Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 26, 1993 TAG: 9303250174
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Donna Alvis-Banks
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
`BEAUTY MYTH' IS TOPIC OF LECTUR
Corsets. Umph!Eyebrow tweezing. Ow!
Diets. Diets. Diets. Sheesh!
Breast implants. AAAARGH!
When is enough enough?
Ask Naomi Wolf. The 30-year-old Yale graduate and Rhodes scholar has answers to some thought-provoking questions about our perceptions of beauty.
Wolf's best-selling book "The Beauty Myth" sprang from her own uncomfortable observations.
"I began to see that, whenever women moved closer to male power, attention was drawn to their bodies," she wrote. "Ideas about beauty are becoming increasingly rigid and punishing as a way to lower women's self-esteem, as part of the counter assault against women's advancement."
In "The Beauty Myth," Wolf explores literature, mythology and the mass media to show how ideals of beauty serve as a political weapon to thwart women's achievement. These "ideals," she asserts, wreak havoc on women's personal and professional relationships.
She claims the "beauty backlash" strips women psychologically of the self-worth that the women's movement has given them politically.
Wolf's essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines such as The Washington Post, The New Republic, Glamour, Ms., Esquire and The Wall Street Journal. She received a prize from the Academy of American Poets for her verse and will publish a volume of poetry through William Morrow and Co. next year.
She will speak at Virginia Tech on Saturday as part of the university's annual Women's Week celebration. Her talk starts at 8 p.m. in Squires Student Center's Colonial Hall. Admission is free.
\ GOLDEN OLDIES: The year was 1973. It was a Sunday. Super Bowl Sunday, to be exact.
Six musicians got together for the first rehearsal of their new band. They called themselves The Old Pros.
Today, the band is bigger and better than ever. The 23 musicians, directed by Radford University Professor John Coggiola, are celebrating their 20th anniversary with a reunion concert Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Pulaski County High School Little Theatre. Musical selections include "In the Mood," "Moonlight Serenade," "String of Pearls" and other favorites from memory lane.
Incidentally, two of the 23 joined the band at its second rehearsal.
Former members of The Old Pros will be recognized at Sunday's concert for their contributions to the band over the years.
Admission is $2. Tickets are available from band members or at the door.
\ 'TIS FOLLY: "Follies," the annual vaudeville show sponsored by the Radford Community Hospital Auxiliary and the Radford Community Health Foundation, opens tonight and continues Saturday in the Radford High School Auditorium. Show time both evenings is at 7:30.
Talented locals from all over the New River Valley will perform variety acts. Bill Dugan of New York's Carghill Production Company is directing and choreographing the show.
Tickets, available at the door, are $6 for adults or $4 for children 12 and under.
Raffle tickets for some great prizes are $1. Up for grabs are a Homestead getaway, handmade quilt, diamond ring, floral arrangements, porcelain statue and an oil and lube job. Radford businesses are donating the raffle items.
The money collected will benefit the Emergency Relief Fund, a resource that helps people meet their health-care needs after they are discharged from the hospital.
\ AH, LOVE! Virginia Tech's Meistersingers have chosen songs about spiritual and romantic love for their spring concert. It's happening Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Squires Recital Salon.
The 17-member mixed chorus, led by Tech music Professor Keitha Lucas, will put you in the spring spirit with Felix Mendelssohn's "Die Nachtigall" and John Dowland's "Say Love," songs about blossoming love. In addition, the singers will perform Samuel Barber's Irish love poem "Coolin" and Rossino Mantovano's tender "Lirum bililirum."
Spirituals on the program include the well-known "Ave Maria" by Toma's Luis de Victoria and "Soon Ah Will Be Done" by William Dawson. On a more contemporary note, there's "Pie Jesu" by Britain Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Tickets for Sunday's concert are $2. They will be available at the box office in Squires Student Center.
\ BOOT-SCOOTIN' BOOGIE TIME: Southern Country will provide the inspiration!
The popular country band will perform Saturday at a benefit dance in Pearisburg. It runs from 8 to 11 p.m. in the gym at King Johnston School.
This is your chance to learn those line dances that are all the rage. Dancers Linda Fisher and Andy Martin will give free lessons for kids and adults.
Admission to the dance is $3 per person or $10 for the whole family. All proceeds will be used by the Giles High School Band Boosters to purchase new uniforms for the band.
\ GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? You are if you're in the market for a night at the theater.
Virginia Tech's Theatre Arts-University Theatre is giving a workshop production of James Lapine's "Table Settings" Monday through Wednesday in room 204 of the Performing Arts Building. Graduate student Willie Jordan will direct.
"Table Settings" is a fast-paced potboiler about three generations of a Jewish family. The action switches from a restaurant table to the dining table of the stereotypical Jewish mother.
Time called the off-Broadway production "thoroughly engaging" and The New York Post recommended it for anyone who has ever brought up a family or tried to bring up a family.
Admission to Virginia Tech's production is free. Curtain time each evening is at 8. The doors open at 7:45.
\ BRAHMS WOULD BE PROUD: Radford University faculty members David Brandon Phillips and Nitza Kats will play the seldom-heard Sonata in F Minor, Opus 36 B by Johannes Brahms in their recital Monday. Originally written for a string quartet, Brahms reworked his piece for a piano duo or quintet.
Phillips and Kats performed the piece last fall at the Duo Piano Festival at Randolph Macon College.
Their performance Monday begins at 8 p.m. in Radford University's Preston Auditorium.
Tickets are $3 for adults and $1 for children. Radford University students and staff will be admitted free.