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(07/18/13 1:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It seems destiny sometimes has a weird way of working, but some say an intuitive shuffling of cards can help clear up any smoke.Gail Fairfield, a Bloomington author, tarot reader and astrologer, gave a presentation on tarot Tuesday night at The Venue Fine Art & Gifts.“It’s the perfect tool for getting guidance you can’t get anywhere else,” Fairfield said. “You can find out almost anything you want.”The associate director of undergraduate studies at the Kelley School of Business, Fairfield has a professional life that’s split between two very different realms. She makes a living advising thousands of students every year, but she said she seeks advisement for herself and others from the universe, and has since the 1970s. “I knew I should start charging when I was always in the back room at a party giving people readings,” she joked. She said she quickly learned to think of tarot and astrology not as a rule by which to live, but as a sort of life coach. “There’s a matrix of meaning connecting each of the cards,” Fairfield said. “But you are in power over the spread. You have a choice to change what’s coming.”Choice is the principal notion behind her book, “Everyday Tarot,” where she explains how to get the most out of what tarot cards have to say. She instructed the audience, about 10 people who were all taking notes, that it helps to keep inquiries general. “Ask open-ended questions,” Fairfield said. “It doesn’t do any good to ask if you’re going to get the job next month. Ask what you can do to get the job.”One woman asked what she could do to improve her performance at work. She pulled the ten of cups out of the stack of cards, fanned out in Fairfield’s fingers.“Cups have to do with people, personal relationships,” Fairfield explained, “It might mean you need to sit down and have a talk with someone.”On the front of the card was a drawing of a fish in a stream.“Go with the flow,” she said. The pictures on tarot cards are key to understanding their message, Fairfield explained.And although artists put a lot of work into making a cohesive story out of them, she said sometimes the fun is in figuring out what liberties they take with the symbolism. “In art history iconography is so important, and I liked how a lot of that is found in tarot,” said Gabe Colman, manager of The Venue. “Artists are honored to get commissioned for something like a tarot deck. We want to recognize the art to be appreciated in it.”
(07/18/13 1:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Most people don’t go around spilling their most intimate ideas and secrets to anyone who will listen.But six poets from Pittsburgh are doing just that as they tour the country reading and making poetry in every coffee shop, bookstore and library that will have them.Line Assembly, a group of poets that met in college and reunited to go on tour, made a stop Tuesday night to share their work at Boxcar Books. “This stuff isn’t meant to be kept in a book somewhere on a shelf,” Adam Atkinson said. “We want to make poetry public, get people thinking about it.”As writers, Atkinson said they definitely didn’t earn their tour funds on their own. They applied for help from Kickstarter, a program that helps fund creative projects. It worked, and one van and almost $19,000 dollars later, Line Assembly was on the road, traveling state to state, holding poetry slams and free workshops almost daily. Their session at Boxcar was their 24th event in 18 days. “We’re exhausted, but I feel amazing having shared my poetry, some of it for the first time,” Atkinson said. Despite having been a student in dance and theatre for most of his life, Atkinson said reading poetry to an audience was the first time he experienced stage fright.“It’s different because the personal nature of it,” he explained. “It’s easy to feel like if people dislike my poem, they dislike me.”On the bright side, he said criticism can breathe life into something that’s not as good as it can be.“I used to be afraid of it, but now I crave it,” Atkinson said. “It’s the best feeling in the world to be in conversation with my peers about what I’m feeling, what I want to say and how to say it.”But he said being poetic isn’t always about a careful selection of words.“Poetry isn’t just what’s read aloud or written down,” he said. “It’s the things people say in casual conversation, the jokes they tell. Everyone has their own way of speaking. To me, that counts as poetry because you’re constantly creating a message, and are conscious of different ways to relay it.”He said their audiences have been large, small, old and young, but all have been eager to discover the poet within themselves.“Some of the stuff you hear is out of this world,” Atkinson said. “And they’ve never even tried it. We just provided the push.”Topics ranged from the Super Bowl to snacks to sex. But Atkinson pointed out that the poems weren’t necessarily inspired by those things. “Talking about the inspiration behind my work makes me a little uncomfortable,” Atkinson said. “It’s a bad assumption that a poem is the result of being inspired, good or bad. Sometimes a poem is just a person’s way of sorting through curiosities. It’s my means of asking life questions.”
(07/15/13 12:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A champion of strings graced stages at IU this weekend, again.Agnes Clement, first prize winner of the 8th USA International Harp Competition in 2010, wowed audiences in a laureate recital Saturday at Auer Hall at the Simon Music Center.“We have spent a lot of time together,” Clement said of the instrument she won as first prize at the competition three years ago. And the audience could tell.The “beauty” of harp is what has kept Betsy Bosim, a Bloomington resident, coming to the contests since their start in 1989. She said Clement’s performance, which included recitals of masters such as Debussy and Brahms, stood to high standard.“It was beautiful,” Bosim said. “World-class stuff.”Clement’s set of six pieces ranged centuries and styles from Spain to Germany to France.But her bassoon and harp double performance, an original not listed on the program, came as a surprise.“Be patient,” she warned. “It’s a little strange.”After that the lights went dim and the room, a full house, took on a ghostly aura.A video of a younger Clement playing bassoon and harp played as a backtrack for her on-stage performance.The music was dark and full of heavy bass, and it resembled a performance art piece as Clement floated between instruments.The ninth USA International Harp Competition began July 10 at the IU Jacobs School of Music with more than 50 harpists – the largest number of contestants since the competition’s inception. The competition will wrap up with a final stage performance 7 p.m. on July 20 at the MAC.“Two weeks of harp, it’s inhuman,” joked Clement. “I wanted to show everyone something different.”The decision earned her the first vocal applause of the night and a standing ovation. But the building will continue to be filled with the sounds of harp this month.The second stage of this year’s competition started Saturday and the contests will continue until July 20 when a winner will be chosen. The prize will be a harp valued at $55,000.And in September, Clement will take her prized career to Brussels, where she was appointed principal harpist of the La Monnaie theatre this spring. The 23-year-old should have the heart for it. “My harp is my best friend,” she said. “There’s nothing I do more.”
