fIt £diiwDat Catch "National Lampoon's Animal House" on the big screen. Launching the careers of John Belushi, Tim Matheson and many oth- ers, the raucous comedy classic is being presented on Saturday night by M-Flicks. Be there for all of the Delta House antics. Angell Aud. A 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday. $2 at the door. Friday September 26, 1997 10- Hollywood legend Wise to visit 'U' By Joshua Rich Daily Arts Writer Now in the twilight of his career, Hollywood veter- an Robert Wise can look back with tremendous pride on a life in movies that has spanned six decades and more than 50 films. Today, Wise speaks nonchalantly about his remarkable life, an 83-year span studded with diverse motion pictures that have brought him numerous accolades. Speaking to him, one would scarce believe that this is the man responsible for the smooth pacing and styl- ized cutting of "Citizen Kane," for the beautiful epic images in "The Sound of Music," or for the renaissance of the "Star Trek" phenomenon on P i the silver screen. Behind-the-T camera cinema giants like him are few and far between, and,in F shockingly, their celebrity often presented comes with a touch of modesty. Wise will be in Ann Arbor this afternoon to present a screening of his 1963 horror classic, "The Haunting," which, among other things, is reported to be a favorite of fright master Stephen King. "'The Haunting' is very different from horror films that came 10 years later, because there is noth- ing violent in it," said Prof. William Paul of the University's Program in Film and Video Studies. Indeed, in a recent interview with The Michigan Daily, Wise discussed the popularity of the film that he adapted from a story by "The Lottery"'s Shirley Jackson. "People always come up to me and say, 'You've made one of the scariest films I've ever seen.' It is also one of my own 10 or 12 favorites." That's an especially high honor for one movie in a career that includes stints as an editor, producer, direc- tor and, most recently, as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences during the 1980s. Anj Born in Indiana, Wise abandoned a career in jour- nalism to work as a messenger in the editing depart- ment of RKO studios. Success struck quickly: He got his first credited editing job at age 21, and went on to work in that capacity on 19 films, including "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Citizen Kane." Wise received his first of many Oscar nominations for the latter, a movie that most film enthusiasts con- sider the greatest of all time. "Working with Orson Welles was always up and down, never level," Wise recalled. "Sometimes he'd get so crazy that I'd want to tell him to shove it, and then he did something totally brilliant. E V I E W So I never left the production. ie Haunting "In his early days, Orson Today at 3ngm Welles was as close to ingenious gelI Hall Auditorium A; as anyone I've ever seen." director Robert Wis As his career progressed, Wise took a more crucial role in pro- duction, working as the director and occasional producer of 39 more motion pictures. He began with B-type flicks like 1944's "The Curse of the Cat People" - which he directed as a replacement in just 10 days - and continued with dramas such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) and "I Want to Live!" (1958). In the 1970s, Wise experimented with more contemporary forms, namely the disaster flick and science fiction movie, most notably "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979. But perhaps his greatest onscreen achievements arrived in the early-1960s when he won a total of four Oscars for his work on 1961's "West Side Story" and 1965's "The Sound of Music." "It was a great thrill to win the Academy Awards," Wise said of his repeated reception of his industry's highest honors for Best Director and Best Picture. In fact, his directoral win for "West Side Story" offered one of the more unique circumstances in Oscar history: the only time that two people have shared a Best Director prize for the same movie. "It is an odd situation directing a film with someone else" Wise noted. "I worked with Jerome Robbins who was the Broadway director, and he took care of the musi- cal parts while I did the book part." To be sure, it was a strained relationship. According to legend, neither director thanked the other in his Academy Award acceptance speech. However, Wise must give a great deal of thanks to the legion of legendary actors whom he has directed over the years. The names read like a Hollywood Hall of Fame: Julie Andrews, James Cagney, Clark Gable, William Holden, Burt Lancaster, Shirley MacLaine, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and dozens of others. It is surprising, then, that Wise chose to cast unknowns in some of his later projects, including an adaptation of Michael Crichton's landmark novel "The Andromeda Strain," in 1971. "We decided that if the actors had big names, seeing what they were doing on screen wouldn't seem as real," he said. Luckily, the philosophy worked for the most part, and he followed that success with five more films, most recently "Rooftops" in 1988. Of late, he has devoted his life to guest lecturing to young film students, and heading numerous motion picture organizations, including the American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film Studies. His work culminated in 1992, when President Bush awarded him the National Medal of Arts. But, as Wise remarks, his work in filmmaking is not yet finished: "At this point I've directed 39 films. When I was on No. 35, 1 thought it would be nice to stop at 40. So I have a few plans going for one more movie that I hope to make very soon." As it has been for the last 62 years, the world is waiting. At age 83, director Robert Wise, the creator of silver screen classics like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "The Sound of Music," is still going strong. He visits Ann Arbor this afternoon to present a screening of his film "The Haunting." Hoarse whinnies home Son Volt, Farrar to whirl into Detroit By Anders Smith-Undall Daily Arts Writer "No feel-good scenes to bring it back / Just falling brick and broken glass," sings Son Volt's Jay Farrar on "Way Down Watson," from the band's latest r e c o r d, "Straightaways." P1 The song details the destruction of the Coral Court Motel in Farrar's native St. Louis, a historic site razed to make way for retail development. "In 'Way Down Watson,' Jay is just