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(05/26/05 4:00am)
There are many things that we as Hoosiers take seriously, including the finely tuned art of throwing a great party. As students we often find ourselves low on funds -- but the need to paint the town red still remains.\nBut there is no need to halt the merrymaking. With a few small adjustments, your party can be a lot of fun and still be relatively easy on your wallet.\nThe most important question concerning the budget is how many people are to be invited. According to www.ehow.com, the number of invited guests that show up ranges from 70 to 80%.Food, drinks and entertainment are the essentials for any successful party.\nFood\nIf your party is close to dinnertime, consider serving more filling food. If you start things later in the evening, you may want to simply provide snacks. \nCommon choices for food include a variety of chips or veggies and dip, pretzels, buffalo wings and pizza.\nIf you decide on pizza, you could ask your guests to bring money to order pizza and you could provide the snack food. Don't be afraid to ask your guests to pitch in for food. Ordering pizza can be cheap and fun if everyone contributes a little. \nMany pizza places around Bloomington have special deals that include breadsticks or soda like "The Big Ten" from Pizza Express, which includes a large one-topping pizza, two drinks and an order of breadsticks for $10.99.\nBuffalo wings can be ordered from places like the new Buffalo Wild Wings or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Wings tend to go faster than pizza and thus can be more expensive. They can also be ordered from places like Pizza Hut which offers a nice alternative for your guests that may want either pizza and/or buffalo wings.\nTip: It would be wise to get your guests' orders (and their money) right when they walk in or even before the party in order to make sure that they will not have to wait long.\nDrinks\nHaving plenty on hand to quench your guests' thirst is part of being a great host. Providing soda and other non-alcoholic drinks is both cheaper and assures that you can please all your guests.\nIf you decide to serve alcohol at the party, remember that the budget may have to be significantly higher. \nIn doing so you will be taking on the responsibility to worry about whether everyone there is of legal age. If you do decide to serve alcohol, make sure everyone has a safe ride home.\nWal-Mart typically carries 2 liters of Coke and Pepsi for around a dollar each. Getting both Coke and Pepsi products as well as diet and non-caffienated drinks will please a wider range of guests. \nIf you do serve alcohol, consider putting out a cup or basket and asking people to contribute a little money to defray the cost.\nConsidering the cost of the alcohol can also help keep the party on the shoestring but off the hook. Sophomore Cory Lindley know what to do when the pennies must be pinched: aim low.\n"Basically, go for cheap beer," Lindley said with a laugh. "A couple cases of beer and some beer pong and some games, you've got a party. A Keystone 30-pack is the cheapest thing ever."\nCups can be purchased in packs of 25 at Dollar General for $1. Plan ahead and buy plenty of cups. Many party planners aim for three cups per person.\nTip: Soda can often be returned if unopened to the place of purchase.\nEntertainment\nBut food and drinks alone do not a party make. Don't worry, though, because you can still provide entertainment without breaking your budget. \nFirst is music. In order to get your music you can draw from your collection of CDs and burn a mixed CD of your favorite songs that go along with the mood you want your party to have. \nAnother alternative is to ask your friends to borrow their CDs for the party, or to ask some or all of your guests to bring a mixed CD and you have music that everyone will love!\nTip: Clueless about music? Go to www.billboard.com or www.launch.com to find out what singles are currently topping the charts.\nIn addition to music, think about providing cards, board games or putting on a movie.\nSenior Jenni Mulder likes to bust out the board games when parties are going full swing.\n"There's one I really like called Dirty Minds, because it has pretty dirty clues to prompt a clean word. It's good to play when you're drinking," Mulder said. "One time, I made my friend choke on a pickle."\nMulder also said she likes to ask friends to bring games and also take her games to other parties. \nFinally, the cheapest and often most successful entertainment that you can hope for is a great mix of guests with great personalities to offer an evening of great conversation.
