jf efamarp 25,1994 Letters to the Editor NOT SO QUICK TO DEFEND THE 80's SCENE To the Editor: This is in response to the letter from J. Miles Layton regarding early eighties nostalgia and the lack of "quality" pop music today. There are several points I'd like to make: 1) Layton cites Def Leppard and Cheap Trick as examples of late eighties/early nineties "heavy metal ballad bands." Get your facts straight, Miles. Both of these bands began their recording ca reers in the late seventies. I viv idly remember Cheap Trick's "Sur render" and Def Leppard's "Pho tograph" blasting from many a ste reo in the early eighties. 2) Asia was a joke. That's just my opinion. I'm a big fan of the individual musicians in the group, especially Steve Howe, but their music represents, to me, the single biggest sellout by members of the progressive rock movement of the late sixties and early seventies. It's even worse than what has hap pened to Genesis since Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett quit. 3) Layton entirely dismisses rap music. How narrow-minded of him. I'm not abig rap fan. I rarely listen to it However, Ido have a great deal of respect for the form's artistry and its innovation. Strangely, in the next paragraph Layton cites the Beastie Boys as a great band from the early eighties. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the Beastie Boys a rap band at least part of the time? Layton's ill-conceived and un warranted attack simply shows his ignorance. In their early days, rock, blues and jazz all fell under similar criticism from the musical establishment. Today they are vi tal parts of our musical heritage. I envision a similar future for rap. ®fjc §uilfortan Editor-in-Chief. JoanMalloch Associate Editor. Karen Rowan Adviser. Jeff Jeske Writing Editor. Justin Cohen News Editor. Gail Kasun Perspectives Editor. Ashley Clifton Features Editor. Joe Wallace Sports Editor. Kiley Holder Copy Editing. Kinsey Gimbel Layout Caroline A. Wolfe Circulation Robert Withers Subscriptions Reagan Hopkins Advertising. Brian Lane Business Rich Ewell Photography. Rob Davidson, Daphne Lewis 4) Layton puts forth the claim that Top 40 music from the early eighties is better than Top 40 mu sic today. Strange. As a devoted music lover I have always assumed that Top 40 music from all eras, including the early eighties, is equally bad. With very few excep tions Top 40 is definitely not the place to turn for music of sub stance. It's mostly record com pany manufactured swill. Frankly, I question WQFS's eagerness to dredge up this stuff. It doesn't seem particularly "alternative" to me. Chris Hosford KUDOS TO RESTAURANT REVIEW To the Editor: I am writing with compliments to the Restaurant Review section of The Guilfordian. It is great that Laura Davis points out how veg etarian and vegan-friendly the res taurants are. Vegetarians and vegans are sometimes unsure of unknown restaurants, which may have completely meat-based or meat and dairy-based menus. Thanks, Laura, for taking away the food mystery. Carolyn Howes COMPENSATION NEEDED FOR WQFS STAFF To the Editor, This year has been an extremely productive one for WQFS. This semester we have 102 DJ's and staff, making us the largest student organization on campus. There are 10 of us who work to coordinate the people, the music, the legalities, the promotions and the equipment involved. These are large responsibilities for students who already have a full load of courses. sergpectibeg Our jobs are rewarding in them selves, but only to a certain extent. First of all, we have a great group of DJ's, many talented individuals who do great shows and as a re sult create for us a huge listening audience. It's commonplace to go to con certs at venues as far away as Char lotte and still see many cars with WQFS bumper stickers. WQFS is the third most powerful college radio station in the state, with 1900 watts, and can be heard in Win ston-Salem and sometimes to the Virginia border. Nationally, our music depart ment receives priority on new music from both independent and conglomerate record companies. There is a lot of work that goes into the jobs that get these benefits. For example: each member of the music staff spends at least 12 hours a week previewing new music in order to edit obscene lyrics, and this is with five interns to help out. Programming