The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, October 24, 2016 — 5A

HEY.

YOU'RE 
DOING GREAT 
AND WE 
know you 
can do it. 

Don't give up!

Classifieds

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

ACROSS
1 “Handle __ care”
5 Burns with hot
liquid
11 Ex-Florida
governor Bush
14 “__ Ben Adhem”
15 Reacts facially to
a bad joke, say
16 Chopping tool
17 What snowbirds
seek in winter
19 “Mamma __!”
20 Mecca’s
peninsula
21 Heat in a
microwave
22 Indy service
areas
23 “Do __ others ... ”
25 Most doubtful
27 Ready-to-send
correspondence
31 Network with
regular pledge
drives
32 D-Day French
city
33 Steak orders
37 Calm under
pressure
39 Since Jan. 1, in
accounting
41 Folksy account
42 “Bewitched” witch
45 Buster Brown’s
dog
48 Jamaican music
genre
49 Liqueur holder
52 Last word of a
verbally cited
passage
55 “Doctor Zhivago”
heroine
56 Potpie veggies
57 Hydroelectric
facility
59 Quik maker
63 Dad, to grandpa
64 Ideal party
thrower
described by the
first words of 17-,
27- and 49-
Across
66 Cutoff point
67 C to C, in music
68 Richard of “A
Summer Place”
69 Org. with a
PreCheck
Program
70 Sets free
71 Facts and
figures

DOWN
1 Electric guitar
effect
2 Letter-shaped
beam
3 __ Bora: Afghan
region
4 Scrooge’s
“Nonsense!”
5 Worry about
something,
slangily
6 Cloak-and-
dagger org.
7 Animated bug film
8 Bar mitzvah toast
9 What fries are
fried in
10 Ukr. or Lith., once
11 Actor Foxx
12 Freeway off-
ramps
13 Savage sort
18 Tipplers
22 Cockpit figure
24 “I’m __ human”
26 Little lie
27 First fairy tale
word
28 Second fairy tale
word
29 Trampled (on)
30 ’80s-’90s crime
boss John
34 Mission Control
org.

35 Benevolent
fraternal group
36 Salty expanses
38 Center of power
40 Bygone phone
feature
43 Pal of Piglet
44 Radio City Music
Hall design style
46 Cursory looks
47 Long-legged
wader
50 “... near and __
my heart”

51 Assailed verbally,
with “out”
52 Surprise win
53 Bright signs
54 Press conference
format, briefly
58 Degs. for
choreographers
60 Old Roman robe
61 Future D.A.’s exam
62 Sicilian volcano
64 D.C. big shot
65 Morn’s
counterpart

By Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/24/16

10/24/16

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Monday, October 24, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

 ARBOR PROPERTIES 

Award‑Winning Rentals in Kerrytown,

Central Campus, Old West Side, 
Burns Park. Now Renting for 2017. 
734‑649‑8637. www.arborprops.com 

WWW.CARLSONPROPERTIES.- 

COM
734‑332‑6000

FOR RENT

Whitney began more or less 

as a songwriting experiment 
between housemates (and former 
Smith 
Westerns 
bandmates) 

Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek 
following an intense series of 
breakups. Both of them split 
with girlfriends; Smith Westerns 
disbanded; 
and 
Ehrlich 
left 

Unknown 
Mortal 
Orchestra, 

for 
whom 
he 
previously 

played 
drums. 
Though 
the 

circumstances 
surrounding 

the writing of Light Upon the 
Lake were bleak, the album is 
anything but. Centered around 
Ehrlich’s lofty croon, Kakacek’s 
easy guitar grooves, and the 
occasional brass flair provided 
by trumpeter Will Miller, Light 
Upon the Lake is the idyllic, 
nostalgic summer upon which 
we longingly look back.

Beginning in January 2016, 

after the release of single “No 
Woman,” the band has toured 
extensively across Europe and 
the United States with few 
pauses, sometimes playing more 
than one show a day. On October 
16, the band played at Pyramid 
Scheme in Grand Rapids. The 
members 
of 
this 
country-

informed, 
soul-infused, 
rock 

‘n’ roll six-piece outfit are out 
to make a name for themselves. 
It’s a good thing their abilities 
match — if not outpace — their 
ambition.

