University will move forward with recital hall despite setback

By: Rachel Nelson
www.universitystar.com

Requests for tuition revenue bonds did not see approval from the state legislature in May, but Texas State officials said they will break ground for a new recital hall and theater building in 2011 — a project expected to reach completion by 2013.

“As we moved into the legislative session last summer, we initially heard there were not going to be any tuition revenue bonds considered,” said Bill Nance, vice president for finance and support services. “Then we got communication from our system office that they were going to consider TRBs.”

Texas State requested TRB funding for five construction projects.

“(Funding for) the new recital hall and theatre center were our highest priorities at the time,” he said.

Richard Cheatham, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication, said he was not surprised Texas State’s requests did not make it past the committee stage in the legislature and cited the poor state of the national economy. Institutions in Houston which suffered hurricane damage were awarded construction funding, Cheatham said.

“Unless it was a special need like that, the budget was so tight this year they did not fund any of the tuition revenue bonds,” Cheatham said.

A gift of $8 million donated by Patti Harrison will go toward funding for the recital hall and theater center. The rest of the funding will come from Education Assistance Fund allocations, Nance said.

Nance said $52 million in TRBs had been requested for the project. When combined with Harrison‘s gift, the building was estimated to cost $60 million. However, Nance said economic conditions have caused the price of construction materials to fall.

“Because we’ve re-done the construction cost estimate, we’re going to be able to get everything for something closer to $40 million than (the original estimate) $60 million,” Nance said.

Nance said the recital hall and theater center is just one part of several projects. Other elements, such as a parking garage and road modifications, will be funded by “self-supporting revenues,” he said.

Nance estimated the parking garage will have 350 to 400 parking spaces and will be pay by the hour, not permit-based. It will be erected adjacent from the new recital hall and theater center where Falls Hall currently sits.

“It’s being put in this location to facilitate the attendance of the events that will be held in the new center,” Nance said. “Student and community members will have convenient parking.”

Other projects Texas State requested TRB funding for have been put on hold.

“We’re hopeful two years from now when the legislature meets again, the economy will have improved and some of these projects will be funded,” Cheatham said.

Tax Man and Judge D to headline Toxic Kitten's 'Back to Skull Bash'

By: Rachel Nelson
www.amarilloscene.com

With the end of summer fast approaching, Nina, creator of Toxic Kitten Clothing, wants to throw Amarillo a party.

"I have so much excitement in me that I can't even sleep," she said. "My mind is like 'What can I do to make it even better and bigger; what can I do to blow their minds?'"

The Back To Skull Bash will be held August 28 at the Nat Ballroom, 604 S. Georgia Street, and will present what Nina describes as a "death and psychobilly theme" to compliment her newest fashion items.

Besides live music, merchandise booths, free beer and giveaways from Toxic Kitten and SRH Clothing, Nina will premiere Toxic Kitten's latest clothes with a runway fashion show featuring several local models.

"I like modeling for Toxic Kitten because it shows a different kind of model," said Hylann Camacho, a local Kitten who will participate in the show. "It's not your everyday run-of-the-mill girl."

According to Nina, it is important for her to introduce her new clothes at the event before releasing them in stores or on her recently renovated Web site, www.toxickittenclothing.com.

"It gives Amarillo an advantage of having it first, and I dedicate that to Amarillo since it is a hometown clothing line," Nina said. "I want to give back to my community."

Nina will have a merchandise table set up at the event where she will sell Toxic Kitten's clothes for $20 "straight across the board," she said.

Merchandise will also be available from The Glass House, a new Amarillo head shop.

To celebrate Toxic Kitten's success, Nina is bringing in special guest Tax Man, the anti-hero from the Kottonmouth Kings, who said he is "happy to come do the show." He will perform with hardcore/experimental/hip-hop artist Judge D. The bash will mark the first time for these artists to appear in Amarillo. A signing and meet-and-greet will be held for guests at the bash.

The Bastard Sons of David Hasselhoff and the Yellow City Rockets are local acts that will play at the event. Johnny Handgun, a band out of Lubbock, will also perform.

Jeremy Knowles, drummer for the Yellow City Rockets, said guests should expect a high-energy show from all bands that will be "a lot of fun to watch."

Joan Pollock, owner of Amarillo's newest booking and promoting company 2 Gun$ Calamity Entertainment, is helping to organize the happening and said party-goers can also expect a surprise act.

"It's going to be so big that I would hate to say that I missed the Back to Skull Bash," she said.

Pollock is pleased with the event's location.

"(The Nat) is a beautiful, historic landmark," she said. "Musical prodigies and wonders have played there. All kinds of crazy people have played there. It makes me happy to bring my friends into a place that has so much musical history behind it. It's such a neat, cool place."

