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(03/03/10 10:35pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Swedish indie-rock band the Shout Out Louds released a song, called “Wish I Were Dead,” that brought them fame in 2003.Seven years later, the band probably still wishes they were dead. Hard times have only gotten harder, which means harder work is required.Their latest offering, “Work,” reflects on the past few years via slow-burning melancholy and ’80s grooves. “Throwing Stones” gets the thesis down pat: “If you think I’m slowing down / I’m not slowing down,” lead vocalist Adam Olenius croons. On the strength of a dizzying bassline and Lauper-esque oohs and ahs, “1999” reminisces on that pivotal moment in history when Americans were just learning of their obsession with celebrity and the Internet, but times were still whimsical. Even though things only seem to be getting worse, “Paper Moon” provides a bittersweet faith in something more: “Moon is watching over us / In the dark, I dare to tell you.”The overall message, while daunting, is still effective. What’s missing is that to succeed these days, you gotta work smarter, not harder.
(03/03/10 7:02pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Picture this: Little Kirbys are flouncing about furiously with air guitars strapped to their round bodies as they hastily build a dreamland. They occasionally pause to rock out, or engage in gleeful Polyphonic Spree-like vocal harmonies. Now, you’ve got the soundscape of Citay’s latest disc, “Dream Get Together.” The titles of the eight-song opus are certainly cute enough — see “Tugboat” and “Mirror Kisses,” a contemplation of the ego’s delusions. “Mirror Kisses” is easily the most beautiful song on the album. It is highlighted by an acoustic strum and lyrics of self-lovin’: “When I look in the mirror / I make a move on me / The only one that you can kiss is yourself.” It’s not all cutesy aerobics, however.“Secret Breakfast” starts cute, but then ventures into a swirling pad arrangement near the end of its seven minutes that is so dark and psychedelic, you wonder what exactly is being digested at this so-called breakfast. The album’s lasting effect is jarring, and at times confusing, but it’s definitely a trip worth returning to.Be sure to pack a flashlight and a life-size stuffed bunny rabbit.
(03/01/10 5:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Alexandria Prather took to her Facebook last week in the wake of a step dance controversy. The junior said she wanted the world to know this: “TAU step is the best sorority step team in the nation. Period.”Prather is a member of IU’s TAU Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., which placed second nationally at the Sprite Step Off competition on Feb. 20 in Atlanta.The competition’s winning sorority was Zeta Tau Alpha’s Epsilon Chapter of the University of Arkansas, which won a check for $100,000 in scholarships. But after announcing a “scoring discrepancy” Thursday, the competition’s sponsor, Coca-Cola, declared AKA and ZTA co-first place winners, each receiving $100,000 scholarship checks.The 10 members of AKA who competed in the competition were all black. AKA was the only team from Indiana to compete on a national level.The winning ZTA team was all white, a fact that, Prather said, was made to seem like their singular “wow factor.”Stepping is a traditionally African-American art form rooted in a combination of African rhythmic percussive dance, old schoolyard chants and a military close-order and exhibition drill.From the time the AKA team was announced as second place by rapper Ludacris, the step-off’s host, Prather said ZTA had experienced an unending wave of boos from the approximately 5,000 people in the crowd.In that respect, Prather said she felt bad for them.“It’s not that they were bad,” she said. “They were a good step team, one of the best teams there. But we should’ve gotten first place, point blank.”Prather argued that the AKA routine was both step-perfect and complicated, while ZTA incorporated simpler steps, though they were executed well. Prather and AKA supporters said they believed the competition was rigged. IU alumnus James Bigsbee, and member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., helped choreograph the steps AKA had been perfecting since they spontaneously formed a step team last September under the direction of junior Jasmine Starks, the TAU chapter president. “If you look at the Divine Nine black fraternities and sororities, let’s say they each have a superpower, one has fire and the other freezing,” Bigsbee explained. “The girls of ZTA hired choreographers and took something from all nine organizations. That’s what people mean when they talk about stealing. We saw signature movements from the Divine Nine in their routine.” In their cast biography for the MTV2 series, ZTA “admittedly acquired their step skills from the AKAs on campus. However, they have taken what they learned, made it their own, and perfected it.”Before their first regional competition, the IU AKA members had four days to create an original routine and competed in several competitions before advancing to Atlanta. Bigsbee said up until the Sprite Step Off, the AKAs had been judged by other greeks, people who understood what stepping was all about. At the Sprite Step Off, the first large-scale national competition of its kind, the judges included R&B singers Monica and TLC’s Chilli. “We were the real underdogs,” Prather said. “We were from Indiana and the best, and people only think stepping is in the south.”Prather said it seemed natural that with celebrity and network television endorsement, ZTA were poised to place high in the competition, if not win.“It’s all just become a reality show, and that’s obviously just not real,” she said. The debate has gravitated to YouTube and Facebook. On the YouTube video of ZTA’s winning routine, which has received more than 400,000 views, there are more than 2,000 comments ranging from accusations of racism to sympathetic support for the sisters of ZTA. Prather said in the wake of the situation, there has been a storm of press in Atlanta and elsewhere, both in favor of and against the AKAs. Essentially, the press has pitted the two co-winning sororities against one another.But Starks called the opportunity to compete “a blessing” and a chance to represent AKA nationally after seven years of inactivity on IU’s campus. The sisters recently celebrated their first-year anniversary on Feb. 22.Starks said her team also recognized the tenacity and creativity of their competition at the Sprite Step Off. The scholarship money will be used to support the step team members’ education and the TAU chapter. Starks added that she and her sisters she will be looking forward to other step competitions — the annual Atlanta Greek Picnic and the Little 500 Step Down.“We accomplished what we set out to accomplish,” Prather said. “If people need to know anything else, they can Google us.”
