The Michigan Daily - Monday, January 29, 1990 - Page,7
REVIEW
Continued from page 5
palachian bluegrass/jazz, then drop-
ping into a nimble rendition of a tra-
ditional breakdown, then crossing to
commercial-format Nashville coun-
try about love "going once, going
twice, going gone." On "Standing
by the Bedside of a Neighbor,"
Krauss sang passionately, approach-
ing the style of Loretta Lynn.
Brown's guitar solo was quiet but
distinctive and ranging.
Up for a Grammy this year, this
group has arrived. Still, in a few
more years they will have found the
power lacked in this performance to
bowl audiences over.
Wainwright loped out, tall,
rugged, in a black T-shirt with a
printed leaping figure over red burst,
and olive drab pants. Grimacing, his
left foot rising with the first
strummed chord, he tilted back pre-
cipitously, knee jerking up, tongue
lolling out. The crowd, anticipating
his antics, roared.
He sang about recovering from a
split-up: "Last night was definitely
not one of the worst I've ever had."
"Holiday Song" brought guffaws
with the line "Give us the strength
to stomach as much as our stomachs
are able," and "If I argue with a loved
one, please make me a winner."
Wainwright picked at the wounds
that don't bleed. He introduced a new
song about arts censorship, singing:
"If Jesse don't like it then its proba-
bly not art.... That statue of David is
okay with Jesse, 'cause Michelan-
gelo gave him such a tiny pee-
pee...." (refrain): "Jesse's favorite
painting is one of a clown, with a
daisy in his hand and a tear rolling
down."
Sweet Honey in the Rock sang
deep apd true, twining harmonies in
recurring patterns evocative of South
African singing, fired with gospel-
shouting and blues growls. Once the
politics were off the deck and the
music given full stage, the deep,
throbbing voice of Ysaye Maria
Barnwell commanded several num-
bers, while Aisha Kahlil worked up
an arm-twisting tough blues with
beautiful range and youthful enthusi-
asm like Valerie Wellington. At
their peak, with tambourine,
marimabas, shakere and claves all
shaking and thumping, the six-
woman troupe made a vision of mu-
sic built from risen spirits.
Michael Hedges climbed all over
his guitar with harmonies as tough
as drill bits, soaked with spidery
fills. He danced and hovered on a bil-
lowing carpet like a spark on cats'
feet. Joel Mabus got laughs from the
early-buzzing crowd. He sang, "I'm
just holding things together, singing
the duct-tape blues."
Free Hot Lunch featured Gumby
(human-sized) on pink Telecaster
guitar. A mix of Mungo Jerry and
the Kingston Trio from the land of
cheese, they provided -serviceable
music and a few laughs.
Owen McBride was a passable
emcee, though his traditional humor
occasionally raised the heckles of
some feminists in the crowd.
Josh White offered inspired sing-
ing and rapid narrrative on topics of
cigarette filters, Oral B-40 tooth-
brushes, and the merits of flossing
with unwaxed dental floss. He con-
cluded to shrill cheers, indicating
he's still a local favorite and wel-
come to perform here anytime.
-Mark Webster
Affairs falls
short of goals
For imaginative Musical Theatre
seniors Brad Godette and Robb
McKindles, this weekend was a
moment long awaited: three perfor-
mances of their first music/theatre
collaboration, Modern Affairs. The
workshop production gave the young
writers the chance to gauge audience
reaction and to figure the next steps
in sharpening their creation.
Unlike most musicals, the story-
line of Modern Affairs was not
derived from an existing source.
McKindles himself invented the tale
of two married couples, Sandy and
Dan and Carol and Mike, who
switch spouses for one-time liaisons
unbeknownst to each's other half.
There is also a single friend, Jane,
who outwardly enjoys her freedom,
and a chorus of yuppie friends who
awkwardly bop in and out of the
scene. In addition, McKindles has
included a character named Pandora
who functions as a cynical Greek
chorus, instigator, referee, con-
science, and all of Jane's many
boyfriends.
