8- The Michigan Daily - Monday, October i, 1993

Victorious womi
By ERIC SONNENSCHEIN
What does it mean to be a feminist? At the Perfor-
mance Network Theatre on Thursday night, three women
tiptoed around a bare stage in black dresses, black tights
and Doc Martens while exploring this question. At times
pretending to
* wear high heels,
Sensible Footwear the three needed
no props or scen-
Performance Network ery to assist them
October 7, 1993 -in presenting
"Sensible Foot-
wear," a cabaret that stomps over conventional female
roles of the past.
The trio of Alex Dallas, Alison Field and Wendy
Vousden opened up the show with a sketch about "Nice
Girls," and what "Nice Girls" can and cannot do. What
one saw develop throughout the remaining witty skits and
a cappella songs was a conscious effort by the women to
free themselves from the constraints of the "Nice Girls"
stereotype that has played a major part in the oppression
of women for years. Dallas and company accomplished
this by allowing themselves almost complete freedom not
only in terms of what they said, but in terms of how they
said it. At no time did the three hesitate to use profanity,
nor did they avoid conventionally taboo issues such as
anal sex or lesbianism.
Such an attitude, however, not only resulted in an
empowerment of women on stage; it made for classic
comedy as well. Because the three set no boundaries on
what they could discuss, the humorous possibilities were
limitless. Consequently, certain parts of the show were
hysterical, including one song where the three sarcasti-
cally wailed, "Yes! Yes!" while taking the audience
through a sexual marathon. At the conclusion of the main

Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes lead the way in "Demolition Man.M A must-see for action-movie fans.
and taline prforance

By CH RIS LEPLEY
With sets that the art directors of
"Freejack" would've given their left
testicles to have and a vision of the
future straight out of "Bill and Ted's
Bogus Journey," Sylvester Stallone's
latest action / adventure / melodrama
"Demolition Man" is a slick, exciting
film studded with truly inspired per-
Demtolition Man
Directed by Marco Brambilla; written
by Daniel Waters, Robert Reneau and
Peter M. enkov; with Sylvester
formances. Not that we expect "Ham-
let" from the man who brought us
"Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot," but
after Stallone's more than respect-
able showing in "Cliffhanger" it seems
he was at least trying to put some
thought into his projects. Stallone's
acting is solid as always. The only
problem is the story. Unfortunately,
the "Demolition Man" writers give us
asinking ship that is thankfully bailed
out by the spectacular performances
of its lead actors.
Stallone plays LAPD Sgt. John
Spartan, nicknamed the "Demolition
Man" for his penchant for blowing up
buildings with the criminals inside
them.
Wesley Snipes, adding another
iotch to his action movie belt, plays
maniacal mass-murderer Simon Phoe-
nix. With his blonde hair and habit of
mixing plaids with stripes, Phoenix is
a fast-talking foul-mouthed lower-
class imitation of his "New Jack City"
character. And in 1996. the year in
which the opening of the film is set,

he's no match for Spartan.
Spartan is no angel either, how-
ever. He manages to get himself con-
victed of involuntary manslaughter
when the building he blows up in
order to capture Phoenix turnsout to
hold 30 innocent people. The prison
crowding problem in the future is
solved by cryogenically freezing all
inmates, thawing them out periodi-
cally for their parole hearings and
subliminally programming them with
a trade while they're frozen (Spartan
is subliminally taught to knit sweat-
ers). It's during one such parole hear-
ing that Phoenix escapes from prison,
foiling retina scanners with the eye
he's plucked from the warden's skull.
The police of 2032, the year Phoe-
nix escapes, aren't equipped to deal
with violence. There hasn't been a
wrongful death (or a 'murder / death
I kill' as they annoyingly refer to
The only problem Is the
story Unotnaey
the "Demolition Man"
writ~e gieu
sinking ship that is
thankfully balled out by
the spectacular
performanCes of its
lead actors.
homicides) in over sixteen years, al-
though one of the film's failings is
that it never makes clear to the audi.-
ence whether this peace and tranquil-
lity covers the entire planet, orjust the

Los Angeles (now 'San Angeles')
area.
When the police prove unable to
apprehend Phoenix, or even slow him
down, they decide to thaw out the
Demolition Man and set him on
Phoenix's trail.
The rest of the city has forgotten
about the violence of the past century
and concentrates on resurrecting only
its kitsch: 'oldies' radio stations play
endless strings of commercial jingles
and weapons are relegated to the 'Hall
of Violence' exhibit at the local mu-
seum.
Not everyone fits in nicely to the
futuristic scenario. People called
'scraps' live underground in the rem-
nants of old L.A.'s streets, streets that
were buried by the big quake of 2010.
They are 'led' by Edgar Friendly
(Dennis Leary), a prophet of sorts
who preaches the need for the free.-
dom to cover oneself in green Jell-o
and run naked through the streets read.-
ing Playboy magazine.
Leary's lunatic monologues are
ideally suited to the crazed character
he plays.
Maybe if the makers of "Demoli.-
tion Man" had decided the direction
they wanted to go -action movie or
comedy- the finished product would
have been more cohesive.
As it stands, however, the inspired
performances by Wesley Snipes and
Sylvester Stallone make the film a
mnust-see for action fans.
Don't let the blandness of the fu-
turistic society this film depicts turn
you off. "Demolition Man" is excit-
ing and fast-paced, with an ending
that Snipes fans shouldn't miss.
Demolition Man is playing at
Showcase Cinemas.

