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12 Tribune COLUMN
Watching movies in a post-Aurora world
Matt Mueller Anyone who knows me, or has even just glanced at one of my articles here at the Tribune, knows that movies are my life. I write about movies. I watch an excessive amount of movies. I work at a movie theater. There is still no greater rush than walking out of a great movie and racing around, needing desperately to talk to somebody about what you’ve just seen. This summer, a horrible act during a midnight showing in Aurora,
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Colo. tried to ruin that spirit-raising feeling. A building made for dreams was turned into a building of nightmares as a young man opened fire on a crowded premiere showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twelve were killed, fiftyeight were injured and an entire nation was left disturbed, puzzled and deeply saddened. The nation mourned, and the gunman was caught and arrested (I will not use his name and give him the attention he almost certainly desired after committing his crime against humanity and imaginations everywhere). Immediately, the questions began flying about how we can stop future tragedies like Aurora from happening. The easy answer is more gun regulation. It’s a noble idea but flawed. Though more information is coming out about his mental health struggles, the gunman bought and possessed all of his weapons legally. Another attempt at prevention discussed was adding more security at movie theaters. It’s another understandable idea but one that screams of overcompensating. Metal detectors and enough extra staff to secure every auditorium – up to 20 in some theaters – would be too costly for any cinema to stay in business. For those who hear the gunman’s description – he was dressed as the Joker with the red hair included, hints of which can still be seen in his mugshot – and ask how no one could have considered him suspicious - it was a midnight showing. Dressing up is a midnight showing tradition and one of the elements that make them such entertaining events. At the theater where I work, one young audience member arrived dressed as a Stormtrooper from “Star Wars.” Excited enthusiasm for a movie should be appreciated, not punished. In this age, it’s easy to want easy solutions, but the tragedy in Aurora doesn’t come with easy answers. Would added security really make one feel better, es-
pecially knowing both metal detectors and added movie theater staff in the seats wouldn’t have even stopped the gunman in this instance? It’s a sad thing to admit, but sometimes, bad things will happen. Even with all of our regulations and attempts to make society the safest and best for the human kind, tragedy finds its way in. The important thing, then, is how we react to it and how we move forward. A few people have chosen the embarrassing tact of using humor. The day after the tragic shooting, I was working at the theater, and a customer told me that “The Dark Knight Rises” was “to die for.” We kicked him out of the building. To make snide attempts at comedy about the tragedy is an insult to those innocent people whose only crime was wanting to let their imaginations go wild for a few hours. The event could have happened to anyone anywhere, and to make fun of their loss shines a tragic light on our culture’s plague-like “as long as it’s not me” mentality. No, the best way to react, to move forward and to honor those lost, is to keep going to the theater. The art of cinema is one of society’s greatest creations. It’s a way for people to communicate, to share emotions and feelings that words alone could never come close to doing. It’s a communal experience that brings people of all cultures and ideals together. As goofy as this may sound, a movie theater is like a church for me. It’s a sacred place where, for a couple hours, we give ourselves over to our feelings and imaginations and let them soar. It’s where dreams are made and shared. The events in Aurora may have briefly violated that precious place, but as a society, we cannot let it shake our faith in the cinema. matthew.mueller@marquette. edu, Matt’s movie reviews can be found at onmilwaukee.com
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Beck’s latest album isn’t an album at all By Erin Heffernan erin.heffernan@marquette.edu
We live in a world of music instant gratification. If I want to hear a song, it usually takes fewer than 30 seconds. I can blast an Old Crow Medicine Show album through my headphones in less time than it takes to say the band’s name. But earlier this month, alternative music darling Beck announced his plan to slow down the way we consume and listen to music. He plans to release his new album, “The Beck Hanson’s Song Reader” as sheet music. With no digital file to be downloaded, pirated and remixed, the album is simply a song book in print, an idea so old, it’s new. The album, consisting of twenty as-of-yet unreleased and unrecorded tracks, will debut this December by the independent publisher McSweeney’s and will be filled with fullcolor illustrations. A purchase of the song book also includes a carrying case. The song book’s artwork, including one illustration by Marcel Dzama, creator of the album art for Beck’s 2005 album, “Guero,” is reminiscent of the song books of classic American standards. It looks like the kind of book sitting on 1920s pianos as smiling families sing in unison. Perhaps that is the vision Beck is trying to capture with this unconventional release. The decision evokes a time when the only way to listen to music was to create it yourself, when the artist who recorded the song didn’t define the style of the performance, and when music couldn’t be obtained and consumed in an instant. With this release, Beck issues a challenge. The only way to experience the music is for musicians to bring the songs to life. It promises to generate countless versions of each song and keep the blogosphere abuzz as new artists take on Beck’s work. This presents an exciting new format that challenges what constitutes an album and how music can be distributed. Beck is not the first artist to stray from a conventional al-
bum release. In fact, a growing trend of artists are finding interesting ways of getting their music to fans. In 2007, Radiohead released its seventh studio album, “In Rainbows,” on its website, bypassing the control of record labels. The band made news by letting its fans decide what they wanted to pay for the digital download, which prompted praise from fans and critics alike. In many ways, Radiohead’s method is the opposite of what Beck plans to do in December. By giving fans instant access to the music and focusing on the album in its digital form, Radiohead’s digital-age choice seems far removed from Beck’s nostalgic book. Both releases, however, share a new take on how to distribute music where musicians take control, not just of the music they create but of how it’s distributed and consumed. They have found new ways to spread their art, unbound by the conventions of CDs at Barnes and Noble and cheap downloads on iTunes. While Radiohead and Beck’s decisions were big news in the music industry, they are far from the most unusual methods of releasing new music. In 2011, The Flaming Lips announced that they were going to encase a USB holding four new songs in a gummy skull. Yes, a translucent, jiggly skull. Wayne Coyne, the psychedelic band’s frontman, told Pitchfork “it’s a life-sized human skull completely made out of edible gummy bear stuff. It also has a gummy brain inside of it and, inside of that, there’s a USB flash drive.” The lighthearted decision encapsulates the bands trippy, unconventional style and provides fans with a snack while they listen to the songs. These innovative albums promise to bring something new for music fans to hear, and maybe even eat. The format that musicians use to get their music to listeners is itself becoming yet another way to for bands to assert identity and show people exactly what it is they love and value about music.
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