140 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(05/17/09 11:07pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>New Orleans native Jay Dowl has been playing recorder for 12 years and calls himself “the Flute Man.”As a cool breeze blew through the trees lining Kirkwood Avenue on Saturday evening, Dowl stood in the wooden doorway of the former location of Greek’s Pizzeria, playing pieces ranging from Bach to spiritual hymns on his recorder.“I’ve been living here in Bloomington for three years,” he said. “I’ve just come on in here, and soon I’ll be at the next destination.”Dowl taught himself to play recorder. He said that through his research, he found it is a much more serious instrument than some perceive.He said his studies in London on classical music have influenced him to relocate to Bloomington, intending to eventually be at the Jacobs School of Music.Dowl’s love of the classics and sharing his gift of music also attracts people from various backgrounds.Zak and Hagino Hargis had never been to Bloomington until Saturday. They were impressed by the beauty of the town and the simplicity of being able to walk down Kirkwood and hear someone like Dowl perform.The couple is from Kentucky. Hagino Hargis studies music and plays piano at the University of Louisville.Their 18-month-old son, Kanase, looked up at Dowl in a fixed gaze as he played “Greensleeves.” The child’s name means “to play music in the world.”“It’s so nice to walk by and hear things we’re familiar with,” said Hagino Hargis. “It’s such a gift.”
(05/14/09 12:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>An international house could be coming to IU, but it would not specialize in pancakes.IU President Michael McRobbie and the IU board of trustees hammered out a proposal for a new International Studies Building in recent meetings. The proposed building would unite the University’s many international programs and serve as campus headquarters for foreign students as well as students pusuing an international studies major or a study abroad program. Trustee Sue Talbot said the location and design for the new building are still pending.“It’s definitely still in an early planning stage,” Talbot said. “But it is an important building to have on campus because we have a large international student population here. It’s good to have a facility where all types of students can interact with one another.“Talbot said an important goal for the board of trustees is to establish learning communities. For example, she said there are science and technology precincts throughout campus facilitating shared student educational interests.Bob Meadows, assistant vice president for the University Architect Services Building, is on the committee of architects responsible for the construction of the building.Meadows said the building, which is an important prospect for McRobbie, would be beneficial for connecting all students needing the international resources that will be available within it.He said McRobbie outlined a goal of the new building during a planning meeting, saying a new building encompassing international studies would serve a need for the alignment of humanities in the academic community.“Everyone would readily admit there is a hole in that part of the campus,” he said. “The new building would connect the (Wells) library to the rest of campus, since it’s kind of out there by itself. Besides, there aren’t many spaces available to put it.”But the proposed locations for where the International Studies Building – between the Radio and Television Building and the Herman B Wells Library – would alter parking space availability.IU Parking Operations manager Doug Porter said to help amend this situation, the proposal will also include the construction of a parking garage in the 10th Street lot across from Teter Quad. The garage, and the remainder of the lot, he said, will likely have mixed parking for residence hall students, other students and faculty, with certain floors specified for certain parking permits. Porter said payment options for parking permits have yet to be configured.“The drawings for the international building show that a large chunk of the west parking lot for the library will be taken up, so we may have to also allocate mixed parking there as well,” Porter said. “Parking spaces are going to get shuffled around.”Porter said the most disruptive part of the whole proposed process likely will be the construction period.“We don’t know what goes up first, the building or the parking garage,” he said. “Either way, there’s definitely going to be some shifting around when spaces aren’t available, especially when there is traffic, noise and confusion. You have to break the eggs before you make the omelet, I guess.”
(05/13/09 9:43pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Each year, the Exchange Club of Northside Bloomington and members of the Bloomington Police Department gather to honor a new police officer of the year.This year, BPD officer Jeff Rodgers won the award.His peers said he has shown exemplary work ethic and on one occasion put his life at risk to save others. Rodgers has been with BPD since 2006 and was nominated by BPD Police Chief Michael Diekhoff for his outstanding performance of duty since 2008, according to a press release for the award ceremony in the Crowne Plaza Hotel on May 7. He is an IU graduate and worked with the IU Police Department before becoming a training officer for BPD.Some of Rodgers’ 2008 accomplishments include assisting victims in a trailer fire, successfully conducting and managing a stabbing homicide case and preventing several in-progress burglaries in the area, said BPD Capt. Joe Qualters.What made Rodgers a standout candidate for Officer of the Year was a nighttime situation on North Walnut Street in January 2008 involving an intoxicated man who was armed with brass knuckles.BPD Lt. Faron Lake, who recommended Rodgers for the award, is his supervisor for the night shift. He said he saw Rodgers after the incident. He was missing several teeth and suffered wounds to the face.“Rodgers tried to remove (the man) from harm’s way, and (the man) pulled out brass knuckles and attacked Rodgers,” Lake said. “They were lying in the road and were at risk of being run over.”After a struggle, Rodgers successfully moved himself and the other man to safety. For this, Rodgers received a Bravery Award and a Purple Heart Award for his injuries. However, Lake said this is not the only reason he felt compelled to recommend Rodgers for the award. “He’s just a well-rounded individual with a good head on his shoulders and good common sense about him,” he said. “He’s the way a cop should be.”Monroe Circuit Judge Kenneth Todd, a member of the Exchange Club of Northside Bloomington, said he had not met Rodgers before the award ceremony but felt upon meeting him that he was “a very nice young man who was dedicated and a very good police officer.”Todd said he hopes people can learn from the example set by Rodgers’ accomplishments. “He placed public welfare above his own, and put himself in harm’s way,” he said. “We don’t think of the risks police officers run day to day.”
