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(04/15/04 4:00am)
OK, so I wouldn't classify myself as a complete Phishhead.\nI mean, I could definitely get down with some "Bouncing Around the Room," and what college student hasn't heard the jam band's take on Snoop? I'd known some guys who were Phish roadies during high school, but I didn't think much of it when they offered me their bootlegs. \nBut I found myself, strangely, liking guitarist Trey Anastasio's latest instrumental offering, Seis de Mayo. The collection, gleaned mostly from songs Anastasio recorded with Phish and later remastered, is noticeably infused with remnants of classical Frank Zappa and features Anastasio's 10-piece band (which you dedicated Phishies will remember from last year's Bonnaroo Festival). \nOf particular interest is "All Things Reconsidered," a delicate fugue fans will remember from the 1993 Phish album, Rift. The beautiful combination of strings in a loosely built quartet conjures up Barber's "Adagio" in a way most haunting works can't -- and it works. \nThe 12-minute "Guyute," however, is the album's true masterpiece, performed by the Seattlemusic Orchestra. It blends perfectly with the flow of the album, and crescendos into a beautiful closing section in a way no Phish song could ever achieve. \nSo in short, if you're a diehard Phishhead with no interest in classical jibe, run, don't walk, away from this CD. But if you're open to a new, strangely beautiful experience, dive in. Trey won't hurt you.
(04/08/04 6:06am)
One week after the Federal Highway Administration approved a new-terrain corridor for Interstate 69, debate continues to swirl around the controversial route, which would extend the national superhighway mere miles from Bloomington's downtown. \nThe approved route, 3-C, would utilize existing State Road 37, which would run from Indianapolis through Bloomington, and south toward Bedford, bank southwest, and lay more than 100 miles of new asphalt between Washington and Evansville. The Indiana Department of Transportation estimates the 142-mile project will take 14 years to complete.\nBut Bloomington City Council At-Large representative Andy Ruff thinks the money just isn't there. \n"I don't believe it's going to get built," Ruff, also a steering committee member of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, said. "It's just a political project. Politicians will keep it going so they can keep political exchanges of campaign contributions, promises, support and backscratching going by saying OK, we're still saying we can get this thing done."\nRuff further alleged the FHWA decision "meant nothing."\n"The highway administration lets states make these sorts of decisions," he said. "Rarely does FHWA not accept this kind of decision by states. The reason is because it's the state's money. It isn't federal money. If we were truly using scarce federal money, why would the government allow some twerp like (INDOT Commissioner) Brian Nichols -- this lawyer, this young punk bureaucrat political wannabe -- make a decision about the investment of billions of truly federal money?" \nYet INDOT officials say 80 percent of construction costs will be absorbed by the federal government. The remaining 20 percent will be culled from revenues from the Indiana gas tax -- not from state coffers, according to INDOT director of communications Tony Felts. \n"We've been very clear about the funding mechanism for this project," Felts said. "It does not require money from the state's general fund. It will be 80 percent funded by the federal government. Indiana's share -- 20 percent will be paid for by revenues generated from the gas tax. These are monies earmarked specifically for transportation projects."\nFurthermore, Felts said the project accounts for a mere 5 percent of the $33 billion INDOT plans to direct toward highway infrastructure costs over the next 20 years. \n"The Federal Highway Administration has recognized this long-term spending plan as reasonable," Felts said. "The project must be looked at in terms of long term benefits, not solely in terms of costs."\nIn a letter dated Jan. 30 to I-69 Project Manager Michael Grovak of Evansville-based firm Lochmueller and Associates, Indiana Senate Finance Chairman Lawrence Borst also alleged "no serious consideration for an alternate route" was made by either Grovak's firm or INDOT. Furthermore, he claims the new terrain corridor will inflict considerable damage to Indianapolis' Perry Township, which he represents. The township lies just south of I-465, and Borst says the northern terminus of the proposed routing bisects a highly-populated sector of Marion County and "eliminates cross-township traffic" in his district. \nNicole Di Camillo, campaign coordinator for the Indiana Public Interest Research Group initiative opposing I-69, said INPIRG has been working with CARR, as well as the Hoosier Environmental Council and the Association of Monroe County Taxpayers, to ensure I-69 doesn't come through Bloomington. \n"I feel that other than a few, wealthy business people who stand to profit from the development (of the fast-food restaurants and hotels that would be built up around the highway) most citizens of Bloomington are opposed to an I-69 route through Bloomington," she said. "Most people, especially those directly affected by the route, feel that it will bring no benefits to Bloomington -- just traffic, congestion, destroyed homes and land, and lack of funds for other highway projects."\nBut INDOT points to the economic advantages the new routes would facilitate, specifically citing greater accessibility to Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, as well as to Evansville and Washington, both of which lack major corridors to and from Bloomington and Indianapolis. The mayors of both Evansville and Washington have indicated their support for the approved route.\n"The highway will serve as an economic development engine for all of Southwest Indiana, generating $3.5 billion in additional personal income growth," Felts said. \nEconomic issues notwithstanding, Ruff, whose experience as a vociferous opponent to the new terrain route predates his role as city councilman -- said other major detrimental side effects are sure to emerge should I-69 run through Bloomington city limits. \n"Bloomington's competitive advantage, in terms of attracting investment and population, is due to the unique character of our community that makes us different from Muncie or Marion or Anderson," Ruff said. "It's our setting -- it's our attractive relatively high-quality natural environment. We have a distinctive community character and atmosphere."\nI-69, he alleges, would taint that, making Bloomington succumb to what he deems the "generica" of industrialized sprawl. \nThe highway would be "bringing all the things that degrade our most valuable most critical assets economically" by generating air, water and noise pollution and forcing Bloomington to assume the role of "bedroom city" to nearby Indianapolis. \nFelts said INDOT will work with local communities to assess the project's impact there as part of the "tier 2" planning process. Context-sensitive design techniques such as sound barriers and adding vegetation to affected areas will also be implemented to minimize impact. \nFelts said tier 2 divides the corridor into six sections, each represented by a local project office.\n"Now it's important for individual communities along the route to work with the local project offices to determine the exact route that best meets the needs of each individual community," Felts said. \nYet Bloomington mayor Mark Kruzan believes the environmental impact of construction, as well as the impact on homes and businesses in the new highway's path, will be "tremendous." He believes the current discussion should focus on what construction will affect -- specifically, frontage roads and overpasses, highway cuts, pedestrian and bicyclist accommodation and improvements to infrastructure. \n"I've opposed the 3-C route," Kruzan said. "I sincerely believe taxpayers should be concerned that what was once billed as an $800 million project now has a $2 billion price tag before construction has even started. The loss of land owned by existing businesses or by families for generations is an even higher price to pay." \n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.
