Poughkeepsie Journal from Poughkeepsie, New York • Page 21

rt 4, i 4 I life A leisure Monday Fobruory 26, 1979 Poughkeepile Journal 21 Comics, puzzles Page 23. Ann: Help my daughter. Pago 24. Bat Dor review. Page 24.

inaaaaaaaaaaaKIMiif KJMfl tHK jIsiiMkIkJ 'i 1 Hb. sJBMPwwBiBteiHPl PlmJHHHBBHP mHBbvSWIBv jubnHBflHH Is death really the end Terry Michos of Poughkeepsie from "Warriors" turf jpeopteEMOTheArts By Jeffrey Borak Journal staff writer He Is baby faced, happy go lucky and he has an eye for the ladles Good looking and solidly built, he is known as Vermin by his companions in The Warriors, a fictional street gang which is the focus of a movie bearing their name as the title. But off screen, Poughkeepsie native Terry Michos is an intense, energetic and talented young man with an eye on his.career, And like The Warriors' struggle to get back to their turf in Brooklyn, Michos is learning very quickly that staking out his turf in show business Is not going to be easy. A graduate of Arlington Senior High School, Michos took up acting almost as a lark when he was asked to just fill in reading a few lines at auditions Dutchess Community College production of "Broadway." "I finally auditioned seriously the last day," he said during a telephone Interview from his apartment in New York. "I had never done this before.

I read my lines facing the back of the stage. I jokingly told the director I would only do the play If he gave me the lead. He did." One role led to another and Terry plunged into doing stage work at Dutchess Community College ana local community theater groups, He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York for a year. It was there that he met the late Herbert Machiz. "He was as intense as I was and he kept telling me to stop shouting so much; that I was excessive.

Then, at the end of the year, he asked me to be In a musical he was doing in North Carolina," Michos said. "That year under Herbert was traumatic but I learned a lot. I always have had a high energy level. Herbert taught me to trust myself enough to relax and just let things come. As a result, I think I've matured quite a bit over the past four years." After North Carolina, Michos returned to AADA but after three months he left.

"I decided to go out on my own. I was scared," he said. "I was com oletely overwhelmed. I had no agent, I had to have photographs taken. But I believed in God and I believed things would work out He was cast in the 13th Street Theatre production of Israel Horovitz' "Line" and went from there Into a seven month run of "The New York City Street Show." Through that how, he met several agents and was (aken on.

by Associate Talents Agen i cy. But things were slow, He support ed himself by working as a waiter in the 10 p.m. a.m. shift at a Times Square restaurant and then took a month and a half off by himself in a retreat Qn Block Island. "I came back to New York after that determined that acting was what I wanted to do." He read for a role In the film "Blo odbrothera" but was turned down, he ays, "because I really didn't know how to read for a film.

My reading was too Intense. I read as if I were auditioning for a play. One of the things you learn quickly is bow to audition for different things." His break came with "Grease." He was one of 10 finalists for a national touring company of the show and wa the only one of the 10 not to be taken. "I was heartbroken. I went back to working on the screenplay I had started on Block Island.

Then, a month later, the producers called and asked me to be an understudy." The resignation of a cast member landed him the role of Sonny in "Grease." He went out on the road for nine months and when he came back to New York he appeared in the Broadway company as an occasional replacement. It was while he was preparing to go into another touring company of "Grease" that "The Warriors" came along. "Once again, I was one of 10 finalists and once again they took everybody but me so I went out with "Grease." I came back to New York to with the casting directors for two street gang movies which are to be released soon when my agent told me they wanted me for 'The The role originally was written for a short, plain looking fellow. In the original version. Vermin was doomed to be bumped off before the end of the picture.

"The character I started developing had a lot of charm," Michos said, "and so they decided to let him live. The role also was enlarged." The film has drawn generally unfavorable reactions from critics but it has been the top grossing film on Variety's Top SO list for the last two weeks "The film is not trying to be real," Michos said. "There is no blood in our film. It's like the kind of John Wayne film In which people are getting hit over the head with chairs and they get up and walk away. "The reason, 1 think, they stayed away from violence is because the film Is geared towards a young, easily influenced audience.

It appeals to the macho instincts of men wanting to stick together. I didn't think it would be a hit." But the film is a hit and that could be money In the bank for Michos. "A film like this, coming on top of my Grease' credits, gives me buying power with an agent. There's some film they can show," he said, adding that he has just signed on with another, more prestigious talent agency. The days of waiting on tables are i over.

