ARTS Year of the American at the Oscars by Daily Film Staff The 65th Annual Academy Awards droned on Monday night for nearly three-and-a-half mind- numbing hours, yielding few surprises and a string of unfortunate production numbers. The theme of the night was supposedly Year of the Woman, though a more accurate title might be Year of the American, as despite the big British products which garnered a slew ofnods, only Emma Thompson took away one of the major prizes. The only surprise of the night came with Best Supporting Actress, somehow snagged by Marisa Tomei ("My Cousin Vinny"). Hello. We won't even mention the people that could have been / should have been nominated for the category. We like Marisa Tomei just as much as anyone, and she did a The only surprise of the night came with Best Supporting Actress, somehow snagged by Marisa Tomei ... Hello. nicejob, but shedidn'tdeserve an Oscar. Judy Davis and Miranda Richardson acted circles around her in their films. However, they aren't from the grand 'ole U.S. of A. We do have to say, however, that Marisa's hair and dress looked nice, but she should have ditched those gloves. At this point, things fell into predictable patterns. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, as Gene Hackman justifiably took Best Supporting Actor honors forhis masterly performance in "Unforgiven." Hackman's always-excellent work is so naturalistic and unpretentious that he often does not get recog- nized. But Hackman's character was such acomplex mix of puzzling honor and plain meanness that it was decidedly the most involved and original portrayal of those nominated. And now, Emma who? Once again the typical is still typical. Emma Thompson's ("Howards End") best performance was probably her classy accep- tance speech. And yes, we all agree thatshe shouldn't have been paid for her somewhat empty perfor- mance in the endless "Howards End." What's up with Susan Sarandon or Catherine Deneuve? There were only two real choices for best actor and the guy who deserved it lost. Now Al is a wonderful actor and of course very sexy, but he did not top Clint or Denzel Washington's Malcolm X. Okay, three Godfathers, but "Scent of a Woman"? And "Hoo-haa?" No, "Asshole!" was far better. But there's noreal argument with an academy that has no idea what acting is. The Oscar for Best Picture/ Best Director was like a western omelet without the green peppers. Clintdeserved BestPicture for the great"Unforgiven" more unanimously than any film since "Platoon" took the honors in 1986. That mally wasn't too controversial or surprising. But giving the Man With No Name the medallion for best auteur was only slightly more bearable than Nell Carter's atrocious rendition of "Friend Like Me." BestDirector should have been a toss up between Robert Altman and Spike Lee. Hell, everyone has their opinion. Lee wasn't even nominated for his brilliant "Malcolm X," but Altman was all but forgotten as a contender. The horror. Oscar didn't seem to know what to do with "The Crying Game," so it did the traditional and gave it Original Screenplay honors, just like it did last year with the too-hot-to-touch "Thelma and Louise." Oscar sometimes get the guts to nominate "differ- ent" films, but when was the last time one of these alternatives won? Aside from the actual awards, let's get to why everyone actually watches - to see how the stars look. No one looked as bad as Juliette Lewis from last year, but someone tell Diane Keaton that "Annie Hall" is over. There was abeard theme for the night, with Joe Pesci (he was under there somewhere) sporting the ultimate one. Al Pacino wins "Most Beautiful" hands-down for his perfectly trimmed beard combined with his grateful misty eyes. Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Hanks tie for the we-don't- really-know-what-that-is-on-your-face, but they looked nice anyway. Finally, it's safe to assume that anyone in the singing deals looked like hell. ButTim Robbins and Susan Sarandon decidedly win the award for Best Looking P.C. couple of the year. Apart from watching which stars made a fashion faux pas and who uses the stage to make what P.C. statement (when will Richard Gere return to this planet?), the real fun of the night was Billy Crystal's emceeing. Unfortunately, it was not up to par with last year. Of course, the three people in Iowa who do not know the "big secret" of "The Crying Game" were probably pissed athim for revealing it. ("Those eyes, those thighs ... SURPRISE!"). Too bad. What we want to know is who sat there and said, "Oh, we've just got to get Nell Carter to sing 'A Friend Like Me!"'