Now showing ... Stage for Kids a U
The 25th annual Center Stage for Kids
benefit is Sunday at the Michigan Theater
at 2 p.m. Tickets for the music and dance Wednesday
extravaganza are only $10 and $5 for
adults and children respectively. May 3,1995
DiCaprio's acting scores in1'Diaries' T

By Scott Plagenhoef
Daily Arts Editor
Jim Carroll's autobiographical book
"The Basketball Diaries" is a hauntingly
vivid accountof not only life as a teenage
junkie in New York City, but life as a
sensitive, artistic teenage junkie in New
York City. Scott Kalvert is a music video
director.
Certainly film and literature are sepa-
rate mediums, ones that should not be com-
pared. Kalvert did not intend to create an
accurate visualization of Carroll's book, he
intended, as all directors do when they are
working from an adapted screenplay, to
make the best film based upon the material.
Yet Kalvert's background in the often
glossy and frenetic medium of music vid-
eos is all too apparent in scenes that not
only undercut the power of Carroll's expe-
rience. but undermine the tone and snirit as

well.
"The Basketball Diaries" succeeds
when Kalvert allows the film to be domi-
nated by its performances, specifically the
again brilliant Leonardo DiCaprio as
Carroll, rather than the camera. Scenes in
which DiCaprio, a Catholic high school
The Basketball
Diaries
Directed by Scott Kalvert;
.ith Leonrdo DiCapri n
Mark Wahlberg
At Showcase
basketball star increasingly dabbling in the
New York drug scene, and his compan-
ions' actions, fears, and hopes are pre-
sented in raw, near verite style, are power-
ful and compelling. Unfortunately they are
often paired with the same flighty halluci-
nogenic dream and drug sequences that
plagued another film about the mixture of
creativity and drug abuse, Oliver Stone's
"The Doors."

Whereas Stone had a limited Val
Kilmer and his own ego to contend with,
his lapsing into cliched psychedelica was
although ridiculous, probably expected.
Kalvert, however, has Leonardo
DiCaprio, who after only two films -
"This Boy's Life" and "What's Eating
Gilbert Grape?" - has coaxed compari-
sons from critics and moviegoers, and
probably not unjustifiably, to James Dean
and River Phoenix.
DiCaprio is agenuine talent. The char-
acter of Jim Carroll is rare because he is
not only a junkie, but he is also a tremen-
dously creative and insightful individual,
one who can in his brief moments of sobri-
ety or guilt step back and contemplate
(and subsequently scribe in his diaries)the
alternating pain and pleasure and the deep-
rooted confusion that accompanies his
drug abuse. DiCaprio is a rare performer
who can simultaneously connect with
both of these levels. His performance is
truly captivating despite working for a di-
rector with a vast background in the visual
aspect of filmmaking, but limited initia-
tion into the subtleties of characteriza-
SEE DiaRuEs, PAGE 13

Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg sit on a stoop, share a smoke, and
wonder why Scott Kalvert was asked to direct their movie.

Radiohead 'bends' their sound

to use ate great oo maey swuuu- By Heather Phares
be 50th birthday. It's at the Majestic, Daily Arts Editor
doors open at 9 pm. Call 833-9700 for "A lot of people say, 'you've been tak-
more info. ing it easy, you've just been living off the
NRBQ comes to the Blind Pig on royalties of "Creep."' Baloney! We've
Friday. Doors open at 9:30 pm. been working hard. It's been quite a heavy
Big Chief brings it all back home year,"saidRadioheadguitarist EdO'Brien
on Saturday. It's also at the Blind Pig; in an interview during the recording of the
doors open at 9:30 pm. I group's second effort, the recently-released
Sponge come to the State Theater 'The Bends."
in Detroit on Saturday. An all-ages Indeed, the band touredextensively in
show, doors open at 7 pm. Call 961-I support of their debut, "Pablo Honey,"
5450 for more information. which included the smash hit "Creep." Al-
The Figgs play at the Shelter (un- mostimmediately aftergettingofftheroad,
derneath St. Andrew's Hall) on Sun- they wentinto the studioandrecorded what
day. $6 gets those 18 andover into the was to become "The Bends."But the band
show; doors openat 8 pm. ran into some stumbling blocks while in the
S CH A
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studio. Explained O'Brien: "We started re-
cording in February (of 1994) and did a
block of 10weeks. But we got studio mad-
ness' and threw the songs out on the road
for two months, andrerecorded most of the
stuff; we did the bulk of the album in 10
days. The longer you record, the more dis-
sipated-sounding the record gets. You're
not playing as a band anymore."
But in spite of, or maybe because of
the problems Radiohead encountered
while recording both "Pablo Honey" and
"The Bends," the group has gained an ap-
preciation for the differences between
playing live and working in the studio.
"We're getting more and more into the
idea of recording," O'Brien said enthusi-
astically. "When you play live you can
make a mistake and no one remembers it,
but when it's on tape it's there perma-
nently, so it can fuel your insecurities.
"We were really hard on ourselves
when we first went into the studio, but
now we enjoy its possibilities. It's funny
though, because once you get used to the
studio, you're thrown out on the road, and
once you're used to the road, you're back
in the studio. It's quite weird," he laughed
wryly.
For Radiohead, "enjoying the possi-
bilities" of recording means working in
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some of the world's finest studios. "We're the quintessential British producer. He's
going to be in Abbey Road in London, worked with the Stone Roses, the Fall and
where Thom is going to do all the vocals. XTC," said O'Brien excitedly.
But other than that, we're about done. The The group is also excited about the
album is being produced by John Leckie, songs from "The Bends.""They just sound
so great, much stronger than our earlier
T - -AA D"S songs," O'Brien said. "We've treated the
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the best lyricists in Britian today."
Friday And even though Yorke is the catalyst
5:30 behind most of Radiohead's songs, the
creative process is definitely collaborative
M A "in this band. "Thom will whack out some-
thing on acoustic guitar. Then
SEE RADioStHE, PAGE 14

Contact: University of Michigan Hillel or
Livnot U'Lehibanot - 110 East 59th St.,
3rd Fl., NYC, NY 10022 (212)-752.2390
LIVNOT @ JER1.CO.IL

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