ENTERTAINMENT
The University Daily KANSAN
Dave Hornback/KANSAN
Julia Wright, 87, used to play the piano for silent movies. Now she entertains residents at eight nursing homes in the Topeka area each week with her music and humor.
Ragtime is Wright way to do it
By ERIKA BLACKSHER
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
A piano and an organ, well-worn and well-loved, stand in the front room. Next to the organ sits a coach covered with colorful, overstuffed pillows and craft supplies.
And above the couch hangs an embroidered picture reading, "Cherish Today, Dream of Tomorrow, Live Today."
Julia Alfaretta Wright does just that -- she really lives each day
"PEOPLE DON'T WAKE up any more, they get up," she said. "In the morning, you open your eyes and get up. You never see a picture about you. You never see anything funny."
"You get up, you get dressed, you get your
me, you go to work, you come home and
get ready."
The white-haired, 87-year-old woman appears to be the typical grandmother. But Wright's atypical attitude doesn't fit the stereotype.
Wright's parents, Ephriam and Minnie Kane,
were born in Oakland to Oustad Kane in
Oakland became part of the family.
At least eight times a week she plays
ragtime music at nursing homes in Topeka,
just like she used to do at silent movies
around the turn of the century.
"I learned to play on an old pump organ when I was 5." she said. "I was so little I couldn't pump the pedals myself. My mother could pump the pedals while I learned to play."
HER LESSONS WERE restricted to serious music, but she managed to teach herself how to play the piano with swing, or as she says, with rhythm.
"In those days, anything with rhythm was naughty," she said. I would have my teacher play my lesson over and then when I'd go home. I'd play it by ear with rhythm.
If her mother caught her playing "dirty of rage," she was guaranteed a spanking. But her mother
She started playing the piano for the silent movies when she was about 10 years old. By the time she was 18, times had changed enough so that she was playing ragtime for the movie theaters in Topeka and Kansas City. "Dill Pickles," which was always
"I always had a beat, one way or the other,
either on the piano or on my rear end," she
played for Charlie Chan movies, is still her favorite score, she said.
SIE FONDLY remembers the old movies because they dealt with everyday life, she said.
"The silent movies, most of them in that day, were sort of a picture of the life most people lived," she said. "There was farming and engineers and railroads."
Wright grew up in Indian territory on the
"It gives them a feeling of the olden days," she said.
But Wright appreciates the present with all of its modern conveniences such as lights,
"I can go over there, punch a button and get light," she said, pointing to her kitchen
"These people in the nursing homes talk about the good of" days, well boy, they can have 'em.
"The silent movies, most of them in that day, were sort of a picture of the life most people lived. There was farming and engineers and railroads."
banks of the Cimarron River before Oklahoma became a state. An Indian woman took care of Wright and her mother when Wright was born. The woman gave the infant her middle name, "Alfaretta," which means "laughing maiden." she said.
Julia Wright piano player
"They said that when I was a baby I was giggling all of the time," she said.
"There is something about ragtime that is a happy music," she said. "It gives everybody who hears it a lift."
PLAYING AT the nursing homes helps keep some of those people laughing too, she said
Wright plays for people who are sometimes younger than herself. She always takes three different sets of sing-along books to the class, so she can pick out their favorites.
light. "Back in the good ol' days, I had to fill my lamp with coal oil, trim the wick, clean the lamp chimney and all of that before I could have light."
WHEN SHE'S NOT playing ragtime for nursing homes, Wright keeps herself busy with crafts. Making colorful, sponge animals that are magnificent, she sticks to the recipes on her favorite.
For almost 60 years, Wright has taught crafts to children at Bible school during the summer at the Oakland Presbyterian Church in Topkape.
"I feel the Lord wants me to do all of this because he gives me good health," she said.
"I take a pill for nothing," she said. "I have no aces or pain, I have my own teeth, and I have a mouth."
"Age is just a matter of the mind. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
New portable disc players latest in sound systems
Staff Reporter
By GARY DUDA
Weighing in at a slim 1 pound 5 ounces is the newest kid on the block — the Sony D-5P.
Thomas Edison should be proud. Since he invented the phonograph 107 years ago, his ideas have been inspiring the evolution of sound reproduction.
THE SONY CORP. of Japan, parents of the Walkman, and Philips Industries, producers of electronic and electrical products, have developed the D-5 Portable CD Player, which will be premiering on the market in mid-November. It is the first portable disc player that has been produced.
With a disc system, music is converted into a numerical code and stored as tiny pits within the disc's surface. A microscope laser beam reads the pits and decodes them back
"The laser reads the bottom of the disk from the inside out," said Mike Blake, salesman for University Audio, 2319 Louisiana St. "It is as perfect a sound medium as anyone has come out with."
