On the wings of 'Dove'
The highly acclaimed Miramax drama "The Wings of the Dove" con-
tinues its engagement at the Michigan Theater. Adapted from the
Herny James classic, "Wings" stars Helena Bonham Carter and Linus
Roache as partners in love and in the betrayal of a dying American
heiress (Alison Elliott). Directed by lain Softley, the film screens
tonight at 7 and 9:15. Admission is $5.
Wednesday
November 26, 1997
5
T'raveler journeys to Detroit,
leaves behind unforgettable show
By Reilly Brennan
Daily Arts Writer
As I stood inches away from the fat man himself at
The State Theatre, I realized why Blues Traveler is not
just a good band, but a great band.
Popper, who leads the band on vocals,
Chan Kinchla on guitar, Brendan Hill on
drums and Bob Sheehan on bass make
up the barroom ragamuffins. The band
that once was a New York City
maybe-so is now coming off a stint of
opening for The Rolling Stones and the
lease of its new album "Straight On
ill Morning."
John Popper delighted the crowd
with not only his stage banter, but his
amazing ability to play harmonica
and pull his three other bandmates
together.
The show actually benefited
from the Detroit venue, and
not Hill Auditorium, where
Blues Traveler has played a
pumber of shows in the past.
ooking around, it seemed
as if this were a Ted Nugent
show, not a so-called sub-
urban, - white-baseball-
hat-kid band.
To ughed - ski n
enthusiasm could be
felt from both the
four on-stage and
the eclectic crowd.
The fight that devel-
@ped in front of the
stage during the first
set added flavor and
excitement, as well
as that dangerous
element that made
me feel happy I
was in Detroit
seeing a rock
band.
The foursome seemed to play off the older,
.,Oature audience, as the long, enduring show was
a non-stop, cigarette-smoking romp that left my
,legs feeling like mushy potatoes and my throat as
dry as Popper's wit.
Admittedly, until "Go Outside and Drive," the
performance was off to a blah beginning. But
once Kinchla began those gorgeous notes, 1,
along with a few thpusand others in attendance,
knew it was time to get serious. During this song,
it became obvious even to casual observer that
Popper keeps inside his mouth a parakeet, a bag
0I marshmallows and an experienced wood-chip-
ping machine.
Simply dumfounded with his virtuosity, the crowd
seemed taken aback and panting for more at the same
time.
More they got, as the legendary "Mountains
Win Again" from BT's hit album "Four" came out
eventually and sounded decidedly different from
its studio counterpart. The hard-blues
influence can't be felt on all of
Traveler's album efforts - not the
case Sunday evening.
"Brother John," was a constant theme
throughout the first set, as it was
teased throughout and sand-
wiched nearly four songs,
including the rare gem.
"Optimistic Thought."
Just when the crowd
seemed to forget
about the "Brother
John" that was
played probably
- 30 minutes earli-
er, Popper brought
everything back
in perspective,
singing along with
"fthe masses.
Another highlight
of the set was the
1 n c r e d i b I e
"Mulling It Over."
True, a common
REVIEW BT tune live, but
Sunday's excerpt
Blues Traveler seemed a step above
the norm. Each
State Theatre, Detroit member had his own
Nov. 23, 1997 moment in the spot-
light, as Popper would
turn to each member
give the signal for solo-
ing.
Hill, Sheehan and
Kinchla obliged, and as
a result, "Mulling It
Over" became the most
cohesive effort of the
band during the first
set.
As the first set was
characterized by more
groovy jams, sing-alongs
and dance favorites, such as "Run Around," the
second was less commercial, more back-to-the-
roots playing.
The band members addressed the crowd as they
emerged from behind the stage, explaining that
Detroit "has always been good to us"
For the city's support, out came the acoustic instru-
ments and the appropriate barstools. The foursome
played four songs in this media, beginning with a
never-before-heard-in-acoustic "Life Is."
The concert favorite, "Imagine," was up next, set-
ting the tone for the first part of the set as a mellow,
put-your-arms-around-your-girlfriend moment that
the crowd loved.
The acoustic "100 Years" was a personal favorite of
mine, as the gentle twang of the acoustic guitars and
basses made my eyes nearly droopy.
The wake-up call began soon enough, when the
acoustic stuff was taken away and the real metal reap-
peared.
This very long second set absolutely went
through the ceiling. New tunes were sprinkled in
here and there, such as "Carolina Blues" and
"Canadian Rose," both off "Straight On Till
Morning".
A fiery "Johnny and the Devil" and "New York
Prophesy" showcased Blues Traveler's ability to play
above the average jam formula of intermittent guitar
solos and average bass lines.
Kinchla, back with shorter hair, danced around
stage for the entire set, making goofy faces but allow-
ing his guitar to speak for itself.
Popper and Kinchla seemed to complement each
other quite well, something I've never seen them do as
well before. Frequently the two would stare at each
other's eyes, not instruments, to concentrate on the
beat.
This performance was almost too much. The only
down-side was the "Hook" encore that bled with
radio-commercialism. Many were hoping for an epic
"Crystal Flame" that never came.
The show solidified BT's place on my top 10
list of favorite bands, and definitely should not
be missed the next time the band plays in Ann
Arbor or Detroit.
Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci keep warm In Ang Lee's brilliant "The Ice Storm."
