6
Thursday, April 11, 2002
Raitt Finds Her Career's 'Silver Lining'
By Jenise Hudson
Staff Writer
More than 30 years after releasing
her first album, it seems that Bonnie
Raitt still can’t get enough of those
down-home blues.
After a four-year hiatus, the eight-time
Grammy Award winner has finally
returned to the stu
dio and recorded
her newest album,
Silver Lining.
With an army
of writers and a
star-studded band
, --. .rfa/bumi
/rev/ews)
Bonnie Raitt
Silver Lining
★ ★★☆☆
(including former Beach Boys drummer
Ricky Fataar and bassistjames “Hutch”
Hutchinson from the Neville Brothers)
in tow, Raitt and company make clear
their hopes to turn Silver Lining into
another best-selling album.
Despite its attempts, the Raitt camp
has failed to produce a musically sound
album with real selling power.
It’s not for lack of any quality song
writing that Silver Lining ends up falling
short Raitt chums out the lyrics and horn
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arrangements for
“Gnawin’ On It,” a
catchy trek back to
the grass roots of
rhythm and blues.
As Raitt belts the
song’s lyrics in the
husky alto that has
characterized her
style, listeners are
reminded of dimly
lit nightclubs and
crowded juke joints
from back in the day.
And the jam session doesn’t end
there. A baritone sax loosely grooves
down the chorus of the track “Monkey
Business.” With a series of foot-tapping
riffs, the saxophone mimics Raitt’s voice
as she and singer and keyboardist Jon
Cleary belt the bluesy lyrics,
“Someone’s up to monkey business/
Someone just ain’t acting right/
Someone’s up to monkey business/
Paying monkey wi’cho mind.”
But Raitt fans might have to search
for the metallic layer in the singer’s title
track, “Silver Lining.” Annoyingly slow
DIVERSIONS
and lacking much
of a beat, the song
brings Raitt’s grass
roots soul-fest to an
unwelcome halt.
“Help Me Lord”
is an equally regret
table track. As Raitt
stumbles along each
verse in an uncon
vincing Caribbean
accent, the disjoint
ed feel of the song is
further offset by e
band of monotone backup singers.
While the track is likely to grow on lis
teners over time, the growth that occurs
is more comparable to a fungal manifes
tation than something desirable.
Raitt manages to re-throne herself
with the album’s final track, “Wounded
Heart.” A smooth ballad on the strug
gles of lost love, the track is reminiscent
of Raitt’s Grammy Award-winning
song, “Can’t Make You Love Me.”
Inevitably though, nostalgia loses out
to the bittersweet reality that Silver Lining
isn’t what might be expected. The album
is ultimately injured by its lack of consis
tency, and there’s no denying that Silver
Lining won’t go platinum anytime soon.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reachedatartsdesk@unc.edu.
<sgrmg into cfoek Out!"
arriving
Westfeldt Emerges as New Lesbian Heroine,
Spokeswoman For Cosmopolitan Dating
The dime-store independent
film "Kissing Jessica Stein"
makes a blatant move on
heterosexual assumptions.
By Aaron Freeman
Staff Writer
In the same throbbing vein of
“Chasing Amy” and TV’s “Will and
Grace,” “Kissing Jessica Stein” smears
the already blurred line between hetero
and homo. Writing team Jennifer
Westfeldt and HeatherJuergensen, who
also star in the
film, explore the
feasibility and suc
cess of homosexu
ality as an
“option” other
than an inborn
trait.
,—^ J .mov/e>
review/
"Kissing Jessica
Stein"
★★★★☆
Single, intellectual (and hotjessica
Stein (Westfeldt) works as a copy editor
at the New York Chronicle. And her
personality fits her job - she is a metic
ulous, critical and conservative perfec
tionist. Likewise, her heterosexual dat
ing life consists of finding the faults in
her comically faulty suitors, who are, as
Stein complains, either “not funny or
not smart, or not funny and not smart.”
Not since “Annie Hall” have the love
lives of cosmopolitan intellectuals been
so artfully and comically tackled.
But Woody Allen and Diane Keaton
this film is not.
Stein happens upon a “female seek
ing female” ad in The Village Voice that
includes a quote from the poet Rilke. A
phone call leads to Helen Cooper
(Juergensen), a well-sexed art gallery
director who’s becoming “bi-curious,”
shall we say, even though her venture
into lesbianism is more of an experi
ment than an act of true self or lonely
desperation.
A relationship begins and Stein pre
dictably approaches sex and love with
her typical organization, which includes
manuals, pamphlets and a day-by-day
timeline, all the while savagely teasing
Cooper with her slow sexual progres
sion and systematic libido.
Eventually, Stein does open up and
both are happier together than with
any previous man. Months pass and
the issues of lesbian love versus female
friendship are caught on celluloid.
Jessica, who remains conservative and
private, is forced to grapple with
friends and family members who con
stantly beg to know, “Who’s the guy?”
Tovah Feldshuh has several warm
moments as Jessica’s Jewish mother,
Gent Paid
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919.967.4035 • HOURS: M-SAT 10-6
4 The Courtyard, Chapel Hill • (across the street from Carolina Brewery)
The James M. Johnston Center
for Undergraduate Excellence presents
Thursdays
on f h e -Z
Terrace
Live Music and Food Every Thursday
Live in the Lounge
Thursday, April 11
12:00 to 1:00 pm
Robin and Linda Williams
and Their Fine Group
Nationally-acclaimed folk, blue-grass
and country recording stars
For more information on this and
upcoming events please visit our
website at http://www.mK.edu/depts/jcue
or call 966-5110
The Johnston Center is located in
Graham Memorial Hall, on Franklin *•,
Street, next to the Morehead Planetarium
l_a
Shu omhj Ular HM
and Scott Cohen compliments
Westfeldt well as her present boss and
former lover.
As could be gathered from the film’s
scant publicity, “Kissingjessica Stein" is
a dime-store indie film. But a lack of
financial backing means fewer studio
restrictions, giving filmmakers the abil
ity to create delicate, solemn moments
as well as sincere, smart comedy. The
innovative camera work employed by
director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
also illustrates the benefits of indie
auteurism. He adds more emotion to
over-the-shoulder dialogue shots by
often using hand-held cameras (see
“Traffic”) and captures engaging, per
sonal visuals of New York only possible
without a large crew in tow.
Technique aside, the heart of the film
lies in the questions that eventually sur
face. Can a straight person choose to be
gay and be happy? Can someone truly
be bisexual? Can two gay people “just
be friends” after a breakup?
The film raises these questions and
doesn’t necessarily answer them but
leaves the viewer pondering them
while walking up the aisle.
Nevertheless, it provides a refreshing,
comedic and contemporary look at
homosexuality and relationships that is
long overdue.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.