14B- Thursday, Januarty14, g 1999 -The Michigan Day Veeken Magaine
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The Michigan baily Weekend Maga:
10State of the Arts.
THREE HUNDRED MIDNIGHTS, NINE HUNDRED WORDS
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLAC
Hard rock brings excitement, flavor t
Every year, I draw up a list of 10
goals that I hope to accomplish over
the next 365 days. But when I look
back at 1998, I realize I've only done
two out of the 10 things that I'd set out
to. No, I didn't read all the novels of
Hemingway. No, I didn't make it to
Hawai'i. Europe? Nope? I didn't even
step outside of the country.
Budf I'm not disappointed with
myself. When I count up all the things
that I did do (the events that I hadn't
planned on attempting) that's when I
realize the end far outweighs the
means.
The tallies are in. Over the course
of 1998, I've read more than 40 books
and 20 plays. I've written more than
500 pages in essays, term papers, short
stories, plays and journals - which
doesn't even include what I've hacked
for the Daily. While these stacks of
flammable goods may only serve as
bragging tools to an unknown scribe,
they are my sustenance and inspiration
to keep scribbling and typing away.
I cannot fathom what I've learned
over the past year. I'd like to say that
my education was more than worth
itself in dollars and sense, but I've
come to realize that no price may be
placed upon this auction block we call
life. We each give our own value to liv-
ing by the ways
in which we
choose to live it.
Now I'll try to
stop sounding
like a forwarded:
e-mail. When I.
look back at the
time I might'vew
wasted, I try to
forget the 12-
plus hours that I
spent watching Christopher Tkaczyk
"Titanic" over Daily Arts Editor
and over and
again. Speaking
of wasted time, I won't even mention
those few moments I spared reading
"The Michigan Review."
Last year, I climbed a mountain at
two in the morning just so that I could
watch the sunrise with friends. I also
contradanced for the first time, while
wearing a dress. Somewhere, someone
has a photograph of me wearing a
brown dress from The Gap, posing
with a few other guys, also wearing
dresses. Hopefully, the photo will
never surface, especially if I decide to
run for Congress someday. On the
other hand, it might secure a vote from
transvestite constituents. Yes, Mom,
the dress was borrowed.
As this edition of Weekend, Etc.
Magazine will attest, 1998 was a great
year for the arts. Some of my greatest
memories of the year were created
inside a theater. I saw "Waiting for
Godot" performed live for the first
time. I wept as I witnessed E.L.
Doctorow's characters entwine lives in
the musical stage version of
"Ragtime." Both the novel and the CD
of show music are musts for anyone
who calls themselves an "anti-racist."
Listen for Audra McDonald's record-
ing of "Your Daddy's Son," which
sends chills up and down and through
my bones every time I hear it. Terrance
McNally, the playwright who penned
"Love! Valour! Compassion!" and
"Master Class," inspired protests by
anal Christian fundamentalists when
his "Corpus Christi" opened at the
Manhattan Theater Club. It seems the
show, depicting a homosexual Christ
of the '90s living in Texas, didn't
exactly blow the habits off the Little
Sisters of Hoboken.
In the cinema, I frightfully jumped
in my seat while watching Thandie
Newton spell out "B-E-L-O-V-E-D" in
that tragically raspy, yet oh-so-sexy
voice, giving new meaning to the term
"Deep Throat." I enjoyed "The
Hanging Garden," a movie which I
didn't understand until three days later,
after I'd thought long and hard about it.
"Cousin Bette" made me laugh out
loud more than "There's Something
About Mary," which I found to be
offensive and dull, despite Cameron
Diaz's spunky hair-do.
The "Teletubbies" scared the bejeezus
out of me. If I'd grown up watching them,
I would have garnered a strong addiction
to barbituates. I don't understand what
prompted anyone to create such strange
characters. If I were a family-valued, no-
violence-on-TV-favoring Republican, I'd
do a bit of background research on the
show's producers. Crack doesn't smoke
itself.
Modern art became highly focused
(?) with the National Gallery's exhibi-
tion of van Gogh's works, as well as
the new Jackson Pollack extravaganza
at the MoMA. I was in Washington
D.C. for the Vermeer festival three
years ago, and from what I saw, the
gallery was more crowded than the
men's room at a Madonna concert.
