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(01/13/05 5:00am)
Many critics fear the idea behind the top ten list. Why, they -- who are paid to watch and write about movies for a living -- moan, "Why must we boil our favorite films into an arbitrary top ten list? What is the purpose of "ten" anyway? Why were they the 'Ten Commandments?' Why were there 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights? And more important, why were there ten seasons of 'Friends'?" \nI have to say, I agree with their whining. A top ten list really is arbitrary -- which is why I highly recommend all critics and cultural writers break out of the box and rewind the culture to view it as a whole. Plus, opinions and viewpoints can change with time and often do change with time, as I often discover hidden gems months later. Mine often shift with new screenings, such as hidden independent or foreign gems that are lost among the social brouhaha. \nBut at this juncture, with 2004 fresh in my mind, here's the best and worst of 2004.\nBest movie of the year: Director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman tackle romance, memory loss, humor, and everything upside-down in the superb "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which, due to its early release date, will be unjustly and unfairly snubbed by the Oscar committee.\nNine other stellar movies of 2004, to round out the top films of 2004: "The Aviator," "Garden State," "I Heart Huckabee's," "Collateral," "Kinsey," "Saved!," "The Incredibles," "Kill Bill, Vol. 2," and "Ocean's Twelve."\nMovies I hear are good, but haven't actually seen yet: "Million Dollar Baby," "House of Flying Daggers," "Hotel Rwanda," "Closer," "Finding Neverland," and a slew of independent features.\nFunniest movie: "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."\nBest documentary: "Super Size Me."\nBest sequel: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban."\nMost overrated: "Spider-Man 2" and "Team America: World Police."\nMost underrated: "The Terminal," Steven Spielberg's exercise in subtlety\nTwo movies lots of people loved, but I found at best to be hyped, artless, mediocre and disappointing: Mel Gibson's bloody confessional "The Passion of the Christ" and Michael Moore's ugly polemic "Fahrenheit 9/11."\nA good movie that wasn't THAT good: Alexander Payne's wine-sipping, midlife crisis road trip film "Sideways" is definitely worth admission price, but does not deserve to be hailed as the best movie of the year.\nA bad movie that wasn't THAT bad: Zach Snyder's remake of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" was campy enough to roll your eyes at while drawing a smile across your face.\nThe worst movies of the year (that I actually sat through): The unbelievably unfunny and sophomoric "Napoleon Dynamite"; the treacherously long "Troy"; the hollow and lifeless "Garfield"; the mindless drone "The Stepford Wives" and "The Manchurian Candidate," Jonathan Demme's shameful remake of the sharp 1950s political thriller of the same name.\nFour great musical albums, in order: Green Day's American Idiot, Modest Mouse's Good News For People Who Love Bad News, Wilco's A Ghost Is Born and Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut.\nMost welcomed musical anthology: John Mellencamp's Words & Music.\nSongs stuck in my head: Modest Mouse's "Float On"; Green Day's "Holiday" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"; Loretta Lynn and Jack White's "Van Lear Rose"; Mark Knopfler's "Boom Like That"; Mick Jagger's "Old Habits Die Hard"; Norah Jones' "What Am I To You?"; Ryan Cabrera's damn "On The Way Down" and Queen's "I Want To Break Free," revived by Coca-Cola's C2 commercial campaign.\nBest book of the year: "America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction," written by Jon Stewart and various other members of "The Daily Show."\nBook I have no intention of reading, ever: Bill Clinton's gargantuan autobiography, "My Life."\nMost satisfying DVD set: "Seinfeld" Seasons 1 & 2 and Season 3.\nBest of the year in television: "The Daily Show's" election coverage; the WB's surprisingly compelling coming-of-age show "Jack & Bobby"; Ken Jennings' 74-day winning streak on "Jeopardy!"; the first presidential debate; FOX's "Arrested Development"; David E. Kelley's lawyer spin-off "Boston Legal" and, as always, the ever brilliant "South Park," whose satire only grows stronger as the series goes longer.\nMost welcomed stage exit: "Friends," "Frasier," and Craig Kilborn as the host of "The Late Late Show."\nTV show I just can't get into: "Desperate Housewives."\nTV channel I still wish I getting: HBO.\nMost overplayed TV moments: Howard Dean's Iowa caucus concession speech scream; any George W. Bush malapropism; the Pacers/Pistons brawl; Janet Jackson's nipple during the Superbowl; anyone who said "I'm Rick James, bitch!" to me expecting a laugh.\nMost shocking TV moments: Abu Graib prison photos; James McGreevey reveals himself to be "a gay American" and steps down as governor of New Jersey; the Boston Red Sox come back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the New York Yankees for the American League Pennant (winning the World Series was nice, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't as entertaining or suspenseful as beating the Yankees.)\nBest commercial: For its double-shot espresso drink, Starbucks hires 1980s band Survivor to sing the theme song (a parody of their hit "Eye of the Tiger") of a low-level corporate worker.
(01/13/05 4:26am)
Many critics fear the idea behind the top ten list. Why, they -- who are paid to watch and write about movies for a living -- moan, "Why must we boil our favorite films into an arbitrary top ten list? What is the purpose of "ten" anyway? Why were they the 'Ten Commandments?' Why were there 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights? And more important, why were there ten seasons of 'Friends'?" \nI have to say, I agree with their whining. A top ten list really is arbitrary -- which is why I highly recommend all critics and cultural writers break out of the box and rewind the culture to view it as a whole. Plus, opinions and viewpoints can change with time and often do change with time, as I often discover hidden gems months later. Mine often shift with new screenings, such as hidden independent or foreign gems that are lost among the social brouhaha. \nBut at this juncture, with 2004 fresh in my mind, here's the best and worst of 2004.\nBest movie of the year: Director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman tackle romance, memory loss, humor, and everything upside-down in the superb "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which, due to its early release date, will be unjustly and unfairly snubbed by the Oscar committee.\nNine other stellar movies of 2004, to round out the top films of 2004: "The Aviator," "Garden State," "I Heart Huckabee's," "Collateral," "Kinsey," "Saved!," "The Incredibles," "Kill Bill, Vol. 2," and "Ocean's Twelve."\nMovies I hear are good, but haven't actually seen yet: "Million Dollar Baby," "House of Flying Daggers," "Hotel Rwanda," "Closer," "Finding Neverland," and a slew of independent features.\nFunniest movie: "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."\nBest documentary: "Super Size Me."\nBest sequel: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban."\nMost overrated: "Spider-Man 2" and "Team America: World Police."\nMost underrated: "The Terminal," Steven Spielberg's exercise in subtlety\nTwo movies lots of people loved, but I found at best to be hyped, artless, mediocre and disappointing: Mel Gibson's bloody confessional "The Passion of the Christ" and Michael Moore's ugly polemic "Fahrenheit 9/11."\nA good movie that wasn't THAT good: Alexander Payne's wine-sipping, midlife crisis road trip film "Sideways" is definitely worth admission price, but does not deserve to be hailed as the best movie of the year.\nA bad movie that wasn't THAT bad: Zach Snyder's remake of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" was campy enough to roll your eyes at while drawing a smile across your face.\nThe worst movies of the year (that I actually sat through): The unbelievably unfunny and sophomoric "Napoleon Dynamite"; the treacherously long "Troy"; the hollow and lifeless "Garfield"; the mindless drone "The Stepford Wives" and "The Manchurian Candidate," Jonathan Demme's shameful remake of the sharp 1950s political thriller of the same name.\nFour great musical albums, in order: Green Day's American Idiot, Modest Mouse's Good News For People Who Love Bad News, Wilco's A Ghost Is Born and Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut.\nMost welcomed musical anthology: John Mellencamp's Words & Music.\nSongs stuck in my head: Modest Mouse's "Float On"; Green Day's "Holiday" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"; Loretta Lynn and Jack White's "Van Lear Rose"; Mark Knopfler's "Boom Like That"; Mick Jagger's "Old Habits Die Hard"; Norah Jones' "What Am I To You?"; Ryan Cabrera's damn "On The Way Down" and Queen's "I Want To Break Free," revived by Coca-Cola's C2 commercial campaign.\nBest book of the year: "America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction," written by Jon Stewart and various other members of "The Daily Show."\nBook I have no intention of reading, ever: Bill Clinton's gargantuan autobiography, "My Life."\nMost satisfying DVD set: "Seinfeld" Seasons 1 & 2 and Season 3.\nBest of the year in television: "The Daily Show's" election coverage; the WB's surprisingly compelling coming-of-age show "Jack & Bobby"; Ken Jennings' 74-day winning streak on "Jeopardy!"; the first presidential debate; FOX's "Arrested Development"; David E. Kelley's lawyer spin-off "Boston Legal" and, as always, the ever brilliant "South Park," whose satire only grows stronger as the series goes longer.\nMost welcomed stage exit: "Friends," "Frasier," and Craig Kilborn as the host of "The Late Late Show."\nTV show I just can't get into: "Desperate Housewives."\nTV channel I still wish I getting: HBO.\nMost overplayed TV moments: Howard Dean's Iowa caucus concession speech scream; any George W. Bush malapropism; the Pacers/Pistons brawl; Janet Jackson's nipple during the Superbowl; anyone who said "I'm Rick James, bitch!" to me expecting a laugh.\nMost shocking TV moments: Abu Graib prison photos; James McGreevey reveals himself to be "a gay American" and steps down as governor of New Jersey; the Boston Red Sox come back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the New York Yankees for the American League Pennant (winning the World Series was nice, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't as entertaining or suspenseful as beating the Yankees.)\nBest commercial: For its double-shot espresso drink, Starbucks hires 1980s band Survivor to sing the theme song (a parody of their hit "Eye of the Tiger") of a low-level corporate worker.
