Friday
December 2, 2005
arts. michigandaily. com
artspage@michigandaily.com
e TSitlogan Baitt
Rr s
0
8
'Messiah' to perform at Hill
By Kristine Michel
Daily Arts Writer
As students write term papers and cram
for final exams, it may be easy to forget
that Christmas is right around the cor-
0
ner. For those looking
to share in the holiday
spirit, the University
Musical Society is pre-
senting a performance
by the UMS Choral
Union and the Ann
Arbor Symphony
Orchestra of George
Frederic Handel's Mes-
siah. Performances will
Handel's
Messiah
Saturday, Dec.
3 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Dec.
4 at 2 p.m.
Tickets $10430
At Hill Auditorium
Courtesy of UMS
be held at Hill Audito-
rium on Dec. 3 and 4. This festive yearly
tradition marks the 127th performance
of Messiah by the UMS Choral Union.
The piece describes redemption through
Christ in a series of movements taken
from the Bible.
Under the direction of their conductor,
Music Prof. Jerry Blackstone, a 220-mem-
ber chorus made up of Ann Arbor com-
munity members and University alumni,
as well as four lead vocalists, will perform
this famed concert. One talented musi-
cian returning to Hill is lead tenor Robert
Breault, who has entertained audiences
worldwide.
Breault attended graduate school at
the University and completed a doctorate
degree in 1991. "It is a thrill to come back
after 15 years and perform at Hill again,"
he said. He's no stranger to Handel's Mes-
The UMS Choral Union at last year's event.
siah; the piece was one of his first major
performances with the Lansing Symphony
Orchestra over a decade ago. Now, back in
Ann Arbor, he has the chance to recon-
nect with the community he was a part of
before his music career went international.
Breault commented that he could use this
opportunity to perform in this UMS tra-
dition "to tap into a lot of memories and
personal experiences."
Each year, UMS brings together four
new leading vocalists to transform Han-
del's music and add variety to the annual
performance. For Breault, these musicians
and the chorus create a "live and wonder-
ful community spirit."
Regardless of listeners' religious affili-
ation, the music of Messiah still possesses
a universal appeal. According to Breault,
"If you have a strong Christian faith, it can
be an illuminating piece and liturgical
in your heart. You can be an atheist and
enjoy it because of the drama and music."
Because the piece has been so popular
since its first performance in Dublin in
1742, it stands out as a great milestone in
Western music and a holiday tradition.
Attendance at this performance allows
University students and Ann Arbor resi-
dents to become a part of this long-stand-
ing UMS tradition. Breault especially
encourages students to see a classical con-
cert before their college career ends. "If
you don't see a live musical performance,
it's like not seeing the Wolverines play in
the Big House," he remarked.
If Hill Auditorium is like the "Big
House" of outstanding concert venues,
then Handel's Messiah serves as an excel-
lent kickoff to the holiday season.
CAITLIN KEIRDail y
LSA sophomore Marty Stano at the opening of a Darfur exhibit in the Pendleton Room in the Michigan Union
Thursday night.
EYES OF A CHILD
DRAWINGS REVEAL A NEW VIEW OF TURMOIL IN DARFUR
Joel's catalog wears thin on Lies
By Kimberly Chou
Daily Arts Writer
"For the longest time ... Billy Joel fans have been
waiting for the ultimate collection,"
declares the album cover. "This is
it." Key word: fans. At some point Billy Joel
in every piano man's career - after My Lives
attempts at classical music, sobriety Sony
and marrying a college co-ed - a
five-disc epic of a hits collection is
inevitable.
My Lives is Billy Joel's attempt at summarizing his
career, thus far, in recordings. Four audio discs and a
DVD span his greatest pop music hits as well as his not-
so-essential piano compositions.
To give Joel credit, his ability to churn out piano ditties
people want to hear has kept him on the radio for the last
three decades. "New York State of Mind" is pretty hard
to resist with it's sentimental, lyrical imagery, especially
when re-released live after Sept. 11.
Taking advantage of his star-power, Joel duets with
Stevie Winwood and the late Ray Charles on My Lives
and also records versions of Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan
standbys. However, a more concise double-album would
have been adequate - the concert DVD, with 15 of his
most celebrated tunes, is easier to swallow for casual Joel
listeners. While it's nice to hear the original recordings
of "Piano Man," listening through the reverb on numer-
ous demos is more of a headache than an exciting bonus.
