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-kind of-with the music. "Iuse alcohol as a
wayfor me the individual to merge with
the whole. This way I'm assimilated by
the body, the mass, and the mass is the
party."
Jesus. Now if you think it's easy in-
terviewing people at parties who are in
various states of sobriety and in-
toxication, you're dead wrong. Most
people will talk, but only with great
hesitation, and usually with a what-
kind-of-dip-are-you-to-be-asking-me-
that sneer that makes interviews
pleasant.
But Ron's so drunk (20 beers, by his
count) that he's more than willing to
talk. And, through his drunken babble,
he's hit on a kernel of truth.
He keeps talking about the party's
"aura," and "dynamism," and
"feeling." He keeps saying how it's
great to be happy with a bunch of other
happy people. And he's right: There is
a lot of ecstacy which has enveloped the
party-a sensual, almost sexual, energy
that everyone feels but no one can
touch. The 20 kegs of beer the brothers
of Alpha Delta Phi bought for the
evening are doing their job, and the
hundred or so people at their party
are-depending on your point of
view-either the beneficiaries or the
victims of one of Ann Arbor's big in-
dustries: drinking.
It's peculiar, in a way, that alcohol
has become our social chemical. After
all, it's far from problem-free. Too
much of it in an evening can cause
people to insult their best friends, don
proverbial lampshades, and awaken
with nasty hangovers. Too much of it
over a period of time can destroy a per-
son emotionally and physically. At a
bar at least, it's not particularly cheap.
And by law, at least half the cam-
pus-those under 21 years old-are for-
bidden to drink it.
Yet we love it.
Kegs are the centerpieces of parties.
Some of our most popular campus
events are beer orgies-witness the
1,500 who turned out recently to the
Theta Delta Chi "Beer Olympics" (in
which, incidentally, our friend Ron was
an "athlete"). Cdflectively, students in
Ann Arbor spend millions on booze. The
student thirst has driven the value of
local liquor licenses to astronomical
levels.
Drinking is big business here. From
practically the moment they set foot on
campus, students are bombarded with
opportunities to drink. Whether it's a
"progressive drunk" party in the dorm,
or a keg party at some fraternity or
apartment, the social atmosphere
almost demands that students partake.
For many of the more than 90 percent of
college students who drink, the alcohol
is the center of the party, the
prerequisite for having a good time.
Why? Perhaps, as one freshwoman
giggled at a recent party, because
booze is "wonderful." It's an amazing
substance that can be all things to all
people. Lonely people drink for frien-
dship; gregarious people drink to be
sociable. The insecure drink to prove
themselves; the depressed drink to lift
their spirits. Drinking is portrayed in
our society as at once macho and virile
yet smooth and gentle. It's
simultaneously sexy, shy, aggressive,
and subtle. Amazing stuff.
For Ron, getting good and drunk gave
him the ability to conquer his social
inhibitions.
One
man
show
Kegs: rolling in the barrel
Ron at the Alpha Delta Phi party two
weeks ago. (Incidentally, though he's in
a fraternity, Ron doesn't belong to the
Alpha Delta Phi). "I have the ultimate
prerogative over whether I will be
lonely or not. If I want to be lonely, I
can be. If I want, at any moment I can
be with armies of people."
"That's the last essential ingredient
of a fraternity party--the women," he
said pointing at a pretty coed across the
room. "That's probably the key to the
success of fraternity parties: The fact
that there are women ready, willing,
and able to cater to every sexual whim
.and fantasy."
But the desire to drink-and drink
heavily-is by no means limited to
members of fraternities or upper-
classmen who are drinking for the buzz.
Often students-particularly fresh-
men-drink to be seen drinking; they
drink not so much to experience the ef-
fects of alcohol but to fit in with
everyone else.
Take Eric, an eager, young freshman
from Wisconsin living in Markley.
"This is really the first party I've been
to since I got here," he said a couple of
weeks ago during a party on his hall in
Markley. "Socially I think drinking's
positive in a way-this sounds kind of
bad-but you're fitting into the norm. It
helps your- social status. It helps your
reputation, kind of.
one half-gallon . . . We kept every em-
pty bottle for the first term.
"It was an incredible display .. . it
filled up my entire closet shelf. I hate to
admit it, but I think I did display it at
times with a certain sense of pride. I
wouldn't brag about it so much ... it
was more like I'd leave my closet door
open, hoping that someone would say
something to me. I wouldn't, like, point
it out. And when they'd comment I'd
handle it nonchalantly-like 'Oh, yeah,
we drink a little bit around here.'"
John Rogers is a amusing man.
He's sober-looking, medium
height, with short black hair, and
wears old-fashioned gold wire-rimmed
glasses. He looks more like an accoun-
tant than one of the owners of Good
Time Charley's.
He smiles a lot.
"Mr. Rogers, what would you say is
the ratio on any given evening between
people over the legal drinking age in
your bar and people under the legal
age?"
"It's hard to say," he replies. He
cracks a smile..
"Well, would you say that a majority
of the people are under 21?"
"No, I wouldn't say that," he respon-
ds, with a slight emphasis on the word
"say" and a big, broad grin.
come in.
Neither Ron, nor Eric, nor Tim are
over 21. By Michigan law, none of them
was supposed to be drinking. Yet none
of them had a bit of trouble getting
alcohol.
