16—The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Sept. 10, 1980
Reconstruction of Delta Tau Delta
Photo by Sherrie Weiner
Delta Tau Delta fraternity house was almost totally destroyed by fire last
Winter .Term, leaving most of the building as devastated as the hallway
above...
the Scorpion
TUESDAY "Fantasy Airlift"*
WEDNESDAY "Terry Beard"
THURSDAY "Tahoka Freeway"
FRIDAY "Terry Beard"
SATURDAY "Backseat Van Gogh"
* Happy Hours all nite long on Tuesdays
Catch Monday Nite Football downstairs at "THE
SCOREBOARD" on our 7' Advent T.V
King Biscuit Flower Hour Monday, 11:00 p.m.
Saturday Evening Music Sweep Saturdays, 9-1:
The. Beatles Forever Sundays, 10:00-11:00 PM
Sunday Night Jazz Sunday At Midnight
The Midday Music Menu —Monday-Friday at 12:05
The Living Classics Sundays, 6:00 a.m.-12:00 noon
The Newsblimp
BBC Rock Specials
Saturday Evening Scoreboard
Newscentre Reports
WXLR
The
The
232 W. Calder Way
Presents
Where The Music Speaks For Itself
By DAVID MEDZERIAN
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Nine months after a devastating fire
all, but destroyed their house, the
brothers of Delta Tau Delta fraternity
are finally moved back in.
"Everyone has a lot of pride in the
house," said Craig Emery (10th
landscape architecture), a Delta Tau
Delta brother. "We're working together
to make this house number one. It was
rough at first, but we had a lot of help
from the University."
Construction at the house, located at
429 E. Hamilton Ave., should be finished
within a week, according to House
President Bill Herman.
"The whole house has undergone
renovation," he said.
While the exterior remained , essen
tially unchanged, the interior has been
completely rebuilt.
The house has been extensively
redesigned for better space efficiency,
especially in the basement and in the
second and third floor bedroom areas.
Old storage rooms have been removed to
enlarge the basement recreation room.
On the upper floors a large bathroom,
destroyed by the fire, has been relocated
and its space converted into living
quarters.
Herman said that he and fraternity
brothers Bill Kidd and Larry Hixson
worked with the Jack Frost Construction
Co. in repairing, the house throughout the
summer.
The renovated house features the
latest safety equipment, including a ,
complete sprinkler system and
emergency lighting
"We're one of the few houses with a
sprinkler system," Herman said. "We
have, without a doubt, the safest house."
Holistic Health through YOGA
September 12-14
- yoga postures
- relaxation
4eNW/ - self-healing
techniques
- breathing exercises
- diet techniques
Center for Well-Being
200 W. Colle g e Ave. Rm. 204
237-3042
WXI.II
Music and More
The cause of the January 9 fire was
traced to a short circuit in the heating
system near the television room in the
basement of the house. Ironically, a new
sprinkler system was slated to be in
stalled the following week.
John Albanese (10th-computer
science) was in the TV room when the
fire broke out.
"We were watching television and
heard the smoke alarm," Albanese said.
"We had to climb out of a basement
window."
Albanese said many other fraternities
helped replace the members' personal
belongings.
Although the fraternity's insurance
covered repairs to the structure, losses
of personal property were left to in
dividual's policies. Herman estimated
that only half of the fraternity's property
was salvageable, and even fewer per
sonal items.
"I'd say only 25 percent, or less," he
said. Herman said that he personally
lost about half of his belongings.
Other brothers did not fare so well
"I salvaged what I could," Emery
said, "but most of the stuff I have is stuff
I bought over the summer."
Irwin Slotnick (Bth-horticulture) said
he and his roommates were lucky
compared to some of the brothers.
"We lost .very little," he said. "A lot of
the guys lost everything."
Spring Term pledge George Skawski
(10,th-landscape architecture) said that
Spring Term rush seemed no different
while the members were housed at The
Lofts.
"It was unique how they pulled
together," he said. "It didn't affect
them."
But Herman said planning spring rush
Saturdays at 5,6, 7 & 8:00 p.m.
nearly complete
f; . -
tP.:*•!.;• f
1 • t" ,
6 %, 1 ,41,- , 1,1 , '
, 1. 1, 1 „;v.70. •
;WI%
3 , 71:t
t$
.9,i,„„ vie
•
..but renovations and reconstruction are almost complete and 46 of the.
brothers have finally moved back in. Repairs on the house should be finished
about a week.
while living at The Lofts was a problem.