Especially when George Michael is
seen entering.
Speaking of Madonna, the diva
released the best album of her career,
"Ray of Light," last year. I've already
worn out my first copy.
Lorrie Moore's excellent collection
of stories, "Birds of America," (not
about birds) mis-guided bookstore
browsers, who thought they'd spotted
an informative nature offering. My
copy of Billy Collins' "Picnic,
Lightning," a selection of nature-
inspired poetry, is now happily dog-
eared.
Halfway through the year, the
American Film Institute announced
the "100 Best" films of American cin-
ema. As I poured through the list of
titles, I quickly counted up the names
I'd remembered having seen. I was
slightly shocked to see that I'd only
viewed 34 of them, so I made a goal to
check off the remaining boxes by the
year's end. Of course, I only reached
50 by the end of the summer, which
leaves another goal for the new year.
- Chris is accepting suggestions
for 1999. E-mail ideas to
tkaczykcjumich. edi.
By Adlin Rosli
Daily Arts Writer
Rock 'n' roll was once again unani-
mously declared dead in 1998. This did
not stop many long-time rockers, such
as REM, Pearl Jam, and George
Straight, from putting out solid albums
and otherwise dollar-worthy perfor-
mances. But one genre that did espe-
cially well this past year is also one that
frequently falls through the cracks.
Hard rock had a smash-up time in 1998.
With the genre's relative record sales
taking a backseat to that of country and
hip hop, the demise of of hard rock
seemed justified and true. Looking just
beneath the surface of this situation,
however, reveals a slightly different
story.
Travelling throughout the country,
the Ozzfest and the Van's Warped Tour,
two rock 'n' roll music festivals, proved
to be among the highest grossing tours
of the summer of '98. The Ozzfest was
especially successful as it sold out all
the venues it went to and rivaled The
Lilith Fair in its money making blitz.
Ozzy Osbourne repeated the formula he
used for Ozzfest '97 taking on the road
with him a two staged multi-act tour
that included '98's brightest and loudest
musicians such as System of A Down,
Ultraspank and Coal Chamber.
In the fall, Korn came away with sim-
ilar sales on its Family Values Tour dur-
ing a period that seemed to be down-
time. Local venues like The State
Theater, St. Andrew's Hall and Clutch
Cargo's are all also regularly sold out by
the new wave of rock bands like The
Deftones and Soulfly.
Top 10 videos
(Last week's top videos and the
studios that produced them)
1. "Lethal Weapon 4," Warner
Home Video.
2. "Dr. Dolittle," FoxVideo
3. "Six Days, Seven Nights,"
Touchstone
4. "Blade," New Line
5. "Armageddon," Touchstone
6. "The Mask of Zorro,"
Columbia/TriStar
7. "The Negotiator," Warner
Home Video
8. "Halloween: H20," Dimension
9. "The Parent Trap," Disney
10. "BASEketball," Universal
Source: Billboard Magazine
Top 10 Albums
(The nation's top-selling albums -
for the week)
1. DMX, "Flesh of My Flesh"
2. Offspring, "Americana"
3. Jay-Z, Vol. 2 ... Hard Knock
Life"
4. Mariah Carey, "#1s"
5. 'N Sync, "'N Sync"
6. 2Pac, "Greatest Hits"
7. Garth Brooks, "Double Live"
8. Jewel, "Spirit"
9. Backstreet Boys, "Backstreet
Boys"
10. Lauryn Hill, 'THe Miseducation
of Lauryn Hill"
Top 10 movies
(Last week's top grossing movies and how much they made in millions)
1. "A Civil Action," Touchstone $14.5
2. "Patch Adams," Universal $12.0
3. "Stepmom," Columbia/TriStar $8.0
4. "You've Got Mail," Warner Bros. $7.7
5. "Prince of Egypt," Dreamworks $5.8
6. "Mighty Joe Young," Disney $4.7
7. "A Bug's Life," Disney . $4.5
8. "Shakespeare In Love," Miramax $4.0
8. "The Faculty," Miramax $4.0
10. "Enemy of the State," Touchstone $3.0
Source: The Associated Press
Top 10 Books
(The week's best selling hard-cover fiction books)
1. "A Man in Full," Tom Wolfe
2. "The Simple Truth," David Baldacci
3. "The Poisonwood Bible," Barbara Kingsolver
4. "Seize By Knight," David Koontz
5. "When the Wind Blows," James Patterson
6. "Memoirs of a Geisha," Arthur Golden
7. "Rainbow Six," Tom Clancy,
8. "Bag of Bones," Stephen King
9. "Billy Straight," Jonathan Kellerman
10. "Angel's Flight," Michael Connelly
Source:Pubshers Weekly
Top 10 Singles
(The nation's top-selling songs for the week)
