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By Ed Sessa
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/12/18

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

10/12/18

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Friday, October 12, 2018

ACROSS
1 “Ta-ta!”
6 Kaput
10 Musical ending
14 Ready for the 
operation
15 Dance that may 
involve a chair
16 “Amores” poet
17 Eggs-uberant 
hen?
19 Like used books
20 __ Xtra: cherry 
soda brand
21 Apple on a desk
22 Word with ring or 
book
23 Rights org.
24 Loon, at times?
27 Butler on a 
plantation
29 Like Colbert’s 
show
30 Kiss
35 Summit
36 Do some 
’80s Sochi 
sunbathing?
40 “The Well-
Tempered 
Clavier” 
composer
41 Taking 
medication
42 Final flight 
destinations?
44 Kitchen shelf 
array
49 Hitchhiking and 
texting?
54 Tick repellent
55 __ Club
56 When repeated, 
fish on a menu
57 “That being the 
case ... ”
58 Letters after E?
59 What young 
elephants do for 
fun?
61 The third Mrs. 
Roy Rogers
62 Airer of many 
NCAA games
63 Farm stray
64 1974 CIA spoof
65 Reasons
66 Cornered, in a 
way

DOWN
1 Not up to snuff
2 Increase the 
value of

3 Consumer-
friendly?
4 Hedge opening
5 Biblical traveler
6 Former 
SeaWorld 
attraction
7 Georgetown 
athletes
8 Eponymous 
vacuum brand
9 Roofer’s supply
10 Popular Toyotas
11 Has in common
12 Line through the 
middle
13 Include
18 Pot top
22 Lacking color
25 Ben of Ben & 
Jerry’s
26 “Toy Story” 
dinosaur
28 Scolder’s cluck
31 In the __ of
32 Creator of 
Iceland’s 
Imagine Peace 
Tower
33 Ties may be 
broken in them, 
briefly
34 Only half-
pretentious?
36 Bar by the tub

37 If truth be told
38 Does a ragtime 
dance
39 “That’s 
disgusting!”
40 Skeeter eater
43 “60 Minutes” 
network
45 One slightly 
changed this clue
46 Storm shelter, 
say
47 Blues great 
Smith

48 Fired up
50 Sect in 
Pennsylvania’s 
Lancaster County
51 Like maple trees 
and pigeons?
52 Ruling 
descendants of 
Genghis
53 Thing to confess
58 DJ’s inventory
59 Strange (to)
60 “Silent Spring” 
subj.

HELP WANTED

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

When fellow Daily Arts Writer 
Sean Lang and I first walked 
into the press tent at Audiotree 
Music Festival, I walked up to 
Diet Cig and introduced myself, 
thinking they were waiting for 
us to start the interview
Instead, it turned out we 
were 
interrupting 
another 
conversation they were having.
As I called myself an idiot a 
million times in my head, their 
manager came over to us and 
apologized 
profusely, 
saying 
some random fans walked up 
and started talking to them, 
and he allowed it, thinking they 
were us.
After a failed first attempt at 
contact, I finally had a chance to 
properly introduce myself. What 
I received in return were two of 
the most genuine smiles from 
singer / guitarist Alex Luciano 
and drummer Noah Bowman. 
They seemed to apologize for 
themselves, 
for 
no 
reason. 
Suddenly my nerves from before 
seemed to vanish as we casually 
slipped into a conversation that 
was supposed to be classified as 
an interview.
After 
an 
energetic 
performance, we got to sit down 
with Diet Cig and talk to them 
about their music, creating safe 
spaces and DIY.
The Michigan Daily: Sean 
and I are both involved in the 
DIY scene back in Ann Arbor, 
and I know that you all had your 
start in your local scene. Do you 
still think, despite playing these 
bigger festivals, some of those 
lessons you learned in the scene 
are still useful to you today?
Luciano: Yeah, I mean, we 
came up in the DIY scene. Our 
first 
shows 
were 
basement 
shows, and it kind of influenced 

