Vox Magazine 11.09.17

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HACKING FOR GOOD Local entrepreneurs and developers team up to solve problems with data PAGE 4

WARM UP, CHILL OUT Find your tune at one of Columbia’s music-loving coffee shops PAGE 12

SAVING RADIO

Preserving America’s radio history starts right here in Missouri pg. 6

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IN THIS ISSUE

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November 9, 2017 VOLUME 19 ISSUE 30 | PUBLISHED BY THE COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN

FEATURE Most of the country’s recorded radio has been lost to the sands of time. But local radio engineer Steve Morse is trying to change that. By using digitization, he and the Missouri Broadcasters Association are protecting America’s auditory history. PAGE 6 NEWS & INSIGHT This weekend, CoMo’s developers and entrepreneurs unite to Hack For Social Good and create solutions to local issues. PAGE 4 THE SCENE From shirtwaists in the 1900s to slogan tees in 2017, feminist fashion has long been a staple in history. Check out how it has evolved over the years. PAGE 5 MUSIC Want to escape the cold? Head to one of CoMo’s coffee shops, where the music is just as important as the drinks. PAGE 12 ARTS & BOOKS Impatient theater nerds, this one’s for you: Talking Horse Productions is hosting its third annual Starting Gate New Play Festival, which features 10-minute plays. PAGE 13

THE CHRISTMAS CREEP Christmas has already begun in Columbia.

Storefronts are filled with holiday trees, snowflake lights have taken over Broadway, and Starbucks is doling out seasonal cups. But are we neglecting to appreciate Thanksgiving, our holiday of gratitude?

CAULIFLOWER OVER CARBS Whether you’re trying to eat fewer carbs or just looking to add more veggies to your diet, these recipes prove that cauliflower can be a substitute in almost any dish.

ACHIEVING THE AMERICAN DREAM In this video, Thai Express owner Somsak Tuankrua discusses the grand opening of his new restaurant, Bonsai Sushi, and how he found success in the U.S. as a Thai immigrant.

EDITOR’S LETTER

Q&A: HANNAH REEVES Bleach, fabric and postmortem portraits are the facets of Hannah Reeves’ work. The Sager Braudis Gallery director is showing her art at the gallery’s current exhibition. PAGE 14 CORRECTIONS: From the Oct. 26 issue, director Stefanie Sparks’ name was spelled incorrectly.

COVER DESIGN: CHRISTY PRUST COVER PHOTO: EMILY JOHNSON

MADISON FLECK EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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The digital world is a great place to be. I can take photos on my phone and upload them to my computer, and I can read all of my books on my Kindle. I can have all of my music in one place, and I can read this magazine online.

But what about the photos in my parents’ albums of my grandfather teaching me to fish? They’re collecting dust on a shelf. What about my copy of Dr. Seuss’ Oh the Places You’ll Go, in which my mom wrote a note to me when I graduated from high school? It’s in my parents’ basement, probably covered in mildew.

This is a sign that I need to take better care of the things I value … but it’s also proof that in the preoccupation with documenting the here and now, we can’t forget to preserve documentation of the past.

That’s exactly what’s happening in radio stations across the country. Everything is digital, and the reels of old music and radio broadcasts are either collecting dust in a basement storage closet or in a landfill somewhere. It wasn’t until 2014 that anyone realized the scope of this problem: At least 75 percent of America’s recorded radio has been lost. This week’s feature (Page 6) shows how an effort in Missouri is trying to rectify this.

For the past year, as part of a Missouri Broadcasters Association initiative, radio stations in St. Louis, Kansas City and Jefferson City have been compiling radio archives from all over the country, some dating back to as early as 1931. Steve Morse, Zimmer Radio Group’s chief engineer, is helping digitize those reel-to-reels.

Morse has taken on the task as a personal project. It’s time-consuming work, but he and others included in the project see that the effort now will make sure the sounds of the past don’t die out.

VOX STAFF Editor: Madison Fleck Deputy Editor: Sten Spinella Managing Editor: Kelsie Schrader Digital Managing Editor: Lea Konczal Multimedia Editor: Meg Vatterott Online Editor: Brooke Vaughan Art Directors: Keegan Pope, Alexandra Wozniczka Photo Editor: Erin Bormett News & Insight Editors: Lauren Puckett, Rachel Treece The Scene Editors: Brea Cubit, Brooke Kottmann, Lily Zhao Music Editors: Lis Joyce, Amanda Lundgren Arts & Books Editors: Karlee Renkoski, Mary Salatino, Micki Wagner Contributing Writers: Taylor Banks, Emma Beyer, Kristin Blake, Alex Edwards, Jasmine-Kay Johnson, Kaylin Jones, Caroline Kealy, Meghan Lally, Rick Morgan, Rachel Phillips, Bianca Rodriguez, John Sadler, Samantha Stokes, Caroline Watkins, Meghan Weinewuth, Catherine Wendlandt, Chloe Wilt Editorial Director: Heather Lamb Executive Editor: Jennifer Rowe Digital Director: Sara Shipley Hiles Office Manager: Kim Townlain

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PHOTOS BY EMILY JOHNSON AND RILEY NEWTON

RADAR

Vox’s take on the talk of the week

A PATTERN OF VIOLENCE

Since Sunday’s massacre at a small-town Texas church, we’ve learned the gunman was discharged from the U.S. Air Force for assaulting his wife and stepson. A mass shooting committed by a domestic violence offender isn’t uncommon. Laws prevent them from purchasing firearms, but these perpetrators still accounted for more than half — 54 percent, to be exact — of mass shootings between 2009 and 2016, according to NPR.

