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(09/06/11 2:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Chabane Maidi sat in French class at Bloomington High School South when he heard the news Sept. 11, 2001. As weeks passed, Maidi’s teenage life took a heartbreaking spiral. Raised a Methodist on his mother’s side and a Muslim on his father’s, blame was senselessly directed toward his family. His brothers, who received their father’s tanned skin, were harassed at school. “I got the easy way out because of my skin color,” Maidi said, describing his mother’s fair skin that he inherited. Maidi is one of many American Muslims that were treated differently after the attacks of 9/11. Remaining in Bloomington to attend IU, he became a member of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition. For the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he helped organize and attended the ice cream social event, Bloomington Sharing Heart 2 Heart. Bloomington Sharing Heart 2 Heart kicked off the city’s 9/11 memorial events Friday evening at the Islamic Center of Bloomington. It was organized by the Monroe County Religious Leaders, and citizens from multiple religious backgrounds attended.Attendees removed their shoes as they entered the mosque, and the memorial event opened with a speech from IU Professor M. Nazif Shahrani. “I don’t think a single American or anyone around the globe wasn’t affected,” Shahrani said. A member of the mosque, he said he hopes the Islamic Center will become more involved in the Bloomington community. Hosting the event at the mosque opened its doors to all citizens and will hopefully help settle ill feelings toward the American Muslim community, Shahrani said.“I don’t want to pretend like everything is peachy,” Maidi said. He explained an ongoing fear that exists between Americans and American Muslims because of the 9/11 hijackers’ Islamic heritage. “We’re all Americans, and we’re all affected the same way,” he said. Great care was taken in planning the event because some things meant to be good can always be misconstrued, he said. Emails circulated in an attempt to find a perfect social event to congregate all religious affiliations. The center decided ice cream and cookies were a simple and great way to unite people and invite them to reflect on the events of 9/11.When the event was first announced, a friend asked Maidi, “Aren’t you nervous?” The question stemmed from multiple attacks of vandalism the mosque had endured since it first opened in 1993. Members of the Islamic Center said they hope the event will diminish fears citizens may have. “If anxiety exists, which it does, that fear is a sign to make something happen here,” Maidi said. “Some of the worst persecution starts with people being afraid.”
(08/26/11 2:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On the blue-illuminated stage of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Robert Shaw and the band practiced before the house doors opened at 7 p.m. Thursday.Once open, audience members trickled in as a trumpet set the mood back to the 1950s, the days of Bobby Darin. Shaw and the Stardusters performed “Dream Lover — A Tribute to the music of Bobby Darin” as the show’s first appearance in Bloomington.“Earlier this summer in July was the first time it was performed,” Trish Thayer, director of operations for Lonely Street Productions, said.Working out of Tucson, Ariz., Thayer joined Shaw after he formed Lonely Street Productions. While Shaw resides in Indiana to create and perform tributes to past artists such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, much of the business and marketing is done from Tucson.Lonely Street made its home at Palace Theatre in Nashville, Ind., only an hour drive from Shaw’s hometown of Memphis, Ind.Not only is the show meeting Bloomington for the first time, but the performance was Shaw’s first show on the Buskirk-Chumley stage.“This is a big one,” Shaw said before the show with a bottle of water in hand and his hair already slicked back in the popular 1950s style.His nerves did not show while he stood on stage, however. Shaw has been performing since he graduated high school in 1997. The 32-year-old has traveled across the country acting, singing and dancing. He belonged to the Chicago-based cast of the Broadway musical “Million Dollar Quartet” from 2009-2010, understudying the roles of three different music legends: Sam Phillips, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.“I’m not an impersonator,” Shaw said. “I try to get as close to the music as I can, to pay tribute to these artists.”Shaw made sure to read up on every aspect he could find of Darin’s life before attempting to write and perform a tribute to him. The show was laced with facts of his life and musical career. “I like to immerse myself in the person’s life,” he said.Darin’s life was not one full of roses, though. After being diagnosed with rheumatic fever and then a weakened heart at age six, Darin died at 37, leaving his music to be enjoyed by those who were not even alive yet.“He made the most of his life because he knew he had to,” Shaw said. “He’s a musical treasure.”
(08/24/11 2:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Splish Splash,” “Dream Lover” and “Beyond the Sea” are a few of the many songs that made Bobby Darin a legendary entertainer. This vocal powerhouse may no longer be living, but his hits will come to life on stage this week at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.Robert Shaw, a southern Indiana native, will be performing “Dream Lover — A Salute to the Music of Bobby Darin” at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday. “[Shaw] loves his music,” said Trish Thayer, director of operations for Lonely Street Productions, a music tribute company founded by Shaw in 2005. “He felt like not enough people knew how great Darin was.”Thayer met Shaw in Tucson, Ariz., through mutual friends before joining Shaw’s team. The company is based in Tucson and southern Indiana, where Shaw currently resides. Summer and fall performances take place in Indiana, and winter and spring shows take Shaw on tour to Arizona.Shaw formed Lonely Street in 2005 after Tucson audiences encouraged him to put together a tribute to Elvis Presley, Thayer said. After a year of Elvis tributes, Shaw researched and performed Johnny Cash tributes and has since performed Bobby Darin. Shaw said in an interview with the Herald Times that in 2010, Lonely Street moved outside of Nashville, Ind., because he saw an opportunity to bring music back into that area after the destruction of the Little Opry venue. After reading an advertisement for a vacant building, Shaw and company members reconstructed the vacant space into the RedBarn Jamboree and made it their home that year.He also played understudy roles for three characters in the Chicago-based Broadway musical “Million Dollar Quartet.”“He loved being a part of that show,” Thayer said. After a year in Chicago, the growing company began working on a new project: the tribute to Darin. The tribute premiered in July 2011 and will be showcased Thursday in Bloomington for the first time.“[Shaw] is saluting Bobby’s music,” she said. “He researches and is as true to it as he can be.”
