Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

ACROSS
1 Filet mignon
source
5 __ price
11 Ran together
15 Actress Paquin of
Netflix’s “Alias
Grace”
16 Tremble
17 Slick
18 Team first
managed by
Casey Stengel
19 Volcanic
archipelago state
20 Eyelid bump
21 Fast clip around
the racetrack
24 Internet
subdivision
25 Feathered layer
26 USPS assignment
29 Eagerly took in
30 Flutist of Greek
myth
33 Romanov rulers
35 Classic shoe
polish brand
39 Surmounting
40 Fast clip from the
pitcher’s mound
45 “Field of Dreams”
setting
46 Lowered the
grade of
47 Take potshots
49 Simple survey
answer
50 Poetry Muse
55 Own, to Burns
56 Craven of horror
59 Mental haze
60 Fast clip down
the slopes
65 “Toodles!”
67 Evening get-
together
68 One-named
Deco artist
69 Curved paths
70 There for the __:
easy to get
71 Plug-in vehicle,
briefly
72 Chinese toy
73 Comes down
hard?
74 Dines

DOWN
1 Greek letter
whose lowercase
indicates
wavelength

2 Developer’s unit
3 Early enough
4 Bahamian capital
5 Pale as a ghost
6 __-Pei: wrinkly
dog
7 Fuzzy fruit
8 “Ghostbusters”
director Reitman
9 Secretariat
utterance?
10 Complaint
11 Anjou kin
12 Intelligentsia
13 English cathedral
town
14 Easter egg dip
22 A bit buzzed
23 Aardvark snack
27 Bouncy gait
28 Best Game or
Best Play
30 Christmas candle
scent
31 Fit to be tied
32 Super stars?
34 Plant pouch
36 Put out of sight
37 “I’m game”
38 Newcastle Brown
brew
40 Wolfgang Puck
creation
41 New Rochelle
college

42 Twice-baked
bread
43 Hit with a laser
44 “Awake and
Sing!” playwright
48 Farm mom
51 “Slumdog
Millionaire”
money
52 Brief summary
53 Line dance step
54 Military
instructions

57 Bridge seats
58 Scandinavian
toast
59 Surfboard
stabilizers
61 Got up
62 “Just do it” 
brand
63 Niagara Falls
source
64 Penny
65 Ballplayer’s hat
66 Choler

By Roland Huget
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/24/18

01/24/18

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

THERE’S A
CROSSWORD
ON THIS
PAGE.

DO
IT.

HAPPY
WEDNESDAY!

6A — Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

‘High Maintenance’ blows 
smoke on the competition

The stoner comedy isn’t always 
considered to have intelligent, 
cohesive storytelling. It’s loosely 
structured, the characters are 
high all the time (the main source 
of the humor) and more often than 
not, there are scenes of ridiculous 
slapstick, 
kooky 
psychedelic 
trips and ironic melodrama. But 
when contextualized in a more 
timely, socially relevant setting, 
the stoner comedy can actually 
be an enlightening 
commentary 
on 
how a person’s need 
for weed informs 
their 
neuroses. 
HBO’s 
criminally 
underrated 
series 
“High 
Maintenance” has 
already taken that 
step — and then 
some.
Ben Sinclair (“Home Again”) 
and Katja Blichfeld (“30 Rock”) 
co-created, 
co-wrote 
and 
co-directed “High Maintenance” 
as a Vimeo web series back in 
2012. Though the show has grown 
tremendously since its humble 
origins, the premise has remained 
the same: A nameless Brooklyn 
weed dealer, known simply as 
The Guy (played by Sinclair), 
delivers pot to a variety of clients. 
Its anthology format gives us a 
glimpse into the private lives of 
The Guy’s regular buyers, who 
range from the ordinary to the 
eccentric.
“High Maintenance” may share 
some the formulaic qualities that 
define 
other 
cannabis-tinged 
farces, but it’s no “Pineapple 
Express” or “Cheech and Chong”; 
it’s 
something 
much, 
much 
better. Sinclair and Blichfeld’s 
humanistic approach to the stoner 
comedy redefines the subgenre 
entirely. The two have crafted 
a deceptively meticulous and 

