ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Wednesday, October 17, 1984
Page 5
}-rR' __
Bangles make it to
Detroit on their own
By Dennis Harvey
is hard-edged neo-60's poprock, with the
clarity of melodic focus of the
early/middle-period Beatles. But the
Bangles are no more mere Beatles
clones, or just another flexing of the
current paisley revival, than they are
"just" a 'girl band.' What with their
sweet but unsaccharine vocal har-
monies, dazzling knack for simple pop
structuring, and jangly cleaned-up
garage playing, (which bodes well for
some real grungy cavegirl energy on
stage tonight), this is a band for the
'80's (the '80's Iwant, anyway)-they
recall only memories they are fully
equipped to live up to.
The band started out as a trio,
releasing a swell indie single ("Call on
Me"/"Getting Out of Hand") in early
'82 before they'd started playing out
much in the L.A. area. An excellent
(though the band doesn't express much
affection now for its production) five-
song EP was released on IRS at the end
of the year following much delay, and
then following a personnel change
(bassist Annette Zilinskas stepped out;
ex-Runaway Michael Steele stepped in)
and yet more delays, at last-a whole
album, on a major label (CBS) yet.
The initial response has been
gratifying. In a recent phone interview
lead guitarist Vicki Petersen told the
Daily the LP's second single (the first
was the slightly, atypically overslick
"Hero Takes a Fall"), "Going Down to
Liverpool," is doing "real well
initially" with radio play and MTV
rotation.
Petersen said the difficulties with the
Flock of Seagulls tour the band was
supposed to provide the opening act for,
sprang from the Flock's "blowing out a
lot of their (headlining) dates to open
for the Go-Go's"-who, ironically, had
already offered the Bangles the same
place on their bill. Petersen seemed
less than crushed by the loss.
The Bangles will, instead, be doing
club dates as a headliner until Cyndi
Lauper's new tour starts this month.
They'll stick with that until the end of
November-then more club dates
(hopefully one here in A2), then "maybe
Europe in January," then. . World
takeover? Let's hope. In any case,
future studio plans are currently hazy,
but something ought to emerge on cir-
cular black plastic next year. Petersen
said the band got hooked' up with
production whiz kid David Kahne
(lately of Translator, Wire Train,
Romeo Void) as a result of band ad-
miration for his work on the first Rank
And File LP-"We liked the fact that he
knew exactly how to open up an
arrangement"-and this was clinched
when Kahne was hired by CBS as a staff
arranger after the Bangles had been
signed to the label.
Tickets for tonight's show at St. An-
drew's are going for a thrifty $5.50, so
there's no excuse for not going-unless,
like too many people in this town, you
don't happen to have a car on hand.
Doors open at 9:00.
To Di or not
: to Di: Seefor
y ourself
Move over, Yuri An-
dropov-something's fishy in the royal
henhouse. According to insiders, there
may be a new Princess Diana. Rumors
are abound that the official photo
released Monday is not really Diana,
but that a new "lookalike" who has
been substituted fore an ailing or dead
Princess Diana. The casual onlooker
finds her cheeks too broad and her eyes
too far apart. The replacement is
believed to be a burgeoning California
actress, intent on scoring her first big
role in a "royal" way. Some say the
scarcity of photographs following the
birth of her secondborn (the suspected
photograph is the work of the house
man, Lord Snowdon) proves that risky
foul play isn't an unlikley possibility.
Diana... after
plaud
it has
face.
way,
nable
only
make
as my
oesn't
Get Involved With:
Current Affairs
Organizations
Public Issues
Faculty
Ad ministration
MASS
MEETING
LSA
Student
Government.
ELECTIONS
MONDAY, OCTOBER 22
7:30 p.m.
THE KUENZEL ROOM
(Michigan Union)
All LSA Students Welcome!
Diana. .. before
Teachers need to learn a lesson
By Emily Montgomery
What do you have when you take a
school headed by a board of crooked
administrators, filled with students
straight out of "Hoodlum Monthly,"
and led by a handful of teachers
fighting for the sanctity of education
and the American way? Well, the
a makers of Teachers starring Nick Nolte
(at his career low) and JoBeth
Williams (Big Chill - What's she doing
in this? She's an actress) thought they
had a movie. They should have thought
again.
Nick Nolte, as the star of Teachers,
plays, what else? a teacher named
Alex. The audience is supposed to
believe that Nolte, although he can't
make it to school on time in the mor-
ning, is an allright guy and a "good"
teacher. Viewers will have to just
assume this fact on their own because
Nolte never actually does any teaching
during the course of the film. He's too
busy breaking up gun fights in the
school's corridors, or counseling a
student (Ralph Macchio, The Karate
Kid) whose school record folder resem-
bles the New York telephone directory,
wining and dining Lisa (JoBeth
Williams), whom we are expected to
believe is a former student of his, or
making spontaneous speeches about
"The sanctity of education and the
American way" to crowds of dum-
bfounded teachers and students alike.
In comparison to his colleagues,
however, Nolte comes off looking like
"The all-American Teacher," no mat-
ter what his qualifications are. One
teacher, nicknamed "Ditto", keeps his
classes orderly by giving them Xeroxed
assignments to fill out every day, while
he sleeps behind a held-up newspaper.
Another, the gym teacher, gives
"special" instructions to his female
students, and succeeds in getting three'
of them pregnant. Still another is an
escaped mental patient who wandered
in to the school one day, posing as a
substitute teacher. Since the prin-
cipal's office at Kennedy High is always
busier than the 3rd precinct office, no
one bothered to check his credentials.
There would seem no limits to the
ridiculousness the plot of Teachers will
go for the sake of a laugh. A laugh,
which, for just that reason, never
comes.
One not so exaggerated element of
Teachers is the fact that this school
(andi I use the term loosely) is being
sued by an illiterate adult who was
promoted from grade to grade and
graduated, without ever being taught
how to read. This is a serious issue,
which has been dealt with by the enter-
tainment media before, and more effec-
tively, too. In the setting of this national
Lampoon style school, however, it loses
impact and ultimately its importance
in the film. After seeing the Barnum
and Bailey atmosphere of Kennedy
High, one comes to the conclusion of
"Well, of course he didn't get a proper
education, who would in this school?"
Kennedy High comes off as an exam-
ple of the extreme instead of the norm,
making its theme nonapplicable to the
real world. "Are schools really like
this?" one might ask. Even the most
gullible audience member would have
to answer, "No, not even in the worst of
areas." No school is as bad as Kennedy
High.
And what about teachers? Are they
all self-serving, lazy slobs, with only the
all-mighty paycheck in mind? No, most
teachers want to teach and fight for the
student's welfare. Yet Kennedy High's
faculty is made up almost entirely of
the slack-offs and sticklers, who are,
ANN
ARBOR
5t Avenue at liberty S
again, the exception, not the rule.
In Teachers' attempt to ap
education and all those involved,i
instead slapped teachers in the f
It's an insult to be protrayed that
with Nick Nolte, as Alex, a questio
character himself, as their
redeemer.
In short, Teachers just doesn'tr
the grade. I give it an "E." And,a
teachers used to say, "That d
stand for excellent."
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