Js&js. Artsi^Entertainment
Travis Heying/DN
Caveman Mike, also known as Dave Harroun, stands in front of one of his prehistoric counterparts at Morrill Hall.
Harroun performs his show, “The Adventures of Caveman Mike,” for children and parents alike.
Dinosaur rock
Neanderthal musician is a smash with area children
By Mark Baldridge
Senior Reporter
Mike Harroun is living in the
past — the distant past.
Most of the time he seems like a
modem enough guy with his chic
overcoat and his aerospace engi
neer’s ways.
But every so often he dons a
Robert Plant wig and leopard skin
threads and lives out his secret life
as Caveman Mike, king of Dino
Rock.
After being laid off “with about
2,000others’’from Ford Aerospace,
he said, he went to work as a bar
tender at a Japanese restaurant in
Costa Mesa, Calif.
He sang at the piano bar on
occasion, but he dreamed of bigger
! things.
He wrote a song of his own.
“The Rompin’ Stompin’ Dinosaur
Rock,” but he didn’t know what to
do with it, he said.
lesa Wayne, daughter of John
Wayne, used to come into the bar
where Harroun worked. Harroun
said she encouraged him to per
form at children’s parties.
The rest is. well, history.
“I used to do a set of songs and
improvise the stories,” he said.
“It’s kind of like a mini chil
dren’s rock opera.”
His show, called “The Adven
tures of Caveman Mike” consists
of a hal f hour or more of songs and
stories by and about Harroun’s ha 117
alter ego.
And Caveman Mike gets around.
“1 close my show with a song
called ‘I’m a Caveman in Outer
Space,’” Harroun said.
“So I go from the past all the
way into the future.”
“ But that’s another song — and
anotherstory/’Caveman Mikcsaid,
as he switched from story to song to
story.
“The favorite of the children is
The Brontasaurus Wearing Striped
Underwear,”’ Harroun said.
But he’s been a hit with parents
as well.
“Honestly, the adults laugh more
than the children — of course the
children pick up on that,” he said.
Harroun described his tunes as a
combination of folk and old style
rock music that appeals to the par
ents of small children.
“It’s the music they grew up
with, the music parents loved when
they were kids. It’s the music I
grew up with,” Harroun said.
In California, Harroun said, he
charged $ 100 per show. That’s not
feasible in a community as small as
Lincoln.
But living here, back in his old
home town, has given him more
time to dream those “big dreams"
that got him started in show busi
- 66
It’s not a matter of
if it will sell. It’s
already sold. 'Kid
Tested and Mother
Approved. ’
— Harroun
Caveman Mike
-f* -
ness in the first place.
“It wasn’t ‘till I came back to
Lincoln that 1 was able to be more
creative and write the stories down
in a form that could be published,”
he said.
“Believe me, the stress of living
here is nothing like living out there.
My blood pressure’s back to nor
mal.”
He said he hoped to find a pub
lisher smart enough to sec the mar
See CAVEMAN on 11
For rent:
New flicks
full of fun,
foolishness
The video shelves are burgeoning
with new releases this week. The sen
sitivity police probably won't be hap
py with some of these flicks, but wah!
None claim to be anything but mind
less entertainment.
“The Adventures of Muck Finn”
Elijah Wood and Jason Robards star
in the newest version of the Mark
Twain classic tale of life on the Mis
sissippi.
Young Huck fakes his own death
and heads for the Mississippi
riverways to escape his drunken and
abusive father. Accompanying Huck
on his journey to freedom is Jim, a
runaway slave hoping for a better life
up north. The two encounter many
troubles and adventures as Huck
searches for happiness and understand
ing.
It’s a great picture for the whole
family, but don’t write it off if there
are no young ‘uns around — it’s a
rollicking adventure worth seeing.
“Cyborg 2” Ahh, another robot
in-love flick. In this one, the year is
2074 and humanoids arc everywhere.
The American manufacturer of
these fleshy robots is itching to dc- _
stroy the competition — yes, a Japa
nese company — through use of one
sexy female cyborg (Angelina Jolic).
The shapely ‘borg is filled with a
liquid explosive, set to detonate in
side the Japanese main plant. But,
alas, she breaks from the plan when
she unexpectedly falls in love — gasp
— with a real flesh-and-bonc man
(Elias Kotcas).
Jack Palancc costars as the rene
gade general who helps the lovers
escape the tyranny of the capitalist
company.
“Life with Mikey”The latest move
in Michael J. Fox’s attempt to rejuve
nate his career has him starring as a
former TV child star turned talent
scout.
When his child-talent agency is
nearing disaster, the company’s head
(Fox) meets a young con artist (Chris
tina Vidal) whom he thinks is his
ticket for saving the business.
The sentimentality play is terribly
See NEW VID on 10
Novel explores America if South had won Civil War
Harry Turtledove
“The Guns of the South”
Del Rey Books
Just looking at the cover art for “The Guns ol
the South” is enough to jar you — Robert E. Lee
holding an AK-47. What is contained in the ncxi
556 pages is a wild ride through a history thai
might have been.
Harry T urtledovc, history professor at UC LA
has penned the magnum opus for alternate histo
ry’s most oft-explored subject, a victorious South
in the Civil War. Other writers have tried, mosl
notably Ward Moore with “Bring the Jubilee” ir
1955, but none have so masterfully captured the
feel of the war, and explored what it was really
all about.
The tale begins in January 1864, with the
Army of Northern Virginia still reeling from
Gettysburg. The Wilderness campaign is a few
months off yet, and Ulysses S. Grant is about to
be named commander of the Union forces which
will eventually grind the South down to defeat.
Out of a remote corner of South Carolina appear
men, dressed in camouflage, speaking English
with a strange accent, and offering General Rob
ert E. Lee a new repeating rifle, called the AK
41. j
The rest is history turned on its head. The
South sweeps Union forces off the field of battle,
and enters Washington, D.C. to receive the sur
. render from President Lincoln. Victory is only
the beginning, not the ultimate end, for the
South. For one thing, negroes accustomed to
freedom in formerly Union-occupied territory
rise in rebellion, and the question of blacks in the
Confederacy becomes vexatious for Lee, after
being elected President.
The mysterious benefactors, meanwhile, be
gin to assert their power over a grateful South,
with guns and gold. They arc unmasked as
members of the Afrikaner Resistance Move
ment, from the twenty-first century, determined
to establish an empire for the white man in the
See BOOK on 11
■ i ,.^l ■: mi
James Mehsling/DN