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(07/05/07 4:00am)
As John Mayer began his June 30 show at Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville, Ind., an orange and pink sunset framed the stage with fireworks bursting in the skies on either side.\nAt least 20,000 fans packed the outdoor concert for what could be one of the venue's last shows. Live Nation, the company that owns the land housing the music center, confirmed in December that the 203-acre property was officially for sale. \nFollowing the announcement, more than 18,000 people -- enough to fill the lawn and part of the pavilion -- have signed an online petition to save the venue. "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot," commented one woman who signed the petition. But the future is still unclear for the 18-year-old music center.\n"Concerts are better under the stars," reads one of the signs inside the venue, but if bulldozers make way for housing development -- which many fans suspect will happen when the center is sold -- some doubt that stars will keep coming to Indiana.\n"There aren't going to be as many big names," said Ron Signore, a junior from Purdue University in attendance at the Mayer concert. While Signore and his friends said closing down the center might be good for the state fair grounds or Conseco Fieldhouse, neither of those venues can come close to providing what Verizon has to offer, they said. \n"The atmosphere is because of the people; the people are friendly and you feel like you're part of the show," he said. "They make you feel like you're welcome."\nSignore's friend, Katie Gregory, also chimed in. She saw her first-ever concert, Boyz II Men, on the lawn with her mother.\n"I'm extremely depressed," she said. "This place has been here since I've grown up."\nAs it is for many of the summer shows, the lawn for John Mayer was packed with bodies: From a baby too young to walk or talk to a teenage boy swiping a Coors Light tall boy from the unattended bin of a beer peddler to glossy-eyed 20-somethings passing joints to the 50-somethings sitting behind them and the thousands in between.\nWhen considering the mass of souls who collaborate to create the atmosphere at Indiana's largest outdoor music venue from May to September, one might think Gregory's description of the venue as "intimate" is off-base, but Signore agreed.\n"The only way to describe this place is intimate," he said, his eyes growing large and gesturing with his hands as if to say, "Look at all this!" And for those who have never seen a show at Verizon, who have never tailgated in the grassy, unpaved parking area or who have never partied on the lawn, it might be hard to understand the mystique of seeing a concert amid the cornfields. \n"It makes you feel like you're part of something," Signore said.\nIf the land is sold to make way for housing or other development, that could provide opportunities for other music venues to fill the void, said Aaron Wells, a resident of Spencer, Ind., who traveled with a group of friends to the concert. If a large outdoor venue could be built closer to downtown, people could go to dinner or do other activities, Wells said.\nThe Lawn at White River State Park is the outdoor music venue closest to downtown Indianapolis and is also owned by Live Nation. Recently, renovations were made to The Lawn to "test the waters" for possible future changes, said Alex Umlauf, an executive assistant at White River State Park. The changes added about 800 terraced seats, expanding the venue's capacity to about 8,000 without chairs, Umlauf said.\nIf Verizon is closed down, White River State Park would be the next-largest outdoor destination for Indiana concert-goers.\n"It's all speculation obviously, but in my opinion we would be the premier venue for the state," Umlauf said.\nWells and his friends, however, agreed that the "mystique" of the Noblesville venue could not be recreated anywhere.\n"I'm going to be sad," he said. "As a music teacher, I obviously want a place where music is promoted, and this place is great about that"
(06/28/07 4:00am)
Fans of Katherine Paterson's novel will be happy enough with this Hollywood interpretation. A few plot points are different from the book, but the connection, fantasy and loss remain. \nLike the book, the movie opens with poor farm boy Jesse Aarons taking an early morning run because he wants to be able to outrace all the boys at recess. But when new girl in town Leslie Burke (who is also Jesse's new neighbor) beats all the boys, Jesse realizes she is different from any person he's ever known. Annoyance turns to admiration, which develops into friendship and love.\nJesse and Leslie begin spending time together during school and every afternoon. One day they find a rope swing over a creek and decide the other side is a magical kingdom named "Terabithia," home to magical creatures and evil forces conjured up by their young minds.\nThe movie's themes are beyond the range of the young actors who carry the movie and who lack the charm they had in previous roles (Robb in "Because of Winn Dixie" and Hutcherson in "Little Manhattan"). The movie's special effects may cause the viewers to lose a little bit of the imagination required when reading the book, but they are executed beautifully.\nThere are also plenty of special features. The two audio commentary tracks featuring the director, writer, producers and actors are entertaining and interesting. There is also a music video and discussion of the book, which offers great insight into the original author's intent.\nKids and adults alike will appreciate this movie -- kids for the fantasy and parents for its realism. Be prepared for something more than a childhood adventure, and expect something a little different from traditional Disney when you watch this one.
(06/21/07 4:00am)
If I were a 10-year-old, this movie would have made teen sleuth Nancy Drew my hero. I would have purchased copies of BOP magazine, plastered her face all over my room and started looking for mysteries. However, I am not 10.\nThough tween audiences will love this Hollywood take on the book series, adults might have trouble swallowing the inexplicable anachronism of Nancy, a teenager perpetually stuck in the '50s even though it's clearly 2007. When Nancy moves to L.A. with her dad, I was hoping she would put on modern clothes and make friends. But when she enters her new high school full of Ugg-wearing, text messaging Valley Girls, director Andrew Fleming tries to make them into the joke. However, as Nancy sits in the cafeteria alone, homemade goodies from a tin lunchbox on top of the table and penny loafers below, one has to wonder who the joke really is on.\nShe does find a friend and sidekick in 12-year-old Corky -- played by Andy Milonakis look-alike Josh Flitter -- who tags along as she solves the case of Dehlia Draycott, an actress who was murdered in Nancy's house. Flitter gets most of the laughs and outshines actress Emma Roberts as the more likeable, precocious character.\nThere are plenty of elements to make this movie tolerable to adults -- a Bruce Willis cameo and '50s references the kids won't get -- but the movie drags and you'll have the mystery solved before innocent ditz Nancy ever stumbles onto it.\nKids 12 and under will love the movie because they can suspend disbelief long enough to imagine that people can be perfect and the movie ends happily. Take a little sister or cousin to this movie if you must. Better yet, hand her a Nancy Drew book.
