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(05/07/10 12:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Let me explain that headline. We all know “The Hills” is famous for its glamorous portrayals of girls with fake PR-ish jobs at top-notch companies (Lauren at Teen Vogue, Audrina at Epic Records). Rather than working, these girls are shown at dinner not eating lots of food in front of them at the swankiest restaurants in El Lay, then going out to a bar with staged drama. Ah, scripted television.What sets apart the first episode of the sixth and final season of “The Hills” is that for once, the girls are not being polite, but being real. The producers, in an entertaining twist to keep things interesting since Lauren’s departure (she has since written two sixth-grade reading level New York Times bestselling novels), have the new head honcho, Kristin, hanging with Audrina, Lo, Stephanie Pratt and Heidi Doll like they are BFFs.In real life, we’ve heard tabloid reports of Kristin doing coke and seen pictures of Heidi being injected in the face numerous times. The first episode’s plot line brilliantly aligns with the aforementioned “real life” stuff. Half the episode is dedicated to Heidi Doll’s mama ragging on her new face when she goes home to Colorado to visit.(Momma Heidi: “You need me to put that burger in a blender for you?”)The other half shows the new BFFs chilling in a Miami for a little vaca. They confront Kristin on her “drug problem.” (Lo: “People are, like, talking about you. It, like, smells in here. They say you’re doing crack.”)These girls have gotten officially gotten hood. I can only hope the rest of the season follows the same formula that this premiere episode set up so perfectly.
(04/28/10 8:18pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Kate Nash is the best pal you’ll ever have. Just don’t get between her and a man, call her crazy or lie to her face, and you’ll be gravy.On Nash’s sophomore effort, “My Best Friend Is You,” the London-bred ivory tickler brings the cuteness and laces it with arsenic.On the lead single, “Do-Wah-Doo,” she declares about a sideline hoe, “Well, I think she’s a bitch!”The disc is decidedly ironic in that way. The titles of songs such as “Kiss That Grrrl,” “Early Christmas Present” and “Mansion Song” lead one to believe they have something to do with a first kiss, Santa Claus and doll houses, respectively. Instead, each of these tunes deal with jealousy, contempt and sexual abuse. In that respect, the album possesses a much darker tone than her less explicit debut, “Made of Bricks.”This album’s sound is a refreshingly clever concoction of 1950s girl-group sass, ‘70s garage punk and new-age Riot Grrrl pop.But I guess that’s why we are Kate’s BFFs. She confides in us what she wouldn’t dare tell her mother.
(04/21/10 7:06pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Murs and 9th Wonder suffer from the Common complex. All three artists were at their peak without the trappings of major labels with a bevy of mixtapes, conceptual work and collaborative albums. “Fornever” is their fourth release together, and though this album is a departure from the fire fans are used to, it is their most accessible effort to date. “Fornever” boasts crossover appeal, such as the fetish hilarity of “Asian Girls” and an awesome cover of Common’s classic, “I Used to Love H.E.R.” This success, combined with watered-down lyrics that have a hint of the Murs’ typical social consciousness, make for a dull album in theory. However, if you consider Murs’ ambition, this seems excusable. It has been rumored that “Fornever” is one of 10 planned releases from Murs this year, so in that perspective, the album isn’t half bad. Check out this zing from the opener: “We do it for the love, what the fuck you making music for?”If only there were more lines like these to capture the overall badasserie of both artists.
(04/21/10 6:08pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This album is so much fun. It’s just too bad the fun wears off once you get past Foxy Shazam’s Freddie Mercury-aping stadium rock shtick. The Cincinnati band’s sound on their third album is immediately refreshing and ultimately deadening. How does this happen?You can only go so far with music that is dark with a wink, and they’ve got that black cabaret thing down pat. Hear “Wanna-be Angel” with this lyric: “I want my friends to think I’m awesome. / I want my friends to think I’m so punk rock,” lead vocalist Eric Nally warbles. By the way, amid all the cacophony of sliding piano scales, horns and guitars that buzz like Hot 100 success, Nally’s voice shines. I love that he is unafraid to sound ugly and super unnatural. It’s cute if you like character voices. He sounds at times like Mika and at others like Michael Jackson and sometimes even like that dude from The All-American Rejects. The whole record is dramatic as hell, glamourous and filled with prog-pop weirdness. But, unless you appreciate the “thea-TAH,” you might be left feeling a little less shazam and a lot more shaDAMN.
(04/14/10 9:33pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Soul superstar Sharon Jones emotes, “I’m back in the ring with my boxing gloves” on the opener to her (“The Game Gets Old”) and the Dap Kings’ latest, “I Learned the Hard Way.”It sets the tone for the rest of the album. She confronts an unfaithful lover on the title track and first single, with the typical line, “I heard you answer your phone with a gasp and a click.” The funny thing is, unlike her much younger contemporaries, she doesn’t raise hood hell, lettin’ all the girls know and planning a very public R&Beatdown of said philanderer. In “Window Shopping,” also about a man’s wandering eyes, she lets him know that he can keep doing so, while inserting the stinger, “I no longer need you.”The Georgia born, New York bred Jones is 53 years old. So, when she tells you that she’s learned the hard way, you’d better believe her. She spent years working as a correction officer just got this successful, after years of trying for industry acknowledgment. The song, “Money” perfectly captures the irony of this paradigm. “I work like a dog for year after year, but when I need you most, you always disappear,” Jones practically shouts. Ain’t that the truth?
