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ACROSS
1 Singapore’s
continent
5 Arches National
Park state
9 Spread out, as
one’s fingers
14 Amorphous mass
15 By way of, briefly
16 Leave no doubt
about
17 Name as a
source
18 Club often used
for chipping
19 Procedures to
learn, informally,
with “the”
20 Carbonated
beverage
23 Track section
24 Assent to a
captain
25 Bright,
photogenic grin
31 Boat not to rock
32 Miler Sebastian
33 Grazing area
34 Charged toward
35 Fairy tale home
builder
36 Note equivalent
to E
38 Catering
dispenser
39 Galoot
40 Online finance
company
41 Excellent year-
end review, say
45 Tiny farm
denizen
46 Ripped up
47 Epitome
54 Italian violin
maker
55 Cross inscription
56 Bar from a dairy
case
57 Slow-witted one
58 Walking stick
59 Actor Penn of
“Mystic River”
60 Getting on in
years
61 Fleecy farm
females
62 Repertoire
requirement for a
military bugler
DOWN
1 Preschool
lessons
2 Lose traction
3 Greek “i”
4 Deviating from
the norm
5 Employ
6 Roller coaster
excitement
7 Elvis __ Presley
8 Suspended on
the wall
9 Wets with a hose
10 President __:
Senate bigwig
11 More than trot
12 State firmly
13 “You bet!”
21 Hummed-into
instrument
22 “Living”
compensation
25 “Hawaii Five-O”
nickname
26 More standoffish
27 Spiked yuletide
beverage
28 __ ease: anxious
29 Tilt to one side
30 Have a bite
31 Astronomer
Sagan
34 Persian on the
living room floor
35 NBA scoring stat
36 Horticulturist’s
study
37 First and __:
most important
39 Objector
40 Model kit glues
42 Serve, as diner
patrons
43 Baseball game
ninth
44 Without end, in
poetry
47 Skyline haze
48 Big name in
spydom
49 “__ going!”:
“Good job!”
50 Work on a bone
51 Intense request
52 Jump
53 Very long time
54 Org. with many
specialists
By Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke
©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/26/15
10/26/15
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
RELEASE DATE– Monday, October 26, 2015
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
xwordeditor@aol.com
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FILM REVIEW
‘Kasbah’ hindered
Bill Murray
blunders through
the Middle East and
a middling comedy
By LAUREN WOOD
Daily Arts Writer
Richie Lanz (Bill Murray,
“Groundhog Day”) is a washed-
up music manager who is still
searching for
the
success-
ful
act
that
will
solidify
his
place
in
history.
But,
much
like
Lanz,
“Rock
the
Kasbah”
strives
for
greatness with
such
fervor
that it misses
the opportunity to at least tell a
somewhat decent story. With a
jumble of serious to superficial
focuses and underdeveloped
characters, the film stumbles
on its way to success.
Jumping from situational
comedy to action film to heart-
felt drama, “Rock the Kasbah”
is never able to gain momen-
tum on the genre rollercoaster
it pulls its audience through.
After his unstable rock star
client, Ronnie (Zooey Descha-
nel, “500 Days of Summer”),
abandons him in Kabul at the
beginning of their haphazard
USO tour, Lanz must find a way
back to the U.S. without money,
a passport or any clue of what
he’s going to do next. After a
drawn-out
journey
through
the war-torn city — where he
meets the mystical call girl
Merci (Kate Hudson, “How to
Lose a Guy in 10 Days”) and
gets wrapped up in an ammo
exchange between American
trader Bombay Brian (Bruce
Willis, “Die Hard”) and a local
village — Richie finds purpose
when he meets a young Pash-
tun girl who dreams of being a
famous singer. Fighting against
the girl’s family, the producers
from the singing show “Afghan
Star,” and the country’s tradi-
tional culture, he manages to
find her national recognition
when she is given the opportu-
nity to perform on national TV.
While the plot seems fan-
tastical enough to produce an
engrossing film, its quick shuf-
fle through thin characters
leaves the audience unsure and
unattached by the end. Lanz and
Ronnie have barely had a few
minutes of screentime before the
central plot point of an Afghani-
stan USO tour is introduced, and
it’s difficult to stay investment
when things begin to go haywire
in Kabul. Ronnie is gone with-
in the first half hour, and the
absence of her character adds
a sense of distrust to the rest of
the film’s introductions. Addi-
tionally, there’s a strange sense
that all actors involved are play-
ing a slightly altered version of
themselves, with Deschanel as
the unstable waif, Murray as the
unsatisfied witness and Hud-
son as the enigmatic seductress,
attempting to reprise her role as
a mysterious groupie in “Almost
Famous.” The story comes sole-
ly from placing these already
known characterizations in a
completely unknown and unpre-
dictable setting. While this
story-building strategy tends to
succeed in some films, in “Kas-
bah,” it only serves to cheapen
an already jumbled plot.
The
strange
taste
these
characterizations leave is only
intensified through the juxta-
position between the war-torn
Middle East and colorfully
mindless rock star characters
through whom we see the set-
ting. There’s something uncom-
fortable about Lanz deciding
its worth risking a young Pash-
tun girl’s life because he believes
she is talented, or watching him
walk through the streets, dishev-
eled in a paisley shirt and rose
glasses, while children run after
him asking for money or treats.
