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(05/02/11 7:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Deb Drake almost had to swim out of her driveway to get to work Sunday. Lake Monroe flooded her property, but she still got to Bloomington 30 minutes late to clean the apartment of three seniors she has known since their freshman year. She walked into their spacious apartment, filled with fish tanks and leftover memories of the pregame the night before. Fifty-five-year-old Deb carried in her cleaning supplies and a $1,300 vacuum cleaner that has lasted her 17 years. Kyle Plaxsun, a soon-to-be college graduate, put his arm around Deb and said, “Here is my angel.” To Kyle and numerous other students at IU, Deb is their mother away from home. “They are not my clients,” Deb said. “They are my kids.” They have their actual mom back in New York or Chicago or whatever city or town they come from, but in Bloomington, when Deb comes over to clean, she becomes more than a cleaning lady. She knows how they want their salt and pepper shakers lined up. She knows that one girl likes her toothbrush cup cleaned out and Deb makes sure never to forget. “I treat them like my children,” Deb said. “I used to clean Kyle’s older brother’s apartment. Students find me through word of mouth.” Kyle told Deb that his favorite day is Sunday because it’s Deb Day. She put on purple gloves that hide her diamond ring. Twenty-six years ago her husband made a drunken promise and said if she married him, he would buy her a mink coat on their fifth anniversary, a diamond ring on their 10th and a trip to Hawaii on their 15th. He followed through with them all. He built her the house she always envisioned on a 10-acre property. He’s never let her down.Deb started to clean up the mess that has accumulated since she cleaned last Sunday. Her small frame moved fast as dirty dishes were put in the dishwasher. She scrubbed the microwave. She wiped off the countertop. She threw bottles away. The mess was quickly turning into a kitchen straight out of an IKEA catalog. It was spotless.
(03/26/11 1:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>MARTINSVILLE, Ind.-- A 15-year-old boy, suspended from his middle school, snuck back to the school Friday morning and shot a classmate, police said. Parents and students said the shooting was about a girl both boys liked. Earlier in the week, the alleged shooter Michael Phelps, a student at Martinsville West Middle School, was reportedly making threats on Facebook against the victim, Chance Jackson, 15. Phelps’ Facebook status Friday morning, just before the shooting, said, "Today is the day."Jackson, reportedly shot in the stomach, was flown by a LifeLine helicopter to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and is currently in critical yet stable condition. Phelps was taken into custody and brought to the Morgan County Sheriff Department where he is currently being held for the shooting. The authorities would not comment on the charges.Hundreds of parents gathered outside of the school, anxious to see their children and receive answers. Parents accused the principal Suzie Lipps and her administration of being aware of the Facebook threats but ignoring them. Reports of Phelps’ threats were so wide spread that some students didn’t come to school Friday out of fear.
(03/01/11 4:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At 10:30 p.m. Saturday, while most people are at home getting ready to go out for the night, Adam Gelman and Ross Meisel are putting together glow sticks at Jake’s Nightclub and Bar. Hours before the party begins, lights stream from the stage down at Adam and Ross, the two seniors responsible for running the party every Saturday. From promotion to marketing and hiring all talent, they have been in charge of the one night a week that focuses on house music since 2009. In February 2009, Adam started working with student Justin Cohen, who is now the chief operating officer of the event planning company Summit Series. Ross, who was working for them behind the scenes, became a partner in August.They take out confetti paper, glow sticks and air horns. Attempting to use the air horn, Ross says, “These things never work.”“Don’t break them,” Adam says back. It’s the little things behind the scenes that all add up to the memorable Saturday nights at Jake’s Nightclub. Tonight, the theme is “Rave ’N’ Roll.”Numerous text messages and Blackberry Messenger conversations have been sent for Saturday night, phone calls have been made, and flyers on Facebook were distributed to more than 2,000 people. “It’s not drums and guitars anymore, it’s turn tables and mixers. This is our generation’s rock star,” Ross says. Outside of school, they work anywhere from 10 to 15 hours a week. From meetings with the manager to booking talent and promoting events, they’re constantly finding ways to improve the party. They walk upstairs, past empty kegs and cardboard boxes, up a narrow stairwell and hallway to meet the manager, Erik Duvall. They sit in front of his desk as they talk about their plans for upcoming Saturday nights. Adam and Ross are constantly looking back on previous weekends so that when planning for the future they know what works, what failed and what they can do better. Jake’s on a Saturday night once had about 200 to 300 people. Immediately after Adam and Ross started promoting, it reached more than 500. In the past, it’s reached as high as 812 people. Their pay is a percentage of the door cover profits. “It’s hard to keep people excited after the momentum has died down,” Erik says.What amazes Erik the most is that they still continue to bring in high numbers even though it’s been two years. No one has ever done this at Jake’s before. They’re not just promoters. Promoters come and go. Ross and Adam aren’t going anywhere until they graduate and head back to the East Coast. Adam and Ross know the trends. They know what’s in and what’s out. They know what was once cool is now old news. They like to spice things up. People want to know what they’re going to experience Saturday at Jake’s, but they also don’t want it to be too repetitive. They want the best music, the best drinks, the best lighting. The crowd once wanted top-40 music. Now they want house. ***Adam and Ross walk around the empty bar like it’s their own because on Saturdays, they’re the on-site directors. They work with Erik, but at the end of the day, he trusts them to decide what type of party they should have. They discuss with Erik about where tables should be put, ask questions about the lighting and talk about how tonight they have to make sure no one is allowed behind the DJ booth. Ross points with the glow sticks to where the security guards will be on stage. They put a rope in front of the booth, trying to block people from crossing the line.It’s a waiting game. They never know what the turnout is going to be. DJ Matt Goldman enters the room for the sound check. Adam and Ross make sure it sounds the way it should. They talk about how they all got into DJing, how some have been in the business since they were 16. In the past Adam and Ross have consulted for nightclubs in New York and Miami. Small talk is tossed back and forth. “Where are you from?““New York?”“Me too.” “What school did you graduate from? What year?”They are East Coasters who are just trying to bring a little taste of New York City to Bloomington. Senior Jared Berkey, a friend of Adam and Ross, goes by DJ Bizerkey. Tonight he is DJing along side DJ Matt Goldman, but hours before the show starts he sits at the edge of the stage, dangling his feet, letting them sway in the air.People in the background fill cleaning supplies and others wipe bar stools. Adam tells DJ Goldman he will know he did a good job if by the end of the night when the music shuts off, people start chanting the introduction base line of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.” ***It’s 12:50 a.m., and the numbers are not where Adam and Ross want them to be. They save their words and pull out their phones, where last minute text messages are sent. “If you are tired of standing at a bar like you do every other night and want to actually have fun, we have a DJ in from Pacha just opened for Max Vangelli last week, come see what the hype is about,” Ross texts to friends. They never know who will show up even if they say they’re going to. Adam and Ross constantly look at their phones as the minutes tick by, pacing by the front door to see if the crowd is coming in.Their phones vibrate. People’s locations are confirmed. Adam and Ross join DJ Bizerkey behind the DJ Booth, testing out the music. Adam puts the headphones over his ears, and Ross holds onto the microphone. DJ Bizerkey spins the music, clicks songs on his white Apple laptop that has a “BIZERKEY” sticker in black letters. He fiddles with buttons that produce the sounds that will have people swaying and jumping and closing their eyes all night. All three look out onto the empty space.In less than an hour you won’t be able to see the floor. ***Adam and Ross’s concerns about not filling up vanishes as not only the front room, but the back room starts to crowd with bodies. What was an empty bar now doesn’t have one available stool. People sit for a second, get up, take a shot and sit back down. Up again and back down. It’s now time to dance. Adam and Ross decided earlier to move the tables to the side. They could see people wanting to dance before they even arrived. Jake’s has a VIP section that is sectioned off, filled with wooden tables. Adam and Ross want to make their customers feel special. They give people in the VIP section a complimentary bottle of Patron Tequila and Ketel One Vodka, which would typically cost $200.Adam and Ross want to emphasize the nightclub atmosphere. They want it to feel like New York or Miami. They want a big city feel in the college town of Bloomington. The bottles in the VIP area never quite make it to the plastic container on the table that is supposed to keep it cold. It’s passed around, poured into glasses and mouths and swung in the air like a first-place trophy. Women stand on tables, holding onto men below, teasing them with words that they can’t hear. Their arms and necks glow in the air because of their bracelets. They’re illuminated in the midst of the crowd. A guy pops a champagne bottle. Most of it never makes it into the plastic glasses. It oozes onto the table and slides off the floor. Two people kiss in the corner. Another woman glares at them from across the table, staring through the crowd and bottles and loud music. Everyone texts their friends to come. No one wants to miss out.A woman drinks from a fishbowl filled with numerous types of alcohol. She doesn’t seem to be drinking fast enough, so she grabs another straw and sips from them both.Everyone puts their hands up, pounding the air with their fists or handbags. Shinny clutches wave around. People dance in place to a song that has no words, dress straps slipping off their shoulders. Women either don’t notice, or they don’t care. It’s all about the house music. More BBM’s are sent. Text messages received. Phone calls missed. No one can hear anything but the music. During the party, Ross walks over to the lighting booth to check that everything is going smoothly. Later Adam and Ross disappear into the green room, which is right off the stage. They talk about how the night is going as a woman sneaks in to use the private bathroom only a few people know about.***Ross and Adam go to the microphone at the end of the night. People were calling their names to come on stage. Ross calls out to his friend whom he sees walking in. After the music stops and the colored lights are turned off, about 75 people are still dancing on stage. They are moving to the beat that still plays in their head. Glow sticks have died out and are scattered on the floor, which is covered with liquid that no longer shines. They have waited since last Saturday for this party, and they don’t want it to end. As the music shuts off, the crowd starts to chant the introduction to “Seven Nation Army.”
