10A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 27, 1997
BOOGIE
Continued from Page 8A
per and underpants model even fakes a
bad voice in the movie.
Julianne Moore does an equally
impressive job as the sexy Amber Waves,
the love of her life being the slick Diggler.
There isn't a feeling of mutual love occur-
ring here, though. Dirk does not express
any deep attachment to Amber, his deeper
love resting in fame and fortune.
Burt Reynolds, who plays a ringleader
of the adult entertainment business, does
not display anything spectacular. His
character is muddled and confusing; it is
unclear as to whether he really has an
emotional tie to Diggler.
Sexual explicitness comes hand in
hand with the movie's main theme:
pornography. There's no hiding any-
thing. Everything in this film is
revealed, including a special treat:
Diggler's "prized" possession. Needless
to say, 13 inches doesn't make a movie.
What is most frustrating and disap-
pointing about "Boogie Nights" is that it
gradually loses the creative camera shots
that are so exciting and effective in its
beginning. Anderson surely has real
potential for a great movie. But, in the
end, his inconsistency and abandonment
of innovative techniques fail to reveal the
characters' conflicts as tensions arise.
T MBG leaves giant
impression at Michigan
NEW!
BEER APPAREL WITH AN
ATTITUDE!!
Let these great new graphics
make your statement for you!
www.chugalugchums.com
By Use Harwin
Daily Arts Writer
When They Might Be Giants are headliners, you can
always be sure that you'll get your money's worth.
Wednesday night's show at the Michigan Theater was no
exception. Playing nearly 30 songs,
the Giants kept up a high-speed paceR
throughout the evening, generating
plenty of heat in chilly Ann Arbor.T
As the Giants are not touring in
support of any albums ("Factory
Showroom" came out nearly six
months ago and "Then" soon
after), the audience was in for quite
a treat. The Giants were all over the place, playing every-
thing from the classic "Don't Let's Start" to the humor-
ous, puppet-performed "Exquisite Dead Guy."
in a recent interview, Giant vocalist and keyboardist
John Linnell talked about their reasons for touring
now and shared some background information on
some of their songs. "Though we're not touring to
support an album, we are doing it to break in a new
bass player. We also have some new material and
we're paying some bills."
Fortunately, fans did get the opportunity to hear
several of these unreleased songs, material that should
hopefully be appearing on an album in the very near
future. Though the audience was not yet familiar with
these new tunes ("First Kiss," "Dr. Worm" and "Rest
Awhile") the response to previous hits like "Birdhouse
In Your Soul," "The Guitar" and "Ana Ng" was stu-
pendous. Songs from "Factory Showroom" included
One particular
EVIEW
hey Might Be
Giants
Michigan Theater
clearly not from
r audience favorite is "New York
City" a song that is actually a
cover originally performed by the
Cubs. "Generally we have a lot of
original songs ... we don't do
covers," Linnell said. "But John
Flansburgh (Giants' vocalist and
guitarist) heard 'New York City'
on the radio, and something about
it struck him that this band was
New York. They were writing this
an in-the-dark version of "Pet Name," a super-fast
"'Til My Head Falls Off" and a sizzling rendition of
"S-E-X-X-Y," which was naturally dedicated to John
Flansburgh's "one true love ... the ladies."
very positive, upbeat song and it was the last thing you
would expect someone to write about New York. It
seemed like a breath of fresh air to us."
When they began, They Might Be Giants were just
two guys performing with drums on tape and bass that
they had recorded at home. "That was our primitive set-
up, which turned out to be exactly what we needed to be
able to have control over what we were doing" the key-
boardist said. "Our independent records did very well,
and on the strength of that, we got signed to Elektra. Not,
too long after that, we decided to get a band and started
doing shows with a horn section and another guitarist."
Regardless of which songs from their vast reper-
toire the Giants might play or which style they play
them in, the most impressive part of any They Might
Be Giants show is their astounding live spontaneity.
Anyone who has attended Giants shows in the past can
John Unnell (left) and John Flansburgh are TMBG.
safely say that the band has never played "Istanbu
the same way twice. Sped up, slowed down, shouted
or whispered, the Johns manage to make the song
sound fresh each time it is performed. This time
around the Giants launched into a relatively short ver-
sion of the song, which has, in previous shows, been
known to last well over seven or eight minutes.
