Intro to Japan

Did you know that The Outhouse used to be a legendary, hardcore punk venue? Today, The Outhouse is a strip joint (as opposed to a strip club. There is a difference.)  When it was originally built, however, this was not its purpose. Actually, until the late 90s, it kept its mythical (in the eyes of punk rockers) reputation as a punk venue. It was not converted into a strip joint until 1998, in fact. You may be surprised to read some of the names of bands who have played there. Bands such as Nirvana, Greenday, Anti-Flag, Bad Brains, Circle Jerks, The Urge, The Vandals, NOFX and GWAR played to packed houses (as well as SEVERAL other famous bands).

Some of these bands may be familiar to all of you (Nirvana, Greenday, The Urge), some of them may need some explaination to understand just how legendary the Outhouse used to be to the hardcore scene. The Bad Brains are a very influential band hailing from L.A. Starting in 1980, they are from the same neighborhood as The Beastie Boys. It is rumored that the Beastie Boys were such fans of Bad Brains that they used the alliteration in their own name as a tribute to this amazing punk band. If you mention The Outhouse to anyone around Lawrence who remembers it as a hardcore venue, they will probably tell you about GWAR, who had one of the most (if not the absolute most) remembered shows. It is rumored that The Outhouse was the first location they ever used the blood-splattering excitement which became their staple.

Eric DeVault

Sources: http://www.lawrence.com/news/2003/feb/19/inside_the/

as well as punk folklore I have heard around town since I was 10.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Sameul Howe, Theodore Parker, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Gerrit Smith and George Luther Stearns. These were the men of the “Secret Six” who secretly funded John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, V.A. All six men were previously involved in the abolitionist crusade before they ever met John Brown and were all convinced that slavery would not die a peaceful death.

It is not clear whether or not the six men knew about John Brown’s ultimate goal of raiding a United States armory and stealing the weapons to give to the slaves, but what is clear is that they did not necessarily believe that the use of violence was a way to bring about the destruction of slavery. Maybe they were just big softies and couldn’t stand to do the dirty work themselves so they paid John Brown to do it.

After John Brown’s failure at Harper’s Ferry, the “Secret Six” disbanded. On Nov. 7th, 1859, Gerrit Smith had himself confined to an insane asylum and denied that he was ever supporting John Brown. Samuel Howe, George Luther Stearns and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn all fled to Canada to escape prosecution. Theodore Parker was in Europe and was dying of tuberculosis anyway, so he just stayed put. There was one man in the secret six who publicly admitted that he had helped John Brown. That man was Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Of course, Higginson was in Massachusetts during this time, a staunchly pro-abolitionist area, so he was relatively safe from marauding Missourians.

Eric DeVault

Sources:

Kansasmemory.org

Earle, Jonathan. John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry: A Brief History with Documents. 2008

One of the largest floods to occur in Kansas happened in 1951.  Some of the most flooded, most damaged, areas were right here in our backyard. Lawrence, Manhattan,Topeka and Kansas City were ravaged by the floodwaters which claimed the lives of 19 people and injured some 1,100(although some of them were in Missouri. Do we really need to count those?) according to the American Red Cross. The waters flooded about two million acres of land and 45,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. Trains tried to hold down bridges to keep them from being washed away, but even that couldn’t keep the flood from taking 17 major bridges in Kansas. The affect of the flood was so great that it even damaged 33 water supplies and sewage systems in the area. The reason for such an enormous flood was a storm of unusual size, as well as an abnormal amount of rainfall during that year.

Even though the flood of ’51 was so massive, there was an even greater flood in Kansas along the Kaw River in 1844. The flood did not cause as much damage, however, because Kansas was not as well populated and the infrastructure, obviously, was not what it was in 1951. In other words, we had more stuff to destroy in 1951 than we did in 1844.

Eric DeVault

Source: