics of
C06 169 the 80s, but they say more than *1Sad Movies.
C06 170    |^*0For most of the local audience, it was a walk down memory
C06 171 lane.  ^Peter, Paul and Mary gave us nostalgia aplenty, and the
C06 172 pleasant surprise that we did still remember the words to
C06 173 *1Puff *0and *1Stewball.
C06 174    |^*0But their abiding energy reminds us that music does not
C06 175 survive on fairy tales alone; they remain our most faithful
C06 176 minstrels and will surely find a welcoming house here in
C06 177 another 17 years.
C06 178    |^Let's hope they do not leave it that long.
C06 179 *4*- Peter Calder
C06 180 *<*4A book with impact*>
C06 181    *<*3THE CITY OF JOY, *1by Dominique Lapierre; Century
C06 182 Hutchinson; 434 pages; *+$34.95; our copy from the publishers.
C06 183 Review by Barry Whelan.*>
C06 184    |^*0Emblazoned on the dust jacket of Dominique Lapierre's
C06 185 400-page semi-documentary novel *1The City of Joy, *0is the
C06 186 slogan *"*'A Masterpiece**' *- Le Monde.**"
C06 187    |^Also on this red-black-white front cover is the boast
C06 188 ^*"The \0No. 1 International Bestseller**" and ^*"An epic story
C06 189 about the soul of humanity *- a lesson in love, tenderness and
C06 190 hope for all time;**" and this is to ignore the many fulsome
C06 191 panegyrics extracted from reviews which are artfully scattered
C06 192 across the back of the dust jacket.
C06 193    |^Such blatant self-aggrandisement is generally sufficient
C06 194 to make one think the worst *- the kind of publishers' ploy
C06 195 which fathered the epithet *"puffery.**" ^And one of the press
C06 196 extracts, that of Telerama, France, very nearly converts
C06 197 suspicions to certainties: ^*"A book which snatches you from
C06 198 the first line and which you cannot put down.  ^And when you
C06 199 close it at least you are not quite the same; your heart will
C06 200 be burning with love.**"
C06 201    |^It is therefore a great, and somewhat unexpected, pleasure
C06 202 to find that *1The City of Joy *0is the proverbial exception to
C06 203 the rule and that, despite the publishers' overexuberant
C06 204 excesses of praise, this really is a very good book.
C06 205    |^As an example of stylish literary construction, perhaps,
C06 206 the book is not exactly the miracle of the year: ^It consists,
C06 207 throughout most of its length, of two (or occasionally more)
C06 208 alternating parallel narratives *- a simple, yet effective
C06 209 method of storytelling.  ^*1The City of Joy *0makes its
C06 210 greatest impact as an account of the indomitable human spirit
C06 211 surmounting almost unbearable conditions.  ^And perhaps here
C06 212 lies also the book's most notable weakness: ^In order to draw a
C06 213 sufficiently stark contrast for the triumphant spirit to shine
C06 214 against, Lapierre seems almost to be wallowing at times in
C06 215 scenes of degradation.
C06 216    |^To give a very sketchy outline: ^The story concerns Father
C06 217 Stephan Kovalski, a Polish Roman Catholic priest, who comes to
C06 218 India determined to live a life of utmost poverty with the most
C06 219 deprived and destitute human flotsam he can find.  ^Father
C06 220 Kovalski finds a 6\0ft x 3\0ft rat and cockroach-infested
C06 221 *"room,**" inundated in sewage whenever there is a storm, in
C06 222 Anand Nagar (which translates as *"The City of Joy**"), a slum
C06 223 in the centre of Calcutta.
C06 224    |^The priest becomes involved with an unforgettable bunch of
C06 225 slum-dwelling characters *- people like Anouar, the young
C06 226 leper, Bandona, the young Assamese girl who is a saint, the
C06 227 slum's *"godfather**" and his mafiosi, Sabia, the child dying
C06 228 next door, and many more of the 70,000 inhabitants who crowd
C06 229 into a space only twice the size of a football field.  ^At one
C06 230 point, even Mother Teresa makes an appearance.
C06 231    |^The other chief thread is that of the former peasant,
C06 232 Hasari Pal and his family.  ^Forced by economic disaster to
C06 233 leave his village and to come to Calcutta to find money to
C06 234 support his parents and the rest of the family, Hasari is
C06 235 forced to exist on the pavement for some time before obtaining
C06 236 killing work as a rickshaw puller *- one of *"the human
C06 237 horses.**" ^In the meantime to sell his bones for collection
C06 238 after his death.
C06 239    |^Inevitably, the book's two main threads finally cross but,
C06 240 by this time, the cast has grown to huge proportions and
C06 241 Lapierre has painted a spreading and pulsating canvas of the
C06 242 inhabitants of Anand Nagar.  ^There are plenty of cases of
C06 243 greediness and venal behaviour, but the traits and the
C06 244 incidents which really impress and which stick in the memory
C06 245 are the legion acts of kindness and compassion among the
C06 246 destitute wretches who are condemned to live their existence in
C06 247 the slum's filth.
C06 248 *#
C07 001 **[078 TEXT C07**]
C07 002 *<*4Sneaky anguish*>
C07 003 *<Sneaky Feelings Better Than Before Wouldn't Cry and Here's To
C07 004 The Other Six (Flying Nun)*>
C07 005 |^*6S*2NEAKY *0Feelings have lightened up some in their latest
C07 006 release *- three songs on a 12-inch single (play it at 45{0rpm}
C07 007 for best results).
C07 008    |^I've always liked them best being morbid, biting their
C07 009 little hearts out over scuzzy lovers, so my favourite is the
C07 010 last song on the B-side, Here's To The Other Six.  ^The anguish
C07 011 is done with a light touch, and piano, cello and understated
C07 012 harmonies plump out the sound.
C07 013    |^Better Than Before, the A-side, is the most commercial
C07 014 track of the three.  ^Up-tempo, romantic (though not quite as
C07 015 dreamy as The Chills).  ^And it also mentions something we can
C07 016 all identify with *- watching Radio with Pictures with
C07 017 frustration.
C07 018    |^The other song, Wouldn't Cry, deserves mention purely for
C07 019 the brief snatches of pedal steel guitar in the introduction
C07 020 and chorus.  ^More that **[SIC**] , please. *- *4Kathy Stodart
C07 021 *<John Niland Inside (Eelman)*>
C07 022 |^*6F*2ORMER *0Hulamen, Pelicans and current Tombolas pianist
C07 023 records a mini-{0LP} of his own instrumental compositions.
C07 024 ^Some settings are jazz trio (with Rob Mahoney and Ross Burge
C07 025 along for the burp and sizzle).  ^Others lean towards Keith
C07 026 Jarrett's more ragtime improvisational foragings.  ^It doesn't
C07 027 blow me away, but it sure is nice to hear some competent 
C07 028 ivory-thumping on a clean recording. *- *4Gary Steel
C07 029 *<Christy Moore Ordinary Man ({0*6WEA})*>
C07 030 |^I *2WOULDN'T *0disagree with \0Mr Moore's proclamation, but
C07 031 this innocuous, soothing little number doesn't float happily in
C07 032 the same bucket of slop as Roger Whittaker.
C07 033    |^In his quiet way Christy Moore's doing the same thing for
C07 034 Scottish working man's folk as Bruce Springsteen for his
C07 035 industrial equivalent.  ^It's all a bit simple-minded, cosy and
C07 036 cornball, but is nothing if not totally tasteful.  ^You won't
C07 037 find any sickly strings on this record; it's a gentle palette
C07 038 of plucked guitars and low-key synthesiser with Moore's thick
C07 039 stew sung softly on top.  ^And, in small doses, it's rather
C07 040 nice. *- *4Gary Steel
C07 041 *<Various Artists Music From Earth, The {0USA} 1986 (Imgrat
C07 042 Records)*>
C07 043 |^*6L*2OVINGLY *0assembled by Californian Kiwi-obsessive Bon
C07 044 Kane *- who appeared as a *"token American**" on the latest
C07 045 Tall Dwarfs record *- Music From Earth is a progress report on
C07 046 the warped way in which young Americans are dealing with
C07 047 various facts of pop in '86.
C07 048    |^Like {0NZ}'s Outnumbered By Sheep, it's an excellent
C07 049 induction to a specific area of musical sensibility (as opposed
C07 050 to another sub-genre).
C07 051    |^Kane's current group, The Manatees, provide threatening
C07 052 variations on what we've come to expect from his former group,
C07 053 The Decayes.  ^Their Fashiontown is an excellent chronicling of
C07 054 glitzy scene-jumpers seen through pleb eyes, and it features a
C07 055 guitar solo like you've never heard.
C07 056    |^Ace Farren Fored With The King Brothers opens and closes
C07 057 proceedings, but his constipated Captain Beefheart impressions
C07 058 don't gel as effectively as the bizarre things that Holidays In
C07 059 Sweden do to pop songs.  ^Boo! are bubblegum and Electric Bill
C07 060 is updated barbershop.  ^Another ex-Decayes, Mark Florin (with
C07 061 Beasley Cat) weighs in with an adventurous instrumental, A Red
C07 062 Hot Spot, but the final triumph belongs to Still Obscure, whose
C07 063 Why Don't We Stop is utterly commercial and owns a fantastic
C07 064 riff.
C07 065    |^This compilation should be available at your local record
C07 066 shop. *- *4Gary Steel
C07 067 *<10,000 Maniacs The Wishing Chair*>
C07 068 |^*6L*2IKE *0the name, but it doesn't really fit a group whose
C07 069 collective sound echoes the folk rock bands of the early 70s
C07 070 rather than their pop and punk contemporaries.
C07 071    |^Natalie Merchant uses her plaintive but one-dimensional
C07 072 vocal chords to generally good effect on a bunch of songs often
C07 073 too happy for the tone of the lyrics.  ^To their credit, they
C07 074 have attempted to write intelligently about politics, war and
C07 075 death, as well as love.
C07 076    |^A subtle one that might very well sneak up and charm me.
C07 077 ^Just wish it would hurry. *- *4Gary Steel
C07 078 *<*6BOOKS*>
C07 079 *<*4Predators *- their effects*>
C07 080 *6IMMIGRANT KILLERS, *4by Carolyn King (Oxford University
C07 081 Press).
C07 082 |^*2\0DR KING, *0in her studies of the stoat and weasel and their
C07 083 effects as predators on the wildlife of New Zealand, saw the
C07 084 need to study and attempt to conserve endangered species.
C07 085    |^She found she must observe the result of the various
C07 086 factors leading to the destruction and annihilation of
C07 087 wildlife, and to speculate, in the absence of proven facts, on
C07 088 the processes.
C07 089    |^To what degree, she asked herself, were introduced
C07 090 predators to blame?  ^How much was historic change a factor?
C07 091    |^To make an assessment, \0Dr King looks at the changes in
C07 092 the landscape, and reviews the historical background and
C07 093 geographical setting during three separate periods of time,
C07 094 when different species of predators were active.
C07 095    |^One hundred years separate the arrival of rats and cats
C07 096 from the introduction of stoats and weasels.
C07 097    |^Her scientific training and attitudes enable her to make
C07 098 these assessments objectively.
C07 099    |^She notes that in the 1000 years of human activity in a
C07 100 land where there were no ground predators, New Zealand was a
C07 101 paradise for birds.  ^Now 55 species are almost or completely
C07 102 extinct.
C07 103    |^The reason for this slaughter she lays at the feet of man
C07 104 and his accompanying pets and hunting animals.  ^This was the
C07 105 thesis round which the author began her research, and extension
C07 106 of her already exhaustive investigation and study of stoats and
C07 107 weasels.
C07 108    |^Her conclusions *- and she is emphatic that the
C07 109 conclusions are personal, though based on scientific
C07 110 investigation *- will surprise many, will upset some of the
C07 111 myths and traditional beliefs about the destruction caused by
C07 112 the introduced predators.
C07 113    |^She does not dismiss them lightly as a champion for the
C07 114 stoats and weasels, and other predators, but examines the
C07 115 traditional beliefs scientifically.
C07 116    |^The book is issued on the 100th year of the introduction
C07 117 of stoats and weasels.
C07 118    |^She looks not only at the effects of their introduction,
C07 119 as well as rodents and cats.  ^She looks equally at the
C07 120 affected species, and wildlife in general, to suggest
C07 121 alternative means of protection of what fauna remain.
C07 122    |^Though her study is of the birdlife, she is aware of and
C07 123 concerned that other wildlife *- the large flightless insects,
C07 124 the native snails and the lizards *- is endangered.
C07 125    |^As well as the rodents, the cats and dogs, the stoats and
C07 126 weasels and ferrets, \0Dr King also includes man as an
C07 127 introduced predator.
C07 128    |^Her book will no doubt upset many theories and theorists
C07 129 but one should read it with an open mind, and respect her
C07 130 experienced research.
C07 131    |^The many illustrations, black and white and colour, her
C07 132 photographs and sketches, add to the interest and illuminate
C07 133 some of the points she makes.  {0E.E.B}
C07 134 *<*8Time Out *2WEEKENDER*>
C07 135    *<*"*4The Forest and Bird Book of Nature Walks**", by David
C07 136 Collingwood and (0E.V.} Sale.  186 pages.  Reed Methuen.
C07 137 *+$24.95.*>
C07 138    |^*0Here is a useful-looking book, rather like a cookery
C07 139 book, detailing rural walks throughout the country from
C07 140 Northland to Stewart Island.
C07 141    |^So this reviewer decided to test it, as one would a
C07 142 cookery book, by testing some of the interesting-sounding
C07 143 walks.
C07 144    |^First I took it to the Tongariro National Park and read
C07 145 about a *"Wairere Stream Tramp**", described by the authors as
C07 146 *"one of the finest walks on \0Mt Ruapehu**".
C07 147    |^So we followed the directions and were rewarded with just
C07 148 what the book said we would find.
C07 149    |^The directions were brief but all that was necessary *-
C07 150 *"7 to 8 hours, no established track but followed the river
C07 151 upwards**", and so on.  ^Full marks as it opened up an area
C07 152 that is not marked on the usual map.
C07 153    |^Then tried the Pureora Forest Park section and decided the
C07 154 Waihaha Track sounded a good six-hour tramp.  ^The result was
C07 155 just right and fulfilled the promise of the guide that *"it is
C07 156 one of the best walks in the area for forest appreciation**".
C07 157    |^So my two samplings from the book get 10 out of 10.  ^If
C07 158 the rest of the book is as good it will be a good investment.
C07 159    |^A good book to have in the car or caravan so that when you
C07 160 visit an area you can find out easily just what nature walks
C07 161 there are around the district.
C07 162    |^The trips range from 20 minutes to three days.
C07 163    |^The maps are a bit indistinct but they give an indication
C07 164 and with the full length of New Zealand being covered they
C07 165 cannot give too much detail.  ^Also, the soft-covered 
C07 166 oblong-shaped format is a bit difficult to fit comfortably into a day
C07 167 pack.
C07 168    |^But good on the Forest and Bird Society for producing such
C07 169 a wide-ranging book which will fill a definite need in the
C07 170 community.  ^Other books just list the official walkways.
C07 171 ^This one covers all manner of public tracks.
C07 172    |^The forward says it all *- *"for those who find in the
C07 173 areas of New Zealand which have escaped exploitation 
C07 174 deep-seated values which can be appreciated only by sampling them at
C07 175 leisure, as the spirit takes you, looking always for pleasures
C07 176 that haste may miss**".  {0A.P.} BATES.
C07 177    *<*"*4Bruce Springsteen**",by Peter Gambaccini.  Omnibus
C07 178 Press.  *+$14.95.*>
C07 179    |^*0Making a *"king**" walk naked through the pages of a
C07 180 biography and have him emerge with more dignity rather than
C07 181 less is an intriguing and clever skill.
C07 182    |^Bruce Springsteen, hailed often as a messiah, a king, an
C07 183 answer to everything, is naught, but a man; a man who can write
C07 184 songs and sing, incite tears and hysteria and climb to the
C07 185 summit of rock; but alas, he is still just a man.
C07 186    |^Yet in spite of this earth-shattering fact, Peter
C07 187 Gambaccini, author of *"Bruce Springsteen**", still manages to
C07 188 don the *"king**" with all the colours and attributes of
C07 189 royalty without sounding ridiculous.
C07 190    |^This little book, the latest expose on a star's rise to
C07 191 the giddy heights, is one of the best documentaries on rock and
C07 192 modern music I have had the fortune to read.
C07 193    |^Without arrogance, the writer chronicles modern music and
C07 194 weaves his opinions and observations into a backdrop for
C07 195 Bruce's achievements.
C07 196    |^Set against the array of snapshots which litter every
C07 197 page, the author set himself a difficult job in attracting any
C07 198 interest at all to the story in words.
C07 199    |^That virtually every word or every song Bruce has ever
C07 200 sung are analysed and explained is a bit over the top for all
C07 201 but the most fervent of fans.
C07 202    |^But even the most inane details allow a credible *"real
C07 203 Bruce**" to shine through.
C07 204    |^His beginnings and his *"he-doesn't-care-what-you-think-
C07 205 of-him-while-still-sounding-a-nice-guy**" style interviews are
C07 206 strung together from many sources over as many years to
C07 207 contribute substantially to the total picture.
C07 208    |^Bruce, we are told, doesn't care about money, fame, books
C07 209 or future... he just wants to be himself and make music while
C07 210 trying to avoid *"the phonies and myth-makers**".
C07 211    |^The man has won much adulation, but the story is one of a
C07 212 hard road.
C07 213    |^He's written some good songs, he's written some amazing
C07 214 songs, but I'll come back to earth *- the real Bruce is much
C07 215 more interesting and inspiring than the myth. *- {0KD}.
C07 216    *<*"*4Stony Limits**", by Jane Pitt.  Collins.  *+$4.95.*>
C07 217    |^*"*0The sins of the fathers**" appears to be the motto for
C07 218 this novel, when the innocent feelings of two teenagers for
C07 219 each other are misconstrued and misunderstood until they are
C07 220 finally given the order not to see each other again.
C07 221    |^But the efforts of a rather far-seeing younger sister, and
C07 222 the sympathetic feelings of a father eventually bring
C07 223 understanding and acceptance.  ^The story brings home some
C07 224 strong points, such as the rights of parents over the lives of
C07 225 their children.  ^Just because a grandmother and mother made
C07 226 the same mistakes does not mean they will be repeated in the
C07 227 children.  ^If they are, it is mostly through suggestion by the
C07 228 parents and the lack of trust.
C07 229    |^I found this surprisingly good reading, especially for
C07 230 those who are willing to learn. *- *2LYN DAWSON.
C07 231    *<*4*"The Cold and the Dark *- The World After Nuclear
C07 232 War**", by Paul \0R.  Ehrlich, Carl Sagan, Donald Kennedy and
C07 233 Walter Orr Roberts.  Sigwick and Jackson.  No price.*>
C07 234    |^*0How do you capture the magnitude of the world's nuclear
C07 235 arsenal?
C07 236    |^The Hiroshima bomb had an explosive yield of 13,000 tons.
C07 237 ^Today the world's super-powers are believed to have a nuclear
C07 238 stockpile with a potential explosive power of 13,000 megatons
C07 239 or more.
C07 240    |^That means we have the capacity to unleash the equivalent
C07 241 of one million Hiroshimas.  ^Starting with one Hiroshima-sized
C07 242 bomb every second, 60 per minute, 36,000 per hour *- the world
C07 243 would have enough bombs to last 11.6 days!
C07 244    |^The long and short-term effects after an arsenal exchange
C07 245 are startling, to say the least.
C07 246    |^More than one billion immediate deaths will result from
C07 247 the blast, fire and radiation and an equally staggering number
C07 248 of serious injuries.
C07 249    |^The nuclear exchange will spark a *"nuclear winter**" with
C07 250 sub-freezing temperatures and low light levels *- destroying
C07 251 the biological support system of civilisation.
C07 252    |^Can there be a life without hope after a nuclear war?
C07 253    |^The most apparent picture from this book is that the 
C07 254 post-nuclear war world would be inhospitable for most or all humans
C07 255 on earth.
C07 256    |^This book is the result of a year-long project involving
C07 257 hundreds of the world's scientists and details extensively the
C07 258 atmospheric and climatic consequences of nuclear war and its
C07 259 biological implications.
C07 260    |^*"The Cold and the Dark**" only heightens the need for
C07 261 more public awareness of the effects of a nuclear war and the
C07 262 need for the world's super powers to call a halt to the arms
C07 263 race which threatens homo sapiens. *- *2LIDIA ZATORSKI.
C07 264    *<*"*4The Colour of Money**", by Walter Tevis.  Collins.
C07 265 *+$8.95.*>
C07 266    |^*0Fast Eddie is back.  ^That wizard with the pool cue who
C07 267 finally outwitted Minnesota Fats in *"The Hustler**" is once
C07 268 again in his favourite arena *- the poolroom.
C07 269    |^Fats and Eddie are back into the hustling, and *"The
C07 270 Colour of Money**" is every bit as entertaining as the
C07 271 fabulously successful *"The Hustler**".
C07 272    |^It's many years ago, but memories from that film of Paul
C07 273 Newman and Jackie Gleeson battling it out on the baize are
C07 274 still a cinematic highlight.
C07 275    |^Both these very talented actors are still active, and it
C07 276 would be a delight to see them at it again if *"The Colour of
C07 277 Money**" is snapped up *- as it should be *- by the 
C07 278 dream-makers.
