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0 0
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Recess: A tale of two Centers
Skin
Continued from Page 4
Skin Deep is nothing new or
fresh. It is a stale Blake Edwards
film playing on the same themes and
characters as used in 10. John Ritter
is talented and does benefit the film
as do several funny scenes, but the
size of the cast and lack of character
depth make for a muddled comedy
that tries to do too much; the last
scene in the film brings all the char-
acters together with all of their
problems solved to celebrate Zach's
bestseller, and this is the largest
mistake. Blake Edwards has the tal-
ent to make great films, but Skin
Deep might make you forget that.
Skin Deep is now showing at
Showcase Cinemas and at Briar-
wood.
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.
Time to write the paper. He'd put
it off long enough - too long, as
usual - and now he was marching
through North Ingalls Building,
heading for the computing center.
Each step slower than the last, each
one clattering on the linoleum like
tocks inside a great alarm clock, one
that was going to go off at 10:00 the
next morning whether he had a han-
dle on The Tragical History of Dr.
Faustus yet or not.
It was afternoon - he'd probably
finish it tonight, but he had an hour
or so to make a dent in it. He came
here because it was near home, and
because almost no one else did.
Misery loves company? Fat chance.
Misery doesn't love anything.
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.
Slower and slower. Real slow.
Blood imagery? No, he men-
tioned that in class already. Christ
imagery? Too obvious, it's a reli-
gious play. English professors must
get sick of students seeing a crucifix
everytime an author sticks a piece of
wood into a scene. Faustus' fall as a
quest for immortality? Hmm...
maybe... but...
Something skittered past his
right knee.
...but that's obvious, too.
Howsabout a comparison/contrast?
Maybe with The Duchess of Malfi? I
wonder...
Something else whizzed past on
his left. The top of its pointy head
grazed his arm.
What the-? You'd think for a
few thou a year, the University could
at least keep the rats out of the
buildings...
They weren't rats. There were
several of them, and they clamored
past in a pack. They tottered forward
on little legs; their bright blue, red,
and green heads wobbled in the air
like Trouble gamepieces. They ran
and pushed ahead, and he stared after
them in mute perplexity. They
looked like garden gnomes.
That's funny. Where are their
book bags? They could be profes-
sors, I guess, but I didn't think there
were classes in this building.
He saw the last of them down the
hall, by the elevator he always took
to the computing center. OK. So
when he got to the center he'd ask
her. But she didn't stop there.
Funny. He looked to the door she
had come from.
Children's Center, it read.
So these were children. He'd
heard legends about them. Appar-
ently, somewhere off campus, there
were supposed to be all these -
well, they weren't really students and
they weren't really professors, but
kind of smaller versions of them, he
JIM
guessed - and they... what did they
do? Supposedly they sort of ran
around and - there was a word for
it... oh, well, they kind of experi-
mented with different objects - he
could have sworn there was a word
for it - but was there a purpose to
them? As far as he could remember,
they didn't really acheive anything.
- Oh, right - there was this
story about them. The idea is that
before Orientation you had another
life. Nobody could prove that one
way or the other, of course - like
you could just mysteriously travel to
before the beginning of time - so it
was pointless to argue, but, anyway,
the story went that these children
turn into us, somehow.
So I used to be one of them.
Right.
They were damn interesting,
anyway. One of them, a boy in a
green jacket with a hood, fingered
one mitten with the other. He had it
about half pulled off.
It was a relatively warm day for
midwinter. He imagined quickly,
automatically, the exchange that
OFF THE WALL
Evangelists are always asking for
money. They know it is the root of
evil.
Oh Rhett! If I don't find a dress by
tonight, it's curtains!
If the opposite of "pro" is "con,"
then the opposite of "progress" is
"congress."
God answers prayers
(n response)
But I question God!
n spon.
Then you don't have much faith
(n response)
must have gone before that. Some-
thing about it being too warm for
mittens. Damn right, it's too warm
for mittens. Go ahead, take 'em
off...
He never found out if they came
off. The boy was ushered through
the double door by an adult. Oh,
well.
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.
Four floors up. Scribblescribble-
signLSAMicrosoftWordVersatermch
eckcheckcheckdate.
He handed over his ID card and
went to his station. Popped the disk
in and stared. Water imagery? Fiddled
around with the rubber band that
they put around the Microsoft Word
disks and always left his hands
smelling funny. It broke, flew across
the room, and landed just behind
someone typing. But it didn't hit
them. That would have been em-
barassing.
He hoped they wouldn't notice
the rubber band missing when he
handed the disks back in. But he
walked over and picked it up any-
way. By the window. Really nice
day.
Decent number of people here for
the middle of the afternoon. All
glued to their tubes - what did they
say about other people glued to
tubes they contemptuously called
"television"? - all performing their
appointed rounds, defending the
world as we know it or as we should
know it. "...data used to determine
said tendencies within populations
may be biased in that..." "...please
come. Sponsored by Ann Arbor
Committee for..." They all set the
fulcrum of the world at their temi-
nals here, and were all being crushed
at it. Drained. So many books.
Encephalocides. Killed by their
own brains.
And four floors straight down,'
some wet, wriggling, inconsequen-
tial things ran, rolled, went about
wet, wriggling, inconsequential
business. Mittens, for God's sake.
They didn't wear mittens here.
Too hard to type. You needed all
your fingers for big things. For birth
imagery light imagery social change
stomp Christ figures standard devia-
tion Aeschylus Max Planck stomp
George Bush racism Avogadro
stomp Platonic forms dear sirs or
madam or whom it may concern
which one do I write stomp
Really nice day.
