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(02/23/11 4:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>English tutor Barry Dean started class Saturday the way he normally does.“I always like to ask at the beginning of class if you have any questions about English or life in Bloomington,” Dean said after introducing himself.Hiro Hayakawa, a graduate student from Japan, had a question.“I heard this expression, but I cannot find this expression in my dictionary,” he said. “One of my classmates said that he alluded to he jacked around this weekend. I was wondering what this means.”Dean laughed. He got up and wrote the phrase “he jacked around” on a dry erase board in the room.“It means he didn’t do anything important, significant. He wasted time. You don’t need to know that in your active vocabulary that’s pretty, pretty causal,” he said. The two students took notes in their notebooks. “Chances are pretty good you’re not going to hear a professor use this term, at least not in the classroom,” Dean said. “Students will use a lot of slang. This is a good example of slang.”Dean has been a tutor with the Practical English Tutorial Program for 10 years. The program runs from noon to 1 p.m. every Saturday and partners native English speakers with international students to develop their English language skills. Students and tutors come in, are assigned partners and a topic for conversation and then chat for an hour to an hour and a half.Program organizers said it allows members of IU’s international community to have an opportunity to practice speaking English in a relaxed, low stress environment. Most of the students are intermediate English speakers and come to the PET to get extra practice on the nuances of conversational English.“The idea for these small groups is that you will have more interaction,” said Sandra Britton, director of the International Center. “We have English language programs because the language barrier is the main block as far as academics.”Another program that helps international students learn English is the English Conversation Club, a more structured course that meets three times a week to talk and practice the English language.On Feb. 14, the Conversation Club sponsored a Valentine’s Day party, complete with Valentine’s Day-themed English exercises. They completed a crossword puzzle with English words and phrases like “wedding,” “blind date” and “hit it off.”“You might know these if you read Anne Landers,” volunteer Mary DePew said. “Do you know what Anne Landers is?”DePew is a long-time volunteer and has taught the English Conversation Clubs for 10 years. Before that, she was a third grade teacher for 25 years. She also points out idioms and other parts of conversational English that may not necessarily translate precisely. “I try to speak slowly, carefully and pronounce my words to make sure everyone understands,” she said. “You just hope they’re on the same level. If I know they are uncomfortable, I won’t call on them and hope they catch on and gain confidence.”
(02/16/11 8:22pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On Tuesday, cautious couples slowly trickled into The Venue Fine Art & Gifts. They were nervous. For most of them, it was their first time. They peeled jackets from their bodies, slinging them on chairs. Wine was poured and chocolates were savored as everyone slowly got more comfortable in the warm gallery.Then, slowly, one of the guests walked to the front of the small crowd and bared it all.As part of The Venue’s weekly Tuesday night art series, local writers and artists read samples of their favorites of their own and other writers’ erotic poetry.“This is something that came out of a conversation over a glass of wine, which is my favorite type of doings,” said Gabriel Colman, owner and curator of The Venue. “There’s such a fine line between poetry and smut, so I’m pleased to see how these members of the community are going to run it.”Colman was referring to Patricia Coleman and Glenda Breeden, local writers who helped organize the event. Coleman is The Venue’s current featured artist who introduced the other readers during the event. Other readers included Bloomington writers Irene Olds, Eric Rensberger and Tonia Matthew.“Standing up and sharing it was wonderful to pull people in, and I could feel everyone with me. It was very intimate,” Olds said, who read some of her own erotic work. “As far as writing, it’s a nice release, thoughts come, and I write almost on a daily basis.”The poems ranged from sensual to sexy, from emotional to highly erotic. Some were about love and loss. Others depicted explicit scenes of sex.“Now they are blushing, giggling, hand on their hearts as they shake their heads their eyes meeting with shared mischief,” Matthew read from one of her poems titled “Chron alert at the Diner.”Audience member and Bloomington resident Virginia Thomas said she enjoyed hearing the poetry reading as an experience for learning how different poets express themselves. She said she also writes and has read her work at open-mic nights around town in the past.“Any time you go to something like this you have to be open-minded, and you’re going to experience somebody else’s notion of what erotic is,” Thomas said.
