The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Tuesday, November 7, 2006 - 5

Building on art

'Ganging up' on Guster
PERENNIAL COLLEGE FAVORITE TO PLAY HILL AUDITORIUM

Architecture for the people,
by the people. Sounds
ideal and democratic,
right? It's also from across the
pond. Apparently, a British con-
servative think tank has come up
with the idea for an "X-List," a
public poll of undesirable
public buildings, to be -
implemented in the near
future if the country's
political winds blow to
the right. Condemned
eyesores would be dis-
cussed for three months
before a final decision is
made whether or not to ANDI
demolish them.
And it's not just about SARG
aesthetics. Issues of KLEI]
abandonment and social
blight are key in determining a
building's value - or lack thereof.
This policy would give the
people a direct say in how their
cityscape evolves around them.
New York City's exhausting fight
against Donald Trump and his
towers comes to mind: Should the
public have the last, legitimate say
in terms of public architecture?
It certainly happens with art.
The classic example is Richard
Serra's "Tilted Arc" from 1981, a
10-foot-high, 120-foot-long black
arc that extended across the
breadth of New York City's Federal
Plaza. As a result of widespread
public outcry, the sculpture was
dismantled in 1989.
The response was singular: Ser-
ra's piece was seen both as a symbol
of elitist art and in practical terms
did nothing to improve the plaza's
overall comfort.
Is architecture not an art to be
debated on the same grounds? The
plans for the University's North
Quad were scrapped for their lack
of aesthetic cohesion. The Frieze
Building, intended to be demol-
ished in favor of North Quad, found
many staunch defenders declaim-
ingthe building's historical(and
for some, visual) value. Stipulations
in the original Law Quad contract
decreed that any expansion would
have to be executed in matching
rusticated stone and Gothic revival
architecture. As a result, the signifi-
cant library expansion went under-
ground - literally. A little further
away, in Paris, the Louvre's 1989
renovation, specifically Ieoh Ming
Pei's glass Louvre Pyramid, sparked
much public debate.
And our own Big House? Not
only is it the current renovation
a subject of intense debate, but
don't forget 1998's maize and blue
"halo," a costly project that ulti-
mately was taken down due to sig-
nificant public outrage.
Public dialogue and compro-

N

mise regarding architecture is the
norm, we might think (Trump and
his towers notwithstanding), but
the Brits' radical X-List plan would
take the debate one step further.
The hope is that in time Britain's
cities and their architecture would
be revitalized on abroad
scale - assuming there are
enough developers eager
to make use of the new
free space.
It could be argued that
such an approach would
keep both egregious and
ahead-of-the-curve archi-
EW tecture out of the skyline.
How can the average citi-
US zen indiscriminately deter-
mine "bad" and "good"
architecture? Such a ques-
tion hardly seems relevant consid-
ering that a popular consensus is,
well, popular. Cities would begin to
reflect the wishes of their inhabit-
ants, not those with the money.
Corporations and the avant-garde
be damned.
Be that as it may, a "jury" of
architects, engineers and urban
planners would eventually lay
down the law, so the power is not
completely in the hands of the pub-
The power of the
people can govern
a city's image.
lic. There is also the issue that once
buildings are torn down, new ones
need to take their place. This might
be easy in the upper West Side or
downtown London, but Detroit? A
D-town X-List list would be long,
filled with abandoned and forgot-
ten buildings.
(Consider: Object Orange, a
Detroit based artist collective
responsible for painting con-
demned buildings in virulent
orange as a means to highlight
rampant urban blight. Currently,
approximately 7,000 buildings are
abandoned, and only 2,000 are
marked for demolition.)
The X-List concept is certainly
viable, but only in economically
secure regions. It doesn't matter
how unpleasant and/or unneces-
sary a building is if there's no one
willing to replace it. But the notion
of an X-List speaks to a great need:
cohesive, communal urban devel-
opment.
Our cities would be all the more
beautiful because we helped make
them so - ideal and plausible.
- E-mail Klein at
andresar@umich.edu.

