The Record/April 6, 1989
Arts/Entertainment
Page 5
Student author wins bucks in writing contest
By Karen Schneider Staff Writer
It was already February—that left just three months until graduation. A lot of her friends had already sent in applications. Some of them had even been_ accepted. She hadn't yet visited a single college or sent for one application, let alone filled one out. She was overcome, for perhaps the fiftieth time that week, with frustration and a muted pain. Her stomach twisted up, and the muscles in her chest tightened slightly. She had been anxious about her future ally ear, but lately this feeling was attacking her more often and with increased intensity.
I'd like you to meet Rachel Oldsen, a fictitious high school seniorstruggling with the hysteria that sets in when thinking about what to do after high school. I'd also like you to meet the author of Rachel's story, Cindy Mackedanz. Cindy is the winner of the Louis A. and Mary Wagner Berger Memorial Prize for Excellence in Creative Writing for 1989 with her story that brings Rachel to life. This award is given each year to a full-time CSB studentwho writes an outstanding shortstory of 2000-5000 words. Cindy did just that this year and won herself $1000!
Cindy Mackedanz is a senior English major from Albany, MN. She heard about this contest last year from posters around campus, and she knew it was something she wanted to try. Working in a factory in St. Cloud for three summers, she envisioned herself creating a short story out of her experiences and observations as a woman in this predominantly male environment. When she returned to school in the fall, she tried to write this story, but it jus t wasn* t coming together like she wanted it to. So one night, she says she just sat down, and "in one sentence I just started writing about this typical college bound high school senior." Cindy created Rachel through her descriptions of life in a small town with all the gossip, the stereotypical townspeople, and a tragedy that rocks everyone in town: "It is a comparison between a basketball game and the game of life." Yet there is much more to Cindy's story than just this small town girl's struggle with basketball and what to do after
Cindy Mackedanz, CSB senior English major, recently won a one-thousand dollar prize for her entry in the Louis A. and Mary Wagner Berger Memorial Prize for Excellence in Creative Writing. Her short story, "Practice for a Lifetime," incorporates insights about life from a high school senior's perspective and her Views Of life in a small town, (photo courtesy of Anne House)
high school. This becomes a "story about life" when Rachel discovers that the town's postmaster, Dave Shuttler, has committed suicide. Cindy says it is here where Rachel begins to realize how fragile life is and that the things she ranks as important might not be so significant after all:
Rachel put on her coat and went back outside. She walked halfway around the building and sat on the backstairway overlooking the snow-coveredfoot-ballfield. It was dark ,exceptfor the light from the factory parking lot across the street from the field. The snow sparkled on the sentinel towers which had illuminated the play ing field on Friday nights during September and October. On this field, site of so many victories, Dave Shuttler had watched
his sons play football. He watched from a special place on the sidelines where he kept stats for the team. Rachel could see his proud, happy face as he watched his running back son score yet another touchdown. She could see his small, gentle hands as they counted out four dollars' worth of twenty-cent stamps. She could hear his voice from the lectern at St. Anthony's. She hugged herself to keep warm. She thought of future games, of college applications, andof leaving home. She thought of Cory, of small towns, and of their secrets. She thought of her own fat her who had moved out eight years before. She remembered a poem by William Carlos Williams, and for the first time she thought it might have meant something:
So much depends
upon
a red wheel barrow
glazed with rain water
beside the white
chickens
Although Cindy says Rachel is a lot like her, she wants her readers to know "Rachel is not me!" She developed her ideas for Rachel from firsthand experience of small-town life. Cindy grew up in Steams county where she also dealt with the suicide of an "ideal citizen" during her senior year. Like Rachel, Cindy learned "to slow down, to enjoy the little things, the present...."
As Cindy nears the end of her senior year at CSB, she is leaving her options open for a career after graduation. With the combination of her English major and an economics minor, graduate school, law school, and business-oriented interviews are all possibilities for her. But whatever she ends up doing, she wants to put her writing skills to work in some form. She dreams of doing something with her writing because it comes so naturally to her. When asked if she thinks of writing something longer, she still maintains that there's a story for her somewhere about working in the factory; so perhaps someday she will try her hand at another story or something longer.
