Word: vaux
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...What else does this professor enjoy doing on the weekends? A big clue comes in the form of his Web page, www.geocities.com/SoHo/6816, the home of his band, the Redundant Steaks. The group, which Vaux formed with three other classmates in his undergrad days at the University of Chicago, has produced four major projects to date. "Columbian Inventions" (a collection of songs in honor/protest of Columbus Day), "Buster Crabbe" (celebrating the life of the actor who played Tarzan, Superman, and other macho characters in early movies), "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: The Twelve-Tone Rock Opera," "Liquid Dwarf, Rusty Dwarf" (an album...
ASSOCIATE Professor Bert Vaux, best known on campus as professor of Linguistics 80, "Dialects of English," teaches teaches phonology and field methods. But his real interest, he says, is endangered languages, such as Abxaz, Tigrinya, and Homshetsma, some of which are spoken by only one tribe or even one person and are in danger of dying out. But even with all of the classes he teaches, he says his work with endangered languages has to be done on the side, cautioning, "Once you choose a profession, you'll probably have to confine what you enjoy to the weekends...
...Vaux starts by discussing the unorthodox song-writing methodology the band employs. The Redundant Steaks pick the title first and write the songs after. "We look at it as an intellectual challenge to pick random names and create lyrics that fit them," explains Vaux...
...Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, belting out a song about red shoes in Swedish, or fashioning an ode to dinosaur puke, the Redundant Steaks struggle to come up with songs appropriate for their titles. In reference to the two songs entitled "Missing Buddha" (one Angry, one Dyslexic), Vaux warns: "We couldn't come up with lyrics for that random title, so we just did some Indian improv... I wouldn't bother listening to those; they're very painful and long...
...Along with Gilbert and Sullivan, Vaux credits Led Zeppelin as an early musical idol...