? Al Pacino isnot only the best actor on the planet, but also the best-looking. Guess what? It's a turtle movie Mr. Reality Mr. Reality SBK Records Q: What's Rob and Peter and Gor- don all over? A: Mr. Reality. Gordon Brown, who pens the tracks, sings background vocals, and strums the 12 string is the driving force behind lead vocalist Peter Scherer and Rob Tanico, on acoustic bass. Mr. Reality, the culmination of parts, combines to form an eclectic blend of traditional sounds with innovation. These are friendly songs that make you ask your- self if you haven't heard them some- where before. Yet, you know you haven't, and that edge is whatmakes the band worthy of attention We have experienced what is being r sung about on these tracks, like on "Anonymous," where the woman the man wants is with someone else, and he can'tgetupthenerve to sayhelovesher. And we've grown up in the decaying suburbs described on "In My Yard." Lyrically, the tracks grab you, and the music is a pleasing blend of ballads and more up-tempo beats. On this, their self-titled debut al- bum, this acoustic trio finally presents to the masses their raw vocal-guitar combination that until recently hadbeen monopolized by the Jersey shore. Kim Yaged Malcolm Goldstein Sounding the New Violin W 4What Next? Recordings Horsehair and metal can make a pretty tumultuous couple if untied ef- fectively. In this case, Malcolm Goldstein mediates their relationship, exploring the understatements and subtleties of their interaction. Although he usually bides his time defending the social and musical validity of free- improvisation through sound and print (seehis book "Sounding the Full Circle, Sounding the New Violin" places Goldstein in more rigid contexts. He takes on six compositions for solo vio- lin, each written from dissimilar van- tage points but united by Goldstein's affinity for the obtuse. Stretching from John Cage to Ornette Coleman, this eclectic collection interweaves some of the most unconventional approaches to composition, employing new systems of notationand expanded tonal vocabu- laries. Throughout each piece, Goldstein maximizes the limitless subtleties opened upby the violin's unfrettedneck. In the other hand, his bowing plays with the multiple levels of overtone texture. Sure, hemakes his fiddle scream likeits in heat, but his controlled manipulation of these torturous shrieks creates re(de)fined lucidity and beauty. Twice removed from its poetic source of inspiration, Cage's "Eight Whiskus" contains blurred remnants of meter andmelody. Thehushedharmon- ics fade in and out of characteristic measures of silence. Most passages are devoted solely to subtly shifting a single note's overtones by altering bow pres- sure. (Nifty eh?); Goldstein's own chaotic composi- tion is dedicated to the memory of Morton Feldman, the early twen-cen composer who inverted the structural basis of Western music by derailing linear melodic progression. Feldman disassociated each note from its neigh- bors, isolating each to a unique "mo- ment." Of all the pieces, Oliveros's "Por- trait of' provides the most freedom for self-expression. Goldstein mustproceed through nine stages of self-description, spinning a musical web of rumination. Coleman's "Trinity"is themostlyri- cal tune. A melody progresses, subtly divertedby overtone shifts, bowing tech- niques and the occasional improv. In- spiredbygamelanmusic, Comer'spiece hovers and darts with an untraceable logic. Tenney's "Koan" uses repetition to focus the listener's attention on the minimal tonal changes. Sure these compositions are enough to give your cat a nervous disorder. But luckily, your brain isn't the size of a walnut (regents excluded). Deep listen- ing reveals levels of intricacy you never knew existed. -Chris Wyrod Robyn Hitchcock Respect A&M Robyn Hitchcock has been record- ing pleasantly quirky pop since his days as the frontman as the British outfit Soft Boys in the late 1970s, and has rarely disappointed. His latest release though, with the Egyptians backing him, leaves a trifle to be desired. "Respect" has more of an acoustic flair to it than the lush sounds of 1991s "Perspex Island," but lacks thatalbum's catchy song struc- tures and Beatlesesque hooks. Many of the songs willbe familiar to those who caught Hitchcock on tour last year, and indeed, two of the best cuts on "Respect"date from thatperiod: "Arms ofLove"andtheominous"WhenlWas Dead" ("And God said 'Oh, ignore him! I've got all your albums'/ I said 'Yes, but who's got all the tunes?"'). With the good, though, must come the bad, and with the bad comes "The Yip Song," which careens at full-tilt boogie into silliness and "Wafflehead,"which strives too hard to be odd and dark to be effec- tive. Theremaining songs toe thelineof mediocrity contentedly, hitting occa- sional highs ("The