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(09/19/06 2:57am)
AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France -- Most museums take the anniversary of an artist's death as a chance to pull out a handful of his or her work stuck in the vaults and air them out for a few weeks. \nAix-en-Provence artist Paul Cézanne's ville maternelle, or birthplace, and the setting of his most famous paintings, is doing more than just a bit of airing out for the 100th anniversary of his death. \nThis petite town in southern France has gone Cézanne-zany, even laminating his scribbled signature on the side of the town buses to advertise the immense amount of Cézanne-related activities offered not just for a few weeks, but throughout the entire year. \nThe main event is "Cézanne en Provence," an exhibit being held at the Musée Granet, just around the corner from my apartment in the Quartier Mazarin. The exhibit ran from June 9 to Sept. 17, just long enough for every tourist to get in my way as I walked to class. Even before 9 a.m. the line at the billetrie, or ticket counter, is already two blocks long and growing. Between the amount of people wanting to see the exhibit and the amount of people who wander around the exhibit for hours, I've seen the billetrie close in the middle of the afternoon until further notice. \nIt's worth hustling through the crowds to see, though. With 116 of Cézanne's works on display, being without a tour guide or an audio headset can quickly become overwhelming. My personal favorite was the room of Mont Sainte-Victoire oil paintings, displayed in chronological order to display the evolution of his painting style through his different interpretations of Aix's most famous montagne, or mountain, Mont Sainte Victoire.\nOther events Aix offered were multiple musical and artistic tributes, as well as documentaries recounting the events of Cézanne's life. Now that school is starting, lectures discussing every topic possible about Cézanne are on the agenda. The Natural History Museum in Aix even has an exhibit of the evolution of Cézanne's beloved Mont Sainte-Victoire. You can wander outside of the city center and visit Cézanne's atelier, his childhood home Jas de Bouffan and favorite place by the sea, l'Estaque. \nEven though I am not the biggest Cézanne fan, it's amazing to spend an afternoon in a crowded museum looking at canvases and then exit the museum into that canvas. One of the defining characteristics of his work is his color, and until coming to Aix, I never would have believed that his color palette was realistic. But trust me, the sky really is that blue here.
(05/26/05 4:00am)
Before using this concert to convince a friend to visit ("So what if they're playing in your home town? If you come see them here, you'll get to see me too!"), I hadn't given the Decemberists much thought. It was just another indie, kind of weird, quite pretentious band that requires patience to dig and I don't have that kind of patience to give. \nAfter seeing them at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, I realized the quickest way to get into any band is to see them live. With smaller bands, a concert ticket is cheaper than buying a $20 CD. And if they suck, it's as easy to walk out of a venue as it is to delete their pirated album off your mp3 player. \nThe Decemberists rely on a mish-mash of unusual instruments and story-telling lyrics to create fantastical music. They're an "indie" band only because they're on a well-known indie label, Kill Rock Stars. Their music makes me feel like I'm the wife of a pirate on the Black Sea circa the 19th century, drinking at the bar and hanging out with the house minstrel until he returns home. Without the excellent (although sometimes too loud) sound quality and space of the BCT, some of the band's title tracks telling the tale of "The Legionnaire's Lament" or the story of Miranda in "We Both Go Down Together" would have been lost.\nThe band, currently touring for its fifth album, Picaresque, ups the bawdy and downs the obscurity of their music when playing live. They've brought storytelling back into modern music, engaging listeners with what's being described in a song instead of only bobbing their head to the beat. The band's drummer and lead guitarist (John Moen and Chris Funk, respectively) keep the pretentiousness of lead singer Colin Meloy at bay by occasionally laying down to nap during a song or by throwing a cymbal across the stage. \nThe most entertaining moment of evening occurred during "A Mariner's Revenge Song" off the new album. When Funk made up and down chomping motions with his arms, it was the audience's cue they were currently being eaten by a whale and to scream "Bloody Mary!" and for their mother to save them. The screaming lasted longer than the song. \nThe only sore point of the night was any moment Rebecca Gates was on stage, a solo artist and former member of the band the Spinanes. She was the opening act for the Decemberists, contrary to the tickets' claim that Willie Mason was opening. She sucked. Big time. The Decemberists didn't.