(02/21/11 6:59pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The TravelerNatalie Azhdam, senior Beverly Hills, Calif., 21 years oldNatalie Azhdam knows freedom’s worth fighting for, even if it means going against your family. Following graduation, Natalie Azhdam will go back to the home she fought to leave. Natalie moved to a Persian-Jewish community in Beverly Hills, Calif., right before her junior year of high school. After years of being told she couldn’t have sleepovers or go to summer camps, she was ready to make her own decisions. “My level of freedom shot from zero to 100 when I came here,” she says about her move to IU.Getting to Bloomington wasn’t easy. In the Persian-Jewish community where she was raised, Natalie says, women go to University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, or a community college. For Natalie, that was not an option. “I had to scream and kick,” Natalie says about her choice to come to Indiana. “Everything I could do to convince them to let me come, I did.” Natalie didn’t just want to leave home; she wanted to leave the state. She craved the freedom to be on her own. The freedom to hang out with whomever she wanted, travel wherever she wanted, and most importantly, the freedom to attend a “real university.” When Natalie decided to leave Los Angeles, her whole family put up a fight. “When I told my grandparents I was going to Indiana, they thought I said India,” she says. “I just tell people now I go to school in Chicago because most people in my community don’t even know where Indiana is.” After four years of living on her own, Natalie has learned that freedom comes with a cost. Fifteen to 20 hours a week, Natalie makes cold calls for mojopages.com, a business directory site. It’s one of the numerous jobs she works to maintain her lifestyle. “I would never ask my parents to pay for the extravagant things I do,” she says. “I want to have the freedom to fly to Vegas with my friends for the weekend, or go to Mexico for spring break.” Graduation in May will present a whole new challenge for Natalie and her family. While her parents have come to understand her decision to leave, she’s prepared to give up her newfound freedom. “After college, I am moving home, only for them.” Going away for college, her parents told her, was a four-year deal. Though the political science major says she wants to work in sales, she’ll have to spend some time back in California before she makes her way out to either Chicago or New York.She wants to please her parents as much as she wants to be on her own, and as she looks back on college these past four years she says, “I feel like I went from being one to 30 years old.”
(02/21/11 6:56pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The MusicianMax Newman, junior New York City, 20 years oldMax Newman couldn’t find freedom at school, so he dropped out. Now he spends his days living through music.Some people know exactly what they want to do in life before they even complete kindergarten. Max Newman is one of those lucky few. He grew up in New York City, a place that screams freedom. It’s a city people move to because they want independence, or in Max’s case, a place you leave to get away from it all. Max grew up playing the cello, studying at Juilliard in high school. Music became his life. After he graduated, he left the chaotic skyline behind to study classical music at the Jacobs School of Music. “If I think about it, no matter how much freedom music gives me, in a way it was chosen for me from such a young age,” Max says.By freshman year, he says, he was frustrated with memorizing classical compositions. He made major changes to his career path, hoping to find something personally meaningful. He switched from cello to guitar, dropped out of the music school, and after sophomore year, decided to take an entire year off. Freedom from classes has given him time to focus on his music. However, this decision also came with the financial burden of paying his own way.Max might not be free from responsibility, but when it comes to his music, nothing can hold him back. “There is such freedom in music itself. It’s the freedom of expression,” Max says. “No one can take this freedom away from me.”Some students are free because they’re physically on their own, and others are free because they financially support themselves. Max is free because he doesn’t see anything stopping him from succeeding. Taking a semester off from school didn’t hold Max back; it pushed him forward.“I couldn’t see myself as a student,” Max admits. “I want to be passionate with everything I do.” Max values his freedom because he works for it. “You have to study the scales, the masters that came before you,” Max says. “This is freedom that you earn. Improvisation isn’t just playing what you want. It really does strike a chord in people and makes them feel free too.”
(02/21/11 6:52pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Money SaverAndrew Lysaught, sophomore Naperville, Ill., 20 years oldEach hour scooping ice cream brings Andrew Lysaught $7.55 closer to freedom.On Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday nights, Andrew Lysaught stands behind the long red counter at the Crimson Creamery in Gresham Food Court. Scooping ice cream for hungry students isn’t the sophomore’s calling, but he puts on the plastic gloves and red uniform for 10 hours a week to earn spending money. “It gives me the financial freedom I want,” he says.Andrew, a history and economics major, has had a job since he was 13, when he started working as a bus boy at a Naperville, Ill., restaurant. Now he works for the money that pays for his financial freedom. Andrew owes his father $10,000 for his room and board and plans on paying him back by “working and working and working.” He even plans on selling his $2,000 coin collection and a $500 guitar. Selling his prized possessions, he says, is like giving up part of his childhood. When his Crimson Creamery shift ends at 8 p.m., Andrew walks across the street to his dorm room in McNutt. Even in a residence hall with an RA, Andrew appreciates the opportunity he has to live and think on his own. “It’s not just physical freedom I lacked in high school,” he says. “I didn’t have much mental freedom either.”Going to class, working and enjoying college has forced Andrew to learn how to manage his money and his time. “Freshman year I really screwed up,” he says. “I didn’t have my parents on my back, so I stayed up late, went out late.” A year later, he’s beginning to figure it out. “It’s all about balancing your time,” he says.