is also a huge re sponsibility. First, one must get all 102 staff members properly trained and fitted into a schedule. Then, for the rest of the semester, the di rector is responsible for making certain that all DJ's follow the proper, legal procedure for every single show that is done. Also, there is the promotions director, who spends seven hours a week coordinating the concert calendar and any WQFS events. And the other managers: news, productions, business, and general manager all spend time equivalent to one four-credit course in the of fice or doing WQFS-related tasks. This also includes vacations sac rificed or shortened in order to keep WQFS on the air. WE all knew what we were get Opinions expressed in editorials and letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and editorial board. The editors reserve the right to edit all submissions for length, style, and taste. Umbrntsstottg The Guilfordian encourages submissions. Typed articles and letters are due by 6:00 PM., Monday. Letters are limited to 250 words or less and must include author's name, phone number and P.O. Box. Write to: Editor P.O. Box 17717 Guilford College, Greensboro, NC, 27410. Laura Davis Staff Writer Anton's Italian Cafe, across from the Janus Theater My first negative review. I feel bad writing this, the employees were quite polite and all that, but the food was lacking, the atmosphere rather laughable, and the booths small. Anton's has almost a Bavarian feel to it. I think they were attempt ing a sort-of "nicer Italian restau rant" feel, but the dark wood, white stucco, and black-and-white table cloths made me think of every other German restaurant I'd ever been in. Things might have been a bit better if they had been playing some sort of Italian-sounding music instead of the Top 40-inlluenced M usak being piped in. Caeli and I were seated in a booth built for two, which would probably been cozy and romantic for a fun and perky couple that jog together, but for us it was a bit cramped. This casual-dress, cloth-napkin restaurant had a fairly decent array of dishes—salads, various pasta dishes, chicken, seafood, veal, some beef. There's no sweet tea at lunch, but both sweet and unsweetened at dinner, along with a relatively well stocked bar and wine list, espresso, cappucino and "specialty coffees." Four children's dishes were also available. Prices range from $2 for soup to $l2 for one of the veal (yuck!) dishes. Most entrees are in the $7-9 range. See LETTERS page 6 estaurant l^eview •Anton's Italian Cafe* Chris Behm Katherine Beldner Naomi Blass Will Brown Jason Caplain Bob Clegg Luisa Constanza Will Cooper Laura Davis Damian Deßallo Mignon Ezzell Courtney Frankhouser Nat Gray Staff meetings are held weekly in the Passion Pit, second floor, Founders Hall, Monday evenings at 8 o'clock. All are welcome. Cbc (guitfortwan Dinner dishes come with salad and bread. Although the bread came with real butter (wow!), it was cold and Caeli aptly described it as Ital ian-shaped Wondcrbread. The salad was good—not too much dressing and not too little. The main courses, however, were not Caeli ordered the lemon chicken ($9.95) which was tender and very lemony, but not very hot—almost lukewarm. I or dered the eggplant parmigiana widi a side of spaghetti. The spaghetti was OK, but the sauce was lacking in the spice and heartiness categories, which is pretty bad for an Italian restaurant. The eggplant was terrible—the waitress brought it to the table with mitts on (it was served in the dish it was baked in), but it wasn't hot at all and the eggplant was mushy and yucky and generally gross. I do give the management credit for taking it off my tab, but it's also a relatively hard dish to mess up (even I can make it). Overall, the meal wasn't a com plete loss. I was in good company and we went to White Mountain (a VERY happy place) for ice cream after. Anton's is close to the Janus theater, but that's about the only thing going for iL I wouldn't rec ommend this place to anyone, but I'd still tip big if I went again. Laura is looking for a vegan to help her with a review. If interested, please call her at ext. 3207. Kim Griffin Steven Grimes Chris Hosford Catherine Jernigan Brooke Plotnik Christian Scanniello Jon Simon Rachel Salzberg S. Scott Spagnola Louisa Spaventa Beth Stringfield Sarah Woodard 5