(04/08/04 4:21am)
It's 3:46 a.m. on a chilly Saturday in early April, and the crowd outside Bloomington's newest nightspot has snaked out of the double plate-glass doors and spilled onto Walnut Street, where stragglers from 21-and-over joints are munching Taco Bell gorditas and attempting to hitch rides home. The beats thumping inside Club Cream, the brainchild of Indiana University junior Carl Franklin, lures an inebriated few across Seventh Street and into the 18-and-up club, where the gossip of gaggles of girls clustered around carpeted stairwells lined with white lights commingle with the guttural grunts of bouncers -- "You're in, man. Go on upstairs."\nFranklin, a native of East Chicago, Ind., noticed the downtown property was vacant in January, after the now-defunct After Hours topless club went under. He says he was interested in figuring out what else the Bloomington bar scene needed.\n"I sat down with some close friends and was trying to see if we could make something happen here," Franklin says. "I was thinking we could bring something the town might be missing, and at the same time I'm thinking what could I get by having a part in this."\nIt didn't take long for Franklin and his buddies to figure that out. Though now 21, Franklin remembers having "nothing at all to do" on weekends as an underage student, and the entrepreneurs settled on an 18-and-older club to cater to the younger student set. \n"We figured that was the smartest thing to do -- even a lot of the athletes aren't 21," he says, noting IU basketball player Bracey Wright frequents the club since its opening. "They can't go to the bars, but they've been here every night."\nThe underage crowd flocks to Club Cream's 18-and-older dance floor (21-and-olders have to keep drinks in a special downstairs section of the venue) so much that this weekend alone packed in more than 700 bodies each night. It's a diverse crowd, composed of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities, and three DJs spin tracks on an elevated platform in a darkened corner. Even though the downstairs bar closes at 2:30 a.m., the floor above keeps pumping until 5 a.m.\nThe club's music, which is non-conventional bar fare indeed, drew Butler University student Laura Hacker to Club Cream last Saturday. She's a friend of a friend of Franklin's, and says she thinks the club has definite potential.\n"I really do like the stuff they're playing -- you don't usually hear it at a bar," Hacker says of the club's mix of cutting-edge and up-and-coming hip-hop. "And it could be so much better if people just start turning out downstairs. It's a good place to be."\nAnd for senior Bryan Chatfield, Club Cream offers IU's African-American population a chance to fraternize in a club setting atypical of Bloomington's traditional bar scene.\n"It's good to have a club where blacks can get together," Chatfield says, though Franklin is quick to note Club Cream packs in diverse crowds representative of IU's student population. "African-Americans don't really have that opportunity or many clubs like this in the area. I really enjoy being out here."\nFranklin's dedication to the project is evident in his aggressive marketing of the venue, which busses on-campus students in from residence halls on weekends and advertises itself to Greek houses as an ideal third-party vendor. He's also sunk considerable cash into the endeavor, along with business partner and junior Ryan Bell -- a figure he estimates totals around $10,000.\n"We sat down and took our money we had saved up between us and put it into the club," Franklin says. "We paid the first month's deposit, planned our grand opening and went all out."\nThe first night brought B97's Pam Thrash to the DJ booth, and Franklin and his cohorts handed long-stemmed red roses to the ladies, all of whom entered for free of course. \n"We let that be our best commercial, how we treated our customers that first night," Franklin says. "Since then, the response has been great. It's a diverse crowd -- you won't believe it."\nFranklin and Bell's team is currently working on bringing Petey Pablo to the club for the Little 500 celebratory weekend, and their promotion team is working double overtime to ensure the plans come off without a hitch. \nAnd somewhere in the midst of all this, Franklin and Bell -- as well as most of their young staff -- are students. Franklin's typical day consists of attending class from 8 a.m. to noon before heading to the club to clean up from the previous night. He checks his e-mails and returns phone calls from a small office upstairs, checks the club's post office box and pays the bills. He might run home for a quick bite, but once the evening rolls around, he's at Cream until the wee hours. \n"I do what I gotta do," he says. "It's like a family atmosphere. It's not as large as we want it to be yet as far as financial gain, but it's a close atmosphere and we all are working to make it better"
(04/08/04 4:00am)
The members of Hoobastank have been plenty busy promoting a new album and playing college campuses as part of MTV's Campus Invasion tour, (though the closest they come to Indiana University will be at rival Purdue University on April 18) but they were able to take a few minutes in Chicago to answer questions about the band's direction. The alterna-grunge foursome made a quick stop in the Windy City before winding down the east coast to hit Florida this week. \nThis tour is decidedly different from their stint fronting for Linkin Park last year, in which the band was allotted a mere 20-minute interval to warm up the crowd. This time, they're the ones packing the hall for 75-minute sets, culling hits from their self-titled debut album (which went platinum within weeks), and their 2004 release, The Reason.\nThe latest album's a bit more mellow than Hoobastank's previous offerings, but bassist Markku Lappalainen says the change wasn't conscious.\n"We thought our new single ("The Reason") was the best song to put out, regardless of how heavy or soft," he says. "We definitely had softer songs on the first album, and it's not like this is the first ballad we've ever written. We just like the song a lot." \nThey're also part of the Rock the Vote campaign, and volunteers will be on hand to register America's youth to take part in the upcoming presidential election. \n"This band usually isn't the one to stand on the soapbox and preach anything, but that's something, obviously, that our country is founded on," vocalist Doug Robb says. "Anybody who's complaining about the lot we're in right now, unless they put their two cents in, really has no right to speak about it."\nThey also spoke out about music piracy on the Internet, punctuating their disapproval with boos and grunts. \n"It hurts everyone in the long run," drummer Chris Hesse says. "It hurts the mom-and-pop record stores, the people at the record companies as well as future bands who want to get signed. People downloading music for a band with only marginal success don't realize the likelihood for (that band) getting another chance gets smaller and smaller. Instead of supporting that band's record, illegal downloading makes it look like no one is interested."\nThe band's doing their part to give back to industry hopefuls, however, teaming with credit giant MasterCard to promote a marketing project which affords college students and recent grads interested in breaking into the entertainment industry the chance to direct a video for the band's latest single.\n"A lot of things do get handed to us over the course of touring, but not everything -- at least to us -- is as interesting and cool as this was," Robb says. "It keeps the fans involved creatively with us; we're sort of a fans' band. It's a win-win thing, you know?"\nThey'll be looking for creative people with ideas and the charismatic confidence to speak up and be heard. And they "can't be lazy," Hesse says. \n"We want somebody who really wants to do this as a career, not just someone who wants to take pictures of the band," Hesse says. \nRobb says the work which goes into making videos is important because they ultimately represent the music.\n"They see videography as a creative art," Robb says. "It's an aspect of music that visually illustrates portions of songs that may go uncolored by mere onstage performing."\nLappalainen agrees.\n"It's amazing to see what happens by putting visual and musical aspects together," Lappalainen says. "It's really cool and people hopefully enjoy it."\nAnd despite their success, the men of Hoobastank claim they're just another "cheesy band" from California. \n"We're going to call ourselves cheesy before some pompous critic does," Robb says. "Honestly, I wouldn't say we're a critically-acclaimed band. We have great fans, and we're more of a people's band. We're not reinventing rock 'n' roll, and that's what a lot of critics are looking for ... We don't put on an image -- there's not a lot of leather pants and underwear and socks and stuff. We're not cool, we don't do coke and we're just four very normal guys with great backgrounds, good families and nothing to bitch about. That's what makes us different"
(04/08/04 4:00am)
