| Gift of Life Fellow Frog Robbyn Kindle has lots of friends and a knight in shining armor. Through the combined efforts of TCU students, faculty, staff and friends in the community, $26,000 is sitting in a safe at TCU, ready to be used for her double transplant operation. Mark Bunting, CEO of SkyTV, Wednesday pledged to guarantee a deposit of $150,000 needed for the transplant. The real story here is what a crisis like this brings out in people. Students dropped coins, bills in denominations from $5 to $20, checks and even their paychecks into buckets manned by SGA volunteers Wednesday. The University Committee to Support Robbyn Kindle pulled out all the stops, contacting anyone in a position to contribute, garnering thousands of dollars in less than one day. A custodial account in her name has swelled with contributions in the last three days. People give when they see a need. "I hope everyone will keep chugging along because this only takes care of the present crisis for her," Bunting said. A spokesman at the Nebraska Medical Center said he had never seen anything like this and wants to use TCU as a model of fund-raising. Congratulations and thanks to all those who have opened their hearts and pocketbooks. Every cent counts. The official fund-raiser ends Friday, but TCU giving won't end until Kindle is back on her feet. Good luck, Robbyn, and let's keep chugging indeed. Past compliance When this campus was built many years ago, access for the disabled was not a priority. Now, TCU is catching up to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Every new building that goes up on campus has to meet regulations that make access easier for people in wheelchairs. Although it is TCU's job and responsibility to comply with ADA regulations, the administration should be commended for getting things done and making improvements to the accessibility of campus facilities. "We work very hard to see that our renovations meet the law," said Larry Garrison, the university's architect. TCU spent $1.5 million to renovate Daniel-Meyer Coliseum to increase seating for disabled people and make the restrooms more accessible. Plans are under review to improve Amon Carter Stadium. But many buildings, such as the Rickel Building and Sid W. Richardson Building, are not easily accessible. While technically there is wheelchair access, it is neither highly visible nor convenient. There is only one curb cut on University Drive, which makes it cumbersome for people in wheelchairs to get to classes in Beasley Hall and the Moudy Building. More changes need to be made. And we're not talking about changes for future Frogs. We need to make life easier for our fellow classmates now. It's our responsibility.
Madonna errs in 'Pie' remake
But rather than pen the proverbial Valentine's fodder, I thought it was important to warn humanity of a potential problem threatening to send America into a downward spiral of insipid blandness. With the start of the third millennium, everyone likes to look back at the past and see where we screwed up. Experts, skeptics, philosophers, pundits and people who, for some reason, get paid money to sit around and talk about old stuff for documentaries all like to point out some of the mistakes we made long ago. Mistakes such as making new Coke or giving money to people who make movies like "Teen Wolf, Too" remind us of worse times and irretrievable errors. I have a personal vendetta against whoever made the mistake of inventing the concept of diagramming sentences. I still have no idea what the heck a gerund is, but, man, am I glad to know so much about subjects, verbs and prepositions. But that all being said, I think I can pinpoint who has already blemished the face of the millennium so early in its inception. It's Madonna and her cover of the Don McLean song, "American Pie." I'm not really sure what the Material Girl was doing. Maybe she just ran out of material. But regardless, that's no excuse for a shamefully tasteless remake of an American classic. For those of you who think I'm talking about the newest, cool song by Madonna or who think I'm referring to last summer's nefariously fornicating movie, this column isn't for you. Go watch a Backstreet Boys video because this won't make sense to your feeble, MTV-numbed mind. In 1971, McLean wrote a song about the lost magic of rock 'n' roll and how it correlates with the 1959 fatal plane crash of the three famous musicians - Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. I know all this because I watch VH1, which, in turn, provides me with enough musical stories to get a doctorate in useless information. It has the only shows where I watch and think, "Wow, an hour-long program on David Crosby smoking crack is interesting!" But the musical trend is quickly becoming one of repeating great old songs and taking the credit instead of periodically emulating them in a live concert cover. The new "American Pie" isn't musical success. It's musical sacrilege. What was once a nostalgic song about rock 'n' roll has now been transformed into a nauseous song about, well, nothing. Gone are the days of lyrical prowess, creative improvisation or musical talent. Instead, we're stuck with three-chord guitar riffs mixed over a looped drum beat stolen from Led Zeppelin. That's not innovation. That's disco music on methamphetamines. The original "American Pie" has been cut almost in half, utterly destroying its poetry and trivializing its meaning. Now the line "the day the music died" takes on a whole new perspective. There's little thought in some music now. And we as a society have such short attention spans that if there's anything else other than a mindless drum thud for two minutes, we don't have the patience to listen. But I am still incredulous that the rip-offs have reached such dire extremes such as this new song. We need to return to a time when we create and not just lazily copy. When we appreciate the ingenuity of a song and not just rehash it to make a "dance mix," a "club mix" or a "mix mix." How much whiskey and rye did the good ol' producers drink before they decided that this cover was a good idea? But despite this grievous offense against society, I suppose it will all fade in time. The past also shows us that mistakes can be changed. Coke still sells, "I'm still refusing to forget what happened that one summer a while back" will inevitably premiere, and I can always end sentences with prepositions whenever I feel like it. And that's what it's all about. But if there's ever a remix of "Stairway to Heaven," I'm taking my musical crusade to the very top. Be looking for my scathing commentary on VH1's "Behind the Music."
