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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS |MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2017
Josh Jackson selected No.4 overall by Phoenix Suns
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ARTS & CULTURE
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Fish House gives its pitch to become a Lawrence staple
CHRISTIAN S. HARDY @ByHardy
Ayrick Madeira is fully aware why someone might question this place before stepping inside. Mass Street Fish House and Raw Bar is, quite literally, a fish out of water - a fish house and raw bar in the middle of Lawrence, where the closest body of saltwater is over 800 miles away.
There is, without a
doubt, a stigma that comes with seafood in the Midwest. Part of it is valid: Most everyone has heard horror stories about a friend eating clam chowder or smelled the foul scent that can linger in grocery stores. Seafood is not always seen in the best light in this part of the country.
But that stigma is exactly what Madeira, along with his staff, is trying to shake. During an hour at the Fish House,
something along the lines of, "It doesn't smell like fish in here," was uttered a half-dozen times, a testament to the freshness
...in the Midwest, it's meat and potatoes, so how do you get people to try other things?"
Ayrick Madeira Proprieter
of the seafood Madeira is selling.
"My personal mantra, since I order all the seafood, is I only order it if it's fresh," Madeira, 29, said. "Good products, good ingredients, they speak for themselves."
The restaurant is a culmination of Madeira's prior experience paired with the influence of his Lawrence friends and his executive chef - Kealan O'Boyle — he's met along the way. Three years
in at the University, he dropped out, realizing his real passion was in the kitchen. In the seven years since, he's worked with 715. Teller's, helped open Merchants, then started selling seafood around Kansas City for Northeast Seafood Products.
Madeira, as well as O'Boyle and most others at the raw bar, can tell any customer where the fish or oyster came from, when it was in the water, what time it came out, how it is
farmed - he knows it all.
Before he opened the Fish House, he toured clam and oyster farms looking for the right ones to put on the rotating menu of oysters that come from the East and West Coasts, fresh and salt water. He went to one farm in the Olympic Mountains in Washington, farmed oysters himself, and stayed in a log cabin, a la Bon Iver, except seafood.
SEE FISH HOUSE
Former 'The Voice' contestant to perform debut EP at Bottleneck
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> COURTNEY BIERMAN
@courtbierman
Former contestant on "The Voice" Taylor Phelan will visit Lawrence on Monday in promotion of his first EP as a solo artist. Phelan will perform at The Bottleneck with opener Faintheart.
The tour started last Saturday in Chicago, which is where Phelan began his music career as part of The Canes in 2011. Chicago is also where Phelan met and married his wife, Nikki. He and Nikki now have two daughters, Addison and Amelia, who they're raising in Dallas.
make sure that I do, like call my wife and FaceTime with my kids," he said.
This isn't Phelan's first tour, but he said it's still tough being away from his family. He reminds himself daily to not get caught up in the chaos of being on the road.
Contributed Photo "The Voice" contestant Taylor Phelan will perform at The Bottleneck Monday, July 10. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the concert starts at 9.
"There's just some big practical things I have to
Contributed Photo
Phelan said his EP "1 of 2," which will be released on August 18, is a long time coming. After being eliminated from the top 20 of "The Voice" season seven in 2014, he started working on his music career full-time. The songs started to come together with the help of a few bandmates and Nashville-based music producer Josh Niles.
single from Phelan's upcoming EP. Lyrics such as "In every kingdom there's a crooked figure/That makes it easy to assign the blame/ From the bottom it's an unfair picture/But in the end, you see, we're all the same," are a plea for listeners to remember the humanity of whoever it is they're arguing with — especially in today's political climate.
"Settle Down" is the first
"In the beginning we didn't really know where it was going to go or what kind of shape it was going to take," Phelan said. "But we just started diving in."
After recording the first six songs, Phelan decided that the project would work best split into two EPs: "1 of 2" being the first installment, and "2 of 2," which will be released later this year, as the second.
"It's just a reminder that on every side of any argument, there's another human on the other side of it," Phelan said.
Phelan has been playing the EP live since 2015 which means audiences are already familiar with the songs. It also means fans have also been able to hear Phelan and his band develop the songs over time, as his background playing in a church band as a teenager encouraged Phelan to improvise from early on in his musicianship.
"We don't play the songs verbatim live," he said. "They definitely have their own feel, and from night to night they change subtly. They're still growing, and so audiences get to experience that growth as it's happening."
Kansas City, Missouri, resident Pheobe Rain has known Phelan for most of
her life. Her father was the pastor at the Texas church where Phelan first started playing music. She's followed Phelan from his gospel music roots to his time on "The Voice," and she'll be in the audience at his Lawrence show.
"I'm really excited for this one because the music with this newer band, it's
kind of a newer tune, and it's kind of more modern-y, more alternative," Rain said. "So I'm super excited about this, because I think it's some of his best stuff yet."
Taylor Phelan will appear at The Bottleneck on Monday, July 10. The show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are available online.
termoons have been spent cheering for the Jayhawks through thick and, unfortunately, a lot of thin moments. But, it's impossible to argue that the stadium doesn't need improvements.
It's the seventh-oldest stadium still used by an FBS team. It shows signs of wear across its exterior. It's severely outdated by contemporary standards.
thing else at the University.
This is a great move for all interested parties. For the fans, it's going to enhance the game-day experience for the die hards who trek down the hill to see the Jayhawks play. For the players, specifically future recruits, it becomes a more inviting and
It's undoubtedly time for an upgrade.
Miranda Anaya/KANSAN
or proactice facility and
Kansas Athletics announced that a $300 million renovation will be coming to Memorial Stadium, which will include an indoor practice facility and infrastructure upgrades.
Discussing college athletics finances is a great way to find out that someone has absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Kansas football isn't going to use $300 million that otherwise would have gone to improving the School of Education or updating equipment in the School of Journalism or whichever department you feel is underfunded.
Things like the Williams Fund and private donors are main sources of income for supporting Kansas Athletics projects. It's understandable that seeing a huge sum of money being spent on football facilities could cause a stir, considering the financial straits the University might be facing in some areas. The reality, though, is that this money will be completely disconnected from the rest of the University.
Football is a massive tool for recruiting (both athletically and for general students), alumni relations and income, and if you don't see that then you simply aren't paying attention.
Alabama is a perfect case study for this. A gold standard for college football, the Crimson Tide's on-field success has generated an unconscionable amount of money
and publicity for that school. It's unrealistic for Kansas, or really any program, to think it can reach Alabama's level of success, but it's clear that improving football will improve the University in other areas.
Again, you need to spend money in order to make it. Putting money into the program now, or at least in the near future, will show dedication to the program and is going to help bring in more high-level recruits over time. The football team needs to get better, and this move will
help in that pursuit.
And if your argument is based around asking why you would spend $300 million to help a football team that won two games in the last two seasons combined, take a moment and think critically.
Most of the arguments against the spending come up baseless and sound unintelligent. The money isn't being stolen from other University programs. Memorial Stadium is nearly 100 years old — it needs to be repaired and updated.
Why wouldn't you spend money to try to improve the program? What else would you do, just ignore the disaster and let the team fall into irreparable ruin? That notion is ridiculous and poorly thought out at best.
The cost of this project is a small price to pay for improving the team, and subsequently the University, over time. Don't get caught up in the price tag or the view from your ivory tower. Trying to better the football team is better for all of us who support the University.
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