By ELIE ZWIEBEL music any way they can. Since the
Daily Arts Writer band's days as Tufts University
undergrads and their first album
Guster's stage on Tuesday night Parachute (1994), Guster has main-
won't be a pulpit - at least accord- tained a strong tie to their fan base.
ing to Ryan The band relies heavily upon word-
Miller, vocal- Guster of-mouth advertisement. And even
ist and ,gui- though Miller said red states have
tarist for the 7:30p.m. recently "picked up the slack" and
eternal college $24.50-$27.50 become a better crowd, he and the
band Guster. rest of the bandmembers still love
Despite the At Hill Auditorium their blue-state audiences.
fact that the With such a strong devotion to
band's Ann Arbor stop falls on Elec- entertainment, Guster keeps its per-
tion Day, Miller said the band's rela- formances structured around what
tionship with fans and politics is a the fans loves.
specific one. "Guster may play songs (the band
"You know, we're not Rage doesn't) necessarily like, but people
Against The Machine, System of a like hearing," Miller said. He even,
Down or even Barbara Streisand for admitted that the band's ever-evolv-
that matter," Miller said. ingsound may divide fans, especially
Whatever the occasional political with the range between Parachute's
undertones on Ganging Up On The coffee-house acoustic ballads to the
Sun, Guster's most recent album, instrumental experimentation on
Miller doesn't want the band to Ganging Up On The Sun. But Guster
become political commentators. will continue catering to listeners
While he's willing to encourage fans in concert as long as their fans con-
to get interested in band member tinue to support them.
Adam Gardner's environmentalist "We're a different band from
group, Reverb, he avoids polarizing Parachute ... And I know we're
fans by preaching partisan beliefs gonna drive some fans away with
during a performance. our newer sound. But hopefully our
But that doesn't mean he won't music has evolved with our fans.
take a public stance on pertinent All bands have to grow and change.
political issues. He laughed about Hopefully, we've evolved together,"
overfishing being the greatest prob- Miller said.
lem facing the United States, but Guster's sense of humor helps
then quickly talked about his dis- keep their public politics at a non-
taste for the current "administra- partisan level and their fans com-
tion and ... extreme religious right ing back for more. Miller joked
that's dictating our social system." about preferring to get drunk with
He admitted the accusations against Bob Dole over Dan Quayle: "I can't
Reverend Ted Haggard were enough imagine Dan Quayle being any fun!"
to get him fired up for the day. He also said, strongly, that he would
Instead of spouting political ide- avoid being Mark Foley's intern at all
als from the stage, Guster encour- costs. Even, he added, if that meant
ages fans to relate to the group's being an intern for Bill Clinton.

Guster will play tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Hill Auditorium.

Regardless of whether the audi-
ence prefers the bongo and djem-
be-heavy croons of "Rocketship"
on Goldfly (1996) or the '80s retro-
pop beat in "Diane" off of Keep It
Together (2003), Guster will surely
provide ample onstage entertain-
ment tonight. With hijinks ranging
from a mid-performance break to
piss in a Nantucket Nectarsbottle at
Princeton to opening for themselves
under the disguise of jam-band
"Trippin' Balls," Guster's previous

concert antics guarantee a strong
show for Hill Auditorium.
After playing to a packed house
at The Michigan Theater last year,
Guster is now taking on the Hill.
The auditorium's singular acoustics
should be a powerful supplement to
Guster's harmonicvocals and eclec-
tic drum beats. Politics and differ-
ences aside, Guster's Election Day
concert promises to be an entertain-
ing combination of humor and non-
mainstream pop music.

'Flushed' goes beyond obvious toilet humor

By BLAKE GOBLE care abo
Daily Arts Writer After
-- ---~ - ----- sew er ra

Let's get this out of the way
now: Aardman's new animated
film "Flushed
Away" is one * **
long, extended
poop joke. Flushed
But how Away
polished it is. At the Showcase
Filled to the and Quality16
brim with DreamWorks
endless inven-
tion and amazingly faithful CGI,
"Flushed Away" is one of this year's
finest works of animation. Criti-
cally lauded Aardman Animations
("Wallace & Gromit") finds that
rarebalancebetweendistinguished
British wit and crassly overactive
American filmmaking.
Roddy is a house rodent - prissy,
upscale and straight out of Kens-
ington, England. He's also very
lonely. Voiced excellently by Hugh
Jackman, he's a typical lead for a
kids-aimed cartoon, his character
making the traditional journey of
learning to look beyond appear-
ances. But Roddy benefits from a
deeper rendering - you actually

crude vi
a Jacuz
though i
Cla3
CG
and,
who wii
variation

ut him. by Andy Serkis (Gollum in "Lord of
a tiff with a runaway the Rings"), a psychotically cockney
t, Roddy tries to flush the vermin, and Bill Nighy ("Love Actu-
sitor down the toilet: "It's ally"), a former lab-rat albino who
zi," Roddy assures him, still suffers from the effects, albeit
n the end Roddy is the one with a terrifically dry wit. "I used to
be gray, you know," he mumbles.
Perhaps the film's strongest per-
formance is that of the evil Toad
ymation goes (Ian McKellan, "Gods & Mon-
 sters"). With slimy charm, he bit-
terly recalls his fall from the royal
quirks intact. family - flushed down the loo by a
young Prince Charles.
"Flushed Away" marks Aard-
man's first departure from clayma-
nds up flushed away. In a tion, and it's a smooth transition.
n on the fish-out-of-water He still pays homage to the stunted

motions of its previous clay works,
even emulating herky-jerky char-
acter movement, and maintains the
big eyes and smooth skin of their
characteristic style.
Like the rest of the recent cartoon
crop, sight gags take the film from
one dizzying series of references
and in-jokes to another. American
tourist rats mix nimbly with French
mime frogs. Heinz baked bean cans
serve as engines; the Vegas style of
Tom Jones gets mocked in a perfor-
mance sequence; there's even a joke
about Hugh Jackman as Wolverine
on Broadway. It's all rather spastic
andunrelenting, butifyou cankeep
up, it's fun.

narrative, Roddy is introduced to
a world of crazy-ass sewer crit-
ters, including thug rats, royal
toads, French frog jokes and other
such amenities. He then discovers
a fiendish plot to eliminate his new
friends - and resolves that it must
be stopped.
And there's no small aid from
interesting side characters. Kate
Winslet's Rita is Roddy's main
companion, spunky, tomboyish and
completely adorable. The villain-
ous flunkies are hysterically voiced

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