Sara Hickman
This singer/songwriter comes
to The Ark tonight at 8 p.m.,
bringing a healthy dose of
Texas soul with her. $11.
michigandaily.com /arts

ARTS

MONDAY
APRIL 2, 2001

5A,


*Disturbed spreads Sickness
to ilin' Harpo~ s concert-goers

Rob Brode
Daily Arts Writer
They're not annoyed, they're not
* slightly miffed, but they are Disturbed
and their steamrolling metal grooves
colored with key-
boards and elec-
tronic samples
have rushed
Disturbed them out of
Harpo's Chicago and into
the national nu
March 28, 2001 metal fraternity
spotlight. "I don't
think we're rein-
venting the wheel
but we're offer-
ing something
that's kind of
fresh," guitarist
Dan Donegan
told The Michigan Daily, "We're a rock
in roll band that is basically guitar dri-
ven with modern elements experiment-
ing with electronics." Apparently this
electronica-metal molotov was just
what metal fans wanted.
Virally spreading for over a year,
Disturbed has infected over a million
Americans with their debut album The
Sickness and toured with Slipknot,
Godsmack, Marilyn Manson and last
year's Ozzfest. The guys from Dis-
turbed are certainly pleased with their
success and somewhat surprised with
the heavy rotation their single "Stupi-
fy" has received.
"Coming from Chicago, and not
having much hard rock radio we never

album remained just as strong live.
The band played fan favorites like
"Stupify," "Voices" and "Down with
the Sickness," and even treated the
fans to cover versions of Black Sab-
bath's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and
Faith No More's "Midlife Crisis."
For some fans, seeing Disturbed in
concert is not enough; they want
something more permanent like tat-
toos. Donegan noted that a lot of fans
were tattooing the Disturbed logo and
band name across their bodies. "One
guy got three disturbed tattoos. The
Disturbed face on his wrist, Disturbed
written huge across his stomach and a
guy in an electric chair on his leg."
Donegan also recalled meeting a
female fan who had the whole album
cover tattooed on her arm.
Despite the bands grizzly logo, dark
lyrics and intimidating assortment of
piercings, there is no reason to be
scared. "People get the wrong idea
from the name of the band and the
name of the CD. We're not these serial
killer-type guys," Donegan said. The
message from the album is nothing
particularly disturbing; in fact, its
quite simple.
"The thing we feel strongly about is
being an individual. Don't be a sheep,
don't be what your parents, your
teachers or society molds you into. I
think when you do something on your
own or if you dye your hair or having
piercings or tattoos or whatever you
choose to do people look at you as
being the one who is Disturbed."
Dan's long pink hair and multi-pierced
face echo his statement.
Whether the sickness will continue
to spread is debatable. Will heavy
doses of prepackaged pop serve as an
antidote putting Disturbed into remis-
sion? The future is unclear, but as of
now it looks as if The Sickness is turn-
ing into an epidemic.

Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
it's great (clap clap) to be (clap clap) an Australian Wolverine. Hugh "Huge" Jackman
gets his dirty groove on with Ashley "Meg Ryan" Judd in "Someone Uke You."
-Seone When an
X-Ma-n loves a woman

Cortesy o Disturoed
Damn, these Disturbed guys are scary as hell. All my people in the barrio, hrah!

knew our songs would make it to
radio," said Donegan. Hand in hand
with radio play came regular rotation
on the circus of the stars (MTV) and
more importantly, the chance to tour
and play in front of larger crowds.
"We love it. When we have a day off
we hate it, it's become like an addic-
tion."
The addiction brought Disturbed to
Detroit last Wednesday to score a kilo
of uncut aggression from a rawk-us
crowd at Harpo's. The concert had all
the markings of a grade-A metal

show: Shirtless males circling around
themselves before ricocheting off one
another in the ergosphere of the mosh-
pit, females perched high atop their
boyfriend's shoulders and the occa-
sional overzealous fan who would
make his/her way on stage before
quickly leaving it with a leap into the
frenzied crowd. Of course this type of
fan reaction must be triggered and
there is no better stimulus to produce
riotous crowds than a dozen Disturbed
tunes. The music stayed true to the
album. Powerful tracks from the