C07 279    |^If you like the unique atmosphere of a poolroom and the
C07 280 quiet click of the ivories this is the book for you. *- *2JIM
C07 281 McLEES.
C07 282 *#
C08 001 **[079 TEXT C08**]
C08 002 *<*4Reviews*> *<Doherty keeps up the pace*>
C08 003    *<Accidents and Balance *=II, a solo performance by Barbara
C08 004 Doherty, Maidment Little Theatre, last night, two shows daily
C08 005 until Friday.*>
C08 006    |^*0A solo show can't flag for a moment if it is to hold the
C08 007 audience's attention and dancer Barbara Doherty keeps up the
C08 008 pace and variety in her one-woman performance, Accidents and
C08 009 Balance *=II.
C08 010    |^The accident-prone opening number, *1The End of the Day
C08 011 Before, *0features a fluffy slippers and dressing gown-clad
C08 012 Doherty acting out a pre-bed tidy-up with exaggerated
C08 013 clumsiness.
C08 014    |^In sharp contrast to this obvious comedy is *1Prewdawn,
C08 015 **[SIC**] *0which could depict a mental winding-up to face the
C08 016 day to come.
C08 017    |^To sparse percussion sounds by Bernard Parmegiani, Doherty
C08 018 begins with precise mechanised movements, which loosen and
C08 019 build to take in available stage space and different bodily
C08 020 planes.
C08 021    |^She switches to mime and humour in *1The Morning Break,
C08 022 *0a high speed chase through our morning rituals, which comes
C08 023 complete with burned toast and fingers in the crunchy peanut
C08 024 butter jar.
C08 025    |^In the fourth piece, *1Afternoon Conversations, *0Doherty
C08 026 switches to dialogue and mime, delivering chunks of
C08 027 conversation by three different characters with humour, charm
C08 028 and brashness.
C08 029    |^Another dance piece closed a diverse and amusing show that
C08 030 deserves more than the mere handful of patrons it drew last
C08 031 night.  ^Give a girl a break... and bigger audiences.  *4*-
C08 032 Marianne Norgaard
C08 033 *<*4Old Folks At Home*>
C08 034    *<*5Bert and Maisy, *4by Robert Lord, directed by Paul Senne
C08 035 at Mercury 2 last night and for a season.*>
C08 036    |^*0Welcome to Bert and Maisy's, where a man's home is his
C08 037 castle and a nice, hot cuppa will set everything to rights.
C08 038    |^When into this comfortable scene of superannuitant bliss
C08 039 comes Tom, a stranger with uncomfortable echoes of the couple's
C08 040 runaway son, it threatens to turn their world upside down.
C08 041    |^And it does so in ways that cause merriment (and moments
C08 042 of that familiar chuckle of discomfort) for the audience.
C08 043    |^Uncle Bert and Aunt Maisy take a variety of strange turns
C08 044 for the better, to the great discomfort of their hidebound
C08 045 nephew and niece, desperate to keep everything *"under
C08 046 control.**"
C08 047    |^Expatriate Kiwi playwright Robert Lord has created a light
C08 048 and frothy comedy which sits squarely in the New Zealand
C08 049 suburbia we all know.
C08 050    |^That the lines, at times, flow uneasily off the tongue is
C08 051 as much his fault as the responsibility of an uneven cast, but
C08 052 the whole is charmingly greater than the sum of its parts.
C08 053    |^If avuncular is the word for an uncle, they will have to
C08 054 invent a female equivalent after they see Alma Woods' Aunt
C08 055 Maisy.
C08 056    |^Taking charge of a plum part with obvious relish, she
C08 057 darts in and out of the action like a fusspot butterfly, and
C08 058 one soon wonders how she was ever in another role.
C08 059    |^David Weatherley's weary and slightly desperate Bert is
C08 060 less evenly handled; his stentorian tones rasp subtle edges off
C08 061 the part, but he transmutes magically into a naughty child
C08 062 again under the influence of the footloose visitor.
C08 063    |^Maya Dalziel and Ross Duncan as the strait-laced pillars
C08 064 of society tend to overplay their hands at times, though the
C08 065 allusive and very comical script wins through for the most
C08 066 part.
C08 067    |^Bert and Maisy is a drawing room classic in the tradition
C08 068 of *1Arsenic and Old Lace; *0it is well worth a visit for an
C08 069 easy night at the theatre.
C08 070 *4*- Peter Calder
C08 071 *<*4Latest albums
C08 072 with *6PAUL ELLIS*>
C08 073 *<*4Rock-jazz blend from Sting*>
C08 074 *<*6STING, *5Bring On the Night *6({0A&M}).*>
C08 075    |^*0Gordon Sumner, {0aka} Sting, returns with a live album
C08 076 which delivers more than 80 minutes of music par excellence.
C08 077    |^Although most people credit Sting with a successful solo
C08 078 career, there's little doubt the fans have noticed little
C08 079 difference in his music since the demise of the Police.
C08 080    |^Sting wrote and scored most Police songs, and like all
C08 081 frontmen always maintained a high profile.
C08 082    |^So it's no wonder that when you mention the name Sting,
C08 083 people know you're talking about a rock star and not Scott
C08 084 Joplin's theme to the movie of the same name.
C08 085    |^Sting the rock star is alive and well, and on this 
C08 086 double-album package he weaves his thin, almost falsetto voice around
C08 087 an assortment of Police and solo material.
C08 088    |^Most of the credit for this masterpiece must go to Sting,
C08 089 but a large proportion of the jazz and ad-lib music belongs to
C08 090 his guests Branford Marsalis, Darryl Jones and former Weather
C08 091 Report drummer Omar Hakim.
C08 092    |^These reputable players, along with backing vocalists
C08 093 Janice Pendarvis and Dolette McDonald, make *1Bring On The
C08 094 Night *0spring from the vinyl and convey in the simplest of
C08 095 forms a live concert feel.
C08 096    |^Sting draws from the Police archives songs like *1Love is
C08 097 The Seventh Wave *0and *1Burn For You.  ^*0But the majority of
C08 098 the recording comes from his album of last year, *1Dream of The
C08 099 Blue Turtles.
C08 100    |^*0It's from this album that the real highlights of this
C08 101 live set of songs sparkle.  ^Songs like *1Dream of The Blue
C08 102 Turtles *0and *1Moon Over Bourbon Street, *0plus *1Children's
C08 103 Crusade *0in extended form, all make *1Bring On the Night
C08 104 *0ignite.
C08 105    |^One previously unreleased track is included.  ^It's
C08 106 mysteriously called *1Down So Long.
C08 107    |^*0Sting has always said he wanted to cross-pollinate rock
C08 108 with jazz, and this album succeeds in doing so.
C08 109    |^Although there are often tedious moments where saxophone
C08 110 player Marsalis seems to get carried away with long, nonchalant
C08 111 pieces, *1Bring On The Night *0offers more than any Police fan
C08 112 could ever hope for.
C08 113    |^But perhaps the magic is about to end.  ^Rumours are rife
C08 114 that the Police are back in the studio working on a new album.
C08 115    |^Listen to this album.  ^Perhaps it's a jam session of the
C08 116 world's elite, but it is certainly a real stereo thrasher.
C08 117    |^It's a total of 16 songs wrapped and packaged by a 
C08 118 modern-day saint.  ^Well, at least he thinks he is...
C08 119 *<*6WAYNE GILLESPIE, *5Losing One *6({0CBS}) {0EP}.*>
C08 120    |^*0If you're waiting for the next star to propel himself
C08 121 out of the local entertainment scene and put New Zealand
C08 122 musicians on the world map, you needn't look further than Wayne
C08 123 Gillespie.  ^He catapulted on to the local scene last year with
C08 124 the semi-acoustic album *1Wayward Son, *0which produced the
C08 125 song *1Away With You, *0runner-up in the New Zealand Silver
C08 126 Scroll Awards.  ^Now Gillespie is back with a new sound.
C08 127    |^Instead of an acoustic sound, he has gone for a harder,
C08 128 punchy rock sound.
C08 129    |^In the past Gillespie has been referred to as sounding
C08 130 like ^*"Nick Cave and Van Morrison,**" but he now asserts his
C08 131 own style with three up-tempo songs on this {0EP}.
C08 132    |^From the title number to the strong rhythms of *1Street
C08 133 Angel *0and the sentimental ballad *1This Place, *0Gillespie
C08 134 weaves a path of clear and precise music.
C08 135    |^This release is only a taste of better things to come.
C08 136 ^He has lately finished recording work on a new album called
C08 137 *1New Locations, *0produced by Trevor Lucas (of Goanna and
C08 138 Redgum fame) at the Music Farm in Australia.
C08 139    |^With backing vocals from members of Goanna, plus a
C08 140 tougher, more electric approach, Wayne Gillespie looks like a
C08 141 real winner.
C08 142 *<*6VAN MORRISON, *5No Guru. No Method. No Teacher
C08 143 *4(Mercury).*>
C08 144    |^*0*"Oh Yeah... yeah,**" is the opening expression from Van
C08 145 Morrison on his umpteenth release.
C08 146    |^Morrison, who admits to being one of today's folk and
C08 147 {0R&B} phenomenons, has rarely been rubbished by the critics.
C08 148 ^A large proportion of the public loves him, and with his slow
C08 149 melodic songs he succeeds in making *1No Guru. No Method. No
C08 150 Teacher *0something of a predictable but sometimes enlightening
C08 151 affair.
C08 152    |^From his first steps in music in the '60s with the
C08 153 Monarchs and later the Them, Morrison has kept his musical
C08 154 prowess at a high level.
C08 155    |^He has always been something of a mystery man, and his
C08 156 music, which is often deep and sullen in mood, perhaps reflects
C08 157 a side of Morrison which he refuses to reveal in the media.
C08 158    |^On this record he details such events as someone stealing
C08 159 his lyrics and music *1(A Town Called Paradise).  ^*0Other
C08 160 songs, such as *1Ivory Tower, Irish Rover, *0which is an
C08 161 obvious retrospective look at his life, and *1Got To Get Back
C08 162 *0are all true Morrison classics.
C08 163    |^Where other musicians who started at the same time as
C08 164 Morrison have either burnt out or faded away, he keeps the
C08 165 flame burning bright *- even if it only flickers on this album.
C08 166 *<*6PETER ARNOLD AND CLAIRE TIMINGS, *5Rarer Than Radium
C08 167 *4(Flying Nun).*>
C08 168    |^*0A real surprise from the vacuum of New Zealand music,
C08 169 Flying Nun.  ^Arnold and Timings commit seven tracks to vinyl
C08 170 of their semi-folk acoustic music.
C08 171    |^The real strength comes from their harmonies while the
C08 172 song topics on *1Rarer Than Radium, *0which cover war
C08 173 *1(Solomon's Sister) *0to love *1(Rachael This Evening) *0and
C08 174 life *1(Passage Of Time) *0all make a lot of sense.
C08 175    |^The lightweight production, combined with the easy to
C08 176 listen to lyrics, make this recording one out of the bag for
C08 177 this label and Arnold and Timings.
C08 178    |^The title goes halfway to summing up this record, you
C08 179 certainly won't find anything more rarer than this.
C08 180    |^There is a total of seven well produced songs here, and
C08 181 they are worth every groove.
C08 182 *<*6LAST MAN DOWN, *5This Sporting Life *4(Ode).*>
C08 183    |^*0Hot on the heels of last year's release, *1State House
C08 184 Kid, *0Ross Mullins and his band package another collection of
C08 185 tunes about New Zealand history.
C08 186    |^Controversial though it may be, Mullins opts to sing about
C08 187 national events such as rugby, racing and beer as well as
C08 188 sports personalities.
C08 189    |^With tributes to the sporting fraternity of New Zealand,
C08 190 he covers such topics as rugby on *1Night Of The Test, *0racing
C08 191 on *1Scratchings *0and beer *1(Working For The Brewery).
C08 192    |^*0All the songs are true New Zealand folklore, and Mullins
C08 193 is aided by some fine backing players, including Chris Green
C08 194 and Michael Russell of the Newton Hoons.
C08 195    |^More seriously, with the tragic tale of the \0Mt Erebus
C08 196 disaster, *1Flight 501, *0Mullins sings:
C08 197 **[SONG**]
C08 198 |^*1*"You ever been stranded at the airport, Joe,
C08 199 ^Left sitting there like last week's freight.
C08 200 ^You want some word about a passenger.
C08 201 ^I'm sorry, sir, you'll just have to wait...**"
C08 202    |^*0It is one example of how he has transformed 
C08 203 history-making events into song.
C08 204    |^After the school boy's eulogy, *1Standard Three, *0Mullins
C08 205 closes the album on a mellow note with *1Sportin' Life Blues,
C08 206 *0which rates as the most memorable track on the album.  ^The
C08 207 song features some talented guitar-picking from 1985 Music
C08 208 Award winner Alan Young on national guitar.
C08 209    |^Perhaps the most controversial subject of the album
C08 210 belongs to the opening track, called *1Pinehead.  ^*0Here
C08 211 Mullins details the history of All Black Colin Meads.
C08 212    |^*1This Sporting Life, *0a fitting tribute, packages
C08 213 everything good and bad about New Zealand sport in 12 inches of
C08 214 black vinyl.
C08 215 *<*6JAZZ *4with Graham Reid*>
C08 216 *<*4Another strut*>
C08 217 *<Weather Report:
C08 218 *5This is This
C08 219 *6({0CBS})*>
C08 220 |^*6T*2HERE *0is a lot to come to terms with here before vinyl
C08 221 hits turntable *- the quasi-Zen assertion of the title (Now!),
C08 222 the insert which acknowledges 21 members of previous Weather
C08 223 Report incarnations (History!!) and the curious back-cover shot
C08 224 that has a shifty and stuffy-looking Zawinul shaking hands with
C08 225 a grinning Wayne Shorter (Reconciliation!!!).
C08 226    |^Yet the 15th Weather Report album in as many years still
C08 227 looks like another piece of Zawinul self-strut (he wrote six of
C08 228 the eight tracks, produced the thing and takes credit for the
C08 229 *"cover concept**") and that's been a troubling imbalance in
C08 230 recent years.
C08 231    |^The title track has guest guitarist Carlos Santana peeling
C08 232 off facile licks over a riff that builds into standard Zawinul
C08 233 funk of little consequence.  ^Santana's cameo spot on side two
C08 234 is much more worthy of his talents.
C08 235    |^*1Jungle Stuff *0(penned by percussionist Mino Cinelu) is
C08 236 synthesised Afro-beat without much interest and a couple of
C08 237 other tracks here would not have sounded out of place on
C08 238 Zawinul's recent solo album, but with Shorter and bassist
C08 239 Victor Bailey at his disposal, opportunities have gone begging.
C08 240    |^The highs are pretty good, though; the sensitive *1I'll
C08 241 Never Forget You, *0Bailey's *1Consequently *0and the swirling
C08 242 *1Update *0but given the paucity of opportunities he's offered,
C08 243 I'm surprised Shorter thinks he is still in this band.
C08 244    |^*1This is This *0will still sell for reasons of loyalty
C08 245 and curiosity, probably even be enjoyed for its funny **[SIC**]
C08 246 danceability and in these days of diminishing returns from the
C08 247 likes of Miles Doors, Dizzy Gillespie, Weather Report do not
C08 248 seem that bad.
C08 249    |^But I'd rather take the recent Shorter or Zawinul solo
C08 250 ventures than most of what I hear going down here.  ^Another
C08 251 Weather Report album, only less so.
C08 252 *#
C09 001 **[080 TEXT C09**]
C09 002 *<*4British do it right!*> *<*5Review *6KEN STRONGMAN*>
C09 003    |^*0From the sight of Margaret Thatcher peering round a
C09 004 pillar (looking even stonier than it) to a detective
C09 005 *"disguised**" as one of the two footmen on the Royal coach,
C09 006 the British really do get it right.  ^For all of its
C09 007 extravagant, conspicuous wealth, Hollywood cannot match it.
C09 008 ^This year's Royal wedding was an absolutely splendid spectacle
C09 009 of colour and sound, an ideal event for television, even if it
C09 010 did involve getting cameras somewhere into the rafters of the
C09 011 Abbey.
C09 012    |^Mind you, our coverage of the sumptuousness of it all was
C09 013 very nearly ruined by the link with Channel 10.  ^It was
C09 014 anomalous to have that harsh, disembodied strine voice growling
C09 015 out each time only just remembering to mention New Zealand.
C09 016 ^There were powerful images of The Minister of Culture, Les
C09 017 Patterson.  ^Amazingly it was a relief to hear the pompous
C09 018 tones of David Dimbleby, at last filling his father's seat.
C09 019    |^Everything appeared to pass off without obvious problems;
C09 020 a triumph of logistics.  ^People looked happy, the wedding
C09 021 dress was all that it should be and the pages and bridesmaids
C09 022 did not do unspeakable things to one another during the
C09 023 service.  ^The music was resoundingly medieval and the bride
C09 024 and groom were not overawed by the occasion.  ^Even the
C09 025 religious side of matters seemed to have been fairly shared
C09 026 among enough clergyman to have run a dozen ceremonies.
C09 027    |^As is usual in these larger-than-life events, the
C09 028 commentators were prompted into unwitting phrases which conjure
C09 029 some lovely thoughts.  ^How about ^*"The sovereign's standard
C09 030 of the Lifeguard's behind?**" and *"Sarah Ferguson's much
C09 031 speculated on wedding dress?**" ^And ^*"Andrew comes in through
C09 032 the doorway garlanded with flowers?**" ^There was even
C09 033 something more than a little unusual about the *"semi-state
C09 034 postilion landau.**"
C09 035    |^Anyway, it was a grand and thoroughly successful affair,
C09 036 leaving only a couple of unanswered questions.  ^Between Royal
C09 037 weddings, what happens to those precise sounding experts that
C09 038 are always there to comment on the intricate details of clothes
C09 039 and protocol?  ^More important, how does one get the concession
C09 040 for the enormous heaps of horses' douvres that must cover
C09 041 London after a state occasion?  ^It would sell like hotcakes
C09 042 somewhere.
C09 043    |^Then, later in the week, there were more kilts per square
C09 044 metre than would have been thought possible.  ^In spite of less
C09 045 than half of the nations remaining in Scotland, the
C09 046 Commonwealth Games began, and did so with an opening ceremony
C09 047 which was not at all bad.  ^Again, it was logistically
C09 048 impressive, although the problem with Edinburgh as host is that
C09 049 there was no escaping the bagpipes.  ^The only relief came from
C09 050 Yehudi Menuhin in a kilt, which took a moment to get used to,
C09 051 leading a terrific fiddle orchestra, if you will excuse the
C09 052 phrase.
C09 053    |^Comparisons have to be made with opening of the {0L.A.}
C09 054 Olympics.  ^Remember?  ^Three million grand pianos and a
C09 055 billion singers, or whatever it was.  ^It must be said, the
C09 056 delicate swirl of the kilt and the wincingly dull thud of the
C09 057 massed sporrans in the jig was a far, far, better thing.  ^And
C09 058 there was something endearing as well as impressive about
C09 059 hundreds of dancing children ending in the shape of a 
C09 060 multi-coloured pigeon.
C09 061    |^So it all went well.  ^It didn't rain; the Duke of
C09 062 Edinburgh read the Queen's message nicely, with no political
C09 063 comments; the children of Edinburgh enjoyed themselves; and
C09 064 there was even a lone piper on the battlements.  ^Of course,
C09 065 the commentators had their moments.  ^An initial comment on the
C09 066 13 pipe bands was ^*"One base **[SIC**] drummer belting out the
C09 067 rhythm.**" ^But they really went to town on the Australian
C09 068 uniform with *"distinctive egg-yolk blazers**" and quoting the
C09 069 Australian manager's *"baby-poo pants.**" ^They can always be
C09 070 relied upon for elegant descriptions.
C09 071    |^The Commonwealth Games then have begun with some style and
C09 072 will dominate the screen for a week or two.  ^The Duke of
C09 073 Edinburgh is remarkably good at standing benignly looking on as
C09 074 hundreds of people march past him.  ^Just occasionally he
C09 075 seemed slightly bemused.  ^It was probably when the television
C09 076 cameras were trained on the enormous television screen at
C09 077 Meadowbank, producing an infinite regress of television
C09 078 screens.  ^It threatened to make what was left of the Games
C09 079 disappear into itself.  ^Fortunately, it didn't.
C09 080 *<*4On Video*>
C09 081 *<*5Yentl out on video*>
C09 082 |^*6T*2HREE *0films *- *1Yentl, City Heat *0and *1Zelig *-
C09 083 *0top Warner Home Video's list of seven releases for the first
C09 084 month of the year.
C09 085    |^*1Yentl *0is very much Barbra Streisand's film.  |^It was
C09 086 her wish to make the film after reading Isaac Bashevis Singer's
C09 087 short story *1Yentl, The Yeshiva Boy *0in 1968 *- it took her
C09 088 15 years to do so.
C09 089    |^She collaborated on the screenplay and produced and
C09 090 directed the film, as well as starring in the title role.
C09 091    |^Although Yentl was not nominated for any of the major
C09 092 Academy Awards, Streisand won the best director category in the
C09 093 Golden Globes for the film, which did perform reasonably well
C09 094 in the box office.
C09 095    |^*1City Heat *0stars Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds as a
C09 096 cop and private eye respectively who are adversaries but not
C09 097 exactly enemies all the same.  ^Set in 1933, *1City Heat
C09 098 *0revolves around gangsters and violent crime.
