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The Michigan Daily
Friday, March 31, 1989
Page 8
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Virgin Machine
beautifully erotic
BY ALYSSA KATZ
The International Lesbian and Gay Male Film Festival continues tonight
with the Michigan premiere of Monika Treut's Virgin Machine, a beauti-
fully photographed film from Germany.
Dorothee Muller (Ina Blum) is a journalist unsatisfied with her life in
Germany. Her relationships with men are, well, odd: her editor/boyfriend is
a creep, and she is a little too friendly with her half-brother. It's no wonder,
then, that she decides to embark on a quest for romantic love. She goes to
San Francisco, ostensibly to look for her long-lost mother, but instead falls
in with the city's vibrant lesbian community.
Although made on a low budget, Virgin Machine is a well-made, highly
enjoyable film. The sharp black and white cinematography (by Elfi
Mikesch, who also worked on A Virus Has No Morals) is a pleasure to
watch, as are the offbeat individualists whom Dorothee meets in her travels.
A scene in which the dynamic Susie Sexpert (Susie Bright, a real-life "sex
educator" who essentially plays herself) proudly displays her collection of
dildoes to Dorothee is absolutely priceless - Susie is especially fond of a
black one that has a whip attached to it. Also playing herself, more or less,
is Dominique Gaspar, an eccentric and mysterious woman who is simply
fascinating to watch. The beautiful Shelly Mars simply radiates sexuality as
Roxanne, a sex therapist and stripper in a lesbian bar. Her act is great -
dressed as a slick, mustachioed stud, she moves with a strange and erotic
grace.
A sex scene involving Roxanne and Dorothee is handled nicely; it is
erotic, rather than sensationalistic. This low-key approach is evident
throughout Virgin Machine: Especially in the film's second half, lesbianism
is presented not as an alternative lifestyle, but as the norm. It's also great to
see that Treut doesn't portray all lesbians as somehow perfect and above re-
proach; here, they are entitled to be just flawed as anyone. Likewise,Virgin
Machine itself is not perfect, but it is as entertaining as anything else you're
likely to see this weekend.
VIRGIN MACHINE and STORME: THE LADY OF THE JEWEL BOX
will be shown tonight at 7 and 9:15 p.m. at Nat Sci Auditorium. Tickets
$2,50.
Vagabond tells story
of Mysterious Mona
BY BRIAN JAR VINEN
MVIAN, a lot of intense shit went
down here in Ann Arbor in the
'60s. Too bad ya missed it. But ya
can relive some of it - if ya got the
bread that is, unlike that old decade
when ya could enjoy free things like
a Grateful Dead concert in West
Park.
So, ya thought the CIA recruiting
protests the last few years were rad-
ical, well they tain't nothin - in
the '60s local hip-icals BOMBED
the local CIA office. These days I
bet ya feel pretty proud walking
down the street with your long hair,
your ripped jean jacket, your too-
loud rock and roll destroying your
ear drums on your $200 Walkman®
on the way to pick up an eighth for
the weekend's festivities. Butt re-
gardless of what ya may think of the
'60s ya gotta thank those OLD -
timers for the mostly legal freedoms
we enjoy today. I mean, little things
like sleeping with your unmarried
significant-other in a mixed-race
group household could get ya shot,
or selling a mere two joints of
cannabis (the Man didn't really care
if it was killer-indica or spacy-
sativa) to a narc might result in a
ten year prison sentence in Mar-
quette and/or Jackson.
The latter harshity happened to
local '60s personality John Sinclair.
At the time ten years was the max
sentence for possession of nar-
cotics. Sinclair had one previous
dope arrest and a bullshit assaulting-
an-officer charge to his credit; he was
also the former manager of that
righteous band of rock and roll
freeks, the MCS, a prolific writin'
radical, and one of the founders of
the White Panther party. In short,
someone the Amerikan system was
none too pleased with.
So Sinclair went off to JAIL,
and his contemporaries in the Tree-
town scene were none too pleased.
