cover story
Student workers taste real world at rodeo
By Yvonne Salce
What grand event rides into town once a
year, offering students the chance to gain
valuable experience, meet interesting peo
ple, enjoy free entertainment and skip class
with an excused absence?
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Texas A&M University and the Houston
Livestock Show and Rodeo have been re
cruiting students for internship positions
longer than many can remember. The pro
gram hires animal science, agricultural jour
nalism and journalism majors every year to
help publicize and pull together the million-
dollar extravaganza.
Students work three- to seven-day shifts
getting a taste of the real world.
Joe Townsend, Ph.D. and Associate Dean
and Director of Agriculture at A&M, worked
with the program when he was a freshman at
A&M in 1963.
He says about 200 A&M students will be
working in the Houston Livestock Show and
Rodeo between Feb. 14 and March 3.
"A&M has had a long, long positive
relationship with the rodeo," says Townsend.
"We have a special relationship with the ro
deo and provide the predominant support.”
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
generates more than $1 million worth of
scholarships every year. Of those schol
arships, 382 A&M undergraduates, majoring
in biochemistry and other forms of traditional
agriculture, received support in 1990.
Townsend says although students do not
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get any academic credit'for the internship,
they do gain a tremendous amount of experi
ence.
"In Houston, they have the most modern
television equipment and radio production
units. It’s first class all the way, and it’s done
in a first-class situation.”
Ag journalism and journalism majors work
as either minicam operators, news writers or
television production aides. Animal science
majors work directly with the livestock,
checking in and handling the animals.
In the past, Townsend says, student work
ers found the rodeo to be a fun experience.
But the job is often demanding, requiring a
lot of hard work and long hours. Students re
port to work at 9 a.m. and leave no earlier
than 11 p.m.
Brooks Hagler, a senior ag journalism ma
jor from Anson, worked as a writer for the
past two years. He says the experience was
better than he ever expected.
“It was an incredible experience, not only
working with fellow students but working
alongside professionals from the Houston
Chronicle and the Houston Post. They treat
you like a professional, which does a lot for
your confidence."
Students work with top producers and lo
cal and national networks. The contacts and
networking alone are invaluable.
Deborah Kostroun, a senior ag journalism
major from Cameron, also worked as a writer
for three years and describes her first experi
ence with deadline pressure and nervous
excitement.
“I went as a freshman, and I didn’t even
know what a lead was. I was given a story as
signment and told to do the interview, come
back and write it as quickly as I could. Luck
ily, my editor was more than happy to help
me write the best possible stoi7.”
Later, to Kostroun’s surprise, the Asso
ciated Press liked her story and picked it up.
"I remember seeing the article and saying,
‘Hey, I wrote that story!’ Since then, I’ve seen
my stories in different places,” she says.
“You really do have such a big part in what’s
being said about the rodeo.”
Students produce stories sent to newspa
pers all over the state and country. They also
produce film clips that go out everywhere.
Kostroun also says that Aggies are "in de
mand" down in Houston. While the University
of Texas, University of Houston and Texas
Tech University die for the golden opportu
nity, Texas A&M always has the upper hand,
she says.
"We’ve been doing it for so many years.
They just love us!”
Townsend says students just can’t imag
ine what it’s like until they get down there.
It is a tremendous experience, he says.
Part of the other education at A&M is building
contacts and learning what it's like in the real
world.
“Degrees open a lot of doors, but people
get you jobs."
February 21,1991
Unique recordings
peak reviewers
interest
By Kevin Robinson
The Darkside
The Dead revives tunes
with collection
By Brian Paradis
Grateful Dead
Without a Net
Arista records
The Grateful Dead is a motif in lit
erature wherein our hero helps out
a dead person in need, by financ
ing a proper burial, with the de
ceased showing up later to return
the favor.
There are many-a-fabled phe
nomena in the world of music, one
of them being the bond that exists
among the Grateful Dead and their
fans. These fans, known affectiona
tely as Deadheads, are famous for
their steadfast loyalty and ubiqui
tous disposition.
The Dead’s most recent release,
Without a Net (their sixth live album)
is yet another return of favor, a gift
of thanks to the oh-so-faithful fans.
The reality is that with pirate record
ing and distribution, which the band
whole-heartedly encourages, there
are actually thousands of live Dead
albums. What makes this collection
so special is that it employs the “old
tunes, but new grooves" gimmick.
Although the band has under
gone a few lineup changes through
the years, this album features the
most recent touring composition of
Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir on gui
tars, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey
Hart on drums and Phil Lesh on
bass. Also appearing on the album
(but as the band puts it “no longer
with us") is Dead keyboardist Brent
Mydland.
The compilation includes per
functory favorites such as "China
Cat Sunflower" from their wonder
fully trippy 1971 album Aoxomoxoa
(filled with tab-under-tongue hu
mor), and “Feel Like a Stranger"
originally released on Go to
Heaven (with the Dead gracing the
cover in white spifs a la Bee Gees)
in 1980.
While many of their songs can be
interpreted as fun-loving or even
nonsensical, others such as “Al
thea" and “Looks Like Rain” touch
on the more sentimental and even
spiritual emotions. I find myself
compellingly attuned to Garcia, the
recently comatose grey-bearded
guru of the Dead, as he croons with
whining regret, "I told Althea I’m a
rolling stone / That I was born to be
a bachelor / Althea told me OK
that’s fine / You know now I’m trying
to catch her." Now that’s deep.
