Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 77

I 4 rr -a Type 0 Negative ttt slogan is None more negative comes to the Valley from New York with a blend of thrash, hard-core, grunge and industrial music. And for fans of 'souped-up rock and roll, loud and rambunctious, southern California 's Lucy 's Fur Coat plays Tempe. Gibson's, 967-1234. Russell Means will join a panel of actors taking a behind-the-scenes look at working in Hollywood during a Native American fdm and video festival in Scottsdale. Story, Page E6.

fi Club Rio, IF 894-0533. SIJL A first novelist takes a chilling look at Irish life in Civil War New York. Books. 2 8 fill if Silliouette 13 Am ivwfcs E4 Marquee E6 Tlwuter Notes 19 Lady Day rarely sang blues, but she always sounded bluesy. Pop Music Notes.

A volley of books, audio and videocassettes and TV shows marks the D-Day anniversary. 5 Mime Notes E10 The Arizona Republic Sunday, May 29, 1994 EdihrsJaneeWlute 271-8482 WfMSee(AtmricaM Familiar icons wrestling with bigger issues frmncfr -PV-r 1 Wf a-: We are awash in pop. We eat it, drink it, wear it, watch it for hours at a time and stuff our ears with it like so much cotton. It is the lingua franca of the coming world culture, from Coca-Cola to Mickey Mouse, and we can't stick our heads in the sand and pretend otherwise. Pop is the treasure trove of imagery and entertainment that normal, everyday people partake of.

It is mythology, art, and in many cases, religion, and its primary altar is the TV. And it is now everywhere on the planet, from McDonald's in Moscow to baseball in Japan. There used to be an unmovable barrier 4 j'yri A )' -vvi? i l' between hat we praised as high art and hat we patronized as pop. Art was the higher of the two and was for people ho wore ties after 5 p.m. and didn't wear white after Labor Day.

Pop was for the rest of us. But I've been seeing a new trend over the past few years, one I call "high pop." It is more serious than mere entertainment, yet is not so solemn as a Beethoven string quartet. RICHARD KILSEN The Arizona Republic It is the pop of Roseanne, R.E.M., Prime Susnnt on the PUS no feminist agenda; does. We read the Tonya Harding episode as a little lesson in vaulting ambition, a kind of modern Julius Caesar. The Michael Jackson cpivxlc as proof that the mighty will fall.

OIlic North will test how we really feel about lying. Lorcna Hobbitt is a test case for the emerging Goddess Culture, just as Garence Thomas was. Ward and June were once our mythical nnidcl for parenthood despite the fact we knew no one realty acted that way. Now Roseanne and Dan Conner fill that spot. Mystery scries.

It is SYPD Blue and Northern Exposure. It is rap music and heavy metal. Critics complain that rap is a purveyor of negativity, but in reality it is attempting to make the connection between the music and life as it is lived on the streets. In the images of pop, we see what we think we are and what we want to be. We measure ourselves against Michael Jordan and Roseanne Arnold.

What few shared values we raognie in our centrifugal culture find their expression in pop, on the sitcom and in so-called "reality programming" and in music that tackles adult themes. In this, pop docs the same thing fine art does, albeit on a less refined, less subtle, less ambiguous level. The purpi'se of fine art is to examine our lives, but at its bcM. it entertains us, too. The purpose of pop is to entertain us, but at its best what I call high pop it also examines our lives.

Hidden agendas In earlier decades, pop was the passive reflection of society that we recognize in Ward and June Cleaver or the Brady bunch. don't have to kx'k hard to find the temper of the limes when watching those old sitcoms. They date themschev It's easier now to see in all those really bad "JH science-fiction movies the fear of nuclear experimentation, but they were no! made, for the most part, with that in mind Pop-culture critics can see the is'-ues of feminism huklcn in Dtvam vfJcannte or Ikmh hcd, but the issues are buried, probably unrecognized by the shows creators. Those shows had Photo illustr tion by Ptti VkJi Th Anion Republic self-conscious relationship with real life. Such programs didn't just reflect their times, they questioned them In high art.

when Sophocles' Antigone is faced ith the question of whether to obey the law of the land or the mural law, she faces a life-threatening dilemma. The play investigates the difficulty and. while it dicsn't provide any simple answers, frames the questions with intellectual prevision and emotional force It's a dilemma that fjeed many Americans during the Vietnam War: If one sees them as in conflict, should one obey the law of the land, or higher, universal moral laws'" Irrelevant absolutes What nukes the issues vital is that they are issues that haven't been settled. The ahortion debate, for instance, is at vnne level jhout how we define what life is. It is an mvluMc question, for which we crave an answer.

Many of the old moral absoluies no longer seem relevant. or insunee. from a few adherenls of religion and Republicanism, no we is willing these das to nuke a blanket condemnation of single mothers. There are too many of them and loo many are our soiers. or our country-music stars.

(r. when obvious virtues conflict with each other, how do we figure oul which virtue outranks the other? Should a father protest his daughter and enforce strict morality, or should he 5v POf vye 7 Questioning our times The roots of this grittier entertainment are in the Vietnam War, when the culture was rudely shaken out of its self-content, and we kst our nxraJ rudder. The pop vngs of the time addressed real issues in rvk laneiwge: The Ik-atics' Aow here Man; the Kinks' ell Rcpex ted Man. Jams lan's Xviett Child, the Stones' M.hcr' I title Helper. Ikb D)lan was the nexus of all And teles won nude us great leap ftuward with All in the amily, the first TV show that attempted more aggressive nJ Tuba City teens tuning in to radio work L-' vil By Jull Ncwtxrg Th AUon Rputc Tt'BA CITY Teen agers living on the Navajo Reservation in the rtrwte northeastern corner of ihe state climb "KL I'D I lill'' lo tune in rock and roll orwttrvdttnf from rhocnu.

Signals from faraway cities dVwi'l Ira Tub City loens many radio hones, short of tlimNng the hill. Hut although Ihe incoming airwaves may be relatively quiet in ihe rural community, students al Ore) hill Academy gh School art getting reaJy lo rnd out Ihetr own votces nationwide The high chooT station. MillR. alrefcly cn.U signal beyond campu and is heard in Tuba City. Sinn, it will be wmlmg pfofimmto to Name American station acrns the country It's the only Natoe American bool rlm station in the t'nitcd Sutes thai enes it tttrnHindiny cmmunttr, OrrvhiH rti imtrvMof Sm h(er satJ Ami hen MillR if Amerwan fof puM Although AlKt)s is ttll in a desekf mental tage.

managers ptan on providing 2 hour trogrammmg lo ersK naloe iatm in the 'nitrd States and some In Canada. The number of Native A met Kan Utns ha gnmn front 12 in I IS 2 lo ahout 25 today. The Cotpof athin PublK llrtKaong prmnlevl a S25.UH vnvJ mtwr grant f-4 AIRUS and an M'thvl fof three-year doekf mental phat e4 the project, and money I bring wmght IhhHigh fiHirKMttims ami corrsf (e Vnuti'ns Ore) hill paij AIR(. nj an PuM TfWs'omunn, ate1" ajiliues Program grnt earmark fd ft KCtltR. 5s haV-f Nati'fvaJ pfogrimming ilrrfr ptannn! f'-e th network imlutSes a ia-'f.

the first a'l l-vl-an laJk show. anJ rir. a rft if American Indian Radio rn Satellite (AIROS) network at the end (4 May. the airstave will be open fof stikleiit lo create program that'll be heard on the netok "I ihmk if i going lo be pretty cool that we're going lo be heard nationwide, senior KtUej lart ui4. AIROS.

available primarily to Natoe American psiMw launches! 92. but hiving time on a atr Ifiir arvl r'ipfng iiit'v with dih antenna wa infxprnof. Nt that satellite Irs hnok'f i more common. pt xt it 4aWe "AIR(v been kwgOaKln nn rf drwn of k-4 nativf pef and mjvff." rvftsmtk co(irestn I rank lUjth aij Tb network a partnerth if fcrHs CommMrtMation which prmhks rrH)rves tni rrvvf fif Nfne A tv neat rtii ratn. anl IN NaSnf PwMse tr.lt4tiing Cov.if?ium, whuh pte ml jMinKiTf pei'f rammm by avj aNvt No Prg''n d'wrtof nr.ff (Wgr.

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