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eight.a
Puppy love
Despite the risks, each day students take their dogs to run wild on the rolling hills below the Campanile
story by dan curry * photos by eric sahrmann
Every day, 10 to 20 people exercise their dogs in the area around the Campanile
Yilan Shen, Topeka freshman, sits on the concrete
walkway leading to
the lake, with a dog on her lap,
dog under her arm and a third dog fight inebird behind her back.
"What's wrong with her teeth? Her teeth aren't as sharp." Shen asks Teicher.
The dog she's concerned about is Osita,
Teicher's old beige-colored mongrel.
Teicher explains to Shen that Osita has worn down her teeth by chewing on bones throughout the years.
Other people join the conversation that never veers from the topic of dogs.
A newcomer asks Shen what she feeds her pup for dinner. Somebody else asks about another dog's curious breeding, while another person advises a dog owner that sprinkling cayenne pepper will keep does out of a cat's litter box .
"I felt like something was missing," Teicher says. "I made it a point to introduce myself."
Teicher says that most people learn the names of the dogs before they learn the names of the owners.
Teicher says that the group of dog owners and the pack of dogs have met for potluck dinners on a couple of occasions.
"It's like a canine social atmosphere," says Chris Rairdon, a recent KU graduate from Wichita who has been bringing his dog to the Campanile for a year and a half. "It seems like most of the dogs are owned by people who are really into dogs."
While their owners chat, the yelping animals surge back, two hound-dogs in the vanguard racing after the rope toy that has been flung into the air.
The wrestling dogs in Chen's lap suddenly start enclosing.
When the teeth of the plucky half-Chow pup sink into the folds of the bull dog's jowls, there is no debacle of canicide, no deadly wrangle to the finish.
"Every once and a while, just like people, temps will flare." Teicher says.
each other to become the leader.
But he says he's never seen any blood-shed.
Dogs are more prone to fighting when they are leashed and guarding their territory, he says. Dogs in a pack challenge
"Where there's room for them just to be, they don't have to fight," he says.
Besides, his dog Chamika, a hefty, hairy mongrel, will cool down any smoldering tempers. Teicher says.
"She's become the fight monitor," he says. "She'll jump on the biggest one, and she'll bat at him with her pay."
Rairdon says that he knows there is an ordinance that says dogs should be under the owner's control at all times.
"Like a lot of things, it's not enforced," he says.
Sgt. Troy Mailen, of the KU Public Safety Office, says that the University of Kansas falls on a Lawrence city ordinance that requires dogs to be on a leash or under voice control.
Mailen says that they have responded to several dog bites during the years, but usually the police will respond to only the most serious dog incidents.
"We don't have the manpower to just monitor dog activity," he says. "All we can do is ask people if they are going to bring their animal up here to keep control of it. Utilize the leash. It backs to
common sense. Don't let your animal run loose."
Will Harper, owner of Specialty Dog Training in Topeka, says that letting dogs off their leashes is a dangerous risk.
"Even Lassie and Rin-Tin-Tin are unpredictable," says Harper, who handled dogs for the Marines in the Vietnam wars. "When you get in a pack situation, things can happen."
Harper said that he never lets dogs run loose when he trains them.
"When they're out running, all it took was one dog to take the lead," he says. "I use 30-foot leashes when training.No leash or power, no guarantee."
Raidon admits that people who come to the Campanile have been barked at, but he says that the dogs are safe.
"There isn't any very aggressive dogs" he says.
Rairdon said that for people not accustomed to being with dogs, the hill probably would be a distressing experience.
People who dislike the loose dogs just shuffle off, Teicher says.
"I guess if you don't like dogs you don't go to where there are 50 dogs everywhere," he says.
Black Crowes belt out retro sounds
The Black Crowes
By Your Side
Rating: A-
By Matt Cox
Kansan music boy
The Black Crowes revert back to their old style on By Your Side, capitalizing on blues-based rock instead of the random noise on their previous two albums.
By Your Sides' sound is straight out of the old Rolling Stones era. But The Black Crowes have more energy than the Stones.
It's hard to create many different songs when you limit yourself to a specific style but the Crowes know how to keep it interesting.
Go Faster starts off the album immediately with a straightforward rock beat. Then the bass and guitars immediately explode in a Tom Petty fashion. It's perfect
for driving with the windows down and the volume way up.
On Heavy as well as Kickin' My Heart Around, the Crowes use a group of five extra women background singers to add a layer of thick vocals in the chorus. The guitars seem to sing the lyrics as well.
