FOR RENT

3 & 4 Bedroom Apartments
$2100‑$2800 plus utilities.
Tenants pay electric to DTE
Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3
w/ 24 hour notice required.
1015 Packard
734‑996‑1991

5 & 6 Bedroom Apartments
1014 Vaughn
$3250 ‑ $3900 plus utilities
Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3
w/ 24 hour notice required
734‑996‑1991

 
ARBOR PROPERTIES 
Award‑Winning Rentals in 
Kerrytown 
Central Campus, Old West 

Side, Burns Park. Now Renting for 
2018. 
734‑649‑8637 | www.arborprops.com 

CENTRAL CAMPUS
7 BD furnished house, LR, DR, 2 
baths,
kitchen fully equipped, w/d, int.cable,
parking 4 ‑ 5. MAY to MAY. Contact:
706‑284‑3807 or meadika@gmail.
com.

FALL 2018 HOUSES
# Beds Location Rent
 6 1016 S. Forest $4900
 4 827 Brookwood $3000
 4 852 Brookwood $3000
 4 1210 Cambridge $3400
Tenants pay all utilities.
Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3 
w/ 24 hr notice required
734‑996‑1991

HELP WANTED

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all positions FT/PT. Call 
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TICKETS & TRAVEL

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

ACROSS
1 Big sister?
7 Way more than a
whimper
11 Pixie
14 Circus equipment
15 Online
marketplace
16 Madhouse
17 First U.S.
national park
19 Syncopated
piece
20 Calvin Klein or
Perry Ellis
21 Caution
22 Spilled the beans
23 Love personified
24 Letter writing,
some say
26 Oenophile’s
concern
28 Bear with a
purple bow tie
32 “Yada yada
yada” letters
35 Co-star of the
1955 comedy
“How to Be Very,
Very Popular”
38 Revolutionary
murdered in a
tub
40 Groom’s garb
41 Generous slices
42 Subject of a 19th-
century famine
45 Menu general
46 Tar pits site
47 “Pretty please?”
49 Che’s given
name
52 State-spanning
rds.
56 Cross by wading
59 Digging
60 The good dishes
61 “The Mikado”
band?
62 Aquanaut’s
workplace ... or a
hint to what’s
graphically
represented four
times in this
puzzle
64 Dram
65 Thailand, once
66 Recess
67 Fictional
vigilante’s mark
68 Ballpark figs.
69 Christian of “Mr.
Robot”

DOWN
1 Sanctuaries

2 Substitute
players
3 Frodo inherited
his ring
4 Queen of mystery
5 Small-runway
aircraft acronym
6 Spokane-to-
Walla Walla dir.
7 Software to
debug
8 Scrub, at NASA
9 Aspirant
10 Drano compound
11 Biblical reformer
12 Library
transaction
13 “Around the
World ... ” hero
18 Affirmed in court
22 Happy hour
perch
24 __-di-dah
25 Lighter brand
27 Bible book read
during Purim
29 Frank’s cousin
30 Gambling
parlors, for short
31 Very
32 Expressionist
painter Nolde
33 Plantation near
Twelve Oaks
34 Nursery
purchase

36 Rural road
feature
37 One demanding
payment, say
39 Comparable to a
beet
43 Pressed
sandwiches
44 Confucian ideal
48 Cornell’s city
50 Conclude by
51 Parts of some
flutes
53 First of a series

54 __ of Hearts,
accused tarts
thief
55 Cavalry sword
56 With “the,” TV
character who
first jumped the
shark—literally
57 Village Voice
award
58 Harvest-ready
60 Spreadsheet box
62 Employ
63 KLM rival