"Did you ever try to plan a fraternity
party in an apartment a few miles off
campus?" he asked.
Berman_ said Benchmark Realty
Inc.,the managers of The Lofts, were
hesitant about fraternity parties, fearing
they would resemble those in the movie
"Animal House."
"We had to beat that stereotype,"
Herman said. "Benchmark was quite
pleased."
The fire has not affected membership
as there are now 46 brothers.
"You can't beat that when house
capacity is 50," Herman said. Last year,
Delta Tau Delta also had 22 new pledges
11.1111111 W
The Arena
at Skimont (closed Mon.)
Rts. 322 E. ,
466.6271
DATE 'N' STEAK
by spring.
Scholastically, the fraternity giros
aided by University faculty members'. 7:
"We didn't lose.. any ground
scholastics," Herman said. "We
maintained about the same level: - 'of
performance."
Despite the fire, house unity seems
stronger than ever. „ ot
"I wouldn't hesitate to say that just
being through something like this pulled
us together," Albanese said. 1.
"As far as the unity of the house
we're 100 percent stronger," Herman
said.
"It's been a test," he said. "I fee) thiit
we passed it very well."
(Ike RE4/4
ii°l /SE OF FINE BEEF .
00 a.m.
:1•••
•
4- .
f
r
„
4
130 Heister St
State College
237.0361
Misia: A femme du monde for the ages
"Misia: The Life of Misia Sert" by
)rthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, Knopf,
$16.95, 314 pages.
By P.J. PLATZ
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
"This woman could not care less about
hiving the seat of honor at a fete; she
preferred the best seat, It is generally
not-the same. At the theatre she wanted
to see rather than be seen. Therefore
artists loved her." (From "La Char
treuse de Parme," by Jean Cocteau.)
The woman is Misia Godebska
Natanson Edwards Sert.
The artists who loved her were Ravel,
Stravinsky, Liszt, Faure, Satie; Bon
nard, Vuillard, Renoir, Toulouse-
Lautrec: Claude!, Valery, Mallarme,
Colette, Cocteau; Diaghilev, Ninjinsky,
Chanel. The list goes on and on.
And "Misia: The Life of Misia Sert,"
Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, is a
marvelous book about an incredible
woman. Misia, one of the most generous,
'charming and fascinating women of the
20th century, was a patron of the arts of
the highest calibre, With an interest
which stemmed from her love for the
:Mists, not their love for her.
Born in 1872 to Polish sculptor Cyprien
Godebski and Eugenie Sophie Servais, a
daughter of celebrated cellist Adrien-
Francois Servais, Misia led an unhappy
childhood, schooled mainly in Paris.
Although shuffled from one relative to
thf other, she was, ultimately,
surrounded by the distinctive world of
the fine arts.
the
daily
collegian
Stephen King's back,
•Firestarter:
"Firestarter" by Stephen King, Viking Press, $13.95,
428 pages.
B4STUART AUSTIN
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Hot on the heels of the success of "The Shining,"
chiller film of the sweltering summer, and "The Dead
Zoiie," currently burning up the paperback charts at
number one ~,c e,s_StevenXlKLnewest horror novel,
"Firestarter.
In keeping with the tradition King established with
his earlier novels, "Firestarter" is the story of an
intividual with abnormal mental powers. In this case,
a young girl exhibits pyrokinesis, the ability to start
fires with her mind.
The origins of this unusual power in young Charlie
McGee are traced back to an experiment in which her
parents, took part as college students. A CIA-type
organization known as The Shop administers a test of
arioexperimental hallucinogen.
The drug leaves her father with a trace of whdt he
calls "the push," the ability to mentally change other's
perceptions. Her mother gets an even smaller trace of
telekinesis, the ability to move physical objects with
her mind. Charlie, however, inherets a full-fledged
dose of pyrokinesis.
•Wing masterfully combines fantasy and reality into
an exciting adventure in the realm of fear. Charlie's
abilities and their consequences are equally horrifying
as the ruthless, brutal tactics of The Shop. The never
ending vigilance of Big Brother is all too believable.
The characters in "Firestarter" are sufficiently
developed to be beliveable in the light of the bizzare
circumstances in which they are found. Andy McGee is
a young professor with a secure middle class''suburban
existance who comes home one day to find his wife
murdered and his "talented" daughter kidnapped by
The Shop, •
McGee's existance becomes a deadly game to get
'Hand-Me-Downs': family fun
Generations of loves and hates
"Hand-Me-Downs" by Rhea Kohan,
Random House, $10.95, 373 pages.
