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Friday, October 27, 2006 - 5A
Kids these days. They don't respedt their elders, such as the Gibson Flying V.
LSIC REVIEW e
A LITTLE BIT OF SWEET KENTUCKY
AT THE FILLMORE WEST
Charmin
By KRISTIN MACDONALD
Daily Film Editor
With 2004's "Before Sunset,"
writer-director Richard Linklater
revisited the endearing would-be
lovers of 1995's "Before Sunrise,"
employing the same uniquely con-
tinuous
two-person * * :,
dialogue.
But though Conversations
the two with Other
films osten- Women
sibly share At the
that style, Michigan Theater
the char- Fabrication
acters' 10
added years
of life experience allow the sequel
an effortlessly higher pathos. The
lovers are no longer in the midst
of a flirty meet cute; a decade later,
they bring their relationship's con-
voluted history to the table.
Such onion layers of romantic
past are similarly unpeeled in Hans
Canosa's"ConversationswithOther
Women," every unstripped layer
with its own teary sting. Although
also using continuous dialogue,
Canosa adds a curious split-screen
effect to his two-person study,
emphasizing the insurmountable
separateness of the characters even
as they attempt to relate.
In all honesty, they're more cal-
culating than relating - these char-
acters are a lesson in marksmanship
as well as failed love. Their dialogue
not only lacks the candid sincer-
ity of the "Before Sunsets," but
underplays such sentiment entirely.
i They're sizing each other up, evalu-
ating which old weak spots are still
the most tender.
While the nameless man (Aaron
Eckhart, "Thank You for Smok-
ing") and woman (Helena Bonham
Carter, anything by Tim Burton)
meet at a wedding, flirt one hell of
a teasingly good -game and progress
quickly to her hotel room, it soon
becomes clear that their meeting
was not chanced, but hoped fir, and
their bond not new, but decades old.
Pop stare
By CAROLINE HARTMANN
Daiy A rts Writer
They skirt playfully around for a
while around that fact, enjoyingthe
freshness of their aged selves in the
eyes of the person who knew-them-
when, but the game is as depressing
as it is momentarily invigorating.
They have, after all, irrefutably got-
ten old.
And more tetchy with age. Flash-
back sequences depict a pictur-
esque young couple, moony and
bright - boring, in other words,
and not nearly so engaging as the
verbal jousting of their current
selves. It doesn't help that the char-
acters' younger counterparts are
portrayed by actors with only the
vaguest of resemblances to their
standing adults. The flashbacks
become a picture of idealized youth
rather than illuminating character
background, and distracting rather
than helpful - an unneeded point
ofcomparisonfor the depictedcom-
plexities of middle-aged love.
The man and woman make much
of this supposed middle-age, rais-
ing eyebrows and shaking heads
at the bewildering realization that
they've suddenly reached their
early 40s. Bonham Carter and Eck-
hart, of course, look quite good for
the number, so their complaining
seems pat, but they've a barbed way
of regarding life anyway.
Bonham Carter is particularly
acerbic. Eckhart's winning charm-
er (a role for which his great white
smile is especially well suited) plays
life with a more genuine hand, lack-
ing his potential sleaze as a serial
ladies' man even while dismissing
his current girlfriend (10 years his
junior). But sullenly smoking in the
background of the wedding, Bon-
ham Carter assumes a moody front
of almost petulant cynicism.
Bitter as her pose might be, it's
a dishonest one, a careful sham
specially designed for maximum
emotional distance. "There's some-
thing about you that sends me,"
she begins, studying him in the
bedroom. Then, springing back on
guard, she's quick to tack on a more
cautious afterthought - "in the
opposite direction."
She's lying. She's drawn to this
man, and happy with him; her
cutting digs are a classic case of
offensively minded defense. He,
meanwhile, is the type of alpha
male who would never accept them
- from anyone but her. At one point
pre-coital, she examines him from
the bed and briskly, smirkingly,
deems him fat. Eckhart recoils back
into his shirt with a sudden shock of
shame, then rebuffs her, grins and
returns for more.
Even in their external inter-
actions, the pair is only taking
(affectionately) passive aggressive
potshots at each other. There's a
humorous bit with a stressed wed-
ding videographer attempting to
tape 30 seconds of every guest wish-
ing the bride and groom the best of
luck. Bonham Carter tries multiple
times to come up with something
sincerely warm-hearted, but winds
up again and again in sputtering
tangents as to the ultimate failure
of romance.
And men thought
it just wasn't
possible to do well.
The film's enigmatic title and
Canosa's continuous split-screen
device has inevitably received criti-
cal accusations ofgimmickry.Device
though it is, the split-screen proves
an effective way to bring stage-like
immediacy to the big screen, keep-
ing every body cue on camera and
both performers on their very capa-
ble toes. The audience can observe
their every shade and flicker, wel-
come to study them as any enticed
lover might. The most distracting
element of the dual screen is simply
picking which performer to watch.
