Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

ACROSS
1 Tie with a cord
5 Acute anxiety
10 Miss from
Madrid: Abbr.
14 Texter’s “That
being said ...”
15 Get on the
phone, say
16 Lustful look
17 *Miracle Mets
center fielder
19 ‘‘If all __ fails ...’’
20 Weed whacker
21 Friskies eater
22 “Your choice”
24 Skip over in
pronunciation
26 *Creator of Daffy
and Bugs
28 Nevada gambling
city
29 __ for the course
31 Variety show
32 Dressing
component
36 Nav. rank
37 *“Songs About
Me” country
singer
39 Dashboard
meas.
41 Unsettled detail
42 Island near
Venezuela
44 Mexican mama
bear
45 Official records
49 *He voiced Buzz
Lightyear in “Toy
Story”
52 European toast
53 Come by
54 Fraternal club
member
56 CCV x X
57 Roughly
58 *Three-time
Super Bowl-
winning Cowboys
quarterback
61 Dumbfound
62 Wished (for)
63 Odometer unit
64 Pajama parts
65 Line in a ledger
66 Fret

DOWN
1 Pester
2 Peter of “Goodbye,
Mr. Chips” (1969)

3 Chinese noodle
dish
4 Unit of resistance
5 Bay __:
Oakland’s locale
6 Tidy
7 Joke
8 Bad thing to
make in public
9 Bad thing to get
at work
10 Record protector
11 Takes over for
12 Trial in simulated
conditions
13 “You __ My
Sunshine”
18 Skating surface
23 Large game fish
25 Way in
26 High-level betrayal
27 “You betcha!”
29 __ de gallo: salsa
fresca
30 Chevy hatchback
33 [I don’t remember
the words]
34 Laudatory poems
35 Swedish furniture
giant
37 Good sign from
Ebert
38 Fargo’s state:
Abbr.

39 Yoga class
rental
40 Before
43 They’re waved by
conductors
46 Say “I do,” say
47 Husk-wrapped
Mexican dish,
and when divided
in three parts, a
hint to the
answers to
starred clues

48 Never seen
before
50 Supple
51 Scandal-
plagued energy
giant
52 Enjoy the slopes
54 Watcher
55 Title for Godiva
57 East, to Ernst
59 Make a choice
60 Metric distances:
Abbr.

By Tom Uttormark and C.C. Burnikel
©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/13/15

01/13/15

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

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HELP WANTED

SUMMER EMPLOYMENT

FOR RENT

6 — Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Blind ‘Hindsight’ 

VH1

I’ll be there for youuuuuuuuuu!

Poor writing and 
unoriginality hold 

back VH1’s new 

series

By KAREN HUA

Daily TV/New Media Editor

Despite 
an 
intriguing, 
if 

unoriginal, premise, the pilot of 
VHI’s “Hindsight” is full of cli-
chés. In areas 
where 
the 

writers 
could 

have offered a 
fresh lens, they 
succumbed 
to 
hackneyed 

plot points and 
awkward dia-
logue. 

Becca 

(Laura 
Ramsey, 
“She’s 
the 

Man”) is a woman past her 
prime 
– 
the 
middle-aged 

romantic finds herself facing a 
second wedding, as she is now 
engaged to a man (Nick Clif-
ford, “The Opportunist”) she 
once found repulsive. Even now 
that she has discovered “new 
love,” Becca remains perpetu-
ally unhappy with her love life 
and career. But just as she wal-
lows in self-pity about how she 
reached her discontented state, 

Becca suddenly finds herself 
rewound to her first wedding 
day in 1995. How opportune – 
and how overused.

Becca’s past life features her 

hunk of an Australian fiancé 
(Craig Horner, “Legend of the 
Seeker”) and her once insepa-
rable, eventually estranged best 
friend Lolly (Sarah Goldberg, 
“The Dark Knight Rises”). Soft 
grunge is back in vogue, as are 
choker necklaces, pagers and 
AOL. Her first day caught in 
the past consists of begging 
Lolly to believe she’s from the 
future, and contemplating the 
love and happiness so elusive to 
her life. Becca is determined to 
use this opportunity to live life 
differently without making the 
same bad mistakes, which cul-
minated in the ever-so-original 
run from the altar. However, 
the show’s stock dramatic irony 
is that we foresee Becca mak-
ing different mistakes – ones 
that just lead to a life of dif-
ferent unhappiness. The show 
is reminiscent of “13 Going on 
30,” except Ramsey can’t quite 
exude that retro presence like 
Jennifer Garner.

