10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 20, 1998
What if 'Titanic' doesn't win everthing?
Redman rules at Ark.
By Joshua Rich
Daily Arts Writer
While basketball fanatics clamor to pick
the winners of the NCAA Division I bas-
ketball tournament, movie fans often take
part in a different gambling endeavor dur-
ing the month of March - the annual
Academy Awards "office pool."
To accurately pick the winners in all of
Oscar's 24 categories, not just the best
director, actors and screenplays, one must
accurately prognosticate winners in the
evening's technical categories. This is not
an easy task. After all, competitions for
best sound effects editing and best original
musical or comedy score tend to be less
publicized and less predictable than mar-
queeevents like the year's best picture.
Already a virtual lock to take home
awards for best picture and best director,
James Cameron's "Titanic" is the odds-
on favorite to win in most of the non-act-
ing, non-directing and non-producing
categories as well. Look for it to domi-
nate all nine artistic competitions in
which it is nominated. And rightfully so:
one could argue that the only remotely
questionable technical nod "Titanic"
received was that for makeup, especially
when its facial preparations are com-
pared to the elaborate alien masks fea-
tured in "Men in Black."
Still, one must not get swept up in the
"Titanic" wave and ignore some of the
night's most important awards. The tech-
nical categories recognize accomplish-
ments that compose the backbones,
hearts and souls of most films. (Indeed,
if nothing else, "Titanic" is a hit because
of its monumental special effects, cine-
matography and art direction.)
So let's be like Cameron - who imag-
ined a Titanic with fabricated lovers Jack
and Rose aboard - and dream a bit our-
selves. Let's envision an Oscars in which
"Titanic" doesn't take home a statuette in
more than half of the night's events.
Predicting artistic categories now gets
much more difficult. The race for the cin-
ematography award would become hotly-
contested when the stylized film-noir
images of"L.A. Confidential" duke it out
with the expressive tones of "The Wings
of the Dove" and the lush, jarringly rich
colors and vistas of "Kundun."
Editing would come down to the {
fast-paced action phenomenon "Air V
Force One" and the slick thriller
"L.A. Confidential."
Films rich in sound - be they a
muscle flicks such as "Con Air" and
"Air Force One" or sci-fi dramas such
as "Contact" - would make some 4
much-deserved noise. And "Face/Off"
and "The Fifth Element, whose
become a category in which the original
sets of "Gattaca" and "Men in Black" are
pitted against the backdrops of "Kundun"
and "L.A. Confidential;" which astutely
evoke specific times and places.
Some of the movies' most inventive
visual effects would rise to the surface
when either the thundering dinosaur herds
of "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" or the
thundering insect herds of "Starship
Troopers" storm off with an award.
Acclaimed composer Philip Glass'
evocative original dramatic score for
"Kundun" would go head-to-head with
legendary movie music writer John
Williams' "Amistad" composition and
former rocker Danny Elfman's "Good
Will Hunting" tunes. And obscure orig-
inal songs like "Good Will Hunting"'s
"Miss Misery" and "Con Air"'s
"How Do I Live" would have a
chance to take home a prize in the
. absence of the olympian "My Heart
Will Go On," from "Titanic."
For best original musical or comedy
score, the only technical category in
which "Titanic" wasn't- and couldn't
H elium inhales new,
imaginative sound
By Jason Birchmeier
For the Daily
Rainbow dragons, outer space, pros-
titution and having a baby vampire
embedded within your body are topics
found in the imaginative songs of
Helium. These few examples are only
a sample of what talented songwriter
Mary Timony extracts from the myste-
rious depths of her complex mind
when it comes to composing songs.
Helium will exhibit its fairy-tale
fashioned musical spectacle at the
Blind Pig tonight for a rare appear-
ance. Anyone turned on by highly
philosophic
songs enclosed
in fuzzy distort-
Helium ed guitars and
lo-fi extraterres-
Blind Pig trial keyboards
cannot afford to
Tonight at 9:30 miss this cere-
bral stimulation.
When describ-
ing Helium's
present tour in a
recent interview,
poet-pritestess
Timony said,
"Last time we went all around the
country. This time we're doing small
towns for the most part."
Timony says fans of both Helium's
more abrasive guitar drenched disso-
I
Courtesy of Matador
Helium lifts off tonight at the Blind Pi.
nance and its present cosmic rock 'n
roll will enjoy Helium's present tour.
She said that "this time we're playing
older songs. It's kind of fun to revisit
the old ... it's fun to play live now
because we have a keyboard player"
"The theme of going into outer
space or away from the here and now,"
is her present concise objective,
Timony said. "I'm definitely one of
those people that floats through,"
Mary said. "I don't feel like I have an
control over that. We get bored with
sounding a certain way so we try to
come up with new ideas."
"I have a problem writing songs'
Mary said in reference to the aesthetic
nature of her art. "I feel lucky if I can
be creative because it's hard for me. I
pick up a guitar or keyboard and fool
around."
"I've got a baby vampire in me ...
saw you put it in me like a seed," an
"you've got a skull; baby, you've got a
spine. After I'm done with you I'll spit
them out like rinds" are examples of
Timony's unusual creativity.
Aside from those dark lyrics,
Helium has become a bit more cheery
with Timony's boyfriend, Ash Bowie
of the band Polvo, joining the band as
bass player and songwriter.
On Helium's most recent album
"The Magic City,' there are more con
forting mythical lyrics such as "we,
will ride on a moth's wing up to where
there is no sound," and "I was born
underground. I have two horns and I'm
gonna make love to the unicorn."
Psychedelic storybook lyrics like
"when the sun comes up under the
ground, love is shining all around.
Down by the river the dragons play,
digging for the light of day," surround-
ed by a symmetric song structure o
dynamic guitar articulation that con-
trasts continuities of comfort and
chaos can also be found.
Timony remained reluctant to unveil
much of the mystery surrounding
Helium, encouraging students to come
to the show and form their own con-
clusions. She chooses to let her art do
the majority of the talking.
Don't miss this rare opportunity to
see musical performance art on it
most cosmic plane tonight at the Blind
Pig.
Don't wait until the
last minute to find that
super summer job.
Fox Hills is looking for enthusiastic
individuals to fill all positions.
Pro Shop, bag attendants, grounds
crew, waitstaff, set-up, cooks,
cleaning. All shifts. Free golf.
(734) 453-7272
Fox Hills
8768 N. Territorial
Plymouth, MI 48170
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