(01/10/05 4:58am)
Donald Hossler, IU vice chancellor for enrollment services, has stepped down from one University administrative position and will step down from another this summer.\nHossler officially ended his term as the co-director of the Student Information Systems (SIS) project Jan. 1. Additionally, he will leave his position as IU vice chancellor for enrollment services -- a position he has held since 1997 -- July 1. \nHe will return full-time as a professor in the IU School of Education.\n"I like teaching, I like research," Hossler, 55, said. "I didn't want to retire as an administrator. I always said every year to the people in the office, 'You know, I'm not going to be doing this forever.'"\nHossler reached the decision to step down with the counsel of IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis.\n"In the fall (of 2004), he said he didn't think he could focus on both the Student Information Systems implementation and the Bloomington enrollment services," Gros Louis said. "We agreed the most valuable thing he could do was to focus on enrollment services for Bloomington."\nHossler he would have stepped down last year, but decided to stay on for one more year because felt he had an obligation to see through the installation and implementation of the Student Information Systems project.\nThe SIS project is a University-wide computer project for administering student information meant to neatly address campus necessities, according to an IU Web site outlining the SIS vision.\nBut then, the project stumbled.\nNow known with the notorious "PeopleSoft" moniker -- the name of the SIS project's primary computer software -- the rocky transfer caused headaches among incoming freshmen and enrolled students in the form of financial delays. Coupled with a recent 2 percent drop in Bloomington campus enrollment or 768 fewer freshmen this year, Hossler was forced to make his step down announcement early rather than supervise both until the end of the spring.\n"If we hadn't had the enrollment downturn or if the PeopleSoft transition had gone smoothly, this announcement wouldn't have gone out until March or April," Hossler said. "But the fact that PeopleSoft hasn't gone smoothly, 70 to 80 percent of my week has been consumed by PeopleSoft meetings. I'm really just not getting sufficient time to focus on campus enrollment issues."\nGros Louis said he and Hossler had spoken before any problems with the PeopleSoft system had been reported, and emphasized its problems did not factor into Hossler's decision to step down, only the timing of the announcement.\n"He'd come in before we knew we'd have a rocky situation (with PeopleSoft)," Gros Louis said. "I felt badly knowing now there would be a rocky situation with it, because I didn't want people to think he was at fault." A statement announcing Hossler's decision to step down said he will spend the remainder of his time focusing on "key planning for the future of the Office of Enrollment Services."\n"We'll be working with the enrollment downturn and with other issues related to diversity and quality that has become pressing issues to the campus," Hossler said. \nAlso on the to-do list for the rest of Hossler's tenure are working on a five-year enrollment plan, and considering the way offices in enrollment services have operated, including the way they are structured and staffed.\nBefore taking his administrative positions, Hossler served as a professor of higher education, studying enrollment and financial issues regarding colleges and universities, and as an executive associate dean for the School of Education. \nHe chaired, as he says in a tongue-in-cheek manner, an "unsuccessful search committee" for a vice chancellor to coordinate a newly consolidated department concerning admissions, registration, financial aid and orientation. When the committee's finalist turned the position down, Hossler accepted an offer to serve for one year that eventually turned into eight.\nNeither a full-time replacement nor an interim vice chancellor for enrollment services has been announced, and Hossler said he was not aware of any name surfacing as a possibility.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(12/10/04 5:26pm)
INDIANAPOLIS -- With a closely shaven head, a thick goatee, a light blue sports jersey and a full smile, Matt Lawrence chatted and laughed with people beneath a tent set up in front of a large mural, roughly 20 feet tall and 30 feet across, that he and another artist had worked on earlier Saturday.\nEver polite, Lawrence, the founder and director of the Urban Artist Network, gently broke away from his conversation to greet strangers who wandered through the public art exhibition Lawrence organized.\nLawrence was quick to make them feel welcome. People on the street were drawn into an alley in Broad Ripple, a neighborhood on the north side of Indianapolis, by the click-clack of aerosol cans to watch murals come to life.\nWhat made these murals unique was not that Lawrence and his fellow muralists didn't own the canvas -- that's to be expected for nearly all muralists. The uniqueness stemmed from the fact that if these muralists did their artwork at any time other than the window they'd been allotted, they would almost certainly be arrested. \nLawrence's Urban Artist Network presented Subsurface, Indianapolis' second Midwest graffiti expo. Saturday and Sunday. More than 40 artists attended.\nWith cooperation from the Indianapolis Arts Center and the Broad Ripple Village Association, Lawrence said he designed to showcase the artists in a very positive environment. He said he hoped the event would help to alleviate the negative perception the public often has about graffiti and inform people of the beauty the art form is capable of producing.\nGraffiti, derived from the Greek word graphein, meaning "to write," has been found as far back in civilization as Ancient Rome. Graffiti art, the vandalistic kind associated with 20th-century urban environments, is sometimes known as "hip-hop" or "New York style" graffiti, and came into prominence in the New York subway system in the 1970s.\nGraffiti was initially treated as a nuisance more than a renaissance, but over the next few years, it began to crawl from bridges and buildings to galleries and museums. It spurred the interest of art scholars and academics and was simultaneously being picked up and "legitimized" by professional modern artists, such as the late Keith Haring. \nLawrence said many of the artists, who participated the expo by invitation only, come from a variety of backgrounds in the arts, including professional artists, custom sign painters, set designers and illustrators. Most prefer the comfort of pseudonyms for their graffiti.\nScribe, a tall man with horned glasses and a gas-mask hanging loosely around his neck, is one such artist who tags his work using a moniker. He paints professionally for the Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.\n"Art is three-quarters motivation, not sitting around waiting for something to happen," Scribe said. "There are people who just want to be discovered, but you can't stop working."\nLargely a self-educated artist who attended the Kansas City Art Institute for a year, Scribe said being an artist involves doing any small job -- sometimes for free -- to advance your career.\nScribe's section of the mural is a vast forest scene, and his painting partners have created two trees in drastically different fashions. One tree at the far left end of the wall is large and mystical, like something from a fairy tale. Another tree is ferric and metallic, with branches like beams of steel and liquid leaves dripping off. \nOne of Scribe's painting partners sprays two quick squirts from the can into the air to bring up the sharpest paint before applying it to the wall. Each can is tipped with different nozzles, controlling the scope and amount of paint able to be sprayed.\nScribe's contributions to the forest scene -- a gigantic rhinoceros dressed as Paul Bunyan being brought down by gophers who have roped his wrists, and an obese, cartoonish beaver -- reflect his background in children's illustrations. \nHe said he has ambitions of becoming a full-time illustrator, reaching the point professionally "when people start turning you loose because they trust you."\nLawrence called the expo "public art" and a "beautification project for Broad Ripple's cultural district," and to his happiness, the public noticed.\nEllie Clapp, a resident of Zionsville, Ind., a suburb on Indianapolis' north side, said it's an art form people embrace, and she's glad the artists have an outlet for it.