dnesdy, April 15, 1175
Ride the
by Uz Uland
Staff Writer
1 Nineteen minutes. Pass the food
chicken, popcorn cake, chocolate
fudge cookies, orange slices and ritz
crackers with cream cheese. Now clap
your hands and stomp your feet to the
tune of the fiddle, banjo and jew's harp.
Fiddler's Convention? Jam Session?
No. Chapel Hill Bus System. It was
Friday night at 8:14. TheuN" bus was
having pot luck snacks to celebrate
Valentine's day. Every passenger
brought his or her favorite snack to
share with other passengers on the
route. And if a person was luck enough
to be on the bus at 8:14, he could have
joined in some good old musical fun
Arkansas Traveler. Soldier's Joy and
even some Bach. From 8:14-8:33 the
driver had a rest stop: so it was 19
minutes of eat, sing and be merry.
Twenty passengers joined in the
festivities. Their ring leader was John
Comstock, the bus driver. He's a novelty
in the bus system. Every day John
welcomes each rider onto his bus,
acknowledging many of them by name!
"Good-bye and thanks for riding with
me," he tells them as they leave.
John's friendliness has affected the
atmosphere of his bus. Gone is the usual
silent crowd of bus passengers who stare
out the windows, read the D77Ts, and
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otherwise avoid eye contact. John's
passengers have gotten to know each
other, and the bus is alive with their talk
and laughter.
There are about 12 Friday and
Saturday night "regulars" on the 1 1:17;
bus. These dozen college students are
f re-flic fanatics as well as being John's
Staff photo by Peter Ray
most faithful riders. "John's route is
great," one female passenger said. "I've
met a lot of nice people. And the ride
goes by so much faster with everyone
talking back and forth across the bus.
"Why, one night we all sang, Tve
been working on the railroad, " she
added.
Another kind off war story
by Peter Hardy
DTH Critic
"Lacombe, Lucian," Plaza 1, 3:05, 5:05, 7:05 and 9:05. $2.25.
There have been lots of films that explored
the curious and often tragic vagaries of war
lighting men and civilian bystanders caught
up in that colossal absurdity. Louis Malle's
Ijacombe, Lxicien is another kind of war
story. Based on a true story, it is set in
occupied France during World War ll.
Correction
The Daily Jar Heel regrets the
(typographical errorwhich altered vthe
meaning oi inerirsi paragrapn oi a review
of the book Roll, Jordan, Roll in
yesterday's paper.
The corrected copy reads: "Kenneth
Stampp's neoabolitionist tendencies
pervade his work and blind him to the
development of a distinctive Afro
American culture during and after the
slave regime." Yesterday's Tar Heel,
unfortunately, substituted the word
"bind" for "blind."
But this isn't the usual story about the
Underground; it's about a young man who
joins the Collaborationists, Frenchmen
helping the Germans keep their own
countrymen under control. Not a very likely
hero, and the film has caused some
controversy in France.
But things are seldom simple, and a
fascinating moral study is the main virtue of
Malle's film. Young Lucien is a peasant with
no real place and little discernible
personality. He asks to join the
Underground not because he wants to
fight for France, he just wants something to
do, companionship. By accident he falls in
with a group of Collaborationist police who
live well, do exciting things and warmly ask
him to join them. He simply goes along with
them, not understanding much about
' grander "matters like honor and love of
; country. ' ; , " - - ; -;f: '
Up until this point Lucien has been a
moral vacuum, a empty mold waiting to be
filled. Soon he begins to act in the cruel,
arrogant manner of his fellows, but he is
obviously apart from them. They mostly
seem to be fascists, disgruntled former
policemen or shifty opportunists. They
decided to work for the Germans in order to
survive, but the gambit is not paying off. It
becomes increasingly clear that the Germans
are losing, and one by one the Frenchmen
working with the Germans are being killed
off by Underground reprisals. But Lucien
doesn't really understand this either.
Malle . doesn't seem to be attacking
patriotism in this film, nor is he asking us to
admire the poeple who gave in and worked
with the Germans. What he's saying, quite
rightly, is that it's fine to be patriotic and
gallant if you have the ideals for it, the
knowledge, the instinct for it. But Lucien
had none of these he had almost nothing,
until it was already too late for him. He was a
victim as much as these countrymen of his
that he betrayed.
