Lawrence Magazine Winter 2010 by Sunflower Publishing

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winter 2010

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nathan pettengill

editor ....................................................................................................... “Beer belly” seems to have entered the category of a dirty phrase in our lexicon. It is the opposite of healthful living and suggests sloth and indolence—themes that any modern lifestyle-type publication would be wise to avoid. Yet there’s also something charming about a phrase so self-consciously at odds with the spirit of the times, especially when it is honored by a musician as admired as Billy Spears. To be a stickler for truth, I don’t think the belly of this 80-year-old musician, the front man and fiddle-playing patriarch for Billy Spears and the Beer Bellies, is large enough to qualify him as a member of his own group. But his approach to life is entirely beer-bellyesque—in every good sense. In this edition of Lawrence Magazine, we provide articles on quality local living and interviews with neighbors who are creating beauty around them. And in this holiday season—when Lawrence celebrates the original jolly, red-suited, round-bellied oldtimer’s crash landing on Weaver’s Department Store—it seems more than appropriate to consider Billy Spears’ Beer-Belly Guide to the Good Life in Lawrence, compiled by writer Cheryl Nelsen, whose full profile of Spears can be found on page 50. Whatever the size or content of your belly, we wish you the best of times in Lawrence this winter.

Billy Spears’ Beer-Belly Guide to the Good Life in Lawrence

…

01/

D o n ’ t g i v e u p y o u r d ay j o b . Musicians, like people in other competitive careers, want to be successful. But sometimes stable work is necessary to support your family. Billy interrupted his musical tours to work in food service at the Kansas Union until his four daughters were raised.

02/ 03/

E n j o y p l ay i n g y o u r m u s i c , w h e r e v e r a n d f o r w h o m e v e r . Billy’s daughter Carol Spears-Latham says her dad is just as thrilled playing in downtown Lawrence at a Brown Bag Lunch concert as he is playing in a filled auditorium or stadium. H av e m u s i c w h e r e v e r y o u g o . At Thanksgiving, Billy would travel with his family back to his hometown of Hartshorne, Oklahoma. Children from the various related families would sing at Spears gatherings, so Billy would have his daughters practicing songs in the car all the way to Oklahoma. Carol remembers going to the river with her sisters and dad to fish. When Billy wasn’t fishing, he was playing his fiddle while the girls built sand castles.

04/

I n c l u d e y o u r f a m i ly i n y o u r a c t i v i t i e s . All of Billy’s daughters sang or played instruments in bands. All his grandchildren have performed on stage with him or danced for him at one point during his concerts. Billy also has been known to babysit his two great-grandchildren.

05/ 06/ 07/ 08/ 09/ 10/

G o t o t h e pa r k . Billy says Lawrence parks have changed, but he has enjoyed them in several ways. When a baseball diamond was in South Park, he often went to watch his wife, Doris, play with her team. He also liked to fly a kite with his kids at a park near Hillcrest School. K e e p y o u r f i d d l e h a n d y; y o u m i g h t wa n t t o p l ay i t. Billy keeps his fiddle by his bed. If music is being played on the television, he sometimes plays along. Ta k e a d va n ta g e o f h e a r i n g L aw r e n c e m u s i c i a n s . Billy says a lot of good musicians are in Lawrence, and that he was lucky to be able to play with a few. A p p r e c i at e y o u r s p o u s e . Billy says Doris put up with a lot over the years. Often musicians traveling with him would stay in their home.

D o w h at f e e l s g o o d. “Everybody says I don’t do enough exercise. I don’t like doing it unless it feels good. I feel real comfortable sitting here or lying there. When I get up, I realize how stoved up I am,” Billy says. K e e p p l ay i n g l i k e U n c l e E a r l . Billy’s uncle Earl Spears was a big influence on him and his fiddle playing. “He’s 94, and he’s still playing pretty good,” Billy says.

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/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

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on the cover A dwarf Alberta spruce (courtesy of Sunrise

contents

Garden Center and decorated by Four and Twenty Blackbirds) makes for a festive, holiday tabletop tree.

54 / ‘ T h e Va l u e o f B e a u t y ’ In an art form

crowded with historical masterpieces, a young composer defines the purpose and sound of his contribution

living 08 / A R o m a n t i c Pa s t w i t h o u t E mb e l l is hme n t s

The lost Swedish windmill casts century-long shadows for the home of Karl Gridley

12 / A S t o rie d H o me

Heather Moore gives her residence an “older house feel” with plenty of color and personal lore

16 / T h e Hie b e r t Va ri at i o n A couple’s house highlights natural elements and encourages young musical talent

market 30 / Fa mily P o r t i o n s Two families from varied backgrounds work together to open a west Lawrence home-cooking deli

34 / B ik e r d u J o u r The

you cruise into the Slow Ride Roadhouse

wellness

38 / B e y o n d F r ui t c a k e

62 / C hi c k e n N e w- d l e Here are three variations

Stop the snickering. Fruitcakes, and their tasty variations, are versatile treats worth exploring this holiday season

identity 42 / G o in g U n n o t i c e d, H o p e f u l ly In a town filled with sport fanatics, a small group of officials is all about dispassionate neutrality

46 / A s p irin g t o t h e D r a g o n Tattoo artist Martin

Del Camino is on an endless quest to improve his skills and hone his craft

50 / B il ly B o y ! Lawrence’s ballad-singing, doublestopping, Cajun-shaking, highstepping musical legend swings his surgically replaced hip and brings down the house—at 80 years old

attire might be Harley leather, Red Hat social—or a mix of both, depending on what day

on a time-tested winter health dish

66 / S t r o n g G ir l s A mentoring program helps young students acquire confidence and health along with increased respect for themselves and others

70 / F r o m T h o m a s w i t h L o v e Mom, a sitcom chef and a legendary Lawrence kitchen taught Thomas Barletta to serve dishes like a personal love letter

community 76 / C o l l e c t i v e C r e at i o n s What happens when you give five art collectives five days to produce five creations based on one Lawrence-related theme? 80 / S e c r e t S p e n c e r The Spencer’s greatest secret is that it has none. The museum’s collection of stored, relatively unknown and undisplayed artwork is open to guests

journey 92 / A WEEK AT THE BEACH It’s OK. You can be a

true Kansan and still long for the beach. In fact, why not plan for a trip now based on your memories of salty air?

features

23 / O, Tin y T ree!

It’s all about the details and the loveliness of the branches for these tabletop versions of a holiday tradition

84 / T w e a king W ings

Three chefs provide their take on one of the top snack foods for sports fans

neighborhood letter .......................... 58 Q&A . .................................................. .. 90 calendar ............................................. 96

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/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

living story by

/ Mary R. Gage

photography by

A Romantic Facelift for the Pastfarm without Embellishments Artistic skill, clever ideas and a lot of hard work help renovate a family farmstead The lost Swedish windmill casts century-long shadows for the home of Karl Gridley Karl Gridleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 19th-century limestone home is the only surviving structure of what was once a thriving small Swedish community gathered around a windmill that dominated the horizon.

A ddr e s s .. .......................... Y e a r bu i lt ....................... N um b e r of b e dro om s . .. N um b e r of bat h ro om s .. N um b e r of f l o or s .......... st y l e of hou se . ..............

Lawrence Magazine

905 Michigan S t. 1871-1872 two one Two L imestone vernacular

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

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living

Gridley, a noted local historian, has collected artifacts, photographs and records documenting the history of his neighborhood as he preserves his home, the last architectural link to the past.

he typical passerby might not notice the old stone house almost hidden between apartment buildings and tall trees in the 900 block of Michigan Street, but to know the story of this house is to know an essential story of our town. Touch the stone walls and you will be touching the family of rock that Old World artisans used to build one of early Lawrence’s most majestic structures. More than a century ago, long before Lawrence’s recognizable skyline was defined by the twin flag towers of Fraser Hall and the march of square-block dormitory buildings across Daisy Hill, the horizon was dominated by the grand sweeping arms and onion-shape dome of the Lawrence windmill. It towered 64 feet above the crest of Ninth Street hill and was perhaps the iconic symbol of 19th century Lawrence. The windmill represented not just progress and growth to a town struggling to establish itself on the frontier, but it also symbolized hope and rebirth when it became one of the first structures to rise from the grim ashes left by the August 1863 rampage of Quantrill’s raiders. Though the raiders burned the structure in its early stages, the windmill was complete and open for business by 1864. The process was guided by the expertise of several skilled millwrights recruited from Sweden, and sped by access to native timber and a limestone quarry (at what is now Avalon Road). With a sweep of 68 feet from its four 34- by 6-feet arms, the latticework vanes with retractable

Lawrence Magazine

canvas sails captured the abundant prairie wind and powered a grain mill and machine shop. The dash of modern life has all but covered with apartments, roads and concrete the site where the old windmill and its related buildings stood. Almost. Down the hill apace, tucked among the superior air of 20th-century structures, stands a solid stone testament to the successful enterprise of those 19th-century entrepreneurs. The home at 905 Michigan St., completed in 1872, was one of several that housed workers at the Windmill Agricultural Works of Wilder and Palm. Fittingly, the compact stone house is the residence of a respected local historian. Karl Gridley, known for his work with the Douglas County Preservation Alliance and a scholarly John Brown brochure, is equally knowledgeable about the background of his house. He seems to effortlessly conjure the scene at the top of Ninth Street from almost a century and a half ago, when his home stood under the grand windmill that reigned over town.

Share with us the history of your house. Gridley: The windmill was in operation by late 1864. In the next five to six years a number of workers’ houses popped up around it so they could be close to where they worked, and this was one of those houses. There were probably half a dozen or so. As far as I know, this house was built by Olof Larson in 1871-1872. It was probably built from the same material as the windmill. The mill owner’s house was a big beautiful stone house directly

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

living

The home at 905 Michigan St., completed in 1872, was one of several that housed workers at the Windmill Agricultural Works of Wilder and Palm. behind the house I’m in now. It was really spectacular. It was torn down in the 1950s. The Borg family owned this house for many years up until the late ’70s. I would almost call it the Larson-Borg house. It’s been in my family since 1985.

Describe your house. Gridley: It’s basically just a little stone house with a wooden addition on the back. The walls are 18 inches thick, so that takes away a lot of the square footage. It’s very, very plain—one room downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. The addition on the back is where the kitchen and bathroom are. No embellishments or Victorian woodwork. It’s all very plain, the way I think a Swedish mill worker would like and be able to afford.

What is the house’s most unique feature? Gridley: I think the workmanship that went into making the outside walls. I guess it’s just nice to see the chisel marks that were made by original stonemasons and the nicely finished cornerstones. It’s not what I would call a sophisticated stone house like the Castle Tea Room; it’s a vernacular. They built it on the site without any plans or anything. That’s kind of what I like about it. It just has the honest workmanship from that time period.

What is your favorite area of the house? Gridley: I like that it faces east and the morning sunlight comes in. The old wavy glass windows cause the light to have a special quality in old houses. I am always sorry to see people tear out their old windows sometimes and replace them. I think that really affects how the light comes into a house.

What do you like most about the house? Gridley: The history. I’m a history buff. I grew up in Lawrence, and I’ve always been interested in the architecture and the stories of the town. The old windmill was kind of a romantic past, I guess. I think the town misses it. It was built in 1864 and burned down in 1905, and it was a great loss for the town. There were lots of newspaper stories about how the old mill was no longer on the horizon. It was the symbol of the city. It was kind of an example of the rebuilding of the town and the striving for better things. It’s nice to have a connection to that part of the history of Lawrence. m

winter 2010

/ Lawrence Magazine

living story by

/ Amber Brejcha Fraley

photography by

Facelift for the farm A Storied Home

Artistic skill, clever ideas and a lot of hard work help renovate a family farmstead Heather Moore gives her residence an ‘older house feel’ with plenty of color and personal lore

Tapping her imagination and the dedication of an undaunted contractor, Heather Moore has delightfully transformed her Pinckney home.

ix years ago, Heather Moore fell in love with a new spec house tucked into the quiet, shaded, often historic Pinckney neighborhood. Well … maybe “fell in love with” is a little strong. Let’s just say Heather fell in extreme “like” with the house, knowing the place had promise. So she and her family of four small dogs moved in and proceeded to make the place uniquely their own. Optimizing every square inch of space in the smallish house, Heather has transformed a formerly plain, modern home into a showplace. Working closely with friend and contractor Todd Foos of Foos Renovation, Heather says she has “changed every single surface in the house.” She started by upgrading all the trim and

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

/ jason dailey

living

doors “because I wanted an older house feel.” This include installing custom dog doors at the front and back of the house. Though she loves the trees that surround her home, Heather thought they made the interior too dark. So, with Todd’s help, Heather doubled the number of windows. Heather, a former cooking school student, simply had to give the old standby kitchen its notice. Heather had the whole thing ripped out, installing custom cabinets of her own design and stunning granite countertops that

She started by upgrading all the trim and doors “because I wanted an older house feel.” – Heather Moore

Heather’s home displays the works of many regional artists, including her father, the late Richard Moore. But in the kitchen, the central works of art could be considered her open spaces and updated appliances, such as this refrigerator, which Heather jokes she bought “for the price of a small used car.”

glitter with flecks of blue and green. And, she says, “I got my dream fridge—for the price of a small used car.” While redoing the kitchen, which is sandwiched between the living room and the dining room, Heather decided to make use of the fact that she’d had the kitchen plumbed for a gas range to install a small gas fireplace on the backside of the kitchen cabinetry in order to warm the living room. People told her this simply couldn’t be done, but Heather is not one who is easily dissuaded. She searched until she found the shallowest gas fireplace made. “I didn’t see why not. I looked at all the specs, and then Todd looked at it and said, ‘Yeah. We can do it.’” In fact, when others told her that her ideas weren’t executable, it was Todd who became her yes-man. “This light fixture was not meant

