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(02/08/10 2:41am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“We want our revolution now,” cry the patients of the Charenton asylum.Sometimes shouted, sometimes whispered, sometimes sung, the statement reverberates throughout the play “Marat/Sade,” produced by the IU Department of Theatre and Drama and directed by Dale McFadden.The show will have additional performances this week. The show opens with the patients of the modern-day asylum, played by IU students, bewildered at the audience they attracted. Dressevd in colorful, elaborate costumes made with everything from fancy fabrics to plastic spoons and spare surgical gloves, the inmates take their places as the asylum director welcomes the audience to the show.The play within a play, written and produced by the Marquis de Sade, tells the story of the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, a leader of the French Revolution. Charlotte Corday, played by an inmate with sleeping sickness, visits Marat three times before she successfully stabs him to death.Marat’s assassination is paused several times, sometimes for debates between Marat and Sades and sometimes by the patients’ musical pleas to Marat for a revolution.And when the players’ acting pushes them to the brink of noisy insanity, the asylum director herself interrupts the show, warning Sade to keep his actors in line and avoid saying anything the audience might find discomforting.With mental patients for actors, the characters are unpredictable, and the lines between their characters and their insanity are constantly blurred, creating a show that sophomore Samantha Raab said was “very strange and eccentric, but interesting” and “captivating.”As “Marat/Sade” is itself a play within a play, more lines between reality and fiction are blurred, an aspect of the show that sophomore Katie Groneman said she enjoyed.“It confused me a little bit at first, but it became a lot more clear as it went on,” Groneman said.Junior Matt Herndon said he was impressed with the actors’ “ability to stay inside all that crazy madness going on all over the place, but to keep the story moving along too.”Herndon, who said he is a frequent theater-goer, said he also was very impressed with the cast.“I had high hopes coming into this show, and it actually lived up to all of the hype,” Herndon said. “In order to pull off this play, you have to have a cast that is on their game all the time. And I think this cast was able to do that tremendously, and it really helped this play and this production.”
(02/05/10 2:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Mental patients take the stage Friday at the Wells-Metz Theatre. The patients will be performing a play about the murder of Jean-Paul Marat, with Marquis de Sade as director.That is the “play within a play” of the performance titled “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade,” better known as “Marat/Sade.” The IU Department of Theatre and Drama will have performances Friday, Saturday and Feb. 9 to 13 at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee on Feb. 13 at 2 p.m.In “Marat/Sade” actors portray asylum inmates who put on a show, led by Sade, from whom the term sadism is derived. These intertwining plays deal with the distinctions between ideas like war and peace, optimism and pessimism, human nature as good and evil, as well as the question of to what degree can people change.“The author, Peter Weiss, explores those themes in that, in setting it in an asylum, you have this overall question of ‘What is sanity? What is insanity?’” said Matthew Martin, a junior portraying a patient who believes he is Jean-Paul Marat. “Are people insane and can they be changed and controlled, or are people the subjects of their environment? He takes these huge themes and compresses them into this world where everything is questioned and nothing is resolute.”One major twist in the production is instead of the original 18th century setting, this show takes place in modern times, in a modern asylum, complete with the patients’ childlike crayon drawings adorning the asylum walls.“We’re taking a much more irreverent and theatrical approach to the play than has been done in the past,” said Dale McFadden, director and Professor of Acting and Directing. “I’ve never been satisfied with those productions that kept it in the faux period of the 18th century. The issues at work in the play need to be pushed forward.”Everything from humor to violence to beautiful songs mingle to create what McFadden calls a “clinical cabaret.”“It’s not just what the play is about but how it’s presented, which the audience I hope will find challenging and involving,” McFadden said.Sophomore and stage crew member Rachel Livingston said the play sets a “very odd boundary” between the audience and the actors, and she is eager to see what the audience thinks of it.“I just can’t wait to see how people will react to the uncomfortable silences and see how much they react to the characters,” Livingston said. “The complexity of the story is really interesting. You never really know who’s going crazy because they’re all insane.”
(02/01/10 3:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The John Waldron Arts Center bustled with music and chatter Saturday when Bloomington residents filled the gallery in anticipation for the unveiling of the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s 2010-2011 season. Chad Rabinovitz, the BPP’s producing artistic director, presented the theater’s plans for the year, which include a collaboration with the IU Theatre Department on a musical, as well as a production of the winner of the Reva Shiner Comedy Award and an Off Broadway/On Ninth production in which the BPP will take a brand new play from New York City and bring it to Bloomington.Planning for the BPP’s AwareFest in October has also begun. The event is an effort by the BPP to spread awareness about an important topic through the arts. This year’s topic is “going green.” Other arts organizations will also contribute to the festival, and the BPP plans to reach out to schools in Monroe County. Rabinovitz also promised the Artistic Fulfillment Guarantee, through which any unsatisfied theatergoer can get a free ticket to another BPP show, no questions asked. “We are the only ones in the world doing this,” Rabinovitz said. “This theater is not just unique to this area, it’s not just unique to Bloomington, it’s not just unique to the state or to the country. This theater is unique to the world.” Afterwards, limos took show-goers to the BPP for a showing of “Cadillac,” the Project’s latest production about conflicting ethics and changing times in a used-car dealership.The show ended with a recording of mayor Mark Kruzan, who could not attend the event, naming the past accomplishments of the BPP, calling it “an integral part of the area arts scene for three decades” and proclaiming Jan. 30, 2010 as Bloomington Playwrights Project Day.Rabinovitz and managing director Gabe Gloden then kicked off BPP’s Lights Out/Heat Off “going green” initiative with a humorous candle-lighting ceremony. The BPP will continue to function with minimal heat and electricity until after the Feb. 4 showing of “Cadillac.” A talk-back session with “Cadillac” playwright Bill Jepsen took place in the candlelight where Jepsen discussed his play, BPP’s production of it and the Chicago Dramatists’ Playwrights Network, where he works. He also spoke about the future of American plays and BPP’s role in protecting that future. “Chad spoke tonight about how there’s a danger right now of losing the new American play because of lots of factors out there,” Jepsen said. “There are very few organizations that dedicate themselves solely to new plays and each one has their own little niche that they’re doing.”
