261 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/05/06 7:32pm)
For those unfamiliar with the Scissor Sisters, let's make something clear: If you cannot stomach disco, you should quit reading here. In both Ta Dah and their self-titled debut, the Scissor Sisters vigorously reject disco's death -- as if they're avenging the July 12, 1979 mass-destruction of disco albums at Chicago's Comiskey Park. They aren't just influenced by disco -- they produce hyper-disco; the disco-iest disco on the market, shamelessly geared toward butt-shaking. So, if you think "disco sucks," just assume this album's an "F".\nStill here? Got a pair of platform boots from the thrift store? Busy gluing rhinestones to a jean jacket with a Bedazzler? Got Barry Gibb tied up in your basement, you say? Okay, then you'll like the Scissor Sisters -- although I'd recommend their debut over this one.\nThat advice should come as no surprise to those familiar with the first album -- after all, how could they top their dance-tastic cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb?" And yet, while Ta Dah is a reasonably good follow-up, it falls short on other counts as well.\nFor starters, its first song is also its best. "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" -- co-written by Elton John, and featuring the rocketman himself on piano -- is an absolute floor-burner. The hooks are deadly, the chorus irresistible -- singer Jake Shears' protests against dancin,' when combined with a beat that demands it, produces a dizzy cognitive dissonance. If wedding DJs aren't playing it someday, then I weep for the world. Unfortunately, nothing else on the album quite compares.\nThen there's the fact that while the instrumental side generally screams "party," the lyrics sometimes are surprisingly grim. Plenty of great dance music doesn't exactly beam with sunny happiness -- Gang of Four, Hot Hot Heat, Primal Scream's "XTRMNTR," etc. Yet, in aiming for edgy, the Scissor Sisters hit creepy instead -- in particular, "I Can't Decide" (chorus: "I can't decide/Whether you should live or die"), with its sadistic murder fantasies, could well be on Hannibal Lecter's iPod. This works well for The Cramps, but kind of kills the mood here.\nFinally, though, there's the simple fact that in crafting a more sophisticated sound, Ta Dah loses something of the debut's intensity. Track after track on Scissor Sisters threatened to drag you onto the dancefloor -- Ta Dah is slightly more hesitant, dithering while some bigger, better-looking disco album asks you to dance, and you two end up making hot animal love in the backseat of its car. Damn you for ruining my senior prom!\n... Er, uh, so anyway -- buy it if you like disco.
(10/05/06 4:00am)
For those unfamiliar with the Scissor Sisters, let's make something clear: If you cannot stomach disco, you should quit reading here. In both Ta Dah and their self-titled debut, the Scissor Sisters vigorously reject disco's death -- as if they're avenging the July 12, 1979 mass-destruction of disco albums at Chicago's Comiskey Park. They aren't just influenced by disco -- they produce hyper-disco; the disco-iest disco on the market, shamelessly geared toward butt-shaking. So, if you think "disco sucks," just assume this album's an "F".\nStill here? Got a pair of platform boots from the thrift store? Busy gluing rhinestones to a jean jacket with a Bedazzler? Got Barry Gibb tied up in your basement, you say? Okay, then you'll like the Scissor Sisters -- although I'd recommend their debut over this one.\nThat advice should come as no surprise to those familiar with the first album -- after all, how could they top their dance-tastic cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb?" And yet, while Ta Dah is a reasonably good follow-up, it falls short on other counts as well.\nFor starters, its first song is also its best. "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" -- co-written by Elton John, and featuring the rocketman himself on piano -- is an absolute floor-burner. The hooks are deadly, the chorus irresistible -- singer Jake Shears' protests against dancin,' when combined with a beat that demands it, produces a dizzy cognitive dissonance. If wedding DJs aren't playing it someday, then I weep for the world. Unfortunately, nothing else on the album quite compares.\nThen there's the fact that while the instrumental side generally screams "party," the lyrics sometimes are surprisingly grim. Plenty of great dance music doesn't exactly beam with sunny happiness -- Gang of Four, Hot Hot Heat, Primal Scream's "XTRMNTR," etc. Yet, in aiming for edgy, the Scissor Sisters hit creepy instead -- in particular, "I Can't Decide" (chorus: "I can't decide/Whether you should live or die"), with its sadistic murder fantasies, could well be on Hannibal Lecter's iPod. This works well for The Cramps, but kind of kills the mood here.\nFinally, though, there's the simple fact that in crafting a more sophisticated sound, Ta Dah loses something of the debut's intensity. Track after track on Scissor Sisters threatened to drag you onto the dancefloor -- Ta Dah is slightly more hesitant, dithering while some bigger, better-looking disco album asks you to dance, and you two end up making hot animal love in the backseat of its car. Damn you for ruining my senior prom!\n... Er, uh, so anyway -- buy it if you like disco.
