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Arts
Monday, October 3, 2016 — 5A
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violets are blue,
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ACROSS
1 Hospital IV amts.
4 Irrational fear
sufferer’s suffix
9 Texas city
13 Until now
14 Specialized
language
15 Dashing style
16 Expose
wrongdoing
19 Gymnast Korbut
20 Choose by
majority vote
21 Wok cook’s
flavoring
23 Attacked by
surprise
26 Baseball card
stat
27 Day, in Durango
28 MBA hopeful’s
test
29 Take a break
32 Lead singer’s
part
34 “No need to
explain the joke”
36 Is obliged to pay
37 With the breeze
at your back, in
sailing
41 Creative fields
42 Feathers
43 Hot chocolate
drinks
46 Actor Morales
47 Braz. neighbor
50 Astounded state
51 What it takes to
tango
53 Maple syrup
rating
55 Bank acct.
earnings
56 Peddler’s
merchandise
59 Like “Supergirl,”
ratings-wise
60 Where the driver
sits
64 Decimated Asian
sea
65 Budget prefix
66 Genetics lab
subj.
67 Audacity
68 __ Island
69 Incidentally, in
texting ... and a
hint to three long
puzzle answers
DOWN
1 RoboCop is one
2 Wine storage
area
3 Inferior cigar
4 Compliment “on
the back”
5 Princely letters
6 S-shaped
molding
7 Soup serving
8 Out-of-use
anesthetic
9 White terrier,
familiarly
10 Ctrl-__-Del: PC
reboot combo
11 “You’re getting
too excited”
12 Like a 45-10
football game
17 Roll of bills
18 Long-range nuke
22 Many pride
parade
participants
24 Therefore
25 Bucks and does
30 Instructions
component
31 “Superman,” e.g.
33 Superman lover
Lane
34 “In that case ... ”
35 Consequently
37 Lunchbox
alternative
38 And so forth
39 Cyberzine
40 Small dam
41 Berry rich in
antioxidants
44 Whenever you
want to
45 Ugly duckling, as
we learn later
47 “-ly” word,
usually
48 Admonition to a
sinner
49 Act that
suppresses free
speech
52 What an unruly
courtroom lacks
54 Part of NCAA:
Abbr.
57 Carve in stone
58 Chase off
61 Evil film computer
62 Last in a
sequence
63 “__ is me!”
By Jake Braun
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/03/16
10/03/16
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
RELEASE DATE– Monday, October 3, 2016
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
xwordeditor@aol.com
Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
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EVENT PREVIEW
“I now pronounce you man and
wife.”
You know the deal — white
dresses,
flow-
ers,
kissing,
an
exchange of rings,
a promise of this
thing called forever
— before a priest,
a rabbi, a judge, a
confession in front
of loved ones and that distant aunt
you had to invite despite your dis-
taste for her political views and
loud chewing.
Fiction writer Katie Chase, who
is reading at Literati tonight at 7
p.m., has crafted her debut col-
lection of short stories upon this
phrase. Her stories explore the
strange world of marriage tradition
in terms of gender, family dynamics
and the public and private ways we
grow up in a bizarre and arbitrarily
gendered world.
“The expectations that our soci-
ety, and others, have not just for
women but for men, seem endlessly
strange and fascinating to me,”
Chase wrote in an email interview.
“Fiction, as an endeavor that is
equal parts intellectual and emo-
tional, seems the proper place to
probe those thoughts and feelings.”
Chase grew up in a suburb out-
side of Detroit and graduated from
the University of Michigan with
a B.A. in English in 2002, where
she studied with English profes-
sors Eileen Pollack and Peter Ho
Davies and lecturer Tish O’Dowd.
She then went on to get her MFA
in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’
Workshop.
Her title story,
“Man and Wife,”
draws
on
heavy
influence
from
women
writ-
ers such as Edith
Wharton,
Alice
Munro and Margaret Atwood.
