3 posts tagged “university of oregon”

What's your alma mater?
Submitted by Lies.

University of Oregon.

I was performing a gig with my band Wymsikal Triod at Cloran Aid, on the University of Oregon campus.

The gems featured in our set were a spoken word/jazz interpretation of Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel and a progressive rock cover of Yes's "Owner of a Lonely Heart", Steve Ray Vaughn's "Crossfire", Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" and a tune that Paul and I had collaborated on called "Discover".

I believe the gig was recorded, but unfortunately I don't have a copy of the performance. I wish I did. Frog and Toad turned out very nice. At the time we had Jason Kamrass on vocals, Paul Walker on bass and myself on drums and percussion. lol. I remember having the Neil Peart setup at the time. There was another guy whose name I cannot seem to recall that we borrowed from another band who used to share our rehearsal space with us. The group he primarily performed with was this Billy Joel and Stryper combination called Without a Prayer. You had to hear it to believe it!

Yep, those certainly were THE days. Raves, concerts, champagne, girls, road trips, hot springs, and a class here and there.

During the fall of 1992 I learned that if you sleight Ice T, you had better bring your A-game. 

It helps to understand what happened on April 29th, 1992. The LA-Rodney King riots have taken place and much of the country is talking about

and wondering about what this tells us about race relations and how we might understand what led up to the riots in LA.

Ice T, the well known musician and actor had just finished touring the maiden voyage of Lollapalooza the year before and his name was already bright in the limelight over the release of the song "Cop Killer" which appeared on Body Count's debut release that was released in March, just one month before the LA riots broke out. As a social commentator and a well known former Crips gang member it became

only natural that he became well requested on speaking panels and enagements at college campuses.

It was at his stop at the Erb Memorial Union (EMU) , located on the University of Oregon campus when I collided with Ice T. 

Erb Memorial Union is the main student gathering place at the University of Oregon. It houses the ballroom where I witnessed Public Enemy, Mudhoney,

Faith No More, and Babes In Toyland perform, as well as many other helpful student association offices and such. One of the more prominent features is the Fishbowl (the student cafeteria) that was made famous when it was used as the location for the food fight scene in the John Landis 1978 film classic Animal House.

When I was attending the University, the hot spot of the EMU was the basement arcade and gaming center. It had your usual array of collegeiate diversions: arcade games, pool tables, darts, photo booths, etc. We used to often visit the arcade as a way of passing time until a concert or event began. On this fall night in 1992 I had stumbled down the stairs, drawn by a mass of people who had gathered around the extremely popular Mortal Kombat arcade machine.

As I drew closer it became evident that Ice T apparently loved playing violent video games as a form of stress relief before concerts and speaking engagments. The only problem was, and I say this with all due respect, he was absolutely horrible at them. 

On the plus side, because of his fame,  new opposing players kept stepping up and propping quarters on the console, offering Ice T free games, for the opportunity of bragging to their friends that they had "Finished him" on the classic Midway game whose fatal finishing moves led to the founding of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB)

Now I, who any of my friends will tell you has never been what you would call very good at playing one on one fighting games could help but feel a bit relieved that I was witnessing this display in humility. After all it was nice to know that my kamikaze methods of striking random buttons as quickly as possible was also shared by famous luminaries such as Ice T. It is of course silly, but I was very young, what can do?

Anyhow, relieved as I was I couldn't help but utter at a volume that was much louder than I had intended. "Its a good thing you have some kind of music career because you suck at playing video games!" Even as I spoke I

felt the room temperature cool. The sound of the raucous crowd was immediately reduced to a chorus of chirping crickets. I felt a hollow in my stomach and a bit of sweat gather on my brow and the back of my neck as Ice T (and the rest of the 50 or so witnesses) slowly turned their head in my direction.

Trapped as I was by the crowd behind me, I had nowhere to run. Ice T stepped up close to me and gazed at me unblinking in the eyes. As if he was gauging what kind of man I was. I don't remember whether I flinched or not. After an eternity he said. "For a white boy, you certainly have balls of steel."

I couldn't help but chuckle. He smiled for the briefest of moments, and gradually like cars in a traffic jam, everyone returned to their raucous nature as he stepped back to his post in front of the game. Shortly thereafter, he made a finishing move with his character that resulted in the removal of his foes' head. At the conclusion of the move he gave me a meaningful glance. I  surreptiously gave him the thumbs up and considered sneaking out of there when I was rescued by his assistant who had come to retrieve him for the symposium.