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Arts
Monday, January 8, 2018 — 5A
Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
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ACROSS
1 Green gem
5 Actress Greta
10 Ponzi scheme,
for one
14 Boy in “The Kite
Runner”
15 Toward the back
16 When tripled, a
1970 WWII film
17 Spanish “nothing”
18 Free, in France
19 Reddish-brown
horse
20 Israeli
submachine gun
21 Admit to
wrongdoing in
court
23 Embark from a
dock
25 Spaniel’s
welcome
26 Indian-born
storekeeper on
“The Simpsons”
27 Bening of
“American
Beauty”
31 Location-based
smartphone
game release of
2016
35 Half a bray
36 Radio knob
37 1998 biopic
about model
Carangi
38 Travelocity ad
figure
40 Ctrl-__-Delete:
PC reboot combo
41 Similar set of
individuals
43 Reveal
46 Help
47 Negative
connection
48 Climbing plant
52 Inland sea
between Iran and
Saudi Arabia
57 Dockworkers’ gp.
58 Soothing plant
extract
59 Pageant
headgear
60 Prefix with lateral
61 Arctic seabird
62 No __ sight
63 Bugs Bunny
adversary Elmer
64 Smartphone
message
65 Gave medicine to
66 Golf ball
supports
DOWN
1 Two-faced god
2 Fill with wonder
3 Completed the
task
4 Significant period
5 Steel-gray
metallic element
6 Disney mermaid
7 Country star
McEntire
8 The __:
Shakespeare
9 Pizza herb
10 Conflict
11 Like much fall
weather
12 “I smell __!”
13 Lots of
21 Daily news
source
22 Coffee vessel
24 Japanese
alcoholic
beverage
27 Ice cream
thickener
28 Old-style you
29 Pack (down)
firmly
30 Sheep girl
31 Sheepdog from
Hungary
32 Being aired
33 S-shaped
molding
34 Never, in
Dortmund
36 Little bit
38 Bereavement
39 Bump on a branch
41 Like many
animated films ...
and a hint to
21-, 31-, 41-
and 52-Across
42 Floral wreath
44 Remove from
office
45 Law, in Lille
48 Madame of
physics
49 Arouse, as
interest
50 Avoid capture by
51 Surprise attacks
52 Good old days
53 Actress Sommer
54 Gumbo thickener
55 El __: weather
phenomenon
56 Wanders
restlessly
60 Baby newt
By Parikshit S. Bhat
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/08/18
01/08/18
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
RELEASE DATE– Monday, January 8, 2018
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
xwordeditor@aol.com
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FOR RENT
GO BLUE
Most of my winter break
played out to the tune of Phil
Collins’s Face Value, his debut
solo album released back in
1981. My dad put it on repeat
every morning and in car
rides where he made me turn
off my “DIY crap” and put on
something easier on the ears.
I chose Face Value knowing it
would be the happy medium.
It’s
a
brilliant
album.
Delivering us the impenetrable
“In the Air Tonight,” Collins
places himself on the same
playing field as his former
Genesis
bandmate
Peter
Gabriel with a record that
encompasses the genres of
progressive rock, pop and
funk. From the slow build of
“In the Air” to the rhythmic
bassline of “Behind the Lines,”
Collins places a punchy synth
and gated reverb drums beside
piano interludes like “The Roof
is Leaking.” Horns raise you up
on one song, while the pull of a
sitar and African-styled drums
bring you back down to earth
on another. Collins can do no
wrong on Face Value; it’s his
untouchable work of art that
explores unforeseen bounds
in music while charting the
demise of his marriage.
So it makes sense that
Francis and the Lights is so
frequently compared to the
former drummer and later
singer of Genesis. The sound
Francis
has
championed
since 2007 is reminiscent of
great prog-rock bands like
Genesis and innovative in its
modern-day fusion of genres
through
production
that
wasn’t accessible in the ’80s.
