The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, November 22, 2017 — 5A
RCA/SONY
Two years ago he told us that Buffalo revived his career and that’s the most that city’s done
‘Oblivion’ is the comeback
none of us asked T-Pain for
The new release finds T-Pain trying, failing to reinvent himself
Louis
Menand,
a
staff
writer for the New Yorker,
postulated “The Iron Law of
Stardom,” which states that a
star can only coincide with the
zeitgeist for three years before
the world moves on. Someone
needs to frame that article
and give it to T-Pain, because
his
latest
album,
Oblivion,
released last Thursday, Nov.
17, feels like the efforts of a
man struggling in vain to swim
against a current that’s leaving
him behind.
T-Pain, the former chart-
topper,
now
finds
himself
making lukewarm dancehall
pop numbers (“No Rush”) and
halfhearted
trap
anthems.
How did it come to this?
The answer is that T-Pain is
trying to be two artists at once
on Oblivion — he is trying to
keep up with what is currently
popular while retaining his
signature style, but the end
result is a work that feels
aimless and devoid of artistic
meaning. In attempting to be
both a trapper and a poppy
R&B
singer,
he
stretches
himself much too thin, leading
to an album that comes off as
half-assed and derivative.
I’m
making
this
album
sound worse than it really is.
It’s actually not half bad; “Your
Friend” and “Second Chance
(Don’t
Back
Down),”
for
example, are both enjoyable if
not spectacular. In fact, there
is nothing inherently “bad”
about most of this album,
as many of the songs are
energetic, catchy and utterly
inoffensive.
T-Pain’s
vocals
are as fun as ever, and there
is no denying that he has a
knack for catchy melodies. The
problem is that Oblivion just
doesn’t have the same magic
that T-Pain had from ’06 to ’08,
when he was perfect for his
time and place, and it feels like
a hollow imitation as a result.
A
few
particular
low
points: “That Comeback” is
an attempted pop anthem that
lacks any form of charisma
and is quite possibly the worst
track T-Pain has ever released.
Don’t listen to it. “Goal Line” is
an attempt at an industrial trap
sound that falls flat on its face
from the get-go, not helped by
an uninspiring feature from
Blac Youngsta.
In his article Menand claims
two exceptions to his three-
year rule: If stars reinvent
themselves, as the Beatles and
Kanye West have done, they
may be able to be at one with
the zeitgeist for an additional
three years. It is too late for
T-Pain to go down this path;
he is too far removed from
the cutting edge. The other
exception is that stars can
have a three-year “revival,”
where an artist experiences
a resurgence borne of mass
nostalgia,
which
may
yet
happen for Pain, but likely not
as a result of this new release.
This
wave
of
nostalgia
is the force by which we
could conceivably see T-Pain
restored to cultural relevancy,
a
society
of
millennials
wishing to return to the idyllic
days of halcyon youth through
the crooning king of Auto-
Tune. Until then, he would
do well to not try to catch up
with a cultural milieu that has
passed him by, and instead
embrace the style that made
him so influential in the first
place.
COURTESY OF CARLY YASHINKSY
This past week’s performance by the Friars
Multi-purposing venues:
The Pink Seat Project is
both aware & entertaining
What can a seat do?
“When people first walk in, they
see the pink seat, the immediate
reaction is ‘what is that?’”
It can spark a question.
“He was crying when he saw
this pink seat.”
It can provoke a reaction.
A seat can be more than a place
to sit and watch a performance. It
can have philanthropic powers.
In the seventh grade, College
of
Engineering
Senior
Adam
Lassman had a realization when
he saw an advertisement featuring
Ted Williams’s red seat at Fenway.
“It signifies that a feat was
accomplished,” (the longest home-
run hit in Fenway), Lassman said
in an interview with the Michigan
Daily, “and I remember thinking
‘That’s one seat, and that’s a sea
of seats ... One seat could make an
impact.’”
When he earned a service
fellowship during his senior year of
high school, Lassman capitalized
on the visual and fiscal powers of
a seat by creating the Pink Seat
Project, “a non-profit organization
that works to establish pink seats in
entertainment venues, and all the
ticket sales from those seats go to
local breast cancer organizations.”
In the entertainment industry,
venues are rented out by the people
putting on the production, and thus
the aesthetics of the space are up to
their discretion. With permission
from the producers, The Pink Seat
Project temporarily installs pink
seats at entertainment venues for
specific performances.
During the span of the The
Pink Seat Project’s inaugural year,
Lassman installed nine pink seats
in his local area of Needham,
Massachusetts. The organization
was born again at the University
during
the
second
semester
of Lassman’s sophomore year,
after joining Pi Sigma Epsilon, a
consulting fraternity on campus.
Since its introduction at the
University, pink seats have been
installed
at
performances
for
MUSKET, the Friars, 58 Greene,
and an impromptu comedy show
organized by a group of friends.
For this upcoming winter semester,
the organization has established
a partnership with Big Ticket
Productions.
Students
in
entertainment
organizations on campus have
been eager and excited to support
Lassman’s Pink Seat Project at
their own performances. “It’s
students talking with students,”
said Carly Yashinsky, LSA Senior
and consulting director for the
Pink Seat Project.
“The person who recorded the
PSE promotional video … she was
in her own a capella group and she
had a performance that Friday.” So
Lassman asked, “‘Can I get a pink
seat there?’”
“One of my friends is in a stand
up comedy club … so I put one pink
seat there.”
