Physicist Brian Greene speaks at Borders Books and Music.
Greene's book, "The Elegant Universe," explains the basics of
string theory using language for non-scientists. 7 p.m.
fIre £ttm Bk
Tomorrow in Daily Arts:
® Read Weekend, etc. Magazine for an in-depth feature on
the tasty ambivalence of diners and greasy spoons.
Wednesday
February 24, 1999
5
Plimpton's still
working hard
Jagger shakes his money maker
By Ed Sholinsky
Daily Film Editor
Even though college students
might remember her best as Stef
from "The Goonies," Martha
Plimpton has moved on from that
cult classic to a plethora of other
offbeat films. Her latest, "200
Cigarettes" opens Friday.
"Basically the story takes
place on New Year's Eve, 1981,"
Plimpton told The Michigan
Daily in a recent interview. "And
it's about a bunch of people who
are experiencing their own sepa-
rate stories, individually and
together. They have one common
thread among them, which is
they all end up taking the same
cab at some point in the night.
And they're all slowly finding
their way towards this New Year's
Eve party, which my character is
throwing."
Propelled by her desire to do a
comedy and working with a tal-
ented young cast, Plimpton
hooked up with casting director-
turned-director, Risa Bramon
Garcia. Despite her desire to be
in the film for the actors,
Plimpton didn't really get to
meet many of them. "We shot all
of these stories separately, so
each couple of people, or three
people, or four people, who have
By Emily Achenbaum
and Will Weissert
Dal y Arts Wrters
The Rolling Stones brought a bag of
tricks to entice the nearly sold-out crowd
at the Palace of Auburn Hills Monday
night.
They brought Mick Jagger's rarely-
used harmonica and igvited young, hip
back-up singers. They had a stool for
Keith Richards and his acoustic guitar to
perch on and brought an extra stage that
let them play three scorching numbers in
the middle of the crowd.
They didn't need any of it.
The audience had a sense of purpose.
They were there to see Mick Jagger -
and he never disappoints.
Th e Roiling
Stones
Palace of Auburn
Hills
Feb. 22, 1999
r'
Jagger shim-
mied his hips with
irresistible sass;
flailing himself
across the stage
like a weightless,
jointless, wild ani-
mal with his own
gravitational pull.
Accentuated by air
fans in the stage
floor which tire-
lessly blow back
his shaggy David
Cassidy-esque
haircut and sensu-
After performing for almost 40 years
and releasing dozens of records, the
greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time still
knows how to get it on: The thrilling,
energy-charged show they delivered is
proof of their timeless musical and sex-
ual appeal. Their exuberant concert fea-
tured 20 songs, drawing from material
spanning their career.
Running onto the pared-down stage
- a far cry from last year's extravagant
Bridges of Babylon set - .the band
opened with "Jumping Jack Flash" to a
crowd of more than 20,000 fans, many
of which paid ticket prices near the cost
of a semester's worth of textbooks.
The Stones played several songs from
their "Some Girls" album, including
"Shattered," "When the Whip Comes
Down," and "Respectable." "Some
Girls," a gloriously and unapoligetically
un-PC. song which on the namesake
album comes across as Jagger's pleasant,
cocky trip down memory road of women
he's slept with. But the live performance
proved to offer some insight into Jagger's
personal life. The song came across
slightly bitter - even angry. Perhaps
Jagger's tone had something to do with a
certain tall, blond Texan?
Close up, Jagger appears to be only
about 5 foot 7 inches and 140 pounds.
But his compact frame radiates more raw
sexuality and charismatic stage presence
than 10 Hollywood starlets rolled into
one. Mick is unquestionably the star of
the show, with only his pelvis, not Keith
Richards or any other gimmick, running
the chance of upstaging him.
Richards was subdued (but sober),
Mick Jagger is still rockin' and rollin' while shakin' his arse.
200
Cigarettes
Starring Martha
Plimpton
Starts Friday
their one
story line
shot for one
week or two
weeks, then
left. So I
only worked
with those
people who
I'm in the
scenes with."
