Pedersen

In this country, where we are ruled by flashing computer and movie screens and our leisure time is spent flipping through channels to watch trash like Teen Mom 2, My Super Sweet 16, 16 and Pregnant and lots of Jersey Shore, something like National Poetry Month often goes by unnoticed, except, apparently, by literary nerds.
It’s true, April is National Poetry Month and it is something to be celebrated. If you already write poetry and share it openly, then revel in your expression and be proud, organize a poetry reading amongst your friends.
But if you don’t consider yourself a poet, then maybe it’s time to try it. In fact, many people (perhaps even you) write poetry in private to get some emotional catharsis out of a particularly charged situation.
You want to woo someone, so you write them a love poem. You want to get over your last break-up, so you write an angry poem just so you can get it off your chest. You’re bored, so you write a funny little poem about a bumbling ninja.
But all too often, that powerful emotional energy that was recorded is lost, long forgotten, hiding in a dusty notebook at the bottom of your bookcase. I think this is wrong. Poetry is not something to be forgotten about.
Even if you do not feel comfortable sharing it with the public, you still have taken the time to write it down, so it must be worthwhile to you, at the very least.
Poetry is pure life freshly squeezed from your soul. Whether it is combined with music or not, it is the verbal form of artistic expression. It is like taking all of the swirling emotional energy you have and defining it with language, making it able to be understood and comprehended.
And of course, poetry would be purely masturbatory without an audience, so support poets by reading their work.
William Stafford is one of the most famous poets from Kansas and was also United States Poet Laureate. He is a fantastic poet and has several books available at the WAW Library. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, the Poet Laureate of Kansas.
Poetry is all around us and we must learn to appreciate it, whether it is your own work or not. It isn’t hard do this, write some poetry or organize a reading. I personally am planning to have one with some of my friends this Friday and it isn’t that hard. All that is needed is a space, some people and open minds.
Roses are red, ice cubes are cool, it’s poetry month, so don’t act a fool.

Alex Pedersen/  The Bulletin

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Freshmen biology majors Caroline Murray and Meghan Murray stand in the dorm room they have shared for the past five months. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

The spring semester is well under way and the fresh beginnings of fall are nothing but a distant memory now. Some students are preparing to graduate, but for freshmen, it is a time of settling into what is now the more familiar experience of going to college.

There are many things running through the minds of freshmen at this time. They wonder if this is the school for them, what they are going to do after graduation and some are praying that they will make it through the semester. Whatever the case may be, it is a certainty that much has changed since they first came to ESU.

Yet again, we take a look at the lives of four freshmen, Meghan Murray, Caroline Murray, Will Smith and Lei Zhang, as they trudge forward toward the end of their freshman year.

…

Caroline and Meghan Murray, twin sisters from Olpe, are still working hard to pursue biology degrees. Caroline seems confident in this semester, but Meghan is nervous because she is taking difficult classes.

“It will be harder than last semester,” Meghan said. “I’ve got (chemistry), biology and zoology. It’s awesome, but I just have to study, study, study.”

For winter break, they spent time with family and friends they hadn’t seen in a while and visited Grandby Ranch at Sol Vista Basin, Colo., where they went snowboarding. It was Caroline’s first time.

“It was fun,” Caroline said. “By the second day, I was fine. The first day, I was trying to figure it out, but then it was fun. It was a blast… we actually drove back on the 24th, Christmas Eve. I didn’t want to do that, but we celebrated Christmas the next day.”

The sisters are still a part of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and plan to move into the house next year. This semester, they have also taken up the responsibility of being ESU Ambassadors.

“I think the more involved you are, the more fun you have,” Meghan said. “It can be stressful sometimes, but overall it’s fun because you can meet a lot of new people.”

The sisters also said that they are excited for spring break, when they may go to Florida, and for summer, when they will travel to Arizona with their best friend and Meghan will get her Certified Nurse’s Assistant license.

…

Although Will Smith, criminology major from Wylie, Texas, had a good time last semester, it was more difficult than he expected.

