The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, September 9, 2019 — 5A
In the spirit of Welcome Week,
Festifall and all things post-Labor-Day,
The Daily Film section has written a
collection of blurbs celebrating our
favorite “Openings” to movies. Here’s
to another year of learning, changing,
trying,
failing,
crying,
smiling,
passing, movie-watching and (most
importantly) a-best-picture-awarded-
to-a-film-that-surpasses-the-low-
bar-of-not-being-problematic-at-best-
and-severly-discouraging-as-to-the-
current-state-of-the-conversation-on-
racial-equality-in-America-at-worst.
“If Beale Street Could Talk”
Barry
Jenkins’s
(“Moonlight”)
opening scene in “If Beale Street
Could Talk” technically lasts just
three minutes. The leading pair,
Alonzo
“Fonny”
Hunt
(Stephan
James, “Race”) and Tish Rivers (KiKi
Layne, “Native Son”) step into the
frame
hand-in-hand,
invigorating
Baldwin’s quoted words — they stroll
down a quiet sidewalk and kiss before
the movie cuts to a more current scene
of Tish visiting Fonny in jail. For the
purposes of this blurb, I am only
concerned with 40 seconds of this
sequence, which are entirely spent
tracking their walk. Point A to Point
B. That’s all.
Is it, though? Not if you play along
with Jenkins, look where he wants
you to look, play along with his tricks
just long enough to fall under his spell.
The camera arcs around the lovers,
starting behind and slightly above
Fonny and Tish, so at first, what stands
out is the perfect synchrony of their
steps like we are watching a ballet.
As we watch from a steepening angle,
however, we see this choreography
is imperfect: Fonny’s intoed gait is
not an absolute counterpart to Tish’s.
As the camera begins its descent,
we see their clumsy upper bodies
hazarding into each other, in spite of
the synchronization of their feet.
Poise and clumsiness. Plans and
inevitability. Jenkins’s lightly but
not over-choreographed simplicity
to mimic romance’s. Like waiting in
your car for 10 minutes so you ring
the doorbell reasonably late. Like
“running into them” as they exit one
classroom as you enter your next.
Like matching a stride, slowing or
quickening to keep up with the person
you love.
— Julianna Morano, Daily Arts
Writer
“No Strings Attached”
The first week of classes is over,
“sylly week” if you will, and the only
real way to mourn the end of Welcome
Week parties is to watch the beginning
of “No Strings Attached” several times
over. The opening of the film moves
quickly from the characters’ first
meeting as young teens at camp to an
awkward encounter at a frat party.
While a wide shot of a frat house is
no cinematographic feat, the beauty
of the scene lies in the set design.
Block M flags hang out the windows
of the house and there’s a slow
realization that Ashton Kutcher and
Natalie Portman, at one point in their
lives, were just like us. Or, at least,
pretended to be. The shot continues
and soon, you’re reliving freshman
year — except it’s not Greta Gerwig
shouting about how drunk she is but
one of your new dorm friends you
have to grab from an elevated surface.
And
there’s
something
special
about
watching
Ashton
Kutcher
pretending to be a “brother” while
surrounded with various university
paraphernalia.
He
embodies
the
fraternity aesthetic and his confused
recognition as he spots Portman
from across the room is a look all
too familiar from Welcome Week
shenanigans.
So, as the school year starts and
schedules fill up, anytime you’re
feeling down, just remember that
Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman,
or at least their characters, also once
awkwardly tried to remember why
someone seemed so familiar during
the school year.
— Emma Chang, Senior Arts Editor
To end: Openings, part three
DEF JAM RECORDINGS / GETTY IMAGES
Whether
you
call
it
trip-hop,
“downtempo” or “lounge,” the type
of music that falls under this large
umbrella of related genres is incredibly
difficult to pull off without sounding
unbearably corny, boring or both.
Successes do exist, from Portishead to
Massive Attack as well as some work by
groups such as Zero 7, but as a whole,
and for good reason, there’s not much
out there that excites and intrigues
more than it cures insomnia.
