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(01/27/10 11:12pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>RJD2’s independently released “The Colossus” is a colossal mess of confusion. In this case, it’s not necessarily a bad thing – it’s just that the tracks don’t stick. Once a person is done with the freshness of Black Panther-style espionage on turntables, the listener may be left wondering what was just listened to. It’s hard to tell with RJD2, a DJ whose last release, 2007’s “The Third Hand,” found him crooning about eating meat over live instrumentation and pop-rock sampling. “The Colossus” is at times territorial — reflective of RJD2’s hometown pride in Columbus’s musical and cultural eclecticism — and at other moments eerily extraterrestrial. “Games You Can Win” is a gorgeous space narrative featuring the underrated vocal talents of another Ohio product, Kenna. “The Glow” and “The Shining Path” are velvety numbers that Brit-soul producer Mark Ronson may have had a hand in crafting. But “Giant Squid” is bizarre, and “A Spaceship For Now” is enough to make E.T. phone home. Warning: This album may inspire intellectual discourse about the ’70s and an occasional shuck-and-jive. And just maybe, you may feel abducted.
(01/22/10 5:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>"There was an old, old house renewed with paint, and in it a piano loudly playing.”These are the lines in the first stanza of a Robert Frost poem, “The Investment,” from his 1928 anthology, “West-Running Brook.”If only Frost could’ve known he’d be immortalized in a serene A. Allyn Bishop portrait across from the original printing of the Declaration of Independence 32 years later as the Lilly Library opened its doors.The library’s expansive collection of rare literature and art came from philanthropist Josiah Kirby Lilly, Jr. of the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune, who donated the pieces from 1954 to 1957.On Friday, the Lilly Library is commemorating 50 years of exclusive historical treasures from across the Atlantic Ocean to Latin America in the exhibit “Treasures of the Lilly Library.”From 5 to 9 p.m., the open house exhibit will feature pencils from the desk of Henry David Thoreau and even a waxed seal image of Queen Elizabeth I from one of her first documents.These artifacts will act as time capsules with some of the library’s other displays, such as the original 1941 Best Director Oscar statuette for “How Green Was My Valley” and the Slocum Puzzle Room.As Becky Cape, the library’s head of public services, said, the library will be “showing off the best of the best and the unusual.”Cape has been employed at the library for 38 years. She got a job as a manuscript cataloger after expressing interest in Latin American history.When her boss left his job at the library, she left him a card reading, “The work is fun here and it’s never, ever boring.” In addition to being a valuable learning experience, the library calls for an exercise in curiosity and humility for its workers and visitors.“There’s so much depth in the items we offer,” Public Services Librarian Erika Dowell said. “It’s just impossible for any one person to learn everything.”Dowell said sometimes she finds herself being fascinated with pieces as they come in via donation or are purchased through the library’s Lilly Endowment.For her, interpreting the breadth of what the library offers is beneficial to educating others.“I can’t imagine anyone not wanting to work in world-class collections,” Dowell said as she pointed to a glass-encased King James Bible with golden pages that seemed life-size. “Like that Bible: There are so many ways people can connect with it, whether it’s spiritual or just interesting.”Gabriel Swift, who also works in the public services department, was fascinated by the library’s accessibility when he began his job three years ago. It’s not a place where someone has to flash a photo ID and state their scholarly purpose to gain entry. The library even conducts around 200 free tours annually.The artwork is at Swift’s fingertips, which he equated with something as humbling as visiting the Sistine Chapel, or like being backstage at a rock show.His favorite curiosity of the library is “Apocalipsis,” an elaborate 15-page woodcut illustration by Albrecht Durer.“You can definitely be humbled by genius,” Swift said.
(01/21/10 4:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ace Pawn Shop manager Chris Banol and TomCats Pawn Shop store clerk John Eller have seen their share of stolen items that turn up for sale. Although Eller said half of 1 percent of the items in his store are stolen, he still has to answer to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office regularly. Both shops, which are regulated by the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions, are responsible for keeping items for 10-day periods before they can be sold to customers. “The first thing people do when they get something stolen is call a pawn shop,” Eller said. “We send in a list on CD-ROM to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office of everything we collect. Only Monroe County gets our records. Thieves aren’t the smartest people. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be stealing. But they know how to manipulate the system. They’ll go to the county over.”Banol said a lot of the stolen items that arrive at Ace Pawn Shop are taken from student housing while students are away for semester breaks. For instance, this past break, Banol said there was an upswing of these items, the most unusual ones being power tools. “A lot of people just take them from open construction sites,” he said. “It’s like a theft of opportunity.” Items are tracked by a case number and a form with the owner’s personal information, but the process of getting them returned to their original owner is futile if they don’t take the time to record the serial and model numbers of all valuables and keep them in a safe place, Banol said. “Always copy down a serial number when you buy something,” Eller said. “There’s not enough of that. There’s not much we can do if somebody says we’re missing a black laptop.”Banol expressed a similar sentiment. “People can’t just come in saying they’re missing a PlayStation 2, because there are 10 billion of those. So claims require a current ID and a thumbprint,” he said.