Lawrence Magazine

to go on a ceiling fan,” says Heather, pointing. “But I fell in love with it, and Todd said, ‘I think we can do it.’” “The most challenging thing about the house was that it was modern and everything worked,” says Todd. “It wasn’t like an old house where you can demolish everything and start again. But it was fun to work on a house that didn’t have termites and rot. I’d never done that much work on a house that new.” In addition to the custom cabinetry in the kitchen, Heather drew up the specs for custom built-ins in the study, the laundry room and both bathrooms. Open a closet and you’ll find that not only is everything is in its place, but each closet has its own décor—a painting, a piece of art, a special memory from a special place. There is chic lighting in unexpected places: in cabinets, closets and even the shower. While making changes to the house, Heather, who loves to travel and collect, began procuring special curios from each of her trips to China, India, Iceland, South Africa and Tunisia. “If I know someone, I go there,” she says. Heather has brought back such treasures as hand-painted Tunisian spice jars, a tile like those that make up the exterior of the Taj Mahal and

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

living

Heather’s baby grand piano, above, holds a place of honor in its own corner of the house. Each room in Heather’s home features works of art and a unique color tone and theme.

rugs from China. The rugs were chosen to complement handmade silk drapes for every room, executed by Jane Bateman The Interior Store. Heather even has a birdcage that she hand-carried from Tunisia to Paris and back to Kansas. “I didn’t think that out very well,” she admits. Heather loves art, and she loves Kansas, so many of the pieces in her home come from local artists and galleries. Her home is decorated with paintings by Kansas artists Terence Koehn, Heather Smith Jones and Justin Marable. Sprinkled throughout the house are several prints in the pointillism style by Heather’s late father, Richard Moore, of scenes from his hometown of Hiawatha. The breathtaking showpiece of her dining room is a jewel-tone, handmade blown glass and copper chandelier crafted by husband and wife artists Brice Turnbull and Tara Gale of Salida, Colorado. And though Heather’s house was once described by one of her friends as a “museum,” it’s still very much a home. “This is the wall of fame,” Heather proclaims proudly, showing off a collection of small portraits of each of the dogs she’s owned over the years, mostly beagles, commissioned from Kansas City artist Ashley Corbello. But what proper home is complete without a grand piano? A baby grand, that is, that’s tucked away in its own bedroomturned-mini-conservatory, where the light fixture shades inspired calming, lavender walls. When most of the remodeling had finished, word about Heather’s house got around to an indie film crew, and part of the 2008 movie Suspension was filmed there as the main character’s home. Every change that she’s made, every handpicked fixture and beautiful new object that Heather has brought into her home has been done with the utmost thought and care. “Everything in my house,” she says, “has a story.” m

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/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

living story by

/ Katherine Dinsdale

photography by

The Hiebert Variation Facelift for the farm

A couple’s house highlights natural elements and encourages young musical talent Artistic skill, clever ideas and a lot of hard work help renovate family farmstead t is thea house that changed their lives, Gunda Hiebert says. By

The structure of the Hieberts’ home is built around a central interior courtyard while the spirit of their home seems founded on their mutual interests of travel, art and music.

design, it is full of peace, beautifully set with the three essentials of Japanese architecture: wood, water and stone. A glorious black Steinway grand sits center stage. It regularly fills the home with color and drama, invoked largely by University of Kansas music students performing in more than 570 home concerts. Each pianist signs the Hieberts’ guest book. The list of their home countries—India, Bulgaria and Mauritius among them—reads like a world atlas. The design of the Hieberts’ modestly sized campus-region home accentuates the music in a rather magical convergence of good bones, good light and beautiful wood, an ambiance that underscores what this couple are all about—enjoying amazing music and encouraging amazing young musicians. Early on, life wasn’t so exotic. The Hieberts met more than 35 years ago in the business office of Meadowbrook Apartments.

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

/ jason dailey

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living

Gunda Hiebert, above left, frequently opens the doors of her home to host music concerts. In the winter, the Hieberts’ garden and pond are covered by snow and the outdoor sculptures and fixtures became the focal point against the white background.

Gunda was a rather wary divorced mom from Pocatello, Idaho, working a clerical job because she couldn’t find work teaching in her chosen field of French. Dave, also divorced, was a sports-crazed radiologist with an electric blue 1974 Eldorado convertible. Finally, Gunda consented to a date. “Sparks flew,” Gunda says. The two married in 1978. As Gunda and Dave blended households, they learned from one another: she, the KU fight song and all about sports; he, an introduction to the arts. They both loved travel and quickly realized that Dave’s required continuing education credits could be earned in places like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati or acquired in Singapore or China or Burma or Bali. The two chose globe-trotting and often brought home art and furniture. Years later they were dreaming of “a more interesting house” for their growing collection, and Gunda found herself touring a home on University Drive. After taking just a few steps through the threshold, she knew what she needed to know. The art would fit. The furniture would fit. And the living room, a long rectangle with a typical Japanese lighted niche at one end, looked just right for home concerts. “The house was telling me very clearly,” Gunda recalls, ‘Buy me. Move in.’ And so they did. The Hieberts became the third owners of the house built by Gene Fritzel in 1965. A dry streambed begins on the front porch with a stone threshold. The water mosaic continues through the front hall where inlaid walnut rounds provide a path through the

Lawrence Magazine

foyer to the home’s backyard, where the dry stream becomes live and fills the large pond. The house is wrapped around that garden and pond. “If you walk through the house and look north, toward the street, you are connected to the outside world. If you look south, to the pond, you are in your own world,” Gunda says. Three sides of the house wrap around the garden and pond with banks of floor-to-ceiling windows bringing in the calming view. Every room on the main floor can be seen from anywhere else in the house, a transparency that presents some tricky privacy issues, Dave says, when the couple have guests. The Hieberts did significant remodeling when they took possession of the house in 1996, tapping Jay Patterson to lead the renovation team. Architect Mark Russell and interior designer Jeannie Fletcher brought together a long list of artisans to work on the garden and interior. Kent Smalter of Kaw Specialties updated the old rice shoji screens to preserve them and ensure they would be able to fulfill their original purpose of sliding into place across the windows lining the back of the house. Granite tailings were used to repair the original lava grotto and fountain that run down the wall above the soaking tub in the main bathroom. Inlaid stones form the countertop and floor of that room. Down the stone path and through a bamboo gate in the back garden is the newest addition to the property: a two-walled Japanese tea house designed by Keith Middlemas. “I go there four or five times a day to sit and listen to the chimes and just feel the garden,” Gunda says.

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

The Hieberts’ home highlights natural elements such as wood, stone and sunlight throughout the guest and living rooms. The master bathroom shows off raw elements such as inlaid stones and a lava grotto while preserving an atmosphere of comfort and calm.

But perhaps the heart of the home remains the Hieberts’ piano, purchased soon after their move. They asked Jack Winerock, KU professor of piano, for help choosing the instrument, which is the third piano they have owned. Their previous piano, a serviceable Belarusian upright, was purchased on the advice of a particularly gifted Russian student who had taken one look at the couple’s original piano and politely refused to play it. During a recent home concert, a crowd of approximately 25 guests sat spellbound as Nicholas Susi performed the concert he had prepared for a Fulbright competition. Just before the concert’s last piece, a selection of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, two cocker spaniels made their entrance. One of the dogs circled a bamboo palm table, nose-nudged the pianist a friendly “hello,” jumped up on the couch into the lap of a college-age concertgoer and planted a sloppy kiss on her face before making a quick exit. The scene was a perfect reminder that although the Hieberts’ home is singularly beautiful and filled with the sounds of extremely talented young musicians, there’s nothing stilted or stuffy going on. Add to the list of wood, water, stone and music one more essential component: fun. m

winter 2010

/ Lawrence Magazine

O, Tiny Tree! It’s all about the details and the loveliness of the branches for these tabletop versions of a holiday tradition Story by Lauren Beatty Photography by Jason Dailey

hen it comes to holiday décor, more is usually more. Twinkle lights wound around every banister and windowsill, wreaths tacked onto anything standing still, gifts piled to the ceiling and garland stretched as far as the eye can see—all these make for a fun and festive atmosphere. But there’s something to be said for going small, even when it comes to the main event: the Christmas tree. Enter the tabletop tree. Sure, they’re small, but these little guys can be just as fun to decorate as their full-size cousins are. Plus, they leave more room in the budget for presents (the kids will be thrilled) and provide a more natural complement to smaller rooms that would be crowded by a ceiling-scraping conifer. So how you do handle tabletop trees? Heidi Coleman of Heidi Elaine Interiors offers a few tips: • Choose a simple theme and stick to one or two colors. • Always add lights (“I love a little sparkle,” she says). • Group trees of varying heights for visual interest. As for where to place tabletop trees, Coleman says the possibilities extend beyond the obvious. Stage a group in front of the fireplace or display some small trees on cake stands in the kitchen. “You can even put them in the bathroom,” she says in all seriousness. There are more options for those feeling extra creative. “Use just the branches. Put them in a cool glass vase with marbles or glass bulbs at the bottom,” Coleman suggests. Or make your own tabletop tree using Styrofoam cones covered with fabric or ribbon. They are easy and beautiful with no pine needles to vacuum later. Lawrence Magazine asked two businesses and one artist to decorate some tabletop trees to serve as inspirations for our readers. Here are their takes on these tiny topiaries.

FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS

ora Kaschube and Mandy Lamb of Four and Twenty Blackbirds wanted to create a formal and elegant tabletop tree in tones of white, bronze and gold. “We decided to go for elegance,” says Kaschube. The bakers’ sophisticated tree is dotted with snowflake-shape sugar cookies covered in white fondant and luster dust. The cookies also are studded with gold and silver dragées. Kaschube and Lamb—known for their wedding cakes, cupcakes, tarts and other delectable French pastries—also created flowers and leaves out of gum paste and strung them around the tree with gold wire. Two large snowflake cookies act as toppers while the bottom is wrapped in shiny gold fabric. “We just wanted to do something a little different,” says Kaschube.

BITTERSWEET FLORAL AND DESIGN

his is not your typical Christmas tree, according to Heidi Yoder, shop manager at Bittersweet Floral and Design. Gone are the typical green and red bulbs and plaid ribbon. Instead, Yoder chose a blue and orange palette for her tree. It’s sweet and simple—and just a little bit sassy. “Our inspiration for this tree came from our surroundings,” Yoder explains. Bittersweet Floral and Design creates arrangements for weddings and parties but also designs for large-scale corporate events. “We just kind of let our creativity fly.” Yoder paid homage to her store by incorporating the bittersweet berry itself. They swirl and swoop around the tree, along with green floral paper and round balls that look like bird nests. Yoder also stuck a few peacock feathers in the tree for an extra touch of whimsy.

MARSENE FELDT

rtist Marsene Feldt used her tabletop tree as the background for a funky collection of dragonflies and butterflies, all made of folded candy wrappers. Feldt has been creating these origami creatures for a few years now. “It took me about six months to come up with the initial dragonfly design,” says Feldt. “I was so inspired by the beautiful papers that candy manufacturers are using. They’re so well-designed.” For some of the dragonflies on the tabletop tree, Feldt used iridescent, metallic gum wrappers in multiple colors. For others, she used retro casings, like Chick-OStick and Bit-O-Honey. The butterflies are fashioned from Chocolove wrappers. Feldt also surrounded the tree in a gauzy, snowflake-patterned garland. Glitter and ribbon “add a little punch,” Feldt says. m

Dwarf Alberta spruce trees courtesy of Sunrise Garden Center

market story by

/ Kate Blatherwick Pickert

Family Portions Two families from varied backgrounds work together to open a west Lawrence home-cooking deli

C Joe and Crystal Voth, top, recently switched their focus from mortgages to homemade sandwiches, below, after opening their west Lawrence deli based on Amish recipes and traditional foods.

rystal Voth is busy these days making homemade cinnamon rolls and fresh sandwiches. But if one year ago you had told her that she would be running a deli, she would not have believed it. Until recently, Crystal and her husband, Joe, had been in the mortgage business. But then that sector turned sour and they decided to sell. “I never dreamed what would happen in our government, and that I would be out of business and out of a job,” says Crystal. The transition from the world of lending to running a deli began in Oskaloosa, where the Voths frequented Mast Bakery and Deli. They would make a point to eat at this Amish Mennonite-run business when they were in town showing potential buyers some land they owned in the area. “We just fell in love with what they were doing,” says Crystal. The Voths loved the deli so much they talked with owners Jon and Sarah Mast about opening a store in the west Lawrence strip mall where the Voths’ mortgage company operated. Sarah says her family seriously considered the Voths’ offer but thought another deli might take them too far from their school and church in Oskaloosa. When the Masts declined, the Voths were still sold on the idea of a deli and decided to move forward and open Auntie Em’s Deli at 2311 Wakarusa Drive.

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

photography by

/ jason dailey

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Auntie Em’s Deli 2311 Wakarusa Drive (785) 832-1333

www.auntieemsdeli.com 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday

Cinnamon rolls in generous sizes, top, are some of the most popular treats at Auntie Em’s. The deli has table space, middle, for a few diners but also focuses on catering and pickup orders for homemade meals or packaged and canned goods, below, prepared with traditional recipes.

