Page 12Thursday, August 26,1999
Original P
set to play
Friday
■ Parliament-F unkadelic
members, minus George
Clinton, will play old and
new favorites.
By Josh Krauter
Senior staff writer
Music lovers may have to
spread themselves very thin
Friday.
As if live shows from punk
rock goddesses L7 and country
music outlaw Willie Nelson
weren’t enough, another legendary
group of musicians is bursting
AahaaiI Hmmiiaui
vuncen ■ review
TIM Fads
Who: Original P
Where: Royal Grove *
When: Friday, Aug. 27, 9:00 p.m.
Cost: $16
The Skinny: Original members of
Parliament-Funkadelic play the hits that
made them famous.
Lincoln’s entertainment seams this
weekend.
Four original members of
Parliament-Funkadelic will be
making booties shake at the Royal
Grove on Friday night.
Although the concert is being
billed as a Parliament-Funkadelic
show, the band goes by the name
Original P, said production manag
er Bob Dedeckere. George
Clinton, co-founder of the group,
won’t be there, and he usually tours
with the P-Funk name.
The group members, com
prised of vocalists Calvin Simon,
Grady Thomas, Fuzzy Haskins and
Ray Davis, guitarist Billy Menz
and drummer Ben Powers Jr., have
all played with Parliament in its
prime.
“The four vocalists have been
on every recording from 1960 to
1981,” Dedeckere said.
The singers started as the Five
Parliaments, with Clinton, in the
early 1960s as a soul/doo-wop
group. They mutated into the
funk/R&B/rock juggernaut
Parliament-Funkadelic in the
1970s and stayed in the group until
its dissolution in the early 1980s.
Original P will play “all of the
hits” from the P-Funk era, as well
as a few new songs from its latest
album, “What’s Dat Shakin’” on
Westbound Records, Dedeckere
said.
People can expect to hear
‘Tear the Roof Off,’ ‘Atomic Dog,’
‘Flashlight,’ ‘Cosmic Slop’ and
‘Maggot Brain,’” he said.
The band usually draws a
diverse crowd that complements
the diversity of the music,
Dedeckere said.
“(The group) attracts a rainbow
audience,” he said. “It’s a combina
tion of uiban and alternative.”
The band usually plays
between two and three hours a
night, Dedeckere said, so the audi
ence should be prepared for a long
night of funk.
“Bring your dancing shoes,”
Dedeckere said. “As Fuzzy
Haskins says, ‘We got back togeth
er because it was time to put the
> fun back in funk.’”
N1
L 0
Author held scientific passion
Editor’s note: In this weekly series, we explore the lives and work of notable Nebraska artists from
t the 20th century. ■ He observed the world around him and then wrote about what he
|| observed. ■ It was the unique ability to combine these two talents that made Loren Eiseley
Ik one of the most renowned Nebraska authors of the 20th century. ■ “No one in the last half
i|| of the 20th century has written better or more beautifully about the natural world or about
science, said carl Hemtze in the February iyy / issue or willow ulen Resident. ■
Eiseley - poet, anthropologist and philosopher - holds a place in the Nebraska Hall of
Fame. His work, as a scientist and a writer, has continued to gather attention more
I than 20 years after his death. ■ Bom in Lincoln in 1907, Eiseley grew up in a soli
1 tary world He despised his deaf mother and seldom saw his father, a traveling hard
| ware salesman. ■ Because of this, he had a lonely childhood, in which he retreat
| ed to reading books and writing about what he observed living on the. south edge of
Lincoln. ■ He had an interest in poetry that he learned from his father, a former
| actor who passionately read Shakespeare plays to his son when he was home. ■ At
| a young age, Eiseley showed his talent and interest for the written word. ■ At age
6, he wrote his first book. Called ‘Animal Aventures,” the book was written in ink
with photographs for pictures and chapter titles such as “Kitty’s Adventure” and
| “The Kunning Fox.” ■ Because of his interest in the outdoors and how the world
worked, Eiseley believed his calling was to be a scientist. He pursued this by study
ing biology when he entered the University of Nebraska in 1925. ■ In a bio
graphical film about Eiseley, he was described as a poet who was really a scientist
and a scientist who was at heart a poet. ■ Eiseley’s passion for nature continued
while at the university, sending him on fossil-hunting expeditions with “Barbour’s
boys” in western Nebraska. ■ “Barbour’s boys” were named for the man who sent
them on their exoeditions. Erwin Barbour, founder of what is now known as Morrill
I Hall. ■ On one of the expeditions, Eiseley and C.B. Schultz discovered the skull and
jaws of a male mastodon, now on display in Morrill Hall. ■ Eiseley held the expe
A riences and observations he made on these expeditions in his mind and in the notes
B taken during the trips. Many years later, he wrote poetic essays about them. ■
B Although he was majoring in science, Eiseley also began to enroll heavily in
B English classes at the university. ■ One of his English professors, Lowry C.
