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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1997)
Paii bruary 13, A The Battalion A r r I17¥ ¥F17 .' i. lx lx I CL JL 1 r JCL Page 3 Thursday • February 1 3, 1997 Russian troupe dances into td-CH By Melissa Price The Battalion lermans. in bombing i rain in Latin Ame olombia have se r : ivery of beans but: ir highs, n’s top seller of reg r’s — already has :es 7 percent ne*t ire expected tofoi auses could nts a cup by the; id grocery stores by the end of the wholesale prices ed Lingle, exec i Specialty CoffeeB"t could be a scene straight out nerica. I of “Days of Our Lives.” just as le 49 percent ofM.with a typical soap opera, one coffee drinkers,ims to pay close attention to the give upthatdailyfftrformances of the Moscow Fes- ■ral Ballet to figure out who is in ■ve with whom and which char- ■ter is going to die. But also like lap operas, the ballet can be liite entertaining. I The Moscow Festival Ballet, Imposed of top dancers from the s first atomic twfcgndgiy Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet lies were held m m p an j eSi w ji[ perform at Rud- r Olympics. K r Auditorium tonight through enko was choseB turc } a y pgB 15 CommunistPartH Suzannah Taylor, MSC Opera a late Yuri Android Performing Arts Society chair and a senior speech com- lunications major, said stu dents and community members ormertestpilotCl ou i ( } t a k;e advantage of the ss Kim Novak i$: corn p an y’ s expertise. Dliver Reed i$55| “x 0 bring the company itself is ol Lynley is 55. I exciting opportunity for us be- ftuse it really is the best of the best,” ftylor said. “There will be few I liances for students on this cam- ius to see a company of this caliber iver again.” Highs & Uuj Tf» e Moscow Festival Ballet p Mill perform Giselle Friday night :)day’s ExpectedIpd Carmen and Paquita Satur- 48°F ni 8 ht - The ballet was founded by might’sExpecKpancer Sergei Radchenko in 1989 Ind has been pleasing audiences lince its inception. I Taylor said the main difference petween the Moscow Festival Bal let and the ballets OPAS has brought to Texas A&M before is that the Moscow Festival Ballet is ,. a full-length ballet, whereas the .xptc e j 0 // 2ers Were excerpts or short, con- temporaiy pieces. B Since it began performing, the ballet has completed two tours of |urope, including appearances in ermany, Spain, Italy, France and the Netherlands. I Jeffrey Cranor, OPAS director of ludience education and develop- lient and a senior journalism ma jor, said OPAS has strong ties to the lolshoi Ballet because it pre miered The Nutcracker at A&M in Tie ’80s. He said OPAS strives to of- M o $ c O IT e s t i v> a I B a l let Performing Giselle, Carmen and Paquita at Rudder Auditorium Feb. 1 3-15 at 8 p.m. For tickets call 845-1234 Artistic Director Sergei Radchenko will speak at 7 p.m. before each show about the history of Russian classical ballet. The OPAS Guild- sponsored Patricia S. Peters Lagniappe Lectures will be in 292B MSC. how host Jerry 7. I 38°F b morrow's 5W 33°F i[ on courtesy ofll fer a variety of performing arts to the students and citizens of Bryan- College Station. “We try to keep our season as diverse as possible,” Cranor said. “It’s all a matter of giving people what they want. Some of what people want is what they expec tant part of it is what they don’t expect.” Taylor said although ticket sales have been steady, she hopes Valentine’s Day will boost sales. She said students often say they do not have enough money to attend. “Many times students com plain about the prices but they don’t realize how much it would cost them to see this same per formance somewhere else,” Tay lor said. “I would encourage them to take advantage of the opportunity now.” Taylor said the Moscow Festival Ballet appeals to everyone be cause the two performances are very different. She said Giselle is like a fairy-tale, whereas Carmen and Paquita are more exotic. Cranor said some people con sider ballets to be only for sophis ticated, upper-class people,, but OPAS tries to provide something for everyone. “We want to educate people and develop them,” Cranor said. “I think we’ve grown to think performing arts are an intellec tual art form, but they are really for everybody.” 25, 1997 ^5 Members of the Moscow Festival Ballet perform Act II of Giselle. Memories from the toy box Aggies remember, regret toys from their early years < By Michael Schaub The Battalion L ong before those innocent childhood toys became fodder for collectors and hobbyists, and long before they became kitschy icons of Generation X, they had another purpose — fun. Texas A&M students remember the little plastic friends who ac companied their childhood. Caro line Mire, a sophomore environ mental design major, definitely had her favorites. “I had some ‘My Little Ponies,’ but I wasn’t really into them,” Mire said. “I did name my cat after one of them.” Jeremey Gutierrez, a freshman civil engineering major, remem bers some toys he had — for a while, anyway. “I had MASK, G.I. Joe, Trans formers, but they got stolen,” Gutierrez said. “These older guys stole them. I don’t know why they’d want to play with them:” Toys seemed to be hot proper ty in some families and caused more than a few fights among jealous siblings. Katharine Marsh, a sophomore landscape architecture major, is still battling over her “Dolly Pops.” “It was a little fashion show where you’d pop the doll’s clothes on, and there was this rotating stage,” Marsh said. “My sister claimed the Dolly Pops were hers. Still today she thinks they’re hers.” For both male and female stu dents, that curvaceous plastic woman known as “Barbie” played a memo