I heard Moon Safari described
using some of these terms, and while
not wrong per se, I discovered how
meaningless they really were. The
1998 debut album of the French duo
consisting
of
two
students
from
Versailles, Nicolas Godin and Jean-
Benoît Dunkel, is perhaps one of the
most playful and, dare I say, cheeky
albums you will ever hear. Borne out of
endless tinkering and experimenting
with synths, preceded by remixes and
a middling EP, Moon Safari is itself an
odd experiment, a mish-mash of genres
and time periods.
At times sophisticated and at others
melancholic yet strangely childish, the
album still sounds futuristic in the
same way a Lamborghini Countach
still
looks
futuristic.
Both
didn’t
necessarily predict the predominant
aesthetics of the future, but perhaps we
just haven’t really caught up.
And like the Countach, Moon Safari
is both breathtaking and prone to fall
apart at any moment. The fact that
Moon Safari never reaches the heights
it’s capable of makes it that much more
fascinating. These heights, however,
are teased at in the memorable opener,
the instrumental “La Femme d’argent.”
Anchored by a lovely, fun bassline,
it nonetheless makes me feel like it
should be the soundtrack to an awful
B-movie, or at best (worst?) Roger
Moore dumping around in space as
James Bond in “Moonraker.”
“Sexy Boy,” the following track, is
the prime example of how the duo, like
Giorgio Moroder in Italy decades prior,
transformed overwhelming corniness
into something that is somehow cool.
The vocoder-based vocals, whispering
in French during the verses and
letting out protracted versions of the
title during the chorus aren’t quite
D’Angelo’s croons, but the charging
drumtrack
and
wobbling
synth
patterns make the track surprisingly
addicting and captivating.
“All I Need,” featuring Tampa-
based singer Beth Hirsch is the most
“lounge”-y track on the album, but
the bassline and intermittent synth
flourishes elevate it above most made-
for-Lifetime-commercial tracks that
permeate the genre. “Ce matin-là,”
another instrumental, is similar in that
it is just too damn pretty for its own
good, but self-aware all the same.
Air achieved some popular success
after the release of Moon Safari, scoring
Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides”
and contributing to her later film “Lost
in Translation” as well. Like those
films, Air’s music ended up capturing
the late ’90s and early 2000s too well in
a sense. In Air’s case, they were never
able to recreate the purity ever-present
in Moon Safari, and considering the
events in the world in the following
years continuing up to now, I suppose
that makes sense.
The
sense
of
self-awareness
permeates the entire album and is the
reason why it eclipses many of the
works that followed it up in the early
2000s. “Sexy Boy” isn’t in anyway
supposed to be sexy, for example, yet
there’s an undeniable confidence and
swagger underneath all that cheese.
This is not an album for the irony-
poisoned and cynical (as I personally
found myself drifting towards when I
first listened to it). To me, it was more
of a reminder that I needed to get over
myself and, well, have some fun.
‘Moon Safari’ by Air
WORLD MUSIC COLUMN
SAYAN GHOSH
Daily World Music Columnist
FILM NOTEBOOK
JULIANNA MORANO
Daily Arts Writer
Last
week,
Kanye
West
officially announced the tracklist
and release date for Jesus Is King,
his upcoming ninth studio album.
It’s common knowledge now that
album
rollout
announcements
from Kanye should be taken with
a grain of salt. We’ve seen this
happen for years, most memorably
the
haphazard
yet
wholesome
rollout of The Life Of Pablo, in
which the tracklist was finalized
weeks after the initial release.
The most recent unorthodox
album rollout came in fall 2018 as
Kanye teased Yandhi, a spiritual
successor of sorts to his 2013
album Yeezus. It was originally
slated for Sept. 29, then delayed to
Nov. 23, but 2019 came around and
Yandhi never did.
Some
time
in
mid-August,
several leaked versions of Yandhi
began circulating — in particular,
a 28-minute leak on YouTube
that compiled nine demos and
recordings,
presumably
from
sessions for Yandhi. Since then,
the
title
has
become
fairly
synonymous with this collection
of leaks.
