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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1979)
Bestsellers Page SB BOOKS Programs of the Brain, by J.Z. Young. More is known about the working of the brain than many laymen realize. But British anatomist Young also emphasizes there is even more we don't know. In the process he offers his theory that the brain is pre-programmed to handle many stimuli, and is further programmed by experience during the growth process. One con clusion is that lack of prepuberty stimuli — like early under nourishment — can cause parts of the brain to atrophy irreversibly. Educationists, nutritionists and parents please note. “Programs of the Brain” is not easy reading but is a most impressive and detailed synthesis of the state of present knowledge. Arctic Journey, by Peter Buerschaper. This is a record of a naturalist’s visit to the Canadian Arctic in summer, his diary serving mainly as background for his paintings and drawings of birds and mammals. These are excellent, for the author is senior artist of the Royal Ontario Museum. The animals are shown in their natural settings, and Buerschaper has captured the exact colors, from the rust-red lichens and the dry hay to the yellowish cast of the polar bear and the iron-stained heads of greater snow geese. FICTION 1. Chesapeake — James A. Michener 2. War and Remembrance — Herman Wouk 3. Overload — Arthur Hailey 4. The Stories of John Cheever — John Cheever 5. Second Generation — Howard Fast 6. Evergreen — Belva Plain 7. The Sixth Commandment — Lawrence San ders 8. Dress Gray — Lucian K. Truscott IV 9. Fools Die — Mario Puzo 10. Proteus — Morris West NONFICTION 1. Lauren Bacall: By Myself — Lauren Bacall 2. Mommie Dearest — Christina Crawford 3. A Distant Mirror — Barbara Tuchman 4. The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet — Herman R. Tarnower anf Samm Sinclair Baker 5. American Caesar — William Manchester 6. If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits — Erma Bombeck 7. Linda Goodman’s Love Signs — Linda Goodman 8. In Search of History — Theodore White 9. How To Prosper During the Coming Bad Years — Howard J. Ruff 10. Nurse — Peggy Anderson MUSIC Blues Brothers—Br/efcase Full of Blues By far the best album of all time, Briefcase Full of Blues is more than just a slice of vinyl with 10 songs etched into its sides. It’s a slice of life; life that’s hard and real and full of sweat and dirt. It’s nicotine-stained and scarred. It's bourbon and water; it’s steel- belted. But most of all it’s two men, Joliet Jake and Elwood. They sing from the heart and from the gut. Jake belts it out, pouring every ounce of his tattered soul into every word, until his pain pierces the darkness, like a naked light bulb covered with dead moths. Elwood’s harp, like a slashing razor, opens the skin. The pain is real. Every song of this album scales new heights of blues interpreta tion. Every song is noteworthy, but the best cuts include "Al most,” “I Don't Know,” “Rubber Biscuit” and "Soul Man.” The music is uncompromising and precise. With backup men like Bones Malone, Getwa Jordan and Duck Dunn, there’s no way that it could have failed. Recorded live on the road, where the blues are amplified, where a man feels alone, where little comfort can be found. The Blues Brothers are here to tell us, “you’ve never known suffering like ours.” The pains of rejection, alienation and alcoholism. "My life is like water, just swirlin’ down the drain.” That says it all. That’s what Briefcase Full of Blues is all about. It’s a tale told in blood. I suggest that you buy as many blues albums as you can. Victor Sylvia Synergy—Cords 1. Synergy — the action of two or more substances, organs, or organisms ot achieve an effect of which each is individually incapable; from the Greek "sunergos” — working together. 2. Synergy — the group, lead by self-proclaimed keyboard virtuoso Larry Fast; noted for one fine album, Electronic Realizations, and one palatable album, Sequencer, which included a fine ver sion of “Classical Gas" and a valiant attempt at Dvorak’s "New World Symphony.” 3. Synergy — the present group, still lead by Larry Fast; should not be confused with previous form. What could have led to the evolution of a new musical form, has sadly side-tracked into a dead end. It’s dreadfully monotonous and cannot compare with Fast’s earlier compositions. Only two selections, "Sketches of Mythical Beasts" and “Trellis,” are passable, the rest is rub- —Victor Sylvia Rock ’n Roll Country-Western Easy Listenin’ Disco Jazz CHECK OUR WEEKLY RECORD SPECIALS We also stock Maxell recording tapes Open 10-7 211 University Drive 846-3901 Getz has come a long way since playing with big bands By Gordon Bock United Press International An autographed picture of Jimmy Carter beaming at Stan Getz sits nestled in a niche of the woodpaneled study. Along the walls are other tes timonials to the tenor saxophonist’s proficiency in his trade and stature in the world — including a dozen "best of the year” plaques from Downbeat and Playboy magazines. Getz, who made the bossa nova a household word in the 60s with “The Girl From Ipanema” and other hits, has come a long “This jazz business — it’ll either kill you or keep you young,” sighed Getz. way from his days as a 15-year- old truant on the road with the Jack Teagarden band. But his commitment to the music remains