Not to mention, Francis’s voice
sounds so much like Phil’s,
plain and simple. What Collins
began, Francis has perfected,
and while Francis has so far
avoided horns and banjos,
the punchy feel of songs like
“See Her Out (That’s Just
Life),” the opening track of
2016’s Farewell, Starlite!, has
a similar effect as songs on
Face Value. The opening notes
bounce back and forth, rope
you in and, if anything else,
you want to see it out until the
end.
Just like “See Her Out,” the
opening notes of “Morning,”
the first song off of Just For
Us, pull us in. But this time,
there’s a difference. While
Farewell, Starlite! throws us
into a whirlwind of synth,
“Morning” is gentler, its piano
slowly delivering us into the
drums rather than bursting
into them. And this time the
piano is here to stay. “Morning”
seems to be a continuation of
the piano Francis used briefly
in the song “Thank You” on
Farewell, Starlite!, piano that
I only wanted more of as the
album drew to a close. But
that’s the thing, the piano
is what makes the song so
crushingly
beautiful,
brief
and bittersweet. An album
that wasn’t necessarily tragic
didn’t need the instrument
that makes songs so.
Just For Us is different in
this regard; the 26-minute
album
is
sorrowful
as
it
traces the slow demise of a
relationship. The piano that
draws us in takes various
forms as the album, and the
relationship, unfolds. But even
as Francis sends us from the
frigid snaps of “Morning” into
the blaring synths of “Just For
Us” and then back into the cool
piano of “Faithful,” there’s a
cohesive whole to the album.
Sometimes it’s difficult to tell
where one song starts and
another ends.
The transition from “I Won’t
Lie to You” into “Breaking Up”
is perhaps the most beautiful
on
the
album
and
best
exemplifies its cohesiveness.
The brevity of the former, a one
minute and 12-second track,
leads into the latter, and the
two are inseparable in story
and in song. Outside of this,
Losing myself in the
art culture of Ann Arbor
Francis and the Lights brings beauty on ‘Just for Us’
As with most college students,
going back home for winter
break after a long time away
was a strange experience. I had
been away from home for so
long that I found it difficult to
recall the fine details of my home
without looking at pictures.
More frightening was that the
memories of the art culture
of New York City that shaped
who I was as a performer and a
person ever since I was young
started to blur, as I immersed
myself in the new culture that
Ann Arbor had to offer. I did not
find myself longing for the art
from New York City, but rather
trying to find my place in the
art of Ann Arbor. There seemed
to be a hole in the culture that
surrounded me — one that I could
not pinpoint. Even though I had
been told that college was about
self-discovery, I felt I was losing
myself as an artist and a person.
When I finally did find myself,
it was very unexpected. More
importantly, I discovered the gap
that I had been feeling and was
unable to articulate until now.
Over winter break, my sister
performed in a comedy improv
show in order to raise money
to help the hurricane victims
in Puerto Rico, and she invited
me to go see the performance.
I walked into a small, grunge
underground
theater
in
the
East Village, a neighborhood of
Manhattan in New York City.
The small black box theater was
filled with plush, cloth seats
that looked as if they had a high
probability of being infested
with bed bugs. The theater was
packed with adults drinking
coquito, a traditional Puerto
Rican
drink
usually
served
around the holidays. The show
was comprised of many short
comedy skits that celebrated
Puerto Rican traditions during
the holidays. As salsa blasted
from the speakers, it filled the
room with a sound that I had
been missing back in Ann Arbor.
I had rediscovered my own sound
and my own culture through this
production — something I had no
intention of doing when I walked
through the doors of the theater.
My mind went back to the first
time my mother took me to see
“In the Heights” on Broadway.
It is a musical that tells the story
of the Latino community in a
neighborhood called Washington
Heights (also in Manhattan).
Seeing my culture and my people
represented and celebrated in “In
the Heights” was too much for my
eight-year-old mind to handle.
Before then, I had only ever been
exposed to people of my culture
as gangster characters, such as in
“West Side Story,” and even then
they were not played by minority
actors and actresses.