'Storm" s ch1l11ng
genius makes it No. 1
By Michael Zilberman
Daily Arts Writer
"The lee Storm" could have been so
bad so easily. It comes on as one of those
family-falling-apart-over-a-weekend dra-
mas, wherein our squirms of embarrassed
recognition tend to substitute for cathartic
shudders. It proceeds to mope and mean-
der and provide no character development
whatsoever.And it's _thebestfilmofth
the best film of the
year'.
m
Directed by Ang Th
Lee ("Sense And
Sensibility"), "The
Ice Storm" isa series
of heart-breakingly
beautiful vignettes of one Connecticut fam-
ily's winter of 1973 - several postcards
from several edges. The father is caught up
in a meaningless fling with a neighbor; the
mother quietly traipses off into catatonic
seclusion; the 14-year-old daughter's libido
wanders about; and the stoner son is in love
with a girl named Libitz.
That, in short, is as much in the way of
conventional plotting as we get up until
the film's very last minutes. Instead, we
are left to observe - to spy on every
painful detail of the pill-popping,
shoplifting and clumsy sex until the sheer
amount of information we received
makes it impossible to stay impartial.
The film's gorgeously droll gimmick
is to place it all against the titular mix-
ture of rain, sleet and ice, a snapshot of
nature's indecision. The setting is
achingly perfect in its ultimate plastici-
ty -- does it stand for anything in par-
ticular? Should it? Meanwhile, trains
stand frozen, rows of icicles line slip-
pery suburban porches and every twig
looks encased in glass; and tempting as
it is to draw convenient parallels
between this and the deep freeze falling
over the relationships in the film, the
beauty of the backdrop lies precisely in
how self-sufficient it, in fact, remains.
It is difficult to talk about "The Ice
Storm" without picking it apart into indi-
vidual scenes, each one a litmus test of
sorts: What will stick with you will tell
E
he
more about you than the film. Will it be
a troubled young boy balancing on a icy
springboard above a dark empty pool? A
woman curling up into a fetal position on
a ridiculous waterbed after cold-hearted-
ly destroying both a marriage and an
affair? Two teen-agers concocting a
brand of a new, improved bongwater?
Ang Lee leaves the film open on every
possible endand the
V I E W fact that it still holds
together is nothing
a Ice Storm short of a miracle.
What might help it
**** A is the genuine
At Ann Arbor 1 & 2 respect Lee seems to
have for his flawed
heroes. In its scenes of various preteen
mischief, "The Ice Storm" is what "Kids"
might have been, were it swept clean of
director Larry Clark's leering sensibilities.
On its "adult" side, the film looks past pet
rocks and Astroturf into the confused,
paranoid heart of the '70s.
Kevin Kline exudes ineffectiveness as
the beleaguered husband; he is doing a
more honest, less streamlined variation
on his character from "The Big Chill."
Sigourney Weaver and Joan Allen pro-
vide two sufficiently icy foils, but in the
end, "The Ice Storm" belongs to the kids.
Christina Ricci, whom we watched grow
up from "Addams Family," gives a full-
star performance here - she is a woman
torn between two men, after all, and the
fact that one of the men is still playing
with his G.1. Joe, ends up only adding
absurd poignancy. Elijah Wood, as a kid
who might or might not be a science
genius (we are given some hints attesting
to that, each one weirder than the other),
almost upsets the balance of "The Ice
Storm" because we want to see more of
him for most of the film.
And we do, in a quietly devastating
coda that ties everyone's pain and confu-
sion into one knot - the film breaks off
immediately afterward, leaving us with
David Bowie's "I Can't Read" over a
scroll of credits. There is no lesson to be
derived from "The Ice Storm," and that,
strangely enough, is a part of its genius.
Blues Traveler played a great show Sunday in Detroit
Hall, NWO, drop kicks reign at Palace
By Steve Paruszklewicz
and Gabriel Smith
aly Arts Writers
It was the chance of a lifetime. Sixty
wrestlers were lined up for a shot at
becoming the No. I contender against
the World Championship Wrestling
Heavyweight Champion of the World.
The only thing separating each man
from his destiny were the 59 others.
This battle royale was the highlight
of Sunday evening at the Palace of
Auburn Hills. The 60-man, three-ring
1-out brawl, lovingly titled "World
ar 3,"lasted only an hour, but the four
title bouts, two special stipulation
matches and grudge matches made for
an hour of total chaos.
Most striking about the evening was
that the event, billed as a 60-man bout,
was actually only comprised of 59
wrestlers. Most noticeably absent from
the melee was New World Order mem-
ber and Detroit native Kevin Nash, who
was considered a heavy favorite to win
he title shot. The New World Order, for
those not in the know, is the WCW-cre-
atedbad-boy gang, which has threat-
ened the fine upstanding wrestlers that
make up the rest of the WCW.
University alumni the Steiner
Brothers successfully defended their
first pay-per-view title match against the
British duo of Dave Taylor and Steve
Regal. Taylor and Regal were dispatched
,uickly by the immense Steiners.
WAn other high profile match was the
Ric Flair/Curt Hennig match for the
United States Heavyweight title. This
match, to Flair, was much more than
} just for Hennig's belt - it was revenge
for the humiliation that he suffered at
the hands of Hennig earlier this year.
The match was a "no disqualification"
iU
The.yr
uminer
" Over 1,000 undergraduate
and graduate courses
" Housing rates as low as $100
per six-week session
Glacier gets pummeled by a merciless Meng at WCW's World War 3 on Sunday night. PAUL TALANIAN/Daily
over for the easy pin.
This battle royale was easily the most
exciting part of the night. The rules
were simple: a wrestler was eliminated
from the contest by being thrown over
group of Mexican wrestlers, were elimi-
nated right off the bat. The Giant easily
proved his dominance by eliminating five
wrestlers in about five seconds.
Team play also benefited, as was
"Hulk" Hogan, the final combatant in the
contest for his very belt. Hogan helped to
dispatch DDP, and was about to do the
same to the Giant, when a figure slid
down a rope from the ceiling. He was
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