(01/21/10 12:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the world of gaming, life’s not just about how people navigate through realms unknown, but how they create their own experience. At least, that’s where the gaming industry is headed. Some even get there from Hollywood, like Lee Sheldon, an assistant professor who teaches classes on the subject in the telecommunications department. He spent his formative years writing TV pilots until landing a job by happenstance in British Columbia at a now-defunct game design company called Sanctuary. The first game he ever played, “Space Invaders” on the Atari 2600 console, inspired him to think of new ways to tell stories. The game design program at IU enables undergraduate students in telecommunications to invent alternative realities through a selection of classes that focus on application, Sheldon said. Students also have the option to craft multi-player or niche games through IU’s Individualized Major Program. Sheldon’s approach to teaching actually works more like a game. “I tell students in the beginning that they all have F’s,” he said. “Then they can ‘level-up’ if they do all the things gamers do. The class is a like a game in which everyone competes, complete with gaming terminology.”In response to the explosion of new media being integrated with gaming, such as Facebook games like “FarmVille,” student teams in Sheldon’s class have come up with game themes that range from Japanese mythology to a football tailgating-friendly board game on the underside of a cooler lid. “It’s good to demonstrate to them that games aren’t just about guys in big metal suits carrying guns,” Sheldon said of his students’ ability to think outside the box. But another type of gaming that people tend to think less about with the explosion of video games involves sitting around another type of box. IU alumnus Tim Ebert works as a store clerk at the Game Preserve downtown on the square. The store specializes in non-electronic games and still pulls in large crowds for weekly “Pokemon” nights and “Risk” tournaments. Ebert said whether one is playing a family-oriented game such as “Scrabble,” or a strategy game such as “The Settlers of Catan,” it’s important to know that a proactive decision-making process is always involved. “Something like ‘Halo’ may just involve shooting things properly,” Ebert said. “Other games make you apply the creativity and adaptitivity you learn in the world when you play them.”Alternate forms of gaming are not just about what people do when it’s time for them to roll the dice. “The purpose of games is to tell a story,” Ebert said. “In chess, there is a narrative at work. Essentially, you’re setting up traps for a checkmate to your opponent.”For Ebert, the ability to think critically while gaming has even influenced his performance on standardized tests. He thinks playing certain games are a fun way to “teach kids arithmetic when they otherwise wouldn’t want to bother learning it.”“I took a test in sixth grade,” he said. “There were words that appeared on the test that I wouldn’t have even known if it weren’t for me seeing them on a deck of ‘Magic: The Gathering’ cards.”
(01/20/10 6:43pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Believe it or not, L.A.-based electropop-rock skanklet Ke$ha is actually a 22-year-old frat boy. Never has a chick boasted bigger cajones than on her debut, “Animal.”Where most pop ingenues her age opt for double entendre and innuendo, Ke$ha’s rap-sung lyrics go straight for the genitals, with delightfully hilarious results.Songs like the raw “Blah Blah Blah” spell it out in an excess of Y chromosomes: “Don’t be a little bitch with your chit-chat / Just show me where your dick is at,” she spits over super-catchy blips and buzzing synths. Ke$ha doesn’t just gobble up the sad male saps who cross her path, however. She’s a party animal, too – which of course is what this disc is all about. She urges listeners to “Take It Off” in a sceneXcore hole-in-the-wall where there’s “glitter on the floor,” while “TiK ToK” shows her bragging about downing Jack Daniels with the best of ’em. Listeners might not want to hail Ke$ha as 2010’s Lady Gaga, but what Ke$ha lacks in avant-garde, new-pop artistry, she makes up for in XXX rated fun that simply tells it like it is.
(01/20/10 2:31pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>One may remember The Hills’ starlet Heidi Montag’s anti-climactic statement when she (or an Auto-Tuned bot) exhales and says, “Am I dreaming?” in her first viral single, “Higher” about a year ago.Thankfully, that definitely didn’t make the cut on this atrociously sex-fiend friendly pop trash of a debut album.Montag certainly exhibits a voracious appetite for all forms of instant gratification on her first and likely, last, independent release, “Superficial.”Those forms include demanding instant respect in the music industry on the title track, which she shoots down all hopes of immediately with the disclaimer: “They just mad, ‘cause I’m sexy, famous / And I’m rich.”This comes from the same person who said on national television shortly after her live debacle on the Miss Universe pageant last fall, “Screw being a pop superstar, I’m aiming to be the next pop galaxy.”But, for those who find her deep, please do indulge in tracks like “Blackout” where she wants to “black out the satellite” with the boy of her dreams.Or for those obsessed with a man that probably doesn’t want you anyway, check out “Look How I’m Doing,” where she spits rage at a suitor who didn’t deliver on his promise to “lay her in the City of Dreams.”Don’t kid yourself, Heidi.
(12/08/09 12:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Call R. Kelly what you want, but he remains undisputed as the king of R&B opera and epic sex. Even at a ripe 42 years old, the man’s still got drive. Not only does he swear he can give you “12 play” way beyond the fourth quarter, ladies, but he promises he’ll get you pregnant if you respond to his Patron-fueled sexting. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a relationship or not. R. Kelly is definitely the perfect man to bring home to mama. But, even I’ll admit, it’s hard not to give in when he sings such sweet harmonies about such blatantly disrespectful subject matter with such an intensely freaky fervor. On his latest “Untitled” disc, R. Kelly sticks to what made him famous (and infamous): songs about masochistic, generous, long-lasting, adventurous, juvenile sex. This philosophy is updated to fit the current Top 40 trend of aping the Atlanta-cized, soft snap music branded by superproducer, The-Dream. But, at least with Kells, what you see is what you get — no gloss, no pretense. But, no one ever said the man wasn’t over the top. The dramatics include comparing a classy young lady to food on a plate in “Go Low” and Gwen Stefani-style yodeling in “Echo.”Of course, little is left up to the imagination with “Bangin’ the Headboard.” And there is a completely wrong song called “Religious,” in which he claims that there is something “church” about a girl he wants to bed. Talk about preaching to the choir.
(12/07/09 6:40pm)
BoD: WEEKEND celebrates pop music's last 10 years.