Being a dancer, I was sure that
my Latina curves would hinder
my success. Being an actress
and a singer, I was sure that the
pigment of my skin would cause
me to look too ethnic for most
lead roles. When the beauty of my
culture and its people unfolded
before my eyes on a Broadway
stage, all of those insecurities
instantly vanished. This was
the same feeling I had in the
— perhaps bed bug infested —
theater in the East village. What
I had really missed was having
my culture represented in art,
whether it be in music blasting
from a storefront, or a bunch of
teenagers rapping on a street
corner.
Ann Arbor is a community
that is vibrant in all kinds of art.
To immerse yourself in the art
is not hard to do; however, it is
not a complete culture. I could
not find myself in the culture
of Ann Arbor because I am not
there. My culture was no longer
represented in the art that
surrounded me.
I had to come to terms with the
fact that it would be difficult for
me to find a concert performed
by my favorite salsa or merengue
artist, and that YouTube is my
best friend for re-discovering
my identity as an artist and a
performer. As a community, Ann
Arbor needs to strive to celebrate
the minority artist — not just
during Black History month
or Hispanic Heritage month.
It is more important than ever
to foster a community where
everyone can find themselves in
every form of art.
ISABELLE HASSLUND
Daily Arts Writer
NATALIE ZAK
Daily Arts Writer
the songs, whether blending
together or not, repeatedly
refer back to one another.
“Never Back” is the ending
to “Back in Time” as Francis
continues to pour over the
inaccessible nature of the past,
how everything that led him
to this point is untouchable.
This
inaccessibility,
the
unavoidable nature of demise
— it’s another layer of tragedy
on a narrative that builds itself
out of loss.
Inaccessibility is a theme
that permeates the album,
for while Farewell, Starlite!
offered up more to the listener
with its substantial tracks and
features from Kanye West
and remixes with Chance the
Rapper, Just For Us is stripped
down,
barren
almost,
and
untouchable for those who
don’t participate in its story.
Perhaps this is why on first
listen the album seemed less-
than; where I wanted to hear
the jauntiness of songs like
“May I Have This Dance,”
there was only stripped down
synth on “Tear It Up.” This
isn’t to the album’s detriment;
it is simply different, jarring to
a degree on first listen.
But becoming a part of the
story, a part of the album’s
sadness and dwelling in its loss
is what makes the listening
experience dynamic. Reflexive
in its self-referentiality, he
invokes the parallels of God
and
belief,
self-doubt
and
uncertainty to paint a full
picture of everything that led
to the relationship’s ultimate
end, draping us in despair with
simple lines like, “You could
try to be gracious … You could
try to be nice to me.” That
simple sentiment is absolutely
destructive
in
Francis’s
feather-light voice. “Scream So
Loud” best displays Francis’s
signature minimalism, both in
its lyrics and sound.
All of this sadness, this
progression of emotion that
becomes
overbearing
on
certain parts of the album,
culminates in the album’s final
song “Cruise” which acts as a
release, a reckoning with the
heavy emotion of the previous
songs. Twenty-four minutes
builds to this, and while we’re
more
emotionally
wrecked
than we were before starting
the album, “Cruise” is what
makes it all feel like catharsis
rather than a funeral. In
Francis’s
own
words,
it’s
“straight
from
the
horse’s
mouth,” entirely uncut and
raw.
The
unity
of
Francis’s
mournful Just For Us is what
places him on a plane separate
from Face Value. While the
sound is similar, the invocation
of minimalism that pervades
the album is individual to
Francis and Francis alone.
It’s his expertise, after all.
But like Collins he fuses many
methods in doing this, genre-
bending not only on a musical
scale but a branding one. His
ability to breed sadness while
simultaneously
transcending
categorization
as
a
sad
songwriter with sad songs
is seen in his latest business
venture: “Morning,” the new
theme for “Keeping Up with
the Kardashians.” And so we’re
left asking the same question
people asked of Phil Collins,
Peter Gabriel and the entire
brand Genesis built on doing
the unexpected — Francis,
who and what are you?
KTTF MUSIC
My culture
was no longer
represented
in the art that
surrounded me.
Becoming a
part of the story,
a part of the
album’s sadness
and dwelling
in its loss is
what makes
the listening
experience.
dynamic.
KTTF MUSIC