Dumb DMB and
everything else
to leave at home
Getting ready
for college
i is a time we
all remember pretty
well. Even those of
us here at Daily Arts
{ - who spend our
time mired in Ayn
Rand novels and
scratching out post-
high school poetry
- fondly recall the summer between
senior year and the shitload of film
classes we spend the next four years
skipping. I, for instance, recall the real-
ization that I would not, in fact, be able
to transport my entire record collection
to my dorm room.
As incoming college freshmen,
you've no doubt seen several different
lists of things you'll need to bring.
You've gotten a head start on collecting
enough gauze, Ghostwriter markers and
scientific calculators to get you through
the business school pre-requisites. All of
this puts quite a strain on your young,
incoming-freshman muscles. Fortunate-
ly for you, Daily Arts is a section of the
people, and we're all about hooking you
up. Lessening your load. Lending a
helping hand. We're the wind beneath
your winged helmets.
As such, we have compiled a list of
the things you don't need to bring to
school. That's right: the shit that you can
just leave at home for your heathen sib-
lings to pillage. You see, Daily Arts -
the vigilant and unquestioned intellectu-
al think tank of campus - sees a lot of
mistakes. Fashions, music and movies
that shouldn't happen. In addition, we're
always getting letters like "Daily Arts,
how can you help me look like Charlize
F Theron?" or "Daily Arts, I'm fresh out
of Radiohead-soundalikes." We feel your
pain, and we're getting awfully tired of
poor taste. You should avoid many, if
not all, of the following things:
We'll start with the obvious. You will
not, under any circumstance, need your
high school varsity jacket. Don't even
bring it. Nobody cares if you were on the
lacrosse team, and even fewer people
care that you were captain. I mean, con-
gratulations, but consider this whole she-
bang a new beginning. On a similar
note, when looking for a replacement for
said jacket, it's important to avoid North
Face fleeces. You'll be ostracized as the
only one on campus wearing designer
mountain-climbing gear. Tapered jeans
and velour jumpsuits are also must-nots,
and trucker hats are best left to truckers.
Once you've got your wardrobe
ironed out, you can move on to more
subtle indicators of banality. By now,
you've probably amassed some sort of
DVD collection. What you must realize,
however, is that in the dank recesses of
dorm rooms, DVD collections become
badges of honor and the quickest indica-
tor of a person's taste. Therefore, it is
absolutely imperative that you leave
your Adam Sandler collection at home.
"I only like his early stuff," you say,
"Like 'Billy Madison.' "This isunac-
ceptable. If you must get stoned and
watch a terrible movie, please choose
something with more artistic merit, like
"Biodome" or "The Friday After Next'
Personally, I've found that a dog-eared
copy of the Die Hard trilogy is the best
way to win friends. But I digress.
CD collections are another litmus test
of impeccable taste. Dave Matthews
CDs are similar to North Face jackets:
You don't want to be the only one. DMB
clones are equally dangerous: John
Mayer only draws embarrassing excuses
- "My mom bought it"--and I hear
that Howie Day sets off the fire alarms
on North Campus. Your Lil John & the
East Side Boyz side CD will also be use-
less. As it turns out, Ann Arbor has its
own "Kings of Crunk," who manifest
themselves in a chorus of drunken
denizens roaming the sidewalks scream-
ing "Yeeeaaah" and "O-kay!" Trust me,
you won't be able to tell the difference.
Decorating is also tricky. Leave those
black-light Cypress Hill posters at home:
The thug-stoner niche in Ann Arbor is
already filled. Scrap the Anarchy stick-
ers for two reasons: First, you're a mere
four years from being a slave of The
Man anyway, and second, "I love my
Co-op" stickers are infinitely more fash-
ionable and basically serve the same
purpose. Your acoustic guitar is dead
weight as well: East Quad's hallways are
booked through 2010.
And so you ask the inevitable:
Andrew, harbinger of cool, what should
I bring to college? What movies should
I watch? Which Stooges clone do I lis-
ten to? And criminy, can we all look as
good as you? And herein lies the prob-
lem: Only 800 words into your educa-
tion, and you're already dependent on
me. Over the course of your collegiate
lives, you'll find that I consistently dis-
pense quality wisdom like a 1,000
knotted sages beaming their life-alter-
ing truths through the new Twista sin-
c"~~e Is tl
Fall 2004
SECTION D
NEW STUDENT EDITIONf
The Hill is alive
January 8, 2004
By Alexandra Jones
Daily Staff Writer
For a year and a half, Hill Auditorium was an
eyesore and a headache for University students,
faculty and administration. The beautiful red
and tan mosaic that lies between the building
and North University Avenue had been covered
with tarps, bricks, chunks of insulation, dust
and debris. A tall chain-link fence and contrac-
tors' trailers surrounded the site. To make mat-
ters worse, the University Musical Society had
difficulty finding large venues for world-
famous musicians. Academic ceremonies like
convocation had to be held elsewhere. The
School of Music's large ensembles were forced
to relocate concerts to less-than-ideal settings
such as the Michigan Theater.
