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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MUSIC
Artist fights world hunger
CALVIN WHITNEY
cwhitney@kansan.com
An emerging Kansas musician, Of Seed and Soil, is a small bedroom folk project with a big vision: to help fight world hunger. One hundred percent of all sales from his first LP, titled "Warm Winter", is donated to the World Food Program. Just two months after its release, "Warm Winter" helped feed more than 2,000 people. Jace Johnson, the man behind the music, has set his goal to $10,000. And while he understands the type of dedication needed, you can't sense any skepticism from the young artist. You can hear the music, purchase the CD and read more information about Of Seed and Soil at www.ofseedandsoil.com.
WHO IS OF SEED AND SOIL?
My name is lace Johnson. I'm from Frontenac, Kan. I've lived here my whole life. I started playing music late in high school, and it's something I've really pursued just in the last few years.
TALK ABOUT YOUR INFLUENCES:
My brother played music around me when I was younger. He was in bands throughout high school, and I was, like the little, middle school kid looking up to him saying, "That's awesome! That's what I want to do!" My dad also has a really great vinyl collection and has a lot of classic stuff in there. I feel
like I've really drawn a lot of inspiration from artists like Neil Young and Bob Dylan. When it comes to songwriting, I'm not a traditional singer and not that great of a guitar player. What I really excel at is writing lyrics and telling a story. That's why I mentioned Bob Dylan and Neil Young because they are pretty bad singers, really [laughs].
ARE YOUR VOCALS SOMETHING YOU'VE BEEN WORKING ON AS A DEVELOPING MUSICIAN?
Yeah. I think it's something that really takes some time. I mean, it sounds cliché, but you really have to 'find your voice'. I always used to be really nervous playing in front of people, but being able to hear my voice formally recorded on "Warm Winter," I feel like it gave me a lot of confidence as a musician.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA AND MUSIC?
I've recently been posting a bunch of videos on YouTube, sort of building a repertoire of covers. It's not dedicated, but I try to put one up every week, if I can. I also just recently got into Twitter (@OfSeedAndSoil) over the last few months. It's kind of crazy because I'm getting a decent following because of Twitter. I now have people actually interacting with me from, like, Arizona saying, 'I love your music,' and that feels so good. It's
the best way to instantly advertise my music.
ANY UPCOMING NEW MATERIAL?
I am kind of working on two different things right now. I have an album that I have already written, but I need to record. I want it to be a one take, live recording. Something that has a rough sound. At the same time, I am working on re-recording some older material that I have written before "Warm Winter." I would like to give them proper recordings.
DO YOU EVER SEE YOURSELF
DOING THIS AS A PROFESSION?
I eventually want to do this full time. I want to fully commit to music and not have to work a regular job. I don't want a normal job. So if I keep doing it all for charity, that isn't possible. This is actually a recent decision [to pursue music as a career].
I definitely have a lot more to sell [laughs]. I'm well below my goal at the moment, but so far, I've raised an amount that I am proud of. My original goal is $10,000, which is still totally possible. I am learning, though, that it is quite an undertaking.
HOW SUCCESSFUL IS YOUR PROJECT GOING?
Edited by Kyle Crane
CALVIN WHITNEY/KANSAN
Jace Johnson preforms as Of Seeds and Soil in his home last month. Johnson wants to use the sales of his LP will go to the World Food Program.
excess HOLLYWOOD review
FILM
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis take up arms in a scene from last summer's "Expendables 2." Each actor has at least two movies in development for 2013.
Aged A-listers still in demand
LANDON MCDONALD
imcdonald@kansan.com
Attention all moviegoers, sit up straight and pick the popcorn out of your teeth. The old school is back in session.
The first few weeks of 2013 have been front-loaded with fresh offerings from aging action stars. January brought us Arnold Schwarzenegger's latter-day western "The Last Stand," which bombed despite solid reviews and the awesome sight of the ex-Governator mowing down drug dealers using a mini-gun mounted on the back of a school bus. No matter, he'll be back as a wily prisoner in this year's "The Tomb" and a corrupt L.A. lawman in 2014's "Ten." This past weekend saw the release of Walter Hill's bluntly titled "Bullet to the Head," featuring an impressively pumped-up Sylvester Stallone jamming to Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" before crossing axes with Khal Drogo and grunting something unintelligible about Vikings.
Even Valentine's Day isn't safe from these gray-templed Goliaths: Fox has chosen Feb. 14 to unleash the decidedly unromantic "A Good Day to Die Hard," the fifth entry in the venerable franchise starring Bruce Willis as John McClane, the everyman cop with an uncanny knack for thwarting international terrorist plots. The film, which finds McClane traveling to Moscow to rescue his gungo mercenary son (Jai Courtney) from a Russian prison, marks the start of a busy year for Willis, who's quickly becoming Hollywood's go-to super-senior. In addition to reprising the McClane character, he's also slated for appearances in "G.I.J. Joe Retaliation" (as a Joe battling high cholesterol) and "Red 2," as well as Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's hotly anticipated "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For," whose release date has been pushed back to early 2014.
