Page 12 February 14, 1986

 
   
   

ES Se

““~Who knows what Evil lurks in the
hearts of Men? The Shadow knows.’

“The weed of crime bears bitter
fruit.” So says the Shadow, but the
Shadow says little else other than an
occasional ‘‘mocking peal of laugh-
ter’’ which invariably comes from
nowhere, yet everywhere.

I’m sure that most people have an
idea of who/what the Shadow is, but
have never read the books or heard
the radio plays. Myself, I’ve only
encountered the Shadow in the dark
streets of Maxwell Grant’s novels.

Written in the 30’s and published in
The Shadow Magazine in serial form,
the Shadow lives today through the
publication of the stories in their
novel form.

The stories create a certain dark
atmosphere wherein the Shadow may
seek out and punish the wicked. The
reader isin complete awe of the
spectral crime fighter because he per-
forms seeming impossibilites and the
reader is given.no clues as to how he
does them, or even who he is.
Although after a few books, we learn
that by day he is the well-to-do
Lamont Cranston, and only in the
darkest, foggiest night, the Shadow.

Lamont Cranston is the answer. to
‘“‘who’’, but as for the answer to
‘““~what’’, I’m not telling. He can melt
into the fog, seemingly glide up the
sides of multi-story buildings, and
project impenetrable darkness around
himself, not to mention his abilites as
a master of disguise.

Often the reader will notice a char-
acter, such as a cook at a diner with a
rather long nose, long slender fingers,
and a ring with a blood red stone.
This is the Shadow. Ready to leap to
one of his agent’s aid when trouble
crops up, but quick to disappear when
the crisis subsides, leaving none the
wiser (not even his own agents) as to
who the cook really was.

By now you must be getting the feel
of the stories: Mystery, suspense,
danger!! All the qualities of extremely
addictive fiction.

The problem one faces in one’s
Shadow addiction is where does the
next fix come from? The books, sadly,
are out of print. The only way to find
one is to comb the used book stores,
but it’s not that easy. At one store
I’ve been waiting two years for a call
to let me know that one’s come in.
Nothing from them so far, but the
search goes on.

 

 

of

So ends this exciting episode in our
story, but a few questions remain.
Will our adventurer into the mind’s
dark corners find the opiate he needs?
Will the books suddenly come back
into print and our hero O.D. on

thrills?. And most importantly, will}

any O.P. readers have an as yet

unread copy that they can lend him?

Only The Shadow knows.
by SHAUN M. SMITH

 

Vice isn't nice

Philip-Michael Thomas is a man
with a definite plan in life. He calls
his plan E.G.O.T.—Emmy, Grammy,
Oscar, and Tony. Hopefully, for him
Miami Vice will give him his Emmy,
and future projects his Oscar and
Tony. In his bid for a Grammy, he has
released an album, Living the book of
my life.

This could have been a good album,
but it has one flaw which cannot be
overlooked, Philip-Michael Thomas.
To be fair, it has a nice Jamaican feel
to it occasionally, and the music is not
bad, but the lyrics are beyond hope.

It is obvious that in this area:
Philip-Michael Thomas let his consid-
erable ego run free. The entire first
side, with the exception of Everything
Happens in its Own Time, is an
extension of Mr. Thomas’ desire to be
God. This is most obvious on the track

Just the Way |! Planned It. The most
egotistical song on the side is You
Might Be the Lucky One [with my
Heart Tonight]. It is plain that our
actor/singer thinks much of himself
and is not about to try and hide the
fact.

Side two is less offensive lyrically,
and the songs pretty well all deal with
that standard topic: Love. That is of
course except for the song She’s a
Liar, where it is only too clear that the
subject is not one of affection.

This is a decent album to get if you
are not easily offended by continual
references to sex, and the continual
preaching of Philip-Michael Thomas.
if you happen to be in a store and the
tape is on sale for $5.99 then you
might want to pick it up, but it’s not
worth a special trip and its full cover
price. by MEGHAN L. MILLER

 

The Other Press

The Vancouver New Music Society,
will be putting on an Evening 0
Electronics, Sunday, February 16,
1986, at 8:00 p.m. in the Vancouver
East Cultural Centre.

John Chowning, director of the:
Centre for Computer Research in
Music and Acoustics at Stanford
University in California—and perhaps
the most distinguished and_inter-
nationally honoured of the United
States’ electroacoustic composers—
has selected and will host a concert of
works representing the most out-
standing compositions generated in
the world’s leading computer studios.

A student of Nadia Boulanger in
Paris and a doctoral graduate in
Composition under Leland Smith at
Stanford, John Chowning in fact
established (with the assistance of
Max Mathews. of Bell Laboratories)

 

Stanford’s computer music program.

hips
He is recognized internationally both
for his work in simulated moving

£ sound synthesis and equally for his

computer music compositions. Te
cipient of commissions through the
National Endowment for the Arts, he
has been a composer-in-residence for
the City of Berlin and a guest com-
poser at IRCAM in Paris.

John Chowning is the designer of
the FM sound synthesis system whic
is now marketed in the form of the
Yamaha DX-7. In a lighter mode, he
has been called the “Father of FM“’!

The New Music Society has hosted
a number of fine concerts this season,
including last month’s avant-garde
vocal concert, and November’ s Pacific
Rim concert, which featured some of
the best classical music being com:
posed today, from New Zealand to the
Lower Mainland. It also featured per
formances by a number of Dougla
College music instructors.