“It was a lot tougher school-wise and with time management,” Smith said. “I’ve enjoyed living in the dorms. I can’t wait to have my own apartment though, more privacy. But I get along with pretty much everyone in the dorms.”

Smith has continued to practice middle-distance with the cross country team, even throughout the cold of winter. He practices every day, except for the weekends, and has been going to morning practices on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. For winter break, he went back home to Texas.

“My break was really good,” Smith said. “I hung out with family a lot, hung out with some friends I haven’t seen in a while, of course hung out with my girlfriend and I worked a little bit, trying to get a little money before I came back,” Smith said.

Smith’s classes are divided fairly equally between general education courses and major courses. Some classes he is taking are Psychology, Intimate relationships, Community Corrections and Anthropology.

“I feel great about this semester,” Smith said. “I’ve got good classes and I feel like I can do a lot better this semester, grade-wise and practicing, you know… I enjoy all of my classes, it’s a lot better than last semester. They seem pretty interesting. I would say Community Corrections is probably my favorite one overall,” Smith said.

…

Although Smith may be from Texas, Lei Zhang, accounting major, has him beat when it comes to distance away from home. Zhang is a Chinese student who is planning to go to school here for four years before graduation.

“At summer, I will go back to China for three months, then come back to ESU,” Zhang said. “Just like the American students, I will stay until we graduate, then I will go back to China.”

Zhang explained that she wishes to live in China because there is more job availability there. For winter break, Zhang stayed at a friend’s apartment and she visited Chicago for Thanksgiving.

“Someone told me that Chicago was the second biggest city in America, so I wanted to go there,” Zhang said. “When I went there, it rained and was very cold, so the first and second day weren’t that good, but the last day was good. It was very big and the buildings were tall, it’s just like Shanghai in China – it’s very lovely.”

Last semester, she only took three Intensive English Program courses and Composition I, and she is feeling anxious about this semester because she is taking a larger variety of classes – 17 hours total. On top of that, Zhang still feels the difficulties of living so far from home.

“I think it’s very hard because it’s a different life,” Zhang said. “The biggest difficulty is language and customs…I think the biggest difficulty is that I’m homesick. I miss my pare

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Pedersen

After seeing “The Green Hornet,” I started to wonder who was the cooler hornet, the guy in the movie or Corky? Now, the Green Hornet may have guns, kung-fu, comedy and a copious amount of car-based explosions, but Corky has something that the movie doesn’t – class.

It is not a bad movie to say the least, it has plenty of crude, witty humor and kick-ass action that today’s audience craves. But for having such a talented group of people work on it, the movie is lacking.

“The Green Hornet” starts off innocently enough, with immature party-animal Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), hopelessly poised to take over his father’s newspaper business. After an accidental rescue of civilians, he decides crime-fighting is the life for him.

Then come the fight and chase scenes which seem ridiculous and utterly laughable while watching, but you do leave the scene feeling somewhat impressed by what you saw. I would credit that to the brilliant eye of Michael Gondry, who also directed “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Be Kind Rewind.”

Rogen does a fairly good job acting, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before except that he throws a few punches. He is still the goofy, overgrown man-boy he always is, saying things like, “shit yeah,” all of the time – and it’s still hard to take him seriously.

Rogen also wrote the movie with Evan Goldberg, which is surprising considering they also wrote “Superbad” and “Pineapple Express.” But then again, Rogen also was one of the writers of “Drillbit Taylor.”

The best actor in the film is, without a doubt, Christoph Waltz, who plays the disturbingly funny antagonist, Chudnofsky. You might recognize Waltz from “Inglorious Basterds,” in which he played Col. Han Landa and, although he isn’t as creepy in this film, he is just as scary and perhaps a little more demented.

Then, of course, there is the series of funny little cameos from actors such as James Franco and Edward Furlong that actually make sure your attention is held. Cameron Diaz is supposed to serve that same purpose, but she doesn’t do it well. I forgot she was even in the film for most of it.