(05/25/05 7:36pm)
Before using this concert to convince a friend to visit ("So what if they're playing in your home town? If you come see them here, you'll get to see me too!"), I hadn't given the Decemberists much thought. It was just another indie, kind of weird, quite pretentious band that requires patience to dig and I don't have that kind of patience to give. \nAfter seeing them at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, I realized the quickest way to get into any band is to see them live. With smaller bands, a concert ticket is cheaper than buying a $20 CD. And if they suck, it's as easy to walk out of a venue as it is to delete their pirated album off your mp3 player. \nThe Decemberists rely on a mish-mash of unusual instruments and story-telling lyrics to create fantastical music. They're an "indie" band only because they're on a well-known indie label, Kill Rock Stars. Their music makes me feel like I'm the wife of a pirate on the Black Sea circa the 19th century, drinking at the bar and hanging out with the house minstrel until he returns home. Without the excellent (although sometimes too loud) sound quality and space of the BCT, some of the band's title tracks telling the tale of "The Legionnaire's Lament" or the story of Miranda in "We Both Go Down Together" would have been lost.\nThe band, currently touring for its fifth album, Picaresque, ups the bawdy and downs the obscurity of their music when playing live. They've brought storytelling back into modern music, engaging listeners with what's being described in a song instead of only bobbing their head to the beat. The band's drummer and lead guitarist (John Moen and Chris Funk, respectively) keep the pretentiousness of lead singer Colin Meloy at bay by occasionally laying down to nap during a song or by throwing a cymbal across the stage. \nThe most entertaining moment of evening occurred during "A Mariner's Revenge Song" off the new album. When Funk made up and down chomping motions with his arms, it was the audience's cue they were currently being eaten by a whale and to scream "Bloody Mary!" and for their mother to save them. The screaming lasted longer than the song. \nThe only sore point of the night was any moment Rebecca Gates was on stage, a solo artist and former member of the band the Spinanes. She was the opening act for the Decemberists, contrary to the tickets' claim that Willie Mason was opening. She sucked. Big time. The Decemberists didn't.
(10/05/04 5:11am)
Junior Matt Tyrrell didn't go back home to Naperville, Ill., to work during the summer -- he went to Washington, D.C., instead.\n Even though he sent his application in on the last possible day, Tyrrell was accepted for a summer internship at Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh's Washington, D.C., office. He didn't expect to get the internship, but applied anyway to get his name in the door. When he received the phone call from Meghan Campione, Bayh's office manager, to come work for the summer he said it was like "a breath of fresh air" at the end of a long spring semester. \n"I thought 'there's no way I'd even get a response,' so it was really just a shot in the dark," Tyrrell said. \nWorking for a senator can be the best way to gain knowledge on the legislative process and to learn how congressional offices are run. \n"Interns aid the office staff on a day-to-day basis," said Bayh Press Secretary Meghan Keck. "Their work is mainly a product of their environment." \nA day's work usually included answering phone calls, writing letters and various clerical duties. \n"Basically (the interns) were there to help out if a certain staff member got overloaded with work," Tyrrell said. \nBut there's more to working in a congressional office than just office work.\n"Another important job interns do at the D.C. office is lead tour groups of Hoosiers around D.C. and research legislature that is currently on the senate floor," Keck said.\nLeading tours was one of Tyrrell's favorite jobs as an intern.\n"It was a break from some of the more tedious jobs we had to do," he said.\nTyrrell remembered when he and the constituents he was guiding on a tour of the Capitol Building were asked to step aside for the vice president. \n"Five people walked out of this adjacent hallway headed toward us and Dick Cheney was in the middle of them all ... I was like, 'Oh my god, there's the vice president.'" Tyrrell said.\nRandom run-ins with political figures aren't the only chance for interns to see a famous face. \n"The Intern Lecture Series is put on by the Senate Rules Committee," Campione said. "They ask politicians, journalists and other people around D.C. to come in and speak to the interns." \nTyrrell considers seeing Secretary of State Colin Powell speak through the ILS one of his top-five experiences while interning in D.C. \nBut Capitol Hill experience comes at a price. \n"You don't get paid and you have to relocate there for the summer and pay rent, and it's really expensive in Washington," Tyrrell said. \nOutside the office, students have to worry about more than just meals.\n"We do not provide housing, but we aid interns in finding housing here, on the Hill," Keck said.\nStudents don't have to spend all summer working 40 hours a week.\n"Some work half a summer depending on their schedules -- we try to get as many students the experience as possible," Keck said. \nWhile Tyrrell worked all summer, that's not always the case for all students.\n"We are very flexible with interns and their schedules -- they work any time in between late May to the end of August," Campione said. \nBy the end of his internship, Tyrrell said his eyes had opened to the ways Democrats and Republicans work together in the political arena. \n"It doesn't do you much good to be a left-wing crazy person or a right-wing crazy person. If you aren't willing to compromise, you aren't going to move forward," Tyrrell said. "In my own political views, I became much more moderate and much more open-minded to what other people have to think." \n-- Contact staff writer Adrienne Dye at addye@indiana.edu.