12 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, May 3, 2005
'Petersburgpresents
Central Asian stories

ARTS
x:Penn propels'Nixon'
S-mBy Jeffrey BloomerE
.PC. ~DaiyArts Editor .ae. .

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By Alexandra Jones
Daily Arts Editor
SBOOK R EV IE W * *
Tom Bissell seems to have struck the
perfect balance between success and lit-
erary indie cred. He's _
written a serious book
- last year's "Chasing God Lives
the Sea: Lost Among ifl St.
the Ghosts of Empist Petersburg
in Central Asia," about and Other
a trip to Uzbekistan's Stories
Aral Sea - and a not- By Tom Bissell
so-serious book called
"Speak, Commen- Pantheon
tary," a collection of
fake DVD commentaries. He also contrib-
utes to Harper's and McSweeney's offshoot
The Believer. Testimonials to Bissell's tal-
ent from the likes of Dave Eggers pepper
the young author's book jackets.
Bissell's most recent work, the short
story collection "God Lives in St. Peters-
burg and Other Stories," backs up all the
buzz. Following Americans in various
parts of the Third World - photojournal-
ists floundering through Afghanistan, cou-
ples searching for something they couldn't
find on their Central Asian safari - the
work articulates the feelings of bewilder-
ment, loneliness and fear that's unique to
westerners far from home because of work
or other circumstances.
The collection"opens with its longest
work, one that is also the most foreign
to American readers. In "Death Defier,"

Donk works as a photographer in the
recent conflict in Afghanistan. Marooned
in the middle of a war-torn nowhere with
Graves, a malarial British journalist and his
driver, Donk seeks treatment for Graves's
illness and a way to getback to civilization.
He avoids harm during dangerous assign-
ments, using his lens as a buffer between
himself and the tragedy of others.
"Expensive Trips Nowhere" and "Aral"
show how Americans deal with peril
abroad and how Westerners are perceived
by Central Asians. Douglas and Jayne, the
couple in "Expensive Trips Nowhere," find
themselves hiking across a rocky steppe in
Kazakhstan, where an ambush by a pack of
bandits causes Douglas to panic and show
his inherent cowardice. In "Aral," the pol-
luted, shrinking Aral Sea brings a trio of
U.N.-sponsored scientists to the region, but
the locals (and the KGB) separate biologist
Amanda from her fellow Americans, using
her to make the pointed statement that
Western influence won't save the Aral Sea
or the Kazakh and Uzbeki people there.
Bissell's prose relies on his obses-
sive, omniscient style; he presents scenes,
characters and events in a familiar tone,
but paints them with sharp details. Sur-
face impressions, inner thoughts and past
and future states are incorporated into his
descriptions, creating the impression that
what you're reading is part documentary,
part deep emotional analysis. While his
tight yet rich descriptions and turn-on-a-
dime transitions usually bring the reader
through each story smoothly, his phrases
can sometimes bog themselves down with

overthought preciousness.
Besides fantastic storytelling and high-
ly tactile imagery, Bissell incorporates the
worldview of the tired American traveler
into his work: In "Death Defier," Donk
thinks, "There really were ... two kinds
of people in the world: Chaos People
and Order People ... The Japanese were
Order People and knew it. Americans and
English were Chaos People who thought
they were Order People. The French were
the worst thing to be: Order People who
thought they were Chaos People. But
Afghans, like Africans and Russians and
the Irish, were Chaos People who knew
they were Chaos People, and while this
lent them a lot of charm, it made their
countries go berserk, insane." It's this idea
- the notion that nationalities are so eas-
ily classifiable - that perhaps leads char-
acters like Amanda, Douglas and the title
story's Timothy into dubious or dangerous
situations while abroad. Then again, these
Americans' high conceptions of their
roles in Central Asia dissolves with such a
speed that Donk just might be right.

