2B - Thursday, January 10, 2008

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

REDUCTIVE REASONING
Picking one and one apart.

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VEGAS STAKES (1993)

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The Daily Arts guide to the best
upcoming events
Today 1.10.08
Traditional Klezmer Music:
Members of Avraham Ben
Ze'ev Orchestra
12 p.m.
At the University Hospital Lobby
Free
The Hard Lessons, Bingo,
Tally Hall and Childbite.
9:30 p.m,
At The Blind Pig
$5/Under 21, $8/18+
Tomorrow 1.11.08
Claire Conceison Lecture:
Encountering China
In conjunction with the UMMA Off/Site
5 p.m.
At the Rackham Ampitheater
Free
Dissertation Recital:
Minnita-Daniel Cox
8 p.m.
At the Britton Recital Hall
Free
Mazinga, Versificators,
Ground Zero and Tree City
10 p.m.
At The Blind Pig
$7/Under 21, $10/18+
Saturday 1.12.08
Faculty Recital: Andrew
Jennings on violin
8 p.m.
At the Britton Recital Hall
Free
The Life Sciences Orchestra
8 p.m.
At Hill Auditorium
Free
Satin Peaches, Starling Elec-
tric, Alex Winston and Anna
Ash
9:30 p.m.
At The Blind Pig
$7/Under 2, $10/18+
Sunday 1.13.08
Senior Recital: Jacqueline
Arrington on flute
8 p.m.
At the Britton Recital Hall
Free
Please send all press releases
and event information to
artspage@michigandaily.com.

What happens in
'Vegas' stays there


WEEK IN REVIEW
Nicole Kidman pregnant. Gossip-mongers make
jokes about a Botox-free pregnancy while George
Clooney quips, "At least she's older than 16."
Amy Winehouse goes blonde, stays crazy.
Mischa Barton arrested over the holidays for drunk
driving and marijuana possession, and apparently
little sister Hania overdosed on prescription pills
during Santa-time, too. Barton family possibly
having a worse end of the year than the Spears'.
Possibly.
Golden Globes canceled, another consequence
(alongside terrible late-night-show-host
beards) of the ongoing WGA strike. But the
Oscars are still on schedule, said its producer
Tuesday - if it can keep back the picketers.
Some man in Texas got a tattoo of Maddox
Jolie-Pitt - in color, with tongue sticking out
and hair in full-on Mohawk. We're not sure
why, but we think it's symbolic.
Blind item of the week (via Gatecrasher):
"Which breakout young male star uses
- gasp - fake eyelashes to get his trademark
gaze? Dammit, Hollywood, stop toying with
us!" Everyone - including Jessica Alba in Elle
magazine - is saying Zac Efron.
Joaquin Phoenix accepts People's Choice Award
with handwritten signs, claiming he's "speech-
less without the writers." Apparently he can't spell
either: One sign read "I'm Joaqin."
And let's not even talk about Britney Spears.

By MARK SCHULTZ
Daily Arts Writer
You sit in the front seat of acar.
Your destination? Vegas, baby. But
you don't possess a "multi-colored
galaxy of uppers and downers" like
Hunter S. Thompson, you don't
aim to pick up a cute cocktail wait-
ress like Vince Vaughn, and you're
certainly not leaving Las Vegas,
like Nicolas Cage (or even Sheryl
Crow). Your only goal is to parlay
your limited knowledge of casino
games into a big win, a modest
increase or at least a minor hit to
your bankroll. Fortunately, 1993's
"Vegas Stakes" on Super Nintendo
gives you the chance without leav-
ing your couch.
After checking into the "Golden
Paradise," you quickly discov-
er you're in need of a gambling
buddy. The choices range from
Zach Morris look-alike Richard
to sexy blonde Maria. The two of
you hit any of four casinos next
- the Golden Nugget-esque "Para-
dise," the Western-styled "Buffalo
Head," "The Hideaway" (a low-
stakes casino with $1 slots reminis-
cent of Eddie Griswold's favorite
haunt in "Vegas Vacation") and the
quaintly futuristic "2020." Only
the most basic games are available
(sorry, no Pai Gow poker or Keno)
and, like in a real casino, trying to
win lots of money in the long run
by playing slots or roulette usually
turns out to be a futile exercise.
Your best bet - for money and
entertainment value - is seven
card stud, where habitually wink-
ing card sharks pepper the games
with blustering and reverse psy-
chology almost seedy enough to
resemble that of actual casino
chatter. Indeed, the great fun in
"Stakes" lies not in the games, but
in the peripheral personalities who
try to trick you, help you out or
just waste your time. For example,
during a game of stud, you might
be approached by a woman named
Ursula who appears to have a
robotic eye and will attempt to sell
you a diamond. If you buy the dia-
mond, an organ grinder wearing a
trench coat will appear and ask to
buy the diamond for double what
you paid. If you agree, the grinder
may ecstatically hand you the cash,
or he may laugh in your face and
inform you the diamond is made
of cubic zirconium. The challenge
of these tense little encounters
- where you can make as much, if