By PADDY PATTON
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
There is more to inheritance than
just a physical estate. These other
heirlooms loves, hates, attitudes
and convictions passed from one
generation to the next are the
motivating forces in Rhea Kohan's
"Hand-Me-Downs."
Kohan writes her novel with a
special gift for characterization and a
natural talent for pointing out humor
In everyday situations.
The most outstanding figure in the
book is Yuspeh, an 80-year-old
k Rhea Kohan
'Not only a patron of the arts, but a muse'
It was from this upbringing that mua
"became not only a patron of the arts but
a muse, an inspiration to artists."
In 1893 Misia married her cousin,
Thadee Natanson, a quiet intellectual
who founded a magazine called "La
Revue Blanche." The periodical en
compassed the arts on an international
scale, and was tres populaire from 1889
to 1903.
However, it was Misia who became the
more popular of the handsome pair. "A
mistress of feminine guile, Misia knew
how to lean on a parasol, handle a fan,
show her rounded arms and breasts to
advantage as she adjusted her hat and
veil. . . She was a rough-and-ready
princess.".
She lived in luxury, in a sumptuous
apartment whose parlor housed a pair of
grand pianos, at which she and her
friends would play and sing for many a
Jong soiree.
It was through her husband's work at
"La Revue Blanche" that Misia met
Henri Toulotthe-Lautrec. He was
fascinated with the handsome woman,
and used her as a model for many of the
revue's covers (one of which decorates
the dustjacket).
Part of this book's delight comes from
its in-depth investigation of the people
Misia knew. Artists whom we have all
known and admired for years are
brought to, light as real people, rather
than some sort of demi-gods. Par
example: "Lautrec was an authority on
the subject of brothels. When Yvette
ar s
mother-in-law personality who's as
sharp as the proverbial tack. Her
insights are of the funny but
penetratingly accurate variety. At
one point she says to her son, "You're
a dumbbell. . . . You should kiss more
the wife and less the daughter; and
when the daughter pushes in, the
smart father pushes her out, because
if he don't, he's a dumbbell who will
ruin his own daughter."
Yuspeh's comment is the book in a
nutshell. The three women about
whom the book is written Malka,
Helen and Marilyn are succesive
generations of the same family.
Malka and Marilyn (grandmother
and granddaughter) are portrayed as
bitter, frustrated and unfulfilled,
seeking to rise above their
surroundings. Helen, caught between
two awesomely self-centered and
unloving women, fights for her own
portion of love in the world.
As Yuspeh intimates, the central
struggle is between Helen and
Marilyn over Lenny Helen's
husband and Marilyn's father. It is
Marilyn who eventually rises above
the desperation and meaness of such
a struggle, and her maturation
constitutes the essence. Kohen
follOws Marilyn's development from
a successful, ambitious, unlovable
divorce lawyer to a woman over
whelmed by the inhumanity of her
life.
hot as ever
' an inferno of horror
Guilbert asked him where he lived, he
casually gave the address of a well
known whorehouse. Asked how he could
stay in such a place, the eccentric
aristocrat replied, 'My God, would you
rather I entertained such riff-raff at
home?' "
Misia divorced Natanson to become
the mistress of newspaper tycoon Alfred
Edwards. She was showered, draped
and esconced in jewels, furs, yachts and
champagne. And She reveled , in it all.
But that relationship, consummated in a
short-lived marriage, left her an in
dependent woman again, until her
fascination and subsequent remarriage
to Spanish painter Jose-Marie Sert.
Along the way she became intimate
friends with Serge Diaghilev, for whom
she founded and financed the fabulous
Ballets Russe, and fashion designer
Coco Chanel, whom she also
"discovered" and financed.
Her relationships with the tern
permental pair rose and fell with Wall-
Street-figures regularity, but un
derneath it all the three shared an in
tense love for one another and their
worlds of art.
One particular ballet in which Misia
played a key role was "Parade,"
produced by Diaghilev: " 'Parade' was
announced as 'a ballet realiste by Jean
Cocteau,' but in the program notes
Apollinaire invented a new word, sur
realisme (super-realism), to describe its
magical fusion of decor, . scenario,
music, and dance, which he felt had a
Photo by James Leonard
Marilyn's eventual salvation from
this inhumanity after divorce,
group therapy and the death of her
father is abstention from love
altogether. While Kohan's choice of
this particular ending and her sup
port for it are reasonable, their exact
logical underpinnings are not easily
perceived from the book.
