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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 1991)
Poem showed human potential Creativity, harmonica holes among stifled tools 1 ed poured himself another shot ofStolichnaya, had a swig and took a deep whiff of his rye bread. He had been to Russia several months ago, and learned to chase vodka with pickles and rye bread. In lean times, he was told, they only smell the bread, so they can eat it at the next meal. Gary Longsine He picked up his harmonica. Made in Czechoslovakia, it didn’t seem to have as many holes as the manual said it should. The picture on the box matched the number in the text, and the har monica fell short by a cou nt of two. We guessed that it must have been made under Communist rule. If you don’t have enough raw materials and your production quota is measured in numbers of har monicas, what do you do? Shorten the harmonica. Since none of us knew how many holes a harmonica was sup posed to have, it didn’t really mat ter, except that it made the task of reproducing a known melody from the instructions more difficult. The vodka probably didn’t do much for known melodies either. Ted threw the question of how to interpret the instructions — in absence of two holes — to the room. Which two were missing? One from each end? Two from one end? Janice said that Ted was too goal oriented, and that he should try to make his own music, without fol lowing some arbitrary directions. I said that Janice was too psy cho-analytical, but that she was probably right. I added, “Directionless music sounds like more fun than tryingto figure out how many holes a har monica is supposed to have.” Ted put down the instructions, gazed across the room for several seconds, and began to play. Tenta tively at first, then with growing confidence, he played some notes on his harmonica. Janice joined in with her har monica. Very soon they had settled into a comfortable, rhythmic and melodious improvisation. The har monies they produced were more than a little reminiscent of the lone some prairie cowpoke, lulling the cows to sleep. It worked for me and asleep I fell. Some moments later, when they apparently had grown tired of making music in attempted har Michael Weixel/DN monization with my snoring, I awoke to mocking imitations of a long-horn steer —:.mmmMOOOO! Highly unbelievable, I know. But so is most of my life. The probability that any one of my life events wouldhappenatallisnearly zero. That they all happened, and happened to me, is nearly impos sible, I’m sure. This was one of those rare moments when people let their guard down and just be, together It doesn’t happen often, because there is tremendous bias against expressing creativity in our culture. It is viewed as uncivilized. Individual expression of crea tive impulses is stifled. It’s barely acceptable to sing along to con sumer pop fare, and singing a tune of your own improvisation is out. Alternative music is, among other things, an outlet for this pdnt-up frustration. People like to listen to music that is new and different, but sometimes they seem to get more satisfaction from listening to music that nobody else is listening to than from the music itself. More people should let them selves enjoy making their own ar tistic experience. I remember when I first figured this out. It wasn’t on my own, to be sure. I was led carefully down the path of creative expression by a lew good people. One assaulted my senses with a constant bombardment of new images, sounds and ideas. He drug me out on a cold October night in search of a black-light and magic markers. We came back to the small party with creative tools in hand. With paper and markers, we began a group poem, passing around a paper and each adding a few lines. In the best psychedelic tradi tion, he scrawled a creative seed in glowing black-lit marker: Cosmic Poppies, spotted puppies. Longsinc is a senior international affairs and economics major and a Dally Nebraskan columnist. Discover Kinko’s^ for better ways to present yourself. I Go beyond the ordinary and make a lasting impression at your next presentation with the help of Kinko's. Create eye-catching full color copies and overheads / Present professionally bound materials / Organize your material with custom printed tabs Open 24 Hours 475-2679 - 1201 "9" St. 466-8159 - 330 N. 48th St. kinko's the copy center