MICH.ELLANY

FILM

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Bring back the Bugs, Mickey of old

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INTERVIEW
Jane Self

Ten-year University Cellar employee
saw the bookstore's rise and fall
The rise and fall of the University Cellar Bookstore is a piece of Ann
Arbor history that will not soon be forgotten. From its start, the Cellar
was a focus of turbulence. Thousands of students staged a sit-in
demanding its creation in 1969; the new "student bookstore" angered
competitors and was sued by the city of Ann Arbor. With an escalation
of debts and a lost property tax case, the Cellar found itself in afinancial
corner. In September, Citizens' Trust Bank and other creditors refused to
grant a crucial loan to the Cellar, and it was forced to close last month.
Jane Self, a ten-year employee and a recent general manager, spoke about
the birth and death of historic retailer with Daily staffer Seth Flicker.
Daily: Why did the University Cellar open up in the first place?
Self: There were a lot of bookstores in town and there was a perception
on the part of the students that they were being gouged pricewise. So,
they went to the regents and asked for a student bookstore because this
was one of the only larger universities in the country that didn't have an
institutionally owned store. But they (the regents) refused.
D: Do you have any idea why?
S: It's always been sort of a policy of the University that they weren't
going to get involved in businesslike situations: hotels, bookstores.
They have obviosly reversed their stance over the past five years. But
they were always adamantly opposed to that. So the students went to the
Board of Regents and they (the regents) said, "No. It would be too much
trouble. It's too much money. Forget it." All the bookstores in town
were almost all privately owned; old-time sort of family situations and
the University appartently didn't want to tamper with that. So, the
students staged a sit-in outside the administration building and put a lot
more pressure on the regents. It was 1969 and there was a lot more stuff
going on. The regents didn't want that situation to get out of hand to
spill over to others in the political arena. They decided to cave in and
grant the students a bookstore. Students actually came up with a specific
proposal: how it would be initially funded, how it would be incorporated.
They basically created the University Cellar.
D: How did the other bookstores in town feel about this?
S: The situation we had at that time was pretty involved. We had all
these students on one hand saying we want a bookstore and all these
private bookstore owners on the other hand, who were all very
upstanding members of the community, who overreacted and (went to
the) Chamber of Commerce saying, "Oh no, no, no. We're all here.
We're cornering the market. We don't need this student bookstore." The
Chamber of Commerce went through a great deal of trouble to provide
the regents with a lot of information. The students wanted a store that
would sell books at a discount or no store at all. There wasa lot of stat-
Continued on Page 9

EVER SINCE WATERGATE,
writers and sociologists have
bemoaned America's inability to
produce heroes. While there have
been many figures to captivate the
national imagination, their stays in
the spotlight have been relatively
short compared to the perceived
prominence of yesterday's giants.
The current dearth of heroes has
often been blamed on the media,
which seems to seek out Achilles'
Heels and closeted skeletons with
ruthless efficiency. Things which
used to be covered up (like
Madonna, for example) are now
exposed, and they are exposed
quickly. Once someone reaches na -
tional celebrity they are scrutinized,
and their tics and peccadillos be -
come common knowledge.
But the deterioration of Ameri -
can heroes is not limited to
humans. A quick check on the
current status of the greatest non-
human American heroes, Bugs
Bunny and Mickey Mouse, reveals
that they too have been stripped of
the qualities that made them
institutions.
On Saturday mornings at 11,
ABC trots out shards of a brilliant
whole in the form of "The Bugs
OFF THE WALL
Graffiti is never having to write
"I'm sorry."
-Graduate Library
No government has ever lasted. No
government ever will. ANARCHY
IS HERE TO STAY.
(in reply)
That may be true, yet what is the
downfall of one government is the
rise of another. Anarchy my ass. If
and when anarchy happens, you
will probably be the FIRST TO
HIDE!!! Don't put your faith in
Moral Majorities!!!
-Mason Hall
Molly, you're killing me, see?
(in reply)
That's the whole point, Jeff.
-Graduate Library
THE CRISIS OF WESTERN CIVIL -
IZATION IS WHAT THIS UNI -
VERSITY NOW STANDS FOR. IT
HAS MADE COURAGE A CRIME
AND IMAGINATION A SICkNESS.
REVOLT! AGAINST THE INSTI -
TUTIONALISM OF RATIONALISM.
(in reply)
LOOSEN UP!
--Graduate Library
I used to be indecisive... Now I'm
not so sure...
-Angell Hall

Bunny & Tweety Show," the half-
hour remnant of the ninety-minute
Warner Brothers film festivals of
my childhood. These cartoons are
losing a battle for airtime, and they
are losing to the likes of "Galaxy
High" and "Teen Wolf." This
ongoing deterioration is grounds for
nostalgic sadness, but sadness ends
and moral outrage begins when one
watches the program.
A mid-'70s squawk over
violence in cartoons, and the desire
to pack too many commercials into
the half-hour have resulted in the
crudest butchery of film in tele -
vision history. Warner Brothers
have storylines and coherence, but
you'd never know it from watching
ABC. They've been guilloutined
and gutted by minds shallow
enough to believe that kids can't
tell the difference. But kids can..
Presented with a choice between
the now-incoherent cartoons and the

