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8 - Friday, January 28, 2011
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
A double dose of
Sundance USA
The Swell Season will play tomorrow as part of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival.
A2 festival forI all folk
The Avett Brothers,
Mavis Staples headline
34th Folk Festival
By MIKE KUNTZ
Daily Arts Writer
From its humble beginnings as aone-
night stand at the Power Center in 1977,
the Ann Arbor Folk Festival has become
a celebration of folk
music in all its forms.A
Over the course of its Ann Arbor
more than 30-year Folk Festival
history, The Ark's
annual hootenanny Hill Auditorium
has become one of Todaypandtomorrow
the most popular at6:30 p.m.
musical events in Ticketsfrom $30
town all year.
In addition to
hosting folk legends like Pete Seeger and
John Prine in previous years, past head-
liners Jeff Tweedy, Ben Gibbard and Jay
Farrar, Iron & Wine and Ben Folds are
all names that can be found somewhere
in the average college kid's iPod - a fact
not lost on festival organizers looking to
appeal to both old folkies and University
hipsters alike.
This year's lineup continues the fes-
tival's youth-centric streak with head-
liners The Avett Brothers, Citizen Cope
and the Swell Season, while-also boasting
national treasures like Mavis Staples and
the sweet blue-eyed Judy Collins of the
late-'60s Laurel Canyon scene. As in pre-
vious years,this weekend's festivalprom-
ises to be an eclectic mix of old and new.
Now in its 34th year (the folk fest
skipped '78), the tagline for this week-
end's event is "Find Your Folk," a nod
toward embracing the big tent that folk
music, in all its forms, has become over
time.
"I think people have a lot of precon-
ceived notions about what folk music is,"
said Ark marketing director Barb Chaf-
fer Authier'who recently spoke with the
Daily about the festival's history and why
its connection to University audiences is
so important.
"The whole point of the festival is to
get a taste of all these different artists,"
Authier said. "We want to just remind
people that (folk) is a much broader cat-
egory than they might think ... and we
hope folks will be open to hearing new
things and discovering different artists."
From its more humble beginnings as
a progenitor of acts like John Prine and
Leon Redbone (along with a few rem-
nants of Ann Arbor's thriving late-'60s
singer-songwriter scene), the Folk Fes-
tival - the brainchild and central fun-
draiser for the famed local fixture The
Ark - has been an annual event bringing
together the disparate strands of dusty
Americana under one roof.
In 2003, the festival moved to the
Michigan Theater due to the Hill Audi-
torium being closed for renovation. To
make up for the lack of seating in the
smaller venue, event organizers opted to
add an extra night to the affair to accom-
modate for the same-sized crowd, albeit
split in two. The plan was such a hit that,
once they returned to Hill in 2004, Ark
organizers were prompted to uphold the
two-night format ever since. But there
was some debate onto how the split
should work.
"Once we moved into that two-night
idea, there was a lot of thought going into
how we would distinguish the two nights
from each other," Authier said.
Since the move to separate the festival
across two nights, the festival's M.O. has
generally been to attract hipper, more
up-and-coming headliners Friday night,
leaving the older, more tenured acts to
play Saturday. Recently, however, event
programmers have been considering
changing things up.
"For a while, there was a lot of focus on
the first night being geared toward up-
and-coming artists or people that kind of
push the boundaries of what it means to
be playing folk music,"Authier said. "But
I think we're getting to that point where
you might see the two nights coming a
little closer together in what people's
expectations for the music are going to
be."
Echoing this trend, ticket sales for
this year's festival have shown a rise in
the purchasing of "series tickets" - the
festival's combined two-night ticketing
option - perhaps demonstrating audi-
ences' desire to stick around through the
weekend.
Though the festival has always
attracted national artists that ultimately
demand the most attention (and ticket
sales) from Ann Arbor audiences, Ark
event programmer Anya Siglin - who
also books for the venue year-round
- has been keen to pepper in local or
developing artists in order to expose fans
to similar-sounding and exciting new
breeds of folk music.