(09/28/06 4:00am)
Beyond all others, two words apply best in describing Kasabian's Empire. These words aren't original, or witty, or bold -- but they are nonetheless true. And, ultimately, this reviewer can only call 'em as he sees 'em. So, what are these two words? "Sophomore slump."\nLike a lot of British (and some American) indie-mainstream crossover bands of the noughties, Kasabian's self-titled debut album became a hit through heavily mining a much-loved earlier period of music. In Kasabian's case, this was the late 80's/early 90's "Madchester" scene. For those unfamiliar with Madchester, it was a musical movement based in Manchester, England that was characterized by a fusion of more straightforward rock/pop with the electronic dance beats and sampling of techno -- it also had a strongly psychedelic bend, influenced, as it was, by rave culture and the ingesting of loads and loads of ecstasy. Besides producing some great music, Madchester also turned out to be highly influential, laying the groundwork for the 90's Britpop explosion (which, in turn, influenced many of our modern bands). \nThus, a decade later, Kasabian decided to dust off the movement's sound and give it another spin, their own work borrowing liberally from Madchester's greatest bands -- The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and "Screamadelica"/"XTRMNTR"-era Primal Scream. The result wasn't terribly original or consistent, but it had enough good tunes to more than balance out the duff ones -- including the absolutely killer single, "Club Foot." Platinum sales and world tours followed, including a stint opening for the Rolling Stones.\nSo, what to do next? Unfortunately, Empire reveals that, like Wile E. Coyote in a minefield, Kasabian has managed to stumble into just about every standard trap that bedevils those bands who strike it big with album number-one. For starters, fearing, perhaps, that they would be forever known as the "Stone Mondays," \nKasabian has ventured further into the 90's for influences -- namely The Chemical Brothers and, to a lesser extent, Oasis. Given the vocal effects, big beats and production tidbits employed, the middle of Empire (from "Sun Rise Light Flies" to "Seek & Destroy") could well have been outtakes from the Chemicals' 1999 album Surrender. Meanwhile, Kasabian's least-successful attempt at branching-out, the acoustic "British Legion," demonstrates that the band doesn't have a Noel Gallagher on staff (at least, a Gallagher at his "Morning Glory" peak). At the same time, some songs are decidedly half-baked -- such as "Shoot The Runner," which is little more than a stomping "c'mon everyone, clap along" beat, the repetition of eye-rollingly banal lyrics and a guitar solo. And many others, such as "Stuntman," are indulgently overproduced, the result of a band going hogwild with the galaxy of effects that a big recording budget can buy.\nWorst of all, while this album has some good songs (particularly the title-song), none grab the listener with the same force as those on their debut. In this sense, Empire is less Augustan Rome and more pre-World War I Austro-Hungary.
(09/28/06 2:56am)
Beyond all others, two words apply best in describing Kasabian's Empire. These words aren't original, or witty, or bold -- but they are nonetheless true. And, ultimately, this reviewer can only call 'em as he sees 'em. So, what are these two words? "Sophomore slump."\nLike a lot of British (and some American) indie-mainstream crossover bands of the noughties, Kasabian's self-titled debut album became a hit through heavily mining a much-loved earlier period of music. In Kasabian's case, this was the late 80's/early 90's "Madchester" scene. For those unfamiliar with Madchester, it was a musical movement based in Manchester, England that was characterized by a fusion of more straightforward rock/pop with the electronic dance beats and sampling of techno -- it also had a strongly psychedelic bend, influenced, as it was, by rave culture and the ingesting of loads and loads of ecstasy. Besides producing some great music, Madchester also turned out to be highly influential, laying the groundwork for the 90's Britpop explosion (which, in turn, influenced many of our modern bands). \nThus, a decade later, Kasabian decided to dust off the movement's sound and give it another spin, their own work borrowing liberally from Madchester's greatest bands -- The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and "Screamadelica"/"XTRMNTR"-era Primal Scream. The result wasn't terribly original or consistent, but it had enough good tunes to more than balance out the duff ones -- including the absolutely killer single, "Club Foot." Platinum sales and world tours followed, including a stint opening for the Rolling Stones.\nSo, what to do next? Unfortunately, Empire reveals that, like Wile E. Coyote in a minefield, Kasabian has managed to stumble into just about every standard trap that bedevils those bands who strike it big with album number-one. For starters, fearing, perhaps, that they would be forever known as the "Stone Mondays," \nKasabian has ventured further into the 90's for influences -- namely The Chemical Brothers and, to a lesser extent, Oasis. Given the vocal effects, big beats and production tidbits employed, the middle of Empire (from "Sun Rise Light Flies" to "Seek & Destroy") could well have been outtakes from the Chemicals' 1999 album Surrender. Meanwhile, Kasabian's least-successful attempt at branching-out, the acoustic "British Legion," demonstrates that the band doesn't have a Noel Gallagher on staff (at least, a Gallagher at his "Morning Glory" peak). At the same time, some songs are decidedly half-baked -- such as "Shoot The Runner," which is little more than a stomping "c'mon everyone, clap along" beat, the repetition of eye-rollingly banal lyrics and a guitar solo. And many others, such as "Stuntman," are indulgently overproduced, the result of a band going hogwild with the galaxy of effects that a big recording budget can buy.\nWorst of all, while this album has some good songs (particularly the title-song), none grab the listener with the same force as those on their debut. In this sense, Empire is less Augustan Rome and more pre-World War I Austro-Hungary.
(09/27/06 2:51am)
Last Wednesday, I attended a lecture by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen titled "Identity: Enrichment, Violence and Terror." At the lecture, Sen advanced the key theory behind his latest book, "Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny," which provides an interesting perspective on diversity issues here at IU.\nAt the risk of oversimplification (read the book for the whole shebang), Sen's theory goes something like this: When people belong to mutually exclusive groups, there is a lack of common feeling -- such a sympathy or empathy -- between individuals on opposite sides of the divide. The result is that when conflicts arise between these groups, say over cultural differences or group interests, it leads to violence between groups. What keeps us all from going at it like Rwanda's Hutus and Tutsis is that most of us, as individuals, have multiple overlapping identities that we emphasize differently from situation to situation -- and we share some of these identities with people who are members of other groups. \nSo, for example, I'm simultaneously a graduate student, IU student, political scientist, Scotch-Irish American, Ohioan, straight guy, white dude, agnostic, moderate Republican, lover of indie rock, mystery buff, amateur cook, Indiana Daily Student columnist and more. And what keeps me, a mystery-loving political scientist, from taking a machete to a sci-fi-loving political scientist over the last slice of pizza -- besides the laws of the land and the fact that I don't own a machete -- is that we share a common identity that promotes a degree of compassion between us. Problems arise, however, according to Sen, when one source of identity is held preeminent by a group or individual -- when, for example, your religious or ethnic or ideological identity strictly controls your behavior and relations with different groups. In other words, when we reinforce the idea that only one identity really matters, we split individuals from one another who may have commonalities and risk worsening group relations.\nThe next day, at a luncheon hosted by the India studies department, I asked Sen about how policymakers might apply this theory to reduce conflict. He answered by talking about his fears that the British approach to multiculturalism might promote group conflict and the British government's well-meaning attempts to work with self-appointed ethnic or religious community leaders and sponsor religious schools may actually exacerbate tensions between groups.\nBringing us back to IU, we wonder constantly about how to promote diversity. One of the big questions is how to make sure that it goes beyond the empty numbers regarding the demographic groups' respective sizes. So here's an idea: While we have many racial, ethnic, sexual and other identity-based groups here on campus (and I'm not complaining -- you should see me on St. Pat's Day), perhaps we should be looking at the ways to build better linkages among individuals within these groups. Certainly, the University has programs that serve this purpose, such as the Commission on Multicultural Understanding and the diversity office. But what about you? What are you doing?
