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(05/10/12 5:21pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There was no telling what this would sound like.Here We Go Magic’s self-titled debut consisted of spacey bedroom recordings from Luke Temple, and 2010’s follow-up “Pigeons” sported freaky melodies and a full band in tow.While far from a sophomore slump, the band failed to truly lift off like its live sets and debut promised it could. “A Different Ship” is the sound of Here We Go Magic finally launching into the fully charged pop-rock it’s capable of.In the capable hands of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, the band’s arrangements are less crowded than on “Pigeons” but sound richer. The album flows easily from lazier tracks to intense jams that gradually fill up as layers of sound fall into place.The title and closing track might be the best on the album, with its crisp vocals and thunderous guitar that slowly roll into a wave of distortion reminiscent of the debut album’s spacier material.“A Different Ship” is a well-paced, well-written and well-produced record you should be spinning all summer long.By Patrick Beane
(05/10/12 5:11pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“The Avengers” is the first real comic book movie.It’s the first movie to fully capture the sense of wonder and fun at the heart of Marvel’s best titles. It’s the first movie to really feel like a four-issue comic book story arc.From its cryptic prologue set deep in space, to the dazzling teamwork of the New York City showdown, “The Avengers” oozes comic goodness.It has fun with its characters and set pieces, which is sweet relief from the drab realism of other superhero movies.Maybe best of all, it puts a spin on the origin story formula. Instead of the predictable plot about ordinary people gaining extraordinary powers, “The Avengers” deals with already extraordinary people learning how to work together.This new dynamic alone injects fresh life into the deadening hero-normativity of other comic book movies.We know these heroes from their own films, and there’s nothing quite like watching them come together and fight. “The Avengers” wouldn’t be nearly as remarkable if it were only about spectacular fighting. Half the joy comes from watching them assemble.Thanks to the geek expertise of writer/director Joss Whedon, “The Avengers” entertains before the heroes suit up.The movie’s many stars bring their best to a script that respects the growth of each hero. All of them have big character moments before their big action moments. Though this is a team movie through and through, Mark Ruffalo in particular stands out. He plays an incredible Hulk and an even more incredible Bruce Banner. His nuanced take on the troubled scientist feels human — vulnerable and volatile at the same time.Loki (Tom Hiddleston) returns from “Thor” as the archivillain equal-parts insecure and menacing. The movie unfolds surely and slowly as the team figures out how to deal with the god of mischief. Tensions flare and supersized egos clash until the movie pays off with the climax of the year.Turns out it’s a blast to watch six superheroes battle an alien army.In the midst of the action, the Hulk delivers two of the funniest film moments of the year so far. Captain America and Thor bond while surrounded by foes. Iron Man flies from skirmish to skirmish to provide support. The team actually feels like a team.Whedon’s astonishing ability to stay true to the characters even during the climactic battle elevates this film above the brainless special effects of most summer blockbusters. You never forget who’s doing the fighting and what they’re fighting for.It could’ve been a bloated disaster or just another superhero movie, but “The Avengers” flourishes as the most fun mainstream movie in years.If you haven’t already experienced this glorious entertainment, it’s time to suit up.By Patrick Beane
(05/04/12 12:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>We often frame life after college as the real world. I’ve heard so many of my friends wonder aloud what they’ll do with their liberal arts degree in the real world. For now, we’re drifting. We’re living in the fantasy land of college, where the stakes are lower and we don’t have to depend on ourselves for anything. Really?College is very real to me and so many of us who somehow juggle full-time school schedules with jobs, extracurriculars and personal lives. If this isn’t real life, our life after college might be awfully confusing.Especially for a generation that has been called the boomerangers. Rapidly growing numbers of us are returning to live with our parents after graduation. It’s not all our fault, but it’s easy to feel the burden we put on our parents. It’s easy to feel like we’re drifting without a future. What happens when our real lives after college are as unreal as our lives during college?Mike Nichols’ 1967 classic “The Graduate” poses that question more realistically and affectingly than any other movie about young adult life.Generations later, it remains the perfect picture of post-undergrad near-apathy. Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) scuba dives in his parents’ swimming pool just to get away and think. He seeks solace in the sultry diversion of Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), whose taboo romance provides important but unsteady relief from the pressures of his so-called real world.It’s a comic masterpiece, equal parts witty and insightful. It makes me laugh and cry, even when I’m watching it sober. This is an important film for our generation of boomerangers.Before you graduate — whether you’re starting a career, diving into grad school or heading home for a while — make sure to watch “The Graduate.”It’ll help you deal with an unreal real world.
