The Michigan Daily --- michigandaily.com Friday, November 16, 2012 - 5 PERFORMANCE PREVIEW FOOD COLUMN Perfect turkey requires the rgt temperature Though praising and bashing the eats in Ann Arbor is my customary modus operandi, I'm shifting course a bit this time around in honor of Turkey Day. Join me as I mix together a few family favorites, a blue ribbon culinary technique or NATHAN two and some WOOD real deal tips and tricks that - served with a pinch of sarcasm - will have you cook- ing up the perfect Thanksgiving dinner in no time. In this sec- ond installment of my five-part Thanksgiving series, we're fin- ishing up the star of the spread: the turkey. Last time, we prepared our bird for baking by brining, but- tering and-seasoning it and pre- heating our oven to 450 degrees. Now it's time to get that turkey a cookin'. Open the oven door, shove it in (uncovered!) and immediately dial down the temperature to 350 degrees. You see, we want the bird to immediately hit that scorch- ing 450-degree heat to get the' compound butter browning the skin, but the bird will burn on the outside if cooked at this temperature until the meat is 160 degrees on the inside. So instead, we'll let the oven equilibrate down to the lower temperature while the butter browns the skin at the higher temperature. Clever, eh? The rule of thumb is to. then cook th per pou be able, three h utes, an afterwa key fror breastn drippin pan. WI - withi cooks fa to preve becomi as the d we bast process a Th Now, the turk cooking reach o the thre whethe keep an that cat turkey.) pops up meat in reached perfect. know if reached separat eter. If, up tore, yo 160 AeX e turkey for 12 minutes golden (as the turkey should be, nd, meaning we should too). Pull the turkey out of the to pull the bird out after oven and give yourself a pat on ours. Starting at 45 min- the back. If the dark meat is not d for every 45 minutes yet 160 degrees, though, don't ird, briefly remove the tur- fret. Pull out some aluminum m the oven and baste the foil and wrap the breasts and neat with the stock and wings in it. This will prevent gs from the bottom of the the white meat from cooking hy? Because white meat too much more as the dark meat its lesser fat content - cooks freely up to temperature. aster than dark meat. So, Leave the meat thermometer ent the white meat from in the thigh and pop the turkey ng overcooked and dry back in the oven until it reads ark meat cooks properly, 160 degrees. e it to slow its cooking After baking, let the turkey sit . at room temperature for 15 min- utes. This is another crucial yet oft-overlooked step. If you were to immediately begin carving the T e kturkey upon its removal from the oven, all of the delicious turkey juices would spill out, resulting tanksgiving. ina dry turkey. And since nobody wants that, and you've put so much work into developing those juices thus far, just let it be for a because we have brined few minutes. key beforehand and are After those 15 grueling min- it without stuffing, it may utes have passed, the turkey has ptimal temperature before locked in its juices and is ready e-hour mark. To gauge to be carved. r or notthis is the case, Somehow, my dad is the one eye on the pop-up timer who always ends up carving ne prepackaged with your the turkey in our family. It's the As soon as that timer only reason he really ever enters ,we know that the breast into the kitchen all year, save which it is embedded has for the late-night and Saturday 1160 degrees - turkey afternoon football runs to the The only way we will junk food cupboard. Anyway, 'the dark meat has also if you ask me, he shouldn't be 1160 degrees is to test it trusted with an electric knife, ely with a meat thermom- so I always find somewhere else to be while he carves the turkey. on checking its tempera- And for that reason, I have no u find it has also reached advice to give on the subject. degrees, you're Try YouTube, I guess. And that, my friends, is my advice on how to cook the perfect turkey, the staple of Thanksgiving dinners across America. But we're far from fin- P R T ishing our perfect Turkey Day )of spread. Search for my beautiful headshot in Monday's Daily to see how we're going to use that leftover broth and those pan drippings, as well as a few surprise ingredients, to whip up turkey gravy fit for the gods. To maintain authenticity, costume designers for the show only used materials that would have existed inthe 1960s MUSK T to r Tony- winning Classic 'Hairspray' to use costumes to set time and place By ARIELLE SPECINER Daily