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■ BEST BET
Meet University professor ana author Warren Leamon at a book
signing celebrating the publication of •Unheard Melodies." by
Longstreet Press. The novelist, a University alumnus, will be at
Old Black Dog on Thursday. May 17 from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
The Red and Black • Tuesday, May 15, 1990 • S
A&E
New band Roosevelt is taking off
R'«
Roosevelt: The name means nothing but the band is get
ting noticed around town
■ INTERVIEW
By RACHEL CURRY
Entertainment Writer
Roosevelt plays the Downstairs
tonight. $2 cover.
Ballard Leseman sat across
the table in DePalma’s last
Friday afternoon trying to ex
plain how his latest band, Roose
velt, was bom.
Last January, former I.S.S.
(Independent Skyleague Section)
members guitarist Daniel Pruitt
and bassist John Crain were
looking to fill the gap that formed
when their drummer left. Ex-Old
Scratch bassist and Hillbillies
drummer, Leseman, fit the bill.
Pruitt and Crain joined the in
terview later. The result was an
informative dicussion about this
exciting (almost) new band.
'The chemistry is great.
They'll (Pruitt and Crain) tiy
anything," Leseman said.
Since January, the threesome
have re-worked many of the
songs that Pruitt and Crain
wrote when they were in I.S.S.
They worked on a few new tunes
as well as some interesting
covers.
“We do everything from
Johnny Cash to Devo to AC/DC,"
said Leseman. “But what I want
to do is pull out some really early
80s songs and learn them. Songs
that you liked when you were 12,
but you hate now. Stuff like Styx
and Quarterflash."
This focus on the 80s might
have something to do with Lese-
man’s desire to get away from the
labels most often attached to
Roosevelt —Jethro Tull sans
flute and 70s-sounding hard rock.
Whatever they’re compared to,
Roosevelt has been getting no
ticed.
“So far, things have really
fallen in place for us," said Les
eman.
Guitarist Daniel Pruitt said,
“Yeah, I really wasn’t antic
ipating anything to get going
probably till next fall and all of a
sudden I’ve had to quit a job and
drop a class we’ve been playing so
much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s
been great.”
The only negative response
has been to their name, ana that
hasn’t been too serious.
“Most people love the music,
but when we tell them our name,
all we get is ‘Man, what a stupid
name!’" said Pruitt.
Surpassing suggestions such
as Darwin Fuzz and Gall Bladder
Spatter, they opted for the much
more subdued tag, Roosevelt.
“Everybody takes their name
so seriously and Roosevelt didn’t
seem to represent anything,” said
bassist John Crain.
Catch this great new band
when they headline at The Down
stairs tonight. The cover is $2.
Greenhouse: Unique ‘schizo-pop’
■ INTERVIEW
By COLEEN BROOKS
Entertainment Writer
They claim to sound like a com
bination of “the Pretenders, Public
Image Limited and Parkav (mar
garine)" and both lead vocalists oc
casionally wear skirts, although
one of them is male This quirky
collection of characters calls them
selves Greenhouse and they’re def
initely not a run-of-the-mill Athens
band
The five members of Greenhouse
are Jay Ring and Kathy Kirbo on
bass, guitar and lead vocals, Paul
Hammond — bass, guitar and
backing vocals, Ben Mize — drums
and backing vocals and Jimmy
Mixon — keyboards and infrequent
backup vocals. The band got its
start about a year and a half ago
through a long series of classified
advertisements.
This guy named Billy, our spiri
tual leader, put an ad in the paper
and I answered it. Then we even
tually found Jimmy and Jay,”
Kirbo said.
‘We’re probably the only band in
Athens that came together purely
out of newspaper ads," Ring said.
Paul Hammond is the most re
cent addition to the band’s lineup.
Hammond, who has also played in
the local bands Time Toy and the
now defunct Squalls, said he saw
Kirbo’s ad and called her up.
‘They told me they needed a
guitar player and we got together
and played some fake jazz and then
I knew that if we could cut up like
that that I’d be fine,” Hammond
said.