(04/14/10 9:24pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Dr. Dog’s latest, “Shame, Shame” comes just in time for summer breezes, mimosas on porches and barbecue potlucks. It pretty much sizzles. The Philly natives, while having a distinctive psychedelic rock/Beach Boys pop sound, have always been consistently hit and miss. Their last album, “Fate,” made me wonder if their fate was to fade into indie rock purgatory. “Shame, Shame” works for several reasons – big hooks, clever lyricism, obnoxiously catchy rhythms and otherwise depressing, heart-on-your-sleeve tunes that come off like a rollicking good time. Also, the album is a labor of love – tracks like the contemplative romp, “Where’d All the Time Go?” is eight years old.“20 years of schoolin’/ I never learned the math,” croons co-frontman Scott McMicken on the opener, “Stranger.” “Shadow People” is spliced with pie in the sky “ahs” and the cry, “Here we go again.”I don’t know why the album seems like it’s mourning something. There is no shame in a (well-produced) good time, which is exactly what Dr. Dog provides here.
(04/14/10 3:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s nearly 3 p.m. The sunlight beams in through the quiet City Hall Atrium windows overhead, shining like hope on a rainy day, illuminating the smiles and frowns of children living with cancer.The 4-by-6-foot, black-and-white portraits line the foyer of the atrium and the stairwell leading to the first floor.Upon entering, in a photo to the left, Devin rests on her father’s shoulder. In another, Sean licks his lips as if it will be lunchtime soon.These photos represent more than 200 children whose journeys are documented in Flashes of Hope, a non-profit, volunteer-run organization that strives to empower kids and their families affected by cancer through professional photography. The photographers associated with Flashes of Hope are members of the American Society of Media Photographers, which sponsors exhibits of these photographs nationwide.Each time a camera clicks, it is capturing the children’s personalities, their hearts. Each time a photographer captures a portrait of a child, it changes the way they view the world for the better.TYLERAnn Schertz, a Bloomington resident and member of ASMP, got involved with Flashes of Hope to contribute something to society, to give back. What she discovered was something so much more.She sits at a yellow bench, the wind blowing her hair on a breezy spring day. She looks off into the distance when she speaks, her voice soft and low.She, and other photographers who shoot for Flashes of Hope, have different experiences but they have the same goal for all the children they shoot: to make them stars for the day, as though they are magazine cover models.Schertz goes for the Hollywood approach, an Austin Powers thing. The kids, who have been pampered with hair and makeup and are posed under natural, ambient lighting, love it.“Lookin’ good, baby,” she is known to say on set to her subjects.She shot Tyler, a James Dean-esque teenage football player, who wore his class ring around his neck. He hardly smiled, but he always engaged with the camera. That sort of engagement makes her job easier. And, Schertz says, he just knew he was cute, too.Flash. She found out on the evening news he died last July. A bone marrow transplant could have saved him. As part of her job, Schertz can’t lose it. She looks off into the distance again.“You don’t know how cancer feels,” she says. “One kid I shot found out she had cancer just three days before the shoot. I shot kids from their hospital beds when they were too sick to come out. They were always strong. I had to be strong.”CORY Cory’s smile is a testament to his strength. He exceeded the expectations of his doctors and lived until he was 5 years old. He was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 1 and given an average survival time of 11 months, with a 10 percent chance of living overall.His mother, Kim Blue, remembers February 28, 2003. IV poles and monitor blips and the family’s tears were a norm of that day. That’s the day the nightmare began. But, Blue says, it was so much easier for the family to endure Cory’s fight because of his spirit — he loved to laugh and to make others laugh. Cory also loved firefighters. They were heroes to him, because they fight fires.Blue remembers a moment that occurred a few weeks before Cory died. She was holding him. He looked up into her eyes and swung his fist in the air.“He goes, ‘Hey mom, I fight cancer,’” she says. “‘Firemen fight fires, I fight cancer.’ I told him, ‘You sure do, honey.’”Blue is not sure if Cory ever knew what that moment meant to her. But, on July 27, 2007, she found out. It was 10:34 p.m.Cory lay in his hospital bed, depleted of energy. He was unable to open his eyes. But, he seemed to be at peace.Blue sat on the bed and held him. She leaned into him and said, “I love you.” To her surprise, he responded, “I love you too.” Cory died at 6:20 the following morning.FLASH FORWARDFlashes of Hope sent Blue six photos of Cory. One of them shows Cory smiling at the camera, his left fist resting on his cheek, exposing a hospital bracelet on his wrist. He is wearing a bandanna. This was one of the pictures at Cory’s funeral, which Amy Robertson, the current Indianapolis chapter director of Flashes of Hope, attended. She is a friend of Blue’s and knew Cory well.“Those pictures touched my heart,” Robertson says. “When you look at these photographs, you don’t see sick children, you see the spirit they have and the wonderful children they are.”Those very pictures inspired her to participate in Flashes of Hope, she says.Jim Barnett, another photographer for Flashes of Hope, knows his best work comes from emotion.Barnett remembers photographing one girl at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital. She had severe acne and her hair was messy. She had a palsy on one side of her face that prevented her from smiling straight. She was going to die soon of a terminal brain tumor. The photos had to be taken immediately.Yet, she was gracious. She thanked him constantly. Barnett positioned her under softbox lighting. Very simple, but elegant enough to capture what he was going for. A large group of people gathered behind him. Barnett decided then that this would be his best work because it just had to be.The girl’s eyes twinkled, baring her teeth, showing her pride.Flash.