(05/04/12 12:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When Death Grips slammed onto the scene early last year, it turned heads. The Sacramento trio’s debut “Exmilitary” pitted black metal lyrics against punk vocals and the violent production of horrorcore rap. The group’s visceral collision of genres was as all-important to its critical success as lead rapper/singer/shouter MC Ride’s signature yell.With “The Money Store,” Death Grips’ first of two records out on Epic Records this year, the group rides the buzz it earned from “Exmilitary” and refines its sutured sound into something even more immediately listenable. That’s not to say the song’s rawness was compromised following the switch to a major. Au contraire. It sounds like the band has got an even better grip on the rawness.These songs get your attention and keep it. “The Fever (Aye Aye)” bangs with devilish authority while incorporating some of the band’s more inventive and mind-bending instrumental work. The production on “Hustle Bones” revs up and crashes into its chorus like a demolition driver in a midnight death race. Schizophrenic standout “Punk Weight” opens with a misdirecting pop loop before exploding into blown-out bass and MC Ride’s best call-and-response.“The Money Store” starts with a pounding, bassy loop and closes with chopped up noise. Death Grips never dials down the intensity and never missteps.This is one of the year’s best albums. It’ll give you a fever one second and then scrape it right out of you the next. Aye aye.By Patrick Beane
(05/03/12 11:45pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I’m typing at the Opinion desk of the Indiana Daily Student one last time.When I first ventured into this place during finals week last semester, I had little idea who anyone was and what exactly went on behind the scenes of the IDS to make it a readable thing.Last semester I was a mere biweekly columnist who could barely remember to write his columns by deadline.Now, at the end of my junior year, I’m a mere Opinion editor who can barely remember to copy edit columns and design pages by deadline.I started writing for Opinion in fall 2011. I kicked things off with a controversial piece about sexual inequality and then ended the semester with a terrible guide to throwing parties.Clearly, I needed someone to keep me on track.That someone was none other than Francisco Tirado, who I would come to care about more than I could’ve imagined. I don’t want to spend the majority of the column gushing about Fran — this column is about me — but I think 50 or so words will do the trick.He helped me stay on target when I started to spin out of control. He baked me cookies and muffins when all hope seemed lost. He scoured the Internet for new Justin Bieber photos and videos with me. He took over when I was down and out.Fran is the Rose to my Jack. He’s a survivor. That’s enough about him. Let’s get back to me.I think most farewell columns include magical memories. My favorite memories took place in backshop, that sacred space tucked behind the newsroom, where our daily newspaper is designed by some of the best people in the building.The Opinion desk enjoys the weird privilege of designing its own pages, so I spent most of my time on the job sweating away over pages that looked exciting one in every 10 issues.Backshop is where we sang “Drops of Jupiter” and “Call Me Maybe” almost every day. Backshop is where I bonded the most with the staff. Backshop is where I did my best work.This is work. Sometimes it’s down-to-the-wire work.I’ll always remember the night Fran and I forgot about one of our two pages until an hour before the paper went to press. I didn’t even have time to change out of my pajamas before blowing red lights and cranking content through copy and onto the page (with a little help from my friends).It’s important to mention that with a little help from my friends is how I did this job.I worked with a truly invigorating staff of columnists and illustrators, all of whom impressed me in their own right.I can only hope I impressed them, too. Their opinions are the ones I care about. Being an editor was all about learning to care about myself, my work and my employees. I’m lucky to have had this chance.I’m also lucky I’ll be sticking around as the IDS Weekend editor in the summer and fall. You haven’t read the last of me.Some parting words: Readers, sorry I’m not sorry. Editors, thanks for tolerating our antics and deadline breaking. Friends, thanks for listening to me complain about this job. Fam, you da best.Since my customary farewell would appear oddly out of place in print, I shall simply say: Take care.— ptbeane@indiana.edu