who we are as a band. I think it 
will always kind of contribute 
to who we are as a band because 
that’s where we came from. It’s 
cool because we do get to play 
these larger festivals, and I feel 
because we played DIY shows 
we’re really good at breaking 
down and getting our shit out 
of the way because, you know, if 
you’re playing a basement show, 
you need to make sure all the 
bands play before the cops come, 
you gotta move on.
Bowman: Yeah, and with 
troubleshooting, 
too. 
We’re 
really good at thinking to 
ourselves, 
“OK 
this 
isn’t 
working, but we can make it 
work.”
Luciano: Yeah, and it’s nice 
because we do get to play these 
festivals but we still get to play 
basement shows. We have a 
really amazing agent who’s 
super down to book us for DIY 
shows, which is something a lot 
of bands fear with getting an 
agent, that they won’t be able to 
play house shows. But Brianna, 
our agent, has still booked us for 
some really cool shows, so it’s 
still a part of who we are.
TMD: Well we’re glad that 
you’re sticking true to your DIY 
roots. One of my favorite things 
about the DIY community is how 
important activism is within the 
community. And I noticed on 
stage that you took the time to 
address a few issues, which is 
something that can be important 
for artists to do. But for you, do 
you think that it’s important for 
an artist to use their platform 
to talk about these issues and 
create a safe space and all of 
that?
Luciano: I think it’s every 
band’s choice. I feel like with 
the platform we have — which 
I feel very grateful for having, 
and these are things we care 
about — it’s not super hard to say 

something like, “Hey, go vote,” 
especially when you have a 
microphone right in front of you. 
When it comes to having safer 
spaces at shows, I think it is the 
responsibility of the artists. No 
one wants to be at a show where 
they’re fearful of being touched 
inappropriately, or getting hurt 
because some person won’t stop 
dancing and hitting people. So 
I think at least for us it’s super 
important to make a climate 
that everyone can come to. 
When your space isn’t safe, it 
just excludes people, and we just 
want everyone to be included.
TMD: Have you ever had 
a show where you had to 
address seeing something in the 
audience?
Bowman: Oh yeah, we’ve had 
a couple times. I forget where it 
was, but some dude was being a 
total fucker, and we were like, 
“It’s OK you’re having fun, but 
can you just mind yourself?” 
He was a big guy, and there 
was a bunch of smaller people. 
But then on the next song, he 
was worse, so we just stopped 
and said, “You gotta stop.” And 
the coolest thing was that the 
bartender stood up on the bar 
and just pulled him over.
Luciano: We have had to 
stop and just be like, “We’re not 
gonna play again until you chill 
out.” We want people to enjoy 
our shows, and stopping for a 
second to make sure everything 
is OK is definitely worth it.
TMD: I know a lot of bands 
will go up on stage, make a 
little chit-chat and not say 
much else, but I like how you 
all acknowledge the audience 
frequently.
Luciano: I feel like we’re 
pretty 
transparent 
too, 
like 
our stage persona and our 
online persona and all that is 
pretty much who we are. You 
don’t really get anything else. 

Diet Cig talks DIY, using 
a platform and astrology

RYAN COX
Daily Arts Writer

AUDIOTREE ARTIST PROFILE

RYAN COX / DAILY

It’s kinda cool that we can be 
personal like that, and it makes 
for a nice community.
TMD: Well on a little bit of a 
different note, I know you talked 
about astrology a little on stage. 
Personally, I’m a Capricorn, but I 
really don’t feel like I am.
Luciano: No way, Noah’s a 
Capricorn.
TMD: Do you identify with 
Capricorn?
Bowman: Oh yeah. Do you 
think I’m a Capricorn?
Luciano: Yeah, you’re like a 
textbook Capricorn: setting the 
plan, super chill, knows what’s 
going on, you know.
Bowman: Sometimes it sucks, 
and I wish I wasn’t, you know, 
it’s like I gotta know what’s 