As a travel guide through the
jungles of southern California
society, "Hand-Me-Downs"
demonstrates Kohen's talent for
satire. Everything from valium
happy psychotherapists to swinging
singles (and marrieds) is fodder for
Kohen's cannon. These touches,
asides and details are the best
moments in the book.
The characters of secondary im
portance are sketched with par
ticularly astute insight. Marilyn's
sister Phlylis, for example, is the
prototypical vintage flower child. She
and her husband Neil run The Cosmic
Cucumber, a very expensive, very
laid back,. very posh—and very silly,
in Kohen's opinion natural food
restaurant.
"Hand-Me-Downs" is complex, but
where the weight of its content
threatens to overwhelm it, the
leavening of Kohen's writing comes
to the rescue. As social commentary,
its quality is excellent; as a story it is
at least worth a thought-provoking
reading.
poetic reality more intensely valid than
reality itself."
The ballet brought together "Erik
Satie's first orchestral score, Pablo
Picasso's first stage decor, Leonide
Massine's first Cubist choreography',
and a poet's first attempt to express
one step ahead, to at least protect his daughter from
the same fate as his wife. His advantage, "the push,"
which he uses more than once to just barely save his
life, seems to be waning in effectiveness. He must
place an equal burden on Charlie to get them to the end
of their horrifying game.
Charlie McGee seems to be just like any other second
grader, except when she gets angry. Then things get
too -hot -to..handle.-She had-:always been told by her
parents that the fires are bad and she mustn't succumb
to the temptation to lose control.
But faced with the do-or-die choice when she and her
father are cornered by The Shop, she does indeed lose
control. King skillfully manipulates . this into one of the
most exciting scenes in the novel.
Perhaps the most fascinating character in
"Firestarter" is Shop agent John Rainbird. A large,
disfigured man of Navajo ancestry; Rainbird is a killer
with a difference. His driving force in life is a death
wish, and he has been preparing for 20 years to meet
his own end.
When he carries out a brutal murder on Shop
"business," Rainbird gazes into his victim's eyes,
trying to find the answer to the mysteries of death. He
always fails to make his discovery, and finds only an
expression of puzzlement in the face of the unfortunate
individual. However, never to be thwarted, he finds
Charlie, and realizes that she is the key to his life's
problem. They must die together.
King's fecundity in the horror novel market does not
force him to compromise his writing quality. Although
his novels concentrate on individuals with strange psi
powers, each is excitingly different and therefore sure
bestsellers.
"Firestarter" is no exception to this rule. Even at the
$13.95 hardback price, it's been selling like hot cakes.
Robbins strikes again
"Still Life With Woodpecker" by Tom
Robbins, Bantam, $6.95, 277 pages.
By JOHN PROTEVI •
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
How can you describe Tom Robbins?
Those of you have read his books know
what he's like. Describing him to those
who haven't may not be as hard as
telling the proverbial blind man about
the rainbow, but it's. not much less dif
ficult.
Oh, I can tell you what he writes about.
But his style! One British critic has said
that "Tom Robbins writes like Dolly
Parton looks." Not a bad attempt, ac
tually. Luscious, overripe, bursting at
the seams; loud, bright, flashy they
all fit. But maybe it's better to say he
writes like an outlaw.
Outlaws play a big role in "Still Life
With Woodpeckers." In The World
According to Robbins, outlaws are "can
openers in the supermarket of life."
They are "the spoon which stirs the stew
of life." They operate "for freedom, for
beauty, for fun." 'Yep, he writes like an
outlaw —that's as close as I can come to
describing him.
"Still Life" isn't only, or even mainly,
about outlaws, though. Also prominent
in this particular recipe for "the stew of
life" are love, lust, ecology, royalty,
contraception, neoteny, pyramids, and
more, much more.
"Still Life" isn't just a mishmash,
though. This stew has a plot. It's of the
boy meets girl, etc. variety. Sounds
normal so far, but what a boy! What a
girl!
Bernard Mickey Wrangle, outlaw
bomber extraordinaire, is the boy
him Self without words." A most im
pressive set of directors.
Indeed, this is a most impressive book.
Photographs, and reproductions of the
paintings of Misia by Bonnard, Vuillard,
Toulouse-Latrec and Renoir in glorious
vibrant color are generously sprinkled
'Class Reunion:'
pass the
"Class Reunion" by Rona Jaffe, Dell,
$2.75, 445 pages.