"The idea of the festival isn't just to
present the big name headliners," Auth-
ier pointed out. "The other folks on the
bill are artistswe really believe in and the
festival gives them a chance to be seen."
Though Friday night is sold out, tick-
ets are still available for Saturday, with
prices starting at $30.
"Be sure to come at the beginning,"
Authier warned. "You don't want to risk
missing the next great thing because you
didn't get there in time!"
By TIMOTHY RABB
Daily Arts Writer
In many ways, the regal red carpet
epitomizes the ideals of big city fame,
especially considering the immeasur-
able wealth and
extravagant apparel Sundance USA
of the film person- C R s
alities and other
socialites who tread Michigan Theater
upon it each day. ButT
one may not realize Tonightatl:30p.m.
that the extensive
acclaim held by the likes of Abigail Bre-
slin, Kevin Smith and Quentin Taran-
tino owes a debt to the Sundance Film
Festival, a humble yet beloved staple of
the independent film community. And
for the past two years, Ann Arbor's own
Michigan Theater has enjoyed a share
of the yearly Sundance hubbub with the
advent of a national publicity initiative
called Sundance USA.
The program includes a bevy of film
screenings and filmmakers' commen-
taries in select host cities across the
country. This year, Sundance USA caters
to the burgeoning arts communities of
eight cities, including San Francisco,
Brooklyn, Seattle and Los Angeles. But
the historic Michigan Theater holds the
distinct honor of hosting two Sundance
feature films.
'Cedar Rapids' is
the Michigan's
second 2011
Sundance film.
Accordingto Drew Waller, director of
marketing at the Michigan Theater, this
opportunity distinguishes the theater
from the other Sundance USA locales
- each of which hosts a single film. Ann
Arbor's small size is offset by its resi-
dents' passion for quality art, and with
two films, most will be able to enjoy a
show without a hitch.
"We've been put in the position where
we're the smallest market with the larg-
est venue. Most of the larger markets
have a modern multiplex with three
hundred or four hundred seats," Waller
said in a recent interview with the Daily.
"In our case, we have a historic the-
ater with a capacity of 1,700 people. So
we're in the best position to get as many
people to come as possible, whereas the
other shows are sold out in a flash."
Last night, the theater featured
Thomas McCarthy's "Win Win" star-
ring Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan.
"Cedar Rapids" will screen tonightat
7:30 p.m. Its inclusion in the showcase
was an easy decision for the film's pro-
duction staff, since the majority of the
movie was shot in Ann Arbor and its
surrounding areas.
"A good portion of the film takes
place in a dilapidated hotel adjacent to
Weber's Hotel off I-94, and it fits the
humor and the tongue-in-cheek tone of
the story very well," Waller said.
Many filmmakers flock to Michigan
for the generous tax credits. However,
the city of Ann Arbor held a unique
allure for the "Cedar Rapids" crew due
to its lack of cumbersome red tape.
"The Visitor and Civics Bureau as
well as the Screen Arts & Cultures
Guild made the whole process very easy
regarding accessibility of resources.
There was plenty of good discussion
before the film was made as to how to
make the process as simple as possible
for the crew," Waller said.
The Michigan Theater's business
relationship with the organizers of the
Sundance Festival is the result of the
yearly Art House Convergence confer-
ence. This year's Convergence ran from
Jan. 17th-20th and brought art house
theater owners from around the coun-
try together under the same roof. Dur-
ing the event, proprietors discussed
ways to keep the unadulterated genre
of art cinema relevant and distinguish-
able from the rote popcorn fluff of main-
stream Hollywood.
"The goal is to develop a new per-
spective of the Michigan Theater. Last
year's Sundance screenings showed
that we have the fortitude and foresight
to organize something of this caliber,"
Waller said. "Not only that, it gave us a
platform to say, 'We don't just do this on
any given weekend, we do it 365 days a
year.'"
