From the recommendation of a good buddy, I finally watched Eli Roth's "Hostel."
I believe her exact endorsement words were, "It's a porn for the first half and a bloodbath for the rest of the flick. Don't be a pansy and watch it, butt munch."
So I did it. I settled in for 94 minutes of blood, breasts, drugs and lurid torture. The film did what it was supposed to do, and I experienced some keyed-up moments and yelled out, "No, don't listen to those hot chicks. They're just luring you into a burrow of misery," a couple of times. Did Paxton or Josh listen? No. But it wouldn't have been much of a film if they would have played it safe.
Anyway, maybe I have a meandering mind or a mild case of ADHD — don't we all — but during the horror, I kept thinking about the torture that I must endure every day as a resident of East Lansing.
It's distressing and a downright failure by the community of East Lansing that we don't have an art theater or a music venue for original local acts. It pains my soul every day that Ann Arbor has these luxuries of creative expression and we don't.
So maybe instead of building a new extravagant parking structure for faculty on Grand River Avenue, snazzing up the Sparty statue and adding luxury suites to the football stadium, the university should do something for the students besides hiking up tuition.
There isn't anyone who hates movies, and what better way for the university to construct a productive, alcohol-free environment than building an art house on campus. I'm sure there are a million reasons why this isn't possible, but at the same time it points to the fact that it's really hard for the university to do anything that would be really enjoyable and fertile for students.
An art house could help build the barely existent film studies program at MSU by providing a place for lecture and viewing. It could also attract more experienced and distinguished film studies professors from around the nation. It could provide a forum for limited release films that never make it to East Lansing.
Instead, MSU students have to find transportation off campus to go watch mainstream films. I can't wait to buy some gas and go see "John Tucker Must Die."
A college town should be a place of creative and thought-provoking ideas. The city of East Lansing is just a place to drink alcohol — and the police wonder why we are prone to cause a melee.
If the police were smart, they would be pressuring the university into building more structures that cater to creative student recreation.
There are very few opportunities for MSU students to experience any sort of freedom of expression in this drinking town.
Yes, there are a couple of art galleries in East Lansing, but they are so sterile and uninteresting that no one goes. The concerts and plays at Wharton Center are generally too pricey for college students. Wells Hall does show interesting films, but who really wants to sit in hard, lecture hall seats for another two hours?
Not all the blame can be placed on MSU either. The city of East Lansing should stop worrying about how many liquor licenses they hand out and start planning for a more culturally rich environment. Building more sushi and burrito joints is not going to make East Lansing more culturally rich, but venues for experimental and original music will.
Rick's American Cafe, 224 Abbott Road, does not provide East Lansing with creative tunes, but rather washed-up cover bands with the guarantee of Rick Springfield's "Jesse's Girl" almost every night.
It's just that this town has no edge or creative drive to it, which leads folks down the path of binge drinking.
How many games of beer pong can you play while listening to your boom box before you want to do something exciting and inventive?
It's just too bad that the city of East Lansing and MSU don't really care about bored alcoholics looking for something new. I just hope this feeling passes before "Hostel: Part II" comes out and I have to drive off campus to go see it.
Ryan McCormick a general entertainment reporter can be reached at mccorm87@msu.edu.