Kevin Dunleavy is a junior advertising/public
relations major from Spring, Texas, who doesn't own a Chevy or really know
what a levee is, but after hearing Madonna's cover, he's felt like driving
his car off one anyway. Internet invasion is annoying.com on TV Someday, when I am a curmudgeonly senior citizen (as opposed to being a curmudgeonly 21-year-old), I will grouse to my grandchildren and congressional representative about how good it was back in the 1980s. Sadly, I will remember television most of all. And why not? TV in the '80s was the Golden Age. When my mind is old and nostalgic and preserved in a robot body, it won't be the fall of the Berlin Wall, nor Ronald Reagan's outlawing of Russia, nor Baby Jessica that I will remember about the '80s. I will remember that every Monday night, from 1986 to 1990, a furry alien named ALF ran around the Tanner house, trying to eat Mrs. Tanner's cat. I liked TV when I was a kid, but what I liked about it most of all was that there were very few computer-oriented commercials. That I have a preference for the television advertisements of 15 years ago over commercials of today is a sad commentary in and of itself. I have framed a memory in the context of a contemporary annoyance. What I am getting at, in a prolix and agonizingly round about way, is that I am sick of the current inundation of Internet advertisements and related dot.com crap. Admittedly, I could have said that a paragraph ago, but then I might not have been able to mention ALF. ALF or no ALF, the Internet has yet to impress me. As near as I can tell, the Internet is little more than a horrific purveyor of pornography. This is not an original indictment, but I have found the Internet's usefulness to be nominal unless one is jonesing for grainy, two-inch framed, German fetish videos. Maybe it's because I am too poor and cowardly to trade stocks online. Maybe it's because I still think the CIA is watching my every move. Or maybe I'm just a technophobe. The only thing I have ever used the Internet for is ordering music, and if I were at home, I probably could find what I was looking for in a local record store. If I picked a different genre of music, then I probably wouldn't use the Internet even for that. Nevertheless, there has to be something beneficial that I'm missing because people are making loads of cash from it. I suspect it's all in the hype and advertising revenue. I base this assumption on the ridiculous number of dot.com commercials on television and radio. In the aforementioned Golden Age of Television, the only computer-related commercials on TV came from Apple and IBM. The Apple ads featured Heavy D, nearly nude except for a strategically placed keyboard. The IBM commercials placed crusty old Anne Ramsey in a bikini, running from ravenous, fire-breathing midgets. OK, so naked fat people weren't really featured in these ads. I don't remember them very well, and that's the point. I only remember that there were a handful of these ads. My media experience from the turn of the century has already been marred by Internet overkill, and I see no end to this trend. I suppose that a large part of advertising involves completely assaulting the target audience from every angle. With no end to our astounding economy in sight, advertising will become increasingly more pervasive and invasive. Couple this with the fact that the industrialized world is hell bent on cramming commerce into a nebulous virtual world, and you will see that no place will be free from cyber-soliciting. I went to a church that utilized a computer to project the worship lyrics onto a screen. I am afraid that next time I go to this church, the worship portion will be sponsored by Amazon.com. I'm not really a technophobe. The problem is that I haven't had a lot of experience in making productive use of the Internet, and I know that I will have to get along with the online world in order to keep from becoming a backward reactionary. However, the minute I sit down on the toilet and urinalmint.com appears on some hidden video screen, I'm changing my latitude, instead of my attitude.
Steve Steward is a senior political science
major from Lodi, Calif., and will Web cast any future operations during
which he becomes a robot. Thanks & spanks Thanks: To all TCU students, faculty and staff who donated their time and money to Robbyn Kindle's transplant effort. You have helped to save a life, and for that, you should be commended.
Thanks: To the Student Government Association for their assistance in raising money for Robbyn Kindle.
Thanks: To the administration of the M.J. Neeley School of Business for providing an inexpensive way to obtain an important business tool, the Wall Street Journal. I'm sure the mail-room people thank you, too, or will when the student subscriptions finally run out. To those who want it all without charge, you'll find it's usually worth the price paid.
Spanks: To the TCU student who blames an architectural feature that probably has been there longer than you've been a student for being late for class on the third floor of Reed Hall. To paraphrase an old saying: "It's a poor student who blames the building." Ed Adcock junior e-business major
Spanks: To the TCU budget which pays business professors more than liberal arts professors. Although officials say the salary difference is needed in order to increase the status of the business school, other academic departments should not take a back seat to the Neeley School.
Got something to say? Send your 'thanks & spanks' to the Skiff at (skiffletters@tcu.edu). Be sure to include your name and a phone number. |
The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |