Arts®entertainment
Daily t
Nebraskan
W*diMMtay, S*pt«mb«r 8,1993
Bungee
jumper
recalls
thrills
From a platform 140 feet in the
air, the Nebraska State Fair Park
looks like a moving playground,
complete with miniature cars, peo
ple and toys.
When jumping off the platform,
the State Fair Park looks like a wild
blur.
Secretary of State Allen
Beermann and members of the lo
cal media saw the blur and felt the
excitement Friday while bungee
jumping at the Nebraska State Fair
Celebrity Day.
Beermann, the first secretary of
state in the U.S. to bungee jump,
said the experience was a rush, but
iquestioned his own sanity for par
ticipating in the jump.
“This is not the act of a rational
person,” he said.
Beermann’s less-than-graceful
leap inspired me to go through with
a jump of my own.
The invitation came to me last
week. With much reservation and
hesitation, I accepted the offer.
I had never bungee jumped or
seen it done, so I didn’t think much
about it—until I saw the height of
the crane.
The crane looked mammoth as
it towered over the tiny air mat
tress. The employee from Bungee
Masters who rides up with custom
ers said the crane was lined up
perfectly with the mattress — he
sr being strapped by the waist
and chest, I was ready to take the
plunge. After reaching the crane’s
top, I knew there was no backing
out. After all, how else would I get
back to the ground but jump?
“Three. . . two. . . one. . .
Bungeeeeeeee,” the man said.
And I jumped.
As I plummeted through the air,
I wondered what had possessed me
to do it. Was it the fame gained by
jumping during Celebrity Day?
Hardly. There was no huge fan
club there to watch me fall. And
there were no people seeking auto
graphs.
I was convinced it was complete
stupidity, and I was probably going
to die. And then, out of nowhere,
came salvation. The bungee cord
tho t.
Kiiey Timpedey/DN
Jeff Zeleny, Daily Nebraskan staffer, bungee jumps
during the celebrity jumping contest Friday at the
Nebraska State Fair. Various media personalities
participated in the event.
todk hold and propelled me back
into the air.
And the real fun began.
The six bounces that followed
were filled with shear excitement,
much to my surprise.
Springing through the air yields
the best possible view of the State
Fair. I could see the Bob Devaney
Sports Center, Exposition Build
ing, Agricultural Hall and the 4-H
building from a birds’ perspective.
After I reached the ground, the
experience was not traumatic like I
once thought. My last will and tes
tament I wrote before my jump
turned out to be unnecessary.
If you are looking for a thrill, the
opportunity to jump continues
through Sunday at State Fair Park.
A chest-harnessed jump costs $45.
For only $10 more, you can leap
with the cord strapped to your an
kle.
The proper attire is a must when
performing the jump.
Beermann offered this advice
after his jump: “You wonder if you
should have worn a diaper.”
—JeffZeleny
Garth’s guitarist digs
touring, life with star
By Jill O’Brien
Senior Reporter
When guitarist James Garver, a
native of Concordia, Kan., moved to
Nashville, Tenn., to write songs, he
had no idea he would end up collabo
rating with Garth Brooks.
Garver, the first band member
Brooks hired on the road to fame,
celebrates his 36th birthday today, the
same day Brooks headlines the sold
out 7:30 p.m. show at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center.
During a phone interview from his
home in California, Garver talked
about the night he met Brooks.
“1 was at a ‘Writer’s Night’ at the
Bluebird Cafe and Garth got up and I
think he did about three songs,” Garver
said.
“About the middle of the second
song, I poked my buddy in the ribs and
said, ‘Man, this guy is good.’ 1 was
blown away, especially by his
sonewriting ability.”
After the show, Garver was intro
duced to Brooks and they started talk
ing about song lyrics and basketball,
he said.
“Garth worked in a boot store in
town and wasn't signed with any la
bel, yet,” he said.
“I went out that following Satur
day and bought a pair of boots from
him and we talked an hour and a half.
He was telling me he was putting a
band together.”
At first, Garver declined Brooks’
invitation to join his group.
“I was already in another band, but
a couple weeks later I called Garth
back and told him I was ready for a
change,” he said.
“He came over to the house and
auditioned me vocally and instrumen
tally. Pretty much from there he told
me I was hired,” he said.
Garver introduced Brooks to S teve
McClure, a steel guitarist he played
with in the band Boogie Grass Fever.