There’s a lot of debate about the
ethics of leaks. Some argue they
are harmful and can cost artists
or labels financially, or cause
artists to throw away tracks that
had potential. But after a song (or
album) has been leaked, there’s no
going back. Yandhi is an especially
interesting leak: It’s very much a
rough draft. Most of the songs are
unfinished, embodying a certain
idea Kanye was reaching for but
not quite realized. I took this
opportunity to dig into the brief
tracklisting for Yandhi for insight
into Kanye’s creation process and
ask a question: What could have
been?
The opening track, “New Body,”
is a pop-rap song with appearances
from frequent collaborators Ty
Dolla $ign and Nicki Minaj. The
lyrics celebrate plastic surgery,
something relevant to Nicki Minaj
herself and Kanye West’s current
(and
past)
partner.
A
catchy
flute melody plays throughout,
a
vaguely
African
pop
sound
maybe inspired by Kanye’s 2018
trip to record in Uganda. The
instrumental is pretty middling,
though.
Next is “The Storm,” featuring
the late XXXTentacion in a mildly
awkward and angry verse. The
aggression in the verse comes
off especially strange because
the vocals are unmixed, so he
just sounds like he’s pissed off,
screaming over a Skype call or
something. The song is repetitive
and
uninteresting.
So
far,
it
seemed fair for Yandhi to hit the
bin.
“Alien” is the first song to show
potential. As the title suggests,
it features a surreal and colorful
beat with an eerie melody. At one
point the instrumental really kicks
in and starts to envelop your ears
like a grandiose movie soundtrack.
The song ends abruptly though
and Kanye’s delivery is pathetic —
they are clearly first-time laid-out
lyrics. If the track were finished
with
a
better
performance
from Kanye, “Alien” could be a
highlight track on a future Kanye
West project.
“Law of Attraction” (also called
“Chakras”) is probably the most
obvious demo on the album, as
similar to the previous track,
Kanye mumbles nonsensical lyrics
to get his flow down throughout.
It seems to be a pattern for Kanye
in his songwriting process that the
flows and emotions and concepts
come before any finished lyrics.
The
layered
vocal
harmonies
are wonderful, and there’s an
intensity
to
Kanye’s
delivery
that could make for a respectable
album deep cut, but the next track,
“Bye Bye Baby,” fulfills the same
role on an album. It’s similar in
intensity with a more interesting
instrumental
and
features
a
very emotional (and completed)
Kanye-core verse, touching on his
feelings of insecurity that have
shined on his last few records.
Only one track, “Hurricane,” is a
really unlistenable demo. The beat
is pretty cool and glamorous — it
sounds like something you might
find on a Travis Scott project —
but the weird falsetto vocals are
horrifyingly annoying. The song
won’t be missed. It’s followed by
“We Got Love (Remix),” another
high
potential
track.
That’s
rumored to have originally been
for Teyana Taylor’s album, which
would explain why her verse is so
well put together beside Kanye
West’s awkward and vaguely off-
beat contributions.
“Garden” is a beautiful and
soulful
track
that
presumably
came from a session with the choir
for Kanye West’s “Sunday Service”
performances — weekly, invite-
only stagings in which Kanye West
performs gospel-esque versions of
music from his catalog. It sounds
like an even better version of
something you might find on
Chance
the
Rapper’s
Coloring
Book. The audio is notably low-
quality, like it was recorded on a
cell phone during a live session.
This is a track to be excited
about: It’s one of the only leaked
songs to appear on the tracklist
posted for Jesus Is King, so we
can (cautiously) expect a finished
release in the near future. The
leaked album closes with “Slave
Name,” a gorgeous instrumental
outro led by a guitar, but clearly
incomplete.
The
verdict?
