8 -The MichiganDaily - Monday, March 19, 2001
ARTS
Daily Arts urnament
1 ER
F the Sopranos
1 ER
Teen classic upsets
No. 1 sitcom in TV
7-
S1 Sopranos
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16 Little House on the Prairie
16 Dawson's Creek
8 Power Puff Girls
1
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8 Whose Line is it Anyway
8 Whose Line is it Anyway;"
8 Power Puff Girls
5 Xi
5 x-files
9 Dark Angel
5 Seinfeld tourney. first round
5 Seinfeld
12 Gimore GirlsI
5 X-files
4 Ec
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12 The Last Word
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4 Ed
4 Happy Days
13 Full House
13 Full House
13 That's Life
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6 Scooty Doo
6 Scooby Doo
6 South Park
6 South Park
11 Newsradic
3 The Practice
14 Twin Peaks
14 Twin Peaks
'17 Ion Chef.
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Z
3 Everybody Loves Raymond
3 Everybody Loves Raymond r
11 Party of Five
14 Third Watch
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lrvn Chef
10 Emeril Live
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7 The Daily Show
10 Wonder Years
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10 Wonder Years
2 Sex and the City
2 Law & Order
2 Law & Order
2 Sex in the City[
15 Three's Company
15 Laverne & Shirley
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1 Survivor I1
By Ryan Blay and Jeff Dickerson
Daily Arts Writers
The field of the tv tournament
has been narrowed down by email
from readers to 32 after exciting
first round action which featured
blow outs and upsets abound.
Round two is shaping up to be just
as intriguing as the opening round.
The biggest surprise in the tour-
ney came between the current king
of sitcoms "Friends" and the time-
less classic "Saved By the Bell."
Zach. Kelly, Slater and Screech
were up in arms over their low
seeding when the brackets were
announced last week. The Bayside
natives carried their intense emo-
tion into the game and easily beat
the highest rated sitcom in the land.
The play of the game occurred
when Zach Morris used his infa-
mous "timeout," halting the
progress of their rivals.
Some shows never die. Maybe
someone should have notified the
cast of "Frasier," who were thor-
oughly destroyed by Bugs, Daffy
and the rest of the "Looney Tunes"
gang. Wile E. Coyote enjoyed the
rare thrill of victory but admits it
was hard to be teamed with the
Road Runner.
Other great matchups included
"Iron Chef" winning over fellow
Food Network rival "Emeril Live"
and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" tri-
[-'A-i
umphing over fellow demon fighter
"Angel" despite questions as to
which demon slayer is more attrac-
tive.
Cartoons did surprisingly well.
The Powerpuff Girls - Bubbles,
Blossom, and Buttercup -- used
their Chemical X to waste the hard-
core prisoner of "Oz." "The Thun-
dercats" and the Sword of Thundera
came ever so close to toppling "The
West Wing," arguably the finest
current prime time drama. "Daria"
and "Futurama" couldn't follow the
foul-mouthed "South Park" kids
and "The Simpsons" into the next
round, but nevertheless, animation
is well-represented going into
round two.
This week's match-ups look as
heated as the past weeks.' "Sein-
feld" appears to have the edge in
round two against the Tanner clan.
Many speculate Jerry and friends
will make it to the final four.
"The Simpsons," despite its fail-
ure at the Emmys, has also dis-
played early signs of confidence,
leading us to believe only "Saved
By the Bell" stands in their way of
the final four.
Other divisions are up in the air,
with "The Sopranos," "West Wing"
and "Survivor II" all looking to the
championship contest. It's up to
you to decide the fate of the
remaining television programs in
the tournament.