\n"It's pure modern art to me," she said. "They really do show themselves as artists."\nClapp marveled at the detail, coordination and time put into the mural. The color scheme particularly surprised her, she said, and she methodically took in each segment of the mural with a critic's eye.\nMontana Cans, the event's sponsor, provided a rainbow's array of colors for the mural typically unseen in darker, more common graffiti: electric blues, potent reds, vibrant oranges, neon yellows, glowing greens and phosphorescent pinks, to name a few. \n"It's nice to see it up close instead of briefly as you drive under an overpass," she laughed.\nClapp noted the overwhelming male aerosol artist presence; every mural artist for the weekend was male. Lawrence said that while there are female graffiti artists, even popular ones with followings, it is a typically male-dominated art form due to its shadier beginnings.\nFor Scribe, it's important to be showcased, but more important, he said, it's important to hang out with his fellow artist friends. He said the graffiti arts events bring him together with a few friends from Cincinnati he is able to see only a few times a year. \nSince 1999, Lawrence's organization has painted about 15 murals, including three others in Broad Ripple and one near Indianapolis' downtown region that memorializes the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.\nBy the end of the weekend, the artists created another mural, this time nearly the size of a city block, with art styles that span the spectrum. Positioned behind the Broad Ripple branch of the Indianapolis post office, each building's section says something new, something different than the next. \nAll together it forms one coherent message for the people walking on the street: forget complaining about the graffiti, it seems to say, and learn to celebrate it.\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(12/02/04 5:00am)
The poetically melancholy Rufus Wainwright is among the smartest singer-songwriters working today, incredibly articulate and with an uncanny knack for bringing words together for lovely, unexpected verse. \nWant Two, his follow-up to 2003's nt One, is another knot in the string of his accomplishments. It's a fusion of opera and pop, of crooning ballads and wryly written introspection. Wainwright is respectful of his listeners on Want Two, an album best described as a symphony closer to classical than alternative. It's a positive testament to the fact his songs have almost zero radio play (they don't fit the easy conventions of radio since nearly every song has more layers than a plate of club sandwiches.)\nStill, it's not hard to see where someone could say Wainwright has strayed from his beaten path with this album. I'll certainly say it: with the exceptions of candid, Wainwrightian songs such as the catchy "One You Love," "Memphis Skyline" or "Gay Messiah," on the whole, this album is unlike his previous endeavors, both in style and in quality. Luckily it falls closer to success than sore thumb, despite not being as sharp or as fully enjoyable as his other recordings.\nWant Two, which includes a concert DVD recorded at the Filmore in San Francisco, is nevertheless a necessary buy, if only because you're going to need more than one listen to appreciate the dynamic of this album. It demands your full attention.
(12/02/04 3:16am)
The poetically melancholy Rufus Wainwright is among the smartest singer-songwriters working today, incredibly articulate and with an uncanny knack for bringing words together for lovely, unexpected verse. \nWant Two, his follow-up to 2003's nt One, is another knot in the string of his accomplishments. It's a fusion of opera and pop, of crooning ballads and wryly written introspection. Wainwright is respectful of his listeners on Want Two, an album best described as a symphony closer to classical than alternative. It's a positive testament to the fact his songs have almost zero radio play (they don't fit the easy conventions of radio since nearly every song has more layers than a plate of club sandwiches.)\nStill, it's not hard to see where someone could say Wainwright has strayed from his beaten path with this album. I'll certainly say it: with the exceptions of candid, Wainwrightian songs such as the catchy "One You Love," "Memphis Skyline" or "Gay Messiah," on the whole, this album is unlike his previous endeavors, both in style and in quality. Luckily it falls closer to success than sore thumb, despite not being as sharp or as fully enjoyable as his other recordings.\nWant Two, which includes a concert DVD recorded at the Filmore in San Francisco, is nevertheless a necessary buy, if only because you're going to need more than one listen to appreciate the dynamic of this album. It demands your full attention.
(11/18/04 5:00am)
It's been 25 years since IU was featured predominantly in a movie. That movie -- 1979's "Breaking Away" -- was a coming-of-age film set in Bloomington. Bill Condon's "Kinsey," a biographical account of the controversial IU professor and renowned sex researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey, is a coming-of-age film set in Bloomington as well, but of a completely different variety; in "Kinsey," we're not given a glimpse of four local boys leaving adolescence, but rather we're given a peephole into the story of a man who veritably launched a cultural revolution in the name of science.\nOf course, "Kinsey" is no more about IU than "Breaking Away" was. It's a stirring, nuanced portrait of a driven scientist, in a relentless pursuit of intellectualism much to the chagrin of puritans, the government and fellow researchers, who just happened to work at IU. But the movie's fruit falls so close to the tree it's a unique, proud treat for the community which served as ground zero for sexology.\n"Kinsey," an official selection of the 2004 Toronto Film Festival, is a predictable Oscar-contender, with strong performances all around and sharp writing. The Oscars are familiar ground for director-writer Condon, who snagged the golden statuette for writing his 1998 film "Gods and Monsters." Condon puts that same attentive scriptwriting care into crafting his version of Kinsey, following the doctor's life as reported by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy in the book "Sex -- the Measure of All Things: The Life of Alfred C. Kinsey."\nLiam Neeson, in his finest performance since "Schindler's List," plays Kinsey with searing subtlety, as a man who tried to be void of emotion when examining an inflammatory topic. Neeson keeps Kinsey cold and clinical, despite the raw sensations he experienced in his personal life, with emotion rumbling below the surface.\nIn "Kinsey," actress Laura Linney proves she really does belong in the same league of actresses as Meryl Streep and Sally Field. Linney, costarring as Kinsey's wife Clara McMillen, is the perfect complement for Neeson and portrays a woman willing to rein in an obsessive husband out of love. Peter Sarsgaard rounds out the impressive prominent cast as a research assistant who seduces both Kinsey and his wife.\nCondon is perhaps guilty of making "Kinsey" too compartmentalized. He has more material here than a two-hour movie can hold. Heavy stars are brought in (Timothy Hutton, Chris O'Donnell, Tim Curry and Oliver Platt as IU president Herman B Wells), but for only a small share of scenes. Because his sense of pacing is sharp, Condon could have easily tacked on an extra half-hour or hour to develop the surrounding characters who influenced Kinsey, and the movie wouldn't have suffered for it.\nEven today, half a century after Kinsey first published his 1948 study "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," "Kinsey" the movie may strike a few chords of discomfort and controversy. It is very frank and uninhibited in its discussion and portrayals of sex, definitely deserving of its solid R rating. But clearly it is also a touching movie, with lots of defusing humor, for which it must be praised for handling as gracefully and as smartly as the topic of sex itself.\nFortunately, and adeptly so, the acting, writing and story-telling of "Kinsey" doesn't fall into the lame-duck fare of most biopics (I'm thinking here of "Ali," "Pollock" and "Frida," among many others). But it isn't a film which retreats from the conventions of a biography movie, either, and instead embraces an already solidified genre.\n"Kinsey" is a nicely balanced piece of cinema, examining not only the life and the work of its subject, but why those in particular make the subject especially worthy of the audience's time.