It's 3:46 a.m. on a chilly Saturday in early April, and the crowd outside Bloomington's newest nightspot has snaked out of the double plate-glass doors and spilled onto Walnut Street, where stragglers from 21-and-over joints are munching Taco Bell gorditas and attempting to hitch rides home. The beats thumping inside Club Cream, the brainchild of Indiana University junior Carl Franklin, lures an inebriated few across Seventh Street and into the 18-and-up club, where the gossip of gaggles of girls clustered around carpeted stairwells lined with white lights commingle with the guttural grunts of bouncers -- "You're in, man. Go on upstairs."\nFranklin, a native of East Chicago, Ind., noticed the downtown property was vacant in January, after the now-defunct After Hours topless club went under. He says he was interested in figuring out what else the Bloomington bar scene needed.\n"I sat down with some close friends and was trying to see if we could make something happen here," Franklin says. "I was thinking we could bring something the town might be missing, and at the same time I'm thinking what could I get by having a part in this."\nIt didn't take long for Franklin and his buddies to figure that out. Though now 21, Franklin remembers having "nothing at all to do" on weekends as an underage student, and the entrepreneurs settled on an 18-and-older club to cater to the younger student set. \n"We figured that was the smartest thing to do -- even a lot of the athletes aren't 21," he says, noting IU basketball player Bracey Wright frequents the club since its opening. "They can't go to the bars, but they've been here every night."\nThe underage crowd flocks to Club Cream's 18-and-older dance floor (21-and-olders have to keep drinks in a special downstairs section of the venue) so much that this weekend alone packed in more than 700 bodies each night. It's a diverse crowd, composed of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities, and three DJs spin tracks on an elevated platform in a darkened corner. Even though the downstairs bar closes at 2:30 a.m., the floor above keeps pumping until 5 a.m.\nThe club's music, which is non-conventional bar fare indeed, drew Butler University student Laura Hacker to Club Cream last Saturday. She's a friend of a friend of Franklin's, and says she thinks the club has definite potential.\n"I really do like the stuff they're playing -- you don't usually hear it at a bar," Hacker says of the club's mix of cutting-edge and up-and-coming hip-hop. "And it could be so much better if people just start turning out downstairs. It's a good place to be."\nAnd for senior Bryan Chatfield, Club Cream offers IU's African-American population a chance to fraternize in a club setting atypical of Bloomington's traditional bar scene.\n"It's good to have a club where blacks can get together," Chatfield says, though Franklin is quick to note Club Cream packs in diverse crowds representative of IU's student population. "African-Americans don't really have that opportunity or many clubs like this in the area. I really enjoy being out here."\nFranklin's dedication to the project is evident in his aggressive marketing of the venue, which busses on-campus students in from residence halls on weekends and advertises itself to Greek houses as an ideal third-party vendor. He's also sunk considerable cash into the endeavor, along with business partner and junior Ryan Bell -- a figure he estimates totals around $10,000.\n"We sat down and took our money we had saved up between us and put it into the club," Franklin says. "We paid the first month's deposit, planned our grand opening and went all out."\nThe first night brought B97's Pam Thrash to the DJ booth, and Franklin and his cohorts handed long-stemmed red roses to the ladies, all of whom entered for free of course. \n"We let that be our best commercial, how we treated our customers that first night," Franklin says. "Since then, the response has been great. It's a diverse crowd -- you won't believe it."\nFranklin and Bell's team is currently working on bringing Petey Pablo to the club for the Little 500 celebratory weekend, and their promotion team is working double overtime to ensure the plans come off without a hitch. \nAnd somewhere in the midst of all this, Franklin and Bell -- as well as most of their young staff -- are students. Franklin's typical day consists of attending class from 8 a.m. to noon before heading to the club to clean up from the previous night. He checks his e-mails and returns phone calls from a small office upstairs, checks the club's post office box and pays the bills. He might run home for a quick bite, but once the evening rolls around, he's at Cream until the wee hours. \n"I do what I gotta do," he says. "It's like a family atmosphere. It's not as large as we want it to be yet as far as financial gain, but it's a close atmosphere and we all are working to make it better"
(04/08/04 3:51am)
The members of Hoobastank have been plenty busy promoting a new album and playing college campuses as part of MTV's Campus Invasion tour, (though the closest they come to Indiana University will be at rival Purdue University on April 18) but they were able to take a few minutes in Chicago to answer questions about the band's direction. The alterna-grunge foursome made a quick stop in the Windy City before winding down the east coast to hit Florida this week. \nThis tour is decidedly different from their stint fronting for Linkin Park last year, in which the band was allotted a mere 20-minute interval to warm up the crowd. This time, they're the ones packing the hall for 75-minute sets, culling hits from their self-titled debut album (which went platinum within weeks), and their 2004 release, The Reason.\nThe latest album's a bit more mellow than Hoobastank's previous offerings, but bassist Markku Lappalainen says the change wasn't conscious.\n"We thought our new single ("The Reason") was the best song to put out, regardless of how heavy or soft," he says. "We definitely had softer songs on the first album, and it's not like this is the first ballad we've ever written. We just like the song a lot." \nThey're also part of the Rock the Vote campaign, and volunteers will be on hand to register America's youth to take part in the upcoming presidential election. \n"This band usually isn't the one to stand on the soapbox and preach anything, but that's something, obviously, that our country is founded on," vocalist Doug Robb says. "Anybody who's complaining about the lot we're in right now, unless they put their two cents in, really has no right to speak about it."\nThey also spoke out about music piracy on the Internet, punctuating their disapproval with boos and grunts. \n"It hurts everyone in the long run," drummer Chris Hesse says. "It hurts the mom-and-pop record stores, the people at the record companies as well as future bands who want to get signed. People downloading music for a band with only marginal success don't realize the likelihood for (that band) getting another chance gets smaller and smaller. Instead of supporting that band's record, illegal downloading makes it look like no one is interested."\nThe band's doing their part to give back to industry hopefuls, however, teaming with credit giant MasterCard to promote a marketing project which affords college students and recent grads interested in breaking into the entertainment industry the chance to direct a video for the band's latest single.\n"A lot of things do get handed to us over the course of touring, but not everything -- at least to us -- is as interesting and cool as this was," Robb says. "It keeps the fans involved creatively with us; we're sort of a fans' band. It's a win-win thing, you know?"\nThey'll be looking for creative people with ideas and the charismatic confidence to speak up and be heard. And they "can't be lazy," Hesse says. \n"We want somebody who really wants to do this as a career, not just someone who wants to take pictures of the band," Hesse says. \nRobb says the work which goes into making videos is important because they ultimately represent the music.\n"They see videography as a creative art," Robb says. "It's an aspect of music that visually illustrates portions of songs that may go uncolored by mere onstage performing."\nLappalainen agrees.\n"It's amazing to see what happens by putting visual and musical aspects together," Lappalainen says. "It's really cool and people hopefully enjoy it."\nAnd despite their success, the men of Hoobastank claim they're just another "cheesy band" from California. \n"We're going to call ourselves cheesy before some pompous critic does," Robb says. "Honestly, I wouldn't say we're a critically-acclaimed band. We have great fans, and we're more of a people's band. We're not reinventing rock 'n' roll, and that's what a lot of critics are looking for ... We don't put on an image -- there's not a lot of leather pants and underwear and socks and stuff. We're not cool, we don't do coke and we're just four very normal guys with great backgrounds, good families and nothing to bitch about. That's what makes us different"
(04/02/04 6:42pm)
For Kayla Pelter, combating political apathy among college students has become an obsession of sorts. She's ardently committed to issues concerning local government -- an area most undergraduates tend to neglect, she notes -- and has devoted hours upon hours to furthering one of IU's newest political organizations -- Grand Old Cause.\nAnd this weekend, Pelter will be working overtime in the buildup to Monday's voter registration deadline. \n"Most people, including students, are concerned with state and federal elections," she said. "Right now, we are trying to raise awareness at IU about the importance of local elections."\nMonroe County voters will be deciding significant elected positions this year, including those of county council, county commissioner and a juvenile court judge, and Pelter encourages students -- even if they're not from Indiana -- to register in Monroe County. \n"Even though many IU students are registered to vote in their home states and counties, Monroe County will really be our home for the next few years," Pelter said, noting that problems the county currently faces include issues relating to the Monroe County Jail, the local landfill, which she deems an "environmental threat" and adequate housing for IU students. \nGrand Old Cause, a nonpartisan conservative student group, is one of many IU organizations devoted to drumming up student interest in politics, and president Chase Downham said the group has tried to distance itself from actually supporting candidates. \n"However, we do feel that a free society can only exist as long it chooses to participate in our electoral process," Downham said. "The right to vote our leaders into office is one of the key differences which marks us different from many places in the world. Brave men and women have fought and died so that we may have this right. It should not and cannot be taken for granted."\nOfficials from the Monroe County Election Board said there hasn't been a significant rush to register over the past week but noted that may change come Monday.\nMonroe County Democratic Party staffer Linda Stafford, who runs the party's Bloomington headquarters, said the timing of significant primary elections -- specifically the County Council race in May -- poses a significant challenge to getting out the student vote. Monroe County's primaries begin May 4. \n"It comes right in the middle of finals," Stafford said. "If students have gone home or have finals, we almost always have a poor turnout for students."\nBut she does expect students to be "extremely interested" in the fall presidential election. \n"We would love to have students involved in the Monroe County campaign," she said. "We're trying to build relationships and will definitely be reaching out all summer and fall to students."\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.
