The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, September 10, 2018 — 5A

ACROSS
1 “We Create 
Music” org.
6 “You’re a riot”
10 Sportscaster 
Albert
14 Diner counter 
alternative
15 Hasn’t paid yet
16 Jai __
17 Job
19 Govt. crash 
investigator
20 Weather-
affecting current
21 Give up all 
expectations
23 __ Strauss, 
female touring 
guitarist for Alice 
Cooper
25 Greek “i”
26 BB-shaped 
legume
29 Switching from 
cable TV to 
streaming, say
34 Relaxing time in 
the chalet
36 Skin ink
37 Four-time 
’60s-’70s A.L. All-
Star __ Powell
38 42-yr.-old skit 
show
40 Regarding
41 Not at all 
abundant
44 Totally loses it
47 Bedsheet buyer’s 
concern
49 Observe
50 Pop’s Lady __
51 1982 Disney 
sci-fi film
53 Most ordinary
57 Hydrocodone, 
e.g.
61 Like un maníaco
62 Composition 
for violin, viola 
and cello ... and 
what the starts 
of 17-, 29- and 
47-Across 
comprise
64 Color of raw silk
65 Sights from la mer
66 Longtime senator 
Specter
67 Vintage Jags
68 Not e’en once
69 Wall Street’s 
Standard & __

DOWN
1 Having the skills
2 Window box dirt

3 Hartford’s st.
4 Had food 
delivered
5 “Hooked on” 
language 
teaching method
6 In what way
7 GI on the run
8 Valiant
9 Invites to the 
prom, say
10 Borough across 
the Harlem River 
from the Bronx
11 Voice above 
tenor
12 Abrasive tool
13 Hard-to-explain 
feeling
18 Pics
22 Bluesy James
24 Boats like Noah’s
26 Brew brand with 
a blue-ribbon 
logo
27 Pleistocene 
period
28 Cheering and 
yelling, as a 
crowd
30 Down Under dog
31 “Who’s there?” 
response from a 
couple
32 Naples night

33 Golden-egg layer
35 Flagrant
39 Rude dude
42 Actor Scott or his 
dad James
43 Enters sneakily
45 2001 scandal 
company
46 Temporary 
solution
48 Structure 
protected by a 
moat

52 The “N” in “TNT”
53 Theater suffix
54 What a key 
opens
55 Farmland 
measure
56 One in a forest
58 Woody Guthrie’s 
son
59 Stadium section
60 Many millennia
63 Dead Sea 
country: Abbr.

By Matt McKinley
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/10/18

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

09/10/18

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Monday, September 10, 2018

A brief history 

of grime

WORLD MUSIC COLUMN

I’ll 
admit it, grime 
isn’t 

everyone’s cup of tea. It is 
unapologetically 
in 
your 

face, abrasive and constantly 
energetic. 
But 
it’s 
these 

characteristics, combined with 
a rich history, that make it 
such an appealing genre, and 
one so embedded in current 
British music, so much so that 
one of the genre’s stalwarts, 
Wiley, received an MBE from 
the future king himself. While 
many argue that its best days 
were in a bygone era, the genre 
has experienced somewhat of 
a resurgence. Old figures and 
new, from Skepta to Kano to 
Dave, have revived the genre, 
or at least have released works 
that have some link to grime. 
Even Drake has collaborated 
with some of the genre’s biggest 
names. In a way, it is the perfect 
embodiment of modern music 
in general. Proliferated by the 
Internet, it has taken influences 
from cultures and movements 
from around the world to create 
a youthful expression of urban 
life.

While the genre itself is a 

relatively 
recent 
innovation, 

its history and influences go 
slightly further back. While the 
genre shares some ostensible 
similarities with American hip 
hop, it is a wholly unique form. 
Rather than drawing its earliest 
influences from soul, R&B and 
jazz, grime builds upon the rich 
electronic music tradition of the 
U.K., especially the traditions 
from 
the 
early-and-mid-’90s. 

This time, the peak of the 
original “rave” era continues 
to elicit nostalgia from those 
who participated in the illegal, 
ecstasy-filled warehouse shows 
themselves, as well as from those 
who weren’t even alive during 
them.

A 
far 
cry 
from 
the 

commercialized 
EDCs 
and 

Tomorrowlands of today, these 
raves were dingy, risky and, most 
importantly, an outpouring of 
the disillusionment of urban 
youth (especially among poorer, 
immigrant communities) in the 
country’s large cities in the post-
Thatcher era. Genres such as 
garage, jungle and drum n’ bass 
were at their peak, combining 
quick, uptempo rhythms with 
melodic touches. These genres 
themselves owe a lot to music 
made in Jamaica and Jamaican 
communities in the U.K., namely 
reggae and its more electronic 

cousin, ragga. Garage tracks 
operated around 130-140 bpm, 
while drum n’ bass elevated the 
energy to a frenetic pace of 160-
180 bpm.

