Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 19

Mat toon (111.) Journal duetto Wedndy, October lt, IW4 C6 Entterftainment Sun Records CDs capture history of famous Memphis studio MEMPHIS Term A.T If i rr i MEMPHIS. Tenn. (AP) If wqq a taken of for advantage years," he said place where a Delta bluesman could get a shot at fame and fortune, where a young truck driver could cut a record for his mama, where a skinny country boy could brag about his blue suede shoes. It was the Memphis Recording Service, home of Sun Records. "I knew there were a lot of stories in the Delta, both black and white, that were closer to what.the South was all about than any other place on this side of the globe," said Sam Phillips, who opened the Memphis studio in 1950 and carved himself a place in the history of pop music.

Rhino Records has put together a three-CD set displaying the evolution of Phillips' work, from the gut-bucket blues of one-man-band Joe Hill Louis to the pioneer rock 'n' roll of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, who wrote and first recorded "Blue Suede Shoes." Phillips was looking for something new, and the "Sun Records Collection" shows the tracks of a journey that began with no clear destination in mind. The collection's 76 songs, recorded over a 16-year stretch, are all over the board, from gospel to blues to country to rockabilly. Following his slogan "We record anything, anywhere, anytime," Phillips simply opened his doors for auditions and recorded whatever caught his fancy. At first, most of his artists were black residents of the Mississippi Delta. "I put out the word they were welcome at no charge.

Of course they didn't believe that because black people had been "But when they'd get through playing, go out the door and nobody presented them with a bill, the word spread." Phillips said he also tried to convince his early artists that he wasn't looking for a polished sound but for the music they felt in their souls. The Sun collection shows a search for that feeling in a variety of styles, from Chester "The Howlin' Wolf" Burnett's "Moanin' at Midnight" to Howard Ser-att's country gospel "Make Room in the Lifeboat for Me" to "My Kind of Carryin On" by Doug Poindexter The Starlite Wranglers. For his first three years, Phillips recorded for other small labels, including two of his own, Phillips and Flip. He formed Sun Records in 1952, and got his first hit, "Bear Cat" by Rufus Thomas the following year. While Phillips said he primarily opened his studio to record black blues and gospel, he eventually began looking for a white singer to get his label known.

Most white-owned radio stations in those days didn't play black music. Then Sun got the break it was looking for when a 19-year-old delivery truck driver named Elvis Presley dropped by to make a record for his mother. By the time Presley's star began to rise, Sun was moving away from its black blues roots and turning its focus to rockabilly and rock 'n' roll. Phillips sold Presley's contract to RCA in 1955. "By that time, you had many independent labels recording black artists, and Elvis Presley (left) helped put Sun Records on the map and that attracted musicians like Jerry Lee Lewis (right).

"I don't care how many things he's done right or wrong. Who am I to say? But 1 there ain't nobody more talented than Jerry Lee Lewis," Phillips said. Lewis is the headline acton the third CD in the Sun package. He is joined by artists suchasOnieWheeler.BillyRiley&HisLit-; tie Green Men and Warren Smith with his "Red Cadillac and a Black Mustache." Lewis also performs on "Down by the Riverside" with The Million Dollar Quartet, consisting of Lewis, Presley and Perkins. Johnny Cash, the fourth member of the "quartet," was out of the studio when the recording was made.

that's good," Phillips said. "But there weren't any recording white artists trying to feel the same things the black artists felt." The Sun collection includes four of the 12 tracks Presley cut with Phillips. And while "That's All Right," "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Baby Let's Play House" and "Mystery Train" are classics on their on, their place on the Sun CDs also offers some insight about how the Elvis phenomenon evolved. Presley's success at Sun also attracted other promising young artists such as Perkins, Lewis, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. Perkins is best known as a rockabilly and rock 'n' roll pioneer.

But some of his early recordings at Sun show he had a big choice to make back then, whether to go country or rock. As for Lewis, his "pumping piano" never has pumped harder. Lewis was closing in on Presley for the rock 'n' roll crown by the time Elvis went in the Army in 1958. But a public outcry over Lewis' marriage to his 13-yerr-old cousin, Myra, knocked his career onto a sidetrack from which it never fully recovered. Interactive TV gets into all aspects of life Michael Tolkin- They shoot serious films, don't they? urbs, also is on line.

