6A Monday, December 8, 2014 A rts The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.eom 6A - Monday, December 8,2014 A rts The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom for X-mas music By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY dildo to use in- family game over Daily Arts Writer winter break and Frank Sinatra's rendition of "Jingle Bells" comes The calendar has slid into on. All of the "bells" magically 2014's final month and, just in turn into "balls" when you're case someone hasn't noticed confronted with a six-foot dis- from the over-stressed and play covered in condoms. Christ- under-slept students or the bit- mas music, pick your battles ter, cold wind blowing them please. Will you rein me into down State Street., we can my third copy of Kelly Clark- always count on one thing to slap son's Wrapped inRed? More than us across the face with a heavy likely. A box set of flavored con- dose of December: holidaymusic doms? Probably not (OK, well in public places. just the peppermint ones). Pep- It's "Have Yourself a Merry permint-flavored products aside, Little Christmas" and "All I the holiday music may have gone Want for Christmas is You" that too far. remind shoppers they need to Everyone has an opinion on keep their eyes peeled for that when Christmas music should be perfect snow globe to add to played (not until after Hallow- Grandma's collection or that een or Thanksgiving, etc.), but quesadilla maker from Kohl's few take notice of where it should their favorite Daily Arts Writ- be played. Clearly, it's always er has been eyeing (*wink*). acceptable through headphones Throughout the month, the no matter time or place; do your soundtrack to our lives is stra- thang. Deciding which back- tegically altered and encourages ground music to play in public over-spending and general hap- places is trickier. Let's start here: piness, and that is 100 per cent 14 re' n entire section devot- OK. Bring it on, Target. he pday, let it play. The That said, holiday tunes must sameecan d for department be restricted to holiday stores. It T@ eda shops (Pepper- gets a little freaky when you're mint mocha, anyone?). in the Safe Sex Shop looking for a Restaurants are a bit more complicated. It may be the holi- day season, but restaurants are not directly holiday-related like department stores where people shop, nor do they usually roll out holiday-themed menus like cof- fee shops. However, the closer holidays get, the more accept- able holiday music is in restau- rants. A Christmas album on repeat starting Dec. 1 is a little intense, Applebee's. Further- more, Christmas music should never be played in bars. That is the set up for a sad scene in a "Grey's Anatomy" holiday epi- sode. The only exception is Bob and Doug McKenzie's "12 Days of Christmas." If you don't know it, do yourself a favor and check it out. It's time to stop complaining that "it's too early for Christmas music." That debate has been argued every which way and no one will agree. It's time to com- plain that "it's not the place for Christmas music!" Pick your battles, holiday tunes and who- ever is the DJ beh that inter- com. It's time to it together because Christm usic in a sex shop (and many other ven- ues) just is not going to cut it. TOMMY BOY "Something's gotta pay for the kids' colege tuition... Ghostface sticks to old tricks nScss Rapper struggles up for the duration of the album. years away. She claims she At 44, Ghostface Killah is thought he was dead and tells to move forward on one of the older rappers in him that she's moved on, she's the industry, and he's acutely got a new man who can take new album aware of his seniority. But with care of her kid. "So I turned my 36 Seasons, he's not asking head down and walked away ByBRIAN BURLAGE listeners to ignore that fact, nor from the crib," Ghostface raps Daily Arts Writer is he trying to usher them back at the end of the verse, followed toward the Supreme Clientele by a stark silence that's actually Ghostface Killah is back after era and say, "this is where I shocking. This is the same guy 36 seasons. That translates want you to stay." Instead, he's who says he's sold more drugs roughly to nine years, he tells asking listeners to and accept and witnessed more homicides us on the his age with him. By no means than he could rap about in a album's B. is it a comfortable process; career, and yet, when it comes opening sometimes the album feels a to family, he knows when to track "The 36 Seasons bit overdone, a bit clichd. But walk away and let the non- Battlefield." then think about the first line music speak for him. Staten Island Ghostface of "The Battlefield" and let it Unfortunately, that's not the has changed Killah frame the rest of the album. whole story. Later in the song, quite a bit Nine years puts Ghostface at Ghostface's newfound wisdom since he Tommy Boy Records the inception of Fischscale, his is checked as he rattles off a left. Now most successful and acclaimed few lines of misogynistic talk- the "cops stay screwin' and album of the last 14 years, and behind-the-back. "I never did a his name's "faded out like so n ow, with 36 Seasons, he's back, damn thing to deserve i/ This damn old