(04/02/04 6:06am)
Some faces, deeply wrinkled, registered awe at the sheer bustle of the nearly hundred-strong crowd; others, smooth with youth, beamed with a pride hate couldn't touch. Bodies -- some draped in rainbow-striped flags -- heads adorned with golden-tinged halos milled together, so in the dusk enveloping North Jordan Avenue, they almost seemed to move as one.\nThey had gathered to support the IU Department of Theatre and Drama's production of "The Laramie Project," an often-controversial work detailing the life of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old man brutally murdered for one reason: he was gay. So last night, as the sun set, a throng of people descended upon the sidewalk opposite the Wells-Metz Theatre to raise their voices together -- without organization, without a designated leader to guide their path. And they were expecting a guest.\nFred Phelps, a Kansas minister widely known for his radical rhetoric concerning homosexuality, had sent numerous faxes and e-mail messages to IU administrators, media outlets and the police department. He was coming, he said, to protest the "homo-fascist" regime that is Bloomington and to decry "Laramie's" "satanic sodomite agenda." And, notably, he's a featured character in "Laramie."\nBy 7:26 p.m., less than an hour before the show was slated to begin, Phelps, who Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Office Director Doug Bauder deemed a "crazy nut," hadn't shown. But that didn't deter "Laramie's" supporters from gathering in peaceful opposition, and at 7:36, when a bus carrying senior citizens from Meadowwood Retirement Community growled up to the Wells-Metz doors, the vociferous crowd -- regardless of sex, gender, age, ethnicity or race -- exploded in one united cheer. \n"Even if he doesn't come, this is still really cool," sophomore Katherine Novotny said. "Look at all of us -- we're all out and supporting diversity. That's just really cool."\nThey weren't protesting, exactly, sophomore Brandi Sorley was careful to point out. Rather, the crowd clustered at the corners of Seventh and Jordan Avenues was there to celebrate the tolerance that typifies Bloomington.\n"We're here to support 'Laramie,'" Sorley said. "We don't want to inflame this guy. We just want to show our support for what the theatre department is doing."\nAmid constant exhortations to keep off the street -- for, according to Wells-Metz production manager \nGrindle, the group couldn't demonstrate on theater property -- the quiet chorus of a cappella group Ladies First rose above the chatter. And while IU Police Department officers patrolled the area unobtrusively, they weren't expecting a hostile arrival of the expected guest -- yet. \n"We just want to make sure there are no problems," IUPD officer Joe Wise said, noting Phelps, a disbarred attorney, had sent an e-mail warning of his Bloomington protest, as is often his custom. "We knew what his schedule was, and we anticipate he'll show up."\nIf he does, students say they'll be ready.\n"We'll definitely be coming out tomorrow," Novotny said. "The worst thing we could do would be to get involved in his violence, though. That would just reinforce his opinion."\nBauder's office received word of Phelps' probable arrival this week and is prepared to deal with the reaction should he indeed show. \n"We're hoping we're not going to have to face this, but we've got responsible people who are willing to help us deal with this," he said. "It's not something GLBT has to take on alone. We have a wonderful group of colleagues through Bloomington United, among other groups, that are ready and prepared for this." \nBauder said he thinks Phelps' threats may only serve to heighten awareness of IU's tolerance toward all sexual orientations and genders.\n"I'm more saddened by this than anything," Bauder said. "I don't understand how someone can be that filled with hate. ... Frankly, the less attention he gets, the better. We're encouraging people to ignore him if he shows up, and by all means, go to the play. It's a very healing experience -- go, hold the hands of your partner or whoever you're with, and appreciate the work of the artist who put it together."\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.
(03/31/04 5:55am)
A controversial plan to route Interstate 69 through new terrain in southwestern Indiana gained the approval of the Federal Highway Administration Monday. The new highway will extend Indiana State Road 37 south through Martinsville and Bloomington, bank southwest to Washington and follow Indiana State Road 57 to Evansville. \nGov. Joe Kernan, joined by Indiana Department of Transportation Commission J. Bryan Nichol and FHWA Division Administrator Robert F. Tally, appeared Monday in Evansville and Washington to extend the news to local government officials and citizens. \n"This road will serve as an economic development engine for all of southwest Indiana," Kernan said in a statement. "It will be a vital link for not only Evansville and our capital city, but also for the many communities of all sizes along the route. Job growth is sure to follow its path."\nTony Felts, director of communications for INDOT, said Kernan was met with a crowd of more than 300 in Evansville that "cheered" the announcement and another 50 to 75 residents turned out in Washington to meet the governor. \nIn endorsing the more direct Evansville-to-Indianapolis corridor -- the shortest and most expensive route considered by the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon in January -- federal authorities disregarded claims of area environmentalists that breaking new ground for I-69 would damage Indiana wildlife and farmland and would result in little economic benefit to the region. \nBut Felts said INDOT has spent more than $77 billion on environmental mitigation and noted the December purchase of 1,500 acres of woodland areas near the Morgan-Monroe State Forest, as well as INDOT's efforts to purchase and protect a winter habitat for Indiana bats, as examples of the department's sensitivity to environmental concerns. INDOT and FHWA will also replace wetlands affected by the route. \nThe 142-mile project will take an estimated eight to 14 years to complete, according to INDOT estimates. The federal government will shoulder 80 percent of the road's $1.78 billion price tag, with the remainder being drawn from Indiana gas tax revenue -- not state coffers, according to INDOT. \nStill, not all Indiana legislators have expressed support for the project. Local lawmakers in January told WTIU television's "Third House" Sunday news program the now-approved route's economic implications far overshadow any potential benefit the direct corridor poses for the state, and State Senator and Finance Chairman Lawrence Borst estimated in October gas tax increases exceeding five cents per gallon would be required to offset construction costs. \nWhile acknowledging voices of dissent against the project, Felts said the new route will reduce travel time between Indianapolis and Evansville by 27 minutes, saving the average commuter one hour round-trip and an aggregate $1.1 billion in vehicle operating costs in the first 20 years after completion. The mayors of Martinsville, Washington and Evansville have been "strong supporters" of the new terrain route as well, he said. \nWashington Mayor David Abel said Monday's announcement was "about the most positive news you could possibly have for Washington and southwestern Indiana."\nHe also noted the importance of the highway in ensuring the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, located about 35 miles southwest of Bloomington, survives the next federal base realignment phase. \n"The community feedback has been very positive in Washington," Abel said. "Some folks, particularly farmers, will have great inconvenience if the highway goes through their land. That's kind of the case whenever you have this sort of project -- there will be sacrifices."\nBut for Thomas Tokarski, president of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, the fight against the approved route is far from over. \n"The important thing to remember is that this does not make it a done deal," he said. "It's been a very long and complicated process, and there's a long way to go before they even think of starting construction."\nSo for now, Tokarski, who lives about 10 miles southwest of Bloomington, plans on stepping up the campaign to halt I-69 construction on the designated route.\n"We're going to continue to insist the state use more fiscally-, environmentally- and socially-feasible alternatives instead of this terribly destructive one," he said.\nFelts said that isn't so. \n"The Federal Highway Administration's approval of the I-69 corridor effectively ends the debate on whether or not I-69 will be built," he said. "It will become a reality in the next eight to 14 years. Now, the process of making the final route alignment begins."\nThat last step will involve breaking the route into six distinct sections for preparation of environmental impact statements. Final approval could take two to three years, according to INDOT estimates.\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.
