Time Warp to the ’60s
RadioShack’s RetroFest commemorates decade

The RadioShack RetroFest, a 3-month long celebration of the ’60s, has set out to show Fort Worth through music, dance, film and history that the ’60s weren’t all about flowers, beads, war and drugs.

RetroFest activities include a variety of programs, including a film series sponsored by the TCU radio-TV-film department, a ’60s theme concert by the department of ballet and modern dance, a tribute to the Beatles by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and a series of lectures at Tarrant County College on subjects such as “Cold War Policy in the USSR During the ’60s.” KTCU-FM (88.7) is also joining in with a show each Friday about music and musical events of the ’60s.

Sharon Benge, project director for RetroFest, said they were hesitant to use the word “celebrate” for the festivities because the ‘60s were also turbulent times.

“We have wrestled long and hard with this word ‘celebrate’ — but we’re using the word in a larger sense, like we ‘celebrate’ the death of Christ on (Good Friday),” Benge said. “There are a good many programs in the schedule that reflect the depth of the ’60s. What we’re doing is allowing the public to look at a topic in depth.”

Benge said the idea for RetroFest came from a project in Cardiff, Wales, on the British Isles called “Towards the Millennium,” in which they celebrated a different decade of the 1900s every year of the ’90s. So far, Fort Worth has celebrated 1910-20 and the ’40s.

The department of ballet and modern dance is contributing to RetroFest’s commemoration of the ’60s by integrating issues from the decade into their fall concert, “Peace, Love and Dance.” They will perform the piece at 8 p.m. Oct. 20 and 21 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 22 in Ed Landreth Hall Auditorium.

“I think we have a nice balance,” said Susan Douglas Roberts, associate professor of the department. “Li-Chou Cheng (ballet master in residence) choreographed a work that commemorates Chinese culture (in the ’60s). He calls it “Farewell” because it was a farewell to Chinese culture. Twenty-two million Chinese lost their lives. There is no idealization there.”

Libby James, a senior ballet major, is performing in Cheng’s piece.

“From what I’ve seen, (the department’s part in RetroFest) is not idealized,” James said. “Cheng’s piece is very dramatic. It’s about how people in China were pushed around. He wants it to be very intense. Not many Americans know about that part of history. What the department is doing is not necessarily all celebration but educational as well.”

Elizabeth Gillaspy, lecturer in the department, said each person who attends the festivities will leave with their own interpretation of the era.

“With dance, the audience can interpret it and see it and walk away with what they choose to take from it,” Gillaspy said. “I don’t think anything that comes out of changes in culture can come out as all good or all bad. There’s a lot of worth in reflecting on changes that happened in history because you’ve got some perspective and can look at both the good and the bad. By having RetroFest, we’re not saying everything (about the ’60s) is good or bad.”

Gillaspy said the dance piece connects to the idea that the ‘60s was the adolescence of American culture.
“I tried to reflect some of those changes that happen in adolescence that happen in society in general, like discovery, experimentation and rebellion,” she said.

Greg Staley, director of communications at the Fort Worth Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, said the RetroFest is an opportunity to educate.

“It’s a very good umbrella organization for all arts, museums and attractions to do focused programming,” Staley said.

The bureau’s contribution to RetroFest is a free exhibit that includes photos and memorabilia from the 1960s, such as pictures of President John F. Kennedy when he visited the Dallas/Fort Worth area in 1963 and items relating to the Vietnam War era.

Sarah McClellan
sarahlmac@hotmail.com

I can at least say Bruce Paltrow seems to have covered all the bases, relationships wise. In his new film, “Duets,” which was released Sept. 15 after months of delays, Paltrow examines the many relationships that can develop between people ... even in the karaoke circuit.

Two strangers become friends, a hustler meets the daughter he never knew, an eternal underachiever finds a lost soul to watch over and a love relationship begins to form. The paths of all involved intersect at an Omaha, Neb., karaoke contest where the winner takes home $5,000. The prize is something that everyone would like to win, including the strangers (Paul Giamatti, Andre Braugher), the lost soul (Maria Bello), the underachiever (Scott Speedman), the hustler (Huey Lewis) and his daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow).

“Duets” is a fine film to see if you have nothing better to do on a rainy night. But don’t expect anything superior from Bruce Paltrow or from his Academy Award-winning daughter. The film has some great talent and great performances by Giamatti and Braugher, especially. But it’s simply too much of a tangle of characteristics who aren’t as complicated or nearly as interesting as, say, those from or Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia.”