(01/31/11 5:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While chaos broke out in Cairo as Egyptians demanded a change in government, Ahmed Kadous prayed for his country Friday in the quiet Islamic Center of Bloomington.Kadous faced Mecca, toward home, and prayed.“I was crying today, really, I was crying,” he said. “Most of Egyptian people have a loyalty to Egypt. You grew up there. You grew up beside the Nile. It’s my feeling for the crowds. I miss the crowds.”Kadous, who was born in Egypt, is the manager of a company in Cairo that works with cooking oils and is currently studying for an MBA at the Kelley School of Business.Since early last week, Egyptians have taken to the streets across Egypt to protest President Hosni Mubarak. The protests grew exponentially after Friday morning prayers. Kadous, 22, has been living in Bloomington for two months, but still has strong ties to Egypt. He’s been following the news online on CNN, Al Jazeera and The New York Times. Last week a professor asked Kadous about the problems facing Egypt, but he said he couldn’t begin to explain the situation.“I’m frustrated by the problems,” he said. Junior Lee Thomas was on her way to Cairo to begin her second semester studying abroad at American University in Cairo when the protests erupted. Her flight was a canceled and shortly after she received a call from the Office of Overseas Study at IU warning her of the dangers in Egypt. The Office of Overseas Study has a policy that when the U.S. Department of State places a travel advisory or travel warning on a country, decisions are quickly made to cancel programs in dangerous areas.Although this doesn’t happen often, Kathleen Sideli, the associate vice president for Overseas Study, said plans are in place to protect students.“We have a committee that looks at greater level of security plans and arrangements before deciding if students can go to a city in a country under a travel warning,” she said. Sideli said when the University decides to pull support for a program, all financial assistance and organizational support is pulled.Thomas, a journalism student, said she wanted to return to Cairo by the end of the week, but is watching the news to see when the protests settle down. She has already paid and registered for her classes and hopes to return as soon as possible.Sunday Lee said she was notified she would not be able to travel to Egypt any time soon. “I am really excited. I’m waiting to get back,” she said. “I’m totally bummed I can’t be there."Director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East at IU Feisal Istrabadi said the tensions in Egypt have been rising for many years.“There’s been a tendency to see this as a reaction to Tunisia, and I would warn against that,” Istrabadi said. “I think this has been building in Egypt for a very long time.”Istrabadi said the protests are important, but a failed revolution could spell disaster for the country and the entire region. Egypt is the largest Arab nation, and instability in Egypt, he said, could lead to instability in the Middle East.“It’s an interesting phenomenon and you have to root for it, but you have to be careful,” he said. “The number one thing that is worse than tyranny is chaos.” The importance of Egypt in the region extends beyond politics, Istrabadi said. Art, television programming, literature, music and more in Egypt make up a strong cultural identity for the Arab world. Kadous also said he was surprised when arriving in Bloomington and finding that Arabic language students learn with an Egyptian accent and that Americans learn about ancient Egypt in elementary school.The current protests against Mubarak’s rule are championed by a group known as the Muslim Brotherhood, who claims Mohamed ElBaradei, former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency with the United Nations, as their leader. ElBaradei is Egyptian, but has been living abroad since he began working with the UN in 1980.“My impression is that when he returned to Egypt he sort of dipped his toes into the waters of possibly challenging Mubarak, but then he backed off,” Istrabadi said. “Now I have a sense that ElBaradei is sort of getting out in front of the parade that originally didn’t have anything to do with him.”Kadous agreed, questioning ElBaradei’s 30 years out of Egypt and his ability to lead the country.“We need someone from the blood of Egypt,” Kadous said. “He didn’t come to Egypt before. Why should he give his opinions now?”Kadous’ father is a businessman in Cairo. He has worked for his father since he was 15 and worked throughout high school and his undergraduate education at Cairo University, where he majored in accounting.Kadous carries that business perspective when talking about the problems in Egypt.He said he wants reforms because inflation has dropped wages and increased poverty in the country. He said he believes changes can bring foreign investment into the country. He said a new leader can clean up Egypt and make it beautiful for not just Egypt’s people, but for the world.“Thirty years is enough for creating something for the country,” he said of Mubarak. “Please let young people create something different.”According to Kadous, Mubarak was once highly respected for his actions as an officer in the Egyptian Air Force during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. But since he took office in 1981, the relationship between the Egyptian people and the Egyptian president has become strained.“We don’t want to protest for prices or inflations. We want him to go away,” he said. “We want something different. We want to explode. We want to kick him out of the country.”The violent protests against Mubarak have worried Kadous. His friends and family can be robbed or hurt, but Kadous said he is more worried about his beloved country.Although he disagrees with the current Egyptian government, he said he hates to see the protesters destroy the city he loves. Kadous said he is conflicted about whether or not he would be joining the protesters if he were in Cairo.“Maybe yes, because I want to be with my friends. Maybe no, because I want to protect my family,” he said. “They have their right to protest but if I were in Cairo, the first thing I would do would be to protect my family.” Throughout the weekend, Kadous was trying to get in touch with his friends and family, but to no avail.But at about 10 p.m. Saturday, he called his father, and was finally able to make contact. His family was safe, but the house of one of his friends was broken into by a gang of looters. However, Kadous said he was optomistic and glad his family was well.While protests start to settle and the opposition to Mubarak becomes more organized, Kadous said he hopes for a peaceful transition of power.“Changes will take some years, not some days,” he said. “In Egypt it will be better in two weeks, I am certain of that.”