(09/20/06 3:20am)
This weekend, I received a surprise when my parents, lifelong Republicans, announced they were planning to vote for Ohio's Democratic candidate for governor, Ted Strickland. Why? Besides the fact that Republican candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell was generally too conservative for them -- as a friend once put it, he's a "God conservative," while my family and I are "economic conservatives" -- one big issue was playing on their minds. Blackwell wants to lease the Ohio Turnpike to a foreign consortium, Macquarie-Cintra. You Hoosiers might have heard of it.\nBack here in Indiana, a poll by WISH-TV (reported Monday by The Associated Press) showed that not only were respondents against Gov. Mitch Daniels' leasing out the Indiana Toll Road to the same consortium by a margin of 55 percent to 39 percent, but a plurality of Republicans opposed the measure, 50 percent to 46 percent. On Sunday, in response to another result from the poll -- the fact that 57 percent of interviewees regarded Daniels as a "fair" or "poor" governor -- Indiana GOP spokeswoman Jennifer Hallowell was quoted by the AP as saying: "Real leadership requires tough and sometimes unpopular decisions."\nThis is true in some circumstances. The great crises that threatened and continue to threaten our country's survival -- the Civil War, World War II, the Cold War and, I'd argue, the war on terror -- could not be met by a government that bases its decisions on the day-to-day whims of public opinion. And then there are those occasions when the government has upheld our basic political ideals in the face of hostile majorities -- as in 1957, when Eisenhower sent troops to Arkansas' Little Rock Central High to enforce the desegregation of public schools. But, in the Daniels' case, let's make something perfectly clear: We're talking about a friggin' toll road!\nIf this came down to a key point of Republican ideological principle, I could understand the willingness to push ahead despite public opinion. But, first, this assumes the GOP is ideologically coherent, which it is not. (Neither are the Democrats.) And second, if we apply the stereotype that Republicans are champions of free-market economics, we find that this runs in opposition to the basic tenets of how a market economy works. Like schools and national defense, roads have been regarded as a public good that is necessary for facilitating commerce. Adam Smith himself wrote: "The tolls for the maintenance of a high road cannot with any safety be made the property of private persons." Thus, I am at a loss as to why this concept is being touted despite what could be a severe political cost.\nLeading up to this year's national elections, a Democratic theme has been the arrogance of Republican authorities in power. The idea that the Democrats represent a serious alternative to this is laughable, but that doesn't mean they're wrong. The strategy of "base-rallying" might discourage parties from reaching out across the aisle, but I can tell you one thing: If Republican officials aren't even listening to Republican voters, they're screwed.
(09/14/06 4:00am)
Let's not beat around the bush: TV on the Radio's "Return to Cookie Mountain" is one of this year's best rock albums. We're not talking "top-10" -- we're talking "top-3" or better. And I say this as a person who is not especially a fan of TVOTR (not that I dislike them), nor really into avant garde music, nor a person who tosses out A's like parade candy. Only time will tell, but "Cookie Mountain" might well be the band's masterpiece -- and if you fancy yourself a devotee of daring and sophisticated rock, you have to get this album.\nNot that "Cookie Mountain" will please everyone. Its pace is often slow, heavy and deliberate, its production chilly and unsettling, and some people will simply not get past the dissonant, simultaneous high-low vocals of Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone (and their various collaborators including, if you haven't heard already, David Bowie). All that said, "Cookie Mountain" is much more accessible than TVOTR's first album, 2004's "Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes." While "Desperate Youth" was generally lauded by critics, (it won the 2004 Shorlist Music Prize and garnered attention thanks to single "Staring at the Sun") it was an album to be admired rather than loved. For all its technical skill and artistic ambition, track after track of hook-free droning made it less a collection of interesting songs than a roughly 45-minute meditation session -- interesting for a couple of plays, but doomed to gather dust on the shelf afterward.\nWith "Cookie Mountain," on the other hand, TVOTR do what made legends out of their idols Sonic Youth -- they pull their high-art music down from its pedestal, just close enough for us mere mortals to reach. While TVOTR hardly sound like anything else out there at the moment, the songs now have momentum and hooks, even sing-along choruses (albeit not in a "pump-your-fist" sort of way). The result is nothing short of stunning.\nFrom track to track, the band carries the listener through the sadness, fury, redemption and chaos of a post-apocalyptic world; they are clearly still pissed about the government's handling of Hurricane Katrina. Most surprising, perhaps, is first single, "Wolf Like Me," a bona fide rock song whose classic 4/4 beat (dum-dum-da-da-dum) will get your head bobbing while the closing chorus moves your lips ("we're howling forever, oo-oo!"). And, amaz ingly, in their abstract but poignant lyrics, TVOTR pull off the "Bono thing": simultaneously romantic, political and spiritual -- and if you think that's easy, ask Coldplay's Chris Martin.\nCritics often use the cliché "primal" to describe raw garage-rock acts such as Iggy Pop and the Stooges. TVOTR, however, show us what "primal" really sounds like. As complex as "Cookie Mountain" is, its simple, powerful, constant percussion; off-kilter multi-singer vocals; eerie guitar washes; and use of chants, flutes and other elements, make TVOTR sound less like a 21st century band than the unworldly music of ancient tribal ghosts dancing around an eternal bonfire.\nDare to join them?
