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(08/03/06 2:30pm)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The residents of Columbus, Ind., might write-in a presidential vote in 2008, to none other than 2005 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Champion Tony Stewart. Nicknamed the "Columbus Comet" because of his Northern Indiana roots, Stewart told the media days before the race he would give up his 2002 NASCAR crown to win the hallowed opportunity to kiss the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's famed brick finish line a champion.\nStewart's 2002 championship aside, the former IndyCar Champion climbed the fence like Spiderman to flex his muscles to the jubilant crowd, who chanted "Tony, Tony, Tony" before the gladiator climbed from his winning stock car. Having qualified a dismal 22 out of the 43 car field, Stewart climbed into the top 10 by lap 60 and he led 44 of the last 60 laps to win by 0.794 seconds after 400 miles raced.\n"Thank God for restarts," Stewart said. "I wish I could put it in words. I've wanted this my entire life."\nTen years after the late-great Dale Earnhardt Sr. won the Brickyard 400 in 1995, his son's No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet suffered utter defeat Sunday in his bid for the Nextel Cup Championship chase after crashing during a lap 62 restart. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was bumped from behind after the single file line of cars slingshotted forward before slowing down like an accordion. \n"I got turned into the wall. I don't know. My spotter said the leader checked on the restart, but I don't know. I didn't see anything," he said. " ...That's life. You've got to deal with it, good and bad. We'll be alright. I mean, if we make the Chase we make it. If we don't we don't. We'll still try to win some races before the year is out."\nEarnhardt is 627 points behind the NASCAR points leader after Sunday's race. He slipped to 16th in the points standing and he is 227 points away from eligibility into the "Chase for the Championship."\nJimmie Johnson, the points leader going into the Allstate 400, took more than a hit in the points standing. His head took a hit when his car collided with a section of the speedway's soft wall on lap 143 after blowing a front right tire.\n"Man that was hard. That's by far, I think, the hardest hit I've taken," Johnson said. "I don't really remember coming from Turn four to the pits. I just remember kind of waking up on pit road and the guys were there pulling me out of the car."\nJohnson's number 48 Lowe's Home Improvement Chevrolet burst into flames after the stock car gladiator parked the machine in his pit box. He was taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for further evaluation after the race.\nStewart's victory was his fourth in the last seven NASCAR competitions and his Brickyard win, coupled win Johnson's fiery troubles, propelled the former NASCAR champion into first place in the NEXTEL Cup points race with five events left before the 10 race stock car playoff "Chase for the Championship." Stewart leads Johnson by 75 points after the flip-flop.\nStewart's summertime NASCAR dominance includes six straight top-10 finishes. Four-time Brickyard champion and four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon finished in the top-10 to keep his "Chase for the Championship" hopes alive. After an early-race cruise that kept him within the top five, Gordon slipped from the top-20 by lap 60 and he fought through traffic, near collisions and bump-happy drivers to help lift the spirit of his race team that has suffered through several busted cars and point chase bruises.\n"There was a lot of stuff going on. We avoided most of it. Unfortunately there at the end, I couldn't avoid Mike Bliss. It sent us to the back. We had to fix the left front fender," Gordon said. "We had a great car. We really did. We got it really good the second half of the race, but the whole time we were playing catch-up. I'm proud of Tony and that team ... I know this one means a lot to him."\nIn front of hundreds of thousands of applauding fans, Pam Boas, Tony Stewart's mother, said she ran up to him after he won the race and jumped into his arms.\n"That was a dream. You knew some day that would happen. It means everything in this world to him," she said. "Indiana is home to Tony. That's where he has come back to. Any time he had an opportunity, he would come back home"
(08/03/06 2:28pm)
Hoosiers will have to wait until January 2007 for a Statehouse vote on the fate of an already paved State Road 37 because the new pavement groundwork for an I-69 toll road from Evansville to Indiana was legislated as part of the Gov. Mitch Daniels "Major Moves" bill. But local Hoosiers say the fight to protect Mother Nature and the battle to preserve the Hoosier heartland have just begun.\nLocal Democratic leaders have reiterated their vote of "no" toward the I-69 toll road plan, and tens of thousands of Hoosiers affected by the proposal are up in arms but hopeful about protecting Indiana's long-term economic future. Hoosiers will have the opportunity this November to offer their vote of confidence about their elected officials' vision.\n"It's definitely clear, if you observe the political situation at the Statehouse now, we have one party that controls every branch of government. And really the only way to put some kind of checks and balances, at least have some hard questions asked, is to at least have one of the branches controlled by a different party," said State Rep. Matt Pierce, D-61, July 25. "I've often said that we've gotten a government suddenly in our statehouse that thinks it knows better than anybody else -- than the people it supposedly represents. And so we get the governor to make the pronouncement that (repaving and tolling state highways) is what we're going to do, and then the legislature seems to roll over and rubber stamp it, and then we get stuck with something we don't want."\nThere was no comment from Gov. Daniels' office by press time. \nBAD DEAL?\nA Republican-led House squeezed the Major Moves bill through sometime before dawn Feb. 1, and a Republican-led Senate passed Daniels' transportation legislation in March without public debate. As part of the Major Moves legislation, Daniels sold the 175-mile Indiana East-West toll road to an international consortium for $3.85 billion, thus handing over leasing rights for 75 years -- despite the fact that the Indiana Statehouse promised Hoosiers the initial tolling taxes beginning in 1956 would cease once the highway was completed more than 30 years ago.\n"Today, the majority in the Indiana House has taken a major move toward turning a bad deal into state law. House Bill 1008 is a fiscal disaster that will have long-term implications, not just for us, but for our children, our grandchildren our great-grandchildren," State Rep. Patrick Bauer, D-6, democratic leader of the Indiana House, stated Feb. 1. "The more we look at this program, the more it becomes apparent that Major Moves is a bad deal for the people of Indiana ... Selling our state's assets to the highest bidder is short-sighted and fiscally irresponsible. Privatization means no accountability to the public, and more focus on pure profits."\nAnd a corporate focus on making money off Indiana infrastructure is exactly what concerns Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads. Hoosiers, like all of the United States, can manage their own transportation systems as they have done throughout time without maximizing the profit margin of internationally owned investment banks through double-taxing citizens to drive along their already owned roadways, according to CARR literature.\nJOB QUESTIONS\n "Highways bring certain kinds of jobs -- service oriented, gas stations, hotels -- but Indiana needs other things to attract industry to the state. People have the perception and believe in the myth of highways as economic saviors -- there was a time when that was true but not any longer," said Thomas Tokarski, president of CARR. "One of the most cited reasons for why corporations chose to move to a specific place is 'the quality of life' in the place they want to relocate to. Companies also look for an educated workforce and people who can do the work -- if all we do is dig ditches that is all Hoosiers will be asked to do."\nStatehouse officials have accused Daniels of bending the Statehouse's will to meet demands set forth by construction contractors and others who benefit from taxpayer dollars devoted to transportation infrastructure like asphalt. In a Jan. 23 Major Moves statement, Daniels said his office took "just 117 days to conduct a complex financial process that typically takes nine months or even longer."\nTokarski said more than 140,000 Hoosier signatures stating their opposition to Major Moves meant nothing to the governor or he would have tried to generate a better solution to fund hundreds of much needed and overdue statewide transportation projects.\n"We are losing our democracy, and the reason we are losing it is the politicians are befriending big campaign contributions. They don't care what happens to the citizens of the state," he said. "We cannot let Daniels get away with it, and if people realize what's happening they need to start demanding candidates follow democratic principles and not big business. People are not going to rise up because they have been beaten down so long ... Politicians will only start paying attention when they start losing elections."\nRep. Pierce said the decreased benefits and increased costs of an I-69 toll road revealed in the recent Indiana Department of Transportation Tier 1 Reevaluation are enough reason for Southern Indiana Hoosiers to band together to vote new leadership into the Statehouse this November.\n"I think the most important thing is for us not to give up, to use all of the processes we have available to us, whether it is commenting on the Tier 1 Reevaluation, whether it's getting involved in the Tier 2 studies that are going on right now, whether it's trying to change the political make-up in Indianapolis, whether it's organizing to send a message to the governor that we just don't favor this toll road," he said. "And I think we also need to do a better job of explaining to people along the corridor all the way to Evansville why the toll road is not going to be a good situation for them either. The leaders of the Evansville area want this road in any way they can get it, and they've kind of rolled over and said 'If it has to be a toll road we'll accept that.' They need to think a little bit harder about what a toll road would really mean for that area, whether it will really bring them the benefits they think they'll get"
(08/03/06 4:00am)
There are clubs and then there are strip clubs.\nBloomington offers Hoosiers many choices for basking in brews and hearty ha-ha's, but where can community members go if they seek half-naked human beings sliding down poles or sex toys to bring home to share with their partner? Also known as "adult entertainment," the city offers most forms of sensual self-indulgence and perverted pleasure, including topless dance clubs, bookstores with XXX video arcades, and lingerie boutiques offering everything from fluffy handcuffs to nipple clamps.\nFor students who wish to throw a bottle or two of beer into the back of their throats while a gyrating woman dressed in only thong panties hangs upside down from a pole, Bloomington offers two alternatives.\nLook but don't touch\nConsidered the "classier" of the two, Night Moves offers the traditional strip club experience. \n"People come here for the girls," said Jerimy Koch, manager of Night Moves. "That's what the bar's here for."\nNight Moves' interior resembles a black-velvet painting with neon-colors splashed on the walls, which mimics the computerized eeriness of the film "Tron" without the graphics but with the constant action. Visitors have several seats to choose from, albeit a booth or at the front of one of three stages, although community member eyes seldom drift from the half-naked dancers on poles.\nKoch said no one kind of person visits Night Moves, because it is a popular destination for college students, professional folks and working class heroes from all walks of life. He said a 90-year-old man once came a knockin' for a "couch dance" that got his libido rockin'.\nNight Moves "couch dances," formerly known in the strip club world as "lap dances," cost $15 each. During a lap dance visitors are seated in a chair and strippers rub, brush and fling their bodies and hair against the patron while the disc jockey spins a song from a record.\nDespite the close contact during the couch dance, Koch reminded possible patrons that they must observe "strip club etiquette" that includes sitting on their hands and not touching the dancers.\nThose who don't mind their gentlemen manners or strip club rules can expect a closer encounter with Night Moves doorman and IU Judo instructor Vern Ellett as they exit.\nEllett, armed with a judo black belt, is charged with checking IDs regardless of aging appearance, collecting the cover charge and keeping an eye on the strippers who work on stage and hustle patrons on the floor.\nA typical night for Ellett involves herding rowdy patrons out the door or detaining belligerent customers until local law enforcement arrives. Although, he said he is sometimes asked to display his judo skills in the form of disarming folks who think flashing a weapon is the best way to say "thanks for an enjoyable evening."\n"Being topless brings a whole different element into [the bar scene]," Ellett says. "You get to see here what you only hope to see at another bar. It brings aggressiveness out in some people. It can get pretty serious."\nAround 9 p.m. on a Wednesday evening, Night Moves is a happening place. Several dozen people congregate around the pool tables and a handful sit enamored by the dancers. A couple patrons are sitting on their hands as half-naked women dance atop them.\nAn hour later, a more restrained scene is unfolding a few miles down the road at Legends Class Act Room.\nMom and Pop strip show\nLegends is also decked out in neon lights, but there's a much more sinful tone here because of the purple fabric seats, unpainted and bare-black walls, working fireplace near the bar, single-dance floor with solo pole and a black leather couch pinned in a shadowy corner.\nExactly two people sit at the bar downing their umpteenth brews. The barman said the dancers have yet to arrive for the night but he is expecting the first few around 10 p.m.\nBusiness has fallen here in recent years, a trend returning-manager Tony Keene blamed on a combination of Bloomington's March 2005 smoking ban, misguided former-management that was prone to berate customers and an overall sputtering national economy. An upsurge in customers was spotted in recent weeks, and he said he is looking forward to the return of students for the fall semester. \n"We are a mom and pop strip club with a laid back, relaxed atmosphere," Keene said.