(04/07/10 5:34pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Erykah Badu’s America is a cipher of emotions and politics.Badu is the so-called Queen of Neo-Soul, though she adamantly rejects that title.With politics (mostly) set aside from part one of this series, her latest, “New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh),” focuses on complicated matters of the heart.This album represents a return to the love-ology of her debut “Baduizm.” But she’s on to something much deeper than that album’s song, “Next Lifetime,” about the temptation to be with a best friend when she is “already someone’s girl.”Part Two’s first single, “Window Seat,” is already garnering controversy for its music video, which shows Badu stripping nude on the streets of Dallas as a protest of groupthink. The song itself is a masterpiece, complete with delicate harmonies and Sunday morning pace.The 10-minute “Out My Mind, Just in Time” covers a rollercoaster relationship with a toxic fella and is mixed with Angelou-esque sentiments.“Twenty feet out of ashes I can rise / Just like birds and children / I can fly,” reads one lyric in the song.On this album, Badu — and her heart — soar.
(03/31/10 5:23pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ouch. Reading that headline’s gotta make your head hurt the same way mine hurt when I listened to the recycled confusion of Goldfrapp’s latest “Head First.”The melodies are catchy, the music coy and seductively icy and the lyrics evoke something very 1985 in a very strange way. Think DayGlo body suits, Jane Fonda workout tapes and glorious scarf advertisements.OK, Goldfrapp, we get it — disco is dead, and you are mourning. That shtick was done superbly on their 2005 electro-glam raunchfest, “Supernature.” What happened between then and their last effort, the deeply weird, folky, “Seventh Tree” was a creative leap for the better. The return to traditional form doesn’t work on this album when fake-sexy cuts like “Dreaming” feature the lyric, “I’m only dreaming” a billion times for five minutes over pads and throbbing synthesizers. “Voicething” works as background music.“Head First” hits its emotional depth with “Rocket,” the album’s first track and first single. Everything else on the album feels like diving head first into the kiddie pool.
(03/31/10 4:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A mix shuffled from Vampire Weekend’s “A-Punk” to Vanessa Carlton’s “White Houses” as a crowd of about 50 gathered and chatted among themselves.The music preceded the entrance of Brian Kiley, a comedy writer who worked for Conan O’Brien for 16 years during his “Late Night” run. Kiley’s appearance was sponsored by Union Board Comedy and consisted of a question-and-answer session about Kiley’s rise to prominence, the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike and the battle between NBC and O’Brien.After a brief introduction, a red curtain swung open for Kiley. He joked that as a former stand-up opener for Jerry Seinfeld, he was used to a crowd of 4,000.Kiley earned a spot as a comedy writer for O’Brien’s “Late Night” show after another writer was fired. The two comics met while attending the same Catholic Sunday school near Kiley’s hometown in Newton, Mass.“When working for Conan, people assume because he went to Harvard, I went to Harvard,” he said. It was not so, Kiley claimed. He said his job of writing 40 or 50 jokes daily functions similarly to a daily newspaper, where there is no time to worry about quality because of deadlines. The added perks of working with O’Brien involved silly moments where he pretended to light himself on fire with a glass of scotch and drapery.Kiley sketches such as the Gaseous Weiner character and O’Brien shooting at NBC executives around the time his show was under re-negotiations, earned him 12 Emmy nominations. But he only won one.“We stopped going,” Kiley joked. “It was overwhelming to fly halfway across the country to L.A., lose, take the red eye back to the office and write more jokes.” He won the 2007 Emmy Award for Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series.The Writer’s Strike was well underway by this point, and Kiley was one of many affected.“You don’t get paid when you’re on strike,” he said. “Paychecks are important. It’s stressful when you’re on strike because you don’t know how long you’re working unpaid.”Last year, O’Brien took his writers with him as he continued his version of the “Tonight Show.” But after NBC wanted to re-negotiate times, O’Brien called it quits this January.Kiley said at the time this was happening he was unemotional. Reality didn’t set in until his wife’s birthday dinner.“I didn’t speak for like an hour and 15 minutes,” he said. “And of course, I love ruining my wife’s birthdays.”Freshman Anastasia Halajcsik said she misses O’Brien’s show for his “incomparable physical humor” and came to see Kiley not knowing what to expect.“I liked hearing the admiration in his voice when he speaks of Conan and his intelligence,” Halajcsik said.Sophomore Anthony Smith, a performer for IU’s Awkward Silence Comedy Troupe, said he enjoys the innovative and wacky character-driven routines that O’Brien performs and applies it to his own interest in comedy writing.“I’m learning a lot about how being a professional and comedy writer works,” he said.