aesthetically 
radiant 
world, 
replete with sharp, insightful and 
entertaining vignettes of people 
from all different backgrounds. 
Because every episode introduces 
new characters, most of whom are 
unknown actors (save for a few), 
“High Maintenance” excels at 
capturing the multidimensionality 
of contemporary society better 
than most TV shows currently on 
air.
While the first season was 
focused more on the lifestyles 
of New York City potheads, the 
second season explores the role 
of weed as a coping 
mechanism 
in 
the 
Trump 
era. 
In the wonderful 
season 
opener 
“Globo,” The Guy 
and his girlfriend 
Beth (Yael Stone, 
“Orange is the New 
Black”) awaken to 
news of a horrible 
unnamed tragedy — the details 
are kept vague, but their reactions 
mirror the national devastation 
felt the day after Trump’s election. 
Instead of depicting the people 
affected by Trump’s imminent 
presidency, “Globo” focuses on 
the marginal experiences of The 
Guy’s unaffected clientele: A 
body-insecure man is pressured 
to go to the gym, a woman and 
two dudes engage in a threesome 
at a hotel and a burned-out Latino 
restaurant worker takes the late-
night 
subway. 
Conversations 
about the tragedy are peppered 
throughout “Globo,” and The Guy 
appears briefly in each subplot, 
but it’s the episode’s theme of 
modern dread that ties everything 
together. The mere averageness of 
each character and how they move 
through the world draw attention 
to the weight of their ongoing 
angst, and weed, as a result, helps 
them get through the day.
The 
second 
season 
also 
benefits from the addition of 
creative voices behind the scenes. 

While Sinclair and Blichfeld’s 
dual collaboration was enough 
to build “High Maintenance” 
to what it is, the expansion of a 
writer’s room and a new director 
(Shaka 
King, 
“Newlyweeds”) 
help cultivate fresh perspectives 
on weed culture. The third 
episode, “Namaste,” illustrates 
the challenges of class divides 
through the idealistic aspirations 
of a struggling realtor attempting 
to find a new home of her own 
(Danielle Brooks, “Master of 
None”) and a disillusioned couple 
moving from a co-op to a polished 
apartment. The fifth episode, 
“Scromple,” lets us know more 
about the personal life of The 
Guy, as it reveals a deeper, quieter 
pain 
buried 
underneath 
his 
generally nonchalant demeanor. 
The Guy’s subtle suffering in this 
particular episode is made only 
more devastating by Sinclair’s 
understated performance. 
Granted, “High Maintenance” 
may not be everyone’s cup of 
tea. Most stories end without 
any 
closure, 
often 
abruptly 
transitioning right to the next set 
of characters — think Richard 
Linklater’s “Slacker” but with 
more marijuana. Most episodes 
don’t have a typical conflict/
resolution 
setup, 
instead 
showcasing the randomness of 
everyday 
life, 
either 
through 
poignant 
incidental 
situations 
(a drag queen and an exiled 
Orthodox Jew cross paths in the 
standout “Derech”) or hilariously 
strange 
coincidences 
(a 
pet 
snake slithers into two unrelated 
storylines in the amusing “Fagin”). 
But even if its unconventional, 
unpredictable plotting isn’t tailor-
made for mainstream audiences, 
“High Maintenance” is still such 
a fascinating, magnetic watch. 
It’s a show that feels very in 
the moment, striking a unique 
balance between universality and 
specificity through the everyday 
experiences of flawed, weed-
loving people.

SAM ROSENBERG
Senior Arts Editor

HBO

“High 
Maintenance” 

HBO

Season 2 premiere 
Fridays at 11 p.m.

