The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
6 — Wednesday, April 7, 2021
A little over a week ago, news broke
of the death of former Metropolitan
Opera
conductor
James
Levine.
Reporters and critics across the
classical music and opera worlds
wrote long obituaries that interrogated
Levine’s complicated legacy.
The first item that most obituaries
touched upon was Levine’s critical
success as the conductor of the Met.
He led the institution for four decades,
turning a noted opera company
into the biggest classical music
organization in America. (Levine also
spent some time as conductor of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra and the
Munich Philharmonic, though neither
of these posts received as much critical
attention.)
Following
this
explanation
of
Levine’s performance career, most
obituaries mentioned the years of
sexual misconduct allegations that led
to Levine’s unceremonious dismissal
from the Metropolitan Opera last year.
Numerous young men have accused
Levine of abusing his power as a
conductor to sexually assault them; in
at least one instance, an alleged assault
was reported to police.
Many critics, performers and
composers have taken Levine’s death
as an opportunity to question the
conductor worship that gave Levine so
much power in the industry. Perhaps
Levine’s alleged abuse would have
been addressed sooner had he not held
hundreds of careers in his hands.
While I agree with this critique, I
fear that this singular focus on Levine
distracts from the larger issue at hand:
Numerous individuals in positions of
authority over the course of Levine’s
career failed to address his alleged
abuse. With some combination of
feigned ignorance and deliberate
silence, these individuals allowed
Levine’s alleged predation to continue
unchecked.
The first known allegation of sexual
assault against Levine, for example,
comes from 1968, three years before
he garnered critical acclaim as a
conductor. Levine was nothing more
than a 25-year-old faculty member at a
Michigan music school at the time — it
was the inherent power of his teaching
position that aided in his alleged
perpetration of abuse.
Had any other faculty members in
this program learned of this alleged
abuse, they could presumably have
taken steps to address the abuse
without facing significant professional
repercussions. Levine did not yet hold
the keys to hundreds of artists’ careers.
Though I can’t speak to the whisper
network that presumably surrounded
Levine throughout his professional
career, I can write about the whisper
network that long surrounded Stephen
Shipps, former University of Michigan
music school professor. (In 2018, I
helped report four decades of previously
undisclosed sexual harassment and
misconduct allegations against Shipps;
he was indicted on two sex crime
charges in October and faces a post-
pandemic criminal trial.)
In The Daily’s first article on this
case, we reported that Shipps’s alleged
abuse was reported to a music school
professor in the summer after Shipps’s
hiring was announced and before
he started teaching. This was in 1989
— Shipps had not yet accumulated
institutional power as a department
chair, associate dean and youth
program director. It remains unclear if
the music school professor reported this
allegation. It similarly is unknown if the
University launched any investigation
before granting Shipps tenure.
A few months ago, I obtained
a statement that was sent to the
prosecutors working on Shipps’s
criminal case. The statement came
from a former North Carolina School
of the Arts violin student. In it, he spoke
of the administrative indifference
that he believes the school’s dean
demonstrated
toward
allegations
against Shipps.
“(The
school’s
then-dean)
perpetuated Shipps’ inappropriate
sexual conduct,” the former student
wrote, “and allowed it to continue
for 30 more years at the University of
Michigan … This could have all ended
in 1986 if (he) had taken the appropriate
actions.”
I remember when I first learned
about
this
former
dean
while
interviewing a survivor that later went
on the record. She mentioned that this
dean was still teaching at the collegiate
level. Unlike many of the other
authority figures she believed ignored
her allegations of abuse, he could still
be held accountable for his actions.
When I reached him by email, he
told me that he could not remember
much of his time as the dean of the
North Carolina School of the Arts.
“I was at NCSA from 1986-90,” he
wrote. “It was long ago, and I have
done so many things since then. I am
not sure I could be of much help.”
He did not respond to multiple
emails providing him with more details
about the alleged sexual misconduct
that took place during his time as dean.
It remains unclear if prosecutors have
sought to interview him based on the
information they received.
It took tremendous bravery for nine
survivors to speak to The Daily about
the alleged sexual harassment and
misconduct they experienced, and it
took significant bravery for numerous
friends and former colleagues of these
survivors to corroborate specific
aspects of their accounts.
