4B - Thursday, September 20, 2007 ALBUM ART From page lB rollercoaster on the cover opens the door to an immaculate studio product. ANTHONY BABER ANIMAL COLLECTIVE r Feels Fat Cat 2005 It's hard to " decipher exact- ly what you're looking at on the cover of Feels. But in listening to the album, it makes complete sense. The cover looks like delicate, overlapping pictures: children feeding animals or playing in a park, a small spotted goat. But then there's the decapitation of a young boy that might actually be a rabbit, purple blood or chil- dren painted hot pink - it's grotesque. The collage is impossible to look away from yet it somehow captures the pretense of Ani- mal Collective perfectly. It's utopia blitz- krieged by chaos, and I can't turn my ears away, either. MATT EMERY THE DECEM- - BERISTS_ Her Majesty Kill Rock Stars 2003 It seems like it would be a cop out to have Colin Meloy's girlfriend design the artwork for all of the band's albums. Either he's romantic or totally whipped. But when your girlfriend is Carson Ellis, you'd be insane not to use her skills, and The Decemberists are only slightly insane. The Her Majesty cover shows three war- torn soldiers playing cards, nestled in a bunker surrounded by a blown-out world where only scraps of wood and shades of gray remain. Try not being enthralled by the lyrics of "The Soldiering Life" as they blend into Ellis's recreation. Pretty fucking spectacular, girlfriend or not. MATT EMERY TALKING HEADS : More Songs About Buildings and Food Sire 1978, It's hard to think of Talk- The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com cover pasted over them, while a few promo copies remained in their original state. LLOYD H. CARGO ing Heads without recalling how damn original the group was. Whether in videos or on stage, the band practically defined creativity - remember those - gigantic white suits? But leave it to zany front- man David Byrne to come up with one of the greatest album cover schemes of all time. For 1978's More Songs About Build- ings and Food, Byrne snapped more than 500 close-up Polaroids of the band stand- ing at motionless attention. The result is a photomosaic with a particularly warped effect - no matter how hard Byrne tried to get the proportions right, it always ended up goofy and somehow mildly disturbing - which, of course, is the point. DEREK BARBER JACKSON BROWNE Late for the Sky Asylum 1974 Intended to evoke the style of Rene Magritte, Latefor the Sky's cover may be the most effective piece of surrealism made for an album. Browne personally pitched the idea, and photog- rapher Bob Seidemann called it the "Los Angelization of Magritte." The marked contrast within the photo between the barely twilit neighborhood and the bright, cloudy sky is the visual throwback to Magritte's representational style. The juxtaposition reflects Browne's songwrit- ing trademark - the juxtaposition of som- sad-yet-uplifting tone. MATTRONEY SLINT Spiderland Touch & Go 1991 Taken by resi- dent crazy-dude- Will Oldham, the cover of Slint's masterful Spider- land captures the joyous fear and violence of the album so precisely it shakes souls. The group - submerged in a lake to their chins with deranged smiles - seems to be stalking you, hovering out of the black- and-white fagade. But what's happening below the surface is the mystery. Are they sinking? Are they kicking slowly to stay afloat? Or, given the mythical power of the album, are they simply floating in the water, buoyed by their own insanity? A picture may say a thousand words, but this a tree in a serene field on Lennon/Plastic Ono Band with Lennon's various de "God," "Isolation") shou ful. But then it hits you: J tic Ono Band isn't Lenno demons - it's his goodb primal scream therapy o the hypothetical fingert "God" - these are the t1 purge, and he does. And just believe in me /Yoko ous he means it. Hell, it's said to Yoko just beforee on the cover. the cover of John d. An album filled emons ("Mother," ldn't be so peace- ohn Lennon/Plas- n confronting his JOHN bye to them. The COLTRANE in "Mother" gives Blue Train to the Beatles on Blue Note 1957 hings he needs to when he sings "I In any dis- and me," it's obvi- cussion of great probably what he album art, a men- entering sandman tion of Reid Miles and Francis Wolff's work for the Blue Note CHRIS GAERIG Records label is mandatory. No other design team was able to create such a consistently pleasing aesthetic over such a long period of time. There are hundreds of examples that illustrate their genius, but it's John Col- trane's Blue Train that's their most iconic, and rightfully so. The blue tint over a black- and-white photo of a pensive Trane is both obvious and stunning. LLOYD H. CARGO VELVET UNDER- GROUND Velvet Under- ground & Nico Verve 1967 one doesn't have to. It let talking. ERIC B. & RAKIM Paid in Full 4th and Broadway 1987 A cover only fully understood in retrospect, .;y - Is ber melancholy and dre The cover succeeds in b expression. NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL In the Aeroplane Over the Sea Merge 1998 Thebestalbum art is inseparable from the music,, and such is the case with tral Milk Hotel's In theA amy romanticism. the album art on Paid i 'oth imitation and prolific impact of this 19 often cited as the father BRIAN CHEN rary lyricist, stands alon showered in gold chain and designer clothes. T hip hoppers, the two st confidently as their sta album's opener "I Ain't' see Eric B.'s oversized ch Unit logo, hanging arou twenties in their handsr in their latest video, the hiding