Following 
opener 
Sam 

Evian’s appropriately whimsical 
set, Whitney opens with “Dave’s 
Song,” a jangly, melancholic plea 
to an ex-lover. Based solely on 
lyrical content, one would think 
that a Whitney show could 
easily devolve into an intensely 
sorrowful affair. Thankfully, the 
band’s energy, up-for-whatever 
attitude and apparent failure 
to take themselves seriously all 
ensure that the net emotional 
effect is positive. Covers of Bob 
Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll Be Staying 
Here with You” and NRBQ’s 
“Magnet” also help to lift the 

mood while testifying to the 
band’s relative range and acting 
as a humble acknowledgement 
of their roots.

At one point in the show, 

Ehrlich pauses for a moment to 
remind the crowd that this is the 
last stop on the North American 
leg of the tour; he wants to 
make 
it 
something 
special. 

Immediately 
following 
this, 

members of Sam Evian come on 
stage with a shot of whiskey for 
every performer, and the result 
is strangely affecting. At once 
a celebration of a good several 
months and a farewell between 
bands, that communal shot is a 
poignant reminder of the more 
immediately human side of what 
it means to be a musician.

Whitney then invites the Sam 

Evian members to stay onstage 
with them to help play “Red 
Moon,” an instrumental track 
whose studio cut is just over 
two minutes long. Of the songs 
on the album itself, “Red Moon” 
is, frankly, the most boring. 
Performed live, however, it is 
absurdly and purely fun, with 
more than half of the band 
playing unique solos that don’t 
appear on the recorded version.

Before beginning the song, 

Ehrlich notes that someone 
tweeted at Whitney’s account 
that they would buy ten albums if 
the band played “Red Moon” for 
ten minutes. A middle-aged man 
from the front row volunteers 
himself as said tweeter and, 
after only a moment’s hesitation, 
the band agrees to give it a shot. 
Kakacek plays two solos; Miller 
plays two solos; pianist Malcolm 
Brown plays two solos; Evian 
plays two solos; Evian’s backing 

guitarist plays two solos. And 
when the timer hit ten minutes 
exactly, the band stops. “Thanks 
for making us do that,” Ehrlich 
smiles, “but you don’t have to 
buy the albums.”

Given that Whitney only has 

one album of material, they 
played it all. The driving “No 
Matter Where We Go” was 
cleanly executed and had half 
of the room dancing. “Golden 
Days” — “this song is about 
having a girlfriend, and then, 
y’know, not having a girlfriend” 
— serves as an anchor for 
the show, perhaps the band’s 
most 
well-developed 
song. 

Following “Golden Days,” the 
band plays “The Falls” — “it’s 
about partying too hard and not 
knowing who you are.”

During “Polly,” which has 

become another trademark of 
their live show, Ehrlich and 
bassist Josiah Marshall share 
a 
several-seconds-long 
kiss. 

Feel free to guess at what the 
intent is, but it certainly livens 
up the show. After exhausting 
most of their material, Ehrlich 
announces that he is sick of “fake 
encores,” and that the band will 
just stay onstage and play three 
more songs. After roughly an 
hour, the band closes on “No 
Woman,” during which Ehrlich 
introduces each of the members 
and offers a shout-out to Sam 
Evian. He addresses the crowd: 
“Let’s hang out afterwards. 
Grand Rapids is a sick city.”

Whitney 
itself 
is 
a 
new 

project, but the experience of 
each of the members is clearly 
reflected. They are confident 
in the niche they have carved 
out for themselves and they 
know exactly what they want 
to accomplish. After having 
seen them three times, my 
desire to experience their live 
performance has not abated 
in the slightest. They are a 
band who know what live 
performance is meant to be: 
never the same experience, even 
when the same band performs 
in the same venue only months 
apart. 

SEAN LANG

Daily Arts Writer

Whitney closes out North American 
tour leg at Grand Rapids concert

Indie band brings unexpected high energy and fun to Michigan

To 
hear 
Republican 

presidential candidate Donald 
Trump say it, the media is 
totally “rigged against me.” 
Despite his unending stream 
of complaints, and his recent 
performances in the debates 
notwithstanding, Trump is 
highly adept at using the media 
to elevate his campaign. If his 
mantra is that all press is good 
press, Trump has certainly 
been profoundly successful; 
television, 
newspapers 
and 

websites are more saturated 
with his face than a North 
Korean 
publication 
may 

feature their Dear Leader. 
But in the primary, as he used 
bombastic language to attract 
the attention of oft-ignored 
segments of the electorate, 
Trump’s floor rose as his 
ceiling fell. Thanks to the 
media, 
Trump 
eliminated 

any ambiguities about his 
campaign to the point where 
Trump has garnered support 
from everyone who should 
support him and few else.