It would have taken comparatively
little bravery for a professor or a
dean to address allegations of sexual
misconduct that had been raised against
their colleague — I would hope that it is
within a dean’s basic job description
that they actively address allegations of
sexual misconduct that leave some of
their students feeling unsafe.
Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s (“The
Law in These Parts”) “The Viewing
Booth” is perhaps the most stimulating
and perspective-altering documentary
that I have ever seen. A film with
two subjects, the Israeli occupation
of Palestine and an analysis of
documentary filmmaking itself, “The
Viewing Booth” is thoughtful and self-
critical as it explores the manner in
which we observe.
In short, the viewer of the film
watches the watcher. A young
woman, Maia Levy, enters a booth
and sits before a computer screen and
camera. Forty YouTube videos have
been preselected by the filmmaker:
half represent the perspective of
Palestinians living under occupation,
the other half presents the points of
view of the Israeli settlers’ and soldiers’.
Levy watches these at her own pace
and is asked to speak her thoughts
aloud as she reacts to the footage.
Levy is familiar with the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict: Her parents are
Israeli, and she recently traveled to
Hebron. She knows of the human-
rights group, B’Tselem — which
produced or uploaded many of the
Palestinian-perspective videos — and
has seen a few of the clips before. As
she clicks from video to video, pausing
occasionally to think and respond, the
viewer watches her face lit by the blue
glow of a screen.
On one level, this film is about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite
Levy’s
even-handed
deliverance
of skepticism (there is much talk of
events being “staged” — both clips
of altruism and brutality by the
Israeli military are given this label),
she makes her own beliefs clear:
Israel is acting morally, and there
must be some justification for this
mistreatment of Palestinians.
Her honesty is surprising, and
her occasional racist commentary
is embarrassing: “They lie a lot,” she
says, referring to Arabs. She watches
the videos with a confusing mix
of open-mindedness and disbelief,
acknowledging that these videos
depict real events, but searching for
the missing piece, the Arab instigation.
At one point, Levy asks: “Why
would I believe this?” In other words,
if she believes the Israeli army to be
acting morally, why take this seriously?
Alexandrowicz has made more
conventional films about the Israeli
occupation, and this film offers a
step back. His decision to make this
film, to reframe the conversation
around the viewer and observer of
the situation in Palestine, becomes the
film’s true subject by its conclusion.
Through voice-over, he explains to
the viewer and to Levy that the reason
he focuses the film entirely on her,
despite interviewing other students,
is because she represents the intended
viewer of his past films.
Levy’s steadfast skepticism is of
interest to Alexandrowicz because
it presents him with a frightening
possibility: His films might do no
more than preach to the choir. In this
sense, “The Viewing Booth” is about
the act of viewership. The film ends
with a follow-up interview, in which
Levy watches the recording of herself
watching the films. The audience
is three degrees removed from the
footage, and the film begins to focus
more pointedly on the process and
psychology of watching.
Earlier in the film, Alexandrowicz
states
that
these
war
videos
“transform
the
viewer
into
a
witness.” There is perhaps more
responsibility coded into the latter
term, as viewership is passive
while witnessing is implicative.
Alexandrowicz probes Levy’s desire
to find fault and place blame on the
Palestinians as an active resistance
to this sort of implication, but Levy
attributes the behavior to bias. She
recognizes her filtered perspective,
informed by her identity as the
Jewish child of Israelis and muddled
by fictional portrayals of the conflict.
In a mildly hypocritical defense,
Levy rejects these videos as possibly
truthful because they do not show the
entire picture. The videographer’s
choices cannot be trusted, according
to Levy, though she seems to have
no problem with her own selective
criticism of the clips.
Levy’s desire for an objective
perspective illustrates the underlying
challenge for a filmmaker like
Alexandrowicz.
Objectivity
is
impossible
in
documentary
filmmaking, as the videographer is
always making choices.
Lana Del Rey’s latest album
Chemtrails Over The Country Club
will please longtime fans but feel
lackluster for everyone else.