Fortunately, the Masts were willing to assist. The Amish Mennonite family took the Voths into the kitchen for cooking lessons, even allowing Crystal to copy their recipes. The deli owners did so much for them that the Voths really struggled with what would be an appropriate thank-you gift, later deciding on a generous donation to the new Amish Mennonite church and school to show their appreciation. Troyer, a company out of Ohio that sells Amish goods, also helped the Voths make the transition from mortgages to Amish-style cooking. The Voths flew to the company headquarters Ohio to check it all out. “I wanted to make sure what I was selling was authentic,” explains Crystal while grabbing a jar off the shelf and running her fingers over the label of fresh ingredients. Crystal says today’s diet is filled with too many preservatives and she wants to help people get back to the basics. She says, “That’s exciting to me. I think we need to get back to that.” The idea of getting back to basics is a common theme to the new venture, which the Voths named after the caring, salt-of-the-earth character in The Wizard of Oz. Crystal loves the idea of operating the shop around the corner where everyone knows each other. “Though I might not always know your name, I’ll know your face,” she laughs, “But I’m getting pretty good with names.” She says some of her favorite moments are watching the neighborhood kids come in and enjoy lunch and have a welcoming place to go. “It’s cute; they are now bringing back their parents to eat.” Response to their new career path has been positive. Crystal says people have been supportive of their venture, which is truly a family affair. Their son T.J., daughter Errin and 2-year-old grandson Tucker also have helped get the business off the ground. Crystal says Tucker is quite

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

market

Experience

“The most rewarding thing is that we are here and we are running it as a family. Maybe we put a little extra love into it.” – Crystal Voth

ThE FrEEdom oF WEll BEing reclaim Your health • Back pain

the salesman and will walk around the store pointing at different items saying, “This is good. This is good.” The homey decor with checkered tablecloths, wooden tables and chairs, and mural-style wallpaper depicting a relaxing landscape also lends to that shop-around-the-corner feel. “I didn’t want a bland look,” says Crystal. “I wanted it to be somewhere you wanted to come and relax and have lunch or dinner.” The made-to-order sandwiches—made with bread that is baked daily—are the most popular item on the menu. “Everything is fresh,” Crystal stresses. “Our goal is to keep everything as fresh as possible.” The deli also sells meat and cheese by the pound. Or if it’s just a slice you crave, they can accommodate your order just like a good oldfashioned deli. The menu also includes soups and salads and, on Saturdays, made-from-scratch biscuits and gravy. And while customers wait for their orders, they can shop the mini-country store. The shelves are full of packages of noodles, gravy mixes, candy, veggie snacks, jar goods, jerky and cookbooks. There is even a book on Amish home remedies. Local products on the shelves include Alma cheese, Iwig Family Dairy near Topeka, Hometown Granola Shop of Oskaloosa, Goddard goat cheese from Lawrence, honey from Bee-Rated in Big Springs and fresh bread from the Oskaloosa deli that started it all. As the business moves forward, Crystal says she would like to see Auntie Em’s become an outlet for more regional products. People looking to pack a sack lunch can turn to Auntie Em’s to fill the order. Crystal hopes in the near future to do a complete mealon-the-go for busy families. She says that kind of service would help free time so people can spend it with their families, while helping them provide a meal that isn’t packed with preservatives. Looking for a meal with back-to-the-basics ingredients can often come at a price, and Crystal knows too well that the recent economic climate has forced customers to seek value more than ever. “I try to find the right price so everybody wins. I don’t want to compromise quality,” Crystal says. And that’s including the secret ingredient that Crystal says is in all of her food: a family’s love. “The most rewarding thing is that we are here and we are running it as a family,” she says, smiling. “Maybe we put a little extra love into it.” m

winter 2010

/ Lawrence Magazine

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market story by

/ Cheryl Nelsen

Biker du Jour The attire might be Harley leather, Red Hat social—or a mix of both, depending on what day you cruise into the Slow Ride Roadhouse

T You can walk or drive your car to the Slow Ride Roadhouse, but riding a Harley into the parking lot is the traditional way to mark your arrival at the North Lawrence diner that has strong roots with local biker communities.

he tables are full at Slow Ride Roadhouse, and music and people’s voices meld from the patio. The cedar board and batten building with the green roof looks more like a country inn than a biker bar, but what about all those motorcycles filling the parking lot at 1350 N. Third St.? Slow Ride manager Jesse Del Campo says his business is biker-friendly but not a biker bar. “We had a lot of people calling us who were kind of afraid. You don’t have to be a biker. We get a lot of business from people who aren’t bikers,” Jesse says. The bikers are definitely there, often to participate in rides, some for fun and others as memorial rides or for charities. But the full-menu restaurant also has plenty of patrons who get there on foot or by car, including a bridge group that drops in once a month and women from a local branch of the Red Hat Society. Although Jesse never knows for sure which day the bridge group might show up, he sets up tables for the card players and wheels over extracomfortable, stuffed chairs for the ladies to use. The Red Hat Society members with their red and purple attire stand out against the Slow Ride décor. The interior has a running theme of black and orange Harley colors while Sturgis bike rally banners hang over three pool tables and a large poster shows a street lined with motorcycles. The

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

photography by

/ Jason Dailey

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Slow Ride Roadhouse 1350 N. Third St. (785) 749-2727

www.slowrideroadhouse.com 11 a.m.-2 a.m. monday-friday 8 a.m.-2 a.m. saturday-Sunday

“We’ll have people in their 60s and 70s out there dancing.” – Amy Tackkett

low bar separating the dance floor from the game area of the restaurant sports a sign: “Dance on bar at your own risk.” Some do dance there, but mainly on weekends when the bar becomes limited to those over 21. Assistant manager Amy Tackkett says even then, the ages vary and the customers at Slow Ride differ depending on the day of the week and the time of day.

Saturday and Sunday mornings Motorcyclists crowd into Slow Ride at these times while the menu pays tribute to the weekend morning regulars. They dine on the Open Road Omelet, Panhead Pancakes or the traditional American-style breakfasts of eggs, omelets and pancakes listed as The Biker Breakfast.

Sunday afternoons A mixed crowd of bikers and non-bikers come to socialize on the L-shape patio. Amy says one couple bring their children in every Sunday to sit on the patio, eat 99-cent tacos and enjoy music by live bands that begin playing at 3 p.m. Regular faces at Slow Ride include manager Jesse Del Campo, above, and assistant manager Amy Tackkett, below.

Monday evenings Slow Ride lives up to at least part of its name—the slow part. Your favorite high-top table and stools are probably available now because typically there are few patrons on Monday nights. But one of the regulars at this time is

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

market

Dale Sanders, 67. He rides a Harley, but when it’s mealtime, he prefers a seat at the bar where he can enjoy his food and converse with Amy or whoever else might come through the door. Retired and living in North Lawrence, Dale says he comes to Slow Ride at least once a day. “I’ve heard people say, ‘Biker bar. Well, isn’t that kind of a tough place?’ Well, no, it’s not. Most of the bikers I have ever met in here are really friendly,” Dale says.

Tuesday evenings Musicians and wannabe performers arrive for open jam night on the patio from 6 to 10 when the weather permits with host Lonnie Ray and his wife, Debbie.

Arnie Johnson and the Midnight Special draw senior customers to the dance floor when they perform their old-time country music. “We’ll have people in their 60s and 70s out there dancing,” Amy says. No matter what day of the week they come or what they rode in on, customers receive a warm welcome at Slow Ride, Jesse says. “Everybody’s down to earth. They’re all friendly, and I treat them equally. It’s good to see them here,” he says. m

Wednesday and Thursday evenings These nights attract a regular mix of crowds, with predominantly more diners without motorcycles on Thursdays when the steak dinner special draws in repeat customers and the bikers move on down the highway. “There’s so many bike nights going on other places, like Kansas City or Topeka. We don’t try to compete with that,” Jesse says.

Though Slow Ride is a biker-friendly restaurant and bar, the customers that fill the barstools, booths and dance floor include retirees, students, families and a core of local regulars.

Friday and Saturday nights Customers will find a different Slow Ride after 9 p.m. on weekends. The atmosphere changes as live bands take the stage and IDs are checked at the door. Bands such as Billy Ebeling and The Late for Dinner Band and Shawn Ward and Straight Shot are repeat performers.

sunflowerpub.com

/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

market story by

/ Paula Naughtin

Beyond Fruitcake Stop the snickering. Fruitcakes, and their tasty variations, are versatile treats worth exploring this holiday season

here will be absolutely no fruitcake bashing here—no tales of passing a sole cake through generations of family members or using one for a doorstop. Because truly fabulous, delicious fruitcakes are out there, fragrant with spice and moist with fruit. And there are even more delights in store when you begin sampling the many variations of holiday breads and cakes that are available close at hand. Let’s explore some of the cakes, listing them by the ratio of flour to fruit.

Pam’s panforte

Fruitcake variations such as Pam Carvalho’s panforte, above, and the cherry-walnutbourbon cake, below, might help restore in your mind the reputation of the greatly (and mostly unfairly) maligned holiday dessert.

Let’s start, then, with the version that contains the most fruit: the delectable panforte. It’s a combination of dried fruit, nuts, spices, honey and sugar with just a smidge of flour. Locally you can find a stellar example of panforte by purchasing one of Pam Carvalho’s sold the second Saturday in December (this year the 11th) at the Holiday Farmers’ Market. Carvalho started baking her panforte after her son brought one home from Italy and she decided to replicate it. She begins by cooking honey and sugar, then adds citron, cranberries, hazelnuts, almonds and cocoa. Her spices include black pepper, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. The result is a dense, gently spiced, chewy delight that is lovely with a glass of wine or cup of tea.

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

photography by

/ jason dailey

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market Carvalho says panforte is the “original PowerBar” and has been baked since at least the 1600s in Siena, Italy. Pilgrims carried it with them on their travels, and many families had their own special recipe.

Versatile stollen

More flour comes into the recipe with stollen, a traditional German holiday bread that originated in Dresden. It is a sweet bread, but not overly so, as the yeast helps cut the sweetness. Locally produced examples can be found at WheatFields Bakery and Cafe and Great Harvest Bread Company. Bob Garrett, the owner of Great Harvest, notes, “All European cuisines have some version of a holiday bread that symbolizes abundance and fruitfulness and our gratitude for them. The Russians have kulich, the Italians have panettone, the Germans have stollen and so on.” Like fruitcake, stollen is traditionally made with candied fruits. “We love using fresh and dried fruits. The taste of fresh lemons and oranges is so light and uplifting. And hazelnuts and walnuts are the perfect nuts for this special treat,” Garrett says. “Stollen can have a variety of treatments or toppings. Sometimes it has a rum glaze, sometimes it’s dipped in powdered sugar. Ours has a light lemon confectioner’s glaze.” You can find stollen at Great Harvest from the Saturday after Thanksgiving until New Year’s Eve.

Paisley’s povitica

Next on our list is povitica. Keep the yeast and flour, swirl nuts and perhaps fruit through the dough, and you have this delight. But like fruitcake, panforte and stollen, versions of this bread have been baked for centuries. “There’s lot of different styles—Croatian, German … every culture has its own version,” says Megan Paisley, who bakes povitica for the Holiday Farmers’ Market. Paisley is a fixture on Saturdays at the Downtown Lawrence Farmers’ Market with her sourdough and whole wheat breads, cinnamon rolls and other delicious treats. She says the key to her povitica is the fresh pecans in the filling. Last year was the first that she baked it in quantities for sale; before that she baked it for her family. Her daughters, Josie, 10 and Julia, 6, “just adore it when I use leftovers for French toast in the morning.” Paisley’s povitica will be available for a few weeks at the regular Saturday Farmers’ Market and then at the Holiday Farmers’ Market. m

Lawrence Magazine

Cherry-Walnut-Bourbon Cake 1½ cup dried tart cherries ⅓ cup bourbon 1½ cups finely chopped walnuts 1¼ cups flour ½ teaspoon baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon cinnamon ¼ teaspoon cardamom (or to taste) ¾ cup butter ¾ cup sugar 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 tablespoon orange zest

1 Combine bourbon and cherries in a bowl and soak for at least 4 hours or overnight at room temperature. Strain cherries, reserving any bourbon. Add enough bourbon to equal ⅓ cup. Put walnuts in a small bowl and cover with ⅓ cup bourbon. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. 2 Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cardamom in a small bowl. Set aside. 3 Cream butter and sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg, until thick and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and orange zest. Gradually add flour mixture, beating just until combined. Stir in cherries and walnut-bourbon mixture. 4 Turn batter into a buttered and floured loaf pan (you can also use mini loaf pans or small molds). Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes (30 minutes for mini-loaves). Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into middle of cake; it if comes out clean, the cake is done. 5 Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes. Unmold and cool completely. Can be served immediately or preserved for approximately three weeks. If preserving, as the cake cools, soak in bourbon a piece of cheesecloth large enough to wrap the cake several times. Swathe your cake in the bourbonsoaked cloth. Wrap cake in foil and put it in a tightly closed container. You can add bourbon to cheesecloth if it dries out before serving. — Recipe copyright and courtesy of Paula Naughtin.

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

identity story by

/ Doug Vance

photography by

Going Unnoticed, Hopefully In a town filled with sport fanatics, a small group of officials is all about dispassionate neutrality

J.D. Cleavinger tosses the football before officiating at a South Junior High football game.

f you’ve attended a local athletic competition during the past 25-plus years, there’s a good chance you’ve observed the skills of W. Max Lucas, J.D. Cleavinger, Frank Smysor, Lary Trowbridge or Jim LaPoint.

Lawrence Magazine

Conversely, it’s doubtful you recognize their names or their claims to fame. “No one knows who we are, and that’s how it should be,” observes Lucas. “If we can finish a game and not be noticed, that means we’ve probably done a good job.” These men are five of the approximately 75 certified sports officials who reside in Lawrence, not including those who work in amateur youth league competitions. The tools of their trade involve a whistle, good judgment, a deep understanding of several sports rulebooks and keen eyesight. Their years of work have

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

/ jason dailey

earned them high marks in a profession constantly scrutinized by large audiences of the informed and uninformed. “Most of the time, the abuse is not bad. But I have had coins, bottles and cans thrown my direction while officiating, and people have tried to spit on me. One time, I was hit with a frozen orange,” says Cleavinger. What’s in it for the muchmaligned officials? These five officials, who have a combined 160year career judging nearly 20,000 athletic events, say they enjoy the games, the contact with youths and the pride they can take in their job.

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identity

“No one knows who we are, and that’s how it should be.”

– W. Max Lucas

Lary Trowbridge

Years Officiating – 38 Estimated Events Worked – 12,000

Lary Trowbridge, above left, signals from a basketball court while Frank Smysor, above right, makes a call on the football field. These two officials have called games for a combined 73 years.

Trowbridge, who owns Midwest Exterminators in Lawrence, started his lengthy officiating career while attending college in Oklahoma and continued calling games after he moved to Lawrence and worked five years as the equipment manager for the University of Kansas athletic department. He’s a certified high school official who has worked baseball, softball, boys’ and girls’ basketball and volleyball events. “The most difficult part often is rules interpretation,” says Trowbridge. In addition, Trowbridge makes officiating assignments as the commissioner of two area high school leagues. He also assigns the crew for Bishop Seabury Academy and four local junior high and middle school games. “It’s a job that’s all about judgment,” says Trowbridge. “I’ve walked off the court and had it suggested that I missed one or two calls. That’s not a bad percentage when you consider I had in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 calls to make during a normal game.”

