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(04/19/06 3:58am)
Students packed the IU Auditorium last night for the Union Board's Little 500 Concert featuring Wilco.\nThe Monday night scheduling did nothing to damper students' enthusiasm, as they opted for Wilco's brand of rock 'n' roll over homework obligations.\nGraduate student Paul McCorkle attended the concert after a positive experience at a previous Wilco show.\n"We should be working on a final project right now," he said of he and his friends.\nMike Morrin, another graduate student, expressed similar sentiments.\n"Finals are really cracking down, but they're such a great band," he said.\nWilco took the stage for an audience that was already on its feet, and the crowd remained that way for the show's entirety.\nWith a slight wave to the boisterous crowd, lead singer Jeff Tweedy began Wilco's set with "Airline to Heaven," before drawing a huge cheer by altering the lyrics to their second song of the night, "Kingpin."\n"I want to be your kingpin, living in Bloomington," he sang.\nImprovisation is a trademark of the group and one many IU fans found appealing.\n"Any band that can play their tunes in a way other than what is on the album is a good band," said graduate student Fred Norton. "This band is right on the pulse of what's going on (in music) right now."\nMorrin also had words of praise for Wilco.\n"I feel they're a very progressive band," he said. "They push the scene of rock 'n' roll to a whole new level through experimentation and lyrics the audience can identify with."\nNick Martin came from Purdue for the show.\n"We're skipping classes to be here, so there's dedication involved," he said. "This is the first time I've been here, and I'm kind of enamored by the whole IU scene."\nAlmost every song drew a loud response from the enthusiastic crowd, and Tweedy took notice.\n"All right! This is the kind of rowdiness we were warned about!" Tweedy yelled at one point as students jumped chairs and aisles in an effort to get closer to the stage. The singer said the band read online that it should be prepared to deal with drunken fans as it helped kick off IU's Little 500 week.\nWhen security guards intervened to send audience members back to their seats, Tweedy seemed dismayed.\n"They give it to you, then they take it away," he said.\n"He was really right," sophomore Randy Gilley said of the comment. "Those are the rules of the 21st century."\nStill, Wilco seemed determined to play rock 'n' roll its way. The group balanced its familiar, softer songs, like closer "California Stars," with a set that saw all three guitarists taking turns playing raucously loud solos that at times literally shook the auditorium.\n"It's Little 5 week," said sophomore Laura McChesney. "You gotta party"
(04/19/06 3:32am)
Students packed the IU Auditorium last night for the Union Board's Little 500 Concert featuring Wilco.\nThe Monday night scheduling did nothing to damper students' enthusiasm, as they opted for Wilco's brand of rock 'n' roll over homework obligations.\nGraduate student Paul McCorkle attended the concert after a positive experience at a previous Wilco show.\n"We should be working on a final project right now," he said of he and his friends.\nMike Morrin, another graduate student, expressed similar sentiments.\n"Finals are really cracking down, but they're such a great band," he said.\nWilco took the stage for an audience that was already on its feet, and the crowd remained that way for the show's entirety.\nWith a slight wave to the boisterous crowd, lead singer Jeff Tweedy began Wilco's set with "Airline to Heaven," before drawing a huge cheer by altering the lyrics to their second song of the night, "Kingpin."\n"I want to be your kingpin, living in Bloomington," he sang.\nImprovisation is a trademark of the group and one many IU fans found appealing.\n"Any band that can play their tunes in a way other than what is on the album is a good band," said graduate student Fred Norton. "This band is right on the pulse of what's going on (in music) right now."\nMorrin also had words of praise for Wilco.\n"I feel they're a very progressive band," he said. "They push the scene of rock 'n' roll to a whole new level through experimentation and lyrics the audience can identify with."\nNick Martin came from Purdue for the show.\n"We're skipping classes to be here, so there's dedication involved," he said. "This is the first time I've been here, and I'm kind of enamored by the whole IU scene."\nAlmost every song drew a loud response from the enthusiastic crowd, and Tweedy took notice.