The Battalion • Page 13
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Guitarist, DJ play own styles
Alternative music isn't only
on the sidewalks any more
MELISSA
MEGLIOLA
Columnist
A cross the street from
Ghiradelli Square in
San Francisco, a street
musician performs for the
small crowd that has gath
ered in front of him.
Seated on a portable stool,
he plays a red electric
guitar powered by a portable
generator. He taps out the beat with a foot-pedaled drum. His
singing is interrupted only when his mouth turns to the har
monica hanging from his neck.
He wears a black T-shirt, an old ball cap and pants that
look like a worn blanket, patched every few inches. He in
forms his audience that he is, “‘Dan the One Man Band/
’cause he can’t get along with nobody.” Then he smiles a
toothy grin and starts singing again.
Socially skilled or not, Dan belts out blues that rival
those of B.B. King. Like any good blues singer, his voice is
deep, gruff and throaty. His eyes are excited but worn. He
obviously plays here often.
The crowd gets larger and larger. Par
ents hold their children, who seem unable
to control their interest. They want to
touch him; to find out how so much music
can come from one person. Video cameras
roll from each side, recording memories of
the wonderful street performer, witnessed
between the trip to Alcatraz and the ride
down Lombard Street.
A little red wagon with a bumper sticker claiming “Blues
Power” is parked in front of the drum. In it, donations are col
lected. The money can’t amount to much. The crowd is grateful
for the concert, but stingy with dollars. With each donation,
Dan nods. Maybe the money will be used for groceries or maybe
for rent at a monthly hotel for the indigent.
Despite his wealth of talent, Dan is not rich.
The street is his personal packed concert hall. His platinum
albums are low-quality recordings he tapes while playing on the
street. Here, Dan is king.
No doubt music is his passion, his lifeblood. It is impos
sible to envision him anywhere else. Or to imagine music
more powerful.
In a back room of the John J. Koldus Building, every
Wednesday at 10 a.m., Jeff Jenkins, a wildlife and fisheries ma
jor, expresses his own passion for music. As a disc jockey for
KANM, our campus radio station, Jeff spends two hours each
week sharing his love of music with listeners.
About 75 percent of the music he plays comes from his own
personal collection. His show features “alternative” music dat
ing from 1985 to 1991, a pivotal year in the music industry
when punk became big business. Actually, according to Jeff, the
term alternative is a misnomer now, as much of it is played on
top-40 stations.
“So really, it’s not alternative to anything,” Jeff jokes.
Jeff first found out about KANM through an ad in The Bat
talion, but became interested in college radio as a high school
student in Lubbock, where he listened to the Texas Tech sta
tion. After being selected as a DJ, Jeff was given virtually total
control over his time slot, restricted only by a short list of pro
fane, unacceptable words.
The freedom to develop his own show is what Jeff likes best
about KANM.
“As a DJ, you have the power to say what you want to a lot of
people. It’s the next best thing to being a musician. I send out a
message of music and use others as my medium,” Jeff explains.
Jeff does perform music himself. He plays the guitar and the
drums and is teaching himself to play the piano. In Lubbock, he
played in a band and would like to do so again.
Jeffs passion for music motivates him to spend time each
Tuesday night preparing for
his show, even when he
should be studying for a test
or finishing homework.
He doesn’t get paid to be
on the air. Instead, he pays
$15 a semester for the op
portunity. Unaware of how
many people listen to him
each week, he doesn’t do it for fame on campus.
“I have only one confirmed listener,” Jeff admits. “She called
in once with a request.”
Jeff is only one of 66 DJ’s at KANM. Each DJ is different, as
is each show. Hopefully, a schedule will be finished soon so stu
dents can listen to shows that interest them.
Because KANM is on cable radio, it’s necessary to buy an
adapter to get the programs. But it’s definitely worth it.
KANM offers a glimpse of the passion for music that can
only be found in a few special places.
Good
Now
my slippers!
&\eAA THE eecJDK)
■Mi®
It's worth it to buy the cable adapter to
get the programs on KANM, which offers
a glimpse of the passion for music that
can only be found in a few special places.