(08/10/11 11:39pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Butler Winery manager Amy Butler entered The Venue Fine Arts & Gifts to demonstrate her hobby of brewing beer. Her demonstration Tuesday, filled with information on home brewing, brought in several Bloomington residents interested in making their own beer.Butler Winery supplies brewing materials at their in-town shop located by CVS Pharmacy on 15th Street and College Avenue. It also sells supplies for making wine at home and offers wine tastings. The kit starts at $50, but the hobby is “neat and rewarding,” Butler said. “A lot of people brew, and it turns into a little community where you can compare and learn from others.” A brewer from her own kitchen, Butler said sometimes a batch goes wrong. “I had some wild yeast that made it taste like Band-Aids,” she said. Butler said the uncertainty of the two-to-four week process is the exciting part of brewing. She has made 12 batches and worked for the winery for 13 years. Make yourself seem beer-savvy:“It’s as easy as a cake mix,” Butler said.There are four main ingredients: malt, hops, yeast and water, all of which can be found at Butler Winery. The winery offers more than 50 varieties of malt and hops. When tasting beer, use “malty” to indicate a heavy taste in your mouth. Malt is what gives beer its sugary taste; and since many of these sugars are not fermentable, the taste will leave some heaviness on your tongue. Use “hoppy” to show your knowledge of the bitterness in a beer. Hops provide the scent in a beer and come in citrus smells, herbs and florals.If a beer tastes “yeasty” to your informed mouth, it’s a new beer. The beer hasn’t had time to fully ferment. If that happens, you can say, “This will taste good in a few weeks after it ferments and the sugar settles out.”
(08/08/11 12:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Planned Parenthood of Indiana, currently bogged down by legal woes and threats of funding cuts, received a sliver of good news in late July.Neighborhood Assistance Program awarded PPIN $6,000 for the 2011-12 fiscal year, PPIN President and CEO Betty Cockrum said. “This is a great motivator for donors,” Cockrum said. “They can receive half their gift back in tax credits.”The funding is the largest PPIN has received in its three-year relationship with NAP, Cockrum said.On May 10, 2011, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed HEA 1210, a law cutting Medicaid funds from all organizations that perform abortions. The law would prevent the almost 1 million Indiana Medicaid patients from receiving PPIN Pap tests, STD testing and treatment, and birth control. The law would have also prevented NAP from awarding the $6,000 to PPIN. The new funding was announced Aug. 1, the same day Indiana filed an appeal in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift the current injunction preventing the state from denying Medicaid patients access to PPIN services.“I don’t think they understand what Planned Parenthood really does,” Cockrum said. “They need to understand the importance of birth control and sex education. This is terrible federal health.”The law required doctors to tell patients life begins at fertilization and a fetus can feel pain at or before 20 weeks. Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union said this violates the First Amendment by forcing doctors to state false or irrelevant information.“They were shockingly cavalier,” Cockrum said. “There are no issues of fetal pain. They didn’t talk to any doctors. The failure to do homework is alarming.” Had the courts not interfered with the law going into effect, Indiana would have had the tightest abortion restrictions in the United States. However, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Pratt deemed the law unconstitutional when PPIN challenged it hours after Gov. Daniels signed the bill into law. PPIN ran on private donations until June 24, when the injunction allowed PPIN to continue to receive government funding to operate.“The fundamental issue is that when we take tax dollars and fund any entity that performs abortions, we’re forcing taxpayers to support a practice that many feel is objectionable,” Sen. Scott Schneider, R-Indianapolis, said in an interview with the Huffington Post.Because of the recent NAP donation, PPIN is optimistic to receive donations from citizens and organizations, which receives 50 percent of their gifts back in tax credits, according to NAP. Planned Parenthood offers birth control pills, NuvaRing, Implanon and condoms at below-market rates for citizens. It also teaches sex education and conducts regular reproductive checkups. The new law, if allowed to take effect, would cut $2 million of PPIN’s $15 million annual funding. “Federal courts get it,” she said. “We need everyone to understand that national culture, society and the economy have a huge cost for every unwanted pregnancy.” Although no court decision will be made until at least 2012, Cockrum said, PPIN received a great surprise with the $6,000 NAP award. “This money will go into our general budget for services and educational programs,” Cockrum said. “This will hopefully boost donations.”
(08/04/11 12:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In 2007, WIUX alumni realized a common interest among them: they all missed the house at 815 E. Eighth St. that served as a second Bloomington home during their college years.After a 40-year anniversary celebration of campus radio in 2004 and WIUX’s alumni-funded switch from WIUS to FM radio in 2006, disc jockey and 1970 IU graduate Don Worsham planned a weekend event. “We wanted to come back,” Worsham said. Since then, IU alumni come back for a weekend at the station, replaying music and commercials from their time at IU and catching up with college friends. This year’s fifth annual reunion will be held this weekend Aug. 5 through 7. For some alumni, like Worsham, the house at 815 E. Eighth St. is not the home they used to know. Greg Barman was a sophomore at IU when the tragedy happened. A fire at the 617 E. Eighth St. station occurred Oct. 10, 1972, burning the station down. Police never arrested anyone for the arson crime; however, Barman said he suspects it was an “inside job.” “It affected us all,” Barman said. “It was our home away from home. A lot of us stood there after the fire, crying in the street.”Twenty to 30 alumni will take off work this weekend to spend a few days reminiscing. They will play news coverage tapes from the fire as one of the weekend’s events. “A cookout, radio pool party, scavenger hunt — it’ll be a blast,” Barman said. “We are showing an appreciation of what an institution campus radio has been. It’s the soundtrack of students’ lives.”Similar to many IU alumni, he uses what he learned at WIUS in all of his work. After his graduation in 1975, he worked as a disc jockey for two years and continued with radio news until the mid-1990s. He currently works as a technical recruiter for an engineering firm in Denver and skis five peaks each winter and spring with his all-access chairlift pass. “Plenty of students end up with a radio degree rather than their actual majors,” Barman said. Worsham falls into this category with a business degree from the Kelley School of Business. “I had a fair amount of hands-on broadcast in high school and college, but it’s an industry of business,” Worsham said.He currently resides in Los Angeles where he just completed sound production on a comedy show featuring Patton Oswald and the NBC game show “It’s Worth What?”His resume includes sound production for 14 of 15 seasons of “Judge Judy,” the annual “Miss America Pageant,” 25 years of the Grammys and seven of eight seasons of “Full House.” “I loved the family togetherness of ‘Full House,’” he said. “I never felt like I had to apologize for any of the programming done on it.” The family man and his deceased wife raised two children in California. His daughter suffered from a fatal asthma attack in 1999 while his wife battled breast cancer and sepsis until her death on Jan. 2, 2007.“It’s part of life, and it is what it is,” Worsham said. “But some things you can help, which is why coming back to WIUX each year is so important to me.”