(01/13/11 3:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Judge Ezra “Zeke” Friedlander of the Indiana 2nd District Court of Appeals has been collecting historic documents and signatures of Supreme Court justices and other historical figures for about 15 years. He recently decided to share his collection, which hung in his office for many years, with the IU Maurer School of Law.“I’m a graduate of IU’s history department, I’m a lawyer and a judge and I collect other kinds of memorabilia, so when I ran across these kinds of documents they sort of peaked my interest,” Friedlander said. “I asked if the law school would like the documents, and they indicated that they would.”Friedlander graduated from IU with a B.A. in history and government in 1962 and received his J.D. from the law school in 1965. He then practiced law for 27 years and was appointed to the Court of Appeals by former governor Evan Bayh in 1993.Friedlander is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Maurer School’s Academy of Law Alumni Fellows and was formerly president of the school’s Alumni Board. He has endowed the Law School with a scholarship.“We are honored and delighted that Judge Friedlander chose to donate his collection to the IU Maurer School of Law,” Dean Lauren Robel said in a prepared statement. “The collection gives us all an opportunity to feel directly connected to the rich history of the American legal profession.”Most of the items are on display on the second floor of the Law Library, although one of the items, a pleading signed by John Marshall in 1785, is currently displayed inside the Dean’s Suite in the main law building. These items are displayed in five frames, each frame containing one or more documents, photographs or signatures.The items will be on permanent public display in the School of Law. Although Friedlander was not a part of the decision to keep them on display, he said he was glad that they were open to the public.“The question, then, is who else is going to enjoy them. I enjoyed them for a while; then I wanted to pass it on,” he said. “I’m pleased they are there for public view. I’m pleased people are interested in seeing them.”
(01/13/11 1:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>January 14KhloeKardashian: Happy New Year! My resolution? Get to know the starting lineup for the Lakers a little better. ;)February 28BarackObama: Took Malia and Sasha to see the @justinbieber movie. I have to say, #BieberFever is quite contagious.March 17PassionPit: #SXSW. Cool people, cool movies, cool music. Lovin’ it! Austin really is hipster Mecca! April 10kanyewest: YO TWITTER, THIS TWEET IS SICK. CHECK IT OUT!!! IT’S A REFLECTION OF WHAT I AM!! May 18JohnnyDepp: I swear if anyone else asks me where my pirate ship is I’m gonna lose it. #POTC4 this Friday! June 11stevejobs: You thought the iPhone on Verizon was big, keep an eye out for the new pocket-sized iPad mini. It’s like an iPhone, just without a phone. July 10emwatson: In London for the final premiere. Dan and @Rupert_Grint are here too, along with @jk_rowling and the whole gang. Like a big family reunion! August 17JamesCameron: I’m just about done writing Avatar 2. In “unrelated” news, I finished reading “Last of the Mohicans” last night, great inspiration. September 30SteveCarell: I’d like to officially apologize to the cast of “The Office” and NBC for leaving the show. It’s like watching a chicken with its head cut off. October 31Ladygaga: Happy Halloween my little monsters! This year I’m going as Stefani Germanotta just to mix things up. November 23Kermit_J_Frog: Taking @OfficialMsPiggy to dinner and to see our new movie. Being green is pretty easy right now. December 24katyperry: Just got caught under the mistletoe with @keshasuxx...and I liked it.
(12/13/10 4:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Elmer Dilger pulls up in his pickup truck with Santa Claus riding shot gun next to him. He wears a red baseball cap that reads, “I believe in Santa Claus, IN,” with a picture of a cartoon Santa carrying a sack of gifts. That was his campaign slogan when he ran for and was elected to Town Council 12 years ago.Not only is he wearing the cap, but he’s wearing a dark green jacket with the same slogan written on the back with Santa’s face. Underneath his jacket, is a white sweatshirt with an airbrushed image of Santa Claus’ face with rosy red cheeks and a sprig of holly on his red and white hat.The Santa Claus riding shotgun is a life-sized waving plastic Santa complete with a fake beard and spectacles.“When I drive down the interstate people have to look back over their shoulder,” he said. “Sometimes their conscious gets the best of ‘em.”Elmer said he got the Santa at a yard sale about 15 years ago. It was once mechanically animated, but after years of riding in Elmer’s car from Thanksgiving through Christmas Day, its motion has become limited. Now, Santa’s hand is tied up with fishing line in a waving position.“After you come out of the North Pole year after year, you get tired,” Elmer said.As he drives down Balthazar Drive in his gated neighborhood, Christmas Lake Village, he waves to everyone he passes. He passes intersections named Mistletoe Drive, Candy Lane, Tinsel Circle and Sleigh Bell Drive, to name a few.“Oh Santa!” one man shouted. There were some double takes, but most of the people were familiar with Elmer and his plastic passenger in the small town of about 2,000 residents. Along with being on the Town Council, Elmer is known throughout the community for his involvement with various charities and groups in southern Indiana.He taught elementary school for many years but now spends most of his time giving back to his community. He volunteers by cooking for the North Spencer Community Action, United Caring Shelter in Evansville and other local groups.Christmas, for Elmer, “means giving, strictly giving.”