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Thursday Features
University Daily Kansan
Thursday, Sept. 19. 1985
Band marches together, on and off field
Alan Hacman/KANSAN
By Susie Bishop Of the Kansan staff
"I would never trade it in," Amy Johnson, Omana sophomore, said. "There is so much going on. I can't imagine not being in the band."
the University of Kansas Marching Jayhawks has been in step since the 1806, Robert Foster, director of bands, said recently Members attribute the longevity of the organization to the unity they feel for each other.
A trumpeter performs during halftime of the KU-Vanderbilt football game
"The people are diverse, but we all can come together in our music," she said.
Johnson said band members came from scholarship halls, off-campus housing, the greek system and residence halls.
"There's a little bit of everybody in the band," Jamie Baker, Harper junior, said.
Johnson said the best part of being in the band was friendship she found with other band members. And the friends don't part ways off the football field or out of the rehearsal hall.
There are about 260 members in the band, including pom pon members and the flag carriers, or Silks
Farida Ghogawala, Overland Park sophomore, said band members often got together for parties at times other than game days. Many people had made long-lasting friendships through the band, she said.
Being in the band isn't just a social event, though. Baker said the band usually practiced 10 hours a week as
All that practice prepares the band to appear in front of thousands of fans at every home game and some away games.
a whole, and then more time individually and in small groups.
"I have never, ever, believed that we weren't ready to do a show." Foster said. "We try real hard to be ready. That's my job."
"I've seen people really foul up, but even if they do we're all wearing the same thing, so the people in the stands wouldn't recognize them." Johnson said.
A common source of nervousness for the band members is running down the stairs of Memorial Stadium in the pre-game show, called the run-in.
Baker said. "You're always nervous before a show, even if it is pre-game. I don't know whether it's nervousness or excitement."
Foster, the fifth director in the band's history, said that since joining the staff in 1971, he had never worried about the outcome of a performance.
Johnson said she couldn't think of anyone who wasn't nervous about the run-in.
On the field, the individual band members are distinguished only by the instruments they carry, unlike the football players with their names and numbers separating one uniform from another.
"My first year I thought that I was going to be the first person to make 50 people fall during the run-in," Johnson said.
Remaining anonymous has not stopped the band from supporting the football team at six bowl games, and they are ready to go to more.
Foster said when the football team played in the 1961 Bluebonnet Bowl, in Houston, Texas, the weather was terrible. Only one of the two airplanes carrying the band members was able to land immediately upon arrival.
The band was packed up and ready to leave when the brand new uniforms were delivered — to the airport as they were boarding. The first time the band tried on the new outfits was after they arrived in Miami, Fla.
"The football team is ready." Foster said. "And we're ready to go to another bowl game too. Or at least we're ready to get ready."
The other plane, carrying half the band, had to remain in the air. They were still circling the airport while the grounded band members performed the pre-game show. Though the ranks were split in half, the Jayhawk Marching Band went on with the show.
Foster said the history of The Marching Jayhawks began in the 1890s with an all-male band. When band membership fell to only 20 men in 1942 because of World War II, women were allowed in the band
When the war was over, the band returned to an all male organization.
The band's turbulent bowl game history continued in 1972 at the Orange Bowl.
Drum majors Donnell Martin, Lawrence senior, and Mike Wetter, Tecumseh sophomore, practice high stepping across the football field. The two practiced Saturday morning before the KU-Vanderbilt football game.
On Tap
Nancy Haney
Peggy Helsel
REMAISSANCE FESTIVAL
—The merriment continues this weekend at the Renaissance Festival at the Agricultural Hall of Fame in Bonner Springs. The gates open to the medieval carnival at 1 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Student tickets can be bought for $6.75 at the Student Union Activities office in the Kansas Union or at the festival gate. The festival runs through Oct. 6.
by entering a 4-feet wide, 4-feet high, 8-feet long isolation tank, the pressures of everyday life are hidden. The feeling of floating for an hour, seeming even to escape the constant tug of gravity, the floater reaches a state where consciousness and sleep called complete relaxation.