Go Tell the Congregation is The Black Crowes way of mocking the hypocritical right-wing attitudes. The women's choir is used again to create church-like vocals for an ironic twist in theme. The guitars fly just like in their previous songs to convey their long-living attitude of laid-back angst.
Welcome to the Goodtimes would suit a point in any movie where the main character screws up and wants to get away. Lead singer Chris Robinson sings, "Did you make a big mistake? You curse your fate and wish you could leave this life for just one day." Then he chants some "La Da Das" to music that suggests it'll all be OK soon with the guitars that cry to a slow-
dancing rhythm . It's the anthem to end all anthems.
Horsehead sounds as if it came straight out of a jam session. The concentration seems to be more on the music, which flaunts guitars that crunch harder, reminiscent of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The guitar solos are
extravagant but not cheesy '80s rock-like.
They are perfect for any rock lover.
Overall the album is impressive. I didn't think The Black Crowes could satisfy a modern rock appetite, but they establish their place in the world by producing great music that old and new rockers will value.
Nicholas Cage's 8MM is on target
The movie $\delta MM$ is not the conventional Hollywood detective story. It goes beyond the normal fare by examining the psychological impact on relatively normal people forced to deal with the seedy underworld.
By Brendan Walsh Kansan movie critic
Nicolas Cage plays a private investigator who is hired to find the origin of a snuff film — an amateur film that shows a girl's murder. His quest for the truth takes him into the dirty depths of the illegal pornography world, where he hangs out with lowlifes and perverts. His guide, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is an aspiring musician who dabbles in porn as a way to survive until his big break.
The pair finds the evil doers, confronts them and Cage seems to save the day. Most movies would end with the private investigator hero hugging his wife and baby daughter, but 8MM goes further. The film shows the effects of the private investigator's dance with the devil when Cage's character not only has a difficult time returning to a normal life, but also sinks to the criminals' level with his vigilante behavior.
8MM Rating: B
It's an appropriate movie for the times.
The movie's disturbing morality lesson aside, it is entertaining. Joel Schumacher, better known as the director who ruined the Batman series, has created his best film since Falling Down. The spooky scenes are fast-paced and effective, and the porn underworld he creates is as creepy as one would hope.
In a society where serial killers are excused because of a traumatic childhood experience, this movie tries to explain a way — if not justify — the investigator's crimes by showing that for a period he had to hang out with creepy people.
Writer Andrew Kevin Walker wrote Seven and has written another screenplay in that vein without repeating the story.
and unemotional, but that's his trademark. Phoenix has the coolest movie haircut of the year, and his character is by far the most compelling. He adds a needed element to the film by providing a voice of reason and ally to the private investigator.
The movie's soundtrack is an odd mix of Eastern music and techno that blends surprisingly well. The way that Aphex Twin's song "Come to Daddy" is used in the final confrontation should be used as a lesson in filmmaking classes.
Cage's performance is incredibly dry
Audiences should prepare themselves for a good deal of violence, sex and gore. Those who were offended by *Seven* will be horrified at 8MM, but those not traumatized by rivers of blood will do all right.
EVENTS CALENDAR
Matt Merkel-Hess
*Blow Up.* 2 p.m. Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium, Free.
Black history program. Noon. 120 Budig Hall. Sponsored by African and African-American Studies.
Engineering Expo. Sponsored by the School of Engineering, Keynote speech 9:30 a.m. Lied Center. Open house 10:30 a.m. Learned Halla. 864-3881
"Designing Library Assignments." Cynthia K. Pierard, University Libraries. Noon. 135 Budg Hall. Sponsored by the Center for Teaching Excellence. 864-4199.
Puccinil's "Madame Butterfly." New York City Opera National Company, 8 p.m. Lied Center. $35/30 adults, $34/29 seniors, $17.50/15 students and children, 864-2787.
Fridav. Feb. 26
Sunday. Feb. 28
Visiting artist series. Jonathan Biggers, organ. 7:30 p.m. Bales Recital Hall. 864-3436
Natural Magic and Science Festival. 1:30 p.m. Malot Hall, Sponsored by physics and astronomy, geology, chemistry and atmospheric science departments. 864-4626.
"Metro Suites: a musical journey through American cities." Lawrence Woodwindie Quartet, 2 p.m. Spencer Museum of Art, 864-4710.
KU architecture faculty and student show. Opening reception 2-4 p.m. Show continues through March 5, 864-4401.
Puccinil's "Madama Butterfly." New York City Opera National Company, 8 p.m. Lied Center. $35/30 adults, $34/29 seniors, $17.50/15 students and children, 864-2787.
Saturday, Feb. 27.