By David Poole

©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/26/18

01/26/18

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Friday, January 26, 2018

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

You 
may 
have 
heard 
of 
blackbear. 
The 
image-
conscious 
singer 
got 
quite 
popular during the latter half 
of 2017 after the release of 
his high-water mark single 
“do re mi,” which is actually 
a pretty good song. The rest 
of blackbear’s music is OK, 
I suppose. I would compare 
it to a well-baked loaf of 
white bread: Competent in 
execution, 
but 
bland 
and 
unsurprising. 
Despite 
his 
insipid but otherwise harmless 
music, blackbear manages to 
be actively insufferable due to 
his lyrics and persona.
Blackbear 
is 
proof 
that 
singing about drugs and sex 
does not automatically make 
you cool; this is a guy who 
is trying way, way, too hard. 
Blackbear evidently wants to 
occupy a role similar to that 
of The Weeknd, but due to his 
astounding lack of nuance and 
subtlety, his persona comes 
off as less of a tortured yet 
attractive rogue and more like 
the three-way love child of 
Adam Levine, one of those guys 
who comment on PornHub 
videos and a cigarette.
Blackbear has two lyrical 
modes, and both are hackneyed 
and lazy. One is the “revenge 
love” theme, where he has 
nothing to say that hasn’t been 
said a million times before by 
other “revenge love” songs (a 
theme that generally makes its 

way into his tweets, as we’ll 
soon see). The other mode is 
a clumsy attempt at imitating 
the 
braggadocious 
and 
materialistic aesthetic found 
in a good deal of hip hop/R&B, 
except with none of the humor, 
charm or self-awareness. The 
effect is cold and caustic, 
giving rise to songs devoid of 
personality with catchiness 
as the only redeeming factor. 
There’s 
nothing 
inherently 
wrong with this. Music can 
still be memorable even if it 
isn’t meaningful, but his lyrics 
and aesthetic suggest that he 
takes himself more seriously 
than he should.
Let’s play a game.
Below are six tweets, three 
of which are taken directly 
from 
blackbear’s 
official 
Twitter account, while the 
other three have been taken 
from Bryson Tiller parody 
accounts. The game is to 
guess whose are whose. In the 
interest of fairness all letters 
have been made lowercase, all 
“you”s have been changed to 
“u”s, all “to”s and “too”s have 
been changed to “2”s and all 
“for”s have been changed to 
“4”s.
1. “wasted so much time 
wishing i was good enough 4 u”
2. “i loved u at my worst u 
only love me cuz im at my best”
3. 
“don’t 
fight 
4 
their 
attention. if they really care, u 
shouldn’t have 2”
4. “worst part is i’ll never 
know”
5. “wasted hella time on u”
6. “they ain’t down 4 u like 

i am”
Correct answer: blackbear is 
the author of tweets 1, 2 and 4, 
while tweets 3, 5, 6 belong to 
an assortment of inspirational 
Bryson Tiller parody accounts. 
If you aced it, congratulations, 
because even after writing the 
quiz, I still couldn’t. A quick 
glance at blackbear’s Twitter 
page will make clear that these 
are not isolated examples — 
he really is just that goddamn 
corny.
What’s such a shame about 
blackbear is that he does 
actually possess some talent: 
He has a great voice and a 
knack for catchy melodies. 
His instrumentals are never 
particularly 
innovative, 
but 
they are well-crafted. The 
problem 
is 
both 
that 
his 
lyrics are intolerably vapid 
and that his public persona is 
inescapable, pervading every 
aspect of his music, from 
his inane song titles (e.g. “i 
hope ur whole life sux”) to 
his 
derivative 
and 
cloying 
lyrics (“Cause I have hella 
feelings for you / I act like I 
don’t fucking care / ’Cause 
I’m so fucking scared,” etc). 
If he would drop his odious 
pose, his music would be 
tolerable, maybe even good. 
But given his general lack of 
self-awareness or tact, I find 
this situation unlikely. Until 
that happens, it’s impossible 
to listen to blackbear’s music 
without remembering that this 
is the same guy who tweets 
stuff like, “i think of u often 
hope u kno.”

