The Battalion tion; fnant times i: ) experience tl® icti the Collet:, nthe mid-’70s • ilGift Act was- snable indivirtiB ills of their bocp ie Act, the law:] to the next-of-H Board develof| ensure thatpj rly. oiird is requirl leram within sare usually closed-casket c»': ance of theprf ,atin saying: : to most labs dead shall tel THURSDAY July 11, 1996 GGIE Page 3 Fire flwoy Continued from Page 1 and distribution rights. Meinecke said now the industry is grow ing and his own busi ness is faring well. “Business is oaign lillioi h-Quayle ca ublican Natic.B Democratic R® onedy Il’s IS ongress. oy Donald Ste no evidenced aigns or cornu. L the scheme, and Dole can: the plea agre /n advantage, :sman Nelst: ssed the Dt; cooperated fe orobe, addin “this appro®: rk contrast ic has come ers.” tlinton’s car inn, Joe Loc that Dole « :plain howb ivolved in "H behavior tiatrc Pat lames, The Battalion Cory Mancuso, of Bryan, aims as he sneaks up on an opponent. great,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect with the students not being in a regular school session.” Business is one thing, but Meinecke said people can expect is to have a good time playing the game. “It’s fun and you can’t really describe it,” he said. “You can shoot people and when you get shot, it doesn’t hurt.” A change in the game began in England about three years ago and now new arenas are pop ping up all over the Unit ed States. With better technology than in years past, laser tag is more versatile than ever — and not just for kids anymore. Kathryn Whaley, manager at TJ’s Laser Tag and a senior recreation and parks major, said the wave of the game has hit places such as Six Flags and Discovery Zone. Whaley said people come to play for clean, positive fun. “It’s indoors and it’s cool,” she said, “something families and friends can do in the summer.” With summertime in full swing, laser tag is especially popular for high school kids who believe there is noth ing to do. Whaley said laser tag action for cus tomers is ten minutes of constant hide- and-seek gaming in an effort to win. “You’re divided into two teams, red and green,” she said. “You wear a lightweight, comput erized vest that slips over your head with your laser gun attached.” Once an individual suits up, the next step is the gaming room — where the competition begins. “You play in a darkened arena that has an obstacle course lit with black light and there’s a fog machine,” Wha ley said. Mixing black light with a fog machine allows players to see the red laser beam when it is shot from their gun. Yet another facet of the game aids individuals during play. “Your vest talks to you,” Whaley said. “It (the vest) tells you when you’ve been hit and when you can shoot.” The vest communicates to players when they can shoot because of a five- second layover time occurring after being hit. During this time, the players cannot fire at others, nor can they be hit. “At the end of the game, you down load your gun and it sends your scores to the computer,” Whaley said. A player learns how many people he or she has hit, and vice versa, in a com puted score determining the winner(s). Laser tag is only a game, but some worry that shooting lasers at people is too vivid for players to sep arate from reality. “I don’t think our establishment puts it into that light,” Whaley said. “Most are just interested in the fact you can see the laser.” Whaley said from time to time she has seen a parent or two come in to check out the game, but usually they end up playing with their children. With the technological advance ment of laser tag, some may wonder if the sport will see another decline be cause of the creation of computer-en hanced games. “We looked at the virtual re ality,” Whaley said. “But I don’ think it will take over the physi cal part — people enjoy the hu man interaction.” Marc Cellucci, a senior mar keting major, is just one person who would not give up th physical aspects of the game for a visual experience. “I guess the part I enjoy the most is the action,” he said. “It’s not like paint ball. That’s expensive and you get big welts.” Cellucci said he has oth er motives and reasons for the entertainment value of laser tag. “It’s just exciting to go out and shoot your friends,” he said. “It’s cathartic to blast your friends away, and you get bragging rights with the stats the ma chine keeps.” Cellucci said there are a few ways to be successful during the game. “You have to be sneaky, efficient — trying to help out the team and watch out for the enemy,” he said. Players anxiously await score reports after a round to see whether they have been vindicated. “It depends on how my stats come out,” Cellucci said. “You compare with your friends, but it’s a fun way to let out the stress of the day.” Pat James, The Battalion Scott Watson, a junior accounting major, lurks behind a corner. or You! Editor -or OR ■m’iiics Editor —ing the fall sessions vsity. ■e. Texas The do-it-itself Austin band has played with other punk rock bands Green Day, Rancid and Tripping Daisy By April Towery The Battalion GALS PANIC Austin punk band Gals Panic is influenced not by the great bands of yesterday and today, but by Mexican food and cute skater girls. “Our style is so vague and ambigu ous — just loud rock’n’roll,” guitarist and vocalist