(02/24/10 4:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The scene was befitting for the British Parliament during IU President Michael McRobbie’s second “State of the University” address, which took place Tuesday in Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union.A color scheme of crimson, cream and black and white houndstooth pattern could be spotted on the briefcases and business attire of the nearly 175 IU faculty and guests in attendance for the address.McRobbie’s speech addressed the University’s academic core, budget status and plans for expansion of facilities with fervent positivity and hope for the future. Over the past 18 months, he said numerous historical strides have been made despite financial difficulties, such as professor Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize win and Barack Obama’s election to the U.S. presidency.The University has been no stranger to economic problems — its endowment has decreased from $1.6 billion in 2008 to $1.1 billion to its current $1.3 billion while faculty salaries have been frozen and tuition was raised.However, enrollment is at a record high with a diverse population of 107,000 students registered last fall. The school has also managed to hire 129 new faculty members this year. Trustee Sue Talbot said she found McRobbie’s speech to be positive and “right on target.”“A lot of what he talked about will benefit students just like you,” she said.Talbot said she worked her way through school during a time where it wasn’t as easy to receive support via scholarships or financial aid. IU Kokomo School of Public and Environmental Affairs professor Karl Besel agreed.“It seems that in the long term, President McRobbie is doing all he can to keep scholarship participation and levels up,” he said.Expansion and reallocation of facilities is on the horizon, with a possible school of public health and an extension of Woodlawn Avenue past 12th St., connecting the north and south parts of campus.McRobbie suggested that IU has avoided many of the cutbacks plaguing other universities and colleges because of fiscal discipline. IU has saved $23.3 million and will save the same amount next year due to conservation efforts. This will allow more funding to support scholarships such Rhodes, Fulbright and Truman.“Much of this good fortune is due to our own planning and actions,” McRobbie said. “At the urging of our trustees, we substantially increased our ‘rainy-day fund’ over the last three years as a buffer against economic downturn.”McRobbie’s greatest inspiration seemed to come from former IU President and Chancellor Herman B Wells. Wells served his presidential term during America’s Great Depression of the 1930s.He proposed private philanthropy efforts, gifts from alumni, and “increased appropriations from the General Assembly” as possible solutions to the budget cuts.So far this fiscal year, Bill and Gayle Cook have given $15 million to IU Athletics and Ostrom gave her approximately $700,000 Nobel Prize money to support the University’s Workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis, which she and her husband Vincent founded in 1973.He ended his speech by stating the focus of every University effort — to strengthen the academic core in all possible means for the benefit of students.An approximately 30 second round of applause broke out.Talbot said she feels that McRobbie’s plans for the future extend to something larger.“As history is written, he will be found to be a visionary in his leadership,” she said. “He and Herman B Wells faced similar challenges because of the economy, but like Wells, President McRobbie is very sensitive to the struggles of students.”
