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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 28, 1989)
L 28, Tuesday, March 28,1989 ment o| ai 'e par Middle partisan based Promote a, April Audit Nations J erezd e msfield ctor for m; ail seen- e[an ad. of CBS' e. SlOfor $12 for ilable ision on ter fividual d in at- tpplica- mis Of- foal to id and >o that dll live ny. te sol- M US- 1,” she prove \&M’s tryone id ex- :1 with ailable d a vi- tmonv is also duster actual le this food foi tg- a sc h sed # grown, or er. '1i ivth.' 1 il aW has it and empts artift Mummenschanz creatures delight A&M audience By Keith Spera reviewer Toilet paper became a turn-on, clay-faced creatures stretched each other’s nose, and a couple of men made of inflated garbage bags beat the stuffing out of one another Mon day night in Rudder Auditorium when the three members of Mum menschanz brought their innovative theatrical show to Texas A&M. Ever since this Swiss trio began to gain worldwide acclaim in the mid- 70s, their shows have been hailed as a new form of theatre — one that combines elements of puppetry, act ing, dance, magic and mime. Their version of mime is not that of the typical curbside white-faced performer who works for nickles thrown by passersby. While the Mummenschanz cast members — Bernie Schiirch, Floriana Frassetto, and Andres Bossard — wear black tights similar to those worn by their streetworking counterparts, the sim ilarities end there. At last night’s show, presented by MSC Opera and Performing Arts Society as part of their Theatre Se ries, Mummenschanz used colorful, dever costumes and props to create illusions and silent creatures that ap peared to be complex living beings. At times, it seemed impossible that a human was capable of accomplish ing the contortions needed to give the creatures life. Some of the creations were made of foam rubber. Others were inflata ble bags of plastic with humans in side. For the more subtle skits that needed changing facial expressions, humans in black tights paraded about with heads made of clay, toilet paper rolls, and pads of paper. The creatures ranged from a flou- rescent-green foam-rubber Mr. Mouth — a big pod with a huge mouth splitting it in two — to a 10- foot yellow Slinky-like tube that played catch w ith the audience using a big pink balloon. Sometimes, the onstage charac ters, while not looking much like hu mans, had a tendency for exhibiting very human characteristics. A pair of mime creatures who had faces made of ice trays filled with golden cubes gambled for one an other’s cubes, with one creature get ting greedy and stealing all but one of the other creature’s cubes. Another pair of beings had facial features made of pink««tnd blue rolls of toilet paper. The blue being at tempted to seduce the pink one with sheets of his paper, only to be met with a game of hard-to-get. More successful in the dating game was the creature who had an electrical plug for a head. He found a compatible mate with an electrical socket for a head. When the two “joi ned,” the stage lights suddenly surged on. The creatures skipped offstage, and the lights came up sev eral more times, implying that the joining” continued offstage. At one point, one of the Mum menschanz cast members, dressed as a hand, “saved” the audience from an enormous inflated head — at least 20 feet tall and 30 feet wide — that started to ease off the stage and onto the audience. The hand came scurrying in front of the first row of seats and shoved the head back. Chuckles and applause from the au dience rewarded the hero hand. The show, entitled “Mummen schanz 1969-1989,” presented a hodge-podge of skits drawn from the troupe’s 20-year history. With any luck, the next generation of Ag gies will one day get to see the 40- year history of this talented bunch. The Battalion Page 5 Sea Grant works to correct man’s impact on ocean life By Kelly S. Brown STAFF WRITER Beneath the raging ocean waters lives a world that’s unimaginable to most people — a place of beauty and wonder, where the marine life's abil ity to survive is continuously chal lenged by other creatures in the sea — or that’s the way it used to be. Today the marine environment is being disturbed and challenged by the creatures on land. The water quality is declining, populations are burgeoning, habitats are deteriorat ing and shellfish are being contami nated. While sea life is being threatened by man, he may be the sea’s salva tion. Society is leaving it up to the caretakers of the ocean to cleanse the sea and research it to better un derstand it, but they can only do so if given ample funding. Among the caretakers are re searchers for Sea Grant, the nation’s coastal ocean science and research program. The Sea Grant network encompasses more than 302 univer sities and affiliated institutions, with 29 individual Sea Grant programs — Texas A&M being one of the largest. The program has brought close to $2 million annually to the College of Geosciences. The Sea Grant concept, which is patterned after the Land Grant Act of the 1860s, is to promote better understanding and use of marine re sources through research, educa tion, extension and information transfer. The program is administered through the U.S. Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Federal funds are matched by sup port from states and the private sec tor. Mike Hightower, program coordi nator for the Marine Advisory Serv ice, said Texas Sea Grant programs and activities had a $56.3 million di rect impact on the Texas coastal economy in 1987. The Department of Commerce - appropriated $1.8 million, while $475,000 were state matched, High tower said. Indirect impacts were around $150 million. Hightower said $20 million of the estimated direct impact came from the commercial fishery industry; $2.8 million from aquaculture; $15 million from recreation and tourism and $2.4 million from seafood proc essing and marketing. “The seafood industry is just one example of how our research stimu lates the economy,” Hightower said. “Two years ago the United States imported $6 billion worth of sea food. Obviously, it has an enormous impact on the economy.” The Sea Grant Program has re search going in “just about every thing in every county along the coast,” Hightower said. One of the 37 programs funded in the past two