11 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/18/07 4:00am)
efore it became Armed Forces, Costello and The Attractions' 1979 release was originally titled Emotional Fascism, so it's no surprise the album takes on a political commentary. And songs such as "Two Little Hitlers" and "Oliver's Army" outline an early hit list with a new-wave sound. \nArmed Forces has dense production and extravagant keyboard arrangements that would be overwhelming if the lyrics were not so powerful.\nThe album shows Costello transforming from a nerdy punk kid into a musical pioneer as he sings about aggressive concepts of social action. And Costello wants action. In "Accidents Will Happen," he makes no mistake about it with showcase metaphors such as, "There's so many fish in the sea / That only rise up in the sweat and smoke like mercury."\nThe band's third album was an early indication of Costello's metamorphic abilities. "Green Shirt" smolders with subtle production to expose the pained lyrics, "Party Girl (Live)" is deceivingly mature for being about someone who is not, and "Moods for Moderns" is pure new-wave glory.\nOne of Costello's most recognizable songs, actually a song by producer Nick Lowe, closes the U.S. version of the album. The track is simultaneously accusative and poignant. You hear Costello's call to action sung over kicking chords and bouncy drums. The song asks if all hope is lost during such troubled times. It's a message that still resonates today. Everyone is still wondering, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding"
(09/27/07 4:00am)
SEASON 2 PREMIERE: 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, on NBC \nSUMMARY: "TGS with Tracy Jordan" is back from hiatus! When we last left Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and the sketch show's crew, the star had escaped the unofficial witness protection program and returned to save the season finale. Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) suffered a heart attack, lost his small appliances division and admitted that he didn't love his avian bone-afflicted fiance. Scott Adsit (Pete Hornberger) still doesn't have a vasectomy and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) still has a muffintop. Also, the show won an Emmy Award for Best New Comedy.\nPREDICTION: Will the Black Crusaders find Tracy before he makes "Fat Bitch: 2"? Will Tina find love with somebody who lives in New York, likes food and isn't her cousin (she's not picky)? Will Jack regain his beloved microwave division? Will Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) grow out of his NBC-emblazoned blazer? Will Brian Williams find more creative uses for tube socks and pizza pies? Only time (and season two) will tell.
(08/30/07 3:27am)
Tension was high Monday night outside the doors to of the Wells-Metz Theatre as students sat waiting to audition for “Seussical the Musical.” Some had their noses glued to sheet music while others sat silently, observing the competition. More than 120 students – some theater majors and some not – performed one-and-a-half minute monologues with the hope that they might be cast in the fall musical.\nRoles in IU Department of Theatre and Drama productions are available to any student. Check out the director’s notes below to learn the ins and outs of auditioning for IU productions.
(02/27/07 5:00am)
When you are new to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language, and everyone is still a stranger, you cling to your native tongue. You begin to eavesdrop for English speakers everywhere. While on the subway and at restaurants, museums and pubs, conversations filter through and unabashedly, people will ask in their lingua franca, “So, where are you from?”\nI’m in Prague, Czech Republic, and the only English I hear is either from a tour guide or the other American college students who have invaded the city for the semester. In fact, being lost in translation once drove me to a karaoke bar in hopes of hearing classic English-language hits from the ‘80s. \nAs if it were second nature, students from all over the U.S. immediately dive into playing the geographical name game. You know this game, you play this game. It usually goes something like this:\nNew friend: So, where are you from?\nYou: (Insert state). I go to (insert university).\nNew friend: Oh! You go to (aforementioned university)! You must know (insert elementary schoolmate’s cousin’s life partner’s name)!\nYou: Nope, it’s a big school.\nNormally, conversation falls flat after people realize you don’t know their friend at your school. Once, at the aforementioned karaoke bar, I went through normal procedure with somebody from my study-abroad program. Of course, the attempt to find a mutual friend was to no avail, but we figured out we have something else in common. \nAfter hearing somebody sing Queen’s “Somebody to Love” in a rendition that would even impress Freddie Mercury, I knew this kid had chops. It turns out he and his friend from IU are both a capella singers and co-concert promoters. The two, who have since returned to the U.S., have their first Bloomington show at the Bluebird tonight! The concert is even showcasing the vocal talents of somebody that is my friend’s friend’s roommate!\nSo, even though I’m halfway around the world, I am still able to hear about big events happening at IU simply by playing the wonderfully intuitive and addictive international name game.
