1994_09 Insight September 1994

              September 14,1994
IN FOCUS
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO
Page 3
INSIGHT
District towers over Fresno
Andrlana Doukam	
INSIGHT
Home to many popular coffee
shops, restaurants, bars, historical
theatres and Soho. Tower's newest
dance club, the Tower District offers
style and entertainment to a wide
variety of people.
The newest edition to the District, the Soho dance club, once called
the Wild Blue, offers music fans a
new outlet.
Soho features a $50,000 sound
system, computerized lighting, a
large dance floor and music from the
70s, 80s and 90s.
Mary Wilson, a CSUF business
student, said Soho's attractions are
great music and a large dance floor.
"I love to dance, and there are
not a lot of places you can really have
the room to dance. Here that's all you
do — sure there is alcohol— but you
can really come here and dance," said
Wilson.
Soho is modeled after dance
clubs in San Francisco and New
York, said owner Joe Hom. It features
such things as an improved sound
system, lights, a huge booth for disc
jockeys, new carpeting, re-configuration of the bar. mirrors and artwork.
Mark Hansen, a DJ known as
Professor Stone, said Soho offers
Fresno an underground-style club.
"There is no other club like this
in town. Soho has professional DJs
thai put a lot of work in their music,"
said Hansen.
"The music is the atmosphere
here, and it is important to have good
music. Soho brings in professional
DJs from everywhere," he said.
Hansen said last week Soho had
a DJ from Jamaica and will routinely
bring other DJs from Oakland and
San Francisco. high school customers that come
Monday evenings are reggae down here and order a cup of coffee
nights. Tuesday, Wednesday and Fri- and stay for hours. It is starting to be-
day offers techno — various types of come a problem for our other custom-
fast beat music from the '80s. Thurs- ers," said Maus.
day Soho patrons groove to the
sounds of music from the 70s and the
early 80s. Saturday is modern rock
night. Cover charges are $ 1-3 during
the week and $5 on weekends.
For those who would rather r
Cafe Intermezzo is charging a $2
minimum to try and combat the problem.
Theater buffs might check out
the Tower Theatre. The theatre is celebrating its 55th year as the arts and
lax over a cup of coffee and good entertainment mecca of the Central
conversation, the Tower District of-    Valley
fers two coffee houses: the Cafe In- In the past four years, the the-
termezzo and Java Cafe. Mishi ater has seen such acts as Harry
Granata, a recent CSUF graduate, Connick Jr., Ray Charles, Joan Riv-
finds the coffee house atmosphere ers, Howie Mandel, Rita Moreno and
tplift-
i n g .
c o m -
pared lo
other
places
i n
Fresno.
I  a  i
"It's more laid back here.
I come here and do my homework
and enjoy the coffee."
—Mishi Granata
back
here. I come here and do my homework and enjoy the coffee. I feel comfortable to come down here by myself and relax," she said.
Mark Alvarez and Kevin Gregor,
Fresno City College students, said
Bennett.
On
Sunday,
Sept. 11.
guitarist
Earl
Klugh
p e r -
      formed.
^~—~""*     His current release is number one on contemporary
jazz charts.
Sunday, Sept. 18, the Sons of
the San Joaquin will be performing.
For those who want a little more
than just coffee and dessert, the
they go to the coffee houses during Tower District is also known for its
the week to talk. restaurants      which      include
"In a bar we couldn't do this, but Livingstone's Restaurant and Pub,
here we can sit back and enjoy our- Butterfield's, the Daily Planet, Apex
selves outside and catch up with each and Veni Vidi Vici.
other's lives," said Alvarez. Livingstone's Restaurant and
Bob Maus, an alumnus of CSUF Pub offers California cuisine.
and an employee of Cafe Intermezzo,
said they have had problems with
high school loiterers.
"Unfortunately, we have a lot of
Michelle Karell. a CSUF agricultural economics major, said the
restaurant is too dark.
"It's nice to have a dim setting.
but Livingstone's is really dark,"
Karell said. "But the food Was great,
and I plan on going back."
