ARTS * The Michigan Daily Monday, November 4,1991 Page 5 Gimme that love crush Poet Barry Wallenstein reports on state of reality by John Morgan " Much of what we do is a lie. At least Barry Wallenstein thinks so. "We construct a whole lot of things that are bluff," he said. "Look at our cities. But poetry must be real." Wallenstein spoke these words from his home in New York City, where he teaches literature and cre- ative writing at the City University of New York. He is the author of three collections of poetry, including his most recent, Love and Crush. In addition, his work has appeared in over 50 periodicals, including the Transatlantic Review and the American Poetry Review. Wallenstein is interested in the combination of poetry with jazz. He has frequently performed with Charles Tyler, who plays saxophone to accompany 'So much of the language in poetry is a cover for reality," he said. "Emily Dickinson once said that the only way to tell the truth in poetry is from an angle. Direct reporting wouldn't do that' -Barry Wallenstein Wallenstein's verse. "I used to associate with a number of musicians," he explained. "They started to impro- vise around my poetry." In fact, Wallenstein has found that musical rhythm is often a source of inspiration. "If I hear a rhyme in a phrase, I'll find some way to run with it... A few years ago I saw a documentary about prisons. There were two fourteen-year-olds talking, one of whom kept saying, 'Hey, check you out!' What she meant was 'I love you,' but she couldn't express herself in that way." Wallenstein found that phrase to be the perfect foundation for a poem that is included in Love and Crush. "I try to charge language in a way that will draw the reader in," Wallenstein said, revealing an interest in the use of language that he came back to many times during the interview. Wallenstein says that people often accuse him of having "a real New York voice." "I greet this with a mixed acceptance," he said, although he admitted that living in New York City has affected his writing. "(In the city), there is a tension, an acceptance of terror. I suppose that shows in my work." Wallenstein has used the experience of urban living as a backdrop for his po- etry several times, as in "City Eyes" from Roller Coaster Kid : "You can bolt yourself indoors / and brace yourself against sudden shocks. / You can shut your eyes / but you can't shut out / the city lights / that magnetize." Wallenstein has very specific ideas about how po- etry must be written. "So much of the language in po- etry is a cover for reality," he said. "Emily Dickinson once said that the only way to tell the truth in poetry is from an angle. Direct reporting wouldn't do that." His introduction to Roller Coaster Kid states Wallenstein's view of poetry: "In a way, poems may be seen as models of freedom - freedom from the bonds of common logic and ordinary perceptions." Wallenstein frequently uses images derived from nature in an attempt to make his poems "real." From "Deception": "It's mid October / The tree is alive / She's waiting for cold / growing stronger / She's wait- ing for frost and the end of leaves / growing stronger / She'll take the snow, shed it - / shine in ice and never break. / It's mid October and the trees are fooling us / looking, as they do, like dying and fever." Wallenstein said that Love and Crush is exemplary of his work, more so than Roller Coaster Kid, which was written for a younger audience. One of many ideas touched on in Love and Crush is that of birth and youth. "Baby / in the amniotic dream / circles and bumps: / no papers, prints on record / nothing yet / in the eyes of the law. / My eyes are wild," he wrote in "Not Yet the Child." However, it is impossible to pick out any specific themes in the book. Although many of the poems deal with similar topics, Wallenstein said that they were definitely "inter- connected," but that there was no unifying force behind them. "They were not written to coalesce," he said. At the time of this conversation, Wallenstein had no specific ideas about what he would read today, but nevertheless, it is likely that he will keep his audience entertained. "When poetry is rich, it is the real thing," he commented. All of his poetry exhibits this philoso- phy. Whether he is writing about urban life or a forest, his writing is always striving to attain that most elu- sive of artistic objectives: a reflection of reality. Why poetry? Wallenstein's poem "Why a Poem?" answers that question. "It could have been a melody / sung up high / or brought down low... It could have been anything / other than a poem: / Spirit words / running themselves away / expanding / never ending." BARRY WALLENSTEIN will read from his work at today at 4 p.m. in Rackham Amphitheatre. Admission is free. Overkill (from left to right, Merritt Gant, D.D. Verni, Sid Falck, Rob Cannavino, Bobby "Blitz" Ellworth) in their leather jackets and long hair, certianly look like a very different kind of metal band. Is ones progressive ban can 't be accu sed Overkil by Kim Yaged President Reagan was having this big fancy cocktail party at the White House. Everyone was there - politicians, actors, celebrities, athletes. During the party, Ron decided he needed to relieve himself, so he went to the bathroom. Too Tall Jones happened to be in there, and Ronnie happened to look over at him while he was urinating. Too Tall's dick was about this big. ("Blitz" holds up his arms at a distance of about three feet apart.) "Too Tall," Ron said ("Blitz" is doing one of your better Ron Reagan impersonations), "if you don't mind me asking, how do you get your dick so big?" "Well," Too Tall responded, "every night before I go to bed, I wack it against the bedpost a few times." So Ron made a note to himself to try this and went back to the party. That night, as Ronnie was getting into bed, he remembered what Too Tall told him. So he took his dick and wacked it against the bedpost. Then he heard Nancy whisper, "That you, Too Tall?" So goes the paraphrasing of the only joke, but not necessarily the best story, told by Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth, the lead singer and ace PR man of Overkill. He shared it with me a couple of weeks ago before he went on stage at. Harpo's and slammed Detroit. The band - Ellsworth, bassist D.D. Verni, drummer Sid Falck, axe-ist Rob Cannavino and fellow strummer (and new man aboard) Merritt Gant - is fresh on the road in support of its fifth and latest release, Horrorscope. As Ellsworth describes, "It's an album that leaves you with an impact." This is the album, "Blitz" says, that is supposed to put the band "over the top." "There's no tension in the band, now," he explains. "You only go around once, and if you have to go around with high blood pressure, it kinda sucks." High blood pressure? "Blitz" is a guy with a laugh that sounds like a BB gun and a smile that defies you not to laugh along with him. And if you don't laugh, it's all the funnier. This attitude is obvious in Overkill's live show as well. More than half of the fans in the pit were on stage at least once during the night, but they never phased Ellsworth. He made sure to slap every hand that stuck out. This action is definitely indicative of a reach-out-to-the- people kind of band - Gant and Verni often helped people off the stage with a push, a punch or the bottom of a boot. That's the way the guys want it, though. As "Blitz" screamed from the stage, "It won't work if you're not fucking excitable!" No one's more excitable then Ellsworth, a man who obviously prides himself on being the best thrash-it-up headbanger in the joint. Not surprisingly, his stage dive was the best one of the night. This show is what "Blitz" calls "an honest, all-out, aggressive performance." (That description's in the dictionary next to understatement.) But what does "Blitz" really like to talk about? I called him (Jesse, his son) up yesterday. It's, like, I got all these new dates that we're doing, ya know, and Michelle (his wife) wasn't home, so I said, "Get a pen and paper. You're gonna help me out." "I love to help." (Ellsworth mimics his son as he says this.) I had to give him like fifteen dates, and he's not at the age where he can spell things from what you say. You have to spell things for him. He'd probably get through it if you said it a few times, but it would take forever. "Las Vegas - L, small a... Anaheim..." Michelle called me last night. She goes, "I got the dates from Jesse and, uh, where the hell is Las Fresmo?" At any rate, Ellsworth, pro- bably unintentionally, has become expert at the one liner. Some- times, he even stops and tilts his head as if to say, "Wow, that was profound. Did I say that?" On Drugs: "(You) gotta experiment at one time or another in (your) life, but to live on it because (you) think it's cool, it's kinda like you can just be so out of control that it just ends.... The younger people think it's just a cool thing to do. I think they assume that people like me must do it. 