\nAs an advertising bit to attract more customer bite, Legends offers free admission to customers possessing a student, military or government ID. For community members 21-years or older, Keene said his bar offers nightly drink specials, including one dollar tequila shots on Tuesdays.\n"Lap" dances cost two for $20 through September.\nThere is no judo black belt roaming the crowd, but common strip club etiquette does apply. Keene said he looks out for his dancers, and he never hesitates to take care of unkind business when necessary.\n"Customers know what the girls allow," he said. "My rule is that if it's covered up by a bathing suit you're not allowed to touch it."\nKeene managed Legends during the early months of 2000, but he said he found his customer-based lacked women as paying customers. Upon his return, he said, he has figured out how to attract the women clientele and the Legends crowd now consists of about half men and half women.\nThe women, Keene said, are often a lot rowdier by closing time.\n"There's a lot of alternative lifestyles that come in here nowadays," he said. "The men are crowding around the stage but the girls get up there with the dancers."\nAn investment group has its eyes on Legends and they want to remake the club with pool tables, new lighting and cages on the stage. But in the meantime, Keene admits that it is difficult to maintain a "regular" customer base because there is a pretty high turnover of dancers, and strip club patrons seem to focus their attention on a few favorites rather than the bunch. \nHe said most new dancers to the stripping world are not prepared for the experience, and they often have no idea what they are getting themselves into.\n"We get new girls constantly. By the end of their first weekend they have bruises and their knees are cracking," Keene said. "I've had girls come in here the day after their 18th birthday and they dance like straws. I tell them they don't have to climb the pole and hang upside down -- 'just picture yourself having sex and do that on the pole; don't look at people, just put yourself in that frame of mind.'"\nOf course, the biggest downside of any adult entertainment venue like Night Moves or Legends is that like Chris Rock said, "No matter what a stripper says to you, there's no sex in the champagne room"
(08/02/06 10:22pm)
Bloomington is not the only Indiana city that may lose its standard "overnight" same-area postal service, but local postal workers are still concerned with the loss of speedy delivery for local Hoosiers sending and receiving mail.\nUSPS officials revealed a list of 139 American cities -- including Lafayette, Muncie, Kokomo and Gary -- that may lose current postal service standards in the name of the company's bottom line, although Southern Indiana's 474 zip code is still the only area under current evaluation. In protest of the USPS plan, local postal workers are picketing Bloomington's Main Post Office at 11:30 a.m. today on Fourth Street, in hopes of drawing community attention to their plight for maintaining current postal service standards for the hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers they serve.\n"The study that's being done is to take the mail that's collected in collection boxes and at the windows, and instead of processing it here in Bloomington for this area -- the 474 zip code area like we normally do -- the study is to determine if they can take it all to Indianapolis, basically a 100 mile round trip, process it and get it back down here," said 25-year postal employee Kevin McCaffery, a spokesman for the American Postal Workers Union 2122 local chapter. "The postal service is going to say, I'm contending they're going to say, 'It's to save money for the postal service' ... But our big gripe is there's no way we're going to get mail under the current standard from Paoli and French Lick, here, to Bloomington first, then trucked to Indy, and then processed up there, back down here, reprocessed in Bloomington and then out to Paoli and French Lick overnight like we do now, currently, in Bloomington."\nIf the USPS moves ahead with its proposal, all 474 zip code letters and packages mailed within the 474 zip code to other 474 zip code recipients will travel more than 50 miles to Indianapolis for processing, before the mail is shipped 50 miles back to Bloomington for reprocessing and then distribution within the same 474 zip code area.\nThe 474 zip code area covers 1,500 square miles in Southern Indiana with Bloomington as the primary hub, north to Quincy, Ind., east to Nashville, Ind., south to French Lick and west to Jasonville. Also snuggled within the 42 Hoosier cities and towns representing the 474 zip code area are 50 rural post offices to further facilitate local processing and distribution in a speedy fashion. \nMcCafffery said the proposed consolidation is a means for USPS officials to offset "big" discounts to large businesses and corporations, at the expense in time and convenience for small businesses and Hoosier families. \n"(The U.S. Postal Service's) effort is to consolidate the operation at the expense of service. What I mean to say by that is 'the person that drops mail in the mailbox is to me not given a fair shake on how important it is to serve them,'" he said. "The big mailers, discount mailers, are the ones that are getting all the breaks in service, and the person that drops their mail in the mailbox is the one that's going to lose the service if this proposal is enacted ... We're going from what used to be all about a service-oriented industry -- 'how to get mail there as fast as we can' -- to, well, 'we're not going to worry about the little people, we'll take care of the big people.'"\nMonroe County Board of Commissioner officials signed a proclamation Feb. 17 to decry the proposal as not acting to serve "Monroe County's best interest" because the "economy of the local communities would be negatively impacted" among other consequences. Common Council officials signed that same resolution against the USPS plan March 1, and Mayor Mark Kruzan added his name to the community member concern list March 2.\nRep. Mike Sodrel, R-9th, sent a letter to USPS District Manager Charles Howe and USPS Acting District Manager Kelvin Mack stating his opposition to the Area Mail Processing Feasibility Study because the plan would "negatively alter services provided by (Bloomington's) facility to Indiana residents."\n"Shifting mail operations to the Indianapolis location would add a minimum of one hour and 45 minutes of transit time in the processing of mail. The additional time added to the operation would be a less efficient process and could add additional costs to the USPS due to higher fuel and transportation costs," Sodrel wrote in the March 3 letter. "This increase in processing time would deteriorate service to the USPS customers in this facility's service area ... The presence of (Indiana) University coupled with the added processing time and the deterioration of service would negate any appearance of a benefit concluded by this study."\nEven though USPS attempts to consolidate Southern Indiana mail processing failed in 1991 because no significant savings were found, USPS officials began another survey of the situation in December 2005 to see if the financial scene had changed. At that time, USPS announced its intention to evaluate about 40 cities for postal service consolidation and it has since dismissed five such plans and approved 10.\nUSPS officials have not announced their progress or conclusions in regards to Bloomington's 474 zip code consolidation, but McCaffery said he fears the Feasibility Study is a forgone conclusion.\n"By keeping the local mail local, we have people here who live in these very communities that we serve, and we know the mail better. There's so much more of a personal touch from people that work this mail in this area than Indianapolis could give us," he said. "In December they told us it was pretty much a done deal anyway, so we think they are going to make the numbers fit the study and not really look at the big picture of service ... I know some people don't think the mail is important, whether it gets there in a day or two, but we do as workers -- we make every effort to get that stuff out and turn it around, especially overnight for our 474 area"
(08/02/06 10:17pm)
IU Opera Theater's 2006 summer-season production of Arthur Gilbert and W.S. Sullivan's 1885 "The Mikado" is a breathtaking ball of operetta fun, wrapped in colorful threads of Japanese culture and bound by a thick yarn of tongue-and-cheek American laughter. \nMany audience members left the show last weekend feeling giddy, to say the least, as expressed in smiles glued to their faces and comments to one another like "that was great" and "I had a good time." My partner seated next to me, on the other hand, seemed bored out of her mind throughout the second half as she tapped her foot off-beat to the music and dozed off a few times in her seat, but I could not help join the rowdy standing ovation at the end of the performance to a job well-done.\n"The Mikado" chronicles the love affair of Nanki-Poo, the son of the Emperor -- or "Mikado" -- of Japan and played by IU graduate student Joshua Whitener, and Yum-Yum, played by IU graduate student Megan Radder. At the beginning of the show both Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum are committed to marry others, but they fight Japanese custom and battle their lovers for the chance to spend the rest of their lives together.\nWhitener's acting and prancing overshadowed his voice, because his vocal chord projection often stopped short of reaching audience members sitting in the back of the Musical Arts Center. Radder's portrayal of Yum-Yum seemed on cue, and her musical and dance performance often blended well with the supporting cast of between 14 and 35 actors.\nNanki-Poo's destined lover before fate intervenes is the character Katisha, played by IU graduate student Jennifer Feinstein, and Yum-Yum is set to hitch Ko-Ko, Lord High Executioner, performed by IU graduate student Jacob Sentgeorge.\nFeinstein's acting is dramatic and necessarily overbearing, and her character's scorn compliments the playfulness of everyone else. Based on audience response throughout the show and during the curtain call, Sentgeorge stole the show, if not for the dynamics and dialogue of his character alone.\nHis acting and singing entertains the audience and his dancing highlights the other character's performances during their shared scenes.\nIU graduate student Alan Dunbar played Pish-Tush, IU graduate student Robert Brandt played Pooh-Bah and IU graduate student Gregory Brookes rounded out the main cast, more or less, as "The Mikado" of Japan. Although all cast members seemed to contribute their talents to an overall superb production, Brookes characterization of the multifaceted Pooh-Bah complemented Sentgeorge and he managed to make a place for himself on stage because of the dichotomy of the two characters together.\nBecause an operetta is wedged somewhere in between musical theater and dramatic opera, the performance blended sweet orchestral and vocal sounds with props used as rhythm and blues effects. While I do not pretend to have the slightest clue about what makes any opera successful, this production of the "The Mikado" blew my mind in terms of the theatrical possibilities of sound, color and prop usage.\nGuest conductor Raymond Harvey, music director of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, seemed to energize his instrument-wielding crew to blast musical missiles into the audience that pierced their hearts, blasted their minds and shocked their souls. Gilbert and Sullivan's notes kept a steady pace between giggles and darkness, and Harvey entertained the crowd with his waving arms and dipping knees.\nStage director Vincent J. Liotta's use of space was incredible, as magnified by the give and take of two to three characters center-stage and the stretching of the entire cast from one side of the stage to the other. His actors also seemed to hop, bounce and prance on and off-stage in between bouts of action, and his direction was most felt in the overall character movement throughout the show.\nMike Schwandt's lighting design also contributed to the overall quality of "The Mikado," especially through the use of deep blues, reds and oranges as a backdrop to offset character moods and the feel of the action on stage. Of particular notice, Schwandt's choice to front-light a few scenes projected the character's shadows onto the backdrop, which contributed to the overall spectacle but was not so overwhelming as to draw complete audience member attention.\nFor the sake of space, I am left with only a brief mention of the costumes and props, but I hope for your sake you will fill in the blanks with your imagination while watching the show this weekend. As a Japanese-themed operetta, audience members can expect the bright costume colors and extravagant wardrobe additions characterized in centuries-old Japanese portrayals. \nStill, the most exciting choice of costume décor was the interchange of dominant and decorative orange, yellow and white colors in Yum-Yum's costume that are flip flopped between the first and second act. Director of costume Parwin Farzad's use of colors was extreme considering no two costumes, out of the almost 40 presented, contained the same color or design patterns. \nLast but not least, the use of props as sound-creating machines was both creative and unique in terms of orchestra note additions and their use as cues to a character's feelings or overall mood. But do not take my word for it, after all, because I am a traditional-theater lover and "The Mikado" was one of the first tastes to the world of operetta I have ever experienced.\nI do not know if the IU Opera Theater's production added anything to the more than a century-old show, but I do know I left the Musical Arts Center feeling inspired by the local creativity and overwhelmed by the performance ability and combination of the actors involved. "The Mikado" may or may not strike your fancy, but I recommend you at least give it a shot this weekend. \nEven though the British-accented dialogue is somewhat hard to decipher early on in the show, most words are recognizable by the end and, either way, the mix of dialogue and orchestra sounds is enough to occupy the mind during about three hours of pure entertainment.\nThere is better way to spend a summer evening than laughing at the depiction of another culture, destined to attack America some 40 years later. \n"The Mikado" provides a meaningful bang-for-the-buck so to speak, and an once-in-a-lifetime experience I recommend for the entire Bloomington community.