J.D. Cleavinger

Years Officiating – 43 Estimated Events Worked – 3,300 Cleavinger, a former junior high football coach and a current real estate appraiser, drifted into officiating to supplement his income. “I

Lawrence Magazine

had just purchased a home and my salary as a teacher was not paying all the bills,” recalls Cleavinger. At the invitation of local sports icons Tony and Al Ice, Cleavinger started working youth basketball leagues. He has since been a part of several Big Eight Conference football crews, working a handful of KU football games. “I didn’t like calling the KU games because it put me in a difficult position with friends in Lawrence,” Cleavinger says. “I once had to make a call that was a difference-maker between a win and a defeat, and the call went against KU. I made the call, because it was the correct call, but didn’t enjoy doing it.”

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

Frank Smysor

Years Officiating – 35 Estimated Events Worked – 2,000 Smysor debuted as a sports official at the age of 15, when his neighbor and youth league coach, Bob Floyd, asked him to serve on a crew calling the first season of the Lawrence Youth Football league. “I didn’t have a flag to use that first Sunday afternoon game, so right after church my mom made one for me out of red velvet material,” laughs Smysor. Smysor followed in the footsteps of his dad, who had been a longtime football official in Kingman. But his formal entry came when he went to work in 1970 as a music teacher in Marysville and was, more or less, pushed into the world of officiating. “The school board president was an official and told me, tongue in cheek, if I wanted him to sign my check that I was going to join his officiating crew.” Like his father many years ago, Smysor is passing down the tradition of calling games to his son. “I’m working with my youngest son, Matt, this year officiating high school games.”

identity

W. Max Lucas

Years Officiating – 25 Estimated Events Worked – 400

Jim LaPoint

Years Officiating – 25 Estimated Events Worked – 2,000 LaPoint, a professor in the KU department of health, sport and exercise sciences, joined the officiating ranks somewhat late in life. He was recruited from the sidelines as he watched one of his sons play in a youth league. “I had taught some soccer classes, but I really hadn’t been exposed to a great deal of soccer competition,” says LaPoint.

Jim LaPoint, above, is recognized as one of the state’s leading soccer officials. That’s the type of recognition—unlike the recognition on the field—that pleases local officials. When they are working the game, such as this football match called by Cleavinger, above right, the veteran judges prefer respect and to go mostly unnoticed.

He enjoyed the experience, eventually got certified, started working high school events and then branched into officiating football games throughout the state. LaPoint is recognized as one of the outstanding high school officials in Kansas. He’s worked 17 state championships for both boys’ and girls’ high school soccer and has been selected three times by the state coaches and athletic directors as Soccer Referee of the Year. “I once had a fan tell me after a game that the ‘problem with you is that you don’t care’ who wins,” says LaPoint. “He was right. I don’t ever care who wins, and that’s the way it should be.”

sunflowerpub.com

For Lucas, it began with his criticism of high school officials during a church social event. “I was talking more than I should,” recalls Lucas. “There happened to be a fellow who worked as an official within earshot of my comments. He walked over and said, ‘Hey, you are a smart guy. Why don’t you find out what you are talking about?’” Lucas accepted the invitation and began a lengthy and successful career working high school and major college events. Lucas, who worked as the KU dean of architecture and served a stint in the chancellor’s office, retired from officiating in 1991 after 25 years as an official, including the last 16 in NCAA Division IA in the Missouri Valley Conference and Big Eight Conference. “One thing a lot of people don’t realize, however, is that we don’t watch the whole field when we work,” Lucas says. “We’re not out there to enjoy the game. We work as one of several officials and we each watch the players in our one assigned area, but we don’t watch the entire game.” m

/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

identity story by

/ Amber Brejcha Fraley

Aspiring to the Dragon Tattoo artist Martin Del Camino is on an endless quest to improve his skills and hone his craft

Martin Del Camino has developed his Japaneseinspired tattoo artwork through a long personal journey from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles to Lawrence.

n the world of tattooing, Martin Del Camino, owner of Ichiban Tattoo Studio, has traveled many physical and metaphorical miles. He’s changed countries, learned a few languages and gone from an amateur artist to a skilled artisan, from apprentice to teacher and back to apprentice again.

Lawrence Magazine

photography by

Martin grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he dabbled in art and engineering as a kid. In 1995, at the behest of a cousin, he moved to Los Angeles to work at making custom bicycle parts. But after a year or so, the market was overtaken by large corporations that figured out how to massproduce a custom look for far less money. So Martin fell back on tattooing, which he’d learned back in Buenos Aires, first from Pablo Rodriguez, more popularly known in the tattoo world as “Chino,” and then Claudio Momenti of Lucky Seven Tattoo Studio. “Claudio was a real mentor to me,” says Martin. “He learned in Brazil and then went to Europe and California and

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

/ Jason Dailey

worked with famous tattoo artists from all around the world.” Martin started freelancing in various tattoo shops around L.A., finally setting up a permanent workspace at Nathan’s Tattoos and Piercing in the San Fernando Valley. At the time, Martin was trained in the traditional style of tattooing. In the mid-1990s this style came to be known as “color bomb,” which had the look of traditional blackand-white Americana style tattoos updated with lots of color. Then a friend who needed a touch-up for his Japanese-style tattoo came to him. He wanted Martin to do the work right then and there, but Martin refused, saying, “Let me research. I don’t know much about Japanese style.”

identity

Soon after moving to Lawrence, Martin opened Ichiban, which means “number one” in Japanese.

Though he is primarily a tattoo artist, Martin’s traditional designs and drawings, such as these above, are based on historic art forms that have been passed from teachers to apprentices for centuries. Martin, above right, wears tattoos, but his body is not extensively covered and he recommends that tattoos be carefully selected and the artwork be individually selected to match the body and spirit of the bearer.

What he learned blew his mind. “I started looking at those (Japanese tattoo) books and I said ‘Wow!’ It was like fine arts in skin.” Martin began meeting with Japanese tattoo artists but soon determined they were more willing to share their secrets when he learned a little about Japanese language and culture. “It made it easier to communicate with them and learn their styles,” he says. Martin also realized that many tattoo artists who claim to work in the Japanese style often learn their craft simply from looking at other tattoos. “It’s like a copy of a copy of a copy, and after awhile, it starts to look weird,” says Martin. He made it his mission to study the real thing, delving into the studies of Japanese art, mythology, calligraphy and even more about the language. He also met and married a girl whose parents had been in the Air Force; she was born in Japan but had lived for a few years in Lawrence. “We came to visit Lawrence, and at some point we decided we wanted to move from L.A,” says Martin. “We visited several towns, but for some reason, I really liked Lawrence.” Soon after moving to Lawrence, Martin opened Ichiban, which means “number one” in Japanese. Having several years and lots of experience tattooing in the Japanese style under his belt has made his craft a little simpler, though never easy. “I used to make appointments for up to a month in advance to research ahead of time,” says Martin. “Now I just look at the body, and the

Lawrence Magazine

body tells me how to do it.” At first, Martin and his wife ran both of their businesses from the Ichiban location—a combination tatt o o -p a r lor- s l a s hrea l-estate-of f ice. But the couple have since divorced, and Martin has forged ahead with both his formal art, which includes watercolor and ink drawings, and the tattoo business, where he has become teacher to a young man named Long Chau. In the longstanding tradition of tattoo, when Long moves on to his own shop, Martin will take on another apprentice. Ichiban also hosts four or so art shows a year, and the art is almost always tattoo-relat-

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

ed, such as paintings and drawings by tattoo artists or photographs of tattooed people. And Martin continues his pursuit of knowledge of everything tattoo and Japanese through a combination of formal classes, books and the help of many friends. Martin still keeps close ties to California, where most of the tattoo conventions and seminars take place. Because he travels there so often, he’s been able to keep in touch with friend and mentor, artist Muramasa Kudo, who has taken Martin under his wing as a sort of long-distance, unofficial apprentice. He is teaching Martin Japanese calligraphy, as well as the subtleties of using a calligraphy brush for left-handers like Martin. Of course, Martin has a few tattoos himself, one of which is a Japanese koi fish with a dragon’s head that he designed. The reason for the head of the dragon on the koi, Martin explains, is metaphorical. “Some believe the dragon is the last reincarnation. When you become a dragon, it means that you become a master—the best at what you do. People say the dragon means knowledge, too. … You are aspiring to become the dragon.” m

identity

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Martin Del Camino’s advice to those considering getting a tattoo

15th-aNNIVersarY hoLIDaY CoNCerT

01/ 02/

Really think about getting a tattoo. Don’t do it on impulse. “I have people who drive three hours to see me after watching an episode of Miami Ink,” Martin says, laughing. “It’s crazy.”

saTUrDaY, DeC. 11 – 7:30 p.m.

Do at least a little research on the shop you’re considering. Talk with friends who’ve had work done there. Certain shops are better at executing certain styles than others. Martin says he will recommend another shop if a customer asks for a style of tattoo he doesn’t have experience executing.

Black Violin CLassICaL mUsIC, remIxeD

03/

Look for current government licenses and paperwork on the shop’s wall (in Kansas these will be issued by the Kansas Board of Cosmetology). These documents indicate the shop is being inspected regularly and employees understand sterilization techniques and how to prevent the spread of blood-borne pathogens.

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Talk with the tattoo artist for a bit and see if you like that person. After all, you may be in his or her chair for many, many hours. “If they give you a bad feeling,” says Martin, “go see someone else.”

beeThoVeN IN The haNDs oF masTers

Listen to the artist’s advice on where to place the tattoo and how to care for it.

winter 2010

/ Lawrence Magazine

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identity story by

/ Cheryl Nelsen

Billy Boy! Lawrence’s ballad-singing, double-stopping, Cajunshaking, high-stepping musical legend swings his surgically replaced hip and brings down the house—at 80 years old Billy Spears, who turned 80 in October, has played fiddle and fronted bands for most of his life. The Lawrencebased musician was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

t could easily have been the end of a promising musical career in 1978 when Billy Spears dove into a pond and came up with his neck broken and his body partially paralyzed. “I suffered quite a bit of nerve damage. It took me a long time to get back to walking and playing my fiddle,” he says.

Lawrence Magazine

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Although he resumed playing about a year after his injury, Billy figures it took six or seven years for him to play as well as he did before the accident. Music was the catalyst for the recovery for this Kansas Music Hall of Fame inductee. “I had the determination I was going to play my fiddle again. That really drove me on. I thought if I couldn’t play, I could always enjoy listening to music. I found that listening to music depressed the hell out of me,” Billy says.

Okie fiddler of the ‘Billy’ bands Billy Spears grew up in Oklahoma, listening and learning to play a bluesy Western swing fiddle from family musicians such as

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

/ Mark Hutchinson

his father, Norris Spears, and his Uncle Earl. He played with several bands in the early 1950s including legends such as T. Texas Tyler, Ferlin Husky and Jean Shepard. Billy met his wife, Doris, at a road show and they had a baby girl named Carol who slept in a cowboy shoebox as the couple toured dance halls at military bases and along the West Coast. But not long after Carol was born, Billy decided he needed to settle down for his family, so he returned to Oklahoma, completed a food and restaurant program at Oklahoma State Institute of Technology and made his way to Lawrence, where he worked in the Kansas Union from 1955 to 1975. Gainfully employed, Billy never stopped playing in bands.

identity

Billy and the Beer Bellies regularly draw a full house of loyal fans, many over 50 who prefer being home before 10 p.m.

Spears warms his fiddle before playing one of his regular shows at Johnny’s in North Lawrence. These regular performances, on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, feature his latest band— Billy Spears and the Beer Bellies.

Carol fondly remembers the Kaw Valley Stump Jumpers, a group that lasted only a few years in the late 1960s. “He met these young college kids, and from there it kind of took off. When I was in high school, he was starting to become popular among the college kids. That made it cool for me,” Carol recalls. By the mid-1970s, with four daughters more or less fully grown, Billy began performing more often. He frequently played in Lawrence at the Red Dog Inn (now Liberty Hall) and Off-theWall Hall (now the Bottleneck) and barnstormed the Midwest in a Winnebago or an old school bus as he fronted various “Billy” bands. “I just got to playing a whole bunch again. There’s a lot of music here in Lawrence, and you can travel easily from here. You’re sitting right in the middle of the United States,” Billy says. Carol got hooked on traveling with one of Billy’s bands, the Midnight Cowboys, whose steel guitar player’s wife sang and encouraged her to join. By 1973, Carol sang and played rhythm guitar and fiddle as a full member. Billy’s three other daughters—Lawna, Sally and Lisa—were influenced by his music. All of them sang or played instruments. When Lisa lived in Nashville, she played steel guitar for Porter Wagoner. Sally died in 1975 and Lawna in 2007. In memory of Sally, Billy and his band recorded a CD titled Sally’s Tune. Recording another CD is on Billy’s list of things to do before he hangs up his fiddle.

