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Arts
Monday, January 28, 2019 — 5A

WORK ON MACKINAC Island 
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By Susan Gelfand
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/28/19

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

01/28/19

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Monday, January 28, 2019

ACROSS
1 Take it easy
5 Cabo’s peninsula
9 Sheepish smile
13 Cabinet dept. 
with an oil derrick 
on its seal
14 Immortal 
racehorse Man __
15 What kneaded 
dough should do
16 “360˚” CNN anchor
19 Bud
20 “How disgusting!”
21 Gave medicine to
22 “Uncle Vanya” 
playwright
27 Yoga posture
28 Krypton or xenon
32 Semester
34 Pea surrounder
35 One of about 
268,600 in Tex.
36 You, to Yves
38 Hipster, and 
based on their 
initials, what each 
of 16-, 22-, 52- 
and 61-Across is?
41 Blender setting
42 Hubbubs
44 Like Letterman’s 
humor
45 “See ya later”
47 Dugout seats
49 Put together, as 
equipment
52 “Appalachian 
Spring” composer
56 Lustrous bit of 
wisdom
59 Tokyo’s former 
name
60 When repeated, 
a Gabor
61 19th-century 
steel industry 
philanthropist 
who built an 
eponymous 
concert hall
66 Nod off
67 Prefix with correct
68 Dunham of “Girls”
69 Snow transport
70 H.S. math subject
71 Clog fillers

DOWN
1 Becomes aware 
of
2 Explanatory 
comment written 
in the margin, say

3 British alphabet 
ender
4 Bard’s “before”
5 Title cop played 
by Titus Welliver
6 Came to
7 First mo.
8 Rainbow shape
9 Slots cut with a 
chisel
10 Fabric flaws
11 “Got it”
12 Bookish type
17 Rock’s Ocasek
18 Dumpster 
emanation
19 Sheep bleat
23 Half and half
24 Agent on a bust
25 McDonald’s 
founder Ray
26 Dove into 
vigorously, as 
work
29 Stylish men’s 
monthly
30 Parisian pal
31 Common dinner 
hour
33 Grass cutter
34 Two-__ tissue
36 Restaurant bill
37 Poem of praise
39 Approximately

40 Baseball rain 
delay cover
43 Like Capone’s 
face
46 Up to, informally
48 Partner of 
hearty
50 Vote out of 
office
51 Kiss in a busy 
store, for short
53 “Sweet!”
54 PC drive insert

55 Buff suffix
56 Footballer’s 
shoulder 
protection
57 Hydroxyl 
compound
58 Axe relative
62 Happy tail 
movement
63 Billiards stick
64 Legendary 
seasonal helper
65 “Holy cow”

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SUMMER EMPLOYMENT

The Michigan
Daily loves 
its readers
a LATTE

For a brief moment in mid 
’90s Tokyo, a new musical 
genre flourished and traveled 
around the world to the very 
countries that fed into its 
creation in the first place. 
“Shibuya-kei” was a patchwork 
of genres that borrowed from 
the 
previous 
decade’s 
city 
pop 
and 
everything 
from 
MPB (Brazilian pop), French 
chansons 
and 
’70s 
lounge 
music. The district Shibuya 
is an eclectic monument to 
consumerism in the best way 
such a description could entail, 
and Shibuya-kei reflects its soul.
Trying 
to 
recount 
the 
complex, fascinating history 
of the genre in just a few 
short sentences would do it a 
disservice, so I recommend 
checking out a brilliant article 
by Drowned in Sound for a 
primer. Keigo Oyamada, known 
as Cornelius, was one of the 
founders of Shibuya-kei’s most 
iconic bands, Flipper’s Guitar. 
His 1997 work Fantasma (which 
the article names as the genre’s 

