8-- The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 4, 2000
ARTS
SWEET
Continued from Page 5
This fact is played off in as a slight
nishap on Emmett's part, unable to face
his competitor, who forever challenges
him and relegates him to the second-
greatest jazz guitarist in the world.
Allen incorporates his usual mix of
slapstick and intellectual humor, though
it's sparse and overshadowed by the dra-
matic feel of the film. Some scenes are
notable, particularly one in which Mat-
tie accidentally (Emmett doesn't like the
idea) lands a starring role in "The Tomb
of the Mummy." After dozens of takes
on a kissing scene involving her and a
:young Charlton Heston, she is left in a
tupor and unintentionally walks into a
thin sheet of glass that two men were
carrying, leaving them befuddled while
she continues walking dreamily.
The richness of the story is also seen
through the warmth of the glowing
Iights in clubs and taverns, effectively
manipulated by cinematographer Zhao
Fei ("Raise the Red Lantern").
But undoubtedly the best aspect of
"Sweet and Lowdown" is its music, a
tribute to Django's songs and some
newer versions of his performed by
Howard Alden and Bucky Pizzarelli.
Allen's love for the jazz guitar is
respectfully displayed in "Sweet and
Lowdown" to bring about a bittersweet
story.
Teen Moore bursts into bubble gum pop scene"
The Washington Post
The boys with pimples and the girls
with braces are hanging around the
hallways of MTV, hoping they'll see
Mandy. They are shy. They feel unwor-
thy. She is a goddess. Who just blew in
from LA. to host "TRL" - "Total
Request Live," where her totally awe-
some video is No. 6 on the countdown.
Here she comes in black leather
pants and a clingy purple top - her
teeth perfectly white, her hair lightened
and feathered - standing nearly six
feet in platform soles. A willowy girl-
woman being fussed over by a coterie
of imagemakers and product-placers.
"Hey, guys," she greets her fans. She
smiles radiantly; they smile back awk-
wardly. She loves her fans and would
love to chat, but - gotta go.
She's flying back to L.A. to work on
her next video and then host a show
called "Mandy's Mountain."
She is Amanda Leigh Moore of
Orlando, Fla., a lovely piece of bubble
gum now being inflated by the teen pop
culture machine. As music for suburban
kids - including the expertly manufac-
tured sounds of Britnev Spears, Christi-
na Aguilera and 'N Sync - soars in
popularity, Mandy Moore is along for
the ride.
Four months ago she sang at a chari-
ty cook-off in a Washington suburb,
before a few dozen people. Most proba-
bly had no idea who she was.
Now Mandy has a hit single called
"Candy" and a half-million-selling
album, "So Real" (no irony intended).
She is ubiquitous on MTV, which
immediately seized upon her as a pretty
new face for shows that appeal to the
acne cream demographic.
She's on the covers of teen beauty
magazines and clothing catalogues.
She's the official postergirl of the Wet
Seal clothing line, and she pitches a
new CD player for Sony.
She just landed a global Neutrogena
contract that will put her perfect skin -
that lone little mole seems strategic
somehow - on thousands of ad pages
and billboards. There will be tie-ins and
support from her label, Sony's Epic/550
Music, which expects to leverage the
exposure into getting a second single up
the charts.
"We want to make sure every kid has
heard of her," said Scott Carter; Sony's
senior director of product marketing.
Mandy has two official promotional
Web sites. She is the object of debate,
affection and ogling on more than 100
other Internet sites - including one
that polls its readers on what part of
Mandy's body they like best.
She is 15.
In the Viacom Building's cafeteria,
Mandy, tray in hand, resembles a gang-
ly sophomore, but her days in the
Catholic school lunch line are so over.
She left halfway through ninth grade,
opting for tutoring so she could pursue
her singing career, which has already
included tours with multi-platinum acts
N Sync and the Backstreet Boys.
She started out doing musical theater,
then sang at Orlando Magic games,
performed at Disney World and acted
in commercials. She's had an agent
since she was 11.
The stress, the invasion of privacy,
the industry sniping that she's "Sony's
version of Brittey Spears," the constant
demands on her time - all that can be
"overwhelming," she admits. "But it
comes with the territory." And it's all
worth it: "I'm so thankful to be doing
something like this at my age."
She realizes there's a force at work. It
started building when she signed with
the label at 13, and now it can't be
stopped.
"All these different types of things
are starting to mesh now - all these
ways of getting your music out and
being seen," Mandy said, fidgeting.
"It's like one huge force of, like, pub-
licity. Of people seeing you and hearing
you. It's .."
She pauses, as if to make sure she
will say the right thing - which she
will, because she's getting to be pro at
this. "It's very cool, though. It's cool to
be in a world like that now. You know,
where you get to try a little bit of every-
thing."
Mandy wants to be a multi-genre star
of stage and screen. She wouldn't mind
being huge like Janet Jackson and Bette
Midler and Madonna, who are among
her heroes. Especially Madonna.
Part of what created the Material Girl
was blatant sexuality - the same car-
nal trajectory that is propelling
bleached-blond bombshells Spears and
Aguilera to fame - but Mandy said
Courtesy of the Washington Post
The Mandy Moore marketing machine moves into a store or mall near you.
