ARTS

The Michigan Daily

Wednesday, November 13, 1991

Page 5

d

AAAA gives kid artists a start U

by Julie Komorn
Julia carefully cuts out a hat for
her 'Sun Creature,' who is be-
decked in scintillating, stylish sun-
*glasses. Sulaiman meticulously de-
signs his monster's huge, expressive
mouth. "He's smiling," Sulaiman
shyly interprets, as as he adds a dol-
lop of gluey color. Another diligent
art student, Knequay, proudly dis-
plays her double-faced crowned
queen with "one side happy and one
side sad."
These enthusiastic art students,
with energetic personalities and un-
limited creativity, are eager to learn
all about art. The Ann Arbor Art
Association's six-year-old "Art
Start" program allows them this
chance.
Art Start provides conceptually-
based art instruction to economi-
cally disadvantaged children. The.
young students are from single par-
ent families or families with a high
4*degree of social disorganization.
Not just
pretty 'n'
pu nked
The Furs come
back their way
by Nima Hodaei
Fun, fun, fun. You'd almost think
the Psychedelic Furs were reincar-
*nated with all the fun its members
have been having recently. A group
doomed to a seemingly ugly demise
a couple of years ago, the Furs have
emerged with World Outside, one of
their best albums ever. To Furs
bassist Tim Butler, this evolution
doesn't seem too surprising.
"I think it naturally happened,"
says Butler. "After Midnight to
Midnight, we wanted to get back to
0 having fun recording in the studio.
We weren't thinking about singles
or dance mixes, or any of that shit.
The last two albums are just sort of
music that we play when we're not
overproduced. We just go in there
and have fun."
World Outside does indeed dis-
play a certain level of vitality and
energy that has long been missing
from the Furs' productions. Ever
since the 1986 John Hughes film
Pretty in Pink, which took its name
and theme song from a Furs tune,
the band has been on the road to
mainstream pop stardom, especially
with one Top 20 U.S. hit, 1987's
"Heartbreak Beat," under their
Blelts.
SHowever, just as suddenly as the
popularity came, the Furs vanished
into obscurity, apparently killed by
ie same system which ha(L given
1iem fame. With the release of
1989's Book of Days, however, and
even more so with World Outside,
there has been a movement on the
part of the original band lineup -
Butler, his brother Richard (vocals)
and John Ashton (guitar) - to re-
gain a piece of their mysterious past,
which started back in the 1978 post-
* punk days of England.

For Tim Butler, one of the
biggest reasons for this resurgence
has been the addition of three new
musicians - Joe McGinty (key-
boards), Knox Chandler (guitar,
cello) and Don Yallech (drums) -
who have fit in very nicely with the

"The classes can be something sta-
ble for them to come to after
school," says program coordinator
Clea Colatch. "The kids are here out
of choice. It provides a good social
outlet, a healthy place after school
to express creativity and have fun in
an environment which can spark in-
terest in art at an early age."
The eight-week Art Start pro-
gram offers free classes after school
once a week to students between the
ages of seven and ten. The courses are
designed to build a base of knowl-
edge and skill with art media, as
well as to enhance individual
awareness of the visual arts.
Through the non-judgmental, non-
competitive art forms, the program
aims at building confidence and en-
couraging experimentation.
With fun, educational projects,
the participants can realize their
own creativity and discover the
artist within themselves. The
classes focus on multi-cultural pro-
jects in mixed media - painting,

drawing, clay, masks, jewelry. The
artwork is geared to fit into a one
hour class, because student atten-
dance can be inconsistent.
Tracy Stahl, an Art Start instruc-
tor at Kettering Elementary School
in Willow Run, says, "(The kids)
absolutely love it. They enjoy the
projects and doing things that
they've never done before. We've
done plaster African masks, mono-
prints, clay beads, which we strung
into necklaces, tie-dye, painted
leather bracelets, Mexican shrines
and Russian icons." To make the
shrines and icons, the children deco-
rated aluminum frames to hold pic-
tures of loved ones.
"The kids are very much into it,"
Stahl continues. "They come in and
want to work on it.... It's a real free
thing for them. They don't have to
worry about guidelines, which is
important for children."
Although there are only four
sites, Colatch says they are hoping
See START, Page 8

