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(09/17/12 3:38am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Five bands performed at GLOWfest on Friday, making for an electronically charged night at the tailgate fields, on 14th Street and Woodlawn Avenue.The set list featured The Pro Letarians, FIXYN, Logic, White Panda and headliner Big Gigantic. The crowd was brightly colored, and some attendees glowed with neon-painted nails or fluorescent shoelaces. The Pro Letarians, composed of IU sophomores, began their three-song set after the gates opened at 5:45 p.m., 45 minutes later than the scheduled opening time.At the beginning of the evening, everyone crowded close to the front. The band blasted remixes of Florence and the Machine’s “Shake it Out” and Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks.”IU junior Matt Salamander said he liked the set, but he wished there was more emphasis on vocals. “The bass drowned out the vocals, but they were pretty good for being the first band,” Salamander said. FIXYN came onstage next, and the bass was ground-shaking. The crowd didn’t seem to mind. Eddie Christianson, a friend of Salamander, shouted his approval of FIXYN during a remix of 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop.”“This is much better than the last set,” Christianson said.Sisters Melissa and Michelle Gohde walked to the concert.“We’re here to see Logic,” sophomore Michelle Gohde said. “We’ve known of him for, like, a year. He’s amazing.”Logic, also known as Robert Bryson Hall II, was dressed in a white and red letterman jacket and arrived onstage at about 7 p.m. “He’s a really great rapper,” said sophomore Rudi Wilhoite, a GLOWfest volunteer. Wilhoite and freshman Rachael Shapiro volunteered at a merchandise booth as part of the Business Careers in Entertainment Club. “The creator of GLOWfest actually went to IU and was in BCEC,” Shapiro said. “He asked for volunteers.”The merchandise they sold included apparel, such as $10 bunny ears, and $5 glow items such as sticks, jewelry and pins.The women said water, $3, was their most popular item. Other vendors reported the same.“Our location in this corner is not very good,” said Shadi Khoury, owner of the In a Pita food truck. “We’re mostly selling drinks.”Coke bottles and styrofoam cups piled up as the crowd grew. A large group of audience members arrived shortly before 8 p.m., when White Panda took the stage. White Panda’s Tom Evans enjoyed having the concert outside.“As long as there’s ample lighting and the audio’s good, being outside is better than anything else,” Evans said. “The crowd was great, really lively.”Big Gigantic started just before 9 p.m. People in tutus and tube socks rushed to the stage. Glow sticks were chucked into the crowd. Not everyone there knew of the band.“I’ve never heard of them,” concert attendee Hunter Swails said.Swails said his favorite part of GLOWfest was seeing how everyone was dressed, but he wasn’t a fan of the $42 ticket price.IU graduate Will Robinson was skeptical of the price as well as the computer-based performances.“If I wanted to see a bunch of people playing on Macs, I could have gone to the library and saved 42 bucks,” Robinson said. “This is more fun than the library, though.”
