2 & 4 Bedroom Apartments $1400‑$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 $3000 ‑ $3600 plus utilities Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3 w/ 24 hour notice required 734‑996‑1991 ARBOR PROPERTIES Award‑Winning Rentals in Kerry‑ town Central Campus, Old West Side, Burns Park. Now Renting for 2018. 734‑649‑8637 | www.arborprops.com FALL 2018 HOUSES # Beds Location Rent 6 1016 S. Forest $4500 4 827 Brookwood $3000 4 852 Brookwood $3000 4 1210 Cambridge $3000 Tenants pay all utilities. Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3 w/ 24 hr notice required 734‑996‑1991 FOR RENT ACROSS 1 Affectionate sideline greeting 6 “I understand now!” 9 Mud bath coverings 14 Gal pal, in Genoa 15 Searchlight used by Gotham police 17 One changing pitches 18 “Are you declining?” 19 “Tell me!” 21 Response to a tasty treat 22 Understand 23 “Va-va-__!” 24 Long Island town 26 Dog-tired 28 605, to Seneca 30 Stop, to swabs 33 Circle segment 34 “Humble” home 36 “Why would __?” 37 Dealer’s query 39 Class with smocks 40 Punctuation in many lists 42 Sign of disuse 43 Like yoga teachers 45 Many a craft beer, for short 46 Online box filler 48 Cough up the cash 49 Enterprise rival 50 KitchenAid appliances 52 __ colada: rum drink 54 Old vitamin bottle no. 57 Shiba __ : Japanese dog 58 Scored well under par, in golf lingo 61 Bart Simpson’s “Holy cow!” 64 “Love Me Like You Do” singer Goulding 65 Apple Store support station 66 Preps, as potatoes 67 Icon tappers 68 Bashful 69 Risky rendezvous DOWN 1 Fashionable Kentucky Derby array 2 “My turn to bat” 3 Handheld cleaner 4 Spotted wildcat 5 Thomas of “That Girl” 6 Somewhat 7 Polishes off 8 Legal dept. staffers 9 2006 cop drama set in Florida 10 Star’s rep. 11 Hose mishap 12 Welles’ “Citizen” 13 Schedule opening 16 Six-time Super Bowl coach Don 20 Website with film profiles 24 Hosp. fluid- administration methods hidden in 3-, 9-, 31- and 34-Down 25 __ Alto, Calif. 26 Tampa __ Buccaneers 27 Slowly wear away 29 West Virginia natural resource 31 Reagan Library site 32 Allegro, largo, lento, etc. 34 Like much Norton software 35 Bluesy James 38 Japanese golf great Aoki 41 Remote batteries 44 Promote aggressively 47 Dunham and Olin 49 Buck horn 51 Anesthetizes 53 Bumbling 54 Sauce brand with an accent on its last letter 55 Salon colorings 56 OXY 10 target 58 Suspicious (of) 59 Art store buys 60 Wild or Old area 62 Balloon filler 63 Scrooge’s scoff By C.C. Burnikel ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 03/20/18 03/20/18 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, March 20, 2018 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis Classifieds Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com BOOK REVIEW I have a theory that all good books fall into one of two categories. Some are good like Oreos or Amanda Bynes movies: They probably won’t win a Pulitzer Prize anytime soon, but they’re compelling and comforting and impossible to put down. Others are good like quinoa and Oscar- winning documentaries: They might be a little bit less accessible, but they offer something real and sustaining, and they change the way you move through the world. And then there are the rare, best books that can do both, making you a better person in painless, wildly entertaining ways. That’s Marisa de los Santos’s gift. Her books are consummate page-turners, imbued with all the mystery twists and will-they-or-won’t-they tension of a beach read, but they’re also beautifully crafted, deeply felt and consistently life-affirming. While de los Santos’s latest novel, “I’ll Be Your Blue Sky,” might not shine quite as bright as those that came before it, it still has that signature cocktail of wit and wonder that makes de los Santos great. “I’ll Be Your Blue Sky” revisits the characters of de los Santos’s earlier novels, “Love Walked In” and “Belong to Me,” a few years down the road. Clare Hobbes is all grown up and about to marry Zach, a man who is, “So generally, generically marriageable it was almost funny.” Zach is smart, handsome and determined to be a good person despite his troubled past, but Clare can’t shake the feeling that their relationship isn’t quite right. On her wedding day, she serendipitously meets Edith Herron, an old woman who gives her the courage to follow her instincts and break off the engagement. Weeks later, Clare discovers that Edith has died and left her a New England beach house, a safe haven where Clare can pick up the pieces of her broken heart. But everything at Blue Sky House isn’t what it seems, and Clare and her childhood friend Dev set out on an adventure to unveil the mysteries of Edith’s past. It would be easy to pigeonhole this book into the ill-defined and commonly maligned category of “women’s fiction,” where so many good stories go to die. Ignoring for the moment the larger problem of how our society values content aimed at women, “I’ll Be Your Blue Sky” does conform to some of the clichés of the genre. It’s clear, within the first few chapters, who Clare will end up with (which points to another cliché — the idea that the heroine has to end up with anyone at all). The female relationships are lovely and supportive and aspirational, but they struggle to pass the Bechdel test. The story is interested in love — its complexities and paradoxes and purities — more than anything else, at the expense of hard-hitting social