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Fall 2015
The Special is an online magazine produced by journalism students at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Content and production are the responsibilities of the students. The Special is produced during the fall and spring semesters. Contact: The Special, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Box 4104, Commerce, Texas 75428. Staff: Matthew Allen, Wesley Sharp, David Stutsman, Travis Hairgrove, Keilah Whitaker, Kerry Wilso, Zene Amaning Faculty Adviser: Fred Stewart (Fred.Stewart@tamuc.edu)
What’s inside this issue
Pride Marching Band - something special By Matthew Allen
The love of art By Zene Amaning
Cricket City - laughs since 1999 By Wesley Sharp
The show must go on By David Stutsman
All that jazz ByTravis Hairgrove
KETR at 40 By Keilah Whitaker
Pride Marching Band presents ‘something special’ in each performance for audiences By Matthew Allen When people describe the fundamental elements of college life, the topic of music generally comes up. At Texas A&M University – Commerce, the music is definitely a part of what makes campus life manageable and in Commerce, the university has a marching band that surpasses other universities. One of the notable highlights of the music department is the Pride Marching Band, under the direction of Alan Goodwin. “We work hard to make sure we bring something special in our performance to the faculty, staff and community,” he said. “We try our very best to bring forth a show that is both musically and visually exemplary to our audience.”
The Pride Marching Band, described as the largest and most spirited organization at A&M-Commerce, perform for more than 50,000 people each year through home football games, various special appearances and competitions around Texas. Among the special appearances are exhibitions at the Northeast Texas Marching Classic and the Area C Marching Contests. Each year the band performs a different show. The 2014-2015 show was described as an “electronic infused show,” titled “Burning Down the House” which was performed at football games at exhibitions. The title of the 2015 program, “Thunder Struck,” is described as “a term used to describe the state of being utterly shocked or astounded beyond
words.” In his detailed show description, Goodwin adds “The ‘Pride’ Marching Band traditionally has this effect on audiences around the Metroplex, and this year will be no exception as we quite literally take the field by storm. The design team hopes to bring to life the beauty, majesty, intensity and occasional fun of stormy weather, from lightning to thunder to the awesome energy of a hurricane.” The band is under the field leadership of drum majors Ben Underbrink, Tha-Tu Nguyen and Rebecca Bouley. Membership in this prestigious band is not limited to those who are music majors. “What makes our band so unique is that anyone can audition to be a member,” Goodwin said. “It
is not just open to music majors. We feel that it helps add diversity to our organization if everyone feels like they have a chance to become a part of the Pride Marching Band.” While the audition process is advanced and made to be challenging, the feeling that one
gets when they hear the news that they have made the cut is a feeling of both relief and happiness. The requirements for a spot in the band is that the applicant fills out an audition application, followed by a series of interviews and sight-reading audition as well as an audition playing with the
specific part of the band that they want to join. The applicant must have a GPA of 2.0 in order to try out, be committed to attend practice three days a week during the fall semester and attend all home games unless they have a valid excuse.
The love of art
By Zene Amaning
Kamron Jones and Juan Cruz developed their love of art in different ways and for different reasons that lead both to pursue a degree in art. Jones had an older step-brother who was good at drawing and this motivated him to be better.
“Jealousy made me enjoy art,” Jones said, “not only from my brother but art was a way I could express myself and however I’m feeling at the time.” In elementary school taking art classes, Jones began to develop his skill for tracing from comic books, pictures or anything that caught his attention. In high school he entered a St. Patricks Day art contest of drawing the best leprechaun or anything dealing with St. Patricks Day. He won the contest and his leprechaun was displayed around his high school (Samuel High School in Dallas). He also won $100. As he got older, he developed a love for tattoos and decided to go to college to improve
his artistic skills. He didn’t want to come to school for anything else but drawing to become a tattoo artist with one day having his own shop and becoming “a worldknown tattoo artist.” Jones enjoys art classes in 3-D design, color theory and 2-D design. His favorite is 3-D design which includes drawing a nude set in a dark area with a light on the person. “It shows different things other than someone naked and the way different people are built,” he said.
