MARCH 1988 Life and Art
U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER 13
F. . ;
Breaking the mold Los Lobos interview 'Sammy and Rosie' Tired of dorm life?
Artist's heroes change Popular group breaks into Filmmakers bank on One student finds living
from Roger Staubach to therlimelight withoutlosing seductiveness of "decaying1in a husra thrifty
flPablo Picasso. its roots. Europe" in art flick, alternative.
Page 18 Page 16 Page 15 Page 16
a
America's most unpopul
Vi etnamll is now Hollywood's holl
By Marcbo Fernich
The Daily Pennsylvanian
U. of Pennsylvania
Run for cover, the Vietnam War is
back in style. Once a blight on the na-
tion's conscience, America's most un-
popular foreign conflict has traversed
the full historical circle to become Holly-
wood's hottest new commodity.
Check out the movie list-you'll feel
like it's 1968 all over again. You know,
draft card bonfires, Gene McCarthy,
"Hell No We Won't Go," and all that
groovy stuff. Ho-hum. Retro-chic rides
to the rescue.
A cluster ofVietnam films -Apocaly-
pse Now, The Deer Hunter, Coming
Home - surfaced in the late '70s, but
their release hardly spawned a Vietnam
renaissance.
Why, then, this rekindled interest in Robin Williams is irreverent disc-jockey Adrian C
the United States' most inglorious
socio-political skeleton? More impor- psychological and moral wounds.
tantly, why now, when there are so Following the unexpected commer-
many exigent world issues that art cial success of Oliver Stone's Platoon,
needs to address? Back in the middle the major motion picture studios quick-
and late '70s, the debate over Vietnam ly began churning out a slew of Viet-
ground to a halt as the nation tried to nam-inspired "message" films. By and
erect a wall of repression around its large the bandwagon flicks-Gardens of
traumatic memories of the war. Viet- Stone, Hanoi Hilton, Full Metal Jacket,
nam was strictly taboo. But like time, Hamburger Hill and Good Morning
money has a funny way of healing old Vietnam - were a mixed artistic bag,
ar foreign war
est commodity
ronauer in 'Good Moming Vietnam.'
but you have to wonder what kind of
sincere political statement Paramount,
Orion or EMI can possibly hope to make
when its primary impetus is financial
rather than aesthetic.
As a result, a formerly touch subject
has suddenly become trendy; merely
the latest in an interminable series of
socially conscious pop-culture move-
See VIETNAM, Page 14
changing, rampant and creative as
ever.
Asaociate English Professor Con-
nie Eble has a particular interest in
on-campus slang. For an assign-
ment in her class, Eble had stu-
dents record 10 slang words along
with their pronunciations, defini-
tions, parts of speech, and sentence
usage.
The purpose of slang.is to provide
new names for everyday concepts.
Slang words generally have short
lives, one to two years, but a few
survive to become part of the lan-
guage, such as "bologna" for non-
sense information and "peach" for a
cute girl. Interestingly enough, the
origin of the word "slang" itself is
unknown.
Eble's students have their own
theories about slang. "As soon as
someone coins a term, it's his term
unless someone comes up with the
same word at the same time, which
is unlikely," senior Carwile LeRoy
said.
All agreed roommates have a
very specialized slang vocabulary,
"I would think that slang would be
used more in frats, sororities and
dorms, but not as much in the
Undergraduate Honor Court simp-
ly because they speak more formal-
ly," says LeRoy said.
"I think the long-term study of
slang is not worth it because it is so
transitory," said LeRoy. "However,
I think.it is important because it
relates the things that the respect-
able don't cover. I think any time a
group of people who don't have any-
thing to do get together, there is a
potential for a slang word to be
born," LeRoy added. "When people
have time to kill, they get creative."
Latin America is open classroom for cyclist
By Kate Peterson
The Minnesota Daily
U. of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Call it a seat-of-the-pants education.
Actually, it was from the seat of a 10-
speed bike. Liberal Arts senior Nicolas
Carter recently trekked alone through
Latin America on a four-month tour,
gathering information for three inde-
pendent study courses.
"People should learn without sitting
in a classroom," Carter said. "The whole
idea of being in school is about getting
out. Instead, people should find a way to
make school more interesting while
they're there."
Carter, who was born in the United
States but raised in Paraguay, started
peddling from San Diego and arrived in
Panama City, Panama, four months la-
ter. Before leaving, he arranged with
three University professors to study
Mexican masks, Mayan ruins and Latin
American slang used to describe North
Americans.
His 70-mile-a-day trek was inter-
rupted to visit the Mayan ruins at
Copan, Honduras, and seven Mexican
mask makers. His intercultural com-
munications project was continuous
throughout the trip, he said.
For the language project, Carter will
turn in a "semantic analysis of terms
used to refer to U.S. citizens." Latin
Americans commonly refer to North
Americans as "gringos" and "yanquis,"
he said. Also, common perceptions are
that Americans work too much, are too
strict and too delicate.
For his second class, Carter said he
will write a paper on Copan and show
his professor the photographs he took of
rooms for $2 or $3 a night. He saved
enough to buy some of the wooden
masks he was studying. "In rural areas,
and especially Nicaragua, everything is
really cheap, too cheap really," he said.
Carter expects to receive credit from
the theater, studio arts and intercultu-
ral communications departments. After
graduation, he hopes to work in Latin
American theater to educate people ab-
out social and political issues.
Senior Nicolas Carter received his course
credit while biking around Latin America.
the site. While interviewing seven mask
makers and visiting several museums,
Carter learned that Mexican masks and
dancing ceremonies "express some of
the fears the people have, especially of
the Devil." He will also write a paper on
the subject, illustrated with photo-
graphs he took of the masks and their
creators.
Biking gave Carter the luxury of
traveling the countryside and avoiding
tourist traps. Even though he budgeted
himself on $7 a day, Carter said he "ate
very well." At night he camped out,
stayed in people's homes or rented hotel