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Editor's note: In this weekly series, we examine the
exceptional work and accomplishments of individual
students in art, dance, music, acting and design.
Art major deals with
troubled past, excels
in graphic-design field
Several years before he became a Christian, before
he was married to Julie, before he witnessed the birth
of his daughter, Breanna, before he attended UNL as a
successful designer in the art program, he could have
been a poster child for what was going wrong with the
worid.
He was the young man you wouldn’t want to sit
next to on the bus. He was one of those boys who ran
with the gangs and wreaked havoc on your town. His
town was Schuyler, but it could just as easily have
been another.
"When you’re running with the wrong crowd, you
begin to believe in it,” he said.
He was busted several years ago as an accessory in
an assault case and off he went to jail.
He didn’t have much to do but think in the dank
ness of jail. He had nothing in jail. He didn’t have Julie
yet, daughter Breanna or an education.
But he did have his thoughts, and in his brief
three-month term in jail, he began to undergo a “spir
itual awakening.”
He became a believer in Christ and took a U-tum
from his previous lifestyle. The five years after jail
would be a blur. *
“My whole life changed then,” he said.
It started when his mother took a job at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and with his older
brother already at the university, he decided it was
best to leave Schuyler for Lincoln and opportunity.
Suddenly, the young man you once would have
wanted no part of became the friendly guy who sits
next to you in English class.
Maybe, in fact he is. His name is
David Jane.
His friends are no longer gang
members.
"I became heavily involved in a
church group and began hanging
with them,” the senior art major
said.
Jand now takes school seriously
after coming to UNL as only a part
time student
He decided he would pursue an education in art.
It was something he’d always liked but never went
after until he arrived in college.
“Once I ended up in the university, I heard about
graphic design, started reading about it and became
more and more interested,” Jane said.
Janl found out that graphic design had a broad
definition. “It’s anything that you are going to see," he
said. "It could be the logo on an automobile to Web
designs. It's limitless.”
He studied graphic design diligently and became
tops in the class.
Things also began to go his way outside of school.
Someone special walked into his life. He met a girl,
Julie, at a church function, and they instantly discov
ered that they were “soul mates.” They later married.
Even in his career goals, doors were being opened.
As he worked community service hours for probation
for his past wrongs, Jan£ met a man who would help
him gain graphic-design experience.
One of his probation supervisors happened to be
Rob Moore, president of Summa Corporation, a
graphic-design company.
Before long, Moore offered this once troubled
young man an internship.
Moore said he saw Jan6 grow in his designing
knowledge while working for Summa Corporation
but said his ability to be successful individually was
impressive.
"I think he’s got a lot of confidence as an artist,”
Moore said. “He has a lot more of his own vision. There
are many different ways he can be versatile.”
Moore wouldn’t be surprised to see Jan6 succeed
with his own business after he graduates, he said.
“He has the temperament to be his own boss,”
Moore said.
“He has that leadership bone to be creative. He's
always starting and doing his own thing.”
His leadership is evident by the fact that Jan£
already has a couple of free-lance clients of his own.
Figuring out his future after college may have
been sped up with the addition of 6-month-old
Breanna to the family.
“A child makes you grow up zero to 60 like that,”
Jan6 said. "I am always looking for jobs and laying
roots for after school.”
According to Ron Bartels, associate professor in
the art department, Jane’s talent makes him a solid bet
to succeed, whether Jane works on his own or within a
company.
Bartels said Jane was “an excellent designer -
probably the best student designer for
sequential/motion and Web site graphics.”
Jand won’t take too much credit. You wouldn’t
expect him to.
“I’m honored,” Jane said of Bartels’ comments.
“But I have to give God the credit. He’s a good design
er himself.”
..———
David Janl, a senior art major, uses computers to create graphics.Janl ties in his use of computer graphics to create designs for Web
pages and other illustrations.
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An example of Jane's Web site design skill.
Slow pace dooms'Cheerleader'
BY SAMUEL MCKEWON
“But I’m A Cheerleader,” is an odd, discon
certing experience - not the kind of movie you
dislike; rather, you feel like you’re missing its
essential ingredients.
Here is a movie that is a satire on gay depro
gramming camps that often doesn’t seem so,
accented by a visual approach straight out of a
1970s B-movie that doesn’t do a whole lot more
than make you wonder why a satire on gay
camps is populated by burnout party wagons.
