Thursday, February 1, 1973
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Three
Thursday, February 1, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three
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I
CULTURE CALENAlDAR
DANCE-The Musical Society presents the Alvin Ailey Dance
Theater tonight at 8 at the Power Center.
DRAMA=-U Players present The Magistrate at Mendelssohn
at 8. Student Lab Theatre presents DeGhelderode's A
Night of Pity and Gurney's The Love Course at 4 in the
Frieze Arena.
FILM-Cinema Guild shows Dreyer's Day of Wrath in Arch.
Aud. at 7, 9:05; The AA Film Co-op p 1 a y s
Ashby's Harold and Maude in Aud. A, Angell at 7, 9;
South Quad Films shows What's Up, Tiger Lily? and
The Barber Shop in Dining Rm. Two at 7, 9:30; New
World Film Co-op presents Fellini's Satyricon at 7:30,
9:30 in Aud. 3, MLB.
MUSIC-The Music School features William Atkinson play-
ing trumpet at SM Recital Hall at 8.
ART-The Forsyth Gallery gives a benefit showing by Nic-
araguan artist Alejandro Arostegin. University faculty
members exhibit works at the University Museum.
By JONATHAN MILLER
The deck of the Starship En-
terprise is moving serenely up
the screen. You protest but the
set ignores you as Captain
Kirk's urgent order to the bridge
is lost in static. Cursing, you
lunge forward to savagely twist
the rabbit ears and jab the tin-
foil. No use. Is there nothing,
you ask nobody in particular,
that can save me this anguish?
Well, it just so happens that
there are two things you can do,
short of throwing away the tele-
vision altogether and reading a
good book. You can take your
ancientRCA to the repair shop
for a 140 overhaul job and. con-
tract for the installation of a
$150 antenna system on your
rented roof. Or you can order
cable television.
Economically, the latter al-
ternative would seem to be the
best. Cable TV here is relatively
cheap at $5 a month and a one-
shot $5 installation charge. You
also get more for your money,
in theory, at least.
But like the waterbed, cable
TV has fad status in Ann Arbor.
And just as that waterbed you
bought did not turn outsto be
everything you expected, so ca-
ble TV may prove a disappoint-
ment.
There is a theory and a prac-
tice to cable TV here, and be-
fore you sign your name to
the dotted line of the contract
and your check, it is wise to ac-
quaint yourself with both.
First, the theory.
Put simply, cable TV is a sys-
tem of delivering television pic-
Cable TV:
get the picture?
tures by land line rather than
from a privately owned antenna.
The local cable operators, Mich-
igan Cable Television Inc. (MC-
ATV), owns a huge antenna ar-
ray atop Tower Plaza - the
city's tallest building - where
TV signals are amplified and
sent down coaxial cable to the
homes of subscribers.
The cable company runs a line
into your house which is attached
to a cable converter unit, a small
rectangular box with an on/off
switch, a channel selector dial
and a fine tuner. This converter
is then attached to your tele-
vision set through the normal an
tenna connection. You use the
converter to switch your set on
and off, tune the picture and
select the station you wish to
watch. The regular TV channel
selector is not used. No perma-
nent alterations have to be made
to yourstelevision. Installation
of the system, once the cable
connection is made, takes only
minutes.
As the cable operator has a re-
sponsibility under Federal Com-
munication Commission rules to
originate programming of its
own, cable subscribers are sup-
posed to get a choice of channels
not available to those with con-
ventional reception systems.
The theory is also that cable
TV will give you crystal clear re-
ception - an end to the vertical
hold blues - with virtually no
maintenance problems.
Well, that's the theory. The
practice is something else again.
No matter what Mr. Dapper
from the cable company tells
you when he comes knocking at
your front door with a contract
blank in his hand, cable TV
here DOES NOT deliver crystal
clear reception on every chan-
nel. It does not even deliver
every channel that you can get
with a regular antenna system.
Nor is there much local pro-
gramming to receive once you
have had your cable installed.
But even this is jumping the
More channels will supposedly
be added soon, including Detroit
channel 20.
You will be promised a choice
of four so-called Public Access
channels. These will be available
to the community at low cost for
the presentation of locally made
videotaped programs or a simple
proclamation of ideas,. When this
will become a reality is unclear.
