By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

What happens when music meets a meadow? That sounds like an unusual combination. Today we’ll learn about an initiative which brings together high quality symphonic music, genuine western history, and pristine natural beauty in rural Kansas.

Wayne Kruse is chair of the steering committee for a brand new event to be conducted in 2015.  Wayne is on the board of the Marshall County Arts Cooperative which is leading this initiative.

Wayne is a Marshall County native, having been born and raised in Marysville. He went to KU and lived in Lawrence before coming back to Marysville where he now works for KNDY radio.  He also volunteers with the Marshall County Arts Cooperative, called MCAC for short.

In 2012, the MCAC was the presenting organization for a concert by the Topeka Symphony Orchestra in Marysville. The symphony played an entire concert of music by Mozart. To the surprise and delight of symphony director John Strickler, the symphony played to a full house and an appreciative audience.

“There was a great crowd and great publicity for the event,” Wayne said. “I think John Strickler felt that it was very well-organized.” This demonstrated that the Marshall County Arts Cooperative could conduct a major event.

After the concert, a dinner was held with symphony director Strickler at the home of local newspaper publishers Howard and Sharon Kessinger. Strickler commented that he would like to have an outdoor concert somewhere in Kansas, and the seed was planted.

The MCAC took on the idea of an outdoor symphony performance as a long-term goal. The organization considered possible venues in the county, including the Alcove Spring Historic Park along the Oregon-California Trail. When new MCAC board member John Schwartz joined the board, they learned that he was also a trustee of the park at Alcove Spring. With his help, a connection was made.

Meanwhile, John Strickler retired as director of the Topeka Symphony, but his successor Kyle Wylie Pickett was also enthusiastic about the idea of an outdoor concert. In April 2015, the MCAC announced plans for this event: Orchestra on the Oregon Trail, to be held on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2015 at historic Alcove Spring.

Imagine an 80-piece orchestra performing musical themes from Western movies, sounds from the pioneer days and songs that highlight the American spirit. Now imagine that concert taking place in a natural meadow near a historic spring along the actual Oregon-California Trail. That is what will happen at 6 p.m. on Sept. 6.

In fact, there will be a full afternoon of activities preceding and following the concert, including four live bands, wagon rides, nature walks, cowboy poetry, historical reenactors, Johnny Appleseed, and more.

This sounds like the successful Symphony in the Flint Hills, but this event will take place along the Oregon-California Trail. Alcove Spring was an important stop for travelers along the trail.  Wagon swales can still be seen in the 246-acre park, showing the paths pioneers traveled to and from ferry crossings as they headed west. This historic site was the stopping place for many wagon trains, including the legendary Donner-Reed party.

The concert will take place in a truly rural, undeveloped location. Concert-goers are advised to bring their own lawn chairs or bag chairs, although a limited number of lawn chairs will be available for rental. Alcove Spring is in a beautiful setting, located along the Blue River south of Marysville, north of Blue Rapids, and northeast of the rural community of Waterville, population 664 people. Now, that’s rural.

More than 1,000 tickets have already been sold, 75 percent of which have been by purchasers outside Marshall County. In fact, tickets have been purchased from as far away as Arizona, Michigan, and Connecticut.

For more information or to buy tickets, go to www.ooot.org.

What happens when music meets a meadow? Find out at Alcove Spring on Sept. 6, 2015. We salute Wayne Kruse and all those involved with the Marshall County Arts Cooperative for making a difference by bringing together high quality music, history, and nature. When music meets a meadow, it can be magical.

The worst things about vacations are the delays. Waiting for the plane to take off, waiting for the bus, waiting to check into the hotel. No one likes to hurry up and wait. The 2015 movie “Vacation” which is a continuation/spin-off of the Chevy Chase “Vacation” series that includes such gems as “Vacation,” “Christmas Vacation,” and my personal favorite “Vegas Vacation,” is very much a “hurry up and wait” comedy. The film rushes into a joke and the punchline never arrives and it dives for the gross-out scene and forgets to pack the laughs.

The whole idea of another “Vacation” movie is predicated on the concept of nostalgia. A lot of people really enjoy the original Chevy Chase movies, yours truly included, but that doesn’t mean we need another one or that another one even fits in this generation of comedy movies. The “Vacation” films of the ’80s and ’90s had an anarchy to them that was tempered by a heavy dose of heart and family.

