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(11/08/01 5:22am)
As officials at The Indianapolis Star formulate a response to Monday's court ruling that IU does not have to release documents related to the firing of former basketball coach Bob Knight, the judge who ruled in favor of the University expects an appeal. \nMorgan County Special Judge Jane Spencer Craney would not comment on her written opinion Wednesday because of the likelihood of its review.\nStar Executive Editor Terry Eberle is consulting with the paper's lawyer, Kevin Betz, as to its next move.\n"We are carefully looking at what the judge said in her ruling, but we have not as of yet made a decision on our next course of action," Eberle said.\nThe Star has petitioned IU since May 2000 for public disclosure of records relating to the investigation surrounding Knight's termination. In Craney's decision granting IU summary judgment, she asserted that while state code requires results of a "final personnel disciplinary action" to be publicly announced, the investigation process is not legally bound for disclosure.\nCraney's ruling Monday contradicts an April 1994 decision by Clay Circuit Court Judge Ernest Yelton in which Yelton, a special judge, forced the Vigo County School Corporation to release all the personnel files of a reassigned employee.\nThe issue, Yelton said, stemmed from Linda Lidster's reassignment within Honey Creek Junior High School, Terre Haute, Ind. Lidster was removed as principal after an investigation into various allegations received by Superintendent Charles Clark in December of 1992. She was reassigned as a school counselor in April 1993 after negotiations.\nCitizens later sued the school corporation saying the reassignment was the result of a disciplinary action, and therefore public record. \nYelton agreed.\n"… If the files contain information concerning disciplinary actions in which final action has been taken and resulted in the employee being disciplined," Yelton wrote in his opinion, "then, release is mandatory upon request."\nBecause of the nature of Lidster's reassignment, all public records surrounding the situation, including the investigation, should be publicized, Yelton said.\n"My ruling was, as the law existed then, that once a government entity actually disciplines an individual, the records surrounding the disciplinary action were public records," Yelton said. "I had ruled that Miss Lidster was disciplined and therefore her records should be public."\nYelton said he knew of the case involving The Indianapolis Star but would not comment on it. \nBecause Yelton's opinion is unofficial, it did not bind Craney's decision Monday, Craney said. \n"Unless it comes from the Indiana Court of Appeals or the Indiana State Supreme Court, it is not an official opinion of the court," Craney said.\nCraney would not speak about the case because she expects the decision to be appealed.\nIU trustees John Walda and Fred Eichhorn conducted the May 2000 investigation and released their findings in summary form, but the University has refused access to notes pertaining to the investigation.\nThe Star sought public disclosure of two categories of records: the first concerning the "Reed Investigatory Documents" stemming from allegations made by former men's basketball player Neil Reed and the other created in response to an IU Police Department investigation into "alleged criminal conduct" by Knight in September 2000. The first formal request was filed in May 2000.\nAccording to Craney's decision, over the course of the following year The Star made "multiple requests" for documents regarding the former coach. The University responded by releasing more than 40 such materials. Yet actual materials concerning the investigation were still kept under wraps, according to The Star's lawsuit.\nIndiana's Access to Public Records Act favors disclosure of public records upon request and should be "liberally construed in favor of disclosure," per state law.\nThe Star's original complaint claimed "IU waived its APRA exemptions when it publicly disclosed significant portions of the 'investigatory findings' through its dissemination of IU's 'Summary Report of the Trustee Review Regarding Neil Reed Allegations Concerning The Conduct of Coach Bob Knight' and made subsequent public statements about these 'investigatory proceedings.'"\nTo waive ARPA exemptions, Craney held, IU must have either selectively disclosed certain parts of the investigation or disclosed parts of the proceedings to selected parties. Craney's formal opinion asserts that IU was guilty of neither and thus never waived its exemption rights. \nRather, because the Reed Investigatory Documents contain expressions of opinion and have some "speculative materials," they are not subject to public disclosure to protect confidentiality of all parties involved. Citing state law, Craney further asserted IU was allowed "the discretion to disclose or not to disclose" the IU Police Department documents.\nStephen Key, counsel for governmental affairs for the Hoosier State Press Association, said the "logical" way to interpret the statute would be to make all personnel files open to the public. Because Knight's termination constitutes a disciplinary action, Key believes the records surrounding the investigation into his conduct should be kept open.\nUniversity counsel Dorothy Frapwell indicated the University would not respond to a potential appeal until formal motions are filed by the plaintiffs. \nCampus Editor Aaron Sharockman contributed to this story.
(10/25/01 6:25am)
Chance inevitably finds Michelle Branch. \nShe got her first guitar by chance, a castoff gift from an uncle. When he discovered the old remnant lying in a closet, he proffered it to his niece under one condition: a diligent commitment to learning to play. She did -- in 14 days. \nShe credits that same sort of providence with dropping her demo tape in former BMG Music vice president Danny Strick's lap. A family friend and real estate agent in Branch's hometown of Sedona, Ariz. met producer Rick Neigher, Strick's associate, while giving a condominium tour. Only 15 at the time and still without a driver's license, Branch commandeered her neighbor's golf cart and drove to the tour's site. A month later she was producing and distributing an independent album and touring the West Coast with teen pop group Hanson. And a few months after that, Strick begged her to sign with Maverick Records. \nSpeaking on the phone from a tour stop in Las Vegas, a certain adolescent tinge still colors Branch's inflection. After all, the 18-year-old just completed her final year of home-schooling.\nBut her star is rising, evidenced through increased radio airplay of her first hit mainstream single, "Everywhere." She just completed a tour opening for rock and alternative band Lifehouse, and this week, she'll hit the Bluebird with another Maverick Records artist, Jude. There's even an Internet campaign launched to get Branch's videos airtime on MTV's Total Request Live. \nYet as the first whirlwind year of her professional career comes to a close, Branch, the daughter of a restaurant manager and retired plumbing contractor, seems remarkably unaffected. \n"It's definitely surreal, but I've always wanted to do this my whole life," Branch says. "I always imagined being on tour. Once it actually happened, it really didn't surprise that much. It was like normal stuff."\nBut she has come to realize that being on the road isn't quite the lush life she expected as an aspiring songstress playing three-chord rifts on her uncle's castoff six-string. \n"It's not as glam as lot of people think," Branch says. "They don't know how hard it is -- how expensive touring can be. I thought I'd be staying at the nicest hotels, with this huge bus and playing great venues. But it's funny. This is like the 'Holiday Inn tour.'"\nYet life on the road can prove lonely, although Branch's best friend and bandmates accompany her on every leg. Mere days ago, packing her tour bus to round out the Lifehouse tour and prepare for her stint with Jude, Branch broke down in tears. Away from home since January, a yearning for home simply "overwhelmed" her. \n"When you're doing what I'm doing everyone thinks you're so huge, and no one even knows how lonely bus tours can be," Branch says. "You play a show for hundreds of people, but then you go home alone."\nShe conveys that tedious solitude in her favorite single on The Spirit Room with "All You Wanted."\nBut despite her sometimes lonely lifestyle, her enthusiasm for her music is in no way compromised or unrecognized. Her unique blend of pop and rock vocals have earned her rave reviews with industry executives and critics alike. Her edgy blend of acoustically-driven rhythm and melodic descants belie her age; in fact, a few venue operators have denied her show dates because she's too young. And though a few critics still try to confine her music to the teen-pop realm, Branch remains unshaken. \n"I'm definitely a songwriter before a musician," Branch says. "I remember being so excited to learn to play the guitar and locking myself in my room to learn three or four chords."\nAnd although she never intended to be known as the quintessential "girl with a guitar," Branch claims she'd rather adopt that mantra than the pre-packaged bubblegum pop icon status of Britney Spears or Mandy Moore -- with whom, in fact, Entertainment Weekly reviewers have drawn comparisons. \nBranch handles criticism well. She's aware of her talents and her limits; studying voice as a child at local universities, she often contended with peers, teachers and aspiring musicians who told her she "just couldn't make it." They encouraged her to have a backup plan. They told her to finish public school. Yet Branch had an agenda of her own. \nHer music has been classified as typical Top 40 fare, gaining airplay on B97 and other pop and rock stations, but Branch refuses to lock herself into one genre.\n"I'll definitely let whoever pick up pick it up," Branch says. "Music is an opinion, and I want whoever likes it and wants to play it to do that."\nBecause she writes her own material, the course of her album was unchartered -- it "evolved," she says. Collaborating with producer John Shanks, Branch allowed the "songs to become themselves." She doesn't want to stick with one songwriting and producing formula "just because it works." Rather, she says, she wants each song to bring something different to the record. \nThe fan support, she says, speaks for itself.\nSenior Erin Arkin got hooked on Branch's music after a friend loaned her a copy of The Spirit Room. She listened to it once -- straight through -- and then got online and printed out the lyrics for the entire disc.\nFor Arkin, Branch's direct writing style makes every track uniquely interesting.\n"I spent some time reading through the lyrics before listening to the album agai, and I just knew which songs would be my favorite because of what they say," Arkin says. "I can relate to her music because the emotions and feelings that are expressed through the lyrics are so heartfelt."\nBranch's next album is currently in the works. She's again coupled with Shanks, working through the early stages of recording and producing, as well as churning out new original material.\nMany young stars have recently taken a hiatus from the spotlight to attend college, but Branch says that's not her bag.\n"I am not a school person," Branch says. "I was always the girl who got in trouble. I had the worst grades; I was always ditching class to go to the theater and music concerts."\nThe idea of school frustrated her, she claims. That impatience mounted her sophomore year, as teachers and peers encouraged her to stay in school in case songwriting didn't pan out.\n"I didn't want to allow that," Branch says. "That would have been leaving myself room to fail, and I didn't want that to be an option."\nShe ended up leaving her public school, with the consent of her parents, to take correspondence classes through Brigham Young University. She kept the minimum history, math and science courses to graduate and chose classes such as astronomy and business marketing to maintain her interest by day as she worked on securing small venues to headline by night. \nShe credits her parents with much of her success, deeming them a "huge part" of where her career stands today. They even financed her independent first effort.\n"They had options," she maintains. "They could have done anything with me -- told me no, put me on 'The Mickey Mouse Club' or whatever. But instead, they really taught me there's no reason why you can't do what you love for a living."\nShe laughs.\n"And that's where I am. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm still dreaming"
(10/25/01 4:00am)
Chance inevitably finds Michelle Branch. \nShe got her first guitar by chance, a castoff gift from an uncle. When he discovered the old remnant lying in a closet, he proffered it to his niece under one condition: a diligent commitment to learning to play. She did -- in 14 days. \nShe credits that same sort of providence with dropping her demo tape in former BMG Music vice president Danny Strick's lap. A family friend and real estate agent in Branch's hometown of Sedona, Ariz. met producer Rick Neigher, Strick's associate, while giving a condominium tour. Only 15 at the time and still without a driver's license, Branch commandeered her neighbor's golf cart and drove to the tour's site. A month later she was producing and distributing an independent album and touring the West Coast with teen pop group Hanson. And a few months after that, Strick begged her to sign with Maverick Records. \nSpeaking on the phone from a tour stop in Las Vegas, a certain adolescent tinge still colors Branch's inflection. After all, the 18-year-old just completed her final year of home-schooling.\nBut her star is rising, evidenced through increased radio airplay of her first hit mainstream single, "Everywhere." She just completed a tour opening for rock and alternative band Lifehouse, and this week, she'll hit the Bluebird with another Maverick Records artist, Jude. There's even an Internet campaign launched to get Branch's videos airtime on MTV's Total Request Live. \nYet as the first whirlwind year of her professional career comes to a close, Branch, the daughter of a restaurant manager and retired plumbing contractor, seems remarkably unaffected. \n"It's definitely surreal, but I've always wanted to do this my whole life," Branch says. "I always imagined being on tour. Once it actually happened, it really didn't surprise that much. It was like normal stuff."\nBut she has come to realize that being on the road isn't quite the lush life she expected as an aspiring songstress playing three-chord rifts on her uncle's castoff six-string. \n"It's not as glam as lot of people think," Branch says. "They don't know how hard it is -- how expensive touring can be. I thought I'd be staying at the nicest hotels, with this huge bus and playing great venues. But it's funny. This is like the 'Holiday Inn tour.'"