2B - Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Judging A Book
By Its Cover
Why read a single page when the cover
tells the whole story?
TRAILER REVIEW
Sept. 27 was the 20th anniver-
sary of the NC-17 rating (other-
wise known in
the film industry
as the "kiss of ***
death"), and the
Motion Picture Blue
Association of Valentine
America couldn't The Weinstein
let the occasion Company
pass without
damning at least one movie to box-
office hell. Enter "Blue Valentine,"
this year's breakout indie darling,
showered with praise at Sundance
and Cannes and poised to rack up
considerable awards. Too bad it
contains a sex scene apparently
among the filthiest ever committed
to celluloid.
Sorry, perverts, but you won't
find any hints of the scene-or sug-
gestions of the film's rating - in the
latest trailer. Instead, Ryan Gosling
serenades Michelle Williams with
a guitar and warbly voice as a mon-
tage of peaceful images featuring
the two flashes across the screen.
It's pleasant to hear and look at,
but there's only the slightest hint of
conflict between them considering
the emotional meltdown of their
marriage is the crux of the film.
Gosling and Williams are two of
the finest actors out there, so let's
hope this latest domesticity-in-cri-
sis drama doesn't just turn into this
year's "Revolutionary Road." The
promising buzz says otherwise,
though the MPAA seems to have
scared the trailer out of any edge.
-ANDREWLAPIN
SINGLE REVIEW
As a chill sweeps over campus,
the self-proclaimed psychedelic
pop band Real
Estate's latest
single "Out of ***
Tune" invokes
hazy summer Real Estate
days of floating "Out of Tune"
aimlessly on a
man-made lake. ' True Panther
The New Jersey-
based quartet,
known for its own particular brand
of mellow, beachy pop, sticks to
what it knows for this track: grow-
ing up in suburban sprawl.
The track has a fuzzy, sepia-tint-
ed sound that may cause some lis-
teners to write it off as just another
chill-out, to-fi standard. But there
isn't anything at all carefree about
the uneasy lyrics, which dwell on
"the cars on the 95" and "having
the wrong attitude." The rever-
berating, overlapping guitar parts
and frontman Martin Courtney's
melancholy lyrics evoke themes of
suburban youth discontent, which
makes for a rich track with tex-
ture and depth. Courtney sings
lines like, "You play along to songs
written for you / but you're all out
of tune, you're all out of tune" as
late-summer synths conjure imag-
es of restless young adults, limbs
splayed out, dreaming of anywhere
but here.
-CASSIE BALFOUR
The inimitable Patricia Briggs
is at it again with the harrow-
ing "Masques," a story of love,
rabies and redemption. An "Old
Yeller" for the iPhone generation,
"Masques" will not only pull on
your heart strings, it will yank that
still-beating bastard right out of
your chest.
What would you do if your only
friend in the whole world - a
wild-eyed wolfdog named Chom-
pie - was diagnosed with zombie
rabies? If you're 24-year-old Rachel
Koufax, you get yourself a golden
sword and start taking a whole lot
of vengeance on the people you sus-
pect infected your dog. Rachel races
to sniff out the source of the scien-
tifically engineered super-strain of
rabies as Chompie gets more and
more foamy-mouthed. The trail
takes her to Old Man Rickman's
Castle, and what she finds inside is
somethingshe'll never forget.
With every new plot twist,
Briggs proves that her mastery of
tension rivals only Hitchcock's.
Still, despite all the suspense, she
doesn't lose sight of what really
matters: the tender girl-dog rela-
tionship at the story's core. Rachel
and Chompie will go down as one
of the most memorable human-
animal tag-teams in recent history,
right up there with "Marley and
Me" and Ross from "Friends" and
that stupid monkey. No punches
arepulled as Rachel mustdeal with
the reality of a beloved pet that is
days away from viciously turning
on her. The climax is heartbreak-
ing. Rachel, sensing the end is
near, takes a muzzled and shackled
Chompie out back. She draws back
her sword. Chompie's yellow eyes
betray a tear. Rachel stifles a sob,
and, bringing the sword down on
Old Chompie's head, (spoiler alert!)
kills her best friend. The-moral is
clear: Love is the most powerful
thing in the world, but you don't
fuck with zombie rabies.
-JEFF SANFORD
EPISODE REVIEW
For those who aren't familiar
with "Fringe," which is sadly a great
many people, it's
officially time * *
to catch up -
except you can Fringe
skip the first sea- sean the
son. Fringe has
recently centered "The Plateau"
around the idea of FOX
parallel universes
- mostly like our
reality, butwith some key, dangerous
differences.
The third season's third episode,
"The Plateau," continues this sea-
son's innovative trend of alternat-
ing between universes each episode.
It benefits from taking place in the
alternate world. The stories from
"over there" have the opportunity to
explore all new kinds of impossible,
and "The Plateau" embraced that
with a plot centering on medical sci-
ence yetfor this world.
Detractors may argue that
"Fringe" is milking the alternate
universe for more than it's worth,
but that's far, far better than down-
playing it. The writers have crafted a 0
world so subtly, coolly different from
our own, that even an'episode of the
alternate universe's evening news
would be incredibly captivating.
The actors also now get to show
new sides to their old characters.
One of the greatest strengths of
"The Plateau" is thatcit finally put the
alternate Fringe Division into a rou-
tine, letting the actors fully embrace
their new personas.
-JA MIE BLOCK
Dance Team: Athletic
artists or artistic athletes?