B Wimberly, took a special interest in Eiseley’s writing. Wimberly, who was also
B founder and editor ofThe Prairie Schooner magazine, began to publish much of
B Eiseley’s poetry in the magazine and later made him a contributing editor. ■ It
if was from Wimberly that Eiseley developed some of the pessimistic views of the
p world that can be seen in his writing, said EM. Tuttle, who has researched and
p written on Eiseley. ■ After being published in the Prairie Schooner, Eiseley’s
work was picked up by various other publications, gamering him national recog
nition. ■ Even with this recognition, Eiseley did not consider himself a writer or a
poet, but he continued to write. ■ In 1933, after a short leave from the university
and years of drifting during the Great Depression, Eiseley returned; to Lincoln and
earned a degree in anthropology. ■ He then entered graduate school at the
University of Pennsylvania. During this time he kept busy with research and profes
sional courses in anthropology. He was able to write poetry in his free time. ■ Eiseley
received his doctorate in 1937 and, after teaching stints at the University of Kansas and
Oberlin College in Ohio, returned to Pennsylvania. ■ There, he became a well
respected teacher and lecturer. Eiseley also kept to his solitary ways. He would end his
||l lectures while walking out die doorway of the classroom in order to avoid having con
tact with his students. ■ Not until 1957 was Eiseley’s first book, “The Immense
f Journey,” published. ■ This book of essays, many referring to his experiences in
I Nebraska, was a huge seller and would go on to be printed in more than a dozen different
languages. ■ For the remainder of his life, Eiseley would write. ■ A few of the many
other books by Eiseley included “The Firmament ofTime,” a collection of lectures on how
science has affected the way people view themselves, and “The Innocent Assassins,” a col
lection of poems dedicated to the members of his fossil-searching parties m Western
Nebraska. ■ Christina Pappas is a graduate student in the political science department and pres
ident of the Friends of Loren Eiseley organization, which works to promote the writings of Loren
Eiseley. ■ She sees a growing interest in Eiseley as a result of the upcoming millennium, she said.
■ “A lot of messages he gives point us in a direction that would be helpful in die 21st century,”
| Pappas said. ■ “In his writing,” she said, “he provides answers to die future.” ■ She described
' Eiseley as one of die “preeminent nature writers” and “a literary naturalist.” ■ Eiseley was unique
I because he was trained in die hard sciences and made it accessible through how he told his stories,
p| Pappas said. ■ Assistant Professor of entomology Mary Liz Jameson is a member of the Friends
; of Loren Eiseley and teaches an honors class about Eiseley. ■ She said she was fascinated with
T Eiseley’s philosophies of life and living and how his writing was about “the inner works of mind and
nature.” ■ Her class focuses chi the philosophies and messages he was trying to get across in his writ
ing, she said. ■ Sometimes, Jameson said, her class will go outside to study his writing. Being outside
in die surroundings that Eiseley was writing about sometimes helps relay his meanings, she said. ■
if Interest in Eiseley has already increased in his birthplace. Last January, a library being built on 15th and
: Superior streets was named after him. ■ The library board selected to name the library* expected to open in
February 2002, the “Loren Corey Eiseley Public Library,” said John Dale, assistant library director. ■ Eiseley’s
name, was selected because the board was searching for an author of note from the Lincoln area, Dale said. It felt
Eiseley was die best choice. ■ Eiseley died in 1977 at the age of 70. He was still living in Pennsylvania when he died.
I ■ After his death, a collection of Eiseley’s unpublished work was collected in a book titled “The Lost Notebooks of
Loren Eiseley.” ■ The inside cover read: “The last book of one of the great authors and anthropologists of our time,
f these hitherto unknown journals are a rich mosaic of autobiography, observations on nature, and philosophical - some
times mystical - musings on man and his place in the universe.” ■ Hie book illustrates the lifestyle that led Eiseley to be
the thinker and writer he was. ■ Eiseley said, “All great literature is, in the last analysis, the literature of solitude.”
Story by Josh Nichols ■ Photo by Lane Hickenbottom
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