It’s also inspired by writing that
has revolved around women, the
institution of marriage and how it
marks a female life.
“I knew I wanted to make work
that reacted in some way to what
has been considered ‘female,’ and
I was excited by the possibilities
of working in more imaginative
territory, with creative worlds and
premises,” Chase said.
“Man and Wife” focuses on
nine-and-a-half-year-old
Mary
Ellen, betrothed to a much older
man whom she has never met. “The
Hut” tells the story of the narrator’s
visceral loneliness upon getting
her period for the first time. Chase
wrote that in stories like these, she
unpacks “a little more forthrightly
what it feels like to be initiated into
womanhood.”
The work of fiction has the Mid-
western touch of Chase’s suburban
Detroit upbringing. In one story,
“Creation Story,” the female pre-
teen narrator observes her ado-
lescent brother in rituals different
than her own. The story is tinged
with distinct tones of industrial
development and automobile cul-
ture.
In playing with rites of passage
in imaginative space, Chase wrote
that the story “Every Good Mar-
riage Begins in Tears” “came more
out of research and a desire to put
myself, insofar as that is impossible,
within the bounds of another cul-
ture.” The story is a vodka-soaked
narrative that takes place in post-
Soviet Kyrgyzstan.
“I do see so many of the prem-
ises and worlds in the book to be
exaggerations of reality, not merely
their own fictions,” Chase wrote. “I
do hope it can make readers see our
world anew.”
Although the collection enters
realms of the uncanny or surreal,
the stories hold a kernel of honest
fact, humor and strangeness about
the grit of what it is to be a woman,
bound within the structure of his-
torical rite and tradition. With her
fiction, she bestows upon her audi-
ence an opportunity for rich imagi-
nation — a chance to lift the veil,
stories that question the vows, an
invitation to enter the history and
secrets of not-quite-girls but not-
quite-women beyond their place as
figures atop a cake.
MARIA ROBINS-SOMMER-
VILLE
Daily Arts Writer
Katie Chase discusses her debut
collection ahead of Literati reading
“Man and Wife” explores gender and growing up through short stories
ALBUM REVIEW
Take off, if you can, those
heavy winter jackets, those well-
worn boots and that general
sense of brooding,
melancholy
listlessness which
define the latter
months of the year.
Bon Iver, once an
impressionistic
staple
of
that
season, certainly
has.
The pet project of Justin
Vernon, a native of Wisconsin
(and, accordingly, the general
sadness which accompanies a
state subdued by a winter which
stretches its arms too far), Bon
Iver once defined that particular
winter mood. Their very name
makes reference to it, an alteration
of the French phrase “bon hiver,”
meaning “good winter.” Though
the band has never been one to
subject itself to an exact musical
style, moving from the stripped-
down
arrangements
of
their
debut For Emma, Forever Ago to
a fuller, more orchestral sound on
Bon Iver, Bon Iver, their music has
occupied a clear space. Vernon
himself acknowledged this at a
recent press conference in his
home town of Eaux Claire: “… (T)
he old records are of this kind of
sad nature — I was healing myself
through that stuff. Being sad
about something is okay. And then
wallowing in it, circling though
the same cycles emotionally just
feels boring.” These are not the
words of status quo.
Neither is the band’s first album
in nearly five years, 22, A Million.
If the immediacy of change doesn’t
hit you so clearly on opener “22
(OVER SooN),” the electric field
of “10 d E A T h b R E a s T” will
make it abundantly clear. This
is the sound of iconoclasm, of a
desperate need to break what once
was and rearrange the pieces.
That contravention is everywhere
on 22, A Million. Most obvious is
the destruction of the song title:
names once quaint and grounded
(“Woods,” “Calgary,” “Flume”)
have
become
bombastic
and
confounding
(“29
#Strafford
APTS,” “715 - CReeKS”).
But beyond the superficial, like
the equally chaotic album cover,
there is, too, a clear departure from
the past here lyrically. Vernon’s
lyrics have become defined by
their vague mystique, but they
nonetheless always paint cerebral
scenes.