When the final shot merges the two
halves into a convincing whole, it's a
moment as relieving as it is poetic.
g 'Conversations'
By LLOYD H. CARGO
Daily Music Editor
The live album, especially the double live album, is
a risky proposition for most bands.
Wilco pulled it off spectacularly last year, with
Kicking Television, by letting
Nels Cline stretch out over their ***' i
normally restrained material.
My Morning Jacket finds similar Okonokos
success with Okonokos (also to be My
released as a DVD on Oct. 31) by Morning Jacket
doingthe opposite. Initially MMJ ATO/RCA
were a band that might actu-
ally play "Freebird" if some yokel screamed enough,
but their most recent studio effort, Z, went after a
much tighter, produced sound with more hooks than
their three prior albums combined. No longer is Jim
James's voice drenched in reverb, with an epic gui-
tar solo in every song - and that treatment has been
extended to the highlights of their back catalogue on
this two-plus-hour set.
Fear not, long-time MMJ fans, that doesn't mean
that there aren't a ton of face-melting guitar workouts
on Okonokos. It just means more attention is being
paid to the songs themselves. These dudes still have
giant hair and Flying-Vs, but they seem to be distanc-
ing themselves from the southern rock aesthetic they
were mining on At Dawn, Tennessee Fire, and even
It Still Moves. For one, the concert was taped at the
famed Fillmore West in San Francisco, pretty damn
far from their rural Northern Kentucky base.
They make it clear right off the bat that this is going
to be a no frills affair. The crowd noise is minimal and
they don't pull out any rarities or obscure covers from
their vast catalogue. Most of the songs are selected
from their most recent albums, with Z's first three
songs being replicated, in order, as the first three
songs of Okonokos.
From there it's on to an early highlight, "One Big
Holiday." As one instrument comes in after the other,
the song builds into a massive groove that climaxes
with one hell of a guitar solo. It's prototypical stadium
rock, and it never fails to make the hair on the back of
your neck stand on end.
. As with most concerts, the show drags in some plac-
es, but the band avoids killing the momentum by put-
ting ballads back to back. Still, for a band considered
one of the best live acts around, Okonokos is lacking
that extra little something that makes their concerts
so special. Releasing a double live album is ambitious,
and this may even make for the best introduction to
the band in their catalogue, but it's not quite the home
run it might have been.
's down politics
MSIC REVIEW
Randolph
looking
for sound
By ANDREW SARGUS KLEIN
ManagingArts Editor
Robert Randolph and the Fam-
ily Band is a group caught between
desires. On one
hand you have
a frontman
who's brought Colorblind
the pedal Robert
steel guitar Randolph and
to the masses the Family Band
via blistering Warner Bros.
chops (much
like Jerry Dou-
glass with the dobro). His country/
blues exploits with the North Mis-
sissippi All Stars show just how
twangy and raunchy Randolph can
be. On the other hand is a need for
a solid fanbase you can relate to. In
much the same way that Dave Mat-
thews Band quickly left behind
hope of anyrespectabilityby delib-
erately dipping into pop, Randolph
too is running the risk of clich6 and
irrelevance.
As with Douglass, Randolph's
sound relies on the traits of his
respective instrument. But Ran-
dolph's visit to Ann Arbor last
year saw him hopping on electric
as much as the pedal steel, and
on Colorblind, he hardly touches
the thing. Gone are the drawn-out
sliding wails and bleeding heart
vibratos. But to Randolph's credit,
he rarely fills a track to exhaustion
with soloing. He has an extremely
tight band behind him and rarely
do their songs drift off without
purpose.
That havingbeen said, their pur-
pose might be in the wrong place at
the wrong time.
They're a young group of guys
with a young audience, and Color-
blind reflects an underdeveloped,
distracted sound.
The badly designed album art
and liner notes almost give away
the product: talent wrapped up
tight in production and image.
There's sampling, R&B flavors,
watered-down funk and displaced
chants. Robert Randolph and the
Family Band simply can't decide
what it wants to sound like. The
It all started with TiVO, a Mac
and a lot of comedic inspiration.
Jimmy Dore
returns to Ann Pop and
Arbor's Com- Politics
edy Showcase Comedy
with his new- Showcase
est video-inte- Tonight and tomor-
grated show row at p.m.
"Pop And Poli- and 10:30 p.m.
tics," perform- $12-$14
ing tonight and
Saturday at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
You might not recognize the
name, but Dore is hard to miss.
