2B - Thursday, February 17, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 28- Thursday, February 17, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 0 FOD WARS Each week, one Ann Arbor staple menu item becomes a battlefield as Daily Arts editors butt heads over which restaurant makes it best. Where should you go for your burger, fro-yo or garden omelette? Daily Arts will fight for the truth. Chicken Tikka Masala - Dear Lady Gaga, We thought of it first. Sincerely, Spinal Tap Dear Alan Rickman, 0 0 Happy 65th birthday. Don't disappoint me. Sincerely, Alan Rickman a 'THE RUM DIARY' (1998), HUNTER S. THOMPSON MADRAS MASALA 328 Maynard The best thing to be said about Madras Masala's chicken tikka masala is that the spice levels are actually accurate. Mild takes it easy, medium has a little kick and spicy might make you reach for the water - but at least you know what you signed up for. Most importantly, the flavor isn't compromised. The Madras chicken tikka masala is always a solid choice for any lunch or dinner. TASTE OF INDIA 217South State It's impossible to be satisfied with just a taste of the chicken tikka masala at Taste of India. With its rich sauce and spicy aroma, you'll want multiple plates of this masterpiece. Its components make a culi- nary dreamteam, as the powerful flavor of the chicken is balanced with the lightness of the basmati rice. It's enough to make you want to brave the State Street traffic and its $10.95 price tag. SHALIMAR 307 South Main Known for high standards, Shalimar follows through with a quality - if pricey - chicken tikka masala. While the creamy curry sauce is a bit too mild, it blends well with a generous helping of rice and peas. Slices of onion and tomato help to compli- ment healthy chunks of marinated chick-, en. Order with buttery naan on the side and a thick and tangy sweet lassi, and the meal is more than enough for one person. RAJA RANI 400 South Division Raja Rani's chicken tikka masala is unquestionably delicious - unfortunate- ly its sauce, slightly runny and drenched with a monsoon of cilantro and onions, keeps the dish from making you want to break out in choreographed dance. But Indian entrees are never meant to be eaten alone, and it gains points back for its worship-worthy Peshwari naans and boss basmati rice. Gonzo prince's 'Diary' By STEPHEN OSTROWSKI Deputy Magazine Editor Long before the late, legendary journalist Hunter S. Thompson loudly crashed into mainstream culture (be it as a pop culture appropriation - most memorably, Johnny Depp as Thompson dop- pelganger Raoul Duke in Terry Gilliam's 1998 cinematic bender and dorm room poster fodder, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" - or as the actual talented scribe that he was, vis-a-vis his break- through book, "Hell's Angels") there was Thompson as the strug- gling artist. Such is the glimpse of the Gonzo king to which readers are treated in his electric 1998 novel, "The Rum Diary." Thompson writes as the 30-years-old-but-already-weath ered journeyman journalist Paul Kemp, who's seeking a reinven- tion with a struggling English daily newspaper in late-'50s San Juan, Puerto Rico. However, Kemp's retreat to the Caribbean plays less like a Carnival cruise than it does an Orwellian treat- ment of Eden, as he roughs the And the winner is: Taste of India a ~II A spatkjeg condy of eak, pitting inlu get ronrticism versus conlnsoo good sense. George Bernard Sh'aw's arnd the Directed by Philip Kerr Feb. 17 at 7:30 PM Feb. 18&19at8 PM Feb. 20 at 2 PM Mendelssohn Theatre Tickets $24 & $18 Students $10 wiD League Ticket Office 734-764-2538 www.music.umich.edu DON'T WANT TO PICK US UP? GET OUR WEEKLY ONLINE NEWSLETTER AT michigandaily.com/subscribe newspaper's precarious financial situation (sound familiar?) and an awkward cultural assimilation. Complementing Kemp is a colorful cast of characters - including a crotchety staff pho- tographer-turned-best bud and an alluring-but-taken blonde - who, when sprinkled with a pinch of the typical Thompson tidings of paranoia, romanticism and lust, only exacerbate Kemp's central hangover - namely, are his best years behind him? "The Rum Diary" is visibly more reserved than subsequent Thompson works (perhaps most notable is the absence of drug use, though, as the title implies, rum is never more than an arm's reach away). As expected, Thompson's vulgar, tough tongue is on high alert, edifying hilarious and dis- turbing character portraits of the island's oddballs. Nevertheless, the no-holds, barrels-blazing pace is considerably slowed for a much more deliberate and calculated narrative, affording an emotion- ally organic experience - not one of stomach-souring viscera. Disappointments abound for any reader expecting "The Rum Diary" to be an earlier chapter of or an epilogue to. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" - argu- ably Thompson's most famous work. Not only do the pistons fire more violently in his Las Vegas episode, but it's much more complex and thematically deeper: In Sin City, Thompson presents a political, social and cultural commentary - broadly, the disillusionment of '60s coun- terculture - that is absent here in the Caribbean. Sure, there are themes of leftist marginaliza- tion and capitalist boom on the island, but such undertones are, for the most part, merely white noise. It's also s'tartling that a young Thompson would articu- late the concerns of the notably older Kemp - perhaps revealing a bothered mind that even Chris- topher Nolan and co. couldn't incept. Though less elaborate, "The Rum Diary" has a universal yet intimate pulse that connects to its reader. The institution under attack in this work is less tan- gible - the human spirit. Kemp is constantly dogged by his age - at 30, as Thompson writes, "no longer young but not quite over the hump." It's Kemp's internal struggle, not his interaction with the external world, that proves most enlightening, as it indicates a fear to which all can relate - am I approaching the hill, or did I just walk down it? It is this struggle that most pertains to the col- lege intelligentsia, considering an individual's true worth and vulnerability will be fully test- ed outside the less friendly and guarded campus confines. Sim-, ply put, the proverbial real world by which Kemp feels polarized is that toward which we all inevita- bly inch. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum - or a book of it. To best value "The Rum Diary" is to learn its splintered history. The 1998 publication date is par- tially misleading, as Thompson began the book during his brief Puerto Rico stint in 1960 when he toiled at a doomed sports publica- tion and freelanced, as detailed in Douglas Brinkley's superbly edit- ed collection of Thompson letters, "The Proud Highway." Corre- spondences between 1960 and 1967 reveal a young Thompson lamenting the numerous rejec- tions and rewrites of "The Rum Diary" - confidently self-billed as the "Great Puerto Rican Novel." And, in a much later television interview with Charlie Rose - YouTube it - Thompson simply suggests that time constraints delayed the novel's completion. That Thompson nursed "The Rum Diary" for so long - what else is to be expected of the noto- riously deadline-averse writer? - only sweetens the read. Wine ages well. So does rum. 6 6 I Department of A~ rgan Theatre & Drama owt a- Coole >oley.edu C 0V; Experience Cooley - visit any of our campuses. os all 4 March 7-10, 2011 * 4-7 P.M. Monday, March 7 Tuesday, March B Wednesday,March9 Thursday, March 10 GRAND RAPIDS LANSING ANNARBOR AUBURN HILLS Attend a Cooley Law School spring open house at any of Cooley's four Michigan campuses.Cooley administrators, department representativesstudents,and faculty members will be available to answertyour questions about Cooley Law School. Register online to attend the campus or campuses of your choice at cooleyedu or register onsite. Learn about cooley at cooleyedu Thomas M. Cooley Law School is committed to a fair and objective admissions policy.Subject to space limitations, Cooley offers the opportunity for legal education to all quaMed applicants. Cooley abides by a all federal and state laws against discrimination. In addition Cooley abides by American Bar Associadion Standard 211(a), which provides that "a law school shaft foster and maintain equality of opportunity in legal education, including employment of faculty and staff, without discrimination or segregation on the basis of race, color, reigion, national origin.gender, sexual orientation, age or disabiity"[ Learn more about Cooley Open Houses cco~iCzmaRSADand register online toeattend Celebrating our One Year Anniversary! 20% off any purchase We serve over$25 for entire Korean Cuisine month of February! Chinese Schechuan Cuisine *1 613 E William St (734) 769-1368 Arbor, MI 48104 0