(08/02/06 7:54pm)
There are clubs and then there are strip clubs.\nBloomington offers Hoosiers many choices for basking in brews and hearty ha-ha's, but where can community members go if they seek half-naked human beings sliding down poles or sex toys to bring home to share with their partner? Also known as "adult entertainment," the city offers most forms of sensual self-indulgence and perverted pleasure, including topless dance clubs, bookstores with XXX video arcades, and lingerie boutiques offering everything from fluffy handcuffs to nipple clamps.\nFor students who wish to throw a bottle or two of beer into the back of their throats while a gyrating woman dressed in only thong panties hangs upside down from a pole, Bloomington offers two alternatives.\nLook but don't touch\nConsidered the "classier" of the two, Night Moves offers the traditional strip club experience. \n"People come here for the girls," said Jerimy Koch, manager of Night Moves. "That's what the bar's here for."\nNight Moves' interior resembles a black-velvet painting with neon-colors splashed on the walls, which mimics the computerized eeriness of the film "Tron" without the graphics but with the constant action. Visitors have several seats to choose from, albeit a booth or at the front of one of three stages, although community member eyes seldom drift from the half-naked dancers on poles.\nKoch said no one kind of person visits Night Moves, because it is a popular destination for college students, professional folks and working class heroes from all walks of life. He said a 90-year-old man once came a knockin' for a "couch dance" that got his libido rockin'.\nNight Moves "couch dances," formerly known in the strip club world as "lap dances," cost $15 each. During a lap dance visitors are seated in a chair and strippers rub, brush and fling their bodies and hair against the patron while the disc jockey spins a song from a record.\nDespite the close contact during the couch dance, Koch reminded possible patrons that they must observe "strip club etiquette" that includes sitting on their hands and not touching the dancers.\nThose who don't mind their gentlemen manners or strip club rules can expect a closer encounter with Night Moves doorman and IU Judo instructor Vern Ellett as they exit.\nEllett, armed with a judo black belt, is charged with checking IDs regardless of aging appearance, collecting the cover charge and keeping an eye on the strippers who work on stage and hustle patrons on the floor.\nA typical night for Ellett involves herding rowdy patrons out the door or detaining belligerent customers until local law enforcement arrives. Although, he said he is sometimes asked to display his judo skills in the form of disarming folks who think flashing a weapon is the best way to say "thanks for an enjoyable evening."\n"Being topless brings a whole different element into [the bar scene]," Ellett says. "You get to see here what you only hope to see at another bar. It brings aggressiveness out in some people. It can get pretty serious."\nAround 9 p.m. on a Wednesday evening, Night Moves is a happening place. Several dozen people congregate around the pool tables and a handful sit enamored by the dancers. A couple patrons are sitting on their hands as half-naked women dance atop them.\nAn hour later, a more restrained scene is unfolding a few miles down the road at Legends Class Act Room.\nMom and Pop strip show\nLegends is also decked out in neon lights, but there's a much more sinful tone here because of the purple fabric seats, unpainted and bare-black walls, working fireplace near the bar, single-dance floor with solo pole and a black leather couch pinned in a shadowy corner.\nExactly two people sit at the bar downing their umpteenth brews. The barman said the dancers have yet to arrive for the night but he is expecting the first few around 10 p.m.\nBusiness has fallen here in recent years, a trend returning-manager Tony Keene blamed on a combination of Bloomington's March 2005 smoking ban, misguided former-management that was prone to berate customers and an overall sputtering national economy. An upsurge in customers was spotted in recent weeks, and he said he is looking forward to the return of students for the fall semester. \n"We are a mom and pop strip club with a laid back, relaxed atmosphere," Keene said.\nAs an advertising bit to attract more customer bite, Legends offers free admission to customers possessing a student, military or government ID. For community members 21-years or older, Keene said his bar offers nightly drink specials, including one dollar tequila shots on Tuesdays.\n"Lap" dances cost two for $20 through September.\nThere is no judo black belt roaming the crowd, but common strip club etiquette does apply. Keene said he looks out for his dancers, and he never hesitates to take care of unkind business when necessary.\n"Customers know what the girls allow," he said. "My rule is that if it's covered up by a bathing suit you're not allowed to touch it."\nKeene managed Legends during the early months of 2000, but he said he found his customer-based lacked women as paying customers. Upon his return, he said, he has figured out how to attract the women clientele and the Legends crowd now consists of about half men and half women.\nThe women, Keene said, are often a lot rowdier by closing time.\n"There's a lot of alternative lifestyles that come in here nowadays," he said. "The men are crowding around the stage but the girls get up there with the dancers."\nAn investment group has its eyes on Legends and they want to remake the club with pool tables, new lighting and cages on the stage. But in the meantime, Keene admits that it is difficult to maintain a "regular" customer base because there is a pretty high turnover of dancers, and strip club patrons seem to focus their attention on a few favorites rather than the bunch. \nHe said most new dancers to the stripping world are not prepared for the experience, and they often have no idea what they are getting themselves into.\n"We get new girls constantly. By the end of their first weekend they have bruises and their knees are cracking," Keene said. "I've had girls come in here the day after their 18th birthday and they dance like straws. I tell them they don't have to climb the pole and hang upside down -- 'just picture yourself having sex and do that on the pole; don't look at people, just put yourself in that frame of mind.'"\nOf course, the biggest downside of any adult entertainment venue like Night Moves or Legends is that like Chris Rock said, "No matter what a stripper says to you, there's no sex in the champagne room"
(08/01/06 7:35pm)
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is seeking an I-69 toll road that extends from Evansville to Indianapolis, but some Southern Indiana Hoosiers like Thomas Tokarski have drawn a line in the limestone sand, saying I-69 is "beginning to look more and more absurd."\nTokarski, president of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, an advocacy organization aimed at protecting the integrity of farmlands, forestlands and rural communities through its support of fiscal conservative policies and environmental friendly transportation projects, said he and more than 140,000 petition-signing Hoosiers are opposed to all I-69 alternatives, including tolling. He attended the I-69 "Tier 1" Reevaluation Study presentation by the Indiana Department of Transportation June 29 in Bloomington, and he said he's "madder than hell" about Daniels' and INDOT's preconceived conclusions.\n"The reevaluation study was to look at the feasibility of making a toll road and the results look very bad for I-69 because the cost goes up and the benefits go down," Tokarski said. "The I-69 project makes no transportation or financial sense. I-69 as a transportation project is brain dead and it is being kept alive by political resuscitation."\nAccording to CARR, an I-69 toll road will amount to "double taxation" because toll revenue will flow into international corporation coffers, suck the piggy banks of Hoosiers dry from tolling because of an American dependence on automotive transportation, force increased traffic onto local roads, causing increased congestion and accidents -- and tax-payer expenses associated with those two items offer the toll road "non-compete" clauses to prevent state and local officials from upgrading local roads near or around the toll road and tax Hoosiers for decades to come with ever-increasing toll rates.\nIndiana State House of Representative Matt Pierce, D-61, said the INDOT Reevaluation "Tier 1" Study is "flawed." Similar to the Indiana Toll Road sold for $3.8 billion dollars to an international leasing operation, he said the I-69 toll road will tax Hoosiers well beyond the life of Daniels and most elected officials who voted in favor of the project. \n"The study that's been done is flawed -- it doesn't answer the questions. It admits there will be negative impacts, but it underestimates the magnitude of those impacts," Pierce said July 25. "Clearly the governor and the Republican leadership -- when they passed the Major Moves bill -- did ignore the will of the people. All the polling data, all the feedback that I heard statewide, said (Hoosiers) did not want the Indiana toll road turned over to a foreign corporation and turned into some kind of private enterprise operation. The second part that is still up in the air is the fact that the bill authorizes the governor to build an I-69 extension as a private toll road, including State Road 37, so I've got to focus in on trying to prevent tolling from being forced upon our community."\nThe out-of-pocket cost of an I-69 toll road might tax Hoosiers more than money, according to CARR. A new terrain tolling tax road along the State Road 37 corridor might destroy 5,100 acres of Hoosier farmland, 1,600 acres of Hoosier forest, 140 acres of Hoosier wetlands, 400 Hoosier homes, 76 Hoosier businesses and 135 existing Hoosier roads.\nEstimated tolling taxes between Evansville and Indianapolis might start at about $10 per round trip for cars and approach $35 as the decades roll by, and trucks might receive tolling taxes of about $13 to start but could increase to $50 throughout time. Daniels' office was unavailable for comment by press time.\nTokarski said Daniels' I-69 toll road ignores logic because a democratic Hoosier electoral body has indicated their opposition for the project, and taxing Hoosier families and their children well into the next century will make for bad political policy. He said his experience has taught him a project conducted at "warp speed" often equates to "warped results."\n"Transnational companies are looking for more than roads -- they are looking for financial incentives, an educated workforce. Transportation is a minor cost for doing business for most corporations," he said. "Indiana has more damned interstate highways than most any other state in the country ... Americans are addicted to driving. If they are addicted to driving, the corporations want to get into that and make money off their addiction -- take advantage of the so-called 'freedom' we've had"
(07/31/06 3:55am)
Art is in the eye of the beholder, but what about the stomach?\nEven though college town food markets are often saturated with pizza palaces, burger bordellos and ice cream parlors, sandwich shops provide community refugee for students, residents and guests to explore the art of stuffing just about anything between two slices of bread. Bloomington offers Hoosiers several local, regional and national-brand sandwich choices for community members to digest while they ponder the art of sandwich making, presentation and delivering.\n"We make monster, sky-scraper sandwiches," said IU alumnus John Santos, owner of 21-year-old and still-standing Dagwood's Deli & Sub Shop, 1799 E. 10th St. \n"Some of the art of sandwich making is really simple -- like what ingredients to use -- and some of it is difficult -- like which dressing tastes better with which meats, which dressing to put next to produce and how much dressing to use. We also have our own special sauce that helps makes us unique," he said.\nIU alumnus Tim Nelson, Dagwood's head-delivery driver who "dabbles" in sandwich making, added his perspective on the art of sandwich making.\n"Anybody can throw two slices of meat and cheese together and call it a sandwich, but it really takes an extra effort to make a delicious treat that is mouthwatering," he said. "There are no special skills in making a Dagwood's sandwich, but there is a secret in making the sauce -- a special blend with 30 different spices."\nFolklore about the art of sandwich making dates back to before the birth of Christ, when the Jewish rabbi Hillel the Elder is thought to have served mutton mixed with herbs and spices inside flatbread called Matzo during Passover. The word "sandwich," in reference to two slices of bread with meat or cheese between them, is thought to have followed the 18th century English aristocrat fourth Earl of Sandwich's preference for piling meat between bread so he could continue playing the card game cribbage while eating without mucking up his fingers.\nBloomington resident Jeff Bryant, a sandwich artisan at the Jimmy John's at 430 E. Kirkwood Ave., said the art of sandwich making is in your "pinky." He said he and his fellow Jimmy John's food artisans have developed a "magic" pinky throughout time that is unlocked when they make their sandwiches, but he declined to specify what makes their pinkies so magical or the process by which that magic is projected into the food.\n"You can make anything a work of art -- like I could build a castle out of cups on the counter," Bryant said. "The art of sandwich making depends on what you like because you could make a sandwich out of just about anything." \nCommon connotations of sandwich art often include everything from hamburgers to pitas to sliced buns called "submarines," although typical deli-style sandwich art often refers to only two slices of bread packed with sliced meat or tofu, vegetables and dressing. Similar to a Picasso painting left outside during a rainstorm, sandwich art is no art at all if the presentation is unacceptable.\nBecause the art of sandwich presentation is often beholden upon the eye of the sandwich eater, Nelson said his sandwich shop makes the extra effort to ensure the color combination of toppings is pleasing to both the human mind and the belly.\n"A good sandwich encompasses not only taste and flavor but visual aesthetics. If a sandwich doesn't look good it might not taste good," Nelson said. "We use only the finest of ingredients so our sandwiches speak for themselves."\nJimmy John's has no pictures of sandwiches hanging from their restaurant walls, and Bryant said that is for a good reason. The art of sandwich presentation, he said, only lasts for a few moments before customer consumption.\n"Our customers do like the look of our sandwiches but they like the taste even more," Bryant said. "Our customers usually say 'Wow, that's a beautiful sandwich' before they mow it down."\nBecause the art of sandwich making and presenting is a niche not seen in most museums or galleries anywhere, the art of sandwich delivery might seem just as absurd before community members talk to the delivery artisans.\n"We say 'we're fast but not fast food.' Fast delivery on campus means walking spiritedly -- if you're dilly-dallying you get there slowly," Nelson said. "Our delivery drivers also have to possess a sublime knowledge of roads and intersections: 'Where are the lights?' and 'Where are the stop signs?' We want our customers to be happy before they even start eating our sandwiches."\nDagwood's and Jimmy John's are not the only sandwich shops on the Bloomington block, but they both claim their speedy catering to students is dependent on the art of sandwich delivery.\nBloomington resident Eric Alexander, a delivery bicyclist for Jimmy John's, said the art of sandwich delivery is often shown is staying on the road and not passing out from heat exhaustion. \n"You've just got to go, and sometimes I zone out riding in the heat for four or five hours," he said. "Even though the heat clouds your mind, I love it. It's the best job in the world"