“essential album”) is a result 
of his prolific solo career, and 
distills the essence of the genre 
he helped elevate into a cohesive 
yet chaotic album.
Interpol’s Turn on the Bright 
Lights (in my opinion, one of the 
best albums ever made), takes 
the listener on a tour of the 
city in the dead of night, when 
its seedy underbelly comes to 
the surface and when one can 
feel the crushing isolation it 
induces. 
Fantasma 
rewinds 
a couple hours before the 
comedown. Manic energy is 
abounding, and the night is still 
unpredictable.
Fantasma bounces around 
genres and time periods, with 
Cornelius paying homage to 
figures 
from 
Brian 
Wilson 
to ABBA, and injecting his 
homages with an infectious 
kitchiness. 
“New 
Music 
Machine” channels noise pop 
and shoegaze, reminding me of 
an amped-up version of Yo La 
Tengo’s “Sugarcube.” “Chapter 
8 
‘Seashore 
and 
Horizon’” 
feels like a warped Revolver-
era Beatles Track. “Star Fruits 
Surf Rider” somehow combines 
a Jungle-esque breakbeat and a 

beautiful orchestral interlude. 
“Clash” 
alternates 
between 
lying on a bed of bossa nova 
chords and bursting into a 
powerful chorus.
The album is an interesting 
case study on artistic influences. 
Like the Greta van Fleets of 
the world, Cornelius wears 
his unabashedly on his sleeve. 
Unlike the Greta van Fleets of 
the world, he synthesizes them 
into a compelling, inventive and 
most importantly, completely 
novel form. You can feel his 
admiration and love for the 
artists he channels without 
every getting the sense he’s 
making a hackneyed cover of 
any one of them.
Fantasma 
may 
veer 
into 
overtly cartoonish territory at 
times, but that’s what gives it 
its charm. Listening to it is like 
taking a peek into its creator’s 
colorful mind or like walking 
around Shibuya at night, with 
the neon signs illuminating 
the throngs of people around 
you and the cacophony of 
noises settling into a somewhat 
comfortable background. It’s 
overwhelming, sure, but it’s 
also incredibly exciting.

DAILY WORLD MUSIC COLUMN

SAYAN GHOSH
Daily World Music Columnist

Like every other school night, 
I was surfing Netflix after 
completing work and stumbled 
across the show “Tidying Up 
with Marie Kondo.” The show 
follows 
Marie 
Kondo, 
the 
famed 
Japanese 
organizing 
consultant, 
as 
she 
helps 
families across America gain 
some semblance of order in 
their lives. Kondo is most 
famously known for her book 
called 
“The 
Life-Changing 
Magic of Tidying Up: The 
Japanese Art of Decluttering 
and Organizing,” which focuses 
on the technique she employs 
which has been dubbed as the 
KonMari Method. The essence 
of this particular method lies in 
her belief that every item that 
we own must “spark joy,” or in 
other words, elicit happiness 
from within us. If you think 
about that statement, it does 
make sense: Why should one 
keep something if it does not 
please them? I watched the first 
episode and was left absolutely 
enamored. Some part of me was 
even inspired to start my own 
cleaning drive in my room.
The 
KonMari 
Method 
is rather simple beyond its 
underlying 
ideology, 
and 
can 
be 
broken 
down 
into 
two 
key 
parts: 
discarding 
and organizing. The first is 
straightforward and essentially 
recommends getting rid of any 
and all things that contribute 
to the stress of our daily lives, 
but that does not necessarily 
equate to living a minimalist 
life. The second part requires 
us to visualise the final image 
and find an appropriate space 
for each item by categorising 
them according to type instead 
of location. However, the most 
important yet unsaid step is to 
be committed to tidying up the 
space, and to remember to do it 
all at once instead of breaking 
it into smaller portions. It isn’t 
rocket science, but it is hard 
work. After watching the show, 
I really wanted to try this out 
for myself. Let it be known: This 
isn’t something I or most people 
would normally have a desire to 
do. So the question that really 
arises is: Why is that? Why 
are we only motivated when 
something becomes so popular?

