Q I Monday, July 9, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Idle 'Savages'-bores.
Heart beats far
out of rhythm
Creativity lost
Menage a no:
'Savages' bad with
romance and script
By NOAH COHEN
For the Daily
Though Oliver Stone contin-
ues to live up to his reputation for
unflinching violence, the truth
remains clear:
violence, sex
and drugs do not*
make a movie.S
Even under the
influence of some At Quality16
glowing act- and Rave
ing and nonstop
action, "Savages" Universal
manages to bore.
The movie is a film adaptation
of a book written by Don Winslow,
who is a much better writer than
this screenplay would suggest.
The movie follows two marijuana
entrepreneurs, Ben (Aaron John-
son, "Albert Nobbs") and Chon
(Taylor Kitch, "Battleship"), as
they attempt to skirt domination
by an ambitious Mexican cartel.
They fail, however, as their shared
girlfriend 0 (Blake Lively, "The
'NACHOOOOOOOO!'
Town") falls into the clutches of
Elena (Salma Hayek, TV's "30
Rock"), the almost-ruthless king-
pin. The game is then set in motion,
with Ben-and Chon attempting to
comply with the demands of the
cartel so that O does not suffer con-.
sequences, meanwhile grasping at
leverage over Elena with which to
ensure O's rescue.
The dynamic among the three
protagonists - Ben, Chon and 0
- works hard to convince the audi-
ence of its sincerity as a functional
menage. A trois, and, against the
odds, succeeds. We believe that
they are a cohesive romantic unit,
and this lays the foundation for the
much more interesting dynamic
between the men, Ben and Chon.
Ben is the mastermind of the
operation. The dreadlocked, Bud-
dhist, scientist-hippy who believes
conflict can be resolved with
peaceful deliberation. This belief
is repeatedly stomped upon over
the course of the movie, which is
where Chon comes in. Chon is the
ever-alert muscle, unafraid and
more than capable of handling
what Ben cannot stomach. 0, as the
narrator, makes the Spirit/Earth
dichotomy very clear at the out-
set, and the relationship the two
men share is touched upon even
by Elena and her fantastically
creepy right-hand-man, Lado
(Benicio Del Toro, "The Wolf-
man"), who suspects the two are
"faggots."
Lively is good, not exceptional,
as the narrator, and plays a good,
not exceptional, damsel in dis-
tress. Playing her captor, Hayek
does a much better job with her
own archetype, excellently bal-
ancing the expected fragility of
someone who genuinely loves
with the gritof a leader for whom
love is translated as weakness.
Del Toro shines as brightly as
scum can shine, but may have
taken a little too much initiative
in makingthe audience hate him.
His creepiness goes beyond the
pale, and finds an electric chem-
istry with Dennis, the DEA agent
played by John Travolta, who has
a deceptively small part in the
action of the movie, but whose
role weirdly and unexpectedly
mars the movie's ending in a big
way.
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ANNA SADOVSKAYA accompanied by dance beats
ManagingArts Editor and electronic interludes. With
song titles like "Homewrecker"
tra Heart is the girl you and "Radioactive," the album
o in the supermarket wear- promised to be provocative, but
aux fur coat and sunglasses, instead Marina delivered such.
ly pick- pearls of wisdom as "Lying on
rough the ** a fake beach/You'll never get a
o. Her tan."
filled with Electra Despite collaborating with big
agne and Heart names like Dr. Luke and Stargate,
erries Electra Heart doesn't carve a large
he doesn't Marina and enough niche for its sound.
care that the Diamonds The first track, "Bubblegum
been star- Bitch," sets the tone of the album
her from Atlantic with a rousing chorus of "I'm miss
kery aisle. sugar pink liquor, liquor lips/I'm
ngsty, and you can tell that gonna be your bubblegum bitch."
one conversation didn't end The poppy, upbeat tempo coin-
y the way she dramatically cides with the no-fucks-given atti-
d her phone and wiped a tude of Electra Heart.
y tear from her cheek. The Electra takes no prisoners in
heek that has an eyeliner- her love escapades, but she reiter-
heart on it. ates this point again and again in
her second album, Marina her songs. Similar to "Bubblegum
e Diamonds diverges from Bitch," "Power and Control" looks
achy debut album roots and at a relationship doomed from the
s on bringing to life the self- start due to Electra's romantic
ed Electra Heart, the name- prowess and her need for destruc-
r the album. The opposite tion. Backed by a synthesized
ina, Electra is not an alter- beat, Marina croons "Think you're
t rather the embodiment of funny/Think you're smart/Yeah
hing Marina has strived not you might be good-looking, /But
you're not a piece of art."