Mask


EMF drummer, Mark Decloedt offers this advice for the EM- concert:
"Just make sure they rip it apart. Make some room in there. Just warn
the young ones, don't get at front, because it's murder at front."
Sexy EF needs a
iIttle bit o' respect

by Annette Petruso

EMF sucks. Or do they?
The boys from the Forest of
Dean, Great Britain have created an
undeniably perfect pop single with
the ultra-simple, ultra-catchy and
ultra-overplayed "Unbelievable."
But how many times do you want to
hear it?
Drummer Mark Decloedt
(talking on the telephone from his
bedroom, a ]a Jimmy Rabbit in The
Commitments) distances himself
from the song. "A lot of people are
asking, when are you going to write
another 'Unbelievable?' I don't par-
ticularly want to write another
'Unbelievable,"' he.says. "I used to
love that song, but it was two years

ago that we wrote that song...
There's more songs to EMF than.
'Unbelievable,' you know. 'Unbe-
lievable' was a good starting point,
you know, it shows everybody what
we're about, but there's a lot harrder
stuff.... I think 'Lies' is a better
song than 'Unbelievable."'
The video accompanying "Lies,
EMF's latest single, is a gross piece
of MTV art which features huge
bugs and the band rolling about in a
large vat of mud. "It was disgust-
ing," Decloedt shivers. "(The bugs)
stank. They made this awful hissing
noise as well. The actual ones you
see in the racing were only babies,
but the ones that were on the table
and... on Zac's (Foley, bass) face and
stuff, they were full size. They were
like three inches long."
As for the mud, Declocd says,
"It was freezing cold. It, was about
ten o'clock at night, and it got in ev-
cry little hole... on your body. You
could not remove it." Ah, the tor-
tures one must endure as young pop
stars.
If you were a bug, drummer man,
See EMF, Page 8

The Psychedelic Furs are: (1-r, back) Joe McGinty, Don Yallech and Knox Chandler; and (1-r, front) Tim Butler,
Richard Butler and John Ashton. Isn't John Hughes' latest film, Curly Sue, based on a Furs song?

rest of the band.
"It's a bit like Spinal Tap with
the exploding drummers," explains
Butler with a laugh. "Now, since
Book of Days, we've had pretty
much this band, like a firm six-piece
again, which is healthier and makes
it a lot quicker for writing. You get
six people's ideas as opposed to hir-
ing... session musicians and telling
them what to play."
Speaking to Butler, it quickly be-
comes apparent that he's having a
great time making music again. "A
lot of the tracks (on World Outside)
were done live, with very few over-
dubs," he says, "which is why it
sounds more energetic and (not)
stale. I think on Midnight to Mid-
night, we took six months. We had
session people in, and I think you can
be given too much time to look over
things. It tends to sterilize things a
bit."
Over the span of their career, the
Furs have influenced a good number
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of other performers, including the
Pixies, Lloyd Cole and Elvis Cos-
tello. These artists have incor-
porated a bit of the Furs' noise and
pop-driven guitar sound, as well as
the band's wonderful lyrical im-
agery, into their music.
While Butler is appreciative of
the tributes, the Furs have never
been the type of band to care much
about what other people thought of
them. While other groups have
shown their respect, the Furs them-

selves have always felt the need to
explore many musical varieties and
experiences. This is partly the rea-
son why the entire band has relo-
cated to New York City.
"I think since the first time we
came over here," explains Butler,
"we found it was more exciting, and
there's more opportunity over here
for music. In New York, and in ev-
ery major city, there's a certain elec-
tricity... going on. I mean, there's
See FURS, Page 8


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You have a right to privacy!

Saturday November 16, 8pm
rackham auditori u m

BLU E

I

Avern Cohn
U. S. District Judge
Eastern District of Michigan
discusses
"How Private Are
We?"

,

FALLCONCERT

pppp* *4C e-l "
fv k. 16e6