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Home - Archives
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Classical Cowboy - |
On a horse, Spanish guitar progeny is the Real McCoy
by Leo Adam Biga
Spanish classical guitar could be said to flow from a single source — Francisco Tarrega. At the turn of the 20th century, Tarrega, the father of this passionate art form, passed on his legacy to his musical progeny — a few prized pupils.
These pupils, in turn, taught the art to select disciples, and so on down the line.
Improbably, this line of maestros, the great interpreters of Spanish classical guitar, includes a longtime area resident who is an American to boot.
Hadley Heavin grew up a cowboy, jock and blues-rock lead guitar player in Baxter Springs, Kan. He learned guitar at 5 and began riding horses soon after, eventually adding rodeo, football, basketball, track and baseball to his resume.
Since 1982, the Vietnam combat vet has been a University of Nebraska at Omaha music instructor.
In the late ’70s, Heavin became the primary student of the late Segundo Pastor. Decades before, Pastor was the favorite student of Daniel Fortea, once the anointed disciple of Tarrega himself.
So it is that this musical lineage has been passed from Tarrega to Fortea to Pastor to Heavin.
“When I play Spanish music, I play it very much probably how Tarrega played it, because it was passed down that way,” Heavin said. “I’m probably just one of a handful of people in the world that got that experience.” |
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Unequivocally Ernie - |
UNICAMERAL AND NEBRASKA LOSE HISTORIC INGREDIENT
by Tessa Jeffers
Lincoln — On the way to Room 1107, other offices welcome visitors with nameplates on open doors and beaming secretaries at the ready. The door to Room 1107 is shut, unmarked; no nameplate.
Knockers must persist (some, like former state senator Kermit Brashear, have a secret knock). Once the door opens, it’s radical. Stacks upon stacks of papers, boxes atop boxes, hand-written notes, typed poems, yellowed newspaper clippings taped haphazardly in organized chaos. Literature on the death penalty, abortion, education — virtually every hot-button issue. One box is simply labeled “problems.”
In an interview where she praised Sen. Ernie Chambers’ accomplishments and storied career, Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln joked, “I just don’t want Ernie to get a bigger head than he already has.”
These loads of information in piles loom as knowledge evidence.
One can infer that it’s all been taken in. No wonder his head is so big. “I have probably the biggest but healthiest ego of anybody you ever will meet,” Chambers said. “It is not based on illusion or delusion, but recognition of the abilities that I have and the fact that I will stand for what I believe. And whenever you do that, you’re comfortable with yourself. That is the best status to occupy on this Earth.” |
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TrashTalk - |
Recycling for the economy is the new green
by Andrea Heisinger
Recycling has become one of many buzz words in the green movement of recent years, alongside hybrid cars and Al Gore.
It’s even become a source of internet humor, listed at No. 64 on the popular blog “Stuff White People Like.”
One may wonder if anyone actually recycles in Omaha. The answer is a tepid Wasteline newsletter.
Green bins can be seen lining curbs on certain days of the week, containing that which would otherwise end up in the tangle of refuse at the landfill.
So who picks it up? And where does it go? |
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Producing Peace - |
Converting a permanent war economy
by Andrew Norman
Standing on a Colorado Springs street corner Monday, April 7, Mary Beth Sullivan answered the phone as she put down a sign that read, “War is not healthy for children and other living things.”
Sullivan is a peacenik of the unabashed variety. A tree-hugging, rabblerousing idealist whose doomsday environmental scenarios and books-not-bombs economic schemes prove her naiveté.
She thinks Americans care that 42.2 percent of their 2007 income tax dollars went to military spending, while just over 4 percent and 3 percent went to education and to the environment respectively, according to the National Priorities Project.
If Sullivan is nuts it’s because she thinks Americans will consider their children’s children when they hear that government money devoted to healthcare, education, environmental sustainability and infrastructure can generate up to twice as many jobs per dollar as military spending, according to a 2007 study by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute (PERI).
If Sullivan is wacko it’s because she believes Americans are ready to talk about converting a permanent war economy into one promoting sustainability and peace.
Other innocents and would-be kooks will hear her revolutionary notions when she speaks at the 16th-annual Space Organizing Conference & Protest at St. John’s Parish basement at Creighton University April 11-13. Local and national social leaders and activists like Los Alamos Study Group Director Greg Mello, Des Moines Catholic Worker co-founder Frank Cordaro and Lindis Percy, from England’s Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, will offer workshops focused on U.S. Strategic Command’s recent mission evolution, missile-defense systems in Europe, U.S. military bases abroad and wars of the future. The event begins at 4 p.m. Friday with a rally at StratCom’s Kinney Gate.
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The Bob and Mike Show - |
Something Strange Is Happening at The Daily
By Warren Francke
A newspaper once boasted on page one, “Irreverence is our only sacred cow.” It wasn’t the Omaha World-Herald.
But then the daily didn’t have Robert Nelson writing columns that tug the teats on an entire herd of Nebraska’s sacred cows. He even refers to what he does as “being a jerk.”
Fans would never call his fellow columnist a jerk, but Mike Kelly sparked controversy when by picking on “our state religion and my personal religion,” Cornhusker football and his own Roman Catholic faith.
“Stop squawking and become a Protestant,” a critic complained.
What’s an alternative weekly like The Reader to do when a gray lady like the Herald zings sacred cows?
