NL_020118

More documents

Recommendations

Info

22 | February 1, 2018 | The New Lenox Patriot Life & Arts newlenoxpatriot.com Lincolnway Christian Church cures cabin fever Laurie Fanelli Freelance Reporter By late January, cabin fever starts to set in for families across the Chicagoland area. Lincolnway Christian Church has found the cure for the winter blues with its annual Winter Wonderland Fun Fair, which took place on Saturday, Jan. 27. The free, family event featured unlimited access to games, prizes, jumpies, face painting and food as well as the chance to win a 55” 4K television. Volunteers from the church were on hand throughout the fair serving as ambassadors to all the family fun. New Lenox resident Nikki Carpenter brought her sons Luke, Jake and Charlie to the Winter Wonderland Fun Fair so they could enjoy active family time despite the winter weather. “We saw it advertised on Facebook and we’re always looking for fun family events around town so we came out,” she said. “We always try to get to the jump zone places and go for walks. It’s hard in the wintertime so things like this are so nice for getting some winter energy out.” Providing kids with a fun place to get winter energy out was part of the motivation behind Lincolnway Christian Church’s decision to host the Fun Fair in January for the second year in a row after previously offering it in the fall for three years. “We used to have it in the fall and now we host it in the winter because it gives the families something to do with the cold weather,” said Director of Next-Gen, Steve Baker. “It’s an awesome event.” Amy Dekeyser, of Manhattan, also brought her kids, Matt Carter, of New Lenox, looks on as his son, Alex, plays a game. along with a neighbor, to the Winter Wonderland Fun Fair after seeing a post about it on Facebook. “It’s something fun to do on a colder day. And, a good chance to get the kids out to use up some energy in a positive environment. Hopefully, they will nap really well,” she said with a smile adding that her kids were especially enjoying the face painting, rock climbing and the bounce houses during the Fun Fair. Balloon art, creative carnival games, live music and ample space to run around also made the event fun for kids of all ages. There was even an adults-only “Lookout Lodge” where parents could keep an eye out on their children while enjoying a cup of coffee and some sweet treats. Popcorn was also offered to Fun Fair attendees. Every week, Lincolnway Christian Church provides a fun place for kids to spend some time with its KidCity program during its 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services each Sunday. “We host our KidCity program for ages zero all the way through high school,” Baker explained. “KidCity mainly focuses on kindergarten through fourth graders and we have different classes.” “We love our community,” he added. “That’s why we do this.” More information about the Lincolnway Christian Church, its services and upcoming events – including its Comedy Date Night on Feb. 16 – can be found at www.lincolnway.org. Sara Kahne (right), of New Lenox, and her daughter Mackenzie take a break from one of the activities to pose for a picture Saturday, Jan. 27, during Lincolnway Christian Church’s Fun Fair. Photos by Laurie Fanelli/22nd Century Media New Lenox resident Ender Oktayuren climbs the rock wall.
newlenoxpatriot.com Life & Arts the New Lenox Patriot | February 1, 2018 | 23 ‘The world is just full of musical potential’ LW alum finds creative inspiration in household items that carry a tune Bill Jones, Contributing Editor It all started with a homemade banjo. “It wasn’t even meant to be anything, but I saw this frame drum in a shop,” Joe Rauen recalled. “I said, ‘That thing right there is already 50 percent of a banjo. If you just made a neck, that would be a banjo.’” A friend encouraged him to follow the whim. Rauen built a neck and figured out a way to fasten it to the drum. “I built this thing without any knowledge,” he said. “When I finally got the strings on it. ‘Oh!’ It’s not great, but the eureka moment is, like, you don’t need to have the knowledge first and then build; you can start with no knowledge.” That was seven or eight years ago. A year later, Rauen built two more instruments, and the year after that: four. Today, a small space in the basement of his home in Munster, Indiana, is jam-packed with instruments of all shapes, sizes, colors and, of most importance, materials. Rauen’s music shop of choice is not Guitar Center; it is Home Depot. “The world is just full of musical potential, everywhere,” said Rauen, a product of the Lincoln-Way system who works as registrar for a local school. “When you’re not tuned into it, you can be blind to it. Once you’re hip to it, it’s everywhere. “Spill a silverware drawer. It’s amazing. If you have the luxury of doing so, If you go: Cabaret - Experimental Musical Instruments Who: Joe Rauen, creator and performer of experimental instruments When: 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8 Where: Orland Park Public Library, 14921 S. Ravinia Ave., Room 104 Official Description: Artist and musician Joe Rauen will spend the afternoon demonstrating and performing music for his experimental musical instruments. Some of these are shovels, suitcases and household plumbing turned into strange and beautiful musical instruments. Others are guitars and banjos taken apart and recombined in other worldly shapes. Selling Point: “Joe appeals to all different age groups,” said Jackie Boyd, public