Aside from
the limited
interact i on
with the cast,
Plimpton
noted that
very self-absorbed as all these
characters are in their own way,"
Plimpton said.
Much of Plimpton's recent
film work (she's recently com-
pleted an onstage stint) reflects a
more independent minded
actress. But that doesn't mean
Plimpton rejects the Hollywood
studios: "I'd love to say I do
these things because I don't want
to make millions of dollars, but
that would be a lie." In her hon-
esty, Plimpton reveals, "I would
love to make millions of dollars
and be nominated for all kinds of
fancy awards. But no one asks
me." This hasn't created any hin-
drance for her though, because,
"The interesting thing is letting
go of that has brought me more
opportunity than I've had than
when I was actively pursuing
some type of career star thing."
And despite roles in popular
films such as "The Goonies" and
"Parenthood," Plimpton hasn't
achieved the type of success that
her "200 Cigarettes" co-stars
Ben Affleck ("Shakespeare in
Love") and Christina Ricci ("The
Opposite of Sex") have achieved.
Instead, she has worked with
more quirky directors such as
John Waters in "Pecker," and
finds herself more proud of the
smaller films she's done.
Despite the fact that it didn't
get any significant distribution,
"Eye of God" holds a special
place in her heart. "I think, film-
wise, 'Eye of God' is the film
I'm most, more recently, proud
of."
With "200 Cigarettes" opening
this week and a stage run in
Chicago recently completed,
Plimpton doesn't have anything
on her plate. She does, however,
have an idea of what her dream
projects would be. "I want to do
a Western. And I want to do a
crime thing with a hard boiled,
noir-y kind of thing," she said.
ously brush his unbuttoned shirt to his
sides, Jagger is absolutely in his element
when he's on stage.
The lesson to be learned from the
aging front man: It's not what you've
got, but how you use it.
Is love 's lai
While my friends are busy packing
their bags for trips to Cancun, New
Orleans and Key West, I'm planning to
spend my much-needed rest in the com-
pany of Henry Roth and Primo Levi. Yes,
I'd rather bake
myself under the
sun while lying
next to a bikini-
clad babe on the
beaches of Bora
Bora, but instead
I'll find myself
catching up on
missed readings
and ponderances.
And I realize Christopher
I'm making the Tkaczyk
wrong decision. I
should be enjoy- State of
ing heightened t
encounters with he Arts
that young
woman, rather than kicking serenity with
two dead Jewish writers. Passionate
embrace is a better companion than
peaceful solemnity.
Love is in the air, it seems, as
"Shakespeare in Love" hooked up with
box office receipts over Valentine's
weekend. Earlier in the week, while sit-
ting at a local eatery, I overheard an
bour lost when taming a queen?
smiling sweetly and boyishly to the audi-
ence and sporting Native-American-
inspired decals in his hair and slowly-,
smoked cigarettes between his fingers.
Mid-show when Jagger ducked back-
stage for (what a roadie explains as) a
revitalizing "juice" break, Richards
picked up an old guitar and crooned
away for two numbers after mocking
Michigan's cold weather.
Upon Jagger's reemergence, the band
raced down an unassuming platform to a
small stage in the center of the main
floor, where they performed what
proved to be the best song of the
evening, a dripping-with-blues rendition
of "Midnight Rambler." Jagger drew out
each note in the song's second half with
such deliberation and power that it was
as if the crowd could see the music being
generated in his soul and oozing out
every pore under the purple lights and
billowing smoke from audience mem-
bers' joints.
The evening ended with a no-holds-
barred rendition of "Sympathy for the
Devil," featuring appropriately red lights
that dramatically shut off at the end of
the song, leaving the image of Mick's
silhouette - his hips cocked to the side
and dinner-plate sized hands above his
head - against the backdrop.
the cast didn't spend much time
reminiscing about the '80s, even
though the film uses the period
as a backdrop. But even in the
climate of the "me" generations'
beginnings, she explained that
"the film really isn't about the
onset of Reagan-omics ... we
don't really address those issues
in the movie."