(07/31/06 3:32am)
Reducing crime is often a key aspect to maintaining a safe and civil community, but offenders are often thought to violate state or federal laws at the expense of the victims involved.\nBloomington's Community Justice and Mediation Center hosted a four-day Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program workshop Thursday through Sunday to educate and train community volunteers about the finer points of victim-offender conferencing. About 20 community members, from IU students and professors to local social service agents and justice advocates, attended at least 16 hours of VORP training to better understand possible court-mandated or community-initiated reconciliation processes to better facilitate both the victim and offender's journey toward healing.\n"As a society we often look at restitution as 'when you break a rule or law you are punished,' and then we increase the punishments to serve as a deterrent. We all want to prevent crime, but just being punitive afterwards doesn't address why the crime happened or address the needs of the victims," said workshop trainer Mark Yantzi of Community Justice Initiatives of Kitchener, Ontario. "When you cause harm you have a responsibility to make amends, not only in terms of punishment, but to victims that have historically been isolated and ignored by the justice system. VORP provides a setting where both offender restitution and victim healing can take place."\nVictim-offender conferencing can serve numerous community functions as a prevention and intervention tool for schools, youth groups, workplaces, faith communities and neighborhoods; a diversion from the judicial system to minimize tax-payer expense and reduce court workloads; a method of pre-trial or pre-adjudication; a condition of probation; an addition to prison or other court commitment; and a stipulation to parole as an addition to after-prison care and reentry into the community. Eight community members completed the necessary 32 hours of VORP training this weekend to join other volunteers at CJAM to serve community mediation needs in the form of "conducting" and "facilitating" victims and offenders toward personal and financial resolution and not "directing" or "deciding" the conditions of their healing process.\n"VORP puts less emphasis on punishing the person who causes harm and more emphasis on making things right for the victim," Yantzi said. "VORP does not provide a total alternative to the justice system but it is a program designed to find ways within the justice system to offer more support for victims and offenders to create a safer community."\nThe central focus of current justice system efforts is often ensuring the community that "offenders get what they deserve" because crime is often defined by violation of state or federal law, according to VORP literature distributed at the conferencing training. Even though crime is often more so a violation of people and relationships, criminal violations often result more so in personal obligations to the community at-large and "justice" often means both victims and offenders might search for solutions to better promote reparation, restoration, reintegration and healing -- as defined by the victim -- so the criminal conduct is not repeated and so the offender can work toward reform.\n"I think that what we currently do in the justice system doesn't necessarily hold people accountable because we put them in prison and they are not held accountable to the victims or the community," said workshop trainer Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz of the Mennonite Central Committee, who works for the Office on Crime and Justice in Akron, Pa.\nCrime victims are often impacted the most physically, emotionally, psychologically and financially, according to VORP literature. To experience true justice, crime victims often need compensation for losses, an opportunity for the expression of feelings and validation, empowerment, safety and answers to questions like "why did this happen to me?" and "why have I acted as I have since that time?"\nThe central focus of restorative justice is on victim needs and offender responsibility for the harm, according to VORP literature, and with the assistance of a trained VORP volunteer, victims have the opportunity to meet with their offender to discuss the crime, express their feelings, obtain answers and decide what needs to be done to restore their loss. CJAM provides a safe place for the victim-offender conference after first discussing the case in private with both parties to hear their needs and desires for a possible outcome.\nVictim-offender mediation can facilitate cases of criminal recklessness, minor assault or battery, leaving the scene of accidents, harassment or intimidation, criminal mischief or destruction of property, theft or burglary, breaking and entering or any other neighbor-to-neighbor conflict, including workplace or school problematic behavior. According to Monroe County Probation Department officials, VORP is often utilized for juvenile offenders as a means of court diversion and adults often receive mediation services as a condition of sentencing for only a handful of crimes.\nYantzi said Bloomington and Monroe County can join about 1,300 communities from about 70 countries around the world that have expanded VORP services to include both minor and major offenses from misdemeanors like vandalism to felonies like rape and murder. Known as "The Elmira Case," he mediated one of the first VORP cases in 1974 as he led two juvenile offenders door-to-door to discuss restitution with the 22 victims they had offended.\n"It's always exciting to see how what started as a tentative experiment in many ways has been picked up by so many communities and groups in North America and around the world," said Yantzi, who authored "Sexual Offending and Restoration" in 1998. "VORP has put roots in communities where victims and offenders can heal the harm that was done"
(07/27/06 4:00am)
Art is often showcased and appreciated only in galleries, museums and other "official" artistic places like artisan studios. Acknowledging that art is all around us, Bloomington restaurants offer their wall space as a community canvas to further student and townie art expression.\nNever mind framed prints of Matisse, Monet or Picasso to attract customer dollars. Local eateries such as Tutto Bene, Lennie's Restaurant and Michael's Uptown Café and Bakery offer local artists the opportunity to exhibit their artwork in their business space for display-only or selling purposes. \nAlthough different local businesses fill their walls with art for different purposes, the common thread tying all local eateries displaying local art is a love for the Bloomington artisan community.\n"I'm an art advocate and I'm interested in people experiencing art," said Bloomington resident Marci Widen, owner of Tutto Bene Wine Café & More. "The more people who experience it, the more people will appreciate it. People may not like the art they see but at least they are experiencing it by us introducing it to them in a different way. Some of our customers order a glass of wine and walk around to look at the art. Sometimes I see two or three people staring at a painting and talking about it, which is great."\nWiden, who is also a board member for the Bloomington Area Arts Council, said she has about 200 works of Bloomington-affiliated artisan expression mixed throughout her café and wine bar. Art takes many forms, from oil paintings and sculptures to photographs and table centerpieces. She said her customers have enjoyed her public art display so much she has added an art gallery to showcase additional community artwork because her café was busting at the seams with paint, frames and twigs. \n"I want to support the local art community as well as the new and emerging artists. I'm hoping people will start purchasing art, especially if they love it," Widen said. "A lot of people come here and say 'I love that but that won't fit in any room in my home' -- they categorize art and try to put into a box. I have piece in my house I liked so much I made it the focal point of the room: it's the first thing you notice when they enter and the last thing you see when you leave. You can put a piece of art in a spot and make the room around it." \nWiden said the artwork she displays is contracted for consignment, which means that she gets a percentage of the sale based on a contractual negotiation between her and the artist. She said some of the artists represented in her café and gallery have received commissions based on their work, but others have sold a piece or two to help pay the bills needed for artisan survival.\nWith loose talk floating around the community about Bloomington metamorphosing into an "art destination" like the historic art-town of Nashville in Brown County, local restaurants and other businesses small and large can stake their claim on exhibiting local artwork for the betterment of all local artisans.\nBloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan proposed a town "art district" in May that includes boutiques, entertaining shows, festival streets, an arts row, a B-Line trail, a youth area and opportunities for new art development including artisan living and working space.\nBloomington resident Michael Layman, manager of Lennie's Restaurant, said his restaurant is willing to do their fair share of promoting local artisans to the greater Bloomington community and beyond. He said Lennie's hosted a Bloomington North and South High School art show during the spring that drew rave reviews and increased restaurant foot traffic.\n"We certainly try to help the community out, not just with local artists, but with the Hoosier Hills Food Bank and the Community Kitchen as well. Why not? Why would we go anywhere else?" Layman said. "We have many different local art pieces and our customers come in and look at it while they're here. From the feedback we get people seem to love it."\nLennie's does not sell the artist's artwork to their customers, but they do offer the artisan information so interested art patrons can negotiate with the artist for their favorite works. Layman said his restaurant has enough wall space for about 20 art pieces, but as their current display proves -- one photography work divided into about 25 pieces -- the available space is dependent upon the size and shape of the artwork.\n"Art is more pleasing to look at for our customers," Layman said. "It would be pretty generic to walk into a restaurant and for the walls to be plain. The art provides a tone to the overall décor that is more of an uplifting atmosphere -- bright colors and things such as that. The benefit for the artist is a lot of community exposure."\nNot all emerging local artisan work is pleasing to the highbrow eye, so few galleries and museums take risks in filling their space with artwork that more then likely will not sell.\nBecause a local artisan with no official space to exhibit their artwork is like a fisherman who catches a 50-pound catfish with a stick and yarn, some local businesses are more then happy to provide the space needed for the Bloomington art scene to shine in otherwise "unofficial" places. \nBloomington resident Jared Cartmell, front house manager of Michael's Uptown Café & Bakery, said his restaurant caters to community artwork that is less wild and more conservative to the customer eye. He said his father, Michael, often chooses art for display like paintings or photographs that are of a jazzier theme.\n"It's good to continually change the environment, to let customers see new things," Cartmell said. "It's a very diverse community in Bloomington, and I think different perspectives are something a lot of people want to see in this town. We enjoy giving people an opportunity to show what they've created to a large number of people. It's exposure for someone who is trying to get something done because we are all trying to get something done."\nCartmell said his restaurant can hold 15 to 25 works of art, depending on how large or the combination of pieces. He said a recent limestone-wall hanging show was a success, based on the number of smiling customer faces and requests for the artist's information. \nMichael's Uptown Café & Bakery has a waiting list of community artists a couple months long wishing to display their work, and the restaurant leaves any sales for the customer to negotiate with the particular artist. He said his customers seem to really enjoy a mixed media art show combing different art mediums.\nBloomington resident Teresa Miller, who was spotted eating breakfast at the local art scene when she visits local restaurants because she is interested in art, and she likes to see what local artisans have created.\n"I like the art and it's good for the artist too," she said between scribbles in a crossword puzzle. "It enriches the quality of life for the residents and people who go to the business." \nHaving graduated with a major in painting from the University of Louisville, Widen said she both sympathizes with the plight of student artists hoping to spread word of their art skill and emphasizes with the art tastes of community members more inclined to appreciate works by art masters like Da Vinvi and Van Gogh. She said she also offers art space for musical, theatrical and other art performances.\n"I don't like to turn anyone away because everybody wants a chance to display their art, but that's not always feasible," Widen said. "I think a lot of restaurants have been supportive of the arts community and that's a good thing. It would be great if more businesses could catch on and try something different. We are constantly looking for new ways to celebrate the arts in one form or another. It's a fun thing to display art, and it's great to walk in and say to your customers 'there is a piece here and there is a piece there."