(01/28/10 3:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sneaky and underhanded, car salesmen are sometimes characterized as enemies of the consumer who are not to be trusted. The stereotype might assert that any honest car salesman just hasn’t had the temptation to cheat yet – but give him time. Bloomington Playwrights Project’s production of “Cadillac,” which opens at 8 p.m. Thursday, deals with an “honest” salesman and the decision he makes between the customers and the sales quotas. Performances of “Cadillac” run through the next three weekends.Used car dealer Howard Austin, played by Gerard Pauwels, faces a moral challenge when he must decide to sell Fred, played by Thomas Thompson, the car of his dreams – a Cadillac – or to protect his sales record.“It’s about a man who finally has to choose to do the right thing or the wrong thing, and the tension in the play is, ‘Will he do the right thing?’” Thompson said. “Can you find ethics in a used car lot?”Director Chad Rabinovitz said the strong script does most of the storytelling on its own, and Pauwels said it is “seamless” playwriting. “All of the characters are complex,” Pauwels said. “All of them are interesting and believable, and the action between them is believable and everything fits together. It shows the complexity of life in the decisions that they’re making.” BPP’s performance of “Cadillac” will be the second production of the play. The first occurred at the Chicago Dramatists’ Theater, where the play was written by Bill Jepsen in 2008.Rabinovitz said that because the play is so new – like all plays produced by BPP – he thinks it will be more accessible to today’s audiences. “We are one of the few theaters in the country that is focusing on new work, on edgy, contemporary theater,” Rabinovitz said. “A lot of times when people think of theater, they think of Shakespeare. ‘Cadillac’ is about now. This is edgy. It’s intimate. It is talking about things that the younger generation is impacted with.”
(01/25/10 4:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Interesting enough to draw a nearly full house and strange enough to drive a few of them away mid-show, Theatre of the People’s “The Trial” raised many questions about justice but gave few answers when it opened Friday.The show began on a black-and-white set with the arrest of Josef K, who is accused of a crime that is never explained. The officers who arrested K stationed themselves at either side of the stage, which was enclosed in a cage, periodically heckling K and attempting to provoke the audience. The show illustrated K’s downward spiral after the accusation, with K calling on the audience at times for help. The audience rarely responded to his pleas. When it came time for his verdict, the audience became the jury and sentenced K to his demise. Typical theater conventions were broken down when a man was literally both dog and lawyer, a bank employee chirped and a judge spanked two men with a dead horse. Sophomore Farrell Paules said the strangeness of the play was appropriate for Theatre of the People. “I’ve read Kafka before, and TOP and Kafka are a good fit,” Paules said. Another audience member, sophomore Rebecca Johnstone, said the style is typical for the theater company but is usually “not quite this existential.” “I think this is the best thing they’ve done,” Johnstone said. Not everyone found the show so entertaining. A noticeable chunk of the audience was missing after intermission. Director David Nosko said he noted the absence of a “whole row of professors.” “Some folks find it very difficult to accept change and especially with the way a novel is everybody is free to imagine whatever,” Nosko said. “It’s a balance of trying to stay true to the writer and trying to make it theatrical.” “The Trial” was sophomore Aimee Stanton’s first TOP production, but she plans to attend more.“What was really interesting to me was how, even though there was one scene going on, there was another scene going and another scene over there,” Stanton said. “It was interesting to say the least.”
(01/22/10 4:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The phrase “innocent until proven guilty” might be a mantra of the courts, but the power of bureaucracy and rumor can easily reverse the saying for the accused. Such is the story portrayed in Franz Kafka’s “The Trial,” which opens 8 p.m. Friday at the John Waldron Arts Center.Theatre of the People’s latest project, based on Franz Kafka’s novel, tells the story of Josef K, accused of a crime but never told what it is, and how the accusation alone begins to impact his life.“The Trial” will be performed 8 p.m. Jan. 22 through the 23 and Jan. 28 through the 30, with additional shows at 2 p.m. on Jan. 23 and 30.“Sometimes the difference between being guilty or innocent is totally irrelevant,” said director David Nosko. “Just being accused, for the accused, the rest of their life is an attempt to shed that.”K is consumed by the accusation, which affects his life throughout the play. “It takes over his job, his career, his personal life. It just slowly sort of eats away at his sanity,” said Nicholas Maudlin, a sophomore portraying K.Even the stage is enclosed in a cage, separating the audience from the actors and figuratively imprisoning the characters.Adam Bradley, a junior and K’s coworker in the show, said he sees the relevance of “The Trial” particularly in the controversy concerning Guantanamo Bay prisoners.“If someone’s taken in the middle of the night ... taken to an undisclosed location and beaten for a confession, they may have no idea what they’re actually supposed to be confessing,” Bradley said. “It’s the state having a lot of power.”Kafka’s original novel was never finished, so the play, adapted by Nosko, will feel disjointed, surreal and sometimes just plain absurd for audience members.“The story itself is a little bit fragmented, so it comes out in pieces,” Nosko said. “It’s little vignettes that add up to a whole. In the end it is a story of its own.”He said he also wants to encourage audience members to react openly to the play, even if that includes chanting or heckling at times.“TOP theater is not like the IU Department of Theatre and Drama; it’s not like Cardinal theater; it’s not like the Bloomington Playwrights Project, nor are we attempting to be,” Nosko said. “So we just ask for an open mind and an open heart and that people try to enjoy themselves and actually feel free to express themselves.