“Jealousy made me enjoy art” Kamron Jones
Cruz said he is good at a lot of things but art makes him happy. Cruz developed interest in art in first grade but ignored it until the seventh grade. “The school focused on me and my art teacher
was very supportive and helped gain my interest in art,” Cruz said. “Mr. Tolleson was super cool” and taught him a lot of things he still uses when drawing. In high school, Cruz and his friend Akil Akbar began an independent project and developed an art club with 10 members. With the help of his art teacher they were “very successful.” Cruz said Tolleson would guide them and introduced them to different artists around the Metroplex such as Paul Windor (designer for New York Times, ESPN, CNN) and June-bug (Phresh Coffee designer). The art club worked on a weekly project called Books Zine, a small book that had everyone’s art work in it. After college Cruz is working to get his own working studio to work in. “I want to build work to sell for money,” he said. A side hobby he enjoys is taking photos and he feels it is all “a part of art.” Until he has his own business, Cruz would like to work as a commercial photographer, focusing on food travel photos for magazines. o
Generating laughs since 1999 Improv group provides opportunities to gain confidence and rid fears By Wesley Sharp
Cricket City, a comedic improv group, unites students with different backgrounds and majors to spread laughter and entertainment throughout the campus of Texas A&M UniversityCommerce. Cricket City, formed and recognized on campus in 1999, is a 14-member organization specializing in improvisational absurdity and working well with other peers. Over the years, the improv group has performed in competitions across the nation including national comedy festivals and conventions in Austin, Dallas, Chicago and New York which
sometimes leads to collaboration with professional improv groups. Under the supervision of theatre professor and faculty adviser Jim Tyler Anderson, Cricket City continues to grow in reputation and membership. Senior member and assistant director Ronald Leonard has been with the organization since 2012 and is one of five returning members. Although most members have some experience in theatre, many have been in and out of the program and are neither theater majors nor minors. Leonard, a radio/ television major, said Cricket City can help students in their individual major.
“We like different majors within Cricket because we promote diversity, and it can help a student with all kinds of aspects within their major whether it’s building confidence in critical thinking, public speaking, or meeting deadlines,” Leonard said. Leonard admits that he joined the group because he wasn’t always the most outgoing person, however, Cricket City has guided him and other students in the right direction towards breaking out of their shell. Students involved, tend to further improve their problem solving and collaboration skills in the outside world which most employers are looking for.
Anderson knows collaboration is essential for improved conditions. “Members will work-out with top notch improv groups and get some of their insight……We’ve got a lot of allies in the Dallas area, at the House of Comedy, and places like that, that quite often provide venues for the troops,” Anderson said. The current improv team is in what they call a rebuilding stage, referring to the number of current members versus the number of new members. Cricket City often host two or three free or inexpensive shows per semester, usually in the Performance Arts Center, Hall of Language, or the University Amphitheater. Every Friday night in October, Cricket City will do a complete improv horror movie which is usually a parody of a well-known movie. Also, at the
beginning of each semester, the group will have auditions for students interested in membership with the next audition opportunity in January.
“Just the idea that you can do it and have confidence in yourself and get rid of the fear, that’s the main thing improv does for everyone, it helps them get over the fear,” Anderson said.
For Chad Pope ‘the show must go on’ Working behind the scenes keeps returning student busy By David Stutsman There are all types of actors at Texas A&M UniversityCommerce and one that has been in multiple shows since 2006 is Chad Pope, an actor and technical director for the theatre.
In the theatre, “there is one shot to make it work and whatever happens, the show must go on,” Pope said. He started his undergraduate studies in 2006, left school, came back in 2008, then left again to work in theatre in Waco. In 2011, he came back to A&M-Commerce to continue his bachelor’s degree which he finished in 2013. He is now working on his masters degree. Productions Pope has been part of include “Once Upon a Mattress,” “Into the West,” and his first appearance in “Ballerinas Choose Your Weapons.” Pope claims to be a Commerce local since he moved to town with his parents in the third grade. This is when he became interested in acting, early on from church when two professionallytrained mimes visited and performed. After high school, he joined the Navy and took time away from theatre. The late Jan Swart helped influence him into getting back into shows when she cast him in one of her shows. Actors have their ways of
getting into character. Pope is a stern believer in memorizing, not just his own lines, but all the lines of a show and knowing the material backward and forward. “The people that make the shows possible are the ones working behind the scenes that the audience never see’s, otherwise known as the crucial cogs of the show,” Pope said. There are other aspects the audience never sees and the actor’s job is to, “play their part as if it is the first time and lead the audience to believe it is genuine,” Pope said.
To prepare for a show, there is meditation, breathing exercises, physical stretches, vocal warm-ups and “energize games.” Some actors who live their role are called method actors but Pope has had the most success researching the plays and knowing the entire show inside and out so if someone makes a mistake or drops a line, “the show must go on.” Pope has also been working with the “Cricket City” musical and in the future hopes to take his acting to the next level.