(02/23/10 5:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On Monday afternoon, approximately 120 students showed up to see legendary hip-hop DJ Biz Markie perform in the IU Fine Arts Auditorium.After Markie’s 20-minute set and his departure, only half the room remained.The event was part of a bus tour called “Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now!” and was sponsored by the Hip Hop Caucus and Repower America.The tour aims to merge hip-hop and environmentalism through a panel discussion encouraging student involvement in a clean energy movement. The tour will end Wednesday in Washington, D.C.The panel discussion featured Reverend Lennox Yearwood, president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus; IU’s Director of the Office of Diversity Education Eric Love; sophomore Renee Davis; freshman Lauren Kastner and graduate student Juan Berumen. Biz Markie was also briefly on the panel.Davis is a member of the Black Student Union and Kastner is the president of Coal Free IU, while Berumen researches social justice platforms in education.Yearwood, who has worked with names such as T.I., Keyshia Cole, Jay-Z and even P. Diddy on his 2004 Vote or Die! Campaign, is used to people not getting the message.Yearwood said he has seen people in his neighborhood in Shreveport, La. die of heat stroke and cancer due to poor environmental choices of urban areas. He said he has seen how Hurricane Katrina left many of his loved ones displaced. Yearwood said he served in the Air Force before he realized the current Iraq War was an environmental dispute over oil.Because of these experiences, Yearwood decided to engage urbanized youth nationwide in the idea of a new movement that will promote a cleaner, sustainable planet.The solution, Love said, is hip-hop. Its cultural staples have the power to move the youth. And if hip-hop is an institutionalized part of American culture, the same should go for clean energy.Diversity of this movement should include everyone, because, as senior and INPIRG intern Rachael Watkins said, social movements tend to be one color.“Usually when you think of environmental activists you think of white people,” she said. “But this really does affect everyone.”After students progressively filed out, Yearwood took the mic, addressing those who remained.“The opposition to this movement is just as vicious as anything civil rights leaders faced back then,” he said. “When celebrity is used to draw a crowd and that celebrity rolls out, and everyone rolls out with ’em, you’ve got a problem. The opposition isn’t going to take your stance seriously.”One student challenged the panel and called attention to the many lights in the auditorium being used for the forum, pointing out that the mic seemed unnecessary.“We’ve talked about what we should do, but what can we really do?” he said.Panelist Berumen answered him.“Let’s take responsibility for what we do to negatively affect our planet,” he said. “If you don’t like what you see, take small steps to start something that will change things.”Yearwood’s message is one of pride. He said he is inspired by how anti-slavery abolitionists fought for the freedoms he enjoys today. “I want our children’s children to remember us and say, ‘Thank God they fought for clean energy,’” he said. “Thank God that they fought a movement for existence.”
(02/18/10 5:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fran Snygg had a laugh that rippled through every corridor she walked down. It was childlike, the kind of uproariously whimsical sound that would inspire laughter from others. The outgoing New York dancer, choreographer and artist never met a stranger. But Fran died at 53 in 1996 of diabetic complications.Her home was filled with photographs of dancers and mementos of New York City — a print of the Brooklyn Bridge hung above her fireplace. “You would’ve liked her, I guarantee you would’ve,” said Mary Strow, IU’s head reference librarian. “When she talked to you, it was like you were the most important person in the whole world.”Today marks the beginning of the 26th-annual ArtsWeek, a project Fran pioneered and directed during the final 10 years of her life as a tribute to the diverse artistic culture in Bloomington.The theme of this year’s ArtsWeek is “Arts and the Environment” and will feature everything from a stage production of “The Drawer Boy” to a Trashion/ReFashion show. The event reflects the many social circles Fran connected with. After her death, her life was celebrated in a ceremony by a myriad of talents in theater, music, fine art and dance.Mary and Gwen Hamm, a professor and undergraduate studies coordinator in the Department of Kinesiology, believe today’s ArtsWeek is just as Fran would’ve liked it — a celebration and collaboration of the arts.Fran, Mary and Gwen comprised the Three Amigos — a bond of intellectual companionship and sisterhood.“Our dance styles as choreographers and students are both different and complementary to one another’s,” Gwen said. “Our friendship was the same way.”Fran often thought in conceptual, highly stylized forms, while Gwen’s approach relied more on physicality. Mary rested somewhere in the middle.Gwen was a freshman studying dance when she met Fran.Fran would later go on to pursue a graduate degree in dance theater at New York University, then dance in Spain before returning to IU as a faculty member.