socks." Kis asmo e toniders this album'o be ma an :' orld,I go acome weed insthe schoolyard. No on a revivai of sorts, a reflective oti okin' for you / you afraid to breach enemyterritory. statement at the end of a long fuckin' up the plans, girl," he Bottom line, Ghostface says: odyssey - a return to form. raps with the same snarl that there's no respect. This return is particularly he'd supposedly outgrown. If All of these feelings and the album is to be about change reflections converge with the and the depth of its effect, then track's melancholic hook: "Been a verse like this can put a halt on the battlefield for a long, long At times, the on the emotional momentum. time ./ I can see life closing in be And it does. on this old body of mine." Stop album can e 36 Seasons reveals that and think for a minute. When had Ghostface hasn't lost a beat was the last time you heard a little hard to in the way of his storytelling Ghostface Killah cop to any s l or his gusto, but the latter kind of resignation? Defeat? swallow might not be a good thing. Transient meditation? The There are plenty of heartfelt soulful, embittered voice of Tre and sincere moments here; Williams delivers those words, the problem is that they're which get pinched between hard to swallow, though, since too frequently negated by two somewhat antagonistic 36 Seasons doesn't sound or instances of unrequited anger and typically aggressive verses. feel like a grand statement. and unfairness. And while.,the It's a pretty clever production Ghostface addresses love, album is filled with the sound technique. Stuff antithetical loyalty, friendship and change of soul and retro East coast rap emotion into the hook, then through the vein of soul, and styling, it all feels like a kind of stuff the hook in between two these slow beats and drawn- conjuring trick in the end. That opposite messages. The result out horn sections serve only after nine years of learning, here with 36 Seasons is a kind of to conjure ome feeling fusic-making and growing sad and reminiscent survey of nostalgia. For example, on up, Ghostface Killah still relies what Ghostface has lost in his "Love Don't Live Here No on the tricks and traps of the home town in Staten Island, only More," he raps about coming rapper who rests in peace with it's too out-of-character to hold home to his girl after nine long Fishscale. THIS IS THE LAST DEAD AD I'M GOING TO WRITE SO DO IT FOR 'LI'SHAY' (MAE AKSHAY SETH) @MICHIGANDAILY FOLLOW TMD ON TWITTER Yoga pants. Film just scratches surface of iconic life By REBECCA LERNER Daily Arts Writer "Awake: The Life of Yoga- nanda" is a shallow introduc- tion to the fascinating life of Paramahansa Yogananda, Ct who brought the spiritu- "Awake: alism of theT East to the The life materialis- of Yoga- tic West in the 1920s. nanda" Despite cen- Counterpoint tering on the Films importance Michigan Theater of medita- tive experiences, the movie's disjointed and rushed feelings may misalign your chakras. Checking all the boxes for a biopic, the film travels through Yogananda's childhood and adolescent propensity for spirituality. After he finds his spiritual master and founds a school in India, he realizes his journey must be taken to the. materialistic and spiritually uneducated West. In'Boston and then California, Yoganan- da establishes his foundation and begins to teach the masses his theories of enlightenment. Much of the movie focuses not on the life of the yogi, but on his influence on others. Fre- quently distributed throughout the film, interviews are from diverse subjects, ranging from George Harrison of The Bea- tles, who constantly sought out life advice from Yogananda's autobiography, to a Harvard physicist who confirms that Yogananda's methods were based in neurological scienc- es. However, the interrupting interviews that lionize the yogi distract the viewer from the actual story of his life. The most interesting parts of the movie are centered on the sources of conflict in the yogi's life. Entering the roar- ing 1920s as a dark-skinned man teaching foreign concepts, Yogananda is the victim of rac- ism and yellow journalism. The yogi lectures and lives through World War II and the bomb- ing of Hiroshima - events that fundamentally contradict his views of the world. But even with subject matter as com- pelling as the arduous life and forward thinking beliefs of the yogi, the film hurries through this content. This movie seems like an introduction to the life of someone who influenced the world with yoga, using the spirituality of the practice to try to achieve peace instead of as an ab workout, as is the case with most modern yoga. Other biopics this year, such as "Get On Up" about soul singer James Brown and "The Theory of Everything" about physicist Stephen Hawking, have a pro- found and confidential nature in their details that make the audience identify with the sub- ject. Instead of acquainting the audience with the personality and flaws of the man behind the legend, the film focuses its energy on the glorification of Yogananda. "Awake" barely scratches the surface of a com- plex man who deserved a bet- ter exploration of his depths. EST ENTERTAINMENT NEWS ON THE ONLINE ARTS BLOG 4 p