Program Director Clark Leonard
says the equipment needed to
operate the channels is not yet
in the studio, and he doesn't
know when it will be.
You will be promised a com-
plete schedule of local program-
ming, but will not in fact get
more than a nightly 15 minute
newscast and tape delayed re-
plays of Michigan hockey and
basketball games. A full local
program schedule is promised to
start, "next month." But the
cable operator has been making
that promise since last August.
So, the first rule when deal-
ing with MCATV is to determine
te1
4
7'
91
50
56
News
To Tell the Truth
Pcverly Hillbillies
1 Love Lucy
Course of Our Times
...J 4 \ . i mmmm . . A E ll RIM l S A ..: "
"No matter what Mr. Dapper from the cable
company tells you when he comes knocking at
your door with a contract blank in his hand,
cable TV here DOES NOT deliver crystal clear
reception on every channel."
*rF. }'":?r}..1M '+1'S"}}"N }Y' ,'F ' , .
' Opens Tonight! 8 P.M.! 40
' THE UNIVERSITY PLAYERS Proudly Present 40
SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO'S
R THE MAGISTRATE
A VICTORIAN FARCE
I,
"Riotously Funny Piece of Classic Force"4
-London Daily Telegraph, Dec. 21, 1972
JAN. 31-FEB. 3 10
Ind. Tickets $3, $2
Lydia Mendelssohn Theater
BOX OFFICE OPEN 12:30-8 P.M. (curtain time)
Box Office Phone 668-6300
Good Seats Still Ayailable
For All Performances 40
' Dept. of Speech Communication and Theater C
Subscribe to The Daily
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and Office Procedures
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56 Behind the Lines -
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9 This Land
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50 One Step Beyond
11:20 9 News
11:30 2 Movie
"The Anniversary" (English
1963)
4 Johnny Carson
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"The Men" (1950)
12:00 9 Movie
"Mystery Island" (English 68)
1:00 4 7 News
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"Snow Treasure" (1968)
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wcbn
listings
Bits n pieces from
the world of music
"DEAL IN UNNATURAL
SHADES FROM THE PSYCHE...
A GOTHIC MYSTERY."
-Time Magazine
Color by DeLuxe-
-ALSO--
The'stars of "Goodbye
Columbus" the comedy
"MADE FOR
EACH OTHER"
Next: "The Emigrants"
By GLORIA JANE SMITH
Arts Editor
Well, friends . . . just a few
notes.
Let's begin with a round of an-
plause . . . last week's WNRZ
Community Marathon has been
officially declared a financial
success. Sponsored jointly by the
Community Center Coordinating
Council, WNRZ, and the Ann Ar-
bor Tribal Council, the 28-hour
Marathon raised more than $3,-
000 for organizations forced out
of the Washington St. Commun-
ity Center after a fire there last
December. It's really only a be-
ginning, however, and plans are
already in the making for fur-
ther money-earning projects.
Our local (UAC-Daystar) con-
cert scene will soon see a little
folk, a little jazz . . . namely
John Denver on February 7 at
Hill and a jazz special featur-
ing Herbie Hancock and F r e d-
die Hubbard on February 24 at
Hill. So mark down those dates
... Denver, an artist who main-
tains "I don't want to entertain
people; I want to touch them,'
is most recently noted for his
million-seller single "Take Me
Home, Country Roads." Also the
composer of "Leaving," a song
made famous by Peter, Paul and
Mary, John Denver is a music-
ian concerned about social in-
justice, ecology and war. Tickets
now on sale at the Michigan Un-
ion lobby.
If you're into Detroit c o n-
certs, look for Seigal-Schwall
Blues Band at Ford February
2; Traffic and Free at Cobo
9:00
12:00
4:00
7:00
8:00
11:00
3:00
The Morning After
Progressive Rock
Folk
Talk Back
Jazz
Progressive Rock
Signoff
john
denver-
sat. feb. 17
hill aud. 8 p.m.
CENTER
rows 1-22.......$4.50
rows 23-28 . ... $4.00
SIDES
rows 1-28.......$4.00
herbie hancock
freddie hubbard
sat. feb. 24
hill aud. 8 p.m.