(11/30/06 4:38am)
Just in time for holiday shopping, IU faculty and students will have the opportunity to buy gifts with a good conscience. Students in Free Enterprise is hosting a fair trade benefit sale from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today in the Georgian Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. \nThe sale will feature unique crafts and handmade gifts created by artisans from around the world. All merchandise will be provided by Global Gifts, a fair trade store in Indianapolis. \nFair trade is the equal partnership with Third World countries to better the lives of artisans, producers and workers. All of the items made follow the fair trade standards of paying workers fair wages while using environmentally friendly methods. \nThe fair trade sale is fair to its customers, too. Neither students nor Bloomington residents will need to break the bank to shop at the campus sale. Gifts for the whole family include clothing from India, handcrafted jewelry, home decor and holiday decorations. Everything falls between $1 and $200, said Mary Embry, an apparel merchandising faculty member and advisor to SIFE.\n"The holidays are a prime time to attract potential consumers because of the accessibility of the sale as well as the philanthropic opportunity it allows to the public," Embry said. \nEmbry and SIFE members arranged details for the sale. The group chose Global Gifts as the supplier because the store promotes fair trade standards.\n"The objective of the sale is to use the opportunity to encourage people to take a look at what fair trade has to offer and to potentially develop a fair trade storefront in town," Embry said. "The holiday sale is a stepping stone in creating a lasting fair trade niche in the Bloomington community." \nEmbry is also in the process of founding a fair trade store in downtown Bloomington, similar to Global Gifts. The IMU currently sells fair trade coffee products at Sugar & Spice. \nThe Union sale kicks off a weekend-long event featuring fair trade goods in the Bloomington area. Two days following the sale at the IMU, the University Baptist Church on East Third Street will host a continuation of the campus sale that is open to the community. \nFor more information about fair trade efforts in Bloomington, contact Embry at mcembry@indiana.edu.
(11/30/06 4:34am)
Bohemians had the Left Bank. Andy Warhol had the Factory. Bloomington has the Art Hospital.\nWhen you step into the Hospital, you walk on the same floor scuffed from techno dance parties and metal-head moshing. Look to your left, and you might think you're stepping back three decades to your crazy aunt's time-warped attic -- complete with old Coke machines, street signs and fake fruit in a bowl. While at first glance, it might look like a strewn mess, everything in that room could potentially have its own role in an artistic masterpiece. \nThe Hospital, 1021 S. Walnut St., is a diversely functional facility for Bloomington artists to find solace within each of their methods of work. Founded in June, it is Bloomington's latest addition to the creative community. \nThe Hospital is a collaborative effort by local artists and musicians for gallery and performance space with minimal boundaries. The Hospital hosts work space for printmakers, sculptors, seamstresses, designers, filmmakers, musicians and painters. \n"There is no one direction of acts here," said Mark Rice, one of the Hospital's founders. "There's artist solidarity, with different tastes. Anybody who wants to can be part of it."\nThe Hospital is housed in the former warehouse of local record label Secretly Canadian. The main floor is split between the performance area, with gallery lighting against the walls, and the studio space. The two areas provide a multisensory experience for concert-goers to listen to bands play and DJs spin and be surrounded by original artwork.
