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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 2000)
Out in the cold The story of one homeless man in B-CS a rvfff»n f'hnraf* Anli'v with lr»i- " Dr ' . ° POStpOlKl. ' ll0 * nieniiii pressed Dn 11 wasnedi m safety, f' Wng eveJp '] looked fc® ‘‘nningsttt® ^ ental de^P® ‘■2, theoug ear d to ti old have® ire thisyei' ’he 12 sits; 'red by ai| ation. in g what I I HaughejJ r t ask for 1 , felt saidtki memoiyoff real menite e have not! J Lauren d medical a to become:'. Vest, fattr aidrisfe:. ng the B. ;ou to paiiti impusMina planning evd ceremony iter idnight ini' , ill be mail s available arly Sail ortanttw elves phys| uring time ,sed pen o get aid! tenerally ant decisi self-indiil rally good By Stuart Hu ison T/je Battalion As the rain drizzles onto already Hooded streets and the icy, cold wind cuts through Bryan 2nd College Scahon.Texas A&M students don hooded coats and raise umbrellas as they make their way to heated houses and apartments. “When it gels really cold outside, I snap on my hood, tie it tight, bury my hands as deep down into my jacket pockets as I can . and I lay down on the sidewalk and go to sleep, said Gary Don Autry, one of Bryan-College Station s more than 100 homeless people. According to a joint community profile dis tributed by Bryan and College Station in-1998 the exact number of homeless people in the cities is difficult to determine because many do not use shelters. At the time, 136 people were known lo be homeless. Today marks the end of Homelessness Awareness Week. In cities where home ess people are rarelyseen, it may be easy to for get there are still people in need. Autry said he spends his days panhan- dlinw for enough money to buy food, and : I at night, he sleeps in a doorway behind i, Bryan-College Station s only homeless H§ shelter. Twin City Mission. 11 Thursday night, the mission was lull, jf housing men al1(J wonien - A r : worker at the mission said the number was jp ; 1 0 m0re than were housed one year ago. W -The people at the mission really do good and care,” Autry said. “But they - Really have their work cut out for em. i/ 1 Autry said the mission divides >r" women and men into two different ■H dorms. .... “They keep the kids in the % women dorm because there are j ust S l too many wild suckers in there.” He said he no longer stays in I t the mission, so he must survive on the streets. -It’s hard, you ve got a lot of stuff to put up with.” he said. -One of them is fights — people i looking to mess with you.” Autry said police often charge Autry with loi tering and trespassing. “Just the other day, three cop cars pull up, and they start to arrest me,” he said. "They patted me down, snapped the cuffs on, put me in the car and closed the door like they were going to go to jail.” Autry said the arresting officer radioed his sta tion and then released him. "I was at least looking for a warm room and a decent meal,” He said. "I wish they would have brought me in, but I can t even get ai test ed anymore.” , , Now, as the temperature drops, he said hie on the streets becomes harder. “You do whatever you have to do to stay warm,” he said. "As for the next few months, 1 am just thinking about surviving. You never know how you are going to do it, you just have to believe that you can. But, sometimes, even that gets hard.” Autry has lived the last four and one-half years on the streets of Bryan. "I was driving through here after I worked for a drilling company,” he said. I wrecked my cat here, and I really didn’t have anywhere to go. Al most five years later, here I am. - rrillc Autry had left his family and J (1 C ) 9 U ’; Christi, Texas, because he had what he ca Is a severe drinking problem.' He said his di inking had left him without one kidney and missing pait of his small intestine. . inr , , "I worked in the oil field fox 22 years, and had a beautiful wife and kids, he said. . t them because l still couldn i t f 11 • ... Auiry said he is no' ^.^d of ben^ tomeles. Anyone an win ot - a | lnus0 an d as long o a p as ^“You just have to family makes. fern, ^ lwve stay straight a d sob > ‘ , ove can really help, is what gets you through-L( , but Ibigetting that can '^ ome part ofa staK-furded program tha * been wait . cohol rehabilitation program- ing lor three months said. '‘So I'll "That s my hope i ignt now. „ just keep waiting to see what happe _ ^ . . PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY PATRIC SCHNEIDER/Tm Bahai ion avon 3 of gritf tends to ow isii- work off ditor ditor i Editor mi# Red Planet Starring Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore Directed by Antony Hoffman assifiedf urs are8f ito. isare$® ritb’ locrif Hollywood likes to do things in pairs, ind movies about Mars are no exception. Seven months after Mission to Mars was eleased, Warner Bros, releases its own WPlanet, and even though Mission re- eived a critical drubbing, it looks like a /irtuoso masterpiece compared to Planet. Planet begins with the earth in piti ful shape and human beings looking for mother planet to inhabit. Oxygen-pro- liversitf# 1 lucing algae plants have been sent to Mars in an attempt to create a brfiath- ible atmosphere. Suddenly, the algae begins to disappear and NASA cannot figure out why. A scientific team is as- embled and sent to the planet to find out what went wrong. The movie suffers from cliches early . The familiar theme of technology one bad, the alien life forms, the botched landing — all of these and ore are thrown at the audience with on. dizzying speed. Therein lies the movie’s biggest problem. This movie cannot de cide what it wants to be, so it ultimately is nothing but forgettable. Planet flirts with the idea of a love sto ry, then abandons it, only to return to it again. It cannot seem to decide whether it wants a human, the natural predatorial life forms or the robot gone mad for the bad guy, so it makes all of them the villains when it is convenient. Rather than making choices, the director seems to think if he tosses a little of everything the audience’s way, something will stick. Nothing does though, but it is not the actors’ fault. There was not enough mater ial for the talented cast of Kilmer, Size more, Carrie-Ann Moss (The Matrix) and Terence Stamp to work with. It makes one wonder why these actors ever committed to this project. The movie probably looked good on paper, but then it fell apart. First-time director Antony Hoffman has an annoying knack for turning what should be tense scenes into bland and bor ing sequences. He demonstrates his inex perience, giving the movie a lifeless and rambling feel. Planet is one of those rare films that manages to hold viewers’ attention for the entire time — only to leave them wonder ing what they had just watched and why. (Grade: D+) — Matt McCormick Little Nicky Starring Adam Sandler and Harvey Keitel Directed by Steven Brill Adam Sandler’s movies are stupid, but he has a gift for making stuff so stupid the audience cannot help but laugh out loud. Little Nicky is no exception, even though there may be more emphasis on stupid than on laughing in this movie. Nicky (Sandler) is one of the devil’s three sons, and he is the only one not try ing to depose his father in order to take over the throne. When his brothers leave home and freeze the gates of hell, sentenc ing his father to death unless the gates are broken open, it is up to Nicky to journey to earth and bring his brothers back. On earth, Nicky has help from a wide variety of characters, including a talking dog named Mr. Beefy/two devil-worshipping heavy-metal type guys and his new love interest, played by Patricia Arquette. Nicky is a farce and should be treated as such. There is not a serious moment in the film, and there are not even any subtle mo ments. This movie is loud, fast and abra sive. Somehow, in the midst of this assault on the senses and on the mind, viewers are bound to laugh. The film demonstrates no artistic merit, but it was not made for critics or filmmak ers. This movie was made for the people out there who think simpler is better. Sandler packs this film with a number of star cameos — Henry Winkler, Quentin Tarantino, Carl Weathers, Rob Schneider and Rodney Dangerfield, to name a few. If mind-numbing entertainment was the goal for Little Nicky, it succeeds in a way few films have. (Grade: C) — Matt McCormick