With many of the songs on My Lives, Joel is either
making a valiant attempt at including the breadth of his
catalog or trying to make as much money as possible. It's
as if Joel couldn't decide exactly which songs were his
By Andrew Klein
Daily Arts Writer
The representation of catastrophic war and its deface-
ment of humanity is not only a necessity, but a moral
obligation. Mass media and
independent activism, whether at
odds or in collaboration, provide Darfur Drawn:
the public with the majority of The Conflict in
its information. Another avenue Darfur Through
of interpretation that has provid- Children's Eyes
ed profound insight despite fre-
quent marginalization is artistic At the Michigan Union
expression. At the Michigan
Student Union Arts Lounge and
running through the end of the month, "Darfour Drawn:
The Conflict in Darfur Through Children's Eyes,"
allows visitors to understand the pressing situation in
Sudan through possibly the most cathartic way avail-
able: the children living in the eye of the storm.
The exhibit is made possible by the national student
group "Students Taking Action Now: Darfur." Founded
by Alison Barral in 2004 at Georgetown University,
STAND isin the words of RC Junior and group mem-
ber, Margaret Glass, "a group of students committed
to bringing more awareness to campus about the geno-
cide." The group is collaborating with Human Rights
Watch researchers Dr. Annie Sparrow and Olivier Ber-
cault, who were sent to Sudan to document the ongo-
ing atrocities resulting from attacks on the Fur, Masalit,
Zaghawa and other ethnic groups.
The government is believed to be involved in at least
some of the attacks, since there have been air raids and
other acts of violence utilizing machines of war that
are probably under the government's control. The ram-
ifications of these actions include scores of decimated
villages, countless rape cases and the disenfranchise-
ment of at least two-million Sudanese. During Sparrow
and Bercault's interviews with parents, teachers and
refugee camp leaders, the researchers asked children to
draw whatever they felt. It produced a highly emotional
body of art that directly deals with the war through
children's eyes.
The exhibit consists of reproductions of the chil-
dren's art, and has been circling through the country
with Human Rights Watch. Each image is as emo-
tionally intense as the next. Their simplicity and
straightforwardness only enhance this feeling. Com-
mon images throughout the drawings include planes
unloading bombs on villages, camels and horses car-
rying machine gunners and general scenes of soldiers
pillaging and murdering. There are even direct refer-
ences to rape, seen in 13-year-old Mahmoud's drawing
of government soldiers taking women by the hand, with
dead bodies littering the foreground. The realization
that these images are inspired by eyewitness accounts
is heartbreaking. The viewer is unavoidably drawn into
the nightmarish world these children must live in, and
the overwhelming sense of despair in these drawings
looms over the display. The children's names have been
changed to protect them, but such a measure seems
pointless if the scenes represented in their art are daily
realities.
The images are monumental in their appeal to the
basic human concern for children and for the inno-
cent. Personal security seems trite when regarding the
illustrations, and the exigency of the situation is clear.
Although Glass admitted, "It's really difficult to be able
to relate to people we have nothing in common with,"
she went on to emphasize that "there is (a sense of) a
shared humanity."
An exhibit such as this might not seem ideal for a
quick stop after a cup of coffee, but students and locals
alike should understand the importance of this exhibit
and what it represents. In his "Letter From a Birming-
ham Jail," Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." This rings
especially true with this exhibit in mind. As long as
atrocities such as the crisis in Darfur continues to go
unchecked, the children of each generation will contin-
ue to produce images such as these and carry memories
of blood and hatred for the rest of their lives.
0
Courtesy ot sony
"I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch."
greatest hits and instead incorporated as much as possible
to cover all the bases. Most of Disc 1 and Disc 4 is unnec-
essary, though some of the collection's most interesting
moments come with Billy's bar band days and "Amplifier
Fire" with heavy metal group Attila (Yes, heavy metal,
and yes, Attila as in "the Hun").
Unless you're a huge Joel fan, listening to these CDs
will involve a great deal of skipping. "Only the Good Die
Young," "She's Got a Way," "New York State of Mind,"
"Movin' Out," and "Christie Lee" are separated semi-
chronologically. "Allentown" and "We Didn't Start Fire"
- possibly the strangest, Ho Chi Minh-referencing song
to hit the Billboard charts - only show up on the DVD.
My Lives is "ultimate" in the sense that nearly every
phase of Joel's career gets its due, but more than five
hours of the piano man is an easy-listening overdose.
