1979_02 The Daily Collegian February 1979

              The Pally Collegian
February K,1«7»
Book review
The return of Conan the Cimmerian
To all the fans of Conan the Cimmer¬
ian comes good news: Conan lives
again. Conan was the creation of
Robert E. Howard back in the 1930's.
After his death the saga was continued
by Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and
Bjorn Nyberg until 12 volumes were
filled with the exploits of one of fan¬
tasy's greatest heroes That series was
re-issued by Ace Books a while back,
after a long absence, and was greeted
with all the enthusiasm that makes it
the most popular sword-and-sorcery
epic today.
So popular, in fact, that de Camp,
Carter and Nyberg were inspired to
write still more stories about Conan-
and thus a new series about the giant
Cimmerian was launched through
Bantam Books.
The first book in the series, Oman
the Swordsman, was releases several
months ago. And now we have Conan
the Liberator. These books fill in some
of the gaps left in Conan's life from the
other 12 books.
The Swordsman is a series of short
stories covering incidents of Conan s
early life that were previously only
hinted   at   in   introductions   to   other
The Liberator is a full length novel
about Conai's greatest feat: the slay¬
ing of the mad king Numedides and his
subsequent usurption of the throne of
Aquilonia, mightiest kingdom of the
age
That is the good news. Now for the
bad news: Conan has changed drastic¬
ally. Conan s greatest feature, indeed,
his whole appeal, had been his ten-
dancy to handle any and all problems
that came his way through his huge
broadsword and incredible strength.
Never mind common sense. He is
known to interrupt questions like
'Do you think-?' with 'As little as
possible. It interferes with my good
animal instincts.' Conan would just
charge into any fight, steel flashing-
and his ability to raise hell in doing so
was much appreciated by a confirmed
weakling like myself.
However, the new Conan, especially
in The Liberator, is nothing like the
barbarian of old. Instead of charging
into battle screaming war cries and fig¬
uring that death was okay if you take
20 men with you, Conan now avoids
squirmishes like the plague. (In
~" does not fight at all
until page 1041) And those battles that
do take place lack the power that made
the ones in past books so memorable.
I know this sounds awful, but Conan
just isn't Conan unless he is hewing
bodies apart, and anyone who is
familar with the character knows this.
A cautious Conan may be admirable,
but sometimes it seems inappropriate.
Is the lion cautious around the mouse?
Well, Oman shouldn't be either.
Outside of that one (big) flaw, the
books are not all that bad. De Camp
and Carter are very good writers and
the stories themselves are better than
the originals, if somewhat tame;
the use of magic in particular has im-
Most of the stories in The Swords¬
man are pretty good (although a few
seem to have been written just to fill
up space, both in Oman's life and in
the book) and there is in addition an
indes to Hyborian names that will be
useful to Conan enthusiasts.
The Liberator is nowhere near as
good as Oman the Conqueror, which is
the best of the Oman novels, but it
does tell of a very important incident in
Conan's career; and it is never boring,
if not always particularly exciting.
Numedides' utter depravity is espec¬
ially well done. Both books also have
excellent interior illustrations by
Tim Kirk and The Liberator has an
eye-catching cover by Bob Larkin that
help make the books worth the $1.95
price.
If you have read the other Conan
See Page 11
Review
Stage production of 'Grease'
differs from movie .version
By LORI POLACEK
The movie "Grease' has become a
box off ice hit, and certainly hasn't hurt
the careers of John Travofta and Olivia
Newton-John. But we are not talking
about the movie now, we are talking
about the New York production which
appeared in Fresno, last week The
play received quite an audience, almost
a full house. The only time I have seen
larger audiences was at a rock concert
Unfortunately, it was here in town for
only one night.
The stage version of the show was
quite different from the movie Being
that movies are a flexible medium,
there is a lot more you can do with a
show than you can on a 35-40 foot
stage. On the stage, the movements
are on a scale level, whereas in the
Not only were the songs different in
the stage version, but the dancing was
cut back Also, the actors carried hand'
microphones, and it seemed like they
didn't know what to do with them.
In addition to the dancing being
cut back, most of the movements had
to be less extravagant because of the -
space The stage version of this show is
geared more toward adult audiences
than the movie Movies are rated,
plays are not
The two principal characters in the
show are Danny and Sandy Danny is a
"Fonzie-type" - always cool, especially
in front of the guys. He was, more or
Orpheus moves into second season
In Creek mythology Orpheus was
said to have invented the lyre, or
received it from Apollo. And such was
his skill that he was credited with the
power  of   taming   wild   beasts   and
On the Fresno music scene, Orpheus
is a chamber musk orchestra, the
brainchild of CSUF music professor
lack Former, who also serves as
Orpheus' musical director.
