Patrick County High School - Archive Yearbook (Stuart, VA)

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Tony Lawson makes a tremendous contribution to the group’s sound with his knowl¬ edge of the bass guitar. Ted Slate performs a solo number on the drums. (L to R) Tracy, Ted, Tony, and Robby, who compose the group DIONYSOS, are a high energy group with potential to please any crowd. Lending his voice to background vocals, Robby McCann gives his ail. Dionysus 27

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DIONYSUS: Aiming For The Top The four-man bound DIONY¬ SOS was named after the Greek God of wine, women, and drama. Although they per¬ form without wine or women, a sense of drama is exhibited when this rock n roll band is put on stage. The group’s style reflects such bands as Van Halen, AC DC, and REO Speedwagon, though they also play top 40 hits. Tony Lawson, a senior, is the bassist for the band. Tracy Childress, a junior, plays lead guitar and sings vocals, and, freshman Robby McCann plays rhythm and sings vocals. Ted Slate, the fourth member from Mt. Airy, plays the drums and also sings. Tony, Tracy, and Robby be¬ gan playing together two and a half years ago, with Ted joining them a year later. The band has become widely known in Pat rick County and the surround ing counties, performing at lo cal high schools, clubs, par ties, charity benefits, dances talent shows, and local com munity buildings. This is all in addition to the twenty to thirty hours a week they spend just rehearsing for their perfor¬ mance. The young men have estab¬ lished the band as their career. They have recorded an 8-track tape of entirely original materi¬ al and plan to record an album in the near future. The recording was made at Granite City Recording in Mt. Airy, N.C., costing the band forty dollars an hour. Proceed¬ ing the release of their materi¬ al, the “profits doubled” says Tracy. Each member of DIONY¬ SUS, including the two-man DIONYSUS dangerously explodes on stage wherever they perform. road crew of David Niten and Chad McCann, helped in the selling of the tapes; although some local record and music stores participated, too. To get a “gig”, or reserva¬ tion, to play somewhere, the group has their availability publicized on Mt. Airy radio stations, business cards, pic¬ ture flyers, and T-shirts with the “DIONYSUS” logo printed on them. With the rate of popularity that DIONYSUS is achieving, it is hoped that the three origi¬ nal members will be proud to call PCHS their alma mater when they reach the heights of fame and fortune. Putting his endless rehearsal hours to work, Tracy Childress plays every cord to perfection. % I • ■■■ ». ... :js ' sSi .V z 26 Dionysus

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THE ARCADIAN CHALLENGES Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Missle Command The adrenalin flows, your heart begins to speed up, and you find a surge of formerly buried energy begin to rise within you. Your senses are tuning in—your hearing is in¬ vaded by resounding sounds from space—computerized sounds of crash, bleeps and blips, and the terminal kaboom of having your last spacecraft blown to smithereens. Your eyes are bombarded with an array of brightly col¬ ored flashing lights as the chal¬ lenge continues to rise. Excite¬ ment mounts as the patterned sounds speed and the frequen¬ cy of light flashes quickens. You’ve almost lost touch with the outside pressures of life that surround you all day with a burdening weight that lays heavy on your mind, and for a brief moment, you revel in the frivolity of finding yourself in the arcade. Games surround you, each with their enticing gimmicks to lure you to them. The challenge is upon you the moment you walk through the door. You are surrounded and you quickly dig through your pockets for the quarter that it takes to accept the chal¬ lenge. Midway Division’s Pac-Man, the most current of the sizzling successes, and Space Invad¬ ers, the all-time champ of com¬ puter games lead in popularity among eager boys, curious girls, and interested adults. Space Invaders challenges the player with alien hordes that attack in close-order sui¬ cide formation. With seductive simplicity, the game leads you to believe that with only a few more quarters, you will be a master zapper. It’s you or them. Pac-Man appeals to all age groups and particularly to fe¬ males, perhaps because of its “cuteness”. The colorful screen displays a maze lined with dots that must be de¬ voured by Pac-Man. Simple? Hardly. All the while, you are attempting to negotiate the labyrinth, a gang of little fiends are giving chase. The brightly colored characters and the sound effects are interesting as well as amusing. Atari’s Missle Command and Asteroids are also popular with arcadians. Asteroids, sim¬ plified, is no more than a trian¬ gular ship that dodges or blasts large rocks. There are no color effects in this game, yet its appeal is due to the versatil¬ ity of the controllabel space¬ ship. For your quarter, Missle Command gives you the re¬ sponsibility of protecting six cities by destroying enemy missies with missies of your own. As long as one of your cities survives, the game con¬ tinues. Controversy surrounds the new video craze as vendors cash in on the popularity of the games. Critics complain that the games take away from study time as well as allowances. There is controver¬ sy too, over the games that tend to glorify violence, yet, computer game advocates claim that the contests require both strategy and endurance. “I think it helps your re¬ flexes,” states eighth grader Mike Hiatt, ‘‘but, it’s a waste of money.” The challenge is there, though. All you need to do is walk through the doors to arcadia, and reach into your pocket. Pac-Man’s popularity does not stop with the boys. Junior Jackie Mitchell tries her hand at maneuvering the cute “dot” through the maze. 28 Arcade