0 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.