(11/18/04 2:01am)
It's been 25 years since IU was featured predominantly in a movie. That movie -- 1979's "Breaking Away" -- was a coming-of-age film set in Bloomington. Bill Condon's "Kinsey," a biographical account of the controversial IU professor and renowned sex researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey, is a coming-of-age film set in Bloomington as well, but of a completely different variety; in "Kinsey," we're not given a glimpse of four local boys leaving adolescence, but rather we're given a peephole into the story of a man who veritably launched a cultural revolution in the name of science.\nOf course, "Kinsey" is no more about IU than "Breaking Away" was. It's a stirring, nuanced portrait of a driven scientist, in a relentless pursuit of intellectualism much to the chagrin of puritans, the government and fellow researchers, who just happened to work at IU. But the movie's fruit falls so close to the tree it's a unique, proud treat for the community which served as ground zero for sexology.\n"Kinsey," an official selection of the 2004 Toronto Film Festival, is a predictable Oscar-contender, with strong performances all around and sharp writing. The Oscars are familiar ground for director-writer Condon, who snagged the golden statuette for writing his 1998 film "Gods and Monsters." Condon puts that same attentive scriptwriting care into crafting his version of Kinsey, following the doctor's life as reported by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy in the book "Sex -- the Measure of All Things: The Life of Alfred C. Kinsey."\nLiam Neeson, in his finest performance since "Schindler's List," plays Kinsey with searing subtlety, as a man who tried to be void of emotion when examining an inflammatory topic. Neeson keeps Kinsey cold and clinical, despite the raw sensations he experienced in his personal life, with emotion rumbling below the surface.\nIn "Kinsey," actress Laura Linney proves she really does belong in the same league of actresses as Meryl Streep and Sally Field. Linney, costarring as Kinsey's wife Clara McMillen, is the perfect complement for Neeson and portrays a woman willing to rein in an obsessive husband out of love. Peter Sarsgaard rounds out the impressive prominent cast as a research assistant who seduces both Kinsey and his wife.\nCondon is perhaps guilty of making "Kinsey" too compartmentalized. He has more material here than a two-hour movie can hold. Heavy stars are brought in (Timothy Hutton, Chris O'Donnell, Tim Curry and Oliver Platt as IU president Herman B Wells), but for only a small share of scenes. Because his sense of pacing is sharp, Condon could have easily tacked on an extra half-hour or hour to develop the surrounding characters who influenced Kinsey, and the movie wouldn't have suffered for it.\nEven today, half a century after Kinsey first published his 1948 study "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," "Kinsey" the movie may strike a few chords of discomfort and controversy. It is very frank and uninhibited in its discussion and portrayals of sex, definitely deserving of its solid R rating. But clearly it is also a touching movie, with lots of defusing humor, for which it must be praised for handling as gracefully and as smartly as the topic of sex itself.\nFortunately, and adeptly so, the acting, writing and story-telling of "Kinsey" doesn't fall into the lame-duck fare of most biopics (I'm thinking here of "Ali," "Pollock" and "Frida," among many others). But it isn't a film which retreats from the conventions of a biography movie, either, and instead embraces an already solidified genre.\n"Kinsey" is a nicely balanced piece of cinema, examining not only the life and the work of its subject, but why those in particular make the subject especially worthy of the audience's time.
(11/15/04 5:39am)
Bill Condon is sorry.\nThe Academy Award-winning director and writer of the new movie "Kinsey," a biopic about IU professor and human sexuality research pioneer Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, is sorry because when it came time to give acknowledgements in the film's credits, it read that the filmmakers would like to thank the "University of Indiana."\n"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said to some beleaguered moans during a press conference at the University Club in the Indiana Memorial Union before the Bloomington premiere of his film. "That's what happens on a limited budget and a 37-day shooting schedule."\nCondon promised it would absolutely be corrected in subsequent prints.\nBut by the end of the evening, the gaffe was the last thing on the minds of filmgoers, who, for $50, were treated to cocktails, a film premiere and a discussion at the IU Auditorium, which also raised money for IU's Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.\nActress Laura Linney -- who portrayed Kinsey's wife Clara in the film and who was freshly flown in from a film shoot in Vancouver -- producer Gail Mutrux and Condon were in attendance Saturday night on campus.\nCondon introduced the film with a brief, and ironic, anecdote.\n"Dr. Kinsey was once asked what he thought about a Hollywood movie about him, and he said, 'I can't think of anything more pointless.' So here we are," Condon joked.\nBut Condon was sincere in his thanks for IU, which he said had been an incredible host for him and his crew. Condon, Mutrux, set designer Richard Sherman and Liam Neeson, who stars as Kinsey, visited the campus, the Kinseys' home and the institute prior to film's production.\nCondon said coming back to the campus created an interesting feeling.\n"It's very strange, only because I was here before," Condon said. "The film becomes your reality. You find Indiana in New Jersey. You find Liam Neeson in Alfred Kinsey. Then you come to the real place, meet the real people, and it's scary."\n"Kinsey" was not shot at IU, but rather in New York because of the film's copious speaking parts, Condon said. New York also provided a large pool of actors. \nViewers instead will see campuses that resembled IU as the setting for the film. Exterior shots were filmed at Fordham University in New York City, and interior shots were filmed at Columbia University and Bronx Community College, both also in New York City. \nWalking through the IMU, Condon said he was reflecting on the history of the campus where Kinsey worked more than 50 years ago, and how some minor details were changed for the movie.\n"Our Herman Wells doesn't wear a mustache because Oliver Platt looks like Hitler with a mustache," Condon joked.\nCondon praised Wells for his support and steadfastness with defending Kinsey amid the controversy in the 1940s and 1950s.\n"Wells is a genuine hero, and there's a wonderful movie to be made about him, I think," Condon said.\nCondon said the film struck a personal chord with him as an openly gay director. To add to the personal attachment, he said Kinsey's granddaughter gave him one of the professor's signature bow ties as a gift once the film was complete. \nCondon also presented Julia Heiman, current director of the Kinsey Institute and participant in a discussion following the film, with a $25,000 donation given to him from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.\nHeiman said she appreciated the film's subtlety and thoughtfulness, which she has had time to reflect on over the course of the past few months.\n"I have seen this movie seven times," Heiman said. "I have never seen a movie seven times."\nShe said the Institute will continue to push for expanded sex education and research, as well as continue to facilitate a nationwide discussion.\n"I think that the press can get caught up in opposing poles -- pervert/hero, good/bad -- that reduces it to some kind of sexual simplicity that was never there," Heiman said. "There is a way to go beyond what is simple and have a conversation."\nHeiman said she wasn't sure if the film will change anyone's values, but hoped it might allow people to think differently, if not for a little while.\nFor $1,000, guests were invited to a private reception with Condon, Linney and Mutrux. For $20, they could just attend the film's premiere.\nLiam Neeson was originally scheduled to attend Saturday's events, but ended up playing host to "Saturday Night Live" as part of the film's publicity tour. \nBoth Kinsey's daughter, Anne Call, and his granddaughter, Wendy Corning, were in attendance for the film's local premiere, as well as Paul Gebhard, an original member of Kinsey's research team who is portrayed by Timothy Hutton in the film.\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(11/12/04 6:12am)
A new report that could mark a significant shift in Indiana's higher education recommends that IU and Purdue University enroll fewer undergraduate students and increase emphasis on graduate education and the number of graduate students on their main campuses to prepare for the state's economic future.\nThe final report, released Thursday by an independent panel appointed by the state legislature, said the greatest assets to diversifying and expanding the state's economy for the future are its institutions of higher learning.\nBut Indiana has put an overwhelming focus on bachelor's degree education that is out of balance with the rest of the nation, the report says, which has distracted it from important goals, such as expanding Indiana's research and technology transfer and fixing "insufficiencies" in the state's two-year college programs.\nThe report says its proposals would create a long-term development plan for postsecondary education, saying:\n• IU and Purdue must become more focused on graduate education, research and technology transfer and less focused on undergraduate education.\n• Regional universities must "pick up the slack" in providing bachelor's degrees and serve the needs of different regional economies.\n• Ivy Tech campuses must evolve into comprehensive community colleges comparable to the best of those found elsewhere in the nation, and Vincennes University should free itself from connections with Ivy Tech.\nAs of late Thursday night, representatives from the state's two largest public universities were still mulling through the committee's 100-page report.\nIU Director of Media Relations Larry MacIntyre said IU President Adam Herbert had been briefed on the report and said Herbert is now in the process of reading it once, if not twice, in the next couple of days.\n"The report contains some good things, some things we think are great ideas, and it also contains some things that concern us," MacIntyre said. \nHerbert agrees with the concept of expanding community-based education in Indiana, and he wants to be a partner with the state and with businesses to help bring new business to Indiana and make IU an "even greater catalyst" for economic growth. \nBut MacIntyre said Herbert disagrees with the proposal to cap undergraduate enrollment. Herbert believes a large undergraduate enrollment is beneficial to the whole system, providing for a large base of professors and associate instructors and creating a "depth in the breadth" of IU's academic programs, MacIntyre said.