The
Pink
Seat’s
reach
throughout Lassman’s time as a
University student has extended
beyond this campus. “I studied
abroad in Australia,” Lassman
said. “One day … I walked past
the theatre department.” He went
inside, looked for a manager and
was eventually directed to another
building where he met a student
in charge of ticket sales. Lassman
gave his pitch, the student was on
board and that weekend, three
pink seats were installed at a
student performance of “Romeo
and Juliet” at the University of
New South Wales.
The
Pink
Seat
Project
is
expanding in the U.S., too. Students
at the University of Colorado at
Boulder and a high school student
in Miami are seeking to install pink
seats at performances in their local
areas.
The Pink Seat’s success has been
due in large part to the receptivity
of the arts community with whom
they create partnerships. Lassman
began playing the trumpet when
he was young, and at his quartet
performances he was exposed to
people who seemed to “generally
enjoy being surrounded by people.”
Lassman he said he knew when
starting his organization that “a
community like that would be most
receptive to an idea like this.”
The arts community is also the
Pink Seat’s target audience. Equally
as important as its mission to
fundraise is its dual purpose to raise
awareness about the importance of
these procedures. A cure for breast
cancer is in the spotlight of the
breast cancer conversation, and so
the importance of early detection is
often overshadowed.
A pink seat in a venue is a
visual cue. It is an effective tool
for awareness because it doesn’t
explain its meaning, it sparks a
question. Audience members can
find the answer in their programs,
and it’s Lassman’s hope that “it
sparks them to do a little bit more
digging.”
For some, it can spark more than
a question or newfound awareness,
it can spark a reaction and a
connection. A MUSKET alumnus
was the occupant of a pink seat at
the group’s performance of ‘Big
Fish’ in 2016. 45 years earlier,
after a dress rehearsal for his
performance of ‘My Fair Lady’ in
1971, he went to the hospital with
some fellow cast members and
sang a rendition of ‘Wouldn’t it Be
Loverly’ to his mother. She was sick
from breast cancer and nodded off
when they finished the song.
“He can come back and see
MUSKET
supporting
breast
cancer,” Lassman said. “It brought
him to tears.”
A seat is more than a place
to sit, and it serves more than a
philanthropic purpose. The Pink
Seat creates a culture of care that
relies on, and can strengthen, the
connectedness of the community
of those that enjoy arts, theatre,
music and entertainment.
ALEX SUPPAN
Daily Arts Writer
JONAH MENDELSON
Daily Arts Writer
COMMUNITY PROFILE
A look at Lanthimos and
the division over his films
How one director’s filmography has created divisiveness in viewers
I’m
mainly
writing
this
because I can’t figure out if I like
Yorgos Lanthimos’s films and
I have a feeling I’m not alone in
this sentiment. Some think he’s
pretentious, some think he’s a
visionary and a genius, some
think he’s downright crooked
and disturbed — and some are
probably in the middle like me.
“Dogtooth”
(2009),
“The
Lobster” (2015) and the newly
released
“The
Killing
of
a
Sacred Deer” all follow a similar,
authentically and distinguishably
Lanthimosian aesthetic of a
bizarre dystopia. “Dogtooth,”
a film in the director’s native
Greek, traces a controlling father
who locks his children on their
house grounds and brainwashes
them. “The Lobster” gives its
characters 45 days to find a mate
and, if they do not succeed, they
are turned into the animals of
their choice — a bleak survival of
the fittest. And in his latest film,
“The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” a
surgeon is forced to choose the
fate of his children’s lives through
the psychological mind control
of the son of a patient who died
during his operation. It’s the
ultimate vendetta.
Lanthimos’s directorial vision
and overall view of the world is
undeniably twisted and dark. He
attempts to critique the complex
themes that we face as humans:
the conditioning one’s upbringing
forces on the individual, the
competition to find a compatible
partner and procreate and the
hunt for revenge. In a way, his
stories trace, thematically, the
stories of his predecessors of the
Ancient Greek classics, as they
all explore the primal nature
of humans. The title of “The
Killing of a Sacred Deer” itself
is even based on the Greek myth
of Iphigenia who is sacrificed
by
her
father,
Agamemnon,
who killed a sacred deer and
then must therefore murder his
daughter for retribution from
the gods. An ode to his roots,
perhaps, his vision is evidently
imbued with an influence from
an iconic historical period when
the instincts of violence and
vengeance were esteemed.
Probably
what
has
made
Lanthimos such a provocative
director is his reliance on visceral
elements
and
reactions
that
many claim to be outrageous
and disturbing. His movies are
weird; they don’t quite fit into one
specific genre and the frequent
violence he features can at times
seem arbitrary. He relies on
disorienting the audience as a
device to reveal the greater truths
about his films, like in “The
Killing of a Sacred Deer” when
the characters speak in a robotic,
monotone speech that distances
them from reality or when, in
“Dogtooth,”
the
brainwashed
kids are taught misnomers by
their parents (like the word
“telephone” to replace the word
“salt”) to comment on how truth
and knowledge are subjective
and
how
one’s
environment
determines
everything.
This
deliberate
disorientation
enters the audience into an
uncomfortable position which
can
be
overwhelming
and
unsettling, which is likely his
intention.
“The Killing of a Sacred Deer”
received the best screenplay
award at Cannes. Though, like all
of his films, critics and fans alike
are bound to have polarizing
views on the film. Some detest his
work and some thrive off seeing
what he’s going to release next,
but despite this divide, his films
are damn entertaining and worth
a view.
SOPHIA WHITE
Daily Arts Writer
Oblivion
T-Pain
RCA / Sony
I’m making this
album sound
worse than it
really is
A24
Colin Farrell is a national treasure
FILM NOTEBOOK
ALBUM REVIEW