(07/27/06 4:00am)
In the children's game of hopscotch a picture with several sections is scribbled onto the ground. Each player then takes turns tossing a rock to each section, jumping to the section on one leg, picking up the rock and tossing it onto the next section; so and so forth until one player completes the picture. \nAs is the hopscotch life of folk musician Mike Younger, hopping from town to town on his 11 city tour. Younger is set to rock and roll Bloomington audiences Saturday, July 29 at 7 p.m. atop the Buskirk-Chumley Theater stage. Following the release of his second album, "Every Stone You Throw," Younger's trip to B-town is the second to last of the tour which has included his jamming at several clubs and on-air radio shows.\nYou might have already heard tracks of his soulful guitar sound mixed with shades of harmonica blues on WFHB Community Radio for South-Central Indiana, 91.3 & 98.1 FM. But just in case you haven't, music critics have compared his lyrical rhymes to that of a young Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen mingled with Steve Earle and an American version of Bryan Adams. His rhythmic sound is described as a pinch of Southern Delta blues mixed with a dash of country folk, a spoonful of rock and a crunchy topping of jugular vibrations similar to that of Bloomington's own rock legend John "Cougar" Mellencamp.\nYounger said he does not see so much of himself in other musical artists, but he does claim the sounds of Mississippi John Hurt, Leadbelly and Robert Johnson inspired his journey toward creating meaningful music that he hopes tickles the listeners' hearts, tantalizes their minds and touches their souls.\n"I was 12 or 13 the first time I started playing," Younger said. "It wasn't until high school was coming to a close that I decided to make my way in the world as a singer, songwriter and guitar player. When I started out after high school, I was hitchhiking and playing on street corners and sneaking into clubs before I was of age to play open mics and things like that throughout Canada and onto New York City. I spent one year and a half to two years living on the street and in abandoned buildings -- that was a pretty muddy patch of road." \nFrom there Younger made his way to New Orleans and the 'Big Easy.' Things weren't a whole lot easier but at least the weather was nicer. \n"I worked odd jobs, washed dishes, did migrant farm work in the summer time, following Woody Guthrie's trail -- 'hot on his heels' you might say."\nA short while later, Younger said, he got his first break into the music business and he hopped to his next step, with his first album, "Something in the Air," towards the rock legend picture he hopes to someday achieve. All those nights of playing solo at street corners, waterfront piers, subway stations, work camps, coffee houses, night clubs, concert halls and theaters had paid off in a distributable copy of his music for the masses with his album produced by country superstar Rodney Crowell and released in 1999.\n"There were many moments along the way I was running out of steam and wondering how I was going to make it forward, he said. "But that is the difference between people who dedicate their lives to something. The music business is like the last man standing: it's like getting in the ring with Mohammed Ali and getting a beating for 16 or 17 rounds and still standing on your feet."\nYounger's debut album received rave reviews: two singles shot up the music charts, songs landed on two network television series and the title track of was added to both Starbucks' and the Sundance Film Festival's original musical ventures.\nAfter breaking out on his own again, Younger said he produced his second album "Every Stone You Throw" so he could better work to make a name for himself. The next step to hop to is finding a record company that suits him. He said he is on a solo tour this summer because, in part, he has not yet found the right record company to support his budding music career, and he can not afford to take his New York City band mates traveling. \n"I want to get to the point where I can tour with my whole crew and make a living doing it," Younger said. "I am working my tail off to make that happen. I would also like to create some memorable works that stand the test of time. As an artist, I aspire to leave an impression like that. I think every artist does."\nHis album is worth listening to a few times over to appreciate the melody of Appalachian-folk music tricks and New Orleans-inspired gospel rock treats. Younger's songs reflect both war and peace, and he said he hopes to find common ground with people who have lived a different life then himself but can still find something relatable in his work.\n"I pushed this album uphill by myself and with a little help from my friends," he said. "If (community members) don't' catch me this time I will be back sometime soon. They won't get rid of me that easily"
(07/27/06 12:32am)
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels' Republican vision for State Road 37 includes repaving already paved land into an Interstate 69 extension toll road, but three local democratic leaders have drawn a political line in the sand, saying "a toll road will have profound negative effects on the residents of Monroe County."\nState House of Representatives Matt Pierce, D-61, and Peggy Welch, D-60, together with State Senator Vi Simpson, D-40, issued a letter to the Federal Highway Administration July 21 declaring no I-69 toll road is the only road they will accept besides an already taxpayer-funded State Road 37.\nTOLLING NOW\nRep. Pierce, Rep. Welch and Sen. Simpson's concern stems from an Indiana Department of Transportation "Tier 1" Reevaluation Study released in June 2006 that surmised a proposed I-69 corridor between Evansville, Indiana's third-largest city, and Indianapolis was best suited as a toll road, even though INDOT's original "Tier 1" Evaluation Study between 2000 and 2004 indicated tolling was not a viable option for any proposed I-69 extension, so the costs and benefits were never weighed.\n"The Tier 1 Reevaluation's conclusion that tolling should be considered as an option for I-69 is not supported by its own analysis. That analysis finds a toll road will cause increased congestion, reduced safety and diminished economic development compared to a free highway," Rep. Pierce, Rep. Welch and Sen. Simpson stated in their letter to the FHA. "The logical conclusion from the Reevaluation should have been not to pursue a toll road scenario because of its tremendous negative impact on the people who live along the selected corridor ... While claiming 'these impacts can be adequately addressed and mitigated,' the report fails to explain in any meaningful way how they will be mitigated."\nBut repaving State Road 37 into an I-69 extension toll road is exactly what Daniels has in mind. INDOT Commissioner Tom Sharp said in a June 23 press release that the governor has targeted groundbreaking for the summer of 2008, the last year of his four-year elected term, and the project will conclude by 2018 -- some 20 years ahead of former Democratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon's original estimate for a non-tolled I-69 extension.\n"The purpose of the reevaluation is to see if our current route is the best choice for I-69 if we build it as a toll road. Our analysis indicates that it is," Sharp is quoted as saying in the INDOT release. "Governor Daniels has solved the funding issue and we are moving at warp speed to deliver Major Moves. I-69 is a key component of the state's goal of becoming a global transportation and logistics center."\nTOLLING TAX\nIn keeping with his 2004 campaign promise to attract "other people's money," Daniels' 2006 Major Moves transportation bill, approved by a Republican-dominated statehouse across party lines in the wee hours of the morning, sold the Indiana East-West Toll Road -- which connects Chicago to the Northeast -- for a 75-year period at the cost of $3.85 billion dollars to the international Spanish-Australian Consortium Cintra-Macquarie. Major Moves also approved tolling along any paved I-69 extension, although Martinsville Republicans blocked the possibility of tolling between their city and Indianapolis and Marion County Republicans blocked tolling in Perry Township, dependent upon future legislation reversing those promises.\n"Today marks an extraordinary moment in state history. A breakthrough like this may come but once in a public service lifetime," Daniels said in a Jan. 23 Major Moves statement issued by his office. "As a candidate for governor, I said that we should explore the possibility of attracting private capital, 'other people's money' that no Hoosier need to be taxed for, to build the great projects we cannot afford, bringing with them countless thousands of new jobs and a more prosperous future for our children."\nBut taxing Hoosier children is exactly what an I-69 extension toll road will do, each and every time community members exchange their hard-earned currency for the right to travel along roads they have already paid for and are free as of today, opponents said. Daniels' and other state employees will add an additional tax to Hoosier families each time they travel down the proposed I-69 toll road because they will exchange tax-payer dollars for the right to travel down an already paved State Road 37.\nAccording to a list of "frequently asked questions" provided by the Indiana Department of Transportation, Major Moves will eliminate the state's estimated $2.8 billion dollar transportation budget deficit over the next 10 years, has the potential to create more than 130,000 jobs and will provide funding for more than 200 vital transportation projects across the state. \nDEVIL IN THE DETAILS\nIndiana House of Representative Democrats claim the "devil is in the details," stating among other negative consequences that "Indiana citizens are going to pay a dear price for this deal for generations to come." Neither Daniels nor his representatives had responded to any one of 10 questions sent to his office regarding Major Moves and the I-69 toll road extension as of press time. \nRep. Pierce said the kind of modern statewide economic infrastructure needed in the 21st century is not more pavement atop pavement that tax Hoosiers for up to the next century.\n"Politically we need to keep telling the governor that this is not something that's good for the community ... If economic development is your number one concern, then we should be investing in our education system and making sure we have a well trained workforce, and helping to develop small businesses -- growing businesses -- we already have in our state," Pierce said Tuesday. "The issue in front of us most directly is in regards to the Tier 1 Reevaluation, whether State Road 37 should be converted into a toll road, and if we should be forced to pay for a road that's been free for decades now. And the message we're trying to send to the governor and to our colleagues in the legislature, and most importantly to the Federal Highway Administration, is that a toll road will not be good for the Bloomington community and Monroe County as a whole"
(07/26/06 11:58pm)
