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(07/25/02 8:23pm)
They believed until the end.\nThousands of fans swarmed theaters, houses, bars and restaurants -- any room that had a television -- almost uniformly clad in red, white and "Indiana" emblems hoping for a Cinderella season with a fairy tale ending.\nA day and early evening full of girls dangling from car windows, high-spirited honking, long lines and hard partying gave way to a night when nobody remained outdoors. The parking lots stood open, class buildings stood empty and the only sounds were reflected cheers.\nWhen the buzzer sounded and IU came up short by 12 points, everything turned inside out. Nobody remained inside. The streets filled with chaos as people kept cheering for their team or took out their frustrations on parked cars, lampposts and windows.\nTensions ran high at Assembly Hall before tip off. The crowd, all 10,000 of them, was a sea of red and white, and rolls of toilet paper arced gracefully from the top of the bleachers. Giant beach balls traversed the crowd and wave after wave wound its way around the hall. The crowd erupted as pre-game coverage began, and every shot the Hoosiers took was celebrated as the first and the best. \nThe courtyard was empty at Collins Living-Learning Center but the air around the building was filled with boos and screams of joy as students watched pregame action from dorms and the lounge in the main building.\nLights in the lounge were dim but more than made up for by the electrically-charged atmosphere. Students sat on couches, chairs and the floor eating and watching TV on a large projection screen. As he balanced on a chair eating a sandwich and Funyuns, senior James Brown predicted that the Hoosiers would carry the game.\n"It's going to be ugly for Maryland," he said. \nBrown, who chose to watch the game from home at Collins so he wouldn't have to wait in line for hours at a bar, explained that an Indiana win is inevitable because of his "hot/cold theory": the team was cold for the beginning of the Duke game, then became hot in the second half; a trend that has perpetuated since then, leaving them ready and able to win against Maryland.\nOn the screen, the game began with military carrying out an American flag from the remains of the World Trade Center and with the introductions of the team. IU's starters enjoyed loud cheers from the Collins crowd, while Maryland's players -- particularly Juan Dixon -- were vigorously booed as they ran out onto the court.\nAs turnovers and a lack of baskets plagued both teams during the first minutes of the game, Brown remained confident but laughed, "This is starting to look like a high school game."\nA slightly more subdued crowd sat in front of the two big screen televisions in the Commons at the Indiana Memorial Union. As IU fought to overcome a Maryland lead, about 30 people watched each television. As he and some friends reclined on the wooden chairs, Pete Hinnefeld, a freshman, said he wasn't feeling very good about the game.\n"I think Maryland's outplaying us so far," he said. "But that happened in the Duke game. There is always definitely a chance for us to play better once (Jarred) Jeffries is not worried about his two fouls."\nSuddenly, the group erupted with energy as Kyle Hornsby sank a three pointer. \nOn the edge of campus at a house on East Third Street, 15 people -- all except one wearing red Indiana shirts -- crowded around the television set. Groans and expletives escaped their lips as the team missed a number of shots in a row. Six minutes and 11 seconds remained in the first half and IU was down by seven. \n"We made it to the championship and that's what counts," said junior Justin Barnes. "They've done great things with what they have, and they will win."\nJunior Leanne Foldenauer echoed Barnes' sentiments. \n"We're down right now," Foldenauer said. "I think we can still win it."\nFoldenauer sat quietly on the edge of the crowd, but her eyes remained on the screen.\n'We're a second-half basketball team," she said. "We have heart, and that's all that matters."\nThe crowd remained somber as the clock wound down on the first half and IU continued to trail behind Maryland. \nDownstairs at the Union hotel front desk, seniors Katie Suttles and Jeremiah Brown were two of the few IU students stuck working on the Hoosier's big night. Although Suttles admitted she'd rather be home, she did acknowledge it was nice of their boss to allow a TV in the back so they could see the game. Brown cheered from the back as the TV showed Tom Coverdale making a last-minute basket as the half came to a close. He emerged behind the desk smiling.\n"(The game) is very competitive which is good," Brown said. "It's good seeing it's competitive because Maryland is such a good team."\nAt the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave., during halftime, the smell of dark coffee mixed with tension filled the lobby, where many families watched the game. Freshman Amanda Rice was optimistic, although the team was down six points and seemed to be in a rut. \n"I think we'll be fine," she said. "Eventually." \nUp the street, Nick's English Hut, 423 E. Kirkwood Ave., was packed at halftime. Walking past a "Full" sign and the Bloomington city fire code posted on the front door, senior Mandy Verner came outside to smoke. She said she had been at Nick's since 1 p.m. \n"Since the Duke game, I've not paid attention to the second half and every single time they've won," Verner said. \nShe said her boyfriend was just as superstitious. \n"My boyfriend has been wearing the same clothes since the Duke game," she said. "His roommate is wearing the same clothes, but he hasn't washed them." \nTo chants of "Let's go Hoosiers," students packed into Kilroy's Sports Bar, 319 N. Walnut St. The doors closed to additional people around 8 p.m., an hour before the game started. It was standing room only at 11. Students couldn't even move. They stood on chairs and tables and rested on top of other people's shoulders. \nSophomore Charlie Crowe said, "I've never seen anything like this in my life. The atmosphere is incredible. This is IU and IU basketball ball at it's best." \nThe tension is in the air. The smoke is thick. The cheers are loud. At the Video Saloon, 105 W. Seventh St., owner Mike Black watched the Hoosiers attempt to overtake the Terrapins in the second half.