(03/09/10 4:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Taylor Russell has no desire to grow up.The 26-year-old from Cleveland has a job in Bloomington that covers the rent of her one-bedroom apartment, and she can eat food from Denny’s — her favorite restaurant — ’til her heart’s content. Having kids is an abstract concept and having a partner to share her life with is likely too large a responsibility.Play is her reality.To overcome a stifling unrequited love situation and her hippie personality, she dyed her naturally red tresses orange and adopted a love of performance art and rough sex. She recently dropped from 386 to 220 pounds by following the Atkins Diet. The reinvented Taylor calls herself Tayng.Tayng has spent most of her life collecting childhood and adult dolls. From childhood, there is an assortment of mangled, Mohawked blond Barbies.Then there are Clarissa and Belladonna, which Tayng calls “extensions of herself.”The Barbies got destroyed by virtue of being too boring. Clarissa and Belladonna were dolls she didn’t destroy. Clarissa was an anonymous Christmas present to Tayng at age 1.“My mom told me Clarissa was a princess,” Tayng says. “She had fair skin and light eyes like mine. I always looked up to her like any girl would a princess.”Clarissa is a foot-and-a-half tall. She wears brown Amish petticoats with a matching bonnet and Mary Jane shoes. Her face is ghostly porcelain. The only color in her face is a pair of vacant blue eyes and pink lips painted geisha.Conversely, Belladonna, a 5-foot tall inflatable sex doll, is modeled after Tayng’s favorite porn star of the same name. Her look is decidedly modern, with a black- and gold-sequined tube top cinching the waist of an angular-cut, red lace dress resembling salsa dancer attire. She has tattoos matching the real Belladonna’s: a flying heart on the left breast and a green-and-black insignia on her left wrist. Her puckered lips are painted to invite sex. The real Belladonna stands at 5-feet-4-inches, weighs 127 pounds and is nearly two years older than Tayng.Tayng can control Belladonna the doll. Belladonna listens to dirty talk. She’s always patient. Tayng never has to wear makeup around her so-called “rubber girlfriend.” Sometimes she watches TV with the doll, embracing her tightly. All Tayng has to do is play. She projects her admiration of the porn star onto Belladonna the doll.Tayng clicks her DVD remote and sits down on her sofa with Belladonna. They don’t get physical. She looks over at her doll, whose almond-shaped, hologram eyes are staring toward the ceiling, awkwardly positioned on the cushion next to her. Tayng removes the tension by grabbing her with a free hand and wrapping her arms around Belladonna’s waist. Tayng smiles.A PERFECT WOMANTayng, like any complex being, copes with dualities — the difference between Clarissa and Belladonna, a life of real versus play, of Taylor becoming Tayng. Chris, a nearly perfect woman, is the missing link who reconciles these dualities.Chris was Tayng’s mother. To Tayng, she was nearly perfect. She made giant sugar cookies and sometimes told Tayng and her four-years-younger sister, Hannah, that if they ever misbehaved, the police would come take them away. Chris wished for the good health of all around her, while Tayng dreamed of picking strawberries and magic carpet rides.There are pictures of Tayng’s mother on the back of her apartment door, wearing large round sunglasses, barefoot on the beach and laughing. She was tall and had a sarcastic sense of humor. She grew daffodils in her garden. Chris died when Tayng was 14. A May 12, 2008, blog titled “Mother’s day bullshit” elaborates:“She never was able to get out of bed after that night. I remember them telling me it was going to kill her. I didn’t care. I was just a kid, kids aren’t supposed to worry about things like that. She died VERY slowly. She hated her chemo. She was always sick. She slept with that grey bucket by the bed. She turned into a skeleton. Her skin turned grey and yellow. Her hair fell out completely. Her eyes sunk into her head. She couldn’t seem to think or talk or move. My mother died well before she actually passed away.”Tayng helped raise her sister when their mother died. She was insecure about her own body. She grappled with God, learning to drive and high school cliques. As the glue of their once-perfect nuclear family began to fall apart, Tayng retreated to her dolls.“The dolls were definitely her friends,” Tayng’s best friend, Kid Gabriel Crimson, says. “In a way, they were memories of her mother.”Dr. Nancy Stockton, director of IU’s Counseling and Psychological Services, doesn’t know Tayng but says her reaction to her mother’s death was not uncommon. “If an adolescent loses a parent, especially at a time where the relationship may have been difficult, some people cope by playing,” she says.Doll destruction can be used as one coping mechanism. Dolls are easy to project ideas and emotions onto.“We as humans tend to relate to objects,” Stockton says. “When we imbue them with certain qualities, they allow us to test out our ideas about the world. Children, especially, have many opportunities to invest objects with things that help us see the world.”There are no formal studies on sex dolls, nor any linking them to the psychology of individuals using them, because they are still widely deemed a novelty.The blond, boring Barbies were novelties to Tayng. In fact, the only one she kept around was a special edition Native American Barbie in a glass case. Clarissa was a princess, and once, so was Tayng. Was this harder for her to believe when her mother died? Who else could make her feel like a princess quite like her mother?AN IMPERFECT WOMANBelladonna is a porn star that Tayng believes defies norms.