Page 6
Entertainment
University Daily Kansan, September 28, 1962
Skydiving allows them to jump at opportunity
Men at Work entertain without elaborate show
By ANN WYLIE Entertainment Editor
Men at Work were at play Saturday night.
— no flashing lights, smoke, or rocket-like noises
— Men at Work amused themselves and their audience at the Uptown Theatre in Kansas City, Mo. by singing, dancing and bad joke
MEN AT WORK, an Australian band, has released a new album, "Business as Usual."
"You knew we were going to come back," Colin Hay, lead vocalist and guitarist, said as the band returned to stage for an encore. "And we knew you knew we were going to come back."
"All the people who bought the album, they're having a really good time, because they know all the songs," Greg Ham, saxophonist, said in the midst of the concert. "And the people who just
The audience did have a good time. It danced in the aisles and sang with the band. When the Men offered to dedicate a song to someone in the audience named Johnny, there were suddenly many Johnns, including some women, who raised their hands competing for the dedication.
The band comprises Ham, who plays flute and keyboards and sings, as well as playing saxophone, percussion and guitars, and John Rees, Jerry Speiser, drums and vocals, and John Rees, bass and vocals.
THE SAXOPHONE and drums are the Men's main assets, and they show them off in concert. Ham played the saxophone and the keyboards at his band. He also sang several songs featured saxophone or drum solos.
alienation runs through some songs of Men at Work.
"In Who Can It Be Now?"," the most popular song at the concert, the men sang. "All I wish is to be alone, stay away, don't you invade my home, keep myself safe outside, don't come in. Only I run out and hide."
As with many current bands, a theme of
Another popular song, "Down Under." is about Australia, where, according to the song, women are the main victims of rape.
Many current popular singers, such as Rick Springfield, Olivia Newton-John and the Bee Gees, are from Australia, but they don't advertise it the way Men at Work do.
HAY AND HAM have even made up a kangaroo dance, which they performed during a
The Men wrote the songs they performed. Hay wrote most of the lyrics and had a band in a lot of cities.
"Be Good Johnny" is about an adolescent who is considered a misfit because he doesn't like to do things other people think he should enjoy. The teacher asks him another song, Chuck Berry's "Johnny Be Good."
People's love for twisting the order and meaning of words is the theme of "People Just Love to Play with Words," another of Men At Work's songs
"There are two sides, a win or loss," they sang. "What's two down and four across."
Lighting at the concert was good. For "Down at the Sea," the lights were lowered. Green and blue lights were used to give the effect of water. Dancing was used in his works, including "Take Me to the River" in its eerie quality.
Men at work is a band worth following. The concert is over, but the album is still available. And, as Ham said, the people who buy the album know the songs.
'Wait' begins Thursday
By SUSAN STANLEY
Staff Reporter
KU students and faculty will fill four of five women's roles in "Waiting for the Parade," a play that opens this week at Lawrence Community Theatre.
University affiliates also are in charge of lighting, set design and costumes, Mary J. Miller is the Art Director.
The play is in Calgary Alberta during World War II and is the story of five women in their early 28s to mid-50s and the effects that war has on their lives, Doveton said.
"It's the story of how people far removed from a situation are still affected by that situation,"
The show will be performed at 8 p.m.
Thursday through Saturday and 2:30 p.m.
Sunday at the Lawrence Arts Center, 9th and
Vernont streets.
Each of the women has a husband, father or son involved in the war, but not all are fighting in the war.
One of the characters' fathers has been arrested as a Naxal sympathizer, while another's
A third character is the mother of two sons, one who supports the war and another who is a villain.
Susan Kelo, KU instructor in English, portrays the character of Janet in the play. Jane's husband is a radio announcer who was not drafted because the government considers his broadcasts crucial to the war effort. Kelo said.
"Some aspects of the character are like me," she said. "The qualities of wanting to be needed and involved are ones that I share with my character."
Good acting is a matter of finding those things that the actor and character share, she said.
The personalities of the characters and the effects of the war on them are illustrated through monologues and conversations between the women in the room at the Red Cross headquarters, Doveton said.
"You have to find the places that you can touch," Kelso said.
Lawrence Community Theatre decided to produce "Waiting for the Parade" because it is a new, well-written play, Doveton said. She is familiar with the play because the playwright, John Muriell, is a friend of Doveton's from Canada, she said.
Because the play covers six years, she said, it is possible to see changes in the characters.
Although the play deals with a serious subject, it is an unhappy play. Doveton said.
"He has written a number of plays. He has strong feelings about war and peace, along with his own experiences."
"It does have a happy ending," she said.
By VINCE HESS Staff Reporter
The play begins with a drum roll and the sound of men marching into battle and also ends with a roar.
The skydiver rests for a moment in the plane,
preparing for his first leap into the sky.