(05/25/05 8:17pm)
There are many things that we as Hoosiers take seriously, including the finely tuned art of throwing a great party. As students we often find ourselves low on funds -- but the need to paint the town red still remains.\nBut there is no need to halt the merrymaking. With a few small adjustments, your party can be a lot of fun and still be relatively easy on your wallet.\nThe most important question concerning the budget is how many people are to be invited. According to www.ehow.com, the number of invited guests that show up ranges from 70 to 80%.Food, drinks and entertainment are the essentials for any successful party.\nFood\nIf your party is close to dinnertime, consider serving more filling food. If you start things later in the evening, you may want to simply provide snacks. \nCommon choices for food include a variety of chips or veggies and dip, pretzels, buffalo wings and pizza.\nIf you decide on pizza, you could ask your guests to bring money to order pizza and you could provide the snack food. Don't be afraid to ask your guests to pitch in for food. Ordering pizza can be cheap and fun if everyone contributes a little. \nMany pizza places around Bloomington have special deals that include breadsticks or soda like "The Big Ten" from Pizza Express, which includes a large one-topping pizza, two drinks and an order of breadsticks for $10.99.\nBuffalo wings can be ordered from places like the new Buffalo Wild Wings or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Wings tend to go faster than pizza and thus can be more expensive. They can also be ordered from places like Pizza Hut which offers a nice alternative for your guests that may want either pizza and/or buffalo wings.\nTip: It would be wise to get your guests' orders (and their money) right when they walk in or even before the party in order to make sure that they will not have to wait long.\nDrinks\nHaving plenty on hand to quench your guests' thirst is part of being a great host. Providing soda and other non-alcoholic drinks is both cheaper and assures that you can please all your guests.\nIf you decide to serve alcohol at the party, remember that the budget may have to be significantly higher. \nIn doing so you will be taking on the responsibility to worry about whether everyone there is of legal age. If you do decide to serve alcohol, make sure everyone has a safe ride home.\nWal-Mart typically carries 2 liters of Coke and Pepsi for around a dollar each. Getting both Coke and Pepsi products as well as diet and non-caffienated drinks will please a wider range of guests. \nIf you do serve alcohol, consider putting out a cup or basket and asking people to contribute a little money to defray the cost.\nConsidering the cost of the alcohol can also help keep the party on the shoestring but off the hook. Sophomore Cory Lindley know what to do when the pennies must be pinched: aim low.\n"Basically, go for cheap beer," Lindley said with a laugh. "A couple cases of beer and some beer pong and some games, you've got a party. A Keystone 30-pack is the cheapest thing ever."\nCups can be purchased in packs of 25 at Dollar General for $1. Plan ahead and buy plenty of cups. Many party planners aim for three cups per person.\nTip: Soda can often be returned if unopened to the place of purchase.\nEntertainment\nBut food and drinks alone do not a party make. Don't worry, though, because you can still provide entertainment without breaking your budget. \nFirst is music. In order to get your music you can draw from your collection of CDs and burn a mixed CD of your favorite songs that go along with the mood you want your party to have. \nAnother alternative is to ask your friends to borrow their CDs for the party, or to ask some or all of your guests to bring a mixed CD and you have music that everyone will love!\nTip: Clueless about music? Go to www.billboard.com or www.launch.com to find out what singles are currently topping the charts.\nIn addition to music, think about providing cards, board games or putting on a movie.\nSenior Jenni Mulder likes to bust out the board games when parties are going full swing.\n"There's one I really like called Dirty Minds, because it has pretty dirty clues to prompt a clean word. It's good to play when you're drinking," Mulder said. "One time, I made my friend choke on a pickle."\nMulder also said she likes to ask friends to bring games and also take her games to other parties. \nFinally, the cheapest and often most successful entertainment that you can hope for is a great mix of guests with great personalities to offer an evening of great conversation.
(03/02/05 6:16am)
Soprano Virginia LeBlanc emerged from the wing of Recital Hall in the IU School of Music. She walked humbly, with heels lightly clicking on the wooden floor, to the center of the stage, where she was accompanied by Brad Whiteley on piano performing four sections of the piece: "Fret Not," "Clean Hands," "Whom Shall I Fear" and "New Song."\nThe audience appeared to be drawn in by the purity of LeBlanc's voice and her poise, which slight, purposeful movements augmented. The singer and the audience swayed to the sound of her voice resonating in the room. The pieces were based on spiritual songs she sung in an opera style.\nThe piece featured long pauses during which the instrumental continued while Leblanc seemed to allow herself become taken over by the emotion of the piece, an especially celebrated facet of African-American performance.\nThere was an unexpected break in her performance.\n"My lord is my light, my salvation ... whom shall I fear," she said.\nShe then returned to singing, finishing her last piece with a high note that lingered about the room as she curtseyed and left the stage.\nSunday evening, Charles Sykes, director of the African American Arts Institute, welcomed a small yet fervent audience of African-American music aficionados to the 12th annual "Extensions of the Tradition" concert in the Recital Hall of the IU School of Music.\nThe evening's concert was part of the institute's 30th concert celebration and included solo and duet performances and a finale by the African American Choral Ensemble.\nAccording to the mission statement, "The name 'Extensions of the Tradition' refers to artistic expressions which are linked to a long history of African-American composers."