their glocks. Paic temporary hip hop befo h the cover of Neu- temporary hip hop. Aeroplane Over the s the album do the Love him or hate him, you CHRIS GAERIG could do a lot worse than getting Andy Warhol to design the album cover for your first record. Eye-catching for its phallic simplicity, VU's debut featured early gim- mick packaging: You can peel the banana. (Warhol would later repeat the trick with - an actual zipper for the Stones's Sticky Fingers.) Legend has it that the first press- ings contained LSD underneath the stick- er, but all most people found was a pink banana. Still, good luck finding an origi- nal copy of the initially overlooked classic n Full typifies the unpeeled and intact. '87 classic. Rakim, LLOYD H. CARGO of the contempo- gside Eric B., both is, diamond rings THE BEATLES rypical of today's Yesterday...and :and stoically and Todoy res anticipate the Capitol 1966 No Joke." You can ain, a spinning G- Sgt. Pepper's nd his neck. The Lonely Hearts rain over strippers Club Band may ir excessive coats be the most d in Full was con- iconic album cover in rock history, but it's re there was con- a different Beatles album that calls itself the iost valuable. The original issue of CHRIS GAERIG Yesterday...and Today, better known to collectors as "The Butcher Cover," fetches up to five digits for sealed copies - not because the music is particularly rare, but because of the controversy surrounding its issuing. The practice of "butchering" the Beatles' U.K. releases by subtracting tracks and rearranging them to create more albums to sell in a rabid U.S. market irked the Beatles, but their lab coats, raw meat and dismembered baby dolls were seen as bad taste by executives. The few that they sleep against had already been printed had a new, -safe THE CLASH London Calling Epic 1979 Mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery, but it's rare that the derivative eclips- es the original. The Clash's greatest effort borrows the design of Elvis's debut, but it ups the ante with a shot of Paul Simonon mid-bass-smashing. The musical similari- ties between The Clash and Elvis might be hard to discern, but the raw energy of both is exactly the same - befittingthe identical covers. LLOYD H. CARGO HERB ALPERT & TH E TIJUANA BRASS Whipped Cream & Other Delights A&M1965 This album is the 25-cent thrift-store staple - but that's more owing to the music contained within than the whip-cream-clad beauty on the cover. Indeed, before the movie "Varsity Blues" there was this album, and there's no doubt that the bold designhelped make this a multi-million seller. It may.seem quaint now, but in 1965 a hint of sexuality on what was basically a lounge jazz album attracted a lot of attention. Fun fact: the model on the cover was pregnant at the time of the shoot. LLOYD H. CARGO *I Sea. The otherworldly, yellowed, vaguely impressionistic rendition of an old post- card is both familiar and bizarre, just like Jeff Mangum's fuzzed-out, noisy pop. Once you've seen the cover, it's impossible to listen to the album's tragicomic mus- ings on everything from Anne Frank's famous diary to two-headed circus side- shows without that strange, drum-headed woman coming to mind. The question of whether the swimmers are playing or drowning perfectly reflects Aeroplane's JOHN LENNON John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band Capitol 1970 It seems - strange looking at John Lennon lying with Yoko Ono as1 MOCAD From page 1B about being with friend Burroughs before and immediately after the author's death 10 years ago. "I kissed him," he read. "An early LP album of us together, 1975, was called Biting Off The Tongue Of A Corpse. I kissed him on the lips, but I didn't doit ... And I should have done it." He performed other poems like "Welcoming the Flowers" and "Thanks For Nothing" in full. "Countless lovers of boundless, fabu- loussex,"herepeatedagainandagain during what he declared the world premiere of "Thanks For Nothing." Giorno had performed it once before, a year earlier at the Howl Festival in New York. But that didn't really count, he said, to an appreciative audience. What worked so well with Gior- no's performance was that it comple- mented, rather than stole attention from, the artwork on display. What Giorno does sonically when he plays with the English language, the 16, installations that comprise "Words Fail Me" do visually. The presenta- tion matters as much as the content. For "Words Fail Me," Higgs has collected posters, paintings, videos and various signage. Some pieces are as deceptively simple. Martin Creed's "Word No. 336" consists of the word FEELINGS in pink neon lighting. Both the medium and the word are ripe with connotation. The louche commercialism of the sign - reminiscent of strip clubs and convenience stores - contrasts the response suggested by the word. Another installation, Ryan Gan- der's "Encrypt Encrypt Encrypt," relies on the absence of language. A trio of television screens play karaoke videos united in their complete lack of words. Instead, bouncing cartoon cues hint at the non-existent lyrics below. Clearly intended to be espe- cially thought provoking, the piece is mostly frustrating. With varied presentation and media (materials in the show include thumb tacks and hand-knitted sweaters), the inherent meaning of a set of words does not always match the message. Anne-lise Coste's drip- ping, blue-black messages paper the walls of the MoCAD's foyer in "Parmi les singes et les signes (trist- esse et beaut)." Alone, and in a dif- ferent setting, the