“I always admired her from afar,” Gwen said.Pilates instructor Emily Bogard experienced Fran as a fellow classmate, and later, when pursuing her graduate degree at IU as a teacher. Emily remembers how Fran always listened and cared. Fran taught Emily a dance inspired by the late Isadora Duncan, the heralded creator of modern dance. The dance was softer, like Fran, Emily says. It was a beautiful, tough solo piece. Fran matched it with Emily’s ability. “Fran was so open to what a dancer, or anyone for that matter, could suggest,” Emily said. “She often thought, ‘This was the vision, now how do we get there?’”Thus, Fran shattered the stereotype of a cane-tapping, shrill-voiced dance instructor, opting for a soft intensity that attracted one’s full attention. When Fran was up for promotion and tenure — always a stressful time, Mary said — she lost her dossier. Mary laughed when recalling the events that ensued. “We ended up having to go to a landfill, dressed in high heels and office attire, digging through banana peels to find this document that she needed for promotion,” she said. “Can you imagine? I’m sure it was quite a sight to see.”Friends say Fran never took herself too seriously, but when it came to helping others, she was passionate.In her last years, Fran was the head of an ArtsWeek committee that mapped out scholarships for promising talent in her honor. Mary was part of the six-person team that developed the Fran Snygg Endowment Fund and the Grant for Artistic Collaboration awards. Selene Carter, a visiting guest lecturer in the kinesiology department, won both of them.Today in the Jordan Hall Atrium, Selene will showcase her work on a project called Dancescience Lab during afternoon and evening sessions. The event will kick off ArtsWeek. Students from the IU Contemporary Dance Program will perform Selene’s choreography, based on the cycle of life. The location of the atrium is fitting for Selene, because it is a place that explores the developmental movements of all living things. This was something Selene saw in Fran’s work. “Dance shows the growing and shrinking that happens in breathing,” Selene said. “We all breathe and move, so dance is, at its essence, a celebration of life.”
(02/17/10 8:11pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fellas, time to don your secret stash of Lacoste cardigans. Ladies, learn to tie an ascot. It seems that Woodstock possesses more than the rock frenzy that made the little town in upstate New York famous. It inspires music for the Ivy League, too.Yeasayer, a Brooklyn-based quartet, can now add their names to the list of artists influenced by Woodstock. To make their sophomore effort, “Odd Blood,” they took to a country house and got creative. The result is a genre-mashing effort that rocks more than it rolls. The guitars in “Rome” buzz, and cymbals clash with Afro-pop rhythms.“Strange Reunions” is marked by vaguely Middle Eastern-flavored synths, off-beat handclaps and gliding snake-charmer vocals. It features a line that showcases the band’s ego-driven love of independence and creativity: “Don’t ask me for any favors / And I won’t ask you how you’re doin’.”“Odd Blood” is only “odd” because it is likely one of the few albums this year that sounds like an irresistible smart-pop party.
(02/03/10 5:08pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Gravity is at the center of the tumultuous emotional waves splashing ashore in Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, “The Sea.”One can tell the songs, which vary from Waldon-esque reflections on God in “Love’s On Its Way” to the melancholy paradise she shared with recently-deceased husband Jason Rae (“I’d Do It All Again), are beautiful simply because of their song titles.“I Would Like To Call It Beauty” is one of the disc’s 12 tracks that feature the roar of introspective Fiona Apple-isms to superb effect, minus the self-deprecation. “The Blackest Lily,” a darkly sexy Prince-y sounding number, boasts the stunning couplet: “You are unnervingly delicate / And I have a weakness for etiquette.” The entire album focuses on a dark aesthetic, but the timbre of Rae’s voice in her psychological self-examinations of raw, real situations comes from a refreshingly humble, bigger-picture point of view. It will be hard for Rae to top herself with her next album. In just her second turn, she has managed to ground the schizo-eclectic emotions churning in the tidal waves of life that engulf all of us.
(01/27/10 11:12pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>RJD2’s independently released “The Colossus” is a colossal mess of confusion. In this case, it’s not necessarily a bad thing – it’s just that the tracks don’t stick. Once a person is done with the freshness of Black Panther-style espionage on turntables, the listener may be left wondering what was just listened to. It’s hard to tell with RJD2, a DJ whose last release, 2007’s “The Third Hand,” found him crooning about eating meat over live instrumentation and pop-rock sampling. “The Colossus” is at times territorial — reflective of RJD2’s hometown pride in Columbus’s musical and cultural eclecticism — and at other moments eerily extraterrestrial. “Games You Can Win” is a gorgeous space narrative featuring the underrated vocal talents of another Ohio product, Kenna. “The Glow” and “The Shining Path” are velvety numbers that Brit-soul producer Mark Ronson may have had a hand in crafting. But “Giant Squid” is bizarre, and “A Spaceship For Now” is enough to make E.T. phone home. Warning: This album may inspire intellectual discourse about the ’70s and an occasional shuck-and-jive. And just maybe, you may feel abducted.