\nThe "Extensions of the Tradition" annual concert series was founded by black composer William C. Banfield in 1988 at the University of Michigan. Since 1993, IU has presented the series as a partnership between the School of Music, the Institute and the Archives of African American Music.\nBanfield's work has been described as reminiscent of the music of earlier jazz musicians and composers like Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and Claude Debussy.\nHis "The Prophetess II" was presented first in this year's concert. \nFollowing LeBlanc in a premiere performance of a piece from David N. Baker's "Sonata for Flute and Piano" was graduate student Argarita Johnson on the flute, again accompanied by Whitely on piano. \nDuring Johnson's performance, there was a passage in which she made eye contact with the audience and then looked off into the distance.\nShe later accompanied tenor Carmund White in his performance of "Ghetto Suite," which was composed in 1975 by James E. Mumford, singer, musician, composer and director of the African American Choral Ensemble.\nThe concert also featured a less spiritually based piece with a performance of "Divertimento Caribeño No. 1," a piece originally composed for oboe and piano by Sonia Morales-Matos and performed by freshman Dana Booher on soprano saxophone. \nThis year's concert was dedicated to Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, a pianist, composer and conductor who composed pieces for the Symphony of the New World, the Negro Ensemble Company, the Alvin Ailey dance company and Dance Theatre of Harlem, as well as for artists such Harry Belafonte and Marvin Gaye.\nPerkinson also composed television and film scores and served as the director of the IU Soul Revue from 1987-88. He died in March 2004.\nBailey's performance was amplified by the idiosyncratic positioning of his body, as well as by the movements in his face that changed along with the intensity of the music. \nThe last piece he played, "Gigue Rondo," was also full of brilliant trills skillfully articulated by Bailey and ended with a single sharp, high-pitched note.\nMumford and the African American Choral Ensemble took to the stage as narrators. Senior Amy Backes and senior Ryder Timberlake told the stories of Moses, Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. as they introduced the pieces they would be presented for the evening. \nOne section of the performance was the piece "Martin is Dead" in which the singers reacted to the news of King's death with open mourning.\nMumford prefaced the last piece of the evening, "Oh Lord Hear Our Prayer," with a request for the audience to take time during this last performance to reflect and pray about the problems of the modern-day world.\nWith the end of the piece, Sykes returned to bid the audience good evening and invite them to participate in the events that were part of the institute's 30th concert celebration.
(02/09/05 5:21am)
Senior Sarah Wilkins found herself $1,000 richer Sunday after dancing the afternoon away.\nWilkins competed in Bloomington's first Showcase of the Arts Competition in Contemporary Dance this weekend in the dance studio at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.\nThe competition is part of the Showcase of the Arts series, which will award more than $15,000 to performers this year alone in the areas of visual arts, dance, drama, literature, music and musical theater.\nStudents from IU and around the state competed against each other for the $1,000 top prize in each category. $1,000. The entrants had to be between the ages of 15 and 25, reside in Indiana and not have exclusive professional management or representation.\nAs the competition began, three judges observed dancers' individual style and technique by watching a class taught by Liz Shea, a professor at HPER.\nThe dancers were told that judges would be looking for evidence of strong technique in the form of alignment and locomotive performance.\nThe master class gave the dancers a chance to warm up while going through the normal regimen of plies, swings and a short center combination during which Shea encouraged the participants not to become nervous and tense up.\n"Don't get so caught up in the mechanics of it that you are not dancing it," she said.\nNear the end of the class, Shea instructed the dancers to run in a circular pattern across the floor.\n"Every good modern dancer knows how to run," she said.\nSome came to the competition to support their favorite dancers.\nJuniors Kyra Claussen and Sarah Ash showed up to see their roommate, Amanda Tanguay, a senior in the Individualized Major Program majoring in dance performance.\n"We really like to come to all of her performances and see how expressive she is," Claussen said. "We ask her to do it at home all of the time."\nSenior Ricky Alvarez opened the solo section of the competition and won the second place prize of $500 with a piece he choreographed.\nThe judges for this year's competition were Larry Attaway, Elizabeth Monnier and Patty Wiley.\nAttaway is a musician, composer, choreographer and the director of the Jordan College Academy of Dance at Butler University. He is also a founding member of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance.\nMonnier is the founder and artistic director of Fort Wayne Dance Collective, a nonprofit community arts organization and a graduate of the IU Modern Dance Program. Wiley has danced with Dan Wagoner's renowned dance company and various dancers in New York.\nRachel Sokolofski, a senior majoring in communications and culture and member of the Windfall Dancers performed an energetic piece titled "Revolu-fusion of the Americas" choreographed by Iris Rosa, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the African American Dance Company. Her piece was originally performed in "Joining Forces," an IU modern dance production earlier this year.\nIn the end, it was Sarah Wilkins, an IU student and Windfall Studios contemporary jazz instructor, who left with the $1,000 prize for her all-around performance. \nWilkins and the other winners will perform in a show April 17 at the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Ronnie Moore at ronlmoor@indiana.edu.
