ARBOR PROPERTIES
Award‑Winning Rentals in
Kerrytown
Central Campus,
Old West Side, Burns Park.
Now Renting for 2018.
734‑649‑8637 |
www.arborprops.com
FALL 2018 HOUSES
# Beds Location Rent
11 1014 Vaughn $7700
9 1015 Packard $6525
6 511 Linden $4800
6 1016 S. Forest $5400
6 1207 Prospect $4900
6 1355 Wilmot Ct. $5075
5 935 S. Division $4000
4 412 E. William $3200
4 507 Sauer Ct $3000
4 509 Sauer Ct $3000
4 827 Brookwood $3000
4 852 Brookwood $3000
4 927 S. Division $3100
4 1210 Cambridge $3400
Tenants pay all utilities.
Leasing starts Nov. 10th
Reservations Accepted till 11/8.
CAPPO/DEINCO
734‑996‑1991
MAY 2018 – 6 BDRM HOUSE
811 Sybil ‑ $4400
Tenants pay all utilities.
Showings Scheduled M‑F 10‑3
24 hour noticed required
DEINCO PROPERTIES
734‑996‑1991
FOR RENT
ACROSS
1 Free
6 Crusty formation
10 One in a farm
array
14 Truism
15 Kappa preceder
16 Entry
17 Saint toppers
18 Equine footwork
19 Glitz
20 Renewed one’s
energy, in a way
21 Counseling for
boomers’ kids?
24 Santa __:
Sonoma County
seat
25 Complimentary
writers
26 Sign on a film
studio
employee’s
door?
31 Words of desire
32 Room at the
hacienda
33 Fast hit
36 Gave for a while
37 Some rank
indicators
39 Corona product
40 Disturbance
41 “Write once, run
anywhere”
software
42 One with many
mouths to feed?
43 Altered clone of
actor Richard?
46 French gambling
game
49 Zero
50 Molecular
manipulation
technique ... and
a hint to the
starts of the three
other longest
puzzle answers
53 Sudden turn
56 Advantage
57 Bunches
58 Immune system
component
60 Food
preservative
61 Cithara relative
62 Clear, in a way
63 “__ bien!”
64 Word appearing
twice in a Woody
Guthrie title
65 Synthetic
polymer
DOWN
1 Turner of “The
Bad and the
Beautiful”
2 It’s a turnoff
3 What’s up at the
deadline?
4 Mushy lump
5 “Yikes!”
6 Traffic or turn
follower
7 Influence with
flattery
8 Studying like
crazy, say
9 Tub soothers
10 Interstate rumbler
11 Condemned Titan
12 Jumped
13 “Game of
Thrones”
accumulation
22 Zener cards
presumably
tested for it
23 “Show Boat”
author Ferber
24 Take a load off
26 __ monster
27 Was required to
pay
28 Yucatán
youngster
29 Sunni’s religion
30 Indoor __
33 Force user
34 NASA prefix
35 Muffin option
37 Left nothing out
38 Big event lead-in
39 Data measure
41 Ballet jump
42 Do a surfing
maneuver
43 Shakes hands
with, say
44 Bonded
45 Weigh station unit
46 Get rid of
47 Wood for grilling
planks
48 What “x” may be
in trigonometry
51 Former NHL
winger Kovalchuk
52 Uncertain
53 Gusto
54 “Just one more
thing ... ”
55 Narrow valley
59 Sound of woe
By Daniel Nierenberg
©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/03/17
11/03/17
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
RELEASE DATE– Friday, November 3, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
xwordeditor@aol.com
Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
6A — Friday, November 3, 2017
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SHOWTIME
‘White Noise’ premiered on Showtime this past Sunday
‘White Famous’ could be
funny, if it wasn’t just lazy
Jay Pharaoh’s new show offers little humor with bad, sexist writing
“Saturday
Night
Live”
has
become known as a machine for
cranking out comedy stars. Input
a famished improv actor who
does a decent George W. Bush
impression, and out pops a shiny
new celebrity with two book deals
and a TV show already signed on
for three seasons. With his new
Showtime comedy, Jay Pharaoh
is the most recent and former
“SNL” cast member trying to
take advantage of that seemingly
flawless formula. Unfortunately
for him, the machine is still
working out some kinks.
“White Famous” has a great
idea delivered through a bad TV
show. Floyd Mooney (Jay Pharoah)
is a young comedian trying not to
betray his hometown roots as he
works toward becoming “white
famous.” He’s got everything
you’d
expect
a
bright-eyed,
up-and-coming
comedian
to
have:
An
overzealous
agent
(Utkarsh Ambudkar, “The Mindy
Project”), an on-again / off-again
relationship with the mother of his
child (Cleopatra Coleman, “The
Last Man on Earth” ), an implicitly
racist boss (Stephen Tobolowsky,
“One Day at a Time”) and even an
encouraging yet slightly crazed
mentor Jamie Foxx (“Baby Driver”)
who plays himself. But even with a
talented cast and a solid concept,
the show struggles to feel like
something substantive and worthy
of more than just a single episode.
