Teacher Yams it up for class
Unpredictable Kress course

By DAVID SCHNEIDERMAN
Collegian Arts Writer

Dave Kress walks into his English 100 class on the first day. He arrives early and sits nonchalantly among the kiddies. Being a friendly sort, he strikes up conversations with the other people.

Using secret tactics known only to himself, Kress coerces the students to admit how boring they think the class will be. Then, when its time to start the session, Kress hops up and introduces himself as -- much to the students' surprise -- the teacher.

"All the jaws dropped," recalled Kress' wife, Janet Baldwin.

His tiny, University cubicle is covered with drawings of cemeteries and giant grubs, reflecting his unpredictability. A publicity poster for Yam hangs on a cabinet. Kress sits back in his chair -- relaxed and confident in a pair of blue socks.

A zany demeanor lurks behind every aspect of Kress, one of Happy Valley's closest things to a Renaissance man.

He is a man of many activities --a graduate working toward his master's degree in fine arts, an organizer of a monthly MFA reading series, a guitarist and song writer in the local band Yam, a chicxulub press contributor.

At age 36, Kress has put much distance between his life now and his life as an undergraduate chemistry major at the University of Connecticut and as an engineering graduate student at the University of New Hampshire.

Kress eventually made his way to Penn State with his wife and pursued a writing career. After doing a little bit of writing on his own, he had an incredible streak of beginner's luck, publishing several stories very quickly.

"After that I started taking (writing) more seriously," he said.

Now he teaches a section of English 212, Introduction to Fiction Writing. Bryan Fink (senior-engineering) is one of the students in the class.

"He's pretty strong in his background," Fink said.

Fink describes his teaching style as laid back, but is quick to add that Kress keeps the the class focused on the topic.

And that topic is often selections from local publishing house chicxulub press. One of his own published stories is the chicxulub release Limonada, Ray?

Material for the story came from a trip Kress took with his wife to Europe. "It's glimmers of things we saw along the way," he said, adding that the plot is about the "non-linearity of both experience and time."

Kress is currently doing some different work for chicxulub, from editing a new submission to producing cover art.

Fellow chicxulub and MFA crony, Jim Anastasopoulos, is currently in charge of the reading series with Kress at Svoboda's Books, 227 W. Beaver Ave. The last Tuesday of every month, different members of the MFA program read original works.

"Every year two of the MFA's are in charge of running it," Kress said. The series has been going on for years, but in the past year seemed to be losing popularity, Kress added.

"We wanted to liven it up a little more, try to get more people there, make the atmosphere a little bit more like a party," Kress said.

With that in mind, Kress and his partner began the search for a new location for the reading series.

"We wanted to have it at a bar, but there's no good place to have it," Kress said.

They finally chose Svoboda's and started bringing refreshments to encourage attendance. With different cookies, soda, beer and the new bookstore ambiance, the readings have taken off in popularity.

"I think (the beer) makes a big difference too. I mean it goes hand in hand in writing," Kress said. "The idea of drinking tea or coffee is OK, but you gotta have beer, too."

Another Kress side project is playing guitar for the band Yam. Soon after their formation, the group won the Asylum's Battle of the Bands last April.

But in the past year, Yam has been mostly playing parties. Kress said the bars in town have not been too receptive to the band, possibly because of one horrible show they did at Player's Sports Bar, 112 W. College Ave.

"They made us play late, after everyone left -- and we were just in a foul mood and drank a lot of beer," he said. "This year has been not successful for us at all."

But the band has not given up and has some out-of-town gigs set up, including one for a San Francisco area band, Ed's Redeeming Qualities.

"They had one pretty big tune called 'Lawn Dart,' " Kress said, proceeding to deadpan some choice lyrics from the song. "She was pegged . . . in the head. . .with a lawn dart."

Kress' wife is also a member of the band. Baldwin plays clarinet, and said the musician Kress is as unpredictable as the teacher.

"He can get to be a wild man, you never know what to expect," she said.

Kress plays guitar in the band, and is also the chief songwriter. When asked about his inspirations, he momentarily stares at a copy of Yam's cassette More Iowa Less Worcester before answering.

"Confusion, suicide, rice pilaf, suicide wannabes, beer, language, toxic waste, love." He said love in a deep, drawn-out tone, reminiscent of a cheesy Elvis song.

"I thought that was one of our innovations, everyone writes songs about suicide. We go one step further," he added, referring to the suicide wannabe in the above list. Aside from those inspirations, Yam also is aware of teen-age angst.

"We did a tribute to Kurt Cobain last year called 'I Pulled the Trigger for Kurt Cobain.' A couple of guys once threatened to beat us up after we played it. We stopped doing it," Kress said regretfully.

For now, Kress will continue juggling Yam, MFA readings, teaching, being a student and completing a novel for his thesis.

"I've got 280 pages done," Kress said, but to describe what the book is about elicts a more complicated answer.

"It's about a young woman, a girl, who kills a couple of people. It's about her family. It's about people who came over from Asia to the North American continent. It's about a quasi-fascist corn rebellion in Iowa. It's mainly about corn. It's sort of the history of corn, and it's about North America," he said. But after thinking for a moment he revises his statement.

"It's about corn, North America and Jazz," he said. "I'm totally sick of it."

So despite the many pressures of life in Happy Valley, Kress seems confident and happy to plod on. The only unanswered question is what the drawings of cemeteries and giant grubs are.

They are from my nieces, Kress said. "They illustrate the tall tales I tell them," he added with a wry smile.