(03/31/04 5:55am)
It began with three IU seniors' quiet remembrances of a life tragically cut short. The death of Craig Doss, who in November succumbed to a years-long struggle with manic depression, made the friends he left behind think, forcing them to deal with often-painful emotions. They grieved, mourning their loss with the St. Louis native's family, friends and Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers.\nBut Monday night, they celebrated the person senior Katie Landis says she'll "always love and remember." \nMore than 300 people crowded Kilroy's Sports Bar to pay tribute to Doss, an avid rugby player and renowned jokester among those who knew him best. The event, organized by Doss' closest friends, raised more than $1,000 toward the $20,000 goal of the newly-created Craig Doss Memorial Scholarship Fund.\nThe scholarship, spearheaded by Landis and fellow seniors Pat Carmody and Tina Ortinau, will provide $1,000 to an outstanding senior at St. Louis University High School, Doss' alma mater, to attend IU. Monday's event was one in a string of fundraising activities initiated by the scholarship's executive board to ensure Doss' legacy is never forgotten. \nOrtinau said the turnout at Sports proves "people are willing to get together and donate money for a good cause."\n"The people who attended knew Craig or were there in support of a friend who knew him," she said. "It was wonderful to see all of the support we received from various students." \nSeniors Brooke Steyer and Jenny Kwech came out to support Landis, a close friend. \n"It was great to see the people in the IU community pull together for such a great cause," Steyer said. "I know people who were there who had no connection to Craig but went to support the cause, and I thought that was really amazing. ... Last night proved how much one person can touch the lives of so many and that you may not realize how many people your life affects until something like this benefit happens."\nKwech, who said she attended not only to support her friends but also to show support for Craig's family, said she understands all too well the pain of losing a loved one unexpectedly. \n"I know how hard it is to lose a loved one -- especially when that someone is of a young age and had so much to give to life," she said. "I wanted to donate not only money, but time to someone so dear to one of my friends."\nFrom here, the scholarship committee plans to send close to 300 letters to individuals and organizations soliciting donations.\n"We are getting closer and closer to reaching our $20,000 goal, and every little amount helps," Ortinau said. "These events have brought us closer to our goal. We really appreciate everyone that has shown us support and been in attendance for these memorial occasions. Craig deserves to have his memory live on, and everyone that came or donated has helped his dream continue."\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.
(03/29/04 5:44am)
For IU seniors Katie Landis, Tina Ortinau and Pat Carmody, the culmination of their final year has been strangely lackluster. \nThough preoccupied with searching for jobs and bidding farewell to friends and the town that's been theirs for the last four years, each is acutely aware something is missing. \nEvery day -- whether strolling through campus, attending class or picking up that desired cap and gown in preparation for May commencement -- they're reminded of a loss each said persists and deepens despite the passage of time. \nNov. 11, just a few short months ago, the trio found themselves grappling with the unthinkable. Following a long battle with manic depression, their friend and fellow IU student Craig Doss took his own life. Yet despite their grief, Landis, Ortinau and Carmody clung to the stories and memories that personified what Doss meant to each and emerged committed to preserving his legacy, to ensuring that his "gentle heart" would never be forgotten. \nThe Craig Doss Memorial Scholarship was born shortly thereafter, with Landis, Ortinau and Carmody at the helm. The fund will host a major benefit at 8 p.m. tonight at Kilroy's Sports Bar to generate revenue for the scholarship, which will offer $1,000 per year for seniors at St. Louis University High School, Doss' alma mater, to attend IU. \n"We thought that a scholarship fund would continually allow students to live Craig's dream," Ortinau said. "He cherished the memories he had at SLUH and Indiana. Picking a student seeking to fulfill similar objectives and goals as Craig did enables us to see his dreams live on."\nLandis said she found Doss' selfless nature perhaps most inspiring and said she, Ortinau and Carmody have been brainstorming ideas for fundraisers since the semester kicked off. \n"I will always admire Craig for the way that he thought of everyone else before himself," Landis said. "This scholarship will allow him to help others, and in turn, the students will be able to live his dreams and aspirations." \nFor his part, Carmody chooses to seek solace in the positive -- and more often that not, humorous -- memories Craig's legacy affords and wants to incorporate those traits in the search for scholarship recipients. While a student at SLUH, Doss was a standout rugby and football player and also served in the National Honor Society.\n"Tina, Katie and I want to give the scholarship to a devoted athlete who also gets it done in the classroom," Carmody said. \nTonight's event will feature DJ Jumpin' James on the turntable, as well as drink specials and selected promotions. Landis said the bar's management has provided substantial public relations advice. \n"Sports has been extremely helpful," she said. "We receive all the money from the $3 cover charge on Monday, which is very generous."\nThe scholarship executive board also held a party in Craig's honor Saturday, which Doss' parents attended, along with more than 100 IU students and friends from the St. Louis area. That event raised $1,000 toward the fund's $20,000 goal. \n"Our benefit on Saturday showed the love and support Craig's friends and family have for him," Ortinau said. "I am very proud and honored to have been part in such an amazing memory. His presence will continue to be missed, but his memories will never be forgotten ... I will never forget the way Craig's smile could light up my day." \nCarmody said the executive board is sending letters to more than 60 supporters seeking donations. \n"We've already raised about $15,000, and we hope to triple that before we'll be satisfied," he said. \nThe board hopes tonight's event will do just that. \n"I think the main reason we decided to honor Craig in a social setting is because that's the type of person he was," Carmody said. "He was loud, funny and unreserved, and he just never went unnoticed."\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.
(03/26/04 5:54am)
An IU graduate student was briefly hospitalized Thursday after she was struck by a motorcyclist on Seventh Street between Union and Jordan avenues.\nIU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger said pedestrian Donna Queen was hit by a 2004 Kawasaki motorcycle operated by junior Terry Stewart as Queen attempted to cross the two-lane road.\nPolice reports indicate Stewart swerved to avoid hitting Queen and lost control of the motorcycle, sliding under the rear bumper of a parked car. Minger said the owner of the vehicle Stewart struck met officers at the scene and could not find any discernable damage on the car. The accident, reported to the IUPD at 10:55 a.m. Thursday, closed off Seventh Street until the final police reports were filed and damages were assessed. Fire rescue trucks were also dispatched to the scene.\n"Any time that kind of accident happens, we turn out the fire rescue truck and ambulances," Minger said. "There's always the possibility of gas spilling. We also cordon off the road because of emergency vehicles, and we have to preserve the scene to make measurements and things like that."\nBoth Queen, a master's student studying library science, and Stewart were treated for minor abrasions and injuries at Bloomington Hospital and were released early Thursday afternoon. \nStewart declined comment to the Indiana Daily Student Thursday, and Queen said she has no recollection of the accident. \n"The last thing I remember is crossing the street," said Queen, who had just left the School of Education. "The next thing I know, I'm waking up in an ambulance."\nMinger said accidents of this type are most likely frequent, but the parties involved typically prefer not to involve police. \n"Usually, both just leave and call it even," Minger said. "We're sure that more accidents go on, but on average, as far as pedestrian accidents, we usually only have a maximum of 10 to 13 reported in a year."\nIndiana state law requires accidents involving property damage totaling in excess of $750 or serious bodily injury be reported. Thursday's accidents involved neither. \nQueen said she was not seriously injured and did not fault Stewart. \n"I'm sure it was just an accident."\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.