(01/22/10 5:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>"There was an old, old house renewed with paint, and in it a piano loudly playing.”These are the lines in the first stanza of a Robert Frost poem, “The Investment,” from his 1928 anthology, “West-Running Brook.”If only Frost could’ve known he’d be immortalized in a serene A. Allyn Bishop portrait across from the original printing of the Declaration of Independence 32 years later as the Lilly Library opened its doors.The library’s expansive collection of rare literature and art came from philanthropist Josiah Kirby Lilly, Jr. of the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune, who donated the pieces from 1954 to 1957.On Friday, the Lilly Library is commemorating 50 years of exclusive historical treasures from across the Atlantic Ocean to Latin America in the exhibit “Treasures of the Lilly Library.”From 5 to 9 p.m., the open house exhibit will feature pencils from the desk of Henry David Thoreau and even a waxed seal image of Queen Elizabeth I from one of her first documents.These artifacts will act as time capsules with some of the library’s other displays, such as the original 1941 Best Director Oscar statuette for “How Green Was My Valley” and the Slocum Puzzle Room.As Becky Cape, the library’s head of public services, said, the library will be “showing off the best of the best and the unusual.”Cape has been employed at the library for 38 years. She got a job as a manuscript cataloger after expressing interest in Latin American history.When her boss left his job at the library, she left him a card reading, “The work is fun here and it’s never, ever boring.” In addition to being a valuable learning experience, the library calls for an exercise in curiosity and humility for its workers and visitors.“There’s so much depth in the items we offer,” Public Services Librarian Erika Dowell said. “It’s just impossible for any one person to learn everything.”Dowell said sometimes she finds herself being fascinated with pieces as they come in via donation or are purchased through the library’s Lilly Endowment.For her, interpreting the breadth of what the library offers is beneficial to educating others.“I can’t imagine anyone not wanting to work in world-class collections,” Dowell said as she pointed to a glass-encased King James Bible with golden pages that seemed life-size. “Like that Bible: There are so many ways people can connect with it, whether it’s spiritual or just interesting.”Gabriel Swift, who also works in the public services department, was fascinated by the library’s accessibility when he began his job three years ago. It’s not a place where someone has to flash a photo ID and state their scholarly purpose to gain entry. The library even conducts around 200 free tours annually.The artwork is at Swift’s fingertips, which he equated with something as humbling as visiting the Sistine Chapel, or like being backstage at a rock show.His favorite curiosity of the library is “Apocalipsis,” an elaborate 15-page woodcut illustration by Albrecht Durer.“You can definitely be humbled by genius,” Swift said.
(01/21/10 4:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ace Pawn Shop manager Chris Banol and TomCats Pawn Shop store clerk John Eller have seen their share of stolen items that turn up for sale. Although Eller said half of 1 percent of the items in his store are stolen, he still has to answer to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office regularly. Both shops, which are regulated by the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions, are responsible for keeping items for 10-day periods before they can be sold to customers. “The first thing people do when they get something stolen is call a pawn shop,” Eller said. “We send in a list on CD-ROM to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office of everything we collect. Only Monroe County gets our records. Thieves aren’t the smartest people. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be stealing. But they know how to manipulate the system. They’ll go to the county over.”Banol said a lot of the stolen items that arrive at Ace Pawn Shop are taken from student housing while students are away for semester breaks. For instance, this past break, Banol said there was an upswing of these items, the most unusual ones being power tools. “A lot of people just take them from open construction sites,” he said. “It’s like a theft of opportunity.” Items are tracked by a case number and a form with the owner’s personal information, but the process of getting them returned to their original owner is futile if they don’t take the time to record the serial and model numbers of all valuables and keep them in a safe place, Banol said. “Always copy down a serial number when you buy something,” Eller said. “There’s not enough of that. There’s not much we can do if somebody says we’re missing a black laptop.”Banol expressed a similar sentiment. “People can’t just come in saying they’re missing a PlayStation 2, because there are 10 billion of those. So claims require a current ID and a thumbprint,” he said.
