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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 1997)
Pagt h 18, A The Battalion Aggielif Page 3 Tuesday • March 18, 1997 , accordii Blockbust? 'iewed Da! an hourlyjn ixes revem hools, cities, vemmentsi irly $16 35, a Sip? revious yea' Dried Monda tax bills to; 58.5 perce hool districs ch totaled ii nt overly the targetoi sh for a pro) enjamin nox, class of ttees arete y tax and® can be font placing abe; taxes#! 'Sr- has ™° de career of (awing prints ir various diversities and s & Lows (ganizations. •xpectedE jr ie j s a f ork in his )cal gallery. 75°F Expected W°F iw’s Expecii High )8°F row Night: cted Low iO°F syof TAMSC [»»** ie Capturing the spirit of Aggieland Benjamin Knox combines his love of Texas A&M with his artistic talents By Melissa Price The Battalion A college student’s job might con sist of sacking groceries or work ing at a fast food restaurant — but while others were asking "paper or plas tic?” Benjamin Knox was on his way to an art career. Knox, class of ’90, who is known for such prints as “The Undying Aggie Spirit” and “Some May Boast,” was a sophomore at Texas A&M when he realized his summer lawn business was not paying the bills. He decided to tap into his artistic talent and be gan producing pen-and-ink drawings for outfits in the Corps of Cadets. His first print, which was for his outfit, Squadron Three, became so popular * that Knox began his own graphic arts busi ness his senior year. Knox said he was somewhat nervous about his decision to sell his lawn business and pursue art be cause he did not know if people would like his work. “I knew this was something I wanted to do,” Knox said. “It was one of those things where I fol lowed my dream, and luckily it worked out for me.” Knox said his art business boomed in 1990 when he began drawing prints for other universities. He has done prints for Texas Tech, Baylor, Louisiana State Uni versity and the University of Texas. Al though Knox enjoys making prints for other universities, he said his first love has CC This is my life. Creating artwork is therapy for me — it gives me a satisfaction to know I am growing through art. ^ ^ Benjamin Knox local artist always been A&M. Because of his increasing popularity, Knox began running a gallery out of his home in 1990. He said that although this was occasionally an inconvenience, it was usually a lot of fun. “Sometimes I would be awakened with phone calls at 1 a.m. from people wanting to see my art,” Knox said. “It probably drove my roommates crazy.” D’Lisa Hidalgo, a sophomore biomed ical science major, said she became fa miliar with Knox’s artwork last year when her boyfriend was looking for a unique way to frame his diploma. Hidalgo said she likes Knox’s artwork because it is a true depiction of life at A&M. Hidalgo said there is something for everyone in Knox’s drawings. She said she admires Knox because he is personable and can relate to A&M students. “He’s an original, and he is down-to-earth and really nice,” Hidalgo said. “When we went to the gallery — well, it was raining outside and I guess he had taken off his shoes, because he was just sitting there with his socks on, drawing away.” Soon after graduating in 1993, Knox opened up the first artist-owned gallery in College Station. Knox said the gallery’s mission is to promote high er education through fine art. He said the gallery has donated many prints for scholarship purposes at A&M and is considering donating pieces to oth er schools for scholarships as well. “We stand behind promoting higher See Knox, Page 4 People in the news ity Editor jports Edik nion EdiW ib Editor Editor ^TOON Eoilt vin CurwiiW lureton.JW haub, DapW o & Daphne P t Mitchell, Co«T ? me Hamlin.SB" BnnJanik,Gei^ iy Valdez icellor Ryan ot, Chad Main* rincess Di 'thrilled' omeet Mandela CAPE TOWN, South Africa —Talk about a mutual ad- iration society. Princess Di- la said she was “absolutely rilled” to meet President elson Mandela on Monday, id he responded that he was till trembling.” Mandela aised Di- ia for her irly work lunseling eople with IDS and edited her ith reduc- ig prejudice jainst those ith the sadly virus. “We saw her sitting on the eds of AIDS patients and laking hands with them, and lat changed perceptions dra- latically with regards to IDS,” Mandela said. Mandela also compliment- d Diana for visiting children Angola who had been crip- led by land mines, saying er gesture helped South frica decide to destroy its nd mines. Diana arrived Saturday for a rivate visit. Her brother, Earl lencer, lives in Cape Town. ! of Student j. Newsroon#' imu.edu on.Forcai#': 84 5-2678. by Visa, M®* 1 g semester* is) at Texas Powell