The Michigan drinking age law is
probably the most openly and widely
violated statute in the history of the
state. It was passed by popular
referendum in 1978-over the heads of
the governor and the state
legislature-as a way of reducing
drinking-related traffic accidents and
alcohol use among teenagers. Although
supporters claim the law-has done what
it was intended to do, most underage
students say it causes them only oc-
casional inconvenience in getting
booze.
Local beer distributors, in fact, say
there wasn't a perceptible change in the
consumption of beer in the months
following the passage of the new
drinking law-even though beer is the
beverage preferred by a large majority
of under-21 drinkers.
"I couldn't see a bit of difference in
the consumption," said Hugh Wanty,
the owner of 0 & W Inc., which has ex-
clusive rights to distribute Stroh's and
Miller products in the Ann Arbor area.
"If there was (a change), it was such a
small percentage that it was hard to
distinguish that from all the ups and
downs of the economy."
"Those who wanted the product were
able to get it. I think the bars did a fine
job of checking and changing their
clientele, and they did suffera drop in
business. But the take-outs continued to
operate properly. I think they tried to
only sell to 21-year-olds, but the 21-year-
olds were supplying the younger ones."
Enforcement of the law in Ann Arbor
has been sporadic at best. Underage
drinkers were having a tough go of it for
a while about a year ago after local
police sent underage Explorer Scouts
(some with fairly thick beards) into
bars and take-outs to crack down on
liquor sales to minors. But most studen-
ts feel that things are now getting back
to "normal," and-save a few touchy
spots-liquor can be had with relative
ease almost anywhere near campus.
"There's really no problem. getting
stuff to drink," said one student. "It's
easier .if you're living with someone
who's over 21, but you don't gotta be.
By Janice Mabie
Frank Stella: Prints 1967-1982
University Museum of Art
Corner of State and South University
Hours: 11 a.m -4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday.
1-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
PRINTMAKING BECAME stylish
America during the late 1950s as
many artists began turning their talent
and energy to this emerging art form.
Frank Stella, one of the most innovative
and successful of thisselect group, soon
followed this trend, adding a new
dimension to his own career as well as
to the field itself.
Stella began to paint in New York
City in 1959 after graduating from Prin-
ceton in 1958. His rather geometric
style caught on quickly, and he was en-
joying the success of his Black Series
paintings as early as 1959. Although
there was one retrospective show of
Stella's paintings in 1970, and another in
1978, the show which is currently at the
University of Michigan Art Museum is
the first major retrospective of Stella's
prints. Many of the prints correspond
with his earlier paintings. Because
neither the 1970 nor the 1978 exhibits
were comprehensive, this exhibit
provides the unique opportunity of
showing Stella's imagery and color
theories from the beginning of his
career to the present.
Stella's printmaking career began in
1967 with his Black Series (modeled af-
ter his Black Series painting of 1959).
Professor Richard Axsom, Associate
Professor at the University of Michigan,
Dearborn, chose 83 prints which effec-
tively show the wide span of Stella's use
of techniques, shapes and color.
Professor Axsom is the guest curator of
the exhibit and is the man responsible
for having the exhibit premiere at the
University Museum. Axsom has been
following Stella's career for many
years and felt that, as "one of the great
painters and printmakers of the cen-
tury," his talent merited a retrospec-
tive show on his prints. He said that
Stella "took the art world by storm" in
the 1960s, and that he has been
progressing and improving ever since.
The exhibit is a good example of
Stella's truly wide range of Talents. The
first thing that the viewer is confronted
with in the large room on the second
floor of the museum is a large, busy,
colorful work entitled Estoril Three II,
one of the "Circuits" series just com-
pleted this year. This particular print
was made using the combined
techniques of engraving, relief-printed
etching and woodcut. Stella adds com-
plexity, depth, and texture to his prints
by combining several techniques in one
print.
Stella does most of his work in series.
He varies color, technique, size, design,
and framing within the series, while
keeping one or more factors constant to
unify the group. In the "Circuits"
series, for example, he uses the same
size frame, and repeats a few motifs,
such as the fishnet design. From there,
w w w w w w - w
Stella: A retrospective
he uses dratically different color
schemes and techniques to differentiate
them. As a result, each print has its own
identity as well as a place within the
series.
Stella supervised the hanging of the
show himself and was "thrilled with the
space" that he had to work with, Axsom
said. The University Museum gallery is
the large
shown in,
This sho
exhibit ir
will open
which Ste
He has
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'Socially, I think drinking's positive in a
way--this sounds kind of bad-but you're
fitting into the norm. It helps your social
status. It helps your reputation, kind of.'
-Eric, a Markley freshman
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"You get here and you're lonely and
you need to make friends and drinking
is a big part of that. I just knew two
other people at this school when I came
here. Now I think I've overcome that."
"I really went crazy my first week,"
said Tim of his freshman year two"
years ago.- "My roommate and I went
Rogers and his partners are in an
awful position. Here they are-with a
whale of an investment in a building, in
carpet, in utilities, in all those etched-
glass panels-and a market that's rich
and thirsty, but just a little bit under.
age. What's a bar to do?
Squirm, and hope. Check all the IDs
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