C09 099    |^Madeline Kahn and Irene Cara also star in this 1985 film.
C09 100    |^Fans of Woody Allen should enjoy the long awaited *1Zelig
C09 101 *0in which Allen plays a human chameleon able to change his
C09 102 personality to suit his surroundings.
C09 103    |^All of this is done with the remarkable use of old
C09 104 newsreels *- and Allen does his stuff in his own inimitable
C09 105 way.
C09 106    |^The four other releases from Warner are *1Romantic Comedy
C09 107 *0starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen, *1Jinxed *0with
C09 108 Bette Midler, *1White Lightning *0and *1Gator *0both starring
C09 109 Burt Reynolds.
C09 110    |^Two of {0RCA}'s releases for February are *1Desperately
C09 111 Seeking Susan *0starring Madonna in a comedy of confusion and
C09 112 *1Birdy, *0from Alan Parker, about the lingering pain of
C09 113 Vietnam.
C09 114 *<*4The Burning Bed
C09 115 1984     {0VHS}-Beta
C09 116 91 \0min     {0CBS}-Fox*>
C09 117 |^*0Confrontation between a wife and her cruel husband provides
C09 118 Farrah Fawcett with an opportunity for some serious acting.
C09 119 ^And she makes a fairly good job of her role as the wife *- the
C09 120 victim of repeated beatings who finally cracks and kills her
C09 121 tormentor in fear for her life and is tried for murder.  ^The
C09 122 film is based on fact and is indeed a sad story well told and
C09 123 well acted but containing, nevertheless, an element of
C09 124 shallowness.
C09 125 *4Good.
C09 126 *<Conan The Destroyer
C09 127 1984     {0VHS}-Beta
C09 128 Vestron     Vestron*>
C09 129 |^*0Arnold Schwarzenegger, the warrior king in leather
C09 130 underpants, battles evil and monsters yet again in the latest
C09 131 of the Conan series.  ^Here, sophisticated special effects and
C09 132 the talented Grace Jones help Conan out and lift the simple
C09 133 story of magic and a princess in danger to a reasonable level
C09 134 of entertainment.
C09 135 *4Good.
C09 136 *<Paper Tiger
C09 137 1975     {0VHS}-Beta
C09 138 96 \0min     {0CBS}-Fox*>
C09 139 |^*0David Niven plays a Walter Mitty-type character in this
C09 140 comedy-drama.  ^His countless tales of heroism (all false)
C09 141 impress the boy he is tutoring, the son of a Japanese diplomat.
C09 142 ^But the two are kidnapped by terrorists and fantasy turns into
C09 143 reality.  ^Ken Annakin, Toshiro Mifune, Hardy Kruger, Ando
C09 144 (impressive as the diplomat's son) and Ronald Fraser co-star in
C09 145 the back country of Malaysia.
C09 146 *4Good.
C09 147 *<Lust In The Dust
C09 148 1984     {0VHS}-Beta
C09 149 88 \0mins     Roadshow*>
C09 150 |^*0This hilarious, naughty send-up of western movies takes up
C09 151 where *1Blazing Saddles *0left off.  ^The delectably decadent
C09 152 Divine stars as a wandering saloon floozy desperate for love *-
C09 153 but she will settle for a man for the night.
C09 154    |^Former matinee idol Tab Hunter features as a Clint
C09 155 Eastwood lookalike in a wicked pastiche that stops at nothing
C09 156 in a merciless lampoon of the screen's cowboy tradition in
C09 157 general and of spaghetti westerns in particular.  ^(Not for
C09 158 prudes.)
C09 159 *4Outstanding
C09 160 *<The Cotton Club
C09 161 1984     {0VHS}-Beta
C09 162 131 \0mins     K-Tel*>
C09 163 |^*0Francis Coppola recreates the jazz age in Harlem in this
C09 164 celebration of the music and dance of the 1920s and 1930s *-
C09 165 another film in the fine tradition of his gangster movies.
C09 166 ^Richard Gere is a young cornet player who becomes involved
C09 167 with gangsters and the boss' girl.  ^A fine supporting cast
C09 168 includes Fred Gwynne.
C09 169    |^The jazz breaks between the action and violence are
C09 170 frequent and brilliant.
C09 171 *4Outstanding
C09 172 *<The Woman in Red
C09 173 1984     {0VHS}-Beta
C09 174 86 \0min     Premiere*>
C09 175 |^*0The breezy comedy holds together on the talents of Gene
C09 176 Wilder (though Kelly Le Brock is certainly a distraction).
C09 177 ^Wilder writes, directs and plays the lead in a one-man-band
C09 178 performance that pushes his skills towards Woody Allen
C09 179 territory.  ^The result is a bright little film *- thin on plot
C09 180 (man chases woman), but fleshy enough on pace and humour.
C09 181 *4Good
C09 182 *<*4The Cure's past lives again*>
C09 183 *<Rock *2BY ROB WHITE*>
C09 184    _*6THE CURE: *4*"Standing on a Beach *- The Singles
C09 185 ({0WEA}); *6SHRIEKBACK: *"*4The Infinite**" (Kaz Records);
C09 186 *6LITTLE FEAT: *"*4As Time Goes By**" (Warners); and *6RY
C09 187 COODER: *"*4Why Don't You Try Me Tonight**" (Warners).
C09 188    |^*0Hard up?  ^Want to get a few nice sounds anyway?  ^Try a
C09 189 new, improved *"Greatest Hits**" collection.
C09 190    |^Frankly even if you have every Cure album you should have
C09 191 this singles compilation, so you can listen to The Cure's
C09 192 history fly out the speakers in one easy lesson.
C09 193    |^New Zealand has always had a love affair with The Cure,
C09 194 even if *"Mad Bob**" Smith says he never dares smile in this
C09 195 country because we still like to stand there, dressed in our
C09 196 Op Shop raincoats, moodily listening to *"A Forest.**"
C09 197    |^It helped that their original manager was a Kiwi, Chris
C09 198 Parry, who insisted they come here when they first got going.
C09 199    |^Before the rest of the world discovered them *- even the
C09 200 Poms *- we made Bob and \0Co heroes.
C09 201    |^We've watched them come here in the let's-join-Ian-Curtis
C09 202 suicidal era and be all mean and magnificent.
C09 203    |^Then we saw them a couple of years on *- imploding,
C09 204 drugged-out psychotics, on the verge of breakdowns.
C09 205    |^We nursed 'em through it and even loved 'em when Bob
C09 206 decided to be a born-again hippie cum-looney and chirp on about
C09 207 cutesy caterpillars and cats.
C09 208    |^The album tracks their passage from their 1979 
C09 209 amateur-night *"Killing An Arab,**" via their funeral pyre of *"The
C09 210 Hanging Garden**" from the scarey *'Pornography**" to Bob's
C09 211 recovery, aided by a sabbatical with The Banshees to their
C09 212 triumphant return, using pop with *"The Lovecats**" and up to
C09 213 the present *"Close To Me.**"
C09 214    |^Half of the singles were featured on the earlier
C09 215 compilation, *"Japanese Whispers**" but the new one is much
C09 216 more extensive and, of course up to date.
C09 217    |^The Cure have never exactly been your Whams of this world,
C09 218 but they have managed to score the most unlikely hits, Smith
C09 219 shrewdly using the weapons of pop for his own maniacal purpose.
C09 220 ^Every time someone says ^*"That won't make a hit,**" Smith,
C09 221 with a wicked gleam, kicks the song into touch.
C09 222    |^Apart from Smith doing pointless new vocals for the 1979
C09 223 *"Boys Don't Cry**" to get it into the charts I cannot fault
C09 224 this record.
C09 225    |^Just dropping the stylus through the collection, what
C09 226 amazes me is how many tunes The Cure put out over the six or so
C09 227 years.
C09 228    |^About time they toured here again, isn't it?
C09 229    |^On the surface Shriekback's compilation album seems a
C09 230 little cheeky as, let's face it, they've hardly had a surfeit
C09 231 of chart hits have they?
C09 232    |^Apart from the majestic *"Lined Up**" and to a lesser
C09 233 degree, *"My Spine (Is The Base Line**") they haven't had any
C09 234 major songs.  ^Good 'uns, but not big 'uns.
C09 235    |^In actual fact Shriekback's Barry Andrews, when I talked
C09 236 to him last year about *"Oil and Gold**" wasn't too enamoured
C09 237 with his ex-record company, Kaz, putting this out.
C09 238    |^I can see why.  ^To be brutally honest half of the
C09 239 tracks are fairly monotonous funk slabs that seem to go on ad
C09 240 nauseum and really it's strictly for Shriekback fans who missed
C09 241 out on the earlier recordings.
C09 242    |^Who's a naughty little record company then?
C09 243    |^Of course record companies know compilations are great
C09 244 sellers and as Presley fans equally know, can be repackaged in
C09 245 various forms over and over even if your client happens to have
C09 246 snuffed it.
C09 247    |^If it wasn't for the fact the Little Feat compilation is
C09 248 very useful it seems extremely hypocritical for Warners to cash
C09 249 in on this marvellous, sleazy funky band.
C09 250    |^The first two albums by the group although critically
C09 251 received, sold poorly and Warners weren't exactly ecstatic with
C09 252 the band.
C09 253    |^Little Feat had been formed in 1970 by ex-Mothers of
C09 254 Invention singer-guitarist Lowell George and bassist Roy
C09 255 Estrada aided by drummer Richard Howerd.
C09 256    |^Estrada left to join Captain Beefheart's Magic Band (bad
C09 257 career move) after the first two \0LPs and guitarist Paul
C09 258 Barrere, bassist Ken Gradney and percussionist Sam Clayton
C09 259 drafted in to make what is a personal favourite, the 1973 \0LP
C09 260 *"Dixie Chicken.**"
C09 261 *#
C10 001 **[081 TEXT C10**]
C10 002 *<*4Energy to burn in Live and Die*> *<Costa Botes *2LOOKING AT
C10 003 FILMS*>
C10 004 |^*2TO LIVE *0and Die in {0LA} (Embassy, \0R 16), is tough,
C10 005 erotic and cynical by turns.  ^It is a true film noir, set in
C10 006 the streets of the same city that Raymond Chandler's detective
C10 007 hero Phillip Marlowe once walked.
C10 008    |^The difference now is that even hard-boiled Marlowe might
C10 009 cringe at the amorality and sleaze of Los Angeles.
C10 010    |^The energy level has gone up too.  ^Live and Die in {0LA}
C10 011 is an incendiary visual tour de force, marking a belated return
C10 012 to form for director, William Friedkin, who hasn't done
C10 013 anything remotely as good as this since French Connection in
C10 014 1971.
C10 015    |^William Peterson turns in a tight, nervy, performance as
C10 016 Richard Chance, a secret service agent hot on the trail of a
C10 017 ruthless counterfeiter, Eric Masters (William Dafoe), who has
C10 018 murdered his partner.
C10 019    |^Chance's drive for vengeance has little to do with law and
C10 020 order, or even commonsense.  ^It lands Chance in a nightmare
C10 021 situation where right and wrong take second place to winning
C10 022 out against Masters, no matter what the cost to himself and
C10 023 others.
C10 024    |^Chance is well named.  ^He is an adrenalin freak, unhappy
C10 025 anywhere but on the edge of his physical and mental limits.
C10 026 ^He's a difficult and exploitative man, drawing friends and
C10 027 associates down into his problems, rather than following a
C10 028 saner path out.
C10 029    |^The similarities between Chance and his quarry, Masters,
C10 030 are heavily underlined, in particular their selfishness,
C10 031 practical amorality, and subconscious death wish.
C10 032    |^Chance's penchant for self destruction finds an outlet in
C10 033 his jumps from high bridges, and general reckless behaviour.
C10 034 ^The zenith of the latter is reached when he takes a car the
C10 035 wrong way up a motorway off-ramp.  ^This climaxes a terrifying
C10 036 car chase scene which has to be seen to be believed.
C10 037    |^Masters, meanwhile, is more narcissistic than Chance, but
C10 038 no less suicidally inclined.  ^His greatest asset as a criminal
C10 039 is that he just doesn't care about anything or anyone,
C10 040 including himself.  ^Masters paints self-portraits which he
C10 041 then burns, standing close to the flames, as if yearning for
C10 042 self-immolation.
C10 043    |^The thematic meat of Live and Die in {0LA} is conveyed
C10 044 through the subsidiary characters, associates of Chance and
C10 045 Masters on their respective sides of the criminal-cop divide.
C10 046    |^John Pankow plays John Vukovich, a dedicated cop assigned
C10 047 to be Chance's new partner.  ^Vukovich is appalled at Chance's
C10 048 reckless sidestepping of the law in his pursuit of Masters but
C10 049 his instincts as a cop are to stay loyal to his partner, even
C10 050 when it becomes obvious that Chance's obsession will endanger
C10 051 their lives and their careers.
C10 052    |^The changes Vukovich goes through illuminate the character
C10 053 of Chance.  ^We gradually see that Chance's laconic exterior
C10 054 covers a personality long since cauterised of emotion.  ^The
C10 055 only time in the movie that he allows himself some sentiment,
C10 056 Chance ends up regretting it.
C10 057    |^By contrast, Vukovich gives people the benefit of the
C10 058 doubt, is that little bit slower than Chance, makes small
C10 059 mistakes.  ^That's because he behaves like a normal, feeling,
C10 060 human being, instead of a ruthlessly efficient robot; and that
C10 061 costs both him and Chance dearly.  ^The tragic irony for
C10 062 Vukovich is that his only hope for survival is to become as
C10 063 de**[ARB**]-humanised as Chance.
C10 064    |^The only character who walks away untouched is Master's
C10 065 lawyer, Bob Grimes, played by Dean Stockwell.  ^Grimes is a
C10 066 totally cynical operator, the worst sort of manipulator of
C10 067 other people's problems, never getting *"personally**"
C10 068 involved, but charging dearly for his *"impersonal**"
C10 069 involvement.
C10 070    |^Set against the harsher aspects of Live and Die in {0LA},
C10 071 one finds moments of quiet introspection and beauty, images
C10 072 irrelevant to the main flow of the action, but skilfully
C10 073 interpolated to shape the film's emotional pace.
C10 074    |^Robby Muller's photography is all hot neon and glowing
C10 075 sunlit surfaces, capturing both the illusion and reality of Los
C10 076 Angeles.  ^The city is as much a character in the film as the
C10 077 people.
C10 078    |^Woody Allen once said that the streets in {0LA} are so
C10 079 clean because all the rubbish gets turned into television
C10 080 shows.  ^Live and Die in {0LA} demonstrates that there's plenty
C10 081 of dirt and decay there, despite television, just as it shows a
C10 082 darker potential in its nominal heroes than we might have
C10 083 guessed in the beginning.
C10 084    |^The overwhelming cynicism of the film's outlook is
C10 085 depressing, and that, coupled with the frequent, albeit brief,
C10 086 scenes of explicit violence, will probably limit the appeal of
C10 087 Live and Die in {0LA} to smaller, more sophisticated audiences.
C10 088    |^On the plus side, imaginative imagery and slam bang
C10 089 editing, coupled with a bone-shaking stereo soundtrack, make
C10 090 Live and Die in {0LA} one of the more impressive cinematic
C10 091 experiences to have come along in the last few months.  ^You
C10 092 won't get thrills like this out of a puny video cassette
C10 093 recorder.
C10 094    |^Whatever you think of his rather negative view of the
C10 095 world, Friedkin's film certainly points up the limited creative
C10 096 vision of most mainstream commercial film makers.  ^Live and
C10 097 Die in {0LA} moves and sounds like a movie should.  ^As an
C10 098 example of full-on visceral film making, this one is hard to
C10 099 beat.
C10 100 *<*4Rich fare offered in festival music*>
C10 101 *<*6GEOFF FAIRBURN *4reports from the Wellington Arts
C10 102 Festival*>
C10 103    |^*0Halfway through the festival, it bears all the signs of
C10 104 success.
C10 105    |^Musically, a wide range of middle of the road fare is
C10 106 offered *- three appearances by Joan Sutherland, the Australian
C10 107 celebrity singing operatic extracts including three or four mad
C10 108 scenes and a selection of nineteenth century drawing room
C10 109 favourites; four orchestras, the oratorios *- two contemporary
C10 110 and one Victorian *- chamber music, organ, piano and violin
C10 111 recitals, ten lunchtime concerts, jazz, entertainers, ballet,
C10 112 and three overseas avant garde groups.
C10 113    |^Performances have been of high standard and often sold out
C10 114 including all the Sutherland concerts and Andrew Lloyd Webber's
C10 115 Requiem, with the latter's reputation in Jesus Christ
C10 116 Superstar, Evita, and Cats ensuring a broad appeal.
C10 117    |^Much more surprising has been the keen interest aroused by
C10 118 the Shostakovich string quartet, four Russians who have been
C10 119 playing together for nearly 20 years.
C10 120    |^They offered an ideal programme: Beethoven's Opus 7, a
C10 121 late Shostakovich, and Tchaikovsky's first.  ^The group plays
C10 122 on priceless 18th century instruments with the typically
C10 123 seductive tone of the classical Russian school and the sort of
C10 124 balance and ensemble that can only come from long, close
C10 125 association.
C10 126    |^The Beethoven, one that found a lot of favour in the
C10 127 composer's lifetime, but hasn't been heard all that often
C10 128 lately, revealed these qualities straight away in the quiet
C10 129 introduction.  ^In addition a superb technique always
C10 130 subordinated to the requirements of expression.
C10 131    |^Shostakovich's 13th quartet in B flat minor, the only
C10 132 chamber work I can remember in the remote key, was less
C10 133 accessible.  ^Not so much for its use of a 12-note toned-row *-
C10 134 most listeners wouldn't recognise this idiom *- but for its
C10 135 unusual shape of an extended slow movement, such curious
C10 136 rhythmic devices as tapping with the bow on the body of the
C10 137 fiddle, and a psychological mood that is peculiar to the
C10 138 composer.
C10 139    |^Not the sort of work you'd want to hear every week but a
C10 140 profound masterpiece nonetheless.  ^The Tchaikovsky made a fine
C10 141 concert ending *- the second movement has one of the most
C10 142 haunting tunes in all music *- or rather would have ended the
C10 143 evening but for deafening stamping and applause eliciting two
C10 144 encores by Borodin and Shostakovich.
C10 145    |^Meeting these four enormously talented players on stage
C10 146 was heavy going seeing that they know barely two dozen words of
C10 147 English, but nothing could be more eloquent than their musical
C10 148 communication.
C10 149    |^For some enthusiasts it must have been the highlight of
C10 150 the festival.
C10 151 *<Comfortable nest for fish lovers*>
C10 152 *<*4Eating out with Anne Fenwick*>
C10 153 |^*6T*2HE *0early Greeks, Romans and Egyptians knew the value
C10 154 of fish and for centuries the Japanese, following Buddhist
C10 155 beliefs, ate practically no meat and a great deal of fish.
C10 156    |^But this food has not always received sufficient
C10 157 gastronomic attention in New Zealand.  ^While the Maori and the
C10 158 early settler appreciated the riches from local waters, fish
C10 159 dishes in the past have not met with general reverence.
C10 160    |^Possibly inept handling *- usually overcooking *- has not
C10 161 helped.  ^And anyone who has had a bad experience with fish
C10 162 that has been allowed to deteriorate after being caught is
C10 163 understandably likely to be wary.
C10 164    |^Ideally, fish should be alive until the last moment before
C10 165 cooking.  ^But this can be impractical and with modern fishing
C10 166 vessels efficiently equipped with refrigerated holds, no longer
C10 167 necessary.
C10 168    |^Most fish shops and good eating places have a reliable
C10 169 source for quality fish and the steadily growing demand for it
C10 170 in recent times indicates it has been elevated locally to the
C10 171 status it deserves.
C10 172    |^An important reason for its popularity is, of course,
C10 173 today's emphasis on healthy living.  ^Fish is particularly
C10 174 nutritious, high in protein, low in calories, easily digested.
C10 175 ^It is an ideal diet food.
C10 176    |^Which is why my friend The Professor requested an all-fish
C10 177 meal the other evening.  ^Too many hours' devotion to duty
C10 178 seated at a desk, and very little leisure time to walk off
C10 179 calories, had taken their toll.  ^Not that anyone had mentioned
C10 180 it mind you, but a few had noticed The Professor was becoming
C10 181 portly.
C10 182    |^Now, as everyone knows, professors are traditionally
C10 183 absent-minded.  ^This particular one never remembers to look in
C10 184 a mirror.  ^On the rare occasion he's come face to face with
C10 185 himself in one he's nodded and gone away, wondering where he's
C10 186 seen that person before.
C10 187    |^So it evidently came as a shock when overnight *- or so it
C10 188 seemed *- none of his clothes would fit.  ^Never one to berate,
C10 189 he did however gently chide the keeper of his laundry for
C10 190 having shrunk his entire wardrobe.
C10 191    |^It was, I understand, the morning he was taken to look at
C10 192 himself in a mirror before being sent off in the direction of
C10 193 the bathroom scales.
C10 194    |^For some weeks everyone gave The Professor a wide berth
C10 195 and the keeper of his laundry reported behaviour that sounded
C10 196 very like withdrawal symptoms.
C10 197    |^But these academics can be single-minded and when he
C10 198 finally ventured forth to accompany me to dinner *- on the
C10 199 proviso he would be required to eat only fish *- he was but a
C10 200 shadow of his former self.