(12/01/09 5:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Drums supplemented an undulating roar of fellowship Monday in the Fountain Square ballroom downtown during the Community AIDS Action Group’s Ceremony of Celebration and Remembrance.Despite the bright bulbs jutting out from several chandelier holsters, the lighting was still dim enough to suit the occasion, that was organized in memory of World AIDS Day, which is today. Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and edible red ribbons were served to guests in crimson pencil skirts and V-neck sweater-and-button-up combinations. Guests were mingling at round glass tables shrouded in fresh white linen tablecloths to songs such as “Lean On Me,” and “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway hit musical “Rent.”At the event, the point was made that HIV/AIDS doesn’t have a face. It could be anyone, from the student on the 9 bus sipping a Polar Pop to an avid runner to the firefighter who rescues kittens and saves lives.But, even in the new age of cocktail drugs that prevent the jaundiced skin and sunken eyes often caused by the deterioration AIDS can cause to one’s body, the disease still affects everyone. Just ask Vicci Laine, a local resident and HIV/AIDS fundraiser and activist. It took an HIV scare in 1991 from an unfaithful lover whom she trusted enough to neglect condom usage to change her world. He was sleeping with someone infected with HIV via intravenous drug abuse. Though Laine’s test came back negative, she has since forgiven her ex-boyfriend’s infidelity and dedicates her life to letting other people know about the dangers of such risky, complacent behavior. “People think the threat is over, you take meds (and) you live forever,” Laine said, shaking her head. “Well, that’s a myth. It’s not affecting specific communities like people once thought. It’s a huge threat to the world.”Another motivator for Laine’s work is seeing many of her friends live and die of AIDS complications, including her best friend. She, like all the other people one would least expect to be affected by the fatal disease, was a national beauty queen. She died at 31. “She went from being a beauty queen to losing her eyesight, having hair loss and having a leg amputated,” Laine said about her friend, whom she also described as a fighter. “It’s painful for everyone around to see that, not just the victim, though they are in the most pain,”But, because of the stigma still associated with HIV and AIDS – that it is largely an issue only reaching the GLBT community, Laine said her friend kept her sickness a secret for a long time. Laine said that she could relate to this because when she went through her scare, for the two weeks she waited for her test results to come back, it felt like “waiting on the word of a death sentence.” And if that were true, Laine said, how does one go about telling their mother, brother, sisters and friends?“I didn’t suspect a thing was wrong with my friend until her partner died of the disease,” Laine said. “After he died, she made a quick progression from being fine to very ill.”Despite Laine’s efforts to change the opinions of skeptics with her story, sometimes when speaking to classes, she still said she sees that one student in the back of the room, arms folded in apathy. This look to her says, “I’m just here for extra credit.”Senior Eric Schubert is one student who doesn’t mesh with such an attitude. During his senior year in high school, Schubert took on an internship with Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis. Schubert worked in the emergency room, where he said he saw everything from homeless people to diseases most common people defeat at childhood with vaccinations. Schubert had to undergo an HIV blood examination and wait for two days. He spent those days watching movies such as director Larry Clark’s “Kids” and the famed Tom Hanks film “Philadelphia.” Both deal with the consequences and the hardships of living with AIDS in urban populations. Schubert said he also reflected on the times he was having unprotected sex with girlfriends. “I mean they were girlfriends, and I felt safe, but I still had that feeling in the back of my mind, like ‘what if’ that happened to me?” he said. Another wake-up call came from a semester taking the popular human sexuality course through the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. Like most students enrolled in the class at any given time, Schubert was one of many who sat before an HIV/AIDS panel. “One of the guys was from Martinsville, Indiana, and he admitted to sleeping with hundreds of people,” he said. “He now feels like it’s the biggest mistake of his life, because he’s in pain all the time and he has to take 25 pills a day to cope, but even the side effects still make him sick.”Schubert, who is a nursing student, said it is because of people like that panelist who influence him to maintain an open mind about the widespread effects of HIV/AIDS. “What’s goin’ on out there is bad news and nasty stuff. There is no cure for that,” he said. “And as educated as many people are, you’ll always have those people that don’t use their head, but use what’s in their pants.”
(11/22/09 9:25pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For those of you that follow British tabloids, you’d know that Robbie Williams has had a well-documented breakdown in the public eye for the past five years. Unlike our American sweetheart, Britney Spears, he doesn’t bow out to technological robotics in between trips to the psych ward. He still makes music. His latest, “Reality Killed the Video Star,” doesn’t have the umph or new millennium pathos of “The Ego Has Landed” or the fabulous electro-Timberlake bounce of 2006’s “Rudebox,” but it’s still got somethin’ special. In less than 50 minutes, Williams manages to record a disc filled with realistic, sobering studies of sex, love, fame, God and self-image.In “You Know Me,” a malt-shop, doo-wop charmer, Williams croons about just how much he values relationship co-dependency with the refrain “Since you went away / my heart breaks every day.” In “Last Days of Disco,” amid swirling strings and groovy basslines, there is still an undertone of the uncertainty of music’s future, even as he cries defiantly, “Don’t call it a comeback / Look what I invented here.”On this CD, Williams has invented magic — without the help of Auto-Tune.
(11/22/09 9:16pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>You’d expect an album called “The Fall” to have a sense of chaos within it. But, we are talking about Norah Jones here. Her latest disc embodies an overwhelming chill that rocks. One can literally hear the patience of a Big Apple jazz starlet who has seen more than her share of heartache and loneliness. There is even a song all about it. In “Waiting,” the music is patient with Jones, allowing her to emote over ballerina music box melodies and from-within humming. But don’t think for a second that Jones is self-deprecating. There is a cool, coy seductive charm to the timbre of her voice laced throughout the songs, which are accented with ’80s breakbeats and Fleetwood Mac-style bassline struts in summery jams like “Chasing Pirates” and “Even Though.”Jones covers interesting territory though. “Light As a Feather” captures the Middle Ages through woozy violins, chamber choir harmonics and electrosynths. “Young Blood” recalls the nation’s current “Twilight” obsession. Dissonant lyrics such as “He kissed my neck with a crooked cracked fang” align with reflections on fear and self-empowerment. Yes, Norah Jones is quite the mix of eclectic chill, but on this album, she proves there’s more to her than low-fi jazz-pop for white suburban housewives.
