88 - The Michigan Daily - Wee4c efc. - Thursday, October 12, 1995 Lapdogs br By Pete Levin For the Daily It was standing room only as people filed down the stairs into the basement of Cava Java. A very diverse audience showed up Saturday night to catch the Lapdogs, Ann Arbor's new funk-soul band with a twist. Paul Ross opened up the show with a quick set of his original accoustic farses ofpolitically correct life. Anitcipation mounted as second opening band Disdic also whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Finally, the Lapdogs, featured band of the evening, began to play. Bassist Sean Rhyee, guitarists Josh Radcliffe and Jesse Levine, and drummerBrianSteinclimbed on stage for a Lapdog original opener. (Percussionist Willy Jurkiewicz couldn't make the show). The quartet rattled off a funky instrumental to give the audience a taste of what they paid three bucks to see. The brass section then squeezed their way on stage to join their fellow band members. The Lapdogs' brass quartet, one of the best around, is composed of Slick Jon Kidd (trumpet), Joe Cislo (trom- bone), Joby Morrow (trombone), and Dale King (sax). The friskiest Lapdog of them all, lead singer Melanie Friske, strutted on up to the mic for a Janis Joplin cover. The brass quartet then moved on to solos, featuring trumpeter Jon Kidd in a stylin' mustard suit and lime green tie. The Lapdogs played three original ing'family' to funk-soul songs and the rest of their set was com- lecular biology. prised of covers, ranging from various Most of the crowd had filed out shortly Stax-Voltzmusicians, Aretha Franklin, after Saturday's show, and all that re- The Meters, Janis Joplin, Digable Plan- mained was security, close friends and ets, and even a mesmerizing version of family. "My dad thought we were better Cream's "Strange Brew." After about then Sha-na-na," said Levine. The Levines an hour and ahalf, the Lapdogs wrapped were notthe only parents at the show, they up their set with a rousing chorus of were joined by the Kings, Steins, Kidds, "Happy Birthday" to Kidd who recently and Friskes, not an unusual sight for the celebrated his 21st. It was another great Lapdogs who can fill half the venue with performance by the local band. family members. The Lapdogs are like a The Lapdogs were first formed in family themseleves; as Radcliffe put it: March of 1994 and really hit the spot- "One thing I like about this band is every- light in early 1995. They've gone one gives each other space and support." through many personnel changes, pick- Unfortunately, Friske will be taking ing up new members on an almost her voice abroad to Spain for the winter monthly basis. At sax alone, they've semester and the Lapdogs' family will had five different members. "It just gets have to move on without her. "You really to be more and more fun with all the appreciate how great this band is more new people we get," Stein said as he and more after every gig with the re- packed up his drums. minder that Melanie is going to Spain," "Themotivatingphilosophybehindthe Kidd said. band is to have fun," added Radcliffe. The Lapdogs have no interest in "I was writing my masters' thesis being rock stars, they simply have fun when I joined the band and the music playing shows anywhere. "I would was a huge stress relief for me. I even just want to be famous so I could have put all them in my acknowledgements roadies pack upmy stuff aftershows!" page," said Cislo, the oldest of the Stein laughed. The band has nearly bunch. The rest of the band are all accomplished their dream of playing currently enrolled as undergrads at everywhere, including coffee houses, the University, and they have to be in the diag, and open mic nights at one of the most intellectual bands on clubs. "We are even the only band to campus. Stein and Radcliffe are both have played at Zingermans," band math majors, Morrow is in the Inteflex members insisted. "They paid us in program, Rhyee studies cellular-mo- sandwiches!" Demi Moore heats up "The Scarlet Letter" next week. Classic literature silver on-screen? Publicbodatn rebounds from bu twoes with superior season The Baltimore have a sense of what's right with public kids' show. Geared Newt Gingrich has been called many television these days. Programs premier- 11 and their parents things, but one of them is not "friend of ing this week provide an even better win- Jack Russell terrier public television." Last December, the dow on the new, improved PBS. Wishbone transpo House Speaker called for Congress to This week, "Masterpiece Theatre" be- ern-day world into "zero out" funding for the Corporation gan with Edith Wharton's "The Bucca- "Marsalis on M for Public Broadcasting. Things looked neers" - for my money, the richest series no music lov pretty bleak for Big Bird and the gang television production in the distin- While it's targeted; as a fierce national debate on the very guished 25-year history of the series. A