The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, September 30, 2019 — 5A
Though most of us would have to agree
that every quality game day ends in food,
I’m not sure most of us recognize that some
of the most important culinary triumphs of
the day lie in the most unassuming of places:
the stadium. Perhaps because making it to
the game is such a feat among students who
prefer the tailgate to the the actual kick-
off, we don’t often realize that by making
it into the stadium not only are we there to
watch football, we’re also there to feast.
The stadium’s culinary facilities are run by
Sodexo, a food service business that manages
University athletics, and they are completely
rebranding what it means to order any kind of
food at a sporting event.
Growing up, I remember being taken to
Metlife Stadium in New Jersey, enticed by
the idea of a hot dog slathered in mustard and
salty french fries. Beer scented concrete and
sticky aluminum countertops were the staples
of the stadiums of my childhood nightmares.
If I was lucky and behaved (instead of
complaining about my distaste for sports) my
mom would let me have a Carvel ice cream
cone. Other than that, the food options were
fairly limited. Being diagnosed with Celiac
disease when I was 17 basically rid me of the
ability to eat in sporting stadiums around the
country.
Sodexo, on the other hand, is changing
the Big House’s culinary game completely.
Sodexo’s job through the University is to
coordinate both non-profit, local eateries to
set up shop on Ann Arbor autumn Saturday’s
around the circumference of the Big House
and additionally to run the Big House’s
private concessions as well. Last year alone,
as a collective the stadium made around
$245,000 in profit on food. This year, they
have their sights set higher.
On my culinary food tour around the
stadium, I started at the Greek Eats stand.
With options like chicken shawarma and
loaded gyros, this stand alone revamps drunk
munchies entirely. The chicken shawarma I
tasted was loaded with thick garlic sauce that
complimented the chicken well. Next to the
Greek Eats stand you can find Ann Arbor’s
own Bearclaw Coffee — a coffee cart stocked
with a menu of seasonal lattes and homemade
pastries. Just down from there the “Street
Eats” stand specializes in a variety of tacos.
Most popular on the menu is the “walking
taco,” a taco bowl with layers of salty fritos
topped with beans, cheese, salsa and beef.
This dish is best accompanied by a fork and
an Oberon to wash it all down. The variety
of choices does not end there. Between each
and every local stand are concession booths
which now sell Impossible Burgers and have
gluten free and vegan offerings as well. Ray’s
Red Hots also makes an appearance on the
perimeter of the stadium, providing your
favorite East University bites during halftime
or in between quarters.
But my favorite stand has to be the “Tot
Spot,” a concession booth that specializes
in loaded tater tots. I would recommend the
“Tot-chos” or the “Classic Tots,” though
all
the
possible
topping
combinations
compliment the golden brown, crispy tater
tots perfectly. Other standouts include the
minority female run “Detroit Dough” edible
cookie dough carts that line the stadium.
Co-founder and CEO Autumn Kyles is a
University alum who proudly serves their
edible cookie dough to fans every game day.
For other sweet tooth options, RJ’s is a loaded
milkshake stand and a family-run business.
The matriarch of the family, Yvette Wilkie,
started making desserts after her son passed
away to help combat her depression, and
now you can find their ice cream sandwich
and donut embellished cookies & cream
milkshakes at every game day.
The efforts by Sodexo to make the Michigan
football experience more than a game should
not go unnoticed. Football is a story. You
have your protagonists and antagonists, your
climax and your narrative line — and you
never know if the ending is going to be happy
or sad. Both good games and bad games, home
team and away team, everyone attending the
Big House has one thing in common: We’re all
hungry. The eats at the Big House can make
any game, regardless of the score, a good one.
Go to the stadium for the
football, but also the food
ELI RALLO
Daily Food Columnist
FOOD COLUMN
FILM REVIEW
Stories about serial killers tend to involve
obsession, not only in their examination of
startlingly meticulous murderers, but of the people
who investigate their crimes. One needs to look no
further than the films “Zodiac,” “Se7en” and even
the Netflix show “Mindhunter,” to experience the
gradual psychological erosion that comes from
obsession with the macabre. Of course, all three
of these are products of David Fincher, who is
arguably the master of this archetype. He makes
his characters and his viewers wonder why they
are so drawn into the grisliest human behavior
and, in doing so, paints this obsession as a dark and
poisonous curiosity.
A movie that misunderstands the trope of
the in-too-deep murder investigator is “In the
Shadow of the Moon,” directed by Jim Mickle
(“Cold in July”). When Philadelphia policeman
Thomas “Locke” Lockhart (Boyd Holbrook, who
coincidentally played an investigator in Fincher’s
“Gone Girl,”) notices a temporal pattern of unsolved
murders, his obsession wears away at his own
mental stability and the relationships around him.
“Moon” struggles to establish enough sympathy
between the audience and Locke. An important
aspect of understanding an investigator’s descent
into darkness is eagerly following along with them.
Instead of a continuous timeline, the film stitches
together moments from every nine years of his life
to depict the various stages of his investigation. As
a result, the transition is blunt and dry, replacing
character nuance with increasingly mangier facial
hair and crazier theories.
A reason that Locke doesn’t connect with the
audience is that the film makes foolhardy, tactless
dives into political commentary. Locke’s work
central to this misstep — early in the film, he marks
himself as part of a corrupt police system, one that
operates on racial profiling and a general dismissal
of due process. As an audience, grappling with
Locke’s morality for the rest of the film is certainly
tough, and when the film coerces us to root for him
by placing tragedy after tragedy along his journey,
it’s hard not to be incensed at the writing.