\n"Dr. Herbert very much would like to see graduate programs expanded at Bloomington, but not at the expense of reducing undergraduate enrollment," MacIntyre said. "If it came to that, Dr. Herbert would oppose any policy that would force IU to reduce its undergraduate enrollment."\nHerbert's fears that a cut in IU's undergraduate enrollment would necessitate faculty and staff reductions, which would ultimately erode the quality of programs and the unique experience IU offers, MacIntyre said. \nCurrent enrollment for IU on the Bloomington campus is 37,821; Purdue's total at its West Lafayette campus is 38,653. Reducing those numbers would likely be unpopular statewide.\nPurdue President Martin C. Jischke said in a statement released to the Indiana Daily Student by Joseph Bennett, vice president for University Relations at Purdue, that he believed the proposal is not likely to be popular or even feasible.\n"While we are indeed growing our research program, in part because of the impact of Purdue research on the future of Indiana's economy, shrinking the enrollment of resident undergraduates and charging dramatically higher tuition is not what the people of Indiana want from Purdue," Jischke said.\nJischke said he is also concerned that any changes could threaten the financial stability of Purdue.\n"Our state support per student is already among the lowest in the Big Ten," he said.\nMacIntyre said the report suggests its goals can be achieved without additional investment, but Herbert disagrees, adding that the kind of expansion talked about in the report would actually require additional state funding.\nThomas Reilly, chairman of Higher Education Subcommittee of the Indiana Government Efficiency Commission, which released the final audit of public universities, told the Associated Press that IU and Purdue need to generate more of their own funding through research and "almost become more privatized."\nReilly added that Indiana's public universities are well-ranked, but their research and technology production are not successfully linked to plans to help change the state's economy.\nAny proposed changes to the state's public universities will have to occur in January, when a Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly reconvenes.\nEllen Whitt, spokeswoman for Governor-elect Mitch Daniels, said he had not had an opportunity to review the report released Thursday and was not in a position to comment without reviewing it, adding that Daniels will be examining the report soon.\nMacIntyre said it should be made very clear that Thursday's report is very preliminary, and since it has just been made public, the discussion over the future of the state's institutions of higher learning has merely begun.\n"The debate has just opened," he said. "Dr. Herbert will be taking part in that debate and will be talking to the governor, talking to the legislature, talking to alumni, talking to everyone. We're at a point where this is going to be discussed for a while."\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(11/11/04 5:00am)
Aver's Pizza defended its title this year and remained Bloomington's best pizza, holding off second place Mother Bear's and third place Pizza Express. \nJunior Tom Cummins said he's not disappointed in the three pizza places ranked in this year's Best of Bloomington, and he's happy the community made such wise choices to acknowledge the locally-owned businesses serving the community.\nCummins says he also knows a thing or two about pizza, and before he came to IU, he made a promise to himself.\n"I told myself I was going to try every pizza in town, and then decide the best," he said.\nAnd so, slice by slice, he ate. Toppings have included everything from basic to cheese to elaborate piles of vegetables and just about every sort of meat they put on a pizza. He dipped breadsticks. He tried sauces. He even saved a single slice to try the next day -- cold pizza, a college tradition. \nAver's, he said, is a solid choice for first.\n"Aver's has a great selection of gourmet pizza," Cummins said. "The barbecue chicken pizza is kickass."\nThe Chicken Masterpiece -- lightly-seasoned chicken, bacon and banana peppers upon barbecue sauce and mozzarella cheese -- is among Aver's selection of signature gourmet pizzas, including the nationally recognized Crimson & Cream (alfredo sauce, red potato seasoned with garlic, bacon, cheddar and gorgonzola cheese), the Parthenon (garlic and herb sauce, feta cheese, red onion, black olive and fresh tomato) and the vegetarian Beckon Desire (lemon pesto and mozzarella, with flavors of artichoke hearts and red onion).\n"You can get regular pizzas anywhere. You have to get gourmet pizzas from Aver's," Cummins said. \nBut for the more traditional, Cummins said you still can't go wrong with Aver's, which offers the Crazy 8 deal -- a medium one-topping pizza, a large order of breadsticks with one dipping sauce (nacho cheese, tomato, ranch, garlic or hummus) and two drinks for $8.88.\n"I love the Aver's breadsticks," Cummins said. "They're some of the best in town, no doubt."\nAver's has been recognized by Pizza Today magazine as one of the busiest independent pizza operations in the United States for the past four years.\nCummins said if he had to offer any suggestion to the winner, he'd suggest a possible make-over for the crust.\n"Their pizza is a little heavy on the crust," Cummins said. "I'd go with something slightly thinner, but otherwise it's a great, nicely-balanced pizza -- not too heavy on anything."\nHe said the runners-up are also good choices that wouldn't let down a college student.\nMother Bear's cult following is well-deserved, Cummins said.\n"Mother Bear's has a great combo: good pizza, great breadsticks, a two-liter of Coke and a brownie," he said. "It's a great way to satisfy that stoner-munchie urge."\nMother Bear's and Pizza Express provide excellent service from their positions immediately off campus, Cummins said. All three offer free delivery service with pizza orders. \n"Pizza Express is great because it has a fantastic location for anyone in the central campus neighborhood," Cummins said. "I like Pizza Express' multi-grain crust and the ability to design your own pizza at reasonable prices"
(11/11/04 5:00am)
Feelings -- abandoned feelings, hidden feelings, expressing feelings of all shades -- are at the heart of "Alfie," a movie which has absolutely no idea how to handle the feelings of its characters and least of all how to handle the feelings of its audience.\nJude Law, overflowing with a charming cockney magnetism, is a British playboy living in Manhattan, jumping from bed to car to pool table back to bed with a revolving door of women. He's a typical sweet-talking womanizer: vain, finely dressed, perennially smoking and flashing an award-winning smile as he brings the audience along for the ride by talking to us à la Ferris Bueller.\nThere are two ways to play a movie like this successfully: you either make your hero likeably redeemable or smarmy without any redemption. Director and writer Charles Shyer (who did the remakes of "Father of the Bride"), along with his co-writer Elaine Pope, want instead to strike a middle ground, making Alfie about as despicable as possible and expect the audience to feel sympathetic when he gets down on his luck. (The jury is still out on what exactly they wanted the audience to feel when we watch Alfie making out with his various co-stars Marisa Tomei, Nia Long, Sienna Miller and Susan Sarandon, because there's little interesting about it.)\n"Alfie" does provide a modicum of good news: the potential for a Best Song or Best Score Oscar for Mick Jagger, who provides a crooning, brooding British-themed soundtrack co-penned by David A. Stewart. Unfortunately for Shyer and perhaps Law, who does deliver a strong performance making with this movie what he can, Jagger and Stewart capture the mood of the movie better than the film's writers or its cinematography.\n"Alfie" is a remake of a scandalous 1966 film that admittedly I haven't seen but earned Michael Caine his first Oscar nomination for the role of Alfie. My general sense about the 1966 version is it at least got the point: your main character can't straddle a fence, wavering between charm and spite, and expect your audience to fall in and out of love with him as dumbly as the film's characters do. \nI expect most people walking into a theater to see this newer version, like me, won't know there's an original version floating around out there. But I also think most people shouldn't go see this movie either.
(11/11/04 3:38am)
Feelings -- abandoned feelings, hidden feelings, expressing feelings of all shades -- are at the heart of "Alfie," a movie which has absolutely no idea how to handle the feelings of its characters and least of all how to handle the feelings of its audience.\nJude Law, overflowing with a charming cockney magnetism, is a British playboy living in Manhattan, jumping from bed to car to pool table back to bed with a revolving door of women. He's a typical sweet-talking womanizer: vain, finely dressed, perennially smoking and flashing an award-winning smile as he brings the audience along for the ride by talking to us à la Ferris Bueller.\nThere are two ways to play a movie like this successfully: you either make your hero likeably redeemable or smarmy without any redemption. Director and writer Charles Shyer (who did the remakes of "Father of the Bride"), along with his co-writer Elaine Pope, want instead to strike a middle ground, making Alfie about as despicable as possible and expect the audience to feel sympathetic when he gets down on his luck. (The jury is still out on what exactly they wanted the audience to feel when we watch Alfie making out with his various co-stars Marisa Tomei, Nia Long, Sienna Miller and Susan Sarandon, because there's little interesting about it.)\n"Alfie" does provide a modicum of good news: the potential for a Best Song or Best Score Oscar for Mick Jagger, who provides a crooning, brooding British-themed soundtrack co-penned by David A. Stewart. Unfortunately for Shyer and perhaps Law, who does deliver a strong performance making with this movie what he can, Jagger and Stewart capture the mood of the movie better than the film's writers or its cinematography.\n"Alfie" is a remake of a scandalous 1966 film that admittedly I haven't seen but earned Michael Caine his first Oscar nomination for the role of Alfie. My general sense about the 1966 version is it at least got the point: your main character can't straddle a fence, wavering between charm and spite, and expect your audience to fall in and out of love with him as dumbly as the film's characters do. \nI expect most people walking into a theater to see this newer version, like me, won't know there's an original version floating around out there. But I also think most people shouldn't go see this movie either.
