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By Joe Kidd
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/12/19
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
04/12/19
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Friday, April 12, 2019
ACROSS
1 Building unit
5 “Oh yeah?”
11 Pranks, in a way,
for short
14 Industrial
portmanteau
15 Movie leads, often
16 Narrow inlet
17 Energetic jug
band performer?
19 Mtn. stat
20 Lodge
21 With indifference
23 Western
formation?
26 “See ya later”
28 Some distance
away
29 Skewered food
cooked vertically?
31 Caine and
Connery
32 __ rally
33 What snobs may
put on
34 “Up to 3,000
lights” brand
35 Do business with
37 Mississippi source
40 Seminarian’s subj.
41 Like-minded
group
42 It’s worn with a
kimono
44 Himalayan priest
46 Doesn’t get fixed?
49 Off-kilter
50 Weymouth of
Talking Heads
51 Oxidizes
52 Like some
elections
54 “This is __
chance”
55 Cooler cooler
56 Wile E. Coyote
purchases from
Acme?
62 Zero, to Man U
63 Online
investment
service
64 Loan default risk
65 Remote cells
66 One who’s
determined to
lose
67 Server’s edge
DOWN
1 Suggest, as a
price
2 Org. that voted
Keith Urban 2018
Entertainer of the
Year
3 “Monsters, Inc.”
raspy-voiced
undercover
agent
4 “I” swelling?
5 Word of
comparison
6 Farm female
7 Jackie O’s
second
8 Original V8 base
9 Aquanaut’s
workplace
10 Nobel Institute
city
11 They sometimes
help relieve
congestion
12 Vertical
Parthenon
component
13 Mythical man-
goats
18 Yellow pool table
item
22 Caravan
stopover
23 Maximally soft, in
music
24 Fútbol cheers
25 Celebs on
runways
26 Poi plant
27 Hunk’s pride
30 Build-it-yourself
buy
34 Massage parlor
service
36 Sprang
37 Three-time NHL
All-Star Kovalchuk
38 Talking-__:
lectures
39 Be up against
41 Disallow
43 “__ a deal!”
44 Thin layer
45 Jodie Foster’s
birth name
46 Low clouds
47 Musical tone
quality
48 Natural light show
53 Barely managed,
with “out”
54 Traditional
Passover barley
offering
57 Granola kernel
58 Keats creation
59 Marked, as a
ballot
60 Prefix with -logue
61 Male issue
After three long years, Hunter
Hayes is back with the release of his
new single, “Heartbreak.” Hayes
released the tune in January as a
preview of his new album, Closer
to You, and in February announced
the tour he’s about to embark on
later this month.
Since kicking off his music
career in his late teens, Hayes has
created a name for himself in the
country music sphere with over 40
award nominations and
wins, including a CMA
for New Artist of the Year.
While he realizes most
listeners adore the teenage
love songs of his previous
albums, Hayes is excited
for fans to hear Closer to
You, since, unlike any of his
albums in the past, it comes
from a more personal,
sacred space. “I’ve probably
worked for three or four
years
on
this
album,
writing hundreds of songs.
A lot of stuff was written
to try to be like what I thought
(the industry) wanted,” said Hayes
in a phone interview with The
Daily. “I scrapped everything at
the beginning of 2018 and decided
that I was going to make a record
for myself. It sounds selfish and it
sounds stupid, but actually that’s
kind of the idea. You’re supposed
to do that. As an artist, you’re
supposed to start there because you
know what’s on your heart, what’s
important to you, what you write
about, your experiences.”
Although diving into a new
realm of songwriting was new
to Hayes, he believes taking this
album in a new direction has helped
the process feel more worthwhile
and fulfilling. “The whole project
for me is about shedding weight
and moving on,” Hayes explained,
“For me, it’s one hundred percent
the most transparent for sure, and
it’s the most I’ve ever put of myself
into music. I needed it. I wrote these
songs because I needed to write
these songs, not because I felt like
I had to, and that’s a big switch. For
several years I wrote a lot of stuff I
thought I was supposed to, and had
to, and now this record is just all full
of stuff that I just wrote because I
needed to write it, I need to sing it.”
Hayes gave fans a taste of his new
style with his newly released single
“Heartbreak,” which is one of the
standout songs to be featured on his
new album. “(‘Heartbreak’) started
as a journal entry on a trip that I
took by myself,” he recalled, “(I
realized) this album doesn’t really
have a love song, but (I wanted) for
there to be one because I feel like
(it was important) to write to my
future better half and just saying,
‘I’m going through a lot to get to you,
but I know that it’ll be worth it.’”
