Band brings
Andes folk
to Nebraska
ANDES from page 7
quena. Die quena is a straight flute
with no mouthpiece that has die same
fingering as a recorder.
Band members also play the zam
pona, a pan pipe usually made of bam
boo that can range from 4-feet tall to
“as small as your pinkie,” Rynearson
said.
Die band’s instrumental repertoire
includes stringed pieces like the clas
sical guitar and the charango, a
Bolivian instrument similar to the
mandolin. It is a 10-string guitar orig
inally made of turtle shells.
Finally, the band uses a large drum
called die bombo, which is African in
origin. Rynearson said the bombo was
similar to a drum in an army marching
band.
Rynearson said that the band
would like to continue by starting edu
cational outreach programs with other
colleges. The group could comple
ment die music by documenting arti
facts, talking about Andean people
and telling traditional stories, he said.
“When we perform, people find
out what (the music) sounds like, but
they don’t know much about the cul
ture,” Rynearson said. “I think it
would help people when they listen to
music to have some sort of presenta
tion with it”
Pohirieth says he’s already moti
vated by the response the band has
received in Lincoln.
“At the beginning, people were
just getting used to the sound, but now,
they hear it and recognize it.”
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Mad itos comes back
Rat Fink's creator must balance cars, marriage, faith
MANTI, Utah (AP>—Ed Roth, the
beatnik wild child whose madrgenius
car creations and fantastic artwork
shaped the Southern California hot-rod
culture of the ’50s and ’60s, is heading
pedal-to-the-metal into matrimony.
Roth’s seemingly unlikely slide
into semi-retired domesticity actually
began in 1974 when he converted to
the Mormon church and abruptly
abandoned his lawless lifestyle.
“My fanaticism with cars has just
destroyed my personal life,” said the
twice-divorced Roth, 65, who
nonetheless is building another - he
claims his last - in his backyard
garage.
“It’s an obsession, an addiction.
Every day I pray to God, ‘Release me
from my calling!”’
A generation of teen-age rebels
in ou» nf Pnth’c
chrome and fiberglass creations at car
shows, and adopted his airbrush anti
hero, the bug-eyed, slavering Rat
Fink, as a cultural counterpoint to
Mickey Mouse.
They forsook their homework to
labor, woozy from the fumes of air
plane glue, on intricate scale plastic
models of Roth’s “Outlaw” roadster,
the bubble-topped “Beatnik Bandit,”
or the futuristic “Mysterion.” To the
chagrin of their parents, they plas
tered Rat Fink stickers everywhere.
Mormon motorhead
Indeed, while Roth is considered
a genius and visionary among car
designers - he piopeered the use of
fiberglass in car bodies, for instance -
it was the Rat Fink and a host of other
wild characters that paid the bills.
“Ed was doing these sort of zany
yet evil designs that your mother
would hate,” recalls Pat Ganahl, for
mer editor of Hot Rod, Rod and
Custom and Street Rodder magazines
and a longtime fan and friend of Roth.
“He’s the Salvador Dali of the
movement-a surrealist in his designs, a
showman by temperament, a prankster,”
author Tom Wolfe wrote in 1964.
Whence comes the inspiration?
Roth isn’t sure himself. He’s more
than half inclined these days to see his
inspiration as personal, divine revela
tion, in keeping with his Mormon
beliefs. But it has taken him years to
get comfortable with the idea.
“If I’m having a design problem,
I’ll go to die (Manti Mormon) temple
for three or four hours and it will
come to me,” Roth said.
Roth’s conversion to Mormonism
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disillusioned with making cars and
had turned his attention to “trikes,”
the hybrid three-wheeled motorcy
cles shunned by hot-rod traditional
ists and banned from auto shows.
Roth said he was “really ripped”
one day, working in his shop, when a
friend dropped off a copy of the Book
of Mormon. Roth read it and soon
joined the church.
Jacked-up for Jesus
While Roth says religion saved
him from a destructive lifestyle, it
brought with it new turmoil: how to
reconcile his outrageous genius with
his newfound beliefs.
“Some people thought Rat Fink
was ghastly, with his bloodshot eyes
and teeth,” Roth said. “Moms used to
drag their kids away from my booth.”
So for a decade, Roth turned his
66-----—
Ed was doing these sort of
zany yet evil designs that
your mother would hate."
-PatGanahl
former editor Of Hot Rod magazine
considerable talents to the mundane:
He painted signs and pinstripe trains
at Knott’s Berry Farm.
In 1988, he abandoned L.A. alto
gether for the bucolic isolation of
Manti, where his attitude toward his
cartoon creation mellowed.
“It took me a while toa figure out
that there was nothing wrong with
Rat Fink,” he said. “People who both
er to find out about know he’s
just a good-natured clown/* ■
The nexus between Roth’s iSod
and the ghoulish Rat Fink can be
found today on a cluttered table in his
living room: Boxes of modeling clay
and an unfinished character are
stacked beneath his Mormon scrip
above a photo of one of his trikes.
Two years ago, Roth built his first
new car in nearly 30 years ~ the
Beatnik Bandit II - and spent nearly
five months on the road at car'shows.
Earlier this year he started work on
“Stealth ’99,” an extravagantly angular
creation based on the stealth bomber.
A backfiring proposition?
Last month, when Roth proposed
to Ilene Brotherson, a divorced moth
er of two and the Sanpete County
auditor, his old dilemma of eoffipet
ing lifestyles came roaring back."
“How can I expect to stay home
and be sealed to a woman if I’m doing
this?” he asks.
The question is a serious one for
Roth, whose creations have enjoyed a
resurgence in popularity in die four or
five years since he sold the rights t0
the Rat Fink and his name to
Mooneyes Inc., a California ca^pjafts
company that has aggressively mar
keted his wares.
The Oakland Museum of
California hosted a retrospective of
California car culture, which promi- .
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Museum of Art recently featured
works by Roth and other under
ground “Kustom Kulture” artists.
In sleepy Manti, Brotherson was
unaware she was marrying a cultural
icon. It wasn’t until days before
Halloween that Roth reluctantly gavp
r Iffii book about his cars.
“I looked at this and just said,
‘Wow!’ It’s always been his imagina
tion that I thought Was so neat,” she
said.
“Of course, I haven’t had to deal
with the cars yet, have I, Ed?” she said.
Roth, who was helping
Brotherson’s younger son carve a
pumpkin in the kitchen, only smiled. |
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