(02/21/11 6:47pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Sorority Girl: Clare Libbing, freshman Fort Wayne, 19 years oldClare Libbing left behind high school curfews and parental supervision. Freedom, she says, is living in a house with 100 sisters.Clare Libbing walks into a mansion with tall ceilings, golden chandeliers, and large couches with pillows that are there more for show than for comfort. Clare, a 19-year-old freshman, recently received her bid at her first choice sorority, Alpha Xi Delta. Clare is confident she’s found her new home on campus, but admits she’s still slightly nervous around her new sisters. “Right now I’m acting a little different because I know I’m trying to impress them, but every week I feel more and more relaxed and like myself,” Clare says. It’s coming up on 9 p.m., and Clare isn’t checking her watch for the time. The concept of a curfew disappeared when she left high school. “Now I can do whatever I want, when I want.” Clare’s older sister is a junior in the same sorority. But as much as Clare loves having her sister around, she’s also trying to make a name for herself. “I’m trying to have the sorority girls get to know me not so much as Sarah’s little sister,” she says. Freshman year gave Clare the freedom to decide how she spends her time, but she is still learning how to budget everything from her stress to her bills. She is responsible for half her tuition and all of her spending money. “I’m free, but still dependent on my parents for advice,” Clare says. “I can always call them, and they’re just a short car ride away.” Clare doesn’t seem concerned about any freedom she might lose by moving back into a house where she isn’t completely in control. “You have less freedom of where you should go and what you should say to people. You’re not just speaking for yourself, but you’re speaking for 100 other girls that live with you,” Clare says. “I am much more aware of what I do now and how I portray myself.” Though she’s still taking it all in, Clare knows she wants to be involved in Alpha Xi Delta. “It will be like living on a dorm room floor with people that will be your best friends.” She takes a deep breath. “I hope.
(02/15/11 6:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s Valentine’s Day, and Brittney Hamm is visiting her fiance at the place they met: the Monroe County Jail.The clouds above hang low, teasing with the possibility of rain. Brittney, 25 and only a semester away from a computer degree at Ivy Tech, hurries down College Avenue holding her daughter’s hand. Gracie, 5, points at the storefront windows bright with red-heart shaped balloons. Brittney doesn’t turn her head to look as she pulls her daughter along. They’re late for their 12:15 p.m. check-in at the Justice Building.They enter the stale air of the jail’s first-floor waiting room, Brittney’s long red hair falling in front of her face. She presses a button on the intercom.“I’m here to visit Jere Brant Crouch,” she says into the speaker, and the heavy door buzzes to let her and Gracie in.Brittney pulls out two forms of ID -- a photocopy of her birth certificate and a credit card with her name on it -- and slips it underneath the glass to show the guard. She’s wearing her Calgon Hawaiian Ginger body mist. She knows Jere won’t be able to smell it, but she wears it anyway.For most, Valentine’s Day is filled with chocolate and roses and excuses to go out for fancy dinners. For the women visiting their men at the Monroe County Jail, Valentine’s Day is another reminder of love with restrictions. While they wait for their visits, wives and girlfriends congregate outside, talking about the things they have in common: raising children by themselves, the uncertainties of the next court date, the public defenders too busy to call them back. No matter how intense their frustration gets, the women return as often as they can. From the sidewalk across the street, they look up to the top two floors of the Justice Building -- the floors where the jail is located -- and look for the faces of their loved ones in the windows. The men bang their fists against the glass. The women wave and blow kisses. If the weather’s warm enough, they scribble messages on the pavement in chalk, proclaiming their love in multi-colored letters big enough to be read from high above.Anything to get close to their men. Anything to let them know they’re not alone.****Brittney and Jere were set up on a blind date six months ago. Jere, 37, was already in custody awaiting trial on theft charges. After writing each other every day for two months, their first meeting took place at the jail, with a wall of Plexiglas separating their anxious selves. She wore a white top with minimal but noticeable makeup on her face. He wore his orange jumpsuit.Before the beginning of the new year, Brittney and other visitors often had to wait for hours until their names were called for their 15-minute visits with their loved ones. When the waiting room grew too crowded, the women would huddle outside, shivering in the cold and wrapping their babies in blankets inside their strollers. Others would sit in their cars in the jail parking lot, turning the heat on full blast. Brittney sometimes waited until 2 a.m. to have her visit. When it was warm, children played ball in the alley behind the jail. In January, the jail started a new visitation protocol. Instead of talking to their loved ones face to face through the Plexiglass, visitors are buzzed into a room filled with computers equipped with video cameras. The prisoners stay upstairs in their cell block and sit before another computer and camera. Through a video conference similar to Skype, the two sides can see each other and talk, but only through the monitors. These visits are scheduled by appointment and now last for 30 minutes, instead of 15.The jail is right across the street from the Smallwood Plaza, an upscale apartment complex where a four-bedroom unit can go for more than $2,400 a month. The IU students who rent these apartments don’t know their neighbors who occupy the jail. When the visitors would stand outside on the street, the students would stare at them, obviously confused as to why they were writing huge messages in chalk.Brittney is still adjusting to the new visitation system. She had to trade in waiting for hours to see Jere through glass for prompt but impersonal visits.“His eyes are my favorite thing about him, and I can’t even look at them.”****She walks into the visitation room for her Valentine’s visit and sits down at monitor number eight. Other women sit by her side at their own monitors. Gracie, who is from a previous marriage, is with her, holding her hand.Jere puts his hands on his cheek, hiding the scruff the weak razors cause on his skin. He blows Gracie kisses and she blows some more back. Brittney blocks out the rest of the room as she stares into a small camera above the screen. Her eyes pierce into his brown eyes all the way up to his cell block. Brittney can’t look at the screen and into the camera at the same time so she goes back and forth, moving her eyes in all directions, trying to find the perfect place to land them. At the beginning of the visit, Gracie starts off on Brittney’s lap, then climbs underneath the table and starts playing with a young boy. In numerous visits men wink and blow kisses at Brittney while Jere’s back is turned to it all. She wants just him, but instead gets the rest of his block as well. Today an old man sits on the table behind Jere, invading the little time Jere has with his fiancee, turning their time into a communal gathering for the entire 30-minute visit. From the table the old man looks right into the camera, straight into Brittney’s eyes.All 5 feet and 11 inches of Jere take up half the screen as he nods his head to the side. Brittney jokes around and tells him, “Why don’t you just jump into my pocket and we can go home?”He talks about his frustration with the jail and how much he wants to be with Brittney, especially on Valentine’s Day. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine as long as I have you,” Jere says to Brittney. He promises to make every Valentine’s Day from this day forward better than today.She wonders when she will see him next. You can hear the frustration in Brittney’s voice as she mentions how they spent their first Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays apart. She looks at their setbacks together and how even though their relationship started off on a rough patch, if they can get through this, they can get through anything. Brittney has never held Jere’s hand. She has never kissed his lips or woken up to him in her bed. They have never seen a movie together or talked over a home-cooked dinner. Their relationship’s home is the jail. It is the only place they can see each other. It’s the mental snapshot that she takes with her wherever she goes. Brittney sprays her Calgon Hawaiian Ginger body mist on every letter she sends him. He can smell her without bringing his nose to her neck, and keeps all the letters beneath his pillow. In the past 14 days, Brittney and her daughter Gracie have sent Jere 14 Valentine’s Day cards. One of them got sent back because it contained glitter. When everyone else in her house goes to bed, Brittney sits at her kitchen table and writes Jere a two to three-page letter. “We have never once run out of things to write or say to each other,” Brittney says. His handwritten words are what keep Brittney going. They make it so she can’t let go. She bought Jere Ghirardelli caramel, raspberry and peanut chocolates for Valentine’s Day. She also bought him a watch for his birthday. Both these gifts sit at home because gifts are not allowed at the jail. They wait with Brittney to give Jere when he gets out of jail. Brittney doesn’t know how old the chocolate will be when she will actually be able to give it to him.They begin to talk about how upset he is that the judge didn’t show up to the court hearing earlier that morning. The one-minute warning comes up on the monitor. ****In the past, Brittney’s relationships moved extremely fast. She laughs as she says this relationship is definitely moving slow. “I think hopefully one day we can look back at this and laugh.”Jere tells her that when he does get out he is going to go home, shower, use a real razor, pick Brittney and Gracie up and take it from there. “I think about holding his hand 24/7. I told him I’m going to get on his nerves because I’m just not going to leave him alone.” She knows what she wants and it’s Jere. She feels the connection few people ever feel in a lifetime and as much as she admits a prisoner is not who she ideally thought she would end up with, she can’t deny love. Brittney calls Jere her best friend. They tell each other things about their lives no one else knows. He asks her about the weather and what she’s making for dinner as she teases him about the Bob Barker hot dogs he will most likely eat. They talk about the movies he is going to catch up on and how he wants to see Adam Sandler’s movie “Just Go With It,” and if he snores when he sleeps. The biggest complaint she has about Jere is that he doesn’t like tomatoes. She gets annoyed that he constantly complains about how much he needs a haircut just two weeks after he’s had one, and he tells her to chill out when she makes a huge deal about a small blemish on her face. “You can’t help who you fall in love with,” She says. “It was love at first letter.”****In the last minute of their visit Brittney rushes to say everything that she possibly can. I love yous are tossed back and forth as Jere tells Gracie that he loves her and misses her. Gracie asks him when he is getting out and he says he doesn’t know. “Well, you’ve been here for like 12 years,” Gracie tells him. The old man is still staring at Brittney when the monitor goes black. Brittney and Gracie walk out of the jail holding hands, breathing in air Jere can’t feel inside.When Brittney gets home from her visit, she receives a Valentine's Day letter from Jere. He says the connection he has with her he has never had with anybody else. He calls her his soul mate and says they were destined to meet each other.“I think I am more worried you will be disappointed in me. Maybe I won’t live up to all that you have built me up to be in your mind. I will always try my best to make you happy and be there for you. As a team we can do anything.” That evening, Brittney receives a phone call from Jere informing her that the judge just sentenced him to nine months in prison. She hopes the sentence will be shortened to a few months. He tells her how sorry he is and understands if she doesn’t want to be with him because of this. She tells him like always that they can make it through anything. She’s already devoted so much time to him and she is never going to give up. “It’s just another road block, but we will get through it,” Brittney tells him.She hangs up the phone and tells herself, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Brittney.”
