8 - Friday, September 16, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOKa Love for a local library By JENNIFER XU Senior Arts Editor Recently, our local library was rocked with a scandal that shook America to its very core, as they say in melodramatic news pro- grams. It almost closed down. It's funny, but when I think about the times I spent there, I don't think about the hours I exhausted browsing its dusty shelves for "Sweet Valley High" books (I was obsessed with the Wakefield twins back then), or the hundreds of study sessions spent in the children's section cramming for the APs or even the illicit romances that went down tucked behind closed doors (admittedly, some of them fictional). I think about how I got into a car accident there (my first hit- and-run, if you want to know the truth), how I turned into a parking spot, overshot it and basically grinded into the car standing adjacent to me, leaving the incriminating stain of red on white, like the few drops of blood that trickled down when Sleep- ing Beauty pricked her finger on the spinning wheel and fell into a deep, deep slumber. I remember running into the library in pur- suit of the friend I was supposed to pick up for ice cream, finding her in the midst of being asked to prom via an elaborate staging of multicolored origami frogs, dragging both asker and askee into my illicit vehicle and high- tailing it the hell out of there. I didn't drive back to the library on my own for a long, long time. I've always associated the building, its ugly worn brown- stone with the faded letters TROY stamped on its exterior, with freedom. The library was the first place I drove to when I got my license at the ripe old age of 17. I didn't even walk inside the building when I got there, just cruised around the park- ing lot foundf some w repress and ma thing: enclose On t close d tre thr stairwa of swe minute just rei Her I was t YO do the cably t the mid on kin where Kroger Science my fav Here is lot whe was a 7 ator ga and ask I noti mostly1 thing, their fa a shelf,, I'mn about t an eve age, an and-mo our sou don't h tribute But Should library imprin just be and breathed in my new- tory of books and DVDs, its freedom. From this story, capacity to educate the public in vould say that I led a pretty the most unassuming way pos- sed, suburban lifestyle - sible - but because of its social aybe I did - but here's the substance. My entire childhood is As a kid, you think of the ed inside its walls. library as this giant fairyland, a he day before its tentative place where colossal pictures of late, I walked like a spec- Harry, Ron and Hermione smile ough every passage, every down on you like benevolent ay, ignoring the long line saints encouraging you to read. eaty people settling last When you grow up, you realize fines and book returns, it's so much more. membering. The library, more so than any e is the table where the guy other place, is where you can utoring in physics inexpli- find the personality of the city, the collective consciousness of a community buzzing with activity and civic pride. John Cusack said )U r lOW yOU in "High Fidelity" that the kinds o a lot more of music people like, the kinds ofmovies people watch - even 're than read. though people say it's not a big deal in the long run, these things matter. Well, the cases matter, too. The mediums all that stuff :ried to hold my hand in comes in matter. ddle of a practice problem They matter because they're ematics. Here is the bench our most public manifestations I ate chocolate fudge of something that is very, very r cake while studying for private. When you're standing in e Olympiad with two of line, checking out your various orite people in the world. books and movies, there's a cer- s the place in the parking tain solidarity experienced as you re the old guy who said he secretly take a peek at the others' Frank Sinatra imperson- wares. Libraries intimate a kind ve me his e-mail address of collective sharing. When you ked to keep in touch. And lose that, it's not something you ced a few other people, can easily get back. teenagers, doing the same The library's day of elections strange smiles gracing was the first day I had ever voted ices as their hands grazed in my life. "How do I do this?" a stool, a surface. the woman next to me whispered not going to go on and on from the makeshift cubicle. "I he value of print media in have no idea," I mouthed back. rr-digitized, ADD-addled But this was something I had to d the necessity for brick- do, something Iowed, both to my ortar strongholds to house past self and my future. ils or whatever, because I I stayed up all night waiting ave anything new to con- for the results. The millage to on the topic. save the library passed, 12,246 I will say this much: votes to 8,799. n't every city have a The first thing I did the next a receptacle to store the morning was drive to the library. is of a community? Not This time, I didn't get into an cause of its large reposi- accident. t COURTESY OF FOXSEARCHLIGHTS "All these bands? You've never heard of them. All those books? Those, too." So over DesChanel Don't be pulled in by the adorable face of Zooey Deschanel By CAROLYN KLARECKI Magazine Editor Of all the terrible shows that will premiere this fall, it was "New Girl" that made me audi- bly groan. The FOX sitcom stars Zooey Deschanel ("(500) Days of Summer") as a quirky, eccen- tric 20-something getting over a rough breakup with the help of her new bro pals. It's not that the show sounds bad. In fact, I read the script and think it will likely be one of the more suc- cessful new series this fall. I just can't stand Zooey Descha- nel. I'm aware that's an unpopu- lar opinion. But the thing is, Zooey represents everything I feel is wrong with Hollywood, and seeing her porcelain face on the cover of this week's New York Magazine has sent me over the edge. Deschanel soared to indie darling heights in weak female roles: bitchy roommates, crazy ex-girlfriends and doe-eyed sweethearts for the lead man to win over. Then she became a household name as Summer Finn in "(500) Days of Summer." Summer and Zooey are largely indistinguishable. They both wear cute, feminine dresses and love bands you've probably never heard of. But Summer, as a character, only exists to make Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) grow