(11/11/04 3:02am)
Aver's Pizza defended its title this year and remained Bloomington's best pizza, holding off second place Mother Bear's and third place Pizza Express. \nJunior Tom Cummins said he's not disappointed in the three pizza places ranked in this year's Best of Bloomington, and he's happy the community made such wise choices to acknowledge the locally-owned businesses serving the community.\nCummins says he also knows a thing or two about pizza, and before he came to IU, he made a promise to himself.\n"I told myself I was going to try every pizza in town, and then decide the best," he said.\nAnd so, slice by slice, he ate. Toppings have included everything from basic to cheese to elaborate piles of vegetables and just about every sort of meat they put on a pizza. He dipped breadsticks. He tried sauces. He even saved a single slice to try the next day -- cold pizza, a college tradition. \nAver's, he said, is a solid choice for first.\n"Aver's has a great selection of gourmet pizza," Cummins said. "The barbecue chicken pizza is kickass."\nThe Chicken Masterpiece -- lightly-seasoned chicken, bacon and banana peppers upon barbecue sauce and mozzarella cheese -- is among Aver's selection of signature gourmet pizzas, including the nationally recognized Crimson & Cream (alfredo sauce, red potato seasoned with garlic, bacon, cheddar and gorgonzola cheese), the Parthenon (garlic and herb sauce, feta cheese, red onion, black olive and fresh tomato) and the vegetarian Beckon Desire (lemon pesto and mozzarella, with flavors of artichoke hearts and red onion).\n"You can get regular pizzas anywhere. You have to get gourmet pizzas from Aver's," Cummins said. \nBut for the more traditional, Cummins said you still can't go wrong with Aver's, which offers the Crazy 8 deal -- a medium one-topping pizza, a large order of breadsticks with one dipping sauce (nacho cheese, tomato, ranch, garlic or hummus) and two drinks for $8.88.\n"I love the Aver's breadsticks," Cummins said. "They're some of the best in town, no doubt."\nAver's has been recognized by Pizza Today magazine as one of the busiest independent pizza operations in the United States for the past four years.\nCummins said if he had to offer any suggestion to the winner, he'd suggest a possible make-over for the crust.\n"Their pizza is a little heavy on the crust," Cummins said. "I'd go with something slightly thinner, but otherwise it's a great, nicely-balanced pizza -- not too heavy on anything."\nHe said the runners-up are also good choices that wouldn't let down a college student.\nMother Bear's cult following is well-deserved, Cummins said.\n"Mother Bear's has a great combo: good pizza, great breadsticks, a two-liter of Coke and a brownie," he said. "It's a great way to satisfy that stoner-munchie urge."\nMother Bear's and Pizza Express provide excellent service from their positions immediately off campus, Cummins said. All three offer free delivery service with pizza orders. \n"Pizza Express is great because it has a fantastic location for anyone in the central campus neighborhood," Cummins said. "I like Pizza Express' multi-grain crust and the ability to design your own pizza at reasonable prices"
(11/05/04 5:32am)
In the end, the convention wisdom was that conventional wisdom didn't really matter this election.\nFrom the Iowa caucuses to the party conventions, through the presidential debates and into Election Day, as exit polls said one thing and counted ballots ended up saying something else, the 2004 presidential election was anything but predictable.\nThe answer might seem clear in hindsight, judging from some of the time-tested -- and sometimes offbeat -- indicators that soothsayers, pundits, brokers and gamblers who rely on and swear by to help them predict the next White House occupant.\nBut 2004 was anything but a regular election year, and many signals pointed to a Democratic candidate John Kerry victory as well as the re-election of President George W. Bush.
(11/04/04 4:40am)
More young people voted in Tuesday's presidential election than voted in the last election four years ago, but an overall spike in voter turnout among all ages may have skewed the perception that youth turnout was a disappointment compared to past elections.\nExit polls conducted Tuesday night showed that voters in the 18- to 29-year-old demographic accounted for roughly 17 percent of all voters, about the same percentage young people made up in 2000.\nBut the raw numbers of voters showed youth turnout jumped dramatically compared to past elections. The percentage of eligible young people who voted Tuesday increased nine percentage points compared to 2000, and an estimated 20.9 million Americans under 30 voted this year, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement.\n"This is phenomenal," CIRCLE director William A. Galston said in a press release. "It represents the highest youth voter turnout in more than a decade."\nGalston said this year's election surpassed the youth participation peak of 1992, when Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, defeated incumbent President George H.W. Bush. Young people passed the 1992 numbers by an estimated four percentage points this year.\nThe higher levels of young participation may be obscured by a surge in voter turnout across the board, said Cate Brandon, spokesperson for Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization that encourages youth participation in the political process. \nConsequently, the focus may be erroneously placed on the statistic that the overall percentage moved little. \n"The percentage as a part of the electorate is about the same," Brandon said. "All voters surged to the polls, and young people kept pace with the increased voting that happened across the board."\nWith 99 percent of nationwide precincts reporting, figures tabulated Wednesday by The Associated Press showed that 114.3 million people voted this election. \nAn estimated 120 million people cast ballots, including 5.5 million to 6 million absentee and provisional ballots that have yet to be counted.\nExit polls also showed that young voters strongly preferred Sen. John Kerry over President George W. Bush, 54 percent to 45 percent, and the only age bracket the Democratic challenger captured was voters 18 to 29.\nDespite a larger turnout among young people, voters under 24 still only accounted for one in 10 voters.\nBrandon said Rock the Vote will regroup following the election and focus its priorities on educating students on their rights as voters, expanding options to vote and making sure polling places are accessible. She said the group is concerned in motivating politicians to pay attention to the needs of younger voters.\n"I think what we need to look at is what are young people voting for, and ultimately it's whether the politicians are speaking to young people and speaking to the issues that are important to them," Brandon said. "That's what we need to work on: getting politicians to speak to young people."\nMany polls indicated a growing interest in politics among young people this year. A study conducted by Harvard University's Institute of Politics found that 62 percent of students enrolled in colleges and universities said they planned to vote this year.\nThere is no conclusive word yet, however, on how many students attending colleges across the nation actually made it to the polls.\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(11/03/04 8:14am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Election night was not the night Indiana Democrats were hoping for, as Republicans decisively swept all but one statewide office. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan lost to Republican Mitch Daniels by nine points in the most expensive and one of the tightest gubernatorial races in Indiana history.\nKernan led Daniels in early voting returns, but Tuesday night's ending results -- 54 percent for Daniels, 45 percent for Kernan and 1 percent for Libertarian Kenn Gividen, with 92 percent of precincts reporting -- proved a clear victory for Daniels in his first run for public office.\nIf he had won, it would have been Kernan's first elected term to the office as governor. He previously served as the state's lieutenant governor and succeeded former Gov. Frank O'Bannon in September 2003 when O'Bannon suffered a sudden, massive stroke.\nKernan conceded defeat a little after 10 p.m. at The Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. Democrats smiled for the camera and chanted "Joe! Joe! Joe!" as the governor entered, but a sense of loss and disappointment fell over the crowd. Some were in tears; others consoled.\nLooking to break the ice to broken supporters, Kernan opened with self-deprecating humor.\n"So, what's new?" he joked.\nHe began his concession speech by saying he had already placed a phone call to Daniels, Indiana's new governor-elect.\n"I congratulated him on a race well-run and to commit to him that Kathy Davis and I and everyone in Indiana state government would fully cooperate in this transition," Kernan said. "We will do everything we can to turn state government over in the best shape possible."\nKernan said going into Tuesday's election, he was ready to accept the verdict of Hoosier voters. \n"I have said over the course of the last couple of weeks that on the second of November, the people of Indiana were going to make a decision, that I would trust their decision, and I do," a conciliatory Kernan said.\nThe defeated governor praised Hoosiers for their commitment to the election and expressed satisfaction at the high turnout rate.\n"If the turnout numbers hold up to what we believe they will, the best part of this is that more people were engaged and more people participated in the process, and that is good for the process," Kernan said.\nFormer Indiana First Lady Judy O'Bannon spoke before Kernan and painted a positive message for disappointed supporters.\n"We've had some years where we've swept the decks, and other years when it's a little sparser," O'Bannon said. "One of the wonderful things about living in a representative democracy is that days that don't come out exactly how we want them are often followed by days that turned out the way we want,"\nO'Bannon said she was happy that, looking into the ballroom at The Westin, she didn't see a collection of only older volunteers. \n"I'm looking at the most capable, trained, caring and concerned young people," she said.\nA fair share of those young people was in attendance at Kernan's post-election party. Sarah Owen, a senior at Butler University and president of the Butler College Democrats, was anxious and distraught.\n"The race was extremely tight," Owen said. "There will be a huge detriment to the state of Indiana if we elect a guy based on a slogan. And that's all Daniels is. Nothing but a slogan."\nSenior Mandy Carmichael, who was in Indianapolis in her capacity as president of the IU College Democrats, said that while the governor's race was a large disappointment to her, she valued the experience of working and campaigning for Kernan. \nShe said she is optimistic about Daniels serving as the state's governor and said she is willing to give him "the benefit of the doubt" in supporting him.\nOwen, however, was confident in the Democratic support and solidarity that will come under a Daniels administration.\n"We'll have to compromise to work with what's available to us. But we will keep Daniels in place," Owen said. "You'd better believe we will hold him to his promises come the 2008 election."\nIn the end, the Democratic leaders made efforts to reassure and comfort their faithful.\n"Don't put your head down and feel sad," O'Bannon said. "Sometimes you start the next campaign the day after the last one."\n"Stay involved, stay engaged, have your voices heard, continue to participate in all the meaningful ways that you have in all of the things that you do every day," Kernan said. "This is not a time to hang our heads and not a time to whine about what might have been. This is about tomorrow and the commitment we make to each other, not as Democrats, but as citizens to this wonderful place we call home."\nKernan said he did not know what he and his wife Maggie would do after he leaves office in January, adding only, "We go on from here."\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(10/26/04 4:59am)
