Mind Readings and other illusions
Author Heather Sweeney reads her unusual and esoteric narratives.
Sam Hyde reads his urban stories of oddities and strange experiences.
A good, unusual experience for all who attend. 8:30 p.m., Guild House,
802 Monroe Street, free. Call 481-9101 for more information.
P
-,U W October 2, 199
Moonlight'
By Jennifer Pettinski
For the Daily
Is there nothing sexier than having
Jon Bon Jovi paint your house butter
yellow in the middle of the night?
Apparently not, since four women sit
around fantasizing about him for an
entire movie, when they should have
better things to do.
With "Moonlight and Valentino"
director David Anspaugh brings us
love, sex, lust and death through the
eyes of four women faced with a
tragedy. It's about friendship, the
healing of emotional wounds and a
shine is dull and dim
sexy house painter. One of these three
just doesn't belong. Can you guess
which one?
Tragedy confronts Rebecca Lott
(Elizabeth Perkins) when her husband
never comes home from his jog. He is
hit by a car, leaving Rebecca as "the
W word." Young, beautiful and alone,
she is now a widow, expecting to be
Moonlight and
Valentino
Directed by David
Anpaugh; with
Elzabeth Perkins and
Whoopi Goldberg
At Showcase
like Georgia O'Keefe, living in the
desert, surrounded by skulls. With
the support of her eccentric best friend
Sylvie (Whoopi Goldberg), neurotic
sister Lucy (Gwyneth Paltrow) and
overbearing ex-stepmother Alberta
(Kathleen Turner), Rebecca must
learn to let go. In the process, the
troubling issues - virginity, love,
divorce and family - of these four
women surface. Together, they learn
more about themselves and each other
than they ever could have known.
At this point "Moonlight and
Valentino" follows along the path of
"Steel Magnolias" or "Boys on the
Side" - until Alberta hires House
Painter (Jon Bon Jovi) to paint
Rebecca's house for her first birthday
without her husband. It's lust at first
sight for these four women who com-
ment on his butt and cannot keep their
eyes off him.
Throughout the entire two hours
they never figure out his name, al-
though they'd like to think he's
called Valentino. At one point
Rebecca confides in him and later
sleeps with him. But she still doesn't
know his name. "Hey, it's me," he
says on her answering machine.
Does this bother anyone else?
Maybe the idea of this theme does
work: Mysterious painter saunters
into these women's lives, forcing
them to confront their feelings of
passion and then relate it back to
their own issues. They don't know
his name, but they sure know what
he stands for. This could work. But
it doesn't.
Perkins, Goldberg, Paltrow and
Turner, however, do keep the movie
somewhat alive. All four create be-
-U:
"Do you remember that waiter we hadIn Paris"? "Jean-Lucill"
lievable characters; they are strong,
and at the same time in need of each
other. At times they bring humor to
dim situations, as they try to make
sense of their lives. In these scenes
the audience almost forgets that the
movie is dragging on and on.
Aside from the scenes of, friend-
ship, the movie just doesn't make its
point. The all-important figure of
"House Painter" is meant to have both
spiritual and sexual presence, but he's
not in the movie long enough to have
a strong effect. And then there's the
big question: Can Jon Bon Jovi act?
Who knows? It's obvious that House
Painter didn't help these women; they
helped themselves. Sorry, Jon Bon
Jovi. This movie probably won't boost
your acting career. In a "Blaze of
Glory" you are going down.
Looking for a movie about strength
and friendship? Are you in the mood
to shed some tears? Have you not
gotten around to renting "Steel Mag-
nolias" in the last few years? Maybe
you would want to pay six bucks and
just take naps during the whole
"painting thing." Then again, maybe
not.
"I'm a cowboy, but sometimes I paint."
Liquorice's
sweet sound
By Andy DolanT
Daily Music Writer
It seems almost ironic, but it looks , t =
as if one of the best albums to comeh
out on 4AD records since its' golden
era (when they regularly releasedw
seminal albums by bands like the
Pixies, Pale Saints and the Cocteau
Twins) may have come in the form'
of 10 smart, touching acoustic-driven
pop tunes by a band called Liquorice.
While the band features Jenny
Toomey of Tsunami and Grenadine,
Dan Littleton of Ida and Trey Many
of Ann Arbor's His Name Is Alive,
the songs decidedly stray away from F
the musical complexities that all of 6
these bands share.+
"Jenny and I had been playing "
together for seven or eight years
V
LIQUORICE
Where:Rick's
When: Tuesday
Tickets: Call 996-2747
Doors open at 9:00 p.m.
and we've played little roles in each
other's bands, but we've never been
able to dedicate ourselves to a seri-
ous long-term project," Littleton ex-
plained. "What we'd do when we'd
get together was play covers of songs
that we loved. So where dur bands
are more louder and heavy-sound-
;rng, I wanted Liquorice to be more
like when we got together, when it
was more quiet and stripped down."
