2B - Thursday, October 7, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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Judging A Book
By Its Cover
Why read a single page when the cover
tells the whole story?
TRAILER REVIEW
There may be no more polarizing
director working today than Julie
Taymor. For every
post-modernist
who swooned
over "Titus" - The Tempest
her adaptation of
William Shake- Touchstone
speare's "Titus
Andronicus" - there's a Beatles
aficionado still furious with her for
rpaking "Across the Universe." The
new trailer for her latest, "The Tem-
pest," won't do anything to win over
her dissenters, but it promises the
film will boast her distinctive visual
style: batshit crazy.
Jumping from the Bard's first-
ever play ("Titus") to his last good
one, Taymor keeps the language but
transplants the setting into a world
of magic and cross-dressing. Dame
Helen Mirren, bending gender roles
as Prospera, spits fire from her staff
and mixes potions in an island labo-
ratory. There's a giant storm and a
shipwreck, and then lots of people
in costume (including Russell Brand
and Djimon Hounsou) run around
island cliffs causing general mayhem.
The trailer doesn't promise to
add anything new to the "modern
phantasmagoria" subgenre already
occupied by pretty much everything
Taymor and Baz Luhrmann ("Mou-
lin Rouge!") have ever made, but at
the very least "The Tempest" should
be fascinating from a sensory stand-
point. Also worth looking forward to:
the sight of the world's most respect-
ed actress transforming into a bird.
-ANDREWLAPIN
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Most everyone rolled their eyes
when Justin Vernon busted out
Auto-Tune for
his Blood Bank
EP's a capella *
closer "Woods." a Wes
Little did they
know that, three "Lost in the
years later, this World"
unassuming Roc-a-fella
track would be
the centerpiece
of one of the more sprawling hip-
hop tracks of 2010. "Lost in the
World" begins with the unadorned
opening bars of "Woods," leav-
ing us to contemplate just what
kind of beat Kanye has cooked up
to complement Vernon's delicate
vocals. The answer comes about a
minute in, and Kanye's gift for syn-
thesizing songs out of other songs
is immediately apparent. He com-
pletely re-imagines "Woods" as a
tribal club-banger with a synco-
pated house beat and vague moral
agenda courtesy of Gil Scott Heron
soundbytes. Bet you didn't see that
one coming.
Just in sheer novelty, the song
succeeds. Kanye spits a brief non-
sense verse, but it doesn't really
matter. It's the song's vibe that
does the heavy lifting - unrelent-
ing, ecclesiastic Vernon hooks,
Afrobeat breakdowns and the fact
that there's like 20 vocal tracks
at any given time make the track
something loftier than just a clever
use of a sample. Kanye takes 'em to
church.
-JEFF SANFORD
SINGLE REVIEW
Authors Robert Jordan and
Brandon Sanderson have crafted
another classically zany vacation
caper.When Captain Traingle con-
vinces the scoundrel Robin Hood
and the curmudgeonly Merlin to
accompany him on a camping trip,
little does the gang know they're
in for an inter-dimensional roller
coaster ride.
Jordan and Sanderson's narra-
tive is crafted masterfully, with
each twist more surprising than
the last. The authors lull readers
into a false sense of security as
they send their heroes through the
Time Towers. The gang can only
pass through the Tower of Mid-
night at midnight. Obviously. And
the Tower of One in the Morning
can only be passed through at 1
a.m. But as Captain Triangle and
his two tag-alongs step into the
Tower of Two in the Morning,
something goes horribly wrong.
Savings Time takes hold and they
are trapped in the time tower for
an entire hour, waiting for it to be
2 a.m. once more.
This time in the tower is where
the authors' renowned dialogue
truly shines. Such lines as "Gee,
it's boring in here" and "What time
is it?" really make the characters
come to life.
If the novel has any flaw, it's that
the Triforce Saga isn't progressed
at all. Captain Triangle still hasn't
really learned how to use the Wii-
Mote, and he goes the entire book
without finding the Master Sword.
Also, Merlin keeps shouting PK
fire for no apparent reason, negat-
ing the character development and
leveling up we saw him go through
in the lastbook.
But hopefully those plotlines
and more will be fleshed out in
next work in the series, "Pillars
of Noon." And maybe Robin Hood'
will finally recover from his amne-
sia and realize he's an archer, not a
halberdier.
-JAMIE BLOCK
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EPISODE REVIEW
After a fantasy-filled Britney
Spears episode, "Glee" returned this
week with atribute
to faith: "Grilled*
Cheesus." When
Finn (Cory Monte- Glee
ith) finds Jesus on
his grilled cheese Season tWO
sandwich, New "Grilled
Directions starts Cheesus"
a dialogue on God
and the role of FOX
religion. Though
many glee clubbers find comfort in
the divine, Kurt (Chris Colfer) stands
alone despite his friends' dismay and
his comatose father.
"Glee" has a hard time straddling
the line between happy-go-lucky
fun and real emotional issues, but
its tough episodes tend to be the
best. "Grilled Cheesus" will join
"Home" and "Wheels" as the epi-
sodes with heart. For once, Rachel
(Lea Michelle) isn't self-absorbed as
she sings "Papa, Can You Hear Me?"
at Burt Hummel's (Mike O'Malley)
bedside.With this and a gospel song,
"Glee" seems to moving away from
campy fantasy musical numbers,
giving them actual context.
Still, the season is three episodes in
and the story has yet to progress past
the first episode when new charac-
ters were introduced. The gimmicky
Britney Spears episode made for great
music and this provocative religious'
episode gave the series some soul, but
if it chugsalong without addressing"
its new characters, we'll forget why
we're watching.
-CAROLYNKLARECKI
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