“Contrary to what people tend to think about porn stars, she’s actually in control during her sex scenes,” she explains.The difference between real and rubber love is the element of control, Tayng says. She couldn’t control the death of her mother, her father’s response in the aftermath or her first boyfriend from breaking her heart. Tayng’s explanation for why she owns Belladonna is simple: “Females are better in bed,” she claims, although she’s never actually been with a woman.However, Kid senses a real emotional connection from Tayng to the doll.“In a way, she doesn’t have to (be with a woman) because she has Belladonna,” Kid says.Tayng has used Belladonna for sex play with male partners.Perhaps to understand Tayng’s progression from Clarissa to Belladonna, one would need to understand her love life.Tayng’s first real boyfriend of several months, Stu, just broke up with her the week before Valentine’s Day. He now moves in what Tayng calls “lesbian time,” having moved in with a new girlfriend only days after knowing her. Tayng’s vanity has been bruised. These days, she applies sheer Victoria’s Secret lip gloss so often it comes off like a nervous twitch.What Tayng wanted most through all of this was her mother’s advice, her support. “I know if she were still around, I wouldn’t get wrapped up in these situations,” she says.She tears up on a Saturday morning in a Denny’s booth and picks at her glittering nail polish that is the color of nude ballet slippers.“I’ve been so naive. I know she wouldn’t let me get into the stuff I’ve gotten into,” she says. “But you live and learn. I’ve got no regrets.”A DOLL’S HOUSETayng’s apartment is filled with the dualities that drive her.There is a photograph of her at 5 years old on Santa’s lap in the prim and proper dress her mother forced her to wear. Tayng’s face is twisted up in the mischievous grin she inherited from her mother, as if to say, “I can’t wait to play in the mud.”In her kitchen, shelves of clown figurines plastered in pop art designs and smeared paint are juxtaposed with crucifixes from days long gone as a young church girl. Do you remember when your parents forced you to go to every mass or every funeral?Did you ever escape it?Play.Tayng’s memories of her mother are also all over her apartment — in the pictures taped to her back door, in a family portrait behind her entertainment center, in a scrapbook with snapshots of her in ballet costumes, in Clarissa’s face.After putting on a soundtrack called “Pure Moods,” she sits cross-legged by the marble-top coffee table in her living room. Vaguely Middle Eastern and Celtic rhythms fill the room. Tayng, dressed in a floor-length black gypsy skirt and pink blouse, sways to and fro and gets comfortable, placing her laptop on the edge of the coffee table. Her icy-warm hazel eyes, underlined by a streak of mint-green glitter, survey the space. There is a knock on the door. Tayng lights four of six 75-cent, vanilla-scented Glade candles. Clarissa sits on the table, her pale, empty eyes reflecting the glow of the flickering candlelight. Tayng brushes strands of orange bangs behind her ears and greets her friends, Rachel and Larry, with a wan half-smile.They enter, bringing raucous cheer to the otherwise somber setting. Tayng is handed a pack of Camel Wide Lights. Her friends plop down on the sunken sofa across from Tayng. The two begin to chat about “Barbie tampons” and Tenacious D.Tayng occasionally chimes in. Her laughter is half-hearted. Tayng occasionally glances at Clarissa, who seems to be observing her every move. Discomfort causes her to shift around again. Another friend, Melissa, enters the apartment and begins crocheting a square inch of black patchwork quilt.Tayng lights a cigarette, takes a puff. Her friends appear unaware of her anti-social behavior. Maybe they are respecting her space. She needs a moment before she can fully participate in the conversation. She twiddles the cigarette between her fingers before tapping the ashes in a white skull tray.Tayng fixes her gaze on a picture of her mother on the computer screen, as if to block out Clarissa the princess, her chatty friends, the world. Her mother is wearing a blue V-neck T-shirt, tilting her head coyly and flashing that mischievous grin of hers. It’s a candid portrait of a woman who once told her daughter that she, too, could be a princess.Tayng smiles, puts out her cigarette and joins in the conversation.
(03/04/10 1:18am)
The curtain was down for the New York City Ballet dancers. Ballerina Zippora Karz was 21 and had been working professionally for the prestigious company since age 18. Clive Barnes of The New York Post hailed her performance as the Sugar Plum Fairy in “The Nutcracker” as one of a “potential star.”
(03/03/10 10:35pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Swedish indie-rock band the Shout Out Louds released a song, called “Wish I Were Dead,” that brought them fame in 2003.Seven years later, the band probably still wishes they were dead. Hard times have only gotten harder, which means harder work is required.Their latest offering, “Work,” reflects on the past few years via slow-burning melancholy and ’80s grooves. “Throwing Stones” gets the thesis down pat: “If you think I’m slowing down / I’m not slowing down,” lead vocalist Adam Olenius croons. On the strength of a dizzying bassline and Lauper-esque oohs and ahs, “1999” reminisces on that pivotal moment in history when Americans were just learning of their obsession with celebrity and the Internet, but times were still whimsical. Even though things only seem to be getting worse, “Paper Moon” provides a bittersweet faith in something more: “Moon is watching over us / In the dark, I dare to tell you.”The overall message, while daunting, is still effective. What’s missing is that to succeed these days, you gotta work smarter, not harder.
