2B - Thursday, March 27, 2014

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

2B - Thursday, March 27, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

Stamps highlights
Penelope Spheeris

'Wayne's World'
director to speak at
Michigan Theater
By GRACE PROSNIEWSKI
DailyArts Writer
The Penny W. Stamps
Speaker Series aims to
bring the best emerging and
established
artists to Stamps
engage withS
the University Speaker
and the Series:
community as Penelope
a whole.
In conjunc- Spheeris
tion with the Thursday
Ann Arbor March 27
Film Fes-
tival, the Michigan Theater
Penny Stamps Free
Speaker
Series will
welcome director, writer and
producer Penelope Spheeris.
Spheeris is best known for
directorial works, including
the highly influential
"Decline of Western
Civilization" documentary
series and comedy films like
"Wayne's World" and "The
Little Rascals."
Recently, an effort to
restore Spheeris' work has
begun, including her student
films from UCLA, some of
which will be shown at the
Ann Arbor Film Festival. As
part of her Stamps lecture,
Spheeris will be talking about
her films unique relationship
with music.
"We called it 'Rock and
Roll Anthropology' because
my career really was started
and based in music from the
very beginning," Spheeris
said. "And music has had
a real big part in all of my
films. So we're really talking
about how music has inspired
me as a filmmaker to make
movies."
While Spheeris'
filmography - with a healthy
mix of independent, feature
and documentary film -
makes it seem like she's had
the pick of her projects, that's
not necessarily the case.

"When people say I have
an eclectic body of work, yes
it's very, very true, but it's
because I took whatever job I
could get," Spheeris said.
Surprisingly, that didn't
change after she directed
1992's massive hit "Wayne's
World."
"Once I got 'Wayne's
World,' I was only offered
comedies, and goofy comedies
at that."
Spheeris spoke about the
gender issues that underlined
her situation and that contin-
ue to affect women directors
today.
"When you're a woman in
this business," Spheeris said,
"You take what work you can
get. It's really difficult."
"Guys have the luxury of
picking and choosing," she
continued. "Male directors
can make a film that fails big
time and then get arrested
the next week for drunk driv-
ing and they can keep making
movies. But women have to
really walk the line and take
whatever they can get."
Compounding these dif-
ficulties, Spheeris said there
was a dearth of female men-
tors when she started her
c areer.
"There are more women
directors than when I start-
ed," Spheeris said. "I mean,
I really didn't have any role
models to look towards. When
I was a 25 year-old starting
out in the business, I didn't
have a 40 year-old woman
director to use as a role model.
There just weren't any."
Unfortunately, the uptick
in female directors has not
balanced out the power
dynamics in Hollywood, and
Spheeris doesn't see it hap-
pening any time soon.
"Are there more of us?"
Spheeris said. "Yes. Are we
equal? Far from it. Do I ever
see in the crystal ball a time
when women would take over
the world of film directing? I
can't imagine, a nd it's really
too bad."
When talking about her
favorite movie she's made,
Spheeris touched on the dif-

ficulty her films have faced
in regards to distribution and
music rights.
"My personal favorite is
Decline of Western Civiliza-
tion Part 3," Spheeris said.
"That's the one no one's seen,
because the only way I could
get it distributed was if I gave
away rights to the other mov-
ies and I wouldn't do it. So no
one's seen it and it was heart-
breaking. But you know I did
a movie with Sharon and Ozzy
called 'We Sold Our Souls for
Rock 'n' Roll' and it's never
been seen either because of
rights issues."
Spheeris also spoke about
the financial difficulties fac-
ing new directors trying to
makeit in the industry.
"Right now it's sort of the
same thing going on with the
class in America," Spheeris
said. "The upper class is doing
very, very well and that will
equate to high budget stu-
dio temple movies, and then
you got those little tiny mov-
ies that are doing kind of ok,
but everything in the middle
is just lost. And it's too bad
because there are a lot of good
movies in there that we just
don't get to see."
The situation is so dire that
Spheeris expressed doubt as
to if she would even become a
filmmaker today.
"If it were me starting out
today, given the landscape
and the calamity that's going
on out there because of the
technology, I don't even know
if I would do it today, honest-
ly," Spheeris said. "You had
to be very committed back
then, especially if you were a
woman, but you have to be a
1000 percent more committed
to do it today. I don't mean to
be discouraging, but I feel like
I have to be honest about it."
While her main goal is get-
ting the "Decline" films dis-
tributed, Spheeris is also in
talks for several other film
and television projects.
"I've got a lot of things
going. I always do," Spheeris
said. "You've got to in Holly-
wood, and just hope that one
of them sticks to the wall.

Juicy J performs at the Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac.

Juicy Jfin ally getting
the success he deserves.
But at what cost?

