0 Page 4 --The Michigan Daily-Weekend etc.-January 23,1992 *I Video Jukebox kills the MTV star by Stephen Henderson I want my MTV! Remember that catchy little phrase? During the' 80s, everyone from Billy Idol to Fleetwood Mac blurted it out in commercials for the revolutionary music channel. Sting even put the slogan to music at the end of the Dire Straits hit, Money for Nothing. But now, a less famous and more adamant group of people has adopted the phrase, and is hurling it at their local cable franchise. The citizens of Vineland, N.J., have literally taken to the streets this m(nth to tell Sammons Communications that its decision to replace MTV with the Video Jukebox Network stinks. Sammons, which pumps cable to Vineland and several other New Jersey communities, cut MTV from its basic service in some areas on January 1. Since then, teenagers,, parents, members of the city council and even the mayor have expressed their contempt for the Video Jukebox, and their support for MTV. It's no surprise to me that the people of Vineland are pissed off. Video Jukebox is a poor clone of what MTV was when it started 10 years ago. The station just airs video after video all day; there are no game shows or other specialty and entertainment pro- grams. \ Even worse, the station has no VJs. Viewers simply call up and se- lect the videos they want to see-for =$.50 per call, that is. Videos come on, and then they go off. There's no talk in-between or anything. Occa- sionally there's a commercial or two, but you really get the feeling that some computer is controlling what's on the screen - it's sort of like an episodeof The Twilight Zone. Mind- the lfifle pictur e less human blobs call up the TV network and punch in a few numbers so a machine can spit out some Vanilla Ice video. The thought scares me. MTV is much more than that. The network has broken away from the rote, unimaginative format of "all videos all the. time," and has branched into programming that many other networks have left untouched. In fact, it seems like there's something for just about everybody on MTV. The sassy and irreverent "Totally" Pauly Shore aptly appeals to the suburban teenage crowd, while Yo MTV Raps attracts a more urban group. Kurt Loder's MTV WorldNewsand The Week in Rock joins music with other news issues. The station has also produced a number of documentaries in recent years, including two that examined the roles women play in the rock and rap worlds ,and oen more that took a look at current sexual attitudes and behavior. The network's socially conscious "Rock the Vote" and "Safe Sex" public service campaigns also add to the schedule. What most clearly separates the station from any other is the often bizarre way it presents material. You learn to expect the unusual when you watch MTV. The station's ads rarely make sense; Liquid Television, a newer addition to the network, often takes an ordinary situation and makes it strangely ironic, with just the right amount of MTV's standard-breaking personality. Unfortunately, Sammons Communications seems more concerned with the $2.50 per call it will make from the Video Jukebox than with the actual quality of its programming. But the people of Vineland have something to say about that, and they're each saying it loud and clear: I WANT MY MTV! Odetta moves it on by Eizabeth Lenhard 0 Despite the goofy photo, Livingston Taylor is much more than just James' brother - he's a down-to-earth, unpretentious folk musician in his own right. And his first name's mighty cool. Lie 's good to Livigston Taylor by Nima Hodaei The k Livingston Taylor A seems to embody the true folk performer. He plays the songs that make people smile, and has an amazingly down- to-earth personality. There's little in the way of pretentiousness in his attitude or appearance. Taylor con- tributes this trait to the fact that he has never forgotten what it's taken to get here. "Some people are confused about which side their bread is buttered on," says Taylor. "My audience but- -ters my bread. A lot of artists be- lieve that their careers will be made or improved if a record company likes them. The reality is that the only way the record company will like them is if an audience likes them first. You've really got to have that audience." While Taylor may be a folk artist, he doesn't necessarily ap- proach his music in the same manner as fellow performers. Utilizing synthesizers and drum machines, Taylor breaks stereotypes without losing the acoustic elements that have defined his style. "There's no such thing as acous- tic music," he says. "All music is amplified. Records are made in an electronic process. The thing that's crucial to good music is good songs. Does it matter whether the drum- mer is electronic or live? It matters when you're live, but it doesn't matter when you're recording." Taylor's folk ambitions started at a young age, growing up in a very music-oriented family. Continu- ously compared to older brother James, Livingston is not bothered by the long shadow that his famous brother has cast upon him He says that the two are each other's great- est fans. However, when asked about the comparisons to James, Liv- ingston shies away. "James is a great brother and he's a great musician," states Taylor. "Having (him) as a brother has been a wonderful benefit to my life- ca- reer-wise and every other way. He's been a wonderful asset." Although never quite as recog- nized as his older brother, Liv- ingston is by no means an amateur to the music business. Six albums (with another up- coming this year), hundreds of con- certs each year, and 24-years later, Taylor remains a stable performer on the folk circuit, and he insists he couldn't be happier. "The travel is hard," he says, "but it's really won- derful for me to go and see people who like me and whom I like. It's what I like doing." It's this simple adoration of mu- sic that makes Taylor and his work so easily accessible. He claims that, most importantly, he loves life, and with song titles such as "Life is Good," "It's Love," and "Falling in Love with You," you know he re- ally means it. His music doesn't of- fer his listeners provocatively deep statements, nor should it. See TAYLOR, Page 8 0 Lambs, Fear battle for Best Thriller of '91 by Aaron Hamburger Tnt = Every note she sings is uniquely hers. She's raised self-confidence to an art form, and whatever obstacles she encounters (as she penned in a recent song) she'll "keep on movin' it on." Way before Tiffany and Ma- donna, before Cher, there was a one- name ilady of folk and she's lasted a lot longer than that red-haired teenager. Odetta is a prevailing wind in the shifting sands of the "area of folk music," and she's going to radiate some of her positive energy and high-powered musical expression onto Ann Arbor audiences at the See ODEITA, Page 8 The two prime contenders for the title of Best Thriller of 1991 are The Silence of the Lambs and Cape Fear. Both films have had their share of box-office and critical suc- cess. But which film truly deserves the bragging rights, the glory, et al which is associated with the Title? The battle could be decided in a few key head-to-head match-ups. VILLAIN: Every good thriller needs a decent villain. Too bad Max Cady (Robert DeNiro) of Cape Fear is just that, merely decent. DeNiro makes a few threats in a hokey Kentucky-fried accent, shouts bizarre sermons at Nick Nolte's an- noying, bickering family, and shamelessly imitates the competi- tion in a mock-cannibalism scene. Even though the screenplay makes repeated fervent attempts to tell the audience how clever he is, DeNiro's Cady never comes through as having a shred of real brilliance; his self-taught law expertise seems like a plot gimmick which doesn't fit in with the rest of the character. Mostly, Cady seems like the Hick from Hell who wouldn't stand a chance against Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) from Lambs. Hopkins projects a chilling omniscience that makes his presence felt in scenes that Lecter doesn't even appear in. Although the charac- ter only has about five or six scenes in the movie, when you leave Lambs, iin Hannibal the Cannibal is the one you remember. ADVANTAGE: The Silence of the Lambs. CAST: This one's a tough call. On one side, you've got two Oscar-win- ners (DeNiro and Jessica Lange), Nick Nolte, and a smashing debut performance from hitherto un- known Juliette Lewis. On the other side, there's a solid cast of supporting players led by re- liable Scott Glenn from The Hunt for Red October, and the two best performances of the year from An- thony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. The edge would go to Cape Fear, except that DeNiro never brings anything special to the role of Max Cady that isn't already in the script, while Hopkins leaves an indelible mark on his character. ADVANTAGE: Even. SCREENPLAY: No contest. Ted Tally's script for Lambs from Thomas Harris' novel adroitly con- structs its suspenseful plot, taking time along the way to introduce its well-rounded, faceted characters and even a feminist subtext. Wesley Strick's screenplay for Fear reaches for importance by pushing some Biblical imagery and weighty themes of sin and punish- ment, which the movie's hollow core can't support. Also, Nolte's travails never seem very compelling because the movie spends so much time showing what a rotten guy his character is. When Nolte battles DeNiro, it's like watching Hitler battle Mussolini, only less interest- ing. Without Scorsese's furious camera cuts, they'd be mush. bunch of whiny brats than human beings. Lambs allows its theme of re- pression to grow organically from its plot. Each character in the film wages a private war against his or her own anxieties and fears. Some prove effective in their attempts at repression (Scott Glenn refrains from hitting on Jodie Foster); oth- ers do not (Buffalo Bill's repressed homosexuality takes over his mind and drives him insane.) The greatest fear or anxiety that all the characters share is that their fears and anxieties will escape their control, just as Lecter escapes soci- ety's attempts to control him at the end of the film. ADVANTAGE: The Silence of the Lambs. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Scorsese throws Fear on the wide screen, shooting the movie in Cinemascope, and indulges in almost excessive cuts and close-ups to heighten the cartoon-like hyperreality of the movie. Demme uses a somber palette of earth tones, greys, blues and browns (that's why Jodie dyed her hair!) to suggest the bleakness of the psycho- logical landscape depicted in the movie. Every so often Demme uses red (Foster's lipstick, blood baths, Lecter's triumphant escape) for em- phasis. ADVANTAGE: Even. THRILLS: Lambs has its share of spine-tingling, especially in the last scene, in which Foster's character confronts Buffalo Bill. Fear, however, resorts to so many cheap tricks (streaking cnmetsi 1lava-la~ma backgrounds for HAMBURGER FACTOR: The Hamburger Factor is the something special that makes a film not just a night out at the movies, but an experience and a cultural phe- nomenon. It's not unreasonable to expect that two projects like these with the amount of talent involved should have Hamburger to spare. Though a lot of people liked Fear, no one's reading The Execu- tioners (Fear's source) to the ex- tent that the public is gobbling up copies of Harris' novel. Moviegoers have watched Lambs over and over, both in the theaters and on home video, with a tenacity that even ri- vals Max Cady. The real test, however, is to walk into a crowded room and see how many more people recognize "Hannibal the Cannibal" than they do Cady. ADVANTAGE: The Silence of the Lambs. DIRECTOR: Jonathan Demme's direction in Lambs is brilliant, but overall as a director, his repertoire can't even come close to that of the director of Mean Streets, Taxi; Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temp- tation of Christ and Good-Fellas, Martin Scorsese. Though Demme does just as good a job as Scorsese, you've got to give Marty the edge. ADVANTAGE: Cape Fear. a OVERALL: Cape Fear, though competent, escapist entertainment, never realizes its delusions of grandeur (which interfere with the enjoyment of the movie). The Si- lence of the Lambs is a brilliantly Odetta MONEY FOR COLLEGE Every Student is Eligible for Financial Aid * Over 200,000 listings represent over $10 billion in private sector financial aid. dEasy to Use-Awards based on career plans, family heritage and academic interests and more. * Unique Awards- we locate scholarships for golf caddies, left- handed students, cheerleaders, non-smokers, and more. * Over 80% of the awards have no income or grade restrictions * Average of $6,000 in awards per academic year. * For more information: The American Scholarship Association P.O. 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