10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 10, 1995
Anchoress':
hook, line
,and stinker
By Shirley Lee
Daily Arts Writer
When moving pictures were in-
troduced a century ago, the
public's enchantment had less to
do with the medium's representa-
tional competence than with the
new possibilities for expressing
the supernatural within a natural-
istic frame. Nowadays, true ge-
nius meets and surpasses both of
the above two cinematic goals.
One of the nice things about ge-
nius - true genius, one-of-a-kind,
unapologetic, so clear-eyed it's
scary genius - is its refusal to be
bottled up for the convenience of
its inferiors.
The latest release by director
Chris Newby is a generic, bizarre
black and white film that falls short
on not one, but on all of the afore-
mentioned cinematic objectives.
"Anchoress," at its core, is an
old-fashioned film which taps into
the camera's unique ability to con-
vey the bizarre, but with little visual
conviction. Director Chris Newby's
"Anchoress" chronicles the life of a
young woman named Christine who,
out of her own free will, encloses
herself in a darkened, tiny room
adjacent to a church. Newby trans-
forms Christine into a figure sym-
bolic of all goodness, one who is
forever sealed and cemented from
her medieval world. Christine
chooses this path in the hopes of
fleeing from an unwanted marriage
and of devoting her body, heart, and
soul to the Virgin Mary.
Conflicts explode immediately
upon Christine's transformation
from a woman of dogmatic nature
into the town's soothsayer, driving
all townspeople to frequent her
gloomy hut. The film, in its en-
tirety, is of little excitement besides
the oh-so-climatic conflict between
the priest's conventional views and
Christine's pagan doctrines.
"Anchoress" has hardly any dia-
WCBN Bash n' Pop
Seems like most of the best
recent shows have been benefits
for one good cause or another.
Tonight's 5-band extravaganza at
Rick's keeps up the trend; It
benefits WCBN Radio Free Ann
Arbor, a nonprofit, all-volunteer
student and community-run radio
station. WCBN's trademark is its
diverse, eclectic free-form
programming. Tune In, and you
might hear punk rock, classical
music, world music, jazz, spoken-
word, television jingles (or some
ear-bending collage of these
elements) and literally any other
kind of music. Surely WCBN plays
something for everyone's tastes.
Which is precisely why everyone
should head out to Rick's tonight
and catch the amazing, mostly
local music on the bill. First up Is
a side project of the band His
Name Is Alive (right) called
Airplane. Next are the scd-fl
bubblegum sounds of Godzuki, a
local favorite. Third is the droning,
Velvet Underground-inspired
Outrageous Cherry, who rocked
the Majestic last week. Next up is
Brainiac, who make some of the
most messed-up bizzaro stuff
you're likely to hear on this planet.
And headlining is The Dirt Eaters,
another His Name Is Alive offshoot
that can be heard on the 4AD
release "Mouth By Mouth." All
this for $5, If you're 18 and over.
Doors open at 8:30 p.m., and the
music starts at 9. You must gol
DROGE
Continued from page 8
does a residency tour build a devoted
audience, butthe approach helps the band.
"It allowed the band togrow,"saidDroge,
"it allowed us to see progress. It encour-
aged the group."
The warm reception for the residency
tourwasthe firstindicationthat 1994was
going to be a good year for Droge. Since
the release of "Necktie Second," he has
received a steady stream of good press,
praising boththesoundofhisband andhis
songwriting.
Like most singer / songwriters,
Droge's material stems from personal
experiences, yet his songs aren't entirely
vI
logue, is incomprehensible and dull.
The theme of "Anchoress" is de-
Anchoress
irected by Chris Newvby
with Natalie Morse and
Eugene Bervoets
At the Michigan Theatre
serving only in Newby's refusal to
reduce women's brilliance on both
societal and personal levels. The
storyline is simply conformity vs.
individuality. That is more than suf-
ficient for an essay or a short film,
but this is a feature length film.
Halfway into the movie, I wanted to
take every character aside, slap some
sense into them, and tell them to get
a life. Do yourself a favor, Newby:
A new script is in need here, please.
What I enjoyed, however, was
the fact that Christine is a woman
who shoves crap back in people's
face, challenging authority and pick-
ing at people's heads. The film is
representative of any directors'
sophomore effort. Yet, it's lacka-
daisical, annoying, boring, and non-
sensical. I hated this film. It made
me feel sick inside. It didn't make
me think as much as it made me
think I wanted to be somewhere --
anywhere - else for that matter.
confessional. "'If You Don't Love Me' is
very much fiction,"he explained. "A song
like 'HamptonInn' isfairlyreal,it'spretty
much just truth, lyrically. A song like
'Fourth of July' sort of splits the differ-
ence. There's a truth and definite literal-
ness to where the song came from, mean-
ing that it was a friend's suicide that
inspired it; (while I was) writing the song,
it became partly fiction."
For the better part of the past year,
Droge has been on the road, which means
he hasn't had much time to write new
songs. When he's on the road, he sketches
out ideas, instead of writing songs."Istart
lots of things and think about lots of things,
writing-wise," said Droge. "When I've
got lots of time on my hands, I write a lot.
Being on the road, I got lots of interviews
and radio stations to go to, soundchecks
and driving, so Ijust store information-
fragments, ideas and starting points. It's
nice to collect lots of those, because writ-
ing just doesn't happen sometimes."
Even if touring doesn't offer much
opportunity for songwriting, Droge
doesn't regret being on the road at all:
"When I was at home (overChristmas),
I just got stir-crazy and was ready to go
back out. It's really cool to wake up in
adifferentcityeveryday, different show
-it's always different, nomatterwhat.
Even if you're in sort of a routine or
pattern."
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