information officer for the library. “He can make an instrument seemingly out of anything.” Learn More: Visit www. joerauen.com for more information or photos of Rauen’s work. Joe Rauen fiddles around with a bow and custom tennis racquet banjo in his basement workshop. Bill Jones/22nd Century Media chuck your silverware down your driveway sometime. It’s just amazing, when you think about it as music, what kind of sounds happen. Or take a bow and bow something you wouldn’t think should be bowed. Bow a shovel sometime. It’s shocking what kind of sounds are all around us.” Rauen studied at the Berklee College of Music. He has a background focused on stringed instruments and woodwinds, but he has dabbled in brass, as well. The custom creations in his basement reflect that, skewing roughly 60 percent strings, mostly rounded out by clarinets and flutes but with some other oddities in the mix. Rauen often sticks to traditional tuning pegs and strings when creating, as they are designed to do specific jobs difficult to replicate, but the instruments otherwise are made with items such as shovels and brooms and hockey sticks, and a workshop bench has more ideas in the works. The instruments also are incredibly intricate in decoration and color. “Some of [the colors] have a purpose, too,” Rauen said. “All of the flutes have what key they are, color coded. So, the color coding starts with red in C. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet for CDEFGABC. Flutes that have their complementary color are minor. Flutes that have white are major. If the flute plays in the same key as some instrument — like, that green one plays in the same key as that multi-neck ukulele. They’re fun because they’re colorful, but they also help me when I’m onstage.” Rauen is set to take the stage at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, at the Orland Park Public Library, putting both his instruments and his performance talents on display. His overriding mandate is to be the antithesis of the guy at the bar with a guitar on a Saturday night; he rather would give people something they have never before seen. “It’s a one-man show where I play maybe 10 original tunes that use different combinations of the instruments,” he said. “I use a looping pedal, so that I can lay down a bass line with one, play chords with another. I’ll improvise with one of the flutes or cellos, or do some kind of noisescapes with the others. I’ll talk a little bit about what the instruments are and why I made certain choices, and a little bit about how they’re built.” Rauen said he is more than happy to adapt his show to the whims of his audiences. Sometimes, people just want to listen and vibe, and the musician is happy to just play around for the afternoon. Other times, people want to get into the “nittygritty” of how the instruments are made, and he is more than willing to discuss that and point people in the right direction to make their own devices. Occasionally, the conversations even drift into more philosophical questions of what defines a certain type of instrument, and whether or not those definitions truly matter. “These things don’t have definite answers,” Rauen said. “It’s hard to say sometimes, ‘Is this a banjo or not?’ because all the guides that tell you what a banjo is are missing when you’re talking about a tennis racquet.” As innovative as Rauen’s work may seem, he is more than willing to acknowledge and discuss a picture on his wall of his biggest influence, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. “This is pretty much my musical idol,” Rauen said. “I think I’m working in his tradition now. He was a blind jazz saxophonist, active starting in the late 1950s, and especially in the ’60s and ’70s, known for playing a large collection of instruments, sometimes simultaneously. .... He usually came onstage with three saxophones, and they were weird ones, ones that weren’t commonly played. “His whole performance was full of humor and surreal song titles and surreal imagery. The whole thing was totally about him. It had to do with him, his personality, his instruments, the things he pioneered. “If I really get down to why was that important to me … it’s nothing against the guy at the bar playing mandolin. The thing that doesn’t interest me about that is pluck that guy out of the band and drop some other guy in, and things mostly proceed as usual, right? But Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s shows counted 100 percent on Rahsaan Roland Kirk. There was not a version of the show without Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He built this whole thing around the whole himness of it. That’s what interests me. “When I do this show, you get me and all this crazy junk I made. You get the fact that I’m a banjo and bass player first and a flutist and clarinetist second. All those things combine around me and with me, and it doesn’t work without me.”
Page 1 and 2: ® 2018 BALLOT INSIDE THIS ISSUE VO
Page 3 and 4: newlenoxpatriot.com news the New Le
Page 5 and 6: ® newlenoxpatriot.com News the New
Page 7 and 8: newlenoxpatriot.com News the New Le
Page 9 and 10: newlenoxpatriot.com New Lenox the N
Page 11 and 12: newlenoxpatriot.com News the New Le
Page 17 and 18: newlenoxpatriot.com Sound Off the N
Page 19 and 20: the new lenox patriot | February 1,
Page 21: newlenoxpatriot.com New Lenox the N
Page 26 and 27: 26 | February 1, 2018 | The New Len
Page 48: new lenox’s Hometown Newspaper |

NL_020118

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?