Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 27

iff inside. Herald Review Ann Landers. J) Decatur, Illinois ENTERTAINMENT THE ARTS Friday, August 7, 1998 Cj- 7 I 7 ft I 7 DA KAPERZ: Decatur native Rasheeda Buckner, left, joins K.R Phillips and KiKi Moore in the Atlanta rap trio. Familiar feces The majority of the 1998 Decatur Park Singers has Decatur and Macon County roots By DAVID BURKE Staff Writer the 28-year history of 1 the Decatur Park I Singers, the number of local musicians in the group has varied. In some years, there were only one or two singers with local ties in the college-age group.

This year, eight of the 14 singer-dancers are Decatur or Macon County products. "We've not had quite that many for a little while now," said Decatur native Cayla Hugo, one of the eight. "Usually we'll have two or three, so this is an up year." Hugo as well as Chris Billingsley, Alan Clarey, Amanda Davidson, Tisha Ford, Kim Former, Matt Longbons and Beth Mason will wrap up the Park Singers' season next weekend with the annual concert in MiHikin University's Kirkland Fine Arts Center. All of the Decatur-Macon County natives came up through the Decatur Park District's music program, including Best of Summer Stock (the elementary-age group) and Junior Park Singers (for high-schoolers). The rest of the singers and the eight members of the musical combo backing them are students at either Millikin or Belmont University in Nashville, Term.

Jim Kimmel, a long-time music instructor at Millikin, is now at Belmont. Park Singers director David Alderman and cultural arts director Sue Powell visited Kimmel in Nashville during the last school year and recruited several students to come to De- catur for the summer. One of them is Sarah Kennedy, an Austin, Texas, native who'll be a sophomore come fall. "I thought, 'Why not, I'll give it a Kennedy said. "I've always wanted to do something like this.

I wanted to get into pop music because I'm interested in PARK Continued on D6 1 4 1 II i0? saifc. "Efl A Decatur native is among an Atlanta rap trio that's set for the big time By DAVID BURKE Staff Writer On 1990, Rasheeda Buckner was the new kid in her Atlanta, school a transplant to the big city from Decatur. She found two friends who had similar interests and liked similar music. "None of us could sing, unfortunately," Buckner said. The three decided, at age 14, that they'd become a rap trio.

Eight years later, that trio is Da Kaperz, making a name for itself in Atlanta with sights set on national fame and exposure. 'Snake Eyes' "Snake Eyes" proves there's definite artistry in showing off. The thriller is directed by Brian De Palma and stars Nicolas Cage, neither of whom is renown for subtlety. Both director and actor are in grandstanding style, but when those two go over the top, they provide the viewer with a terrific view. The problem is that after watching the twists in the arabesque plot, you wonder if the denouement is worth it.

"Snake Eyes" builds to a payoff that it doesn't fully deliver. Like De Palma's memorable "Blow Out," the new film glistens with technology. In the opening sequence, the camera prowls through an ostensibly ordinary gathering for a prizefight, revealing hidden cameras, tracking devices and taping equipment. But the mixture of high tension and hi-tech doesn't work as gracefully as in "Blow Out." But that opening scene is a corker. It's a 20-minute tracking shot (a sequence without cuts of any kind) that, for the most part, follows Cage as he explores the back corridors and ringside seats of an Atlantic City sports arena.

As always, De Palma borrows from an assortment of filmmakers, including himself. But with this sequence, he manages to improve on earlier De Palma. The opening episode is compelling and even mesmerizing. Other visuals, including some showy overhead shots, are homages to Alfred Hitchcock. But they have a way of reminding us how tightly plotted the Hitchcock classics were in comparison to "Snake Eyes." Cage plays Rick Santoro, an Atlantic City cop who's no better than he has to be.

He's got a girlfriend, a wife and a son, and he eagerly accepts bribes that will allow him to placate any domestic gripes. His best, and probably only, friend is Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise), security chief for the secretary of defense. This results in a moral dilemma for the normally amoral Santoro. It seems that, while Dunne was pursuing a voluptuous ringsider, an assassin's bullet felled the secretary of Defense. But nothing is what it seems.

Telling the tale in what seems like actual time, De Palma unearths mountains of lies and disparate points of view. Most of the cast is an asset. The engaging Cage is jolly company; few other actors could throw a tirade with such fervent conviction. Relative newcomer Carla Gugino wins sympathy as a woman who may be either a cunning predator or an innocent pawn. Stan Shaw brings sad eyes and weatherbeaten face to the role of a prizefighter who's learned how to compromise.