A Night Over the Rainbow

What do you hope to find in 
a room? How do you want to use 
this space? Whether it be engaging 
in a one-on-one performance, 
simply witnessing others partake 
or staying for one rendition of 
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” 
all is welcome as FK Alexander 
takes over the STAMPS gallery 
with her performance of “(I Could 
Go on Singing) Over the Rainbow” 
starting this Friday, Jan. 26.
The space will be open to 
everyone and every experience. 
Alexander 
argues 
that 
one 
reaction is just as valuable as 
another.
“Whatever people’s responses 
are, I hope they know that they 
are equal and that they are all 
welcome,” said Alexander in an 
interview with The Daily. “Some 
people want to stay there forever 
and some people turn out after 10 
minutes and they’re just like, ‘she’s 
just doing that one song.’”
The 
performance 
consists 
of 
multiple 
renditions 
of 
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” 
backed my the Okishima Tourist 
Association playing noise music 
out of small, mysterious, Oz-esque 
boxes.
“They’re playing a kind of lull 
of noise; It’s not totally chaotic 
noise, it’s very carefully crafted,” 
Alexander said. Not only does it add 
background to the performance, 
but it also complicates the song. 
“It brings out a tension in the song, 
and the song is also bringing about 
a tension in that soundscape that’s 
happening.”
“There is not a story. There 
is not a beginning, a middle and 
an end. It’s this. It’s one thing,” 
Alexander explained. But while 
the performance itself is not 
a story, the audience creates a 
story on the spot. Each individual 
narrative may differ vastly, but 
it is the collective narrative that 
creates the story as a whole.
While the idea of an entire 
performance consisting of just 
one song may initially seem a bit 
daunting, it is in the repetition, the 

connection and the experience 
in which individuals will find 
meaning. 
Through 
repetition, 
Alexander strives to experience 
what Judy Garland may have 
experienced over the course of her 
life.
“For everyone who heard Judy 
sing it in a concert, that was the 
one and only time she was going 
to sing it for them,” Alexander 
explained. For each and every 
repetition to be for someone and 
to be more than just one of many: 

That honesty and sincerity were 
fundamental aspects that inspired 
this show.
“The sacrifice which Judy 
made for other people to have this 
moment, where maybe they felt 
like they were over the rainbow, 
was just devastatingly poignant 
and beautiful to me.” In an attempt 
to reveal this beautiful sacrifice, 
Alexander’s 
performance 
ventures to give more people an 
over the rainbow moment.
There are so many ways that we 
try to make others understand, but 
too often it feels incommunicable. 
There is only so much that words 
can do, and at a certain point 
they lose any sort of power at all. 
Alexander argued that words 
can even block the way to pure 
understanding.
“As much as words can really 
allow people to understand what 
you are trying to say, they can also 
really alienate people as well,” 
Alexander said
But then, art steps in. Pathways 

to communication open as art, 
and performance give people 
an experience, or a “sensation,” 
which permits understanding. 
Alexander uses the power of 
performance 
to 
communicate 
her own, and Judy Garland’s, 
experiences with her audience.
Alexander is far from lacking 
in experience. Stemming from 
her recovery, her performance has 
less to do with the unimaginable 
hardships and everything to do 
with the fight back. Through 
Judy’s 
experience, 
Alexander 
realized that the “struggle is 
beautiful,” and that “the fight 
against the parts of yourself that 
are saying ‘you can’t do this,’ that 
is actually just as beautiful as 
success.”
“What Judy really spoke about 
a lot was that this struggle towards 
a happy ending was life, that 
was the thing. Over the rainbow 
doesn’t exist,” Alexander said, 
“but maybe there are moments in 
our lives when we feel it, when you 
do get a little bit over the rainbow 
moment, but you can’t live there, 
you can’t live in Oz.”
Honest, 
selfless 
and 
empowering, 
FK 
Alexander’s 
performance 
opens 
the 
door 
for the audience to reflect and 
learn by experience. Promoting 
connection and communication 
through her performance, there 
will be something to take away for 
every individual, even if it is just 
knowing whether you want to be 
there at all. In a world where both 
communication and acceptance 
can feel impossible, spending an 
hour where those things thrive 
makes it hard to turn away.
Perseverance is a struggle 
that we all face, but the beauty in 
continuing on is sometimes hard 
to see. It is from Judy Garland 
that FK Alexander found her 
way to recovery, and it is from 
FK Alexander that the audience 
will find inspiration to keep going 
through whatever may stand in 
their way.
“Can’t go on, can’t go on, but 
you’ll go,” Alexander said. “If you 
just keep going then it will get 
better; it will get better tomorrow 
even.”