Previous
landscapes
have mirrored their song titles,
whispering
about
the
interior
and
the
calm,
as
in
“Holocene,”
in
which
he
coos,
“Christmas night, it
clutched the light,
the hallow bright.”
Here, he turns his
face more outward,
describing his love in distance —
“Said I would have walked across
any thousand lands” — and hinting
at a more restless being, including
a distorted vocal of Stevie Nicks’s
“Wild Heart.”
There
will
be
an
easy
comparison
made
between
22, A Million and Radiohead’s
experimental album Kid A. In
many respects there is a strong
line between the two: both employ
significant vocal distortion, a
departure from once was and a
sense of fragmentation. But 22, A
Million, while a break, doesn’t feel
quite so violent in its aspirations.
There is a stronger continuation
of the past on this album than Kid
A allows. With enough listens,
the dissonance of the electronic
production calmed, 22, A Million
will sound closer to what was than
the veneer it first gives off.
Take “715 - CReeKS,” which has
no instrumental and leaves just
the auto-tuned vocals of Vernon to
stand on their own. If you squint,
you can see For Emma, Forever Ago
in its empty arrangement. And the
powerful lead single “33 “GOD””
recalls the quiet grandiosity of
Bon Iver, Bon Iver opener “Perth.”
Breaking and picking up the
pieces, Vernon keeps certain gems
fully intact.
The best moments of 22, A
Million are when Bon Iver can
combine the bluster of their new
instruments with the quiet force
they previously perfected. “29
#Strafford APT” is a clear product
of this. For much of the track, one
can forget that anthemic songs like
“10 d E A T h b R E a s T” introduced
the album. It starts with confident
whispers and sparse instruments;
a distant pulse of jazz enters
the background every so often,
accompanied by a meandering
acoustic guitar so defining of
the band. The true magic here,
though, is the faltering conclusion,
when the vocals are artificially cut
and distorted as they ascend the
scale. It’s a disarming moment of
clarity, where the electronic and
the stripped-away balance one
another lightly, perfectly.
Conversely, the most in-your-
face electronic distortion can be
some of the most fascinating here.
The transition between “21 MooN
WATER” and “8 (Circle)” finds a
wandering saxophone solo turn
into a frenzied yelp before landing
easily at the introduction of “8
(Circle)” ’s soft synths. It recalls
in execution Frank Ocean’s recent
foray into the strange: the intro
of Blonde’s “Pretty Sweet.” Both
are moments of discord which
jar the listener, realigning them
again with the peaceful directly
afterwards.
Given the blatantly separate
worlds conjured on each of
the band’s three LP ventures,
determining
their
relative
quality to one another is bound
to be a difficult endeavor. For
Emma, Forever Ago is a far more
emotionally cathartic album than
what you’ll find here, but it lacked
the kind of skilled arrangements
which found themselves on Bon
Iver, Bon Iver. The inventiveness
of this album is unmatched in
their discography — even the
words here are new (“Paramind,”
or the unforgettable “Fuckified”).
Vernon has discussed wanting
to create new instruments and
sounds,
and
that’s
certainly
accomplished on 22, A Million.
But what seems to be lacking
(and maybe just ever so slightly)
is the ethereal quality which
settles after a listen to the band’s
self-titled masterpiece. However
bombastic, this release still feels
less impactful and resonant
than that one. The sheer beauty
of
that
landscape,
constant
and consuming, isn’t so here.
Perhaps it’s on account of that
inventiveness, slightly shading
the heart to which Bon Iver are
so adept at speaking. Regardless,
it’s clear that Bon Iver are still
at the forefront of a concept. No
matter how static and stretched
they make it, the catharsis of
Vernon’s pitch, the quiet pulse
of the drums and the fleeting
instrumentals still strike with an
inner force few other bands can
even dream of.
