Currier's Got Music Videos

As if there weren't already enough reasons to live in the Quad. This week Currier House got the Juke.

For a mere quarter, this complete video entertainment center will scream out a song. For 50 cents, the Juke will blast out one of 38 video selections, including Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" and Steve Winwood's "Higher Love."

Who could ask for anything more.

Located in front of the Currier House grill, the Juke stands seven feet tall and sports a 22-by-16 inch sceen. Its speakers are loud. Very loud. And, whether it's fed money or not, the Juke is programmed automatically to play videos and televised alcohol advertisements.

The Currier House Committee rented the mammoth music machine from Woburn Vending. "I wasn't even looking for a video jukebox," says Currier House Treasurer Nancy Cohen '88, "They just had one available. Cheap."

Jennifer St. Louis '88, who works at the Currier House grill, says "it makes the grill more like a party, instead of like work." Viki Hom '89, who lives down the hall from the Juke, says "I think it's interesting. I never thought something like this would be here."

Opposition Movement

Not all the reactions to Currier's first pay-MTV have been favorable. Around Currier House, several residents have hung posters reading: "It's ugly. It's noisy. It's in bad taste. Nuke that Juke!"

"In a word, it's obnoxious," says Siddhartha Mitter '89, a Social Studies concentrator. "In several words, the lower main area of Currier House is a public area and has key public services like the grill and the TV."

"To have someone else's musical tastes blaring at you and covering all other sounds is essentially obnoxious," says Mitter, who distributed some anti-Juke posters.

Mitter says he and a group of Currier residents will petition the house committee Sunday night to negotiate some settlement between the pro-and anti-Juke factions. Putting a lock on the machine's volume, prohibiting its use at night, or trading it in for a regular juke box are some of the compromises Mitter says he will propose.

A Currier House tutor, who asked not to be identified, predicted the demise of the Juke "as soon as the novelty wears off and the narrowness of selection sets in."

Until then, the music box feud of '86 will continue. But with a "Kung-Fu Master" videogame, a talking cop-chase pinball game, and packs of Quadlings dancing and eating in front of the Juke, the grill will remain, some say, more fun than the Currier House ball.