Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, February 25, 1969
Pag T w T H M I HIG N D IL Tu sda , F bru ry 5,_96
music
I
a&
7
Believing the
By ALAN NEFF
Speaking on behalf of that
fat-assed community of part-
whole loser / romanticists var-
iously called lovers, addicts or
diggers of the blues, I must say
that it was a pleasure seeing
Gary Davis twice this weekend
-first, at the Ark Saturday
night after hours and then at
Alice's Restaurant Sunday night.
It also served as a reminder
that a -performer has to have
the audience.
Last week, in Detroit, the
Reverend did not have the aud-
ience. On the strength of that
poor reception, this might be
his last trip to the area. A
Ark and at Alice's he he
beautiful audience: suppo:
participatory, maximally ax
ciative and quite simply gl
have him up there. The p
invested the time and effo
the audience's necessary ta
believing in him and in
music.
During the performanc
would often look around t4
how people were reactin.
Davis. The number that
purely and lovingly attentiv
surpassed those among us
could not keep their eyes
the make.
R
t the
ad a
rtive,
ppre-
ad to
eople
rt in
sk of
his
e, I
o see
g to
was
e far
who
s off
cinema
'Thee in the Aittie':
Thtree too maiy
By GORMAN BEAUCHAMP
Three in the Attic is supposed to be about the sexual revolution;
if so, one doubts the wisdom of fighting on. But, in fact, Three is a cop-
out, pure and simple. For all its libertine "now-ness" and R rating,
it's just a simple tale of boy meets girl, boy nearly loses girl, boy sees
the error of his nasty ways, and boy marries girl. Ah, monogamy, how
thou art vindicated.
A little plot summary is called for. Paxton Quigley, our hero, is
the pride of his fraternity, having "nailed" fifty girls by his sopho-
more year. Paxton, however, meets his true love, a blonde, blue-eyed
WASP, Toby, who is bowled over by his ability to quote Kirkegaard,
acquired no doubt in his few brief respites from sexual carpentry.
Paxton spends an idyllic summer with said WASP until her parents
happen - cruel world - to break it up (in one of the funniest
scenes in the movie.) Back on campus the plot thickens. To show that
he does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color or previous
condition of servitude, Paxton allows himself to be seduced by a
hip black sexbomb of an artist and a flower child of Abraham who
bakes a mean batch of grass filled grownies. As a one man Brother-
hood Week, he devotes two nights to each girl.
Through it all he really loves only WASP, but he is so damn sexy,
you see, that the other girls just won't take no. And, as the ads say,
what can a poor guy do - and do? Well, Paxton does it, and does it,
and does it, until finally the three girls meet, compare notes, and
decide they will teach him a lesson. Such a lesson we should all have
have to learn. The upshot is that after two weeks in the attic of the
girls' dormitory, doing it and doing it and doing it, Paxton sees how
wrong .his former way of life was and - rather than entering a
monastery, which seems like the logical thing to do - settles on -
you guessed it, I bet.
Sound ridiculous? Well, it is. But then, in all honesty, at times
it's fun on a sort of Walter Mitty fraternity boy level. It has some.
good things to recommend it. First, there's Christopher Jones -
America's youngest president in Wild in the Streets - who makes
Paxton as believable as possible. Jones has much of that same sly,
shy . .charm that James Dean had, and given better roles would pro-
bably prove to be a fine actor. Yvette Mimieux, as WASP, is not
as pretty as I had remembered her and is as bad as I had remembered
her, a sort of even-worse Tuesday Weld. But in her own way she is
perfect in the role of a clinging vine with tendrils of steel. Far and
away the most attractive of the three girls is Judy Pace who is not
only the sexiest, but also has the best dialogue, delivered unfortunately
in a. soul sister drawl that doesn't ring quite true. As Paxton says, she
comes on like Aunt Jemima and turns out like Ralph Bunche.
American International, which produced Three, is obviously after
the youth market. Its cheap expensive look tries to incorporate all the
popular styles - a little Elvira Madigan, a little Graduate, a little
Grove .Press, a little 42nd Street allnighter - but it just doesn't
work. And the audience they are aiming at is probably too shrewd
to buy. They just would not believe the gross parody of campus
mo'es Three presents. It's straight out of the Lansing legislature's
worst sex fantasies: Paxton alone would warrant a full size investi-
gation. On the other hand, there's the saccharine little message at the
end, like a box of gooey fudge from Mom with a note inside; find a
nice girl and settle down. All so naughty and all so nice. In short, it
is an exercise in promiscuous monogamy, a neat trick it you can
everend's
When Davis was younger, it If p
required less effort to be with they
him. His lyrical phrasing was wha
easier to follow, his picking righ
style was cleaner, and his talk liste
between songs was less repeti- Sam
tive and stylized. Yet he knows edt
why he's up there and still gets long
it up for the audience. It takes a righ
little longer, at most a set's all.
worth of time. T
He paces himself a lot slower diff
than he did in the past. He does at a
not explore the instrument as diff
much any more, but the dy- wor
namic created in the exchange doet
between voice and guitar is as easi
polished as ever. He is one of as-I
the diminishing number of mu- hav
sicians that believes that per- rule
cussing the strings without pick- on1
ing them to get the notes con- whi
stitutes bomblast bordering on war
outright tastelessness. He gives som
an older type of show, a polish- nori
ed end-product of noiseless in- F
novation. I h
Nearly a decade ago he put less
out an album called Pure Re- into
ligion! Reverend Gary Davis. for
The liner notes said he did not urd
sing the blues since it was the til t
"Devil's music." Although what did
he did do, gospels and rags, sets
were in the style of the blues. I.
