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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 1996)
vP ir PC T °r By Cliff Hicks Jam sessions unite music, change image To the majority of the student body, I’m still the nameless, blonde, single sophomore that I was Friday. However, to a small minority of you, I’m now... “Cliff the Guitarist.” Small distinction, perhaps, but I have a name and some recognition. Why am I shamelessly self-promoting myself, my description and my dating status? . Because street comer musicians seem to be disappearing. And that’s noteworthy. (Bad humor isn’t usually my forte, but someone’s got to do it.) What happened was this: I was sit ting in front of my housing complex playing guitar, as I often do, when a bunch of guys approached me, telling me they were going to go knocking on doors and that a guitarist would be per fect. Thus, I was drafted. It’s amazing how many smiles and laughs I got as we traveled from door to door (but not quite as amazing as the complete lack of names and phone numbers I obtained), and a lot of people said they would come down and listen to me play sometime. Which gains me an audience. Whether they listen or not, at least they can recognize me with my name and the crazy guy walking around Smith playing guitar. The problem with street comer musicians is a lot of people think if you’re good, you’ll make a ton of money. Well, (cheap buzzer effect) that’s a nice thought, but no. First, this is a college town. Second, students don’t tend to be generous. Third, there is no third off. Two points is enough. . Back in Omaha, the downtown area used to be crawling with street musi cians. Hell, I was one of them more than a couple of times. From guitarists to saxophonists to fiddlers to har monica players, if someone played it, someone played it there. And people would jam. Musicians who didn't know each other were brought together by music and the unit ing force of it all. Strange combinations made for good music. Now, there’s a saxophonist and a guitarist playing separate comers... if you’re lucky. And that's Omaha. Here in Lincoln, there’s virtually nothing. Occasionally, there is a gui tarist in one place or another, but not all that often. And why not? No one’s really all that sure. So, you ask me, since there’s no money in it, why should we do it? You get practice, you get to meet people and you get phone numbers (at least, that’s what they say — I’ve never gotten are). Plus, you can scream out as off-key as you want to, feel free to take requests or tell people where to shove them and just generally enjoy what music’s all about. Musicians come and musicians go, but street musicians are forever. So if you’re in themood dnd you play some thing, anything, come jam sane night. - Hicks is a sophomore news-edi torial and English major and Daily Nebraskan staff reporter. Three comics ioin DN By Bkyce Glenn StaffReporter Readers of the Daily Nebraskan will notice some new faces on the comic page this semester as “Not Sequitur,” “The Deep End” and “The Norm” all make their dehuts. Although all deal with comic ele ments in everyday life, they do so in different manners. “Nat Sequtfur” is the most estab lished strip of the three. The author, who prefers to be known simply as Wiley, said his strip is carried by more than 400 newspapers nationwide, in cluding most of the major dailies. Wiley said the strip is done in edi torial fashion, giving,him more area to explore. Each strip is on a separate topic with no central character. Although the format is similar to Gary Larson’s “The Far Side,” Wiley said his strip is different from what he calls the “plethora of Far Side clones” that are struggling in the market right now. “Gary was locked into a particular genre and that’s part of why he burned out,” he said. “By being more edito rial there’s far more area for me to dwell. I’m more grounded in reality while he’s more surreal. You won’t see any talking cows in Non Sequitur.” Although he describes his work as editorial, he said readers won’t find political gags in his strip. “It’s more and more difficult for editorialists to exaggerate politicians on a day-to-day basis now,” he said. “They’re so whacked out already they’re hard to satirize. They are their own satire.” Wiley, who works out of his home in Iowa City, said he doesn’t do gags and prides his work on not being “dumbed down.” “You have to assume that anyone left holding a newspaper is intelligent,” he said. “Everyone else is watching TV.” Writing from a point of view is harder work than writing gags, he said, but it is also more rewarding and is why he thinks his strip has become so popu lar. “Readers recognize that style and appreciate it,” he said. “The Norm,” by Michael Jantze, is more of a conventional strip because it has is a cast of characters, including the main character, Norm is fresh out of college, Jantze said, and is trying to get a grip on work, dating and life. What makes his strip unique, he said, is that it is somewhat like stand up comedy because Norm often talks to the reader, letting them see into his thoughts. Jantze, who grew up a Comhusker fan because his dad is from Milford, said “The Norm” is a variation of a strip he did as a student at Cal State Northridge and at various weekly newspapers in Los Angeles, but it started in its present form about a year and a half ago at the Marin, Calif., In dependent Journal where Jantze worked as, graphics editor. He signed a contract with King Fea tures last Januaryand the strip was re leased Aug. 12 by 38 newspapers, in cluding The New York Post, die Min neapolis Star-Tribune and the Portland Oregonian. Jantze said he puts more of himself into the character of Norm than he did in earlier versions of the strip that ran Please see COMICS on 20 V epr 'a w BAD KARMA t lUDMWW U Jl 61996 Washington Post Writers 6reup ivumi.tuashingtonpost.com/iuiley Charlie Daniels, Lie Awake play tonight at State Fair ^ , ——... ■ - —— By Ann Stack Senior Reporter If you’re looking to cure the back . to-school blahs, just lode down 14th Street. Believe it or not, the Nebraska State Fair is offering a music bill students might be interested in. Tonight the headliner is The Charlie Daniels Band, known for its single, “Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Thatsong won a Grammy Award for best country vocal single in 1979. But don’t call the group country performers—Daniels’ influences in clude “everyone from Bill Monroe to B.B. King.” “I don’t put a name on it,” Daniels said. “America’s music, is what I call it.” He said his soundhad roots in blue grass, blues, jazz, rock and country music. As testimony, he’s performed with artists such as Willie Nelson, Ted Nugent, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Crystal Gayle, Amy Grant, B.B. King, Tanya Tucker, Steppenwolf and the Oak Ridge Boys in the Volunteer Jam con cert series. But college students shouldn’t fear — Charlie Daniels is known for his high-energy shows and for converting even the most stoic flannel wearer. “People know they’re going to have a good time. We’re there to say, ‘hey, forget about everything—sit back and Please see BANDS on 20