Marie 
Kondo 
and 
her 
ingenious ways of organizations 
are undeniably helpful and have 
been 
becoming 
increasingly 
popular ever since Netflix first 
released the show. The internet 
is filled with discussions on 
the KonMari Method, how it 
has changed people’s lives and 
that it’s the next big thing. 
There are countless articles 
analyzing 
the 
method 
and 
simplifying it further, which 
I found surprising for two 

reasons. The idea itself is self 
explanatory to a great extent 
and, as I mentioned earlier, it 
isn’t rocket science; it is simply 
the notion of building a habit 
that stays with us. 
Marie 
Kondo 
isn’t 
the 
first person that has tried 
revolutionizing the way we 
organize our lives, yet her 
way has now been turned into 
a movement and placed on a 
pedestal and as the ultimate 
way to get things right. I agree 
— it is indeed difficult to have 
everything in place all the 
time and having definite ways 
to go about doing so can make 
a difference. But are we really 
making that change? I love the 
show and how it not only shows 
the process of cleaning in such 
a clear manner, but the fact that 
they have remained true to her 
Japanese heritage and didn’t 
dub the language. It is indeed 
the small things that matter. 
However, 
I 
am 
beginning 
to 
question 
our 
immediate 
instinct to follow the popular 
trend, and this is not a new 
discussion. As a society, we 
have been asking this for a 
while now, and there is possibly 

no one answer, maybe it just 
boils down to human tendency. 
The problem lies in the fact 
that when we simply follow 
something because it’s popular 
or famous for that period of 
time, we learn it, but we don’t 
retain it.
I say this from a personal 
experience; I gave in to my urge 
and tried the KonMari method 
myself. The first time I did it, 
it was time-consuming, but it 
was fun. I enjoyed choosing 
between the gazillion pieces 
of clothing I own and asking 
myself whether that piece made 
me happy, and then folding it 
into tiny stackable rectangles. 
However, it wasn’t something 
that I would be able to keep up 
for more than a week. For those 
who do, kudos to you. You are 
a select minority that truly 
assimilated the technique into 
your lives. For the rest of us, 
the harsh truth (though we may 
not consciously agree) is that 
we probably did it to appreciate 
how aesthetic it looked for once 
and because it is the talk of the 
town right now. This time next 
week, the talk will be something 
else, and we will be trying that, 
already having forgotten the 
art of tidying up. We move from 
one idea, one trend to another at 
the speed of lightning. We are 
living in a world where sticking 
to one idea and completing it 
for an extended period of time 
is difficult. I believe that we 
need to possibly stop hyping 
ideas, trends and people, even, 
to such a great degree, and then 
just jump the boat. If we believe 
that something is truly worth 
the amount of attention we are 
giving it, we need to show it not 
through our articles or social 
media posts but by actually just 
continuing to do it. 
Given these thoughts, I still 
highly recommend watching 
the show on Netflix, for it is 
wonderful and does “spark 
joy,” and maybe even try your 
hand at tidying up your life in 
her way. Who knows, you might 
actually end up loving it and 
incorporating it into your daily 
life. In the process, you might 
just find the next revolutionary 
method 
of 
organizing 
our 
lives. If you do, let us all know, 
because I can already see the 
heap of clothes piling up at the 
back of my room.

STYLE NOTEBOOK
Is Kondo’s advice realistic?

PRIYDARSHINI GOUTHI
Daily Arts Writer

To want to change the world 
is not an uncommon ambition. 
Perhaps that explains why reflex 
responses to this sentiment are 
consolidating around the form 
of a dismissive grunt.
But what if, just this once, 
we paused and unpacked the 
aspiration before issuing a hasty 
dismissal? Then rescaled it to 
fit a cross-section of the world, 
and calibrated it according 
to the talents of its utterer, 
then, beyond that, situated it 
in a specific arena for enacting 
change, and, last but not least, 
launched wholeheartedly after 
that revised version of 
the phrase?
For the promising 
results 
of 
this 
experiment, 
see 
“On 
the 
Basis 
of 
Sex.” 
Mimi 
Leder’s 
(“The 
Leftovers”) 
biographical 
drama 
recounts some of the lesser-
known 
episodes 
of 
Ruth 
Bader 
Ginsberg’s 
(Felicity 
Jones, “Rogue One”) quest to 
dismantle 
legally-sanctioned 
gender-based 
discrimination, 
culminating in the case Charles 
E. Moritz v. Commissioner of 
Internal Revenue in federal 
appellate court. Now, as the 
end of the film coincides with 
Ginsberg’s victory in this court 
case, the film errs on the side 
of rejoicing excessively over a 
small victory part of a much 
larger, and at times much 
more brutal, struggle. But all 
the better to err on the side of 
building momentum in favor of 
social justice than on the side 
of overemphasizing the limits 
of 
minute 
accomplishments. 
The latter tactic runs the 
risk 
of 
ingraining 
despair; 
the former leaves audiences 
feeling eager to carry the torch 
and characterizes the chief 
impression “On the Basis of 

