home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Time - Man of the Year
/
Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
/
moy
/
090792
/
09079934.000
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-04-08
|
4KB
|
100 lines
REVIEWS, Page 69SHORT TAKES
MUSIC: A Battalion-Size Musical Force
They have lifted their voices in sacred and secular song
ever since their wagon trains pulled up to the Great Salt Lake
in the summer of 1847. That once small choir soon became one of
the world's finest battalion-size forces (325 singers), reason
enough for Sony Music to reissue some of the MORMON TABERNACLE
CHOIR'S top hits. The five-CD set includes hymns, Civil War
songs and American standards. The choir's ringing harmonies and
bright tones are perfectly suited to chorales (Sheep May Safely
Graze, with its heavenly shifting of voices) or patriotic
marches (The Caissons Go Rolling Along, sung with a suitable
military fervor). Some show tunes, though, are overly
orchestrated and could do without the distracting backup.
TELEVISION: Beach-Front Bauble
A dead body turns up on the beach near Lisa Hartman's
ritzy house at 2000 MALIBU ROAD, and one of her new roommates
complains, "I thought you said this was a safe neighborhood."
Not so safe, maybe, but trashy enough for the pilot of this CBS
series to place first in last week's Nielsens. Hartman plays a
former hooker who shares her pad with a lawyer (Jennifer Beals
-- remember Flashdance?), an actress (Drew Barrymore -- remember
E.T.?) and the actress's scheming sister (Tuesday Knight --
remember silly stage names?). Director Joel Schumacher launched
the series with a lot of dumb style; it's just the sort of
flashy bauble that could bring prime-time soaps back into
fashion.
BOOKS: Big Apple Comics
Animated only begins to describe Tama Janowitz's style, as
readers of Slaves of New York and A Cannibal in Manhattan have
already discovered. THE MALE CROSS-DRESSER SUPPORT GROUP (Crown;
$20) continues the author's carom through the Big Apple. This
time it's a send-up of bizarre life-styles as seen through the
hungry eye of Pamela Trowel, advertising director of Hunter's
World magazine. Pam is miscast not only in her career but also
as a sex object and surrogate mom of Abdhul, a stray who looks
like a child but talks like a grownup. The plot? Forget about
it. The characters? Instantly forgettable. It's Janowitz's
hyper-real prose servicing a cartoon vision that still marks her
as a talent in search of an adequate subject.
CINEMA: Serious Fun In the Swamp
Venue (Louisiana) and history (a corrupt past) evoke the
Long family; sexual carelessness mixed with liberal idealism
recalls the Kennedys. Together these touches give the tale of
the Fowler clan of STORYVILLE a certain vibrancy. The story line
-- in which the family scion (a well-cast James Spader) runs for
Congress, investigates a murder in which he could be implicated
and sorts out the circumstances surrounding his father's suicide
-- is twisty and full of colorful characters and weird behavior.
Director Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks, has made a
good-looking movie, combining intellectual ambition with darkly
glamorous conflicts between private demons and public trust.
Storyville is good, serious fun.
CINEMA: Goryville
The David Lynch circus is back. While Mark Frost is happy
to leave the town he helped make a prime-time legend, his
ex-partner is still living there, with all the warped
ingenuousness of a rural kid who tells his friends, "Let's put
the freak show on right here! Again!" TWIN PEAKS FIRE WALK WITH
ME, Lynch's way-too-late prequel to the 1990 TV series, relates
the last days of teen queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). After an
agonizing first half-hour designed to empty the theater, Lynch
unleashes his patented perfervid style, puts the familiar dwarfs
and feebs on display and elicits a nicely horrifying turn from
Lee. But the magic has died: nothing seems older than a
two-year-old fad on the comeback trail. How ya gonna keep 'em
down in Twin Peaks after the Zeitgeist's gone?