(03/03/10 7:02pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Picture this: Little Kirbys are flouncing about furiously with air guitars strapped to their round bodies as they hastily build a dreamland. They occasionally pause to rock out, or engage in gleeful Polyphonic Spree-like vocal harmonies. Now, you’ve got the soundscape of Citay’s latest disc, “Dream Get Together.” The titles of the eight-song opus are certainly cute enough — see “Tugboat” and “Mirror Kisses,” a contemplation of the ego’s delusions. “Mirror Kisses” is easily the most beautiful song on the album. It is highlighted by an acoustic strum and lyrics of self-lovin’: “When I look in the mirror / I make a move on me / The only one that you can kiss is yourself.” It’s not all cutesy aerobics, however.“Secret Breakfast” starts cute, but then ventures into a swirling pad arrangement near the end of its seven minutes that is so dark and psychedelic, you wonder what exactly is being digested at this so-called breakfast. The album’s lasting effect is jarring, and at times confusing, but it’s definitely a trip worth returning to.Be sure to pack a flashlight and a life-size stuffed bunny rabbit.
(03/01/10 5:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Alexandria Prather took to her Facebook last week in the wake of a step dance controversy. The junior said she wanted the world to know this: “TAU step is the best sorority step team in the nation. Period.”Prather is a member of IU’s TAU Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., which placed second nationally at the Sprite Step Off competition on Feb. 20 in Atlanta.The competition’s winning sorority was Zeta Tau Alpha’s Epsilon Chapter of the University of Arkansas, which won a check for $100,000 in scholarships. But after announcing a “scoring discrepancy” Thursday, the competition’s sponsor, Coca-Cola, declared AKA and ZTA co-first place winners, each receiving $100,000 scholarship checks.The 10 members of AKA who competed in the competition were all black. AKA was the only team from Indiana to compete on a national level.The winning ZTA team was all white, a fact that, Prather said, was made to seem like their singular “wow factor.”Stepping is a traditionally African-American art form rooted in a combination of African rhythmic percussive dance, old schoolyard chants and a military close-order and exhibition drill.From the time the AKA team was announced as second place by rapper Ludacris, the step-off’s host, Prather said ZTA had experienced an unending wave of boos from the approximately 5,000 people in the crowd.In that respect, Prather said she felt bad for them.“It’s not that they were bad,” she said. “They were a good step team, one of the best teams there. But we should’ve gotten first place, point blank.”Prather argued that the AKA routine was both step-perfect and complicated, while ZTA incorporated simpler steps, though they were executed well. Prather and AKA supporters said they believed the competition was rigged. IU alumnus James Bigsbee, and member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., helped choreograph the steps AKA had been perfecting since they spontaneously formed a step team last September under the direction of junior Jasmine Starks, the TAU chapter president. “If you look at the Divine Nine black fraternities and sororities, let’s say they each have a superpower, one has fire and the other freezing,” Bigsbee explained. “The girls of ZTA hired choreographers and took something from all nine organizations. That’s what people mean when they talk about stealing. We saw signature movements from the Divine Nine in their routine.” In their cast biography for the MTV2 series, ZTA “admittedly acquired their step skills from the AKAs on campus. However, they have taken what they learned, made it their own, and perfected it.”Before their first regional competition, the IU AKA members had four days to create an original routine and competed in several competitions before advancing to Atlanta. Bigsbee said up until the Sprite Step Off, the AKAs had been judged by other greeks, people who understood what stepping was all about. At the Sprite Step Off, the first large-scale national competition of its kind, the judges included R&B singers Monica and TLC’s Chilli. “We were the real underdogs,” Prather said. “We were from Indiana and the best, and people only think stepping is in the south.”Prather said it seemed natural that with celebrity and network television endorsement, ZTA were poised to place high in the competition, if not win.“It’s all just become a reality show, and that’s obviously just not real,” she said. The debate has gravitated to YouTube and Facebook. On the YouTube video of ZTA’s winning routine, which has received more than 400,000 views, there are more than 2,000 comments ranging from accusations of racism to sympathetic support for the sisters of ZTA. Prather said in the wake of the situation, there has been a storm of press in Atlanta and elsewhere, both in favor of and against the AKAs. Essentially, the press has pitted the two co-winning sororities against one another.But Starks called the opportunity to compete “a blessing” and a chance to represent AKA nationally after seven years of inactivity on IU’s campus. The sisters recently celebrated their first-year anniversary on Feb. 22.Starks said her team also recognized the tenacity and creativity of their competition at the Sprite Step Off. The scholarship money will be used to support the step team members’ education and the TAU chapter. Starks added that she and her sisters she will be looking forward to other step competitions — the annual Atlanta Greek Picnic and the Little 500 Step Down.“We accomplished what we set out to accomplish,” Prather said. “If people need to know anything else, they can Google us.”