criticism or intellectual theorizing. But within that “women’s fiction” framework, de los Santos works magic. She’s a sharp observer of the details, “All the small, scattered pieces of the precious and luminous ordinary,” and as a result her world and its characters buzz with life and authenticity. If the relationship-centric subject matter seems cliché, it’s executed with such clear-eyed sensitivity as to be completely irresistible, even to a card-carrying cynic. De los Santos writes fiction like a poet, every word lovingly chosen, and in her capable hands even the simplest things sparkle. Rather than “women’s fiction,” it might be more accurate to categorize this book as magical realism. The parameters of Clare and Edith’s world are certainly different than our own: No mystery is unsolvable, no coincidence is impossible and happy endings are guaranteed. But does it really matter if this fantasy world she creates, where the people are all a degree better than we know ourselves to be, isn’t as realistic as realistic fiction would like? It’s still delightful, clever and emotionally resonant in a way that continues to echo long after the final page. I’ve had enough of reality. Bring me more magic, please. ‘I’ll Be Your Blue Sky’ is a magical, resonant read JULIA MOSS Daily Arts Writer “I’ll Be Your Blue Sky” Marisa de los Santos William Morrorw Books Mar. 6, 2018 If the weeks in the wake of Parkland have taught us anything, it’s that high schoolers are a lot sharper, a lot cooler and a lot tougher than they’re given credit for. That’s probably not news to Netflix, which has quickly put together an impressive arsenal of original programming featuring young characters — from smash hits “Stranger Things” and “13 Reasons Why” to sleeper favorites “Everything Sucks!” and “American Vandal.” “On My Block,” a new half- hour comedy-drama from “Awkward” creator Lauren Iungerich, is a welcome addition to the lineup. It’s a sharp, moving series set in South Central Los Angeles and centered around children of color, who — though pop culture might lead you to believe otherwise — actually come of age, too. The show follows four lifelong best friends as they navigate their freshman year of high school. There’s headstrong tomboy Monse (newcomer Sierra Capri), high-strung Jamal (Brett Gray, “Rise”), suave Ruby (Jason Genao, “The Get Down”) and sensitive Cesar (Diego Tinoco, “Teen Wolf”). The quartet is joined later by Olivia (Ronni Hawk, “Stuck in the Middle”), who moves in with Ruby’s family when her parents are deported. There are story beats that feel familiar — drama surrounding the school dance, complicated love triangles, the pressure of family expectations. But there are also plenty of elements we don’t often see on television that keep the show original and fresh. Cesar struggles to break away from the gang life men in his family are forced into; Olivia is crushed that her parents won’t be around for her quinceañera. It all makes for a show that’s tonally interesting. Storylines that are full of laughs, like Jamal’s madcap quest for buried treasure stolen from a roller rink, find themselves alongside much heavier arcs, like Monse’s search for her biological mother. Fortunately, for the most part, the show’s young stars have the acting chops to pull it off. It’s largely thanks to them that “On My Block” manages that emotional whiplash quite well. The constant teetering between comedy and drama gives rise to some exposition- heavy writing and stiff performances at first, but the show’s ambitions pay off by the season’s final episodes, when everything really falls into place. And the initially disparate narrative strands converge and crescendo in a genuinely shocking finale that begs for a second season. The show’s real strength lies in its characters, who feel immediately real and lived-in, as if they’re old friends we’ve known our whole lives. It makes every triumph they experience a little sweeter and every disappointment a bit more heartbreaking. Monse, Jamal, Ruby, Cesar and Olivia aren’t the types of characters whose stories usually get told on television, but they’re each so compelling that it’s impossible not to fall in love with them. And though the show doesn’t make any mention of politics, there’s something about watching teenagers of color take up space and speak their mind that feels almost revolutionary. It’s no surprise that some of the most affecting, enjoyable works on screen in the past year — from “Lady Bird” to “Dear White People” to “Love, Simon” — have been modern portraits of young adulthood in all of its joy and confusion and awakening. “On My Block” brings more needed diversity to the coming-of-age canon, and does so with a charm and charisma that’s simply irresistible. Netflix has another teen hit with ‘On My Block’ MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN Daily Arts Writer TV REVIEW NETFLIX “On My Block” Netflix COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW Last Thursday, folk fans from Ann Arbor and beyond gathered at The Ark and settled into the seats closely surrounding the stage. The scene was a familiar one for anyone who has spent time at The Ark in the past: People chat with each other and sit down with drinks and popcorn, the lights go dim. It’s a special kind of atmosphere, whether or not you’re very familiar with the artist of the night, because it’s