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Page.8-Surnday, October 21, 1979-The Michigan Daily

art


Continued from Page 7
like those found in your basic Japanese
monster movie (for purposes of ferocity
and carnivorousness, Mothra and
Rodan are probably the prime
prototypes). These creatures would
then be erected next to all of Ann Ar-
bor's tallest buildings in such a way as
to make it appear that the monsters are
destroying the buildings: Ripping out
windows and poking holes in walls as
they climb up, shaking them to the
ground. Any actual damage to these
buildings can be restricted by thought-
ful foresight - and no art comes
cheaply, anyway.
"Homage to Hiroshima" is a
celebration of American culture in a
sense, for in mere physical terms it is
an exaltation of an important part of
what is often called our "junk culture."
Yet, a certain, almost Oriental, cycle is
also depicted. Just as it has been said
that the dropping of the atom bomb on
Japan helped spawn the intense
American society which grew to thrive
on "pop" images and art, so too has the
reach of that society extended to Japan,
to the point that an important source of
today's pop images for us is the
Japanese horror flick.

The idea of giant, slimy, scaled mon-
sters motionlessly stalking the city may
prove to be a frightening one to city
planners, who likely would nix the
project. But it shouldn't. If I had my
way, there would in fact be kindergar-
ten classes and day care centers
located at the top of all our tall
buildings. If people are going to over-
come their fear of the irrational, it may
as well start with close encounters with
almost-fatherly monumental reptiles.
After all, the rall scary stuff is
stories below, on the streets and
sidewalks.-
PEOPLE JUST a few years ago
used to spend a lot of time putting
us seventies kids down for being
"apathetip" and "listless" and all the
rest of the things that their image of the
golden sixties kids was not. Now it's
changed - but it ain't any better. What
happens is that the media acknowledge
us as "job-oriented" and "straight-
thinking," shaped by an economic
system with which those of yesteryear
didn't have to contend.
Well, I don't have to tell you what a
bunch of crap that is. A generation's
characteristics are defined by the ways

it disrupts the notions everyone else has
about it, and any methods we use to
plow under thee thoughs of the media-
minds nowadays is valid as far as I'm
concerned. Any speech pattern, any
gesture, any fashion is fair game if it'll
deliver a jar to those who think they
have us pinned down. I'd have resented
anyone calling me a peacenik or a
longhair ten years ago, and that goes
double for now, with media images
telling us as much about ourselves as
we tell each other.
My third proposition for an art work
in this city is for a "Happening." Hap-
penings are a way of extending art into
the things we do in our daily lives. They
make any and all human actions wor-
thy of being considered "art," and
make any possible environment a set-
ting for "art."
"The Happening is performed accor-
ding to plan but without rehearsal,
audience, or repetition," said Allan
Kaprow, a guy who should know all
about Happenings. I would like to add
.to that description that Happenings are,
to varying degrees, roomy contexts for
spontaneous behavior;"i.e., they don't
adhere to a script. There is generally

some sort of list of things those in a
Happening must do, but there is also
lots of improvisation. Happenings can
be as simple as the processes of
breathing or not breathing; they can
involve their participants in rolling
hula hoops and eating cheerios, in
having sex and counting change, in
tying knots in rope and laughing.
My Happening is relatively simple. If
it is about anything, it is about giving
each of us (that is, us of the seventies) a
stake in declaring our future. It is about
showing those who think they know us,
those who don't even ask us about our-
selves, who we really are.
I wish it could be performed by every
student in the University, for it is a
highly ritualized act (it contains only
the simplest, most inglorious of even-
ts) which depends upon a community's
common will to succeed. In any order
you wish, this Happening involves you
doing the following five activities:
close your eyes for a week
slam every door you walk through
tell someone you love them
smoke a cigarette
sterilize yourself.

5undagI

rush


'Continued from Page 5>
Third sets-45 minute parties during
which many houses put on skits or sing
songs about sorority life-resulted in
even more cuts. The atmosphere in the
Kuenzel Room in the Michigan Union

was tense as the girls walked up to a
table of rush counselors to pick up their
invitations to the fourth and last set,
Final Desserts.
Mary was staring in disbelief at the,
single set of Greek letters on her sheet.
After about ten minutes, she began to

hayden


t(Continued from'Yage 6)
problems of this scope, there isn't any
magic plan.
No major American business or
industry escapes Hayden and Fonda's
gunfire. Fonda, of course, isn't in the
best position to be casting stones.
During her speech, she launched into a
righteous tirade against the corporate
executives who run her industry. "20th
Century Fox's top executives got