All that jazz By Travis Hairgrove From 1989-2008, Texas A&M University-Commerce’s public radio station KETR aired a program called The Art of Sound, offering audiences five hours’ worth of jazz music plus interviews with famous jazz musicians five nights per week. Serving an indomitable desire to share his passion for the music he loved, the show’s host Mark Chapman put in countless extra hours finding sponsors for his spot, took on additional responsibilities at the station and tirelessly advocated for his program throughout his tenure at 88.9, all with the sole mission of insuring that jazz could be heard in the Hunt and Hopkins County area. While a majority of musicians of the baby boomer generation cite the arrival of the Beatles as an inciting incident in their early musical lives, the 63year-old Chapman has a slightly different narrative. “Actually, I can remember when I was an itty bitty boy, seeing Louis Armstrong [trumpter/ vocalist] on the Ed Sullivan or
Red Skelton show,” Chapman said. “There was just something. I don’t know what, it was just something…but in 1963, when I was 9 years old, my mom came home with a Woody Herman [clarinetist] album. She listened to it only like one time, as it was more progressive than she was expecting. Jake Hannah was the drummer. Bill Chase was on lead trumpet. Sammy Nestico [trombonist] was in that band…I mean it was a kickass band. “I wore that album out. I listened to that album all the time. I could sing the tunes on the way to school. My favorite tune was the last piece on the album, written by Bill Chase, called Camel Walk. Really…that was my favorite album when I was nine years old.” As young Chapman was listening to the sounds of jazz, he was also experimenting with making some noise of his own. “When I was a little baby, I would pull the pots and pans out of the bottom drawer in the kitchen, get some spoons and just bang around…and yeah, the first musical instrument I asked for was
a drum,” said Chapman. “I got a snare drum from the Sears Roebuck catalog that was not a quality snare drum by any means, but it was a snare drum. Later, with the Beatles influence, I did get a guitar…and it was a Sears Roebuck guitar, too… and it never stayed in tune. I took lessons, but the only thing I got out of them was how to tune the guitar, because we spent every lesson tuning the guitar. “All I know is how to tune a guitar, and then have it immediately go out of tune. So… yeah, I got into beginner 6th grade band. The band director thought I had the perfect embouchure [lip structure] for trombone, but the fact that I walked in with a pair of sticks in my back pocket and a practice pad showed that I’d already invested, so he signed me up as a percussionist.” Chapman continued his musical studies throughout high school, in which he played with the school concert, marching and jazz bands, as well as several teen rock bands outside of school. After graduating, he enrolled at (then) East Texas State University as a music major, only to find that it
wasn’t a good fit for him.
elsewhere.”
“You get out of high school and into college, and you want to play…so it was a bit discouraging to me in that I auditioned and got a scholarship as a music major, and then came in and realized that they were trying to teach me how to teach, but I wanted to play,” said Chapman. “Within a few weeks of coming my freshman year, I had a friend who had cancer and he was the drummer at a local [Commerce] club. He was playing there four nights-a-week, so he asked me if I could fill in for him, but as it turned out, he didn’t come back, and I kept that gig for four years…so I was playing in this club. It was in the early days of disco [1972], and this particular discotheque was called the Electric Circus, and they had a DJ with a live drummer, so you played along with the songs. Before long, I got gigs doing the same thing at the Ice House and the Mug, and I was working seven nights-a-week. That was what I wanted to do. I was getting paid for playing. I was a professional musician. I was a professional drummer.
Over the next 13 years, Chapman continued to keep a busy work schedule as a professional drummer and took classes for stints at both Paris Junior College and the University of North Texas (changing his major twice, from music to business, and then from business to psychology), but eventually moved back to Sulphur Springs to help his aging parents with their ranch.