You know when the ticket
person at the movie theater says
“enjoy the movie” and you respond
with “thanks, you too?” That is
what it feels like to watch “White
Famous.”
It’s
not
completely
wrong, but it does leave everyone
involved feeling just a little bit off.
Pharoah’s character seems to be
stuck in a single, ongoing comedy
sketch, and the joke wears down
about 10 minutes into the half-
hour-long episode. By the time
you’re done watching, there’s
nothing left to look forward to.
Mooney gets a job on a big movie
set, him and his ex-girlfriend are
on relatively friendly terms and
the agent he fired at the beginning
of the episode is already back
working for him. Every conflict
that arises as a possible storyline
is resolved by the episode’s end,
leaving no reason to tune in next
week or any week after that.
It’s disappointing given the
show’s potential to address real
problems present in Hollywood.
At one point, Mooney complains
to Foxx that everytime a Black
man tries to climb the ladder
in Hollywood, directors try to
emasculate him by putting him in
a dress. It’s a fascinating point, and
one that can be seen in Dwayne
Johnson’s “Tooth Fairy” and Tyler
Perry’s “Madea” series, among
numerous other examples. Yet
instead of exploring this topic, Foxx
brushes off the comment, and it’s
never really addressed again.
The
show’s
capacity
to
humorously address the societal
pressure of being a Black man in
Hollywood is also ruined by its
blatant sexism. You can’t pick and
choose what minority group you
aren’t going to offend and which
one you are — it’s kind of an all-
in, all-out deal. If you can’t be
funny without uncomfortable Bill
Cosby jokes and an old White dude
that’s racist and sexist (but we’re
supposed to understand that’s
wrong, so it’s a joke), than you
aren’t really funny, you’re just lazy.
There’s no doubt that Jay
Pharaoh is a talented young
comedian whose talents extend
beyond
the
impressions
that
defined his run on “SNL,” but
“White Famous” is not the show
to demonstrate that. If, like his
character,
Pharaoh
wants
to
become the next Eddie Murphy or
Chris Rock, he may have to put on
that hypothetical dress and take
some more daring steps to stardom.
SAMANTHA DELLA FERA
For the Daily
TV REVIEW
CINEFLEX
We’re not a fan
YouTube film critique’s
swift and plaguing rise
Vloggers surge in popularity threatens cinephile community
Tony Zhou struck internet
gold in 2014. His YouTube
channel
Every
Frame
a
Painting, with over a million
subscribers,
produces
video
essays analyzing nuances in
filmmaking,
like
the
Coen
Brothers’
reverse
shots
or
the use of silence in “Raging
Bull.”
Along
with
other
popular channels — CineFix,
Nerdwriter, Closer Look and
Karsten Runquist — Every
Frame a Painting is a major
player in a booming market for
video essays.
That market, however, is
very one-dimensional: A man,
presumably in his mid-20s,
talks about why a director,
often David Fincher, is just so
damn great after pointing out a
somewhat obvious filmmaking
technique. People watch these
videos without having seen
the
movies
he’s
critiquing
and close their laptops feeling
smart. Worse yet, they feel
like they never have to see the
movie at all.
CineFix’s
content
in
particular irks me and is
the epitome of why these
essays produce a new level of
pretentiousness. This channel
creates listicle videos ranking
the “best” of something, like
the most beautiful shots in
cinema. One video discusses
the most beautiful movies of all
time: Stanley Kubrick’s (“Eyes
Wide Shut”) “Barry Lyndon” is
listed for its shots that replicate
paintings. Truth be told, at
least 95 percent of the video’s
viewers haven’t seen the movie.
And a high percentage of that
group probably never will.
If those who never saw the
movie accepted their ignorance
and didn’t act knowledgeable,
all
would
be
well.
Sadly,
this is rarely true. I’ve had
conversations
with
devoted
CineFix viewers where I’ll be
bombarded with information
about how beautiful “Barry
Lyndon” is. But when I ask
them their favorite scene, they
daftly reply, “Oh, I’ve never
seen it.”
Watching a video essay does
not give you the right to talk
about a movie as if it’s your
favorite, especially when you
couldn’t be bothered to spend
187 minutes sitting through
“Barry Lyndon.”
The origins of the rising
popularity
of
video
essays
likely dates back to Anthony
Fantano’s
popular
music
channel, The Needle Drop.
Although he’s not producing
video
essays,
per
se,
his
content
involves
in-depth
music critique reflecting his
wide, developed taste for just
about every genre of music.
He paved the way for future
video essayists to make their
own
statements.
Fantano,
however, doesn’t take himself
too seriously, unlike many of
his essayist successors.