Wreck of the Arthur Lee") but rarely descend into the depths of the unnecessary. "Respect" is not a total waste of studio time, butcoming as it does on the heels of "Perspex Island" and Hitchcock's amazing, but sonically po- larized, solo album "Eye," it's bound to leave one a bit wanting. Pick it up to complete a Hitchcock collection; other- wise feed on an earlier release, such as "Fegmania!" or "Eye.' -Dirk Schulze Michael Hall Love Is Murder Safe House Singer-songwriter Michael Hall's 'Love Is Murdei" is a promising folk- rock album, full of Randy Newman, Richard Thompson and John Hiatt in- fluences. Hall's songs often show po- tential but are often underdeveloped. His characters are undefined at times, lacking incisiveness and detail ("Let's Take Some Drugs andDriveAround"), See RECORDS, page 8 by Chris Lepley Hello, class. The film we'll be dis- cussing today is "TeenageMutantNinja Turtles III," a riveting saga of young love and courage in the face of impos- sible odds. Any questions? Do you ac- tually want to know whatit's about? By this stage you should either like the turtles or hate them, depending on your usual response to intense media and product placement blitzes. Do you re- ally need some information on the plot before you decide to take your younger siblings to see this movie? Okay, there are these four turtles, you see. And they've been mutated by glowing green toxic ooze (see "'MT Teenage Mutant Ninja Tiurtles III Written and directed by Stuart Gillard; with Elias Koteas, Paige Turco and the voice of Corey Feldman. II" for details) so that they approximate the mental and emotional maturity of human teenagers. Oh, yeah, andthey've been taught martial arts by their sensei, Splinter(JamesMurray), who also hap- pens to be a rat (darn that pesky ooze, it's everywhere!). Splinter, being the renaissance rat that he is, named the four turtles after Renaissance artists. Each one is color-coded, so you can tell them apart (but only in the movies and onTV,because the comics areblackand white):there's Leonardo or "Leo," who sports a blue mask, Raphael or "Raph" who wears red, Donatello or "Don," purple, and Michaelangelo a.k.a. "Mikey," who wears orange. In this latest TMNT installment, the turtles have to travel backwards in time to 17th century Japan in order save their friendApril (another competentprofes- sional woman who can't tie her shoe- laces without the mutants' help, played by Paige Turco) from the clutches of an evil Japanese warlord, Lord Noringa (Sab Shimono) and a mercenary En- glish trader, Captain Dirk Walker (Stuart Wilson). Captain Dirk is especially evil because of his accent. Lord Noringa has a son, Prince Kenshin (Henry Hayashi) who doesn't agree with his father's war-mongering. Noringaisjustaboutreading tohave his son killed when the Prince justhappens to discover a neat little scepter which, when you twist it, allows him to travel through time. Purely by coincidence, in the future, April has just bought that very scepter for her antique shop, and before you can say "the laws of physics be damned," April and Kenshin have switched places in time. With a little tinkering, Donatello (Corey Feldman), the budding engineer of the turtles, has figured out the scien- tific formula for time travel, and with- out even a slight pause to debate the rationality of what they're planning, they're off to the past to save their woman! The turtles show up, are captured, save somelives, become big heroes and have big fights with lots of real samurai warriors. There's the typical last-minute confrontation with the big villain, and the typical teary good-bye at the end. And that's about it. Like all sequels; this movie pales in comparison to the origi- nal, but all in all, the film delivers what it promises. The humor is inane, and definitely geared toweldpre-teens. But then, so is the humor in such classicsas "Bill & Ted'sExcellentAdventure" and "Falling Down," so that's not a criti- cism. Find a small child, offer them candy until they get into your cart then take them to see this movie. It's a turtle movie. If you need to know more than that, you've been iso- lated from popular culture for way too long, and you might look into installing cable television underneath your rock. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLESIIIis playing at Showcase. "TMNT II" is a riveting saga of how New Line Cinema makes lots of money. - Located in the Colonial Lanes Plaza on S. Industrial FAST, FREE DELIVERY 0 3 WE OPEN AT 4:00PM MON - THURS Robyn Hitchcock demands "Respect" with his latest album. TRY OUR NEW GARLIC CRUST $2.'99 Cheeseburger & Fries . . .Order Any 20" Pizza and GUMBY AID Get1 Free 2 Liter Pop THE GUMBY *rma# "I w iinlIEI ____ -- .