(11/17/09 11:06pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Wyclef Jean wants to get rich or die tryin,’ but he’s no 50 Cent. The sad reality is that this business model for rap superstardom has been re-hashed as an artist’s back-story – 50 times over. In an attempt to relate to his origins and rationalize his fame, the self-proclaimed “hip-hop Amadeus,” under the pseudonym Toussaint St. Jean, has crafted his latest LP, “From the Hut, to the Projects to the Mansion.” It leaves you wondering what happened to “Ms. Hill” and if the Fugees will ever reclaim the throne of soulful hip-hop royalty. The formula of this album is not only old, but hideously formulaic. Wyclef, always a political pundit with the heart of a satirist, could very well be pulling our chains with crunk-rock mash-ups like “You Don’t Wanna Go Outside” and the Nas-aping, Blaxploitation-era jazz strut of “Toussaint Vs. Bishop.”In fact he must be joking with the most insane in the membrane collaboration of the year: Cyndi Lauper guesting on “Slumdog Millionaire.”If this album is a satire of hood drama, Jonathan Swift would’ve written “Gulliver’s Travels” as a melodrama.
(11/16/09 4:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Dancing for 36 hours is no small feat.But when one considers the motivation and the range of emotions behind the students who participated in this weekend’s annual IU Dance Marathon, it’s easy to see why they did. IUDM has become a staple in IU’s rich philanthropic history since its inception in 1991, dedicating itself to the memory, life and charitable work of AIDS patient and Kokomo resident Ryan White. White, a hemophiliac, was diagnosed with the fatal disease in 1984 after a blood transfusion infected him, and he was subsequently expelled from school, earning him a platform to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS issues until his death at age 18.The year-round production of IUDM has grown rapidly, becoming the world’s second-largest student-run philanthropy organization, next to Pennsylvania State University’s dance marathon.This year, funds raised at IUDM totaled more than $1.5 million, with participation from about 1,200 registered dancers – more than half belonging to greek houses.Perhaps the overall sensation of IUDM can best be summed up on the middle restroom stall’s wall in the men’s locker room, where the anonymous scrawl of “I <3 these Kids” stands as a declaration of love on the chipped gray painted surface.Maybe the feeling is best displayed on a poster board where participants described why they dance.Ford Manion writes, “I dance for the opportunity to make a difference. I dance because I don’t know how to and it makes people laugh. I dance for the kids who are unable. I dance because it matters. It matters to more people than we imagine.”Or maybe it’s best displayed on the black outer shell of the Inspiration Tent, where the wide-reaching effects of Ryan White’s legacy can be witnessed via slide show, newspaper clippings and star cut-outs from participating dancers from 1991 onward.Most of all, one can sense why one would dance for 36 hours on catered rations of Rice Krispies treats and bite-size turkey wraps by simply listening to the stories of Meredith Alexander, Casey Crouse, Stacie Thornburgh, Vincent Buckner and his mother Rose Black, Morgan Dale, Varney Venal, Patrick Malone, Lauren Brucker, Chris Myers and countless others.The list of Riley kids, IUDM committee and executive board members and dancers themselves with inspiring stories is comprised of many, but they all share a singular commonality.They all have the passion, commitment and drive to stand on their feet for 36 hours straight despite the desire to fall asleep standing up, despite the hunger pains seizing their stomachs and despite the need for a special kind of mental athleticism and endurance. This is all for the kids.It is for 13-year-old Morgan Dale of Linton, Ind., who was sent to Riley from Bloomington Hospital three days after birth because of a blood clot in her heart. Riley has saved Morgan Dale’s life three times, said her mother Shany Dale, providing her with a valve transplant and a heart transplant at seven weeks old, followed by another in 2006.Shany Dale called the college generation of IUDM participants positive role models for her daughter and other families with children to look up to. Because of their example, Morgan Dale said she wants to become a pediatrician, dedicating her life to the people who have saved her life.“There’s a misconception of what Riley kids are really like,” Shany Dale said. “People think of the kid with the IV pole and in the wagon or in the wheelchair. You can’t tell just by looking at someone who is a Riley kid. They are able to surprise you and show you what they can do.”Stacie Thornbourgh, 26, of Indianapolis, has attended IUDM since it started. Like Morgan Dale, she too has persevered because of Riley and still considers herself a Riley kid. She has survived more than 350 surgeries for various brain and heart conditions and requires a service dog to aid her in day-to-day activities.In speeches addressing a fatigued yet upbeat crowd, Riley kids and their families spoke on how IUDM has bettered their lives by giving the doctors that care for them a chance to do so. Conversely, as much as the Riley kids gave credit to the dancers for helping provide them another chance at life, they too acted as “healers” to the dancers during the marathon.HEART AND SOUL OF IUTables are broken, floors are sticky with spilled caffeine and a handful of Ace playing cards are glued down to the spills like yesterday’s failed poker match. UGG boots, Tootsie Roll Pops, half-empty bottles of Smartwater and crushed pretzel sticks lie in the wreckage outside. The conditions that occur from more than 1,000 students establishing a temporary residence in a gymnasium are most evident in the men’s locker rooms. After 24 hours, the restroom floors are flooded with toilet water and sticks of gum soak up the drip-drops of partially turned-off faucets in the porcelain sinks.Several men are stretched across wooden benches long enough for one 7-foot-tall adult, catching Z’s away from the organized chaos outside.Senior Lauren Brucker, who is the director of monetary corporate relations, has been participating in IUDM since her freshman year. She takes advantage of small moments throughout the dance marathon to reflect on what she’s helped to create.“I go to the stairs leading to the upper gyms and look out at all the people down below,” she said, describing her pride. “It’s just good to get away sometimes, and I take a deep breath and I see the heart and soul of IU.”Rose Black is the mother of 29-year-old Vincent Buckner, a Riley kid who was born with cerebral palsy. In reflection on the kindness of the doctors at Riley and IUDM’s unwavering support, she caught her breath.