"As far as structural similarity,
there's a continuity, because of Jen
writing most of the songs for Tsunami
and Liquorice. But I notice a lot of
differences, like Tsunami sometimes
has these really complex double gui-
tar parts. But with Liquorice, it's re-
ally simplified. Like 'Team Player'
and'Trump Suit,' both of those songs
only have two parts in them. The vo-
cal line is what has all the variation in
it. So it is a departure, but it's still
Jenny."
While the songs on their debut cer-
tainly do have a "stripped-down" feel
to them, they certainly aren't lacking
in substance.
Fans of Tsunami will certainly be
familiar with Toomey's lyrical style,
which often simultaneously conveys
bitingly sarcastic bitterness and genu-
ine sorrow towards whomever she
happens to be singing about. Littleton
explained that he was interested in
making this element the band's main
focus.
"I love her voice," he stated simply,
"and I love all the bands she's been in,
but it's great to hear her with just a
Festival Of India
Oct. 2, 1995 - Nov. 4, 1995
Ann Arbor
Coalition of various University of Michigan student and local
Indian associations working together to showcase Indian culture,
heritage and varying lifestyles in Southeast Michigan
piano or one acoustic guitar, and hav-
ing the vocal being the central thing.
So the focus is on her singing or tell-
ing a story or whatever."
"It's easier for me," Toomey added,
"because Dan plays the majority of
the guitar. I play guitar chords, but he
plays more of the detailed stuff. So it
gives me a lot more freedom to sing."
Liquorice recently finished a tour
with Luna and have just started doing
their own headlining dates. While it
might seem that it would be easy for
them to play their songs live, Littleton
explained that the band had to spend
some time working things out for their
live show as they went along.
"Relatively, it is a new band, so
our live show is different night to
night. Even if we do the same songs,
we're learning them as we go. The
is the first real tour, and it's always
been a big deal for us to get together
and practice because we live in dif-
ferent cities. So it's great, it's an
opportunity to figure it out as we
go, and that's exciting."
So ... simple but powerful songs,
meaningful lyrics and a band that's
not afraid to take a few chances.
Maybe Liquorice are trying to tell
us that 4AD's golden era hasn't re-
ally ended yet.
- MYI
Technicolor Pulp
Arty Nelson
Warner Books
It would seem that Arty Nelson, with
the title ofhis novel,"Technicolor Pulp,"
has by no means attempted to capitalize
on the popularity ofthe now-mainstream
"Pulp Fiction"- at least, to judge from
the positively anti-establishment feel
of his book jacket biography: "Arty
Nelson, born in Pittsburgh, PA, 1965.
Suburbia. Kent School. Colgate Uni-
versity. Works appeared in Caffeine,
bikini, Tales of the Heart.. Lives in
L.A." Coupled with the subtle
smirkiness of the author's accompany-
ing picture, Mr. Nelson appears to be
sure of himself and of his having fash-
ioned, as the jacket describes it, "the
first 'slacker' novel and a stunning lit-
erary portrait of a disaffected genera-
tion at the end of a Technicolor cen-
tury."
The early chapters of "Technicolor
Pulp" demonstrate that there is a fairly
solid foundation for this confidence.
There, Mr. Nelson begins his tale of
Jimi, a boy of twentysomething who's
living on borrowed time: He contin-
ues to hit up his parents for money to
finance the excessive partying that
he's carried over from his college
years, and, confusedly, he continues
to pine over his ex-girlfriend, Lindsey.
"Summer Love, what a BITCH come
October... I sit across the table from
her and I watch her. I watch her inhale
and exhale her cigarette into a deli-
cate plume of smoke. I watch her
laugh and wish I'd told the joke. I
watch her think while she listens to
someone else speaking. Everything
she does, every move, every sigh-
captures me."
In the hopes of making sense of the
Lindsey situation and of distancing
himself from his other problems, Jimi
makes for London and Paris. With the
help of old chums in both cities, he
attempts to lend clarity to his thoughts
and order to his life - a difficult
thing to accomplish, perhaps, when
it's coupled with binge drinking and
hash smoking. Eventually, Jimi finds
his way back across the Atlantic
where, in the muddled end, he achieves
a certain peace of mind and tranquil-
lity of existence.
