MARK SIMPKINS AND Ken Whitmore, co-owners of vintage guitar shop Guitarted, take a break tor a quick jam session Thursday afternoon. The shop relocated'iastw'eekfr^m
17th and 0 to 718 0 Street in the Haymarket.
Entrepreneurs turn hobby into vintage guitar business
By Christopher Heine
Staff writer
The first thing that strikes you about
Mark Simpkins’ and Ken Whitmore s new
vintage guitar store is not the beautiful
antique inventory.
It’s the name - Guitarted.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, the
verb, to retard, means to hinder, delay or
slow the advance progress of.
Sjmpkins and Whitmore, with their
loye’of electric guitars and amplifiers made
in years long past, say they had raw syntax
and phonetic silliness in mind when they
named their business, and not the insensi
tive, junior-high slurry version of the Latin
rooted word.
Simpkins wants the store to portray a
carefree attitude. He and Whitmore picked
up the goofy name from a local musician.
“The drummer from Self-Righteous
Brothers said he wanted to found a band
starring 15 guitarists and call it
‘Guitarted,’” Simpkins said.
Whitmore said the quirky name should
resonate to a wide range of customers.
“Our store is for both collectors and
players,” he said. “We want thisplace to be
a fun place to come into.”
That’s not to say that the store doesn’t
take its vintage equipment seriously. Its
owners have been restoring, selling and
buying classic rock ’n’ roll devices all
through their adult lives.
Simpkins talks with the opinionated
expertise one would expect from a guy who
lives and breathes music. He moonlights as
sound man at the Zoo Bar when not at the
shop, now relocated at 718 O St.
“I don't think there have been any
recent improvements as far as guitars are
Please see GUITARTED on 14
Copperfield mesmerizes Omah
■ Orpheum Theater brings
popular magician’s tricks,
illusions to Midwest in two
shows on Monday night.
By Diane Broderick
Staff writer
To most. David Copperfield epito
mizes the cheesy television special.
He made the Statue of Liberty dis
appear. He walked through the Great
W all of China. He was severed with the
“deathsaw" and then reversed time to
make his body whole again.
Coppertield is the master of illu
sion - and excess. But his shtick,
which he w ill showcase tonight during
two shows at Omaha’s Orpheum
Theater, is widely accepted and
admired.
Copperfield’s illusions, usually
doused w ith plenty of colorful lights
and smoke and a dramatic flair, have
been seen more than any other magi
cian’s in the world.
And he is the only living magician
with a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame.
Amazingly, Copperfield ranks
higher (sixth) on Forbes magazine s list
of highest grossing entertainers than
Madonna or Arnold Schwarzenegger.
During tonight’s shows,
Copperfield will invite the audience to
participate in his performance.
Thirteen audience members will be
randomly selected to disappear
through the magic of illusion.
In another illusion, two audience
members w ill be levitated.
Copperfield will also walk through
the rotating blades of an industrial fan
and will perform his “Flying” and
"Cocoon” illusions.
As he continues creating and per
fecting new' illusions to captivate audi
Culture
The Facts
What: David Copperfield
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 409 S. 16th St.,
Omaha
When: 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. tonight
Cost: $42.50
The Skinny: Master of illusion brings bag
of tricks to Omaha
ences, it is obvious that Copperfield s
craving to break new ground hasn't
wavered.
“If I am in the impossible business,
and I am, then I want to go beyond
impossible,” Copperfield said in a
biography.
Despite the feeling that his success
is the most impossible thing about him,
it seems inevitable that it w ill continue.
Matt Haney/DN