\n"All right! This is the kind of rowdiness we were warned about!" Tweedy yelled at one point as students jumped chairs and aisles in an effort to get closer to the stage. The singer said the band read online that it should be prepared to deal with drunken fans as it helped kick off IU's Little 500 week.\nWhen security guards intervened to send audience members back to their seats, Tweedy seemed dismayed.\n"They give it to you, then they take it away," he said.\n"He was really right," sophomore Randy Gilley said of the comment. "Those are the rules of the 21st century."\nStill, Wilco seemed determined to play rock 'n' roll its way. The group balanced its familiar, softer songs, like closer "California Stars," with a set that saw all three guitarists taking turns playing raucously loud solos that at times literally shook the auditorium.\n"It's Little 5 week," said sophomore Laura McChesney. "You gotta party"
(04/18/06 5:19am)
Students packed the IU Auditorium last night for the Union Board's Little 500 Concert featuring Wilco.\nThe Monday night scheduling did nothing to damper students' enthusiasm, as they opted for Wilco's brand of rock and roll over homework obligations. \nGraduate student Paul McCorkle attended the concert after a positive experience at a previous one. \n"We should be working on a final project right now," he said, amongst friends.\nMike Morrin, another graduate student, expressed similar sentiments. \n"Finals are really cracking down, but they're such a great band," he said of Wilco, explaining why he was willing to forgo studying for the concert.\nWilco took the stage to an audience that was already on its feet, and the crowd remained that way for the show's entirety.\nWith a slight wave to the boistrous crowd, lead singer Jeff Tweedy began Wilco's set with "Airline to Heaven," before drawing a huge cheer by altering the lyrics to their second song of the night, "Kingpin." \n"I want to be your kingpin, living in Bloomington," he sang. \nImprovisation is a trademark of the group, and one many IU fans found appealing.\n"Any band that can play their tunes in a way other than what is on the album is a good band," said graduate student Fred Norton. "This band is right on the pulse of what's going on (in music) right now."\n"I feel they're a very progressive band," added Morrin. "They push the scene of rock 'n' roll to a whole new level through experimentation and lyrics the audience can identify with."\nGraduate student Nick Martin came from Purdue University for the show.\n"We're skipping classes to be here, so there's dedication involved," he said. "This is the first time I've been here and I'm kind of enamored by the whole IU scene."\nAlmost every song drew a loud response from the enthusiastic crowd, and Tweedy took notice.\n"All right! This is the kind of rowdiness we were warned about!" Tweedy yelled at one point as students jumped chairs and isles in an effort to get closer to the stage. The singer said the band read online that it should be prepared to deal with drunken fans as it helped kick off IU's Little 500 week.\nWhen security guards intervened to send audience members back to their seats, Tweedy seemed dismayed.\n"They give it to you, then they take it away," he said.\n"He was really right," sophomore Randy Gilley said of the comment. "Those are the rules of the 21st century."\nStill, Wilco seemed determined to play rock and roll its way. The group balanced its familiar, softer songs, like closer "California Stars," with a set that saw all three guitarists taking turns playing racously loud solos to an audience that at times literally shook the auditorium.\n"It's Little 5 week," said sophomore Laura McChesney. "You gotta party"
(02/22/06 4:37am)
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a little girl from Mississippi might have unknowingly provided the inspiration for a drive that will deliver more than 250 pounds of clothing to fellow Katrina survivors this week. \nDuring winter break, a group of 220 IU students traveled to Mississippi for a week to help clean up the devastation Katrina left behind. But when junior Christina Barniak left Mississippi, she knew she could do more.\nShe said she was inspired in part by the young Mississippi girl, who Barniak guesses was 10 or 11 years old. The girl lost her clothing in the hurricane and Barniak said when she gave her a wrinkled and torn T-shirt adorned with Mickey Mouse, it made the girl's day.\n"It may be only one piece of clothing that we're giving away, but it's another change in her eyes," Barniak said she remembers thinking. "I don't want this to end when I get on the bus and go home."\nSo when Barniak returned to Bloomington, she began a clothing drive with some friends, stationing a collection box in the Health, Physical Education and Recreation building on campus. Soon, others she didn't even know were helping, and Barniak began planning a way to get the clothes she collected to Mississippi.\nShipping the clothes would have been costly, but Barniak's effort got a big boost from David Gallahue, dean of the school of HPER. Since Barniak is a student in the HPER department, Gallahue agreed to fund her trip with help from the IU Foundation by paying for gas, food and lodging. \n"This is a way to build our community while helping restore the community in Mississippi," Gallahue said.\nBarniak said she will drive her 1987 Toyota pickup to the Mississippi coastline today to deliver the clothes she collected, fulfilling her goal of delivering aid to people who need it in the last couple months of winter. \nThe spirit of community runs deeper than just Barniak and Gallahue. Senior Kate Dishman and junior Tara Smith also went on the trip to Mississippi. They began collecting clothes and essential supplies like blankets and sleeping bags as soon as they returned home, unaware of Barniak's efforts. At a reunion for students who went on the trip, they were put in contact with each other and the supplies Dishman and Smith compiled will be added to what Barniak is bringing. \nDishman said she was moved to act after realizing the severity of the situation in the region.\n"The most important thing is for people to realize that there is so much that still needs to be done down there," Dishman said. "(The situation) is not fixed. It's not even really beginning to break into what it was supposed to be like."\nSenior Elana Habib said she was moved to do more for victims of Hurricane Katrina.\n"To go down and help for a week was not enough for me," Habib said , who helped Barniak collect clothes.\nBarniak said the clothing drive is an example of how much people can make a difference, even when the task seems overwhelming.\n"There's still humanity in this world," she said. "Nothing is wrong with a helping hand"
(02/09/06 6:39am)
Bryan Boyd can do pull-ups while hanging from the door frame of an open doorway. That's probably about a half an inch of wood to grasp onto, and he can do it using only the two middle fingers of each hand. The senior didn't gain that kind of strength accidentally -- Boyd spends weeks at a time in Kentucky's Red River Gorge, climbing the park's sheer rock cliffs during the day and sleeping in a tent pitched behind a local pizza shop at night. \nMost people wouldn't think living the life of a serious climber would be conducive to creating art, but for Boyd a lifetime of climbing has led to a passion for nature, and he's using that passion to create documentaries that advocate conservation and environmentalism.\n"The ultimate goal is social change," Boyd said. \nHe hopes to work with non-governmental organizations to develop a more creative way to promote environmental awareness. \n"I just want to do as much as I can do," he said.\nBloomington has always been a hot spot for activism, and some students, like Boyd, are finding creative ways to get their messages across. In the case of Boyd and several others, art and ideologies combine both for aesthetic value and to make a powerful point. \nSophomore Sarah Taylor creates art she calls "constructive" by using recycled materials to make abstract creations. Besides being an artist, she's also the national council representative for the Student Environmental Action Coalition, a grassroots organization that campaigns for environmental and social justice, according to the group's Web site. \nTaylor takes materials that would otherwise be thrown away to make her constructive art, converting would-be trash into a resource. Ruined pictures of Niagara Falls, blurred by too much mist, became the background for a collage that formed a picture of an eye. Leftover fabric, clips from magazines, old posters and tree leaves combined to form a quilt that's displayed in her room.\nThere's sophomore Matisse Giddings, another artist with an environmental bend. She uses nature to inspire her art, allowing the message to be slightly more ambiguous.\n"I'll go outside to draw and paint," she said. "I value art in the context of nature."\nHer appreciation for nature is reflected in her approach to her work. She said she views much of the world as sterile and gray, but she sees nature as its opposite and wants her art to be more like nature in its liveliness.