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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 1981)
The Battalion Slouch Jim Earle Worst bicycle traffic I've ever seen! New Wave is leftovers By DICK WEST United Press International WASHINGTON — Modern art has appeared in many forms and guises. Poin tillism, Surrealism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism — these are but a few of the major schools the movement has begot. Visually, there .is broad divergency. A Van Gogh expressionist cypress tree has little in common with an Andy Warhol pop art soup can. But through all the many man ifestations, there has been one central thread — volatility. If you don’t discover a new school of art while it is still incipient, it already is too late for you to become part of the avant-garde. That is why I am telling you now about Post Cerealism. By acting promptly, you can still get in on the first wave. This may partly atone for the opportun ity you missed to become a cognoscente of the earlier Cerealism school. For the culturally benighted, perhaps I should explain that Cerealism is defined by the Local 1734 Art Collective and Gallery as “edible art.” Saturday, Sept. 12, will bring both the opening and the closing of Local 1734’s .fourth annual Cerealism exhibition. Which means its salad days are over. Four years is a long time for a single artistic gimmick to retain full flavor. Oh, well, it was swell while it lasted. At the show two years ago, the blue ribbon was carried off by two artists who carved flutes out of carrots and played “America, the Beautiful” on them. Last year, the top honors went to “Melon Cerealism of edible art St. Helens,” a volcanic watermelon that erupted pumpkin pudding. Both entries, as you can see, met the sole criterion of Cerealistic art, which is that it be made with food that can be eaten on the premises. But this year if you really want to be “with it” in the sense of not being “out of it, ” I would advise sailing with the fresh cur rents of Post Cerealism. The latter school grew out of the leftov ers of Cerealism. It is just now beginning to attract a small following, so there still is time for you to espouse it in its primeval period. One reason Post Cerealism hasn’t caught on big as yet is because there haven’t been any leftovers to speak of. After the judging at the previous Cereal ism shows, the entire exhibit was con sumed, musical carrots and all. And the same thing is expected to happen again this week. A gallery spokesman said everybody who attended the show — artists and spectators alike — would be invited to “dig in.” Even so, there are bound to be enough scraps — watermelon rinds and such — to support a few Post Cerealists. All art makes a statement, and Cerealism is no exception. Its statement is: “Listen to the banana, what does it tell you?” Profound, yes. And also twaddle in the richest tradition of modern art. But now sadly passe. As the new period of Post Cerealism dawns, the “in” crowd will be listening to the banana peel. the small society by Brickman The Battalion USPS 045 360 MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Angelique Copeland Managing Editor Marcy Boyce City Editor jane G. Brust Asst. City Editor Kathy O’Connell Photo Editor Greg Gammon Sports Editor Ritchie Priddy Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff Asst. Focus Editor '. . Debbie Nelson News Editors Jennifer Afflerbach, Bemie Fette, Belinda McCoy StaffWriters Frank L. Christlieb, Gaye Denley, Terry Duran, Nancy Floeck, Phyllis Henderson, Colette Hutch ings, Denise Richter, Rick Stolle Cartoonist Scot McCullar Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr. Photographers Brian Tate Becky Swanson, Dave Einsel EDITORIAL POLICY The Battalion is a non-proBt, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M University and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Bat talion are those of the editor or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M Universi ty administrators or faculty members, or of the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Communications. Questions or comments concerning any editorial matter should be directed to the editor. LETTERS POLICY Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length, and are subject to being cut if they are longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must also be signed, show the address and phone number of the writer. Columns and guest editorials are also welcome, and are not subject to the same length constraints as letters. Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor, The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. The Battalion is published daily during Texas A&M’s fall and spring semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Build ing, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. United Press International is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. Obscenity laws: be defined, yet they cannot can be broke n Est olicy schoo Vers it jut tl hat. Tl range he a perso One of the few great bands has incurred the wrath of zealotry. The ribald band that brought us “He’ll Go Out With Anyone” and “Kotex Kid” was arrested on an obscenity charge in their new Dallas nightclub, Bowley and Wilson’s Easy Parlor. Formerly, Bowley and Wilson were fix tures at The Alley, also in Dallas, embarras sing anyone who dared venture in. One song