It was entertaining to see Clark Griswold lose himself in crazy antics in Vegas, which, in turn, made his ultimate redemption more satisfying. That type of filmmaking requires a steady hand, some original ideas and the gumption to make stupid funny work. Unfortunately for the 2015 “Vacation,” it has neither the comedic oomph to land the jokes set up by crazy antics or the heart to make the audience care about them.

Put simply, exceedingly few jokes in “Vacation” were actually funny. It was easy to see what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish, but everything felt out of sync. Imagine trying to dance a waltz to techno music and you’ll get the idea. The rhythm was off and just didn’t fit. There are a couple of mildly amusing moments, but when this comes on TBS in a few years, I will have no qualms about clicking right on by.

On the other hand, if I come across “Vegas Vacation,” I can promise that I will still be entertained by “I put a dollar in, I won a car. I put a dollar in, I won a car.”

2 of 6 stars

There’s a difference between having a movie that contains big action set-pieces and big action set-pieces that have a film built around them. The former is how you get something like “The Dark Knight” or “Avatar” and the latter is how you get “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.”

These types of reviews for good films that are not great films are sometimes hard. There’s a great many things to like about “Rogue Nation,” but my opinion is not as favorable as the general consensus which makes this review sound more negative than it really is.

“Rogue Nation” is a fine action movie with some absolutely incredible set-pieces, but it’s not an absolutely incredible movie. It has a very passable story that motivates its characters well, and has some intense action moments, but the resulting mixture is expendable fuel, not the self-generating kind that makes masterpieces. For example, oil is a good and profitable fuel, but wouldn’t we all prefer the self-sustaining Arc Reactor that powers Iron Man’s suit? I know I would.

“Rogue Nation” relies on its stunts, to a fault. Even the pre-movie advertisements for “Rogue Nation” were not standard trailers. Some of the advertisements were behind-the-scenes looks at the movie’s signature stunt – Tom Cruise dangling outside an airplane as it takes off. As an action-movie aficionado, I love that stunt and love that Tom Cruise really did it. As a critic, it leads credence to my stance that this movie was about its stunts and action and not about making a movie with stunts and action.

The latest “Mission Impossible” movie is a strong entry in a strong franchise and is miles better than the lunacy of “Furious 7,” but, to this reviewer, it cannot touch “Mission Impossible 3”, the best of the series, or other Tom Cruise action flicks such as the still-delightful “Edge of Tomorrow.” “Rogue Nation” didn’t go rogue on its franchise, it supports its own weight with no added elevation.

4 of 6 stars

By EARL WATT
Leader & Times

If there was a fan favorite at Brent Gould Field this year, it would have been Kaiser Carlile.

Late in the games it was commonplace for Bee Jay PA announcer Guy Rice to say, “Look at Kaiser hustling down there. Let’s give him a hand.”

And the crowd would respond favorably every time.

Kaiser was very familiar with the game, his team and his job.

He was efficient, and I can’t remember a time when he had to be asked to go get a bat. It was almost instinctual for the little guy.

The dreams of a 9-year-old are to hang around with players like the Bee Jays, and Kaiser was truly living that dream.

Over the years there have been batboys and batgirls in the Bee Jay dugout, and perhaps a relationship was formed here or there, but this one was truly unique.

Kaiser was like the entire team’s little brother, and he was more than a kid assigned to the dugout for the night.

Kaiser, like the rest of the Bee Jays, had made it to the NBC World Series, and he was busy Saturday doing what he had done all summer long.

There was no lack of familiarity on anyone’s part. This was simply a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When Kaiser was accidentally hit, Lawrence Dumont Stadium went silent for about 30 minutes.

I was standing down the first base line taking pictures of the game, and I was the only adult around a group of Wichita kids that were about the same age as Kaiser.

When I showed them a picture of Kaiser that I had taken earlier in the day, one of them said, “I know that kid. I played with him before the game.”

That’s what baseball is supposed to be. Kids come out, play with their buddies, dream of one day making that game-winning play and being inspired by what they see on the field.

But there are always risks — foul balls in the stands, bats that slide out of a batter’s grasp, and even the players, umpires and batboys are at risk.

We can either accept the risks and live the dream, or we can shy away and never experience the thrill that comes with being at the ballpark.

We can drive a car and accept the risks that come with it, or we can sit at home and go nowhere.

Kaiser’s loss hurts so much because Kaiser chose to live. He chose to participate in life rather than be a bystander.

We respect and appreciate Kaiser because of his willingness to live, to be a part of the game, and to serve his team.

Kaiser touched the lives of his community as well as baseball players from coast to coast that came to Liberal this summer to chase their dream.