(02/04/11 3:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Joshua Pearl can be considered an accomplished investment banker and author — and he hasn’t even hit the big 3-0.Pearl, an IU alumnus, graduated from the Kelley School of Business in May 2003. He and co-author Joshua Rosenbaum wrote “Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers and Acquisitions” in May 2009. It’s currently the No. 1 book sold on Amazon.com in the Consolidation & Merger category.The idea for the book, however, has been on Pearl’s mind since he was an undergraduate.“It took five years to write. I started the draft of the general outline of the text when I was still on campus. As a senior, I was thinking, ‘You know what? This book really doesn’t exist, and all the books out there are predominantly written by financial professors.’” Pearl decided to take the next step and put his thoughts into action. “These books weren’t really applicable to how valuation analysis is actually performed on Wall Street. So I figured, I’m going to write the book I wish had existed when I was trying to break into Wall Street. My co-author and I worked with over 100 individuals to complete the book, including some of the top financiers and finance professors in the world.”He said his primary reason for writing this book was to the fill the void he saw in the textbooks he was using in his classes. “If you look at all the corporate finance books that come to market, they’re generally grounded in finance theory. My co-author and I wrote the real-world guide.” And in Rosenbaum, he found the exact co-author he was looking for. Because he was only 22 years old at the time of the book’s inception, Pearl said he wanted someone with more experience. That initial conversation led to a five-year process of working a full-time job and trying to write the guide to valuation on the side.The book, published in May 2009, has since sold more than 20,000 copies. Amazon ranks it No. 1, and it’s also the No. 1 valuation book in the world. Pearl said it is used in about 50 business schools.“The book required a tremendous amount of hard work, and there were many times during the writing process when we thought to ourselves, ‘Is the book going to take off? Is it worth all of the effort?’ But it definitely was. My co-author and I have met so many students who have benefitted from our book — those interested in investment banking, general finance and accounting. In addition, we’ve met a lot of interesting people — there’s a small fraternity of finance authors,” Pearl said.Senior and Kelley student Dan Swihart is part of the two-year Investment Banking Workshop of which Pearl was also a member. “I think (the book) is really helpful. Classes here at IU can sometimes get a little academic in their approaches, and I think it’s a practical textbook of how things are actually done once you get on the job,” Swihart said. Swihart will be joining Goldman Sachs & Co. when he graduates this May. David Haeberle, a professor in Kelley who teaches the workshop, also taught Pearl from 2002-03 and remains in contact with him.“Josh has had a successful and colorful career as an investment banker since he left college. He actually started talking to me about this book when he was still an associate at Deutsche Bank, and it was kind of interesting that a guy that young got hooked up with the other author and started to write the textbook,” Haeberle said.Haeberle reviewed several chapters of the book. As soon as the book was published, Haeberle started assigning it to his investment banking classes: F428: Investment Banking I, F429: Investment Banking II and F390: Excellence in Investment Banking Seminar.The reason Haeberle said he started using Pearl’s textbook is exactly the reason Pearl was motivated to write it in the first place — most textbooks on finance are written by academics who understand the theory not the practice.“Josh understands the practice, and that’s what my students need before they start work at the firms. So it’s purely a practitioner’s approach instead of an academic’s approach.”In the next couple of years, Pearl said he plans to write a second edition of the book. “The core valuation techniques that we discuss in the book are pretty much timeless, but it’s standard that after a few years of strong sales you want to get a revised version underway.”
(02/03/11 5:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Some people can turn hobbies into careers. For Douglas Linn, an IU Maurer School of Law graduate, Magic the Gathering was a game he started to play when he was just 10 years old. Now, it is much more. Linn, who graduated this past December, teamed up with Kelly Reid, creator of www.quietspeculation.com. The online magazine focuses on how to play, trade, sell and finance the game of Magic the Gathering.Reid, who had moved to New York City and was laid off three times in one calendar year, moved to Lafayette on a whim to find work. He needed a way to make new friends, so he got back into the habit of playing Magic. He began trading cards and making money on the side.“I found that it was really easy to make money this way, for me. Yet not a lot of people were doing it,” Reid said. He then started blogging about the trades he was going to make, to see if writing down the records would reveal trends. “I figured hey, if I’m getting these right, then other people might want to read about it.” Reid said.He then started the site at 4 a.m. and thought he would be reader number one and that would be it. The website now has 10,000 subscribers. Most of the content is free, but they do have a modest subscription fee every month to be able to read specific articles about trading and finance with the cards. Linn, who joined Reid this past November, brought his law knowledge to the small business. “The website was created so that it could be a way for us to talk to other people who’re interested in trading and talk about how you can get a good collection of cards. You can have fun trading but still be ethical about it and learn how to deal with people who are shady and learn how to help out new people,” Linn said. “You can enjoy the game more because you don’t have to pay as much money for it.” Linn said his law classes helped shape and improve the website. “The core of quietspeculation.com is that everything we deal in is intellectual property. The only thing that we sell is information. So we have to make sure that the information is protected. We need to know who owns it, whether it’s the authors or us and when we make contracts with writers we need to know what we are doing,” Linn said. He joined up with Reid and brought his knowledge about writing contracts. He said he wasn’t practicing the law but was bringing a little of what he remembered from contract classes along with his business and finance classes.“I needed to make sure that everybody was happy, and that we weren’t breaking any laws and that we weren’t taking any content from people that we shouldn’t,” Linn said. He uses his negotiation skills from law school to make contracts with several independent writers, and part of that is figuring out how much he is going to pay them, when he is going to pay them and who exactly gets the money, he said.This past October, Linn said he was reading the Wall Street Journal and saw an advertisement for a small business owners contest. It involved writing an essay about how British Airways could help his business connect with a global community of customers. He contacted Reid, and they entered the contest that afternoon. “The way you could win was that there was a voting feature and the top vote getters would win the contest. We put it on Twitter, sent it to people we knew and put it on the website saying, ‘Hey, if you guys want to help us out, this would be a real help.’ And the community of readers really came out for us and helped us and voted for us and we ended up winning it,” Linn said. Reid is now on his way to travel around the world promoting the site and learning about gamers in different countries. He is currently in New York City for a three-day conference for small businesses and is then off to London. “Kelly is going to spend a little time in Europe because there is a huge Magic tournament the weekend after this in Paris. After that he is off to visit hobby shops in Belgium, Germany and France,” Linn said. “He is then taking a 24-hour plane ride to Australia and New Zealand, which sounds pretty daunting to me.” Reid, who started this website because of a hobby he has practiced for most of his life, is still in shock that he is able to travel around the world because of British Airways. “It doesn’t even register at this point. It hasn’t hit me that I’m not going to be home for at least another five weeks,” Reid said. “Right now, it’s all very surreal. I can’t believe that there is anyone who reads the website. It impresses me on a daily basis.”Reid, who has made his career off Magic the Gathering, also owns Dragons Den, a gaming store in Lafayette. It’s what pays the bills and puts food on the table, he said. Linn said he plans to use his law degree and will take the bar exam, along with continuing to be a part of quietspeculation.com.