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she won't play that game. She doesn't
like to show her midriff, she said. "i
don't want to wear anything ... where I
look like I'm 20 or 21."
On one cover of the new teenStyle
magazine, Mandy wears a cropped T-t
shirt with "Candy" spelled out in red
sequins across her chest. Her midriff isI
showing.I
She opposes breast implants: "I1
would never have cosmetic surgery," I
she told teen publication Jump after it1
was reported that Spears had a boob job
at 17. "Why rearrange yourself just to
get attention or make other people hap-
pier?"
Her album doesn't lack for sexual
subtext. The first words on her single
are a breathy "Give it to me." Then she
sings: "Body's in withdrawal every time
you take it away. Can't you hear me
callin', begging you to come out and
play?"
She didn't pen the lyrics, of course.
The producers and the writers inter-
viewed her for ideas.
"Some of it is my life," she
explained. "Some of it I haven't experi-
enced. But I was really careful to make
sure that everything I was singing about
is believable for a 15-year-old, you
know?" She wanted to keep it real.
A FedEx man named Victor Cade
discovered Mandy. A part-time talent
scout, he noticed a bony 13-year-old
cutting jingles in a small Orlando
recording studio. Her singing voice was
brightly polished. He also knew she'd
be a looker.
'"It's that model look, which I recog-
nized when I first saw her," Cade
recalled proudly. "I thought, This girl
is going to beautiful when she grows,
and she is growing fast.'
"She was groomed to be a star-- she
was well groomed by her parents," he
added.
He pushed tapes and pictures on his
friend Dave McPherson, who signed
the Backstreet Boys in 1993. Now an
Epic senior vice president, McPherson
flew to Orlando to hear Mandy sing. He
looked deeply into her hazel eyes.
"She really had a look of a 30-year-
old person, in her eyes, even though she
was 13," he remembered.
"I was concerned about comparisons
to Britney," McPherson said. But he
sensed Mandy could handle what he
calls this "treacherous" business.
And Cade was absolutely right. "She
just blossomed during the recording
process into this stunning 5-foot-10
model woman that looked like she just
walked out of the pages of Vogue mag-
azine," McPherson said. "She's devel-
oped into a full-fledged personality."
Mandy is in front of a boisterous
studio audience starting the day's
"Total Request Live" countdown.
The show, which airs at 3:30 p.m., a
prime after-school viewing slot,
allows callers and e-mailers to break
in with comments as the videos
unspool.
The videos tend toward T&A and
guys in their underwear. Great eye
candy for the multi-tasking genera-
tion.
The unblemished face of a pretty
teen singer fills the oversize moni-
tor. She's got blond hair with just a
hint of dark roots. It's .
"... Jessica Simpson, who returns
to the countdown with 'I Wanna
Love You Forever,' " Mandy reads
from the cue cards as a girl who
might be her doppelganger shim-
mies on the screen. Jessica is 18
another rising star in hip-hugger
and a crop top.
The new bubble gum pretty much
sounds all the same, chewing over
eternal teen themes - Is it a crush?
Does he really love me? - but no
matter. The market is so huge -
more than 30 million American kids
between 12 and 19 who collectively
spend $140 billion a year - that to
keep up with the demand, labels are
snapping up younger and younger
acts. Especially girls.
Industry officials see them as a
wholesome alternative to the bump
and grind of hip-hop and the-
screeching rebellion of metal-punk....
But they're also coveted because
they appeal to other girls - who
spend more than boys on music, not--
to mention cosmetics and clothing. -
"Everything people are trying to
sell right now has to have an ele
ment of entertainment attached to,
it," said Lori Lambert, Epic's vice
president for strategic marketing and
development. "It's about a big..
vision. It's making kids feel like that...
person, that product, that service -
that feels like me, that sounds like.
me, that looks like me." In Novem-
ber, Mandy Moore cried the first.
time she saw her video on MTV, the-.
network she'd watched with utter-
devotion since she was 12.
There she was lip-syncing-'
"Candy," driving around with gal
pals in a new Beetle.
Of course, those were actors. Her.
real friends were in summer camp.
Actually, she wasn't driving -. not.
old enough. The car was towed.
around.
"It's just like doing a commer-
cial," she said, "except, like, I wa
the product. Everyone was workin0
for my benefit."
She doesn't have a boyfriend. It's
too hard, being on the road all thes
time, to maintain a relationship, she-
said. Also, people gossip.
But she knows the right guy will-
come along and hopes that someday-
she'll get asked to the prom. "If any '
body at my school remembers who C
am!" She has a sunny, self-deprecat-
ing laugh.
She just can't wait until April HT,
her birthday. She displays her new
learner's permit, with an impossibly
glamorous DMV photo. "I'm ready!
to turn 16 -and drive!"
____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ _ J
p
Colored Peopk;,
A celebration of African-American history
- the struggles, contributions, humor and spirit -
told through drama, with song and dance.
