Forprofessor,
a life without
writing leaves
something to
be desired
BY VERONICA DAEHN
When John McNally was in
eighth grade, he wrote a non-fic
tion book (hi erasable typewriter
paper and sent it in to be pub
lished.
It looked like an amateur
effort, he said, and though he did
receive one nice rejection letter,
publishers agreed
McNally wasn t necessarily maa
about the rejection but that the letter
mentioned it was a good first attempt.
McNally hadn’t told them it was a first
attempt
But he kept writing - anything from
short stories to plays to sketches.
And today, McNally, a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln doctoral graduate, has
written and published one book,
“'frouWemakers," which he will read from
Wednesday night at 7:30 in Andrews Hall.
McNally said he’s always liked writing
but it wasn't until his sophomore year at
Southern Illinois University that he start
ed to take it seriously.
"I didn't know writers actually taught
college classes,” he said. “I thought of
diem as celebrities.”
When he saw his college professors
publishing their work, he was encour
aged.
Today, McNally, who is a visiting pro
fessor at the University of Southern
Florida in Tampa, is writing a novel.
Some days or months are better than
others, he said.
“There are periods of doubt when I
wonder if it's good,” he said. “There’s
some doubt as to whether it’s working or
whether I’m going to waste a couple of
years.”
But despite the doubt that inevitably
surfaces among most writers, McNally,
who was a teaching assistant in the
English department at UNL from 1993
96, said it’s something he needs to do.
“When I’m not writing, I’m sort of
realizing there's something missing from
my life,” he said.
“Troublemakers” is McNally’s first
and only book, but he has edited several
fiction collections and has had many
short stories and non-fiction pieces pub
lished.
The characters McNally writes about
are often troubled youths. Three stories in
"Troublemakers” focus on eighth-grader
Hank and his delinquent friend Ralph,
who always seems to be breaking the law
and should really be in 10th grade.
In the book’s first story, “The
Vomitorium,” Ralph Krazy glues butter
knives to his fingernails for Halloween
and expects to get them off by letting his
nails grow. Hank dresses up as Gene
Simmons from Kiss.
The two of them ride around in
Ralph’s older cousin’s car with a trunk full
of Tootsie Rolls all night, looking for a
party they never find.
Some of McNally’s characters are
composites of people he knows, he said.
Ralph is based on two or three people
McNally knew growingup in the blue-col
lar, southwest Chicago suburb of
Burbank, where he said it seemed as if he
was in a fight every week.
Despite the dark undertones of some
of his stories, there is humor. But he does
n't intentionally write one way or the
other, he said.
“Every story is its own piece,” McNally
said. “My stories tend to have a dark layer,
but I like that reviewers have seen the
humor in them, too.”
McNally said he does try to find a
moment where the narrator in a story
faces a high-stakes moment, where his
marriage is falling apart or where he has
an important decision to make.
UNL fiction-writing teacher Judy
Slater had McNally in class when McNally
was working toward his doctorate degree.
In that class he wrote “The End of
Romance,” the third story in his book.
' “He’s a real storyteller,” Slater said.
“He has an instinctive gift for telling a
good story without a lot of flashy gim
micks and techniques.”
McNally is one of the funniest writers
* jf' ’ j
Slater has read, and six years ago, when he
was her student, she said she hoped he
would get published.
“I would have bet money on it," Slater
said.
“He was brilliant. But it’s hard to pre
dict (who will get published). I crossed my
fingers.”
School of Music celebrates
Copland's works, birthday
BY CRYSTAL K.WIEBE
Students and faculty membets will play the
music of one of America's most renowned contem
porary composers during two concerts this week.
The celebration of the 100th anniversary of
Aaron Copland's birth begins tonight with a cham
ber concert in the Kimball
Recital Hall put on by the School
7t5? a of Music faculty. It ends
arpat Wednesday with a concert by the
yreu l University Symphony Orchestra
example and the UNLWind Ensemble.
of fas Copland developed a reputa
* tion for his “intelligent and
COmbina- sophisticated music that could
tiOtl of still appeal to a broad range of
I people,” said Tyler White, direc
popuiar tor 0f orchestral activities and
idioms associate professor of music.
Through its use in commer
cials and poetical campaigns,
OVan f- Copland's music quickly became
aarde “not on^y a staP^e of orchestras
t**4 " and bands the world over but
tech- also widely known to the public,”
niques” White said.
^ The composers music is so
entwined in the fabric of
Tyler White America that any young
director of American composer has to come
orchestral to terms with Copland's style,
activities and White said.
UNL music One of Copland's songs was
professor even used recently in a beef com
" mercial, White said.
“It speaks to the popularity of
Copland’s music that advertisers have thought it
appealing enough to use,” he said.