Lawrence Magazine

‘The older the fiddle, the sweeter the tune.’ – Irish folk saying Billy’s current band, Billy Spears and the Beer Bellies, goes back to approximately 1994. It was formed, Carol explains, as a type of downsized band for her father, who wanted to give up long road trips and play with friends close to Lawrence. They play a little bit of everything with a country influence the first and third Wednesdays of every month on Cajun Night at Johnny’s in North Lawrence. “We got kind of a bluegrass type of instrumentation, but we play a whole bunch of different

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

kinds of music. We’re not saddled with any one kind,” Billy says. Billy and the Beer Bellies entertain the crowd from 6 to 9:30 p.m. while Carl Latham, Carol’s husband, cooks boiled shrimp, crayfish, gumbo, alligator bites and other Cajun cuisine. It’s a standing gig they have enjoyed for more than a dozen years after a bright idea and one conversation. “We wanted a place to eat Cajun food, so we talked Rick [Renfro, owner of Johnny’s] into it. We were playing music, one or two songs, and it just kind of got started,” Carol says. Billy and the Beer Bellies regularly draw a full house of loyal fans, many over 50 who prefer being home before 10 p.m. Billy likes the gig partly because the guys in the band set up and pick up equipment. “All I have to do is go play, and as soon as it’s over, I can get home. They take care of me,” Billy says. Johnny’s, however, isn’t the only place Billy plays his fiddle. He and the Beer Bellies annually continue the tradition of being the first band to play at the Lawrence Brown Bag Concert series. And for the past 20 years, he has played at the City of Lawrence’s Fall Arts and Crafts Festival. “That’s a lot of fun to do,” Billy says, “because I see people I don’t see in the bars.” His faithful fans showed their admiration when he walked on the stage at Liberty Hall the night of his induction into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame in March 2009. “There were lots of bands there. He was facing hip replacement surgery. He walked out there with his cane, threw it down, picked up his fiddle and got a standing ovation. It was cool,” Carol says. For Billy, who turned 80 this October, that concert marks a period in his life when he thinks his dexterity did not simply return but improved. The only thing he says he has lost is some of his hearing. And though that doesn’t keep him from playing with the Beer Bellies, he realizes the source of his loss. “Too much loud music and my wife hollerin’ at me all the time,” Billy says jokingly. The part about his wife is not really true, Carol clarifies. But if nothing else, Billy’s phrase “loud music and hollerin’” might have the makings of a new Beer Belly ballad. m

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/ Alex Hoffman

‘The Value of Beauty’

In an art form crowded with historical masterpieces, a young composer defines the purpose and sound of his contribution Brian J. Nelson, above at the piano of the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, creates music based firmly in the religious roots of Western classical music.

t’s a monumental challenge for contemporary composers to live up to classical music’s hall of heroes. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner to this day cast considerable shadows with their sacred and secular music. Brian J. Nelson, a 43-year-old Wisconsin native finishing his doc-

Lawrence Magazine

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toral studies at the University of Kansas, is ever-mindful of this legacy as he steadily builds a body of classical work that balances concert music with pieces that devotedly point toward his Catholic faith. It’s not so much ambition to match his predecessors but an imperative to create that thrusts him into composition. “I have a few private students that I teach, and that’s one thing I like to stress,” says Nelson, settling in a sitting area overlooking the Murphy Hall courtyard. “We say someone is a composer. Well, what does that mean? It’s like saying someone is a writer. I’m a writer; that means I write words down on a paper. Is that what being a writer is? I write notes down on a paper. Is

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

/ jason dailey

that what being a composer is? Well, no. It’s a language that you use to communicate something to other people. I just had that basic impetus from an early age to communicate something beautiful to people within the language of music.” That impetus swept over Nelson as a fifth-grader in a little room with instruments invitingly displayed on a table at his grade school. One “neat-looking instrument,” the tuba, caught his eye. The tuba means more than the customary oompahs for Nelson. Ultimately, the melody doesn’t propel the music, he says. It’s the bass line, that underlying sound, that steers it. “Playing the tuba was a wonderful, wonderful thing in terms

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identity

“His music has a strength but at the same time a very gentle quality.” – Michael Podrebarac

Nelson composes and conducts his works at a time when opportunities for classical music are dwarfed by the market for commercial music. Nonetheless, the young composer has successfully released two albums, which are available online or locally at Signs of Life, 722 Massachusetts St.

of developing that ear for harmony and harmonic progression,” Nelson says. “I think it’s helped me a lot as a composer.” His talent for composition again arose from his fertile young mind. In high school, he dabbled at the piano, wrote small choral pieces and devised Christmas carol arrangements for a pair of brass instruments, notably the tuba and euphonium. Those arrangements materialized into a sort of informal training in counterpoint. Nelson remembers those early experiments, thinking to himself, “Wow. I was on to something.” From there, the gift of performance came naturally, so much so that he earned a scholarship at the University of Michigan for it. One of his composition teachers at Michigan was William Bolcom, whose illustrious career as a composer includes the Pulitzer Prize and two Grammy Awards. And now, Nelson feels a strong affinity for his current teacher, KU professor and composer James Barnes, not only because Barnes is a tubist himself, but because of how they can resolve problems. Two-thirds of the way through a piece, Nelson often hits a stopping point, and this is where Nelson says Barnes is at his most helpful. “We just talk through possible ways these ideas could go, so he sort of prods your own process. Then we’ll often go off on a tangent and talk about life stuff and how it connects to music,” Nelson says.

Lawrence Magazine

“That’s what I really like about him. It’s real that way.” Nelson’s life greatly affected his musical development, particularly when he was a student at Michigan and his faith hit a stopping point. The preacher’s son slipped into what he describes as an idolatrous fog, where music effectively became his religion. Looking back, he compares this time of personal crisis to the biblical parable of the sower. The second of Nelson’s beautiful Three Motets for small chorus echoes what he sees as his exit of that stage in his life, with the Gospel of John 12:24 as text:

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life shall lose it; he who hates his life in this world shall keep it for eternal life. “It’s the upside-down kingdom,” he says. “The more we hold on, the less we have. The more we let go, the more our lives bear fruit. I think that was a real turning point.” Nelson emerged from that period converting to Catholicism and deepening a religious foundation to his composition work. He believes the quality of his music changed for the better after this point in his life. He has created more than 20 works of varying instrumental forces—from solo voice to violin and piano to full orchestra—that encapsulate his lyrical, chromatic language. As his friend and KU vocal performance doctoral graduate Sylvia Stoner suggests, there’s a distinct mysticism and spirituality to it all. It also exhibits Nelson’s great love for counterpoint he showed

identity

Composition can be a daunting profession. And Nelson has figured that out. The temptation is there, he says, to drop the struggle of believing in one’s music and classical composition in general. Why try in this land of auto-tuned singers and bushels of Glee covers? But he advises young composers to be persistent. Work hard. Learn from mistakes. Have a willingness to know the craft. So far he hasn’t succumbed to the temptation. Those two discs are proof he shouldn’t. “I come back to that sense of mission that I can never really abandon even when things have looked pretty dreary,” Nelson says. “So I just kept at it.” m

as a kid. Listeners notice the texture and hear the different lines moving together in a satisfying whole, particularly in his choral works. “His music has a strength but at the same time a very gentle quality,” says Michael Podrebarac, music director at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center. “I mean this both about his sacred works and his secular works. It’s music which invites you in, not a kind of music which stands aloof or exists for its own

Most successful composers are also musicians. Nelson sings a hymn, above, but his performing background is with the tuba, an instrument that he says has greatly enriched his ability to compose.

sake, but it’s always working to express the value of beauty. And in our own religious collaboration for us, that ultimate beauty is the face of God.” St. Lawrence was the venue for the recording of Nelson’s Responsorial Psalms for Advent and Christmas, released under Nelson’s label in November 2009. A second disc with a mix of secular and sacred material, Vocalise, was released in March and featured on Kansas Public Radio in July.

sunflowerpub.com

“It’s the upside-down kingdom. The more we hold on, the less we have. The more we let go, the more our lives bear fruit. I think that was a real turning point.” – Brian J. Nelson

/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

Indian Hills & Old West Ninth

Love let ter to Indian Hills Neighborhood! What’s not to love about living in Indian Hills? Living here means being close to shopping, schools and nature. There’s a rhythm of life through the seasonal changes and the school year cycle. In spring, the flowers and trees bloom and backyard feeders attract a multitude of birds while Broken Arrow Park hosts the Sertoma barbecue that sends delicious smells floating over the neighborhood. On summer nights, the ball diamond lights turn on and the distinctive ping of the aluminum bat rings down the streets as groups gather for picnics. In fall, the children return to school and the rhythmic beating of drums carries across from the Haskell Indian Nations University Powwow. Runners and walkers pass by. Bicyclists drift south. And snowplows move along after heavy snows. But in the middle of the night, it’s quiet enough to hear the trains from way across town … or to hear nothing. The sounds and visions in this neighborhood are our rhythm of life.

Love Always, Harriet Shaffer

Love let ter to Old West Ninth neighborhood! I have lived in a number of neighborhoods in my 62 years in Lawrence, but one is my favorite— Old West Ninth. So you ask: “Where was Old West Ninth? Weaver’s corner? Ninth and Iowa?” In 1949, the city limits ended at Ninth Street and Emery Road. That’s where my Old West Ninth began. It was called Rolling Acres in those days, and there was a huge wooded acreage we called Sigma Nu woods where the frat boys would hold parties. Living in the “country” was a great experience. There was the lore of the old Swedish mill that used to stand there, woods to explore, a creek to visit, rock roads and the fact that almost all kids had horses or ponies to ride. A farmer named Rosner delivered fresh eggs weekly and Mrs. Mitchell would come with baked goods for sale. Those of us on Old West Ninth had a trek to Pinckney School, Lawrence Junior High on Ninth and Kentucky or Liberty Memorial High … and then home for lunch. Heading home after school meant many temptations, such as malts and shakes at Hillside Pharmacy. But if you timed it just right, Ben Hall or H.C. Stuart would offer you a ride home. Everything changed in the mid-1950s, with the building of Iowa Street from Sixth to 23rd streets. Then, Old West Ninth was paved and became a wonderful memory. Love Always, Pete Anderson

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/ Nathan Pettengill

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C Phil HolmanHebert’s chicken and noodles, right, is inspired by church potlucks in a region influenced by Volga-Deutsch cooking. He considers this recipe to be more of a healthful recipe to hold off winter illness rather than a soup to make when recovering from sickness.

hicken noodle soup is one of those delightful cases where folk wisdom and medical research concur, or seem to want to concur at least. A much-cited study published in 2000 by CHEST journal, a pulmonology research publication affiliated with the American College of Chest Physicians, was one of the first research papers to explain the scientific basis for something generations of grandparents knew intuitively: Chicken noodle soup aids in cold and flu recovery. Over the past 10 years, the specific reasons for chicken noodle soup’s healing powers continue to be debated, with a placebo effect, anti-inflammatory properties, hydration and a-tasty-liquid-to-deliver-vitamins being some of the leading explanations. “Most people feel better after drinking chicken noodle

Chicken New-dle Here are three variations on a time-tested winter health dish

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

/ Mark Hutchinson and jason dailey

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wellness soup when they aren’t feeling well, but as to why—we don’t know,” says Patty Metzler, clinical dietitian at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. “It will definitely provide you with fluids to help meet your hydration needs. And you can certainly make a nutrient-rich soup. It depends greatly on the ingredients.” But a secondary quandary is how to make the standard dish taste better, and how to keep it exciting if you’re stuck in bed and surviving on soup for more than a few days. We asked three chefs to share new takes on chicken noodle soup.

Firehouse revision

Winter chicken soup variations include, clockwise from top left, Ed Noonen’s gourmet variation, JoAnn Farb’s vegan kale miso alternative and HolmanHebert’s hearty dish made with his chickens. Holman-Hebert, opposite page top, holds one of his chickens on his farm near Oskaloosa. Farb’s recipe, opposite page, allows for considerable variations depending on one’s preference of vegetables and amount of spices. She recommends doubling the amount of ginger and garlic for a stronger immuneboosting soup.

Like the standard chicken noodle soup recipe, the firehouse cooking culture has changed during the past decades. There is no longer the communal cooking pot, explains Lieutenant Ed Noonen at Fire Station 3 on Sixth Street. Instead, each firefighter brings in personal meals. But when there is a need or an excuse for a communal meal, the station can turn to its resident gourmet, who offers this Italian-inspired variation. Noonen says it’s simple to prepare for large groups—or multiple servings—but still provides a gourmet taste.

E d N o on e n ’ s Easy Chicken Soup Florentine … 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 8 ounces sliced mushrooms 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, ground ½ teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon tumeric Salt Pepper 2 quarts reduced-sodium chicken broth 1 roasted chicken, boneless, skinless and coarsely shredded 2 cups cooked rice (brown or white) 6 ounces spinach, chopped Juice of 1 lemon

1 In a 6-quart Dutch oven, heat olive oil and sauté chopped onion until translucent. 2 Add sliced mushrooms, spices and salt and pepper to taste. 3 Continue sautéing until mushrooms are soft. 4 Add chicken broth and heat to simmer. 5 Add chicken, rice and chopped spinach and simmer until spinach is soft, about 10-15 minutes. 6 Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. 7 Serve with crusty bread if desired. Makes approximately 8 servings.

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

“You can certainly make a nutrientrich soup. It depends greatly on the ingredients.” – Patty Metzler

Hearty prevention Phil Holman-Hebert, a Downtown Lawrence Farmers’ Market regular who raises sheep, cattle, turkey and chicken on Sweetlove Farm near Oskaloosa with his wife, Sally, and kids, has a standard chicken noodle soup recipe. But it’s not the one that excites him. His favorite variation is a thicker chicken and noodles dish that reminds him of the food he knew growing up around the Volga-Deutsch communities of Salina. “This is your preventative medicine,” says Holman-Hebert. “This is what we typically eat in the wintertime. This is Sunday afternoon, sitting down watching the football game. It’s a happy food that makes you feel good. And with top-quality ingredients, there is nothing that is unhealthy about it.”

wellness Miso alternative

c h ic k e n and … noodles

3-4 cups roasted or poached chicken, chopped 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon olive oil 2-3 carrots, chopped small 2-3 stalks celery, chopped small 1 medium onion, chopped small 8-10 cups broth from poached chicken (or four 32-ounce cartons of commercial broth) 2 tablespoons cornstarch (dissolve in water) for thickener 2 packages Reame’s egg noodles (in freezer section) or Homemade Noodles (see below)

1 Melt butter and oil in large stockpot or Dutch oven. 2 Add carrots, celery and onion and stir until slightly softened. 3 Add chicken and broth. 4 Bring to boil, add noodles and boil again. 5 Simmer, stirring often, for approximately 30 minutes. 6 Add cornstarch to thicken. Makes 8-10 servings.

