Page 8-The Michigan Daily- Monday, September 30, 1991

Let's talk about art:
lunch wlth some class
by Amy Kurlansky
Dame D'Auxere, Kritios Boy, Discobolos, Doryphoros, Hermes and
Dionysis, Laocoon. If none of these titles ring a bell, it must be because you
missed Art Talks at the University Museum of Art this past Thursday.
From noon until one, Lauren Talalay, the Curator of Education and
Assistant to the Director of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, showed
slides and discussed key monuments in the history of Greek art to an audi-
ence of about 30, including a large number of future museum docents.
Talalay focused on the development and treatment of the human form in
Greek sculpture, like Dame D'Auxere, to the idealized, fluidly muscular
form of Discobolos by Myron.
The curator described the origin of the sculpture, more commonly
known as "The Discus Thrower," as the High Classical period, a time when
the Greeks believed man to be the "measure of all things." Laocoon, the
Hellenistic work depicting the death of Laocoon and his two sons, shows
how Classical art developed into a more dramatic, violent period reflecting
the turbulent political mood of the age, contrasting the more stoic, idea-
lized sculpture of just a century earlier.
These are the fascinating, sometimes obscure historical tidbits offered
by Art Talks, a program that will run weekly through the fall and winter
semesters. Nan Plummer, the assistant director of programs at the
University art museum, says that the lectures will give a "quick overview
of the history of Western art." By May, participants should know ev-
erything they could want about the subject. The program targets the gen-
eral public and doesn't "assume that one has had a career in Art History."
Seniors Kelly Ballard and Melanie Levine felt that this week's Art
Talks lecture was "good for people who don't know anything about art
history" and are "just interested in learning more about art."
Art Talks is the last section of the weekly programs that Plummer
calls "Midday at the Museum." Art Break, a twenty minute docent-guided
tour, is every Tuesday from 12:10-12:30 p.m. Wednesdays at noon there are
Art Videos on various artists, and the Midday at the Museum midweek
program ends with Art Talks on Thursdays, an informal, eat-your-lunch
lecture and slide presentation. One can feel free to sit back and relax - no
notes, no tests, no grades, just class. In such a relaxed atmosphere, the in-
formation is more interesting and easy to absorb.
This will only be Art Talks' third week, but Plummer says that there
has been a "wonderful turn out both weeks." She adds that the museum has
been"very encouraged from the beginning that this is something people
want to know about and will enjoy."
So, if you want to add a little artistic spice to your Thursday afternoons,
make a date for lunch with the University Art Museum.
ART TALKS will discuss Roman and Early Christian Art on Thursday,
Oct. 3, and Romanesque and Gothic Art on Thursday, Oct. 10. The talks
are from noon to 1 p.m. in the AV room. Admission is free. Call 764-0395
for info.

Big Audio Dynamite II
The Globe
Epic/Sony
Long before EMF, Jesus Jones,
The Happy Mondays and the rest of
their neo-psychedelic-drenched co-
horts had even heard of sampling,
there was Big Audio Dynamite. Led
by ex-Clash guitarist Mick Jones,
B.A.D. injected raucous, three-chord
English punk with funky samples,
tape loops and urban beatbox
grooves.
Now, in 1991, Jones has once
again thrown us a curveball: he un-
ceremoniously fires the entire orig-
inal band, recruits three new musi-
cians (Chris Kavanaugh, ex-drum-
mer of the infamous Sigue Sigue
Sputnik among them) and calls it
(ta-da!) Big Audio Dynamite II. The
Globe introduces this stripped-
down and revved-up-for-the-'90s
line-up, redefining the very genre
that B.A.D. created. The disc posi-
tively screams London youth cul-
ture. It conjures vivid images of
underground "raves," hooded tops,
and i-D magazine, from the trippy
dance grooves down to the Stussy-
designed cover art.
"Rush," a high-powered, guitar-
driven track propelled by the over-
used but effective "Funky Drum-
mer" breakbeat, kicks off the disc.
This autobiographical song tells of
the ups and downs of Jone's career.
He proclaims that "If I could do it
all again/ I wouldn't change a
thing," and tells how he "Rushed
for a change of atmosphere," i.e. the
all-new B.A.D. This song, like most
of the others, features a break in the
middle that careens off into left-
field, before eventually jumping
back into the original groove. This is
an homage to De La Soul, one of
Jone's idols.
"I Don't Know" oozes from the
speakers on an eerie, ambient wave
of floating synths before crashing
into a hard, percolating house bass-