Fresno's own micro brewery,
Butterfield Bar and Grill, is named
after the Butterfield Overland Express, a passenger and mail stagecoach service founded in 1858 by
John Butterfield. The stagecoach
crossed the San Joaquin Valley en
route from St. Louis to San Fran-
cisco. Outposts along the way provided fresh horses for the coaches,
along with food and shelter.
Butterfield's restaurant continues the
tradition for Frcsnans.
The Daily Planet flaunts a three-
page wine list, along with a menu
that changes every three weeks.
"On any special occasion, I am
at the Daily Planet," said John Williams. "There is nothing like the Daily
Planet. The food is great, and the ambiance is fabulous."
Apex restaurant is located on
Olive Street, across from the famous
Lauck's Bakery. Melissa Van Zee, a
CSUF student, has been to the restaurant three times.
"The food is different. They
have a great menu, but two times I
have asked for something and they
said they were out of it," said Van
Zee. "I think they have a few quirks
to work out; otherwise I did enjoy
the food."
Veni Vidi Vici, on Fulton and
Olive avenues, is another popular
restaurant.
"The presentation of the food
was so beautiful I almost didn't want
to eat it, said frequenter Christine
Patterson. "It's a little bit expensive,
but the food was fabulous."
See TOWER, Page 8
Shelly Silva/INSIGHT
Children make their way to the sand kitchen, one of the activities in the new Early Education Center.
Lisa Wackovnkl	
INSIGHT
Making sand pies, pumping
water uphill, and learning about
the microorganisms that live in a
pond are just a few activities that
the Early Education Center (EEC)
has planned for its new daycare
center.
The center has just opened its
doors and is putting the finishing
touches on its Environments Playground.
The playground is designed to
enhance a child's early involvement with science, math and agriculture.
Three redwood structures are
pan of the playground's core. The
center is making a pond, as well as
planting vegetable and flower gardens and fruit and nut trees. <
Evangeline Hervey, a senior
health science major, was pleased
with the new facilities. Her daughter Veronica is in one of the preschool
classes.
"They have more activities. She
gets to go outside, play and make
friends," said Hervey.
According to Shareen
Abramson, director of the Early Education Center, "Science is the least-
taught curriculum. Teachers don't
know where to start. This provides a
mechanism for preparing teachers for
creative physical, biological and ecological sciences."
The playground structures are
made from redwood, Abramson said.
The structures were designed to draw
the children into using them.
One of the structures looks like
and houses a sand kitchen. Here the
children are encouraged to create
sand pies and other innovative dishes.
The kitchen was made with a pulley,
which allows the children to raise the
sand from the ground into their
kitchen.
They are allowed to add water
to their dishes and are learning the
difference between the weight of wet
and dry sand, said Abramson.
Merredith Dobbins, clinical faculty at EEC, works with the preschool
age children and watches as the chil
dren learn about weight.
'They (children) realize that
the more sand in that bucket the
harder it is to move, but they still
attempt to fill it to the top," she
said.'
Another one of the structures
is used as an observatory. Each
looks like a small gazebo with
many levels, which is inviting to
the young students.
Next is the water and liquid
site, where different sinks and
shutoff valves are placed accordingly around the side of the lab.
This structure allows the
children to hand or electrically
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INSIGHT
Where is the bathroom?
What time is it?
These questions are often
asked by students at the reference
desk of the Madden Library, said
Karolyn Asaki, a senior biology
student and student assistant who
has worked in the library for 2 1/2
years.
The Madden Library reference staff answers all kinds of
questions from directions to the
bathroom to requests for non-related library materials.
Asaki said student assistants
who work at the reference desk answer the simple questions.
"We answer the questions that
we can," she said.
If the students need more information, the student assistants
refer students to the librarian.
In addition to student assistants, 11 reference librarians work
at the reference desk at different
times.
There are usually three people
available to help students.
The reference desk is double-
staffed with two librarians and one
student assistant from 8 a.m. to 9
p.m. Monday through Thursday,
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday
and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends, said Bernice Lacks, the head
of the reference department.