When he Is not working, Michos lives on the money he has earned for "The Warriors," his savings from "Grease" and unemployment. And while he has had several nibbles from television producers, film is where he wants to be. "'Very few actors are able to make the transfer from television to film successfully," he said. "It's hard to get a film role, no matter who you are. Even big stars have difficulty," he said.

"I believe this 1 my course. There will be hard times, there will be good times. "You have to audition, you have to do your screen tests, you have to be seen and be vocally and physically right. Once you've done your thing, you can't alford to worry about being cast. "I don't think of myself as competing with anyone.

What's mine Is mine, what's theirs Is theirs. Acting simply lets me express emotions I could never express before without getting Into trouble. "My faith Is strong. I almost know I was guided to be here." EDITOR'S NOTE: This Is the sixth in a series of IS articles exploring "Death and Dying: Challenge and Change," to appear in the Journal on Mondays. The series Is being offered in conjunction with Marist College as part of a continuing education course.

In today's article, theologian and psychologist Edgar N. Jackson examines beliefs in immortality from prehistoric times to the present. R. Rhys Williams, assistant pro fessdr of religious studies at Marist, will be available from II a m. until noon on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays to answer questions and discuss course related topics by telephone.

Further information about the course may be acquired through the Marist office of continuing education Courses by Newspaper were developed by the University Extend" sion of the University of California, San Diego, and are funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. By Edgar N. Jackson Luke played professional football. He was big, tough, and assured. When the doctor told him he had cancer and had only a few months to live, Luke was angry, confused, and felt cheated Why me? he asked the hospital chaplain.

What's life alt about if death comes so quickly? What's next? Is this the end of me? Luke's questions are our questions, too. Dead and burled the end? Doesn't some part of us survive the cessation of biological function? These are old and persistent questions to which humans for ages have sought answers. Beliefs about some form of life after death are among our oldest known concepts. Neanderthal people, more than 100,000 years ago, buried their dead with ceremonies that suggested beliefs in immortality. In Persia, 60,000 years ago, grain and other provisions were placed in the grave for use in the next life.

Some of the most towering monuments of history the pyramids of Egypt, Central America, and Mexico, for example are evidence of the persistent belief in survival after death. Traditionally, most major religions have expressed beliefs about an afterlife for the human soul. Such conceptions of life after death have taken various forms, from the vision of a bleak underground of the Homeric Greeks, through the prospect of judgment of the ancient Egyptians and the Judaeo Christlan tradition, to the Hindus' and Buddhists' belief in an almost endless series of reincarnations. Taken together, the importance of such beliefs In different religions suggests a persistent human need to believe that some form of existence continues after physical death. Meanwhile, materialistic philosophies that seek to reduce the human to the level of a biological organism give a simple answer to the question of life after death: When the human machine wears out or breaks down, it Is finished.

To think of life after death is self deception, we are told, and to encourage such an idea is at best religious manipulation or at worst, cruel. However, after a steady decline In religious participation, we have recently witnessed in the United i amies a resurgence oi religious andi Im hnth Innal and nontraditional forms. Evangelism, faith healing, prophecy, as well as occultism, satanlsm, witchcraft, spiritualism, and the scientific study of the supernatural are all current manifestations of the ancient yearning for answers to the mysteries of death. Capping this renaissance of spiritual questing has been excitement over the prospect of providing scientific verification of survival after death. Recently, for instance, much Interest has been shown in the writings of Raymond Moody and Elisabeth Kubler Ross, who explore the experience of surviving clinical death, in which there are no apparent vital signs.

Dr. Moody, a physician, in his best selling book Life After Life, reports numerous accounts of individuals who had apparently died or been very near death and who survived to tell of wondrous, peaceful feelings, cities of light, and glowing vistas. Kubler Ross, the well known psychiatrist, has publicized her own and other out of body experiences as well as her conviction that the human spirit survives the death of the body. The tremendous Interest In such accounts appears to be a quest for flBeiimnp.a thai rnnnnl hp hlnttprl ktltMnl I1.J uub a viuiugnai event ldhcu death. Traditionally, religion provided such assurances.

It is significant that people now look to science for answers. However, It would be unfortunate if the answers were misleading. As Dr. Samuel Vaisrub, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, observed, Resuscitation is not resurrection. Nor Is reassurance a substitute for reality.