(07/10/13 10:55pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A thick, skunky cloud has hung over the war on drugs since it started.And the future of an anti-marijuana America is hazy at best. So says one Yale-educated journalist and author.Alfred Ryan Nerz, author of the new book “MarijuanAmerica,” spoke Tuesday night at Boxcar Books about America’s weed culture.He emphasized how the perception of the drug is changing and the experimental journey he took to explore America’s obsessions and reservations about it.“I feel like America is in a kind of ‘cannabis closet,’” Nerz said. “I wanted to throw a coming-out party and share what I saw.”What he saw was a different world, but not because he was high. Nerz, with an admitted obsession with writing and a love for weed, wanted to write about the high life.So he submerged himself in the marijuana market.A self-proclaimed stoner since college whose parents were “irrationally supportive” of his “whimsical career moves,” Nerz investigated what it’s like to be surrounded by drug dealers.“Pitbulls, weed and cash,” he said. “Everywhere, all day.”He didn’t pretend he had braved it all unscathed.“I was so scared, I wanted to quit,” he said. “I was always near an insanely illegal amount of drugs.”Nerz recalled driving with a trunk full of weed on the interstate, under a tailgating state trooper’s scrutiny for miles.He said he escaped at Exit 420.The crowd, filling up the room at Boxcar Books, laughed. But he said weed humor like that is based off a generalization that isn’t all true.“It’s not all Pineapple Express,” he said. “I met a stock broker who just sits at his firm all day and gets stoned.”Nerz said the broker allegedly has more than 200 bone tumors and, with a medical marijuana license, receives 300 pre-wrapped joints monthly from the government for the pain.Nerz said the man never shared a hit of it.Greed, he said, will be what drives the government to loosen the laws on marijuana.“It’s not all going to be because of the liberals, people,” he said to the audience. “It’s just practical. There’s so, so much money to be made.”He explained that decriminalizing drugs would save money in the jail system, and weed could probably ring up more money than cigarettes.But Nerz acknowledged being able to pack a legal bowl with the blinds open will lose the excitement factor after a while.He said corporate weed might leave smokers with a bad taste in their mouths.“People don’t like the government having their hands in everything,” Nerz said. “They’ll miss the privacy, the anonymity of today’s business.”Bess Fernandez, a volunteer at Boxcar Books, said she thought marijuana would become easier to abuse once it became legal. “It’s like alcohol,” she said. “Once you can buy it so freely, it’s easy to get hooked.”Nerz said he concluded his addictive behavior toward weed after he wrote his book. Now, he said, he uses it for more specific occasions.“I smoke if I want to chill out or take the edge off,” he said. “And that’s what it’s good for.”
(07/08/13 12:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite a step in the right direction, a lot of work is yet to be done.That’s been the response of many same-sex marriage supporters since the Defense Of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 rulings came from Supreme Court June 26.And it’s an understatement to Sara Gardner, co-owner of The Back Door, a queer bar opened in Bloomington this year. She said she thinks the court sold people short.Because of the court’s decision to make same-sex marriage a matter of states’ rights, some couples are missing out on federal benefits others will soon start to receive.“It’s like (the Supreme Court) didn’t really want to deal with it,” Gardner said. “They kind of just pushed it onto the states.”Although she said she isn’t fully content with the decisions, Gardner acknowledges the move to outlaw a key part of DOMA as a sign of much-needed progress.Gardner said she remembers Bloomington High School South in the 1980s, a place where being queer wasn’t accepted kindly and wasn’t to be talked about.It continued into college. Her first girlfriend was bullied in her sorority during their freshman year at IU because she was gay. To celebrate the small but meaningful changes she’s seen in Bloomington, The Back Door was open the Wednesday the Supreme Court rulings broke the news, even though it was a night the bar isn’t usually open. But although Monroe County has seen many changes of heart on queer issues, the fact Indiana is a Republican state might hold same-sex couples in Bloomington behind. After growing up in Bloomington and owning a popular queer bar in town, Gardner said she knows a lot of couples eager for the day marriage equality becomes law in Indiana. But she said she knows some that aren’t interested in the idea of getting married at all. She said it’s important to remember the history of what marriage means, and how it’s still steeped in tradition today.“Marriage used to be a business deal,” Gardner said. “There were dowries, women were considered property. It’s changed, but marriage is still a patriarchal institution and a lot of gay couples don’t want anything to do with it anyway.”But they still want the right to it, for equality’s sake, she said. “Marriage is a kind of symbolic segue to what all of us really want,” Gardner said. “Whether we want to get married or not, we just want to be treated equal.”And even when legislation is passed, she fears struggles may still exist.“How do you get past workplace discrimination? Stuff like that’s hard to prove,” Gardner said. “Women and blacks still deal with that. History moves slow.”So while Gardner and Olive Lykins, the other co-owner of The Back Door, wait with the queer community in Bloomington for more progress, they’re trying to make some of their own. Not just owners of a bar, the two are activists.Lykins, who worked on special events planning for MTV, uses his experience to get The Back Door involved with the community.They’ve networked with WFHB and Secretly Canadian, and they’ve made friends with the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, whose donated artwork and paraphernalia adorn the zebra-striped bar’s walls. In March they organized a standing-room-only meeting for the Bloomington Sex Salon, a monthly community-based speaker series on all things sex. And with sights set bigger than that, they’re in the process of getting the city to have its own Pride festival. Gardner and Lykins said they don’t want to just provide a haven for the queer community. They want to enrich it. And to that effort, they said the community has been more than receptive. “If Bloomington were a state, this would all be old news,” Gardner said. “But just because we have it figured out, doesn’t mean we’re going to keep quiet. Everyone needs to be involved.”
(07/07/13 11:28pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The math and science behind things can sometimes be easy to miss. Take the act of hula-hooping, for example.Local hooping troupe The Hudsucker Posse explained the science of hooping for an outdoor audience Friday evening at WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and Technology. “Mostly it seems like an art because it’s a lot like dancing, but equally, it’s a science,” Carmela Senior, a dancer from the Posse, said.The presentation looked like dance class, but sounded like a physics lecture.“Centripetal force,” “kinetic energy” and “law of gravity” were terms used during the talk outside as five dancers performed several hoop dances in the museum’s garden area.In the ring of Hudsucker “hoopers,” some are seasoned and skilled while others are new to the scene. But all of them bring different experiences to the stage.Senior, who began hooping only a year and a half ago, started dance lessons when she was three years old. She did ballet in school, and she’s tried more daring forms, like fire dance.But she said hooping gave her a way to interpret dance that she never before realized.“I had never thought of dancing in a scientific way before,” Senior said. “But it makes sense. It’s exciting to see it from a different perspective.”Outside the entrance of the building, parents watched children create paint “spin art” and get fitted for kid-sized hoops. Laura Reynolds, who brought her three kids, said she enjoyed the work-out potential she saw in hooping. “It’s a unique way to stay in shape and have fun at the same time,” she said. “(The kids are) really good at it.”But although the dances the Posse churn out seem polished, Senior said they’re often not practiced.“We watch each other and go off that, and that way it’s more fluid,” Senior said. “You’re not supposed to put a lot of thought into it. It’s really all about flow.”
(06/30/13 11:21pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Staying focused on one thing for a whole day can be hard. But what if it’s a comic book?Local teens got a chance to craft their own graphic tales June 27 at the Monroe County Public Library in the sixth annual 12-hour workshop called Comic Day. “The work that some of them come up with can surprise you,” said Chris Hosler, an Adult and Teen Services assistant at MCPL. “Twelve hours is a long time to be working on something.”Dozens of books, ranging from classic comics such as “Spiderman” to how-to-draw instructionals, lay spread out over several tables where groups of people could either collaborate or work solo on their own comic spreads.Pizza boxes were stacked to the side of the room, and empty paper plates were pushed aside as panels and speech bubbles were filled in on paper.Nearly 100 people participated, and while some of them stayed for an hour or a few, others arrived at 9 a.m. and stayed until 9 p.m.“The ones that stay the entire time are usually pretty talented and work hard,” Hosler said. “We’ll see some great stuff by the end of the night.”Hosler said comics are the most checked-out item the library circulates followed by DVDs at a close second.With a readership of mostly 15- to 25-year-olds, Hosler said, college-aged people account for a large portion of the library’s comic book checkouts.Pictures are his theory for why comics attract an older audience.“I don’t care how old you are, we all like looking at pictures,” he said. “They can explain things words can’t, and are more entertaining to look at.”Summer Ray, a 19-year-old who rode the city bus from Ellettsville, Ind., and stayed for the whole 12 hours to practice her drawing skills, said she plans to take her love for comics to the next level in college.“It’s basically all I do,” Ray said. “I want to make a living out of creating and drawing characters.” Having no formal education on how to draw, she learned everything she knows from tutorials on YouTube and how-to-draw books.She had a notebook filled from cover to cover with sketches of cartoon characters, roses and even some abstract art made from markers she received last Christmas.Her comic, created with the help of three friends, was an adventure story spanning almost 10 pages.Attendees received a badge for every three hours they spent at the event, and a free comic for every page they completed, provided by local comics store Vintage Phoenix Comics.Hosler said that many attendees have come to the event more than once, and that attendance in general has gone up in the last three years.“I think we’ve got this thing down to a science now,” he said. “Although this year we broke the record, I hope we see even more people next year.”
(06/26/13 9:12pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The loud, slightly eerie sound of a wind-up toy in motion filled the room.Before the plastic gears of a small horse slowed down and the animal stopped moving, nine-year-old Naomi Charlesworth snapped several pictures of it with a camera on the computer in front of her. “Smart thinking,” her father said. “That makes shooting a little easier.”Her dad, Steve Charlesworth, is co-founder of an experimental project space called Bloominglabs. Charlesworth and two colleagues from the laboratory assisted kids in making their own stop-motion films Tuesday night at the Monroe County Public Library in “Let’s Animate,” one of 10 parts of a summer workshop campaign called “Maker Days.”Fourteen desktop computers, two to a table, lined the room.They were all occupied as first-time filmmakers tiptoed dinosaurs, dolls and animals in front of the on-screen cameras, recording them shot by shot. The dozens of frames taken would be spliced together to make a short stop-motion film that the kids could download and take home.“Getting to know how a film is made will help my daughter with her projects at home,” Kelly Shelburn, a mother who brought her nine-year-old, said. “We found a camera at home and she wants to make movies.”The kids invited to participate were in the fourth through eighth grades.Shelburn, whose daughter will be entering fifth grade at University Elementary in the fall, said kids this young have no problem understanding basic technology.Her daughter has an Android phone.She knows how to utilize apps and navigate online, where she visits sites like PBSKids and American Girl. “We’re a techy family,” Shelburn said while waving an iPad.She said programs like Study Island, an educational software that’s used in Indiana as an ISTEP prepping tool, have helped her children get acquainted with technology.“It seems unlikely, but they really are capable,” she said. “This is a chance for kids with an interest for technology to exercise it creatively.”Jenette Tillotson, one of the presenters from Bloominglabs, said she agreed.“I have to explain more to adults,” Tillotson said. “Kids just go with the flow and try things out. Adults are more hesitant.”MonkeyJam, the program used during the workshop, was something Tillotson found online.While it’s an uncomplicated, kid-user-friendly program, Tillotson said she chose MonkeyJam to be a chance for exploration rather than one for learning specific skills.“The program is just good roaming ground for kids to see how interactive software works,” she said. “They learn by playing around with it, not by us giving them step by step instruction and expecting them to memorize it.” MCPL is planning renovations in which a new “Digital Creativity Center” will be made.Children’s Service Manager Josh Wolf said kids who enjoyed Tuesday’s workshop would find a haven in the new center. He said to think of it as turning a grocery store into a kitchen.“Instead of coming to the library and picking things up to take home, we want kids to be able to make things here,” Wolf said. Until then, workshops will be where kids can continue to get their fix.But even the workshops come at an expense.Wolf said there’s only enough in the budget to cover staff time during a workshop.Beyond that, they’re covered only by a book sale that Friends of the Library holds three days a week.Presenters don’t get paid much, but Wolf said passionate groups are willing to help for free.Bloominglabs’ team was one of these generous groups.“When it’s done just for the love of it, it’s so much better,” Wolf said. “They’re usually the best at what they do, and they have more fun.”
