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‘Iithe Spirits” wraised

Noel Coward’s humour and style has enchanted audiences or three decades. His rapier wit pierces to the heart of uman situations. One of his .best loved works, “Blithe Spirit” Omes m the mainstage of the Confederation Centre, I ebruary 9, 10, and 11.

l.C.T Performance Group, under the direction of Ron wing, will take‘you a lighthearted romp.

"Blithe Spirit” tells the story of mystery writer, Charles ondomine, who engages a psychic to conduct a seance, he crux of his next best—selling book.

The evening’s exercise succeeds better than Condomine and is guests had ever anticipated. Madame Arcati, the psychic, onjures up Charles’ first wife, Elvira, whom only Charles an see. What follows is riotous fun for everyone.

A first-claSs farce with Coward at his best.

Appearing in this production are William McFadden as ‘harles Condomine, his wife Ruth played by Cathy Grant. .aurel Smith is seen as Charles’ ghostly wife, Elvira. Deborah lien plays the role of the psychic. Mae Ames and Michael {ume play the dinner guests, the Bradmans, and Martha r\ ing appears as the maid, Edith.

Curtain time is 8:00, February 9, 10 and 11. Tickets are 7. $6 and $5 and are available at the Centre Ticketworks, L12-1267. ‘

ockvideos: ix of isogyny, tupidity,

nd repetition

By Jim Carruthers

Reprinted from the Link by Canadian University Press keep saying over and over, “I must not think bad things’, t it just doesn’t work, I keep getting dangerous thoughts. 6 UFO’s alien drunk drivers from outer space? I hope‘ note, ccially if they observe what we sadistically refer to as ertainment. \ .

t has often been conjectured that alien civilization learn ut us from our radiated TV and radio signals. What are Y getting from rock videos? . bviously a healthy dose of. misogyny, stupidity and etitive ideaS. Much of the blame for this rests in the origins the lesiure-lndustrail complex. Most people assume that ‘ Products they consume in terms of entertainment exxst 613’ for leisure-time activity, but they fail to realize the ace that these products have on culture. .

tulture is that vast-mucky area which we are all immersed, {5 Your sensory input divided by your thoughts. The 0nunate thing about people attempting to do anything, Ut their culture is that the leisure-industrial complex lSl’l t 1‘3’ keen about people doing their own thinking. .

e Commercial media has gone ga-ga over rock Videos, deri‘1818uoh,xquestions as,th will, get_-.r_ich3fr0m them. how

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By Jonathan Orlowski

David Moses, a member of the UPEl Theatre Society, is directing his second play this year, entitled “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”.

“This black comedy,” says

Moses, “has a unique blend of seriousness and wit which will appeal to an audience of all ages.”

Puns, slapstick (a la Charlie Chaplin), vaudeville, and subtle humour will be

presented in the play.

“The play has quite a few adult themes and there are dramatic relations between fathers and sons, and daughters . ’ ’

The play, which was

written in 1965, is one of the most contemporary works to be performed at UPEI in recent years. The cast of Twelve characters will have to deal with very complex roles.

Graphir lhel

much was spent on them, how frantically promoters and speculators are trying to get franchises and licenses for them and how rapidly consumer products can be sold. However we are only getting a trickle about what these videos mean. a

If you spend any time critically watching rock videos, one thing becomes apparent when the meaning of the average pop song is tied to images, become obvious that few pop songs mean anything}

The initial reaction is one of “all that money, all that time and for what; just to amuse a few poor fools”. You may think, ‘hey it’s only rock and roll but I like it’, but the fact remains that it is contributing to your culture. All of those broken glasses, bullets, lockets and other trivial video language images do mean something, even through they come across \as repetitive and not worth paying full attention to, it works for selling detergent, and it seems to be working for the selling of piece of vinyl, known generically as the rock’n roll record. The fact that the rock’n roll is getting farther away from the consumers is something to worry about.

Most people can’t see the culture for the trees. Videos have a' tremendous impact On Our culture and how’we can take control of it, but by packaging it as entertainment it gets treated as fluff and the leisure-industrial complex gets more time to use us as guinea pigs.

Presently, there is a great concern about the use of university research facilities for the creation of weapons for the military-industrial complex, but there is nary a peep about the work being done by the leisure-industrial complex. That is what has alien visitors worried. After all, any sooiety which

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can master interstellar travel would hardly worry about' nuclear weapons. Game shows worry them, soap operas worry

them (but only when the bad people seem to be winning),

jiggle shows really worry them, Canadian content sit coms

would worry, but nobody watches them. The only thing which

has them sweating is rock videos.

After all gratuitous sex and violence might be fine in semi- pornographic panty-hose commercials, but are they really necessary in song about a boy and his car?

Not only do rock videos imitate beer commercials, but they are being used as beer commercials. Rock promoters and people who buy lottery tickets are all frantic to get these mini-essays in living the good consumer life onto the small screen in your living room (the one they watch you talk to yourself through), that way they can sell you more zit cream and beer to make your life worth living.

Of course rock videos have some of the finest talents in the film industry working to provide the ultimate in special effects. A fine example, is the Thriller video with Michael Jackson. After spending a million dollars, we get special effects of Jackson turning white before our very eyes. This video has been banned in some countries because it gives children and people with. a shred of intelligence nightmares. “Quick, annie, get yer gun, the cultural cossacks are coming over the hills,” said Earl passing along the newsflash which interrupted his music video program as fear crossed his bloated features.

“Fuck you,” said Annie as she saddled up the pony to join them, ‘,‘if you’re going to think, don’t jive and if you are going to jive, don’t think.”

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