Cinema master Boris Karloff stars in "The Mask of Fu Manchu."
The film & video department holds a special screening and a dis-
cussion following the film. 7 p.m., Rackham.
8 Wednesday
December 1, 1999

it~i t§n Thiflg

Tomorrow in Daily Arts:
U Check out the Daily film staffs pick of the No. 2 film of the
decade. "The Shaw shank Redemption," in this week's
Weekend, etc. Magazine.

Popular trance DJ duo electrify Motor crowd.

By Jason Birchmeier
Daily Arts Writer
Two of the world's most popular
trance disc jockies took an ecstatic

/ .
Paul Oakenfold
& Dave Ralph
Motor
Nov. 29, 1999'
/r

crowd of hun-
dreds to its
exhausted limits
on Monday night.
This journey of
truth, testing both
euphoric and
.physical stamina,
occurred an hour
away at Detroit's
current hotspot
for electronic

sensory overload experienced by the
several hundred assembled within the
infamous club quietly hid deep within
the quaint Polish neighborhood of'
Hamtramack.
Motor's guest DJs on Monday -
Dave Ralph and Paul Oakenfold
don't visit the Midwest often, making
their Detroit appearance all the more
rare. These two English DJs easily pack
the largest clubs in London and other
global centers like New York.
Trance, their style of electronic music,
has been exponentially growing in popu-
larity here in America due to two albums
documenting typical DJ sets.
"Tranceport l" featuring Oakenfold
proved the perfect introduction to trance
for American masses last Fall, still selling
briskly in record stores across the coun-
trv A follow-up album is on the way.
After spinning the closing set of

Woodstock '99 for an energetic crowd
feeing the aftermath of Korn's perfor-
mance and touring with both BT and
Oakenfold, Ralph has his own release
"Tranceport 2"- He has been increasing
his stature at just as staggering rates as
his partner. Monday night the two of
them attempted to impress Detroit, a
city bred strictly on techno and sketchy
weekend raves.
Slightly elevated from Motor's dance
floor in a secluded booth, Dave Ralph
began spinning records early in the
evening. His subdued blend of lush
trance established the mood for the
crowd as it slowly filed into the long
and narrow club. Though far from
ambient or relaxing, Ralph's track
selection proved the perfect soundtrack
to build the crowd's anticipation.
Few were dancing initially, yet one
could sense the energy level among the

crowd at Motor slowly rising. As people
loosened up with a few drinks and min-
gled with friends along the outskirts of
the main dancefloor and the lounge
areas, heads began nodding, feet began
tapping and small groups of dancing
people formed. The urge to dance
spread quickly through the swelling
crowd even though it was still early.
For those who hadn't been to
Motor in weeks, the improved light-
ing and sound only added to the
strange aura of the event. At all cor-
ners of the main dancefloor, multi-.
colored lights strobed, panned and
flickered various lighting patterns,
occasionally reflecting brightly off a
large mirrorball. Just as encompass-
ing, the powerful sound system over-
whelmed one's senses, nullifying
conversation on the dancefloor.
See MOTOR, Page 9

music,
There
places
nights

Motor.
are few
and few
in the

Midwest capable of paralleling the
awareness of heightened reality and
G&S
show
creates
By Rosemary Metz
Daily Arts Writer
Those sparkling orange and lemony
yellow signs popping up on campus
kiosks serve as reminders of warm and
sunny paradise. A tropical kingdom is
the location for the University's Gilbert
& Sullivan Society's production of
"Utopia, Limited."
New trails are blazed with this rela-
tively obscure work in the G&S canon.
UMGASS has preserved and enhanced
the traditional wackiness of Gilbert and
Sullivan. As is usual with the annual

JOSH BAND/Special to the ay
DJ Paul Oakenfold lays down an intense set of trance during his show at Motor.

Show
By Anika Kohon
Daily Arts Writer
"That is just darling,
great way to say 'hands c
na."' No, Gloria Steinemc

The Woman
Show
**I
Comedy Central
Tonight at 10:30

a cra
it's
Stew
takes
none
Jimm
talkin
Conn
Lady
Show
chan
Kim 
Adar
wear
vests

changes for'
I simultaneously jabbing at female hys-
teria and neuroses. Corolla says,
and what a "Sure, he can use his wife's body like
off my vagi- a pummel horse, but if she can't use
doesn't have his lousy bic even once without him
ft show, and having a coronary...." This follows
not Martha comments about the insignificance of
art's out- the nicks men receive from razors
. This is damaged by leg hair.
other than The show also tackles (briefly)
ny Kimmel teenage sex addicts and uncles who
ng to molest their nieces with a tasteless
iie the Craft approach only possible for Kimmel
r. and Corolla.
he Man "The Woman Show" has its funny
v" gets a sex moments, Connie the Craft Lady,
ge as being one of them. "A little glitter and
rel and host even the dirtiest old plunger sparkles
n Corolla like the baby Jesus star," she says.
sweater But, in another segment, Kimmel's
cross their baby Barrie is a half-naked, fat, hairy
y're not fat and repulsive man.
The unspoken subtext here could
r blend of be that his face is one only a mother
dic structure could love. Or perhaps it is a

Woman'
metaphor for males as infantile,
whiny and foolish creatures. Or
maybe they just thought it would be
funny. Whatever the reason for its
inclusion, the segment is more repug9
nant than amusing, and one of the
most inane segments of the show.
Another disappointing element is
Corolla's (perhaps unintentional) imi-
tation of Mike Myer's Linda
Richmond. His hand gestures and
"big whoops" remind the viewer of a
far superior female impersonation. Of
course an argument could be made
that his totally unconvincing perfor-
mance makes this forced gende*
inversion funnier.
Kimmel is more successful than
Corolla at pulling off the parody, but
neither one makes a very good
woman - a fact they're both sure to
relish. "The Woman Show" offers
moments of hearty laughter, but the-
boys should stick to pretending
they're men instead.