(05/31/07 4:00am)
"Apocalypto" has the makings of an epic movie, but there is one crucial aspect missing from it. Unfortunately, the movie fails to humanize its characters, making it hard to identify with them. The scenery is beautiful, the costumes are amazing, the sets are lifelike and the action is thrilling, but that was not enough to carry me through the violence and gore. \nWriter/director Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" focuses on the fate of a Mayan man named Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) who is captured after his small forest village is invaded. He and other villagers are bound and taken to a large city where some are sold into slavery, others are sacrificed -- in a scene complete with heart removal and decapitation -- and still others are forced into a deadly cat-and-mouse game, with freedom as the prize for an unlikely win.\nJaguar Paw's perilous journey home to save his pregnant wife and young son is filled with moments that require a willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer (this apparent superman can outrun a jaguar and kill 10 men while bleeding from the abdomen).\nWhile these elements are engaging, they confound the point that the film is intending to get across -- that large societies are breeding grounds for violence and the disruption of peaceful, simple living. Because Gibson only spends 23 minutes initially establishing the character who is supposed to humanize this primitive society, the movie's violence and mythological elements throw it off balance.\nIn addition, I was hoping the bonus features would provide insight into what Gibson was intending to say with the movie, but the commentary is mostly self-congratulatory remarks about his ability as a filmmaker. The only other bonuses are one deleted scene and a "making of" featurette that mainly focuses on how all the extras were corralled, costumed and made up.\nTo make the most out of this movie, watch it on a big screen with surround sound and expect a visceral experience without much of an actual story.
(05/17/07 4:00am)
There is much more to Keri Russell than her star-making persona, "Felicity" -- and she proves that in "Waitress." \nThe film is reminiscent of the Jennifer Aniston vehicle, "The Good Girl" (2002), in that Russell plays Jenna, a sweet, Southern, pregnant, blue-collar waitress who tries to escape her unhappy marriage to Earl (Jeremy Sisto, "Six Feet Under"), by baking pies and having an affair. The difference between "The Good Girl" and this film is that "Waitress" handles dark issues in a more comedic way -- not to mention the fact that Russell makes Jenna a truly likable character.\nWhen Jenna dreams up recipes for "I hate my husband pie" and "Baby screaming its head off in the middle of the night and ruining my life pie," she recites the ingredients in an even, almost unaffected tone. With such a silly outlet for her emotions, the audience can not only empathize but also have a laugh.\nThe talent in this film is not limited to Russell, however. Nathan Fillion ("Slither") as Jenna's doctor, Eddie Jemison ("Oceans Eleven") as a spontaneous poet suitor, and Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") and Adrienne Shelly (who also wrote and directed) as her co-waitresses add humor and charm. The real gem of the cast, though, is Andy Griffith as Old Joe, the crotchety owner and patron of the pie shop where Jenna works. Griffith is endearing as the wise old sage with a "horny past" who has a heart of gold beneath a grumpy exterior. \nThe only thing that tainted the movie was the ending, which was a little too easy and too perfect following the movie's complex events. Furthermore, the sweetness of the film is underscored by the fact that "Waitress" will be Shelly's last film, as she was murdered in her New York City office in November. It's clear that Shelly's final movie is a love letter to motherhood, something that will resonate with a woman who is actually a mother. Buy two tickets as a late Mother's Day surprise -- it will be a gift for your mom and yourself.
(08/24/06 5:02am)
If you love picking up 'Good Vibrations' while driving in your 'Little Deuce Coupe,' then you'll have 'Fun, Fun, Fun' celebrating Homecoming at the IU Auditorium with the Beach Boys, featuring original members Bruce Johnston and Mike Love with six members who have joined the group since Brian Wilson left in the 1960s.\nTickets go on sale 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 1 for the 8 p.m. October 28 concert at the IU Auditorium. Student tickets cost $19-$44 and non-student tickets cost between $39 and $49.\n"Just like all the other shows at the Auditorium that we bring in, we are offering the student discount up to 50 percent on tickets, so a student can come to the show for less than $20," said IU Auditorium Director Doug Booher in a phone interview. "That's a great price to see some living legends." \nBooher said that bringing the Beach Boys to Bloomington has been a goal of his for the past four years. Along with the Sept. 19 James Brown performance that kicks off the Auditorium's 2006-07 season, this concert is part of the Auditorium's ongoing effort to offer students the chance to see 'living legends.' \nIn the Auditorium's annual poll to determine what acts students want to see, the Beach Boys always fall in the top ten percent, Booher said. \n"I think one of the things that's so intriguing about it is that this music has touched everyone whether they're 6 or 66."\nCheryl Crouch, executive director of marketing in the Division of Student Affairs, said that she is excited that the Beach Boys are coming because she grew up with their music. She also echoed Booher's statement that their music appeals to many generations.\n"We think it will appeal to the alumni who might be here for the weekend -- the over-40 crowd," she said in a phone interview. "But we also think the students will enjoy it too, because Beach Boys music never goes out of style."\nBecause of the group's popularity, Booher said he encourages people to get tickets early as he does not anticipate tickets being available as Homecoming approaches.
