MICH-ELLANY.
FILM
Actor Judd Nelson calls in to shoot 'From th
Neo-nerds: more than meets the eye
INTERVIEW
Peter Case
Ex-Plimsouls leader left 'confining'
rock environment for the folk circuit
Peter Case, one of the performers at tomorrow's 10th Annual Ann Arbor
Folk Festival, first made a name for himself as the leader of the
Plimsouls, a rock band out of Los Angeles. Since then, he's quit the
rock and roll band scene and started to make a name for himself as an old-
fashioned troubador accompanying himself on his guitar. Hius most recent
release, Peter Case, on Geffen Records, earned him a nod as one of
Rolling Stone Magazine's new faces of 1986. He was interviewed by
Daily staffer Joseph Kraus.
Daily: You seemed to be really on the brink of making it big in rock
while you were with the Plimsouls. What made you decide to go solo?
Case: I just sort of musically grew away from what I was doing with
the Plimsouls. The Plimsouls were together for a long time. Bands like
that sort of run their course. During the whole period being in the band,
especially during the last years I was with the band, I was getting back
into listening to a lot of different music. I started to become really
schizophrenic; what I was playing and what I was listening to at home
started to grow away from what I was doing with the band.
D: What sorts of things were you listening to then?
C: A lot of blues players and a lot of folk musicians. I was listening to
jazz and a lot of different stuff. What happened with The Plimsouls is
finally I just got fed up with it. The whole rock band thing, not just
musically but also socially, it's an environment... It just got very
confining. It seemed like every song would have to have the same sort of
lineup or the same sort of thing. I felt my songs weren't coming across
either. Part of that's just the volume that bands tend to play at. I found
that I would write songs and they would be completely misunderstood by
the audience that was out there... besides the fact that you're always
playing big, loud-sound music at these big party-bash situations. It just
wasn't what I was interested in. I'm more interested in writing about
some sort of mystery, some sort of excitement about life and it just
doesn't fit into that rock and roll format. Plus it's just been done so
many times in so many different ways. I just felt like I'd exhausted it.
D: I understand you spent some time travelling around the country after
you left the band.
C: During the period after The Plimsouls broke up I spent a couple of
years trying to get my songwriting together and to get around a bit and to
get out of the environment of the rock and roll band. A lot of the rock
and roll thing tends to promote a narrow view of the world. I felt like I
was a victim of that. A self-victim of that. I found I would go to visit
my family and would be sitting there talking about Hollywood and Los
Angeles and all that sort of stuff. Everybody would get bored really quick
because it wasn't real life. It was just a lot of nonsense. So I spent a
Continued on Page 9
LAST WEEK, THE DAILY
printed an Associated Press story
about a young entrepreneur who at
first glance seems to have hit upon
the proverbial million-dollar idea.
Mike MacDonald, a Chicago-area
computer programmer, started a
service called Rent-A-Nerd on
January 5. He got the idea last
Halloween after creating a classic
nerd character, Hornby K. Fletcher,
replete with taped, horn-rimmed
glasses, clashing plaids, and a
shirttail peeking out from his fly.
The service has been
surprisingly popular, and Mac-
Donald is now appearing on talk
shows, and charging $65 to $75 an
hour to accompany people at parties
and geek it up. When I read the
article I was immediately struck by
the rage that overwhelms you when
something you could have thought
up has already been thought up, and
you don't dare steal the idea,
because, who knows? it might be
copyrighted. And I was amazed at
the amount of money MacDonald
was making. "Hell," I thought, "I'd
do that for thirty bucks an hour, and
no way would I pay that much just
to have a nerd around!"
Then it hit me.
OFF THE WALL
Today's sex lacks creativity.
(in reply)
SO DOES TODAY'S GRAFFITI..
-Graduate Library
There's no place like home.
There's no place like home.
There's no place like home.
How come it doesn't work?
-Mason Hall
Coke is God's way of saying you
have too much money.
-Graduate Library
THEY CLEAN THESE DESKS
TO STRIKE MY PEN
BUT THE DESKTOP POET
STRIKES AGAIN
(in reply)
Hey desktop Poet,
I call your bluff!
I'm challenging you,
Show your stuff!
(in reply)
WITH VERSES URBANE
AND STYLE FLUIDIC
I APPEAR ON THE SCENE:
THE DESKTOP CRITIC!
-Mason Hall
If Stop-N-Go is open 24 hours a
day, then why do they have locks
on the doors?
-Graduate Library
$75 an hour is too much for a
simple impersonation. What we
have here, ladies and gentlemen, is
a diabolically clever, thinly-veiled
escort service! MacDonald, sneaky
reprobate that he is, has hit upon
the perfect come-on for these
uncertain times. It appalls me now
that I was fooled at first. It's all
there, the "accidentally" protruding
shirttail, now you tell me we don't
all know what that means!