(05/10/09 11:41pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The day after the “chickens came to roost” at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, social activists, peace lovers and folk musicians from the community and from afar reunited in Third Street Park to participate in an all-day hippie hometown reunion Sunday. “When the Chickens Come Home to Roost,” a concert Saturday featuring local singer-songwriters from the ’60s and the ’70s, returned feelings of nostalgia to longtime residents. Students may come and go, but the artistic tradition of Bloomington, rich in social events and music, is here to stay. The summer once again ushers in a reclaiming of the land by the people who have watched Bloomington evolve. “There was a time when young activists of the ’70s represented the majority, instead of a small minority,” Bloomington resident Joe Loop said. “The music and culture was reflective of the times and there was a lot of peace and love going on. There still is.”Activist and musician Marc Haggerty said the concert Saturday, which brought back local music legends like Dillon Bustin, Bob Lucas, Mark Bingham and Caroline Peyton, among others, brought the idea of Bloomington’s lasting cultural history back home as well. “It’s like we as a community with fond memories sent these talented people out into the world to create art for 40 years and they came right back to where they all began,” Haggerty said. Bloomington resident Dave Cole said many songs performed at the concert from the ’60s and ’70s were “guideposts for how to live.” He said the music was reflective of the times, which promoted self-sufficiency and doing for oneself with the bare essentials of survival. “Politics of those times came and went,” Cole said. “We took a vow of voluntary poverty, doing whatever it took to create music that was important to us.”At Sunday’s reunion, Cole stood by as Bob Lucas, one of Saturday night’s performers, sang and played acoustic guitar. People crowded around to listen to the impromptu jam session. “This is what we did 30 years ago today, back when I grew up on a small farm in rural Indiana,” he said. “The clocks didn’t rule our days and people would just play music for as long as they felt necessary.”Linda Ball has been living in Bloomington since 1971. She came from Cloverdale, Ind., where she said she had a graduating class of 35. She chose Bloomington as a place to settle and raise her five children because of the promise of cultural diversity in a progressive college town.“I really wanted to enjoy all the beauty the town had to offer,” Ball said. “Back in Cloverdale, we didn’t even have a theater.”Her favorite memory of the ’70s involved her occupation as head cook, a job earning her $2.25 an hour at an organic vegetarian restaurant called Earth Kitchen on Kirkwood Avenue. At the reunion Sunday, she looked to the makeshift stage overlooking the lawn, where blankets were sprawled about and people enjoyed conversation about the good and bad times in Bloomington’s history.“At the restaurant, we listened to people like Joni Mitchell,” Ball recalled, “because it was all about taking in the good things of life, being happy and wanting peace for then and for the future.”
(05/08/09 3:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Thirty eight-year-old TDs CDs and LPs owner Michael Anderson experienced the ’80s by virtue of his own musical exploration. Anderson said he grew up in “a very non-musical house” in working-class Boston and thought none of his parents cared about music, even though he always “heard things.” He said he played piano and Dungeons and Dragons. For Anderson, the ’80s saw a series of phases in music, and he recalls being on the cutting-edge when it came to rocking the latest jams. “Around 1980, I started hearing early New York hip-hop,” he said, reminiscing on a particular time he was in a Washington, D.C., airport. He was listening to tapes by LL Cool J and Run-DMC.“The black kids back then were listening to funk and soul and so this music had yet to really make a mark,” Anderson said. “These black kids came up to me in the airport and were like ‘What are you listening to?’ because they’d never heard anything like it.”Anderson credits his current love of new wave and electronic dance music to weekends he spent at New York break dancing competitions with his brother from 1982 to 1983. He said he had no idea how important music would be until around this time. His mother signified a change in the times as a “divorcee hitting up discos” and bringing home Grandmaster Flash. “I was the weirdo who listened to Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Cure,” he said. “It was nice to not really have a frame of reference.”This lack of a frame of reference led Anderson to enjoy many facets of the music scene, including the meteoric rise of Madonna, who he said was “this weirdly sexy, kinda ugly chick with great pop tunes.”Bands such as The Cure, he said brought him “straight to goth” in 1986 and ushered in a shift to alternative radio where it was acceptable for “nerdy white guys” to create avant-garde dance music. It wasn’t until the ’90s during the DIY period, where artists were seeking to authenticate themselves that Anderson said he realized he liked to actually play music. “When the ’90s came around, I was old enough to travel,” he said. “So I went around and took with me a sense of history from how I grew up musically in the ’80s.”As owner of TDs, Anderson gets to share that sense of history with customers who lived through the ’80s and those who didn’t.“Music is such a huge part of my life now, and it really guided me through different phases of life to how I live these days,” he said. “The ’80s wasn’t just crack and AIDS, it was musical as well, and a variety of music, too.”
(05/08/09 3:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If asked what his generation would be remembered for, 33-year-old Jason Nickey, co-owner of Landlocked Music, draws a blank when coming up with descriptive terms. He’s lived through the ’80s, graduated high school in 1994 and remembers when the shift between the glam of the ’80s and the grunge of the ’90s occurred. For him it happened when the music his classmates listened to suddenly changed. Nickey grew up near Ball State University in downtown Muncie, Ind. He said while in middle school he remembered everyone once listening to “glitzy, cheesy ’80s pop radio” and then shifting to Nirvana and Jane’s Addiction, bands he recalls as the first nods to alternative art rock. For Nickey, this ushered in a new era of hipster ’tude.“I definitely grew up in the Generation X period, where no one identified as any one thing and it was suddenly cool to be ironic,” he said. Nickey said he felt like over the course of a summer, music and popular culture changed from something on-the-surface and image-based to a shift in the 90s to grunge. “There was this conscious attempt to create something real,” he said. “That’s when you saw a lot of the ironic T-shirts that had nothing to do with anything become popular.”Growing up in Generation X, Nickey said it was hard to figure out what the youth in society actually stood for. For him, this sense of uncertainty about the future of his generation began in the ’80s, which foreshadowed what was to come in the ’90s. Nickey refers to the ’80s as a period that was bleak and black-and-white.It all ties back to history – there was the Reagan era, the birth of MTV, the so-called death of disco and the insurgence of the AIDS epidemic.Looking back on his upbringing in downtown Muncie, Nickey said there were crackheads on every corner, petty crimes and “just a lot of people being really dirt poor.”Like many people seeking refuge from the poor economy and the reality of America’s drug problem, Nickey turned to his cable television set, where he said he was allowed by his parents to escape to an “unhealthy amount of bad ’80s TV and hair metal bands.”“People wanted what was glamorous and over-the-top back then,” he said. “There wasn’t much irony in pop culture then as there is now. Tight Speedos and leotards were just what happened then.”Despite the surface pleasures of ’80s pop culture, Nickey said he believes cultural artifacts of that time still hold up well today. He said he recently watched a season of “Miami Vice” and was surprised it was still relevant, in spite of the cheesy fashions in the show. Nickey saw the ’90s as a sudden need to acknowledge all things considered “authentic.”This included strides in art and fashion.“It was listening to Nirvana, wearing oversized flannel and becoming as unglamorous as possible,” he said. “Ripped and faded jeans were suddenly being sold in stores. It seemed refreshing at the time.”What’s changed?And at the end of the day, Nickey said he feels he doesn’t identify with his generation, which is likely a common feeling among Generation X members, because there were no set expectations of them from society. He said though Nirvana is an exception to the rule, most cultural shifts from the ’80s to the ’90s didn’t age well and have no lasting identity or value beyond what is vague. “Looking back, I feel like I belong in a different time,” he said. “It was all this sort of blur of neon and black and I don’t know where I stood in all of that.”