(09/10/09 4:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Complications with the GI Bill are causing delays in funding for student veterans on campus.The Post 9/11 GI Bill can cover tuition, housing and additional fees for veterans and children of veterans. However, this GI Bill is far more complicated than previous military benefit programs. Even now specifics of the program are still being worked out, causing delays in funding.Put into effect last month, the Post 9/11 GI Bill provides more money than previous GI bills, creating additional complications.“The new one conceivably has a lot more money available for students – depending on their situation – so in many cases they have more benefits available to them. They have less flexibility in what they do with it,” said Margaret Baechtold, director of the Veterans Support Services. “It’s much more complicated, but in the end it should be a better deal for students because they should have more money available to them.”The convoluted nature of the new program also means that the fine points of bureaucracy are still being worked out, even as students are being promised financial aid.“They’ve kind of been inventing the rules as we go along,” Baechtold said. “Some things have changed even in the last week.” The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs is clarifying the rules, which will impact how much money students will get, she said.Such complications have led to inevitable delays. Sarah Gibson, student services assistant for the Veteran Support Services, described the paperwork as “very time intensive,” so students will have to wait a little longer than usual to receive their benefits.According to the Veteran Affairs Web site, about 275,000 education work itemsacross the nation have yet to be processed. This time last year, only about 65,000 items were on the department’s processing list.Baechtold said the IU Veterans Support Services has been working with the bursar to prevent late fees and penalties from appearing on bills of students awaiting VA processing.“We’re here to try to make this work correctly for students,” Baechtold said. “We’ll do the best we can, but the guidance is continuing to change, and the VA’s got a lot more things to finalize and so people have to be patient.”As kinks in the program get ironed out, Nick Bielinski, president of the Student Veterans Association, said he expects to see more veterans taking advantage of the new GI Bill at IU.“It’s hard to beat what the GI Bill has to offer,” Bielinski said. “Be looking for an increase of an older group of students coming in on campus. That’s going to increase a big percentage from here on out. You’re going to start seeing a lot of 22-year-olds and older starting at college as freshmen.”
(03/23/09 3:41am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At a university with more than 40,000 students, it is a goal of many to make it seem smaller.The human biology program, an interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts and Sciences, is attempting this by presenting a weekly coffee hour for students and faculty from all majors to get together and talk about an array of topics. “Coffee hour was something I implemented as a way of building community and giving students a time to get together and share experiences,” said Whitney Schlegel, director of the human biology program.The program – and the coffee hour – was established two years ago to generate a system of interdisciplinary study for both students and faculty. “Human biology is an interdisciplinary program where faculty teach from all over the University,” said Phillip Quirk, assistant director of the program. “The idea of the program is to bring students and faculty together to study what it is to be human.” The coffee hour, which takes place from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Mondays in Morrison Hall 107 this semester, provides a more informal setting for people from all areas of study to connect. Depending on people’s schedules, a handful of professors and about a dozen students attend to discuss everything from current events in biology to personal events.Krista Bergman, a junior in the human biology program, said she regularly attends the coffee hour because it’s “nice to talk casually about things” with her professors.“This year I go every week because I enjoy the personal connection that you gain from being able to talk to your professors outside of class and hang out with classmates,” she said. Dena Kranzberg, a senior in the program, said attending the coffee hour gives her an opportunity to stay in touch with classmates and professors from her classes.“I go to see people who were in my 100-, 200- and 300-level classes that I no longer get to see,” she said.Quirk said the coffee hour is a way for students and faculty to interact on a more informal level, which is often less intimidating than using a professor’s office hours.“We want to emphasize the accessibility of faculty,” he said. “It allows students to become more invested in the program and in their studies.” Schlegel added that having a coffee hour is a chance for students to learn outside of the traditional class lecture or seminar.“I firmly believe all learning is social,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to learn, but to do so in a more informal setting.” Ultimately, the point of the human biology program, and in part, the weekly coffee hour, is to bring together as many perspectives as possible.“You don’t have to be in human biology to come to coffee hour,” Schlegel said. “We want people to enjoy coming together with all these different interests. It’s an opportunity to share collective knowledge.”
(11/17/08 3:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In a crowd speckled with drag queens, IU students joined community members to celebrate feminism Saturday at Lesbopalooza. Bloomington has not seen a Lesbopalooza festival in six years, but OUT and the Women’s Student Association brought it back at Collins Living-Learning Center with music and paintings from local artists, drag performances and workshops.Event coordinator and junior Kadie Dunkel said OUT wanted “to get away from the huge gay stereotype of LGBT life on campus and do something targeted more toward women.” She described it as “a women-centric, feminist-centric festival.” Organizers also said they tried to make the event more inclusive than past Lesbopaloozas, which focused mainly on lesbian relationships. “It used to be an event that created a somewhat wrong depiction of women, so it’s our goal today and from here out to recreate the event to be more inclusive with no restrictions on entertainment or what a woman is,” Bloomington resident Chanel Cartier said during the Lesbopalooza introduction. “A ‘woman’ is a social construction term and is subject to one’s understanding of gender. ... It’s no one’s right to tell us who we are, and that’s what today is all about.” The festival opened with songs from the Bloomington chapter of the international organization, The Raging Grannies, which “dedicates itself to spreading equality through ... non-violent protest songs.” Local artists the Ladyquakes! Naomi Rae and Onward to Iowa also contributed to the musical performances. Drag queens and drag kings also put on individual shows throughout the festival, one king coming all the way from Kentucky to perform. The show also included reigning Miss Gay IU Britney Taylor. “It’s (about) feminism, but what really defines feminism?” asked Joshua Sutton, junior and president of OUT. “Which is why we had the drag queens. Because they’re men who are imitating women, and that makes feminism look powerful – that somebody, a man, is wanting to imitate a woman.”During the performances, an art gallery featuring work from current and former IU students was open for viewing. Lesbopalooza also hosted a Stitch N’Bitch session, where students came to knit or work on other crafts and were free to complain to others about anything and everything.Planned Parenthood educator Larisa Niles-Carnes also gave a sex talk to students, going beyond pregnancy prevention and focusing also on safe sex between women. The event concluded with a poetry workshop by the lead singer of the Ladyquakes! and Onward to Iowa’s performance.
