The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, January 17, 1996, Image 3

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anuary 17,1996
clists on
sh Drive
ege Station ordi-
ig bicyclists and
eorge I3ush Drive
Fexas A&M cam-
irion Pugh to FM
ffect Tuesday,
in police will en-
ordinance until
George Bush Dri-
1997.
a Texas Depart-
rtation area engi-
uction, which be-
s ago, will make
ir use by pedestri-
es raise
p money
60 Texas A&M
reiving financial
aled by the sale
a" collegiate li-
5,000 Aggie li-
been sold by the
1 the program has
i cost $30 more
plates, and $25
each plate is used
Milne, The Battauon
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jinson, a fresh-
roke out during
night. Robin-
;, resisting ar-
, Night News Editor
ii'E Editor
sports Editor
o Editor
:h, Graphics Editor
■hics Editor
nis, Pamela Benson,
ia Henry, Lisa )ohn-
Wes Swift, Angeh
Rachel Barry, KristinJ
tin DeLuca, Thomas
' Hubble, John LeBas,
isa Nance, Stephanie
• Swift
ixter, Rob Clark, Erin
, Elaine Mejia, Chris
lez & Kieran Watson
iy Angkriwan, Amy
, Cory Willis & Evan
M-Mubarak, Michele
on
Ed Goodwin, |ohn
3 & Gerado Quezada
ry, Mandy Cater, Am-
ns A&M University in
t of Journalism,
one: 845-3313; Fax:
r endorsement by The
g, call 845-2696. For
in 015 Reed McDon-
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pr, $40 per school yea r
■r or American Express,
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,&M University.
'aid Building, Texas
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The Battalion
Wednesday
January 17, 1996
Aggielife
Page 3
By Marisa Demaya
The Battalion
Learning the ropes
Howdy Camp helps new Aggies adjust
Shane Elkins, The Battalion
Brad Bernhard, a Howdy Camp counselor and a senior civil engineering major, naps after
returning from Howdy Camp.
H owdy Camp ’96 kicked off at the
Lakeview Conference Center near
Palestine on Jan. 14, featuring at
tractions like Freudian Slip and dance
lessons with the Aggie Wranglers.
Howdy Camp, unlike Fish Camp or
Transfer Camp, was designed to welcome
freshmen and transfer students before
each spring semester.
Chin Vu, director of Howdy Camp, said
the camp is aimed to welcome all new
students to A&M.
“Howdy Camp is really weird,” Vu
said. “This includes everybody coming in
the spring semester, transfers, freshmen,
graduate students — everybody.”
This year’s theme, “Coloring Your Fu
ture,” focused on learning about traditions
and meeting new friends. Students were
divided into five major camps, which broke
up into smaller groups known as D.G.s, or
discussion groups.
D.G.s are a form of networking de
signed to allow students to meet new peo
ple in smaller groups without feeling
overwhelmed at how many new faces
there are in the crowd.
Students had the opportunity to partici
pate in a number of different activities, such
as trading warm fuzzies, relay races and
putting notes in each other’s mailboxes.
Chris Mclain, assistant director of Howdy
Camp, spoke of one of the most popular
events at camp.
“Probably the funniest thing I’ve ever
done was dueling watermelons,” he said.
Another skit, “Cooking with Copen
hagen,” was a favorite of those attending.
Other popular attractions included two
mixers, where students danced or even
showed off what they learned from the
Aggie Wranglers. This year’s mixer
themes were “Pajama Party” and “Howdy
Hee Haw.” Students were encouraged to
dress in costume.
Campers not only learned to feel more
at home at camp, but they also learned
about some of the traditions at A&M.
Mclain said the silent Yell Practice was
one of the most memorable events that took
place during camp.
The theme behind that is you’re sup
posed to imagine what you’d hear five
miles away from Kyle Field on the night
of Yell Practice,” Mclain said.
"Everybody whispers each yell.
It's really strange, and it's actual
ly probably one of the neatest
things I've ever seen."
— Chris Mclain
assistant director of Howdy Camp
“Everybody whispers each yell. It’s re
ally strange, and it’s actually probably
one of the neatest things I’ve ever seen.”
Yell Practice is not the only tradition
campers learn. They also learn about Sil
ver Taps, Muster and Bonfire.