going on all the time and be 
super organized and all that.
Luciano: We’re a good match 
though, Michelle and Barack 
Obama are a Leo-Capricorn. 
Michelle is a Capricorn, if that 
makes you feel any better.
TMD: You know, the more I 
don’t like being a Capricorn, the 
more I realize I am one.
Luciano: 
Yeah 
but 
our 
personalities 
go 
really 
well 
together. I’m really extroverted 
and really all over the place, 
while Noah is really calm and 
collected. He’s the one that 
really gets it done while I’m like, 
“AHHHH! I have a crazy idea!”
TMD: So, on stage you said 
you’re a Leo sun, and a Cancer 
moon; so my follow up would be 

what’s your rising?
Luciano: Sagittarius. Which 
I feel goes really (well) with my 
Leo sun because they’re both 
fire signs basically saying, “I’m 
here.”
TMD: Yeah I can definitely 
see that. I sometimes I want to 
say that it’s crap, but the more I 
look at it …
Luciano: 
Well 
there 
are 
so many different versions of 
yourself, you’re not just (a) one 
sided person. Sometimes maybe 
you’re feeling your Cancer rising 
... or your Aquarius moon, you 
know. It’s fun to just talk about 
yourself. It’s so easy to be like, 
“What’s your sign?” I love 
astrology. Thanks so much for 
asking me about it.

“Oh, you’re not gonna like this 
analogy,” said Brigitte Naggar, 
the mind behind Common Holly. 
Unfortunately, it was the only 
one she found suitable, so she 
plowed forward: “It was like 
I was a cow that needed to be 
milked, otherwise I would’ve 
exploded.”
The 
Montreal-based 
songwriter confessed that she 
hardly picked up her guitar 
during her years at university 
but, after a breakup in the 
year 
following 
graduation, 
found much-needed relief in 
songwriting. It was then that 
her current project, Common 
Holly, began to take shape, 
though music had already been 
a significant part of Naggar’s life 
for many years. 
“I was put into piano lessons 
very early on, as we all were, 
I’m sure, and I did that for six 
years, and then I really just hated 
practicing so much, so I finally 
quit,” she said. Later, her father 
started giving her guitar lessons. 
She got her own when she was 16 
and began writing songs at the 
same time. One song she wrote 
then, “New Bed,” is the closing 
track of her 2017 debut, Playing 
House, though she expressed 
that she had been hesitant to 
include it.
“Actually, 
it 
was 
Devon 
(Mane, the album’s producer and 
touring guitarist) that convinced 
me to redo (“New Bed”) and 
make it album appropriate, and 
now I’m bound to it for life,” 
she added with a tone of light-
hearted resignation.
Though she has been writing 
songs since age 16, Naggar told 
me that she “truly despised 
performing. It’s not my thing.” 
This was interesting to hear, 
given 
that 
she 
would 
be 
performing on the main stage of 
Audiotree Music Festival on the 
day following our interview, and 
she admitted that her attitude 
toward it had changed, at least 
in part.
“I 
don’t 
(still 
despise 
performing). I like it, I think 
because 
— 
well, 
obviously 
because I’m used to it. I think 
I’ve almost found a way to 
make it feel sincere and not 
performative. 
I 
think 
that’s 
probably my struggle with it, is 
the separation between stage 
person and audience, and stage 
person versus ‘you’ person,” 
she elaborated. And although 
she is capable of finding that 
performer-audience connection 
more easily when playing solo, 
she does “try to tour with bands 
whenever it’s affordable … and 

