Tuesday, April 7, 1992 Lifestyles The Battalion Page 3 tTexas history class looks beyond their books By Dawn Heliums The Battalion ORAN/The BaK /day *red through le could ons ;er as a blad ation Police the suspect ,n the neigh- Aani Center < oly walking the toe. ^ tation Police 3 rime Stop- Ip to identity sible for this you have in- ne Stoppers s also pays ion on any i location of I razos Conn-1 oday at 775- I The legends live on in Jeff Carroll's Texas History class. With his folk tales, sayings, and untold stories of the past, Carroll has his stu dents convinced that there's a lot more to his tory than what's written in the books. I "I like to teach the off-beat things in histo ry, things you can't learn in textbooks," said Carroll, who has taught history at A&M for three years. "There have been so many acci dents along the way that change the course of history-I like to look at those." I Carroll is a strong believer in experimental learning. He assigns his students to-do projects which involve them going out and reporting on events or things that relate to Texas history. He also has them trace their family heritage which can be both interesting for him and the student. I I "I can remember one guy who traced his family heritage and found out that his grand mother and great-grandmother traveled with the circus performing a mother-daughter strip tease act," said Carroll as he laughed. ^ Carroll wears costumes to class that resem ble those worn by the historical figures he teaches about. He also brings in tools and oth- historical pieces to show along with his lec- res. "I try to be very cross-cultural, because all ultures made Texas what it is today," said arroll. "I also try to be very cross-gender, if here is such a term, because women had just uch to do with the making of history as en." Carroll thinks developing a good relation ship with his students is important. He tells his Students on the first day that "as long as you are in this class, you are a part of my family." Jan Holland, a senior psychology major, tells how Carroll surprised the class by pre ending to be one of them. "It was three or four minutes after class was suppose to start and everyone was look ing around wondering if the professor was go ing to show up, when all of the sudden he stood up and began reciting a poem to us," Holland said. "He had been sitting down like a student with his backpack, faded blue jeans," she added. Carroll said he does this to show his stu dents that history, and just about everything in HUY NGUYEN/The Battalion Jeff Carroll conducts an innovative history class and broadcasts a syndicated radio program. life, is a matter of perspective. In addition to teaching, Carroll performs "Legendary Texas," a five-minute syndicated morning radio program on A&M's public ra dio station, KAMU-FM. Carroll began doing "Legendary Texas" last year after getting support from a pilot grant to broadcast his show once a week for radio stations all over Texas. Some 44 stations aired segments of "Legendary Texas," and from the grants given by the Texas A&M Asso ciation of Former Students, and the Texas Committee for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts. Carroll uses his deep, multi-southern state ac cent to tell his stories in "Legendary Texas," which are usually about the "average, com mon folk" or the unsung heroes of Texas histo ry. Carroll writes all of his scripts and said he finds most of his story ideas from old newspa pers, bars, and sometimes from his students. "They say gold is where you find it ; I guess stories are too," he said. One of his favorites is about a girl named Kate who became a professional cougar hunter at the age of 13. She also broke wild horses for the U.S. army, but had to do it riding side-sad dle because riding astride was inappropriate for ladies at that time. Some of his stories also contain personal information about the more common Texas heroes, such as Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin. He talks about Houston's alcoholism and crooked land speculating, and how he turned his life around just before he died. "He was human, no better or worse than the rest of us," Carroll said. Carroll thinks telling stories such as these is important 5o people will relate to historical figures as human beings, not just as grand and glorious people. He said the problem is with history organizers who try to protect the im ages of historical figures. "We realize they did a good job once upon a time despite their problems, so we should be able to too," Carroll said. Def Leppard overcomes fate with 'Adrenalize' By Chris Eklof The Battalion Def Leppard "Adrenalize" Mercury Three and a half years after they started work on their fifth album, Def Leppard released "Adrenalize." The result is a slick album that will satisfy their fans. They cover all the bases on the album, from ballads to pow er tunes, all in classic Def Lep pard style. Fate has dealt Def Leppard a tough hand over the past few years. Drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in an automobile ac cident during the making of "Hysteria," then "Adrenalize" was delayed by the death of gui tarist Steve Clark. In spite of it all, the band chose to carry on with the four remaining mem bers. Clark still has a notable influ ence on "Adrenalize," having contributed to the writing of six songs before his death. Musical ly though, Clark is not missed as Def Leppard's other guitarist Phil Collen steps up and plays all the guitars, lead and rhythm. To be perfectly honest, you can't even tell Clark is gone. Howev er, the band will be forced to re cruit another guitarist to recreate their sound live. Def Leppard can still faith fully reproduce their earlier sound because Joe Elliot's snide, sneering voice is still intact and Collen's guitar work was proba bly more recognizable than Clark's as "the Def Leppard sound." Also, the amazing one- armed drummer Allen has been able to overcome his handicap to play just as well as most other drummers. The album opens with "Let's Get Rocked," a teenage rebellion song that probably seems a little silly to an older listener with its juvenile lyrics. However, the music and the catchy chorus overcome the lyrics and make the song happen. Hard rhythms and driving beats have really become the sig nature sound of Def Leppard. This style is evident on "Make Love Like A Man" and "I Wanna Touch U." Def Leppard dips into their bag of tricks to create the rum blings of an approaching storm at the start of "White Lightning." The song then flows into a sub dued verse and slowly builds to the chorus. This seven minutes of the album just might be its best. "Adrenalize" has its share of ballads, too. "Tonight" features an acoustic intro, "Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)" is a cool-edged song along the lines of "Love and Affection" off of the last album. After finishing the "Hyste ria" tour, the band had a couple of songs prepared to record. One of these was "Tear It Down." The song was first per formed on the MTV Video Mu sic Awards and was well re ceived, so the band decided to put it on their next album. "Adrenalize" was originally supposed to be completed in about a year, but instead it grew into a three-year project. The death of Steve Clark certainly af fected them emotionally, but their music has not changed. "Adrenalize" is exactly what you would expect from a veter an rock band. Def Leppard knows how to make music that people want to hear , so they simply went into the studio and did just that. I o 1 sterial I drug those a suited r with ours, plete ‘FECRfFOtRMJMfC'E r m$ 11.95 CASS $ 7.97 ‘Poi dog appearing ‘Tuesday evening at the STTL'JtfOTT) aPHEA ‘JdOUST. ‘Tickets available at 9dAg(p09fE(D. ‘J-CospitaCty provided By CAFE ECCELL 101 ClfURcIf marooned CD's • Tcaf>es • LP's 110 College Main College Station, TX 77840 Faxs f2§l{ 846-0017 846-3153 106 S. Main St Phone: 775-4082