Thus began a string of benefit con-
certs (one of which featured the
mouth-watering/brain-MELTING
combined forces of the 5, the
Stooges, the Rationals, the Amboy
Dukes, Seger's System, Commander
Cody, Mitch Ryder, and Shakey
$5
for
1?
Ten for Two captures John Sinclair Freedom Rally
Not
then
They waited eight hours for this? John Lennon played a mere four sc
Rally, which a crew he hired recorded on film. The film, Ten For Two, w:
threats by the Nixon administration to deport Lennon.
BY MARK SHAIMAN
ER self-given name is Mona and
she :is nearly as enigmatic as Da-
VinOi's painting of similar name.
WJin the film Vagabond opens,
Mtina is dead, frozen in a ditch on
thy'side of a road. The film con-
tinues in retrospect, tracing the
events leading to Mona's demise.
Unlike DaVinci's Mona Lisa, this
Mona has little reason to smile.
We meet her as the vagabond she
was, travelling about with a back-
pack and a tent, living from day to
day. She says she does it because she
likes the freedom, had hated the life
as a secretary. And it is easy to re-
spect her for her choice, as we've all
wanted to pack it in at some point in
our life.
And for a while all seems to go
well for her; hitchhiking is easy in
France, especially for an attractive
young lady. Rides are abundant
enough and free meals sometimes ac-
company them, but there is more to
life than food and shelter. Mona has
two loves in her life: music and
grass. Unfortunately for her, both re-
quire money, and any cash that
Mona manages to earn or be given is
soon spent on food, never able to
save enough for even a small port-
able radio.
Her needs and desires bring her in-
to contact with many different peo-
ple, and the lives of these people and
Mona's effects on them become as
important to the film as Mona her-
self. While illegally staying in a va-
cant mansion with her grass-pro-
viding radio-carrying then-lover,
Mona is seen by a young house-
keeper who views their sleep-em-
brace as a sign of true love.
Mona representssomething dif-
ferent to each person who meets her.
To an old woman whose relatives are
waiting for her to kick off, Mona is
her long-past youth, and to a career-
oriented middle-aged woman, she is
unrestrained freedom. But little is ac-
tually known about Mona herself,
and after she exits various people's
lives, comments like "I don't even
know her name," and "I don't even
See Mona, Page 9
Jake [how much would you pay to
see a movie of that concert?]), and
protests culminating in a com-
bination of the two in a huge event
attended by 15,000 people at Crisler
Arena on December 10, 1971, billed
as the "John Sinclair Freedom
Rally." Like so many important
things back then, it was recorded for
posterity (I'm getting to that).
As a political rally starring
members of the Magnificent err
ummm Chicago Seven, Allen
Ginsberg, and a bunch of other ac-
tivists, it was a mixed success. Of
Bobby Seale's speech, Michigan
Daily writer Herb Bowie said it
"certainly proved, if not his political
prowess, his speaking ability." A
telephone call from the beneficiary
of the whole event, Sinclair, drew a
better reaction when he emotionally
declared "I wish I could be there,
man."
But most of the fans came for the
music, which was donated by ap-
propriately political (read: lame)
rockers The Up, unsurprisingly po-
litical folk musician Phil Ochs,
Teegarden & VanWinkle, Stevie
Wonder, David Peel, and Ann Ar-
bormites Commander Cody and the
pre-lame Bob Seger. The real draw,
however, was John & Yoko.
Memories of The Beatles were still
overpowering, and thelmagine LP
had just come out. So when the
Lennons came on after eight long
hours and played only four songs,
the average fan felt cheated (at least
John had the good taste to use a
National Steel guitar). I mean, just
how think disappointing it would be
to not get a chance to use your
lighter during a mass sing-a-long of
"Imagine."