Jeremy Pollett said. Pollett, who moved to Austin from New York in 1990, said he met lead vocalist Lance Sever in a video arcade. “It’s kind of ironic that Lance and I met in an arcade because Gals Panic is the name of a cheap Japanese video game,” Pollett said. “I think they tried to translate it into English and it did n’t translate too well. We liked the ambiguity of the name.” The band, which recently re leased an album on the Goopy Pyra mid label, has been together for about three and a half years. Even more interesting is the name of their new album, I Think We Need Helicopters. One of Pollett’s high school bud dies is Broadway playwright Tim Levitch. He sent Pollett a copy of one of his latest plays around the time that Gals Panic recorded their first album. “The play was really funny,” Pol lett said. “This guy wakes up one morning to find that his penis is missing. He files a missing person’s complaint, so the police begin to search for it. It grows to be six feet tall, and steals the guy’s job and his girlfriend, and basically becomes a better man than the protagonist. “There’s a scene in a doughnut shop where two cops are talking about what they’re going to do about the runaway penis. One cop looks at the other and says, ‘I think we need helicopters.’” Pollett said that the Gals Panic album turned out to be a bit symbol ic of his friend’s play. “The album is really a masculine album,” Pollett said. “There’s 19 songs out there autonomously. It’s very sexy- horribly out of control. I hope we do need helicopters.” Gals Panic has had some interest ing experiences playing live shows. “The difference between recording and playing live is like the differ ence between a photograph and a movie,” Pollett said. Before Gals Panic picked up bassist Cardinal Connor and drum mer Dave Keel, it played with a drum machine and a keyboard player. “We played at this place called the Cavity Club in Austin three and a half years ago and just brought our entire living room onstage,” Pol lett said. “We had a potted plant, a desk, a chair, and a TV set. It was total improvisation.” Besides the Cavity Club, Gals Panic has played in a variety of places with well-known bands such as Green Day, Rancid and Tripping Daisy, along with play ing in bowling alleys, residential basements, and Sudsy Malone’s Laundromat in Cincinnati. “Playing at the laundromat was cool,” said Pollett. "People are totally spinning their laundry and it’s a battle to hear the band over the damn change machines. “It’s funny because the people who actually came to see us play were these dirty punks who looked like they hadn’t done laundry in like three months, so it was a good way to get people to the laundromat.” Gals Panic consider themselves a self-sufficient band. They book, pro mote and publicize their own shows, and sell the albums themselves. At a show in Austin, Pollett said he wished he had a bodyguard. “A drunk girl close to the stage was blasting one of those horns you blow at basketball games and no one would stop her,” Pollett said. "I went up to her and told her I was going to take her horn until the end of the show. After the show she could play it as loud and as often as she wanted. “Well, in the middle of our next song I guess I was really rocking out because it totally took me by surprise when she tackled me onstage and punched me in the mouth. She broke my front tooth, but it was kind of a cool rock and roll experience.” Gals Panic is known for their on stage theatrics as well. “I’m somewhat of an exhibition ist,” said Pollett. “I love being on stage and performing live. It’s im portant to me to have that kind of communication with myself.” Gals Panic made their motion picture debut recently in the crime film The Underneath. Steve Soder bergh, director of sex, lies, and videotape, asked them to play mu sic for a bar scene. Pollett taught himself to play gui tar, which he believes has helped him develop his own style. “I don’t know or care much about theory, so I make up chords myself,” Pollett said. “My older sister’s boyfriends used to show me a chord every now and then, but I always liked doing it on my own.” Pollett said Gals Panic is all about originality. "My theory is to always be your self,” Pollett said. "No one can pla giarize. Everything is original if it’s intense and sincere.” Gals Panic will be playing Mon day, July 15, at Vertigo with MU330, whom Pollett said is a band worth seeing. “They are just the epitome of cool,” Pollett said. “They have so much energy.” ITALY SPRING 1997 Study with TAMU in Castiglion Fiorentino at the Santa Chiara Study Center Interested? Attend any one of these Info Meetings in 358 Bizzell Hall West: Fri., July 12 3:15-4:00 p.m. Wed., July 17 5:00-5:45 p.m. Thurs., July 18 3:45-4:30 p.m. Students will select a minimum of 12 hours: ARTS 350: LBAR 332: ECON 320: SOCI 205: SOC1 230: Arts and Civilization* Prof. Paolo Barucchieri Global Economic Issues Prof. John Moroney Economic Development of Europe Prof. John Moroney Introduction to Sociology Prof. Stjepan Mestrovic Classical Social Theory Prof. Stjepan Mestrovic (No Prerequisites) ♦Mandatory for all stu- iUMWVfV Restaurant & Sports Bar LIVE ENTERTAINMENT Thursday: 250 Draft $1.75 Pitchers HAPPY HOUR 4-8 P.m. 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