0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, March 18, 2011 - 5
* The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, March 18, 2011 - 5
Wooten to woo Ark
COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.
"There's a 30-percent chance that it's already snowing "
'Red' is hot, plot is not
By MACKENZIE METER
DailyArts Writer
"Red Riding Hood" isn't the
most artfully adapted fairy tale. It
might not even be that great of a
movie. Howev-
er, the two men
feuding for the
heart of Val- Red Riding
erie (Amanda Hood
Seyfried, "Dear
John") are so At Quality16
'v damn fine that and Rave
it makes the
entire theater- Warner Bros.
going experi-
ence worth the effort.
The word "fine" is not used
lightly here. "Fine" barely even
begins to describe the chiseled,
Adonis-like attributes of Henry
(Max irons, "Dorian Gray"), the
wealthy fiance of the unwill-
ing Valerie. "Fine" also cannot
encompass the qualities of Val-
erie's true love Peter (Shiloh
Fernandez, "Happiness Runs"),
whose dark features and
scorching eyes basically make
audience members (at least the
females) turn green with envy
of Valerie's good fortune.
That being said, the story-
line is more or less bland. Since
it's an adaptation of the famous
children's tale, "Red Riding
Hood" obviously relies heav-
ily on the images of the grand-
mother and the "big bad wolf"
but also adds a tiny village
that, for generations, has been
plague
wolf. V
hunter
that th
village
The w
ances
village
with h
lagers(
It'sI
ers trie
the mi
actuall
story i
be an
Riding
if it wa
film to
"Red"
Wh7
lea
more si
only as
heavy
d by a fearsome were- Valerie, her betrothed and her
When a famous werewolf true love is also palpable. And
comes in and explains extremely sexy. However, some
e wolf is among them, the of the elements of the well-
goes into a state of panic. known story are lost. The point
olf makes a few appear- of the children's story, at least
and says he will leave the in the Brothers Grimm version,
in peace if Valerie comes is to show that naivete leads to
im, an idea that most vil- harm, but through cunning wit
obviously like. it's possible to escape danger.
nice that the screenwrit- In the film version, the writ-
ed to add a love story into ers seem to focus on the other,
x. In fact, the film would lesser-known adaptations of the
ly make a very good love tale, which depict Red as a girl
if it wasn't supposed to coming to sexual maturity.
adaptation of "Little Red So, while Henry gorgeous-
Hood." It's hard to tell ly looks on, Valerie and Peter
as a good decision for the truly seem like they are unable
be both - it seems that to keep their hands off of each
might have been a little other, resulting in feelings of
empathy (and jealousy) from
the audience, which by this time
iat attractive has forgotten that the story is
supposed to be about Little Red
d s you have. Riding Hood. The young actors
J * do what they can with the
extremely passe script, mean-
ing the film might not be met
uccessful if it was written with whoops and hollers, but is
an adaptation without a certainly appreciated as a good,
emphasis on love. How- albeit generic, experience.
Award-winning
bassist Victor
Wooten talks jazz
By ELLIOT ALPERN
Daily Arts Writer
He is a three-time winner of the
"Bass Player of the Year" award
from Bass Player magazine, an
honor never
bestowed to The Victor
another musi-
cian more Wooten Band
than once. & The Stanley
He is a multi-
Grammy CaieBn
Award win- Tomorrow
ner. He is Vic-at 7 p.m.
tor Wooten,
and his name- The Ark
sake band will Sold out
be playing
with The Stanley Clarke band at
The Ark tomorrow at 7 p.m.
Expect nothing short of jazz
magic.
"The energy of the audience
just lifts you up," Wooten said in
a recent interview with the Daily.
"Sometimes that special energy
gets squeezed out of a recording
session."
Though audiences can expect
some songs off of Wooten's
recently re-released A Show Of
Hands 15, it's rare to find two
similar performances of the
same song in jazz - a live repro-
duction is sure to be unique.
However, be cautious -
though Wooten is a jazz bass-
ist, he isn't just confined to jazz.
While he will play what made
him famous, don't rule out influ-
ences from other genres.
"Music is bigger than any one
style," he said. "Back in the '60s,
we listened to everything. You
could hear all types of music,
even on the same station. You
COURTESY OF BASS FRONTIERS
Wooten took up the bass to fill out his brothers' band.
could hear James Brown next
to The Beatles next to Led Zep-
pelin. Nowadays, things are all
segmented."
Music has deep roots in the
Wooten family, so it's no won-
der that Victor Wooten eventu-
ally picked up the bass. He once
learned an entirely new instru-
ment - the fiddle - just to land
a gig at Busch Gardens, and has
been known to play both the dou-
ble bass and the cello..
"I was born into the perfect
situation, being the youngest of
five brothers," Wooten said. "My
brothers knew that I was going
to be a bass player because that's
what they needed in the band."
Stanley Clarke, who will play
after Wooten at the Ark on Sat-
urday, has a long history with the
storied bassist. Through their
careers, the two have collaborat-
ed often, and with bassist Mar-
cus Miller, they released Thunder
in 2008.
Having first met when Wooten
was nine years old, Clarke and
Wooten re-met each other a few
years later as the young Wooten
was traveling and honing his
skills.
"He remembered meeting my
brothers and me when we were
kids. That was a little connec-
tion," Wooten said.
While Wooten has played with
a variety of musicians includ-
ing Bela Fleck, Chick Corea and
the Dave Matthews Band, he has
expressed interest in continuing
to work with other artists.
"There are many musicians
that I hope, one day, to get to
cross paths with in all walks of
life," Wooten said. "I could name
some jazz guys, there are some
rock people - I love Steve Vai as
a rock guitarist. There's Robert
Randolph, a great steel guitar
player I'd never played with -
that would be wonderful."
The concert tomorrow, then,
should be a spectacle to behold.
"I always tell people when
they come see us play that they're
going to hear something and see
something that they've never
seen before," Wooten said.
ever, in the long run, the love
story makes up for the lame and
unoriginal script.
Definitely don't expect a cut-
and-dry film that closely follows
the popular version of the tale.
While the script might be dumb,
there are thrills and action
throughout, especially once the
villagers learn the wolf is among
them. The tension between
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