Granted, this beautiful venue and its
faithful clientele will have to share their
moment in the sun with the eight other
host cities. But with the Michigan's rich
history and ability to afford an addition-
al screening to spite an array of mass-
manufactured multiplexes, Ann Arbor's
spotlight is sure to shine a bit brighter
this weekend.
'Rainbows' a pot of gold
Ebert the sole star of Movies'
By ANDREW LAPIN
DailyArts Writer
A movie is not about what it's about.
It's about how itis about it.
That's the firm opinion of world-
renowned, stalwart
film critic Roger **
Ebert. Opinions
are relative, except Ebert Presents:
of course when A
they're not, and At the Movies
Ebert's essential Series premiere
view on what makes
a film is the abso- Fridays at 9:30 p.m.
lute truth. How can PBS
a film about, say, a
newspaper tycoon or a racketeer on the
loose in Vienna connect with its audi-
ence? A good critic can tell you.
Ebert's career has been largely
defined by his role on "At the Movies,"
the long-running TV movie review
series with the iconic thumbs up/
thumbs down rating system. The show
also received mass derision from many
working critics for boiling down the
nuanced prose of their profession to a
simple binary scale - ironic, since "At
the Movies" was never about its thumbs,
but about how its hosts defended those
thumbs, with ping-pong discussions
and heated banter. More importantly,
the hosts' passionate discourse taught
impressionable young film buffs all over
that it's OK to yell at your best friend
over the merits of "Blue Velvet."
Now the latest iteration of "At the
Movies" is upon us. It's a deliberate, PBS-
funded slap in the face to those who say
that criticism is a dying profession, with
Ebert back on TV for the first time since
his thyroid cancer surgery in 2006. And
the brief, two-minute segment when he's
on air - during which he heaps praise
on new animated film "My Dog Tulip"
- is the show's best moment, thanks to
legendary director Werner Herzog's bril-
liant reading of Ebert's prose.
This is Ebert's only physical appear-
ance on the show, but as executive
producer he's definitely making his
presence known. Associated Press crit-
ic Christy Lemire, one of the new co-
hosts, introduces the week's film lineup
by saying "This week on 'Ebert Pres-
ents' " instead of "This week on 'At the
Movies,' " as though the movies them-
selves were being presented by Ebert.
And then there are the old clips of him
and former co-host Gene Siskel, since
deceased, that play over the end cred-
its. If this is indeed going to usher in a
new era of critics, as it's clearly intended
to, Ebert wants to be the newly recon-
structed face of it.
The thumbs are
neither up nor
down for this show.
So what is the new face of film criti-
cism - how is "Ebert Presents" about
what it's about? Well, there are still the
two faces arguing about the films of
the week: Opposite Lemire is 24-year
old, Moskow-born film blogger Ignatiy
Vishnevetsky. She's the traditionalist;
he's the new media representative. She
hates everything; he likes everything,
even "No Strings Attached" and "The
Green Hornet." They boast large, local-
news smiles.
But their discourse - the only reason
a show like this should exist - rarely
sizzles above room temperature. There's
little back-and-forth, and Vishnevetsky
mostly limits his arguments to saying, "I
completely disagree." Siskel and Ebert
never cared about being nice or even
articulate, but they had passion, and
that was the point. The bread and but-
ter of criticism is passion, not simply the
doling out of opinion.
Granted, the task of providing dia-
logue worthy of Ebert's vocal history
is a considerable one, made harder
by his insistence in being the show's
mostly unseen "third man." Lemire and
Vishnevetsky should improve their dis-
course over time. But how are they sup-
posed to distinguish themselves while
working underneath Ebert's enforced
shadow?
