A Deep Welles of Ideas: “It’s Still Terrific: Citizen Kane at 75”

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Citizen

A stand-up Citizen

Get over it: Citizen Kane is smarter than you. It’s smarter than any and all of us—or even its own creator, for that matter.

It’s smarter, because—if as has sometimes been said—the making of any movie is a miracle, then Citizen Kane is more than a miracle. It’s the Mona Lisa of film-making: inscrutable, ineffable, and unfathomable to whomever views it.

It’s also not a bad effort for a 25-year-old first time-out-of-the-chute theatrical amateur who by his own admission in the University of Michigan Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library’s It’s Still Terrific: Citizen Kane at 75 tells us that he had no real idea of what he was doing.

Indeed, as this exhibit at the U-M Hatcher Graduate Library Audubon Room illustrates through both sight and sound, it’s very likely the film is superior because enfant terrible Orson Welles didn’t know what he was doing. Which, of course, only makes the film that much more impressive.

Swinging Into the New Year: Pete Siers and the King of Swing

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Pete Siers

Pete Siers is a good man on the drums.

“It's a sense of melody, harmony, rhythm, and simplicity that is of interest to all of us,” said drummer Pete Siers about what Benny Goodman's music means to him.

In fact, Siers is so in love with the King of Swing's sound, his band recorded a second CD dedicated to the great clarinetist: Goodman and Beyond Vol.II. The band will celebrate the release by swinging into the new year at the sold out Kerrytown Concert House on Saturday, December 31. Siers will be accompanied by the virtuosic pianist Tad Weed and clarinetist Dave Bennett, a Goodman devotee.

The Ann Arbor-based Siers is focused on the core elements of jazz -- swing, improvisation, etc. -- but he’s not bound by tradition. Instead, his concept is to expand on those vital elements and take jazz into a personal realm, which has always been the objective of any skilled musician not dictated to by commercial constraints. Siers also considers Goodman’s music to be modern as opposed to vintage because, given the entire history of music, jazz is chronologically modern.

Everyday They Write the Books: Mittenfest XI Returns to Rock for 826michigan

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Mittenfest

Mittenfest celebrates readin', writin' & rock 'n' rollin'.

Mittenfest is the annual three-day music festival benefiting 826michigan, the nonprofit center at 115 East Liberty St.
in Ann Arbor that helps school-aged kids express themselves through creative writing. 826michigan also offers drop-in tutoring, after-school programs, and help for those learning English.

Basically, it's good people doing good things, which is why 21 bands are playing for free to raise money in support of 826michigan.

Mittenfest returns for its 11th iteration, December 29-31, and it’s again taking place at Bona Sera in downtown Ypsilanti.

We did interviews with four of the bands playing the fest:

The Belle Isles
The Avatars
Blue Jeans
JUNGLEFOWL

And below is the full festival lineup, plus sound samples, dates, and times for all the Mittenfest bands:

Mittenfest: The Belle Isles

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The Belle Isles

Oh, bella!

See the rest of our Mittenfest coverage:
Overview of the festival with music samples
The Avatars interview
Blue Jeans interview
JUNGLEFOWL interview

The Belle Isles is a new band years in the making. The quartet features guitar, drums, bass and baritone sax, and is a fascinating conglomeration of long-time Detroit area musicians who combined have played in more than 20 bands, including the Detroit Cobras, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Viv Akauldren, Gore Gore Girls, Outrageous Cherry, Detroit Party Marching Band, and more.

The group’s sound is somewhere between gritty garage rock and grimy Detroit R&B, all played with the sort of party-rocking joie de vivre that will make for a great close to the first night of Mittenfest.

Pulp spoke with Richard Wohlfeil, The Belle Isle’s founder, lead singer, and guitarist about how The Belle Isles came to be, their plans for the future, and how Detroit has influenced their sound.

Mittenfest: The Avatars

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The Avatars

The Avatars have returned to their bodily form for one last show. Photo by Doug Coombe.

See the rest of our Mittenfest coverage:
Overview of the festival with music samples
The Belle Isles interview
Blue Jeans interview
JUNGLEFOWL interview

The Ann Arbor-based rippin’ rock band The Avatars had a four-year run starting in 2003 that included one 7-inch single and a kickass album, Never a Good Time (2006). Then real life got in the way for guitarists Chris "Box" Taylor and Charlie Lorenzi, drummer Claudia Leo, vocalist Mariah Cherem, and bassist Theresa Kiefer, and the garage-rockin’ power-poppers broke up in 2007.

But The Avatars reformed in October to play a single show in Hamtramck opening for a friend’s band. The show ended up being so much fun, The Avatars decided to do one last gig near their Ann Arbor home base. (Though Lorenzi won’t be appearing.)

Pulp caught up with Kiefer (and at the end, Taylor) before The Avatars play their ultimate show at Mittenfest on December 29.