The homes selected for the test will be in Columbia Cable's service area, although how the homes will be chosen is still being decided. Interactive Systems, which has been developing interactive television applications since 1986, tested some of its technol- nmr 1 "6.7 "i o. i In ranee, Ideal Loisirs produced a toy ray gun that let French children score points by shooting bad guys on a regularly scheduled TV program. More than 50,000 were sold, Galmiche said. A "Wheel of Fortune" game by Mattel let U.S.

viewers play the same game being shown on television in 1987. More than 200,000 were sold. More than 400,000 Toby Terriers were sold in the United States last Christmas. The furry toy dog, made by Tiger Electronics, talks, barks and wags his tail in response to videotapes produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. "We're taking all of that information and putting it into the design we're testing here," Galmiche said.

The company also has run tests in Spain, the Netherlands and Australia. -10 i ing the ultimate couch potato. "I think we're actually creating a more intelligent and informed TV viewer," he said. At specific times during your television program, the coded data piggybacked onto it causes the computer atop the TV to become active. Captions superimposed on the screen will ask for your answer to the "Jeopardy!" question, whether you would like more in-formation about a talk show topic, or whether you'd like to buy the product now being featured.

After your program, it may ask if you'd like even more information, or whether you'd like to know the topic of tomorrow's show. Once Interactive Systems developed its coded data technology, it began working with the people who produce both local and national TV shows. As part of the test, Interactive Systems has enlisted TV producers, such as Warner ABC-TV and Columbia TriStar Television. "Programs like our Wheel of Fortune' and are naturals for interactive television," said Richard Glosser, vice president of operations for Columbia TriStar Local TV stations KATU, KG KPDX and KOPB already have signed on as participants. Interactive Systems now is talking with independent KPTV about interactive applica-tions for its programming, Galmiche said.

KGW has been running tests of interactive programming since December, said Dennis Williamson, KGW president and general manager. Columbia Cable which serves Portland's western sub BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) You're watching your favorite football team on television and thinking a pizza sure would taste good right now. Just push a few buttons on your remote. It's ordered for you.

Your favorite TV chef is making a recipe you'd like to try. Push another button. It pops out of the printer atop your television. You're intrigued by that author being interviewed on your favorite talk show. Punch again, and again.

You get a printout of information about the author and order the book. Automatically, it is put on your credit card. Sound futuristic? Not by far. Early next year, Interactive Systems Inc. will install its In-Touch TV devices in more than 1,500 Portland-area homes in its first U.S.

test of the system. The test, scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 1995, will alio vie wers to order take-out, reserve tapes at the video store or movie tickets, and print out the local news or weather. Viewers can play along with game shows, participate in polls and surveys, buy products, check their bank accounts, request catalogs and print recipes and coupons. It all will come via a small black box atop your television set that receives specially coded data, transmitted along with the regular TV signal. The box also contains a Tandem Corp.

computer, which processes the data and responses, a modem and a Panasonic printer. It communicates with you via on-screen graphics and you communicate with it with a touch of the remote. Jack Galmiche, president and CEO of Interactive Systems, insists the technology is not creat NEW YORK (AP) Michael Tolkin thinks it's criminal that offers so much escapist fare. Certainly, he faces no indictment on that count. "The Player" (which he wrote) and two films he wrote and directed, "The Rapture" and now "The New Age," are not guilty of foolishly optimistic plot lines.

"I don't want to write a Hollywood fairy-tale happy ending for the sake of it. As much as I was entertained by 'Sleepless in I couldn't do that. I could not contrive a story that paid off that happily for two nice people," the bespectacled, slender writer-director said in a recent interview. "Most Hollywood movies let their charactersoff the hook, or create characters who aren't real so there's no hook anyway. And I wanted to make a mo vie about people whose issues are real and then pay it off in a real way." In his latest film, Tolkin's main characters, a Southern California couple, have good jobs, a nice house, cool friends and a badly deteriorating marriage.