(03/25/04 5:13am)
When junior Amanda Fick hit the highway for a cross-country road trip with her two roommates over spring break last week, she hardly expected to find herself rubbing elbows with a daytime talk show host or cooking chili with a reality TV star. Covering thousands of miles in 30 hours left Fick and her friends exhausted, and sunning in Santa Monica. The trio browsed on Rodeo Drive and making the requisite tourist loop of Hollywood's walk of fame and Grauman's Chinese Theater during the 11-day jaunt. \nBut when several days passed with few celeb sightings -- save comedian-turned-TV-spokesman Carrot Top -- Fick's frustration mounted. The IU junior had never been west of St. Louis, and the possibility of hobnobbing with celebs in Los Angeles was particularly alluring. \nYet that changed when Fick and friends junior Heather Showman and junior Heather Majors decided to hit up the Ellen DeGeneres Show -- the only one they planned to catch -- one morning. While standing in line for three hours waiting for admission to the studio, the trio was approached by a vendor selling tickets for a variety of L.A.-based talk shows, and the nearby Wayne Brady Show was featuring Sean Astin, star of Lord of the Rings. The decision was made, and the girls bought tickets for the St. Patrick's Day taping.\nThat morning, after filling out information sheets before taping began, the girls were approached by a Wayne Brady staffer, who chatted with them about their three-day trip and asked if they'd like to introduce Brady at the beginning of the segment. \n"The next thing we knew, we were being rushed backstage, having microphone packs attached to us, and being told what to do and to be super-excited -- not a problem for us," said Majors -- who admits her hands were shaking as the cameras rolled. \nShowman agreed. \n"We just stared at each other and mumbled a 'yes,'" she said. "We were taken backstage and fitted for mics (which was weird because they didn't warn us, and all of the sudden this guy's hands are down my pants). They gave us a little tutorial which basically said, be enthusiastic, tell Wayne that you love him and are psyched to see him, and that Sean Astin is one of your favorite actors, then talk about traveling all the way out to L.A. in the car. So we did and had a fabulous time, even though we were shaking terribly."\nWhen the show began, Brady briefly talked to each of the girls about their trip before cutting to a commercial. The girls were re-seated in the back row of the studio, but were shortly called up again to test a batch of chili cooked by Survivor-star Rudy. \n"The chili segment was a complete surprise," Showman said. "It was filmed right after the introduction and we had already had our mics taken away and thought we were done except for some audience shots. Completely unbeknownst to us, Wayne starts cooking says, 'You know, I'm going to have my girls who drove here from the University come down and taste this for me.' It was almost better than the introduction because it was a complete surprise for us."\nFick, who was "giddy and shocked" to be on live television, said Brady made the girls feel at home on the set, crooning a Stevie Wonder song as he quizzed them about their trip. \n"Up close and in person, Wayne Brady was really great," Majors said. "He was very nice and gracious to us. He was also really funny, and something people don't know is that he is a great singer. He sang during some of the commercial breaks. When we thanked him after the show, he actually thanked us! We couldn't believe he thought we needed to be thanked"
(03/24/04 5:36am)
An unspecified number of IU students who allegedly illegally shared files on peer-to-peer networks have been targeted in the latest wave of lawsuits levied by the Recording Industry Association of America. \nBut University officials emphasized that students -- not the University -- are the focus of the RIAA investigation. University Information Technology Services received word from the recording industry giant shortly before the suits were filed, Chief Information Technology Officer Mark Bruhn said Tuesday in a meeting with the Bloomington Faculty Council.\n"We received a courtesy notification from the RIAA, which is basically a heads-up from them letting us know that the subpoenas are on their way," Bruhn said. "IU is not the target. The individuals are the ones being targeted."\nRIAA officials said Internet service providers -- in this case, the University -- typically receive such notification.\n"In this case, with the colleges, we did give them a heads-up prior to filing these suits," said Amanda Collins, RIAA spokeswoman. \nTuesday's "John Doe" suits -- dubbed as such because the defendants' names aren't yet known -- cited 89 students at 21 universities across the country. Collins said the exact number of students involved at each institution has not yet been publicly released but noted IU was alerted its students were involved.\nIn such suits, RIAA investigators identify illegal activity by searching for copyrighted material shared by individuals, at that point only identifiable by an IP address, on P2P servers like www.KaZaa.com or www.Limewire.com. Lawsuits filed then identify the defendant as "John Doe" until the individual's identity can be obtained from the Internet service provider through subpoena. Once the ISP releases the user's name, the original motion is amended to reflect the change.\nIn the case of the University, incoming IU students are required to register personal computers and authenticate user names and passwords using IU as their Internet service provider. All students residing on campus, including those living in Greek housing, must complete this process to access the IU network from home. The RIAA and other copyright owner representatives thus obtain the IU network address when identifying students using the University server.\nJohn Doe suits began flooding dockets in January, when four courts agreed to issue subpoenas to Internet service providers to learn the identity of file sharers. The RIAA has been pursuing file sharers in various other legal channels since last fall.\nFile sharing at IU has encountered relative decline over the past year, however. Merri Beth Lavagnino, deputy Information Technology policy officer for UITS, told the Indiana Daily Student in January that the number of copyright infringement notices it received from RIAA had decreased by nearly 200 over the course of one calendar year, and a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project signaled this drop is indicative of a national trend.\nRIAA officials said the restitution involved in such cases is typically judged by the court trying the case. \n"We are obviously happy to discuss settlement options with anyone who'd like to come to the table, but we are asking for damages and for this activity to stop," Collins said. "There are a lot of legal ways for music fans to get music online nowadays. There's no excuse to steal it. This is illegal activity, and no one is above the law."\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.
(03/11/04 5:00am)
It's been centuries since St. Patrick (long since elevated to mythical status by throngs of inebriated St. Patty's revelers) escaped slavery and spoke to Irish Catholics of visions divinely inspired. Yet the folklore underscoring everyone's favorite day in March perpetuates, and we at Weekend feel it only proper to clue the St. Patrick's Day faithful in to what's happening in Indianapolis and Bloomington next Wednesday. \nFor anyone who will be in the Circle City next week, X103 will sponsor a St. Patty's concert featuring Fuel, Lo-Pro and Devil to Pay, winner of the 2003 Indianapolis Battle of the Bands. Tickets are $22 in advance and $25 the day of the show and can be purchased at any Ticketmaster outlet. \nIf the great outdoors is more your style, the Indianapolis Athletic Club will kick off its fourth annual Shamrock Walk/Run at 6:50 a.m. Mar. 17 at the Indiana War Memorial Plaza. The Canal Walk will be dyed green to accommodate hundreds of sneaker-clad feet, and the Indy St. Patrick's Day parade will start shortly after the 4-mile jaunt finishes up, at 11:30 a.m., at the corner of North and Philadelphia Streets.\nCladdagh Irish Pub, with locations downtown and in north Indianapolis, will have their fourth annual tent parties beginning Downtown at 1 p.m. and on the north side at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Five bucks gets you in, and the draft beer, mixed drinks, food and live music will likely make it hard to leave. \n"There'll be three bands, dancers and bagpipers," general manager Carl Miller says. "There are no specials, but we expect to be packed. The turnout is always great."\nIf the thought of hiking up Highway 37 makes you green (pun definitely intended), stick around B-Town and live it up. Kilroy's Sports Bar and Kilroy's on Kirkwood will be serving 32-ounce pitchers of green Bud Light for $2.75, says owner Linda Prawl, and Guiness will be on special all day.\nWhile Sports won't be offering any out-of-the-ordinary entertainment, Prawl says the bar staff promises "a good time" on Wednesday evening.\nSports and Kilroy's will also be serving the ever-popular drink you'll likely never get if you ask for it by its un-PC name at a traditional Irish pub -- an Irish Car Bomb. It packs a half pint of Guinness stout, a half ounce of Bailey's Irish Cream, and a half ounce of whiskey.\nScotty's Brewhouse, located across from Sports on Walnut Street, is also featuring Guinness and Harp as the month's beer specials, as well as the Half and Half consisting of equal parts of each. And when you've had your fill, head across the square to Bloomington's perennial favorite, the Irish Lion.\nOwner Larry McConnaughy says the Lion "plans to be packed" Wednesday. A bagpiper will wander through the restaurant, though McConnaughy says "it's usually hard to hear much of anything" on St. Patrick's Day. \n"It's sort of like a busy weekend," he says. "Even if we have other entertainment, you probably wouldn't be able to enjoy it."\nThe Lion doesn't take reservations, and McConnaughy thinks the rush will start at around 6 p.m. They'll highlight the restaurant's traditional Irish menu -- specifically, oysters, mussels and fish or lamb dishes. \n"Thirty-five percent of our menu is traditional Irish, but people tend to order the typical corn beef and cabbage things," he says. "They envision those things as being Irish, whereas in Ireland they eat more pork than anything." \nHe recommends starting out with Irish puff balls as an appetizer and moving on to potato or cabbage soup with fish and lamb entrees, with traditional favorites like whiskey pie and Irish apple walnut cake finishing things off. And of course, a yard of authentic Irish stout is requisite.