line that will have you asking,
"Where's the 'E'?" This fades into
the title track, an upbeat number
that cruises along over a tape-looped
sample of Jones screaming the open-
ing "Yow!" from the Clash hit,
"Should I Stay Or Should I Go."
Mick Jone's fascination with pop
music is evident in his constant (and
quite deft) use of very obvious sam-
ples from other records. The open-

ing of the ballad "Innocent Child"
apes the intro from "In The Air
Tonight" by Phil Collins, while the
hip-hop-based "Kool-Aid" uses a
slowed-down sample from Kraft-
werk's "Numbers." "In My
Dreams," a Zeppelinesque, big-beat
stomp, even sneaks in a string
crescendo from Barry White's Love
Unlimited Orchestra!
The Globe closes on a very curi-

ous note. "The Tea Party" is a bi-
zarre, orchestral/operatic reprisc of
all of the other songs on the disc,
and borders on post-modern muzak.
Given B.A.D.'s influential past, it
won't be long until we have the
pleasure of hearing elevator worthy
renditions of "Unbelievable" on
hip dance floors everywhere.
- Scott Sterling


0

Oooh la Ia. Little Marcel Pagnol (Julien Ciamaca, left) and his friend Lili des Bellons (Paul Crachet, right) soak up
the luscious French landscape in Yves Robert's My Father's Glory.

GLORY
Continued from page 5
possibilities.
However, a French critic in
Cahiers du Cinema saw the film as
representing "the inviolable myth
of France, the family, the children;
Pagnol is harmony and unity."

Maybe so. But the appeal of this ide-
alized vision of pre-modern France
will not translate for most of us
provincial New World types. (But
wait - there's more! The sequel,
My Mother's Castle, has already
been released and is coming soon to a
theater near you!)
The French countryside alone is

enough for some audiences, and they
won't be disappointed by the peace
and beauty of Pagnol's Provence.
Me, I'll take the gritty intensity of
a Scorsese or even the quiet emo-
tional impact of a Tavernier any day
over this biteless postcard world.
MY FATHER'S GLORY is playing
at the Ann Arbor 1 & 2.

being dead, and when I'm dead, I'll

PUPPETS
Continued from page 7
sucked, most of it. I don't think ZZ
Top was that. I think they became
that or whatever. I think they're
definitely... oddball and have
proven that.
And then the Dead are just a
whole other batch of beans. I think
we get compared to the two because,
uh, we're a three piece and so there's
the Dead (sic) comparison right
there, and we've definitely tried to
do the three-piece thing which re-
quires'a certain amount of, the bass
player's gotta play a certain way,
and whatever. And the Dead thing,
we've had this real open-ended,
tripped-out side to us that lets mu-
sic take its head. We don't dress up
or anything.
I don't give a fuck about either of
those bands, though. I get compared
to them, that's fine. They've been
along for a long time with the same
members... we're the same, ZZ's
been the exact same. And that, I can
relate to. I'm into the longevity
thing. I just think they have that

longevity because they have some-
thing to offer, much like us. It's not
flash in the pan shit. They weren't
trendy little concoctions, they were
something that spoke a little more
about... humanism.
AP: Are you frustrated or sick of
hearing this is the year the Meat
Puppets will break out into a wider
audience from the alternative cir-
cuit?

enough to be able to not be street
people and still to completely fuck
off. And since then, we've become
irresponsible fuck-ups with a new
job as professional rock 'n' rollers,
so I never give a crap about any of
that. ...If I find myself caring too
much, I can definitely see how it af-
fects my bowels and it's just like
fuel....
'Cause it just doesn't matter. It

'The band is a fuckin' serious blast. You
know, musically we're so agile. And that's all
we were ever about'

CK: Yeah. That's just more of the
same thing. -It's all just business
people, you know. No, I'm not, and
the band is a fuckin' serious blast.
You know, musically we're so agile.
And that's all we were ever about.
So, all this other stuff has come af-
ter that. We put together this band
because we were like a big part of
America, fuckin' grossed out by
what our options were and...
spoiled enough (and) fortunate

