III?
ie 8A THE BATTALION
’ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1976 ■ # ■
bills’ woodcarvings on permanent display
By MARY ALICE WOODHAMS
typical research project —
t wasn t
jnslating ideas of A&M history: the
rps, science, tradition, agriculture and
hnology, into six intricate carved walnut
jiels. But College Station’s Susan and
dney Hill completed their task in two
the Centennial woodcarvings on
fmanent display in the Memorial Stu
nt Center.
yVhen the Hills’ commission came from
rj Association of Former Students and the
ntennial Committee, they were given
general areas to cover. The designs de-
^oped after five months of sifting through
Ta, interviewing campus department
ads and “living in the university ar-
ives.”
“Rodney is the one who digests the ma-
jial,” said Susan. “One of us has to get the
j.sign going.”
“But she’s probably done most of the
vings on those panels,” replied Rodney,
good 60 per cent.”
i ■ !
The series begins with campus buildings
rough the years: from the days when the
hool was located in “that dewberry patch
uth of Bryan. Hill included the old trol-
• car which ran to Bryan, “tent city,” and
nificant buildings which are no longer
anding.
“They (the committee) wanted any Aggie
am any point in time to be able to recog-
ze the buildings he used to go to,” said
ill.
The panel dedicated to the Corps shows
ie evolution of the uniform, cadet slang,
hd various insignias. Hill visited the
lorps guard room to make sketches from
oe small collection of uniforms, and Susan
oints out that the man in the upper-left
‘orner is Sam Houston’s son. This panel
Iso contains the only woman represented
i the woodcarvings: a female cadet stand-
'ag near the center of the piece.
Vincent and Liza Minnelli
“I had to fight to get it in there,” said
Susan.
The third panel depicts sports and tra
ditions: songs, yells and more slang.
“A lot of these things the present-day
Corps doesn’t know because they’ve
changed meaning,” said Rodney.
Their ideas here came from old athletic
jerseys, yell books and photographs
(perhaps explaining the solemn faces), as
well as important traditions and mess hall
slang.
Hill gathered information for the re
maining panels by “asking deans what they
considered the most significant contribu
tions in each area.”
The agriculture panel contains a fruit fly,
boll weevil, and an engorged female fever
tick, representing the pests A&M research
has controlled. To the left the Hills carved
the stages of the moon, and below are vari
ous examples of farm machinery. Fields
from the agriculture panel lead into the
veterinary medicine and science carving,
which contains A&M’s nuclear reactor, the
Oceanography Building, and a contour
map of the Gulf of Mexico.
The final panel portrays A&M’s con
tributions to technology.
“One of the astronomers gave me the
formula for the hole (in the upper left part
of the carving), ” said Rodney, “and it was a
whole series of funny numbers. It really
didn’t look right, and when we checked the
last two digits out — it was the page
number.”
The panel contains elements from geol
ogy, engineering and architecture, as well
as symbols of the College of Liberal Arts.
“The only trouble we had was finding
something to represent liberal arts,” Hill
said.
Rodney Hill is an associate professor ol
environmental design, and has taught at
A&M for seven years. He graduated from
Texas Tech, then went to the University of
Agricultural section
of Centennial
woodcarvings.
Battalion photo by Ruth Marie Cowie
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California at Berkeley where he studied
the behavorial and social aspects of ar
chitecture and earned his master's degree.
“When I was working my way through
Berkeley, we did toilet seats,” said Rod
ney, referring to the carved seats (“Passing
Fancy,” “Birch John”) the couple sold at
the start. But the serious work began when
he produced a carved staircase for a house
he worked on as an architect. The Hills
have created welded sculptures, carved
doors, and church furniture. And a project
done for the Highland Park Methodist
Church in Dallas required illustrating spe
cific biblical verses.
Susan, who worked as a physical
therapist, has also studied art and
sculpture.
