Friday, October 21, 2011 - 5A The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Beyond sunny 'Days' Real Estate's latest release is richer than summer By GEOFF MARINO For the Daily It's easy to write off Real Estate as simply another mani- festation of summery alterna- tive rock, but after giving * the band's new album, Days, Real Estate more time to sink in, it Days becomes clear this is a super- Domino ficial reading of the New Jersey-based rockers. Sure, the album's sonic land- scape is orchestrated with the hazy bliss of summer in mind - reverb and overlapping guitar lines weave expansive collages that seem born from summer daydreams. These guys clearly like to jam. Yet, even though Days focuses on a summery theme, Real Estate doesn't nec- essarily intend to invoke the bliss of the warmer months. There is plenty of unease in the lyrics, and even the rhythmic structure of the songs disrupts any conception that this album is the product of a contented, lazy summer day. One of the first tracks, "It's Real," begins with a stamping drumbeat that evolves into a less regimented tempo with layered guitar lines. This interaction recalls the structure of the other tracks on the album, specifically "Kinder Blumen" and "Three Blocks." The rhythms initially store tension, then they release it into characteristic serenity and expansiveness. It suggests the music is cathartic - a great deal of angst is conjured up and released. That angst is especially pal- pable on "Three Blocks," as the drowsy depression of a Monday morning is accentuated by the scummy reality of the path that lies outside the safety of a subur- ban home. This image is followed by lyrics that more accurately mirror Real Estate's blissful orchestration, as singer Martin Courtney comes to self-realiza- tion and liberates the tension. However, the epiphany doesn't respect natural barriers: "Endless autumn, under pine trees, in a springtime spent by the sea." The band couldn't care less that autumn and spring can- not occur simultaneously. And that's precisely the aim here - not to care. Nostalgic themes for a blithe existence arise throughout No 'Thing'like original By AKSHAY SETH For theDaily The past 10 years have not been kind to the American horror film. In all honesty, they've been emphatically cruel. Slowly and unfailingly, each year has TheThing introduced a steady slew of At Quality16 formulaic plot and Rave lines, swim- ming in sex Universal and bloody pools of computer-generated UNIVERSAL gore. If there's one thing film- "Die, roaches, die! Dagnabbit.. makers should have learned over DOMINO Days. The opening track, "Easy," reminisces harmonically about nature and people in a time when "We had it so easy / I would sur- render, completely." On "Green Aisles," a reflection on that life- style sums up the motivation behind Days: "All those wasted miles / All those aimless drives through green aisles / A careless lifestyle / It wasn't so unwise." The New Jersey suburban- ites go beyond the warm memo- ries of lighthearted summers past, confronting the accepted "wisdom" that time should be spent productively. They pursue every grown-up kid's intellec- tual dream: to show those who labeled their revelry a waste that these experiences aren't regret- table at all. The last song, "All the Same," features swaths of word- less jamming - one can't help but feel the musicians' pure glee. the co decade Carpen reboot four - critical the hyp E* The: appoin intend the far samej Most o in botl course, surrou group's alien a life for the fro terrest alive ai But bad me part, ti a chan where, urse of this unfortunate plot is anchored around the idea ,it's not to remake a John that the alien can kill, ingest and ter film. Every single somehow mimic the form of its - and there have been victims, creating the unsavory - has been a resounding feeling of being alone and unable failure that caved under to trust anyone around. ne of its original. These undertones of suspi- cion, isolation and inescapable quarantine are what transformed T go home Carpenter's 1982 film into a clas- ., gsic. Unlike most modern horror already films, it relied heavily on its abil- ity to create an air of doubt to deliver the scares. That's not to say the older latest in this string of dis- movie never gave us a good look tments is "The Thing," at the monster terrorizing the ed to be the prequel of camp. In fact, the makeup effort superior 1982 film of the that went into making the Thing name (itself a remake). look as detestable as it sounds & the major plot directives was groundbreaking at the time h films follow a similar and is still considered one of the detailing the events that most precise and detailed cos- nd an Antarctic research metics jobs ever done. The 201 discovery of a downed effort doesn't stray far from the ircraft and the unknown features that made the first film m inhabiting it. Inevitably, great, but unfortunately it simply zen, presumed dead extra- delivers too little too late. rial somehow wills itself The whole idea of not knowing nd the fun begins. who to trust is diluted by forced this isn't the typical big- acting on the partof the two leads, onster flick. For the most Mary Elizabeth Winstead ("Scott he audience is never given Pilgrim vs. the World") and Joel ce to determine what or Edgerton ("Warrior"). Winstead the Thing is. Much of the plays anAmericanresearcher who travels to Antarctica to study the "remains" of the alien while Edg- erton stars asthe dashinghelicop- ter operator, an obvious reference to Kurt Russell's R.J. MacReady from the original film. Regretta- bly, Edgerton's somewhat blank performance just doesn't match up to that gritty leader persona that Russell embodied so suc- cessfully and made his own. Win- stead isn't much better, offering the exact same horrified stare in every frame she appears. Something else we see in vir- tually every other frame is the blown-up CGI version of the monster popping out of some- one's stomach to devour some- one else's face. It's not that the makeup or the effects are bad, but seeing them over and over again takes away from the sus- picion that rose up so organi- cally in the first movie. You never knew when or where or even if the Thing would pop