. . . _ A IMWFW- -W - _W s w- v w . ..f . citure S .............. .......... ............ .. ...... ... I .... ... ....... ............... ... ............................. Flyin~g pork By Joe Hoppe SALVADOR DALI has a rhinoceros with the outspread wings of a stork in his living room. So it's only natural that East Quad has a Pig With Wings in its basement cafe, the Halfway Inn. It appears every other Tuesday. It will be there again February 15. These pig's wings change. At times it flits about on clear hummingbird membranes. Sometimes it soars on a 12-foot black condor spread. Other times, the blue of a bluebird's feathers flap from the pig's shoulder blades. The pig is a thing of many splendored wings. The pig lends his name to parties of the arts, spreading his wings over them in a protective mode. Poetry, music, and in the future some dance comedy, are all performed in the name of the pig. Anyone can be funny, read poetry, play music. The pig is wide open. Jay Frost is the man behind the pig. He coordinates the shows and he is the master of ceremonies. He also named the show. "The name developed through various stages," Frost said. "At this point I'm just sort of using it, because it's catchy, but also because essentially a pig is a clean animal and we put it in mud. So a Pig With Wings is sort of like liberating a pig." There's more to it for Frost than liberating a pig, though. Frost feels that he is freeing the people that per- form, and the people in the audience. "We're sort of liberating these people. They really didn't have form elewhere," Frost said. "You have people in an artistic setting and people aren't interested in what they have to say unless it's in a popular enough mode that they can accept it somehow." Pigs With Wings is trying to do that. "You can go and play in a band, and that seems to be okay," said Frost. "But people sort of pat you on the head if you write poetry." And for Frost, it is also very impor- tant for the artists to feel good about what they. are doing. At times the Pig can almost be a workshop. "They can hear other people read things. The ar- tists can be excited about the fact that they're doing something that's worth something. Something which is put down and spit upon, but really has " tremendous worth," Frost said. Pigs With Wings started in the fall of 1981 as a response to some poetry readings that were already going on. "East Quad was hosting a series of poetry readings and I thought they were very boring," Frost said. "They didn't tell people a whole lot and ap- pealed to a small audience. So I got some time in the Halfway. We had a reading where 15 people read and threw in some music. It was very suc- cessful." The original readings were called the Halfass Readings, but the name had to be changed because they co'uldn't read it over the radio. So they became the Halfway Readings. Frost didn't keep that name because someone else star- ted a Halfway Inn reading series. "It was very much like dropping into a cellar during the '60s," Frost said of the other series. "Bongos, Robert Bly poems, and I just didn't want anything to do with that. We've done that already, let's move on." Under the various names, Frost has been responsible for somewhere bet- weeen 12 and 14 readings. A core of poets and people who liked to read was built up. "I thought it was so successful to get so much moving so fast that we should keep it up, because that was the only way of building an audience," said Frost. Frost went to Washington, D.C. last summer and stayed until Christmas time. He came back to Ann Arbor after New Year's and set up Pigs With Wings' first show this season on January 18. The first show featured Rick Littler, Vicki Beauehamp, Larry Dean, and Adam David-some of last year's core. people-reading poetry. Dean and Davis are both Hopwood award win- ners. A folk music trio, a recorded tape of modern music, a song from a locally written musical, and a female singer were also featured. Frost was pleased with the .diversity of the nearly 125 people in attendance. "We had people from the co-ops, north campus, and East Quad," Frost said. Pigs With Wings' Feb. show relied more on the poets. Dean read a longer, emotional poem, another modern music tape was played, various people presented humorous poems, a guitar duet played some fifties rock and roll; and brand new local band, The Dharma Bums, made an exciting debut. "We had a very insular audience," Frost said of that performance. "Everybody there sort of knew everybody else so there wasn't any real energy being generated." Frost doesn't want a calm at- mosphere for the Pigs With Wings. "You can't bring people together that way," he says. Frost will be going after the Hopwood winners, "with a vengeance," for the next few shows. He'd also like to get Meissner_ \\\Ili Niv k& Y ' Ultra di sc Quartet Ultravox Chrysalis By Mike Belford IT'S IRONIC that two of the most eagerly awaited albums of the past few months were both released this week; these being the new LPs from Ultravox and Echo.and the Bunnymen. Both bands have pursued contrasting directions since their common begin- nings in '77, whilst still retaining that rare capacity to simultaneously shock and captivate the listener. Ultravox had their beginnings with John Foxx, now a solo performer. Unlike the shimmering guitar attack of the Bunnymen, Foxx took the early synthesiser experiments of Bowie and Eno as the major reference for the initial Ultravox releases. Upon' his departure in '79, the original trio of Chris Cross, Warren Cann, and Billy Currie were joined by singer Midge Ure who had- previously played with everyone from Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols to early '70s pop/rock band Slik. The result was the commercially successful album Vienna during 1980, followed by 1981's highly acclaimed Rage in Eden, recorded in Koln with German producer Conny Plank. Quartet is a logical progression from these two, with the 1983 image one of the ultimate in style and quality; from the digitally mastered George Martin production to the immaculately designed Peter Saville