(05/01/09 4:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Graduating senior Peter Wallace said he realized at this year’s Senior Salute that his favorite memories at IU come from waiting in lines. “If it’s waiting to get tickets at the games or to get into the bars, you’ll always meet new people,” he said. “Some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met have come from talking to people while waiting in line.”Wallace was one of the 1,000 to 1,500 students who attended the 14th annual Senior Salute on Thursday in the DeVault Alumni Center. The event was organized by the Student Alumni Association.Despite the unstable weather, complete with powerful wind gusts and alternations between sunshine and cloudy skies, hoards of students gathered to enjoy what SAA adviser Trish Surfus called the “the last hurrah before commencement.”Inside the DeVault Alumni Center, students could listen to Indianapolis-based band Dave and Rae perform various cover songs and receive free giveaways from the different schools within IU.IU coach Tom Crean congratulated the class of 2009 and introduced a cappella men’s chorus group, Straight No Chaser, who gave a rendition of the Indiana Fight Song. Provost Karen Hanson appeared with Student Alumni Association president and senior Lindsey Livingston to dedicate a symbolic tree in honor of 2009’s graduates.Behind the Alumni Center, students played on kid-sized basketball courts, ate free pizza, chatted with friends and recalled their favorite IU memories.Sophomore Kaity Wachtel, co-director of the event for the Student Alumni Association, sat by a stone fountain with no running water.She said she and co-director sophomore Christine Bass tried to plan the event as though it were their own senior farewell.“I just know when I’m a senior, I’m gonna cry through the whole thing,” Wachtel said.Tourism management major Erin Smith sat by the fountain eating an ice cream cone. She said she will miss spending time with all her friends, but she is excited for the future.“Of course, just like everyone, I’m trying to find a job,” Smith said. “If anyone would like to hire me, contact me.”Telecommunications major Terra Kash said she will miss the college experience itself.“Freshman year was the most fun,” she said. “I met so many great people, and I got to live in a box with another person for a year.”Sport marketing and management major Ryan Elliott said she will always remember junior year of Little 500 because it was her first big event as a 21-year-old.She said she is nervous for what’s to come because IU has provided a bubble for her.“It was like a world inside a world,” Elliott said. “But at least here, you have all you needed.”Wallace said IU gave him the big campus experience he wanted coming from Winchester, a small Indiana town.Most of all, he said he would miss walking around Bloomington and taking in the scenery.Human Development and Family Studies major Liz LeMay sat comfortably in a group of friends, eating a piece of pink cotton candy.LeMay said she enjoyed the beauty of Bloomington and all the people she came across.“I used to sleep by the rocks around the Jordan River between classes,” she said. “I’ll miss that, but I’ll miss being with friends even more. There is always something to do.”
(04/30/09 3:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As the economy declines, students face constant pressure to conform to the times while maintaining hope.Junior Jamila Coleman believes everybody “is equally as important and has a chance for hope.” Coleman is the president of the Undergraduate Black MBA Association, an organization seeking to provide a support system to minority students in the Kelley School of Business.The group organized a corporate networking fair Tuesday featuring representatives from Ernst & Young, General Mills, Primerica, Target and JCPenney. The representatives participated in a Q-and-A panel discussion, which addressed student concerns like competition and traits of an ideal job applicant.The unanimous response to a question about what they look for in an ideal applicant was “leadership.” There was also “confidence” and a “desire to work with people.”“Don’t worry about adversity or the person next to you in line for a job,” said Matt Hilligoss of JCPenney. “Stress what your strengths are today, in the moment.”The panelists also said the key to maintaining hope is perseverance.Laura Barnes Paley, associate director of Undergraduate Career Services in the Kelley School of Business, said the students who “hit the pavement again and again are typically the ones who succeed.”Paley said though things are overall slower and tougher because of the difficult economy, it is important for students to realize they can utilize networking opportunities. She advises students, especially frustrated seniors who are already reaching out, to broaden their network base and ask to be introduced to more people.“It’s a law of numbers,” Paley said. “For every few rejections, there are even more offers. You just have to know where and how to look.”When it feels like all hope is gone, it is imperative to take a big step back to square one, which involves the indentification of one’s skill set and becoming what Paley called “action-oriented.”Junior Lydana Hodges, vice president of promotions and advertising for the Undergraduate Black MBA Association, stressed the need to plan ahead for the future in spite of uncertainty about the economy.“Everything happens so fast,” she said. “So when the time comes for you to act, it has to be real and you have to be ready to learn. I’m excited for what’s to come.”Freshmen and sophomores who attended the fair seemed to believe in the importance of networking in preparation for future opportunities.Freshman Deleon Lott said in reality, though odds are stacked against her in society as a black female student pursuing business, she feels uplifted attending events like this one.“I feel more comfortable in the fact that I can do this,” she said. “You have to do what it takes and know what you want to do to get through tough times.”Sophomore Walter Ballard said he felt inspired by the black representatives from some of the nation’s top companies.“Being an African-American male in a recession is not easy,” he said. “But advice from someone who has made it is great. It’s like a small glass of hope on a home meal table.”