years involved the de velopment of shrimp aquaculture. Hightower said imports now ac count for more than 75 percent of the shrimp consumed in the U.S. In a l exas Sea Grant report on the economic impact the program has, it stated that a steadily increas ing percentage of these imports are high quality, pond raised shrimp. In order to remain economically com petitive in the world shrimp market, domestic producers must strive to maintain a quality product on-board the vessel. The solution was a 20-minute vi deo which described on-board hand ling practices designed to maximize the storage life of the product on the vessel. The benefit shows that if Gulf and South Atlantic Shrimpers follow rec ommended procedures and reduce their rejects (pieces, black spots and spoilage) by only 5 percent, they can realize an annual additional profit of $15,000 per boat. If all Gulf shrimp ers participated, they could realize an annual savings of $97.5 million. Another example given in the re port listed the Sea Grant’s challenge to develop an innovative mitigation program to offset damage to coastal habitat resultidg from marsh de struction by a chemical company. The solution was to work with of ficials from the City of La Marque and Galveston County to obtain funds from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) for developing a coastal park and 31 acres of coastal habitat in conjunc tion with a growout facility and pub lic fee fishing program for redlish. The benefit was that they ob tained a $380,000 grant from TPWD which was matched for $380,000 by the chemical company for a total of $760,000 to develop the facility. Hightower said Sea Grant does make a difference, and they can only continue to advance the accomplish ments if given the chance. Each Sea Grant program has to meet local needs, earn state support, participate in national efforts, and maintain congressional support. Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher will be in town today to speak at the Brazos County Republi can Party’s annual Lincoln dinner. Ofhcials at A&M’s Sea Grant hope Mosbacher will be interested to hear the strides their program has made, as well as the challenges still ahead. The A&M Sea Grant Program publishes Texas Shores quarterly to circulate what’s going on with their research and programs. In one of their advertisements it shows the skeleton of a fish with a plastic six- pack holder in his teeth. The advertisement says, “Before you toss that six-pack holder over board, stop and consider. That frag ile-looking plastic ring can last 450 years.Plastics do not rot. They don’t go out with the tide. They accumu late and they kill. Both fish and shorebirds get entangled in the mess. Some even mistake plastic for food. The result: thousands die nee dlessly. So, next time you take the plunge in the Gulf, stow the garbage or, at the very least, toss the degra dable stuff and keep the plastics. We shore appreciate it.” nant, ■ (irsi help - sur- s de- it it," asso- iatu- birth Her iood nda i in- nar im- was ond reg- icial :n a joe Sf’ the and eof >ian had ory :ar- ved ale, irffl o. ;ol- inV Adams hopes for speaking engagements COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Randall Dale Ad ams, jailed for more than 12 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit and freed partly be cause of the movie “Thin Blue Line,” said Mon day he hopes to build-a future by speaking about his ordeal. This is a case and a story that must be held be- 0r e the public,” Adams said in an inteview at his mothers home. “I want to get some speaking en gagements, talk to people, law schools, places where lawyers and judges are trained. They must know my story. If I can support myself and do that, I want to ake that avenue. But failing that, I’ll get a job. In hat case, Randall Adams could just filter into the mists of time.” In the meantime, Adams, a quiet, introspective J^an with a dry wit, is enjoying his newfound feedom and trying to Find some private time. Adams, 40, was freed last week from a I exas prison he had inhabited since being convicted in y7 7 for the murder of a Dallas policeman. He w as sentenced to die. He was released Tuesday after the Texas °nrt of Criminal Appeals reversed the convic tion. Prosecutors announced Thursday they would not seek to retry him. Adams’ story was chronicled in filmmaker Er rol Morris’ documentary “Thin Blue Line,” which questioned evidence and prompted Texas officials to re-examine the case. Adams spent Thursday night with his mother, Mildred, who sold her house in suburban Grove City to help pay her son’s legal bills. After taking a short drive Lriday around Columbus, which has doubled in size since he last saw it, he spent the rest of the day with his family in Grove City. He spent most of Saturday and part of Easter Sunday shopping for clothes and other neces sities. On Sunday morning, Adams attended an Easter church service. “Randy took a flower out of his lapel and gave it to the pastor,” said Adams’ mother. “Then the whole church clapped. That whole church was just so glad to see that boy.” He tried to rent a videotape of “Thin Blue Line,” but was told it was not in stock. “The guy there said I shouldn’t rent it because all they do in it is talk,” he said, smiling. Adams had other errands to run Monday, in cluding applying for a driver’s license and a So cial Security number. He also went to rent a post office box to accommodate the stream of letters and gifts for him. “I’ve been given just about everything you can think of — an Easter bunny, flowers, this watch,” he said. But Adams was calm in the face of the public ity storm his release created. He said the family has agreed to put its private homecoming on hold for now. “We’re trying to snatch as much private time as possible. My family understands,” he said, add ing that his mother has become almost as much a celebrity as he has. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to get her an agent.” He said he tries not to think about the time he spent in prison, which he said “is as bad and worse than any movie you’ve ever seen. I carry the scars.” Flis face filled with pain and he spoke slowly when he recalled his brush with death in 1980. Three days before his execution date, a stay was issued. (f? 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