The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, December 9, 2013 - 7A
TV REVIEW
Willurban art rise
from ashes? t
Heidelberg Project paintings huge, the
towering - all standing
suffers from turbed in stark contra
desecration that su
repeated arson them.
The art installme
By PAIGE PFLEGER hosts a myriad of p
DailyArts Writer that foster art in Detr
Emerging Artist progrs
Detroit's city motto, "We to host the works of
hope for better things; it shall coming artists who ha
rise from the ashes," has res- had work in a formal
urrected its meaning with the setting, creating a spri
recent string of arsons at the for their careers. Th
urban art installment, The Hei- Adults of Heidelberg p
delberg Project. is for 18-to 35-year-oI
The 27-year-old project an interest in using art
began in the McDougall-Hunt alyst for change, aimed
neighborhood in Detroit's east creating professional
side, which deteriorated after ment opportunities in
the 1967 race riots. Artist Tyree growing art commun
Guyton and his grandfather ACE2 program, or Ar
took their devastated neigh- munity & Environmen
borhood and turned it from cation program, aims
urban decay to an art project gap in arts education at
that functioned as equal parts Public Schools, all
political protest and inspiration emphasizing the imp
- breathing life and color into of community and th
a small pocket of houses that ronment. The project i
seemed to have died. evolving to meet the n
Upon his return to Heidel- constantly changing ar
berg Street, Guyton was con- The breadth of o
fronted by rows of empty homes, that the Heidelberg
abandoned and deteriorating. facilitates has been a w
Natives avoided the area, which change to the commun
was written off as unsafe, even has faced little backlas
in the daytime. Guyton, a paint- dalism - until recently.
er and sculptor, began to liven A rash of unsolved ar
the houses with painted dots devastated the art ins
of various colors, or by salvag- powerhouse - claimi
ing items and attaching them to of the houses and burn
the houses exteriors. Over time, structures to the grou
with the help of neighborhood first occurred in May
kids, these small acts of beau- arson at the OJ House.
tification turned into a big one ond destroyed House
- creating one of Detroit's most which was entirely co
noteworthy attractions. records, on Nov 12. TI
For those that stumble upon brought down Penny H
the project accidentally, or Nov 21, and the fourth t
those who are a part of the Room House on Thank
3,000 or so yearly visitors, Hei- day.
delberg Street transports to a Regardless of the s
fantasy world. The outdoor art desecration of an inte
exhibitsprawls from house to ally recognized commu
house, across painted streets ation, Guyton remains
and sidewalks and over vacant In an official stateme
lots. The colors are bright, the the second arson, those
FILM REVIEW
No coal for Fu
holiday season
By CONRAD FOREMAN
Daily Arts Writer
Right away with the opening
scene, "Out of the Furnace" lets
you know what kind of movie it
is: one that
unapologeti- A-
cally portrays
violence in its Out of the
raw nature, Fume
even making it
hard to watch At Quality 16
at times. and Rave
That being
said, the core Relativity
themes of
responsibility, love and justice
overpower the cringe-worthy They see me ridin dirty.
aspectsto resultin apowerful film
which uses violence to enhance its ling. One mistake (itself t
legitimacy, rather than as a cheap of an attempt to help
ploy. else) strips Bale of every
Russell Baze (Christian Bale, has broken his back wor
"The Dark Knight") has a pretty The only item of importa
nice life, all things considered. He remains is his brother, an
has a steady job in the steel mill shows the will to go to an
and a loving relationship with a to protect him.