With
nearly
three
million
streams on Spotify, it’s safe to say
“Heartbreak” has already been
well-received by fans. “I love the
optimism of it, I love the mystery
of it,” Hayes said. “I think it’s
something I’ve wanted to write for
a long time and just never really
was in the headspace to do it. It’s
just different in the fact that I didn’t
really feel I had to ask for permission
to write (‘Heartbreak’) or anything
else on this album. I think this is
completely unfiltered.”
Although
“Heartbreak”
has
already given us a glimpse into
what the new album will sound like,
Hayes said he will be playing his
unreleased songs on the tour so fans
can hear his new music for the first
time at the shows. For the musician,
releasing his music live is just an
introduction for the music that’s
coming. “We’ve been on the road
this entire time, we’ve been doing
shows, but we haven’t been able to
stop and build a proper experience.
And now we get to do that,” Hayes
explained. “This is all of my inner
child happiness (about) things
happening at once. Just getting to
build the show, start from scratch,
convey a message. I’ve been waiting
to do this for so long. We’ve played
shows, but we haven’t been on the
road like this in a while, and this
is where my heart’s probably the
happiest.”
During the planning stages
of the tour, Hayes drew a lot
of his inspiration from
other artists and how
they’ve approached their
performances.
“I
love
studying anything that I
like. I love to figure out why
I like it, what I like about it,
what makes it so, and how it
was made. I love knowing
the behind the scenes stuff
about records and stuff.
I just love watching live
concerts and really trying to
understand it and trying to
get behind the curtain and
figure out how it works and
how those things happen,” he said.
But
his
biggest
source
of
insight are his own emotions and
experiences. “I think the time away
really made me hone in on what I
love, what I love to feel and what I
want everybody to feel when they
leave the show,” Hayes described.
“I think this will be the first show
where we get to know each other
and break down more walls than
we have before. I’m really excited
about it.”
Hayes will be performing at the
Royal Oak Music Theatre on April
27th. After years of preparing this
album and refining his sound as an
artist, Hayes is excited to get back
on the road and share what he’s
been working on. “A lot of time has
elapsed now (and that) allows me to
kind of hit the reset button, which
is a scary thing to do but also an
awesome thing to get to do. I think
the thing that’s giving the fire to
this tour is that it’s a restart. Not a
relaunch necessarily, but it’s a brand
new day in a lot of ways.”
Hayes on his comeback
MUSIC INTERVIEW
KAITLYN FOX
For the Daily
When I’m searching for
effortless entertainment, I
often turn to my hometown’s
Facebook
group.
I
can’t
help
but
feel
like
I’m
scrolling through satire, an
Onion-esque
portrayal
of
affluent white people with
nothing better to do than
complain about potholes and
playgrounds. Often, I wish
that I could insert
myself
into
their
lives, to see where
these woes originate,
and why these people
are
so
petty
and
angry
and
annoyed
with
the
world.
Julie
Langsdorf’s
debut novel, “White
Elephant,” gives you
the opportunity to do
just that.
Willard
Park
is
your
typical
upper-
middle class suburb.
It
has
tree-lined
streets,
Halloween
parades,
a
quaint local café that all
the neighbors flock to and a
culture of forced politeness
used to conceal rage and
envy. The titular “White
Elephant” is a gaudy mansion
built by newcomer Nick Cox,
a real estate developer who
has big dreams for the town
and, thus, some big enemies.
Langsdorf
perfectly
captures
the
contrived
nature
of
a
“neighborly”
suburb, weaving in and out
through
her
characters’
own
thoughts
and,
more
importantly,
how
others
think of them. There is a whiff
of dramatic irony involved,
as readers gradually figure
out the book’s conflicts and
controversies — the affairs,
the fires and the mutilated
trees — way before the people
they’re reading about.
The most satisfying tactic
that
Langsdorf
exercises
throughout the book is the
constant switching between
the thoughts and troubles of
both the tweens and adults
of the book. Spoiler alert:
They’re
pretty
much
the
same. Does that boy like me?
Do I like him? Should I like
him? Why doesn’t anybody
like
me?
Why
doesn’t
anybody
understand
me?
What seems like a peak into
a 12-year-old’s diary is really
an examination about how
those feelings never really go
away, and how in adult life
they may lead to much more
dire consequences.
Given the title, I was led
to believe that this ominous
“White Elephant” would be
a more central character in
the novel, and it certainly
was in the end. Yet as I
discovered
early
in
the
novel, the “elephant in the
room” not a physical one,
but rather the secrets that
these residents are keeping
from one another. That does
not mean that this is a gossip
novel,
though.
Langsdorf
crafts a novel that’s part-
mystery, part-comedy and
part-drama, all wrapped up
in beautiful mix of humor
and tension.
That’s not to say this
book
works
on
universal
experiences,
though.
