ARTS The Michigan Daily Wednesday, September 17, 1986 Page 7 Mojo and Skid: Too much of a great thing By John Logie Mojo Nixon and- Skid Roper provided an extremely generous helping of their characteristic rock'n'raunch Monday night at the Blind Pig. The crowd, huge by *Monday night standards, greeted the duo warmly, and throughout the night responded cleverly and in kind to Mojo's collection of grunts, howls, and anti- establishment meanderings. When Mojo urged the crowd to .join him in the chorus of one of his new songs, "Burn Down the Malls," the chorus mutated into "Burn Tally Hall!" Had Mojo ,.,understood the gag he would have been proud. This was not a crowd so much as it was a self-deputized batch of back-up singers. Mojo and Skid were obviously energized by the recognition and appreciation voiced by the crowd, and responded with a knock- ,>down, drag-out show which featured, among other things, Mojo leaping on to the floor and rolling around, Mojo leaping onto the floor and do-si-do-ing a couple 'of dudes, and Skid leaping onto the guitar (a rare occurrence) and kicking out the blues. But for most of the two-hour plus show, Mojo held forth on guitar and vocals, and Skid thumped and rubbed his "Busy Bee" washboard. Reverend Mojo poured out lunatic sermon after lunatic sermon-the doctrine of his Screaming Church of the Epileptic Jesus: The music was bare bones. Mojo believes in the power of the classic chords that started rock'n'roll, and is more or less singleminded in his presentation of those chords. After reeling off two sings with virtually identical E to A chord changes he dubbed the chords "the only two chords you need." But this is only true in a romantic sense. The first time you hear Mojo and Skid's washboard-and-gee- tar combo, it is an epiphany. I know Mojo and Skid were only trying to appease a portion of the crowd which had been seized by legitimate Mojo-mania, but it must be said that by the eighteenth time the duo launched into one of their hilarious but simple ditties, the joke had worn off. By the end of the set, the crowd had experienced the musical equivalent of a wedding of mountain people, where all the guests have six fingers because of years of inbreeding. The first guest you see is startling, and exciting. The fifth is fun to shake hands with. The thirty-seventh is dull. Most of the songs were kinfolk. Singly they are remarkable. Collectively they are less so. Mojo and Skid were most enjoyable when they careened onto realms distinct from their established style. Skid's blues was without question a highlight. So was Mojo's leaping about and perching from various pieces of furniture. So was his asking the crowd whether he had slobbered on himself, and when they replied that he had, his self-satisfied shout of, "GOOD!" So, in fact, was Mojo's exhausted collapse into a corner of the Sightless Swine near the end of the show. It's unfortunate that Mojo and Skid became trapped by the eventual usualness of their unusualness. Then again, they draw a crowd that has been Daily Photo by SCOTT LJTUCHY Skid Roper and Mojo Nixon play their own brand of scatalogical super-market rock. attracted by their radical departure from the existing pop- music scene, and it's reasonable to assume that such a crowd will be delighted by departures from the initial departure. I I Books THERE'S STILL TIME TO-PREPARE CLASSES STARTING . SEPTEMBER 18 203 E. Hoover 662-3149 CALL DAYS, EVENINGS & WEEKENDS . MPFN EDUCATIONAL CENTER LTD. TEST PktEPARATMO SPECIALIS1'S SINCE 1938 -Back In The World Tobias Wolff Bantam softcover, $7.95 240 pp. I n comparing the American short story of twenty years ago with that of today, one cannot help but notice that the form has undergone significant change. Although literary trends do not ,;,-easily lend themselves to generalization, a definite shift in the vision of the American storyteller--a shift which insists that not only the writer, but the reader bring meaning to fiction-- has occurred. Tobias Wolff s compelling I new collection, Back In The World, is at the forefront of this quiet revolution. Comprised of 'ten stories, some of which could actually be called sketches, Wolff introduces the reader to ten - strikingly different lives bound to each other, paradoxically, only by their isolation from others around them. While man's alienation has .certainly been one of the most Y prevalent themes in modern American fiction--a vision of life fueled by the Industrial ,Revolution and the fact of the frontier--never has this theme so insistently worked its way into the stylistics of the short story writer. Barth, Barthelme, Carver, and now Wolff-- all integrate this theme into their work until style no longer only' relays meaning, but is meaning, as well. Meeting the characters of Wolffs world is a continued experience of deja vu, the wakes of their troubled lives forever crossing that of the reader. The effect is more than mere "reader identification," however, for the development of the characters which brings them to life is not the act of the writer, but the reader. In "Sister," Marty, a woman haunted by a desperate need for affection who is almost a victim of hit-and-run, realizes that there "is nobody to talk to about it, to see how afraid she was and tell her