Nina said an after party will be held across the street from the Nat at the R&R bar following the event.

Toxic Kitten emerged in December, and Nina said the clothing line has come a long way since it debuted.

"It just kind of blew up unexpected," Nina said. "I wanted to start with baby steps, and it just kind of turned into something big over night. Now I'm trying to keep up."

Nina sponsors the Route 66 Roller Derby, which is sporting Toxic Kitten shirts in its second bouting season. Nina's clothes can be found in Amarillo at The Music Box, The Glass House and Vertical Movements Dance Studio. Items can also be purchased online at toxickittenclothing.com. Nina said the site gets an average of 3,500 hits per month, and she is currently looking for people to advertise for a monthly fee of $20.

Although she will not introduce these items at the event, Nina said something to watch out for is Toxic Kitten's 2009 jewelry line, which includes hand-made, edgy pieces.

"They're just the cutest things you've ever seen," she said. "No piece is the same."

The Back to Skull Bash will start at 7 p.m. The cost is $15 at the door, but tickets may be obtained in advance for $13 at the Glass House, located next to The 806 coffee house on 6th Avenue.

The event is B.Y.O.B., and all ages are welcome. Nina stressed that there will be tight security at the show, and underage drinking will not be tolerated.

"I encourage everybody to come out and check out the clothes and check out the models," Camacho said. "It's going to be a good, unconventional time."

Local Shark Fights Promotions makes world-wide mark on MMA

By: Rachel Nelson
www.amarilloscene.com

Amarillo is a tough town.

Take a look at Heath Herring, the late Evan Tanner, Paul Jones, Steve Nelson, Justin Martin and Paul Buentello. These household names to Mixed Martial Arts and Ultimate Fighting Championship fans have one thing in common: they call the heart of the Panhandle home.

"All of these guys come from one small town in the top of Texas," said Michael Lister, seventh degree Tae Kwon Do grand master and owner of the Mixed Martial Arts and Athletic Center in Amarillo. "I would say we have some of the toughest guys walking around."

With the emergence of the Shark Fights Promotion in Amarillo, MMA is blowing up. It's unlikely to go anywhere in town without seeing at least one person sporting MMA gear. But according to Jim Larsen, owner of the Shark Fights Promotion, the sport has been big in the Panhandle since the emergence of the Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation in the '90s.

"That's the very first form of MMA in Texas, and it started in Amarillo," Larsen said.

According to Lister, whether people like it or not, humans are intrigued by competitive fighting.

"It is barbaric, but it's fighting ... I think that's in our blood," Lister said, making reference to the gladiators. "It's in our nature. I mean come on, has there ever been at time that there wasn't a war?"

Larsen had been working as a car salesman for several years when he was invited to a UFC party at a friend's house six years ago.

"I went, and I was absolutely hooked," Larsen said. "I fell in love with the sport. I just watched it every chance I could get, bought every pay-per-view, subscribed to every MMA channel. I really started to try to understand the sport."

From there, Larsen sponsored good friend Brent Medley on his fighting ventures in Las Vegas and went on to sponsor Amarillo native Evan Tanner, who died when he ran short of supplies while on a journey in the California dessert.

"I actually cornered Evan's last fight in the UFC," Larsen said. "It aired on Spike TV June 23, 2008. It was the main event on the Ultimate Fighter's season 6 Finale."

Before Tanner's passing, Larsen said he told Tanner and Medley that he wanted to bring his own MMA promotion to Amarillo.

"I went to a MMA event in Lubbock, and it was ridiculous," Larsen said. "You couldn't see anything or hear anything. It was bad."

Larsen said that event was the push he needed to start his own promotion.
"On September 15, 2008 we formed Shark Fight Promotions, which was my brainchild, and shortly after that, Evan passed away in the tragic accident," Larsen said. "For Shark Fights 1, (October 24, 2008) we did a tribute to Evan Tanner."

According to Larsen, Shark Fights 1 was the first live pay-per-view event from Amarillo and was distributed via the Internet. The event took place at the Amarillo National Center.

The Shark Fights promotion has now held 5 events and has been featured on major MMA Web sites such as Sherdog, Bloodyelbow and ESPN's Inside MMA.
"We've got the largest cage in the country of any MMA company, including UFC," Larsen said.

Larsen's wife, Sheila, helped organize a group of women called the Shark Angels, which can be compared to the UFC's Octagon Girls. Twenty days before Shark Fights 1, Larsen said 34-year-old Sheila collapsed of exhaustion and was taken to BSA Urgent Care where she found out she had low hemoglobin levels in her blood. It later was discovered that she had multiple malignant tumors in her small intestine, which were surgically removed. Despite the obstacles, she still supported the first Shark Fights event as a Shark Angel.

