By Audrey Davis, News Editor
Nearly everyone who walks into the Armstrong Student Center can recognize a certain laugh coming from Main Street. It's a deep, loud chuckle that echoes throughout the first floor and is sure to put a smile on anyone's face.
The laugh comes from John Jude Windland, better know as 'The Stir-fry Guy.'
John is initially from Parkersburg, West Virginia, but decided to drop everything and head west to Oxford while he was in high school.
"I came here with a $20 bill, five rolls of quarters, and everything I owned I could pick up and carry at one time," John said. "I knew three people and I didn't really have an apartment or a place to stay, so I actually stayed on friends' couches in Peabody Hall for a few weeks."
John decided to stay in the area - working odd jobs, playing music and making his own instruments. Last year, as a gift, his wife picked out a studio for him on the third floor of Oxford's Community Arts Center.
The small office is filled with things. The walls are covered in works of art - most done by John - as well as different rolls of tape and various other trinkets. It looks like the lab of a mad-scientist.
John makes his own instruments in an unconventional way - by using old, battery-operated children's toys.
"This was made out of a Major Morgan," he said
while holding up a deconstructed version of the once-popular toy.
A sound similar to that of a theremin is amplified throughout the studio as John simply holds his finger to an attached metal rivet on the toy.
"You just touch them and become part of the circuitry," he said. "The harder you squeeze, the more resistance you give because you're giving more surface area of your body."
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John has been into music since he was a child. He was in a small band in high school and now has a music project called Fissure Shaft.
"Really, the art and music that I do is a little, shall I say, self-indulgent," John said. "I don't ever really plan on turning it into a career. Occasionally, I do get a chance. I make a little money producing, a little money recording and sometimes performing."
John doesn't consider his job as the 'stir-fry guy' as a career either. He has only been working at Mein Street for a year and has plans to move on in the future.
John does enjoy his time there though, especially being around the students. He's a daily conversation piece of many posts on Yik Yak, which he doesn't really know what to think about.
"I get teased a bit by my coworkers for being the, oh, what's one guy call me, The Most Interesting Man in Oxford," John said, laughing. "I think it's a little silly, but of course, I'm flattered."
John certainly is an interesting man, and most people on campus would probably agree.
"Oh, I marry people too," John said with a smile. "I've probably done about 60 this past year.
I'm the only secular minister in town."
After signing up and doing all of the paper work, John put his name in the Union County Clerk's Office and he began his journey as a minister.
"This interesting story is just part of how my life has unfolded," John said. "You take this life, and you ride the ride. Wear yourself out. Do whatever you need to do. That's why you see me at work and I am the personality that I am. I'm going to make the best of every moment that I can. To make others feel good, makes me feel awesome."
To hear John's music, go here.
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