Monday February 17, 2 3 michigandaily.com mae@michigandaily.com RTS 5A I Damn it's hot. Good thing they built in these leather nipples or this suit would be totally unbearable. Courtesy of 20th Century Fox RED LEATHER DOESN'T MAKE A SUPERHERO Take a deep breath, now let it out. Cal 's Finch evolves into headliners on new tour By Luke Smith Daily Arts Writer By Jonathon Triest Daily Arts Writer As Drive-Thru Records dishes out carbon copy pop-punk bands, Temecula, Calif. natives Finch uphold the label's initial reputation by providing fans with fine show- manship and great noise. In their first U.S. tour as headliners, Finch and openers The Used played last Tuesday to a sold-out crowd at Detroit's Saint Andrews Hall. Before the concert, Finch guitarist Alex Linares spoke with The Michi- gan Daily about the band's current tour and rising popularity. The Michigan Daily: You played the Warped Tour last summer. How was that? Alex Linares: It was like "Groundhog Day." Have you seen the movie?- TMD: Yeah. The same thing everyday? AL: Yeah, for like two months. TMiD: Is this tour different? AL: It's much more chill. You don't have to wake up to a dust bowl everyday. You wake up at the Warped Tour and you fall asleep at the Warped Tour. It's very hard to get away from it. The majority of the time it's in the middle of nowhere, so to go anywhere was like a $30 cab ride both ways. You're stuck there all day. TMD: Do you think you gained a lot of new listeners from the Warped Tour? AL: Fuck yeah. That tour and the New Found Glory tour helped us the most out of anything. New Found Glory are like our big broth- ers. Those guys are the shit. We know we are not anywhere near each other musically, but we are such good friends. Jordan, the singer, has a Finch tattoo. I'm gonna get a New Found tattoo. TMD: So, how would you catego- rize your sound? AL: I would say like a heavy rock, almost like a fusion-type band. We choose all different styles. TMD: And what would some of those styles be? Emo? AL: Fuck no. I would say like maybe hardcore, rock and maybe a little bit of punk too. No, punk is emo. TMD: We saw the setlist online and "Stay with Me" is not listed. Will that be played tonight? AL: No. That song sucks, man. It's one of those songs we wish we did- n't play. It's one of those songs we wish we could have sold to one of the cheap pop-punk bands. We should have sold it to Simple Plan when we had the chance. TMD: It looks like you are doing quite well-rightnoW W t'snext? AL: The studio. Put down a new record. TMD: Will the new record be on Drive-Thru? AL: Uh, yeah. We have a huge contract with them. Huge as in like "many records." We owe them "many records." We decided we are going to take a couple months off to write it, tour - probably the Warped Tour - and then come back and record it. TMD: So what does it feel like? Did you always expect to get to this level? AL: Yeah. It's fuckin' really exciting. It's even more exciting like the days when we get to play for huge crowds. We played a show recently to 2000 people. I remem- ber a year ago playing Fireside Bowl in Chicago for like 200 peo- ple and it was like, "Fuck, man - 200 people." Even just a year and a half ago, if 100 people pay to get in, we'd be so fuckin' stoked. Despite the good intentions of Daredevil- worshipping director Mark Steven Johnson, the adaptation of the Marvel comic hero prefers to remind viewers of last summer's "Spider-Man" (another red-clad hero in New York) rather than set its own path. As Matt Murdock, Ben Affleck's broad shoul- ders are squeezed into the deep red of Daredevil's costume, but, like in life, the clothes do not make the man. Square-jawed throughout, the humorless Affleck possesses none of the self-depreca- tion or self-discovery of Tobey DARE McGuire's Spider-Man. The result- ing superhero is a dense, unfeeling At Shov character, a pursuer of justice Qual through esoteric means. 20th Ce The film begins with a flashback, where we see young Matt Murdock (Scott Terra) as the subject of ridicule by school bullies (led by "Sopranos"-progeny Robert Iler) and meet his Heineken-loving boxer father (David Keith). Jack "the Devil" Murdock demands young Matt avoid fighting and become something respectable "like a doctor or lawyer." Matt catches his father in the act as hired muscle for the mob, and while fleeing the scene'getssplashed-vrrhefe-witriranonymuus bio-toxin. He loses his sight, but his other senses w lI are augmented by the chemical waste. His father is murdered when he refuses to throw a boxing match and a red rose is left on his body - the killer's calling card. The young Murdock swears revenge, and a superhero (sort of) is born. Instead of using the original story of Matt Mur- dock's transformation into Daredevil, where he loses his sight saving a man from an oncoming car, the script turns Murdock into a victimized vigilante, establishing an internal conflict for Murdock to rise above. Murdock's intrinsic changes feel forced as a result. As an adult, Murdock is an attor- ney, who, upon losing cases, takes judicial matters into his own court :DEVIL - after hours - as Daredevil. Instead of using Murdock's gifts for icase and cunning in the courtroom, screen- ity 16 writer Mark Steven Johnson elects ntu-y Fox a violent outpouring for Murdock's blessing in disguise. This violence is covered carefully by New York Post reporter Ben Urich (Joe Pantoliano) who coins the epithet "the man without fear" for the crime fighter. Serving as a one-man army against crime, Mur- dock eventually crosses paths with the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk (Michael Clarke Duncan, "The Green Mile"). The Kingpin hired Irish assassin Bullseye (Colin Farrell, "The Recruit") to off his billionaire -'business partner Nikolas Natchios (Erik Avari). Coincidentally, the daughter of said business part- ner, Elektra (Jennifer Garner, TV's "Alias"), is Matt Murdock's love interest. The plot entangles the two in an obvious case of whodunit regarding Elektra's