Author: lysperez

“Who’s that?” I asked.  My friend tried as hard as she could to contain her excitement, “he was the lead in HAIR the musical! and he’s coming next week to perform!”

“Oh,” I responded. I may not have  sounded as excited as my other two friends, who have somewhat obsessive personalities when it comes to broadway musical stars, but I was still interested in seeing what the performance would be like.

I had never really taken interest in broadway musical soundtracks.  It just wasn’t my genre.  While I’ve enjoyed every musical production I’ve seen, I’ve never really gone on to listen to the music of the show outside of the theater atmosphere, maybe because I cannot seem to separate the songs from the plot that plays out on stage.  So when I heard Gavin Creel was a broadway star, I imagined him screaming out high-energy show tunes on a stage by himself.  This didn’t seem fitting for the Kerrytown Concerthouse.

Much to my surprise, however, I was very wrong about Gavin Creel and the nature of his performance.  Graduate of the UM Musical Theater school, Gavin Creel has gone on to do much more than sing show tunes.  Apart from being a broadway star, he is a singer, songwriter, gay rights activist, and founder of the nonprofit, Broadway Impact, not to mention Tony nominee.  The concert served as a preview of songs from his new album, and as a fundraiser for Broadway Impact, which unites members of the Broadway community to fight for marriage equality.

Happy to return to his alma mater, Creel jumped up on stage, and acknowledged the many familiar faces that had come to see him: high school friends, voice coaches, professors and fans alike.  Joined by his guitarist and songwriting partner, Robbie Roth, Creel sang a mix of old and new songs, along with a few covers as well.  There was a satisfying, relaxing, acoustic sound that echoed through the walls of the Kerrytown Concerthouse.  The intimate setting made for a perfect, coffee-house type guest performance, without the background noise.  “Can we like dim the lights a little bit?!” Creel asked.  “Relax, sing a long, take a little nap if you’d like,” Creel encouraged.  Most of his new songs are quite melodic and calm, but songs from Creel’s previous album were jumpy and fast, providing for a varied set list.

Creel was very engaging with the audience, and his goofy, energetic self kept people laughing in between almost every song.   The concert, in this sense, felt more like an exclusive, informal listening session, exhibiting raw talent that continued to immerse the crowd in Creel’s carefree singing. Creel also shared with the audience his personal stories and experiences that have served as musical inspiration.  He reflected on his childhood growing up in the midwest, and sang ‘Hot Ohio’, a song about waking up everyday to the sticky, heat of summer as a boy who never stopped dreaming about making the move to the big city.

Concluding with “I Got Life”, a classic tune from Hair, Creel pretended to be ‘Claude’ for the remaining minutes of his concert.  Broadway fans erupted in enthusiasm, and I too for once, felt the need to BE-IN.

I’ve been a big fan of The Friars for a while now.  Excited for our last Friars concert as graduating seniors, my friend and I were very much looking forward to the ‘Best Concert Ever’.  My friend actually insisted we leave the house at 7 pm for the 8pm show because she’s so particular about the seating in Rackham.  “You don’t have a good view of the stage unless you’re in the middle rows,” she said.  So we left early, got seats in 4th row center, and anxiously awaited the Friars to jump out onto stage.

The Friars, as always, were energetic.  A few of the songs they sang included Starland Vocal Band’s  “Afternoon Delight”, Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams” , Taylor Swift’s’ “You Belong with Me”, Maroon 5’s “Misery”, and The Turtles’ “So Happy Together”.   But of course, everyone knows that the Friars are famous for their parodies.  One new parody song they sang was about a certain “unkempt” group of people on campus: humanities majors.  The song poked fun at LSA and subjects in the humanities in comparison with majors viewed as more practical, such as computer science and engineering.  The song was of course introduced by Tenor II, LSA junior, Aaron Bindman as he joked about his concentrations in History and Classics.  Another well-known parody they performed was “Formal Rush Dropout”  to the tune of ‘Beauty School Dropout’.  As many know, the Friars love singing about Greek life.  (Another one of their parodies mocks the sorority girls’ winter dress, ‘North Face Girl’).  I’m not sure they’ve gone one show without singing either one of those songs, but it’s all in good humor.

Later into the show, they brought up the ‘Prior Friars’, as they call them, to sing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.  About 7 of them were in attendance, both from recent years and many years ago.  Their presence is usually very noticeable because the Prior Friars are the ones making jokes and calling out to the stage during song intros.  They are also usually all wearing turtlenecks, in all kinds of colors.  After being to a couple shows where the Prior Friars came up and sang, my friend and I realized it must be a tradition.  These kinds of traditions are what the Friars are really all about, whether it be their parodies, hilarious, but unrelated introductions to songs, or the Prior Friar joint performance.

Closing their 2-hour concert, Tenor I, junior, Bryan Kendall, led the Friars in singing, “G-d Bless the U of M”, their version of “G-d Bless the USA”, which I would say is one of their best parodies, one that’s not full of jokes, but more sentimental and full of UM Friar pride.

Running back into Michigan Theater to catch the next screening, I sat down among a full crowd for two films, The Sole of the Foot (Robert Fenz, 2011) and Disorder (Huang Weikai, 2009).