as was the late L existence of public television ensued. wonderful new kids'show,"Wishbone," unforgettable" The debate hasn't totally ended, but starring a dog who reads and lives the Concerts"on CBS the picture at the Public Broadcast Sys- literary classics, joins "Sesame Street" for adults. tem has brightened considerably. andthe restofPBS' admirable children's The first installm Gingrich has backed off in the wake of lineup. And Wynton Marsalis takes up Marsalis on Rhythr several public opinion polls showing the baton left behind by Leonard Wynton Marsalis. widespread support for public televi- Bernsteininaseriesofsmartandswing- Seiji Ozawa with ti sion. An August pledge drive raised ing music programs for young viewers sic Center Orchestr $22 million, up 13 percent from last called "Marsalis on Music." turer, explains rhy year. And Congress has just approved Affirming the maxim "What doesn't kids. Then Marsal full funding for 1996. kill you will make you stronger," PBS turns leading thei Most important for viewers, though, executives and underwriters say the de- excerpts of "The N PBS has emerged from the debate with bate started by enemies of public televi- Tchaikovsky, and t stronger and more focused programs sionis responsible forthe improvements imagined by Duke than it has in years. It is in the midst of in PBS programming. The series is un launching one of its finest seasons ever. While PBS executives can be asprone and Texaco. Those who saw last month's "History to hype as their commercial brethren, Some of the gl of Rock & Roll" or "Listening to Chil- the two new series are worthy of it. about the future o dren:A MoralJourneywithRobertColes" "Wishbone" is a near-perfect PBS Texaco's decision to children ages 6 to s, it stars an adorable . Each episode, finds rted from his mod- a work of literature. usic," is a four-part er will want to miss. at young viewers - Leonard Bernstein's Young Peoples' - it plays just fine ent, "Why Toes Tap: m," features both the Jazz Orchestra and the Tanglewood Mu- ra. Marsalis, the lec- thm to a hall full of lis and Ozawa take r musicians through 'utcracker Suite" by the same piece as re- Ellington. nderwritten by Sony oomiest predictions f PBS were tied to two seasons ago to it Performances" and e of that money on channel. For some, rporate underwriting gh its support of the ra radio broadcasts. ack on board is im- exaco vice president, Washington seems to 3S' making decisions es" it would try to nnel universe. By Dean Bakopoulos Daily Arts Writer Hester Prynne is one of the most vivid and best-known fictional female characters in American literature. For years, it's been nearly impossible to get through a high school English curricu- lum without encountering Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" which tells the tale of Hester and her plight as a branded "sinner" in Puritan society. But from tomorrow onward, the future generations of high school lit classes will come to know a new kind of Hester Prynne. She's sultry, sexy, and does a steamy shower scene; it's none other than Demi Moore, Holly- wood hottie and star of such gems as "About Last Night" and "Disclosure." It's a long shot to think that director Roland Joffe's film version of Hawthorne's classic tale will be much more than a Demi Moore-Gary Oldman lust story. If Joffe was going for artistic integrity, he may have thought a little bit harder about casting Moore. Based on past performances, she just doesn't seem to be artistically capable ofpaint- ing a credible picture of the complex emotional world of Hester Prynne. Un- less, of course, Joffe has significantly altered Hawthorne's text as most Hol- lywood insiders report. But however Moore's performance turns out, the adaptation of "The Scar- let Letter" raises fundamental ques- tions about the act oftransforming clas- sic literature into mainstream movies. Judging from Hollywood's past record with exceptional literary texts, it seems apparent that there is simply something about the written word that the camera cannot recreate. The beauty of reading fiction is the sense of intimacy that the reader can feel with the text. It's this intimacy which often alludes us when we watch books on film. For starters,there is the actual physi- cal contact with reading that is unattain- able in movie viewing. When we read, we feel the heft of the book in our hands, we feel the texture of the pages, see the font of the typescript, feel the smooth- ness ofthe cover. We directly participate in the process of reading literature, but with film, we feel like distant observers in an uncomfortable seat in a crowded room watching a story unfold as we passively observe. The physical act of reading also has another distinct advantage over the dis- tant world of film. In essence, the reader of a text has much more control than does a viewer of film. While the most exceptional films are able to draw the audience into a complicated