Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 11

If iwtw wi wwwlllwl HHUKWHM IHI wwr) tfvtwwi irii hi mi Birmingham iVist-IIerald Comics B2 Television B3 Ann Landers B4 Movies B4 June 3 1996 5 bEAl Monday Ji gwqfjguw'ii Ij I) 4 i Wherefore art thou Shakespeare? I ij up- I Commentary sundry other victims Thus Shakespeare captain of the dead white males (literary division) is seen not as a gnat expositor of the human non condition but as a 16th-century Jo Romeo's suicide and kissing his poisoned lips remind us of the purity and power of young love And Henry facing a French army five times the size of his captures courage in a cage of words: day to called the feast of Crisp-las He that outlives this day and comes safe home Will stand a-tip-toe when this day to like so many colleges sighs Blatty "to In the hands of children of confined Quite sol Sadly our colleges are casting away or simply making an answer to this confusion namely the great healing words of men and women who can show us that we are one in love and pain and ByPaulAken Icripps Howflfd Newt (win William Peter Blatty author of "The wooden what the devil hai got into his alma mater Georgetown University Like a vial of holy water flung at a gaggle of imps a recent Blatty letter scalds school officials for and The university's sin? It plans to stop requiring English majors to take closes on the works of three English authon John Milton Geoffrey Chaucer and the master himself William Shakespeare One might think in English-language grad without Shakespeare to uke "Hamlet without the lacking something bade But to give the devil his due Georgetown offers nine elective Shakespeare courses a year more than most universities And in a survey of about IS college English departments nationwide the to important to gather such insights before a playwright even greater than William of Avon pencils the final stage direction: Exeunt omnes treams new National Alumni Forum could find only nine that retained a "great mandate "The professors' defense is says the Georgetown Voice a weekly magazine "(It id that somehow the English major was not impaired but improved by removing the classical core" Oh irony! Evidently Shakespeare's fall from academic grace has twin roots "There's a tendency to drop the great says NAF President Jerry Martin "because some professors and students believe in the concept of 'greatness' They think it's an authoritarian and hierarchical Such notions this mutilated Marxism holds conspire to keep down women people of color and JBS: sr OJ ty 4 I IJ a ft It -'r fes fk Facilities coverage expanding By Nick Patterson PHt-Utrild Reporter In case you noticed the news at WBMG-42 has gone mainstream First there to the new nightly coanchor and two new meteorologists and a new weekend newscast with a new anchor Soon there will be newscasts at noon and 9 pm- a morning show and news bureaus to Tuscaloosa and the Amiston-Gadsden area The newsroom staff has nearly doubled from IS to 29 and there are plans to add 21 nfoplj The i500-square-foot WBMG newsroom will grow by an additional 2400 square feet as the recent hammering in the newsroom attests The station will get a bigger tower able to increase threefoldthe number of viewers receiving signal Behind it all is a new station owner a new news director and the willingness to spend major money to make it happen It represents effort to better compete with WBRC-6 and WVTM-1S which trounce 42 in the ratings news Director Willy Walker said facelift goes mare than skin deep: a fundamental change in phlkwophy that made the station different from its competitors The shift to to another way of looking at broadcast news "We did a couple of research efforts to target what people wanted more of and less of Ms Walker said "People want us to tell folks when government officials and businesses are doing the wrong thing they also want that coverage to be balanced and fair They also want to know what else to going Ms Walker said Noticeable changes coincided with Ms Walker's arrival Dec 11 She was hired when Park Communications which owns Channel 42 got new owners: Gary Knapp and Don Tomlin of Lexington Ky Before that Channel 42 wu the junkyard dog of Birmingham local news The station wu smaller than its competitors and under the helm of then-news Director John Harrod it took a decidedly different approach While the other stations covered Birmingham City Hall only a little seph Goebbels propagandizing for a tyrannical clique Besides displaying an abject sensitivity to which to seldom multi- enough to include a Chaucer or a