music
Bands love the limelight
By JL Watson
Kansan staff writer
Above, Mark Rasmussen, keyboardist in the band "So What," performs at Paradise Cafe.
Valerie Bontrager / KANSAN
The work isn't steady, there are no guarantees, and the hours are long. Nevertheless, the people who do it enjoy it and keep coming back for more. They are the members of the band.
Lawrence resident Sean Cruse is one such member and admits he is addicted.
and he is about to give it up.
"I grew up in music," he said. "I could have a job making 80 to100 grand a year and it still wouldn't compare to the feeling I get when I play."
Cruse plays with Slainjammy, a Lawrence funk, rock and alternative band. It's a far cry from the music he played as a child at church. Then he played bongos. Now he showcases his talents on guitar.
Cruse has played with bands for the past 12 years. He estimated that during time that he had spent $2,500 on equipment. It's an expensive habit, but worth it, he said. "I'm struggling, but not starving."
10 help defray costs of his performing habit, Cruse, like many musicians, works a day job at Party Pak Ice, 920 Delaware St. He views this as a temporary situation. "I'd like to record and put out my own music and eventually produce other bands," he said. "I'm not so consumed with myself that I can't work with other people. I'd like to write for other bands."
In the meantime, Cruse said he performed for the personal satisfaction of it. "It doesn't coincide with corporate America, but I play what comes from the heart. I'm
"So What"
looking for exposure, but mostly I'm doing something I want to do."
Valerie Bontrager/ KANSAN
I can't describe the feeling of being in front of an audience," she said. "I get to do something I love, we get paid, and everyone has a good time."
However, Russell points out that performing is not as glamorous as many people think. "The hours are rough, and sometimes we don't get to bed until three or four in the morning, and for those of us who are students and have to get up and go to class the next day it can be hard," she said.
Unlike Cruse, Russell does not plan to make music her career. "I don't think I can make a living playing the club circuit," she said. "It's physically and emotionally exhausting. It's something I enjoy, and I think of it as a hobby."
Russell said the best performances happen when the audience participates by dancing and having fun. "We also have bad performances," she said. The worst gig Russell recalled was a wedding reception where the parents of the couple kept asking the band to turn down the music.
"I don't think they realized how loud live music is," she said. The final fiasco came when the mother of the bride asked if she could sing "Amazing Grace" with the band.
"For local bands we book bands we know will draw well," he said. "If we're not familiar with a band, then we listen to the demo and if the sound is tight, then we book them." Roberts books bands as far as four months in advance.
Local bands will usually play for a variety of events, but prefer bookings in clubs. Dave Roberts, manager of Hockenbury's Tavern, 1016 Massachusetts St., is in charge of booking local and national acts for the club.
The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. goes through the same process, said employee Joel Stuart.
a new band is trying to get regular bookings, they usually play open mic," he said.
Open-mic performances helped Russell and Soul Shaker when they started three years ago. "It takes a lot of persistence to get a gig," Russell said. "Our guitar player does our booking. Some bands have a manager to do it, but it's an expense we can't afford."
Don Mumford, drummer in 'So What,' added emotion to the music as he plays at Paradise Cafe.
For many amateur and professional bands who want to play for a live audience, it is not the money or the chance to make it big that keeps them playing. It is that feeling they can't describe: the experience of being onstage.
Jazz is musicians' incentive as band enjoys music's rush
JL Watson
Kansan staff writer
With the precision of a painter applying strokes to a canvas, Don Mumford brushs his drums. Just when the beat becomes a whisper, he rocks back and rounds the skins full force. Bassist
pounds the scars fun tore*; Balsam
Star Sheldon and keyboard Marks
The jazz that fills the air at Paradise Cafe, 728 Massachusetts St., draws a steady Thursday night crowd. Many of the patrons just listen to the music and have no idea just how far the musicians in the band "So What" have come.
"Music has literally taken me all over the world," said Sheldon, Lawrence sophomore. "I've played with hundreds of bands, touring and doing studio work."
During the 1970s, Sheldon played
other obstacles to success include bills. Keyboardist Rasmussen said he sometimes had to pawn his gear to nav bills.
For every band there are perks, but also a down side.
"The worst part about being in a band, especially a big one, is the drug addiction." Sheldon said. "I lost my best friend to it."
with Peter Frampton's band. Music was his career. Now Sheldon still plays, but in smaller venues. Education is now his career. He is a full-time student and plans to pursue a graduate degree.
"I also have to drive a bus in order to make money," he said. Rasmusm hopes to one day support himself
"There is no way to plan a music career," he said.
"It not always steady work."
Music has literally taken me all over the world. "
from his music
Stan Sheldon Passist
"I have to decide how I want to package myself," he said. "I might do a solo record."
If a musical career doesn't work out for Rasmussen, he would consider working on the corporate side of the music industry, but he said his greatest satisfaction came from performing.
"I create music to speak to people's hearts," he said.
"So What?" has a growing audience of jazz appreciators, Rasmussen said. "We're not as popular as rock bands, but people tell us what they think. Sometimes they'll come up to us after the show and say, 'Man, you goused good tonight,' or, 'I'm glad you added some new stuff. I was gettin' tired of the old stuff."
the members of "So What" don't mind taking the slower road, at least for the time being. The rush isn't in the glory, the fans or the fortune. It's all in the music.