TOM SUGIYAAM, manager for Sony's corporate communications in Park Ridge, N.J. said there were many benefits to compact disc systems.
"The biggest benefit is that you don't have to worry about scratches and wear to the disc itself. The disc is protected by an acrylic cover. Scratch scratches will not affect the sound, he said.
"You can now enjoy the strong and soft sounds of a symphony, he said. "The overall quality of the sound is dramatically improved."
Sugiyama also said that the compact disc system had no limitations to its range of
The new Portable CD Player has the advantage of size, Sugiyama said. "You don't have to choose a place to play compact dises anymore."
THE PORTABLE CD players are adaptable to home disc players and can be connected to conventional stereo systems.
Compact disc systems only have been on the market for two years, but they already feature a digital format.
"With the growing popularity of this system, it will be the next generation platform."
Until recently, the average cost of CD systems has been about $200 with some costing more than $1,000, but the new D-5 system costs about $899 a suggested retail price of $299.95, he said.
The disc used in the Portable CD Player is the same as in the larger home disc players. Until recently, the discs only had been manufactured in Europe and Japan, but CBS and NBC in Japan have established a new plant in Terre Haute, Ind., to produce discs for CD players.
"THE FIRST DISC off the line," Sugiyama said, "was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA.' Appropriately, he said, considering the title of the tract.
The price of a compact disc runs between $15 and $20, but with the new U.S. plant the price should drop to about $13, and perhaps as low as $10. Sugiyama said that record stores would carry compact discs as well as records and tapes.
Blake said that finding the Portable CD Player, or any CD player, would be difficult.
He also said that he expected the CD system to become the dominant medium for sound reproduction during the next five years, maybe sooner.
miles west of Lawrence on Highway 40. The Spencers rent horses seven days a week, and they have about 160 acres for
Alicia Robinson, Kansas City, Kan., sophomore (left) and Rhonda Kilkenny, who lives in Kansas City, Mo., start out on a ride at the Spencer Riding Stables. The stables are about 16
Horses bring out country in KU
By CHRIS CLEARY
Staff Reporter
Maybe it's the crisp autumn air and the rugged, red trees. Maybe it's the nip in the air and bite of the wind. Maybe it's the leaves wandering aimlessly down Jayhawk Boulevard, leaping and bounding and eventually dropping that people have pulled out of the closet.
Each autumn, many students trade in their skanks and loafers for boots and flannel shirts. Square dances, hayrack races, horseback rides, and fit into the picture about this time of year.
Whatever it is, it brings out that little bit of country in KU students.
THE STABLE OF JOY even gives students a legitimate excuse to go riding because they are always ready.
"There's about 30 students that are taking the HIPER beginning horsemanship class," said Joy Underberg, manager and instructor of the stable. "There are a few regular students taking lessons who aren't University related."
Underberg occasionally leads students on trail rides during the weekend.
"Weather permitting, I'll take them out," she said. "I prefer students with a little riding experience. We ride along a highway and people driving are inconsiderate. My horses are good 90 percent of the time, but they don't always go to the cannion on off, and I don't want a beginner on them."
ALTHOUGH UNDERBERG shows her Arabian stallion at the American Royal Livestock Horse Show and Rodeo in Kansas City, Mo. she said none of her students have
"Some have gone to help me, but they didn't actually ride," she said.
"I've been teaching for 50 years," Mott said. "It's good wholesome exercise."
Students can also take riding lessons at the Mott Ranch, southeast of 23rd Street and Haskell Junior Indian College Gayle Mott. Students may take riding lessons at faculty take riding lessons at his place.
"THERE'S QUITE A FEW students,"
Underberg said most students are interested in horses either for recreation or because they are serious about showing them.
Students can also ride the range at the Ralph Spencer Riding Stables 16 miles west
Maxine Spencer said, "We have hayrides which are generally sororities and fraternities although not always. We're having our first weekend this week for some sort of birthday party."
Barn dances and hayrides are other country-western options that are a big attraction for students at residence halls, the College Hill, social chairman for Elsworth Hall.
"They go over well," Saltkill said. "It's a sort of always having parties here."
Amy Brown, advisor to the social committee of Corbin Hall said that she liked barn wood.
JIM WILLIAMSON, co-social chairman of the All-Schoolship Hall Council, said that there is a need for more education.
John Secrest, Sigma Phi Epsilon social chair, said the fall day of hayrides
recipe like the outdoorsiness," Secrist said. "They like being outside, getting back to basics. It's a change of pace from college living."