McClure, also a transplanted Kan
san, brought in drummer Mike Palmer,
and the rest is record history.
“Our first date with Garth was in
Florida, 1989, Memorial Weekend,”
he said.
“At that time, he told us, ‘I don’t
know how much we’re going to be
working, guys,’ and we were out
maybe three or four weeks and dates
started picking up and we were non
stop,” Garver said.
*‘We didn't get our first break until
'92. We had no idea of the impact
Garth Brooks had become to the me
dia and television.”
While Brooks informed the band
members about the numerous concert
sell-outs and the rising record sales,
most of the time the news went in one
ear and out the other, Garver said.
“When you’re on the road, you
don’t have time to pay attention to this
stuff, so, it was kind of a shock to all
of us,” he said.
Brooks, however, wasn’t so
shocked by the success, he said.
-M
Garth sold out three
shows In Texas
Stadium, which Is
unbelievable. It seats
70,000 people.
— Garver
guitarist
-ff -
“He knew,” Garver said.
“Garth Brooks is a man — I’ve
never met anyone like him—that can
take care of everything that goes on in
his whole world. He takes care of
almost every business detail, every
thing that happens on the road, every
thing that happens in the band.”
The organization Brooks put to
gether is like a ball team with excel
lent teamwork, Garver said.
Normally, 50 to 85 crew members
are required to help produce a large
stadium show. Brooks works with
only 15. His total entourage is 35
people.
That teamwork will be put to the
test in about three weeks, when Brooks
and the band do a live video shoot in
Dallas, Garver said.
“Garth sold out three shows in
Texas Stadium, which is unbeliev
able,” he said. “It seats 70,000 peo
ple.”
Although Garver never sold out a
stadium on his own, he used to pack a
few nightclubs when he toured with
Boogie Grass Fever, he said.
Formed in 1982, the band concen
trated mainly on Top-40 country tunes
and traveled the nightclub circuit in
Oklahoma, Wyoming, South Dakota,
Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska, he said.
“We used to play in Lincoln a lot...
five or six clubs around town ... I
played with Garth there about two
See GARVER on 14
Comic book heroes join flood relief effort
By Anne Stayer
Midwest flood victims will be thanking
some superheroes later this month when relief
comes their way via a comic book.
Ultraverse Comics joins the American Red
Cross with the release of “Flood Relief.”
Shawn White, direct sales coordinator for
Malibu Comics, Ultraverse’s publishing com
pany, said the comic wilj be available to the
public through a mail order campaign. Adver
tisements for the comic book will include a
coupon and a mailing address, White said.
The comic will cost SS, he said, and all
proceeds go to flood relief through the Red
Cross.
John Riley, head of Malibu marketing and
sales, said the story is set in the Midwest, where
there has been no rain for a year and people’s
crops are dying.
A little girt named LeeAnn discovers and
unwittingly activates “agricultural wetwear," a
device designed by Ultratech to manipulate
nature.
The device gives LeeAnn power. After hear
ing her father pray for rain, she too wishes for
rain and a little water droplet comes alive. The
more it rains, the more it grows.
Despite the little girl’s goodness, the droplet
grows hungrier and hungrier for power and
becomes a nasty villain named Flood. It thrives
on water—the more water, the more powerful
it becomes.
The land that was once dry becomes flood
ed.
The comic features characters from Malibu's
new Ultraverae universe, including Prime, Zip
Zap, H&rdcase and Prototype.
Prototype, another creation of the Ultratech
Company, visits the flood scene in order to
retrieve the device that created Flood. His
interests are corporate, but the other characters
get involved in order to help Flood’s victims.
Riley said the comic will feature a great
battle with Flood, but it won’t be violent in
nature.
“The final face-off with Flood is pretty
interesting,” he said, “as these characters try to
figure out how to stop it.”
White said the comic would not feature any
specific landmarks affected by this summer’s
floods, such as specific cities or towns.
“We’re doing it because of the flood, be
cause we wanted to help flood victims, but we
didn’t want to misrepresent places we’ve never
been,” he said.
Riley said one of Malibu’s chief editors
brought the idea up in an executive meeting,
proposing initially to do something to help
comic shops affected by the flood.
“That was really the genesis of the whole
project,” Riley said.
The next step was contacting Des Moines
City Hall, to find out the best relief contact, he
See FLOOD on 13
James Monsung/UN
