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(03/12/14 3:38am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Shaped with the spark-igniting blade of a grinder, forged by fire, perfected by hammer, what starts out as a sheet of metal becomes a knife.Bloomington resident Zach Wagner repeats this process in his garage, which doubles as a workshop for his hobby.As a child, Wagner idolized the macho depictions of blacksmiths he saw on TV cartoons. It eventually inspired him to take on the hobby of knife-making, he said.“(The blacksmith) was arguably a better swordsman or fighter than any of the other guys,” Wagner said. “He was just too old and haggard to do it right. He was still instrumental in making all those amazing stories happen.”Wagner said he grew up in rural communities where knives were more functional than ornamental. They were tools.Tools are instrumental to the trade itself, but tools for knife-making can be very expensive. Wagner has invested in a TW-90 grinder. All attachments included, he estimated the machine has cost him about $10,000. “A lot of this stuff is cobbled together from hand-me-down crap, but this is easily my largest investment so far,” Wagner said. Wagner said he prefers to use 5160 alloy steel to make knives. However, while the quality of the steel may be important, so are the processes by which the blade is made. He said the heat treatment process is fundamental to the quality of the blade. If the blade is heated sporadically, or too often, it will become brittle and break easily.Wagner pulled out a sword that had been improperly heat-treated and showed the lack of flexibility in the blade.“A properly heat-treated sword made out of 5160 should be able to bend pretty far,” Wagner said as he bent the sword, almost breaking it. “So, that means it was probably not even heat-treated at all to be that soft and flimsy.”Stock removal, the removal of all steel irrelevant to the finished blade, as well as forging, or heating and hammering the blades into shape, are skills needed to make knives the way Wagner does.In order to learn how to make knives, Wagner said he read books. He later honed his skill by taking a class in Washington, Ark., taught by the American Bladesmith Society. Wagner’s dedication to making knives is demonstrated in his journey to the class. After taking a Greyhound bus to Arkansas, he was left stranded on a cold night.“They dropped me off at about 2:30 in the morning,” he said. “But the funny thing about that was that I needed to get to the next town over, and I had about 100 pounds of gear on me.”Wagner said he trekked the approximately 15-mile distance from town to town. To keep warm, he eventually had to build a fire since it took him some time to find where the classes were located.The mission of ABS Bladesmiths is to preserve the art of making blades through teaching, challenging and endorsing its students.“It was like a for-real religious pilgrimage,” Wagner said.Two factors play highly into all the tool-making Wagner has studied and crafted. The function of the knives he makes is represented through the form. Essentially, the knives he makes are meant for effectiveness and use, not to be hung as gaudy, decorative wall ornaments.“The form should always come after the function,” Wagner said. “Otherwise, we would all walk around with straight razors in our pockets.”Tyler Jenkins, an IU alumnus, is involved with the IU Martial Arts Program. He met Wagner about four years ago and later approached him to make a short sword. “The blade length is about 19 inches,” Jenkins said. “It is a leaf-pattern blade. And the handle was something that he thought up and told me about.” The handle Jenkins described has G10 inserted between two slabs of micarta. Jenkins said micarta is a synthetic compound that absorbs skin oils and is easier gripped when wet. Since then, Jenkins and Wagner have discussed the possibility of Wagner making safer training knives for the IU Martial Arts Program.“He has talked about making knives that would have the weight and feel of a real blade,” Jenkins said. “But you won’t get hurt, so you know it is going to be a lot safer.”Having spent thousands of dollars on equipment for his forge, Wagner’s passion for knives has exceeded a simple garage hobby. He now hopes to market his knives by one day giving them to the people who will use them the most — chefs, martial artists and tradesmen.“I am planning to turn it into a business,” Wagner said. “I’ll have to take another loan to get some more equipment. Then I should be ready to start taking orders from people.”Wagner said he hopes to attain an anvil with a flat space for hammering within the month. Shipping expenses for an anvil can be quite expensive, he said, simply due to the weight. The ability to make tools is only one of the things Wagner capitalized on as being necessary for human survival.Wagner’s philosophy on the importance of certain skills is three-pronged. He said that cooking, tool-making and martial arts have all been essential services people have learned to do over the years.“It is a really important skill in my opinion to preserve the ability to make tools,” Wagner said. “And in the midst of learning how to do bladesmithing, you learn how to make a lot of different kinds of tools. A lot of stuff you use, you ultimately end up making yourself.”