Malle has photographed the film in muted
colors but with razor sharp lines the effect
is quiet but never indistinct. Unfortunately,
he has let the film run too long and too
slowly in too many places.There are many;
unnecessary scenes of people walking along" ?
or eating, and the film peters out to an
almost lifeless ending. But the film is still
very worth while, and the performances are
all excellent.
A male grad student agreed. "I really
miss John on Tuesdays and Sundays,
his days off. He's a great guy each day
he puts a newspaper on the bus for his
passengers to read."
Not all John's passengers know him
by name. To some he'sjustthat short,
curly-haired driver." And most of
John's riders know him only as a bus
driver. What they don't know is that
John is a 25-year-old philosophy major
from Antioch. As part of his college
education, he studied at the University
of Glasgow in Scotland for eight
months. He then traveled for seven
months in England, Europe and Africa.
Despite memories of the moonlit coast
of Tanzania, the Pyramids of Giza and
the small alleys of Amsterdam, John
isn't bored with his eight-hour bus route
through Chapel Hill. "1 like the job," he
said. "And 1 like the people they're
friendly and casual."
Five days a week John makes 9lA
round trips on his route which extends
from Bolinwood to Kingswood
Apartments. He gives his passengers a
tour-guide type ride. "Next stop. Cat's
Cradle. Don't go home, have some fun
at Cat's Cradle," John announces to his
riders. Or, "Top of the world. Next stop,
top.of the world." John is referring to a
stop near University Gardens
Apartments which is at the top of a steep
hill. The hill itself John has nicknamed
"desperation decline."
Bus driving is but one of many jobs
John has held. He's worked as a hotel
desk clerk in San Francisco, a brakeman
on a railroad in Minnesota, a -hotel
trainee in New Orleans as well as many
other jobs in many other places. And by
hitchhiking or hopping freight trains
he's traveled from the east to the west
coast.
Although he's travelled around this
country and other parts of the world,
John claims St. Paul, Minnesota as
home. He ended up in Chapel Hill
following a-visit to his sister who lives
here. "1 like the town, though I miss the
Minnesota winters. And I found a job I
like, so 1 think I'll stick around a while."
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Jazz here
The fifth annual North Carolina
Collegiate Jazz Festival will be held
Saturday and Sunday, April 19 and 20 in
Memorial Hall. The festival, described as
non-competitive and exploratory by John
Harding, UNC Jazz Laboratory Band
director, will feature eight small groups and
10 Urge groups.
Represented on Saturday are bands from
Appalachian State University. Campbell
College, Duke University. Elon College,
East Carolina University and N.C. Central
University. They will begin playing at I p.m.
Saturday.,
"Big 'Band Day." as Sunday has been
designated, will include bands from the
UNC-Greensboro, Wake Forest and the
UNC-Chapel Hill in addition to large bands
trom ,the previously mentioned schools.
Concerts begin at I p.m.
Admission to the concerts is free and open
to the public.
Games accepts prize
UNC undergraduate Jim Carnes last week in Norfolk, Virginia accepted the Anno
Cogswell Wood Prize for Short Story. Sponsored by the Norfolk Society of Arts, in
affiliation with the Virginia Quarterly, the prestigious Wood Prize was the top prose award
presented in the Fifty-Seventh Annual Irene Leache Memorial Literary Contest.
Carnes' short story, 'The Swimmer,' was one of 180 prose entries in the contest, and one ol
three selected for recognition by the judging panel.
Carnes received a three hundred dollar cash prize.
A native of Columbus, Mississippi, Carnes is a sophomore English major. His next
publication will be a short story in the upcoming spring issue of the Cellar Door.
Contacted in Chapel H ill after his Norfolk acceptance speech, Carnes commented that he
was "excited and honored" to win the Wood Prize.
Featuring Old South Cooking
15:$ West Kin Street
V.V. "PETE" Thompson, Innkeeper
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ATTENTION CAROLINA WOMEN!
You are invited
to participate in
SORORITY RUSH
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Sign up today and tomorrow
in 205 Union 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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Music Committee Presentation
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