Classifieds

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

ACROSS
1 Vanna’s cohort
4 Smidgens
9 Thicket
14 Boston Marathon
mo.
15 Meat and greet
patio party?
16 Skylit courtyards
17 Yes, to a
cowboy?
20 Sunday service
providers
21 Switz. neighbor
22 Pollen carrier
23 “M*A*S*H”
Emmy winner for
acting, writing
and directing
24 German autos
26 Women’s
undergarment,
briefly
27 Yes, to an
architect?
31 __ joint
32 Cracker with a
scalloped edge
33 [uh-oh]
34 Provides with a
soundtrack
35 Components of
many tips
37 Give in to
wanderlust
39 Shakespeare’s
river
40 Stockholm carrier
43 Yes, to a traffic
court judge?
47 Author Rice
48 Final, e.g.
49 Medicine Hat’s
prov.
50 Shoot the breeze
51 Org. for docs
52 Exited quickly, in
slang
54 Yes, to the Magic
8 Ball
58 “Divine Comedy”
poet
59 “Fun, Fun, Fun”
car in 1960s hit
60 Make faces for
the camera
61 Labor day doc
62 Church chorus
63 Mini-albums,
briefly

DOWN
1 Choose paper
over plastic?
2 Ill-fated 1967
moon mission
3 Made even, to a
carpenter
4 “__ your pardon”
5 Cheerios
descriptor
6 “Give it a go”
7 Blood-typing
letters
8 Kick up a fuss
9 Uber competitors
10 Platte River tribe
11 The majors
12 Online guide
13 Enter gradually
18 Muffin mix additive
19 Con job
24 Orders with mayo
25 “Les __”: musical
nickname
26 PCs’ “brains”
28 Karen
Carpenter’s
instrument
29 Member of the
fam
30 One who helps
you find a part?
34 Prom partner

35 Fallopian tube
traveler
36 Rejections
37 Drink on credit
38 Noise from a 55-
Down
39 Multi-platinum
Steely Dan album
40 “I was so foolish!”
41 Pays for cards
42 Old salts
43 Get hitched

44 Viral Internet
phenomenon
45 Two-horse wager
46 Go up in smoke
51 Yemeni port
52 Capital near
Zurich
53 Supplements,
with “to”
55 Type of pen
56 Tech giant
57 Cube that rolls

By Bruce Haight
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/30/16

03/30/16

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

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+ Electric to DTE, 3 parking spaces 
1014 V
aughn #1 ‑ multilevel unit w/ carpet
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Parking, Laundry, Lots of Common area
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 Tenants pay all utilities. 
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 pay electric to DTE; Limited parking avail
 for $50/mo; On‑site Laundry
CALL DEINCO 734‑996‑1991

4 BEDROOM HOUSE 
NORTH CAMPUS/HOSPITAL 
1010 CEDAR BEND ‑ $2400 + utilities
PARKING & LAUNDRY 
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Avail Fall 2016‑17
$975 ‑ $1575 Plus Electric to DTE
Coin Laundry Access, Free WiFi
Parking Avail $50‑$80/m
CALL DEINCO 734‑996‑1991

! NORTH CAMPUS 1‑2 Bdrm. !
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WORK ON MACKINAC Island 
This Summer – Make lifelong friends. 
The Island House Hotel and Ryba’s 
Fudge Shops are looking for help in all
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Bell Staff, Wait Staff, Sales Clerks, 
Kitchen, Baristas. Housing, bonus, and
 discounted meals. (906) 847‑7196. 