bonuses in excess of $7 billion," she
said. Came the voice of a heckler: 'And
you got paid $2 million!" Fonda never
lost face. "That's right!" she ex-
claimed, beaming like a chesire cat.
"And you know where I'm going to put
it? Into the Campaign for Economic
Democracy!" The quick rejoinder ear-
ned her the biggest ovation of the
evening-could anything be more com-
forting to today's college students, con-
stantly assaulted with the charge that
they're only in school for the financial
pay-off, then a morally impeccable
defense of such inflated wages? Fonda,
though, escaped with only half her
dignity; msulti-million dollar con-
tributions aside, she and her husband
hardly living in the throes of poverty for
the cause of "economic democracy."
Yet it's those very ties to the elemen-.
ts of American society they're fighting
that make a future of change a
possibility. It's no secret that Hayden is
considering running for Senate again in
1982. Leftist factions have attacked him
as an opportunist, who absorbs the
groundwork of smaller political groups
and reaps the glory. He has actively
courted the support of Jerry Brown. In
turn. Brown has secured his relations
with Hayden, in part to win back the
liberal backing he lost during the fight
over Proposition 13.,
But what Hayden and Fonda bring to
CED-and what they're bringing to
towns all over the country-is a
message of urgency. It's a message
that transcends the shakey blend of
pragmatism and idealism on which
their philosophy is based. Hayden and
Fonda want to turn the "issues' into
matters of survival. Almost 20 years
ago, in the Port Huron Statement,
Hayden wrote, "If we appear to seek
the unattainable, then let it be known
that we do so to avoid the
unimmginable.', Perhaps,, for ,the time
'being', doing just that is o11 we- canr ask
for.

speak in short, halting sentences. "I'm
just mad. I don't understand it." A tear
slid down her cheek. "I think I'm just
going to forget the whole thing,"
she said, choking back sobs. "I don't
understand it-I had a really good
friend in one house, and she said I
would definitely get asked back. I think
I'm just going to forget the .whole
thing." Mary wiped her face, handed
the computer printout to a rush coun-
selor, and quickly walked out of the
room.
The situation was a little different for
sophomore Nancy Neville, who was
having a hard time deciding which two
houses she should go back to for Final
Ds. "I wish I could have been cut from
more places, so I wouldn't have to
choose between so many,"she said. "When
you have friends in a lot of houses you
don't want to hurt any of them."'
For the majority of girls who receive
invitations to "Final Ds," a future as a
Greek is practically assured. During
this last set of activities the rushee can
attend one or two hour-long parties
which, besides providing dessert, focus
on selling the sorority to the girls of its
choice. The girls who attend Final Ds
are the ones the house WANTS. "They
sat down with me and said, 'The house
really likes you. We really want you,"'
Karen Silverstein said of her reception
at A-E-Phi, the only house she attended
for Final Ds. Karen "pledged" that
sorority. Another sophomore rushee,
Suzanne Jacques, went to both Kappa
Alpha Theta and Delta Gamma (D-G)
for Final Ds. She recalled, "The D-Gs

said, 'We really want you here. You'd
be a big asset to the house' . . . the
.Thetas didn't lay it on quite that thick."
Suzanne is now a Theta.
When the time came to pick up the
final invitations, the predominant
emotion in the Kunezel Room was relief.
Freshperson Debbie Herman's hand
shook slightly as she opened the thick
cream-colored envelope and took out
the gold-lettered invitation to her future
home. After looking at the invitation
she sighed deeply, and a huge smile
came to her face. Debbie had gotten her
first choice.
On the other side of the room, Elisa
was so nervous that she had to struggle
to open her envelope. "I can't open it,"
she said, her chest heaving. "I don't
want to know." Her hand at her poun-
ding heart, Elisa slowly looked at the
invitation. Suddenly she screamed with
joy and began hugging her friends-she
too had gotten her first choice.
Elisa, Debbie, Suzanne, Karen and
395 other girls are now "pledges."
Although they are not officially con-
sidered sorority members until they
have gone through initiation, as pledges
they are entitled to participate in all the
sorority's activities. In the year ahead
they will attend everything from
hayrides to serenades to "T-Gs"
(Thank God Its Friday parties, which
actually take place on Thursday).
Next September they will move into
their new homes. And a week later, just
as they have begun to settle in, they will
go through rush all over again-on the
other side.

SundaC
Co-editors

. . . .. . . .

Sorority rush
around campus

Hayden and
Fonda on
the road

'Ghost Write
forgives
Ph ilip Roth

Owen Gleiberman

Elizabeth Slowik

Associate editor
Elisa Isaacson
Cqver PJAq y-a r


a epp ment toTh e-hg-----------'.D.-y-Ann*Arb.r.M....gan--ndytr 2, 197
Supeetto The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan-Sunday, October 21, 1979

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