The Sole of the Foot, a 34-minute film, focused on various real-life scenes in France, Israel and Cuba.  It specifically addressed the concept of borders and their ability to simultaneously keep some people “in”, while keeping other people “out”.  In France, Fenz focused on a North African community that was not well-accepted among those that lived within their vicinity,  in Israel, he portrayed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in Cuba,”their right to rule themselves denied by foreign powers”.  There was artistic quality in that Fenz chose to incorporate different stylistic elements for each country he shot.  “Israel definitely featured more experimental shooting,” he said, as he explained the many bombings that occurred during his stay that became a bit of an obstacle.  “I was shooting from the window of our apartment”, and with that, he developed a fascination for the many winding, uneven walkways of Jerusalem.  The film, as a whole presented a tapestry of cultures, landscapes and people.

Disorder captures a chaotic China, and the problems that plague  its major cities due to increasing urbanization: pigs run wild on a highway, a baby is found in a park abandoned, a community is severely flooded, a supermarket is caught in possession of frozen bear claws…The black and white footage of these scenes compiled from amateur videographers creates a security camera ‘caught-on-tape’ effect that invites the viewer into a world full of ugly truths.  The absurdity that is Disorder almost produces a feeling of discomfort among the audience because the events are so inconceivable, and not to mention, uncontrollable.  The film portrays a reality, in which problems only seem to worsen because of a lack of cooperation between Chinese police and citizens, who many times find such upheavals to be a spectacle, rather than issues of concern.  Weikai’s work is truly brilliant in that it illustrates the dysfunction and dangers that harm Chinese society as a result of the country’s accelerated industrialization and expansion.

Watch the trailer here:

Disorder

Overall, this was my favorite screening yet.  Both The Sole of the Foot and Disorder illustrated realities in ways that immersed the audience in exploration and understanding of life as it is, beautiful and complex.

Thursday night I headed to the Michigan Theater for my first Ann Arbor Film Festival screening (I plan to go to more this weekend).  I had looked through the program schedule online (http://aafilmfest.org/49/index.php/events.) earlier this week to discover that many of the showings were groupings of shorts according to theme.  Perfect! I thought, I love shorts.  I had been to the Sundance shorts that were shown at the Michigan Theater ( in addition to Cedar Rapids) a few months ago, and was excited to return for some more film fest entertainment.

The screening that night entitled, “Always Elsewhere” featured 5 shorts.  Arriving early, my friend and I walked in and visited a few of the tables in the theater lobby.  Arbor Teas and RoosRoast were offering locally-produced and delicious tea and coffee with a suggested $1 donation.  “This is just what I wanted”, I said to the woman at the Arbor Tea stand as I decided on some Jasmine Green.  “I was just contemplating sneaking in a hot drink from Starbucks”.  She laughed and told me that Arbor Tea would be offering different flavors every night, along with RoosRoast.

My friend and I entered the screening room in the back (not the main theater) for the showing.  Below are the films we saw:

• You Can See The Sun In Late December (Sasha Waters Freyer, 2010)
• Immokalee, My Home (Kevin T. Allen, Jen Heuson, 2009)
• Castaic Lake (Brigid McCaffrey, 2010)
• Forsaken (James Sansing, 2010)
• While You Were Sleeping (Mary Helena Clark, 2010)

If I were to pick a favorite, I would say that I liked Immokalee, My Home the best.  The film documented the harsh realities of Guatemalan, migrant farm workers in Florida, in which three narrators tell their stories of their arrival to the US, their subjectivity to unfair labor conditions, and their longing to return home.  The film is narrated in Spanish and in an indigenous language native to Guatemala with English subtitles. The filmmaker really experimented with color and composition.  As the migrant workers told their story, images of their daily routine were blurred and unfocused, emphasizing the tedious and monotonous nature of their work.  As they described their home in Guatemala compared to their living situations in the US, a juxtaposition between color and black and white photographs was created.  The viewer eventually discovers that their desire to return home can never be fulfilled, because of the ’embarrassment of returning home with nothing.’  In the end, the migrant workers discuss their importance to the changing face of North America.  The viewer then sees close-ups of their faces, and reflects on the reality of their lives;  they have journeyed to the states in efforts to achieve an unattainable dream, but the culture they carry with them is ever-reminiscent in the stories they tell.

Two other interesting films were Castaic Lake and Forsaken.  Castaic Lake was a 30-minute short, in which the camera surveyed leisurely activity at a small lake within Los Angeles County.  Capturing the fragmented happenings within the lake’s surroundings, McCaffrey observed these interactions, often from a distance, but focused on a few characters by interviewing them and telling their story (why they were at the lake, what they did there).  Forsaken was a 7-minute black and white, silent film that combined photographs of a juvenile detention center to produce a flashy movement of the room’s appearance and emphasized the neglected, run-down space.  Sansing focused on a blowing curtain and aged, confidential probation documents, with which he photographed to create visuals of what still remained.

Both McCaffrey and Sansing were in attendance for a Q&A after the screenings. They both had focused on their subjects over a long period of time.  It was obvious that they were very drawn both to the lake and the detention center.  “I just love abandoned buildings and places”, Sansing said.  “California is really lacking abandoned buildings, so I often find myself venturing to the east coast to discover them.”  Sansing said he was also working on more photography of the detention center which will be published as a book.  To me, both McCaffrey and Sansings’ films were created from seeming obsessions that suggested they were, in fact, ‘always elsewhere’, captivated by the worlds their films portrayed.