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Show WEEKEND STANDARD-EXAMINER we eo FRIDAY, JAN. 17, 1992 4) | FEATURES EDITOR: 625-4270 THEATERS OR R.ASt A AN DE OR CC New respectfor an instrument you wear QUICK TAKES BEST BETS Movies The Sundance Film Festiva! opened Thurs- By MARK SAAL day. See stories Standard-Examiner staff on the worid premiere of “This Is uestion: What does an accordionist play? My Life” and its director, Nora Ephron. Also, a Answer: To an guide to some other films at empty room. the festival. eserf Art Larry Pino has seen it happen all too often the past few decades. The annual Black and White Competition is at Eccles A teenage student of his comes Community Art Center. into the studio, accompanied by his mother. “Brian has something totell See 2D for details on obtaining tickets for these and other upcoming events: The Nylons. Feb. 8, Salt Lake Pino knows what’s coming next. The boy wants to give up his music lessons. Pino takes him aside to find out why. Explains the teenager: “My friend found out today that I play the accordion, and he hasn’t stopped laughing.” Pino has taught accordion in the Salt Lake Valley since 1951, and he’s seen countless Brians. He is the first to admit: The accordion has a severe image problem. Students will start playing the accordion as early as age 6 or 7, but often stop in their teenage years because of peer pressure, he says. Even when they win in na- City. Rickie Lee Jones. Feb. 12, Salt Lake City. Ballet West. Feb. 25-26, Ogden. WHATEVER HAPPENEDTO... Joel McCrea? Famous for: McCrea was noted as one of tional competitions, most teenage accordionists are reluctant to let their friends know of their good fortune. “As they get a little older in school, it’s just not an instrument Hollywood's most dependable actors, playing roles from comedy to drama to westerns. Stats: Born in 1905 in South they’re proud of,” Pino said. And thestigma isn’t limited to teens, either, says Pino, who be- Pasadena, Calif. Died of lung problems in 1990. One son, lieves the average person looks at the accordion as a “dorky” instrument. “Today, if you want to make a Jody, had a brief acting career. Early years: His earliest acting was a bit in 1923's comedian look more clownish,put- “Penrod and Sam.” In 1929, he broke into featured roles in “Jazz Age” and “Dynamite.” McCrea’s career peakedin the late 1930s and the 1940s when he starred in “These Three,’ an accordion on him,” hesaid. Pino says part of the problem is that few people have heard the accordion played the way it was Pino founded the Sandy-based Larry Pino Conservatory, now billed as the “home of Utah’s award-winning symphonic accordion orchestra.” The orchestra travels to national competitions SUSAN LATHAM/Standard-Examiner Standard-Examinerstaff ALT LAKE CITY — Those “Maybe people makejokes before they hear us play,” said Rob- may conservatory from Pino in 1989. “But after, especially when they’ve and far between, and you can’t just stroll down to Musicland and pick out something in the Accordion Section. Fortunately, this weekend’s Hof Winter Carnival in Ogdenwill offer an opportunity to hear the sounds oflive accordion. Yodeler Kerry Christensen performs with See ACCORDION on 3D who’ve lived in the Ogden area for some time ert Patterson, who bought the they’re impressed.” Yet people don’t often get to hear accordionists perform. Accordion recitals and concerts are few More the Merrier,” among Music makes the memories By MARK SAAL remember Club, the Officer’s Club at Hill Air Force Base, Gray Cliff Lodge, The Hermitage and Crystal Springs. “I guess I consider Ogden my home, { spent so manyyears there,” said Devey, who since Gene Devey. Per- 1979 has lived in Salt Lake City haps they remem- with his wife, Gail. ber him as the big, friendly guy they used to see downtown all of the time. Or they remember him as “The Blind Hitchhiker,” thumbing for rides when he got tired of waiting on a bus. But mostly, Devey hopes, peo- ple remember him for his music. For years, Devey sang and played the accordion, organ and piano in the Ogden area. He had a broadcast on KLO Radio for 25 years. He performed, both as a so- Born in Provo, Deveylost his eyesight at age 3 to spinal menin- gitis. He came to Ogden to study at the School for