Skip to main content
The largest online newspaper archiveArchive Home
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 56
A Publisher Extra® Newspaper

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 56

Location:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Issue Date:
Page:
56
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

SECTION 0 Food news, PAGE E-7 Book news and reviews, PAGE E-5 A I Woodene Merriman's Microwave column, PAGE E-8 PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE SUNDAY, JANUARY 2, 1994 GRAPEVINE ZZ Top, Ramones rolling out rock discs jsr 1 lr J. p' "4 A fW- 'vV 'I I I 1 q- 3 fTj FjSs. 1. lA Robin RombachPost-Gazette Jim Spitznagel promises that the Warhol Gift Shop will become the best-stocked source of Warhol-related material anywhere. DON'T ASKDONT TELL G.I.

JOE When 7-year-old Zachariah Zelin of San Diego ripped off the wrapping on his Christmas present last week, he squealed with delight. Santa had brought the talking G.I.Joe doll he wanted. It stood at the ready in its Army fatigues, machine gun and hand grenades. Except for one problem: Instead of saying macho, G.I. Joe things, the doll carped in a distinctively girly voice: "Want to go shopping?" The BLO that's the Barbie Liberation Organization claimed responsibility.

The group, which claims to fight gender-based stereotyping in toys, said it had surreptitiously switched the voice boxes on 300 G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls across the United States. So some Barbie dolls are now uttering, in a deep voice, things like, "Dead men tell no lies." And tampered G.I. Joes now say, in a falsetto, "I love school. Don't you?" and "Let's sing with the band tonight." A spokesman for Hasbro, G.I.

Joe's maker, called the BLO's attack "ridiculous." Barbie's creator, Mattel, said no consumers have complained. And little Zachariah has refused to give up HIS Joe. "No way," he said. "I love him. I like everything about him.

He's teaching me not to fight." SPAM SLAM Our vote for one of the more memorable lines of T993 goes to Entertainment Weekly's Jim Mullen, who looked back at the wedding of Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett thusly: "It's like eating caviar with Spam. It may taste great, but who would think of it in the first place?" NO MUSCLE, NO BULK Princess Diana, in her continuing quest for normalcy, has given the boot to her British muscle. The tabloid Today has reported that "she will no longer be guarded around the clock. Out shopping, visiting friends or just taking a drive, the princess plans to go it alone." Diana wants to be able to melt into the background. And speaking of melting, Brits ore a-trem-ble over news that Diana bought jeans the other day size Could it.be bulimia? Barks London nutrition reporter Sally Ann Voak: "She is a tall, well-built woman.

For a woman of her height with a medium bone structure, size 6 is too small." Pop shrink David Lewis suggested that Diana's going for a "petite, girllike figure (so) she can forget all the responsibilities she shouldered as a grown woman." Oh, of course. REAL ESTATE BEAT Former Chrysler Corp. chief Lee la-cocca and his wife, Darrien, have purchased a Bel-Air mansion for $4.2 million. The brand-new gated estate was originally listed at $1 1 .9 million and had been on the market almost three years. The lacoccas also have homes in Aspen, Detroit, Italy and Indian Wells, Calif.

Dennis Weaver, preparing to move to Colorado, has put his Malibu pad on the market for $2,495 million. The four-bedroom home features 50 feet of ocean frontage. Compiled from wire serves Spinning By Jonathan Takiff Knight-Ridder Newspapers Still recovering from holiday madness, music companies will be issuing new albums in dribs and drabs as the New Year commences. But by the end of the month, we'll be up to our ears in fresh sounds. This guide to January releases will let you take a look before you take a listen: Jan.

4: With' Bruce Spring- steen's new ballad "Streets of Philadelphia" setting the stage and Neil Young's dirgelike "Philadelphia" closing it, interest should be high in the soundtrack album to Jonathan Demme's "Philadelphia" (Epic Soundtracks). Spin Doctors, barely heard in the film, cover Cree-dence Clearwater's "Who'll Stop the Rain." Others fleshing out the album include Sade, Indigo Girls and Peter Gabriel. The oft-aped Ramones turn the tables with "Acid Eaters" (Ra1 dioactiveMCA) doing up the Am-boy Dukes' "Journey to the Center of the Mind," Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages," The Who's "Substitute" (with Pete Town-shend vocalizing) and Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" (with Traci Lords). Jan. 11: Brother Tim's left the nest again, but Neil Finn returns to occupy a new Crowded House abode "Together Alone" (Capitol).

