—
LIFE
AND
ART
Column
The subtle
problems
of race
By David J Neal
■ ndtana Daily Student
Indiana U.
1 can't skip class
That’s the first thing 1 think of
when someone asks me if there are
any disadvantages to being black at
a large university. Broad problems
like the dearth of minority faculty
and the barbs of obnoxious racists
don’t really affect my day-to-day
existence, but the everyday things
that touch minorities are small and
irritating
Like the attendance situation 1
can't skip class with any sort of
impunity
As soon as an instructor looks over
the class, he knows if I’m there or if I
decided the adultery and mental cru
elty on I)ivorce Court was more mu-r
esting than whatever he had U> say.
One of mv classes has a lecture
section with roughly 150 students.
Any of the other 149 students can
take the morning off, knowing their
absence will not In- conspicuous. Not
me I'm a footprint in the snow
The professor once identified me
solely on the assistant instructor’s
physical description of me I'd bet
my Stevie Wonder albums he
couldn't do that with anybody else
in the class
(’an you see the assistant instruc
tor trying to come up with distin
guishing characteristics for one of
my classmates'* “He’s kind of
between 5-10 and 6 feet, has black
hair wears a corduroy hat. uh,
I think he has blue eyes maybe
wears a Cubs jacket
Tough job. But with me, lin sure
it was easy. “Bout 6-2. 6-3. Black
guv.”
“Oh. yeah.”
Then there are those times when
people say something, notice you're
there, and think they’ve become this
year’s Jimmy the Greek.
1 was scanning the magazine rack
for the latest issue of Women’s
Physique World while three
Caucasian junior high girls in front
of me flipped through a magazine.
One said, ‘‘Tracy Chapman is so
ugly I mean, her music is good, but
she’s just ugly.’’
The other two girls turned and
See RACE. Page 15
Acid House reaches America
By Darren Cahr
and Stacey Bashara
■ The Northwestern Review
Northwestern U., Chicago
An N'tstudent strides down Shcndai
Hoad, her chest covered with an enor
mous, yellow, smiling face The eyes on
her shirt are oval and the smile turns up
at the sides It looks like a visual homage
to Bobby McFerrin, except for one ele
ment: a bullet hole and blood sit where
the nose should lie
In a dormitory room, hunched over a
Macintosh computer, senior Adam
Buhler manipulates beats and mea
sures, baselines and samples, until a
mass of rhythm and noise pours from his
speakers
What these images have in common is
acid house, a movement of music and
fashion, philosophy and social politics
that has already swept across a great
deal of England and which is now mak
ing inroads in the United Stales.
“I like acid house because it allows you
to see nirvana and jack your body at the
same time,” says senior Jay Haesly And
it is that concept of pure hedonism which
underpins the appeal of this throbbing
collage of sounds and sensation.
Buhler, whose in-room studio is an acid
house laboratory, says the music is a
catylist for “forgetting the superficial
class structure and fundamentalist atti
tudes” of modem life.
Many music critics and trend-watch
ers duh acid house a re-emergence of
drug culture (though some would argue
it never died). A great deal of the move
ment involves consumption of large
quantities of either Ecstasy, a pill-based
drug similar to LSD, or plain old LSI)
Since arriving on continent, acid house
has left a distinctly bitter taste in the
mouths of some local musicians. NU grad
student John Kezdy, vocalist for Chicago
punk band the Effigies, says acid house
may be fated to fizzle out in the United
States.
“The acid house movement is just the
most superficial and vapid thing,” Kezdv
says. “It’s not like punk, which was more
politically-based. It’s a very fashion-ori
ented and hedonistic thing. It realistical
ly couldn't be anything but superficial.”
Buhler is also skeptical of the move
ment’s domestic longevity, but insists
there is a message behind the music.
“The fashion element is unavoidable,”
he says. “It's all that people tend to see
because it’s all that’s shown to them. But
DARREN CAHR NORTHWESTERN REVIEW NORTHWES -
The mutilated smiley face has come to represent the nihilism and nirvana ot the American acid
house movement
actually, acid house is await ideas that
have been circulating since the ’60s.
Timothy Leary is often sampled and
quoted It's part of a very liberal move
ment that wants to nse above this crack
down on morality ”
Acid house as a music form is difficult
to define. Its precursor is house music
created in theblackgayclubsofChicago
South Side. DJs oscillate soutids, turni11.
the beat into something not unlike
rhythm orgy held within a digital alarn
See ACID. Page 15
19-year-old seeks Scrabble crown
By Lisa Luboff
■ The Daily Brum
U. of California. Los Angeles
UCLA, a school oflen associated with
Olympic champions and football stars, is
also home to the youngest top-ranked
Scrabble player in the country.
Brian Cappelletto, a 19-year-old sopho
more from Arizona, is just a step away
from becoming the number one player in
the country.
Rankl'd second nationally, (’appelletto
has won 11 tournaments in three-and-a
half years of competition. He has placed
second or third in five other tournaments
Scrabble is a popular board game
where each person gains points by
spelling words in a crossword-like forma
tion on a specially marked board. Players
pick seven tiles with letters and point val
ues pnnled on them The tiles are then
used to create words, and players’ total
points are tallied to determine a winner.
Many of the top competitors
Cappelletto plays against at tourna
ments are 30 to 40 years old. At a tour
nament in Boston, the next-youngest
competitor was 28
In addition to tournaments,
Cappelletto usually plays between 10
and 20 games a week with local Los
Angeles competitors. Although his
friends often ask to play Scrabble with
him, none of them are at his level
“I’m number two nght now and I want
to be number one.” he says.“There’s
always pnde in doing something when
you’re one of the best at it.”
Being the best is not easy. Although
Cappelietto has played Scrabble since he
was 10. he still studies words and ana
grams, or letter arrangements, and
remembers what letters create specific
words.
Training for a competition is similar t<
athletic training, he says. A positive men
tal attitude and preparation are impor
tant, as are knowing words and remem
bering strategies.
When he began competing at the age of
16, Cappelletto studied anagrams even
night He now studies about once a week
using computer-generated books of ana
grams.
Although for many Scrabble becomes
an obsession, Cappelletto is careful to
remember that winning the game is not
as important as enjoying it.
“Some people are over-engrossed in it.
and it can be detrimental," he says.“If 1
couldn’t control it, 1 wouldn’t be in schoo<
nght now.”