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WORK ON MACKINAC Island
This Summer – Make lifelong friends.
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Fudge Shops are seeking help in all
areas: Front Desk, Bell Staff, Wait
Staff, Sales Clerks, Kitchen, Baristas.
Dorm Housing, bonus, and discounted
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(906) 847‑7196.
www.theislandhouse.com
By Paul Coulter
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/15/19
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
04/15/19
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Monday, April 15, 2019
ACROSS
1 Cuts off
5 Member of a
strict Jewish sect
10 Artistic Chinese
dynasty
14 Ohio’s Great Lake
15 Justice Kagan
16 Egg-shaped
17 Ancient mariner’s
fear
19 Flexible mineral
sheet
20 Persuade with
flattery
21 Fossil resins
23 “Beowulf,”
poem-wise
24 Rubs the wrong
way?
25 Chain reaction
requirement
29 Stagecoach puller
30 Allied gp. since
1948
31 Dangerous
snakes
35 Antipollution org.
36 Hit, as a fly
40 Alphabetically
first of two
Hawaiian
maunas
41 Like some coll.
courses
43 Gp. getting many
returns in April
44 Regular’s bar
order, with “the”
46 Nation that
promotes
its people’s
economic and
social prosperity
50 Malicious rumors
53 “Do __ others ... ”
54 Judge, e.g.
55 Like faces at a
fireworks display
59 “Dream on!”
60 Meditation goal
hinted at by this
puzzle’s circles
62 Wander
63 Close-knit group
64 Fairway club
65 Didn’t dillydally
66 Act with excessive
passion
67 The Big Apple, in
addresses
DOWN
1 Make-do
amount?
2 Two-tone cookie
3 Chanteuse
Edith
4 Six-line stanzas
5 Brave
6 Llama relative
7 Ooze
8 Quaint stopover
9 Sortable
information
source
10 Kenya’s major
port
11 Like Wrigley
Field’s walls
12 Mother-of-pearl
13 Water or wine
vessel
18 Catches sight of
22 Dash in a spice
rack?
24 Amo, amas, __
25 “Moonstruck”
star
26 Weapon in Clue
27 Baghdad’s land
28 Gobs of
32 Arctic seabird
33 __ moss
34 Markdown event
37 Whole-grain
food
38 Pound sounds
39 Quarrel
42 Towered over
45 Preserve using
barrels, as wine
47 Bard’s “before”
48 Buffy the
Vampire Slayer’s
“Watcher” __
Giles
49 Main course
50 Burns a bit
51 Legendary
fabulist
52 Easily deceived
55 “Go back” PC
command
56 __ a one: none
57 Supply-and-
demand subj.
58 Reject as false
61 “The Deer
Hunter” war
zone, for short
SERVICES
HELP WANTED
FOR RENT
Some
real-life
stories
are,
simply put, too banal to be
told on the screen. But in the
utterly perplexing case of “The
Hummingbird Project,” writer-
director Kim Nguyen
(“War
Witch”)
delivers a completely
fictional
story
that is more banal
than reality itself.
Everything
about
this mess of a nano-
financial engineering
thriller
begs
the
words “Based on real
events” to appear on
the screen at some
point to justify its
existence.
(They
don’t.) Not only is
the film’s premise
ludicrous in the way
that many nonfiction
film adaptations are, but the idea
is so uncinematic and dry that I’m
kind of impressed the movie was
made in the first place.
“The Hummingbird Project”
follows the story of two Wall Street
schemers who hatch a ridiculous
plan to shake up the entire system
in the wake of the financial crisis.
Vincent,
a
conniving
hustler
played by a typically neurotic Jesse
Eisenberg (“Batman v Superman:
Dawn of Justice”), teams up with
his balding and blundering cousin,
Anton (Alexander Skarsgård, “The
Aftermath”) to make millions
through a fiber-optic cable that
connects from Kansas to New York
City, allowing the pair to make
financial trades a millisecond
before other buyers.
This dense premise would
be fascinating if it were even
the slightest bit believable, but
the truth is that Nguyen is a
filmmaker, not an investment
banking connoisseur, and it shows.
His tendency to brush over and
dart around the actual mechanics
of his idea are detrimental to
the film even to the most casual
observer. You don’t need to be a
financial wizard to know that the
1000-mile line might not work, but
you do need to be one to write a
working screenplay about it. At one
point, Anton attempts to explain
the cable to a talkative waitress
and instead of a concrete answer,
he instead becomes fixated on —
and, trust me, I couldn’t believe
this either — lemon farmers in
Zimbabwe.
Several of these unintentionally
hilarious moments, times when
the
film’s
zany
momentum
careened it off the tracks, at least
kept me cracking up, if nothing
else. Another of one of these I
absolutely have to mention is
a
sweat-drenched
Eisenberg
wielding
a
chainsaw
as
he
marches up a forest trail muttering
to himself “I’m gonna fucking tear
you down” with the intensity of a
child whose birthday candles were
blown out by someone else.
