v v At 4 Iluf c Xmas fiestaq Dave Brubeck Quartet, Hilt Auditorium 8 p.m., Tuesday, December 14 4 By Jerry Brabenec A look at books THIS LIST of best-ofs may not be the most precise in the world of literary criticism, but if you need help with the Christmas shopping, it's a good place to start. Best novel-Mickelsson's Ghosts by John Gardner (Alfred A. Knopf) John Gardner's swan song, it's a depressing, gloomy, fun and finally encouraging novel. Biography-The Man Who Was Vogue: the Life and Times of Conde Nast by Caroline Seebohm (Viking) Here's the story of the man who defined class. There are famous names and famous places, and it's great reading for a nostalgic mood. Non-Fiction-Indecent Exposure by David McClintick (Morrow) An expose/analysis of the shady workings of the movie industry. Find out what you'd do if you made $100,000+ every year. Poetry-A Glass Face in the Rain by WilliamStafford (Harper & Row) Gentle poems from a wise and gen- tle poet. Art-Rockwell Kent- An Anthology of His Works Fridolf Johnson, ed. (Alfred A. Knopf) A biography, a collection of Kent's own writings, and above all a beautiful compendium of Kent's best paintings and illustrations, this book is a piece of American history as much as a piece of a single man. Mystery-The Midnight Man by Loren D. Estleman (Houghton Mif- flin) The midnight men ride again, and if you're living in Detroit, they just may be after you. Read and enjoy, although you may start talking like a detective for the next few weeks after. Mystery Reprint-The Solar Pons Omnibus by August Derleth (Arkham House) In a boxed set of two volumes, you get all the Solar Pons stories and books ever published. He's sort of a Sherlock Holmes, so just try to figure out the endings before you're through. Science Fiction-2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke (Ballantine Books) Clarke is back and in his best form, so settle back for science fiction as real as the space shuttles, and adven- ture on a cosmic scale. You might even find out what the hell those big black monoliths really are. Fantasy-Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin (Poseidon Press) A gross and horrific vampire story to keep you awake at night and more than a little scared even in the daylight. Fantasy reprint-The Last Incan- tation by Clark Ashton Smith (Timescape Books) First editions of Clark Ashton Smith's books are considered some of the most valuable collector's items in the genre. The material in this new edition hasn't been available for forty years, so many people don't know how good it is. -Steve Miller A E CLIPSE'S presentation of Dave Brubeck's Christmas oratario La Fiesta de la Posada on December 14th offers Ann Arbor music lovers of all persuasions a unique celebration of the Christmas season. An ensemble of 141 members, including the Abbot Elemen- tary School Choir, the Ann Arbor Chamber Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Cantata Singers, and Brubeck's quintet will join forces to perform this musical interpretation of a traditional Latin- American Christmas pageant. The posadas is a communal pageant re-enacted yearly throughout Latin America and the American Southwest, depicting Joseph and Mary's search for lodging in Bethlehem on the eve of the birth of Christ. Brubeck has written a very flexible score that can be perfor- med by groups as small as a church choir with percussion or as large as a full symphony orchestra and chorus, with optional sections of jazz im- provisation. Brubeck has said, "it is the sense of sharing in an event which I have tried to capture in this simple retelling of the Christmas story." Hun- dreds of performances over the last five Swan song Swans and Sonic Youth Joe's Star Lounge 9:30 p.m., Sunday, December 12 Cinemat'ic spotlight THE YEAR IN MOVIES. Well, not quite the year-the major distributors always manage to release some of their better products during the Christmas season. But even the pull of such stars as Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, Dudley Moore in Six Weeks, and Eddie Murphy in 48HRS is not likely to make a dent in the box office of E.T. In no particuar order, here's a glimpse at some of the best cinema and worst pictures that hit the silver screen this year. " E.T.-Spielberg's vision of a boy and his ex- traterrestrial won practically unanimous acclaim from critics, kids, and parents pocket books: Even though the film makes almost no sense, and comes dangerously close to falling into the black works. hole of Disney-cuteness, E.T. " Poltergeist-Spielberg's double summer whammy continued with a special effects extravaganza concerning a haunted suburban home. Happily, human feelings weren't left out of the film. We're left with a roller-coaster ride of thrills and spills, plenty of entertainment for the whole family. " The World According to Garp - Robin Williams scores points for coming close to the mark as T. S. Garp, John Irving's fictional alter-ego. " Diner - It just goes to show you what you can do with a low budget. Lots of talk and just enough humor to keep this nostalgic ode to staying up late and eating at the local diner warm and inviting. " Diva - One of the flashiest, stylish, films ever. Also one of the more brilliant debut motion pictures ever. Also French. F Annie, Megaforce, Grease 2, Inchon, Six Pack, Amityville 2-Among these are the worst films, the most expensive films, and the most insipid films of the year. You sort them out. Richard Campbell By R ob Weisberg years, including this second annual Ann Arbor performance, attest to Brubeck's success. La Fiesta demonstrates one more facet of one of jazz's most durable and creative talents. A student