(11/13/08 4:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Prepare to be shocked.She can knit sweaters so small, six could fit on your index finger with room to spare. She can create cityscapes in socks tiny enough for a doll or famous paintings in cardigans 1/12th the size of a person’s clothing.Bloomington resident Althea Crome has been knitting since her college days, but only in the past seven years has she miniaturized her art form to 1/12 scale – the scale used for doll houses – or even 1/144 scale – the scale used for doll houses inside doll houses. It started as a hobby to create doll clothes for her children, but Crome has pushed the art to such extremes that it has landed her a two-page spread in the book, “Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Prepare to be Shocked,” published this year.“Though I realize that certainly my art is not the norm, and what I do is not the norm, it’s normal to me,” Crome said. “I have always been the kind of person that has enjoyed a challenge and has enjoyed going off the grid a little bit and doing things a little differently. For me, it’s what gives me satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. I would be a terrible office worker, a 9-to-5 kind of person. This really suits me well.”Originally, “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” wanted to feature Crome’s knitted miniatures in one of their Odditoriums, museums dedicated to the weird and outlandish. Though they did not purchase any of her works for exhibition, she earned a spot in their latest book on surprising oddities from around the world.Crome said she hopes her self-described “bug-knitting” will be appreciated as a unique art form.“It is technically very difficult to do because it’s at such a small scale and so very detailed,” Crome said. “So when I say that it’s a new art form, what I’m talking about is that I am working toward getting out of the doll house arena so it’s not seen as doll clothes, but rather art in and of itself, because the pieces I’m making now are very conceptual in their design. The imagery I knit into it is reflected in the design of the garment itself.”Her bug-knitting is so rare, she must produce her own needles made from surgical steel in order to form her smallest creations. For works that tiny, she also has to use a magnifying glass.Vera Feric-Buys of Oakville, Ontario, who attended a knitting class taught by Crome, said Crome’s knitting is indeed an art form.“Not everyone is capable to do what she creates,” Feric-Buys said in an e-mail. “Ms. Crome is extremely talented. She creates her own designs which are multicolored and extremely complicated to execute. She uses her needles as a painter uses brushes to create exquisite art work.”Kaye Browning, miniatures collection curator for the Kentucky Gateway Museum center in Maysville, agreed, saying one of the items she bought from Crome evoked strong imagery.“The very first piece I bought from (Crome was) a Picasso painting, ‘Women in a Yellow Hat,’ knitted into the back of the sweater in perfect, perfect detail,” Browning said. “The detail in that sweater is absolutely awesome. Along the bottom she had knitted a bullfight scene with dressage horses and the bullfighter and the bull. I could literally imagine those horses prancing and doing their dressage just by looking at the sweater.”Currently Crome’s miniature art is featured in the Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting exhibit, which has traveled from New York City to Indianapolis. It is now in Scottsdale, Ariz.Crome has also knitted various miniature and full-sized garments for the upcoming 3-D fantasy film “Coraline,” which will be released in February 2009.
(10/09/08 4:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Serving meals without trays in dining halls, instituting an optional energy fee with tuition and establishing an environmental-learning community in Eigenmann were among the ideas and plans thrown around at Tuesday’s sustainability panel.A discussion panel spoke to students about sustainability and how IU will move toward a more sustainable future. A group of about 25 students gathered at Starbucks in the Indiana Memorial Union to hear a panel sponsored by the IU Student Association, Volunteers in Sustainability and the Indiana Memorial Union Board.Nathan Bower-Bir, a junior with Volunteers in Sustainability and moderator of the panel, began the discussion by presenting a definition of sustainability: “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” he said.Discussion then turned to what projects the future might hold for IU on an administrative level, now that the search for a director of Campus Sustainability has begun.“There are some new initiatives for teaching, new courses and new degree programs related to sustainability, and some new initiatives related to research in sustainability-related issues,” said Michael Hamburger, associate dean of the faculties and professor of geological sciences.Concern over the University’s College Sustainability Report Card was also discussed. IU’s current standing is a C+, the lowest grade in the Big Ten.IU is at a slight disadvantage because it does not have engineering schools or agricultural schools, said Mike Steinhoff, a sustainability research assistant.Without the resources that come with having such schools, IU does not have as many opportunities for research and sustainability initiatives.However, IU is implementing changes.“We have been switching over numerous products that we clean the entire Union with to green products,” said Gary Chrzastowski, assistant director of facility services for the IMU. “The Union has over half a million square feet in this one particular building. We can go through quite a bit of chemicals, and we have in the past.”The panel members talked about student participation in both the past and the present to make IU more sustainable, and said they hoped students would get involved, since the administration is just getting started on forming its sustainability department.The Collins Center dining hall is serving food without trays for the month of October.“They did this at a smaller school in Maine and they saved 288,000 gallons of water and $57,000 a year just by doing this program,” said Kevin Pozzi, a senior who worked with the IU Sustainability Task Force. “It saves chemicals in washing the trays, and it also stops people wasting food because most of the time you’re not going to eat more than you can actually carry, so by having many different plates, you’re probably not going to be eating all the food.”Foster Quad is also starting a community garden and compost, and there are plans to start an environmental learning community in Eigenmann Hall next year.In addition, the Student Alliance is planning to help off-campus apartments start to recycle, a task made difficult since certain buildings have different preferences.They are also looking to alumni for support to get the University involved with the Presidents Climate Commitment, an initiative aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions.Another IUSA project is to look into starting an optional green energy fee that students can sign up for when they register for classes next semester, as a “pilot project for adding in a green energy fee into our actual tuition,” said Abby Schwimmer, director of sustainability for IUSA and a columnist for the Indiana Daily Student.“Really, what we’re doing this year is dependent on the input we get,” Schwimmer said. “We’d like to serve as a conduit for any student concerns relating to sustainability, and we’d like to also be a clearinghouse. If you don’t know where to go with a project idea, or if you don’t know where to get support for it, we can help you out with that.”Students interested in getting involved can visit the Task Force’s Web site at www.indiana.edu/~sustain for internship opportunities and a list of environmental groups on campus and in the community.