(04/26/12 11:43pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>First of all, let me admit that I often think I’m the smartest person ever. Usually, this happens when I’m finishing up a somehow-intelligent paper 15 minutes before it’s due. Other times, I think I’m the dumbest person in the world.This happens when I discover in the morning that at some point in the previous night, I got Rally’s. Most of the time I feel somewhere in between smart and dumb.Working on challenging schoolwork is generally when I feel smart. Finals week is the week to remind us school isn’t supposed to be easy.I don’t want to write about how academic rigor is one of the foundational tenants of the college experience (because if it were, you probably wouldn’t be on Facebook during a lecture).I want to write about how just a little bit of scholarly masochism might be good for us. Let’s stretch ourselves thin about belated readings and last-second papers. Let’s push ourselves to the limit for classes we probably don’t care about. Let’s punch out the last pages of a paper we can’t bear to think about anymore.Let’s do it with a smile.If your instructors are worth half their dismal salary, your exam or paper or project or whatever will be good for you.I know this is the lamest column I’ve ever written, and I know I’ve written about the identity politics of bros and hipsters. Hear me out: Writing that final paper is always more important than going out tonight. Not because your future depends on good grades but because your soul does.There’s something to be gained from a university other than its prevalence of weed and booze. For instance, learning is something important. If we could just drop our entitlement, we would figure out that our education figures into our everyday lives (personally, politically, theoretically, emotionally – that’s a “Love In This Club” reference).Finals aren’t supposed to be fun. They’re supposed to teach you something about yourself and the course material you didn’t know before. I hate finals. I love finals. They’re the best of the times. They’re the worst of times.I believe in half of what it says half of the time, and you should too. Use my advice sparingly or constantly during the next hellish week.School is my favorite and least favorite thing, so I’m writing the last intelligence out of my brain before it melts away into a hazy summer. I promise, as long as you actually help yourself learn something from it, all the hard work will be rewarding.— ptbeane@indiana.edu
(04/26/12 3:36am)
WEEKEND previews this summer's big upcoming albums
(04/26/12 3:26am)
WEEKEND previews this summer's big upcoming movies
(04/26/12 3:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s not always easy to fall asleep. This music is here to help.“Violet Replacement” is a double-disc sleep lesson from Portland’s prolific Liz Harris, who releases solo work as Grouper. Her musical focus is about dreaming, identity, memory and space. Better known for her sleepy guitar pop-drone, she also makes dream-inducing ambient-noise. “Violent Replacement” is a dose of the latter. Harris’ latest album is based on her collaborative performance piece and art installation of the same name with drone artist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. In an interview with the Quietus, Harris described the piece as intentionally lasting “the length of an entire sleep cycle.”For seven hours, listeners laid on pillows in a circle around the two performers, who sat motionless in the dark room while dim projections played.Each taking up an entire disc, its two songs are “Rolling Gate” and “Sleep.” “Rolling Gate” slowly washes over you like murky tide, its droning ambience sustained with hazy field recordings and muted guitar. Near the end of the song’s 37 minutes, the foggy guitarwork erupts into a blown out recording of roaring wind.The 52-minute “Sleep” is Harris’ most successful exploration of the liminal plane between conscious and unconscious space. The song opens with gorgeous vocal loops, dissolves into warm tape feedback, overlays field recordings of rain and drifts away.I know music that puts you to sleep doesn’t normally seem like a good thing, but given Harris’ intention and effect, “Violet Replacement” sounds like the best lullaby I’ve ever heard.
(04/19/12 4:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>"Feistodon" 7"Mastodon and FeistWhen Atlanta prog-metal crew Mastodon and Canadian singer-songwriter Leslie Feist played on the same episode of “Later ... with Jools Holland” in October, the mutually admiring parties discussed in passing the possibility of covering one another for a split. Six months later, it’s a reality; Feist will cover Mastodon’s “Black Tongue” and Mastodon will cover Feist’s “A Commotion” for a Record Store Day-exclusive 7”. It’s currently unknown whether Mastodon wore sundresses or Feist grew a beard during the recording sessions. — Brad Sanders"The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends" double 12"The Flaming LipsThe Flaming Lips have produced a double-vinyl album, “The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends,” that is loaded with outlandish surprises for their fans in honor of Record Store Day. The record features collaborations with Bon Iver, Ke$ha, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Erykah Badu, Neon Indian, Yoko Ono, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Biz Markie, among others. As if this enticing list of featured artists wasn’t enough to reel listeners in, the Flaming Lips have decided to release a few special records with an embedded vial of the collaborators’ blood in the center. In an interview with MTV, eccentric Lips frontman Wayne Coyne said he expects the individually made bloody records to be snatched up by the extremely dedicated and extremely wealthy sector of the group's fan base. — Megan Walschlager"Transverse Temporal Gyrus" 12"Animal CollectiveAnimal Collective hasn’t released a proper full-length record since 2009. In the meantime, the band has instead opted to tour