(03/07/14 4:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The 18 members of Taifa Mziki, a male a cappella group from Nairobi, Kenya, joined the members of the IU Soul Revue for its Thursday class as part of their week-long stay in Bloomington. After Taifa Mziki finished its first song accompanied with dance in the Neal-Marshal Center Grand Hall, Tyron Cooper, director of the IU Soul Revue, asked the a cappella group how long ago it formed. When a speaker for Taifa Mziki said they began in 2010, someone in the class shouted, “You all are tight!”“These are my brothers,” said a member of Taifa Mziki after Cooper asked him what his group meant to him.The IU Soul Revue ensemble is a performance group dedicated to preserving and expanding people’s knowledge of black musical culture. Cooper has been affiliated with Soul Revue as the director since 1999. The band performs popular black cultural music from post-World War II to present and occasionally incorporates original music. “We always have to find new ways to adapt the instrumentation on any given semester to not only the new repertoire, but also the old repertoire,” Cooper said.Classes are designed to fit the individual student performers, who acquire their positions in the band through auditions held each semester. Anyone is welcome to audition. Not only did the two groups play as an open-to-the-public artistic and cultural exchange event, but they also took time to discuss and contrast cultural implications as performing ensembles. Freshman singer Dexter Clardy is performing for his second semester with Soul Revue. “I have a lot of respect for people in a cappella groups,” Clardy said. “I know it is hard enough to stay on pitch with a band behind you.” These artistic and cultural events are geared toward interlinking cultures internationally to further understandings of one another. Cooper said he decided to serve as director of Soul Revue because he loves educating students about subtle cultural differences.“One, I direct Soul Revue because I love to teach,” Cooper said. “Number two, I love black music and culture. Number three, I love culture in general because I love examining the nuances of culture, not only with African-American culture, but I want to deal with the nuances of culture globally.”Cooper said that his ensembles, as well as the two other African-American ensembles on IU’s campus, do more than improve students’ musical talents. These ensembles also provide students with an opportunity to increase their social skills by giving them the tools to delve further into cultural distinctions and better understand them, he said.Lexi Lindsey is an IU alumna who still plays percussion for Soul Revue.“I learned a lot about professionalism within the music industry,” she said, “(Soul Revue) helped me out a lot.”Linsey said she decided to join Soul Revue as an undergraduate after hearing them perform.“I had just seen the band perform that one time, I didn’t even know it was a class,” she said. She said she met a member of the Soul Revue her freshman year and he told her about auditions. Soul Revue will play its spring concert May 3 at Ruth N. Halls Theatre.“(Soul Revue) is open to the general student body,” Cooper said. “We welcome students who feel that they have artistic ability, whether they can sing or play an instrument. I hope they want to understand not only how to perform black popular music, but also understanding the cultural nuances and the industry context.”