\n"It seems like we're always behind and then somebody hits a three," Black said. "If the storyline stays the same, we're going to win."\nSitting at a table in the bar, Elizabeth Peterson, a social scientist getting her Ph.D at IU, said the antics of the crowd are more interesting than the game itself.\n"It's all very primitive," she said.\nStudent reactions at Assembly Hall ebbed and flowed with the tide of the game, with raucous cheering when the Hoosiers were performing well and dejected chattering when they weren't. Cheerleaders attempted to invigorate the sullen crowd during the lulls, but the crowd needed no prompting when IU led for 13 seconds. \nThe buzzer sounded and Maryland fans cheered the school's first ever NCAA national championships. At Showalter Fountain, the site of intense celebration during IU victories of the past, the only sounds in the air were the buzz of helicopters and obscenities as fans emerged from game-watching locations and headed towards Kirkwood Avenue.\nAn IU alumnus who now lives in Michigan approached the fountain. Identifying herself only as Neema for fear that her co-workers would read the paper, Neema admitted that she drove down today to witness the national championship celebration she missed in 1987.\n"So it's over?" she asked.\nBut the night wasn't over for all the fans. Groups of students marched from all corners of campus toward Kirkwood Avenue. About eight or ten students tore down two light posts in front of the Auditorium; another light was taken out.\n"A group of about 50 people came and that bunch broke loose and started breaking those things," said Indiana University Police Department officer Charles Caragol.\nPeople swarmed out of bars, houses and dorms to once again converge on the area around Kirkwood Avenue. Although the crowd was large, the atmosphere was more subdued than it had been in days past. But cheers of "Go Hoosiers" and "Hoosier Pride" still echoed on the streets. \n"We had faith until the end," Allison Graham, a sophomore, said. "We hadn't been down here until tonight and it's absolutely insane."\nBottle rockets went off as people attempted to climb light poles; police had removed the wires that stretched from the lights across the street to discourage students from hanging from them.\n"I just wanted one more win for my last year," said Chris Johnson, a senior. "But instead I'll party down here."\nAt 11:45 p.m. the giant television screens at Yogi's Grill and Bar, 519 E. 10th St., showed highlights of the recently ended national championship game. Loud music played over the speakers, but the lack of people and conversation made the bar seem oddly quiet. Busboys wiped down empty tables and swept up garbage scattered across the floor. \nThe scene was very different from a half hour earlier. \n"It was pretty intense for the most part," said Chris Littrell, a waiter at Yogi's. "It kind of dropped off at the end. During the last five minutes (of the game) it seemed like everyone's mood dropped." \nLittrell said the bar and restaurant areas of Yogi's had been full since 2 p.m. Monday afternoon. \nAaron Potts, an IU alumnus, now lives in Washington D.C. He managed to make it back to Bloomington for the championship and said, despite the loss, he was impressed with IU's season. \n"I'm happy that we made it this far," Potts said. "If you would have told me a month ago that (IU) would be playing in the final game, I would have called you crazy."
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
The Sims Vacation Expansion Pack\nRated: T for Teen\nBy: EA/Maxis\nFor: PC\nThe designers behind "The Sims" have done it again. Just when you were bored with all the things your Sims were able to do, now they can go on vacation. In the new "Sims Vacation" expansion pack, your Sims gain the power to choose from three glorious weekend getaways. The game offers a choice between a luxurious beach resort, a camping trip to the woods or a ski trip.\nWith the new environment comes a new pile of extras that are added to the people and things you can already give your Sims. The game offers about 125 new items to buy, including a snowman, a tent, a fishing pier and carnival games. When your Sims actually go on vacation they also might run into some new characters, including a yeti and a beach shark. \nLike the Sims expansion packs that came before, this one is easy to install and even easier to integrate into the Sims universe you already set up. Unfortunately, you have to spend $20 or $30 to enjoy the expansion pack.\nIs it worth it? If you've spent countless hours playing "The Sims" and are bored with what your game can do now, it's definitely a good idea to go pick up this new version. But for casual players or those who have just bought the original "Sims" it's OK to wait. It's a waste of money if you only play every once in a while. And those who only have the original version of the game are a lot better off expanding the number of neighborhoods you have with the "Livin' Large" pack or giving your Sims the ability of fall deeply in love with the "Hot Date" program before attempting to take the Sims on vacation.\n
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
(04/29/02 3:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>"Hit it."