“I started out majoring in zoology at
Duke,” she said, “but I got my degree in
anthropology from Sophie Newcomb Col
lege in New Orleans. Then I went to physi
cal therapy school at Stanford.” She enjoys
the combination of physical therapy, carv
ing and family work, saying “you never feel
like you get into a rut.”
The Hills and their two children, Bunker
and Brooke, live close to the campus in a
house they remodeled. Inside the walls are
covered with artwork and antiques, while
in the rear stands an annexed two-story
greenhouse filled with plants that date back
to 1957.
Their current project is a door for a com
poser in Dallas that has music, a piano, and
an accordion among the carvings. And
there’s no rush — they work leisurely, only
when they have the time.
Old virtues taught
Making ends meet
with only $3,000
“We told them it would take two years —
and that was two years ago,” said Rodney.
By DANIEL Q. HANEY
Associated Press Writer
ASHLAND, Mass. — First, they
slaughtered the pig in their classroom.
Then the students cut it up, fried it and sat
down at their public high school desks to
eat it.
We can’t hire anyone to help woodcarve
— it would take so long to train them. But
we really enjoy doing’it. With architecture,
it’s a nice balance.
These are not agriculture students, but
suburban younsters taking a course with a
much less likely goal — learning how to
support a family of four on $3,000 a year.
Soon they will carve up the steer they
killed a month ago. Before the semester is
over, they will castrate roosters and watch a
calf be born.
1
jFather-daughter team disappointing
By SHEPHERD GRINNAN
A movie with the awesome combination
5>f Liza Minnelli, Ingrid Bergman, Charles
p3oyer and directed by Vincent Minnelli
shouldn’t go wrong, yet “A Matter ofTime”
does because of an over-reliance on
stereotypes.
First of all, the movie begins with the
.stereotypical printed words saying “the fol
lowing is a true story. Yet the ending cred
its are contradictory stating in Dragnet
fashion, “any resemblance of any character
in this movie to anyone living or dead is
purely coincidental.” Unfortunately, this is
only the beginning of a long line of
stereotypes (whether true or not). This is a
“rags to riches” story of a young Italian
maid. Nina’s (Liza Minnelli’s) “magic mo
ment” finally comes which transforms her
into a movie queen.
If this “magic moment” transformation
sounds familiar, it is because director Min
nelli (Liza’s father) is presenting a Cin-
Movie Review
derella story. And like all Cinderellas, Nina
has a fairy godmother in the form of the
aged Contessa (Ingrid Bergman). The Con-
tessa, once the “love goddess” of all
Europe, serves as a senile mentor to young
Nina. She loads Nina with memories of past
glories and Nina loves it. She also loads her
with platitudes of the wise such as “you are
only what you wish to be.”
There is nothing really wrong with these
stereotypes except that they combine to
make a rather shallow picture of an intrigu
ing situation. This shallowness is continued
by Nina herself, who spontaneously breaks
into song a la Barbara Streisand. One won
ders whether this “magic moment” has to
do with “The Sound of Music” or Walt
Disney.
The primary problem of “A Matter of
Time” is that the director tries to cram
every “piagic” stereotype possible into it.
These include sounds like an Italian movie
(all you need is subtitles), “true story,”
breaking into song, Cinderella and a god
mother. Yet there are strong points to the
movie. Rome is beautifully photographed.
Ingrid is good as the Countess and adds
depth and style to an otherwise lacking
film. It is also good to see Charles Boyer
again as the Countess’s ex-husband. He
adds class with his presence alone.
In a word, “A Matter ofTime” is a movie
bogged down with stereotypes. Liza is
good as the maid, yet she seems to be over
acting perhaps because her father is direct
ing.
She is especially weakened by taking
Not everything is messy. There are also
lessons in wiring a house, chopping a tree
and planting a row of peas.
The course, being taken for credit by 24
students, offers a return to old ways and
all.-but-forgotten virtues. And though
most of the teen-agers will probably never
set up homesteads, their teacher says they
at least will know how to fend for them
selves.