— Meryn Bandyle

Madonna has many new projects on the horizon, one of which is a brand new son, Rocco Ritchie, and a new record bluntly titled, “Music.”

In this album, Madonna delves into the abyss of electronic and dance-music mush similar to her 1998 Grammy-winning album, “Ray of Light.” This time the album is much less reflective on her life and more involved with finally conquering inner harmony and peace.

As the title track begins, one is transported into the sounds of the ’70s with a dance beat. The single has already been successful, reaching No. 1 in over 15 countries, including the United States.

The two best tracks on the album are “What It Feels Like for a Girl” and “Nobody’s Perfect.” Two very different and distinct songs, both slower than all of the dance tracks, take the listener to new and exciting levels. “What It Feels Like for a Girl” discusses the differences between the sexes while “Nobody’s Perfect” is the saddest song on the record.

Madonna’s vocals are best demonstrated in the song, “Don’t Tell Me” which will be the record’s second single. Much like her vocals, the once bubble-gum pop singer known for “Like a Virgin” and “Lucky Star” has finally found the maturity in her music.

— David Reese

“Friday night, I’m going nowhere; all my lights are changing green to red,” sings David Gray in “Babylon,” a song of loneliness and reconciliation that is available in two exemplary versions on Gray’s new compact disc, “White Ladder.”

Gray seamlessly mixes electronic beats, delicate finger-plucked acoustic guitar and an unstoppably catchy chorus to make a song that, in a just world, would be a top-10 hit. “Babylon,” along with Elliott Smith’s “Happiness,” stands as the one of the most beautiful, lump-in-the-throat recordings of the year.

Recorded entirely in Gray’s apartment with only a guitar and a mixing board, “White Ladder” is so remarkably textured that studio albums with budgets 30 times as high pale in comparison.

In “My Oh My,” the beats get pushed farther into the background, and the song takes on a plaintive, dirge-like quality that sounds like Blur at the top of their game.

The first half of the album gets bogged down in songs like “Night Blindness” and “We’re Not Right” that lack the same level of energy and emotion as its jaw-dropping second half. “White Ladder” picks up some major speed with “Silver Lining,” whose reverberating guitars create a thick brew of pop perfection. The piano ballad “This Years Love” is pure naked emotion, with Gray’s soaring vocals giving the song an almost operatic quality. And when followed by the overpowering “Sail Away,” the effect is knee-buckling.

— Jack Bullionin

By Christina Hager
skiff staff

“Stealing Shadows,” written by Kay Hooper, is a thrilling tale of a madman and one woman’s quest to stop him from killing again.

The story begins in 1998, and tells of a young woman named Cassie Neill who is helping Los Angeles detectives track down a serial killer. She uses her psychic power to tap into the killer’s mind to see where he is going to take his next victim. By clutching an object the madman himself once possessed, Neill latches onto the electric waves coming from his mind and plunges in.

However, the madman manages to allude her, and before she can be of any help to the police, he has killed again — this time a little girl.

Terrified that her “gift” has failed her and consumed with guilt, she moves to Ryan’s Bluff, N.C. where the story picks up half a year later.

Living quietly in the house her deceased aunt left to her, Neill spends her time to herself, hardly venturing into town — that is, until premonitions of another murder drive her to break her silence.

Neill tracks down the young Judge Ben Ryan, one of the most well-liked and respected men in town. “There’s going to be a murder,” she states simply. From there you can hardly tear your eyes from the pages of the book.

When she begins predicting the murders in the very small and uneventful town, Neill goes from being the suspect to the town’s newest witch. Despite the public’s opinion of her role in the murders, she continues to delve into the killer’s mind, only to discover he is too powerful for her.

As the killer continues to prey on the women of the town, Neill feels more and more helpless. She is nonetheless encouraged by Judge Ryan, who is starting to feel a certain, unexplained affection for the young psychic. However, Sheriff Matt Dunbar has a different view of her “gift,” calling it garbage and threatening to put Neill in jail for the murders. Not until his own girlfriend is threatened and Neill proves her power does he realize her true ability.

Hooper does a thrilling job of introducing likable characters and telling a frightening tale at the same time. Her knowledge of the subject is so great, it convinces the reader of Neill’s gift, while shocking the reader at the same time with the novel’s twists.

The turn of every page ushers in a new surprise, and the reader is left in suspense with the killer’s identity until the end. And even when you think it is over, the story draws you back in with an intensity that can only be created by a gifted writer or, of course, a madman.

Christina Hager
ctinasing2000@aol.com

The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999, 2000 Credits

Contact Us!