EDITORIAL
We'll Be Back
I was going to entitle this work, “Whad Ya
Think?,” a reference to the opinion you might express
concerning the nine, Fail of 76, issues of this
“Capitol Campus Reader.”
I’ve changed my mind, but have still confined
myself to the three word title format (contractions do
not count), an unwritten rule I agreed seemed
appropriate. Not only did i change my mind, but I also
had to stop and think, “What possessed me to permit
that question contemplation?”
You see, I don’t care what you think. Everyone has
an opinion, and they’re all ridiculous. Opinions don’t
concern me; work does. A newspaper is not put
together by pompous declarations after the fact. This
paper is put together by our limited staff. Limited in
the sense of numbers that is. it’s true, many names
appear on the masthead, but they don’t all
continuously contribute. And who am I to deny
someone that prestigious position, Staff Writer.
We don’t claim to be the “New York Times.” We
don’t get paid, and our paper is not for sale. It is
distributed free of charge on Thursday afternoons at
about 1:30 p.m. By the next Monday or Tuesday
almost all of the copies are gone. This is an
indication, presumably, it’s being read. I say
presumably because those opinions everyone has,
they seem to keep to themselves. I’m not
contradicting myself. I’d like to hear your opinions, I
just won’t listen to them.
I’d like to think you’ve read the news or interviews,
or album/movie reviews, or read the comics, or
checked the weather, or read the classifieds, or read
the installment type mystery/entertainment stories,
or pondered a few seconds on the Notable Quotes, or
enjoyed the insane captions under photographs, or
frequented the business establishments who
advertise, or understood the double entendre with the
‘Hot Loin” sketch, or saw a spark of beauty in the,
otherwise drab, building reproduced always on top of
page one, or liked the “Perspectives Page” logo and
idea, for that page is supplied for you if you’ve
anything to say, or noticed that “Hebrew Proverb” in
one of the issues, those spontaneous ditties usually
surface during the early Thursday morning hours,
maybe around three on to four o’clock..., there’s
more, I can’t include everything.
Well if you don’t read the paper, you are not
pleased. I’ll not worry, in the least, over my December
vacation. The Reader is well aware of the
unresponsiveness within this campus. We even put
the photograph of a nude girl in one issue. No
reaction.
Next term we’ll try to see exactly how much it
takes to get some response here. We know you are
out there. If a rabbit has to be pulled out of a hat, it
will.
Have a vacation.
Capitol Campus Reader
of the Pennsylvania State University
The Capitol Campus
RTE. 230, Middletown, Pa., 17057
Office W-129-131
Phone (717) 944-4970
Edilor-in-Chief
Assistant Editor
Associate Editor
Copy Editor
Advertising Manager.
Business Manager.
Staff
.Ann Clark, Rich Dullsse, Greg Halt, Young Inoyang, Virginia Lehman,
John Leierzapf, Diane Lewis, Ray Martin, John O'Neill, Karen
Pickens, Pat Stanchak.
Perspectives Logo.
Hot Lion Sketch...
Captain and The Wino.
The Capitol Campus Reader is the school newspaper of
Penn State’s Capitol Campus. It is published by the
students who attend this school. We of the Reader Staff try
to accurately represent the voice of the students, and keep
them informed as to current events and relevant issues. We
are published on a weekly basis.
William M. Kane
Tim Adams
...Deborah K. Young
• Robert L. Fisher Jr.
.Wayne Stottmeister
Carol Andress
.Jsnlne M. Rennets
Beth Kopas
Ed Perrone, John Robinson
cfives Page
“Woody” Builds Ms Own
from page 1
Hie plane will weigh about
725 pounds empty, meeting
the designers’ gross weight
specifications of 1050 pounds.
1116 weight limitation insures
the airplane will realize its
published strength, and remain
balanced when fully loaded.
Hie 180 H.P. Lycoming
engine is three times what is
necessary to fly the plane,
which will cruise at 145 m.p.h.
and top at 175 m.p.h.
According to Menear, the
extra horsepower is needed for
stunt flying, to compensate for
the power used in turns, flips
and dives.
Menear is an active member
of the International Aerobatics
Club (lAC) of the Experimental
Aircraft Association (EAA),
whose regional offices are in
Harrisburg and Fredericks
burg, Pa.
The EAA encompasses the
spirit of local and national plane
makers and flyers, stressing
safety through education to its
members.
The organization, founded
by Paul H. Poberenzy, has been
a fundamental part of the
growth of private enterprise
Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell
In Contrast Violent Or Calm
Abstract Or Concrete
By Greg Hall
Joni Mitchell and Patti
Smith. Two special ladies, and
two poets of special merit.