(04/29/11 2:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When an IU’s Straight No Chaser alumnus uploaded videos from 1998 to YouTube, he never expected an Atlantic Records recording deal to emerge. In 2007, former members of the IU a cappella group flew to New York City to record their first CD with Atlantic Records.Since then, Atlantic Records’ Straight No Chaser has toured and been acknowledged across the globe. But IU’s Straight No Chaser still exists on campus. IU’s Straight No Chaser will perform at 8 p.m. this Friday at the IU Auditorium to celebrate its fifteenth anniversary as an award-winning IU a cappella group. “I’ve been waiting for six months for this show,” sophomore and SNC member Eddie Suarez said. Suarez auditioned and joined Straight No Chaser in October 2010. Traveling on weekend shows, he has become close with other members. “We spend all day traveling together, all day in a hotel together, all day on stage together,” he said. With hopes of writing for Rolling Stone Magazine and owning his own record company, Suarez has a major in business and minor in journalism. With this year being his first in the group, he said he feels lucky to jump in right for the fifteenth anniversary show with Atlantic Records’ Straight No Chaser. “I’ve met a couple of them,” he said. “They come back to visit every now and then. But to meet the whole group at once will be the coolest thing.”Atlantic Records’ Straight No Chaser will make a special appearance at the show to promote its newest album “Still Standing.” The group composed of IU alumni will return to its Bloomington origins to celebrate its 15 years of work. The group was here this past April to perform at the IU Auditorium as well, according to business manager and senior Will Lockhart. “We were lucky enough to perform with them and perform a song by ourselves,” he said. Lockhart auditioned his junior year and decided to become a fifth-year senior to stay with Straight No Chaser one more year. “Yeah, it dawned on me today,” he said on Wednesday. “This will be my last time singing with the group.”With a major in theatre and drama, Lockhart has performed in several operas at the Musical Arts Center, was part of Campus Movie Fest and performed in “Into the Woods” at the Waldron Arts Center, but his time with SNC has been the most rewarding.“Straight No Chaser has been the greatest experience of my college career,” he said.
(04/26/11 2:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Matthew Levandoski loves the author Ernest Hemingway. Levandoski’s great-grandfather’s name was Ernest Evans. When Levandoski and his wife discovered they were expecting a baby boy, “Ernest” seemed like the perfect name to mix Levandoski’s pop culture love and his and his wife’s family values. “I live for pop culture,” he said. With this love for pop culture, Levandoski and IU students Clayton Jackson and Evan Wan founded Fool’s Paradise Pictures in March 2011. Fool’s Paradise is a film production company dedicated to true independent films.It just had casting auditions last week for its first full-length feature film, “Petunia.”Jackson will act as co-director alongside Levandoski, and Wan is the film’s producer. However, they all help compensate when needed. “We have a beautiful mix of talents,” Levandoski said. “In my opinion, we complement each other well.”Levandoski began writing “Petunia” seven years ago when he studied at Victoria Motion Picture School in Vancouver. After throwing the script in a drawer for five years, he pulled it out when he, Jackson and Wan first decided to start Fool’s Paradise. “I’ve directed other scripts of my own, but this will be my biggest project yet,” he said. “Petunia” is a love story that follows an Amish woman named Petunia who’s controlled by an overbearing real estate criminal, according to a press release. Her Christian naivety keeps her in his lock until she falls in love with Jack. Jack and Petunia plan their escape in this film noir independent feature. Film noir is a film genre made popular in the 1940s and 1950s after World War II, according to www.filmsite.org. French film critics named it after the depressing and pessimistic series of American detective films released after the war. “I fell in love with film noir while I was in school,” Levandoski said. “I wanted to try my hand at writing something similar.” Canadian-born, Levandoski did not move to Bloomington until he met his Hoosier wife. With his son Ernest due in August, Fool’s Paradise will be shooting the film June 15 to August 15 in Bloomington. After filming, editing will take place in Levandoski’s home. “I’m hoping to do some double duty as a new dad and film director,” he said. Levandoski said he knew balancing a family and the production would be a challenge. The internationally published fine arts photographer has worked in short films for years. “My wife and I both understand,” he said. “It was kind of a ‘now’ or ‘long-time-from-now’ kind of thing.”
