jayplay The University
Daily Kansan
Thursday February 7,2002 1B
WHOOPS Scream the wrong name while in bed with another? The problem could be more than mediocrity. SEE PAGE 3B
TALK TO US: Contact Kimberly Thompson at (785) 864-4810 or jayplay@kansan.com
TOILET TRAINING
The Golden Bowl
AARON LERNER/KANSAN
Paper surrounded the toilet in the women's bathroom of Fraser Hall. The men's restroom looked similar, winning the worst bathroom on campus award.
By Leah Shaffer
Kansan staff writer
This year, Jayplay is proud to give out the first-ever "Golden Stalls" awards. Where do you go when you have to "go" on campus? Three bathroom judges went to an assortment of tantalizing toilets on campus to provide you with in-depth information as to where the best
dimension sets where the boat and the worst latrines are located.
Judges
Judge Ian Spiridigliozzi is a Flint, Mich., senior majoring in English. He thinks KU bathrooms are necessary.
Judge April Matthews is a Salina senior majoring in psychology: "I've had good times in these bathrooms. I've cried in them, I've laughed."
Wescoe Hall: Sketchy, very sketchy
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Judge Leah Shaffer is a Hays junior in journalism:"KU bathrooms are sometimes scummy, but lovable."
Judges Matthews and Shaffer agreed that the fourth floor east bathroom was bleak, gray and generally dirty. Matthews appreciated the dark, hidden lounge with its blue couches that lurked in the corner. However, it was later deemed to be a haven for possible criminal activities.
In the men's bathroom, Judge Spiridigliozzi found urinals that would not flush, holes in the stalls and a general lack of entertaining graffiti. Annoying powder soap dispensers and sinks that either dripped or shot out water like a firehose hung from the wall.
Overall rating: 2 out of 5 plungers. / /
Strong Hall: Enter the Wormhole
The bathrooms on the first floor west side of the main lobby of Strong were remodeled, so they looked almost exactly like the bathrooms in Budig Hall. Matthews said the bathrooms had that "new Budig smell" and suggested that the Strong Hall bathrooms were actually wormholes into the Budig bathrooms. However, this could not be verified.
Generally, both the men's and the women's rooms were clean with steel stalls and automatic faucets. One added
bonus: The women's bathroom has a futuristic-looking tampon machine. Nice.
Overall rating 4 out of 5 plungers.
Art and Design: Trippy colors
The Art and Design bathrooms can be dirty, but it's a colorful dirtiness. Multicolored handprints cover the doors. The stalls are bright '60s-era orange. Sinks are stained from paint and charcoal.
Spiridigliozzi said that the men's bathroom had flickering lights and blood-colored floors. Electrical tape kept one of the stall doors up.
Overall rating: 3 out of 5 plungers. / / /
Watson Library: Beware of dungeon bathrooms and graffiti
"With bathrooms in Watson.
you have to fight for every shred of toilet paper you get," said Matthews, who works in Watson. Spiridiglizozzi said that graffiti in the bathrooms listing "sex times" frightened him.
According to Matthews, Watson also contains one of the most unused dungeon bathrooms on campus, located on the first floor near the bookbinding department.
All in all, Watson bathrooms are clean, but beware the unexpected surprises.
Overall rating: 3 out of 5 plungers. / / /
Matthews considered the Union to be her least favorite because of narrow stalls, toilet
BEST AND WORST AWARDS
seats that veer to the right and overall yuckiness. In some cases, automatic sensory motion faucets make up for the mess. Be warned before using the bathrooms: The Union is a high traffic area and the bathrooms can get especially messy and stinky mid-day. However, Spiridigliozzi found the men's room to be decent overall.
Kansas Union, fourth floor: Worst women's restroom
Overall rating: 2 out of 5 plungers. / /
Twente Hall: Best women's restroom
It's a secret gem. In this small, but oh-so-shiny bathroom, the mellow blue tiles glimmer in the late afternoon light. Twente Hall, nudged between Watson and Fraser, used to be the location of the campus hospital, but now it houses the School of Social Welfare. These small, private bathrooms are one of many
small highlights to this gorgeous little stone building.
"You can tell that it's loved and well-taken care of," Matthews said.
Overall rating: 5 out of 5 plungers.
Fraser Hall: Worst Men's bathroom
Fraser is the swamp of all bathrooms," Spiridigliozzi said after he entered the first floor latrine. Inexplicably, the restroom contains four toilet paper rolls for one stall. Spiridigliozzi said that he thought Fraser was the worst because of its general lack of cleanliness and strong smell. The women's bathroom was not much better.
Overall rating: 1 out of 5 plungers.
