THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY APRIL 10,2009
FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2009
NEWS 3A
STUDENT GROUPS
Festival offers a taste-and more-of Japanese culture
BY DAVID UGARTE
dugarte@kansan.com
The Japanese Student Association is bringing a little bit of Japan to Kansas this Saturday with the Japan Festival.
Milho Hayakama, president of JSA, said the festival would demonstrate daily Japanese life, with performances displaying both traditional and modern Japanese culture and hands-on workshops. Hayakama said workshops would include learning to fold origami, writing calligraphy, tea ceremonies and a fortune teller.
"This is a kind of cultural introduction," Hayakama said. "This is a good chance to know an Eastern culture and it is a good chance to meet other people interested in Japanese culture."
Hayakama, Chiba, Japan, senior said the traditional dances in the performance will focus on dif-
few regions of Japan. The performances will include a traditional Okinawan dance called Eisa, and Yosakoi, which is a dance style that developed in southern Japan in the 1950s that combines
based on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", but this year's skit was the "Vertical Relationships,"
"You get a more hands-on experience, rather than just sitting back and watching."
traditional Japanese dance moves with modern music.
CHARLES STERN Topeka senior
The performances will include a main skit to explain a part of Japanese culture.
Erik Christensen, 2008 graduate from Wichita, said the main skit in last year's performance was
Christensen said this year's skit would show how people who are younger have to show respect to people who are older in Japanese society in various situations. He said the skits would teach a real part of Japanese culture while incorporating comedy, and some of the skits would exaggerate how extremely polite younger people are to their elders.
As part of the series of performances, Christensen said he would act out a single-person narration called "Rakugo," a traditional Japanese comedy routine where the actor portrays several characters using old Japanese language, with a punch line at the end.
JAPAN FESTIVAL
WHO: Japanese Student Association
WHO: Japanese Student Association
WHEN: Saturday, April 11
WHERE: Stage performances will be in Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union Workshops will be in The Big
12 room, Kansas Union Dinner will be in the Ecumenical Christian Ministries
Charles Stern, Topeka senior and a public relations officer for
"We want people to watch in order to learn just a little more about Japanese culture than they knew before," Christensen said.
Stage performances from 2:30 to 5:30
Workshops from 5:30 to 7:30
Dinner from 7:30 to 9:30
the festival, said the purpose of the workshops was to give students a hands-on cultural experience.
"This will help get people involved and they will learn more about Japanese culture," Stern said. "You get a more hands-on experience, rather than just sitting back and watching."
Hayakama said the dinner held after the workshops would focus
on typical Japanese "countryside" food. Hayakama said the dinner would include a sweet potato tempura that was more common for Japanese people than stereotypical sushi.
("Tempura) is one of the most popular foods in Japan," Hayakama said. "It is more popular than sushi. This is more homemade."
Christensen said the goal of the festival was to get people interested in Japanese culture and to watch and participate to get to know Japan better than they did before.
"We live in an international society now, everything is connected," Christensen said. "It's a chance to broaden your worldview."
Edited by Casey Miles
Making music on Mass
Caleb Sommerville/KANSAN
Danielle Comstock, Lawrence resident, plays her ukelele on Massachusetts Street on April 8. She said she plays on Mass St. just to be outside and to "make a little money, too."
MUSIC
MUSIC KU Drumline to perform at Royals' home opener
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The KU drumline always watches the rest of the Marching Jayhawks sprint down the steps of Memorial Stadium for football pre-game shows. But tonight the drumline will have the privilege of running down the steps on the first and third baselines of Kauffman Stadium for the Kansas City Royals' home opener.
The drumline will take the field at 3:10 p.m, with drummels from three area high schools for a pregame cadence. The performance will be preceded by fireworks, and will be followed by a dance team made up of local dance groups.
"This event is to celebrate not only the home opener, but to celebrate the finish of numerous great improvements to Kauffman Stadium," Andy Jackson, Overland Park sophomore, said.
Jackson, a section leader of the KU drumline, said the group was asked to perform in the mass drumline and had two rehearsals in the refurbished stadium. Jackson said the idea of traveling back and forth to Kansas City, Mo., didn't discourage the drumline from the unique opportunity to play at the recently renovated Kauffman Stadium.
