28 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/17/13 2:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Bloomington Water Color Society is more than just an average group of artists.The society has grown since its original members came together in 2004. During that year, a group of watercolor artists began getting together casually. Eventually, they decided to start an organization, and on June 6, 2005, bylaws were approved.The Bloomington Watercolor Society became an official organization.“When we started, it had maybe six or seven people, and it’s blossomed,” said Tricia Wente, art show chair and a founding member of the society.The Bloomington society now has 75 active members. It is composed of people of all skill levels, from early beginners to professional artists. “It’s pretty amazing considering it’s an artist organization,” vice president Jeanne Dutton said.Dutton said everyone in the organization is willing to share their skills, talents and techniques with everyone else.Along with a wide range of beginners and watercolor aficionados, there is also a group of signature members among the people in the society. Signature membership is given after an extensive application process that includes a review and a jury process. Currently, 10 percent of the society’s members are signature members, a large number for a small-town society.The society meets monthly except for in July and August, and every meeting has a program of some kind.Programs can be based on anything relating to the art of watercolor, ranging from basic lessons on perspective to lessons and tips regarding framing.Many of the society’s gallery shows are based off their motto: “We paint ... ”Recently, the society participated in a collaborative project with the Monroe Country History Center titled “We paint ... cemeteries.” Members in the society had a year to pick a cemetery and paint it. Now, the history center is putting together a calender of some of the best paintings.At the last society meeting this month, members narrowed the paintings to a list of their favorites. After picking the ones they liked the most, all the members submitted their choices to the history center.The history center will pick its favorites as final winners, and those paintings will be featured in the calendar.The paintings are currently hanging in the Monroe County Historical Museum, and the official opening reception of the paintings will be this Friday.Along with that show, the show “We Paint ... Southern Indiana” will be shown and hung from Nov. 1 to Dec. 2, in the City Hall Atrium at the Showers Building in downtown Bloomington.The opening reception for “We Paint ... Southern Indiana” will be in the evening on Nov. 1. Follow reporter Alexis Benveniste on Twitter @apbenven.
(10/15/13 3:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Bloomington staged its first salsa dancing class in years Monday night. Long-time studio owner and instructor Barbara Leininger opened the studio 20 years ago, and she said she is eager to see the crowd the Monday night salsa classes will bring in.Leininger said she is optimistic about the turnout for the class because she realizes Latin dancing is popular right now. “A few of our students go out to dance locally,” she said. “We realized there was an interest in Latin dancing.”When she moved from Miami, Fla. to Bloomington, her friends in Indianapolis encouraged her to open a dance studio. “I grew up in Miami around a huge Latin community, and Latin dancing was a huge part of my experience as a child and an adult,” she said.Leininger admitted she tries to go out and do Latin dancing when she goes back to Miami to visit family and friends. Mary Alice Powell has been an instructor at the studio for seven years, and she also brings a dancing background to the studio. “I wanted to dance again,” she said. “I was in an opera that had some tango dancing in it.” Powell also attended Latin dance classes once a month at a dance club during her time as an undergraduate at IU.“I used to go to Second Story, which is a club in town where Serendipity is now,” she said. “They would only have classes once a month.“I wish I would have had a class like this back then because I had to learn the hard way.” Comfort is key at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio, and Powell said the studio will “specialize in people who feel like they have two left feet.”The staff at the studio understands dancing can be an intimidating experience, and Powell and Leininger said they will do everything they can to make the classes feel like a fun and casual environment.“The hardest choice that you’ll ever make is simply walking through the door,” Powell said. “Once you get past the door, everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be easy.”For dancers, Powell said the studio is meant to feel relaxed and low-key. “We work at their pace, so no one’s trying to join ‘Dancing With the Stars’ after a couple of group classes,” Powell said.Follow reporter Alexis Benveniste on Twitter @apbenven.