New York college student Nan hears this in her head every time she begins the newest in a long-line of jobs as nanny to upper-class New York families. From introductions, to the sparsely decorated house, to the refrigerator filled with soy milk, each new employer puts on a show, hiding the real feelings, the real problems and the real people who lurk under the surface of the riches and prosperity.
In the "The Nanny Diaries," two former New York nannies pour all the best true stories from their years of experience into a school year in the life of Nan, her employers, the "X" family and their son, Grayer. Their collected experience coupled with snappy prose and simple yet complicated characters make for a reading experience that will make you laugh and make you think.
Set up in diary form we first meet Nan, or Nanny, when she takes the job with the "X" family. With her, we marvel at Mrs. X's ridiculous ideas on child care, which run from only allowing her son to eat steamed kelp to telling Nanny acceptable outings include the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. As Nan gets to know and love Grayer, these eccentricities, and Mr. X's role as a very absent father go from being hilariously funny to so awful you wish Nan would take Grayer home to raise herself.
While immersing herself in the X's lives, Nan also deals with the rest of her world, including her parents, grandmother, friends and the object of her affection, the "Harvard Hottie," who lives in the X's building. Although the subplots only complement the experience Nan has with the X's, the authors manage to develop their personalities in the few words they share with Nan.
"The Nanny Diaries" runs about 300 pages; but it's a quick read, perfect for taking out to the pool or taking a break from studying for finals. The class difference between Nan's middle-class lifestyle and the upper-class nightmare of her employers is dramatic without slapping you in the face about the "message" the authors are trying to send. Kraus and McLaughlin dedicate the book to the kids they both "nannied," saying, "We\'re rooting for you all."
By the end of "The Nanny Diaries," you\'ll be rooting for them too.
"The Nanny Diaries"By Emma McLaughlin and Nicola KrausSt. Martin\'s Press, 305 pages, $24.95.
(04/26/02 4:16am)
The audience had the chance to leave its troubles outside with the pouring rain Wednesday night, as the touring company of "Cabaret" put on a show that was worthy of the high standards set by the Broadway revival.\nOn Broadway, "Cabaret" is presented in an actual nightclub setting (the infamous Studio 54 to be exact), and the touring version does lose something in the translation when the audience is sitting in a normal theater setting. But the staff at the IU Auditorium can't be blamed for not being enthusiastic about removing all of the seats for two days of "Cabaret." The distance created by the environment also means audiences are treated to a clearer picture of the company's talent, as it must project the image of a nightclub.\nAnd they aren't kidding when they say "even the orchestra is beautiful." From the ensemble (which also plays instruments in the orchestra) to the leading players, the entire cast poured all of its energy into the performance. If they were able to effectively present a whirlwind of emotion from about 30 feet away, the idea of having "Cabaret" girls and boys dancing in your face at your table is actually a little scary.\nThe story behind "Cabaret" is simple and complicated at the same time.\nOn one hand it's the love story of two couples who have to fight though differences and preconceived notions as they try to stay together. On the other hand, it's really about history and society and how the ideals of Nazi Germany can haunt any society if we don't have the education and strength to prevent it. On top of all that, parts of the show are uproariously funny and touching.\nAt the eye of this emotional hurricane is the host for the evening, the character who goes only by the name Emcee. No knowledge of acting is required to see that this role is incredibly difficult to portray; actor Christopher Sloan had the seemingly impossible job of bonding with the audience one minute and scaring it to death the next. And he pulled it off extremely well.\nThe other "lead" role in the show is Sally Bowles, the giddy, fickle but complicated star of the nightclub. Although actress Allison Spratt was a little shrill at first, she settled into the role nicely with a great rendition of "Mein Herr" and some entertaining banter as she wormed her way into the rented room (and heart) of American writer Clifford Bradshaw (John Byron Holley). \nThe second act of "Cabaret" is much more complicated than the first. This transition is clear starting with the second full-length song, "If You Could See Her." What looks like a gag involving the emcee and a gorilla becomes what original director Sam Mendes has called "a slap in the face" as the audience realizes what it's really seeing: anti-semitism at its worst. From there the plot spirals downhill, but the cast rose to the challenge, conveying a myriad of emotions without the use of too many words.\nAlthough the touring company that came to Bloomington has moved on, "Cabaret" is a worthwhile show to see no matter what the time or place. The wonderful story is far more desirable with the right cast, but the message of the dangers of ignorance is universal. Luckily, IU audiences got to have both a message and a good performance.