(04/21/09 1:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Those who attended the Holocaust memorial concert in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center likely experienced a real-life example of how the power of memory and music are interconnected.Bloomington Holocaust survivors and their children illustrated the power of memory through a silent candle ceremony and memorial prayer, in which each survivor and his or her child lit a candle in memory of the tragedies they all overcame.The way the candle ceremony was carried out by the survivors and those to come after them is in the vein of the Polish-based Children of the Holocaust mission, which serves to aid the older Righteous Gentiles who saved them from death years ago.The donations raised during the concert will go to benefit the remaining Righteous Gentiles, who now live under harsh conditions in Europe.The concert itself honored the musical legacy of Polish composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, who survived the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II when the Nazi regime killed millions of Jews and non-Jews.“His music captures the reality of the Warsaw ghetto through infinite shadows of gray,” said associate professor of musicology Halina Goldberg, who also organized and narrated the event. The first set consisted of three songs composed by Szpilman and performed by Junghwa Moon Auer on piano while graduate student Brian Arreola sang tenor.The second set featured the work of composer Fryderyk Chopin, played on piano by piano music professor Edward Auer.Goldberg said Chopin’s work influences a meaningful connection to World War II.In between each set of music, Goldberg’s narration painted a picture of Szpilman’s times in World War II’s war-torn Warsaw Ghetto, where he struggled to survive.“While in hiding, music gave him hope and sanity,” Goldberg said.She discussed how not only Szpilman’s musical legacy, but also his personal memoir, which was once banned in Europe because of its “excruciating candor,” affected her personally.Goldberg said she grew up in Poland and her parents survived the Holocaust. She said though she grew up around Szpilman’s music, which is popular in Poland, she didn’t know the person behind the music.She said the most astonishing thing about Szpilman’s memoir was the presentation of the Holocaust through sounds.“You could practically hear as you read, people dying, the sounds of the Warsaw Ghetto at night, the sounds of suffering,” Goldberg said.The concert ended with a live recording of the song that saved Szpilman’s life. When a Nazi officer told him to play a song, he played “Nocturne in C Sharp Minor Op.,” a posthumous composition by Chopin.Graduate student Kristen Strandberg said she had never been to a Jewish service but appreciated how the themes of memory and sound were connected.“It was really great to see someone like Halina, whom I know, approach this from such a personal level,” she said.Iris Yob, a Bloomington resident, said she thought the concert was beautifully put together. She said she learned a lot even though she is not Jewish and the memories presented may not directly affect her.“It was moving how there was a combination of stories from Halina, candles, rituals and memory,” she said. “I certainly feel like I want to be part of his memory.”
(04/20/09 3:41am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The red and white balloons adorned the steps leading to Teter Quad’s south courtyard Sunday and formed the shape of a ribbon, commemorating the fifth year of the Student Global AIDS Campaign’s AIDS Walk. This is the first year the walk has taken place on campus. In previous years, the group has based the walk primarily in the surrounding community.“Our walk today is a walk of pride,” said Sierra Launer, an 18-year-old student at Harmony School. “It helps us to connect and become more accepting of one another.”Launer then revealed she was born HIV-positive and read a poem titled “Who Am I?” in honor of her own identity and people suffering with HIV and AIDS.Inside Teter, performances by the Singing Hoosiers and the Sexy Flatts, as well as information tables from IU Health and Wellness and Positive Link, promoted HIV/AIDS awareness and captured the spirit of people living with the disease.The Sexy Flatts sang Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” and Billy Joel’s “For the Longest Time.”Sophomore Katie Shortt, who sings alto in the Sexy Flatts and is a Student Global AIDS Campaign member, said the group tried to select songs that were appropriate for a sense of togetherness in the community.“We all really wanted to help raise awareness in students and strengthen the outreach of the SGAC,” she said.Senior Anne Litchfield, student manager for the Singing Hoosiers, said the group was excited to get involved once contacted by the Student Global AIDS Campaign to perform.“The AIDS Walk is a very positive way to get campus involved in awareness efforts for the disease,” she said. “This is our first time performing here and I had never even heard of the AIDS Walk, but now that I’m here, it’s just that much more worthwhile.”The Singing Hoosiers performed a Queen medley in their set, including the song “We Are the Champions.”Litchfield said she found this to be an appropriate choice in the spirit of the AIDS Walk because the lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury, died of AIDS, and many people could connect to his story.Katie Wilkinson, office and outreach coordinator of IU Health and Wellness, emphasized the importance of being involved with student groups that seek to raise awareness on vital issues.“We are all working toward the same goal,” she said. “We all collaborate with Positive Link and work on preventing the spread of HIV. It’s nice that we have the chance to make the issue of HIV/AIDS more visible to students.”Wilkinson said educational outreach is needed more for students because of the tendency of many young people to perceive themselves as “invincible” when away from home for the first time.“The word needs to get out that it only takes one time,” she said.Sophomore Allison Lester, a walk participant and Bloomington resident, said she founded the group First Aid to AIDS in high school as a method of educational outreach for students.“The cure for HIV will be education,” she said. “We’re the next generation, and we have a responsibility to make sure everyone is informed and knows that HIV/AIDS most concerns the youth.”At 1:45 p.m., the walk around campus began. Despite the rain, students and members of the Bloomington community came out in a spirit of cheer to support the cause of AIDS awareness.Bloomington resident and faculty adviser for Student Global AIDS Campaign Richard Hardy brought his 6-year-old daughter Nicole along for the walk. She sat on his shoulders and held an umbrella above the two of them.Hardy reflected on what it was like to listen to Launer share her experience, saying he was moved by her positive message.“It was so beneficial to hear Sierra’s story,” he said. “I think she shows an amazing amount of strength that people could learn a lot from.”
