Arts & Entertainment
Labor Day features include fair, Septemberfest
Nebraskans prepare for week-long event
FAIR
By Gretchen Boehr
Senior Reporter
A high school cheerlcading con
test, a quiz bowl and a larger Univer
sity of Nebraska display have been
added to the numerous events and
exhibits at the Nebraska State Fair
this year, according to Sharon
Schrock, receptionist at the State Fair
administration office.
The university display, located in
the Bob Devancy Sports Center, will
have information about the nine col
leges at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln as well as the University of
Nebraska at Omaha and the Univer
sity of Nebraska Medical Center. The
fair starts Friday and runs through
Sept. 10.
Five schools have entered the
cheerleading contest, Schrock said,
which will take place in front of the
grandstand on Sept. 6.
High school students will conipclc
against each other by answering
timed questions in the quiz bowl.
Schrock said 20 schools have entered
the contest which is scheduled for
Sept. 5 and will be on the grand
stand’s fourth floor.
The Children’s Festival, new to
the fair last year, will be expanded
because of its popularity, Schrock
said. The highlight of the festival,
Sept 9 and 10, will be a 20th-Birth
day Celebration for Sesame Street.
Special days for lower entrance
prices include:
- Veterans’ Day, Saturday, when
all veterans and members of a veter
ans’ auxiliary pay $1 gate admission.
Also, those presenting proofs of pur
chase from Era Detergent or Ivory
Liquid will receive $2 to $4 off the
admission price.
- Dollar Days, Tuesday and
Wednesday, gate admission is $1.
- Food Bank and Ag Day, Thurs
day, admission is $1 with a can of
food to donate to the Food Bank or an
Ag Day coupon.
- Kids’ Day, Sept. 9, gives kids
under 16 free admission until 6 p.m.
- Last Blast is Sept. 10 with free
gate admission after 4 p.m.
Midway rides with an all-day
pass arc $8:
- Friday, 6 p.m. to midnight.
- Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m.
- Thursday, 6 p.m. to midnight.
- Sept. 10,4 p.m. to midnight.
NEBRASKA
From Staff Reports
Some Nebraskans have heard their
state described as “that black hole
between Chicago and Denver, where
nothing ever happens.”
But these poor foreigners have
never been around the Comhusker
state on the Labor Day weekend.
‘‘This weekend is for towns that
choose to have a celebration on Labor
Day rather than the Fourth of July,”
said Mary Emanuel, development
consultant at the Nebraska Depart
ment of Tourism.
Here’s a look at some of the cele
brations and events in Nebraska:
- Crawford’s Old Timer’s Rodeo
in Crawford. The one stipulation for
being in the rodeo is that participants
must be at least 40 years old.
Velma Rising, director of the ro
deo, said “We have a bareback rider
that is 67 years old and a calf-roping
team in their 80s.”
Crawford’s Old Timer’s Rodeo
will be Sunday through Monday.
— The German Heritage Festival
will be in Grand Island today through
Sunday. The festival features ethnic
dancers, food, music and a bike race.
- The Ogallala -Yacht Club’s
Governor’s Cup Regatta at Lake
McConaughy. The event, planned for
Saturday through Monday, will fea
ture 300 sailboats.
“This is real pretty to see,”
Emanuel said.
— The American Legion Labor
Day Celebration in Schuyler Monday
includes a carnival and a parade at
1:30 p.m.
OMAHA
By Matt.Burton
Stiff Reporter
‘‘Septemberfest, A Salute to La
bor” will kick off Labor Day week
end in Omaha.
By Friday afternoon, September
fest will be roaring full lilt. A carni
val, live entertainment, a beer gar
den, and information booths will
abound.
The carnival will feature many
types of entertainment, according to
Terry Moore, Septemberfest chair
man.
Making its debut at the festival is
“The Kamikaze.” This ride features
cars roaring toward each other at
mega-speeds and heights.
A 100-foot-long bumper car court,
jugglers, clowns and a monkey ven
dor all can be found at the festival.
The convention center will be
filled with a number of labor displays
from lines of work such as plumbers
and milkmen.
Tony the Tiger will be giving
away $10,000 worth of cereal.
The “Death Defying Act of
Douglas Me Valley” from has Vegas
will be performing in front of the
Music Hall. Me Valley and an associ
ate will ride motorcycles in the
“Globe of Death,” reaching speeds
of 65 mph.
One person will receive 36 Cor
vettes from Septemberfest and VH-1.
The winner will get a Corvette of
each year from 1953 to 1989. Some of
the Corvettes will be on display. One
contest winner will be flown to New
York to watch the Beach Boys.
Among items, free Beach Boys rec
ords and T-shirts will be given away.
“Septemberfest” will feature a
Labor Day parade on Monday start
ing at 15th and Jackson streets and
winding to Central Park Mall. More
than 1,000 people are expected to
participate in this year’s parade. Last
year, 30,000 spectators attended the
event.