Hill Auditorium, dedicated on June 25, 1913,
was in dire shape before the renovation. The
brick pattern that lies in front of the building's
stately white columns was faded and damaged.
Aesthetically, Quinn Evans Architects repaired
and reworked the brick mosaic, cleaned and
replaced exterior doors, windows and lettering
and repaired or replaced roof tiles.
Band-O-Rama, an annual fundraising concert
that features the University of Michigan Sym-
phony Band, Concert Band and Marching
Band, had to be eliminated in 2002 and 2003.
Symphony Band concerts featuring the music
of John Phillip Sousa and George Gershwin
were held at the Michigan Theater to substitute
for Band-O-Rama, and the Collage Concert
was relocated to the Power Center.
But the scheduling problems and ugly con-
struction are finally gone. At 1 o'clock this
afternoon, Hill Auditorium's status as a historic
site will be reaffirmed by an unveiling ceremo-
ny.
"You've got a great hall that's large. It's half
the size of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and
Avery Fisher Hall (the former home of the New
York Philharmonic)," said Fischer.
There's no question that Hill is a hallowed
site for the performing arts. Musicians, like
vocalists Jessey Norman, Cecilia Bartolli and
Enrico Caruso, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and bandleader
and jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman have per-
formed there. Leonard Bernstein conducted the
See HILL, Page 9D
Ornette Coleman jazzes up Hill
March 22, 2004
By Andrew Horowitz
Daily Staff Writer
C
Moments before the lights dimmed, a
white, overweight sound man dressed in run-
ning shorts and a T-shirt took the stage to
make last-minute adjust- _
ments. Just as he was fin-
ishing, someone asked, Ornette
"Is that him? Is that Coleman
Ornette Coleman?" Friday, March 19th
While humorous and At Hill Auditorium
very naive, this question
is telling. While many who attended Friday
night's sold-out concert at Hill Auditorium
had heard Coleman, many came because they
only had heard of Coleman. And while a
name attracts, the whole scenario is too remi-
niscent of a concert in New Jersey that paired
pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist
Wayne Shorter. After just minutes, the audi-
ence was reduced by almost half. The fact is,
no one anticipated hearing cerebral, complex
interchange between two musicians with little
showmanship. Given that Hancock and Short-
er are no radicals, what would greet a musi-
cian that decades ago challenged the very
concept of music?
Ornette Coleman took the stage to a stand-
ing ovation, dressed in a powder-blue suit,
looking like a leader ready to preach to his
people. Within moments, Tony Falanga and
Greg Cohen supplied frenetic bass while son
Denardo Coleman pounded away on drums.
With the air charged, Coleman entered on alto
saxophone and played a floating melody that
dripped in affecting harmony. The contrast
between Coleman's fluid lines and the band's
cacophonic spirit helped create the sound of
the evening, a sound invented by Ornette.
See COLEMAN, Page 9D
Solo Ben Folds not so lonely
April 5, 2004
By Scott Seala
Daily Staff Writer
CONCE RT REVIEw
Since his days fronting Ben Folds Five, the
North Carolina-born songwriter Ben Folds
has built a live reputation for turn-on-a-dime
spontaneity, improvising arrangements,
setlists and even new
songs to please a crowd. Ben Folds
At their best, Folds's Saturday, April 3rd
recent string of solo At Hill Auditorium
piano tours have been
orchestrated sing-alongs, calibrated to
reward the militant sects of BFF loyalists
who stuck by Folds as he embarked on his
solo career. Admitting to being booked at
more intimate venues "and gymnasiums,"
Folds might have felt slightly distant from
the audience in the cavernous Hill Auditori-
um on Saturday.
Kicking off with "There's Always Some-
one Cooler than You" from the Sunny 16 EP,
Folds leapt from one end of his catalogue to
another all night long, pulling out the pre-
Five classic "Silver Street" and debuting
almost a half-dozen new tracks. In his ongo-
ing stage banter, Folds acknowledged he's
unsure about exactly what shape his next
record will take until tunes like the Elliott
Smith tribute "Too Late" or the yet-unfin-
ished "Breakup at the Food Court" find their
feet in concert.
Folds was slightly subdued because he
was playing on an unfamiliar piano as
See BEN FOLDS, Page 9D
Top Left: JtF LMLENET/ually, Middle: Courtesy oR Knino, Bottom Left: SCUl TEILLA/Daily, ADove: SUUBHA OHI/Daily
The newly renovated Hill auditorium played host to a number of events, including jazz legend Omette Coleman and Ben Folds.
