}?ge $ - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 9, 1987
'Bonsai' : for college crowds only PIRGIM films
C1 orco a fl
"
By Peter Ephross
A New York Times columnist
once wrote "Uncle Bonsai's music,
while a bit too precious for a mass
audience, seems tailor-made to cap-
ture the hearts of smart college
kids."
It is always refreshing to find a
reviewer who understands the appeal
of a musical group. When Uncle
Bonsai played the Ark last winter,
they performed for one show. That
show drew 55 people. After a little
more exposure, most notably their
crowd-catching performance at this
winter's Folk Festival, the trio will
be playing four shows at the Ark
this weekend, two on Saturday
night and two more on Sunday
night.
Andrew Ratshin, Arni Adler, and
Ashley Eichrodt first met as stu-
dents at Bennington College in Ver-
mont, (best known as the most
expensive institution of higher
learning in America). It's no won-
der, then, that their songs mix a
high level of sarcasm with a certain
amount of envy. Uncle Bonsai con -
stantly make fun of society's
successes. "Isaac's Lament" grieves
at the firing of Gopher from the
television show The Love Boat,
while "Suzy," a song that Ann Ar-
bor's Chenille Sisters have covered
extensively (and even performed on
Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home
Companion), ridicules the plasticity
of a woman living in, shall we say,.
a material world.
Currently based in Seattle, Uncle
Bonsai - the name, not surpris-
ingly, does not mean anything -
perform in a style fairly reminiscent
of the Roches. Their stellar har-
monies are evidenced by their vocal
version of Mozart's "A Little Night
Music." They have also performed
their own version of "The Star
Spangled Banner" before a Seattle
Supersonics basketball game.
Uncle Bonsai frequently mocks
their own - or perhaps society's
- obssession with sex. This is not
surprising, considering that the title
of their current LP is Boys Want
Sex in the Morning. On the rec-
ord's back cover the trio's members
are sitting in a kitchen, surrounded
by twinkies and copies of The Na-
celebrate diversity
tional Enquirer. A closer glance
reveals that Adler is squeezing the
cream out of one of the twinkies.
Their songs provide further evi-
dence; their biggest crowd-pleaser is
their overtly Freudian-influenced
"Penis Envy." To quote lines from
the song would be detract too much
from its performance, so suffice it
to say you'll just have to hear it for
yourself.
Uncle Bonsai's performances
this weekend are guaranteed to de-
stroy any bit of sanctity left in our
society. Performances are scheduled
for Saturday and Sunday nights at
7:30 and 10 p.m.. Tick ets are $10
and can be purchased at the Ark,
Schoolkids, Herb David's, and the
Michigan Union Ticket Office.
(Continued from Page 7)
who must.
The festival began on Monday
with The Left-Handed Woman, the
story of a German housewife who
decideds to move to a little suburb
in Paris.
Starting tonight and extending
through Saturday, PIRGIM will
show a film nightly. This
evening's presentation is Word is
Out, a documentary focusing on the
lives of 26 homosexuals. Through
these interviews, we learn about
what they've been through and what
it means to them to be different
than anyone else.
The film is not what one would
expect. When listening and
watching the people being
interviewed, there is a noticable
absense of sentimentality or self-
pity. Ranging in ages from 18 to
77, those who are being interviewed
simply relate what they have been
through. One turned to the Catholic
Church and found it oppressive;
another had enough of being
rejected by society and ran away to
France to join the Woman's Army
Corps, only to dress in drag and be
dishonorably discharaged; and yet
another had a psychiatrist try 'to
"cure" his homosexuality-by
having him eat two salads a day.
And lots of vegetables.
"A Celebration of Diversity" is
being held at Angell Hall,
Auditorium D. Showtimes for:
Word is Out are at 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Friday's show, Quilombo, is about
multi-racial nation defending itself
against the Portugese; showtimes
are at 7 and 9:30 p.m. The festival
concludes Saturday with Faces of
Women, an erotic film about fem-
inism in modern-day Africa.
Showtimes are at 7:30 and 9:30
p.m.
4
4
i
Danish Film Festival explores adolescence
By Kurt Serbus
A six-film festival sponsored by
the Danish Cultural Institute and
the Danish Film Institute will be
shown free of charge to Ann Arbor
residents this weekend.
The festival, which features all
new (post-1980) Danish films will
include Ann Arbor in its five city,
four month tour thanks mainly to
the efforts of University of
Michigan Danish lecturer Gitte
Mose, though the Danish Language
Endowment Fund, the Department
of Germanic Languages and Lit-
eratures, the Center for Western
Euro pean Studies, and the
Scandanavian Club all had a hand in
bringing the festival to A-town.
Mose, who sees the .series as
"part of a promotion of Danish
language teaching" as well as an
entertaining and enlightening
cultural experience, expressed hopes
that a festival of this sort could
become a bi-annual event in Ann
Arbor.
The films were selected to appeal
to the theme of adolescence, though
the connecting thread is not always
clear. Such films as The World Of
Buster (about a young boy who
refuses to let gritty reality shake his
optimistic faith in the power of
dreams) and Samson and Sally (the
animated adventures of two young
whales searching for the legendary
Moby Dick) seem custom made for
a younger audience. On the other
hand, The Traitors, which deals
with two young men during WWII
whose disdain for communism
causes them to throw in their lots
with the Nazis, and Thunderbirds, a
buddy-buddy film about the
relationship between an extrovert
and an introvert, explore male-
bonding and maturation in slightly
older characters. The remaining two
films, Beauty and the Beast and A
World Full of Children, focus on
adults and their feelings about and
relationships with children. The
former portrays a father who must
learn to let go of his nearly grown
daughter; the latter concerns a
young couple who must stare down
the maw of a childless marrige
when they find they are medically
incapable of conceiving.
The films will be shown in
Angell Hall, auditorium A, at the
following times: Saturday: 4:00-
The Traitors, 7:00-Thunderbirds,
9:00-A World Full Of Children.
Sunday : 2:00-Beauty And The
Beast, 3:40-The World Of Buster,
5:15-Samson And Sally.
Michigan Daily
ARTS
763-0379
I
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IN CONCERT
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TUESDAY LUNCH LECTURES
12 NOON
at the
INTERNATIONAL CENTER - 603 E. Madison
April 14: "Report on the Revolution in Nicaragua:
"Hope and Reality"
Speaker: NILE HARPER,
Director of Ecumenical Campus Center.
Spons ored by
THE ECUMENICAL CAMPUS CANTER & THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER
WHEN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA VISIT UIVERSAL
AN MCA COMPANY
I'
The University of Michigan School of Music
presents
Friday, April 10
WIND ENSEMBLE,
H. Robert Reynolds, conductor.
works by Strauss and Mozart.
Rackham Auditorium, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 11
SYMPOSIUM ON COMPUTERS
AND THE PERFORMING ARTS
Public event: Computer Music Videos,
Auditorium 4, Modern Language Building, 2:00 p.m.
Tickets $3 at the door
CONTEMPORARY DIRECTIONS ENSEMBLE
H. Robert Reynolds, music director.
Icl. computer music by Tod Machover and Roger Reynolds.
Rackham Auditorium, 8:00 p.m.
MEN'S GLEE CLUB
Patrick Gardner, conductor.
Hill Auditorium, 8:00 p.m.
Tickets, 764-1448.
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