Most of the directors, Co-chairs and
counselors understand what new stu
dents are feeling through previous expe
riences.
Tiffany Ward, associate director of
Howdy Camp, is a former camper who decid
ed to contribute to the program after her ex
periences at camp.
“I transferred two years ago,” Ward said.
“Everybody was so nice that I just wanted to
give back.”
Since then, Ward has been a counselor
twice and became a co-chair before going
on to become the associate director of
Howdy Camp.
Whatever the reasons, everyone from
the directors down to the counselors
share the same goal — to make new Ag
gies feel welcome.
Jason Ray, assistant director of Howdy
Camp, also came into the program after
being a camper.
“When I came in as a camper,” Ray
said, “I saw the time and dedication that
other counselors gave to the program. It
was just a great experience.”
Originality ranks behind
money for filmmakers
T he film indus
try follows a
quick formula
to make it big.
Sequels and big
names guarantee
monetary success.
And artistic val
ue? Well hey, this
is a business.
One of the surest ways to
have a box office hit is to make a
sequel. If people enjoyed the
first one, they’ll pay to see a se
quel no matter how awful it is.
A search through the Internet
Movie Database for movies with
“11” in the title gave up after
churning out 200. Luckily only
three movies made it up to VII
(counting only movies with actu
al Roman numerals in the title.)
Critics almost invariably pan
these sequels, and fans general
ly share the disgust. In the In
ternet worst-movie fan rankings,
Santa Clause Conquers the Mar
tians was followed by a string of
sequels making up eight of the
worst 10 movies.
In the worst 25, the Police
Academy series strives for domi
nation. The seven Friday the
13th movies received universally
bad scores, yet Paramount made
over $200 million on the series.
Films with originality often
bomb. People talk about how
wonderful they are, but nobody
goes to see them.
Warner Brother’s Family
Entertainment has produced
highly praised G-rated fea
tures. Both A Little Princess
and The Secret Garden were di
rected by foreigners.
Both featured no-name casts,
with primary roles filled by pre-
teen girls making their Holly
wood debuts. Both received high
critical acclaim, yet both bombed
at the box office.
If films don’t bear the Disney
logo, they are destined to fail.
Disney-animated features,
whether good (Lion King) or bad
(Pocahontas), always take in
hundreds of millions of dollars.
Popular book adaptations
also guarantee huge box office
grosses. After the success of
Jurassic Park,
any movie
based on a
Michael
Crighton book
is sure to be a
hit. Congo was
almost univer
sally scorned
(perhaps un
justly) by the critics, yet contin
ued to gross millions.
Movies based on Tom Clancy
thrillers have also struck gold at
the box office. And hardly a year
goes by without another hit
based on a Stephen King story.
Classics are a little more
risky, but Mark Twain books
continually appear on the big
screen. Jane Austen novels have
made a recent debut on the big
screen, even Alicia Silverstone’s
Clueless bears remarkable simi
larity to Austen’s Emma.
Americans are reluctant to
flood to subtitled movies, yet
redo them for an American audi
ence, and a hit results. Cyrano
de Bergerac was redone by Steve
Martin as Roxanne. Another
French film, Trois Hommes et un
Couffin, became a hit in the
United States when redone as 3
Men and a Baby.
Popular television shows have
also found their way to the big
screen, such as The Fugitive,
The Flintstones, and the soon-to-
be-released Mission: Impossible.
Children’s shows and comic
books such as Casper, Richie
Rich, and Dennis the Menace
have also made successful jumps
to the big screen.
A huge name is another sure
way to have a blockbuster. Apol
lo 13, Forrest Gump and Toy
Story all featured Tom Hanks.
Schwarzenegger is always hot,
and Stephen Spielberg films
dominate the all-time money
making list.
Sometimes, original, no
name films make it big, but
rarely does another Star Wars
come along.
Jeremy Hubble is a junior
civil engineering major.
Jeremy
Hubble
Columnist
Wayans brothers do it again
with Don't Be A Menace
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
Oh, those wacky
Wayans brothers.
Just when you think
it’s safe to go to the
theaters, the wild
Wayans clan strikes
again, handing out
laugh-out-loud her
nias to moviegoers.
