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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 1984)
Page 12B/The Battalion/Monday, August 27, 1984 Learn and create crafts at the MSC Craft Center By JEFF WRIGHT Reporter About 6,000 people a year use the MSC Craft Center, which offers stu dents, faculty, staff and the Bryan- College Station community educa tional craft classes at night, in the af ternoon and during the weekend. “The Craft Center strives to be the best facility possible,” supervisor Wayne Helton says. “We stay on top of things in our business so that more people will want to use our fa cilities.” The center is located in the base ment of the Memorial Student Cen ter, below the Art Gallery. You can find facilities and supplies for wood working, stained glass, pottery, air- brushing, glass etching, bike mainte nance and much more. Professional instructors teach the classes includ ing working professionals, students and anybody else in the community who knows the art of the craft, Hel ton says. Any student with a valid Texas A&M I.D. and anyone over 18 years old can enroll in the craft classes. Non-students must purchase a $2 I.D. card that is good for one semes ter. Membership cards are required for anybody working in crafts that require the use of specialized equip ment. A full-time and part-time staff is always available for help and in struction of the craft or the machin ery. Workshops are offered at differ ent times during the week. The workshops are set up to introduce you to new crafts or to reacquaint you with an old one. All workshops are aimed at individual projects so the students can be as creative as he wants to be. Enrollment is limited so that the instructors can give the stu dents the personal attention they need, Helton says. Registration for the workshops will begin on Sept. 10 and will run until the classes fill. Along with the semester workshops, the craft shop offers one day Christmas workshops from Nov. 26 through Dec. 7. Here the class meet one time, learn the basics about a craft and go home with a product. The fee is set according to the craft and covers all materials and instruc tion. The Craft Center will host a Fall Craft Festival on Oct. 2 and 3 and a Christmas Craft Festival on Nov. 27 and 28. Both festivals will be held around Rudder Fountain and down the sidewalk going to the academic building, Helton says. The fall festi val, geared mainly to students, will have about 45 merchants displaying and selling their goods. The Christmas festival will have about 75 merchants from all over the state and will be aimed at the general pub lic as well as students. From Sept. 1 to Sept. 30, the craft center will host Creative Encounters V, an arts and crafts exihibit to be held in the MSC Gallery. The show will be composed of artisans showing original handbuilt material, and the media, Helton says. The shows con tain pottery, decoy carving, wood working, weaving, airbrushing, wa tercoloring, jewelry and the like. The only public woodshop in the Bryan-College Station area can be found at the craft center and can be used for $20 a semester. Hardwood, not plywood, is sold at the center to make it more specialized. Sponsoring outdoor craft fairs — occasionally cursed with rain — is one function of the MSC Craft Center. The fairs are held in the Rudder Fountain area. Elvira’s outlandish stage garb enables ‘Mistress of the Dark’ offstage anonymity United Press International BOSTON — Cassandra Peterson could do one of those credit card TV ads that start: “Do you know me?” She can walk down the street with out being mobbed by adoring fans, or eat in a restaurant with nary a glance directed at her mounds of red hair, tons of freckles and slender figure. That is, until she dons her Elvira garb: A tight, slinky black dress se ductively slit up the front, a flowing black wig, a padded bra and 4 inches of makeup. Then she’s unforgetable. As Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Peterson is hostess of the television program “Movie Macabre,” which originated three years ago in Los Angeles. It is now syndicated in 42 markets nationwide, and Elvira is fast becoming a cult heroine. With classic B-minus horror flicks as the fare — “Tomb of the Blind Dead,” “Attack of the Killer Toma toes” — how could she miss? Not only is Elvira sexy, she’s also funny. She’s part movie critic, part advisor-to-the-lovelorn and part co medienne, tossing off sarcastic re torts and double entendres in a vari ety of voices. Whatever her appeal, Elvira is a bonafide hit.“They either like the humor or they like the cleavage,” said Peterson, who is in her early 30s. “Elvira’s just a weird combination of different elements. I liked certain people likq Morticia Addams (of the 1960s ‘Addams Family’ television se ries). When I was little I really was in love with Cruella DeVille in the (Walt Disney) movie ‘101 Dalma- tions.’ I always liked sort of mean, sexy women. “My mother used to own a cos tume shop so that may be where I got my theatrical experience. I was always dressing up in costumes. 1 was always wearing garter belts and high heels when I was 7. “I knew I wanted to be a sex sym bol of some sort. They’d try to make me wear something cute like a tiger costume and I’d say, ‘No, I want to go as Cleopatra,” she recalled. Born in Manhatten, Kan. (“I al ways tell people I was born in Man hatten and leave out the Kansas f >art”), Peterson longed for the lime- ight from anearly age.At 17 she found a job as a showgirl in Las Ve gas. She said Elvis Presley saw her perform and encouraged her to pur sue a singing career. She traveled to Europe and danced at the Lido de Paris. While touring Italy in a rock band, she was spotted by Federico Fellini and cast in his film, “Fellini Roma.” Returning to the United States, she starred in her own night club revue, then joined the Los An geles improvisational group, “The Groundlings.” Then came Elvira. “At the beginning 1 looked at the whole thing as a one-day-a-week job. I thought, won’t this be great. I can go down one day a week and shoot for five or six hours and go home and then have six days left to go out and pursue real acting jobs. And I’ll be in makeup so no one will know it’s me.” Now Elvira consumes all of her time. And why not? As herself, Miss Peterson makes scale wages. But as Elvira she is be coming rich. She owns all the mer chandising rights to Elvira T-shirts, posters, bumper stickers, buttons, costumes and wigs. Among projects coming up: an al bum, combining monster, new wave and rock ‘n’ roll music; a book about bad movies and Elvira’s comments on them; a film project about Elvi ra’s “real life” (“Real low budget, just like my movies. It has to have the same kind of cheesy look”); an Elvira nightclub act she hopes will tour the country, and a line of greeting cards already on the shelves. Peterson said she does not con fuse herself with her alter ego. “Some peope think I’m really that way, that I really look that way and act that way. But I'm really the most normal person in the world.” She lives in Hollywood in a house — “a white English Tudor with a white picket fence” — she shares with a dog named Vlad and two cats named Thisbee and Hecket. A resi dent lizard and a python, a gift from fan, and are called Liz and Dick. “I think in order to really make a character work, inside somewhere there’s got to be that core of reality that you never let escape,” Peterson said. “That’s why it’s nice to be Elvi ra.” ensemb recruitm By Karl Spence Reporter The l exas A&M Unii Women’s Chorus, tresh fnu overseas tour, is recruiting ten vely this year, directorPatricii tas says. She invites all ‘ dents with a love of musictou for it. “We hold auditions dun first two weeks of classes," says. “You can sign upon: day for an audition appointm The five-year-old, 60-voice ing group f aced a big turnover many of its long-standingmei graduated last spring the chorus veterans departi and the other singers enjoyed met concert tour of Englai Wales — a special event madti ble by six months of fund The group gave ten formal formal concerts on the tour, inc luded Cardiff, Bristol, Li* and Oxford. They visitedo(1h as well, staying with Britishf: wherever they went. 'll seems like such a lor ago,” Fleitas says. “Itwassud warding experience for all of not only' being there, butgetl refl Fleitas reports that thegroti| dienc es were very receptive.S the best audience was in L where a full house of 2,W| them a standing ovation ai inanded several encores 1 he trip was madespedal music and its settings, Fleil Singing sacred songsinal c hapel towers and hearitl voices resound in anoint hi might tears of joy to thee nearly all her singers. “1 saw very few dry eyes,"d calls. Closer to home, Fleitas lool ward this year to continuing a paneling her group’s joint coi with women’s choruses frra University of Texas at Austii Bayloi University. ’Various performances are scheduled,in mg Christmas concerts, an a Spring Concert, benefits ando town trips. In the meantime choi us practices fournightsa* Fleitas says that singers m have a perfec t voice or beam: I readei of music to win a placets |mrmtt< horns “ I hey don’t have to have | e thinn prepared for the aui “We just have them emite Jc IntFrai thing pi she ados LOOKING FOR A PLACE WITH MORE ROOM TO LIVE? CRIPPLE CREEK, SAUSALITO, SCANDIA, SEVILLA, TAOS, AND AURORA GARDENS offer you a fresh new look for fall. Choose from large 1, 2 and 3 bedroom floorplans available in flats, lofts, and studios. Located less than V2 mile from campus or select an apartment close to shopping, clubs and restaurants! For your convenience, we’re right on the shuttle bus routes, too! Also enjoy pools, tennis court, free cable and HBO*, convenient laundry facilities and a NEW 24-Hour Emergency Maintenance System. Visit us today! Hours: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 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