22 -— Wednesday, January 30, 1991 — North Shore News

spotlight Kos

EVELYN
JACOB

spotlight feature

NV poet

decided
to opt out

of rat race

’ | d DISCOVERED
that a vertical! ad-
vance wasn't for

me. Instead of up | went far

out.’’

Tzevor Carolan realized early
that his route to success wouldn’t
be up the corporate ladder. For
someone who ran his own
nightclub by the time he was 16, it
was an education in ’60s
psychedelia, travelling and eastern
philoscphy that charted his suc-
cess.

It laid the foundation for a
Bohemian outlook, one that
Carolan still retains, although the
comforts of a traditional family life
seem to belie it.

On this misty morning we walk
down to the foot of Gailant
Avenue.

Carolan reveals a deep love for
the Cove and the shadow of the
rainforest, which has been home
for two years now and is the sub-
ject of a new book of poems en-
titled Celtic Highway.

Wearing a fisherman-knit
sweater with a canvas bag slung
over his shoulder, at 40, Carolan
still looks every inch the wanderer
he once was (during the ‘60s and
'70s he travelled in Europe, India
and the Far East.

He recalls his youthful days
growing up in New Westminster.

“was the school hippie. In
New Westminster there was this
social aristocracy — a hill where
the bourgeoisie and nouveaux
riches ‘lived. If you weren't into the
fraternities you'd had it. | learned ~
at a very early age that teachers
always ask, ‘what does your fa-

NEWS pheto Cindy Goodmn

AFTER MUFFING his lines in a Simon Fraser University theatre
production, Trevor Carolan discovered that he wasn’t supposed
to recite lines, he was supposed to write them.

ther do?’ That, in a way, deter-
mined your future.” (By this rule,
if Caroian’s future were predeter-
mined it was enigmatic: his father,
of devout Irish Catholic stock, ran
a Front Street night club called The
Question Mark).

Carolan recognized early his
talent for writing. George Ryga
(The Ecstasy of Rita Joe) had a pro-
found impact on him. “Ryga was
the first Canadian writer who
came out with a Canadian
punch,” says Carolan, “He wrote
about things that didn’t happen in
polite culture — people were still
watching The Munsters on TV.”

His own poetry is extremely
personal and meditative in style.

In Satori, Lonsdale Avenue,
he describes being struck by the
view of the water, flowers and
magnificent Lions from atop Lons-
dale Avenue ‘'... The flowers in

bloom as | glance from my room/
and the westwind blowing clean/
tell me I'd rather stroll here/in
sight of the sea/than lunch at
Elaine’s with Garcia Marquez.”

Today Carolan makes his living
as a freelance non-fiction writer, a
writing instructor, editor, poet and
transfator.

In 1988 he published a poetic
transliteration of Taoist master Loy
Ching-Yuen’s poems, The Book of
the Heart, which a large U.S.
publisher is re-printing.

This time next year his anthology
of short stories from the Pacific
Rim should be appearing on
bookshelves.

“Success is a slow process, it
can take years. When I asked my
teacher how long it would take to
learn tai chi, he looked at me and
said, ‘10 years’ without blinking. |
just gulped.””

Shut up and dance

ALKAN BRITS bop;
camp Cramps vamp;
Byrds man returns.
3 Mustaphas 3 — Soup Of
The Century, Rykodisc 1990

The pseudo-Balkan Brits con-
tinue to move forward in all direc-
tions with a generous serving of
gumbo borscht.

Flowering fez forces are pushing
the Mustaphas up the Billboard
world music album chart. Ona
week earlier this January, Soup
was found to be making inroads
on Billboard world music chart
territory held by Youssou
N’Dour’s Set, Johnny Clegg and
Savuka’s Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful
World and Arrow’s Soca Dance
Party.

This tells us two things: world
music is true to its all-encompass-
ing definition; most world music
fans are happy to simply shut up
and dance.

Soup tinds 3 Mustaphas 3 con-
solidating the band’s role as the
world-beat joker in the pack. With
anod to Pee-Wee Herman and
Zamfir, cultural recycling cules.
Sonic adventurists who dip deaply

MICHAEL
BECKER

record review

into this savory bow! will find
themselves slurping up an ir-
reverent Tex-Mex-Hindi-Bulgarian
pastiche.

Soup sellers 3 Mustaphas 3 frolic
in the world-beat kitchen Feb. 3 at
86 Street.

The Cramps — A Date With
Elvis, Enigma Records, 1990

The durable Cramps deliver a
diabolical dose of unaduherated
rockabilly from hicksville hell.

The Enigma release is really a
re-release of a 1986 Cramps re-
cord. But it shows the band at its
very bad and jarring best. With ti-
tles like (Hot Pool ON Woman
Neéd and Cornted Dames and
What's Inside a Girl? it's raunchy,
steamy stuff and should be kept
well nvay from feminists and

children.

The camp Cramps straddle
ironic fun and offensive folly to
make A Date With Elvis a poor
man’s substitute for a quick and
dirty trip to Vegas.

Roger McGuinn — Back From
Rio, Arista Records, 1991

Byrds fans and anyone whu has
grown up with the trademark
folk-rock guitar sound copied by
countless post-Byrds bands will
welcome this one like an old
friend.

McGuinn is joined on his first
solo release in over a decade by a
number of musical soulmates to
make this a memorable outing.
Scan the credits and you find Tom
Petty, Michael Penn, Elvis Costello
and ex-Byrds men David Crosby
and Chris Hillman all over the
place.

The lyrical statements made are
giten facile. tt can be forgiven. The
glorious feel-good wash of sound
is all.

The strongest songs are written
by Elvis Costello (You Bowed
Down) and co-written by
Eurythmics fellow Dave Stewart
{Your Love by A Gold Mting,

radio & t.v.™
personalities.

<= International : os 7

CAPILANO MALL
Monday, Jan. 28 - Sunday, Feb. 3
263-6524

The Right Choice

Z;

fi a
Miss Bea

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