(03/06/14 3:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Displayed on the walls of Blueline Media Productions is a story about one city’s strife.It is not a story written in words, it is told with a Nikon D-700.Photojournalist
Alen Simic, an IU alumnus, traveled to his native land of Bosnia to
capture photos of Sarajevo. The capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Sarajevo was the site of a lengthy siege and genocide. Simic will give a lecture at 7 today at Blueline. It’s the second talk he has given about his work at the gallery.The
photo gallery presents the city of Sarajevo and the people there who
are dealing with the aftermath of war. His photos have been on display
at the gallery since Feb. 7 and will be there until March 22.“I had never been there since my family had left,” Simic said. His family fled to Germany following the start of the conflict in Bosnia.One challenge he mentioned was editing his photos into a presentation for Blueline.Simic
started with thousands of photographs, which he said he narrowed down
to 200 of his favorites and eventually to the 29 that now hang in the
gallery.Upon arriving in Bosnia on his trip to take the photos,
Simic said he discovered his cab driver was willing to serve as a guide
to the city.“I had to fashion a photo story from paper and string, basically,” Simic said. One
photo Simic has on display shows a woman pointing at a photo of a
soldier. Simic said she was a victim of the siege of Sarajevo.“That woman, her entire family was killed in the war,” Simic said. “She was raped, by, I think, 14 men.”After
Simic interviewed her, he discovered she now is part of an organization
that helps bring justice to women who have suffered from the misdeeds
of war.“She is sort of pointing out the man who had done all those horrible things to her,” Simic said.Some
photos show the vastness of Sarajevo’s landscape. Decrepit buildings
that once served soldiers in the war are shown among newer buildings
reaching to the sky. “I was very happy to introduce people to a
part of the world that I think is really under appreciated,” Simic
said. “I think it is a beautiful city.”Chelsea Sanders, owner of Blueline, said the artist’s talk for Simic’s exhibit was very successful. An artist talk is an event where Blueline allows the artist to discuss his or her work with spectators.“We
thought his story was really powerful,” Sanders said. “We had people
from Louisville (Ky.) come up, people from Cincinnati, and they strictly
came to Bloomington for this artist talk.”He hopes within the next year to go back to Sarajevo and shoot more photos. His intention is to publish his photos in a book.Simic mentioned IU professor Jim Kelly who once told him a photographer’s duty is to shoot the story that is there. “That is infinitely more interesting than anything you could have come up with ahead of time,” Simic said.
(03/03/14 4:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bloomington resident Zach Frasier has been performing for years, playing a slew of instruments and juggling several bands in different genres.“He’s a great musician,” bandmate Alex Arnold said. “He’s one of those musicians you can show kind of like any genre to and he can prepare a vibe for it. He’s really eclectic.”When Arnold began an electronic music project called !mindparade and needed a live band, he said he knew he wanted Frasier to play guitar.“It just felt really natural to ask Zach,” Arnold said.Along with !mindparade, Frasier said he is affiliated with bands Elephant Quiz, Jefferson Street Parade Band, Potty Mouth and Fire Engine Red. Juggling so many bands does not come without its perks, Frasier said. He said he once had the opportunity with one of his bands to open up for Victor Wooten, a bass guitarist who has received five Grammy Awards.Frasier also remembers opening for the Wailers, made of the continuing members of Bob Marley & The Wailers.“There’s been a few really amazing shows,” Frasier said. Frasier first started playing music when he was 12 years old, and has picked up many instruments in performances since.“Guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele I guess, piano, drums,” he said. “I also have turntables.” When Elephant Quiz were scheduled to open for the Wailers, they didn’t have a key band member, but still had to perform.“We were stuck between a rock and a hard place because we didn’t have ‘Pickle,’ and he is key to the Elephant Quiz sound,” he said.In order to make the show happen, Elephant Quiz reached out to other local musicians, some of whom Frasier had previously played alongside. “It was cool because all these musicians around Bloomington had our back at the time,” Frasier said. “Also, it was like, ‘We are opening up for the Wailers, will you guys help us?’ So, there was incentive for them, but it was really cool seeing everyone help out in our time of need.” As well as playing Bloomington bars and house parties, Frasier said that his band Elephant Quiz plays shows all around the U.S. His other band !mindparade has even collected a large audience in Italy via blogs, Frasier said. “Music has taken me farther than anything else,” Frasier said. Frasier said his inspiration to play is in part taken from the way playing makes him feel.“Playing rock guitar, or guitar with metal influence, or being able to do whatever you imagine on the guitar is kind of like the closest thing to having a super power,” Frasier said.
