The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, December 4, 1992 Page: 8 of 20
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8 friday, december 4, 1992 the rice thresher
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Catch Baker Junior Joel Stein play-
big Ma guitar at the Black Forest
Tavem and Gardens at9p.m.Thim.,
Doc. 10. It's all acoustic, soma
Stein original* and some covers.
861-2968.
Forget the Gorilla Girts. The "beautiful,
glamorous and caring" Glamour Gbts
(aJt.a. Wiees senior Jen McKay and *92
grad Laura Meyers) are Just waiting to
talk to you on the DivereeWorke
PhoneWorics line. Take 10 minutes of
your pop culture time at 228-2882.
The Da Camera Society presents Re-
garding Columbus, an evening of music
about the man himself. C. CuRns-SMrm's
"Christopher the Christ-Bearer" wM pre-
miere. Also, Spanish guitar music by Lws
de Milan, Fernando Son and Manuel oc
Falla will be performed. Rice professors
Brian Connelly and Paul Ellison wHI be
featured on piano and doubiebass, re-
spectively. Culien Theater at Wortham
Center. 8 p.m. Half-price tlckete for
students. 824-5050.
Grandma Duck ht Dead, the latest Cur-
tain* presentation, opens tonight and
will run through Jan. 9. Larry Shue, au-
thor of the fowl comedy, also wrote the
popular favorites The Nerd and The For-
eigner.. $10. 8 p.m. 862-4548.
If you've enjoyed Italian film director/
cultural icon Pier Paolo Pasouni's films at
the Media Center this month, don't miss
the finale at the MFA. Tonight, see The
Decameron (1S70-71) at 8 p.m. and The
Canterbury Tale* (1971-72) at 10
p.m. Tomorrow, MFA will show
Sab or the 120 Day* of Sodom
at 7:30 p.m. $3. 18 & up.
639-7515.
BatTV
Noise for Toys: area
musicians, In-
cluding
NOD fa-
vorite Ezra Charles, will perform a musi-
cal benefit in conjunction with the Toys
for Tots program at McGofrigeTs Mucky
Duck. Dec. 8,7 p.m., 528-5999. Admis-
sion: a toy.
No, you can't carry moonbeams home In
a Jar, but perhaps In a cup at the new
Moonbeams Coffeehouse behind Star
Pizza in the Heights.
Upcoming concerts:
It's Trenchmouthl the band which sets
KTOU DJs to shrieking with pleasure.
With Laughing Hyenas and Royal Trucks
at Emo's Sat., Dec. 5. 523-8503.
10,000 Maniacs at the Tower, with the
Wallflowers. Sun., Dec. 6.629-3700.
Monks of Doom: three Camper Van
Beethoven alumns and one former
Ophelias member comprise this "great,
great guitar band." Dec. 11, Emo's,
523-8503.
Mud honey, the ultimate (dare we say
it?) Seattle band, with Eugenius and
Supersuckers, Sat., Dec. 12. At the
Vatican.
Ministry and Helmet, the new alterna-
tive darlings: Dec. 14, Sam Houston
CoNseum, 8 p.m., $20.6294700.
Fox brings back the Dark Knight—an adult su
by joHN Martin
For those of you workaholics who actually
have something to do at 4:30 in the afternoon,
you may not be aware of Fox's most recent effort
to appeal to the slightly more mature members of
its "Kid's Club". If you'll recall, Fox's 'Tiny
Toons" gathered quite a following around the
campus (or at least in the cozy commons of Sid
Rich) with its debut two years ago. It's newest
creation promises to be equally, if not more,
popular.
I am, of course, referring to Batman: The
This original Batman (for
those of you who are
not Bat-historians) was a
darker figure than we
are used to. His mission
was not merely to stop
criminals, but to terrify
them. In the early days,
the Batman was not
even above the use of
firearms.
Animated Series. Unlike previous attempts 10
bring the Dark Knight to television, this series
actually maintains some respect for the original
Bob Kane creation. Divested of the 1960s camp
and the high-tech Hollywood glitter of the recent
Batman movies, the series reuirns to the more
serious and psychologically complex hero who
appeared in 1939 in the pages of Detective
Comics.
This original Batman (for those of you who
are not Bat-historians) was a more dark, brooding
mysterious figure than we are used to seeing
in the popular adaptations.
He was driven by rage, guilt
and an almost pathological
sense of vengeance.
His mission was not
merely to stop criminals, but
to terrify them. In the early
days, the Batman was not
even above the use of
firearms. Needless to say, his
character has been toned
down a bit since then. Later
versions have emphasized his skills as a
detective, his highly honed fighting abilities and
his genius as an inventor. These have combined
with his psychological conflicts and his powerful
sense of justice and decency to create one of the
most enduring figures in comic-book history and,
one may claim, in popular culture in general.