"The play is just beginning to be recognized"
The title of the play comes from the recurring
theme of a love story.
When the plane is 9,900 feet above the ground, the novice leaps out into the unknown. A gust of cold air greets him; the ground temperature drops by 60 degrees, but in here the sky is 40 degrees.
"Waiting on the Parade" was performed in 1979 at the Lynch Hammersmith Theatre in London and also off-Broadway last year, Doveton said.
"All the women are waiting for the men to come home from the war." she said.
AND WHEN THE beginner returns to the plane's takeoff site about 45 minutes after he entered the plane, he says to himself, "Wow! I want to do that again!"
He falls toward the ground at a speed of up to 200 mph. Two instructors called jumpmasters, who leaped out of the plane along with him, hold onto his harness刀架 to keep him from falling.
Now it is time for him to put four hours or more of training to use in his first free fall.
Then, after about 50 seconds of falling freely through the air, he pulls the rippord that releases his parachute. Moments later he feels the ground beneath him.
Rusty Young, owner of Greene County Sports Parachute Center, a skydiving dropzone in Wellsville, has seen that look of relief and satisfaction on the faces of many beginning
The play features many songs from the 1940s, she said.
"If you're not scared, you're not normal," Young said.
To get the audience in the spirit of the era, the theatre group is sponsoring the "Stage Door Canteen," complete with music and refreshments before the opening performance. Doveton said.
A beginner can feel scared before his first skydive, he said.
The number of skydivers has increased to 2 13 percent nationally each year in recent years, according to Al King, deputy executive director of the United States Parachutist Association, an organization that includes 17,000 skydivers, 42 skydiving clubs and 140 drop zones. Many other dropzones are not affiliated with the association, King said.
we are encouraging people to come in '40s costumes," she said.
More than 4 million people practice skydiving each year. King said, About 100,000 people each year make their first skydive, but less than 5 percent of the beginners continue to skydive.
"A lot of people just make up their minds that they want to do it once, and that's it," King said.
"Like every sport, it's not a sport for everybody. How many have tried tennis or golf but don't pursue it?"
Young said that he, like many beginning skydivers who are college students, was introduced to skydiving through an advertisement.
a student at the University of Georgia in 1973, he saw a newspaper ad for a skydiving center and went one day out of curiosity. What he experienced was enough to get him hooked on the sport — and to make him want to teach it to others.
Several, years later he opened his own kydiving company, Dropzone, which is located 15 miles south of Lower Manhattan.
University uses dropzone facilities at Topkea's Forbes Field Airport, Young said. Although no such club exists at the University of Kansas, many KU students skydive at his center on weekends, he said. The center is open Tuesdays through Sundays.
A student skydiving club at Kansas State
THE FIRST SKYDIVING CENTER opened in Ohio 21 years ago, Young said. The centers have done a steady business since then, although the number of local skydivers has decreased in the last three years, evidently because of weather. The summer of 1980 was extremely hot, he said. However, last year the summer months were wet. This year the weather was wet and cold.
Young said it was hard for a skydiver to describe the experience of falling through the skyscraper.
But Tim Erickson, Lawrence sophomore, said instead of skydiving as "flying without thought" he was "trying to make it work."
Erickson, a pilot at Young's dropzone, said, *Skiing gives me a real sense of being able to*
Skydiving is not just a matter of jumping out of a plane and pulling a ripecord, Young said. The United States Parachutting Association, which is based in Alexandria, Va., has enacted strict rules on skydiving during the past 25 years so that the government has not placed regulations on skydiving.
Erickson made his first skydive in 1975 because his brother had been involved in the sport for several years. Now he skydives about 20 minutes a day, and falls and about four or five times during winter.
Young said he liked to skydive no matter what the weather. Winter is a good time to skydive, he said, although a skydiver should avoid wet, cloudy conditions.
Skydiving instructors climb clinics to perfect their skills and to learn teaching techniques. Young said. The standard course is demanding, he said, but most of the students pass. One of the requirements for passing the course is 200 turns.
However, the course for those who want to teach a new method of learning skydiving is more difficult. He said 600 to 700 jumps were necessary.
THE NEW METHOD lets the novice experience a free fall on his first try; the old method required the beginner to have five static-line falls before attempting a free fall.
In the static-line fall, the beginner jumps alone but is connected to a line trailing out of the plane. He has a dummy ripcord that he pulls, although the static line activates the parachute.
The static-line method has been used for about 30 years, Young said. It resembles the military's parachute training and is still the most frequently used method of training for civilians.
But the free-fall method, developed several years ago by a Florida skydive, is gaining popularity. The first fall was formally approved by the association last fall, and Young first used the method in July. He
has two more students who are scheduled to learn by the method soon.
The high price of the free fall method probably discourages many beginners. Young said. The static-line method costs $55 a person for the first jump, or $45 a person for a group of five or more.