Their relationship worsens when they both lose their jobs. The economic crisis provokes them not only to seek new jobs, but also some meaning in their lives. Lurching along, they bed dpwn with others while sharing the same house, open an overpriced boutique and genuflect to New Age nostrums. By the time the couple (Peter Weller and Judy Davis) set up a suicide soiree for themselves, you can be forgiven for thinking: KILL YOURSELVES ALREADY! The film, which received mixed reviews, has become an art-house hit. At one point, it was the top- Local Event AP Photo Tolkin has written and directed "The New Age." Elsewhere in television FILM AT 40: Ever wonder where some of the historic footage for productions such as Ken Burns' documentary "Baseball" and the feature "Forrest Gump" was found? Their producers turned to the CBS News Archives, which this month observes its 40th anniversary.

The oldest television archives in the United States, it is home to every piece of footage ever shot by CBS News, not to mention CBS Radio news broadcasts dating back to 1927. bly line in Indiana, the American economy is putting everybody up againstthe wall. youmeet economic history face to face, you're facing reality. And when you face reality, then you can see who you are." Tolkin maintains that money matters in a marriage. "Without economic security, love is very difficult," he said.

"Love and marriage that can triumph over poverty is a miracle, a true miracle." grossing movie playing on three screens or fewer in New York, according to Variety. Tolkin said the question repeatedly was raised whether anyone outeideofLos Angeles or New York could relate to this couple, who appear effete and silly. His ready answer "I say look: Her key line is when she says, We've got 30 days left in the And whether you're a graphic artist (which Davis plays) or whether you work on an assem Correction In the story about "The Nutcracker" performing at Eastern Dec. 2, the wrong ticket information was given to the Times-CourierJournal Gazette. Tickets for students, seniors and children are $5 and tickets for adults are $10.

The show is sponsored by the University Board Performing Arts Committee. Trumpet." The Men will then offer a medley of nostalgic love songs, "The Girl of My Dreams," and the contemporary "Carry On My Wayward Son." The final section of the concert will consist of five Secular pieces, including two outstanding King Singers arrangements: "Shenandoah" and Tm a Train." The Uni versi ty Mixed Chorus is directed by Robert L. Hills, accompanists for the ensemble are two talented freshmen: Laurie Thacker and Nicholas Troy. concert with a section of sacred choral literature including: "All Praise and Glory Be To God," from Bach's Magnificat; "Adorams Te" and Bone contemporary selections "Clap Your Hands," "The God of all People" and a Gregory Gilpin setting of "Sanc-tus." That segment will close with William Dawson's arrangement of the well-known spiritual "Soon All Will Be Done," The Women's Ensemble will present the seven delightful tunes from Mac Huff "Menagerie" and Franz Schubert's Sound the Tfl The Specialist (R) 5:00, 7:15 VfCfl Was Gravens New Nightman (R) I I 4:30,7:00 IJ TheRiver Wild (PG 13) 5:00, 7:30 Forrest Gun 0 13) 1 little Glent (PC) 4:45, 7:00 fcM torrinaCorrina(PG) 7:15, 9:45 I Terminal Velocity (PO-13) 7:00, 9:30 Mixed chorus performs Sunday CHARLESTON Eastern Illinois University's department of music will present a free concert of the University Mixed Chorus in concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Dvorak Concert Hall.

The University Mixed Chorus consists of students from 14 different academic areas on Eastern's campus, and presents a concert program geared to the public. They will open their Horoscopes ADVERTISE! Your Entertainment Source now 10 auQacnue t.u uic I Ml PAULS IM! I $4RT St LOW TO: KANSAS cm TULSA HOUSTON IAS VEGAS LOS ANGELES. SAN fiRT J'9RT Ii'RT J'WRT Ii'9RT RT .4264 HT SAN FRANCISCO. SEATTLE PORTLAND NEW ORLEANS MARLINGEN SALT LAKE MMANAPOUSTCt Mail This Coupon i ATLANTA TAMPA lauderoaLX Nfto YORK If today is your birthday: In the year ahead, you might fare better in enterprises or endeavors in wtiich you are the middleman instead of a LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct 23) In a situation today where you share a vested interest withsome-one bend over backwards to be fair.

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