The intimate confines of the
Trueblood Theatre were host to the
450 audience members over the
weekend and the sparse setting of a
dining table and chairs and the sem-
blance of a living room with a bar.
The simple set doubled as the homes
of both couples, distinguished by
*moving a chair and toss.ng a fabric
on the couch.
McKindles, who directed the pro-
duction, received able support from
his cast. As Jane, Jen Thompson
gropes her way on stage with an
emotionally confused, good-time-girl
ambivalence that is most poignant
in an introspective, embittered bal-
lad. A fidgety Becca Daniels, soft-
spoken Juliet Ewing, combustive
Drew Frady and groomed Ian Knauer
as Carol, Sandy, Dan and Mike
make the best of the often flat script.
The sense is frequently that the
characters are not doing what the
authors wanted them to do. Dialogue
runs on without providing us the in-
sight needed to make sense of these
characters in these situations. Who
are they? How do they know one an-
other? What do they do for a living?
We don't know enough about them
to really care about their situation.
The show desires that those in
the audience examine their values
and change accordingly, and in a des-
perate effort, the Pandora figure
heavy-handedly shoves this down our
gullets. In addition, the superfluous
chorus' final, preachy song hits us
from some forgotten '70s sensibil-
ity: the psychosis of the Me genera-
tion as it liberates itself.
The program says the story is set
in 1980s New York City, but the
evening felt more retro. Brad
Godette's musical compositions
spanned the realm of rock ballads
from mellow and sentimental to
harder fare. The most accomplished
song is "Love Between Friends,"
heard as each person in the adulter-
ous couples realizes his/her sexual
attraction to the other. The musical
moment is the climax of the scene
and takes us beyond what has been
said. Many of the other songs are in -
trospective, and although they reveal
emotion, there was little action to
them and they don't inform the char-
acter as best as they could. The bal-
lads that Godette has written also
have similar progressions and struc-
tures that leave them rather
monotonous by show's end.
Despite the show's various prob-
lems and the similarities between it
and shows like Company, Romance!
Romance!, and even Pippin, the
moments that indeed have vital life
will likely guide these young artists
to developing their vision into all
that it can be.
-Jay Pekala
GUILD
Continued from page 5
mor into her work, presenting it "as
a weapon to hurt people, a defense,
and a band-aid."
If you're witnessing the onset of
a very violent storm, what do you
do? Would you pray, or say "the
weather forecast states that it is not
life-threatening?" Lisa Poneck will
invite you to answer your own ques-
tions as she explores the potency of
the uncanny. And watching Chi-
canos wave knives at a storm from
their doorway "to keep the storm
from coming in," as Poneck has,
opens the eyes to the strange as it
flashes at stage center in cultural and
personal everyday life.
The mythological features of our
lives are all too cloaked in the mores
of society. We often act without
thinking, or without seeing the im-
plications behind the scenario of
which we play a part. But Poneck
fleshes them out, sniffing out the
"unexpected things...when some-
thing surprising happens...(in)...the
way people interact with each other."
"People have said my writing is
very surprising or original in ordi-
nary situations," says Poneck, who
won a Hopwood last year for "Better
Homes," "Grey Friar's Bobby,"
"Having Grandmmo's Baby," and the
ever-popular "Touching Cheval."
But Poneck's willingness to step
back from the scene of action, allow-
ing people to interact with the story,
makes readers more responsive to her
work. Though Poneck's previous
satire left readers emotionally unin-
volved, her commitment to "mixing
(our) own lives with imagined
things," lets readers experience a
psychic landscape in her work.
Poneck's lucid imagination par-
ticularly enriches her work through
intimacy with character, exemplified
by the exercises in her creative writ
ing .class. The graduate of the Uni-
versity's MFA writing program asks
her students to "pick an obituary out
of the paper, and imagine what the
person looked like, where they live."
LISA PONECK and ELISA LICHT-
ENBAUM will read at 8:30 p.m. at
Guild House, 802 Monroe.