“Those kids in there have all shown me so much love since I’ve been coming with Vincent back in 1992,” she said, beaming proudly. “To get love, you have to give it, and those kids are giving love ’round the clock.”TENNIS BALLS AND WORD VOMITStudents alternate between shooting hoops and playing ping-pong and volleyball with Riley’s kids, who are gliding across the slick floor of the main gym with star-shaped balloons trailing behind them in the wave of sweltering body heat. Also, one could argue that in moments throughout the marathon, a participant is prone to delusions. For instance, as the hours ticked on ’til midnight Saturday, individual blurbs such as “I’m actually not even that tired” and “I feel great!” became self-employed devices for mental stability in spite of bodies wobbling around the gym. Barricades of cold cast-iron bike racks became ballet bars as dancers hurled their stressed limbs on them for stretching. Junior Andie Clark, a member of Delta Delta Delta, walked amid the rubble and discovered a frayed neon-green tennis ball. “I don’t even care, I’m gonna use this,” Clark shrugged while removing her shoes and socks. She seemed to drape her body over the bike racks, complaining of lower back tension. But she still wore a smile.“These are everywhere, and they are great for your back and feet when they’re throbbing,” she said.Sophomore Maggie Delaney, a member of Delta Gamma, sprained her ankle a couple of weeks ago, and said although it swells, she’s “muscling through it.” “My sisters have to keep me iced, and change the gauze bandages hourly,” Delaney said while stretching. Freshman Jacob Novich was slumped against one of bike racks. He said he was falling asleep while standing when his head struck the metal, jolting him from his brief slumber.“Luckily we’re two-thirds of the way through – that’s what’s keeping me going,” Novich said. “There are 14 hours left, and I’m just looking forward to my bed at the end.”Sophomore Meredith Alexander, member of Pi Beta Phi, shared her story to uplift the dancers.As a former Riley’s kid, she suffered from a life-threatening brain tumor at age 16. She danced around the gym, handing out bright yellow stickers with the words “Tumors Suck!” printed on them. Alexander remained positive because she felt obligated to, crediting her faith in God for her strength.“I feel coherent, but I know my words make no sense,” she said 24 hours in. “I can barely put two words together to make a sentence. I certainly couldn’t be driving right now.”Rose Black decided to pin silver five-cent angels with the words “faith” and “strength” whenever she saw a dancer crying, squatting or needing encouragement to continue.Pink kids’ scooters whirred by as random outbursts of spirited cheers erupted from opposite sides of the main gym, as if those cheering were committing spontaneous efforts to boost their own morale.FOR THE KIDSA troupe of tie-dyed cheerleaders made sure the morale of those around them never dropped to an irrecoverable low. Senior Patrick Malone is one of these cheerleaders, or members of the morale committee, for which people have to interview intensely for positions. Malone, a Riley’s kid himself, underwent surgery for Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome at age 12, which caused extreme heartbeat rates. He is in the Fiji fraternity and has been involved as a dancer and committee member since his freshman year.“The surgeries can seem so drawn-out for these families, but Dance Marathon is a celebration – it’s a huge party for them,” Malone said. “The whole event is such an emotional roller coaster, especially when you hear all the touching stories. It’s real.”Malone is one of several committee members who is graduating in the spring, and looking back, he said he has many fond memories of IUDM. His favorite involves a dance-off with a little girl.“Stuff like that happens. You see the joy in these children’s faces, and you just realize why you’re here,” he said.Senior Casey Crouse knows why he is here. For him, the 36 hours are more than fundraising, more than the personal glory of surviving it. He was one of the leading organizers of the dance marathon at Carmel High School in Carmel, Ind.His sister, Ashley Crouse, was an IU student who was killed in a hit-and-run car accident in 2005. Casey Crouse has dedicated his work with IUDM to her memory, her smile, her genuine zest for life and her passion for living for others. His friends admire his tenacity.“If I had to put a face to Dance Marathon, it’s Casey,” Malone said as sunlight beamed into the gymnasium from the windows.They were high above homemade banners from participating greek houses and local sponsors such as Union Board and the U.S. military, boldly displaying messages of support for IUDM. “He lives it,” Malone added.Recalling the mantra “For the kids,” once-exhausted dancers perked up like flower petals given another chance to cross-pollinate and become new buds. For the dancers, so many Riley children have received new lives time and again at the loving hands of a pediatrician who removed them from potential darkness and let them bask in sunlight to grow and shine, never leaving them unattended. The camaraderie experienced by the dancers is a similar feeling – it went across houses, across colors, across gender and social divides. Everyone involved, whether they were dancers, executive or committee board members, kept each person in the gym uplifted. This was done by an occasional encouraging whisper of “You got this!” or by physically lending a hand to help someone stand.A defining moment of the dancers’ strength came from Stacie Thornbourgh herself. She took the stage at 10:45 p.m. Saturday in the main gym and fixed her gaze admirably on the crowd.“If I can lay flat on my back in the hospital beds at Riley for five months straight, you certainly can do 36 hours,” she said. “When you leave this place, ask yourself – was it worth it?”
(11/11/09 5:33pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>B-sides sometimes mean “bad sides,” but in the case of British singer-songwriter and former Smiths frontman Morrissey, the latest B-side compilation album, “Swords,” should get a “K” for kick-ass. Fiona Apple enthusiast? Check. Muse’s epic Spanish conquests? Check. Captivating snake-charmer melodies? Check. Morrissey rolls all of these things up deliciously into a package of his unconventional brand of musical inflexibility as he takes from his past three critically-acclaimed solo albums. With that said, it would be wrong to criticize the compilation’s overall lack of cohesiveness. It doesn’t flow, but individually, the tunes are absolutely stunning, enhanced by piano and acoustic guitar theatrics reminiscent of Brechtian cabaret. At age 50, Morrissey’s voice is a downtrodden lull, singing songs about “softening the stains to his heart” and why staring is rude in offbeat titles such as “Don’t Make Fun of Daddy’s Voice” and “Christian Dior.”The duel going on here isn’t because Morrissey can’t establish a musical identity – it’s because he is still searching for the best way to reconcile multiple ones.