Finally, in another burst of spontaneity, Flansburgh
played conductor through the ending of "Spy," trip-
ping up the other band members only temporarily,
much to the audience's delight. This, as could clea
be predicted, ended in a rousing version of Ace
Base's "The Sign."
As always, They Might Be Giants put on a fantasti-
cally entertaining show that successfully blended both
new and old material. As Linnell said, "We want to
make the kind of show that we would want to watch,
but for the audience's benefit ... not ours."
Hungarian folk 'Muzikas' to hit Ark tonight.
By Anna Kovalszki
Daily Arts Writer
On a warm afternoon in early July of '96,
I was getting ready to experience a musical
group's talents in a small town called
Szentendre, outside of Budapest, Hungary.
alotueen
e Cotume!
fFRIDAY
MscP na' OCTOBER 31
DOORS OPEN
1n Con cerf AT 9:30 PM
I had heard their traditional folk music
many times in the car with my father,
adding Hungarian spice to our travels
across the United States. I did not expect to
be as moved by their _ _
music qs I was that p
night.
The group in
question is the most ar1
celebrated group in.
the Hungarian folk-
tradition, named
Muzsikas (meaning, roughly, Musicians)
and their vocalist Marta Sebestyen, who
is regarded as one of the most talented
Ia
singers in the world.
Muzsikas and Marta Sebestyen
research and continually adapt their wed-
ding songs, romantic laments and round-
dances from the
E I E W forgotten yet musi-
cally rich villages
Iluzikas and of Transylvania and
a Sebestyen Hungary. For
Tonight at sa' Muzsikas' album
The Ark "Maramaros: The
Lost Jewish Music
of Transylvania," the members of the
group learned to play their music in the
traditional style from two gypsy musi-
cians who regularly performed with Jews
before World War 11. The instruments of
the group are also appropriate for their
songs, from the viola and violin, to the
buzuki, contrabass and shall hammer
dulcimer. Sebestyen adds her voice of
undulating tones and varied emotions to
many of Muzsikas' pieces.
Marta Sebestyen has had a wide rang-
ing career, influenced in many aspects by
her mother, who is a music teacher and
was a student of the great Hungarian
composer Zoltan Kodaly. It was her love
of folk music that she passed on to her
daughter, which has now allowed Marta
to not only rework and incorporate many
of the Hungarian-Transylvanian tradi-
tions, but even the folk music of Russian,
Irish, Greek, Indian and Bulgarian roots.
This collection is rendered with modern
instruments for a tasteful blend of the
past and present on her album "Kismet'
It is, however, the multiple Oscar-
winner, "The English Patient," thath
allowed the greater public to expeerI
Sebestyen's haunting voice. Her pieces
from the movie are featured on her
greatest hits CD, titled "The Best of
Marta Sebestyen."
According to Schoolkids' Records man-
ager Byron Bull, Sebestyen has one of the
purest and loveliest voices, which he dis-
covered purely by curiosity a few years
ago. According to Bull, "Morning Star,"
Muzsikas' and Marta Sebestyen's latest.
album, released in September, "is a coll*
tion of the rural music of Transylvania --
wild, beautiful ... evoked with unerring
fidelity."
This is Sebestyen's second appearance
at The Ark, and Muzsikas' first. Come
and experience the city dweller's emo-
tions that are evoked when one encoun-
ters folk music and traditions - which
the late Zoltan Kodaly expressed in
"Morning Star'"s liner notes as, "dumb-
founded at the sight of its ancient hue*
I
Pizza Tuition Dentist
Guess which one can't
Movies Concerts Cabs
go on your MasterCard?
q j
SPEND SOME TIME WITH THE
MODERN MASTERS OF INVESTING
Moderator:
Deborah Roberts,
ABC Correspondent,
"20/20"
y'i'..n1S
w r
SO-
5f.
4
r
Jane Bryant Quinn,
Author, Columnist
TIPS FROM AMERICA'S EXPERTS
A FREE NATIONAL SATELLITE
TELECONFERENCE
HOSTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
OCTOBER 28,1997
3:00 to 4:30 pm
Live teleconference locations:
* KELLOGG AUDITORIUM, DENTAL SCHOOL
Corner of N. University and Fletcher,
across from the Michigan League
Chris Farrell, Economics
Editor, Sound Money
w
" UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Ford Amphitheater, 2nd level
" MICHIGAN UNION, POND ROOM
" INSTITUTE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL
; :
I
I
I