the Blind, and it was there his love affair with music began. He first took pianolessons at the school, then at age 8 picked up his first accordion. He ly the organ and piano. music, including a pair of Christ- “Really, I’d like to play the accordion more, but they don’t have much use for an accordion player today,” said Devey. mas songs — “Who Gets the Presents for Santa Claus?” and “I Between 1947 and 1951, Devey played the accordion with the Utah Playboys, a western band that Devey says made a brief appearance on the Billboard charts at One point in its existence. “I remember one night we played a New Year’s Eve job and when we got through about 2 or 3 in the morning, weall piled in the car and drove down Washington Wonder What Became of ChristLoriece Devey, created together. Devey was a popular musician for weddings because the accordion was an easy, portable source of music — unlike manyof the amplified instruments of today. “With a lot of instruments, if you don’t have electricity you might as well go home,” he said. Devey, who has perhaps 4,000 songs in his repertoire, plays a lot Boulevard,” Devey said. “We had the base fiddle laying between us, of “middle of the road-type stuff, standard favorites.” Just about a drum and my accordion in anything but rock ’n’ roll. “I steer just as hard as I can there. And we played musicall the way down Washington Boule- was,” Devey remembers. vard.” said. “Although I did haveto play Devey has also written and produced some of his own accordion group.” Devey continues to play his of the Ogden Golf and Country music, although he says it’s most- away from rock ’n’ roll,” Devey it for nine months once with a Movie a grand view of the canyon of urbanity you see a bunchof faces that you knowand can communicate with. So when you find By DONALD PORTER Standard-Examiner staff someone you can collaborate with, you just want to repeat the experience.” Lawrence Kasdan has been working the phones all day from his Los Angelesoffice, promoting his new film, “Grand Canyon.” After being introduced byan assistant, he One of the pals Kasdan made during the filming of “Silverado” was Glover, and the two have maintained a friendship since. Kasdan wrote the role of Simon, the tow-truck driver in “Grand Canyon,” specifically for Glover. comes to the phone and “offers a chipper greeting. He owes his bright mood, he says, to the kind words he’s been hearing abouthis movie from journalists around the country. “Whenever I would see him,” Kasdan says eee of the actor, “I was struck by, you know,his vitality. He has a very big heart and enormous energy. And at the sametime, he has a kind of sadness that any thinking person does if they look around the country right now. And I sort of wanted to write a part for him that would encompass those things.” The Kasdans pack a lot into “Grand Canyon,” including gang activities, random street @ REVIEW: Grand Canyon an re. literate film. “I'll tell you, I’ve been surprised at how Teceptive the critics have been to this movie,” cometo expect from Kasdan, who has direct- ed six films since 1981, including “The Big Chill,” “The Accidental Tourist” and “I Love You to Death.” But you wouldn’t label him an artiste, because he’s also madethe entertainments “Body Heat” and “Silverado.” Before that, he was a screenwriter of enormous popular consequence, with credits including “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Return of the Jedi.” For 12 years worth of work, that’s a mighty full dance card. Kasdan co-wrote “Grand Canyon” with his wife of 20 years, Meg. He says she summed sup the experience by telling him, “You as this wasn’t the hardest thing we did er.” Raising two sons while living in ngeles, the director explains, has been a much more difficult chore. violence, race relations, adultery, mid-life cri- ses, the plight of the homeless, urban decay and more. But Kasdan believes the situation % 4 Twentieth ieth Century Féxt Director Lawrence Kasdan (right), creator of ‘The Big Chill’ talks to actors Kevin Kline (left) and Steve Martin during filming of his movie ‘Grand Canyon.’ That’s why he wrote a movie about things he thinks are wrong — and right — with urban life in our nation. He set it in L.A. because it’s the city he makes his home. “I think the movie is really about America,it’s not about L.A.” “Grand Canyon” begins with a roving band of predatory youths attempting to rob an up- significant in the grand scheme of nature and the universe. He hiked through the Grand Canyon once, he says, and its vastness helps a person put life in the proper perspective. Eventually, the film expands to investigate the lives of people close to these two central characters — which is another hallmark of scale lawyer (Kevin Kline) of his stalled Lex- filmmaker says one reason he writes numer- us. To the rescue comes a philosophic ous characters into his scripts is he enjoys tow-truck driver (Danny Glover), who winds being surrounded by friends: “When youget there at six o'clock in the morningit helps if up telling his new friend that humans are in- Kasdan movies: large, ensemble casts. The others. In recent years: |n the mid-1940s, McCrea switched to western movies, later did a TV western series, “Wichita Town.” His last features were “Ride the High Country” in 1962 and a brief role in “Cry Blood-Apache”in 1972. mas” — that he and his ex-wife, took a liking to the instrument immediately. Two years later his parents bought him full-size accordion — “Jt was bigger than I lo artist and in groups, at the likes the director says, explaining that he “expected the worst” because his film aboutlife and relationships in Los Angeles is “hopeful, guardedly hopeful,” and he assumed the cynical press would have a high time bashing it. “Grand Canyon” is an unusual, literate film — which is to say it’s what many have “Wells Fargo,” “Dead End,” “Foreign Correspondent,” “Sullivan's Travels” and “The Gene Deveyis an accomplished accordion player. each year. heard us perform classical pieces, 8D HOT TICKETS you,” the motherwill say. meant to be played. Most people associate the accordion with the “Beer Barrel Polka” and “Lady of Spain,” according to Pino. “They didn’t rise above that,” he said. “They never had the opportunity to see it as a soloist in the symphony.” 5D can improve — if people are willing to work together. “Individuals can treat each other decently, and it makes a difference if you do. And I think, for me, that’s what has to happen to the country. We have to re-order our prion- ties, so that some ofthe virtues and values that have been underrated for the past 15 years come back into sort of a national psyche — that it matters how everyone’s doing, that we’re all in it together.” Cynicism, Kasdan says, “pervades everything” in this country: the news media, movies, you name it. But the filmmaker says he doesn’t want to give in to it. “I consider myself a humanist filmmaker.I believe in the potential of people to act well. You know,I think there are enormous temp- See KASDAN on 4D WHAT’S NEW In music video: The rap group Public Enemy unveiled a video last week in which a fictional governor of Arizona disrespects Martin Luther King Jr., so his Car is blown up. The piece shows a fictitious politician, who could be Arizona's deposed governor Evan Mecham, blathering at a press conference that he is not racist. (Mecham led the state’s crusade to strike King’s birthday as a legal holiday.) Eventually, dynamite is planted in his car. PE’s mission was to create a revenge fantasy, not a how-to for slaughtering politicians, says the group's Chuck D. in “JFK” controversy: More heat for director-writer Oliver Stone from documentary producer Ken Burns (“The Civil War’). “I have been concerned by his pastfilms because | worry that Stone has convinced people the 60s was the way he saw it,” Burns says. Burns says he doesn't make feature films because he “found it was more satisfying to tell the truth of what really happenec than what should have happened.” TOP RECORDS These were the top 10 singles of the week, according to Billboard magazine 1. “All 4 ||= Comer) od Love” Color Me Bad 2. “Can’t Let Go” Mariah Carey 3. “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” George Michael & Elton John 4. “Black or White” Michael Jackson 5. “Finally” Ce Ce Peniston 6. “Diamonds and Pearls”Prince and the N.P.G. 7. “I Love Your Smile” Shanice 8. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Nirvana 9. “Mysterious Ways” U2 10. “I’m Too Sexy” Right Said Fred — Standard-Examinerstaff and wire services |