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November 17, 1988 - The Wily Ways of Waxwingsfire 'A Lie of the Mind' 'Full- Bodied Human Life' Animates Shepard Drama By Lee Davis very least nibbled around the edges of his There are, these days, several Sam concentration. Shepards: the cinema superstar, the film Oh sure, "A Lie of the Mind" won the New director, the stage director, the playwright York Drama Critics' Award for the best who once wrote purely and accurately and new play of the 1985 -86 season. That's true. scathingly for the stage alone, who boiled But what a shabby season it was, that year. our minds and seared our consciences and The critics had to reach off Broadway to the made us laugh long and deeply and Promenade, where "Lie of the Mind" was thoroughly at his dark vision and unremit- playing, to find a best new play —there was ting, uncompromising and ultimately op- nothing uptown that qualified —and then, timistic evaluations of the human condition, when the producers moved "A Lie of the I knew Sam then, back in the US when he Mind" to Broadway, it folded in a few was in his early 20s and already had written weeks. To my way of thinking, contrary to, say, more than a hundred one -act plays. He was "Buried Child," or "True West," or even a single- minded fury in those days, grinding "Chicago," this play is not theatrical, but out the plays that would teach him his craft cinematic Shepard, really a film on a stage. and teach us about optimism in the teeth of Sam directed it at the Promenade and later cataclysm. And he was very personal in his at the Longacre, populated it with a writing: once he was living with an actress blockbuster cast that included Harvey there's a trunkful Keitel, Amanda Plummer and Geraldine Page, and covered the many, many scene of symbols, and the changes with a live country western group called the Red Clay Ramblers. Neat, but usual fireworks of not nitty- gritty Shepard nor essential ,theatre, which is one of the last outposts of confrontations, brutality, sustained human communication. And besides, this kind of writing raises and madness we've all great obstacles to any community group, objects of sheer logistics, and ones that are come to expect sometimes beautifully met and sometimes from Sam Shepard not in Southampton. More of that later. First, the play. named Joyce Aarons who got a job in It has, as would be expected of Sam Shepard, a powerful premise. Jake (Barry Chicago, and out of that came a play called Jayson Moss), an apparently deranged "Chicago," about a guy left behind by a girl young man is so pathologically jealous of named Joy who succeeds when he doesn't. his actress wife Beth (Leslie Patricia Con - Circumstances rob us of our joy, he says in ran) that he nearly murders her in a that one, but not forever, because at the end domestic squabble, and indeed leaves her of the play he realizes that, in his sorrow hopelessly brain damaged. She's brought and his anger, he's forgotten the most fun- home to recuperate by her parents and damental fact of living: he's forgotten how brother, while Jake is put to bed in his to breathe. In those days of the playhouse in the base- boyhood room by his overprotective mother. Both Jake and his brother even - ment of the Judson Church, we all tually end up in Montana, at Beth's parents' wondered if Sam would make it into his 30s. home, and Jake and Beth effect a reconcila- He was living his life as if he were a '60s tion of sorts. Thomas Wolfe, and we all know what hap- Along the way, there's a trunkful of sym- pened to Thomas Wolfe. bola, and the usual fireworks of confronta- But of course Sam did, and his genius tions, brutality, and madness we've all hasn't dimmed all that much from being out come to expect from Sam Shepard. And, as in the California sun, maybe because he we've also come to expect, there's a lot of was used to it, having grown up in Texas, tenderness, at unexpected moments. And But it has fragmented itself, and seeing "A eventual optimism. With some of his sym- Lie of the Mind," currently being given a bols (fire burning in the snow, for instance,) good, honest, and at times shattering pro- and some of his characters and some of his duction by the combination college and moments, he seems to be saying, I think, community Southampton Players in the that love can occur in the most unlikely of Fine Arts Theatre at LIU'S Southampton places, a n d ca n res i de in th e strangest of Campus, I have to wonder if all that containers Tinseltown and all those demands on Sam's For, there's really only one character in time and his mind and his body have at the (Continued on Page B6) leaciFURNTURE Inventory Reduction Sale Now In Progress Montauk Hwy. 35 Main St. Water Mill Southampton 726 -7545 283 -8850 alt,: ",Or j k The Southampton Press Working outside, behind his Little Fresh Pond home, Jim Gray is creating a whale for Sag Harbor. — Alberto Muschette Photo A Love of Life Revealed in Carving By Lee Davis It all boils down to this: Jim Gray loves life. Now, somebody lesser might carve that in a tree, where it would become a public cliche. Mr. Grey, on the other hand, would probably carve the tree itself, whittle away, what he calls the "residue around what's in there," and make this statement by releasing from its imprisonment in the tree a person or an animal that is astonishingly detailed and life- like but which also travels both beyond and beneath the usual, into the image within the image. "I look, and I see something in the wood," he says, in his home on the Golden Pond that is actually Little Fresh Pond. Sitting back comfortably in a chair that has supported him probably more thoroughly, if not more satisfyingly than his sculpting of imagg„s from wood has, he is a man whose face is more than a map of his life; it's an entire ga- zetteer. Beyond this, there's an easy preci- sion about him, about his words and the ordering of them, about his life and the way he's finally ordered it. And what a life it has been: It would take less space to say what he hasn't done than what he has, but the trip through space would be as exciting as an action novel. Now, it centers around, but isn't circum- scribed b his high-class whittling. In De- cember, one of these emergent creations will hopefully become very public, in Sag Har- bor. If