not to worry, that it was all over now." Indeed, the apparent feeling of senselessness that hovers above all of these characters' lives stems dir-ectly from the acuteness of their alienation in modern society. Leo, a priest who invents sordid secrets about himself; Jean, the movie house usher who makes lurid prank phone calls from her boss' office--all of the characters share in Marty's disillusioning awareness of the disconnected nature of modern life. Undeniably, this minimalist approach to fiction is often under fire for binding interpretation too tightly to the subjective experience of the individual reader. However, the enigma surrounding the lives of Wolff s characters does not, suprisingly, distance the reader, but draws him in, requiring that he flesh out thoughts and feelings the characters, out of fear, so vehemently refuse to reveal. At best, the collection renders a vision of life in the '80's as riddled with ambivalence, the human heart endlessly vascillating between a belief in "The American Dream" and the realization that such a lofty ideal could never be attained. A masterfully haunted work, Back In The World is a collection peopled by ghosts, the faces of which are always on the startling brink of recognition. --S u z a n n e Misencik TM COMPLETE Data Analysis And Reporting for IBM PC/XT/AT's SPSS/PC+,- combined with Graphics, Advanced Statistics, Tables,Mapping and Data Entry form the most comprehensive statistical sottware available for a microcomputer For nearly 20 years, the name "SPSS has been synonymous with high quality software. SPSS/PC+ comes with everything you should expect from a market leader- a thorough, well-designed package with excellent documentation and customer support. SPSS/PC+ Display manager & editor File matching & merging Fie transfer with popular PC programs Selective installation & removal of procedures Crosstabulation Descriptive statistics Multiple regression AND VA Plots & graphs Flexible data transformation Customized reports SPSSIPC+ DATA ENTRY" Create customized data entry screens Clean and verify data to specifications Enter view and edit data quickly and easily SPSS/PC+ ADVANCED STATISTICS MANOVA Factor analysis Cluster analysis Discrminant analysis Loglinear modelling SPSS/PC+ GRAPHICS" FEATURING MICROSOFT CHART Presentation-quality graphics * Create effective charts, quickly and easily Develop custom charts insert text, wherever you want Move between data and graphs instantaneously Produce top-quality output and send it to a variety of devices SPSS/PC+ TABLES Stub & banner tables Multiple response data Presentation quality tables and reports * Full range of percentaging and statistics options SPSS/PC+ MAPPING-FEATURING MAP-MASTER" Display your data with high-impact maps Move between data and maps easily Full aggregation facilities for summanizing data Communicate your maps through reports, overheads, slides or flip charts For more information, contact our Sales Department at: 312/329-3500 SPSS Inc. IN EUROPE: 444 N. Michigan Avenue SPSS Europe BV. ChicagoC IL 60611 PO.Box115 4200 AC Gorinchem VISA, MasterCard The Netherlands, and American Phone: + 31183036711 Express accepted. TWX:21019. iCA146. sass m is I JOSTERNS A M E R I C A' S C OL L E GE R I N G Look - into the Att6 icbigan FII Stop by and see a Jostens representative this week to save on the gold ring of your choice. Monday September 15th-Friday September 19th, 11a.m. to 4p.m. 4 , A a . -a a i -J 4a i U SP~ flC.PRODUCTIVITY RAISED TO THE HIGHEST POWER" SPPic, nso.mii,, aid PC/xT/AT anmt we dsk Contq 5P55 Incnr, n5ee nn nes IB M PC/XT and PCiA7 ae a nnarsna i~nnan 8urtnsMd nes ii~n. nid Mse ai , , nw.dnt a ian esuans SeSP PiC. Spas/Pc .SPaSS/C pc hics.n PSSiPC. T7bs SPS/PC Adann la~liSSPSSiPC oDataEny and 5PSS/PO-. oaenaners d SPS S n rin Pomonfy amp"ne taien o.. 5P55iPCn Gapne SPSSiPc, Tabens. Paaiic, AaceeSfiisticeSPaSPC aita ntrym-and 5PS5,PC. Mdpipnq a epaiey packaged and sold as eaninnnom b, SPSiPC Pnnon ,ogia aeei mpyr M i5t Carpetnn t84, 19e5, 1986. ANi againresevd. M O R H NYE A R S MORE THAN A BOOKSTORE 549 East University Ann Arbor, MI (313)662-3201 (at the corner of East U. and South U.) FLOPPY DISK SALE * * Lifetime warranty " 100% error free " High quality " Low noise NASHUA A box of 10 disks DSDD ...,........ $12.50/bx Super TRACK Abogof 10disks DSDD*.......... $11 .50/bag DSHD** .........$23.99/bag Write check payable to DDS (with 8.25% tax for NY residents). For phone order, welcome call 24 hrs toll free 1800.628-4665 EXT 1, for NYC res call (212) 239-2268. Shipment is $1.58 per box w/ some day first class delivery. We honor VISA & MC. DOS Rockefeller Center P.O. Box 5516 NY NY 10158. *DSDD-Double sided double density **DSHD-DS high dn for IBM AT 1.2 MB THE OFFICE OF MAJOR EVENTS PRESENTS JIMMY CLIFF mom %t i 1 I Ott , . . " A .0 ON s loll STUDENT PHONATHON CALLERS WANTED Part Time Employment Evenings and Sundays t PINT NIGHT A pint of beer at the price of a glass! School of Education Staff will interview students by phone to call alumni nationwide for alumni fundraising phonathon. " Phonathon held Sunday through Thursday evenings October 5 through November 20 * Callers will be expected to work two calling sessions each week with some opportunity for additional hours I