(01/21/10 12:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the world of gaming, life’s not just about how people navigate through realms unknown, but how they create their own experience. At least, that’s where the gaming industry is headed. Some even get there from Hollywood, like Lee Sheldon, an assistant professor who teaches classes on the subject in the telecommunications department. He spent his formative years writing TV pilots until landing a job by happenstance in British Columbia at a now-defunct game design company called Sanctuary. The first game he ever played, “Space Invaders” on the Atari 2600 console, inspired him to think of new ways to tell stories. The game design program at IU enables undergraduate students in telecommunications to invent alternative realities through a selection of classes that focus on application, Sheldon said. Students also have the option to craft multi-player or niche games through IU’s Individualized Major Program. Sheldon’s approach to teaching actually works more like a game. “I tell students in the beginning that they all have F’s,” he said. “Then they can ‘level-up’ if they do all the things gamers do. The class is a like a game in which everyone competes, complete with gaming terminology.”In response to the explosion of new media being integrated with gaming, such as Facebook games like “FarmVille,” student teams in Sheldon’s class have come up with game themes that range from Japanese mythology to a football tailgating-friendly board game on the underside of a cooler lid. “It’s good to demonstrate to them that games aren’t just about guys in big metal suits carrying guns,” Sheldon said of his students’ ability to think outside the box. But another type of gaming that people tend to think less about with the explosion of video games involves sitting around another type of box. IU alumnus Tim Ebert works as a store clerk at the Game Preserve downtown on the square. The store specializes in non-electronic games and still pulls in large crowds for weekly “Pokemon” nights and “Risk” tournaments. Ebert said whether one is playing a family-oriented game such as “Scrabble,” or a strategy game such as “The Settlers of Catan,” it’s important to know that a proactive decision-making process is always involved. “Something like ‘Halo’ may just involve shooting things properly,” Ebert said. “Other games make you apply the creativity and adaptitivity you learn in the world when you play them.”Alternate forms of gaming are not just about what people do when it’s time for them to roll the dice. “The purpose of games is to tell a story,” Ebert said. “In chess, there is a narrative at work. Essentially, you’re setting up traps for a checkmate to your opponent.”For Ebert, the ability to think critically while gaming has even influenced his performance on standardized tests. He thinks playing certain games are a fun way to “teach kids arithmetic when they otherwise wouldn’t want to bother learning it.”“I took a test in sixth grade,” he said. “There were words that appeared on the test that I wouldn’t have even known if it weren’t for me seeing them on a deck of ‘Magic: The Gathering’ cards.”
(01/20/10 6:43pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Believe it or not, L.A.-based electropop-rock skanklet Ke$ha is actually a 22-year-old frat boy. Never has a chick boasted bigger cajones than on her debut, “Animal.”Where most pop ingenues her age opt for double entendre and innuendo, Ke$ha’s rap-sung lyrics go straight for the genitals, with delightfully hilarious results.Songs like the raw “Blah Blah Blah” spell it out in an excess of Y chromosomes: “Don’t be a little bitch with your chit-chat / Just show me where your dick is at,” she spits over super-catchy blips and buzzing synths. Ke$ha doesn’t just gobble up the sad male saps who cross her path, however. She’s a party animal, too – which of course is what this disc is all about. She urges listeners to “Take It Off” in a sceneXcore hole-in-the-wall where there’s “glitter on the floor,” while “TiK ToK” shows her bragging about downing Jack Daniels with the best of ’em. Listeners might not want to hail Ke$ha as 2010’s Lady Gaga, but what Ke$ha lacks in avant-garde, new-pop artistry, she makes up for in XXX rated fun that simply tells it like it is.
(01/20/10 2:31pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>One may remember The Hills’ starlet Heidi Montag’s anti-climactic statement when she (or an Auto-Tuned bot) exhales and says, “Am I dreaming?” in her first viral single, “Higher” about a year ago.Thankfully, that definitely didn’t make the cut on this atrociously sex-fiend friendly pop trash of a debut album.Montag certainly exhibits a voracious appetite for all forms of instant gratification on her first and likely, last, independent release, “Superficial.”Those forms include demanding instant respect in the music industry on the title track, which she shoots down all hopes of immediately with the disclaimer: “They just mad, ‘cause I’m sexy, famous / And I’m rich.”This comes from the same person who said on national television shortly after her live debacle on the Miss Universe pageant last fall, “Screw being a pop superstar, I’m aiming to be the next pop galaxy.”But, for those who find her deep, please do indulge in tracks like “Blackout” where she wants to “black out the satellite” with the boy of her dreams.Or for those obsessed with a man that probably doesn’t want you anyway, check out “Look How I’m Doing,” where she spits rage at a suitor who didn’t deliver on his promise to “lay her in the City of Dreams.”Don’t kid yourself, Heidi.