(02/03/05 5:35am)
Tuesday evening a group of photography enthusiasts were treated to a 'work-in-progress' view of IU professor and former National Geographic magazine staff photographer Steve Raymer's most recent work on the Indian Diaspora.\nRaymer, a professor in the School of Journalism who worked with National Geographic for more than 20 years, was the guest speaker at this month's meeting of the Bloomington Photography Club. \nThe club includes amateur photographers and professional photographers such as Tom Stio, the vice-president, owner and photographer of Shadow and Light photography studio. The group also organizes field trips, focus groups, workshops and lectures from professionals every month.\n Before the slide show, Raymer spoke about some of the logistics of photography and his preferred methods. He discussed the switch-over from the use of film to digital cameras, his shooting preferences as well as challenges confronting photographers today.\n"No photographers make money doing books," he said.\nHe said he began his latest project after finding he would be unable to work on a project in Shanghai because of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome scare in 2003 in China. For this reason, he said photographers should keep a file of potential story ideas -- plans can change quickly.\nIn his travels around the world concerning this latest endeavor, he said he learned a great deal about the condition of people in the Indian Diaspora. \n"The movement of people out of India has been one of the most successful in human history, especially over the last 200 years," he said.\nSix chapters of his work were shown at the talk, capturing moments in the lives of Indians in Singapore, Trinidad and South Africa. \n"I talk to my students about intimacy in photos," Raymer said. "We need to get close to people to make our viewers feel that they were actually able to have that vantage point."\nRaymer said the president of Singapore, S.R. Nathan, told the professor to recognize and capture the extent of the marginalization of Indians in Malaysia, which was Raymer's destination at the time of his conversation with Nathan.\nA wide-angle shot of a homeless man in Malaysia gave him the opportunity to do that. \n"In Malaysia, Indians on the whole have the worst jobs," he said.\nIn contrast with the shots in Malaysia were scenes from the high life of an Indian man in Hong Kong, as well as photos of successful Indian people in the United States, such as CNN chief medical correspondent and neurosurgeon, Sanjay Gupta.\n"One thing that is essential is variety," Raymer said.\nHe took close ups as well as photos that employ the use of spatial depth to further give the viewer the sensation of being in the moment.\n"We need those street scenes to show us where we are and what it looks like." \nHe said he sees this book as a gallery and emphasized the importance of logical arrangement of the photos in order to create a sense of unity.\nSome of Raymer's work can be accessed on his Web site www.steveraymer.com, where viewers can also read his biography and view some of his previous work in books like "Living Faith: Inside the Muslim World of Southeast Asia."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Ronnie Moore at ronlmoore@indiana.edu.
(11/13/03 5:00am)
Friday night's Jim Beam Live Concert Series in Indianapolis could've been great. Sadly, though, it left the audience with a good sound in their ears but a bad taste in their mouths. \nMaroon 5, the concert's headliner, was celebrating the recent news that their album, Songs About Jane, has been certified gold, and Indianapolis was introduced to up and coming stunner Michael Tolcher.\nMaroon 5 threw a good show, but something felt a little bored. They played the majority of songs on their album, including a shortened and chopped up version of the single "Harder to Breathe," which was still ultimately successful. It was truncated, yes, but somehow hit harder. The band also showcased a new song called "Wasted Years," which shows a lot of promise. For an encore, the band performed, at one sign holder's request, an older song, "Woman." \nAnd for the finale, they played their ever-popular cover of Nine Inch Nails' song "Closer." The music was good and the sound was on, but the show lacked the energy that the band used to have. Is Maroon 5 getting too big for their britches? Perhaps.\nGavin DeGraw, perhaps the crowd favorite, played a near-full set, including the catchy "Chemical Party" and his up-and-coming single "Chariot." DeGraw is a gifted musician and performer, but somebody needs to teach him some manners -- he stopped his performance numerous times to address light and audio issues. \nThe first act of the evening, the Atlanta-based Michael Tolcher, had the best sound of the night. His Jason Mraz-meets-O.A.R.-meets-Everclear sound was a huge hit. He was all fresh-faced energy, and was the night's only act who really seemed to relish the chance to perform.\nThe issue of the venue must be addressed. The Northside Knights of Columbus should be banned from hosting concerts until they address their major technical issues. The stage, a foot high at best, was six feet away from the front row and the askew lighting left both edges of the stage in perpetual shadows. \nThe crowd, a high school-heavy mix of young adults, needed to loosen up. A lot. Overheard: "Is there something wrong with this crowd, or is it just me?" \nAnswer: "Yeah, they're too young and too sober." \nEverybody sounded great, but ultimately, a dull crowd mixed with a terrible venue made for an unsatisfying, disappointing concert experience.