album cover. Actually it's "Peter Saville Associates" now, a long way from the hectic days of Manchester Art School around the turn of the decade. The initial impression, though, is that the band has taken the kind of neoclassical imagery of groups such as Spandau Ballet or New Order rather too far, the whole album package having more in common with say Architec- tural Digest than any of the music magazines. Song titles like "Reap the Wild Wind," or "When the Scream Sub- sides" aren't really a good indication of the songs themselves; the titles tend to stereotype Ultravox, something the group has always managed to resist in the past. As far as the actual music is concer- ned, the nine new songs represented on this collection are still based around the synthesiser and drum machine in their various forms, but there are a number of interesting variations on the theme. The grandiose layered structure of "Vienna" has been guided by producer Martin (and no doubt Ure himself) toward a more concentrated rhythm and energy with more emphasis on the vocals and Ure's occasional guitar par- ts, typified by the tracks "Scream .. .," and "Serenade," the latter featuring a steely high energy beat that would probably make it a bet- ter choice of single release than the current one; the rather slow and calculated "Hymn," the closing song on side one. Other new directions explored by the band range from the up-tempo, self- explanatory "We Came to Dance," to the watercolor romance of "Vision in Blue" with lyrics to match Billie Currie's orchestrated synth arrangements: Ashes and memories still aglow, . . . portraits and pic- tures you once knew. . . Again the vocals are mised unusually high, there was a time when you were lucky to cat- ch every third or fourth word sullenly muttered by John Foxx on the original Ultravox albums. Probably the best, and certainly the most intriguing song on Quartet is the last track on side two, "The Song (We Go)," with a melody line that stands on its own, without the need for any lyrics, and a gloriously subtle ending that you just have to hear for yourself. On listening to this new Ultravox album it becomes clear that the main talent within the band belongs to keyboard player Billie Currie. Singer Midge Ure may have provided an initial incentive for the band to start playing and writing again, but it's now fairly obvious that the kind of opportunist commercialism that he's exploited in the past is once more becoming ap- parent with this band. He always ap- pears to stand apart from the other three, never more so than on his recent overblown solo rendition of Scott Walker's "No Regrets." George Martin seems to b aspect at t: abilities of t the same tir stylised "n leaves little There is e that Cross, the potentia producer bu be said that represent ti As a fin Chrysalis re CBS) has r will be re-r early album interested, t ter introdu unique talen ' F 1I some "musically different sorts of people." A cellist, as well as an organist will play for the February 15 show. Frost is also hopeful about getting a jazz band from York University in Toronto. And he is excited about hearing organ music bouncing off the Halfway's cement walls. The Impact Dance Group will be per- forming March 1. If he can find room, Frost would like to bring in the Michigan State Dance Ensemble. "I'd like to get some crazy sort of stuff there," said Frost. Things aren't normally considered artistic. As long as they're not a sideshow." He is en- thusiastic about a karate exhibition or possible exhibition wrestling. "It would be fun to tap into that crowd - people who go and see a wrestling match are few and far between," Frost said. At the moment Frost is trying to get an executive committee of supporters together. The president of the group must have been around before, but anyone nterested has a chance of being on the board. Board members would act as advisers and as a screening committee. Frost would also like to put out a Pigs With Wings literary magazine. Something fun, not something stody, like Empyria, is what he's aiming at. Right now the organization has a budget of $120. That covers leaflets, but nothing else. Half of the money comes from the Halfway advertising budget, the other half from East Quad's representative assembly. Frost is planning on applying for Michigan Student Assembly funding so that his organization can expand and pull in more people. He's always looking for new talent. Pigs With Wings is also going to apply to the MSA as a non-profit student organization. Offices and weekly conferences go along with all of it. Pigs With Wings sounds like it might not mind being a media empire. Frost compares it with the Hearst newspaper empire and alludes to Hearst inventing the Spanish American War, "Sure, as long as it's fun - an Artistic Spanish American War." Frost would probably settle for less. "It would be nice if people would at some point think of Pigs With Wings and associate it with something that was fun and had lots of arts in it. That way when the public saw something with Pigs With Wings on it they'd pick it up, and they'd read it, or they'd buy it, or they'd promote it. . . As long as it's fun." A r. t 251 East Liberty * Ann Arbor " (313) 665-7513 Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. -8 p.m.; Sat. 8 a.m. -5 p.m. Great Breakfasts & Lunches Too. Free parking after 5 p.m. in lot behind Afternoon Delight. Student Dinner SpecIals $4.50 quiche or crepes, soup, salad, KANA STUDENT SPECIALS: Bulkoki BAR-B-Q Sandwich .... . Veggi Tempura........ . . .... Egg rolls ......... . . . .... ..... buy 4 and get1 FREE! Chapchal .................... Fried Rice ................... Tak Chim .................. . LUNCHEON SPECIA less than $4.00 EAT IN or CARRY OUT-NEAR H COME VISIT US!! MANIKAS RESTAURANT SERVING BREAKFAST, LUNCH AND DINNER Everyday Specials, plus a BREAKFAST SPECIAL up till 11:00 reg. $5.50 dessert and beverage. vati expires 3-31-83 d after 3 pm. 307 S. Main 663-7449 7-9 Monday - Saturday 10 - 8 Sunday Beer, Liquor and Wine Available El 1133 E. Huron 4 ky 4 Weekend /February 11, 1983 1 13 We