rable role, whether it was “Barbie the Victim” or “Barbie the Avenger.” “My sister played with Barbies,” Gutierrez said. “I cut off a Barbie doll’s leg when I was little with a pocket knife my parents gave me. My sister was crying and everything.” Gutierrez said his punishment was swift and severe. “My parents took away the knife,” he said. “They still won’t give me the knife.” Junior English major Jennifer Presley made Barbie an unlucky pedestrian in the path of her beloved Tonka trucks. “I hate Barbie,” Presley said. “I hated Barbie then. Barbie and Ton ka trucks made interesting combi nations. Barbie and Ken got run over quite often.” Other students put Barbie in a more empowering position. “I did the Barbie thing,” Mire said. “One of my friends gave me a ‘Jem and the Holograms' toy, and I hated that doll. All my Barbies would gang up on Jem. She was the bad guy.” Other students had a more ’90s ap proach to the voluptuous plastic icon. Kelly Zayas, a freshman theater arts major, had none of the 1980s gender-typing stuff. “I liked to make Barbies act,” Za yas said. “Barbie had the car. Ken was always looking for a ride. She had a suit — she was a business woman. Ken never did anything to my knowledge. I think maybe that caused some tension between them, I don’t know.” But Barbie and Ken are just the tip of the plastic, made-in-Taiwan iceberg. Josh Ethridge, a freshman micro biology major, had a more do-it-your- self ethic behind his childhood play. “My brother and I used to play ‘war’ — we had toy guns,” Ethridge said. “It was back in the '80s, during the Cold War. There were the Rus sians and the Americans, so we played the whole ‘take over the world, bully the Communists’ thing. I was always the Communists, too.” Varying degrees of violence played a part in other students' di versions, too. “I had a little baby doll named Beth,” Presley said. “I’d drag her around by her head, and my aunts told me they’d steal her and burn her.” See Toys, Page 4 E.T., Speak and Spell prove students should hold on to childhood Editor In Chief I f anyone is going to have E.T.’s baby, it’s me. I’ve been sleep ing with him for 14 years. I’m afraid my par ents didn’t know what a love affair they started when they gave me an E.T. plush toy for Christ mas in 1982. While other kids were busy lugging around “blankies” and Cabbage Patch Kids, I was sharing stories of outer space travel with my extra-terrestrial friend. I’m now 21 years old, but I still sleep with the doll, still carry lunch boxes to school and still find solace and stress relief in juggling. Some of my toys have found their way into the attic and some are Rachel Barry Senior journalism major buried in my toy box at home, but many are here with me. Some are stacked on my desk at work, scattered through my room at home or car ried with me every day. Some people think I’m too sentimental. Some people think I’m too im mature. Others think I’m just silly and mutter a lit tle, “Isn’t that cute” under their breath when they see me walk by with my E.T. lunch box. But it’s not just about being sentimental or trying to be a bit goofy sometimes. There is some thing extremely therapeutic about playing with toys, no matter how old you are. I remember the days when a Lite Brite could electrify my room, when Play Doh was the fifth food group and Sit-and-Spin was a self-pro pelled wild ride, not a vulgar insult. A few hours and a box of Legos could liberate a vision locked in my imagination. A toy brings back the sense of freedom and imagination children epitomize. Adults should take ad vantage of a tool that can open their minds and bring a smile to their faces. Some toys were better at frus trating the left side of my brain than enriching my creativity. The most obvious one that comes to mind is Speak and Spell. My teachers, edi tors and friends can attest that this toy was one of the few that had no positive effect on my life or learning ability. I still remember the chime and the computer voice repeatedly chiding me: “That is incorrect. The correct spelling is...” These toys were the accents of my childhood, the things that added color and fun to my life. I may be at the age when people think it’s time for me to put the toys away, but I don’t think I’ll be retiring my E.T. doll too soon. I’m not sure I could sleep without his alien head tucked into the crook of my elbow. Until the day I do decide I need to pass the toys on to my kids, I’ll still spend some time every day playing with a toy. It’s not about trying to hold onto childhood, just the ideals that accompany it — the happiness, the imagination and a few outer space adventures. 3374 ON •oston, City Edik Buffin, Sports ters, Opinion Ei# : | evens, Web Editoi s, Photo Editor xeber, Cartoon L | University in theDi^ ; are in 013 ReedB-j vml.tamu.edu; Inter-1 mentbyThe BattaliL ed advertising, call *1 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.Miq dent to pick upasfc'j :hool year and JSOf* 1-2611. luring the fall ands University holidays ge Station.TX / ting,Texas A&M Urn .0^ tXft' Swing into your job search at the Career Center. Register NOW! Next Deadline for on-campus interviews is February 18 @ 9:00 a.m. v Improvisational Comedy m Summer J 0 b s * '"ternships http://aggienet.tamu.edu/cctr A*' 0 Placement Orientations: Thu, Feb. IB @ 4:00 pm 292A MSC Tue, Feb. 18 @ 4:00 pm 510 Rudder Wed, Feb. 19 @ 5:00 pm B02 Rudder ^ - v <v* On-Campus Interviews some improv comedy. (Jell-O not included.) For more information, contact the TAMU Career Center Suite 209 Koldus Building, 845-51B9. U Feb. 14 10 p.m. at Rudder Theatre Tickets $4 in advance (msc box Office) $5 at the door http://http.tamu.edu:8000/~fslip