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(10/27/11 1:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>During the past five years, Shara Worden has made her mark with a compelling mixture of classical music training instinct and an interest in art rock, experimentalism and chamber and cabaret gaiety. “All Things Will Unwind,” Worden’s third record with the moniker My Brightest Diamond, is a meticulously assembled work of art. Every track is tightly edited with an exacting flow that brings out the ethereality of slinking melodies and the delicate layering of husky vocals and orchestral instrumentation. The eccentric chanteuse, a former touring member of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoisemakers band and a recent collaborator with indie darlings The Decemberists, echoes the artistic sensibility of 1950s divas, tainted with a rebellious edge a la Bjork.With closing track “I Have Never Loved Someone” — haunting yet endearing, and an apt finale to an exquisitely progressive album structure — this record gleams like a dazzling jewel under the rays of audio enlightenment.
(10/21/11 3:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>From one person, a desk and a telephone to 8,600 living graduates, 1,290 current students and 70 full-time faculty members on eight campuses, the IU School of Social Work has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1911.Now, 100 years after its creation, the School of Social Work is the oldest of its kind continuously affiliated with a university in the United States. Many others founded in the early 1900s were begun as training programs associated with nonprofit agencies, said Katharine Byers, Bloomington bachelors of social work program director.“I think the sustainability of the school shows just how much there are still people who are willing to make $30,000 a year in order for other people to live the best life they can, to put others first,” said Stacy Chattin, a senior and social work major focusing on child welfare services.The school will sponsor a series of centennial events Saturday through Monday in conjunction with its theme of “Celebrating 100 Years of Giving Hope and Changing Lives.”Celebrations began in early 2011 with various programs across the eight IU campuses. This month’s events begin with an alumni tour of the Bloomington campus and culminate in a conference called “Continuing Education: The Past, Present, and Future of Social Work” and a gala dinner in downtown Indianapolis. The dinner will be led by keynote speaker James Morris, a former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme.Chattin said she plans to drive to Indianapolis on Monday for the day’s festivities.”It’ll be fun because I’ll be surrounded with people (who are) all passionate about what we do,” she said.According to a press release, the School of Social Work was founded in 1911 by Edna Henry, well-known social worker and founder of the Associated Charities of Anderson, Ind., and Ulysses Grant Weatherly, an IU sociology professor. The two embarked on a venture to merge the Department of Economics and Social Sciences with the newly established Department of Social Service, an affiliate of the City Dispensary of the School of Medicine in Indianapolis.Weatherly aimed to develop the area he called “applied sociology,” a result of the growing field of social work at that time. A program was created in which students were instructed in sociological methods and theories in Bloomington and could then gain practical experience at the department in Indianapolis. The aftermath of the 1913 flood in Indianapolis and of World War II 30 years later kept the need for professional social workers alive and growing throughout the decades, according to a press release about the School of Social Work’s history.As the curriculum evolved, the school’s label changed. The training course for social work model continued until 1936, when the program was limited to graduate study. In 1945, the graduate program branched out separately into the Division of Social Service, later the School of Social Service.On the Bloomington campus that year, the undergraduate social work program was reestablished in the College of Arts and Sciences. However, as a small program the department continued, until the 1970s, to send about 20 students each year to Indianapolis to complete their final practicum, the release said. As the school grew in prominence, its mission became more focused. With a clearer definition of its values and objectives, the School of Social Service was renamed the School of Social Work in 1977.The school now has a budget of more than $7 million — compared to $800 when it was founded 100 years ago — and offers bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees, as well as minors and certificates on all IU campuses. The master of social work is still not offered on the Bloomington campus — the two degrees available are the bachelor of social work degree and the social welfare advocacy minor. The Bloomington campus houses just less than half of the total 300 social work undergraduates at IU, 47 of which will graduate this spring.In May 2004, the program graduated its first class, made up of 30 students, on the Bloomington campus. In the 2005-06 academic year, the School of Social Work marked a milestone as enrollment topped 1,000 students for the first time. Jason Carnes, a 2005 graduate, stayed in Bloomington after graduation and became immersed in social work in the political arena. This is his fifth week as the Monroe County Commissioners’ Administrator.