0 0 0 0 0 0 .! 6B Thrdy eray9 02/ h - - RNET [54 VOGUE Blogosphere fashion T I A 'THE THIN RED LINE' (1998), 20TH CENTURY FOX Dividing along the 'Thin Red Line' Thursday, February 9, 2012//The B-Side- 3B Finding snazzy, second-hand attire Students blogging the latest trends around campus By KELLY ETZ Daily TV/New Media Editor For students with lectures, exams, papers and a host of other time-sucking activities, where should fashion rate on the impor- tance scale? Should personal appearance be an issue worth wor- rying about? According to LSA sophomore Stefanie Rubinstein and Business sophomore Zoe Baris, the way you present yourself may be just as essential as your other qualifica- tions when it's time for that all- important interview or the first day of a brand new internship. It can even be a factor in how professors consider in determining a student's credibility - not anything to scoff over when the time comes to ask for a letter of recommendation. "You are your personal brand," Baris said. "So, what you wear to an interview, what you wear to class, even what you wear out to a quick lunch or something, you are seen and that is how people perceive you." "I don't want to raise my hand in a class if I feel like I look like a schlup," Rubinstein added. "You want to project yourself as a good image." Rubinstein and Baris teamed up this past summer to produce their own fashion blog, The Chic Classmate. Filled with clever 'tips - winterwear under 50 dollars, SMITH-EPPSTEINER From Page 2B curiosity on the topic of last- name options was in fact spurred during a discussion in my English course that looks at "Love, Mar- riage, and the Rise of the Novel" in the 17th and 18th centuries. I heard a variety of responses, from "I want my wife to have my last name, I insist upon it. I'm a believer in traditional stuff" and "I want to honor my husband, he's the old-fashion type, you know?" to opinions such as "if my wife had a cool-ass last name, I'd must-have accessories, the chicest backpacks - and photographic inspiration from the runways to the Diag, the blog takes an inside look at the street style here on campus. "When average people put them- selves together, it's not like they have a stylist," Rubinstein said. "They are going on their own to put together something amazing and they aren't even thinking about the fact that people are looking at them." Recently reaching its 100th post, The Chic Classmate covers all things broadly defined as "stylish," - including posts on haute cou- ture designers such as Chanel or Versace - while also trimming the focus to view fashion through the lens of the average college student. In their Model Student posts, they highlight "ordinary students who are doing extraordinary things around campus." Another student blogger, LSA junior Nikki Williams, is the Uni- versity of Michigan correspon- dent for the website Hercampus. com. Her Campus is tailored spe- cifically to college-age women and has specific sites for over 100 col- lege campuses across the United States. Each individual campus site is a primarily student-run venture, allowing the student correspon- dents to get an in-depth feel for what the online magazine industry is all about. The Michigan site is structured simply - it lets the content do the talking and is chock-full of Ann Arbor-inspired goodness. Williams contributes with her own fashion blog, taking an insider look at the up-to-the-minute trends - all- take hers," to a female speaking about hyphenation as a symbol of a merging of heritages. A friend of mine made me aware that some people are, as of late, opting to combine names to create something fantastically fresh. This would look like Phillip Glass and Lucinda Childs getting married (Yes, I'm still stuck in "Einstein On The Beach" mode) and their children's last name being some- thing awful sounding like Chlass or Glilds. Though these trendy alterna- tives may clash against tradition in the eyes of about 70 percent of Americans, opinions like "it's kind of just what happens" in reference white, sailor stripes, '70s-inspired - breaking out on campus and edu- cating the site's visitors on how to fill their closets, rock the latest bur- geoning craze or start one of their own. "For my personal fashion blog, I just write about what I like," Wil- liams said. "My blog today actu- ally ran about fur trends and how to wear fur in a classy way. So, a lot of it is just what I'm seeing as a trend." These blogs are a means for Uni- versity students to exercise their ingenuity abit and work outside the oft-rigid guidelines of their own particular avenues of study, which include economics, business and communications. "This is something that - sur- prisingly for me, because I didn't expect this - has become a prior- ity," Rubinstein said. "I love that this is a way we can stillbe involved with fashion and things that are creative because you don't always get that opportunity." College students go through many ofthe same fashion struggles, a necessary evil when students are suddenly faced with the real world. Blogs like The Chic Classmate and Her