6A / NEWS / THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
MUSIC
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Local drummer's film to premiere
BY NICOLAS ROESLER
nroesler@kansan.com
According to legend, living the rock star dream comes with fame, sex, drugs and rock and roll. But now, thanks to a local drummer's documentary, you can see for yourself how the life of a Lawrence rock star lives up to the legend.
Tommy Dinnel, drummer for The Brody Buster Band, is releasing a documentary entitled "How Did This Happen?" The film records the real life and times of the local band.
"A lot of bands have videos that really try to show how cool they are," Dimmel said. "This documentary seeks to show all the other things that don't happen in documentaries."
According to Dimmel, things get dirty, strange and darkly humorous.
"I think that when stuff goes horribly wrong it's hilarious and
not tragic," Dimmel said.
Dimmel, a senior from Overland Park, has been multitasking this semester, working on the film while keeping up with his studies as a photomedia major at the University. He has filmed the band over the last year and a half and accumulated more than 7,200 minutes of footage. Since then, he has edited the mayhem down to a 90-minute documentary, showcasing Murphy's Law in its full effect
"Stuff would go wrong all the time like you wouldn't believe," Dimmel said. "The weirdest people would be backstage. The venue owners would just be complete oddballs."
He described a situation when the band was playing in Alma, which according to Dimmel, was a city known for its cheese. The opening act for the band was a 90-year-old poet whose performance was continually interrupted by smoke seeping on stage from
a field directly next to the venue, where a Civil War reenactment was also occurring that evening. Not only was the artist's show interrupted by his gasping for breath, but the audience also struggled for clean air from the smoke.
Dimmel said a lot of the time, the life of a rock band can be hard. Playing in dive bars and small towns like Alma can get tiresome, but that is a major part of his band's life.
"We all survive off this stuff," said guitarist, harmonica player and lead singer Brody Buster. "We pay our rent with the money from these gigs."
Buster found early success in his musical career playing harmonica at eight years old on a Mississippi street for tips. One day, B.B. King walked by and asked if he would play with him.
Buster went on to perform a couple of gigs with B.B. King, including one on "The Late Show
line of shows to play, the money doesn't provide enough funds to print their recently finished studio album. Most of the guys have jobs on the side, but that is not the focus of the movie.
Chris Handley, bass player, said the movie truly shows what it is like to be a working musician in Lawrence.
"It's just a matter of waiting for random crazy stuff to happen," Handley said.
The movie is described by Dimmel as a cohesive compilation of home videos that people should find hilarious.
"If most documentaries were filming the party the night of, this documentary is filming the hang-over the next morning." Dimmel said.
The premiere will be held at the jazzhaus tonight at 8:30 along with a second showing at 10:30. Entrance is $1.
Edited by Leslie Kinsman
WATCH THE
DOCUMENTARY
WHERE: Premiering tonight at Jazzhaus
WHEN: 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
COST: $1
The other side effect can do much more than affect someone's relationship status. Ilardi explained that SSRIs affect a person's anterior cingulate, which is a part of the brain that controls a patient's "give-a-damn" level. Individuals with severe anxiety disorders can benefit from a little reduced error detection, but for some, like Hardy, it can take an ugly turn.
"People were making irreversible lifetime decisions, like divorcing their partners or leaving their longtime boyfriend or girlfriend," Ilardi said. "They never once considered it could be the medications that was doing it. That's just not how we reason about it."
"For two months I had absolutely no motivation to do anything at all," Hardy said.
with David Letterman." Last year the band opened for King in Kansas City, but Buster's music has since evolved from the simple blues he once played with the blues legend to a more rock and roll sound. He said his band was lucky to have this connection, because now they don't have trouble booking shows in Lawrence and the surrounding area.
For some patients emotional numbing is a good thing. But for others the degree to which they experience positive emotions such as love and affection goes down as well. Ilardi said he has known many individuals on SSRIs who have reported falling out of love with their significant others, and they never considered that it could be because of the medications.
Here's the really chilling factor: Most of the time, patients have no idea they are experiencing either of these behavioral side effects.
According to an article written by Simon Sobo, M.D., selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRLs, like Celexa can cause a mental phenomenon called "emotional blunting," which can make patients have a carefree, "well whatever" attitude toward life.
