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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1996)
nber 18, nt. //ill competec : University Mi on against the. <a in the first JfL s rfole laughs off 3 nJ b topresidential loss 3. j 1 NEW YORK (AP) — If Bob Dole is be cast at: htlpjtraumatized by losing the presiden- e.com/editors i', he’s sure doing a good job of hid- ids.html. irg it. The failed Republican presiden tial candidate poked fun at himself on the opening seg ment of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, just like he did on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman. In the open ing skit of Sat urday’s show, Pag The Battalion \ r r ivi i Jim. \j xj I I j I i I Page 3 Monday • November 1 8, 1 996 Entertainment Briefs Dole d decisi tudentsi The Rockyl v Students As: of the Nationa Association, Dday at the Ur* v Center to dis: with the Depa- ffice for Civilf® 0 | e was introduced by SNL pro mt is in respnlucer Lome Michaels to cast thin the Texas: rhember Norm MacDonald, who im am as a resu'iBersonated Dole throughout the ion. sHampaign. The men wore identical int alleges vie? Suits and ties, le Civil Rights “Bob Dole knows how much it institutions!:; meant to you to play him on the action progrr show and Bob Dole feels your pain,” will focus onr,foie said to MacDonald, parodying ttorney geneSs own habit of referring to himself location Coo' ir The third person, ersity of Texas But - he told MacDonald later in Diversity of show, “unless there’s a recount, ®^)u’re out of work." Stockholm festival picks its winners STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Lili ay’s ExpectedJsylor won the best actress prize at lighs & Lo> 78°F ALE* SW )ES 70°F V e international Stockholm film fes tival for her starring role in / Shot iaht’s ExpectdAndy Warhol. Veteran Hollywood star Rod Sieiger and Fargo actress Frances Tomorrow IwcDormand were among American Expected H celebrities attending the festival that wound up Sunday. More than 100 films were imorrowNi screenecl at the festival including c .. classics like Orson Welles’ Citizen —pectep ar g 0i made by McDor- 56°F mand’s husband Joel Coen and his — -rteirother Ethan, was the festival’s ourtesy ol opening movie. t Best script honors went to the “(French movie Un hero tres discret (A Discrete Hero). No award for best male actor was presented. ' MacLaine makes family endearing sequel I NEW YORK (AP) — Intellectually, Shirley MacLaine, who won an Acad- priy Award for her portrayal of Auro ra Greenway in Terms of Endearment, had reservations about flaking a sequel. Emotionally, there ACT LENSE was n0 doubt. I “I worry that so many people have seen Terms 10 times, and maybe the receptivity to this family is different now,” MacLaine, 62, says in the Nov. 22 issue of Enter tainment Weekly. | Trusting her instincts, she went ahead with The Evening Star, anyway. I “I make movies because I want to. I missed Aurora.” || In the original, MacLaine played ■ the cold mother of Debra Winger’s character, who manages to build a warm relationship with her before dying of cancer. | The Evening Star, scheduled to ipen later this year, focuses on Au rora and her grandchildren. • ALE •Crucible author lent D., P.C. >N proud of film script Web Editor hoto Editor I NEW YORK (AP) — Making a film version of The Crucible gave play- „ c.. Wright Arthur Miller a chance to WUSSEN, CnYcc . i-. , . bond with his son Robert. jrts DiTOR y 0un g er Miller produced Visual Arts Eo r - , |)e movie based on Arthur Miller’s famed 1953 play about the Salem witch trials, going to er, Cartoon Edi® bgt wjth studjos to ensure hjs 81 _ iear-old father would be allowed nfiuck, Christie Hup- to write the screenplay. rjohnieSIISl “Arthur hadn’t really had any ex- T>erience of me as an adult,” Robert nyFurtick,ColbyGs*®/]j11 er says in the The New York Didt, Bryan Good#“I'mes Magazine. “Our relationship asonJackson,SeanWas more or less the way it had e Rodgers S e en since I was 21. We needed [|omething to glue it together. This ngton & RyanRogr fj^ wgs com p| e -|;jon.” epot, Ed Goodwin,I'-l . _ . . ^ ^ The movie stars Daniel Day- ewis and is scheduled to open ae Division of Stude^Wj.