(01/26/11 2:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Gabrielle Reed is not a typical beauty queen. Reed, a 23-year-old Jacobs School of Music student, is also Miss Indiana, a title that hundreds of women strive to call their own. Originally from Los Angeles, Reed who has long dark hair and a gleaming smile, started participating in pageants when she was 19 for one reason: to earn enough scholarship money to pay for school. This past weekend, Jan. 15, Reed and 52 other women competed for the title of Miss America, in Las Vegas, Nev. Reed has a desire for promoting domestic violence awareness, and a passion for opera singing. She got involved in pageants for scholarship money, but soon found that she gained much more than money for school. “I found more than just scholarship. I found an avenue to cultivate my voice as a classical singer, and as a domestic violence advocate,” Reed said in a video about her experiences, She studies opera with The Jacobs School of Music, Senior Lecturer in Music, Alice Hopper, and currently is taking this year off of school because she travels 3 to 4 days a week doing appearances around Indiana.Before winning the honorable title of Miss Indiana, Reed said, “You first have to win a local competition, and my first year in the system, I competed three times at different locals across the state. I won the Miss IU title in 2008 and that was my first ticket to Miss Indiana.”She went from winning Miss Southern Heartland, to Miss IU, and at last, the title of Miss Indiana. As Reed looks back at the experience of making it to Miss America, it was quite different than what she was used to at the state level.At this stage it became more about pleasing the sponsors whose products had to be televised. “You’re shooting commercials and as much as it is about promoting the organization, it’s very much about promoting the sponsors.” Reed said. “Kind of everything that you did, it was an appearance, and they wanted it to be fun for you, but really it was about selling the sponsor’s product, so that was a different focus for me.”When viewers watch Miss America, they see the glitz and the glamour in a feature segment. For Reed, and all of the other contestants, there were 10 full days of work that built up to the televised event. “We had rehearsal all day long for the 10 days, literally up and camera-ready by 7 a.m. and then get back to your room by 10 or 11 o clock at night and then wake up and do it all over again. You go non-stop the entire day, you don’t get a break. So it’s an exciting week,” Reed said. Aren Straiger, Co Executive Director of Miss Indiana, has known Reed since she entered the competition of Miss Indiana. “She is very talented without a doubt,” Straiger said. “She is one of those people who is beautiful starting from the inside and it comes all the way to the outside. And I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true.” Straiger also agrees that Reed might not be the typical beauty pageant queen. “What she really hated to do was go shopping, so we kind of got a kick out of that as we prepared for Miss America,” Straiger said. “That’s not normal. Most pageant contestants think that’s kind of fun, but for Gabrielle it was more of something she wanted to check off of her list very quickly.”During the 10 days of competition, there are three nights of competition. The first night Reed competed in an evening wear competition, where she wore a Juan Carlos, red strapless silk dress, with no beading. The second night was the talent competition, which Reed won for her opera performance, which counted for 35 percent of her total score. Her hands moved from her side, further up into the air as she sang, while wearing a white strapless gown. Third night was an on-stage question. It was the 10-minute interview, that is not televised, that contributed to Reed’s reasoning of why she thinks she didn’t make it to the top 10. “At the state levels our interviews are very much based around our community service platform but also very much based around current events, both pop culture related and political. Interviews really are difficult. You have to know your stuff, you have to know what’s going on in the world around you and you have to have an opinion on it.” Compared to the national level, Reed felt it was quite different. “My Miss America interview was far less intense. So much so, that it kind of threw me off. I was asked questions like what is your favorite gossip magazine and I was disappointed by that because I kind of felt like, give me a real interview because I can handle it, so that was disappointing.”Reed also made the point that out of 53 women, she was the second-to-last girl to be interviewed. “I think by the time I got to my interview, they knew who they wanted. And I feel like because of that, I wasn’t given maybe as an intense interview as I would have if I had gone maybe, 20th.”Because Reed didn’t make it to the top 11, she was not shown on national television. In the past, they normally televise the top 15, but this year it was done differently. They made room for people’s choice, which was done with online voting beforehand. “Who knows if I even made it to the top 15. We won’t ever know,” Reed said.What sounds most daunting of all is that even though she didn’t make it to the top 11, she still had to stay onstage and watch the other girls advance. “It’s kind of like you get to hang out and be a part of the show, and watch the competition even though you’re not actually competing anymore,” Reed said. “We really were just there, not really part of the show anymore, but it kind of made it fun because we kind of just got to relax for a little bit. Where if we had still been on camera, and part of the show there would have been the need to be on constantly.”After 10 days of being “on” non-stop, Reed was able to breathe. Her attitude towards the whole experience was positive, relaxed, and quite realistic. “I didn’t really go with the focus of, okay, I’m going to come here with tunnel-vision and I’m here to win because really it’s such a subjective process. I mean you never know what they’re looking for. It changes from year to year. I think what they were looking for this year was very different than what they were looking for last year,” Reed said. She thought the type of girl they were looking for this year, was “someone who was just positive and would be a Miss America and a real role model that would just be a representative of the organization.” Reed was also aware of the wide variety of girls who competed. “Every girl here is very different. If you want to have a truly positive experience you almost can’t go with that attitude, that okay I’m going to win, because it changes. And you know there are seven opinions and who knows what their perception of you is.” “Of course, I won’t lie. I won’t say I’m not disappointed. My goal was to make it into the top 10 so I could perform my talent on national television and I am disappointed that that didn’t happen, and I was disappointed that I feel like I didn’t get a fair shot at my interview, but I feel like I knew they wouldn’t want me.”Every girl submits two pages of paperwork that basically summarizes their lives in the shortest nutshell of all. “Mine was filled with very strong opinions,” Reed said. “A strong opinion to the left, politically and socially. I would have been a Miss America with a strong opinion and I would have been a Miss America for the wrong reason.”In these two pages Reed stated she was involved with Hoosiers for Hillary, was a producer for The Vagina Monologues, and is also very involved with feminist groups on campus. Possibly, a little too radical for Miss America. At the end of the experience, Reed might not have won the title of Miss America, but she did win enough money to pay for her undergraduate education, basically debt-free. She has five and a half months left with the Miss Indiana organization, where she will continue to work with different shelters around the state, promoting domestic violence prevention. “I have at least another one or two years at IU, and I plan on then getting my master’s.” IU is on her list of programs to check out, but she is also going to keep her other options open. “I have explored many other majors and I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. That’s really the kind of position you need to take if you’re going into something like music because it is hard and it really has to be the only thing you can see yourself doing.”
