By Jeffrey Wechsler
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
12/07/18
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
12/07/18
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Friday, December 7, 2018
ACROSS
1 City in which
much of
“Moonlight” is set
6 Lively display of
stamps?
14 Long range
15 Valuable
collectible
16 Art class model,
say?
18 Singer Jones
19 Ashes not caused
by fire
20 Notable times
22 Genesis twin
23 Volcanic rock
25 Homeowner’s
extreme reaction
to a hailstorm?
30 Calculating
31 Lot unit
32 Sucker of sorts
34 Ancient Roman’s
suggestion to a
sweat-drenched
pal?
41 Wise guys,
maybe
42 Hotel worker
43 Asian holiday
46 Where sick con
victims seek
help?
50 Went from 50
to 40
52 “Put __ on it!”
53 Bust size?
54 Flynn of film
56 Attorney’s org.
59 Stand-up invited
to a holiday
meal?
63 “It’s my duty”
64 Really irk
65 Cutting tool for
making joints
66 Works on a
batter
DOWN
1 It’s often rigged
2 Fascinated by
3 Biblical exile
4 Came across
5 “Can this be
true?”
6 Clear, as a
schedule slot
7 Fabric with a glint
8 Some dadaist
works
9 Brooks with lines
10 Green prefix
11 British poet
Alfred
12 ’80s-’90s Olds
models
13 Score early in the
set, maybe
17 Bird crop
21 Muddy
enclosure
22 Delightful places
23 Stuttgart suds
24 Bank holding:
Abbr.
25 WWII female
26 Gigi : je ::
Greta : __
27 Org. with
frequent firings
28 See 57-Down
29 Fresh, to Franz
33 Like a rainforest
35 Show awe
36 Quaint “Yikes!”
37 Equivalent of
OTOH
38 Photographer
Goldin
39 Sundial marking
40 Health org. with
HQ in Atlanta
43 “Naughty!”
44 Draw out
45 Queen’s
“Somebody __”
47 Peter of Peter,
Paul & Mary
48 Lump of earth
49 Easter display
51 Many suffragists
54 Young newts
55 “The Godfather”
composer Nino
56 Opposition
member
57 With 28-Down,
persevere despite
hardship
58 Liberal follower?
60 “Can __ forward
when my heart is
here?”: Romeo
61 Fool
62 D.C. ballplayer
AVAILABLE FALL 2019
905 Church St (near Hill St). Newly
re
modeled three bedroom apartment
with Granite, SS appliances, and
hardwood floors. Parking and laundry
available. Free Heat. $2395/mos.
keysmanagement.net
FOR RENT
Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
SERVICES
HELP WANTED
STORAGE FOR STUDENTS
Studying abroad. Indoor, clean, safe,
closest to campus. AnnArborStorage.
com or (734)‑663‑0690.
PERSONAL ASSISTANCE
NEEDED
Currently Seeking a Full or part time
As
sistant to join our team:Positive
Attitude. Computer experience
helpful. Must be able to follow
instructions. Monday‑Friday,
$650.00 weekly. Resume should be
emailed to rostc65@gmail.com
CHECK OUT OUR COOL
www.michigandaily.com
WEBSITE.
More underrated and overlooked artists of 2018
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
What is a bassoon? Is it
that weird monkey with the
pink butt? Is it that big rocket
launcher-ish thing?
If you perchance think a
bassoon is either of these things,
you are sadly mistaken — a
bassoon is neither a baboon nor
a bazooka. To most people, the
bassoon is a big ol’ woodwind
instrument
that
typically
handles bass and tenor notes in
orchestral music; however, to
Euceph, both a School of Music,
Theatre & Dance student and
a
severely
underappreciated
independent
artist,
the
instrument is much more.
With the release of his first
EP Dirty Laundry in November
of this year, Euceph introduced
an
unprecedented
idea:
a
combination of the bassoon
and downtempo house music.