(04/20/11 2:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When former Singing Hoosier Ali Tuet suggested a trip to China, music director Michael Schwartzkopf then had auditions with current Singing Hoosiers to decide on the most balanced group. Forty members of the 90-member choir made the cut in November to go on a 13-day tour through three major cities in China. With the tour of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong less than a month away, the Singing Hoosiers are rehearsing to show off IU abroad.The exchange is one of many things Tuet organized for the Singing Hoosiers. Tuet, who was a Singing Hoosier in 1970 through 1972, organized the entire tour, from housing and meals to shows and sightseeing. “All we have to worry about is getting there,” Schwartzkopf said. The group added three Chinese songs and a medley from the rock band Queen to its repertoire for the trip. At the latest rehearsal, Schwartzkopf verified trip attire, consisting of collared shirts for men and blouses for women, before working on articulating the Chinese language and the Queen medley choreography and vocals. This is not the first trip to China for sophomore Singing Hoosier Morgan Rawlings. Rawlings spent her 2008 summer in Beijing’s Olympic Village in an intensive Chinese language program. She helped the Singing Hoosiers enunciate songs properly for their upcoming trip across the Pacific Ocean. “I’m majoring in Chinese,” she said. The Singing Hoosiers begin their tour May 9. Schwartzkopf said he hopes China will be receptive to the group’s singing styles. “China is, of course, a communist country,” he said. “It will be a totally different experience for everyone who grew up in a democracy.”Schwartzkopf went to China from March 6-12 to scope out the concert sites and finalize housing plans with Tuet. IU alumni living in China will be hosts for the students and Schwartzkopf and his wife. Freshman Julian Ramos has never been to Asia before and is looking forward to meeting other singers. “We are doing gift exchanges with high school and ladies’ choruses,” he said. “It’s going to be great to have all 40 of us together doing this.”Ramos is also ready to immerse himself in a new culture.“I’m so excited,” he said. “We’re all so excited.”In the rehearsal room, Schwartzkopf watched as choreographers Laurel Crutchfield and Kyle Straub taught moves to the choir. The exaggerated dance moves and hot air from the singers’ voices made the already humid room steamy. With a smaller number of members traveling than what makes up the usual Singing Hoosiers, each move must be precise. “There are only 40 of you,” Schwartzkopf said. “Your legs are going to show.”
(04/04/11 12:41am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Senior Ashley Toole stood with 12 young ladies, six to each side. In her Act II outfit, a black dress and heels with her red hair lying straight over her shoulders, she sang as a member of IU female a cappella group Ladies First for her last time as a college student. Toole led the group’s only original song, titled “Ladies First.” Gathering all alumni in attendance onto the Buskirk-Chumley Theater’s stage, Toole sang a goodbye to her fellow singers and friends. “This I know, we might move on from here, but I want to thank you, thank you, thank you, for I have nothing to fear,” she sang. Friday’s concert was the first with all 13 members in attendance this semester. Ladies First began in 1999 and supports numerous organizations and foundations. During this performance, the group received donations for Girls Inc. of Monroe County. Girls Inc. is a nonprofit organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart and bold through a network of local organizations in the United States and Canada, according to its website. “This show is better than our last one,” sophomore Kelly Fritz said during intermission. “It’s going by much quicker too.”The five-man a cappella group A Train opened for Ladies First on Friday. Wearing suit jackets, jeans and T-shirts, the members sang five pop song arrangements in their business-casual attire before Ladies First appeared in reds, oranges and pinks for the first act. The show was called No Joke because of the April Fool’s Day performance date. Throughout the performance, the tight-knit a cappella group shared pranks they performed on each other and even attempted to prank the audience. With a pogo stick and tricycle, the girls said they formed a team for the upcoming Little 500 race. “We thought the pogo thing would be funnier,” sophomore Jasmine Murphy said. “I could see my mom, though. She was like, ‘Eh.’ We thought it was funny though.” The girls’ friendships with each other shined through in all of their songs in what junior Abby Kunkel called a “mini-sorority.” Ladies First even cried as Toole sang her last song. “Tears were shed before the show,” freshman Kiotta Marshall said during intermission. “Even in the other dressing room now, they’re getting emotional because this is Ashley’s last show.” Friday’s performance being her last show made the red-headed Toole more fiery than ever. She sang “Right to Be Wrong,” “Forget You” and “Ladies First.” “You’ve been my friend, and I will love on you ’til the very end,” she sang. “This I know, you’ve seen my best and my worst, but I want to thank you for putting ladies first.”
(03/21/11 4:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Kylie Peppler pulled up a link to the Nintendo DS game Art Academy on her MacBook. Sitting in Bloomington’s Bakehouse East, the IU assistant professor described the game as “a way to teach painting to children who have not dabbled in that medium.” She said her 2-year-old son Aidan loves to paint. However, with the hassles of daily life, Peppler often pushes Aidan’s messy creativity aside for another day. Games like Art Academy act as gateways for children to explore the arts, according to research Peppler has done since summer 2008. “Not a lot of research has been done on how technology and arts work together,” she said. “We’ve been calling it self-directed arts learning.” Peppler and her team of graduate students from the School of Education have researched the impact of games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band on different age groups and professions.The team proposed media plays the biggest role in influencing and teaching children about arts. “Kids spend an average of 10 and a half hours a day on media,” Peppler said. “Not per week, per day.” Peppler received her IU undergraduate degrees in studio art, psychology and French in 2002, then went on to receive her graduate degree in education from University of California, Los Angeles.Mike Downton works as Peppler’s lead graduate research assistant. With a degree in psychology from Purdue and an IU minor in music, Downton observed recorder and violin lessons taught at Bloomington’s Boys and Girls Club. When only a limited number of children walked into music classes each week, Downton said he realized music lessons were not the foundation of music learning. Downton said media played the role of gatekeeper in teaching children to hear rhythm and sounds. “We were excited by a survey that said many people who play Guitar Hero end up buying guitars,” Peppler said. Peppler and Downton began an 18-month research project at Boys and Girls Club, observing the effects on children who played Rock Band. “We were skeptical in the beginning,” she said.Peppler said most media during the Guitar Hero and Rock Band craze focused on “Why not play the real thing?” The team decided its research would focus on outcomes of these games.“I created transfer tasks for the kids,” Downton said. He used Rock Band’s drum kit to make rhythms for the children to mimic. As time progressed, his rhythms did too. The results showed a significant correlation between time spent playing Rock Band and quality of mimicry of Downton’s tasks. The more a fourth or fifth-grade child played the game, the better the child did at the tasks. The team tested Ph.D. students, local musicians, gamers and classical musicians and composers. The groups whose musical abilities gradually grew from the video games were not the musicians, but the students and gamers. “The musicians thought it was boring,” Peppler said. “They wanted to just play their instruments.” Observations and research led to published work “The Nirvana Effect: Tapping Video Games to Mediate Music Learning and Interest.” Another work is currently being written about how this research will affect society. “With huge budget cuts everywhere and the art funding cut in MCCSC (Monroe County Community School Corporation), video games can inspire arts education,” Peppler said. “Our work shows intersection between game play and real life with tangible outcomes.”
