Arts ^Entertainment
Thursday, February 9,1995 Page 11
A PLEASANT AFTERNOON
^...'.. ' .
Gerik Psrmolo/DN
Guitarist Wally Pleasant talks to a crowd of about 30 people at Homer’s record store
at 14th and O streets during an acoustic performance Wednesday afternoon. After his
Performance, Pleasant said he planned to eat at Runza before performing at Duffy’s
avem ancTLe Cafe Shakes.
Lincoln included
in farewell tour
By Joel Strauch
Senior Reporter
The Grammy Award-winning
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra will
perform at the Lied Center tonight
as part of their farewell tour for
music director and conductor
Leonard Slatkin.
The St. Louis Orchestra, under
Slatkin’s guidance, has been inter
nationally recognized as an orches
tra of the highest caliber.
Slatkin has been music director
of the orchestra for 15 years and
will step down at the end of the
1995-96 season.
Norah George, Lied Center
spokesperson, said this would be
Slatkin’s last professional tour.
“He’ll probably continue his
appearances as guest conductor
with other orchestras,” George said.
“He’s really an
incredible man. He's
brought the masses
into classical music."
m
NORA GEORGE
Lied Center spokesperson
“But this may be the last time he’ll
be here in Nebraska.”
Slatkin has guest-conducted the
New York Philharmonic, the Phila
delphia Orchestra, the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, the Boston
Symphony Orchestra and many
See SYMPHONY on 12
Baton will pass to new
marching band director
uy josn wimmer
Staff Reporter
UNL will have a new marching
band director before the end of
March, said Larry Mallett, direc
tor of the School of Music.
The former marching band di
rector, Jay Kloecker, has become
director of bands, Mallett said.
Kloecker is still formally in charge
of the marching band, Mallett said,
but is not responsible for its actual
direction.
For the past 40 to 50 years,
Mallett said, the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln’s marching band
directors have been in charge of
the marching band as well as over
seeing other bands, teaching and
recruiting.
However, these responsibilities
are too much for one individual, he
said, and it became necessary to
divide them between the marching
band director and a separate direc
tor of bands.
This policy is routine for uni
versities of UNL’s size, Mallett
said.
Mallett said Kloecker’s change
of position was entirely by choice.
As director ofbands, Kloecker over
sees the top concert groups, re
cruiting and some classes, and he
is still figuratively in charge of the
marching band, Mallett said.
The School of Music began ad
vertising for a new marching band
director last October, Mallett said.
They are now down to three final
candidates, he said. Mallett would
not name the candidates, but he
said that they were all qualified for
the position.
“We have excellent, qualified
candidates coming in,” he said.
“All three candidates have experi
See BAND on 12
Cool Swatch can’t save memory of first boyfriend
As of yesterday, the first guy I was ever
affiliated with in a semi-romantic way is a
confessed felon.
(Note: the names in this column have
been changed to protect the guilty and my
already precarious reputation. I’ll call him
- Lance; I’ll call myself Judy).
He was sort of a teacher’s aide in my
Algebra 3-4 class. He was a math geek, as a
matter of fact. Now he’s pleaded guilty of a
Class IV felony. I’ve always suspected that
only a warped mind could excel in junior
high math.
He started writing me notes. I blame it all
on him, but perhaps I was sending him
come-hither looks from the blackboard.
Perhaps, for a moment, I was actually im
pressed by his arithmetic gifts. He bragged
that he could make one equal zero. It was a
long equation, he said. He’d have to show
me sometime.
I believe my 13-year-old heart expressed
something between awe and repulsion.
All of my friends were going with people.
Not just going with people, GOING with
people. Kim WENT with D J., Staci WENT
with Keith.
All my friends had a small herd of hor
monal man-children trailing behind their
cute, adolescent selves. People liked them.
You know, LIKED them.
i-;-“-mi
My resolve broke when Lance sent me a
note he’d crafted in his advanced computer
class on a Macintosh Classic.
Ooooh, I thought, he knows the dark
secrets of computers, too. What a man.
Math, computers, and he had a cool Swatch.
I don’t remember the exact words I used
that doomed me to at least three weeks of
misery. The entire mess was so traumatic,
for a while I couldn’t even remember the
eighth grade.
But sure enough, Lance started calling
me, and I started calling him back. And
when we were in the same room, we had to
stand by each other. We even met at the
Florence Days Parade to make fun of the
Shriners together.
All of our meetings were marked by
bickering and arguments where we expressed
our mutual revulsion. The more we learned
about each other, the more we hated each
other. He snuck wine coolers from his par
ents’ refrigerator and liked to wear thongs.
Being seen together in public became
tortuous. It was all I could do not to give him
- a fat lip. After all, we were both just pretend
ing to like each other so we could take part
in a twisted, pubescent, acne-ridden ritual.
We didn’t like each other, but we had to
LIKE each other so we’d have a name to
scratch in our paper bag-covered books, so
that someday, when we each met someone
that we really liked, we could say, “Hey,
someone else liked me once. You should,
too.”
One day at Burger King, he held my
hand.
The problem with GOING with some
body—aside from the fact that you never go
anywhere — is that you’re stuck with that
person until your humiliating break-up.
Ours happened one night on the phone.
He tried to tell me that our song was “Al
ways” by Atlantic Starr. I said, no, it’s “For
No One” by the Beatles. Do you get it,
Lance?
Yeah, he got it. In fact, he said, he’d been
trying to find a way to tell me for about a
week. Oh yeah, I gently challenged, I’ve
been thinking about it for two weeks. Well,
he replied, I’ve been thinking about break
ing it to you for three.
Oh yeah, before the fiasco even began.
From then on, Lance and I steered clear
of each other. I gave his Swatch back. Lance
went to high school, and I stayed in junior
high. One day, he and his new girlfriend
drove by me at my bus stop.
She leaned out of the car and accused me
of badmouthing her. I said, no, must have
been somebody else. Lance’s eyes gleamed.
I wondered if she was pretending to like
him, too.
After Lance, I came close to swearing off
men completely. But pretty soon, I had a
crush on another guy (who eventually would
be arrested for stealing cars).
Lance left me with uncomfortable memo
ries that I can only laugh about when I’m
really tired. I wonder what our three weeks
did to him?
I hope it didn’t drive him to a life of
crime. If I would have known, maybe I
would have let him break up with me first.
Rowell Is a senior news-editorial, advertising
and English major and the Daily Nebraskan Arts &
Entertainment Editor.