The film derives its light
nature in part because it's an
MTV film (known for such
thought provoking films as "Joe's
Apartment" and "Varsity
Blues"). Nevertheless, Plimpton
notes that the "me" attitude of
the '80s infects the characters'
behavior.
"I would describe (my charac-
ter) as sort of desperate. She's
elderly woman relating the movie to a
male companion. She unfolded the
action of the young superstud Bard, and
as I listened intently to her tale, I recalled
the scenes, playing them out from mem-
ory. But as I listened, I noticed some-
thing wrong in her account. She began
to mix up the plot, explaining to her
audience that Master Shakespeare had
dated Queen Elizabeth I.
The confused woman had intermixed
the film's plot with that of "Elizabeth,"
not a difficult mistake, seeing that Joseph
Fiennes, who fills the Bard's shoes, also
stars in "Elizabeth;' where he portrays
Robert Dudley, the true love of the queen.
Although the artistic angel on my shoul-
der began shouting into my ear, demand-
ing that I interrupt the poor woman and
highlight her simple mistake, I let her fin-
ish. I found her interpretation quite inspir-
ing, and began to daydream.
If Shakespeare had been as poverty-
stricken as "Shakespeare in Love" por-
trays him, it might've done him well to
mix company with the queen.
History will show us that Queen
Elizabeth I was 64 when Shakespeare
was 33, the age at which he wrote
"Romeo and Juliet." Unless he went
through a "Harold and Maude" phase, it's
highly unlikely that the two would've
engaged in royal rendezvous. But love is
blind, as they say, to all things, age not
withheld.
I imagined Shakespeare writing a letter
to his lady love, complete with his styl-
ized romanticism. As I dreamed of such a
tryst, I began scribbling thoughts onto a
napkin, and I've re-copied the pseudo-
Shakespearean jant here - a fantasy love
letter to the queen (all apologizes to Wm.
Shakespeare):
My dearest Elizabeth,
Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines
the moon!
0, speak to me, bright angel, for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o'er my
head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven.
I crave no other tribute at thy hands
But love,fair looks, and true desire-
For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich;
I mean, that my heart unto yours knit;
So that but one heart we can make of it;
Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
For lying so, 'lizbeth, Ido not lie.
Mine ear is much enamored of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
-Love' feeling is more soft and sensible -
I am belov d of beauteous 'lizabeth
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady,
dotes
Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!
Here, dear thou seest how enraptured Iam
- I being a winner God give me good
night!
Your loyal subject...
But, alas, Elizabeth lived a long, deso-
late existence, never to marry. Her por-
traits give hint of a smile, her almost per-
fect grace suppressed by her tight bodice.
Maybe she should have tasted Diet Coke.
Either my nose has been in the books
too long, or I've suddenly realized I've
found happiness again in words, knowing
life isn't always as bad as it seems. I am
that merry wanderer of the night.
And suddenly, "serenity" is merely a
word I heard ... somewhere.
- Chris can be e-mailed at
tkaczykc@umich.edu.
r -I
SwivAng
Daecing
After Spring Break!
Wanted: Student drivers
The SORC is hiring Motor Vehicle Operators. Drive a
Daihatsu mini-truck around campus and hang diag boards,
banners, posters, and bus signs. Open until March 5; start
work March 8. $6.40 per hour plus free pool and discounts
at establishments in the Michigan Union.
Contact sundholm@umich.edu for more information!
The Michigan Union Program Board and Mortar Board proudly present:
Faculty Wednesdays
Healt
* - Yn Tc -,
Fitness Program
University of Michigan Kinesiology
Two Sections, 5 Weeks
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm, 3275 CCRB
Mondays, beginning March 8
Wednesdays, beginning March 10
$30.00 per person
Beginning Level, Partner Recommended but not Required
U-Move Office 3060 CCRB +
764-1342 + 8:00 am-4:30 pm
. p
Finr ' ('fir« i #ra