While the characters are not
completely unaffected by the
situation — Ronnie skips town as
soon as possible, Richie screams
for minutes in disoriented terror
after his car drives over an IED
— these moments are approached
with a comedic jab that suggests
we should recognize these inci-
dents as play.
The film’s only redeeming
factor comes from its images.
Morally, it’s strange to look
at Ronnie and Lanz walking
bedraggled through the rubble
and smoke-filled streets in
metallic
bell
bottoms
and
velvet jackets, visually it’s a
vibrant and extremely rock
‘n’ roll picture. They drive a
vintage yellow taxi through
endless desert hills, and Merci’s
illuminated, multicolor trailer
sits behind countless loops of
barbed wire on an empty street.
The mise en scene presents a
tension that continues through
the story — if only this story
was strong enough to justify the
dynamic images that compose
the film.
Following a group of pseudo
rock stars through the Middle
East sounds like a colorful
thrill
ride,
but
with
flat
characters leading us along a
confusing
and
unmotivated
plot, “Rock the Kasbah” edges
past exciting and into the
realm of pointless exploration.
FILM NOTEBOOK
My ‘Rocky’ first time
By MADELEINE GAUDIN
Daily Arts Writer
Before Friday night, the clos-
est I’d come to the spectacle that
is “Rocky Horror Picture Show”
was a Halloween special of “Glee”
that centered on PG-13 covers of
the movie’s hit songs, and that
one scene in “The Perks of Being a
Wallflower” where Emma Watson
dances on stage in black lingerie to
the horror and delight of a young,
naïve Logan Lerman.
Neither one of those experi-
ences could prepare me for the real
thing, and that became quite clear
when I started doing some prepa-
ratory research. After the fourth
fan forum page, I started to get
nervous. Was I expected to dress
up? Should I buy props? Will peo-
ple know that I’m a “Rocky Hor-
ror” virgin? After much debate and
Googling, I settled on an all black
ensemble, mostly because corsets
are expensive, and it was cold out-
side (and if I didn’t blend into the
crowd I could at least blend into a
dark corner).
The time finally came, and I
arrived at the State Theater to find
it more crowded than I’ve ever
seen it before. I guess this brings
out a different crowd than Tuesday
night screenings of indie dram-
edies. Some people are wearing
jeans and I let out an audible sigh
of relief, but there’s also a good per-
centage of the crowd in full drag.
Chest hair and lingerie seems to be
the uniform of choice. I don’t make
it up the stairs before a woman in
cat ears and fishnets has marked
my forehead with a red lipstick V,
for virgin (so much for blending in).
Thankfully, there seem to be some
other V’s walking around and none
of the veterans are bothered by the
fact that none of us seem to know
what’s going on. I am handed a red
balloon with my Sour Patch Kids
and make my way to the theater.
Before the movie begins, an
usher dressed like a French maid
asks for three virgin volunteers. I
heard a rumor that they make you
fake an orgasm, so I don’t raise my
hand. Luckily for these three, they
are only asked to blow up a condom
balloon. Then all us V’s are asked to
blow up our red balloons and meta-
phorically pop our cherries.
Finally, the lights dim, and
the crowd goes wild. Actually
the crowd has been going wild
this whole time, but the volume
increases exponentially when a
pair of lips appears on the screen.
Once the movie begins, it doesn’t
take long for the group leaders to
assert themselves: two men, one
on either side of the theater who
yell louder and more frequently
than anyone else. If they’re the lead
actors, the rest of the theater is the
chorus. Everyone (including me,
thanks to the Internet) knows to
yell “slut” at Janet and “asshole” at
Brad — the “Rocky Horror” basics.
But, these two men have a whole
script of jokes timed perfectly to
the movie.
The ringleader in my half of
the theater is an older guy, pos-
sibly the oldest one in the theater.
He’s dressed as Eddie, a secondary
character who gets icepicked to
death and then served for dinner,
and he’s hilarious. Two minutes
don’t go by without this guy throw-
ing out a great one-liner. This is
clearly his own script. He name-
drops local celebrities and jokes
about the Michigan State game
(to mixed reactions; perhaps that
wound is still too fresh).
As much as everyone here loves
to yell, they also love to throw
things. Rice, water and toast are
all airborne during the movie. And,
it seems there is a prop for every-
thing. Even the “light over at the
Frankenstein place” appears in the
audience in the form of approxi-
mately one hundred tiny flash-
lights waving back and forth.
“Rocky Horror” is like a big
inside joke that you’re supposed to
catch on to. There’s a performance
aspect to the whole thing, as if the
veterans are putting on a show for
the virgins. It doesn’t really mat-
ter that I don’t have a flashlight or
a costume. Because, as I’m singing
along (some of the lyrics are much
dirtier than the “Glee” covers) and
stumbling through the call-and-
responses, it feels good to be, at
least temporarily, part of this weird
and wild community. It’s nice that
these veteran fans can love some-
thing without taking it too seri-
ously.