not more, money than in the actual
casino games - is gaining the abil-
ity to tell if the hawker is for real
or just a snake-oil salesman. It's
not so unlike playing a real game
of poker.
Today's glut of online poker
players might wonder why one
would want to play a game where,
no matter how many winning lot-
tery tickets a Rastafarian offers to
split with you, you'll never actu-
ally make a cent of real money.
But this misses the point entirely.
"Stakes" doesn't just simulate the
experience of gambling. It simu-
lates the casino experience itself.
You can be
Hunter S.
Thompson.
Minus the acid.
The variety of casinos, the motley
cast of friends and foes, the High-
Rollers Suite you're invited to join
once your bankroll reaches a mil-
lion Simoleans - this game has
the whole Vegas experience sans
$2.99-lobster dinners and afford-
able prostitutes.
One might wonder why the likes
of PS3 and Xbox 360 haven't used
their high-end graphical capabili-
ties to produce a vicarious Vegas
even more visually stimulating
than its SNES counterpart. The
likely answer is that casinos aren't
exactly the most aesthetically
pleasing locations to render in
vivid 3D. The rolling roulette ball,
the dinging slot machine - how
realistic they look is immaterial
to how fun the game is. The only
objects worth animating in full
detail are the gamblers, whose
most interesting activities include
counting their cash and sipping
complimentary drinks.
Then again, games like "Guitar
Hero" have proven that even in an
era where emphasis on graphics
comes first, gamers can enjoy play-
ing even when the game's visual
quality is somewhat of an after-
thought.
Thatbeingsaid,Ipropose agame
called "Casino Hero." Charles Bar-
kley will be a playable character
- though you start $10 million in
the hole - and old Ursula will be
back, hawking her mysterious dia-
mond. That's a casino I'll lose my
wad at any day.

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W ith a beat that's unabashedly similar to the crack-anthem
"Blow"'s production from his breakout release Port ofMiami,
Rick Ross's "Gettin Mine" is a mass of twangy, thin keyboards and
shuffling percussion. Freeway rips through the track's first verse,
spitting lines of self-aggrandizement and shouts out to his native
Pennsylvania. And before Fabolous can deliver his sly, rolling 16
bars, the song's screwed and chopped chorus drops on the beat like
a ton of bricks. With Freeway and Fabolous's nasally deliveries, the
drawling repeated "I'm gettin mine" is the perfect synthesis for this
strangely bass-light cut. Ross closes the track with one of his signa-
ture bland verses and it's over before you know it. Surprisingly, rela-
tively few crack references and pimp proclamations abounded.
CHRIS GAERIG

Encountering China: Inge Morath,
Arthur Miller, and Ying Ruocheng
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 5 PM I Rackham Amphitheater, 915 E. Washington, Ann Arbor
In conjunction with current UMMA Off/Site exhibition Inge Morath and Arthur Miller: China, Chinese theater scholar
Claire Conceison mill provide a look behind the scenes at Morath and Miller's travels to China, Miller's 1983 direction
of his play Death of a Satesman in Beijing, and his partnership with translator, advisor, and lead actor Ying Ruocheng.
This program is cosponsored by UMMAComer 3 Bank, the Michigan Council for Arts and CUltUrl Affairs, and the UIM Department of Theater
and Drna. Depatment of Asian Languages and Cultures, and the center for Chinese Studies as pact of th LSA China Theme Year
ABOVE: Actor Ying Ruocheng (center right). playing Willy Loman, interprets for Arthur Miler (center left), whle Inge Morath (right) photographs
a rehearsal of Death ofa Saesman in Bejing in 1983. Photo by S Dexin. Courtesy of Beijing People's Ar Theatre.
LJ 2 l The University of Michigan Museum of Art WWW.UMMA.UMICH.EDU 734.763.UMMA

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