Arts Writer "Hairspray," this semester's MUSKET performance, is a spar- kling, stylish stage production with as much heart as there .s are sequins. Harspray Full, floral Friday and and flowing Saturday at skirts dance 8 p.m.and around the Sunday at Power Center 2p.m. stage. Lines of Converse " and Power Center Ked shoes twist From $7 and shout to the latest tunes. Men's shirts are neatly pressed, tucked into their waist-high slacks. And without the actors' saying a word, the audience is transported back to the 1960s. The time is 1962 and the place is Baltimore. Tracy Turnblad, a turbulent teen with a thirst for fame, fashion and racial integra- tion (According to the character, "it's the new frontier"), turns the entire town around with her charm, dance moves and hair- do. The '60s were a time of fast- changing fashion. They were also a time of image fixation and racial segregation. "Hairspray" combines all of that into a full- length production representa- tive of the era. The show, in true theatric fashion, adds some glamour and whimsy to the peri- od's not-so-innocent presence. Yet "Hairspray" proves there is more to a show than high- kicks and vocal runs. Winning a Tony Award in 2003 for Best Costume Design, the production tells a story through wardrobe along with musical numbers. "Costume goes hand-in-hand with realizing the importance of the'decade and what it says about the real message of the show," said Gideon Levinson, an LSA freshman who embodies Edna Turnblad in the show. According to Business sopho- more Hillary Ginsberg, who plays Tracy Turnblad, costumes give a sense of time of day, tran- sitions and how significant a plot point is. MUSKET is one of the largest student production groups at the University. Because of their time con- straint and smaller design unit, the costumer designers must buy and rent a large portion of the outfits for the production. By adding embellishments and altering the pieces, designers cre- ate a unique look and feel to the production. The costumes are also impor- tant when introducing a char- acter. There is a scene in which the "Nicest Kids in Town" are introduced and Amber Von Tus- sle, the Corny Collin's show's self-absorbed star, struts out in a skirt significantly fuller than others onstage. The silhouette is larger and much more notice- able. Through this, the audience learns she's a central and egocen- tric character. School of Music, Theatre & Dance Sophoiore, Macken- zie Orr, who plays Link Larkin, agreed that costume has a big effect on how the audience views a character. "A lot of times it says a lot about who the character is out- side of the spoken lines," he said. "It adds another layer of under- standing for an audience or any- body who is watching." When it comes to a show as bold and bright as "Hairspray," costume choice is an intricate process, especially when the director and costume direc- tors aim to create a realistic but equally entertaining world. "We have struck a very nice balance between painting a real- istic picture but then staying true to some of the bigger than life, larger than life moments in the show," said MT&D senior and director of the show, Will DeCamp. "So we haven't sacri-- ficed any of the volume." Style was of the utmost impor- tance - especially to the Bal- timore youth of the time. This notion was utilized in choosing and designing outfits for the pro- duction. The costume designers and director's goal was to stay as true to the time period as possible through costume. Lantz even goes so far as selecting materi- als that were around in the '60s. She explained that they chose not to use stretchy fabrics such as spandex because they weren't invented yet. "That's why we keep com- ing back to 'this looks great, we totally love this, but it's not total- ly true to the year'," Lantz said. The looks in "Hairspray" not only communicate the what and where of the story, but also intro- duce and intensify major events. Lantz even believes that as the story evolves so does the fashion. The girls start the perfor- mance in full skirts and perfectly pressed blouses. But as the ideas in the production progress to accepting people for who they are and ending racial segrega- tion, so do the styles. Eventu- ally the fashion transforms into sleeker and sexier silhouettes. DeCamp says that the outfits that the actors wear represent parts of the story. "We're building and build- ing and building until we have this culminating moment where the costumes are just fabulous," he said. "But also it's this cul- minating moment in the story