CHECK THE FILTER FOR THE LATEST
POP CULTURE NEWS

It's a little after 11 p.m., and
I'm at the Crofoot Ballroom in
Pontiac, Mich. waiting for Juicy J
to come on.
Suddenly, -
the lights
shut off,
Juicy's
DJ cues
up some
music and
Mr. Trippy
himself
struts on
stage to the JACKSON
looming H
synths of HOWARD
"Stop It."
"Who's
fucked up
tonight?" Juicy screams, to the
delight of the crowd. He smiles.
Business as usual:
Or so it seems. Three years
ago, I saw Juicy play the House
of Blues in Hollywood, Calif.
At that point, in 2011, Juicy had
barely established himself as
a solo artist and only had a few
mixtapes to his name, certainly
not a relevant studio album. The
show was absolute chaos. Juicy
ran out with a bottle of Bombay
gin and poured it all over the
crowd and stage, massive girls
with even more massive asses
twerked on stage for Juicy's
approval and the show itself had
to actually stop for a second due
to the brawl that erupted in the
mosh pit between two large men
wearingOaklandRaidersjerseys.
At that show, Juicy performed
strictly mixtape material, and it
felt like everyone who was sober
enough to rap along knew the
words. These were not songs you
heard on the radio; instead it was
a set of classic tape anthems like
"Get Higher," "Zip And A Double
Cup," "Riley" and "Pills Weed
Pussy."
At the House of Blues that
night, Juicy's antics - twerking
contests, blunt smoking, Bombay
gin dancing (check out his aptly
named song, "Bombay Gin
Dance"), riling the crowd up -
felt genuine. Sure, the people
at the show came to bask in the
hedonistic ignorance that is
Juicy J, but Juicy didn't have to
front and play along. He knew
why we were there, that we had
downloaded his mixtapes from
obscure internet sites, that we
had been down with him since
the "Sippin' on Some Syrup" and
"Slob on MyKnob" Three 6fMafia
days.
Look, the last thing I want to
be is the fan that says some shit
like, "I hate so-and-so because
they blew up." Because in terms
of me and Juicy, that's just false.
I love how big he's become; I
applauded him for linking up
with Wiz Khalifa's Taylor Gang
imprint and freaked out when
I saw he was featured on a Katy
Perry single. I love that crazy
motherfucker Juicy and I'll
support him through whatever.
He deserves it.
But I can't help comparing my
recent experience of seeing Juicy
perform in 2014 - in promotion of
his new studio album - to seeing
peak mixtape-era Juicy play in
2011. First and foremost, I was
shocked atthe audience.Now,this
might sound ridiculous coming

from a white college student like
myself, but the Pontiac show was
majority white college students,
mostly frat bros and various
drunk chicks grinding in front of
them. There were so many white
people that when Juicy pulled
girls up on stage to take selfies -
some ridiculous shit that he never
would've done before - he had
to actively seek out a Black girl
because he could only find white
ones.
Okay, I know what you're
thinking and let me be really
quick to defend myself: I really
don't care about the race of the
people at a concert. I truly don't.
But what killed me was the
population of white - and Black
and Latino and Asian - college
students who drunkenly sang
along to "Bandz A Make Her
Dance"andwhosehighlightofthe
night was when Juicy performed
his guest verse from Katy Perry's
"Dark Horse." Ironically, Juicy
went on an entire rant listing
his accomplishments - Oscar
winner, Three 6 Mafia founder -
and asked repeatedlytothe crowd
if they'd been fucking with him
since day one. The crowd roared.
Juicy proceeded to play almost
exclusively new music and guest
verses, which is fine, but when
he did drop a hint of some "day
one" material - comparatively,
his mixtapes are like "day seven"
stuff - there was no palpable
crowd reaction. No one knew it.
What really bummed me out
was when he played "Who Da
Neighbors," one of his classic
songs and also one of the craziest
songs ever recorded, and almost
no one knew the words! And these
are easy and really fun-ass words
to know: "My mansion sittin' on
40 acres / Who da neighbors?
/ Kobe Bryant from the Lakers
/ Now that's paper." Instead of
the massive tornado of hands
and moshing I expected, some
kids bobbed their heads, more
checked their phones and I was
left screaming every word alone
("Get money/get pussy/smoking
weed forever!"), whereas at the

last show I'm prettysure I rapped
the entire song face-to-face with
a shirtless guy with dreads who
let me hit his blunt.
The blame isn't with Juicy's
fans, though. Juicy's craft of
making explicit, drug-loving, sex-
encouraging, violence-provoking
music has become a novelty that,
like everything birthed on the
periphery of culture, has seeped
into the mainstream. Juicy has an
app with his own ad-libs, a solo
deal with Columbia and pop hit
maker Dr. Luke's own label and
finally got a No. 1 hit by getting
the feature on Perry's "Dark
Horse," which Dr. Luke himself
conveniently produced.
I sound like an asshole - I
know. But it was so weird for me
to see Juicy doing his usual antics
and craziness - screaming "Who
smokes weed?" and, pointing to a
skinny white kid, "You look like a
virgin. Gogetsomepussytonight!"
- and itfeelingforced. It'sbecome
performance art. Clad in black
with a fresh pair of Kanye's Nike
Red Octobers, Juicy looked like a
rap star and not the dude I came to
love from North Memphis. That's
okay, it reallyis, butI couldn't help
but yearn for the absolute chaos,
rawness and complete bliss of
that 2011 show, where it felt like
any minute Juicy would launch
himselfinto the crowd to hit ajoint
or smack someone.
I'm never going to stop
listening to Juicy J or Three 6
Mafia because I love the music
too damn much, and I also want
to keep supporting Juicy because
after over 20 years, he deserves
this success. But I'll forever hold
on to the memory of dripping
sweat, screaming till I was
hoarse and getting punched in
the stomach by a man the size of a
Volkswagen in the middle of that
House of Blues mosh pit as what
I know to be the real Juicy J, or
what he used to be, anyways.
Howard is rapping along
with a shirtless guy. To join him,
e-mail jackhow@umich.edu

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"ICHOLAS mILLIAMS/Daily
Juicy J sang his verse in the hit Katy Perry single "Dark Horse' A

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