up, and when it did, it jerked you to the edge of your seat. In this film, it's just a question of what "gotcha" moment the director has engi- neered next to try and scare you. Sure it'll make you jump. But that fear, just like the movie, never manages to stick. DArN PREIeW ArtsC cndeseinCouGt By LAURA KAYE tation, martial arts, modern dance For the Daily and Tai Chi. By combining these different forms of movement, the Imagine a stage covered in company emotes an intricate style rice paper where the dancers' where the dancers' energy ema- movement paints the page like nates even when not moving at all. free-flowing In its early days, Cloud Gate lines of ink. Clmxd Gate brought historical Asian stories Cloud Gate and legends to the stage. Tzy-wen Dance The-. Dance Theatre Gong, a Taiwanese native who atre of Tai- OTaiwn has seen several of Cloud Gate's wan has the early performances, listed sev- power to Tonight and eral examples. One performance create this tomorrow told the story of the Chinese Han image, turn- at 8 p.m. people crossing the Taiwan Strait ing a tradi- to mainland Taiwan. The dancers tional stage Power Center brought this event to life when into a much From $18 they depicted countrymen of the more styl- Ming and Qing dynasties. ized, curvy, tangible experi- More recently, however, Cloud ence. Tonight and tomorrow, the Gate has delved into abstract company will perform its work themes. In the company's latest "Water Stains on the Wall," work, "Water Stains on the Wall," which takes the static image of choreographer Lin Hwai-min calligraphy and makes it come brings to life the idea of visual alive through the art of dance. art as a dynamic discipline full of In 1973, choreographer Lin movement and emotion. Hwai-min established Cloud Gate, Lin Hwai-min combines his which would become the premier training from American chore- contemporary dance establish- ographer Martha Graham and ment in Taiwan. The company other Western influences with is composed of 24 dancers who his Eastern heritage to create a receive a multidisciplinary range hybrid style. In"Water Stains," he of dance training, including medi- portrays the elegance of calligra- phy through the smooth and fluid movements of the dancers. As an important component of Asian culture and art history, calligraphy remains a critical discipline in Taiwanese schools. The dancers in Cloud Gate took lessons from calligraphy masters before they learned the actual dance moves. This gave them a keener understanding of what they intended to create through the language of movement. Mixing dance and calligraphy. "A line is no longer a line," Gong said. "It is about the twist and the waves of the brush. You see the water drips and the pauses and how the ink stains the white fabric. But it is not just a tool for writing, it is an art that reflects a person's personality." The synergy of these two art forms creates an innovative work in which Cloud Gate Dance The- atre of Taiwan boldly signs its name as it dances across the stage. Dull story tempers storyteller's charm "ByTtRIL t., UdTTVlT1A T ..... By EMILY BOUDREAU Daily Arts Writer "Let me tell you a story," beckons the voice of narrator Alan Rosenberg (TV's "Harry's Law"), read- ing aloud from one of Jewish author Sha- Sholem lom Aleichem's many books. And that is bughing in precisely 't Darkne what "Sholem Aleichem: At the Laughing in the Michigan Darkness" sets out to do - to Riverside Films figure out how to tell a story, or rather how a story gets told and interpreted by countless generations. However, the movie is limited in its docu- mentary form and cannot fully plunge into Aleichem's mind. As the movie follows Aleichem's entire life, director Joseph Dorman ("The Endur- ance") is careful to include con- text and background information that make the plotline more com- pelling. Indeed, some of the most interesting pieces are descrip- tions of life in the Jewish com- munities in Russia before the start of the pogroms. Eventually, a portrait emerges of Aleichem as a man the Je the dia dish at life wa best kn charac which the Ro Tho into a history like a than o the tall warmt C sur It con: white with u all hav move a ously i Whi ness" though researc bit too the im after h drawn who worked on building ticularly long movie. When the wish community through film only deals with his work, it's alectical language of Yid- difficult to follow and the narra- a time when the old way of tive loses itshuman point of inter- s falling apart. Aleichem is est. At one point, the film turns :own for his creation of the to talk about Zionism and the ter Tevye and the story on dismissal of Aleichem's stories in the musical "Fiddler on Israel because they were written of" is based. in Yiddish, not the nation's elite ugh the film offers a look language of Hebrew. This fact is relatively unknown bit of intriguing, but it's treated as a and literature, it's more side note and it doesn't follow the movie to watch for class film's general direction. ne to see in atheater. For all The film is composed of lots k about Alechiem's wit and of narration and interviews h, the film itself is not fun. with prestigious professors and scholars: These are people who love his work and have devoted *ih n aslot of time to studying him, but their enthusiasm doesn't fully ise, sunset. carry over to the audience. Ale- chiem's work is relevant today - he is said to have written the first story with themes that sists mostly of black-and- would play out in the Holocaust, photos of people, mostly and much of his work deals with nspecified identities. They the displacement of Jews and e the same longbeards and the effects of the modern world icross the screen continu- on tradition. His own story and n a Ken Burns style. the stories he tells are remark- le "Laughing in the Dark- able and the film is worth see- has an extremely well- ing for that reason alone, but it-out plot and base of it's not cinematically thrilling. ch, perhaps it carries on a Aleichem stays stuck in the two- much. The film explores dimensional frame of his pho- pact of Aleichem's work tograph and does not emerge as is death, making it seem the lovable man whose funeral out though it's not a par- was attended by 200,000.