\nYet life on the road can prove lonely, although Branch's best friend and bandmates accompany her on every leg. Mere days ago, packing her tour bus to round out the Lifehouse tour and prepare for her stint with Jude, Branch broke down in tears. Away from home since January, a yearning for home simply "overwhelmed" her. \n"When you're doing what I'm doing everyone thinks you're so huge, and no one even knows how lonely bus tours can be," Branch says. "You play a show for hundreds of people, but then you go home alone."\nShe conveys that tedious solitude in her favorite single on The Spirit Room with "All You Wanted."\nBut despite her sometimes lonely lifestyle, her enthusiasm for her music is in no way compromised or unrecognized. Her unique blend of pop and rock vocals have earned her rave reviews with industry executives and critics alike. Her edgy blend of acoustically-driven rhythm and melodic descants belie her age; in fact, a few venue operators have denied her show dates because she's too young. And though a few critics still try to confine her music to the teen-pop realm, Branch remains unshaken. \n"I'm definitely a songwriter before a musician," Branch says. "I remember being so excited to learn to play the guitar and locking myself in my room to learn three or four chords."\nAnd although she never intended to be known as the quintessential "girl with a guitar," Branch claims she'd rather adopt that mantra than the pre-packaged bubblegum pop icon status of Britney Spears or Mandy Moore -- with whom, in fact, Entertainment Weekly reviewers have drawn comparisons. \nBranch handles criticism well. She's aware of her talents and her limits; studying voice as a child at local universities, she often contended with peers, teachers and aspiring musicians who told her she "just couldn't make it." They encouraged her to have a backup plan. They told her to finish public school. Yet Branch had an agenda of her own. \nHer music has been classified as typical Top 40 fare, gaining airplay on B97 and other pop and rock stations, but Branch refuses to lock herself into one genre.\n"I'll definitely let whoever pick up pick it up," Branch says. "Music is an opinion, and I want whoever likes it and wants to play it to do that."\nBecause she writes her own material, the course of her album was unchartered -- it "evolved," she says. Collaborating with producer John Shanks, Branch allowed the "songs to become themselves." She doesn't want to stick with one songwriting and producing formula "just because it works." Rather, she says, she wants each song to bring something different to the record. \nThe fan support, she says, speaks for itself.\nSenior Erin Arkin got hooked on Branch's music after a friend loaned her a copy of The Spirit Room. She listened to it once -- straight through -- and then got online and printed out the lyrics for the entire disc.\nFor Arkin, Branch's direct writing style makes every track uniquely interesting.\n"I spent some time reading through the lyrics before listening to the album agai, and I just knew which songs would be my favorite because of what they say," Arkin says. "I can relate to her music because the emotions and feelings that are expressed through the lyrics are so heartfelt."\nBranch's next album is currently in the works. She's again coupled with Shanks, working through the early stages of recording and producing, as well as churning out new original material.\nMany young stars have recently taken a hiatus from the spotlight to attend college, but Branch says that's not her bag.\n"I am not a school person," Branch says. "I was always the girl who got in trouble. I had the worst grades; I was always ditching class to go to the theater and music concerts."\nThe idea of school frustrated her, she claims. That impatience mounted her sophomore year, as teachers and peers encouraged her to stay in school in case songwriting didn't pan out.\n"I didn't want to allow that," Branch says. "That would have been leaving myself room to fail, and I didn't want that to be an option."\nShe ended up leaving her public school, with the consent of her parents, to take correspondence classes through Brigham Young University. She kept the minimum history, math and science courses to graduate and chose classes such as astronomy and business marketing to maintain her interest by day as she worked on securing small venues to headline by night. \nShe credits her parents with much of her success, deeming them a "huge part" of where her career stands today. They even financed her independent first effort.\n"They had options," she maintains. "They could have done anything with me -- told me no, put me on 'The Mickey Mouse Club' or whatever. But instead, they really taught me there's no reason why you can't do what you love for a living."\nShe laughs.\n"And that's where I am. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm still dreaming"
(10/11/01 4:49am)
Michael McMahon and Luke Hobson spent close to 15 Friday nights last semester fighting.\nThey'd set up their camcorder, take a light reading and duke it out as the film rolled. Between takes, they'd instruct extras on the logistics of starring in a slasher flick. They'd tell them which direction to run, how to scream properly and how to land the perfect right hook.\nAnd even when the IU Police Department intervened, their concern didn't stop the amateur filmmakers from finishing their project, "PICK," a "basic, run-of-the-mill" horror flick that Hobson says no one involved in the project expected to gain any sort of on-campus notoriety.\nHobson, a junior studying telecommunications, and McMahon, a junior studying fine arts, wanted to gain some real hands-on experience working with film and editing. So McMahon brainstormed a bit and turned to high school buddy Joel Finner with a proposition.\n"I had seen some stuff Joel had done in high school, and I realized, 'Man, we've got to do something else,'" McMahon says. "He knew a lot about filmmaking, so he whipped up some ideas and we started working."\nThe group began planning around spring break last year and worked until the end of the school year, sometimes devoting as many as 40 hours a week to production. Actors solicited from the theater department joined the directors on their Friday night marathon sessions in McMahon or Hobson's rooms in Read Center. The first few hours were spent writing and mapping out scenes; following the planning meeting, the group would set out across campus to shoot in the wee hours of Saturday morning. \nThe most common problem? Bloody noses.\n"We had to map out these fighting scenes, and we really didn't know each other that well," Hobson recalls as he casts a sidelong glace at McMahon. "I don't think we realized how weird it would be, hitting each other like that."\nWhen the flick started gaining airtime on WTIU, the guys were a bit taken aback.\n"We really didn't expect anyone to see it but us," Hobson says. "But all of a sudden, it aired on a Friday night and people started calling and randomly e-mailing us about it."\nHe shakes his head.\n"What started out as a good time amongst friends really changed. It was weird."\nThough financial difficulties forced Finner to leave IU, McMahon says he's coming back this fall to start working on their latest endeavor, a yet-unnamed film in the early stages of production.\n"The quality is a lot higher this time around," McMahon says. "We're using a digital camera, and the audio will be better than before."\nAnd while the guys claim the telecommunications department "hasn't been too supportive" and the "crazy looks" they get from passersby while shooting on location on campus "get annoying," they're undaunted.\n"We really do what we could with who and what's around," Hobson says. "The logistics are all us, and a lot of people don't understand. But what we're doing is productive, and we enjoy it."\nIU alumnus Jeremy Putnam claims the style of his work can't really be classified -- "not anything that you would find in a filmmaking book anyway."\nHe begins with the script, which he believes to be the crux of the entire project. He then chooses locations and begins casting, often picking certain parts for selected actors and writing in parts as the script progresses. There's no real rhyme or reason to his shooting sequence, he says he just tries to keep on schedule.\n"I just figure out what the story is really about and try to tell the story as effectively as I can," Putnam says. "I shoot in whatever sequence is most beneficial to time constraints."\nHe deems editing the most difficult stage in the entire process. Putnam works with digital video, allowing him to edit everything on his own computer and cutting costs. Though he plans to work with film on later projects, video -- his current medium of choice -- is cheaper to use. \nPutnam has also has encountered a certain dubiousness from peers and adults when they discover he's into film, yet he meets criticism with an unjaded eye.\n"When I tell people I'm making a film, most are very skeptical," Putnam says. "But once you talk to them and make them understand what you're trying to do, they end up asking for a part."\nMichael White, director of Bloomington Community Access Television Services, has worked with independent films since his junior high days and says technological developments have transformed the genre. \nAs an Indianapolis high school student, White used silent eight millimeter film to record his projects. If he was lucky, he managed to dub sound on the recording somehow to "actually get something playable."\nIn the mid-1970s, super-8 film use became more widespread, allowing filmmakers to utilize magnetic sound tracks. Shortly thereafter, reel-to-reel video exploded onto the scene and a tremendous number of small films began cropping up on the indie movie scene.\nCiting a "frustrating experience" with the IU Telecommunications Department as an impetus for him to enable young filmmakers to affordably produce creative work, White established CATS through the Monroe County Public Library. The program enables students to gain hands-on experience with digital recording and editing equipment free of charge. All that's needed is a library card and proof of residence.\nThroughout his tenure at CATS, White has seen video footage running the gamut from historical documentaries to drama to the same sort of slasher films McMahon and Hobson cut their teeth on. He's seen a series on Wonder Woman and documentaries on college graduates breaking into the real world. And he credits CATS with getting that work off the ground.\n"Students don't realize they can make their own independent films for virtually no fee," White says. "With CATS, they can submit a proposal, wait a few days, and get out there and start working"
(10/11/01 4:00am)
Michael McMahon and Luke Hobson spent close to 15 Friday nights last semester fighting.\nThey'd set up their camcorder, take a light reading and duke it out as the film rolled. Between takes, they'd instruct extras on the logistics of starring in a slasher flick. They'd tell them which direction to run, how to scream properly and how to land the perfect right hook.\nAnd even when the IU Police Department intervened, their concern didn't stop the amateur filmmakers from finishing their project, "PICK," a "basic, run-of-the-mill" horror flick that Hobson says no one involved in the project expected to gain any sort of on-campus notoriety.\nHobson, a junior studying telecommunications, and McMahon, a junior studying fine arts, wanted to gain some real hands-on experience working with film and editing. So McMahon brainstormed a bit and turned to high school buddy Joel Finner with a proposition.\n"I had seen some stuff Joel had done in high school, and I realized, 'Man, we've got to do something else,'" McMahon says. "He knew a lot about filmmaking, so he whipped up some ideas and we started working."\nThe group began planning around spring break last year and worked until the end of the school year, sometimes devoting as many as 40 hours a week to production. Actors solicited from the theater department joined the directors on their Friday night marathon sessions in McMahon or Hobson's rooms in Read Center. The first few hours were spent writing and mapping out scenes; following the planning meeting, the group would set out across campus to shoot in the wee hours of Saturday morning. \nThe most common problem? Bloody noses.\n"We had to map out these fighting scenes, and we really didn't know each other that well," Hobson recalls as he casts a sidelong glace at McMahon. "I don't think we realized how weird it would be, hitting each other like that."\nWhen the flick started gaining airtime on WTIU, the guys were a bit taken aback.\n"We really didn't expect anyone to see it but us," Hobson says. "But all of a sudden, it aired on a Friday night and people started calling and randomly e-mailing us about it."\nHe shakes his head.\n"What started out as a good time amongst friends really changed. It was weird."\nThough financial difficulties forced Finner to leave IU, McMahon says he's coming back this fall to start working on their latest endeavor, a yet-unnamed film in the early stages of production.\n"The quality is a lot higher this time around," McMahon says. "We're using a digital camera, and the audio will be better than before."\nAnd while the guys claim the telecommunications department "hasn't been too supportive" and the "crazy looks" they get from passersby while shooting on location on campus "get annoying," they're undaunted.\n"We really do what we could with who and what's around," Hobson says. "The logistics are all us, and a lot of people don't understand. But what we're doing is productive, and we enjoy it."\nIU alumnus Jeremy Putnam claims the style of his work can't really be classified -- "not anything that you would find in a filmmaking book anyway."\nHe begins with the script, which he believes to be the crux of the entire project. He then chooses locations and begins casting, often picking certain parts for selected actors and writing in parts as the script progresses. There's no real rhyme or reason to his shooting sequence, he says he just tries to keep on schedule.\n"I just figure out what the story is really about and try to tell the story as effectively as I can," Putnam says. "I shoot in whatever sequence is most beneficial to time constraints."\nHe deems editing the most difficult stage in the entire process. Putnam works with digital video, allowing him to edit everything on his own computer and cutting costs. Though he plans to work with film on later projects, video -- his current medium of choice -- is cheaper to use. \nPutnam has also has encountered a certain dubiousness from peers and adults when they discover he's into film, yet he meets criticism with an unjaded eye.\n"When I tell people I'm making a film, most are very skeptical," Putnam says. "But once you talk to them and make them understand what you're trying to do, they end up asking for a part."\nMichael White, director of Bloomington Community Access Television Services, has worked with independent films since his junior high days and says technological developments have transformed the genre. \nAs an Indianapolis high school student, White used silent eight millimeter film to record his projects. If he was lucky, he managed to dub sound on the recording somehow to "actually get something playable."\nIn the mid-1970s, super-8 film use became more widespread, allowing filmmakers to utilize magnetic sound tracks. Shortly thereafter, reel-to-reel video exploded onto the scene and a tremendous number of small films began cropping up on the indie movie scene.\nCiting a "frustrating experience" with the IU Telecommunications Department as an impetus for him to enable young filmmakers to affordably produce creative work, White established CATS through the Monroe County Public Library. The program enables students to gain hands-on experience with digital recording and editing equipment free of charge. All that's needed is a library card and proof of residence.\nThroughout his tenure at CATS, White has seen video footage running the gamut from historical documentaries to drama to the same sort of slasher films McMahon and Hobson cut their teeth on. He's seen a series on Wonder Woman and documentaries on college graduates breaking into the real world. And he credits CATS with getting that work off the ground.\n"Students don't realize they can make their own independent films for virtually no fee," White says. "With CATS, they can submit a proposal, wait a few days, and get out there and start working"