(09/13/06 9:28pm)
So you've decided to kill some time reading the Indiana Daily Student. After checking out the Sports Page, trying your hand at the Sudoku puzzle and wondering if anyone actually gets Blender Kitty, you come to the Opinion Page. And right there, under that smug, self-righteous mugshot, some cretin has written a column that you know to be downright untrue. Sure, the facts might be accurate, but the author is ignoring the lessons of 1968 (or any other year), or you know his side is far more to blame for the problem, or she clearly misunderstands your group. It's time to write a letter.\nCool! Good for you. The Opinion Page serves as the interactive part of the paper, and among other things, our job is to try to spark discussion about major campus issues. By writing in, you're taking part in that important process. IU, after all, is not just a school; it's a learning community, making it doubly important that we engage in free and open debate. And while everyone else is sitting around picking their noses, you're doing your part. \nThat said, there are some things you should know about writing us letters -- things that could mean the difference between getting your opinion out and wasting time on something that'll never get past our inbox.\nFirst, the basics: Letters are printed every Thursday in the Jordan River Forum -- so named for the mighty tributary flowing near Ernie Pyle Hall, home of the IDS H.Q. You can e-mail letters to opinion@idsnews.com or letters@idsnews.com, fill out a form on the IDS Web site (www.idsnews.com/news/letters.php) or mail an actual, paper letter to: Opinion Desk, Indiana Daily Student, 940 E. Seventh St., 120 Ernie Pyle Hall, Bloomington, IN 47405. Always include your name, contact information (e-mail, phone, address) and your class rank (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior) or relationship to IU (graduate student, staff, faculty, etc.). We choose which letters to publish Wednesdays, at about noon, and, once published, they're readable both in the paper's printed editions and on our Web site.\nNow, some tips for getting your letter printed:\n• So that we can get a variety of voices in the paper, we maintain a 350-word limit on letters. Read that again. Not 400, not 500, not 600 and certainly not 1,500 words. \n• You must have written it. We won't reprint something that you simply pasted into an e-mail. \n• The more relevant a letter is to our readers, the more likely that we'll print it. Hint: IU students have little direct influence over U.S. foreign policy. \n• Edit and re-edit the letter before sending it to us. Remember that at least 15,000 people might read it. \n• Finally, if you're reacting to a story from The Associated Press, know that those people don't work at the IDS.\nSo with that, we look forward to reading your letters. You might start by complaining about this very column.
(09/07/06 4:00am)
If you loved early-noughties garage-dance-punk, then these are depressing times. The indie world has embraced proggier, twee-er, less-accessible sounds (Sufjan, Beirut, The Knife -- bleh). The mainstream is eagerly blending the style with emo so it can be marketed to 12-year-old mall crawlers (Hellooo, She Wants Revenge!). And the bands that made up the movement are either deceased (The Libertines, Death From Above 1979) or looking to "expand" beyond their original sound (Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads, Hot Hot Heat, The Strokes, The White Stripes/Raconteurs, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc.). This last category has met with varying levels of success.\nThis, then, brings us to Razorlight. Never a pioneering band, Razorlight continues to follow their peers -- this time, into the wilderness of post-garage arena rock. Now, don't get me wrong -- Razorlight's first album, "Up All Night," may have indicated that the band owed a round of beers to The Strokes and The Libertines, but it was lots of fun. They brought a flair for the dramatic that their stripped-down predecessors lacked -- call it pomp-garage rock. And they smartly pushed their biggest asset to the front -- charismatic, egomaniacal frontman, Johnny Borrell -- and, through his lyrics, told engaging stories about hipster London. Stories about indie rock posers ("Rock N Roll Lies"), about leaving the scene ("Don't Go Back To Dalston"), about nights of dizzying decadence ("In The City") and more.\nIn its best moments, Razorlight's self-titled second album follows this same route. "In The Morning," a sunny, disco-inflected boogie, paints the picture of the morning after the parties of "Up All Night" -- combining the blissful ignorance of alcoholic blackouts with a vague, but nagging, sense of guilt. On "America," the band broods along with a sad-sack Englishman who dreams of escaping to an idyllic America, while being simultaneously disturbed by the harsh realities portrayed in U.S. news stories.\nBut, on much of "Razorlight," Johnny Borrell puts his heart on his sleeve and tries to bare his soul to you lucky listeners -- and the result is predictable. The lyrical edge dulls, the images become vague and clichés start slipping loose. Which wouldn't be so bad if the instrumental side were more interesting -- but, remember, the band is now "expanding" its sound. For the most part, this means borrowing from the new-wave influenced pop ballads of the early 80's -- say the Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime," Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me," "Unforgettable Fire" era U2 or anything from the closing credits of any given 80's cult classic. (And, inexplicably, on "Who Needs Love?" -- doo-wop.) Not a bad style to cop -- but, it's hardly as exciting as the late-70's punks and post-punks that Razorlight were emulating before. Sincerity has replaced swagger, texture replaced fire -- and the result is that Razorlight has leapt from garage-punk to adult alternative. It may only be two years since "Up All Night," but in the interim Razorlight done grown old.