(02/24/10 4:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The scene was befitting for the British Parliament during IU President Michael McRobbie’s second “State of the University” address, which took place Tuesday in Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union.A color scheme of crimson, cream and black and white houndstooth pattern could be spotted on the briefcases and business attire of the nearly 175 IU faculty and guests in attendance for the address.McRobbie’s speech addressed the University’s academic core, budget status and plans for expansion of facilities with fervent positivity and hope for the future. Over the past 18 months, he said numerous historical strides have been made despite financial difficulties, such as professor Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize win and Barack Obama’s election to the U.S. presidency.The University has been no stranger to economic problems — its endowment has decreased from $1.6 billion in 2008 to $1.1 billion to its current $1.3 billion while faculty salaries have been frozen and tuition was raised.However, enrollment is at a record high with a diverse population of 107,000 students registered last fall. The school has also managed to hire 129 new faculty members this year. Trustee Sue Talbot said she found McRobbie’s speech to be positive and “right on target.”“A lot of what he talked about will benefit students just like you,” she said.Talbot said she worked her way through school during a time where it wasn’t as easy to receive support via scholarships or financial aid. IU Kokomo School of Public and Environmental Affairs professor Karl Besel agreed.“It seems that in the long term, President McRobbie is doing all he can to keep scholarship participation and levels up,” he said.Expansion and reallocation of facilities is on the horizon, with a possible school of public health and an extension of Woodlawn Avenue past 12th St., connecting the north and south parts of campus.McRobbie suggested that IU has avoided many of the cutbacks plaguing other universities and colleges because of fiscal discipline. IU has saved $23.3 million and will save the same amount next year due to conservation efforts. This will allow more funding to support scholarships such Rhodes, Fulbright and Truman.“Much of this good fortune is due to our own planning and actions,” McRobbie said. “At the urging of our trustees, we substantially increased our ‘rainy-day fund’ over the last three years as a buffer against economic downturn.”McRobbie’s greatest inspiration seemed to come from former IU President and Chancellor Herman B Wells. Wells served his presidential term during America’s Great Depression of the 1930s.He proposed private philanthropy efforts, gifts from alumni, and “increased appropriations from the General Assembly” as possible solutions to the budget cuts.So far this fiscal year, Bill and Gayle Cook have given $15 million to IU Athletics and Ostrom gave her approximately $700,000 Nobel Prize money to support the University’s Workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis, which she and her husband Vincent founded in 1973.He ended his speech by stating the focus of every University effort — to strengthen the academic core in all possible means for the benefit of students.An approximately 30 second round of applause broke out.Talbot said she feels that McRobbie’s plans for the future extend to something larger.“As history is written, he will be found to be a visionary in his leadership,” she said. “He and Herman B Wells faced similar challenges because of the economy, but like Wells, President McRobbie is very sensitive to the struggles of students.”
(02/23/10 5:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On Monday afternoon, approximately 120 students showed up to see legendary hip-hop DJ Biz Markie perform in the IU Fine Arts Auditorium.After Markie’s 20-minute set and his departure, only half the room remained.The event was part of a bus tour called “Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now!” and was sponsored by the Hip Hop Caucus and Repower America.The tour aims to merge hip-hop and environmentalism through a panel discussion encouraging student involvement in a clean energy movement. The tour will end Wednesday in Washington, D.C.The panel discussion featured Reverend Lennox Yearwood, president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus; IU’s Director of the Office of Diversity Education Eric Love; sophomore Renee Davis; freshman Lauren Kastner and graduate student Juan Berumen. Biz Markie was also briefly on the panel.Davis is a member of the Black Student Union and Kastner is the president of Coal Free IU, while Berumen researches social justice platforms in education.Yearwood, who has worked with names such as T.I., Keyshia Cole, Jay-Z and even P. Diddy on his 2004 Vote or Die! Campaign, is used to people not getting the message.Yearwood said he has seen people in his neighborhood in Shreveport, La. die of heat stroke and cancer due to poor environmental choices of urban areas. He said he has seen how Hurricane Katrina left many of his loved ones displaced. Yearwood said he served in the Air Force before he realized the current Iraq War was an environmental dispute over oil.Because of these experiences, Yearwood decided to engage urbanized youth nationwide in the idea of a new movement that will promote a cleaner, sustainable planet.The solution, Love said, is hip-hop. Its cultural staples have the power to move the youth. And if hip-hop is an institutionalized part of American culture, the same should go for clean energy.Diversity of this movement should include everyone, because, as senior and INPIRG intern Rachael Watkins said, social movements tend to be one color.“Usually when you think of environmental activists you think of white people,” she said. “But this really does affect everyone.”After students progressively filed out, Yearwood took the mic, addressing those who remained.“The opposition to this movement is just as vicious as anything civil rights leaders faced back then,” he said. “When celebrity is used to draw a crowd and that celebrity rolls out, and everyone rolls out with ’em, you’ve got a problem. The opposition isn’t going to take your stance seriously.”One student challenged the panel and called attention to the many lights in the auditorium being used for the forum, pointing out that the mic seemed unnecessary.“We’ve talked about what we should do, but what can we really do?” he said.Panelist Berumen answered him.“Let’s take responsibility for what we do to negatively affect our planet,” he said. “If you don’t like what you see, take small steps to start something that will change things.”Yearwood’s message is one of pride. He said he is inspired by how anti-slavery abolitionists fought for the freedoms he enjoys today. “I want our children’s children to remember us and say, ‘Thank God they fought for clean energy,’” he said. “Thank God that they fought a movement for existence.”