Fittingly, there's one figure that hov-
ers over the proceedings even more
than Ebert, and that figure is Orson
Welles. Between a clever introductory
skit parodying the original trailer for
"Citizen Kane," a (somewhat vapid) seg-
ment where Sunset Gun blogger Kim
Morgan celebrates "The Third Man"
and a production company logo that
casts Ebert as the infamous Harry Lime,
there's a distinctly Wellesian undertone
to the first episode of "Ebert Presents."
It makes sense, considering the naked
ambition in Ebert's attempt to revital-
ize the world of film criticism, and the
hubris of making his name so visible on
the marquee.
Will Ebert, as the "third man" of
criticism, succeed? Only if he can heed
his own immortal words and keep the
"how" of the show in the forefront of
his mind. Film buffs everywhere will be
holding their collective breath.
By CASSIE BALFOUR
Daily Arts Writer
Recently, it seems the mainstream
rap game has become oversaturated
with designer duds and swaggering
wannabes, slathering
their tracks with Auto-*
Tune and gold chains.
But amid the misguid- Talib Kweli
ed hero-worship of
poseurs, Talib Kweli Gutter
has always been a rap- Rainbows
per's rapper.
On Gutter Rainbows, Blacksmith
Kweli gets back to the
basics, with nary a peep about diamond-
encrusted Escalades. He has remained
firmly on the outskirts of mainstream
rap, a genre populated by cocksure hacks
more concerned with chart numbers than
storytelling. With his latest album, Kweli
re-enters the music world hell-bent on
showing these fakes how it's done.
The album's title track is a sprawl-
ing showpiece, with soaring horns and
a hard beat. The song harkens back to
the days when rap advocated for the
have-nots. "Gutter Rainbows" has a dis-
tinctly vintage feel - Kweli humanizes
the marginalized denizens of the ghet-
to, and acts as a powerful "voice of the
voiceless, hope for the hopeless." Kweli's
flow is tighter than ever, and it's no won-
der powerhouses like Jay-Z and Kanye
West claim Kweli as an inspiration.
Kweli sticks to similar themes on
"Cold Rain." The track opens with him
saying "Let's try something new," but
this song is classic Talib. It features a
crooning female gospel singer while
a soulful piano accompanies Kweli's
socially conscious lyrics. "Cold Rain"
recalls a time when rap was a storytell-
ing medium. And Kweli's literate and
astute commentary is a welcome relief
in a rap market that glorifies over-indul-
gent capitalism. Kweli may be "a prod-
uct of Reaganomics," according to the
song's lyrics, but he sings for the victims
of budget cuts: "We're freedom writers
like Bob Moses / the chosen, freedom
writers like Voltaire / For my block, my
borough, my hood, my city, my state,
yeah / My obligation to my community
is so clear / Yeah, we gotta savethem,
this opportunity so rare."
Kweli indulges in some well deserved
boasting and schools all the narcissist
phonies on "I'm On One." The track fea-
tures a raw beat and the artist rapping
on the hook that "Stop posing for the
camera / I'm showing all you amateurs
/ life is a bitch, that's how you handle
her." He spits faster and better than
most of the rappers out there and has no
problem exposing all these fame hoard-
ers for their devious ways. Don't piss off
Talib Kweli, because he will skewer you
in the cleverest way possible.
It seems that skills
sold, truth be told.
The record may be stocked with solid
tracks, but even Kweli isn't immune to
the seductive powers of an Auto-Tuned
slow jam. "How You Love Me" sounds
like a Ne-Yo track (not a compliment)
and comes across as bland with lyrics
too dull to repeat. The track is plagued
by a mind-numbing slow clap, which
seems fitting considering that the song
ends up being so anti-climatic.
Kweli's latest album is a nearly pitch-
perfect masterpiece with the occasion-
al misstep or two. And though Kweli
exposes the crippling bleakness inher-
ent in the ghettos he grew up in, the
album is ultimately optimistic. He finds
beauty even in the artificially created
"gutter rainbow," and on the record, he
blends conflicting emotions to create his
own cacophony of colors.