C10 201    |^He could almost have slipped through the keyhole of the
C10 202 door leading into The Penguin's Nest, the Takapuna restaurant
C10 203 I'd chosen because it specialises in fish.
C10 204    |^Penguins were everywhere *- in prints, ceramic models, and
C10 205 the stuffed variety, including a large fellow suspended from
C10 206 the ceiling.  ^It was with mild relief I discovered penguin was
C10 207 not included in the menu.
C10 208    |^Penguins aside, fish was well represented.  ^Starters
C10 209 included grilled mussels in their shell with parsley and garlic
C10 210 butter (*+$6.50); a bouillabaisse made with fresh fish of the
C10 211 day, mussels, scallops and prawns (*+$6.50); Kebab of king
C10 212 prawns marinated in oyster and soy sauce, honey and grilled
C10 213 (*+$7.95); a baked avocado pear filled with curried crab meat
C10 214 (*+$6.95); squid rings nicoise (*+$5.80); a seviche of scallops,
C10 215 fish and shrimps marinated in lemon juice and dressed with a
C10 216 herb vinaigrette (*+$7.50).
C10 217    |^Main courses of fish included pan-fried scallops, a
C10 218 seafood strudel, hapuka steak, terakihi wrapped with banana in
C10 219 filo and served with a lime sauce, and a mixed seafood grill,
C10 220 featuring marinated salmon, fish, and king prawns.  ^Chicken
C10 221 and steak was also there and prices for main courses ranged
C10 222 from *+$12.50 to *+$14.50.
C10 223    |^The Penguin's Nest is both {0BYO} and licensed, a point
C10 224 approved by The Professor who allowed himself a few liquid
C10 225 calories as he considered the menu.
C10 226    |^His spectacles fogging with gustatory anticipation, he
C10 227 lost no time in ordering squid rings nicoise to begin his meal
C10 228 with hapuka as a main course.  ^Seafood strudel was to be my
C10 229 main dish and I decided, in my perverse way, to order something
C10 230 other than fish as an entree. ^Despite professorial
C10 231 mutterings about *"when in Rome...**" I asked for the
C10 232 sate.
C10 233    |^Pre-dinner nibbles of crudites *- crisp carrot sticks,
C10 234 celery and radish with a piquant dipping sauce *- had come
C10 235 promptly to our table and these we both enjoyed.  ^In fact The
C10 236 Dieter gave every appearance to being addicted to them.
C10 237    |^But before I could complain too much about unfair division
C10 238 our first courses arrived.  ^My sate was marinated, cubed
C10 239 fillet steak of good quality, carefully grilled to retain its
C10 240 tenderness.  ^The peanut sauce was equally pleasing, in both
C10 241 taste and texture.
C10 242    |^The Professor's dish of freshly-sliced squid rings resting
C10 243 on a sauce of well-seasoned tomatoes with black olives was
C10 244 keeping him so happy I became curious to taste a little.  ^I
C10 245 had to barter hard before he'd agree to swap a cube of steak
C10 246 for the tiniest squid ring he could find.
C10 247    |^When I finally cinched the deal I understood his
C10 248 possessiveness.  ^The succulence of the squid, the flavour of
C10 249 garlic, tomatoes and black olives, gave the entree more than a
C10 250 suggestion of the Mediterranean.  ^It was a clever combination.
C10 251    |^The Professor's smug expression increased as he began his
C10 252 main course and, once again, he had chosen well.  ^His hapuka,
C10 253 which is an ideal fish for grilling with its firm and tasty
C10 254 flesh was exactly right for someone counting calories.
C10 255 *#
C11 001 **[082 TEXT C11**]
C11 002 *<*4Literary Views and Reviews*>
C11 003 *<*5Bohemian artist in Maoriland*>
C11 004 *<Gottfried Lindauer: His Life and Maori Art.  By \0Dr Briar
C11 005 Gordon and Professor Peter Stupples.  Collins and Malcolm
C11 006 McGregor, 1985.  55\0pp.  12 plates.  *+$45.*>
C11 007 *<(*1Reviewed by Neil Roberts)*>
C11 008    |^*0During recent years one of the most consistent successes
C11 009 at New Zealand fine art auctions has been portraits of the
C11 010 nineteenth-century New Zealand Maori, in particular those
C11 011 painted by Charles Frederick Goldie and Gottfried Lindauer.
C11 012 ^Of the two, Lindauer was certainly the less imaginative as a
C11 013 painter, but his intention always was to be no more than a
C11 014 faithful recorder.  ^Like the talented Sunday painter his aim
C11 015 was accuracy to what he saw as reality in nature.
C11 016    |^Various critics over the years have discussed the artistic
C11 017 merits of Lindauer's painting, and have variously referred to
C11 018 his portraits, both European and Maori, as being, lifeless,
C11 019 dull, monotonous, lacking in sound composition and colour.  ^To
C11 020 some extent such comments are not always unjust.  ^Lindauer's
C11 021 work was often all of these things.  ^However, it cannot be
C11 022 denied that while this artist never produced great art, his
C11 023 imagery survives and is of immense social and historical
C11 024 importance, particularly the depiction of some of the most
C11 025 celebrated personalities in nineteenth-century Maoridom.
C11 026    |^This recent book on Lindauer and his Maori portraiture is
C11 027 the first to appear in almost two decades.  ^Most of the
C11 028 paintings reproduced are selected from those formerly in the
C11 029 Henry Partridge collection, now held by the Auckland City Art
C11 030 Gallery.  ^The authors have chosen to reproduce just 12
C11 031 Lindauer paintings including a self portrait, three paintings
C11 032 on Maori customs, and eight portraits of notable Maori
C11 033 identities, among them likenesses of Wiremu Tamahana, Rewi
C11 034 Maniopoto and Huria Matenga, revered for either their mana or
C11 035 their deeds.  ^Each plate is accompanied by a concise potted
C11 036 biography of the subject which contains several newly
C11 037 researched facts.
C11 038    |^The rather generous 44\0cm by 34\0cm folio format of what
C11 039 is almost a picture book is well produced on high quality
C11 040 paper.  ^For the most part the reproduction colour quality is
C11 041 better than most Lindauer reproductions made in recent years,
C11 042 and their presentation makes them desirable as frameable
C11 043 prints.
C11 044    |^Divided into two principal sections, the text deals first
C11 045 with Lindauer's life, then with his art.  ^The authors have
C11 046 succeeded in their research of new facts about this artist, and
C11 047 have improved considerably on the information previously
C11 048 recorded about Lindauer's early life in particular.
C11 049    |^Lindauer was a Bohemian, never in the metaphorical sense
C11 050 but in his nationality.  ^Born in Pilsen, Bohemia *- now part
C11 051 of Czechoslovakia *- he is believed to have had a *"spontaneous
C11 052 approach to nature**" at a very early age.  ^This attitude of
C11 053 truth to nature was reinforced during his period of study in
C11 054 Vienna under the tutorage of a number of artists that included
C11 055 Josef von Fuhrich who became a prominent member of the
C11 056 celebrated brother-hood of artists known as the *"Nazarenes.**"
C11 057 ^This formative influence stayed with Lindauer for the
C11 058 remainder of his life.
C11 059    |^In the years before leaving for New Zealand in 1874
C11 060 Lindauer became well established and reasonably successful as a
C11 061 portraitist in his homeland.  ^On his arrival at Wellington he
C11 062 quickly resumed his activity as an artist, gaining within a
C11 063 very short time a reputation among the colonists as a portrait
C11 064 painter and photographer.  ^It was this reputation that helped
C11 065 draw him to the attention of the Auckland businessman Henry
C11 066 Partridge who became for almost 40 years Lindauer's most ardent
C11 067 patron.  ^There were other patrons, that included James Mackay
C11 068 and Walter Buller, but none showed such consistent support of
C11 069 the artist's work as did Henry Partridge.
C11 070    |^Until now, detailed information on Lindauer's movements
C11 071 between his arrival and settling at Woodville in 1889 has been
C11 072 scant.  ^The authors have been able to remedy this.
C11 073 ^Unfortunately the commentary on the last 37 years of the
C11 074 artist's life and activity in Woodville is not so revealing and
C11 075 is all too brief.  ^There is also little insight into Lindauer
C11 076 the man, his personality and attitudes to life, which still
C11 077 leaves the reader with a number of questions about the artist
C11 078 unanswered.
C11 079    |^In the section devoted to Lindauer's working methods the
C11 080 authors explain concisely, and justify, his use of photography,
C11 081 both as a source and a device for making his paintings.  ^The
C11 082 motives of his patrons are also clearly outlined, and to some
C11 083 extent analysed, as are those of the artist.
C11 084    |^What emerges is the conclusion that despite his lack of
C11 085 originality Lindauer worked with a degree of sincerity free of
C11 086 racial prejudice that can only be described as being
C11 087 commendable.
C11 088    |^That this Bohemian in Maoriland was as popular in his
C11 089 lifetime as he appears to be today there seems to be little
C11 090 doubt.  ^There is clear evidence that Lindauer was kept busy
C11 091 with a constant flow of commissions from European colonists and
C11 092 Maori patrons.
C11 093    |^His success in his lifetime was not restricted to New
C11 094 Zealand for whenever his paintings were shown at expositions
C11 095 overseas they invariably achieved considerable public acclaim.
C11 096    |^While this book is visually pleasing, and the text is
C11 097 adequate for the artist's biography, and for the subjects of
C11 098 the plates, there is still room for a more substantial
C11 099 monograph on this artist to be written.
C11 100 *<*4Insights into worlds of crime*>
C11 101 *<*5In the Underworld.  By Laurie Taylor, Unwin, 1985.  188
C11 102 \0pp.  *+$12.95 (paperback).
C11 103 You'd Better Believe It.  By Bill James.  Century Hutchinson,
C11 104 1985.  157 \0pp.  *+$28.50*>
C11 105 *<(*1Reviewed by Ken Strongman)*>
C11 106    |^*0It is unusual to consider works of fact and of fiction
C11 107 within one review, but the line between the two forms is
C11 108 becoming increasingly indistinct.  ^Both of these books provide
C11 109 an insight into the world of crime and are convincingly
C11 110 authentic.  ^Laurie Taylor's self-important ingenuousness in
C11 111 the face of professional criminals can only be genuine.  ^And
C11 112 the confident simplicity with which Bill James tells his tale
C11 113 can only come from inside knowledge.
C11 114    |^Laurie Taylor is Professor of Sociology at the University
C11 115 of York and is well-known in England as a broadcaster.
C11 116 ^Surprisingly, he is the first criminologist to have had
C11 117 conversations with working criminals, with his tape-recorder
C11 118 running.  ^He did this in London's underworld, under the
C11 119 comforting arm of ex-bank-robber and hard man John McVicar who
C11 120 is still well respected in his manor.  ^Taylor sat in pubs,
C11 121 clubs, and living rooms decorated with gear that had fallen off
C11 122 the back of some very upmarket trucks, in a style which might
C11 123 be described as post gold lame chic.  ^He listened to
C11 124 confidence tricksters, bank robbers, heisters, drug dealers,
C11 125 and even flirted with gangsters.
C11 126    |^Laurie Taylor is a good populariser and *"In the
C11 127 Underworld**" is a readable book as well as being of some use
C11 128 to social scientists.  ^It has two problems.  ^The first is
C11 129 that it does not quite go far enough.  ^It is frustrating to
C11 130 have the values of the professional criminal touched on, but
C11 131 not explored in depth.  ^For instance, the comparison between
C11 132 those who steal or rob partly because it allows them to live on
C11 133 the edge, and those who have a dispassionate, workmanlike
C11 134 amorality, is only hinted at.
C11 135    |^The second problem is that Laurie Taylor cannot keep
C11 136 himself out of it.  ^He constantly tells us of his own
C11 137 reactions to the people he meets and to the places in which he
C11 138 meets them.  ^At one level he is putting himself down, being
C11 139 open about his own lack of underworld sophistication.  ^At
C11 140 another level this is attempting to get the reader on his side,
C11 141 the side of convention looking through the bars of the cage at
C11 142 the exhibits within.  ^Simultaneously, he is saying ^*"Look at
C11 143 me.  ^I can slip in and out through the bars.**" ^At the least,
C11 144 all this is irrelevant to the book, and at the worst it
C11 145 detracts from Taylor's objectivity.
C11 146    |^*"In the Underworld**" is an interesting book, but it is
C11 147 no more convincing in its authenticity than Bill James's
C11 148 *"You'd Better Believe It.**" ^This is a novel of crime in a
C11 149 provincial town, an armed bank robbery set up by some hard men
C11 150 from *"up the motorway.**" ^Chief Super Colin Harpur is a high
C11 151 flyer in the local police and is very nearly as hard-bitten as
C11 152 those whose collars he seeks to feel.  ^Together with his
C11 153 various narks and grasses he is a match, both for the criminals
C11 154 and for his superiors, whose time-honoured motives are having a
C11 155 quiet life, keeping the homos (from the Home Office) happy, and
C11 156 aiming at knighthoods.
C11 157    |^*"You'd Better Believe It**" rings true and tells a tough
C11 158 tale of tough people on both sides of the law.  ^They are
C11 159 believable though because they are human and have weaknesses.
C11 160 ^Also, every detail of criminal activity, police procedure, and
C11 161 grassing which overlaps with *"In the Underworld**" is exactly
C11 162 the same.  ^The relationship between the grass and the police,
C11 163 and the grass and the criminals, is intricate and integral to
C11 164 crime and its detection.  ^*"You'd Better Believe It**" is as
C11 165 fascinating an analysis of this as *"In the Underworld**" is of
C11 166 crime in general, and since it is fiction the author does not
C11 167 intrude as much.
C11 168 *<*4Tinned clues to the past*>
C11 169 *<*5New Zealand Journal of Archaeology, Volume 7, 1985.  Edited
C11 170 by Janet Davidson.  {0N.Z.} Archaeological
C11 171 Association/ University of Otago.  182\0pp.  *+$15.50.*>
C11 172 *<(*1Reviewed by Beverley McCulloch)*>
C11 173    |^*0The New Zealand Journal of Archaeology is published
C11 174 annually by the New Zealand Archaeological Association.  ^Its
C11 175 object is to present papers on all aspects of prehistoric and
C11 176 historic archaeology in New Zealand, with relevant articles
C11 177 relating to Pacific archaeology also being acceptable.  ^It is
C11 178 essentially a professional journal aimed principally at meeting
C11 179 the publication and reference needs of professional
C11 180 archaeologists rather than the interested lay person.
C11 181    |^Of the nine papers in the recently issued Volume 7, four
C11 182 discuss work carried out in the Pacific Islands and five deal
C11 183 with New Zealand topics.  ^As one might expect, most of the
C11 184 latter are concerned with sites of prehistoric Maori
C11 185 occupation; there is one on early Chinese miners' habitation
C11 186 sites in Central Otago.  ^It is this last mentioned which I
C11 187 found of greatest interest.
C11 188    |^Metal containers have been used extensively in the Western
C11 189 world for packaging and preserving foodstuffs and other
C11 190 materials, for about 150 years.  ^They are usually called
C11 191 *"tins**" or *"cans,**" and with a few exceptions are generally
C11 192 discarded once they have been emptied.  ^However, compared to
C11 193 glass or ceramic containers, they are not particularly durable
C11 194 *- they are, of course, most subject to rusting *- and have
C11 195 therefore been to a greater extent ignored, both by
C11 196 archaeologists, and also by *"collectors**" for whom they lack
C11 197 the attraction of, for example, the ubiquitous bottle.
C11 198    |^Neville Ritchie and Stuart Bedford of the New Zealand
C11 199 Historic Places Trust have produced a well organised and
C11 200 illustrated article showing the type of metal containers which
C11 201 might be encountered in many places in New Zealand and have
C11 202 shown the value of these as a potential source of cultural and
C11 203 historic information.  ^Best of all, the article is couched in
C11 204 good clear, intelligible English and demonstrates nicely that
C11 205 you don't lose any scientific accuracy by refusing to resort to
C11 206 the sort of mumbo-jumbo jargon too often presented as a
C11 207 substitute for substance.
C11 208    |^Other New Zealand contributions include a study of damage
C11 209 to prehistoric sites by farming activities; using mollusc
C11 210 shells to determine when sites were occupied; a discussion of
C11 211 the artifact assemblage from a site at Coromandel; and a look
C11 212 at stylistic variations in Maori rock drawings from two areas.
C11 213    |^One of the points noted in the rock drawing paper is that
C11 214 some subjects are nearly always depicted facing in a particular
C11 215 direction, a fact which is obviously significant and must
C11 216 always be taken into account in any study of this art form.
C11 217 ^(It is something I had noted myself during my Maori rock art
C11 218 studies some years ago.)
C11 219    |^Because of this I must remark that the New Zealand
C11 220 Archaeological Association aims at, and usually achieves, a
C11 221 high standard for its Journal.  ^Thus, it is a great pity that
C11 222 it persists in portraying on its cover a prehistoric Maori rock
C11 223 drawing printed, for purely aesthetic reasons, in reverse!  ^It
C11 224 offends my scientific ideals by violating a basic principle of
C11 225 good archaeology, that is, to record information as accurately
C11 226 and faithfully as possible.  ^That accuracy, in any worth while
C11 227 scientific publication, should include the cover as well as the
C11 228 contents.
C11 229 *<*5The pursuit of antiques*>
C11 230 *<Antiques and Things.  By Trevor Plumbly.  Published by Peter
C11 231 Stewart, Levin, 1985.  143 \0pp.  *+$16.95 (paperback).*>
C11 232 *<(*1Reviewed by Mervyn Palmer)*>
C11 233    |^*0There are just a few people who seem to be able to write
C11 234 in the same way that they talk and if those people talk
C11 235 agreeably, their writing turns out to be especially worth
C11 236 while.  ^Many people who watched the television series
C11 237 *"Antiques for Love or Money**" would have reservations about
C11 238 the quality of the programme, but there would not be many who
C11 239 could resist Trevor Plumbly's enthusiasm during the course of
C11 240 the series.  ^To listen to him talk and to watch him handle
C11 241 pieces was pleasurable.  ^For my part, I could have wished to
C11 242 see him handling pieces which were more often really worthy of
C11 243 his talents.
C11 244    |^Yet, this brings us to the heart of the matter in his
C11 245 charming book.  *"Antiques and Things**" is not the exclusive
C11 246 preserve of the purist.  ^The interest is not just a platform
C11 247 for academic jousting.  ^It is one of the world's most popular
C11 248 pursuits and Trevor Plumbly rightly believes it should belong
C11 249 to everyone who wants to collect something, whether they chase
C11 250 matchbox labels, or whether they seek *- and occasionally find
C11 251 *- vintage porcelain.
C11 252 *#
C12 001 **[083 TEXT C12**]
C12 002 *<*4Ballet company excels on small stage*>
C12 003    |^*0One of the highlights of the weekend's Holme Station
C12 004 Arts Festival would undoubtably have been the performance given
C12 005 on Saturday evening by the Southern Ballet Company from
C12 006 Christchurch.
C12 007    |^Performing in a large marquee erected on the station's
C12 008 expansive lawn, patrons were treated to a full evening's
C12 009 entertainment of ballet delights.  ^Although some of the
C12 010 traditional movements of the ballets were abridged to adjust to
C12 011 the limitations of the small stage, one could not help but be
C12 012 impressed and swept up in the charm, character and charisma
C12 013 that this company has.
C12 014    |^*1Pas de Quatre *0set to music by Cesare Pugni, opened the
C12 015 evening and was created in the charm of a bygone era.
C12 016 ^Choreographer and director of the Company, Russell Kerr, used
C12 017 his opening four dancers to attune the audience to this
C12 018 beautiful art form.
C12 019    |^By contrast *1Printemps *0was an impressionistic work
C12 020 portraying the new awareness of life during springtime.  ^The
C12 021 opening intricacies of Debussy's orchestration were effectively
C12 022 recreated and portrayed by the two solo dancers.  ^The
C12 023 simplistic soft costumes and choreography allowed both music
C12 024 and dance to speak together.
C12 025    |^The extracts performed from the *1Tales of Beatrix Potter
C12 026 *0took one back to childhood days.  ^Ballet is simply more than
C12 027 dance, and it was in these extracts that this company showed
C12 028 that they are actors of some note.  ^Jemima Puddleduck played
C12 029 by Liza Brereton and the Fox by the talented and comic David
C12 030 Peake were a joy to watch.
C12 031    |^In all, director Russell Kerr fully employed his company
C12 032 in making full use of the festive theatre.  ^Simple and
C12 033 imaginative properties were a joy to see being manipulated on
C12 034 stage.
C12 035    |^No programme of ballet would be complete without something
C12 036 from the works of Tchaikovsky.  ^To conclude this programme the
C12 037 Southern Ballet Company performed the popular Act *=II from the
C12 038 *1Nutcracker Ballet Suite *- The Realm of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
C12 039    |^*0After seeing this company's performance of the complete
C12 040 work back in 1980 I wondered how they were going to do it
C12 041 justice on the small stage.  ^All things considered the company
C12 042 can be proud of its efforts.
C12 043    |^Sugar Plum played by Liza Brereton adjusted well, although
C12 044 somewhat cramped in her difficult moves with the Nutcracker
C12 045 played by David Peake.  ^Neither dancer had the room to fully
C12 046 expand their roles.  ^Not only was the stage restricting but
C12 047 the marquee did not allow for height above the stage.  ^An area
C12 048 that the romantic ballet needs for its principal dancers.