Surprisingly, Sinise is a disappointment. The Sinise persona is always sinister, a trait that dilutes the element of surprise. In general terms, a good film is one that unfolds enjoyably, while a superb film is one that sustains itself and even grows in retrospect. "Snake Eyes" belongs in the category of good. Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News 'Halloween: H20' Just when you thought there was no need for another "Halloween" chapter, "Halloween: H20" shows up to change your mind.

Unlike most sequels, which are made for financial reasons, "H20" (the title refers to the 20th anniversary of the series) feels like it was made because somebody had a really good idea for a movie. The idea is to let the hatchet-wielding nutcase Michael Myers go at it with his sister, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), the one he failed to kill in the first two movies. "H20" pretends the subsequent sequels what were there? 19 of them? didn't happen. Instead, we catch up with Laurie as a middle-aged, barely functioning alcoholic who teaches at a boarding school for wealthy, snotty soon-to-be-corpses. That makes "H20" sounds like a "Scream" rip-off, but it isn't.

"H20" has a sense of humor, but it's not the wise-guy humor of "Scream." The jokes don't comment on the action; mostly, they're meant to make us let down our guard before the next evisceration. Unlike "Scream," "H20" is old-school horror, with idiots who don't turn on the light when they walk into a room and genuinely suspenseful scenes in which potential victims tangle with Michael. Curtis is an invaluable asset. Unlike the stick figures who populate most would-be scarefests (for instance, "Disturbing Strode is a well-developed character. After 20 years of being haunted by her brother's carnage, she's a mess, but she's kept herself in good enough shape to pull a Sigourney Weaver and go mano-a-maniac with Michael.

That scene, the slasher-movie equivalent of a HolyfieldVTyson rematch, is bound to make audiences cheer. Even casual fans of the series will respond to the thrill of Laurie's decision to confront Michael, realizing that as long as he continues to draw raspy breaths, she is unable to really live "H20" seems to resolve that issue, but is it really the last chapter in the "Halloween" series? Maybe. On the other hand, you kill a werewolf with a silver bullet and a vampire with a wooden stake, but Michael Myers? The movies haven't yet figured that one out. Chris Hewitt, St Paul Pioneer Press and is now a doctor's secretary. "I've been backing her all the way." Rasheeda Buckner said Da Kaperz hopes to be the first successful female rap trio.

Others who call themselves a trio are really two rappers and a disc jockey, she said. Several of the songs on the album include sampling of hits by Slick Rick, the Shirelles, Freddie Jackson and Luther Vandross. The ballads are what she calls "riding around music." "We have a lot of class," she said. "We keep it real in all aspects, talking, about things we've done, things we want to do, things we've experienced. "We're into trying to do things positively.

We're into things like Red Cross, cancer drives. The image we're going to bring to everybody is a clean-cut rap group, but keeping it real." The group uses some profanity, she said, but she doesn't call it a "hard core" trio. "It's more laid-back, keeping it real stuff that goes on in everyday life in Atlanta the ATL, as we say it," she said. To make ends meet, she works as a personal assistant for the group's management, D-Lo Entertainment in Atlanta, and its CEO Kirk Frost, whom Buckner said she's "very, very close to." "It works out real well," she said. "I want to know more of the business end, because that's where you get the knowledge as you move further as an artist." Steven Rhim, publisher of the Atlanta-based Music Guide Rap Guide, said the group is already getting a lot of exposure in the city through billboards, posters and other promotional material.

"I see them everywhere," Rhim said. "My god, they've been pushing it like groups that have already made it. They're one of the biggest hypes in a long time." That hype may help get people interested in the music, said Rhim, whose publication covers seven states in the Southeast. "People (get) so curious, they'll buy it before they hear you," he said. Rhim said many times the hype is not justified, but in Da Kaperz's case, it is.

"They've got a very good chance of breaking big nationally," he said. "Radio is very hip to them. Radio has been hyped all over the country. The anticipation is there "This'll blow up to be pretty big." Buckner said she's ready to roll with the punches, no matter if fame arrives or not. She said watching the success of K.P.

Phillips has "gotten us prepared for what's coming." "We have a lot of people behind us, and, hopefully, every-thing'll go our way." The trio's first video, "Don't Stop," is receiving airplay on Black Entertainment Television and is in heavy rotation on The Box, an all-request music cable channel in Atlanta. Da Kaperz's debut, self-titled album should be in stores nationwide Oct. 20. Joining Buckner are K.P. Phillips who had a rap hit with "Swing My Way" as part of the group K.P.

and Envy and KiKi Moore. All are 22. It helped that the trio's friends were producer Jermaine Dupri who's responsible for Kris Kross, Da Brat, Xscape and Usher and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez of the group TLC. Dupri is producing Da Kaperz album, which will feature Da Brat, Korrupt from the Dogg Pound and Mister Black. The "Don't Stop" video features Dupri, C-Lo from Goodie Mob, Korrupt and actor Faizon Love from the WB sitcom "The Parent Hood." The album, Buckner said from Atlanta, reflects the group's eight years of hard work to get where they are "We've been through the trials and tribulations, and now we're where we want to be," she said.