Learned Hall: Only the best for the engineers...Winner for best Men's
Learned is like the Emerald City of all bathrooms. A lovely mint green wall compliments the maroon stalls and matching floor tiles. The mirrors can be pulled out for primping purposes and its stalls are spotless.
Learned wins the men's award not only for its beauty, but for its back windows that make a handy-dandy escape route. Spiridigliozzi made his exit that way.
As for the Learned women's: "It makes me want to relieve myself." Matthews said.
Overall rating: 5 out of 5 plungers.
Contact Shaffer at lshafer@kansan.com. This story was edited by Sarah Warren.
ROCK SNOB
Urinals in the men's restroom at Wescoe Hall sit unused and unflushed.
AARON LERNER/KANSAN
Delve into the world of rock on the Internet
Obviously, not every band who dares to take a ride through on the performance side of the seamy world of popular music has attained the kind of superstardom that affords gargantuan studio budgets and all-night sessions of flossin' up and down the street in the proverbal benzo.
So how do you familiarize yourself with music outside pop culture's immediate reach? You could always wait around for another inane Artists to Watch special on MTV.
Nonetheless, in a more collective sense, pop music of all denominations is thriving with countless artists surviving by their wits and strict do-it-yourself production philosophies alone.
Wouldn't you rather submerge yourself in an endless resource for information on anyone who's ever committed a note to wax and where you could
COMMENTARY
Andy Gassaway agassaway@kansan.com
research and explore every musical outfit on the planet in a depraved, slack-jawed binge that lasts for days on end?
Boasting inexhaustible biographies and discographies for everyone from the Rolling Stones to the Dead Milkmen, these Web sites are worthy of being bookmarked in any audiophile's browser.
Well, apparently so would millions of other people.
www.insound.com — For the rocker with a jonze for lists, Insound can compensate and then some. Choosing from any of the 28 lovingly ordained musical sub genres featured on the Web site, such as Shoegazing, Lo-fi and Ambient Dub, you are immediately saturated in lists of hundreds of applicable artists. Interestingly, time frames are no object at Insound. For example, the Mysterious — of 96 Tears fame — and? appear next to modern noisemakers, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant under the Garage Rock listing.
www.nexusunderground.com — Reading about bands is cool and stuff, but what about free music?
While being no match for Insound's breadth of covered musical genres, Nexus Underground's arsenal of free independently produced rock Mp3's is impeccable. For the inexperienced, the
web site also provides main-page spots on bands like Radiohead and the Velvet Underground that serve as launchpads to the obscure beyond.
www.allmusic.com — Once you find it, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. You will be hard-pressed to find an artist biography page lacking a promotional photo, complete discography and linked lists of not only related artists, but their roots and influences.
It's a highly addictive web of useless trivia concerning the entire musical galaxy at your fingertips just begging you to play a quick round of Six Degrees of Neil Young. Don't be afraid to give in.
In a matter of minutes, any one of these sites will have you digging some amazing new music and spouting rock trivia like a real scenester — think of the money you'll save on horn-rimmed glasses and microbrew beer.
LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR
TODAY
TODAY The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Mi6, Climber, Jeremy's Box
The Jazzhaus, 926 1/2
Massachusetts St.
Mystical Booty Stick, $3, Horn
Section Funk
El Torreon, 3101 Gillham Plaza, KC
Agonistic Front, T.S.O.L., The
Casualties, Rise Against
Grand Emporium, 3832 Main St., KC On Second Thought
Davey's Uptown Rambler, 3402
Main St., KC
Dipt, Six Percent
FRIDAY
The Bottleneck
Fun Manchu, Injected,
Headstrong (all ages, $8 adv.
tickets). The Wailers, Fat Sal
($16 adv. tickets, $18 DOS)
Abe & Jake's Landing, 8 E.6th St.
The Draft w/ No Lessons
The Jazzhaus Brent Barry Roots Crew ($5),
Reggae
Grand Emporium Con Funk Show
The Pink House
The Paper Chase, Murder in the
Red Barn, Diversion 4.0, TBA
The Pub, 1727 McGee St., KC
The Erfmen, The Shut-ins
JATURDAY The Jazzhaus Paul Galaxy and the Galactics ($4), Roots Rock, Rockabilly
Hurricane, 4048 Broadway St.,
KC
Longwave
Grand Emporium Kinsey Report
SUNDAY
SUNDAY
The Bottleneck
Slobberbone, Bari Koral, Mike
Errico
The Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts St.
Rye Coalition and Catillion,
Camaerosmith
Mike's Tavern, 5424 Troost, KC The Rodgers
MONDAY
The Bottleneck
Open Mic Night ($0 / 2)
Grand Emporium Slobberbone w/ the Drive By Truckers
V
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