tee'f*4oW|w to the Ol'Ark Jimmie Dale Gilmore performs tonight at the Ark. Check out this rockin' country stud, as he delivers performance unlike any other. Gilmore is critically acclaimed, and is a singer songwriter jammin' on his guitar. The performance begins at 8 p.m., and admission is $17.50. Get tickets in advance at the Michigan Union Ticket Office, at School Kids' Records or 763-TKTS. f irign BugL ;U Uw ® Check out a preview of the State Street Poetry Project's latest performance. Tuesday April 14, 1998 5 Sculptor fids art nature y Anna Kovalszki aily Arts Writer In sunshine and rain, a sculptural roup forms in front of the audience's yes, and visiting artist Patrick Dougherty's sculpture making has eceived support from the Ann Arbor nd University community in several s. The community gets to partake in he project during its formation by stopping by, admiring, asking ques- tions, taking snapshots, touching and even building the sculptural group. At the northwest corner of the Diag, surrounded by walkways and tall trees, the all-together 10, some phantom and some realized "elements" or shelters, stand in a circle. ougherty uses only sapling wood d a knife to construct his sculptures; he chooses shapes that flow from the material such as round, curved, cocoon-like forms - the types that occur in nature. Dougherty adds, "it is by no accident that a bird's nest is round." Dougherty found inspiration 'Angels' dies for its sins By Bryan Lark Daily Arts Editor On a weekend when Good Friday, Easter and Passover all occur, people are wise to ponder their existences, reaf- firm their beliefs and question their own mortality - ful- filling themselves through spirituality. But one would be wise to choose crucifixion and pass over "City of Angels," the sorriest excuse for Hollywood spirituality since the debut of "Touched by an Angel," only with more references to Dennis Franz's rear end. "City of Angels,' based on Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" and directed by "Casper" auteur Brad Silberling, would probably be more entertaining if it were all about Franz' butt, at least it would be an examination of some- thing American audiences have never seen on a big screen. But "Angels" is something we've seen. In fact, it's every romance we've ever seen that asks the question, "What would you give up for love?" City of Deep, spiritual seraph Seth (Nicolas Cage) is an angel. Unseen Angels by humans, he takes the souls of the * dying or dead "home." But it turns At Ann Arbor 1&2 and out that he'd give up eternity for one Showcase sniff of Dr. Maggie Rice's (Meg Ryan) hair, the taste of a pear and a chance to go bodysurfing. Audiences will give up what feels like an eternity to watch this deep, __ __ spiritual drivel, from which one may need a sniff of ammonia to wake up. The sleepy film masquerades as a touching, subtle dis- cussion of death and the possible life thereafter, but gener- ally amounts to a whole lot of staring set to some dreamy music - Seth stares at a bathing Maggie longingly, with a sexy Paula Cole song playing in the background; Maggie stares at her angel as he sleeps, some sweeping music from composer Gabriel Yared caressing the scene; Seth stares some more as he invisibly lulls Maggie to sleep to the tune of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." A few of these nearly wordless music video scenes actu- ally work. They succeed in conveying, through the mean- ingful glances that comprise the lead performances and JOHN KRAFT/Daily Shaun Bangert Inspects the sculpture by Patrick Dougherty. Nor Now .arik far his work in Patrk his childhood rugherty wanderings and thwest corner tree-houses. of the Diag His sculptures through April 18 are temporary, however, unlike his memories. "One can remi- nisce without thinking histrion- ically, childhood memories are :ed within a different context than viewers touch and walk through them, will evoke memories of walks in nature, and perhaps make people, "go and take other ones." He contends that in this bustling, modern world, there is no substitute for nature. The method of creation blends three stages of Dougherty's thinking, "struc- ture, aesthetics and then cosmetics." His said his sculptures are site specif- ic, to fit the dimensions and shapes of the building or space within which they will be viewed. Dougherty arrives with materials by the truckload and builds on a particu- lar site. His sculptures' parameters nar- row gradually, and that is when he said he knows a piece is finished. Then, "I achieve such a fine polish that addi- tions will not improve the piece," he said. Dougherty's sculptures have been made throughout the United States at galleries, public parks, building entrances and college campuses. He has also traveled to construct in Denmark, Ireland and Japan. Dougherty relies on word of mouth for his commissions and constructs approximately 89 sculptures yearly. Dougherty said that he chose this area of campus because it is so busy; he wanted to make the sculptures high, approximately 17 feet each, for visibility. The works needed to be large enough to count, and also safe to touch and walk through. He chose to create a circle of dwellings which create a walkway. Dougherty said he likes the classic bottle shape of amphorae, so impor- tant during Grecian times. Each sepa- rate "element" is evocative of such associations. Dougherty's works typically stay on site for about a year, until the nature has taken its toll and the commission- ers decided to lay them to rest. From day to day, the sculptural group grows and develops. While the community watches, the artist's con- ceptions materialize. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Nicolas Cage likes pears and Meg Ryan in "City of Angels." sun-drenched Los Angeles vistas, the film's message about the impermanence of life and love. And the audience is able, if only for a moment, to forget the detriment of the film's treacly dialogue telling us to stop our hectic urban lives for a moment - again,just to smell Meg Ryan's darn cute hair, savor the taste of pear and go naked bodysurfing with Dennis Franz. Two of those three peculiar interests could get Seth arrested in the real world, but if we can suspend our disbe- lief at these absurd happenings, as the film begs us to do, we see that they are all Seth wants in both this world and the next. As the heavenly stalker follows his true love and her tick-infested dog Earl around L.A., trying to transcend immortality with the help of hedonistic fallen angel Nathan Messinger (Franz) and pointless angelic sidekick Cassiel (Andre Braugher), we are expected to swoon at the boundary-breaking bond developing between Seth and Maggie. Since the film offers little in the way of character devel- opment or a reason for Maggie and Seth's bond, other than the fact that it's something they "feel," the real bond that develops is between the visual marvels that are Franz's butt and Braugher's incredibly white teeth and the awestruck viewer. Both command the screen when shown and blind the audience with their sheer whiteness, but, sadly, do nothing to make the film any better. By the time the film shamefully uses death as a plot device, there is no fathomable way that "City of Angels" could be any more that the unwatchable piece of fluff it is, eternally filled with trite dialogue, slick cinematography, soulful staring that barely passes as acting and a heavenful of unexplained phenomena. Angels live in libraries? Lonely surgeons will fall in love with a strange man who wears the same clothes every day, stares at them and then buys them produce? Ticks can be removed from animal fur through the application of olive oil? The list of unanswered questions goes on and on. At least "City of Angels" doesn't attempt to answer the question of the existence of a higher power. It just takes for granted the fact that heaven and angels and single surgeons that look like Meg Ryan are alive and well and living in Los Angeles and revels in its world of sun, beauty, love and death, oblivious to the fact that no one in the audience cares. On this Easter weekend, Christians all over the world are remembering their belief that Jesus died on the cross for everyone's sins. From now on, let all the audiences of the world remember that "City of Angels" died from its own. learned history," he said. "All art is not necessarily applauded by art history," Dougherty said. Dougherty wants to remind people of a few ideas. He believes art is a nor- mal activity, that no studio doors need to be closed for its creation. He said he hopes that in conjunction with the Environmental Theme mester that his sculptures, by having Samia freaks out' at the State By Colin Bartos Daily Arts Writer Opening for a big-time radio rock band might be a strange thing for a punk-rooted outfit like Samiam, but considering the past two years in the life of the band, it actually seems pretty normal. First, the 10-year-old band no longer had a record deal. Then, the departure of its drummer led to the addition of M.P., which vocalist Jason Beebout said in a recent interview "took a while for us ... M.P's a really, really good drummer, but he didn't come from a punk background ... the whole feel of our band was new to him and it took him a while to get it, but now everything seems to be clicking." The band recorded a new album in late 1996, but had no out- let to release it in the United States. The album, "You Are Freaking Me Out," was Samiam's fifth, and just recently saw e light of day approximately three weeks ago. Fans wondered what had happened to the band. "We were wondering as much as everyone else was;' Beebout said. "We had no idea what was going to happen, how we were going to get (the record) out, if we were going to find a record label" "We thought about breaking up ... but Sergie kept talking to people and trying to make shit happen." Soon he did, and Samiam was signed to Ignition Records. Shortly thereafter, longtime bassist Aaron Rubin left the band. Just when the band thought things could not get much worse, things seem to be looking up. "You Are Freaking Me Out" was released, and showcases a gigantic leap in the evolution of *miam from its Gilman Street raw punk beginnings to its cur- rent status as a full-fledged rock band. Stylistically and musically, "You Are Freaking Me Out" is the most diverse Samiam record to date. "Basically, Sergie changes his taste in music really often," Beebout said. "And it has a lot to do with his writing ... Our ability to work together and write has gotten a little better, and I think in the past we probably had ideas about what we wanted to sound like, but we really didn't know how to accomplish that." Another noticeable change in the Samiam sound is Beebout's voice, which is stronger and more dynamic than ever. "I feel more comfortable with my voice," he said. "In the past, when I was in the studio, I'd get really scared listening to my voice on the headphones. It was really discomforting, you know. It was really hard to have any intensity in what I was doing ..." The album begins with "Full On,' the latest in a series of Samiam's trademark off-and-running album openers. When asked why the first song on a Samiam record is always so intense, Beebout said, "Whenever I hear a record, I don't like to have to skip around to find the good song. I feel if you put a really good song first - the first impression of a record is real- ly important in whether I'm really gonna like it or not." courtesy of Warner Bros. Surgeon Meg Ryan falls for stalker/angel Nicolas Cage. Samiam State Theater Tonight at 8 p.m Samiam might be al The rest of the album goes from fast to slow, pop to hardcore, and back again, which is quite uncharacteristic of Samiam's often supercharged past work. Listeners may wonder why the album is so musically diverse. "Curiosity, I guess," Beebout said. "I just wanted to see what we could do. Maybe we just felt a little brave ... a lot of those songs we don't play live for that very reason. A lot of 'em aren't exactly 'Samiam' songs." What the audience will hear live, though, is a lot of the old stuff, with some of the newer, more uptempo num- bers thrown in for fun. You might think little uncomfortable, what with new per- sonnel and a new record label, but Beebout said the group is more together than ever, and ready to take on Creed's larger venues and crowds. "I think even more so than we were years ago,' Beebout said. "Because we've been through so much shit getting this record out. Now that we're actually playing it's real- ly exciting ... We definitely are a tighter group now." Ummer$s coming! pop