“It comes from the heart,” he said. “I think we lose the whole concept of the reason for the season. As long as your decorations are for a reason, but if not it gets pretty bad pretty fast. If you take Christ out of Christmas, then you don’t have much.”Every year the Christmas Lake Village neighborhood sponsors an annual Festival of Lights, where the public is invited to drive through and see the neighborhood’s decorations, and collects donations for the North Spencer Community Action Center, a local charity.Elmer helps distribute the donations to those who need it most.“We have a lot of good people here,” he said. “It makes you feel good to work with people that really care.”Different subdivisions within the neighborhood decorate to match themes such as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Frosty’s Evergreen Forest.”“There’s always large displays by professionals and electricians, but there’s a certain charm to these,” said Christmas Lake Village Property Manager Mark Kroeger. “These are from people like Elmer and me hanging off the roof on a Saturday afternoon.”Elmer portrays the Big Man as well, or at least he used to. Before he had grandchildren, he played Santa Claus in southern Indiana every Christmas. “My Uncle Jim was the first Santa Claus at Santa Claus Land before it was called Holiday World,” he said. “That’s where I first got interested. He got me my first suit.”Elmer and Mark both said when they shop online or on the phone, they have to confirm their address multiple times because salespeople don’t believe that they actually live in a place called Santa Claus.“A lot of people keep their decorations up all year, especially inside with the trees,” Elmer said. “You might say it gets old, but not for us.”
(12/06/10 5:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>John and Marcella Deckard were in charge of organizing eight Jesuses, six Marys, four Josephs, six wise men, four shepherds, 24 disciples, two camels and a donkey, among other things.It’s not a circus, it’s a Christmas tradition.The Deckards drove around the Sherwood Oaks Christian Church, 2700 E. Rogers Road, parking lot in a golf cart with a clipboard and checklist. They stopped by various scenes featuring live animals and church members dressed as various biblical figures.They stopped at one, featuring a donkey and a girl in a baby blue robe and headscarf. “Where’s your Joseph at?” Marcella asked.“I don’t even know who my Joseph is,” the girl replied.“He’s J.T. Clark,” Marcella said.“Oh, well I don’t know where he is,” the Mary replied.“OK, we’ll try to find him then,” John said. And with that he sped off to check other scenes for the missing Joseph.It was all part of the annual “Moments in the Master’s Life Live Nativity,” a biblical scene drive-through at the Sherwood Oaks Christian Church.The nativity features 13 scenes from the Bible, including the Nativity, the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Ascension. John estimated that the church has been putting it on for about 14 years, and he’s been involved for 10 years.“I just love it. It’s great for the church, it’s great for the community,” he said. “I think it’s just great for people to come out, you get a lot of great people involved with it.”In the church’s Fellowship Hall, which served as a staging area for the event, men and women were filed in robes and scarves, Roman armor, angels in wings, beards, wigs, crowns, shepherd crooks and other props.Announcements told actors where to go to make sure they were in the right place at the right time.“If you’re in the Crucifixion, the Tomb or the Ascension, you’re going to go out door 13,” volunteer Nan Morrow said over the loudspeaker. “Everyone else is going to go out right over here.”The actors took half-hour shifts, one half coming inside for food and to warm up while the other half stayed outside in the scenes.Steve Mosca has been volunteering for many years. This year he was a disciple in the Last Supper scene.“I’ve jumped around from shepherd, Last Supper, then back, three kings, then back to the Supper. I guess they think I’m always hungry,” he said. At the 10-minute warning, Mosca and the other disciples started to get ready. He put on his fake beard, robe and headscarf over his warmer clothes and got ready to go out into the cold winter evening.“Barring the weather, it’s great when the people are going by, especially when you can see the kids relating it to the Bible stories. It’s really joyful,” he said. “It’s the spirit, the fact that the community comes out to see us brings out the flavor of the season, which is Christ and his life.”The Lyle family drove to church Sunday to see the show.After being waved in by police directing traffic, parents Rob and Jill Lyle and their kids Clancy, Jack and Mitchell Lyle picked up a CD from a volunteer and put it in their Suburban’s CD player. They shut off a Christian music radio station to listen to the Bible passages and Christmas carols on the CD.“This is neat, it’s kinda become a tradition to come down here,” Rob said. “We’ve had a lot of fun going to this nativity over the years.”He said they have been coming for many years and usually bring another family to show them the nativity scenes.This year, however, it was just the five of them.“Do you know what this is?” Jill asked as they passed a pen of sheep guarded by a young boy in a robe leaning on a crook.“That’s the shepherd!” Mitchell shouted.Later, they drove by the scenes depicting the end of Jesus’s life.“This is the Lord’s Supper, yeah, the goblets and stuff,” Jack said. “I like to look at the guards’ armor and stuff, and I think that these scenes are cool with all the stuff they have on.”The event was free and open to the public and is an annual Christmas tradition at the church. Senior minister Tom Ellsworth said the main goal of the event was to share with the community the reason for the season.“I hope this is just a reminder to everybody of the joy of the season and all that it means in the sense of what God gave to us,” Ellsworth said. “It’s a time of sharing and joy, of family and of love. So I think Christmas is a great season if you remember what it is all about instead of getting caught up in the hurry and rush of everything just to celebrate the joy of what God has done for us through Christ.”