(03/07/11 2:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Local band Compass Rose gave a CD release concert Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater for its new album “Run with the Moon.” Before the show, lead guitarist Jeff Schweegman, keyboardist Tammy Vysma, rhythm guitarist Jeremy Sublette, drummer Tim Roberts and bassist Curtis Harding sat down with the Indiana Daily Student to discuss their early years with music, recording in Nashville and their shy lead vocalist who would rather be a roadie. IDS How did you form Compass Rose?SCHWEEGMAN Tammy, Tim and I were in a band called Red-Eyed Max. We’d played here (Buskirk-Chumley) before, and we started to get a little bit of notice around town. Like a lot of other bands, though, a meltdown happened. So we split that and put this together. We started looking for a bass player and went out one night. We caught a show that Curt was playing and talked to him about joining. The same thing with Jeremy happened when we were looking for a male singer. IDS Did you all play in bands in high school or college?VYSMA I’ve been playing all my life. My dad was an Elvis impersonator. He has a gig tonight actually. SUBLETTE I didn’t start playing guitar until I was 21, and I didn’t know I could sing until later. ROBERTS I’ve been obsessed with drums since I was 10. My parents bought me a toy drum set, like every kid who wants to play. I thought I was on stage with Mellencamp when I was playing those drums. IDS So you’ve spent time in Nashville?Schweegman When we recorded, we started out playing crappy little bars. Since, we’ve played right on the strip a couple times. We’ve played at Tootsies, which is hugely famous. It was a fantastic experience, but we were down there while they were filming “American Idol.” What a freaking nightmare. IDS Did that help your publicity?SCHWEEGMAN Well, it was a good experience. We played Tootsies, and somebody across the street heard us. He said, “Hey, when you guys get done here, pull your shit across the street and play our bar.” So we were walking our shit across the street, like rock star wannabes. We ended up playing three hours over there. ROBERTS Yeah, we played a two-hour set, tore down, played another one-hour set and immediately walked across the road to play a three-hour set. VYSMA You forgot the part where we had to climb two flights of stairs with all of our equipment. It was 105 degrees outside, and we finally realized what Jeff’s salt intake is. He had a black shirt on, and he sweated so badly that there were white lines on his shirt. ROBERTS Yeah, I shook his shirt out over my french fries. IDS What are your plans for tonight?SCHWEEGMAN We’re going to do a mix of our originals tonight and throw in some covers. Tammy blows out the Janis Joplin. That’s the beauty of having male and female lead vocals. We can cover anything. One of the reasons we do well playing live is that we cover so much. VYSMA We have a variety of things. We can do some Johnny and June Cash and rap. Curt does rap. SCHWEEGMAN We’ll pull out some harder stuff and then go to Michael Jackson. VYSMA Jeremy is a clone (of Michael Jackson).IDS Curt and Jeremy, you don’t talk very much. HARDING I’m the bass player. SUBLETTE I’m not your typical lead vocalist. If I could sing behind the band, that’d be great. I hate being in the middle. SCHWEEGMAN He asked if he could be our roadie. SUBLETTE Yeah, they won’t let me do it.
(02/16/11 3:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ashley Pérez was in her second year of teaching in 2005 in Houston when a spell of spontaneity hit her. She peered up from her notebook and saw a tattoo parlor across the street. Drawing out designs, she gave herself 24 hours to confirm the rebellious move she was about to make.“I got the word ‘yes’ tattooed onto my own body,” Pérez said. “I got a tattoo that I can slap.”The small tattoo, written in Courier New font, rests on her left hip and reminds her to be “present in the moment,” she said. The now 26-year-old Pérez followed up getting a tattoo by pursuing her Ph.D. in comparative literature, teaching an IU night class, writing her third fiction novel and promoting her first fiction novel, “What Can’t Wait.” “A lot of responsibility is on an author to get the word out about her book,” she said. “I thought I wrote a book, and that’s it. I could start writing my next book. It’s more than that though.”“What Can’t Wait” is available in Bloomington bookstores and online in stores like Boxcar Books, Howard’s Bookstore, Book Corner and Barnes & Noble. The book will be released nationwide on March 1.“What Can’t Wait” follows a high school senior who faces many of the conflicts that Pérez’s students at Cesar E. Chavez High School in Houston faced. Under her family’s pressure, the main character does not feel that she can move away to attend college. “Students felt like they had to stay at home,” Pérez said of her Chavez students. “With so many expectations of them from their families, they felt they couldn’t leave.” She allowed her students to read the first draft of the book. One student told her it was the first book he’d ever finished.“It is cool to see how many seeds of the book, even ones I had forgotten, had been planted while I was teaching,” Pérez said. Her second and third novels are also based in Houston and share experiences that she encountered while teaching there for three years.Pérez said she did not grow up in the lifestyle most of her Chavez students experienced. She is from a small town called Kilgore, Texas, and grew up with parents who encouraged her in school. She started college at 16 and taught high school students before she was legally able to drink. “I told the students I was 40,” she said. “I wore the ugliest clothes and shopped in the old lady section. I didn’t want them to know my age.”While teaching at Chavez, she met her husband and former AP Calculus teacher Arnulfo Pérez. Arnulfo currently is working on his Ph.D. in math education at IU and wants to work in the public school systems developing curriculum. At Chavez, their classrooms were located in different wings of the school, so he said he sent her notes via students. “I stapled them shut all around the outside so no one could read them,” he said. The newly married Pérez couple moved to Bloomington during summer 2007 to attend school. While reading one book a day for her IU classes, Pérez manages writing, taking care of her 9-month-old son, Liam Miguel Pérez, and promoting her novels because of her schedules. “I’m kind of a schedule freak,” she said. Pérez makes sure to have 15 minutes of writing, 15 minutes of exercise and 15 minutes working on publicity every day. She also budgets her money as well.“My husband and I don’t make enough right now to put us over the line (of state benefits),” Pérez said about raising their son, who receives benefits from Women, Infants, Children and Hoosier Healthwise for state health care. Even though they aren’t making the incomes they’d like to eventually make, they said they are content in their weekends spent at home. “We have a full life,” Perez said. “It’s important that our positive experiences for our son are not dependent on money.”While “living in the moment” and saying “yes” to all goals she sets, she knows her book is already a success. “This is the book I wanted to be able to hand my students,” she said. “There’s something powerful about reading and recognizing your world, and now that exists for them.”
