The Michigan Daily - Weekend etc. - Thursday, September 29, 1994 - 3
MelRose Place
'A River' runs and reveals Redford
By ALEXANDRA TWIN It" (1991), the elegiac, oft-mentioned
His soon-to-be-nationally released but barely seen memory piece that
"Quiz Show" is a docu-drama about hasmostgently eased Robert Redford,
the scandals and betrayed innocence of the director, into the same shoes that
a score of disillusioned characters
played by Robert Redford, the actor,
have already worn for decades.
Namely, that of insightful, if partial,
observer and narrator.
Drawing on the short novella by
's talent
Norman MacClean of the same name,
"A River Runs Through It" is an ex-
pansive, if concise rendering of the
childhood and early adulthood of the
MacClean boys. Paul (Brad Pitt) is
the rebellious one, mischievous and
daring, never meaning to find himself
in the inevitably unfortunate situa-
tions that fate perpetually seems to
See RIVER, Page 6
Hell on wheels
Imagine my joy when last April
23rd I arrived home to find a new car
*my garage. Topped off with a red,
white and blue ribbon, a brand-spank-
ing new 1994 Escort Sport, two-door,
AM/FM stereo-cassette plus 10-disc
CD changer, air conditioning and
driver's side airbag - in "Brilliant
Blue," that wonderful clearcoat me-
tallic that sparkles like a diamond in
the sunshine.
My own car. (Well, according to
the lease Ford Motor Credit's car, but
W's not dwell on technicalities.)
After three years of hoofing it
around campus, there is nothing more
liberating than your own car. Great, I
thought: no more parents carting me
back and forth between Lincoln Park
and Ann Arbor; no more 15-minute
walks home from the Daily at mid-
night; and, most importantly, no more
$7 cab rides to and from Briarwood.
But in the last few weeks my new-
Sfascination has dissipated; slowly
t surely I have moved from bliss to
despondency to outright indignation.
Parking in this city is sheer hell. I am
convinced that if there is an under-
world you spend your time trying to
park a car in a city like Ann Arbor.
When I moved in on August 21,I
figured I'd scrape up a parking spot
somewhere. No rush; I always found
a free spot on East Ann (where the
eet parking is free). But then the
sudents began moving back, and the
people who lived in those houses were
beating me to the spots on their street.
I then began the search for a structure,
and discovered that the nearest one
with available leases was on Fourth
and William. $60 a month and it's a
15-minute walk to my parking spot.
Then I discovered meters. Free
parking - as long as I arrived at
~oyd after 6 p.m. and left before 8
dThe problem is, that 8a.m. thing
doesn't always work out. Even on
days where I wake up at 9 a.m., it'sjst
too much effort to wake up, shove a
buck's worth of quarters in the meter
and roll back into bed. That's a good
10 minutes of sleep.
As I sit here, gazing at my stack of
10 parking tickets, I see the flaw in
my logic. Yes, it's my own fault that
sum of my monthly parking tick-
outweighs my American Express
bill. (And for those of you who know
me, you know I could feed a handful
of Haitian refugees on a good AmEx
month.) But what kind of a yahoo
spends his life ticketing cars?
"Bill" was a little reluctant to talk
with me, since on the likable scale he
ranks just above Rush Limbaugh and
just below Geraldo Rivera. But Bill, I
S'd, you owe it to your public. Pic-
e this exchange like a Frosted
Flakes commercial: Bill with a black
spot over his face, cowering with
shame, and me as Tony the Tiger.
MelRose: So, Bill, how did you
become a parking officer?
Bill: I drew the shortest straw. No
one wanted the job, even all the other
losers.
MeRose: So you never had any
bitions to be a parking officer?
Bill: (Expletive) no! I wanted to
be a vice cop. (Gestures to his End-
less Summer tan, sockless feet and
Don Johnson-like scruff.) I was
headed for the top. I was the most
driven, focused, clear-headed cop in
Ann Arbor. I was somebody.
MelRose: (A la Barbara Walters)
Tell us what happened, Bill.
Bill: Maybe it was thatcappucino.
Maybe it was the lack of donuts. But
day I just cracked. And they
couldn't fire me, so they figured the
only job I was fit to do was to crank
tickets out of a little computer. And
I've been doing it ever since.
MelRose: That was how long ago?
Bill: (sobbing) Seventeen years.
MelRose: (A la Joyce Brothers)
How does that make you feel, Bill?
Bill: How would you like to be
cursed and shunned? To know every-
Shates you and what you represent.
To be called - a meter maid.
There you have it. At this point,
Bill was too distraught to go on. My
intuitive line of questioning appar-
ently sent this already shell of a man
tumbling into an oblivion of depres-
Home
Entertainment
Center
the 1950s. 1981's "Ordinary People"
portrayed the dissolution of the arche-
typal American family from within.
Bestof all, it is "A RiverRunsThrough
Used & Rare
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113 W. Liberty
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995-1891
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the Trip!
Bookshop
since 1975
Ann Arbor's own demolition man goes crazy over the
I new releases at Libertv Street Video.
Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt look pensively innocent as they gaze off into
the distance in "A River Runs Through It."
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