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“Strange
Little Girls” is a departure from typical Tori
Jannelle
Silverman - Entertainment Beat
On her new album
“Strange Little Girls,” which hit the shelves last week, Tori
Amos takes a slightly different turn in her musical style.
Rather than writing the songs herself, her new album consists of 12
cover songs written strictly by men.
In an interview with The Boston Globe, Amos said she asked men,
both gay and straight, to bring her songs that meant something to them.
She narrowed the selection down to 12 and recreated the songs, mostly
word for word, and performed them from a woman’s perspective.
“This is not a tribute album,” Amos said in the Sept. 14 edition
of Independent magazine.
It is simply Amos’ version of male songs, which use her voice to
convey to the listener what men say and how women truly hear and interpret
it. Her voice gives a male-written song a woman’s point of view.
Amos was inspired to record the album while nursing her new daughter,
Natashya, who was born last year.
She had a lot of time off to think about her music while taking care
of her new child, said Amos.
In fact, on the sleeve of the CD, Natashya is noted as the executive
producer of the album.
Amos was also inspired to recreate the songs because of the sexism and
feminist issues that are going on today, especially in the political
scene, according to the Independent article.
Amos’s father, a Methodist minister, gives a spoken-word presentation
about the Second Amendment at the beginning of the song “Happiness
is a Warm Gun,” a Beatles’ song from the 1968 “White
Album.”
Amos gives a chilling recreation of Eminem’s publicly controversial
song on his 1999 “The Slim Shady LP,” about a man who kills
his wife and has his young daughter help him finish the deed.
The song, “’97 Bonnie & Clyde,” is sickeningly eerie
yet at the same time captivating as she quietly echoes Eminem’s
words, giving the song a whole new connotation.
She gives the song a new perspective, a woman’s point of view,
as the story of the grisly murder unfolds.
“The wife dies soon after knowing her daughter will be divided
between the two of them. This is her daughter’s legacy – to
be completely pulled apart – and she will grow up a strange little
girl,” said Amos to the The Boston Globe.
She also performs Neil Young’s 1972 song “Harvest” and
the Slayer song “Raining Blood” off its 1986 “Reign in
Blood” CD.
Her rendition of “Strange Little Girls” by the Stranglers
is also the title of her album.
Although her deep signature sound of the harpsichord and acoustic piano
are absent from most of these songs, the thin background of the music
heightens the sound of Amos’ voice, allowing her vocals to be heard
with more clarity.
She is quieter and more reserved on this album, doing away with the
loud screams and wails of her previous works.
The performance is more low-key and mature as Amos attempts to get her
point across on this record, leaving out a lot of the wild excitement.
The new album is completely different from any other album, leaving
out the loud, ferocious sounds from her “Boys For Pele” album
and the mechanical and electronic sound from her recent album “To
Venus and Back.”
Although the sound is different, the content is not far from her normal
style. The same feminist issues and feelings of dread and despair that
are shown in this album can also be found in the “Little Earthquakes”
album with the song “Crucify,” which describes how much a
woman has given up in her lifetime.
“Juarez” from “To Venus and Back” tells of unsolved
murders of several women in a desert setting.
These two songs are relatively the same style and have the same content
as those on “Strange Little Girls.”
Students who like Amos’s softer, yet chilling and depressing outlooks,
will appreciate her new CD.
However, the happy, loud and bone-shaking vocals she usually gives on
her albums won’t be found here, nor will the loud instruments and
ringing harpsichord.
Although it does not have a lot of her signature sounds, the CD gives
the listener a completely different perspective on men and women.
Even though “Strange Little Girls” does not contain Amos’
original song- writing, it becomes unique in the way she chooses to
recreate songs that were once only thought of in a masculine way.
Vol.
76 No. 12September
27, 2001
Klondike Cafe
remains open despite rumors
Sarah Bursley
- Chief Copy Editor
Contrary to popular
belief, Klondike Cafe is not closing anytime in the near future, said
co-owner Chris Mentlewski.
“I don’t know how that rumor got started,” said Mentlewski.
Farrah Aziz and he have co-owned the cafe since June 1998. The two are
the fifth Klondike owners since 1986.
Mentlewski, a 1991 Appalachian graduate, worked for the original owner
in 1989 and 1990 when the baseball field was across the street.
Students would sit outside on the makeshift deck and watch games on sunny
days. Although the field was moved to its current location above Kidd
Brewer Stadium four years ago, the tradition continues.
Klondike has endured rounds of reported closings throughout the years.
When significant construction started on campus in the late ‘90s
and Rivers Street was re-routed, many students thought Klondike, Subway
and the nearby stores would be bulldozed in favor of more construction.
Some students attribute the present rumors to simple miscommunication.
“It’s a predominantly Greek [-lettered organizations] hangout,
so it closes periodically for mixers and date functions, but then opens
up at midnight. But students hear, ‘Klondike’s closed,’”
said senior Carrie Gwin, a graphic design major from Columbus, Ind.
“In reality, it’s just that Klondike’s closed that night
for a few hours for a private party before it opens up for everyone,”
she said.
In order to maintain a Restaurant Mixed Beverage Permit within an On-Premises
Malt Beverage Permit, an establishment’s “total gross receipts
from food and nonalcoholic bevarages shall not be less than 40 percent
of the total gross receipts from food, nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages
combined” in order to earn restaurant status, according to the N.C.
Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Commission Web site at ncabc.com.