Yandhi
has
potential. We’ll probably never
see finished versions of “Alien” or
“Bye Bye Baby,” something that’s
actually deeply unfortunate. The
ideas and concepts on Yandhi
are
actually
extremely
fresh
and exciting. The insight into
Kanye West’s creative process is
interesting, but unfinished demos
aren’t really revisitable. The best
fans can do is wait and hope that
Jesus Is King embraces the best of
Yandhi — if it even comes out.
Leaked: ‘Yandhi,’ track by track
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
DYLAN YONO
Daily Arts Writer
Part
of
going
to
an
elite
university is sometimes there’s an
overwhelming pressure to always
be busy. During time off from
rigorous
academic
schedules,
many feel that they should be
doing
something
exciting
and
career-enhancing.
I
stressed
myself out all second semester
looking for internships and jobs to
keep myself occupied this summer.
To my dismay, every single plan
I made fell through. Even the
class I was going to take at the
community college back home was
canceled. I left Ann Arbor feeling
defeated, boredom already seeping
in. But I didn’t stay bored for
long. A couple internships worked
out, I secured a job, I took online
classes. Suddenly, my summer was
full of fulfilling experiences.
My most adventurous endeavor
was going to Los Angeles for a
month-long film internship. I lived
on my own for a month in a city
I’d never been to without knowing
a soul — a seven-hour plane ride
from my home. I worked a nine-to-
five internship at a film company
and loved (almost) every second
of it. I explored career options
I didn’t even know existed. I
fulfilled dreams, I expanded my
resume, but mostly I learned how
strong I was.
When I came back, I nannied a
two-and-a-half-year-old
toddler,
getting a different taste of adult
responsibilities. As I was making
sure she didn’t run into the road
or fall down the stairs, I found the
old saying that babysitting is the
best birth control to be true in as
many ways as it is false.
I even explored my local theatre,
doing an internship that allowed
me to learn the stories of people
in my community. I reconnected
with the home I found last summer
before making Ann Arbor my home.
I found a passion for hearing and
sharing other people’s stories.
All these experiences proved
to be hard work, but incredibly
fulfilling. I grew in so many ways
that I barely recognized myself.
Away from the tight schedules
and academic pressures of the
school year, summer is the time
when we finally have a chance to
explore who we are and who we
want to be. A lot of that comes
from the new opportunities we are
allowed to explore, such as jobs,
internships and volunteer work.
But a lot also comes from having
some time to ourselves to indulge
in our passions and give ourselves
time to expand our minds on our
own terms.
In the weeks between jobs, I
found myself growing more and
more comfortable having time to
myself, with a lot of my summer
spent curled on on my bed typing
aggressively
on
my
laptop
or
quietly strumming my g uitar. I
finally had the freedom to do all
the projects I always wanted to do
but was too busy to actually do. At
first, it was a lot of pressure. But
eventually, I settled into starting
projects
for
myself
and
not
worrying about having to finish
them for a deadline. That led to a
lot of unfinished projects, but also
a lot of new and exciting ideas.
I wrote a synopsis for about
seven different plays I wanted
to write and didn’t finish any of
them. I watched documentaries.
I learned how to do a mediocre
Scottish accent for no reason
other than I thought it would be
a fun skill to have. I discovered
new music (thanks Ben Platt for
the title). I gave my Instagram
an aesthetic, I painted, I wrote,
I cooked. I slept in until noon
and
watched
all
of
“Arrested
Development” in one week. I lived
in my own skin and began to enjoy
having time to myself for the first
time in a long time.
Growth isn’t only about keeping
busy
and
having
the
coolest
summer story. As high achieving
students, sometimes we feel that if
we’re not doing the best internship
out there, we aren’t doing enough.
But having a balance of these
things is how we grow into who
we are meant to be. We need days
where we work nine to five at a
dream internship and days when
we sleep until noon and write
crappy plays, or even just binge
Netf lix. Growth is a process, and
all forms of creativity add to it.
My summer may be over, but the
growth from it will continue on
throughout the school year and
beyond.
On growing as I go, &
loving the in-between
COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK
DANA PIERANGELI
Daily Arts Writer
EMMA CHANG
Senior Arts Editor