Friday, October 7, 2011 - 7 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com CONCERT PREVIEW Cole talks new LP A balancing act for Teng With 'Cole World' released, rapper to hit Royal Oak By DAVID RIVA DailyArts Writer Talking to J. Cole the day after his debut album Cole World: The Sideline Story dropped, two feel- ings could be immediately i Co detected: relief and exhaustion. Tonight at "We're run- 7 p.m. ning a mara- RoyalQakMusic thon, and we Theatre finally reached the finish line," From$35 Cole said in an interview with The Michigan Daily. Four mixtapes into his career, J. Cole - who will perform tonight at the Royal Oak Music Theatre - has caught the atten- tion of industry vets and rap fans alike. He's a product of a unique phenomenon that has seen artists like Drake, Wiz Khalifa and Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All gain intense popularity before a formal album release. "It's my first album, but it feels like my third," Cole said. "I've been touring so much and I've been putting out projects." Having passed his forma- tive years in North Carolina, Cole reminisced about spending time with one of his cousins who encouraged him to start rapping. "He was older than me and I looked up to him," he said. "And he had girls." Although the ladies might have been an initial inspiration, Cole knew he wanted to do more than simply serenade some neighbor- hood honeys from time to time. "(My cousin) was just free- styling and fooling around, but I thought it was dope," he explained. "Poetry wasn't hard for me... and once I started, I took it seriously." After fully committing him- J. Cole went to St. John's University in New York to be close to the music industry. self to pursuing his passion, Cole made a mature decision many in his position would never think of doing: He went to college. But though he valued his education, his main motivation in going away to school was to relocate to a place closer to the music indus- try he so desperately wanted to make an impact on. So he attend- ed St. John's University in New York. "It's the best decision I ever made," he said. "It's the reason I am where I am now. Being close to the industry allowed me to learn so much." During that time, Jay-Z was impressed by Cole's song "Lights Please," and soon after offered him a record deal on his label Roc Nation. Now, Cole considers the hip- hop mogul a major influence on his life and career. "My relationship with Jay-Z is a great one," he said. "He came to my release party last night for a celebration. It's like a mentorship, and it's really just him knowing everything and me not knowing everything." A specific aspect of Jay-Z's career that J. Cole has emulated is crafting an engaging live show - a rare feat for a rapper. He takes an aggressive approach, bringing unbridled energy into every song, and stresses the importance of making eye contact with as many audience members as possible. His live show isn't his only rap irregularity. Cole also shows a sensitive side from time to time, and his work can deal with issues not often touched on by hip-hop artists. In his song "Lost Ones," which addresses abortion, Cole puts himself in the shoes of both men and women to exhaust all perspectives, displayinghis knack for storytelling in a clear and emo- tionally stirring manner. "It's a real-life situation, not even with me," he explained. "(It's something) I've seen a friend go through. And I kept on question- ing it inside my head, like, 'Man, I wonder what he's feeling right now?' and, 'I wonder what she's feeling right now? I wonder what it would sound like if I wrote about that?"' When the final numbers came in after Cole World's first week of sales, it had grabbed the num- ber one spot on the Billboard top albums chart. And even though this is evidence that his hard work has paid off, with over 40 international tour dates sched- uled this fall and a new mixtape in the works, he doesn't plan on slowing down anytime soon. By LUCY PERKINS DailyArts Writer In class she introduces herself as Cynthia Yih Shih, but onstage she's known as Vienna Teng. A graduate stu- dent at the V University's Erb Institute Tonight at for Global Sus- 8gp.m. tainable Enter- prises, Shih Power Center might be the From $30 only enrolled student at the University who has eight years of national tours under her belt and songs boasting up to 500,000 YouTube hits. Tonight, Shih will transform from student to singer at the Power Center in one of her few performances scheduled this semester. Shih dreamed up the stage name Vienna Teng when she was an avid piano-playing12-year-old, only for it to become her musical alias years later. Teng's amateur career as a musician began in the smoky shadows of bars and coffee shop corners of California while she was working as a computer programmer in Silicon Valley. After a few years of mostly local gigs, she hired an agent who was able to book her as an opener for Joan Baez and similar artists. Before long, Teng was headlining her own gigs nationwide. "My voice is on the soothing side, but I really love music that pushes me a bit," Shih said. "You could describe it as mellow but adventurous pop music." Music has kept the 32-year-old busy - she has released four stu- dio albums in the last decade. But now that she's a student, Shih has chosen to temporarily cut back on musical involvement. Last winter, Shih tried to bal- ance a full courseload and a tour schedule that required her to travel throughout