(11/04/10 12:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I am a dude. I am a dude’s dude who can bro with the best. I am a dude who likes Taylor Swift and is proud of it. Say what you will, but this 20-year-old country-pop sensation has quite the skills when it comes to writing songs that are just plain adorable. I mean, let’s be honest, who hasn’t cranked up the volume and rocked out like a champ when “You Belong With Me” comes on the radio? Well, fans of all varieties, Swift’s new album, “Speak Now,” is something new. From the usual country ballads like “Mean” to hard rocking tunes that are unusual for Swift like “Haunted,” “Speak Now” features more variety than her other albums. On this release, unlike others, Swift seems to be trying out a few different styles to see which direction she’ll head next.Now I have to warn fans that this is no “Fearless.” I have to admit that only one or two tunes from the new album really live up to “Fearless” standards. Because Swift is trying all kinds of styles, the “Swift-sound” we are used to pops up rarely on “Speak Now.” I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention Swift’s song-writing influences. She has a penchant for working her highly publicized celebrity encounters into her lyrics. This album includes “Innocent,” which Swift wrote in reaction to the whole Kanye incident, “Back to December,” which has been rumored to be an apology to “Twilight” star Taylor Lautner and “Dear John,” which is supposedly about her relationship with John Mayer.So yeah, this dude likes Taylor Swift, but “Speak Now” just doesn’t have the strength of her other albums. I am still a T-Swift fan. I just worry that in trying to re-define herself, she’s gone too far outside of her comfort zone on some tracks. I’m going to have to say that it is probably a better bet to download singles instead of the whole album this time.
(10/27/10 11:57pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Yeah, we know you’ve all seen “Night of the Living Dead,” “28 Days Later...,” “Shaun of the Dead” and “Zombieland.” Lots of people have, but that doesn’t make them zombie lovers. Who wants an interesting film when all we really want are zombies? Sometimes it’s just more fun to watch an awful (or not), guilty pleasure horror B-movie that the “Twilight” crowd would’ve never heard of. Here’s a list of some our favorite, goriest and dumbest zombie movies ever made. So, if you’re like a zombie looking for brains, this is not the list for you.“White Zombie” (1932)One of Hollywood’s first interpretations of the zombie is 1932’s “White Zombie.” Based on Haitian folklore of ‘zombis,’ Bela Lugosi (better known for his title role in the 1931 classic monster movie, “Dracula”) plays Murder Legendre, a voodoo sorcerer with the power to raise the dead to work in his sugar mill. Unlike other zombies, these undead are meant to be objects of pity, not fear. As the first of its kind, it is an important zombie movie to check out, but with weak performances and unbelievable dialogue, “White Zombie” is a one-time watch. — Charles Scudder“The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?” (1964) This verbosely-titled film is probably the worst zombie movie ever made, and I don’t mean that as a compliment to some gloriously campy send-up. It’s actually just a terrible, boring movie with some tangential attachment to zombies — who, according to this film’s special effects crew, just look like people. This movie is only notable because it is responsible for one of the funniest episodes of “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” — Brad Sanders“The Astro-Zombies” (1968) “The Astro-Zombies” is one of those films that you feel embarrassed for everyone involved with by the time the movie is done. There are some movies that are so bad that they’re good, but “The Astro-Zombies” is not good. In a nutshell, a “space agency” scientist goes rogue and creates a zombie, the zombie breaks loose and goes on a killing spree, the CIA tries to track down the zombie, somehow a Mexican gang gets involved, there’s a damsel in distress and in the end, well, in the end you’re just confused. — CS“Zombie” (1979) Italian director Lucio Fulci’s most famous film (known everywhere but America as “Zombi 2”) is a scary, fun romp through the jungles of fictional Matul Island. It’s a solid enough movie all around, but it’s still talked about today primarily because of one particular scene involving a zombie, a woman and a shard of wood. YouTube “Zombie eye scene” and have your life changed forever. — BS “The Evil Dead” (1981) In director Sam Raimi’s (“Spider-man”) first feature film, five college-age students go on a trip to an abandoned cabin in the woods. As usual in such situations, stuff goes wrong. Someone reads an ancient passage from an old book, the forest attacks a girl who tries to leave and people start turning into zombies — really anything that could go wrong does. This isn’t your normal back-from-the-grave zombie, but more of a possessed-spirit zombie. “The Evil Dead” is one of the most extraneously bloody zombie movies out there, but it’s definitely one not to miss. Make sure to check out the sequels, “Evil Dead II” and “Army of Darkness.” — CS“Return of the Living Dead Part II” (1988) While the first installment in the now five-part long “Return of the Living Dead” series is considered a minor classic, it’s the second film that perfectly encapsulated the 1980s horror-comedy vibe that director Ken Wiederhorn was trying to accomplish. Every performance is overacted to the max, the special effects are fantastically cheesy and the plot drips with late Cold War paranoia about government secrets and conspiracies. The entire series is worth at least one run through, but if you’re likely to revisit one movie, it’s “Part II.” — BS“The Serpent and the Rainbow” (1988)This is perhaps the most notable film in the “real life zombies” subgenre. Wes Craven’s mid-career masterpiece is based on a nonfiction book of the same name that