101beMibitt 3a i E W S T U D E N T E D I T I 0 N 1 9 9 3 1 ss S Ann Arbor offers a world of excitement Believe it or not, art does thrive in the Midwest. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Madonna, Francis Ford Coppola, Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Kasdan, Anthony Keidis, Diana Ross and David Letterman all sprung up from the verdant valleys of the glorious Midwest. It's not all just voices in cornfields, football and lunatic postal workers. And, as Renaissance Italy had its Florence, ancient Greece had its Athens - well, the Midwest of the 1990s has its Ann Arbor. Yes, this is the fabled land about which all those yuppies in "The Big Chill" reminisced. This is the place from which Tom Hayden revolution- ized a generation. This is the campus on which Madonna first used her dancing skills for artistic expression. This is the city where Nirvana played to a handful of people at the Blind Pig before the scent of teen spirit spread across the republic. So, when you settle into your new digs in Ann Arbor, show a little respect for its history, its culture, its traditions. And that does not mean avoiding setting foot on the "M" in the Diag. It means taking in the great arts available for your entertainment and personal enrichment. Go to Club Heidelberg and listen to some homespun talent. Sit in the grand balcony of the Michigan Theater and watch a movie. Try out for a University theater production. Try out to be a disc jockey for a local radio station. Go see an opera at Hill Auditorium. Stop by the Bird of Paradise for some jazz. Make tracks for Disco Night at the Nectarine Ballroom:. Imagine the possibilities. You, too, could end up a novelist, a film- maker, a talk show host, a Red Hot Chili Pepper. After all, your time here is fleeting, but art is eternal. L OCAL BANDS The local band scene in Arbor is thriving, with more up-; coming groups than any place this of Boulder, CO. And they don't all grunge or do covers for frat parties, if you had to narrow the most pronit bands down to a select ten (or, actu 11), then you'd come up with a something like this ... F ILM Film has been called the fnitive art of the 20th century (bott Most Ann Arborites would prob agree, as movies are big business it town, be it the artsy stuff at the M gan or the blood-and-guts-and-g itous-sex spectacles at Showcase.] definitive look at which of the silver screens offer the most magi{ your entertainment dollar, check page 3. ETROIT ARTS 5 Detroit is a mere 30 minutes away. And don't believe the hype; it's a fabulous city, brimming over with artis- tic treasures - and the sumptuous Ti- ger Stadium to boot. So make a run (does your roomate maybe have a car?) for the late, great Motor City before the merciless Governor Engler crushes it with his mighty fist, knocking all the beauty and life out of it once and for all. ALK e de- SHOWS 6 The youth of the '20s was dubbed the Lost Generation. The youth of the '60s was the Baby Boomer gen- eration. We're either Generation X or the Talk Show Generation. If the latter is true, then Montel Williams is the F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Timothy Leary of the day. Be afraid. Be very afraid. B OOKSTORES 4 T HEATER 7 By the time you hitmidterms, the idea of actually reading for pleasure may seem like a lost notion leftover from your naive youth, butdon't let that stop you from checking outAnn Arbor's virtual plethora of bookstores. For the inside scoop on where to buy your text- books and where to buy your Anne Rice, John Grisham or Tolstoy (de- pending on your level of ambition), read Darcy Lockman's guide to the local book scene. Ah! The smell of greasepaint, the roar of the crowd. Yes, Ann Arbor theater virtually pulses with campy ex- citement during the school year. Last year, Thornton Wilder's classic "Our Town" (middle)drew in lumbering herds of student theater connoisseurs, and this year should prove no different. To get a peek at what University theater has in store, turn, dramatically, to page 7. CHIGAN THEATER The glorious Michigan The- ater is more than just a place to see movies (though its capabilities in that regard cannot be overestimated). It of- fer plays, concerts, musicals and a real sense of living history. This 1920s movie palace is the spoke on which the wheel of Ann Arbor's art scene turns. Learn more about it and thereby become a better person. FILE PHOTO VISITING WRITERS 5 What doAllen Ginsberg, Scott Turow, Joyce Carol Oates and Jamaica Kincaid all have in common? Believe it or not, they've all taken the time out from their jet-setting, rich-and-famous author lives to bless Ann Arbor with their presence. For more on how you, too, can be in the presence of literary stardom, turn to page 5 for the straight dope on the Visiting Writers program. T HOMAS DOLBY 9 ,F INE ARTS 5 Thomas Dolby. Remember him? That "She Blinded Me With Sci- ence" guy? Yeah, him. Well, there's alot more to him than an old pop song from ..... _ .. _,n___ W. "iUMVI M- .. m