Classifieds Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com ACROSS 1 Quick 6 Zurich-based sports org. 10 Dis 13 Metaphorical title word in a McCartney- Wonder hit 14 Major composition 15 Dr Pepper Museum city 16 Played hooky from the office? 18 Journalist/author Larson 19 Telegram period 20 Long in the tooth 21 Texas-Louisiana border river 23 “Without further __ ... ” 25 Taco toppings 26 Was sorry to have set the alarm? 31 Random selection 32 Give a halfhearted effort 33 Gratified and then some 36 Pizzeria staples 38 Romantic dining spot 40 Bush advisor 41 You can skip it 43 Piaggio transport 45 X or Y preceder 46 Made it through the Civil War? 49 Lunchbox container 51 “Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me!” airer 52 Small creek 53 Meet at the poker table 55 Hound sound 59 Downwind 60 Reached the 2016 Olympics the hard way? 63 Joker, for one 64 Continental divide 65 “Buffy” spin-off 66 Superhero symbol 67 They’re fixed shortly after being intentionally broken 68 Crystalline stone DOWN 1 Bench mates? 2 Bump up against 3 Little, to Luis 4 Rubber stamp partner 5 Highlight provider 6 Barnyard regular 7 2001 Apple debut 8 Lab coat 9 Welcomes warmly, as a visitor 10 Ready in a big way 11 Cupcake cover 12 Uses a fireplace tool 15 Online workshop 17 The Platters’ genre 22 x or y follower 24 Senior, to Junior 25 Amulet 26 Emulates Eminem 27 Meter or liter 28 Revelations 29 Plants used to make tequila 30 Cashed, as a forged check 34 “... happily __ after” 35 Say no to 37 Tangled 39 Put in one’s two cents 42 Mrs. Cullen in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” 44 Venomous snake 47 “I know, right?” 48 Sign next to free samples 49 Hint 50 Luau entertainment 53 Gala giveaways 54 “Electric” swimmers 56 “For that reason ... ” 57 Told a fantastic story, perhaps 58 North __ 61 URL ending 62 Identify on Facebook By Debbie Ellerin ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 01/20/17 01/20/17 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: RELEASE DATE– Friday, January 20, 2017 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis xwordeditor@aol.com 2017‑2018 LEASING Apartments Going Fast! 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Now Renting for 2017. 734‑649‑8637. www.arborprops.com EFF, 1 & 2 Bdrm Apts Fall 2017‑18 Many locations near campus Rents from $850 (eff) ‑ $1415 (2 bdrm) Most include Heat and Water www.cappomanagement.com 734‑996‑1991 FALL 2017‑18 Apts @ 1015 Packard 2 Bedroom ‑ $1370 ‑ 2nd floor 3 Bedroom ‑ $1380 ‑ basement 1 parking space avail for $50/m per unit Deinco 734‑996‑1991 FOR RENT INTERESTED IN WRITING FOR ARTS? MASS MEETINGS @ 420 MAYNARD, 7 P.M ON 1/23, 1/26 & 1/30 If you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact us at anay@umich.edu or npzak@umich.edu NETFLIX Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf. If you’re seeking a lighthearted series to add to your Netflix queue, now is the time to turn away. The series itself warns viewers to “look away, look away, look away” as the opening titles for Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfor- tunate Events” play across the screen. And they’re not wrong in advertising the revival as such — the series is, after all, modeled after the very unfortunate events of the Baude- laire children follow- ing the tragic demise of their parents in a horrible fire. “A Series of Unfortunate Events” lives entirely in its own little world, free from the constraints that a period piece can often put on a work of fiction. At any given moment, a trolley car could pass by on the street or a character could abruptly make the switch between cell phone and typewriter. This decision to keep the series out of a set time period is a deliberate and risky move, but in keeping with the gothic, absurdist fiction of the novels on which the series is based — it works. Without worrying too much about the setting and relative era, it makes it easy to focus more heavily on the characters as they progress from one tragic event to the next. One of the many themes that is drawn from “A Series of Unfortu- nate Events” is its comparison to the novels in regards to the close- mindedness of the adults, who con- tinuously ignore the children’s keen observations. As they are handed off from one guardian to the next, each of whom is very noticeably Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris, “How I Met Your Mother”) in dis- guise, the adults are completely oblivi- ous to the devious plot of their sinister guardian. Because the children are looked at as wealthy and somewhat spoiled to the pub- lic eye, their com- plaints regarding the labors and hardships they’ve endured at the hands of the Count and his band of goons often fall on deaf ears. This ongoing theme is what makes “A Series of Unfortu- nate Events” unique, as it brings to attention the oversight that children often face at the hands of the “all- knowing” adults. It’s a role reversal that is revisited time and time again throughout the canon and Netflix adaptation. The fact that “A Series of Unfortunate Events” dismisses this long held-belief and places an importance on the knowledge of children in a way that is often dis- missed in mainstream media is not only unique, but keeps the series interesting as well. On that same note, Neil Patrick Harris is spectacularly spooky as the sinister Count Olaf, a distant relative-turned-actor intent on stealing the Baudelaire’s inherited fortune through trickery and devi- ous plots. At first, it’s difficult to dismiss Jim Carrey’s (“The Mask”) performance in the 2004 film adap- tation of the same name in place of Harris’ Count Olaf, whose perfor- mance is slightly softer than Car- rey’s. However, one soon falls into a rhythm with the devious Count, who balances out his personality with a eccentricity that completes the dark humor of the series. As the episodes progress, Pat- rick Warburton (“Rules of Engage- ment”) appears on screen as the omnipresent narrator Lemony Snicket, whose sole purpose, it would seem, is to remind viewers of the dark and dreary situation in which the children find themselves. Anecdotes are often provided by the dreary narrator as he recounts the case of the Baudelaire children’s misfortunes and points out just how unfortunate their situation has truly become. The jokes are purposefully missing the punchline, as Lemony Snicket exists solely to remind us of