Friday February 10, 2006 arts. michigandaily. com artspage@michigandaily.com fl e d ii nN UI ART s 5 5 Local Slumber Party to play at the Halfass By Molly Schulman For the Daily Get ready for ladies' night as Detroit's favorite femme-pop phenom Slumber Party heads to the Halfass. The lullaby quin- tet, spearheaded by lead vocalist and songwriter Ali- cia Berg, creates Slumber Party Tonight at 9:30 p.m. At the Halfass ors of life on the road - the V landscapes. Through April 2, visitors can enjoy these images presented in photo- graphs, paintings and wood- block prints in four exhibits at the University of Michigan Museum of Art's "Landscapes of Longing: Journeys Through Memory and Place." UMMA's curators have Landscapes of Longing Now through April 2 Free At UMMA ROTRIGO GAYA/Daily LSA sophomore Will Turner (left) and Engineering junior Leif Knag visit the new UMMA exhibit. assembled a large and diverse project that gives visitors a chance to see the groundbreaking work of several artists spanning decades. Creative interpretations of travel, memory, space and time form an intriguing blend of monuments and land- scapes of the Eastern world. "Passage to Angkor," one of the two photography exhibits, greets viewers on the first floor. Japanese photographer Kenro Izu traveled to Cambodia to capture the majesty of stone mountain temples built during the Khmer Empire in the 9th to 13th cen- turies. Shot in the dim light of dawn and dusk, Izu manipulates his medium to capture the essence of these ancient ruins. By drawing viewers closer, Izu takes them inside the world caught by his lens, transporting them to past ages. The dim light emphasizes and softens the monuments' impressive architectural details. Mov- ing through the exhibit, Izu's pictures unfold into crumbling structures over taken by nature. Large branches and carpets of leaves stake their claim on the ruins; the physical memory of the Khmer Empire becomes slovly erased. Upstairs is another era. The enormously influ- ential style of Ando Hiroshige, famously borrowed by Van Gogh, is showcased in "53 Stages of the Tokaido." The vibrant woodblock prints represent the lives and experiences of road travelers in 19th- century Japan. Hiroshige incorporates brilliant col- ors that saturate his prints and give life to scenes of journeys through towns and landscapes. The sur- really bright colors characterize the buildings and topography around the traveler, adding fantasy and imagination to the journey. But Hiroshige still keeps an element of reality. Heavy snow and rain drench the travelers and their destinations, the effects of the seasons inescapable. With simple strips of pink, orange or gray across the sky, he casts another temporal dimension over the work as the travelers walk through day and night. On such journeys, the landscape dominates, with natural features serving as more notable landmarks than buildings. Hiroshige underscores the travelers' admiration of their surroundings as they stand amid deep blue mountains and green hills. Landscape finds another medium in the third exhibit. "The Idyllic Retreat in Chinese Landscape Painting" displays the talents of various Chinese art- ists from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Nvorks range in size from large hanging scrolls to smaller square paintings. The final exhibit showcases the talents oflcontem- porary Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto in "Time Exposed." His abstract photographs fuse together sky and water. With only his camera, Sugi- moto freezes the essence of these two infinites, giv- ing the photographs weight and gravity despite their absolute stillness. The amazing exhibit takes up nearly two floors of wall space, offering visitors a chance to explore, through an Eastern lens, themes that are univer- sally applicable. quixotic beats that lightly allude to Velvet Underground softly-'60s girl punk. Sharing the Kill Rock Stars label with other indie favorites Deerhoof and Elliott Smith, Slumber Party is a testament to girl power (minus the heinous, patent-leather boots and Union Jack micro-minis). The Detroit-raised rockers formed in 1998 and have since played with tal- ented Michigan neighbors Pas/Cal and the Von Bondies. Slumber Party is known for delighting audiences with tight harmonies and synthesiz- er surprises. Playing with Slumber Party tonight is Showdown at the Equator, old friends of Ann Arbor who have graced the Blind Pig stage several times in the past two years. Another five-member pack, Showdown show- cases Kelly Caldwell on lead vocals vhile her playground posse of boys bop along. Showdown acknowledges their major influences as airy-love-croon- ers The Clientele and San Francis- co's Nedelle & Thom. Like Slumber Party, Showdown's tunes are hum- bly romantic and breezy. Caldwell's hushed and urgent kiddie-whisper rock is reminiscent of recess wed- dings with dandelion bouquets. The final part of tonight's dreamy jamboree is another Detroit band, Marie & Francis. The semi-epony- mous group is comprised of Betty Marie Barnes (of Saturday Looks Good to Me) and Nathanial Francis Burgundy (of Pas/Cal). Both Saturday and Pas/Cal have left major dents in Detroit's music scene, performing other local bands like Great Lakes Myth Society, Elec- tric Six and The Sights. The new col- laboration is certainly one to look forward to. It will mix Saturday's girlish figure with Pas/Cal's charm- ing instrumentation into a new and spunky sip of pop. The performance tonight will strive for an incredible consistency of sound. In some shape or form, various members from Slumber Party, Showdown and Marie & Fran- cis have already met, played with each other, danced with each other and so forth. A fun and comfortable atmosphere is a given. The Halfass is run by the East Quad Music Co-op and is an alcohol-free venue, but tonight's wistful tunes should prove intoxicat- ing enough on their own. Brandon Zwagerman, booker for EQMC shows, said the performance is sure to enchant. "All in all, it should be a night of dreamy indie- pop music. Beautiful vocals and harmonies and charming love songs - perfect for Valentine's Day." t sm