The new series, while not offering the kind of
gutsy realism and complexity of recent graphic
novels (it is made for kids, after all), does do
more than any other television version to reclaim
the classic Dark Knight.
The artwork, while not complicated, is
reminiscent of Bob Kane's original '30s and '40s
comic art, with its dark shadows, sharp angles,
and almost surreal effects. Similarly, the writing
tends to emphasize Batman's skills and intelli-
gence over his use of "silly gimmicks and tricky
doodads." Recent episodes have consisted of a
great deal of investigation and conversation
before the climactic fight-scenes, which
themselves are some of the best that I've seen in
an animated show.
The show also explores the characters on a
psychological level that I've never encountered
in a children's cartoon. A memorable example is
the two part origin of the Two-Face character. In
what is actually an improvement over the comic-
book version, the writers of the series theorized
that the villain's psychosis was not merely the
result of his scarring at the hands of criminals but
was a deep-seated childhood trauma that
manifested itself in the form of a split personal-
ity. As a student of psychology, I was thrilled.
Further applause must go to the characteriza-
tion of Alfred, the prim, proper and absolutely
hilarious butler of Bruce Wayne. His witty and
good-natured teasing of the overly serious
Batman provides just the right amount of
contrast Finally, I must mention that the show
Faced with a brooding Batman, Fox has added the Boy Wonder to lighten the mood.
boasts an impressive cast of voices for its
supporting characters. While Batman himself is
an unknown (Kevin Conroy), the celebrity voices
include Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Melissa Gilbert-
Brinkman, Mark Hamill, Adrienne Barbeau,
Richard Moll, Roddy McDowell, Helen Slater,
Michael York, Ron Pearlman, Ed Asner and
many others. I'll let you figure out which voice
belongs to which character.
If any criticism must be made (and a true
critic must), the obvious target would be that the
show may be a little too dark for the majority of
its viewers. I'm not sure how fully an eight- or
10-year-old would understand the psychology of
some of these villains. The show does not take
great pains to spell out any sort of resolution of
the problems that both Batman and his enemies
encounter. One episode ended with a rather
morbid reading of William Blake's "Tyger,
Tyger" as the hero/villain went off to live alone
on an island.
While a more mature audience may find
High noon for archis
something useful in a tragic ending, younger
viewers probably just feel disturbed by it.
Perhaps as a response to this criticism the writers
have recently added the character of Robin.
While I understand the decision, I can't help but
feel a little disappointed that we must resort to
the bratty Boy Blunder to lighten the mood.
There is a reason why the comic buyers voted a
few years ago to have the brat written out of the
Batman series. He's annoying, childish and only
serves to make the serious character of Batman
seem silly.
Anyway, whatever your opinion of the
show's daikness or of Robin, its worth checking
out. Also, for anyone interested in the history of
the Batman, I would recommend Tales of the
Dark Knight: Batmans First Fifty Years by Mark
Cotta Vaz, published by Ballantine Books and
available at most comic shops.
Batman:The Animated Series
Mon.-Fri., 4:30 p.m.
Fox, Ch. 26.
New dean plans swift, positive changes
by Eric Stotts
Lars Larup has just been chosen as the new
dean of the School of Architecture. This indepth
look into the ideas behind the man was obtained
via a (costly) phone interview to Lamp's current
home in Switzerland. Despite the crying of the
dean-to-be's four-year-old son in the background,
the interview was clear and insightful. Larup
addresses an increased workload for students, the
city of Houston, and the problem of minority
recruitment (currently, the school has no black
students or faculty) For more information on
Larup, see the news story on page one.
Larup: You know architectural education at
this time, after a kind of, maybe 10 or 15 years of
extreme orientation towards formalism and the
private kind of orientation of architecture, needs
to address somewhat different issues in the '90s.
And it's not uninteresting and coincidental that
Clinton's talk about a concern for infrastructure,
and I take that to mean, in more general terms,
maybe not just roads and transportation systems
but actually an infrastructure in a much more
general sense of the public end of things, in that
our cities have deteriorated to such a degree that,
"We need to address
issues that have more
wide ranging concerns
than kind of aggrandiz-
ing personal wealth or
corporate wealth/'
we really need to—if we are interested in making
them survive—we really have to address the city
in a much more vigorous way.
And I think that the way that trickles down
into an architecture curriculum is that we might
have to concentrate more on the programs we
write for studios. They have in the past been
rather lightweight...you know , there have been
too many artist studios designed in architecture
school for too long. It needs to really address the
city and also aspects of the city, including the
suburban house, by the way, which is something
that, interestingly enough, is kind of left out
because it is too mundane. We need to address
see New Dean, pace 13
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Kim, Leezie & Carson, Chad. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, December 4, 1992, newspaper, December 4, 1992; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245827/m1/8/?rotate=270: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.