(02/27/14 3:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Dressed in black, Stardusters “little BIG” Band got the crowd at Players Pub ready to dance with the song “In The Mood” by Glenn Miller. Audience members were excited to swing dance, despite the cold weather restrictions on attire.Jerry Jerome, director and owner of Stardusters “little BIG” Band, said his band first played at the pub one month after it opened.“The Pub is a great venue,” Jerome said. “We love it there. It fits us perfectly, because it is our crowd.”Phyllis Schwitzer, one member of Stardusters’ “crowd” who showed up for Wednesday’s show, said she has enjoyed Stardusters’ music for more than 10 years. “The music is calming, and you can dance to it,” Schwitzer said. She said that while all genres of music may have dancing qualities, swing is more danceable than some.The “little BIG” Band, as well as the full jazz orchestra Jerome also directs, recorded a live album in 2004 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Jerome said that while recording is great, and that he plans for future recordings, making albums is not his objective. “It is not our thing,” Jerome said. “We are a performing band.”Founded in 1993 and playing the Bloomington scene since 1996, Stardusters operates as a band for hire in many regions. Janiece Jaffe, the principle vocalist for Stardusters, received her degree in vocal jazz performance from IU in 1996.“It was part of my education,” Jaffe said, “And I have always been attracted to jazz and improvisational singing since I was a little kid.”Jaffe said everyone should treat themselves to the experience of live music. To her, swing music not only gives the audience a chance to let loose with dancing, but to appreciate the improvisational context of jazz that gives the musicians themselves a chance to be creative.“I think it is very uplifting in a live situation,” Jaffe said. “It creates a lot of energy.”At a time when swing music no longer dominates the music scene, Jerome said Stardusters has adapted its music to fit needs of younger audiences as well.“We do a lot of wedding receptions where it is a younger crowd and they want younger music, and we can do it,” Jerome said.The focus of the band still caters to swing music aficionados. “There is a strong following of musicians that are dedicated to the style of music,” Jerome said. “It will never die, but it is not an easy sell all the time either.”
(02/24/14 3:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bloomington resident Nic Newby got on the Bishop’s stage Saturday night to tell a crowd of people about the time he almost burned a hotel down trying to cook on a band tour. It was just one tale from the Bloomington Storytelling Project’s event.Storytellers and listeners gathered for the event. People recollected their best or worst experiences with music. Stories varied from the development of the music scene in Bloomington to strange memories of old band tours.The Bloomington Storytelling Project began in 2009, fueled by the passion of oral tradition.Dan Stevenson, who is part of a team that oversees the storytelling events and produces material for WFHB-FM 91.3, said his friend Laura Grover started the project about five years ago. “It is a novelty,” Stevenson said. “There are other groups around, but it is nice to have this.”Over the years, people in the Bloomington community volunteered to help preserve the oral tradition.Some people have used the presence of an audience to improve themselves or their storytelling methods.Mia Beach, host of Saturday’s storytelling event, said she became involved about three years ago.“It was a show-and-tell event where we all brought in objects and told stories about them,” she said. “I did it as an exercise in getting rid of my stage fright.”Each storytelling event has a theme, and all people are encouraged to participate.“We try not to be exclusive,” Beach said. “We try to be inclusive. So we pick a theme, and we promote it, and the first eight to 10 people to respond are the ones we pick.”“Full Moon Trance Dance,” a story told by WFHB music director Jim Manion, was about Bloomington’s music scene and how it changed through the years. He described how the bars reacted to new music genres in the 1980s.Manion recalled one night in particular when a collection of bands brought a bunch of people together who were ready to experience the different styles of music.“Eight-hundred people came between the hours 9 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.,” Manion said. “It was zero degrees that night.” He said he was in a band called the Quacks Pistols at the time.“It was my first band that I was in that I joined in the DIY spirit of punk music,” Manion said.The Bloomington Storytelling Project records and presents certain stories through WFHB on a half hour program called “The Porch Swing.” All stories, more than 200 of which have been archived according to Stevenson, have potential of being aired on “The Porch Swing.”“As a person that is drawn to stories, it keeps our youth alive,” Stevenson said. “It keeps us interested in each other. It keeps us interested in the myth of one another.”
