The Michigan Theater screens "The Commitments" at 7 p.m. This 1991 Alan Parker romp features a fun, lively rocking sound- track and an exciting look at the forming of an Irish rock band in Dublin. ARTS§a ~~ Check out Breaking Records for a review of the new Richie Hawtin album. Monday November 29, 1999 grads perform ockttes By Undswy Alpert Daily Arts Writer As winter quickly approaches, the hol- iday season comes as well. Local malls are packed with shoppers, houses are vered in fairy lights and "The Radio Christmas Spectacular" is brought to life in various cities across the nation. Looking at the faces behind the bright smiles, eye-high kicks and teddy bear costumes in the show, two faces may look familiar. Rockette Kristi Young and chorus member Matt Toronto graduated from the University. "I graduated in '98 with a degree in Musical Theater," explained Toronto, who will sing and dance in the cho- rus for his first Radio City show. The Young, howev- ROCkettes er, is a six-year veteran of the Fox Theater show. "I had Through Dec. 30 always seen the Rockettes at " Macy 's Thanksgiving Day Parade" and when I saw an audition posting in the "Entertainment Trade Paper," I thought I'd be right for the part," said Young, who danced and co-directed with Impact Jazz Company while at the University. She competed against hundreds of aspiring Rockettes auditioning across the country to become one of the roximately 200 current Rockettes. Wce 1932, nearly 2,000 women have danced as Rockettes. Aspiring Rockettes must be proficient Guitarist Meeks, Days of the New rock St Andrew's during holiday By David Reamer Daily Arts Writer Singer/guitarist Travis Meeks rolled into St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit sporting a new band with an old name, poised to prove himself as one of the music indus- try's newest golden boys. Following in the wake of a successful new album, released after a messy breakup between Meeks and his old bandmates, Days of the New came to impress, and did so with gusto. Canadian punk rockers Bif Naked got the night started with an energetic No Doubt impression, complete with tight leather pants and a spandex shirt. Lead singer Bif even played the cute, innocent girl pioneered by Gwen Stefani in her breathy segues between songs. Of course, Bif Naked isn't No Doubt, and the small St. Andrew's Hall crowd Courtesy of Olympia Entertainment The Rockettes perform during the holiday season at the Fox Theater. in jazz, tap, ballet and modern dance, and must also have vocal talents. "We sing about four numbers in the show while dancing, so it's kind of hard to catch your breath," said Young. Rockettes also must be between 5' 5" to 5' 10" to meet a height requirement. The tallest women are placed in the mid- dle. Young is third from the middle this year to create an optical illusion. "You really have to work as a cohesive group, so it takes a lot of practice" said Young. "It's grueling work," said Toronto. "The chorus goes in for rehearsal around I p.m., practices for four hours, gets a dinner break and then goes back until 9 p.m." Once the show starts its run, days will become even longer. In the 5-week run, the Christmas Show will be per- formed 70 times, meaning there are many days with three performances. "It's tough," said Young, "It's kind of like having finals week for a month. You have to take your vitamins and eat right. There's a ton of chocolate and coffee involved" Equally as tough is the performance itself Cast members go through many clothing changes between scenes, some in less than 80 seconds. Rockettes have 10 costume changes, which includes outfit, hats and their famous tights. "Costume changes were the most diffi- cult part to get used to," said Toronto, who will appear as a polar bear and robot. "My most difficult change is when I have two minutes to change and then run under the stage to get to the other side for the next number." Several teddy bears, such as Toronto's polar bear, appear in the Nutcracker scene. The bear costumes weigh up to 60 pounds and are extremely hot. "I have to do normal ballet steps while in my polar bear costume," said Toronto. Two months of intensive work seems like enough to burn out anyone, but not Toronto or Young. Young came in from Las Vegas where she performed as a Rockette in the year-round "Great Radio City Spectacular" show. She also holds the distinction as one of the few Rockettes to be a wife and mother. "I'm the only one in the Detroit show with a child," said Young. "I get a lot of help from my husband and parents who live here. I danced until I was about four months pregnant and then took some time off" Toronto is also married. He lives in New York now with his wife, who is also an actress, dancer and singer. Since graduating in '98, Toronto has per- formed in the musicals "Chess," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "West Side Story." So what might the pros suggest to the aspiring college performers? "Don't be afraid to try something new," suggests Toronto. "When in comes down to it, if you really want to be an artist, just do what you feel is right for you." For aspiring Rockettes, Young recommends, "Work on your tap dancing and practice those eye-high kicks." Musician Travis Meeks is the only remaining member from the original Days of the New. Days of the New St. Andrew's Hall Nov. 23, 1999 'Ii was well aware of that fact. From the extended, crack- ling intro track until their final song of the night, the band was bar- raged with cries of "We want Travis" and "Why don't you play 'Spiderwebs'?" After a more than fashionably long intermission, Days of the New and his guitar, he travels with a full ensemble on tour. In addition to the bass, drums and two guitars, the band was aug- mented by a keyboardist and the stan- dard belly-dancing backup vocalist. During the course of the show, Days of the New demonstrated Meeks' musi- cal creativity by including a number of interesting effects in their songs. Most notably, a megaphone was used repeat- edly to create a screeching vocal sound like that in the hit single "Shelf in the Room." Also recurring throughout the set were synthesized violins and medita- tive chants that filled the concert hall with a pleasant, worldly atmosphere. Days also showed their range during the show, at times sounding more like an acoustic jam session than anything else, but at others forging a harmony between vocals and the various guitars that was almost hypnotic. In the midst of a set spanning the breadth of both of their studio albums, Days' performance reached its musical peak during a moving rendition of the ballad "Weapon & the Wound." Soon after came a solo performance of "Freak" that received an appreciating ovation from the audience. By far the most atyp- ical song in the set was an extended, heavily electronic version of the single "Enemy," which had none of the reso- nant beauty of the other songs in the set. It was apparent from the beginning of the set that Meeks was intoxicated. He kept up a steady but occasionally baf- fling banter with the crowd, mostly about how much better he is than most other rockers and how much he cares about his fans. He did stop briefly to laud some of the more worthy members of the music industry, but then proceeded to bad- mouth hard rockers in general. His onstage antics even built to the point where he refused to play his final song until he was furnished with another beer. Despite his obvious drunkenness, Meeks' guitar work was impressive from start to finish, and none of those present for the finale of the show left disappoint- ed. At the end of the night, Days of the New had backed up Meeks' arrogant words with a solid performance, and demonstrated their worth as a unique musical institution. finally took the smoke-filled stage amid the recorded sounds of thundering hoofs and droning chants, immediately break- ing into "Flight Response," the first track off of their new album. Strobe lights cut through the artificial fog during the song, an effect that was repeated often, to the delight of the crowd. Although the band is essentially comprised of Meeks I as Fishing Errors hinder AIDS exhibition reels in fun By Nick Faizone Daily Arts Writer ince most central campus community members do not frequent North Campus on a regular basis, an art exhibit staged in Pierpont Commons would have to be both entic- ing and unique to draw a significant number of visitors who did not live or study in the building's immediate vicinity. Yet the newest exhibit to open there - a small, uninspired presentation that attempts to stress AIDS awareness - is not even alluring enough to attract those who normally visit the area. The presentation, neither intriguing nor striking, focuses on a selection of artwork located in one of the building's AIDS lounges. The exhibit dominates the AwareneSS room; there are works featured both in Exhibit the center of the area and on three of the Pierpont Commons four walls surrounding the lounge's fur- Through Dec. 3, 1999 niture. Upon first glancing at the multitude of works, most consisting of red, black and clear horizontal and vertical ban- ners, it is easy to discern the topic of the exposition. Phrases such as "End the silence" and "totally preventable" jump out at the viewer, as do the ubiquitous red ribbons, symbols for AIDS awareness. A closer look at the artwork, however, shows that much of it has been assembled without a great deal of care. For example, the center of the lounge features two clear plastic cubes, one on top of the other. Affixed to two sides of each cube are long clear sheets of plastic with AIDS statistics and information written on them in black paint. A closer look, though, shows