and accept life. This isn't inherently prob- lematic. After all, Tom is the protagonist; every character only exists to make him grow. The problem comes in when every sensitive guy in glasses wants to be with a girl just like Zooey/Summer and every girl who was ever described as "quirky," even once, wants to be her. It's then that the brood- ing boys in skinny jeans expect the cute woman reading Oscar Wilde in the local coffee shop to "fix" them, and the wannabe dream girls who wear vintage feel they have to keep their quirkiness at a constant high, while also being spontaneous and unpredictable. What's more, many feminists have argued that Zooey's love of sugar and spice and every- thing nice fetishizes girlish- ness and leads to infantilization of women in media, making it harder for real women to be taken seriously. For men, Zoo- ey's female ideal is perfection. But I am not perfect. My mere existence isn't going to give any man an epiphany, and I actu- ally hate cupcakes, thank you very much. Many of my bad first dates could've been rectified had my dates known this. Beyond glorifying and romanticizing a weak female mentality, Zooey epitomizes the star system, the method of filmmaking where the star's name becomes the most impor- tant facet of a production. I'm sure she's not stomping around sets ordering drastic creative changes just because she can, but she does have a noticeable effect on people - particularly critics. During the Television Crit- ics Association's summer press tour, a two-week conference during which all the major TV and cable networks present their shows and host Q & A ses- sions with the critics, Zooey Sos n y owned her audience. Critics are notoriously not very nice, and they don't clap much. But they were filled with nothing but adoration during the "New Girl" panel. All professional- ism died as many of the mean- est critics in Hollywood raved about how sweet Zooey is. One critic even dared to ask the hard-hitting question, "When did you realize how adorable you were?" It was talked about for days. I wanted 0, to vomit. "New Girl" is a great script, but I fear no one will notice the writing hidden behind those large fringe bangs and big blue eyes. No one sees story - they just see Zooey. She's not exactly untouch- able. Take one look at her IMDb page and you'll see she's not God's gift to acting, as the world treats her. I'll give her "(500) Days of Summer" and "Our Idiot Brother," but then we're left with "Yes Man," "Surf's Up," "The Happening" and "Your Highness" - hardly Sun- dance fodder. She's not without petty squabbles. She got in a heated fight with Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison after he reported on Zooey's wor- ries about how the royal couple would view downtown Los Angeles. She's also suing Steve Madden for $2 million over an endorsement deal. But these qualms go largely unnoticed, because she's Zooey Deschanel and she can do no wrong. While everyone goes gaga for "New Girl," I'll be watching alone, waiting for society to get over their giant collective crush on Zooey Deschanel and accept reality: Girls like that don't exist. And that's OK. our more "civilized" European cousins engage in such behav- iors as booing and whistling when they are displeased. In 2006, superstar tenor Roberto Alagna was booed at La Scala following his opening aria in "Aida." Enraged, the divo stormed off the stage and had to be replaced by an un-costumed understudy. Did Alagna deserve it? Proba- bly not, but the situation proves refusingto clap maynotbe quite the faux pas that it appears. With a new theater season here, it's time American audi- ences start to recognize their rights as patrons, including the right to get one's money's worth. If the performers don't come through with their end of the deal, then it's not your place to pretend like they did.When itall boils down, the decision to clap means staying honest to oneself: Are you clapping because you actually enjoyed it, or are you clapping because everyone else is? Remember that the next time you make a move to "put your hands together." CLAPPING From Page 7 the singer's voice cracked and he was flat the entire evening, then sit on your hands during the curtain call. Audiences, however, have it in their heads that it's polite to clap - that they're supposed to give a big hand, no matter how poor the performance. But professional theater isn't some fourth-grade pageant during which you applaud to make the kids feel good. These perform- ers are being paid to do their jobs correctly, and it's your money they're getting. Ifa doc- tor gives the wfong diagnosis, you sure as hell won't give him a pat on the back. So why give an underserved ovation to a less- than-satisfactory performance? The same goes for the now- meaningless standing ova- tion. What should be reserved for only the most illuminating and virtuosic performances is wasted over and over again on the likes of community theater. Take, for instance, the time a friend and I went to see a high school performance of "Les Miserables." After the final cur- tain, while the rest of the audi- ence rose to their feet, my friend and I remained seated. A scan- dalized audience member in the row behind us made sure we heard her when she remarked to her companion, "Some people are so rude!" That she found it such an offense in the first place reveals how deeply rooted this philosophy is in our society. We must keep in mind that the act of bowing is one of humility - the performer hum- bly comes forward to receive the audience's appreciation through a bow, as if to say, "I don't deserve this." The irony is, many performers don't deserve it, making the whole process a sham. I'm sure there will be those who deem me a boorish, toma- to-flinging philistine. These critics may be surprised to learn that in Europe - especially in Italy - honesty reigns supreme during curtain calls. In fact, * How it ended.: Robinsons redemption leads Blue The Last 5 Minutes RrMKHB IARiL F(.R f:K f m 5 BF ly . -kr ige r. 1r leaM- 4II, .". r _=;. rn, _.. ++L >. r'1 l "- -A i L.1 : h ..... .k n.fan r Ihr. I4 :57nl I t1r n t rx .n i Il f P 1 1 U i. n~r:r al < rV,-s.r.n M 2 r .-il :I FEEL THE RHYTHM, FEEL THE RHYME, GET ON UP, IT'S DAILY ARTS TIME! JOIN DAILY FILM. E-mail join.arts@umich.edu for information on applying.