The worst part of the movie is its weak character development. Of course there is the inevitable power struggle between Kato, played by Jay Chou, and Britt Reid which, once resolved, brings them closer in the end, but that resolution is unexplained and forced.

All in all, “The Green Hornet” is great if all you care about from a movie is fighting, suits, explosions and a few laughs, but it lacks any depth and can only be considered a very brief footnote in the annals of history.

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Pedersen

I have been attending Emporia State for a long time. In fact, I am finishing my fifth year here and therefore have the lovely title of “super senior.”

Despite the word “super” being in there, it’s not a very illustrious title. It says to the world that I wasn’t either smart enough or dedicated enough to be done with college in four years. While one, or perhaps both, of those statements may be true, I think that I am judged against outdated standards.

Very few people that I know have graduated in four years. In fact, five or six years seem to be the standard amount of years it takes to graduate. I wonder to myself, why?

Is it because of a lack of motivation in our generation to finish? Apprehension of the great unknown after schooling? Are we becoming more stupid?

All of those could be factors in this trend, but I think one of the most impacting factors is that schools simply do not want us to finish in four years.

This is not to say that schools want us to fail every class, they would be out of business if that were their philosophy. However, we must remember that every school is a business and therefore their biggest goal is to get money and they do this by having us enroll in classes.

The more classes we are in, the more money they make and it’s double the money if a student fails and has to retake a class.

Take for example lab classes. I failed my chemistry lab class due to attendance and now must retake not only the lab, but the class itself.

Attendance policies also can work against you. You can be doing very well in a class and understand all of the material but if you miss one too many classes, you must take the entire course over again.

And, of course, let us not forget about the overwhelming amounts of (mostly) useless General Education classes.

The only solution to this problem, sadly, lies in us students. How we feel about this deception doesn’t matter, we aren’t the ones who write requirements for degrees. They are making the rules, we’re just playing the game.

So it’s up to us to play it to the best of our abilities. Make a graduation plan, have notes on your attendance in a class instead of just guessing, plan for an alarm to go off on finals week and get to sleep early.

We can only hope that these oppressive policies eventually change, but for now, we must do the best that we can with the circumstances we’re given.

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Pedersen

A few days ago I was sitting in my living room watching an episode of “The Simpsons,” when I heard a rustling coming from the pile of junk on our back porch. I was sure it was harmless alley cat or something, but I decided to check it out anyway.

What I saw when I went outside to investigate struck a chord with me.

A man who seemed to be in his late 30s with thick, bulbous glasses that seemed to wrap around his head was gathering up used soda cans that we had collected for recycling.

He had a lanyard that jingled from the random slew of keys on it had a black baseball cap with gold-emblazoned poker cards on the front. It seemed that the man was slightly mentally deficient.

“Do ya mind if I take your cans?” the man asked timidly.

“Oh, yeah, of course. I’m sorry if I scared you, you can definitely have them,” I said.

I said goodbye and left him to his can scavenging. Later one of my roommates asked me what had happened to the cans and I told him that the man looked like he needed the meager amount of can money more than we did.

And this gentleman is certainly not the only person in Emporia who rifles through rubbish in order to survive. We’ve all seen those who have fallen on hard times throughout the town and we should not forget them. We should help them when we can, not shun or ignore them.

In a big city, the existence of homeless is never surprising, but in a small, idyllic town like Emporia, the problem of poverty-stricken people seems more apparent because you see the same people day after day.

It doesn’t take much to help these people out. Setting out recyclable cans in a separate bag so that people don’t have to dig through garbage or giving someone a dollar or a can of food can really make a difference for someone who is surviving on spare change.

The only thing worse than ignoring these people is to be fearful or hateful toward them. A friend once told me he didn’t like people going through his garbage because he was afraid that they might steal his identity after finding a discarded receipt.

Though I suppose anything is possible, I find it a little ridiculous to think that a person who is collecting cans for food money will have both a computer and the know how to steal an identity.