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NEAR CAMPUS APARTMENTS
Avail Fall 16‑17
Eff/1 Bed ‑ $750 ‑ $1400
2 Bed ‑ $1050 ‑ $1425
3 Bed ‑ $1955
Most include Heat and Water
Parking where avail is $50/m
Many are Cat Friendly
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ARBOR PROPERTIES 
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Burns Park. Now Renting for 2016. 
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SERVICES

SUMMER EMPLOYMENT

HELP WANTED

FOR RENT

A

s far back as I can 
remember, I always 
wanted 
to 
be 
a 

superhero. When I was younger, 
I read a few comics, but mostly 
I 
played 

superhero 
video 
games and 
watched 
cartoons 
(my 
favorites 
were 
“Batman: 
The 
Animated 
Series” 
and the 1994 “Spider-Man”). 
With my boundless imagination 
extrapolated 
into 
reality, 
I 

believed it was possible to 
receive 
superpowers. 
When 

I was seven or eight I was at a 
playground and saw what was 
probably a small mosquito bite 
on my wrist, but managed to 
convince myself that it was, in 
fact, a bite from a radioactive 
spider. It would only be a matter 
of minutes, I thought, until I 
collapsed from exhaustion as 
the new spider DNA worked 
itself into my own, and I would 
be reborn as the wall-crawler 
himself. 
I 
was 
incredibly 

disappointed when this did not 
happen.

I 
own 
two 
superhero 

Under Armour dri-fit T-shirts 
(Superman and The Punisher, if 
you were curious), and when I 
wear them I feel just a little bit 
stronger and more powerful. 
But that’s about as close as I can 
get to realizing my superhero 
dreams. Anything more must 
be lived vicariously through 
the 
never-ending 
string 
of 

superhero 
movies 
that 
get 

pumped out each year. 

I’m hooked on this genre, 

along with a huge proportion 
of American filmgoers. I saw a 
Rolling Stone article the other 
day titled “How Superhero 
Movies Became Too Big to Fail,” 
and, though I did not read the 
article given this publication’s 
track 
record 
of 
embodying 

the worst parts of pop culture 
journalism, the headline is not 
wrong. This genre is so safe 
because the sizeable population 
of people like me will continue 
to throw gobs of money at it, 
regardless of the quality of the 
product.

“Batman 
v 
Superman” 

represents the pinnacle (or 
perhaps the nadir, depending 
on 
one’s 
perspective) 
of 

the superhero event movie 
phenomenon. This movie was 
universally panned and still 
made $166 million at the box 
office in one weekend. Hell, I 
read some 10 negative reviews 
and had three different friends 
and my brother tell me to save 
my money, and I still went. I am 
a slave to this genre.

And it is of course that 

very devotion to the idea of 
superhero 
films 
that 
will 

continue to generate mishaps 
like “Batman v Superman.” 
If there’s a profit to be made, 
then studios will simply throw 
together 
a 
half-thought-out 

story, give it a gimmicky little 
title and proceed to rip my heart 
out with its shoddy content.

But for as much as I disliked 

“Batman v Superman,” one 
scene in particular stood out 
to me: the day “the world is 
introduced to the Superman,” 
the fight between Superman 
and General Zod that took 
place during “Man of Steel.” 
This 
first 
action 
sequence 

finds Bruce Wayne, clad in 
his pleated pants, vest and 
tie, 
frantically 
traversing 

downtown Metropolis as the 
city collapses around him in an 
attempt to save his friends at 
Wayne Enterprises. With the 
events of Brussels still fresh in 
my mind, I could not help but 
view the scene as a parable of 
urban terrorism.

I’ve read a lot of criticism 

of this franchise because it 
attempts to ask the question: 
what would happen in a world 
where the Superman existed? 
These critics say a comic book 
movie is escapism and shouldn’t 
attempt to portray our world. 
While I find this assessment 
fair, it deprives us of a very 
captivating potential cinematic 
experience. 
This 
opening 

sequence 
very 
effectively 

captures the complete horror 
of the spectators of a cosmic 
death match, who peer up from 
the streets and catch two small 
figures wreaking havoc on our 
world. This scene, at least, is a 
superhero movie for a post-9/11 
world, a world embroiled in 
seemingly never-ending terror.