A local teenager reported missing in Monday's IDS is back in her mother's custody, after neighborhood children spotted her Sunday afternoon and local law enforcement officials rounded her up from a five-day long runaway spree. \nJody Kinser said she received numerous sightings about her daughter's whereabouts from community members, some indicating she was close to home and others indicating she might have fled to as far away as Pennsylvania. While pursuing a different lead, she said she received a call from a neighbor Sunday positively identifying her daughter's location, at which time the Bloomington Police Department was called and officers apprehended her daughter from the arms of a 23-year-old living in a nearby apartment complex.\n"You've got to be careful with kids," Kinser said. "These guys don't care that they're 15 years old."\nMYSPACE ACCOUNT\nFrom the time she realized her daughter was missing July 19, Jody said she began scouring her daughter's MySpace profile and other Internet accounts for possible clues about her disappearance through her "friend" status with her child. Kinser said she also had a MySpace account, in part to keep tabs on her daughter's communiqués, and she said she was "horrified" to see some of the stuff her daughter had posted and was receiving.\n"I never knew really how much it touches home really ... It says right there on their profile that they're 15 -- it's a sad thing," Kinser said. "The computer can be such a good thing because kids learn from it, but at a certain point they are learning the wrong things ... I've told her a thousand times there are these kinds of people out there. You may think your kid is safe because you don't have a computer at home but they have access to it at school and at the library, and nobody is monitoring them."\nAlthough Jody admitted the actual underlying causes of her daughter's willingness to runaway had little to do with MySpace and a lot to do with interfamily turmoil, she recommended parents keep a watchful eye on their children's Internet activities to prevent any runaway from having an unsafe place to go that is inhabited by adults not related to family members or other trusted friends. About 1,200 children runaway each day, according to the Children's Defense Fund.\nFAMILY HELP\n"My message to parents is ask for help when you need it. There's seems to be a real expectation that we're all going to be good parents, but we've never done this before with this kid -- if you are struggling at home reach out to somebody because we are each others greatest resources," said Bloomington resident and parent of children ages 2 to 17 Christine McAfee, juvenile division supervisor for the Monroe County Probation Department. "My message to kids is to also reach out: Find an adult in your life you trust and that is trustworthy. Don't ask the person who is going to give you the answer you want to hear but the person who will give you the answer you need."\nMcAfee said 52 runaways were reported to her office in 2005, three cases more than in 2004. She said running away is a crime because persons under 18 by law can not leave home without their parents permission or go someplace their parents do not approve of without first obtaining parental consent.\n"Typically things escalate for the runaway, and we become involved when the child is involved in some kind of delinquent behavior when they're gone, or when running away becomes more of a matter of control then a time-out," McAfee said. \nMcAfee reminded parents to call local law enforcement officials if the child does runaway, and to report back to the police once the child is found, even if the juvenile returns home without incident so the root causes of the family conflict can be identified and so the family can receive the help it needs.\nAccording to the National Runaway Switchboard, 1-800-RUNAWAY that links youth in crisis with local help, about 1,800 calls were made from Indiana in 2005, including 333 from Monroe County. Runaway demographics say two of three have never done so before; about eight out of 10 are female; about six out of 10 are between the ages of 14 and 17; about seven out of 10 spend one week or less on the street; and about four out of 10 report "family dynamics" as the primary reason for running away.\nFIRST RESORT\nBloomington resident Robin Donaldson, assistant director for the Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County, said the Youth Shelter received more than 80 juveniles "on the run" in 2005 -- that is they were not where they were supposed to be at that time. Youth Shelter staff welcomes runaways at any time, but she said juveniles wishing to leave home should contact 349-2507 to determine a better path than leaving and breaking the law.\n"If you are running away to go to a party or to see your boyfriend, there are consequences to those behaviors. If things are bad at home there are other alternatives that will keep them out of trouble," she said. "If you are running away because something is wrong at home, go to a safe place because that's a way to get help. There are plenty of support services for both children and parents like 'how do I communicate with this person' or 'how do I make this a tolerable situation.' Sometimes it takes a third party to see what is doable."\nMcAfee said both parents and children should not fear community support in helping ease their tension, especially considering free family counseling is available at the Youth Services Bureau and on a sliding scale if not free at the IU Center for Human Growth.\nJody said her relationship with her daughter is strained, and she admitted she could use all the help the community has to offer to better her relationship with her daughter and address the underlying causes of their family conflict.\n"We've got a long way to go and we've got some issues to go through. She's pretty angry at me right now," Kinser said. "I don't think she had any intention of coming home. Her mind was clouded and she was swept away"
(07/26/06 10:55pm)
Summer fun is often associated with baking in the sun and eating barbecue by the ton, but community members are invited to dress their best for a night of Gilbert and Sullivan opera.\nIU Opera Theater is showcasing Arthur Gilbert and W.S. Sullivan's Japanese-themed "The Mikado," acclaimed as one of the most popular musical masterpieces ever written, at 8 p.m. July 28-29 and Aug. 4-5 at the IU Musical Arts Center. "The Mikado," which opened internationally March 14, 1885 at the Savoy Theatre in London and nationally August 19, 1885 at the New York Fifth Avenue Theatre, tells the "timeless" tale of two young lovers who strive for romance despite a windfall of family and cultural obstacles. \nOne of the lovers, a wandering minstrel named Nanki-Poo, falls in love with another woman, Yum-Yum, even though both he and she are prearranged to marry others. \n"He's the romantic character of the show -- one of two lovers. The plot centers around the fact that he is the son of the Mikado, and he's supposed to marry Katisha, a woman of nobility, but she is hideous," said IU graduate student and tenor Joshua Whitener, who plays Nanki-Poo. "He decides to play the second trombone in the military band so he's basically in the lower class, and he can't marry the girl he loves ... It's either life with Yum-Yum or death."\nIU graduate student Jennifer Feinstein, who plays Katisha, said her role in "The Mikado" is that of the villain, and her character is a "larger-than-life person" who acts "over the top." She said her rehearsal process included sitting in front of a mirror to see how big she could make her facial expressions.\n"Gilbert and Sullivan is above all a comedy and parody of Victorian England -- the strange social situations people got put into, the bureaucracy, all these archaic laws. I am playing my character for laughs even though I am a villain," Feinstein said. "One of the great things about being an actor and a singer is getting to collaborate with the director and the conductor: The conductor will tell you musically 'you can do these things,' you get with the director and he will tell you that 'you can do these things' and then you get with the cast and you figure out what can work." \nAfter bargaining with Yum-Yum's fiancé Ko-Ko, a former tailor and Lord High Executioner of the city Titipu, Nanki-Poo, who is the son of the Japanese Emperor named Mikado and heir to the throne, agrees to marry Yum-Yum for one month if Ko-Ko can execute him after that time. Before the marriage, Nanki-Poo and Ko-Ko learn of a law that requires the wife of an executed man to be buried alive. In the end Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum's former marriage partners' unite in blissful love, and as for the lead characters -- well, you will have to wait and see the show.\n"The Mikado" is brought to the Bloomington community by guest conductor Raymond Harvey, stage director Vincent Liotta, lighting designer Mike Schwandt, director of costumes Parwin Farzad and director of props Tim Stebbins, among other crew members. The Orlando Opera Company has provided the lavish Japanese-themed sets, designed by mastermind Peter Dean Beck, one of the foremost set and lighting designers in the world, for the 1991 New York summer festival Chautauqua Opera.\n"The set is innovative work -- it has a traditional Japanese in-style, it's got several beautifully painted backdrops, Japanese screens, falling cherry blossoms, all the bells and whistles," said Frank McClain, production manager for the Orlando Opera Company. "The set is very inspirational because it's taken off of Japanese designs: traditional soft cherry-blossom rose, pink and light blue colors. It should give a wonderful playing space without stealing the focus away from the performers or the work itself. From the minute you walk in there is a show curtain that should start enhancing the mood before the curtain even rises."\nIU graduate student Gregory Brookes performs the role of "The Mikado of Japan," IU graduate student Megan Radder performs the role of "Yum-Yum," IU graduate student Jacob Sentgeorge performs the role of "Ko-Ko," IU junior Erin Houghton performs the role of "Pitti-Sing," IU graduate student Rachel Copeland performs the role of "Peep-Bo" and IU graduate student Alan Dunbar rounds out the cast as "Pish-Tush."\nFeinstein said "The Mikado" is the perfect summer opera for community members to attend because the show is considered an "operetta," which means it includes no dancing, plenty of dialogue plus song and the action is of a comedic nature instead of the usual drama associated with more intense Italian operas. She also said students and others unfamiliar with opera as an art form should attend the show because the dialogue and singing is in English, and the show does not contain "super-titles" projected above the action on stage.\n"The British accents have definitely been a huge challenge to make sure American audiences can still understand from anywhere in the opera house. 'The Mikado' is a perfect first opera for people because it's a comedy, and Gilbert and Sullivan are so much lighter," Feinstein said. "It's a great segue into the classical Italian stuff -- you can do this show in someone's backyard if you wanted to. The way it played (during Wednesday's technical rehearsal), the audience had a great time."\nTickets for "The Mikado" can be purchased 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday by visiting the Musical Arts Center box office on Jordan Avenue or by calling Ticketmaster at 333-9955.