(09/22/08 1:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In today’s world it can be hard for some people to believe peace is within reach, but now the Bloomington Peace Week committee hopes to make changes to promote peace in the world by hosting its first Peace Week. Peace Week, an event the committee hopes to hold annually, kicked off on Sunday, the same day as the U.N. International Day of Peace, with a community picnic at 4 p.m. at the Courthouse Square. A variety of free events continue throughout the week to help connect Bloomington peace-lovers and to provide information on what hinders, and how to achieve, peace.The committee’s motto, “Conflict is inevitable. Peace is possible. And our vision is a world where everyone has tools to make peace,” is what the diverse group of everyday people from around Bloomington hopes to promote during Peace Week. “Peace Week is about peace in all its dimensions – inner peace, relational peace, community peace and environmental peace,” said Ingrid Skoog, co-chair of the Peace Week committee.Among the various activities, there will be film showings, workshops and yoga classes, and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Thomas Schelling will give presentations about nuclear proliferation and the greenhouse gas problem. IU will also host some events, including a Student Peace Alliance Event on Friday.It all ends at noon Saturday with a Peace Festival in Third Street Park.Part of the inspiration behind Peace Week is the goal of establishing a national Department of Peace, an initiative first brought forth by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.“(It is important) to put our financial and institutional resources behind what we say we want, which is peace. So let’s start to direct our resources that way,” said Gail Merrill, another co-chair of the committee. She said she also hopes one day a U.S. Peace Academy will be established. She imagines it being like a military academy, where students will learn how to go overseas and maintain peace.Skoog agreed with the proposal.“We believe that if we were to have that cabinet in existence, it would be a statement to the rest of the world that peace is an organizing principle of our nation,” Skoog said. “In a practical way, we would educate the best minds in our nation to understand the roots of violence and to understand ways of avoiding it.”One member of the Peace Committee is excited to see what Peace Week will accomplish just for the locals of Bloomington.“All I want is a better way, and I think it starts with the grassroots,” said Lucy Tracy, a two-year committee member. “We cannot form global peace tomorrow, but it starts with the people, the community.”More information about Peace Week and the schedule of events can be found online at www.bloomingtonpeaceweek.org.
(03/28/08 3:59am)
Baked goods, massages, coaching sessions for acting and a chance to throw a pie in someone’s face are all items that can be won at this year’s Student Advisory Board auction for the Department of Theatre and Drama. \nOn Friday, the Student Advisory Board will auction not only material things, but also services from faculty members and other students.\n“Last year, we raised just over $1,400, and we’ve been raising increasingly large amounts,” said Noe Montez, a Student Advisory Board Ph.D. representative, who auctioned off a chance to throw a pie in his face last year. “Hopefully those are numbers that can continue to go up this year.”\nSome of the other items that made this year’s list of winnings include help with a thesis or research, cooked dinners, clothing from a talented designer and a designated driver who will “pick you up at the end of the night so you don’t end up with some shady cab driver,” as Student Advisory Board Ph.D. representative Tom Robson put it.\n“It’s a mixture of things that are useful, things that are fun, things that are silly, things that are slightly destructive – but responsibly destructive,” Robson said. “And a couple of things I can’t talk about in a family publication.”\nWhile mostly students from the Department of Theatre and Drama have attended the auction in past years, all are welcome to come. \n“This auction is just really calling up all of your friends and having them come together, like at a theme party,” said Jacob Dahm, senior and Student Advisory Board upper-undergraduate representative.\nFunds raised from the auction will go toward the Department of Theatre and Drama Awards Banquet, unofficially known as Drama Prom.\nRobson said they are always looking for people to auction things off.\n“If someone decides five (minutes) before the auction starts that they have something they want to auction, come up to someone who’s working it and tell us,” Robson said. “Look for people with clipboards.”\nThe auction will take place at 5 p.m. Friday in the courtyard outside of the theatre and drama building.
(11/21/07 1:20am)
CLEMSON, S.C. – For those feeling the stress of finding a ride home for upcoming holidays, a new Facebook application may help relieve those worries. The application, called Carpool, allows users to post where they plan to travel so others without a means of transportation can find rides home. \nThe Carpool application is functional in the United States, Canada and England and can be accessed through MySpace accounts as well. \nEven though the application launched just this past summer, it has already reached the status of most popular online ride sharing service in North America, according to zimride.com, the Web site of Carpool’s origination. \nCollege campuses have embraced the application, where it has begun to replace traditional “ride boards” that students used to post paper destination requests in search of a carpool. \nLogan Green, the creator of Carpool and recent graduate of University of California at Santa Barbara, is pleased with how the application has been received by the college community. Green calls the growth “unprecedented.” \n“It shows that not all popular Facebook applications have to involve ninjas and vampires,” Green said. “An application like Carpool helps students find safe rides in addition to cutting their gas expenses and reducing (carbon dioxide). And it’s clear students value that.” \nWith Facebook filling the role of virtual social epicenter of college students’ lives, creators of Carpool could not have chosen a better means by which to promote the application. \nIn fact, more than 10,000 rides have been posted on Carpool in less than four months. \nIn addition to finding a ride home, students can conduct a mock “background check” on the person offering the ride. Personal information can also be regulated using security controls on the Facebook Web site. \nCarpool will also facilitate communication between those wishing to ride with one another, allowing people to even set a price to charge for gas and other transportation expenses. \nThe application works with other Facebook applications so people can search for rides to an event. \nTo ensure accurate destination descriptions, Carpool uses Google Maps technology to match students traveling with the same destination in mind. After carpooling, users are recommended to leave feedback, describing their experience to inform future riders. The application aims to make ride sharing a more social and accessible experience. \n“It really feels like I’m part of a community,” said Meredith Hoffman, a junior at Cornell University and a user of Carpool. “Using Carpool on Facebook, I can choose to ride with people in my school who I know I can trust.”