Becca and Lolly’s friendship 

is uplifting, but the other rela-
tionships have little potential 
for development. Additionally, 
many plot aspects feel forced, 
especially when Lolly almost 

immediately believes Becca’s 
time-traveling scheme. Lolly’s 
blind assumption has less to 
do with her adherent devotion 
to her best friend, and more 
with an unbelievable lack of 
awareness. The show gradual-
ly becomes too scripted, which 
flattens all the characters, 
including the protagonist.

The script allows for good 

introspection, as the audience 
hears Becca’s every thought, 
pondering questions we must 
all ask ourselves about the 
meaning of happiness and the 
existence of fate. As inspi-
rational as this initially may 
be, her inner dialogue soon 
becomes juvenile, every line 
rewording 
empty 
truisms 

with clunky philosophical lan-
guage. Ultimately, the writing 
feels lazy – using voiceovers 
and 
external 
narration 
to 

recount exposition. It breaks 
a crucial law of writing: the 
necessity to trust audience 
intelligence. 

While “Hindsight” ’s pilot 

has some redeemable qualities, 
its unoriginal script hampers 
its potential, wasting a poten-
tially compelling premise. Not 
only does Becca rewind the 
clock, but the show reverts 
back to overdramatic, stale sit-
com tropes as well.

‘Living Different’ 
struggles to subvert

By SOPHIA KAUFMAN

Daily Arts Writer

“I never in my life would have 

guessed that I’d 
be giving tes-
tosterone shots 
to my girlfriend 
once a week to 
turn her into a 
man.”

The 
pre-

miere 
episode 

of 
Oxygen’s 

new four-part 
special “Living 
Different” kicked off with this line, 
immediately letting viewers know 
that they were about to get a fresh 
take on what exactly “different” 
means from a group of nine women 
from a variety of backgrounds. 

This episode, titled “#Love-

WithoutLabels,” focuses on two of 
the nine: Lizz, a woman who has 
been warily anticipating telling 
her conservative Mexican Catho-
lic family that her girlfriend is not 
only her girlfriend but also trans-
gender, and Rain, a woman whose 
androgynous looks allow her to 
model as both a man and a woman. 
As a show that actively focuses on 
groups that have been silenced by 
the media and have experienced 
prejudice before, it has potential to 
help spread new understandings of 

different sexualities and lifestyles. 

Lizz is the first of her fam-

ily to graduate from college, and 
she struggles with whether to tell 
her family when they come for 
her graduation that her partner is 
transgender. She has to deal with 
the reactions of both her family 
and friends, one of whom asks her 
in a puzzled tone as they sit in a bar, 
“Are you gay or are you bi? Because 
if she’s turning into a boy … ” 

Rain was mistakenly booked as a 

male on her first modeling gig; she 
goes along with it and models as 
both genders. She is more comfort-
able with male modeling shoots and 
is nervous doing a lingerie shoot in 
this episode, as she hints she may 
be developing a crush on her female 
photographer. Additionally, Rain 
grapples with wanting a relation-
ship with her emotionally distant 
father, as her ease with and control 
of her own gender fluidity — espe-
cially modeling as a man but dating 
both men and women — makes him 
uncomfortable. 

As with most reality TV, the 

danger with this show lies in the 
potential to be exploitative instead 
of explanatory, pernicious instead 
of progressive — and the premiere 
episode leaves viewers distrust-
ful, still wondering which way 
the show will go. The camera’s 
influence on all of the people in 

the show is all too apparent, even 
for reality TV, and the resulting 
awkwardness in stilted conver-
sations is palpable. Further, the 
long-winded and smooth solilo-
quy-esque voiceovers don’t feel 
authentic. However, there are 
flashes that demonstrate a concern 
for portraying the genuine frustra-
tion of those who don’t conform 
to societal norms. Such instances 
as Lizz’s reaction to her brother’s 
misunderstanding the meaning of 
transgender (“Gay? I mean I don’t 
want to get into all the details … ”) 
and Rain’s wondering tone when 
she says, “This whole androgynous 
thing is actually paying the bills,” 
are particularly powerful. 