details an herbal brew concocted by Haitian witchdoctors that generates the symptoms of being “undead.” The film’s protagonist, a Harvard ethnobotanist, goes to Haiti to investigate the drug for a pharmaceutical company but becomes obsessed with the zombies instead. — BS“Dead Alive” (1992) Before Peter Jackson was tossing off billion-dollar masterpieces in the early 2000s, he was a young Kiwi with a camera and a love for gore, zombies and over-the-top schlock. “Dead Alive” (released as “Braindead” outside of the U.S.) might be the best film from this era of his career, and it is certainly the goriest. And honestly, isn’t any film whose premise can be summarized as, “plague rats raped tree monkeys to create rat-monkeys who make humans into zombies if they bite them,” worth watching at least once? — BS“Fido” (2006) This Canadian comedy takes place in a world where living with zombies has become normal. In fact, zombies have been domesticated as pets/servants. The dead can choose to be decapitated and buried separately from their head or return as a zombie-slave. But just like you hear news stories about supposedly “domesticated” tigers attacking their owners, this zombie-as-pet analogy was never meant to work properly. In this strange, twisted love story of a boy and his zombie, we see one of the most romanticized interpretations of the zombie to date. — CS“American Zombie” (2007) “American Zombie” is a mockumentary about the life of the modern zombie in their own world. Zombies are completely sentient but simply do not remember their past life. Some zombies spend time trying to re-discover their past while others attempt to re-integrate into “normal” life. This movie puts an entertaining new twist on the old zombie, but the last half-hour flips the story on its head, keeping you on the edge of your seat until the final scene. — CS“Zombie Strippers!” (2008) This largely failed attempt at political satire and camp appeal tells the story of a strip club in which a stripper is infected with the zombie virus. After becoming undead, she becomes a more popular stripper, and so naturally the other strippers become zombies one by one to stay competitive. The zombie strippers kill clients in private dances, begin fighting each other and overcome lackluster attempts to contain them. Really, the only excuse for having seen this film is “I watch every movie with ‘zombie’ in the title” or “I really love Jenna Jameson,” the movie’s lead actress. — Corin Chellberg
(10/27/10 11:39pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bela Lugosi slinks into a large crypt in the dead of night. After checking the place out to make sure there are no unexpected surprises, he calls for his henchmen, and a group of large black men limber in. Their eyes are blank, their motions are slow and they do not speak. They are the undead. In the 1932 film “White Zombie,” Lugosi plays Murder Legendre, a wealthy Haitian man who doubles as a sorcerer, controlling legions of zombies to work as slaves in his sugar cane mill. It is one of the earliest appearances of the zombie in Hollywood. These zombies may not be the flesh-eating monsters we are used to seeing, but in the early part of the 20th century, the voodoo zombi of Haitian folklore was the only popular interpretation of the living dead. Erik Bohman is an associate instructor in the IU English department who teaches a topics course on zombies as a tool for cultural critique. He said the zombie may have evolved a lot from its early roots, but there is no denying that the zombi of Haiti is the ancestor of the zombie we know and love. “The character of that zombi is sort of unrecognizable in modern interpretation,” Bohman said. “The zombi is an object of sympathy. It is never the villain. It is usually someone who is murdered and then revived against their will.” But in 1968, director George A. Romero reinvented the zombie into the creature we know today with his horror classic, “Night of the Living Dead.” The zombies were no longer victims of sorcery, but a horde of mass-murdering corpses on a mission to kill the living and devour their flesh. Since 1968, hundreds of zombie films have hit both the big and small screens. Bohman also said the zombie is not just an animated body with a special penchant for brains but a reflection of societal fears and anxieties. In Haitian folklore, the zombi was a reflection of fears of slavery. In “Night of the Living Dead,” Romero tackles race issues and Cold War anxieties. And Danny Boyle’s 2002 thriller “28 Days Later...” has shifted to consider biological terrorism. “By the time you get to ‘Land of the Dead’ in 2005, it is so focused on media and information and the Internet,” he said. “There was a point in the ’80s where they made a switch, where the zombie became more humor instead of something scary. It was about insane amounts of gore than trying to scare you.” Lately however, zombies have become more humorous as they have become more terrifying. Films such as “Zombieland” (2009) and “Shaun of the Dead” (2004) have added a comedic element to the zombie genre. Some even go so far as to turn the zombies into an object of desire. Bohman cites Andrew Currie’s “Fido” (2006), Grace Lee’s “American Zombie” (2007) and Phantom Planet’s music video for “Big Brat” (2003) as examples of zombie sympathy taken to extremes. “With any figure of horror, how we deal with it is to make it an object of humor and to domesticate it,” he said. “I think that the idea, especially with how we romanticize them, sort of goes back to the initial Haitian zombi as a symbol of sympathy.” So what does the future hold for the zombie? Bohman said he worries the popularity of the zombie will be its ultimate downfall, but as with all monster movies, the zombie will probably not be gone forever. “In the future I think, sadly, the zombie will become over-popular and get played out a bit. But the zombie doesn’t die, so it’ll come back in a specific cultural moment,” he said. “It goes, it dies, it returns.”