Downtempo house has become
increasingly popular recently
as a softer, more tasteful take
on EDM. The genre relies on
deep, smooth and rich notes that
evoke energy without the typical
electronic aggression of house
music — surprisingly the perfect
opportunity for a breathy, reed-
based instrument like a bassoon
to excel.
Dirty
Laundry
is
both
melodically
pleasant
and
rhythmically
sound,
striking
a
delicate
balance
between
beauty, groove and intensity
that will tickle your ears from
start to finish. The project’s
most promising track “Pinkhat”
features a bassline with a unique
timbre, due to its bassoon-
based structure, that I can’t
imagine it will avoid a Spotify-
curated playlist for much longer.
Throughout the six-track EP,
Euceph lifts the bassoon to its
modern
potential,
shedding
its orchestral credentials and
taking advantage of its unique
sound that has been virtually
unheard of in popular music.
Ironically, however, this total
embrace of the bassoon might
keep Euceph in the underground
longer than necessary. Virtually
every musical aspect of the
EP, from the basslines to the
melodies
and
everything
in between, is recorded on
bassoon. While interesting, the
instrumental monotony shifts
from exciting to uninteresting
pretty quickly. To ensure that
he lands a spot on that Spotify-
curated playlist, Euceph should
combine
diverse
musical
elements with his bassoon riffs
to achieve a sound that will keep
more demanding listeners on
board.
MIKE WATKINS
Daily Arts Writer
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Euceph bends the boundaries of bassoon
Paul Kelly is an interesting
case. Acclaimed as a folk-
rock artist in Australia, he is
not
particularly
well-known
outside its borders. Perhaps
his obscurity has to do with
his work having a distinctively
Australian tinge to it, but the
fact remains that he is an elite
and
consistent
songwriter
who doesn’t really get the
recognition he deserves. His
popularity peaked in the late
’80s and ’90s, but more recently,
at the tender age of 63, Paul
Kelly released his 24th studio
album, Nature, on Oct. 12, 2018.
Kelly’s
sense
of
melody
and
harmonic
structure
is
masterful,
his
arrangements
mature and subtle. He rejects
the
fashionable
irony
that
pervades modern art in favor
of thoroughly-uncool sincerity
and optimism, and through
said sincerity he has created
something deeply human and
democratic with Nature.
The love song is one of the
easiest types to write, but it
is one of the most difficult to
write well. Paul Kelly manages
to succeed in accomplishing the
latter on “With The One I Love,”
the best song on the album and
one of the best songs of the year.
“Bound to Follow” is another
highlight, a slow burn based on
the lyrical theme of following
after a mysterious love who is
eternally beyond reach. A female
vocalist takes over the chorus;
the actual words she is singing
are indecipherable, evoking the
sense of Kelly chasing after the
woman he dreams of.
As one might guess from the
title, nature is a theme that runs
through this album. Much as
nature contains both beauty
and
menace,
enlightenment
and the void, the first half
of the album is composed
of harmonies mingled with
snarling, baleful licks on songs
like “A Bastard Like Me.” The
second half is relatively languid
and balmy, both lyrically and
instrumentally.
“Seagulls
in
Seattle,” for example, opens
with the lines “I was walking by
the water / My heart full aching
sore / The seagulls of Seattle /
Wheeled above the shore” over
a finger-picked acoustic guitar,
swelling
steel
pedal
guitar
mimicking the movement of
the birds. Love and nature are
one and the same, holy and
paramount to Kelly’s ontology.
Throughout
Nature,
Kelly
interpolates
several
famous
poems for his lyrics, such
as
“Death
Shall
Have
No
Dominion,” by Dylan Thomas,
and “Mushrooms,” by Sylvia
Plath. Counterintuitively, the
inclusion of others’ lyrics makes
Nature even more personal, as
though Kelly is reharmonizing
and reciting to you the works of
others that have had an impact
upon him. Thomas’s poem in
particular sounds as though it
was destined to be used in this
manner, its themes of life, death,
love and nature brought to life
by Kelly’s keen understanding of
the rhetorical effect of harmony.
