The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, November 10, 2017 — 5A

ACROSS
1 Bills, say
5 Alfredo may be
associated with it
10 Ways of viewing
the world
14 First name in folk
15 Yale of Yale
fame
16 “Fillet of a fenny
snake / In the
cauldron __ and
bake”: “Macbeth”
17 Cosmetologist’s
choices at happy
hour?
19 Local govt. bond
20 Inspired
21 RR stop
23 Janitor’s tool,
briefly
24 Marx collaborator
26 Collapse, with
“over”
27 Previous to,
poetically
28 Nursery supply
29 Cosmetologist’s
preferred
vacation venue?
32 “Art is __ that
makes us realize
truth”: Picasso
33 Knots and yards
34 Cosmetologist’s
expression for
hastily exiting?
38 “Just like me”
40 Shrek, e.g.
41 Cosmetologist’s
favorite capital?
44 Take shots of
48 Mark on the
Oregon Trail
49 Like crab apples
50 Leonine savior’s
domain
52 Enzyme suffix
53 Romantic ideal,
with “the”
54 Dieter’s breakfast
55 “__ Trigger”:
Bugs Bunny
cartoon
57 Cosmetologist’s
wall covering?
61 Like much
cheese
62 Final ordeal,
perhaps
63 Low joint
64 Rx contents
65 Does another
tour
66 Attention-getter

DOWN
1 Brooklyn Bridge
array
2 Garfield’s
girlfriend
3 Oozy stuff
4 Threw a party
5 Place to pray
6 Memorable
fighter
7 Pride, for
example
8 Annabel Lee’s
kingdom was 
by it
9 Writer who
created the
Dashwood
sisters
10 Watson’s home
11 Snow globe,
perhaps
12 Muezzin’s tower
13 Deli equipment
18 Dec. 25 or Jan. 1
22 Intimate, with “to”
25 Food fish
26 “Private 
property” sign
warning
30 Mike Pompeo’s
org.
31 Having four
sharps
32 A lot like

34 Like neglected
clothing
35 Latin lover’s word
36 Steven of “The
Walking Dead”
37 Small songbird
38 Biblical patriarch
39 Breakfast side
42 National park
figure
43 Threatening
phrase
44 Weird

45 How theme park
visitors often
stand
46 Longtime maker
of O gauge track
47 Place for trophies
51 Rock concert
sight
56 Newspaper VIPs
58 Buckeyes’ sch.
59 Sucker
60 Part of CBS:
Abbr.

By Jeffrey Wechsler
©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/10/17

11/10/17

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Friday, November 10, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

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Some weeks ago an article by 

the composer and performer Elliot 
Cole appeared on NewMusicBox, 
an e-zine which is one of the most 
interesting media outlets dedicated 
to contemporary music today. The 
piece, entitled “Questions I Ask 
Myself,” duly made its way around 
the social media circles of the hip 
and with-it of the contemporary 
classical music community and 
managed to provoke more than a 
few interesting conversations. In 
it, as one might expect, Cole cycles 
through a series of inquiries he has 
put to himself about the nature of 
the compositional profession in 
modern society, at least from his 
perspective. And, as he discloses 
at the beginning of the text, it 
works not so much as a “coherent 
critique of anything,” but rather as 
something that he has put out into 
the world because the questions 
are ones he “wrestles with” — and, 
it turns out, ones that a lot of the 
rest of us wrestle with too.

As I imagine was the case for 

many who saw it, reading Cole’s 
questions made me feel vaguely 
guilty, as if I were somehow being 
accused of something. Part of this, 
no doubt, comes from the fact 
that several of Cole’s questions 
were the sorts of things I also ask 
myself, usually before quickly 
stowing them away in some rarely-
used corner of my mind, the sorts 
of uncomfortable things about 
music culture that we don’t like to 
talk about. Another part of it, no 
doubt, is that I am being accused 
of something, along with everyone 
else who’s part of this community. 
To a certain extent, it’s an entire 
creative culture that stands trial.