Saturday and Sunday he sang ent
blue gospel, played blue rags, tha
and played the blues. I pushed pret
myself together enough to ask ing.
him between sets why he was easy
singing the blues again. "I teach ver
what the people want." Lest you avo
leap to the conclusion that he the
is selling himself and his reli- you
gion down some great wide up.
river, hear this: "I don't often as2
preach twice in the same place. com
people aren't thinking right,
y don't want you to tell them
it's right. I tell them what's
.t and they don't want to
n. Do you understand?"
ne man, same room. He ask-
that last question all night
g. You answer "That's
at!" or you don't answer at
here are few things more
icult that discerning beauty
a distance. It is pretty damn
icult to enter Gary Davis's
ld. He is an old man. He
s, not make it appreciably
er. Age, language, and time-
perceived in terms of class
e to be transcended. As a
e, they don't put that key
the middle class chain. The
te audience has to move to-
d the black performer, in
e direction away from the
nm of the passive audience.
or my own reasons, I wish
ad been a better audience:
aware of time and further
the music'. Bad guts make
a poor attention span. Sat-
ay I was willing to listen un-
three in the morning, and I
; I grew too restive after two
s on Sunday and left.
was not in any way differ-
from others who left at
t time. Ann Arbor has a
tty limited idea of dues-pay-
Sometimes is surprisingly
;y to come back to the Uni-
sity and 1969-that which I
id most diligently the rest of
time. Once you get it up
have to be able to keep it
Davis is an artist and does
an artist. He doesn't have to
ne back to anything.
blues
SUMMER
MASS MEETING
THURSDAY, FEB. 27
Room RS, Union
8:00 P.M.
BLUES.
FESTIVAL
..
-
-i
-Daily-Andy Sacks
Davis: I tell them what's right'
Program InformationJ665-6290
Hiatt adds his touch
TODAY
Shows at
1:00-3:00-
5:00-7:05
&-9:10
G
Wednesday
Is
Ladies
Day
By PAT HURD
The University Symphony
Orchestra under the direction
of Josef Blatt gave a unique per-
formance last night at Hill
Auditorium. The p r o g r a m s
unique Hature can be attributed
to the placement of a piece
written by the symphbny's con-
ductor, Josef Blatt, inserted be-
tweenOverture to Fidelo by
Beethoven and Dvorak's New
World Symphony. Surprisingly
enough, the conductor's work
did not seem particularly out
of place between these two well
known pieces. The merit of a
piece of music can only be pro-
ven in its performance. And this
performance of Blatt's Concer-
tino for Clarinet and Strings,
with the possible exception of
the first movement, certainly
demonstrated this merit.
Upon hearing the Fidelio over-
ture, a well-known concert
starter, one could hardly help
feeling excitement. There was
a continuous feelingof -move-
ment throughout the piece
which is essential to a unified
performance. Although the en-
semble within the violin sec-
tion was somewhat sloppy, the
subtle transitions came off well.
The Blatt piece, as I said be-
fore, was well done. It is very
hard for me to explain, but
the first movement left me cold.
It seemed well rehearsed, but
not too musical. The second
movement showed off John
Mohler's, the clarinet soloist,
command of spinning an artful,
musical line. The orchestra al-
most seemed like a curtain' in
back of the soloist. The effect
was a combination of good per-
formance and good writing.
The third movement was short
and to the point with a con-
sistent idea throughout. There
were pleasing contrasts in both
thee writing and the perform-
ance.
For the most part, the Dvorak
was put together quite well.
The difficult spots were always
beautiful, but the somewhat un-
important spots were often
sloppy. Again, the violins were
not always together. In the first
movement, the winds were al-
ways beautifully clean. Second
movements are often hard t6
perform without souding trite,
but this one did not exhibit this
traditional flaw. There was just
enough musical feeling in both
the English horn solo and the
strings. All the solos were mov-
ingly done and the sections of
the piece merged beautifully.
The transitions in the third
movement were perfect. Every-
thing in the fourth movement
was excellent. The tempo was
exciting and they kept it up very
well. The group worked beauti-
fully as a unit, almost as though
they were speaking to each
other. All the climaxes were well
sought after and reached. This
movement was definitely the
height of the entire performce.
Charter
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662-443.1
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Teagarden and Van Winkle
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8-12 midnightY
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A love story that begins with an
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Wed., Sat., Sun.
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Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri.
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JOIN-IN THE DISNEY
FUN-IN!
_ \ N-.
Senator Robert Packwood (R-Ore.)
speaks on the Diag at Noon; Luncheon
open to-public at 12:15 in Union Ball-
room. Question and answer period to
follow sponsored by College Republi-I
cans,
,Back. Club Meets Thursday, February
27 at 8:00 p.m., 802 Guild House. Ran-
dolph 0. Smith speaks on Bach. Fun
and Jelly donuts for all. No musical
knowledge necessary. For additional in-
formation call 763-1614.
Millel- Foundation, 1429 Hill Street.
Thursday, February 27, 8:00 p.m. "The
Jew in Suburbia: Revival or Decline?"
A discussion led by Bob Rockaway (His-
tory Dept.)
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