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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1998)
Free your mind Exploring other cultures takes personal effort CLIFF HICKS is a news-edi torial and English major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist For me, the world became bigger in fall 1993. Too many people limit themselves, with no exploration. They have their hamburgers, listen to their Bruce Springsteen records, watch an Arnold whatshisname flick and call it a day. They think that diversity is a word universities made up to sound good. I’m here to talk about how I diversified myself. It’s not that hard. Like I said, it all really began in fall 1993. I was at home, sitting, watching a tape of MTV’s “120 Minutes,” back when it was good. That was the first time I saw them. The band’s name was Fury In The Slaughterhouse. The video was for a 5AT1Q rallpH uP\/Pr\/ rtAnArofinn Ttc Own Disease.” It was in black and white. Pictures of the band were interspersed with sym bols of all sorts, and the melody haunted me like nothing else had. I watched the video a few more times then sat down and counted up all my money. Later that day, I bought the band’s album, “Mono,” and a few things became clearer to me. This was not American rock ’n’ roll. The members did nbt come from an American background. They had an address to mail them fan letters. It was in Germany Over the past few years, I’ve come to learn a lot more about Fury In The Slaughterhouse. It is a German band. It has seven albums out, but only two of them are available here in the states. All of its songs are in English, but it has toured in the states only once; and I could have seen it, but I missed it It was opening for Meatloaf. Who knew? It wouldn’t be until my freshmen year when I starting swapping e-mail with a German about my age named Nils Meinken that I started hearing those German-only releases. This took me one step further outside of my tiny American culture mindset and farther into the sights and sounds of the world. Nils lives in Fredenbeck, a smaller town in southern Germany, and he has a passion for American rock ’n’ roll, so the process we’ve worked out is simple. He buys a compact disc over there, mails it to me, then I mail him a CD from over here in return. Over the past few years, he’s gotten CDs by Phish, the Sundays, Too Much Joy, Jewel, the Wallflowers and others. In exchange, I have all of Fury In The Slaughterhouse’s albums and I’m starting to get singles, bootlegs and remix CDs. I also have five or six tapes worth of awful techno. (Not all techno is awful, I rather like some of it, but most of this stuff is downright crap.) The reason is that we also swap mix tapes, just so he can get an idea of some of the music being played over here (how do you ask for what you don’t know about), and I get an idea of how badly techno controls Germany. (Believe me, after about a bazil lion songs, 33 beats per minute gets really. Nils i^a really nice guy, and I’m hoping he’ll come from Germany and visit some day. He knows we’d put him up for a week. Nearly every letter, he apologizes for his English, and I smile. Actually, his English is very good, and I couldn’t even say “Where is the bathroom?” in German to save my life. These trades were, in my mind, the first big step away from American tastes, but there were already a ton of foreign influences in me already, simply ones that I hadn’t seen. I had been buying British humor for years, from Douglas Adams to Terry Pratchett. Heck, Monty Python started that all when I was a kid. And I was one of the people riding British/Irish band My Bloody Valentine’s wave in 1992. On a whim I had picked 15) “Loveless” and, in doing so, discovered “shoegazer” rock - a kind of noisy wail and whine that literal ly called music forth out from die chaot ic noise. I loved it Plus my parents often served . Oriental food, because they had lived overseas for more than a year. So I moved away from the REM sound-alike bands and the James Cameron-wannabe action films. I had started the process already. I was culturing myself. Then came John Woo. When I saw “Broken Arrow” in 1995,1 saw a directing style I loved, even if the story was a bit weak and Christian Slater totally unconvincing. X The guy at the video store told me to check out some of the other movies Woo had made that were in the action section. He warned me, though -1 would either be suffering through dubs or reading subtitles. John Woo, you see, is from Hong Kong. Over the next month or so, I saw all three of the films that Blockbuster had on import: “The Killer,” “Hard Boiled” and “A Better Tomorrow.” They were a style I hadn’t seen before - gunplay made into almost a ballet, with this uncanny sense of finesse. He blend ed slow-motion film speeds with acrobatic efforts and the John Woo trademark, a gun in each hand. John Woo packs more action into 15 minutes of film than Hollywood does in a month. This was a man who believed in action; you could tell from the start. His films were by far better than any action film I had ever seen in the United States. I haven’t given Woo’s first U.S. effort, “Hard Target” with Jean-Claude Van Damme, a chance yet, but I proba bly should eventually. After more digging, I found out Woo had left Hong Kong because of the impending Chinese takeover in 1997. With a bit more looking, I found that a lot more people were coming for this same reason, from top-notch directors I # like Ringo Lam to actors like the ulti mate badass Chow Yun Fat, who is by far cooler than any actor we have here. If these people weren’t going to be comfortable in their own home, we’d be more than happy to welcome them here. A little more digging resulted in finding out that I wasn’t the only one who had been affected by these moviemakers. Quentino