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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1998)
: onday • January 26, 1998 mm The Battalion | JJJ | | Wg »JJ e< 40-4" I - Jk. llllilllill I ■i tv; If.; iiep: 1 Marium Mohiuddin & Leah Templeton Staff writers y enior year in high school is spent studying on the (K - couch, watching television or hanging out with nan / the family in the living room. When college ar- 3S, however, the living room no longer holds the sig- icance of family bonding. Whether it’s a residence I room, an apartment or a house, all students try to _orp< >rate a little bit of the living room into their lives. • WHEN IS A LIVING ROOM NOT A LIVING ROOM? rill The first day of school arrives. Students are busy it classes, studying and attempting to gain a social :. Odd weekends roll around when a student might (jv .t want to lounge around and watch a favorite tele- 1 ion program, but friends crash in and this is when Jltving room is not a living room. Matthew Powell, a junior civil engineering major, the weather can have an effect on what can be g; nein a living room. ‘‘One day my friends and I got together to watch TO big game,” Powell said. “We began to barbecue d it started raining outside. That is when our liv- ^ l room turned into our patio. We moved the bar- ^ cue inside.” Jason Day, a sophomore geography major, said ablfienjhe was younger he lived in an apartment where ere was not much space. This caused the living om to also be used as the kitchen, and there was al- „ tys plenty of action. , Along these lines, Day said living in Walton Hall eans not having much space for a living room. “My living room here is not much different than y bedroom,” Day said. “In the dorm, the living room thellounging area. It’s my bedroom and I guess also ^y living room. I wouldn’t call it something different jecause] they are both the same.” Elizabeth Harris, a freshman elementary educa- iei tion major, said in a residence hall, the living room can be used for everything. “You sleep, eat, cook, dress, dance, exercise and have guests all in the same small dorm [room],” Har ris said. “My roommates and I really like dorm life and we have had a lot of fun, but we are ready for an apartment because it is hard to do everything in that one room.” • WHAT IS THE CRAZIEST THING YOU HAVE DONE OR HAVE HEARD DONE IN THE LIVING ROOM? Since the living room is the common room to hang out in, people always will end up in this space. When gathered in a confined area, naturally something mis chievous will occur. Powell said the craziest thing to happen in his apartment occurred during the week of finals. “Me and my roommates were studying way too much for finals and we needed to take a break,” he said. “So we converted our couch and tables into forts and declared war. We spent the next few hours pre tending to battle each other.” Day said he has not had many crazy adventures irT his living room. “The craziest things I have ever done are typical teenager things,” Day said. “Your parents go away and your friends come over. They are 17 to 18 years old, so they search for your parents’ stash of alcohol.” Day said not many crazy things happen in a liv ing room because it is a room families hold sacred for bonding. “At home your family spends a lot of time in the living room,” he said. “When friends come over, you usually don’t go to the living to hang out with them. You go straight to your bedroom. So most of the crazy things happen in other rooms. Maybe be cause the living room is familiar and reminds you of family time.” Harris said Vanilla Ice’s arrival in Bryan-College PATIO SLID. GLDSLS \ -V'6 WALLS LOW WALL 1 < "* ! " DIMING CM. l 1 olo oo r io-wj Is | kITCHEH 1 1 1 i i ■ 1 H°x12° IK'P | “L M&H CUUH6 B>£D M l 11°X 14° DN. * •^rPNTRY " * mis FP SLOPED CEIL. LIVING PM. UP FOYLR ao. COVERED * EHTRY e>LD BM. 2 luo. I0 0 xll° / ^ —y , < ; , r-l v\ : . ; - > r r lc r-v.- ) FIRST FLOOR PLAN Station caused her and her roommate to become cre ative in their living room. “Before the Vanilla Ice concert, my roommate and I put on Tee Ice Baby’ real loud,” Harris said. “People from all over the hall came to our room and we start ed dancing to the song.” • WHAT CAN BE FOUND IN THE LIVING ROOM THAT REFLECTS YOUR PERSONALITY, OR IS PERSONAL TO YOU? Even with the excitement of college, there are lit tle and big things missed from the comfort of a living room. To make their residence halls, apartments and houses more comfortable, students equip them with personal touches. Powell said personal belongings in a living room can tell a lot about a person. “The personal touch in our living room is the car-^ pet covered with books,” Powell said. “Books tell a lot*, about a person — what they do or don’t like or even* how they may act.” Please see Room on Page 4.> *• v ip M o those , Sat When Footloose was released, it is a hit. Many years later, pon- ring over the movie, makes you mder “What was so good about ” It is the typical ’80s scenario: y/giii is bad and rebels against parents, he/she falls in love, over comes the odds, the enemy is beaten and everyone is happy. In typical ’80s style, there are cheesy song moments, tacky dance num bers and tight clothing. Watching the movie after these years brings roars of laughter, but one has to remember the decade to appreciate the movie. The movies of the ’80s set the standard for what is being done today. Many scenes in Footloose (a girl playing chicken with a Mac truck) have been adapted in recent movies. Criticism put aside, we can use a break from the serious ness of ’90s films and enjoy an ’80s flick. After all, Footloose is what made the ’80s an unforgettable decade. — Marium Mohiuddin As soon as those dancing feet ap pear during the opening credits of Footloose, you know that you’re about to watch one of the most pop ular movies of the ’80s. So what is it about this movie that keeps it great today? Is it a frustrated Kevin Bacon dancing around a warehouse and swinging from rafters in the middle of the night? Or is it every kid’s dream to play tractor chicken with his or her dad’s farming equipment? Whatever it may be, Footloose was a cult hit right from the start. Who knows if teenagers in these small towns actually wore ripped T-shirts and maroon tuxedos. How many girls at your high school wore the same pair of red boots everyday? Despite the styles, Foot loose has lasted throughout the ’90s, and it will probably be around another 10 years. — Leah Templeton Two guys dancing in seclusion against a powerful religious force ... no, it isn’t a movie about a cou ple of priests, it’s the ’80s “gem” known as Footloose. A good guy, who everyone thinks is bad, tries to win the heart of a good girl. He faces opposition from her minister father and various surly townsfolk. Kevin Bacon does his best Leonardo DiCaprio impression as the puberty-deficient rebel. John Lithgow has gone onto better things and Lori Singer is probably lap dancing in a Mexican truck stop. This is the kind of movie that makes Reagan wish Alzheimer’s had hit him a decade earlier so he couldn’t remember it. —Travis Irby In second grade, my friend Victor called this kid named Dwayne “foot loose” on the playground and got in big trouble. I never understood why this was such an insult until some 13 | years later when I actually sat down and watched the movie. Footloose, which ironically came £ out in 1984, features a land where L* dancing and rock ’n roll are strictly £ forbidden by the ruling class. New-kid-in-town Ren rebellious-^ ly blasts Men at Work from his Bug while laying rubber to the school £ parking lot. Long live the glorious struggle! £ The only saving grace of Foot-# loose is that it brought the song * “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” to the cul tural identity. No song back in the day could rock the roller rink quite like it, except for, of course, “Ghost- busters,” by Ray Parker, Jr. — Chris Martin Please see Footloose on Page 4. nit) 00 AGGHJAND CREDITS UNION a branch of Greater TEXAS Federal Credit Union 201 Southwest Pkwy. 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