(09/13/12 2:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Monroe County Public Library sponsored an event in honor of the late feminist poet, author and activist Adrienne Rich as part of Bloomington’s “Lifelong Learning Week” on Tuesday night.The event was a commentary and discussion about Rich’s life and work. Several film segments featuring her reciting poems were shown on a projector screen, and the audience read her poetry during an open-mic session. “For 30 or 40 years, Rich’s voice has been with me,” said Antonia Matthew, a Rich aficionado who suggested the idea for the event. “She’s been my lifeline. There are parts of my life I wouldn’t have survived without her. She’s cut paths for me.” Attendees read aloud Rich’s poems, such as “Burning Oneself In” and “I Am in Danger-Sir.” Twenty men and women sat in a circle, listening. A library employee even took time from his shift to step in and read “Dreamwood.”Tom Tokarski, an audience member, read “Dreams Before Waking,” a poem wrought with dark imagery. He explained that despite her efforts to bring society’s negative aspects to light, Rich optimistic.“Although she’s realistic, she is not without hope,” Tokarski said.In one of the videos shown, Rich explained that poetry asks people to examine the quality of their lives. She described it as “a tool, a probe of meditation.”Heads around the room nodded in agreement. “In her poems, she was always looking for the best possible poet, country, human being we could be,” Matthew said. While Rich is most recognized as a poet, she also wrote nonfiction.“She was a wonderfully clear thinker outside of poetry,” attendee Carol Gulyas said.She said she considers the book “Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution” her favorite of Rich’s works. Gulyas and her husband said they have been close friends of Rich’s son, David Conrad, since the mid-1980s. They saw Rich give a speech at Northwestern University in 2006.“We stood in line to get her autograph,” Gulyas said. “At that point, she had horrible arthritis and used a walker, but she still had a mighty presence. She was lovely.” Matthew, on the other hand, said she just recently started reading some of Rich’s essays. “I think, ‘Why didn’t I get back to her essays years ago?’” Matthew said. “I want to tell people about them.” Matthew said she believes Rich’s writing is universal. Rich, like most feminists, wasn’t interested in matriarchy. She valued equality of both sexes. “Her words are so human, encompassing and open to everyone,” Matthew said. “They inspire me. There are some poems that I can’t read without getting choked up at the end.” Doris Lynch, an adult services librarian at MCPL who arranged the event, said Rich’s works are in high demand at the library. “We have 11 of her titles, and everything’s checked out right now,” Lynch said.
(09/10/12 3:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU psychology professor Irene Vlachos-Weber is the country’s eighth highest-rated professor, according to RateMyProfessors.com.The website, owned by MTV, allows students to read and write reviews about professors and has almost 50,000 rated professors listed. The best are catalogued into lists like Highest Rated, Hottest and even the Fun List, in groups of 25.“I got an email from the site about it, but I kind of forgot about it for a while,” Vlachos-Weber said. “I didn’t really think it was legit. But after I realized it was, it felt very validating. It’s nice to be appreciated for doing something you love.”Bill Hetrick, chair of the Psychological and Brain Sciences department, said he wasn’t surprised when he heard about Vlachos-Weber’s award. He said Vlachos-Weber, a two-time winner of IU’s Student’s Choice Award for Outstanding Faculty, is no exception, having landed herself is a mentor to many of her students, helping them navigate their academic and professional lives. “We are truly fortunate to call her one of our own,” he said in an email.Her students agree.“She finds the perfect balance of treating students like adults while still realizing that we’re still kids at heart,” said junior Matthew Gillam. “She always tells crazy stories about her kids, her husband or her family.”Vlachos-Weber said having the opportunity to share such stories is one of the perks of her job.“I feel like a stand-up comic in class,” Vlachos-Weber said. “I like being funny.”Her reviews on the website attest to that. Comments written by students describe her as hilarious and amazing, and more than one even claim her to be a goddess, with all of the above often in affectionate caps lock.“No other professor can keep a class’ attention as well as she can,” said Kaitlin Shoemaker, another former student said. “In most big lectures, you have students on Facebook, talking or not paying attention at all, but her classes aren’t like that.”But students aren’t the only ones who love being in the classroom with her.“I don’t know of anyone who puts more of herself into her teaching,” said James Craig, who has co-taught a seminar with Vlachos-Weber for the last five years. “I have seen her waving her arms back and forth to simulate an auditory hair cell and then slumping over to show what happens when you expose your ear to too much noise.”He said it’s not a lesson students easily forget.“I feed off of energy from the kids,” Vlachos-Weber said. “And I’m glad that teaching is where all my energy gets to go. I don’t have research labs or anything like that. I’m very student-driven.” Carlo DiMarco, senior vice president of strategic partnerships and development at mtvU, said the brand sought to recognize the nation’s top professors.“Overall, we look for every chance to spotlight what students determine to be the nation’s best professors and schools, which is why we’ve released our recent Top Lists,” DiMarco said. “We’re very excited that Professor Vlachos-Weber of IU made the list.”Vlachos-Weber has been teaching at IU steadily for 10 years. Her strategy is excitement, she said. “If the kids don’t see that I’m in love with what I’m doing, how can they love it?” she said. “I try to light a spark in them.”