If you truly are afraid of someone going through your garbage, then you have all the more reason to set your cans apart from a trash can.

We may be poor college students who sustain ourselves on a diet of ramen noodles and Easy Mac, but we can all at least afford to attend school. I’m not saying that we should all volunteer at homeless shelters, but it won’t hurt you to help someone out when you can.

Because who knows? Someday you may be among them.

Alex Pedersen

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Matt Cook, senior English major, and Ryan Wash, junior communications major, practice during a debate meeting Tuesday afternoon in the Memorial Union. Alissa Miller/ The Bulletin

The Emporia State Debate Team’s room has an entire wall lined with trophies.Last season, two teams went to the National Debate Tournament, an achievement that hasn’t happened for the last seven years.

Last weekend, at a tournament in Wichita, Ryan Wash, junior communications major, won top speaker in varsity, LaToya Williams-Green, senior communication major, won fourth speaker in varsity and Donnie Hanson, sophomore political science major, won third speaker in junior varsity.

“The week before it was time for us to go, there was a lot of, ‘do we have enough i’s dotted and t’s crossed to really have affective plans of action for when we go into these rounds?’” Williams-Green said. “And I feel like, after being tested, and after we see the fruits of our labor, I think we can honestly say that our confusion, hard work and doing and re-doing and re-structuring actually paid off and now we have some stability to start off the season on a real good foot.”

The squad will be leaving again around 4 a.m. tomorrow to attend a tournament in Chicago at Northwestern University, where they could be going up against some of the top squads in the nation. Luckily, the last tournament bolstered their confidence.

“It was a smooth ride,” Wash said. “It was a different type of feeling for me at the tournament because I didn’t feel the pressure of competition. It was just, ‘these are my arguments, and I know what your arguments are. Now the question just becomes ‘how does my argument answer yours and why are my positions better than yours?’”

The resolution for this season is whether or not the U.S. government should increase and/or expand eligibility for different types of visas.

“I feel very good about the team so far this year,” said Sam Maurer, director of debate. “We have two varsity teams, Paul Mose and Matt Cook, and Ryan Wash and LaToyaWilliams-Green. LaToya and Ryan are our returning varsity team who qualified for the NDT last year. We’ve got high hopes that they can at least make it back this year, if not do better at that tournament.”

In addition to three new debaters, the squad has two new assistant debate coaches who are former debaters themselves. Kurt Fifelski, senior political science and geography major, and Chris Loghry, senior communications major, are giving more personal time and attention to each team than having only one coach can. The squad plans to match their achievements of last year by having two teams attend the national tournament.

“It’s by no means set, but we’re on pace for it right now and I’d like to continue that,” Maurer said. “I think this semester will go well. Everybody’s been working very hard, putting in a lot of time on weekends, sacrificing a lot in terms of hours that they can work, hours that they can go home, hours that they can hang out with friends. They’ve been dedicating a lot of time to this and I think our work is paying off.”

Alex Pedersen

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Raed Almatar, junior marketing major, writes peoples names in Arabic during a session of, “When the World Spoke Arabic Film Series,” Monday afternoon in Plumb Hall. Jon Coffey/ The Bulletin

The sights of graceful calligraphy, exotic foods and smiling faces filled PH 310 last Monday afternoon for a session of, “When the World Spoke Arabic Film Series.”

The particular session was about the influence of the Moors in Andalusia and of Ziryab from the Umayyad Court in Cordoba, both of which are in modern-day Spain.

“It was an extra credit opportunity, but I’m also interested in world cultures,” said Kevin Flanders, freshman undecided major. “It was cool. It was an insight into a culture that I hadn’t heard about in a while and I got to know that culture a little better.”

About 25 people attended the event which included a movie that was approximately 30 minutes long, a discussion, a sampling of Arabic food – including falafel, dates and coffee – and an opportunity to have your name written in Arabic calligraphy by Raed Almatar, junior marketing major.