"We were responsible for driving ourselves to the stadium all three days, but that didn't turn anyone off to the idea of playing for the Royals' home opener," Jackson said.
The next performance for the KU winter drumline will take place at Memorial Stadium just one day after its Royals performance for Saturday's spring football game at 2 p.m.
Adam Samson
South Park's portrayal incenses rapper
CELEBRITY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — "South Park" may have accomplished the impossible — getting Kanye West to check his ego.
West's love of himself and his work has been almost as integral to his image as his music: Just last year, he told The Associated Press that he was the "voice of this generation." Also recently, he was quoted as saying his greatest regret was not being able to see himself perform live.
In this animated still released by Comedy Central, a cartoon version of rapper Kanye West is shown on an episode of "South Park." West was upset that Wednesday's episode of the show suggested he was a gay fish.
The Comedy Central show skewered the famously self-important rapper Wednesday night, painting him as a narcissist so out of touch with reality he couldn't take a (politically incorrect) joke.
Yet, on his blog Thursday, West appeared chastened, and ready to turn over a new leaf.
In typical all-caps mode,
he wrote: "SOUTH PARK
MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT"
AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHATCANYOUEXPECTFROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE
West said that he started stroking his ego long ago to build up his self esteem — but he now realizes he needs to "GET PAST MYSELF"
CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER"
ELECTION
Commissioners detail ideas for KU
BY MIKE BONTRAGER mbontrager@kansan.com
Mike Amyx, Aron Cromwell, and Lance Johnson were elected to Lawrence city commission Tuesday evening.
Here's what the elected city commissioners plan to do to help KU and the student population.
MIKE AMYX
Amyx
"I suppose the biggest thing is continue to work with KU on Wheels. We try to put together and coordinate a transportation system between the T system that we have here in Lawrence. I think that's one of the biggest ways we can help. The financial assistance that we got through the sales tax
bill passed back in November coupled with the stimulus funds to help us buy new buses, the work that's being done through the joint consultant to help with bus
routes now. I think that is one of the best ways we can work as a community both with KU students and the city of Lawrence and working on transportation needs for the future."
ARON CROMWELL
"Job opportunities are a huge part of it and one of the big things I'm going to be focused on right away is increasing the number of living wage jobs that we have in Lawrence. I really would love
ELECTION RESULTS
Lawrence City Commission
Candidate Votes %
Mike Amyx 5,564 22.1
Aron Cromwell 3,982 15.8
Lance Johnson 3,572 14.2
Price Banks 3,413 13.6
James Bush 3,241 12.9
Gwen Klingenberg 2,470 9.8
Dennis Constance 2,204 8.8
Tom Johnson 700 2.8
to see our KU games not be held
to see our KU out of town, as far as in Kansas City. Our home games being out of town, that hurts us, that's sort of a KU issue. I've talked a little bit here about living conditions, rental registration. That sort of thing is an important issue as well and I want to help encourage the livability of our residences for students. I'm very much in favor of increasing bicycle friendliness of our city; we're getting kind of mid-grade marks on that, which is better than nothing, but there's some room that we have to go. I got around almost exclusively on a bicycle when I was at KU and I think there's still a lot of that going on."
Cromwell
Public School Board Results
Candidate Votes %
Mark Bradford 3,661 18.7
Vanessa Sanburn 3,596 18.4
Bob Byers 3,055 15.6
Tom Hartley 2,426 12.4
Thom Hepford 2,399 12.3
Michael Riley 1,736 8.9
Michael Pomes 1,641 8.4
John Mitchell 1,030 5.3
LANCE JOHNSON
"We'll I think the biggest impact that I could do — and it's something I ran my campaign on — we need to be focused on getting jobs going here in Lawrence and attracting new jobs. I think that provides more opportunities for students on either a short-term or part-
time basis, to have a job to work while they're going to school or ultimately they can graduate and be able to live here
Johnson
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
in Lawrence instead of having to move away. So that really goes back to building up a tax base through jobs, and I think with the new chancellor coming in, it presents a real opportunity for the city and KU to sit down and talk about what can the city do to help KU as well as the students and I'm open to that."
Edited by Casey Miles
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