Arts & Entertainment
Dave London and his wife, Linda, in the background, in their shop at 2639 N. 48th St.
Lincoln shop gains reputation for
repairs, custom-built instruments
By Mark Lage
Senior Reporter
It was in 1967 that Dale Lon
don, then a commercial electri-.
cian, built a guitar for his wife. By
1969 the interest had so consumed
him that he opened London
Stringed Instrument Repair, lo
cated in Lincoln at 2639 N.48lh St.
“But sometimes I think I
should be doing that (working as
an electrician) again,” London
said, “so I could make some
money.”
The shop, which London runs
with his wife Linda, is known by
musicians throughout the country
for its custom instrument-making,
and, especially, its repair work.
“It’s the repair business that
keeps us going/’ Linda said. “The
custom building is justthe icing on
the cake.”
The shop does repairs for musi
cians from all over the country,
often receiving calls from either
Denver or Des Moines, depending
on which way bands happen to be
I touring, London said.
“They drop4 em off at our place
at 3 a.m. sometimes,” London
said.
The only times when any musi
cian receives priority from Lon
don’s shop is when they only are
going to be in Lincoln for a day and
need the repairs quickly, London
said.
“We’ve had some big-timers
in,’’ London said - Linda was able
to recall Luther Ellison, and The
Marshall Tucker Band — “but we
don’t treat them any differently.”
“We’ve had some
big-timers in, but
we don’t treat
them any ditfer
entiy.”
-London
M
4‘The reason is this: everybody
deserves good work. We build the
instrument the same for every
body,” he said. “Even if I lose
money, we don’t let a bad job out
of here. A bad job is just like hand
ing someone a piece of paper that
says Tm dog doo-doo.’”
“When you don’t do a lot of
advertising,” Linda said, your
best advertiser is a satisfied cus
tomer.” She added that when a
person meets musicians out of
town and mentions Lincoln,
they’ve heard of the Zoo Bar, 136
N. 14th St.,and they’ve heard good
things about London Stringed In
strument Repair.
A great deal of time, study and
effort has gone into making Lon
don’s shop known for the quality
of its work.
“I’ve read just about every
thing that’s been published on the
subject,” London said. “I’ve read
every Masters thesis on the violin
that are written in English and
German.”
He also has visited most of the
best instrument shops in the coun
try, including, by their invitation,
making an extended tour of the
Gibson Factory. While there, he
spent a day on its assembly line,
and spent the rest of the time in its
repair shop.
London’s shop works on all
stringed instruments, and even
some that aren’t stringed, like giv
ing assistance on pipe organs.
“Whatever the hell there is to
make a buck in,” London said. He
said he has built mostly banjos and
guitars, although he also has built
violins, cellos, hammered dulci
mers and mountain dulcimers.
Since 1975, the Londons have
See LONDON on 13
Art League revitalizes,
seeks student members
~ t i j
By Gretchen Boehr
Senior Reporter _
The Art League at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln is trying to revi
talize itself by recruiting underclass
men, said President Reggi Jenkins.
Last year the student art club was
all but dead, Jenkins said, and no one
came to the officer elections in
spring.
‘‘The league was full of juniors,
and seniors who were graduating,”
said Jenkins, a junior art major.
‘‘Freshmen and sophomores
weren’t being invited to the meetings
and if they went they felt left out.”
Jenkins, who wasn’t in the league
last year, became president after talk
ing to an art professor, she said.
Pat Rowan told Jenkins the Arl
League was dying and asked her to be
president, Jenkins said.
This year Jenkins and vice presi
dent Ed Uhart have been active ir
recruiting underclassman.
‘‘We want to make them fee
welcome and get some new blood ii
the league,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins and Uhart have madi
announcements at art classes and pii
up posters.
The league had a display at Fresli
man Friday for the first time.
The league is important becaus
it’s in charge of planning the shows i
the Art League Gallery in Richart
Hall, Jenkins said.
“This gallery gives students
place to show their art.”
The league is planning a bene
concert for Oct. 13, Jenkins said. T1
will be tne nrsi runa-raiser cvci nciu
by the league, she said.
About five local bands will play at
the Culture Center, 333 N. 14th St.
Admission prices still are pending,
she said.
Money from the concert will go
toward the purchase of new track
lighting for the student gallery.
Other social events may be
planned throughout the year, she
said.
The league is im
portant because
it's in charge of
planning shows in
the Art League
Gallery in
Richards Hall.
--Jenkins
i
A T-shirt design contest will be
l held this fall, she said. The winning
1 design will be used for the official Art
League T-shirts, which will be sold
5 on campus.
1 The league determines which
shows will be in the gallery by stu
* dent applications.
“We call everyone and look at
c their artwork and decide what type of
n show we’ll have,’’ she said.
Is “ So far there ’ s been a lot of inter
est.’’
a The gallery, located in 205
Richards Hall, currently is having an
[it open show to get things going, len
ds kins said.
fiiite^§i§pient_
Author to give free reading
I David Michael Kaplan will
give a free public reading of his
work at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the
English department lounge, 228
Andrews.
Kaplan is a young fiction writer
whose first collection of short sto
ries, “Comfort," recently was
published by Viking Penguin.