(04/28/06 3:44am)
Graduate student Brian Crabill has been at IU for four years, earning his undergraduate degree in psychology and now studying nutrition science. After 12 semesters, it is safe to say that Crabill has purchased a considerable number of texts. \nWhen he went to sell some of those books back a couple years ago, he noticed a trend that he said disturbed him.\n"I just watched three or four people in a row go to sell their books back, come right back out of the bookstore and throw them into a trash can," he said. "And I thought it was really wasteful."\nTo combat this wastefulness, Crabill contacted Better World Books, a business that organizes book drives at more than 500 college campuses across the United States. He found out that no one was running a drive at IU, and he decided to collect the textbooks that students were not able to sell back. Crabill has drop boxes for unwanted books at all TIS buy-back locations and in Ashton and Forest residence halls.\n"One of the main points of the book drive is we're not looking to take away profits from bookstores selling books back," he said, adding that professors can donate advanced copies of books that will not be used for class. "One of the big contributors are the books that don't get sold back, no-value books. They're the ones students say 'I paid $85 for this and they're not even taking this back.'"\nCrabill will retrieve the books from the collection sites and prepare them to be shipped to the South Bend warehouse. He said sometimes there are so many books that his apartment cannot hold them and he has to use a friend's garage.\nOnce the books have been sent to South Bend, Better World Books sells them and uses the profits to cover labor and shipping costs and to benefit the organization's three main literacy partners -- Books for Africa, Room to Read and the National Center for Family Literacy. Of these three, Crabill selected Books for Africa as his cause.\n"I don't like seeing things go to waste, any sort of resource ... and there is essentially a book famine in Africa now," Crabill said.\nAlthough King said it seemed like a crazy idea, he ran with the group's mantra "one man's trash is another man's treasure," and he ended up collecting 1,500 books from Purdue University during the first semester. It was then that they realized their crazy idea might develop into something much more.\nTo date, Better World Books has saved more than 2.6 million pounds of books from landfills and raised over $750,000 for 38 different non-profit literacy partners.\n"As much as we try to, there are still some people who don't know the drive exists," King said. "Our hope is that everyone will just know when that time comes around"
(04/27/06 4:22am)
Freshman Elizabeth Messana talked with two friends in the Whittenberger Auditorium last night as she waited for Larry Diamond to begin speaking. She said people had been making fun of her all day because she was planning to attend the renowned political scientist's lecture.\n"I'm the only person I know that would voluntarily come to this," she said, adding that laziness probably kept her peers away. "Not many of the people at the freshman level realize (the importance of attending events like this)." \nDiamond, the best-selling author of "Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq," preceded the IU India Studies program's two-day conference regarding the state of India's democracy, which begins Thursday. \nHaving returned from Iraq nearly two years ago after serving as senior adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority, Diamond spoke about what he saw as the biggest mistakes in the democratization of Iraq and the lessons that can be learned from India's history.\n"Sooner or later -- it could come this year -- the bottom is going to fall out of this situation," Diamond said. He described the occupation and recent failures to achieve democracy in Iraq as a "breathtaking series of arrogance and blunders that I think will go down in history as colossally misguided ventures in American history."\n"I think he was very bold when he said 'this is the biggest blunder in U.S. history,'" Messana said. "When he said that, my jaw dropped. I don't think I've ever heard that one before, but I was happy he said it."\nDespite a number of statements that Diamond himself called frank, freshman Joe Gibbs said he was impressed by Diamond's ability to present a non-partisan view of issues. Gibbs attended because he was writing a paper for his speech class comparing Diamond's lecture with conservative columnist Ann Coulter's recent speech at the IU Auditorium.\n"He was a lot calmer and sure of himself," Gibbs said. "Ann Coulter is an extremist, and she would not even look at the other person's side, but he looked at every topic he talked about from every angle."\nIU India Studies Program Director Sumit Ganguly said he was happy with the entire event.\n"I was exceptionally pleased with the attendance; I thought the questions were thoughtful and pertinent," Ganguly said. "This was an ideal situation, particularly given the time of year."\nGanguly added that he was impressed that Diamond was able to discuss India's experiences with democracy and spell out its significance or utility in other parts of the world.\nIn his speech, Diamond focused on the problems of forming a democracy in Iraq, pointing out that a variety of lessons can be learned from India. Diamond emphasized the following lessons from India: the importance of having a state before forming a democratic government, the importance of the rule of law, the need for a careful sequence of events and the institutions of social progress already in place in India.\nDiamond proposed American solicitation of help from the United Nations and the European Union as a way to slow the decay into civil war that he considers a strong possibility for the region. Using India as an example, he assured that democracy is not impossible in a complex, multiethnic and multiregional society.\n"When I hear people say, 'It's not possible in Iraq,' it's so socially and historically inaccurate," he said. "It's so frankly racist in its arrogance that it offends me"
(04/26/06 3:34am)
Larry Diamond has traveled the world to teach, lecture and conduct research. And when Diamond comes to Bloomington, he will share what he has learned, especially from his stint in Iraq as senior adviser of the Coalition Provisional Authority, an organization -- now dissolved -- that multiple countries set up to help with the democratization of Iraq. \nAt 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Whittenberger Auditorium, Diamond will present "America's Quest to Promote Democracy: The Iraq Disaster and the Promise of India." Free and open to the public, his lecture will kick off "The State of India's Democracy: The Journal of Democracy Conference," a two-day event sponsored by the IU India Studies Program and the Journal of Democracy, a publication in Washington, D.C., of which Diamond is the founder and co-editor.\nSumit Ganguly, director of the IU India Studies Program, said the relationship between Iraq and India is tenuous. However, Diamond's expertise in democratic development and governance made him the perfect choice as keynote speaker for this event. \n"Larry Diamond is one of the world's greatest authorities on democracy-building, and he has an ongoing interest in Indian democracy," Ganguly said. "Even if this was a conference on Nigeria, people would think of inviting him. He is one of these intellectuals whose work transcends the globe."\nGanguly said he expects Diamond to talk about the content of his latest best-selling book, "Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq". Appointed in late 2003 to the CPA by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Diamond oversaw the attempted transition to an Iraqi democracy but returned to the United States disillusioned and critical of the American effort to rebuild Iraq. \n"I consider this quite a coup to get Larry here since he is in such high demand," Ganguly said. "His life is being pulled in every possible direction because of the sheer significance of his work, both as an academic and as someone who was recently a policy-maker in a highly sensitive position."\nAlthough his area of expertise is not in Middle Eastern affairs, Brian Shoup, who received his Ph.D. in political science from IU last year, said he is very interested in the topic of democratization in the Middle East.\n"First and foremost, this is the biggest foreign policy topic that is addressing people today," Shoup said. He added that many IU students will become business or political leaders and said he thinks it is incumbent upon them to have this knowledge.\nThe fact that Diamond is both a primary source and a renowned scholar makes this a unique opportunity for students to gain insight into an issue that is not always clearly explained.\n"We hear about a lot of stuff on the news, but we don't have a good understanding as to why these things are going on -- in terms of why it's so difficult for groups to get along -- and he can provide insight into those issues in a pretty accessible manner ... The guy has been on 'The Daily Show' a couple times, (so) he can play to a pretty wide audience," Shoup said.\nGanguly echoed this sentiment, calling Diamond a highly engaging speaker. He also encouraged all concerned U.S. citizens to read Diamond's book but said if they can't, attending Diamond's lecture is a great opportunity to learn about what Diamond considers one of the most critical political issues facing our country at this time.\n"People should literally flock to Whittenberger," he said. "This is one of the great joys of being at a major \nuniversity"
(04/21/06 2:37pm)
With a reputation for being the greatest college weekend, Little 500 has a way of inspiring people. \nFrom race rookies to qualifying 27th for the men's Little 500 race, a little inspiration has brought the four IU seniors of Rainbow Cycling a long way.\nThese athletes, however, have more than mere inspiration pumping their pedals. While a stellar race day performance would be nice, these four men say their biggest priorities are friendship and promoting the idea of diversity. With sponsorship from the IU Office of Diversity Education and from the IU GLBT Office of Student Support Services, Rainbow Cycling is hoping to promote a cause bigger then themselves, bigger then Little 500.\n"I keep calling them the Breaking Away team of 2006," said Doug Bauder, Director of GLBTSSS, referring to the 1979 movie. "Clearly, they're underdogs in the way that they've placed. They're all rookies; it's their first year in the event and their dedication is great - their genuine commitment to a cause that's bigger than them and doesn't actually pertain to them."