C12 049    |^The Holme Station Arts Festival has a place on this
C12 050 region's cultural calendar.  ^The organisers are to be
C12 051 congratulated for offering a wide variety of cultural
C12 052 happenings over the weekend, and for very ambitiously
C12 053 presenting the popular Southern Ballet Company.
C12 054    |^Ballet is an art form that South Islanders see relatively
C12 055 little of.  ^It is through the untiring efforts of this company
C12 056 that ballet is being offered to everybody.
C12 057    |^Please come again and we all trust that the Arts Council
C12 058 of New Zealand recognises the place of **[SIC**] your company fulfils
C12 059 within the arts in the South Island.  *- Robert Aburn.
C12 060 *<Chamber music spoilt*>
C12 061    |^The presentation of chamber music at an arts festival is
C12 062 always a popular event with the public.  ^This certainly was
C12 063 the case yesterday afternoon at the Holme Station Festival
C12 064 Garden party.
C12 065    |^Performing to a large and ever overflowing audience was
C12 066 the highly-regarded Amici Trio from Christchurch.  ^Whilst the
C12 067 festival organisers had catered for the different arts, little
C12 068 thought had been given to suitably accommodating this talented
C12 069 ensemble.
C12 070    |^Performers of chamber music require a great degree of
C12 071 concentration in order for their individual parts to blend and
C12 072 sound as one.  ^The Homestead's vast hall of opened rooms was
C12 073 in no way sympathetic to this genre of music.  ^Constant
C12 074 background noise from outside seriously marred the
C12 075 performances.
C12 076    |^John Pattinson *- piano, Judy Pattinson *- cello, and
C12 077 Lambert Scott *- violin, are all outstanding and highly
C12 078 respected musicians in their own right, but in yesterday's
C12 079 performance they had to work exceptionally hard to communicate
C12 080 with their audience.
C12 081    |^The opening Haydn *1Trio in E Flat {0H.B.} *=XV10,
C12 082 *0contains many fine examples of the decorative classical
C12 083 style.  ^Throughout the work's two movements, little could be
C12 084 heard of the intricate dialogues that one associates with this
C12 085 composer.  ^The required articulate flowing runs that dominate
C12 086 the textures turned to *"blobs**" of sound, and even the rather
C12 087 simple delicate melodic motives were often very
C12 088 unsympathetically presented.
C12 089    |^Mendelssohn's popular *1Trio in D minor Opus 49 *0was the
C12 090 other work of the Amici's programme.  ^In retrospect this
C12 091 proved to be far too ambitious for the festival.  ^Constant
C12 092 interruptions from noises outside spoilt the concentration of
C12 093 the trio on numerous occasions which resulted in a very poor
C12 094 rendering of the work.
C12 095    |^Chamber music is the highest of all the musical genres,
C12 096 and needs an environment conducive to good performance.
C12 097 ^Festival patrons had not paid for second class entertainment,
C12 098 and the Amici Trio themselves uphold very high academic and
C12 099 musical standards.  ^If ensembles of this calibre are to be
C12 100 invited again, the festival organisers need to find a new
C12 101 venue.  *- Robert Aburn.
C12 102 *<*4Review*>
C12 103 *<*5The Residents, *4at the Galaxy, Saturday night.*>
C12 104    |^*0Concert-goers had the chance to sample some creme-de-la-creme 
C12 105 of loony cult hero music at the Galaxy on Saturday night.
C12 106    |^The act, the Residents, San Francisco-based unit who
C12 107 presented something of a two-hour visual and music
C12 108 extravaganza.  ^The band, which surprisingly seems to comprise
C12 109 of two male members who supply synthesised keyboard effects and
C12 110 vocals and what looked like two female members, who provided an
C12 111 entertaining and visual front for the group with a series of
C12 112 tightly constructed choreographed dances.
C12 113    |^After a long wait and the screening of several videos from
C12 114 the band's past selection, the Residents finally arrived on
C12 115 stage, decked out in white suits and large eyeball-masks.
C12 116 ^This was the only time the audience of around 1000 gave any
C12 117 sort of vocal approval.
C12 118    |^For the rest of the evening the crowd was either glued to
C12 119 the floor, mesmerised by the group, or slumped against the
C12 120 walls in a decidedly *"spun out**" situation, after initially
C12 121 yelling and screaming.
C12 122    |^Lighting was simple, with some guy sitting on the floor of
C12 123 the stage spinning a couple of yellow lights around.  ^The
C12 124 musical highlight of the evening was *1It's a Man's Man's Man's
C12 125 World, *0while the other notable number was a bizarre rendition
C12 126 of Elvis Presley's *1Jail House Rock.
C12 127    |^*0Guitarist Snakefinger proved to be the real tour de
C12 128 force of the night, manipulating his guitar to make some
C12 129 incredible sounds and making the Residents half-pie musically
C12 130 credible.
C12 131    |^Overall the group was entertaining.
C12 132 *- *3PAUL ELLIS
C12 133 *<*4Art fair goes big*>
C12 134 |^*6W*2HEN *0New Zealand's first national art fair, Artex '86,
C12 135 opens at Princess Wharf this week it will be the biggest
C12 136 display of art assembled under one roof in this country.
C12 137    |^It features 25 exhibitors and more than 2000 paintings and
C12 138 prints.  ^Other exhibits include ceramics, sculpture and
C12 139 photography.  ^Works sold will be progressively replaced to
C12 140 ensure a continuing display.  ^There will also be
C12 141 demonstrations of painting, lectures and a competition to
C12 142 design a poster for next year's fair.
C12 143    |^The show's initiator is Auckland businessman Warwick
C12 144 Henderson (33), who owns a major collection of New Zealand fine
C12 145 arts collected over the past 17 years.
C12 146    |^The fair will be opened tomorrow by Arts Minister Peter
C12 147 Tapsell, and will be open to the public from Wednesday to
C12 148 Sunday.
C12 149    |^An Artex exhibitor for business people to look out for is
C12 150 Joy Tongue, who a year ago opened the first Auckland gallery
C12 151 (Studio 26) specialising in corporate art for commercial
C12 152 offices.
C12 153    |^Tongue, a London-trained interior designer, saw the need
C12 154 for a gallery concerned completely with supplying and promoting
C12 155 art for the commercial environment.
C12 156    |^Tongue has been dealing in contemporary limited edition
C12 157 prints for five years, and now buys from England, France,
C12 158 America, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
C12 159    |^From New Zealand she is trying to promote more unusual art
C12 160 in texture, collage and sculpture, and says this is a
C12 161 particularly exciting time to expose artists to the public
C12 162 within the environment of new, tastefully decorated offices.
C12 163    |^New Zealand artists represented at Studio 26 include Terry
C12 164 Stringer, Peter Featherstone, Carol Shepherd, Ann St Cartmail,
C12 165 Margaret Dolezel and Suzanne Herschell.
C12 166    |^At Artex '86, Studio 26 is exhibiting prints from England,
C12 167 America, France and Russia.
C12 168 *<*4Eating out with Anne Fenwick*>
C12 169 *<*1Ethnic change brings no Greek festival...*>
C12 170 |^*6C*2HANGING *0styles may be constant at the hairdresser's,
C12 171 but one thing remains consistent *- the flow of news.  ^And
C12 172 rather as in a local pub, topical talk is particularly
C12 173 noticeable at suburban salons.
C12 174    |^From basin to blow-drier much information can be gleaned,
C12 175 ranging from tremendous to trivial.  ^Neighbourhood watch,
C12 176 warfare and woes, as well as all the other extras like sex,
C12 177 religion and politics, were discussed during my last haircut.
C12 178    |^But my ears particularly pricked when I heard mention of a
C12 179 newly-opened Grey Lynn eatery which, said the hairdresser, was
C12 180 being advertised as *"the only Greek restaurant in town**".
C12 181 ^She even had the phone number.
C12 182    |^Knowing that my friend The Foodie has fond memories of
C12 183 Greece, I later invited her to accompany me last week, leaving
C12 184 her to make a mutually convenient booking.
C12 185    |^She was driving, and as we had much to talk about I did
C12 186 not take much notice of my surroundings until we pulled up in
C12 187 Richmond \0Rd.  ^A sense of deja vu enveloped me.
C12 188 |^*6W*2AS *0this not the exact site, I asked, of a place which
C12 189 once called itself the only Persian restaurant in town?  ^The
C12 190 food, I reminded her, had been disappointing.  ^Were we about
C12 191 to suffer in the hands of the same owner who had conveniently
C12 192 undergone an ethnic change?
C12 193    |^Gesturing to the exterior decoration of the fluted Doric
C12 194 columns of the ancient Greek temple dedicated to the goddess
C12 195 Athena, my friend told me to relax.
C12 196    |^Yes, she assured me, we were definitely at a Greek
C12 197 restaurant.  ^And while it may once have been Persian, with the
C12 198 change in name and cuisine came a new owner.  ^She had been
C12 199 told this while making the booking.
C12 200    |^Certainly, while the basic interior features, like the
C12 201 canopied ceiling and narrow, circular staircase to the upstairs
C12 202 dining area, remained, the Persian influence had been replaced
C12 203 with a Greek theme evident in decoration and menu.
C12 204    |^What initially pleased us about the menu was, as starters,
C12 205 a list of \mezethes or \mezethaki.  ^\Meze can be very simple,
C12 206 perhaps even a small serving of whatever is being cooked in the
C12 207 large kitchen pot as the main meal of the day.
C12 208    |^It can be pieces of fish, slices of vegetable, olives,
C12 209 pickles, bread, cheese and spinach pie, lamb's brains or
C12 210 livers.  ^\Dolmathes (stuffed vine leaves) and \taramosalata
C12 211 (fish roe puree) are also common features, and this food, in
C12 212 small portions, is always served with drinks.
C12 213    |^This evening, as well as \taramosalata and \dolmathakia,
C12 214 the \meze included chicken livers, lamb brains, a small pie of
C12 215 spinach, fetta and cottage cheese, squid, and prawns baked in
C12 216 wine, herbs and fetta cheese.  ^These dishes could be served as
C12 217 separate items, priced from *+$4.95 to *+$6.95, or they were
C12 218 available as a selection costing *+$8.50.  ^We each decided on
C12 219 such a platter.
C12 220    |^This arrived promptly and we thought they were reasonable
C12 221 and combined well with our {0BYO} wine, both agreeing how
C12 222 sensible the Greeks are always to combine food with their
C12 223 retsina or ouzo.
C12 224    |^The Foodie told tales of how the best Greek food is to be
C12 225 found in private houses rather than restaurants or tavernas.
C12 226 ^Perhaps we lingered too long over our \meze and conversation,
C12 227 because our anxious waitress wanted to clear our plates, saying
C12 228 our main dishes were ready.
C12 229    |^We were a little surprised to be hurried, but we applauded
C12 230 the concern for timing and accordingly looked forward to food
C12 231 cooked with care.  ^My main, costing *+$16.90, was {0psari
C12 232 plaki} *- fish baked in the oven with onions, parsley and
C12 233 tomatoes.
C12 234    |^As Greece is almost surrounded by the sea, fish is
C12 235 understandably a major source of diet.  ^Grilling, barbecuing
C12 236 and baking are among the most common Greek cooking methods.
C12 237 ^Those who have lived close to the Mediterranean tell 
C12 238 mouth-watering tales of fresh fish basted with olive oil and lemon,
C12 239 seasoned with oregano and thyme, and then baked to perfection.
C12 240    |^Perfection was not a word I would have used this evening
C12 241 for my whole snapper.  ^It was sadly overbaked, the succulence
C12 242 lost forever from its flesh.  ^Its flavour, too, was
C12 243 disappointing.
C12 244 *#
C13 001 **[084 TEXT C13**]
C13 002 *<*6BOOKS*>
C13 003 *<*4Fascinating account *- and the best*>
C13 004 *<*6DEATH OF THE RAINBOW WARRIOR
C13 005 *4By Michael King
C13 006 *0Published by Penguin, *+$16.99*>
C13 007    |^*0King and his publishers are about mid-field in the flood
C13 008 of books on the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, but they still
C13 009 managed to score a literary coup.  ^The impending release of
C13 010 Mafart and Prieur from their New Zealand prisons and the
C13 011 anniversary of the terrorist attack rekindled public interest,
C13 012 and it coincided with the release of this book.
C13 013    |^At last count there were still four books to be published
C13 014 and the task of the authors to have a saleable commodity is
C13 015 becoming more difficult.  ^Short of the French secret service
C13 016 producing the definitive account, there is probably nothing
C13 017 left that is plausible to tell about the affair.
C13 018    |^King, more noted as an author on Maori matters but shown
C13 019 in this book to be a skilled investigative writer, received a
C13 020 good deal of co-operation from the police.  ^The access to the
C13 021 files on the interviews with Mafart and Prieur, while not
C13 022 coming directly from the police, help give the book authority.
C13 023 ^And it is obvious that the tracing of the movements of the
C13 024 various French agents squares with what the police were able to
C13 025 establish.
C13 026    |^It is a fascinating account, naming more names, blending
C13 027 the history of French nuclear testing, the protests of
C13 028 Greenpeace and the events leading up to the bombing.  ^But in
C13 029 spite of the claim that King has produced the full inside
C13 030 story, it is clear that the full story will never be told
C13 031 unless the {0DGSE} comes out from hiding.
C13 032    |^King traces the moves of Mafart and Prieur, the Ouvea crew
C13 033 and the leaders of the operation.  ^And he names a third team
C13 034 of agents in New Zealand at the time of the bombing, and who,
C13 035 he says, carried out the sabotage.  ^But there are gaps in the
C13 036 account, particularly with the movements of the third team and
C13 037 their meetings with the *"Turenges**" and the Ouvea crew.  ^It
C13 038 forces the author to make many assumptions, although they are
C13 039 certainly plausible and probably align with what the police
C13 040 investigations unravelled.
C13 041    |^South Canterbury also has a connection with the bombers
C13 042 according to King.  ^He says that following the 10 July
C13 043 sinking, Jacques Camurier and Alain Tonel *- the third team *-
C13 044 made their way to the South Island for rest and recreation and
C13 045 to lie low.  ^On 18 July they arrived at \0Mt Cook, staying in
C13 046 the youth hostel, and spent a lot of time skiing.  ^They posed
C13 047 as Tahitian physical education instructors and stayed in the
C13 048 park until 23 July when they returned to Auckland and left the
C13 049 country.
C13 050    |^The book is also beneficial in the wake of the actions of
C13 051 the French and New Zealand Governments in repeating what the
C13 052 politicians said in the period following the bombing.
C13 053 ^Clearly, New Zealand has been treated as a minnow on the world
C13 054 stage and the Government was forced to do an about-turn on the
C13 055 imprisonment of Mafart and Prieur.  ^And what of the French
C13 056 Government's promise *- *"those responsible will be brought to
C13 057 justice**"?
C13 058    |^King also criticises the role of the United States and
C13 059 British administrations, particularly in the lack of assistance
C13 060 given the New Zealand investigation.  ^The United States could
C13 061 have traced the movements of the Ouvea after it left New
C13 062 Zealand, but declined, apparently as a result of the ban on
C13 063 nuclear ships.  ^Britain was also apparently slow to respond to
C13 064 calls for assistance, and both the Thatcher and Reagan
C13 065 administrations denied the Rainbow Warrior was sunk by 
C13 066 state-sponsored terrorism.
C13 067    |^*1Death of the Rainbow Warrior *0is the best of the books
C13 068 on the affair so far released.  ^Interestingly, it is not
C13 069 illustrated, but it is not a flaw given the weight of
C13 070 photographs seen in the last year. *- {0D.H.W.}
C13 071 *<*5Sure sounds like fun*>
C13 072 |^*6S*2EVENTEEN-*0year-old high school pupil Ferris Bueller is
C13 073 a master in the art of adult manipulation, as will be seen in
C13 074 the State Theatre's opening holiday attraction.
C13 075    |^*1Ferris Bueller's Day Off, *0which starts on Friday,
C13 076 chronicles the events on the day the student capitulates to an
C13 077 overwhelming urge to cut school and head for downtown Chicago
C13 078 with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron.
C13 079    |^Ferris, who knows the value of a day off, wants to see the
C13 080 sights, experience a day of freedom, and show that with a
C13 081 little ingenuity, a bit of courage and a red Ferrari, life at
C13 082 17 can be a joy.
C13 083    |^In order to accomplish this, Ferris sets into motion a
C13 084 wildly audacious, well-calculated and nearly flawless plan.
C13 085    |^He convinces his parents that their beloved son is ill,
C13 086 and the student body that he is desperately in need of a kidney
C13 087 operation; the dean of students that Sloane's grandmother has
C13 088 died, in order to spring her from school, and Cameron that they
C13 089 must use his friend's father's classic 1961 Ferrari to tool
C13 090 around town.
C13 091    |^During their whirlwind tour of the big city, however,
C13 092 counter forces are at work to ruin Ferris' day *- his younger
C13 093 sister and the dean of students are out to expose him.
C13 094    |^*1Ferris Bueller's Day Off *0has been written and directed
C13 095 by John Hughes who has touched on important issues of teen
C13 096 reality in such films as *1Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club
C13 097 *0and *1Pretty In Pink.
C13 098    |^*0Hughes describes his latest production as being the
C13 099 other side of *1The Breakfast Club *0as it examines the
C13 100 considerable joys and advantages of being young.
C13 101    |^*"At this point in your life, anything is possible.  ^You
C13 102 have a great deal of freedom and relatively few
C13 103 responsibilities and commitments.  ^I've always dealt with
C13 104 characters who had problems and this time around, I wanted to
C13 105 create a character who could handle everyone and everything,**"
C13 106 Hughes said.
C13 107    |^*"Although *1Ferris Bueller's Day Off *0deals with high
C13 108 school, there's a lesson here for people of all ages.
C13 109 ^Everyone needs to take a day off once in a while.  ^Whether
C13 110 you're 55 or 5, we all need to break our routine and take a
C13 111 look around us.  ^We're so driven by our desires to get more,
C13 112 do more, that we forget to look at what we really have.  ^If we
C13 113 could stop the pursuit for just a moment, we might realise that
C13 114 what we have isn't all that bad.**"
C13 115    |^The emphasis on **[SIC**] Hughes' films is character.  ^He is
C13 116 capable of taking simple, everyday situations *- a family
C13 117 forgets a young woman's 16th birthday (*1Sixteen Candles),
C13 118 *0five students spend a day in a Saturday detention (*1The
C13 119 Breakfast Club), *0a girl from the wrong side of the tracks
C13 120 falls in love with a boy from the right side (*1Pretty in Pink)
C13 121 *- *0and investing them with a sense of magic, truth and
C13 122 realism.
C13 123    |^*"It's not the events that are important,**" notes Hughes.
C13 124 ^*"It's the characters going through the event.  ^Therefore, I
C13 125 have to make them as full and real as I can.  ^I regard my
C13 126 characters not as the actors performing the roles but as the
C13 127 characters themselves.  ^It's hard for me to cut the length of
C13 128 my films because the characters are so real to me.
C13 129    |^*"Ferris is charming, extremely clever and intelligent.
C13 130 ^He reads people well and anticipates situations.  ^He has a
C13 131 strong sense of morality and responsibility that keep him from
C13 132 being a con man.**"
C13 133    |^The title role is played by the talented Matthew Broderick
C13 134 *- the son of the late actor James Broderick (*1Five Easy
C13 135 Pieces, Dog Day Afternoon) *0and the father in the television
C13 136 series *1Family *0and artist Patricia Broderick, who has also
C13 137 been a playwright and stage director.
C13 138    |^He is most remembered in New Zealand for playing the
C13 139 computer whiz who inadvertently brings the world to the brink
C13 140 of nuclear war in *1War Games.
C13 141 *<*4Costa Botes *2LOOKING AT FILMS*>
C13 142 *<*4For strong stomachs only*>
C13 143 |^*6FLESH AND BLOOD (*0Embassy, \0R16), valiantly takes on some
C13 144 heavyweight themes, but never quite manages to reach any
C13 145 worthwhile conclusions.  ^Perhaps the overwhelming impression
C13 146 of stench and putridity that the film exudes is its most
C13 147 coherent aspect.  ^You'll need a strong stomach for this one.
C13 148    |^Dutch director Paul Verhoeven is better known for smaller
C13 149 scale pictures such as Turkish Delight and The Fourth Man.
C13 150 ^The latter was shown recently at the Wellington Film Festival.
C13 151 ^No matter the scale of his films, subtlety is not one of
C13 152 Verhoeven's strong points.  ^With the wider canvas at his
C13 153 command in Flesh and Blood, a big budget international 
C13 154 co-production, it is no wonder that he strives more for excess
C13 155 than finesse.
C13 156    |^The intention behind this film seems to have been to
C13 157 deliberately soil every romantic myth of knightly chivalry and
C13 158 courtly love that has characterised the medieval genre from
C13 159 King Arthur to Ivanhoe.
C13 160    |^Verhoeven's Middle Ages are violent and disease ridden,
C13 161 filled with cynical manipulators.  ^Conscience and virtue take
C13 162 a definite back seat to greed and vice in this loveless time.
C13 163    |^Still, that's probably a valid enough historical view.
C13 164 ^And there is a lot of humour there among the blood, sweat, and
C13 165 plague sores, even if not all of it is intentional.