(02/18/10 5:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fran Snygg had a laugh that rippled through every corridor she walked down. It was childlike, the kind of uproariously whimsical sound that would inspire laughter from others. The outgoing New York dancer, choreographer and artist never met a stranger. But Fran died at 53 in 1996 of diabetic complications.Her home was filled with photographs of dancers and mementos of New York City — a print of the Brooklyn Bridge hung above her fireplace. “You would’ve liked her, I guarantee you would’ve,” said Mary Strow, IU’s head reference librarian. “When she talked to you, it was like you were the most important person in the whole world.”Today marks the beginning of the 26th-annual ArtsWeek, a project Fran pioneered and directed during the final 10 years of her life as a tribute to the diverse artistic culture in Bloomington.The theme of this year’s ArtsWeek is “Arts and the Environment” and will feature everything from a stage production of “The Drawer Boy” to a Trashion/ReFashion show. The event reflects the many social circles Fran connected with. After her death, her life was celebrated in a ceremony by a myriad of talents in theater, music, fine art and dance.Mary and Gwen Hamm, a professor and undergraduate studies coordinator in the Department of Kinesiology, believe today’s ArtsWeek is just as Fran would’ve liked it — a celebration and collaboration of the arts.Fran, Mary and Gwen comprised the Three Amigos — a bond of intellectual companionship and sisterhood.“Our dance styles as choreographers and students are both different and complementary to one another’s,” Gwen said. “Our friendship was the same way.”Fran often thought in conceptual, highly stylized forms, while Gwen’s approach relied more on physicality. Mary rested somewhere in the middle.Gwen was a freshman studying dance when she met Fran.Fran would later go on to pursue a graduate degree in dance theater at New York University, then dance in Spain before returning to IU as a faculty member.“I always admired her from afar,” Gwen said.Pilates instructor Emily Bogard experienced Fran as a fellow classmate, and later, when pursuing her graduate degree at IU as a teacher. Emily remembers how Fran always listened and cared. Fran taught Emily a dance inspired by the late Isadora Duncan, the heralded creator of modern dance. The dance was softer, like Fran, Emily says. It was a beautiful, tough solo piece. Fran matched it with Emily’s ability. “Fran was so open to what a dancer, or anyone for that matter, could suggest,” Emily said. “She often thought, ‘This was the vision, now how do we get there?’”Thus, Fran shattered the stereotype of a cane-tapping, shrill-voiced dance instructor, opting for a soft intensity that attracted one’s full attention. When Fran was up for promotion and tenure — always a stressful time, Mary said — she lost her dossier. Mary laughed when recalling the events that ensued. “We ended up having to go to a landfill, dressed in high heels and office attire, digging through banana peels to find this document that she needed for promotion,” she said. “Can you imagine? I’m sure it was quite a sight to see.”Friends say Fran never took herself too seriously, but when it came to helping others, she was passionate.In her last years, Fran was the head of an ArtsWeek committee that mapped out scholarships for promising talent in her honor. Mary was part of the six-person team that developed the Fran Snygg Endowment Fund and the Grant for Artistic Collaboration awards. Selene Carter, a visiting guest lecturer in the kinesiology department, won both of them.Today in the Jordan Hall Atrium, Selene will showcase her work on a project called Dancescience Lab during afternoon and evening sessions. The event will kick off ArtsWeek. Students from the IU Contemporary Dance Program will perform Selene’s choreography, based on the cycle of life. The location of the atrium is fitting for Selene, because it is a place that explores the developmental movements of all living things. This was something Selene saw in Fran’s work. “Dance shows the growing and shrinking that happens in breathing,” Selene said. “We all breathe and move, so dance is, at its essence, a celebration of life.”
(02/17/10 8:11pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fellas, time to don your secret stash of Lacoste cardigans. Ladies, learn to tie an ascot. It seems that Woodstock possesses more than the rock frenzy that made the little town in upstate New York famous. It inspires music for the Ivy League, too.Yeasayer, a Brooklyn-based quartet, can now add their names to the list of artists influenced by Woodstock. To make their sophomore effort, “Odd Blood,” they took to a country house and got creative. The result is a genre-mashing effort that rocks more than it rolls. The guitars in “Rome” buzz, and cymbals clash with Afro-pop rhythms.“Strange Reunions” is marked by vaguely Middle Eastern-flavored synths, off-beat handclaps and gliding snake-charmer vocals. It features a line that showcases the band’s ego-driven love of independence and creativity: “Don’t ask me for any favors / And I won’t ask you how you’re doin’.”“Odd Blood” is only “odd” because it is likely one of the few albums this year that sounds like an irresistible smart-pop party.
(02/03/10 5:08pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Gravity is at the center of the tumultuous emotional waves splashing ashore in Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, “The Sea.”One can tell the songs, which vary from Waldon-esque reflections on God in “Love’s On Its Way” to the melancholy paradise she shared with recently-deceased husband Jason Rae (“I’d Do It All Again), are beautiful simply because of their song titles.“I Would Like To Call It Beauty” is one of the disc’s 12 tracks that feature the roar of introspective Fiona Apple-isms to superb effect, minus the self-deprecation. “The Blackest Lily,” a darkly sexy Prince-y sounding number, boasts the stunning couplet: “You are unnervingly delicate / And I have a weakness for etiquette.” The entire album focuses on a dark aesthetic, but the timbre of Rae’s voice in her psychological self-examinations of raw, real situations comes from a refreshingly humble, bigger-picture point of view. It will be hard for Rae to top herself with her next album. In just her second turn, she has managed to ground the schizo-eclectic emotions churning in the tidal waves of life that engulf all of us.