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By George Jasper
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/20/19
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
02/20/19
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
ACROSS
1 Gaping mouths
5 “The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice”
composer
10 States in an
outdated atlas:
Abbr.
14 Nobelist Wiesel
15 Official mandate
16 Analogous (to)
17 One way to ride a
horse
19 Stereotypical
pooch
20 D.C.’s
Pennsylvania,
e.g.
21 Named, briefly
22 Shop talk
23 One in a
hundred?
25 Cafeteria
worker’s cover
27 Affleck of “Gone
Girl”
28 “Downton __”:
PBS show
29 Dramatic
opening?
32 Many an
emailer
34 ’50s political
monogram
37 Typical MLB
pitching
alignment, and
a hint to this
puzzle’s circles
41 Train stopping at
every sta.
42 They turn litmus
paper red
43 Does impressions
of
44 Grazing groups
46 “Gimme a __”
48 Large goblet
50 “Haven’t the
foggiest”
54 Bamboo lover
55 Alternative to
fries
56 Korean
automaker
57 Script fraction
58 Military expert,
say
61 Sun Devils’ rival
62 Canadian fliers
63 Language of
Pakistan
64 Riverbank
residue
65 Govt.-backed
bond
66 “Freeze!”
DOWN
1 Small plateaus
2 Still in contention
3 Alleviate traffic
on, perhaps
4 “Told you”
5 Exactly right
6 Milk source
7 10-time NBA
All-Star Jason
8 Commonly
injured knee part,
briefly
9 Sault __ Marie
10 “On Language”
columnist
11 Barely enjoy the
pool?
12 First Homeland
Security
secretary
13 Condescending
one
18 Place
22 First sign of fall
24 Rose’s Broadway
beau
25 Saintly glows
26 Drive the
getaway car, say
29 Partner of
30-Down
30 Partner of
29-Down
31 Remote choice
32 Ouzo flavoring
33 MDW : Midway ::
__ : O’Hare
35 Anonymous Jane
36 Peyton
Manning’s four?
38 Educator
Montessori
39 Adapter letters
40 Delicate handling
45 Firstborn
46 Parlor piece
47 Let up
48 Just above
average
49 One side of
Hispaniola
50 Talk oneself up
51 School uniform
part, perhaps
52 Foul up
53 Thoroughly enjoy
55 Early smartphone
58 Rank above cpl.
59 Coffee break
time
60 Mercury
astronaut
Grissom
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Almost a year and a half
ago, one of my close friends
joined a new club on campus.
However, this club wasn’t
like the other ones I heard
of — it didn’t revolve around
a specific team activity or
a shared academic interest.
No, this club was a cutthroat
competition
that
kicked
people out once a week and
would end with only one
remaining.
This
was
the
first
season
of
“Survivor:
Michigan.”
Growing up, “Survivor” was
not a television show of choice
in my household. In fact, to
this date I have never seen
an episode of the CBS show.
The closest thing I’ve got is
my occasional binge-watch of
“Total Drama Island.” Tribal
council, immunity idols, Jeff
Probst? Never heard of them.
When my friend first told me
they would be competing on
the show, I originally thought
it was a gag of some kind.
How could you compete on a
survival show while going to
school? Were they going to
live in the Arb for eight weeks?
It turns out there’s more
to “Survivor” then literally
surviving. As I’ve now been
told many times, “Survivor”
is a strategic, social game far
more dependent on your brain
that it is your ability to start a
fire or catch fish with a trap.
At first I didn’t understand
what they meant by “being on
the show” either. Who is going
to watch a bunch of college
students pretending to be on
“Survivor?” Who is going to
edit it? How will people even
know this exists? Much to my
shock, as the year progressed
all
of
my
friends
slowly
became aware that there was
an entire network of college
“Survivor” shows out there,
and that despite the often
low-quality camerawork and
lighting,
people
actually
watched
them.
Today,
“Survivor: Michigan” has its
own subreddit, fan podcast,
and is bringing in thousands
of views on YouTube every
week. It sort of blows my
mind
how
many
die-hard
“Survivor” fans are out there.
Watching
my
friend
compete in this was a truly
bizarre experience. At first
we all thought they were
mostly doing it just as a fun
way to spend a semester, but
pretty quickly we started to
understand that to the people
competing, it was no simple
game. From the time my friend
started competing to the time
the game was over, all we
heard about was “Survivor.”
Hours were spent scouring
campus
for
“idol
clues,”
names of other competitors
were thrown around in the
same tone of disdain usually
reserved for Sparty or Duo
Identification and the tension
was constantly high.
Now
that
the
show
is
actually being released week
to week on YouTube, the
entire experience is slightly
surreal. As my friend relives
a semester of their life, so
do the rest of us by vaguely
recalling the conversations
and drama that surrounded
it at the time. It’s a bizarre
window into the past, but one
that is treated by the general
audience as the present. The
Michigan Union is open on
this show. Construction has
not yet come to consume The
Diag. Michigan Time still
exists and people run around
in t-shirts and shorts in a
beautiful fall. In the midst
of this cold and long winter,
there’s strange warmth that
comes from getting a one-
hour dose of fall in Ann Arbor
every week.