From the perspective of healing, the best chicken noodle soup variation, says JoAnn Farb, is chickenless. “The real strength of chicken noodle soup is that it is a hot liquid and it may have pepper and garlic in it. But past that point, chicken soup takes away from healing,” says the Lawrence author of a gluten-free recipe book and microbiologist by training. “When you want to heal, you want the body’s resources targeted toward boosting immune functions, not toward something metabolically taxing such as digestion, and you certainly don’t want heavy animal protein.” She suggests turning to a powered-up and versatile miso recipe. Farb says the basic recipe can be modified in several ways. For example, cooked brown rice or tofu cubes sautéed in tamari can be added to the soup just before serving. Red cabbage can be substituted for the kale and the carrots can be switched out with zucchini, pea pods or peas. A soy-free recipe can be created by switching chickpea miso for the mellow white miso (and by removing the tamari). For maximum immune boosting with a heavily spiced taste, Farb recommends omitting rice, tofu or gamasio and doubling the amount of ginger and garlic.

Hom e m a de N o odl e s : 1 Mix 6 egg whites, 2 egg yolks, 3 cups flour, 3 tablespoons salt and 6 tablespoons milk until dough becomes firm but not a hard ball. 2 Roll out on floured surface, turning and flipping dough until you get a thickness of approximately ⅛ inch. 3 Roll dough into a large rectangle and cut noodles to thin width (approximately ¼ inch) with pizza cutter. (Remember, noodles will puff up when added to liquid.).

Ka l e miso …

9 cups purified water 5-6 large shiitake mushrooms, fresh or dried ½ cup dried arame (sea vegetable) ½ cup dried wakame (sea vegetable) 3-4 large cloves garlic, finely chopped 3 carrots, washed and thinly sliced 1 bunch La Cinata kale (also known as “dinosaur” or “black” kale), finely chopped (about 4-5 cups loosely packed) 1 piece fresh ginger root, about the size of a golf ball 6 tablespoons non-GMO mellow white miso 1 tablespoon non-GMO wheat-free tamari ¾ cup chopped scallions (optional for garnish) Gamasio (either premade or recipe below)

1 Rinse shiitakes and put them into a large pot with 7 cups of water, the arame, wakame and garlic. 2 Bring to a boil over high heat for five minutes. 3 If using dried shittakes, turn off heat and allow pot to sit, covered, for 30 minutes. 4 Reduce heat to low, add carrots and allow to simmer for five minutes. 5 Add the kale, stir well while simmering for another minute, replace lid and turn off heat. 6 Coarsely chop the ginger root and put it in the blender with the remaining 2 cups of water. 7 Remove the shiitakes from the pot using a slotted spoon, cut off the stems and add the stems to the blender. 8 Slice the caps thinly and return them to the pot. 9 Turn the blender on high until the stems and ginger are blended, add the miso and blend again until smooth. 10 Pour the blender contents into the pot. 11 Add the tamari and the scallions if using, stir and serve. 12 Sprinkle with gamasio to taste. Makes approximately 6 servings.

G a m a sio : 1 Combine 1 cup brown, unhulled sesame seeds and 1 teaspoon sea salt in a dry cast-iron skillet. 2 Heat and stir until the seeds start to brown. 3 Remove from heat, cool and pulverize in dry blender. winter 2010

/ Lawrence Magazine

wellness story by

/ Barbara Higgins-Dover

M Through discussions, active games and small group activities the Strong Girls program encourages young Lawrence students right, to build trust in one another and to further self-confidence.

ary Fry is an associate professor at the University of Kansas specializing in sport and exercise psychology. But she was also once a young girl and remembers something about the third- to sixth-grade years. “It’s a challenging transition period,” says Fry. As girls prepare to enter the middle school years, she notes, they are often worried about friendships, increased schoolwork and their social life. They are also coming of age in a nation that faces a growing obesity crisis, where children and adults suffer from lack of exercise. In the fall of 2008, Fry— along with Theresa Brown, a Ph.D. student in KU’s health and psychology of physical activity department—addressed these concerns by launching Strong Girls. It’s an education

Strong Girls A mentoring program helps young students acquire confidence and health along with increased respect for themselves and others

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

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/ Jason Dailey

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The initial Strong Girls program has brought students from Schwegler School onto the University of Kansas campus, above left and right, where they meet with adult and KU student volunteers. The program’s message of positive encouragement is reinforced on the backs of the volunteer shirts and in the pledges that all students are asked to take.

program with a dual focus on physical activity and socialization. “There is a lot research that [shows] kids benefit from physical activity—that’s a no-brainer, they burn calories and strengthen muscles. But creating a positive and caring environment makes them much more likely to want to continue,” says Fry. “So the key to getting them to want to continue to be physically active is to make sure they have a positive experience.” The Strong Girls program was developed with support from the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department as well as the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence. This fall and winter, 52 Schwegler School girls from third to sixth grade ride a bus to the KU campus for the weekly two-hour programs. Fry, Brown, 19 KU student-adult volunteers and one eighth-grade program graduate greet the students and lead them in activities. Each week, they focus on personal development through games and sports along with discussions about body image, social interaction, cooperation and communication skills, selfesteem, positive thinking, confidence and adapting stress management techniques. But Fry says adults can only do so much. “Leaders alone can’t create a positive and supporting environment by themselves,” she says. “You have to have kids buying into it.” For that reason, Strong Girls requires each participant to sign a pledge to do two things: try her hardest and treat everyone else with kindness and respect. As part of this, the adults help young girls acquire the language and skills to express themselves and support one another. “We introduced the idea of ‘highlights’ the first week,” recalls volunteer mentor Sheryl Miller. “A highlight is anything good that had happened to them that day or week—whether it was a good grade on a test or even seeing a pretty butterfly. The first week or two it was almost like pulling teeth to get them to find something positive, not only for the day, but for their entire week!” Once the girls are comfortable expressing themselves in the group, they are encouraged to help others. The mentors even create a “praise

Lawrence Magazine

card” with reminders of positive things they can say to their friends and family. “A lot of kids are not outwardly positive toward one another—and kids can be mean to one another,” says Fry. “We can move away from the negative, but we can also be stuck in the neutral zone. So we do team-building and one-on-one to help them learn the skills to be intentionally and mindfully positive toward one another.” These skills and the confidence they inspire are meant to carry over into all aspects of the girls’ lives. Schwegler third-grade teacher Pam Schilling says she has noticed a difference among her Strong Girls students. “They learned and put to use leadership skills, team-building skills and social skills,” says Schilling. “They learned how to accept differences and be proud of who they are.”

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

“So the key to getting them to want to continue to be physically active is to make sure they have a positive experience.” – Mary Fry

wellness As a research-based program, Strong Girls results are measured in many different ways, including interviews with participants, group discussions and picture-drawing exercises that have revealed drastic improvements of selfimage. And there are also the testimonials from the girls, such as a recent participant who wrote her favorite part of Strong Girls was “everything” and another student who summarized: “I learned that just because something is wrong with someone does not mean that you treat them different than others.” For Fry, this positive student-to-student interaction is the best indication of success in the program and beyond. “We can treat the kids well,” she says. “But if they aren’t treating one another well, then they don’t have a good experience.” m Theresa Brown, left, and Mary Fry hope to develop the Strong Girls program as a model for other schools and regions.

“They learned and put to use leadership skills, team-building skills and social skills.” – teacher Pam Schilling

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G Chef Thomas Barletta uses simple ingredients, above, and no-frills cooking pans, below, to create his winter meal.

rowing up, Thomas Barletta thought that only moms cooked. His mother, thank goodness, was a great cook. For Thomas, the feeling of his family sitting down together for meals was palpable. “I remember thinking how good it would be to give other people that good feeling,” he says. It was his mother who taught him to cook his very first dishes: pork chops and “a really good spaghetti sauce.” But it was the television show Three’s Company, and the lead character, chef Jack Tripper, that planted a little seed in Thomas’ young mind: Not only could guys cook, but they could make a living at it. “Nowadays chefs are really famous,” explains Thomas. “Back then, you didn’t know what was going on behind closed doors in restaurants.” Throughout his college years, Thomas worked at a

From Thomas with Love Mom, a sitcom chef and a legendary Lawrence kitchen taught Thomas Barletta to serve dishes like a personal love letter

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/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

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/ jason dailey

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Trained in gourmet kitchens, Thomas now serves restaurantquality food at a University of Kansas sorority where he says the students appreciate natural ingredients and healthful food—but also demand their desserts and simple recipes such as grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.

few burger joints while majoring in film, never dreaming that he’d make a living cooking. Food, though, kept coming back into his life. After not cooking for a time, he was surprised to find that he really missed it. So he took his first serious cooking job at Fifi’s, a restaurant operated by Fifi Paden that, throughout the 1980s, was one of Lawrence’s only options for fine dining. One day, Thomas had a revelation that he voiced to the rest of Fifi’s kitchen staff. “I realized that I wanted to do this for a living, and the head chef started clapping,” he says, laughing. The job at Fifi’s changed his life and forged lasting professional relationships. “To this day, Fifi is like a grandmother to me,” says Thomas. “We still stay in contact.” Fifi’s head chef at the time, whom Thomas credits with teaching him everything there is to know about fine cooking and dining, was Janna Traver, now the executive chef and assistant director of KU Dining. Thomas worked under Janna and her catering department briefly again in 2009 where he perfected another important skill: making good food in quantity. But restaurant cooking often means working late into the night, and he knew he needed to be home with his daughter, Lavender. So Thomas began cooking for fraternities and sororities, finally settling at Alpha Delta Pi. At the time, he was afraid his reputation as a chef might suffer, because for many years, house cooks were often considered second-rate. “They were basically known as heat-and-serve cooks,” says Thomas. “They were hacks.” But things have changed, and Thomas has several chef friends who have moved into the greek system. “Now I don’t mind saying I cook for a sorority. We cook restaurantquality food.” In addition to the mounds of fresh fruit he fixes for the ladies, Thomas serves food like jambalaya, Reuben sandwiches, French dips, gumbo, jerked pork, and red beans and rice at Alpha Delta Pi. “But no matter how gourmet you can be, their favorite, hands-down, is grilled cheese and tomato soup day,” he says. It’s been interesting, says Thomas, to experience the vast difference between cooking for a sorority instead of a fraternity. “The girls

Lawrence Magazine

definitely eat in a different way. The boys are heathens; they just eat. For the girls, it’s a very personal thing. Their mood can be totally affected by what meals I’ve made,” says Thomas, chuckling. “If they’re expecting a certain dish and then I can’t make it because I couldn’t get the ingredients, they can’t handle it. One time last year, I didn’t make dessert for dinner and I thought I would be strung up. They couldn’t get past it.” Working at the sorority has opened additional business opportunities for Thomas. Because he has summers off, he can still cater weddings, and many of those weddings have ended up being for the ladies of Alpha Delta Pi. “Some of the girls babysit for me,” he explains, “and for free babysitting, I’ll cater their weddings at cost.” Thomas is now passing his love for good food and good cooking to his daughter, who will eat nearly everything her daddy cooks for her. When she was a toddler, the two of them often played restaurant. But now that Lavender is 8, she helps dad in the kitchen. “She can make a whole roast chicken by herself,” boasts Thomas. “I still help her with putting it in the oven and pulling it out, but she knows how to do it.” For Thomas, cooking has become more than a career. It’s become a way of life. “Obviously, I like to eat—everyone does. But the main thing I think that you

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

“I realized that I wanted to do this for a living, and the head chef started clapping.” –Thomas Barletta

have to have to do this as a career is you have to love feeding people. I love the art of it. I love the ratios and the problem solving and the puzzles you have to figure out. But I love feeding people. What more maternal thing is there than to give someone food?” m

wellness

The other identities of

T hom a s Ba r l…e tta

Rock ’n’ roll drummer Thomas Barletta has been the drummer for the band Trucker since its inception in 1997. Recently, Trucker played at the Canadian music festival Osheaga. “We got to hang out with people like Snoop Dogg and Weezer and the Black Keys,” says Thomas. “It was amazing!” Personal chef-for-hire For approximately $100 a person, Thomas plays private chef and serves a five-course meal for clients in their homes. “For one night you’re spending about the same amount of money as at a gourmet restaurant, but you get to pick your own music and wine and stick your head in the kitchen and ask me questions,” says Thomas. “It’s just wonderful. It feels so good to me and it makes people so happy … and then they tell their friends.”

T hom a s Ba r l e tta’ s Hearty Winter Pasta ¼ cup olive oil ¾ pound steak, cut into 1-inch chunks 1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms, stems removed ¼ cup sliced shallots 4 whole canned tomatoes, peeled, drained and sliced into thick strips ¼ cup roasted garlic* ½ cup chopped Swiss chard ⅓ cup white wine 2 cups heavy cream ⅓ cup walnuts ¾ cup Gorgonzola cheese 6 cups cavatappi (corkscrew) noodles, boiled until al dente

1 Heat olive oil in large frying pan to almost smoking. 2 Add steak and mushrooms with salt and pepper to taste. 3 Toss or stir occasionally for about 2 minutes. 4 Add shallots and sauté until shallots begin to become translucent. 5 Add sliced tomatoes, roasted garlic and Swiss chard. 6 Add wine to pan and let mixture simmer for one minute. 7 Add the cream, walnuts and Gorgonzola. 8 Let simmer for a couple of minutes to allow sauce to reduce. 9 Add pasta and toss. Bring to a strong simmer and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more until sauce is rich and creamy. 10 Salt and pepper to taste. Makes approximately 4 servings. *For roasted garlic: Place peeled garlic cloves in a small ovenproof container. Add olive oil until garlic is submerged. Cover and bake in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove roasted garlic cloves from skins to use in recipe.

The Store With It All winter 2010

/ Lawrence Magazine

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B.A.L.M.’s mobile combined smaller, individual projects by each collective member.

Collective Creations What happens when you give five art collectives five days to produce five creations based on one Lawrence-related theme? Sept. 19 Members of the B.A.L.M. (Beauty, Life, Art and Movement) collective stand with their contribution to the “Love in the Time of Beer Bellies … a Mass. St. Romance” project.

5-6:20 p.m. The theme is distributed inside five identical envelopes, written on blank letterhead. “Love in the time of Beer Bellies … a Mass. St. romance”

Sept. 19

7:07-7:16 p.m. An explanation arrives by electronic mail. The theme is partly an allusion to

Lawrence Magazine

the work of Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, partly tribute to puffypeople-themed painter Fernando Botero and partly an unapologetic homage to Lawrence musician Billy Spears.

