The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, November 112008 -SA
Diners and
tattoos: the art
of Americana
Lions and tigers and giraffes and zebras and planes and penguins and Borat, oh my!
A family formula
went to Lucky Monkey tattoo
parlor the other day to watch
a friend get tattooed, while
munching on the
hippie hash (an
ungodly-hour
snack consisting
of hash browns,
random assorted '
veggies and
feta cheese) I'd W
bought from the
Fleetwood Diner POW
next door. The two
establishments seem to bea perfect
match - the Fleetwood with its
aluminum siding and sticker-graf-
fiti on all the surfaces and Lucky
Monkey with its inked-up patrons
and photos of traditional tattoo
art framed on the wall. I've never
stepped into Lucky Monkey with
the intent of getting a tattoo, but
I've stepped into the greasy diner
to order onion rings and a coffee
at 3 a.m., sketchbook and pencil in
hand.
I suppose, ina Jack Kerouac
sense, these two establishments
contain the essence of traditional
American art, where you've got
greasy authentic diner food in one
hand and nautical tattoos inked in
the other. Toss in a few cigarettes
and pots of coffee, and you have
the American experience.
While we've borrowed the idea
of "high" art from Europe with
its pristine, classical feel, I find it
ironic that the most interesting
parts of American culture are what
we've deemed "low" art - comic
books, hamburger stand food,
skull tattoos and rock'n'roll, for
example. But if you've ever been to
the Fleetwood, I think it's undis-
putable there's an art to putting
together the perfect reuben, but-
teringthe perfectlate-night toast
and being just the right kind of
diner waitress: apron filled with
single-serving creamer packets,
taking orders with perfect poise
and a consistently hard-hitting
grumpy demeanor, tattoos snaking
around the small of her back.
It's easy to look down on diner
culture as something dirty, gritty
and inconsequential, but without
these elements of American life,
there would be no storybook set-
ting for Kerouac, no "America!" for
Allen Ginsberg to scream about.
While it's easy to write off tattoos
and comfort food as being on the
fringe of this idea of "art," if we
think about what's accessible and
what makes up our culture, more
often than not, 24-hour restau-
rants, never-ending coffee pots and
pickup trucks come to mind (opera
houses, Dom Perignon and sports
cars - not so much). While we
might not think of cigarettes and
coffee as lying at the core of Ameri-
can art, these things are definitely
significant and influential tu many
artists, from poet Frank O'Hara
Only in the U.S.
are late-night
eateries part of
artistic culture.
and his taxicab in New York to Bob
Dylan and his riffs about Maggie's
farm.
The cultural symbols created
by the things around us have an
impact on what we write and
what we create, which makes the
mundane elements of diner cul-
ture all the more important. We
can see this in author and lecturer
Gertrude Stein's book "Tender
Buttons," a piece that consisted of
nonsensical prose but was brought
together by the overarchingtheme
of common objects like celery,
sugar, roast beef and breakfast, dis-
playing these everyday themes in
ways thatgo beyond their cultural
meaning. Stein described eggs,
as "kind height, kind in the right
See POW, Page 9A
Ani
* chill
The
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Get soi
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release
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of sele
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ents.
part m
exemp
model.
- Desi
ability,
Africa'
flick.
mated sequel mixes For the 25 people that didn't
see it, the first "Madagascar" was
drens' themes with about a lion (Ben Stiller, "Tropic
Thunder"), a zebra (Chris Rock,
adult jokes "Bee Movie"), a hippo (Jada
Pinkett-Smith, "The Women") and
By BLAKE GOBLE a giraffe (David Schwimmer, TV's
DailyArts Writer "Friends"). The spunky animals
were all banished from New York's
formula for a commercially Central Park Zoo, then marooned
sfulfamily filmis setinstone: on the island of Madagascar. In
me A-List the sequel, the verbose quadrupeds
pick a *** decide to leave the island only to
holiday crash-land in continental Africa.
date; fill Madagascar Add some monkeys, the brilliant
ript with lemur Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen,
humor for "Borat") and a spastic, fantastic
nd plenty AfiCa 'quartet of penguins, and ... the for-
ctive ref- At Quality 16 mula hasn't really changed. Still,
s for par- and Showcase the new installment is a little bet-
The last ter than its predecessor. Groan all
sore than Dreamworks you want about positive tlhemes
lifies the Dreamworks/PDI like individuality, father-son bond-
"Shrek" anyone? ing, true love and environmental
pite its formulaic predict- plight; but they're all over the film
"Madagascar: Escape 2 and they're almost sincere. But the
" is an easy and enjoyable jokes still take precedence.
See MADAGASCAR, Page 9A
With 'Car Alarm,' indie
supergroup floats along
By JOSH BAYER
Daily Arts Writer
The Sea and Cake's breezy brand of poppy
post-rock, at its narcotic best, can be like
enjoying a piece of cake by
the seaside. Too often on Car *
Alarm, though, the songs are
more like pieces of cake that The Sea
have been dunked in seawa-
ter: a little bit mushy. and Cake
Car Alarm is an anomaly. Car Alarm
On its surface, it's the indie
equivalent of a Jack Johnson Thrill lackey
record: light and airy with-
out much nutritional value. But to perked-up
ears, the song structures are more like seven-
layer cakes than pancakes. Upon multiple lis-
tens, these deceptively harmless pop nuggets
unveil themselves as delicately layered sub-
versions of the verse-chorus-verse mold.
