6A — Monday, November 25, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
By Ed Sessa
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/25/19
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
11/25/19
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Monday, November 25, 2019
ACROSS
1 Pole on the
Pequod
5 Conclude from
evidence
10 Auto loan figs.
14 Smoothie berry
15 Land, in France
16 Talk over tea
17 *Soccer ref’s
formal warning
19 Like wet mud
pies
20 Bullring bravo
21 Like dried-out
mud pies
22 Cerebral __:
brain layer
24 Name of many
pharaohs
26 Singer Mars
27 *Letter box
access
30 Emeril
catchword
33 Like XLII,
numeral-wise
36 Elevator
innovator
37 Classic theater
name
38 Eurasian border
range
39 Fiber sources
40 Four-leaf clover,
to some
41 Astronaut
Armstrong
42 Apartment
payment
43 “In Xanadu did
__ Khan ... ”:
Coleridge
44 Weigh station
unit
45 *Area where
cellphones don’t
work
47 Weighty exam
49 Montblanc topper
53 Prohibited
55 Biblical “you”
57 Rose of rock
music
58 “Sorry to say ... ”
59 Later than
expected ... and
where the ends
of the answers to
starred clues may
be found
62 Opposite of went
63 Bay window
64 Many an Omani
65 Like two, not one
66 Simultaneous
equation
variables
67 No longer here
DOWN
1 Big city big shot
2 Amtrak express
train
3 Witch trial town
4 Shop __ you
drop
5 Formal words of
confession
6 Hickey spot
7 Start to unravel
8 Slip up
9 Disaster relief
organization
10 Seed that grows
squirrels?
11 *Sneak into the
shot
12 Level with a
wrecking ball
13 River of Hades
18 Neptune’s realm
23 Part of KO
25 Petite
26 Cheesy pancake,
perhaps
28 Cosmetics giant
29 Lamp support
31 Ice skating feat
32 Mimicking bird
33 Littlest of the litter
34 Snack
sometimes eaten
from the inside
out
35 *iPad’s giant
ancestor
37 City where Joan
of Arc died
39 Loaf holder
43 Weak- or knock-
follower
45 Crime scene
sample
46 In full view
48 “Peer Gynt”
dramatist
50 Egypt’s capital
51 Guy felling trees
52 Annapolis frosh
53 Clock front
54 Norse king
55 Girl Scouts’ __
Mints
56 Hurried, old-style
60 Historical period
61 Kids’ game with a
safe area
The dawn of the holiday season calls for one thing and one thing
only: a new Netflix Christmas flick starring Vanessa Hudgens. If
we cannot have “High School Musical 4,” at least we can rely on
an annual romcom starring Hudgens to spread tidings of comfort
and joy. Last winter, we were gifted with “The Princess Switch,”
where Hudgens plays a successful baker who trades places with
her princess doppelganger and winds up falling in love with a
prince. Though not exactly the “The Princess Switch” sequel
we asked for, “The Knight Before Christmas” offers the same
cheerful spirit and fairytale romance that we’ve been yearning
for all year.
The movie starts with Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse “Poldark”)
who, at one moment, is a medieval English knight preparing for
his younger brother’s knighthood, and the
next, is magically transported by a wise old
witch into a small town in Ohio in the year
2019. Heeding the witch’s advice, Cole is
determined to search for his life’s “quest”
before Christmas day. Upon his arrival to
the modern world, Sir Cole bumps into
Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens “High School
Musical 3”), a kind, but romantically
skeptical high school science teacher.
After an awkward, yet pure encounter,
the pair meet again later that night, when
Brooke nearly runs Sir Cole over with her
car during a snowstorm. Out of both guilt
and intrigue, upon learning that Sir Cole
has no place to go, Brooke offers him a bed
in her guest house. As the days leading up
to Christmas go by, Sir Cole and Brooke
prepare for the holidays together, Sir Cole
teaching Brooke about the customs in his
world and Brooke sharing the traditions in
hers. A friendship between the two soon
develops, which of course, quickly begins
to morph into something more.
Though at surface level “The Knight
Before Christmas” is intended strictly
for a preteen, female audience, the movie is arguably enjoyable
for anyone in search of a little holiday pep with a sprinkle of
romance. Unsurprisingly, this movie follows a similar framework
to “The Princess Switch”: a twist of fate, followed by a meet-cute,
which ultimately leads to a budding romance. The unpredictable
elements of “The Knight Before Christmas” are far and few in
between, and the film certainly does not pack a whole lot of
cinematic punch; however, it does successfully invoke a sense of
nostalgia for the most wonderful time of year.
With the majority of their time together filled with bread-
baking, tree-chopping and hot chocolate drinking, Brooke and
Sir Cole are certainly no Kate and Leopold, but their love story is
sweet and seasonal, which is a box that all holiday movies should
check. I’ve seen my fair share of low-budget Netflix films —
some are truly awful, without purpose or direction. But, despite
its lack of originality or spunk, “The Knight Before Christmas”
is a wholesome reminder that the holiday season is around the
corner and maybe that is all that it needs to be.
Netflix’s Christmas miracle, starring Vanessa Hudgens
FILM REVIEW
SAMANTHA NELSON
Daily Arts Writer
These days, it’s hard to tell whether reality television is scripted or
not, especially when some Kardashian scandal just so happens to get
leaked to the press right before the latest season of “Keeping Up With
the Kardashians.” The “reality” aspect makes it more entertaining
to watch because it takes us away from the drama in our own lives,
even if deep down most of us know that it’s all scripted and carefully
produced. But this transformation to more realistic reality television
came after a renaissance (watch some clips from the first seasons of
“Keeping Up”), and there’s one show that seemed to miss the memo.