(01/24/11 3:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Five IU Kelley School of Business students won $10,000 at the xTREME Games, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ tax and accounting competition, in New York City this weekend. Shannon Anderson, the PwC recruiter for the IU campus, said 84 schools competed in a contest that isn’t so much technical but more about the big picture. Each team consists of five students. Two must be sophomores, one must be a junior, and the other two can be in any year of school. Each year has its own requirements for eligibility.IU’s team included sophomore Brian Benhart, senior Ross Bomholt, junior Courtney Schnaus and brothers senior Tyler Jochim and sophomore Zach Jochim. The faculty member mentors were Mike Tiller, the chair of Graduate Accounting, and accounting instructor Chris Cook.“We had what we call a mission meeting, which was hosted at Indiana University the last Friday in October, and that is when we present the case to the team,” Anderson said. “They gave them a spiral-bound case study that was written by someone in the PwC national office. IU had 18 teams, and they had two weeks to work together in their teams to come up with a solution. They came back on Nov. 12 to present to a panel of judges.” The team’s case was finding a solution to working with the international financial reporting standard.Their presentation, which was taped, had to be no longer than 12 minutes. The winning team for IU then competed with the winners of the other 83 schools.The teams were competing for either of the two divisions, xTAX, short for “Extreme Tax,” and xACT for “Extreme Accounting.”Forty-three teams, one of which was from IU, competed to be one of the top five finalists for xTREME Accounting. More than 4,500 students competed nationwide. “We practiced for 50 to 60 hours, putting in a lot of effort and time,” Tyler Jochim said.After each team presented, they found out they had lost to University of Illinois.“We were the first to present this morning, and I thought we did a tremendous job, and obviously we came off a little bit short, but we are very proud of our team’s effort,” Tyler Jochim said. Even if they didn’t win, each team that made it to the national finals won $10,000, on top of $1,000 they received for winning at IU. Tyler Jochim plans to do quite a bit with his prize money.“I’m sure I’m going to have a little bit more fun this semester, but I’m graduating here in May, so I’m definitely thinking about making that down payment on an apartment and hopefully getting a nice new vehicle in the near future. So starting to save up for that kind of stuff,” he said.
(01/21/11 5:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When most people think of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, they think of sex, pornography and — well — more sex. They might not think of research or studying sex academically, but that’s what former IU professor Alfred Kinsey intended when he opened the institute in 1947. Kinsey devoted his life to researching human sexuality, an extremely controversial topic during the 1940s and 1950s. Today, the institute holds an extensive archive of all things related to Kinsey’s sex research, spanning more than 2,000 years of human history, and now the brand new IU Cinema is offering a glimpse into some of Kinsey’s preserved films. The archive includes more than 14,000 films and video, some from as early as 1915.Jon Vickers, director of IU Cinema, said this semester the IU Cinema already has two programs with the Kinsey Institute, including a lecture by experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, for whom Kinsey became a father figure, according to biographer Bill Landis. Anger’s films are part of Kinsey’s collection and will be shown at the IU Cinema.“A lot of his personal belongings have been donated as well — artwork, photographs, his lifetime achievement award,” Vickers said.He also noted that films from the Kinsey library will be shown “purely from an academic standpoint.”“The hesitation to show many of these films is because they could be seen as pornographic, but it has to be put into context,” Vickers said. “We wonder if students will be able to look at explicit material in a different light.” He also noted the collection’s significance. “This is a massive, important collection. Much of it is unique, one-of-a-kind and something that researchers around the world use to understand human behavior.” Senior Abbe Vallen said she doesn’t have too many concerns about students at IU seeing the films for what they are. “I think we’re mature individuals, so we should be able to watch it and not look at the material as if it’s porn,” Vallen said. “We should look at it for the history.”At the Kinsey Institute, Liana Zhou, director of the library and archives, said she was quite excited for Kinsey’s films to be involved.“It will be a proper introduction for the interested students, faculty and scholars about the richness of the Kinsey collections,” Zhou said. “Any Kinsey film programming will be in line with our mission, which is to advance sexual health and knowledge worldwide.”When it comes to showing films that might raise a few eyebrows across the IU community, Zhou elaborated on what other kinds of films the Kinsey library has. “While there are erotic films archived here at Kinsey for research purposes, often times people are unaware that many of our films are sex education films and documentaries about body images, sex research, sexual awareness, sexual knowledge, concerns about gender and reproduction,” Zhou said.
(11/02/10 4:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s 4 p.m. and Roger Willemin, the bouncer at Kilroy’s Sports Bar, asks two guys for their IDs, putting it up to the natural sunlight. Bouncers are the gatekeepers to the bar social life because they are the ID checkers, the doormen and the people who let you in.Roger is every guy’s best bro and every girl’s best friend. He’s your first sighting at the bar that becomes a familiar face after many visits. He’s the stranger whom students think they know, and a man who will watch your back if someone tries to start a fight.He said it’s part of his job description.***It’s a warm, slightly breezy afternoon. Hours before the sun drops and the booze starts flowing, Roger talks about his popularity, his desire to move higher up in the world and his hesitance for showing love to the thousands of students who kiss his check and give him hugs on a nightly basis. “There is nothing special about me except for the fact that I’m a nice guy and people like me. Being a nice guy makes me a doormat for everybody. They walk all over you.” He’s also a nice guy who hands over fake IDs to undercover cops. “It’s my job. We all have a job, right?” He eats his dinner, which he calls breakfast, by himself in the empty bar. It is hours before the line forms at the door, when the plastic wrap is still covering the tops of liquor bottles. A girl walks in a few minutes later and tells him that her friend left her ID at the bar, and she needs to pick it up for her. It’s 5 p.m. A couple more people walk in.Once again, Roger is reminded that just because he might be the most popular guy at Sports, only a manager can let someone pick up someone else's ID. Roger wants to move up in the chain, but he doesn’t see that happening until he furthers his education. “If by next summer I’m not on the track with that, I need to change my situation,” Roger said.***Roger doesn’t drink because he likes to remember things. He wants a social life, and as he puts it, “Going to the bars is all there is to do in this town. Everything has a close time, nothing is open 24 hours except Steak ‘n Shake and Denny’s.” He wants to fit in without pounding shots, and the closest he can get without officially joining the party is socializing with every person at the door. Some students once told him they wanted to take a poll about who was more popular at IU: Roger, or an IU football or basketball player.“It’s funny. I wonder who would win,” Roger said. Students cheer for these players from the sidelines and wear their jerseys to class, but it’s Roger who knows their names and smiles the widest of smiles when they walk into the bar. “I have no idea what I want to do with my life, all I know is that I don’t want to have a job. I want to have a career, and you can’t have a career without a high school and college education,” Roger said.Before he gets that career, he checks students’ IDs as his eyes wander to the sides to make sure no one is causing trouble inside. You can tell he enjoys the thrill. His feet move in place. He’s ready to run inside if he has to. ***It’s about 1 a.m., the crowds start strolling to Sports, girls’ arms are linked with boys’ as they take out two forms of ID and hand it to Roger.If you’re younger than 21, it leaves your hands as slowly as possible, and Roger said he can tell. He’s not an amateur. When he holds up your ID — the smaller you next to the larger you — he looks at faces. He analyzes bone structure, eye and hair color and height.Roger, 28 years old and originally from South Bend, rolls up his lime green shirt. He pulls up his baggy pants that make him look even shorter than he really is. His shoelaces are the same green, making him stand out as a bouncer.When girls try and hug him, he responds with a delicate tap on the back, and when guys lean in, his posture becomes perfect as if he is trying to show he’s a real man’s man. His earpiece is in as he puts one finger to it, either trying to hear what someone on the other end is saying, or because he wants to look the part. ***It’s now 1:30 a.m. and Sports is packed. Girls are dressed in ’80s gear from a theme party they went to earlier.“I love you Roger,” a young wide-eyed girl slurs to him as she looks for her ID in her bag that is crowded with numerous lipsticks, crumbled up dollar bills that never made it into her wallet and a BlackBerry with a bright pink case.She hugs him as if she hasn’t seen him since last year. “They give me hugs, but how much do they really know about me, and how much do I really know about them? You’re not sending me gifts on my birthday,” Roger said.He keeps his distance because he can’t get attached to thousands of new students each year. They come and go, and he stays. He has been working at Sports for three years, five days a week, from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m.Roger came to work at the bar when his brother who worked there went off to Iraq. He helped him get a job as a bar back.Roger said he keeps everybody at a distance, because “everything is temporary in a college town.” “I will probably be more memorable to them. So many come and go, and you just get overwhelmed by the memories.”His memories might overwhelm him, but on a Friday night as the line of students wrap around the block, he looks far from overwhelmed.“It’s hard to gauge a friendship in a setting like this,” Roger said and paused to elaborate. “You know, a wasted setting.”***It’s getting late in the night, and the clock hits 3 a.m. The floor is pounding with high heels tip toeing around the two-floor complex. Roger wanders throughout, but never gets in the middle of the crowd. People don’t walk, they wander, swaying a little bit to the left or right, laughing at jokes that aren’t funny, trying to order drinks after last call and slowly making their way out when they realize the lights have been turned on and the cleaning men are already sweeping away their mess. It’s now 20 minutes before everyone has to leave, and Roger stands in the street as if traffic doesn’t exist, talking to his boss and to a police officer. A young guy walks past the black rope. Roger runs after him as if he’s committed a felony. It’s a false alarm. He has a stamp. He just left his ID at the bar. “I just have to make sure. Just doing my job,” Roger said as he shrugged his shoulders. At 4 a.m., he will go home. He will be back at 4 p.m. the next day, and it’s only a few hours later that students will see his face again. “No bars are as big as Sports in Bloomington,” Roger said. “I’ve never been to one as cramped. I don’t like getting stuck on people, and here I can disappear into the crowd. It’s like going into a rave. I can flow through the crowd real easy and not be found.”
