September 22, 2006 The Clarion
OPINION
Page 5
Put it away!
Avoid tliis fasliion faux paus at all costs!
'''®® pants + short shirts =
j : X Disaster for those behind you!
shirts (which are in anyway),
actually fit, and we will all be
saved.
Come on girls, save us from your muffin
tops and PUT IT AWAY!
Miss K.
BC Fashion Expert
Brevard: All sprawled out
by Lange Eve
Staff Writer
More so now than ever, it seems that Brevard
is caving in to the pressures of urban sprawl.
For land developers, our charming little town is
a great big flashing sign of opportunity. As our
neighbors, Hendersonville and Asheville, con
tinue to increase in size and population, Brevard
is a project waiting to emerge.
In only three years, Brevard has amassed new
shopping centers, a Sonic, a Super Ingles, an all-
you-can-eat China Palace, Straus Park, condo
miniums, several new banks, a Lowes Home
Improvement Center—and the list goes on.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I love sushi, and a
few more dinning options could be especially
beneficial. But it seems we are sacrificing a
healthy, friendly, artistic community for a more
populated, traffic-burdened, and polluted com
munity.
Most of the Clarion’s readers are college stu
dents; many are from various parts of the coun
try and world, and some grew up just down the
road. Regardless of any particular history and
relationship with this particular city, we can all
observe our community, and compare its growth
patterns to those cities which have already ex
perienced similar transitions.
Cookie cutter homes are built without utiliz
ing any of nature’s renewable power sources;
corporate grocery stores are delivering food from
everywhere but home; industries and factories
are emerging in our backyards; McDonalds Res
taurants are filling in any and every empty lot;
stoplights and street lamps are keeping the
plants awake all night. These are signs.
Because we are people, and it is in our nature
to build, create, and evolve, we will not see a
day go by when something is not being devel
oped. But what we are developing, how we are
designing and building it, and where we choose
to place it are all very important details. Sin
cere consideration of these matters will be a very
basic step toward penetrating the root of our
environmental and consumerist dilemmas. These
factors could help realign our society and lessen
our impact on the earth, while creating more
pleasant working and living environments. Our
generation needs to make a valiant effort to break
American society’s bad habits.
Who knows where Brevard’s city limits will
have stretched in ten or twenty years? Sprawl
is a dangerous and insatiable force, but there are
plenty of realistic solutions to the problems it
creates. Today, we need to continue researching
alternative building methods and energy sources,
and create business plans that take all costs—
environmental, social, and monetary—into con
sideration.
Our society’s relaxed attitudes might also need
to evolve. Change is not always comfortable at
first, but our community can smooth the transi
tion if we are really dedicated to making it hap
pen. ■
Matt's Take:
Adult Swim
on the decline?
by Matt Rutherford
Managing Editor
tl discovered Adult Swim
the Spring of 2003 at
around midnight. On air at
the time was Aqua Teen
Hunger Force, one ol
many shows that have
since been replaced on the
Adult Swim lineup.
Maybe it’s the fact that I
was gone for three months
and had no exposure to Cartoon Network’s new
lineup,—or maybe. I’m just getting old—but
Adult Swim seems to be lacking in variety.
When I first saw a talking pack of fries,
a meatball, and a milkshake, I had no idea what
the hell I was watching. As odd as it was, the
show had a plot and it was funny. These three
“people” were usually accosted by some an
noyance, be it Moth Monsterman or Romulon.
which was closely followed by the blowing up
of things and the removal of one of the said
groups or both. This was a great plot until you
began to notice that it is the only plot.
My other favorite Adult Swim oldie
is Sealab 2021, a show based on the short-lived
1970’s Hannah-Barbara cartoon, Sealab 2020.
in which a multi-cultural crew lives in an under
water base complete with its own education
system. Sealab 2021 took this and put a spin on
it. It’s about the slow insanity that eventually
overcomes the crew. This show spawned some
of the best phrases, which I will not utter here,
ever
I suppose my problem with the cur
rent Adult Swim lineup is the fact that none of
the shows really make any sense or have any
flow or continuity— with the exception of Ven
ture Brothers and some anime. I was watching
the Sunday segment, and I was just noticing
how much humor is attributed to violence. Now,
I realize that the aforementioned shows use vio
lence as humor but, not exclusively. Other com
mon themes are drug and sex abuse, robbery,
hedonism, and religious parody. What happened
to the variety of vile humor?! I say bring it back.
Adult Swim isn’t a place for weak, pure-minded,
goody goodies. ■