"Everything's been going well. It takes a lot of patience. If I had to tell anybody about the music industry, I'd say you just have to be very, very patient. It pays off in the long run." Rasheeda Buckner grew up in Decatur, and went to War-rensburg Elementary and Argenta-Oreana Junior High schools. When Rasheeda was age 14, her mother, Shirleen Watkins Harvell, wanted to give Rasheeda and her older sister the taste of life in a large city and moved them to Atlanta.

There, Shirleen met and married Herschell Harvel who's been Rasheeda's stepfather for nearly eight years. Her father, Harold Buckner is a bricklayer in Decatur. Shirleen Harvell said she was never skeptical of her daughter's aspirations in music. "I was all for it. It was something she wanted to do," said Harvell, who operated Hair Base 2000 in Decatur for 12 years Show info WHATi Decatur Park Singers benefit concert, featuring Matthew McBride, the Young Park Singers and Best of Summer Stock WHERE: Kirkland Fine Arts Center, Millikin University WHEN: 8 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 14 TICKETS: $10, from the Decatur Park District recreation office, 610 E. Riverside Drive, or call 422-8535. Day-of-show tickets will be available at the Kirkland ticket office, 424-6318. ardess who pits ATF agents against a gang I I Jackson, Carter to return to area CHAMPAIGN Country stars Alan Square will use its 1999 summer schedule to celebrate "A Century of American Musical Theater." The five shows for next year are "State Fair," "Chicago," "Romance, Romance," ster.

Also new are the sleeper hit "The Wedding Singer," an '80s throwback with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore; if iV i tTI 5n i ZIPPERS: Back with Jackson and Deana Carter who are already booked for the Illinois State Fair in Springfield on Aug. 21 will return to Central Illinois less than a month later. Jackson and Carter will perform in a 7:30 p.m. show Sunday, Sept. 20, at the University of "Blues Brothers 2000," with John Goodman donning the Ray-Bans to join Dan Aykroyd; "Deceiver," a film-noir mystery with Tim Roth and Chris Penn; and "Meet the Deedles," a Disney movie about surfer twin brothers stuck in Yellowstone Park.

Speaking of Disney, the Mouse House trots out the 1985 "Black Cauldron" for its first time on video for sale or rental. "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Season tickets will go on sale later. The theater will also produce 16 performances of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" as its holiday show from Dec. 9-20; and performances of the musical "I Do, I Do" from Feb. 10-14.

The February tickets go on sale in October; December tickets are now on sale, at $16 to $18, by calling 728-7375 or 1-888-261-9675. Carter of Sept. 20 Last weekend's box office leaders: 1. "Saving Private Ryan" Illinois Assembly Hall, it was announced Wednesday. Tickets for the Assembly Hall show go on sale at 10 a.m.

Saturday, Aug. 15, for $24.50. They may be purchased from the Assembly Hall box office, 333-5000, or TicketMaster outlets including WDZ-WDZQ in Decatur and Bergners in Forsyth. All-4-One, "On and dance popsters Dead or Alive, former Queen guitarist Brian May, "Another ex-Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, female rockers The Murmurs, Marshall Crenshaw, "The Nine Volt and duets from Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli, "It Was a Very Good Time." Synth-pop vets Depeche Mode get a tribute from "For the Masses," featuring The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, The Deftones and Veruca Salt. And soundtracks from "The Avengers" with Grace Jones, P.J.

Harvey, Annie Lennox, Sinead O'Connor and The Verve Pipe and "Snake Eyes," featuring Meredith Brooks are out. Compiled by David Burke with news services yv TTX 2. "The Parent Trap" if I 3. "There's Something About Mary" 4. "The Negotiator" 5.

"Ever After" 6. "The Mask of Zorro' IF I Zippers zip back with new 'Favorites' Big-band revivalists Squirrel Nut Zippers return with "Perennial Favorites," adding retro jazz, klezmer and calypso music to their repertoire It's among new albums this week. Also new are rapping tail wagger Snoop Doggy Dogg, "Da Game is to be Sold, Not to be soul harmonizers Quentin Tarantino's latest on tape Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown," whose diverse cast includes Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert DeNiro and Oscar nominee Robert Forster, is new on video this week. Grier plays a stew- 7 8 9 "Lethal Weapon 4" "Armageddon" "Dr.

Dolittle" "Mafia!" Exhibitor Relations Co. Little Theatre sets '99 schedule SULLIVAN Little Theatre-On the 10.