(04/13/06 6:18am)
Freshman Jessica Brenay has two primary e-mail addresses, one through IU Webmail and the other through America Online. When she wants to send something important or official, she logs into her IU Webmail account.\n"I do have another account, but I don't forward my e-mail to it," Brenay said. "I only give my school e-mail address to school-related things, so then when I go to it, there's no junk mail, and I don't have to sort it."\nWhile the majority of IU students are like Brenay and stick with IU Webmail as their primary source of sending and receiving, a large number are using Webmail's forwarding options to use free e-mail services like AOL's instant messenger e-mail service, Yahoo! and Google's Gmail.\nUniversity Information Technology Services messaging manager Rick Jackson said about 11,682 out of 110,000 IU-Bloomington accounts, about 10 percent, forward their e-mail to outside service providers. Last summer, the numbers for all of IU's campuses showed 37,686 out of 203,000 users, about 19 percent, forwarded their e-mail to some service outside the IU system.\nOf these outside e-mail providers, Google's Gmail is one of the most popular, ranked No. 2 on PC World's "100 Best Products of 2005" list.\nJunior Patrick Janisch switched to Gmail about a month ago, and he said he has been nothing but happy with it.\n"I never really liked Webmail and always looked for an alternative," Janisch said in an e-mail. "With Gmail, they give you so much space (about 3 gigabytes) so you never have to delete an e-mail. They have a nice search feature that allows you find an e-mail that you are looking for easily."\nJanisch also said he thinks Gmail's spam filter and virus protection is great because he has not had to deal with spam e-mail in his inbox since he switched. He also said he likes the layout of Gmail. \nJunior Kara Howard said she began forwarding mail before the beginning of this school year because of problems she had with the Webmail system in the past.\n"At the time, it had virtually no storage space," Howard said in an e-mail. "It took forever to load and a ton of spam came through."\nHoward said the last straw for her was when she was writing an e-mail to an important individual and the message got sent while she was in the middle of composing it.\nJackson admitted delays do happen sometimes with the Webmail system, but when they do, faculty and administration know about them.\n"Because e-mail is used for official communication, it is in the students' best interest for them to keep their mail here," Jackson said. "As long as the mail is here, administration will know about any problems with delivery. If it is not here, then one must assume the student has received the mail."\nJackson said this is a likely explanation for why most students do not choose to forward their e-mail outside of Webmail. He said the unpredictability of Internet e-mail is another possible cause.\n"Reliability of Internet bound e-mail has decreased because of spam and other factors, like viruses, that can cause delivery or even messages to not be delivered," he said in an e-mail.\nUITS warns on its Web site that choosing to forward e-mail from the official University account can be a risk. Students are expected to read their e-mail frequently for official school communication, and an outside system error can prevent important information from being delivered.\n"Mail being sent from IU to other accounts is completely outside of the University control," Jackson said. "We have no way of knowing what happens to that mail once it leaves IU, we can only determine that the target mail system accepted our connection or not."\nFor this reason, Brenay has no plans to ever forward her Webmail account to any outside source.\n"I don't know if I would trust it being forwarded to AOL, just because I've had mail sent to AOL not be there or get deleted," she said.
(04/05/06 4:41am)
The WriteStuff Writers' Conference will kick off its 2006 season from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday in the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union. In addition to the editing services offered all year by the Indianapolis-based organization, this and other conferences throughout the season offer writers a chance to learn new strategies, receive awards and network.\nThe cost is $30 for students, $79 for faculty and $99 for the general public, and includes admission to the conference, a one-year subscription to Writer's Digest magazine, gift bags donated by Bright Ideas in Broad Ripple and food and drinks at a reception following the conference at AuthorHouse.\nHeadlining the event are celebrity guest speakers Angelo Pizzo, IU alumnus and Academy Award-winning writer behind "Hoosiers" and "Rudy," and William Sinunu, best-selling author of "Life Could be Sweeter: 101 Great Ideas from Around the World for Living a More Rewarding Life."\nMarcia Ellett, managing editor of Indianapolis Woman magazine, will be explaining how she has finished 50,000 word manuscripts with her writing partner in a month's time. Ellett, who graduated from IU in 1993, said the idea is to develop a rough draft that you can work with and hone to develop a manuscript that is ready for publishing.\nAlthough she majored in Portuguese while at IU, Ellett said finding her current job was not too difficult because of her experience as a book editor and her contacts through another magazine editing job. For some it is not so easy, though. For this reason, Ellett chose to be part of the conference because she said she thinks it offers people who love writing a chance to learn new things and be inspired.\n"You have to be somewhat dedicated if you want to work in this field," she said. "It's not impossible, but you have to be willing to put in your time and be determined."\nDan T. Hall, an Indianapolis-based independent film producer, is among a long list of professionals in various writing-related fields with varied backgrounds who will conduct panel discussions and respond to audience questions.\nHall started making movies two years ago after a background in music, short documentary filmmaking and commercial writing. Although he said it is easy to get caught up in work in his business, the conference offers the chance to break the habit.\n"I know people, unfortunately, that are in this business and say they're in this business and have been trying to push one idea for 10 years and are waiting for that one home run," Hall said. "But there are little things that are moving around the bases, so you just gotta swing and rock on with it as best you can."\nJ. Andy Murphy, executive director and founder of WriteStuff Writers' Conferences, said the conference is a fun, educational workshop that gives all levels of writers a glimpse into the lives of those who have succeeded in the field.\n"For one thing, we have such amazing talent," Murphy said. "It's that one chance to come in contact with professionals in the business."\nMurphy said realizing what the journeys have been like for professionals can be inspiring to other writers. After hearing these stories, writers who have doubted their ability to make it in the business walk away with the feeling that they can accomplish their goals if they want to, she said.\nA 75-year-old man who wrote romance novels came into contact with such inspiration when he attended one of the past conferences. Murphy said the man had a good novel, but it needed some work.\n"He's been working with one of our editors for the past year and a half," he said. "It was a slow process because he had some health problems, but he just finished it and he sent it to me, and it's beautiful."\nMurphy said he will receive a special award at the conference. The WriteStuff Writer's Spirits of Excellence Award for Children will be given for the first time to a 12-year-old boy who wrote a poem for his deceased grandfather titled "Granddad."\nBefore these awards are presented, the day starts with The Writer's Studio, a take on the television interview show "Inside the Actors Studio." Events continue with writer presentations about creating a professional writer's Web site, legally protecting work, how and where to find creative ideas, what's new in publishing, what it takes to write, produce, and direct an independent film and how to finish a book in 30 days.\nTo register for the event, check out http://www.writestuffwriters.com/.
