Fatal Seasons
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Swarthmore College Works Russian Faculty Works Russian 4-28-1995 Fatal Seasons Sibelan E.S. Forrester Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-russian Part of the Slavic Languages and Societies Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits ouy Recommended Citation Sibelan E.S. Forrester. (1995). "Fatal Seasons". Phoenix. Volume 116, Issue 25. 7-7. https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-russian/216 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Russian Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. April 28, 1995 The Phoenix Page 7 Arts and Leisure Non-Swatties Wide Spread, not Really Panicked at All' By Dan Sachar out that the band was having 'lots of technical difficulties in the first set. When I heard that Widespread The second set was a big differ Panic was coming to play at Swat, I ence. The band sounded better, the didn't know exactly what to think. songs were better, the jamming was I'll be honest with you, I knew none tighter, and, most importantly, the of their music, but their name con crowd got into it a lot more. When jured up images of thrash metal the show was over, I looked out over punks smashing each other to the crowd and began to realize just smithereens in a mosh-pit of hell. how few Swatties truly attended. Then I was given a copy of their lat This point was best brought home est CD, Ain't Life Grand, and new when a friend of mine from my high • It :visions entered my head: Tie-dye; school who I hadn't seen for years free-love; Jerry Garcia ties; long, and who now goes to Penn said "hi" mellow guitar solos. This mellow to me. Well, the crowd eventually ness descended on campus last dispersed thanks to the help of Swat Friday in a concert which turned out Police, Campus Security, and, of to be a lot less of a big deal than - course, the Garnet Patrol. Then photo by Emily Mlnclel people thought it would be. came the part of the evening I was So, I wake up on the big day, _ most looking forward to: hanging yawn, stretch, open my shades and ... out with the band. Fatal Seasons AAARGH!! RAIN!!!! The concert The tour manager came to me and that night was supposed to be held told me I could hang with the band, By Sibelan Forrester outdoors, but Mother Nature had but not to say I was from the press. different plans. My vision of Parrish So, I made my way backstage Beach becoming a big Woodstock (Paces) and found the band, a few Tbis is it then: Vikings in our blood was eliminated pretty quickly. The friends and family, and a few other entire Thursday before the show, Swattie fans chilling out and talk roiling with their red heads. loungers on the beach got to watch ing. I spent over an hour talking to the intricate process of setting-up a the band, and here were some of the large outdoor stage. Well, much to highlights: The winter prayers cower silently SAC's chagrin, that effort was all 1) "I've never heard of inside green-matted bee~ive cells. for naught and most of the Swarthmore, but hey, a gig's a gig." buckeroos which went to setting-up 2) The bassist talking about the that stage were washed away ·with dangers of computer viruses and the Will wild invaders steal the gold the rain. need to protect your files. So, the concert was indoors. No 3) My question to the drummer, of .our sunset chasubles, rend them big deal. Around 6:55 · p.m. on who :was somewhat, shall we say, Friday night, I entered Tarble All out of it: Campus Space to find a surprisingly "So, did you enjoy performing and melt them down for pagan toys? light crowd just hanging around. I here?" His response: "Hrummm .... " also began to notice a lot of non , 4) The bassist's parents' reaction Will they spot our lairs and behead us? Swattie invaders. To make sure we to Swarthmore: "People were so got a good spot for the show, my nice here, so orderly, not all that roommate, Bryan Berg, and I ran beer-drinking and crazy stuff going They'll do worse than this: they know right up to the front of the stage and on." to coerce our underground collaboration staked our positions next to a lot of 5) And, my favorite, the band's people we didn't recognize. From grilling Eugene Sonn on the intrica the way these people kept saying cies of home-brewing beer. out of the lawn: a purple poison cup. "Hey, man, we got to get ourselves In the end, I had a good time, but some beer! Woo-hoo!" I guessed I wonder about Widespread Panic. You can't put it down till you drink it up. that they were high-school fans of Since all the money was spent for the band. Swat students, and most people Yet, these same people went there were not, was it really worth absolutely nuts when Widespread it? Should a different band have Panic hit the stage and began play come? Should the lines of commu ing what I found to be a pleasant nication between SAC and the stu Ballroom Steps on Your Toes but not very thrilling-first set. dent body be opened more so that Apparently, most of the crowd we can have more of a say in who to Strictly Ballroom stars Paul Mercurio (Priscilla, tor of Toys and Jimmy Hollywood?" you say. "You must -agreed with me and reaction was bring? . Queen of the Desert) as Scott, a dancer determined to be joking." But I'm not. It was called Diner. It had good pretty tame. They were good, to be Maybe so, but an event's an defy the authorities and dance his own steps at the acting, a funny, original script, and a pleasant, low-key sure. They jammed. they played event, and even the mellow upcoming ballroom dance competition. Even if you style that made it a pleasure to watch. No, really. some nice tunes, but nothing too Widespread Panic was able to bring haven't seen Dirty Dancing, you know where things go All that's irrelevant, though, as the Barry Levinson memorable. It was later that I found a little excitement to the campus. from there, especially after Tara Morice shows up as who makes movies now is a whole different kind of Fran, the clumsy, homely girl who desperately a director, maybe the original Levinson's Bizarro wants to dance with Scott. (Morice even looks : ·. duplicate. "Me make crappy film," says Bizarro If you know David Plastino '97, then the above police sketch like Jennifer Grey, Dancing's female star). · Barry. "Me hope it make money." should look uncomfortably familiar. John Doe #2, alias Dave Since the plot is so obvious, Strictly Ballroom The new Barry makes movies like Bugsy and Plastino, is in our midsts and whether because of well-meaning has to get by on style, which produces mixed t.~e object under scrutiny here, Disclosure. attempts to protect a fellow Swattie or lack of initiative with results. Australian comedies aren't know frir • , Those who were offended by the fact that regards to issues of national security, our community has their subtlety (think Young Einstein) anti ..·· the first major Hollywood picture about Ballroom isn't likely to change that. It's sexual harassment was about a man get remained silent. We get what we deserve. Wasn't Oklahoma hideously screechy at times, achieving a kind of • ting harassed by his female boss needn't enough carnage for one desperate camp-which ought to be an oxy worry; Disclosure is far too incoherent week, Dave? Did you moron. The director, Baz Luhrmann, seems to and stupid a film to influence anyone's have to once again throw think that the actors' already hammy per thinking. The dialogue is wholly a populace into terror? formances would be even funnier if he put moronic, featuring such gems as "But True, Parrish was a good the camera three inches in front of their men and women are different!" The target; And this is the two faces. He's not correct. acting-well, what would you expect year anniversary of your _ There's also an inane subplot involving the acting to be like in a movie that decision to come to Swat. Fran's Spanish relatives, and the steps that stars Michael Douglas and Demi Luckily for us, however, Scott is so eager to dance are actually pret- Moore? Moore plays a bitch and Swat security has been . ty boring. But Morice and Mercurio make Douglas plays a schmuck, so the roles better at crisis manage a cute couple, and some of their scenes together are actu aren't much of a stretch, but it doesn't help. Disclosure starts off offensively enough, with Michael ment than the Feds, so ally pretty sweet. How. much you like Strictly Ballroom depends on your tolerance for formula and overacting, Douglas reprising his role as the Little Bo Peep of indiscriminate rounding up and your ability to sit through an hour of dreck just to see white male America, but it quickly degenerates into a of Middle Eastern people half an hour of cute stuff.