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(Elj? iaily (Ear Hrrl Violinist to bring strings to hip-hop BY AYOFEMI HUNTER KIRBY STAFF WRITER Few musicians trained to play the notes of classical legends like Isaac Stem and Ludwig Strauss have suc cessfully made the transition from the stately halls of strings to the beat-filled streets of hip-hop. Miri Ben-Ari, a hip-hop violin ist and an Apollo Legend, has done just that. Ben-Ari has performed violin for musical power players Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Mos Def and Janet Jackson. She will bring her formula of hip-hop with a classical twist to the Student Union's Great Hall tonight in the last performance of the Carolina Live! concert series. With classical talent and unprecedented creativity, Ben-Ari has connected two worlds of music that seem millions of miles apart —and in the process, she has taken the hip-hop world by storm. “To have the opportunity to be a hip-hop violinist is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Ben-Ari said. “Many see me as a pioneer, doing something that’s never been done before.” In two years, the 27-year-old Israel native has added to her resume names with which most new artists spend years trying to work. She is responsible for all the string arrangements, production and per formances on Kanye West’s debut album The College Dropout, and she earned her first Grammy for her work on “Jesus Walks,” the spiritually conscious “Rap Song of the Year.” Ben-Ari grew up in a small town outside of Tel-Aviv, Israel, where she began to play the violin. During her mandatory military service in the Israeli Army, she was intro- THE Daily Crossword By Robert H. Wolfe 62 Slender swimmer 63 Burdens 64 Abbr. in airport names 65 HST successor 66 Squeal 67 Maturing agent DOWN 1 Youth grp. 2 In a struggle, as wres tlers 3 Peerage estates 4 Engender 5 Denuded 6 Alt. 7 Take on 8 Line of Hondas 9 Plastics base 10 Bridge positions 11 Strive (toward) 12 Actor Wynn 13 Trues up 21 Military division ACROSS 1 Moves up and down 5 Act well 11 Police blotter letters 14 Break sharply 15 Silverstone of "Clueless" 16 Remote Ctrl, button 17 Gillette blade 18 Subsequent airings 19 Eastern Can. province 20 Common greeting 23 Short, tubular pasta 24 Other finisher 25 Record co. 26 Genus of dogs 30 Cravings 31 Sally Field film, "Norma 32 Young adult 33 AST part 35 Common greeting 41 Directional suffix s_ hWFIoTTWcThTaIrTF adeleMlru ¥■ del TTjT T Y C R o s 'sms a l o N ■ BBB)L2. wto wp lane O O £_L_ a||| e_j_ he r L®.iiXTl. R ?.c orcHlll (¥ jr T_ _A S IXAi-i. Y B 2. AiL AAI. s li.A R .°. Y liio.s_A jM e R B £ A AA A E ■ BBaiane y ahaaal jD.J_V.J_NE_BBB±LE. R E S Y jEmaaß s a aaaaBBBB jM A L T aMw a X M u s E_U M OG L e'dla L ET ■ B a L S A IGI EIA jN I S Y|E | N S 101 F |a|r' 42 Accompanying 43 Nautical dir. 44 Penn or Connery 47 Of the Arctic 48 PC key 49 Land area 52 Heart cham bers 54 Common greeting 58 Pilfer 59 Birchbark transportation 60 Partiality : m —fl CUAB's Writers Speak and the UNC Creative Writing Program present Billy Collins poet laureate 2001(^^003 .'."III , i" 'lilil.i' 1 ~iil h ... ... 111. .. 11,11 ,r 11. | . In, 11. ,|.|, . Free general public tickets available April 18th. p Violinist Miri Ben-Ari laid down tracks for a list of hip-hop stars including Kanye West. duced to the music of American jazz legends like Charlie Parker. She moved to New York City to study at the Manries College of Music, where she often missed class to play gigs at local venues to sup port herself. After two years, she dropped out of school and began pursuing her career full time. “You know, they failed me out of music,” she said. “But I got the last laugh now they use my name to sell the school.” The college drop-out has released three critically acclaimed jazz albums and a hip-hop album, The Pulling Strings Mixtape, which features art ists including Jadakiss, John Legend and LiT Wayne. Later this year she plans to release her first hip-hop centered debut on a major label. “It’s like I have a drum machine in my stomach,” she said about her work. “My passion in music is very soulful, 1 think hip-hop is about soul, it’s not like soul music in the fact that its clean it’s very, very dirty, and that’s me.” Ben-Ari will be accompanied by her band, singers, a member of rap trio the X-Ecutioners and soul singer Chinua Hawk. The show starts at 8 p.m. and costs $lO for the public and $5 with a UNC ONE Card. Contact the AOE Editor at artsdesk@uiic.edu. 22 Authority on card games 23 Gilpin of "Frasier" 27 Very long time 28 Buntline or Beatty 29 Down the middle 33 Cinematic canine 34 Shah's capital 36 "The Screens" drama tist 37 Lubricate 38 Restless desire 39 Bind 40 Org. of court players ~ P p p p p p Ho - IW rr ~”~ W—- 1 —— ™ -2 ~ ■■26— 27 28 ■BE ” 881 35 1 36 37 ““"pe 39 40— 50 Si 5& WM 58 jjHpO “ Jill'' "~" t 11l r - |Hr: H ‘Chick’ troupe finger-lickin’ good BY JIM WALSH ASSISTANT ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR The chickens do not