They, like Kaiser, chose to live, to be a part of the game.

At this time, what is shown on the scoreboard pales in comparison to the loss Kaiser’s family has suffered, and the emotions for the Bee Jays and all the teams participating in the NBC World Series have been affected by the tragedy.

How do I write a story about a game when a little boy has paid the ultimate price just running down bats?

How do games continue?

We continue because we have to. We still have to make the choice to be a part of the game and to live, just like Kaiser.

What is much smaller is whether we win or lose. What is enormous is having the same courage to take the risk, to be inspired by a 9-year-old boy who won the hearts of a community long before a tragic accident in a game.

Kaiser showed us how to live.

Earl Watt is publisher of the Leader & Times in Liberal. Reprinted with permission.

OK, it’s now time to get serious about the wide range of issues that unfolded last week: The $67 million in budget shifts and swaps and the first, though not representative, receipts from higher taxes approved by the Legislature last session.

For all the hoopla about the budget cuts announced last week by Budget Director Shawn Sullivan—that $50 million cut that was a key to getting the Legislature out of Topeka—it was actually a pretty workmanlike effort. Lots of shuffling of money around, taking back funds that weren’t spent last fiscal year, that sort of thing.

Most notable, and probably important, for all the cutting and shifting of money, nothing got worse.

Now, that $17.6 million that the state swiped from increased federal funding for a program that provides health insurance for children of low-income families wasn’t pretty, but nothing got worse. And, yes, Kansas has the federal government to thank for that additional money that most would have preferred be spent to increase insurance coverage for those kids. No doubt there. But nothing got worse.

That “nothing got worse” may be a key phrase for the state’s leaders and members of the House and Senate seeking reelection next year.

That’s likely where Kansas is now. The shifting and shuffling of money to help balance the state budget actually did very little damage to existing programs and services. Sure, highway (construction) fans don’t like that $8 million was pulled from the Kansas Department of Transportation; it was money that KDOT didn’t spend last fiscal year and which flowed into the new, month-old current fiscal year.

And, chances are good that the shifts and shuffles did less damage to individual agencies than an across-the-board cut of a nominal one or two percent would have caused.

But, the important news from the Statehouse last week is that Kansas now is at the end of the rope. Virtually anything else done to bulk up the budget is going to have an effect on Kansans. It might come as furloughs or layoffs, it might mean digging into existing programs and services, and we’ll notice.

So, that’s where Kansas is now: Out of options for cutting spending. That makes the upcoming election-year session politically important.

There’s plenty of time for lamenting those 2012 income tax cuts on businesses, but practically, besides foreclosing new programs and more spending, the first three years of that reduction in revenue could be covered by ending balances.

We just spent down that extra money.

Now, that extra money is gone and the issues change: What does all this “shrink government” language that shows up on campaign flyers and in gubernatorial speeches actually look like?

The easy part is over. The real decisions are now going to be whether the state needs more money to do what Kansans are used to seeing done: Taking care of the poor, educating the kids, maintaining roads and law and order, and so on. Or, whether lawmakers and the governor can convince Kansans that the state is doing too much for them and their children and neighbors—that smaller government works best.

That’s what the next session—during which legislators are going to be trying to curry favor from their constituents, or special interest groups—is going to come down to. Don’t look for more tax increases in an election year. And, there’s not enough money to do favors for much of anyone. Reduce the sales tax on food? Virtually no chance. Spend more money on K-12 education? We’re locked into a two-year funding program that is unlikely to be held unconstitutional until after the next elections.

We’re about to see what the end of the rope looks like…

Syndicated by Hawver News Co. of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report. To learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit www.hawvernews.com.

Throughout the years, I’ve heard fellas talk about who ought to wear a cowboy hat and who shouldn’t. These conversations are littered with the necessary skills a cowboy must acquire to wear a western hat. Some even suggest issuing a license to wear such apparel.

Most livestock men and women tend to dislike things artificial – you know, things that really aren’t what they seem to be. They prefer the real deal, something genuine or steeped in the ranch or western tradition that came before them. They have a strong desire to keep things the way they are and pass them on to the next generation when they’re ready and able.

For starters any self-respecting cowpoke needs to know how to ride, rope and handle cattle. This skill set includes moving, doctoring, cutting and branding – you know if you can’t do most of these necessary cattle chores, maybe you shouldn’t wear the hat.

So who really should?

Anyone who wears a western hat must have spent time in the saddle. That’s a given.

