The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, November 5, 2010 - 5A
Folds dishes about
Hornby collaboration
COURTESY OF AMC
Should've read the sign.
Grateful for 'Dead'
AMC's zombie
drama has heart and
braaaamins...
By DAVID TAO
Daily TV/New Media Editor
Depending on your perspec-
tive, zombies can be any number of
things. To some,
they're canni-
balistic monsters
who are scary The Walking
as hell. To oth-
ers, they're corny De
reminders of Sundays at
Hollywood's lack 10 p.m.
of imagination. AMC
But theoretically
speaking, zom-
bies are as serious as any other
global disaster. Governments shut
down. Public services end. Mil-
lions of people flee their homes and
mourn the loss of their loved ones
even as their loved ones come back
to life and try to eat them. Indeed,
zombie apocalypse is emotion-
ally shattering, morally compli-
cated and deadly serious. Nobody
knows this fact better than Oscar-
nominated writer Frank Darabont
("The Shawshank Redemption"),
whose latest project "The Waking
Dead" takes this principle to heart.
The result? The most affecting,
well executed zombie drama ever
produced.
First, an introduction for the
uninitiated. Zombies are dead peo-
ple who have come back to eat the
living. They can only be stopped
by destroying their brains and if
they bite or scratch you, you're
done for - your painful death will
be followed by your resurrection
as a rotting carcass that craves
human flesh. That's all new infor-
mation for our protagonist, small-
town sheriffs deputy Rick Grimes
(Andrew Lincoln, "Love Actu-
ally"). After getting shot during a
car chase and lapsing into a coma,
he wakes up in his hospital bed,
feeble, unattended and clueless.
From there, Grimes slowly
makes his way through the dilapi-
dated hospital in a series of scenes
that establish both Lincoln's skill
as an actor and Darabont's consid-
erable prowess behind the camera.
As Grimes stumbles, confused,
through the corridors, Darabont
tweaks the lighting and color pal-
ette to create a tense atmosphere
of dread. Much of the hospital,
including its walls, its ceilings and
its lights, is a harsh, pristine white.
Marred by dried blood, bullet
holes and the occasional brutally
mutilated corpse, those surfaces
become a reminder of shattered
tranquility, an eerie effect com-
pounded by the ominous flickering
of the fluorescent lights.
Lincoln makes sure to portray
Grimes not as a typical action hero,
but as an ordinary guy with whom
we can identify. He combines the
physical frailties of a recovering
gunshot victim with the emotions
of a man exposed to an unexplain-
able, repulsive new world. He shiv-
ers in his patient gown even as he
sweats from a combination of fear
and adrenaline, his face contorting
in expressions ranging from sur-
prise to dismay to disgust. When
he sees his first zombie, a long-dead
corpse dragging its entrails along as
it crawls, he recoils in terror.
Eventually, he recovers his
senses, but his priorities continue
to match those of ordinary disaster
victims - find out what happened,
reunite his family and restore some
semblance of ordinary life. As he
goes about accomplishing these
goals, he encounters the father and
son duo of Morgan (Lennie James,
"Snatch") and Duane (Adrian Kali
Turner, "FlashForward"), who
share similar beliefs. Together,
they anchor the show by portray-
ing realistically human responses
to adversity, saying Grace over
meals, reminiscing about old times
and treating a hot shower like a
winning lottery ticket.
That's not to say that the episode
favors talk over action. Darabont,
constructs some of the most chill-
ing, visually dazzling setpieces
ever seen on television. Dead bod-
ies in impeccably applied zombie
makeup are presented in dozens
of neatly stacked rows, represent-
ing the Army's doomed attempt at
containing catastrophe. The empty
tanks and Humvees that decorate
the abandoned city streets tes-
tify to military failure, as do the
zombies that are seemingly every-
where. There's the little girl who
Grimes is forced to neutralize and
the fellow police officer he eutha-
nizes. And there's Morgan's wife,
who comes in the night to scare
Duane and break Morgan's heart.
Try as he might, Morgan can never
bring himself to put her down. His
tears of grief and frustration epito-
mize the edge that "The Waking
Dead" has over the competition
- its ability to poignantly analyze
the human side of something as
farfetched as a zombie apocalypse.
Hopefully, the series can keep
this emotional edge sharp. We
catch hints of petty drama from
a group of survivors introduced
in the episode's closing minutes,
which, along with a stale love tri-
angle, push expectations for future
episodes down a notch or two. Still,
the series is off to an incredible
start. Let's hope nobody shoots it
in the head anytime soon.
By DAVID RIVA
Daily Arts Writer
It started more simply than one
might expect.
"He had been listening to my
records and I
had been read- Ben Folds
ing his books,"
Ben Folds said of Saturday
his relationship at 7 p.m.
with British nov-
elist and screen- The Fillmore
writer Nick Ticketsfrom
Hornby in an $27.50
interview with
the Daily. "Our paths were cross-
ing more and more and we just
finally decided to make a record."
Lonely Avenue - that resulting
record - was released in Septem-
ber and includes lyrics written by
Hornby for Folds's arrangements.
The new songs will be premiered
on Folds's current tour alongside
tunes from his extensive back
catalogue. Both can be heard in
Detroit at the Fillmore tomorrow
night.
The veteran singer-songwriter
claims his compatibility with
Hornby stems from their similar
tendency to look at all situations
with a certain degree of complex-
ity. Mixing things that don't often
go together is a difficult endeavor
for creative types, but it's some-
thing both Folds and Hornby
embrace.