Robert Kastenbaum, superintendent of Cushlng Hospital in Massachusetts, has studied responses to clinical death and finds that most people don't seem to have life after life experiences. It seems more reasonable to seek answers that are less dramatic than accounts of resuscitated patients but more valid in their scientific perspective on consciousness and the nature of reality. Here our quest may be more rewarding and our finding more trustworthy. New scientific attitudes hdve recently made all human experience, both physical and psychological, a valid field for laboratory examination. One such area of research Is the supernatural and extrasensory experiences, such as mental telepathy, that cannot be readily exp lained In terms of our known sense organs For example, when I speak at conferences on consciousness and ask how many believe in immortality, few raise their hands.

But when I ask how many have had extrasensory experiences, the response is often nearly unanimous. Yet the two concepts are related. The extrasensory or paranormal Illustrates a different relationship to i space and to me. The laboratory methods now being used to explore consciousness as well as clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition are beginning to shed light on the possibility of human survival after death. In medical centers around the world, neurologists are expanding our knowledge of the human mind.

Indicative of the new trends in medical research on the frontiers of the mind Is a 1977 article by psychiatrist Ian Stevenson In the highly respected The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases. Stevenson, after studying more than 1600 cases of persons who claim to have previously occupied other physical bodies, concludes. The evidence of human survival after death is strong See Ii there page 24. 7 tried not to sound shocked' By Nlkl Scott How do they see us, these men for whom we work? What do they say when we're not around? I telephoned a dozen young executives in various areas of the country, promised their privacy would be protected, then tried not to sound shocked at what they said. All 12 men are under 42 and college graduates.

Eight are married, three are divorced, one is separated from his wife. All have at least one child. Each supervises at least two women, but not one had yet worked alongside a woman with equal job status. And every one of them said women behave differently from men In the office. While what they said may be untrue may make all of us furious It can't hurt to know the false assumptions which might be made about us by men In the office.

Most of these young men still believe women are too emotional on the Job. We may cry, which still makes them apprehensive; we tend to be moody; we take everything too personally and we hold grudges. "My secretary will sulk for a whole (' day over something I don't even remember. A woman won't tell you what's wrong she expects you to notice she's unhappy and ask," said an advertising executive in Atlanta. "If I don't tell the girls what a good job'they're doing at least once a week they get moody and difficult.

You don't have to tell a man he knows If he's doing good job," said an insurance man In Dallas. Furthermore, these men overwhelmingly think "a lot of women" do not behave professionally In the office. "If, my assistant spent as much time working as she does wondering what other people are saying, we'd get a hell of a lot more done. As it is, she's too concerned with office gossip and I think a lot of women are like that," said the branch manager of a Chicago bank. I "She can get ail nun ana upset over some minor slight and the rest of the day Is waste.

And if the gets mad at someone, watch outl You women cad be terrible to each other. Vicious he added. Stereotyped? False? Unfair? Yes. But these men believe It, nevertheless. They still believe we're not as serious about our careers as we should be, too still believe "most" or "almost all" women don't really have to work, "I think most women will quit a Job If their husband can support them to have kids, if nothing else.

They may come back to work when the kid is older, but what do we do In the asked the head of a chemical engineering department. "Most women are not supporting families, no matter what you say. They can afford to quit If they want to. They don't have to worry so much about getting said public relations expert In Los Angeles. We aren't Interested in more responsibility either, these men Insisted.

"Most of the women who work for me do not want to think for themselves. They want to be told what to do they don't want to (I M.w llgiuo vui auu gu uu, a nvw iulk department store executive said Furthermore, nine of the 12 do not believe women are discriminated against In the labor market. "I don't think women are discriminated against I think white males are," said one. 'Today, a woman can do anything she wants women and blacks are the first hired and the last fired." And an automobile design engineer, who is black, said, "We can't hire a man here If a woman applies. We have to hire HER, or we could end up In court.

I have nothing against women working here, but that's These 12 young, educated, white collar workers believe other myths, as well. If you are distressed, you are not alone. But at least we can be aware of the myths and the assumptions knowing they will be unspoken for the most part. After all, it never hurts to know what you might be up against. If you have questions or subjects relating to Working Woman which you wish to share, please write Nlkl Scott, Universal Press syndicate, 6700 Squibb Mission, Kan.

66202, If you wish as personal reply please enclose a self addressed 'stamped envelope. 4 U.M ti till v' JM.