ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Saturday, October 22, 1983
Page 5
Joan Baez cheats neo-revolutionaries
By Jim Boyd
A LEXANDER HAIG or Joan Baez, what's a Thursday
night neo-revolutionary to do? Should he heckle the war
criminal or cheer our compatriot? Unfortunately, of the two,
only Alex gave a good song and dance.
The problem is that Joan really isn't our compatriot
anymore. Oh sure, I'd still rather cozy up to her than the
Hawk, but as she walked out onto the stage an uneasiness
pervaded the liberal air. Maybe it was the dapper maroon
blouse and the even more-dapper maroon velvet ankle
boots. Or maybe it was the larger-than-life poster where she
is dapperly dressed (this time in purple) with her hand sup-
porting her cynical chin and countenance. She has the look
that's oh so sagacious. As she strutted out one could almost
hear the words of her one-time beau Bob Dylan - The times
they are a changin'.
You see, Joan is now a woman of the '80s. "I've had enough
of the '60s," she says. That's fair enough except it means
that she now sings about divorce and the single parent. Hers
is an account of mid-life neuroses that is much better told by
Erma Bombeck.
Joan has a nice voice and adequate guitar skills, but then
who doesn't. It's just not enough to be able to pick and carry
a tune; it wasn't 15 years ago and it isn't today. 15 years ago
she was great because of what she was saying and the convic-
tion with which she was sayng it. Now she asserts that "I
don't want to be a part of any revolution, or anything, that
doesn't have joy in it. It's just not worth it otherwise." Wait
a minute! There are a lot of things out there that aren't
joyous, but which are worth fighting for - for exactly that
reason. What the hell, Joan. Are you so over-the-hill that in
order to pursue a cause it has to give you the jollies?
I don't mean to project a holier-than-thou attitude here -
it's just that if she can't give an audience the desire to
sacrifice all, then what is she doing up there on stage? She's
not a talented enough musician to be able to sing whatever
she wants to.
The audience especially appreciated her versions of
"Goodnight Saigon" by Billy Joel, "The Boxer" by Simon
and you-know-who, and "Many Rivers to Cross" by Jimmy
Cliff. It is interesting to note that none of these are Baez
originals and that they are all performed much better by the
original artists. We heard the words of Gordon Lightfoot, Me
and Bobby McGee . . . nuthin' ain't nuthin' but it's
free. In Joan's case, nuthin' cost $9.50.
She is the teller of trite tales. For instance, there is the
young American girl who dreams of Lady Di and all the
beauty in the life of the Princess but who, thank God, realizes
by the end of the song that she is really the Queen after all.
Why is she singing such saccharin drivel? I wanted to be
moved Thursday night, not subjected to kindergarten ethics.
She speaks of our generation (the under 25 set, I presume)
as poor lost kids to whom no one talks. Too many/much
drugs, too much noisy music, and no innocence. How does
she help us out, how does she fight the demons of society in
the '80s? She sings about divorce and Lady Di.
Baez boo-booed. It was not until the final song that she in-
vited any audience participation. Hill Auditorium was filled
with people yearning to breathe free, yearning to be brought
together by an emotional leader.
A bit of advice to those in attendance Thursday night; Go
to The Ark. One can do far better than Joan Baez on any
Sunday night at the coffeehouse on Hill Street. The hopes of
a people who still want to feel lie there, not in the
cosmeticized carcass of a defunct social leader.
Daily Photo by RENEE FREIER
Joan Baez left the anxious crowd at HillAuditorium Thursday night feeling a little bit cheated when she shied away from
her earlier political statements in favor of singing about Lady Di.
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The sounds of si*lence
By Joseph Kraus
D EAFNESS isn't the opposite of
hearing, as you think, it's
really silence full of sound."
So says Sarah Norman, a young, in-
telligent woman who happens to be
deaf.
Sarah is the focal character in Mark
Medoff's Children of a Lesser God,
which is more than just a play-it is an
emotional experience.
The story concerns Sarah's decision
to remain speechless and communicate
in American Sign Language. She finds
great opposition to this decision from
James Leeds, a speech therapist:
Leeds, like most of the hearing world,
looks at deafness as a disability that he
can in some way lessen. In working
with Sarah, and eventually falling in
love with her, he learns that there is a
deaf world from which he is as far
removed as a deaf person can be from
the hearing world. This world is not
necessarily inferior or superior, it is
simply different and difficult to enter.
Linda Ann Ignasiak makes her acting
debut as Sarah. Ignasiak, herself
hearing impaired, manages the dif-
ficult task of projecting an inner world
full of pain and beauty to an outer world
that has never thought such a world
could exist. Signing her language with
all the grace of a ballerina, she makes
quite an audpicious debut.