1. Brandy, "Have You Ever?"
2. Deborah Cox, "Nobody's Supposed To Be Here"
3. R. Kelly and Celine Dion, "I'm Your Angel"
4. Britney Spears, "... Baby One More Time"
5. Divine, "Lately"
6. 98 Degrees, "Because of You"
7. Shawn Mullins, "Lullaby"
8. Eagle-eye Cherry, "Save Tonight"
9. Lauryn Hill, "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
10. Total (featuring Missy Eliott), "Trippin"'
Source: Billboard Magazine
The lack of radio and television air-
play of hard rock bands seemed to
change this past year as well. Korn
found its biggest breakthrough radio hit
yet with "Got the Life." Germany's
industrial exports Rammstein found
itself willingly embraced by the
American audience with its cheery tune
"Du Hast," and Limp Bizkit, via its
remake of George Michael's "Faith,"
has now been adopted as MTV's new
darling.
Despite all this, hard rock's so-called
dismal state is demonstrated by the mas-
sive quantity of one-hit mediocre groups
like Creed, Days of the New, Marcy's
Playground, Eve 6 and Harvey Danger.
Then there are 1998's two pinnacle "one-
album-sells-like-crazy" bands that are
destined to inherit Hootie and the
Blowfish's post hit album notoriety:
Third Eye Blind and Matchbox 20. (OK,
they both got their hit albums and their
singles, now please make them go away!)
Metallica also returned to present
another "Load" of its post Black
album's diluted Metal reign. It did
attempt to regain its street credibility,
though, by releasing an all cover album
filled with tunes by groups such as
Motorhead and Mercyful Fate. This was
then followed by a short string of small
venue shows.
The impression that comes across
from all this is definitely not favor-
able for the livelihood of rock. It is a
far cry from the Ozzfest and Family
Values area of the genre. Instead, it
portrays rock as a safe and cliched
genre that pleases parents and push-
es rebel-prone youths toward more
"dangerous" and relevant music.
Attempting to help bring back the
danger and angry parental attention into
rock, Marilyn Manson returned with a
critically acclaimed n
record,"Mechanical Animals." T
attractive, new and colorful work o
again gave the artist a chance to fla
his buttocks and fake breasts for all
world. This new incarnation was c
tainly a spectacular sight to behold
Manson fans and critics. Although
new album, could not compete with
sales of Rap and R&B heavyweigl
such as Lauren Hill and Jay-Z, it s
debuted at No. 1 and was followed t
leg of sold out shows.
A striking image metamorphc
also occurred in the Korn fan ba
camp. Korn's long association w
Adidas ended in 1998 when
group singed a million dollar dea
exclusively endorse Puma clothes
Hard rock was definitely alive
1998. The performance that it lac
relative to record sales of coun
rap, R&B and Celine Dion was m
than made up for by its perpetua
strong concert sales. Rock music
always survived through cr
breeding itself with other genres
demonstrated by its birth out
blues in its early days, to the mu
genre experimentations with j
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M A C A Z 1 N E
Weekend Magazine Editors:
Aaron Rich
Wil
Writers: Matthew Barrett, Chris Cousino, Stephen Gertz, Gina Hamadey, Erin Holr
Photo Editor: Adriana Yugovich
Photographers: Erin Holmes
Cover: "Dawson's Creek," Maryn Manson's latest album, "There's Something Ab
just a few of the highlights of the 1998 year in arts. Photos courtesy of wire serv
Arts Editors: Jessica Easton and Christopher Tkaczyk
Editor in Chief: Laurie Mayk
Source: Billboard Magazine