Also hitting painfully close to
home are the words of Bob Weir as
he laments, "Run me round, make
me hurt again and again / But I'll
still sing you love songs / Written in
the letters of your name / And brave
the storm to come, for it surely
looks like rain.” What saves these
lyrics from being filed away into the
“sap/cheese" category defies ex
planation. The answer lies within
the honesty and sincerity which the
Dead exude live.
A Grateful Dead show is more of
. See Dead/Page 12
All right, it’s time to clear out the
closet. The following are a few of the
albums I’ve been listening to for the
past few weeks. As usual, there's not
really a pattern to this stuff, besides
the fact that they're all fairly interesting
in their own unique ways.
Mazzy Star
She Hangs Brightly
Rough Trade
When I first heard this album, I was
absolutely sure that the ghost of Patsy
Cline had jumped out of her grave to
boogie with the Doors. Combining a
somber country-blues style with a
quasi-mystical ambience, Mazzy Star
has come up with something truly
original. Responses from people who
I've played this for include, “Hey, isn’t
this real old Cowboy Junkies” or the
obligatory, "I don’t like this. Please
turn it off now,” but nobody has really
been able to put thqir finger on it.
In any case, Mazzy Star is a perfect
example of a band that would have
been huge with college bohemes if
the band had a really cool, arty video
that got airplay on primetime MTV.
Much better than most of these bands,
Mazzy Star is the final product of what
used to be Opal, one of the better
bands from the late '80s psychedelic
revival.
Guitarist Dave Roback is the half of
Opal that has remained. Vocalist
Hope Sandoval brings a new bluesy-
style to the songs, replacing the
Siouxsie-like singing of Opal’s Kendra
Smith.
Roback has toned down his musical
excursions considerably. Instead of
feeling like you’re at one of the Acid
Tests, songs like “Be My Angel” are
like being in a Louisiana icehouse as
the rising sun slowly burns the night
fog off the bayou. Or maybe not. After
all, the slow, effects-laden guitar is as
trippy on the title track as anything
Opal ever produced, just milder and
better.
Categorize them as you will, but
She Hangs Brightly is one of the best
albums I've heard in a while. Sorry
MTV, this time it looks like you let a
good thing slip by.
The Darkside
All That Noise
Beggars Banquet
On a similar level as Mazzy Star is
the premiere album from The Dark
side. These guys are also from a band
spawned in the psychedelic wave.
Whereas Mazzy Star only hints at their
roots, however, All That Noise hits you
over the head with tunes that are posi
tively acid-drenched. They’re used to
this sort of thing. As former members
of the Spacemen 3, these guys were
members of one of the better under
ground cult bands in England and a
major influence on the current Man
chester scene.
While the first song “Guitar Voo
doo” really had me going, the rest of
the album falls kind of short. Not that
it's really bad, but it’s much too deriva
tive of late '60s progressive music,
right down to the droning organ. Wait!
Isn’t that a riff from Pink Floyd's Atom
Heart Mother? Or maybe it's really old
Jefferson Airplane. In any case, The
Darkside seems to sputter along in
this same track without offering any
thing new or modern.
However, there are a few standout
tracks on the album. The title track and
the previously mentioned “Guitar Voo
doo” all escape this problem, using
the feedback and distortion of their
guitars to transport the listener to an
other state of mind. It’s just too bad the
only state of mind the others bring is
boredom. It’s really unfortunate that
the underground experimentation of
Spacemen 3 couldn’t be transferred to
this new project. I guess the song title
“Love in a Burning Universe” will give
you an idea of where this retread is
coming from.
William S. Burroughs
Dead City Radio
Island
If you've never heard any of Bur-
rough’s spoken word material before,
that's reason alone to pick up this
disc. I mean, who could resist the
chance to hear the author of Naked
Lunch reading quotations from the Bi
ble, while Cecil B. DeMille-like epic
scores blare in the background.
I had previously heard Burrough’s
voice on an old Laurie Anderson re
cord and seen him in the film
Drugstore Cowboy. The one thing I
never realized about Burroughs from
those appearances is his incredible
voice. Burroughs reads these works
in a way that burns them into your soul.
Sounds corny, I know, but it’s true.
A good example of this is his read
ing from his classic Naked Lunch.
While the more homoerotic aspects of
the novel are not really my bag, the
book is a horrific masterpiece. The
passage he reads here is rather tame
compared to most of the novel, but no
less bizarre. Burroughs rasps and
spits his way through it as if this hell
were right around him. It stays with
you for a long time.
"Thanksgiving Prayer” shows an
other facet of Burroughs, the social
satirist. This track is one of the most
biting looks at modern America since,
I don't know, maybe the last Dead
Kennedys album? “Thanks for a coun
try where nobody is allowed to mind
their own business/ Thanks for a na
tion of finks.” While Burroughs’ theory
of AIDS (that it was created by the
government to get rid of homosexuals
and drug users) seems kind of ridicu
lous to me, the shots at Reaganism
and the war against drugs hit head on.
If none of this peaks your interest so
far, the backing music on many of
these tracks is by, alternatively, Sonic
Youth or John Gale. How can you re
sist?
page5
Life Style magazine