strong. “The very essential thing about jazz is its impact," he explained, ’ leaning back in a leather sofa as his daughter Beverly added another log to the crackling fire place. A Labrador retriever named James slept at his feet. “If you hear really good jazz, and it is right, then there’s nothing like it. It pops," Getz said. He ought to know — he has been playing that way for more than three decades as a profes sional musician, first with Teagarden, then with the Benny Goodman and Woody Herman big bands. After those gigs came about 20 years on his own, as the leader of groups that at one time included keyboard man Chick Corea and vibraphonist Gary Burton — each voted best at his own instrument in the latest Downbeat readers’ poll. “This jazz business — it’ll either kill you or keep you young,” sighed Getz, who recently turned 52. It almost killed him. Long behind Getz are 15 years of drinking “up to of booze a day and a $100-a-day heroin habit that lasted a decade. “That’s old news,” declared the father of five, who is now so health-conscious that he plays tennis, gave up smoking and ad vised an interviewer to “take your Vitamin C” to avoid a winter cold. When he’s not doing some thing physically fit, Getz — who said he “never learned to write music” — toys with the idea of enrolling at New York’s J lliarschool “or someplace like that to learn how to write charts.” But not before completing work on another project — a modern recording studio he’s building in an old barn behind the Westches ter County mansion the Getz fam ily occupies on a 10-acre estate near Washington Irving's birth place. Appropriately, George Ger shwin once lived in the 27-room house. Later, so did the woman who was to elope and become Mrs. Irving Berlin. Berlin’s “Always," written as a wedding present to his bride, ap pears on the latest Getz record- TOP 10 ALBUMS 1. Rod Stewart — Blondes Have More Fun 2. Blues Brothers —■ Briefcase Full of Blues 3. Village People — Cruisin' 4. Bee Gees—Spirits Having Flown 5. Billy Joel — 52nd Street 6. Chic — C’est Chic 7. Dire Straits — Dire Straits 8. Olivia Newton-John — To tally Hot 9. Toto — Toto 10. Eric Clapton — Backless ing, a two-record set called “Another World.” The disc’s title cut, a six-minute solo, is the first foray by Getz — ever the innovator — into the world of jazz-fusion. The music from his electroni cally enhanced saxophone won’t please purists who endorse only acoustic music. But its haunting sounds may win over a few rock fans. Featured with Getz on the album is his latest crew of young musicians — pianist Andy Laverne, bassist Mike Richmond, drummer Billy Hart and percus sionist Efrain Toro. Give or take a few, “Another World” is the 110th album Getz has made. Many of them have long since disappeared from the The music from his electronically enhanced saxophone won’t please purists who endorse only acoustic music. But its haunting sounds may win over a few rock fans. shelves, but recent reissues from the Savoy, Verve and Inner City labels keep his name before the jazz-listening public. “It began with the harmonica when I was 11 years old,’ 5 Getz recalled. From there, the Philadel phia native •— by then trans planted to the Bronx — attended junior high school, where the gym teacher also ran the band. “He lined us all up and picked me out and said, ‘This is the bass fiddle. I want you to play it,’” Getz recounted. Young Stan didn’t stay with the bulky instrument very long be cause “it wasn’t a melody instru ment and melody is so beautiful." So his father missed a few lunches and used the money to buy his son an alto sax. A music teacher later chipped in to help Getz purchase a tenor. "And the rest,” Getz intoned with mock solemnity, “is history.” Can a mere pig bring people closer? By Frank K. Vasovski The function of a porcine digestive system was a relatively obscure matter until recently, but thanks to the efforts of many animal nutrition experts, it is now possible to observe and evaluate digestive processes of swine without discomfort to the animals. Dr. Teresa Zebrowska, a visiting Polish scientist working with Dr. T.D. Tanksley, Extension swine specialist and professor of animal science at Texas A&M University, is an interna tionally recognized authority on diges tion and absorption of nutrients in the small intestine of the pig. Her work is directed toward improvement in the utilization of feedstuffs and identifica tion of a nutrient which would cause op timum weight gain in the animal with minimum expense. Zebrowska is a senior scientific offi cer at the State Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition, Polish Academy of Sciences, at Jablonna near Warsaw. She has improved the design and application of an intestinal cannula to permit easy access to, and withdrawal of, digestive contents in an animal without disturbing other body processes. After receiving a master’s degree in 1959 and a doctoral degree in 1964 from the University of Warsaw, Dr. Zebrowska presented papers in 1977 at the Second International Sym posium of Protein Metabolism and Nu trition at Hoorn, Netherlands, and at the Fifth International Symposium on Amino Acids at Budapest, Hungary. In addition, she has twice been a visiting researcher at the National Insitiute for Research Dairying in England and once at the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland. .. continued on page 4 ...