beautiful woman (Zoe Saldana,
"Avatar"). But he's also constantly
cleaningup the messesmadebyhis Affleck poi
brother, Rodney (Casey Affleck,
"Gone Baby Gone"), who's strug- for Oscar n
gling to make his way in life, psy-
chologically scarred by multiple
military tours in Iraq. A drunk-
driving accident lands Russell in Director Scott Cooper
jail, and upon his return home he Heart") excels in contras
finds Rodney in greater debt and brothers' realities. Simu
no closer to getting his life togeth- sequences of Russell hunt
er. When Rodney's attempt to pay their uncle, and Rodney
off his debt through an under- trating his deal with
ground fighting ring entangles provide an artistic look in
him with the vicious, merciless differing personalities at
Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrel- points. A similar scene
son, "Zombieland"), Russell must working in the steel mill
face the consequences of his own cooking meth, contrasti
actions, as well as his brother's. sell's hard-working, rest
The brothers' relationship is lifestyle to DeGroat's selfi
the heart of the film, but Rus- ally questionable existenc
sell's personal storyline carries Affleck's performanc
the emotional weight that makes generated Oscar buzz, as
"Out of the Furnace" so compel- fully should. His character
ulptures
ig undis-
st to the
rrounds
nt also
rograms
oit. The
am seeks
up-and-
ven't yet
gallery
ngboard
e Young
program
ds with
as a cat-
I toward
develop-
Detroit's
ity. The
t, Com-
tal Edu-
to fill a
I Detroit
while
ortance
he envi-
s always
eeds of a
t scene.
fferings
Project
elcomed
ity, and
h or van-
sons has
tallment
ng four
ning the
nd. The
with the
The sec-
of Soul,
vered by
'he third
Souse on
ook War
ksgiving
enseless
rnation-
nity cre-
positive.
nt after
e at Hei-
delberg directly addressed the
perpetrator.
"We want you to know that
we understand your pain," the
statement read. "We realize
that all you've grown to know
is destruction and that you see
no way out. This is precisely
why we are here. Our work is
not about tangible 'things,' it is
about the Power of the Human
Spirit. We recognize that there
is a fire in you and we are here
not to extinguish it, but to offer
you a better reason to fuel it.
Though you have tried, you
cannot destroy the Heidelberg
Project; it's bigger than all of
us now. Instead, we invite you
to join our family in creating a
better neighborhood, a better
Detroit, if not for anyone else
than for yourself."
The message, however, was
not well received by the arson-
ist, who proceeded to burn
down the last two houses. The
community is upping volunteer
patrols and police surveillance
in hopes of protecting this com-
munity pillar, as well as the
residents in the area who are
threatened by the fires.
In lieu of the recent destruc-
tion of the graffiti mecca, 5
Pointz, in Queens, New York,
one cannot help but wonder
what the future holds for urban
art. The beautification of urban
decay into nationally recog-
nized art installments, no mat-
ter how untraditional the art
form, shouldn't be grounds for
disembodiment. More destruc-
tion cannot be the response to
revival, or else all progress will
be negated, as though taking
one step forward and two steps
back.
Fulfilling Detroit's city
motto, The Heidelberg Project
guarantees that it will rise from
the senseless ashes of the last
month, proving yet again that
Detroit's resilience can extin-
guish even the strongest fires of
adversity.
NBC
'Mean people need Jesus.'
Underwood overused in
'Sound of Music Live!'
by ALEX INTNER
Daily Arts Writer
rnace' this
NBC tried something that
hadn't been done in 50 years last
Thursday night: They aired a
live broadcast
of a musical C+
produced for
TV. In a time TheSound of
of declining Music Live!
numbers, the
broadcast Available for
networks streaming
have started
to program NBC
live-avents in
order to bring in viewers. NBC's
president Bob Greenblatt is a
fan of musicals, so he decided to
try a live presentation of "The
Sound of Music." What resulted
was three hours of television that
contained a mix of success and
failure: The musical itself caused
some of the problems, but others
came from decisions by the cre-
ative team.
The biggest mistake the pro-
ducers made was casting Carrie
Underwood ("Enchanted") as
Maria Rainer. Underwood is best
known as a country music super-
star, not as an actress, and the
producers took a huge risk cast-
ing her in this role. Musically, it
absolutely paid off. Underwood
sings the hell out of the songs,
especially her first number, "The
Sound of Music." In the dialogue
scenes, however, she truly fails to
register as a character - seem-
ing more focused on remember-
ing her lines than crafting a well
formed role.
Even if Underwood barely reg-
isters as an actress, the produc-
ers surround her with Broadway
and television veterans, enough
so that they were at least able to
make everything else bearable.