thought process, many fail to do so. Too many of the films that get out of the studios are so easily accessible, they eliminate the need for careful examination or imaginitive pondering. But with the art of literary texts, the reader becomes directly involved in the art form, as- suming a role that is comparable to a film's director. For example, the readeris able to"cast" the work in what he or she sees at the most fitting manner. That is, the reader sees how the author describes the charcters, and then the reader is able to develop that character more fully. The reader can give that character a certain voice, a certain world viewpoint, a certain eye color. The reader also can control the pacing of a story in a way that is impossible for a movie viewer. An intense dialogue can slow down for emphasis, or an abstract monologue can be sped up. A series of events can unravel slowly, or they can unravel with startling rapidity. The film viewer is at the mercy of the camera, but the reader of a text is at his or her own discretion; he or she can linger languidly over a passage of flowing prose, or read and reread a shattering epiphany. Once again, this direct interaction between art-' ist and audience is much easier with writ- ing, and a key reason why film can never replace the intimacy of prose and poetry. Even the best films often fail to capture the magic of classic literature because they cannot forge that sense of intimacy and interaction. For ex- ample, Francis Ford Coppola and Jack Clayton's film version of "The Great Gatsby," a fine film in its own right, as well as a decent adaptation, was understandably unable to match F. Scott Fitzgerald's stunning conclu- sion. While the Coppola-Clayton con- clusion was well done, the reader of "The Great Gatsby" was abletolinger over the orgiastic last paragraphs, pondering and rereading, repeating that magical line: "So we beat on, boats aginst the current borne back ceaselessly into the past." It's prose like Fitzgerald's that film rarely rec- reates successfully. There is also a certain emotion that bursts forth from the page, but is often too restrained and faded when it shows on the screen. Take for example Rob- ert Altman's "Short Cuts," a film based on the writings of the contem- porary short story king Raymond Carver. Altman's work is extremely competent and well-done, but it sim- ply cannot convey the emotional punch that Carver's prose did. The touching story "A Small, Good Thing" simply did not have the same devas- tating effect without Carver's near- perfect prose. Even excellent adapta- tions cannot match the art of authors, and no matter how huge Hollywood gets, there will always be those of us who prefer to read. Perhaps the simplest and best expla- nation of this gap between fiction and film comes from Kazuo Ishiguro, whose novel "Remains of the Day" was made into a critically acclaimed Merchant- Ivory film. Ishiguro, at a reading last weekend at the Rackham Graduate School, said he feels there are two com- pletely different versions of "Remains of the Day" in existence. One is his; one is James Ivory's. Ishiguro believes fic- tion and film, though one genre influ- ences the other and vice versa,"are two different art forms entirely." This means that a film could never be expected to match a novel, and a novel coild never be expected to match a film. Thd two art forms must be looked at independently. This viewing of fiction and film as related but independent entities is a necessary way of looking at the two art forms. It seems easy to predict that on Oct. 13, Demi Moore and "The Scarlet Letter" will show just how amazingly different they really are. And old Nathaniel Hawthorne will be rolling over in his grave. 'BUY ONEI IBAGELI ,SANDWICH I ;GET ONE I FREED. I expires: 12/31/95 I stop funding "Grea instead spend som the Bravo cablec Texaco defines cor for the arts throug Metropolitan Oper To have Texaco b portant. Peter Dowd, a T said the debate in M have resulted in PB about what "nich serve in a 500-cha The National Theatre of the Deaf presents h I aI kS tA Ct LLJf F t A madcap comedy by Eugene Labiche & Marc-Michel You See and Hear Every Word! Wednesday, October 18th, 8:00 pm The Mendelssohn Theatre Tickets are available at the Michigan Union Ticket Office and all Ticketmaster Outlets Charge by phone, 763-TKTS or (810) 645-6666 Find us on the Internet at http:lwww.umich.edul-mevents A U-M Offie of Major Eventslis"on of StudentAffairs &The Heang Impaired Student "o''tion Presentation * ! -a- - -- INSTITUTE FOR STUDY ABROAD B U T L E R U N I V E R S I T Y UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES IN GREAT BRITAIN AUSTRALIA IRELAND NEW ZEALAND Lecture Notes "'Course Packets " Resume Ser'vices " Copy & Bindery " Fax Services BOOKSTORE 0 I HI ONHONY COPIES 8.5x11 20# white Grade A Notes at Ulrich's Bookstore Second Floor " 549 E. University " 741-9669 U a s 11111111 ~ r w i "" " FT 'Y" 'i "