(03/28/07 4:00am)
You’ve got the killer outfit, the perfect shoes, even a chic designer handbag.\nBut when the rain starts to fall, do you reach for a flimsy black umbrella, bought in haste during the last rainstorm? Or, worse, a bulky golf umbrella that came free with your checking account?\nIf so, it’s time to go shopping.\n“Umbrellas are becoming the new accessory,” says stylist Felix Mercado, who serves as a celebrity style expert for Fox News Channel. Mercado says some of his high-profile clients have been calling this month requesting trendy umbrellas. “You’re going to see a lot of the fashionistas playing it up with interesting umbrellas.”\nThe interest in the decidedly utilitarian item is driving manufacturers to come up with new and prettier designs that repel rain but attract compliments.\nShedRain, for example, which produces both high-end and lower-priced umbrellas, is selling a line of luxury umbrellas, designed by the Italian company Ombrelli, that retail for $195 this year. The handle and shaft are made from a single, hand-carved piece of wood, and the canopy is covered with Italian twill polyester in a variety of prints, including plaids, florals and a Tibetan-inspired stripe.\n“If people are paying $195 for an umbrella, they’re seeing it as a fashion accessory,” said Jeff Blauer, ShedRain’s executive vice president of business development.\nSeattle-based Pare Umbrellas offers several lingerie-inspired designs this season, a style that’s become popular on both sides of the Atlantic. “When it is closed, it looks like an old-styled bloomer,” says owner Satoko Kobayashi of the company’s frilly “Mary Poppins” model.\nFrench lingerie designer Chantal Thomass offers seven new umbrella designs adorned with a similarly sexy mix of lace, bows and Swarovski crystals.\nMercado recently ordered Thomass’s “Pom-Pom” model for a client. “Women are saying, ‘I’m going to have fun with this,’” he says. “It’s like an extension of your personality.”\nHigh-fashion umbrellas are being marketed to men as well.\n“It’s an accessory as important as your briefcase,” says David Kahng, CEO of Davek, which sells men’s umbrellas for $95 at stores such as Neiman-Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Kahng, a mechanical engineer, designed his umbrellas with a solid steel shaft and a flexible, carbon polymer frame. The company offers a lifetime guarantee against breakage.\nBut Kahng says fashion is also a priority for customers, and he now sells black umbrellas with one contrasting panel, either pale blue or wasabi green.\n“Until now, with a handbag or shoes or sunglasses, there was that expectation. But until recently umbrellas didn’t have that fashion clout,” he says.\nSome people are also using umbrellas for sun protection.\n“You don’t see so many people walking around with umbrellas in the sun yet, but you see more than you did a few years ago,” said Ann Headley, director of rain product development at Totes. “You do see them in Manhattan in the heat of the summer.”\nTotes has created light-colored umbrellas with specially treated fabric offering a sun protection factor of 50. “A black umbrella does about the same thing,” says Headley. “But in the sun in the summer, you don’t want a black umbrella.”
(09/27/06 2:49am)
BERLIN -- A leading opera house canceled a three-year-old production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that included a scene showing the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing a furious debate over free speech.\nIn a statement late Monday, the Deutsche Oper said it decided "with great regret" to cancel the production after Berlin security officials warned of an "incalculable risk" because of the scene.\nAfter its premiere in 2003, the production by Hans Neuenfels drew widespread criticism over the scene in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads not only of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, but also of Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha. The disputed scene is not part of Mozart's original staging of the 225-year-old opera, but was an addition of Neuenfels' production, which was last performed by the company in March 2004.\n"We know the consequences of the conflict over the (Muhammad) caricatures," Deutsche Oper said in its statement announcing the decision. "We believe that needs to be taken very seriously and hope for your support."\nOn Tuesday, Deutsche Oper director Kirsten Harms said security officials had recommended, but not ordered, that she either cut the scene or pull the entire production from the 2006-2007 lineup.\n"The State Criminal Office assessed the situation and came to the conclusion that if the Deutsche Oper stages this version of 'Idomeneo' in its originally produced form, it will pose an incalculable security risk to the public and employees," Harms told reporters.\n"If I were to ignore this and say, 'We are going to stage this nevertheless, or because of this,' and something were to happen, then everyone would say, and would be right to say, 'She ignored the warning of security officials,'" Harms said.\nShe said she spoke at length with Neuenfels -- who insisted his staging not be altered -- as well as the orchestra director and others involved in the production before making her decision.\nWhile some expressed understanding for the decision, many were outraged.\n"That is crazy," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters in Washington, where he was holding meetings with U.S. officials. "This is unacceptable."\nThe leader of Germany's Islamic Council welcomed the decision, saying a depiction of Muhammad with a severed head "could certainly offend Muslims."\n"Nevertheless, of course I think it is horrible that one has to be afraid," Ali Kizilkaya told Berlin's Radio Multikulti. "That is not the right way to open dialogue"
(02/15/05 4:12am)