However, the cost of two trained jumpmasters to accompany the novice in the free fall method is the reason for the price of $225 for the first jump. he said.
Young said he was enthusiastic when he heard about the new free fall method. The presence of the jumpmasters makes on-the-spot instruction possible, he said.
"The standard program works — it's been proven. But this is an easier way to learn."
"What it comes down to is a private lesson versus a group lesson." King said.
"To me, as a skiyder and an already certified instructor, it was exciting," he said.
King said that about 10 percent of the dropones in the nation currently offered free-fall training. But he said he expected the dropones to become more available over the next few years.
A beginner must attend a training session before skydiving. Young said. The session must last only four hours for a few novices but up to eight hours for a group of 30 or 40, he said. Training sessions usually take place in the morning as instructors make their first jumps in the afternoon.
SKYDIVING ALSO REQUIRES practice, Young said, but age is not a barrier. Although most beginners are under 30, the oldest skydiver trained at Young's center was 83.
With practice, Young said, a skydiver can vary his rate of descent from 120 mph to 300 mph.
"As you learn, you really fly, not just fall," he said.
Skydiving might appear to be dangerous, but it is safe as safe or even safer than – driving a car on a mountain.
He estimated that only 1 or 2 percent of the skydives made each year result in noticeable injuries, usually to the legs or ankles. Erickson said he had suffered only one injury, a hairline fracture of a toe. The injury occurred around his 20th skydive.
About 50 fatalities occur each year in skydiving. Young said, but carelessness explains all but one or two of the deaths. King said that only 18 people had died so far this year in skydiving equipment has not changed, he said, but skydiving might be more aware of safety.
However, a skydriver is like a person driving a car, Young said. If they both concentrate on what they are doing, they are in little danger.
Young himself has made 1,655 jumps. He said that he remembered the first one and that he still felt a little apprehensive before every jump.
"Parachutes are ridiculously reliable." he said.
"Our cars should work so well."
Concert Series features pianist Emanuel Ax
The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in the University Theatre in Murphy Hall as part of the KU Concert Series.
Jacqueline Davis, director of KU Concert and Chamber Music Series, said although Ax was young, he was considered to be one of the old masters among concert pianists.
Award-winning pianist Emanuel Ax will perform pieces by noted composers Thursday in his first visit to the University of Karas, Charla Pegg, director for the theatre department, said recently.
"Critics all over the world have been amazed and delighted by his sparkling technique and his distinctly romantic approach to piano literature," she said.
AX will perform "Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI 48" by Frank Haydn; "Six Little Pieces, op. 19" by Arnold Schoenberg; and "Variations" and Fugue in E-flat, op. 35; "*Eroica*)" and Ludwig van Beethoven. He will also play three musical compositions by Frederick Choralis; Minor, op. 152"; "Three Mazurkas"; and Mandate Splatoon and Grande Poloniea, op. 127.
his recordings have been named "records of the year" by both Time magazine and Stereo Review. Davis said
Jenkins tells that AX, 33, has won some of the most prestigious prizes in the music world, performed with virtually every major orchestra in America and recorded more than 10 major
Ax won the first Rubenstein International Piano Competition in 1974 before launching a new line of piano instruction.
"The Rubenstein is the best, the most elite, piano competition in America," she said.
David's said that since Ax won the first Rubenstein Competition, he has gone on to a seventh place.
Jenkins said that before Ax won the competition, he had won prizes in the Chipin competition in Warsaw and the Latvian League in Berlin. He was Elizabeth of Belgium and the Michael Award of Young Concert Artists.
in 1997 he won the Avery Fisher Prize, which resulted in appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, she said.
Award-winning nianist Emanuel Ax will perform Thursday at University Theatre.
On campus
TODAY
TODAY CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST will meet at 7 p.m. in the Big Eight Room in the Kansas Union.
CAMPUS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSH'S BIBLE study and fellowship will be at 7:30 p.m. in the
CHURCH
BIBLICAL SEMINAR, "Mark and Nuclear
Arms," will be at 4:30 p.m. at the Ecumenical
Christian Ministries Center.
TENNIS, KU vs. Baker University, will be at 2 p.m. at Allen Field House courts.
PRE-MED CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in the Kansas Room of the Union.
OPENING REMARKS on Watson Library
Rededication will be at 10:30 a.m. in Watson.
Click here for more information.
CATHOLIC CENTER WORSHIP will be at 12:30 p.m. in Danforth Chapel.
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CLUB will have a games meeting at 7 p.m. in the Trail Room of the Union.
CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER SESSION will meet at 7:45 a.m. at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.
UNIVERSITY FORUM, featuring Jim Ranz,
Dean of Libraries on Watson Library, will be at 4
p.m. at Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.