The best performance in the
show belongs to Audra McDon-
ald ("Private Practice") as Moth-
er Abbess. Her version of "Climb Sound of Music Live!" deserves
Ev'ry Mountain" is the best credit for pulling off the very
moment of the telecast and also difficult tasks that come along
serves as the only time Under- with producing a live musical.
wood shows any sort of acting They did a great job of moving
ability in the telecast. the cameras around, and actually
Laura Benanti ("Go On") and executing some complex camera
Christian Borle ("Smash") are moves, all while never catching
strong in supporting roles, both another camera onscreen. There
perfectly cast as the Baroness are multiple transitions - like
and Max, respectively. They one when Maria leaves the von
embody their personalities with Trapp home and goes back to the
finesse. Stephen Moyer ("True church through a wall on the set
Blood") does a good job with an - that are fantastic theatrical
extremely limited character; the moments. In addition, none of the
role of the Captain doesn't allow actors fell, and always appeared
him to show a huge amount of to make their marks. A lot of the
emotion, so he does what he can. credit here goes to Beth McCar-
His version of "Edelweiss" leaves thy-Miller ("30 Rock"), who
something to be desired, lacking served as the television director
some of the beauty that the song and created some great shots in
could have portrayed. the production.
Ultimately, the best thing
about "The Sound of Music
Live!" is the music. The singing
Poor production numer
O~r rO U ti~ numersfrom this show are fan-
choices plague tastic and performed admirably.
Even if the producer's decisions
network's live caused problems, "The Sound of
Music"isn't a perfect musical,
telecast. and its script provides problems
of its own. The majority of the
dialogue scenes drag, mostly
because they're not well writ-
From a design perspective, the ten. The supporting actors do
broadcast is a total and complete the best they can, but the book
failure. The sets look like they scenes still tends to feel slow.
were taken from a high school Despite these problems, "The
production. They also happen Sound of Music" was a huge hit
to be similar in color to the cos- for NBC. It may have miscast its
tumes, causingsome of the actors lead and had a horrible design,
to blend into the background. In but 18 million people tuned in
addition, the lighting is awful, to the special. NBC took a huge
with some of the scenes washed risk putting this on TV, and it
out in a weird orange color or paid off. What this unconven-
being so dark that it was tough tional move does, is it allows
to make out the actor's faces. them. t, try this again. NBC has
The sound too seems off at times, openec up a new possibility for
with the orchestra drowning out television. Ultimately, that's why
some of the actors during the this special will be remembered.
songs, and a white noise present Not for Carrie Underwood's per-
during some of the quieter dia- forniance, not for the horrific
logue scenes. design, but for reinvigorating
Despite these issues, "The the television musical.
he result incredulity at his inability to ret-
someone ognize his own flaws,but also gen-
thing he erates sympathy: How can you not
king for. feel sorry for a man who's put his
ance that life on the line for his country (and
d Russell experienced true horror in doing
y lengths so), and in return, has received
only permanent trauma? Affleck
radiates toughness and internal
turmoil to bring Rodney Baze to
sed life.
Woody Harrelson? He's just
od. plain nasty. A woman-abusing,
meth-cooking, line-crossing crea-
ture of the New Jersey Appala-
chians, Harrelson conveys every
("Crazy ounce of evil necessary to create a
sting the repulsive villain.
ltaneous The problems in the film are
ting with few, most of them concerningspe-
orches- cific character actions that aren't
DeGroat completely inexplicable, only
nto their questionable.
nd view- The acting is superb, the
& places directing is creative and, though
I next to the story develops slowly, pow-
ng Rus- erful emotion and strong the-
ponsible matic presence help "Out of the
ish, mor- Furnace" overcome any short-
e. comings and leave viewers with
ce has varying opinions about Russell's
it right- character, and the justification of
r garners his actions.
HOME TWEET HOME
@MICHIGANDAILY
[ _--_--_--- _-- _--- _-- _-- _--- _-- _---_--_--_-- ,
Bring in this coupon for one FREE bagel!
Featuring 20+ flavors including PUMPKIN!
Limit One offer per customer with coupon.
0:- Cannot be combined with any other offer.
S Valid at Barry Bagels Ann Arbor location ONL Y.
BAGELS
SUM8BarryeBa
I
Westga
2515 Ja2kn
(734) 662-24'
te Shopping center
Av Ann Arbor, MI 48103
E35 xrsDamyagels.nm
Expires: December 15, 2013
L