Campus keep fashion and per- sonal style from becoming another burden to add to an ever-growing list. The goals of these ventures are to provide a place for University students - those behind the scenes and in front of the screens - to find the time to actually enjoy them- selves: to share the personal with the public and to take a moment from a busy schedule to revel in the creative. to women taking the man's sur- name in marriage feel a smidgen complacent and unconsidered for my peace of mind. I have no clue what the trend of last names will be a decade from now or what I'm going to do when and if I get mar- ried, but an altering of identity should never bea kind of assumed notion, nor should anything in life be. Summer sunbathingcomes and goes, love comes and goes, trends come and go - soI say let's listen to the words of the old scholar and "question everything." Smith-Eppsteiner is changing her last name name to Ochocinco. To stop her, e-mail julialix@umich.edu. Like in the salons of 77th and 78th century France, this weekly installment will feature two Daily Arts writers discussing the finer points of arts mediums from at least 70 years ago. Any defense of a Terrence Malick film must inevitably respond to attacks on the direc- tor's style - many of which are superfluous. His films - like Spielberg's, Scorsese's and even Cameron's - are big, themati- cally and stylistically. They're concerned with broad ideas and painted with broad strokes. I hear "pretentious," "conde- scending" and "aimless" all lobbed at Malick as insults (all of which, nowadays, seem to ring as compli- ments), but I can hardly see how his films, as accessible and univ4l as they are, could ever be considered exclusivist. To say the films are unconcerned with character, nar- rative and cohesion is to acknowl- edge their strongest assets. There are few directors working in the American commercial mainstream (aside from maybe David Lynch) whose work so effortlessly evokes the cosmic. In this regard, I value his films for the same reasons I'm drawn to dislike them. To watch them with an open mind is to submit oneself to a wholesale rejection of irony - an embrace of fairly traditional, conventional representations of -beauty. The poetic presentation of nature stands as a radical tonic to pretension. Malick's treatment of the natural world doesn't seek to inundate us with crafty juxtapo- sitions or contrivance. They are independent of artifice and full of it. He edits reels and reels of foot- age into a world merely inhabited by his actors. His films are babies of the editing room and yet seem to live outside the screen as whole worlds unto themselves. Malick's action film, "The Thin Red Line," is (next to "Badlands") easily his most accessible and engaging. It deserves merit as few war films do for valorizing noth- ing and nobody. It presents visceral combat in two taut, seismic swells - climbing the hills of Guadalca- nal, decimating the landscape and soldiers both. It's hard to deny the sensual- ity of Malick's films - even when "sex" itself appearstobe something feared and treasured rather than enjoyed. We're free to ignore the spoken overtones barely keeping the film from collapse. "Line" asks us to submit to its totality, and if we allow it, it transports. The whistle and crash of artillery, sweating foreheads, stenches of rotting flesh, sunlight sweeping out from clouds as soldiers meet their doom - these are the accoutrements of an utter compositional marvel. And of course, Malick's duali- ties are obvious. Conflicts are laid out plainly. And when it comes to Malick's best work, of which "The Thin Red Line" can safely be included, that conflict seems to exist, all too tragically, in the jaded construction of our own flimsy, aes- thetic vainglory. -JOE DIMUZIO Hollywood is full of would-be "auteurs" trying to deliver pro- found messages that end up seem- ing trite and heavy-handed. None are more infuriating, however, than Terrence Malick, Hollywood's res- ident Mr. "I studied philosophy at Harvard, so I'm smarter than you." His recent Oscar-nominated film, "The Tree of Life," is particularly infuriating - Sean Penn's adult character is deeply impacted by childhood scars inflicted by his daddy, Brad Pitt, but his mother was nice and somehow this all ties into Creation and the Bible. It features empty, flowerly voiceover about "the way of nature and the way of grace," randomly intercut with what looks like a nature docu- mentary. Critics and the Academy alike rave about how it's ingenious and different, but it's not. It's the same vapid, pretentious crap that Malick has spoon-fed us for decades. In 1998, for example, Malick gave us his attempt at a See THIN RED LINE, Page 7B5 Ann arra f It'sr in Ann can go; at Ame who pr can gr tank at stantia actuall Mos perpet Star V semi-d cally c fashion in scei some of resale may e session inexpe cesses the nex The thrifte ever p for Sat they ar to the experii at Kiw on Sou Arbor boasts an Blind Pig. There are the usual thrift-store iy of thrift stores goodies - innumerous self-help books, neon windbreakers, sweat- 