An entire book can be written 

about the incredible scene that 
dominated the U.K. during this 
time, but what is important to 
realize about the scene is the 
sheer magnitude of its reach at 
the time and how multicultural 
and fluid it was. Far from being 
set in stone, beholden to a fixed 
set of characteristics, DJs at 
the time took influences from 
wherever 
they 
could 
from 

around the world, all while 

incorporating the unique identity 
of the growing immigrant groups 
in cities like London, Bristol and 
Manchester. 
This 
particular 

scene died down at the end of 
the decade and gave birth to the 
genre of dubstep, and eventually 
grime itself. The godfather of 
the genre, the aforementioned 
Wiley, adapted the breakbeat 
dominated sound of dubstep 
and combined it with energetic 
rapping to create a genre which 
he dubbed “Eskibeat” (aptly 
enough, he address this very 
topic in this iconic track).

In Wiley’s home city of 

London, other young artists 
contributed to the growth of this 
young genre. At just 19 years old, 
Dizzee Rascal released Boy in 
da Corner, an album which is to 
this day considered the genre’s 
Illmatic. Songs such as “I Luv 
U” and “Fix Up Look Sharp” 
are unmatched in their sheer 
ferocity, telling tales of urban, 
inner-city struggle intermingled 
with 
hilarious 
interludes 
of 

teenage life in general.

Wiley and Dizzee Rascal’s 

success led to arguably the 
genre’s most productive and 
influential years, with a host 
of new artists ready to take 
over London and the rest of the 
country by storm.

SAYAN GHOSH

Daily World Music Columnist

Proliferated 

by the internet, 

it has taken 

influences from 

cultures and 

movements from 

around the world

Have 
we 
reached 
“Purge” 

saturation? Four movies and now 
a TV show later, it’s hard to argue 
otherwise. Moreover, it’s not 
hard to understand the appeal. 
Although the premise of 12 hours 
of lawful lawlessness requires 
a good measure of suspending 
disbelief, the potential character 
studies and societal analyses 
are abundant. It is unfortunate 
that USA’s TV adaptation of the 
vaunted 
franchise 
continues 

perhaps its biggest flaw: The 

franchise never actually explores 
the philosophical questions it 
raises.

“The Purge” follows the same 

basic premise of the movies that 
preceded it. It is set in a dystopian 
version of the U.S., one ruled by 
a (somewhat overtly) nefarious 
political party called the “New 
Founding Fathers of America.” 
As usual, the NFFA institutes an 
annual 12-hour period in which all 
crime, including murder, is legal. 
This particular adaptation focuses 
on a set of new characters. Miguel 
(Gabriel Chavarria, “Lowriders”), 
a Marine, returns home to find his 
sister, who has joined a twisted 
death cult that promises eternal 
salvation during the Purge. The 
cult is one of the show’s strongest 
points, a genuinely unsettling 
part of a show that tries really 
hard (but usually fails) at being 

unsettling. In a world already 
increasingly filled with truly 
bizarre cults (looking at you 
Q-anon), it somehow feels like the 
most realistic of the organizations 
set up in the show.

Another 
storyline 
follows 

Jane (Amanda Warren, “The 
Leftovers”), a steely, determined 
finance executive who hires an 
assassin to potentially climb her 
way up the corporate ladder. 
Rick (Colin Woodell, “Unsane”) 
and Jenna (Hannah Anderson, 
“Jigsaw), a married pair of anti-
Purge socialites form the most 
mysterious storyline.

While all this seems at least 

somewhat compelling, it was 
quite impressive how badly the 
writers botched nearly every 
single 
aspect 
possible. 
“The 

Purge” is precisely the worst type 
of TV show, but not because it is a 
wholesale trainwreck. No, it does 
not give the viewer the morbid/
comic satisfaction of watching 
a trainwreck. Instead, it is the 

very definition of self-satisfied 
mediocrity. 
Maybe 
I’ve 
been 

spoiled by being able to watch so 
much great TV in this so-called 
“Golden Age” of the medium, but 
I can guarantee that the writers 
of the last couple “Purge” movies 
were impressed that someone 
could phone something in even 
harder than them.

