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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1991)
Page 4 Lifestyles The Battalion y Thursday, December^, Music Reviews Placido Domingo belongs off Broadway By Margaret Coltman The Battalion Placido Domingo The Broadway I Love Warner Music Netherlands Oil and water don't mix, everybody knows that. But sometimes in the music world there are anomalies...Beethoven on Speed comes to mind, and what if the van Halens did Mozart? Unhappily, while the results are no doubt interesting, they are not always successful. No offense to the ingenuous Placido Domingo, but his forte is not Broadway. The album The Broadway I Love is a collec tion of 14 classic favorites - sung by an oper atic tenor. It just doesn't work. Jose Carreras recently said of Domingo, "He has such a flexible voice, one that really stretches from Mozart to Wagner." Well, that may be, but that does not mean, by ex tension, Broadway. His voice is full and rich, and unques tionably gorgeous, but he doesn't have the lighter sound needed for Broadway. Some of the songs were physically painful to lis ten to. And diction...his diction is operatic (translation: fuzzy at the ends of phrases). Broadway voices need to be light, yet emo tional, and everything must be crystal clear. The album features works by some of Broadway's greatest composers - Rodgers & Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter, and Andrew Lloyd Webber among others. The music is beautiful, the accompa niment sensitive, but Domingo's intensity is too overbearing for the album to be terribly enjoyable. When it's Wagner, go to Domingo, but for Broadway, stick to Michael Crawford. 2Pac's wise words turn to violent babbling By Chris Eklof The Battalion 2Pac 2Pacalypse Now Interscope Rapper 2Pac says that NIGGA stands for Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accom plished. Unfortunately, 2Pac's first solo ef fort falls far short of that ideal. IPacalypse Now is ignorant and accomplishes little. 2Pac is a member of Digital Under ground, but this album does not resemble anything that Digital Underground has put out. 2Pac's solution to every problem seems to come through violence. He talks about shooting police, shooting strangers and filling everyone. (The creative spelling is 2Pac's, not mine.) "Everything we put on wax will be re membered," 2Pac said, "And 'Pray' is not how we're living in the '90s." That is a noble thought and it is true, but hopefully songs like "Soulja's Story" and "Violent" do not represent the way we are living, either. A kid blasting his way into prison to break out his crack-dealing brother does not happen every day. 2Pac's stories of the streets paint an ugly, dismal picture of lower class America. Not all of the songs are complete trash, though. "Brenda's Got A Baby" and "Part Time Mutha" accurately represent the problems of teenage pregnancy and pover ty- 2Pac spouts his "words of wisdom" all over the album, but unfortunately these "wise words" mostly consist of violent bab bling. His philosophy: if someone dis agrees with you, then shoot him. The song "I Don't Give A F—" is a joke on itself. 2Pac certainly gives a f-- to a lot of people on this song. F — the San Fran cisco Police Department! F—this! F — that! F — anyone who does not agree with him! 2Pac could probably accomplish more social change with a less negative impres sion. The only thing that IPacalypse Now accomplishes is making more people hate each other. . . . while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.' Gingerbread maker bakes up holiday traditions By Terri Welch The Battalion C andy, confections...if there is one thing most of us like about the holiday season, it is definitely the food! Paula Gardener, Class of '77 and the head cake decorator at Randall's grocery store, has been busy this Christmas season creating one of the most traditional holiday goodies - gin gerbread houses. Having always liked creative things. Gardener just happened to get into baking and said she always want ed to make gingerbread houses but never did until she worked in a bakery. "We start off by making the ginger bread dough and what is called royal icing," Gardener said. "The dough needs to set overnight and then the next day you cut out the shapes and bake it." Using cardboard patterns to cut out the roof, walls, floor, chimney and doors, she suggests rolling out the dough on to the bakfng pan and cut ting the shapes out to those making houses at home. "It is too difficult to move the dough around once the shapes have been cut," Gardener said, "So that is why it's best to cut them out already on the pan." The icing is the most crucial part of the houses. Known as royal icing, it differs from regular icing in that it hardens almost immediately. "It is made from egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar," she said. "The ic ing needs to set awhile so that it will be stiff enough to hold the pieces together and hold the decorations on." From licorice to vanilla wafers and gum drops to Hershey's kisses. Gar dener said she uses what ever is avail able for the house decorations. "Let your imagination run away with you. For example, I have thought about using Teddy Graham cookies." she said. "Look at magazines or come up with your own ideas," said Gardener. Cake decorator Paula Gardener adds the finishing touches to her gingerbread house : "We try to make each one look differ ent because we don't want them all to be the same." A great thing to do, she suggests, is getting little kids involved, not just see ing the gingerbread house, but decorat ing it too. "After you have finished, kids can pick the candy off and eat it," said Gar dener. "People ask if they can eat it and they can. The houses are entirely edible." She said the price of the house is usually determined by the size an type of decorations. But gingerbread houses arem only buildings Gardener has cod ered creating. "I thought it would be neat.todoj A&M building," she said. " happen to find some time." Gardener definitely enjoys I work. "If you enjoy-it, it's easy ani. fun." STOREWIDE OFF ALfl. FULL LENGTH IMPORT CD SINGLES postIrs $4 OFF ALL T-SHIRTS OFF ALL LARGE POSTERS CD's over $20 4* ■ OFF ALL jK 1 TARES jJ 1 MAGAZINES ^ USED CD's DOMESTIC CD SINGLES FRIDAY, DEC 13 WEDNESDAY, DEC 18 marooned 110 College Main 846-0017 small print: special orders and anything under $4 not included. no raincHecks. ©1990 We would like to thank all of the students, faculty, staff and spouses for their participation this semester. Our department wishes you a safe and happy holiday season. We eagerly look forward to your return to Aggieland. Entries open January 20th for: Pre-Season Basketball Basketball Indoor Soccer (men’s and women's) Raquetball Singles 3 Point Shot CHEVROLET - PONTIAC ■ OLDSMOBILE BUICK-CADILLAC * GMC TRUCK ■s DIPLOMAS Same>Day Framing Stop by Myra's and get your diploma framed. Myra's 404 University E. 693*6894 (Near TCBY) ON YOUR WAY TO HELL?, FOLLOW THESE EASY DIRECTIONS! Join Binky, Bongo, Sheba, Akbar & Jeff and the rest of the Life in Hell® gang on the ultimate roadtrip and learn the hilarious truth about life, love, work, sex, enlightenment, stress, fezzes, and rabbits. You ve been told enough times where to go, but this sizzli®' smorgasbord of a book is the only one that shows you ho? W>Wto60tO^€Ll