(04/04/06 6:03am)
An archaeologist based at IU's Stone Age Institute and Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology is leading a group of researchers who recently found the nearly complete cranium of an early human ancestor in Gawis, Ethiopia. Sileshi Semaw's group is part of ongoing research in the Gona Paleoanthropological \nResearch Project area, which began in Ethiopia in 1999.\n"These are the crown jewels of human origin studies," said Nicholas Toth, co-director of the Stone Age Institute and CRAFT Research Center. Only about a dozen full skulls like this have been found, he added, and this is only the tip of the iceberg.\n"They'll probably find other parts of the skeleton," Toth added. "If you're really lucky, you might find a nearly complete skeleton, so it's one of the most productive fossil human study areas anywhere in the world today, and there's decades of work to be done there."\nProject scientists said the Gawis cranium provides humans with a link to a period of great change in their past, according to a press release. The skull has very different features from a modern human face, but scientists say there is no doubt the fossil is anatomically linked with humans.\nProject member Asahmed Humet found the complete cranium. Toth said it comes from a period 200,000 to 500,000 years ago. According to reports, Humet uncovered the skull, which includes the braincase, upper face and \nupper jaw, amid other fossils of stone tools and various animals like pigs, zebras and cats.\n"It's not always able to be known what your stone toolmakers look like," said Kathy Schick, co-director of the Stone Age Institute and CRAFT. "So it's very neat to tie in what the toolmaker looks like with what the actual tools look like."\nThe Gawis cranium comes from a period about which little is known. It is rare to find a complete skull, and this one -- dating to the time when African Homo erectus was transitioning into modern Homo sapiens -- provides a more complete look at the period, Toth said.\nGona team members are still working to determine a more precise age for the \nspecimen, as well as to trace its relation to other findings from the Pleistocene era. In the group's press release, Semaw said his team will continue its work and he said he believes it will make more discoveries in the years to come.\nSchick said the research being done by scientists in the area is important for the paleoanthropological field. The Gona site is a critical area in Africa that holds evidence for important stages of human evolution that can fill in the gaps in the information about certain periods, she said.\n"One thing indirectly, (is) it's always exciting to know that some of the cutting edge research is being done right out of your campus," Schick said. "It's nice to have IU stamped on the discovery, and we're very proud of being able to do this. Both the Stone Age Institute and Indiana University are the home base of this whole project."\nSchick added that she recently received an e-mail from a professor in England who is already incorporating this finding into the classroom. IU professors who have been part of the project in the past have used their experiences and discoveries to inject the flavor of reality into their lectures.\n"You never get tired of making discoveries like this," Schick said. "And it's a big event out in the field and then it's a ripple effect of people learning about it, and the discovery spreading throughout the world"
(04/03/06 7:23pm)
Junior Chris Medlyn comes from an Evansville family with five drivers and two cars. When he was offered a summer internship in Indianapolis, he knew he would be able to stay with his grandparents in Bloomington, but he didn't know how he would make the commute.\nWhen he heard about a contest taking place at Delta Upsilon this Saturday, Medlyn saw his opportunity.\nMedlyn outlasted 24 puckering people Saturday to win a 1998 Ford Mustang in an attempt to raise $5,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.\nAlpha Omicron Pi sorority teamed up with Delta Upsilon for Kiss-Off, the fraternity's longtime philanthropy project. The groups purchased the Mustang and sold $5 raffle tickets for a chance to kiss the car, and the person who continuously kissed the car the longest became the owner.\nDelta Upsilon philanthropy chair David Kittle said that Kiss-Off has been around for about 20 years. Because the group did not sponsor the event last year, he said it was a challenge and a goal to bring it back this year.\n"In a fraternity, you can easily organize and really give back to the community," Kittle said. "It's an event that works to get people involved."\nAlpha Omicron Pi philanthropy chair Lauren Bailey said when Delta Upsilon approached her sorority this past October, it jumped at the chance to be part of the event.\n"It's been on campus for a really long time; it's one of the oldest philanthropies and it's nice to be connected with something that's been so established," Bailey said. \n"It's getting people involved," she added. "Half of the people here aren't even kissing the car. They're just here to support." \nFollowing a drawing to select the competitors, selected participants lined up and sprinted across Delta Upsilon's front yard toward the car, where they tried to find the best spot. Some crouched on the ground with their lips pressed against the headlights or the bumper. Others smooched the roof while leaning over those who were getting friendly with the doors.\nWith barely an hour of kissing under their belts, six people had given in, including sophomore Clark Conway.\n"Mentally, I think it's easy, but it drains you," Conway said. "My back was hurting, my knees were hurting and knowing there are 24 people who will stay there no matter what the pain, it's hard to keep going."\nAlthough some might expect chapped lips to be a painful side effect of prolonged car-kissing, the opposite is true. Conway said that the close contact made for a sweaty, spit-covered face.\nKittle agreed. \n"There's been some slobber," said Kittle. "These people are messy kissers."\nEvery six hours, competitors received a 20-minute break during which they could eat, drink, stretch or use the bathroom. To pass the time between breaks, some kissers listened to their iPods or used their cell phones to send text messages. One girl pinned a magazine under the windshield wipers. By 1 a.m., one of the five remaining kissers had set up a laptop on the hood of the car to watch movies.\nAlpha Omicron Pi member Christine Bayt brought a shopping bag with a blanket, hat, mittens, coat and iPod to help her boyfriend pass the time while he kissed the Mustang.\n"His car is not that nice, and he doesn't have the money to buy a new one, so he's pretty determined," Bayt said. "He doesn't really have a game plan, just a lot of Red Bulls at the break."\nAfter 17 hours, however, it was Medlyn who limped away with ownership rights. Medlyn was one of two contestants who made it into the early morning hours and were required to kiss the car while standing on one leg and switching every half hour.\nMedlyn said he never thought about giving up because he knew it was not an option. He prepared for the competition all week, eating complex carbohydrates and stretching. While kissing, he said he listened to different types of music to keep him awake, routinely flexed each muscle group to prevent cramping and ate a lot of PowerBars. \n"I still don't think that it's really set in that I won a car," Medlyn said.\nMedlyn will use the car to travel to his Indianapolis internship and will "make it a respectable Mustang," he said, using an engine his roommate has that was made for drag-racing. \nAs soon as he won, he called his father, who had driven up from Evansville for the night and was staying at Medlyn's grandparents' house.\n"I called him and he came over and basically I just sat in the car because my legs were so tired," he said. "I sat in the car and just enjoyed it"