FOR BOOKIES AND MOVIE BUFFS Who says a love of books and a love of movies have to be mutually exclusive? We’ve rounded up a few upcoming book-to-movie releases.

ACCEPTANCE WINS

Virginia Democrat Danica Roem made history on Tuesday when she became the first transgender woman to be elected to a state legislature. Roem ousted Robert G. Marshall, who introduced a transgender “bathroom bill” that was killed in committee earlier this year. He has also referred to himself as Virginia’s “chief homophobe” and turned this electoral season ugly when he targeted Roem’s transgender identity in ads. With the win, Roem has joined a small fraction of openly transgender officials to serve in any level of elected office in the U.S.

Murder on the Orient Express, out tomorrow Based on Agatha Christie’s novel, this film creates a suspenseful mystery to solve before murder strikes again.

Wonder, out Nov. 17 R.J. Palacio’s book comes to life in this adaptation following a boy with facial differences entering fifth grade.

Call Me by Your Name, out Nov. 24 First shown at the Sundance Film Festival, the movie version of André Aciman’s novel revisits the ’80s when a 17-yearold decides to spend the summer with family in Italy.

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MUSIC MATTERS

NOTHING BUT NET (PROFIT) Thanks to the hiring of coach Cuonzo Martin and the recruiting of notable players such as Michael Porter Jr., many fans have high hopes for the Mizzou men’s basketball team. Ticket sales and the team’s ranking has soared, as has the anticipation for tomorrow’s game.

8 — number of games the team won last season, the fewest since 1966 6,028 — number of student season ticket combos purchased, which covers football and basketball games 9,572 — total number of public season tickets sold, a 4,000-ticket increase since last year and a record for Mizzou Arena 8 p.m. — time the Tigers take on Iowa State; will be shown on SEC Network

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Written by: Brea Cubit, Rachel Treece, Micki Wagner PHOTOS BY OR COURTESY OF AMAZON, AP IMAGES, PIXABAY AND ALEXANDRA WOZNICZKA

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NEWS & INSIGHT

When hacking is heroic, not harmful Developer teams are tackling community challenges with a nontraditional take on hacking BY ANTHONY ASHLEY The word “hacking” might conjure up some shady images: stolen identities; tarnished elections; maybe even an actor on the big screen furiously tapping at a keyboard before whispering, “I’m in.”

But the Hack For Social Good event, happening in Columbia from Nov. 10 to 12, is about a different definition of hacking ­— one that focuses on solving problems rather than creating them.

The idea grew from a project developed between community police and the Columbia Area Career Center students. Earlier this year, local police officers noticed they met many people on their patrols who were looking for work but felt unable to find job opportunities. Meanwhile, companies in Columbia were struggling to track down enough employees to operate and expand due to Columbia’s growth and relatively low unemployment rate.

In response, students at the Career Center worked with the police department to create and test an app to fix this problem. Although it is currently only being tested, the app will allow community officers who encounter unemployed people to check for available job listings and even set up meetings between the unemployed and hiring companies.

Collin Bunch is the entrepreneurship coordinator at Regional Economic Development Inc. He and

others at REDI wanted to replicate the technological problem-solving success of the students at the Career Center. REDI teamed up with DevComo, a local group of developers, to put together the Hack For Social Good event.

“It is really about having people that are passionate about the community and solving problems,” Bunch says.

REDI reached out to local nonprofits to see what social problems — such as those dealing with unemployment, cost of living, etc. ­— need to be addressed. Participants are also allowed to propose their own ideas, so long as they deal with a social issue.

Attendees will then break into teams and start working.

The problem solving is where the hacking comes in.

Than Som, an entrepreneur and one of the organizers with DevComo, says “hacking is about finding what the problem is, then it is about asking, ‘What can I do?’ and figuring out a way to solve it.”

“Hacking,” in the context of this event, is really another way of saying “thinking outside the box.” It can include coding, app creation, design, business analysis and more, but there are no set boundaries. Hacking is all about finding the quickest and most effective solution to a predicament, even if it is not a perfect fix.

The dangerous and illegal forms of hacking are actually what Som calls “cracking.” Cracking involves

gaining unauthorized access to computer systems with malicious intent. There will be no cracking at the event.

All the data used to learn about problems and find solutions will be from public, open sources or used with permission.

After the teams have the weekend to meet up and hack away, they will present their prototypes or applications to three judges, and prize-winners will be declared. Their concepts can then be refined and turned into testable, viable solutions.

“This event is more for the heart than anything,” Som says. “It is an opportunity for people to contribute to the community. We want to grow together.”

HACK FOR SOCIAL GOOD Friday, 7 p.m. to Sunday, 5:30 p.m.

Regional Economic Development Inc., 500 E. Walnut St., Free, Register at eventbrite.com.

MARKETPLACE OPEN ENROLLMENT

NOV 1 - DEC 15

WE CAN HELP WITH FREE AND CONFIDENTIAL ASSISTANCE.

EVENT: OPEN ENROLLMENT EVENT - COLUMBIA LOCATION: DANIEL BOONE REGIONAL LIBRARY 573.817.8338 WWW.MIDMOICS.ORG 100 W BROADWAY, COLUMBIA, MO 65203 @MIDMOICS DATE: EVERY SATURDAY (11/4 - 12/9) @MIDMOICS TIME: 9:30AM - 4PM (- NOON ON 11/25) 4

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ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXANDRA WOZNICZKA AND PIXABAY

THE SCENE

Wearing your rights on your sleeves Since the 1900s, women have used attire to support gender equality When Donald Trump became the U.S. president one year ago, many feminists across the nation united to express their disapproval. Demonstrations were held globally, including cities in Missouri such as Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and Columbia. Signs that read, “Rise up, woman” and “Resist” fluttered in the air during the marches.