animated "Punky Brewster" the kids
will pick the one that makes sense.
But in his original incarnation,
Bugs Bunny made sense. And more
importantly, he was a legitimate
American hero. While the cartoons
were violent, Bugs rarely resorted to
violence himself. More commonly,
Bugs would rely upon wit and
ingenuity to thwart the assaults of
Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam. In
even the most trying situations
Bugs retained his characteristic
madcap sense of humor. And Bugs,
free from hang-ups over sex roles,
freely employed transvestism as a
means to overcome his foes. In
Bugs, we have an excellent role
model - a triumph of brains over
brawn, good humor over rage, and
cleverness over machismo. But
today's seven-year-olds will never
know Bugs as he was meant to be.
Similarly, today's flesh-tone,
tuxudoed Mickey Mouse, waving
cheerily from the gate's of our
nation's most successful tourist
traps, is a desecration of the rodent
our parents loved. The Mickey
Mouse of '40s comic books was a
tenacious, heroic mouse who was,
unlike his current incarnation, wor-
Continued on Page 9

" Food Servers
" Line Cooks
" Bartenders
" Dishwashers
" Waiters

Big Trouble in Little China, starring Kurt Russell and Dennis Dun, was a surprise favorite.
Rundown on a long year
of cinema to see and to shun

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Monday, January 19
7:00 p.m at Hillel (1429 Hill S


PRINT FROM THE PAST

By Kurt Serbus

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Before the Daily's gradual switch to computerized production in the late
1970s, five Linotype machines (right) set its print with thousands of
metal characters. Pages were assembled in trays, called "chases," at left.
This photo was taken in the early 1960s.
THE DAILY ALMANAC

IN 1960, THE ACADEMY OF
Motion Picture Arts And Sciences
came very close to awarding the
Best Picture Of The Year award to
John Wayne's wretched The Alamo;
Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece
Spartacus wasn't even in the
running. Now that we know what
orifice those fine ladies and
gentlemen have their heads up,
forget about what they're going to
say come April. This is how the
year in movies really looked.
Biggest Disappointment
Of 1986
Masked by some spectacular
special effects and bewildering
critical praise, Aliens was yet
another brainless, witless,
ultimately tiring example of the
rampant Ramboism that's
overtaken Hollywood these last
couple years. Director James
Cameron takes a great big poop all
over Ridley Scott's original
masterpiece by filling two hours
with lots of big guns, big noise,
and little else. But it made you rich,
didn't it Jim, you grinning bastard?
Best Surprise of 1986
I had no interest at all in seeing
what appeared to be yet another
lame Raiders rip-off entitled Big
Trouble In Little China (the only
reason I ended up going was

because I was stoned and got in the
wrong line). It turned"out,"however,
to be a fantastic and original blend
of kung-fu action and slapstick
comedy from the usually somber
John Carpenter. Kurt Russel, a
gritty soldier-of-fortune with a
patch on his eye and a tongue in his
cheek (his own) gets mixed-up in a
plot involving evil spirits, ninja
armies and other real cool stuff. The
jokes were funny, the pace was
killer, and I never once felt stupid
watching it.
The St. Elmo's Fire Award
For The Movie That Got The
Most Guano Dumped On It
By Critics And Deserved It
The Least In 1986
Call me crazy, call me stupid,
call me irresponsible, but near as I
can tell Howard The Duck was
about the most offbeat, irreverent,
and hilarious thing to come out this
year. Admittedly, all this was
hidden behind a bushel of stupid
duck puns and an aura of cynical
commercialism, but so what? I
laughed. I cried. I felt good about
myself.
Most Forgettable Movie
Of 1986
Oh, it was... wait, it's right on
the tip of my tongue... it's... it's...
Nope. Shit. Sorry.
Best Movie That Was On

HBO In 1986
No winners. HBO sucks.
Best Line In A Movie In 1986
Martin Short from The Three
Amigos: "Sew, very old one! Sew
like the wind!"
Best Movie That I Didn't See
In 1986
Blue Velvet - or at least that's
what everyone tells me.
The Dave Marsh Award For
Best Film Critic Of 1986
First Place: Me. Second Place:
Everyone else except Rex "Foo
Foo" Reed.
Continued on Page 9

Show how you feel with ...
Michigan
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"Women in Jewish Life"
Monday, February 16
"Women in Jewish Thought"
Monday, March 16


1' \ I \ ( I: ti I I 1 \1 i' ti I ( \ I ti O t i t I


20 years ago-January 13,
1967: University officials refuted a
professor's claim that there was
widespread use of marijuana and
LSD on campus. "We attempt to
keep our ear to the ground," said
one, "but we just haven't picked up
any such information. We may be
stupid or blind, but I think (we)
would know if the use were as
widespread as Prof. John C. Pollard
said." Another official said that

"Pollard was having hallucinations"
about the extent of drug use.
The same edition of the Daily
reported that an experiment
allowing South Quad residents to
close their doors when entertaining
members of the opposite sex was
suspended after several faculty
members of the Residence Hall
Board said they had not been
consulted on the matter.

PETER NERO
Appearing with drums and bass.
SeguCs from Brahms to Broadw
Tickets: $14, 12, 10, 8.
Saturday,Jan. 17 at 8
Hill Auditorium

PAGE $ WEEKEND/JANUARY 16; 41987W

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