easy to feel the community for the evening already beginning to take hold. That night, the performance in question was that of Langhorne Slim, with an opening set by Christian Lee Hutson. And while the usual feelings of an Ark folk show were all there — the community, the emotion and the attentiveness — these particular artists seemed to extend their talents into other modes of entertainment as well. Both performances were punctuated by storytelling and comedy that had almost everyone in the audience cracking up at one point or another. Hutson took the stage first, wearing a bright, retro orange shirt indicative of his Los Angeles origins. Hutson warmed up the crowd with a wide variety of songs from his repertoire, ricocheting easily and naturally between moody love songs, folksy reflections and alt rock irony. One of the highlights was, unquestionably, the humorous post-breakup song, “The Kid,” with a refrain that just about made everyone present laugh: “It doesn’t matter what you did / I think that we should have a kid.” The charismatic carelessness of this song was perfectly reflective of Hutson’s persona between songs: Candid and vulnerable, good- natured and shameless. There were also moments that dug a little deeper, like his performance of “I Just Can’t Fucking Do It Anymore,” a toned-down ode to the bittersweet nature of resignation and closure. Slim took the stage next, with a range of songs just as eclectic. What’s more, each new song seemed to hint at a new facet of Slim’s personality; even after the entire concert was over and people were starting to file out, it was difficult to know what to make of him, how to sort all of the different scraps and fragments he’d shown us into a picture that felt complete. One thing that can definitely be said about Slim is that he was social. Like Hutson, he was able to command the entire venue easily, despite having no band behind him. He was just a single man with a guitar, yet it didn’t take long before the audience was hanging on to his every word and chord. He even brought it up at one point, remarking, “This is a listening room.” He praised the audience for listening so respectfully, but also encouraged everyone not to feel suppressed, to know they were more than welcome to sing along if they knew the words. People laughed at this; undoubtedly nobody had realized they were being so quiet — we’d been so hooked on the performance that we didn’t notice. And people did sing along; the soft voices of audience members filled the room during the hits “Changes” and “Life is Confusing,” and rose in volume for more exuberant numbers like “Wild Soul.” But they also fell back into pools of captivated silence during some of the broken-up periods between songs, when Slim would tell lengthy, varied stories about his life and experiences, interspersed with jokes. He joked about Graham Nash, who had performed at The Ark recently and left his setlist behind; Slim would often consult the setlist (on the back of which he’d written his own) and wonder aloud how his performance was likely living up to Nash’s. He also told the room about his childhood summers in Ocean City and the love he had for his grandparents. He then sang “Ocean City (For May, Jack & Brother John),” a short but poignant song about growing up that resonated so much more due to the context. Above all else, he had an astounding capacity to switch abruptly from one mode to the next. One minute, he would be giving a moving performance or telling a story about his grandparents that could make half the people in the room tear up, and the next he would swivel into a cheerful, exciting new song, and pull the audience right along with him. Each second was just as soul- baring as the one that came before it, with honest, poetic lyrics that made it feel as though we were almost having a conversation with Slim, rather than simply being entertained by him. Lines like, “If I had somebody to love me / Then I’d have somebody to love,” from “Funny Feelin’,” were so playful, poetic and relatable that it was impossible not to be immersed in the moment. All of this reached its peak at the very end of the concert. For his encore, Slim had The Ark turn the lights on. We’d been engulfed in pitch-darkness for the entire performance, and it felt a little jarring to suddenly see each other in all the light. Then he did the encore while walking around the aisles between the rows, making eye contact with everybody and nodding and singing, high-fiving people and grasping their hands. Artists do sometimes walk around with the crowd while performing, but for him to do it with all of the lights on — everyone able to clearly see each other as if it were daytime — felt much more bizarre, unique and oddly touching. From what he showed us that night, Langhorne Slim is a musician, as well as a storyteller and a comedian. He has a great love for the people around him, singular thoughts and (more importantly) the ability to articulate them, and an awed, specific memory. It is difficult to understand him fully based on these pieces, but we don’t need to; maybe it is enough, as an audience, to value what he has given us, and to hope that we have given him something back. Langhorne Slim puts on enigmatic show at The Ark LAURA DZUBAY Daily Arts Writer 6 — Tuesday, March 20, 2018 Arts The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com