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. (31 ) 663-31021 «vr>nrsiyi neUI). w w arborlink comllibertyvideo:. .....:.......... -::;:..-f'' tCUi?' ~:{ ,?6.C"k .. .."."s { ::i""?>i:r"" ::r ;."v ::: :: .rvr, : :: v::":::::: : . C}..i:'::{::.i: ......r....... .. {?::{::?v v~ r.... ......: vr. .;: :~:{v.v: "::::: :.RT .: v:::.v: "".::". ..... . ............. ......... .... U P P L I ES,..} .:::v?::": ." .}.............."::w:: ::::::v:v . ........................ Michigan Book & Supply is Ann Arbor's complete source for the best in art supplies and materials. o-Paint, ink and pigments o Mediums and varnishes o-Brushes and canvas o Drawing supplies * Drafting equipment *Ceramic supplies o Easels and paint boxes *Printmalng supplies *.Wide selection of art boards 9 Huge selection of art papers by the sheet and pads o Good advice Come see us upstairs at 317 South State Street (313) 665-4990 The School of Music invites you to enjoy... 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