By Leslie Lee
Directed by Darryl V. Jones
Feb. 10 - 12 at 8 PM - Feb. 13 at 2 PM
Mendelssohn Theatre
Tickets are $18 & $ 14 - Students $7 with ID
League Ticket Office . Charge it! 734-764.0450
i..'
- UM School of Music " Dept. of Theatre
With generous support in part from the UM Credit Union.
Latin sound shakes
its bon bon out of
Paris, heads to U.S.
r -
$5.50 with Student ID after 6pm
$5.25 Late Shows Fri & Sat ' w|d200
o passes or Tuesday discounts
Unlimited Free Drink Refills & .250 Corn Refills
ALL SCREENS DIGITAL STEREO
ALL THEATERS STADIUM SEATING
HURRICANE (R)
1:00, 3:55, 6:45, 9:30
O SCREAM 3 (R)
11:00, 12:30,2:25,2:55,4:50,5:20,
7:15, 7:45, 9:40, 10:00
FRI/SATLS 11:55
O EYE OF THE BEHOLDER (R) 11:35,
12:55, 1:40, 3:05, 3:40, 5:45, 7:25,
7:50, 10:00 FRI/SAY LS 12:00
0 ISN'T SHE GREAT (R)
5:25, 9:40EFRI/SAT LS 11:40
ANGELA'S ASHES (R)
12:30, 3:25,6:30, 9:25
DOWN TO YOU (PG-13)
12:50, 2:55, 5:10, 7:35, 9:20
FRI/SAT LS 11:20
PLAY IT TO THE BONE (R)
FRI/SAT LS 11:00
GIRL INTERRUPTED (R)
11:10, 1:30,4:20, 7:00, 9:35
NEXT FRIDAY (R)
1:05, 3:10, 5:15, 7:40,9:45
FRI/SAT LS 11:45
MAGNOLIA (R) 11:55, 3:35,7:25
FRI/SAT LS 10:55
CIDER HOUSE RULES (PG-13)
11:00, 1:30,4:10,6:55,9:30
FRI/SAT LS 11:55
STUART LITTLE (PG)
1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:05, 9:00
GREEN MILE (R) 9:15
TOY STORY 2(G)
11:15, 1:15,3:15,5:15,7:15
GUN SHY (R)
The Los Angeles 'imes
The past couple of years have seen
landmark collaborations between Cuban
and American musicians scale the charts
and sell into the millions in the United
States, most notably the Buena Vista
Social Club-Ry Cooder project and its
myriad spinoffs and clones.
Now a mini-wave of Cuban collabo-
rations is rolling into the U.S. market-
place - but they don't involve
established American artists. Rather,
they feature young musicians from
Paris.
Unlike the traditional Cuban record-
ings that have done well here, the new
offerings mix traditional and modern
Cuban sounds with international alter-
native, hip-hop, reggae and rap senti-
ments. And while the more traditional
Cuban offerings of recent years have
showcased standard Cuban love songs
from years gone by, the Paris-Havana
collaborations boast edgier lyrics that
speak of poverty, immigration and the
search for justice.
Two names have emerged as leaders
of this wave of Paris-based alternative
Cuban sounds, both of them members
of the now-defunct Franco-Spanish
punk-rap outfit Mano Negra, and both
recording for Virgin France, distrib-
uted in the United States by Higher
Octave Records, a label based in near-
by Malibu that specializes in "adult-
alternative" and world music.
One is Sergent Garcia, a Paris-born
rapper, guitarist and singer of Spanish
and French descent. The other is French
dance music programmer Tom Darnal,
who heads P18, a 13-piece orchestra
named after an ethnically mixed neigh-
borhood in Paris. Both have released
debut albums in recent months.
Indeed, the members of another
Paris-based band, called Orishas, all
are from Cuba. They rap about gangs
in Cuba, among other problems there:
Rakauskas says musicians in F
have had an easier time than t
musicians in keeping up with musical
trends in Cuba over the last 40 years.
In that time, U.S. citizens have been
forbidden by U.S. law from traveling
to Cuba, but French citizens have trav-
eled freely on direct flights.
Garcia, who got his musical start at
age 15 playing in punk-rock bands,
describes his music as a global fusion
based on Cuban sounds - inclu g
the older "son" and the newer, ener-
getic "timba" - and U.S. funk, hip-
hop and rap. He was in Los Angeles
last week working on remixes with
L.A. rap groups Delinquent Habits and
Cypress Hill.
P18's Darnal, also 35, echoes Gzr-
cia's sentiments about Paris as a sortof
global hub for pop music that fuses
elements from many different cultures.
P 18's debut album, "Urban Cub '
released in October, was parti y
recorded in Cuba.
The Paris-Havana collaborations
speak to political issues, namely
poverty and 'oppression, though Darnal
and Garcia both say their messages are
not aimed at any particular govern-
ment or political affiliation.
- Garcia says the song "Hoy Me Voy"
was inspired by the difficult ties faced
by immigrants all over the world d
not just by the plight of those fleeing
Cuba. And Darnal says P18's song
"Somos el Futuro," which features a
sample of a Che Guevara speech and a
chorus of Cuban children chanting
"We are the"future," is aimed at
Cubans in Cuba and Cuban Americans
m
IN
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