(06/23/13 10:17pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Awe and wonder can be found in small places.Stardust, a circus troupe of only 12 members, performed at Bloomington’s National Guard Armory Saturday and Sunday.The setup was modest, staged in the armory’s gymnasium.Wooden bleachers were packed with audience members, and children who wanted a closer look sat against the border of the ring stage, only feet away from performers. Acts included a low-wire balancing performance, juggling and traditional trapeze tricks.After a short intermission where children could get face paintings and popcorn, the finale featured a stunt where a performer rode a motorcycle inside a globe-like metal cage. There were no animals.Celeste Garcia, the narrator of the show who was raised in circus life, said the troupe of 12 traveled from its home in Florida and has been all over the country 10 months out of the year. Where most circuses feature animal acts as their main attraction, Garcia said it was just easier to leave its animals at home. But many circuses that do use animals have been notorious for animal cruelty since their beginnings.In 2012, Barnum and Bailey, the biggest circus in America, was charged with the largest penalty in circus history by the United States Department of Agriculture. The company had to pay $270,000 for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, the only piece of animal-related legislature that directly addresses circuses. Among other violations, 30 elephants had been killed under the circus’ care between 1993 and 2012 according to PETA.Garcia said in the circuses she grew up in and eventually helped run, animals were used, but cruelty had never been used as a form of training or punishment. “Our animals are like family to us,” Garcia said. “We don’t hurt them.”Stardust, which Garcia said sometimes uses pet dogs in performances, practices a liberal treat system to train an animal to do tricks. “When we’re training a dog to do a trick, we give him a treat as a kind of positive reinforcement,” Garica said. “If he doesn’t do the trick, we wait. If he doesn’t end up doing it, we just move on.”While some animal activists said they were impressed that Stardust doesn’t usually employ animals, some audience members said they were disappointed. Trisha Gentry, who brought her 3-year-old son, said she wished there had been animals.“I’ve been to circuses before where animals were the main act, and I guess that’s kind of what I was expecting,” Gentry said. “I feel a little let down.”Garcia said to keep the show exciting, they rotate members.Stardust consists of three families whose members all participate in the show.Switching members who specialize in different performances help maintain a sense of variety in their small troupe.“It’s all about a fresh show,” Garcia said.
(06/12/13 11:24pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Recognition of legendary proportions may be on its way to one IU faculty member.The Jacobs School of Music’s Brenda Brenner, an associate professor of music education, has been nominated to receive the Grammy Foundation’s Music Educator Award as part of the Grammy in the Schools initiative.This is the first year the foundation has offered the award.Three other nominees hail from Indiana schools including J. Scott Cooksey of Jeffersonville High School, Tiffany Galus of New Prairie High School and Peter Sampson of Whiteland Community High School.Earlier this year, a group of Brenner’s graduate students surprised her with the nomination and a request to fill out a self-application.“I used to never be able to picture myself as a teacher,” Brenner said. “Now I might receive this award, and it could really benefit what I’m trying to do.”What she’s trying to do is teach the violin to first-graders.Brenner said it’s “more like herding cats,” but the effort is an attempt to create a more musically literate world.And a number of her graduate students get real-world experience helping her teach the first-graders at Fairview Elementary.Brenner feels this classroom time will lend her graduat students the experience needed to field a real classroom later in their careers.“I want my IU kids to work with students from the get-go,” Brenner said. “That way I don’t let a bunch of brand-new teachers get hired to a school to discover they don’t like working with kids.”Thirty-six of those teachers-to-be work alongside Brenner with children who attend Fairview Elementary, a Bloomington grade school where 90 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch programs based on low family income levels.Amanda Guinn, a first-grade teacher at Fairview, said Brenner’s violin lesson project is a service to the kids at Fairview.“Having Brenda at the helm of this program has developed many children, who would otherwise not have the opportunity, into wonderful young musicians,” Guinn said. But music isn’t the only thing the students are learning during their tri-weekly lessons.“Having stamina and learning to stick with something are lessons that translate perfectly into our classrooms,” Guinn said. “It helps the children to become better readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists and friends.”Brenner’s work across all grade levels was the basis of her self-application for the award.IU Chair of Music Education Brent Gault said it’s something that makes Brenner stand out.“She goes out of her way to create meaningful artistic experiences for both her pre-college students and our music education students,” Gault said. “Brenda Brenner is, quite simply, the finest string educator I know.”But helping create and inspire talented violinists like herself is only secondary.“My university students are from all over the world,” Brenner said. “My real hope is that they go back to where they’re from or different parts of the world to teach an appreciation and knowledge of all the arts.”More than 30,000 educators from all 50 states were nominated for the unprecedented award.As one of the 217 quarterfinalists, Brenner will find out if she made it to the final 10 in August.Nine of those finalists win an honorarium of $1,000 while the award winner receives $10,000.“If I won I’d use the award as a soapbox to further my message,” Brenner said. “And that’s that we need to fill the world with people who will make a commitment to children.”