‘22’ is the most inventive
album yet from Bon Iver
MATT GALLATIN
Daily Arts Writer
Justin Vernon gets weird, but stays mostly true to himself
There’s a little something
for all Fab Four fans in “The
Beatles: Eight Days a Week –
The
Touring
Years,” the new
documentary
by Ron Howard
(“Rush”).
Fol-
lowing the most
famous
rock
group in history
from their days
as a Liverpudlian
skiffle group to
international
sensation only a few years later,
the film, as the title indicates,
serves as an exploration of The
Beatles specifically during, not
before or after, their meteoric
rise and groundbreaking trans-
formation.
Through a mixture of video
(much of which was restored in
stunning 4K) and audio footage
and interviews in the present,
from both obvious subjects and
a few surprising ones, Howard
is able to string together a cohe-
sive tale of youthful exuberance
and rebellion. The film’s editing
and structure — kinetic, chaotic
and disorganized — matches
the band itself. The Beatles’
brash sound and defining jux-
taposition of mopheads in suits
proved overwhelmingly scin-
tillating for its massive base of
dedicated fans. Interviews with
Larry Kane, a radio journalist
assigned to follow The Beatles
on tour and provided coverage
of Beatlemania at its peak, pro-
vide the rather non-cohesive
narrative structure for the film.
After their early albums,
The
Beatles
became
more
experimental. In 1965 and 1966
respectively,
they
released
Rubber
Soul and Revolver,
unequivocally two
of
the
greatest
works of art ever
created. They grew
up, started taking
drugs and settled
down with wives in
large homes. They
became real peo-
ple, agitated at interview ques-
tions, needing to take breaks in
between their tiresome record-
ing schedules. They recorded
less and less. They stopped
making
films.
And,
most
importantly for the film, tours
became sources of frustration:
audience members came to see
(and scream at) the group, not
listen to their music. The Bea-
tles played Candlestick Park
in San Francisco on August 29,
1966. Nearly a year later, they
released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band, an album
Howard upholds with a great
personal reverence. They didn’t
perform in public for two and a
half years.
The members of The Beatles
may find their success a cosmic
joke (their humor is a recur-
ring message in the film), but
their importance nonetheless
remains. In the mid-1960s, a
president had been assassinat-
ed, nuclear testing signaled an
impending nuclear doom and
the civil rights movement had
reached its peak. Americans
needed escapism, but no one
could have predicted it would
come from four English twenty-
somethings with messy hair.
But the film only lightly touch-
es on these themes. Howard
could have attempted to explain
Beatlemania, but he defers to
(beautifully restored) archival
footage.
While little new information
is provided by the film — much,
even that given by Ringo Starr
and Paul McCartney, could be
gleaned from a Wikipedia deep
dive — its charm is undeniable.
But undoubtedly that charm
comes from the subject material
itself, not from any filmmaking
techniques exhibited by How-
ard.
I’ve never been a die-hard
Beatles fan. I’ve enjoyed much
of their music, especially the
middle period, but I could hap-
pily go a few months without
listening to their tunes. How-
ard’s film has probably reversed
that. A coda, the group’s 1969
rooftop performance, is beyond
triumphant. Whether Howard’s
film is responsible, I, like many
others, feel personally connect-
ed to John, Paul, George and
Ringo. Their songs are anthems,
not earworms. Their style is
revolutionary, not silly. And
while Howard’s documentary
may have its fair share of flaws,
I’ll be damned if I didn’t have
fun watching it.
ABRAMORAMA
Pictured right after Kanye discovered them.
TV REVIEW
DANIEL HENSEL
Daily Arts Writer
‘The Touring Years’ documentary
explores The Beatles at their peak
Ron Howard’s film shows the middle chapter of the band’s classic story
B
“The Beatles: Eight
Days a Week – The
Touring Years”
Abramorama/Hulu
Michigan Theater
A-
22, A Million
Bon Iver
Jagjaguwar
Katie Chase
Oct. 3 at 7 p.m.
Literati Bookstore
Free
FILM REVIEW