bf mit leaves
The Michigan Theater is showing Doug
Liman's followup to "Swingers," "Go,"
Friday and Saturday at 11:30 pm.
Catch it before it goes to video.
C RTS
onday 1
June 7,1999 0
Arthur Miller swings into town to present award
By Neshe Sarkozy
Daily Arts Writer
Arthur Miller presented the first
Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic
Writing to Willy Holtzman at the
Trueblood Theater on June 4th.
Holtzman's new play "Hearts"
debuted at the Festival of New Works
in Ann Arbor.
This type of writing award is "all
about the play's development and
someone who has this kind of body of
works," said Frank Gagliano, the artis-
tic director for the Festival of New
Works.
Arthur Miller, a University alum,
feels that dramatic writing deserves
some public recognition. At the press
'Conference on Friday, he expressed a
certain debt to the University for help-
ing him in the early days of his writing
career.
Interestingly enough the reason that
Miller decided to come to the
University was because "it was cheap
and they gave money prizes for writ-
ing," said Miller referring to the
Hopwood Awards.
Miller is presently working on an
essay which he just delivered at
Harvard entitled, "The Crucible in
History."
When asked if he knew that one day
his plays would become as popular as
they are, Miller said that it wasn't even
an issue at the time of writing therm.
In regard to the most produced of all
of his plays, "The Crucible," he said
that in the beginning he had no idea
how much controversy it would have
stirred.
Instead, Miller referred to the out-
come of a play in the biblical verse
"throw bread on the water and maybe
you'll catch a fish."
Miller went on to solemnly say,
"Broadway seems to be paralleling
movies. If 'Death of a Salesman' were
a new play if wouldn't even be pro-
duced,, due to the tremendous produc-
tion costs."
He added that nowadays the listings
of plays are all musicals or imports
from England and Ireland. Straight
plays, however, and issues of impor-
tance aren't able to be produced,
except for a few off-Broadway pro-
ductions.
Every time a play of Miller's is pro-
duced it takes on a different attitude.
In discussing the current production
of "Death of a Salesman" on
Broadway, Miller noted that the origi-
nal "Salesman" was "fabulous in a
different style."
He went on to say that in the current
production on Broadway, Mrs. Loman
presents a rather aggressive and easily
angered woman as opposed to the
usual role which is played somewhat
passively.
Miller added that he has no say in
the production of his plays, which
does make them vary from each other.
Miller is optimistic about the fact
that people will continue to want to
write, act and see plays in the theater
setting.
In regard to the rumor of the possi-
bility of a theater being built and him-
self writing a new play for it, Miller
suggested rather candidly that "it
would be easier to build a theater then
write a play." Courtsy o aersty Prosac
University alum Arthur Milper presented aneaward on June 4th in An rArbor.
Pavement to swim in mainstream with new CD
By Jason w rmi r
Daily Arts Writer
Pavement is one of the few modern
rock bands capable of achieving consid-
erable success without compromising
integrity. Yet even though they've been
releasing creative masterpieces since
the days of flannel shirts and grunge
rock, their unique blend of melodic pop
hooks and brave experimentation has
never crossed over into the mainstream.
Despite Pavement's quirkiness, odd
song structures, mysterious lyries and
refusal to confoem with the rules of pop
rock, "Terror Twilight" finally might
elevate the band to mass recognition.
More listenable than 1992's "Slanted
and Enchanted" and more intelligent
than 1997's "Brighten the Corners," the
eleven songs on "Terror Twilight" rate
as Pavement's best and most daring
effort to date.
"We make the records for ourselves,
but the one thing we hope with all of
them is that they surprise our fans,"
Pavement bassist Mark Ibold said in a
recent interview with The Michigan
Daily. "I think that's what keeps our
band interesting over the years"
The clean hi-tech sound of "Terror
Twilight" may surprise Pavement fans
still longing she fuzzy, shabbily pro-
duced to-fi sound of "Slanted and
Enchanted-" On that album Pavement
elevated simple pop songs to sublime
bliss with layers of excessive distortion
and unnecessary static.
With the help of producer Nigel
Godrich (the man responsible for "OK
Computer"), Pavement reverses the
equation for "TerrorTwilight"The spa-
cious crystal clear sound brings subtle
yet fascinating musical details normall4
unheard to the surface, making out-of-
place sounds seem in-place.
"It'll probably sound slick to you at
first," Ibold said. "It's a polished sound-
ing record but within all that there's still
the typical Pavement pop melodies in
some songs but then we're getting more
warped than we've ever been before,
too. There's some pretty weird stuff on
there that was difficult for us to pull
off"
Nowhere on "Terror Twilight" can
one find the experimentation for the
sake of experimentation plaguing some
of Pavement's early work or the spotty
1995 album "Wdwee Zowee" Instead,
-PWh (
Members at laeen eek cetml~ewith thse rlase of terwCD
, - - --- -
Pavement focus on three to four minute
songs ofvarious tempos with rambling
verses tied together with short melodic
hooks and catchy choruses.
"It's also a really complete record,"
Ibold said. "It's more along the lines of
a record like 'Crooked Rain' (1994)0
We narrowed down the songs quite a
bit so all the songs - I think - are
really good, and they flow together very
nicely. There's clean and distorted gui-
tars on there. There's acoustic guitar in
a couple songs, but there's lots of guitar
overdubs and some of them are fairly
shrill."
As with all Pavement albums, there
are two songs with the potential to b
breakthrough hits. The melodic hooks
found in "Spit on a Stranger" and "The
Hexx" are just too infectious to be
See PAVEMENT, Page 12
for more inforn
website at wwu
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