ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Tuesday, January 14, 1992
Page 5
'-%W -
Party Out of Bounds: The B-52's, R.E.M., and the
Kids who Rocked Athens, Georgia
Rodger Lyle Brown
Plume Paperback
Capturing what makes a music scene tick is not an easy task. It's pretty
obvious why New York, LA, London, etc. consistently produce well-
known bands: the music industry is headquartered there and, many people
who live in these cities are connected and care about new bands.
But why do successful little pockets develop in out-of-the-way places
like Seattle, Manchester, Austin, and Athens, Georgia? Party Out of Bounds
is an attempt to capture the essence of that little college city, which is not
unlike Ann Arbor, and describe how it produced such influential bands as
Pylon, Love Tractor, the B-52's, and R.E.M.
Insider/author Rodger Lyle Brown lived in Athens from the beginning
of the development of the Athens music scene that he covered (that is, the
late '70s and early '80s), and had access to all the musicians and hangers-on
involved. He can easily relate the linear "how this scene developed"
timeline, and fill in some details about the relationship of the scene to the
University of Georgia.
But the question of why it happened in Athens is left hanging at the end
of the book, and he makes no attempt to answer this other than to conclude
bewildered circumstance. So and so introduced so and so to so and so. These
people lived in this dorm and knew this person who knew that person.
And circumstance did have much to do with the formation of these four
bands. But underlying societal aspects also played a role, and these points
are only glossed over. For example, the most blatant once-over Brown
commits concerns the link of the B-52's, the first band to break out, to the
gay part of the arty subculture. This fact is fascinating, and could have been
developed in detail in a non-offensive manner. Instead, Brown mentions
drag queens and cross dressing in passing, and doesn't use the word "gay"
for more than the first third of the book - the very part that focuses on
the B-52's. In fact, he writes about how the British press "avoided noting
its origin in gay culture."
Who is Brown to criticize the British press, especially considering the
stylistic problems that are compounded by his wide-eyed, gee-did-this-re-
ally-happen-here veneer. His sentence structure and his language are overly
simple. It's like reading a poorly written high school research paper; you
know something good is in there, but reading it is half the battle. Brown
tries to use a stylistic mix of newspaper, academic, and oral history writing
which doesn't gel with his subject and lack of original thoughts and
theories.
It's also obvious that he's not very objective. Brown makes quite clear
which band he prefers: R.E.M. He defends the band at every turn, leaving no
criticism uncountered. He makes their rise to preeminence sound inevitable
and easy.
This too-positive flavor - almost goofy awe - permeates Party Out of
Rounds. While Party Out of Bounds could have taken what Brown considers
a short-lived music scene and really explored why this happened in Athens
of all college towns, it didn't. Too bad.
Annette Petruso
Comeback
Dick Francis
G. P. Putnam's Sons
As the lunch hour strikes, a man steals away from his desk and into the
streets of the city. After a brisk walk, he ducks into a small shop, money
changes hands, and he emerges with a brown-paper package. The man, visibly
excited, dashes to a pay-phone and calls in sick to work. He hails a taxi and
gives the cabbie his address and a little incentive to reach it quickly. When
the cab stops the man jumps out of the cab and up to the front door, ignor-
ing the hungry cats that greet him, and vanishes into his bedroom, not to be
seen again until 4 am the following morning when he emerges from the
bedroom, bleary-eyed and extremely disgusted, in dire need of a bathroom.
Yes, gentle reader, this tawdry scene is being acted out time and time
again across the English speaking world, and all for one simple reason:
Dick Francis has written another book.
I admit it. I, too, number among the vast community of Francis addicts.
I have found myself missing meals, staying up till the wee hours of the
It was rather like uncorking a bottle of
champagne, only to find soda water. The fizz
was still there, but it just wasn't the same.
The formula that worked so well for Francis'
29 other novels fell flat on its face.
night, and skipping classes to finish his novels. And while these symptoms
may not be the healthiest in the world, the excitement and suspense one ex-
periences during the reading just cannot be beaten. Yes, indeed, I am an ad-
dict, and need help to quit.
Which brings me to Mr Francis' newest book, Comeback. It's enough to
put one off Francis for life. I found it rather easy to quit cold-turkey as I
recovered from my binge with Comeback. It was rather like uncorking a
bottle of champagne, only to find soda water. The fizz was still there, but
it just wasn't the same. The formula that worked so well for Francis' 29
other novels fell flat on its face.