that the plas- tic cubes are conspicuously cracked, an example of neg- ligence that the artists could have easily corrected before the exhibit debuted. Perhaps even greater testament to the presentation's mediocre assemblage is the artwork located on the exhibit's south wall. This side of the exposition consists of eight verti- cal banners - four made of a clear plastic which, once again, feature AIDS information and statistics in black writing - mounted on glass. The painters have highlighted the most important phrases on the banners by painting a white back- ground behind them. Perhaps they did not intend for anyone to read what they had written, however, for they have care- lessly misspelled many words which are central to the com- prehension of the phrases. For example, instead of writing "avoiding the sharing of needles;' the artists chose instead to paint "avoing" and "nee- dle's." In addition, the painters frequently added or left off portions of the phrases' words. "Ununprotected" appears instead of "unprotected," 't' in lieu of "to." The effectiveness of this portion of the exhibit is ruined when the viewer dis- covers - through the frequent spelling mistakes - how shoddily the painters assembled the banners. Although there are no rules in art, it is obvious that the exhibit's negligent installation does not help contribute to greater understanding of the presentation's purpose. The carelessness only aids the viewer in seeing just how quickly the artists put together the exhibit. Though the exposition addresses an important topic in American soci- ety - AIDS prevention and cognizance - it approaches the subject in a trifling manner, consequently turning the viewer away from both the artwork and, perhaps, further understanding of the issue. by the ton Sega Bass Fishing Dreamcast Sega Fishing is probably one of the strangest genres of video games to have made it to this country, at least until the Japanese fish/man crossbreeding simula- tor "Seaman" comes over. The really weird thing about "Bass Fishing" is it's really fun. This incarnation is not a simple simu- lation of sitting on the back of a rowboat and waiting for something you can't see to take your bait; you can see the lure under the water and the fish around it. A disembodied voice, presumably a back- seat angler, rambles on about fish within striking distance. While this commentary on proximity is pretty good, he's dead wrong most of the time on how to move your rod. That's not a problem, however, because the game's learning curve is pleasantly low. Arcade mode is a simple set of four stages requiring you to catch a certain amount of pounds of fish in a limited amount of time at each location. Since the "Average Size" fish can be under two pounds and you need 13 pounds in one minute, the fishing is a mad dash much of the time. Don't worry, you can keep on going when time runs out by pressing the start button. And when you continue while a bass is hooked, you get the incon- gruous command "Fight!!" It would make more sense if you had to beat a huge, vicious fish pwith an oar or risk being pushed into the lake, but it's still pretty fun. And if it happens while a fish is being hooked, you get to stare at the red innards of the bass. Freaky. Original mode adds ways of playing and new environments. Competition enters the mix as you must be in the top 10 out of 40 fisherman in terms of bass weight to continue, with increasingly more stringent standards as you progress. And given a bad round of fishing, you may easily fall back in the pack. To be competitive you need to catch big fish quickly in fishing spots you haven't been to before and hopeful- ly with special lures that have been awarded to you but you have not used yet. Fear of getting knocked out of competition as well as the boat rocking glee of pulling in a lot of big fish and ending up with 20 more pounds of bass than anyone else can make the game strangely exciting. And you'll be proud to display the plaques you win in your virtual trophy room if you're good enough to place first in a tournament. "Sega Bass Fishing" is the surprise of the current crop of Dreamcast games. Fun, addictive and full of continuing playability, the disc will complement Sega's newest platform quite nicely. Like the game says, enjoy your fishing. - Ted Watts Read the Daily. V I . I. STUDENTS WITH CROHN'S DISEASE OR ULCERATIVE COLITIS Please join Dr. Ellen Zimmermann Asst Professor of Gastroenterology, U of M WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY Earn up to $1,000. Healthy participants (age 18 to 40) who have used sedative drugs recreationally or who drink alcohol regularly but with no current or past drug dependence are needed for study of a new sedative-like medication. Participants will be interviewed, fill out question- nmirP _and narticina tein si dru ndministratin ..