The Department of Philosophy
The University of Michigan
announces
THE TANNER LECTURE ON
HUMAN VALUES
1991-92
CHRISTOPHER HILL
Honorary Fellow and formerly
Master of Balliol College, Oxford
THE BIBLE IN 17th CENTURY
ENGLISH POLITICS
Friday, October 4
Rackham Auditorium
4:00 pm
SYMPOSIUM ON THE
TANNER LECTURE
CHRISTOPHER HILL
CYNTHIA HERRUP
Professor of History and Law
Duke University
JEROME B. SCHNEEWIND
Professor of Philosophy
Tn-n~ L n,:L-. - T Tn: ..-r c

just doesn't matter at all. The scope
of things, if you're not happy as a
person, you know, being rich and
famous isn't going to make you
happy. I'm very happy. I don't give a
shit. I mean, more money would
make things easier but that's been
waggled around for years... we've
been critical favorites for years....
In '84, we were on those best-of
lists, and it was like with Prince and
Springsteen and R.E.M. and Michael
Jackson and all this shit that is, was,
or has since, become fuckin' huge,
you know, and we didn't, so ha, ha,
ha, ha, am I frustrated? Fuck yes, big
time, that's why I hate everything,
especially the Black Crowes, and
EMF.
AP: So what do you think of those
new British guitar bands?
CK: I hate them.
AP: All of them?
CK: Yes.
AP: Every last single one?

C K: Without exception. Except
Ride, who are really beautiful. No, I
don't give a fuck, it's just, you
know, other people can do whatever
the fuck they want to. Just because I
play guitar doesn't mean I'm a fuck-
ing rock band and I have to give a
shit about the rock industry. You
know, I don't not give a shit about
it, and it's always like more fun to
play to a full house than to an
empty one, but I think that just has
to do with the magic of peopledom.
We're herd animals so...
AP: How was Europe?
C K: It's a little bit different. It's
fun, it's fun in a way. Kind of weird
in another way. Our records weren't
over there, they're all import over
there when we went over, so you
know, it's like (in a European
accent), "Vell, if you vere hardcore,
ve'd have more people here. You
know, if you had come over five
years ago, you'd be as big as R.E.M."
So, who cares? Whatever. It's all
just down to the fuckin' numbers.
What about the music? You know,
was the music worth the shit? Was
the fucking experience worth the
shit? Are you mucking through your
little time on the fuckin' skin of the
stupid dirt ball floating through
nothing okay? Insignificant batch of
condensed nothingness, you know,
so I fucking like to keep in touch
with that. I don't believe in the
human experience as something...
understandable... relatable to, other
than what we pretend, that it is to
ourselves, which isn't nearly enough
for me, so I fucking went and did it,
and now I'm that much closer to

'Did you ever aspire to
band?'

be an arena rock

0

'No, I hate Seventies arena rock'
'ZZ Top is Seventies arena rock'
'I hate ZZ Top'
'Since when?'
'I always have'
'Does Curt like them?'
'No. We hate everything'

being dead, and when I'm dead, I'll
stop having to consider anything.
E.
AP: Do you think that this album is
more commercial?
CK: Than a shot in the forehead
with novocaine?
A P: Than Up on the Sun, than
Monsters?
CK: Fuck, I have no idea. I really
don't give a crap. I don't think it's
anywhere near as commercial as

goes on this search for self, and he's
a cowboy and he's defeating all of
these masters. He's out shooting
them because he's the most spiritu-
ally pure and as he defeats them he
becomes purer and purer. And at ones
point he meets the ultimate master
and it's this old dude with a long
grey beard out in the desert, in the
middle of nothing except sand dunes
and a diaper. The guy's like, what
have you come here for? What do
you want from me? And he's like,
I've come to battle you, and he's

food. I think... given the choice
between it, a shot in the mouth with
molten lead in the eyeball, this, and
dinner, I don't know, I'd opt out for
a trip to the goat farm.
U..
CK: Everythings's kind of stupid if
you look at it in the right way.
That's what mybag is, looking at
things how I like to. And I choose
to take things as extensively mean-
ingless. Merely and only open for a
duration.
AP: But not touring?
CK: Oh no, especially touring. Not
even especially touring. And
touring. There's that one funny
film, El Topo, have you ever seen
that? I love this one scene... he's
Argentinian or something and he
STH AVE. AT UBERTY 7619700
O DAILY SHOWS BEFORE6PM
DAY TUESDAY' pmon
MY FATHER'S GLORY (G)
BARTON FINK R__
t1 BUY A 22 OZ. DRINK
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like, what can you take? He goes, I
can take your life. The old guy goes,
my life? He digs up this old rusty
gun out the sand next to him, and
goes, my life, my life means
nothing, and shoots himself. It's
just like, whoah, I get it, you know,
to be or not to be, that is the size of
my poodle. I'm a fairly classically-
oriented fella.


THE MEAT PUPPETS jam at the
Nectarine tonight with Columbus,
Ohio's own SCRAWL. There two
shows, an all-ages with doors
opening at 7 p.m., and an over-21
only show with doors opening at
10:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.50 in
advance at TicketMaster (plus evil
service charge).

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