CONCERTS
The progressive rock band X will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Kansas Union Ballroom. Student tickets are $9 with a KUID Tickets for non-students are $10 in advance and $11 at the door. Tickets can be purchased at the SUA box office of the Union and at Capital Ticket outlets. The concert is the first in a series of concerts sponsored by SUA
by entering a 4-feet wide, 4-feet high, 8-feet long isolation tank, the pressures of everyday life are hidden. The feeling of floating for an hour, seeming even to escape the constant tug of gravity, the floater reaches a state where consciousness and sleep called complete relaxation.
Ron Thompson and the Resisters will play at 9:30 p.m. tonight at The Jazz haus. 9 26' 1/2 Massachusetts St. Screamin' Lee and the Rockettes will play at 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. There is a $3 cover charge for both shows.
Black Pearl will perform at Johnny's Tavern, 401 N. Second St., at 9 p.m. tonight. There is a $1 cover fee.
Mark Ochu will be featured on the piano at a concert lecture on "The Influence of World Religions on the Development of Western Music" at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Jayhawk Room of the Union. The concert lecture is sponsored by the University of Kansas Baha'i Club. Ochu is expected to preform works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy and Gershwain. The performance is free and open to the public.
by entering a 4-feet wide, 4-feet high, 8-feet long isolation tank, the pressures of everyday life are hidden. The feeling of floating for an hour, seeming even to escape the constant tug of gravity, the floater reaches a state where consciousness and sleep called complete relaxation.
SUA MOVIES:
Amadeus will be shown at 3.30 and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $1.50 for students and can be purchased at the SUA office in the Union. Pink Floyd: The Wall will be the midnight movie Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $2 for students. The Atomic Cafe will be shown at 2 p.m. Sunday and at 7.30 p.m. Monday. Tickets are $2 for students. All movies will be shown in Woodruff Auditorium in the Union.
Midwesterners discover world of isolation tanks
By Theresa Scott Of the Kansan staff
In the silent blackness, time is irrelevant and unfathomable. Floating effortlessly in 10 inches of warm water and Epsom salts, a person can be alone in a still world devoid of colors, sounds and sensations.
inspiration.
Chiles Gruber and his wife,
Kishru, owners of the Lawrence
Float Center, 1425 New York St.
began operating the flotation tank
June 1 from the basement of their
home.
Isolation tanks, the rage on the East and West Coasts for the past seven or eight years, are finally reaching the Midwest and have floated into Lawrence on a wave of inspiration by a local couple.
Gruber said that he and his wife tried to present a safe, clean and attractive environment throughout their house and in the tank room so that floatsers felt taken care of and welcome. This atmosphere is intended to enhance the floating experience and to uphold the Grubers' motto: quiet mind, quiet body.
"We have a certain way of relating with our customers," Gruber said recently. "It's an openness that lets people be who they are. No rules or regulations are set up to govern this."
Gruber's soft, friendly voice helps to alleviate any apprehension as the floater descends the sturdy stairs to the flotation room. In the room, there are brightly colored walls and a shiny conch shell resting on a shelf next to several thick towels.
As the future floater enters their tidy home, light strains of orchestral music are played to make the floater feel at ease.
The rotation room itself is small, but clean and bright. The blue and
white tiled room contains a shower with a blue shower curtain, a wooden bench, a small counter, two wicker baskets, a small stained-glass window depicting a fish, and a white rectangular box with a beveled end — the tank
After explaining the flotation process, Gruber dims the lights and leaves the room, leaving the floater alone to his or her float.
"Each float unfolds exactly as the operator wants it to," Gruber said. "We provide the setting and music, but the floater provides his own experiences based on his hopes and desires."
Gruber said that although people had different techniques and purposes for using the tank, most people reported a sense of relief and relaxation after floating.
REMARK after injury.
Mark von Schlemmer - Leavenworth senior, floated at the Lawrence Float Center this summer for free, during a special promotion.
