The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 25

FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2005 SALINA JOURNAL ID LJJ LU LU LU CO etc LU liiiS 3:4 New releases Tuesday: "The Adventures of Pete Pete: First Season" "Candide" "Cheers: Fifth Season" "Clarissa Explains It All: First Season" "Golden Girls: Second Season" "The Green Butchers" "Kinsey" "Live From Bonnaroo 2004" "Nortre Musique" "Scrubs: First Season" "The Sea Inside" "Seinfeld: Fourth Season" "Six Feet Under: Third Season" "Son of the Mask" 'Tarnation" "Team America: World Police" "White Noise" Scripps Howard News Service New music coming Tuesday: Loco Motive, Cowboy Troy Strange We Should Meet Here, Idiot Pilot The Calm, Insane Clown Posse Honkytonk University, Toby Keitn Album II, Kern Unauestionable Trulti, Part 1, Limp Bizkit The Secret Migration, Mercury Rev Magic Time, Van Morrison Natalie, Natalie Dance of ifie Infidels, Me'Shell Man Like Me, Bobby Pinson Mezmerize, System of a Down Wild Ufe" soundtrack, various acts Which Side Are You Wakefield Scripps Howard News Service Will Ferrell will host this week's "Saturday Night Live." marking his first appearance on the television show since leaving in 2002. Ferrell was 0 cast member for seven seasons. on the inside Classic photo exhibit tiie reel deal Christensen's side and elsewhere BTK author to speak Former Salina musician is one of The Click Five, a qroup whose mop-top'haircuts and penchant for matching suits bespeoK another era Photos courtesy ol The Click Five Members of The Click Five are Eric Dill (left), Ethan Mentzer, Joe Guese, Ben Romans and Joey Zehr. By DAVID CLOUSTON Sdliiiei Journal A the climax of 1979's "Ttie Muppet Movie," Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and the gang swarm the stately Hollywood office of media mogul Lew Lord, played by the late Orson Welles, hoping for their big show-business break. Our green hero left the swamp, you see, for Tinseltown when he finds out his singing and dancing can spread happiness to millions.

Welles stares, pauses for a moment and presses anintercom button: "Send in the standard rich-and-famous contract for Kermit the Frog and company," he orders. That same sudden success seemingly parallels the swiftness with which Boston's pop quintet. The Click Five, has won over audiences. Keyboardist and native Salinan Ben Romans swears it hasn't been that easy "In some ways, yes, every day I pinch myself. I realize we've been extremely fortunate," said Romans, 23, a 1999 graduate of Salina Central High School.

"We've paid a few dues. We had the most rat- infested rehearsal space you can imagine, and we played a show once for one person at a band bar in Rhode Island," Romans said. "We've done all that stuff; people just don't know about it." To say that The Click Five's fortunes have soared since is a gross understatement. Romans was speaking by cell phone from the road as he and his mates da.shed to New York City for a photo shoot for fashion designer Perry Ellis, to be published in an upcoming issue of Details magazine. On stage, the group's mop-top haircuts and penchant for matching suits bespeak another era.

Go back 40 years, and the teen scream queens that are The Click Five's core audience could be replaced by their mothers, swooning for John, Paul, George and Ringo. The Click Five features Romans on keyboards, Eric Dill on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Joe Guese on lead guitar, Ethan Mentzer on bass and Joey Zehr on drums. Learning in Paradise Less than two years ago, the five joined forces at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music. They honed their sound at free concerts at ROMANS LOCAL NEWS the Paradise Lounge, a watering hole for up-and-coming bands a stone's throw from Boston University Buzz about the band got the attention of music-label scouts, and one thing led to the next, Romans said. The band's first single, "Just the Girl," hits radio stations next month, and the band's debut CD, "Greetings From Imrie House," lands in stores Aug.

2. The title pays tribute to the band's Boston house on Imrie Street, where they lived while writing the album. Romans wrote or co-wi'ote all but two of the tunes on the disc. Catchy, stick-in-your-head melodies are the group's signature. It's the kind of music, as Romans describes it, that sparks sleepover pillow fights and, "you know, drive to the beach in a convertible and break up with their boyfriends," he said.

"We all love melodies," bassist Mentzer said recently "If I can't sing it, I'm not crazy about it. I like songs that are so damn catchy that you See Click Five, Page D5 Waiting TOves' a story of loss of innocence The book offers a Very, very good word picture of what things were like' By SHARON MONTAGUE Sniiiia Joiiriml She was only 15 years old when she moved to Schilling Manor with her family in 1970, but it was a time and a place that Donna Moreau never forgot. Thirty-five years later, Moreau has brought Schilling Manor and its residents back to life through, "Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Home Front to the Vietnam War." And, through the writing of the book, she has come to terms with both the Vietnam War and her own adolescence. "The story of the Waiting Wives also became a story of the loss of innocence of America," Moreau said in a telephone interview from her home in Leominster, Mass. "In a sense, I lost my innocence then, as well." The book, released May 3 by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon Schuster, tells of the transformation of Schilling Air Force Base, south of Salina, from the home of the 310th Strategic Aerospace Wing Combat Support Group to the home of women and children whose husbands and fathers were serving in Vietnam.

It traces the lives of three women Bonnie Johnson, Lorrayne Vogel and Beverly Moreau, Donna's mother as they struggled to raise their children alone while awaiting the return of their husbands, one of whom never came back. Interwoven in their stories is the story of The Committee a group of unnamed military wives who, in the course of planning a fashion show, recount such happenings at the manor as the death of a Korean baby, the trysts of LOCAL NEWS a lonely housewife and the suffering of TOM DORSEY Salina Journal Kathleen Frisbie of Salina is featured in Donna Moreau's book "Waiting Wives." a woman who is informed that her husband has been killed in action. Moreau, who spent about six years conducting research and interviewing more than ICQ people in Salina and across the country, said she knew from the begimiing that she would write about her own family She chose the other two women because they were the best representatives of women who lived at the manor Johnson, whose husband, Bruce, was listed as missing in action for many years, was a shy, demure woman who traveled the world as an advocate and spokeswoman for the families of men missing in action. Vogel was known as the founder of Schilling convincing military leaders of tlie need for a home for waiting wives and for services to the families, such as a medical clinic and a swimming pool. As she dealt with the issues surrounding the manor, Vogel also dealt with personal issues within her family "She is absolutely representative of whfit women go through," Moreau said.

"Their husbands have no idea what's going on. They're fighting a war, and God forbid you should disturb them. "As you write, you look for a dramatic story I didn't have to try hard with her" Moreau wrote the nonfiction'book in narrative form, presenting an account that reads like a novel. But she said everything in the book is fact, including the stories presented in the chapters about The Committee. "I heard so many stories, over and over again," Moreau said.

"They were the same stories, but they were told to me by different people. Some of them were astonishingly tragic; some were funny I wanted to incorporate those into the book, first of all for color, but also because they really gave a sense of what the place was like." Kathleen Frisbie of Salina, who is referred to in the book as Bonnie Johnson, said The Committee portions of the book offer a "very, very good word picture of what things were like." See WIVES, Page D5 WHO: Donna Moreau, author of "Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Home Front to the Vietnam War" WHAT: Book signing, reading and question- and-answer session WHEN: 6 p.m. May 19 WHERE: Salina Public Library BOOKS: Copies of the book will be available for sale at the reading. Copies also ore available at Waldenbooks at Central Mall and online www.amazon.com. SUGGESTIONS? CALL JEAN KOZUBOWSKI, ENCORE! EDITOR, AT 822-1423 OR 1-800-827-6363 OR E-MAIL AT.