1 Friends
1 Survivor 1I
16 Saved by the Bell
16. Rocky & Bullwinkle
16 Saved By the Bell
8 Popular
9 Roswell
8 Drew Carey Show
9 Politically Incorrect
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0
S
9 Roswell
5 Once & Again
12 Family Ties
5 Homicide
5 Homicide
12 Family Ties
Z
12 1 Love Lucy
4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
L4 Bffy the VampireSlayer
4 Monday Night Raw
13 Silver Spoons1
13 Silver Spoons
13 Angel
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3 Boston Public
6 Boston Public
.1 Batman Beyond
6 Will & Grace
6 Will & Grace
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11 The Pretender
3 NYPD Blue
3 Frasier
14 Looney Toons
33NYPDBlue
3 NYPD Blue
14 Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
14 Looney Toons
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7 Sports Night
7 Cosby Show
7 Sports Night
7 Cosby Show {
10 All in the Family
10 Daria
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2 The Simpsons
2 The West Wing
2 The West Wing
12 The Simpsons
LEFT: Powerpuff Girls overpower the prisoners of "OZ."
RIGHT: Chairman Kaga ("Iron Chef") enjoys the taste of victory.
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15 Futurama
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15 Thundercats
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Eon your i nerna iona tong d is n c
By Jenny Jeltes
Daily Arts Writcr
Is this good or bad? Is that wrong
or right? It is exactly these types ol
questions that result in turmoil and
s u f f e r i n g
tilhr1ohot the
world because
thecr will
Struggling always be suf-
Truths fering where
ther e is confu-
Perform ance Netw ork sie . ai n g
sion. Taking
ThroughApnl8 two opposing
ph ilosophies,
Buddhism and
Communism,
PlI a y w r i g h t
Peter Mellen-
camp explores
the ways in
which these two views clash during
the 1950s in Tibet in his premiere
of "Struggling Truths."
Sang Sang (Thomas Hoagland) is
a Buddhist monk who brings the
audience into the devastating reality
of the Chinese invasion of Tibet.
Highly contemporary, Sang Sang
makes these issues an important
part of our everyday lives. By
involving himself in the story of
Dorje (David Wolber) and Rinchen
(Tara Platt), two siblings who start
out as two Tibetan peasants, but
soon adopt radically different
lifestyles, he brings to light the
importance of finding one's- own
"truth." He also helps the audience
realize that one must dismiss the
concept of certainty in order to
achieve enlightenment - the state
where all desire and suffering is
transcended.
The way in which this long and
bitter struggle in Tibet is portrayed
-is refreshingly unique and any audi-
ence member can relate to the uni-
versal themes that it deals with.
Sang Sang is both extremely funny
and wise. He speaks to Dorje, who
begins training at the monastery,
about meditation and the impor-
tance of accepting human suffering,
yet jokingly comments that his
mother could have been reincarnat-
ed as the fly that is currently
buzzing around.
"Struggling Truths" is both solid
and the dialogue really hits home,
because the issues it addresses can
be understood by everyone. It
makes one really think about the
"here and now." The valuable
lessons it emphasizes are incorpo-
rated so well into the script that at
no point does it appear fabricated or
out of context. But as Sang Sang
says, we are all on a big circle,
some on one side and some on the
other. Where does one side end and
the next begin? It all depends on
where you're sitting.
The staging is both creative and
smooth, and some actors play multi-
ple characters, which adds a nice
element of irony to the play's
theme. Buddhism and Communism,
although extremely different and the
cause of much struggle during the
1950s, at moments seem to fit
together well in the play. Confused
yet? Perhaps this seemingly impos-
sible dichotomy is necessary. The
Chinese symbol of the Ying Yang
represents the view that each side
holds a seed of the other, explaining
the black and white dots present on
each respective side.
Will we ever all get along?
Maybe we will or maybe we won't.
Buddhists strive to fully embrace
human suffering and also find it
necessary in order to gain under-
standing, where others strive to pre-
vent suffering and whatever cost.
However, choosing to "not do some-
thing" can be just as powerful as
"doing something." Action or inac-
tion, true or untrue, we all face
decisions each and every minute of
everyday, and these decisions create
our own reality of who we really
are. Who we "really" are. How can
one "really" ever know? According
to Buddhist philosophy, everything
we do connects us to everyone else
one way or another and this vital
connection will forever shape us.
"Struggling Truths" couldn't have
shown this any better.
0
Antonio Ramirez and Tara Platt star in
"Struggling Truths."
I ma- ^^ . -7 ^^ R-
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