3rd Bass
The Cactus Album
DefJam
The second crew of rappers that
happens to be Caucasian call them-
selves 3rd Bass, referring to the Ab-
bott and Costello act "Who's On
First?" They kick off their debut reg-
ulating and dis(respect)ing many a
Fisher-Price MC, as bold a kicking-
down of the door as can be.
A ruthless barb against "DefJam
rejects" the Beastie Boys could be
considered timely (on "Sons of 3rd
Bass"), but who would've expected
lines like "black cats mean bad luck/
bad guys wear black/ must've been a
white guy who started all that/ give
'em the gas face, for those little
white lies/ my expression to those
mountainous blue eyes?" Or a role-
reversal sermon on racism like
"Triple Stage Darkness," with the
Prime Minister begging the ques-
tion, "How can hatred uplift a race?"
The duo constantly draws razor-sharp
lines for tolerance, as one of them
expresses, "We're Professor Griff-
meaning, we're outta here."
Producers Prince Paul (De La
Soul), Hank Shocklee, Eric Sadler
(Public Enemy), and Sam Sever
(Run-DMC) assemble an impressive
assortment of noises to soundtrack
the Cactus sound, some difficult to
trace, others not so obscure. The
elaborately industrial beat of NWA's
"Straight Outta Compton" finds its
way onto the catchy, hypnotic
"Wordz of Wizdom," while the
groove that first turned up on BDP's
"My Philosophy," then again on
Mellowman Ace's "Hip Hop Crea-
ture," becomes the backup for "Soul
in the Hole." It would seem that
with the sampling range limited
only to the imagination, this beat-
swapping could be diminished. Mu-
sical interchangeability hardly justi-
fies stealing grooves. In other words,
popular music will eat itself.
Also, there is an annoyingly
large number of minute-long snip-
pets on the LP, a lot of which didn't
necessarily have to be listed:
"Stymie's Theme" kicks off the first
side, while a ridiculously whimsical
track called "Desert Boots" pokes fun
at a repeated target, Dante "The
Scrubb" Ross, an associate of De La
Soul. Otherwise, the second side of-
Cactus is somewhat more relevant,
for the title track with its phallic
symbolism and sexual innuendo;
"Brooklyn-Queens," an ode to inner-
city golddiggers; and a Satchmo farce
titled "Flippin' Off the Wall Like
Lucy Ball."
Last semester, this critic praised
the Beastie Boys, giving them ample
credit for their meticulous Beat mu-
sic and trippery.
But these hardcore B-boys rend
that eccentricity to pieces, then ren-
der it utterly useless.
-Forrest Green III
BOOKS
Continued from page 5
greater things from its author in the
future. But for the present, most of
Hernandez' promises are false ones,
served up by her contorted plot line.
A novel that begins with a terrifying
border crossing and ends with the
family rich as kings in Mexico does
not have much of the ring of truth
about it - excepting the family's
eventual arrival back where it began.,
But most of those that cross -
or recross - the great river never
have it as good as Kata does, on ei-
ther shore. Would that Kata's pro
genitor had given freer rein to the
haunting fears through which, at
times, her novel gets to the heart of
the insecurities and deprivations
which all too often mark the lives of
this country's Latin American im-
migrants.
-Mike Fischer
SAY IT INTHE....
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(ask for Dan) 209-211 S. State St.
SPRING BREAK GET-AWAYI Traverse
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Romantic. Outdoor hot tub option. $38-58
nightly. (616) 276-9502.
SPRING BREAK DAYTONA BEACH -
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(without bus), $214 (with bus). Contact Steve
at 930-6547.
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THINKING ABOUT SUN? What are you
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first class beachside hoetls in Cancun,
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teed lowest prices! Sarah 147-6121.
VOUCHER for roundtrip airfare on S. West
Airlines. Best offer 665-2599 Mike.
We Are The Sprin Break Authority!!!
ACAPULC from $519.00
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al 7 ni Ts hotel and transfers
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CHEAP DATE lotsa fun. Bowling at Colo-
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