Arts

6A - Monday, October 20, 2014

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com


EVENT RECAP
EA HEell OfA N ight'
with Schoolboy Q
Rapper electrifies "Collard Greens" was a crowd the people what they wanted,
favorite - Q threw the hook and the audience showed their
crowd at Hill to the audience and then went appreciation, singing along with
back and forth with them. The Schoolboy throughout the two
By NICK BOYD crowd was vibing, Schoolboy tracks.
Daily Arts Writer was sweating up a storm and Using his current hits,
that was only the fourth song in Schoolboy warmed the audience
It didn't take long for the a 14-song set list. up for the throwback that was on
sacred offering to be made Although only 27, Schoolboy every fan's mind - Q launched
on Saturday night. Following looked out over the audience and into "There He Go," from Habits
an introduction from Braylon proclaimed, "Damn - you all and Contradictions, once again
Edwards, Schoolboy Q took the making me feel old as fuck. But leaving the hook to the audience.
stage ina red bucket hat, but the I'm still trying to have a 'Hell of Hill reverberated with a chant of
audience didn't wait to provide a Night'." The audience got the "There he go," and Q left it all on
him a maize and blue one message as Q launched into one the stage.
instead. Q chanpeled Edwards of many hits off Oxymoron. "Get It seemed everyone's
when he caught the poorly up outta your seat, you can have night caught up to them
thrown bucket hat far above his my drink, let me see you dance" simultaneously. The audience
head, and to the delight of the - the audience heeded the clearly needed to chill the
crowd, he proceeded to wear it command built into "Hell of a fuck out for a second or else
for the rest of the show. Prior Night," and it was clear that even they weren't going to make it
to Schoolboy's entrance, Hill to the end of the show. Q gave
Auditorium was teetering on the himself and the audience a
border of mellow, but when he He had much-needed recharge period,
took the stage and opened with slowing it down with "Blessed."
"Fuck LA," Q had the audience the place It was a savvy change of pace
in the palm of his hand from and Q nailed it.
beginning to end, delivering the hypnotized. Alas, it was time to blow the
show everyone wanted to see top off Hill. Q turned up the
and electrifying the auditorium. intensity with "Yay yay" to prep
Schoolboy didn't disappoint as the building for his conclusion.
a performer - "Fuck LA" set the in the haze that had descended We all knew it was coming. And
tone for an intense show. Q drew over Hill, the audience and Q it felt so right. "Yea Yea Yea Yea
mostly from his latest album, had more to give. Yeaaaa" - Q launched into "Man
Oxymoron, but also played some Later in his setlist, Schoolboy of the Year" and summoned
Habits and Contradictions, as stepped out of Oxymoron and the first few rows to the front
well a couple of surprises. played Kendrick's "m.A.A.d of the auditorium. The whole
From the mezzanine, City," paying tribute to another place bounced as Schoolboy tore
Schoolboy was almost lost in a member of TDE and Black Hippy. through the song. Even when
cloud of smoke that engulfed The audience "yak-yak-yakked" the powers that be turned on
him the entire show. By the end, with Schoolboy the whole song, the lights to end the show, Q
it was hard to know whether and the crowd reached a fervor continued. The audience took
we were in Hill Auditorium that sustained the rest of the his lead. In the end, no one even
or Boulder, CO. Even under night. Hill Auditorium was a noticed the change in lighting.
those conditions, Schoolboy very different place than it was He had the place hypnotized
was animated throughout his a week ago during the George and the concert wasn't over
performance - covering every Gershwin tribute concert. until he said so. Schoolboy gave
inch of the stage, and toweling Following the departure from a heartfelt thank you to his fans,
off after every song. his own material, Q played his saying, "I ain't shit without you."
As the show progressed, collaboration with Tinashe, On Saturday night, Michigan
Schoolboy and the audience "2 on," followed by his own should've been thanking Q for a
fed off one another's energy. hit, "Studio." Schoolboy gave Hell of a Night.

EVENT PREVIEW
Shteyngarttouread
from new 'Failure'

By GILLIAN JAKAB
Community & Culture Editor
As a high school senior in 1991,
Gary Shteyngart almost came
to the University of Michigan.
Now the award-
winning authorG
of Super Sad
True Love Story, Shey it
Absurdistan and DijSCUses
The Russian .I
Debutante's HIS
Handbook, is Bestselling
visiting Ann Mmir,
Arbor 23 years
later to read 'little
from his recent Failure'
memoir "Little
Failure." The Oct.21 at7:00pm
memoir ranges Ann Arbor
from hilarity District Library
to melancholy
as it takes us from his birth in
1972 Leningrad, the Shteyngart
family's move to New York in
1979, the travails of his just-off-
the-boat household in the land
of sweepstakes, promises and
brutal schoolboy pecking orders,
his years at Oberlin and in New
York as a young writer, and
finally to his return to Russia as a
tourist. Shteyngart's readers will
recognize in "Little Failure" the
many ingredients cooked into his
three prior novels.
But a memoir is very different
from fiction, Shtyengart reminds
us in his trademark satirical
style.
"Well it's fun to mind the
past, but you have to be - you
can't lie," Shteyngart said in an
interview with the Michigan
Daily. "It's all about the truth.
That's different for somebody
who is used to lying, which is
what anovelistdoes allthe time."
In chasing the truth about his
own life, Shteyngart found, for
various reasons, that he needed to
research the secondary sources.
"I had to sit down with a
lot of people and talk about it
- especially college; it's hard
to remember because i was so
stoned," Shteyngart said. "High
school too, I can't remember
much of high school. There were
all these things that I thought
had happened that never really
happened. I thought we had
hijacked a number two train
while on acid and taken it up to
the Bronx, but apparently that
was a movie. That was hard to
figure out."
Soviet Russia was an
unforgiving place to grow
up with a Jewish family. But
afterwards, the world was not
kind to a scrawny immigrant kid
who spoke funny and wore too
many furs. Yeshiva grade school
left him unprepared for the
diverse, rigorous environment
of New York City's most
competitive public high school.
The American dream mentality
and materialist ethos that drove
him to Stuyvesant High School
then left him clueless for the
alternative liberal arts scene of
Oberlin College.
"You kinds make (difficult