But one of the major ways modern feminists have continued to express their views amid political discourse is through fashion. Bright pink, handknit “pussy” hats and shirts with “nasty woman” printed across them are just two of many popularized feminist style

choices. “Marginalized groups have taken denigrating language and used it to empower themselves,” says Lori Hall-Araujo, an assistant professor at Stephens College’s School of Design.

By taking what’s considered vulgar language and instead using it to advocate for women’s rights, Hall-Araujo says people are forced to take note of the movement.

In February, notable designers at New York Fashion Week showcased apparel with political implications.

Nepalese-American designer Prabal Gurung dedicated a large portion of his collection to T-shirts that declared

BY GABRIELA MARTINEZ and apparel management associate professor Jean Parsons, women in the early 1900s often wore shirtwaists, which echoed a common style of menswear. Decades later, prominent American designers, notably Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, created and sold menswear-inspired shirts and layered separates that featured straight-leg pants and structured outerwear for women.

As a nod to the history of feminist fashion, here are a few ensembles that women have donned to encourage breaking down societal barriers and enabling female empowerment.

“We should all be feminists” and “Nevertheless, she persisted.” Michelle Smith, founder of the label Milly, named her collection “Fractured,” which featured deconstructed ensembles to visually represent a splintered government system.

Supporting feminism through fashion isn’t a new tactic as much as it is a metamorphic one. The first two waves of feminism in the early and mid-1900s were also imbued with women’s wardrobe transformations that demonstrated gender equality.

According to 20th-Century Dress in the United States, co-authored by MU textile

MID-TO-LATE 1900s: Equal pay was a major topic during this time, and structured silhouettes influenced by menswear became a trend.

PRESENT DAY: The scope of feminism has widened to also address the intersection of race and gender. Apparel with one-word mottos continues to be a major way in which feminists present their views.

EARLY 1900s: Many women were fighting for the right to vote. Wearing garments such as “masculine” shirtwaists was one way they dissented.

PRESENT DAY: Feminists have become even more outspoken.

Issues such as equality in the workplace have inspired women to declare their value through slogan tees.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY BREA CUBIT; SOURCE: 20TH-CENTURY DRESS IN THE UNITED STATES

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Live on,

RADIO

Protecting the soundtrack of our country, one reel at a time

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WRITTEN BY KAT CUA PHOTOS BY EMILY JOHNSON, MATT HORN AND TREVOR HOOK

Z

immer Radio has a basement closet labeled “Record Library.” Some would consider it a waste of space. Not Steve Morse — he’s sentimental.

The record library was previously located in the break room, and that’s where jockeys would pull records to play on their shows. Now, the records remain in the basement, where harsh lighting beams down on the cold room. Floor-toceiling shelves stand against concrete walls holding records. They tower over boxes and piles and heaps of, well, stuff. Old radio equipment is stacked on top of turntables. Cables lie coiled in a corner.

Cartridges sit on top of easy-listening records. All of it is gathering dust.

But Morse’s sentimentality is warranted. Before he was Zimmer Radio’s chief engineer, he was the program director of KWOS, a Jefferson City news and talk radio station. And even before that, he was a disc jockey for the station as a junior in high school.

He worked Saturday mornings. “It was country music,” Morse says. “And I didn’t care about country music. I was into rock. But I listened to Johnny (Music, a DJ whose slot Morse ended up taking over) for years as a kid. My dad listened to him, and I thought, ‘This would be an honor to do that.’”

There aren’t many record libraries like Zimmer’s left, but Morse says it’s still useful to have. “Not a lot of radio stations have a record library like this. It’s a little junk room.”

Digitization has transformed radio. With the technological turnover, the only way stations could keep up was by switching over to digital equipment, such as computers. As a result, they threw away outdated supplies, including old tapes.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY FLICKR AND CHRISTY PRUST

At least 75 percent of recorded radio has been lost because it has either been discarded or destroyed — Josh Shepperd National Director of The Radio Preservation Task Force

Steve Morse bought reel-to-reel gear in the ‘80s to dub his own tapes — copying previously recorded audio material from one medium to another.

Pitch levels need to be balanced when dubbing tapes into digital archives. This is a tedious process that requires a lot of time and effort.

In 2014, the Library of Congress officially recognized this as a problem and created the Radio Preservation Task Force. At least 75 percent of recorded radio has been lost because it has either been discarded or destroyed, says Josh Shepperd, the director of the Radio Preservation Task Force. However, there’s no way of knowing exactly how much has been lost. Prior to this effort, Shepperd says no federal institution had made a concerted effort to preserve old radio files.

Missouri became the host state of this pilot project in September 2016 because of existing archival efforts at radio stations in St. Louis and Kansas City. The same month, the Missouri Broadcasters Association in Jefferson City announced it would join the stations in St. Louis and Kansas City in their efforts to help save radio history.

Missouri’s preservation effort focuses on collecting material from outstate radio stations, which are stations

located outside of metropolitan areas. Bob Priddy, who is president of The State Historical Society of Missouri and who formerly worked for Jefferson City’s KLIK radio station from 1954 to 1973, says this is the first time there has been any formal conservation of material from out-of-state radio stations. “There’s never been anything this focused on stations outside the metropolitan area in terms of preserving, in a formal way, what they have been doing throughout radio history,” Priddy says.