While the rest of “Batman 

v Superman” falls decidedly 
flat, this one scene possesses 
incredible power. Cartoonish 
fun and zany characters in 
“Ant-Man” and “Guardians of 
the Galaxy” can be enjoyable, 
and in fact I liked them very 
much, but they do not resonate 
on a more visceral level in the 

same way that this opening 
sequence did.

The only other superhero 

film that accomplished this 
same visceral experience that 
I’ve seen is “Captain America: 
The 
Winter 
Soldier.” 
This 

was less a superhero film, 
more 
an 
espionage 
thriller 

that happened to star Captain 
America, and it offered an 
overt metaphor for surveillance 
in the age of terror. Replace 
SHIELD with the NSA and 
replace hovering warships with 
surveillance 
programs 
and 

the result is, essentially, the 
modern world. This compelling 
take on the balance between 
liberty and security is and 
will continue to be relevant 
for years — the recent Apple v. 
FBI showdown was yet another 
example of the issue.

Like 
the 
Western 
genre 

before them, superhero movies 
have become so pervasive that 
to simply see another good 
guy-bad guy showdown with 
explosions, or (god forbid) 
another origin story, wastes the 
very rich superhero framework 
that raises thought-provoking 
questions 
relevant 
to 
our 

world. Superheroes are not 
simple characters; often their 
motivations are ill founded, 
their actions are suspect and 
the 
consequences 
of 
those 

actions can be quite profound. 
To relegate them to the basic 
good guy framework flounders 
the potential to tell a modern 
cinematic allegory.

I believe this is the direction 

to which superhero movies are 
starting to turn. The superhero 
movie as a closed-off comic 
book film (and the pulp and 
tone that the medium offers) 
was perfected by “Spiderman 
2” and “Sin City,” and has since 
been run into the ground. This 
next series of superhero films 
will fall more in line with 
“Captain America 2” and the 
first “Iron Man” in that they 
can be fun but also tackle and 
reflect our real world.

I 
know 
some 
will 
find 

this disappointing: as I said 
above 
many 
believe 
that 

superhero 
films 
are 
peak 

escapist 
entertainment. 
But 

entertainment 
should 
not 

mean 
unchallenging 
and 

unintelligent, nor should it 
mean naïve and ignorant. The 
best superhero film will have 
something to say and will 
execute its message strongly, 
while offering a compelling 
cinematic experience.

This is the most important 

lesson of “Batman v Superman,” 
a film that had something to say 
but couldn’t execute its message 
or provide the entertaining 
experience. It takes a strong 
creative mind to balance these 
many aspects — not a director 
with an eye for visual flair — 
and studios would be wise not 
push out these minds in favor of 
a quick buck.

Because though I enjoyed the 

eight-minute short film tucked 
into “Batman v Superman,” my 
blind devotion to the genre has 
its limits.

Bircoll may be a superhero 

behind the glasses and 

journalist gig. Jamie doesn’t 

have a bat signal, so email 

him at jbircoll@umich.edu. 

FILM COLUMN

A slave to the 
superheroes

JAMIE 

BIRCOLL

‘Vogue’ a pop flop

By SHIMA SADAGHIYANI

Daily Arts Writer

You would expect that an 

album titled More Issues Than 
Vogue would vaguely resem-
ble 
Britney 

Spears in the 
early 
2000s: 

fun, 
spon-

taneous 
and 

fucking wild. 
Instead, 
K. 

Michelle’s lat-
est 
12-track 

album vague-
ly 
resembles 

the terrain of Kansas: flat, 
repetitive and prone to causing 
drowsiness.

K. 
Michelle 
begins 
her 

album with a trap; “Mindful” 
is upbeat, fast-paced, entertain-
ing and completely different 
from the other sluggish songs 
on More Issues Than Vogue. 
The contrast between “Mind-
ful” and the rest of the album is 
discerning at best and brings an 
unfinished, unconnected qual-
ity to the album as a whole. 