(04/24/02 4:05am)
Wilkommen. Bienvenue. Welcome.\nStep inside the Kit Kat Club, where scantily clad men and women are here to serve you. Watch them entertain as your host narrates the stories of love, loss, poverty and politics.\nWelcome to "Cabaret."\nTonight the IU Auditorium will transform into dark, seedy 1920s Berlin and audience members will enter a club where nothing is what it seems. The touring company of the Roundabout Theatre Company's reinvention of the 1966 Broadway and 1973 film version of "Cabaret" comes to IU for two shows beginning tonight at 8 p.m.\n"Cabaret" combines the history of its fictional characters with the story of Germany at the beginning of the Nazi era. In the musical, American writer Cliff Bradshaw is entranced by the decadence and immorality of the Kit Kat Club, particularly its star player, Sally Bowles. The show combines Cliff's and Sally's story with that of Sally's middle-aged landlady, Fraulein Schneider, who is embarking on a relationship with Herr Schultz. The show is presented to the audience like a real cabaret act, and numbers from the fictional Kit Kat Club complement and comment on what is going on with the characters off the stage.\nJohn Holley plays Cliff, a character he said starts out "excited" to be in Germany and ends up "really emotionally and physically worn out." Holley said one of his favorite parts of the show is how the story of the characters, the cabaret and the country come together.\n"One of my favorite parts of the show -- and I'm not even onstage -- is with the old couple when he is talking to her about getting married," he said. "Halfway through the song, the lights change and a mirrorball comes down and you're transported into the club, where they are singing the same song in German. It's really magical and cool how that happens. The constant interweaving of the stories that goes on is a really great dynamic of the show and is achieved even more with this revival."\nThe version of "Cabaret" IU audiences will see is a combination of the original musical, the movie and the imagination of director Sam Mendes, who helmed the revival on Broadway in 1998. In a 1999 interview from the "Cabaret" tour's Web site, Mendes said the revival, which is presented in New York with audiences seated (and treated) like actual regulars at the Kit Kat Club, purposely tries to capture the dark world of 1920s Berlin.\n"It was about creating the atmosphere of a rough club, about being historically accurate to the period, about treating the music in a very rough, improvisational way," Mendes said.\nSome of the ways the company makes this happen night to night is an orchestra made of the cast members, people who portray the individual personalities of the "Cabaret boys" and the "Cabaret girls," while also playing saxophones, trumpets and trombones.\nNicole Swartzentruber, who plays both the saxophone and the character Frenchie in the touring production tonight, said the chance to show off her musical and theatrical talents was one thing that drew her to the show. She credits the set design, with its specially designed "band bridge" for helping her do both jobs effectively.\n"When I run up the stairs (to the bridge) and sit down I'm ready to play, and when I run down the stairs it becomes the cabaret and I become Frenchie," she said.\nIn the 1999 interview, Mendes said certain aspects of the show that change from night to night also keep it fresh.\n"The emcee has certain moments with the audience which change every night: There are certain lines that are ad-libbed and there is a sense that it is constantly evolving live performance for the people in the club," he said.\nThe cabaret is "roughed up" even further through the suggestive costumes worn by the emcee and cabaret performers. Swartzentruber appears onstage in what looks like lingerie, although she said she has gotten used to wearing it in front of a crowd of thousands every night.\n"When we first went onstage, I felt very bare, but now it feels so natural I don't even think about it," she said. "But sometimes the costume falls the wrong way, and you feel a little conspicuous."\nThis version of "Cabaret" may go out of its way to suggest certain images. But Mendes said in the 1999 interview that the way it merely hints at the historical implications of the coming of Nazism is one of its strong suits.\n"What happens is you get involved very much in the lives of these people and the very simple story, because in the end that's what it is: two love affairs set against a historical backdrop," Mendes said. "Then, gradually, the creeping menace of the Third Reich unfolds and the world that you have enjoyed being part of becomes a kind of prison."\nAlthough this is the intended feeling for the audience, the same is not true for performers. Before getting the part of Cliff, Holley monitored one of the initial auditions for the Broadway run of "Cabaret," worked at the "Cabaret" ticket office in New York and worked security at the theater where it was being performed. After all that, getting onstage is a victory.\n"I was around the show a lot, sitting backstage and listening to it," he said. "I wanted to do the show for a long time, and it was like I learned it by osmosis or something"
(04/18/02 4:00am)
(04/17/02 4:12pm)
