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."
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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.
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