(09/07/06 2:17am)
If you loved early-noughties garage-dance-punk, then these are depressing times. The indie world has embraced proggier, twee-er, less-accessible sounds (Sufjan, Beirut, The Knife -- bleh). The mainstream is eagerly blending the style with emo so it can be marketed to 12-year-old mall crawlers (Hellooo, She Wants Revenge!). And the bands that made up the movement are either deceased (The Libertines, Death From Above 1979) or looking to "expand" beyond their original sound (Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads, Hot Hot Heat, The Strokes, The White Stripes/Raconteurs, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc.). This last category has met with varying levels of success.\nThis, then, brings us to Razorlight. Never a pioneering band, Razorlight continues to follow their peers -- this time, into the wilderness of post-garage arena rock. Now, don't get me wrong -- Razorlight's first album, "Up All Night," may have indicated that the band owed a round of beers to The Strokes and The Libertines, but it was lots of fun. They brought a flair for the dramatic that their stripped-down predecessors lacked -- call it pomp-garage rock. And they smartly pushed their biggest asset to the front -- charismatic, egomaniacal frontman, Johnny Borrell -- and, through his lyrics, told engaging stories about hipster London. Stories about indie rock posers ("Rock N Roll Lies"), about leaving the scene ("Don't Go Back To Dalston"), about nights of dizzying decadence ("In The City") and more.\nIn its best moments, Razorlight's self-titled second album follows this same route. "In The Morning," a sunny, disco-inflected boogie, paints the picture of the morning after the parties of "Up All Night" -- combining the blissful ignorance of alcoholic blackouts with a vague, but nagging, sense of guilt. On "America," the band broods along with a sad-sack Englishman who dreams of escaping to an idyllic America, while being simultaneously disturbed by the harsh realities portrayed in U.S. news stories.\nBut, on much of "Razorlight," Johnny Borrell puts his heart on his sleeve and tries to bare his soul to you lucky listeners -- and the result is predictable. The lyrical edge dulls, the images become vague and clichés start slipping loose. Which wouldn't be so bad if the instrumental side were more interesting -- but, remember, the band is now "expanding" its sound. For the most part, this means borrowing from the new-wave influenced pop ballads of the early 80's -- say the Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime," Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me," "Unforgettable Fire" era U2 or anything from the closing credits of any given 80's cult classic. (And, inexplicably, on "Who Needs Love?" -- doo-wop.) Not a bad style to cop -- but, it's hardly as exciting as the late-70's punks and post-punks that Razorlight were emulating before. Sincerity has replaced swagger, texture replaced fire -- and the result is that Razorlight has leapt from garage-punk to adult alternative. It may only be two years since "Up All Night," but in the interim Razorlight done grown old.
(09/04/06 2:45am)
The congressional race for Indiana's 9th District is one of the country's tightest. Republican incumbent Mike Sodrel and Democratic challenger Baron Hill are both House veterans. Their last electoral battle was decided by slightly more than 1,400 votes, and dissatisfaction with Republican leadership in both Congress and the presidency might make this result even closer. Furthermore, this is a key race in the 2006 elections, and it will determine the balance of power in Washington, D.C. \nSo why aren't you hearing more buzz about it?\nBecause it's boring. Deeply and profoundly boring. Mind-numbingly, soul-crushingly boring. Viewers of Thursday's televised debate could be forgiven for being distracted by more exciting fare, such as reading a statistics textbook or listening to the refrigerator hum or sitting before a mirror and watching oneself age. \nIt's an old complaint, I know. But I say this not as a person uninterested in politics (see byline above) nor as a holder of radical beliefs (at least, I don't think they are) -- nor as a person who fails to appreciate the value of somewhat boring politics. Very exciting politics often come at the price of high body-counts, widespread poverty and general suffering -- I'd rather read about a revolution than be in the path of one, thanks.\nThat said, even taking into account that the major parties are never that far apart in basic ideology, and given that this election will be decided on very local concerns, I will hazard an opinion that -- of this year's competitive races -- the contest in the 9th district is exceptionally dull. Neither Hill nor Sodrel is a charismatic speaker -- although Hill has a slight edge because he does strange things with his hands (see page 3 of Friday's Indiana Daily Student for a photo of Hill seemingly casting a level-4 magic missile). And on the key issues highlighted in Friday's IDS -- energy policy, the war in Iraq, immigration -- Sodrel and Hill are in virtual agreement. The two only differ slightly over federal involvement (in education and gay marriage) and over who should be taxed and not taxed to achieve the same desired ends regarding energy policy and the deficit. Oh, and Hill managed to work in the "Bush lied" cliché. So much for the "culture war," then.\nToward the end of last week, the two did finally manage to get into heated debate -- over the format of their next debate. Sigh.\nI've been thinking about ways to make this race more interesting. Nothing dangerous or illegal, of course, but something has to be done. This is not merely a question of personal interest or of local concern; this is a matter of the survival of our democracy. If an important race such as this can be so stultifyingly tepid, so unspeakably dreary, so epically monotonous, what future does our republic have? \nThere is only one solution: We need a couple of volunteers who are brave, brilliant, flexible ... and nubile. Yes, dear readers: The congressmen must have affairs!\nAuditions to be held at the opinion desk.
(08/30/06 4:13am)
The non-profit organization Freedom House rates countries on political rights and civil liberties from "1" (most free) to "7" (least free). Iran is a "6,6". While more free than, say, North Korea, Iran is still a brutal dictatorship in which paramilitary groups and secret police attack demonstrators, journalists are tortured and Iranian agents are dispatched to assassinate dissidents abroad. Thus, getting people to talk to your intelligence operatives is difficult. As governments have adapted to the information revolution, they've become increasingly savvy regarding satellites and wiretapping. Result: less secret intelligence, more reliance on public documents. At least the report is admitting that some things remain unknown, rather than relying on dubious sources. There's little the United States can do but undertake the slow task of developing its human intelligence resources for Iran -- \nif you're really concerned, go to the Central Eurasian Studies department and enroll in Introductory Persian I.
