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
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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