Mild Howard's delayed "Miki Sings Billie: A Tribute to Billie Holiday" (GiantReprise) offers more from the feisty singer who played Holiday in Spike Lee's "Malcolm Also, grunge rock faves Prong take a "Cleansing" (Epic). Jan. 18: Boogie boys ZZ Top spin their blues-rock wheels on a new album, "Antenna," for a new label, RCA. It features the likes of "Girl in a T-Shirt," "Pin Cushion" and the safe-sex ditty "Cover Your Rig." "Eight Seconds," the movie biography of rodeo rider Luke Frost, inspires a soundtrack rich with new songs by John Anderson, Pam Tillis, Brooks and Dunn, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Karla Bonoff, Patty Smyth and others. Heavenly harmony from Alison Krauss and The Cox Family elevates the bluegrass gospel of "I Know Who Holds Tomorrow" (Rounder) while devilishly comic jazz- and pop-flecked folkie Vance Gilbert looks at life "Edgewise" (Philo).

The addictive Boston renegades Morphine offer "Cure for Pain" (Rykodisc). Haunting composer, arranger and trumpter Mark Isham summons up a dream state on the soundtrack to "Romeo Is Bleeding" (Verve) with guest appearances by vocalists Abbey Lincoln and A. J. Croce (Jim's kid). Jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton collaborates with singer Rebecca Parris on "It's Another Day," saxophonist Tom Scott proclaims "Reed My Lips" and keyboardist Billy Tavlor poses "It's a Matter of Pride" (all GRP).

James Blood Ulmerputs his spitfire funk-jazz spin on "Blues Preacher" (Columbia). Jan. 25: British folk-rock legend Richard Thompson returns SEE DISCS, PAGE E-3 the assistant to the curator of the Warhol Museum, which was then still on the drawing board. "I think I introduced them at a concert," said Shay's husband, WYEP-FM Program Director Mikel Ellcessor. As a friend and former customer of Spitz-nagel's, Ellcessor knew they had a common interest in Warhol and thought the two should meet.

"As much as I followed the careers of Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and John Lennon, I also followed the career and lifestyle of Andy Warhol with the same pop culture mentality that most of my generation possesses, Spitznagel said of his interest in the artist. By Tony Norman Post-Gazette Staff Writer Fifteen minutes from now, Jim Spitznagel will have had a taste of the fame Andy Warhol promised would be a part of everyone's experience. Still, the former Bloomfield record store owner hopes his tenure with the Andy Warhol Museum Gift Shop will be considerably longer than his allotted quarter of an hour in the media spotlight. As its newly appointed manager, Spitznagel expects the 500-square foot shop to be on the front lines of a resurgent Warholmania (Warholism?) that will sweep the city once the museum opens in May. Career For years Jim Spitznagel ran a record store in Bloomfield.

Now he's ready to translate those skills into managing the Andy Warhol Museum Gift Shop. When he met Shay, he was getting rid of most of his vinyl records to make room for the thousands of CDs he'd accumulated at the time. Some of the records solo albums by Lennon, the Velvet Underground, John Cale and the Rolling Stones had cover art by Warhol. "Rather than sell them off, I thought I'd donate them to the museum," Spitznagel said. "I thought it would be cool to be able to one day go into the Warhol Museum and read: donated by Jim Spitznagel." Shay and Francis met Spitznagel for lunch to talk about his donation and to pick the brain of the entrepreneur who'd made Jim's Records a one-stop shopping bazaar for music.

"One thing led to another and they talked about having a bookstore. I expressed interest in helping to get it started," Spitznagel said, adding that he was willing to work as a volunteer because he loved Warhol so much. "When Mark and I first met with Jim," Shay said, "we had nothing specific in SEE WARHOL, PAGE E-3 "I see no walls on this store at all," he said, echoing the late pop artist's philosophy that only self-imposed limits are real. Spitznagel emphasized the store's international mission, promising that the Andy Warhol Gift Shop will become the best-stocked source of Warhol-related material available anywhere. To that end, it will be the main conduit between the museum and Warhol's legions of admirers all over the world.

