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Etch-a-Skitch
Before there was Branford, before
there was Doc, Skitch Henderson con-
ducted the Tonight Show orchestra.
Decades later, Henderson is still tour-
ing, now with an Orchestra he founded,
the New York Pops. They'll play a
program of film music at Hill Audito-
rium tonight. This isn't Alan Menken
and John Williams, mind you;
Henderson has chosen classic tunes
by Berlin, Bernstein, Loesser and oth-
ers. Showtime is 8 p.m.; tickets are
$16 to $28, with rush tickets available
at the Union ticket office. Call 764-
2538.
Bon Bons
BonJovi will be appearing tonight
with The Jeff Healey Band at the Pal-
ace of Auburn Hills at 8p.m. Tickets
are $22.50 (p.e.s.c.). Guitarist Richie
Sambora promises that the band will
be playing "all the hits that you want to
hear and a bunch of new stuff."
Look for Kristen Knudsen's full
interview with Sambora and a review
ofthe show in Weekendetc. this Thurs-
day.
Broadcast News
We seldom listen to the radio, but
on Mondays in March on WUOMt
provide a rare opportunity. Marian
Stolar hosts a series of recitals and
concerts by University faculty and
staff. Next Monday, for example,
Dickran Atamian will perform
Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibi-
tion" and Prokofiev's Sonata No. 6,
and on March 29, Erling Bengtsson
does Schoenberg's "Verklarte Nacht."
Tune in and tape 'em for posterity.
Broadcasts are at 8 p.m. on 91.7 FM.
Schizo Fest
Ingmar Bergman's "Through a
Glass Darkly," is playing tonight at
the Michigan Theater at 7 p.m. The
film, which won an Academy Award
for BestForeign Film, tells ofaschizo-
phrenic, well-played by Harriet
Andersson, and her family who spend
the summer together. Call 668-8397.
Simpson exaggerates
herself in her work
by Joshua Keidan
When Mona Simpson wrote her first novel, "Anywhere But Here," she started
with an image: "A woman putting a kid out by the side of the road. I wasn't even
sure if it was a boy or a girl." That kid gradually became Ann Stevenson, the
heroine ofboth the highly successful "Anywhere But Here" and its sequel, equally
acclaimed, "The Lost Father."
Simpson described Ann as "sort of an exaggerated version of myself." Ann,
like her creator, begins her life in Wisconsin, moving to California, and then on
to New York. In Simpson's words, "I wanted to make it discernibly not me, but
also someone with enough qualities I could identify with. The feelings are
autobiographical. I mean, my mother liked ("Anywhere But Here") and she
probably wouldn't have if it was autobiographical."
Adele, the mother in "Anywhere But Here," is hardly a character for which
you'd want to be the model. She's a woman of somewhat sublime insanity, whom
the reader alternately laughs at and suffers with through the course of the novel.
"Anywhere But Here" tells the story of Ann and Adele as they move from place
to place always managing to live beyond their means. "The Lost Father" picks up
where the first novel left off, with Ann in medical school. As the title indicates, this
time around Ann pursues her father, who left her and her mother when she was a
child. Her search begins to consume all of her time and money, leading her to the
brink of losing everything she has.
"The Lost Father," while not as comic or as immediately accessible as
"Anywhere But Here," has a dark intensity which makes it the stronger book. Of
the novel's darkness, Simpson said, "It sort of came out that way. I worried about
it, but I also liked it."
Beside the difference in tone, the circumstances surrounding their writing also
separate the books, at least in the mind of Simpson. "With the first one, it was hard
in a way, because I was working several jobs, and I didn't have much time for
uninterrupted work. Writing "The Lost Father" I had more time, but then I was
nervous because it was my second novel," she said.
If she was nervous about her second novel, it was due more to her own
expectations than outside pressure. "Writing is a solitary thing, soI think a writer's
life is less pressured than most -nobody really tells you what to do." Currently,
Simpson is writing full time, six to eight hours a day ("but it's not that I'm exactly
writing all that time"), in addition to teaching a writing course at Bard College.
Having time to write, she said, is the best part of success. Before the publication
of "Anywhere But Here," she'd worked at everything from acupuncturist's
assistant to freelancejournalist."I had thisidea thatI wouldbe areporter to support
my fiction - then I had to get a job to support my journalism."
Explaining her book's focus on the parent/child relationship, the 35 year old
Simpson said, "Part of it is being relatively young. I think in a way I didn't have
perspective on adult life. Also, I think that childhood is one of those areas where
life has changed so much, family structures are so different, say, from the Victorian
era. Writing about childhood is a good way to get at those changes."