(10/25/10 3:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Senior Edward Gibson, a leading member in the IU chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), was a little winded by the time he got to the third floor of Ballantine Hall for the group’s weekly meeting.The senior wasn’t alone. More group members arrived — some pulled out notebooks, others just flopped into desks close by.IU’s chapter of STAND, a national activist division of the Genocide Intervention Network, works “to empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent genocide” according to the group’s Facebook page. Events the group organizes are designed to raise awareness about global genocides as well as raise funds for aid organizations that benefit victims of genocide.At their weekly meetings, the members of STAND sit in a circle and have equal input and involvement. There are no officers except for a treasurer, which is required by the Student Activities Office.“One of the interesting things about STAND is that we do not believe in having a hierarchy. We are sitting in a circle, we are having fun,” sophomore member Samantha Harrel said.One of the first issues up for discussion during this particular meeting was an upcoming event at Rachael’s Cafe. Gibson said Rachael’s had agreed to have a benefit concert for STAND. Possible bands and who the concert would benefit were thoroughly investigated. STAND members wanted to make sure that profits would go directly to combat genocide and not be funneled through other organizations, never reaching those who may need it. One possibility was an on-the-ground orphanage in Sudan. From the outset, it looked OK, but they wanted to make sure it was legitimate.“We can send this link out to everyone,” Gibson said, bringing up the orphanage’s website on a digital projector. “We’ll take a look and give everyone a chance to check it out.”The same cautious, measured process dictated most of STAND’s decisions. When the group discussed club T-shirts, it was not an issue of cheapest cost or best design but instead of most ethical clothing provider and most reliable source of labor.“We wanted to make shirts not made in sweat shops, so that when we paid for the shirts it wouldn’t be dirty money basically, which is against everything STAND is about,” said sophomore Adam Bobeck, who was in charge of researching shirt makers.In the past, STAND has worked on all kinds of projects, including film screenings, fundraisers and awareness events. One of its big events last year was bringing Holocaust survivor Eva Kor to speak at the Whittenberger Auditorium. “We learned at a young age the effects of genocide, and now we are old enough to understand it,” Harrel said. “That’s one of the biggest things we do, other than fundraising and awareness. We are trying to understand it and help others understand it.”After general announcements were out of the way at the meeting, the members of STAND took turns giving presentations about recent news and current genocides worldwide. Most of the meeting was spent discussing these news stories and giving updates on ongoing issues. Most attention was spent on the ongoing conflict in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but presentations have also covered topics like the development of cell phone technology with use of metals found in these violent areas.The meeting ended after a quick summary of the T-shirts, the upcoming fundraiser and the current events presented, but the conversation will be picked up again at the next meeting. STAND meets at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Ballantine 314 and encourages new members to join at any time. Whether they are organizing a benefit concert or keeping track of world events, members of STAND are always working to end genocide around the globe.“It’s like that quote, and I may be paraphrasing here, but ‘If you do not stand up for anyone else, nobody will be there to stand up for you’,” Harrel said. “I think that’s especially important for Americans, people who are privileged. We don’t often get help, and I think that one day we may need it.”