Nonetheless, it’s not that 

the songs themselves are bad. 
On the contrary, K. Michelle’s 
voice brings a very Adele-esque 
quality to classic R&B beats, 
creating soothing, girl-positive, 
power ballads. For example, 
“Ain’t You” has an organic, hazy 
rhythm layered well under-
neath lyrics like “Oh, I got 
my own shit, don’t want your 
money / Nope, I drop a hundred 
bands like it’s easy money.” K. 
Michelle’s honey-sweet voice 
makes you think she’s blowing a 
kiss when she’s really swinging 

a punch, which, when paired 
with the minimalist beat, pro-
duces the perfect amount of 
likeable “fuck you.” The same 
persona is seen in “Night-
stand.” K. Michelle proudly 
croons “just being honest I 
promise that jewelry you gave 
me / I never even wear it and 
I like Drake better than you.” 
Throughout More Issues Than 
Vogue, K. Michelle is unapolo-
getically both a powerful singer 
and a powerful woman, creating 
compositions that are simulta-
neously sensual and centered 
around female empowerment. 

However, there is no differen-

tiation between different songs’ 
tempos, styles and rhythms. 
More Issues Than Vogue, when 
listened through start to finish, 
seems to be one behemoth song 
instead of a conglomeration of 
varying songs paired together in 
complementary ways. A major-
ity of the album is structured the 
same way: a steady beat in the 
background supplementing K. 
Michelle’s soaring vocals. And 
while the individual songs are 
beautifully crafted, they are all 
beautifully crafted in the exact 
same way, resulting in a monoto-
nous album that has no zing or 
any level of excitement. 

For example, from “Ain’t You” 

to “If It Ain’t Love” or from 
“Nightstand” to “Time,” are 
stretches of time in the album 
where the songs are so similar 
they all blend together to the 
point where you don’t know 
where one song ends and the 
other song begins. Accompany 
this unclear and uncertain dis-
cernment between songs with 

a painfully slow tempo, and 
you get music to fall asleep to 
(or music you wish you were 
asleep to avoid listening to). 
K. Michelle, take a page out of 
Missy Elliott’s book and get ur 
freak on.

The only two songs from 

More Issues Than Vogue that 
stray from the dreary norm are 
“Rich” and “Make The Bed.” 
With the help of both Trina and 
Yo Gotti, K. Michelle upped her 
game in “Rich” and produced 
an attention-grabbing song that 
stood out from its sea of sur-
rounding tedium. Although “I 
got rich people problems / only 
way to solve ‘em / keep on get-
tin’ rich” is a bit unoriginal, it 
at least provides some variation 
that stops the album from truly 
becoming the epitome of lack-
luster. With the help of Jason 
Derulo, K. Michelle finally 
increases the speed of the dying 
tempo in “Make The Bed” as 
she asks the age-old question 
of “why do we, why do we, why 
do we / make the bed?” By the 
end of the song, she still hasn’t 
found the answer, but at least 
we, as listeners, are revived and 
energized enough to make it to 
the end of the album.

Overall, K. Michelle is an 

amazing singer with a monu-
mental voice, but she doesn’t 
push her potential or her tal-
ents. Instead, she stays well 
within her comfort zone. While 
that ensures she doesn’t make 
any truly horrible songs, it also 
results in products like More 
Issues Than Vogue — an album 
uninspiring and unremarkable 
in its uniformity. 

ATLANTIC RECORDS

Some people put their kid’s artwork on the fridge.... K. Michelle takes it a step further.

ALBUM REVIEW

C

More Issues 
Than Vogue

K. Michelle

Atlantic Records

THIRSTY FOR MORE 

ARTS CONTENT?

QUENCH YO’ SELF AT 

MICHIGANDAILY.COM/SECTION/

ARTS

My blind 

devotion to the 

genre has its 

limits.

6A — Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