Get a feel for history from foreign films
Editor's Note: Beginning this week, the features page occasionally will publish video reviews. This week's review focuses on foreign films that portray community change. Susanna Loof is a Vesteraf, Sweden, freshman.
"Europa Europa" is one of those films you don't forget. The story, based on Solomon Perel's autobiography, is absorbing and true.
Solomon is a jewish boy living happily with his family in Germany when World War II breaks out. The family moves to Poland to escape persecution. When the war approaches Poland, too, Solomon's father sends his two sons away. The boys head for Russia, but on the way, Solomon and his brother are separated.
"Europa Europa," Germany,
1901. Directed by Agnieszka Holland.
115 minutes. German and Russian with English subtitles.
REVIEWER
Solomon ends up in a Russian orphanage where he survives by denying he is Jewish. When the Germans later attack the orphanage, he claims to be an Aryan German and is sent to a Nazi youth
camp. Swearing loyalty to a government that is trying to destroy his people confuses Solomon. He has trouble distinguishing his friends from his enemies and hiding the fact that he is circumcised.
The hero of "Europa Europa," Solomon, is a survivor with a strong will to live. The film offers a moving insight into the insanity of war and racism, but is also highly entertaining.
Nikhil, a man with modern ideas, lives in Bengal, India, around the turn of the century. He speaks English and breaks Indian
"The Home and the World." India, 1984. 130 minutes. Bengali with English subtitles.
Viewers of "The Home and the World" are not allowed to see much of the rebellion against the British. Those events painfully are portrayed by long-winded discussions rather than dramatizations. A snail's pace characterizes the movie, and the uninvolved performances by the actors and actresses make the movie tedious.
Life is pleasant for the duo until one of Nikhil's childhood friends shows up. He is a politician working against British leaders who want to divide Bengal into two parts. Nikhil's wife is attracted to the charismatic man and starts to support his protectionist views. Nikhil is vehemently against them.
tradition by encouraging his wife to get an education and develop opinions of her own.
If you have a hard time falling asleep, give "The Home and the World" *a* try; otherwise, skip it.
"The Cranes are Flying," USSR, 1957, black and white. Directed by Mikhail Katalazov. 96 minutes. Russian with English subtitles.
"The Cranes are Flying" has the potential to be a really bad movie. The subtitles are terrible. The translators have chosen to translate only what they found important. To make matters worse,
they are saying all the time. You can feel it.
The "Cranes are Flying" tells us the beautiful and tragic love story of Boris and Veronica, whose tender and close relationship is interbe better. A crackling noise con continues throughout the movie.
"Despite the technical problems,the movie is expressive."
rupted by World War II. Boris voluntises to fight for his country, leaving Veronica behind. Even though she is on the front, the dangerous war is brought close by bombing
Yet, "The Cranes are Flying" is one of those movies I gladly would see again. Somehow, the crackling is charming, just like the fact that the film is black and white. The actors and actresses, especially Tatiana Samolowia (Veronica), convey their feelings so well that it does not matter that you do not know exactly what
raids. When both of her parents are killed in a raid, Veronica's will is broken. She marries Boris' cousin, who treats her miserably, but she cannot forget her one and only love, Boris.
Despite the technical problems, the movie is expressive and touching. A thrilling cinematography is created by lights and shadows.
People and places at the University of Kansas.
Childbirth happens in hospital,in jail or near third base
■ Among the births recorded in July: a son, to Mesa, Ariz, teacher Janie Burke, delivered on the floor of her fifth-grade classroom shortly after the beginning of a math test, a daughter, to St. Joseph, Mich., inmate Jennifer Zandarski, delivered in a jail cell in which she was housed after being accused of stabbing her boyfriend; and a son, to a 16-year-old El Paso, Texas, softball player minutes after she left her position at third base during a state tournament in Alabone.
Elephant Addicts
In July, the government of Thailand started a hospital program to treat elephants addicted to amphetamines. The elephants were given the drugs to make them work harder and to withstand injury in hauling logs out of jungles.
in a July article on Northern Ireland's aggressive tourist industry, Newsweek reported that despite its long-running, bloody civil war, the country has a crime rate that is one-fourth that of Sweden and a murder rate one-fifteenth that of Washington, D.C.
In the first seven months of the year in New Delhi, India, at least 58 people were killed in bus-related accidents. Officials attribute the problem to increasing bus competition following government deregulation: Bus drivers frequently run buses through crowded intersections to beat competitors to bus stops. The governments's only remedial program so far has been a driver's test that only a few of the several thousand drivers took and which only one driver passed.
Holy Radiation, Batman
■ Russian scientists investigating unusually high levels of radiation at a children's camp in Siberia announced in July that the radiation is being caused by bats that feed from Lake Karachi (where a chemical plant dumps its waste) and then hang out at the camp.
■ In July, zoning officials in Virginia Beach, Va., began investigating neighbors complaints against Anthony and Teresita Rodriguez, who have turned their modest home into a church and built an air-conditioned chapel in the backyard, where only a woodshed was authorized. The couple said God told them to build the chapel so that Teresita could conduct healing services. As many as 50 people at a time come from as far away as California and Cana-
See WEIRD, Page 7