(04/20/09 2:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On the heels of the nationwide Tax Day “tea parties” comes a group of protesters who want JP Morgan Chase and its subsidiaries to be held accountable for the economic crisis.About 40 people attended a short demonstration in response to how Chase is handling the $25 billion in bailout money it has received at noon Thursday in front of Chase Bank on College Avenue. “It’s one thing for banks to be sticking consumers with every strategy possible to get money,” said Julie Popper of the Change That Works organization, which was responsible for organizing the overnight protest. “But as taxpayers and shareholders, you and I own this bank. They need to stop paying us pennies on the dollar, stop lobbying against fights for fair protection of banks and just stop screwing us over.”Popper and the demonstrators who were present at the protest are advocates of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would improve worker wages and benefits.She said customers are not the only people getting “screwed over” by banks like Chase.“The average teller makes $10.42 an hour, while their CEO made $27 million last year,” Popper said. “So essentially, they are not only lobbying against us, but their own workers, and many are too afraid to say anything for fear of losing employment.”Popper said one solution would be unionization, which she said is good for the economy but is a process that often gets overlooked by CEOs.“We tend to gripe alone,” she said. “If there were other people who joined together in the fact that it’s not right that banks double our interest rates, that we can’t afford silly $3 ATM charges, then there would be some common ground. People would have choices.”Amid cries of “JP Morgan is a clown” and “We’re overworked and underpaid, all we want is Free Choice Act” from the crowd, lifelong Bloomington resident and Change That Works volunteer Jonathan Piland said he came to protest because American taxpayers and employees need to be heard.“We need to make people realize that banks are wrong,” he said, pointing toward the Chase Bank tower. “The CEOs in leather chairs won’t hear our voice if we don’t make ourselves heard. Not just for you or me, but for everyone, including those people inside afraid to come out and join us.”Piland said employers always have a voice, and he hopes President Barack Obama’s plans for reform can change things by valuing decisions of American employees.Jonathan Hall, senior director of Change That Works, cited his own upbringing as his reason for joining the organized protest.“My family and many other families, especially in southern Indiana, have been barring our way into middle class from lower middle class status for years,” he said. “It needs to start with the banks and then the government, to recognize that the people who work the hardest need the most support.”Hall said he and other members of Change That Works plan to reach out to other banks that continuously abuse the system.“The line of trust with banks is already low because of everything that goes on with AIG,” he said. “The fact that Chase is not doing what it claims to be doing with all the money it receives from us, not to mention the ways they get money wrongfully, needs to be contested. It certainly isn’t helping Americans trust any financial institution.”Pam Warren, Bloomington resident and volunteer with Organizing for America, shared a story about her daughter.“She paid her mortgage through Chase one month,” Warren said. “And they took out that payment twice from her account and refused to replace the money. She lives within her means, but she certainly can’t afford to pay the same mortgage twice in a month.”Warren said she was also an advocate for unionization of workers as a solution.“People must contact Sen. Evan Bayh if they want change in the state of Indiana,” she said. “We can only hope that he is a true advocate for laborers, like he says. Maybe then a lot of this won’t happen, but people have to act.”Chase representatives declined to comment for this story.
(04/20/09 1:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The first M435: Italian Theater Workshop ran its final project, “Illustrissimi IU Italian Players,” this weekend in the Willkie Auditorium to many attendees who didn’t know any Italian.“Students involved in the production pledge not to speak a single word of English during the entire process,” said Italian professor and co-director Colleen Ryan-Scheutz.Though most of the 15 IU students involved said they had no previous acting experience, it didn’t appear that way. Ryan-Scheutz said in addition to the actual performance, the set, costumes and props were all designed by students.The students performed scenes from “La Locandiera” by Carlo Goldoni and “Sabato, domenica e lunedi” by Eduardo de Filippo, as well as the one-act play “La Marcolfa” by Dario Fo.The production covered themes ranging from love to greed.“We tried to choose very physical comedies to communicate the language,” Ryan-Scheutz said. “And the subject matter of each show is timeless, so many of the show’s themes are modern enough to be useful to the actors.”She said she helped the students find their characters through various physical improvisational exercises. “Students had to learn that they were no longer these middle-American college kids,” Ryan-Schuetz said. “For instance, several women in the show played Italian men from a different time and of course had to adopt movements and gestures of Italian men to adjust.”She credited native speakers for helping students understand the physicality involved with communicating a foreign language on stage.Senior Christina Biancardi said this is her first semester taking Italian, so it was interesting to see such fluidity with the language on stage. “It was really well-done,” she said. “For this to be an almost entirely student-run production, I think it was amazing. The costumes and set were very elaborate.”Freshman Julie Zimmerman said she thought the students seemed to be having fun, which she said was even more fun for her to watch.“They did a really good job with body language,” she said. “It was really enjoyable for me, and I have no Italian experience.”Bloomington High School South senior Haley Schilling said she was a part of the production thanks to the OPEN Program, which allows high school students to take select IU courses.She said she once took part in the now-cancelled Italian program at her high school and wanted to continue learning the language.She said she met professor Ryan-Scheutz when she enrolled in M215: Accelerated Second-Year Italian and decided to take the Italian Theater Workshop course as well.“Everybody involved was so nice, so it didn’t feel hard to learn how to communicate Italian well enough for an audience to understand it,” Schilling said. “When it comes to theater and Italian, putting those together requires going in with an open mind.”