This fall the riders of Pi Kappa Alpha's Little 500 team planned ahead. By last semester, senior rider Timothy Kolar said they had already made preparations for a spring break training trip, among other things. But in the course of about a month, the chapter was disbanded for alcohol violations and the team's plans were suddenly very much up in the air.\nVery quickly, Kolar and the other Pi Kappa Alpha riders were faced with finding new places to live, coming up with money to compete, including funds for the spring break trip and the other pressures that came with changing their status (and their name) into the independent team Fratello.\n"As soon as it happened, our budget was frozen and all the plans we made had to be reworked," Kolar said. "It was a big hassle and added a lot more pressure than there should have been outside of training."\nThis year, the men's race will include three independent teams with members who were affiliated with Greek houses that were suspended or removed from campus within the past year. Fratello's riders had represented Pi Kappa Alpha, while team Gafombi's riders previously competed for IU's chapter of Beta Theta Pi and team Corleones with Sigma Alpha Epsilon. IU's Beta Theta Pi and Pi Kappa Alpha chapters were removed from campus last semester; Sigma Alpha Epsilon was suspended in March. Members of the Corleones would not comment for this story.\nKolar and other riders in this situation say going from Greek to independent means losing needed budget money and a certain kind of support that comes from living and interacting with your 100 biggest fans at the fraternity house. But there is also the trade off of getting more sleep, eating healthier food and not having to worry about chapter violations threatening to end chances of competing in the event they have spent so many months preparing for.\nAlex Ihnen, assistant director and Little 500 coordinator for the IU Student Foundation, said upheaval caused to the race by fraternities losing the status needed to compete is not a new issue. Although IUSF's eligibility rules state that riders must typically wait a year before being allowed to change status, riders who competed for Greek teams whose chapters no longer exist on campus don't have to sit out a year. \n"The idea that you have to wait a year is that it's not fair to the team that you left," Ihnen said. "So it's a whole new issue if the team that you were on no longer exists. You don't have a choice, and we like to give riders as many choices as they can."\nIhnen also said IUSF makes sure these teams do not take names that indicate they still represent former Greek houses.\nA third year rider, Kolar rode for Fratello as a sophomore and for Pi Kappa Alpha last year. In order to afford to ride, everyone on Fratello has jobs and they paid for a van, condo and other expenses for a spring break trip to Texas. Losing the fraternity house also meant the team had to work harder to train together.\n"It's harder to get a group to ride together," he said. "In the fraternity, all you had to do was walk to the second floor. Now I have to trek four miles across campus to ride. We play phone tag all the time and you find yourself training a lot by yourself. It's harder to keep motivated training by yourself than when you're training with your team all the time."\nRiding without the luxury of a fraternity budget directed toward Little 500 has forced the Gafombi team to examine its purchases more closely, Mike Rubin, a senior and third year rider said.\n"We used almost all of our budget last year to buy gear, and we've been able to use it this year," he said. "It still hurts though. Like we wanted to have matching shorts for the race and all of the sudden we have to watch every little expense. Last year we could say 'Hey throw it in the bike fund' but this year we have to really think about it and pick and choose."\nRubin's teammate, senior John Grant, said he misses having the daily in-house support of his fraternity brothers, but he said living off campus means getting more sleep and eating healthier foods.\n"When I was a Beta, probably half my caloric intake came from fried foods and ice cream," he said.\nLast year, Kolar was chapter president in addition to being on the Little 500 team, and he said alcohol violations put Greek teams in a potentially precarious situation.\n"If one person in the chapter does something stupid Friday night, you can wake up Saturday morning and find out you're not racing anymore," he said. "That was a big worry last year. Being independent means we don't have to worry about being kicked out of the race the night before."\nRubin said concern about this issue is something Little 500 teams think about more than their fellow fraternity brothers.\n"Obviously every fraternity is going to party during Little 5 week," he said. "It's something that riders always seem to worry about but something not many other people in the house do. They say they care, but you don't really see as much concern on their part."\nRiding as independents gave the Gafombi team the chance to find interested riders from outside their fraternity, something Rubin said is an advantage because of a lack of interested riders in the former Beta Theta Pi chapter. But he said his fraternity brothers were supportive and excited as race time approached. Grant said this has continued even though the fraternity has been disbanded.\n"We actually just got our T-shirts today and everyone who was in our house will be wearing our T-shirts so a lot of the fans will be the same," he said. "We were all good friends, and the Little 500 is a great event, and they know how hard we worked. They want to be there no matter what, if we're riding for Beta or Gafombi." \nKolar also said these issues become unimportant when he wakes up on race day.\n"On race day it doesn't matter what I'm wearing across my chest," he said. "I don't ride for anybody else but myself and my teammates. People are going to support you whether you are a fraternity or independent. I race just for the pure competition or the pure enjoyment of being in front of 20,000 fans. I've never experienced anything as far as that race day in April. That's what keeps me going"
(04/10/02 4:00am)
