2D - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 3, 1997

ARTS


Video stores a hit
with students,
couch potatoes

Net offers diversions
- both naughty, nice

By Joshua Rich
Daily Arts Writer
Fed up with schoolwork and frustrated
with paying outrageous rates for bad
videos, one LSA seniorrecently spent his
final year at the University sitting on his
couch watching movies-cheap movies.
He had discovered Hollywood Video,
which had just arrived in Ann Arbor on
Packard Street, a short drive from cam-
pus. Hollywood, the student found out,
offers the best video rental rates in town.
For as little as $1.50 for five nights,
the couch potato student could rent
such classics as "Escape
.rom New York" and
"Village of the
Damned" and watch , a
them over and over d f
again for an entire week. a u I
For newer movies, "The Cr S
People Vs. Larry Flynt," d[ $ f
for example, he had to N *4
shell out a bit more -- Pacar $.
$3 for one or five nights, ; e
depending on the :9 a
movie's popularity. * S
Heaven, he thought. U
Could renting movies s d
get any better than this?
He asked himself.
A quick trip to any of
the other four nearby
video stores answered his question -no.
Still, University students find renting
movies a good way to take a break -or
procrastinate - from studying, an
innocent date activity, and a whole lot
cheaper than plopping down more than
$7 at the local cineplex.
"It's a total rip-off to go to the movies
and spend lots of money," said LSA
senior Miranda West. "It's total piracy."
So West, like many other students,

frequently opts for the alternative. She
heads over to the nearest video store for
her regular dose of home entertainment.
One popular destination for students
like West, who lives close to campus
without a car, is Liberty Street Video. Just
three blocks from campus, you can easi-
ly find this store with its gaudy, rainbow-
colored neon sign in the window. Liberty
Street has perhaps the widest selection of
movies in Ann Arbor.
Particularly interested in films from
her native Yugoslavia, RC junior Sara
Bursac often finds exactly what she
wants in Liberty
Street's extensive for-
Ve2 eign film collection.
'< "Also," Bursac said,
"(Liberty Street) has a
big gay and lesbian see-
8(3 .tion, and I think that
l Eht that's very important."
Mew 211. No doubt, other stu-
2-71 dents would agree. But
O for < 5 for $3 for a one-night
rental, they may prefer
" to go somewhere even
closer to home.
Video retailers locat-
ed directly on campus
make up in convenience
<= what they otherwise
sacrifice in selection.
Campus Video on Church Street is
located around the corner from popular
South University Avenue student hang-
outs like the Brown Jug and Cava Java,
and it's just down the street from many
University buildings. Students, thus, are
attracted by the ease in which they may
go to class or to the coffee shop and
then run over to Campus Video to catch
a few flicks - if they can find any
decent ones in stock.

WEB
Continued from Page 1D
niche of the net, but my research has
led me to wwwgirlsgirlsgirls.com,
and the corresponding site at
www.boysboysboys.com (both ASoW:
6.9). Sites like these tend to rate low on
the ASoW, since they generally require
subscriptions to see everything, which
isn't a good deal for the stingy-minded
college student (who needs that money
to buy alcohol). Also important are
pages like Condom Sense
(www webcom.com/-condomz/infolnk
2.html, ASoW: 7.3), which are chock-
full of vital information about AIDS
and other diseases.
N Since most surfing is done to avoid
studying, game pages are very popular.
The best game I have ever
seen is "Find the Spam" (www.
smalltime.com/nowhere/findthaspam,
ASoW: 11), which cannot go untried by
anyone.
So-called "purity tests"
(www.armory.com/tests/purity. html,
ASoW: 9.1) are also pretty popular. Itsis
fun to watch your ratings go down as the
years pass by. Because Web program-
ming is pretty simple, games like these
don't take too long to play, which is
nice. A quick game of One Arm Bandit
(aa.mlive.com/funhouse/index.html,
ASoW: 9.7) allows you to practice for
those weekend trips to Windsor while
taking a quick break from that pesky
term paper. Life doesn't get much better
than that.
U Shopping is another entertaining
pastime. Since many students lack
cars, and since many of those same
students understandably fear public
transportation, trips to the mall are
rare. Furthermore, it is especially
inconvenient that the hours of leisure
most common to students occur
between the hours of 10 p.m. and 3
a.m., when malls are closed.
Therefore, online shopping is pretty
convenient. Sites are open 24 hours a
day, and you can charge directly to

your parents' credit cards to save
everyone time. Catalog shoppingis
probably easiest, and for that, I -
gest The Catalog Site, home to hun-
dreds of online catalogs, from J.
Crew to Deja Vi
(www.catologsite.com, ASoW: 8.5).
But of course, most of the bigger
stores and clothing manufactures
also maintain their own sites (gener-
ally at www.nameofcompany.com]
and fickle shoppers can go directly
there.
Of course, surfing the web do't
always have to be mindless entertain-
ment. You can easily combine entertain.
ment with education, or at least cor
yourself into believing that, by visiting
The Electronic Newsstand
(www enews.com, ASoW: 9.1) and read-
ing an online magazine or two.
In addition, search engines such as
Yahoo (www yahoo.com, ASoW: 8
allow the savvy surfer to look up
anything his or her heart des*
from naval piercing to the Bolshevik
Revolution. It's the best way of writ
ing a research paper without ending
up in the spooky sub-basements of
the Grad, and as a veteran of this
method, I highly recommend it.
If you are in love with the Web like l
am, note that you can make your own
little piece of the web. Personal home-
pages are fun and easy to make, and the
unwritten rule is: The tackier, the -
ter. Directions can be found i
ww w. um ich. edu/h ow -to-
homepage.html (ASoW: 7.6). Warning
Working on your homepage is time-
consuming, and takes procrastination
to a whole new level.
So I hope you've enjoyed my tour, a
I conclude with the best of all possible
web sites, The Michigan Daily Online
(www pub.umich.edu/daily/ ASoW
10++, since I'm getting paid to e
this).
As you can see, fooling around or
the net is pretty cool. You'll laugh
you'll cry, it's better than "Cats!"
Happy surfing, everyone!

The Michigan Union also houses a Street, the nearest Blockbuster is home
small video operation that caters to all to the typical stock of any store in the
students who live in nearby dorms like chain - tons. of new-release movies
South Quad and West Quad, and those and just a few of the older ones. One
just passing through. But don't expect LSA senior admitted that he chooses
to find that rare Swedish existential Blockbuster for its numerous copies of
film for your film class. The collection the newest, most popular films, despite
of the Union's video store doesn't go its non-competitive $3-per-night fee.
much deeper than the typical "Die Sure, Blockbuster is the perfect place
Hard" or Woody Allen movie. to go if you are inspired to watch 48
Of course, there's always copies of "Broken Arrow" on a
Blockbuster, everyone's old video store Saturday night. Your parents will cer-
standby. A short drive down Main tainly be proud.


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