(11/02/06 5:00am)
Some TV shows have a nasty habit of creating a medical emergency as an easy way out of a storyline. It's overdone, cheap and slightly insulting to the viewers' attention spans. While on the same fault line, some medical shows use cheap drama as an excuse to show overdone and boring medicine. Only the best shows know how to spin the victim angle to better the series. As you can tell, this is something that bothers me.\nExhibit one: "Entourage." When Johnny Drama wanted calf implants, the show teased. Drama would check out other guys' legs at parties, accusing them of lying about whether they were real or fake, like always, making a fool out of himself. You couldn't help but be happy for Drama when Vince celebrated his success by rewarding his bro with a leg-job. But the story never went anywhere. The writers dropped the calf gimmick like Vince cut off Ari, leaving Drama too ashamed to ever wear a pair of cut-offs. \nOn "Arrested Development" (RIP), however, cut-off wearing Tobias Fünke, the never-nude, endured multiple maladies for comic relief. He was run over by cars, got a concussion after being "blown and poked" in the ear and needed diamond dust vacuumed from his lungs. Tobias was more beat up than a Monday Night Football quarterback. The "AD" writers didn't know how to drop a storyline. They had inside jokes with a loyal audience by using allusions from episodes past. The writers went beyond milking a joke. They pasteurized it, added some cultures and turned it into yogurt. \nThe "AD" writers didn't just use and abuse Tobias. Buster Bluth, his brother-in-law, suffered an unfortunate incident involving a loose seal and the sea. There were some wild splashes, some screams and somebody lost a hand. When Buster became "all right" after losing his left hand to the seal, the writers didn't let the storyline float away. Almost every scene with Buster, post-amputation, subtly pays notice to his hand -- or lack thereof. \nAnother show that chops off their character's digits is "Weeds." After opening a Pandora's box of DEA collusion, explaining innovative ways to use bananas and a kinky Israeli in the mix, "Weeds" had a great few opening episodes. Then the writers cut off Andy's toe. \nObserve exhibit two: "Weeds" writers were bullied into a corner by a bisexual with a strap-on. They dipped into the community chest and brought along a stray dog from the neighborhood. Nipping off storylines like the dog nipped off a toe. With one swift move, the mongrel manages to solve all of Andy's problems. Losing a toe got Andy out of military service, fixed his love-life and put him back in the victim seat. \nIf series writers can desperately scrounge for surgeries to excuse their poor plot direction, at least medical dramas should give better ways to perform them. As this point into the new season, it is not the case. \nExhibit three: "Nip/Tuck." The McNamara/Troy duet used to be a hotbed of controversial surgeries. The ground-breaking operations normally form cohesive themes to connect what happens in the doctors' hot beds with the operating table. \nOn a show where patients can order a boob-job with a side of botox shots, the people who visit the Miami office exude vanity. Constantly questioning what they don't like about themselves, the doctors cater to quite a self-absorbed clientele. A standard episode uses blood and gore to compliment the innovative procedures. \nDespite the caricatures of the doctors' patients and themselves, the show never failed to offer seemingly impossible, medical miracles. Even prior to the real-life face transplant of last year, one plot-line thread attempted a similar landmark surgery.\nLately, "Nip/Tuck" has fallen into the same patterns as the aforementioned. The medicine has taken a backseat to the soap opera drama, and the surgeries are becoming blander. Instead of trying to one-up what they have already done, the surgeons take the easy way out and sell their practice. \nWhat happened to pulling morbidly obese people out of a sofa molded to their bodies? Where are the druglords who need new facial structures? Why don't Sean and Christian seem interested in revolutionizing plastic surgery? Maybe the Carver immunized the drive for fame and fortune from the career-oriented doctors, but at least he kept the viewers on edge. \nLast week's episode showed the end of a character that was vanity embodied as a recurring patient at McNamara/Troy. Their plastic surgery-addicted Mrs. Grubman, lost everyone close to her while on her quest for the fountain of youth. Her dying wish was to conclude the journey. Offering Christian her corpse as a blank canvas to reach perfection seems like a muse smacking an artist on the head with a masterpiece. This was his chance to create his greatest work with no repercussions or emotional ties. Did we see anything Mrs. Grubman hadn't had worked on before? No, it was just another face-lift, a little lipo and some lift around the top - and we were stuck watching an asexual ghost singing on top of a piano. Even a tummy tuck without anesthesia couldn't be this painful; it would probably be more entertaining. \nIt's too early for mid-season doldrums, but alas, they are here. None of these shows make me hold my breath when they show the patients on the operating table, anymore. Even the college-girl favorite -- "Grey's Anatomy" -- is dulling the scalpel blade. \n"Grey's" has laid out a buffet of outlandish cases for the surgical interns to fight over assisting. Few things can create a deeper repulsion than seeing the decapitated heads of familiar dolls from childhood swimming in the bowels of some twisted guy. That wasn't even the strangest object found inside one of the Seattle Grace patients. One man had an active bomb in his chest. There has even been a human shish kabob roll in on the gurney. Not anymore. \nThe medical story lines in this season of "GA" are muted next to a love triangle or hexagon or octagon. The only medical story to maintain a sense of excitement on the show, so far, is a man lighting his own face on fire. \nThen again, boring surgeries are a sacrifice I'm willing to make if it makes time to put Patrick Dempsey and Chris O'Donnell on screen, at the same time ... naked. I'll just wait until the show's over, then put on Discovery Health for a quick surgery fix.
