The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 22, 1992-- Page 9
Animation anthology
works, despite MTV
by Austin Ratner
"Oh, my name is Nippoless
Nippleby, you won't find a nipple
anywhere on me," sings Nippoless
Nippleby, one of the large cast of
cartoon characters in "The Fourth
Animation Celebration: The Movie."
DNA Productions' "The Tale of
Nippoless Nippleby" might be a
good place to start in describing the
The Fourth Animation
Celebration: the Movie
bizarre mix of creative energy found
in this and most other animation fes-
tivals. Nippleby is a character both
absurdly funny and invested with
deep feeling; he experiences self-
hate because of his unusual body
and a sense of social alienation - I
guess.
At any rate, though each individ-
ual cartoon may not span from hu-
mor to meaning, the Celebration, on
the whole, does. While last year's
"International Tournee of Anima-
tion" (also produced by Expanded
Entertainment) had a higher number
of visually interesting and creative
pieces, the Fourth Animation
Celebration almost manages the
same breadth of humor and thought
in its cartoons.
Zlatin Radev's "Canfilm," the
longest feature in the program, is
one of the highlights of the
Celebration, making good use of this
unusual artistic medium to convey
pungently its political message. An
allegory about fruit and vegetable
cans which are regularly forced to
change what kind of cans they are
(first from cherries to tomatoes) by
the authorities, "Canfilm" is full of
powerful images describing the hor-
rifying consequences of violent to-
talitarian or fascistic political ma-
chines.
The political oppression is visual-
ized in cramming different vegeta-
bles into cans, while pulling out
Their original contents. Through this
image Radev also conveys a notion
of mortality in its representation of
humanity as easily squashed con-
tainers full of organic contents.
MTV makes its bungled appear-
ance with short pieces from the
competition it sponsored: "World
Problems? World Solutions!" Most
of the shorts reflect MTV's prepos-
terous self-important belief that it's
a vital vehicle for social change and
artistic expression. The sponsorship
of MTV's profuse resources was ap-
parent, but they could not correct for
the self-righteous symbolism of the
majority of the pieces. MTV's
segment is almost saved however by
Bob Sabiston's "The Trees," a very
funny short on recycling which
doesn't take itself too seriously.
THE FOURTH ANIMATION CELE-
BRA TION is playing at theMichigan
Theater.
RECORDS
Continued from page 5
darling red-headed Barry Ilenssler to
the already deadly mix.
All in all, John Bonham is still
dead and Ron Asheton lives with his
morn. Only Big Chief phoenixes our
hope for the future.
-Annette Petruso
Sugar
Copper Blue
Rykodisc
Throughout his many years as a
rock performer, Bob Mould has
never lost his flair for composing
brilliant songs that strike at the
heart. Sugar, his first band outing
since the legendary Husker Do, con-
tinues this fine tradition.
"Copper Blue" shimmers with a
startling finesse and poise from start
to finish. This is by all means a
"pop" album, with no negative con-
notations associated with the word.
Beautifully orchestrated, three-
minute, power pop-rock tunes are
abundant on the record. "Good Idea"
reels in the listener with a conta-
gious, almost urgent, chorus, while
"Changes" achieves the same with a
non-stop barrage of vocals and gui-
tars that come across as wonderfully
melodic.
The big surprise on the album is
the use of keyboards, as on "Hoover
Dam." Mould's tinkering with the
instrument has created more intri-
cate, yet undeniably, more radio-
friendly songs. Expect to hear some
substantial airplay of this disc.
However, you can't classify this
as a "sell-out" for Mould. Rather,
consider it time he received some
much overdue credit for yet another
superb project.
- Nina Hodaei
The Electric Eels
God Says Fuck You
Homestead
Hch, hch! Just try enunciating
that over "alternative" Canadian
airwaves! From the depths of de-
crepit industrial '70s Ohio comes
this silicon slice of secret sonic his-
tory. Duplicating all ten tracks and
the Michael Weldon liner notes as
1989's "Having a Philosophical In-
vestigation With the Electric Eels,"
this 17-song comp tells a story that
will never be told enough.
Always ready to fuck you up and
get high, the Electric Eels were the
first noisy signpost that pointed the
way into the rubber-treadmarked su-
perhighway of white light/heat-dam-
aged, angst-filled post-juvenile-
delinquent rock and roll from the
Ohio underground of the mid-1970s.
Recording sans studio in genuine
(s)hi(t)-fi, the Eels put lines like "I
don't know what I know but I just
want to shoot it" on to cassette tape
documentation on April 28, 1975,
well before Malcolm McLaren no-
ticed the state of John Lydon's teeth.
Plus they did it to the messiest of
punk guitar noises.
If that agitates your sense of his-
tory, check the title. Then check
your head. Like your head, this
recording is positively "mental" -
the kind of "mental" your father
would accuse you of if you regularly
committed graphic Ghoul imitations
at the dinner table. This record
makes the Dead Boys look progres-
sive, the Cramps sound traditional,
and the Dwarves seem tasteful. OK,
almost tasteful. If you buy only one
musically and socially unconscious
protopunk record this year, why not
make it - aw, you know the rest...
-Greg Baise
r
Tuesday Lunch
Tuesday Dinner
Just two of the crazy cartoons you can see in "The Fourth Animation Celebration": (top) Gavrilo Cnatovich's
"Prehysterical Daze" and (bottom) Paul de Nooijer's "RRIIINNNGGG," a mad mix of photography and animation.
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71
U
The Roman Numerals question format, sometimes called Triple True/False,
has not appeared on the LSAT since February 1991.
At Kaplan, we caught the change. And we updated all our LSA materials.
01
So
we prep you for
this year's
LSAT.
At the Princeton Review and LSAT Intensive Review, somebody's napping.
They're using the same old course materials.
So
they prep you for yesteryear's LSAT.
Prepare with Kaplan. The others are history.
A