Cole’s article serves as a sort of 

solitary Socratic method, wherein 
he airs a question but doesn’t really 
endeavor to answer it. But in order 
for a Socratic style to be completely 
effective, there really has to be 
someone to play a responsorial 
role. Everyone can do this for 
themselves, on their own, but the 
following are my own reflections 
on some of the questions that 
struck me the most.

***
Am I just trying to impress 

people and get famous?

This is obviously a question 

that is more personal than about 
musical society at large, but 
nevertheless I think that it has 
implications about the kind of 
culture we cultivate around our 
art. And there really isn’t a simple 
answer to it. The easy way out is 
to just say “no,” but that probably 
isn’t entirely honest. While a 
classical-style 
composer 
may 

never be famous in the same way 
that a pop star might become, 
there’s certainly an allure to being 
well-known and well-regarded 
amongst a particular ingroup (a 
group which, not coincidentally, 
there’s a damaging habit of 
regarding as somehow “better”). 
More than that, the history of the 
genre since the 19th century is 
that of a slow-burgeoning museum 
culture, rife with cults of idolatry. 
In the temples we erect to our art, 
the great concert halls and houses 
of symphony orchestras, it’s not 
uncommon to find architecture 
that serves as a literal Pantheon of 
classical music, with busts of the 
deified great masters of the genre 
— Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and 
the like — arranged around the 
rim of a great dome structure. And 
what pianist, for instance, when she 
hears the reverent tones in which 
Martha Argerich is discussed, 
doesn’t wonder to herself what it 
would be like to be talked about 
in that way? On the whole, the 
entire way we have set up our 
institutions — the competitiveness, 
the perfectionism, the Hobbesian 
free-for-all of finding the best gig 
— betrays a spirit ill at ease with 
itself, and an obsession with at 
least localized fame.

Have I used esoteric musical 

preferences and interests to 
feel different from (superior 
to?) other people? Has that 
isolated me? Can I in good faith 
encourage others to do the 
same?

This 
question 
is 
in 
some 

ways related to the first, but 
only tangentially. In my larger 
community, the one outside of 
exclusively classical music circles, 
the idea of my being a composer 
seems to impress a fair number 
of people (which, relatedly, never 
fails to make me feel embarrassed 
and trigger an acute attack of 

imposter syndrome). I sometimes 
worry that, in the beginning, 
when I was a middle school 
student or so, this element was 
part of the appeal. I grew up in a 
relatively rural community where 
I often felt extremely alienated, 
and throughout the process, my 
inability to connect deeply with 
many people led to a gradual 
immersion in art, first books and 
then music. As I grew more and 
more engaged in these sorts of 
things, it grew harder and harder 

to connect with others, in a sort 
of endless feedback loop. And this 
certainly augmented the process 
of isolation. Only by physically 
leaving the place have I been 
able to escape. While I feel that I 
can encourage people to pursue 
esoteric tastes and extraordinary 
musics, this encouragement must 
be coupled with an admonition to 
avoid the mistakes of my younger 
self. My self-isolation and artistic 
entrenchment gradually took on a 
harmful and condescending tone, 
a sort of self-congratulatory “get 
a load of these rubes” internal 
dialogue, the sort of thinking that 
is cancerous to both a healthy mind 
and a healthy society. Which leads 
perfectly into the next question I’ve 
chosen, the concise but poignant:

Am I a snob?
To 
which 
the 
answer 
is 

“probably, yes, but I’m working on 
it.”

What’s 
the 
difference 

between being a champion of 
my community and being a 
partisan, fighting to expand 
the size and status of a little 
kingdom just because I happen 
to belong to it?

Again, each of these questions 

is related to the others in some 
way. In my view, part of this 
has to do with not being a snob. 
Obviously I love the music that 
my community produces, but I’m 
never going to convince anyone 
else to love it by brute force. 
Partisanism is often one of the 
most counterproductive ways to 
create converts. Proselytization 
only works if people are willing 
and ready to hear what you have 
to say, and the best way to create 
an environment in which that’s 
the case is to be ready to listen to 
what they have to say. You can’t go 
into it thinking that your way is the 
best way, unwilling to hear things 
different from what you know. I 
fully believe in spreading the music 
of my community, but the process 
should be far closer to commerce 
than conquest. Kingdoms have to 
make way for democracies.