Sisters Of Mercy
A Sight Case of Overbombing
Elektra
With "A Slight Case of
Overbombing," the Sisters of Mercy
attempt to prolong their wildly suc-
cessful absence by releasing yet an-
other retrospective. While the first
installment, "Some Girls Wander By
Mistake," was a welcome collection
of the Sisters' rare import singles,
"Overbombing" is nothing but a re-
packaging of one third of each of their
three domestically-released full length
albums, with a few singles thrown in.
While all of the essential Sisters'
tunes are here ("This Corrosion,"
"Walk Away," "More," etc.), along
with a few new remixes, ("Lucretia
My Reflection," "Vision Thing") there
is simply not enough quality new
material to make this album worth
buying. The remixes, with the excep-
tion of "Temple of Love (1993)," are
far too similar to their original ver-
sions, and the new single, "Under The
Gun," plods along aimlessly, captur-
ing none of the magic of the early
days.
"Overbombing" does encompass
the most powerful moments from the
band's post-1985 work, and the choice
of album tracks could hardly have
been better. But the chances are good
that most devoted (and even semi-
devoted) fans already own nearly all
iof these tracks and will have no use
for this collection.
- Andy Dolan
Various Artists
Seattle... The Dark Side
American Recordings/Rhyme Cartel
When Sir Mix-A-Lot came out
with "Posse On Broadway" in 1988,
Seattle was on the rap map with much
preliminary dap. Since then, tunes
like "Beepers" and "Baby Got Back"
have carried him into bigger money
and his former side-kick Kid Sensa-
tion have put out some of the quick-
est, sharpest, hypest rhyme styles to
grace the west coast.
On the new compilation "Seattle
.The Dark Side," Mix-A-Lot and
Rck Rubin introduce E-Dawg, Jay-
Skee, Jazz Lee Alston and an R&B
group, 3rd Level; Kid Sensation and
Mix-A-Lot each take a track as well.

With all the creativ
A-Lot it is easy to
but there is hardly
this album. Sir Mi
interesting twist on
"Da Pimpin' InMe'
women, but materi
tradictions of capit
Kid Sensation's
well, although not
his faster styles. Bu
Dawg and Jay-Skee
cial styles while the
over samples which
that were mediocre
(the one exception
Skee's "Menace C

en display shoes'
character's oral tour de force, she sensed no pleasure or
reward, and instead felt only little "hairs between [her]
teeth". Such humor not only entertained the audience, but
also brought it closer to the performers. While in the past
feminism has been associated with alienating, hostile or
self-pitying rhetoric, the three avoided these pitfalls. In*
stead, they defined their own feminism with humor, and'
thus were able to wreck the "femi-nazi" stereotype that
has also been used to hold back women.
In other words, then, "Sensible Footwear" was not
only a funny show, but an intelligent one as well. Whether
the three women were pretending to be the "New Man,"
who is apparently all for women's liberation, or the
"liberated woman," who has jumped on the Feminist
Bandwagon but is still wearing high heels, they were
constantly making commentary. By pushing these differ-
ent stereotypes to the extreme, they effectively madet
points through satire. At other times, the women took on
unusual points of view, such as that of the Virgin Mary, to
help them criticize aspects of society.
The show never lost the audience's attention, which
was quite a feat considering the fact it had no plot or
scenery to keep the viewers engaged. By often walking in
circles on the stage, the actors created a sense of motion
that kept the cabaret from stagnating. In addition, the
performances were dynamic and enthusiastic, including
the singing parts, which provided a nice contrast to th4@
spoken sketches.
In the end, the three never came up with definition of
feminism that could be neatly packaged into one sentence.
They did, however, develop one in which women can be
who they want to be, one that people can laugh about, and
one that the trio of "Sensible Footwear" seemed to feel
quite happy about finding. Indeed, the three closed out
their show with their arms raised in victory.
re energy of Mix- is gifted vocally and their music has
expect too much, potential, but their themes are not
anything new on new.
x himself adds an Perhaps the saving grace creatively
an old theme in is the surprising and abrasive Jazz
'(a song not about Lee Alston track "Love ... Never
alism and the con- That." It's a slow-flow groove with a
alism). powerful message about a woman
song is solid as trapped inanabusiverelationship who@
as outstanding as is now able to visualize her situation
t the new jacks E- in light of the fact that she is dead.
kick nothing-spe- Only the synthesized sax takes away
y say nothing new from this totherwise effective track.
echo other songs Overall, there are things to dub and
in the first place others to rub, and here's hoping for a
musically is Jay- Jazz Lee Alston album.
rook"). 3rd Level - Dustin Howes

Mercy lost all sense of originality? Chances are good.
anme
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