Hit musical 'Ragtime'
B)Jeail Arts Wie

dazzles Detroit

By Wilhelmina Mauritz
Daily Arts Writer
"Someone Like You" is a romantic
comedy. Having said that, romantic
comedies do not usually have very orig-
inal plots. There's a guy. There's a girl.
By the end of the
movie they will
fall in love. The
end. "Someone
Someone Like You" is no
Like You different but it
still manages to
Grade: B be quite an
At Quality 16 enjoyable flick.
The story
starts with Jane
Goodale (Ashley
Judd) telling us a
little known fact
about cows and
bulls. The long
and short of the story being that bulls
will only mate with new cows. If you
try and get it to mate with a cow it has
already mated with, they simply will
not do it. So Jane, after getting dumped
by what she thought was her true love,
Ray Brown (Greg Kinnear), and know-
ing the "new cow theory" delves into
research about animals and their mating
patterns.
Jane discovers that most male ani-
mals are not monogamous and she runs
with this theory, deciding that men, like
animals, cannot be monogamous either.
Jane publishes her newfound knowl-
edge in an article using the name and
picture of a 60-year-old doctor and
becomes instantly famous for her pro-
found thoughts.
After her awakening, Jane is sur-
rounded by reinforcement for her theo-
ry, a perfect example being her new
roommate, Eddie (Hugh Jackman, aka
Wolverine from "X-Men"). Eddie is a
womanizer and he doesn't try to hide it.
During the movie Jane makes a com-
ment to Eddie about how he is a
"romantic atheist." Jackman is wonder-
ful and does a great job making Eddie a
likeable character even when he's sup-
posed to be the slick ladies man. There
are times when Jackman can make you

laugh simply through his facial expres-
sions, a great comedic gift.
Ashley Judd is also terrific. Her char-
acter has a very Meg Ryan kind of
quality to it, but with a little more bite
and a little less sugary sweetness. She
was cute but with the perfect amount of
quirkiness to make her character real.
There were many times when I felt as
though I wasn't just watching an actress
in a movie, but a real person and I liked
that. In one scene, Jane is unable to
sleep because she is crying over Ray
and she gets up to talk to Eddie. When
she steps into the light, you see puffy
eyes and traces of mascara running
down her cheeks. It was little things
like this that made all the difference.
"Someone Like You" has a great
array of fun characters, from Jane's
zany best friend Liz (Marisa Tomei) to
her dramatic and crazy boss Diane
(Ellen Barkin). There is not a lot of
character development in any of the
minor characters, which is par for the
course in these movies, but even so,
from the snippets you do get of them,
you still feel like you know and under-
stand them.
Truthfully "Someone Like You" does
not have a lot of major faults. Sure
there are things that could have been
improved upon. At the start of the
movie, the story was told in a choppy
segmented way, with chapter headings
to begin new developments but this dis-
appeared about halfway through the
movie. Why did they disappear? Were
they necessary in the first place? Proba-
bly not.
The plot, as mentioned earlier, was
also nothing new, but you know most
people don't go to action movies for the
acting so why should romantic come-.
dies to be any different? People don't
go for the surprising plot twists and
intriguing storyline, they go for the
humor, the slight break from reality And
that final kiss. The one you know is
coming the entire movie. The one you
label predictable when it finally does
happen. But tell me, really, if it didn't
happen, can you honestly say you
wouldn't be just the least bit disappoint-
ed? That's what I thought.