By P.J. PLATZ
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Rona Jaffe's "Class Reunion" is a
pretty dumb book. So why bother
reading it, much less , Into. the wee
hours of the morning? For the same
reason as eating a Tastykake you
know you're being inundated with
empty calories, but they taste so good
going down. .
. .
, • ..
• ..‘•
. .
. • •
- •
Rona Jaffe
Annabel is the flirtatious Southern
belle, Chris is the mealy mouse with
dishwater-brown hair, Emily is the
Semitic suburbanite, Daphne is Miss
Perfect, otherwise known as the
"Golden Girl." These four women
Princess Leigh-Cheri, ecological activist
and disappointed romantic, the girl.
They meet at the Geo-Therapy Care-
Fest, which Leigh-Cheri plans to attend,
Bernard to bomb.
The Geo-Therapy Care-Fest is a
meeting of save-the-earthers whom
Robbins indicts, tellingly, for "tunnel
vision," for refusing to see that "good
can be as banal as evil," for "using (a
cause) as a substitute for spiritual and
sexual unfolding."
It's a commonly spoken, and just as
commonly ignored, truism that we will
have to become better people more
alive, more loving if we want a better
world. Leigh-Cheri had ignored this,
fleeing from herself because of past
hurts, burying herself in her zeal.
nut Bernard's outlaw ways win Leigh-
Cheri over from her sober commitment,
her righteous indignation, her worship of
Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader, who has put
everything before himself, to the extent
that a world composed of Ralph Naders
may be well on the way to being saved,
but will it be worth living in?
Leigh-Cheri had wondered how to
"make love stay." Now, offered the
chance, she plunges ahead bravely. She
decides finally that it's no use "saving
the earth if it means losing the moon."
The moon. Ah, the moon. Robbins
loves the moon. Much of this book is
about the moon its effects on lovers,
tides, tubercular composers, poets, and
menses. Robbins also writes about the
conflict between lunar vs. solar minds.
This conflict runs through his two
previous novels, "Another Roadside
Attraction" and "Even Cowgirls Get the
Blues." cult classics both. Lunar people
'Misia' by Toulouse-Lautrec
ju n kfood
meet as fresh-fced girls, still but a
stone's throw out of high school, in the
Radcliffe of the early 'sos.
Match each with a (prospective)
boyfriend/lover/husband, add liberal
doses of pathos, stir frequently, and
see how they grow.
. There is an amazing, amount of
soap opera pulp here, but some
amount and a decent amount at
that of insight and perception on
Jaffe's count.
And Jaffe, no newcomer to the
publishing world, can write.
She possesses a glorious talent of
eeking out just the right words to
describe just the right feeling. "She
didn't know anything about football
and she had no idea when the game
would be over, but it seemed endless.
Those fools out on the field would run
about two feet and then hurl them
selves on top of one another in order
to achieve as much mayhem as
possible. Who cared?" (Indeed! )
And her views on men, although not
as lyrical and gutsy as Erica Jong's,
are at least amusing: "She decided
that most men were children: a
hopeless combination of horny and
guilty."
Photo by Richard Avedon
"Class Reunion" makes for light,
breezy reading. It's as silly as soaps
and second-rate telemovies, but has
equal drawing power. Read it with a
bag of Doritos at hand.
are "mystic, occult, feministic,
spiritual, pacific, agrarian, and erotic."
He likes them better than the "abstract,
rational, militaristic, industrial,
unemotional, and puritan" solars.
In "Still Life," Robbins beautifully
juxtaposes the two when he sprinkles in
with Bernard and Leigh-Cheri's love
making (a lunar scene if I've ever read
one) excerpts. from a dry as the sun
baked desert speech by the ever-solar
Ralph Nader.
Do I recommend this book? Absolutely
maybe. It won't be to everyone's
taste. If you liked his other two books,
you'll love this one. But it's un
compromising in its outlawry, so
traditionalists, beware.
Tom Robbins is unique. In "Still Life"
he's a moon-worshipper, a lunar-type
without apology. He's also a romantic,
wondering how "to make love stay."
He's even a champion .of inanimate
objects. But above all he's an outlaw,
chasing his personal vision of freedom,
beauty, and fun.
throughout the book. These, along with
the remarkable blending of style and
fact by authors Gold and Fizdale help to
make this a most special celebration of
an era; its art and artists, and the one
woman who helped make those artists
names we know and respect today.
Wednesday, Sept. 10 17
Tom Robbins