(10/04/01 4:50am)
When singer-songwriter Aaron Persinger was a second-grader, he told the kids on his school bus one morning to "quit all that macho shit and learn to play," a throwback to a John Mellencamp song he'd heard his parents playing.\nIt was the first time the 7-year-old had gotten in trouble -- but it was worth it.\nVisit Persinger in his tiny hometown of Brownstown, Ind., and he'll give you a tour. \nHe'll take you down the main drag and through town, but he won't stop at his favorite diner. \nInstead, he'll continue 10 miles up the road to Seymour, and show you where Mellencamp's "Wild Night" video was shot.\nPersinger will take you inside the Southern Indiana Center for the Arts, which Mellencamp rents to the nonprofit arts organization for $1 per year.\nAnd he'll show you where he studied guitar with several Mellencamp bandmates before retreating to his childhood farm.\nIn fact, as he reflects on his 26 years, he says John Mellencamp has "just always been there."\nThis weekend, Persinger will join other Mellencamp faithfuls to pay tribute to the Seymour native and folk music demigod in the first annual Mellenbash, sponsored by Budweiser, Clarion Music and Farm Aid.\nThe festival is the Bloomington complement to Seymour's Mellenfest. It's usually an annual event, but this year, Mellencamp is touring, throwing a hitch in the routine. \nAnd because Mellencamp performed in Farm Aid last weekend, Mellenfest organizers found it impossible to plan the event. \nEnter local band No Net and organizer Kevin Plummer. Last spring, Plummer was hanging out with Mellencamp keyboardist Moe Z and bassist Toby Myers, who now perform in No Net, at Myers' house outside Nashville, Ind. They started talking about Mellencamp, and the musicians realized the singer's 50th birthday was coming up in October. \nThey wanted to pay tribute to the man that has so directly influenced their music for years, Plummer says, so they decided to put together a "local get together" joining a few Bloomington-area acts for some Mellencamp covers. Soon "some" became 21 in number.\nSeveral bands included in the lineup have recorded at Echo Park Studios in Bloomington, which represents Mellencamp and his band. Some performers have connections to Mellencamp; some have partied with him and a few say they know him well, having played with him for decades on the road.\nBut all recognize he "only turns 50 once in his lifetime," Plummer says. They're prepped to kick back for some informal jam sessions in Bloomington, and each act has chosen a Mellencamp number to cover.\nNashville act The Early Evening has chosen "Rain on the Scarecrow," one of Mellencamp's numbers he played at last weekend's Farm Aid benefit.\nGuitarist/vocalist George Daeger says he "knows all about growing up in a small farming community," and he's surprised another band didn't get to the song first.\n"We just wanted to pick one that meant something to us, not necessarily a radio hit, but good song,"\nDaeger says. "This will be fun to do for us."\nHailing from North Vernon, Ind., Daeger was faced with a barrage of Mellencamp hits "every time I turned on the radio," he says. The Early Evening's music bears much resemblance to the music he listened to as a child -- including the Beatles and Beach Boys albums shelved away in his mother's record collection, and later, Led Zeppelin and the Doors -- but it's the lesser-known tunes that appeal most to him.\nThe band, consisting of Daeger on vocals and acoustic guitar, Dave Daeger on vocals and lead guitar, Matt Sutphin on bass, Patrick Riddle on keyboards and Jonathan Surratt on drums, agrees that Mellencamp was engrained in their childhood, a regular staple on local radio frequencies.\nMellencamp's music "represents the Midwest," Daeger says -- and that's "pretty much what we are."\nDaeger describes the band's style as "rootsy" and "organic" -- strongly reminiscent of Mellencamp's music. They rely heavily on vocals and acoustic instruments and tout Mellencamp's lyrical style as a standard they strive to emulate.\n"His music's got great lyrics," Daeger says. "It shows us if a guy from a small town can just work really hard and go after what he wants, he can succeed."\nInspired by Mellencamp's small-town success story, the band moved to Nashville, Tenn. Daeger's brother Tim currently attends Belmont University in Nashville, so booking usually revolves around his academic schedule, but band members are undaunted.\nThey've slowly built their fan base, and their current studio effort is a far cry from playing on downtown Nashville streetcorners to enlist support. They're currently touring the Midwest and South, drumming up support and bringing their "wild and crazy" live show to intimate venues throughout the region.\nThe night before Mellenbash, The Early Evening will play a Knoxville venue -- but they say they'll be ready.\n"Bloomington will be fun, and anyone that takes time out to listen will enjoy us," he says. "And it'll be good to play so close to John's home."\nOrganizers say Bloomington has needed a Mellencamp event for years. Mellencamp currently owns property on Lake Monroe, a few miles outside town, and has been known to stroll into Nick's English Hut on occasion to strum a few bars on a battered guitar. \n"Every year, Mellenfest is in Seymour," Plummer says. "But just because 'Small Town' is written about Seymour doesn't mean that's where John lives anymore. He pays taxes in Bloomington, and we need to pay tribute to merchants in Bloomington as well."\nThe C4 band, featuring guitar guru Michael Angelo, will play Saturday on the event's main stage. The band, composed of Angelo, Dan Lenegar, Dan Buckley and John Mrozek, began playing in the July 2000 Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisc.\nPerforming as guests of Kenny Wayne Shepherd on the Summerfest main stage, Angelo and Buckley discovered an instant kinship and, enlisting drummer Mrozek to keep the beat, began collaborating on Angelo's new solo CD shortly thereafter.\n"What started out as a project turned into a band," Angelo says, and since that recording, the C4 band has expanded considerably, headlining the House of Blues and the Hard Rock Cafe. \nThey term themselves the "four generals," with each musician putting in equal manpower recording and promoting the act.\nAnd on Saturday, C4 will do what they do best -- perform live. \n"We do not take the audience for granted," Angelo says. "I was performing in the country of Turkey a few years ago and a good friend of mine there told me something that in my opinion was profound -- he said that you build your fan base one fan at a time."\nEvent sponsors are giving away a Tradition Michael Angelo signature series guitar signed by Mellencamp and Angelo. Originally, all proceeds from concert giveaways were designated for Farm Aid, which benefits family farmers in the Midwest, and the Southern Indiana Center of the Arts in Seymour, both favorite charities of Mellencamp. A portion of those funds will now benefit the New York chapter of the American Red Cross to aid disaster relief.
(10/04/01 4:00am)
When singer-songwriter Aaron Persinger was a second-grader, he told the kids on his school bus one morning to "quit all that macho shit and learn to play," a throwback to a John Mellencamp song he'd heard his parents playing.\nIt was the first time the 7-year-old had gotten in trouble -- but it was worth it.\nVisit Persinger in his tiny hometown of Brownstown, Ind., and he'll give you a tour. \nHe'll take you down the main drag and through town, but he won't stop at his favorite diner. \nInstead, he'll continue 10 miles up the road to Seymour, and show you where Mellencamp's "Wild Night" video was shot.\nPersinger will take you inside the Southern Indiana Center for the Arts, which Mellencamp rents to the nonprofit arts organization for $1 per year.\nAnd he'll show you where he studied guitar with several Mellencamp bandmates before retreating to his childhood farm.\nIn fact, as he reflects on his 26 years, he says John Mellencamp has "just always been there."\nThis weekend, Persinger will join other Mellencamp faithfuls to pay tribute to the Seymour native and folk music demigod in the first annual Mellenbash, sponsored by Budweiser, Clarion Music and Farm Aid.\nThe festival is the Bloomington complement to Seymour's Mellenfest. It's usually an annual event, but this year, Mellencamp is touring, throwing a hitch in the routine. \nAnd because Mellencamp performed in Farm Aid last weekend, Mellenfest organizers found it impossible to plan the event. \nEnter local band No Net and organizer Kevin Plummer. Last spring, Plummer was hanging out with Mellencamp keyboardist Moe Z and bassist Toby Myers, who now perform in No Net, at Myers' house outside Nashville, Ind. They started talking about Mellencamp, and the musicians realized the singer's 50th birthday was coming up in October. \nThey wanted to pay tribute to the man that has so directly influenced their music for years, Plummer says, so they decided to put together a "local get together" joining a few Bloomington-area acts for some Mellencamp covers. Soon "some" became 21 in number.\nSeveral bands included in the lineup have recorded at Echo Park Studios in Bloomington, which represents Mellencamp and his band. Some performers have connections to Mellencamp; some have partied with him and a few say they know him well, having played with him for decades on the road.\nBut all recognize he "only turns 50 once in his lifetime," Plummer says. They're prepped to kick back for some informal jam sessions in Bloomington, and each act has chosen a Mellencamp number to cover.\nNashville act The Early Evening has chosen "Rain on the Scarecrow," one of Mellencamp's numbers he played at last weekend's Farm Aid benefit.\nGuitarist/vocalist George Daeger says he "knows all about growing up in a small farming community," and he's surprised another band didn't get to the song first.\n"We just wanted to pick one that meant something to us, not necessarily a radio hit, but good song,"\nDaeger says. "This will be fun to do for us."\nHailing from North Vernon, Ind., Daeger was faced with a barrage of Mellencamp hits "every time I turned on the radio," he says. The Early Evening's music bears much resemblance to the music he listened to as a child -- including the Beatles and Beach Boys albums shelved away in his mother's record collection, and later, Led Zeppelin and the Doors -- but it's the lesser-known tunes that appeal most to him.\nThe band, consisting of Daeger on vocals and acoustic guitar, Dave Daeger on vocals and lead guitar, Matt Sutphin on bass, Patrick Riddle on keyboards and Jonathan Surratt on drums, agrees that Mellencamp was engrained in their childhood, a regular staple on local radio frequencies.\nMellencamp's music "represents the Midwest," Daeger says -- and that's "pretty much what we are."\nDaeger describes the band's style as "rootsy" and "organic" -- strongly reminiscent of Mellencamp's music. They rely heavily on vocals and acoustic instruments and tout Mellencamp's lyrical style as a standard they strive to emulate.\n"His music's got great lyrics," Daeger says. "It shows us if a guy from a small town can just work really hard and go after what he wants, he can succeed."\nInspired by Mellencamp's small-town success story, the band moved to Nashville, Tenn. Daeger's brother Tim currently attends Belmont University in Nashville, so booking usually revolves around his academic schedule, but band members are undaunted.\nThey've slowly built their fan base, and their current studio effort is a far cry from playing on downtown Nashville streetcorners to enlist support. They're currently touring the Midwest and South, drumming up support and bringing their "wild and crazy" live show to intimate venues throughout the region.\nThe night before Mellenbash, The Early Evening will play a Knoxville venue -- but they say they'll be ready.\n"Bloomington will be fun, and anyone that takes time out to listen will enjoy us," he says. "And it'll be good to play so close to John's home."\nOrganizers say Bloomington has needed a Mellencamp event for years. Mellencamp currently owns property on Lake Monroe, a few miles outside town, and has been known to stroll into Nick's English Hut on occasion to strum a few bars on a battered guitar. \n"Every year, Mellenfest is in Seymour," Plummer says. "But just because 'Small Town' is written about Seymour doesn't mean that's where John lives anymore. He pays taxes in Bloomington, and we need to pay tribute to merchants in Bloomington as well."\nThe C4 band, featuring guitar guru Michael Angelo, will play Saturday on the event's main stage. The band, composed of Angelo, Dan Lenegar, Dan Buckley and John Mrozek, began playing in the July 2000 Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisc.\nPerforming as guests of Kenny Wayne Shepherd on the Summerfest main stage, Angelo and Buckley discovered an instant kinship and, enlisting drummer Mrozek to keep the beat, began collaborating on Angelo's new solo CD shortly thereafter.\n"What started out as a project turned into a band," Angelo says, and since that recording, the C4 band has expanded considerably, headlining the House of Blues and the Hard Rock Cafe. \nThey term themselves the "four generals," with each musician putting in equal manpower recording and promoting the act.\nAnd on Saturday, C4 will do what they do best -- perform live. \n"We do not take the audience for granted," Angelo says. "I was performing in the country of Turkey a few years ago and a good friend of mine there told me something that in my opinion was profound -- he said that you build your fan base one fan at a time."\nEvent sponsors are giving away a Tradition Michael Angelo signature series guitar signed by Mellencamp and Angelo. Originally, all proceeds from concert giveaways were designated for Farm Aid, which benefits family farmers in the Midwest, and the Southern Indiana Center of the Arts in Seymour, both favorite charities of Mellencamp. A portion of those funds will now benefit the New York chapter of the American Red Cross to aid disaster relief.