^ 0 n ‘ The elder MM,er W9S <j Building.News#' pleased with the outcome. nttp://bat-web.taiw| “l was afraid that when I saw it attalionTorM^lljH screen (’(j want to flee the 845-2678. j -beater, Arthur Miller says in the single copy of^T Sunday magazine. “That’s been the way I felt with other films of my and springse(nes |efi ;| olays. This is the only time when -amperiods)atTs*, w hat I imagined while writing actual- | ysh0W ed on screen.- -rm— y ^ . | . 1 . liiar i =7^;"^,; : ■ f: | IP A\ A Corps of Cadets freshman bagpiped his way to Scotland and into the A&M eye ■ iTTslwii# ■ ■ By Kimber Huff The Battalion I n the distance on the Texas A&M campus, the distinctive sound of a bagpipe rings out. What is it? A runaway Scot from the Texas Re naissance Festival? A promotion for Braveheart 2: The Sequel? It is Corps of Cadets freshman Mike Rountree, a con struction science major from Unit H-l. Rountree said he usually plays his bagpipe after Midnight Yell, and he also plays for formations or when the Corps marches to Duncan Dining Hall. "He has played as the outfit marched to chow,” senior H-l commander Colin Woodall, an agricultural systems major, said. “A lot of times, he gets out on the Quad and entertains everybody.” Rountree also plays by request. “A lot of times, I’m doing stuff for my juniors and seniors, so their girls can hear,” Rountree said. Rountree seems to be making a name for him self, Otty Medina, a freshman biomedical science major who is also in Unit H-l, said. “It’s funny because when we whip out on the Quad, and upperclassmen ask us what unit we’re in, and we say H-l, they say, ‘Oh, the one with the bagpipe,”’ Medina said. “The whole Corps has realized that he belongs to H-l,” Woodall said. “It has brought a lot of attention to him and us.” Rountree has been playing the bag pipe for about seven years. He started playing as a member of a program in St. Thomas High School in Houston. About 80 students learned to play the bagpipes, and Rountree was one of 20 who was a member of the “A Band” — the school’s traveling competition band. Rountree said he has traveled abroad and throughout the United States with the band. “I’ve been to Scotland twice to compete in the World Championships,” Rountree said. “We won in 1995.” In addition, the band produced an album, The World Champion St. Thomas Bagpipe and Drum Band. The album included the band’s competi tion music and some American and Irish songs. Rountree said he is able to play many styles of music on the bagpipe. “My favorites around here are ‘Dixie’ and ‘Amazing Grace,’ but I can play a lot of stuff,” Rountree said. “Mostly Scottish tunes, but also some Irish tunes and some American stuff. There is even some orchestra music that we’ve converted.” The bagpipe’s origins have been traced to an cient Mesopotamia, and the Celts were responsi ble for spreading the instrument’s popularity. There are at least seven different types of bag pipes, but the basic bagpipe consists of three drones, which are hollow wooden pipes with an upright reed. One drone is a bass and the other two are tenors. “They make continuous harmony,” Rountree said. “They’re why the bagpipe has that hum.” The actual bag is always filled with air so there is a constant pressure on the reeds of the bagpipe, which causes a continuous sound. The melody is played on pipes attached to the bag, and is com posed of nine notes. Rountree said bagpipes are physically demanding to play. People usually begin playing on a practice instru ment before playing a bagpipe. “It’s not as complicated as an orchestral instrument,” Rountree said. “It has one octave, and the music is easy to read, but it’s physically hard to play. It takes most people a couple of years to get onto the bagpipe.” Rountree said people who first see him playing the bag pipe are usually surprised. “When I was with the band, the reaction was, ‘Whoah. There are all these guys running around in skirts playing these freaky little instruments. What’s going on?’” Rountree said. “Around here, they’ve never seen anything like this, so they’re all like, ‘Whoah. Play it again.’” Rountree said he hopes to be able to play more. “If it was up to me, I’d be playing a lot more,” Rountree said, “but I don’t have the time as a fish.” — - SpS/ailiiBi -1 - - - -—i I ^ A > gj4 v- •>.' , - m ' H | ’ ' “’V \ , v , ‘ ^ 1 " lii-1 /T11 . ' * V N * ! Z v l: Y Nil ® ...•.V. .. - ' ’ T.*.*. • ‘ '.v.- .*..