V V w w w w w w w w 'U w w qw W w w m 4B - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 21, 2004 The Michigan Dail 'Tony Hawk 2' improves, keeps 1 SHOW 'EM WHAT THEY CAN KISS DETROIT S NEW RADICALS BUILD BASE AMID POVERTY By Steve Cotner Daily Arts Writer Lee is nervous. "Of course I'm nervous," she says, "I haven't worn a skirt this short since eighth grade." She is rail thin, pale, with straggly brown hair and a small, tobac- co-tooth smile that still manages to charm. She is one of Detroit's only Radical Cheer- leaders. Her body hides awkwardly under fishnet stockings, a clingy shirt, a spiked belt and the dreaded skirt, a strip of black fabric that never manages to cover her lower thighs. Last night she made pom-poms. I'm looking at the zines for sale at the Idle Kids Info-shop on Detroit's Cass Avenue when she comes up to me. These are self- published works by local writers who are nostalgic for the Xerox cut-and-pasterevolu- tion. There are dozens of them on the racks with names like "Frolic," "Golden Kitsch," "White Crow: a literary scavenger," "The Copy Cafe," "Xerography Debt,"'and "Con- crete: Think like a mountain." Lee points out one and says I should buy it. The price is 50 cents for a girl's private thoughts and rainbow-themed doodles. Lee defends her taste by saying, "I'm a little scatterbrained." She is going to perform a cheer later on, after the anarchists, socialists, anti-authori- tarians, punks and poets have their say. The sun is setting outside over churches and parking lots as these people circle up for a meeting. The new home of these radicals sits on a very old road in Detroit. It was a farm boundary line named for Lewis Cass, the man who became Michigan's territo- rial governor in 1813 and helped create the state's first regularly published newspaper, the Detroit Gazette, which sold for $4 a year to city subscribers. Cass might have become some sort of inspiration to us if he had won his 1848 bid for U.S. president. But today, his name is synonymous with the Cass Cor- ridor, the area of Detroit that in the 1960s became home to the most concentrated poverty in the state of Michigan, and one of the most impoverished areas in the nation. On the ground, one would never know the place had such a distinct history; it is mostly a sprawl of tired-looking buildings and vacant lots. Revitalization projects have reclaimed a few houses, and further down along Cass Avenue there are some grand old apartments for the Wayne State Uni- versity community. But at 3535 Cass Ave., the Idle Kids Info-shop is hidden in plain daylight. The only things saving the brick building from oblivion are the sign near the door and the windows that are spray painted to read "CDs, Records, Skateboards." The irony is that the street of a national leader and friend of the press is now home to radicals who fear the mainstream press and seek to overthrow the state. But Cass himself is ancient history these days. The starting point for comprehending the Cor- dor should be the 1960s, when poverty and political activism set it on its present course. In 1965, the Detroit Artists Workshop founders John Sinclair and Robin Eichele wrote of the need for a counter-community, since "Detroit, despite all its pretensions, has been artistically 'dead' for longer than By Adam Rottenberg Daily Arts Editor VIDEOGAMIE REVIEW**** With "Tony Hawk's Underground 2," it is impossible to ignore the old adage, "the more things change; the more they stay the same." And therein lies the crux of the problem with Activision's sixth installment Tony Hawk's in the venerable Underground 2 series. DespiteX all of the glossy Gamecbe updates and slick new moves, the basic gameplay Activision While the gross-out humor tends to turn the game more into "Bam Margera's Pro Skater," the lev- els and challenges remind players of the older games in the "Tony Hawk" series. Moreover, in a nod to traditionalist fans out there, "THUG 2" features a "Classic" gameplay mode. Classic strips the game down to its two-minute-chal- lenge roots, but uses the new levels and abilities. Don't worry, if the player wants the full effect of nos- talgia, then he can return the game to its original moveset, removing moves like manuals or reverts. The greatest strength of "THUG 2," and the "Tony Hawk" series in general, lies in its tight controls. "THUG 2" sticks with the tried- and-true formula, but still finds room to make a few additions. While neither the sticker slap, nor the Nayas spin revolutionize the gameplay like "THUG's" caveman, they do offer slight alterations. Of those two moves, the sticker slap most easily fits into the combos that make "Tony Hawk" games so memorable. Aesthetically, the visuals are on par with "THUG," but don't really appear that much changed. Yet, the soundtrack is upgraded signifi- cantly, featuring nearly 60 licensed songs as diverse as Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra and Rancid. What- ever the player's musical prefer- ence, the songs in the game should adequately suffice. Though the series is showing its age and limitations, "THUG 2" is incredibly fun and addictive. Hard- core "Hawk" fans will be hard- pressed to not spend hours finding every gap and hitting every line. However, "THUG 2" will not bring in new players who didn't appreci- ate other entries in the series. Get off your ass, put on your Vans and get outside, lazy. Courtesy of Activision has remained virtually unchanged since the original - which isn't necessarily a bad thing. So, what is new in "THUG 2?" Basically, the developers changed the story mode. It now centers on a competition between Tony Hawk's team against skateboarder Bam Margera's team in an effort to cause as much chaos as possible around the globe - think a stan- dard episode of MTV's "Viva La Bam." Whereas last.year's edition focused on the meteoric rise of a user-created skater, this game pan- ders to the "Jackass" crowd. Commitment. It sets us apart. School of Information master's students serve communities in Ann Arbor, in other states, and on other continents. More than 50 of our students participated in Alternative Spring Break in Washington, D.C., and New York City. Others have organized community information centers on Native American lands and in Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. Be part of it. Connect with SI. 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