(09/27/01 4:00am)
For many, a stimulating Saturday consists of a trip off campus to Target or Wal-Mart, topped off with dinner at Malibu Grill. \nBut in the seemingly endless bustle of college life, many students overlook the small opportunities for entertainment outside Bloomington -- and many are as little as an hour's drive away.\nIf you're itching to see where the original "rebel without a cause" hung his hat, check out the James Dean Museum in Fairmount, Ind. The residents of the sleepy, rustic town take pride in their hometown hero, and it shows in their meticulous preservation of Dean's personal belongings and memorabilia, housed in an 1890s-era Victorian mansion in downtown Fairmount. \nThe museum is the culmination of more than 25 years spent collecting and cataloguing rare Dean memorabilia. Archivist David Loehr began compiling James Dean relics in 1974. His collection is now the largest in the world.\nThe Adeline Nall Room, dedicated to Dean's high school drama teacher, includes pieces from Dean's film wardrobes, photographs from his adolescence and copies of high school yearbooks. The room features some of Dean's original watercolor artwork.\nThe facility also features a screening room, allowing visitors to glimpse rare footage and screen tests from the early portion of Dean's career.\nLoehr says the museum is committed to preserving the memory of a man who "in the span of three motion pictures, changed the way we saw the world -- and more importantly, ourselves."\nThe museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. \nAnd while you're in Fairmount, stop by Dot's Diner, nestled on 421 First Street near downtown, for what resident Jimmie Recker terms "the best eggs and grits around."\n"We see all kinds of kids stopping through here," Recker says, nibbling a reuben sandwich. "They usually have a university sticker on their back car window, and they're always playing loud music, but we like to see them. Gets kind of boring around here."\nHe motions to his plate of curly fries. \n"But the grub's cheap."\nFor a more formal museum experience, Huntington, Ind. is the home of the Dan Quayle Museum. You've probably never heard of the Dan Quayle Museum. You may even wonder why anyone would commit their life's work to creating and maintaining a gallery devoted to the Indianapolis native who lived in George Sr.'s shadow for four years.\nBut the folks in Huntington take satisfaction in claiming the nation's only vice presidential museum -- and they're open six days a week to prove it.\nThe museum houses two galleries, says Marjorie Hiner, president of the board of directors for the Dan Quayle Commemorative Foundation. The first is dedicated to all vice presidents in U.S. history, containing personal artifacts, political cartoons and newspapers and books from each period in presidential history. The second exhibit is dedicated to Indiana vice presidents and vice presidential nominees. \nTours of the facility can be arranged by calling 219-356-6356 or by e-mail at info@quaylemuseum.org. \nYet if you'd rather relax than learn about former vice presidents, head to the French Lick Resort and Spa for a respite from studying and stress. \nAn hour's drive south from Bloomington (that's only one full-length CD) brings you to French Lick, a former Civil War-era haunt for the wealthy and well-to-do that currently boasts a 470-room hotel, hot springs, two golf courses and a full-service spa. \nThe spa features aromatherapy, exercise classes, facials, massage, pedicures and manicures, mineral baths, seaweed wraps and a full styling salon. \nGroup rates are available by calling 812-936-9822. Reservations can be made online as well at www.frenchlick.com.\nFrench Lick locals also recommend checking out the Wilstem Dude Ranch, located just outside French Lick on US 50 and SR 56, which offers over 30 miles of horseback trails over 1100 acres. \nInviting visitors to "come sit a spell on the front porch and watch the grass grow," the facility features cabin-style overnight accommodations as well as a 10-room main lodge\nOne-hour rides are $15 and 1.5-hour trips are $22 per rider. \nSenior Jordyn Katzman visited the French Lick Spa with her family a few years ago and says it's "not exactly what she expected" for a tiny Midwestern town. A few of her friends have gone as well, she adds, and "absolutely loved it."\nFor Katzman, a trip to the Oliver Winery, followed by a 20-minute drive to the hills of neighboring Brown County, proves a great alternative to longer road trips.\n"It's great to go out to the winery -- it's beautiful out there -- and then go out to Brown County and hike or spelunk," Katzman says.\nFramed by several state parks, the tiny town of Nashville, Ind., lies just 16 miles from Bloomington on Highway 45 East. Boasting "the world's best apple butter," Nashville is home to more than 360 specialty shops and the sort of "down-home" cooking most students don't get hanging around the dorm food-courts.\nWhile finding a parking spot may prove tedious, the view -- especially during the changing of the seasons -- is well worth the headache, according to visitor Charlie Andrews.\nAndrews, a student at the University of Kentucky, visited Nashville last weekend with his girlfriend on his way into Bloomington for the football game. They ended up staying -- and missing kickoff.\n"We spent the day hiking around the national park," Andrews says. "We didn't even know the town existed, but we've spent the entire day here, just walking around and looking at the craft stores. I haven't thought about school or homework all day."\nAngie Carter, a waitress favorite local restaurant Artists Colony, says she expects the town to be "flooded" during the next few weeks.\n"So many IU students come here with friends, family, whatever," she says, balancing a tray of buttered sweet potatoes and pork tenderloin. "And they are amazed. They just didn't know a place like this existed so close to Bloomington."
(09/20/01 4:43am)
While everyone in Bloomington stared dumbfounded at their television sets on Sept. 11, the Lotus Fest performers of Yat-Kha were holed up at an airport in Newfoundland. Stranded with 6,000 other passengers until Monday morning, the musicians traveled to a Chicago area Holiday Inn to await the show that must go on.\nAfter missing a festival appearance in California, Yat-Kha will perform at the Lotus World Arts and Music Festival this week -- the first show of its month-long stateside tour, tour manager Stuart Cohen says. He was in California awaiting the band's arrival and had to drive a van cross country to meet up with the Tuvan throat singers. \n"They're very happy to be in the country," Cohen says, calling from a torrential downpour on a Wyoming interstate. "They seem fine. They're determined to go ahead with things. They were very enthusiastic to be in a hotel room, in peace and quite, especially after their experience in Newfoundland."\nOther scheduled performers haven't been able to meet with the same improvisational travel tactics. But, despite cancellations from Bamboleo (for Visa problems), Kila, Altamira Carrilho, Gangbe Brass Band, Paris Combo, Susana Seivane, Vasen and Fiona Ritchie, executive director Lee Williams promised the Lotus Festival will continue.\n"We're amazed and proud that those groups would take those kind of risks and days and days and days to come here," Williams says. "It wasn't supposed to be like that…but we're in awe that they're going to make it."\nFor five days this week, a certain international flavor is infusing this tiny Midwestern pocket, filling Bloomington streets with the sounds of Dominican merengue, South Indian spirituals and Zimbabwean song. \nSponsored by Smithville Telephone Company, Abodes, The Herald-Times, Union Board and WFHB, the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival will feature artists of international acclaim and stature -- though they might enjoy relatively little exposure in the United States. \nAnd while the typical audience has previously consisted of the 25- to 45-year-old set, founder and director Williams says that doesn't have to be -- and shouldn't be the case this year.\n"That age group is the demographic for world music worldwide," Williams says. "College students usually aren't included in that group."\nHe says he's not sure why young people generally don't support world music, but believes the cost of attending many Lotus events deter students from coming to the concerts. Lotus supporters attribute more expensive ticket prices to the large number of international artists, many of whom college students often don't recognize. When students aren't familiar with top-billing acts on a lineup, they aren't willing to shell out more money to see an "unknown" act, Williams says. \n"Money's important," Williams says. "So if you see a ticket price of $20 and don't recognize any names, you're not likely to come."\nWednesday's kickoff concert, featuring African bluesman Habib Koité and his Malian band Bamada -- a group Williams says "students as well as 30-year-olds will like" -- is designed to alleviate those financial concerns (costing only $5 with a student ID) and drum up student support for Lotus events.\nThe concert, scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre on Kirkwood Avenue, will showcase Koité's guitar virtuousity, which caused The New York Times to deem him "a guitar god" in the United States. \nHis music swings like an easy Cuban groove, yet is tinged with blues influences that are distinctly American. The arrangements are largely acoustic, lacking extraneous adornments -- a throwback to Koité's childhood experience playing the kamele n'goni, a traditional Malian four-stringed instrument.\nKoité terms his rhythmic style "danssa doso," a Brazilian moniker he created.\n"I put these two words together to symbolize the music of all ethnic groups in Mali," Koité says. "I'm curious about all the music in the world, but I make music in Mali. In my country, we have so many beautiful rhythms and melodies -- usually, Malian musicians play only their own ethnic music, but me, I go everywhere."\nWhile the band gets minimal airtime on American radio stations, it has been featured in such mainstream American magazines as Rolling Stone, People and Rhythm Magazine and made its American debut on "Late Night with Dave Letterman". Yet Williams feels many students still haven't heard Koité's music, largely because they've been influenced heavily by local and networked radio stations, Williams says. \n"People find out about artists in very different ways," he says. "There's less opportunity to find out about world music. I think the majority of students would think world music's incredible, but the names are pretty obscure here."\nWilliams encourages students to "get past Indiana Avenue" and into Bloomington. The festival is a community event; IU has not subsidized the project. Williams says he feels many students stick close to their comfort zones, both literally and figuratively. \nWhile Williams acknowledges the difficulty in reaching certain segments of the IU population, especially freshmen, he realizes some students will seek out the cultural breadth Lotus affords.\n"You'll find the students that are naturally going to gravitate to left of center concepts, whether that's politics or cultural events," Williams says. "They'll find us, and they do -- and that's where those few hundred undergraduates will come and think the festival's fantastic."\nWilliams' own zeal for collecting world music spawned the first Lotus Fest eight years ago. He was working for local nightclubs as a booking agent, bringing contemporary and alternative music to popular Bloomington nightspots. But occasionally he'd bring in the sort of music he liked -- strange breeds of rock, pop, blues, jazz, of drums, vocals and rhythm characterizing world music. \nWorld music as a genre didn't really exist before the 1980s, says LuAnne Holladay, administrative director for Lotus. \nThe classification stemmed from a gathering of music business professionals in Europe unsure of how to classify the international releases that really didn't fall under any specific category. \n"Radio stations didn't know what to call them," Williams says. "When you have a group that, for example, mixes hip hop with salsa, that creates a totally different sound. So what do you call that?"\nFrom a "practical marketing" standpoint, Williams says, it's world music -- a name that "doesn't really define what it is -- but it's stuck."\nWilliams says bands often blur the edges within genres, as exemplified by the reggae-infused Indo-Carribean blend offered up by U.S. band Funkadesi. \nThe Chicago-based group is a hodepodge of Jamaican, European-American, Latino, African American and Indian American heritages, mixing vocals, guitars, saxophone, congas and traditional ethnic instruments to produce Indian-inspired funk. \nThe band strives to link ethnic and minority associations within universities with the community at large, as evidenced by several college-town appearances in the Midwest. Its debut full-length CD, Uncut Roots, has earned considerable repute and spin time in Chicago clubs. \nIt also sponsors youth workshops featuring live drumming and sampling, as well as forum discussions about intercultural collaboration and gender issues in the music industry.\n"Bands such as Funkadesi relate to students," Williams says. "Students can identify a cause they're allied with and say, 'Hey, here's a band that speaks to that,' and they can get hooked on that music."\nAllying music with the impetus for social change, Williams says, is a way to market the category of world music to new demographic groups, especially students. \nWhile world music isn't usual top 40 fare, Williams says students are guaranteed to find at least one group of interest headlining the festival.\n"For every one of the 32 featured artists, some students will think they're fantastic," Williams says. "It's just a matter of getting off campus and expanding your thinking."\nAdvance tickets are available at Athena, BloomingFoods, Borders and TD'S CDs and LPs, or by phone from the Lotus Festival office at 336-6599. Visa and MasterCard only are accepted for telephoned orders.