Though 
“Living 
Different” 

doesn’t feel like it’s quite living up to 
its title yet, it shows brief glimpses 
of what reality looks like for people 
in these unconventional situa-
tions, contributing to discussion 
about representation of diversity 
in media. Future episodes will fea-
ture Hasidic musicians, an MMA 
fighter and a psychic-medium, 
among others. These are all women 
who are used to others questioning 
their lifestyles or choices, and they 
seem united in a certain hope: that 
by watching them push boundar-
ies and live in acceptance of them-
selves, audiences might be inspired 
to do the same.

Groutfit chic 

By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY

Daily Arts Writer

Gray sweats, gray crew neck. 

We have all done it at some 
point: the unmistakable and 
completely atrocious groutfit (a 
portmanteau of gray and outfit, 
if you live under a rock). There 
are two distinct roots behind a 
mind that chooses an all gray 
getup: 1) You, like my father, 
simply don’t care what you’re 
wearing, especially if it is just 
around the house, or 2) you, like 
me, have lost your mind and 
your life is just in shambles (see: 
finals week). So, my question is: 
if someone with a decent sense 
of fashion like myself opts for an 
ensemble representative of all 
50 shades of grey, why must you 
kick me when I am down?

Comments come from sib-

lings, verbal harassment from 
friends and “oh, honey” looks 
come from hall mates. Grout-
fit rockers understand they 
exceed the comfort levels of 
others with their choices, but 
believe me when I say groutfits 
are the official uniforms of rock 
bottom. Once there are three 
essays, a French presentation 
and a Michigan Daily article on 
the line, fashion goes out the 
window, down a hill and drowns 
itself in tears and coffee. Instead 
of the aforementioned reac-
tions, give a hug, thumbs up or 

a slightly creepy wink to show 
you’ve been there too.

As a personal rule, I try my 

hardest to never leave the house 
in my groutfit and all its great-
ness, but hey, shit happens. A 
quick trip for Kroger sushi does 
not present enough motivation 
to put on a different colored pair 
of sweatpants or sweatshirt. 
So we can extend the family 
and friends rule to strangers in 
supermarkets … 

You know my groutfit, not my 

story. So kindly step off and let 
me have my $4 California roll 
with a sliver of dignity.

What’s even with the color 

gray? Why are my gray sweat-
pants so much more enjoyable 
than my black ones? Why is my 
gray UM crew neck superior 
to the blue one? Maybe it is all 
in my mind and that of my fel-
low groutfitters … (Just realized 
Urban Groutfitters would be a 
great Etsy store). 

Also, in defense of the color 

gray: is there a better color 
(excluding black) to create an 
entire outfit out of? A student in 
my high school once wore green 
sweatpants and a green sweat-
shirt (he went to State … if that 
needed further explanation). It 
was awful, and I would pick a 
groutfit any day over a greenfit. 
Or a red, blue or yellow ensem-
ble as well.

From one groutfitter to the 

rest: embrace it, and don’t let 
any person in jeans tell you shit. 
Rocking a groutfit is rocking a 
state of mind – a state of mind 
that says “leave me alone and 
let me desperately try to get 
my life together.” And for those 
who wear groutfits because 
they just don’t know anything 
about dressing themselves (I’m 
talking to all of the fathers out 
there): stop. You’re making the 
rest of us look like fools.

OXYGEN

I woke up like this.

B-

Hindsight

Series Pilot
VH1

Wednesdays 

at 10 p.m.

B-

Living 
Different

Minieries Pilot
Oxygen

Tuesdays at 9 p.m.

From one 
groutfitter 
to another: 
embrace it.

STYLE NOTEBOOK

TV REVIEW
TV REVIEW