Langsdorf’s book is most
accessible
to
the
exact
people
she
is
writing
about:
Sexually-repressed
suburbia-dwellers
with
the time and money to care
about
trees
and
hosting
guests.
Langsdorf’s
characters don’t have
too many problems —
an overbearing mother
here, a bratty daughter
there — but the way
they deal with these
first-world issues is
too chaotic to pass up.
The
trials
and
tumults of suburbia
is
never
the
most
interesting
topic
to
examine; growing up in
suburban New Jersey,
this is something I
fully understand. Yet the
suburbs are an incredible
anthropological study, one
that musicians, filmmakers
and
novelists
alike
have
recognized
and
taken
advantage of. Everything has
an aside: Financial stability
(but too much money makes
you an outcast), mothers and
fathers who are still together
(but
their
lackluster
sex
drive is driving them apart),
the ultimate neighborhood
experience (but that comes
with
pettiness
and
town
halls). It is pathetic, it is
discouraging, it is absolutely
delicious.
Through
Langsdorf’s words, one can’t
help but willfully crawl back
into the deranged suburb
that they came from.
‘White Elephant’ exposes
realities of suburban life
BOOK REVIEW
SAMANTHA DELLA FERA
Senior Arts Editor
White Elephant
Julie Langsdorf
Ecco
Mar. 26, 2019
In modern times, it’s easy
to get so caught up in the
superficiality of your social
media feed and miss the
intricacies of other people’s
lifestyles. That’s where “Wife
Swap” comes in. One
spin-off (“Celebrity
Wife
Swap”)
and
a
couple
of
cancellations
later,
“Wife Swap” finally
makes its return to
network television —
this time boasting a
more progressive air.
Despite
variances
to
the
classic
formula of swapping
only
heterosexual
couples,
the
foundation
of
the
show
remains
the
same: Two different
families
swap
a
parent for two weeks
and see how their
parenting
styles
hold
up
in
other
households.
The pilot episode
features
a
swap
between
a
stay-
at-home
mom,
Virginia,
and
a
stay-at-home
dad,
Bo. In classic “Wife Swap”
fashion, the two families are
complete opposites. Virginia
is portrayed as a helicopter
mom who homeschools her
repressed kids and (for some
reason)
takes
care
of
10
puppies, while Bo is the fun-
loving dad who lets his kids
roam free and eat processed
junk food all day. Although
they were both stay-at-home
parents, Bo was definitely
more entertaining to watch,
as he was teaching the kids
to have fun while Virginia
just took away the kids’ video
games and cringed when they
ate chicken nuggets.
At the end of each episode,
the
parents
reunite
and
deliberate on what each family
needs to change in their
household. This segment is an
awkward attempt to extract
the last strains of drama
the episode can offer whilst
finding a “middle ground”
between the two families.
Throughout
the
entire
episode,
Virginia
nagged
about how Bo’s family needed
to change their dietary habits,
but she suddenly reveals in
this conference portion that
she is such an aggressive
health advocate because she
needed to give up a kidney
for her child. This confession
comes way out of left field and
should have been revealed
much earlier in the episode,
particularly
when
Virginia
and Bo’s wife Christie were
bickering about how they felt
“mommy-shamed.”
For the pilot episode of a
rebooted show, the storyline
could have used a more drastic
change to prove why this
version of “Wife Swap” should
stay on the air. At the episode’s
conclusion,
audiences
were
given a trailer of the season
to come. And with previews
that include a vlogger family,
a same-sex family, a sexist
husband and many more of the
show’s
trademark
cartoonish
caricatures,
one
cannot
help
but
wonder
why
they
decided
to
commence
the
reboot
with
an
episode as bland
as the one that
aired.
There
weren’t many “oh
snap”
moments,
which is a crucial
component
every
good
reality
TV
show
needs
to
capture
its
audience. If you’ve
ever
watched
“The Bachelor” or
any
installment
of
the
“Real
Housewives,” you
know the moments
I’m
referring
to,
and this episode
is like “PBS NewsHour” in
comparison.
As of right now, parents who
are actively raising younger
children are the only audience
that the show targets, but
if they expand to different
kinds of families and raise the
drama, they might be able to
reach a level right below “Real
Housewives” reality TV. It’s a
good source of entertainment
when there’s nothing else to
watch, but the distinction
between reality TV and an
issue of “Parents” magazine
is something they’ll need to
work hard on earning as soon
as possible if they don’t want
another cancellation.
Timid ‘Wife Swap’ return
TV REVIEW
SOPHIA YOON
Daily Arts Writer
Wife Swap
Pilot
Paramount Network
Thursdays @ 9 p.m.
Hunter Hayes
April 27 @ 6 p.m.
Royal Oak Music Theatre
GA starting at $41
6 — Friday, April 12, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com