David Eichenbaum handles the dif-
ficult role of Leeds with a great deal of
skill. Leeds is a liaison of sorts between
the hearing audience and the world of
the deaf-about which he is forever
learning. Leeds must constantly adjust
his opinions on what it is to "help" a
deaf person and Eichenbaum manages
to convey all of the ever-changing
aspects of this character.
Tom Bishop and Anne Bloander, two
performers who are able to speak
although they are deaf, make their
acting debuts as well. Bishop plays Orin
Dennis, a young deaf man who follows
legal channels to win some help for deaf
people in general, but who seems more
to act out of personal desire to strike out
for humanitarian reasons.
Bolander plays Lydia, another of
Leeds' students, who falls in love with
him and suffers when he falls in love
with Sarah. She represents what many
deaf people fear-becoming indepen-
dent of, the hearing world. Both Bishop
and Bloander showed reat poise and it
was difficult to believe that neither had
ever appeared publicly on stage before
last Thursday.
It is a testimony to director Elise
Bruant that so many inexperienced
performers were able to be integrated
into the show as smoothly as they were.
However, the emotional experience
of the production doesn't end with the
story. Following the play itself,
Jonathan Ellis, the director of Canter-
bury Loft, leads a discussion with
members of the audience who choose to
remain. Most of those who stayed Thur-
sday night seemed very moved, some
almost to tears. One spectator in par-
ticular, Pat McKay of Southfield,
summed up the lesson of the play, "All
of us are handicapped, we all have our
limitations."
Children of a Lesser God runs Satur-
day and Sunday nights in the Lydia
Mendelssohn Theater. Tickets are $5 at
the door or $4 in advance for the Sunday
show only.
Divine baby APP
Singer/actress Bette Midler, known more intimately by her fans as the 'Divine Miss M,' takes time out to
autograph copies of her newest book, 'Baby Divine.' After her recent concert tour (where she collapsed onstage
at? Pine Knob), Bette decided to take things a little easier and concentrate on this children's book and a new re-
cord album.
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'Bongos beat their drums for zealous fans
By Larry Dean
A GOODSIZED crowd packed into
Joe's Star Lounge Thursday night
to see the Bongos, expatriate New
Yorkers who now call Hoboken home.
It was a good show seen, full of vigor
l'spunk and strangeness, albeit little
direct communication between the
bandmembers and the crowd - a show
of dancing feet, the cry of "strum!,"
and some mean lead tambourine
playing.
On the back of Drums Along the
Hudson's jacket - that being the first
Bongos LP - there's a little bit of
psychobabble from 'famed' rock critic
Richard Graebel about the Bongos
sound, about it being this and yet not
this, about it yielding to that and yet not
yielding... very cryptic and brain-
hurting, assessment-wise.
Like the music, which is frolicky but
not without its quirks. Taking the stage
as polarized, kodachrome-clad duos
(Richard Barone and James Mastro in
red shirts and black slacks; Frank
Gianinni and Rob Norris in green shirts
and black slacks), the 2 guys broke into
"Glow in the Dark." Barone, keeping
his back to the audience until it was
time to sing, finally spun around,
Richenbacher in hand, and more than a
few audience members managed to'
elicit tiny gasps of surprise at his
minute pudginess. It might seem un-
necessary to be elaborating on
Barone's physical stature, but the
image of this rock 'n' roll Spanky, eyes
bodies, was a startling one that never
quite left the rear of my mind.
When he sang, however, it was
proven that this was, indeed, the voice
of the Bongos: high, clear, boyish.
Barone didn't fail to play with the stan-
dards of that top 40 love-ballady timbre,
though, as in the two cases where he put
a tremeloish waver in his voice - one
time brought about by him pounding on
his chest - like a surrogate Tarzan.
Both times it worked as a nifty diver-
sion from pop-song purity.
There were a couple of high points,
and generally much revelry. The group
played a good sampling of their faves,
including the jittery "Three Wise
Men," with its refrain of Three wise'
men/Three cool cats; "Sweet Blue
Cage," off the new EP, Numbers With
Wings, wherein all stepped to the front
to play guitars save drumer Gianinni,
who pounded away at a set of - what
else! - bongos; "Automatic Doors,"
with nice lead vocals from Gianinni;
and "The Bulrushes," about the baby
Moses. Mastro sang lead on "Tiger
Nights," but was barely audible. With
all this switching off of the lead vocals,
its surprising that the band didn't do
Norris' "Video Eyes," one of the least
best tunes on Hudson; however, they
gave-him a bass solo (of sorts) later in
the set, possibly pacifier enough.
The highlights of the Bongos show
weren't just musical. Sure, they pulled
off "Certain Harbors" without the
schizophrenic saxophone break, "In the
COBBL ESTONE
BACK PACK!
while supplies last
COLORFUL, LIGHTWEIGHT, DURABLE, s
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