(03/28/06 5:07am)
Following its mock wreck staged Saturday, the IU Emergency Medical Service club is broadening its efforts to increase awareness about the importance of safety on campus. Club members will be handing out flyers all week to promote ICE, the "In Case of Emergency" plan that encourages people to program a list of emergency contacts into their cell phones.\n"Basically, IUEMS is in the business of saving lives. That's what we do," said IUEMS President and Chief Tamara Habib. "And one way that we can do that is through education in the community."\nHabib said the sooner an emergency response team can get in contact with someone's parents or close friends, the better chance that person has to make a speedy and meaningful recovery.\n"Minutes can count in saving someone's life," she said. "Communication is one of the most important things in an emergency, and this can provide quicker communication."\nTo foster such speedy communication, Habib said students should have two or three contacts in their cell phone under the heading "ICE-contact," where "contact" is replaced with the name of the individual. One of the contacts should be a parent/guardian or the person who would have power-of-attorney, or be able to make a serious medical decision for a student. Another contact should be a friend or relative who lives in the immediate area.\n"It's not necessarily the person you're closest to; just the person that could make those decisions if they needed to," Habib said, adding, "We're all very far away from our parents. The sooner they can be headed down here, the better."\nThe ICE initiative is nothing new, however. The idea to store an emergency name and number under the ICE acronym came from Cambridge paramedic Bob Brotchie, and it began to gain international recognition following the July 2005 bombings in London.\n"It's not something that is new to law enforcement at all," said IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger. "I think it's something that (IUEMS) is trying to create more awareness and consciousness about, to make it more pervasive to people."\nSo much attention has been focused on the plan that it has expanded to include ICE cards that can provide information about a person's medical history, blood type and current medications, in addition to emergency contacts. "ICE" is even being considered for inclusion in the print version of the Macmillan English Dictionary.\nHabib said that, for now, her group will focus on the stored phone number aspect of the plan, working with the support of Bloomington Hospital, Bloomington Hospital Ambulance Services, Bloomington Fire Department and IUPD.\nMinger said that if for some reason an individual who is in need of emergency assistance is incapacitated or unable to speak, having emergency contacts in a cell phone under an easily accessible heading could make it much easier to get help for that person.\n"In this community, as you can imagine, cell phones are extremely pervasive. They are widely used, especially in a student population like IU," Minger said. "Invariably, if you come across someone, they have a cell phone"
(03/27/06 7:39am)
Hundreds of people spanning a wide range of ages and backgrounds gathered at the IU Auditorium Sunday night to get a "Taste of Asia" at the Asian American Association's 13th annual celebratory and cultural event. A variety of performances primarily from IU student groups preceded a sampling of various Asian foods Bloomington restaurants donated.\nBefore venturing into the auditorium lobby for foods like baked dolma (vegetables wrapped in grape leaves) from Anatolia or sesame chicken from Chow Bar, performers presented audience members with acts that showed the span of cultures that comprise Asia. \nAAA President Tony Truong and Vice President Dan Stanko emceed the event, which opened with a duet on kotos, Japanese stringed instruments. This was the night's first of three musical acts, including the IU Samulnori Percussion Ensemble and a piano, guitar and voice performance of Chinese pop songs by freshman Jerry Sun.\nOther acts included a modern Malay dance by the Malaysian Student Association, a traditional Indonesian dance and a Tae Kwon Do demonstration by the IU Tae Kwon Do Club that involved members doing nunchaku, katana and fighting displays. Members also broke boards with their arms, heads and feet and one man shattered a block of ice with his head.\nFreshman Sameera Bolloju said she came to see some of her friends who were performing, but her favorite act was slam-poet Phuc Nguyen.\nNguyen, a sophomore from Purdue, delivered poems with fast-paced language on topics ranging from what really happens in Chinese restaurants to channeling Bruce Lee.\n"I am chasing Bruce Lee until I am me," he concluded before bowing to the audience.\nSenior Tabby Laigle also attended the event to see her friends perform, but said she also appreciated Nguyen's act.\n"I liked that he brought out some issues about Asians and Asian Americans that aren't frequently talked about," she said. \nAsian Culture Center Director Melanie Castillo-Cullather came to the event with her neighbor and her two children, who are 9 and 10. She said their favorite part was the Chinese yo-yo demonstration. Four members from the IU Chinese Yo-Yo Club bounced and hurled the yo-yos high into the air using two sticks joined by a string to the gasps and applause of children and adults alike.\nAlthough Castillo-Cullather said she was very impressed with all the acts, her favorite parts were the personal stories interspersed between the other acts in which individuals attempted to illuminate some aspect of the Asian experience as part of the night's "Stories From Another Life" theme.\nACC graduate assistant Cheng-yi Liu spoke about his Asian mother, who he said always enters a restaurant and walks around to see what others have ordered, and who one time gave a duck in her backyard Tylenol because she mistook its egg-laying convulsions for a serious illness.\n"Asian mothers do funny things," he said as audience members laughed and nodded, "but that's what makes them special."\nThuc D Truong, Tony Truong's father, described his experience as a refugee fleeing Vietnam in 1975 after the fall of South Vietnam. After selling a pair of pants and a shirt he was given by the American Red Cross for $1 and treating himself and his two friends each to a soda, he entered the United States with one dime in his pocket.\nTruong said his life completely turned around within five years, from pondering his uncertainty as a refugee, to becoming a chicken man in an American poultry factory, to receiving an electrical engineering degree from Penn State University.\n"To this I would say 'only in America,'" he said.\nTony Truong said hearing his father's story has always put things into perspective for him. Although he said he cannot fully relate, he appreciates what his father has done to make things possible for him and his three siblings.\nAlthough the crowd size, which Truong estimated between 500 and 700 people, fell below the 1,000 mark the group had hoped for, he said he was pleased with the overall event and thought the audience was receptive.\n"I'm a little overwhelmed and a little tired," he said over the din of hundreds of people milling about the auditorium lobby in search of Asian cuisine. "I think everything went great; the performances were great. You couldn't have asked for anything better"
