The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Arts Monday, November 30, 2015 — 5A ACROSS 1 Beatle Paul’s first wife 6 Second-string squad 11 Tummy muscles 14 Lunchbox cookies 15 Hardship 16 “Nope” 17 Started to sneeze and cough, say 19 Org. promoting hunter safety 20 Basil or rosemary 21 IV monitors 22 Honor __ thieves 24 Musical Apple 26 Exposed 28 Really worked hard 34 Critter that sleeps floating on its back 35 National Anthem starter 36 Kitten cry 37 Gen-__: post- baby boomers 38 Camera setting 40 Wait 41 Small S.A. country 42 Red Sox star Big __ 43 Panama divider 44 Paid for everyone’s dinner 48 Exhausted 49 Fit for sainthood 50 Catcher’s position 52 Holiday tree 53 Rock’s Mötley __ 57 Continent north of Afr. 58 Taken away in handcuffs ... and a hint to the starts of 17-, 28- and 44-Across 62 Aragon aunt 63 Argue the opposing viewpoint 64 Hit half of a record 65 Home of the Cardinals: Abbr. 66 Small and glittering, like eyes 67 Terminate the mission DOWN 1 Scot’s swimming spot 2 “Dies __”: hymn 3 Nerve: Pref. 4 Wounds from an aggressive pooch 5 Silvery gray 6 Godfather portrayer 7 Muscle twitches 8 Self-image 9 “You’ve got mail” company 10 Elizabeth Bennet’s suitor in “Pride and Prejudice” 11 In the year of the Lord, in dates 12 Farm building 13 Layered haircut 18 Walked 23 “Not so great” 25 According to 26 Kiss from Carlos 27 “Do it yesterday!” on memos 28 Pack in cartons 29 Wombs 30 Like earthquake damage 31 Inept waiter’s comeuppance 32 Foot-operated lever 33 “Peachy!” 38 Gradually vanish 39 Tater 40 Nursery furniture with bars 42 Bother 43 Animation frame 45 Seoul-based Soul maker 46 Minimum age for a U.S. senator 47 Jewish wedding dance 50 Tennis divisions 51 Give notice 52 Animosity spanning decades 54 Change the decor of 55 __-friendly 56 State, in France 59 Wedding page word 60 Corp. alias letters 61 Pretoria’s land: Abbr. By Don Rosenthal ©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 11/30/15 11/30/15 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: RELEASE DATE– Monday, November 30, 2015 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis xwordeditor@aol.com Classifieds Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com THERE’S A CROSSWORD ON THIS PAGE. DO IT. DEFENSE OF FACULTY misconduct cases Nachtlaw.com 734‑663‑7550 MEN‑ TOO MUCH Sex? Porn, cyber, hookups eating your time, controlling your life? Join us: Born for Joy, St Mary Stu‑ dent Parish, Mondays at 7 PM 734‑276‑0221 DEFENSE OF STUDENT sexual misconduct cases Nachtlaw.com 734‑663‑7550 THESIS EDITING, LANGUAGE, organization, format. All Disciplines. 734/996‑0566 or writeon@iserv.net TUTOR NEEDED for 1‑on‑1 tutoring for HS math and sciences. Call 734‑434‑1228 SUBLETTING 1350 GEDDES Winter Semester 2016 $795 per month Email: btcook@umich.edu HIGH RISE STUDIO Apt Tower Plaza; Panoramic view, 24h secu‑ rity, ldry, water/gas incld, central campus. Available now! Contact 734.395.5288 WWW.CARLSONPROPERTIES.‑ COM 734‑332‑6000 ARBOR PROPERTIES Award‑Winning Rentals in Kerrytown, Central Campus, Old West Side, Burns Park. Now Renting for 2016. 734‑994‑3157. www.arborprops.com “PRIME” PARKING FOR Sale 721 S. Forest “Forest Place” Now‑April $100 per month Now‑August $80 per month Paid in full up front 734‑761‑8000 primesh.com ! NORTH CAMPUS 1‑2 Bdrm. ! ! Riverfront/Heat/Water/Parking. ! ! www.HRPAA.com ! FOR RENT HELP WANTED SERVICES PARKING Wanting to be Brian Wilson I used to think the Beach Boys’s story ended after 1967, when Brian Wilson suffered a mental breakdown while trying to complete a follow-up to Pet Sounds. I thought the ’70s were a black hole for the band, a period of time when none of its members did much of anything until they somehow reemerged on the oldies circuit in the ’80s. The ’80s and beyond being the time when The Beach Boys were Reagan’s favorite band, released “Kokomo” and played ridiculously huge shows on the National Mall on the fourth of July — the time when they nearly destroyed all their artistic credibility. So I used to think the recording sessions of what was supposed to be Smile were the last gasp of a great band before they became symbolic and sad, and that made the products of those sessions tantalizingly exciting. There’s a point in the piano ballad “Surf’s Up” where Brian Wilson sings his impressionistic lyrics faster and faster, shoving words together as he goes, “The glass was raised, the fired-roast / The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting,” in his high- pitched voice. Then, much more slowly, Wilson sings, “A choke of grief heart hardened I / Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry” with all the weight of this project on his vocal chords, all the terrifying pressures and wonderful ambitions of trying to make tangible the sounds he hears in his head, of attempting to create the greatest album of all time. That moment was like sand running through my fingers — less than 30 seconds of absolute beautiful perfection that never really came to full fruition. But as it turns out, the ’70s weren’t really the dark ages for the quintessential American band. I don’t have to imagine what it would’ve been like had Brian Wilson continued to make music with the Beach Boys, because there’s a run of relatively little- known, commercially not very successful records that the band did in the decade after Pet Sounds. A lot of it is terrible — like the lazy, drugged-out covers of old standards on 1976’s 15 Big Ones — some of it has strong critical standing — like 1971’s Surf’s Up, which actually does include a version of its brilliant title track — but to me, the most fascinating Beach Boys recording of this entire decade is 1977’s Love You. Love You is an alternately hilarious, horrifying and thrilling journey through whatever Brian Wilson was thinking at the time. From the very beginning, just five seconds into “Let Us Go On This Way,” it already feels like somebody forgot to add more to the backing track, with Carl Wilson seemingly abandoned by the drums and organ, left out to dry with just the bass of a synthesizer. But somehow, it works — by the time all the other Beach Boys come in on vocals, “Let Us Go On This Way” has transformed into a stellar lead-off number, an energizing joy. I have no idea how Brian Wilson got the other Beach Boys to go along with this record. I almost imagine him with a devious grin on his face in the recording studio as he watches Mike Love — notorious for resisting many of Brian’s groundbreaking ideas in the ’60s — lay down the vocal track for “Johnny Carson,” with lines like “he speaks in such a manly tone.” Then there’s Brian’s slipshod “Solar System,” which isn’t so much a song as it is what you would get if you took a six-year-old who liked planets and plopped him in front of a piano. But Love You also has “Love is a Woman,” a touching, tender, last call song, “Roller Skating Child,” a throwback to the early ’60s Beach Boys singles, and “Good Time,” this complexly arranged, deceptively catchy track with faux horns augmenting its choppy chorus. Love You is awesome because it dares you to hate it while knowing you’re going to keep coming back for more. What’s especially amazing about Love You, though, is its prescience. It totally anticipates new wave experiments, arty bands like Talking Heads and synth-pop in general years before they hit the mainstream. Love You is the work of musicians who just have too much talent to make anything bad. It’s a Nobel-Prize winning physicist drunkenly stumbling out of a bar at 2 a.m., still able to solve equations you could never hope to understand. It’s enthralling madness, frustrating as hell because there’s so much junk and yet so much transcendence. And Love You is actually my second huge, mind- blowing discovery of Beach Boys material. The typical progression of understanding for most music lovers initially marks the Beach Boys as the guys who did “Surfin’ USA” and “California Girls” — great bubblegum pop singles — but then you listen to Pet Sounds in its entirety or you hear “Good Vibrations” and realize they’re truly one of the all-time greats. And now, their story has become even more interesting to me as I try to navigate the part-trainwreck, part-glorious- epiphany period that is their ’70s. But you might be wondering why the Beach Boys story is even relevant in 2015, and that’s fair — songs about taking pretty girls out on the California beach might not mean a lot to a large group of people. Hell, they don’t even mean much to me. But, for myself and many others, the Beach Boys are the band that most reflects old-school America and its culture, and to get under the surface of their work and uncover as much as we can is to discover more about ourselves and the lives we live. The Beach Boys are one of the best bands for constant re- listening because what’s going on beyond the music is always wild. There’s almost-painful nostalgia and idealism in the early work, incomprehensible genius in the middle period, a mental breakdown, then an uncomfortable, uneven burn- out and now, unfulfilling com- fort. And as self-absorbed as this sounds, I see myself in all of this. No, I have no fucking clue how Carl Wilson pulled off that heart-bursting vocal on “God Only Knows.” I can’t even begin to explain how some- thing like “Fun, Fun, Fun” or “Help Me, Rhonda” works. But as I’m writing, and even just as I’m living my everyday life, I want to be Brian Wilson. I want to think up impossibly huge ideas and break my brain while I’m trying to stretch the limits of what’s possible to make them reality. But I hope I’m not quite there yet. I’d like to think that I’m slowly making my way toward Pet Sounds, some piece of work that I help cre- ate that leaves a lasting mark on people, that does some sort of positive good for the world. I’m listening