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December 07, 2016 - Image 6

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Call: #734-418-4115
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ACROSS
1 Kind of basin
6 State secrets?
9 Intense dislike
14 Act poorly?
15 Run a tab, say
16 Words between
two “thanks”
17 Chef protector
18 See 8-Down
19 Floorboard
support
20 Many a
Sundance film
22 Rent payer
23 Registered
names: Abbr.
25 Action at the
front
28 H.S. hurdle
29 Adorn
32 Comical
punctuation
marks from the
drummer
34 Marshy
lowland
35 Chihuahua, por
ejemplo
36 “__ Eyes”:
Eagles hit
37 ’60s campus gp.
38 Hieroglyphics
reptiles
41 “Do __, not ... ”
43 Work on, as a
stubborn
squeak
45 Tablets’ kin
48 Swingline insert
49 2,170-mi. trail
terminus
50 Walk with style
52 Luau music
provider
53 Wanting too
much
55 Pry
58 Cookie named
for its flavor
59 Aromatic
necklace
61 Stage
performances
64 Words after miss
or skip
65 Resting place
66 Down source
67 Singer Bruni
married to
Nicolas Sarkozy
68 Morning cuppa
69 Amounts to

DOWN
1 Leaves in a bag
2 Prankster
3 “Pillow Talk”
actress
4 Lots
5 Provide with for a
time
6 Montague lad
7 Blow away
8 With 18-Across,
Southwestern
cuisine
9 Museum pieces
10 Lucy and Ethel
and Thelma and
Louise
11 “Indeed!”
12 Oust, in a way
13 Church choral
works
21 “Eww!”
22 Tibetan title
23 “Angie Tribeca”
channel
24 Weak cry
26 Brand of blended
seasonings
27 Itsy-__
30 Inventor Howe
31 Population
information
33 Book after Daniel
35 Ulysses
threesome?

39 Web irritants ...
and what appears
in each set of
puzzle circles?
40 __-screen printing
42 Faulkner’s “As __
Dying”
44 Actor Marvin of
“Cat Ballou”
45 Courvoisier, e.g.
46 Speedy
Gonzales cry
47 Kitchen gadget

48 OED entry
51 Words for the
audience
54 Hebrew for
“skyward”
56 Oil bloc
57 Hodgepodge
59 Pres. sworn in on
Air Force One
60 Job listing ltrs.
62 “Is it soup __?”
63 Fourth-yr.
students

By Matt Skoczen
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
12/07/16

12/07/16

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

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CHILDISH GAMBINO

This is where we put a humorous cutline of our own devising.

Donald Glover, who grabbed

the rap name Childish Gambino
from a Wu-Tang
name generator, is
a man constantly
in crisis.

His has been a

constant struggle
to decide who —
or what exactly —
Childish Gambino
is. A graduate of
the NYU Tisch
dramatic writing program, his
career is rooted not in music,
but in TV and comedy, and that’s
reflected in the lion’s share of
his best work. His penchant for
TV especially has far surpassed
his other ventures (stand-up,
dramatic roles) and certainly
his music, at least in quality.

But more than any of his

other work, his music has been
intensely
personal.
Culdesac,

the first mixtape he forward-
ly acknowledges in his music
career, rightfully inspired moni-
kers of “emo-rap,” less in a com-
plimentary breakthrough way,
like Kanye’s 808s and Heart-
break, and more in a damn-this-
is-cringeworthy way, like Kid
Cudi’s Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven.

What made his earliest work

so unsuccessful was that it too
couldn’t make up its mind. At
one moment Gambino would
criticize the state of rap lyri-
cism, while in the next he would
lay out such gems as “Now these
fakes say hey like horse shit,”
and “My verse is pedophiles on
the playground.” To brush off
these major missteps, he tried to
make himself a special category
that apparently deserved special
criteria: he was funny, but he
could be real. What is real, you
ask? It’s not really clear, and it’s
not really clear that Gambino
knew either. Telling your mind
can be groundbreaking for some;
it wasn’t in this case.

To be real for Gambino was

to boast in a cartoonish voice
as loudly as possible, and then
bemoan that everyone didn’t
agree. And even those ostensi-
bly real moments felt like con-
trived punchlines (“my life’s
gone pecans”), which could be
fine if you’re into that kind of
thing — and can overlook bad
rapping and even worse writ-
ing — but the production was
so overweight for the generally
light and, yes, Childish material
that the entire thing was grat-
ing. The same applies for his
first major album Camp, which,
frankly, deserves less than this
light brush of a mention, except
to bring up those early high
school kids who never really
liked rap became fascinated
with the idea of a ‘rapper’ who
militantly advertised himself
going to Sufjan concerts (while
absurdly stating that no other

rapper listens to indie) but, you
know, still makes easy dick jokes
you can rap in the car.

So how in the hell did we get to

Awaken, My Love!, a funk-heavy
record that is filled with song

and vocal inflec-
tion,
reward-

ingly free of rap
entirely and, most
astoundingly,
actually,
well,

good?