The director, newcomer Jamie Babbit,
obviously intended the look, with the strange
pinks and blues contrasting with a landscape
of blotchy earth tones meant for long past
Thanksgiving dinner. But like many of the
movie's scenes, it fails to underscore its signifi
cance, much as the lullaby-type little girl
soundtrack lacks the diversity to go beyond
gimmick.
The opening scenes are the strongest, as
super-pop cheerleader Megan (Natasha
Lyonne, looking as WASP as she ever will)
engages in tongue duels with her boyfriend
(he’s winning) while fantasizing about the bob
bing breasts of her cheermates.
Megan thinks this is normal. But her family
and friends know she’s lesbian and stage an
intervention to flip her back, by carting her off
to the woods to line Directions, an ominous
beast of a home/castle designed to rewire the
sexual programming.
Predictably, the place is as absurd as its
matron Mary (Cathy Moriarty); the house is
bathed in blue for boys, pink for girls, and the
five-step plan includes indoctrinating the
males to football, while Megan and her mates
hand vacuum pink rugs. “But I’m A
Cheerleader” slows down several times for
group discussions, a pit stop between satirical
set pieces.
The gag here is that none of the patients, if
you will, have any intention or promise of
improving. The message in the gag is that they
can’t and they shouldn’t. One of the camp
counselors (RuPaul Charles out of drag) teeters
on temptation every time he sees Mary’s son
gyrating to disco music while weed whacking.
That story is intertwined with a seriously
treated relationship between Megan the priss
and another camper, the rebel Graham (Clea
DuVall), who openly flaunts her sexuality, but
feels the most heat from her parents to change.
Her character is fleshed out the best - a surface
deviant who eventually lacks Megan’s inner
strength, then must choose between the girl or
the gold of her parent’s wallet.
A lot of their scenes together work, more
than can be said about much of the satirical
script, co-written by Babbit and Brian Wayne
Peterson, which is an uneasy mix of classic gay
stereotypes and those conjured up.
The stereotypes mix and congeal; what’s
funny and what’s not supposed to be isn’t
always entirely clear. The press notes describe
the approach as “hyper-real,” a midpoint,
maybe, between drama and high camp.
The -
mood
becomes
distracting.
It’s a per
verse vibe,
but uncer
tain of just
how much.
Lyonne, *
with her
smoky voice
and car
t o o n i s h
facial con
tortions, is
wrong for I ** of 4 stars
Megan, if 1 11 ——■
only
because the character she could play so well,
Graham, is sitting across from her.
But more than that, Lyonne is an actress
who plays gamely beyond her years - her per
formance in “Slums of Beverly Hills” makes
any acting in “Almost Famous” seem almost
prepubescent - and looks forced into playing
below them. Beyond DuVall, whose greasy hair
and wounded eyes fit her role, no others excep
tionally stand out. Moriarty looks old. RuPaul
plays many of his scenes as straight as his char
acter pretends to be.
It leaves a flat feeling, like a John Waters
comedy turned down a couple notches
crossed with sticky plaid couches.
Allen shines amid
'Contender's'flaws
■ Actress turns in powerful
performance as vice presidential
nominee embroiled in scandal.
BY SAMUEL MCKEWON
It’s an apt title for the movie,
“The Contender.” In boxing
terms, the phrase is used to
describe the mayor of
Palookaville: strong enough to put
on a show before succumbing to
his weaknesses. So goes the
movie, which explores the sexual
politics of a female vice presiden
tial nominee (Joan Allen).
Writer-director Rod Lurie, a
former movie critic, thrusts the
story straight into a documentary
feel - the camera is fluid, but
unpolished; lighting is drained
down a level or two to accurately
convey Washington’s shadows.
It starts with the death of the
current vice president, and the
new, Clintonesque leader (Jeff
Bridges) choosing to cement his
own legacy by appointing a
woman. There's another man,
*
Jack Hathaway (William
Peterson), who loses his chance at
heroism when he fails to save a girl
from drowning.
The safe pick, Laine Hanson
(Joan Allen) is actually a big risk
for all the wrong reasons.
Republicans, including the House
Confirming Committee Leader
Shelley Runyon (Gary Oldman,
hidden behind balding tufts of
curly hair), for shifting party loyal
ties. And then, the thunderball of
an accusation drops on the
Capitol.
There’s pictures of Hanson,
who’s already had one sexy romp
with her husband interrupted by
the president, at a fraternity party
in college. “Your garden variety
• gangbang,” says one aide. “There's
come all over her face.’’
Naturally, like Clarence
Thomas and Clinton himself, the
information age throws the bait
out there, and Oldman’s character
latches on. Much of “The
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