the world, record EPs and singles, make a visual album called “Oddsac” and create a special exhibit at the world-renowned Guggenheim Museum in New York City. That last project, called “Transverse Temporal Gyrus,” is an experimental collaboration with “Oddsac” director Danny Perez. It features contributions from each band member randomly channeled throughout the museum’s performance space, and it’s now being released as a limited 12” vinyl that collects the individual tracks, in addition to live recordings of the piece. “Transverse Temporal Gyrus” should feature the band at its most bewitched with heavy doses of choppy samples and pitch-shifted incantations. Brace yourself. — Patrick Beane“A.D.D. Complete” 7” Chuck PersonsLast year, sample mastermind Daniel Lopatin, better known as Oneohtrix Point Never, released the sonic gem “Replica” to critical acclaim. Before that, however, Lopatin recorded underground cassettes that reworked FM radio hits into deliriously noisy and catchy loops, which he dubbed “eccojams,” under the pseudonym Chuck Persons. Lopatin is bringing that alter ego back with his upcoming 7” vinyl release, “A.D.D. Complete,” which compiles new “eccojams,” along with samples used to make “Replica.” Unfortunately, the release is limited to 120 hand-numbered copies, only available in-store at Piccadilly Records in Manchester, England. At least you can soon look forward to copping a guilt-free vinyl rip. — Patrick Beane“One Drop” 12” Public Image Ltd.It’s been 20 years since former Sex Pistols provocateur John Lydon churned out any new material with his seminal post-punk outfit Public Image Ltd., but that will change this Saturday with the release of the “One Drop” EP. Lydon calls the title track a “reflection of where I grew up in Finsbury Park, London. The area that shaped me and influenced me culturally and musically, a place I will forever feel connected to.” — Brad Sanders“Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions” box set Billy Bragg and WilcoIn the spring of 1992, Woody Guthrie’s daughter, Nora, contacted English folk-punk musician Billy Bragg about putting music to thousands of sets of lyrics that filled her father’s notebooks before his death in 1967. Bragg subsequently reached out to then-up-and-coming alt-country group Wilco, and they collaborated on two critically acclaimed compilations, “Mermaid Avenue” volumes 1 and 2, that came out in 1998 and 2000. Appropriately, these sessions spawned many unfinalized tracks of their own, as well as a limited-release documentary film, “Man in the Sand.” More than a decade later, all the aforementioned material is coming out in one big package that will also include a 48-page book of photographs and reproductions of Guthrie’s lyric sheets and sketches. — Steven Arroyo“Do Ya Thang” 10” Gorillaz, André 3000 and James MurphyConverse’s “Three Artists, One Song” series has produced a handful of curious collaborations in the past two years, but none more so than its most recent edition, which put Outkast’s André 3000, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Damon Albarn of Gorillaz and Blur in a studio together. An abridged version of “Do Ya Thang” was released as a free download on Feb. 23, but the original ran more than 13 minutes, and it will see the light of day Saturday. “André just goes off,” Albarn said of the full version in a recent interview with Pitchfork. “And what he’s saying just gets more and more ridiculous. It finished on its own will, we really had nothing to do with it.” — Steven Arroyo
(04/19/12 3:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>We love Nicki. We love her head-spinning verse on Kanye West’s “Monster” and the possessed pop of “Super Bass.”We should expect something special from “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,” her sequel-of-sorts to 2010’s “Pink Friday.” If you saw her Grammy performance of album opener “Roman Holiday” — overflowing with kinetic energy and darting from one musical spasm to the next — you might even have high hopes.That song’s theatricality and vivacious verse-chorus promised an album’s worth of deranged pop. Unfortunately, Nicki’s trademark half-crazed flow disappears early in the album. The first six tracks feature delicious raps, seismic beats and well-placed guest verses.Nas, Drake and Jeezy light up “Champion.” From there, “Roman Reloaded” dedicates itself to conventional pop Nicki thinks she can pull off.The tonal shift isn’t exactly disappointing, but after the explosive opening of “Roman Holiday” and its lunatic successors, the album feels vanilla. “Starships” isn’t a bad single or a bad song — it’s just not a good Nicki song. Is she trying to rebrand herself? Prove she can do pop as well as the other women? Give us a new reason to love her?We love her because she projects masculine verve previously unavailable to most female pop stars. On “Come on a Cone,” she triumphantly spits, “I’m not masturbating, but I’m feeling myself,” before mockingly mimicking Top 40 Gaga pop. It’s a shame she spends most of the album performing exactly the bland pop she implied she was above.The record’s bloated, too. There isn’t nearly enough memorable songwriting to justify its hour-plus runtime. “Roman Reloaded” doesn’t pack punches like her earlier work. You should never have to search for songs that sound like Nicki on a Nicki record.
