Most of the mail received from readers is fa
vorable. but sometimes there are complaints A
recent letter from two women travellers com
plained about the lecherous proprietor of an Ita
lian penstone that had been recommended by a
male researcher
One of the changes we've made over the
years has been more of a consciousness of
women travelling alone.' said Assistant Editor of
Let's Go Europe. Chris Billy
Other changes revolve around the increased
costs of travelling in Europe The Let 's Go staff
says that it's still possible for the budget con
scious to travel in Europe, despite the fact that
travel costs have skyrocketed
Europe isn't considered such a ‘bargain
basement' anymore, but people shouldn t be
going there just because it's cheap.' said McCord
"When 1 figure my expenditures. 1 always think of
it as a matter of time spent in a place versus the
amount of money I'm spending 1 think anyone
w-ould prefer to give up a private bathroom if it
meant adding another dav to your trip Good
planning is the key
"Now that Europe isn't so cheap, it's important
that people determine their style of travel before
going over there.' advises Havertv who spent the
summer researching in the more expensive
Scandinavian countries and Germany
" Camping is still cheap, even free in most parts
of Scandinavia, where pensions are expensive
But in Italy, penstones are cheaper If you know
how- you w-ant to travel, and you're willing to sac
rifice some comforts, you can make the trip last
longer."
She also recommends Mark Twain s Innocents
Abroad as pre-departure reading for young
travelers
Knowing a bit of the language is important,
too. says Havertv "On this trip I sensed more
impatience with people who made no effort to
speak the language You'll probably be able to
find someone who speaks English, but always ask
first, and never assume
The nature of the publication means that there
are always problems, particularlv when a country
being researched is in a political upheaval The
student researcher in Poland last summer had
problems travelling, and postal strikes hindered
reports getting back to the States in time for pub
lication In Rumania, one researcher s report was
confiscated at the local post office
Researchers head for their assigned countries
in mid-May. and in July the first reports filter into
the HSA offices The editing and organizing pro
cess then begins, and the pace picks up until the
frantic week before the publisher s deadline in
early September
"You should have seen it." said one researcher
of last summer's preparations "There were
people here around the clock, working, bodies
on the floor asleep it was pretty incredible
No sooner are the Let s Go 1982 guides on the
bookstore shelves than work begins on Let s Go
1983, between term papers and mid-year exams
Students sometimes have a hard time juggling
schooiwork around their Let s Go schedules, and
the HSA office always has at least one person who
must leave to write a paper that's due the next
day But the researcher s position appears to be
the perfect summer job Roundtrip airfare is paid
for by HSA, and researchers receive a salary
while they’re travelling.
Linda Havertv sets the record straight; for all
the excitement, there is hard work, frustration,
and occasional depression
‘ It’s really a strenuous job! ’ she says We
should have had to lift weights to get in shape for
it. I went to Italy for a few weeks before coming
back after all that travelling, I really needed a
vacation'”
Carnival in Trinidad
BY DEBORAH LEVIN
magine a national newspaper whose headlines
I read ETHEL, TUN-TUN IN FIGHT TO
finish" or "NO ICE FOR CARNIVAL ” Imagine a
television station, the only one for an entire
country, broadcasting its carnival events live And
just in case you've missed any of the day s events,
the t> o'clock news is likeh to present highlites
of carnival for the enure 30-minute broadcast
This is at a ume when El Salvador is on the verge
of exploding. Polish workers call for strikes daih
and well who knows what else is happening
This is Trinidad and this is carnival If anvthing
else is going on in the world — who cares''
Trinidad, a nation roughly the size of Dela
ware, is located 10 miles off the east coast of Ven
ezuela. Sticky hot during the Carnival months, the
country looks more like an impoverished South
American ghetto than a resort paradise The capi
tal city of Port-of-Spain, crowded with people,
cars and dogs, is host to the second largest street
celebration in the world, surpassed only bv the
Brazilian festival in Rio Just about all of
Trinidad s million-plus pieople participate, a quar
ter of them outfit themselves in brilliant cos
tumes. some of which require nearh a vear to
design and construct In a country where phones
seldom work, roads aren't serviceable, and
pieople are accused of being inherentiv lazv
Trinidadians suddenly prove the\ are hard
working, efficient and productive when it corner
to something thev care about It takes enormous
effort to make a good carnival, and carnival in
Trinidad is as good as it gets No violent incident
were repxirtec in 1981. compared to seven deaths
