ARTS
Monday, October 15, 1990
The Michigan Daily
Mould isn't too far
down
Page 5
IN
evi
by Annette Petruso
"I wish for things I never had/
*urrounds and wells up in my eyes!
the screaming voice, it lies" -
"Wishing Well."
"I think the songs are uplifting,
actually," Bob Mould replied when
asked if he is a depressed person.
When you think about it, that's what
the songs are - an obvious emo-
tional release which makes people
think about life, their own and
ould's. From the controlled yet
omber rage disclosed on Workbook
to the searing guitars and mostly bit-
ter lyrics found on Black Sheets of
Rain, Mould has allowed listeners
to peer into his intricate conscious-
ness.
His pensive, self-reflective angst
has been on public display for a
number of years, first as a driving
force in the band Hasker D. After
*heir break-up in 1988, Mould lived
alone on a Minnesota farm, working
on what was to be known as Work-
book.
"Well, the silence in this house!
it echoes in this house/ I pull myself
together, say/ 'Today I will get
out"'" -"Lonely Afternoon"
Soon after Workbook's release,
Mould moved to New York and
Poured in support of the album. He
released Black Sheets of Rain just a
couple of months ago.
AP: Did the change of environ-
ment have anything to do with the
change in sounds between albums?
BM: It's got something to do
with it, yeah. I think a lot of the
:ouring from last year as well. You
khow, just getting back out and
playing for people, getting that en-
rgy going again. Also, I really liked
playing electric guitar again on this
'record. Not that Workbook didn't
gave any but this record is a lot
more forward, I think.
"These sins, they seem to fit you
well" - "Sinners and their Repen-
tances"
AP: Workbook uses the images
of sins and lies over and over again.
Why?
BM: Because it's better than say-
ing right and wrong. Right and
wrong is the kind of thing you really
can't put a finger on. I think the dif-
ference between truth and lies is a lot
more interesting question.
"Checking in every morning to
the sound of steam and caffeine/ the
sludge in the bottom of the cup just
like the sludge in the stream/ slag
*heap keep growing higher! every
morning the sky it's on fire and it's
only 9 a.m." - "Black Sheets of
Rain"
AP: Why is Black Sheets of Rain
so full of nature imagery?
BM: It's just metaphors for
states of mind. It's not an environ-
Kiss In The Hotel
Joseph Conrad - And
Other Stories
Howard Norman
Penguin/softcover
A hotel wallpapered with the
pages of Joseph Conrad stories, an
4 skimo woman who believes her
missing son is in a jukebox, two
mannequins embracing in a truck -
elements like these set apart the sto-
ries of seemingly simple characters.
Yet Howard Norman's short stories
in Kiss in the Hotel Joseph Conrad
do not rely on the shock value of
bizarre images. Their straightforward
narration and clear images come
from the viewpoint of an insider,
"one who finds these small town oc-
mental statement at all. On Work-
book, people were finding a lot of
religious imagery that I really didn't
think was there until they mentioned
it. It's just words that I choose to
convey a feeling.
"Lately I've been thinking and
how the whole world's come un-
done/ everybody's got this sinking
feeling/ feeling they're on the run."
- "It's Too Late"
AP: The nature imagery that you
use seems negative. It could be
called social or political commen-
tary. And at the end of the video for
"It's Too Late," the wall has the
ACT-UP slogan "Silence = Death"
on it. Are you becoming more so-
cially or politically active in your
music and in your own life?
BM: The idea of the video is it
touches on a lot of different things.
It's interesting, the people who have
seen it have all responded to different
ones, whether it was the environ-
mental stuff or whether it was the
homeless scenario or whether the
censorship thing or the AIDS thing.
I think, what it comes down to... in
popular music there are a lot of peo-
ple who have felt a need to make
their cause the most important one
throughout their music. And I have a
pretty basic fundamental problem
with that because people look at
what I do because I'm a musician
and there's always that fear impact if
I were to just stay on one thing or
get really active in a way like being
really environmentally aware in the
music, people would go 'yeah Bob
Mould, yeah we love his music,I'm
into the environment now.' I guess
what I'm trying to get at is that ev-
erybody has to make their own per-
sonal agenda as to what's important
in their life. I think, with the video
what we're trying to present is a lot
of different options... maybe it's
helping them sort out their agenda.
"I've been on the mend/ I've
been getting ready to change my
name again/ and once I had a love
so fair/ once I had a reason to keep
on/ left a paragraph taped up on my
door/ it said 'don't wait up cause I
ain't coming home'/ so I've been
driving far and wide to find a call in
life/ been looking for a place I be-
long" -"Hanging Tree?"
AP: You use "I" a lot in your
songs. How much of this is you?
BM: Pretty much all of it.
AP: Are you a depressed person
or do you just use songs to relieve
depression?
