The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cgm Tuesday, March 31 2009 - 5 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cm Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - 5 The neuroses of mix-making What is it about making mixes that's such a kick in a glass? Sure, there's the whole look-how-much- obscure-music- I-knnw dynamic, but that's only Pfraction of it. As fun as it is to assert your hip- ster status via a JOSH bomb-ass party BAYER playlist, the plea- sures of mix-making far transcend the social sphere. There's something immensely gratifying about compiling a list of songs you absolutely love and hav- ing them flow seamlessly together asa unit. When you christen a list of five-star tracks under a snappy title like "Romantic Cynicism" and listen to your masterwork on a long car ride, it's hard not to feel like you wrote the music yourself. It's the same kind of rush us music bastards get from meticulously culling our top-five favorite albums of all time. While we may not have personally composed the songs or records, there's an inexplicable satisfaction in knowing that these * are "our" picks, "our" essentials. Mixes are just another way for us to jerk off our self-righteousness. Or, in slightly less cynical terms, they help usnto therapeutically solidify our identity. Whenever I come home ripped after a party, I'll make a beeline straight for my iPod and immedi- ately begin crafting an On-The-Go playlist (despite the fact I'm going absolutely nowhere, other than to bed). I'll spend 20 to30 minutes under the covers, gleefully skim- ming my thumb over the dial, plow- ing through my entire library to hunt down songs "I absolutely need to hear right now." Then I'll spend an additional 15 to 20 minutes chis- eling down my list to 15 s ongslyes, I'm compulsive about this number) that "work" together. :Bythe time I'm donewiththis' procedure, my high will have always completely worn off and I'll listen to approximately one song and pass out, wondering why I didn't just listen to Radiohead. This scenario repeats itself almost every weekend. I love mix-making so much that I make mixes I never even listen to. But as much asI gush over the art of mix-making, I must admit that - as with everything in my life - the process comes equipped with its fair share of neuroses. For instance, I'll survey my collection of playlists on my iPod and worry I'm reusing the same bands too often. Should I really havea Broken Social Scene song on every single one of my playlists? Doesn't that make me look like too much of an "indie kid"? Shouldn't I throw in at least one song that wasn't released in the last 10 years? Shouldn't I be draw- ing upon my seasoned knowledge of music instead of predictably slop- ping down tracks by the same 20 or so bands (the ones on my Facebook "favorites")? It doesn't matter that I'm making these mixes for my own enjoyment; I am perpetu- ally plagued by an elitist Jiminy Cricket. And these self-induced pres- sures are magnified 10-fold when I'm making a mix for someone else: What if the person already has this song? Then the person will just skip over it every time he or she listens to my mix; that's a waste of a song. That's awaste of one-fifteenth of my mix. Maybe I should put on a more obscure song - something by Sonic Youth. But this one hasa noise intro and the intended recipi- ent will probably get bored and just skip to the next song anyway. And so on. Then there's the type of mix- making that's both the most nerve- racking and the most exhilarating: The kind where you craft a mix to try to get someone to fall in love with you. These mixes are incred- Stroking my musical ego. ibly tricky; you have to make the mix romantic enough so that the seed is planted, but not so sappy it's overkill. Although it's technically not you singing the lyrics in the songs you compile, you're making a statement by selecting these par- ticular tracks. Hiring Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo to croon "We're on our way to falling in love" to someone you haven't even French-kissed yet can be risky business. Sometimes the best tactic isnto balance out the mushy songs with a few "fun" songs that let the recipient of your mix know you're not about to propose. Or you could always just play the hopeless romantic card and throw in a handful of jaded "love" songs ala Elliott Smith. Lyrics like "The moon is a sickle cell / It will kill you in time"are sure to reveal your sensitive side without laying on the schmaltz. Some people don't take mix- making all that seriously, however, I once received a mix on which roughly a third of the songs were by John Mayer (as far as I'm con- cerned, featuring the same artist more than once on a mix is strictly forbidden - unless, of course, you use the artist to bookend the compilation). But in this postmod- ern world, when it can be argued that true innovation is practically extinct, the painstakingcollag- ing of other people's work can be employed asa pseudo-legitimate art form (just ask Girl Talk orJohn Cusack in "High Fidelity"). Hell, if Andy Warhol can make a Camp- bell's Soup Box and call it art, then what's to stop my 15-track playlist from making me feel like a badass? Bayer wants to know what you would put on a love mix for him. E-mail him your selections at jrbayer@umich.edu "Whatever you do, don't pee in the suit." Attack of the