Battalion
Editorial Board
'-VV,
Belinda Blancarte, Editor in chief
Mark Evans, Managing editor
Jay Robbins, Opinion editor
Jenny Magee, Assistant opinion editor
Editorials appearing in The Batta
reflect the views of the editorial board. "
do not necessarily reflect the opinior
other Battalion staff members, the Texas
A&M student body, regents, administration, ,
facu Ity or staff.
Columns, guest columns, cartoons and'
letters express the opinions of the authors. -
Contact the opinion editor for information
on submitting guest columns. ' '
Melissa Megliola is a senior
industrial engineering major
m.
)p.m.
iryan«
.J
Progressing Poverty
U.S. should study increase in problem
A census bureau report released last
week indicates that the war on poverty
is far from being won. The fact that the
United States is experiencing its high
est poverty rate since 1961 should moti
vate the people and government to
study this situation seriously.
The nation should analyze this prob
lem and the ways in which it can be
rectified. Poverty wasn't created
overnight — it’s noth
ing new in American
society. There has al
ways been at least
one section of people
who have fewer eco
nomic resources than
the rest. Racial and
ethnic minorities con
stitute a large part of
this group.
But anyone,
whether white, black,
male,
f e -
male,
high
school
dropout or
Texas A&M grad
uate, also can suffer
poverty.
Compared to other industrial
ized nations, the United States has
the mostunequal distribution of income
— a disturbing fact when one considers
the astounding magnitude of the gross
national product.
The unfortunate reality is that in
come inequality is becoming more de
fined — the poor are becoming poorer
as the rich are becoming richer.
More disturbing is the fact that the
current increase in poverty does not
correlate with past economic trends.
Usually, at the end of a recession, ■
poverty levels peak, but begin to de
crease by the beginning of the next
year. The recent poverty levels indi
cate that perhaps these predictions
are misleading.
Poverty affects all members of soci- :
ety, but has severe impacts on women
and children. On average, women ;
earn less than two
thirds what men make
in any given year, and
children make up 40
percent of the poor.
Many children live in
single-parent homes
where a woman is the
primary provider.
These numbers in
dicate that poverty is
a severe problem in
the United States. It
isn’t
a n
a b -
s tra ct
problem in
some far away
nation — it exists
in America right now.
Individual efforts can’t
be expected to make a differ
ence in decreasing the poverty
rate, but an overall awareness of the
problem can perhaps mobilize Con
gress and other government agencies
to take action.
In a land of “plenty,” it is ironic that
there are plenty out there who have
nothing. A universal understanding of
the problem is vital, if one day we are
to find a way to bridge the gap between
the rich and the poor.
Should candidates' religions matter to voters?
r
Tl.
T 'T Does anyone want reli-
Y gion to determine the fate
.A. liO of an election?
Of course not. Leaders are elected and paid to
lead, not to pray.
Does anyone want religion to guide the gov
ernment of a nation?
Of course not. Lions have been fed with many
enemies of Rome, fires have purified us from too
many witches and the inquisition has “saved”
too many souls.
This glorious past suggested to modem de
mocrats that church and state be separated and
that the religious beliefs of a candidate running
for public office should not matter. But in the
real world, they do. And they should.
Religion is too important a part of life to be
completely set aside; if one closes the door on it,
it will find a crack to pass through. Communism
tried to detoxify the masses from the subversive
religious opiate, but while Marx and Lenin are
long gone, God is still very much around.
As humans, we try to live in harmony with our
own selves. We abide by moral values. These values
are defined dogmatically by religion, or the lack
thereof. We evaluate situations based on a combina
tion of subjectivity and objectivity We take deci
sions in everyday life
and make judgment
calls based not only
on scientific thinking
but also on deep root
ed beliefs. Often, reli
gious beliefs.
As a society, we
try to live in harmo
ny with one another. We abide by civil laws.
Our civil laws are voted on (usually) by elected
representatives, and define the way our society
works (or doesn’t). This community of individu-
als makes decisions based on the needs of soci
ety, and judges rule according to established
laws. Constitutional laws.