The reference desk is staffed
with one librarian and one student
assistant during the remaining
hours the library is open.
Lacks said the reference librarians all hold masters degrees
or higher in library science, and
most librarians have worked at
least 20 years.
The librarians' sole function
is "to help people with whatever
they need help with," Lacks said.
Zane Clark, a reference librarian who has worked at CSUF for
26 years, chuckled when asked
about odd questions students ask
him.
"Is this the reference desk?"
is one of them, he said, explaining
that there is a large sign that says
"Reference Desk" that hangs over
the reference desk.
He says he sometimes answers: "No, we're just sitting
here."
Kimberly Robles, one of the
newest reference librarians, said
the most unusual questions don't
come from students but from outsiders.
Robles, who began working
on campus this summer, recalled
a time when she worked in a library in Virginia and a family had
driven hundreds of miles to find a
history book on their family un
available in that library.
Students on this campus also
ask for information that isn't normally available in the library.
Students will ask for forms,
like financial aid applications or
materials from the registrar's office that can be found in other offices, she said.
In addition to simply answering such questions, which are
among the 90.000 to 95,000 questions asked a year, Robles said, the
reference librarians must also
handle problems and strange occurrences that sometimes arise.
In turn, as the responsibilities
of the librarians increase, the stereotype of the timid librarian becomes unrealistic.
Librarians must be more than
storehouses of knowledge and
book shelvers.
"A lot of people don't understand." Robles said.
"Contrary to what people
think of librarians, we have to be
people-oriented — the opposite of
the stereotype bookworm. You
have to be as friendly as you can
to deal with shy people." Robles
said.
Librarians also have to rely
on their skills to handle strange
situations.
"We get weird people," said
Laura Gal van-Estrada, a reference
librarian who has worked at CSUF
for a little over a year.
Galvan-Estrada said one
weird occurrence happened the
second day of class.
The reference desk received
a phone call from a woman who
said a man was "exposing" himself.
' The reference librarians
called the campus police, but the
suspect couldn't be found.
Reference librarians also get
complaints from students about
other students snoring too loudly.
"The students were complaining that they couldn't study,"
Galvan-Estrada said.
By the time a librarian walked
over to the snoring student, someone had slammed books on the
floor and woke the student up, she
said.
Galvan-Estrada said the ref->
erence desk is the ultimate authority in the library in the evenings
and on weekends.
If problems arise during the
day, the administrative office in
the library takes responsibility.
Often, however, the reference
librarians have few serious problems to worry about.
Usually questions about
where to find a book or where to
find the bathroom are what keep
the reference librarians busy.
Dry campus on horizon?
Krimtl Bryan
INSIGHT
School is back in full swing, and
students are already swamped with
schoolwork.
Although the activities on and
around campus seem endless, there
is still a certain something missing in
the hearts of many CSUF students —
the Bucket.
Since the Bucket changed to the
Coffeehouse and Pub last semester,
life hasn't been the same for some
students. Senior student and former
University restaurant employee
Sandy Gutierrez agreed.
"It wasn't a boring atmosphere
before... it's just not the same," she
said.
the change from the Bucket to
the Coffeehouse and Pub at the beginning of January last year came as
quite a surprise to many university
students. What used to be a hang-out
for students over 21 became a coffee
house for everyone.
At the Bucket, students were
able to purchase large quantities of
beer on tap. With the new Coffeehouse, students can purchase beer by
the glass.
Although the change is a disappointment to some students, others
welcome the new pub.
When asked if there was less
business at the new pub, coffeehouse
bartender Harry Valdez said it "depends on the student."
Valdez doesn't feel that the
prices affect the beer sales, but some
customers disagree. Some people
were upset about the change.
'Three bucks for a glass of beer
is a little bit high," said Coffeehouse
and Pub customer Chris Oakley.
"It's really depressing to see the
atmosphere was gone," said senior
Stacy Garrett.
Although she is sorry to see the
Bucket go, Garrett can see the possible reasoning behind the change.
"I think the whole purpose is to
become a dry campus," she said.
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