the country. The ensuing balancing act proved chaotic but insightful - she learned her limits living as both a student and as an artist. "I figured out I can't tour (while a student)," Shih said. "I missed "I was in a science class and out on a lot of things. I'd leave the professor was talking with on Thursday after my last class me and asked what I hoped to and get back late Sunday night do after graduating," Shih said. or Monday morning. It ended up "When I told him I was a musi- working out, but I'd rather just cian, he just didn't get why I was focus and really be here (at the taking his class." University)." According to Shih, fellow Shihbecame familiar with Ann students don't recognize her as Arbor through the musical sup- Vienna Teng, but when they hear port she received from The Ark she's a singer, some remember as a performer. But even while discovering her on websites like she was touring elsewhere, other Pandora. things kept bringing her back - "I like the level of fame-slash- chiefly the Erb Institute where obscurity that I have," she said. she studies, a graduate program "I'm not that famous, but I do that blends the sustainable dis- have a Wikipedia page, so it's an ciplines of the School of Natural interesting middle ground." Resourceswith the entrepreneur- Since enrolling at the Universi- ial concepts of the Ross School of ty in August 2010, Shih has found Business. the Erb Institute to be a nice com- plement to her musical prowess. "It spoke to every- From stage to thing I want to do in my life that school again. music can't ful- fill," she said. "It's very con- crete and has Shih began look- results you can ing for something measure, while like the Erb Insti- music is much tute after hear- more abstract ing a talk about and mysteri- the intersection of T ous." capitalism and envi- Because her ronmentalism while passions for working as a com- sustainable puter programmer enterprise and in Silicon Valley. music require "I'd never heard her attention in of anything like that two contrasting before," she said. "I'd areas, a future always felt aligned involving both with environmental- will require a ism, but I'm not good deftly orches- at getting angry and trated balance. protesting things. The "I love that idea of actually working with z kind of life where I businesses who are trying to , can do very differ- be more sustainable was really ent things in paral- interesting to me." lel identities," Shih Shih's transition from the said. "It sounds stage to campus has roused a really difficult to bemused comment or two from pull off. But for- several faculty members when tunately, there they discover Shih is a well- are no wrong known musician and a grad answers." student. COURTESY OF VIENNA TENG COMPETING THROUGH DANCE * Bring on the Bollywood By JACOB AXELRAD Daily Community Culture Editor The songs and dances from one of the world's largest film indus- tries are nowembodiedin Manzil, the University's first co-ed Bolly- wood dance team. Manzil means "dream" or "goal" in Hindi, and according to Ross School of Busi- ness junior Nikhil Kulkarni, who serves as a co-captain of the team, the name was chosen because it simply flows well with the word "Michigan." Bollywood dance origi- nates with the films produced in Mumbai, India. While in the United States the music and film industries are mostly separate, Bollywood movies are more reminiscent of classic Broadway shows: the standard components of character, plot and resolution combined with an element of song and dance. "The film and music industry in India is basically intertwined," said LSA junior and team co-cap- tain Dhwani Joshi. "Instead of a Kanye West song, there's the lat- est Bollywood song." What began last semester as an idea among nine students with a passion for Bollywood dance has nearly doubled in size. Manzil now takes its place amongnumer- ous similar teams at schools rang- ing from UCLA and California - Berkeley on the West Coast to NYU on the East Coast. And with Manzil's emergence, the number of teams around the state has only increased. Soon after the group's inception last March, Michi- gan State University and Wayne State University started their own teams, marking Manzil as the trendsetter for schools in the region. As Joshi explains it, Bollywood dance encompasses two distinct categories: traditional and Fusion. Traditional Bollywood dance is Manzil's category of choice. Whereas the influential Indian American Student Association "A lot of us learned from danc- (IASA) stands as an on-campus ing at weddings and gatherings," performing arts organization Shah said. "It's really common to committed to promoting social do Bollywood dance at weddings causes on campus, Manzil has since (the songs) are usually love a distinct mission as a competi- stories." tive performance group. Though Yet neither prior dance expe- cultural awareness plays a role rience nor affiliation with Bol- in Manzil's philosophy, it enters lywood is a prerequisite for the campus landscape exclu- joining. Like the Indian dance sively through performances and style itself, there are no set stan- dance workshops. In addition, dards for how people go about unlike IASA's annual culture practicing Bollywood dance. show, which typically features According to Kulkarni, right now a variation of Bollywood dance Manzil's style has a "jazzy feel." and allows anyone to participate, But that's simply one approach. It Manzil holds auditions. It has all depends on the