The Michigan Daily, edited and man-
aged by students at the University of
Michigan. News phone: 764-0562. Second
Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich-
igan. 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues-
day through Sunday morning Univer-
sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by
carrier (campus area); $11 local mail
(in Mich. or Ohio); $13 non-local mail
(other states and foreign).
Summer Session published Tuesday
through Saturday morning. Subscrip-
tion rates: $5.50 by carrier (campus
area); $6.50 local mail (in Mich. or
Ohio); $7.50 non-local mail (other
states and foreign).
Februarv 6: Bob Seger and Dan
Hicks and His Hot Licks at Ma-
sonic February 17.
Word is being passed that De-
troit's Strata Concert Gallery
will re-open this weekend, after
a rather long period of inactiv-
ity. During the next few weeks,
a series of performances entit-
led "Jazz in Detroit" will be pre-
sented there by the Allied Ar-
tists Association, a non-profit
group which aims to "do some-
thing about the economic and
professional status of artists."
Featured this weekend is jazz
pianist-composer Keith Jarrett.
Located at 46 Selden (near the
Wayne State University cam-
pus), the Gallery offers a comfy
atmospheretand serves coffee,
tea and other light beverages.
Truck on down and enjoy.
New album labels are cropping
up . . . Warner Bros. has an-
nounced the addition of a new
Rhythm and Blues label, Kwan-
za Records. Kwanza, which
means "first" or "No. 1" in
Swahili, was suggested by Are-
tha Franklin. And Capitol has
announced a new reggae (sort
of East Indies soul) label, Man-
go Records. Adding a latin
sound to rock, reggea is now be-
ing incorporated into the sound
of various musicians, namely
The Rolling Stones (on their up-
coming album, recorded in Ja-
miaca) and Arethan Franklin.
* * *
Flash Cadillac received a '57
Caddy as a present from their
manager, but the transmission
fell out somewhere between his
office and their destination . .
and Elton John gave his tour
manager a $38,000 Rolls Royce
as a thank-you present, after his
recent dynamite American tour
David Cassidy's looking for
a new, more 'mature" producer
. . . Chi Coltrane's been asked
to write the score for a Danish
film, "Love Comes Quietly" ....
Dr. Hook and his Medicine Show
are doing a nude centerfold for
Zipper magazine . . . or so say
the WABX Air Aces in their
Air Waves column.
Crosby, Stills & Nash a r e
back together - "and this time
it's for real," promises co-man-
ager David Geffen. "Steffen
even cancelled a Manassas tour
to do it." Songwriting and re-
hearsals were completed in Los
Angeles, Rolling Stone mana-
zine reports, and the album will
be recorded in San Francisco
to be released in early April.
Neil Young continues on tour
with the Stray Gators and is not
involved with the album. Cros-
by, Stills and Nash, however,
plan a US tour this summer.
gun a bit. Because to date the
major problem with cable TV
here has not been content, but
availability.
Technically imperfect though
it may be, the demand for the
new system has far outstripped
the supply. To the consumer this
means a lengthy wait of from
several months to more than a
year before cable can be in-
stalled.
So far, the cable company has
laid 90 miles of cable, out of a
total of 250 miles needed to pro-
vide saturation coverage of the
city. Because there can be no
more cable laying until warm-
er weather comes, you won't be
able to get cable unless you live
in an area already served by
trunk lines. This area is mostly
in the Southeast and East sides
of the city.
If you find somebody who does
have the service, invite yourself
over for an inspection of the
system in operation. You may
find that, in your area of the
city, cable service is relatively
poor while ordinary reception
conditions are comparatively
'good. Then, again, you may run
all the way to the bank to with-
draw money for cable service
from your savings account.
1. t
:">: "I
" Pricing the same for both concerts.
" All seats reserved.
" Box Office sales begin MON., FEB. 5
at Michigan Union, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Mon.-Sat.
" MAIL ORDERS Accepted Now, or Deliver
Your Mail Order in Person to:
UAC-DAYSTAR, MICHIGAN UNION
ANN ARBOR 48104
CENTER
rows 1-6 .....
rows 7-15.....
SIDES
rows 1-15...
$4.50
$4.00
$3.50
. be sure to indicate which concert,
. location, price, amount of tickets,
. certified check or money order ONLY,
. stamped, self-addressed envelope OR
a note that you wish to pick up your
tickets in person at the Union ticket
desk after Tues., FEB. 6th.