'Oh, wouldn't it be great to go on the road and be able to do as much coke as he does?' But I don't do it, you know what I'm saying?" On Integrity: "There's no price (on integrity). You can't get a refund after you sell it. You can't go back and go, 'Look, I know I sold my integrity. I'd like it back now.' You have to earn it back, and that road can be very, very long and screw up a whole lot of other things on the way... People have presented us with other things, different approaches. 'Don't do this, and don't do that. What'd you put out a record called Fuck You for?' Because we could." On Selling Out: "All a record is is a year of your life on a disk. If it's a good representation of that year then it's not selling out. If we say we should change our sound to this to fit this or that, I can never see it happening, but I'm saying, if it was a natural approach to doing it, I wouldn't consider it a sell out." On The Music: "A lot of people don't give (this audience) enough credit, but they really get into the lyrics. They know from front to back... They love this music. So, they know everything about it. So, when they get into those lyrics, they know what we're talking about. It's not as surface as, like, a C&C Music Factory kinda thing or a Madonna thing, ya know? Where she's like a cat in heat constantly. Big fucking deal! It's kinda old... (The rest of the industry) is totally oversa- turated with a lot of fucking mediocre bullshit... See OVERKILL, Page 8 So you say that you want your dance-pop ditties? So you say that you want your silly, vapid lyrics? So you say that you want your Erasure? Well step right up! We got a million of 'em. But one will probably be all that you need to keep your toes a-tappin' and your butt a-wigglin'. (Intellect is optional.) for him. But even if he never pushed a key to the board in real-time, this album is still a great Bell/Clarke collabo- ration and you're still gonna want to get up and dance your butt off for about half of the album tracks. What's the deal? You've got the title track, "Chorus," which will undoubt- edly become a new standard for ea- ger Erasure fans. It has the sixteen- beat synth thing going on, drum ma- chines pounding along. Lyrics are a tad atypical here - * "Go ahead with your schemin'/ and Majesty Crush "Sunny Pie" b/w "Cicciolina" (single) Vulva Records Detroitband Majesty Crush has finally oozed their intoxicating, swirling textures onto vinyl. These local homeboys have built up a loyal legion of fans on the strength of their mesmerizing music and trance-inducing live shows. Majesty Crush's sound is a lush, powerful din that invites comparisons to bands such as the Cocteau Twins or Chapterhouse. Fortunately, their Aphn,.t nrln n .iCIPi n .. nr t han i lt .t sordid subject matter. Singer Dave Stroughter wraps his delicate voice around a sonic sea of fuzzed-out gui- tars and a stark, dense drumbeat. "Sunny Pie" is powered by Hobey Ehlin's thick, languid bassline, rem- iniscent of early Sonic Youth or the Chameleons. "Cicciolina," the Italian porn- star-cum-politician,is the star of the b-side. While the band weaves a psychedelic web of sexy noise, Stroughter bemoans his unrequited love for Italy's favorite ambassador of erotica. Murky bass notes collide with Michael Segal's droning bursts of distorted guitar lines, to create a heavenly cacophony. The drums on both songs are a welcome relief from the dance- Ballet Michigan brings fairy tales to life; mob rules in Court; 'Reens rock without a crowd Once Upon a Time Power Center November 1, 1991 It was an evening of nostalgia for some and simple storytelling for others, as the Ballet Michigan wove tales of childhood throughout the Power Center in Once Upon a and a clever set for Grandfather's house. The three animals that be- friended Peter (danced by Flavio Olivares) were the Bird (Yumelia Garcia), Cat (Myriam Guevara) and Duck (Julie Barrows Powell), each clothed in imaginative dress. Olivares gave a suitably ener- getic interpretation of the ebullient orntar r f PDtr o c rnna nit r-ad-, tinued to flap and flutter her feathers in a naturalistic manner, making the most of her flexed feet as if they were actually webbed. The attention paid to detail was what made this first section so satisfying all around. Sandwiched in between the other. acts, the excerpts "Three Move- ment, for TEight" aind "The Dream"