(06/02/13 11:58pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A fictional farmyard classic has come to life in Bloomington. A special preview of Cardinal Stage Company’s adaption of the 1952 children’s classic, “Charlotte’s Web,” graced the auditorium stage at the Monroe County Public Library Saturday. A modest set displayed three wooden crates and a pillow on the stage floor, but director Randy White challenged the audience to help the actors transform the room into a “magical scene.”“Imagine a huge red barn behind us,” White said as he introduced the show to a full house. “For the next half-hour we’re all going down to the farm.” The preview featured three short scenes and starred only seven actors, sometimes playing several roles. The presentation was simple, but the audience of all ages seemed convinced as the room was filled with laughter, gasps and enthusiastic rounds of clapping. Costumes were also simple. Wilbur, the pig star of the story, was simply an actor wearing costume pig ears and a pink hoodie, and “geese” wore vests covered with down feathers. “Spider” Charlotte was decked out in black boas. Despite the simplicity, children recognized each animal aloud and pointed them out to parents. White said that getting an audience to react to actors as animals can be a challenge. “With such a young age group, you really have to enhance the animal part of the character,” White said. “But there’s a sensitive balance you have to find, because the actors still have to be recognizable and relatable to the children.”But acting and costumes aren’t the only things to receive special adjustment in a performance geared toward a younger audience. White said timing is especially sensitive. “Children have a short attention span, so stage time much more after an hour becomes kind of dangerous,” White said. After the half-hour show was over, some parents watched as their children created spider webs of their own with yarn, markers and paper plates. Some checked out spider-related books that were on display.Nicole Shields, a mother of two boys, said she enjoyed the show. “It’s a good tale of friendship,” Shields said. “A spider and a pig are unlikely to become friends, and it’s a good representation of how a lot of friendships are formed in the real world.”MCPL Children’s Services Coordinator Lisa Champelli said she agreed that friendship and other real-life issues are what make “Charlotte’s Web” such a timeless story.“The challenge of making new friends, the lengths you go to protect them, family conflicts and even death are important issues discussed in ‘Charlotte’s Web,’” Champelli said. “They’re themes that resonate with all people, and they’re important lessons to be learned.”The full-length production will take place at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center, June 8-23. Visit cardinalstage.org for more information.
(05/08/13 11:19pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>By Ashley Jenkinsashmjenk@indiana.eduFor some, veganism isn’t just a diet. It’s also a way of life.And it’s a lifestyle Bloomington accommodates well. “This town is like a little oasis for alternative lifestyles,” Megan Lamar, an employee at vegan-friendly restaurant and juice bar Roots on the Square, said. “The general culture here tends to embrace lifestyles that are really different, so it makes sense that veganism is thriving here.”Roots, where anything on the menu is either originally vegan or can be made vegan, is just one among many restaurants in town where people can go to find a list full of animal-free meals.The Owlery, located on Sixth Street, has an entirely vegetarian menu and offers items that are always vegan. A tofu-chicken sandwich is their most popular item, and they also serve a classic, vegan-friendly grilled cheese. For dessert, vegan cake is available in adventurous flavors like lavender, licorice or pistachio.“Eating like this just feels right,” Toby Foster, owner of The Owlery, said. “You feel better and it’s cruelty-free.”Keir Haley, an employee at local restaurant Laughing Planet, claimed a similar philosophy behind his new-found veganism.“It’s about morals and health,” said Haley, who became vegan a year and a half ago. “It makes me happy not having to hurt my food. To taste something good for 30 seconds and know it was harmed, it’s just not worth it.”He said the vegan options at Laughing Planet make it easier for him to maintain the habit, but he’s not sure if vegan-friendly restaurants in Bloomington want to generate good habits, or a good profit.“I honestly think being vegan is becoming a fad,” he said. “I think people caught onto that, and they want to make money off of it.”But it’s not as profitable as some might have hoped. Laughing Planet has added pork and beef to its menu since it opened, and Roots has started to offer meat options as well. “Unfortunately, it’s just easier to get a vegan to come to a non-vegan restaurant than it is to get a meat-eater to come to a vegan place,” Lamar said.Lamar said profits at Roots have gone up since they started selling meat. Some vegans, she said, raised concern, but others were thankful that they were finally able to bring meat-eating friends and family.Veganism may have even lost some practitioners when the meat industry in Bloomington got started and improved, according to Heather Beery, manager of Bloomingfoods on Kirkwood Avenue. “Once there was local, hormone-free meat available, I think a lot of vegetarians and some vegans may have tried eating it again,” Beery said. But Lamar, who is neither vegan nor vegetarian, said she wished other people who ate meat were more willing to try an animal-free diet, even if it’s just for a week, like she did. As a senior at Indiana University, Lamar gave up meat for Lent her freshman year. She ended up finding plenty of vegetarian and vegan food on campus, and when she got a job at Roots, she learned to love more vegan dishes. “It’s just sad that there’s the stigma that vegans just eat nuts and twigs because there really are some great things to try,” Lamar said. “It’s easy for a vegan to be malnourished, but if you educate yourself, you can find nourishment that you would normally get from meat in other places.”Former IU student Lara Head said she agreed. “There are a lot of people who cut all animal products out of their diet and don’t replace it with anything, like tofu,” Head said. “So they are extremely unhealthy. That gives vegetarians and vegans a bad rap.”But Head, who follows a mostly vegan diet, doesn’t necessarily do so because she wants to. She has Celiac disease, which makes her intolerant to gluten — a protein found in wheat, rye and barley-based foods. Eating vegan helps her stay gluten-free because the two diets are similar.But she said sometimes finding the right food can still be a struggle, and it differs across cultures.“In America, it is definitely harder to eat gluten-free vegan because even a lot of vegan things are gluten-based,” she said. That includes a dish called seitan, a meat substitute made entirely from wheat gluten. In the form of a breaded and fried mock-tenderloin, seitan is often in high demand at Roots.But Head has spent the last semester studying in Thailand, where she said a gluten-free, vegan diet was much easier to maintain. “Being in Thailand has made my gluten-free veg diet way easier because everything is rice-based,” she said. “So it’s much easier to find food that I can eat, and I won’t get sick from it.”For those missing out on precious proteins, Lamar said peanut butter and beans are an easy source of protein for vegans, but being vegan gets even easier in the summer.“There’s more produce and better quality available this time of year,” she said. “So it’s a good time to try it.”