DVD REVIEW
In the chilly days of late December,
the major Hollywood studios engage in a
last-minute, guts-
for-glory battle to
send out their final The
releases before the Assassination
Oscar deadline, Of
a showdown that Richard Nixon
ceases fire at year's New Line
end. The terrain is
brutal, and every
year, a promising film or two is overlooked.
Such is the case with "The Assassination
of Richard Nixon," the long-gestating
debut of writer-director Niels Mueller and
the return of Sean Penn after his Best
Actor win for "Mystic River" in 2003.
Inspired by the true story of Samuel
Byck's ill-fated attempt on Richard Nix-
on's life, the film is a disquieting homage
to post-American dream disillusionment
during the Nixon era, when many national
anxieties peaked. Byck's sanity came
to hinge on his fruitless entrepreneurial
endeavors, which, along with his absent
ex-wife (Naomi Watts, "21 Grams") and a
growing paranoia surrounding the Nixon
White House, sent him over the edge.
Mueller's thoughtful film may not be
Oscar material, but it deserves more rec-
ognition than it received. "Assassination"
captures viewers through aback door, tak-
ing a straightforward narrative approach
to its antihero's life before revealing the
true scope of his sad, treacherous and
unfortunate existence; the climax, at once

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heartbreaking and ultra violent, inge-
niously capitalizes on the film's solemn
tone and grabs viewers with strong emo-
tions. Penn's performance is its backbone,
a worthy follow-up to his Oscar triumph
that resonates with understated power.
"Assassination" enjoys a fine transfer
to DVD but has scant features; the crown
jewel is a feature-length commentary
from Mueller. But its DVD release serves
to introduce it to the majority of audiences
whomissed it the first time around. Byck's
agonizing middle-American pathos
speaks even more powerfully as a stark
reminder of how those guys you see on
television, the ones the neighbors describe
as "a nice man, who kept to himself," ever
lost their minds in the first place.
Film: ***,
Picture/Sound: ****
Features: **


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By Alex Dziadosz
Daily Arts Writer
CONCERT REVIEW
There's something ferocious in Ani-
mal Collective's live performance that
is only hinted at in their recordings. The
intense and somewhat surprising show
that the sometimes
alternative, often Animal
bizarre but always Colective
entertaining group
gave last Tuesday at Tuesday, April 26
the Blind Pig made The tlind Pig
this fact abundantly
clear. Playing to the
late-teen and twen-
tysomething crowd that typifies the Pig,
the They Might Be Giants-meets-Sonic
Youth style goofiness present on Sung
Tongs in songs like "You Could Win a
Rabbit" was notably absent. Instead, the
band chose to emphasize the animalistic
and primitive style of "We Tigers" and
"Sweet Road." In fact, "We Tigers" was
the only song from their recorded reper-
toire that was recognizable at a concert
dominated by unreleased material. The
fact that no one really knew what songs
were being played seemed not to matter,
as the audience was treated to a perfor-
mance that tried to evoke their emotions
rather than get them to sing along.
It is difficult to describe Animal Col-
lective's sound in recording, and even
more difficult to describe it live. Think
Pavement and Phish performed by a

Animal Collective performs at the Blind Pig on Tuesday, April 26.

Brian Wilson who thinks he's a zoo ani-
mal, add in tribal drum beats, and you're
starting to get the idea. When lead singer
Avey Tare's propensity for unusual sound
effects like birdcalls and paper scratching
on the microphone are thrown in the mix,
it's hard to know what's coming next.
Despite their eclectic style, one thing
that is definite about an Animal Collective
show is its volume. With a prototypical
hippie on guitar, a drummer accompa-
nied a two-piece set who calls himself
"Panda Bear" and an orchestra of sound
effects, the four-piece group created an
atmosphere that was more a stampede
than a rock concert. Little details that
would usually denote an inexperienced or
nervous group - such as the accidental
dropping of a pick or drumstick - served
only to emphasize the band's absorption

in their music. Indeed, the four seemed so
possessed by their instruments that it was
hard to imagine them being able to com-
municate outside of their performance.
When they received a warning that
they had four minutes until the lights
went down, the band refused to go out
without a forceful climax. The final
song lasted until every band member
but the drummer had thrown down their
instruments and become absorbed in a
sort of tribal dance that, in many ways,
characterized the concert. The humor
that Animal Collective's style typically 4
adds to the experimental music scene
is without a doubt one of their most
impressive features, and its absence
was disappointing. But despite this, the
show displayed bravado and strength
that was well worth the sacrifice.

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