(08/28/06 1:40am)
Welcome back! If you haven't heard already, this week, the Indiana Daily Student is holding a recruitment drive for opinion columnists. To those of you already thinking "Yes!" -- you need only visit our Web site (idsnews.com) or drop by the IDS office (ground floor, Ernie Pyle Hall room 120) to pick up an application. \nHowever, this column is really intended for those on the fence. Those people who -- like myself, once upon a time -- never thought about doing such a thing until the opportunity suddenly stared them in the face. Yes, look at that mug shot above -- I'm staring you in the face, right now.\nFor many of you, upon thinking of opinion writing (if you think about it), what comes to mind is probably the columns of Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman, Robert Novak , Clarence Page and others -- the columns that run in America's major daily newspapers. These writers are the ones who go on cable news shows and bash it out with one another over the day's major issues. And the IDS is certainly looking for people who aspire to such a thing. But there's more to it than that.\nOpinion writing is about 200 years older than what you'll see in the rest of the paper -- in 1643, just more than 20 years after English-language newspapers emerged, competing journals were already promoting opposing sides in the First English Civil War. By comparison, objectivity, as a journalistic ideal, didn't take hold until the mid-19th century -- and, then, only in America (in other countries with press freedom, papers often take explicit ideological stances). And in all this time, opinion writing hasn't merely reported on events -- it has shaped them. \nPublished as a series of 85 newspaper articles, from 1787 to 1788, the Federalist Papers both championed and interpreted the U.S. Constitution -- not only leading to its adoption, but to the nation's survival and the rise of modern democracy. From when he first began writing under his famous pen name for the Virginia City, Mo., Territorial Enterprise in 1863, to his death in 1910, Mark Twain chronicled -- and, to a large degree, shaped -- Americans' basic perceptions about our own culture. Read his "Innocents Abroad," and you'll find European-American differences that persist to this day. Starting in 1910 -- and still controversial more than 40 years after his death -- W.E.B. Du Bois laid much of the groundwork for both the future civil rights movement and the academic discipline of African-American studies via his newspaper columns and editing of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's publication, The Crisis. Winston Churchill warned of the rise of Hitler from his columns for the Evening Standard and the Daily Telegraph. Milton Friedman made the case for modern economic policy from his columns in Newsweek. In commenting on the worlds swirling around them, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe moved from newsprint to the canon of 20th-century literature. The examples go on and on.\nSo, are you ready to join them? Only one way to find out.
(08/23/06 3:14am)
This week, I've been a reluctant time traveler. My beloved laptop has been rendered temporarily out of commission, and, as a result, I've been cast back into the world of the early '90's -- my hair's gone long and greasy, Pearl Jam's Ten dominates my CD player, chains have attached themselves to my wallet, I'm sprouting flannel ...\nWell, OK, that might be a slight exaggeration -- but I am getting a schooling in how much digital information has changed our world in the past decade-plus.\nThe very earliest origins of the Web date back more than 40 years to the planning for the Defense Department's ARPANet, the Internet's predecessor. But as a fossil old enough to remember mourning Kurt Cobain's death -- and who wasn't a "computer nerd" (yet) -- the Internet started in 1994 with Netscape's commercial release of the "Navigator" browser. Netscape Navigator wasn't the first Web browser or even the first with a graphical user interface (the icons used to control a computer, rather than having to write programming code). It was, however, the first to become really popular. And, in my house, it transformed the modem from a source of perennially boring, text-based screens to the incredible window to the world that we have today -- albeit a very slow-loading window on the world, at that time.\nIndeed, before this week, I would have been hard-pressed to remember what it was like before having a laptop or a broadband connection or university-wide wireless access. But not now. Now, I'm being reminded daily in a hundred painful ways ranging from minor nuisances to major crises. I'm reminded by the fact that I now have nothing to do during TV commercial breaks; by the moments when some question comes to mind, and I realize that I can't immediately look up the answer; by the fact that I now have to worry about bus schedules and buildings' open hours if I want to do my job or even check e-mail.\nI know, I know. The strings of the world's smallest violin weep for me. What I'm getting at, though, is just how dependent we've become on this form of technology in such a short period of time. And how it has changed us. In a Grand Junction, Colo., Daily Sentinel interview with the Webmaster for Mesa State College on Aug. 21 -- imagine finding that reference in the pre-Google days -- the Webmaster explained that he was rearranging the school's Web site because students have "got to be able to find what they want in less than a minute. ... It's got to be explained in less than five minutes." The same day, in a St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press article, the newspaper examined a new trend: nonprofit agencies emerging to help people socialize with their neighbors. And, over this past week, thousands upon thousands have watched Sen. George Allen's racist freak-out on YouTube.\nGood, bad, mixed -- regardless, one has to ask: Where is all this going?
(08/06/06 10:50pm)
Last Thursday, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Florida State University's student newspaper the FSView & Florida Flambeau has been bought out by the Tallahassee Democrat -- a local paper, itself owned by the multi-paper conglomerate Gannett (publisher of USA Today, the Indy Star, the Detroit Free Press, etc.). In an interview with the Associated Press, newspaper analyst John Morton said "the purchase represents the first of its kind in the industry" and suggested that the deal was the result of the Democrat "trying to reach college-age students in a more effective way and profitable manner."\nNow, in its own story on the deal, the Democrat pledged that the FSView & Florida Flambeau would remain student-run and quoted its president and publisher as saying that it would be "independent of the day-to-day Tallahassee Democrat news operations" (Aug. 2). And, in the same article, the Democrat also suggested that the arrangement would expand employment opportunities for FSU students with both itself and Gannett. \nSounds nice, but I can't shake a bad feeling about this development -- like Pandora's box has been opened. \nJust the day before posting the FSU story, the Chronicle had also reported that mtvU -- MTV's 24-hour university network, as you probably know -- bought Y2M: Youth Media & Marketing Networks. Y2M, in turn, owns College Publisher, a network of 450 online college newspapers. MTV, meanwhile, is owned by the global media company, Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, Paramount Studios, Nickelodeon and more. For the sake of disclosure: The Indiana Daily Student works with Y2M to help us sell advertising on a national basis. But don't worry, it doesn't own us or anything -- we're independent.\nIt may be a little early to jump to conclusions (not that that's ever stopped me before) -- but these two news stories give the distinct impression that Big Media has finally noticed that the humble campus newspaper offers a direct feed to the vaunted 18-to-25-year-old marketing demographic. This could be a good thing. Larger-scale awareness about student papers' audience could bring more demand for advertising, which could mean higher revenues for student papers and, thus, better papers (come on advertisers -- papa needs a raise!). But, I can't help but get a little nervous that increased opportunities will lead to increased temptation to follow in the footsteps of the FSView & Florida Flambeau -- that other school papers will decide that it's worth trading in their freedom for access to greater resources, that we'll become yet another branch of someone's empire in the already highly consolidated media industry.\nIn 1969, the IDS gained its financial and editorial independence from IU -- the result being that we can report honestly on University doings without fearing that the administration will pull the plug on our presses. Many papers, still funded by their university, don't have that liberty. It's hard, then, to watch other papers -- unbound by university control -- happily submit themselves to the direction of another master. That seems like the type of lesson a student newspaper should avoid.