saying, 'Man, there's a beautiful old building and now it's nothing but a future strip mall,"' said Son Volt drum- mer Mike Heidorn in a recent interview with The Michigan Daily. But Farrar is doing much more than that. "Way Down Watson" speaks vol- umes not only about this specific inci- dent but about Farrar himself, and like- wise about his band. The reverence for the past shown in the song's lyrics is equally present in the sounds he and his bandmates put forth. The five - Farrar on guitar and harmonica, Jim Boquist REVIEW Son Volt Friday at 8 p.m. The Majestic, Detroit with Apples In Stereo on bass, Dave Boquist on guitar, banjo and fiddle, Heidorn on drums and Eric Heywood on steel - exca- vate the musics of America's past Son Volt will play Detroit's Majestic tonight at 8 p.m. and resurrect the spirits of Ernest Tubb and Gram Parsons, filtering them through latter-day influences like Bob Dylan, John Fogerty and Neil Young. "We're just extending what has been there for years," Heidorn said, "from Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams. We're big fans of the traditional instru- ments - fiddles, banjoes, harmonicas, acoustic guitars - because it's just good-sounding wood." "Way Down Watson" is a textbook example of this ethic in practice, a spare meditation featuring only Farrar's gui- tar, harmonica and droning baritone vocal. "He's commenting on what's been lost, our lost ways, and what used to be," Heidorn said. "His sense of com- munity has been heightened lately, see- ing things like this around where we live. When things get torn down, you lose a little bit of your heritage."' "Way Down Watson" laments not only the loss of one building but some- thing more profound - the song is Farrar's commentary on a society he feels has turned away from its past in the blind pursuit of economic profit. "A man in a tie will bum your dime 'fore he'll break his 20 dollar bill," Farrar sang in 1991; on the same album, the seminal debut of Farrar and Heidorn's former band, Uncle Tupelo, he sang of "the sound of people chasing money and money getting away." Uncle Tupelo's third record, "March 16-20, 1992;" featured several songs that voiced similar sentiments, includ- ing this verse from "Criminals": "We've got shackles to keep the laws / Made by men who bought and sold themselves / Not a prayer to keep their See SON VOLT, Page 11. By Colin Bartos Daily Arts Writer Hoarse has come to rock. No gim- micks, straight up, no chaser. Motor City rock 'n' roll is here - and it's' about time. Hoarse, the power trio of guitarist/vocalist John Speck, bassist Robby Graham, and drummer Jimmy Paluzzi, formed its current lineup in our beloved PR Detroit in 1994. Paluzzi joined the band after leaving Sponge, call (248 and the band cut a tape of demos, one of which ("Diamond") found its way into heavy rotation on Detroit radio sta- tions. Speck explained how the band came to sign with RCA soon after in a phone interview with The Michigan Daily. "With all the airplay that we got," Speck said, "people started to try and contact us. We settled with what we thought was the best and most oppor- tune label for what we wanted to do." Now one of several hot new Detroit bands to be signed to a national label in the last year, Hoarse seems to be in the middle of Detroit's resurgence into the music world. "Detroit's got a lot of potential and it's just a matter of what's the goal gonna be, you know," Speck said. "I think the reason that Detroit's got so many great bands is because no one's reallytrying to do anything in par- ticular - they're just doin' it." If variety is the case for Detroit's musical scene, the same cannot be said about Detroit's, let's say, unique selec- tion of radio stations. Anyone who knows Detroit radio knows Ozzy, Kiss, Ted Nugent, hair rock and Bush rule. Speck commented on the general time warp Detroit seems to be in when .1 t$)f it comes to music. "You know what funny? I've had a couple people come in from out of town and they listened to the radio here in Detroit, and they were amazed and happy," Speck said. "Like 'Oh my God! I haven't heard this song in forever." Hoarse decidedly is not one of those, bands that gets Detroit airplay. They blend intelligent songwriting,'Ito- E V I E W ries people calO Hoarse relate to, and quick, melodic Saturday at 4 p.m. rock 'n' roll into a 645.6666 for tickets nice, clean little package. The band's debut, "Happens Twice," is an emotion- al and steady blast, with catchy hooks and a clear, rock sound. Songs like the tale of the girl who gets around, "Tuesday Morning;" and the relation* ship gone wrong, "Long Gone," are straight rockers, while the more sub-. dued "Issue" and "On Deck" show a slower side of the band. Overall, though, the band likes to keep it fast and keep it loud. It's hard to rise above and carve out a place for yourself in a business so satu- rated with imitators and blandness, but Speck seems confident Hoarse can do it, just like other Michigan bands like The Verve Pipe, Sponge and the* Suicide Machines. The band has seen a steady fan base grow and is just waiting to break through. "It seems like mostly kids get it in Michigan pretty good and like in the Midwest and this' area," Speck explained. "It'd be great if we could get out on the West Coast and hopefully turn some people on that way and dam some more East Coast stuff. "I would never want to compare us to other bands and say we're better than any other band," Speck said. "We really, really enjoy what we do and its all about volume and energy and melody." "It's rock 'n' roll. We're fuckin' hyper, but yeah, it's clean, well-played, sped up rock 'n' roll." t - _ - - - - - - - - - The University of Michigan School of Music III Monday, September 29 - Faculty Recital: Margo Halsted, University Carillonist * Confucian Ceremonial Music (Ming Dynasty version) Burton Memorial Tower, 10 a.m. and S p.m. Lurie Carillon (North Campus), 1 p.m. Tuesday, September 30 University Symphony Orchestra Kenneth Kiesler, conductor * Music by Beethoven and Copland Hill Auditorium, 8 p.m. All events are free and wheelchair accessible unless specified otherwise. .-- Professional nail care Airbrushing available - Walk-Ins Welcome Mon-Wed Full Set $25/Fill-Ins $13 Students $20/$12 Thurs-Sat Full Set $25/Fill-Ins $15 Students $22/$13 Manicure & Pedicure $30 TEL: (313)434-8953 Hours: Mon-Sat 9:30-7:30/Sun. Closed Fountain Square Shopping Center (Next to Builders Square) 2878 Washtenaw Ave. Ypsilanti, Ml 48197 . Hoarse a §