Page 4
The Battalion
Tuesday, July 30, i|
'Slackers' depicts society's rejects
NEW YORK (AP) - Call
them passive subversives, mas
ters of mellow, emperors of en
nui. They don't have suits or
ties or 9-to-5 jobs. They're into
books and coffee and seeing
bands on Friday night.
In Austin, they're known
as "slackers," laid-back pariahs
of the private sector, low-rent
versions of New York intellec
tuals, idolaters of idling who
dare to be indifferent.
Slackers have seen the fu
ture and looked the other way,
scurried back into their holes
like groundhogs in wintertime.
They've turned off and tuned
out. They're through with col
lege, but still in school indefi
nitely. Hanging out is the major
industry, alienation a way of
life.
"You see wha t your options
are in the world and if none of
them looks appealing, then
they're not worth all the time
and effort," explained director-
slacker Richard Linklater, 28,
who captures this languid
lifestyle m "Slacker," his new
feature film.
"You just retreat into your
own thing. I like that because
it's you rejecting society before
society rejects you.
"I thinkmoreand morepeople
are getting away from the old
thoughts about how to change
things, the old, 'Oh, if you don't
like the way things are, then why
don't you change things.' People
know what they don't want to do,
but they don't have anything that
they're definitely onto. That's what
I see the slacker period as, know
ing what doesn't work but having
nothing to replace it with yet."
"Slacker" was filmed in Aus
tin two summers ago and cost
about $23,000. Funding came from
friends, relatives and the National
Endowment for the Arts among
others.
It looks like a documentaiy,
with the camera drifting from
slacker to slacker, but the film is
actually a carefully scripted, well-
rehearsed dramatization of a typi
cal day.
About 100 people are seen,
most of them real slackers playing
themselves. Included are an aging
ex-anarchist, a JFK assassination
expert, a video fanatic, a woman
selling an "authentic" Madonna
souvenir and a hitchhiker who rea
sons, "I may live badly, but at least
I don't have to work to do it."
"We were real serious and pro
fessional," Linklater said. "We just
said, 'Hey, we're making a
movie this summer. It should
be fun, kind of loose. Within
this I'm really hoping we can
work up something that's fun,
creative, the summer art
project.' And it was like, 'Oh
cool, it'll be fun.'"
Linklater, the son of an in
surance man and a speech pa
thologist, was bom in Houston
and began his road to
slackerdom in high school,
where his acute "anti-any thing"
attitude was bom.
Two years of college were
all he could take. He dropped
out of Sam Houston State Uni
versity, saved some money by
working on an offshore oil rig
and fell into the lazily out
stretched arms of Austin's
slacker community.
"I was going to movies all
the time, but I just noticed
friends who were going into
coffee shops every day. I don't
smoke or drink coffee or any
thing, but I could always ap
preciate what was going on. It
seemed kind of neat, ultimately
kind of optimistic, a world of
ideas," he said.
"I had worked in the world
and there were people with their
myopic, special-interest view.”
Postal Service releases ’92 Olympic stamps
Hympic
Games aren't far off and collectors
are looking forward to the wide
variety of stamps with Olympics
themes from countries all over the
world.
The U.S. Postal Service is off
and running with five 29-cent
Olympic Track and Field stamps
released July 12 in Los Angeles in
conjunction with the 1991 Olym
pic Festival.
Each stamp shows a competi
tor in an Olympic event pole vault,
discus throw, sprint, javelin throw
and hurdles. The background of
each stamp is a different color and
corresponds to one of the five col
ors of the Olympic rings blue, yel
low, black, green and red.
First-day cancellations are
available until Aug. 11 in either of
two ways:
Customers are encouraged to
buy the stamp at a local post office,
affix it to a self-addressed cover
and mail in a larger envelope ad
dressed to: Customer-Affixed En
velopes, Olympic Track and Field
Stamps, Postmaster, 7001 S. Cen
tral Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90052-
9991.
The Postal Service will affix a
single stamp or a strip of all five
stamps. However, keep in mind
that it will affix only random single
stamps and will not honor requests
for a specific stamp.
For each cover requested, send
>pe
or larger for strip orders) and pay
ment m check or money order (29
cents for one stamp, $1.45 for a
strip of five) to: Single Olympic
Track and Field Stamps (or Five
Olympic Track and Field Stamps),
Postmaster, 7001 S. Central Ave.,
Los Angeles, CA 90052-9992 (use
ZIP code90052-9993 for five-stamp
strip orders).