C13 166    |^Tom Burlinson's acting as Steven, a love-struck
C13 167 princeling, is so atrocious that he's frequently good for a
C13 168 chuckle.  ^Fellow Ocker, Jack Thompson, looks equally
C13 169 uncomfortable in his armoured codpiece, though he generally
C13 170 gives a far better account of himself than young Burlinson.
C13 171    |^Only Rutger Hauer, as the charismatic opportunist Martin,
C13 172 emerges with any real distinction from this mess, though
C13 173 Jennifer Jason Leigh, as the ostensible love interest Agnes,
C13 174 fares better and better as the film goes along.
C13 175    |^Leigh is a real live-wire, playing the sweet innocent and
C13 176 wanton harlot as the occasion demands.  ^She recognises that
C13 177 neither of the two rivals for her affections see her as
C13 178 anything more than an accessory to their prides, so she goads
C13 179 and cajoles each of them equally, looking out to be on the
C13 180 winning side.  ^Though she professes true love, survival is
C13 181 uppermost in her mind.
C13 182    |^Verhoeven has consciously crafted mythic archetypes in the
C13 183 characters of Martin and Steven; the former a violent and
C13 184 superstitious man, fully in tune with his times, the latter
C13 185 more introspective and rational, looking ahead to the
C13 186 Renaissance and the age of enlightenment.
C13 187    |^Flesh and Blood poses these two as irreconcilable but
C13 188 balanced forces.  ^First one, then the other gets the upper
C13 189 hand, but neither of them can ever truly win.  ^It's a vision
C13 190 conveyed with great style and gusto, but the film as a whole is
C13 191 severely marred by the lack of even one sympathetic character.
C13 192    |^*4Edith's Diary (*0Penthouse, \0R13) is adapted from a
C13 193 novel by Patricia Highsmith, but it steers clear of her usual
C13 194 preoccupation with the criminal mind, delving instead into the
C13 195 life of a woman under intense psychological siege.
C13 196    |^Edith (Angele Winkler) ought to be the envy of her peers.
C13 197 ^She has a loving husband, a wonderful home and a fulfilling
C13 198 intellectual life as the editor of a leftist journal.
C13 199    |^But there are widening cracks in Edith's world.  ^Her son,
C13 200 Chris, is a monstrous layabout, her husband brings his mistress
C13 201 home and announces that he wants a divorce, and worse still,
C13 202 Edith is left to care for a bed-ridden and demanding old uncle.
C13 203    |^Edith gradually retreats into a fantasy world that becomes
C13 204 more and more real to her as the real world gets ever more
C13 205 unbearable.
C13 206    |^Director Hans Geissendorfer has delivered a real domestic
C13 207 horror story here; even more of a nightmare than any number of
C13 208 monster movies.  ^The monsters here are human and it's their
C13 209 reality which makes them so frightening.
C13 210    |^If Edith's state of mind can be called insanity, then the
C13 211 film suggests that insanity is a sensible form of 
C13 212 self-protection.  ^A vital aspect of its subject that the film fails
C13 213 to grasp, however, is the role of social expectations or sexual
C13 214 stereotyping in producing Edith's condition.
C13 215    |^Her fantasies are of the most conventional kind.  ^Edith
C13 216 dreams of son Chris as a prodigal, **[SIC**] married, with
C13 217 a good job and two kids.  ^Why should the lack of these things 
C13 218 make a capable, intelligent woman go nuts?
C13 219    |^Despite her political sophistication, despite feminism, is
C13 220 Edith still a victim of patriarchal social conditioning?  ^Why
C13 221 can't she make it on her own?  ^Has she always been a little
C13 222 bit crazy?
C13 223    |^These questions are only suggested by the film, never
C13 224 answered.  ^Perhaps just bringing them up is enough, but for me
C13 225 that only adds up to an unsatisfying feeling that the issues
C13 226 haven't been thought through.
C13 227    |^Winkler gives an excellent nervy performance, full of
C13 228 bottled up emotion.  ^Leopold von Verschuer chills the blood as
C13 229 the sinister and badly maladjusted Chris.
C13 230    |^Edith's Diary is a strong film, with some audacious set
C13 231 pieces to recommend it.  ^As a whole, the film suffers only a
C13 232 little from a moribund and self-consciously arty style.  ^As a
C13 233 juicy family melodrama, it's better than a hundred reruns of
C13 234 Dallasty.
C13 235 *#
C14 001 **[085 TEXT C14**]
C14 002 *<*4The wedding filled our week*> *<The television week with
C14 003 David Wilson*>
C14 004    |^*0For one long dreadful moment on Wednesday night it
C14 005 seemed as though our television coverage of the Royal wedding
C14 006 would be described in the nasal tones of Australian
C14 007 commentators.
C14 008    |^As much as the Australians are capable of some high
C14 009 quality television (if we can forget *1Return To Eden) *0they
C14 010 haven't exactly blazed a trail in the type of low-key
C14 011 descriptive work needed for Royal pageants.  ^Yet there was
C14 012 Channel 10 commentator, Katrina Lee, opening the wedding
C14 013 coverage on Network One, knowing that most of Australia and New
C14 014 Zealand would be huddled around the set desperately seeking a
C14 015 cheerful respite from the Commonwealth Games fiasco happening
C14 016 elsewhere in Britain.
C14 017    |^You, like me, were probably expecting the dulcet tones of
C14 018 British commentators.  ^It's something we've come to expect and
C14 019 \0Ms Lee's intrusion was doubly awful for the Royal gaffe she
C14 020 performed within the first minutes of the marathon broadcast.
C14 021 ^Referring to the fact that Prince Andrew had just been made
C14 022 Duke of York, this charming lady from the colonies breezily
C14 023 informed us that the last person to hold the title was *"the
C14 024 Queen Mother's husband**".
C14 025    |^In case you've forgotten his name (as \0Ms Lee obviously
C14 026 did) it was King George *=VI!  ^Royalty fans would have cringed
C14 027 at that omission.  ^But worse was to come.  ^On this day when
C14 028 happiness and sugar were the rule, we were taken to the sewers
C14 029 of London for a news piece about the search for bombs, rockets,
C14 030 missiles and Libyan extremists.  ^Was the live coverage of the
C14 031 event the place to drop in the big question-mark about
C14 032 assassination attempts?
C14 033    |^It may be news, but there's a certain chemistry between
C14 034 television viewer and Royal wedding event.  ^It's this: ^The
C14 035 viewer doesn't want to know anything unsavoury or dirty about
C14 036 what is in effect a vast, colourful fairy story.
C14 037    |^Every night our screens are filled with images of death,
C14 038 terror, starvation and misery.  ^Even the beloved Commonwealth
C14 039 Games are in danger of destruction with a never-ending boycott
C14 040 from nations angry at Britain's refusal to impose economic
C14 041 sanctions against South Africa.  ^There's the constant rumour
C14 042 of a constitutional crisis in Britain with the Queen and \0Mrs
C14 043 Thatcher deeply divided on the sanctions issue and the likely
C14 044 impact on the future of the Commonwealth.  ^But in the middle
C14 045 of it all comes something we can all relate to, something we
C14 046 know will have a happy ending, where everyone smiles.  ^Safe.
C14 047    |^That, and the spectacular pageantry and ceremonial that
C14 048 only the British can do well, ensured the Royal wedding of
C14 049 Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson would be the television event
C14 050 of the year.  ^Live coverage of such events is something that
C14 051 television is uniquely placed to do well, a point explored in
C14 052 recent episodes of the *1Television *0series currently
C14 053 screening here.
C14 054    |^An array of something like 40 television cameras was
C14 055 dotted along the route between Buckingham Palace and inside
C14 056 Westminster Abbey.  ^They meant that viewers in Timaru had a
C14 057 better and closer view of the total proceedings as they
C14 058 happened than even the bride and groom *- television was that
C14 059 effective.
C14 060    |^It was a spectacle made for the colour television set.
C14 061 ^Something that was real and spectacular with delightful cameo
C14 062 views, such as Prince William who everyone expected to run amok
C14 063 in the abbey and who provided the only *"cliff-hanger**" drama
C14 064 of the night.
C14 065    |^Whether you are a Royalty watcher or not there was no
C14 066 denying that coverage of the wedding was a brilliant visual
C14 067 achievement *- even to some vertigo producing scenes shot from
C14 068 the rafters of the abbey during the ceremony.  ^And, most
C14 069 happily, when the actual processions from the palace began we
C14 070 viewers were mercifully cut over to the restrained and cultured
C14 071 commentary of David Dimbleby, a British commentator who has
C14 072 inherited a task made famous by his late father, Richard
C14 073 Dimbleby.
C14 074    |^Of course, commercial considerations intruded on the flow
C14 075 of the coverage, and constant advertisement breaks might have
C14 076 annoyed some viewers, but at least the actual wedding ceremony
C14 077 was screened intact.
C14 078    |^There's no denying that the Royal Family is a sure-fire
C14 079 television ratings winner, and Wednesday night's live coverage
C14 080 will ensure that the best known family in the world maintains
C14 081 its degree of public popularity.
C14 082    |^It was interesting to return to New Zealand in time for
C14 083 the Royal wedding after spending a week in a country that has
C14 084 no television system at all *- but which still sees our
C14 085 favourite programmes.
C14 086    |^An assignment in the Cook Islands afforded an opportunity
C14 087 to see how the local population amuses itself without the
C14 088 visual drug of television.  ^It produced some interesting
C14 089 results.  ^Video is very popular in the Cooks.  ^One remote
C14 090 island, sparsely inhabited, has no town to speak of, but the
C14 091 island has 90 video recorders and is right up to date with New
C14 092 Zealand television programmes.
C14 093    |^Television New Zealand is currently negotiating with the
C14 094 Cook Islands government to begin a transmission service to the
C14 095 islands and {0TVNZ} representatives visiting the country were
C14 096 amused (I think) to encounter numerous pirated {0TVNZ} tapes
C14 097 for hire and sale in local shops.
C14 098    |^Recent episodes of *1Magnum {0PI}, Hawaii Five-O *- *0even
C14 099 *1Eyewitness News *0programmes *- were available at *+$20 a
C14 100 tape (to buy) or *+$1 or so to hire.
C14 101    |^It's a sobering thought to know that television's
C14 102 influence can still be felt without the presence of a
C14 103 transmission station and the people's readiness to accept the
C14 104 idea of nightly entertainment packages is evidenced by the fact
C14 105 that there are already more video recorders than cars on
C14 106 Rarotonga.
C14 107    |^Back at home we viewers are rearranging the armour plating
C14 108 between us and the set as {0TVNZ} prepares to fire another
C14 109 broadside at us, usually known as their new season.
C14 110    |^Early August is the crunch time, and while the old season
C14 111 has had its share of quality programmes, there's also been much
C14 112 that was abysmal and deserved the junk pile.  ^Television New
C14 113 Zealand must take much of the blame for this in so much as it
C14 114 hypes everything, promising us the earth and delivering a
C14 115 lesser product.
C14 116    |^Snappy logos saying ^*"It's all happening!**" are all very
C14 117 well, but plainly all that is happening is the return of some
C14 118 old favourites, retreads on some tired shows due for a repeat,
C14 119 and the usual crop of unfunny American situation comedies.
C14 120 ^Far better just to say that a new lineup of shows begins soon
C14 121 and let the viewers judge whether the event's one to shout from
C14 122 the rooftops.
C14 123    |^As it is, the between the seasons time signals an early
C14 124 evening cutoff on our set, particularly as the Commonwealth
C14 125 Games brings its overdose of live sports coverage for any
C14 126 insomniacs, owls and cat burglars needing diversion at 4{0am}.
C14 127    |^But there is a little beam of sunshine, with Network Two's
C14 128 Sunday night feature films which are real films and not the
C14 129 plastic made-for-\0TV junk so often foisted on us.
C14 130    |^*1Close Encounters Of The Third Kind *0and *1Phar Lap *0in
C14 131 recent weeks, *1On Golden Pond *0tomorrow night, and *1Star
C14 132 Trek *=II: The Wrath of Khan *0next Sunday.  ^Think of it:
C14 133 ^Feature movies that screen without any advertising
C14 134 interruptions.  ^If that's any indicator of the new season,
C14 135 I'll buy that.
C14 136 *<*6DISCUSSION*> *<*1Record reviews*>
C14 137 *<*4Aussie Crawl's Final Wave*>
C14 138    *<Australian Crawl *"The Final Wave**".  {0SFL}1 0142.*>
C14 139    |^*0Live bands can become known or disowned on the quality
C14 140 of their concert sounds.  ^Some groups survive on the quality
C14 141 of their concert material alone, others could not ever possibly
C14 142 make it to the stage.
C14 143    |^Australian Crawl put out a good live album a few years
C14 144 back.  ^It was okay.  ^Went by the name of *"Phalanx**",
C14 145 sported a great cover and was recorded at the Bombay Rock in
C14 146 Surfers Paradise.  ^It contained some of their best material
C14 147 and when played loud it sounded good.
C14 148 *<*4Not bad*>
C14 149    |^*0Then they put out *"Between a Rock and a Hard Place**".
C14 150 ^Not bad.  ^Nowhere near the style of their earlier work, but
C14 151 who can nag if a band decides to do something a little
C14 152 different.
C14 153    |^Ask anyone to name some Crawl songs off the band's first
C14 154 three albums and they will hit back with a fistful.  ^Ask them
C14 155 about the *"Hard Place**" album and they will give a palms-up
C14 156 gesture.
C14 157    |^Now we have the aptly titled *"Final Wave**" album.  ^It
C14 158 marks the band's last concert. ^Australian Crawl is no 
C14 159 more.
C14 160    |^I guess they could not do much else for a coda than put
C14 161 out another live album.  ^Had they gone into the studio and
C14 162 managed to pen another batch of decent songs that might have
C14 163 prompted them to stay together.
C14 164    |^So what does *"Final Wave**" have to offer?  ^Firstly it
C14 165 has all the favourites.  ^Just like Crawlfile and Phalanx.
C14 166    |^There is *"Louie Louie**", *"Boys Light Up**",
C14 167 *"Downhearted**", *"Reckless and White Limbo**".  ^It covers
C14 168 all of their six earlier albums from *"Sons of Beaches**" right
C14 169 through to *"Phalanx**".
C14 170 *<*4No point?*>
C14 171    |^*0Anyone who already has the live *"Phalanx**" album might
C14 172 not see much point in buying *"Final Wave**".  ^After all,
C14 173 eight of *"Phalanx's**" 10 tracks are on it, but the latter
C14 174 does have 14 tracks and nearly 50 minutes of music.
C14 175    |^Yet at the same time anyone who relished *"Phalanx**"
C14 176 should also be satisfied with this album.  ^Maybe there is some
C14 177 prestige in owning Crawl's last live album, but if I was going
C14 178 to pick an album to remember Australian Crawl by, I would go
C14 179 for *"Crawlfile**".  ^Sure, it was a studio version, but it too
C14 180 had their best songs and it wrapped up their sound nicely.
C14 181 *<*4Fast beat*>
C14 182    |^*"*0Final Wave**" has a fast beat to it.  ^Most of the
C14 183 songs are played hard and the best way to listen to them would
C14 184 be in a valley beneath a mountain of speakers.  ^Much like
C14 185 reproducing a concert really.
C14 186    |^The beginning of *"Downhearted**" is very Pink Floyd.  ^No
C14 187 loss there, and apart from band members besides Reyne not doing
C14 188 any solos until *"Louie Louie**" (the last), this album is not
C14 189 that bad.
C14 190    |^Nice album cover too.  *- Gavin Haycock.
C14 191 *<*4Brenda Tennent looks at art*>
C14 192 *<Max Gimblett worth trip*>
C14 193    |^If you are venturing out of Rotorua in the next few weeks
C14 194 to Hamilton, the Centre Gallery offers a retreat from the city
C14 195 bustle for some undisturbed art viewing.
C14 196    |^*0The gallery was opened in 1982 in what used to be the
C14 197 old Hamilton Hotel and is part of a major project of the
C14 198 charitable body, the Chartwell Trust.
C14 199 *<*4Four areas*>
C14 200    |^*0The renovated building has become an art centre that
C14 201 offers art of national and international importance to people
C14 202 in the region.
C14 203    |^The gallery has four exhibition areas beginning with a
C14 204 window gallery facing on to the main street, and finishing with
C14 205 the main gallery downstairs, which looks out on to the Waikato
C14 206 River.
C14 207    |^It has managed to retain its old world charm while still
C14 208 functioning as an ideal environment for major contemporary art
C14 209 works.
C14 210    |^The gallery has had an impressive list of exhibiting
C14 211 artists since its opening, including well-known artists such as
C14 212 Philip Trusttum, Rick Killeen, Ralph Hotere, Robert Ellis and
C14 213 Pat Hanley.  ^An exhibition of particular significance earlier
C14 214 this year was Haongia Te Taonga, or Our Gifts Together *- a
C14 215 gathering of paintings and sculptures of five contemporary
C14 216 Maori artists.
C14 217 *<*4Change*>
C14 218    |^*0The exhibition awakens its viewers to recent
C14 219 developments and the constant state of change evident in
C14 220 contemporary Maori art.
C14 221    |^Yet another major exhibition showing until October 31
C14 222 consists of 19 works by Max Gimblett.
C14 223    |^Gimblett is a New Zealander who lives and paints in New
C14 224 York and exhibits successfully in Auckland and the United
C14 225 States.
C14 226    |^The exhibition brings together works held in New Zealand
C14 227 collections, including some from the Chartwell collection.
C14 228    |^Many used to realist or expressionist painting find
C14 229 abstract or minimal art lacking in content and 
C14 230 non-communicative.
C14 231 *<*4Redress*>
C14 232    |^*0Max Gimblett could help to redress that notion.
C14 233 ^Contemplation is important to understanding the enjoyment of
C14 234 Gimblett's meditative images.
C14 235    |^He is committed to the ideas of the Eastern philosophy of
C14 236 Zen.
C14 237    |^This is the motivation or energy behind Gimblett's
C14 238 exploration of colour, space, surface, light, and symbolism.
C14 239    |^It is the spiritual quality of abstraction that Gimblet
C14 240 suggests we consider as we stand before his huge canvases.
C14 241 ^Body-size works in many layers of a single colour demand
C14 242 contemplation, wonder and response.
C14 243    |^Size and scale are important concerns for the artist and
C14 244 the viewer alike.  ^The smaller, very direct, gestural Sumi ink
C14 245 drawings are hung at head height.  ^The wrist action of drawing
C14 246 seems to correspond more to the action of the mind or the
C14 247 intellect.
C14 248    |^This contrasts with the much larger scaled paintings on
C14 249 canvas.  ^The size of these paintings correspond exactly with
C14 250 Gimblett's body height, painting-arm outstretched.  ^Paintings
C14 251 of this scale demand a response of the senses and Gimblett's
C14 252 careful measurements reaffirm this.  ^This combines with the
C14 253 artist's uses of a central space or shape to focus on such as a
C14 254 rectangle in the middle of a square or a quadrefoil, to
C14 255 encourage a meditative and contemplative response.
C14 256    |^Also relevant is the communication of the process of the
C14 257 making of the painting.
C14 258    |^The brush marks that don't quite reach the top of the
C14 259 canvas and the sheen of the paint that reflects the direction
C14 260 of brush tell the viewer as much about what the artist's
C14 261 concerns are, as the many layers of coloured and textured
C14 262 surfaces do.
C14 263    |^In a period of popular misunderstanding of the
C14 264 abstractionist artist's authenticity and intention Max Gimblett
C14 265 is refreshing in his persistent honesty and innovation.
C14 266    |^His working process is important *- a union of
C14 267 unselfconciousness and pure concentration with his simple love
C14 268 of the flow of paint.
C14 269    |^Max Gimblett said of his paintings *- *"they aren't to be
C14 270 looked at much.  ^They are an opening into feeling, touching,
C14 271 reverie and reflection.**"
C14 272 *#
C15 001 **[086 TEXT C15**]
C15 002 *<*4Blast from the past*>
C15 003 *<by Chris Knox*>
C15 004 |^H*2ANDS UP *0those who think that *1True Colours *0justified its 
C15 005 brief existence.  ^Right then, if your hand remained, as I suspect, 
C15 006 firmly clenched in anger and frustration then why not use it to write 
C15 007 a reasoned, sincere little note to the {0TVNZ} head of entertainment 
C15 008 or whatever, describing the programme's deficiencies (obvious!) and 
C15 009 what you see as strengths within New Zealand music that warrant 
C15 010 exposure.  ^It's a public service and you're the public.
C15 011 *<*6THE EDGE OF THE WORLD*>
C15 012 *<*4The Mekons*>
C15 013 *<(Sin, 6 Clifton Mansions, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London
C15 014 {0SW}98LL)*>
C15 015 |^*0This is the third instalment of the Mekons' return to the public 
C15 016 arena and is very much an extension of the first two, *1Fear and 
C15 017 Whiskey *0and *1Crime and Punishment *0(12\0in).  ^As with those two, 
C15 018 on first hearing, your reaction is likely to be: ^*"Oh yeah, that 
C15 019 sounds okay, eh.**"  ^But play it a few times and then leave it for a 
C15 020 while, listen to some other recent stuff and come back to it and I bet 
C15 021 your response will be far warmer.  ^It has a humanity and a concern 
C15 022 with the small aggravations of terrestrial life that cannot help but 
C15 023 raise a quiet smile.