In the Monroe County community, nearly 14,000 neighbors have difficulties paying for food, according to last year's United Way Community Services of Monroe County's annual report. With the help of United Way funds, the Community Kitchen of Monroe County served more than 120,000 meals in 2004, one-third of those to children. A Community Kitchen client said in the report, "It has helped me out because I haven't had a job in a while, but I am trying to get back on my feet." \nThis year the United Way will continue funding its member agencies thanks to its 2004-2005 "Neighbors Helping Neighbors -- Growing Together" campaign, which exceeded its goal of raising $1.6 million. After double-checking the final donated amount, UWCS announced this year's campaign raised $1,614,475. \nBarry Lessow, UWCS executive director, said community participation this year was tremendous. \n"(The participation was) an expression of how the community cares about the people living here," Lessow said. \nThis year more than 110 organizations and thousands of individuals participated in the campaign, and 15 percent of the organizations experienced a growth in donations from the previous year. \nSix new workplace contributors also helped push UWCS beyond its goal. IU, Bloomington Hospital and Healthcare System and General Electric pitched in with impressive efforts and received the Pillar Award for contributing $50,000 or more to the campaign, Lessow said.\n"[United Way] was thrilled with the response," Lessow said of the campaign information insert placed in the Herald-Times. The insert included a preaddressed envelope, making donations easier for those wanting to give. Many people throughout the community learned about the campaign through this advertisement and called to find out how to donate. \nThe success of the campaign also stemmed from the more refined message that UWCS presented to Bloomington and the surrounding communities. Lessow said UWCS was not changing what it had done but made its message clearer. \n"People want a sense of whose life is being supported and improved ... We were able to demonstrate the needs [of the community]," Lessow said. \nStatistics helped people understand the importance of these services; for example, one in every three people from the Bloomington area is in need of or has used services funded by UWCS.\nThe campaign's mission is not only to raise money for the following year's programs but also to generate "an opportunity to educate the community about services that are available," Lessow said. \nWhen visiting organizations that participate in the campaign, a UWCS spokesperson brings a member agency associate to offer first-hand accounts of the number of clients the agency has helped and how its services, which were made possible by United Way funding, have changed lives. \nUWCS grants monetary allotments to 25 local certified member agencies. These agencies include the American Red Cross (Monroe County Chapter), Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington, Community Kitchen of Monroe County and Middle Way House. \nIf the campaign had not reached its goal, the agencies would have received less money, resulting in eliminated programs and fewer people able to receive aid. \nThe allocation committee, responsible for distributing funds to member agencies, was pleased with the campaign's success. "It was very heartening for them recognizing there were more funds available," Lessow said. \n-- Contact Staff Writer Melissa Swyers at mswyers@indiana.edu.
(02/08/05 4:33am)
Indiana is currently the only state that regulates and certifies hypnotists. \nOther hypnotists from across the nation travel to the Hoosier heartland to become certified because their state does not recognize the credibility of the profession as a medical career.\nIf Senator Robert Meeks (R-Ind.) had it his way, Indiana would continue being a beacon of light for the hypnosis profession.\nHe has recently drafted new legislation -- Senate Bill 114 -- in an attempt to keep Indiana a hypnotist-accrediation model for other states. \n"(The bill) is an effort to upgrade the standard of the board," Meeks said.\nThe Indiana Hypnotist Committee -- composed of three hypnotists, other doctors and one community member -- is charged with regulating and certifying Hoosier hypnotists and hypnotists from other states. Certification from the committee does not mean a hypnotist is licensed in another state; rather, certification improves the perception of an accredited profession. \nThe committee is affiliated with the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana. \nRichard Erickson, committee member and certified hypnotist, said Hoosier hypnotists are laying the path for recognizing hypnosis as a legitimate medical procedure.\n"For once, we're kind of ahead of the game," Erickson said in a 2004 Indiana Business article. "Other states are looking at us as a model."\nThe alliance between the committee and the Medical Licensing Board is of huge importance to Hoosiers -- it marks the belief that hypnosis is not entertainment, but a medical method with therapeutic benefits. \nMeeks said he felt inspired to write this bill because of a constituent who happens to be a hypnotist, in addition to the knowledge that other medical professionals must have licenses to put their patients in a state of sleep.\nThe bill in its original draft "requires that a hypnotist appointed to the hypnotist committee have a master's or doctorate degree." To sit on the committee, the hypnotist member is only required to have 500 hours of classroom experience to be certified.\nErickson said his main concern with SB 114 is the language rooted in the bill.\n"(The bill) is not specific enough in intent to justify its passage or to even have it read," Erickson said. "(The bill) is not finite enough as to what a master's or a doctorate is ... (it is) error by omission."\nErickson said the committee, generally, was not in favor of Sen. Meeks' bill. \nHe said the original hypnotist legislation was written haphazardly and without a prototype because Indiana was the first state to regulate and certify hypnosis.\nErickson said the goal of the committee is to put together "a well-rounded bill."\n"The original writer had the forethought to see the need for hypnosis medicine," Erickson said. "(The committee's goal is) changing the bill to fit the criteria of current medical professions."\nWith the ongoing research in hypnotherapy, some studies have found that hypnosis does significantly affect the brain. In 2000, for instance, Harvard University researchers Stephen Kosslyn and William Thompson published their study on hypnosis in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The study showed that different brain activity was triggered when the test subjects were hypnotized versus unhypnotized when asked to perform similar perceptual tests. \nAlthough both bills will only affect the members of the committee only it is the hope of both Erickson and Meeks that the hypnotist occupation for Hoosiers will earn accreditation -- possibly validating the profession nationwide.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Melissa Swyers at mswyers@indiana.edu.