“My philosophy is to create indepen
dence and teach self-pride,” said Kenneth
Hayes, the red-bearded teacher who de-1
signed the course.
“It bothers me to see kids get up to their I
necks in mortgages and hills and then work!
their backs off until they die,” he said.
But Hayes admits that the satisfaction of ^
independence does not come easily.
“You have to give up a lot of the absolute!
luxuries, like, say, dishwashers, he said. J
“A lot of the leisure time you’d ordinarily,!
spend watching TV, you have to be out |
doing things like chopping wood.”
In the model life that Hayes teaches, he
said it is possible to live on $3,000 a year®
outside income by creating from scratch®
the necessities that most people are used toll
buying in packages.
First, the homesteader must be able to a
live rent- and mortage-free. Following 9
simple plans, Hayes said, a house can be 9
built for $5,000. And the course teache.' I
carpentry, wiring and plumbing.
One of the most obvious ways to save h 1
on food. The students learn to plant vege |
tallies, milk cows and raise chickens. (
They learn that heat comes from wood,
sweetening comes from bees and that
clothes are sewn at home.
KANM’s playlist
HITS
every opportunity to sing. Ingrid Bergman
and Charles Boyer are excellent as old dis- T „ _
tinguished citizens aware of their past and ^ e PP e ‘ m ^ Song Remains the Same
confronting the problems of the present.
RISERS
It is unfortunate that “A Matter ofTime”
was so shallow. It had great potential.
Lynyrd Skynyrd One More From the Road
Boz Scaggs Silk Degrees
The Doobie Brothers Best of the Doobie
Brothers
Carpenters’ special airs tonight
By JAY SHARBUTT
AP Television Writer
LOS ANGELES Recommended to
night: “The Carpenters,” ABC’s special
starring Karen Carpenter and brother
Richard, who’ve shown that a gentle sound
can survive in a music world where loud
means a hit.
Granted, they’ve been knocked by as
sorted pop critics as too gentle, too mild in
their music to be anything more than a
pleasant, forgettable hum on radio stations
with easy-listening formats.
Yet, put your headbone close to the
speaker; you’ll find solid musicianship by
both, not to mention quite subtle, often
surprisingly inventive vocal and instru
mental arrangements by Richard C.
Much of that — plus sly, unexpected
flashes of whimsy — is on display in to
night’s show, which has pianist-comic
Victor Borge and singer John Denver shar
ing the bill.
True, you may groan when the Carpen
ters launch the hour with what seems a
lip-sync rendition of their “Top of the
World,” which has been played so often it
should be led away and shot.
But stick around. Vast improvement sets
in when we’re told Richard is a big fan of
the late Spike Jones a superb musician de
spite his loony legend as head of the en
semble called the City Slickers.
The Carpenters then say they’ll do their
first hit — “Close to You” — in the Jones
manner. Whereupon they and their’ guests
demolish the tune with kazoos, whistles,
pots and pans. Weird. Funny, too.
Another fine whimsy moment: Richard
drives a fantasy race against two big-name
professionals and makes an emergency pit
stop — to replace an eight-track stereo car
tridge.
Sister Karen, who at times shows a deft
touch for visual comedy, also checks in with
a rousing display of her jazz-drumming
ability, the Carpenters started as a jazz
group.
While not quite in Buddy Rich s league,
she still gets the swinging job done in a
round of tunes you’d not expect to hear on a
mod music show — George Gershwin’s
“Strike Up the Band,” “S’Wonerful” and
“Fascinating Rhythm.”
Borge has little to do, other than a funny
piano duet with Carpenter. Which is a
shame, but it’s still good to see him at work.
Denver, who always has struck me as the
leading exponent of folk Muzak, does a
forgettable solo, yet more than redeems
himself later in a lovely duet with Miss
Carpenter.