in Rio de Janeiro
It is the music of “Mas' (Carnival) that makes
Trimndad s event unique It provides rhvthm and
pieople play with the energy and enthusiasm that
seems like celebrating a victory Carnival music is
planned, rehearsed and labored over Steel bands
— whose members number up to 100 — are now
among the most successful aspiect of the carnival
Vhat started out as banging on garbage pail lids
and empty cans has grown into a sophisticated,
sensitive sound Some ensembles bolster their
songlists with Europiean classical pieces
Carnival occurs during the two davs before
Lent, but the buildup to Mas starts in Sepxember
when early fetes’ (piartiesi begin Bv December
calypso music replaces all other forms The first
official event planned by the Carnival Develop
ment Committee is scheduled by January On anv
given night there are dozens of fetes' going on
It’s a 24-hour public orgv that take- place dav
after day after day and it’s all subsidized by
the government’
The Plunt Festival of
Sweinheim
BY KEITH WALLAH
he sightseer looking for a little extra local
flavor in the grand tradition of Iron Age
1 Germany would do well not to miss the
quaint Plunt Festn al of Sweinheim
At the beginning of the festival which comes
ten nights after the last potato of the season has
been dug, the children of Sweinheim dress up
like twigs and rocks, and wake their parents at
four in the morning by running into the
bedroom with burning brooms held in their
mouths
After the parents have extinguished the
brooms with their Oofils, or asbestos quilts, the
Breakfast for Plunt may begin A large pot of
Sweetgrunt, or potato pudding, is prepared by
the mother while the children stand in the sink
balancing firewood on their heads The father is
busy at this time making the traditional Schlapp
or dung wreath, for the family’s doorway When
the sweetgrunt is ready it is dumped in a pile on
the floor, and the whole family enjoys fighting for
all they' can stuff in their faces, the same way their
ancestors did over a thousand years ago
When the Sweetgrunt has been finished, the
family enters their cellar carrying several gaily
decorated Pissaks. or goat bladders, filled with
small magnets, old buttons, and bits of string It is
the ancient belief that this mystical combination
will give free nose jobs to the Ugly of Sweinheim
—but only if it is kept in a dark, loud place Thus,
the famih lock.-, the cellar doors and stances in
the dark while making fessoopoos. or loud, de
plorahle noises
VChile the famih units are performing the rixx
cellar dance, the bachelors and street scrubbers
of Sweinheim (all unmarried females over 18 are
tradition-bound to be the street scrubbers of
Sweinheim ) begin the Ritual of the Folding
Chairs The ritual of the Folding Chairs was once
celebrated as the Anhschlin. or the beheading of
the cleft-palate babies, until more civilized
Sweinheimians petitioned to have it changed in
1”99 to the unfolding and arrangement of
Sweinheim s impresssive collection of folding
metal chairs The tradition-conscious l nmarried
Sweinheimians still hold on to the old ways,
however and usually manage to behead some
symbolic inanimate obtect One vear it was the
town's civil defense siren Another time the\ used
forty pounds of black powder to blow the spire
off a neighboring ullage - cathedral
It is now midday, and time for the Reaffirma
tion of the Plunt There is a large stone structure
in the middle of the village square which mea
sures ten meters bv ten meters at the base, is ten
meters high, and has no measurement at the top
because nobody ever bothered to get a ladder
This structure is said to contain the Plunt The
entire population of Sweinheim dresses like the
person next door and forms a triangle around
the stones while chanting the time honored
words Gat zipher Schtukinme shun ' Historians
have roughly translated this as meaning My
trousers seem to have become entangled in mi
shin, but this is a maner of heated debate in
academic circles
VChen the Reaffirmation of the Plunt is com
plete. the village runs backward through the
streets to a large meadow by the river Oo They
then begin pulling up large handfuls of grass for
the construction of the Thing, or thing The Tiling
is made up entirely of the wet meadow grasses
and moulded to resemble Jem Ford 's fix Khali
helmet The youth of Sweinheim are put in
charge of guarding the Thing and throwing am
one who means it harm into the nearbv river Oo
The sun is beginning to disappear behind the
mountains as the rest of the village leave the
youth with the Thing and fill their underclothing
with bits of dry tree bark for the Ztupidztunt. or
uncomfortable walk, back to the village Once
there thev will take their places on the assem
bled Folding Metal Chairs and spend the night
dancing and sucking Schlingers, or oversize pop
sides of ptKato schnapps until thev fall down
Summerfest
BY BONNY CHRISTINA CELINE
t s no secret that Milwaukee. Wisconsin is not
1 considered one of the nation's major music
markets, and it isn t — 3“w days each year but
for eleven days in earlv summer (twelve in 1982).