(12/08/09 12:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Call R. Kelly what you want, but he remains undisputed as the king of R&B opera and epic sex. Even at a ripe 42 years old, the man’s still got drive. Not only does he swear he can give you “12 play” way beyond the fourth quarter, ladies, but he promises he’ll get you pregnant if you respond to his Patron-fueled sexting. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a relationship or not. R. Kelly is definitely the perfect man to bring home to mama. But, even I’ll admit, it’s hard not to give in when he sings such sweet harmonies about such blatantly disrespectful subject matter with such an intensely freaky fervor. On his latest “Untitled” disc, R. Kelly sticks to what made him famous (and infamous): songs about masochistic, generous, long-lasting, adventurous, juvenile sex. This philosophy is updated to fit the current Top 40 trend of aping the Atlanta-cized, soft snap music branded by superproducer, The-Dream. But, at least with Kells, what you see is what you get — no gloss, no pretense. But, no one ever said the man wasn’t over the top. The dramatics include comparing a classy young lady to food on a plate in “Go Low” and Gwen Stefani-style yodeling in “Echo.”Of course, little is left up to the imagination with “Bangin’ the Headboard.” And there is a completely wrong song called “Religious,” in which he claims that there is something “church” about a girl he wants to bed. Talk about preaching to the choir.
(12/07/09 6:40pm)
BoD: WEEKEND celebrates pop music's last 10 years.
(12/01/09 5:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Drums supplemented an undulating roar of fellowship Monday in the Fountain Square ballroom downtown during the Community AIDS Action Group’s Ceremony of Celebration and Remembrance.Despite the bright bulbs jutting out from several chandelier holsters, the lighting was still dim enough to suit the occasion, that was organized in memory of World AIDS Day, which is today. Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and edible red ribbons were served to guests in crimson pencil skirts and V-neck sweater-and-button-up combinations. Guests were mingling at round glass tables shrouded in fresh white linen tablecloths to songs such as “Lean On Me,” and “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway hit musical “Rent.”At the event, the point was made that HIV/AIDS doesn’t have a face. It could be anyone, from the student on the 9 bus sipping a Polar Pop to an avid runner to the firefighter who rescues kittens and saves lives.But, even in the new age of cocktail drugs that prevent the jaundiced skin and sunken eyes often caused by the deterioration AIDS can cause to one’s body, the disease still affects everyone. Just ask Vicci Laine, a local resident and HIV/AIDS fundraiser and activist. It took an HIV scare in 1991 from an unfaithful lover whom she trusted enough to neglect condom usage to change her world. He was sleeping with someone infected with HIV via intravenous drug abuse. Though Laine’s test came back negative, she has since forgiven her ex-boyfriend’s infidelity and dedicates her life to letting other people know about the dangers of such risky, complacent behavior. “People think the threat is over, you take meds (and) you live forever,” Laine said, shaking her head. “Well, that’s a myth. It’s not affecting specific communities like people once thought. It’s a huge threat to the world.”Another motivator for Laine’s work is seeing many of her friends live and die of AIDS complications, including her best friend. She, like all the other people one would least expect to be affected by the fatal disease, was a national beauty queen. She died at 31. “She went from being a beauty queen to losing her eyesight, having hair loss and having a leg amputated,” Laine said about her friend, whom she also described as a fighter. “It’s painful for everyone around to see that, not just the victim, though they are in the most pain,”But, because of the stigma still associated with HIV and AIDS – that it is largely an issue only reaching the GLBT community, Laine said her friend kept her sickness a secret for a long time. Laine said that she could relate to this because when she went through her scare, for the two weeks she waited for her test results to come back, it felt like “waiting on the word of a death sentence.” And if that were true, Laine said, how does one go about telling their mother, brother, sisters and friends?“I didn’t suspect a thing was wrong with my friend until her partner died of the disease,” Laine said. “After he died, she made a quick progression from being fine to very ill.”Despite Laine’s efforts to change the opinions of skeptics with her story, sometimes when speaking to classes, she still said she sees that one student in the back of the room, arms folded in apathy. This look to her says, “I’m just here for extra credit.”Senior Eric Schubert is one student who doesn’t mesh with such an attitude. During his senior year in high school, Schubert took on an internship with Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis. Schubert worked in the emergency room, where he said he saw everything from homeless people to diseases most common people defeat at childhood with vaccinations. Schubert had to undergo an HIV blood examination and wait for two days. He spent those days watching movies such as director Larry Clark’s “Kids” and the famed Tom Hanks film “Philadelphia.” Both deal with the consequences and the hardships of living with AIDS in urban populations. Schubert said he also reflected on the times he was having unprotected sex with girlfriends. “I mean they were girlfriends, and I felt safe, but I still had that feeling in the back of my mind, like ‘what if’ that happened to me?” he said. Another wake-up call came from a semester taking the popular human sexuality course through the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. Like most students enrolled in the class at any given time, Schubert was one of many who sat before an HIV/AIDS panel. “One of the guys was from Martinsville, Indiana, and he admitted to sleeping with hundreds of people,” he said. “He now feels like it’s the biggest mistake of his life, because he’s in pain all the time and he has to take 25 pills a day to cope, but even the side effects still make him sick.”Schubert, who is a nursing student, said it is because of people like that panelist who influence him to maintain an open mind about the widespread effects of HIV/AIDS. “What’s goin’ on out there is bad news and nasty stuff. There is no cure for that,” he said. “And as educated as many people are, you’ll always have those people that don’t use their head, but use what’s in their pants.”