(04/26/13 4:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It wasn’t until doctors found a tumor the size of a melon in her uterus that Eve Ensler, decades into her career, connected with her body.Having been raped by her father from age 5 to 10, the award-winning author of “The Vagina Monologues” spent most of her life in what she describes as a half-sleep, rejecting any relationship with her body at all. She described the journey of finally connecting with herself in a talk Thursday night at the IU Auditorium as part of the Ralph L. Collins Lecture Series.It was also the first stop on her tour to promote her new book, “In the Body of the World,” in which she tells the story of her emotional and physical healing.“My life has been very extreme,” Ensler said. “For years it’s been nothing but a place of pain, violence and badness. I feel like my body wrote this book so I could get all that out and own my body again.”Writing the book, she said, saved her sanity.“I wrote myself out of madness,” she said.With her many bracelets jingling as she waved her hands with enthusiasm, an audience that took up the entire ground floor of the auditorium listened to her describe how cancer was an unlikely gift that reconnected her with family and taught her about love. She said while she was in the hospital and suffering through chemotherapy, it was the kindness of nurses, doctors, friends and family that made her appreciate life in a way she never had before.“Contrary to what I spent so much of my life believing, love has nothing to do with marriage or ownership,” she said. “It’s much bigger than that. The dedication that my friends and nurses showed me by rubbing my feet or cooking me eggs at five in the morning, now that’s how I came to know love.”Audience members showed their own love toward Ensler by giving personal thanks, and sharing experiences and gifts. One member wrote her a card “on behalf of the whole audience” that read: “Eve, goddess incarnate, Bloomington loves you.”Ensler explained how acts of kindness like that can be powerful — on very large scales.“I have, firsthand, seen it change and make laws,” she said. “My advice to you is to stop pleasing and start defying. We can do so much more than we think we can.”Maria Talbert, associate director of the auditorium, said she’s thankful for Ensler’s message.“I’m glad that a female figure of this caliber came to us,” Talbert said. “You could feel her energy as soon as you walked in the house. It was huge.”Jennifer Weiss, an audience member and Bloomington resident, said she agreed.“It was off-the-charts amazing,” Weiss said. “I’d like to think it’s a dawning of a new era in Bloomington. I want to believe there won’t be one more attack on women on campus.”After her tumor was removed, Ensler said she had more energy than ever to act. As creator of the anti-violence movement called “V-Day,” she has traveled all over the world to try to stop violence against women.An audience member asked if she’s ever been to a country where women weren’t being abused.She said no.“It’s all over the world,” she said. “No matter what country I’m in, I can close my eyes and hear the same story. It happens in homes, offices, schools. It’s patriarchy and it’s everywhere. And it needs to stop.”
(04/19/13 2:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After nine or 12 years of music-making, depending on who you ask, Husband & Wife are getting a divorce.Since February, the Bloomington-based indie band has been on a farewell tour, and will grace the stage one last time in their final show 9 p.m. Saturday at The Bishop Bar. “You can expect a party,” said Bryant Fox, the band’s bassist. “Lots of sweaty friends and sing-a-longs. It’s going to be exciting.”Guitarist Tim Felton said the band had been losing its momentum for the past year, and it was getting hard for members to commit. The group decided to call it quits in December 2012.“I think everyone feels like it has been a long time coming and we are ready for it to be over,” Felton said. “Each of us have other creative projects we are excited about, and so I think we are ready to be unbound to Husband & Wife and free to explore new things.”But Mike Adams, guitarist and vocalist for the band, said there are no hard feelings.“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “It definitely seems like the right thing to do though, so for that it’s somewhat of a relief and a release of responsibility.”Felton, who balanced responsibilities between being a guitarist and booking agent, said he will miss scheduling shows the least.“Booking is a hard job and mostly a desk job at that,” he said. “It was sometimes fun to make the ideal route and they try and move dates and cities around to put that puzzle together, but that would wear off quickly and turn into busy, grind-it-out kind of work.” He said it was a relief to schedule this last show. Although he said he’s nervous about it, he’s got high hopes for the performance as well. “It’s just weird because it’s been a long while since I’ve worried about a show because I’ve known there would be more to come,” he said. “But I think I am getting a little more wrapped up in this one since I know it will be the last time for people to hear these songs live. I want it to be really good for everyone involved.”Fox said at the end of their career together, the name of the band is appropriate for all the hard work they’ve put in during the years.“To me, this band is family,” he said. “It sounds cheesy but the band name ‘Husband & Wife’ sums up how we approached the whole project, with commitment, for better or worse.”Felton said the band will miss Bloomington. “It has always, and will always, be the home of Husband & Wife,” Felton said. “Home is kind of a big deal, I think.”