"The era of ragtim
no more than a tune
one of the first truly

Ragtime
Fisher Theatre
Through April 15

e had run out, as if history were
on a player piano." "Ragtime,"
American musicals, is a broad
style of rhythm featuring a
"rag,' an instrumental compo-
sition usually for the piano.
Arising in the 1890s through
the late 1910s, African-Ameri-
cans made this distinctive
rhythm a very popular and
appealing form of music for
people everywhere. Ragtime,
in fact, is a coined term mark-
ing this very significant era in
American history. This crucial
period is exactly what novelist
E.L. Doctorow wanted to cap-
ture in his novel.
Director Frank Gilati

Courtesy of Carol Rosegg

With song, dance and music galore, "Ragtime" is fun for the whole family.

brought this hit musical to the stage in 1996, and ever
since, it has pleased all types of audiences. Tony
Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally suc-
cessfully encapsulated the lives of three very different
families - one of white, upper-middle class, one
Harlem Black and a Jewish immigrant and his daugh-
ter. Each trying to find their own way in a constantly
changing country, these remarkable characters make
self-discoveries that dramatically affect one another
and demonstrate the importance of this period.
Terrence brings a strong sense of reality to the
play by including pivotal historical moments, such as
the birth of the labor union, the development of the
automotive assembly line, African-American oppres-
sion and the sinking of the Lusitania. It also includes
#such people as Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan and Booker
T. Washington, which makes the characters' struggles
that much more genuine and convincing.
The story begins in New York when Father (Joseph
Dellger) bids farewell to Mother (Victoria Strong),
Little Boy (Harley Adams) and Mother's Younger

Brother (Sam Samuelson), as he leaves on an admi-
ral ship to the North Pole. Meanwhile, Tatch (Jim
Corti), the Jewish immigrant, and his daughter land
on Ellis Island and make it to America. Back at
home, Mother is startled to find a black infant left in
her backyard. The mother of the child, Sarah (Love-
na Fox), returns to her baby and is soon taken in to
live in their attic. For quite some time, Sarah refuses
to speak with the father of the child, Coalhouse
Walker Jr. (Lawrence Hamilton), a well-known rag-
time artist in Harlem. As the story unfolds, Sarah
and Coalhouse's love is rekindled as Mother finds ,
herself sensitive to the racial bigotry directed
towards blacks. During this time, the Younger Broth-
er finds himself drawn to the anarchist movement,
and he goes to Manhattan to attend many union ral-
lies, where he meets Tateh, who is struggling as a sil-
houette artist.
The musical score of "Ragtime" is amazing. Each
song fits perfectly within the script and the songs
often tell the story better than the lines themselves.
Coalhouse, who comes straight from the original
Broadway production, has an undeniably clear and
strong voice. One can't help but sit in awe of the rich

"
quality of every note; hearing him sing is absolutely
amazing. Sarah also gives a splendid solo perfor-
mance in her hit song "Your Daddy's Son." Because
Sarah originally had only a few big songs in "Rag-
time," yet such a beautiful voice, lyricist Lynn
Ahrens added it in just a few weeks before the open-
ing Broadway premiere.
"Ragtime" takes a truly unique approach in the
plot. Instead of using a completely fictional story-
line, real historical events add strength and vitality to
the character's emotions - perhaps because one can
identify with or at least understand the implications
of them. Moreover, many of the reality-based char-
acters, such as Booker T. Washington and Emma
Goldman (Mary Gutzi), who plays the leading pro-
pagandist for the anarchist movement in the 1890s,
give a good idea of what these people were probably
like.
It's hard to find flaws in such a wonderful Broad-
way production, although it would have been nice to
see some more dancing, especially since some
upbeat, jazz-like numbers can easily accompany rag-
time music. Nevertheless, "Ragtime" will remain a
classic and it will appeal to many for years to come.


[GROUND __ __

1432 Washtenaw Ave.
French Room
(look for sign outside)
7:45 Wednesday evening

WALT DISNEY WORLD® College Program

"mu

Open the door to your future with an
internship at the Walt Disney World Resort.
Network with Disney Management. Make amazing
friendships. And earn crucial real-world
experience. The key to your future is now.
Visit us at wdwcollegeprogram.com for

I r, i I I I r% I IA I - % V 'o,

I