(10/15/10 1:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On the door of Nick’s English Hut, the Chocolate Moose and other Bloomington staples, a skittish wolf is held by the tail and spanked by the mighty hand of the Indiana Hoosiers. Sandwiching the image, large block text reads “SPANK STATE” and includes the date and location of the upcoming football game against Arkansas State. The poster, and ones similar to it, are designed by 2009 IU graduate Jon Terzini. He was hired by the IU Athletics Department to design the posters to promote football and men’s basketball home games. The posters, which he has been designing since last fall, are all monochromatic red with catchy, humorous phrases and are styled similar to retro posters that promoted games in decades past. “We are in college athletics, so it’s all for fun,” Jeff Cieply, IU Athletics Department’s director of sales, said. “This is pure entertainment — a little tongue-in-cheek, but it is all in good humor.” Terzini estimated that he has made at least 30 of the posters, with phrases such as “ROAST THE BUCKEYES” for the Ohio State football game, “BURY THE BADGERS” against Wisconsin, “GRIND DOWN GRACE” for the Grace basketball game exhibition last season and “CAGE THE TIGERS” for this season’s football opener against Towson. Terzini said he also works in small details to reference both the Hoosiers and the opposing team. For example, in the “WHACK-A-WOLVERINE” poster for the football game against Michigan, the scoreboard in the background is from Memorial Stadium. In this week’s poster, the “A” in “STATE” is larger, which is reminiscent of the Arkansas State logo. “I do a lot of subtle touches to the posters that by simply looking at them, you wouldn’t notice,” Terzini said in an e-mail. “Sometimes you have to know a little about the team too.” He said one of his favorites is the poster from 2009’s football game against Purdue, which featured a larger-than-life Hoosier punting the head of Purdue Pete through the goalposts of Memorial Stadium. It read “PUNT PURDUE.” “It’s not that I hate Purdue, but the mascot is one of the dumbest mascots,” he said. “I mean, it’s a guy holding a hammer — it’s so annoying. I just thought it would be so awesome to punt his head. So after that, I made them not more violent, but a lot more aggressive.” Terzini, who signs his work as “TERZ,” owns and operates a graphics design studio in Richmond, Ind., where he works on logos and illustrations for a variety of clients. He said he comes up with the slogans himself while working on the posters. “It’s easy for me to say, ‘Oh, I can say this and draw this and it will look cool,’” he said. “My favorite part about it is that I get to draw. I get this creative freedom with it that a lot of other jobs don’t give you.” The posters start as simple thumbnail sketches, which Terzini scans and sends to the Athletics Department. After he receives approval, Terzini works on a composite version to make sure he has everything right before doing the final draft on the computer. “Jon captured the whole retro look — he just nailed it on the first drawing. It was perfect,” Cieply said. “He has been so easy to work with. It’s been great.” Students said they like the new posters. Cieply said many fans have come to the offices to try to get copies of single posters or to collect the set. One Hoosier fan called them “sexy.” “I like the art specifically — it really catches the eye. I’m a simple guy, and I like the two colors,” freshman John McCarthy said. “The phrases are catchy, too. I like the alliteration. It just rolls off the tongue.”
(09/20/10 2:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Prelude in E flat Major” starts with a bang. Sitting in a dark auditorium, the wall of sound coming from the 3,945 pipes of the Jacobs School of Music’s new Maidee H. and Jackson A. Seward Organ in Auer Hall can hit the audience like an oncoming train. Ranging from light voices to massive pedal tones, it is able to convey emotions, textures and sounds on its four keyboards.The “Prelude in E flat Major” is the opening piece in Bach’s Clavier-Ubung III, a collection of keyboard exercises for organists. The collection of about 30 pieces mirrors how a German church service would have been structured in Bach’s time. A new edition of the Clavier-Ubung III was released this weekend at the Jacobs School of Music Bach to School organ conference. “This was one of the only volumes that Bach was actually involved with in terms of seeing it published,” doctoral student Patrick Pope said. “Most of Bach’s organ music and a lot of his other music come to modern day through transmissions and copies from either his sons or his students or someone who is in succession to Bach.”Along with celebrating the release of the Clavier-Ubung III and the Seward organ, the conference also served as a reunion for the alumni group, Indiana Organists United. The conference included performances and workshops from David Schrader (MM ’76, DM ’87) and George Ritchie (DM ’74), co-recipients of the Oswald Gleason Ragatz Distinguished Alumni Award. A posthumous award was also given to Michael Farris (MM ’85).On Thursday evening, Schrader gave a two-hour recital by memory, pausing only for a brief intermission and a small error during Max Reger's "Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor."Law student Anthony Marek, who majored in piano performance at New York University, said the range of the organ’s sound impressed him.“Compared to the piano, you can do a lot more with it. You can have six, seven, eight voices at one time,” he said.Junior Alex Nelson and masters student Alana Murphy attended the performance Saturday. They said they are both studying piano performance and the Bach to School concert was a good way for them to hear other works by Bach.“To hear that whole cycle and to hear it together was extraordinary,” Nelson said. “You can’t idly listen to this kind of music. It’s an exercise in concentration.”