The album has all the right
ingredients for a trademark bombshell-
hit with Del Rey’s deep serenade,
evocative lyrical writing and tongue-
in-cheek references. Yet, Chemtrails
stops short of the sharp and powerful
sociopolitical
commentary
of
its
predecessor,
Norman
Fucking
Rockwell!,
and
the
emotional
introspection feels underwhelming
after Lana Del Rey’s recent gut-punch
in her spoken word poetry release,
Violets Bending Over Backwards.
What’s left is an album that’s good but
not exciting.
The title itself perhaps dooms the
album to mediocrity — “Chemtrails”
recalls
the
popular
conspiracy
theory that argues the visible lines of
condensation an aircraft expels in the
sky are actually filled with chemicals
intended to harm the public. In a
time when the truth is constantly
under attack from wolf-cries of “fake
news” and the recent rise of QAnon,
Chemtrails Over The Country Club
sets the stage for yet another pointed
evaluation of American culture. The
album title manages to capture the
extremes of American life — from the
wild conspiracy theories of “Q” to the
idyllic mundanity of suburban life and
class privilege — yet fails to build upon
it. The “wrapping paper” of the album
is in some respects far more thrilling
than the contents of the package itself.
Instead, Del Rey focuses on the
trials and tribulations of fame. The
song “Chemtrails Over The Country
Club” celebrates the freedom of daily
life, capturing that familiar, obligation-
free serenity of hot summers in
childhood, where the only thing to do
was wait for time to pass. Notably, the
official music video features Del Rey’s
infamous bedazzled mask, which
is where we last saw Del Rey on the
pages of The Michigan Daily.
“Dark But Just a Game” explores
the hefty price of stardom, describing
artists as chameleons who are forced
to change until they eventually lose
themselves — Del Rey vows to stay
the same, to preserve herself. “Not
All Who Wander Are Lost” strikes at
the heart of the album’s core theme:
It’s all about perspective. Where
fame may seem a blessing, it is also a
burden; when one may appear lost,
perhaps it’s merely “wanderlust.”
Beneath the dramatics of chemtrails
and conspiracies, maybe there lies
a hidden blessing in celebrating the
boring, the normal, the straight-and-
narrow condensation trails.
As a storyteller and songwriter,
Del Rey excels as always. A
mediocre album for a powerhouse
like Del Rey is a far better album
than another’s best work. Yet, while
Chemtrails Over The Country Club
offers a handful of tracks that build
some engaging commentary, it
lacks the drive of Del Rey’s previous
works. Del Rey may have set the
bar too high for herself — a feat
which speaks only to her talent and
celebrated career thus far.
What holds the album back is
the lack of stylistic experimentation
or any fresh, noteworthy material.
Chemtrails is a shoo-in Lana Del
Rey album — a blessing and a
curse. Those who love Del Rey will
continue to love her, but anyone still
not convinced will find little here to
sway them.
The culture of complicity must end
Lana Del Rey’s ‘Chemtrails Over The
Country Club’ is good, but not great
Ann Arbor Film Festival 2021: Observing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in ‘The Viewing Booth’
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MADELEINE VIRGINIA GANNON
Daily Arts Writer
SAMMY SUSSMAN
Daily Arts Contributor
ROSS LONDON
Daily Arts Writer
Design by Emily Gordon
This image is taken from the official music video for “Chemtrails Over The Country Club” by Lana Del Rey.
puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com
By Jeff Stillman
©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/07/21
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
04/07/21
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Wednesday, April 7, 2021
ACROSS
1 Go __: hit to right
field batting right-
handed, say, in
baseball lingo
5 Trying to block
9 Performs like
Missy Elliott
13 Ruckus
14 Eve’s opposite
15 Sun: Pref.
16 *Second
Commandment
prohibition
18 Heroic sagas
19 “Awake and
Sing!” dramatist
20 South Carolina
state tree
22 *Old-fashioned
parting words
25 See stars
26 Widen, as pupils
30 Fri. preceder
33 “Oh dear!”
36 Sherpa’s home
37 *“Cheese stands
alone” kids’ song
title guy
41 When some
dinners are
served
42 Delhi wrap
43 “Narcos” org.