0
Ohioans emerge with
help from D-town scene :
John Mayer revels in
live blues side-project
By Kimberly Chou
Daily Arts Writer
Banking on a talent and their skinned-
knees gritty sound, The Greenhornes are
trying to make it as
one of the harder-
rocking bands to
come out of Cincin-
nati. They'd make
a very good Detroit
band - and they
The
Greenhornes
Sewed Soles
V2
except maybe a little beer spilled down
their shirtfronts for appearance. Guitar
solos jangle and ring through the chorus,
turning acidic when they mesh with per-
cussion. Vocals are yelped as often as pos-
sible, as if howling "(I) Can't Stand It" and
"Don't Come Running To Me" makes the
sentiment somehow more effective.
But it's not difficult to detect the band's
pop sensibility. Witness how the mournful
female vocalist on "The End of the Night"
nearly steals the song, while a surfer lilt
sneaks into "Stay Away Girl." Patrick
Keeler's kit steers Sewed Soles in a snarky,
boy's-club direction. When songs verge
on delicate, The Greenhornes back off -
Keeler's drumming either pushes ahead
of the beat or slinks seductively behind,
keeping Motown call-and-response pas-
sages unfinished and off-kilter.
Although certainly not inexperienced,
supporting everyone from Loretta Lynn to
Kim Deal for the past decade, The Green-
Courtesy of V2
Dude, I know the hair is tricky, but you gotta stop thinking he's a girl.
By Luke Gyure
For the Daily
almost are, with local boys Brendan Ben-
son and Jack White as producers. Hell, if
they weren't from the Buckeye state, they
would have undoubtedly been blessed and
cursed as a member of the Detroit garage-
rock revival.
The Greenhornes want you to think
they're completely stripped down: three
guys, three instruments, no pretense
hornes play with an enthusiasm much like
a kid-garage group playing its first show.
For all of their potential, The Green-
hornes actually have the same factors
going against them as they do in their
favor. V2 Records labelmates and produc-
ers White and Benson also happen to be
their bandmates in the Raconteurs, and
they're currently opening on the Stripes's
European tour - it's not exactly satisfy-
ing to be forever associated with'someone
else's side-project or backing band.
The sound is raw, but the band isn't
by any means green - another few
years touring for Jack and Meg and The
Greenhornes should be able to emerge out
from the shadow of their friends from the
Motor City.
Try!, the third live release from
pop-guitarist John Mayer, features the
John Mayer Trio. With drummer, Steve
Jordan and bass-
ist, Pino Paladino, John Mayer
Mayer swerves Trio
into the realm of
jazz, which he, a
classically trained Aware
guitarist, has a
long, oft forgotten affinity for. Jordan
and Paladino have worked with every-
one from James Brown to Phil Collins
and D'Angelo. To say the very least,
Mayer is in good company.
The three dance around each other,
filling in the musical gaps with aston-
ishing clarity of purpose. It is the
dynamic of a jazz group with a rock
vocabulary - a tribute to the timeless
trio format of acts like Cream, The
Jimi Hendrix Experience and The
Police.
From the first few bars of xhe open-
ing track, "Who Did You Think I
Was," it is clear that if nothing else,
this album will showcase a rawer,
funkier side of Mayer. In this song,
which follows his trend of cocky, self-
01
FOK.U.S. opens up artistic discussion on AIDS
original track, but derives from slow,
dirty, behind-the-beat blues tunes.
"Another Kind of Green," is slightly
closer to typical John Mayer songs,
but is right out of the Hendrix school
of rhythm guitar. The trio even cov-
ers the Hendrix tune, "Wait Until
Tomorrow."
Though they play the hell out of
each of these songs, the musicianship
is futile without an interesting context.
The most compelling songs are those
without multiple guitar solos. "Grav-
ity" is a poignant ballad in which
Mayer channels a Martin Sexton vocal
nuance. On "Vultures," Mayer struts
over a "Billie Jean"-inspired beat
and bassline with the bouncy electric
guitar approach he honed on his last
By Anthony Baber
Daily Arts Writer
All over the world. the AIDS enidemic is taking
Black & Brown and the Black Student Union, is host-
ing "Hear Me," a night dedicated to honoring, remem-
bering and educating the University community about
the worldwide AIDS/HIV epidemic today at 9 p.m. at
the Michigan League Underground.
F.O.K.U.S. is an organization founded at the Univer-
Executive member of F.O.K.U.S. and the show's
organizer Allison Maritza Lasky said the group's
main goal is to encourage people to share their art
among peers as a means to bridge various gaps. "We
will be featuring poets, members of our U of M com-
munity who have been directly affected by the epi-
I