(02/17/14 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Alternative band Potty Mouth opened their Valentine’s Day set at Players Pub Friday evening with their song, “Granny Was a Tranny.”Lead guitarist Levi “Salad Fork” Hovis-Tedrow said the first time they were booked at the pub, the woman in charge of booking said they would only be allowed to play if they didn’t play any “potty mouth kind of stuff.” The band responded by telling her their band name.The show began shortly after midnight and went on for about an hour and a half. Between songs, lead vocalist Austin “Butter Knife” Clayton riled up the crowd with lewd jokes and witty humor. The band combines fast-pace punk rock songs with a variety of acoustic country songs to form their sound, but they experiment with all genres. Their first song was basically reggae, Clayton said.Audience member Jackie Morris has been a fan of Potty Mouth since they formed more than three years ago. “I have never seen them play a show here before,” Morris said. “But every time they play at a different place they kind of draw in new people.”Potty Mouth formed when Hovis-Tedrow and Zach “Steak Knife” Frasier — also members of the band Fire Engine Red — teamed up with Clayton Tyler “Tablespoon” Reeves. Hovis-Tedrow said Potty Mouth came together after Clayton played with them in Fire Engine Red for the first time.“Then afterward we were hanging out and Austin said, ‘We should start a punk band,’” Hovis-Tedrow said. “I was kind of on the edge, but Zach said, ‘Yeah, we have to.’” The band soon decided the name for their band. “Shit Lips was one of the ideas, and then we decided that Shit Lips may be a good album idea for a band named Potty Mouth,” Hovis-Tedrow said. “I remember Sister Hazel Anus really stuck out, but then we finally decided on Potty Mouth.”He said he thinks they live up to the name Potty Mouth.Many of the lyrics written by Clayton have crude connotations. Nathan Little, a fan, described the band’s music as being a forthright expression. “If you can listen to it and have a good laugh about it, and also at the same time recognize the musicianship behind it, more power to you,” Little said. “But I think in a sense it is supposed to be offensive to certain people. Sensitive people.” The vulgarity of some lyrics and stage banter occasionally limits the venues the band can play. “We got banned from the Comedy Attic,” Clayton said. “They told us we were too vulgar to play there again.”Potty Mouth has performed at Rhino’s Youth Center, Amused and various house parties.Unlike some punk rock groups, Potty Mouth focuses little on political messages and more upon musicianship, band camaraderie and having a good time, Clayton said.“We are pretty particular about our sound,” Hovis-Tedrow said. “We see things kind of differently.”Clayton said he agreed the band takes an unconventional approach to music. “Punk rockers are very proud people,” Clayton said. “The thing is, anyone can be in a punk rock band and anyone can play she-left-me-on-our-anniversary-type country music, but we are something different.”
(02/10/14 3:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Symbols and colors representing world culture decorated “The Power of Pattern,” a backdrop collage recently hung in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival.Commemorating one of Bloomington’s major festivals, the Lotus Festival celebratory collage was a collaborative community effort. Girls Inc., elementary schools, professionals from IU Health and women in recovery at Amethyst House were among the contributors. “It was really a representation of the community fabric of Bloomington,” said Loraine Martin, outreach director of Lotus Education and Arts Foundation.The 770 square-foot cloth backdrop is a collage of symbols and colors that flow from panel to panel. The artwork was a collaborative effort, said LuAnne Holladay, communications coordinator for the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation. “It was a great community source project,” Martin said.“It was the help of many hands. We had over 450 submissions.”Martin said symbol submissions were sent in from all across the community.The backdrop consists of seven canvas panels, each about five feet wide and 22 feet long, Holladay said.“We are presenting six of the seven in City Hall,” Holladay said. “They are so tall we have to drape them over the highest beams.”The symbols within the backdrop were meant to represent the diverse and creative atmosphere in the community, which inspires and fuels the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation, Holladay said.People were asked to send in a version of the lotus flower, she said. Other symbol requests included an interpretation of a symbol iconic to any culture, either local or foreign.There are multiple symbols represented on the backdrop, including roosters, bicycles, trees and turtles. Once accepted, the symbols were printed using a thin vinyl. The vinyl was made into the shape of the design and glued to blocks of recycled Styrofoam, which gave the designs a tangible form by which they could be applied to the 22-foot strips of canvas. A thick acrylic paint called gesso was then rolled onto the blocks so they could be pressed onto the final product. The design team used a room at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures to experiment with the project.Gail Hale’s home studio was also vital to the creation of the backdrop, Martin said.Hale supplied the space necessary to make the piece of art, and her husband helped make a table long enough to work on the 22-foot panels, Martin said.