In essence, the film is too dull
to be emotional and too shaky
in its logic to be intellectual.
The result is a genre-hopping
compilation of half-baked scenes
that don’t even sort
of work. Sometimes,
the movie aims for
straight
horror,
with Salma Hayek’s
(“The
Hitman’s
Bodyguard”)
villain, Eva Torres,
threatening
the
protagonists
progress in wannabe
Walter
White
fashion.
At
other
times, the film plays
out as a biopic of a
nonexistent person,
throwing
equally
nonexistent personal
maladies at Vincent
and Anton to thwart their efforts.
“Hummingbird” even dabbles in
sloppy social commentary a scene
in which Amish farmers refuse to
let the cousins dig their pipeline
through “God’s land.”
Eisenberg’s
performance
is in every way an unbroken
continuation
of
all
of
his
performances thus far, as the
brainy, detached genius who is
too invested in his work to feel
emotions. It’s almost as if Nguyen
watched the actor’s excellent
portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg
in “The Social Network” and
thought, “Hey, that guy could
go to Wall Street!” Zuckerberg
and Vincent are truly the same
characters, and that makes the
film entertaining even as it falls
apart at the seams.
‘Hummingbird’ is a mess
FILM REVIEW
ANISH TAMHANEY
Daily Arts Writer
The Hummingbird
Project
State Theatre
The Orchard Productions
I remember country music
most vividly as the twangy
acoustic stream trickling from
the speakers of my Papaw’s
truck. A good ol’ boy from
Jellico,
Tennessee,
Papaw
let the warmth of fiddles and
guitars ramble quietly in the
truck cab. Of course,
he was doing donuts
in the street with his
grandchildren in the
back, but the music
was soft and simple.
Needless to say, the
days of my Papaw’s
country music are long
gone.
This
truth
was
evident
at
last
Sunday’s 54th Annual
Association of Country
Music
Awards,
hosted by the “Queen
of
Country,”
Reba
McEntire.
McEntire
was not terribly funny
— as Kacey Musgraves’s
perpetually
cringing
face confirmed — but
her quip about women
being frozen out of
the Entertainer of the
Year category is worthy
of a smirk. The show
got
moving
quickly.
The
night’s
biggest
winners were duo Dan
+ Shay who won Song of the
Year for “Tequila,” as well as
Single of the Year and Duo
of the Year. Other notable
wins for the night included
the brilliant Ashley McBryde
winning New Female Artist
of the Year, Musgraves’s well-
deserved win of both Female
Artist of the Year and Album
of the Year for Golden Hour,
and Dierks Bentley’s win of
Music Event of the Year for
the Burning Man Tour.
As an awards ceremony that
is sparse of categories, the
show was dominated by some
incredible
performances.
The extraordinary violinist,
Amanda
Shires,
dazzled
on the fiddle during Luke
Comb’s
performance
of
“Beautiful Crazy.” Likewise,
the phenomenal alt-country
darling,
Brandi
Carlile,
stole
the
show
during
Bentley’s
performance
of
“Travellin’
Light.”
Other
notable
performances
included Miranda Lambert’s
powerhouse
medley,
“This
Is Us” star Chrissy Metz’s
performance of “I’m Standing
With You” from her new film
“Breakthrough,” as well as a
heartwarming display in “Girl
Goin’ Nowhere” by McBryde.
For
all
the
striking
performances
and
well-
deserved
winners,
there
were a number of duds. The
ceremony opened with “Can’t
Hide
Red,”
performed
by
Florida
Georgia
Line
and
Jason Aldean, which could
have
simply
flown
under
the radar, only if it was not
also a shameless plug for Old
Camp Whiskey, “the official
whiskey of country music.”
One can only hope that Old
Camp doesn’t leave as bitter of
a taste as the performance did.
The rapid fluctuation in
tone throughout the night also
contributed to the lackluster
feeling. Like Luke Bryant’s
“Knocking Boots” immediately
following Miranda Lambert’s
empowering
performance
of a medley of her greatest
hits. Somehow Keith Urban
won Entertainer of the Year,
beating
out
compelling
artists like Chris Stapleton.
Equally
confusing,
Jason
Aldean won the Dick Clark
Artist of the Decade award.
While
he
certainly
has
talent, few would consider
Aldean
more
impressive
than the innumerable female
country
artists
who
were ignored by the
Academy.
While
the
ACM
awards
were
entertaining to a point,
the
entire
ceremony
was
tainted
by
the
noticeable
lack
of
female representation.
Musgraves
was
not
given
a
chance
to
perform
and
Shires
was
not
announced
when she played during
Comb’s
“Beautiful
Crazy.”
The
entire
show
felt
incredibly
on edge, attempting to
balance the discomfort
with
the
increasing
inability to ignore it.