'or any budget shirts from mysterious high-school sports teams. Jim, a Kiwanis volun- By KATIE STEEN teer, elaborated on a few particu- DailyArts Writer larly atypical donations. "We received a WWI uniform," not hard to find cool clothes he said. "Hat, belt, everything. All Arbor. Minimalist patriots complete, all wool and in immacu- spend $20 on a tri-blend tee late condition. And last week, we erican Apparel. Young'uns got abrand new Red Wings jacket." refer vintage-inspired garb Kiwanis isn't too concerned ab their favorite crochet about prices because the store Urban Outfitters. But a sub- isn't profit-driven. It's completely 1 chunk of Ann Arborites run by volunteers, and money y buy real vintage clothing. from sales goes directly toward t are lured by the music scholarships and other organiza- ually blasting outside of tions that service the needy. It's tintage. Some prefer the not selective and it's not pricey, iscrete but unapologeti- so while you may have to look a olorful Getup Vintage. But little harder for something hip vistas craving a change enough to pass the scrutiny of Ann nery may want to explore Arbor trendsters, your money goes f Ann Arbor's lesser-known toward a good cause - and it's shops. Visiting these stores a heck of a lot cheaper than any- ntail extreme rummaging thing you'll find at Am Appy. s, but they can result in If the philanthropic aspect of nsive, one-of-a-kind suc- Kiwanis sounds appealing but to wear in class - or maybe Saturday morning beauty sleep Kt world war. is nonnegotiable, perhaps the St. first step on the path to Vincent de-Paul Thrift Store is d bliss is to cancel what- more appropriate. Located next lans you may have made to Northside Grill on Broadway urday morning. Whatever Street, St. Vincent is a trek - and 'e, they're probably inferior it's tiny - and it has some fashion- shopping spree you could able garments. ence from 9 a.m. to noon But finding wearable clothes at eanis Thrift Sale, located St. Vincent is almost as difficult .th First Street next to the as finding the store itself. As Rose Avtomobile is one of the several thrift stores in Arm Arbor. Ann Yurko, a volunteer at the store, explained several times, "We're the best-kept secret in Ann Arbor!" Upon first glance, the store seems understocked and unprom-_ ising, but hidden among the fair share of unmemorable articles are some remarkable finds, such as flashy '80s sweaters, dizzying arrays of flowery button-ups and thick-heel pumps in every color. Since St. Vincent is a charitable business, it accepts everything and trashes nothing, resulting in sometimes freaky commodities. Gail Hallman, the jewelry counter volunteer, recalled a giant crucifix someone donated that was made out of mystery bones. "We never found out if they were human bones or not, but we did end up selling it," Hallman said. "It was very creepy." Thrifters looking for a bone- free shopping experience may want to head over to Avtomobile, a newer store on East Liberty. Shopping at Avtomobile is kind of cheating when it comes to buying used clothes - most of the clothes are re-creations made from vin- tage fabrics and materials, and some items are brand-new and fresh off the printing press. But you don't have to worry too much about originality - there aren't a ton of duplicates, and all the prints are the creations of artist Maris Turner, who owns the store with Sara Renner. Avtomobile has a discrete home in a cozy basement, with exposed rock walls and a faint smell of burn- ing firewood that complements the clothing's outdoorsy "Up North" theme. The store has an unprece- dented sense of character, each item evoking strong Americana pride, and more specifically, an affinity for all things Michigan-related. There's even a section dedicated to authen- tic vintage University apparel, con- taining years of Wolverine pride you won't be able to buy at The M Den. But Avtomobile is a well-trav- eled shop. You can find vintage tees that come from a variety of locations such as Houston, Iowa and - oh dear - East Lansing. Traveling is a necessity for Turner and Renner. "We're closed Monday and Tues- day," Turner said. "So we'll drive around and take road trips to some weird antique stores - sometimes tourist trap areas and sometimes even Salvation Armies, but we try not to go there as much." "We're very picky with our fab- rics," Renner added. Avtomobile's stock is diverse, including,. jackets with colorful Native American prints and an assertively feminine collection of polka-dotted silky blouses destined to be worn with a poodle skirt. Probably the most unforgettable item at Avtomobile is a small series of black sweatshirts with nothing but "DEATH" printed on the front. Looking ahead to the sum- mer season, however, Avtomo- bile plans to roll out less morbid designs in the future. "I design whenever I'm inspired," Turner said. "I try to be consistent with the seasons - we'll be doing stuff that's more spring-related, more happy, more upbeat. ... But we don't want to force anything." All of the prints sold at Avtomobile are designed by co-owner Maris Turner.