C15 024    |^The subject matter of these 13 gracefully shambling songs 
C15 025 includes: the Mekons themselves, *"Ugly Band**"; life in a big town 
C15 026 with the use of alcohol and relationships as a way to survive, 
C15 027 *"Oblivion**", *"The Letter**" and several others; and the sad state 
C15 028 in which large corporate holdings like the {0US} and {0UK} find 
C15 029 themselves.
C15 030    |^So it *1should *0be a depressing record *- but the guitars, 
C15 031 violins, drums, accordions and voices are full of life and hope and 
C15 032 everyone in the band is grinning up at \2ya from the inner sleeve.
C15 033 ^Despair comes from *1not *0realising what is wrong.
C15 034    |^At least attempt to listen to *"Oblivion**" sung by Sally Timms.
C15 035 ^Better songs do not often appear.
C15 036 *<*6HOLDING THE GRENADE TOO LONG*>
C15 037 *<*4The Outnumbered*>
C15 038 *<(Homestead, Dutch East India Trading, Box 570, Rockville Centre 
C15 039 {0NY} 115710570)*>
C15 040 |^*0Another small-time {0US} guitar band. ^They are by no means great.
C15 041 ^But they are good and they deserve to be noticed outside their 
C15 042 homebase of Champaign, Illinois.  ^They're basically doing what our 
C15 043 local guitar-based bands achieve *- playing
C15 044 **[PLATE**]
C15 045 good songs for themselves and their local audiences and if anyone else 
C15 046 notices and enjoys them, hey, that's just great.  ^There is none of the 
C15 047 striving for international airplay at all costs attitude that blands 
C15 048 out and destroys so many of their contemporaries.  ^Instead, there is a 
C15 049 solid faith in their songwriting and their ability to get it across 
C15 050 with the minimum of studio hype.
C15 051    |^They have two main songwriters, Jon Ginoli who starts each side 
C15 052 with a sort of Hu"sker Du" blast then eases back to the more 
C15 053 60s-derived feel of most of his material, and Paul Budin who supplies 
C15 054 the best song, *"Away from Here**", which is a kind of 80s Badfinger 
C15 055 pop.  ^Guitarist Tim McKeage also writes and they all sing, so there's 
C15 056 a pleasing variety of styles and lyrical concerns.
C15 057    |^I mainly bring this disk to your attention to alert you to 
C15 058 another good {0US} label and the knowledge that not all the worthwhile 
C15 059 music coming out of that huge country is hardcore or {0C & W} derived.
C15 060 ^Go on, leap into the exciting world of the import bins... they hold 
C15 061 their resale value rather better than local stuff too!
C15 062 *<*6NOTHING IS REAL/ SESSIONS*>
C15 063 *<*4The Beatles*>
C15 064 |^*0What?  ^The Beatles?  ^In this day and age with half of 'em dead or 
C15 065 might as well be?  ^New records?  ^{5We-ell}, sort of...  ^*1Nothing Is 
C15 066 Real *0is a *"fan club**" album *"not intended for sale**". ^*1Sessions 
C15 067 *0is, in fact, the out-takes album that {0EMI} were going to release 
C15 068 last year but had vetoed by the remaining two or three Beatles.
C15 069    |^That they are both available over some local counters may be of 
C15 070 spurious legality but do *1you *0mind depriving Michael Jackson of a 
C15 071 few royalty dollars earned by some other millionaires?  ^No, neither do 
C15 072 I.
C15 073    |^*1Nothing *0is a gorgeously packaged artefact that has a B side 
C15 074 that is of slightly better than usual quality, alternate takes of: 
C15 075 *"I'm Only Sleeping**" (sounds like the one on the official album to 
C15 076 me); *"Hey Jude**" (a rehearsal of the na-na-na bits); and 
C15 077 *"Revolution**" (very similar to the single version).
C15 078    |^It also has the acoustic version of *"While My Guitar Gently 
C15 079 Weeps**" which was to be on the double album before Clapton 
C15 080 electrified the proceedings (a superior quality version is on 
C15 081 *1Sessions), *0plus *"Not Guilty**", which is a Harrison song that 
C15 082 didn't make it to the double that also sounds better on *1Sessions, 
C15 083 *0and *"Christmas Time Is Here Again**" *- a few snatches enlivened 
C15 084 their '67 Xmas fan club record *- but here, in its full 6:42 length, 
C15 085 it is all too much.
C15 086    |^So not a \2helluva lot there but flip it over and we have an orgy 
C15 087 for Beatle freaks and anyone interested in how classic songs are 
C15 088 built.  ^\2Yup, it has six *1different *0stages in the construction of 
C15 089 *"Strawberry Fields Forever**" *- a gold**[ARB**]-mine of aural and 
C15 090 technical detail.  ^First off, George Martin describes how the track 
C15 091 was put together from two very different takes adjusted to the same 
C15 092 speed and spliced together.  ^Then you hear those tracks, plus three 
C15 093 stages leading up to this point *1and *0the only full stereo version of 
C15 094 the song that I've come across.  ^Stunning stuff and the quality 
C15 095 is fine.
C15 096    |^*1Sessions *0also is of much higher quality than most boots and 
C15 097 comes complete with the original {0EMI} artwork.  ^Some of these 
C15 098 actually did get shipped out before the veto, but I doubt that this is 
C15 099 one.  ^Highlights are: *"One After 909**", a bit slower than the *1Let 
C15 100 It Be *0version of five years in the future but grittier with it; 
C15 101 *"Leave My Kitten Alone**", a nasty little '64 rocker sung by a 
C15 102 raw-sounding \0J Lennon;  and a great early take of *"I'm Looking 
C15 103 Through You**" which has a weird loop-like rhythm throughout.
C15 104    |^*"What's the New Mary Jane**" is a Lennon oddity from '68's 
C15 105 double album that, had it been included, would have made that record 
C15 106 something completely different from the expanse of sounds we are now 
C15 107 used to.  ^It starts like Syd Barrett during a minor breakdown, then 
C15 108 changes entirely into three or four minutes of quiet, shifting 
C15 109 electronic soundscape with the song creeping briefly back in near the 
C15 110 end.  ^Strange, schizoid and totally unlike anything you associate with 
C15 111 the Beatles.
C15 112    |^*"Not Guilty**" and *"Guitar Gently Weeps**" are better dubs of 
C15 113 the *1Nothing *0tracks and the rest are somewhere in the range from 
C15 114 *"who gives a damn**" to *"oh yeah, that's interesting**".  ^A must for 
C15 115 Beatle fans and a definite maybe for the rest of you.
C15 116    |^Next column, a quiet chat with Hu"sker Grant Hart and a rave 
C15 117 about a five-year-old record that is as good as you get.  ^Be seeing 
C15 118 you.
C15 119 *<*4Heaven's above!*>
C15 120 *<by Nigel Horrocks*>
C15 121 *<*6LOST IN THE STARS: THE MUSIC OF KURT WEILL*>
C15 122 *<*4Various artists*>
C15 123 *<({0A & M})*>
C15 124 |^*2LAST YEAR *0an odd album appeared.  ^It was a tribute to pianist 
C15 125 Thelonious Monk.  ^*1That's the Way I Feel Now *0may have been the most 
C15 126 brilliant album of the year but it didn't sell accordingly and was 
C15 127 misunderstood by many.  ^Such a pity.  ^At first glance it certainly 
C15 128 looked a disaster.  ^Odd couples, mismatched and strange bedfellows 
C15 129 were paying tribute to one of the masters of modern jazz.  ^Accepted 
C15 130 jazz artists like Gil Evans, Elvin Jones and Charlie Rouse uneasily 
C15 131 rubbed shoulders with rockers Peter Frampton and Todd Rundgren in the 
C15 132 cover lineup.
C15 133    |^The project was by producer Hal Willner, whose first ambitious 
C15 134 project had various people interpreting the work of movie soundtrack 
C15 135 composer Nino Rota.  ^*1Amarcord Nino Rota *0was sadly not available 
C15 136 here as it was released on a small independent American label, 
C15 137 Hannibal.
C15 138    |^Now we have Willner's third mission, in honour of Kurt Weill, a 
C15 139 leader in the avant-garde music scene in Berlin in the 1920s before 
C15 140 moving to America.  ^He was responsible in collaboration with Bertolt 
C15 141 Brecht for *1The Threepenny Opera *0and *1The Seven Deadly Sins *0and 
C15 142 the classic Broadway scores for *10ne Touch of Venus *0and *1Lost in 
C15 143 the Stars.
C15 144    |^*0Weill's work is an ideal vehicle for experimentation.  ^He 
C15 145 himself blended classical opera, jazz and folk music.  ^This allowed 
C15 146 Willner to seek interpreters from various musical idioms.  ^But the 
C15 147 names chosen still raise eyebrows.  ^Sting is plucked from the pop
C15 148 world to record *"Mack the Knife**" (using a different translation to 
C15 149 the Blitzstein one Bobby Darin used).  ^Sting, whose last album dipped 
C15 150 into a jazz vein, does a creditable job.  ^So does Richard Butler from 
C15 151 the group Psychedelic Furs, who contributes vocals to the latest 
C15 152 version of *"The Alabama Song**".  ^In all, 120 musicians involving the 
C15 153 world of rock, jazz, cabaret, classical, country, the eccentric and 
C15 154 the esoteric pop up on the tribute.
C15 155    |^Of special jazz interest is the contribution by Carla Bley, 
C15 156 long-time experimenter with such projects as her opera *1Escalator over 
C15 157 the Hill.  ^*0Bley has made an important contribution to the other 
C15 158 Willner albums.  ^This time she conducts her band through *"Lost in the 
C15 159 Stars**" with soloist Phil Woods.  ^Another long-time jazz radical, 
C15 160 Charlie Haden, performs *"Speak Low**" from *1One Touch of Venus.
C15 161    |^*0There are stranger sounds.  ^{0R & B} man Aaron Neville, whose 
C15 162 fine work seems to have bypassed recognition here, gives *"Oh Heavenly 
C15 163 Salvation**" from *1Mahagonny *0a new sound.  ^There's the distinctive 
C15 164 growl of Tom Waits doing *"What Keeps Mankind Alive?**" from *1The 
C15 165 Threepenny Opera *0and Marianne Faithfull returns from relative 
C15 166 obscurity to add
C15 167 **[PLATE**]
C15 168 her old theatrical touch to *"Ballad of a Soldier's Wife**".  ^Among 
C15 169 all this come artists like Van Dyke Parks and the Armadillo String 
C15 170 Quartet.
C15 171    |^In some strange way it works.  ^But it is a challenge for the 
C15 172 listener as well as for the performer.  ^As an admirer of Monk, I 
C15 173 remember finding myself ignoring the Willner tribute for some weeks 
C15 174 and then when I plucked up courage to explore it, found myself being 
C15 175 selective in the choice of tracks.  ^I was especially appalled at the 
C15 176 choice of rock artist Todd Rundgren on synthesisers, keyboards, 
C15 177 guitars and overdubbed drum machines messing round with a great jazz 
C15 178 musician's complex work.  ^I was also appalled at the choice of Peter 
C15 179 Frampton, whose rock work I can easily ignore.  ^It is worth noting the 
C15 180 tracks by both these artists are now my favourites on the album *- an 
C15 181 album where there are so many unusual results, it is difficult not to 
C15 182 admire them all.
C15 183    |^Willner's projects force us to face our prejudices.  ^The 
C15 184 interpretations are serious attempts by serious musicians to explore 
C15 185 the wide world of music.  ^They are not cashing in on fame or appearing 
C15 186 for some international fund-raising cause.  ^They are extending their 
C15 187 own boundaries and playing with musicians who think and play 
C15 188 differently to them.  ^There is hope listeners will also be extended.
C15 189 ^Lou Reed's version of *"The September Song**" is among the tracks 
C15 190 most easily accepted (even though some jazz listeners may have strong 
C15 191 prejudices about Reed).  ^Will Reed fanatics or the many Sting fans buy 
C15 192 the album and then discover the worlds of Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, 
C15 193 string quartets or {0R & B} sounds?  ^Hopefully.
C15 194    |^But this album may follow that of the Monk tribute and become 
C15 195 a cult object which disappears fast from record shelves and is never 
C15 196 seen again.  ^No one in authority seems to know what to do with it.
C15 197 ^The artists may appear on some radio formats but this is a huge 
C15 198 gamble for radio stations to challenge listeners with the unorthodox, 
C15 199 even though it is Lou Reed or String.  ^(Karen Hay was one exception 
C15 200 on her Sunday night show on Auckland's Triple M.) ^Even worse, record 
C15 201 shops don't know where to put the album.  ^Once removed from the *"New 
C15 202 releases**" bin, where should it go?  ^The Monk album ended up in the 
C15 203 strangest places including under *"Rock compilations**"!
C15 204    |^Be bold.  ^Try it whatever your musical taste and prejudices.
C15 205 ^Then if you like it, hunt out the Monk tribute.  ^It too may take time 
C15 206 to digest but persevere.  ^Overseas the Kurt Weill is on {0CD} and 
C15 207 reportedly has an extra track featuring jazzmen Lester Bowie and Henry 
C15 208 Treadgill.
C15 209 *<*6CLOSER TO THE SOURCE*>
C15 210 *<*4Dizzy Gillespie*>
C15 211 *<(Atlantic)*>
C15 212 |^*0This was recorded in 1984.  ^It's not the hot Gillespie of old nor 
C15 213 is it the best of the sometimes fiery Sonny Fortune, whose alto sax 
C15 214 work appears in the lineup alongside Branford Marsalis (brother of 
C15 215 Wynton) and fine keyboardist Kenny Kirkland.
C15 216    |^Closer to the source?  ^Well, closer to the source of {0CD}s and 
C15 217 high-quality cassette decks.  ^The production is extremely good.  ^It's 
C15 218 mellow jazz with appropriate titles like *"Iced Tea**".  ^One Angel 
C15 219 Rogers leads the vocal chorus on the title track with the distinctive 
C15 220 wailing harmonica and synthesiser of Stevie Wonder, who makes a guest 
C15 221 appearance.  ^The musicianship is of a high quality, the music pleasant 
C15 222 and will soon be found, no doubt, at your local trendy restaurant.
C15 223 *#
C16 001 **[087 TEXT C16**]
C16 002 *<*4Scoop!*> *<by Keith Ovenden*>
C16 003 *<*0Reviewing the efforts to find a pot of gold at the end of
C16 004 the *1Rainbow Warrior.
C16 005 *6SINK THE RAINBOW : *4An Enquiry into the *"Greenpeace
C16 006 Affair**", by John Dyson (Reed Methuen, *+$14.95).
C16 007 *6DEATH OF THE RAINBOW WARRIOR, *4by Michael King (Penguin,
C16 008 *+$16.99).
C16 009 *6THE RAINBOW WARRIOR COLLECTION, *4edited by Kevin \0B
C16 010 Patterson (Ponga Tree Press  *+$10.95).
C16 011 *6EYES OF FIRE : *4The Last Voyage of the Rainbow 
C16 012 Warrior, by David Robie (Lindon Publishing, 
C16 013 *+$19.95).
C16 014 *6THE RAINBOW WARRIOR AFFAIR, *4by Richard Shears and Isobel
C16 015 Gidley (Allen & Unwin Counterpoint, *+$12.95).
C16 016 *6RAINBOW WARRIOR : *4The French Attempt to Sink Greenpeace, by
C16 017 the *5Sunday Times *4Insight team (Century Hutchinson,
C16 018 *+$34.95; Arrow *+$9.99).
C16 019 |^(All prices quoted are before {0GST}).
C16 020 |^*2ARE THERE ANY REWARDS *0in instant history, whether for
C16 021 writers or readers?  ^The more or less endless stream of books
C16 022 about the sinking of the *1Rainbow Warrior *0suggests that
C16 023 there may be for publishers, but that for readers the results
C16 024 are patchy.
C16 025    |^Some of that patchiness proceeds from our not knowing the
C16 026 authors' intentions.  ^Was their purpose to write thriller and
C16 027 action entertainment, in which facts matter but not much?  ^Or
C16 028 was it to provide an accurate documentary of as much of the
C16 029 facts as it was possible to know?  ^Or was it to analyse the
C16 030 motivations and intentions of the participants, shedding light
C16 031 on the significance of the events as well as documenting them?
C16 032    |^Part of the trouble is that to write contemporary history
C16 033 is to write oral history, but few if any writers of such books
C16 034 learn how to go about it.  ^Nor are they deterred, apparently,
C16 035 when at least half of those whose evidence is essential to the
C16 036 history decline to come forward and talk.  ^Oral history
C16 037 without oral evidence may be classified as fantasy, which is
C16 038 certainly a field of literary endeavour, but not one to be
C16 039 shelved in the non**[ARB**]-fiction section of the library.
C16 040    |^The way to get round this, for publishers and writers
C16 041 alike, is to have a scoop.
C16 042    |^Richard Shears and Isobel Gidley, whose purple prose
C16 043 (*"like the brilliant operator that she was, the blonde woman
C16 044 with the short...**", \0p36) struck our bookshelves before last
C16 045 Christmas, achieved the scoop of being first.  ^We may
C16 046 congratulate them on their speed of composition.  ^On the basis
C16 047 of what little evidence did subsequently come to light,
C16 048 however, many of their assertions about the sabotage, who
C16 049 *1really *0did it and how, prove to be questionable.  ^This is
C16 050 a severe handicap in a supposedly factual work.
C16 051    |^What is worse is the glib unresearched background
C16 052 material, which suggests two authors incompetent for the task
C16 053 of a serious book on this subject.  ^Chapter 6, on the
C16 054 strategic situation in the Pacific Ocean, is plainly
C16 055 propaganda, and contains laughable inaccuracies ({0eg} the
C16 056 second paragraph on page 67).  ^The least they could have done
C16 057 is read some of their own publisher's books on the subject.
C16 058 ^This would, however, have taken time, and in the matter of
C16 059 being first time is clearly of the essence.
C16 060    |^No doubt the same problem bore heavily on the Insight
C16 061 team.  ^They had other difficulties, however, not least, I
C16 062 imagine, that of writing a book among 15 different authors.
C16 063 ^The book is full of almost irrelevant but ill-digested 
C16 064 quasi-facts.  ^*"He [David Lange] graduated in law from Otahuhu
C16 065 College, Auckland University...**" (\0p35); *"...and 150
C16 066 picture-postcard islets, so many that the area has been named
C16 067 the Bay of Isles**" (\0p208); *"...typified by the likes of
C16 068 yachtsman Eric Tabarle**" (\0p242) and so on.  ^Irrelevant
C16 069 *"facts**" of this kind are presumably meant to provide the
C16 070 appearance of thorough investigation, inspiring reader
C16 071 confidence.  ^When they turn out to be wrong it is natural to
C16 072 wonder about the many untestable assertions that really are
C16 073 relevant to the book's central concern.
C16 074    |^Insight's scoop was to claim exclusive access to
C16 075 Greenpeace's files, but even in the absence of anything more
C16 076 helpful *- like access to the French {0DGSE} files *- this did
C16 077 not amount to much.  ^You would not expect the inner life of an
C16 078 honest and already open ecological society to be very gripping,
C16 079 and Insight's breathless prose does not make it so.  ^What is
C16 080 disappointing is that, even with Insight's supposed
C16 081 connections, the Paris end of the scandal is barely
C16 082 illuminated.  ^The few chapters devoted to this are
C16 083 characterised by ill-informed speculation and downright error
C16 084 ({0eg} their comments on Barril, \0p267), suggesting that
C16 085 British journalists, who have the advantage of at least being
C16 086 physically close to France, understand as little of its social
C16 087 and political processes as we do.
C16 088    |^This imbalance can be redressed a little by running an eye
C16 089 over *1The Rainbow Warrior Collection *0of 140 cartoons drawn
C16 090 from both French-language and New Zealand publications.  ^The
C16 091 cartoons are not fully representative because some French
C16 092 cartoonists declined to participate, but there is enough here
C16 093 for us to see that, although the affair was anything but funny,
C16 094 humorists understood it better than most.  ^Brockie's
C16 095 reflection of New Zealand outrage and moral hurt (as in his
C16 096 cartoon from {0NBR} of November 11) and Guiraud's deadly
C16 097 drawings for {*1Le Canard Enchaine*?2} *0(especially one of
C16 098 Hernu on November 6, which says all one really needs to know)
C16 099 are the pick of the bunch.  ^For a book which is meant to be
C16 100 riffled, and often, this one is not well-enough produced (mine
C16 101 is beginning to fall apart already), and there are appalling
C16 102 grammatical errors on the cover.  ^Belinda Meares, who did most
C16 103 of the leg work in Paris, deserved better.
C16 104    |^So did John Dyson, whose short readable book is the best
C16 105 of the *"quickies**", perhaps because he sets himself the
C16 106 limited task of intelligent reportage and makes his own
C16 107 scepticism visible.  ^There is no attempt at analysis, and most
C16 108 of what was factually available (which in the end was precious
C16 109 little) is honestly recorded.  ^This has the effect of making
C16 110 the passages about France (chapters 11 and 12) unsatisfactory,
C16 111 however: a clear warning to anyone who is thinking of writing a
C16 112 fast book on a subject that has culturally opaque elements.
C16 113    |^One example: ^*"That very night Captain Joel-Patrick Prieur
C16 114 decamped from the spacious official headquarters in the 
C16 115 Vieux-Colombier barracks in Paris...**" (\0p162).  ^The barracks he
C16 116 is referring to are an ordinary fire station in the 6th
C16 117 arrondissement, where Captain Prieur was apparently employed.
