Work gives
longer life
study finds

According to the Institute of
Gerontology in the USSR, the
country’s numerous. cen-
tenarians have a prescription
for longevity — work. The in-
stitute recently completed a
study based on interviews with
some 40,000 old people and
concluded that ‘‘work is an
invaluable remedy against
premature old age.”

Other factors also figured in
long life including marriage,
having children and moderate
eating but the study gave
particular emphasis to the role
played by work.

Soviet gerontologists have
long noted the debilitating ef-
fects of what they cali ‘‘pension
illness” the mental and
physical deterioration which
often accompanies retirement
—andhave often recommended
easy work for older people as a
means of overcoming the af-
fliction. Now the _institute’s
study bears them out.

In virtually every case, those

pa

where he lives.

interviewed continued some
form of work often until ad-
vanced age — and were far
better off for it.

N. D. Mankovsky, director of
the Institute of Gerontology
noted in an interview that the
old people in the survey ‘“‘had a
simple solution to the question
of long life — not one of them
was lazy.”

He cited examples of several
centenarians people who
have attained the age of 100 or

Medzhid Agayev, at age 142 is one of some 4,600 centenarians living
in the republic of Azerbijan in the USSR. He was recently elected
deputy to the village Soviet of Tikyaband in the Leriksky district

more — who are still working in
their respective fields.

According to census reports
issued by the Soviet embassy,
there are more than 20,000
centenarians in the Soviet
Union, a figure which is
proportionately nearly five.
times higher than in the U.S.

Many of those are resident in
the southern republics of
Azerbijan and Kirghizia where
reaching the age of 100 has
become something of a
tradit ion.

Barqain’s ‘New Wind Blowin’

New generation of music

The title of Bargain at Half the
Price’s new album, New Wind
Blowin’ aptly describes the latest
in the labor movement’s cultural
renaissance. Canadian music
lovers, long suffering from in-
creasingly alienated American
culture and its cheap Canadian
derivatives, will enthusiastically
greet this refreshingly radical
merger of Canadian and in-
ternational content with con-
temporary and traditional form.

New Wind Blowin,’ as the name
implies, is the start of a new
generation of music with a
message. No, it isn’t cast in the
image of the Weavers, or Guthrie
or Pete Seeger; but draws from all
of them and many more, adding
Bargain’s own dynamics which
satisfy the more sensitive and
critical musical ears of the 1970's.

Bargain anchors its sound in the
strong instrumental work of
Wayne Iggulden on keyboard and

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 28, 1977—Page 10

mandolin; Pat Gidora, electric
bass; Don Dirksen, banjo and
guitar; Julie Atchison, flute and
Steven Gidora on rhythm guitar.
To my mind, the instrumental
work is alone worth the price of the
album.

The strength of the vocals lies
first and foremost in the work of

the soloists — -articularly Jan
Hakesley — and secondly in the
original arrangements by

Bargain’s musical director Steve
Gidora.

The record is not without its
weaknesses — some of them the
result of a limited budget. Among
those shortcomings not financial,
however, one might list the choices
of material. It appears at times to
be an attempt to please everyone
or, put another way, it lacks focus.
Just as the listener gets into the
record, buildingtoa climax on side
two with the hand-clapping

spontaneity of ‘‘Tout L’Monde Est
Malheureux” or the fun and satire
of “‘Everybody’s Making it Big but
Me” and ‘‘Poverty,”’ it ends with a
letdown — ‘Sunshine,’ a good
song but seemingly added as an
afterthought and poorly rehearsed.

Elsewhere on the record, I’ve
already got my favorites: ‘‘Folk
Medley’ (CBC. should be
challenged to come up with
something as good); ‘Canadian
Railroad Trilogy” although this
rendition is not as inspired as
Bargain’s stage performance of
Lightfoot’s song; ‘‘Now the Buf-
falo’s Gone’’ which director Steve
Gidora sang many times during
the campaign to free Leonard
Peltier; ‘“New Wind Blowin’ which
I like better every time I hear it;
and finally, ““Beggarman” which is
my favorite cut on the album.