White said Copland’s body of work is large
enough to support many more concerts, but the two
performances are enough to provide audiences
with two very different kinds of experiences.1
Tonight's concert will feature three pieces that
span the composer's career and demonstrate his
broad talent
Copland wrote “Two Pieces for the String
Quartet” in
the 1920s and
“Duo for Flute
and Piano” in
1971.
“Together
those two
pieces form a
nice set of
bookends of '
Copland’s
music,” White
said.
The con
cert will con
clude with a _
special
arrangement
of “Appalachian Spring,” a full-length ballet that
tells the story of the wedding of a young couple in
Pennsylvania just before the Civil War.
“Many people will know this piece in the orches
tral arrangement, but the smaller arrangement is
more simple and clearer,” White said.
He called the ballet one of the best examples of
Copland’s style because it “combines very sophisti
cated forms of modernism with a populist
approach.” - »
Wednesday’s concert will showcase Copland’s
music for large ensembles featuring the brass and
percussion sections of the University Symphony
Orchestra and UNL Wind Ensemble. The University
Singers also will perform.
White called “El Salon Mexico," which the wind
ensemble will perform, “a musical depiction of a
Mexican dance hall in the 1930s.”
“It's a great example of his combination of pop
ular idioms with avant-garde techniques,” he
added.
“Lincoln Portrait” will end the concert. The pop
ular work includes text taken from several of
Abraham Lincoln's speeches.
White said the symphonic movement is repre
sentative of America in the 19th Century and
through the text Copland was “able to sort of con
nect struggles of Lincoln’s time with struggles of the
'30s and ’40s."
Dance slow to swing into Lincoln
■ Many people lack interest In
Latin and ballroom styles,
instructors say.
BY BILLY SMUCK
For a college town, Lincoln is
lacking in some real hot spots for
enthusiastic social dancers, local
dance instructors said.
What this really comes down
to is the simple law of supply and
demand.
It’s common knowledge that if
there isn’t a strong enough desire
for a good or service, then the
supply will be low.
That’s the case with Lincoln’s
social dance scene, said Amy
Castro, a dance professional.
“The overall lack of interest
regarding social dancing in
Lincoln makes it difficult for those
who already dance to be active,”
Castro said. “It’s unfortunate that
locals, especially young adults
and teens, aren’t more excited
about couples’ dancing.”
Castro said Latin, ballroom,
swing and country dancing
scenes in Lincoln appear to be in
a lull.
Latin has a large following in
California, Florida and New York.
Variations of swing are popular
on the west coast, Texas, New
England, Chicago and Denver.
Country is hottest in Tennessee
and Texas. Ballroom is most pop
ular overseas, as well as some
American metropolitan areas.
None of these, except for
swing nights some Thursdays at
the Pla Mor Ballroom, 6600 W. O
St., and country dance, have
attracted much of a following in
Nebraska, Castro said.
Jeremy Jamison, also a local
dance professional who teaches
with Castro at Brackhan Dance
Studio, 2709 O St., agreed that
V
Nate Wagner/ DN
UNL junior architecture major Courtney Arnold and senior water science major Mark
Meyer practice the pretzel dance move during their first time at the Pla Mor
Ballroom during country swing night Sunday.
dancing in the Midwest could use
a lift.
“Lincoln as a whole is behind
the curve,” Jamison said. “Social
dancing hasn’t caught on in
Nebraska like it has in many other
parts of the country.
“There aren't a whole lot of
places to go, and the standard
seems to follow suit”
Jamison said he was disap
pointed with Nebraskans’ lack of
interest in social dancing because
it discourages dancers from striv
ing to improve.
“The attitude around here is
why bother becoming a better
dancer when you can be
mediocre and still look good,” he
said.
Jamison, who is active in the
country dance scene, has a theory
as to why country dancing is one
of the few social dances support
ed by local clubs.
"Alcohol,” he said. “I go out all
the time, and the dance floor
-*
doesn’t really start to fill up until
later in the night
"That’s because a lot of people
don’t start dancing until they’re
drunk, and they don’t care how
they look.
“They’re apathetic to their
own appearance.”
Jamison said alcohol sales
take precedence over catering to
serious dancers who typically
don’t drink.
“The people who are drinking
are the ones who pay the bills for
the clubs, which is why it’s espe
cially hard for those under 21 to
find places to dance,” Jamison
said.
Castro agreed with Jamison
but didn’t want to sound entirely
pessimistic regarding Lincoln’s
social dance scene.
“I’m a realist,” Castro said,
“and although I’d like to say that
dancing in Lincoln is so wonder
ful, the truth is Lincoln is a tough
city to live in if you’re a dancer."
«. *