(10/14/13 5:25pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>According to CNN money, college students that graduated in 2013 had an
average of $35,200 in college-related debt. This includes student loans,
credit card debt and money that they owed to family members. Budgeting
will help cut down these costs significantly because it will make you
more cautious of your spending — from the ordinary pizza run to a
textbook purchase.Tips for successCreate an excel
document of your expenses. If you track everything from a late-night
pizza run to a school supplies shopping spree, you will be more
conscious of what your money is going toward.Devise a
pre-arranged plan before each semester, detailing where you plan to
spend your money. If you divide your money into specific categories,
you’ll be more conscious of how much you’re spending.Make a list of wants versus needs for your budget, and designate how much you will use per category.Carry
cash with you at all times so that you don’t use your credit or debit
card mindlessly. It’s easy to constantly spend on your card, but with
cash, everything is tangible.Keep all of your receipts
organized. This will help when you need to return something or compare
your receipts to your credit card or debit card statement. On average, both in-state and out-of-state students allot about $2,091 toward “other expenses” in their budget.
(10/10/13 3:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>She’s a writer, she’s a panelist and she’s a narrator. But above all, she’s someone who can make you laugh.Jen Kirkman, the narrator of Funny or Die’s “Drunk History” and regular panelist on “Chelsea Lately,” will perform Thursday through Saturday at the Comedy Attic. After the shows, she’ll be signing her New York Times Best-seller “I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids.” Her first performance tonight will begin at 8 p.m.But the Indiana Daily Student wanted to know a little bit about Kirkman before her first show, so we asked her a few questions about her book, her inspirations and her media persona.IDS In your book, you address the fact that you’ve decided not to have kids, but you’re living life and loving it. What would you say is the key to your happiness?Jen Kirkman Just a warning to anyone reading — I sometimes just give totally serious answers in interviews. So, please don’t take this as a sampling of my comedy.I think the key to my happiness is that I do what makes me happy. If something isn’t bringing me joy and it’s taking up my time and it’s a truly non-essential thing. Obviously, I have to do laundry and other boring joy-less things. Then I drop it.IDS You’re very active on Twitter. What made you decide to use that as your main outlet for communicating with fans? How do you stay on top of all of their tweets?Kirkman Well, I was verified a long time ago on Twitter because I used to know someone there who was very, very high up, and it was all very hush-hush. He verified me.I used to despise the notion of Twitter until I learned how to properly craft jokes on it just by practicing.It’s easy to stay on top of my tweets from fans. I get just the perfect amount that it feels good but doesn’t interrupt my day. IDS Who are the role models that you feel have led you to where you are today?Kirkman Anne Lamot wrote a book called “Bird by Bird” that anyone who wants to be a writer should read before they pick up a pen or sit down to a computer.As for stand-up, Joan Rivers is a huge role model for me, even more now that I’m older and realize that as long as I continue to be myself, any age is appropriate for stand-up comedy. And she never stops, and she never looks down her nose at any gig. She’s an 80-year-old woman with a podcast for God’s sake. IDS Where does your comedic inspiration come from? Do you do research before hand or is it usually off the top of your head?Kirkman I have no idea where inspiration comes from. That’s the beauty of inspiration.Things pop into my head. I plan nothing. I work out my material, and everything I say is part of a well crafted act, but it all starts with, “hmmm, for some reason I feel like saying this ... let me try it out at some low-stakes comedy shows around town and keep working on it until it’s a full-fledged bit then take it on the road.”IDS Would you say that you were always the funny one among your friends growing up, or was it something that you sort of grew into?Kirkman I thought I was hilarious as a kid, but I got picked on, bullied, beaten up all the time in grade school and middle school.Other kids just thought I was “weird.” I loved being weird.In high school I went into my “I’m wearing all black and very serious phase,” which was probably very hilarious to older people who were like, “aw, look at her little phase.”But mostly — and people hate finding this out — comedy usually doesn’t come from someone who is always “on” and hilarious all the time.When people don’t know what I do for a living and they ask and I tell them, they say, “You don’t seem funny” to which I answer, “the truly funny ones never do offstage.”IDS What is it like being a round-table guest for “Chelsea Lately?” What is the environment like there, and how does it feel to work with a group of women on a comedic level?Kirkman Most of us just feel like comedians first since it’s such a specific type of person, and gender is second and also something we don’t think of.Only people who don’t find women funny tend to focus on gender. You know those idiots who say, “chicks aren’t funny, but you’re okay.”I also work full time at “Chelsea Lately” as a writer. It’s a very busy environment. We never stop all day long.I work with mostly stand-up comics, so it’s a fun and inappropriate environment. In the real world we would all have been fired for sexual harassment or something.