44 Certain Tibetan
46 Sounds of disgust
49 *Metaphorical
insect observer
55 “Yada, yada,
yada”
58 Old copy
59 Little pigs
number
60 Go to pieces, or
what’s literally
hidden in the
answers to
starred clues
63 Tally again
64 Skeleton prefix
65 Grandson of Eve
66 Geologic spans
67 __ buco
68 “The Banana
Boat Song”
opener
DOWN
1 No longer using
2 Designer bag
brand
3 Not as bright
4 Raw bar mollusk
5 “__ imagining
things?”
6 Doze
7 Figurative
expression
8 Eloper’s
acquisition
9 Drove back
10 Came down
11 Early Briton
12 Just okay
15 Fashion variable
17 Sunrise dirección
21 Was ahead
23 Get wind of
24 MLB pitcher
Dock profiled
in the 2014
film “No No: A
Dockumentary”
27 Parroted
28 One shared at a
campfire
29 Jazz legend
Fitzgerald
30 Maker of
nonstick
cookware
31 Doth possess
32 Constellation
bear
34 Political
commentator
Navarro
35 Walk with a
swagger
38 Many printer
jams
39 Praised highly
40 Elevation word
45 “Science Guy”
Bill
47 Blood: Pref.
48 Ran through a
reader
50 Lover of
Euridice, in a
Monteverdi
work
51 Tandoori breads
52 Maytag rival
53 “Bad, Bad” Brown
of song
54 Bear voiced by
Ned Beatty in
“Toy Story 3”
55 Basic French
verb
56 “Sons of
Anarchy” actor
Rossi
57 Fruit drink prefix
61 Mormons’ gp.
62 Bath bathroom
SUDOKU
Sudoku Syndication
http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/
1 of 1
5/26/09 3:34 PM
2
1
4
9
1
3
8
3
5
8
1
8
3
4
2
6
5
2
9
8
5
1
8
4
7
WHISPER
“I have the
emotional fragility
of a pinecone”
“Hi Mom!”
By Joe Deeney
©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/31/21
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
03/31/21
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2021
ACROSS
1 Toronto Raptors
president of
basketball
operations __
Ujiri
6 “Ditto!”
11 Qatar’s capital
15 Largest members
of the dolphin
family
16 B’s equivalent
17 Iridescent gem
18 2010s sci-fi crime
drama starring
Michael Emerson
21 Two after epsilon
22 Full Sail offering
23 “Rats!”
24 Completed in
haste
30 Bill collection?
32 Diva’s numbers
33 Stalls
35 NBA official
37 “I’ll skip it”
38 Noodle output?
39 Equine sprinter
42 Leave speechless
44 “Silly me!”
45 Discouraging
words
46 NBC drama with
two pronouns in
its title
48 Brass in parades
52 Name that’s
also a Roman
numeral
53 Pull-and-peel
food item
57 Dresden denial
59 Castle
queenside, in
chess notation
60 “Atonement”
author McEwan
61 “Start at the
beginning,” and
a hint to the four
other longest
Across answers
67 Smoothie berry
68 Traffic cop?
69 More loyal
70 Ping-Pong
supplies
71 Kids
72 Showing one’s
claws, so to
speak
DOWN
1 Fuel-efficient
bikes
2 Playground
rebuttal
3 Prescription, to a
layperson?
4 Remote batteries
5 Prefix with
metric
6 Take to task
7 Did in
8 Whom Clay
became
9 Fellow
10 Wednesday kin
11 TV explorer with
a monkey named
Boots
12 Hygienist’s
request
13 Can really play
14 Ctrl-__-Del
19 Photographer
Goldin
20 Freezer aisle
brand
25 Shutout feature
26 Crossing the
pond, say
27 Pronoun-shaped
girders
28 Hurry
29 Emmy winner
Cicely
31 Anti-traffic org.
34 Crying need
36 Cold coat
37 __ Challenge:
soft drink
promotion
39 Shake in fear
over
40 Series of dates
41 With 66-Down,
nest egg option
42 Cardinal letters
43 Metaphor for
a treacherous
situation
47 Ain’t right?
49 Lebanon’s
capital
50 How flatware is
usually sold
51 Guard at the gate
54 Time being
55 “We Got the
Beat” group
56 Trig. ratio
58 Goddess with
cow’s horns
61 Ceiling fixture
62 Big bang letters?
63 Mare’s meal
64 Really bug
65 Consumer
protection org.
66 See 41-Down
WHISPER
Read more at
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