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ries) fun, I mean you don't fellow Russians Pussy Riot, who
this to be one giant cry came to Ann Arbor earlier this
o you try to make it fun," semester, Shteyngart quipped:
ngart said. "But it was a "They're lovely, Ilove them. Great
awful childhood - segued riots. Great riots."
pretty crappy adulthood But when pressed on the
But you know life goes on. question of Russian politics, he
ew up in America I probably was circumspect.
have enjoyed a lot of "Well Russia is always a
I wouldn't have gone to a disaster, so what are you going
school like Stuyvesant; I'd to do?" he said. "It's always going
bly go to some nice hippie to suck. But I don't know it's nice
. And then Oberlin would that they have the energy to try to
iade a lot more sense." fight that, fight the system. I just
eyngart's . Aeropostale gave up a lot time ago on Russia.
s didn't cut it at Oberlin, The best thing you can do with
irony-laced guys named Russia is just to get as far away
wore janitor's shirts from it asyou can."
bed "Bob." "Little Failure" Shteyngart steered clear of
similar humorousportraits Russia and politics and became a
rlin students as does Lena writer, but his advice is to avoid
am's new book "Not That that profession asawell.
of Girl." And even though "Oh my god, find another line
am also struggled to find of work please. Like if I could do
ace, shewasbetter prepared it again I'd go into probably air
lerstand the mentality than conditioning and refrigerator
ngart hadbeen. repair cause you got a lot there
aven't been back in a little with global warming and such.
but it's all very similar to Stay away from writing. But if you
ck at Oberlin," Shteyngart do decide to do it, just tryto write
People were talking about down everything around you.
rank Zappa cover band and Keep a diary. Take notes all the
ike that - that was pretty time. Notice everything around
ar. There was one guy you. Tryto wakeup by11o'clock so
ng around with beanie hat, you can getagood couple ofhours
hen I looked at him he gave in, and read, read, read! Anyone
can write, but reading requires
even more concentration."
He has the writer's life down:
Life w asn't "I wake up pretty late: around
10:30 or 11:00 and then I think 
-asy for an write for about four hours a day.
kid Then after that, like most New
em igrant kid Yorkers I go see a shrink for a
whilethat'sfrom5:00to6:00,and
iNew York. then we all get together and have
dinner - all the writers because
our shrinks are in the same part
of town, so we have dinner, and
is look like 'ugh, why are then from 7:00 to 11:00, or 7:00 to
okingat me?' But then when midnight we drink a lot. And then
ped looking at him, his look midnight is the crying hour when
ore like 'keep looking at writers cry because, you know,
publishing is not doing so well.
'Little Failure," Shteyngart And then I need my beauty sleep
s his thought process about obviously so I sleep for about ten
niversity of Michigan and hours."
lege decision. The decline in reading, or at
as going to go to Michigan, least in reading fiction, in our
se I got into the honors digital age' led Shteyngart to
e and I thought that was pioneer a marketing device that's
cool," Shteyngart said. "I come to be known as the "Book
wanted to go, but - it's in Trailer," short videos to promote
iok - what happened was his books as though they were
was this woman I really movies. They have big stars -
who went to Oberlin and Paul Giamatti, James Franco -
ght she'd go out with me, and are hysterical: Failure, Super
en she broke up with me Sad True Love Story, Super Sad
diately. Yeah, so that didn't True Book Club.
out well. Well, you know "Well, nobody likes to read
very Oberlin; you just get anymore. So to sell a book you
ed a lot." have to make a film about it first.
eyngart lives in New You have to - well you have to
and teaches at Columbia do a book trailer with James
rsity, so between his Franco or else nobody is going to
ng and book tours he's remotely read it. In the old days
to see many America's you just had to write a book," he
e towns. said.
ey're very well manicured. Check out Shteyngart at the
s a lot of money being spent Ann Arbor District Library and
rubbery I think, so that's when you get there, take his
sting to see. American advice:
es look reallybeautiful.One "Just have fun. I suffered for
hat we can still do well as a 42 years so people can have a lot
y is produce elite colleges." of fun reading about it. That's
ed what he thinks about my hope. Enjoy my suffering."

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