all goes well, Jim Gray's six-foot carv- ing of a sperm whale will take up residence over the entrance to that village's munici- pal building, reminding residents of their sea- going heritage. The last whaling vessel left Sag Harbor in 1926, the year I was born," says Jim Gray, semi- seriously, "so I feel I'm obligated to compensate for the loss of that last whaling vessel." That's only a shaving of the story, part of the residue, for, as we stated a moment ago, Jim Gray has had a life that amounts to at least ten normal ones. Consider this: In 1943, when he was 16 years old, he left school and his family dairy Fall Sale All Plant Material 40% off ;y r r A 4 ' , 1 All Junipers 50% off Upright, spreading, creeping forms available 1 THE ATER) I LL, � � A Mouse & Garden Center Lan&cape Contractors Montauk Highway, Water Mill (1/2 mile east of Glennon Buick before Head of Pond Road) 726 -4400 farm in Michigan, lied about his age, and en- listed in the Army. World War II was at its crucial midpoint then, and strong farmboys were needed. He joined the 101st Airborne —("He was a highly decorated paratrooper," states his wife, Jeanne, proudly. "Please—" he interjects, with the kind of self- effacement that spurs her on to fill in the heroic spaces through which he speeds.) As part of the 101st Airborne, nicknamed the "Battling Bastards of Bastorl he par- ticipated in 35 missions. The first drop after D -Day, he landed on a rock and broke his ankle. Shrugging off medical help, he fought his way with his unit —the last part of the journey with a rifle taken from a German soldier —all the way to Paris before finally having the ankle set. That's the kind of understated, determined person he is, .. sitting today at the rim of ',"light as well ' ham the hest" oWOTMI/ Golden Pond and remaining silent about this sort of heroism, maybe because it was only the beginning. His commanding officer in the 101st, it turned out, was Jim Monroe, former and later public safety director of the Cleve- land Police Force, a title he inherited from the man under whom he had served before the war, Elliot Ness. That's right. The Elliot Ness, whom Jim Gray met, since he went from the 101st di- rectly into the Cleveland Police Force, where he eventually headed up a SWAT team titled Halloran's Raiders. "We used to go in on motorcycles," he grudgingly and finally admits. "It was a Sur- prise. And it worked." Now, loosened a little, he recalls Ness, whom "everyone called Mr. Ness, even his wife," he says. "He was a pale man. He al- ways packed a couple of six- shooters. And it ( -Coul inued QmTllge.136) 'FILSON CLOTHES for the man who knows' Filson The 1, This comfortable and durable coat is the true hunter's coat. It has been keeping sportsmen happy for generations because it fulfills every requirement for life in the field. One reason Is that this coat has enough pockets to carry everything you need. One principal feature is a full double -entry game bag I ined with coated nylon that protects your game and keeps you clean and dry. The bag unfastens so you can turn it inside out for easy cleaning. Wool lined Padded shoulder collar � Wll lcm,g Inside accessary board , Focus on Nature The Wily Ways Of Waxwings By Paul Stoutenburgh The other day Barbara came back from a walk to the beach all excited about seeing a flock of cedar waxwings feeding in a group of cedars along the roadside. The cedar wax- wing is a bird we don't see too often here on the East End though it is common through- out most of the state. It is one of our latest nesters for it enjoys berries and therefore waits until they become ripe to raise and feed its young. It's probably one of the trimmest birds you'll ever see. Cedar waxwings look to me as if they were just freshly painted with a sharp crest on the head and brush of yellow across the tail. The body, half the size of a robin's, is an overall brownish color with pale creamy- yellow underparts. Once you see this handsome berry -eater you'll never forget it. As men- tioned above, they are noted for enjoying any sort of fruit they can get down their throat. The grey -blue cedar berries were what they were after when Barbara saw them. The next day they were close to the house and again Barbara's sharp eyes and keen hearing found them in a vacant overgrown lot just off the pasture. Seems about 20 years ago a man started to build a house there. He had the foundation done and while someone was backfilling, it caved in. Evidently he was disgusted and rather than reconstruct he merely bulldozed the whole thing in and cov- ered it over. Today the lot has been over- taken by wild blackberry, catbrier, multiflora rose and a host of weedy shrubs that attract a wide variety of wildlife. It didn't take the waxwings long to find out that here was lunch and plenty of it. I counted more than 50 in this one location and know there must have been many more up the road, for I could see them flying back and forth in the trees. It was fascinating to see them feeding. Sometimes they'd be completely upside down reaching for a berry way out on the very end of the stem. Some would beat their wings like giant hummingbirds and literally stand in midair trying to grasp a glistening berry. Nearby were migrating robins who wanted to get their share of the berries before they were all gone. Being much bigger birds, the robins had to stay back where the branches were heavier while the waxwings performed a wide array of balancing acts out on the springy stems where the remaining berries were. Both these birds, like many others, rely on a well stocked oasis like this one on their way south. It's like going on a long car trip and stopping for lunch along the way. Without these refueling stops, migrating birds would have a tough time, proof that overgrown lots (Continued on Page B7) MIGHT AS WELL HAVE THE BEST FILSON outdoor clothing was born to meet the - challenges of the famous Alaska - Klondike Gold Rush. It was an era when quality and durability were not a matter of choice but a matter of survival. The Gold Rush eventually faded. But in the years that followed; FILSON's 100% virgin wool cruisers, "tin pants' and tin cruisers" continued to grow in popularity with the logging and construction industries of the great Northwest. 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