He's appeared on several TV shows
including NBC's "Friday Night!"
and CBS's "The Late Late Show
With Craig Kilborn." He has also
performed in the hit off-Broadway
show "The Marijuana-Logues" and
taped his own half-hour standup
special for "Comedy Central Pres-
ents."
Televised comedy might be
convenient - it's certainly popu-
lar - but nothing compares to the
energy generated at a live show.
There's no telling what to expect
with a club full of eager faces, mak-
ing every performance uniquely
entertaining. And who better than
a liberal crowd of intelligent college
students?
"Not your typical beer-slugging
knuckleheads," according to Dore.
"Pop And Politics" has a definite
political slant, but Dore hesitates
to pick sides. "I'm a citizen, not a
partisan," he said, which isn't to say
he doesn't have a liberal following.
And as any good comedian knows,
bitter backlash is practically writ-
ten into the job description.
Dore recalled a show in Texas
where an angry audience member
said to him after the show, "It's
America, love it or leave it."
"Yeah, I'm sure that's what the
Indians said," Dore countered, who
makes an effort to distinguish him-
self as a loyal citizen as opposed to
a patriot.
"It's about time we question
authority," he said.
Having grown up in a blue-col-
lar family on Chicago's south side
is part of Dore's charm. His modest
background pulls him down from a
potentially obnoxious, holier-than-
thoupulpit and putshimonthelevel
of his audience - only funnier.
But no amount of journalistic
praise can do Dore justice, whose
humor doesn't always translate
well to paper. His casual compo-
sure and cleverly placed pauses can
turn funny into falling-off-your-
chair-hilarious.
The beauty of "Pop And Poli-
tics" is its unconventional format.
Video clips taken straight from
television work as a springboard
for social commentary. As the line
blurs between the left and right
and political dogma pivots around
rumored hearsay, videos bring a
welcomed sense of factual ground-
ing. No one can argue with the
facts, no matter how hard the Bush
administration tries.
One clip used in the show is Pres-
ident Bush defining "extraordinary
circumstances," as in the fine print
As if politics
weren't already
patently hilarious.
justifying filibusters in Congress:
"Extraordinary circumstances, uh,
means just that, really extraordi-
nary." Pause. "I don't know what
that means."
But Dore's nonchalant sarcasm
and blatant attacks stretch beyond
the obvious presidential bloopers,
though they do invite a certain
amount of justified mockery.
Despite a presumed bias, Dore's
comic onslaughts leave room for
criticism across the board. And it's
not just politicians he's after. Dore
judges pop culture and the public
with the same level of shameless
contempt.
Stare into my eyes and wonder where my career will go.
opening,
"heavy"
nowhere.
Sex Mag
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ful" and
ter with t
on my br
can almo
Monks"i
needs tol
on slap b
of It" brit
fun to so
initial chi
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Eric Cl
lends a n
the featu
Th
famil
it to
Alright,"
The first,
should i
jam betw
the youn
a heavy f
timing b
them int
passiona
result is s
track comes off with a But what's most aggravating
riff that ends up going though is the fact that there are
Malformed Blood Sugar glimpses, tiny snipits of honest-
ik-era Chili Peppers is to-God great music. The driv-
"Thankful and Thought- ing reggae-soul riff on "Blessed"
"Deliver Me" - the lat- could very well be a great tune to
he lyric "funky monkey's add to your road-trip playlist, if
ain," ironic because you not for the odd breakdown that
st hear RHCP's "Funky break down that struggles with the
underneath it all (there song's momentum. Dave Matthews
be a national referendum himself appears on the album, but
ass). "Diane" and "Thrill his contribution is hardly notewor-
ng in a little club -hopping thy.
me success, but after the The brothers Randolph and
uckle and foot tap, there's their band have the talent and the
ance. drive to go in any direction they
apton's name on the cover desire. There's some catchy hooks
otch or two of cred, but on this album, instantly singable
red track, "Jesus is Just and danceable.
The boys want to have a good
time, their live shows are testa-
te Randolph ment to that fact. Fuzzed-out "Pur-
ple Haze" breakdowns, 16-minute
ly needs to get jams that, while sometimes monot-
onous, never lose an ounce of ener-
gether. Soon. gy - when they hit the stage, they
hitithard. They grab kids from the
audience and jam with them. They
come back for encore after encore
is half-hearted at best. - they could do it all night.
thing such a combination But the boys need to find out
mply is a barn-burning what they want to accomplish
'een the old veteran and when they're in the studio. Their
g flame. The track takes individual efforts get lost in the
runk rock verse and slow mix, and the engineer-penned
ridge and simply drives songs always seem to fall flat.
o the ground. As much The boys need a new scene. And
s there is in the effort, the they should find it soon, lest they
imply lackluster. fade away.
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