(04/05/12 12:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While it might not be the fairest telling of the classic tale, “Mirror Mirror” puts a colorful spin on Snow White.Director Tarsem Singh continues to prove himself as a visual mastermind able to keep the audience spellbound even when the script falls short. The set design, costumes and art direction often pop more than the dialogue and story, and the players do their best to keep the film under control despite the wandering plot.A scenery-chewing Julia Roberts delights as the equal-parts insecure and malevolent queen. Lily Collins manages to breathe life into the most desexed of fairytale princesses, even if sparks never fly with an adequately princely Arnie Hammer.The film’s most convincing chemistry is between the seven dwarves, who propel “Mirror Mirror” through its conventional final act.It’s the stunning set pieces, such as the animated prologue and rainbow-saturated wedding, that elevate “Mirror Mirror” from its Hollywood trappings, as well as its moralizing.“Mirror Mirror” is hardly a classic, but its dazzling visuals are worth the price of admission. And did I mention the awesome Bollywood credits sequence?
(04/02/12 11:06pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Justin Bieber’s latest hit, “Boyfriend,” is hot and problematic, sure.The latest teaser for the upcoming music video features Bieber gazing straight into his audience’s eyes while disembodied hands vicariously fulfill the wishes of so many Beliebers.My fellow columnist Sam Ostrowski cites this video’s overt sexualization of Bieber as irresponsible and dangerous for the singer’s largely tween fanbase. The short-lived Tumblr “Dirty Bieber Secrets” provides plenty of erotic examples of how libidinous tweens and their online imposters can desire Bieber. I understand why this is shocking to some readers, but I don’t think it’s dangerous.Maybe it’s hard for me to think something as stupidly cute as “Boyfriend” can be dangerous to children’s sexuality. Then again, why is sexuality dangerous for tweens?Sam references “foot fetishes” and S&M fantasies featuring Bieber as potential harmful effects of “Boyfriend.” Why?I can’t think of anything inherently wrong with foot fetishes or S&M practice other than the fact they signify you as a pervert to a sizable population of America.Why is loss of innocence such an evil? What is that innocence supposed to accomplish in the first place? To ensure we all grow up straight, normal and marriable?Sam’s afraid “young people are trained to just want sex without even knowing what it truly is.” First, I have to wonder what sex truly is. Second, aren’t tweens already conditioned to believe sex is what happens between man and wife? Third, I’m more afraid young people are trained to just want a boyfriend without knowing what else they could want. Shouldn’t we be dissecting the dangers of a song that could be titled, “Compulsory Matrimony for the Tweenage Soul”?The lyrics, “I’d never let you go/I’d keep you on my arm, girl/You’d never be alone,” while typical for hegemonic pop music, alarm me more than a few hands on Bieber’s body.Sam also feels “Boyfriend” threatens to “make sex something that is no big issue among young people.” I’m more afraid the censorship of sexuality for tweens is making a potent facet of young people’s lives invisible. Sex should be an even bigger issue for young people.Most sex education programs ignore the fact that sex can be pleasurable in addition to procreative. Most sex education programs only teach heterosexual mechanics, without a word about non-dominant sexualities or asexuality.Videos such as “Boyfriend” at least make sex something tangible to tweens, even if it’s a typically misogynist and white-bread sexuality.“Boyfriend” also raises a question of race.In what is teased to be an all-white video, Bieber’s use of terms laden with racial overtones is problematic. Biebs appropriates “swag” as “swaggie” in the same stanza he deploys Gucci Mane’s ice-cold “burr.” Is it supposed to just be cute?I won’t trivialize these criticisms with an account of the song’s grammatical violence against the subjunctive.Finally, I want everyone to understand that I love “Boyfriend.” It’s probably the best song of the young year. Bieber’s lower register is emerging as a real tour de force, and his falsetto is still beautiful.As a professor of mine likes to quote, “Can’t I love what I criticize?”— ptbeane@indiana.edu
(03/29/12 1:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With 34 songs and more than two hours of runtime, “God’s Father” is Lil B’s longest and, remarkably, most consistent release. It’s the best available introduction to the self-proclaimed “Based God.”It’s easy to write off Lil B as a joke. Some of his most famous songs consist of him repeating nonsense, such as “I’m Miley Cyrus” or chanting “Ellen Degeneres.” After releasing about a thousand tracks and more than 300 music videos in the past three years, quality control becomes impossible. Part of the appeal is finding the unrefined poetry hidden among deceptively simple rap tropes.“God’s Father” is all about unexpected wisdom and positive emotions. When he stumbles mid-line or pauses too long to relish in an instrumental, it only adds to the purity of his project. Lil B’s rawness is his asset, and it never sounds clunky over this mixtape’s perfect beat selection.If you had doubts about Lil B, this mixtape will quell them. “God’s Father” takes his positive message to a new high of listenability. Thank you, Based God.
