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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 1995)
Hurricane takes Lincoln music scene by storm Editor’s note: This is the second story in a weeklong Daily Nebraskan series ex ploring the eastern Nebraska rock music scene. By Joel Strauch Senior Reporter A storm is brewing on O Street. A live music and dance club is making waves that could help carry eastern Nebraska into the national music scene. The Hurricane. Troy “Bubba” Way, the club’s manager, said the Hurricane has changed the way audiences view local bands. “We’ve been booking more popular re gional and local acts on weekends,” Way said. “We want to get more of a local crowd supporting the music scene.” Local bands will usually play on Fridays and Saturdays and Sunday will be a local showcase night, he said. Many Lincoln and Omaha bands play at the Hurricane, 1118 0 street. “A lot of them have never had a chance to play in a biggerplace,” Way said. “So we get them to come into a bigger bar and let them show everybody how good or bad they are.” The popularity of local bands has been gradually increasing at the Hurricane, he said. “It’s slowly growing,” Way said. “It was rough at first, but on Friday we had about 200 or 250 people show up to see the Yardapes. “People are getting educated.” With Industrial and Techno Tuesdays, Planet Nights on Wednesdays and Disco Thursdays, the Hurricane has been storm ing onto the scene as a dance club as well. Way said the club had turned people away on Thursdays. But he said the Hurri cane would not become a dance club. “The dance nights are doing great for us, See HURRICANE on 10 Sometimes a song, movie or book seems to capture part of your life. Just seeing or hearing it takes you back to that moment. In this new Daily Nebraskan depart ment, people will talk about the things that make them feel that deja vu. “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” a 1972 book by Judith Viorst When I was in grade school, my mom read me a bedtime story about a boy who had a very bad day. A terrible day. A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I’ve kept “Alexander and the Ter rible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” rj-r with me'for two decades. That book has survived moves to ev ery house and apartment I ever lived in (about nine different places). Any time I went on vacation, it was tucked in with my “Star Wars” action figures and Richie Rich comic books. As I grew up, I had less and less in common with Alexander. He coped with plain white sneakers, lima beans and kissing on television. I began dealing with university bureaucracy, hyperten sion and reality in general. However, the book stuck around. I became a Christian youth camp counse lor at Camp Calvin Crest in 1988, spend ing a week of my summer with about 60 fourth to sixth grade boys and girls. I brought the book to camp with me and have read it to at least one cabin every year for the past six years. I’m no kid anymore, but Alexander has helped me through more than one finals week and several neo-Nazi En glish professors. Gerry Beltz is a senior education major and a Daily Nebraskan senior reporter. v Ollie and Jerry “Breakin”* from the 1984 “Breakinsoundtrack When I was in the fifth grade, two girls — pretty cute girls —invited my friend John and I to be in a talent show with them. The talent? Breakdancing to the song “Breakin’.” We sat on a couch at one girl’s house (I still think she really liked me) while they demonstrated the awesome breakdancing moves we were supposed to learn. John and I did our best, but it was soon obvious that we would never learn to tabletop, never learn “the worm” or “the snake.” The lovely pair were wholly disappointed with us and moonwalked out of our lives. “Breakin”’ still makes me feel a little insecure. JefTRobb is a senior news-editorial major and Daily Nebraska! Managing Editor. Send your“DejiVu” to the Daily Nebras kan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68S88-0448. Submissions must not ex ceed one page and become the property of the Daily Nebraskan. The Daily Nebraskan re tains the right to edit or reject all submissions. Scott Bruhn/DN Billy Frogg’s Grill and Bar General Manager Rob Meyer stands In front of the new restaurant's bar. Meyer said he hoped that the restaurant at 826 P St. would help attract people to the Haymarket. Billy Frogg’s makes leap into Lincoln By Joel Strauch Senior Reporter Billy Frogg’s Grill and Bar has hopped into Lincoln’s Haymarket with its unique atmosphere and near-legendary food and drink. The food is rather typical for a bar and grill as far as price and taste, but the envi ronment is far from mundane. When walking into Lincoln’s first Billy Frogg’s (Omaha has two), one’s Visual senses are overloaded by the cornucopia of unusual wall decorum. Steve Hahn, Frogg’s assistant manager, said the myriad of old street signs, eccentric paintings and even the huge Pegasus hang ing over the bar aren’t there to make a statement. “We’re just doing what we do,” he said. “The owner goes to a lot of different auc tions and collects these things.” The decorations have no central theme; Hahn said the they were just part of the nice, relaxing atmosphere Frogg’s has created. “We’re not a really loud bar,” he said. “We’re someplace that anyone can come in and have a drink and a good meal.” The Lincoln Billy Frogg’s is an exten sion of the two Omaha Frogg’s. The Haymarket bar and grill has been open since Dec. 9, and its atmosphere has been making it quite a popular place. “Our two in Omaha have always done really well and I ’ ve had a lot of people come into this location and say they’re glad that we’ve come to Lincoln,” he said. “A lot of people used to drive to Omaha to eat at one of the Billy Frogg’s there,” he said. Frogg’s is located at 826 P St., down the block from Lazio’s and Jabrisco’s, but Hahn said Frogg’s was not really competing for clientele. “People in Lincoln like to go bar-hop ping, and they get a lot of the same people that we do and we get the same people that See BILLY FROGG’S on 10 i Letterman regular takes stab at writing “Cheap Advice** By Calvert DeForest Warner Books Grade: C Calvert DeForest, better known as the guy who played Larry “Bud” Melman, of fers “Cheap Advice” in his patented guide to low-cost luxury. DeForest explores every topic from ro mance to crime and punishment to health and fitness in this fairly humorous spin-off of a Dave Letterman gag. DeForest gained his fame as the eccen tric straight man on “Late Night,” and has since starred in numerous MCI 1-800-COL LECT commercials and a Vince Gill video in his less than illustrious career. He is now attempting to add “author” to his ever-growing list of credentials. The biting sarcasm of DeForest (and Doug McIntyre, Philippe Ruskin and Brian Cury, the three people who.probably wrote most of the book) gets a little old after a while, but it does manage to entertain. DeForest and the gang manage to use original jokes about half of the time, elicit ing some chortles and even a minor guffaw here and there. The advice that DeForest offers for cheap traveling tips is especially witty: “1) When in France, feel free to skip out on your hotel bill. If they whine about it, tell them to take it off their war debt. 2) Keep a couple of fishing lures in your pocket when bar-hopping in Georgia. If a fight breaks out and you get cornered, you can hypnotize them with a shiny object.” Overall, the book is rather mundane and not hilarious, but like DeForest himself, it does have its moments. This is definitely not literature for your classic library. Toss it on die coffee table or put it in the magazine rack next to the toilet. —Joel Strauch