(11/04/04 5:53am)
When you go to the ballet, you might think of the many different aspects of the spectacle, including the costumes, music, lighting and, of course, the graceful dancers themselves. \nWhat you might not consider is that in order to balance on the tips of their toes, using a technique developed over 170 years ago, ballerinas depend heavily on expensive and delicate handmade toe shoes, or pointe shoes. Made of a stiff sole, or shank, a toe box, on which the dancer places her weight when en pointe, and a satin upper portion and ribbons, a pair of toe shoes might only last a day or two.\nAccording to www.dancer.com, the first woman to go en pointe was probably the famous French ballerina Marie Taglioni in 1832.\nTaglioni's innovations helped to shape the technique and helped ballet to evolve into the art form it is today, according to the Web site. \nFormer prima ballerina and IU ballet professor Violette Verdy explained that the use of toe shoes helped to create the ethereal, otherworldly aspect of the spectacle of ballet.\n"It was about a very idealized, very platonic, almost unreachable creature. It had all the guiles of the woman but it was not as attainable as the ordinary woman. (They are like) sprites, nyads, dryads," Verdy said. "You know they are women but they are women of another realm. They were idealized. They were elevated by their toe shoe as a symbol of their elevation."\nIn order to reach this elevated, goddess-like status, ballerinas have to spend several hours per week and thousands of dollars per year on purchasing and perfecting their toe shoes, Verdy said.\nVerdy said dancers in professional ballet companies can go through up to a pair of toe shoes per day. Students at IU often go through between one and two pairs per week, although they wear out more shoes when they are preparing for a performance, Verdy said.\nSenior ballet student Lauren Menger said she uses around a pair of toe shoes per week, although sometimes a pair might last up to two weeks. She explained that it is necessary to purchase new shoes often because it is dangerous to dance on shoes that are worn out.\n"Once your shoes get too soft you have to wear new shoes because you won't be able to dance correctly, or you can get hurt. It won't give you enough support," Menger said.\nBoth Menger and Verdy said most dancers are very particular about what kind of toe shoes they buy. Often they are adamantly loyal to one particular brand of toe shoes, which are handmade, and sometimes they even stick to one particular shoemaker at that company, Menger said.\nAfter purchasing the toe shoes, dancers cannot simply put them on and dance. They often have very specific breaking-in rituals for their shoes.\n"Cohabiting with a toe shoe, it's more than a roommate. It's a magnificent obsession. It's like a lover. It's like a glove on a hand. The ballet foot, with its proud little arch, like a horse's hoof, and the shoe are one," Verdy said.\nMenger said she bends a new pair of shoes with her hands and then puts water on the toe to soften it. Verdy said she used to put some elastic in the ribbons behind her Achilles tendons for more flexibility.\nSome dancers have more drastic rituals, which include shutting them in doors to break them in, Verdy said.\n"Dancers spend so much time with their shoes, like a violinist tuning his instrument. Our body is our instrument, and we tune up our body, and the shoe is an extension of the body ... You have to impart your knowledge to your shoe so your shoe doesn't betray you," Verdy said.\nWhile toe shoes are so necessary to ballerinas, purchasing all those pairs is not cheap. Menger said her toe shoes cost around $60 per pair.\nDoricha Sales, public relations coordinator for the ballet department, said students can spend thousands of dollars per academic year on toe shoes. To combat this expense, Sales said people can donate money to a fund called On Your Toes, which helps to reimburse ballet students for part of the cost of their toe shoes. Sales said the amount that students receive is "not even a drop in the bucket" compared to what they spend, but it is a help.\nTo donate to On Your Toes, send a check made out to the IU School of Music to 1201 E. Third St.\n-- Contact staff writer Melissa Harrold at mejharro@indiana.edu.
(10/29/04 4:46am)
Wednesday night's production of the Broadway musical "The Full Monty" left the enthusiastic audience members with grins on their faces and tunes in their heads.\nThe show was a hit, and it wasn't just because of the (ahem) minimal costumes of the six main male characters in the last scene of the show. The quirky characters, catchy music and overall fun atmosphere of the production kept the audience engaged and laughing throughout the three-hour performance.\n"The Full Monty" tells the story of Jerry and Dave, both of whom have been laid off from their jobs at a Buffalo, N.Y., steel mill, and four of their friends, also down on their luck, who plan to strip to make some quick cash. It is based on the 1997 film of the same name, which won the Academy Award for Original Musical or Comedy Score and was nominated for Best Picture and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, among others. \nAlthough I was a bit skeptical at the change of setting from England in the film to Buffalo in the musical, I was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing was lost in the American presentation of the musical. \nIn both cases, and aside from any preconceptions one might have about a story detailing the lives of male strippers, this is a tale of six men's redemption of their "manhood" through unconventional means. \nJerry and Dave, especially, felt emasculated by the fact that they could not earn money to support their families. Although stripping was not necessarily seen as the manliest of occupations, it allowed them to at least win their own bread again.\nWhile many of the musical numbers, such as "It's a Woman's World" or "Big-Ass Rock" were catchy and fun, the character acting and singing of Horse in "Big Black Man" really stole the show. Horse, an aging black man with a hip problem, really showed Jerry and the other guys that he had the moves to be a part of Hot Metal, the group of male strippers, by whipping out such tried and true dance steps as the Mashed Potato, the Robot and the Jerk. \nThe big number "Michael Jordan's Ball," in which the six men learn to dance by imitating Michael Jordan's moves on the court, was also full of physical comedy and a catchy beat.\nThese and other pop culture references to people like Frank Sinatra, Carole King and Jim Croce, added to the show's well-rounded and witty dialogue. \nAside from the slapstick comedy and fun soundtrack, the musical brings up several issues of gender. Jerry ridicules Dave for doing dishes, what he calls "women's work," and complains about not being able to support his son like a man should. \nIt was ironic, then, that the source of their hope was a situation in which all the men ended up in red leather thongs, being ogled by hundreds of women (and men). \nWhether Jerry and his friends learned a lesson about what truly is a man's place in the world, they did gain some hope and pride back from this experience, and the audience cheered right along with them.