n interview with "Popjus- Each track focuses on being a
Marina explained that the bad-ass woman, but rather than
t for this album started embracing it, Marina manages to
homage to the American make it seem ugly and contorted.
and followed the story of The album does have its
, a fictional character that's moments, though, and one of
ng the corrupt version of them is "Teen Idle.' Produced
ess. by Liam Howe who collaborated
with Marina on her first album,
this song stands out lyrically and
)o much o musically, allowing listeners to
0 I fully embrace the chaos of Electra
enough voice Heart's world. Similarly, "Starring
Role" shows the more vulnerable
1 Diam onds' side of the album and accentuates
Marina's impressive vocals: some-
cond effort. thing sorely lacking in this album.
With lyrics like "Sometimes I
ignore you, so I feel in control/
Cause really, I adore you, and I
st love the side of (the can't leave-you alone," the song is
an Dream) that's really refreshingly honest and relatable.
nd hollow," she said. "And If Electra Heart focused more
kind of what I've really on the softer moments and less on
d. The whole album is trying to tell the story of a corrupt
that." glamour girl, the album would be
at its core, that's what vaguely awesome. But, unfortu-
Heart really is - an album nately, Electra Heart doesn't really
vapid and shallow tracks leave room to want more.
I spent my childhood similarly
to how I imagine many of you did
- without a care or worry in the
world. As chil-
dren, we act on
impulse, explore '
the world
around us and
are intrigued by
everything we
touch. Whether
hunting for lep-
rechauns on the SARAH
playground or SKALUBA
starting a pot
and pan rock
band, my child-
hood memories bring back a sense
of imagination and raw creativity.
But somewhere along the way, this
innocent creativityis lost and tucked
away for good.
Eventually, we mature and begin
to focus on more refined artistic
skills. Whether it's playing a wind
instrument, painting with water-
color or writing prose, high school
encourages us to nourish our cre-
ativity and express our innermost
thoughts and feelings. From honors
wind ensemble to advanced paint-
ing and drawing, the opportunity to
engage our artistic side exists and
we take advantage of it.
This focus on creativity and fos-
tering our artistic side is a large part
of growing up. We're taught to be
expressive, to think imaginatively
and discover our passions. But this
no longer proves useful when we
pack up our bags and head to college.
Of course, there are the gifted
among us who come to the Univer-
sity to attend the School of Art &
Design or the School of Music, The-
atre & Dance. But the majority of us
enroll in LSA and are lost in a new
community that favors intelligence
and brains. We lose sight of our past
hobbies and focus on getting the
highes grade point average possible.
Stumbling along as young freshmen
at Michigan, we quickly learn that
creativity is not a priority - in fact,
it's almost frowned upon. Previous
all-state musicians stow away their
instruments for good, and passion-
ate artists pack up their supplies
once and for all.
Our society today emphasizes
the intellectual power of individu-
als. Strength is seen in those who
obtain high test scores, declare dif-
ficult majors and maintain 4.0 GPAs
despite takinga million credits. But
what ever happened to the idea that
we should follow our passion and
engage our artistic side?
We come to Michigan and are
overwhelmed by the difficulty of
huge lectures, the enormity of a
40,000-person student body and, of
course, the freshman social scene.
We inevitably lose sight of our high
school passions as we begin a new
chapter in our lives. It's difficult to
balance an intense class load with a
decent social life and still find free
find time to write, paint or dance.
The world in which we live favors
intellectual ability over artistic
ability. It favors methodology over,
creativity. We're living in a soci-
ety that pushes us to take as many
classes as possible while still main-
taining extraordinary GPAs and
acing every exam. The strong dis-
tinction between what's perceived
as a difficult major as opposed to
the -"easy" ones is evident in the
way people respond when they ask,
"So what exactly are you studying
up in Michigan?"
High GPAs are
valued over
creativity.
As an undeclared junior according
to my transcript, I find people's reac-
tions to a Brain, Behavior and Cog-
nitive Science concentration - as
opposed to an English Language and
Literature concentration - amus-
ing. Granted, I'll most likely major
in both, but the demeaning looks
and skeptical nods associated with
an English concentration are neither
appreciated nor necessary..