Fortner says he conceived of Or¬
pheus last year when someone In the
musk department suggested that they
get a couple of chamber musk concerts
together.
'I said, 'All right, but let's do it
first-class. I've always done things in
the department here I'd rather do it
than talk about it* he says now.
Fortner says that after the decision
was made to form a chamber musk
orchestra he applied to the California
Arts Council for a grant, and 'then I
forgot about it.*
That was in September of 1977. In
November of that same year the council
came through with enough grant
money to fund two performances
and Orpheus was in business.
The publk and critical reaction to
those two performances was so enthus¬
iastic that Fortner decided to try it
again this year.
'We got rave reviews from the
Fresno Bee,'Fortner recalls. 'And it's
unusual for their critic to be so enthusi¬
astic about this kind of music '
This season, which opens Feb   19
at 8 p.m. at the Northwest Baptist
Church on 5415 N West, features six
performances ranging from Villa-Lobos
to Beethoven to one by Fortner himself.
Fortner says that he structures
Orpheus'  performances carefully.
'I plan the selections so that the
evening is a concert in itself, * he says
For instance, the final concert of this
season will begin with one soloist and
conclude with a selection requiring
19 musicians
Fortner says that the muskians in
Orpheus are all first class.
•John Heard, our bassoonist, was
among the three semifinalists when
auditions were held for the Boston
Philharmonk. I think our trumpet
player is the best in America. But I only
point them as examples. It would be
unfair to single any one muskian out.
They're all excellent *
The Daily Collegian
Associated Students will decide how to spend funds
prove that their program will be a
The Associated Students (AS)
started budget hearings yesterday to
determine how student funds, collected
from fees each semester, will be spent
to support CSUF student organizations
next year in the 79-6D AS budget.
Thirty-five campus groups will pre¬
sent bedget requests before the AS
Finance and Budget Committee in
hopes of tapping part of the approx¬
imately $305,000 which was collected
Students are charged $10 each sem¬
ester in Association Fees, which is to
be used primarily by the AS to give
financial support to various campus
groups. Student organizations must
first meet a set of AS dictated stand¬
ards before any funds i
Legislative Vice President Dave
Dfttora said the groups must first
'justify*  their   requests   and   'must
ing groups, it wilt present its final bud-
»«.,. get recommendations to the AS Senate
__ The publk hearing will be held every After a period of debatejhe S
Cordon Riddle for approval.
Marathon meeting scheduled
f   Business suggestion snowballs
There will be a meeting this Sun¬
day, Feb 18, regarding the Native
American 500-mile Marathon Run,
from Davis to Los Angeles, June 20-
24. Dennis Banks and other key .
leaders of the American Indian
Movement will be speaking.
People of all races are invited to
participate The meeting will be
from 3-7 p.m. with a potluck dinner
following. The place: UCLI, 041 W.
Belmont, across from Roeding Park.
For information call 255-1337.
633 5th Street
ICLOVJS      299-1590
documents to individual departments.
This way, explained Bissonnette, the
official University records would
immediately   reflect   ajl < allocations
Discussion was hot, though, when
committee members questioned
whether the proposal was a matter of
Dr. Dave Clark, assistant vice pres¬
ident for academic affairs, said that it
appeared to him to be * question of
budget control through control of bud¬
get-related Information.
But Bissonnette stressed that the
Business Office was not interested in
infringing on present allocation and
decision-making powers already des¬
ignated to the Academic Office, that all
records were available to anyone at
anytime, and that their only motive was
to save time and a technical position.
Coughran made little attempts to
defend his position, but did say that
there probably was at least a position's
worth of work being duplicated unnec¬
essarily In the academk vke presi¬
dent's office. When the meeting end¬
ed, however, he seemed as uncon¬
vinced as many of the members over
the true motive behind the Business
Office's suggestion.
'If they were honest and telling the
truth today, then I don't see ft,' he
said, shrugging.
Grease: good despite flaws
less, the leader of the g
i, and his
Sandy, on the other hand, is the typ¬
ical, stereotyped girl next door and this
is pointed out with the song 'Look at
Me, I'm Sandra Dee' which she sings
at the end.
Technically, the show was good and
bad. The sound and the set are my two
main complaints. The sound was too
loud and on the song 'It's Raining On
Prom Night,' It could have been mixed
better. As it was, I could not under¬
stand the words.
As for the set, it looked like it was
built and painted by high school stu-
their    budgets    don't    build
extravagant sets. They usually have
enough to get as much wood and
paint as they need, with the rest
improvised.
The lighting was done well, espec¬
ially during the drive-in segment. It
really made you feel like Danny and
Sandy were watching a movie.
Costuming was another problem, as
Despite the technical flaws, the act¬
ing, singing and dancing were very
good So, by all means, try to see the
stage version of 'Crease* if you can.
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