He has not floated since then because, he said, he could not afford the $20 per hour rate. However, he said his time in the tank was relaxing.
The sensation produced by the tank is caused by the lack of external stimuli and the acclimation of the water temperature with that of average skin temperature. Gruber said.
"It cleans you out," he said. "It's refreshing because it's as if you are in an ocean. You relax totally and fall asleep. I'd recommend anyone to try it once because it's such an interesting sensation."
"It's like taking a vacation to relax." Gruber said, "but it's safe, comfortable and reasonable."
"It gives you a subjective feeling about pain," he said. "The symptoms and use of medications are reduced. This is especially true with stress-related diseases such as migraines and gastrointestinal stress."
Not only do the 800 pounds of Epsom salts dissolved in 175 gallons of 94-degree water produce feelings of relaxation, but they also, Gruber said, have therapeutic affects.
Progressive band X marks the spot
By Abbie Jones Special to the Kansan
My goodness, what diversity.
My goodness, what diversity.
Just listen to female vocalist Exene Cervenka, the voice and bass of John Doe, the guitar of Billy Zoom and drums of D.J. Bonebrake.
The sound belongs to the progressive rock group X, and it's more unusual than the names of its members.
The music is "extremely progressive, obviously far from mainstream — it's not punk, and it's not really rock," said X fan Dean Brush. Palm Desert, Calif., senior.
X will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Kansas Union Ballroom as the first band in a new series of dance concerts called Standing Room Only, sponsored by Student Union Activities Special Events.
"You can't put what they are live on vinyl. They just jump out at you. You can tell they believe in what they're doing," said Brush
X has survived the lost era of punk rock, he said. It has combined fast paced metal overtones with the wails of Cervenka and shouts of Doe.
"A lot of new wave and punk music is choppy to me. With their music I can't help but start trapping my foot," said Brush.
Julie Ellington, Omaha, Neb. sophomore, classifies X's sound as a "twangy punk rock" similar to the sound of another group, the Violent Femmes.
"Compared to Top 40, I think they have more originality, and they are not afraid to do or say what they want," said Ellingson.
According to Jack Hart, dis jockey for radio station KJHK-FM, the band's first record producer, Ray Manzarek, was the former drummer of the rock group The Doors. X has carried some of the Doors' traditions into its music, he said.
Hart said the band was now
"I think they show a lot of their mid-'60s roots," said Hart.
But fans have noticed a change in X's sound.
more commercial, accessible and mainstream
He said X appealed to both "hard core and fraternity kids."
The group's latest album, "Aim't Love Grand," opens with cuts of standard rock instrumentation and the high-pitched vocal interjections of Cervenka ("Burning House of Lose," now seen on MTV, features Doe's gravel-voiced description of his passionate self.
Fach song on "Ain't Love Grand," produced by Michael Wagener, incorporates a buildup of romantic energy "My Soul Cries" is Doe's sexual plea to an old lover, and "My Goodness" is a slower paced, suggestive tune sung by Cervanka.
But side two of the album offers three slower, uplifting and harmonic tunes of love, friendship and frustration. "Watch the Sun Go Down." perhaps the most rational
'You can't put what they are live on vinyl. They just jump out at you. You can tell they believe in what they're doing.'
Dean Brush Palm Desert, Calif., senior
track on the album, goes beyond the lust to describe frustrations with work and women.
"Their earlier stuff is a lot faster, raw, not as well produced as it is now. The old fans are having a little trouble dealing with the new sound of X," he said.
David Midyung, promotions director at KJHK and Prairie Village junior, agreed that the band is creating a more mainstream sound.
Ellingson is one fan who has followed X from the beginning. Since she had not heard the group's latest album, she said she hoped the band would play some of its older music at Saturday's concert.
"The old stuff is really fast and upbeat and a riot to dance to," she said.
Mitlyng said there might be slam dancing at the show.
The progressive rock band X consists of, from left, Billy Zoom, D.J. Bonebrake, Exene Cervenka and John Doe
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