Tarantino’s spectacular “Reservoir Dogs” was based closely on director Ringo Lam’s film “City On Fire.” “Broken Arrow” brought Woo suc cess, but that was far overshadowed by “Face/Oflf ” which really let Woo loose on the screen. During both “Broken Arrow” and “Hard Target,” Woo had been forced to tone down the very violence that com posed his style. “Hard Target” originally received an NC-17 rating, so Woo had to slash the film until it could get an R rating. But rules change, and Hollywood was slowly letting up, allowing more violence on the screen. The rules were his this time around, rather than Hollywood’s, and this time he wasn’t pandering to censors as he had been in “Hard Target” and “Broken Arrow.” “Face/Off” was the way Woo wanted it Ana max s an 11 took. For those of you who haven’t seen ‘Tace/Off,” it was brilliant. And prime Woo. Not everyone who has come over has fared so well. Chow Yun Fat’s I American debut was “The Replacement / Killers,” and while it wasn’t bad, it was n’t good per se, either. The good news, however, is that Chow Yun Fat is lined up to do a film with John Woo in the near future. There have been touches of popular ity for some of these types of tilings here. U2 is from Ireland. Jackie Chan is from Hong Keng, But these should be starting points, not the only examples. People need to see the world, not just their country. So as I sit here with my CD player howling an Australian import CD at me, another novel bought directly from Britain sitting next to me, I can only tell you all that diversity begins with you. You have to take that leap to jump into something new. Buy a Gypsy Kings CD even if you don’t speak a word of Spanish. Go rent “Haiti Boiled.” Try and find one of Fury In The Slaughterhouse’s two U.S. releases. Only you can open your eyes to the world. ’s money Suit will cost respect as well as dollars JIM VANCE is a physical and health education major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. On Thursday, April 18, 1996, Brook Berringer crashed a plane he was piloting outside Lincoln and died. I never knew Brook. I saw him around the stadium, as we were both athletes, but never talked to him. I was a big fan though, as all Nebraskans were, especially in 1994. He was gutsy. Playing with col lapsed lungs, shining under the shad ow of Tommie Frazier, leading his team to comeback wins and showing the poise and maturity in tough Situa tions of a person twice his age were qualities I saw in him frequently. I had cursed at Brook through the television when he threw an intercep tion in the end zone against Miami in the 1995 Orange Bowl. I cursed at him because I wanted him to succeed. He represented me on that field, and in retrospect, I was n’t thankful enough for the great job he did. I greatly respected him and felt a deep sorrow for the loss his family faced. A young man on top of the world, with everything ahead of him, gone suddenly and tragically. His girlfriend lost not only him, but her brother, Tobey Lake, who was in the plane with him. How devastat ing it must have been. I can only imagine. Now two years later, I am think ing about Brook again. I am thinking about what he must be saying in heaven, looking down on his famiiy and friends. The Berringers, as well as the Lakes, have filed wrongful death suits against Henry and Barbara Barr, the owners of the small plane that crashed, and Jack and Darlene Christensen, the owners of the small grass airfield. Brook was a licensed pilot. He knew the risk of flying any plane, much less a small antique plane. Brook knew the weather. He knew it was a windy day with gusts near 40 mph. Brook had even flown the plane before. He made a decision, and it cost him his life and the life of his friend. Brook was a Christian. He was even supposed to speak that infa mous evening, at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet at the Devaney Center. It turned more into a mourning than a banquet. I am not a Christian. But from what I know, forgiveness is a key ele ment to Christianity. Hatred and revenge are not. The Lake and Berringer families f are now seeking revenge, fueled by anger and hate. They are suing for compensation for wrongful death, mental anguish and funeral expenses. I would like to ask the Berringers and Lakes if they really think the Barr and Christensen families are happy with what happened? Not only did the Barr family lose a 52-year-old plane, they lost it at the same time it killed a Nebraska hero and his good friend. I’m sure the fam ily would have chosen to lose the plane over losing the lives of Brook and Tobey. The worst part of all this is your families do have a good case. You do deserve funeral expenses. But instead of suing, why not just ask for it? I think the defendants would be more than willing to help. No judge or jury in Nebraska will not be able to show great sympathy for the mother and close friends of a Nebraska hero. You know this, and you want money. No amount of money is worth their lives. So why even put a price tag on it? It just insults the dignity and integrity of your families and the spirit of your sons. Brook held his head high when times were tough. I thought he got that from you. Apparently not. When you win the cases, are Brook and Tobey going to magically reappear? Are you going to get over the loss of your sons because sudden ly you have more money? What good will come? Brook and Tobey are dead. Nothing can change that. Being Christians, you know they are in a better place now, and you will see them both again. You know God had a plan for them. Accept his plan. I don’t think part of it was hurting the Barr and Christensen families any more. Please don’t ruin all the good your families have done by produc ing those two fine people. Please don’t lose my sympathy and respect.