(09/20/01 4:00am)
While everyone in Bloomington stared dumbfounded at their television sets on Sept. 11, the Lotus Fest performers of Yat-Kha were holed up at an airport in Newfoundland. Stranded with 6,000 other passengers until Monday morning, the musicians traveled to a Chicago area Holiday Inn to await the show that must go on.\nAfter missing a festival appearance in California, Yat-Kha will perform at the Lotus World Arts and Music Festival this week -- the first show of its month-long stateside tour, tour manager Stuart Cohen says. He was in California awaiting the band's arrival and had to drive a van cross country to meet up with the Tuvan throat singers. \n"They're very happy to be in the country," Cohen says, calling from a torrential downpour on a Wyoming interstate. "They seem fine. They're determined to go ahead with things. They were very enthusiastic to be in a hotel room, in peace and quite, especially after their experience in Newfoundland."\nOther scheduled performers haven't been able to meet with the same improvisational travel tactics. But, despite cancellations from Bamboleo (for Visa problems), Kila, Altamira Carrilho, Gangbe Brass Band, Paris Combo, Susana Seivane, Vasen and Fiona Ritchie, executive director Lee Williams promised the Lotus Festival will continue.\n"We're amazed and proud that those groups would take those kind of risks and days and days and days to come here," Williams says. "It wasn't supposed to be like that…but we're in awe that they're going to make it."\nFor five days this week, a certain international flavor is infusing this tiny Midwestern pocket, filling Bloomington streets with the sounds of Dominican merengue, South Indian spirituals and Zimbabwean song. \nSponsored by Smithville Telephone Company, Abodes, The Herald-Times, Union Board and WFHB, the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival will feature artists of international acclaim and stature -- though they might enjoy relatively little exposure in the United States. \nAnd while the typical audience has previously consisted of the 25- to 45-year-old set, founder and director Williams says that doesn't have to be -- and shouldn't be the case this year.\n"That age group is the demographic for world music worldwide," Williams says. "College students usually aren't included in that group."\nHe says he's not sure why young people generally don't support world music, but believes the cost of attending many Lotus events deter students from coming to the concerts. Lotus supporters attribute more expensive ticket prices to the large number of international artists, many of whom college students often don't recognize. When students aren't familiar with top-billing acts on a lineup, they aren't willing to shell out more money to see an "unknown" act, Williams says. \n"Money's important," Williams says. "So if you see a ticket price of $20 and don't recognize any names, you're not likely to come."\nWednesday's kickoff concert, featuring African bluesman Habib Koité and his Malian band Bamada -- a group Williams says "students as well as 30-year-olds will like" -- is designed to alleviate those financial concerns (costing only $5 with a student ID) and drum up student support for Lotus events.\nThe concert, scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre on Kirkwood Avenue, will showcase Koité's guitar virtuousity, which caused The New York Times to deem him "a guitar god" in the United States. \nHis music swings like an easy Cuban groove, yet is tinged with blues influences that are distinctly American. The arrangements are largely acoustic, lacking extraneous adornments -- a throwback to Koité's childhood experience playing the kamele n'goni, a traditional Malian four-stringed instrument.\nKoité terms his rhythmic style "danssa doso," a Brazilian moniker he created.\n"I put these two words together to symbolize the music of all ethnic groups in Mali," Koité says. "I'm curious about all the music in the world, but I make music in Mali. In my country, we have so many beautiful rhythms and melodies -- usually, Malian musicians play only their own ethnic music, but me, I go everywhere."\nWhile the band gets minimal airtime on American radio stations, it has been featured in such mainstream American magazines as Rolling Stone, People and Rhythm Magazine and made its American debut on "Late Night with Dave Letterman". Yet Williams feels many students still haven't heard Koité's music, largely because they've been influenced heavily by local and networked radio stations, Williams says. \n"People find out about artists in very different ways," he says. "There's less opportunity to find out about world music. I think the majority of students would think world music's incredible, but the names are pretty obscure here."\nWilliams encourages students to "get past Indiana Avenue" and into Bloomington. The festival is a community event; IU has not subsidized the project. Williams says he feels many students stick close to their comfort zones, both literally and figuratively. \nWhile Williams acknowledges the difficulty in reaching certain segments of the IU population, especially freshmen, he realizes some students will seek out the cultural breadth Lotus affords.\n"You'll find the students that are naturally going to gravitate to left of center concepts, whether that's politics or cultural events," Williams says. "They'll find us, and they do -- and that's where those few hundred undergraduates will come and think the festival's fantastic."\nWilliams' own zeal for collecting world music spawned the first Lotus Fest eight years ago. He was working for local nightclubs as a booking agent, bringing contemporary and alternative music to popular Bloomington nightspots. But occasionally he'd bring in the sort of music he liked -- strange breeds of rock, pop, blues, jazz, of drums, vocals and rhythm characterizing world music. \nWorld music as a genre didn't really exist before the 1980s, says LuAnne Holladay, administrative director for Lotus. \nThe classification stemmed from a gathering of music business professionals in Europe unsure of how to classify the international releases that really didn't fall under any specific category. \n"Radio stations didn't know what to call them," Williams says. "When you have a group that, for example, mixes hip hop with salsa, that creates a totally different sound. So what do you call that?"\nFrom a "practical marketing" standpoint, Williams says, it's world music -- a name that "doesn't really define what it is -- but it's stuck."\nWilliams says bands often blur the edges within genres, as exemplified by the reggae-infused Indo-Carribean blend offered up by U.S. band Funkadesi. \nThe Chicago-based group is a hodepodge of Jamaican, European-American, Latino, African American and Indian American heritages, mixing vocals, guitars, saxophone, congas and traditional ethnic instruments to produce Indian-inspired funk. \nThe band strives to link ethnic and minority associations within universities with the community at large, as evidenced by several college-town appearances in the Midwest. Its debut full-length CD, Uncut Roots, has earned considerable repute and spin time in Chicago clubs. \nIt also sponsors youth workshops featuring live drumming and sampling, as well as forum discussions about intercultural collaboration and gender issues in the music industry.\n"Bands such as Funkadesi relate to students," Williams says. "Students can identify a cause they're allied with and say, 'Hey, here's a band that speaks to that,' and they can get hooked on that music."\nAllying music with the impetus for social change, Williams says, is a way to market the category of world music to new demographic groups, especially students. \nWhile world music isn't usual top 40 fare, Williams says students are guaranteed to find at least one group of interest headlining the festival.\n"For every one of the 32 featured artists, some students will think they're fantastic," Williams says. "It's just a matter of getting off campus and expanding your thinking."\nAdvance tickets are available at Athena, BloomingFoods, Borders and TD'S CDs and LPs, or by phone from the Lotus Festival office at 336-6599. Visa and MasterCard only are accepted for telephoned orders.
(09/13/01 4:00am)
Suze has had a long night.\nShe's been waiting tables at the Waffle House for nearly four hours now, and the night's just starting to pick up. \nShe's doing her own bussing and putting in orders, pausing to help the restaurant's sole cook when she can. She's hoping business will die down so she can take a breather. But the possibilities of such luck are slim. \nA gaggle of well-dressed, polished and hairsprayed young women sits down at a center table. They're ready for their drink order, but Suze hasn't gotten to them yet.\nIncensed, the girls pick of their purses and leave, spouting obscenities in their wake.\n"See," Suze sighs, wiping their table, "that's what you get late at night."\nSuze, who prefers to be called only by her first name, has worked at the Waffle House, 530 N. College Ave., for almost nine months. Working the graveyard shift, she's seen the drunks, the students trying to study and the young couples with small children craving a late-night snack. But whatever state they're in, Suze says she's seen it all.\n"You've got flirting, all kinds of people, socializers, weirdos -- the works," Suze says. "But I wait on all of them, and believe me, you can tell a lot about a person by what they eat."\nTypically regarded as a Sunday morning senior citizen hangout, Waffle House has become increasingly popular among IU students and Bloomington residents alike. Open 24 hours, the restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner at all times, and the most expensive item is just over $7.\n"I love the business," Suze says, "but God, you'd think students would have other things to do late at night -- like sleep -- or at least find somewhere else to go."\nBut IU is a campus that rarely does just that, and it's evident by the carloads emptying into 24-hour eateries, clubs and stores around campus. But few students are aware of some of the more obscure Bloomington late-night locales. \nInspired by the trend of interactive art studios flooding the East and West Coasts, the Latest Glaze, located in Jackson Creek Shopping Center on College Mall Road, allows students, families and couples to choose and paint pieces of pottery. Employees then fire the finished products in a kiln.\nPieces range in price from $4 to $40, owner Bill Benedict says. \nBenedict said he realizes hectic student schedules don't usually permit pottery painting during the week. In response to increasing demand by residence hall floors, greek groups and community families, Benedict created "Midnight Madness," a bi-weekly four-hour late night stint allowing students to pay a flat rate of $8 and play all night.\nThe program's enjoyed tremendous popularity since its inception last year, Benedict said. \n"College students love it," he says. "The concept has been going on, on both coasts for some time, and it's finally hit the Midwest."\nBenedict and wife Mary Jo recently opened a second location on Kirkwood Avenue near the Sample Gates. The new location features more space, different color combinations and pottery choices and a large back room to be used for private parties. \nThe next Midnight Madness will be hosted Sept. 14, beginning at 8 p.m. at the College Mall location. The Kirkwood location will host the next on Sept. 28. \nThe store plans to host the event every week during November and December.\nBenedict advises interested students to preregister for the late night events.\n"It might not be a bad idea to call," Benedict advises. "We can sometimes get as many as 60 people in here wanting to paint."\nThe Kirkwood location is just downstairs from another tried-and-true late night eatery, La Bamba's. \nBoasting "burritos as big as your head," the fast-food Mexican chain stays open "until the bars close." \nIt gleans crowds of all sorts from nearby bars, clubs and residence halls, sending the restaurant's seemingly vast array of employees scurrying around until sometimes 4:30 a.m.\nThe menu is affordable, the service fast and the customers are "hilarious," Bloomington resident Charlie Knoll says. \nKnoll hangs out at People's Park well into the early morning, he says, and often retreats to La Bamba's for replenishment.\n"The food's cheap," he says, munching on Bamba's signature tortilla chips. "I spent four bucks on this spread -- what more could you want?" \nJunior Chris Johnson orders a jumbo burrito and rice and sits near the window overlooking Kirkwood Avenue. He's been everywhere tonight -- driving around with friends to Lake Griffy ("a great place to think," he says), partying at houses and hanging out at local 24-hour diner Cresent Donuts. \nOverlooked by many IU students, Cresent, located at 231 S. Adams, offers donuts as well as traditional breakfast food for cheap prices -- "just right" for Johnson's budget, he says.\nJohnson also recommends local outdoor ski park Paoli Peaks as a good late-night alternative. Located an hour away in Paoli, Ind., the park offers all-night ski events for individuals and groups.\nJohnson and a few of his fraternity brothers spent an evening at Paoli last year.\n"We had a great time," Johnson says. "It was really different skiing in the dark, but it was such a cool way to spend an evening."\nThe facility's Midnight Madness ski sessions, hosted from midnight to 6 a.m., cost $28 per pass and $48 with ski rental. Board rental ups the price to $57. \nFor more late-night fare, try Denny's, located at 2160 N Walnut. The quintessential American greasy spoon, Denny's offers breakfast at any time of day -- and they serve a mean steak.\n"Yes, I'm eating sirloin at 3 a.m.," Bloomington resident Willy Nays says, poking a glob of meat with his fork and squinting. "But that's okay -- this is Denny's. I do that here."\nHe recommends the Scram Slam -- scrambled eggs, home fries, the works. \n"... look around," he says, motioning with a tattooed finger and rolling his eyes. "You get all kinds of people here -- the drunks coming home from the bars, the sorority girls wearing black pants, the good kids trying to study and chugging coffee. I talk to all of them."\nAnd the coffee's decent, even in the wee hours of the morning, 17-year-old Sarah Swiller says. \nSwiller, a nonstudent, comes to Denny's to read Kafka and pore over Dante's Inferno. She says the 99-cents-a-cup coffee is impossible to refuse.\n"I'll come at midnight and stay till 4," Swiller admits. "It's a good atmosphere; I can study here and kind of watch people. And it passes the time."\nNays comes to Denny's every Saturday night after clubbing in Bloomington or Indianapolis. He says the clubs in Bloomington are "decent, especially if you're under 21."\nNays recommends Vertigo, located on Ninth Street between College and Walnut Avenues, for the under-21 set. \nDaniel Duncan, one of Vertigo's managers, says the club negates the traditional "bar" atmosphere and instead focuses on the dancing. \n"Dancing is what a good portion of college students want," he says. "Now that so many nightclubs have emerged they're finally getting it. This kind of atmosphere gives them a chance to do what they love."\nSixteen-year-old Josephine McRobbie says she goes to clubs like Vertigo during the week, because "Bloomington's really boring otherwise."\n"I don't really go bowling or anything like that," McRobbie says, fingering a lock of bright-pink hair and stirring her Waffle House hash browns. "We go to Vertigo and dance, and then we go eat. It's just what we do."\nNightclubs also provide an alternative to greek parties, technically forbidden on the IU campus.\nSenior Kristen Trepina says she used to go to fraternity parties "all the time, before the Dean started busting them all the time." She says clubs like Vertigo offer a good alternative to the frat scene.\nTrepina says it was difficult before she turned 21 to really go out late, but she found ways to pass the time.\n"You can always order pizza," she says. "Pizza Express is the best; we'd always walk home and order a Big Ten."\nPizza Express employees say they're used to the drunk calls on weekends from students returning home from parties and bars.\n"You have the kids coming home at 2, 2:30, not even sure where they are and trying to order a pizza," (I HAVE THE NAME AT HOME) employee said. "It kind of wears on your patience now and then."\nPizza Express delivers until 3 a.m.