(09/16/10 4:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Gay Talese left his passport in the car on the way from the Indianapolis International Airport, and it is only the next day as he casually sits in front of a group of selected journalism students that he pulls out a note from his jacket that reminds him he should call the driver whose car he left it in. “I have to make sure I do that,” Talese says smiling.A professor leaves to have someone call for him, or else Talese might be staying in Bloomington longer than expected.Talese is the author of numerous books, such as “Honor Thy Father”, “Thy
Neighbor’s Wife” and “The Kingdom and the Power,” along with an
assortment of magazine and newspaper articles. He started working for the New York Times in 1953 as a copy boy and eventually became a writer. He moved on to magazines, such as Esquire, and then started writing books. His topics have included the Mafia, Muhammad Ali, Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra. But Talese says he prefers to write about the people that others over looked instead of celebrities that are well-known. “I like to write about people who have a history,” Talese says to the group of students.A unique trait about Talese is his old-fashioned style. He refuses to use a tape recorder when interviewing sources and still types on a typewriter. Talese is invested in every conversation he has, and after he is done writing a book, he keeps in touch with the subjects that he became close to during that time.As the students stare at him with curiosity and uneaten sandwiches sit on small paper plates on the large conference table, Talese gives them some advice.“You need to have curiosity,” Talese says. “Reporting what you see is so visual if you do it right.”Talese is the master of storytelling. He spends seven days a week in what he calls “the bunker” of his and his wife’s four story townhouse in Manhattan, New York, which in itself is like its own apartment. It’s his hideaway where he eats his eggs for breakfast, works for a few hours and then has lunch.He tells the aspiring journalists he isn’t lonely by himself in his bunker because there are too many distractions in his house. “There are messengers delivering party invites to parties I don’t want to go to, the phone ringing...,” Talese says. “I have a little kitchen down there, a bed and I make sure the refrigerator always has things in it.”But Talese isn’t spending all of his time inside and alone.“I finish my day around 7, but I probably go out every night of the week,” Talese says. “I don’t like eating dinner at home. I like restaurants. Great ones.” One student tells him that he would definitely like IU, in regards to going out every night. The group chuckles.Talese doesn’t finish his sandwich, as he constantly asked how much time they have left, trying to give students enough words of wisdom and also hear student questions as well.He drinks his Coca-Cola and says he asked where he could get a gin martini when he checked into the Indiana Memorial Union last night, but was informed that wouldn’t be possible.Time is up and Talese is on the move. He is told they have found his passport and it will be with him when he goes to the airport tomorrow.“They better have it or else I have to stay longer,” Talese says.On the moveTalese wears a gold watch that looks like it was shined before he walked into the room. His grey suit is finely fitted, with a pink handkerchief that slightly peaks out of his jacket pocket. His tie is stripped and stands out. Talese’s outfit wouldn’t turn a head on the streets of Manhattan, but as he walked out of Ernie Pyle Hall Wednesday afternoon, a male student immediately comments on his attire. “I like your outfit man,” the student says. Talese loves it. He smiles and thanks the student for the compliment. He folds his hands behind his back, and he is off, being led to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater where he will be speaking in a few hours. He wants to check out the venue before he speaks in front of the crowded hall filled with aspiring writers, professors who teach Talese’s work to their students and other fans of his writing. They want to know the secret. They want to write like him.As he walks to the theater, he notices everything, observing, taking it all in. He has made a living out of observing. He passes by Kilroys Bar & Grill and makes a point that he will have a martini not before, but after his speech.He walks into the cold, dark theater that will soon be lit and throws his hat that spins onto the table standing between the seats and the stage. Jacob, a man that Talese starts talking to, is working on the lighting for tonight.“I don’t want to be on stage, I want to be here on the ground,” Talese says. He tests it out, and it is determined that if Talese speaks from the ground the people in the balcony of the theater won’t see him. With disappoint in his voice, he says, “Alright. The stage it is. But can I have the table up here with me?” Talese wants to be part of the people, part of the crowd that he will be speaking to.“You need to know where you’re looking,” he says. “I don’t read from a text, I just talk.” Jacob says having the table on stage is okay. “Great, but what about the microphone?” Talese asks. He stands in place on the dimly lit stage with his hands crossed in front of him, contemplating whether to use a hand held microphone or one in his ear. “Does it fall out of your ear?” Talese asks.He needs to make sure the words he speaks to his audience will be heard.Talese walks off the stage slowly, one foot after the other down the narrow steps, straight to the front row where he sits down, putting his right arm across the top of the seat next to him, like he’s at the movies with his wife but she’s not there. He is his own audience in an empty hall that he says looks similar to a “1950s movie theater.” His eyes swirl the room as he takes out a shirt board from the inside pocket of his jacket and writes down a note. The author has a thought worth writing down.
(04/14/09 4:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Purdue students recently voted to try and reduce the penalty for students caught with marijuana in the University’s residence halls. The students want the University to treat marijuana and alcohol incidents equally. “The residence halls have a zero-tolerance policy for being caught with pot, compared to being caught drinking,” said Purdue junior Sara Wislocki, president of Purdue’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “Your RA might see you drinking in the dorm and ask you to throw it out, or they might send you to an alcohol class. It’s ridiculous how if your roommate is caught smoking, you could also get kicked out even if you had nothing to do with it.”By a vote of 2,970 to 2,567, Purdue students won on the ballot under the student government election to make the punishment equal for getting caught with pot versus alcohol. Now that the results are released, NORML is bringing its winning ballot to the residence halls to show them that Purdue students do want a change. Unlike Purdue’s zero-tolerance policy when it comes to smoking marijuana, IU looks at each case separately.“I like what we do better,” said Eric Gibson, president of the Residence Hall Association at IU. “If you sit in front of a judicial board that is made up of not only adults, but students who are your age living in the residence halls, it makes the situation a lot more fair for you.” Jeanne Norberg, spokeswoman for Purdue University, said under university regulations, “the residence halls have a zero tolerance for use and possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia. This policy was instituted following a drug-related incident in one of the halls that resulted in the death of a resident assistant.” Purdue’s conservative views are a lot harsher than IU’s.“It all depends on how much marijuana or alcohol you’re caught with,” said Dean of Students Dick McKaig. “You certainly could be kicked off campus for smoking if it is your first-time offense, if the quantities are large and there are many people involved. The cops are normally only called if the student has been participating in this activity numerous times. Unlike Purdue, your residence hall contract is not terminated the first time you are caught with marijuana or other illegal drugs.” IU sophomore Christine Turpel said she thinks the punishment for drinking and smoking should be the same.“Your judgment is not impaired when you are smoking, unlike when you drink,” she said. “I also think smoking pot should be legal.” Although Purdue’s student government voted to reduce the punishment for marijuana, it does not mean that Purdue’s administration will agree.“All the students can do is hope for change,” Wislocki said.