The Sims Vacation Expansion Pack\nRated: T for Teen\nBy: EA/Maxis\nFor: PC\nThe designers behind "The Sims" have done it again. Just when you were bored with all the things your Sims were able to do, now they can go on vacation. In the new "Sims Vacation" expansion pack, your Sims gain the power to choose from three glorious weekend getaways. The game offers a choice between a luxurious beach resort, a camping trip to the woods or a ski trip.\nWith the new environment comes a new pile of extras that are added to the people and things you can already give your Sims. The game offers about 125 new items to buy, including a snowman, a tent, a fishing pier and carnival games. When your Sims actually go on vacation they also might run into some new characters, including a yeti and a beach shark. \nLike the Sims expansion packs that came before, this one is easy to install and even easier to integrate into the Sims universe you already set up. Unfortunately, you have to spend $20 or $30 to enjoy the expansion pack.\nIs it worth it? If you've spent countless hours playing "The Sims" and are bored with what your game can do now, it's definitely a good idea to go pick up this new version. But for casual players or those who have just bought the original "Sims" it's OK to wait. It's a waste of money if you only play every once in a while. And those who only have the original version of the game are a lot better off expanding the number of neighborhoods you have with the "Livin' Large" pack or giving your Sims the ability of fall deeply in love with the "Hot Date" program before attempting to take the Sims on vacation.\n
(03/28/02 5:49am)
When he was about eight, Glenn Gass ran over to a friend's house to say he had just heard a Ricky Nelson song they both liked. Until then, Ricky Nelson was the boys' favorite musician. But that was all about to change.\n"He said 'Forget Ricky Nelson,'" Gass remembered. The two boys ran over to another friend's house where Gass heard "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and had his first encounter with a group called the Beatles.\n"Everything weird about them in the space of three minutes seemed just right," he said.\nSince then, many of the things that Gass has done are a continuation of that day. As teacher of IU's rock and roll history and history of the Beatles classes he combines a passion he always knew he'd do for a living -- teaching -- with one he thought would only be a hobby.\n"I would not have believed it, but I would have been thrilled," he said of what his childhood self would think of his current occupation. "When I was that age the idea of pop music in a college class was unheard of. Pop music was not on the radar. It's amazing. I don't know how I ever got that lucky."\nAttending a Beatles class taught by Gass is proof that he still finds everything about the Beatles to be "just right." He leads the class in spirited, albeit slightly off key, renditions of Beatles songs; points out "classic Beatle moments" with obvious glee and, one day, after putting up a photo he especially likes, lies down on top of the piano in the lecture hall and entreats the class "let's just look at the Beatles."\nThe Beatles class has come a long way since Gass taught it for the first time at IU at Collins Living-Learning Center after John Lennon died in 1980. At the time, Gass, who came to IU to get his doctorate, was shocked because the students he encountered didn't really remember the Beatles. \n"(The class) seemed like a good way to pay tribute to John and pay my way through graduate school at the same time," he said.\nNowadays, the waitlist for the Beatles class is long, and at the beginning of each semester Gass has many people e-mailing him, begging for placement. The course used to be smaller, with rock and roll history as a prerequisite, but now it takes place in large lecture halls with over 300 students (a fact that is both a source of frustration and pleasure for Gass, as he moves away from teaching in a more intimate environment and from giving essay to multiple choice tests).\n"Making students lifelong fans of music is what keeps the course from getting stale," he said. "The best thing is when I feel like I had an impact on somebody's record collection and help made people lifelong Beatles fans."\nThe classes are also now more accepted by faculty at IU's School of Music. When Gass started teaching at IU in 1982 he was "amazed" by how traditional and classical-minded the music program was; people laughed at Gass when he wore a black armband after John Lennon died, and the head of the musicology department at the music school once asked him how he could "teach musical garbage." \n"I had a real chip on my shoulder for a long time," Gass said. "But the battles have been won. People accept pop culture."\nHistory of the Beatles was the first class about a specific band to be taught at IU, but now there are also classes about Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and the Beach Boys. Several of these classes are taught by music professor Andy Hollinden, who started out as Gass' grading assistant. The two met when Gass came to a restaurant where Hollinden's rock band was playing. It was April 15, tax day, and the band was playing the Beatles' "Taxman" in honor of that when Gass entered the restaurant.\n"I knew who (Gass) was but I didn't really know him and all I thought was 'Oh no, the Beatles' teacher is here and here I am playing 'Taxman,"' Hollinden said. \nWitnessing Gass' teaching style was something of a life-changing experience for Hollinden.\n"I was a music major and I had been through more music courses than you can shake a stick at," he said. "I was used to music classes from the music school and once I was exposed to what Glenn was doing, I was thrilled not only by the subject matter but by his teaching style, his enthusiasm and, even if it's a corny word, his passion. I never considered being a teacher until I saw what Glenn was doing. It was a whole new game and I wanted in."\nAlthough the two don't really work together to decide what each will teach in his class (and prefer not to), they are now friends who get together and "talk about music all the time like the cliche music nuts who sit together and discuss the state of the world -- only in musical terms," Hollinden said.