-Has- AktsSEntertainment
Sandy Summers/DN
Mark Nissan, owner of Mark Anthony Upholstery, shows off a chair he is currently working on. Nissen, a modern
language major, said he loves working on old furniture.
Tailor-made
Schoolwork*.re-covering furniture keep student entrepreneur busy
By Anne Steyer
Senior -
UNL senior Mark Nisscn has a
terrific sense of style — and it’s
starting to pay off.
Nissen, 21, is a senior German
major from Hartington and the sole
owner and operator of Mark An
thony Upholstery, 126 N 16th St.
Basement.
“My business is pretty new,” he
said. “They say if you can make it
the first six months, it looks good
for you.”
N issen said his shop opened June
15, so he’s closing in on the six
month mark.
“I’ve been busy enough to pay
my bills and take a little home,” he
said. “Business is picking up, so 1
anticipate it’s going to fly."
The furniture upholstery shop
was transformed from a dank, gray
basement into a shop chock-full of
style. The brick walls are now egg
shell in color, and the molding on
its concrete pillars is painted deep
green with gold accents.
“You should have seen this place
before,” he said, feigning horror
and fatigue.
N issen’s interest in sewing be
gan while he was in the fourth
grade, when his mother taught him
to make clothes.
“I’m a tailor and a dressmaker.
I’ve been sewing my own clothes
since the sixth grade,” he said.
He honed his skills throughout
high school and college. While
enrolled as a music student in
Yankton, S.D.,Nissen worked part
time at a fabric store and an uphol
stery shop. Learning to upholster
fUrniture was a snap, he said — he
simply built on his knowledge as a
tailor.
“It took a whole two months —
it was j ust a variation on the theme,”
Nissen said.
When he came to UNL, Nissen
said, he continued creating his own
clothing, but found employment
outside the sewing field. After that
soured, he said, he decided to con
centrate on something he knew he
could turn into a successful career.
“I decided I could be making as
much money doing my own thing,”
Nissen said. “It was something I
knew I could do, make money at
and do well.”
Some people are surprised at the
cost of redoing furniture, he said.
That doesn’t surprise him.
“People think, ‘Making your
own clothes is economical,”’ he
said. “But they don’t understand
that having your clothes made for
you is a luxury.”
“The same is true of furniture.”
His fabric samples come from
all over the United States, includ
ing New York, Chicago, Detroit
and even Omaha. He said he had a
set rate for each type of furniture.
Nissen said he enjoyed trans
forming old, worn things into new
See UPHOLSTERY on 10
Movie buffs
should catch
Reiner’s new
movie parody
“Fatal Instinct”
Although not quite up-to-par with
its pun-filled predecessors, “Fatal In
stinct” does have a few funny mo
ments worth seeing — particularly
for film buffs.
DirectorCarl Reiner (“All of Me
“Oh God!”) adds his film to the ever
growing list of movie parodies, join
ing such hilarious films as “National
Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon l,”“Hot
Shots Part Deux ” and “Airplane.”
“Fatal Instinct” stars Armand
Assante (“The Mambo Kings”) as
Ned Ravine, a guy that thinks he
knows everything about women, but
has the IQ of a billiard ball.
By night, Ravine is a hard-as-nails
cop who will do whatever it takes to
catch a crook, but by day he is a slick
defense attorney for the criminals he’s
just caught!
However, as successful as he is,
he’s still stupid. His greedy wife Lana
(Kate Nelligan, “Prince of Tides”),
with the help of her lover, the me
chanic, has planned Ned’s murder.
Lana has planned the perfect crime, in
an attempt to cash in on Ned’s insur
ance money (see “Double Indemni
ty”).
Meanwhile, Ned is also being pur
sued by Lola, (Sean Young, “Love
Crimes”) a seductress who becomes
obsessed with Ned (see “Fatal Attrac
tion”). The only person protecting
Ned in any sense of the word is his
secretary Laura, (Sherilyn Fenn,
“Twin Peaks”) who has fallen hope
lessly in love with him.
Got all that?
Around these flimsy attempts at
plotlines lie gags and spoofs on al
most eveiy decent detective/lawyer/
cop film in the last thirty years, in
cluding “Body Heat," “Cape Fear”
and “Chinatown.”
Unfortunately, Reiner doesn’t quite
decide what he wants to do with the
film until toward the end, and by then
there just isn’t enough steam to keep
it going. _
See FATAL on 10
When in Rome’s, enjoy cheap, authentic truck-stop fare
New all-day cafe
opens downtown
Rome’s Bad to the Bone Cafe,
18190 St., ofTcrs the finest in truck
sum dining 24 hours a day.
With breakfast available all 24
hours and reasonable prices, Rome’s
should be a real hit with the after-bar
crowd.
You know the scene: pretty young
waitress and 15 sleepy, road-weary
customers—guys with sideburns that
grow into their moustaches.
Everyone knows everyone else,
and they all give the waitress a hard
time.
1 felt right at home among the
black velvet paintings of cowboys
and bald eagles.
1 plunked myself down at the
counter and asked the waitress what’s
—•
good on the menu.
I had the hot beef sandwich:
Two pieces of Wonder Bread with
roast beef, cut in half and served,
smothered in flavorful brown gravy
withadollopof mashed potatoes from
a box.
The kind of sandwich you eat with
a fork.
It also came with a pretty good cup
of beef and vegetable soup.
The whole thing cost only S5 be
fore tax and tip so I splurged fora slice
of pumpkin pie for another buck.
The pie came in a pitiful little flat
square which my waitress offered to
top with whipped cream from a pres
surized can.
If you judge a place by its pie then
Rome’s is a kind of dump.
If you judge a place by its mashed
potatoes then it’s another kind.
If you judge a place bv whether
you can still get a stack of pancakes
with Texas toast and a side order of
hash browns at 2 a.m., then Rome’s is
the place for you.
Actually, I’m not sure about the
Texas toast.
Rome’s is the only 24-hour cafe
right there on O Street when you need
Sandy Summers/DN
Jerome and Galla Engleman show off their homestyie cooking at Rome’s Bad to the Bone
Cafe. Jerome said the cafe is “a place where people can go and have a home-cooked meal
at a decent price.**
one. ing up black coffee there when all the In short, it’s just what downtown
And it’s the only one that’s dimly betterplaces have already thrown you Lincoln needs,
lit enough that you won’t mind suck- out. . — Mark Baldridge