Currently, she's working on a new novel, "A Regular Guy," about three men
in their twenties. She described it as being "more about adults." She said, "It's
going pretty quickly, which is unusual for me ("Anywhere But Here" and "The
Lost Father" each took four years to write). I think I'll finish it about a year from
now." Will Ann Stevenson reappear in her fiction? "Maybe, but not in this next
book."
MONA SIMPSON will read fromi her work today at 7.30 at Borders.
Admission is free.
Living Colour: mad as hell music geniuses who combine hard rock with an Afrocentric sensibility.
Living Colour lIid'Stain
by Scott Sterling
Living Colour is madder than hell, and they're not gonna
take it anymore. Pulling no punches, "Stain" explodes with
louder-than-life monster riffs and seething, iconoclastic rag-
ing like never before.
Living Colour
Stain
Epic
Revamped for '93 with underground legend Doug
Wimbish (Tackhead, Sugarhill Gang) replacing Muzz
Skillings on bass, Living Colour have turned up the torque
machine big time. Where in thepast they were often too smart
for their own good (average head-bangers had trouble keep-
ing up with L.C.'s frantic time/meter changes), songs on
"Stain" rip straight-ahead passages like a post post-mod
Helmet with a real vocalist (Corey Glover's voice is more
confident and controlled than ever). Tracks like "Go Away"
feature hard as hell grooves that blaze right to the point.
The directness of "Stain" can also be attributed to pro-
ducer Ron St. Germain (Bad Brains, Soundgarden) twid-
dling the knobs instead of Ed Stasium, who produced L.C.'s
first two efforts.
While "Vivid" and "Time's Up" percolated with a defi-
nite Afrocentric buzz and p.c. sensibility, "Stain" disposes of
any and all "alliances." This record is all about radical
individualism, to the point ofhostile isolation: "I'mnotdown
with this one/their motives are much too severe/ and thatone
/ they're much too serious/I don't plan to make thisa career,"
Glover roars on the crunchy cocoa-pop "Leave It Alone'.;
This theme is also in the blithe "Bi" ("Everybody wants
you when you're bi / looking at the girls /and eyeing all the
guys"), where ambiguous sexuality is analogous with not
being "either or" in other situations.
Other highlights include the grinding "Mind Your Own
Business," that angrily shakes its head at stupid, mindless
gossip, and the ethereal ballad "Nothingness."
Musically, Living Colour is still killer; Vernon Reid is the
only guitar hero that matters in the '90s (Although Rage
Against The Machine's Tom Morello is right up there), and
the Will Calhoun/Wimbish rhythm section could kill a herd
of elephants at forty paces (Check Wimbish's crazed run at
the end of "Go Away" and try to keep up).
Dreads and shoulders above the rest.
" Hollywood legend Lillian Gish dies
Actor's seventy-year career spanned generations of change
by Aaron Hamburger
Lillian Gish died Saturday of heart
failure in Manhattan. She was 99 years
old. Gish, a legend who during her 70-
year career performed in silent as well
as talking films and Broadway. Not
only was Gish known for her talentas an
actor, but also for her spirit and dedica-
tion to her craft. Gish appeared in over
one hundred movies.
Abandoned by her father as a child,
Gish moved with her mother and two
sisters from Ohio to New York City,
where she began to work on the stage.
Introduced to director great D. W.
Griffith by Mary Pickford, Gish began
a collaboration with Griffith that re-
sulted in 40 films.
Gish established the tradition of the
Hollywood starlet, along with her sister
Dorothy, and luminaries like Mary
Pickford. She collaborated with Griffith
on the silent classics "Broken Blos-
soms," "Intolerance," "Orphans of the
Storm" and the landmark Civil War epic
"The Birth of a Nation." She also ap-
pearedin the silentclassics"The Wind,"
"Way Down East" and "The Scarlet
Letter."
In "Birth of a Nation," Gish estab-
lished her screen persona, the pure, ear-
nest virginal waif, often orphaned or
cruelly separated from her loved ones.
With her fragile porcelain beauty, Gish
won the hearts of American moviego-
ers. Gish derisively referred to her roles
as "ga-ga babies," yet at the same time,
Gish's characters had a strong indepen-
dent fire that allowed her to overcome
impossible odds.
Throughout her life, Gish witnessed
the transformation of film from one-
reel black and white silents to the two-
hour color and sound films we know
today. Yet unlike many of her early
contemporaries, Gish wasneverleftout
in the cold.
Though Gish often scorned the ad-
"Camille," "Life with Father" and per-
forming opposite Sir John Gielgud in.
"Hamlet."
Her most recent film appearance
was her critically acclaimed perfor-
mance opposite Bette Davis in "The
Whales of August." The grace and quiet
strength she brought to her role exactly
embodied the qualities that made her
such a legend.
Gish received an honorary Oscar
from the Academy of Motion Pictures
Arts and Sciences in 1970 for her ex-
traordinary body of work.
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