“I was loving what I did, but working at clubs until midnight or after midnight, and then hanging out…I didn’t make very many classes, so I lost the music scholarship pretty quickly, and I didn’t do well in school. In fact, I was asked to not come back until I could bring my GPA up
In 1985, Chapman was hired at Sulphur Springs radio station, KDXE, to work the midnight to 6 a.m. shift as a disc jockey. As he was being trained, he was told that from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. “he was his only listener,” and therefore encouraged to play whatever music he wanted. Chapman’s unofficial jazz show, played in the wee hours on KDXE, soon evolved into the first incarnation of The Art of Sound. “At KDXE, because of the call letters, they called it Dixie 96,” said Chapman. “The first time I did the two-hour [official jazz] show, the name that I came up with for that program was The Sound That Originated in the Heart of Dixie…kind of a paragraph of a name. Then it got shortened to just The Sound…but it still needed something…so literally, I picked up a dictionary and I looked up the definition of music. One of the definitions was, ‘the art of sound,’ and I said, ‘That’s it.’ That was
what I was looking for…but also, when it comes to the freer jazz or more avant garde stuff, one of my favorite bands is a quintet called The Art Ensemble of Chicago, so that just fell right in. It just made sense.” In 1989, Chapman made the move to A&M-Commerce’s KETR, where he continued the show’s “this day in jazz” history format, where he would play music from jazz albums recorded or released on those days, or would feature only recordings featuring one particular musician in honor of their birthday. One of the highlights of The Art of Sound, though, was the interviews with imminent jazz musicians. “An interview I had with Hank Jones [pianist] is my favorite, and it was a surprise all the way around,” said Chapman. “I actually had an interview lined up for that night with James Moody [saxophonist], which I was really looking forward to, but on the day of the interview, when I came to work his promoter called and told me he had the flu, and that he was too weak to talk. According to her, she had talked to him and he was losing his voice after 10 seconds, or something like that…so she said she could probably line up for me an interview with Hank Jones. “Of course, I had already brought all my stuff from home
that had James Moody on it, but I don’t think I brought anything from home with Hank Jones, but I said, ‘Yeah. That’d be great.’ Then… as it turned out, we had a storm and our transmitter went down. All the computers went down and had to be rebooted, too. About 45 minutes before my show, his promoter called back and told me he was willing to do it and gave me his phone number…so I was writing down Hank Jones’ phone number as I was still rebooting computers.” “So…I had an interview with one of the icons of not just jazz, but of American music,
period,” Chapman continued. “This guy was the house pianist on the Ed Sullivan Show for 12 years. All I had was the Grove Dictionary of Jazz, where I looked up Hank Jones…so I called him up, and we went on the air…and I basically just went through [Jones’ entry in the Grove Dictionary], chronologically. So…from ‘Hey. How are you doing?’ it went to, ‘Why the piano?’ and then I asked him about his younger brothers, Thad Jones who played trumpet and Elven Jones who played drums. So he talked about growing up in that household, then I was
in the Grove book, just farming along for questions…asked him about Thelonious Monk [pianist], Dizzy Gillespie and Mile Davis [trumpeters], which led up to his recording with Charlie Parker [saxophonist], and then on and on. “At the end of the interview, he said the greatest complement I literally ever got from anyone. He said, ‘Mark. This has got to be the best interview I’ve ever done, because not only did you ask the right questions, but you asked each of them in the right way.’”
KETR: 40 and going strong intended for RTV students, the first on-air broadcast occurred in Forty years of news, history, 1975, and since then the station and radio are being celebrated by has become a local and national local radio station KETR 89.9 FM success. More than just a regionthis fall. wide broadcasting station, KETR is also still a laboratory and KETR is an NPR classroom for journalism and broadcasting station that also radio/ television students of Texas specializes in sports updates, A&M University - Commerce various music genres, weather and to learn and develop the proper local to national news updates. broadcasting knowledge and skills The station developed in the early for future careers. 1970’s, when the director of the East Texas State University radioThe station’s general television program, Dr. David manager and 2005 A&M Rigney, had developed an FCC Commerce graduate Jerrod Knight application for a broadcasting spoke about what he does, the station on campus. Primarily By Keilah Whitaker
station’s accomplishments, and the functions of the radio station. “I am the person that makes all of the program decisions, using feedback to know what will be successful. I also protect the broadcast license that A&MCommerce has had since 1975,” Knight said. “When I was a student here, my major was in RTV and then, I knew this was what I wanted to do- well something in this profession.” Fostering an environment wherein professionals and students work together to create and produce programming provides
excellent opportunities for students of A&M – Commerce, but Knight believes the station’s focus should still remain on creating professional-quality materials. “The primary focus is NPR news and to provide high quality programs as well as local and national news. Also, we function off of feedback from the community, so we have this obligation to tell the community what’s going on all of the time,” Knight said. “I think our biggest accomplishment is this sort of untold story of our major success. Despite our size and location, being a college station we win multiple awards from various national news professionals.” These accolades go a long way towards providing the type of
recognition an operation such as this requires to stay alive. As with many public radio outfits, funding for KETR comes from a variety of sources, not the least of which being the good will of their patrons. “The main thing I want people to know is how we are funded. Our most dependable way to gain money from consumers is to cater to our listeners through fundraisers and special programs put on by the station,” Knight said. “We are all about the people and we think it’s important that people get to dial us up and give us feedback and opinions. We also gain revenue through underwriting from corporations and we have a community service grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
Dr.