(03/29/12 12:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The recent IUSA nominations have raised some eyebrows, especially following the quick rise and fall of an opposition party to Movement for IUSA.The upcoming single-ticket election brings to mind several concerns with student government and its limitations. In the past semester, the IUSA has doubtlessly contributed to IU. The bus tracking system, electricity-generating bikes in the Student Recreational Sports Center, additional lights around campus and added seminars on GLBT issues count among their admirable projects.However, it seems the IUSA is ill-equipped to tackle major issues at IU. This might not be a failing of the current administration. This might be the fate of student governments.Still, I can’t help but wonder what a motivated and militant IUSA could accomplish on campus. It seems the Bloomington Faculty Council, University Council and IU Board of Trustees have the final say in most issues.Tuition has increased 2 to 3 percent for the past several years, and I wish more than Occupy IU were doing something about it.What can the role of student government be? What should it be?The current administration’s additions to campus are surely welcome, but I wonder if more substantial changes could come from policy or direct action sponsored by the student-run and student-elected IUSA.Who will put pressure on an IU administration that doesn’t really listen to us when we speak up?— ptbeane@indiana.edu
(03/20/12 2:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When you grow up in Bloomington, it’s hard not to catch the IU basketball bug.In a state known for little more than its corn and motor speedways, claiming your home as basketball country means a stab at pride and legitimacy. Hoosier could mean more than an anonymous hick with a farmer’s tan. It could mean a nationally recognized athletic juggernaut.When I was a kid, I definitely felt Indiana was basketball country.Bob Knight coached the Hoosiers to the NCAA Tournament every year for the first 10 years of my life. Though I wasn’t quite conscious for the Sweet 16, Final Four and Elite Eight bids from 1991 to 1994, their lingering pride seeped into the community and got me excited for the coming years.Throughout my childhood I made it to more Chicago White Sox and Bears games than IU basketball games, but I still have fond memories of watching the Hoosiers from half court with my grandpa and attending Hoosier Hysteria with my family.Then something happened: Middle school arrived, and I became a nerd. Or a freak, as I like to say.My friends and I didn’t ignore IU athletics, we just spent more time at concerts and loitering around downtown. I still watched the Bears play football on Sundays and kept a vague grip on the goings on of Hoosier basketball.Even our like made it to Scotty’s to watch the 2006 tournament game against Gonzaga. Still, adolescence marked a weird falling off with Indiana athletics that I kept into college. That’s all finished now.Even the most dedicated non-afficionados probably know IU will be playing Kentucky on Friday in the NCAA basketball rematch of the year.It’s managed to ignite an amazing wave of basketball fever in this city, on this campus and in me, the likes of which I haven’t seen in years. It’s also helping me to unlock an emotional archive from my childhood. My family didn’t bring home banners or pennants to hang on our walls, but my dad brought home a Herald-Times newspaper with him every night from his position at the sports desk. I paraded his award-winning headline “15 3s = Final Four” around school with me. He still keeps a prized alternate edition of the 2002 NCAA championship issue, which celebrates IU’s victory against the Terrapins. If only.Remembering all this and being surrounded by this hysteria is bringing me back into the IU basketball scene. What the Hoosiers are doing has rekindled my spirits. My roommate and best friend helped me to get back into the game, lending me his No. 2 away jersey to wear during IU’s upset against Kentucky. It was an old A.J. Moye jersey, not a Christian Watford jersey, but I didn’t tell anyone that when we were screaming on Kirkwood Avenue.My season-ticket-holding freshman little brother has done his part, too. He never lost his Hoosier pride, and I text him whenever I’m watching a game. He said he was going to have a heart attack after our win against VCU. All this means I can say “we” and “our” when I talk about IU basketball. If you ask me, a sense of belonging is almost always something to be valued, even if it should be questioned.I can’t tell you how dumbly happy I am to rattle off the time I played backyard football with Jordan Hulls in a lightning storm at a sixth-grade birthday party.Pathetic? Probably. Proud? Totally.Even if basketball isn’t going to solve the world’s problems, it can at least build friendships.I know this is an imagined community, which you can write off as romantic or