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6 -- The Michigan Daily ,- Weekend etc.
- Thursday, September 15, 1994
6 - The Michigan Daily - Weekend etc. - Thursday, September 15, 1994
Old Fresh Goldblum
Woman rapper wants you...
Support essential for message to be disseminated
By JOHN R. RYBOCK
O.K. I'll admit it. I was beginning
to lose faith in Liberty Street Video. I
mean, they carry almost anything I
could want, stuff which other stores
fail to stock because they are not
"high demand" films. So when I
wanted to find "The Tall Guy," a
Ever notice all the hair styles Jeff
Goldblum has gone through over the
past ten years? For a fourth stage in
his hair evolution, ckeck out his
1988 film, "The Tall Guy."
Hom _ W
Entertainment
Center
1988 film with Jeff Goldblum and
Emma Thompson, I went to Liberty
Street.
And they didn't have it. That was
a couple of years ago, but recently, on
one of my semi-weekly trips there, I
saw it under "New Comedy." "The
Tall Guy."
Admittedly, this seems a little
overboard for some movie which you
may never have even heard of. But
you most certainly are familiar with
the other works of the people involved.
Director Mel Smith ("Alas, Smith and
Jones," "Not the Nine O'clockNews,"
"Morons from Outter Space"), writter
Richard Curtis ("Four Weddings and
a Funeral," "The Black Adder"), and
stars Goldblum ("The Fly," "Jurassic
Park"), Thompson ("Howards End,"
"Remains of the Day," "Much Ado
About Nothing"), and Rowan
Attkinson ("The Black Adder," "Mr.
Bean").
To say that they all have made
their mark in the entertainment indus-
try would be an understatement. For
fans of low-key British comedy, they
are all stars (It should be noted that
while American audiences are famil-
iar with Emma Thompson in serious,
period roles, she first became known
across the pond for comedy, notably
with a sitcom titled "Emma.")
The tale itself is fairly straight-
forward and ludicrious. Goldblum
plays Dexter, "The Tall Guy," an
American actor stuck playing side-
kick/prop to a highly successful Brit-
ish comic, Ron Anderson (Attkinson).
Allergic to "everything relating to any-
thing ... except the Beach Boys,"
Dexter seeks treatment and falls for a
nurse, Kate (Thompson). After doz-
ens of painful shots, abortive attempts
to ask her out, and a fake trip to
Africa, the two finally get together,
culminating in one of the strangest
sex scenes in recent memory.
When Dexter loses his job, how-
ever, he quickly lands on his feet,
earning the title role in a Andrew
Lloyd Webber-esque musical, "El-
ephant!", about the elephant man.
By DUSTIN HOWES
Nefertiti is a highly energetic, friendly and concerned
woman; and she has made a name for herself in the rap
world. She is able to get things done, and she is supremely
focused on her career. "I had the opportunity to be one of
those rappers that had tapes from fuckin' everybody - I
had Skeff Anselm, 45 King ... they just recognized." (In
the end she picked some winners; her album encompasses
the skills of Gangstarr, D.J. Pooh, Threat and Diamond.)
Her singular goal at the present time seems to be using
Mercury Records, what she refers to as "a propaganda
machine," to get her message across; she can do this by
selling alot of records. When asked if there was one thing
she wanted to say to the people she said, "Buy the album
. pick up the product and support." But what is "the
product" and what message does Nef want to get across?
Nefertiti is a woman with
a mission, but at twenty
years old she is not sure ex-
actly what that mission is
yet. She is a woman of expe-
rience and feeling; all of
which has not been worked'
into a complete political
philosophy. This is not nec-
essarily abad thing, because
it means that the listening
public may get a chance to
see her evolve not only ar-
tistically but politically. For
now we can listen in on her Here Nefertiti is playing cat'
world; in fact her tone de-
mands that we listen to what she is feeling.
The most tangible thing Nefertiti can grasp on to for
now is her experience. Her album is entitled L.I.F.E.
(Living In Fear of Extinction), and her present ideas and
rhymes seem to spring forth from this idea. "Fear moti-
vates us all, fear is basically
be found in her experience. How did she get to where she
did? How did she make a name for herself? "It's the want,
it's the spirit that takes you there. I left my panties up, my
mouth closed and my ears open." And she is learning as
she travels the country, meeting other people and experi-
encing things she never had before. "I first met Q-Tip (A
Tribe Called Quest) like four years ago. That brother said
one thing to me and it was winter in New York. He said:
'The cold will make your heart grow stronger."' Drawing
from her experiences she is full of great one-liners.
Her experience has also helped her understand the
power of music. This understanding and her experience
became intertwined as she spoke of what is important to
her. "People have to understand who they are and how
they fit in; and I think that music helps them feel that way.
When you listen to Bob Marley, you feel aerie, you feel
cool, you feel cultural." Her
own music isdabout express-
ing her feelings. Will this
eventually produce a philoso-
phy, an understanding of
where she "fits in" politically?
If so, it may grow into some
coherent solutions to the prob-
lems humanity experiences in
the process of her somewhat
grim conception of L.I.F.E..
In fact there is little ques-
tion that these experiences
will lead to something less
cradle with invisible string, scattered then Nefertiti's cur-
rent one-liners. As part of her
contract with Mercury she is assured a college education
and she herself is eager to learn. When asked how it was
to be raised in the Nation of Islam she said, "I don't have
tunnel vision, for me Islam is a way of life, it's not just a
cult ... it's being conscious of all things ... I love all
people because I know I cre-
, my mouth ated all people."
So Nefertiti is a powerful,
s open. ambitious black woman who
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Actors always seem to have troubles
with relationships, and Dexter is no
exception, though it may not be giv-
ing anything away to say that it all
works out in the end.