then give a sort of surround 
sound experience.”
Bringing a band on tour is also 
helpful in purely logistical terms.
“I do tour solo. It’s hard 
though, it’s a lot of stuff to carry,” 
she said, and having a friend 
or two along might also keep 
her accountable itinerary-wise. 
When she does tour solo, she 
fills her downtime with almost 
excessive excitement: “Thumb 
twiddling … I don’t know, what do 
people do, Facebook? I sleep a lot. 
I visit friends if they’re in town … 
I spend a lot of time making sure 
I don’t miss buses or planes,” she 
told me, although it turned out 
she had missed a plane just the 
week prior: “It was like a major 
moment. You know when you 
consider yourself someone that 
doesn’t miss planes? And then 
you miss your first plane? I was 
really like, ‘Who am I?’”
This wasn’t the only time 
she confronted her self-identity 
during our interview. On the 
topic of when she had made 
the decision to pursue music 
professionally, 
questioned 
herself again: “I guess it was 
when … I had finished university 
— was that two years ago, or was 
it three? How old am I?”
Later, she would also mention 
a period of time over the summer 
when she found herself in crisis. 
She had studied religion and 
art history at school — “So I 
was really setting myself up for, 
like, tons of career options” — 
but had thought of continuing 
school to become a social worker 
or therapist, and was having 
doubts.
“I was like, ‘What am I doing 
with my life?’ and then I looked 
up the career path for therapists 
and the schooling and so on, 
and it seemed like by the time 
I was done with that and in the 
workforce I would be making 
the same amount of money as I 
would if I continued on in music, 
which is … fucked.”
She took a moment to express 
gratitude 
for 
support 
she’d 
thus far received in the form 
of grants from Canada and 
Quebec, and acknowledged that 
it’s pretty ridiculous that, as an 
independent artist, she hasn’t 
had to work another job for the 
past year.
It may be a tenuous link, but 
these aforementioned instances 
of self-doubt might just be 
related to her self-professed 
terrible memory. She mentioned 
her memory while discussing 
the concept of nostalgia, which 
flows freely from every corner 
of Playing House. Even the 
album cover, a photo of Naggar’s 
“grandmother and her cousin, 
in a ballet posture in Egypt, 
probably in the ’20s or ’30s,” 

invokes the vague but intensely 
melancholic 
feeling 
of 
time 
passed.
“I feel like I look at nostalgia 
in kind of a pragmatic way. 
I think it’s really useful as a 
processing function. I don’t 
think I’m a dweller, and that’s 
probably supported by the fact 
that I have a horrible memory,” 
she explained. “I think that 
that 
kind 
of 
manifests 
in 
Playing House, in the song ‘If 
After All’ — just talking about 
forgetting, 
learning 
lessons 
and then forgetting them and 
that being a constant source 
of frustration … I’m very much 
into processing now and then 
continuing 
to 
proceed 
with 
proceedings,” she added, the last 
three words accompanied by a 
self-deprecating laugh.
Before we wrapped up our 
conversation, I asked Naggar 
about her influences. She pointed 
to Chad VanGaalen, “who I’ve 
done shows with … You should 
check that out, definitely, the 
older albums,” she said after I 
expressed my unfamiliarity — “I 
know everyone’s like, ‘the older 
albums,’” she said with mocking 
affect, “But it’s true! There’s 
a quieter heart in them, or 
something.” This self-awareness 
and nearly constant qualification 
of 
claims 
was 
apparent 
throughout our interview, but 
shined here.
“Who 
else? 
D’Angelo, 
obviously,” she added, knowing 
full well that the R&B legend’s 
influence on her work is far from 
evident.
“Maybe Leonard Cohen for 
lyrics, maybe T. S. Eliot for 
poems. I used to like poems a 
lot, I don’t know what happened. 
I was, like, a poem kid,” she 
digressed, but we followed up on 
this idea of poems versus songs.
“If you’re writing a poem, 
the words have to stand for 
themselves, which is why I 
would never show anyone my 
poetry,” Naggar said. “I feel like 
singing and playing guitar, I can 
hide behind my guitar and my 
guitar can hide behind me, and 
it’s this great sort of protective 
coexistence.”
I pried once more about her 
claim to being a “poem kid,” 
asking whether she’d written a 
lot during her younger years.
“Didn’t we all?” she replied. 
“Don’t we still?”
Common Holly performed on 
Sunday, Sept. 23 at Audiotree 
Music Festival in Kalamazoo, 
but you can also catch them on 
tour with Detroit-based Anna 
Burch and Ann Arbor-native 
Fred Thomas — whose most 
recent album, Aftering, features 
Common Holly — on Oct. 25 at 
the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. 

Common Holly’s blend of 
nostalgia & forgetfulness

SEAN LANG
Daily Arts Writer

AUDIOTREE ARTIST PROFILE

SEAN LANG/ DAILY

6A — Friday, October 12, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