meaningless or distracting from actual political issues. I like to look at it from the standpoint of survival as a student.Many of us are juggling jobs, extracurricular activities, relationships and schoolwork all at once.I cherish how playing D&D and participating in the Feminist Action Coalition at IU help me let off steam. But these kinds of activities are illegible and invisible to the larger IU community.If I can sit back with my best friends, drink a beer and shatter my ego in the name of cheering on something loved by thousands of students, I call it cathartic belonging — tangible excitement and connection between people that keeps me going.IU basketball is a special thing, deeply rooted in this city’s history and my own. I might have neglected it, but only because I forgot how fun it is to dig deep into Hoosier basketball, celebrate its victories and mourn its defeats. To watch the mechanics of the game unfold and try to coach the team from the couch.If that means I’m jumping back on the bandwagon, I don’t care. You won’t be able to tell when I’m crying tears of joy and chanting “Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers” Friday night.— ptbeane@indiana.edu
(03/08/12 11:28pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Joseph Kony is famous now. So is Jason Russell.Even if you’re not among the tens of millions who viewed the KONY 2012 video since it was posted Monday, you’ve probably noticed the influx of black and red propaganda plastering the profile pictures of your blindly philanthropic friends.I wonder: How could anyone watch that video and think they’ve gotten the whole picture?Its intentions are suspicious at best and malicious at worst. The ambiguous aims of Russell and Invisible Children are veiled beneath some grand narrative of human progress and the universalizing mission of new media.When Russell announces the next 27 minutes of the video are an “experiment,” he’s not kidding. He’s testing how easily manipulated the video’s viewers are. We’re the guinea pigs.KONY 2012 is an exercise in consumer capitalism applied to uninformed humanitarianism. It might be hard to hear, but we can’t buy the liberation of embodied people. Ending regional conflicts is not a pay-to-play game.The video is problematic.Why do we care at all about Russell’s son Gavin? Is the psyche of a toddler really the lense through which we want to view Uganda’s complex problems?Why does Gavin figure as prominently in the video as Jacob, the Acholi child who represents all of northern Uganda?Why doesn’t Russell explain to his son that only $3 million of Invisible Children’s nearly $9 million in expenses in 2011 went to direct services?The intricate conflict in northern Uganda is reduced to a fight between “bad guys” and “good guys.” When Gavin humorously guesses the bad guys are “Star Wars people,” he might as well be right.The KONY 2012 video presents Kony as an even more unsympathetic Darth Vader. Everything is reduced to good versus evil, and, luckily, evil can be vanquished simply by donating a few dollars and spreading awareness about an arbitrary bad guy.Some of the Invisible Children propaganda even renders Kony’s darkened profile in front of the faces of Osama bin Laden and Adolf Hitler, figuring him as yet another specter of evil to be vanquished by United States military action.When Russell asks “who are we not to” stop a war, he poses an important question. It’s meant to be a rhetorical question but begs actual interrogation. Are we right to donate money to a cause that encourages military intervention and cooperation with a corrupt government?In addition to some trippy visuals that probably contain subliminal messages, the video also presents an ahistorical Uganda for Dummies.Here I’ll provide a simplified gloss of recent Ugandan history and who Kony is. Compared to the information in the KONY 2012 video, this might seem like an eight-weeks course.Kony, as so many of us now know, is a war criminal and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA arose in opposition to President Yoweri Museveni, whose forces supplanted Uganda’s previous regime and spread violence across the north. In their subsequent power struggles, both the LRA and the Ugandan government committed atrocities against the Acholi population in northern Uganda.The LRA became largely inactive in Uganda in 2006, spreading its efforts around the region to the Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Sudan and the Central African Republic.Though violence continues, northern Uganda is currently in a state of relative peace.Like the LRA, President Museveni and the Uganda People’s Defense Force are responsible for rape and murder but enjoy support from Invisible Children and the U.S.Invisible Children blew up in the mid-2000s, making known the plight of Acholi child soldiers and prompting celebrity notice. Its message of peace struck a chord with many and is being revived, unnecessarily.So, #STOPKONY.Why? Because