Older folks in general are finding themselves increasingly well-represented onscreen. After decades of catering solely to the prudent interests of 15-year-old boys, studio executives have finally recognized the senior population as a largely untapped market, one with a surfeit of free time and plenty of disposable income to fill it with. One of the biggest box office surprises of 2012 was "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," a pleasant travelogue comedy about a destination retirement community in India starring Maggie Smith ("Downton Abbey"), Tom Wilkinson ("Batman Begins") and the irrepressible Judi Dench, who, incidentally, proved her chops as an action heroine during the final act of "Skyfall." "Marigold" ultimately grossed a respectable $46 million thanks to an ad campaign focused on attracting elder couples and retirees.
All across the board, the industry is working to court older viewers. 2013 has already seen the release of septuagenarian actor Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut "Quartet," also featuring Smith, a romantic face set in an old folk's home for retired musicians. "Stand-Up Guys," a gooey-hearted crime comedy starring Al Pacino (in full peacock mode, no less) and Christopher Walken as
a pair of geriatric gangsters, aims to appeal to the husbands of all the housewives who supported "Marigold." All three films are rife with jokes about estranged grandchildren, the frustrations of new-fangled technology and even the indignities associated with erectile dysfunction.
So, in the midst of this elder boom, what makes the old man of action unique? For one thing, he may have given birth to this trend in the first place. In 2010, at the height of Americas renewed love affair with Betty White, Mr. Stallone, having closed out both his "Rocky" and "Rambo" franchises on relative high notes, set out to craft an epic ensemble piece in the grand tradition of "The Dirty Dozen" and "The Magnificent Seven." His goal: to make a movie for his aging fan-base that would also catch the attention of their children and grandchildren.
Instead he came up with "The Expendables," a poorly edited muddle of misfired testosterone that nonetheless managed the difficult task of assembling a cross-generational pantheon of action heroes, including everyone from blockbuster heavyweights Willis and Schwarzenegger to more offbeat choices like Dolph Lundgren ("Red Scorpion", "Rocky IV"), beloved Old Spice spokesman Terry Crews and modern genre stalwart Jason Statham. The movie ended up grossing nearly $275 million worldwide, proving that when it comes to over-the-hill talent, audiences are more than willing to buy in bulk.
Edited by Taylor Lewis
The Irrawaddy Literary Festival, which runs from Friday through Sunday, comes as Myanmar relaxes its censorship rules, bringing new freedom of expression to the country's authors, journalists, bloggers and comedians. More than 100 authors from around the world are attending, including Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who spent the better part of two decades under house arrest before being elected to parliament last year.
"We still take some care," said Pe Myint, who has written 42 books and numerous short stories. But, he
YANGON, Myanmar — The latest first for fast-reforming Myanmar — its first international literary festival — is putting the spotlight on dozens of the country's authors, a number of whom once spent time in prison for their writings.
Myanmar reforms literary censorship
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Authors must still submit their books to the government, but it can no longer block their distribution. Some of the old laws used to jail dissident writers remain on the books, but local authors say that for the most part, censors have put down their red pens and they can publish quite freely.
Myanmar shut its censorship office in August and a week ago officially rebranded the Press Scrutiny board, which was responsible for censoring publications, as the Copyrights and Registration Division.
Myanmar was controlled by a military junta for half a century before sweeping political reform brought a rush of business and cultural engagement with the outside world.
added, for the last two years he has been able to publicy criticize the government, a once unimaginable right.
"Wild Swans" author Jung Chang, India's Vikram Seth, British historian Timothy Garton-Ash and New Delhi-based writer William Dalrymple — a force behind India's hugely successful Jaipur literary festival — are scheduled to attend this weekend's festival, along with about 80 authors from Myanmar.
"I feel extremely happy the festival can happen at all," said Jung Chang, whose books are banned in China.
Myanmar's literature is little known abroad, thanks to decades of isolationist rule and a lack of translation
The few authors known overseas — like Thant Myint-U, now a government adviser, and Pascal Khoo Thwe, the first Padaung tribesman to graduate from Cambridge University — have lived for long periods abroad and wrote in English. They are not seen here as truly local authors.
The old government restrictions on publication have also cut off local readers from global authors. The international literature available here has, by and large, been limited to censor-altered versions of Russian and Western classics, by writers like Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell and John Steinbeck.
He didn't recognize any of the foreign authors scheduled to speak and has little guidance through the world of contemporary English letters.
Friday morning at the festival, dozens of students crowded around a table with a motley assortment of secondhand books for sale.
"It's very important for the students of Myanmar because there is contact with foreigners," Arker Kyaw, an 18-year-old student of English, said of the festival. "I know only Leo Tolstoy."