J 0 0 -67 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