But I can't figure out why. The formula is so simple. The hero, someone
invariably connected with horse racing, is reluctantly dragged into a mys-
tery. The hero then manages, despite his constant proclamations that he is
just an ordinary guy, to overcome his mediocrity and solve, avenge, or re-
See BOOKS, Page 8
It might look like an innocent brew-drinking shot, but notice the insidious product placement on the beer labels and light fixture (top right).
Rush blurs (plot) line o dty"
Rush
dir. Lili Fini Zanuck
by Austin Ratner
R ush is a film which might be
compared with The Deer Hunter in
that it gives us a slice of life from a
certain milieu - high on com-
pelling, emotional performances,
and low on plot coherence. Only
this time the setting is not a lower-
class Cleveland area, but one in
Texas.
Rush's characters contend not
with the psychological impact of
Vietnam, but instead with the
strung-out lifestyle of an under-
cover narcotics agent.
Jason Patric (The Lost Boys)
plays Jimmy, a character who might
be compared with many of Robert
DeNiro's portrayals: a serious, con-
fident loner, who pits his ego
against those of the slimy characters
that populate his world and his
workplace. You'd have to dress
DeNiro up as Dennis Miller, how-
ever, and give him a nasal Mid-
western accent, to achieve Patric's
full effect.
Like Patric, Jennifer Jason Leigh
(Miami Blues, Last Exit to
Brooklyn) gives a sensitive rendi-
tion of her character, Kristen, the
young recruit whom Jimmy picks as
his new partner. Together they test
their strength posing as junkies,
buying drugs with police money;
they often have to do the drugs
themselves to convince the dealers
that they aren't cops.
As they shuffle from seedy bar
to drug den, the temptation to use
some of the drugs they've bought in
their spare time becomes greater.
The distinction between the facade
Rush assembles a
compelling picture of
the drug war and of
the seductive power
of narcotics.
and reality blurs, and the characters
begin to disintegrate with the phys-
ical effects of their narcotic
dabbling. As Kristen says to her
boss, played by Sam Elliot, "It's a
fine line."
The progress of the movie itself
mimics the dissipated lives of its
characters. The scenes follow one
another abruptly, jumping from one
poorly lit location and ambiguous
situation to another.
Though this does convey the ex-
perience of the characters, whose
lives are slipping from their own
control, and though the scattering
of scenes in smalltown Texas cre-
ates a visual impression of the chaos
and darkness of this Southern un-
derworld, the incoherence also
makes for some problems within
the film's tone.
The bad guy kingpin lurks in the
background in typical thriller style,
and the constant reference to him
See RUSH, Page 8
Paul McCartney musical bounds, and for perhaps tak-
ing seriously one-time comparisons
Paul McCartney 's Liverpool between Mozart and the Beatles?
Oratorio As such, I'm going to try to re-
EMI frain from singling out the weak
and the aged, from launching my
pens at the overstuffed and balding.
I'm going to heed my second-grade
teacher's advice and not say anything
if I can't say something nice.
OK, here goes.
Well, for starters, the Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra plays won-
derfully. The vocal soloists are im-
See RECORDS, Page 8
Paul McCartney sure does have
guts. At nearly 50 years of age, the
former Beatle, former Wing, former
Michael Jackson collaborator, now
Michael Jackson servitor has gone
out on a limb to compose a complete
oratorio. Written with a bit of help
from classicist Carl Davis, this sort
of mini-opera deals with the trials
and tribulations facing a lad grow-
ing up in postwar Liverpool.
And since McCartney has taken
such a bold step, making himself
such a clear target for carrion-hun-
gry reviewers, I'm more than a lit-
tle hesitant to jump on the McCart-
ney-bashing bandwagon. After all,
it's far too easy to criticize the sub-
standard - especially when one's
standards have fallen so low.
What challenge would there be
in taking him to task for foolishly
overstepping his obviously narrow
e r 1
t f e atre 1991
Impact Dance Theatre presents a
FREE WORKSHOP
For more Information, call UAC @ 763 1107
McCartney
U Ii
WHERE IS YOUR
WORLD GOING?
The Office of International Programs
4
Study Abroad Information Meetings
Summer in Oxford
Wednesday, January 15, 4:00 pm
1214 Mason Hall
Will thee be a nuclear war?
An eonomic collapse? Will
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longer? Plan now to find the
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