(04/17/09 6:15pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In commemoration of Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Memorial Day, the Polish Studies Center and Congregation Beth Shalom in Bloomington will play host to a Holocaust memorial concert to raise money for the Children of the Holocaust in Poland. The event, which will take place at 5 p.m. Sunday in the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, came from a cry for help from the Children of the Holocaust, an association of Holocaust survivors who, at the outbreak of World War II, were 13 years old or younger. The surviving members of the Children of the Holocaust are now in their 70s, struggling to continue to provide aid to the Righteous Gentiles, a group of non-Jews who risked their own lives to save those of Jews during World War II, according to a press release for the concert.Musicology professor and concert organizer Halina Goldberg said the musical legacy of Polish composer and Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman, whose life was chronicled in the recent Academy Award-winning film “The Pianist,” will be honored. “Szpilman was a musician at the core of his heart,” Goldberg said. “It’s what saved him from all the disaster happening during the Holocaust. So we want to give attention to his legacy through this concert, because his power to communicate through music touches so many different people.”Goldberg said one time while visiting Warsaw, Poland, she made the connection between Szpilman’s story and Holocaust victims when reading an article about the Children of the Holocaust organization, which is based in Poland. “I wanted to think of a way to bring together the power of music and memory while helping to raise money for the older survivors in Europe living under destitute conditions,” she said. Goldberg said she hopes the concert will bring the Polish and Jewish communities of Bloomington together and aid in helping to find common ground for the community. She wants to bring together people who experienced the horrors of World War II.Though the concert is free, Goldberg said guests are encouraged to make donations to support the cause.“We’re doing it for free because we believe in the overall purpose,” she said. Goldberg invited piano music professor Edward Auer to play select piano pieces for the concert. Auer said he was glad to participate. “It is so important to remember this part of history,” he said. “We have to remember the artistic struggles of Szpilman because of battles that were fought for art’s sake and partly won.”He also said it was imperative to acknowledge the way in which music lends aid to the power of memory, particularly for members of the Children of the Holocaust and Righteous Gentiles who are still alive to share experiences.“It’s a splendid thing because there are people who could use our help now, those who put their lives in danger by helping Jews,” Auer said. “Students and other people in the community need to see that compassionate gestures like this concert really bring people together for the sake of memory.”Junghwa Moon Auer, Edward Auer’s wife, is playing select Szpilman pieces for the concert. She said she was touched by how Spzilman was able to survive the Holocaust atrocities with his musical talents still intact.“For me as a musician, that is so powerful,” she said, “But even more important was through Szpilman’s struggles, I could understand other people’s struggles – what it must feel like to go through such disaster and have the strength to overcome it.”
(04/17/09 4:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Producing and performing a full-scale production entirely in Italian would be a huge undertaking for most. But members of the Italian Theater Workshop will perform the comedy “La Marcolfa” by Dario Fo and two short scenes from “La Locandiera” by Carlo Goldoni and “Sabato, Domenica, e Lunedì” by Eduardo De Filippo this weekend. Take it from senior Alison Howard, member of the 400-level, semester-long Italian Theater Workshop, taught by Professor Colleen Ryan-Scheutz:“It’s definitely not easy,” Howard said. “It’s a total language experience. No English is allowed, unless the director, who is our professor, gets frustrated.”Howard said the diversity of her class, which ranges from a high school Italian aficionado to foreign exchange students, created a unique set of challenges.“Very few of us had really acted in English before, let alone perform in a foreign language, where you have to communicate and act as though you’ve spoken the language your whole life,” Howard said.She said everything was done the way an Italian person would perform daily functions, especially when it came to learning proper speech and emphasis with certain words. “We had to understand where to put emphasis to make things sound natural, and the rhythm of the language,” Howard said. “Some of the people even worked with native speakers.”She said the students worked with Italian actor Marco Baliani, who came to give everyone tips on how to perform in Italian.Sophomore and Indian exchange student Naina Singh said the workshop has helped her gain confidence in public speaking. “I’m an Italian major, so though the language is familiar, the acting and vocal confidence that comes with it is not,” she said. “I have a bit of stage fright, but this is helping me overcome that.”Singh said students interested in coming should not be discouraged because everything will be in Italian. There is a detailed synopsis of each segment in English in the program.“It’s all very physical humor,” Howard said. “There’s a lot of slapstick, and it will appeal to people’s emotions. You don’t have to speak Italian necessarily to know what’s going on.”
(04/17/09 4:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In an effort to bring awareness of HIV and AIDS back to campus and the community, the IU chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign will be host to its fifth AIDS Walk at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Teter Quad south courtyard.The event will feature opening ceremonies, speakers, live performances and information from Positive Link and other student groups covering health matters, according to the Student Global AIDS Campaign Web site. The walk will begin at 1:45 p.m.“In the past, the focus has been largely centered on community awareness,” said sophomore Adeel Chaudhry, co-director of the Student Global AIDS Campaign. “Most of the people working at Positive Link decided it would be great to try and get students more involved with this issue, so we’re having the AIDS Walk on campus this year.”Chaudhry said the event is free, and students and community members can register on the Student Global AIDS Campaign Web site. “HIV/AIDS is such an issue here in Bloomington,” said senior Cassie Adams, co-director of the Student Global AIDS Campaign. “I don’t think many people around here are aware of the prevalence of the disease, especially in a small-town college community.Adams said she wants the group to help get rid of the stigma often associated with the disease – or at least come up with strategies to identify the stigma’s source.“I wanted to take action on fighting an issue that carries so much weight with so many different people,” she said. “I hope students will be encouraged to join the walk because HIV cases are on the rise nationwide. It should be an issue of concern.”Adams said efforts to publicize the AIDS Walk should encourage students to participate, citing chalking advertisements on sidewalks, putting up flyers in car windshields and general flyers in high-traffic student areas as ways to promote involvement.“We want the Student Global AIDS Campaign of IU to really evolve into a very large student group,” she said. “The more students are involved, the more likely we are to make an impact on how people feel about HIV and AIDS.”Freshman Michael Thomas said the idea of an AIDS Walk benefits public awareness and supports people with HIV or AIDS in the community.“Whether you have HIV or AIDS, we must recognize the dignity in everyone,” he said. “Otherwise, it will continue to be swept under the rug.”