I UPC films start I nursaay
Movie-goers may be be disrupt
ing the silence this weekend at the
Sheldon Film Theatre for the debut
of the University Program Coun
cil’s American Films division.
The movie “U2; Rattle and
Hum” will be featured Thursday.
*‘U2; Rattle and Hum” will be
shown at the theater at 7 and 9 p.m.
Admission will be $2 few students
with student identification cards
and $3 for non-students.
The UPC Foreign Films will be
—1 showing “King Lcarv Fridayand
Saturday at 3, 6 and 9 p.m. 1 nis
movie, a twist cm dm original ver
sion, stars Woody Allen, Peter
Sellers and MoUy Ringwald
Admission for “Ktoie Lear* will
be $3 for students with student IDs
and $4 for the general public.
UPC also will be featuring
some upcoming sneak previews.
“Look Who*s Talking” will be
shown Oct. 11 and ^Immediate
Family” starring James Woods
andGIennClose will be previewed
Oct. 26.
I Isolated group gets exposure #
iYanomamo Indians
featured
_-1_ 11/a »am/4 *rv cm
at Morrill Hall
I By Jeff Engel
^B Suff Reporter _____
IS The Nebraska Slate Museum ot History is
■ presenting a look at the Yanomamo Indians ol
■Northern Brazil now through Oct. 13 m an
■exhibit titled “Spirits of the Ram Forest.”
§§f The exhibit includes photographs, drawings
■and English translations of Yanomamo myths,
■which often serve as explanations of drawings
■made by the Yanomamo. Three-dimensional
■objects from the State Museum’s own collec
■tion supplement the traveling show from the
■Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pitts
■ Curator and Associate Professor of Muse
Hums and Anthropology Thomas P. Meyers
■said, ‘‘If we had ten people come out and say i
■want to learn more about the Yanomamo, and
■more about these cultural survival groups, and
■then went and did it, I would consider that
■exhibit a resounding success. We arc dealing
■with very small numbers.” f
■ The Yanomamo was a culture hugely out ot
■contact with the rest of the world until tne
jHl920s, and then it was contacted only by mis
sionaries and local fortune hunters.
jj§ With a growing interest in forest commodj
■>es, land, and protection of borders, the Bra/i
lan government is building a nortnern perime
ter highway. The highway enters Yanomamo
reserve land, and brings Western culture into
contact with the Indians .
One can’t help but think of the U.S. Ameri
can Indian situation._
urt rft evieB-—
"It’s a very parallel situation now, except
the technology isso much superior now to what
it was then, tha, the mentality ,nB^tUowaM
conservation and toward Indian Pf°P'f\ls
similar to what it was here a hundred years
ag°‘The factofdle matter is, we arc going to be
in contact, and the question is what do we do
about it now? It is not a question ot Can we
taketoese people away?’They want all of the
Sings that modem culture has to offer now
Foments of this problem that the exhibit
deauTdh comc from different perspectives,
phnim taken by Giovanni Saflino, a mission
^"thropolog.st, reflect the Yanc,
mamo's tradiuonal lifestyle from 1968 to the
nrrvtf.ni as seen by an outsider.
P “The traditional photos tend to do as many
museums do. We tend to say ‘This is the way
the people were,’ and you and I have an image
of them in our minds that this is the way they’ll
always be. But, in fact, the changes come
rapidly,” Meyers said.
Missionaries supplied the Indians with pa
per and felt-tip markers and the results, which
are part of the exhibit, are illuminating. The
Yanomamo drew representations of mythical
figures and emotional states, such as anger and
pain. . .
“One of the interesting things about their
artwork now is that it is indicative of the way
these people are dealing with some of the
problems.
“Now we understand that toothaches arc
probably also a product of Western civilization
because they didn’t have the sugar cane be
fore.” , _ . .
Underlying the entire exhibit is a sense ot
the inevitability of cultural contact with these
people. Cultural contact, in the long run, has
time and again proven devastating to these
small, once-isolated cultures.
They are willing to welcome, if not us, the
technology, medicine and vision of the much
elevated standard of living that Western cul
ture represents.
They may abandon an age-old way of living
to become farmers competing with other Bra
zilians, a competition in which rules the Yano
mamo are singularly ill-versed. An entire cul
ture will be lost to the world.
“I think the Yanomamo can benefit from
Western, technological society without throw
ing away their own culture,” said Ronald
Young, curator of special programming at the
museum.
‘‘A person can spend five or ten minutes in
the Yanomamo exhibit and come out perhaps a
little more sensitized to the fact that this planet
is full of all kinds of people, of cultures,”
Young said. ‘‘Maybe he or she might walk
away a little bit changed, a little bit more
willing to accept a person.”
Meyers said, ‘‘One of the things that people
might do when they go to the exhibit is just try
to take a look at one or two labels and the
associated artwork and try to think about the
relationships, try to deal with them. Often
museum exhibits arc overwhelming unless you
stand there and contemplate what’s in front of
you, deal with it on a one-to-one basis. That s
probably the way to look at any exhibit: don’t
go to a museum once, go to a museum a dozen
times.”