Courtesy of UMGASS
One of the Flowers of Progress chats with two natives in "Utopia, Limited."

Utopia,
Limited
Mendelssohn Theatre
Dec. 2.4 at 8 p.m.

G&S productions,
lots of traditions
and traditional
roles are punc-
tured.
"For our part,
we leapt at the
chance to direct a
relatively obscure
show within a
well-known canon
because it lets us
present a story
that hasn't already
been memorized

that don't know G&S at all, we offer the
surprisingly modern plot device of spin
doctoring,' which is used with bizarre
and miraculous results all through the
show"
There is the same catchy music,
larger-than-life characters and twisted
plot. Zinn admits that complicated
storylines are often associated with
Gilbert & Sullivan, but he said, "we
have trimmed the show to digestible
length (just under two hours) and
have pulled a comb through the larger
tangles in the plot."
The female characters, Zinn said, are a
"leap forward from traditional G&S
women, giving us a middle-aged gov-
erness haunted by her own adorableness,
and a college educated, benevolently
self-confident soprano." The local G&S
devotees add their own flavoring, creat-
ing a production that Gilbert and
Sullivan might not even recognize, but
would surely enjoy.
"Utopia. Limited" follows the story of
an island monarchy whose motto is
"Despotism tempered by Dynamite."
Enforcement is determined by an offi-

cial who oversees all royal activities.
Anglophiles are everywhere, their exces-
sive love of all that is British prompts
them to near mania.
Princess Zara, who is educated at
Cambridge, returns to Utopia with her
entourage of six men who represent
wondrous British civilization. They are
named the "Flowers of Progress.
Utopia's calm and seemingly never-end-
ing existence is jeopardized with the
entrance of these progressive "flowers,
who bring a business acumen, focus and
utter chaos to the island. As the plot pro-
gresses, two shady Wise Men further
threaten the tranquility. Utopia is sud-
denly very limited.
UMGASS's spinning talents and
unique gifts for re-imagining the
works of Gilbert and Sullivan fresh-
en and vitalize this work, providing
a evening of festivity and fun. While
that winter trip to warmer climes
with groves of lemon and orange
trees is a misty dream for the future,
UMGASS promises the trip to
"Utopia. Limited" will be well
worth the wait.

legs, tell each other the
and discuss men.
The show is a cleve
male-bashing with a paroc

TV dramas bring home
audiene'sitnatius

by G&S fans - the jokes, the characters
and even the ending are unknown quan-
tities for us to play with," said artistic
director David Zinn, "And for people

The Baltimore Sun
The taxi cab pulls up in the drive-
way of a rambling, ivy-covered,
two-story Cape Cod home painted
picket-fence white. Leaves are
falling from ancient oaks and elms
as a young woman gets out of the
cab, looks at the house and takes a
deep breath.
"Enjoy your visit," the cabdriver
says as he pulls away.
"Not visiting," the woman replies.
"I think I'm home."
The scene is from the pilot for
"Providence," the surprise hit of last
season. The drama about a plastic
surgeon in her 30s who chucks her
lucrative Beverly Hills practice and
Southern California lifestyle to
return to her hometown of

Providence, R.l., and a low-paying
job in a community clinic is such a
hit that it has inspired copycat dra-
mas such as "Judging Amy" on
CBS this fall.
"Amy" features a 35-year-old
attorney who chucks a lucrative
corporate law career, and
Manhattan lifestyle to return to her
hometown of Hartford, Conn., and
a low-paying job as a family law
judge. Like "Providence," it, too, is
a hit, the highest-rated new dramat-
ic series in a fall full of successful
new dramas.
While much has been written
about the commercial success of the
two series and their leading charac-
ters, Dr. Sydney Hansen (Melina
Kanakaredes) and Judge Amy Gray


WRITE FOR THE DAILY.
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(Amy Brenneman), the cultural
implications have been little
explored. When a series cuts al
directly against the grain of what'
come before as "Providence" did,
and then single-handedly inspires a
programming trend, it's a fairly safe
guess that something is up.
This was supposed to be a net-
work season geared to 20-some
things living in New York and over-,
sexed teen-age boys not coming of
age in their parents' basements. But
the crash and burn of series like
NBC"s "The Mike O'Malley ShowO
and ABC's "Wasteland" - set
against the tremendous success of
"Providence," "Amy" and several
similar series- - has sent the net-
works scrambling to find what.
makes Sydney and Amy run.
Ultimately, the answers are found
among baby-boomer viewers and
the fantasies the series offer them-
- starting with the promise tha
you can go home again, a them
both series hit hard in Thanksgiving
episodes.
"I think you've got to go home at
some point in your life," says
Brenneman, who stars as the judge
and single mom who returns with
her daughter and moves into the
family house with her mother,
Maxine (Tyne Daly), and brother
(Dan Futterman).
John Masius, the creator o
"Providence," explains the appea'W
by saying, "It's the idea of people
being able to re-establish relation-
ships with their families and the
fantasy of being able to go back and
live at home again. I just think that
people are re-examining what is
important to them. Family and roots
seem to be important."
Gender is another important
aspect of these characters. It's notes
worthy that both are professionaF
women, and that their journey back
home seems to go directly against
the dominant narrative for prime-
time women, which started with the
CBS sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore
Show" in 1970.

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