Don’t watch “Rocky Horror” on
your laptop or even on your friend’s
TV— throw on a corset and some
red lipstick, and go lose your vir-
ginity.
COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK
Evaluating modernist
aesthetics in 2015
By GRACE HAMILTON
Daily Arts Writer
“Art for art’s sake” is the
translation of a popular French
19th century slogan (l’art pour
l’art), registering the modernist
sensibilities that were sweep-
ing through Europe at the time.
That kind of art, removed from
philosophical, moral or politi-
cal investments, seems differ-
ent altogether from the artistic
aspirations of today’s mega-art-
ists like Kanye West who “will
die for truth and that’s what’s
closest to art.” Which kind of
art is “better,” anyway?
My dad (and many of his
friends)
might
insist
that
Handel is the greatest musician
of all time. In fact, my first con-
cert was Handel’s opera “Her-
cules.” Thankfully, my mom
took me to Jingle Ball 2004
later the same year for some
sweet notes from the great clas-
sic Ashlee Simpson.
My best friend’s dad, on the
other hand, would lay down his
life in defense of The Beatles as
history’s musical all-stars. Oth-
ers faint to the stylings of Justin
Bieber.
How do we reconcile the
opposing pedestals and success
of “Fifty Shades of Grey” with
2013 Best-Seller “Americanah”
and the classics of Steinbeck
and Hemingway? The Beliebers
and the Met season ticket own-
ers? Can these cultural pref-
erences be attributed to taste
alone? One looks down at the
other, and the other scoffs and
turns to its own audience.
Everyone is familiar with the
cultural division I’m describ-
ing, between “high” culture and
popular culture. However, most
of us, myself included, aren’t
too sure how the difference
comes about in the first place
and what makes it so.
Thankfully, for those explor-
ing the question, others have
attempted to do some of the
answering. Last week, in my
reading for a French Modern-
ist art history course, I worked
through a highly influential
essay by Clement Greenberg,
“Avante-Garde
and
Kitsch,”
published in 1939 in the Parti-
san Review.
Greenberg’s essay means to
draw a distinction between
true, genuine culture and pop-
ular art. As Greenberg observes
culture becoming increasingly
stagnant in the mid 20th cen-
tury — avoiding controversy,
repeating classical themes and
following rules, the “avante-
garde” emerge. They belong to
the ruling class, although they
consider themselves separate
from it. This new group’s proj-
ect is to create pure art: “art for
art’s sake,” and save “genuine”
culture in the midst of ideolog-
ical confusion.
But with the avante-gard
comes the rear-gard — this
kind of culture is summed up
by the German word kitsch,
and refers to popular art, com-
mercials,
magazines,
litera-
ture, music videos, cartoons
and toys. In Greenberg’s under-
standing, kitsch borrows form
the genuine culture, converts
and dilutes it into a digestible
form for the masses. Kitsch
was a response to the needs
of working people for enter-
tainment and culture, without
complication.
If some part of culture is
“genuine,” then kitsch repre-
sents the debased and trivial
— yet simultaneously decep-
tive — part of culture. Kitsch
mimics genuine culture and
high art. It produces the same
effects images, materials and
references
that
are
easily
understood, which gives the
spectator a shortcut.
It is complex, multilayered
and appears to seek some
kind of truth. And sometimes,
Greenberg says, kitsch can pro-
duce something important.
In the time of Mussolini,
Hitler and Stalin, the spread
of kitsch was a danger, art
that was readily prepared to
become part of the machine
and put culture in handcuffs.
Undoubtedly, it did take hold
under these leaders, with doc-
trines like “socialist realism”
that controlled art in Russia.
Kitsch relies on the capital-
ism machine and wealthy for
its production and success, as
the machine comes to rely on
it. It is the “umbilical cord of
gold.” In this way, Greenberg
was right about kitsch becom-
ing an international language.
He was wrong about some
things, though.
The
avante-garde
never
gave up or succumbed to pres-
sure of popular culture. In fact,
through the rest of the 20th
century, and certainly in my
lifetime, it has increased in rec-
ognition: Think of the rise of
Jazz music. It has innovated:
Think of Andy Warhol, who
mimicked pop culture in order
to elevate it to the status of high
art. It has merged mediums:
Think of Pina Bausch dance
productions, their set designs
and use of sound.
Of course, art today, in any
form, is still part of the appara-
tus of money and power. There
is more to be done in extending
access to art through all classes
and geographies. But the lines
between
avante-garde
and
kitsch are no longer as stark as
they once were.
The woman at the coffee
shop reading Steinbeck last
week may be in a different cof-
fee shop today reading “Fifty
Shades” (though possibly with
the cover sleeve removed).
There are fewer boundaries
and fewer rules in today’s cul-
tural landscape. Controversy
need not be avoided by instead
focusing on the abstract, in
absolutes. Artists can make
“art for art’s sake,” should they
choose, or they can sing about
their hotline nostalgias. Both
are needed, and both have been
fulfilled. Greenberg’s cultural
stagnation has been taken off
pause.
C-
Rock the
Kasbah
Rave and
Quality 16
Open Road Films