For junior Michael Schuler, the best candidate in the 2004 presidential election couldn't be any clearer.\nIt has to be President George W. Bush, the Republican nominee. \n"He is stronger in the war on terror," Schuler said. "He's demonstrated that. He will take action even if the political consequences are negative."\nSchuler said the protection of America in the future really is what the election will be all about. Schuler is comfortable with Bush, and uncomfortable with Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.\n"I see Kerry changing his views so many times. That's a problem for me," Schuler said. "The way he changes from one position to another, it's just uncertainty. You wonder if he's going to do what's necessary."\nAnd as someone who wants to venture into the business world someday, Schuler said he also believes in keeping the tax rates for Americans lower.\n"I believe in lower taxes. I want to be in business one day," Schuler said. "Kerry talks about rolling back the tax cuts on $200,000 and over, and I want to make that or more some day. If the tax rate is going to be higher, there's no incentive for that to happen."\nWith the national election one week away, Bush and Kerry are locked in statistical dead heats in nearly every poll being released. As the race enters its homestretch, the president continues campaigning, balancing his strengths and his weaknesses, as he tries to convince the American electorate to "re-hire" him.\nRecent polls have shown Americans have faith in Bush's personal strengths, but find cracks of weakness in some of his policies.\n"One of Bush's strengths is of being the commander-in-chief," said James Andrews, a professor of communications and culture who focuses on political rhetoric. "There's a sense of having decisiveness, and an advantage of a kind of clarity. People think they know what he's going to do."\nEven though Bush's approval rating overall is dropping, Andrews said there is still a strong personal likability for the president, a vital political asset.\nBush's weaknesses, though, can be derivative of his strengths. World events, such as Iraq, seem to have proven the president at least inaccurate, Andrews said.\n"There are times when decisiveness might be perceived as stubbornness, as an inability to recognize errors or to make adjustments," Andrews said. "I think the Kerry campaign is saying, 'Why don't you admit you made a mistake?' which, of course, in a campaign Bush is not allowed to do. It puts him in a tight spot."\nBush's first term in office has produced large pieces of his planned domestic agenda -- three large tax cuts, the "No Child Left Behind" education reform and a modernization of Medicare that added prescription drugs to the program. But his term has been predominantly focused on foreign policy, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. \nIn March 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq in an effort to disarm a country it said had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction or aid terrorists. The war proved extremely divisive, and while Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was removed from power, no weapons of mass destruction have been found yet.\nFifty-eight-year-old George Walker Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, graduated Yale University with a B.A. in history in 1968. Bush served as president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity for three years and was a member of the Skull and Bones Society.\nBush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 following his graduation from Yale, and served as an F-102 pilot. Bush received permission to leave the Guard in 1973 to attend Harvard University. He graduated with an M.B.A. in 1975.\nBush entered business around the same time he entered politics. In 1978, Bush ran for the U.S. House in a rural Texas district, but lost to Kent Hance, a Democrat who accused Bush of being an "outsider" who attended east coast schools. After his defeat, Bush began a career in the oil industry when he established Arbusto Energy ("arbusto" is Spanish for "bush"), an oil and gas exploration company. \nArbusto was sold in 1984 to Spectrum 7, another exploration firm, and Bush became the CEO of Spectrum. Two years later, Spectrum was saved by a buyout from Harken Energy Corp., with Bush becoming that company's director.\nBush's last job in the private sector was as a managing general partner of the Texas Rangers, a major league baseball franchise, from 1989 until 1994, when he became the governor of Texas. Gov. Bush defeated former Vice President Al Gore for the presidency in the contentious race of 2000, winning a scant majority of the Electoral College and losing the popular vote by half a million ballots.\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(10/26/04 4:58am)
For senior Shaunica Pridgen, the best candidate in the 2004 presidential election couldn't be any clearer.\nIt has to be Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.\n"The last four years have been a disaster," Pridgen said. "A disaster in terms of our relationships with other countries, in terms of the war in Iraq, in terms of where our country is headed, and Kerry has the needed leadership."\nPridgen said Kerry shares many of her values -- namely similar views on how to address health care and economic concerns college students have. Kerry believes Social Security should not be privatized; so does Pridgen. Kerry believes President George W. Bush's tax cuts of 2001 should be rolled back for people making more than $200,000; so does Pridgen.\n"The tax cuts have been terribly, horribly implemented," she said. "I don't think that they gave the most help to the people who needed the most help."\nPridgen is not alone in her support of Kerry. A national poll released by Harvard's Institute of Politics last week showed Kerry maintains a 13-point lead among college students. But with the election one week away, Kerry still has an excruciating campaign to finish, and strengths and weaknesses to balance.\nJames Andrews, a professor of communications and culture who focuses on presidential rhetoric, said the tricky thing about politics is that candidates can be seen in a million different lights. Strengths for some audiences are weaknesses for others, and vice versa. It is perhaps one of the foremost explanations for such stratified responses to the question of Kerry's consistency or inconsistency.\n"I think Kerry has done a lot better in terms of being able to deal with issues without being too verbose, too ponderous," Andrews said. "The difficulty is, whereas some people may say understanding the complexity of issues is a good idea, it tends to suggest to a lot of people that he can't make up his mind."\nAndrews said the Bush campaign has effectively taken this quality and made it into the flip-flopping charge, which only after the debates does Kerry seem to be escaping.\n"I think Kerry has improved and done a much better job now, projecting a kind of image that he can solve problems," Andrews said. "He has certainly improved in terms of the way he addresses questions, but now you can almost lip-sync his answers."\nKerry defeated nine challengers during the 2004 presidential primary campaign for the Democratic nomination, with voters largely identifying him as the most "electable" candidate.\nDespite a 20-year Senate presence, no notable pieces of legislation bear Kerry's name. He is better known for his presence on the diplomatic Foreign Relations Committee, where he has served for his entire senatorial tenure, and investigations into Gen. Manuel Noriega's drug-trafficking and money laundering, as well as the early stages of the Iran-Contra Affair.\nKerry has said his proudest congressional achievement was his work with Sen. John McCain to account for missing soldiers or prisoners-of-war in Vietnam, which paved the way for re-established diplomatic relations with Vietnam and the United States.\nJohn Forbes Kerry, the 61-year-old junior senator from Massachusetts, graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in political science in 1966. A member of the Skull and Bones Society, Kerry was elected president of the Yale Political Union in his sophomore year.\nFollowing graduation, Kerry voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves and served as a lieutenant in the Vietnam War, commandeering a patrol boat on the Mekong Delta. Kerry left the war medaled yet disillusioned; he earned three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for battle, and converted his war experience into a protest cause and became one of the leaders of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.\nKerry entered politics in 1972, tagged as a carpetbagger after an embarrassing search for which U.S. House district in Massachusetts he might have the best chance of winning. After he lost to Republican Paul Cronin, Kerry entered Boston College Law School and received his law degree in 1976. He worked as an assistant district attorney for Middlesex County until he won election as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts under Michael Dukakis. He won the Senate seat he holds today in 1984.\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(10/21/04 4:22pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>They differ on foreign policy, they differ on domestic policy and, it can only be assumed, they differ on the music they would load onto an iPod.