starts: Old Ben Lucas, had a lot of mucus, running right out of his nose.... These guys, with their lyrics or their leers, can make your ears and nose flush. They can appeal to your prurient interest. They are as close to obscenity as is humanly possible. Or inhumanly possible. I didn’t know of their Aug. 13 arrest until I saw an Associated Press story on the case, a case in which the language, not nudity or other physical contact, is the fulcrum. On one side of the teeter-totter is free dom of speech; on the other side is obscen ity and intolerance. The reasons for dismissing this see-saw case are simple. Guest Column by Todd Woodard First, obscenity does not exist. Oh, we see it in statute, but no one has been able to define the concept. Paraphrasing Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in a 1964 obscenity case: I can’t define it, but I sure know it when I see it. Unfortunately, what he meant was: I know what obscenity is to me. You don’t count. So I’ll watch all the dirty films and decide for you what you can see or read. Second, Bowley and Wilson were play ing to a paying audience who knew what the performance was like. At the shows curse, people dance, people drinlt cess, people make lewd and sug comments. Obviously, the show mizes the general breakdown of the fiber that made this country great. II ing a show, you can work up as® frothing at the mouth, dependingoi beliefs. But obscenity and scienter (fo ledge of guilt) aside, turning the Di off signals something much more Is ing. What disturbs me isn’t palpabli its symptoms are. It’s an intolerant which tightens my neck muscles. Can I really speak out? Apparent) Can I choose to entertain myself, aslo jjsolu I don’t harm others, in the way IA by Vk No, they (the paranoid they) bam? fairs favorites to jail. What happens sb f cha choose a lifestyle out of sync with thei moral majority? I practice my wearing a large scarlet A emblazoned'! | o ^ police record, or I’m blessed with veL. t wraparound white jacket with knee-lip sleeves. Who could ask for more? Is Santa Claus Bulletproof? By ARNOLD SAWISLAK United Press International WASHINGTON — Forty-five years ago, Al Smith undertook to explain why govern ment benefits, once begun, can be with drawn only at great political risk. “No body,” said the Happy Warrior, “shoots at Santa Claus.” About the same time, Harry Hopkins, Franklin Roosevelt’s close adviser, was quoted (erroneously, he always claimed) as saying the operative political strategy of the New Deal was, “Spend and spend, tax and tax, elect and elect.” No matter who said what, there is no doubt that Democratic politicians of that day believed the use of massive federal funds to buy benefits for specific areas and groups paid off in votes. The overall domi nance of American politics by Democrats or Republicans who, like Nelson Rockefeller, sought a political “mainstream” appeared to validate their belief. Now comes the “New Right,” the ess ence of which is the belief that the Amer ican people have become disillusioned with Sugar Daddy government. Those who backed Ronald Reagan in 1980 believe the public is ready, perhaps eager, to give up the benefits of a semi-welfare state in return for less regulation and lower taxes. This is one of those “we shall see what we shall see” situations. Many of FDR’s Demo cratic heirs believe that Ronald Reagan and his eager budget cutters will soon find out that they have made a big mistake about the public’s willingness to give up the govern ment goodies. They think that as soon as the big federal program cuts take effect — for the most part after the 1982 fiscal year begins this Oct. 1 — that Reagan’s popularity will plummet and the members of Congress who have supported him will be in deep trouble. To help that along, some anti-Reagan forces are already papering the country with publicity about the meaning of the administration’s budget cuts. Some, like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and AFSCME, the big public employee union, are pinpointing specific areas or specific Republicans. AFSCME, for example, ran the Reagan budget cuts in the mental health area through its computer and came up with an interesting tidbit: An institution for the re tarded in Illinois will lose so much in federal and state funds that by next July it will have to let go 482 of its 1,500 workers, which would increase the local unemployment Warped rate to 10.6 percent. That institution, AFSCME said,E Dixon Development Center, the III employer in the home town ofH* Reagan, and added: “What can thert the nation expect from the administiii economic policies?” The union also targeted Kemp, R-N.Y., author of the tion’s tax program and an avid budge ter. It said Kemp’s home county, would lose $25 million as a resultd| cuts and his urban base, the city of® would be out another $23 million an least 1,750 jobs.” Localized “negative press releases are being circulated by Rep. TonyCtf! House Democratic campaign coni® 6 and he has said a number of RepuH have protested the tactic. But this is the kind of political lii that is going to be played as the 198 tions approach. The Republicans ha' trol of the White House and the SenaKfj a pretty good coalition working ia House, which gives them a very chance of translating into reality thei ignored demands for less governm® also gives the Democrats an opportu® find out if Al Smith was right. By Scott McCullo