(11/09/09 2:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At 3 feet 6 inches, weighing 86 pounds, the self-proclaimed “world’s smallest extreme athlete”, 29-year-old Tony Elliott, is not offended when people call him a midget.Instead of being offended by a term that to many people is politically incorrect, he is empowered by it.Elliott is a wrestler from Gary who has made a name for himself since going pro at age 18, using the pseudonym “Teo” in the ring.Among Elliott’s adventures, he has traveled to Australia, been on Pay-Per-View nearly 10 times and has had several injuries from the choreographed theatrics of professional wrestling.He’s serious about his athleticism and hates it when people find midget wrestling a folly, “like it was in the ‘80s.”But what upsets Elliott more than anything is when organizations such as Little People of America band against him for his life’s work.“I am not gonna let a word define who I am,” he said. “Why does it bother you that it doesn’t bother me? I’m an individual, and I love what I do. I’m an athlete and an entertainer.”To Elliott, protests from activist groups for little people are more belittling than if someone were to call him a midget.“It’s like they’re saying that because I’m a dwarf I can’t or am unable to wrestle,” he added. “I’m just like everybody else in terms of what I can do.”Mike’s Music & Dance Barn of Nashville, Ind., is one place that doesn’t seem to mind.Owner Mike Robertson once worked in construction but said he wanted to build a place that would welcome people who enjoyed music and dancing as much as he did – Robertson has played tenor saxophone since eighth grade – while keeping in step with all the dressings of a family-friendly venue.And so he drew plans on a napkin, bought a saw mill and the rest is history. The dance barn rests on Robertson’s family farm, and it is a place where people have fallen in love and sealed their marriage vows. The outside of the venue seems intimidating as an isolated barn-shaped structure, but the inside is much more inviting – the aroma of charbroiled hamburgers with American cheese filled the air, as Christmas lights and multihued sombreros lined the walls to shape the decor of good, clean family fun.Alongside all the nights of wedded bliss, line dancing and country music cover bands, Robertson said Friday night was one of the more unique ones with the turnout for midget wrestling. The charges collected from patrons at the door went to benefit Mother’s Cupboard Community Kitchen in Brown County.16-year-old Nashville resident Kimberly Bogle, who has the current Miss Teen Indiana-World national title while attending Brown County High School, is a hostess at the dance barn, though she admitted she’d never seen anything quite like this.“It’s crazy because there are people I see from school here, and you see them in a whole new light,” Bogle said as more spectators young and old milled about. “But, at the same time, the atmosphere’s a lot calmer than you’d think.”In addition to the excited families surrounding the 18-by-18-foot former World Championship Wrestling training ring, which replaced the shiny hardwood dance floor, there were a number of interesting characters dashing around, signing autographs and taking pictures with kids as their delighted parents stood by.All the characters present ranged from “Super Chicken” to an imitation Nacho Libre.And IU sophomore Tyler Lucas considered himself one of them in his $10 neon-orange Terre Haute sweatshirt from Walgreens.He came with his friends freshman Marc London and sophomore Tyler Tigges on a whim.“There’s nothing else to do tonight, so we thought we’d watch them midgets go to town,” Lucas said. “I wanna see them do well. We’re all here for the midgets.”A series of exhibition matches with average-sized people kicked things off, including “Jerry Springer” regulars and The Bump N Uglies from “Detroit, Mexico,” a troupe of men clad in black spandex and red arrow masks.The crowd was filled with people who were die-hard wrestling fans.Jeff Baushke came with his wife Joyce from a mile and half from Nashville. Wrestling may be generally considered a sport with a predominantly male following, but Joyce, Baushke said, was the reason he came to the dance barn.He is, however, an avid fan himself, decked out in Lycra skeleton gloves and spray painted Christmas-colored hair. He has been watching wrestling since 1980 and has attended matches from World Wrestling Federation and matches on racetracks. He even came with neon poster board signs cheering on the competition.But he said he does think it is important to acknowledge the legitimacy of midget wrestling, too, without resorting to exploitative measures.“They work hard and have to make a living too,” Baushke said. “My friend Billy is small and he’s cool as hell. Sometimes I wish I was small.”After a brief intermission, the main event between midget wrestlers Teo and 36-year-old Chris Guyre, under the pseudonym, P.O.D. (pissed-off dwarf) was ready to commence. Ace Craft, the matches’ commentator and promoter for event sponsor Sideshow Wrestling, had narrated through “Super Chicken” doing the chicken dance and a New York City clown named Doink who expressed his “loathing” for the audience.But he was most excited about the main event because of all the work that went into it. Craft told the crowd that the event was 10 years in the making, as Teo and P.O.D. were competing for the “Dwarf World Title.”Kid Rock’s “Bawitdaba” served as a pump-up soundtrack for the crowd, who leapt to their feet as Teo and P.O.D. entered the ring. A group of girls flailed eagerly in front of an elderly couple.“Will you girls sit down?” the woman yelled to them.The starting whistle sounded and Teo and P.O.D. tangoed around the stage, laying a series of bone-crushing piledrivers and tackles on one another.Teo was flung up against the ropes and dizzily sauntered around until he collapsed to the ground, down for the count as P.O.D. plotted his next move.P.O.D. eventually passed out from exhaustion, but Teo was the true underdog, as children began pounding the ring where he lay nearly unconscious, throwing popcorn and screaming.Teo came to and raised a fist in the air in response to his young admirers.“1, 2, 3,” referee Jason Harding cried, striking the mat with an open fist, as Teo pinned P.O.D down, earning the Dwarf World Title.“The best man won,” Guyre said later, adding that he felt Teo was his strongest competitor and that he planned to reclaim the title.Smooth Country, featuring owner Robertson took the stage and played songs such as “Long Tall Texan” as the wrestling ring was torn down and people filed out to their cars in the empty lot.A man in a chicken costume was one of the few who stayed behind.As he did earlier, “Super Chicken” was being photographed with children who were reluctant to leave.It meant a lot for him to be at the dance barn during the event – he was a sneeze away from paralysis after a severe back injury removed him from the wrestling ring nearly a year ago.Super Chicken helps raise three children with his girlfriend, and the joy he gets from that translates well to his night shtick in costume.“I want to put smiles on all these kids’ faces,” he said, stooping down to chat with a broad-smiling little girl in a pink shirt and pigtails. “Excuse me, everyone. This little girl wants to take a picture.”