Matters in the early going of
"Technicolor Pulp" are smooth and
decadently entertaining. In the same
restaurant where Lindsey's every
move captured him from across the
table, he further comments on both
his emotional torment and health-con-
scious cuisine: "I'm in a NEW AGE
HELL and because I'm eating right,
I'm gonna be in it forever." Mr. Nelson
writes with nervous energy, darting
from one subject to another in a mat-
ter of a few short sentences. It makes
for witty introspection: "I'm a bloated
potpourri of other men's actions... I
don't do anything unless I think some-*
one cool did it before me"- as well
as observation: "Everything is a crisis
when Donald speaks- Woody Allen,
but less anal and more snob."
In m is lpes.eistated mnm te A r
tences such as, "I pour myself a c
with honey and milk, cook up a bo
turn on the tube, and fall into the glee
fuzzymentalstupidrevelry," feel mi
placed. The Jimi that began the nov
appears to be the same one whom t
reader leaves in the Pacific Northwe
in the end.
At its best, "Technicolor Pul
touches with poignancy upon the alie
ation and sense of innocence helplessl
lost that a sensitive soul such as Ji
experiences. But it goes no further t
any deeper analysis; it is a work
style, not substance - too preocc
pied, perhaps, with the manifestatio
of disillusionment than with any wor
able means of moving beyond it.
- Matthew Be
The College Woman's
Handbook
Rachel Dobkin & Shana
Sippy
Workman Publishing
According to the press release
it's "a college woman's community
resource center, 24-hourhelpline, bi
sister, best friend, and a complet
life education." It sounds hardt
believe but, yes, skeptics, "The Col
lege Woman's Handbook" basicall
is all of the above.
The book started out in 1992 as
resource guide for women at Barnar
College and Columbia University.
Since then it's been rewritten by tw
recent Barnard graduates, and ex-
panded to cover nearly every faceto
college life.
The book's topics range from fi
nancial aid to nutrition, apartment
rental to discrimination, roommates
to job interviews. Although it's writ-
ten with a female perspective - fdr
example, there are sections on preg-
nancy and violence against women
- nearly all of the issues covered
also apply to guys. The first chapte
alone, which discusses academic ba-
sics, would be helpful for everyone
to read.
The statistics at the bottom o
every page also make the book inter-
esting reading. They offer surprisin
pieces of information, like"so%o
the world's population are people o
color," and "Of $7 billion in corpo-
rate aid offered in '93, $6.6 billion
went unclaimed." There are also
boxes with extra hints scattere
throughout the book. Some examples
of these are loan terminology, an
explanation of campus recruitment
and suggestions for creating a first-
aid kit.
Of course, what would a hand-
book about college life be without
real students' input? Here, students
offer quotes on every subject.
A Berkeley senior talks about cof-
fee as a "social drug," while a '90
Mount Holyoke graduate gives job-
interview advice.
Each chapter also contains a sec-
tion called "Activist Ideas," which
suggests nroiects relating to certai
Schedule of Events:
. Opening Ceremony
followed by a Classical ConcertA
" Lecture- A Psychoalytic Perspective
Topic: Immigration and IdentityP
by Michigan Psychoanalytic Foundation
" Movie - Genesis. by Mrinal Sen
" India Bazaar
Booths displaying Indian artifacts from various states
Food and various merchandise
" Multi cultural program
Showcase of art forms from different statesf
* Indian American For Political Education
Seminar - Ralph Nurenberger, India Abroada
" Ann Arbor Public School System
- Presentation of various facets of IndiaF
" Seminar
Topic: Bhagvad Gita, by Dr. Sistaf
" Seminar
Topic: Hinduism
. An Evening with Dr. L. SubramanamF
. Movie - Gandhi. by Richard AttenboroughI
. Madras Jazz Cafe
A combo where Jazz meets Indian Classical?
Mich. Union Ballroom
Rackham Hall
Lorch Hal
Central Campus Diag.
Rackham Auditorium
Angel Hall. Aud.A
Public Schools
Angel Hall
Angell Hall
Rackham/Hill
Lorch Hall
Not Another Cafe
Oct. 2
Oct 5
Oct 5
Oct. 8
Oct. 8
Oct. 8
Oct. 9 - Oct 27
Oct. 15
Oct. 15
Oct. 15
Oct. 18
Oct 19
r
VOU WEAR IT!
See Sports Monday Insert
...:.
.-,'
g
ew.is r
bn Joses $478