(04/23/08 5:01am)
This Thursday and Saturday, Kilroy’s regulars will have to make their way to another bar in Bloomington.\nKilroy’s Bar and Grill, 502 E. Kirkwood Ave., will be closed Thursday and Saturday night, will not serve alcohol during those days and will pay a $3,000 fine – all the result of alcohol violations involving minors, said Indiana State Excise Police Information Officer Jenny Fults.\n“This stems from an Aug. 24, 2007, incident when our officers arrested some minors inside the bar and Kilroy’s was charged with allowing minors to loiter and furnishing alcohol beverages to a minor,” Fults said.\nKilroy’s General Manager David Prall said Kilroy’s will be open until 6 p.m. Thursday and Saturday but will not be serving alcohol. \n“You still have to be 21 to be allowed in because there is a bar in the vicinity of the dining area,” he said. \nBloomington Police Department Sgt. Joe Sanders said the police department does not target bars. \n“We make sure when we see a large crowd that nothing illegal is going on,” he said. “Especially as the warm weather warms up.”\nSenior Eric Brathole said he thinks the suspension is “ridiculous.” \n“Kilroy’s does an outstanding job at keeping underage kids out,” he said as he stood outside of the bar. “A few select kids are making it so that people who are of age can’t drink here.” \nBrathole said Kilroy’s is the place to be on Saturday nights. Because Kilroy’s will be closed for a couple days this week, some students might go to one of the other bars on Kirkwood Avenue or Walnut Street.\nNick’s English Hut, across the street from Kilroy’s, expects more business on Thursday and Friday, said Pete Nikolaitis, manager at Nick’s. \n“I would imagine that we’re going to be busier than usual,” he said, “especially for lunch and \npossibly late at night.”\nIU student Lauren Hayes blamed underage drinkers.\n“I feel like it’s the kids’ fault, but I was one of those kids at one point,” she said. “It’s just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. These kids should expect it. They’re just really unlucky.”\nFults said the state excise police can only hope closing down Kilroy’s for a couple days this week will help decrease underage drinking. \n“(Excise) should have something else to do than rain in someone’s parade,” Brathole said. “Any night that I don’t have to go to work, I am always at Kilroy’s.”
(04/03/08 5:05am)
Actor Jeremy Piven prompted laughter Wednesday when he told the audience his reason for touring to support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.\n“It’s because I’m black,” he said.\nPiven, known for his role as Ari Gold on HBO’s “Entourage,” talked to students Wednesday in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union about supporting and voting for Obama in the Indiana primary on May 6. The small room was completely filled with students, cameras and phones in hand, waiting to ask Piven for an autograph or photo.\nPiven started off talking about teenagers he met in Santa Monica, Calif., who were going to be sent to Iraq.\n“They wanted to spend their last 24 hours on the pier,” he said. “I support them and the rest of our troops, but they need to come home.”\nSwitching to the presidential race, Piven told the audience that Obama has been beating the odds for a long time.\n“He stands up for things in such a beautiful way,” he said. \nTim Granholm, president of IU Students for Barack Obama, said he was excited to have Piven on campus.\n“Piven being here might bring people to this event (who) normally wouldn’t come,” he said. \nAfter joking about why he supported Obama, Piven gave the real reason of why he thinks the Illinois senator should be president.\n“Barack Obama’s presence is so fascinating,” he said. “He gets that it’s more than just about himself; he wants to improve the quality of life for all of us.” \nFreshman Corey Celt said he liked the fact that actors are touring to promote candidates.\n“I am interested in the election, and I’m also a fan of ‘Entourage,’” he said. “It’s definitely cool when you hear celebrities advocating for a candidate.”\nWhen an audience member asked Piven about celebrities and their impact on people when it comes to supporting presidential candidates, Piven said he didn’t know if he could sway public opinion.\n“I have no idea what impact I have,” he said. “I am literally just a stage actor from Chicago. I hope I have a good impact.” \nPiven said Obama’s leadership style came through in the way he handled recent controversies.\n“People say Obama has a lack of experience, but he’s been doing this for 12 years,” Piven said. “One of the major changes he is going to make is in our education system. When he talked about the issue with him and Rev. Wright, he was so inspiring. He faced it head-on, like a real leader. It was devised to knock him down, but it only revealed even more how honest and open he is.” \nPiven said he thinks the American public has been dealing with lies for a long time, and now everyone wants the truth. \n“The more I read, the more I know, the more I like,” Piven said.\nFreshman Paul Testa said he enjoyed Piven’s speech \nand humor.\n“I thought it was interesting to hear what he had to say and to hear his stories,” he said.
(03/18/08 2:48am)
Imagine doing volunteer work, but getting paid for it.\nIU’s Advocates for Community Engagement (ACE) allows students to do that. It provides nonprofit organizations with free labor, and then pays the students itself.\n“It’s an undergraduate program, but we really see it as professional position,” Colleen Rose, IU’s Coordinator for Civic Engagement, said. “It’s a lot about management, coordination, working with faculty, and they are also learning a lot about working for a nonprofit organization.”\nBeth Gazley, assistant professor in School of Public and Environmental Affairs, believes it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved. The students, agency and the University all get something out of it, she said.\n“We have a student who is working for the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project,” Rose said. “This student is learning a lot about prison issues, and at the same time educating their peers.”\nBeing an ACE is a 10-hour-a-week paid position, Rose said. \n“We look for people who have a strong commitment to community service and leadership,” Rose said.\nGazley said 73 percent of Indiana non-profits use volunteers. Fourty-two percent of those non-profits reported recruiting and retaining volunteers as a major challenge, she added.\n“Being an ACE is a huge responsibility,” Gazley said. “Volunteers have high turnover rates, which is why when you are an ACE, you have to do it for at least a year.”
(03/04/08 5:59am)
One day in 2005, brothers Ari and Gabe Rubin were playing video games in Gabe Rubin’s living room in Detroit. As they played, they developed the idea to create a Web site where users could play games for cash.\n“I was sitting with Gabe playing video games, and we both thought of this idea,” said Ari Rubin, a 2005 graduate. “To make playing video games more interesting, why don’t we start a Web site where we can play video games for money?” \nThis thought has come a long way since it was launched as a Web site Nov. 29, 2006. Currently, the Web site, www.gamersaloon.com, has 43,000 members, and as Gabe Rubin said, it “will only continue to grow.”\nGamersaloon.com is not a gambling Web site. Unlike online poker Web sites, gamersaloon.com is completely legal because it’s based on skill, not luck, the brothers said.\nThe most popular games on the Web site are Madden NFL ’08 for Xbox 360, NBA 2K8, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. \n“Before you start playing, you know the level of your opponent,” Ari Rubin said. \nPlayers have profiles that describes their gaming history. The profiles provide information on games won, games lost and plays performed frequently.\n“If you’re a noob, you know, a newbie, you probably won’t want to play an expert,” Ari Rubin said. \nAri Rubin said most users are 18 to 35 years old, and users can play with up to $500. Playing on the Web site is free and bets are determined by the players. PayPal provides the payment system, which guarantees gamers’ credit information will remain safe and that winners will receive the money that they bet. All IU students who sign up for gamersaloon.com will automatically get $3 bonus cash in their account. \n“Doing something you like to do for money is always a fun thing, and I like how it’s not based on luck, and it’s simply just skill,” IU freshman Dan Haugen said. “I definitely think it’s worth checking out, being a broke college student and all.” \nAfter checking out the Web site, Haugen said he was impressed with the idea. \n“This is incredible,” he said. “I can’t believe there are so many games on this site. It’s crazy. These guys are going to be incredibly rich.” \nGabe Rubin said he only expects the company to grow.\nBefore starting the Web site, Gabe Rubin was a real estate developer but knew he had stumbled into something bigger and better. \n“My goal was to recognize the competitive online video game industry, so when people think of online gaming, they think of gamersaloon.com,” Gabe said.