BOW TO TI)e klNG
TRilOGy CONCLU)ES iN EpiC FASiON
OBITUARIES
January 6, 2004
By Ryan Lewis
Daily StaffWriter
The end has come. Peter Jackson's
unenviable task of adapting J.R.R.
Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" which
began just a few years ago has now offi-
cially concluded with the release of "The
Return of the King." As sad as it is to
know that no more are coming, this final
chapter of the greatest fantasy epic in lit-
erary history now provides the single
most gratifying movie-going experience
of our generation and makes Jackson's
creation the finest trilogy in film history.
From start to finish, from the largest
landscape to the most minute detail, the
end of Middle Earth's Third Age is craft-
ed with perfect execution. "Return of the
King" embodies the emotion
of "The Fellowship of
the Ring" with flaw-
less perform-
ances and
dwarfs
, the battle
at Helm's
Deep in
"The Two Towers" with a massive attack
on Minas Tirith, the last stronghold of
men in the realm of Gondor. Even the
lengthy, sentimental denouement is heart-
felt and impressive, not to mention well
deserved, considering it put more than
100 pages of Tolkien's writing into a
mere 25 minutes of film.
While it in many ways has the most
significant departures from Tolkien, each
transformation or omission is ultimately
forgivable, even laudable, in light of the
fantastic result. Still, Jackson's faithful-
ness to the novel is on par with "The
Godfather," and his visual poetry rivals
even the most emotive scenes in any tear-
jerker in sheer poignancy.
"Return of the King" opens in the past
when Gollum (Andy Serkis) was still
Smeagol at the moment he comes upon
the ring, or more exactly, when his broth-
er, Deagol, finds the ring. After a star-
tling montage of Smeagol's deterioration
into the creature Gollum, the story con-
tinues where "The Two Towers" conclud-
ed. Smeagol has officially been taken
over by his evil self-doppelganger and
leads Sam (Sean Astin) and Frodo (Elijah
Wood) into the depths of Mordor.
Though Sam suspects Gollum's disposi-
tion as a villain, Frodo refuses to go on
without him.
Outside the walls of Mor-
dor, the rest of the fellow-
ship braces the good
men of Middle Earth
See LOTR,
Page 9D
Courtesy of
American
Recordings
Taking It
to the
man.
JOHNNY CASH
1932-2003
One of the greatest voices in American music,
singer/songwriter Johnny Cash, died in Nashville Sept. 12,
2003, at the age of 71. Battling pneumonia and stomach
problems late in life, he ultimately died of complications
from diabetes just four months after wife June Carter Cash
passed away. He will be remembered for his gritty bari-
tone, which created a modern white man's interpretation of
gospel singing styles, transforming country and rock
music over more than five decades. The Man in Black, as
he was known, often called his voice "The Gift." By its
presence, his work was suffused with honesty and world-
weariness, telling both of everyman struggles and his own
personal demons, including a long-fought amphetamine
addiction.
He wrote more than 1,500 songs, enjoyed great success
in the '50s and '60s, when he had over 100 country hits,
resurging in popularity more than once in later years. His
most famous album, Folsom Prison Blues, documented his
appeal as the quintessential outlaw poet in a live perform-
ance at the prison. Hits included "I Walk the Line,' "Boy
Named Sue" and "Ring of Fire."
In the early 1960s he met a 19-year-old Bob Dylan who
told Cash, "Man, you are truly beautiful," and thus began
an important relationship. In later life he collaborated with
Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings as
wrote of him, "a walking contradiction,
partly fiction."
partly truth and
- Steve Cotner
RAY CHARLES
1930-2004
Legendary musician Ray Charles passed away in Bever-
ly Hills, Calif., on June 10, 2004. He was 73. An accom-
plished pianist and saxophonist, Charles fused blues,
gospel, jazz and country and was integral in the develop-
ment of soul music.
Charles was born to a poverty-stricken family in Albany,
Ga. During his youth, he experienced much hardship.
When he was five, he witnessed the drowning death of his
younger brother, George; he went blind from glaucoma at
age seven, and he lost both of his parents by age 15.
Charles overcame the adversity in grand fashion, playing
piano at age three and learning to read and write music in
Braille while at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and
Blind as a teenager.
During his lifetime, he had 32 songs reach the charts,
including three No. 1 hits ("Georgia,""Hit the Road Jack"
and "I Can't Stop Loving You") and won 12 Grammy
Awards, most of them during the 1960s. He performed
well into his old age, making his last public appearance in
April in Los Angeles, where his recording studios were
designated as a historic monument.
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