That show is “Blind Date,” a reboot of a show from the early 2000s by
the same name. Each persona is made to be a caricature of a person
that couldn’t possibly exist in real life, which is the main indicator
that this show didn’t make enough effort to assimilate to the current
standard of the reality television genre.
The premiere follows two pairs every
episode and takes each of them through their
first date from an activity, to a bar, to a hot tub.
The first pair’s introduced as “Party Peter” and
“Sexy Kristen,” which you can immediately tell
are the only two characteristics the episode
is going to milk for the rest of their date. The
immediate labeling of these two was already
concerning, but what was even more alarming
was the daunting realization that Peter referred
to himself as “Party Peter,” a self-declared “fun
drunk.” This was maybe after three shots.
The only hint of three-dimensionality we see
in Peter is his initial interview, when he takes
on the “I work too much to find love” persona,
which sounds like something out of a Wattpad
story in itself.
And it gets worse. The second pair,
Angelique and Slick 23, have perhaps the most
uncomfortable and cringey date of human
existence, as if the first one wasn’t torture
enough. It kicks off with an interview with
Angelique, who repeats an unnecessary amount
of times repeating how lying is a turn-off for
her. They meet, and he introduces himself with
an accent that he doesn’t have, then they go to
a sex toy shop for a wholesome first date. For
the entirety of their date, Slick 23 refuses to tell her his real name, yet
they somehow make it to the hot tub until Angelique decides to leave.
Probably for episode length reasons.
While the first date was bad, the second one did not allow the
show to redeem itself in any way, but was admittedly a pinch more
entertaining simply from the absurdity of it all. The show also inserted
random meme-like edits to make fun of the characters, which were
hardly ever funny or additive to the quality of the episode as a whole.
Reality television is supposed to be trashy and dramatic, but this show
is so far detached from “The Bachelor”-level trashy television that I
had a near-existential crisis thinking about its place in the world of
television as a whole. Save yourself the precious half-hour that “Blind
Date” took up in my life and take a power nap or call your mom. It’s
not worth it.
‘Blind Date’ is pointless but has returned to television
TV REVIEW
SOPHIA YOON
Daily Arts Writer
Cozy is one of those words that seems to have been exploited by
Pinterest. It’s all about “cozy” interior decorating, “cozy” recipes
for winter weekends or “cozy” winter trends. Cozy seems like milk
foam in coffee: pretty, but perhaps unnecessary.
However, when you take into consideration the bleak and
barbarous backdrop for the word, you might feel a bit more in its
corner. Cozy fights the cool grey wash that hovers over everything
in the winter, battles the glum exhaustion that plagues student’s
faces
and
replenishes
everyone’s
deprived
senses,
which
are
exhausted
from
the
boredom
of
a
snow-
covered world. Really,
cozy feels like a small
soldier in a transitional
time.
Out
of
all
your
transitions in flux at the
University right now —
between
Thanksgiving
break to finals season,
from home life to campus
life,
from
worrying
about
your
current
classes to building next
semester’s schedule —
the overarching transition is from late fall to established winter,
a winter that has lost the excitement of initial snowfalls and has
settled into something slower and darker.
And quieter, too. The whiter the world looks, the quieter it gets.
Natural sounds and human voices are pretty much gone, and if
you take your earbuds out and listen to the ambient noise around
you, you’ll find all that’s left is the mechanical noise of traffic and
heating units. It’s not very pleasant, I’d actually highly recommend
putting your earbuds back in.
Once you plug your earbuds in, you might find yourself in the
middle of a cozy playlist. You know the kind — singers murmuring,
soft and low, among the susurrus of guitars and ukuleles, cellos
and basses ringing rich and deep; all of the noises are soothing but
a bit incomprehensible. That’s okay, though, because somehow the
music fills a very human need: it’s warm. If the purpose of art is
to accompany humans through life, then cozy art is vital. We slog
through winter in search of warmth and company and are often
met with bleak grey skies and an overwhelming feeling of isolation.
All of winter can often feel like one massive, unending cloud
passing over the sun, whose warmth is just barely out of reach.
So we make art that has warmth at its heart. It’s humanity’s take
on hibernation. We consume warm music and comforting movies
and spiced dishes to fill our souls, as well as our senses. This art is
a way to create a fire. We
hang string lights and
burn candles and brew
tea to bury the bleakness
of the ice and cold.
The only true thing I
know about transitions
is that they are always
happening. We as human
beings are in a perpetual
state
of
transitioning.
Even
endings
and
beginnings
are
not
completely
definite.
Rather
than
endings,
life seems to be strung
together
by
infinite
beginnings
dovetailing
one another.
I think the same is true of the art we consume. The last few songs
of our playlist often become the first few songs of our next one. One
movie we like leads us to seeing another from the same director.
We drift through art as we transition from excitement at winter
into a slower seasonal sadness, from being able to freely enjoy the
warmth of the world to being cooped up inside, from the comfort
of a brief break at home to facing finals. Winter can feel like one big
blank page, equally intimidating to artists, students and humans
alike. And so we fill it with our own warmth, our own art.
With art, we make our own homes, we ease our endless
transitions.
My fight against the winter blues
COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK
STEPHANIE GURALNICK
Daily Arts Writer
NETFLIX
BRAVO
The Knight Before
Christmas
Netflix
Now Streaming
Blind Date
Series Premiere
Bravo
Mondays @ 11:30 p.m.
We consume warm music and
comforting movies and spiced dishes to
fill our souls, as well as our senses. This
art is a way to create a fire. We hang
string lights and burn candles and brew
tea to bury the bleakness of ice and cold.