4B - Thursday, November 29, 2007

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

M61ange: your next big-date location.
MELANGE
From page 1B
tle bit different, as opposed to
entrees, salads and appetizers."
The menu -developed by
the restaurant's original execu-
tive chef and revised by current
executive chef John Iverson
- is sophisticated but accessible.
One of the signature dishes is
the "River Rock," an interactive
appetizer in which strip streak is
served and cooked at your table
on a rock warmed up to 500
HAMAN/Daily degrees. Other popular choices
include seared scallops in a Tam-
arind chili Yin Yang sauce and an

8-ounce filet of beef served over
whipped potato and haricot vert.
Also catching on, Martin said, is
the sushi, whether by itself or as
part of a meal.
Service is equally important as
the food. Martin, who attributes
his focus on customer service to
his work at the Ritz-Carlton in
Dearborn, said that "it takes a
little bit more than just throwing
the food on the table" and that
dining out should be a memora-
ble experience.
M6lange works to serve every-
one, from the groups that capi-
talize on the restaurant's private
party room and 77-inch screen to
the stressed-out student that just

wants to unwind with a glass of
one of the 1,500 bottles of wine in
the house.
Martin said the restaurant
is very student-friendly. Happy
hour, with half-off all appetiz-
ers and drinks, is 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, and live
bands and DJs provide music
Tuesday through Saturday with
no cover charge.
Feel free to stick to $4 beers
all night, but more adventurous
students can move on to a glass
of wine recommended by Mar-'
tin, who also serves as the res-
taurant's sommelier. Go ahead
- Tom Colicchio would want it
that way.

A little of this (above right), a little of that (above left), a little love (not picture).

BEER
From page lB
And these brewers are bringing
home the medals to prove it.
"We've won a couple different
awards. Our Bam beer was select-
ed by Men's Journal as one of the
best 50 beers in the world," Jeffries
said.
Ben Grabill, manager of Beer
Depot on William Street in Ann
Arbor added that Michigan won
nine medals at the Great American
Beer Festival last year.
"Michigan has become a mecca
for beer now - hands down one of
the best beer states," Grabill said.
The Pumpkin is also a member
of the Michigan Brewers Guild, a
10-year-old group committed to the
advancement of Michigan brewers,
helping them gain acclaim while
also bringing quality ales to beer
drinkers in Michigan. Jeffries said
HORROR
From page 1B
as much as it does the audience for
the sake of a soulless, nonsensical
downer.
But as vial as Darabont's aims for
"The Mist" turned out to be, and as
utterly inane as that final sequence
is, the ending is worth discussion
outside of its merits because I imag-
ine the opposite conclusion - even
one as simple as allowing the.char-
acters to disappear into the mist
with no indication of their fate -
would likely have inspired an even
more averse reaction from much of

it's one of the nation's best.
"There are maybe one or two
other states that are as organized
as the Michigan Brewers Guild,"
Jeffries said.
The guild holds two annual,
seasonal events. The biggest is the
Summer Beer Festival, which cel-
ebrated its 10th anniversary this
year in Ypsilanti. The guild also
hosts the Winter Beer Festival,
which Graham said is expanding
as well.
"It has been in Lansing, but we'll
be moving because we've outgrown
that spot," he said.
Information is passed through
the channels set up by local and
national guilds, allowing the craft
beermarkettogrowsteadilyaround
the country. The Michigan Brewers
Guild is one of the oldest brewers'
guilds in the country.
"Our guild has been organized
longer than others, but the more
awareness and the more people
the audience. It's a familiar condem-
nation of the American insistence
on a happy ending even when there
clearly isn't one logically possible, a
final, optimistic image transparent-
ly tacked on to salvage an otherwise
bleak, hopeless narrative.
Don't worry, we're still talking
about the movies. This audience
outrage arises no more often than it
does within the science-fiction and
horror genres; scarcely a new film is
released without some blog chatter
about how the original ending was
sliced by the studio to broaden the
audience or placate test-screening
crowds.
Make no mistake: There are too

who are drinking specialty beers,
the more opportunities there will
be for Michigan brewers," Graham
said.
The guild facilitates a feeling
of community among Michigan
brewers. There's optimism that, as
the community continues to grow,
Michigan drinkers will continue
to buy more local craft beer, some-
thing also felt on a national level.
"It makes sense for any given.
market to have represented some
local breweries, some regional
breweries and some national brew-
eries," Graham said.
Craft brewers, especially those
in Michigan, recognize that com-
peting over the small market of
drinkers they share now is futile.
Instead, they hope to increase the
overall drinking of craft brews.
This way knowledge isn't kept
behind lock and key. Among craft
brewers, everyone seems just to
want the best beer possible.
many movies that aren't allowed to
follow their natural courses because
some 200-person theater in Min-
neapolis or San Antonio decided
they'd rather not see the protagonist
meet her demise. Take Neil Mar-
shall's "The Descent": The low-bud-
get British production, well-hyped
in horror circles last year, follows
a group of young women who head
into an uncharted Appalachian cave
system and fall victim to noctur-
nal creatures as viciously as they
do personal anxieties. In the film's
original ending, the lone survivor
passes out after she momentarily
evades the beasts and dreams she
escapes the cave. As she drives
away deliriously, the ghost of
another climber who she left for
dead appears next to her in the
truck. Then she wakes up, still in
the cave, no closer to an escape
than we left her. The end.