Cindy's short story entitled "Practice for a Lifetime" will soon be published in Studio One coming out in the spring. Her advice to anyone considering submitting a short story to the Louis A. and Mary Wagner Berger Memorial Prize for Excellence in Creative Writing for next year is to go for it! Mike Opitz from the English department is in charge of this contest here on campus. He explains that it is a challenge established to "encourage women to write." There were 22 entries this year, so the chances are good. Opitz maintains that "it is not easy, but it's a lot of fun!" It is something you can write on your free time, and you don't need to be an English major to enter this contest It is open to any full-time CSB student who is looking to explore her writing talents.
Critics' Corner
Mississippi Burning
By Chris Zewiske Staff Writer
Mississippi Burning is a powerful indictment of the South during the '60s and their treatment of blacks. This is a microscopic look at racism in the south during the '60s. While it is not pleasant to look at, everyone should take three hours and watch it.
Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe play two FBI agents who have come to a small town in the South to investigate the disappearance of two white and one black civil rights workers. We know from the beginning of the movie that three people are dead, and so does everybody else, but they must find the bodies to prove it This leads to most of the movie—finding the bodies within this framework, while Hackman and Dafoe find out about the townspeople and who they can trust Dafoe is the by-the-book FBI agent who does nothing but alienate the townspeople. Hackman, on the other hand, is a good-old-boy himself, being from another small Southern town. While he still doesn't agree with the killings of the three civil rights workers, he does know how to get the information from the townspeople.
Hackman comes up with the information that the FBI needs to put some of the small-town hierarchy in jail. But Hackman wants to put these people
through the hell that they had put the blacks through, as well as putting them in jail. So, Hackman and a reluctant Dafoe run a scam that brings us to the movie's end. A powerful movie about a powerful subject, but was itgood? Yes, it was very good.
One focus of themovie seems to be on the brutality of whites in their treatment of the blacks of the town. I think that this certainly is a part of it, and that this brutality was eye-opening and reprehensible, but I also think the focus was on the way in which this "white trash" was brought to justice.
Do you punish the whites who brought all this misfortune on the blacks by doing to them what they did to the blacks? Or do you try to use conventional means to bring these people to jus tice working within the conventional justice system? Dafoe did nothing but alienate the people within the town. He gained almost no knowledge on the case of the missing civil rights activists and he became hated by the townspeople. Hackman gave Dafoe a choice between bringing the men who were guilty to justice through "other" means or not at all. When faced with this choice, Dafoe gives Hackman permission to do what he wants to achieve justice.
Hackman does the job and the guilty are punished, but the way in which it is done is suspect legally. The movie comes together a bit too neatly and in parts it seems just a bit too predictable, but the impact of the movie is certainly not lessened.
Music
Mike Hahn Outward Way
By David Sullivan Staff Writer
In many ways St. John's is a typical, small, liberal-arts college. However, there are some things that set us apart and of which we can be very proud. One such thing is the strong spirit of creativity that seems to exist here. Outward Way ,written and performed by guitarist Mike Hahn, is the fifth release from George Maurer's Pine Curtain Productions and is a wonderful display of creativity and artistic execution.
The first side begins with "Liberty Lunch." This song is characterized by the haunting, bonging of John Pollard's bass leading to free-spirited, springlike guitar-plucking. "Free Time" is a very gentle, soothing melody that seems to tell a story. However, it seems empty at times when departing from this melody. 'Traveler" is the most well-constructed song on the album. It features Hahn's lively guitar behind a smooth flute melody courtesy of Mary "Wonderlips" Hobday. "Afterthought" captures the sound that seems quintessential of Pine Curtain Productions. Like George Maurer's previous releases, it is filled with a dreamy, mesmerizing gentleness that promotes images of walking through the woods or floating lazily on the Sag.
Side two instantly claimed my attention with the
title of the first song,* "Dean Moriarity," who is Kerovac's maniac hero in "On the Road." Hahn conveys this spirit with his guitar with a quick, frenzied sound and a spike-driving bass beat. "Water's Voice" is centered around a flugel horn played enchantingly by Joe Cleveland, who also wrote this selection. This is also the most sophisticated song on the album as it deftly integrates Paul Carpenter on drums and George Maurer on keyboards. "The Sag" gives Hahn the opportunity to pick up the pace a bit and features his best, most energetic guitar playing. The next song, "Flight," is fittingly titled. Hahn and Hobday effectively create the feeling of airy lightness. There is no way to describe the final song, "Let Go," other than beautiful. It is filled with a very soothing energy.
With his first album, Hahn is successful in capturing a transcending, new age sound which causes one to drift away. The whole album is characterized by gentleness and a peaceful spirit It is through this that Hahn extends the distinct spirit of The Pine Curtain.
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