(11/02/06 4:08am)
Some TV shows have a nasty habit of creating a medical emergency as an easy way out of a storyline. It's overdone, cheap and slightly insulting to the viewers' attention spans. While on the same fault line, some medical shows use cheap drama as an excuse to show overdone and boring medicine. Only the best shows know how to spin the victim angle to better the series. As you can tell, this is something that bothers me.\nExhibit one: "Entourage." When Johnny Drama wanted calf implants, the show teased. Drama would check out other guys' legs at parties, accusing them of lying about whether they were real or fake, like always, making a fool out of himself. You couldn't help but be happy for Drama when Vince celebrated his success by rewarding his bro with a leg-job. But the story never went anywhere. The writers dropped the calf gimmick like Vince cut off Ari, leaving Drama too ashamed to ever wear a pair of cut-offs. \nOn "Arrested Development" (RIP), however, cut-off wearing Tobias Fünke, the never-nude, endured multiple maladies for comic relief. He was run over by cars, got a concussion after being "blown and poked" in the ear and needed diamond dust vacuumed from his lungs. Tobias was more beat up than a Monday Night Football quarterback. The "AD" writers didn't know how to drop a storyline. They had inside jokes with a loyal audience by using allusions from episodes past. The writers went beyond milking a joke. They pasteurized it, added some cultures and turned it into yogurt. \nThe "AD" writers didn't just use and abuse Tobias. Buster Bluth, his brother-in-law, suffered an unfortunate incident involving a loose seal and the sea. There were some wild splashes, some screams and somebody lost a hand. When Buster became "all right" after losing his left hand to the seal, the writers didn't let the storyline float away. Almost every scene with Buster, post-amputation, subtly pays notice to his hand -- or lack thereof. \nAnother show that chops off their character's digits is "Weeds." After opening a Pandora's box of DEA collusion, explaining innovative ways to use bananas and a kinky Israeli in the mix, "Weeds" had a great few opening episodes. Then the writers cut off Andy's toe. \nObserve exhibit two: "Weeds" writers were bullied into a corner by a bisexual with a strap-on. They dipped into the community chest and brought along a stray dog from the neighborhood. Nipping off storylines like the dog nipped off a toe. With one swift move, the mongrel manages to solve all of Andy's problems. Losing a toe got Andy out of military service, fixed his love-life and put him back in the victim seat. \nIf series writers can desperately scrounge for surgeries to excuse their poor plot direction, at least medical dramas should give better ways to perform them. As this point into the new season, it is not the case. \nExhibit three: "Nip/Tuck." The McNamara/Troy duet used to be a hotbed of controversial surgeries. The ground-breaking operations normally form cohesive themes to connect what happens in the doctors' hot beds with the operating table. \nOn a show where patients can order a boob-job with a side of botox shots, the people who visit the Miami office exude vanity. Constantly questioning what they don't like about themselves, the doctors cater to quite a self-absorbed clientele. A standard episode uses blood and gore to compliment the innovative procedures. \nDespite the caricatures of the doctors' patients and themselves, the show never failed to offer seemingly impossible, medical miracles. Even prior to the real-life face transplant of last year, one plot-line thread attempted a similar landmark surgery.\nLately, "Nip/Tuck" has fallen into the same patterns as the aforementioned. The medicine has taken a backseat to the soap opera drama, and the surgeries are becoming blander. Instead of trying to one-up what they have already done, the surgeons take the easy way out and sell their practice. \nWhat happened to pulling morbidly obese people out of a sofa molded to their bodies? Where are the druglords who need new facial structures? Why don't Sean and Christian seem interested in revolutionizing plastic surgery? Maybe the Carver immunized the drive for fame and fortune from the career-oriented doctors, but at least he kept the viewers on edge. \nLast week's episode showed the end of a character that was vanity embodied as a recurring patient at McNamara/Troy. Their plastic surgery-addicted Mrs. Grubman, lost everyone close to her while on her quest for the fountain of youth. Her dying wish was to conclude the journey. Offering Christian her corpse as a blank canvas to reach perfection seems