Two songs — “I.

Telegraph
Ave.”

and “III. Urn.” —
from
Gambino’s

mixed second album Because
the Internet offered a glimpse
of this direction. Both find Gam-
bino experimenting with his
smooth singing voice and trying
to spread its applicable length.
Where it once was pushed into
corners and felt forgotten on
hooks, it takes the stage here
and produces what had, until
now, been by and far some of his
best work.

His last release found Gam-

bino coming to this divide head-
first, separating his rapping and
his singing onto to separate, but
connected mixtapes. The for-
mer, STN MTN, was delegated
to Atlanta rap covers, while the
latter, Kauai, was a breezy and
original take, improving and
showcasing the natural voice
talent he seemingly ignored for
so long.

In retrospect, that double

mixtape now feels like a state-
ment of intent. The rapping
takes the sideline, while the
true work and production value
is placed on furthering his vocal
delivery, carving out his own
space in the R&B realm.

But even with those hints,

Awaken, My Love! is a radical
departure. It requires a major
realignment of what Gambino
sounds like, what Gambino
sings about and the place Gam-
bino comes from. This is espe-
cially true vocally — many of
the songs use vocal distortion
or never-before-heard inflec-
tions, and it becomes easy to
forget this is the same man who
once made cheesy raps. Open-
ing track “Me and Your Mama”
is a powerful example of this,
starting with a lower key, spa-
tial introduction and eventually
exploding into a choir-assisted
sermon. Gambino’s voice can
crack at the edges, but it holds
strong and grips onto the riv-
eting instrumental, and it’s a
powerful declaration that this
album is going to be different
than anything you’ve come to
expect from him.

The place of influence for this

work is also a remarkable shift.
Where previous works and the
accompanying
rapping
once

sounded like forced emulations
of Lil Wayne, Kanye, Drake and
others, this sound is undeni-
ably rooted in George Clinton’s
vocal delivery, the sound of the

Funkadelics
and
D’Angelo’s

croon.

As on his rap work, Childish

can have a tendency to become
too rooted in those influences,
verging on derivative. “Zom-
bies,” one of the album’s weak-
est moments, does precisely
this. He tries to keep so close
to Clinton’s unique sound that
he’s forced to rely on auto-tune
in a way that doesn’t feel so
much an addition, but a crutch.

But there are times when

hyper-altered
vocals
feel

fresh and inventive. “Califor-
nia,” which acts as a marriage
of Kauai and Gambino’s new
sound, shimmers and shakes
with a squeezed inflection by
Gambino. It’s too funky for
Margaritaville, but too breezy
and tropical for purely reviv-
alist ’70s funk. It dances on
its own island. And the single
“Redbone,” which finds his
voice at an unrecognizable, arti-
ficial pitch register (reminis-
cent of Frank Ocean’s “Nikes”),
is an inescapable earworm and
serves as a grounding center for
the album.

Lyrically, the shift in focus

from quick cartoon rap to
slower, sparser singing, and
the expansion of the role of the
instrumental here mean that
missteps are simply harder to
come by. The words are more
abstract and less open to a sin-
gle interpretation, though when
they are, the story is clear and
gripping. “Baby Boy,” which
deals with Gambino’s new-
found fear as a father, is simple,
yet powerful: “Don’t take my
baby boy / Don’t take my pride
and joy / I hope I stay close, I
hope I stay close.”

Even the wordless pieces are

more powerful than any instru-
mental on a Gambino album
before. The penultimate track
“The Night Me and Your Mama
Met,” which features guitar
work from Gary Clark Jr., is nei-
ther overbearing nor overlong,
but simply drifts and grows
toward its conclusion as Clark’s
guitar whines sweetly. Where
the interludes in Because the
Internet were often too heavy
and left the listener tired, this
one is refreshing.

Coming off his extremely

well received, polished TV
work
on
“Atlanta”
earlier

this year, Awaken, My Love!
arrives as another reassertion
of Donald Glover’s purpose as
an artist, closing out what is
undeniably his best creative
year yet. It seems that in criti-
cism, he worked through his
crises, appearing out the other
side more refined, more intel-
ligent and simply more likable,
those teenage-esque periods of
poorly articulated angst now
behind him. What we have now
is a man who truly lives up to
the term “multitalented,” and
whose next move is anyone’s
guess.

MATT GALLATIN

Daily Arts Writer

‘Awaken, My Love!’ From an artistic
crisis, Gambino emerges triumphant

Newest album from controversial musician is a funk-heavy hit

B+

Awaken, My Love!

Childish Gambino

Glassnote

PRACTICE SELF-CARE TODAY!

EAT SOME FRUIT.

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

For several years, one of the

most exciting parts of Ann Arbor’s
literary culture has been the Uni-
versity of Michigan’s Helen Zell
Writers
Series.