“It was a nine-month process, but totally a great way to celebrate 20 years,” she said.The final product of this nine-month task may be large, but it is also mobile, Martin said.“We basically roll up these seven panels and can fit them in a little Subaru,” Martin said. “So it is something we can utilize again and again.”The Power of Pattern backdrop will be on display from Feb. 7 through 28 in the Showers Building of City Hall.In addition to the artwork, some of the tools used to make it will be displayed near the backdrop at City Hall.Following that exhibition, the backdrop will be lowered and exhibited to about 1,500 elementary school students at Binford Elementary School. It will also likely be used for the Lotus Festival next year, Holladay said.One of the greatest payoffs for the design team, she said, was the response from those involved in creating the art.“People could submit an idea, and nine months later they are sitting in the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, and they look up at the backdrop, and they see one of their symbols up there on the stage, behind these incredible musicians from all over the world,” she said. “They know they were part of making this big work of art.”
(01/26/14 10:00pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bright red strips of paper, ink and brushes were scattered on the multiple tables arranged in Cedar Hall at Union Street Center.The Chinese Calligraphy Club’s callout meeting on Friday taught the basic techniques of the ancient art.Senior Seraph Zhang demonstrated the proper way to hold a calligraphy brush.Zhang held the brush vertically between the middle and ring fingers, not too far above where the bristles point down. The thumb and index fingers pinch gently above the other two fingers, and the pinky joins the ring finger.“Think of holding an egg between your hand and the brush,” Zhang said.Workshops for the club will take place every Friday. They are open to students and community members with an interest in learning Chinese calligraphy. This semester, workshops will focus on the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar. These include Chinese chess, also called “qi,” lute playing, ink painting and calligraphy.Junior Lucia Zhu, the club’s former president, said the club is a supplement to some students’ studies.“A lot of students are majoring in Chinese or Asian culture, and then they come here to learn how to write Chinese characters,” Zhu said. “Sometimes, we can teach them about culture or Chinese traditions.”At the callout meeting, participants made chun lian decorations.A temporary adornment, chun lian is poetry couplets written in Chinese calligraphy on strips of red paper.The poems generally have a theme of good tidings for spring, and the red paper represents festivity. Chun lian is most commonly associated with the Chinese Spring Festival and New Year. The calligraphy is hung on each side of a doorway. A final strip, smaller than the other two, summarizes the poem and is hung above the doorway. Recurrent characters displayed on the chun lian included the symbols for “happiness,” “fulfillment” and the year of the horse.Junior Dani Nie, the club’s current president, said practicing calligraphy is centering.“Personally, calligraphy is like meditation because of how much I focus on my hand,” Nie said. In order to excel in the art of calligraphy, Nie said students need to practice at home.Club mentors teach basic and advanced calligraphy techniques.Although the practice of Chinese calligraphy can be difficult, Zhu said the club maintains a fun environment that is still conducive to learning.A teacher will often create a character in which the students must try their best to replicate. Generally, the teacher’s representation is presented in red ink for students to trace.Learning the art involves rigorous practice, which eventually progresses into individual expression.The objective of the art is to creatively and legibly reproduce Chinese characters with the use of a brush pen, ink, inkstone and paper. Ideally, students with little time on their hands can pick up the basics of the art. The club also provides a forum for exhibition and participates in Bloomington art events, such as the Apoem Festival and the Lotus Blossom Bazaar. Members meet with local calligraphers that are not necessarily affiliated with IU and exhibit their works for children in grade school.The club is financed largely through art exhibitions and competitions it enters.Zhang said the club is a great means for alleviating stress. “I feel very peaceful when practicing,” Zhang said. “It calms me down.”