The really crazy thing is
that despite being produced
and edited almost entirely
by one person (George Jayne,
Class of 2018), the actual show
is pretty good. Now, I do have
a huge bias here, because the
entertainment value derived
from watching my friend get
criticized in YouTube and
Reddit comments is insanely
high, and I can’t speak to how
well this compares to actual
“Survivor”
or
even
other
college “Survivors,” but what
I can say is that the inside-
baseball Michigan angle of
it makes for a very appealing
watch for current students. As
you watch you’re constantly
wondering, what would I do
in this situation? How would
I possibly balance this with
school? And do these people
even go to class, or do they
just play “Survivor” all the
time? I don’t have the answers
to those questions and I don’t
have an answer to how the
rest of the season is going to
play out, but what I can say is
this: there are worse ways to
spend a Friday night.
“Survivor:
Michigan”
is now airing on YouTube
Fridays at 8 p.m.
IAN HARRIS
DAILY ENTERTAINMENT COLUMN
On my roommate, and how
he made it to our television
Avril Lavigne, more than
any other pop star (except Lady
Gaga), has had an absurd amount
of personas throughout her
career. The Canadian phenom
was launched into fame nearly
17 (holy shit, we’re getting old)
years ago with 2002’s Let Go.
And for good reason — it’s an
absolutely iconic alt-rock album.
Good luck finding anyone who
doesn’t know every single word
of “Sk8er Boi.” She maintained
the status quo with 2004’s Under
My Skin before doing a complete
180 in 2007 with The Best Damn
Thing — possibly post-death and
post-replacement by double. This
album is notable for featuring one
of the greatest songs of all time,
“Girlfriend.” Lavigne shed her
angsty vulnerability for a hard-
ass attitude, and it is safe to say
that her risk to fuse glam-rock
and pop paid off. Unfortunately,
save for a few singles, her 2011
and 2013 efforts were hardly
memorable, and the end seemed
nigh for Miss Lavigne.
This actually happens to be
quite literal, as her latest album
Head Above Water is about her
near-death experience battling
Lyme disease. Her struggle over
the past six years has pushed her
back to her roots, leaving behind
alt-pop hooks for ballad-y piano
melodies. The album is an odd
combination of bad-girl Avril
and old-school Avril, pasted
together in a messy fashion. Her
vocal melodies carry a nostalgic
punch, reminiscent of the girl
who denied the skater boy.
But here’s the kicker: This is a
Christian album.
On the album opener, biblical
imagery is abundant. “Can’t part
the sea, can’t reach the shore,”
she calls out; “God, keep my
head above water / Don’t let me
drown, it gets harder / I’ll meet
you there at the altar,” the chorus
begs. In truth, it’s pretty catchy,
but at the same time, a very
unexpected turn of events for
the girl once yelling “Hell yeah,
I’m the motherfuckin’ princess!”
It’s almost safe to say it’s the
album’s peak because every song
following it elicits a “what the
actual hell” within 10 seconds.
Head Above Water is like a
box of chocolates but every piece
contains a different type of nut.
Ultimately, you’re gonna be
disappointed after a bite or
two. There are blues tracks,
there are pop songs, there
are ballads and there is even
a track with a Nicki Minaj
verse. There’s just way too
much going on here, and
none of it particularly stands
out.
In her defense, there was
no way she was getting away
with yet another reinvention
in 2019. Pop is too in right
now — it’s that genre, and
it’s fucking cutthroat. Pop
stars come and go on a whim,
and only the truly strong keep
their head above water in today’s
environment. Lavigne’s roots
are too deep, her legacy too set
in stone. If you’re not innovating
today, pop will chew you up
and spit you out on your head.
Her insistence to maintain a
semblance of the pop she was
putting out over a decade ago
is near fatal. What I’m getting
at here is that Lavigne, while
holding on to nostalgia at times,
is outdated. Do yourself a favor
and listen to “Mine” by Slayyyter
instead.
Avril Lavigne is not back
DOMINIC POLSINELLI
Daily Arts Writer
ALBUM REVIEW
Head Above
Water
Avril Lavigne
BMG Rights Management
The
first
time
I
ever
heard
Benjamin
Britten’s
“War
Requiem,”
I
was
immediately struck by the
colossal nature of the work:
A full orchestra, a chamber
orchestra,
an
organ,
a
boys’ choir, an adult choir
and three solo vocalists.
And the subject matter —
the juxtaposition of war
poetry and the traditional
Latin
requiem
texts
—
seems equally colossal and
foreboding.
Listening to recordings or
watching videos of the work,
it is hard to fully understand
the piece. It is lengthy,
dissonant and emotionally
draining. Though I have
tried many times to make it
through the complete work,
I will admit that I have never
done so without the aid of a
score to keep my attention.
Last
Saturday’s
performance of the work
at Hill Auditorium was a
reminder
of
what
makes
the piece so special when
heard live. The Ann Arbor
Symphony
Orchestra,
the
UMS
Choral
Union,
the
Ann
Arbor
Youth
Chorale,
soprano
Tatiana
Pavlovskaya, tenor Anthony
Dean Griffey and baritone
Stephen
Powell
combined
for an absolutely stunning
performance. I left in a state
of contemplative awe, unable
to
think
about
anything
except the work.
For those unfamiliar with
the piece, it opens with
the
traditional
Requiem
aeternam text before moving
on
to
Wilfred
Owen’s
“Anthem for Doomed Youth.”
Owen’s poetry, written while
he was a British soldier in
the trenches of World War I,
is dark and straightforward.
It ruminates on the failures
of humanity leading up to
World War I; the failures
of European belief systems
to prevent the tremendous
loss of life that was the two
World Wars.
The orchestral and choral
writing is at times stormy
and at other times slow
and mournful. The opening
movement,
for
example,
is jolting and frightening.
The audience member is
transformed into a civilian
during the darkest moments
of these total wars, living in
fear of what comes next and
in sadness at what has come
before.
And
yet,
Britten
soon
contrasts these sentiments
with
the
angelic
beauty
of the boys’ choir. In this
performance,
they
were
placed in the top balcony,
their singing of religious
texts literally floating down
from above. The baritone
and tenor, meanwhile, take
on the role of narrators,
reading
Owen’s
texts
in
opera-esque recitative style.
Through
these
juxtapositions,
Britten
pulls different, frightening
meanings out of the requiem
texts. In some instances,
he plays for dark irony,
highlighting
instances
of
peace in these texts, pledges
for a world that must have
seemed
all
but
foreign
to those alive during the
World Wars. At other points,
he draws out much more
sinister undertones, drawing
the
audience
member’s
attention to violence and
conflict in religious texts.
Violence, he seems to say, is
an awful aspect of the human
condition — something that
we should work to eradicate,
and yet something that is
unfortunately intrinsic to
humanity.
This
is
perhaps
most
poignant
in
the
third
movement,
the
“Offertorium.” Towards the
end of this movement, the
baritone and tenor perform
Owen’s “The Parable of the
Old Man and the Young,” a
retelling of the story of Isaac
and Abraham. The poem
ends with two startling lines,
connecting
this
Biblical
story with the World Wars.
“But the old man would not
so, but slew his son, / And
half the seed of Europe, one
by one,” Owens writes.
As
the
baritone
and
tenor
intone
this
final
line, the boys’ choir erupts
into
fearful
“Hostia
et
preces tibi,” the Latin text
asking God to allow those
commemorated
by
the
congregation to pass from
death to life. The beauty
of the boys’ choirs melody
juxtaposed with the harsh
ending of Owen’s poem was
overwhelming.
I
felt
my
stomach turn out of both
horror and disgust as these
two texts collided.
Britten
concludes
with
Owen’s “Strange Meeting”
and
the
Latin
text,
“Requiescant in pace.” The
baritone and tenor sing the
last lines of Owen’s poem,
“Let us sleep,” as the boys’
choir and the adult choir
sing a final “Amen.” After
over an hour of the dark,
somber, alarming material
Britten previously provided,
this ending is arresting in its
simplicity and its beauty. It
was a final prayer for peace,
an urgent cry for change
in a world that seems all to
accepting of mass violence.
Harmonically,
Britten
centers
the
entire
work
around the tritone. This
interval is considered to
be the most harmonically
dissonant of all intervals.
In
the
18th-century,
it
was referred to by some as
“diabolus in musica,” “the
Devil in music.” This is the
harmonic
guiding
force
behind the tension in the
piece. At the conclusion,
Britten
harmonizes
the
tritone
in
an
almost
consonant
manner;
the
audience member thus finds
some semblance of closure
in the most dissonant of all
harmonic intervals.
Though this performance
lacked at times, the strength
of Britten’s writing easily
negated any such problems.
The soloists, for example,
were slightly buried in the
text at some moments. Had
I not been provided a copy
of the libretto, along with
an English translation of the
Latin texts, it would have
been hard to distinguish
what they were saying at
times. The orchestra also
struggled
with
balance
at a couple of points. The
mallet
percussions
parts,
furthermore, were a little
too loud for my taste — the
metal instruments struck at
an almost painful volume.
Thinking back on this
performance,
however,
it
is not these shortcomings
that I will carry with me
but
the
meaning
of
the
piece itself. In our world of
seeming perpetual violence,
in a country coming up
on its 17th year of war in
Afghanistan,
Britten’s
message rings true. It was a
call to action, an exposé on
our moral shortcomings that
morphed in the end into an
urgent plea for peace.
‘War Requiem’ from the
Orchestra is marvelous
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
SAMMY SUSSMAN
Daily Arts Writer
6A — Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com