(02/11/11 1:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Daniel Fisher has played Pink Floyd music since he started playing the keyboard. Beginning in 2000, the synthesizer expert began his hobby of perfecting Pink Floyd music in multiple tribute bands, including the Boston-born Pink Voyd.Fisher is currently the keyboard player for the Fort Wayne-based group Pink Droyd. “It was magical the way we formed,” he said. “Everyone had been playing in other Pink Floyd tribute bands, and we all knew what we wanted.”Pink Droyd will be playing at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.The band formed and played its first concert in the summer of 2007. “We decided to get serious and discussed what made our other tributes difficult,” Fisher said. The show imitates sound, lights, lasers and videos of the original Pink Floyd band. The band puts in one long practice per week. Drummer Nick Talevski lives in Indianapolis and commutes for the weekly rehearsal, according to the band’s website. “We have to put in the time to get each detail right,” Fisher said. The band’s success stems from the members’ love of the music and playing the roles they want. However, criticism haunts its every move. “It can be a double-edged sword,” Fisher said. “Diehard Floyd fans enjoy the show, but they know when you don’t get it exactly right.”Frontman Kevin Quandt played in another Pink Floyd tribute band, Earthbound Misfits, before creating Pink Droyd with Fisher. “When you see our show, you see a theatrical rock performance,” Quandt said. The 34-year-old is manager of the band. He books shows and takes care of the band’s website. His wife Kyle takes photographs for the band. Audiences range in age from the mesmerized 12-year-old to the elderly Pink Floyd groupie, he said. Although both Quandt and Fisher have visited Bloomington, Saturday will be Pink Droyd’s first performance in Bloomington. “We liked the BCT because it’s an intimate setting with great room and amenities,” Quandt said. The band members do not do this as their careers, although some members work in the music business. “This is fun the way it is now,” Quandt said. “We work hard to play hard.”
(02/07/11 12:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Keb’ Mo’ swayed to the song he played on his silver steel guitar. Three spotlights reflected off his guitar onto the walls, causing the walls to seemingly move with music. The Grammy award-winning artist performed at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater to a sold-out crowd Friday night.Wearing a fedora hat and jeans, Keb’ Mo’ sat on a stool and closed his eyes to the final song of his 90-minute set. He stood and bowed as the strip lighting faded to blue, and the audience cheered for an encore.“Want a couple more?” he said, sorting through his four guitars for the perfect match.The show sold out at about noon the day of the performance, house manager Kelly Ott said.Keb’ Mo’ arrived in Bloomington earlier than his 8 p.m. performance.“You know what I love about Bloomington?” the blues guitarist asked the audience. “Good-ass food. I live to eat. I know I don’t look like it.”The 59-year-old, three-time Grammy award winner was at ease on the stage as he crammed the concert full of jokes. When discussing birthdays with the audience, he mischievously asked if they knew what happens on birthdays. “Oh yeah,” he said from the back of his throat in a signature blues growl. “You eat cake.”In addition to the Mississippi Delta blues, The Keb’ Mo’ performance also brought a study by Americans for the Arts, which the City of Bloomington is participating in. American for the Arts is a nonprofit organization based on advancing the arts. “It checks the audience’s participation in the arts and how much people spend on arts,” Buskirk-Chumley Theater employee Abby Henkel said.Henkel is on the committee for the survey, which will be circulating throughout Bloomington in 2011. “The organization surveys 150 cities every 10 years,” she said. Surveys will be given at events at the John Waldron Arts Center and Lotus Festival, as well as others, Henkel said. Audience members of Keb’ Mo’ participated in the survey prior to the show.Keb’ Mo’s performance ended at 10 p.m. after he played three songs as his encore. With audience persuasion, he ended with his cover of “America the Beautiful.”After singing two verses, he stood and walked in front of the microphone. The audience sang the final verse as he played along. Keb’ Mo’ smiled. “Thank you,” he said.