dancers' pref- to - it represents the University erences. throughout the state and, ulti- From a competition stand- mately, the country. point, what really matters are the stories told through the dances - after all, this is an art form that - -is h stems from film. While Manzil has yet to finalize their themes, first team of its Shah emphasized that they will T be love stories, following in the kind at the 'j' footsteps of customary Bolly- wood choreography. The specif- ics, however, remain secret. "We try to keep our themes and But gaining acceptance to stories on the down-low," Shah these competitions is no easy task said. "For competition, it's impor- for the team. And per University tant to keep that 'wow' factor." precedent, holding a competition Manzil's appearance comes here on campus would involve at a time when Bollywood is getting another student group to slowly gaining traction among host the event on Manzil's behalf American audiences. TV series - a difficult feat, but one Manzil like ABC's "Dancing With The hopes to tackle soon enough. Stars" and FOX's "So You Think "As a first-year team, it's pretty You Can Dance" have even begun hard to get into a competition," to work Bollywood routines into said LSA junior and co-captain their episodes. Parin Shah. "Our biggestgoal this But at the end of the day, the year is to make one competition team remains grounded as a and see where it goes. The whole student group, doing its part to application process is pretty represent the University and nerve-wracking." educate its members about the At this stage, the important joys of Bollywood. thing is to hone the dances them- "The first thing we like to selves so they're ready for perfor- emphasize is that you don't mance and competition. Thus far, really need any experience to teaching the steps and routines dance with us," Joshi said. "Even has been easy, mostly due to the though we're a competitive team, fact that many team members if you see our practices, we're grew up with some form of Bolly- always just having fun ... dancing wood dance in their lives, to Bollywood songs." "Yes, that is my photo ... and don't call me Shirley." Pan Am' a flight to the 1960s By SAM CENZHANG For the Daily It's impossible to talk about "Pan Am" without bringing up AMC's "Mad Men," a show to which the new ABC drama owes both the- matic and aes- thetic debts. "Pan Am," like Pan Am its critically acclaimed big Pilot brother, offers Sundays at10 p.m. a sweeping ABC vision of the 1960s, this time through the lens of steward- esses for the eponymous airline. The show blatantly lays its thesis statement out - viewers looking for the kind of subtext that makes "Mad Men" what it is should stay away. Not being "Mad Men" is no crime, though, and while "Pan Am" smells a bit like escapism, it is sleek, well-done and fun escap- ism. Superficially, it's easy to dis- miss "Pan Am" as "Mad Men" for a network audience. There are stylistic echoes of "Mad Men," but this show is brighter and more expansive. (It does, after all, take place in the sky.) Christina Ricci ("Monster") and Kelli Garner ("My Generation") fairly gleam as they walk through airport termi- nals. We get shots of Rome, Lon- don and a helicopter flight across New York. The visual trappings of "Pan Am" are sumptuous and provide as good a backdrop as one can ask for. But "Pan Am" is not as dense or as deep as "Mad Men," preferring breadth over depth with every scene. There are a lot of different plots flying around (as it were), including some Cold War espio- nage to go with the soapy stuff you'dexpect. Tothe show's credit, though, it never gets too confus- ing. Here, too, "Pan Am" distanc- es itself from "Mad Men." Don Draper is shrouded in mystery for most of that show's run. In this pilot, we get flashback sequences that lay out a lot of backstory. Nothing is alluded to that doesn't get shown - but there's still the right amount of intrigue. "Pan Am" traffics in character archetypes, but it's not a prob- lem here. The cast is a talented one, and there's something to be said for well-executed conven- tion. Garner shines in the pilot, even though her "good at my job but everyone notices my sister because she's gorgeous and now we work together" material is by no means original. Margot Robbie (of the Australian show "Neighbours"), who plays said sister, is in fact gorgeous but can also act, playing up with deft touch her character's desire to be something more than a tro- phy wife. The male actors aren't given very much to do except be square-jawed, which they suc- ceed at. Christina Ricci is much too talented an actress to waste on the broadly comedic support- ing material she's given here, but she is very likable. Stewardesses help pilot take off. Some parts of the pilot do fall a little flat. The "oh my god we're flying" takeoff scene, complete with majestic string music, is overwrought. The end of the epi- sode, featuring a little girl looking up in awe at the stewardesses, is cute but predictable. A charac- ter unsubtly says, "They don't know that they're a new breed of women. They just had an impulse to take flight." Fourth grade writ- ing lessons still apply here: Show, don't tell. None of the elements in the pilot are slam dunks, but there are no flops either. There's a little bit of everything, and a lot of style. "Pan Am" isn't "Mad Men," but it's not trying to be. It's fun, styl- ish and has just enough substance to latch onto. For a network "Mad Men" ripoff, that's excellent.