WESCHLER
From page 3B
uncover.
A photograph of George
Bush kissing a baby juxtapo
with a Goya painting of
Roman god Saturn eating his c
dren needs no in-depth analy
A comparison of a painting
Mondrian to a chart diagre
ming Chicago neighborhoods
race and wage, on the other ha
sets Weschler off. He cites Hitl
love of realism as the reasonv
Jewish modernists like Mondr
were the earliest targets of
Holocaust.
"It's about giving yourself f
mission to follow where your m
wanders," Weschler said. "An:
turn, not to push it too far."
He understands that the
In the American release, the film
cuts to black after her friend's ghost
appears in the truck, a dramatic
shift from the initial vision that also
leaves a key plot point conspicu-
ously unresolved. The boneheaded
change was the product of a test
screening.
The problem is that a screw-up
like "The Descent" is grouped with
a movie like Danny Boyle's "28 Days
Later," the director's unrelenting
zombie film in which a devastat-
ing infection wipes out London
and yet three of the principal char-
acters make it at the end. There
were a number of alternate endings
conceived and a couple were even
filmed, inspiring Fox Searchlight to
re-release the film a month after its
original release date in the summer
of 2002 with the bleaker ending to
appease fans disappointed the movie
didn't take its bloodlust to the end.

a hne line separating a tangible
correlation from an unrealistic
stretch, but the convergences can
explain many things that would
otherwise go unseen. Weschler
W. argues it has to do with decisions,
sed deliberate or subconscious, made
the by those involved.
hil- "People make these associa-
'sis. tions all the time, but they are
by told it's a bad method because the
am- associations can't foster proof,"
by Weschler said. "The reality is,
nd, not everything is susceptible to
er's proof. You can't prove that an art-
why ist wasn't influenced by a certain
ian photograph when he was painting
the his piece."
Weschler said that even if the
per- artist didn't consciously decide
ind to model a painting after another
d in piece of art, his mind could have
subconsciously made the connec-
re's tion to replicate the image or idea
But whereas "The Descent" is der
much more about internalized wh
horrors than it is the ones that na
inhabit the cave, "28 Days Later" tio
deals with outside trauma and the thi
ability of the characters to fight kin
back and survive. Though both of ma
these movies fall under horror's wh
most brutal and unforgiving wing, an'
they require different conclusions, up
and yet fans swiftly decried Boyle's his
decision to provide relief in "28 at
Days Later" when the alternatives lof
just didn't make sense to its spirit. rea
For perspective, consider the film's he
sequel, "28 Weeks Later," directed mo
by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, which to
masterfully (and appropriately) of
closes with precisely the opposite en:
sentiment. It makes sense to have get
hope in the first chapter of the is t
story even as it seems slips away in Da
the second. timt
This knee-jerk response has th

onto the canvas.
Weschler's idea really took off
when Mcsweeneys.net, a particu-
larly absurd website, asked him to
become a contributor. Weschler
posted his convergences, which
rapidly became a hit.
The acclaim Weschler received
spawned a contest on Meswee-
neys.net where anyone could
enter their own convergence for
Weschler to provide feedback.
He's even used entries in "Every-
thing that Rises."
Though the idea may not have
a concrete method to its mad-
ness, the popularity of Weschler's
convergences speaks for itself.
Weschler expects to publish
another book soon titled "I Hear
America Converging."
"You can argue that the biggest
convergences are the books them-
selves," Weschler said.
emed too many movies soft
en they simply find the proper
rrative closure. It's this percep-
n that deluded Darabont into
nking "The Mist" with any
nd of reason. The final scene is a
irked shift from the short story,
hich is not particularly relevant,
d from the film's tone leading
to it, which is crucial. Though
movie works elementally as
thriller, Darabont clearly had
tier aims, and they are easily
adable without the cheap shot
hurls at his audience in the final
oments. It might seem too easy
let David and his unlikely band
survivors escape their appar-
it fates, but particularly in this
nre, sometimes positive release
the braver choice. It's a courage
rabont didn't have, and some-
oes it's too easy not to appreciate
e filmmakers who do.



Gandalf Murphy and
the Slambovian Circus of Dreams
Fridav. November 31.8 n.m.

Lehto & Wright
Sunday, D)c.ember 9, 7:30 p.m. I

0

Call for tickets (734) 763-TKTS.
Tickes at all TicketMaster outlets and Herb David Guitar Studio
Doors open 112 hour before showtime.
STUDENT DISCOUNT WIT ID!

800.424.8580 www.peacecorps.gov