The fact that McEntire
was willing to overtly
call attention to it only
proves how pressing
the issue is. In fact,
women were present
on stage for awards
only twice outside of
female-oriented categories.
The
ACM
awards
did
have
some
outstanding
performances. The bad ones
certainly
did
not
blemish
the stunning talent that did
manage to get time on stage.
What
became
increasingly
apparent
is
the
Academy
of
Country
Music’s
very
uncertain footing as it — and
country music as a genre —
struggle
between
tradition
and the efforts of country’s
more dynamic artists to break
free of the Nashville sound.
Evidently, that sound is not
country music. Luckily, the
outspoken
frustration
of
female artists and increasing
influence
of
roots-based
artists
at
the
ceremony
demonstrated that there is
clearly some light over yonder.
ACM Awards didn’t stun
TV NOTEBOOK
MAXWELL SCHWARZ
Daily Arts Writer
54th Annual ACM
Awards
CBS
You don’t need to be a financial wizard to know that the
1000-mile line might not work, but you do need to be one
to write a working screenplay about it.
Last
Sunday
evening
at
the University of Michigan
Museum
of
Art,
I
was
transported to another world.
Runyonland
Productions,
headed by School of Music,
Theatre & Dance senior musical
theater major Thomas Laub,
put on a production of Adam
Guettel’s “Myths and Hymns.”
The show itself is a song
cycle
focusing
on
various
Greek myths like the Pegasus,
Icarus and Hero and Leander.
In addition to the show, the
production showcased three
men of Islamic, Judaic and
Christian
faith
who
spoke
on their various experiences.
The show as a whole focused
on
togetherness
and
the
importance of breaking bread
together.
Once the show started, the
audience was thrown into the
world of fickle gods and insane
beauty. The UMMA’s exquisite
Apse, filled with grand columns
and art from the emergence
of
Romanticism,
furthered
my suspension of disbelief.
The performers also had the
voices
of
gods
themselves.
Their marvelous voices echoed
through the museum. During
solo
numbers,
the
sound
was tragically beautiful. The
casting of each solo number was
brilliantly done. Each singer
embodied the, at most times,
tragic myth with simplicity and
elegance that was only matched
by the accompaniment of a lone
piano, effortlessly played by
SMTD professor Jason Dabord,
who
also
music
directed.
Both sounds echoed up to the
heavens and filled the space
incredibly well considering no
microphones were used.
However, during the group
numbers with a full band, it
was difficult to make out the
meaning and lyrics of the songs
due to the unusual acoustics
of the museum and competing
sounds. “Myths and Hymns”
was directed by SMTD faculty
member Geoff Packard. In his
director’s note, he stated that
the message of the production
was “of religious tolerance
and understanding” through
the lense of Guettel’s “lush”
music and the “glorious halls
of the University of Michigan
Museum of Art.” Choreography
by SMTD junior Mason Reeves
was expertly curated to fill
the
unorthodox
performing
space. Although the format of
the show was a song cycle, the
dancing seemed to further fill
out the production. At times,
the movement doubled as a
substitute for the nonexistent
set.
Adam Guettel is known for
the complexity of his music
both
for
instrumentalists
and singers, neither of whom
seemed to be struggling with
the material. The piece ends
with SMTD senior Matthew
Edward Kemp exclaiming that
he is the “fall of Pegasus, the
fall of Icarus.” He is all of these
myths — all things godly and
mortal.
The end image was of the
ensemble holding hands in
solidarity.
Throughout
the
production, there would be
momentary breaks from the
music to listen to the men
representing various religions.
At first, it was unclear as to
their purpose in the production.
Bassel Salka, a senior studying
Industrial
and
Operations
Engineering
as
well
as
a
member of the Muslim Student
Association Board, was the
first to speak. He spoke on his
experience as a Muslim man at
the University. He was initially
afraid due to the extensive
hate speech about Muslims in
his first years here, but more
recently
he
remembered
a
time when students created
a wall around him as a literal
protective barrier, making him
feel safe in the United States for
one of the first times.
The second was rabbi Josh
Whinston. In his speech, he
urged listeners to treat each
other well. We may never know
why we were put on this earth,
but all we can do for now is
know how we’ve treated those
around us. The last speaker
was Episcopal minister and
University
alum
Ian
Reed
Twiss.
He
spoke
on
how
important it is to be “comfort
food” for others. Even as it
seems the world is descending
into chaos, we must remember
to eat and to feed each other.
It is how we show love. It is
the simplest form of showing
another
person
that
they
matter.
By the end of the production,
I truly felt like I had been
elevated by the art and wisdom
surrounding our sometimes too
independent and goal-driven
world. Even the least religious
of us could agree that the
spiritual impact of this show
was inspiring. Maybe we need
each other much more than we
realize.
Sunday eve at the UMMA
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
NATALIE KASTNER
For The Daily
6A — Monday, April 15, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com