to and studying the Beach Boys so much right now because the mystery and brilliance of what they did deserves obsessive attention — needs it, even, if I want to figure out its secret. And if I do follow that path, whatever it is that I do, I just have to hold out hope that the people I love will still indulge me enough when I crash and start to flail around wildly so that I can somehow hit upon Love You. Theisen is lying in bed just like Brian Wilson did. To praise BnL for their very accurate lyrics, e-mail ajtheis@umich.edu. ADAM THEISEN FILM REVIEW ‘Mockingjay’ offers satisfying conclusion By RACHEL RICHARDSON For The Daily Though my “Hunger Games”- crazed friends can spend hours debating whether Peeta or Gale is Katniss’s true soulmate, they can all agree that “Mock- ingjay” is by far the most disappointing novel of the series. Despite the novel’s failure to deliver the con- clusion read- ers desired, the film adap- tation turns this rather subpar material into a powerful and impactful ending to the fran- chise. Picking up where the first “Mockingjay” film left off, “Mockingjay — Part 2” details Katniss’s (Jennifer Lawrence, “X-Men: Days of Future Past”) journey as she transitions from being a pawn in villain Presi- dent Snow’s (Donald Sutherland, “Forsaken”) game to playing by her own rules, leading a military revolt against the Capital. This daunting task is both emotionally and physically grueling. The root of her emotional stress is Peeta’s (Josh Hutcherson, “Red Dawn”) mental instability, Gale’s (Liam Hemsworth, “The Dressmaker”) questionable motivations and actions and, of course, the taunts of President Snow. Always the epitome of a strong female pro- tagonist, Katniss runs, jumps and roundhouse kicks her way to the Capital. With her resurgence of inner strength, determination and the help of her mostly loyal friends, the odds, for once, are strongly in her favor. Among all the reasons fans complain about “Mockingjay,” the one they most passionately rage about is its predictability. Collins’s choice of words fails to deliver the much needed sus- pense to keep readers intrigued. While Director Francis Law- rence (“Water for Elephants”) is able to hold viewers’ attention with the rapid succession of shots taken from a variety of angles, these quick transitions make it impossible to think about what could possibly happen next when you’re still processing what just happened two seconds ago. His use of shadows also effectively enhances the suspenseful mood by making it impossible to dis- cern what is going to attack the team next, and when. Authors can write effectively enough that readers can form a deep connection with one, or many characters, but nothing compares to seeing real people’s interactions and expressions of emotion. In the novel, Peeta just seems like a whiny guy with some mental issues. In his best “Hunger Games” performance yet, Hutchinson showcases the true struggle Peeta goes through as he slowly transitions from his drugged delusion and enters the real world. He is often seen gripping his head in frustration, and is obsessed with asking his comrades whether certain facts or memories are “real” or “not real.” Peeta’s audible discom- fort along with the close-up shots revealing his pained facial expressions allow us to feel the same sense of vexation and con- fusion he does. Of course, it’s impossible to review any “Hunger Games” film without discussing about Katniss. With words more sig- nificant than the threat of a bullet, she’s able to effectively change the minds of the brain- washed opposition, and, even more impressively, her foil Peeta. Indeed, Katniss has what many girls want — two very attractive men fighting for her love — but (unlike a certain other popular young adult franchises) choos- ing between them is the least of her worries. By placing her focus on destroying the notori- ous President Snow and improv- ing the overall quality of life for everyone in Panem, she helps the film pass the Bechdel test with flying colors. Further enhancing this film’s emphasis on the femi- nist ideology is the fact that the three most powerful leaders are all female — Katniss, self pro- claimed “president” of the reb- els Coin (Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”) and Commander Paylor (Patina Miller, “Madame Secre- tary”). While Tributes (an oddly dark name for the series’ obsessed fans) are often overjoyed when their eyes finally glance over the last word of “Mockingjay,” they may be heartbroken as the end credits appear on screen, signify- ing the conclusion of a woman’s quest to change the world. A- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Rave & Quality 16 Lionsgate LIONSGATE Where’s Bradley Cooper? I’m trying to stretch the limits of what’s possible. DAILY ARTS: “WE’RE LIKE SPORTS, BUT WITH GAY PEOPLE” E-mail arts@michigandaily.com for information on applying. MUSIC COLUMN