Elizabeth Engel, the senior archivist at the State Historical Society, says it’s important to protect this audio because it provides a window into history.

“Having the actual documents, the actual broadcasts such as these radio materials — the air checks and the interviews and the different programs that were being broadcast — it just takes you there to that moment, and you get insight into what was going on, what life was like, how people were similar back in the day and

also how they were different,” Engel says. “You get the context of the times.”

Eventually, the goal is to contribute to a national archive of audio files of all types: jingles, news stories, historical broadcasts, local programming and commercials. But for now, Missouri is the only state with a method for archiving these files. Once Morse finishes digitizing these audio files, he turns them over to the Missouri Broadcasters Association. MBA then gives them to the State Historical Society, which houses the digitized files. Almost 30 radio stations have donated tapes to MBA. The collection currently includes a range of material from news broadcasts to jingles dating as far back as 1931.The public may now access the digitized files through the State Historical Society upon request.

The success of this program relies on the goodwill of people such as Morse and their desire to preserve.

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Steve Morse’s home is filled with a radio equipment collection that he uses to create digital archives. Cleaning oxide that flakes off of the tapes onto the equipment is an important part of the extensive process of dubbing tapes.

MBA’s director of member services Terry Harper contacted Morse after Priddy, who worked for Jefferson City’s KLIK radio station, mentioned that Morse digitized some of his old tapes. When KLIK was sold to a different parent company in the ’80s, the station threw away tons of its tapes in the move, and Morse and another friend of his saved them. “We dumpster dived — we literally did,” Morse says. “We eventually found all these recordings, the ones that Bob (Priddy) had done years ago. We eventually recorded those for him.”

Because Morse holds a full-time position at Zimmer, he spends his weekends and evenings digitizing these audio files on a volunteer basis. “I told MBA I’ll do it as long as it’s not something you gotta have tomorrow,” Morse says.

Dubbing tapes is a time-consuming process. “You gotta remember that everything is in real time,” Morse says. “So if it’s 30 minutes, it’s 30 minutes into your machine. And you want to go in, and you want to save what you recorded; and again if you want to clean it up.” If the audio is fuzzy with static, or if there are any 8

VOXMAGAZINE.COM | 11.09.17

“We dumpster dived — we literally did,” — Steve Morse on digging up tapes KLIK radio threw away

Missouri is the only state archiving files such as news stories, jingles and historical broadcasts.

clicks or pops, Morse will fix it with editing software.

On top of that, Morse spends a lot of his time cleaning tape heads. When a reel is run through the machine, oxide flakes off the tape and can clog up the machine.

Morse says he’s used hundreds of Q-tips to clean the tape’s path due to this problem.

Morse says he witnessed the digital takeover of radio stations in the mid-to-late-’90s, which gradually rendered reel-to-reel equipment obsolete. This equipment was used to play audio, which was recorded on reels. Some reel-to-reel businesses are gone because they didn’t have anything to replace their reel-to-reels, Morse says. This makes it difficult and risky to get parts if something breaks. “You can find some equipment on eBay, but I would hazard that it’s pretty well-worn.”

Morse says he bought his own reel-to-reel gear in the late ’80s to dub some of his own tapes. He had been doing voice work for commercials and recorded automated messages for on-hold phone calls and Kmart.

When an audio production company in Jefferson City named TMS Audio Productions sold out to

Zimmer Radio Group

Founded in 1956 by Jerome Zimmer, a well-respected radio pioneer.

Iconic moments in radio history Radio was just getting started in the 1930s and ’40s and was communicating news faster than ever before. These historical moments show how radio influenced the reporting during this time period.

Einstein speaks about the importance of radio During his presentation at the 1930 German Radio and Audio Show in Berlin, Albert Einstein discussed how important it is to remember the research and innovation behind radio technology.

Roosevelt’s fireside chats President Franklin D. Roosevelt captivated millions of Americans with 30 speeches from 1933 to 1944 in which he addressed matters such as the New Deal, the political climate and other important topics of his presidency. His calm tone and ability to speak naturally and directly made it easy for Americans to understand events as they were unfolding.

Phonograph records archived in Zimmer Radio Group’s basement span several decades, with artists such as Hall & Oates, Fleetwood Mac and The Beatles.

another company, Morse bought one of its reel-to-reel machines. “I knew probably it was in worse shape than my own equipment at home,” Morse says. “If I had to, I could take the parts from it and make mine work. So I bought one of their old reel-to-reels, an old turntable and some of the other stuff they had closed down.”

He says he considers himself lucky to have gotten his hands on this equipment because even when the smallest part of the machine breaks, there’s almost no hope in salvaging it. “When I was doing some of Bob’s work, one of my reel-toreels suddenly went on the fritz,” Morse says.

One of the solenoids — a cylindrical coil that acts as a magnet when carrying an electric current and is a crucial part to play the reel — stopped working. When he tried to obtain another one from the electronics company TEAC, he discovered the part was no longer being manufactured. “So that reel-to-reel, that’s the only thing that’s wrong with it —

Dubbing:

it still worked great except for that one solenoid — but since I couldn’t get a solenoid, I’m probably going to have to junk that,” Morse says about the entire machine.

Though it no longer works, Morse still holds onto it for nostalgic purposes.

Standing in front of the shelves of Zimmer’s record library, Morse recalls what it was like to be a DJ back in the ’70s. Each record the radio owned was marked with a number and color so you could look up a song by artist or title. The colors indicated the type of record it was. Yellow was female, brown was male, blue was for group and red for easy listening.