(09/20/13 3:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>They're bald, they're blue and they're back.Choreographed with drums and colorful paint, more than 17 million people have seen Blue Man Group perform. Following a performance in February 2011, the trio is making a comeback at the IU Auditorium this weekend.Combining comedy, music and technology, the group will perform at the Auditorium 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Students can buy tickets starting at $20. Tickets for the general public start at $38.“The paint on the drums for us is a visual representation of the music,” Puck Quinn, creative director of character development and appearances, said in a press release. “We want to create a visceral experience. We want you to feel it in your gut. That’s why we have as big a drum as we can find. Because that drum will literally vibrate your viscera, your guts will resonate.”Paint and vibration aside, what matters most to the trio is audience engagement, according to the release. People in the front rows will be given jackets to protect their clothes from paint and other splatterings.“It’s all about the connection,” Blue Man Group Co-Founder Phil Stanton said in the release. “And we also wanted to make a statement about how important the live experience is. Even though technology has made it so that we don’t have to have that live experience, there’s something about our humanity that will always need it.”When Matt Goldman, Stanton and Chris Wink came up with the idea for Blue Man Group in New York, they said in a press release they never thought it would be as popular as it is now.The idea for Blue Man Group came from a doodle Wink drew when he was a child. “I had a thing in my wallet for years with a blue tribe in South America,” Goldman said in the release. “I don’t know why it was there. I never put pictures in my wallet. We think the Blue Man has always been here. The best answer is that we found each other.”Even though the show is performed consistently in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Boston, the group has toured other cities as well. The group has even performed in Tokyo, Toronto and several cities in Europe.“Blue Man Group has been one of our most highly-requested performances since its first appearance at IU Auditorium,” Doug Booher, IU Auditorium director, said in the release. “Blue Man Group is a form of entertainment like no other. It is guaranteed to be a theatrical experience you will never forget.”Follow reporter Alexis Benveniste on Twitter @apbenven.
(04/19/13 2:20am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Amy Countryman’s dream as a single mom struggling to support herself and her son turned into a reality now known as the Bloomington Community Orchard. “I helped out on an orchard in Daviess County and was amazed to see the amount of fruit that one fruit tree yields,” Countryman said. Countryman said she found out that less than 2 percent of the publicly owned trees in Bloomington were food-bearing, and she decided that she wanted to change that.“I wanted to help create a community-owned, free source of fruit for everyone to help folks needing access to fresh, healthy fruit and to help teach folks how to grow their own fruit,” Countryman said. As a School of Public and Environmental Affairs student at IU, Countryman wrote her plan into her final thesis in December 2009.In January 2010, Lee Huss, urban forester for the City of Bloomington, met with Countryman and told her that the city wanted to move forward with a community orchard. The first public meeting to initiate the project was in February 2010, in which people began to form teams to make the dream of an orchard a reality. The first planting was in October 2010, and the fourth planting will take place during the third annual spring planting day Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. “It was 11 months from the thesis to the first trees in the ground,” Countryman said. “A lot happened in between.”Amy Roche, the board chair and outreach team chair of the orchard, said planting fruit is more than what meets the eye.“The more you learn, the more you realize how complex it is and how much more there is to learn,” Roche said. The Bloomington Community Orchard is an all-volunteer organization, and many of the plants are still very young. Roche said there hasn’t been a lot of harvest yet at the orchard. “It’s really a mixture of local Bloomington residents and college students,” Roche said.Several classes and service-learning programs have visited the orchards, as well.“Food is so iconically appealing, so I think the orchard is really for everyone,” Roche said. What originally started as a dream to Countryman now unites Bloomington citizens, she said.“Without a doubt, the best part of the orchard is the way it brings folks together and creates community,” Countryman said.