Mittenfest: Blue Jeans

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Blue Jeans

Santa Monica Swim & Dive Club are back in denim.

See the rest of our Mittenfest coverage:
Overview of the festival with music samples
The Belle Isles interview
The Avatars interview
JUNGLEFOWL interview

Blue Jeans takes the minimalist hooks of Buddy Holly, marries it to the stomp of glam rock, and sweetens the deal with just enough indie pop to make it a super-fine hybrid of genres and eras.

Formerly known as Santa Monica Swim & Dive Club, earlier this year the group came out with its first full-length album, Songs Are Easy, under the new-ish name Blue Jeans. The group recorded it with Ann Arbor superstar Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me, etc.), and he kept the cymbals-free album stripped down and crunchy, just like vocalist-guitarist Tim Sendra, bassist Heather Phares, and drummer David Serra intended.

Blue Jeans, we just met a band called Blue Jeans -- well, at least Phares, who answered some questions for Pulp before the group plays the final day of Mittenfest.

Mittenfest: Junglefowl

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Junglefowl

Welcome to the Junglefowl.

See the rest of our Mittenfest coverage:
Overview of the festival with music samples
The Avatars interview
The Belle Isles interview
Blue Jeans interview

JUNGLEFOWL’s goal is to “redefine cock rock,” and the duo goes about achieving it with an extra fuzzy psychedelic blend of garage-rock and post-punk.

Comprised of married couple Melissa Coppola on drums and vocals and Stefan Carr on guitar, JUNGLEFOWL released its first EP, STRUT in 2015, and this year will play Mittenfest XI on New Year's Eve, just before the midnight champagne toast. Coppola and Carr have been playing music their whole lives and are both music teachers when they’re not blasting out JUNGLEFOWL tunes in their basement.

Pulp talked with the couple to get a feel for their sound and influences and to find out what’s next for the rock duo in 2017 after their year-ending Mittenfest show.

Jazz, Not Ethio Jazz: The Blue Nile & Louis Johnson Serve Up Ethiopian Food & Great Music

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Louis Johnson

Louis Johnson brings American ambiance to Ethiopian fare.

Ann Arbor is well known for its wide variety of ethnic restaurants. From South American, Caribbean, Asian and African cuisine of all stripes, the offerings are all high quality. But very few of these venues also feature any live music, much less classical or jazz.

So, when you think of jazz being played at an Ethiopian restaurant, your first thoughts might turn to the long-running Ethiopiques CD series that did so much to promote the Ethio-jazz style throughout the world.

But at Ann Arbor’s the Blue Nile restaurant, you won’t hear Ethio jazz, which was created by vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke and mixes traditional Ethiopian music with jazz, funk, and Latin rhythms.

Instead, every Friday and Saturday night, the restaurant on 221 E. Washington Street offers top-notch music courtesy of Louis Johnson and a small ensemble of rotating musicians who pull from the Great American Songbook, Brazilian music, the repertoires of Duke Ellington and Horace Silver, and many other jazz standards.

“I'm always trying to challenge the musicians to play something different, and they always rise to that challenge,” Johnson says. “I can't stump them.”

Jazz has been a staple at the Blue Nile going back to a time when saxophonist Doug Horn played there several years running prior to Johnson's current stint, which is going on five years.

Say Qua?! New DVD Features the Best Shorts From 2016's Ann Arbor Film Festival

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Remember back in October when Saturday Night Live did a parody of the kinds of artfully shot and totally nonsensical movies you often see at film festivals?

SNL called its film qua -- which was being screened at the, ahem, "Ann Arbor Short Film Festival" -- and it had Emily Blunt running through a forest dotted with the number 3 and ended with her being forced to face her own self ... with her own self.

After the screening, the audience bolted to the stage -- since the crowd was made up entirely of the movie's huge cast and crew, save for one unlucky woman who was forced to ask qua's makers multiple questions about their terrible film.

Awkwardness ensued, comedy was had.

Sadly, qua did not make it onto the new DVD featuring 10 highlights from the actual Ann Arbor Film Festival's 2016 expansive short-film program. But this 9th collected edition of the festival’s best works includes films by:

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #623

REVIEW WRITTEN WORD


In the same vein as fictional biographies such as Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen; The Paris Wife by Paula McLain; and Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea - in which intelligent women whose own aspirations and contribution were marginalized in favor of their spouses. Marie Benedict's debut gives us the story of Mileva Maric, a brilliant physicist and an extraordinarily gifted mathematician.

In 1896, before she was The Other Einstein, Mileva Maric´ was the only woman studying physics at Zurich Polytechnic and easily fell under the spell of a charismatic fellow student. Their courtship was kept secret not only due to the disapproval of the social-climbing Einsteins, but also for disappointing her father who held great hopes for her. An unplanned pregnancy, and failed qualifying exams sent Mileva home alone without any support from Albert.