The Michigan Daily - Weekend etc. - Thursday, January 12, 1995 - 3

MelRose Place

Changing Faces expect to take the music industry by storm

rN~ 7
Thne art offlirting
I've always seen relationships as
wars. We spend our lives on the battle-
field, and in order to fight, we need a
certain amount of ammunition. And
the more we have, the better.
Flirting is the H-bomb of relation-
ship ammunition; whoever invented
it had no idea how powerful it was
until the explosion it made and the
aftermath it left.
Going into the battle without flirt-
ing is like Clinton handling foreign
Saffairs.Ordomestic affairs. Or any kind
of affairs that don't involve fast food or
cheap Arkansas women. It's stupid,
and should not be done.
Of course, to some, flirting is more
than ammunition. Some people devote
their lives to flirting. Andjust like in the
military services, there are four-star
Generals, and there are lowly Privates.
My dear friend Matthew--himself
in the ranks of Brigadier General - can
flirt with one guy and at the same time
draw three others from different time
zones. (Of course he's beautiful, tal-
ented and intelligent, so that helps.) I've
seen him in action, and it's an amazing
show. He could charge admission.
Below I've compiled a listof vari-
ous methods of flirting, numbered in
order from beginning to advanced.
I am indebted to Matthew and an
-*anonymous Alice Lloyd resident for
their expertise and wisdom on the
subject of flirting. Daily Books Edi-
tor (what, you didn't know we had a
books editor?) and "Cock Captain"
Kirk Milleralso contributed. All meth-
ods have been tested on animals, in-
cluding quite a few dogs and pigs.
1. The attitude. Go for aloof and
unattainable. Have confidence. If
*yu've got this, you're on your way.
2. The look. Matthew has in ex-
cess of 100 different looks, which he
has spent years perfecting, and has
recently compiled into a neat little
poster (contact me for sales informa-
tion).. It's sort of like the American
Sign Language alphabet. The more
adventurous flirters can add the hair
flip, but use it sparingly.
3. Dancing. You can dance with
someone before you talk to them.
Slaixdancing, for example, is a surpris-
ingly effective icebreaker. But the level
of flirting depends on the kind of dance.
Fotexample, thelambadais moresexual
than, oh say, a gavotte. You know, they
say you can tell how good aguy is in bed
by how good a dancer he is. Which
means my last boyfriend must have
been a lousy dancer. Anyway, who
news if the theory applies to women,
butfortherecordI'm anamazingdancer.
4. Conversation. You should
probably talk to them before you touch
them. Beware of overused one-liners,
however. For example:
,"Is there an airport near by, be-
cause my heart just took off."
"How about a pizza and a fuck?"
"No." "What, you don't like pizza?"
"I have aquarter on my body some-
where; if you can find it it's yours."
(Some people may have to substitute
"$100 bill" for "quarter.")
"Fuckme if I'm wrong, but I think
you're going to kiss me."
"Hi, I'm a Daily columnist."
5. Touching. Wrestling, pillow
fighting, tickling, boxing, for example.
Suddenly, if you've got someone in a
headlock, you look a lot better to them.
6. Insults. For example:

"What's that on your chin?"
"What's a girl like you doing in a
place like this?" "But this is a nice
place." "Exactly."
7. Poking someone with a knife.
This could explain the O.J. situation.
He just got a little carried away flirting.
Let that be a lesson to all who try this
method. Make sure the knife is dull.
* 8. Backrubs. They say 80 percent
of all backrubs lead to sex. Try using
that line while you're giving the backrub,
and see if that changes the effectiveness
of the method.
9. Beating them over the head.

By EUGENE BOWEN
The silky, sultry voices of Charisse
Rose and Cassandra Lucas, better
known as the hit duo Changing Faces
(Big Beat/Atlantic Records), have
exploded on the musical scene with
the hit single "Stroke You Up." Na-
tives of the Bronx and Manhattan
respectively, Charisse and Cassandra
were almost overwhelmed by the
blinding speed at which they were
propelled to stardom by their debut
LP, "Changing Faces." But, these
women have no big heads. They were
nice enough to take a few minutes out
of their immensely busy schedules to
speak about the ups and downs which
come with the territory of musical
fame.
These two prettily petite sistas,
who admit that they're "in our 20s
somewhere" (actually, Charisse is 24
and Cassandra is 25), speak with un-
mistakable, round da way girl New
York accents that made conversing
with them both as lively and intrigu-

ing as their "Stroke You Up" video.
Fame didn't just drop down upon
these two women, who have known
each other since they attended New
York's well known School of Per-
forming Arts together; they toiled for
some time before finally getting their
big break. While attending college
(Cassandra attended and graduated
with a sociology degree from Hunter
College; Charisse attended John J.
College. She hopes to return some
day to complete her bachelors.) these
women began to take the idea of a
possible musical career seriously.
They produced demos in the base-
ment studio of producer Dinky
Bingham, who helped in the produc-
tion of the duo's CD, and they toured
for a couple of years with club singer
Cybil.
After Cassandra graduated, the two
friends devoted a year, full time, to
their music. They couldn't have cho-
sen a worse time. Female duos weren't
too popular then. Producers wanted

three- or four-women groups (more
bang for the buck?). But, after the
two-woman group Zhan6 hit big, fe-
male duos like Changing Faces be-
came all the rage. They met big-name
producer Kenny Smooth on a New
York street corner one day, and that
was when their career shot off, espe-
cially after the release of their "Stroke
You Up" video which brought them
more than a few male fans.
Charisse and Cassandra see their
music as mellow and subtle.
"It's not coming at you,"
Cassandra said. "It's creeping up on
you. Our music is real subtle, and
nothing is too heavy. I can't explain
it, but when you listen to our stuff it's
easy-listening. And, it's not hard to
relate to. It won't shock you in any
way. That's what I'm saying; it just
fits in."
It's doubtful thatmany were think-
ing subtle thoughts about the "Stroke
You Up" video, so Cassandra sought
to clarify the song's meaning.

"This song wasn't about sex. It
was about an emotional touch. We
could have used lyrics like 'Do me
baby,' but we didn't. We choose not
to be in a bedroom rolling around ...
or having people touching all over us
because that's not what we want our
songs to be like. "
"We want to turn around the ways
men respond to women," Charisse
said. "We want to get them to realize
that women are prized possessions."
Subtle or not, emotional love or
physical sex, Changing Faces feel
that whatever listeners think the mu-
sic is saying is all good, as long as it
takes you where you want to go.
Unfortunately, for all their ador-
ing male fans, Changing Faces has
captured its fair share of not-so-sup-
portive female critics. Changing Faces
recognizes this fact and laments it.
"It's men who tend to create prob-
lems like this among women, but it's
only us who keep it going on," says
Cassandra. "I don't know what it is

about women, but we need to be more
unified."
Changing Faces also dropped a
little bit o' information about R. Kelly,
theirproducer well-known forthe sexy
love ballads which filled his highly-
successful "12 Play" CD..According
to Cassandra, the duo "had heard ru-
mors about R. Kelly before we met
him like 'Oh, he's stuck up.' We met
him, and we couldn't figure where the
rumors came from. R. Kelly is a man
of jokes; he's full of mama jokes.
He'll tear you apart with them."
And as for R. Kelly's supposed
marriage to Aaliyah, a 15-yearprodigy
of his who also hit big with her release
"Age Ain't Nothin' But a Nunmber,"
Cassandra said, "As far as we know,
R. Kelly and Aaliyah are not married,
and that's straight from the horse's
mouth." The plot thickens, eh?
Cassandra and Charisse don't want
anyone to be jealous of or mad at
See FACE, Page 6


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