blackbear just sux and I 
will never get used 2 it

MUSIC NOTEBOOK

JONAH MENDELSON
Daily Arts Writer

American 
folk 
music, 
to 
me, is a tradition that’s as 
rich as the stories behind it. 
Combining elements from song 
and story, folk music has been 
an American tradition for years 
and continues to thrive all 
across the country.
However, 
with 
music 
becoming 
more 
and 
more 
commercial 
over 
the 
past 
100 years, the medium has 
taken motives of passion and 
expression and shifted to more 
monetary driven intentions, and 
it sometimes shows. This isn’t 
me trying to discredit any genre 
— it’s just a fact. As music has 
become more valuable, whether 
it 
be 
through 
increasing 
accessibility or just the sheer 
rise in the number of people 
listening to and producing their 
own music, it has become a 
commercial industry.
Despite this fact, Mountain 
Heart — a group that borrows 
from 
folk, 
Americana 
and 
bluegrass — continues to write 
music reflecting not only their 
roots, but the roots of the genre 
as a whole. Although they’ve 
been around for almost 20 
years, they’ve remained true to 
their sound and kept a tradition 
of storytelling alive and well.
With 
their 
upcoming 
performance 
at 
The 
Ark’s 
Folk Festival, The Daily spoke 
with lead singer, guitarist and 
keyboardist Josh Shilling about 

the group’s new album, playing 
in Ann Arbor and what it’s like 
to be in a group that stays true 
to its roots.
Coming fresh out of recording 
their currently untitled album, 
Shilling says that they’re ready 
to share some new stories 
with audiences and return to 
some old ones. After their last 
album, Blue Skies, Shilling told 
his groupmates that they were 
going to have a really tough 
time “beating the songs that 
they wrote for that album.”
Shilling 
said 
that 
this 
upcoming 
album 
is 
unique 
because while he had written 
most of the songs in the past, this 
album features songs written by 
the group as a collective.
“As a band, we’ve never sat 
around together and written 
one 
song,” 
Shilling 
shared, 
“but 
with 
this 
upcoming 
song, ‘Restless Wind’ ... It 
was a collective effort. The 
songwriting is killer.”
And the recordings feel like 
just that.
“We’re playing and singing 
live,” he said. “It’s about as raw 
and organic as you can get. It 
feels like you’re in the room 
with us.”
Continuing on with their 
legacy of sharing themselves 
with the audience, both through 
a recorded medium and live on 
stage, Mountain Heart wanted 
this album to feel the same live 
as it feels recorded.
Even after playing all over 
the world, Ann Arbor remains 
as one of the group’s favorite 

cities.
“It really always feels like 
a second home to us,” Shilling 
said. “The fans are huge music 
lovers and supporters ... They 
really make us feel at home. It’s 
really special.”
It’s one of the reasons why 
they come back almost every 
winter, and it’s why they decided 
to record their live album here 
back in 2007. Along with the 
fans, Shilling commented on 
how fantastic the acts are that 
play at The Ark, saying that he 
doesn’t think that he’s “ever 
seen a bad act play that stage … 
They just have great taste.”
“If I lived in Ann Arbor, I’m 
sure I’d be hanging around at 
The Ark all the time,” he said.
This isn’t Mountain Heart’s 
first time at the Folk Festival, 
either. About a decade ago, they 
graced the stage in Ann Arbor, 
and they couldn’t be more 
excited to return.
“I remember the lineup then 
was just phenomenal,” Shilling 
said, “and this lineup with John 
Prine, Jason Isbell, Aimee Mann 
… all those folks. Everyone’s 
phenomenal. They really seem 
to get it right. I don’t think any 
artist would turn this down … 
Who wouldn’t want to be part 
of this?”
Tickets are selling out quickly 
for both Friday and Saturday 
nights of the Folk Festival, 
but Mountain Heart will be 
returning in April for those who 
will be missing the Folk Festival 
and still want to be swept away 
by the stories of the group.