Who By Kerry Wilson One cannot help but notice the blue “Doctor Who” police box door while touring the Ferguson Social Sciences Building. If thought about long enough, the notion might arise to ask the person behind the door if it is OK to close the door and take a picture in front of it. The answer that will most likely be given is yes, because for Professor Jeffrey Herndon (the person behind the door), the television show “Doctor Who” is a novelty to be shared amongst everyone. Herndon, associate professor and interim head of the Political Science Department, is known at Texas A&M University-Commerce as being an avid fan of “Doctor Who.” His love for the show spans back to when he was a little boy. “I grew up with Tom Baker as Doctor Who,” Herndon said. “I’m ancient of days. I mean, I grew up with “Doctor Who” on PBS. But, to be honest, although the shows were good, they were not as good as the new “Who” is – the new “Who” came back in 2005. I immediately glommed onto it. I grew up with it and then kind of rediscovered it when it came back.” Herndon said his interest in “Doctor Who” is something that grew naturally from a childhood filled with science fiction and fantasy literature. “I was always a fan of science fiction and fantasy stuff,” he said. “I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy when I was a kid, so it was a natural progression. I was into kind of nerd stuff before being into nerd stuff was
considered cool. There was a time that people don’t remember when nerdy kind of tech stuff was not as cool as it is now. People don’t remember that, but there was.” Herndon’s love for the show has even extended to the style of his dark blue Mini Cooper equipped with a “Doctor Who” sign on top and artwork on the back. “The car is an idea that I had for quite a while,” Herndon said. “It’s an idea that I’ve been playing around with. The car is relatively new. I’ve only had the car like two months. My old car basically died, and the cost to repair it was the cost of a down payment. At that time, this particular car became available. “Mini” is quintessentially an English car, even though most of them are now made in Austria, but when people think “Mini,” they think England. “Doctor Who” is quintessentially an English show, and I thought ‘How cool would it be to combine the Mini Cooper with “Doctor Who,”’ and then you have this kind of cultural “thing.” When I
got the car, it was always with the idea in the back of my head that I would do something to Tardisize (Tardis, time and relative dimension in space, is a time machine within the “Doctor Who” series) it. I met a guy through the mini dealership who does graphics and he was kind enough to do the signage and stuff and to install it for me. I just think it’s so much fun.”
took a picture of the other side. Then they got behind me and took another picture. Then they came by and gave me a thumbs up when they went by. This is all driving at 70 mph down the George Bush.
“But that happens all the time that people will pass it – rarely do I see a driver, which is good, don’t try to take a picture of my car if you’re Herndon’s car is such an driving, because it’s not safe,” he eye catcher, that people have gone said. “I see numerous people taking to the lengths of letting passengers pictures as I’m kind of tooling down take pictures of his car from all sides the highway. It makes a lot of people – while driving on the George Bush smile. I have never really gotten an Freeway going 70 mph. ugly look about it, but I have gotten a lot of people who smile and give I will be driving down the me thumbs up when they’re driving George Bush, and I can see people in past. It’s fun and people seem to like my rearview mirror taking pictures it. I forget that the outside of the car is of the back of the car,” Herndon said. what it is. But, when somebody pulls “The other day I was driving down the up next to me and I see somebody’s George Bush, and a car came up on phone out, I know it’s not about me, my left side, and the passenger took it’s about the car.” a picture of that side of the car. They went in front of the car, and they took As a professor in political a picture of the front of the car. They science, Herndon does not have a slowed down and got on the other side, problem talking about “Doctor Who” and any other references to culture in his class. He said he sees them as opportunities to not only make his classes interesting, but to discuss their impact in society.
“In the classes I teach, other stuff comes up, because it’s just the nature of what we do in political science,” Herndon said. “I have been known to talk about pop culture, because it has an influence over our kind of social existence, our political existence. What happens in the world and what happens in pop culture influences us as a society. I rarely feel guilty for talking about kind of pop culture stuff. I try to make classes as interesting as I can, and if I can figure out a way to use “Doctor Who” to explain something, I will.”