“So you could go over there and say — George Harrison, one of The Beatles … ” He stepped over some boxes to get to small, dark green file cabinets. These were filled with alphabetized index cards. Morse pulled open the one labeled “Artists F – M,” found the tab labeled “H” and flipped through the index cards. “Let’s see if we could find something

The transfer or copying of previously recorded material from one medium to another.

Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast The night before Halloween in 1938, Welles and his radio program, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, performed a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. The story unravels a report about aliens with dangerous machinery invading New York City, which causes a nationwide panic. Welles didn’t expect many listeners and was shocked to wake up on Halloween morning with his name in the papers due to anxious phone calls to police and other news offices.

Pearl Harbor attacks Attacks on Dec. 7, 1941, changed American lives. Radio broadcast station KTU in Honolulu reported the events in real time, and New York was able to broadcast the news to the nation.’

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o

George did … ” Morse says. “Here’s Hall & Oates.” He keeps flipping. “George Harrison. ‘Give Me Love (Give me Peace on Earth).’ That was a classic. ‘Bangladesh,’ there’s another one. George Harrison, ‘Dark Horse.’”

After looking at the card, a jockey would go to the shelf and find its call number.

“Jockeys these days got it easy,” Morse says.

Everything is queued up on the computer. He says he doesn’t mention this as a way to diminish what jockeys are doing today. “It’s just a different time,” he says.

Back when Morse was running the Saturday morning show, disc jockeying was like actual jockeying: a sport.

Before a shift, Morse would rip the Teletype, gather the news and weather and, of course, make his playlist.

He’d come in the night before to pull all of the records he wanted to play off the shelves so they were out and ready in the studio on Saturday morning. The switch to digital lightened a DJ’s work load.

Dan Turner, program director of KJLU in Jefferson

City, agrees that digital makes DJ life easier.“It’s very convenient, there’s no doubt about it,” Turner says. “You get the music quicker instead of ripping it off a CD.” “Back then, you had to do what’s called backtiming,” Morse says. “If I had to hit CBS News at the top of the hour, or if I had to hit local news at the top of the hour, I had to backtime. And if I had a record — if I needed 2 minutes and 30 seconds — I had to find a record that was pretty close to that. So you know, at the top of the hour, you’re gonna hit that network. Now, automation does that for you.” Although DJs’ jobs were much more laborious in the ’70s compared to today, Morse considers himself lucky to have lived through a time when jockeys had to spin, queue up and backtime records. It’s what fuels his drive to help the MBA. Morse’s passion began at a young age. “Nobody said, ‘Steve, you’re gonna do radio,’ but I enjoy it,” Morse says.” I just think that we need to save this audio. It’s from a time that’s gone by. It will never happen again.”

In addition to digitization of radio, the growing consolidation of radio stations threatens the audio this project seeks to save. Priddy says local offices close whenever a radio station becomes a part of a larger group. New owners might not care for it, which leads to the danger of losing a lot of history. “They either leave it behind or put it in a dumpster, or it just disappears,” Priddy says. “So as radio consolidates more and more under fewer and fewer ownerships, it’s important that we save the things that made radio truly a local voice within communities.”

Harper, director of member services at the MBA, continually reaches out to radio stations and encourages them to donate their old tapes instead of getting rid of them. Radio stations have donated the majority of material that is now digitized, but Harper says the MBA has also received donations from individuals who used to work in radio or had relatives who did. She says these people will often find tapes in their basements, attics or

kwos 950 AM • 104.5 fm First aired in 1937 in Jefferson City and serves the mid-Missouri area under Zimmer Radio’s ownership One of the many KWOS reels of tape Steve Morse dubbed from analogue to digital in his Jefferson City home studio.

Want to know radio?

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BY MARY SALATINO

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Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi sent and received the first radio signal in 1895. He won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1909.

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Originating in 1922, WOQ is Missouri’s first licensed radio station.

The second is WOS in Jefferson City and the third is KSD in St. Louis. Today, KSD is still on the air and is known as KTRS.

3

The Missouri Broadcasters Association was started in 1948 in Kansas City and works with two Washington, D.C., law firms to ensure that members’ interests have a voice.

4

The first DJ party was actually hosted by radio DJ Jimmy Savile in 1943, when he played jazz records at a function in England.

He later became the first person to use turntables in 1947.

5

AM radio was the first radio broadcasting wave and used up to 50,000 watts of power to transmit signals.

“I just think that we need to save this audio. It’s from a time — Steve Morse that’s gone by. It will never happen again.”

Chief Engineer at Zimmer Radio Group stowed away somewhere in their homes and give it to the MBA in Jefferson City because they don’t want to throw it away. When Harper receives these donations, she stores the tapes in the MBA’s storage closet, similar to the way Zimmer stores its old vinyls; this is where they keep all of the donated audio files, among other materials. “(The archival project) is important to us, but sometimes it’s an easy thing to put off because it’s not a day-to-day business,” Harper says.

The closet’s fluorescent lights shine on an organized mess. External storage units line the walls to the left and right. These hold bins of extra lanyards, containers filled with a mix of paper clips, tape, rubber bands, note cards, Post-Its, miscellaneous cables and wires. Some shelves hold boxes of outdated promotional literature, contact lists from years past, printed out backlogs of email threads and photo attachments. Large boxes are stacked high on top of one another against the back wall.