C16 118 ^Firemen and their wives and families all live here, in
C16 119 apartments round a central courtyard, along with garage,
C16 120 equipment and training areas for fire-fighting.  ^There is
C16 121 nothing either secret or spacious about the building.
C16 122 ^Children from here go to the local school in the Rue Madame
C16 123 (where the back gate is located), neighbours visit unimpeded
C16 124 and the firemen themselves are to be seen every morning on
C16 125 training runs in the Luxembourg gardens.
C16 126    |^What is interesting about the fire-fighting service in
C16 127 France is not its locations, spacious or otherwise, but its
C16 128 strongly military flavour; its organisation as an e*?2lite of
C16 129 fit and dynamic men at the service of the state; its
C16 130 comparability with the various police and security forces.
C16 131 ^There is clearly something rather different from us about a
C16 132 country that organises even its fire brigade in such a way.
C16 133 ^Reflection on this sort of cultural difference *- the general
C16 134 social penetration of statist ideas *- would go some way to
C16 135 helping us understand why a civilised country should have set
C16 136 about dealing with Greenpeace in the extraordinary way it did,
C16 137 and then, on being found out, have shown so little regret.
C16 138    |^David Robie's scoop was to have sailed on the *1Rainbow
C16 139 Warrior *0across the Pacific and to have taken part in the
C16 140 evacuation of the Rongelap islanders to Mejato in the Kwajalein
C16 141 atoll.  ^The *1Sunday Times *0Insight team may have had
C16 142 exclusive access to the Greenpeace files, but Robie has written
C16 143 a better book on Greenpeace and its objectives.  ^His treatment
C16 144 of super-power militarisation of the Pacific is more objective
C16 145 than Shears and Gidley's.  ^And his pictures are better than
C16 146 everybody else's.  ^Robie wears his colours openly (some of the
C16 147 profits from his book are going back to the people of Mejato)
C16 148 and he is less than candid in places, but this is the book to
C16 149 read if you are more interested in Greenpeace in the Pacific
C16 150 than in the sinking of the *1Rainbow Warrior.
C16 151    |^*0These are all history books by journalists.  ^Oddly,
C16 152 Michael King, the one historian among them, opted eventually to
C16 153 write the sort of book a journalist might have written.  ^I
C16 154 don't believe this is what was originally intended *- his
C16 155 publisher's earlier publicity certainly suggested not *- but it
C16 156 seems to be what private considerations finally compelled.  ^As
C16 157 a result we are all the losers.
C16 158    |^There are several reasons for this.  ^First, because King
C16 159 set himself only the very limited task of finding out exactly
C16 160 how many and which agents were in New Zealand, and what they
C16 161 did.  ^This has a kind of police enquiry fascination to it, but
C16 162 not much else.  ^He clears up a few enigmas, but they are of
C16 163 limited interest and contribute nothing to a more serious
C16 164 debate.
C16 165    |^Second, he has in general eschewed analysis.  ^This ranges
C16 166 from small questions, such as why the Turenges bothered to take
C16 167 their camper-van back to Newmans instead of just catching a
C16 168 plane, as they could have done, through to big ones, such as
C16 169 why the French did it at all.  ^He muses on these things
C16 170 occasionally, but not in an analytical vein.
C16 171    |^Third, the book has annoying defects of fact.  ^The Tricot
C16 172 report came out on August 26, not August 20 (\0p197), and the
C16 173 disinformation process in France began not when Tricot started
C16 174 work (\0p196) but four weeks earlier.  ^The French Cabinet did
C16 175 not appear *"to decide on a propaganda offensive**" in early
C16 176 September (\0pp199-200); rather, Mitterrand did.  ^The Cabinet
C16 177 decided they wanted to know what happened, and they did so
C16 178 because the Socialist Party executive refused to accept the
C16 179 Tricot report and told the Cabinet so.  ^Some French
C16 180 politicians *- Beregovoy, for instance *- played an important
C16 181 and honourable role in the affair, and the Cabinet was divided
C16 182 against Hernu as a result.  ^The weight of evidence did not
C16 183 appear to confirm that Fabius and Mitterrand knew nothing of
C16 184 the bombing in advance (\0p202).  ^On the contrary, most of it
C16 185 suggested that they did, and that in any event Mitterrand had
C16 186 certainly known about it since July 17 and so was a party to
C16 187 the disinformation campaign *1and *0the cover-up.  ^One of the
C16 188 oddest parts of the affair is that, even after Tricot's report
C16 189 was shown to be a tissue of lies, as he knew it would be,
C16 190 nobody bothered to ask who had orchestrated it.  ^Since, as he
C16 191 was careful to point out, everyone he talked to had told him
C16 192 the same story, someone must have invented that story and
C16 193 rehearsed all the respondents in their roles in it.
C16 194    |^One consequence of these sorts of error and omission is
C16 195 lack of confidence in the answers King does produce to even the
C16 196 relatively limited questions he set himself.  ^This is evident
C16 197 even in his account of who actually sank the boat.  ^He comes
C16 198 down firmly on the side of the *"third team**" explanation,
C16 199 naming the two further agents and stating that *"Jacques
C16 200 Camurier placed the bombs on the *1Rainbow Warrior *0with Alain
C16 201 Tonel standing by**" (\0p147).  ^He also claims late evidence
C16 202 (\0p188) for the existence of a second couple, also touring in
C16 203 a camper-van, sightings of whom may have contributed to some of
C16 204 the uncertainty about the {*1faux Turenges}'*0s movements.
C16 205 ^Evidence for this comes from *"an unimpeachable source**".
C16 206    |^Here is the nub.  ^The only source that will do for this
C16 207 sort of allegation is a named one, with footnoted references
C16 208 and specific proof, as every historian knows.  ^It has been in
C16 209 the interests of various French institutions to spread
C16 210 disinformation about the *1Rainbow Warrior *0affair right from
C16 211 the moment when Pereira died.  ^Let us look at the specific
C16 212 accusation that Camurier and Tonel were the third team who
C16 213 actually carried out the murder.
C16 214    |^The case for this proposition is even less than *1prima
C16 215 facie.  ^*0The two were never identified by anybody.  ^No one
C16 216 so much as knows what they look like.  ^There is not much
C16 217 evidence to show that the two people who may or may not have
C16 218 had these names knew or were associated with any of the French
C16 219 agents who were eventually actually identified.
C16 220    |^Introducing them to the plot does not answer questions,
C16 221 and raises other far more awkward ones.  ^Why were Verge,
C16 222 Andries and Barcelo here at all if not to do the underwater
C16 223 bit?  ^Why was Maniguet, supposedly skilled in diving accident
C16 224 illnesses, off on the *1Ouvea *0at the one moment in his 
C16 225 three-week visit to the country when his specific skills might have
C16 226 been needed?
C16 227    |^Now let us look at the reality of the supposed third team
C16 228 story.  ^This account surfaced in Paris in the middle of
C16 229 September and led directly to the sacking of Lacoste and the
C16 230 resignation of Hernu.  ^It was the revelation that terminated
C16 231 the domestic political crisis in France.  ^A week after it
C16 232 happened Mitterrand pronounced the issue closed.  ^Along the
C16 233 way, the revelation enabled Fabius to say that Hernu was
C16 234 responsible and that he (Fabius) had known nothing all along;
C16 235 the {0DGSE} to regain a little kudos because no one knew who
C16 236 the third team was, how it did the job or how it had been
C16 237 spirited away; the two imprisoned officers to feel a bit safer
C16 238 because now it clearly wasn't they who had planted the mines;
C16 239 the defence lawyers to have a bit more room for manoeuvre in
C16 240 broaching the idea of manslaughter rather than murder; and
C16 241 Barcelo, who until that time was the prime suspect, to sleep
C16 242 (if murderers can) a little easier.
C16 243 *#
C17 001 **[088 TEXT C17**]
C17 002 *<*4Peculiarly English*>
C17 003 *<by William Dart*>
C17 004 |^T*2O SOME *0the English choral sound is an acquired taste, although 
C17 005 in this part of the world it is not so much acquired as enforced.  ^We 
C17 006 have much to learn from the American example; my ears were opened four 
C17 007 years ago when I heard a Santa Barbara choral society deliver Gerald 
C17 008 Finzi's *1In Terra Pax *0with a fervour and passion it would probably 
C17 009 be denied if performed in England.
C17 010    |^Choral conductor Karen Grylls returned last year from a period 
C17 011 in the {0US} and it's very evident she is working hard to inject some 
C17 012 of their muscularity into the sound of the Dorian Choir.  ^It was 
C17 013 starting to surface in a Dorian concert a few months back, and more 
C17 014 recently their exuberant account of Leonard Bernstein's *1Chichester 
C17 015 Psalms *0with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra showed that the 
C17 016 choir had made a quantum leap.
C17 017    |^The Cambridge University Chamber Choir, however, under the able 
C17 018 direction of Richard Marlow are about as fine an exponent of this 
C17 019 particularly *"English**" sound as we're likely to hear in this 
C17 020 country for some time.  ^Whether all the works in the Auckland concert 
C17 021 were completely suited to such a treatment is another matter.
C17 022    |^There was little to quibble about with the Mozart *"Venite 
C17 023 populi**" and Carissimi's *"Plorate filii Israel**" which opened the 
C17 024 programme.  ^I pondered briefly how the Mozart would have sounded with 
C17 025 its instrumental accompaniment of organ, two violins and trombones, 
C17 026 but both pieces were perfect vocal showcases for the crisp attack and 
C17 027 clear tone of the ensemble.  ^On the other hand, Pach's large-scale 
C17 028 motet, {*1Singet dem Herrn}, *0though immaculately sung did not have 
C17 029 the thrust and guttural punch to make this wonderfully joyous work come 
C17 030 alive. ^It was this motet which so fired Mozart with enthusiasm when 
C17 031 he first heard it in Leipzig in 1789 *- a more vibrant performance, 
C17 032 one imagines, than the one we had on this occasion.
C17 033    |^Least successful of all was Verdi's *"Ave Maria**". ^Although 
C17 034 certainly more rarefied in idiom than the composer's more robust 
C17 035 operatic works, it seemed a little pinched in tone. ^In spite of the 
C17 036 *"modernisms**" of the score, the much-vaunted *"scala enigmata**" and 
C17 037 such, this is music that demands to be treated in a warm Italianate 
C17 038 manner.
C17 039    |^The most pleasing thing about the choir was their obvious 
C17 040 delight in presenting 20th-century music. ^As a regular concert-goer I 
C17 041 can endorse Aaron Copland's complaint that *"reverence for the 
C17 042 classics in our time has been turned into a form of discrimination 
C17 043 against all other music**". ^This was not so with these choristers.
C17 044    |^The women gave us Stravinsky's *"Four Russian Peasant Songs**" 
C17 045 with verve and precision, even if a more pungent vocal tone would have 
C17 046 been more appropriate. ^By contrast, Debussy's *"Trois Chansons de 
C17 047 Charles D'Orle*?2ans**" had a lightness and ethereal quality perfectly 
C17 048 suited to the score *- the lilting nonchalance of the second song was 
C17 049 particularly attractive. ^Four short settings of Garcia Lorca texts by 
C17 050 the contemporary Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara startled with 
C17 051 their bold, dramatic strokes, well realised by the choir.
C17 052    |^The two English works showed the singers on home ground. ^Four 
C17 053 carols from Peter Maxwell Davies's *1O Magnum Mysterium *0came across 
C17 054 with such charm and delicacy that one wondered whether this was really 
C17 055 the radical composer who so shocked the Auckland musical establishment 
C17 056 20 years ago with his inflammatory remarks about Wagner. ^Britten's 
C17 057 *1Sacred and Profane, *0one of his last and finest works, written for 
C17 058 the five virtuoso voices of Peter Pears's Wilbye Consort, might have 
C17 059 posed problems for a less flexible, larger ensemble. ^Such fears 
C17 060 proved ill-founded. ^The Cambridge University Chamber Choir's 
C17 061 performance was inspired, from the passionate intensity of the opening 
C17 062 *"\0St Godric's Hymn**" to the wry and black humour of the closing *"A 
C17 063 Death**".
C17 064    |^We have already had the first sampling of the Music Federation's 
C17 065 enlightened commissioning of New Zealand composers *- David Hamilton's 
C17 066 *"Nix Olympica**" which was toured earlier this year by the Auckland 
C17 067 Wind Quintet. ^The Cambridge choir offered David Farquhar's *"ABC**", 
C17 068 a diverting piece based on a simple alphabet song the composer wrote 
C17 069 for his children in 1960 *- a ditty so naggingly catchy that it ran 
C17 070 through my head a week after the concert. ^I admire the way a 
C17 071 symphonist of Farquhar's stature can fashion such delightful and 
C17 072 immediate music from domestic origins *- but his *1Anniversary Duets 
C17 073 *0have already shown us that. ^The alphabet song proved a perfect foil 
C17 074 for the more experimental aspects of the piece and in the English 
C17 075 choir's lively rendition it registered as a delightful musical \*1jeu 
C17 076 *- *0no word in English seems quite as appropriate.
C17 077    |^I'm usually not in favour of encores. ^Rarely, in my experience, 
C17 078 have they added much to the concert that preceded them. ^On this
C17 079 occasion they could have been dispensed with. ^Stanford's 
C17 080 *"Bluebird**" was grounded by a singularly flat soloist and a 
C17 081 relentlessly jokey arrangement of *"John Brown's Body**" was a bizarre 
C17 082 choice after such a catholic programme. ^I would rather have had 
C17 083 another opportunity to work my way from A to Z with David Farquhar.
C17 084 *<*4Togetherness, Hockney-style*>
C17 085 |^*2DAVID HOCKNEY *0became an international art celebrity in the late 
C17 086 1960s partly through the accessibility and intelligence of his art, 
C17 087 and partly through the charm of his colourful and engaging personality.
C17 088    |^His paintings, prints and drawings have already toured New 
C17 089 Zealand in at least four travelling exhibitions of British art, and 
C17 090 publications on his work are manifold, so this current exhibition of 
C17 091 Hockney's photographs will attract a wide audience.
C17 092    |^Photography has played an important role in the preparation of 
C17 093 Hockney's paintings for over 15 years, and he has accumulated hundreds 
C17 094 of snaps of people and places which he has carefully placed in albums 
C17 095 for future reference.
C17 096    |^The first quarter of this exhibition of more than 100 works is a 
C17 097 selection of framed pages from these albums. ^Groups of coloured 
C17 098 photographs, usually six, are arranged on each page, recording visits 
C17 099 to family and friends. ^These include portraits of the famous, such as 
C17 100 Cecil Beaton and Christopher Isherwood, as well as Hockney's own 
C17 101 father as he photographs a wedding.
C17 102    |^While many of these works are personal mementoes of holiday 
C17 103 trips to California and Europe, and so illustrate some lifestyles 
C17 104 quite different from our own, the real interest of this show lies in 
C17 105 the Polaroids and collages.
C17 106    |^These Hockney has butted together, not only to extend images at 
C17 107 the sides, but also top and bottom as well. ^When more than 100 such 
C17 108 photographs are put together, the characteristically square format of 
C17 109 the polaroid print, with its white surfaces, imposes a uniform grid of 
C17 110 vertical and horizontal white lines over the image.
C17 111    |^Not only does this format enable Hockney to include variations 
C17 112 on a single subject by altering the distance and camera angle of each 
C17 113 shot, but it also allows him to develop his interest in the paintings 
C17 114 of the cubists and the futurists: the former through his approaching a 
C17 115 stationary object from many different viewpoints and recording his own 
C17 116 movement around it; the latter by recording the changing position of 
C17 117 his moving subject matter, while he himself stays still.
C17 118    |^In this way a narrative element is built into his structured 
C17 119 arrangements.
C17 120    |^In the collages, which take up about half of the exhibition, 
C17 121 Hockney uses conventionally processed *"holiday**" prints. ^Being 
C17 122 rectangular and without margins, they can be blended easily together 
C17 123 by overlapping. ^By varying the angle by which each photograph is 
C17 124 juxtaposed to those around it, the artist is able to make sweeping 
C17 125 arcs and whimsical configurations that act as foils for their 
C17 126 rectangular wooden frames.
C17 127    |^These witty and playful artworks seem to be drawings or 
C17 128 paintings assembled from photographs instead of paint. ^As collages 
C17 129 made in the tradition of twentieth century painting, they are 
C17 130 conservative and tasteful, as one would anticipate from Hockney's 
C17 131 earlier work. ^They rely heavily on the colour of their background 
C17 132 mounting and their accompanying framing to provide formal aesthetic 
C17 133 qualities, and would not succeed if attached directly to the gallery 
C17 134 walls.
C17 135    |^Their appeal comes from a number of other reasons besides their 
C17 136 formal arrangements.
C17 137    |^They are packed with detail. ^Because so many photographs are 
C17 138 squeezed together in a single work they entice the viewer to look 
C17 139 harder than if the work was simply based on an enlarged negative or 
C17 140 transparency.
C17 141    |^Hockney's collages also tease the viewer into attempting to 
C17 142 guess at the chronological order in which the photographs were taken. 
C17 143 ^Their elegance makes them seem as if they are stills from films, as 
C17 144 arranged on a table by Dufy, Picasso and Matisse.
C17 145    |^An inventive exhibition that crosses fixed boundaries, this show 
C17 146 will provide thoughtful entertainment for all who visit it.
C17 147 *<*6FILMS*>
C17 148 *<*0Neal David*>
C17 149 *<*5Slice of Liverpool life*>
C17 150 |^*2LIVERPOOL *0has Britain's highest unemployment rate, but its 
C17 151 resourceful citizens try not to let that get them down. ^They take 
C17 152 what they can from life, relying on quick wit, a thick skin and large 
C17 153 doses of gallows humour to get by. ^If they find only disappointment 
C17 154 at the end of a day, they take refuge in a pint, a shrug and an acid 
C17 155 comment, and try again tomorrow.
C17 156    |^This is the background of the amusing and humane film, Letter to 
C17 157 Brezhnev. ^It tells the story of two girls, Teresa, who works in a 
C17 158 chicken factory, and Elaine, who's unemployed. ^Together, they set off 
C17 159 for a night on the town.
C17 160    |^They're no angels: they finance their evening by stealing a 
C17 161 businessman's wallet after he cruises up to a nightclub in his 
C17 162 Mercedes, looking for a pick-up. ^But they're not especially bad 
C17 163 either. ^A hard life has conditioned them to cutting corners and 
C17 164 taking chances, but apart from that, they're typical Liverpool girls 
C17 165 looking for romance.
C17 166    |^They find it in the form of two Russian sailors on shore leave. 
C17 167 ^For Teresa, this ends up with a hectic night in the sack. ^But 
C17 168 Elaine's Russian sailor is special. ^She falls in love with him, and 
C17 169 ends up going to the Soviet Union to join him.
C17 170    |^That might sound political, but it's not. ^This film is 
C17 171 essentially just a slice of Liverpool life, and a bleak slice it is. 
C17 172 ^The girls come from suburban Kirby, where people spend their time 
C17 173 drinking and squabbling in dreary pubs. ^But in Liverpool city-centre, 
C17 174 discos throb with rock music, flashing lights and good looking people.
C17 175 ^Dressed in their finery, Teresa and Elaine are perfectly at home amid 
C17 176 the glamour. ^The trouble is, they can afford it for one night only, 
C17 177 and that thanks to the businessman's wallet. ^After a night on the 
C17 178 town, it's back to the council estate, which looks pretty bleak after 
C17 179 the glitter of the disco.
C17 180    |^When Elaine leaves home for the Soviet Union, she says, *"^It 
C17 181 can't be any worse there than here,**" and the film hints strongly 
C17 182 that she's probably right.
C17 183    |^Nevertheless, Elaine's approaching departure introduces the 
C17 184 movie's only weak point. ^A hitherto objective script suddenly starts 
C17 185 wagging an accusing finger at the British establishment, introducing 
C17 186 first of all an odious journalist who writes a twisted story about 
C17 187 Elaine's journey, and secondly, an unctuous Foreign Office mandarin, 
C17 188 who tries to stop her from going to Russia.
C17 189    |^That the British establishment never cared for Elaine when she 
C17 190 was on the dole, but is concerned about the public relations impact of 
C17 191 her departure is implicit in the film, and need not have been 
C17 192 underlined so heavily.
C17 193 **[PLATE**]
C17 194    |^For all that, this is a quality product, using a largely unknown 
C17 195 cast and wonderful Liverpool locations to tell a simple story of life 
C17 196 as it really is. ^Strong performances and a hard working script add to 
C17 197 the appeal of this movie. ^So does the effective use of locale, most 
C17 198 notably during Elaine's final kiss with her departing sailor through 
C17 199 wire netting that separates the port from the town.
C17 200    |^For director Chris Bernard and writer Frank Clarke, Letter to 
C17 201 Brezhnev was a labour of love. ^The same can be said for the cast and 
C17 202 crew, who aptly reflected the hardship in Liverpool by working solely 
C17 203 for food and pocket-money during filming. ^They were however promised 
C17 204 full payment and a share of the profits after production and 
C17 205 distribution costs had been met. ^The success of this film should 
C17 206 ensure they are adequately paid. ^It should also ensure that other 
C17 207 film-makers get the message that a good idea on a small scale is worth 
C17 208 any number of dollar-happy productions with a strong budget but no 
C17 209 real ideas at all.
C17 210 *#