So would a rancher who’s never set foot in a stirrup and only pitched hay be allowed to sport a cowboy hat?

Not really.

Anyone who’s worked cattle with only chutes sure ought to be out of this discussion. Give ‘em a permit for operating equipment instead. And of course they’d have to wear a gray or blue striped shirt for being a mechanic when the chutes fell apart.

Sheep herders and auctioneers would be in a real fix. Especially, if the sheep people claimed the derby before the auctioneer called, “sold.”

Of course all those race car fans, heck let them wear ball caps. And if they want something different – wear ‘em with the bill facing forward.

All the rodeo fans and western cinema screen dreamers, not to mention museum-quality aficionados – no cowboy hats for them.

What about the old guys who run more cattle than a whole pack of coyotes’ fleas?

You know the ones with their short-brimmed Stetsons – they’d sure be sent packin.’

Oil barons, bums and anyone who wants to express some fashion statement about who they’d like to be, rather than who they really are, couldn’t wear a cowboy hat either.

Would these true-blue cowboys license only a Mexican sombrero or would they accept a flat-crowned, flat brimmed cover with a little old snap in front tied on with a string?

Sure, go on and license who you think should wear a western hat. It’s all about tradition and remember there ain’t no room for tolerance and those less than proficient or true as judged by a few.

As for me, I’ll be content to watch my old buddies sporting their headwear of choice – ole Dennis wearing his Nevada. Tim with his red bandana wrapped around his head. Bob in his 50-year-old Cattleman synched tight against the wind. Bryan whose hat looks like a mule sat on it since it was new and Sam in that farming seed corn cap; all intent on the task at hand.

Not one of these hats was ever judged by the crease. None pretty or traditionally wrapped – except in the one their dad’s taught them, “Get the job done.”

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

Bull frog season opened July 1 in Kansas and that stirs up lots of fond memories.

It seems bull frogs and frog hunting were a part of my summer for many years. When I was in grade school, there was a big drainage ditch across the road from the neighbor kids’ house.

The three of them had a BB gun and there was never a shortage of frogs in the ditch. When we weren’t shooting at frogs in the ditch, we were behind the barn shooting their big boar hog in the butt (and elsewhere.) Anyway, each time we finally managed to kill a frog, we’d cut the thing open with our pocket knives and retrieve the BB’s.(how’s that for recycling?)

After we moved away from there, lots of my friends were city kids so my outdoor adventures consisted of me shooting blackbirds out of trees along the creek with mom’s old fold-up .410, catching crawdads under the bridge using forked sticks as spears and learning how to trap muskrats.

We moved one more time before I graduated from high school, and there all my buddies were country kids once again that trapped and hunted rabbits, deer and bull frogs. There was a farm a few miles away with two ponds, one on each side of the road, and they both teemed with bull frogs.

Back then, the hot humid summer nights didn’t bother me at all, and that was the best frog hunting weather. By then, we were all in high school and one of us always had some beater of a car, so we’d don warn-out jeans and old sneakers (which was our usual attire anyway,) fill the trunk with flashlights, feed sacks and frog spears and head for the ponds after dark. I can only figure the farmer only let our motley crew on his property hoping we’d all drown in the pond and never bother him again.

Anyway, we would split up to cover both ponds at once, slowly wading around the edge knee-deep in the water until a frog was spotted ahead. Putting the flashlight beam in its eyes dazzled the frog until we could spear it and add it to the feed sack hanging around our waist.

I remember vividly returning home after one particular frog hunt at those ponds. The night was hot and steamy and the four of us went to work butchering frogs in our driveway under the security light by the barn, using an empty hay wagon for a table. Sacks were emptied and squirming bull frogs went everywhere. I also vividly remember mom hollering out her upstairs bedroom window for us to be quiet; I don’t know what her problem was, it was only 2 in the morning!

Frog meat is white and sweet, and half the fun of frog hunting is watching the legs twitch and quiver as they fry in the oil. One night one of the guy’s girl friend was there as we fried up a mess of legs. The experience was all new to her, so while she was out of the room, we propped up a big pair of the legs on the edge of the skillet as if they had climbed out. As I recall that was the last time she ever hung-out with us.

Just a few years ago, I took my dad, who was then nearly 80 frog hunting. We went just out of town to some of the McPherson Valley Wetland ponds. It was a slow night for harvesting frogs, but we got enough to have a “small mess” to fry. The legs still twitched and quivered as they fried, and they still tasted just as sweet as I remembered them. Thankfully, some things never change! Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].