Another event, “The Great Ki
netic Sculpture Race,” begins Satur
day. In this event, human-powered
vehicles ~ able to conquer both land
and water ~ will race on a 10-mile
course, beginning at Dodge Park and
ending at Central Park Mall some
time on Sunday, Moore said. In the
past, vehicles in the event have re
sembled Fred Flintstone’s car.
“Septemberfcst” began Thurs
day and continues through Sept. 4.
LINCOLN/
CAMPUS
From Staff Reports
Looking for an alternative to the
Nebraska State Fair this Labor Day
Weekend? Rock ‘n’ roll and the rec
reation center are two of your
choices.
The first annual Bug Eater’s Ball
will be Friday night at die parking lot
south of Gold’s Galleria. Gates open
at 6 p.m. and admission is $1. Sweet
Potato will open the ball and Lie
Awake will headline the evening’s
festivities. Beer will be served, so no
minors are allowed.
Those students who aren’t going
away for the weekend, and don’t
want to remain sedentary, can work
out at the Campus Recreation/Ath
letic Facility, at 841 N. 14 St. The rcc
center will be open Saturday from 9
a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 11
p.m. and Monday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The UNL women’s volleyball
team will be playing the University of
Iowa Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Coli
seum. Admission is free for students
with student identification cards and
$3 for general spectators.
The Husker freshman football
team also will be playing on Satur
day. They will take on Snow Junior
College at 1 p.m. and admission is
free.
Folk art inspires works
by contemporary artists
By Gretchen Boehr
Senior Reporter
Paintings, drawings and sculp
tures inspired by folk art make up
the yek’s first exhibition in the
Department of Art and Art History
Gallery at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln.
Paintings and sculptures by
Stephanie Cooper of Cincinnati,
and Don Gahr and Arne Nyen of
Minneapolis create the “Contem
porary Painting and Mixed Me
dia” display in Gallery A.
Ink drawings by Carl Strobcl
will appear in Gallery B. Both
galleries arc located in 102
Richards Hall.
A public reception Thursday
evening opened the exhibition
which lasts through Sept. 28.
According to Susan Moss, asso
ciate director of the gallery, the
four artists arc widely exhibited
around the nation.
“These two shows are of cur
rent artists,” she said, “and
‘Mixed Media’ in the exhibition's
title means the artists arc using
materials they want to use to create
this art.”
Nyen applies acrylic to raw
cotton batting covered with gloss
varnish for his colorful abstracts,
which often arc portrait-like.
He said some elements of his
work draw from folk art.
Nyen said, “I try to combine
beauty and humor in my paintings.
“My work has a sort of sophis
ticated naivete.”
Gahr’s three-dimensional wood
and acrylic animals also have roots
in folk art style, “and I think my
work is inspired by aboriginal cul
tures,” he said.
Gahr’s five pieces on display in
Richards Hall include two whales,
two cats and« fox.
“Animals are neat because
almost all of them have a built-in
meaning in their history, whether
it’s biblical or from native man,”
he said. “Whales arc interesting to
me because they have built-in
symbolism from ‘Moby Dick’ to
their current plight of going ex
tinct.”
Cooper’s small sculptures have
a narrative quality, Moss said.
Painted wooden figures in curious
settings seem to be trying to tell a
story, she said.
“It’s unclear what it is they are
trying to say, and this is what
makes the sculptures so interest
ing,” she said.
“Porcupine Woman” and
“Feeling a Little Tense” arc the
lilies of two of Cooper’s sculp
tures.
Strobcl’s 30 ink-on-paper
drawings in Gallery B were se
lected from the collection of Char
les R. Chandler, of Memphis,
Tenn.
According to Moss, Strobel
suffered a stroke two or three years
ago and is no longer able to draw.
The people in Slrobcl’s draw
ings are both comical and sensu
ous. The lines arc simple but the
subject matter is usually very de
tailed.
Many of his drawings consist of
a person surrounded by the fluid
lines of other people in the back
ground.
Both Nycn and Gahr arc associ
ated with the Thomas Barry Art
Gallery in Minneapolis.
Other exhibitions in the gallery
this fall will include “White Heat:
an Exhibition of Porcelain Ceram
ics,” from Oct. 3 through 26;
‘Through the Lens,” a national
photography competition, from
Oct. 31 through Nov. 21; and MFA
Thesis Exhibitions by Kate
Brooke, Judy Burton and Georgia
Johnson, Nov. 27 through Dee. 14.
^ David Fahlaaon/Daily Nebraskan
Graduate art students Paul Connor and Angie Meche view a work by Stephanie Cooper.
The Porcupine Woman is part of a contemporary painting and mixed media exhibit at
Richards Hall Sept. 1 through 28.
Dava Fahlaaon/Daily Nabraakar