Kirbo said the band had a rash
of lineup changes until about six
months ago. Ring said they called
themselves “the Spinal Tap of
Greenhouse: Kathy Kirbo, Paul Hammond. Jay Ring and
Ben Mize will perform at the 40 Watt tonight
Athens" for a while because of the
numerous drummers that came
and went before Ben Mize was fi
nally recruited to fill the position.
Despite the personnel changes,
Greenhouse has toughed it out and
is now the proud owner of what
Ring describes as a “super-hot.
smoking, mind-blowing live show ”
The band members seemed uncom
fortable trying to nail down their
sound but some of the terms the^
came up with were “schizo-pop”,
“insane stuff,” “radio-oriented
funk" and “accessible alternative
pop/rock."
‘Tor being not too far off the
edge of mainstream rock and roll,
we really have an edge to us," Ring
said.
Greenhouse has distributed a
five-song cassette to local record
stores and Kirbo said they might
be heading back into the studios
soon. Ring said the band plans to
do some limited road work this
summer and continue to try to
catch the interest of a record com
pany.
Greenhouse uill he unleashing
its hot live shou on an unsus
pecting croud tonight at the 40
Watt. Balrog opens.
The Miser: Bringing 17th century to life
■ REVIEW
By MAURA CORRIGAN
Entertainment Writer
The University Theatre ended
its 1989-90 season last weekend
with its production of‘The Miser.”
A creative stage design and col
orful costumes, along with inter
esting situations were some of the
positive attributes of the play.
The play portrayed the ordeals
of two cnildren living with a father
who is a miser. Harpagon, the
miser, was successfully played by
graduate student Beau Phillips.
Harpagon was very overprotec -
tive of his hidden stash of money
and was highly paranoid that all
people were out to steal it from
him. While some of the cast seemed
to lack enthusiasm in their parts,
Phillips was completely absorbed
in the role of Harpagon and por
trayed well a man who was solely
dependent on his money.
In one dramatic scene, when
Harpagon’s money was missing,
Phillips fell to the ground and pro
claimed he was dying.
He went on to accuse the entire
audience of stealing his box of
money. He spoke directly to the au
dience as if they were the towns
people, calling them a bunch of
crooks.
Harpagon’s intermittent excite
ment and worry was accentuated
by huge coins hanging in front of
and behind the stage. Whenever
the miser had a hyper fit, the coins
shook and jingled. The highly or
nate set design added to the under
lying theme of greed, which
director Stanley Longman de
scribed as a “skewed design that
reflects the grotesqueness of the
play and Harpagon.”
Harpagon’s children rarely got
to share their father’s possessions,
yet they still wore clothes that ex
uded a sense of wealth. Harpagon’s
son Cleante wore a purple silk cos
tume with pink, yellow, and green
ribbons around his wrists and
waist. He also donned a long, curly,
blond wig. Harpagon’s daughter
Elise wore a full and billowing
dress that had a garish skirt.
The play, which ran for almost 2
1/2 hours, picked up during the
second half but was slow getting
started. The actors and actresses
became more comfortable with
their roles as the show progressed,
and the audience similarly seemed
to er\joy the show more towards the
end.
The m*\jor conflict of the play in
volved Mariane, who Cleante was
in love with but whom Harpagon
intended to marry. This conflict,
which pervaded throughout the
play, was conveniently resolved in
the end. Harpagon ended up relin
quishing Mariane in return for the
restoration of his money, which
had been stolen.
Other “magical” resolutions oc-
urred when fate reunited a long
lost family and two neatly ar
ranged marriages, which fell per
fectly into place.
Such flawless endings are typ
ical of Moliere’s style. The conclu
sion added to the play, but it was
also rather corny and a bit weak.
‘The Miser" was overall an en
joyable play. The production did a
good job in bringing to life the
mood of the 17th century. Charac
terization could have been stronger
if some of the actors had shown
more pizazz and interest in their
roles.
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