Bopping along on a bubbly groove and sprin-
kled with jangly guitars, "Window Sills" could
be a dead ringer for a Goo Goo Dolls song if it
weren't for its introspective tangents. Album
opener "Aerial" feels like a rehash of the mil-
lion radio-friendly fist-pumping anthems that
have come before it, but a discerning ear can
sift out the elastic bassline and dynamic inter-
weave of guitars. The song finally stretches its
arms at the end, slip-sliding into an efferves-
cent jam.
"Weekend" finds the band throwing the
textbook out the window (and probably
directly into John Mayer's face). The song
starts out serenely with a mild polyrhythm
of acoustic strumming and techno-inflected
keys. It then explodes into a frenzied break-
beat of arpeggioed synth squeaks and mathy
open hi-hat pummeling. It's the freshest track
on the album by a long shot.
There's no question that The Sea and Cake is
a talented group of musicians. Drummer John
McEntire (the mastermind behind Tortoise)
lends the fluffy songs some welcome backbone
with his deviously syncopated drumbeats,
and vocalist Sam Prekop is clearly a gifted
songwriter, peppering the tracks with subtle
touches. The issue here is that the members
are so snug in their comfort zones that the
carefree vibe the songs attempt to radiate can
Though lush and
melodic, The Sea and
Cake fail to engage on
a regular basis.
easily be mistaken for the sound of a band not
caring all that much.
Prekop's wispy vocals certainly don't do
anything to stir up Car Alarm's drowsy feel.
Sometimes, as on the lilting "On a Letter," the
approach comes off as appropriately precious,
making for music that's warm and cozy. More
often than not, though, his breathy delivery
makes the songs sound more similar than they
actually are. While his melodies may not all
be the same, Prekop's unvarying faux-whisper
homogenizes them. The vocals sound aimless
when they should sound dreamy, giving the
album an amorphously soggy feel, especially
toward the end.
What-makes Car Alarm so puzzling is that,
in a broadly over-generalizing sense, it's for
absolutely nobody. It's likely too intricate and
subtle for the average listener to appreciate,
and too generic-sounding for the post-rock or
indie aficionado to really sink their teeth into.
The album manages to be both complex and
somewhat of a snooze-fest. While the music is
lushly arranged and melodically sound, it fails
to consistently engage. Hopefully next time
around the band can bake a cake that tastes as
good as it looks.
The best of The
Smiths best-ofs
By HARUN BULJINA d m
Daily Arts Writer ;r.
By now, conventional wisdom
would suggest that any new Smiths
compilation is
utterly super-
fluous and des-
tined for failure. The Smiths
The band was
only around for The Sound of ,
five short years the Smiths
between 1982 and WEA C T
1987. In that time, COUESYOrWD
it released three the faults of its predecessors, Th
compilations, two of which are now Sound of The Smiths is surprisingl
seen as crucial components of its successful. Unlike the previou
discography. Following the band's "Best of" releases, its track order i
now-infamous demise, a stagger- a largely chronological and wholl
ing four more compilations were sensible overview of the high-point
released. in The Smiths's career. But unlik
From any standpoint, it's obvi- 1995's Singles, The Sound of Th
ous that the catalogue has been . Smiths doesn't limit itself to just th
stretched dangerously thin. And so hits. With a 23-track second disr
The Sound of The Smiths, their fifth sold as part of the "deluxe set," th
and most recent posthumous com- album delves freely into the band
e
ly
is
is
ly
is
ke
he
ie
;c,
ne
1's
Ai
T
fa
rarities and hefty back-catalogue.
Much of what's good about The
c m i Sound is probably due to theinvolve-
compilation ment of vocalist Morrissey and gu1-
ehtarist Johnny Marr. This is the first
compilation since the band's best-of
he Sm iths's in which the band's creative mas-
terminds had an active hand, and
m edsait shows. Between "Hand in Glove"
s and "Jeane," the track selection
gives the uninitiated all they need
to fall in love with the band. Marr's
guitar work, of course, is a big fac-
, rightfully faces an uphill tor. Over The Smiths's short but
or legitimacy. After all, who productive career, he touched on
album intended for? Casual everything from African high-life
obably own one of the other ("This Charming Man") to heavy-
already, the dedicated cer- metal-esque guitar solos ("Shop-
do, and newcomers might lifters of the World Unite"). His
d up even more confused success in adopting '60s jangle-pop
re to start listening to The to a post-punk aesthetic deserves
an article of its own.
perhaps a better question But the compilation also show-
e, whatis this albumintend- cases the other half of The Smiths's
o? If it's meant to round out See THE SMITHS, Page 9A
pilation
battle ft
is this;
fans prc
best-ofs
tainly{
just en
on whe
Smiths.
But
would b
ed to do
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