Named after Uni-
versity alum Helen
Zell, who donated
$50 million to fund
the program with
her family’s founda-
tion, the series con-
sists of numerous
visiting writers and
poets from around the world com-
ing to read and discuss their work.
Throughout the course of this aca-
demic year, the series has already
hosted the writer and poet Colm
Tóibín, poet Bob Hicok and writer
China Miéville, among others. But
on Thursday, the series will pres-
ent an event with an artist far clos-
er to home — the University’s own
poet and writer Laura Kasischke.

“I’ve been writing all my life,”

Kasischke said in an interview.
“Even when I was a kid, I enjoyed
writing. When I read things I
appreciated them, but I also had a
feeling I don’t think everyone had
where I would feel jealous of good
writing, and I wanted to do that
myself.”

As she grew into young adult-

hood, the desire to write led
Kasischke — a native of Grand
Rapids — to study creative writ-
ing at the University of Michigan,
where she also received her MFA.
Today, she teaches at the Univer-
sity as the Allan Seager Collegiate
Professor of English Language
and Literature in the Residential
College. Writing, once a dream for
Kasischke, is now a central ele-
ment of her life.

“After writing long enough,

now it’s just a habit,” Kasischke
said. “It’s something that I do
because it’s just become a practice
in my life, and I don’t really know
how else I would process my life
and do with the spare time I have.”

Kasischke, an author and a poet,

has achieved fame in both areas.
She has received recognition for

her work in the form of numerous
prizes, grants and fellowships, like
the National Book Critics Circle
Award and a Guggenheim Fellow-
ship. Her process when approach-
ing the two sides of her work,
however, differs.

“With poetry, usually I don’t sit

down thinking to
myself ‘I’m going to
write a poem now.’
I have a line in my
head, or an image,
or an idea that I
was thinking about
for a few days, and I
will write in a jour-
nal and eventually

come up with some sort of form for
it,” Kasischke said. “With novels
it’s different … I usually start more
with a setting and an atmosphere,
and I just start writing and I keep
writing until I find a plot, I figure
out who these characters are and
what their problems are and what
their conflicts are and I just keep
writing and writing. There were
a couple of novels that I’ve written
where I knew from the beginning
exactly what the plot was or I had
sketched out a plot, but usually I’m
figuring out what the novel’s about
in the process of writing it.”

Kasischke
explores
many

themes throughout her work.
Often, her poetry revolves around
aspects and stages of her life, such
as her marriage, children and
aging parents.

“If I had to sum up what my fic-

tion is about it’s often … the con-
cerns of domestic life,” Kasischke
said. “But then there’s also some
gruesome aspect, usually a mur-
der. Somebody gets killed, or
there’s a body hidden somewhere.
I don’t usually start out thinking
there will be, but that’s just where
I go, where I tend to work (in)
crime and horror. I only have one
novel with anything supernatural
in it, but I like that sort of atmo-
sphere. One of my favorite writers
is Shirley Jackson, and my kind of
ideal is subdued terror.”

During
Thursday’s
event,

Kasischke will be discussing her
work with the director of the MFA
Program, Doug Trevor, in a free-
flowing conversational interview.

“The director of the MFA pro-

gram, Doug Trevor, and the MFA
program have initiated this idea
of having him interview writers
on the faculty,” Kasischke said. “I
know that this year he’s going to
interview me in December, and in
the Spring he’s going to interview
Michael Byers, who’s a fiction
writer on the faculty … it’s part
of the Helen Zell Writers Series,
which often brings writers from
far and wide, and his idea was to
have a discussion with a writer
from campus. And there are a lot
of us.”

While the Zell Creative Writ-

ers Series, in general, is a won-
derful opportunity for Ann Arbor
residents to learn more about
authors and poets from around
the world, Kasischke said that
Thursday’s event specifically is
special because it brings local
artists and the community closer
together.

What she hopes to pass on,

at least in part, Kasischke said,
are thoughts on the part a writer
plays in the world, the role an
author takes in society.

“I’d like to say that it’s to give a

voice to the concerns of our time
and our place, to add to a conver-
sation about the experiences of
being a human being on Earth, in
any particular time,” Kasischke
said. “I like the quote by Jack
Kerouac; he says that ‘literature is
the way we dead men talk to each
other.’ Of course now we’d include
women with that, but I think he
meant that, in general. I do think
that we all only live for a short
period of time, and whatever one
does with that time — taking pho-
tographs, writing articles, doing
journalism, writing poetry — is a
little bit of a way to hopefully, per-
haps (leave) some sort of message
to those come after us. It would be
nice to think that it’s really cen-
tral and important to the daily
lives of the people who are living
and reading contemporary writ-
ing, but I’m not sure that the role
of the writer is as important in
his or her own time as (the work)
which hopefully lasts will be after
we’re gone.”

DAYTON HARE
Daily Arts Writer

Poet, novelist and RC professor will read her work at UMMA Thursday
Zell presents Kasischke

Laura Kasischke

Thurs. 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Helmut Stern

Auditorium, UMMA

Free

ALBUM REVIEW

6A — Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

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