(03/24/06 4:29am)
The IU Auditorium will be filled Sunday with an array of sounds and scents as the IU Asian American Association holds its annual Taste of Asia cultural event. From 5:30 to 8 p.m., the audience can view acts such as Tae Kwon Do demonstrators and Chinese yo-yo performers and be served a range of cuisine from local Asian restaurants.\n"I think it's just a great opportunity for people to experience things that they have never seen before," said AAA President Tony Truong. "A lot of these things aren't mainstream, so you wouldn't see them unless you went to an event like this."\nFor this reason, Truong said it was important for the event to have free admission so as many people could attend as possible. To meet this goal, the AAA secured sponsorship from the IU Student Association Assisted Inter-Organizational Development fund, Asian Culture Center, Residence Halls Association and individual residence halls and the Office of Diversity Education, as well as food donations from Asian restaurants throughout Bloomington.\nAnatolia, Chow Bar, Dragon Express, Esan Thai, Japonais and Red Sea-Inter are just some of the restaurants that will supply food, which AAA executive board member Alice Cheng said is a major part of the event. However, she said she is most excited by the scheduled entertainment.\nA poetry slam, a band performance, a Koto stringed instrument act, a Samulnori Korean percussion display, an Indonesian dance and a number of short stories told by guest speakers are lined up to emphasize the "Stories From Another Life" theme.\n"Everyone has a story to tell and they are all different, but there is a common theme of similarity between all people," Truong said. "If you take the time to listen to someone's story, you can get to know them and learn to appreciate who they are."\nCheng said the AAA has been working on the event since January and she is looking forward to seeing how many people will come and how much they will enjoy the stories and performances.\nLast year's Taste of Asia drew between 500 and 700 people, but AAA is hoping to increase the number to about 1,000.\nCheng said she hopes that people who come to the event will get a new sense of diversity and be encouraged to join AAA.\n"We welcome anyone," she said. "You don't have to be Asian."\nTo further encourage such involvement, several organizations will set up booths at the event to provide information about their groups and raise awareness.\n"We want people to walk away thinking, 'Wow, that was really neat. I wonder what else is out there,'" Truong said. "We want to scratch the surface and let people continue digging themselves."\nTruong added that he hopes people will walk away from Taste of Asia with a greater appreciation, not only about Asian and Asian-American culture, but about diversity in general.\n"It's something that is really important in today's world," he said. "And if you do not understand diversity, you are at a serious disadvantage to people who do understand"
(03/07/06 6:27am)
The Committee for Fee Review plans to deliver its final recommendations to Dean of Students Dick McKaig today. The committee is working with only a 1.5 percent increase in fees since last year, forcing it to prioritize and possibly give less money than some groups requested.\nStudent organizations like WIUX and IU Student Television, as well as the Student Recreational Sports Center, received top priority from the committee, which has $6.16 per student to delegate among 14 organizations for the 2006-2007 academic year, said Paul Rohwer, moderator of the Graduate and Professional Student Organization. That amounts to about $420,000 to be divided.\nTransportation requested the most money with $4.40 per student, but received only $1.07 in the recommendation. Technology, which requested $2.80 per student, received the biggest recommendation with $1.86. RecSports, meanwhile, received the second-highest recommendation with $1.35.\nAbout 20,000 people, mostly students, use the SRSC, Rohwer said. Because it affects students, the committee decided it was important to provide the SRSC with funds to repair old equipment or replace it with new equipment.\n"We wanted to help students who are helping other students," Rowher said, explaining why student groups were also important to the committee. "That was a big philosophy."\nRohwer said another driving philosophy behind the committee's recommendations was to give money to the organizations that expressed the greatest need. However, the limited amount of money made it impossible to please everyone.\nFor example, the IU Health Center and University Information Technology Services are vital services that have done a great job, but they might not be happy with what the committee gave them, Rohwer said.\nAccording to a spreadsheet prepared by the CFR, the Health Center requested an additional $3.22 per student, but $1.08 was the recommended allotment. However, the Health Center is still one of the few organizations for which the group proposed an increase of more than a dollar. Other organizations include recreational sports, transportation and technology.\nAssistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Associate Dean of Students Damon Sims, who has overseen the fee review process since it was instituted nearly a decade ago, said he thought the committee worked well within the limits they were given.\n"Of course, most of the groups coming before them have greater needs than that, so often the committee is put in a situation where they have to deliver the bad news to the groups that there isn't money," Sims said. "We're sympathetic, but within that constraint, they did a wonderful job to be fair to everyone and do the best job with the limited money they had to give to everyone."\nWhereas the biggest priorities for last year's committee were the universal transportation fee and getting rid of the athletics fee, Rohwer said priority for this year's group had to contend with only $6.16 per person in additional fees, while organizations in total were asking for about $18 more per person.\n"If you asked for very little, we made you very happy," Rohwer said. "If you asked for a lot, you probably won't be too pleased, but you'll be \nsatisfied."\nIUSA President-elect Betsy Henke said no matter what has been recommended by the committee, she and her fellow Hoosier party members will have to work to find the most efficient way of using the resources that are given.\n"Fortunately or unfortunately, this is how it works: The new party doesn't have much say, so they have to make it work," Henke said. "I can only have confidence that the members on CFR made the best decision. I hope and assume that their decision is a more forward looking, visionary approach."\nSims, who has worked with every committee, said he thought this was the most organized team with the most thoughtfully considered \nprocess.\n"They did an exceptional job," Sims said. "They have a lot of information they have to get their minds around in a short amount of time."\n"I simply believe that this is the best example of meaningful student involvement in decision making," he added.\nOnce McKaig receives the committee's fee proposal, he will consult with the organizations for comment about the recommendations. These will move up the chain of command to be eventually approved by the board of trustees at its May meeting.