(11/04/09 7:27pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There is a lot to be said about a band that can call an album “Cosmic Egg” without layering on the Milky Way-curdled cheese extra thick. See what I mean? Well, if you don’t, you should still check out Wolfmother’s latest disc, the first offering since the Aussie band’s 2005 major label, self-titled debut. They’re those guys who sang “Woman,” on a Guitar Hero II game near you. But the style is a little different this time around. While their debut comes off like a bad take on The Donnas meets The Darkness, “Cosmic Egg” is pure LA-glam-trash-hairmetal-sex rock. Especially the opener, “California Queen” and the title track, which is a Studio 54 designer drug party.“Tell me all of your good reasons / tell me every word you say,” wails frontman Andrew Stockdale over rhythm guitars sounding like an intergalactic chase of sex and intrigue. The songs all churn on, picking up speed and energy with each key change. They have the cinematic feel of suites, minus the disconnect. Wolfmother’s “Cosmic Egg” should be horribly bad by many accounts, but instead, is awesomely good.
(10/29/09 12:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Rusted iron gates with barbed wire don’t seem very inviting until you look at the stencil painted signs tacked onto them. One reads “Friendly People Welcome,” with the “N” in “friendly” written backwards. There is also the brightly-colored Little Tikes children’s scooter by the dumpster with a sign above it reading what the place is and who inhabits it. It’s called Bakers Junction. John and Cheryl Baker head a family of three girls, Crystal Starr, Amber Skye and Nova Raye Baker, as well as two grandsons, 5-year-old Dillan and 8-year-old AJ. What is now Bakers Junction in Smithville, Ind., was an empty lot when Cheryl and her husband moved there in 1977. Soon after, John Baker began collecting old train cars that were slated to be destroyed. Today, the Bakers’ property is a train graveyard. The rusty behemoths loom behind their small home and look foreboding enough without the additional creepy collectibles the Bakers have set up on the property, turning the string of train cars into a haunted maze that opens for business as the Halloween season nears.The genuine friendliness of the family, however, is underestimated by outsiders because of the spooky surroundings. For Cheryl Baker, the rusted exterior of the trailer the family occupies and the shallow pool of baby doll parts serve as a way to screen out those who are unfriendly. The Bakers’ “watch dog” Gomez, Cheryl Baker said, is a 3-year-old half Labrador retriever, half German shepherd mix who barks to alert the family of unwelcome visitors. “I don’t let the super weird people on the deck if the dog don’t like them,” she said with a smile. That’s an interesting sentiment coming from someone who admittedly is the “black sheep of the family.” Cheryl Baker knows she lives an unconventional lifestyle, and understands that some are skeptical while others are critical. “We’re nice people,” she said in defense. “I don’t care if people don’t like me because I’m not normal. People are so afraid to talk about things that haunt them or they experience because people think they’re crazy. I’m aware of that, and I don’t care what people think.”Nova Raye Baker, who is 17 and attends Bloomington High School South, has been dodging the opinions of others throughout her time in school.“I used to get teased real bad for my dad (John Baker),” she said. “People swore we were crazy for the longest time, and my friends didn’t want to come visit me.” It wasn’t until her high school days that Nova Raye Baker said the ways her classmates treated her began to change. “Now some of my friends think it’s cool when they find out my family runs a haunted train,” she said. “They come out scared and crying.”Someone should’ve told that to the Herald Times reporter who visited Nova Raye Baker’s social studies class. Nova Raye Baker and her mother said the reporter apparently remarked about some “crazy old man south of here (Bloomington) who cut off his finger and put in on eBay.” About that finger – John Baker said in a nonchalant tone that he cut if off from his right hand while sawing a board above his head in one of the haunted train cars. It has since been mummified and put on a key ring. And it is being sold on EBay, Cheryl Baker confirmed, because, well, “the family business could use the extra money.”Cheryl Baker said she understands that people are curious about them. “This girl who was beyond drunk stumbled out of the haunted train once and asked if John cut off his finger on purpose, and I was like ‘No, why would he do that?’” she said. “The things people tend to think are just unreal. Like, who would ever do something like that intentionally?”But most things about the Bakers aren’t simple results of happenstance. Cheryl Baker said most of the knickknacks in the family home come from her father, who she described as a giant pack rat. The items adorning the house include an American flag torpedo that serves as a piggy bank, an old stained glass window from a church up the street and a skull with eyeballs in the sockets. Cheryl and Nova Raye Baker both claim to have experienced the presence of ghostly apparitions. Cheryl Baker remembers a time when she was out at an antique shop in Kentucky about 10 to 15 years ago. “I was looking in a mirror, and I saw a girl in old-fashioned colonial dress,” she said. “I swore I was doing drugs. Then she followed us home, and a random tombstone was with us. It’s sounds so much crazier out loud.”Nova Raye Baker said she sleeps with a nightlight on because of it, but the few times she hasn’t, a girl in a sailor costume has visited her room at night, wanting to play. Cheryl Baker doesn’t like to be scared herself, but, she admitted, it’s fun to scare her daughters. Nova Raye’s favorite urban legend concerns her father. Nova Raye said when she was younger, her mother used to tell her sisters that John Baker used to murder people and stuff them in the old train cars behind the trailer they inhabit. “It’s a joke,” she said, as an eerie silence befell the room, which was broken by the entrance of John Baker, whose nearly seven-foot-tall shadow loomed in the doorway. The Bakers know they aren’t normal, and they don’t try to be. When home alone, they may knock each other out with frozen turkeys and watch horror movies until they are desensitized, but their “normal” is much different from everyone else’s. “How do you define normal?” Cheryl Baker said. “This isn’t the ’50s, and I ain’t no June Cleaver. That ain’t normal. These days, we say what we wanna say, and we cook our own meals.”