The huge emphasis placed on sci-
ence, math and business degrees
won't be ending anytime soon. But
that doesn't mean we should place
our creative interests and passions
on the backburner. Take advantage
of all the student groups and clubs
our University has to offer. Whether
your passion lies in fashion, music,
writing or art, it's up to you to hold
onto your individual creativity and
raw sense of imagination.
We shouldn't only strive to stay
passionate about old interests but
also work to develop new ones. At
a University with so much to offer,
we have the power to break societal
norms and prove there's more to
a well-rounded education than an
immense class load and a spotless
GPA. Part of what makes us such a
diverse campus is the past experi-
ences and creative abilities we each
bring to Michigan. So don't bury
your passion and lose sight of what
excites you. Instead, foster your cre-
ativity and make it a point to take
advantage of groups like MDrawand
the crazy courses that only our Uni-
versity could offer.
Sarah Skaluba can be reached
at sskaluba@umich.edu. Follow
her on Twitter at @SSkaluba.
As the 100-plus-degree
days hopefully become fewer
and farther between, it's that
exciting
time of year
when over-
achievers
receive
their syllabi
for their falll
coursework
and delve in. MICHAEL
When they SMALLEGAN
take that
head start
on the jour-
ney along that nearly sacred
roadmap - the syllabus - very
few will stop to think about the
document itself.
The syllabus is undoubtedly
a product of the hard work of
educators who thought a lot
about how a coherent narrative
will unravel over 13 weeks. It's
probably the result of multiple
iterations of - the course and
reflection on what went well
and what needed to be changed.
It demarcates readings, prob-
lem sets, exams and all the
other familiar mechanisms of a
well-oiled course.
Let's take one step further
back and examine the syllabus
from there. The document is a
collection of concepts organized
around a central theme. Either
tradition or innovation decreed
that these concepts should be
taught together, that they are
somehowunified and that learn-
ing them all together would be
more beneficial than learning
them separately.
Butisthatreallythecase?Cer-
tainly the story of British colo-
nialism segues nicely into the
story of the American Revolu-
tion. So for some history courses,
a narrative style works perfectly.
Perhaps for most of the trivium, a
story format fits nicely, but what
of the quadrivium? Of math, cell
biology or physics?
I can vividly recall multiple
instances in which, sitting in
class last fall, my internal nar-
rative sounded like this: "Hey,
what? We're learning this now?
I could have used this math
concept three weeks ago in
my physics class!" Actually, at
times, the voice in my head is a
bit more vulgar when expressing
distaste, but you get the idea.
Ideas are further catego-
rized not only into syllabi and
courses, but also into depart-
ments. And with those depart-
ments trying to determine the
overlap between courses and
the proper ordering of courses,
there just isn'tenough time and
communication within depart-
ments to have the perfect
coherent ordering of ideas and
classes and to completely mini-
mize overlap. So, as long as we
have syllabi, we may learn how
to find the cross product of two'
vectors in three different class-
es, or by bad luck - or good luck,
depending on your view - we
may never run across Lagrange
multipliers.
We have both the technology
and the understanding of how
concepts build on each other
to take a more systematic and
strategic approach to pedagogy.
So what would school without
classes and narratives and syl-
labi look like?
It would be more individu-
alized - we have the IT infra-
structure to track the concepts
each student has mastered.
Though this is a bit more granu-
lar than tracking classes mas-
tered, the process is the same.
It would be easier - we know
that building concepts on top of
what you've already learned is
easier than skipping steps. Fur-
thermore, when you have a solid
foundation, it takes much less
time to learn new ideas.
Monday, July 9, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com5
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Syllabi 2.,0
It would be harder to teach
- certainly having 80 people
learning the same thing at the
same time presents some "effi-
ciencies" for the education
provider, and in the past these
aspects have trumped teach-
ing the concepts students need
at the time and in the order the
students need them. It's a huge
challenge to provide a more
modular education, but chal-
lenges exist to be overcome.
Syllabi may not
be effective for
all classes.
Already, online courses and
TED videos are providing more
modular, compact concepts
packaged in 10- to 20-minute
videos. When you walk away
from a TED video, you have a
new idea in hand, and you're
ready to use it. That concept
doesn't need to be embedded
in a 13-week format for you to
grasp it. Software products
such as Knewton and Cogni-
tive Tutor implement "adap-
tive learning," which actively
tracks what students know and
what they are having trouble
learning, and then measures
out exactly where they need
further teaching.
So, the questions become:
How long will it take higher
education to adopt new meth-
ods? Who will be a part of find-
ing solutions to the challenges?
Will it be you?
Michael Smallegan can be
reached at smallmic@umich.edu.