ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Buff1
Pow!
W i
B * .
SVi nce Kueterissapn
to bring
poetry to Ann
Arbor. And
you thought
* Lord Byron
was tough.
Tuesday, November 1, 1988
Page 7
MacLaine doesn't age
gracefully in Sousatzka
4Z7 41V
BY ANDREA GACKI
I suppose it's inevitable with
"advanced age." That is, actresses
who have long and venerable careers
behind them are forced to play
mothers and grandmothers, wise old
ladies, and doddering aunts. These
characters, so uninteresting to the
viewing public, nonetheless attract
the attention of the Academy which
perhaps sees a last chance to reward
the actress for all the times she was
cheated of that all-important Oscar.
In Madame Sousatzka, Shirley
MacLaine has such a character.
Her role as an eccentric piano
teacher has been called something
like "a cross between Miss Jean
Brodie and Auntie Maine." Well,
Shirley MacLaine sadly lacks Mag-
gie Smith's austerity as Brodie, and
Rosalind Russell's composure and
hauteur as Mame Dennis would be
incredibly welcome. Madame
Sousatzka is instead like Irma La
Douce with a metronome.
MacLaine hasn't quite fallen out
of character since her Oscar-winning
Madame Sousatzka, for
all of its vaunted charm,
actually forces its quaint
characters to stereotype
themselves.
performance in Terms of
Endearment: her character is still
possessive, obsessed, and rather
repressed. But this role will
nevertheless be praised, not so much
for what Shirley MacLaine has done
with it as for what she has done in
the past, because M a d a m e
Sousatzka, for all of its vaunted
charm, actually forces its quaint
characters to stereotype themselves.
John Schlesinger's film is gener-
ally focused upon the life of Manek
Sen (Navin Chowdhry), a young In-
dian virtuoso. He comes to Madame
Sousatzka to learn by her odd
method, a teaching style that in-
cludes summoning music not from
the fingers but from the abdomen
and constant feasting upon the
cookies of dear old Maman. Lady
Emily (Peggy Ashcroft) is the sweet
concierge and owner of Madame's
apartment house; her lilting voice
coos continually "the door is open
-always open." Downstairs is Mr.
Cordle (Geoffrey Baydon), a chiro-
practor, and upstairs is Jenny
See Madame, Page 8
ter'
\ t
z=li
I
Tony Fitzpatrick's no stranger at being a contender - he was
an amateur boxer in a previous life.
BY MARIE WESAW
CONSIDER the Hopwood Awards for a minute -
those yearly literary awards that have brought such
writers and poets as Arthur Miller, Marge Piercy, and
Nancy Willard into the limelight during their years here
at the University. No one can deny, with the
Hopwoods and various writers' series in mind, that the
University's English department provides a venue for
the aspiring poet.
But imagine now that, during one of the Hopwood
presentations, two poets amidst a boisterous and
encouraging Rackham Auditorium crowd arm
themselves with their poetry and square off for a seven
round match, where, in the end, one champion will
remain - ten dollars richer.
Compared to the University's "academia" approach
to poetry, Vince Kueter, organizer of the Ann Arbor
poetry slam:admits that this monthly event appears to
be "selling poetry like McDonald's hamburgers." In the
slam, poets read in front of an audience and judges for
money and bragging rights.
But Kueter does not think the slam is irreverent to
poetry. Instead, he says, the slam provides local poets
"who aren't necessarily connected with the English
department and don't have financial, emotional, and
moral support from their departments" with a
supporting community.
The concept of theyslam, Kueter states, first began
as poetry readings in Chicago jazz clubs such as the
"Get Me High Lounge" in the '60s and '70s. The slam
gained the form it has now in the early '80s, in the
G.
Green Mill bar, formerly owned by Machine Gun Jack
McGurn and patroned by Al Capone, and presently
owned by Marc Smith, who emcees the Sunday night
poetry bouts which draw a crowd of at least two
hundred people.
According to Kueter, the idea of a poetry match,
Compared to the University's "academ-
ia" approach to poetry, Vince Kueter...
admits that (the poetry slam) appears to
be "selling poetry like McDonald's
hamburgers."
complete with judges from the audience, evolved as a
parody of what was going on with poetry at the time.
"You had these editors of journals and a certain
poetic voice that judged that no other voices were
legitimate," states Kueter. He also adds that what the
poetry slam hopefully does for poetry is "infuse it
again with fire and spirit of a multiplicity of voices."
Kueter, who experienced the growth of the poetry
slam in Chicago from a once a week event at the Green
Mill to a nightly event at a different bar each night,
came to Ann Arbor in 1987 to study at the
University's School of Library Science. Now he sees
himself with the mission of building up a close-knit
poetry community, including both University and.non-
University members, through the growth of the slam
See Slam, Page 8
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Study Abroad Programs are as follows:
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FLORENCE, ITALY
Tuesday November 1, 1988 7:15 P.M.
West Conference Room'(4th floor)
Rackham-Graduate School
AIX-EN-PROVENCE,
FRANCE
Wednesday November 2, 1988'
Auditorium D
Angell Hall
7:00 P.M.
I
Wednesday, November 9
IBM INFORMATION DAY
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Wednesday November2, 1988 7:00 P.M.
Max Kade House
603 Oxford
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Thursday November 3, 1988 7:00 P.M.
2402 Mason Hall
-U-
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