There
is
nothing
performative
or
conceited
about Nature; instead, there is
a sense that Kelly’s creation is
inspired by nothing more and
nothing less than his desire for
self-expression. It feels like a
dusty record in a bin that you
found in the back of a shop, a
forgotten work of art that is all
the more beautiful for having
been forgotten.
JONAH MENDELSON
Daily Arts Writer
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Paul Kelly is a master of the love song
STUDIO CHIZU
FILM REVIEW
‘Mirai’ portrays family
dynamics with thought
In
“Mirai,”
a
Japanese
toddler, Kun, (Jaden Waldman
“Pinkalicious”)
has
his
life
turned upside down by his new
sister, Mirai (Victoria Grace, “47
Ronin”). Mirai is the catalyst for
Mamoru Hosoda’s newest film,
an intriguing survey of what
it means to be a family, how
individual histories becomes
part
of
a
collective
story
and what that means for the
youngest members just learning
to appreciate the world.
“Mirai” challenges familial
gender roles — instead of Kun’s
mom (Rebecca Hall, “Professor
Martson
and
the
Wonder
Women”) staying home to take
care of the family, it is his dad
(John Cho, “Searching”) who
struggles to balance his job as
a freelance architect with his
responsibilities as a father. The
movie highlights the pressures
of being new parents and uses
the relationship between Kun’s
parents as a way to single out
fathers who only talk about
how much they do in the house,
rather than actually doing it.
This also sets the stage for a
satisfying character arc for
Kun’s father: He eventually
becomes more concerned with
actually raising his kids than
with whether or not the whole
neighborhood knows what he’s
doing.
The importance of family is
a recurring theme that we see
in a lot of films — particularly
in children’s films. But the fact
that it’s animated doesn’t, or at
least shouldn’t, automatically
relegate
“Mirai”
to
the
children’s movie genre. Often,
in the United States, we forget
that animated films can be more
than just physical comedy and
jokes — they can be sharply
satirical or introspective and
just as much of a “film” as any
movie with actual, physical
actors. Even though, in recent
years, films like “Zootopia” have
tried to grapple with difficult
topics like racism, the animated
film industry in the United
States is still heavily saturated
with children’s movies whose
underlying
complexities
are
barely there or overtly comedic,
and sometimes careless, “adult”
animations. “Mirai,” however,
delivers a very clear message
about family in a sophisticated
way — something that’s often
missing in the ones coming from
studios like Disney. “Mirai”
strips away the layer of humor
characteristic
of
Western
animations and, instead, takes
animation to a place where the
story can truly grow.
Films like “Mirai” also serve
as a reminder of the artistry
necessary to develop any film,
let alone an animated one.
Lighting and camera direction
are just two of the aspects of
a scene that directors have to
contend with or, in the case of
an animated film, have to draw.
The actual drawings in “Mirai”
are simple when compared to
movies like “Incredibles 2” or
“Monsters, Inc.” But it’s this
simplicity that allows “Mirai”
to depict detailed emotions and
develop a relationship with its
audience. The animation is more
of a plot device in “Mirai” than
it is simply a genre. Though the
beginning of the film is very one-
dimensional, towards the end,
as Kun’s character matures, so
does the level of animation. The
Tokyo train station Kun finds
himself in looks like a very real
train station, but the characters
still remain cartoons. Even
within these drawings, though,
the strangers at the station
are dark shadows of adults
while Kun maintains his bright
colors, emphasizing the tension
that has been building as Kun
EMMA CHANG
Daily Arts Writer
grapples with his understanding
of who he is in the new family
hierarchy.
“Mirai” is a moving film about
individual hardships and the
collective story they create in a
family history. Its exploration
of sibling relationships and
the strain raising children can
have on parents is a captivating
and raw understanding of the
messiness that’s integral to
a family. But, in the words of
Kun’s mom, everything is better
when it’s messy.
“Mirai”
(dubbed version)
Studio Chizu
State Theater
6 — Friday, December 7, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com