clones Amy Adams stars in a - disappointing doppelganger of 'Little Miss Sunshine' By ANNIE LEVENE Daily Arts Writer "Sunshine Cleaning" is the kind of movie that screams "Sundance Film Festival." With a hipster soundtrack, com- plicated family relation- ** ships and offbeat plot, it's a film begging to be deemed Sunshine endearing, screaming "I aeaning .couldn't find a distributor, but love me anyway." "Sun- At the State shine Cleaning" technically and Quality 16 has all the components that Overture add up to sleeper success, but only because everything in it has been done before in a better film. That better movie is "Little Miss Sunshine," 2006's quirky-little-film-that-could. Similari- ties between the "Sunshine" flicks are numer- ous. Both contain a beat-up Volkswagen bus" and a precocious youngster who functions as the film's idealistic voice. But where 2006's "Little Miss" had heart, this movie has pre- dictability. ARTS IN BRIEF Film It may be oversimplification to pick at the subtle difference in atmosphere between the two films or the differences between the two casts - although Alan Arkin ("Rendition") plays virtually the same wizened curmudgeon grandfather in both films. But objectively, the casting of the leads makes all the difference. The movie loses touch with reality when it places unrealistically beautiful women - Emily Blunt ("Charlie Wilson's War") and Amy Adams ("Doubt") - in such desperate states. While it's unfair to say that beautiful people don't have problems, the movie gives no reasons behind these women's situations. It simply offers the audience sad people and asks viewers to feel bad for them. Set in the dry and appropriately depress- ing landscape of New Mexico - yes, just like "Little Miss Sunshine" - "Sunshine Clean-. ing" focuses on two sisters: Rose (Adams) is a single mother stuck in a demeaning job and an affair with her married high school ex-boy- friend (Steve Zahn, "Rescue Dawn"). Younger sister Norah (Blunt) is seemingly stuck in her- self. Her thick make-up and dark clothing says "I'm angry," but her dead eyes say "I'm lost." In ' a ind' fr' fianc1ial support, and it search of emotional worth; the sisters open a 'cleaning service that caters specifically to crimte scenes. Audiences won't be able to miss the irony of the sisters' new occupations, because the film won't let it come gracefully. Indeed, these women can't pick up their own messes, so they settle for the satisfaction of cleaning the mess- es of others. Despite the lack of character development - like the missing background explanation for Rose's son - Adams and Blunt do an admira- ble job with their characters. They make con- vincing sisters, and they are both best when playing off each other. Alone, however, each struggles to make her character relatable. It's more a problem of writing than performance, but it's a weak link nonetheless. Arkin, of course, is lovely as always as the rough-edged-but-softhearted support system. His scenes with Jason Spe- vack ("Hollywoodland"), who plays Rose's son Oscar, exemplify the honest love of a patriarch who wants to give his family everything it needs but can't. The greatest disappointment of "Sunshine Cleaning" is the ending. Some characters are given uncertain futures and others find their new life handed to them wrapped in a shiny bow. It's this uncertainty that makes the film seem prepackaged for indie street cred. When it's all said and done, "Sunshine" is not the uni- versally loved hidden gem ofa film it wants to be, but a glossed-over and' scrubbed-clean version of what it potentially could have been. Nicholas Cage continues to make bad career decisions with 'Knowing,' another generic apocalypse movie "Knowing" Summit At the Quality 16 and Showcase Nicolas Cage's ticking time bomb of a career inches closer to total irrelevancy with "Knowing," what seems to be his 4,000th schlocky action/suspense hybrid in a row. It's hard to believe that the serious actor who once wowed his audience with raw talent in "Leaving Las Vegas" has subjected today's theaters to a line of dreck that includes "The Wicker Man," "Bangkok Dangerous," "Next" and now "Know- ing.".Surely this guy knows - pardon the pun - by now that he's better than this. This predicting-the-Apocalypse tale is so generic there's a sense of futility surrounding it. Cage plays a learned astronomer at M.I.T. (Walt Whitman would be proud) who becomes obsessed with a series of numbers on a paper found inside a time capsule at his son's elementary school. The numbers seem to predict the exact date and location of every disaster in the world, and Cage races to stop the ones that haven't happened yet. Explosions, mysterious hooded figures and creepy "The Shining" kids abound, and by the end director Alex Proyas ("I, Robot") ditch- es the numbers game in favor of a bunch of extraterrestrial hoo- hah. The mass carnage scenes'are fun in a sadistic way, although the PG-13 restrictions are laughable when a rail-jumping subway train mows over dozens of people without spilling any blood. Here's a fun game to play while watching "Knowing": Write down all the coded numbers that appear on screen. They will reveal the exact date and time when Cage stopped caring. ANDREW LAPIN THE COOLEST PIRATES WRITE FOR FINE ARRR R RR RRR RR RR R RTS. Work for our Fine Arts section. 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