have an agenda. No, the women of the Chicken Ranch, a female performing group, instead have made a name for themselves with an original take on improvisational comedy that has broad appeal. “We don’t do ‘chick’ humor,” said Cindee Weiss, one in the five-mem ber troupe that was at UNC for the banner weekend of the Carolina Comedy Festival. Weiss, her four cohorts and the group’s director sat down for an interview with The Daily Tar Heel on Friday before their show. They talked about Chicken Ranch, which was formed in January when five friends living in New York City and director Jen Nails decided to piece together an all-female comedy team. “We just thought w r e’d give it Nonprofits to get warning from state auditor THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH The state auditor is expected to send warning letters by Monday to about 1,000 non profit organizations that haven’t accounted for how they spent mil lions in state dollars. State Auditor Les Merritt is send ing the letters to the groups, which were supposed to provide their spending reports by March 31. Merritt’s letter-writing cam paign and anew set of state regulations are part of an effort to get a better grasp on the flow of tax dollars to nongovernment groups. North Carolina awarded SSBO million in grants last year to (C)2005 Tribune Media Services, inc AH rights reserved. 44 Flew into a rage 45 Resounded 46 Fit for cultivation 47 Goober 50 Fancy cravat 51 Accra location 53 Leg bone 55 Kellogg's competitor 56 Outer banana 57 Caesar's being 61 Abbr. on many cam eras News a try,” said Leigh Angel, a North Carolina native. So far, that try seems to be pay ing off. This is the group’s first trip outside of New York since January. In the city, Chicken Ranch does long-form improvisational per formances, which are different from the choppy bits popular ized by ABC’s “Whose Line is It Anyway?” hosted by Drew Carey. The sketches they planned for the festival were more like short plays. “The more people see long-form improv, the more people would get used to it,” Nails said. “They would love it.” And that is what these actors are all about. The women of Chicken Ranch do not have an agenda. “We just want to spread joy,” said member Michele Medlin. She added —with a giggle “I can’t 3,000 nonprofit groups. More than 1,800 of those groups received enough state money that they are required to file financial reports or audits, but auditors won’t know how it was all spent for about another year. One problem is that the state and nonprofits operate on some- j The UPS Store We'll ship your stuff home. * (Even if home is halfway around the world.) Let our packaging experts handle your packing and shipping needs. ; Some things are meant to be difficult. Like that chemistry final you've been dreading. But shipping things back home - that should be If easy. At The UPS Store-, our specialty is packing and shipping -we can take care of all your moving needs, so you can focus on mote 5 1 important things - like getting through finals. 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There’s Sarah Nowak, a mono logue writer and performer, who divvied the interview Friday between heart-felt expositions about her craft and half-serious jokes about the group. “We were really drawn to each other magnetically,” she said. “It’s just different with all girls.” And there’s Amy Dickenson, an improviser for more than 12 years, who takes a high-brow approach to the trade. what different calendars, leaving a jumbled array of deadlines that make it impossible to monitor the state grants for as long as 18 months after a group spends its money. Anew set of regulations set to take effect in July would more clearly assign responsibilities and deadlines for nonprofits. Us S. Elliott Road - ()1 ( ).Q47 i .147.1 - MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2005 “We have a pro good-ass improv agenda,” she said. Dickenson also admittedly reverts to saying “poop” during the group's w arm-ups when they do word-association games. Angel is laid-back, knitting a kitschy purple wrist band through out the second half of the interview. She also has a nose ring. “We generally don’t go blue,” she said, addressing the troupes casual diction. Together, the players form a cogent unit, one that runs the gamut from serious commentary to irreverent banter. “That's the beauty of it,” Medlin said. “We have five really smart women. We can rely on each other, and we don't have to do anything alone. “We put the w-e-e-e in team.” Contact the AOE Editor at artsdesk@ t unc.edu. They can assemble an analy sis one day, said David Nance, an audit manager with the State Auditor’s office, and “the next day it’s no longer relevant because (the information) is coming in on a constant basis.” The analysis for March 31, for example, didn’t cover audits that aren’t due until later this year. 9
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 18, 2005, edition 1
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