On top of the table on the left side of the closet are reams of yellow paper and a wooden container full of CDs. Next to them is a box filled with reels. MBA doesn’t own any of the equipment needed to play or digitize the older material they receive because the equipment needed isn’t manufactured anymore. So without Morse, this material wouldn’t get digitized.

Harper contacts MBA’s members and radio stations throughout the year and encourages them to donate any tapes they have. She also coordinates with Morse to digitize the audio files as she receives donations. But apart from that, there currently aren’t any formalities to the project. Harper hopes to get an intern to assist her with outreach and cataloging donations as the program continues to grow and take shape.

Priddy says the pertinence of this project lies in its message to Missouri radio broadcasters across generations: Your work matters, and it’s worth saving.

“A lot of stations have stuff they have themselves, but I don’t know that there’s ever been an attempt before to say to all the radio stations in Missouri, ‘What you’ve done is important and needs to be preserved and saved,’ and this is such a location to deposit that material.”

Holding onto old radio tapes?

Donate jingle packages, news stories and programs, historical broadcasts, local programming and commercials to the Missouri Broadcasters Association.

Contact Terry Harper: 573-636-6692

Steve Morse’s personal studio in his Jefferson City home is where he spends most of his time dubbing tapes (top).

Morse thumbs through records in Zimmer’s record library. He used to DJ for KWOS in high school.

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MUSIC

Find the jam to go with your java Check out how CoMo shops curate the tunes that make or break your cafe experience BY ROSEMARY SIEFERT Blending the comforting scent of roasted beans with a heady mix of music from different generations and genres, coffee shops in Columbia know how to set the mood. Music creates calm, lively and inviting backdrops when visiting with friends, discussing business or studying. Here’s your guide to finding the right place to be when that need for caffeine hits.

Playlist lacking?

Don’t Fretboard about it.

At Fretboard Coffee, all the employees are avid music lovers. They each bring new tunes to the table, which owner Dave Elman says adds to the richness of his local shop.

Music is so essential to Fretboard Coffee that the employees describe their roasts in musical terms, asking, “What are the bass notes or what are the high notes?”

Blended with the sound of roasting beans, you’ll hear bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead and Phish.

“The staff all has different tastes and different flavors, and we all learn from each other’s musical taste,” Elman says.

1013 E. Walnut St.; Mon.–Fri., 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A.M. have you snoozing?

Reboot at Shortwave.

Resonant melodies from the pedal steel guitar, folksy tunes and bluegrass medleys lightly bounce off the cozy stone walls of Shortwave Coffee. Its owner, Dale Bassham, makes sure the acoustics are mostly ambient sound. He doesn’t want the atmosphere to be too overwhelming for his customers.

“I have eclectic taste in music,” Bassham says.

When Bassham isn’t there, whichever barista is on staff has control of the Pandora station. “They’re pretty good about playing things that aren’t going to drive people away,” he says. “They’re also not going to play anything bland.”

915 Alley A; Mon.–Fri., 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Feeling adventurous?

Hit The Grind Coffee House.

“When they bob their head — that’s what I like to see,” says Aucky El-Tayash, owner of The Grind Cofee House.

Household names such as Frank Sinatra and Bob Marley are usually playing in the morning and afternoon when there’s a more diverse crowd. Around 7 p.m., when El-Tayash notices college students

starting to take over, he’ll switch to classics mixed with newer tunes, such as The Temptations and Moon Taxi.

“I take pride in my music,” El-Tayash says.

You can check out the cafe’s Spotify playlist by searching “The Grind Coffee House” on the app.

4603 John Gary Drive; Mon.–Fri., 6 a.m. to midnight; Sat.–Sun., 7 a.m. to midnight

Looking for something upbeat?

Call on Kaldi’s.

Kaldi’s music atmosphere is described in four words: “positive, warm, comforting and familiar,” says Chris Berola, the retail market leader for Kaldi’s Coffee in Columbia and Kansas City.

“The all-in-all vibe we want to set with our music is something upbeat, positive — not overarching and in your face,” he says.

Customers can find themselves listening to Latin jazz, ’70s soul, The Growlers and more. The music is a group decision; staff choose what to play and when.

29 S. Ninth St.; Mon.–Fri., 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sat.–Sun., 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

MOVIES EVENTS MUSIC DINING NEWS KOPN 89.5fm...Where Else?

EVENTSMUSIC DINING NEWS MOVIES MUSIC DINING NEWS MOVIES EVENTS DINING NEWS MOVIES EVENTS MUSIC It’s not just radio, NEWS MOVIES EVENTS MUSIC DINING it’s community radio.

On your radio dial at 89.5 fm or live streaming at kopn.org

Free Every Thursday 12

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ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXANDRA WOZNICZKA

ARTS & BOOKS

Playing it short Talking Horse fest creates powerful moments in just 10 minutes BY RACHEL PHILLIPS Theatrical productions usually have one or multiple acts, but at Talking Horse Productions’ Starting Gate New Play Festival, playwrights create 10-minute plays to focus on being concise. The festival, now in its third year, features the work of three playwrights who have each written two new plays based on a theme.

The themes are dialectic in nature; for example, last year’s was “feast and famine.” This year the theme is “earth and sky.” It is inspired by a poem by local writer Monica Hand, who participated as a playwright in last year’s festival before her death months later.

When choosing the playwrights, the festival’s organizers focus on diversity because, as the festival’s committee chair Meg Phillips Crespy puts it, white men produce most of today’s plays. “We are giving a voice to some people who might not have a chance to be produced,” she says.