“The county government is there to help people make sure that everything they need, from infrastructure to services, is in place,” Carnes said. “Working on the government level, you’re creating programs, ordinances and laws on a global level. And having that social work reference, that frame of mind, helps you to see things from the person’s perspective.” Chattin, Carnes and alumna Lauren Hall from the Bloomington campus talked about the sense of belonging due to a close-knit community in the school. They said social work professors — deeply experienced, well-trained and knowledgeable — were vital in their understanding of and preparation for the real world. “My Introduction to Social Work (class) with Carlene Quinn (encouraged) me to go into social work,” said Hall, who earned her bachelors of social work in 2010. “I had been a Fine Arts major because I wanted to become an art therapist. And then I took a social work class, and they got me.” Hall works as an independent living coach with local, nonprofit organization Stepping Stones, which was founded by fellow social work alumna Sheri Benham.“It’s such a small program, and you end up getting to know everyone in it,” Hall said. “You end up feeling like this little family, like social work comrades.” Byers said she agrees with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ prediction that the need for social workers will continue to grow. She believes that the aging of baby boomers, especially in the next 10 years, and a heightened interest in child welfare will call for increased need in health care services. Allowances must also be made as people become more comfortable in seeking help for mental and addiction problems, Byers said. “Our graduates have started new agencies to meet emergent needs. They speak out on important social justice issues,” Byers said in an email. “In our small and indirect way, we are making a difference in the quality of life for many people. I think that tradition will continue into the future.”
(10/20/11 2:44am)
Jacob Otieno, photo editor of The Standard in Nairobi, Kenya, talks to students in Professor Jim Kelly's Photojournalism Reporting class on Wednesday in Ernie Pyle Hall. Otieno arrived in Bloomington on Monday for the African Studies Program's 50th anniversary celebrations.
(10/19/11 11:25pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Five full-lengths and two EPs after creating Crooked Fingers, Eric Bachmann — writer, vocalist, instrumentalist and producer — once again emerges strong with his latest folk-rock album, the bold yet nostalgic “Breaks in the Armor.” These songs are the result of refreshed self-discovery after a stint in 2009 teaching English in Taipei, Taiwan. With the help of fellow singer-songwriter Liz Durrett as backing vocals, Bachmann creates a gentle, well-paced, dynamic tracklist that shows a wide range of his musical leanings. The track “Black Candles” has roots in traditional Appalachian music, with Bachmann’s down-home drawl gliding with ease through each soaring note and melodic punch. He follows this with the feat of smooth transition into lighter-than-usual fare, chamber pop-influenced “Went to the City.”Though his sound bordered on being strained and self-conscious in previous recordings, Bachmann has finally found his sweet spot — melding all components together, such as in “Typhoon” and “The Counterfeit,” in which hooks linger long after the song is gone. This album is crowned his most listenable to date.
(10/19/11 11:06pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Electric Six is that band, the band with that one song — in this case, two — that sparks manic shrieking, projectile arm-raising and Jagger-proud dance moves from every person in the room. For the past eight years, the sextet has been nothing more than its success with smash hits “Gay Bar,” which featured pseudo Abe Lincolns cavorting around the White House, and “Danger! High Voltage.” If you believed, after 2003, the band fell off the face of the earth into one-hit-wonder depths, you were right. Although it reportedly produced seven albums between then and now, its latest offering gets us excited. “Heartbeats and Brainwaves” is pure homage to the electrifying eighties. The signature cracking lines and spacey riffs of the musical style permeate all 14 tracks. Raised and based in Detroit, the pop-rock-punk-disco-metal-garage band brings its unique brand of electro goodness to the table. In line with its cover art, the album opens to eerie sound effects and pulsating beats. The track “French Bacon” is a grounded, gritty dance number that sounds like Matt Berninger of The National as he would’ve been in emo-punk, teenage years. It is not until the middle of the album that we get a glimpse that maybe, just maybe, the band has matured in sound and lyrical depth. “Interchangeable Knife” contains an intelligent layering of synth tones. “Eye Contact” features pensive lyrics about a broken relationship: “we arrived here alone/And we left here together/Like birds of a cardinal feather.”Only “Gridlock!” comes close to past recordings, with a bubblegum tune and frontman Dick Valentine’s absurd rhymes and diction.Electric Six is a band that doesn’t take itself seriously. If you’re in the mood for polished, prankster hilarity, then this might be the album for you. But be warned — the group’s carefree attitude backfires at times — here, on its careless composition of the final, title track and resulting lack of cohesiveness of the album. Then again, Electric Six is that band that, even with its faults, you can’t help but embrace.