SECOND
'BALCONY $2.50
1
The second thing you are go-
ing to want to know before you
commit yourself to paying for
cable TV, is just what it offers
you. Here again, the theory dif-
fers substantially from the prac-
tice.
You will be promised, for ex-
ample, that your cable will give
you reception on ' every station
broadcast from Detroit, Toledo,
Windsor, Lansing and Jackson.
In fact, you will not get channel
20 (WXON-TV) from Detroit, or
channel 23, (WKAR-TV), from
East Lansing.
You will get Detroit channels
2, 4, 7, 50, and 56; Toledo chan-
nels 11, 13, 24, 30; Jackson chan-
nel 10; Lansing channel 6; Wind-
sor, Ontario, channel 9. Also you
get a 24-hour news-stock market
report on cable channel 8; a 24-
hour weather service on cable
channel 5 and limited local pro-
gramming on cable channel 3.
for yourself just when you can
expect to get service. And don't
take Mr. Dapper's word for it.
When I handed over my money
last August, I took Dapper on
faith that I would, as promised,
have my cable working, "by
Labor Day."
Well, Labor Day came and
went, and so did Christmas. Only
after a barrage of more or less
obscene phone calls did I finally
see my cable, last week.
I got taken because I made the
elementary mistake of failing to
see if there was, in fact, a cable
for my house to be connected to.
At first there was no cable at
all. Later ,there was a cable but
following it down the block I
discovered it didn't go any-
where.
Perhaps, the best, although
not infallible, method of check-
ing out the delivery- of cable
service in your area is to call the
cable company and ask them for
the name of someone on your
street who has the system.
You will be promised crystal
clear reception. You won't get it,
but you will get generally better
results than with a conventional
system. 'Although with cable TV
you rarely suffer from a lack of
signal strength, and the "snow"
that comes with it, you may
experience channel "spill," a
syndrome in which the image
from one channel becomes sup-
erimposed over the picture of an-
other channel. My system has
given me vastly improved results
on the UHF stations, which in-
clude educational TV outlets in
both Detroit and Toledo, but at
the same time it has given me a
worse image on WXYZ-TV,
ABC's super - powerful VHF' De-
troit station.
While all this adds up to a pret-
ty savage indictment of MCATV,
it simply wouldn't be fair to
write the company off as a bunch
of scoundrels. Not yet.
There seems to have been no
"evil intent" in their string of
broken promises, merely a de-
gree of ineptitude and a lack
of experience.
Because cable TV is a com-
paratively recent technological
advance, there are a host of
teething troubles that can drive
a cable operator almost frantic
with exasperation.
Bob Shaw, the director of
MCATV, admits that his com-
pany is having difficulties, but
says that with the operation less
than a year old such problems
are inevitable. And he looks for-
ward to running a cable outfit as
good or better than any other
in the nation.
"It's not that we're operating
in bad faith," Shaw explained
in an interview. "Things just
took longer than we thought.
We need time to get things es-
tablished."
Do you still want cable TV?
That is a question you can only
answer for yourself. If all you
ever watch on your boob tube is
Walter Cronkite, you'll probably
do just as well with those rabbit
ears and tinfoil. If your interests
are wider and you want to be
able to tune into distant stations
and, in the future, locally origi-
nated programming, you'll need
a cable connection to do it.
But remember this. Having a
cable increases the temptation
to turn on ,tune in and nod out.
If you watch too much TV al-
ready, a cable could prove the
undoing of your degree.
C~
7
Ia
aLnem 482-3300
SPARKN
Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, and Vivien Pickles in Hal Ashby's
HRO LH D
AND MA UD
A delightful macabre comedy. Harold, a 20-year-old young man, obsessed with death, when he's not
faking suicides for the benefit (?) of his mother, attends funerals of strangers. At one of these, he
meets Maude, obsessed with life, who will be 80 next week, and has a ring of keys that fit any car.
Maude gradually instills her love of life in Harold. An off-beat and marvelous black comedy and
love story.
TONIGHT!-February 1 st-ON LY!-7 & 9 p.m.-$1
"THE MUMMERS"
A Photographic Documentary
by JOHN SCHOTT
ON DISPLAY at the Union Gallery
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