(11/22/09 9:25pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For those of you that follow British tabloids, you’d know that Robbie Williams has had a well-documented breakdown in the public eye for the past five years. Unlike our American sweetheart, Britney Spears, he doesn’t bow out to technological robotics in between trips to the psych ward. He still makes music. His latest, “Reality Killed the Video Star,” doesn’t have the umph or new millennium pathos of “The Ego Has Landed” or the fabulous electro-Timberlake bounce of 2006’s “Rudebox,” but it’s still got somethin’ special. In less than 50 minutes, Williams manages to record a disc filled with realistic, sobering studies of sex, love, fame, God and self-image.In “You Know Me,” a malt-shop, doo-wop charmer, Williams croons about just how much he values relationship co-dependency with the refrain “Since you went away / my heart breaks every day.” In “Last Days of Disco,” amid swirling strings and groovy basslines, there is still an undertone of the uncertainty of music’s future, even as he cries defiantly, “Don’t call it a comeback / Look what I invented here.”On this CD, Williams has invented magic — without the help of Auto-Tune.
(11/22/09 9:16pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>You’d expect an album called “The Fall” to have a sense of chaos within it. But, we are talking about Norah Jones here. Her latest disc embodies an overwhelming chill that rocks. One can literally hear the patience of a Big Apple jazz starlet who has seen more than her share of heartache and loneliness. There is even a song all about it. In “Waiting,” the music is patient with Jones, allowing her to emote over ballerina music box melodies and from-within humming. But don’t think for a second that Jones is self-deprecating. There is a cool, coy seductive charm to the timbre of her voice laced throughout the songs, which are accented with ’80s breakbeats and Fleetwood Mac-style bassline struts in summery jams like “Chasing Pirates” and “Even Though.”Jones covers interesting territory though. “Light As a Feather” captures the Middle Ages through woozy violins, chamber choir harmonics and electrosynths. “Young Blood” recalls the nation’s current “Twilight” obsession. Dissonant lyrics such as “He kissed my neck with a crooked cracked fang” align with reflections on fear and self-empowerment. Yes, Norah Jones is quite the mix of eclectic chill, but on this album, she proves there’s more to her than low-fi jazz-pop for white suburban housewives.
(11/17/09 11:06pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Wyclef Jean wants to get rich or die tryin,’ but he’s no 50 Cent. The sad reality is that this business model for rap superstardom has been re-hashed as an artist’s back-story – 50 times over. In an attempt to relate to his origins and rationalize his fame, the self-proclaimed “hip-hop Amadeus,” under the pseudonym Toussaint St. Jean, has crafted his latest LP, “From the Hut, to the Projects to the Mansion.” It leaves you wondering what happened to “Ms. Hill” and if the Fugees will ever reclaim the throne of soulful hip-hop royalty. The formula of this album is not only old, but hideously formulaic. Wyclef, always a political pundit with the heart of a satirist, could very well be pulling our chains with crunk-rock mash-ups like “You Don’t Wanna Go Outside” and the Nas-aping, Blaxploitation-era jazz strut of “Toussaint Vs. Bishop.”In fact he must be joking with the most insane in the membrane collaboration of the year: Cyndi Lauper guesting on “Slumdog Millionaire.”If this album is a satire of hood drama, Jonathan Swift would’ve written “Gulliver’s Travels” as a melodrama.