(09/12/11 1:06am)
Bob Loviscek, president of Metropolitan Professional Firefighters Local 586, behind a piece of the World Trade Center placed outside the IU Auditorium, as part of the Ten Years Later: Indiana University Remembers 9/11 memorial service in 2011.
(07/14/11 12:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In Hollywood, it pays to be white.At least that’s what assistant telecommunications professor Andrew Weaver discovered in a study he directed, which was recently published in the Journal of Communication.Weaver’s team set up a series of web pages that resembled IMDb lists where the only varying factor was a manipulation in thumbnail pictures. They discovered that as the percentage of minority actors in a film went up, white interest in seeing the film went down. “They didn’t think they were part of the intended audience of the film,” Weaver said. “When they saw minority characters, they assume that this is a film that was made for somebody else, not them.”The root of the problem, Weaver said, is films with minority characters are not marketed in the right way. “It’s an assumption that audiences make based on their previous experience, based on what we’ve lived with in Hollywood movies in the last decade or so,” Weaver said. “So in some way you have to break the cycle, and that’s the hard part.”David Waterman, a fellow telecommunications professor, said he believes movie audiences go through “conditioning.”“When people decide whether to go to a movie or not, they go on a basis of what they expect the movie to be like,” Waterman said. “So it’s a natural thing, and it’s nothing to do with prejudice ... different ethnic groups identify with actors from within their own culture readily.”Hollywood’s extravagant budgets also factor in, Waterman said. A large segment of movie audiences tend to base their expectations on the perceived production value of the film. Because of how Hollywood has always cast its mainstream movies, audiences connect films with mainly white cast members with high budget, and therefore, high quality films. Weaver explained, “Essentially, it’s discrimination going on against minority cast members in the name of economics.“If you can get the white audiences to believe that the film is made for them regardless of the race of the cast, and they show just as much interest in seeing the film, then we have some base to convince producers that casting can become more of who’s the best actor or actress for this role, not about who’s the best white actress or actor for this role — which is what it is right now,” he said.Waterman, however, disagreed.“People base their decisions about movies on their expectations,” Waterman said. “And if a producer deviates from that, they jeopardize the revenue potential of their movie. And so they have no incentive.”Weaver was more optimistic about the future for marketing films.“It’s a vicious circle,” Weaver said. “But if we could get some more character-driven movies that succeed with diverse casts, then I think that wall could be broken down very quickly. I’m an optimistic person, so I’m hopeful that change will occur.”
(06/05/11 9:34pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU’s Kelley School of Business is reaching across oceans to educate different kinds of students. These students are the women of Malaysia. Since 2010, the Kelley School’s Institute of International Business has been working in conjunction with other organizations to help women in Malaysia overcome their fears and become more financially capable.The pilot project in the Global Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative helps train these women to build and sustain their own microventures. The greatest challenge women face in starting their own ventures is insufficient confidence rooted in a lack of awareness, Brenda Bailey-Hughes, Kelley School of Business communications lecturer, said. To help alleviate that problem, the Institute’s managing director LaVonn Schlegel said GWEE gives the women microloans, which are then reinvested in their family and the community.A microloan is a small, short-term loan usually given to an entrepreneur in an impoverished country.“We know that by focusing on women that we can make a difference at the most micro-level, the family, and that it will grow out exponentially,” Schlegel said.The project is divided into three phases, said Tamuna Gabilaia, executive director and chief of staff at the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations, the organization Kelley has partnered with for the project. The first was to develop a plan for training. The second involved training close to 50 selected volunteers who would later be training participants.Gabilaia said she hopes to start the third phase of training the participants within the next few months.Participants receive training during a course of seven weeks with three hours of personal guidance each week. The women will gain skills such as developing a business idea, raising and managing funds and marketing one’s venture. The program involves video training and tools designed by Kelley lecturer Mark Long and Bailey-Hughes, as well as a deep understanding of the country’s market.“Most of the training out there is very short-term, like one or two days,” Gabilaia said. “Women actually do not learn much, and they wonder what’s next.“The actual training, the transfer of knowledge, is only 30 percent. So the way we designed this project is unique.”Schlegel said the program will hopefully be expanded to other countries, such as Thailand, Peru, Indonesia and countries in Africa.Ultimately, one of the program’s main goals is that participants develop support networks among themselves. “What we hope will happen with this training is that you’re building this network of other women,” Bailey-Hughes said. “These become the women that I call when I’ve had a bad customer interaction and I just need to vent and get feedback. These are the women I’m friends with, and I can call and talk with them.”