Mountain Heart to bring 
songwriting to Ann Arbor

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

RYAN COX
Daily Arts Writer

As a guilty pleasure watcher 
of 
the 
“Stomp 
the 
Yard” 
movies, I had a simple request 
for Netflix’s new movie “Step 
Sisters”: Entertain me. No need 
for great acting or a decent 
screenplay, 
just 
entertain. 
Unfortunately, “Step Sisters” 
has 
such 
a 
convoluted 
message 
on 
race, 
cultural 
appropriation and sisterhood 
that any enjoyment is tinged 
with confusion. A movie that 
makes fun of white people 
should elicit a few laughs or 
ah-ha moments, but perhaps 
“Get Out” set the bar too 
high. Instead, “Step Sisters” 
struggles to overcome a faulty 
premise that even its pizazzy 
dance numbers cannot conceal.
Jamilah 
(Megalyn 
Echikunwoke, “CHiPs”), an 
overachieving college student, 
has high hopes for Harvard 
Law School. She also has the 
credentials necessary to fulfill 
her 
dream: 
legacy 
status, 
volunteer work at a local 
community center, president 
of a Black sorority and a killer 
work ethic. When the dean of 
Westcott University promises 
to write a recommendation 
letter for Jamilah, in exchange 
for her teaching an unruly 
and majority white sorority 
(Sigma Beta Beta) how to step, 

she agrees. The implications 
of a group of white girls 
taking over a dance style with 
deep African roots make her 
uncomfortable, though, so she 
hides her association with SBB 
from her family and friends. 
(Yes, this plot sounds exactly 

like “Bring It On.” No, the film 
does not live up to the same 
standard).
Unlike other commercially 
successful 
female 
ensemble 
films 
like 
“Pitch 
Perfect,” 
“Step Sisters” does not have 
that one actor who holds up the 
rest of the team. Echikunwoke 
gives her best effort, but her 
character’s motivations are so 
poorly written that even she 
cannot deliver an applaudable 
performance. 
Furthermore, 
in comparison to other dance 
or 
singing-oriented 
films, 
the 
cast 
lacks 
chemistry. 
The oddball aspects of each 
individual are not explored. All 
that’s left are stock characters 
with backgrounds that allow 
for forced perspectives on the 
controversial situation.
“Step Sisters” has moments 
of self-awareness regarding 
the cultural appropriation its 
plot toys with. At one point, 
Jamilah exclaims that races 
can’t own things — not rap, 
not golf, not dance. However, 

the idea that white people 
who have trained a few weeks 
can beat people of color with 
a strong history of stepping at 
a national competition does 
not sit well. (Not to mention 
the 
unaddressed 
inclusion 
of a step group that wore 
traditional 
Chinese 
qipaos 
as 
their 
costumes, 
toted 
oriental 
fans 
and 
sported 
stereotypical 
haircuts. 
But 
let’s not get into that.) Mixed 
in with this semi-hypocritical 
message, “Step Sisters” makes 
occasional jabs at different 
forms of problematic liberals 
like Jamilah’s boyfriend Dane 
(Matt McGorry, “How to Get 
Away with Murder”), who 
embraces Black culture as a 
way to prove his “wokeness.”
With 
the 
involvement 
of 
Chuck 
Hayward 
from 
“Dear 
White 
People” 
and 
Lena Waithe from “Master 
of None,” “Step Sisters” has 
enough talent to create a 
more nuanced and fresh take 
on race relations. The film 
instead 
tramples 
through 
sensitive issues with faux pas 
and cringe-inducing banter. 
However, the film does try to 
promote the idea of unity and 
the performances are well-
choreographed with plenty of 
fire. Although “Step Sisters” 
fails to deliver an articulate or 
enlightening lesson on cultural 
appropriation, it does make the 
subject more approachable. 

Clunky ‘Step Sisters’ can’t 
move to the right rhythm

FILM REVIEW

MEGHAN CHOU
Daily Arts Writer

“Step Sisters”

Netflix

MOUNTAIN HEART

6— Friday, January 26, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