Iardi said emotional blunting could lead to two particular types of potentially life-altering side effects: emotional numbing and reduced error detection.
"It's kind of a catch-22," Ilardi said.
"Emotional blunting reduces your ability to detect emotional blunting. So, the side effects actually reduce your ability to detect the side effects. It's kind of a vast hidden epidemic."
the majority of the physicians prescribing SSRIs are general practitioners. Karen Moeller, a clinical associate professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, doesn't think this is necessarily a bad thing.
Hardy wasn't suffering the symptoms of any anxiety disorder, however. She was being treated for one. Her side effects came from an antidepressant called Celexa, which doctors prescribed when she reported having hopeless thoughts and experiencing frequent panic attacks. Steve Ilardi, professor of abnormal psychology, says Hardy isn't alone.
"I think that the prescribing of these agents by general practitioners probably leads to more people being recognized and treated for depression," Moeller said. "This helps lead to decrease suicide and better quality of life."
Ilardi said another factor causing these side effects to remain largely off the medical radar are the individuals prescribing the SSRIs.
However, Ilardi isn't sure this type of doctor would be able to help patients if they encountered these types of problematic side effects.
"What I'd love to be able to say is, 'Talk to your doctor,' but you know, at least 75 percent of the people prescribing these meds are not experts," Ilardi said. "Often they are not always aware of these side effects, and they will think it's something else."
Hardy said when she was prescribed Celexa, the doctor told her she could experience loss of sexual interest but did not warn her of any other side effects. When she returned with complaints of her severe side effects, the doctor simply dismissed them and told Hardy to stay on the SSRIs for at least six months.
If SSRI patients suspect that they are experiencing emotional blunting, Illardi recommends getting some type of informant data, such as asking friends if they're noticed a personality change or comparing diary or journal entries from before and after the drug prescription. Then they should make a decision with the help of their family, friends and maybe a psychiatrist about whether or not to stay on the drug.
"We book more gigs than any other band really does around here," Buster said.
He stressed that no patient should ever go off SRIs without the supervision of a medical professional, since SSRIs can cause a severe withdrawal syndrome as well. Luckily, Hardy's story has had a happy ending. She said her emotional blunting faded with time and she is now able to sleep and is less hopeless. But she still recalls the first difficulties she had with the drug.
Anti-anxiety medication problematic for some
In June, Kate Hardy, a junior from Kansas City, Kan., stopped spending as much time with her friends and family. Some days, her interests consisted solely of lying around and sleeping. She dropped out of one of her summer classes and her grades plummeted in the others. Her nights became cloaked with insomnia and often sleep didn't come until 5 a.m.
HEALTH
"The first two or three months were bad," Hardy said. "I thought I was going to die."
BY JUSTINE PATTON jpatton@kansan.com
- Edited by Michael Bednar
Although they have a steady
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Real estate agents are in terror
KENT, Ohio — Two real estate agents were killed in vacant homes for sale and another was robbed within a week in northeast Ohio, prompting frightened agents across
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the region to cancel open houses and avoid meeting prospective buyers alone.
The body of Vivian Martin, 27, was found on the kitchen floor in a burning home on Monday in Youngstown, said police chief Jimmy Hughes. An autopsy report shows she was strangled before the home burned down, and the fire was ruled an arson. Authorities believe Martin's death might be related to the Sept. 15 robbery of a real estate agent who showed an apartment to a pair of brothers in nearby Boardman Township, said Boardman police Capt. Donald Hawkins. Hawkins said the two cases are similar but declined to give more details.
About 40 miles west, in a lakefront community near Kent State University, the body of 51-year-old Andrew VonStein was found with a single gunshot wound Tuesday in a vacant white ranch-style house he was trying to sell. Authorities are trying to determine whether the deaths of Martin and VonStein are linked.
"A lot of agents are really scared and upset," said Suanne Brown, an office coordinator at RE/MAX Valley Real Estate in Youngstown, where all 24 agents in her office have canceled upcoming open houses scheduled for this weekend. The office has stopped taking on new clients until police are confident that all suspects are in custody, Brown said.
Brown said she is reminding agents to take standard precautions when showing homes, such as not going into house first and not bending down or turning your back to clients. Agents are also encouraged to meet new clients at the office, get identification and verify that they are preapproved for loans, all of which can help ensure that the potential buyers are serious and credible.