Even though the characters are 

put in some tricky situations, it is 
extremely difficult to garner any 
modicum of sympathy for them. 
Throughout the pilot, the dialogue 
remains stiff and reveals absolutely 
nothing about the characters’ 
inner lives, fears, motivations or 
really anything at all to make them 
feel human. Rick and Jenna have 
all the chemistry of two strangers 
meeting on a blind date despite 
being a married couple; Jane’s 
ostensible anti-hero status is never 
solidified because there’s nothing 
the audience actually learns about 
her. Miguel, who is arguably the 
most sympathetic character, is 

little more than the classic noble 
soldier who returns home to face 
a new battle. My five-year-old 
cousin has told me stories with 
better developed characters.

The show could have used 

all of these stories to explore 
the nuanced aspects of human 
psychology and seek to answer 
the philosophical questions of 
morality, law, justice, etc. that 
surround a concept such as the 
Purge. What is the connection 
between enforcement of justice 
and morality? Is a legal system 
that can be switched on and off a 
valid one in the first place? Beats 
me. Shows like “The Good Place” 
prove that it is not impossible 
to 
balance 
easily 
digestible 

entertainment and the exploration 
of deeper themes. Unfortunately, 
even this edition of “The Purge” 
eschews these questions in favor 
of gratuitous violence, cheesy sex 
scenes and horror that elicits more 
cringe than horror. Don’t waste 
your time with it.

‘The Purge’ continues to follow its 
namesake franchise’s mediocrity

“The Purge”

USA

Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

Series Premiere

TV REVIEW

SAYAN GHOSH
Daily Arts Writer

USA

The opening scene of “First 

Reformed” fades in from black to 
gradually illuminate a small white 
church. From there the film only 
gets darker.

The tired and ill Reverend 

Toller (Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”) 

manages a struggling church in 
upstate New York. When a couple 
in his congregation asks for his 
counsel over a possible abortion, 
Toller descends into a crisis of 
faith. However, climate change, not 
abortion, becomes the subject of 
his troubles. The film begins with 
sincere, deep dialogue between 

reverend and parishioner. Toller 
and 
Michael 
(Philip 
Ettinger, 

“Indignation”), a recently jailed 
environmental activist and non-
believer in the church, engage in a 
frank conversation about the state 
of Earth’s climate. Michael has 
reached a state of despair so deep 
he does not want his wife Mary 
(Amanda Seyfried, “Mamma Mia! 
Here We Go Again”) to bring a 
child into this doomed society. 
The extended static conversation 
between the two men deceptively 
promises a slow-paced, entirely 
introspective 
film. 
However, 

“First Reformed” turns into an 
environmental-activism 
thriller, 

building momentum slowly and 
then all at once, just as climate 
change has as we damage our 
planet toward the point of no 
return.

As he accepts the reality of his 

failing health, Toller also rewrites 
the relationship between religion 
and science. Rather than pinning 
the two against each other, writer-
director Paul Schrader (“Taxi 

Driver”) shows these forces as 
working in harmony. There’s no 
battle between Charles Darwin’s 
theory of biological evolution and 
the Bible’s descriptions of how God 
created the world and all its beings, 
as one finds in schools throughout 
America. 
Instead, 
Schrader 

argues, concerning the issue of 
climate change, religious people — 
particularly Christians — should 
protect nature, or God’s creation, 
not destroy it or await His saving 
grace for all men’s sins; a notion in 
line with the recommendations of 
97 percent of scientists.

As a result of this development, 

Toller becomes the martyr for the 
cause to save our planet. He is the 
product of a convergence between 
science and religion. He is a human 
being living in a state of passive 
denial and passive resistance, 
eventually pushed to an act of 
extremity it’s a wonder the majority 
of us have not already reached. As a 
director, Schrader does not coddle 
his audience. He does not soften 
the truth that certain catastrophe 

awaits most of us in the near 
future and the rest of us now. In a 

stunningly devastating montage, 
Schrader contrasts natural beauty 
with the polluted hell-scape we 
have created. 

Although Toller discovers a 

conspiracy theory — that big-energy 
corporations 
are 
undermining 

efforts to save this planet for their 
own personal gain — no part of his 
discovery is fiction. His journey to 
understanding is not just a crisis 
of faith with his own church, but 
with the whole of humanity. As 
he realizes his own insignificance 
and helplessness to make change 
through individual action, the only 
option becomes clear. The question 
that haunts Reverend Toller will 
haunt all those who watch “First 
Reformed”: “Can God forgive us for 
what we’ve done to this world?” 

‘First Reformed’ refuses to show 
any sympathy toward humanity

FILM REVIEW

MEGHAN CHOU

Daily Arts Writer

A24

‘First Reformed’ 

turns into an 

environmental-

activism 

thriller, building 

momentum 

slowly and then 

all at once, just as 

climate change 

has as we damage 

our planet toward 

the point of no 

return

“First Reformed”

A24

Michigan Theater