Background Mostly, however, the theme is an attempt to define the style of five Lawrence art collectives through the medium they do best: art.

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

Art collectives—informal gatherings to exchange ideas, re-energize creative impulses or talk about the market—are nothing new in Lawrence. But the rise of several strong art collectives has been a key development in the local art scene during the past decade. “I think artists have come to the conclusion that we’re better as a group than by ourselves,” says artist Darin White, co-founder of the B.A.L.M. (Beauty, Art and Life Movement) group. “Things have really started to come together since approximately 2006, and these collectives are a sort of culmination in creating a community to keep art alive in Lawrence.” For this project, Lawrence Magazine invited B.A.L.M., along with Fresh Produce, Lawrence Percolator, Wonder Fair and the student artist advisory board at the University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art to spend five days and no more than 40 collective working hours creating

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community their take on “Love in the time of Beer Bellies … a Mass. St. romance.” Once they read the theme, time was ticking.

Sept. 20 The Fresh Produce collective takes an early start. Unfortunately, all the artists on this project are rather thin types—not a respectable beer belly among them. They take their skinny jeans downtown for field research and fortuitously run into an old acquaintance and ideal model. He is the personification of “a lover and a fighter,” and his only fee is that he be given a copy of the final work to share with his mother. It’s love, romance and devotion to dear ol’ mom—they’ve struck pure gold.

Sept. 21

WonderFair art group members, in top photo from left Kelly Clark, Christa Dalien and Eric Dobbins, brought in a family portrait wall, center, with contributions from their members. The lighthearted take on the domestic side of beer belly romance seemed to explore the fine line of kitsch and comfort. A detail of the Spencer student art project, bottom and far right, shows the influence of visiting artist-inresidence Dan Perjovschi.

Darin White confirms that B.A.L.M. will host all five collectives for the final showing and photo shoot, at the same time opening its new exhibition for that month’s citywide Final Friday art walk. The B.A.L.M. members are spending a good portion of the week covered in industrial wall paint and pushing brooms to prepare their gallery walls and space. Poor paint-splattered Darin at this point has no idea what his team will contribute. However, Patrick James Curtin—a newly arrived member from California—is hatching creative and perfectly legitimate plans involving Ken and Barbie dolls.

Sept. 22 “Herding cats” is a term frequently thrown around in describing art collectives, but add in the student factor of term papers and social life and it’s not clear at all when the KU students might come together for their project. However, by this day they have collected their materials and are ready to reveal plans for their project, a graffiti collage inspired by the work of current Spencer international-artist-in-residence Dan Perjovschi. His approach is an infectious, youthful art form that will clearly inspire the undergrad collective.

Sept. 23 WonderFair group announces it is creating a series of family-themed portraits. It’s a good strategic approach because the artists can work separately and then bring everything together. But, like B.A.L.M., this collective is simultaneously preparing for the opening of a major exhibition that week and racing against the clock for both events.

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

Lawrence Percolator— perhaps the largest collective with several big local art names along with writers, poets and even at least one attorney—has been mum about its plans. Coordinator Molly Murphy, however, has floated a tantalizing “what if” query that includes reference to “large numbers,” “not hanging art” and “for example, a puppet performance.” Lawrence Magazine photographer Jason Dailey is warned to prepare his traveling studio for a possible “Percolator Puppet Pals” performance.

Sept. 24 (Show Day)

5 p.m. The B.A.L.M. group has its piece—a circular mobile— finished and hanging in the front window of its gallery as Mass. Street begins to fill with art walk attendees. The Ken and Barbie dolls, an allusion to a “married-above-his-league” true romance, command the most attention in their rathermodest-by-Ken-and-Barbiestandards love pose, along with David Root’s carved wooden hand that grips a halffull bottle of rum.

Sept. 24

5:20 p.m. The Fresh Produce team arrives with a two-piece

community

Sept. 24

canvas of its lovable street fighter on the corner of 10th and Mass. streets. To hang up the piece, the team pulls out at least three levels and an electronic stud finder. It’s a perfect demonstration of another reason that artists join collectives—to have friends with power tools.

Sept. 24

5:30 p.m. Whatever the artistic equivalent of wedding crashers is, the Lawrence Percolator group deserves the title. A bit of mayhem erupts as the group members stroll in ahead of their time wearing matching, heart-decorated T-shirts and tossing about cans from a collective-size package of Pabst Blue Ribbon. The Percolator group has cheekily decided it is the Mass. St. romance. You would almost suspect it was a last-minute solution—if these folks didn’t carry it out so well. Even Dave Loewenstein smiles at the back of the group photo, though despite his award-winning stature, he seems destined never to sport a respectable beer belly. Perhaps, to make up for it, he contains loads of romance underneath his signature black stocking cap?

5:45 p.m. Eric Dobbins and Kelly Clark of WonderFair sneak in behind a houseplant that seems to have done nothing but snarf Miracle-Gro over the past five days. They set down the plant and begin hanging several small framed portraits in the shape of a family tree. It is, at once, both a charming and a chilling vision of domesticated romance. “It’s the offspring of two beer-belly lovers,” explains Dobbins. The matriarch in these family portraits is a rather dashing poodle. The family lineage includes an individual with a vampire physiognomy. There is, for some reason, also a stagecoach. The small paintings are extremely well-done, and while the connection to beer bellies, romance or Mass. Street is indirect, the project definitely reflects the cozy, offbeat style of this collective. One suspects there is also a secondary message, such as inside information about the next Twilight spin-off.

Sept. 24

6 p.m. The Spencer group assembles around its contribution. Romanian artists and KU art students seem to share a deep understanding of romance and beer bellies—at least this group does with its multiple, humorous, graffiti-style takes on the theme. If Lawrence were to be blocked off by a Berlin Wall, then dour Johnson County types with crisply starched gray uniforms and Tommy guns would be on the baddie side of it and this type of artwork would be covering the free-world side of the wall.

Sept. 24

6:28 p.m. The last photo shoot finishes. Members of Fresh Produce and B.A.L.M. have temporarily defected to the Percolator group as they stroll off sporting some of the Percolator’s heart-decorated T-shirts and step onto a Mass. Street that is filled by huge crowds, probably some beer, perhaps a bit of romance … and definitely loads of collectively inspired art. m

sunflowerpub.com

/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

Members of the Fresh Produce collective, top left, created a two-piece ensemble, top right, featuring a Mass. Street scene and a real-life model. The Lawrence Percolator group created silk-screen heart T-shirts, center, and brought art into motion by declaring themselves the Mass. St. romance. They shared their work, and their beer, with artists and gallery visitors, bottom left, for the final portrait.

community story by / Andrea E. Hoag

photography by

Secret Spencer The Spencer’s greatest secret is that it has none. The museum’s collection of stored, relatively unknown and undisplayed artwork is open to guests

The Spencer Museum of Art halls, above, are open to visitors. But so are the stored and often unseen museum holdings.

y parents used Spencer Museum of Art as a babysitter. Well, at 13, I was hardly a baby. On rainy Saturday afternoons, they dropped my best friend, Michelle, and me off at the museum on the University of Kansas campus. The moment the door of that Oldsmobile Cutlass opened, out we would scramble, lost to the world for hours, only to show up at the appointed meeting time later.

Lawrence Magazine

They were hardly careless parents. This, after all, was long before the age of “helicopter parenting” and AMBER Alerts. Given our all-around level of mischief, our families probably were simply glad to be rid of us for a few hours and thrilled that we chose such a civilized hangout. Besides: There was a guard. A guard, it is more than fair to say, the two of us drove hopping mad. With all the games of tag, ogling of nude sculptures and lots of garden-variety

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

/ Mark Hutchinson

goofing off, I remain convinced that guard viewed us as two giggling messengers of the apocalypse. Still, no amount of chasing and whispering would have caused us to break the cardinal sin of art museums—actually touching the art. We may have been noisy, but we were good kids beneath all of that errant purple eyeliner and frosted lip gloss. Lucky for parents— and children—these days the museum actually encourages a more handson approach for its patrons. While many Lawrence residents may enjoy the occasional stroll through the museum that is affiliated with KU, many may be unaware of the Spencer’s best secrets. Isn’t it reassuring to know, for example, that you live mere miles from an actual Picasso, Dürer or Goya? Better still, the museum’s “Walk-Ins Welcome Fridays” program affords visitors the chance to have a private audience with the artwork of their choosing. Stephen Goddard, professor and senior curator of prints and drawings at the Spencer, explains that visitors can search online through the collection to decide if there is a specific piece they would like to see. But curators “don’t expect visitors to know the

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“Those works become kind of magical because it is your eyes and your thinking that brings them to life.” – Stephen Goddard

For Walk-ins Welcome Fridays, Curator Stephen Goddard, above, and staff have displayed items such as this Max Ernst print, center left, in the book Paroles Peintes by Alain Bosquet and this box, center right, by Lawrence artist Jeremy Rockwell. Many works of art in storage are also rotated into exhibition such as Frederick William MacMonnies’ “Pan of Rohallion,” bottom, which stands in the Spencer gallery.

[entire] collection, so it is fine to simply show up and see what we already have out for viewing or to ask questions so we can find works that might respond to specific interests.” While patrons will have to decide for themselves which artwork they ultimately hold most dear, Goddard’s picks for his favorite Spencer “secrets” are extensive. “A colleague in the museum once said that I never saw a piece of paper I didn’t love,” Goddard reveals, “but that is because I like unassuming works of art as well as the more obvious ones. One of the great pleasures in looking at art is discovering something that has a kind of undeniable greatness but that has not become well-known, for whatever reason. … Those works become kind of magical because it is your eyes and your thinking that brings them to life, not the comfort of a famous name or a shelf of publications by acknowledged authorities.” Goddard credits colleagues Kate Meyer, Luke Jordan and several interns for helping develop the weekly access “into a Friday ritual” as well as promoting pre-arranged visits Monday through Thursday as well. Goddard says he would love to reach audiences “who are reluctant to come into an art museum.” The professor himself is a longtime resident of Lawrence, having arrived in 1984. He counts himself lucky to live in such an arts-centric city. “We have a huge amount of talent in our community,” says Goddard, “and we are large enough to support a public and still small enough to feel like family.” As a member of this Lawrence family, feel free to do some exploring of your own. Lip gloss optional. m

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

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wings Story by Cheryl Nelsen

Photography by Jason Dailey

Three chefs provide their takes on one of the top snack foods for sports fans

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

Wings good enough for a barbecue snob What started as a hobby for Jim Biemick expanded into a traveling mobile food unit when he had a trailer built with a smoker and full-service kitchen in 2004. After cooking at motorcycle rallies, car shows and county fairs, he opened Biemer’s BBQ on Sixth Street and moved to 2120 W. Ninth St. in 2008. Biemick developed his recipes after perusing various cookbooks and trying different things. “Most of these recipes are all the same throughout the barbecue industry. It’s just your tweak on it,” he says. Chicken wings are seasonal or by request at Biemer’s, but Biemick smokes meats 24 hours a day. “The only way you’re going to get fresh foods is to cook it today. I’m enough of a barbecue snob that I can tell when something has been reheated and when it hasn’t,” Biemick says. To make wings good enough for even the biggest barbecue snob, Biemick suggests creating a seasoning based on roasted garlic pepper, a light amount of Cajun seasonings and a sprinkling of celery salt. He also suggests smoking the wings for approximately two and a half hours at 225 degrees over hickory wood before deep-frying them for two minutes in 350-degree oil.

Wings on the road After growing up in a family that sold food at summer fairs and carnivals and working at various restaurants since he was in high school, Andrew Hoyt has a bit of experience in the food industry. Currently, he’s specializing in chicken wings with his mobile business The Wing Wagon. Hoyt smokes meats and caters for various groups, but his goal is to have a cargo trailer modified to resemble a covered wagon on the outside. Then he plans to maintain his base of operation in Lawrence but travel to football game parking lots, fairs, carnivals and things of that nature. He figures he can do about 20 shows in northeast Kansas and western Missouri during the spring and summer. “As of right now it’s kind of a barbecue catering operation that will expand into a mobile food vending operation,” Hoyt says. A blue cheese dip is Hoyt’s foundation sauce for chicken wings, but Hoyt also offers Jamaican jerk, teriyaki, coconut curry and peanut butter and jelly.

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

Preparation: If chicken wings are frozen, thaw them in a brine bath.

Smoking: Prepare smoker to a constant temperature of 300 to 325 degrees (ideal for barbecue roasting). Place chicken, fat side up, inside smoker and roast until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees. Chicken can be refrigerated for up to a week at 41 degrees after smoking. Once chicken is smoked, dried and cooled, cover in coating mix: 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons cornstarch

This will remove unwanted moisture and add flavor and crunch to the chicken.

Frying: ❱ Bring chicken to at least room temperature prior to frying. ❱ Fry chicken in 1-2 quarts of peanut oil at 350 degrees for 2-3 minutes until chicken reaches internal temperature of 160 degrees.

Sauce: 4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter ½ cup Frank’s Louisiana Hot Sauce 2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce, more to taste 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon cider vinegar 1 tablespoon diced roasted garlic 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper

Combine ingredients in bowl and mix. Cover wings with sauce.

Blue Cheese Dressing: 2½ ounces blue cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup) 3 tablespoons buttermilk 3 tablespoons sour cream 2 tablespoons mayonnaise 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar ¼ teaspoon sugar

Combine ingredients in bowl and mix. Serve as dip for wings.

sunflowerpub.com

/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

Pineapple Chutney Chicken Wings 2 pounds chicken wings, separated at the joints, wing tips reserved for stock 3 tablespoons canola oil, plus more for frying Salt and pepper to taste 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 tablespoon fresh ginger root, grated 1 jar (10 ounces) Tripti’s Pineapple-Raisin Chutney ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

This will remove unwanted moisture and add flavor and crunch to the chicken.