\nFor example, she is currently using trash bags to construct one of her sculptures. In this sculpture, she inflates the bags to conjure a softer emotion from her audience than what is typically associated with trash bags. \nThen there's senior Hannah Walsh, who didn't throw away anything for a week. Instead, she carried her trash with her throughout the week to inspire a conscious attitude toward consumerism and how it affects the earth. Her spin on performance art inspired her Web site, www.carryit.org, which encourages others to participate in the same week-long commitment to carry their trash with them.\nEach artist uses nature in his or her own way. Giddings and Taylor stress that being environmentally aware is just part of who they are, so it naturally shows up in their work. Boyd and Walsh take a more direct approach, actively campaigning for their respective causes.\nSince ideology is often part of these four artists' work, proponents of the art-for-art's sake philosophy may take issue with the finished products. That doesn't seem to bother Boyd. He said that in the past 30 years, environmental devastation has been so widespread that the times demand action.\n"Somebody needs to protect these areas," he said of the country's natural resources. \nHe said the natural areas he portrays in his films are important to him and to his way of life.\n"If you can make somebody go, 'Oh, that's cool,' maybe they'll be less likely to build a condo on it," he said.\nAnother aspect of incorporating environmentalism into art is that the art may make an impact outside the artistic community itself, which Walsh said is something she strives to do. \n"It's really important to me that I'm not just making art for other artists," she said. \nTrying to reach as large an audience as possible is a goal of traditional environmentalism. Not coincidentally, it's also often a goal of good art.
(01/27/06 4:30am)
Science and music combine to make an experimental form of art in A(rt) Life 2.0, an exhibit on display at the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts until Feb. 4. A reception at the gallery will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. today.\nLarry Yaeger, a professor in the School of Informatics, and Norbert Herber, a professor in the Department of Telecommunications, collaborated on the project, which uses complicated algorithms of flocking behavior similar to that of birds. The "birds" in the exhibit, which appear as three-dimensional geometric shapes, use Yaeger's algorithm to flock in random ways, though they do follow certain rules to guarantee that they remain as a flock, Yaeger said. Their actions are tied in with musical noises, such that different behaviors result in different sounds. \nFor example, a bird in the center of the flock is accompanied by a short, sharp sound, while a bird on the periphery will be accompanied by a longer, graceful sound. The overall result is a presentation that engages viewers both visually and musically. \n"This doesn't sound like jazz or rock or classical music," Yaeger explained. "We wanted to make interesting and continually innovative music and tie the music together with visualization." \nYaeger said that the algorithm used in A(rt) Life 2.0 is similar to that used in motion pictures. He cited the herds of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and the flight of bats in an early Batman movie as examples of when this technology has been used. Yaeger and Herber's project differs in that the animation results in innovative musical sounds.\n"I was interested in doing something like this because with systems like the one we're using, there are all kinds of possibilities for new music," Herber said.\nMatt Hoffman, a graduate student in music theory, said that the concept of basing music on mathematical concepts isn't altogether new, though he said he isn't familiar with the specifics of Yaeger and Herber's project.\n"There is a fine line between disorganized sound and music," he said, "but I wouldn't disagree with someone who considers A(rt) Life 2.0 music."\nHerber said what is most exciting is that the music never repeats itself.\n"You can go sit down one day, come back the next day, or a third day, and every time you'll hear something a little different," he said. "You never know from one moment to the next what's going to happen."\nAudience members will be able to meet Yaeger and Herber at the gallery reception and see the exhibit firsthand. While the science behind the work may seem daunting, Yaeger stresses that the art is aesthetically pleasing.\n"This is a fusion of art and science with emphasis on the art," he said.