(04/16/09 4:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>People in rural areas represent 8 percent of all reported AIDS cases – and the Rural Center for AIDS/HIV Prevention is trying to find a solution.The center is having its sixth national biennial conference this year starting today and running through Friday. It will mark the 15th year since the center was established at IU, as well as the first year a new award will be presented in honor of Ryan White, a national AIDS advocate who died of the disease in 1990 at age 18.His mother, Jeanne White Ginder, an AIDS advocate and human rights activist for people living with the disease, will receive the Jason Nickey Ryan White Distinguished Leadership Award at 1 p.m. Friday in the Tudor Room of the Indiana Memorial Union, according to a press release for the conference. She will also be speaking in honor of her son.“This is the biggest thing about this particular conference,” said Bill Yarber, IU applied health science professor and senior director of Rural Center for AIDS/HIV prevention. “Rural America lost a native son and this is a great way to carry on his legacy through public awareness efforts.”He said the conference centers on HIV/AIDS education for people in rural communities from nationwide prevention specialists.The Rural Center for AIDS/HIV Prevention serves as the first organization in the nation of its kind, solely serving the purpose of addressing issues pertaining to American rural areas.Yarber said rural people really appreciate the efforts of the organization to spread awareness to their communities and have their voices heard.“This all began when I and some people I work with now for the center realized the disparity of information about HIV and AIDS being reported to rural communities,” he said. “I wanted to address the fact that HIV and AIDS doesn’t just affect urban areas like people tend to think.”Yarber said he was further motivated to begin the organization when he realized the reason why rural communities tended to report lower statistics of AIDS cases than what was actually occurring. The reason includes various stigmas about the disease, including homophobia.Sharon Day, executive director for Indigenous Peoples Task Force, which is based in Minnesota, will participate in this year’s conference.Yarber said rural communities face a lot of unique challenges that often go ignored because of attention to urban areas.“The rural parts of the country need funding for prevention, education, testing, counseling and direct care services,” she said in an e-mail.Day said she is excited to learn how her colleagues around the country are aiding the education of rural communities.“I think people will be impressed this year,” Yarber said. “We have people coming from urban and rural places all over to hear about how they can contribute to AIDS prevention.”
(04/16/09 3:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sumit Ganguly, political science professor and India studies program director, shared warning words with students and faculty Wednesday during a symposium on global terror.“If you think we are nicely ensconced here in a bubble, think again. Al-Qaeda has not given up on its goal to harm Americans,” he said.Ganguly, along with Boaz Ganor of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, and central Eurasian studies professor Kemal Silay, shared responses from terrorism in India, Israel and Turkey, respectively. They each spoke of how these experiences connected to America.“Many Americans become complacent,” Ganguly said. “They say, ‘Why should I care? It’s just a bunch of foreigners getting blown up.’”Ganguly said the end of complacency will stop when the media and government decide to stop screening out information that seems too negative. He also said events in New Delhi and Bombay were precursors to the devastation of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.“There is a lot that gets ignored,” Ganguly said. “You heard about the Mumbai attacks that had India in terror for three days beginning November 26, 2008. But most people don’t know about the attack that killed 41 people at the Indian Embassy gates in July of that same year.”He said Indian responses to those attacks are “dilatory, ad-hoc and idiosyncratic,” citing corrupt police, a lack of national capability to have uniform intelligence operations and religious profiling of Muslim men after the attacks as reasons why.Ganor mentioned perceptions of Israel in Indiana.“Being here in Indiana, so many people probably look at Israel as a normal country, when it is actually plagued by terror,” he said.He cited various bombings, suicide attacks and organized and personal initiative attacks as reasons why so many Israelis were dying. These various forms of killing are executed by the Global Jihad, Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist groups, which Ganor said received state sponsorship and had access to modern, sophisticated technology.Ganor said the threat of international terrorism, which is largely sponsored by groups like the Global Jihad, is a much bigger threat to safety and humanity.“They operate on the true belief that no one state is immune to threats,” he said. “To be a terrorist today, there is no room for compromise.”He discussed the international debate of the Iraq War on terrorism.“Is it a war, or is it not a war?” he said. “It’s a religious war of ideas, a battle of the minds. The only way to understand how to win the war rests on the shoulder of Muslims themselves.”Freshman Sarah Twait said she believed the symposium was eye-opening, and it was good to see how Americans can learn from terrorism threats.“It’s terrifying to see and hear multiple speakers describe the same types of attacks on their specialized countries and know that these terrorists have no plan of stopping until their ultimate goal is met,” she said.Moderator and English professor Alvin Rosenfeld shared a quote from President Barack Obama’s inauguration speech, saying he agreed with Obama’s emphasis on defeating international terrorism.“‘We say to you now, our spirit is stronger than ever and will not be broken,’” he said. “‘We will not back down. We will defeat you.’”