•. ...... Study seminar makes time for free weekends By Kimber Huff The Battalion D r. Walter Bradley, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, found that his students complained about having too much homework and too little time to socialize. To address the problem, Bradley created a seminar which teaches students how to maintain a high grade- point ratio and have the weekends free. The seminar, entitled “Time Management and Study Strategies for College Students,” began when Bradley be gan asking mechanical engineering students what could be done to improve the department. “The most common answer I got was ‘give less work,”' Bradley said.“I felt the bigger problem was the inefficient and ineffective way most students go about doing that work.” Bradley began planning a program that would teach students to get their work done in a reasonable amount of time. The first seminar was given in January 1990 to a group “It’s hard to be excellent in performance when you’re ambiguous in direction.” of mechanical engineering students. For the next three years, the seminar was held on campus with 160 to 170 mechanical engineering students attending each year. Other organizations soon began asking Bradley to give his presentation for their members. “During that time period, I began to get a lot of invita tions,” Bradley said. Bradley said he wanted to expand the program, but he knew he couldn’t plan for multiple programs alone. “I don’t have time to do more than just show up and teach,” Bradley said. Bradley’s son, Steven Bradley, and son-in-law, David Perry, expressed an interest in helping organize off-cam- pus programs and programs at other schools. “It’s kind of fun to do this as kind of a family project with them,” Bradley said. In 1994, Bradley began giving the six-hour-long seminar off campus so more people could attend each semester. Two sections have, also been offered in the fall, and one section in the spring. Bradley said it is extremely important to have a clear vi sion of where you want to go in the future. “Without a clear vision, I’m probably not going to perform to anything like my maximum potential,” Bradley said. “As a college freshman, I knew I was going to have to work my way through college and go to graduate school,” Bradley said. Bradley said he got information about graduate school and discovered that he needed to maintain a 3.6 grade- point ratio to get a fellowship to graduate school. “Then I made a C on my first calculus test,” Bradley said. Bradley didn’t let this discourage him. “I knew what I needed to make,” Bradley said. “I knew where I wanted to go.” Bradley said he was determined to make a 100 on the fi nal to bring his grade up. “I started studying three weeks before the final,” Bradley said. “I probably studied 50 hours for that final.” Bradley said the studying paid off when he made a 100 on the final, and an A in the class. His GPR stayed above 3.6. “It’s hard to be excellent in performance when you’re ambiguous in direction,” Bradley said. Besides determining goals for the future, Bradley said the program tries to help students improve their time management, reading and memory skills. “I was surprised that most of the students have effective reading rates of 100 words per minute,” Bradley said. Bradley said this is approximately a third-grade reading level. A more realistic level for college students is about 500 words per minute. “Reading slowly actually penalizes your comprehen sion,” Bradley said. Another practice that can prove to hurt students is what “I feel very confident that students applying these skills can make a 3.5 without studying on weekends.” Bradley calls “deferred learning,” or putting off studying until exam time. “You have to apply your own pressure to work hard,” Bradley said. Bradley said going to class is also a key to improving grades and having more free time. He recommends going to class and sitting in the front of the room. “You have to work hard during class,” Bradley said. Bradley recommends treating school like an 8-to-5 job or a 42 hour work week. If students are spending 14 hours in class per week, Bradley said, then they can study 28 hours outside of class and still have every week night and the entire week end off. “I feel very confident that students applying these skills can make a 3.5 without studying on weekends,” Bradley said. “Applying them isn’t hard, it’s just doing things in a different way.” Students interested in attending the spring seminar can call (409) 764-2019for more information.