Unique talents who set out to
create an aural art as potent as
anything set to canvas. Patti
and Joni: the fire of the sun and
the serene of the moon; the
violent Van Gogh and the placid
Picasso; the insight of .Dali’s
different moods through words
and notes enscribed in vinyl.
Two stars, two masters of their
Something about Patti
Smith appeals to my alter-ego.
Possibly it’s the way she lives a
fantasy most appealing to the
poet in me: she has been
granted the opportunity to read
her poetry in an extension of
her persona, on her own terms,
to encase her words within the
primitive essence of Rock
Legacy and wet-dream pro
mise. Full volume rock n’ roll is
the medium, and the medium is
the message. She mounts her
since WWH when all private
aircraft were prohibited due to
the high number of accidents.
The EAA is concerned with
the growing restrictions placed
on private plane owners by the
Federal Avaition Administra
tion (FAA), and is attempting
to promote public under
standing of the sport.
Menear’s been interested in
the sport since accompanying
his father and brother in flight
since he was two.
By the time he was sixteen,
he had passed the written test,
logged his 40 hours of
cross-country flight time, and
received his pilot’s license from
the FAA.
He graduated from Lower
Dauphin High School in 1973,
spent two years at Lebanon
Valley College as a Psych-
Philosophy major and then
enrolled for two terms at
HACC.
He is dissatisfied with
formal education, and is
striving for his bachelor's
degree to meet the obligations
of his chosen career-to-be, a
professional airplane pilot.
“I’ve found,” Menear says,
pedestal of sound and rides the
raw power howling poetry like
the Queen Bitch of Rock.
She can be snake or worm,
hot lead or liquid silver
depending on my mood. She can
bleed her limited vocals to draw
anger, snarls, screams, and
heated lyrical chaos.
Radio Ethiopia, her second
and latest album, 'finds the
Patti Smith voice and her
Group like storm clouds
rubbing for a thunderclap. She
quotes Nadja: “beauty will be
convulsive or not at all,” and
the music fulfills this philos
ophy. Producer Jack Douglas,
noted for his work with
Aerosmith, places the Patti
Smith Group among the best of
the heavy metal gendre, for he
knows walls-of-sound are pro
per vehicle for Smith’s surreal
dreamscapes. Patti Smith,
free-form, the new poet, the
stranger, the nightmare vision
ary, the artist
In contrast, Joni Mitchell
the artist uses simple beautiful
instrumentation to enhance the
poetic tapestry woven by
fragile voice and delicate
phrasing of verse. Her music is
the antithesis of Smith’s, yet
both work towards the same
artistic ends. Mitchell’s music is
immediatley accesible. She uses
concrete suburban images
mixed with upper-class ideals of
style and poise. Detached, a
creator, a sensitive victim, a
fated persona, an interpreter of
scenes: Joni Mitchell maintains
“you are not judged by what
you know, but how well you are
liked.”
So, Menear attends classes,
does the required work, and
uses much of his free time in his
workshop.
He estimates it will take
2000 man-hours to build the
plane he hopes will be ready to
fly by spring of 77.
He expects to enter regional
aerobatic competition this
summer and eventually to
aspire to the U.S. Nationals in
Texas.
Stunt flying involves per
forming certain maneuvers
specified by a divisional
breakdown, set up by the lAC.
The Sportsman Class in
volves basic maneuvers geared
to the amateur, while the
Advanced Class requires the
same basics plus an optional
routine. The Unlimited com
petitors perform basics, an
optional routine, plus free or
unknown routine the lAC
distributes 24 hours before
flying time.
All stunts must be flown
within a 3300 foot by 200 foot
box, within the altitudes of 1000
cont. page 4
sophisticated quality in her
poetry and music.
Ms. Mitchell’s new album
Hejira, as usual, blends high
artistry with superb musical
craftmanship. Because she
chooses never to fit into one
mold or formula, the new songs,
while stylistically departing
from previous albums, are
spellbinding and fresh. Hejira
most often unites her voice and
guitar with innovative jazz
bassist Jaco Pastorius and
minimal percussion.
Other songs are delicately
laced with guitar leads by
Crusader Larry Carlton or
musically supplemented by
various members of the L.A.
Express. Oddly moving jazz
structured rhythms and re
peated exotic chording com
bined with subdued small
percussion create a mantra-like
quality throughout the album,
and make it hard to believe a
simple congregation of instru
ments could produce such deep
moody textures.
I will not attempt to judge
who is the better poet between
the two. Comparing Joni
Mitchell to Patti Smith is quite
an unfair comparison, much like
comparing Ginsberg or
Ferlinghetti toWallace Stevens.
Both albums stand on their own
as artistic statements of their
creators. Abstract or concrete,
violent or calm: Radio Ethiopia
and Hejira are two extremes of
a shared vision of beauty as life
as beauty.