the bad — there isn’t much good to begin with in this never-ending cloud of terrible, awful events. Then again, if you’re looking for a happier tale, you’ll prob- ably be better off watching “Fuller House.” All eight episodes of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” are cur- rently streaming on Netflix. ‘Unfortunate’ fortunately fantastic MEGAN MITCHELL Daily Arts Writer A “A Series of Unfortunate Events Series Premiere (Episodes 1 & 2) Netflix TV REVIEW Love for ‘L’amour de loin’ New York City’s Metropolitan Opera is the oldest and one of the most respected organizationsw of music drama in the nation, as well as the country’s largest classical music institution. Founded in the 1880’s, it can trace its history back to the Gilded Age of America, when its host city was dominated by men with names like Morgan, Carnegie and Rockefeller, whose legacies live on in the City’s famous landmarks. In its modern-day location positioned as part of Lincoln Center, the Met sits just across the street from Juilliard, and its impressive arched façade takes one’s breath away. Inside the building the gold and glittering surfaces dazzle the eyes, while the opulent red carpets muffle your footsteps. The chandeliers, which rise to the plane of eye-level as you ascend to the upper balconies, look like mechanical sunbursts. To attend a performance in that building is an experience like no other, and so when I stepped off the plane at Laguardia at the beginning of Winter Break, the Met wasn’t simply something I looked forward to seeing — it was my entire reason for coming. Earlier this academic year I glanced through the Met’s season when it was announced, expecting to find the usual, standard-fare Verdi, Puccini and Wagner — the classics, the tried-and-true and what have you. And I certainly did find them, as anticipated, and all of those composers are excellent at what they do and masters of the form, but honestly, they just don’t particularly interest me. Mostly this has to do with the fact that my tastes tend to be more modern, or else be even older than those three. But something else in the season was entirely unexpected and electrifying. During the month of December, the Met would be performing “L’amour de loin,” an opera composed about 16 years ago by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who — to me at least — is one of the most interesting compositional voices active today. Immediately after learning that “L’amour” was going to be performed, I set about trying to find a way to see it. I asked a few of my New York friends if I could stay with them around the holidays. I spoke with my parents about arranging transportation to the City. Over the course of the next few months, the trip began to take shape — the germ of my suggestion to my parents ended up blooming into a full-fledged family vacation to the City. Saariaho herself is what might be termed a post-spectralist composer. Spectralism, a movement originating the the second half of the last century, focuses on the study of the physical properties of sound itself — its overtones, timbre, etc. — and the subsequent construction of music based on these properties. Some composers who are associated with this vein include the Frenchman Géard Grisey and the Brit Julian Anderson. Saariaho, on the other hand, takes heavy influence from spectralism — in terms of her sound-world — but composes music that is perhaps more Romantic in spirit, and more liberated. She takes the sonorities of spectralism and forms them into colorful, lower-case impressionistic images. Her great strength lies in her deft control over all of the timbral elements within her narrative, and the rich, large-scale palette of “L’amour de loin” allowed her to display this to the full. “L’amour” has a simple plot, and, like an extremely high number of other operas, it’s a love story. The events of the drama follow Jaufré, a French nobleman and troubadore in the 12th-century who, through words and the image woven by a travelling pilgrim, falls in love with the countess of Tripoli, Clémence, from across the Mediterranean Sea. With the pilgrim as an interloper, and two begin a sort of extremely long-distance relationship, culminating in Jaufré crossing the Sea to meet the countess, only to die in her arms. In the Met’s production — the first time they’ve produced an opera by a female composer in over a century, and only the second time ever at that — the stage is intersected by dozens of strings of vibrant, luminous color, which throughout the production move and imitate the Mediterranean Sea. Visually, in this way the production was magnificent. Through the beautiful French- language libretto, themes of idealized love, piety, devotion and obsession are all explored. Arias and duets are interwoven in a captivating manner. The music throughout remains as a sort of haunted dream-scape, moving by slight adjustment through the range of nebulous moods that populate the opera. After the curtain Fall, one thing in particular lingered in my mind: Namely, I contemplated the fact that a plot of such pure simplicity can nonetheless produce an engaging work of art. Much of this interest was surely generated through the arresting image on the stage, and the music propelled and commented upon the story in intriguing ways, but neither of these seem to fully explain the reason why the whole thing works. In the end, the only explanation I can propose is simply that we, as a species, are endlessly fascinated with the concept of the unattainable — a figure which is at the core of this opera. Each of us engages in idealistic fantasizing about that which we realistically acknowledge we can never attain, whether it’s a faraway love, a meaningful contribution to the world or anything else. Perhaps, because of our own obsessions, watching a tale of idealistic devotion play out onstage is a form of cathartic giving-over, a vicarious consummation of our desires. Or perhaps its presence onstage is a type of validation, a sort of acknowledgement that unattainable desire is a universal. Whatever it is, its place at the center of our art is key to an understanding of who we are. DAYTON HARE Classical Music Columnist CLASSICAL MUSIC COLUMN THE METROPOLITAN OPERA A production of “L’amour de loin” at the Metropolitan Opera 6 — Friday, January 20, 2017 Arts The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com