In many ways, the film
criticism community loosening
its barriers to entry is a feat.
But we’ll always need a decent
amount
of
tweed-wearing
academics writing lengthy film
critiques. The truth is, a lot of
the video essayists’ content is
not entirely original and comes
from the work of PhD-holding
professors. Everyone should be
able to express their opinions
about films. But not everyone
can be a film critic, at least not
in the scholarly sense of the
word.
Obviously,
not
all
video
essays
are
bad.
Kogonada,
prominent
up-and-comer
responsible for “Columbus,”
began his career making video
essays on Vimeo, that other
video sharing website that
never fails to disappoint the
two times a year I use it. His
videos are always expressive
and
original,
making
him
an important voice in film
criticism
today.
Video
essays’ rising popularity is
an equalizer of sorts, giving
voices to those who deserve
more attention but lack the
Hollywood connections.
For
people
looking
to
blow off steam and watch
intellectually
stimulating
content, there’s nothing wrong
with video essays. YouTube
becoming plagued with video
essayists,
however,
is
off-
putting, especially considering
the lack of gender diversity
within the community.
Watching
a
movie
and
having an opinion is essential.
Sharing
these
opinions
is
always
welcome.
Watching
video
essays
instead
and
pretending to be an expert on
film is nothing but obnoxious.
WILL STEWART
Daily Arts Writer
BOOK REVIEW
‘A Good Cry’ is a comfort
“A
Good
Cry”
is
Nikki
Giovanni’s 21st collection of poems
to be published, and the experience
shows. As one of America’s
most prolific and recognizable
living poets, this new collection
proves that Giovanni is settling
into her role as senior poet with
grace, elegance and a continued
immediacy that makes her work
as relevant today as it was in the
1960s and ’70s.
The poems in “A Good Cry” are
written in Giovanni’s signature
style, combining the lyrical with
the endearingly colloquial. At
her best, she revels in simplicity:
Simple
language
and
images
thoughtfully
bundled
together
to express great complexity and
intensity of feeling. Poems like
“Bread,” “Thirst” and “Morning
Breakfast Routines” elevate the
mundane pleasures of food and
drink to a dream-like state of
poetry, and “On a Snowy Day”
is an ode to the impact of small
acts of kindness from strangers.
The emotional backbone of this
collection, in both its lightest and
darkest moments, is Giovanni’s
complete sincerity, and this makes
each poem, no matter how simple,
vibrate with honesty.
At times, the poems might
falter in the direction of being
too simple. For example, the
acrostic “A Poem for Morris”
and the prose poem “A Poem for
Joanne” say nothing that hasn’t
been said before by other writers
in more nuanced ways. These
poems are saved, however, by
Giovanni’s enduring earnestness,
her affection for the subjects
shining through in every word. It
would be a mistake to confuse her
preference for simple, everyday
subjects with an inability to cope
with complexity and ambiguity;
Giovanni is able to sit comfortably
at the midline between light and
dark, hope and hopelessness. If
anything, her choice to write about
seemingly
quotidien
subjects
reveals an admirable lack of self-
consciousness that comes from her
wealth of experience.
The poems in this collection
reveal
Giovanni’s
thematic
obsessions, many of which revolve
around time, memory and age. In
poems like “Heritage” and “If I
Have to Hospital,” she considers
old age with refreshing equanimity.
In “Surveillance,” “Baby West”
and “I Married My Mother,” she
looks back on her childhood, and
particularly her troubled family
relationships, with a refusal to
either idealize or condemn; and in
“Rita Dove” she looks forward to
the next generation with enduring
hope. Giovanni also writes about
friendship,
particularly
her
friendship with fellow writer
Maya Angelou, with an intensity
that many poets ascribe only to
romantic relationships, insisting
on
solidarity
and
connection
as the most important human
experiences. Many of the poems
in this collection correspond with
Giovanni’s lifetime of work as a
civil rights activist; she views the
Civil Rights movement as both a
triumph and an ongoing struggle,
making this collection an essential
read in the current political
climate.
The common thread running
through
this
collection,
and
perhaps the greatest virtue of
Giovanni’s work, is her ability to
confront joy and tragedy in a single
swoop. She demands connection
in a world where we are bound
to be isolated, and honorable
intentions even under the worst of
circumstances. Her message, both
a comfort and a call-to-arms, is
best expressed in “Introduction to
Tim O’Brien”: “You cannot make
the tragedy go whole / You cannot
make the hurt heal / You can do
nothing but embrace / The best
within yourself.”
JULIA MOSS
For the Daily
White Famous
Series premiere
Sundays at 10
p.m.
Showtime
A Good Cry
Nikki Giovanni
HarperCollins
October 24, 2017
FILM NOTEBOOK
Giovanni’s latest is is both a call to safety and a call to arms