(02/03/11 2:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Keb’ Mo’ was born Kevin Moore in 1951, in South Los Angeles. His parents were from the “Deep South” where the Delta blues originated. Keb’ Mo’ has received three Grammy awards for Contemporary Blues Albums in 1997, 1999 and 2005. He has received four more Grammy nominations. Keb’ Mo’ works closely with Playing for Change, a foundation dedicated to providing resources to musicians and their communities around the world. His songs “A Better Man” and “One Love” are featured on Playing for Change’s CD and documentary. He has stated that the important thing in life is to get up in the morning and let the inspiration take care of itself, says Playing for Change Founder Mark Johnson.Keb’ Mo’ regularly plays 10 different guitars during his shows.“I used to have just one guitar, but I have grown, and I love them all. They all make beautiful sounds and beautiful music,” Keb’ Mo’ said on his website.He has been featured on shows such as “The Today Show,” “Touched by an Angel,” “American Roots Music,” “Sesame Street,” “Late Night with David Letterman,” “The West Wing” and more. Keb’ Mo’ draws inspiration from Robert Johnson, adding his own contemporary twists. He has played with artists like Willie Nelson, Amy Grant, Buddy Guy, Natalie Cole, Dixie Chicks and Solomon Burke. He wrote songs for Dixie Chicks, B.B. King, Joe Cocker, Buddy Guy and Robert Palmer.Keb’ Mo’ participated in the 2004 Vote for Change political movement.He is a member of the No Nukes group, which is against nuclear power expansion. His first album came out in 1994. He’s had nine since.Keb’ Mo’ joined an R&B band at 21 and toured with Papa John Creach. In 1998, he played Robert Johnson in the documentary, “Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl?”
(02/01/11 3:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Conor Delehanty recalled the night of his fifth-ever comedy show. He was missing the IU rugby team’s first meeting of the 2011 season. An hour before he hopped onto the stage of Bloomington’s Comedy Attic, he received a call from head coach Tom Phillips informing him of the cancelled meeting. “Over half of the team e-mailed him saying they were skipping the meeting to come see me,” Delehanty said. The IU junior rugby player performed his first stand-up comedy show Dec. 1 at the Comedy Attic. Though new, he joked his way into his sixth show last night at Bear’s Place as a part of the Comedy Caravan.“I’m a baby comedian, almost to the toddler stage,” he said.Indianapolis-born, Delehanty said he thought of becoming a comedian while watching Comedy Central. “I’m the youngest, but I never really got beat up because I was big,” the former high school football player said. His oldest brother, Joe Delehanty, is a 24-year-old student in the IU Maurer School of Law. He remembered it differently. “We had a baby sitter who took us to the White River to play,” he said. “I think Conor was only about four, but I threw a rock at his face.”Joe described the knot it left as “a big, color-changing bulge” that scarred Conor’s forehead. “He was crying, and the baby sitter asked what would make him feel better,” he continued. “He wanted McDonald’s.” The Delehanty boys, including IU-Purdue University Indianapolis student Reid Delehanty, all said they consider themselves to be thinkers. Conor Delehanty uses his introspective thoughts to avoid paying attention in his IU classes. “Sometimes I think about the power of the simple movement of vocal chords and tongue,” he said when describing his talent at making others laugh.The self-proclaimed “emotionally introverted” Conor Delehanty studies philosophy, criminal justice and religion, with plans to major in all three. “I’m an upbeat, friendly guy most of the time,” he said. “I had a cynical side though.”In his freshman year at IU, he said he broke through his cynicism and began to look at his future differently.“I can still think in that voice,” he said. “I laugh at that way of thinking though, and that’s where a lot of my comedy comes from.”Knowing he was funnier than some of the stand-up acts he watched on television, he began writing and putting together a routine. Junior Sarah Empson has seen two of Delehanty’s shows. “I was surprised by his confidence on stage during his first show,” she said of her friend. “His personality really shined through.”Empson said she enjoyed Delehanty’s fresh look on events and loved his jokes. “He was so much younger than the other performers,” she said. “It was great because he was funnier, in my opinion, than the guys who’d been doing it for a while.”Delehanty’s routine has grown the past two months to the point where he feels a new level of comfort in speaking about uncomfortable topics. “In one show, the whole front row was filled with black people,” he said. “So I said, ‘It’s nice to see all the black people sitting in the front row,’ and I paused and said, ‘Good job, Rosa Parks.’”Delehanty said he knows that his jokes are all in jest, but hopes that no one turns out like him. “There’d be a lot less generosity and tenderness in the world,” he said while laughing and rocking back on his chair.Delehanty is taking his new stage time one day at a time. He said he knows he is just beginning his comedy career, but always the thinker, he can’t help but daydream about his future on stage. “It gives me something to do in class,” Delehanty said.
(01/31/11 4:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When WFHB began in 1993, it set out to be run unlike a typical for-profit radio station, said Chad Carrothers, interim general manager and IU alumnus.The nonprofit radio station runs because of the dedication the volunteers have to the station.Nine democratically elected members make up the board of directors. With three-year terms and only three full-time paid staff members, 200 volunteers of the Bloomington nonprofit radio station vote in three new members every year. “This station’s license is owned by the volunteers,” Carrothers said. The station continues to be “recognized for its excellence as a valued community resource,” according to www.wfhb.org.While maintaining its mission of “open media access to all community members,” WFHB partnered with an IU service-learning class to aid IU associate professor Mike Conway’s goal of exposing his students to different media forms, of which WFHB is an award-winning example.Carrothers kicked off WFHB’s daily local news in March 2003. In 2009, WFHB’s local news won first and third place by the Society of Professional Journalists.“WFHB is much more public than for-profit radio because the public contributes to the news,” Carrothers said. The glass wall between consumers of news and producers of news does not exist at WFHB. “We smash through that,” Carrothers said. This past semester, the J460 Community Journalism class created podcasts about Bloomington’s social issues to be broadcast on WFHB this week, ending Friday.Junior Eric Stearley’s first day at WFHB with the class was called “report day,” where he assumed he’d be learning basic procedures of news radio.“I thought I’d be shadowing someone,” Stearley said. “Instead, it was ‘Here’s ten stories. Pick a story. Write a story. Have it done in three hours.’” He said he realized that any one of the approximated 42,000 students enrolled at IU could walk into WFHB and write the news. Conway said the class was created to give students the idea of citizen journalism as a model of how journalism can work in a community. “Thirty years ago, there wasn’t a good way to be a citizen journalist,” he said. With media becoming accessible to non-journalist citizens across the globe, Conway said he believes media is changing.“To be successful, you have to be the best,” he said. “The best photographer, the best writer. You have to ask ‘What can I bring to the table?’”