“It was kind of confusing, but it was interesting,” said Veronica Garcia, sophomore undeclared major. “When you think of Spanish and Arabic cultures, you don’t think of them in the same place or in the same time, I thought they were completely separate.”

The film told of the Arabic influence in many different areas of culture, including music, food, fashion, personal hygiene and even courtly love.

“Faculty and students interact and socialize and learn about Arabic language, culture and civilization,” said Abdelilah Sehlaoui, adviser for the Arabic Club and associate professor of English, Modern Languages and Journalism. “It is part of the cross-cultural dialogue to enhance diversity and to engage diverse cultures in a dialogue with each other.”

Sehlaoui was also excited to introduce Ahmed Al-Ma’awali, a graduate student and teacher of AB 300, Introduction to the Arab World, who came to Emporia State from the Sultanate of Oman through the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program. This is the program’s seventh year.

“I liked to see the different viewpoints from the way the renaissance happened,” Flanders said. “It brought in the Arabic point-of-view of the influence they had on Spain with new technologies and new trains of thought that they brought to the European world.”

The rest of the “When the World Spoke Arabic” series will be on <insert dates and times of the rest of the series>.

“It was definitely worthwhile,” Flanders said. “It’s a lot of fun to meet new people and get to know what the world is like outside of the city.”

Alex Pedersen

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Pedersen

I was walking to my Editing and Layout class about a week ago, when I suddenly realized I needed to buy a book for class.

I put the shoelace express into high gear and braved the subterranean labyrinth to get to the bookstore.

I arrived at my destination and a clerk gets my book for me. I take it over to the check-out desk and she rings it up. I am surprised when I see that I’m paying somewhere close to $25 for a copy of the Associated Press Stylebook, but I shrug it off and go to class.

Then I get home and decide to look up the price online and see how much I should have paid. According to the Associated Press online bookstore, any regular Joe who would want to buy it would pay $24.90, $18.95 for the book and $5.95 for shipping.

I felt relieved until I looked closer and saw that was the price for the category labeled, “other journalists.” I then saw two other categories, “AP member newspapers,” and “college bookstores,” both of which were only $17.90, exactly $7 cheaper. That is a mark-up of nearly 40 percent.

Of course, this is nothing new to college students or even professors. We have been paying hundreds of dollars every year to buy the latest editions of books with nothing changed except for perhaps an extra page or two.

They have us pinned in a captive market like helpless sheep, forced to be sheared every few months until we can escape.

Of course, there are some books that must be purchased every year. The AP Stylebook is a perfect example. Also, books about tax laws or dictionaries. These cannot be avoided. But should they really have such a steep raise in price?

There was a federal law that went into effect last July that forced publishers to document and share information about books’ prices, three previous editions and other formats, such as online.

However, this will not lower the prices of books in the least. Unless it somehow makes the publishers feel guilty, we will not see lower prices.

It is the publishers’ business, so it is understandable why they try to squeeze out as much money as they can from both the schools and the students. And I’m sometimes a fan of capitalism, but not when it is a monopoly.

Perhaps this all occurs because there are deals made for the school to only go through certain publishers in exchange for a cut of the money. And maybe this isn’t a bad thing, if the school gets money, then it can grow. But don’t we already pay enough for tuition, which seems to be rising each year?

I think that perhaps the school should set an example. I think that the school should take the deal that is best for the students, the deal that allows them to buy the cheapest books that are still of high quality.

Imagine how this would affect our public image! It is a public relations dream: “Emporia State: the selfless school.”

It has the potential to be a major selling point for any potential students, which would more than make up for what money we may lose in book deals. We may even consider a raise in tuition more permissible, depending on how much we could save on books.

We must write to the administration, tell them what we want. With no prodding, there will be no action taken. It is up to us to voice our opinion, or continue to writhe in the pain of high prices.

I think it is possible for ESU to set an example.

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Pedersen

I was walking by Wooster Lake today and thought it absolutely breathtaking.