like a muse smacking an artist on the head with a masterpiece. This was his chance to create his greatest work with no repercussions or emotional ties. Did we see anything Mrs. Grubman hadn't had worked on before? No, it was just another face-lift, a little lipo and some lift around the top - and we were stuck watching an asexual ghost singing on top of a piano. Even a tummy tuck without anesthesia couldn't be this painful; it would probably be more entertaining. \nIt's too early for mid-season doldrums, but alas, they are here. None of these shows make me hold my breath when they show the patients on the operating table, anymore. Even the college-girl favorite -- "Grey's Anatomy" -- is dulling the scalpel blade. \n"Grey's" has laid out a buffet of outlandish cases for the surgical interns to fight over assisting. Few things can create a deeper repulsion than seeing the decapitated heads of familiar dolls from childhood swimming in the bowels of some twisted guy. That wasn't even the strangest object found inside one of the Seattle Grace patients. One man had an active bomb in his chest. There has even been a human shish kabob roll in on the gurney. Not anymore. \nThe medical story lines in this season of "GA" are muted next to a love triangle or hexagon or octagon. The only medical story to maintain a sense of excitement on the show, so far, is a man lighting his own face on fire. \nThen again, boring surgeries are a sacrifice I'm willing to make if it makes time to put Patrick Dempsey and Chris O'Donnell on screen, at the same time ... naked. I'll just wait until the show's over, then put on Discovery Health for a quick surgery fix.
(10/27/06 1:31am)
It is not often that IU advocates vandalizing local businesses and residence halls. For one week every year, though, the University actually encourages it.\nHomecoming week gives student organizations the chance to create legalized graffiti on the business storefronts surrounding campus. The window-painting competition is one of four artistic campaigns organized by the Student Alumni Association for homecoming events. The tradition is a semi-permanent visual representation of how school spirit translates for many students. \nIt's also a prominent way for student clubs to connect with harder-to-reach audiences. The IU Dance Marathon promotions committee is using the homecoming events as a tool to help IUDM achieve some of its own objectives.\n"One of our biggest goals is to have everyone on campus at least to have heard of Dance Marathon," said junior Molly Giles, director of IUDM promotions. "We are trying to reach out in different ways to freshmen, nongreeks and alumni who come in for homecoming."\nAlumni play an influential role in another club's window entry. The IU Student Foundation wants to recognize important past alumni with its window design. IUSF Alumni Affairs Committee chair and senior Megan Parmenter said that while IUSF participates in homecoming events to show support for the Hoosiers, the group's involvement is mutually beneficial. \n"Fourteen thousand alumni make up a strong presence at homecoming," Parmenter said. "We want not only students but the community to know about IUSF." \nCompetitors must incorporate this year's homecoming theme, "Glory Days," into their window designs. Returning for the third year as a judge, J.D. Denny said creativity is an essential element for serious competitors.\n"I wonder if some (windows) will have Bruce Springsteen on them. Maybe some will use a retro style. It's a pretty wide open theme," said Denny, who is also managing editor of the Indiana Alumni Magazine. "We see a lot of creativity. There are enough people who put in the effort that everything looks really good." \nIUDM is using the theme to reflect its own glory days at IU. As it is IUDM's 16th year, Giles said she wants the design to celebrate IUDM's "sweet 16," along with the overall IU spirit.\nWindow-painting has the distinction of bridging high-profile community establishments to a University tradition. \nKirkwood staple Nick's English Hut is a popular spot for alumni returning for homecoming weekend. Gregg "Rags" Rago, one of the bar's managing partners, said the building has had its window painted for at least 20 homecoming weekends because the managers try to participate in anything IU-oriented.\n"I love coach Hep, and I love the Hoosiers," Rago said about his expectations for the Nick's window. "But being IU football, we don't have many glory days to show off"
(10/19/06 4:00am)