of composer Darius Milhaud, Brubeck's style incor- porates unorthodox time signatures, polytonality, and freely improvised enough to give the band the first release on their Neutral label-Sonic Youth guitarists Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore's work with Branca's guitar ar- my not hurting the cause. The result was an EP somewhat reminiscent of Branca's material, although there was a lot more to it than that: As the band likes to call it, "Crashing mashing intensified dense rhythms juxtaposed with filmic mood pieces, evoking an atmosphere that could only be described as expressive fucked-up modernism. And so forth." As Ranaldo and Moore have gotten more used to playing without Branca, who now rarely assembles a band, and with Sonic Youth, the crashing and mashing has begun to win out-which is just as well, because some of the moody stuff didn't quite evoke enough of a mood. "The music is more raucous now," says bassist Kim Gordon. "There are more chunks of percussion rather than the wall of guitar sound. I guess that comes from performing." Gordon hopes that raucousness com- bined with originality and diversity will keep audiences on their toes. "Our goal is to break through the complacency or expectations that an audience might have," she says. By "playing off spon- taneous things that happen rather than reproducing the same set from night to night," as she says, or merely by "sur- passing expectations" (easier said than done), the band manages to please audiences despite its unconven- tionality. Swans are even more unconven- counterpoint. His celebrated quartet with the late saxophonist Paul Desmond pioneered the college jazz circuit, was the first jazz group to play at the White House, produced jazz' first million-selling album, and toured in- ternationally to great acclaim. In recent years Brubeck has written numerous classical works for piano, or- tional, but, at least according to vocalist-bassist Michael Gira, the crowds have taken to them as well. Their music can only be described as painful-both musically and lyrically- yet danceable. Like Sonic Youth, they rely heavily on varied percussive effec- ts, but produce a more pounding bot- tom-heavy sound via two basses, sharp rhythmic guitar, manually-operated tapes, and insistently tormented vocals. And since their debut EP, which managed to turn such innocent subjects as laughter and speech into episodic nightmares, Gira says their sound has become even more extreme-"More brutal" and "more violent." Gira's morbid side-which he casually credits to his "daily experien- ce"-isn't all there is to the band, however. Guitarist Sue Hanel, on the other hand, says "I just want to make chestra, and choir, and toured with his sons as "Two Generations of Brubeck." La Fiesta will open next Tuesday's concert, and Brubeck will return with his current quintet, featuring sons Danny and Chris, Ann Arbor's own Madcat Ruth, and saxophonist Bobby Militello, to cap the evening with a set of jazz. people feel as good as I used to feel when I'd see the Stooges and bands like that when I was a kid." And with in- fluences as diverse as SPK, Jimi Hen- drix and Howling Wolf (drummer Jonathan Kane has played with a blues band), the Swans are sure to keep everyone off balance. Perverse fun, rock and roll style. Like Sonic Youth, Swans see them- selves emerging from a scene Gordon and Gira suggested has become dominated by very non-rock and roll bands. Mutual sympathy thus has arisen, and thanks too to friendships and shared rehearsal space the bands decided to sacrifice a few bucks and tour together. Having completed a fairly successful southeastern swing, they'll soon be on our doorstep, trying once again to prove that rock and roll and ingenuity do mix. R EMEMBER No New York? Lydia Lunch, James Chance, bands called DNA and Contortions and lots of noise? Well, that late-'70s agglomerate of warped art-rockers isn't coming back to haunt us, but there's a whole slew of new do-it-yourselfers downtown trying to figure out the best ways to metamorphosize rock and roll. And a couple of the hottest representatives of- New York's new breed, Swans and Sonic Youth, have decided to pay us a visit this Sunday night at Joe's Star Lounge. Sonic Youth, the older of the two ban- ds, first appeared on the scene in the summer of '81, making their mark at the New York Noise Festival and at various club gigs .around town. Glenn Branca, creator of the wall of guitars (check out his LP The Ascension) and Josh Baer, director of the art gallery that housed the festival, liked them Best on the tube- THE GOLDEN Age of Tube this isn't, but there are still a few winners and quasi-winners playing the waves. Here's some picks for the year's more digestible network fare: " Hill St. Blues: Once again this exercise in intelligent, insightful, and entertaining programming outshines all the rest. We gave it a chance, and it finally made it to the top of the Neilsens. " Fame: Introduced less than a year ago, this musical comedy/drama consistently offers finely balanced scripts and wonder- ful, toe-tapping pop tunes. " Taxi: And who says NBC is the worst network? Thank goodness for "bad" networks like this-they just happened to salvage one of the ab- solutely best comedies to come along in years after ABC dropped it. " Cheers:,The makers of Taxi tran- splanted their skills from a cab com- pany to a neighborhood bar. Hilarious characters and situations make for a wonderful half-hour. * Leave It to Beaver: All right, so this show is 20 years old, so what? The Cleavers are still the funniest sitcom family ever to hit the airwaves. 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