(07/26/06 10:29pm)
Two-hundred thousand years of humanity is littered with folklore of neighbor-to-neighbor conquest for every reason from "oh, pillaging feels good," to "my God is supreme," to the psychopathology of manifest destiny.\nBut those claims to national shame no longer have an audience in the global community, considering that human beings need one another to exist.\n"We the (world's) people" are responsible for setting the international tone in regards to liberty, justice and freedom for all. Moreover, humanity's obligation to her children and grandchildren is to prove that face-to-face dialogue within communities and the global political sphere -- in the name of "human being" goodwill -- can and will conquer all social oppression, government tyranny and terror -- at home or abroad.\nBut have we?\n"We the (world's) people" have subjected ourselves and continue to perpetuate, instead, an international climate of hostility that has killed hundreds of millions of human beings around the globe and will kill millions more of our children and grandchildren. And for what?\nNational security is no defense at all if nations like America and Israel continue to stockpiles hordes of weapons of mass destruction aimed at their neighbors as a tool of coercion. First-world empires must stop building their industries off the despair and inhumanity of "developing" countries.\nMight humanity rise from the ashes of retribution -- because terror is always unjustified, and diplomacy can only work when both sides are willing to meet halfway at the negotiating table? \nAnd diplomacy is not one-way demands, but halfway agreements built upon genuine concession -- like a Middle East cease-fire -- once we sit together.\nHezbollah and Hamas, after all, were born as "populist resistance movements" to defend the Lebanese and Palestinian people against continued Israeli aggression, invasions and further occupation of Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. Israel has even gone so far to create a Warsaw-like ghetto out of the West Bank -- and who else besides "terrorists" are willing to defend Palestinian air, sea and land?\nNeither America nor Israel is intent on a peaceful Middle East international playground -- they wish to increase the Arab and Muslim bloodletting until the entire region is a magnificent killing field so they can justify imperialist-guided regime change in both Syria and Iran. Humanity has had 50 years to solve Israel's "right to exist," and instead of helping feed our neighbors, we continue to build walls of separation between us.\nIf America led the international community in nation-building countries not destroyed by our tax-payer war toys or decimated by the effects of our intended international isolation, what benefit will we receive?\nGenuine national security in the long-run.\nOur international leaders are either part of the genocidal problem or the solution. "We the (world's) people" need not face extinction evermore because our policy-makers believe their God justifies violence instead of advocating forgiveness and compassion.\nMight our international community witness, instead, the rebirth of humanity through a lens not tainted by cycles of destroyed infrastructure, ravaged populaces and plundered natural resources? Who will save humanity from human beings?
(07/26/06 7:25pm)
In the children's game of hopscotch a picture with several sections is scribbled onto the ground. Each player then takes turns tossing a rock to each section, jumping to the section on one leg, picking up the rock and tossing it onto the next section; so and so forth until one player completes the picture. \nAs is the hopscotch life of folk musician Mike Younger, hopping from town to town on his 11 city tour. Younger is set to rock and roll Bloomington audiences Saturday, July 29 at 7 p.m. atop the Buskirk-Chumley Theater stage. Following the release of his second album, "Every Stone You Throw," Younger's trip to B-town is the second to last of the tour which has included his jamming at several clubs and on-air radio shows.\nYou might have already heard tracks of his soulful guitar sound mixed with shades of harmonica blues on WFHB Community Radio for South-Central Indiana, 91.3 & 98.1 FM. But just in case you haven't, music critics have compared his lyrical rhymes to that of a young Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen mingled with Steve Earle and an American version of Bryan Adams. His rhythmic sound is described as a pinch of Southern Delta blues mixed with a dash of country folk, a spoonful of rock and a crunchy topping of jugular vibrations similar to that of Bloomington's own rock legend John "Cougar" Mellencamp.\nYounger said he does not see so much of himself in other musical artists, but he does claim the sounds of Mississippi John Hurt, Leadbelly and Robert Johnson inspired his journey toward creating meaningful music that he hopes tickles the listeners' hearts, tantalizes their minds and touches their souls.\n"I was 12 or 13 the first time I started playing," Younger said. "It wasn't until high school was coming to a close that I decided to make my way in the world as a singer, songwriter and guitar player. When I started out after high school, I was hitchhiking and playing on street corners and sneaking into clubs before I was of age to play open mics and things like that throughout Canada and onto New York City. I spent one year and a half to two years living on the street and in abandoned buildings -- that was a pretty muddy patch of road." \nFrom there Younger made his way to New Orleans and the 'Big Easy.' Things weren't a whole lot easier but at least the weather was nicer. \n"I worked odd jobs, washed dishes, did migrant farm work in the summer time, following Woody Guthrie's trail -- 'hot on his heels' you might say."\nA short while later, Younger said, he got his first break into the music business and he hopped to his next step, with his first album, "Something in the Air," towards the rock legend picture he hopes to someday achieve. All those nights of playing solo at street corners, waterfront piers, subway stations, work camps, coffee houses, night clubs, concert halls and theaters had paid off in a distributable copy of his music for the masses with his album produced by country superstar Rodney Crowell and released in 1999.\n"There were many moments along the way I was running out of steam and wondering how I was going to make it forward, he said. "But that is the difference between people who dedicate their lives to something. The music business is like the last man standing: it's like getting in the ring with Mohammed Ali and getting a beating for 16 or 17 rounds and still standing on your feet."\nYounger's debut album received rave reviews: two singles shot up the music charts, songs landed on two network television series and the title track of was added to both Starbucks' and the Sundance Film Festival's original musical ventures.\nAfter breaking out on his own again, Younger said he produced his second album "Every Stone You Throw" so he could better work to make a name for himself. The next step to hop to is finding a record company that suits him. He said he is on a solo tour this summer because, in part, he has not yet found the right record company to support his budding music career, and he can not afford to take his New York City band mates traveling. \n"I want to get to the point where I can tour with my whole crew and make a living doing it," Younger said. "I am working my tail off to make that happen. I would also like to create some memorable works that stand the test of time. As an artist, I aspire to leave an impression like that. I think every artist does."\nHis album is worth listening to a few times over to appreciate the melody of Appalachian-folk music tricks and New Orleans-inspired gospel rock treats. Younger's songs reflect both war and peace, and he said he hopes to find common ground with people who have lived a different life then himself but can still find something relatable in his work.\n"I pushed this album uphill by myself and with a little help from my friends," he said. "If (community members) don't' catch me this time I will be back sometime soon. They won't get rid of me that easily"
(07/26/06 7:14pm)
Art is often showcased and appreciated only in galleries, museums and other "official" artistic places like artisan studios. Acknowledging that art is all around us, Bloomington restaurants offer their wall space as a community canvas to further student and townie art expression.\nNever mind framed prints of Matisse, Monet or Picasso to attract customer dollars. Local eateries such as Tutto Bene, Lennie's Restaurant and Michael's Uptown Café and Bakery offer local artists the opportunity to exhibit their artwork in their business space for display-only or selling purposes. \nAlthough different local businesses fill their walls with art for different purposes, the common thread tying all local eateries displaying local art is a love for the Bloomington artisan community.\n"I'm an art advocate and I'm interested in people experiencing art," said Bloomington resident Marci Widen, owner of Tutto Bene Wine Café & More. "The more people who experience it, the more people will appreciate it. People may not like the art they see but at least they are experiencing it by us introducing it to them in a different way. Some of our customers order a glass of wine and walk around to look at the art. Sometimes I see two or three people staring at a painting and talking about it, which is great."\nWiden, who is also a board member for the Bloomington Area Arts Council, said she has about 200 works of Bloomington-affiliated artisan expression mixed throughout her café and wine bar. Art takes many forms, from oil paintings and sculptures to photographs and table centerpieces. She said her customers have enjoyed her public art display so much she has added an art gallery to showcase additional community artwork because her café was busting at the seams with paint, frames and twigs. \n"I want to support the local art community as well as the new and emerging artists. I'm hoping people will start purchasing art, especially if they love it," Widen said. "A lot of people come here and say 'I love that but that won't fit in any room in my home' -- they categorize art and try to put into a box. I have piece in my house I liked so much I made it the focal point of the room: it's the first thing you notice when they enter and the last thing you see when you leave. You can put a piece of art in a spot and make the room around it." \nWiden said the artwork she displays is contracted for consignment, which means that she gets a percentage of the sale based on a contractual negotiation between her and the artist. She said some of the artists represented in her café and gallery have received commissions based on their work, but others have sold a piece or two to help pay the bills needed for artisan survival.\nWith loose talk floating around the community about Bloomington metamorphosing into an "art destination" like the historic art-town of Nashville in Brown County, local restaurants and other businesses small and large can stake their claim on exhibiting local artwork for the betterment of all local artisans.\nBloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan proposed a town "art district" in May that includes boutiques, entertaining shows, festival streets, an arts row, a B-Line trail, a youth area and opportunities for new art development including artisan living and working space.\nBloomington resident Michael Layman, manager of Lennie's Restaurant, said his restaurant is willing to do their fair share of promoting local artisans to the greater Bloomington community and beyond. He said Lennie's hosted a Bloomington North and South High School art show during the spring that drew rave reviews and increased restaurant foot traffic.\n"We certainly try to help the community out, not just with local artists, but with the Hoosier Hills Food Bank and the Community Kitchen as well. Why not? Why would we go anywhere else?" Layman said. "We have many different local art pieces and our customers come in and look at it while they're here. From the feedback we get people seem to love it."\nLennie's does not sell the artist's artwork to their customers, but they do offer the artisan information so interested art patrons can negotiate with the artist for their favorite works. Layman said his restaurant has enough wall space for about 20 art pieces, but as their current display proves -- one photography work divided into about 25 pieces -- the available space is dependent upon the size and shape of the artwork.\n"Art is more pleasing to look at for our customers," Layman said. "It would be pretty generic to walk into a restaurant and for the walls to be plain. The art provides a tone to the overall décor that is more of an uplifting atmosphere -- bright colors and things such as that. The benefit for the artist is a lot of community exposure."\nNot all emerging local artisan work is pleasing to the highbrow eye, so few galleries and museums take risks in filling their space with artwork that more then likely will not sell.\nBecause a local artisan with no official space to exhibit their artwork is like a fisherman who catches a 50-pound catfish with a stick and yarn, some local businesses are more then happy to provide the space needed for the Bloomington art scene to shine in otherwise "unofficial" places. \nBloomington resident Jared Cartmell, front house manager of Michael's Uptown Café & Bakery, said his restaurant caters to community artwork that is less wild and more conservative to the customer eye. He said his father, Michael, often chooses art for display like paintings or photographs that are of a jazzier theme.\n"It's good to continually change the environment, to let customers see new things," Cartmell said. "It's a very diverse community in Bloomington, and I think different perspectives are something a lot of people want to see in this town. We enjoy giving people an opportunity to show what they've created to a large number of people. It's exposure for someone who is trying to get something done because we are all trying to get something done."\nCartmell said his restaurant can hold 15 to 25 works of art, depending on how large or the combination of pieces. He said a recent limestone-wall hanging show was a success, based on the number of smiling customer faces and requests for the artist's information. \nMichael's Uptown Café & Bakery has a waiting list of community artists a couple months long wishing to display their work, and the restaurant leaves any sales for the customer to negotiate with the particular artist. He said his customers seem to really enjoy a mixed media art show combing different art mediums.\nBloomington resident Teresa Miller, who was spotted eating breakfast at the local art scene when she visits local restaurants because she is interested in art, and she likes to see what local artisans have created.\n"I like the art and it's good for the artist too," she said between scribbles in a crossword puzzle. "It enriches the quality of life for the residents and people who go to the business." \nHaving graduated with a major in painting from the University of Louisville, Widen said she both sympathizes with the plight of student artists hoping to spread word of their art skill and emphasizes with the art tastes of community members more inclined to appreciate works by art masters like Da Vinvi and Van Gogh. She said she also offers art space for musical, theatrical and other art performances.\n"I don't like to turn anyone away because everybody wants a chance to display their art, but that's not always feasible," Widen said. "I think a lot of restaurants have been supportive of the arts community and that's a good thing. It would be great if more businesses could catch on and try something different. We are constantly looking for new ways to celebrate the arts in one form or another. It's a fun thing to display art, and it's great to walk in and say to your customers 'there is a piece here and there is a piece there."