Bach or a Jefferson many college administrators whore after the almighty dollar by dropping core requirements and offering students (Le customers) an endless smorgasbord of dainty electives But like most oracles Shakespeare to not always simple to undei stand be candid Read after more than three centuries when the world so much has changed he to often hard Baffling Even impenetrable And that's with annotation But if for every two passages that befuddle us one we comprehend what a bargain -Sr r- 'i: 'j S5P t'vtys tions disputed 42's claims They accused WBMG of attentioMeeking tor attacking their better-rated competition But now WBMG's news to a lot more like WBRCs or WVTM's than it used to be That to not necessarily a good thing said Mark Hickson chairman of the communication studies department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham more conformist it's more typical more run of the be said Hickson said that by becoming mare Uke the other local news stations 42 took something away from viewers "I'm a Uttle tot disappointed in what doing with the news itself in that I thought that what they were doing before gave the community an he said Please tori to WBMG page B4 But as a woman I would like to see the heroes seeking peaceful settlements to disputes and willing to share power Lynchings heavy artillery and senseless slaughters are contradictory to the meaning of regardless of the dvil war century or country in which it took place But then I guess bate to a powerful motive Pity those young struggling actors trying to make it big to Hollywood They'll take any role offered knowing that being cast in the wrong color uniform can mean the difference between sitting around the campfire nursing a bloody amputated stub or celebrating victory with a keg of beer and a voluptuous female She of course to perfectly coifed and just happens to be passing by the encampment Thto fantasy creature to always willing to er romp in the hay shall I say with any malodorous unshaven Uce-infested groping male My distaste for war movies was reinforced last weekend when my Scrippa Howard News'tavice 44 i T- v- ii'J -bV a owFvni -j -V wi fc- mli ijUMjto a -fi jf A m4 i jv v1 -Vi 7 it' William UtherPorf-teal Daly are new Stfl to oorne A new tower that wl double or even triple the broadcast signal of WBMG buRdngaxpanskxt which wladcC 2400 square feet to the 1500-equare-foot newsroom news bureaus with Iva broadcast' feedcapabltylnTuacaloouand Anniston-Gadsden 21 new people pncvoviQ ft tnra meteoroiogisi) oy -the and of the year and a 5 pjn newscast beginning June 17 a morning show starting Aug 5 and a noon show beginning Sept 2 -a final torture sequence And then I realized we were'shac tog a movie moment For I didaH want the story to end either I would miss gazing into Mel Gib electrifying trine eyea So itofc tossed aloud my weakness my willingness to go to any theater pay any tkket price endure the senselet snesaofwar Ji the evening newscast Ms Waker recently became news dbeetof of the Bkiriingham TV station WHy Walker second from right and other members of WBMQ-42's news team meet at 2 pan daHy to decide on the content of MluHuitoy Jennifer Anliton or rather Jennifer hair had a bright shining moment in salons across the country But it's long gone So whafs replaced It? Stytfsts say the newest celebrity hot cut is either Linda shaggy bob or Elizabeth Hurley's teased and tousled look Also hot are bangs that are cut long and low down to the nose then swept to the side Angela Lanebury Is turning her attention from murder to musicals for her next project The actress will next be playing Santa's neglected wife In two-hour musical "Mrs Santa with music and lyrics by Jerry Harmon Set in 1910 the film portrays a disgruntled Mrs Claus who is fed up with being ignored by her husband She takes ah incognito trip to New York City to spice up her life and finds that her husband misses her when he begs her to come back News that director Marco Brambllla and Universal are planning to do another film bio of motorcycle daredevil Evei Knlevei is creating a buzz It's an example of the twisted and demented thought process of this town's decision makers" said scribe Joe Esztertias who profiled KnieveTs 1974 Snake River Canyon bike jump in a memorable Roiling Stone piece Knievel also doesn't have a whole lot of friends on the Fox lot where he broke Fox employee Sheldon arm and wrist with a baseball bat in 1977 because he objected to a book Saltman had written on Knievel "I don't think we're going to cover that In the film" BrambiNa said of Knievel's