Last week, Jimmy Buffett was stopped by officials in a private French airport for carrying Ecstasy. Though Buffett loves a party, the alleged drugs were simply vitamin supplements. \nThe Margaritaville Maestro casually admitted that the "drug" bust was really just a buzzkill. \n"My vices these days consist of boat drinks, beer, wine and the occasional hot fudge sundae," the singer posted on his blog. \nWith that in mind, the changes in attitude in Take the Weather With You is an album where nothing remains quite the same. It is tempest brewing together the genres of Buffet's Dixieland past with his current St. Barts state of mind. \nYounger Parrotheads might have expected a sequel to the pop-tinged License to Chill, but Take the Weather With You is a throwback for earlier Buffett fans. The album floats downstream from the island sounds of the Coral Reefer Band, mixed with the Reggae-billy that Buffett invented. It's margaritas in Nashville, with a twist of New Orleans. \nTake the Weather With You has more Opry influence than his recent country collaborations. The first single, "Bama Breeze," still brings Buffett to the bar, but this time, it's for a nostalgic look down the the bottle to his earlier drinking days. Country bars will still play the song, but it won't invoke the same sing-along response as the modern Buffett standard, "It's Five O'clock Somewhere" promises. \nThere are a few songs that extend beyond Buffett's Dixie roots. "Wheel Inside the Wheel" is Buffett's tribute to the Big Easy. With lyrics meant for rebuilding spirit and inspire rebuilding sung over wailing saxophone, it's an anthem in honor of the city's storied past. "Party at the End of the World" is the only track without an obvious southern influence. The title is a double entendre, another clever moment from the king of island kitsch. It invites listeners to join him in Tierra Del Fuego, the southern-most point before hitting Antarctica, right before the earth spontaneously combusts. \nAs always, Buffett spells out his formulaic method of cold drinks, good friends and good music for good times. Take the Weather With You is another chance to pretend you are on the Caribbean sands with a Corona. Take a cue from Buffett: Listen to the album when you tailgate. Sing along and put you arm over your buddy's shoulder. Even though it's 40 degrees out, the sun is shining, and you still have a drink in your hand.
(10/19/06 3:29am)
Last week, Jimmy Buffett was stopped by officials in a private French airport for carrying Ecstasy. Though Buffett loves a party, the alleged drugs were simply vitamin supplements. \nThe Margaritaville Maestro casually admitted that the "drug" bust was really just a buzzkill. \n"My vices these days consist of boat drinks, beer, wine and the occasional hot fudge sundae," the singer posted on his blog. \nWith that in mind, the changes in attitude in Take the Weather With You is an album where nothing remains quite the same. It is tempest brewing together the genres of Buffet's Dixieland past with his current St. Barts state of mind. \nYounger Parrotheads might have expected a sequel to the pop-tinged License to Chill, but Take the Weather With You is a throwback for earlier Buffett fans. The album floats downstream from the island sounds of the Coral Reefer Band, mixed with the Reggae-billy that Buffett invented. It's margaritas in Nashville, with a twist of New Orleans. \nTake the Weather With You has more Opry influence than his recent country collaborations. The first single, "Bama Breeze," still brings Buffett to the bar, but this time, it's for a nostalgic look down the the bottle to his earlier drinking days. Country bars will still play the song, but it won't invoke the same sing-along response as the modern Buffett standard, "It's Five O'clock Somewhere" promises. \nThere are a few songs that extend beyond Buffett's Dixie roots. "Wheel Inside the Wheel" is Buffett's tribute to the Big Easy. With lyrics meant for rebuilding spirit and inspire rebuilding sung over wailing saxophone, it's an anthem in honor of the city's storied past. "Party at the End of the World" is the only track without an obvious southern influence. The title is a double entendre, another clever moment from the king of island kitsch. It invites listeners to join him in Tierra Del Fuego, the southern-most point before hitting Antarctica, right before the earth spontaneously combusts. \nAs always, Buffett spells out his formulaic method of cold drinks, good friends and good music for good times. Take the Weather With You is another chance to pretend you are on the Caribbean sands with a Corona. Take a cue from Buffett: Listen to the album when you tailgate. Sing along and put you arm over your buddy's shoulder. Even though it's 40 degrees out, the sun is shining, and you still have a drink in your hand.