(09/10/01 6:45am)
Mark Shaw received a special package in Thursday's mail.\nIt contained the first copy of the former radio personality's new book, "Miscarriage of Justice: The Jonathan Pollard Story."\nExactly one year after former men's basketball coach Bob Knight physically grabbed Shaw's stepson, Kent Harvey, Shaw thumbed through the volume's pages with a sense of irony. \n"For that book to arrive on that day -- it's a sign of new start, that everything was kind of meant to be," Shaw said.\nIt's been a year since The General's reign was ended, brought to an end by IU President Myles Brand. A complete cycle of seasons have passed since angry fans marched to Assembly Hall, burning effigies and posting "Wanted: Kent Harvey, Dead or Alive" fliers.\nBut a year has been exactly what Shaw and his sons have needed to move forward. He doesn't like to discuss what happened a year ago. It's in the past, he said, and it's over.\nAnd while Shaw doesn't completely understand why his son was singled out by Knight, he lauds his stepson's ability to forgive as paramount to his well-being this year at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis, where he is a sophomore.\nShaw cited Harvey's interview with the IDS last September, immediately following the incident, in which he said he "forgave everyone," and claimed his stepson still adheres to this mantra.\n"For whatever reason, it happened," Shaw said. "Kent really feels like the Lord, for whatever reason, chose to put him in that situation. Only the good Lord knows why out of 40,000 kids, it ended up being Kent -- but he's really been an inspiration to me."\nShaw said he feels the overpowering devotion of many Knight fans clouded the actual chain of events surrounding his termination. Most fans, Shaw said, want to remember the positive aspects of Knight's tenure.\nShaw said Knight was on a "collision course" for quite some time before he was actually fired. He said he believes the best thing Knight could have done last year was agree to take a hiatus from coaching. Shaw said he thinks the entire spectacle surrounding his family could have been avoided if Knight had stepped down for a year.\n"I understood more than anyone how much people loved the coach," Shaw said. "I witnessed it from every side and understood that for many people, life was Bob Knight. But whatever happened to the truth?"\nShaw said many fans were "reluctant" to come to terms with Knight's firing. But the marks on his son's arm were enough to convince him of the reality of the incident.\n"There was never any question in my mind," Shaw said. "For some, it all got clouded up and became murky. But people really need to be careful to sort out facts and not let so many things enter in to cloud the issue."\nShaw recognized many fans' claim that he orchestrated the incident, inciting his son to provoke Knight.\nAnd he calls it "impossible."\n"I was and still am a chief critic of Coach's," Shaw said. "People think I had an agenda or set it up or something, but that's ridiculous. I'm just not that smart."\nKnight never returned Shaw's phone calls and denied his request for an apology. Shaw also said no administration officials, except an assistant dean for scheduling, directly contacted the Harvey boys or their parents.\nShaw "didn't feel it was his place" to contact Brand or the board of trustees directly, but realizes the officials likely "had an agenda and an idea of what to do."\nNor has Shaw heard from Christopher Simpson, IU's spokesman during the firing, who has since left. Shaw said he was "very disappointed" in the way Simpson handled the incident.\nMany IU faculty have offered considerable support to the Harvey boys and their family, Shaw said. IUPUI Chancellor Gerald Bepco, an old friend of Shaw's, personally helped the students get settled in Indianapolis at the beginning of last semester.\nKent and his two identical brothers are currently studying business at IUPUI. All three men earned above a 3.0 grade point average last semester, and "not a single incident" has occurred stemming from the Knight controversy, Shaw said.\nThe incident has matured his sons, Shaw said, and brought them closer together spiritually.\n"The old saying, 'The truth shall set you free,' is really appropriate here," Shaw said. "We know what happened, so the boys decided they weren't going to look back."\nThe family has moved forward as well.\n"We do feel good about how this was handled," Shaw said. "Coach has a brand new start, and no one more than me hopes he takes advantage of this opportunity. The University has fresh start. I feel this is meant to be."\nKent Harvey did not return phone calls by press time.
(09/06/01 6:48am)
Less than a month after setting the stage for a trial in a lawsuit against the IU board of trustees, a Jeffersonville judge has decided to send the case to the Indiana Court of Appeals.\nThe plaintiffs, a group of 46 supporters of former men's basketball coach Bob Knight, filed an appeal to the decision Tuesday.\nThe plaintiffs allege IU President Myles Brand violated Indiana's Open Door Laws when he fired Knight last September. Brand consulted with two groups of four trustees before firing the legendary coach.\nThe University maintains no quorum was present at any meeting with Brand, eliminating the need for public notice.\nSpecial Judge Cecile Blau ruled in July to allow the plaintiffs to pursue their claim in court. The IU board of trustees appealed in mid-August, citing the release of information and embarrassment a trial could cause.\nBlau granted their request, sending the case to appeals court Aug. 20.\nGojko Kasich, lead counsel for the fans, said he has "never seen a court just grant" summary judgment and said he feels the plaintiffs should have been able to respond to the board's request.\nUniversity spokeswoman Susan Dillman said the board's motion speaks for itself and that the University will not comment further.\nThe motion also states discovery into several aspects of the defendants' case has been hindered by protective orders filed on behalf of the board.\nThose areas include defining the intent behind Brand's meetings with trustees last year, the content discussed in those sessions and whether a vote was taken to fire Knight.\nAnother provision of the appeal claims the attorneys for the board of trustees presented as evidence a document posted on an Internet message board -- evidence the fans feel does not constitute a "legitimate legal argument."\nThe message, defendants said, is an example of the "embarrassment" a public lawsuit could cause the University and the board of trustees.\nKasich said the plaintiffs can't understand who the University is trying to protect, calling their claim "irrelevant and improper." Plaintiffs cited a July case in the Washington Court of Appeals dictating communication such as even e-mail between an agency's majority can constitute a meeting under Open Door Law.\n"It baffles me what possible things could have been discussed (in the September meetings) embarrassing to anyone but Bob Knight," Kasich said. "Why are they so worried about protecting Knight after getting up in front of TV cameras and smearing the guy?"\nKasich maintains Knight is in no way personally involved in the case. \n"Bobby Knight's in Texas," Kasich said. "This is not a Knight case. This is government abuse of power." \nDorothy Frapwell, IU's legal counsel, was out of the office Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
(09/06/01 4:00am)
Carrie Newcomer steps unassumingly into the Bakehouse, her simple black dress and flat-heeled shoes belying the national fame that's prompted The Village Voice to deem her a "burning talent."\nWith a tilt of her head and a flash of green-blue eyes, she acknowledges the barista behind the Bloomington eatery's counter, asking how she's doing and what's she's been up to. The employee's face immediately registers recognition and she's hooked, telling Newcomer of the past week's events as she brews a cup of coffee for the Bloomington singer-songwriter. \nMinutes later, Newcomer sits down with a loaf of the bakery's rosemary-olive bread, raving about its texture and the coffee's flavor. Listening to her soft-spoken, well-weighted words, it's obvious why personal friend and renowned author Barbera Kingswood describes her as "poet, story-teller, snake-charmer, good neighbor, friend and lover, minister of the wide-eyed gospel of hope and grace." Newcomer is all of these things packaged into a diminutive form. \nShe's both musician and activist, both small-town enthusiast and big-city performer -- yet after the release of nine albums, Carrie Newcomer hasn't lost the ability to connect with people.\nThis Saturday, Newcomer will join Habitat for Humanity in a benefit concert at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Fee Lane. The proceeds will go toward the Women's Build project, a Habitat initiative composed of all-female building teams. \nWomen's Build coordinator Carrie Thompson says Newcomer came to a few sites to observe construction and was "absolutely sold" on the concept of women joining together in construction. \nAnd, true to her innate spirit of activism, Newcomer was prepared to get her hands a little dirty. She joined Habitat for this year's Women's Build, both working and performing at a job site during the blitz. \n"We really have enjoyed Carrie's presence tremendously on the building sites," Thompson says. "She's an incredibly spiritual person, as her music reflects, and her true appreciation for respecting all people and including all people really comes out in everything she does."\nNewcomer hadn't done much with Habitat before the Women's Build, but the experience definitely left its impact.\n"Imagine 100 women with power tools," Newcomer says, mouth crinkling into a smile. "It's so cool, so very cool." \nSo cool, in fact, that Newcomer plans to donate a large percentage of the concert's revenue to next year's Women's Build project, slated to begin the week of July 4.\nA sense of activism has always permeated Newcomer's thoughtfully-penned music. She writes of common emotion, of what's "very human." And while composing allows a creative outlet for her own emotion, Newcomer's ultimate goal lies in reaching a broad demographic audience.\n"When I write, I'm not writing in my own diary," Newcomer says. "I'm writing of what makes me happy or proud, of what confuses and angers me. I write of things I'll grieve till the day I die, or of things I'm so pleased with I can't contain myself. It's geared toward humans -- I'm not trying to achieve some political end."\nShe writes of commonalities, and believes activism is a manifestation of "being human," but she doesn't let her personal involvement with the issues she discusses in her music stop merely at the creative process.\nShe instead performs benefit concerts on every CD release tour, donating percentages of profit to such organizations as the Literacy Volunteers of America and Planned Parenthood. "The Age of Possibility" tour donated 10 percent of all sales to the National Coalition for Literacy, and Newcomer raised over $20,000 for Planned Parenthood in Monroe County and the state of Indiana through release of a live acoustic CD last year.\nWith the release of last August's Age of Possibility, Newcomer's seventh album on Rounder Records, Newcomer has begun to challenge the "acoustic folk" label the industry has placed on her music.\n"Because I'm a girl with a guitar, there's always the question of what record bin to put me in, and often, that's folk," Newcomer says. "But the poetry of the song is really at the center of what I do, and I like to play with genres."\nA self-described crossover artist, Newcomer flavors her verses with recollections of experience both personal and observed. She writes of relationships between men and women, of political and spiritual experiences. Growing up near Chicago offered early exposure to the sounds of Motown and blues, and such influences as pop-acoustic singer Jackson Browne and the "indescribable" Lyle Lovett have peppered her music as well. \nShe suggests "Americana" as an appropriate label for her work, but notes that the distinctions between genres are blurring -- and she loves it.\n"There's such great creative stuff on the edges," Newcomer says. "Americana is learning farther into country. There's alternative country. There's alternative acoustic."\nBut in the end, Newcomer is not concerned with how she's pinned; she'd rather focus on the music. "Ani DiFranco once said, 'folk is an attitude,'" Newcomer says. "I'll just go with that."\nFor Age of Possibility, Newcomer collaborated with bassist Don Dixon, a "very hip alternative guy" responsible for much of alternative band R.E.M.'s early releases. The result is an album a little darker, a little edgier. \n"There's a saying in music that 'if you're not growing, you're dying,'" Newcomer says. "Each of my albums is different, and this one especially pushes the edges."\nPossibility features a broad range of composition, including several tracks intended for recording only. "Seven Dreams," one such piece, is simply "like a painting -- completed and better not performed live," Newcomer says.\nA native of Elkhart, Ind., Newcomer graduated from Purdue University and began touring around and outside the Midwest shortly thereafter. Her music was in "a different context" at that point -- more girl-with-guitar and the occasional upright bass -- and she performed with her sweetheart's band, New York City's Dorkestra, which she described as "alternative meets Elvis Costello meets Muddy Waters."\nThough initially lured by the big-city arts scene, she moved to Bloomington to care for her ailing mother -- and never left. \n"It was supposed to be an interim move," Newcomer recalls, laughing. "I fell in love with the place. The more I toured, the more I realized what an unexpected little jewel this place really is."\nAnd while she possesses some of the requisite wanderlust all touring musicians must have, she always loves returning to Bloomington after being away.\n"I get my big city fixes," Newcomer admits. "I go to Seattle and buy too many books and go to Boston and drink too much coffee, and there's some sort of energy about New York. But driving back, when those hills start to roll, I'm always glad to return."\nAnd it's that same small-town bond that keeps Newcomer touring in smaller cities at more personal venues, to audiences often composed largely of college students.\n"It's easy to listen on the surface," Newcomer says. "The thing about college audiences is they're willing to listen and consider on a deeper level what's going on. It's really a gift to the artist; I appreciate it considerably."\nShe loves traveling on the road because it allows her to connect personally with audiences -- a luxury not afforded many big-name acts in other genres.\n"The thing about this art form is it chooses you," Newcomer says. "But our society isn't set up for musicians and their message, and it's not always easy. But when audiences share with me, I'm really touched -- more than I think they know."\nShe hears the "hard stuff" as well -- personal accounts of fans and listeners provoked by the poetic lyricism of Newcomer's work. But through it all, she remains "hopelessly, yet unfashionably optimistic."\n"What a good gig," Newcomer says. "I'm up-close, taking risks, putting myself out there. It's easy to get cynical, but there are people out there -- good people -- doing good things, and I'm meeting them. That's a gift"