Most of the effort went for
naught anyway, as the Legislature
pre-empted the concert the day be-
fore with a bill that reduced the
ongs at the John Sinclair Freedom
aited 18 years for release because of
penalties for use of "The Sacrament"
(dope) to a misdemeanor, resulting
in Sinclair's FREEDOM soon af-
ter. The footage shot by a crew hired
by Lennon was edited down to a
two-hour flick, (to get to the point
of this article), Ten For Two, which
premieres locally Sunday night. The
movie was never released because
Lennon's lawyers felt it wouldn't
help his already precarious position
with immigration officials.
The money raised by this
screening is going to fund the mak-
ing of another documentary on those
groovy times A2 experienced 20
years ago; Now, by my logic (10 for
2), the $10 admission would get you
into this next documentary free (the
people in the movie once called for
"the end of money"), but I doubt
that will be the case.
TEN FOR TWO premieres at the
Michigan Theater Sunday at 7:30
p.m. Admission is $10.
i
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{ .
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Yawp varies artistic forms, approaches
Z
BY JAY PINKA
FROM poet Laura Sagolla'scontemplationstof
the complete love of the Platonic world to the
exotic fictional reflections on Africa of Stryk
Thomas, literary magazine The Yawp (formerly
Barbaric Yawp) exposes a diversity of undergrad-
uate creativity.
"This year's issue breaks a lot of ground,"
says editor Mark Kolar, emphasizing the maga-
zine's additional features of photographs and line
drawings, including a startling photograph of a
man swathed in linen, posing as Rodin's
"Thinker."
Luckily, however, you won't have to
concentrate as intensely as he, or be an English
major, to enjoy the magazine. The simple, sharp
language and focused voice of Stryk Thomas in
Collision Course magnifies haunting images of
Africa, while embracing you in an intimate ex-
ploration of the surge and balance of emotion in
relationships: "Becky fought to stand, but I held
her there for a few moments more, wanting both
of us to feel the rising tide of fear at the sound."
An 80's Love Idyll, by David Levien, shocks
with its rap-like lingo and raw treatment of top-
ics such as abortion. This story strips the issues
down to nakedness, stimulating a provocative
insight into typical college life. In this way,
breaches the assumed gap between literature and
how we live.
The above are two among three stories. The
third, Communion, puts human charity and
compassion triumphant up against the waste of
nuclear war. Its length shows the emphasis on
fiction in this issue.
Yawp's poems offer a speedier gratification
that you might seek between classes. Lisa
Haselby's straightforward narrative maps out the
rift between father and daughter in the free verse
of Graduation, whereas Eric Peterson's untitled
poem startles contrastingly in its disjunctive
stream of images: "A dessicated apple/ someone
left it after the/ firetruck rang by/ two weeks
ago." In the realm of literary allusion is David ;
Manchel's "Dachau the First as he shares a
dream uprooting mythic figures in the frame of
personal journey.
Poetic variation in form, content and structure
"appeals to a broader audience," says editor Kelly
Schell. The staff worked intentionally for these
changes, as seen by the omission of "Barbaric" in
its title.
Editor Damon McParland maintained the
democratic practices in selecting which submis-
sions will be published, re-emphasizing the UEA t
magazine's pull away from tunnel-vision litera-
ture that interests only a few. "As long as the {
majority of people like it, it gets in," he said.
The public is invited to an opening reception for,'
THE YAWP, this afternoon at 4 p.m. in the
Michigan Union Pond Room. Authors will read
from their work, and refreshments will be served.
JOSTENS
GOLD RING SALE
IS COMING! __
4
The RC Players
TWO ORIGINAL ONE-ACT
FARCES
(BY HOPWOOD AWARD WINNING PLAYWRIGHTS)
LawsCM80I
re -
Take a look into the future.
Compufair '89
Thursday and Friday,
in the Union
4
.1
I;
"The foolishness of God
God
haS a
SenSe of
humorI
join us in some
is wiser than human wisdom"
St. Pau.
ul
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Order your college ring NOW.
Stop by and see a Jostens representative,
Wednesday, March 29-thru Friday, March 31,
-nnn m t Ao .nnn m