(07/31/06 3:40am)
Far from being the only institution with president issues, IU appears to be part of a larger national trend -- a "crisis of confidence" in university leadership, with presidents coming under fire from dissatisfied faculty, governing boards, regents, state lawmakers and other major players in the politics of higher education. \nJune 23, in an effort to understand what might be behind this pattern, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an interview with three experts in university leadership. And, while the panel expressed some skepticism regarding the possibility that these presidential challenges might fit a pattern -- something that I must respectfully disagree with -- it did propose some compelling arguments for why presidents might be finding themselves in trouble.\nFirst, as universities have become increasingly complex, presidents have had to go from honorary figureheads -- "first-among-equals" with the faculty -- to being full-time bureaucratic management. And if there's one thing that clashes with the notoriously individualistic, even eccentric, character of faculty, it's being managed. Another suggestion is that university presidents are caught in a "catch-22" regarding the dual demands of active fund-raising and active governance. On the one hand, presidents must trek across the state, the country and the world, chatting up increasingly far-flung alumni and other potential donors. On the other, they have to be deeply involved in campus affairs, which means staying at home and attending various university functions.\nTo these, I'm adding a third: It's my suspicion that a major factor in presidential turnover has been a seeming preference among university hiring bodies for external candidates. Looking at the Chronicle's June 23 list of "Presidents Under Fire In 2006," of the 10 presidents named, only two had spent time as faculty members at the same institution where they became president. And of those two, one (Priscilla Slade of Texas Southern University) spent only a year as a faculty member before being promoted to a deanship. Two presidents who have resigned early due to faculty challenges since the list's publication, Manny Aragon of New Mexico Highlands University and Karl Burgher of the University of Maine, Presque Isle, were also external hires (Chronicle of Higher Education, July 21). And, of course, our own Adam Herbert came from the University of North Florida.\nHere's my guess for what's happening: The hiring body (say, the trustees) decide they need an external candidate to "shake things up." But with no strong ties to university groups, no contacts, no personal relationships, the president finds him- or herself with no strong political backing, no base from which to do any actual shaking. Result: Either the president tries to enact change and finds that he or she is alone in confronting some powerful university group, which then pushes the president out, or he or she avoids treading on anyone's toes and is fired for being ineffectual. \nThus, as they search for Herbert's successor, I suggest that the committee keep this in mind: Herman Wells was here at IU as an undergraduate, graduate student, faculty member and dean before serving 25 years as president.
(07/23/06 10:36pm)
A recent Princeton Review survey of the top-ten most-popular college majors produced fairly unsurprising results: 1. Business Administration and Management, 2. Psychology, 3. Elementary Education, 4. Biology, 5. Nursing, 6. Education, 7. English, 8. Communications, 9. Computer Science and 10. Political Science (go poli-sci!). And just as predictable is the absence of mathematics, engineering and most of the hard sciences.\nEvery year, we fret about American students falling behind in math and science. Every year, we suggest throwing more public and private money at this problem -- and, don't get me wrong, I support that. But, I don't think that this gets at the heart of the issue. Why do we see a glut of students in English, history and the arts, but a shortage of students in the hard sciences -- despite the well-known fact that the latter have higher average incomes? We hear about a lack in the quantity and quality of primary- and secondary-level science teachers -- but, then, where does this lack come from? So, here's my guess: The way we're teaching science runs counter to American cultural tendencies -- an idea most strongly revealed in comparison to our rising competitors: China and India.\nFirst off, according to political scientist Ronald Inglehart, societies undergo a "values shift" as their economies move from developing to advanced. In developing countries, the survival of oneself and one's family are not assured -- personal concerns take a backseat to the pursuit of wealth: i.e. people are more willing to put up with miserable jobs because they put food on the table. For advanced economies, survival is assured -- even our poorest usually have the basic means for survival -- so, we are more likely to forego income for other types of personal fulfillment. In China and India, one's math grades can be the difference between poverty and success -- in the United States, they merely determine whether you'll have to take remedial classes.\nSo, how do the sciences stack up regarding other sources of personal fulfillment? Americans are the most individualistic society in the world -- but how do we teach science? Mostly by mass lecturing, then having all students work on the same experiment at once -- the grade for which is determined by how close their results are to the teacher's. Americans are famously pragmatic, so what do we teach them? The memorization of theories and things easily looked up (say, the periodic table) -- with a vague assurance that they'll be able to do something cool with it someday ... after they get tenure. Then, for the sake of safety, we set up regulations to keep all but the most dedicated from tinkering on their own ("kids, don't try this at home!").\nWith no opportunity for personal expression, for individual recognition or, even, for danger, what else is left? To quote "The Simpsons'" Principal Skinner: "Ah, there's nothing more exciting than science. You get all the fun of ... sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention ... Science has it all"
(07/17/06 2:58am)
According to abcnews.com, a media sea change is coming -- an un-plucked, un-moisturized sea change -- brought on in the wake of the collapse of Cargo, a shopping-themed magazine for men, and advertising firm Leo Burnett's finding that "half of men (surveyed) say their role in society is unclear and that they feel 'less dominant' than in previous decades ... (And) more than 70 percent of men said advertising was out of touch with men's 'reality'..." In short, ABC says: "Metrosexual Is Out, Macho Is In."\nWhat's that? Most guys hated the metrosexual trend? Who'da thunk?\nFurther support comes from a July 6 New York Observer piece by Sara Vilkomerson. In "Man Flab, It's Fab," she cites the box-office success of movies starring Jack Black, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn as evidence that skinny has fallen out of vogue with the opposite sex. To quote: "Our men are carrying an extra ten -- hell, maybe 15 -- pounds in the midriff, haven't even thought about the gym in months, and they are unashamed. Why should they be? The Hollywood box-office draws have stopped looking like the lithe and graceful Orlando Blooms of the world, delicate and emotive and who might possibly weigh less than an average female fan, and instead now look like guys you can recognize as being from the same planet you inhabit, who eat, drink, and smoke what they want, pack on the pounds and still get to regularly bed skinny actresses who can't remember what carbs taste like. What's more, the women don't mind a bit -- in fact, some prefer it."\nSo, finally, after about three years of metrosexual media rule, I can stop holding in my gut. Brilliant.\nLook, if this really is how things are going, you won't find me complaining. I come from a long line of short, squat, hairy guys -- supremely well adapted to surviving frigid northern European winters, and warring with other clans to steal their sheep, but not to modeling designer pinstripes in GQ. \nMy question, rather, is: who decides this stuff?\nI know, I know -- women get the treatment 1,000 times worse than we blokes do. No doubt. And maybe there are guys out there who are looking for bony fashion models or the undulating hoochies from hip-hop videos. All I can say is that whoever decided on these standards didn't consult me -- and, I believe, many, many guys. Indeed, I suspect that mutual misperception leads us to think that what we see in the media is what the other side wants, so we ratchet things up and up and up. Like an arms race, except with exercise bikes, and exfoliant, and manicures, and waxing and whatnot. Or, if this new trend holds true -- I don't know -- beer, donuts and not shaving or something. \n'Course, just because I think this is kind of nuts, that doesn't mean I'm above taking advantage of the situation. \nSo, ya know ladies, I'm available.