(09/06/01 4:00am)
Junior Justin Miller has a lot to worry about.\nBalancing a double major in accounting and finance proves difficult to handle, especially when it comes to juggling classes, studying and exams. He also holds a leadership position in his fraternity and coordinates social events for the house.\n"In addition to classes, I've also got to worry about internships and finding a job when I graduate," Miller says. "Sometimes, I just get burned out and need an escape."\nMiller finds that escape in laser tag, a grown-up version of his favorite childhood game that allows him to distance himself from the stress of college life. \n"I definitely feel that as college students we need more chances to blow off steam," Miller says. "We are under constant pressure from school, and it is often overlooked that this is the time in our lives when we are still young and we should be enjoying it. Kid-type activities give us the chance to get out of the real world, and bring us back to the time when the most important thing in our day was nap time."\nMiller says he's also taken dates to the LazerLite Family Entertainment Center, 4505 E. Third St. The facility allows customers to take part in an interactive game of tag illuminated by black lights and laser beams.\nLazerLite general manager Susie Wolfgong says participants wear a lightweight high-tech computerized vest with an attached phaser. Hitting an opposing player with the laser scores one point, and the object is to score as many points as possible. Each game lasts for 20 minutes, which includes the game briefing, vesting and printing of scorecards. Twenty-one people may play at a time.\n"It's a game of strategy," Wolfgong warns. "A lot of adults are finding it's a lot more difficult than the game they remember playing as a kid."\nSportsPlex, at 1700 W. Bloomfield Road, offers 100,000 square feet of unique sport and exercise options and features five hardwood basketball and volleyball courts, a synthetic-grass soccer stadium, and a one-and-a-half mile suspended walking and jogging track.\nJunior Justin Miller visits SportsPlex regularly, saying the intramural teams offered there allow him to "relax, let down my guards and just have fun. I don't have to worry about work or classes or the general well-being of the universe."\nThe complex also features a newly-added 23-foot climbing tower. Open during designated free-climb times, "the ROCK" features handholds and footholds. Belaying classes are also offered, allowing participants to use the tower independently without supervision.\nMiller hasn't used the climbing facility yet, but said he plans to. \nHe says that when he was a child he "loved climbing anything I could."\nAn indoor golf simulator is also available by the hour for private golf lessons and for groups. \nFeaturing a 14-by-14 foot playing screen, infrared lighting and a camera monitoring club speed and ball spin, the simulator is available for $20 an hour for one player, $25 for a twosome, $30 for a threesome and $35 an hour for a foursome.\nFor the more independent-minded, rollerblading can provide a welcome energy release, which 22-year-old Shawne Richards has known for years. While visiting his brother in Bloomington last weekend, he spent the time cruising through downtown and checking out the Fourth Street Festival on a pair of battered rollerblades. \n"These things are pretty raggedy," Richards admits, pausing to take a bite of the burrito he picked up at the Laughing Planet. "But they get me around, and they're a lot more fun than riding in some gas-guzzling piece of scrap metal."\nRichards started roller skating at an early age -- "probably as soon as I could walk," he says. He bought his first skateboard at 7, and a pair of rollerblades followed shortly thereafter.\n"I started out going to birthday parties and stuff at our local skate club," the Hilton Head, S.C.-native says. "I loved the feeling of whizzing around the rink past all the other kids. I was good."\nLaughing, he adds, "I also loved checking out the girls in their cute little roller skates. And I still do."\nRichards deems Bloomington "an unbelievable place to skate" because of its many bike paths, hills and freshly-paved roads. \nAs chilly weather approaches, Western Skateland, located at 930 W. 17th Street, offers an alternative to outdoor skating. \nFor the less athletic, miniature golf always poses a great chance to brush up on putting ability while enjoying the familiar bright-orange signature decor of Bloomington's Putt-Putt, located at 277 S. Pete Ellis Drive.\nEmployee Dustin Finley says Putt-Putt is "flooded" with college students and couples in the evenings. "It's interesting; the groups of parents and their kids kind of move out and make room for the older kids," says Finley, a 21-year-old Bloomington resident. "And they have an even better time than the little ones."\nIn addition to mini golfing, sophomore Liz Coleur says go-karting excursions with her boyfriend often prove great ways to "let it all out."\nIndianapolis go-kart track Racers allows participants a "karting license" for a one-time fee of $20. Each 20-lap session costs an additional $20. \n"As college students, we're no longer allowed to express our 'inner child,'" Coleur says. "It's fun to go out and let all those frustrations out by crashing into someone else."\nBut many IU students claim they're on a budget -- seriously limiting their ability to pay for entertainment.\nThe frequent solution? Just sitting around on a Saturday morning and watching cartoons, sophomore Jermaine Miles says. \nSenior Josh Huff says he likes to curl up with a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and lounge in his pajamas on lazy weekend mornings. \nMiles agrees.\n"I just like to lay in bed and watch Loony Tunes," Miles admits. "It reminds me of when I was younger and had no stress, no worries."\nAnd when writing that dissertation on the inner psychological mechanism of butterflies proves just too tiresome, breaking out a coloring book and setting to work can often prove therapeutic.\nSophomore John Gilbert says he brought a few coloring books to school this year after reading they decreased stress in college students. \n"Anything has to be better than actually working on a paper or studying for a test," Gilbert says. "Nothing helps relieve stress like getting out your Batman, Guardian of Justice coloring book and box of crayons."\nAnd for those laid-back individuals preferring to enjoy the outdoors without breaking a sweat, blowing bubbles in the Arboretum or Dunn Meadow is a great way to spend a fall afternoon, especially if the bubbles are homemade concoctions.\nAnn Hallock, editor of Family Fun magazine, says an easy and inexpensive way to create your own bubble goo involves mixing 6 parts water, 2 parts Joy dishwashing liquid, and 3/4 part corn syrup. Store in a covered container and refrigerate, and create bubble wands from pipe cleaners, cookie cutters, or yogurt lids with the centers cut out.\nAnd when you need a true getaway, investigate TJV Balloons. Operating in Bloomington since 1988, TJV uses only FAA-certified pilots and crewmen. The enterprise is the largest and oldest hot-air balloon service in southern Indiana, according to TJV crewmen. \n"Ballooning offers a sense of adventure mixed with a feeling of relaxation," says Travis Vencel, pilot and owner of TJV. He claims ballooning is one of the safest ways to flying. \nTJV features "cross-country" flights, offering participants a panoramic glimpse of several states from 350 feet up. \nPrices are $165 for one person, $300 for two people, $425 for three and $550 for four. Payment is not required until the date of the flight, but a credit card is required to place a reservation.\nThe process usually takes about three hours. Actual flight time is generally an hour, according to TJV's Web site, but time must be allotted for inflation and deflation.\nAll flights begin at TJV's office, located at 1115 N. College, one block south of 17th Street. Pilot' notice in booking flights.
(09/04/01 6:18am)
Shirtless and sweating, the man called Steps to Freedom sat before a table filled with pamphlets, bumper stickers and newsletters. Flashing peace signs to passersby and nibbling on pasta, he greeted fellow Monroe County Green Party members with slightly upturned lips and a nearly imperceptible nod of his head. \nHe'd been sweltering in the midafternoon sun since 11 a.m. -- for nearly five hours -- and the turnout for the first day of Disorientation 2001 wasn't as high as expected. But Steps -- that's what his friends call him -- didn't mind.\n"It's slow so far, but it's Labor Day," Steps said. "We came out to raise awareness of the Greens, and that's why I'm here."\nThe Green Party is one of over 20 groups involved in the first annual Disorientation 2001, an event joining community members, students and local businesses in a collaborative effort to raise awareness of a variety of social issues. \nThe brainchild of senior Jessica Williams, the coalition brings together such local organizations as Jobs with Justice, the Center for Sustainable Living, Secret Sailor Books and Straight Allys of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community. Each define Williams\' goal to \"reach beyond campus" and inspire students who have never taken a role in activist efforts to learn about a myriad of advocacy groups. \nMembers of the coalition have met weekly since May to write the event\'s manual, plan and raise funds. Disorientation manuals, modeled after a similar pamphlet distributed at the University of Wisconsin, are available free at the event.\nMonday kicked off the event which runs all week. Despite a sparse crowd and high humidity, organizers remained unfazed.\n"It is Labor Day, after all, and a lot of people are out of town," said senior Allie Rosenblatt, a NoSweet! member. Rosenblatt joined the anti-sweatshop activist group after a summer globalization experience in Mexico. "It's only the first day; we're expecting more students to come out later in the week."\nBloomington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty member Christy Campoll, a senior, said her organization decided to participate in the event because "it's a good opportunity to get students out to see what kind of activist groups are out there."\nCampoll, who also serves as vice president of Indiana Citizens to Abolish Capital Punishment, delivered a speech entitled "What You Don't Know About the Death Penalty" earlier in the day. She feels students are often unsure how to initiate social change. Disorientation provides the opportunity to increase that awareness.\n"We need to show people that they can do something about the bad things that go on in the world," Campoll said. \nSenior Jennifer Koch, member of ALLYs, IU's Straight Allies to the Gay Community, agreed with Campoll.\n"A lot of my friends are gay, and this is definitely an issue that needs awareness," Koch said. "The voice of straight students backing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students definitely strengthens those individuals. It's not just gay students saying, 'Hey, we need gay rights,' -- it's other people as well."\nALLYs, along with Amnesty International, is petitioning to stop the arrests of homosexuals in Romania, where homosexuality is a crime. Petitions are available at the ALLYs table in Dunn Meadow each day this week.\nThe group is additionally sponsoring tours of the Kinsey Institute, IU's famed sexual research center. \nALLYs president Andrew Wilson approached Kinsey Institute Sexual Information Service for Students intern Emily Nagoski last spring with the request for facility tour times for students.\nKinsey was happy to oblige. \n"Since the Kinsey Institute is interested in opening its doors to the community and being a resource to the town and the University, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to introduce students to the resources available for them at Kinsey," Nagoski said. "At the same time, the tours meet Disorientation\'s goal of increasing student awareness of non-mainstream resources at IU"
(08/30/01 5:52am)
During the last five years, four separate security breaches have surfaced on campus, prompting many students to examine how well the University protects their personal information.\n• In March 1997, 256 faculty members had their Social Security numbers accessed, according to University officials.\n• Last February, more than 3,000 student Social Security numbers were accessed by an outside individual when a security "hole" was left open in an Office of the Bursar database, University officials said. \n• In June, a computer security breach in the School of Music gave hackers the opportunity to access more than 1,700 individuals' Social Security numbers, including nearly 150 IU students. \nUniversity officials said the discovery of hacking tools and Internet Relay Chat programs installed on the Web servers by the hackers lead him to believe they hoped to use the servers as a "safe haven" to store their software.\n• This summer, boxes containing pages of personal student information -- including full names, addresses, Social Security numbers and employment information -- were left unattended in Maxwell Hall as the University Division moved its facilities to Ashton Center, the school's dean said.\nIn light of the Bursar security breach, IU's board of trustees passed a resolution during a meeting in May to increase the security of IU's computing system.\nUniversity Information Technology Services is currently working on implementing a tougher security policy to prevent further hacks into IU servers.\n"We know that some vulnerability may exist (across the campus)," Bursar Susan Cote told the IDS this summer. "The more guidelines for training, resources and scans, the more secure the department as a whole will be."\nBut the sentiment resulting from the breaches has left many wondering whether the University is protecting IU students from identity theft.\nExpediency in informing students has emerged as a chief point of contention from those affected. \nThe Bursar's office learned of the breach February 6. But database administrators did not notify campus administrators until February 20, and letters to students affected weren't drafted and sent until February 22 -- 16 days after the original security breach.\nSoon after the incident, University officials told the IDS that the Bursar's office had to identify who the effected students were, and that's why notification took longer.\nThe theft of Social Security information poses certain legal concerns, including credit card fraud and personal identity theft for driver's licenses, birth certificates and other personal records.\nBut Professor of Law Fred H. Cate called the risk "exceedingly small." Credit card fraud incidents are among the least common of all frauds in the U.S., Cate said.\nIn a mid-February report to Congress, Cate said victims of credit card fraud are well-protected under federal and state law. The Social Security Administration has created significant deterrents to setting up a false identity or securing credit with stolen numbers, he said.