ISABEL FRYE
Daily Arts Writer

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

“Juliet, Naked,” the latest effort 
from producer Judd Apatow (“The 
Big Sick”) and director Jesse 
Peretz (“Our Idiot Brother”), isn’t 
nearly a failure because of what 
the movie does, but because of 
what it doesn’t do. With a great 
pedigree — Apatow, original book 
by Nick Hornby and screenplay 
by 
masters 
Tamara 
Jenkins 
(“The 
Savages”), 
Phil 
Alden 
Robinson (“Field of Dreams”) 
and Jim Taylor (“Sideways”) — 
it’s a disappointment that “Juliet, 
Naked” falls as flat as it does.
Annie (Rose Byrne, “Spy”) 
is angered by her long-term 
boyfriend’s 
obsession 
with 
American rocker Tucker Crowe 
(Ethan 
Hawke, 
“Maudie”). 
Tucker, with the melancholy of 
Elliott Smith and the sort of broken 
timbre of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, 
is all Duncan (Chris O’Dowd, 
“Loving Vincent”) can talk about. 
He has a room — nay, a shrine — 
devoted to his collection of Crowe 
memorabilia, and runs a website 
dedicated to curating his fandom 
through his investigative stitching 
of Tucker’s life. Duncan hides 

away in his lair after he discovers 
a disc of demos previously thought 
to never exist. This draws Annie to 
a breaking point, and she does the 
unthinkable, leaving a scathing 
comment on his review tearing 
her boyfriend to pieces. Crowe, 
miraculously, reads the comment, 
and in his nigh depressed state, 
writes to her that she was dead-
on in her criticism. They develop 
an online romance until Crowe 
comes 
to 
London 
after 
his 
daughter goes into labor. 
For a movie that tries to examine 
the parameters of relationships 
— parent-child, partner-partner, 
artist-fan, sister-sister — “Juliet, 
Naked” surprisingly finds its 
strength in its individuals, and 
decidedly not in the interplay 
and exchanges between a pair. 
While Byrne, wresting the leading 
role from O’Dowd, and Hawke, 
endearing in his own way, bring 
vibrancy to their respective roles, 
their chemistry never feels quite 
truthful. It’s not that they’re 
acting in two separate movies; it’s 
that, in relying on the plot alone 
to forge their connection, they 
neglected to do it themselves.
The same can be said about 
the relationship between Byrne 
and O’Dowd, the central focus 

of the film in its first half. Annie 
and Duncan have been partners 
for a long time, enough to have 
discussed 
children, 
but 
they 
can hardly stand one another. 
There’s a lack of genuine love and 
care for one another that makes 
the pairing seem like a doomed 
relationship, even considering the 
external tension between the two 
on Tucker Crowe’s musical ability. 
The film just never quite makes 
a convincing case that we should 
care.
Ultimately, 
“Juliet, 
Naked” 
tries to do too much in too little 
time. Rather than luxuriate in 
the ideas it sets out to discuss, like 
celebrity, spousal infidelity and 
parenthood, Peretz’s film splashes 
water before getting out of the 
shallow end. On top of the trite 
and overdone film sequences, the 
lack of focus makes almost every 
emotional beat a miss. The film 
is occasionally funny, especially 
in scenes that involve Annie’s 
flamboyantly 
flirtatious 
sister 
Rose (Lily Brazier, “People Just 
Do Nothing”) or the screwball 
madness between Crowe, Duncan 
and Annie. Sadly, only a few punch 
lines land. When the lucky few do, 
they reveal the dearth of humor in 
the film.

SUNDANCE REVIEW
Sundance: ‘Juliet, Naked’

DANNY HENSEL
Daily Arts Writer

“(I Could Go 
on Singing) 
Over the 
Rainbow” 

Friday, Jan. 26 — 
Saturday, Feb. 3 

The Stamps Gallery

$12 Student, $30 
Adult

TV REVIEW