Tonight’s effort is superior in writing,
musical arrangements and pace, compared
with other specials of this kind.
Let’s hope it causes a return engagement
for the Carpenters. They have the imagina
tion and taste. All they need now is more
new material.
Merry?
Christmas
By GEORGE ESPER
Associated Press Writer
HARTFORD, Conn. — Watch out for
the Christmas blues.
A psychiatrist says that while Christmas
brings joy to many, it stirs feelings of sad
ness in others — especially single people
living alone.
“There is an increase in what we call
neurotic depression as distinct from
another kind of depression which is called
psychotic depression,” said Dr. John P.
Callan, 37, director of the psychiatric crisis
clinic at Hartford’s St. Francis Hospital.
Callan said neurotic depression, unlike
the psychotic kind, tends to last a short
time. “Very often it will resolve shortly
after the holiday season without any partic
ular treatment,” he said.
Why do some people feel blue at
Christmas?
“Christmas tends to be a family time and
if people are not with their family, they can
very often feel unloved, neglected and de
pressed,” Callan said. “My impression is
that around the holiday season the persons
at the highest risk are the single people
who live alone, people who really don’t
have that much contact with others,
perhaps away from their families, away
from loved ones.”
Callan suggested that single people can
avoid the Christmas blues by getting in
volved with other families and participat
ing in community activities that offer con
tact with other individuals.
Elton John Blue Moves
The Steve Miller Band Fly Like An Eagle
Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac
Boston Boston
Al Stewart Year of the Cat
Rod Stewart A Night on the Town
Electric Light Orchestra A New World
Record
Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life
Pure Prairie League Dance ,
Black Sabbath Technical Ecstasy
The Band The Best of the Band
Kansas Leftoverture
Frank Zappa Zoot Allures
Leon Russel Best of Leon
Robert Palmer Some People CanDoWhol
They Like
Dave Mason Certified Live
Jean-Luc Ponty Imaginary Voyage
The Charlie Daniels Bind High Lonesom
Kinky Friedman Lasso from El Paso
George Harrison Best of George Wamsos
FADERS
Ted Nugent Free for All
Mott the Hoople Greatest Flits
Be Bop Deluxe Modern Music
Judy Collins Bread and Roses
Phoebe Snow It Looks Like Snow
Peter Frampton Frampton Comes Alive
Gordon Lightfoot Summertime Dream
Rush All the World’s a Stage
Stanley Clarke School Days
Linda Ronstadt Hasten Down the Wind
The Stills-Young Band Long May You Run
Ambrosia Somewhere I’ve Never Traveled
NEW ALBUMS
The Crusaders The Best of the Crusaks
Alphonso Johnson Yesterday’s Dream
Rick Derringer Live in Cleveland
The Earl Scruggs Revue Family Potlni
Valdy and the Hometown Band Valdtjf
the Hometown Band
Mark Aston Mark Aston
Hubert Laws Romeo and Juliet
Dalton and Dubarri Success and Faikt
Threepenny Opera Threepenny Open
Loggins and Messina The Best of F#
Foghat Night Shift
Faces Snakes and Ladders-Thc M
Faces
44
Not a Word On It
for precision guitar
v
By PAUL MUELLER
Once upon a time, when someone asked
me who my favorite guitarist was, I could
usually come up with a quick and fairly
definite answer — Hendrix, Clapton,
Beck, or any one of several others. These
days it’s getting a little harder to do that;
good new guitarists seem to turn up practi-
usual degree of smoothness andfluidP
possessed by most guitarists, and it t
nicely here.
“Foxfire” is not as good a song as so® 1 :
the album, but it does give the restot 5
band a chance to show off a bit. Hai' 1
Aren’t you glad elephants don’t fly?
Battalion photos by Bert Bivings
Monster
gets name
Music Review
Thompson’s sax gets some time here
adequate but not brilliant. The sonp
makes use of the synthesizers that are! |
sent (and somewhat overused) on mo)
the album.