Sex” will leave on audiences.
To achieve this effect, the 
film reminds us that if you 
plan to change the world, first, 
you must live in it. Whether 
you’re taking it to the streets, 
the courtroom or even the 
kitchen as your family prepares 
dinner, you will not be granted 
reprieve from the injustice 
you’re striving to upend. The 
filmmakers capture Ginsberg’s 
endurance 
of 
sex-based 
discrimination in various parts 
of her world, from the dean of 
Harvard Law School’s (Sam 
Waterston, “Law & Order”) 
framing of her admission to law 
school as nothing more than his 
own noble gesture on her behalf, 

to an interviewer at a legal firm 
ogling her (concealed!) cleavage 
before turning her down.
At 
the 
same 
time, 
the 
film remains conscious that 
Ginsburg is one woman amid 
an entire nation’s worth. She 
is not the only one who seeks 
justice, and the film is not mired 
in her vision of change alone. In 
various scenes in her classroom 
at Rutgers, she solicits the 
perspectives 
of 
her 
young 
students, who hail from diverse 
backgrounds. At home, she spars 
with her daughter Jane (Cailee 
Spaeny, “Bad Times at the El 
Royale”), who places greater 
trust 
in 
civil 
disobedience 
and Gloria Steinem than in 
the law. And in the process of 
avoiding a myopic portrait of 
what the struggle for equality 
looks like, the film renders a 
surprisingly 
comprehensive 
historical 
atmosphere 
and 
defies the tendency of historical 
biographical dramas to lose 

themselves in the force of their 
main character and neglect 
their historical situation in 
turn.
“On 
the 
Basis 
of 
Sex” 
defies other expectations. It 
doesn’t, for example, flatten 
the characters secondary to 
the subject of its biographical 
lens. In particular, Spaeny’s 
performance of teenage Jane 
Ginsburg comes to mind. She 
challenges her mother’s chosen 
arena for effecting change, at 
one point accusing her mother 
of settling to inspire another 
generation of activists rather 
than taking matters into her 
own hands. Later, she questions 
how much legal change can 
accomplish compared 
to social movements. 
These 
tense 
scenes 
will undoubtedly leave 
audience 
members 
reevaluating 
their 
own ideals of social 
change. 
As 
a 
film 
that centers gender-
based discrimination, “On the 
Basis of Sex” also carefully 
avoids relying on tropes of 
female portrayals, especially in 
Jones’s portrayal of Ginsburg. 
Refreshingly, the filmmakers 
did not recycle the familiar 
dramas that working mothers 
and wives are often called to 
act out in film. Instead, the 
character simply lives her own 
unique story.
So, when next you hear 
someone say they want to 
change the world, think before 
you roll your eyes. Think of 
Ruth 
Bader 
Ginsburg. 
Or 
perhaps Jane Ginsburg. Better 
yet, picture an entire history 
of world-changing women and 
hear how powerful their voices 
are in chorus. And be grateful 
for the reminder “On the Basis of 
Sex” gives us, of the possibilities 
that await once we trade the 
complacency of cynicism for the 
humbling effect of a leap of faith 
and trust of self.

FILM REVIEW
RBG’s biopic is stunning

JULIANNA MORANO
Daily Arts Writer

“On the Basis of 
Sex”

The Michigan Theater

Focus Features

FOCUS FEATURES

Cacophony and Cornelius

Marie Kondo isn’t 
the first person 
that has tried 
revolutionizing 
the way we 
organize our lives