The gentle flow of the grass being pushed along by the breeze, the crispness of the pre-fall air and the serenity of the lake itself forced me to take a deep breath and revel in the scene.

But suddenly, I saw a bit of red out of the corner of my eye. It was an empty, crushed-up can of soda on the ground next to a wadded ball of paper not 50 feet from a trashcan.

Although the campus is cleaner than the streets of Kansas City, it seems to me that litter has always been a bit of a problem on campus. Whether it is an abandoned foam take-out box in the Union Square or an empty pack of cigarettes in front of the Memorial Union, people leave trash behind.

I do not believe that this problem is due to a lack of trashcans at all. We have plenty of trashcans. What we are lacking is pride in our campus.

Our campus is beautiful, I must say. In all seasons, I find it to be an aesthetically pleasing place to walk around. Yet I have seen people who smoke a cigarette and toss the butt onto the ground rather than put it into an ashtray or extinguishing it and throwing it away.

So what is there to do? The people who already throw away their trash will always continue to throw away their trash and those that don’t care may well continue to not care.

I say that we who care right now should care more in order for future generations to match us. I say that we need to push not only cleaning up after yourself, but recycling what we can as much as we can. I say that we must lead by example.

There has already been a push for more recycling on campus in the last few years. Spurred on by the sensation of the “green movement,” we students have felt a need to have more recycling facilities on campus. Just this year we have a new newspaper recycling receptacle in the Union.

However, it still isn’t enough. We obviously have recycling capabilities, so why not maximize them?

Of course, all of this would have to go through the bureaucracy of the system and deals would have to be struck. It would cost money.

But what would happen if we students took matters into our own hands?

Green Door Recycling is a company here in Emporia that will recycle two 18-gallon bins every two weeks for only $15 per month.

What if a student bought this service and, with the permission of the instructor, put a bin in one of their classrooms for a semester, urging peers to throw waste paper into it? And what if they put a collection jar at the front of the classroom for people to donate to recycling?

And what if, eventually, every single classroom on campus had a recycling box? What if the students of ESU set up their own recycling community for much cheaper than it would be if our student fees were raised after a deal with a recycling company?

I think our campus would appreciate it. I think Wooster Lake would gently wave in appreciation, the Union Square would breathe a sigh of relief and each building would be more swelling with pride than the day they were built.

But perhaps there are too many who don’t care.

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Pedersen

I have always enjoyed most of the things this school has to offer.

I came here for an education, and I am receiving it. What I wasn’t sure of was what exactly the school had to offer me outside of classes.

The Union Activities Council makes sure the students that go to this school cannot truthfully say, “there’s nothing to do in Emporia.” Every year, we have a variety of activities that students can go to that allow us to get away from the strife and toil of studying and working on homework.

From Bingo Night to Flintstock, we have a wide range of opportunities to cure boredom and spice up a night throughout the year. UAC even sponsors a few “Night at the Movies” during which students can go to a movie for only $3, and I think that’s awesome.

But what I do not think is awesome is an event that is a shallow, pointless waste of time and UAC money that can sadly only be summed up as unpleasant.

Of course, everyone has different opinions of how fun an event is, but I think if we speak truthfully we realize that there are certain events that we simply do not gain much from, be it knowledge or entertainment.

I have been to a few of these in my day and you can usually spot them by their name. If the title of the event is something that is common knowledge, it is usually not going to be very fulfilling.

One such event that has already happened this year was “Tom Ryan: Fighting the Freshman 15.” I did not attend this event because it seems to me that the best weapons for fighting the “Freshman 15″ are obvious and already at our disposal: exercise and being conscious of your diet. That explanation didn’t take an hour and a half nor did it cost UAC hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of dollars. Also, I’m not a freshman.

Now I’m sure that Tom Ryan was at least entertaining and that the event wasn’t a complete waste of time and money, but I feel that we deserve better than what we already know.

I wondered exactly why we have these events.

I’ve spoken to UAC members in the past and they have told me that they scout for events at conferences that showcase college-based activities. I know that some of the events they find at these conferences are well worth the money and time, such as Johnny Walker, the comedian we had a few semesters ago or Hard ‘N Phirm, who came last year.