"When it's time to make a book
or j1 movie or a photograph or a
song, people tend to just choose a
tone," Folds said.
He explained that most artists
are not likely to combine an oppos-
ing sentiment with that tone,
but asserts that he and Hornby
both reject this one-dimensional
approach to storytelling.
"When it comes to art, people
don't necessarily reflect the real-
ity that there are funny moments
in the saddest times and there
are sad moments in the funniest
(times)," Folds said.
This fusion of sad and funny
can be heard throughout on Lone-
ly Avenue. For example, the intro-
spective ballad "Picture Window"
tells the story of a girl in the hos-
pital during the holiday season.
After describing an undeniably
bleak situation, the narrator per-
sonifies the concept of hope and
begins to comically insult it.
"Hope is a liar / a cheat and a
tease / Hope comes near you /
kick its backside," Folds sings as
Hornby's words inject a wry bit of
humor into the dreary scenario.
on the flipside of the coin,
"Levi Johnston's Blues" presents
a funny premise in the face of a
truly tragic tale. The song is told
from the first-person perspective
of a hard-nosed Alaskan teenager
who just so happened to knock
up Bristol Palin during the 2008
election season, when her mother
was the vice president candidate
on the Republican ticket.
Folds explained Hornby's
thought process for writing the
song: "This is Nick watching the
Republican National Convention
Folds continued by saying that
everyone can think of a time when
they got into trouble as a kid, but
no single story is compelling
enough to capture a large audi-
ence's imagination. Levi John-
ston's ordeal was public enough
and rare enough that it would be
hard not to be drawn in by the
song.
With the song's killer melody
compounded by Folds's knowl-
edgeable and savvy audience,
"Levi Johnston's Blues" seems
to be on the fast track to instant-
classic status.
Folds will often acknowledge
the fact that he plays to what he
calls an "intelligent audience,"
which is something he is particu-
larly proud of.
"Over the years you sift out a
little part of the population that is
sort of your people," he said. "You
understand each other on a cer-
tain level."
"I don't really like calling peo-
ple fans, because I kind of feel like
we're not really that dissimilar,"
he explained. "I've spent my time
honing the craft of music and that
is the reason that I'm sharing that
thing that I do. There are people
in the audience ... that are great
locksmiths ... and they don't get
applauded for when they finish
their job. And I just sort of like to
recognize all that."
Overall, touring continues tobe
a positive experience for Folds.
"There's something really posi-
tive about being lucky enough to
bring together people who aren't
Telling the
story behind
'Levi Johnston's
Blues!'
fuckin' idiots," he said. "What's
really kind of nice is to go play
one of my gigs and everyone that's
there is smart and gets it. And
they might not all be one political
party or the other - I don't give a
shit. But they're on it and they're
smart and they get it and I think
that's a good reason to tour."
and going 'Wow, look at that kid
up there. That kid stuffed into a
suit looks really uncomfortable.
Oh, he has to get married to the
daughter. Oh, I see what's going
on. Poor kid. Wow, he had to grow
up fast.'"
"Then he looks him up on the
Internet and sees the MySpace
page that says ... 'I'm a fucking
redneck, I live to hang out with
boys (and) shoot moose,' " Folds
continued. "So he saw that and he
thought, 'Well there's a chorus.'"
Though Johnston became a
regular in the tabloids whose
story is familiar to most Ameri-
cans, Folds would like listeners
to relate to this story on a broader
level.
"The story is about growing up.
It's not about Levi Johnston," he
said. "Nick looks for those sym-
bols that resonate, a moment that
resonates"
,
N.E.R.D.'s Pharrell Williams
gets funky over 'Nothing'
By ARIELLE SPECINER
Daily Arts Writer
It's time to embrace the revenge
of the N.E.R.D.
Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo
and Shay Haley
are shifting the
gears of today's
hip-hop world. N.E.R.D.
N.E.R.D's new-
est album Noth- Nothing
ing brings Star Trak/
the funk with Interscope
'70s-inspired
tracks - a new
direction for lead vocalist Wil-
liams and his gang. Compared to
2008's Seeing Sounds, N.E.R.D's
newest venture has a softer feel
with swarms of bluesy horns and
808 beats. The album is rich with
both party pump-ups and funky
jam-outs with an undertone of
N.E.R.D's signature hipster flow.
The most electrifying track on
the album is the opener "Party
People (feat TI.)." Pharrell lures
listeners in with a pounding
bass track. Old-school hip-hop
raps and a party-starting cho-
rus entices "party people" to join
in because they're "gonna get
down." T.I's barely-there cameo
pulls the track together so it's not
just a jumble of noise.
Nothing is book-ended by the
other dance track, "Hot-n-Fun
(feat. Nelly Furtado)." Pharrell
introduces listeners to the track
as he explains, "OK, we wrote
this for a purpose, to motivate
you at this time / With this hyp-
notizing baseline, please feel free
to lose your mind," while Furta-
do's voice chimes in on the cho-
rus. Though songwriting may not
be N.E.R.D's forte, it makes up
Old-school hip-
hop vibes meet
808 beats.
for it with captivating beats and
melodies.
The band takes its sound to a
slower, sexier pace on the rest of
the album with tracks like "Hyp-
notize U," a spacey, sexually
charged song backed by soft organ
See N.E.R.D., Page 6A
Are you, or someone you know
unable to enjoy things you once liked to do?
less interested in people?
feeling sad or blue?
without energy?
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provided for 2-5 study visits of varying length.
For more information, please contact:
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