Donald Glover
*
goes to outer space,
By ERIN STEELE teams t
DailyArts Writer high ki
field or
When early prima ballerinas
Maria Tallchief and Anna Pavlova
took the stage in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, I'm guessing
they never dreamed of dancers in
short skirts and sparkly makeup
using their technical training
to pirouette on the sidelines of
college football and basketball
games. When Ginger Rogers and
Fred Astaire waltzed across the
silver screen in the '30s and '40s,
they probably didn't intend on
paving the way for groups like the
Laker Girls and the Redskinettes
to strut their stuff for NBA and
NFL fans.
Now, classically trained danc-
ers can be seen on ESPN, pom-
poms in hand, cheering their
pose se
from a:
yet, it,
What I
ated b
Fan
ci
We
class h
cally d
ity gea
sportse
As a
o victory while executing dancer and dance team member
cks and leaps across the here at the University, I've seen
court. This shift in pur- the whole spectrum of styles
ts this kind of dance apart encompassed in dance and how
ny other art or sport. And each is used to create something
can be considered both. that qualifies as art. What I've
began as an art appreci- learned from my experience is
y the aristocratic upper that dance will always be an art
form - even the most commercial
or "dance team" movement evokes
,w certain emotions from its audi-
Ls think we re ece.
1eer 1eaders. The part that gets confusing is
when dance is incorporated into
rc a collegiate or professional ath-
re way more. letic program. Although sports
and art both involve finesse and
skill, the team that scores the
as morphed into a physi- most points is the objective win-
emanding athletic activ- ner. There are art competitions
red toward entertaining out there, to be sure, but they're
enthusiasts. much more subjective. One per-
classically trained ballet son may like a particular routine
while another person doesn't, so
you can't definitively determine
a clear "winner" with a simple
score tally. You need to call in
the judges, which you'd never
see on a traditional sports field.
Football, basketball, soccer and
all the rest of the conventional
sports are athletic competitions,
but most would never be called
art. So is dance, which is often
just as athletically demanding,
excluded from the "sport" moni-
ker because it's also an art form?
The honest answer is that
people aren't really in agree-
ment yet. Whenever I'm out in
my uniform at a game or other
sporting event, I am called a
cheerleader by most fans, and
who can blame them? I carry
pom-poms and cheer "Go Blue!"
at the top of my lungs. Colle-
giate dance teams have become
recognized as part of athletic
programs across the country
only very recently. Even in the
NFL and NBA, the dancers are
referred to as cheerleaders (the
Dallas Cowboy "Cheerlead-
ers" are all trained dancers).
Yet, when average people think
of dance, they think of a stage,
costumes and ballet shoes - or
more recently, hip-hop music
See DANCE TEAM, Page 3B
'Community' star
discusses episode,
his own college years
By SHARON JACOBS
AssistantArtsEditor
Donald Glover's character on
"Community," former football
prodigy Troy, isn't the show's pop
culture almanac - thattitlebelongs
to his socially inept friend Abed
(Danny Pudi). But just because
tonight's episode is a half-hour
homage to "Apollo 13" and other
outer-space media, that doesn't
mean Glover has to sit out the fun.
In a conference call interview on
Monday, Glover explained how
Troy fits into the geeky referential
joy of "Community."
"Nerds and jocks actually have
a combined love of a lot of cool
things," Glover said. "Anything
with robots and explosions and
time travel and stuff. ... Jocks just
don't want to know the ins and outs
of it. I think that's the only thing
that separates them."
Troy plays a major role in
tonight's episode, as Greendale
Community College's most love-
able study group gets stuck in a
flightsimulator and mustfind a way
home.
And how, one might ask, does a
humble community college end up
with its own flight simulator?
"We've made it pretty clear at
this point that Greendale doesn't
spend their money wisely," Glover
admitted. "They have like 20 danc-
es a year. It's ridiculous."
Now in its second season, "Com-
munity" has been gearing up for a
space spoof ever since last spring's
"Modern Warfare" - a combina-
tion of to-the-death paintball war
and wide-ranging parody of the
action genre.
"Everybody loved the paintball
episode. How are we going to beat
that?" Glover said of the mental-
ity that inspired the episode "Basic
Donald Glover was hired to write for "30 Rock" while still a student
Rocket Science."
"Maybe we send (the cast) to
space ... that was the joke."
And while chances are good that
Shirley's prayers, Jeff's last-minute
leadership and Abed's plot dictation
will be enough to bring the study
group home in one piece, Glover
doubts any of the characters would
be able to make it as real astronauts.
"(Abed would) be able to memo-
rize and know everything better
than anyone else," he said. "But I
think his lack of emotions ... they'd
be like, 'Well, we can justput a com-
puter in his place, and that'd be just
as efficient, and cheaper.'"
Ultimately, the point is moot,
Glover said.
"NASA is probably not going to
hire anybody from a two-year com-
munity college."
Glover's own college experi-
ence was more fortuitous - though
he never heard from NASA - but
somewhat less exciting than a
Greendale education.
"There wasn't as much adven-
ture, you know, unless eating
Ramen noodles and watching 'The
Chappelle Show' on DVD is an
adventure."
While still a student at NYU's
Tisch School of the Arts, Glover
was hired to write for NBC's "30
Rock."
"My name got tossed in the ring
for writers when they were starting
a show," Glover said, "because I was
doing a lot of work at the (Upright
Citizens Brigade) Theater and
around. And a lot of people knew
that I was a writer."
From there, Glover made the
leap to stand-up comedy, and then
See COMMUNITY, Page 3B