(01/19/11 3:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Wearing a pinstripe suit and Ray-Ban glasses, author, whistle-blower and health care reform advocate Wendell Potter crossed his legs in a dressing room of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Sunday afternoon. Potter spoke to the Indiana Daily Student about his resignation from Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (CIGNA), his book and whether or not he has any regrets.IDS You quit your position at CIGNA in 2008. What was an experience you mention in your book that ignited your resignation?WENDELL POTTER I had to defend my company for denying a liver transplant to a 17-year-old girl in California. That was pretty emotional for her family, of course. Over the course of my time in the insurance industry, I had to defend a lot of high-profile cases and horror stories. This one was different though. This was a 17-year-old girl who was fighting for her life. Doctors said she could live if she had a transplant, but CIGNA said no. A representative didn’t think it was appropriate for her, that it was experimental. They denied coverage. It was a fragile case, and the company eventually agreed to pay for it after the family brought public attention to the case. Over the time CIGNA agreed to cover it, it was too late. Natalie died just a few hours after CIGNA agreed to pay for it. I can just imagine how devastated the family was. She had ambitions, just like any young person. She might have lived if she had had the transplant. We’ll never know, but I decided I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing. It was the last straw. IDS What went through your head as you turned in your resignation?POTTER What am I going to do next? It was a scary feeling, the second scariest feeling I’ve ever experienced. The first was addressing the Senate the next year, but at that time, all I could tell myself was that I was taking the step I needed to take. IDS Michael Moore, in an interview with MSNBC, called you a hero. How do you feel about that?POTTER I feel flattered, honored and surprised he even knew my name. I gave a sincere apology to Moore and the “Sicko” creators. That was good journalism. They depicted the health care industry well.IDS Your book was reviewed as a “wake-up call.”POTTER It had remarkable reviews, and I was pleased to see that. That is how I had hoped people would receive it. Most people are either not paying attention or not caring what is really happening to our health care system and even more broadly to our democracy. This is not a book just about the failings of our health insurance industry and how PR people keep it going and deceive Americans, but it’s a book about how corporate interests are in control of our country. I’m worried that our democracy has already been replaced with our country being controlled by corporate executives. IDS What would you like to see from the younger generation? POTTER Young people, in general, are tuned out. Our health insurance industry, as it is now, inhibits economic growth in this country. People want jobs in big corporations because that’s where they can be best insured of health coverage. Many people are locked in those jobs. A lot of young people who would like to start their own companies or small businesses are afraid to do it. People at any age are afraid to do it. I think if we had a better health care system, we would have a lot more job opportunities, a lot more freedom of choice of jobs. We would have an economic bonanza that we’ve never had before. IDS What did you want to be growing up?POTTER In high school, I wanted to be an architect, but I realized quickly that I didn’t have the talent. I was encouraged to pursue writing by an English teacher, and I wanted to be a journalist. I was a journalist, and I got interested in PR where there was more jobs and things paid for. Working in PR can be a good way to earn a living. My advice to anyone interested is that what you learn in college often bears little resemblance to what it’s like in the workplace, especially big corporations. I was asked to do things and actually doing things that I could have never imagined myself doing. It’s important to keep your moral compass and not let yourself be persuaded to do something immoral. IDS Do you regret doing any of the things that you did in your job?POTTER If I hadn’t done what I did, I wouldn’t know what I know. I, then, wouldn’t be in the position to tell people what I know. So in that regards, no, I can’t regret. It doesn’t do any good to regret because I can’t change the past. I can make amends and put what I’ve learn to good use. That’s what I’m trying to do.
(01/18/11 2:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Advocates of American health care reform filled the chairs of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Sunday. They silenced themselves as IU Jacobs School of Music Sylvia McNair sang an a cappella version of “Down to the River to Pray.”“As I went down in the river to pray / Studying about that good ol’ way / And who shall wear the robe and crown? / Good Lord, show me the way.”McNair and guitarist David Gulyas treated the advocates with four other songs: “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow,” “Greensleeves” and “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” “We let them choose the songs they’d be sharing,” said Dr. Rob Stone, director of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan. “They chose well.”Bloomington residents and other locals were there to watch Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary “Sicko” and speak with the whistle-blower Wendell Potter about his insight to health insurance companies in America. Potter stopped by the Buskirk-Chumley Theater during his book tour of the newly released “Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans.” “We thought showing ‘Sicko’ would nicely complement the book tour,” Rob Stone’s wife and fellow advocate Karen Green Stone said.Rob and Karen housed Potter during his weekend visit and organized the free event sponsored by Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan. John and Rosalie Neel are members of Hoosiers for a Commonsense and ushered the event.“We’ve never seen ‘Sicko,’” Rosalie said. “We’re very excited.”The couple, along with other ushers, wore shirts that quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”The fronts of the shirts read “Medicare for All.” “We’re on Medicare,” John said. “We get the quality that everyone should get.” Although they receive full benefits from Medicare, they still firmly believe in the Hoosiers for a Commonsense mission. “We went to our first meeting about a year and a half ago because of an ad in the paper,” John said. “We’ve been going ever since. One meeting is all it takes.” As the Buskirk-Chumley house filled to more than 415 people, the largest attendance yet of Potter’s book tour, the anxiousness for the 3 p.m. showing of “Sicko” grew. “The movie ‘Sicko’ itself is a wake-up call,” Potter said. “It is both emotionally affecting and effective. Michael Moore achieved his objective.”Potter screened the film twice before its release in 2007, while he still held the PR executive position for CIGNA. “I thought, ‘Oh my, I can’t believe he made a movie this accurate,’” he said. “I knew it’d be a challenge to discredit it.” Potter confirmed the authenticity of the documentary, admitting that it uncovers a side of health care that most choose not to see. “The arts have a significant role to play in communicating and reaching people,” he said. “You can reach people on an emotional level. The movie ‘Sicko’ does that.”