Well, write about it. Answer questions. Like, what hath Nelson, the refugee from an alt-weekly, wrought, and will Cincinnati Mike try to out-jerk the kid from Falls City? |
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The Reader Weekly News: The Reader's Annual April Fool's Issue - |
Sewer Confidential:
The Secret Plan and Foolproof Financing, Underground People Rise Up
Though Sewer Director Bo Flush denied allegations that he had a secret plan all along to build a new sewage system, it recently came to light that a secret plan is floating around regarding just how in the hell we’re supposed to pay for a new state-of-the-art excrement exiting system.
As Flush revealed in today’s press conference, his plan is simple. “Since we’ve ridden this pony about as far as it’s going to go, it’s clear that we need to build a new waste wash-away. Today I’m proud to unveil my plan for funding the new one: I’m asking all Omaha residents to get second or in some cases, third, jobs.”
“No sh*t,” was the reply from Bob Hole, the spokesperson for the city’s Underground People opposed to the plan. “What’s wrong with the existing crap clean-up."
Claiming that “we’re all in this together,” Flush pointed out the hundreds of listings at job sites such as Omahajobs.com and Careerlink.org as examples. “Yes, some of these positions are highly skilled. That means those individuals will be able to contribute even more money. But everyone can do their part — I mean, what else are we going to do with this stuff.”
His plan includes residents of all ages, including children under 18 and the elderly. “As this program rolls, the babysitting market in Omaha will explode,” he enthused.
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The Reader Does Austin - |
A reporter’s SXSW notebook
by Andrew Norman
The first show we hit at the South By Southwest Music Festival was Chicago post-hardcore pioneers Naked Raygun Tuesday night at Red 7. The band reformed in 2006 after about a 15-year absence. It’s always strange seeing a band, especially a rock band, reliving its youth. It’s impossible to regain the energy, so it often leaves musicians stationary, playing their instruments as hard as they can while trying not to crap out. There was no stage diving or jump kicks, but the band drew on its extensive catalog of steady, up-tempo, melodic hardcore songs and left the physical antics to the audience, who seemed to know every word.
Wednesday afternoon we ventured west to catch Lincoln’s Eagle Seagull at an unofficial day show at some DJ club about five blocks west of the festival epicenter. Day shows are hit-or-miss at SXSW; there must be free beer. At this venue a Lone Star cost $4, which is $3 more than one should ever pay for the Texas lager. Not surprisingly, only a small crowd watched ES’ indie pop. I’m told the band’s official show went better.
After SXSW, ES was spending two weeks on the road with recent Saddle Creek Records signee Tokyo Police Club. After that, the band will tour for two weeks with the B-52s. Violinist Carrie Butler said the “Love Shack” band’s riders demanded two hair stylists capable of doing beehives. She planned to take advantage.
Returning to Sixth Street we passed an eight-piece old-timey street band of crusty punks playing Leftover Crack’s “Crack Rock Steady” with their mangy dogs by their side. Excellent. |
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Immigration Intimidation - |
Why did Heineman and Bruning target a federal issue as their top priority?
by Tessa Jeffers
Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, political science professor and assistant director of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s OLLAS (Office of Latino/Latin American Studies), isn’t surprised at what he ran into during the Unicameral’s committee debate of LB 963, a bill targeting illegal immigrants.
“When I first walked in [to the hearing], there was a gentleman with a red vest on, a disheveled looking little man, and he bumped right into me — he pushed me,” Benjamin-Alvarado remembers. “He started mumbling under his breath, ‘f***in’ Mexican’ or something like that.” The situation was halted by a state trooper who was there for peacekeeping, who intervened and told the man to get out of the way.
Unprovoked incidents like this happen all the time, says Benjamin-Alvarado, who testified against LB 963. “And unfortunately, they’re on ‘robocall’ to the governor’s office.”
Politics is a contact sport, says Republican Sen. Mike Friend of Omaha, who introduced the bill. In the case of the nation’s inflamed immigration debate, Sen. Brad Ashford says the issue is being tossed around like a “political football.” |
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New Washington - |
Young Democrats Esch and Carter believe regime change starts in Nebraska
by Andrew Norman
The Iraq war begins year five this month. A Nobel Prize-winning economist says the cost could wind up reaching $5 trillion. It has already cost some 4,000 American lives; 43 of them Nebraskans.
The leading Republican presidential candidate indicates he could envision American troops being there for another 100 years. Warren Buffett says the United States is in a recession. The national debt has increased $3.6 trillion in the last seven years. About 15,000 low-income Nebraska children will go without health insurance because President Bush vetoed an expansion to the State Children Health Insurance Program. The country’s infrastructure needs more than $1.6 trillion in repairs. An estimated 12 million immigrants live in the country illegally. The wage gap is increasing and Exxon Mobil earned a record $41 billion in 2007. Gas costs more than $3 per gallon and is climbing.
Do you know where your congressman is? |
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Cool Commerce - |
Cool companies breed cool cities
by Tessa Jeffers
It’s Friday, and Rebecca Ryan asks me what I’m doing this weekend. I tell her I’m seeing some live music. “Are you going to see, like, Bon Jovi or something?” she quips with a laugh. I tell her that although the Jovi was in Omaha just weeks ago, I’ll be seeing a local band. This community’s music scene is quite alive, I say, and she gets excited.
Ryan, keynote speaker of Omaha’s 2007 Young Professionals Summit and the 2008 YPS opening speaker, founded Next Generation Consulting, which guides companies and organizations to engage 20- to 40-year-olds.
She was speaking while on the road, driving back from a meeting for the Women’s Fund of Milwaukee, on whose board she serves.
Ryan, a Madison, Wisc., native who celebrated her 36th birthday this week, says things like “rock on” and “I’m feeling like a fossil” while discussing Bon Jovi. She says her job is “getting inside the minds of the next generation.” |
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