he is an evil man? I’m not convinced capturing or killing a single bad man will overthrow the LRA and end violence in the region. It will hardly end the violences committed by the Ugandan government itself, with whom the U.S. is in bed.Why us? Because we have money to spend? It’s hard not to be suspicious of a video that asks you to buy some package marketed directly at us kids, who desperately want to make a difference in the world but only know hashtag movements.Why now? Because Jason Russell’s bank account has plateaued? Violence in northern Uganda has largely subsided, and peace talks might be a better solution. The Africa Faith & Justice Network is certainly more interested in a non-military approach.Overthrowing the LRA would likely lead to the rise of other rebel groups. A political effort condemning, rather than cooperating with, President Museveni would go a lot further than killing Kony. Violence is not always the answer. All it takes is a flashy video and celebrity advocacy to convince thousands of people how to save the world. Do Beliebers know what they’re supporting?Finally, what about the U.S.?Russell offers this naive reaction to the horrors in Uganda: “If that happened one night in America, it would be on the cover of Newsweek.” Really?This kind of statement requires a willful ignorance of violences and inequalities in the U.S. Does he care that a fifth of American children live in poverty? Why are we eager to pour so much attention into a conflict miles away while remaining ignorant of problems within our borders? I imagine someone could produce and proliferate a similarly sensationalized video targeting Obama that would shock people. Maybe if we were shown images of American poverty set against sentimental music, the Twitter body politic would rise up and overwhelmingly support welfare programs, universal healthcare and free education.When you reduce a complicated conflict involving real people — and not “invisible children” — to a hashtag, you inflict your own kind of violence against them.It’s never wrong to think of the children, but you should also remember to think for yourself.— ptbeane@indiana.edu
(03/07/12 10:54pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>By the 19th century, slideshows were projected using devices called magic lanterns. Illusionists and entertainers would use slideshows to conjure demonic imagery or animate corpses. The technology later evolved into moving picture shows. Now, slideshows are associated with the lethargic haze of lecture halls.Memoryhouse’s first LP on Sub Pop induces the same effect as today’s slideshows: equal parts muted interest and boredom. “The Slideshow Effect” is a streamlined presentation. The foggy, moonlit atmosphere of 2010’s “Bonfire” and “Lately” has been exchanged for a crisper sound. Some magic was lost in the transfer.“Walk With Me” and “Old Haunts” both float along on catchy guitar melodies, but fit too squarely into predictable song structures. “Bonfire” sounds neutered of its majesty. The band was once noteworthy for its art-project underpinnings and Virginia Woolf-inspired song titles, but it now sounds stale in its meticulous professionalism.Memoryhouse might still sound dreamy, but it’s the kind of dream you probably won’t remember when you wake up.
(02/23/12 4:30am)
WEEKEND takes a look at each of this year's Best Picture nominees
(02/23/12 3:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Earth’s follow-up to last year’s masterpiece “Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I” explores the same doomed country as its predecessor, and just as triumphantly. It sounds like the soundtrack for a Spaghetti Western starring Clint Eastwood as a ghost. You can imagine the band playing raggedly in the corner of some haunted saloon.Since Earth’s switch from a more traditional doom drone to its current country-and-jazz-tinged sound, the band’s recordings have become leaner and crisper. The four-piece band’s two guitars, drum kit and cello make the most of their minimal arrangement.“Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II” is as heavy as Earth gets, not because of its devastating noise, but rather the emotional weight of its songwriting.The album is full of shifty, deliberate music, rattling the bones and lumbering along at a glacial pace. Its five songs are spread throughout 45 minutes and demand the listener’s patience, which is rewarded many times over. Opener “Sigil of Bass” is perhaps the band’s most spare and prettiest song, with a touching cello and guitar duet played out over the occasional rattle of cymbals.Standout “A Multiplicity of Doors,” the longest track at 13 minutes, could drive you stir-crazy in the right heat. Drums and bass march across screeching cello before the guitar plucks out a mirage-like riff that sends the song into the sunset.Earth has fashioned a widescreen desert landscape for getting lost in all day long. Becoming sunburned has never sounded so good.