The paper could wait. He was
going out to play. "
WEEKEND
MAGAZINE
Lean
Contiuedfrom Page 4
severely; it appears in no less than
four of his films: Rocky, Karate
Kid I and II, and now Lean on Me.
This is such a trite cinematic
convention that Avildsen's attempt
to manipulate the viewer is
resentful, patronizing, and as sweet
as saccharine.
The only aspect that makes Lean
on Me somewhat tolerable is Mor-
gan Freeman's portrayal of Joe
Clark. It is a tour-de-force which
could easily have been played in an
"over the top" manner, but Freeman
is believable and very powerful.
Film critic Pauline Kael has asked if
Freeman is the best actor in Amer-
ica. He is right up there, but what I
want to ask is, am I the only one
who remembers.him as the "Easy
Reader" from Electric Company?
It's fitting that the man who helped
us learn to read as youngsters is now
portraying a character who wants to
help high school students do the
same.
Freeman's performance carries
Lean on Me above the typical
"Afterschool Special," only to have
Avildsen's obvious and sloppy
direction drag it down. The conflicts
within the film are as suspenseful as
wondering if The Karate Kid will
beat his opponent at the end,
removing any uniqueness this film
might have had. .
Lean on Me is playing at the
Showcase Cinema
Van Zandt
Continued from Page 5
wavelength who happened to have a
pencil and paper, and a guitar.
They're already finished when you
find them.
"Just like an Easter Egg."
Townes Van Zandt, sans Easter
Bunny ears, appears Saturday night
at the Ark, 637-1/2 S. Main Street.
The show starts at 8 pm. Tickets are
$9.50, $8.50 for students and mem-
bers of the Ark.
Blues
Continued from Page 5
ease the corrupt pop radio goo from
your blood is through heavy doses of
blues. This is a list of times and
places to rejuvenate.
WCBN (88.3 FM)
Nothing But the Blues, 3-6 p.m.,
Saturday.
A healthy mix of electric and
acoustic sounds, undiluted by non-
blues music. For those of you who
know CBN only as "that weird sta-
tion that plays construction noise,"
this show is a departure from the
freeform format predominant on this
ostensibly student-run station.
WEMU (89.1 FM)
This is the public radio station
from Eastern Michigan U. in Ypsi.
It features a jazz/blues format every-
day, but there are times earmarked
for blues only.
Classic Blues Closet, 1-3 p.m.,
Saturday
Host Mike Jewitt plays a lot of
older, "down home", acoustic
recordings (i.e. 1920-40). He just
finished a feature on Bessie Smith,
for example, which ran several
weeks.
Big City Blues Cruise, 3-6 p.m.,
Saturday
Platters with patter, Martino D.
Lorenzo intersperses songs with his
own blues nightmares (falling down
a whirlpool into a Holiday Inn Mu-
sician Convention while catfishing
with Bo Diddley), dead air, and
plenty of other random gab. Lots of
R&B, zydeco, old rock, etc.
WDET (101.9 FM)
Blues From the Lowlands, 10 a.m.-
12 p.m., Saturday
Robert Jones plays hard blues,
with no excursions into R&B or
anything else. Lots of Delta stuff,
much as the title implies.
The Coachman, 12-6 a.m., Sunday
The Famous Coachman is the
biggest figure in Detroit blues radio
by a long shot. He has a knack for
J
i
1
MICHIGAN STUDENT
ASSEMBLY1989 WINTER
ELECTION POLL SITES
I
j-
EEKENJh
SINCE 1989
4LMAN C
*SKETC kAb
HiMr... WERE ARE K1EYS?
MY KEYS? ~0
y0IA
V.ZINN
EART lb (5rP
THE
SUPER SITES
COMEDY
COMPANY
"1
i
s
Fifty-seven Years ago...
March 17,1932
"The discovery of more than 100 ballots, fraudulently cast in the Student
Council elections yesterday, caused the Council to void the results of the
election last night and vote for an investigation."
"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., - (AP) - ...the great man of baseball,
George Herman (Babe) Ruth, magnanimously accepted a $5,000 salary cut
today and signed a one-year contract for $75,000."
Ten Years ago...
March 17, 1979
"A fiery crowd of 230 protesters advocating divestiture from South Africa
yesterday disrupted the Regents meeting in the Administration Building for
the second day in a row and forced the University to obtain a court order al-
lowing the Board to reconvene behind closed doors.
"The confrontation, which resulted in a four-hour standoff between the
two groups, reached peak intensity when two student protesters were arrested
after a minor scuffle..."
Items in the Weekend Almanac are culled from past
issues of the Daily on this date in history. All
articles are taken from Daily files which are open to
public review in the Daily' s library.
presents...
North Campus
Commons
FISHBOWL
Location
outside
snack bar
information
table
MLB
UGLI
UNION
1st floor;
Bell tower side
main lobby
by Mug; in front
of Ride Board
Tuesday
8:30 a.m.-
12:00 p.m.
9:00 a.m.-
5:15 p.m.
9:30 a.m.-
5:00 p.m.
10:00 a.m.-
11:00 P.M.
9:15 a.m.-
10:30 p.m.
I have never been given
faith
(n response)
Then you're a born loser
(In response)
reason for
, c
ZNN
Location
Tuesday
DORMITORY SITE
March 16,17,18 8:00pm
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
$3.00 In Advance, $3.50 At The Door
BURSLEY
EAST QUAD
MARKLEY
WEST QUAD
Tickets
main lobby
Madrigall Lounge
3rd floor;
outside cafeteria
in front of
cafeteria
by entrance
Tickets Available At The Michigan Union
Ticket Office
No, you're
ignoramus!
just an awakened
-Graduate Library
_
M 10
All K,
WEEKEND/ MARCH 17,1989