(03/21/11 3:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The room fell silent as the speaker announced this statistic: Within three years of leaving the league, 85 percent of NFL players are divorced or bankrupt. “An old but true statistic,” said Frank Reich, the current wide receivers coach for the Indianapolis Colts. He said most NFL players get into the game at a very young age. In time, their lives are overtaken by football. For a long time nothing else in life but the game matters. Leaving the league reveals the problem.On March 10, more than 300 students braved the heavy downpour to listen to three men speak at Assembly Hall. For its annual outreach event, Campus Crusade for Christ invited Reich, current Colts Chaplain Ken Johnson and Shawn Harper, who played for seven years in the NFL, to share their stories.“If your identity is in your vocation, then that’s where it’s going to lead you,” Reich said. “It’s deciding what you’re going to let define your life.”The message of the event was to know one’s goal in life, to know what one is aiming for. Should people be satisfied upon achieving money and fame, or are their lives worth more than that? It is about scoring the right goals, about winning at the game of life. Reich is a former NFL quarterback for teams like the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions, but he also played basketball in high school. He told the story of how once, at a big game, he shot the ball into the wrong net. Reich’s girlfriend at that time was present at the game. The crucial point came when they shared an “intimate gaze,” causing Reich to make the fatal mistake. “I took my eyes off the goal, what I was meant to do, and that cost me.” Reich said he constantly reminds himself of his purpose in the game of life. He said football used to mean everything to him. Then he met his wife’s cancer-stricken friend, who forced him to re-evaluate his plans.“Who is on your team with you? Who gives you meaning? Who lets you know you can keep on keeping on?” Reich said. Head of the CRU outreach team, junior Wesley Terry, said he is thankful so many people showed up. “We figured the rain killed us a little bit,” Terry said. “It’s an opportunity to try and appeal to the campus and give the Gospel message out to as many people as possible ... at one time.”Freshman Lyndi Hollis, who attends CRU meetings regularly, said she likes how the event was set up.“I liked that they shared the Gospel straight up,” Hollis said. “In college we’re all wrapped up in getting good grades, career, our future ... We need to stop and remember that next to God, none of it matters.”As IU alumnus Harper quoted Matthew 6:33, he said he understands how college students tend to view life through a limited lens of knowledge and intellect, but “using your intellect when it comes to Christ is like comparing a professor to a toddler.” He advised college students to lead a humble lifestyle and seek what is beyond worldly values and treasures that are temporal.“I wash feet,” Johnson said, referring to the Biblical story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet as an act of humility. “And you know what? Sometimes feet stink. But you just show up anyway.” Johnson said he was raised in a broken home. As a college student, he said he was extremely racist against white students. The turning point came when, playing for the school team, he befriended a white quarterback.The quarterback looked past “my stupidity and past my pigmentation — and loved me,” Johnson said.That was when Johnson said he made the decision to “live real,” to pursue the things that really matter. Start with the end in mind, Johnson said. Every setback is a chance for comeback. God is “not calling you to be perfect. Only in Christ can you be perfect,” he said. Harper closed the session retelling the Gospel with an analogy of a computer, its operating system and a virus. “One thing you can’t argue is a changed life,” he said. Harper praised mankind for the many achievements during the last 10 years but claimed that there is one frontier we have tried time and again, and are unable to conquer: the human condition. Senior Michael Goodpaster, who manages sound for CRU meetings, agreed with Harper. “Even though the man can bend a frying pan with his bare hands or tear a telephone book in half, he is still only human,” Goodpaster said. “As a society, we place professional athletes on a pedestal. We hold them up to a standard of perfection. Even ‘perfect people’ can fail like us. We kind of forget that sometimes. We all make mistakes,” Goodpaster said, referring to Harper’s stunts at the beginning of the program.