\n"I just admire people who make things happen, and he's the perfect example of someone who just made this happen," Hollinden added. "He was a pioneer in his field, and I find that inspiring. Somebody has to be the first one to introduce topics and he did it. I wish I could say I did it, but he did it."\nThe Beatles and rock and roll classes that Hollinden assisted years ago are very different from the ones that Gass teaches now in part because both classes have gone multimedia. A few years ago, Gass worked with the campus Teaching and Learning Technologies Lab, a resource for professors, to combine music clips, sound clips and pictures into a computer program that he shows to the rock and roll history classes. \nAn IU grant funded by Ameritech gave him the resources to begin doing the same for the Beatles class. Gass said creating the multimedia programs with the staff and resources at the lab have been great because he no longer has to come to class lugging a sackful of tapes (although he does occasionally have to deal with malfunctioning computer equipment.)\n"My fear is that it looks easy," Gass said of the multimedia programs. "But everything up there represents ... I don't know how many hours of work. But I'll use it for the next 10 years."\nOccasionally the staff at the TLT Lab is able to learn something from the digitalized video files they help Gass prepare for the classes, said Kathryn Propst, a project coordinator at the Lab. A couple of days ago, Propst and the staff were working on a 1960s-era video clip of a mime contest with teenage girls lip-syncing to Brenda Lee songs.\n"We didn't understand what it was," she said.\nThat is until Gass pulled up a newspaper article about a runaway girl who was the basis for the song "She's Leaving Home," written by Paul McCartney. As it turns out Melanie Cue, the runaway in the article, was the winning contestant in said mime contest, which happened to be judged by none other than McCartney. The unlocking of this mystery is a good example of why Propst enjoys attending Gass' classes.\n"He's really playful with it and he likes to stop and talk about things," she said. "Because of that, it's really fun to go to lectures and see how he uses something you just made an hour before."\nAmong the many photos Gass uses for the Beatles classes are some taken of Gass and students at famous Beatle landmarks, from when Gass taught the class in London in the summer of 1998 and 1999. This summer, Gass will again take the class there and he hopes they feel the same way he did the first time he saw Abbey Road studios or the Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles played early shows.\n"It was like going to my homeland," Gass said of his first trips to England. "Seeing all the places I read about my whole life was more moving than I thought it would be. In Liverpool, everyone sounds like the Beatles. I would walk around thinking 'the woman in the bakery sounds just like Paul!' I got such a sense of them as people because it was so much more real."\nThe photos also feature one of Gass' other passions: his family. Students in the Beatles classes can see Gass and sons Matthew and Julian posing at the grave of former Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe or see his sons holding hands while standing in the parking lot where the Beatles would meet before departing for a tour ("They'll thank me someday," Gass joked as he cued up the photo for the class). \nAlthough Gass hopes his sons love the Beatles as much as he does, he credits wife Julia with helping him to stop judging people by their record collections (he claims thatwhen they met she had a "terrible" record collection, including John Denver and Barry Manilow.) \n"Julia helped remind me that music is not a prism through which everybody views the world," he said. "But she loves the Beatles now, as do my sons. Of course, they have no choice."\nBut Gass still believes the reason he made music tapes for girlfriends or for his wedding or for each of his sons' births was that songs can communicate feelings that letters or conversations can't.\n"I love music because that's what it does for you; it speaks for you if there's something you feel really deeply and want to share it," he said.\nGass said he admires artists recording today, but he feels more connected to the Beatles, Neil Young or Bob Dylan (the next artist he'd like to teach a class about.) Those artists and others are his way of carrying his youth into the rest of his life. But the popularity of the Beatles with his students makes perfect sense to him.\n"The Beatles live up so well because they're timeless," he said. "Some songs have memories you associate them with, but the Beatles transcend all that."\nNot that his youth doesn't have several Beatle-related memories. There's the Christmas of 1967 when his older brother gave him all four of artist Richard Avedon's portraits of the Beatles (the ones that appear in the liner notes of the Beatles 1 CD) or when he was ten years old and saw them in concert in Washington, D.C. during their 1966 American tour.\n"The moment I'll never forget is when they ran out onstage," Gass said. "There were warm-up acts but then suddenly they were there and 1000 flashbulbs went off. And there was this incredible scream. I knew it was really special at the time. I was in heaven."\nAll of the memories and all of the feeling Gass has piled up from years with the Beatles come out when he teaches the students in class. One of the best is the day he pulls up a slide of a letter written in childlike printing. It's a fan letter Gass wrote to the Beatles as a kid saying "You look so crazy with you funny haircuts" but also "I will always remember you John Paul George and Ringo from the (sic) you came to America till I die."\n"My mother gave me the letter when when I was teaching my first Beatles class," he said. "I gave it to my mother to mail but she didn't. She kept it because she said she thought I'd appreciate it someday. I doubt she knew how much but she was right"
(03/27/02 5:41pm)