MacDonald figured out that nerds
are the sex objects of the '90s. It
makes sense, doesn't it? The
greatest concern among sexually
active singles today is the risk of
contracting sexually transmitted
diseases. Thus, sexually active
people have turned their booties to
the singles bars, leaving them with
sex lives that used to be found in
seminaries. After all, every time
you sleep with someone, you're
sleeping with everyone they've ever
slept with, disease-wise.
But for a mere $75, one can
purchase the apparent security of
Hornby K. Fletcher, a person so
socially inappropriate that it seems
certain he has never slept with
anyone. Swinging, experienced
Casanovas are out. They can't hold
a candle to the projected purity of
Homby. What's more, would a nerd
use intravenous drugs? No way!
Nerds faint at the sight of needles!
Moreover, in a society that still
paradoxically encourages males to
be experienced and dominant while
promoting female chastity and
passivity, there are probably some
women out there who appreciate the
opportunity to "deflower" Hornby.
If Hornby is true to his act, he will
protest advances upon his person,
claiming that he's saving himself
for marriage. Alternately, Hornby
might play the nerd who always
wanted to, but never found anyone
who wanted to with him. In an'
endearing, clumsy fashion, Hornby
would fumble along, until his more
experienced customer showed him
the ropes. Women who have
fantasized about playing the Mrs.
Robinson role in a relationship
Continued on Page 9
Hello? Judd?
What are these other
people doing on the
phone line?
By Kurt Serbus
THIS IS MY INTERVIEW with
Judd Nelson, who called me up on
my very own home phone last
Saturday. There were two other
reporters on the line, one from
Washington and one from Texas,
but I cut them out because it's my
article and I felt like it. They can
cut me out of their articles if they
want; I don't care. Suits me just
fine.
Judd: Hello?
Me: Hello.
Judd: Hello, is this Kurt?
Me: Yeah, right here.
Judd: Hi, this is Judd.
Me: Hey, how you doin', Judd?
Judd: How are you doing?
Me: Oh, okay.
Judd: So this is great, so I'm ac-
tually talking to Michigan, Wash-
ington, and Texas at the same time?
Me (awed by the wonder of modern
technology): The wonder of modern
technology...
Judd: Alexander Graham Bell
would be proud.
Me (agreeing): This is true.
Judd: Maybe he'd be sick, I don't
know.
Me (asking about the weather):
You're in L.A.? How's the weather?
Judd:It's actually really cold.
See NELSON, Page 9
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PRINT FROM THE PAST
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Nelson (left) and John Hurt star in the film press material describes as "a sophisticated social comedy."
I I ____ -
DAILY FILE PHOTO
Except for new storefronts, State Street's nineteenth century architecture
remains essentially intact. This late 1800s view of the unpaved avenue
looks south from just below Liberty St.
THE DAILY ALMANAC
Read the
Gargoyle!
208 S. First, Ann Arbor 996-8555
JANUARY BANDS
23-24 TRACY LEE &
THE LEONARDS
28 THE LIARS
29 JEANNIE &
THE DREAMS
Drink Specials Every
MON $1 SHOTS
TUE $3 BEER PITCHERS
WED $2 MARGARITA MUGS
THU $1 WATERMELONS
WARSAW SINFONIA
YEHUDI MENUHIN
Bach: A-minor Violin Concerto;
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll;
Rossini: La Scala di Setd Overture;
Bacewicz: Concerto for Strings;
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 ("Italian").
Tickets: $22, 21, 16, 12, 10.
Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 8pm,
Hill Auditorium.
KIRI TE KA
"One of the world's most lu
voices; superbly focused, ac
agile, beautifully musical."
The Washington Post.
Tickets: $22, 21, 16, 12,
Tuesday, Feb. 10
at 8pm, Hill Audi
10 years ago -- January
30, 1977: "We are not going to
drink that coffee. Put that cup
down," shouted Couzens RA Jeff
Weinfeld from a cafeteria tabletop.
He was helping to lead a student
boycott of coffee to protest recent
drastic price increases. But 'the
action did little to inspire others,
leading Weinfeld to lament the new
state of student activism. "Students
accept things they wouldn't have
bcfore," he noted.
In the same edition of The
Daily, newly elected U.S. Rep.
Carl Pursell, clad in a turtleneck
shirt, declared, "I don't like to wear
a suit and tie. I hate. ties. I think
they're the worst invention man
ever made."
4MM JNrIrIrMrlMrllr Irfli i lU1 M/ i r
$5.00 RUSH TICKETS sold Tues., Feb. 3 at Burton Memorial Tower
from 9:00 to 4:30. Limit of two per person; seating at the discretion of the
Musical Society. Availability limited to 200; Choral Union series concerts
only.
$5.00 RUSH TICKETS sold Tues
from 9:00 to 4:30. Limit of two pei
Musical Society. Availability limit
only.
O
PAGE 8
WEEKEND/JANUARY 30, 1987
WEEKEND/JANUARY 30, 1987