“Everyone just refers to as the 60/40 Rule,” he said. “In
the mid-90’s, it was 49-percent food, 51-percent alcohol, but then
it changed a few years ago to 60/40.”
Despite that some may see Klondike as more of a bar than a restaurant,
Aziz and Mentlewski have maintained a 55-percent food-sales ratio since
their operation opened.
“Even though 15 percent above the mandated 40 percent doesn’t
sound huge, it accounts for thousands of dollars,” he said.
The pair said that establishments like theirs are audited annually by
the state Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE), a branch of the ABC.
“We’ve been audited four separate times since 1998 in addition
to the annual audit,” said Mentlewski. “ALE officials drive
up from Hickory and observe us. Like any government agency, they’re
very thorough – the last time they were here from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.”
There are several stages that occur before an establishment loses its
license, he said.
“Basically, it was explained this way to me by a law-enforcement
official: several warnings will occur, then violations cited, then fines
and then closing,” Mentlewski said. “It’s a long process.”
As for the current rumors about Klondike closing, the owners point to
the 60/40 Rule.
“We’ve never had a violation of any kind – not even a warning,”
said Mentlewski. “And Klondike really isn’t a place just to
drink. People talk to us all the time about our food, especially the wraps.”
The restaurant’s clientele is “95- percent student-based,”
but faculty and staff frequently lunch there. When parents and alumni
are in town, Klondike is often a first stop, the duo said.
“I get really nostalgic around Homecoming and graduations,”
said Mentlewski. “These aren’t just customers – they’re
friends.”
“It’s amazing that people move to bigger places like Charlotte
and Atlanta, yet they still say they’ve never found another place
like this.
I ran into an alum recently in Wilmington who talked about how she missed
our cheese fries,” said Mentlewski.
“I’ve never had a bad meal or bad service there. It’s easy
to find one or the other, but it’s hard to find both consistently,”
said Gwin.
“You walk in and it’s like, ‘Hey Carrie, how are you doing?
What can I get you?’ You can’t find that anywhere else.”
“We’re most proud of the quality staff we have,” said the
co-owner. “We’re very demanding to work for, but they’re
always reliable.”
In addition to hosting private parties, the owners and staff support various
charities and lend its locale whenever possible. Although DJ’s are
a weekly staple, live bands also frequent the cafe.
Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) hosts a benefit concert tomorrow night from 9
p.m. to 2 a.m. featuring Appalachian-based band One Year Later.
All proceeds from the $5 cover charge will go to the national Sept. 11
Fund, which directly benefits the United Way chapters of New York and
Washington, D.C. “We wanted to do something that helps directly affected
families,” said TKE president Kim Adams.
Chi Omega hosts its Family Weekend dinner at the cafe Saturday from 7-10
p.m. before opening to the student body, said social chair Brooks Hamrick.
“I love that we can take our parents there,” she said.
Klondike also quietly sponsors 4-year-old Trevor Carney, a Boone resident
who was paralyzed in a car accident in May. Five percent of money made
at the door since then goes to help Carney’s mother care for him.
“His mother works for a family friend, and we really wanted to help,”
said Mentlewski.
The owners are adamant that the hangout will not succumb to rumors.
“I hate to make the comparison to Cheers, but there’s really
something special about this place,” he said.
French guitarist’s
style admired by legend Doc Watson
Dr. Jim Winders
- Contributing Writer
French guitarist
Pierre Bensusan has produced an impressive and varied body of work, beginning
in 1975 with his influential album “Pres de Paris,” and including
recordings and instructional videos.
The videos introduce
students to his exclusive use of the “DADGAD” tuning, which
he is able to exploit in the variety of ways usually only associated with
guitarists who stick to the standard tuning.
His sound is very much his own, but it makes use of quite an array of
sources, from ancient to modern music, and represents a global range.
Born in Oran, French-Algeria, in 1957, Bensusan lives now in rural Champagne,
France, not far from Paris. He has set up a home recording studio and
when he is not touring, he admits a few students at a time eager to learn
his unique approach to the instrument.
The intimacy of this setting is captured vividly in “Intuite,”
his most recent album on famed guitarist Steve Vai’s Favored Nations
label. It is his first solo recording and it is all instrumental.
His guitar, with a haunting combination of traditional styles and freewheeling
jazz-like improvisation, dominate the landscape of the album.
Bensusan performs tonight at 8 p.m. in Rosen Concert Hall. His appearance
in Boone almost did not happen, due to the uncertainties afflicting air
travel in the aftermath of the disastrous attacks of Sept. 11.
The Rosen Concert Hall should provide an ideal setting for the kind of
intimacy Bensusan likes to experience with members of an audience.
He said he enjoys conversing with them, engaging in witty asides and light
banter, and he deliberately puts himself in the position of attempting
approaches to tunes he has not tried before, even the standards most familiar
to him.
He tries to ensure that each live performance will be a unique event,
instead of adhering to the same play list night after night.
Although tonight’s concert will be a solo event, he enjoyed collaborations
with many musicians, and the list of accolades from fellow guitarists
is long indeed. Leo Kottke has said, “Pierre’s music gives me
the shakes.”
No other guitarist shares his strange gifts of sophistication, accessibility
and downright joy.
Even at its most complex, Bensusan’s music only needs ears to be
enjoyed. And no less a virtuoso than Doc Watson adds that Bensusan has
an “inimitable” style.
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