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Conductor-in-Chief
Clinton's choice of entertainment at the inauguration festivities reveals a president who knows the power of music.
By Ezra Wolfe
Kansan staff writer
ichaeJJackson, Bob Dylan, Michael Stipe, Michael Bolton, L.L. CoolJ.
They all have performed at inaugural events for Bill Clinton.
Clinton promised to build a cabinet that lobbied Hill American and Mexican leaders.
L. L. Cool JJ* At an marigold event? As a champ has sung, "The times they are a challenge."
this first chance of inaugural entertainment seem to reflect that promise. From neck to waist, it is all here.
Ken Collier, assistant professor of government, said he saw the inaugural entertainment as part of Clinton's
"Clinton is trying to make everyone feel as if they are a part of the inauguration," he said.
ANALYSIS
Matt All, president of KU Democrats, said he hoped Clinton's style would help college students in politics
"They say the inauguration is indicative of the way the whole administration will be run," All said. "Clearly he's going to take a much different set of experiences into the White House."
Ann Schofield, associate professor of American studies and women's studies, said she thought Clinton was using the music to acknowledge a new diversity in the United States and join people in celebration.
"I was a baby boomer," Schofield said. "I appreciate that these were values that came out of our experience — civil rights, diversity — so it's not just the Supremes, but words and actions of great civil rights leaders."
The fact that many post-1960s performers are involved underscores Clinton's youthfulness. At 46, Clinton will be the third youngest president and the first who grew up with rock 'n' roll.
Schofield said Clinton's age influenced how he communicated
"He is sensitive to the fact that in contemporary America we are expressing ourselves in pop culture's terms by using pop music and by extensive TV coverage of the inaugural events," she said.
Barry Shank, assistant professor of American studies,
said that people identified with the pop music medium
"Clinton has recognized music as one of the most important ways that Americans define themselves," he said.
"We use pop music when we are dating, when we are in college, when we are developing an identity."
Some student leaders liked the inaugural hoopla but others saw it as showbiz fluff.
Brad Garlinghouse, student body president, didn't vote for Clinton but said Clinton's appeal to the American people through the inauguration celebration impressed him.
But Kevin Signorney, senate treasurer, was skeptical and did he really really need for the government.
"It's a people's celebration rather than a high-class, highbrow, country-club type atmosphere," he said.
"I think it a lot of glitz and glamour and icing. Signore,
I don't care about the issues. I care could less about this showbiz stuff."
Davison Wilson, who heads KU Republicans, said Clinton won on image rather than substance and that he thought Clinton was hoping image would carry him through the first days of the presidency.
The image Clinton is projecting with his choice of entertainers is hard to define, but it is certainly different. It seems like every ethnic group, religion and style of music is represented in some way or another.
Quincy Jones, who produced an inaugural concert televised on HBO Sunday said, "This is not a one pot dish. This is gumbo, a serious gumbo."
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
Clinton inauguration oddities break no record
James J. Reece
Kansan staff writer
The inauguration festivities for Bill Clinton and Al Gore represent a wide variety of U.S. culture — from a caff fish to string quartets — but celebration may not surpass the strangeness of other inaugurations in U.S. history
A fish fry and blue gig with Bob Dylan for Clinton supporters is hardly comparable to the shenanigans after Andrew Jackson took office in 1829. In a White House open house, party patrons became unruly, forcing Jackson to escape
There, crowds attending a public reception crashed the gate of a private reception attended by official guests. The rowdy crowd spilled food and then stole silverware and portions of draperies to remember the occasion.
through a back window. Guests were then lured out of the house and onto the lawn using nails of whiskes as bait
The past week of inaugural celebrations have also ended in a more sedate manner than a party at Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration in 1865.
Another inaugural oddity occurred in 1953, when incoming Dwight Eisenhower and outgoing Harry Truman quarreled over whether they should both wear traditional top hats or homburg hats to the inauguration. They settled on Eisenhower's preference, the homburg, a German felt hat with a dented crown and slightly rolled brim.
But the change of office today likely will not bring the frustration to George Bush that Jimmy Carter felt in 1980. Carter relinquished office to Ronald Reagan but could announce the freeing of 52 Americans from their 444 days held in Iran.
retraced the steps Thomas Jefferson took from Charlestonville, Va., to Washington for his inauguration in 1801. But it's doubtful that Clinton and his entourage matched the humility of the nation's third president.
Jefferson made the journey to Washington five months early and stayed at a boarding house until inauguration day, then walked to the Capitol to be sworn in.
One of Clinton's latest bus trips
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
In December, a state appeals court in Santa Ana, Calif., upheld the lower court's ruling by granting Sherley Ulyate an increase in child support payments from her ex-husband for their 15-year-old daughter, from $2,000 a month to $6,000 a month. She said the decision was to allow her to receive $300 for jewelry and $1,600 for entertainment. Ulyate asked for $15,000 a month. Her ex-husband made a fortune selling mini bulbs.
FETISHES ON PARADE
In May, police in Kenosha, Wis., arrested a 40-year-old, heavyset man inside a women's restroom at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, charging him with disorderly conduct. He was found bound and hand-cuffed, dressed as a French maid. Police said he paid a female student to tie him up, claiming it was part of a fraternity prank. The man had been arrested before for a similar incident, police said.
In July, a Jackson Center, Pa., woman reported that someone used a ladder to climb into the second story of her home. All that was reported missing was $10 worth of diapers, despite the presence of jewelry and antiques in the same room the diapers were taken from.
Last winter, police in Fort Worth, Texas, stopped a car that had been the subject of reports that a bound and gagged blond woman had been spotted in the passenger seat. After deputy sheriff David McPherson stopped the car, he found that the "woman" was a blow-up doll placed there as a joke. The driver was released after he was scolded.
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In Toms River, N.J., William Radice Jr., 20, pleaded guilty in November to forcing a woman to take off one of her black loafers and give it to him. He had accosted her in her driveway as she was unloading
■ In August, Baton Rouge, La., police charged Redmond McGee, 25, with breaking into a woman's house in St. Louis.
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