Mandela chwarzkopf to stay ut of politcal arena NEW YORK (AP) — If it was- already apparent, retired 'en. H. Norman Schwarzkopf tys he has no interest in a po- tical career. “Politics in Washington, C., has become a really 'ean business. Really mean “'d nasty,” he said in the lat est issue of George magazine. “It’s very intrusive upon your life, and more important, it’s intrusive on your family’s life. It’s very hard to accomplish anything in such a hostile en vironment.” The field commander of the 1991 Persian Gulf War thinks his former colleague, Gen. Colin Powell, is, as they say in the Army, good to go. “I think he will run. He’s as good as any other candidate we’ve got out there,” Schwarzkopf told George edi tor and publisher John F. Kennedy Jr. Schwarzkopf, after hanging up his Desert Storm fatigues, turned his energies to various causes — among them the Na ture Conservancy, the recovery of the grizzly bear and a part nership with Paul Newman in a camp for sick children. He’s resisted pressure to get into politics. “George Bush and Bob Dole each asked me to support them, and Ross Perot asked me to be his vice presidential candidate, i’ve had inquiries from the Democratic party,” Schwarzkopf said. “But my re ply to all of these requests has been that I can do more for my country by remaining apoliti cal than by getting involved in the political process.” NEW YORK (AP) — Kristen 3rd Rock star wary of brain drain TV Johnson’s parents wouldn’t let her watch television, and now, does she feel like a space alien? No, she just plays one on TV. Johnson, the statuesque alien on 3rd Rock From the Sun, told Details magazine she never watched sitcoms “until maybe two years ago, when I started auditioning for them.” When she has kids, she’ll forbid TV just like her parents did, she said. “I know that I’m biting the hand that feeds me, but TV can really suck the brains right out of your body,” she said. “The only television I watch now are those newsmagazine shows with stories like, ‘Does your mattress give you can cer? Let’s find out!”’ NEW YORK (AP) — Opera Bartoli gives final show of season singer Cecilia Bartoli spent three hours at a record store greeting fans and signing auto graphs just a day after missing a widely broadcast matinee performance at the Metropoli tan Opera. The Italian mezzo-soprano blamed a bad back for miss ing Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” on Saturday. The Daily News cited sources at the Met as saying Bartoli failed to per form because conductor James Levine was ill with an ear infection. Bartoli sang the role of the maid Despina on Wednesday when Levine also was sick. For what was to have been Bartoli’s second and fi nal performance in the part this season, with millions listening on radio, Despina was sung by Marie McLaughlin. music r e u i e oa James sounds tired, uninspired on self-ripoff album Whiplash By April Towery The Battalion O nce a masterpiece is created, it is seldom duplicated. English rock band James has tried to recreate the success of its 1993 album Laid with its latest release, Whiplash. Laid, the band’s sixth al bum, sold 600,000 copies in America, a feat Whiplash is unlikely to follow. The melodies of the songs are too similar. The only minute difference in Whiplash is some subtle experi mentation with industrial sound. Where the previous James albums have boasted mellow pop songs thriving on simplicity and instru mentation, Whiplash is overpro duced and lacks the beauty of acoustic guitar strumming. Many of the songs on Whiplash Fontana/ Mercury Records ★ ★1/2 were improvised in a barn during Woodstock II in 1994. The framework is admittedly loose, and the songs are short and shallow. James has always set itself apart from other bands with its powerful lyrics. In “Sometimes (Lester Piggott),” a track on the Laid album, Booth sings, “Sometimes when I look deep in your eyes I swear I can see your soul.” The beauty of these words is diminished by the triviality of “Go to the Bank,” from Whiplash, in which Booth sings, “I feel so empty, so I might go shopping, just to buy those things that will make me feel much better.” Whiplash compares more to James’ 1994 release WahWah, an up beat pop album which experiment ed with improvisation and rock an gles to create a solid tour album. Whiplash is an attempt to make money, to give listeners what they want to hear and to forget conveying a message through music. The band could have pulled it off if they had not already done so three years ago with Laid. If Laid did not exist, Whiplash would be the best album of the decade. However, the melodies of Whiplash are recycled, and the lyrics are all too familiar. See James / Page 4 lames