Am I OK with an aesthetic 

ideology that values making 
people 
uncomfortable 
more 

than making people happy?

This pertains mostly to the 

vanguard 
of 
contemporary 

classical, the spectralists, the 
composers of New Complexity 
and other descendants of the 20th 
century avant-garde. And I also 
feel that it’s far easier to address, at 
least in my mind. To me, the answer 
is “yes, sometimes.” I don’t believe 
that music shouldn’t ever just exist 
just to make people happy, but I 
think there is certainly value to 
be found in discomfort. Whether 
or not you believe in any gods, it’s 
probably fairly easy to agree that 
we live in a fallen world. I don’t 
see a reason why our art shouldn’t 
reflect that, shouldn’t express our 
distress at the state of things. And 
this certainly isn’t an exclusively 
classical music phenomenon: Look 
at some of the great art of recent 
years in the genre of hip hop, for 
instance. Kendrick Lamar’s To 
Pimp a Butterfly certainly isn’t 
a cheery album, and if you’re 
really engaging with it you should 
probably feel pretty uncomfortable 
afterward. But it’s great art, and 
making people happy doesn’t have 
to be the first priority of artists.

Our 
whole 
disposable 

capitalist culture is obsessed 
with novelty and progress. Is 
a value system based on the 
newness of music really as 
countercultural as I think it is?

This is harder to tackle, and I 

think the answer really depends 
on what exactly the “newness” 
of an artist’s work is. Oftentimes 
I think that art can genuinely 
be used to subvert expectations, 
to poke holes in our imaginary 
conception of what our society is. 
On the other hand, Cole is right 
to question new music’s ability to 
be countercultural. Sometimes 
(maybe most of the time, but 
I hope not) it can be used to 
support existing structures and 
hierarchies, cloaking reactionary 
effect with revolutionary language. 
Especially with something like 
orchestral music or opera, sub-
genres that require large financial 
means, music can be used to serve 
the capitalist class and propagate 
the neoliberal order. An excellent 
example of this is Mason Bates, as 
Marianna Ritchey points out in an 
article published this last summer. 
Bates, who was the second-most 
performed 
living 
orchestral 

composer in America, after John 
Adams, in the 2014/15 season, is 
famous for using technology in his 
music. Especially in our political 
era, art is inseparable from 
ideology, and the type of music 
the Bates writes — sometimes on 
commission from monied interests 
with a stake in the status quo — 
easily slides into the neoliberal 
mold. It’s a symphony Silicon 
Valley style. And Cole is right to 
be concerned about this state of 
affairs. Perhaps my own political 
ideology is showing, but to me art — 
to the extent that it can be — should 
be used to pull down our ivory 
towers, to empower the powerless 
and to change the way we look at 
the world in a revolutionary way.

Obviously, 
Cole’s 
questions 

are just the beginning of a 
larger 
conversation, 
but 
they 

offer valuable material for the 
discussions that we need to be 
having within our community. 
The few I’ve addressed here 
are just a sampling of the larger 
collection, and not necessarily the 
most important, but if everyone 
took a few minutes out of their day 
to think them and the rest over, we 
might build a better world around 
our art. And isn’t that, at its heart, 
what doing art should be about?

Questionable answers

CLASSICAL MUSIC COLUMN

DAYTON 

HARE

CBS

‘S.W.A.T.’ premiere is 
remarkably promising

To all those that mourned 

to loss of Shemar Moore from 
“Criminal Minds,” 
you can breathe 
easy 
again 

knowing he’s made 
his return to CBS 
as the lead of a 
new crime drama 
series, 
“S.W.A.T.” 