(07/24/06 12:29am)
Dan and Jessie McCube met in Bloomington more than a decade ago, they fell in love with each other and they agreed to marry. Twelve years later to the day of their wedding ceremony, the McCube's celebrated their anniversary in part by visiting the 51st Monroe County Fair Saturday with their two children, 6-year-old Sarah and 4-year-old Michael.\n"We came here when we got engaged 12 years ago and today is our anniversary," said Jessie McCube, an IU alumna. "A true sign he was whipped was following me through the fairground, with him being a city boy."\nDan McCube, who hails from Southlake, Texas -- a community somewhere between Dallas and Ft. Worth, said he, his wife and kids do not get to visit with farm animals that much throughout the year, and the county fair gives their family something to do for both kids and adults.\n"Other than this, I've been to the state fair in Texas but that is about all," he said.\nJessie McCube said her family now visits the Monroe County fair every summer while visiting family in Stanford, Ind., although she wishes the family could have planned its trip later in the week so the kids could have enjoyed the carnival rides that were not set-up as of Saturday.\n"It's neat to see the animals and people getting them ready for the show. We like the sheep wearing the tie-dyed T-shirts," she said. "We always try to go to the fair when we're in town. It's real exciting at night with all the lights."\n2006 Monroe County Fair attendees can expect a $7 per person fee Monday, Wednesday and Thursday for "family-fun days" that include admission, limited-seating auditorium shows, grandstand festivities and carnival rides starting Wednesday at 1 p.m. Fair goers can expect a $2 fee per vehicle Tuesday, Friday and Saturday for entrance at the gates -- auditorium entertainment like a talent show, grandstand festivities like the Figure-8 Demolition Derby and the carnival rides cost an additional charge dependent upon the event. \nOnce inside the Monroe County fairgrounds, community members and visitors can pursue two commercial buildings packed with local businesses offering information and services, several food vendors offering entrees from tenderloin sandwiches to elephant ears, an antique tractor show with live music at night, a children's activity big-top tent and several barns housing farm animals from heifers to hogs to bunnies to sheep.\n"This is the one time a year to visit with friends you only get to see once a year, and to visit with all kinds of animals -- there is a little bit for everybody," said David Smith, secretary of the 2006 Monroe County Fair board. "The fair is a lot of good fun; it's not just a farm thing."\nAlthough fair goers have already missed the rabbit show, 2006 Monroe County Fair Queen Contest, Baby Contest and children's calve wrestling, fair visitors can still catch the horse and pony show, rooster crowing contest, antique tractor pull and 4-H rocket shoot off. Interested persons can access a fair program at www.idsnews.com for more information and program time schedule.\nMiss Monroe County 2005 and borderline Greene County resident Laura Patterson, who is attending IU in the fall to study special education for all-learners, said she was feeling both sad and excited about handing over her crown Saturday evening to the new Miss Monroe County. She said she was sad because 2006 wraps up her 10th year of raising and showing animals in 4-H, but she was excited for the new fair queen because part of her duties will consist of interacting with thousands of kids throughout the week while she passes out ribbons during animal shows.\n"This is my 10th year raising sheep, but I raised cattle for nine years and pigs for eight years," Patterson said while feeding her lambs Whitey and Blacky Saturday afternoon. "This is normal for me because I've always been around animals and I've been coming to the Monroe County fair for years."\nUnlike the other 4-H members caring for their animals nearby dressed in clothes made for farm work so there were no worries of dirt and animal poop, Patterson was wearing her Miss Monroe County rhinestone crown and 2005 winning sash above a pink-collared Polo shirt tucked into her khaki shorts. She said her work on her family farm enabled her to catch a loose calf with her bare hands while she was passing out ribbons last year.\n"On the one hand I'm a farm girl, yet I can still manage to be fair queen and I'll be a freshman at IU this fall. It takes brains, common sense and beauty to be a well-rounded fair queen," Patterson said while wiping lamb snot from her palms. "This part of my life is coming to a close but many doors are opening for me in the future. I've had a great time living on the farm but I'm ready to experience some new things like teaching elementary education -- I hope to help little kids"
(07/24/06 12:16am)
Women's liberation is often thought of in terms of birth control pills and burned bras, but Hoosier women can now play professional football. \nEven though the 2006 RCA Tennis Championships and the Broad Ripple Street Festival attracted thousands of Indiana residents and visitors Saturday, about 250 Hoosiers watched the Indiana Speed women's professional football team battle the Wisconsin Wolves at 7:05 p.m. on the Broad Ripple High School's Edgar Diederich Memorial football field. Playing the same game Americans have grown to love and playing by the same NFL rules, women's professional football resembles the men's show more so than not -- the passes and kicks are shorter but the human-to-human collision is just as extreme. \nAlthough last year's division champion Indiana Speed were defeated 20-0 by the Wolves Saturday evening, the game clock was stopped about six times to assist wounded players off the field and one Wisconsin player was taken to the hospital via ambulance with a possible concussion. Most women professional football players hold day jobs throughout the week, some are single women in their early 20s, while others are wives with multiple children.\nTheir one common bond: releasing a week's worth of pent-up energy into the bodies of their opponents. \n"I have mutual friends with some one who played on another team, and I played flag football with some of the other players," said Indiana Speed professional football player Nicole Croddy, a 1997 IU-Purdue University Indianapolis alumna sidelined with a broken hand. "I thought I would come out and give this a chance, so I did one year that turned into four -- it's been a great experience." \nThe willingness to bang heads with the most mean, tough and athletic women rang true on both sides of the field Saturday evening. \nWisconsin Wolves backup safety Brigid Mullen, "Barbie" to her teammates because she's a model off the field even though she was a former ROTC cadet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she saw a student newspaper advertisement about playing women's professional football so she tried out for the team. She said she played soccer and basketball in high school in addition to cheerleading, but football was something different and the sport allowed her to completely express herself as a woman. \n"I guess the more bruises you get in football, the harder it is to model," Mullen said. "People think of me as being pretty but I'm also smart, and just because you're pretty doesn't mean you're not tough" \nAfter decades of women fighting little league football officials and high school athletic directors for the opportunity to prove gender equality on the football field, the Women's Professional Football League has offered female Americans the chance to prove their skill in a game they love to play. \nIndiana Speed team owner Sandi Groth said women are not asking to play professional football with or against the men, but they are asking to play against each other and for the American public to take their sport seriously. She said she was upset by the loss Saturday night, but she vowed her players would spill a little Minnesota Vixen blood this weekend. \nIndiana Speed coach Diego Hollins said his team was out-coached and out-played for the first two-and-a-half quarters before the women mounted a brief charge that fizzled late in the fourth quarter. \n"We have a lot of expectation to go to the WPFL Championship this year. Last year we lost our first game, came back to finish 7-3 and made it to the conference championship," he said. "These women have got big hearts so they'll come out and they'll play hard next weekend ... The team that wants it the most will win." \nHoosiers might have 39 more days to wait until the kickoff of IU football but community members can get their pigskin fix this weekend by a quick trip to Indianapolis to catch the Speed.
(07/24/06 12:10am)
"We love you and we want you to come home," is the message Jody Kinser wants her 15-year-old daughter Katlin to hear. "Let's try to work through this."\nJody's last memory of Katlin is about 11:30 p.m. the night of July 18, when she said her daughter was listening to music in her room. But by 7 a.m. the next morning, she discovered Katlin was gone.\n"Her radio was still blaring and she had left a note on her bed," Jody Kinser said. "We looked for her for about two hours and then we called the Sheriff's Department ... This is the first time she has ever run away."\nJody said she moved to Bloomington from Green County about 18 months ago, and since that time she has engaged in a lot of "secret" things behind her back -- including a recent cigarette and possibly marijuana smoking habit, conversing with adult men through her MySpace internet account and lingering in the shadows of community locales like Peoples Park. Jody said her daughter's erratic behavior escalated to a recent unannounced "walkout" by Katlin, in which she "slipped" back into the house hours later to avoid detection. \nFor that provocation and more, Jody said she grounded her daughter "indefinitely" until she proved her responsible intentions, which might have led to Katlin's recent disappearance. She has not contacted any family or friends since last Tuesday night.\nKatlin is described as a 5-foot-2 to 5-foot-3, 120 to 130 pound, female, with green/hazel eyes, auburn-colored wavy hair of shoulder-length, wearing black Nike tennis shoes with hot-pink swooshes on the sides. She has double-pierced ears with a small bead in the cartilage of her left ear. She was last seen on Gifford Road, although she enjoys spending time at Peoples Park and Highland Village Park among other downtown and Bloomington locations.\nJody said her daughter possesses a state identification card and she took at least three pairs of pants, two pairs of shoes and her bikini with her before she left -- black skin-tight pants, black capri pants, grey capri pants and black high-heeled dress shoes with thin straps in addition to the black Nike tennis shoes with hot pink swooshes. \n"Her brothers and I love her and we want her to come home," she said.\nJody said part of her daughter's responsibilities around the house included the care of her younger siblings, who also miss her dearly. She said she has passed out "missing" flyers throughout town, although the few possible leads reported back have led her no closer to finding her daughter.\nKatlin's friend and Bloomington resident Melissa Cliff, who has worked with Jody from day one of her daughter's disappearance, said she has lost her appetite and many hours of sleep worrying about Katlin's safety. While Katlin's mother has worked on making signs and passing out flyers throughout the neighbor, Cliff says she has called anyone and everyone who knows Katlin, might know where Katlin is hiding or who might care about Katlin's health and welfare.\n"We met in the fourth grade and we became good friends in fifth grade. Since she changed schools her behavior became worse -- she had more of an attitude," Cliff said. "I've been freaked out trying to find her -- I've had no sleep, nothing to eat and a pretty bad temper. I've been really stressed out."\nMelissa said her friend was fond of hanging out around Kirkwood Avenue and that she was known to spend time with college-aged men in the area. \nIf any community member has any information about the whereabouts of Katlin Kinser, her mother and friend ask you to please contact the Monroe County Sheriff Department at 812-349-2780 or Jody Kinser at 812-825-2335.\nJody said she believes her daughter is hiding-out during the day and moving around at night to avoid detection, and Katlin is known to misrepresent herself as being 18 years of age or older because she is a "compulsive liar."\n"I love my daughter and I just wish she could let somebody know she is OK," she said. "In her letter she said she was 'basically a failure at being a daughter and a sister' and that if she left we would 'realize she tried to be good.' She said she wanted to 'go out and make it on her own."