In short, hurry and buy New
Wind Blowin’. Not only will it be
sold out soon, but more important,
it will be a collector’s item. It
represents a new plateau for labor
and democratic culture in this
country. There will be more and
better albums in the future but

Bargain at Half the Price will have.

led the way.
—George Hewison

Death of Beatriz

Ina statement issued October 13,
the Communist Party of Chile said
that the death of Beatriz Allende,
daughter of Chile’s martyred
president, “is to be blamed on
fascism.”

According to press reports from
Havana where she had been living
with her husband, a Cuban official,
Beatriz Allende died of a self-
inflicted gunshot wound.

The full text of the Chilean
Communist Party’s statement
read:

“We Communists, deeply
shocked at the news of the death of
Beatriz Allende, pay tribute to her
and express our admiration for her
life which was full of dedication,
heroism and talent and was
devoted to the cause fought for by
the people of Chile and to the
revolutionary Latin American
movement.

“The working class and the
entire people saw Beatriz always
very close to her father, President
Allende. She helped him in all
memorable campaigns and day-to-
day work. She endeared herself to
all Chilean -patriots.

“Qn September 11, 1973, she

Allende mourned

. wanted to fight to the last at La

Moneda and only the president’s
orders compelled her to leave the
palace. From that moment on she
devoted all her strength to the
struggle for solidarity with our
people, and her contribution was
vast.

“Her death is to be blamed on
fascism which has plunged the life

BEATRIZ ALLENDE
of the Chilean people into
darkness. Beatriz Allende deeply
felt and experienced the tragedy of
the bloodbath which began with the
killing of her father. In the last few

- weeks she experienced the tragedy

of two-and-a-half thousand poli-
tical prisoners who disappeared in
the clutches of DINA.

“The road travelled by Beatriz
Allende, her constant desire for
unity among all revolutionaries
and all champions of democracy,
and her patriotism will never be
forgotten by the people of Chile
who at this difficult moment are by
the side of her mother, Hortensia
Allende, her sisters and all the
family to whom we offer our
condolences.”’

Brecht songs at SFU

The students and staff at Simon
fraser University were given a
rare treat earlier this month when
the well-known Brecht singer and
actress Gisela May staged a one-
day performance at the theatre
there. The poster announcing the
‘First Lady of Political Song’’
showed a white face slightly
uplifted against a black
background. The concert had the
same starkness and vitality. May
sang 20 songs accompanied by
pianist Henry Krtchil on a bare
stage. The majority of her songs
were sung in German although a
helpful theatre guide provided
texts in English.

What soon became evident to the
packed theatre was that May’s
delivery was so vivid and unique
that the language barrier fell
away. The program highlighted
songs from the plays of German
playwright Bertolt Brecht, moving
chronologically from the play
Happy End to the Threepenny

Opera, the Rise and Fall of the City
of Mahagonny, Mother Courage,
the Good Woman of Setzuan and
Schweik in the Second World War:
Particularly moving was the
“Song of Great Capitulation,” also
known as the ‘‘Mother Courage
Song.”’ With a sack cloth draped
over her, May sang with that
particular defiance associated
with Mother Courage, of her tragi¢
capitulation to war as she suc
cumbs to the corrupting world
around her and ‘“‘marches with thé
show.”’

May’s last song on the program
was in English, written by Brecht
and Pablo Neruda and set to musi¢
by Hans Eisler, and called the -
“Song of Peace!” It was a lovely,
tender lyric and the audience lov
it. They also loved Gisela May an
their applause brought her back 08
sta ge for an encore performance 0
“Mack the Knife.”’

— Janice Harris

r

Bargain

Bargain’s long awaited album

“A New Wind Blowin’

gi @ |
Hal

at

ihe Price

Available now at People’s Co-op Books, Pacific Tribune $6.98. Add $1.40
for postage, packaging and sales tax for mail orders from the Tribune office.

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