Milwaukee's beautiful lakefront becomes Sum
merfest And Summerfest offers more music,
food and fun than any other single place from
east coast to west
Summerfest began in 196~ as a summer (estival
designed to cool off the hot scene of urban dis
order that disrupted most large cities in the Six
ties But in the fifteen years that followed. Sum
merfest has become a not for-profit civic
sponsored organization and Wisconsin s major
summer tourist attraction The reason for its con
tinuing popularity is simple it offers eight stages
of musical talent (plus a children s stagej for
twelve hours every' day of the event, all going
consecutively It also offers food served up by
some of Milwaukees finer restaurants (not mere
fair food), as well as Mr Summerfest, weight
lifting contests, fishing contests, a children s art
contest, and enough non-musical activities to
amuse everyone, from children through senior
citizens.
Most Milwaukeeans consider Summerfeo to be
the most important event of their suinmei season
(800,000 people passed through its gates during
its run in 1981) For one thing, it is amazingly in
expensive The I5! pale admission fee entitles the
fairgoer to enter the manicured grounds and
eng" a choice of musical entertainment with no
additional charge (Of course, food and ocher
concessions are not included )
The Summerfest grounds arc more like a gar
den than a fairground — minimal cement,
maximum greeners A cool evening breeze drifts
off Lake Michigan You may decide to start the
evening with some quieter acoustic music, so
you head for the TV-6 sponsored Folk Stage, and
spend some time listening to national acts like
Tom Paxton Robin & Linda Williams or Gamble
Rogers or perhaps Milwaukee based talent like
Bill Camplin. Gil Plotkin or the Earh Sisters
Sudden h vou're hungrv a stop at Monreal s
perhaps, for Mexican food, and dessert at
Shorewood Village Bakers Perhaps |ust a wine
cooler with a slice of lemon- You pass b\ Pabst
sponsored International stage and catch a few
v mgs from someone like Chuhbv Checker or
Rick Nelson dt the Stone Cam on Band
There is little sound cam over from the other
stages Light different music presentations on SO
acres of lakefront land would seem to be exces
sive. but the engineers who designed the sound
systems planned for that and sound leakage is
not a problem
At the Dance Pavilhon, mam couples dance to
swing music under the cheers vellow and white
tent The bartenders serving at the w ine counter
are wearing old fashioned white shirts and arm
garters The Tommv Dorses Band is placing One
of the nicest things about Summerfest ts that it ts
not for young people onh It is tfie intention of
Entertainment Director Bob Babisch to provide
qualm musical entertainment for all ages
On the Schlitz Country Stage -you mac be
treated to Roseanne Cash and her excellent
Nashville band Time to drink some beer (or
wine coolers, if you prefer) and tlien walk over
to the Comedc Variety Stage and check out com
edians like Pat Paulsen and Joe Piscopo tor liear
the space rock tunes of Milwaukee s own
Snopek)
Be now vou want rock tk roll The Rock Stage
is at one end of the grounds and the Main stage
(tonight featuring the Marsnall Tucker Band) ls
opposite Can you see Bills Squier on the Rock
Stage and still catch some of the Tucker Bands
set- Sure Just hop on the Skv Glider and get
whisked above the grounds from end to end. for
|USI $1
It s pretre crowded at die- T ucker show — die
Mam Stage has a seating capacitv of 18,000 — but
you manage to squeeze in and catch the encores
Over at the Miller Jazz Stage, artists like Pai
Methenv cast a low kec spell
General Manger Kris Martinsek feels that the
high quality of entertainment, food and vendors
will keep Summerfest several qualm steps above
its imitators Were verc luckc to have this lake
front.' she says, and we want the Festival to re
main in keeping with the original intent But we
will continue to offer safety and heaurc. too " Ms
Martinsek turns to the community for their help
— for example when die Dance Pavilion was
built in 1981 the Festival asked students at the
Milwaukee Trade and Technical Institute to
hand-forge the graceful wrought iron archway
crowning its entrance
In 1982, Summerfest will run from June 24
through Julv 5 (one extra day because of the July
4th holiday ! The entertainment line up is not
confirmed until the beginning of June so dial the
Festival can get the pick of the current-on-the
road music crop
'There is nothing like Summerfest,' says Festi
val President Rod Lanser Milwaukee is very
proud of it And you have to admit chat the price
is right For about 35< per listening hour, there is
no finer entertainment bargain anywhere
There is a mailing list for brochures at SUM
MERFEST, 200 N. Harbor Drive, Milwaukee, Wis
consin 53202 (414/273-2680) Tickets can be pur
chased in advance for only $4, and are 15 per day
at the gate once die festival opens
Housing and camping information can Lie oh
tained by writing the Greater Milwaukee Visitors
& Convention Center. 756 N Milwaukee Street,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 (414/273-722)