This is all to say the obvious: 

the media is important. As our 
primary method of learning 
about our world, every choice 
made by the supposed media 
elite can majorly affect the 
campaign, our politics and 
everything else.

In 
“Medium 
Cool,” 
the 

fascinating 
directorial 

debut 
from 
legendary 

cinematographer 
Haskell 

Wexler (“Days of Heaven”), 
reality and fiction seamlessly 
blur into one another against 
the tumultuous backdrop of 
the chaotic 1968 Democratic 
Convention 
in 
Chicago. 

“Medium Cool” doesn’t have 
too much to say substantively 
about the media itself, but 
its brief conspiratorial turn 
remains a prescient warning: 
John 
Cassellis 
(Robert 

Forster, “Jackie Brown”), a 
cameraman for a local news 
station, discovers that his boss 

has been giving information 
captured by the cameramen 
to the FBI, allowing them 
to arrest demonstrators and 
protestors.

Maybe that’s why there’s a 

lurking threat to journalists 
throughout the film: stories 
of journalists being beaten 
for 
rumors 
of 
conspiring 

with 
the 
government, 

accusing cameramen of being 
cops in disguise. There’s a 
fundamental distrust of the 
media, of powerful voices, 
because one editorial choice 
could 
depict 
the 
rioting 

protestors 
as 
unjustified 

savages. But, on the other 
side of the coin, these rioters 
need the media to transmit 
their message throughout the 
country.

And in a larger sense, 

“Medium Cool” is a metaphor 
for this editorial power. The 
film takes place during the 
1968 riots, but it was literally 
filmed at and during them. At 
one point, when a cop throws 
some gas at protestors, a 
crewman on the film shouts, 
“Look out Haskell, it’s real!” 
And yet the narrative of the 
story (albeit a fairly weak 
one) persists through these 
scenes. It’s impossible to tell 
where the documentary ends 
and where the drama begins, 
and perhaps that’s precisely 
the point: the news, by its 
nature of being condensed and 
edited, is defined more by its 
artifice than its accuracy. And 
yet its effect is potent as ever.

Conrad Brean, the genius 

spin 
doctor 
played 
by 

Robert De Niro (“The Deer 

Hunter”) in Barry Levinson’s 
1997 film “Wag the Dog,” 
understands the artifice of 
news more than anybody. A 
true October surprise, the 
sitting president’s re-election 
campaign is set to be derailed 
by a child sex scandal after 
the president makes advances 
on a visiting “Firefly Girl.” 
Fearful that the news may 
begin to cover the story 
obsessively, the president’s 
press office hires Brean to fix 
the problem.

With a connection to a 

wealthy Hollywood producer, 
Stanley 
Motss 
(Dustin 

Hoffman, “The Graduate”), 
Brean decides to set up a 
fake 
diversionary 
war 
in 

Albania. He films a brief 
scene of destruction in front 
of a blue screen and sends 
it to every major network. 
Soon enough, it’s the major 
story every day until Election 
Day. 
Brean 
declares 
early 

on that we remember the 
images of war, not the war 
itself. His team follows that 
mantra extensively, creating 
symbols 
and 
heroes 
that 

contribute to and extend their 
manufactured narrative. With 
access 
to 
the 
presidential 

office, 
and 
thus 
infinite 

power, Brean’s team is able 
to 
construct 
a 
hyper-real 

alternative reality, even if it 
results in a few casualties and 
actual war in Albania soon 
after the election.

They understand that, for 

the story to catch on and last 
for a number of days, it must 
fit the public’s demand for 
entertainment. Like or unlike 
(you decide) Trump’s tendency 
to 
say 
patently 
ludicrous 

statements that provoke more 
than an eyeroll, Brean has an 
obsessively calculative mind 
that can automatically create 
the perfect narrative. It’s a 
clear answer to the question 
for those who are frustrated 
by what they perceive to be 
a lack of Clinton scandal 
coverage in the media: it’s not 
entertaining enough.