(03/11/04 5:00am)
Watching the Oscars last week, I simply couldn't take my eyes off Charlize Theron. Long-limbed, tanned to perfection and statuesque in every sense of the word, Theron simply radiated all the stuff the Oscars are made of: glamour and a little glitz, but in a way that's never over the top or excessive. Watching Theron accept the Best Actress honor for her work in "Monster," I found it difficult to believe that this was the same woman who packed on more than 40 pounds and underwent hours of heavy makeup and costuming to completely immerse herself in the role of a lesbian serial killer and ex-prostitute.\nWhen buzz began circulating months ago about Theron's latest project, I was admittedly surprised: no actress since Renée Zellweger in "Bridget Jones's Diary" or Julia Roberts in "Erin Brokovich" had tackled such a decidedly radical departure from her everyday persona. I was curious: I wondered if Theron had the acting chops to compensate for such altering of that famous face. Without her trademark features and virtually disguised as killer Aileen Wuornos, I wondered, would the South African celeb deliver?\nAs it turned out, I needn't worry; not only was Theron's performance stunning, beautiful and disturbingly haunting all at once, the Academy recognized -- finally -- that the kid can act. Glimpsing her in the audience at the Oscars immediately after a clip from the controversial "Monster" was like seeing a complete metamorphosis, however, and it gave me pause. In a Vogue interview last summer, in an issue in which she in fact graced the cover -- more than a few pounds heavier and just as lovely -- Theron admitted that her boyfriend, actor Stuart Townshend, loved the extra weight. And why shouldn't he, she wondered?\nPerhaps because the bottom line in Hollywood seems to center on sex and skin and just precisely how a combination of the two can make a potentially mediocre movie explode. \nLook at Tara Reid, a B-list (at best) teen flick actress whose best accomplishments to date seem to be partying with Paris Hilton, being that sweet Kevin kid's reluctant virgin girlfriend in "American Pie" and boasting protruding hipbones which could gouge out the eyes of any unsuspecting paparazzi (not necessarily in that order). Reid sure as hell can't act, but tickets move for her movies, something I'll chalk up to the cropped shirts and low-slung Seven jean skirts. \nTheron, however, has perpetuated the emerging reality that yes, some actresses possess that certain something which enables them to take on physically altering, and at times disfiguring, roles in the name of good cinema. Speaking of the real-life Wuornos to the Associated Press shortly before the film's release, Theron said "everything that she lived through she carried in her face, and carried all this tension in her mouth, and carried in the way she staggered and spoke and used her eyes to underline what she felt." In short, this woman was real. She wasn't picture-perfect, and didn't expect or need to be: hers was a tale of survival, of the bare, gritty kind of struggle. And in opting to pursue the role of such a "Monster," Theron proved that, it itself, could be the ultimate poignant journey.
(03/11/04 12:55am)
Watching the Oscars last week, I simply couldn't take my eyes off Charlize Theron. Long-limbed, tanned to perfection and statuesque in every sense of the word, Theron simply radiated all the stuff the Oscars are made of: glamour and a little glitz, but in a way that's never over the top or excessive. Watching Theron accept the Best Actress honor for her work in "Monster," I found it difficult to believe that this was the same woman who packed on more than 40 pounds and underwent hours of heavy makeup and costuming to completely immerse herself in the role of a lesbian serial killer and ex-prostitute.\nWhen buzz began circulating months ago about Theron's latest project, I was admittedly surprised: no actress since Renée Zellweger in "Bridget Jones's Diary" or Julia Roberts in "Erin Brokovich" had tackled such a decidedly radical departure from her everyday persona. I was curious: I wondered if Theron had the acting chops to compensate for such altering of that famous face. Without her trademark features and virtually disguised as killer Aileen Wuornos, I wondered, would the South African celeb deliver?\nAs it turned out, I needn't worry; not only was Theron's performance stunning, beautiful and disturbingly haunting all at once, the Academy recognized -- finally -- that the kid can act. Glimpsing her in the audience at the Oscars immediately after a clip from the controversial "Monster" was like seeing a complete metamorphosis, however, and it gave me pause. In a Vogue interview last summer, in an issue in which she in fact graced the cover -- more than a few pounds heavier and just as lovely -- Theron admitted that her boyfriend, actor Stuart Townshend, loved the extra weight. And why shouldn't he, she wondered?\nPerhaps because the bottom line in Hollywood seems to center on sex and skin and just precisely how a combination of the two can make a potentially mediocre movie explode. \nLook at Tara Reid, a B-list (at best) teen flick actress whose best accomplishments to date seem to be partying with Paris Hilton, being that sweet Kevin kid's reluctant virgin girlfriend in "American Pie" and boasting protruding hipbones which could gouge out the eyes of any unsuspecting paparazzi (not necessarily in that order). Reid sure as hell can't act, but tickets move for her movies, something I'll chalk up to the cropped shirts and low-slung Seven jean skirts. \nTheron, however, has perpetuated the emerging reality that yes, some actresses possess that certain something which enables them to take on physically altering, and at times disfiguring, roles in the name of good cinema. Speaking of the real-life Wuornos to the Associated Press shortly before the film's release, Theron said "everything that she lived through she carried in her face, and carried all this tension in her mouth, and carried in the way she staggered and spoke and used her eyes to underline what she felt." In short, this woman was real. She wasn't picture-perfect, and didn't expect or need to be: hers was a tale of survival, of the bare, gritty kind of struggle. And in opting to pursue the role of such a "Monster," Theron proved that, it itself, could be the ultimate poignant journey.
(03/11/04 12:14am)
It's been centuries since St. Patrick (long since elevated to mythical status by throngs of inebriated St. Patty's revelers) escaped slavery and spoke to Irish Catholics of visions divinely inspired. Yet the folklore underscoring everyone's favorite day in March perpetuates, and we at Weekend feel it only proper to clue the St. Patrick's Day faithful in to what's happening in Indianapolis and Bloomington next Wednesday. \nFor anyone who will be in the Circle City next week, X103 will sponsor a St. Patty's concert featuring Fuel, Lo-Pro and Devil to Pay, winner of the 2003 Indianapolis Battle of the Bands. Tickets are $22 in advance and $25 the day of the show and can be purchased at any Ticketmaster outlet. \nIf the great outdoors is more your style, the Indianapolis Athletic Club will kick off its fourth annual Shamrock Walk/Run at 6:50 a.m. Mar. 17 at the Indiana War Memorial Plaza. The Canal Walk will be dyed green to accommodate hundreds of sneaker-clad feet, and the Indy St. Patrick's Day parade will start shortly after the 4-mile jaunt finishes up, at 11:30 a.m., at the corner of North and Philadelphia Streets.\nCladdagh Irish Pub, with locations downtown and in north Indianapolis, will have their fourth annual tent parties beginning Downtown at 1 p.m. and on the north side at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Five bucks gets you in, and the draft beer, mixed drinks, food and live music will likely make it hard to leave. \n"There'll be three bands, dancers and bagpipers," general manager Carl Miller says. "There are no specials, but we expect to be packed. The turnout is always great."\nIf the thought of hiking up Highway 37 makes you green (pun definitely intended), stick around B-Town and live it up. Kilroy's Sports Bar and Kilroy's on Kirkwood will be serving 32-ounce pitchers of green Bud Light for $2.75, says owner Linda Prawl, and Guiness will be on special all day.\nWhile Sports won't be offering any out-of-the-ordinary entertainment, Prawl says the bar staff promises "a good time" on Wednesday evening.\nSports and Kilroy's will also be serving the ever-popular drink you'll likely never get if you ask for it by its un-PC name at a traditional Irish pub -- an Irish Car Bomb. It packs a half pint of Guinness stout, a half ounce of Bailey's Irish Cream, and a half ounce of whiskey.\nScotty's Brewhouse, located across from Sports on Walnut Street, is also featuring Guinness and Harp as the month's beer specials, as well as the Half and Half consisting of equal parts of each. And when you've had your fill, head across the square to Bloomington's perennial favorite, the Irish Lion.\nOwner Larry McConnaughy says the Lion "plans to be packed" Wednesday. A bagpiper will wander through the restaurant, though McConnaughy says "it's usually hard to hear much of anything" on St. Patrick's Day. \n"It's sort of like a busy weekend," he says. "Even if we have other entertainment, you probably wouldn't be able to enjoy it."\nThe Lion doesn't take reservations, and McConnaughy thinks the rush will start at around 6 p.m. They'll highlight the restaurant's traditional Irish menu -- specifically, oysters, mussels and fish or lamb dishes. \n"Thirty-five percent of our menu is traditional Irish, but people tend to order the typical corn beef and cabbage things," he says. "They envision those things as being Irish, whereas in Ireland they eat more pork than anything." \nHe recommends starting out with Irish puff balls as an appetizer and moving on to potato or cabbage soup with fish and lamb entrees, with traditional favorites like whiskey pie and Irish apple walnut cake finishing things off. And of course, a yard of authentic Irish stout is requisite.
