RIGHT:'Road
sign near Grand
Island, Neb.'is
part of the
George Tuck
exhibit'Flat
Places,
Interesting
People'at the
Great Plains Art
Exhibit
BELOW RIGHT:
George Tuck, a
UNlJoumafism
professor, wffl be
the speaker at
the Paul Olson
Seminars in Great
plains Studfes.
Tuck is shown at
the highest point
in Nebraska dur
ing his work on
Rat Places that
1 n nlliUi fnnm
took niro TTom
M_.H-t
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through Canada.
“People need to know
that they can findU0/1, , ^ , and
interesting
in flat places.
It just requires you to
looka,little„
longer.
Courtesy of George Tuck
BY CHRIS JACOBS
You’re stuck on a road in the middle of nowhere.
Surrounded by flat space. No one’s around.
Would a photo opportunity be the first thing to come to
mind? For George Hide, yes.
In theprofessor of journalism’s latest exhibit, “Flat Races
and Interesting People,” Hick found himself surrounded by
the prairie’s open space and intermingling with all kinds of
people And he has pictures.
“People need to know that they can find beauty and
interesting people in flat places,” Hick said. “It just requires
you to look a little longer.”
And look he did. In 1998 Hick made three trips, the
longest of which lasted six weeks, in his 1985 Audi, traveling
about 10,000miles to document the people and places of the
Great Rains. On a UNL faculty development grant, Hick said
he ventured through miles of treeless lands, ate at numerous
mom and pop cafes and stayed in small motels throughout
Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Texas
and even Canada.
“Everywhere I went people would laugh ‘You sure found
flat!’” he said. “They would always ask me why I wanted to
photograph this landscape.”
If people had grown up in flat space, they liked it, if not
they felt uncomfortable, Trick said, a theory that hits home
with the Dumas, Texas native.
"I always liked seeing the sunrise and sunset without
really having to move,” he said.
The exhibition will run at die Great Plains Art Collection,
Hewitt Place, 1155 Q St
The black and white photos display various media,
including cowboys, catde farmers, ranchers, construction
workers, oil riggers and their surroundings, usually encapsu
lated by open space and distant horizons.
Hick said everyone he encountered treated him well.
"I had to get towed once because my car got stuck in
caliche, a type of clay that is slick when it gets wet and clumps
like baseballs when it’s dry,” he said. “A guy came by and took
me into the town, where they found somebody to pull me
out with a big truck.”
Tuck, after numerous car washings and attempts to
"chisel the caliche off the car,” said he had to finally take the
vehicle to an auto shop and get new tires.
Other than “almost freezing to death a couple of times”
because a significant number of the photos were taken dur
ing winter, Hick said he didn’t have many other problems.
Interim curator of the exhibit, Sharon Gustafson, said
she was first impressed with Hick's work by his exhibition
“Visions of the Prairie” that had been previously displayed at
the Sheldon Art Gallery.
“It’s hard not to like him,” Gustafson said. “I can really
relate to his work. It makes me feel at home.”
The “Flat Places” exhibit is interesting because of the
captions Hick included with each photo, she said.
“The labels add a lot of humor and character to an
already lovely exhibit,” Gustafson said.
The captions were designed not only to give certain
Please see TUCK on 6
Homers
relies on
loyalty
BY CASEY JOHNSON
The fact that Homers will be
celebrating its 30^ anniversary
this summer is no small feat con
sidering the perils of most inde
pendently owned music stores.
With the advent of online
shopping, Napster and electronic
superstores like Best Buy and
Circuit City, one could wonder
how the independent music
retail chain has been able to stay
afloat in a market geared for dis
count prices and convenience.
But the reason for the success
of Homers is simple or so said
Vice President Rick Galusha, who
insists that the serious music
buyer is the backbone of the
chain, which includes three
Lincoln stores, three in Omaha
and one in Bellevue.
"We are successful at provid
ing a superior selection for the
serious music buyer,” Galusha
said. “We take pride in our cus
tomer service, and thirdly our
employees develop relationships
with the customers which gives
them a reason to come back."
Mike Bama, store manager at
the Homers located at 14th and O
streets, said that part of the rea
son for Homers’ endurance is
that it is able to adjust to a chang
ing marketplace.
“You have to constantly adapt
because when you have stores
like BestBuy who are selling their
CDs at below cost, and they just
sell them as a loss leader,” Bama
said.
What a store like Best Buy
really wants to do, Bama said, is
lure customers with the promise
of cheap CDs, which it can’t make
any money on, then keep them in
the store to buy “a washing
machine or a refrigerator.”