(01/24/06 4:54am)
For many young artists, writers and photographers, getting published is the first step toward larger artistic goals. \nFor those artists at IU, a free informational session sponsored by The Bloomington Area Arts Council tonight will focus on how to get published in different genres and print formats, according to a press release.\nArtists After Hours is a monthly networking session held by the art council and is presenting "Getting Published" from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. tonight at the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St.\n"If you want to get recognized, (getting published) is a good start," said junior Ashley Fragomeni. \nFragomeni said she's been drawing, painting and making ceramics all her life, and recognizes the importance for artists to get exposure.\nMary Speaker, poetry genre editor for the Indiana Review, a literary magazine graduate students at IU manage, encouraged students to attend the session.\n"I would recommend that students attend something like this so they could see what their options are," she said.\nThe session will consist of an hour of discussion followed by socializing. The council's press release encourages attendees to bring any questions they might have to the session. \nEvent attendees will also listen to several speakers who will discuss different options for getting one's work published, including self-publishing and national publishing options.\nTom Britt and Lee Sandweiss will bring publishing experience to the session. Britt does publicity for AuthorHouse, a Bloomington-based self-publishing firm that has sold more than 3 million books to date and represents more than 25,000 authors, according to a press release. Sandweiss has been publishing for 20 years at the IU Press. \nMichael Wilkersonand Elsa Marston, both renowned writers, will also speak. \nWilkerson is a columnist for The Bloomington Herald-Times, has published numerous short stories and coordinates various cultural activities on campus. Marston recently won the Middle East Outreach Council award for fiction for her book, "Figs and Fate: Stories About Growing Up in the Arab World Today." John Bower, a local photographer who focuses on images of Indiana, will round off the group of presenters.\nThe council's development director, Diana Corrigan, encouraged anyone interested in writing or publishing to come to the session and said the council supports all artists, regardless of the medium with which they work.\n"It's all art to us," she said. \nInterested students can learn more about the council and future events at www.artlives.org.
(01/11/06 4:32am)
The Bloomington Watercolor Society's savings are so small, treasurer Carol Rhodes has to add up the numbers in her check book to remember if there is $437 or $439 in the club's bank account (it turns out to be $439). \nWith only 25 members, the group, aiming to create a network for artists and enhance skills with watercolors, wants to expand and include students, said president Jacki Frey.\n"An age variation is good for any group," Frey said. \nKeeping with the theme of the evening, secretary Jeanne Iler echoed Frey's thoughts and offered an increase in creativity as reason to seek age differences within the group.\n"I'm sure students could provide us with fresh, new ideas," she said. \nIn an effort to branch out to student artists, the society reduced yearly dues for students to $10 from the normal $25.\nUltimately, the society has a goal of helping students gain experience, as well as exposure to professional artists. The club counts several professionals among its ranks, but students don't need to be advanced painters to join. The club welcomes painters of all abilities, and Frey emphasized the club's main goal is to have fun.\nThe club's current diminutive size does nothing to lessen members' enthusiasm about the organization. Monday night, Bloomington resident Connie Brorson was the center of attention and took charge of teaching a new skill to the group. \nBrorson has been painting for only seven years, but when she talks about her painting, a childlike enthusiasm emerges.\n"I like the creative part of it," Brorson said, explaining that her paintings are rarely realistic. "People call my work 'whimsical,'" she said.\nBrorson is so enthusiastic about watercolors she came up with a group exercise herself and brought her idea to the meeting. Her exercise aimed at encouraging budding artists to be more creative and less focused on creating true-to-life images. \nBelonging to the water color society has several perks, among them the chance for members to display their works with the hope of selling them. The club aims to display members' work at two shows per year, with a show at Monroe Bank on Kirkwood Avenue scheduled for January 2007. \nFrey said that quality watercolors, such as those produced by several of the members, can fetch up to $400 for a single piece, and larger pieces can sell for even more.\nStudents can also focus on improving their painting skills with bi-yearly workshops in which more renowned artists visit Bloomington to teach. Though the workshops are opened to members first, the society allows community members to participate if there is room available. \nStudents or others interested in participating in a workshop or joining the club can contact the society through its Web site at http://www.bloomington.in.us/~bwsart/.