Daniel 
“Hondo” 

Harrelson (Shemar 
Moore, 
“Criminal 
Minds”) 

is thrust into an somewhat 
unwanted lieutenant position of a 
S.W.A.T team in Los Angeles. The 
city is plagued by political and 
racial tension, and Hondo uses 
his experience from the streets 
as well as his loyalty to the police 
force to alleviate the restlessness.

The show moves at a perfect 

pace. The main plot revolves 
around how social unrest exists 
in today’s society and highlights 
many serious issues our country 
is facing right now, like police 
brutality and sexism toward 
women in the work force. The 
writing carries enough heart 
without being overly dramatic 
or cringe-worthy. The lines are 
delivered with weight in serious 
moments, but those moments also 
come with happier, light-hearted 
ones. 
The 
actors, 
especially 

Moore, can flip-flop between 
these two tones with ease. The 
change up between the two 
evokes laughter appropriately and 
also gives you goosebumps when 
some serious shit is going down. 

The plot isn’t the sole factor 

bringing attention to real life 
problems. The writers clearly 
incorporated situations that evoke 
empathy and show the complexity 
and 
uncertainty 
that 
these 

issues carry. For example, the 
opening scene shows how the old 

SWAT lieutenant, 
William 
Spivey, 

(Louis 
Ferreira, 

“The 
X-Files) 

accidentally 
shot 

a young, innocent 
black 
man 
on 

the street. It is 
clear this was an 
accident, 
as 
the 

lieutenant immediately saves the 
boy’s life and brings him to the 
hospital himself. However, in the 
recent political climate, this tragic 
event inspires racist attitudes and 
launches the episode into the 
repercussions of moments like 
these.

This scene isn’t singular. Hondo 

is constantly fighting a battle 
between what he values as just 
and what is expected of him from 
the police force. His character 
asks for civility, as he works to 
protect both the citizens of Los 
Angeles and his fellow officers. 
His emphases the importance 
of respect and communication, 
on both sides of the problem. 
His morality makes him a very 
attractive presence in the show.

“S.W.A.T” goes beyond the 

typical 
cop 
show, 
normally 

comprised 
of 
firing 
bullets, 

explosions 
and 
unnecessary 

tough guy attitudes. It’s meaning 
goes 
deeper, 
showing 
the 

oppression and abuse of power 
parallel to those cops using their 
badge for it’s intended use. The 
chief (Patrick St. Esprit, “NCIS: 

Los Angeles”) promotes Hondo 
in light of the shooting, replacing 
Spivey, not because he truly 
wants Hondo in that position, but 
because he wants a black man in 
it to show the public he values 
“equality.”

To spice things up, there is a 

romance brewing between Hondo 
and his boss, Jessica Cortez 
(Stephanie Sigman, “Annabelle: 
Creation”). The office relationship 
makes 
Hondo’s 
disobeying 

of orders even more saucey. 
However, 
their 
relationship 

seems to be compromised because 
of their relative hierarchy in the 
force. They both put their careers 
as their number one priority, 
which draws on another social 
issue — does one sex have to be the 
one to give up their career? Are we 
really moving toward a time that 
both partners in a relationship 
can work full time?

In addition to all of the social 

issues this show draws on, it’s 
entertaining 
to 
watch. 
The 

intense moments, like one-on-one 
combat gets your blood pumping. 
When Moore tackles the bad guy 
to the ground, you can’t help but 
feel weirdly proud. There was 
one explosion, which I think is 
a pretty good ratio as long as the 
next episodes don’t overdo it. 
Because let’s be real, nothing is 
more annoying when the writers 
clearly couldn’t come up with 
something better so they just blow 
things up.

I have high hopes for the rest 

of the series, and I’m personally 
excited to see Moore back in a 
badass role. He was born to play 
it, and his casting in a show filled 
with this much truth gives it real 
potential to deliver.

OLIVIA ASIMAKIS

Daily Arts Writer

“S.W.A.T.”

Series Premiere

CBS

Thursdays @ 10 

p.m.

TV REVIEW