(10/29/09 12:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Hype of paranormal activity may dominate during Halloween, but for the Hoosier Paranormal Researchers, the unknown never rests.The eight researchers that make up the investigating team have been going to presumably haunted locations in Indiana with digital audio recorders, infrared and night vision cameras and K2 frequency meters. The group hardly claim actual merit in their findings, and instead investigates for their own benefit and understanding.“We knew going into this that any evidence that we captured or presented, there will be skeptics,” said HPR founder Greg Wilson. “We understand and appreciate skepticism because we are skeptics ourselves.”That being said, group members Ricky Stevens, Shanon Ping and brothers Robert, Greg and Kenny Wilson have all experienced paranormal events. Most recently at the old Pixy Theatre in Edinburgh, Ind., the investigators shot night vision footage of Robert Wilson’s glasses mysteriously flying out of his hand six feet across the room they were standing in.More footage of various paranormal experiences can be found on their Web site at www.hoosierparanormal.com, which also features recorded Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs).The team tries to keep things as scientific as possible by establishing controls such as room temperature and frequency readings early in the investigation and then pairing the different findings against each other.Their most recent investigation took place Saturday in Columbus, Ind., at a Noble Roman’s pizza restaurant. Investigators were at the scene until 3 a.m., using their tools in hopes of proving customer complaints of a reported “shadow person.”While closing, Noble Roman’s store manager Ashley Duncan said the night was different than others, largely because of the presence of HPR.“I just hope they find something,” she said. “There have been some weird things happening around here for a while now.”Duncan went on to cite examples of previous encounters. One report involved customers who were eating at a booth across the room from the main counter.“There was a tile that seemed like it came out of the ceiling from a vent above their booth,” Duncan said, providing an eyewitness account. “It just shattered to the floor.”The tile, which was broken in three pieces, was a brown, ceramic 2-by-2 square, that, interestingly enough, matches no other tile patterns in the building.Duncan said she had been working at Noble Roman’s for nearly four years and added that she is not the only one who has witnessed strange happenings.She said she has seen a half-torso apparition looming in the restaurant’s main hallway near the restrooms, as well as a taller pitch-black shadow figure of a man entering the kitchen area.“The ghosts are friendly, but you still have the feeling of being rushed,” Duncan explained.While Duncan’s shift was ending, HPR’s shift was just beginning. The men circled the restaurant with their tools, clad in casual wear and goatees. Some were sipping Diet Cokes and others were leafing through menus.But all of them, even in all their experience, were focused on the task at hand while keeping in the mind the skeptical opinions of others – and themselves.“You always have those butterflies in your stomach,” Ping said.
(10/28/09 7:58pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>From the working-class hero that made us “feel the Illinoise” in 2005 comes another musical time capsule fit for the soundtrack of our dreams – that is, if you have the dreams of a Disney princess.Sufjan Stevens’ latest effort, “The BQE” (standing for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway), was just re-released last week from the original November 2007 conceptual live show as a full multimedia package with CD and DVD accompaniment. Stevens says in the liner notes of the album, “To drive on the BQE is to embrace the anarchy of an amusement theme park.”Ah, so that explains the Hooper Heroes, images of hula hoop girls named Botanica, Quantus and Electress laced throughout the disc. That also explains the disjointed feel of the entire package, complete with its political messages advocating the necessity of saving old neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens while simultaneously berating the road rage of antisocial American drivers.The music, which was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, shows off Stevens’ compositional flair for mixing classical music form with delicious indie experimentation. There are sweeping strings as well as plucky, cutesy ones, tinkling pianos and big-top circus orchestras. There is even a weird ditty in one of seven “movement” tracks titled “Traffic Shock” that sounds like theme music to a sensory-overload video game based exclusively in Japan. The whole thing sounds like Disney’s “Fantasia” mixed with an ominous tune from one of Bjork’s more recently accessible, dark albums, with a call hailing New York as the best city on the planet. Kudos to Stevens for pulling that off, at least. The DVD, filmed and directed mostly by Stevens, features beautiful borough-scapes of frenetic freeways, Jay-Z billboards, high-rises and hula hoop girls. Images light up to the pulse of instruments as if to say that while the BQE is overbuilt and hazardous for drivers and surrounding neighborhoods alike, at least the dream of New York is definitely still alive.It calls to mind the gritty trippiness of something vaguely 1970s and oftentimes feels like the best kind of poetic justice. Weird stuff, Sufjan.
(10/13/09 9:31pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Listen up fellas, Beth Ditto of Gossip doesn’t like you, despite what the title of the band’s latest effort, “Music For Men,” may suggest. As if that’s not enough, the cover of the disc is a photograph of an androgynous being, complete with perfectly coiffed hair and arched eyebrows. Ditto, a self-described out-and-proud overweight lesbian feminist, is no stranger to sexual politics and stickin’ it to the man. For instance, when she snarls soulfully, “It’s the perfect crime” of same-sex male trysts in “Men In Love,” you better believe her. “Music For Men” is the disco-flavored, post-punk revival band’s first effort since 2006’s “Standing In the Way of Control,” which has seen prominence ranging from the U.K., where it went gold, to the prime time fly-and-flashy soap, “Gossip Girl.” The result of “Music for Men” is a Rick Rubin-style (Rubin is the album's producer) wall of sound, raging a war on the loudness of ’70s-era punk, and a more cohesive album than Gossip’s previously more uneven discs. The 12-track album is full of sweet breakup jams like the “Sweet Dreams” feel of “Love and Let Love,” which features the abstract hook, “It’s a long long way to February / Where the ocean meets the sun.” “Four Letter Word” finds Ditto gleefully cynical with the lyric, “Never gonna fall in love again, never wanna see your face again.”Those who love Gossip will be happy to discover a shinier, slicker sound chock full of the band’s typically genre-mashing schizophrenia. Those who find Ditto trite and disillusioned might want to take a long hard look in the mirror.