(02/22/13 2:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The City of Bloomington announced GeoReporter, a new Open311 issue reporting application, is now available for Android devices. The application was previously only available for Apple iOS devices.Bloomington’s mobile applications work with uReport, Bloomington’s Open311 issue tracking server, according to a press release. Through the program, residents can report graffiti, potholes and malfunctioning streetlights. “Reporting issues to the city helps us provide more efficient and timely service,” Mayor Mark Kruzan said in the release. “This technology helps us do our jobs and provides yet another avenue for valuable community input.” Rick Dietz, director of information and technology services for Bloomington,said there is a movement toward a technological collaboration. “We are part of that right here in Bloomington,” he said.Application user Debby Herbenick said she first downloaded the application about a year ago. “It only took them a few days to fix the light I reported,” Herbenick said. “But other issues like repairing a broken sidewalk can be bigger and more extensive problems that require more time and financial resources.”Response times vary as to how long it takes for the city to respond to reports from the application. Dietz said a number of different cities such as Chicago and Boston are utilizing the app. “We are able to manage the intake of issues and process them efficiently,” Dietz said. “Users now have a new and convenient way to inform the city about a wide range of issues.” Dietz said he hopes the application inspires Bloomington residents to feel closer to city government. “We are part of a team in addressing community problems,” Dietz said.
(11/03/11 2:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Will Petrovic, co-president of IU’s Geocaching Club, described geocaching as a “global GPS treasure-hunting game.” The goal of geocaching is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, and share experiences on the geocaching website,geocaching.com. The geocaches are found outdoors using a GPS. “Geocaches are boxes that include stuff inside and a logbook you sign,” Petrovic said.The Geocaching Club began a Geographic Information Systems Day Geocoaching Challenge on Monday. The challenge will run through Nov. 20 and is open to all ages and the general public.Competitors can start at any time during the three weeks, and pre-registration is not required. Players have a three-week span to find the six caches hidden around campus. Each cache is assigned a point according to the difficulty level of locating it. The players with the most points by the end of the challenge are entered to win a $50 Visa gift card. The GIS Day organizers will give an informal information session at a GIS Day Geocaching Booth all day Nov. 16 in the Wells Library. Members of the IU Geocaching Club as well as members of the Bloomington Geocachers will be present at the booth.There are more than 500 geocaches in Bloomington, more than 17,000 in the state of Indiana and more than one million around the world. Caches can be found anywhere — in cities, neighborhoods or parks.Participants can go hunting for geocaches individually or in a group. A geocaching website keeps track of the number of geocaches each individual finds. This creates friendly competition among fellow geocachers, Petrovic said.Alex Lemont, co-president of the IU Geocaching Club, has been involved since 2009. “My favorite geocaching memory is when we all canoed to the islands of Lake Monroe,” Lemont said. Lemont initially heard about geocaching from a friend and became involved in the club when he read about it in an IDS article in 2009. He offered to work on the club’s website and was later given the position of co-president.“My advice would be to go out and geocache with friends and reach out to other geocachers in the community and area,” Lemont said.Jessica Falkenthal, founder of IU’s Geocaching Club, began geocaching in 2004 when her roommate introduced her to the hobby. She bought her own GPS about two years after she started and founded IU’s Geocaching Club in 2008.“Bloomington is a geocaching mecca within the Midwest,” Falkenthal said. “People come from two or three states away to find the unique quality and quantity of geocaches we have here.”The community geocaching builds is strong and well worth the efforts to find the caches, Falkenthal said.“We have an active community, so people can get together and share their ideas,” Falkenthal said.