(03/09/04 5:54am)
When Kathy Davis was asked to step into the office of lieutenant governor shortly after the October death of Gov. Frank O'Bannon, she wasn't exactly blindsided. \nThe former mechanical engineer and Harvard M.B.A. had worked closely with Indiana lawmakers in various capacities since 1989, when she served as deputy commissioner for the Indiana Department of Transportation. As the state budget director from 1995 to 1997, she directly managed state resources and spending, and a stint with the Family and Social Services Administration dealt her the responsibility of doling out a budget exceeding $4 million.\nMoreover, she was familiar with Joe Kernan, who was unanimously selected by the state legislature to succeed O'Bannon in October, and had worked with him on the 21st Century Research and Development Fund. The statewide initiative, geared toward harnessing technological and economic development, linked the interests of the business community while promoting investments on research in higher education.\nHence Kernan's phone call, asking Davis to serve as his second-in-command, wasn't surprising. \n"A couple of days after Gov. O'Bannon passed away, I had this overwhelming feeling it was going to happen," Davis said. "I'd spent the last four months working with Joe Kernan and wrestling with economic issues. I think he knew I would hear him and deliver on what he wanted to offer the state."\nDavis wasn't thinking long-term. \n"When the lieutenant governor stepped into this position, she said she came for 14 months," Ronnetta Slaughter, Davis's press secretary, said. "It wasn't necessary for her to campaign. She wanted to do what was best for Indiana."\nSo Davis hit the ground running, stimulating conversations between research partners and business investors in life sciences and economic development initiatives. The newly-created Indiana Economic Development Corporation is a result of that drive. The idea behind the public-private partnership, introduced as part of the 2003 Department of Commerce economic development package, she says, is to link ideas and technology to create products translating into more jobs for Hoosiers. \n"We're aiming to place technology where universities and other partners can get to it," Davis said "Lasting technology transfers enable and stimulate greater economic growth."\nDavis targeted the issue of workforce development as the primary priority facing Indiana lawmakers, and it's an issue the DOC's Peak Performer's Project aims to address, first by assessing worker skills and training and then by creating checkpoints with which emerging industry can assess progress.\n"We need to create a targeted picture of the skill gap that exists in the state workforce," Davis said. "When industry develops, there are often multiple agencies placing regulations on that emerging business, and it's a chase to figure everything out. We want to bring everyone to the table and establish the needs of each agency at one time."\nThe DOC is currently undergoing a reorganization plan encompassing 12 offices and including a provision to establish advisory councils. \nFurther priorities include increasing the number of high-tech jobs through improved relations between state universities and the business communities; strengthening agricultural exports; and revising policies of smart growth. \nMere minutes after an interview in her cushy State House office in Indianapolis, however Davis is the perennial -- yet perpetually poised -- mother, sitting comfortably in a desk chair before a group of second and third-graders. Her daughter, Molly, sits toward the back of the small crowd, undaunted by the local TV cameras and radio microphones that have suddenly crowded the classroom. After nearly an hour spent pontificating about complex legislative issues, Davis is preparing to read three children's books on the 100th anniversary of Dr. Seuss's birth. \nHow does she manage? \nDavis credits her "great" husband and family for giving her the latitude to tackle workdays that often span from 7 a.m. to late in the evening, and says her mother-in-law and son, an IU-Purdue University Indianapolis student, are instrumental in making things work. \nAnd what does Molly think about Mom's highly visible attention? \n"It's small potatoes," Mom says. "At first, she was all excited. After awhile, though, she asked, 'Mom, can I be president in 30 years?'"\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.
(03/04/04 6:24am)
Big Red party executives chosen last week as winners of the IU Student Association election have been disqualified after they were found guilty of intentionally falsifying financial records. \nThe IUSA Elections Commission made its ruling Wednesday after considering two complaints charging Big Red with failing to accurately report campaign expenditures. The Commission found that purchases of campaign door hangers and 600 t-shirts were not reported and would have put the party over its spending limit. \nBig Red Vice-Presidential candidate Angel Rivera disputes the claim, calling the failure of Big Red staffer Doug La Fave to report the door hanger purchases a simple mistake. He said because the candidates were so immersed in campaigning, LaFave was "human, and just plain forgot."\nRivera said his party will appeal the decision to the IUSA Supreme Court, a process that could take weeks.\nHe said the 600 t-shirts he purchased were never actually used during the campaign. The ticket bought a total of 1,200 shirts but only reported 600 as campaign expenditures on an itemized spending statement. \nRivera maintained the ticket was not required to report the extra 600 shirts since they were not used in actual campaigning. In fact, Rivera said the commission unanimously agreed the shirts had not been used. They were still in sealed containers when Rivera handed them over to Elections Coordinator Derek Molter.\nRivera said the tickets that filed the complaint failed to prove "one single piece of evidence" that would point to his intent to intentionally falsify reports.\n"The question is one of intent, and whether I intentionally falsified my finances," Rivera said. "They didn't prove that."\nHe also claims the ticket would have been within its budget had it reported the purchase of the 1,200 shirts and disputes statements by other tickets insinuating Big Red would be unable to deal with an extensive IUSA budget.\nStudents won't know which ticket will actually take office until the Supreme Court gives its ruling on the matter. While the Crimson ticket received the second-highest vote, the results are unofficial until the court passes its decision.\nBig Red staffer Jeff Wuslich said he feels the commission's decision to disqualify the ticket's executives indicates the student population's stake in the election was of no consequence.\n"The student voice here obviously doesn't matter," Wuslich said. "There are clearly six people (on the Elections Commission) deciding student government here -- what happened to the 3,200 people who voted for us?"\nHowever, Molter said the Commission had no interest in thwarting the opinions of students.\n"We have no intention in overruling the voice of students," Molter said. "Our intent is to hold free and fair elections, and we interpreted the code the way we thought most appropriate. No one feels more horrible than me about this, especially since some of my best friends were involved. We just didn't have a choice this time." \nMolter said Big Red's argument that they shouldn't have to report items not actually used, while compelling, doesn't conform to the code as currently written.\n"They do raise compelling arguments about why the shirts shouldn't be counted," he said. "They are issues that should be brought up again when code is debated again (at a later date). However, this election code says tickets must report any expenditure if its intended to use for campaigning." \nThe IUSA Supreme Court established in 2002's Steel v. Kirkwood that violations against the code are proven only by evidence of the act itself or intent to perform that act. Last night's decision pointed to this precedent in charging Big Red with intentionally purchasing the original 1,200 shirts -- the cost of which, Molter said, would put the ticket well over their capped spending budget -- expressly for campaign purposes. \nSection 604 of the Elections Code states, "any purchase or donation for the purpose of, or which is ultimately used for promoting any candidate or referendum issue, shall be considered a campaign expenditure." \nTyson Chastain, presidential candidate for the Crimson ticket, said he feels the Commission's decision was well-conceived. \n"The elections commission is a group of outstanding students here at IU, and I think they can interpret events very well," Chastain said. "I'm very confident in what the election code says." \nCrimson finished second in last week's IUSA voting.\nRivera said he "absolutely" plans on appealing the Commission's decision to the IUSA Supreme Court.\n"The Court usually applies the code as it reads to specific actions and incidents," he said. "They're usually more experienced, as well."\nMolter said he respects the ticket's right to appeal the ruling.\n"The Supreme Court will have to decide, if they take the case, whether our decision was fair and reasonable," Molter said. "We respect the entire process and would in fact encourage Big Red to appeal it. If we're wrong, that's OK -- we'll let the Supreme Court decide."\nThe Supreme Court decision could take up to a week.\nFor his part however, Wuslich believes the entire process was undemocratic. \n"This is more than outrageous," Wuslich said. "How can good, quality candidates who won by votes be kicked out because of door hangers and t-shirts that were never used"