(07/10/06 5:11am)
Last Thursday, the Indiana Daily Student reported that IU's summer enrollment "has declined for the third year in a row," and that "Summer Session I enrollment is down 2.8 percent from last year" while the unreleased Summer Session II figures are also expected to be lower. An interview with Director of Summer Sessions and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Leslie Coyne yielded two possible explanations for the decline: the popularity of summer internships and competition from Ivy Tech. Meanwhile, IU Executive Director of University Reporting & Research Todd Schmitz suggested in the July 6 issue of the IDS that "the implementation of the PeopleSoft system has had an impact on summer enrollment."\nWhatever the case, the butts-to-seats ratio is going down, and it's clear that something has to be done. But what? As higher education transitions to a customer-service industry, perhaps it's time that we took a closer look at how to push a product. If I might make a few modest proposals:\n• Special summer deals. It's time to make the customers -- er, students -- feel like they're getting a bargain. How about: Learn one language, get another for half-price (offer not valid for Spanish, French or German)? Or super-size from basic to advanced calculus for just 25 cents more. Or a free English composition class for, well, practically anyone from an Indiana public high school?\n• Cross-promotion. Everyone else is doing it, why not us? Well, actually, we're already doing it too (note those Nike and Adidas IU caps, or the Coca-Cola vending machines). We're just not doing it for courses. Not yet, anyway. How about a free Starbucks gift card for every student taking Constitutional Law? Or buy a Toyota Prius, get a free week of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs' "Environmental Problems and Solutions"? And why can't we run ads in one class for another -- "if you like Greek Mythology I, you'll love Interpreting Population Demographics!"\n• Give the public what it wants. Now, admittedly -- thanks to the Internet, cable, personal computers, etc. -- it gets harder and harder to determine what an audience wants. Blockbuster movies or network television, for example, are being severely challenged by media that appeal to a thousand different narrow interests. During the regular school year, IU does quite a good job at taking the niche approach. But, during the summer, when all those specialized professors are out of town, it may be time to do what the mass media outlets do: appeal to the lowest common denominator. Some suggested classes: "The Philosophy of 'American Idol,'" "The Biology of Totally Gross Diseases," "1,001 Ways the World is Sure to End in Your Lifetime," "The History of the Keg Stand" or "Euclidian Geometry for Hot Teenage Amateurs." And, of course, there's always the most popular of courses: "Get An 'A' For Registering."\nThese humble suggestions are merely to get the ball rolling. But, after all, when students don't want to stay in class all summer, what's this world coming to?
(06/26/06 2:26am)
This week's message is a simple one: don't forget to party.\nNow, I know that asserting the importance of partying is hardly necessary for many of those reading this paper -- after all, IU was the Princeton Review's number-six party school for 2006. But this column is not meant for those who start every Saturday stuck to a different floor, or last spring break's reigning wet T-shirt contest winner, or the rest of the hedonists bent on turning their five-year educations (four, plus "victory lap") into an extraordinarily expensive bacchanalia. Such folks should, of course, do quite the opposite. \nNo, this is meant for those like yours truly -- introverts, geeks, wallflowers, grad students who always claim they're too busy -- and, to a lesser extent, those visiting parents whose worries that little Timmy or Tina might turn into a drunken toga-monster, in turn, lead them to demand that their students maintain a lifestyle sure to bore even Zen monks (note: this tends to backfire). Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not advocating binge drinking, drug use or hooking up with random strangers -- partying doesn't have to mean dangerous partying. I'm merely suggesting that those of us for whom mixing does not come naturally need, nevertheless, to make the effort to go out and have fun with our fellow human beings (and if the "antisocial scientist" is making the effort, you have no excuse).\nI can feel your eyes rolling -- "c'mon, who 'forgets to party,'" you ask? And, yet, a recent study in the American Sociological Review reports that social ties among Americans appear to be breaking down. Using data from the General Social Survey to compare 2004 responses about individuals' number and type of confidants to 1985 responses; Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin and Matthew Brashears found that "A quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two" (Washington Post, June 23). This supports the conclusions of political scientist, Robert Putnam -- who, in his book "Bowling Alone," claimed that American society is becoming increasingly atomized. In other words, people are spending more time doing activities alone, rather than with family, neighbors, civic groups or clubs (such as bowling teams). \nAmong the culprits blamed for this trend are television, commutes and long work hours -- but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that those of us who tend to isolate ourselves here in the university environment, risk carrying this tendency through life. It's so easy to cocoon ourselves in entertainment technology, and long-distance Web interactions and, occasionally, schoolwork -- we can miss out on actually living.\nLast Monday, the Indiana Daily Student reported that Indiana Memorial Union's bowling alley is in disrepair. Coincidence? \nProbably -- but go out and party, \nanyway.