But all of them were about pure entertainment. There was not much education, unless you count Hard ‘N Phirm’s song about pi.

I have been told by Bryce Cooke, a member of ASG, that the school requires such educational events because of ESU’s mission statement. I can understand that, but I don’t think we should have such requirements.

If we didn’t have these requirements, UAC members could be more selective when they pick events instead of looking for a blend of education and entertainment that turns out to not have enough of either in order to fill a quota.

Overall, I think that the members of UAC know what we want, for they themselves are part of us. If given the option, they would only have the best events, but they must bow to the administration’s requirements.

Hopefully the next time that UAC is picking events, it won’t even be an issue. Perhaps the events they will be choosing from will all be spectacular and not a single one will be a waste of time and money. But the odds of that happening are low. The school’s requirements have a bit of a stranglehold on exactly what UAC can pick.

I don’t think the administration will back down, so I think it is up to UAC to make the right decisions.

Choosy UACers don’t choose dreck.

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Many people who live in Kansas are familiar with the alcohol-axing exploits of Carrie Nation, the woman who mercilessly attacked the booze of pre-prohibition bars with a hatchet. But this weekend, a new Carrie Nation will be visiting a Kansas bar.

Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy will be playing at 10:30 p.m. on this Friday at Beer:30.

“We always try to make the show as entertaining as possible,” said Jarrod Starling, lead singer and guitarist. “It isn’t music that is best played quietly, sit-down music. We try to bring something to the stage every time we play that is going to make you remember the music through your visual and aural memories of the night.”

The Wichita-based band has been around for about three years, but the latest incarnation has only been around for a year. The members are Zach Starling, washboard and snare; Tyler Grubb, mandolin and trombone; Matt Dreher, banjo; Brody Wellman, stand-up bass and Jarrod Starling.

“We all love what we’re doing and we’re obviously not getting rich off of it,” Starling said. “It’s just something that we love doing, we love bringing it to different people. It’s great to be able to bring a little bit of Wichita to the rest of Kansas and a little bit of Kansas to the rest of the country.”

Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy has been across the nation and, in October alone, they have tour dates set from Santa Cruz, Calif. to Osage, Ark., and several places inbetween. Although their instruments may make them seem like they are a bluegrass band, Starling referred to their music as “punk rock-circus-Americana.”

“We try to stay away from being too pigeonholed,” said Dreher, who is also an adjunct instructor of social anthropology at Wichita State. “Whether it’s the kind of music that we play or the themes or content of the music or individually, how we express ourselves, we try not to be boxed in to anything specific. We try to stay relevant to anyone, a little bit of something for people to latch on to.”

This is not their first time playing in Emporia, or even at Beer:30. They were introduced to the venue by bands they were opening for like The Deedles and Granny Tweed, but this is their first time headlining a show there.

“They put on a really good show,” said Josh Olsen, owner of Beer:30. “They get the crowd moving, they’re really energetic and they have upbeat music. It’s just a good show in general… what really caught my eye was when they covered a Wu Tang song in bluegrass.”

Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy will also be bringing a friend of theirs to open for them named Ryan Windham. Windham is a solo artist who plays several different instruments, including guitars, spoons and slide whistles, and records them onto a loop machine, creating layers upon layers of music live and by him.

“One track will be seven minutes long, but you won’t even notice that it started out with a little guitar part. Then there’s this big sound coming out at you at the end of it with 12 different tracks he’s recorded on stage live,” Starling said.

The band is releasing their first album, which is self-titled. They also have a MySpace page that can be found at www.myspace.com/carrienationband. The band also said that they are looking forward to the show and are excited to play at Beer:30 again because of all of the energetic people in the audience.

“We try to keep the energy high so there are always people having a good time, knocking things over, breaking stuff and spilling stuff, every time is its own slightly creepy affair,”Dreher said.

Alex Pedersen

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