Curtis, who's best known work at
the moment is last year's "Four Wed-
ith musical
numbers with
dancers in elephant
masks and lyrics such
as "Somewhere up in
heaven/there's an
angel with big ears,"
the sequence is so
bizarre that it truly
does seem like a
Webber musical.
dings and aFuneral." "The Tall Guy" is
not as focused on a single subject as
"Four Weddings," leaving it with
occasionaly lapses in working hu-
mor. However, when it hits the mark,
as it especially does with the entire
"Elephant!" sequence, it hits dead on.
With musical numbers with dancers
in elephant masks and lyrics such as
"Somewhere up in heaven/there's an
angel with big ears," the sequence is
so bizarre that it truly does seem like
a Webber musical.
One has to wonder, though, if
Curtis is venting his frustrations about
his long-time partner, Rowan
Attkinson. Attkinson's role is to es-
sentially himself, only as an incred-
ible asshole. When Attkinson asks a
troubled Dexter if he wants to talk to
someone, and Dexter says yes, the
reply is a sharp, "Then fucking find
someone." He'snot likable or redeem-
able, and one wonders how close to
the mark that really is.
"The Tall Guy" may not be a film
for everyone. For anyone who has
had a taste of British humor, only to
find it distasteful, most of the jokes
will fly right on by, hardly leaving a
chuckle. But for anglo-humor-
philes,"The Tall Guy"'s all-star cast
makes it a must-see film, even if it is
six years in coming to Ann Arbor.
important observation, but
the ramifications of it are
not yet clear. "It's not even a
philosophy... When you (have) people motivated by fear,
they'll do anything. If I have a gun on you you're scared;
there's no telling what you would do ... the fact that I'm
a black woman ... basically I feel like there's a gun to my
head." People under pressure, acting out of fear; this sense
of urgency underlies Nefertiti's entire album.
The basis for a lot of her most intriguing insights can
Nefertiti is building on her vast array
of experiences. But she is not
looking too far ahead; she is
living one day at a time. "I just hope I live to see the world
... so many people have lost their lives around me, it
doesn't feel real that I'll see 25,just because of how society
is ... That's not fair, you know, that's why I have an album
Living In Fear of Extinction." This strong sense of reality
may eventually produce some solutions that will not only
help society but rock the house as well.
BOOKS
Continued from page 1
readers, graphic novels (good, but too
mainstream) and discounted New
York Times bestsellers. It's designed
to immediately catch the eye, if not
the literary senses. If it's trendy, odd,
or flashy, it's probably there (espe-
cially those stupid 3-D art books,
where you supposedly see an image if
you squint really hard but don't look
directly at it; I usually end up nodding
dumbly while my friends say things
like, "Wow, I see the mermaids pro-
creating!" They have plenty of those).
Hayward promises more changes
soon, including new colorful art re-
placing the drab corporate logos and
newer, expanded sections. More con-
ventional reading like classic fiction
might make way for more offbeat
selection.
Speaking of offbeat, the highlight
of the new Tower has to be the ex-
panded magazine selection; this is the
largest porn section I've seen since
the loss of Community Newscenter a
year ago. There are few places that
would devote three shelves to the art
of tattoos and body piercing, but
Tower has thankfully compressed all
of the various titles in their "Fetish"
s
0
section (other fetishes like foot ob-
session or stalking are shortchanged).
Unfortunately, the porn section is
rather narrow minded. Almost all of
the titles are geared toward straight
ethnocentric white males; the most
unusual magazine is the dubiously
titled "Barely Legal" for the guy who
cruises high schools in his Camaro
looking for love. In a nod to the '90s,
all of the pornography is shrink-
wrapped for your safety.
Borders has changed considerably,
most notably by expanding their
magazine section and adding some
much needed space. Before it was
nearly claustrophobic; now it's much
more patron-friendly while maintain-
ing that neat "I'm smart I like big
books" atmosphere.
There is probably a section for
anything you're looking for: gender
studies,political science, music, sexu-
ality (conveniently located next to the
"Addiction/Recovery" section) and
much more. The magazine section is
slightly more serious than Tower's,
and has many more of those nifty
foreign magazines. There is no real
fetish section, however.
The second floor has music, soft-
ware and an expanded aisle to hear
See BOOKS, page 10
KURIOUS
Continued from page 6
shitgot puton hold so long (some of his
album goes back as far as 1990) ... so
it just fit too perfect."
So there is no frontin' - it is just
the guy who wrote it. It might seem a
little strange to be noting something
which does not make musical waves,
but in an interesting twist, the aver-
ageness of Kurious means that he
offers a lot which is out of the ordi-
nary. For instance when speaking of
the production he says, "I worked
with close friends, so like whatIdo is,
I'll get with 'em, like let's say I'll go
to my man V.I.C.'s house, and sit
their and make tracks with 'em so that
my tracks won't sound like a regular
Beatnuts' track." But even more im-
portantly, Kurious is not trying to be
something he's not and that may be
the most extraordinary aspect of this
otherwise average guy. "... it's hard
... especially now with all that gang-
ster stuff, that's like what the masses
really like, so it would have been really
easy for me to go in the studio and start
poppin' crazy shit ... but I'm gonna do
this my way."
What exactly is his way? When
asked if there was one thing he wanted
included in this article, in the fashion
of atrue hip-hop head, Kurious wanted
to give his shout outs - credit to the
community. In that tradition, here's
ups to Stimulated Dummies, Fat Joe,
Brand Nubians, H20 and everyone
else down with Kurious.
the stem of all revolution, i left my panties up
and revolution simply means
change." This is her most closed, and my ear
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Arther Miller wrote
for the Daily.
He later married Marilyn
Monroe.
'nuff said
Mass Meeting
September 21
7:30
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