words could mean one thing, but the near illegibility of the painted scrawl creates a differ- ent result. One of the most striking pieces is a three-part poster work by Jer- emy Deller, "Folk Song." Knee-high stacks of posters - available for guests to take home - contain the lyrics to a popular 1960s folk song. One stack is in Arabic, another in English, the last in Hebrew. It's a reminder that no art has a universal reading, especially when translated. "Words Fail Me" illustrates the power of language, and art that can truly speak, if you will. It continues the museum's run of forward-think- ing shows, and the new media atten- tion it has received (partially due to the MoCAD's increasing ability to draw bigger names to its crowd and its walls) should ensure the trend continues. Asian Martial Arts Studio 208 S. 4th Ave. (Close to Campus in downtown Ann Arbor) Aikido , Okinawan Karate , Kungfu and Tai Chi For Men and Women Since 1974 734-994-3620, Website: a2amas.com - YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE CELEBRATION OF LIFE FOR RHETAUG H GRAVES DUMAS, PHD, RN, FAAN 1928-2007 VICE PROVOST EMERITA, DEAN EMERITA AND LUCILLE COLE PROFESSOR OF NURSING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF NURSING SEPTEMBER 21, 2007 AT 3:30 P.M. RACKHAM AUDITORIUM, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN NBC From page 1B "Today" show intern. In retro- spect, I never thought I'd sell out that quickly. Before this internship, I liked to think of myself as a good judge of quality programming, the kind who can tell the differ- ence between streamlined trash and legitimate content, even if my personal tastes didn't always fall in line with those standards. More important, Ibelievedthese distinctions were something to be noted and lived, lest people believe VH1 is the finest televi- sion has to offer. With this mindset I applied for an internship at the "Today" show. I considered the morning news show respectable, a place where Icoulduse Mywritingabil- ity in a serious setting. I believed, hilariously, that my work would, focus primarily on social issues and the war in Iraq. It didn't take long for my moral precipice to crumble into a sea of Type-A corporate climb- ing and irrepressible commer- cialism. I quickly found myself drawn to the business, to the hustle, to getting ahead. I want- ed to sit in on the senior produc- ers' meetings and discuss how "Today" could further its lead in advertising revenues over "Good Morning America." I.wanted to compete with my fellow interns for the plum editing times and most lucrative shooting sched- ules. At 21, I had the attitude of a cutthroat workhorse while many people.10 years my senior still retained some form of hope- ful innocence. Making the (sad?) trans- formation from critical TV viewer to behind-the-scenes intern/bitch is a disorienting experience. The thinly veiled curtain of TV programs is torn away, and a startling new fron- tier emerges. In this world my life became a dizzying blend of 4:30 a.m. wake-up calls and 12- hour workdays. These marathon work sessions were punctuated only by after-hours sin with my co-workers and intra-network softball games. Everything was about NBC. There was even a bar called Channel 4 dedicated to NBC employees that I would frequent for happy hour. After a few weeks of immer- sion into the NBC world and the prompt loss of my soul, I was accepted into the NBC Pilot Pro- gram, where the accepted sum- mer interns would be divided into teams of five and told to create a pitch for a new show - business plan included. The program was set up like the perfect stori of mass-internexploitation:Wewere to create the best possible product for NBC, but only after we signed our ownership rights away. The prize was the chance to pitch the winning product to senior execu- tives on the 52nd floor. Despite the ridiculous condi- tions, I threw myself into the project, spending countless hours in meetings and debating what kind of show would cata- pult NBC back to "Friends"-era ratings power. I learned that cre- ating a TV show has nothing to do with television. The financial plan was a logistical nightmare, since none of the costs could be realistically projected without extensive investigation. Writ- ing the characters became more about why they would appeal to advertisers than connect with the audience. Db you know the cost of a three-quarters-length Web banner on People.com? I do. At the end of all this, wrangling, we came up with a mash-up of "Felicity," "The O.C." and "Ally McBeal" for the 20-something female set. It was supposed to star that chick from "Live Free or Die Hard." Maybe you'll see it in the fall 2012. The derivative conceit of the product aside, my transition to the dark side of the corporate fence played a major role in my team winning it all. Street cred be damned, I emerged the vic- tot ofthe challenge, leaving my competitors in the entry-level dust. Despite the measures I took and the moral sacrifices I made, the sense of self-satisfac- tion I felt was intoxicating. So intoxicating, in fact, was the feeling of corporate achieve- ment that now when I watch TV I think more about demo- graphics and cross-branding opportunities than dialogue or esoteric pop-culture references. I can honestly say that had I been in charge, I too might have cancelled the low-rated gems "Arrested Development" and "Freaks and Geeks" (shudder). I'm not in charge yet, and until that time comes, I will continue to dream up inane PowerPoint pitches and wonder if the viewer inside me is vacant forever.