BM: I think a lot. When I'm re-
ally enjoying life, really having a
good time with people that's not
when I write songs. When I write,
I'm by myself, just thinking about
things, things that confuse me,
things that aren't right. In writing
those songs, it's maybe a way to
find what the solution is.
A delightful
day at the Zoo
"During that twenty seconds -
or two hours -we made contact,"
said the character Jerry, played by
Richard Perloff, about his landlady's
hound dog from hell in the Basement
Arts production of The Zoo Story
this weekend. Yet the statement ap-
plies to the effect Perloff and Andy
Newberg (Peter) had on the audience
in Edward Albee's two character one-
act play. They made contact.
The Zoo Story, while one of the
most intense and provoking one-act
plays ever written, is extremely dif-
ficult to perform. Making a conver-
sation in Central Park between a
Yuppie type and a transient exciting
to an audience seems almost impos-
sible, especially when one of them
rambles on for 25 minutes. But
Perloff and Newberg, as directed by
Jeffrey Chrisope, succeeded in
pulling in their audience, pushing
them to the edge of their seats, and
making them lean forward at a 45
degree angle to catch every word of
dialogue.
Perloff's intensity is the glue that
kept the performance together, from
the moment he walked on stage and
said, "I've been to the zoo," to the
final "Oh...my...God," that he
gasped as the dying Jerry. When he
described his small room in a brown-
stone rooming house on the west
side of Central Park, we saw it.
When he rambled his account of poi-
soning the "descendant of the puppy
that guarded the gates o hell or
some other such resort," we were
right there with him, putting the rat
poison in the hamburger. And when
he pulled the knife-wielding Peter to
him, forcing the blade to pierce his
ribs, we were there, as bewildered
and shocked.as Peter.
Newberg's performance, with his
congenial manner and confused
looks, ("Why did you tell me all of
this?") played off of Perloff's psy-
chotic behavior beautifully. Al-
though such phrases as "My good
fellow," and the smoking of a pipe
at the onset of the play did not come
natural to the youthful Newberg, his
anger, bewilderment, and fright
throughout the rest (after about the
first 10 minutes) were right on tar-
get.
In addition, the direction by
Chrisope was extremely insightful,
although the lighting was a little
odd. The red light at the beginning
of Jerry's poisoned dog speech was
too dramatic, and given Perloff and
Newberg's energy, altogether unnec-
essary.
- Mary Beth Barber
Bob Mould and his guitar - sure to inspire multiple orgasms for anyone
who hears him play live.
"Well, I'm sorry your disap-
pointed but times they change and
so did I" - "Disappointed"
AP: When people get really into
certain musicians, a common phrase
used is so-and-so is God. I've been
hearing that lately about you. What
do you think about that and what
does it feel like to be called a God?
BM: I'm glad they like the mu-
sic. I don't know if I'd want that
handle but if it makes them think
about themselves and makes them
realize what they go through is, it's
unique to them, but the experiences
or situations that I sing about, you
know, happen to everybody. At
whatever level people tap into this
music is, I have no control over
that. I've got a responsibility to
make music that reflects what I'm
thinking about and that's an honest
representation. I don't have an obli-
gation to be anything to anyone. I
think everybody's strong enough in
their own way to do what they need
to do.
"And everybody goes whichever
way the wind blows" -"Vhichever
Way the Wind Blows"
AP: Do you identify with Jesus
Christ?
BM: No, but there's somebody
that makes the whole thing spin...
BOB MOULD appears tonight at the
Nectarine Ballroom with ULTRA
VIVID SCENE opening. Doors open
at 9 p.m. Tickets are $13.50
available at Schoolkid's (plus an
evil $1 service charge) and at Tick-
etmaster (plus a larger evil service
charge).
s
Have you and
your friends
discovered
one of the
20th century's
most influential
thinkers?
currences entirely normal.
The stories read as variations on a
theme; the solitary men (and boys)
who are the main characters look for
something they do not have, or can
not find. Their abstract longings for
understanding and solace in a lonely
world take on different forms. Jake, a
fourteen-year-old boy, finds escape
from his unloving parents by
writing long letters to his estranged
Aunt Helen, whose life revolves
around her experience as a shipwreck
survivor. An ex-pilot nurses his
unrequited love for a married woman
during almost. 20 years of nowhere
jobs and cheap hotels. He remarks
on the Hotel Joseph Conrad, "The
joke was that more people had
checked in than had checked out...
Transients, mostly, and old tenants
who signed in each night just to
make sure they were home."
Themes of transiency run through
the book; half the main characters
are train conductors and no story is
set in just one town. In the last
story, a failed set designer from L.A.
ends up running a drive-in movie
theater in Vermont. Whether or not
any of these characters find
fulfillment is unsure; simple stories
do not always have simple answers.
Reading short stories can be fit
into schedules with mile-long
reading lists and ten-page paper as-
signments. The benefit of reading
what the publisher calls
"Contemporary American Fiction" is
See BOOKS, page 7
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THE AYN RAND LEXICON
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