Recipe:

❱ Preheat oven to 350 degrees. ❱ Rinse the wing pieces under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. ❱ Put chicken wings in a bowl, drizzle with canola oil and season well with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. ❱ Spread the chicken wings on a baking sheet and cook in the oven for 35-50 minutes. ❱ While wings cook, put Tripti’s Pineapple-Raisin Chutney into a blender and puree. ❱ Add the butter and ginger to a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the blended Pineapple Chutney and cook for 5 more minutes until the liquid has reduced to a thicker consistency. Add the red pepper flakes. ❱ Remove from heat and cover to keep warm until ready to use. ❱ In large pot or fryer, heat 4 inches of canola oil, or enough to prevent wings from touching the bottom of the pan, to 350 degrees. ❱ Add the chicken wings to the oil and fry for about 4 minutes, or until crispy and golden brown. ❱ Remove the chicken wings from the oil and drain on paper towels. Add the sauce and toss to combine. ❱ Serve warm. Makes approximately 4 servings.

Lawrence Magazine

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

Tripti Wings When Bengalis eat a delicious food, they often use the Sanskrit word tripti to describe it. Debjani Bhaduri, owner of Tripti’s catering and sauces, says the word is used for foods that “just hit your soul.” When Bhaduri, 38, came to the Midwest more than 10 years ago to enroll in graduate school at the University of Kansas and to marry Saibal Bhattacharya, she missed the food she knew. “The food I grew up with was completely different when I got here, so I started making more food and started getting good reviews,” Bhaduri says. In 2003, she began marketing a variety of chutneys, stuffed Bengali flatbread and chocolate truffles, which were inspired by her daughter Sukanya. The fourth-grader started dipping chocolate into her mother’s cranberry chutney, so Bhaduri developed a chocolate truffle with the chutney on the inside. Bhaduri uses her chutneys as a salad dressing, an ice cream topping, a complement to meats and a dip mixed with cream cheese. The water-based chutneys are free of oil and preservatives. They are sold in Lawrence at the Community Mercantile and the health food section of Hy-Vee on Sixth Street. m

sunflowerpub.com

/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

Q&A F ive Things Ab o u t …

“R

adio Bob” McWilliams took his Harvard law degree and began working as a clerk for federal circuit Judge Frank G. Theis before joining a Kansas City region law firm. But he soon returned to the University of Kansas, where he had earned his undergraduate degree, to begin a Ph.D. program in history. And it was on the KU campus in 1983 that McWilliams unexpectedly (and with no training) filled in for an absent radio host to broadcast Ted Owens’ Jayhawk basketball squad in action. McWilliams joined Kansas Public Radio—then KANU—that year, spinning jazz music and co-hosting a bluegrass program. Decades later, he continues to host a jazz program and broadcast the Trail Mix radio show. McWilliams also, since 1994, has organized house and Lawrence-venue concerts under the name West Side Folk to bring noted folk musicians to Lawrence and promote emerging singer-songwriters. He keeps three offices: a home office, an office at Johnson County Community College where he teaches history and this office at Kansas Public Radio.

B ob

“Radio Bob”

2 Compact disc recordings

St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap This cap is a replica design from 1964, the year I first became a fan. That was the year they won the World Series—and not only won but beat the Yankees. I was 9 years old then, and the nuns at St. Joseph Co-Cathedral School in St. Joseph, Missouri, told us we could listen to the World Series games if we were good. I am pretty sure that they did this because they wanted to listen to the games themselves.

Signed pictures of various folk musicians who have performed at West Side Folk concerts These musicians are all among my personal favorites: Catie Curtis, Richard Shindell, Lucy Kaplansky, Dar Williams and others. It’s gratifying [to receive recognition from them] though the purpose of the West Side Folk concerts was not for that, but to get artists to Lawrence that wouldn’t otherwise come here.

This is just stuff for previewing. I don’t even know how many I have at home anymore, maybe 10,000 plus 6,000 LPs.

Lawrence Magazine

M c W illiams

Pictures of daughter Emily Stangl These are pictures from when she was still a student at KU. She has lived in Alexandria, Virginia, since last year. I miss having her go to concerts with me. She grew up going to thousands of concerts and working at countless house concerts.

Harvard law degree

I would never, never trade my three years at Harvard and the education I received there for anything. … But there was a hint of my future career in my years there when I spent more time in jazz clubs than in the law library.

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

journey story and photography by

/ susan kraus

a r o u nd

t h e b e ac h …

A week at the beach It’s OK. You can be a true Kansan and still long for the beach. In fact, why not plan for a trip now based on your memories of salty air?

Take off your shoes. Ditch the watch. Lose the cell. Forget e-mail. Eat when hungry. Sleep when sleepy. Watch waves, not TV. Walk along the edge of the sea, on hard-packed sand at low tide, as white frothy wave-bubbles tickle your toes. You are now officially at the beach. True confession: My biggest disappointment with Kansas life has

Lawrence Magazine

been the lack of an ocean. Kansas would be almost perfect if it had one. I have a theory that a person’s concept of “ocean” is imprinted at a young age … or at first glimpse. So for some it is the gentle roll of the Gulf of Mexico that makes their hearts ping. For others, it’s the pounding surf of the Pacific. For me, it was the Atlantic, the “Jersey shore” that has been so grossly misrepresented of late on reality TV. My summer memories are of cousins crammed into the back seat

/ winter 2010 / sunflowerpub.com

Diversions around Emerald Beach keep things simple. Save the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores for a rainy day, and time your visit around the daily programs that feature feeding the creatures and experiencing other up-close encounters. An annual family pass is $50 and provides multiple visits at no additional charge, which is often cheaper than paying for regular admission. There are also kid-specific programs where you can leave the children for half a day. Free to visitors, Fort Macon is an impressive historic site connected to events from the Civil War to World War II (again, schedule visits for program times). In Beaufort, a historic seaport just across the bridge from Atlantic Beach, you’ll find the North Carolina Maritime Museum that also offers free admission. Stroll the historic district of restored homes, then take a ferry ride to Shackleford Banks to look for wild ponies. Morehead City, adjacent to Beaufort, is where you’ll find the big-box stores, as well as the History Place Museum (again, free!). It contains The Tea Clipper tearoom, with 165 kinds of tea and more tea history than you can digest, featuring ladies’ lunches and British “high tea.” I liked the decoy carvings at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center, another free site at the end of Harkers Island (go through Beaufort and follow the signs). In season, Morehead City features Wednesday night outdoor movies and a Friday night farmer’s market, plus, along with Beaufort, outdoor concerts. Swansboro, a quaint historic village of shops and cafes, is perfect for a late-afternoon stroll and an ice cream float. At Hammocks Beach State Park, take a ferry to explore an uninhabited island or try a marsh cruise with a park ranger.

how much? … Oceanfront weekly rentals in Emerald Isle vary from about $2,000 during high season to under $950 in early June for a two-bedroom, two-bath house with amenities. But go to the second or third “row” of homes from the ocean and prices drop: A three-bedroom, two-bath home rents for around $1,250 during high season. But for a real treat, look at the grandiose “Sand Castles” that rent for $8,000-$10,000 a week during high season but as low as $4,500$5,500 in early June. One of these oceanfront homes boasts eight bedrooms, 10-plus bathrooms, a private pool, four master suites, a theater room, pool table, eight TVs and multiple laundry rooms. That may seem extreme, but the house is big enough for four to five families and can actually be economical. Plus you get to live like a millionaire for a week. Look up Emerald Isle rental agencies and order multiple agency catalogs. They make for fun winter bathroom reading.

journey of a Buick, inching our way down the New Jersey Turnpike, heads hanging, like thirsty puppies, out the windows. At last, we would come upon the exit, hit the two-lane roads and collectively inhale as we caught our first taste of the sharp salt air. Then a final wait as we scootched down in the back seat while our aunt and mom picked up keys at a rental agency to whatever linoleum-floored tiny cottage they’d booked for the week. (We were always over the allowed occupancy limits with kids sleeping on whatever piece of bed or couch we could find.) We’d find the pastel cottage, usually down some alley-of-a-street, and pile out, begging for our bathing suits. And then we’d run, towels around our necks, holding a plastic dipper or bucket, toward the sound of the waves. That moment became one of the best times of the year. I haven’t been to the Jersey shore in years. My choice of beach now is Emerald Isle, North Carolina. It is far less crowded and commercial, more relaxed. And my mother lives there. (OK, that would be the number one reason.) But Emerald Isle warrants a look even if you have no relatives living nearby. Emerald Isle is a place where you drop your sandals on the bottom step of the wooden boardwalk that goes over the dunes … and they’re still there six hours later. It sits on Bogue Banks, a strip of east-west land about 21 miles long but just blocks wide in parts with five towns: Emerald Isle, Salter Path, Indian Beach, Pine Knoll

getting t h e r e … Emerald Isle is just more than 1,200 miles or 19 hours of driving from Lawrence. Or fly from Kansas City to Jacksonville, N.C., (via U.S. Airways or Delta) and rent a car. Emerald Isle is less than hour from the airport. For more information, go to www. crystalcoastnc.org.

Shores and Atlantic Beach. The latter is the most commercial, with highrise condos and (gasp!) some fastfood spots. Emerald Isle is almost all houses or duplexes, with more yearround residents and house/duplex rentals and no fast-food chains. There are several diversions and restaurants everywhere, from oyster shacks to upscale. A personal pick is The Icehouse Waterfront in Swansboro, with the biggest and best fish sandwich I’ve ever tasted. The pestoand pecan-encrusted grouper is also a treat. But some of the best eating can be found at any town, along any road, where there are farm stands piled with fresh corn, peaches, tomatoes and the famous Bogue Inlet watermelons. “Sweetest in the world,” the lady at one stand boasted. Two hours

sunflowerpub.com

later, juice dribbling down my face, I had to agree. If I had to compose a “must experience” list for Emerald Isle, tasting the fresh produce would be on it. But what I like best about the region is the seductive lure of doing almost nothing and having time, space and quiet enough to, with some luck, wake up not composing a “must do” list in my head. Any beach vacation is best experienced doing as little as possible. Sea and sand. Books and board games. A few outings spread over a week if children demand distraction, but otherwise the beach is the entertainment. Walk without a destination, collect shells, build sand castles, sit in a beach chair and pretend to read. But, really, behind the sunglasses, just doze and watch the waves roll in. m

/ winter 2010 / Lawrence Magazine

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events d e c e mb e r

january

FAIR TRADE CHRISTMAS FAIR

EAGLE DAY

gift market to support international artisans in low-income countries. 8 a.m.-7 p.m. (785) 843-4933; ecmku@ku.edu

Live bald eagle, Eco Elvis and educational presentations to celebrate the return of the bald eagle to local habitats. Kansas River viewing excursions included. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (785) 843-7665

November 26-December 5 / ECUMENICAL CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES Global fair trade

FESTIVAL OF TREES

NOVEMBER 29-2 / LIBERTY HALL Annual display of artistically decorated trees to benefit The Shelter Inc. Trees are open to the public on Nov. 29-Dec. 2; auction night Nov. 30. Donations accepted for viewing, tickets required for auction. (785) 843-2085

GINGERBREAD FESTIVAL VIEWING AND AUCTION

December 3-8 / ELDRIDGE EXTENDED

January 23 / FREE STATE HIGH SCHOOL

CAJUN NIGHTS WITH BILLY SPEARS AND THE BEER BELLIES

January 5 & 19 (and first and third Wednesday of each month) / JOHNNY’S TAVERN Lawrence musical legend

Billy Spears (see article on page 50) and his band perform country, Cajun, blues and ballads … all before bedtime. 6-9:30 p.m. FINAL FRIDAYS

Amateurs and professionals compete in the annual gingerbread house extravaganza. Donations accepted for viewing. Houses are auctioned on the final night. Proceeds benefit Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Douglas County. (785) 843-7359

January 28 (and the last Friday of every month) / VARIOUS LOCATIONS

HOLIDAY VESPERS

february

The KU Symphonic Choir and the KU Symphony Orchestra lead two performances of this annual holiday music concert. 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (785) 864-2787

VAN GO’S HAVE A HEART

PORTRAITS BY MOLLY MURPHY, JOHN SEBELIUS AND FRIENDS

SPENCER WALK-INS WELCOME

December 4 / LIED CENTER

December 4 – January 9 / LAWRENCE PERCOLATOR

Original artwork by local painter Molly Murphy, designer John Sebelius and others. www.lawrence-percolator.blogspot. com

Works by individual artists and Lawrence’s art collectives (see article on page 76) are displayed at various locations throughout Lawrence. 6 p.m.-close (785) 842-3883

February 4 / VAN GO MOBILE ARTS

Unique romance-themed gifts created by local student artists in the Van Go programs. (785) 842-3797 February 4 (and every Friday) / SPENCER MUSEUM OF ART Enjoy a

personal, up-close encounter with works of art from the Spencer (see article on p. 80). Free admission. 10 a.m.-noon and 1 p.m.-4 p.m. (785) 864-4710 SOUPER BOWL

HOLIDAY HOMES TOUR

February 5 / LAWRENCE ARTS CENTER

annual tour of homes decorated for the holidays. Ticket proceeds benefit Health Care Access Clinic. Noon. (785) 841-5760

BLACK VIOLIN

December 5 / VARIOUS LOCATIONS Sixth

DOWNTOWN LAWRENCE OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS PARADE

December 5 / MASSACHUSETTS STREET

Horse-drawn wagons and Santa Claus parade through Downtown Lawrence. 11 a.m. KU JAZZ VESPERS

December 9 / LIED CENTER University

of Kansas bands perform seasonal music. 7:30 p.m. Tickets and information at (785) 864-3367 HOLIDAY FARMERS’ MARKET

Soup served in a handmade ceramic bowl to celebrate football and art. 11 a.m. Tickets and information (785) 843-2787 February 6 / LIED CENTER

A blend of classical music and hiphop from award-winning trio. 7:30 p.m. Tickets and information (785) 864-2787 BAROQUE BY CANDLELIGHT

February 19 / TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Candlelight performance of 18thcentury classical masterpieces followed by reception of gourmet desserts. 7 p.m. Tickets and information (785) 691-7824

December 12 / KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS HALL Local farmers, bakers and

artisans sell natural and homemade holiday crafts and food. 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

All events are subject to change E-mail your upcoming events for the calendar to lawrencemagazine@ljworld.com

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