(04/17/13 4:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Coming out of a 12-year retirement evoked by back surgery, 60 year-old blues musician Don Haney is on tour to prepare for a new album to be recorded in May. His band, Don Haney and the Prime Rib Special, performed Tuesday night at Bear’s Place.“It’s magic to be back on the road and playing again,” he said. “We’ll see how many people remember me.”Haney, who started playing blues at the age of 12 in Chicago during the Civil Rights Movement, has been named number three on Billboard’s Top 100 Unsigned Acts and number one on several radio stations. He has also been nominated for Guitar Player of the Year at the Los Angeles Music Awards — three years in a row. After being a musician for nearly five decades and taking a hiatus for a little more than one, his performance at Bear’s marks the first he’s ever done in Indiana. He said he’s thankful for the modest size of the venue. “You can’t connect with 250,000 people like you can with a small audience,” he said. “It’s more personal this way.”The crowd was indeed small, but the four band members, consisting of Don on guitar, a bassist, drummer, and saxophonist who are decades Haney’s junior, made music loud enough to fill up the room. Saxophonist Shantel Bolks walked between booths and beer glasses with her instrument as Haney belted deep and raspy notes true to his high reputation.But Haney said that he’s still getting used to writing songs with his bandmates. He said getting lyrics just right for Bolks, who sometimes also sings, is especially hard.“If Shantel can’t sing it from the heart, we won’t perform it,” Haney said. “Everything has to have soul in it.” The band definitely has lot of soul to share, and has been compared to blues artists like Janis Joplin, Elvin Bishop and B.B. King. But it’s not just the big names of blues that inspire the band. Haney said the difference in age between him and his bandmates helps keep creativity flowing.“Everyone brings something special to the table,” he said. “We all have different upbringings and influences, and all that finds its way in.”The band will travel to New Orleans to record their first album together next month. Haney said he looks forward to recording a more modern sound than what he did prior to his retirement. “I like to experiment with writing looser music,” he said. “It used to be that certain rules had to be followed, but now I think there’s more freedom in the music-writing process. It will be fun to record with all our creativity going on.”Haney said he doesn’t see an end to his music career coming to another halt any time soon.“We don’t plan on stopping,” he said. “We have big plans and we’re going all the way.”
(04/01/13 1:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The most anticipated moment of an art student’s college career is usually the thesis exhibition. That moment came for nine students when the Grunwald Gallery at the School of Fine Arts presented this year’s first bachelor’s and master’s of fine arts thesis show Friday night. Ranging from jewelry made of used IV tubes to paintings of cows, the opening exhibited an extensive sampler of subjects and mediums. “I think this show speaks volumes about the artists’ work ethic,” said Nathan Donnelly, a student who monitors the gallery. “When I look at this collection, I think the common link among the pieces is how hard you can tell every one of them worked.”BFA photography student Kendra Wainscott said she was interested in gender dynamics in women’s contact sports, which she studied by shooting a series of close-up photographs of her rugby team. She said she’s glad the extensive work is behind her. “My thesis contains 17 images, and I picked those from two-and-a-half semesters’ worth of photographs,” Wainscott said. “The hardest part about the whole project was having to pick so few photographs and making a cohesive body of work out of them. I’m glad it’s done.”Alison Hale, one of Wainscott’s teammates, said being photographed for the thesis gave her an interesting perspective on herself and her teammates.“The coolest thing is seeing how we all look when we’re playing a match,” Hale said. “We don’t ever get to see that side of ourselves. I’m thankful for it.”Donnelly said he was thankful his post at the front of the gallery gave him a chance to build a special connection with the pieces. “I feel like my relationship with the art in here is definitely more intimate than what most people might have as they walk through here at an opening,” he said. “I have to sit here and stare at it all day. That really allows me to get to know the artists through what they do.”He said it’s exciting to see all the work in a different light — literally. “I get to see things like nobody else does,” he said. “Before I flip the lights on every day, all the pieces have a certain mystique about them. It’s a cool experience.”Donnelly said he estimated at least 200 guests showed up to Friday’s gallery opening. After they filed through the three rooms of the gallery, after MFA student Nicole Simpkins stole their attention with her performance dressed as a dying moth and after all the hors d’oeuvres had disappeared, the show was over.“What I enjoyed most about tonight is seeing all the friends and family come to congratulate all the artists,” said Eli Klapperich, another one of Wainscott’s rugby teammates. “It’s nice to watch them see that all their hard work has finally paid off.”
(03/29/13 3:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Public art is integral to a community’s culture, especially in a city like Bloomington.The City of Bloomington’s arts commission presented a free workshop at City Hall Thursday night called “A Public Art Primer for Artists,” where two experienced artists explained the importance of public art culture and advised the best ways to find success as an artist in the public arena.Artist Dale Enochs, who has 30 years of experience making public art, started out his part of the presentation with a warning.“If you think you can make a living at this, forget it,” he said. “To make any money at all, you can’t do it half-assed. You really have to go after it.”Miah Michaelson, the city’s assistant economic development director for the arts, said she agreed. “If you treat it like a hobby, it’s probably going to pay off like a hobby,” she said.Enochs’ commissions tend to be large-scale projects that challenge his determination, which have included a 65-foot gateway to a park and a giant mural. As he presented a slide show of his work and joked about his poor Photoshop skills, he said there are several things to consider when planning a public piece.“Ask yourself: How long it will take?” he said. “How durable are the materials? Is the venue a hospital, a library, the street? Will people stand in front of it to look at it, or will people only see it when they’re driving by? These are all things to keep in mind. Visit the site at night to see how it feels. Take pictures, do research. You have to build a relationship with the site.”Charlotte Paul, co-lecturer who also has about 30 years of experience in public art, said liability is just as important.“$1 million is the kind of insurance coverage you want on a piece, minimum,” she said. “I have windows hanging up on the third floor in a building in Wisconsin. If those were to fall, I could be in deep trouble. That’s scary.” Enochs said he agreed that the financial aspects of the job can discourage an artist. That happened when he was figuring out the budget for a sculpture to be placed on the B-Line Trail.“Although I was worried, backing out would have been stupid,” Enochs said. “I knocked on community doors and told people about my project, and several of them made donations to help make it work.”The donors increased his budget by $30,000.“I know how to give a good talk,” he said. The audience laughed.But the artists said it pays off to trudge through the doubts. “You have to know that you can do the work that you propose,” Enochs said. “Ensure that you can get through it by not taking on too much. But in the end, it all works out.”Paul said she agreed.“Getting in the zone to plan a piece can give you such a high. No drugs needed,” she jokingly said. “And to do all that work and get a rejection letter in the mail a month later, now that’s discouraging. But although I got a rejection letter in the mail just yesterday, I’m thinking about a totally new piece today. It will all be OK.”She said she didn’t want to talk anyone out of trying.“There’s one thing I want all of you to take away from this,” she said. “And this is it: you can do this. Don’t ever be afraid to try anything.”At the end of the lecture, Michaelson said some words of encouragement of her own. “The downtown Hyatt has expressed interest in public art, and if you’re serious, you should think about submitting a portfolio,” she said. “Contractors contact us all the time asking us for names of public artists. And after some time, a relationship with a company or contractor can be very rewarding, especially in an artful community like Bloomington.”