•New Priority Mail Stamp
A new Priority Mail stamp
from the U.S. Postal Service fea
tures a closeup profile of a bald
eagle against a black background,
and red lettering. The $2.90 stamp
is designed for use on Priority Mail
pieces weighing up to 2 pounds.
r >
Rodriguez records comedy
special in California prison
Nerd House
’Mobsters’ makes
no judgment of
evil gangster life
Continued from page 3
Although its lack of critical
commentary on its characters'
materialistic, murderous lifestyle
is rather disturbing in this age of
increasing gang violence, the film
preserves a kind of amoral integ
rity in its sympathetic, unflinching
portrayal of the way it was in the
xill-or-be-killed heyday of
gangsterism.
"Mobsters" evinces a certain
nostalgia for the good old days of
Prohibition, before drugs and
goodfellas, when loyalty to friends
and family came before everything,
and a Mafioso would sooner die
than betray that trust.
For all its apparent superfici
ality, this movie, like the young
criminals it depicts, gets better and
cleverer as it goes along. Michael
Mahern and Nicholas Kazan's
screenplay dwells mostly on the
friendship and "business" dealings
of the four young men, only toucr
ing on their relationships with the
women in their lives.
It also wisely avoids trying to
give all four equa 1 prom inence a nd
screen time, instead focusing on
Luciano and Lansky, and their
quest for revenge against the un
scrupulous dons and anyone else
who dares cross them.
Veteran actors Abraham, as the
Jewish financial wizard reputed to
have fixed the World Series, and
Quinn, as a gluttonous don, lend
colorful support to the surprisingly
convincing young actors.
All involved, from production
designer Richard Sylbert and cos
tume designer Ellen Mirojnick to
former commercial director
Michael Karbelnikoff, and espe
cially cinematographer Lajos
Koltai, seem to be having a mar
velous time bringing the story of
these cheerfully ruthless criminals
to the screen.
In a movie where the good
guys are only slightly less evil than
the bad guys, the beautifully styl
ized images artfully lull viewers
into sympathizing with Luciano's
gang, but the audience is probably
having too much fun to care.
by Tom A. Madison
NEW YORK (AP) - Paul
Rodriguez conducts the interview
in an exercise yard at San Quentin
g rison. "Who do you blame for
eingin here?" he asks. The imme
diate reply from the convict: "My
self."
Rodriguez: "Not society? Not
'causeyou'reblack?Not 'cause the
world is run by whites?" No, the
convict says, smiling: "1 mean, if
I'm into crime. I'm into crime. If
I'm into a peaceful life, that's how
I'm going to live."
A documentary? Sort of. But
few prison documentaries include
a stage show in which the
program's maker Rodriguez, in
this case gets a roar of knowing
laughter by telling a crowd of cons:
"You miss it out there, right?
Well, they don't miss you."
But then, "Paul Rodriguez:
Behind Bars," a one-hour special
airing next Sunday night, is a dif
ferent kind of show, a hybrid that
Fox Broadcasting calls a "docu-
Supermodel Carol
Alt launches
singing career
NEW YORK (AP) - Let the
critics beware. Former supermodel
Carol Alt is launching her singing
career and wants them to know
she won't be intimidated.
"I don't care what the critics
say because I'm out there and I'm
vulnerable and I'm open to criti
cism," Alt said in an interview on
Fox Television's "A Current Af
fair."
Alt quit full-time modeling in
1985 to pursue acting.
"If I listen to what everybody
says, and I stop doing what I want
to do and stop living and working,
I would die," she said in the inter
view being broadcast Tuesday.
"For me, this (a singing career) is
my fantasy."
Alt said models take a lot of
heat.
"The most challenging thing
I've faced in my career is other
people's prejudice," she said.
comedy."
A stocky, direct man bom 36
years ago in Mazatlan, Mexico,
Rodriguez is a comedian by trade,
and one with a little more human
ity and social commentary than
usually emitted by those touring
TV's standup comedy circuit.
Not for him the usual "I just
broke up with my girfriend" or
L.A. freeway jokes, or audience-
rapport openers like, "So, where
ya mom?"
Barrio humor is an integral part
of his act. It helped him land his
first starring role, in Norman Lear's
short-lived "a.k.a. Pablo." He was
spotted in 1978 while working ama
teur night at the Comedy Store in
Los Angeles.
His routine included these
thoughts after a neighbor lady was
shot by Los Angeles cops: 'The
only white people in my neighbor
hood are Jesus and the police de
partment. If you see eitner of the
two, you're in trouble."
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