Media’s sway on elections

DANIEL HENSEL

Daily Arts Writer

How cinema characterizes entertainment and Washington

The last weekend of October 

will 
be 
a 
special 
one 
in 

Kerrytown, and not 
just because of the 
emerging fall colors 
or 
Halloween 

festivities. 
Edgefest, a four-
day 
avant-garde 

jazz 
festival 

that 
will 
occur 

that 
weekend, 

is 
described 
on 

its website as a 
“festival 
with 
a 

unifying 
purpose: 

to 
explore 
new 

music 
created 
by 
today’s 

composer 
s 
and 
performers 

from the United States and 
beyond.” Edgefest will be filled 
with 
groundbreaking 
jazz 

performers — including those 
who don’t stick with a script. 

Andrea 
Wolper, 
Ken 

Filiano and the late Connie 
Crothers are three individual 
jazz artists, each acclaimed 
for separate musical talents 
and accomplishments. When 
together, though, they form 
an 
improvisational, 
avant-

garde jazz assemblage called 
TranceFormation. 
While 

almost all of the performers at 
Edgefest offer a unique take on 
jazz music, TranceFormation 
offers the unpredictable.

Although each musician is 

based out of New York, the group 
had their debut performance 
in 2006 in Ann Arbor. Wolper, 
the vocalist of the group, has 
been called one of the “great 
jazz singers.” While her work 

outside 
of 
TranceFormation 

is less avant-garde and more 
straight-ahead 
jazz, 
Wolper 

said her goal in performing 
with TranceFormation is “to 
express — express something. 

Not just notes 
and 
pitches.” 

While it seems 
to the average 
person 
that 

improvised live 
performance 
could take quite 
a toll, Wolper 
embraces 
the ability to 
express herself 
in both types of 
performances.

“I love all of 

it,” she said.

Much of Wolper’s inspiration 

for expressing herself stems 
from TranceFormation’s late 
pianist, 
Connie 
Crothers. 

Crothers passed away in August 
of this year, but still plays a large 
role in the group. She was often 
heard telling musicians she 
worked with that performing 
and making music is all about 
feeling 
— 
TranceFormation 

takes 
Crothers’s 
piece 
of 

wisdom and extends it to each 
of their performances.

Filiano, the group’s bassist 

(and Wolper’s husband), also 
draws 
his 
relationship 
to 

performance from Crothers’s 
views, 
and 
stresses 
the 

importance 
of 
“always 

sounding like who you are.” 
A 
major 
precursor 
for 
a 

successful 
performance, 
he 

said, is knowing the history of 
the music you’re playing so that 
you can fill a unique position in 
the music itself. 

TranceFormation’s 
debut 

performance 
was 
also 
in 

Ann 
Arbor, 
at 
the 
2006 

International 
Society 
for 

Improvised Music’s inaugural 
conference, held in Ann Arbor. 
And, in a bittersweet fashion, 
their last performance may be 
in Ann Arbor this week. While 
Crothers’ talent and wisdom 
will continue to make an impact 
on Wolper and Filiano, the 
two agreed that the group was 
defined by the three musicians 
performing 
and 
expressing 

themselves as a trio.

“TranceFormation was the 

three of us … There is no going 
backwards,” Filiano said.

Wolper 
added 
that 
the 

music TranceFormation made 
together was too personal to 
replicate in another group.

“If we (decided to) find 

another 
pianist 
and 
make 

a group, it could absolutely 
happen. But it would be a 
different group,” she said.

Fittingly, 
their 
last 

performance will be a tribute 
to Crothers. Although this will 
not be TranceFormation’s first 
performance as a tribute to 
Crothers, it will be their final. 
Wolper notes the importance 
of playing “in a way that would 
honor her,” which will include a 
piece comprised of some words 
Crothers had written down on 
a piece of paper for Wolper in 
the past.

“Maybe this performance is 

a way of saying this group was, 
and is no longer,” Wolper said. 

TranceFormation’s 
tribute 

to Connie Crothers is October 
27 at 7:00 PM at the Kerrytown 
Concert House, as a part of the 
20th annual Edgefest Festival. 

RENNIE PASQUINELLI

For the Daily

TranceFormation in Kerrytown

20th annual Edgefest Festival features unpredictable jazz music

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

Edgefest

Oct. 26 at 6 p.m., 
Oct. 27 at 7 p.m., 
Oct. 28 at 6 p.m., 
Oct. 29 at 12 p.m.

Kerrytown Concert 

House

$5 students, $10 

adults

CONCERT REVIEW

Each member 

of Whitney 

brings their own 

experience.

REEL POLITICS

There’s a 

fundamental 
distrust of the 

media.

