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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1995)
Arts ^Entertainment Rainbow Rowell Doobie sing-along infectious My high school newspaper came out once a month. During the last three days of the month, seven editors sat in front of Macintosh Classics through out the daylight hours paginating. Paginating involved laying out the pages on Aldus PageMaker. We took long, hellish days to do what the Daily Nebraskan does in about three hours every night. And we complained. A lot. We got tired of sitting and staring at screens. Our legs would fall asleep. We’d get headaches. We’d get silly and sick of each other. We passed the time listening to a beat-up radio someone had brought from home. The cord was frayed, and you had to make it sit just right to work. Fight ing over the radio station also helped pass the time. Our trusted and finnicky adviser absolutely objected to rap, heavy metal, dance music, al ternative music and anything else re corded after 1980. So we logged hour upon hour lis tening to oldies stations. Every once in a while, he’d wander out of his office, munching on a bran muffin, to say, “Ah yes, this song reminds me of the summer of 1972 ...” I remember one particularly long afternoon from my senior year. School had been out for two hours, but we were still in thejoumalism room work ing on the paper. Our adviser had to call the printer earlier that day be cause we missed our deadline. Again. It was winter and the heaters in the journalism room were broken. They stayed on all the time, and even with the windows open, the room stayed hot and scratchy. We were tired and wanted to go home. No one felt like talking. Then it started. I think it started with Scott, the sport? editor. We all sat in a line, and he sat on the end. “Old black water, keep on rolling Mississippi moon, won’t you keep in shining on me?” Then Gwen, in the middle of the line, picked it up. Gwen was the news editor, and she was pretty shy. I don’t think she even knew she was singing. Pretty soon, we were all singing. Now, I don’t remember ever learning or even liking that song, but I can sing it from beginning to end, and so could everyone else in the room. I bet you can, too. Try it. Start singing “Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers. I bet you a dollar your friends and loved ones syill know the words. I bet you two dollars they love that “dance with your daddy” line. Never before and never since have I seen a group of people erupt into song. Without a word, we divided up the parts. “By the hand, hand, take me by the hand,” half of us would sing. “Pretty mama,” the rest would chime in. It was, in a word, beautiful. Until our adviser dragged his crusty self from his office and put an end to our magic moment. “Enough of this racket, we have deadlines to meet!” Rowell is a senior news-editorial, adver tising and English major and Dally Nebras kan managing editor. Aaron Steckelberg/DN Gold-medal grapes Nebraska winery squashes competition By Albert Schmid Staff Reporter PIERCE — When gold medals are given for wine, they usually go to wineries in France, Germany, California, Australia, New York... and recently Nebraska. Ed Swanson, owner of the Culhil 1 Winery near Pierce, was pleased to add a gold medal from the American Wine Society for his 1994 “Reserve Red” to his growing collection of honors. Swanson also has won bronze medals from the American Wine Society and the India Interna tional Wine Competition for CuthiH’s“Mead,”a sweet wine made from honey. It is the least expensive of his wines, selling for $9. The honey used for the Mead comes from the Elkhom Bee Hives. •The “Reserve Red” sells for $18 a bottle and is aged in American oak barrels for 13 months. Swanson, who has been making wine for 20 years, offers seven different varieties of wine. Three more are to be released late this year. From the dry white or red, to semi-sweet white, blush and sweet wines, Swanson has been able to up production from 1,300 gallons in 1994 to almost 4,000 gallons this season. “My roommate had to work with the wine so he (the distributor) gave us a few bottles of wine to try at home. We were beer drinkers from Nebraska. It had a harsh taste. We ended up pouring most of it out. ” ED SWANSON Owner of the Cuthill Winery Nebraska does not fall within the normal geo graphic parameters for a successful grape harvest because of “short summers and harsh winters,” Swanson said. Swanson, the former general manager for Marathon Press in Norfolk, worked his way up at the press and then phased himself out as the winery and vineyard took up more of his time. He has been working on the vineyard for 10 years. After graduating from Norfolk High School, Swanson moved to Arizona, where his interest in wine began. “My roommate was working for a (beer and wine) distributor,” Swanson said. “My roommate had to work with the wine so he (the distributor) gave us a few bottles of wine to try at home. We were beer drinkers from Nebraska. It had a harsh taste. We ended up pouring most of it out.” Learning to make wine has been a trial-and error process, he said, and he has attended many workshops and seminars on the subject. He says he hopes to add more varieties of wine over the next few years, including dessert wines that may be available two seasons from now. The winery is open to visitors during the holidays, 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The winery’s regular hours are limited to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. It alsowill be open Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jazz group spruces up show oy OIITT A. MICKS Staff Reporter ~ It’s Christmas music in a whole new light. The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra hopes to reinvent the traditional tunes tonight with “Christmas & All That Jazz,” with Annette Murrell as guest vocalist. The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, formerly the Neo-Classic Jazz Orchestra, is celebrating its 20th anniversary season this year. “The NJO was founded 20 years ago by a bunch of UNL graduates who were looking for a place to continue playing jazz like they did in college and found no place to do that,” said Ed Love, music director of the Nebraska Jazz Or chestra. Love also plays saxophone, clarinet and flute for this performance. “We started getting together on Sundays, then having concerts, forcing ourselves to practice,” Love said. Since then, the group has expanded its season — six concerts are scheduled this year — and lined up other engagements, such as the Arts Council Touring Program to other Nebraska towns, including Imperial and Central City. But the group has a special place in its heart for Lincoln. “We’ve gotten a great response in Lincoln,” said MikeMurphy,saxophonistforthegroup.“Wehave a real loyal following. We play full houses.” The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra comprises 17 musicians and includes instruments such as saxo phone, trombone, trumpet, clarinet, piano, bass, drums and guitar. Annette Murrell, who has sung at the Zoo Bar and several other Lincoln venues, will provide guest vocals for the orchestra. This will be the second time she has performed with the group. “We had heard her singing with her own group,” Love said, “and she sings in sort of a gospel, traditional voice, so we figured that Christmas tunes would fit her style of singing very well.” Many of the songs were arranged by Peter Bouffard, the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra’s guitar ist. Others were composed by Dave Sharp, a UNL music professor. Joel Nielsen, administrative assistant for the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, said the group “felt that the time was right. They hadn’t done the Christ mas theme for several years, and since the book ing was for the first week in December, they figured ‘Why not?”’ Among the songs to be performed are “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,” “The Holly and the Ivy” and the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” Love said the group would perform “jazz arrangements of traditional songs.” “We hope we will be swinging,” he said. The concert starts at 7:30 tonight in the grand ballroom at the Ramada Hotel, 141 N. Ninth St. Tickets will be sold at the door—$5 for students, $2 for senior citizens and $12 for adults. Long-winded Wild Bill’ true to hero’s life i By Jenny Parmenter Film Critic A smoky saloon filled with no-good gun slingers and drunken gamblers becomes unnervingly quiet as the mysterious stranger enters the room. This scene is frequently described in many West erns before some gun si inger with the wrong atti - tude talks to the mysteri ous stranger and gets shot, and “Wild Bill” is no ex ception. Tf ______ , • nuwcvci, mysterious stranger Wild Bill Hickok’s (Jeff Bridges) reasoning may be a little strange: he shoots men for touching his hat. So begins another thrilling tale of the Old West. ‘‘Wild Bill” is another director’s attempt to See BILL on 13 Movie Review