(08/30/01 5:19am)
It started out as a hodgepodge group of IU music students looking for a regular gig -- artists interested in performing acoustic modern jazz, gleaning support from the growing IU School of Music.\nAlmost 25 years later, the group known as Jazz Fables has grown older. The players have changed, and so has the repertoire. Some musicians have gone on to pursue professional careers, others have immersed themselves in shaping tomorrow's promising young students. Gone are the evenings of strictly contemporary standards; today, the band experiments with Latin and avant-garde jazz and caters to crowds young and old.\nBut tonight, the Bear's Place Thursday night regulars will take that familiar stage at 1316 E. Third St. with a guest: premier jazz musician and Indiana Historical Society Living Legend David Baker. Trumpet player and Fables founder David Miller first met Baker as an IU undergraduate sitting in on one of Baker's jazz history classes. In the late 1960s, Miller recruited a house band of graduate students in the School of Music and looked to Baker for support.\nIn years since then, that relationship has evolved from one of mentoring to a friendship based on mutual respect. \n"He is literally an incredible talent and multiple threat," Miller said. "He's a Renaissance man -- not only a cellist but certainly a composer of extraordinary capabilities and accomplished teacher." \nAt the time of Fables' conception, Miller was working for the Second Story Nightclub, booking various acts for jazz clubs throughout the region. He'd been playing with Jazz Fables since 1977, but the group had no permanent performing venue.\nBut upon the death of film series sponsor Steve Sears in 1989, a slot was left vacant in the weekly lineup at local eatery and bar Bear's Place. Miller approached then-owner Ray McConn with a request for weekly performances.\n"I just kind of said, 'Hey, you know who I am and what I'm able to do, and I'd like a chance to have a house gig here,'" Miller said. \nMcConn agreed, and Jazz Fables at Bear's was born, featuring Baker on its first concert. \nTonight's concert will feature Linda Baker on flute, Miller on trumpet, Tom Walsh on tenor sax, Luke Gillespie on piano, Jack Helsley on bass, Deno Sanders on drums, and Baker on cello. The concert marks the 12th anniversary of Jazz Fables at Bear's Place.\nThough initially established as a house band, the Fables format eventually expanded to have regularly featured guest artists. In 1992, then-regular players Gillespie and Harbison left the group to pursue post-graduate work in music pedagogy, forcing Miller to "try some other things" in manipulating group dynamics. The result was the evolution of Fables from a house gig to a concert series, with Miller regularly playing emcee.\nThe success of that adaptation resulted from collaborations between the group and prominent jazz musicians in Bloomington and surrounding areas, Miller said. Additionally, he was able to draw from a large pool of music students and Baker devotees willing to play in the weekly series. \n"A great part of the Fables series is that it allowed me to bring in students," Miller said. "If not for David Baker, Fables couldn't exist. We have a very strong tie with the jazz department because so many talented students come to IU solely because of Baker."\nAn Indianapolis native, Baker began performing in the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones and Stan Kenton and in the George Russell Seminal Sextet in the 1940s and '50s. He began composing and arranging around that time, establishing a technique fellow faculty members now describe as "brilliant" and "captivatingly precise."\nMiller credits Baker with the bulk of the jazz department's success, citing his involvement in establishing a degree-granting program in Jazz Studies in the 1970s as evidence of his far-reaching influence. \n"Clearly, David's history at IU is monumental," Miller said. "He's certainly the preeminent person here in jazz."\nBaker's work in jazz methodology and instruction has earned international acclaim as well, including Down Beat magazine's lifetime achievement award.\n"His concepts on jazz education are extremely effective and important in terms of trying to give players the kind of materials needed to develop their technique," Miller said. "Jazz players really have to want to play the music very badly in the first place. The various courses and concepts David introduces exposes them to materials needed to develop the basic fundamentals of playing. The proof of his effectiveness is seen in the jazz players IU produces."\nIt's a testament to what Baker defines as his first love: teaching.\n"Of all the things I do, teaching is the centerpiece of my existence," Baker told the IDS this summer. "I enjoy working with people -- especially young people -- and this is so rewarding."\nMany of Baker's former students have established professional careers of renown upon graduation. Miller cited brothers Michael and Randy Brecker, pioneers in jazz rock, as two of the most prominent examples.\nFormer Fables players and Baker students have also gone on to careers of international renown, including Saturday Night Live drummer Shawn Pelton and saxophonist Jerry Welden, currently touring with Harry Connick Jr.'s big band.\nBaker has also earned considerable repute as a composer and arranger. Tonight's concert will feature numerous compositions written by Baker, including "Nostalgia for Fallen Heroes," a tribute to late jazz greats J.J. Johnson and Joe Henderson. The piece will feature pianist Gillespie, an alumnus currently completing a solo album. \nThe concert will also showcase Baker's more classic works, including "Some Links for Brother Ted," a tribute to another fallen friend, late guitarist Ted Dunbar. Baker's arrangements of jazz standards by such composers as Dizzy Gillespie and Woody Shaw will be featured as well, according to Michael Woodward, manager of Bear's Place.\nThe group is constantly on the lookout for new talent, according to Miller.\n"I see Fables as a venue situation and format allowing some of best rising jazz musicians in Bloomington the opportunity to play the great music small group repertoire," Miller said.\nAs a result, Miller has at his disposal a broad group of strong players from at the collegiate, local and regional levels, including Indianapolis, a hotbed of jazz activity in the 1940s and '50s.\n"At that time, Indy was literally the crossroads of America," Miller said. "Bandleaders would actually recruit musicians out of there." \nAmong those Indianapolis natives recruited were late trombonist J.J. Johnson and guitarist Wes Montgomery. Johnson catapulted to fame after being discovered in 1944 by the legendary Count Basie Orchestra.\nBaker will pay homage to his hometown in original composition "The Avenue," referring to former jazz center Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis. The piece derives much of its influence from the boogie-woogie piano of the 1930s and '40s, an era Miller believes definitive of the Indianapolis blues scene. \nThe ultimate goal of the series, Miller contends, lies in presenting an opportunity for both player and listener to come together in a context where the focus lies strictly on the music.\nAccording to Woodward, Jazz Fables concerts, especially those featuring Baker, consistently sell out.\nThe crowd, Woodward said, is diverse, composed of both older fans of Baker and younger music students, as well as a myriad of Bloomington residents. \n"People we bring in -- whether they're regional or professionals from New York CIty --constantly tell me how extraordinary it is that the audience really pays attention and listens," Miller said. "The music is not in the background -- it's a showcase."\nJazz Fables' 12th anniversary celebration featuring David Baker begins at 5:30 p.m. at Bear's Place, 1316 E. Third St. Cover is $7.
(08/23/01 4:54am)
Henna tattoos, Asian cuisine and opportunities to explore majors await incoming freshmen today as part of the Office of Orientation Programs' Welcome Week. Today's events include CultureFest, a celebration of cultural diversity on the IU campus, and the College of Arts and Sciences Freshman Reception and Expo. \nCurrently in its second year, CultureFest evolved as a result of collaborative efforts between the Office of Orientation Programs and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Last year's event garnered the support of more than 1500 students, said Melanie Payne, director of Orientation Programs. \nThe current steering committee constitutes a diverse cross-section of administrative and student groups such as Residential Programs and Services, Union Board, IU Student Association and various cultural centers on campus.\nThe festival will kick off with a Union Board-sponsored speaker at the IU Auditorium. Author and hip-hop historian Kevin Powell will issue a challenge to incoming freshmen concerning cultural diversity and acceptance. The host for Black Entertainment Television will begin his address at 4:30 p.m. \n"He's a very dynamic young man, and we felt he had the right combinations of educational background and personal attributes to be a dynamic speaker," said Gloria Gibson, associate vice chancellor for multicultural affairs \nPayne agreed, lauding Powell as "an interesting guy" to whom students can relate.\nThis year's indoor festival will be about a half hour shorter than last year's event. Then-Bloomington Chancellor Ken Gros Louis was last year's keynote speaker, presenting a brief history of IU traditions. \n"We didn't want to lose that depiction of the history and culture of IU as an institution this year," Payne said. "This year, we put together some highlights of history, but the key component will be Kevin."\nFollowing Powell's talk, students will then move outside to the Fine Arts Plaza for the celebratory festival portion of the event. Refreshments from seven food areas will be served and such groups as Latino music group Alma Azul, the IU Soul Revue, female a capella group Ladies First, the IU Swing Dancing Club, and hip-hop group Holistic Experience will perform. Capocira Angola, a Brazilian cultural art, and Chinese Gong Fu will also be demonstrated. \n"Something a lot of people don't understand is this is not a student organizations fair," Payne said. \nThe festival features "anchor areas" manned by representatives from various cultural centers on campus, but it is not a "recruiting tool," Payne said.\nThough the primary target audience is freshmen, Payne said all students are encouraged to attend. \nThe College of Arts and Sciences will also present a Freshman Reception and Expo Thursday afternoon. Representatives from the College's more than 50 departments and programs will be on hand to advise students and answer questions.\nAn estimated 1000 students are expected to attend the event,from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Alumni Hall Solarium of the Indiana Memorial Union.\n"It's one opportunity where all the departments and programs that offer majors in COAS are in one location," said Judy Woodley, coordinator of student recruiting for the College. \n"Complete freedom" distinguishes the COAS event from other similar orientations in other schools, said Linda Smith, associate dean for undergraduate education. She equates the event to a fair, where students may "shop around."\nWhereas other departments and schools outside COAS offer academic orientations focusing on program requirements, the COAS Expo offers a strikingly different format.\n"They can just eat, they can walk around, and they can go in and out of conversations," Smith said. "It's an easygoing, pleasant event -- an opportunity for freshmen to see the totally stunning array of intellectual possibilities in the College"
(08/22/01 3:58am)
The drinks were overpriced, the opening act played too long and the crowd bore an odd demographic resemblance to usual frat party fare, but when O.A.R. took the stage Sunday night at the Murat Theatre in Indianapolis, all was forgotten.\nBodies began moving among the soft orange glow of cigarettes as voices raised in response to lead singer Marc Roberge's request to sing along to the opening number "Hey Girl."\nIt's a strange breed of indie pop and reggae funk, a combination of vocals, beats and riffs enjoyed on college campuses throughout the country. While not entirely original in its conception, O.A.R's lyrics prove more complicated than the average student act's. \nFreely flowing and strangely introspective, the band's compositions can sometimes ramble on for a quarter of an hour, yet fans can't seem to get enough. \nUp-and-coming Ordinary Peoples opened for the band, playing an hour-and-a-half set that bordered on intolerable. Though OP's fusion of hip-hop, funk and live vocals captured the interest of audience members at the outset, restlessness soon took over as concertgoers migrated to the bathroom, to the concession line -- anywhere but inside the Egyptian Room, where a mere handful of dedicated fans danced and sang along to OP's oblique lyrics.\nO.A.R. lead singer Marc Roberge joined OP onstage for the final number in its set. As the song wound down, the other members of O.A.R. -- drummer Chris Culos, bassist Benj Gershman, lead guitarist Richard On and saxophone player Jerry DePizzo -- strolled unassumingly onstage, tuning instruments and exchanging high fives and handshakes with its opening act. \nFor the next two hours, O.A.R. played all the standards definitive of its tenure on the college rock scene, from "Night Shift" to "Black Rock" and "If Only She Knew." They also performed several numbers from their latest album Risen, released in February. \nCurrently students at Ohio State, band members plan touring and recording around their class schedules. And after nearly four years touring the college circuit, O.A.R. has retained the lack of pretension that characterizes their road shows. \n"We're not going to pretend to walk offstage and then come back," announced lead guitarist Richard On as the band wrapped up a seven-minute rendition of "Wanderer," a song inspired by several band members' experiences in a three-month exchange program in Israel. \nA single guitar riff was all the crowd needed to recognize O.A.R's signature "Crazy Game of Poker," the most recognizable piece in their repertoire and the evening's closing number.\nO.A.R. caters to a diverse group of students, a strange mixture of leftover hippies, greek T-shirt-wearing college students, and uber-trendy high school sophomores. Yet the concert Sunday night displayed the band's tremendous versatility and adaptability, especially in a smaller venue in a territory largely unfamiliar to the East Coast natives. \nO.A.R. will perform this week at Butler University and Purdue University. They will play Oct. 25 at the Bluebird.