Like many of the pop artist's disciples, Spitznagel has a slightly enigmatic smile appropriate in that his leaving the retail side of the record business caught many of his former customers by surprise. How does one go from hawking Robert Johnson, Captain Beefheart and John Coltrane CDs to selling videos, books, posters, prints and postcards of all things Warholian? "I think Jim is especially good for the Warhol Museum because he's a fan of Warhol," said Mark Francis, the museum's curator. "The reason he's so good is that he brings with him an enthusiasm for the best of popular culture. Until last fall, the 42-year-old Ross resident was the proud owner of Jim's Records, one of the city's finest record stores and the center of fairly hip commerce in Bloomfield for nearly 17 years. "Over the last few years, I've been anxious to do something else on a bigger scale," Spitznagel said.

"I was looking to do something either with my own business or another institution or business that would allow me to take what I'd learned and apply it on a larger scale." The store has been extremely profitable for the past 10 years, so Spitznagel had no complaints about the business end of it. And his rapport with customers was strong. But he knew his identity didn't flow out of being the satisfied owner of a popular and profitable record store. The need to take the next step whatever it was gnawed at him enough to make him consider other possibilities. One such opportunity presented itself two years ago in the form of Megan Shay, HOJ TICKET 'RUBY IN I This surprising tale of a young woman searching for her iden tity in a Florida resort town wmBBaH moves to the pace of real life.

And Ashley Judd, in the title role, is a real and reel find. Now showing at the Playhouse. Ron Weiskind Jeanne Moreau has another name: Movie Star PITTSBURGH SYMPHO NY: Leonard Bernstein's "Jer emiah" Symphony is featured, celebrating the 50th anniver By Marylynn Uricchio Post-Gazette Film Critic sary of its world premiere by eanne Moreau. Those two this orchestra. At Heinz Hall, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday. Tickets: $1 6 to $38; 392-4900. Robert Croon words evoke an entire era of European movie-making. She was the best, the brightest, the most beau TT I si- 4rl -I small British comedy, now playing at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, that stars Moreau, Joan Plow-right and Julie Walters. Moreau plays Lili, an exotic half -Egyptian who comes to the rescue of a dour, English suburban bride-to-be on the eve of her marriage.

It's a flamboyant part that calls for Moreau to be many things to many people, and she's a delight. "It was not the role that attracted me, but the whole thing, the whole story," says Moreau. "First I met with the producer, Norma Heyman, and I liked her. She sent me the script and I loved it, I loved this incredible story in Croydon, outside Lon- SEE MOREAU, PAGE E-3 film. "I had them dyed black," she volunteers.

"They were fine for the part." If Moreau seems somewhat terse on the phone, she also is surprisingly forthcoming. The hauteur in her voice has been earned during a 40-year career. It's a hoarse, husky voice, accented by her native French and made grand by her theatrical flair. It's a voice used to talking about its owner a movie star voice, make no mistake. Yet Moreau makes every answer sound fresh, as if she's never been asked a question before.

That quality is a special one, and it works to great advantage in "The Summer House," a dominated. Moreau does not say that "Jules and Jim" is her favorite, and though she was romantically linked with the late Truffaut, among many others, she does not say that he was her favorite, either. "I'm the one who taught him how to drink champagne. He was a lovely man. We were the best of friends, and true friendship between a man and a woman is so rare.

When I met him, he ate the same thing for lunch every day. Lamb chops and puree. Still, one senses there is something afoot when Moreau reveals that she wore a pair of shoes from "Jules and Jim" in "The Summer House," her new Pi "SOUNDS OF THE Musicologist Alan Lomax started out with 80 hours of rural Americans bearing witness to the complexity, tiful darling of almost every New Wave director of the '60s. from Louis Malle to Luis Bun-uel and Francois Truffaut. It was for Truffaut that she made the film that captured the essence of both the time and the actress.

"Jules and Jim." the role for which Moreau is best known, cast her as the ultimate seductress, a woman who tormented the two men who loved her with charm, intelligence and her refusal to be beauty and misery of their experiences in musical ways only the most authentic people could master. He edited it down to a four-CD set that is simply stunning in its breadth and musical depth. On Atlantic. Tony Norman I Jeanne Moreau Exotic role in "Summer House".

Get access to Newspapers.com

  • The largest online newspaper archive
  • 300+ newspapers from the 1700's - 2000's
  • Millions of additional pages added every month

Publisher Extra® Newspapers

  • Exclusive licensed content from premium publishers like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  • Archives through last month
  • Continually updated

About Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Archive

Pages Available:
2,102,902
Years Available:
1834-2024