father. Daredevil, in her eyes, is the chief suspect. Styled.similarly to Tim Burton's two "Batman" pictures, "Daredevil" takes place almost exclu- sively at night. The characters bounce around in battles in some amalgamate of the unfettering agility of Spider-Man and the leaping and bounc- ing of martial arts flicks. It is a combination that ultimately doesn't work. The action sequences between the twitchy Bullseye and Elektra, and Elektra and Murdock (their playground scene has the fight choreog- raphy of a student film) are an overly-stylized, terribly unrealistic festival of floating and levi- tation. A superhero like Spider-Man is given reprieve from these criticisms because he is a man-spider, but Matt Murdock is simply a blind guy aided by sonar - this gives no cause for his physically unrealistic talents. This over-the-top display of the ridiculous drives "Daredevil" away from the amazing control of "Spider-Man," and "Daredevil" becomes a neg- ative hyperbole of a superhero film. While the screenwriters could've made a hero intelligent and forthright, they instead dumb him down, plague him with his own victimization and ultimately tor- ment the filmgoers with recycled pap. It is a for- mula that evenwithin the expanded reality of the superhero film genre, is tried, tired, retread. Glitzy fourth 'Sim' a boring retread of original By Brian Stephens Daily Arts Writer Here we go again: Traffic jams, rogue robot invasions and nuclear dis- asters are all out to shake up your utopian society. "SimCity 4" looks prettier, takes over three times more hard drive space than its predeces- sor and requires state- of-the-art video drivers to make use of its incredible graphics, but Electronic Arts and Maxis Entertainment interface of "SimCity 4" has been completely upgraded from simple point-and-click buttons to an intricate maze of buttons, dials and rigs that must be used to build your city. Even after your metropolis is built, there is little you can control; gamers simply sit back and watch pedestrians walk back and forth TY 4 across the streets. "SimCity 4"'s big change would be its rts / Maxis focus on regional play- rmnent ing, where gamers build opportunity to doze off while building thirty more. While "SimCity 4" still has the addictive flair of the original "SimCity" released in 1989, it has become apparent that EA and Maxis have run out of ideas to make the series an ever evolving one. The music, however, is surprisingly good including some beautiful mixes of both techno and classical and a few opera-like vocals. The background music is so well done that EA and Maxis could have definitely released it as an audio CD. In the end, is "SimCity 4" worth the buy? If you're looking to play another "SimCity" title that looks pretty, then go for it, but if you're "Simmed out" for the time being, save your money for another title. SIMCI PC Electronic A Entertai Camp Counselors & Instructors Needed Camp Walden in Cheboygen, MI, a coed summer camp. Needs male and female staff for arts & crafts - tennis - gymnastics - sailing - riding -'performing arts - archery instructors - secretaries - bus driver, trip leaders & INFIRMARY ASSISTANTS (work with doctors in a camp clinic). have put so much glitz on it that they've unfortu- nately transformed the game's genre itself from simulation to strategy. The 'U' Prof. Gregerson talks poetry By Julia Goldstein For the Daily University Prof., poet and recent Guggenheim fellow Linda Gregerson will be reading from her work tonight at 5 p.m. in Davidson Hall. She has published several books including her most recent book of poems "Waterborne," pub- LIT lished in 2002. Her GREG poems and essays have A appeared in countless At Dav periodicals including Today * The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, and The Best American Poet- ry. Gregerson recently took the time to talk about her poetry with The Michigan Daily. The Michigan Daily: How did you first start writing, poetry specifically? Linda Gregerson: I started writing after I graduated from col- lege, thanks to the intervention of a N E -ids at Jorie Graham, John Ashbery, Louise Gluck, Carl Phillips. TMD: What do you think is one of the biggest misconceptions about poetry? LG: That's it's only suited to address certain kinds of subject in an already aesthetic genre ... that only some feel- ings are appropriate. DA TMD: Do you have RSON any advice for aspiring writers? son Hall LG: Write lots. Read 5 p.m. lots. Do other things in the world that compel you deeply. Anything with a lot of discipline and texture in it whether it's entomology, car repair, public officesor nuclear physics, because submitting yourself to the shape of inquiry is good for poetry and allows you to return to lan- guage fresh. TMD: How has your style of writing changed through the lar speaker ... it's a much more mixed diction. TMD: What's next for you? LG: A new book of poems. Right now I am writing a poem for a British anthology to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." It has to do with cel- lular and molecular biology - very different and interesting for me. entire maps of cities, and each individual city can economi- cally interact with one another. In other words, instead of yawning through the building of one city, players have the A look at the underside of U of M www.universitysecrets.com Sociopolitical Indoctrination In the Classroom? In Orientation? summer internship opportunity Be a Display Advertising Account Executive for the Michigan Daily Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter 03/04 START BUILDINGN (OUR RESUME resumes THIS SUMMER! . Sell advertisino bts Rh" "":local natona MT/anage your own account territory.b ses. Earn Positions ag with a student-r n FT S/PT posit0.. vl/able in SP/SU ers SP/U Ositions ofer slr Plscomm'is0s ion. Fleibe fersalary term s Flexible hours that Pus coM s acation ti ha Work around your ssion k? tme available for rP/ yu trmcls. Management aailc eduaeb. Portunities availaber s. ble 9