The family’s newest
film, Don’t Be A Menace
To South Central While
Drinking Your Juice in
the Hood, is another parody of
African-American films.
Starring Shawn and Marlon
Wayans and produced by their
brother Keenan Ivory Wayans,
Menace apes the recent slew of
“gangsta” movies that have
garnered critical and commer
cial success.
Shawn Wayans stars as Ash
tray, a typical hood teen-ager
who dreams of leaving the
hood. Marlon Wayans is Loc
Movie Review
t Be A Mi
I While
Juice
g: Sha
yans
oduced by
is an
Rated: R
Playing at Honyvvood lS
★★★ (out of five)
Dog, Ashtray’s cohort in mis
chief and a gang banger who
spends his time matching his
weapons to his shoes.
Loc Dog and Ashtray whittle
away their days hanging out with
their rogue’s gallery of a posse.
But things change when Ashtray
falls in love with the beautiful
Dashiki (Tracey Jones), the
neighborhood floozy with a pen
chant for childbearing.
Romance buds between
Dashiki and Ashtray, but the
relationship is not all roses.
Dashiki’s ex-boyfriend,
Toothpick, thinks Ashtray is
imposing upon his territory and
decides to hunt down Ashtray,
Loc Dog and their homeys.
Make no mistake about it —
this is not the stuff that award
winning films are made of, but
it is damn funny.
Give the lion’s share of credit
to Shawn and Marlon Wayans
and Phil Beauman for a solid
script that gives the most laughs
without going too overboard.
But the Wayans family
should have a lot of expertise in
this area, with their work on In
Living Color and I’m Gonna Get
You Sucka.
Menace takes parody to some
hilarious extremes. Every mem
orable scene from Boyz ‘N’ The
Hood,. Higher Learning, Men
ace II Society and Poetic Jus
tice gets warped and twisted
into fantastic comedy.
The only Menace in this film
is the chance that someone
watching may bust a gut.
Shawn and Marlon Wayans star in Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood.
Movie Maestro
Richard Dreyfuss plays Glenn Holland in Mr. Holland's Opus.
Powerful performance from Dreyfuss
makes Mr. Holland's Opus a masterpiece
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
The world needs
more people like
Glenn Holland, and
the world needs a few
more films like Mr.
Holland’s Opus.
In a film spilling
over with wonderful,
yet understated perfor
mances, director Stephen Herek
has painted a brilliant portrait of
a man searching for greatness
and leaving a legacy in his wake.
Richard Dreyfuss stars as
Holland, a dedicated musician
whose one great wish is to
make music. A long-time trav
eling musician, Holland takes a
job as a high school music
teacher, hoping the job’s stabili
ty will give him more time to
compose his great masterpiece.
What starts out as a short
term gig, however, becomes a
30-year passion for Holland,
who finds that teaching music
can be just as gratifying as
making it.
Holland’s life is filled with both
agony and ecstasy. His joy comes
from teaching a less-than-bril-
liant student the pleasure of the
bass drum.
His pain comes from the tragic
discovery that his son, Cole, can
not hear and may never realize
the power of music.
Then there is a beautiful
young songstress with a crush on
Holland, the laughable creation of
the school’s first, and pitifully un
coordinated, marching band and
Holland’s tumultuous relation
ship with a son.
The heartfelt moments in
Opus are as plentiful and beauti
ful as the notes in Beethoven’s
7th Symphony.
Each scene pulls a little bit
harder on the heartstrings, so
much that at the end, there can
be nothing but tears and applause
for this everyman music teacher
who makes greatness rise from
the ordinary.
Glenne Headley heads a
strong cast as Iris, Holland’s
wife. Olympia Dukakis and Jay
Thomas also give good perfor
mances as Holland’s teaching
colleagues.
But the stage belongs solely
to Dreyfuss, who blends
warmth, passion, humility and
pain into the music teacher so
uncompromisingly real that the
audience laughs with him and
cries his tears.
Every watcher cares about
what happens to Holland, so
much that he becomes the
teacher everyone wanted in
high school: the man who
poured his passion into other
lives, changing them forever.
And after all of the emotional
crescendos and decrescendos, the
audience is left with a revelation
of just what Mr. Holland’s Opus
truly was.
Here’s a hint — it did not have
a whole lot to do with music.