This year’s playwrights are Ricardo Blayde Diaz, Angel Kenison-Scott and Trent Rash. Diaz is an MU graduate

PHOTO BY PAMELA A. HOUSER

who studied playwriting; the 10-minute format is his specialty. Kenison-Scott started writing plays at age 17 and studied theater at the University of Central Missouri. Rash, whose first experience was writing a musical with a friend, is a newcomer to playwriting.

Although they’re short, 10-minute plays can be very effective. Diaz says playwrights don’t have to worry about scene changes or a long development in the story, but they can make one moment that is especially powerful, enjoyable or sad. “I think it’s something special when you can make that happen in 10 minutes or less,” he says.

Rash says there’s also something truthful to the short format because it is similar to the way life unfolds. “There’s a lot of realness about a 10-minute play because a lot of reality in our lives takes place in 10 minutes.” Once Rash started thinking about it that way, he found the plays easier to write.

However, writing in this style isn’t without its challenges. “Everything has

Actress Rochara Knight performs the part of Sky, correlating to this year’s theme, in Angel Kenison-Scott’s 10-minute play At the Horizon directed by Nathan O’Neil. Her counterpart in the production is actor Thomas Williams, who plays Earth.

to be simplified,” Kenison-Scott says.

“You still have a very developed play with some very deep meaning in it, but your point of attack has to be almost from the get-go, and your end has to be that abrupt.” There’s no room to be wordy.

Aside from giving an audience the experience of a 10-minute play, this festival is a chance for local playwrights to receive feedback from the audience after the showing and to be recognized

in the community. In Kenison-Scott’s opinion, it is a sign that Talking Horse is looking toward the future of theater.

“Some of the best works are happening now,” she says.

Starting Gate New Play Festival Fri.–Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m., Talking Horse Productions, $8, 268-1381

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Director of Sager Braudis Gallery and one of the artists in this season’s exhibit, HANNAH REEVES talks curation, bleach and death

I

magining death as a thing of beauty can be quite difficult — impossible, even. Artists, however, are inclined to find beauty in anything.

Sager Braudis Gallery director Hannah Reeves found beauty in Victorian postmortem portraiture. That interest turned into an exploration of memory and loss using fiber and an entire body of work now on display through Nov. 18 at Sager Braudis Art Gallery.

Reeves earned a master’s degree in fine arts at MU in 2008 and has worked at Sager Braudis for over a year.

“She brought a level of academia to her directorship,” says gallery co-owner Joel Sager, whose work is also featured in the fall exhibit.

“She’s very proficient with fiber and has essentially invented a technique where she’s bleaching the material,” Sager says. “It sounds difficult to do, which means that executing it is exponentially difficult to do.”

Reeves discusses the challenges of curation, her artistic process and how she convinced a friend to model as a “deceased Victorian maiden.”

process. When we put together an exhibit, we start with an empty room, and it, in a way, is like a blank canvas, and so there really is composition that’s happening when we’re arranging it.

We also try to combine artists in a way that doesn’t quite guarantee but maximizes the chance that any person who walks through the door finds something to connect with. So we want it to be diverse enough that different tastes are represented but related enough that it can visually sit together as a whole composition, as a room. So that’s a really interesting challenge.

What do you like about being director of Sager Braudis?

The best part about it is that I’m part of a small team, and it’s all smart people who are kind of working toward the same goal, and there’s a really wonderful feeling in that. I do all of the promotional materials, and I’m kind of the face of the gallery and the person who’s here greeting people every day.

What inspired your work in the autumn exhibit?

I’ve been working for a long time with ideas of memory, and I specifically get really fascinated when I think about ways that people desperately try to cling on to memories, especially since memories aren’t tangible. They’re fleeting. You can find these postmortem portraits (represented in the Victorian era). Children died at a really high rate. There may not be much to remember their short life by, and so they would be staged really elaborately, dressed up, stood up, eyes opened and shot in a photographic portrait.

Because I think about memory and because I want to represent our very human desire to remember people that we lost and to be remembered, I decided to use a set of contrived Victorian or straightforwardly Victorian images, and so the body of work centers around the large postmortem portrait.

Describe the perks and challenges of curating.

The curatorial process is fun. It’s like its own creative

Who is the woman in your postmortem portrait?

It’s my friend Megan. I think I texted her, “Would

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you want to model for me? ... You would be depicted as a deceased Victorian maiden if that makes any difference.” And she was like, “Oh yeah, of course, that’s awesome.”

What was your process for using bleach as an art technique?

I feel like it’s in my DNA to be a fiber artist. I tend to envision things incorporating fabric from the very beginning. The bleach process, however, was not an extremely natural use of materials for me. Eventually, I devised a stenciling method.

(For this exhibit), every form depicted I drew once and then I traced my own drawing in order to create a stencil, and then the stencil was used for the bleach layer. Then that was rinsed and neutralized. And then I go back in and draw the whole thing again. For example, with the clock, the stencil took me a really long time to cut an elaborate stencil of this Victorian clock, but it took many, many hours to go back in and draw the piece.

What advice would you give to aspiring artists?

You have to be willing to recognize when something’s not up to par and be okay with that. You put all this time into this, and it’s clearly not meeting your standards, so it’s hard to let go. But that’s an important part of being a professional artist.

— GABRIELA VELASQUEZ PHOTO BY EMILY JOHNSON

THE TO-DO LIST

this week in Columbia

ARTS & CULTURE

Columbia Weavers & Spinners’ Guild 28th Annual Holiday Exhibition and Sale Browse and buy a wonderful variety of handmade items, including scarves, shawls, blankets, ornaments and more.