Thousands of migrating birds have arrived in Col
lege Station within the past few weeks. Great
tailed grackles, common grackles, brown-
headed-cowbirds, starlings, sparrows and a few
other species fill the trees around the campus at
night to roost. Although most of the birds will
eventually move on to warmer regions, the evi
dence of their presence will remain on the
sidewalks and benches at A&M for some time.
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Associated Press
NEW YORK — They’re going to name it
“Nessiterris Rhombobteryx” — if they find
it.
“It” is the Loch Ness monster, or Ness as
it is known to Scotland’s schoolchildren.
Dr. Robert H. Rines, dean of the
Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord,
N.H., and leader of the 1976 Loch Ness
photographic expedition, claims to have
seen the legendary monster in the Scottish
lake in 1972. Before addressing the Massa
chusetts Institute of Technology Club
here, he told reporters: “I’m absoluately
convinced the monster exists. We know
there are more than one down there.”
The problem is finding Nessie or some
part of its remains. During a slide presenta
tion, Rines and three other Americans who
accompanied him explained the major dif
ficulty in locating “the wonder of Loch
Ness with the diamond shaped flipper.”
The lake, 24 miles long and 900 feet
deep, is filled with murky water and sur
rounded by high craggy walls which make
up the sides. It provides miles of hiding
unsociable monsters.
cally every day. One of the best of these
that I’ve heard is Pete Carr, whose new
album is entitled “Not A Word On It.”
The album’s title was chosen for a good
reason: it’s all instrumental, with no vocals
at all. It is also a very fine album for anyone
who likes good guitar music, and might
even please a few people who are not guitar
fanatics like myself.
Until now, Carr has worked mainly as a
studio musician at Muscle Shoals in
Alabama, backing up other artists. This
album proves, however, that he is more
than capable of making it on his own. His
band consists of Lenny Le Blanc on bass;
Roger Clark on drums; Tom Roady on per
cussion; Harvey Thompson on saxophone;
and Tim Henson, Clayton Ivey, and Chuck
Leavell (formerly of the Allman Brothers
Band) playing keyboards. Carr plays
guitars and wrote all the songs on the al
bum, and also produced, arranged, and
co-engineered it. If this all sounds like an
ego trip for Carr, it’s forgivable in light of
the skill with which he has performed all
his roles.
The album’s first side is the better of the
two, but not by much. It begins with “Tus-
cumbian Lover,” a beautiful song that fea
tures the full range of Carr’s musical abil
ity, from slow lyrical blues lines to fast riffs.
Throughout all of Carr’s work is the un-
“Journey With The Breeze” is anotfe
the album’s better cuts. It features an
likely mixture of pseudoreggae and
jazz; the two forms alternate in short!
sages throughout the song. It is follow)
a slightly funkier piece called “On Luc!
Knee,” highlighted by Thompson’s sai‘
Tom Roady’s bongos. The side ends
“Theme From Sparkle,’ which is rc®
cent of a few things the Allman Brot-
have recorded. This is no doubt duet 1
presence of Chuck Leavell, who does*-
fine piano playing here.
The second side has more of a jazzl
than the first; a lot of this is due to them
keyboards and synthesizers. “Trapped!
Bubble” sounds typical of a lot of jar?
being recorded today, using a varW
instruments and musical styles. “Br
Stone” is not quite as free-form, rel (
instead on a nice guitar/piano combinst
“Race of the Computers” comes asa
prise, as it employs a more radical s®
keyboard style than the rest of the alb
In fact, some of the special effects s0
more like Emerson, Lake, and Pall
(remember them?) than anything ek<
recent memory.
The album’s last song is “Twisted H?
which also shows a little Allman Brc
influence. Thompson’s sax and Carr’s
excellent guitar make for good (but
nitely not “easy”) listening.
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