(03/27/13 3:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Live music and comedy were served with milk and cookies at Baked! of Bloomington Tuesday night as part of a new campaign of weekly open-mic nights.Started in February by local folk-bluegrass duo Wildflower Union, the open-mic nights are at the bakery at 8 p.m. every Tuesday“Business is pretty quiet on Tuesdays so everyone has more space to play,” said Xander Legg, Baked! general manager. An audience of several customers sat listening on recliners and couches, sipping milk cartons. “We hope that the performances will eventually reel in more customers,” Legg said.Under a full moon painted onto the bakery’s ceiling, Wildflower Union played acoustic versions of songs by The Black Keys, Johnny Cash, and even Snoop Dogg. Other musicians and a stand-up comedian also took the stage — an old wooden chest in the back room. “Baked! is a great atmosphere to perform in,” comedian Jordan Mather-Licht said. “And everyone is so supportive.”Mather-Licht, a freshman who studies theater, joked about drinking, dating and 1990s game shows. He said he enjoys the rush of being in front of a crowd.“The number one thing that people notice about me when I’m performing is my confidence on stage,” Mather-Licht said. “My theater experience definitely helps me overcome stage fright.” Poets, comedians and music makers of all skills are encouraged to participate. “Even if someone just has something interesting that they found on the internet that they want to share, everyone is welcome,” said Constance Marguerite, female vocalist of Wildflower Union. “It’d even be cool if some artists came and showed off some of their work.”Audience members said the open-mic nights are a good way to promote community involvement.“Hopefully word spreads quickly so more people come out,” said Karen Heminger, who made fliers for the event. “It’s all about togetherness.”
(03/20/13 3:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Literacy is a right, not a privilege. That’s the idea behind Pages to Prisoners, a volunteer-run project that collects donated books and sends them to prisoners. Started in Bloomington in 1995, “Pages” now partners with local literary vendor Boxcar Books to collect donations to send all over the country.“Sometimes people forget prisoners are people, too,” Ali VanDoren, a volunteer at Boxcar, said. “They need to read, and they need contact.”Prisoners may contact a bookstore to request for books and even write letters to them. Anyone who wishes to participate — from bookstore employees to relatives — may send letters and books back. “That’s the most rewarding thing, to help friends and family pick out books to send a loved one,” VanDoren said. “It makes them happy.”Boxcar keeps binders packed with letters and artwork from the prisoners on shelves at the front for customers to flip through. A small room in the back keeps books, packing materials and other donations, which includes everything from diaries to playing cards to calendars for the incarcerated.“Sometimes I’d get a request for some of my favorite books,” Ania Tondel, a senior who has volunteered for the program, said. “That’s always really exciting.”Service learning courses at IU sometimes require students to volunteer. Mary Fuchs, a sophomore at IU who helps classes connect with the program, said the Pages to Prisoners organization is also a great learning opportunity.“Pages to Prisoners’ partnership with IU is a unique way to expose people to the issues of the prison system and help make the things you learn in class more applicable,” Fuchs said. Although some students participate, the number is still low compared to other volunteer programs on campus. “Most of the donors that volunteer or donate are Bloomington residents,” VanDuren said. “We need more students to take part.”Anyone can volunteer at the project’s headquarters, located at 118 S. Rogers St., Suite 2. Hours are posted on the project’s website at www.pagestoprisoners.org, as well as a list of preferred books. Donations can be dropped off at Boxcar Books. “It makes you feel good,” Tondel said. “They’re truly thankful.”
(10/01/12 3:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Gyros, pita chips and feta cheese are just a few staples of Mediterranean cuisine IU graduate Shadi Khoury serves throughout Indiana. Khoury graduated from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs in 2011 and now owns In a Pita, a Mediterranean food truck business. He runs the business out of Indianapolis.Students who went to GLOWfest this month may have seen him peddling pitas out of his electric blue 1987 Chevrolet box truck. “My personal favorite is the falafel,” Khoury said. “But the honey and feta pita chips are pretty darn good, too. Sweet, salty, crunchy, soft, it’s a party in your mouth.”Khoury, whose parents own a Mediterranean restaurant in Indianapolis, said deciding on a business plan was easy.“It seemed like a dream to own my business and sell food because I love to cook,” he said. “And I was born into the cuisine.”But running the business, Khoury said, isn’t as easy as dreaming up an idea. He said operating a food truck is risky. It’s always a gamble picking what special events to go to, because he said he never knows how many people will show up or what the weather will be like. “A lot of people assume that having a food truck is so easy, that you just park, sell food and then you are a millionaire,” Khoury said. “That’s definitely not the case.” He said the worst trip he made was to a Zombie 5K Run in Knightstown, Ind. He had $1,000 worth of food invested in the trip, it was an 18-hour workday and he didn’t sell as much as he hoped to. On the way back, his truck broke down. As hard as it is, there are perks. Khoury said he likes being his own boss and having a flexible schedule.Claire Dickinson, Khoury’s girlfriend and first employee, said watching and helping the business unfold has been one of the most exciting things she’s ever done.“Starting In a Pita was a little bit like creating a masterpiece,” Dickinson said. “We started with a completely blank canvas, and we could create anything we wanted. I have never cared about a project more in my entire life.”Dickinson said she and Khoury realize not many people their age can say they’ve started a lucrative business. Khoury is thankful for the success so far.“It’s crazy to think that four months ago I was playing World of Warcraft waiting to hear back from jobs I had applied for, and now I run a successful food truck,” Khoury said. “It made me realize that you really can do what you want. It just depends how hard you are willing to work for it.”