where we kind of bridge the gap between two races and two com- munities that have been so divid- ed over the course of the rest of the musical." Costumes are not only for the audience's enjoyment, but are just as important to the actors. "Its always so surprising how much more of the character you feel like when you put on a cos- tume," Orr said. For actors, putting on a cos- tume helps them transform into the person they're supposed to be. For Levinson, it not only transforms him into who the character is, but what the charac- ter is - a mother. "Hairspray" camps it up by having Tracy's hefty mother portrayed by a man. It's surely meant for comic relief, but for the actor playing the role, com- edy is not the first thing on his mind. Levinson says the costumes are necessary for him to get into character and let it all out. "It's one thing to shimmy when you're dancing, but when you're shimmying with big boobs, it's much easier to go crazy," he said. The costumes parallel the exhilaration of "Hairspray" 's big and bold, Broadway-sized num- bers. Songs such as "You Can't Stop the Beat" exude but also bring the audience down to earth with everyday wear in the less spectacular times. They also show an importance and personality of a character before the story can. But mostly, the costumes from "Hairspray" want to welcome us to the '60s. Wood will share his juicy gravy secrets in the next installment of the series Truth in 'The D etailIs' By CONRAD FOREMAN For the Daily Damn raccoons; somehow these furry little bastards ruin just about everything. In "The Details," these pests Ile Dets manage to be responsible for AttheState multiple infi- delities, a preg- Weinstein nancy and a murder. Can't they just leave our lawns alone? Frustrated and generally unhappy with his marriage, Jeff Lang (Tobey Maguire, "Spider- Man") is driven to cheat on his wife (Elizabeth Banks, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno") after an argument aboutthe raccoons. From there, "The Details" heads down a twisted path that finds Jeff dealing with a neighbor off her rocker, watching $75,000 of his own money rain off of a bridge, donating a kidney and fantasizing about murder via bow and arrow, ending with Jeff facing the daunting task of own- ing up to his actions and accept- ing the consequences. At one point, a piano literally falls on Maguire's head. There couldn't be a better metaphor for what he experiences through- out the film, except perhaps, for Maguire stepping in front of an 18-wheeler. Jeff willfully places himself in self-defeating situations, which are doomed to spawn poor results. His inability to give up his efforts to deceive the ones around him makes him a flawed yet refreshingly real character. Jeff suffers from the human tendency to continue to The Amazing Pie-derman. dig when we find ourselves in a leads to another until he's elbow- hole, which, while frustrating deep in his own deception and as hell in real life, makes for a guilt. Only when Jeff acknowl- character that the audience can edges his mistakes and comes relate to. clean is a happy ending to this story even remotely possible. "The Details" is a very enter- D c n taining film, causing cringes, Raccoons laughs, but most importantly, a really suck, connection with the characters throughout. The actors portray their characters with conviction and emotion, the director (Jacob The film features several Aaron Estes, "Mean Creek") impressive supporting perfor- does an admirable job taking the mances. Laura Linney (TV's "The audience inside the minds of the Big C") steals the show as Jeff's characters, and the score by Tom crazy neighbor, whose eccentric Hajdu and Anidy Milburn (also behavior and general weirdness of "Mean Creek") creates ten- provide for much of the film's sion and establishes a dark tone, comedy. For example, she shows which beautifully fits the film Jeff her recently deceased cat, while still highlighting the come- which she keeps in her fridge. die undertones. Despite his limited screen time, "The Details" delivers a strong Ray Liotta ("Goodfellas") stands message in an entertaining fash- out due to a heartfelt speech advo- ion. It's not a light-hearted or cating claiming responsibility for uplifting film, but it is definitely one's mistakes. worth seeing. So sure, raccoons At its core, that is the message ruin lawns, raid trash and frus- of "The Details." Jeff's problems trate homeowners, but their continue to escalate because of his actions can lead to a pretty enjoy- inability to tell the truth: One lie able movie.