(04/14/09 4:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Electric hair wigs, flashing neon beer logos and shotskis abounded Monday at Yogi’s Grill and Bar as patrons celebrated the restaurant’s 16th annual Dyngus Day, a Polish holiday that celebrates the end of Lent. The day involves partaking in Polish foods and mismatching fashions. Employees, customers and clowns alike took part in the festivities.Server Joelle Janssen said Dyngus Day is her favorite holiday and dressed as a clown to celebrate it. She pointed to the back bar, which was quickly filling up with customers.“By midnight, you won’t be able to walk in here,” she said.Junior Tyler Deaton said he was curious about Yogi’s and decided to join in the fun.“I’ve never been here before,” he said. “I’d like to have some drinks and try to polka dance.”Senior Brad Trimble said he was also a first-timer at Dyngus Day.“The polka music is really cool, and I saw one guy dressed in bright overall shorts,” he said. “It’s absolutely nuts. And I definitely don’t know how to polka dance, but I’ll try.”Just as Trimble said this, a beer-wielding man with a stained white shirt stumbled toward the performing Buffoonski Brothers polka band. Nearby couples waltzed amid the chaos. “I feel so out-of-place,” the drunk man said.The Buffoonski Brothers appeared excited for the turnout, however.“This is the best Dyngus Day ever!” one of the members said.Andi AufderHeyde, known as “Hobby,” a local professional clown, stood nearby.“My son, who is in The Buffoonski Brothers, bought me my accordion in October,” she said. “I’m having my first recital here on Dyngus Day at Yogi’s.”Hostess Averie Daniel said this year’s Dyngus Day celebration was exciting.“You get to meet all sorts of new people,” she said.Daniel said this is her second year working during the holiday, but her favorite memory occurred last year and involved a man in a leopard-print thong and coconut bra.“He hit on me,” she said. “I turned him down and he threw beer on me, but it was all in good fun.”Bartender Jackson Heiss said this year is proving to be a challenge for him because he normally bartends, and this is his first year working Dyngus Day as a manager.“It’s a little bit scarier, but it’s still a lot of fun,” he said. “Customers seem to be getting a lot more into it this year. Costumes are way more elaborate than last year.”Despite the expected drunken scenes from a bar, there were also families around who enjoyed the culture of the holiday.AufderHeyde played accordion at a few tables, while patrons ate hard-boiled eggs and Polish sausage sandwiches. Mike Glasscott, who works for Spirit 95.1 FM and AM 1370 WGCL, said this was his fifth year doing a live broadcast at Dyngus Day.“It’s been a great turnout for an indoor event,” he said. “People are having a great time rockin’, having a good time with friends.”
(04/14/09 4:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU is one of eight universities nationwide that is participating in a pilot project that will give students more control over how they earn their degrees. That might mean students mix and match courses from different programs, or maybe they don’t fulfill traditional degree requirements. The goal of the project is to support students working toward associate, bachelor’s or master’s degrees and to help prepare them for careers in particular fields by deciding what is important to learn, said Ken Sauer, senior associate commissioner for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.The project is focused on students and faculty in education, history and chemistry. Provost and executive Vice President Karen Hanson said Ivy Tech Community College students in Bloomington who are involved in these concentrations will also be able to transfer credits to IU.“I think this could prove to be an important stab at examining post-secondary education in the country,” Sauer said.Indiana was chosen by the Lumina Foundation for Education out of three states, including colleges and universities in Minnesota and Utah, which will feature the program for two fields of study.The project is unique because this is the first time it will be featured in America, Sauer said. A version of the program known as the Bologna Process was used in Latin America and Europe. IU was chosen out of a list of Indiana schools during a formal kickoff meeting for the project in Chicago – Purdue, Ivy Tech, IU-Purdue University Indianapolis and Vincennes will also participate.“It helps that the Lumina Foundation is also based in Indianapolis,” Sauer said. “In recent years, Indiana has gotten a lot of attention for a number of initiatives in education, so it is great that Lumina is focusing attention on that.”Hanson, who is involved with the project, said the process works like an orchestra, where all parts of the group are finely tuned to make a whole. She said the program will not focus on mandates and is completely exploratory for faculty and students in the education, history and chemistry departments.“The Bologna Process is about helping students move more seamlessly from one institutional setting to another,” Hanson said. “That’s a goal of this project sponsored by Lumina. It’s all connected with the realization that the environment for education is global. We want to see what works for everyone in terms of what needs to be learned and what doesn’t in preparation for a future career in one of these chosen fields.”Hanson said it was important to understand that the project is not a matter of preparing students for graduate school and will not implement standardized testing methods.“We are not dictating the substance of education or trying to dictate how students can navigate across a variety of institutions,” she said. “This is a unique alternative, because it allows students and faculty to figure out what they’re expected to know within a given field.”Dean of Students Dick McKaig said the Lumina project could prove to be beneficial because of the recent concerns about accountability in American education.“There is a legitimate concern about the quality of education in this country,” he said. “I think a program like this is a good way to certify a grad in how to be more prepared for their profession in each of these fields.”
(04/13/09 4:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Since its debut to Yogi’s Grill and Bar in 1994, Dyngus Day, the Polish holiday that marks the end of Easter weekend, has been a “great way for people to get back to the vices they gave up for Lent,” said Chris Karl, manager and co-owner of Yogi’s Grill and Bar.Karl said he would describe Dyngus Day as a cross between St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween because of the drink specials and the way people dress.“It’s a big deal,” he said. “It’s fun for people to dress up, and we have food, music and drink specials that we don’t have otherwise.”The food specials of the day include perogis for $0.50 apiece and hard-boiled eggs for $0.25 each or, strangely, three for $1, said junior Lauren Marshall, a server at Yogi’s Grill and Bar.“Everyone’s so drunk they don’t realize that the whole hard-boiled eggs thing is not a very good deal,” she said.Marshall said some of the unique features of Dyngus Day include live polka bands, accordion players at customer tables and shotskis. She said despite all the obvious chaos going around, working on Dyngus Day is usually a lot of fun.“It’s a total madhouse,” bartender John Haupthof said. “Everyone is here to have a good time. It’s one of the top two or three busiest days we have here.”Haupthof said he hopes the community will continue to get into Dyngus Day and wants more people to know about it.Cat Conatser, a bartender at Yogi’s Grill and Bar, said she is a “Dyngus Day virgin,” but she expects work to be crazy.“The 12-hour shift I’m scheduled to work that day will feel like five,” she said. “I expect it to be a shoulder-to-shoulder madhouse and of course, with all the drinks around, pure entertainment for whoever is working.”For Conatser, the most difficult part of preparing for Dyngus Day is deciding what she will wear.“Lately when I go out shopping, I’m trying to find the most ridiculous stuff under five bucks,” she said. “Stripes and rainbows will be my thing, like a walking gay pride sponsor.”