(03/07/06 6:27am)
Senior Tyler Helmond will be graduating in May with a degree from IU Bloomington's Division of Labor Studies, and he could be the last person to do so. The very department where Helmond has been an undergraduate teaching assistant for the past two years faces potential closure on all of IU's six campuses - including Bloomington. \nHelmond said he e-mailed President Adam Herbert last week opposing the school's closing. He added that it seems illogical to close a program that was founded at IU in the 1940s and continues to serve a vital interest. \n"I would suggest that the faculty in the Kinsey Institute begin to polish their resumes if this is how we keep things 'red hot' at IU," Helmond said in an e-mail. \nIf the DLS has not found a new home for itself by June 30, all tenure-track faculty will receive notification of termination that will take affect June 2007, said DLS assistant professor Steven Ashby. In May 2005, six DLS employees, two of whom were tenure-track faculty members, received notices of non-reappointment, according to a letter from Ruth Needleman, DLS professor at IU Northwest.\nHerbert e-mailed Helmond a response to his letter on Monday, saying IU is doing all it can to give the faculty additional time to "consider \norganizational options." \n"No final decisions have been made, but plans are being considered and this fact of open discussion and deliberation may lead to speculation and rumor," he said in the e-mail. "As of now, however, no actions have been taken regarding the future of organization of the Division. If it is fiscally feasible, we will also rescind some or all of the notices of non-reappointment as budget information permits." \nIn response to the DLS' uncertain future, students in the department have started to take notice and respond with action. Nearly 150 students and local union members gathered at IU Northwest in Gary Feb. 21, asking the campus to give the division a home. Like Helmond, students have also started to write letters. \n"By closing the Division, the University is eliminating an important program that contributes to the rich diversity of offerings and viewpoints championed by Dr. (Herman B) Wells," Helmond said. "That legacy will be put in peril if the Division is ultimately closed."
(02/17/06 4:50am)
Senior Katherine MacDonald, a volunteer for Outreach Kenya, has been carrying around a gift bag filled with condoms and conversation hearts since Monday, hoping to get the word out about IU AIDS Awareness Week. MacDonald said she has been pretty successful because her classmates were always curious about the goodies, which were attached to small booklets containing AIDS facts and condom instructions.\n"It's a very important topic because a lot of people have a misconception that HIV/AIDS is not a problem here and they engage in risky behaviors, which propagates the problem," she said.\nThe HIV/AIDS pandemic is a huge issue, said senior Hillary Melchiors, another volunteer for Outreach Kenya, a student-run organization focused on helping Kenyans through partnership and education.\n"It's a way to raise global awareness because HIV/AIDS affects everyone, each of us, no matter where we are," Melchiors said. "We're part of the global community."\nFurther spreading awareness, MacDonald and Melchiors brought their bags of condoms and conversation hearts to the Monroe County Public Library Auditorium on Wednesday night, where they were part of a large group of students and community members who heard Salih Booker, executive director of Africa Action, speak about "Ending Global Apartheid: Africa and the United States."\nBooker sees such worldwide segregation primarily in the inaction of wealthier nations like the United States toward the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Booker said 30 million people in Africa are living with HIV or AIDS, and of those, only two percent have access to anti-retrovirus medications.\n"AIDS makes the system of global apartheid clear," Booker told the audience. "We should be spending money on AIDS, not on war."\nBooker centered his discussion around his idea that America has willfully ignored all things African.\n"Human life began in Africa," he said. "Now the fact that we don't think that way says a lot about the problem and the enormous oppression of our knowledge as a country of African decent." \nA fundamental problem, \nBooker said, is that Americans have a \nmisconception that they live in the most generous nation in the world. However, the U.S. gives only 0.15 percent of its gross national income, a smaller percentage than any other wealthy nation, according to his speech.\nGraduate student Shanna Dietz said she was glad to see so many people show up to hear Booker address issues that some Americans might not want to face.\n"I found it to be refreshing," she said. "These are perspectives you don't hear often." \nShe added that opinions like Booker's are rarely heard because Americans don't like to think of themselves as "the bad guys."\nHIV/AIDS is not just an example of inequality in Africa, Booker said, citing that African-Americans make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 40 percent of the U.S. population \nliving with HIV/AIDS. \nHowever, all is not doom and gloom, Booker said. Africa has benefited in recent years from a wave of democratization and strides toward equality for women. And Africa Action has been committed to working in solidarity with Africans to increase education and treatment for HIV/AIDS, and Booker said he advised the audience to do the same.\n"Citizen activism and activity is effective," he said. "I would encourage you all to get involved and remember that we are all people of African descent."\nDietz said she hoped the audience would not only learn from Booker's message, but also do something about it.\n"Intentions and activism are two different things," she said. "I think it's a step in the right direction to come to things like this, but \nhopefully it leads to other things"