The
movie’s
admission
of,
and
eventual
complicity with, the systematic violence of police
isn’t its only serious misstep. In future vignettes,
it perplexingly criticizes protests against that
violence. “Why are they so angry?” Locke’s
daughter asks him as she gazes out a window at a
march outside. “Some people aren’t happy unless
they’re mad. You’ll see what I mean when you
get older,” he replies smugly. One might think
that Locke is a villain to the story’s anxieties,
but “Moon” is simply not that aware. It aches to
humanize him without understanding the costs of
doing so.
“Moon” is truly infuriating because Mickle
incorporates eye-catching cinematography and
meaningful camerawork into a story that never
deserves it. For all its visual flair, the movie is a
sour pill to swallow. The performances are also
lacking, making me wonder if a halfway decent cast
could have at least made the journey worthwhile.
Perhaps the more fascinating story of obsession
in “Moon” is that of the filmmakers and their
curmudgeonly desperation to say something,
anything about current politics. This trap is one
that many films of the last few years have fallen
into, some notably more successful than others.
These distractions took away from a legitimately
interesting science fiction subplot that gave the
story a twist that most detective stories don’t have.
In many ways, “Moon” is just another Netflix
movie — a compelling idea executed poorly, and a
story that can surely be avoided.
‘Moon’ doesn’t hit potential
ANISH TAMHANEY
Daily Arts Writer
In the Shadow of
the Moon
Netflix
Streaming Now
NETFLIX
The opening track of The Highwomen’s self-
titled debut album proclaims that they’ll “be back
again and again and again and again and again.”
This hook, like much of the song’s instrumentation
and storytelling, mirrors The Highwaymen’s
1985 theme song “Highwayman.” But in 2019,
sung by women, these lyrics sound different.
Simultaneously a rally cry for women in country
music and a warning to the male-dominated
industry, Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, Natalie
Hemby and Amanda Shires’s insistence that they
aren’t going anywhere, and have been important
all along, is refreshing.
The Highwomen’s roster doesn’t quite read
like the country-music-Mount Rushmore that is
The Highwaymen, and that’s the problem. Any
four female artists popular in country music
today have never been given the opportunity to
reach their stature. By staking their own claim to
greatness, and delivering an album to back it up,
The Highwomen pave the way for more visibility,
more inclusion, and more women-focused themes
in the genre, something the “bro-country” era of
the 2010s was overshadowing.
Answering how Morris’s country pop would
mesh with Carlile’s Americana, the group’s
first single, “Redesigning Women,” settles The
Highwomen into a traditional-leaning, acoustic
country sound that persists throughout the
album. As all four members sing in unison about
being women who do it all: “Making bank, shaking
hands, driving 80 / Tryna get home just to feed the
baby,” this track is the album’s heartbeat, giving
life to the more specific tales of empowerment
that follow.
“Loose Change” is one of those songs. Simple
but catchy, Morris sings about knowing her worth.
“Love is not supposed to be played like Monopoly”
she cautions. The song plays with the extremes of
a penny’s (and a person’s) value in another’s eyes,
from being worthless when it’s “loose change” to
being priceless when it’s “lucky.” And just like a
penny, Morris suggests that a woman should “roll
away” when she isn’t being treated nicely.
“If She Ever Leaves Me” finds Carlile in a bar,
staring down a cowboy who’s been keeping an eye
on her wife, and letting him know that even if
they weren’t together anymore, her wife would
never be with him. Queer country songs are
possible, everyone! Carlile sounds as gorgeous
as always, and it’s exciting to think that in
a stereotypically homophobic genre, more
explicitly LGBTQ-friendly songs are coming to
light.
If you’re still pissed with someone you’ve
given a few too many chances to (and also
want to feel like you’re in an old Western film)
“Don’t Call Me” will take you there. This song
is the kind of funny you find pacing back and
forth with your fists clenched. The verses and
outro string together suggestions for how the
person who said they “outgrew” Carlile and
Shires should fix their mess without them.
“Call your doctor … your lawyer … if you can
afford one” Shires smirks. “Call your spiritual
guide or mood enlightener, your tattoo artist.”
She could go on.
But the absolute stand out of the album
is “Cocktail and a Song.” Written and sung
by Shires alone, she captures a conversation
with her dad about his impending passing.
It’s heartbreaking. “Don’t you let me see you cry,
don’t you go grieving / Not before I’m gone” he
tells her. But it’s also light-hearted. When Shires
requests his “silver belt buckle and maybe (his)
black Stetson hat” they both laugh, which makes
the song sting even more.
Women of any country music era aren’t “around
and around and around and around and around”
like Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash are today,
but The Highwomen demonstrate why they
should be. It’s a shame that four individually strong
artists had to come together to bring attention to
women’s contributions to country music, because
the excellence this supergroup demonstrates is
nothing new. Still, one can’t help but feel lucky
that they did decide to take a stand and release
an album that stands up to their namesake. Now
all we can do is look forward to when they “come
back again” and keep rooting for them — and other
women — in the meantime.
The Highwomen have arrived, and they’re here to stay
KATIE BEEKMAN
For the Daily
The Highwomen
The Highwomen
Elektra Records
ALBUM REVIEW
ELEKTRA RECORDS
Women of any country music era aren’t “around and
around and around and around and around” like
Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash are today, but The
Highwomen demonstrate why they should be
Between each and
every local stand are
concession booths
which now sell
Impossible Burgers
and have gluten free
and vegan offerings
as well