As the 2004 presidential election reaches its homestretch, President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry have become entangled in a battle to create deep and transparent differences. For the most part, they've been successful -- and one of the many areas where this has become increasingly noticeable is in the soundtracks which accompany the campaign season.
From Bob Dylan's "Times They Are A-Changin'" to Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," from John Mellencamp's "Peaceful World" to the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen," music and politics have never been too far detached from one another. But this year's election is offering up a revival of activism in political music unprecedented since Vietnam and Watergate-era America.
POLITICS IN MUSIC: IT'S BLOWIN' IN THE WIND"When I grew up, music had a terrific influence on the mindset of young people," IU music professor Glenn Gass said. "It was a lot more than just saying, 'I like Bob Dylan,' or 'I like Jimi Hendrix.' It was being part of a culture, a counterculture with its own language, hairstyles, fashion, politics and lifestyle choices. The times were so politicized, and music was sort of the common thread that grounded all of that."
Political songs reached their zenith in the 1960s and early 1970s when issues that couldn't be ignored took center stage -- namely the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Coupled with the turbulent politics of the time, these social issues had a crucial influence on the music coming from the era and on the sensibilities of the culture, Gass said.
The overtly political songs of that area were usually awful, Gass said. The great political songs, which stirred the passions, were few and far between and were much more nuanced than merely singing the virtues or vices of your particular candidate.
"You didn't have to come out and say it in music," Gass said.
The strongest examples of exemplar political songs would be any number of Bob Dylan's early works, which grew in popularity for their messages as well as the music.
"He was so important because he'd say these things that you felt but couldn't put into words," Gass said. "I remember singing Dylan songs at church camp when I was kid with no sense that they were left-leaning songs."
Gass said another influential political song to emerge from the Vietnam era was Neil Young's "Ohio," written after four students were killed and nine were wounded by the National Guard at Kent State University in Ohio during the spring of 1970.
"It made you feel connected, not to feel so alone and not so powerless," Gass said. "It was a direct answer to an event, and that's what people try to do when they try to write a song about Iraq."
The current political involvement from musicians has grown for the 2004 election more so than any in recent memory.
Russell Simmons' Hip Hop Action Network had dozens of celebrities to choose from this season in an attempt to register new voters. The release of albums and songs with political overtones is snowballing, from Toby Keith's "Courtesy Of The Red, White, And Blue (The Angry American)" and his album, Shock'n Y'all, to NOFX's War on Errorism and Green Day's American Idiot.
"Arguably, we're in the worst crisis this country has been in since Watergate and Vietnam, and that's mobilized people," Gass said.
Gass said, for better or for worse, artists should embrace whatever their political ideologies are and not fear for their careers as they attempt to motivate voters or play roles in public discourse.
"I get so tired of people saying you shouldn't listen to artists," Gass said. "Well, who should you listen to? That's what artists have always done: commenting on society. The difference is whether you view it as coming from artists or from entertainers, and pop has gone back to being more of entertainment rather than an artform."
SONGS USED FOR POLITICS: CAN JINGLES REALLY GET VOTES?Music is a commodity. It's a pipeline that can be used to sell almost anything, a fact not lost on any political operative. The pervasive use of songs in commercials has been a cornerstone of the advertising industry for decades, so it should come as no surprise then that every presidential candidate in the nation's history has had a campaign theme song of some sort.
Today, songs are typically used in protest or used to rally and energize supporters at campaign events. And although "every candidate has to have one," political scientists and musicians alike are unsure what kind of impact theme songs ultimately have on any given election.
Before World War II, campaign theme songs were typically written for specific candidates. The election of 1840 first crystallized the necessity for a campaign song as a way to drum up support while furiously slinging mud toward the opponent. Whig Party candidate William Henry Harrison -- nicknamed "Tippecanoe" after he led a defeat of a Native American rebellion at the Battle of Tippecanoe -- and his running mate, John Tyler, turned their successful "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too" campaign slogan into a rallying song against President Martin Van Buren:Like the rush of mighty waters (waters, waters) onward it will go,And its course will bring you through for Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!And with him we'll beat Little Van, Van, Van is a used up manAnd with him we'll beat Little Van!
Van Buren, however, countered with a shrewd parody of the beloved "Lullaby," mocking Harrison's reportedly frequent use of alcohol:Rock-a-bye, baby, Daddy's a Whig,When he comes home, hard cider he'll swig.When he has swug, he'll fall in a stew,And down will come Tyler and Tippecanoe.
As the Great Depression began to grip America, Franklin Delano Roosevelt tapped Milton Ager and Jack Yellen's peppy and optimistic "Happy Days Are Here Again" for his theme song, which served as a reassuring antidote to growing American concern:Happy days are here again,The skies above are clear again,So let's sing a song of cheer again,Happy days are here again!
In the years following World War II, campaign theme songs began to evolve from songs specifically written for a candidate into mainstream popular musician. John F. Kennedy used a recording of "High Hopes" by Kennedy family friend Frank Sinatra on the campaign trail in 1960.
Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully tried to use Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" in 1984. The Boss fiercely relented; outside the red-white-and-blue chorus, "Born" is actually a sharp protest song about the government and ultimately a poor choice for any presidential campaign.
CAMPAIGN MUSIC OF TODAY AND BEYONDBill Clinton, the first baby boomer to hold the Oval Office, went rock 'n' roll as well and used Fleetwood Mac's idealistic tune "Don't Stop" for his theme song when he knocked off incumbent George H. W. Bush in 1992.
This election cycle, the two candidates' musical selections once again mirror the perennial cultural clash in American politics: Republicans versus Democrats, tradition versus change and, of course, country music versus rock 'n' roll.
The Bush campaign has adopted country music duo Brooks & Dunn's "Only in America," an overtly-patriotic tune which praises the can-do work ethic of American citizens in the land of endless opportunity, as one of its campaign songs. The award-winning duo, as well other country and Christian music artists, headlined the Republican National Convention in New York.
Kerry took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Boston to the tune of Springsteen's "No Surrender," an anthem of bravery. Springsteen, who is headlining the "Vote for Change" tour to unseat Bush, is an avid Kerry supporter and, while known for his odes to the common man in his music, has never been involved in partisan politics -- until now.
"In this particular election, the decision is so clear, and the potential result so important to the country, that myself, along with a lot of other musicians and artists, felt democracy in the end is something you do," Springsteen told the Associated Press.
Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, frequently used John Mellencamp's "Small Town" during the Democratic primaries. Both candidates are also hoping Chuck Berry's "Johnnie B. Good" will send them to Washington this November.
"This is the first time I've really seen clear echoes of (political activism in music) in a long, long time," Gass said. "But I think the music doesn't have the moral authority it used to have. Today there's no Bob Dylan or no Neil Young to write 'Ohio.'"
One of the problems, Gass said, is there are no heavyweight moral compasses in the musical industry that there used to be, and people don't look toward music like they used to.
Using music as a tool for political exhaustion then has declined overall since the heights of Vietnam, Gass said, but it is still important today in the current blistery political climate,
"The issue has to be in your face. Until recently there haven't been global issues in your face. In a weird sort of way, it's a positive thing, and we need to engage this," Gass said. "Music is fragmented, just like our society is. I'm not sure where the new great songs. I think that's really important is that younger bands embrace it. It can't be the same old 1960s musicians doing it when they're 80 years old. There has to be younger people taking up the torch."