foray onto the Fox lot Alabama Alabamians are not the cremating kind The Birmingham Business Journal reported recently that only 39 percent of the fonerals In the state in 1994-invoived cremation That's up however from the 32 percent In 1993 (Stats are courtesy of the Cremation Association of North America) Mississippi nudged out Alabama for the lowest rate In the nation: 29 percent A full-service $900000 funeral home and crematory Is set to open in Alabaster In August the Journal reported 1 feel totally victimized by this" Pop singer Marlah Carey on being sued by songwriter Christopher Selettl who charges that Miss Carey Miss Carey stole Ns lyrics for her 1993 hit single The new 42 WBMG42 to mdagohfl a lot of changes acme cosmetic some more auMartfce Among tfwm: Hwdware The station hue new logo new graphics new news aet new news veNctes and W9 "WtatherRnoducer" meteorological date-gathering equipment pmw pwvovwwi now Director WHy Waker weekday co-anchor Chris Schaubie chief alajUMkkijjAA RLMgHj meteorologist nKnvu unnoTi weekend anchor Vakxto Carter and weekend matoorotagtot Ken Movie makers know who has eyes for the screen Channel 42 with obsessive zeal went after officials for questionable moves such accepting free tickets to events while the public paid It also criticized city projects such the condition of the Birmingham Zoo and the lack of renters in the Medical Forum building At times 42 would return again and again to the same stories ostensibly to present new information Often Charnel 42 bragged about its different approach gleefully showing footage of City Council members trying to dodge their cameras The other stations Harrod said were "devoid of The other news presentation wu "formula superficial he said then glitzy and it require people to At the time officials at other sta dal effects to subsidise another manned moon mission My husband watches every historical war movie that to released Some of the on-ecreen battle scenes in Civil War movies last longer than it takes to eat a boa of buttered popcorn Some ere short and character deveiop-devetop a character if absy- JANICE CLARK Alabama album on atory line meat Why anet or shot scene? the chest in the next After witnessing between 200 and 200 killings who cares anyway? I find myself desensitised to the human suffering depicted That's when the wiggle factor slips in Plot? I guess it's there hidden in theheroics husband rented again I've now had the thrill of watching hoards of angry Neanderthal-looking 13th century Scotsmen sweat and bleed across the big silver screen and across our smaller home television Scabby sooty men showed us how to vindicate wrong rise villages and obtain freedom by rallying otter non-intellectuals to join them at the battlefront with hand weapons (Pretty stupid I say) Within 10 minutes I wu desensitized and wiggling I painted my toenails flipped through a gardening magazine and tried to chat with my husband His rapt attention wu upon the conversations of war buddies with mouth sores and rotten teeth Redbeard warned me But then be broke his gaze to apout admiration for his rugged kinsmen who could outwit aristocratic clansmen He leaned into the TV screen to get up close and personal with the More than 90 new movies are scheduled for release this summer Our family will start with the few ones rated and PG for children In G-rated movies the villain have some redeeming quaUties end the pretty giridog animated character alwaya win the good guy doganimated character la PG death and killings are used only to move the plot forward and profanity to Infrequent The child actors one cuteneuinboth But then my husband to conider He doesn't Uke any of that Tluff staff" He goes straight for the movies with lota of gore and action Ai long the acton are driven by irrational revenge duel with lasers or enter time warps he's one happy moviegoer Movie producers know thto That' why they invest millions of dollars to make movies Some war movies probably cost more to produce than the rival countries spent during the actual conflict Enough to spent on intergalactic spe- Such a small price to pay to get to watch a Hollywood hunk's beautiful eyes enlarged 700 times for my viewing enjoyment Puzzled Red-beard listened to me then gnmtedj a really stupid reason foe going to the movies" And movie prat ducers will continue to make mIB lions of dollars They understand what men women and children eagg want to see Janice Creel Clark the motherqr 1 bur writes about home Jobe cMhfr ren and extended family Her ei mail address is com Her column appears Mong daps.