“It’s hard for regular CD retail
ers to stay afloat. You have to be
willing to change and offer other
services and products that you
are not going to find at a Best
Buy,” he said.
When asked about the influx
of people downloading the music
online for free Barna said that he
was not as concerned now as
when the phenomenon first
began.
“People are still going to want
to have that product in their
hands. They’re going to want to
have the liner notes,” he said.
“There have been studies that
show that 80 to 90 percent of the
people that are going online,
downloading MP3s and hitting
Napster sites will eventually turn
around and buy the CD,” Barna
said.
Divisional manager for
Lincoln Mel Erburspacher said
that with the added competition
the Internet and superstores have
brought, Homers has worked
hard to find its own niche.
“We wanted to make a con
certed effort to offer the customer
Please see HOMERS on 6
Shaken, not stirred: Capping the night with the martini
BY SEAN MCCARTHY
"I lost my job for no reason or rhyme, Guessin’that
means ifs martini time”
—Rev. Horton Heat
Hopefully, you don’t need a reason that drastic to
identify with die immortal psychobilly singer, Jim
"The Rev” Heath. However, you practically need a
catalog to decide what type of martini to order.
Asking a bartender for a martini is like asking some
one at a coffee shop for a cup of coffee.
Vodka or gin? Sweet or dry? Clean or dirty?
Chocolate, raspberry, grasshopper, black cherry or
shrimp? By the time you finish ordering a martini in
some bars, you feel like you have ordered a meal.
The martini craze has died down as people have
traded in their zoot suits for extra cash. You don't have
to be a paranoid economics major to know we may
be in the beginnings of a ‘corrective cycle.’ Cigarettes
are replacing cigars. The trusty Timex is replacing the
gold pocket watch. And many people may opt for a
well brew instead of a martini, straight up.
But there will always be reason to celebrate
(although the Daily Nebraskan by no means endors
es drinking anything but Starbucks and Pepsi). Be it
an ‘A’ on that brain-draining term paper, getting that
third paycheck for the month or being on a date, a
martini is in order. And this guide should provide a
good start foryour search for the perfect martini.
Libations and Libations Tbo
Location: 317 S. 11th St and 5310 S 56th St
Taste: 4 olives
Atmosphere: 4 olives
Variety: 4 olives
Price: 3 olives
Perhaps the only smoke bar in Lincoln where the
ventilation is so good, you won’t need to air out your
jacket in the morning. Libations boasts a menu for
martinis and single-malt scotches.
You can even order a ‘perfect martini' from their
menu. Excellent selection and excellent taste, just
make sure you have more than a five spot when you
walk in. If you are a martini perfectionist, look no fur
ther than Libations and Libations Too. Extra bonus:
the staff has the painstaking task of stuffing olives
with blue cheese filling.
Perfect place to: Celebrate the completion of
your thesis on gamma radiation's effect on cell struc
ture.
Cliff’s Lounge
Location: 140 N. 12th St.
Taste: 3 olives
Atmosphere: 3 olives
Variety: 2 olives
Price: 4 olives
Second only to the Tam O' Shanter in the
“dimmest-lit bar in Lincoln” category, Cliff’s remains
an enduring mainstay in Lincoln's downtown scene.
The grepn balls hanging from the ceiling are older
than the majority of the students at UNL.
The price of a martini is higher than other bars,
but it is served in a pint-sized glass that will easily
yield two martinis. Be prepared to do some walking
or catch a movie after sampling one of these concoc
tions.
Perfect place to: Have one before seeing Jackie
Chan’s latest kung-fu film.
Doc’s Place
Location: 140 N. Eighth St.
Taste: 3 olives
Atmosphere: 4 olives
Variety: 3 olives
Price: 2 Vz olives
Located in the Haymarket,
Doc’s is spread out enough to
give you plenty of elbow room. The
martinis are awesome, and there is
plenty of stimuli
(art exhibits,
pool and card
games/trivia) to
take in.
Perfect place to:
Cap the evening off at
the Haymarket after eating
a small cow at Lazio’s.
Marz Intergalactic Shrimp
& Martini Bar
Location: 1140 O St
Taste: 3 olives
Atmosphere: 3 Vz olives
Variety: 3 olives
Price: 2 Vz olives
If it were not for
the colorful flickers of
strobe lighting, Marz would trump both the Tam and
Cliff’s for lack of lighting. The martinis here are stan
dard, and it sometimes gets too loud to have a con
versation. However, if you want to have a
max tixii axiu dim ciijuy an
^ active environment, this is a
W good place to go.
Y Perfect place to: Show off
the insane bargain of an outfit
you purchased at
Dillard's/Target/the discount
section of the Salvation Army.
Please see MARTINI on 6