GEORGE
NASR
Only by being informed of person's
true belonging and values would voters
weed out the true statesmen from the
demagogues, bigots and hypocrites.
Conflicts
sometimes arise
when the exclu
sive, dogmatic
religious beliefs
of an individual
clash with the
pluralistic re
publican princi
ples of a free society. Since our representatives,
leaders and judges are all too human, the risk
for any society to be overtaken by any form of
fanaticism, religious or not, is all too real.
It is therefore important to know not only the
nature of the religious beliefs of a candidate for
public office, but also the extent and depth of
these beliefs.
The nature of the religious beliefs, or the lack
o them, is important because of the existence of
sectarian ideologies that are incompatible with
true pluralism. Prophets of doom or apostles of
racial purity are way overqualified in responsi
bility positions, no matter what book they read
or how they read it.
The extent and depth of a person’s true in
volvement in their own religion draws the line
between compassion, humility and honesty on
one hand, and bigotry,
arrogance and hypocrisy
on the other.
Only by being in
formed of person’s true
belonging and values
would voters weed out
the true statesmen from
the demagogues, bigots
and hypocrites. Only then would effective, de
voted public servants be elected.
That doesn’t mean voting for just who you know,
but rather knowing for whom you are voting.
George Nasr is a civil engineering
graduate student
T" It is amazing that on the
l^^l /'"'V brink of the 21st century, fa-
Jl ^1 v-r natical groups of people still
demand that the rest of the world listen to their
ranting on religious issues like Creationism, abor
tion and the like.
Most of us are too busy to worry about religious
fanaticism and usually close the door on evangelical
Bible-beaters — our only prayer is that they’ll go
away forever. Yet they continue to show up - at
school meetings, at athletic events, in classrooms ...
One would think that these supposedly “reli
gious” zealots would want nothing to do with the
dirty job of politics. Unfortunately, these people
ignore the very strong directive by our founding
fathers against the mixing of church and state.
They have decided to make reli
gion, or the lack of one, as an is
sue in political races.
So-called “family values” —
largely based on white, Anglo-
Saxon, Protestantism - has
reared its ugly face in politics
since the very first elections. I
doubt whether anyone cares
about the essential question
surrounding this idiocy: why should someone’s
religious beliefs affect the voting population’s
decisions?
In truth, it shouldn’t. Like many other non-is
sues, a person’s religious values and beliefs can
not be measured or balanced against anyone
else’s. Even if religion should be considered, how
can someone possibly measure another person’s
belief in a deity or how their prayers are re
ceived by that deity?
For instance, what religion will get the most
points for a possible candidate? Will it be the major
ity’s religious views? And what other criteria will be
used? How many times a person goes to church,
how much money they give to their church, do they
pray on their knees or fall to the ground in convul
sions when a deity is mentioned?
JOSEF A.
ELCHANAN
Columnis
More impor
tantly, when
trusting the fu
ture of our coun
try to a represen
tative, do we
want that person
to be competent
or to be busy run
ning to church all the time, trying to prove that
they are so religious that they deserve your votes?
Personally, I would rather have my represen
tative busting his butt for the country on Sun
day morning, and keeping his religion separate
and personal.
The real problem is ignorance. Too many Ameri
cans have been
brought-up to
not analyze
their surround
ings or the be
lief systems of
other people.
Too many
young children
are shown one
way of thinking about life and grow-up believing
that no one else’s way has any validity.
These same individuals, constantly quoting
scripture, forget to listen to the world around them.
In other countries, only certain people with cer
tain religious backgrounds are allowed to hold of
fice. Is this what people want? Do we want to
have only people like the majority to control us
all? What happens if in the future, the majority
changes? Will this still be acceptable?
Hopefully, religious fanaticism will give way to
tolerance, acceptance and respect for all people, in
recognition that our differences are our strengths
and homogeneity is the death of democracy.
Josef A. Elchanan is a senior
business management major
In some other countries, only cer
tain people with certain religious
backgrounds are allowed to hold of
fice. - Is this what people want?
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