"We remove 3 feet of her small intestine, and she is actually at the show," Jim Larsen said of his wife. "She is such a fighter."

By the time Shark Fights 3 rolled around in March, Larsen said that Shark Fights decided to sponsor the Children's Miracle Network and raised $750 at the event that was donated to a local family who has a child battling cancer. Also at Shark Fights 3 was the introduction of the first three Texas MMA-endorsed belts--featherweight, wellterweight and heavyweight. Although the belts were introduced at Shark Fight 3, they were not won until Shark Fight 4 in May. The event was held in Lubbock and was also offered as an online pay-per-view event. Current belt holders include T.J. WaldBurger (welterweight) and Doug Evans (featherweight) and Darrill Schoonover (heavyweight). Schoonover is scheduled to appear on Spike TV's reality show The Ultimate Fighter for its 10th season.

"We used the same belt maker that the UFC uses," Larsen said. "Let me tell you, these fighters freaked out when they saw our belts."

Two weeks prior to Shark Fights 4, Larsen’s wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor the size of a plum and underwent surgery to remove the mass. She was able to be at the event, but not as a Shark Angel this time.

"On that card alone, we had 3 UFC veterans fight for us: Don Frye, Jesse Taylor and Phil Cardella,"Larsen said.

During the course of the Shark Fights Promotions, Larsen also opened up the Shark Fights Store in Westgate Mall.

Meanwhile, his wife went to the doctor for a check-up and was given devastating news that more tumors had consumed half of her liver and returned in her brain. She was diagnosed at a stage 5 terminal level with no available treatments. According to Larsen, the couple has four daughters--ages 5,9,15 and 17.

Shark Fights 5 was scheduled to take place June 27 as an outdoor happening at Gamboa's Outdoor Event Center, but the event was rained out. To make up for the cancellation, Shark Fights refunded all tickets, and Shark Fights 5.5

“Nothing to Lose” was offered as a free event to the public on July 18. Shark Fights 5.5 attracted a record-breaking 10,603 people, Larsen said.

"We didn't even let the rain out keep us down," Larsen said.

In its first 5 MMA events, Larsen called his company a success, although its formation has been met with personal battles.

"It's just such a connection because we own a fight company, and that's what we are doing; we are fighting," Larsen said. "This company is fighting internally with the fighting of my wife and supporting children in this community. We're going to take a bite out of cancer one fight at a time."
In less than a year after its formation, Shark Fight Promotions has left its mark on MMA world-wide.

"It gives us place in Texas and gives us place in the MMA community across the globe, and I think that that's important," Larsen said.

Lister said he believes Amarillo has more stars in the making, including Marcus Sursa, an Amarillo native and 2001 graduate of River Road High School. Sursa beat Ricky Shivers of Alaska at Shark Fights 5.5. Before Shark Fights 5.5, three of Sursa's fights had been cancelled due to injuries of his opponents.

"It does suck that I don't have three wins to make my record better, but I have to train anyway," Sursa said. "But I have to train anyway. It's just prepared me better for the next fights."

Sursa said that he didn't feel like he had any ring rust before his win against Shivers, and he proved that when he defeated Shivers with a triangle choke 57 seconds into the second round.

In 2006, Sursa participated in the Jungle Fights in Brazil where he fought against a black belt for the first time and won. He has three losses to UFC veterans Stefan Struve, Eliot Marshall and Alan Belcher. Although he did not win these fights, Sursa believes he has the potential to make it to the UFC himself.

"That's the dream and goal of every fighter," Sursa said. "I definitely think I have the caliber to make it."

According to Lister, another up-and-coming fighter with the potential to make it big is Edgar Santos, the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor at the Martial Arts and Athletic Center. He trained for 12 years and earned his second degree Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt in Brazil before making his way to Amarillo about one year ago. He now contributes to the 100 years of collective martial arts experience at the MAAC.

Santos won the last North American Grapplers Association event in Dallas and took third place at the World Cup of Jiu Jitsu. He has also taken first place twice at the Brazilian Nationals.

"You're getting guys that are the best in the world right here in Amarillo, Texas," Lister said.

Santos said his dream is to eventually fight in Japan and said he "has been waiting for this day for a very long time."

Lister said he has been teaching Tae Kwon Do in the Amarillo Independent School District as a P.E. credit for the past 19 years and coaching others to achieve their MMA potential at his gym for 28 years.

"If they only get in the cage one time or two times then they've had their fun and I'd say they've learned a lesson," Lister said.

Lister said the values he strives to instill in his students are discipline, respect, dignity, honor and self control.

To any person with dreams of making it big in MMA, Sursa offers this advice: "Say your prayers, take your vitamins and do your push-ups."