Friday, 5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m., Boone Historical Society Museum, Free, 864-4439

Stop-Motion Animation Workshop Create your own mini-movie, and learn how to photograph and edit your film. The library will provide iPads, props and backgrounds.

Tuesday, 5:30–7:30 p.m., Columbia Public Library Studio, Free, 443-3161

CIVIC

Gingerbread House Competition and Display Design and construct a gingerbread house, and enter into the competition benefiting Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid-Missouri. Sunday, Noon to 4 p.m., Columbia Mall, Free, 443-7666

FOOD & DRINK Cider Festival

You can’t celebrate fall without apple cider. Enjoy the classic autumnal drink any

way you want — hot, cold, spiked or not.

Beverages will be available for purchase.

Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m., Günter Hans, Free, 256-1205

Hot Box Cookies and Beer Pairing Hot Box Cookies and Craft Beer Cellar are joining forces to bring you a night of hand-picked cookie and beer euphoria. The event is free to attend, but cookies and drafts must be purchased. Today, 6–11 p.m., Craft Beer Cellar, Free, 449-0242

MUSIC

UnWined Time with Audra Sergel Audra Sergel’s jazzy melodies with blues and pop influences will pair perfectly with your favorite glass of wine at The Wine Cellar and Bistro. It’s a great way to relax and kick off your weekend. Friday, 4 p.m., The Wine Cellar and Bistro, Free, 442-7281

Aina Cook Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival King of the Roots winner Aina Cook released her first EP, Brand New Knife, this summer. Stop

by Vinyl Renaissance for tasty brews and stellar tunes from this funk and blues singer.

Friday, 5:30–7 p.m., Vinyl Renaissance, Free, 397-6792

SPORTS

Mizzou Basketball vs. Iowa State Michael Porter Jr., Jontay Porter and Jeremiah Tilmon will play their first home game for Mizzou — all against an old Big 12 rival. The Mizzou hoops hype will be put to the test against Iowa State. Friday, 8 p.m., Mizzou Arena, Prices vary, 882-6501

Still playing

‘Stache Dash 5K

A Bad Moms Christmas (R) F, R Back to the Future Part II (PG), F Blade Runner 2049 (R), R Boo 2! A Madea Halloween (PG-13), F, R Félicité (NR), RT The Foreigner (R), F, R Genesis: Paradise Lost (G), F Geostorm (PG-13), F, R Goodbye Christopher Robin (PG), RT Happy Death Day (PG-13), F, R Have a Nice Day (NR), RT Jigsaw (R), F, R Marshall (PG-13), RT Mully (PG), F Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! (PG), R Suburbicon (R), F, R Thank You For Your Service (R), F, R Thor: Ragnarok (2017) (PG-13), F, R Victoria & Abdul (PG-13), RT Walk with Me (NR), R

Join MU’s Student Unions Programming Board outside of Memorial Union for the seventh annual ‘Stache Dash 5K to raise awareness for prostate cancer. The first 75 participants get a free shirt. After the race, celebrate with free brunch and prizes.

Saturday, 9 a.m., Memorial Union, Free (donations accepted), 882-6310

SCREEN

Daddy’s Home 2 (PG-13)

Father, Dusty (Mark Wahlberg), and stepfather, Brad (Will Ferrell), join forces to make this a perfect Christmas for their children. But trouble arises and hopes for a peaceful celebration are shattered when Dusty’s old-school dad and Brad’s gentle father join them for the holiday. F, R RUNTIME = 1:38

Murder on the Orient Express (PG-13)

Theaters F = Forum R = Regal

Based on a novel by Agatha Christie,

RT = Ragtag = available in 3D

THE 8TH ANNUAL

ART FINE CRAFT

RICHARD DUTTON

CONNIE THATCHER

TERRI BALDEN

LIVE MUSIC DEMONSTRATIONS

AMY KOCH

FALL INTO ART

17 N. 10th St. Downtown Columbia

874-8600

this film begins with a lavish train ride through Europe but quickly turns into a thrilling mystery. Thirteen people, including a princess (Judi Dench), a missionary (Penélope Cruz) and a gangster (Johnny Depp), are stranded on a train, and everybody is a suspect.

F, R RUNTIME = 1:54

Mon-Sat: 10am - 8pm Sun: Noon - 5pm

Since 1968

Stop in at Aardvarx where you are free to be.. fun, loud, crazy, or hip..whatever defines YOU. We have everything you need to express yourself.

T-ShirTS, CloThing, CandleS, inCenSe, PoSTerS, TaPeSTrieS, TobaCCo, Smoking aCCeSSorieS, Jewelry, body Jewelry, TaroT CardS CrySTalS & muCh more!

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2017 10AM-5PM | SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2017 11AM - 4PM PARKADE CENTER, 601 BUS LOOP 70 W, COLUMBIA MO

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC WITH A FUND RAISER BENEFITING THE FOOD BANK FOR CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST MISSOURI Now in its eighth year, Fall Into Art blends art, music, and education to provide a weekend destination for the entire family. With over 50 artisans from a broad spectrum of media, we look forward to a great show in 2017. There will be something for everyone. The Baha’i Faith booth will provide art and crafts activities for children as well. Fall Into Art is always free and open to the public. Join us!

A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR 2017 SPONSORS

Carol & Mark Stevenson

Find us on Facebook OR ONLINE AT www.fallintoart.org

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PASSES

NOW ON SALE VOLUNTEER APPLICATIONS OPEN

TRUE/FALSE

FILM FEST

March 1—4, 2018 / Columbia, MO / truefalse.org