Donnie Darko - R\nStarring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnel\nDirected by: Richard Kelly\nHigh school student Donnie Darko lives in a picture-perfect neighborhood, attends a sophisticated private school and enjoys every benefit a kid could have in 1988 Virginia. It's too bad that every night he disappears, sleepwalks and commits destructive vandalism at the request of Frank, his imaginary friend who is a 6-foot rabbit with a sinister grin.\nAnything can happen in the surreal world of "Donnie Darko," written and directed by Richard Kelly. Plane engines can mysteriously fall out of the sky with no airplane in sight, the Smurfs can become the basis for a sex conversation among teenage boys, people can still talk about Michael Dukakis and, thanks to Kelly, all of this makes sense when the movie ends.\nAfter its debut at last year's Sundance film festival, "Donnie Darko" had an extremely short release in theaters. Hopefully the newly released DVD will allow the movie to gain the exposure it truly deserves. Although the film didn't make much money at the box office, the DVD was designed as if the movie was a blockbuster, with two commentaries, 20 deleted scenes and supplementary material galore.\nThe first of the two commentaries is from Kelly and "Donnie" portrayer Jake Gyllenhaal. Kelly shares interesting stories about filming the movie and sheds more light on the movie's intricacies. Watching the deleted scenes -- with or without Kelly's commentary -- is a must after viewing the actual film because many of the lingering questions will be answered. The second commentary features several cast members, including Drew Barrymore, who produced the film and plays Donnie's slightly off-kilter English teacher.\n"Donnie Darko"'s supplementary material is the best part of the DVD. The plot presented in the movie has complex background information and throughout the film, Donnie encounters several pieces of written material that help explain what is happening to his mental state. The movie's official Web site carried both documents relating to fictional events that occurred before and after the events in the movie as well as the actual text of most of the written material. All of that has been recreated here, and it's fascinating to see exactly how much detail Kelly put into this production. \nWith its combination of 1980s nostalgia and deep questioning of the theories of time travel and creation versus destruction, "Donnie Darko" will make you laugh, make you think and fuel an instant desire to know more about Donnie's world. Thanks to the DVD, all of that is possible.\n
(03/27/02 5:00am)
Donnie Darko - R\nStarring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnel\nDirected by: Richard Kelly\nHigh school student Donnie Darko lives in a picture-perfect neighborhood, attends a sophisticated private school and enjoys every benefit a kid could have in 1988 Virginia. It's too bad that every night he disappears, sleepwalks and commits destructive vandalism at the request of Frank, his imaginary friend who is a 6-foot rabbit with a sinister grin.\nAnything can happen in the surreal world of "Donnie Darko," written and directed by Richard Kelly. Plane engines can mysteriously fall out of the sky with no airplane in sight, the Smurfs can become the basis for a sex conversation among teenage boys, people can still talk about Michael Dukakis and, thanks to Kelly, all of this makes sense when the movie ends.\nAfter its debut at last year's Sundance film festival, "Donnie Darko" had an extremely short release in theaters. Hopefully the newly released DVD will allow the movie to gain the exposure it truly deserves. Although the film didn't make much money at the box office, the DVD was designed as if the movie was a blockbuster, with two commentaries, 20 deleted scenes and supplementary material galore.\nThe first of the two commentaries is from Kelly and "Donnie" portrayer Jake Gyllenhaal. Kelly shares interesting stories about filming the movie and sheds more light on the movie's intricacies. Watching the deleted scenes -- with or without Kelly's commentary -- is a must after viewing the actual film because many of the lingering questions will be answered. The second commentary features several cast members, including Drew Barrymore, who produced the film and plays Donnie's slightly off-kilter English teacher.\n"Donnie Darko"'s supplementary material is the best part of the DVD. The plot presented in the movie has complex background information and throughout the film, Donnie encounters several pieces of written material that help explain what is happening to his mental state. The movie's official Web site carried both documents relating to fictional events that occurred before and after the events in the movie as well as the actual text of most of the written material. All of that has been recreated here, and it's fascinating to see exactly how much detail Kelly put into this production. \nWith its combination of 1980s nostalgia and deep questioning of the theories of time travel and creation versus destruction, "Donnie Darko" will make you laugh, make you think and fuel an instant desire to know more about Donnie's world. Thanks to the DVD, all of that is possible.\n
(03/26/02 6:53am)
My dreams of looking like a movie star have finally come true. This morning I woke up looking like Cameron Diaz. Everything was the same. The hair, the clothes, I was ready to take my place on the red carpet.\nAnd if you watched the Oscars Sunday night, you know what I mean. This morning my messy bedhead and flowery bathrobe achieved the exact same look that Diaz probably spent thousands of dollars on to display at the Oscars. \nI'm sure I've made many a fashion faux pas in my time, but the fact that Diaz's hair appeared to have been attacked by a leaf blower and that her dress resembled curtains or a bathrobe puts her far above me on the list of who should be arrested by the Fashion Police. I've gone out looking that bad before; but never with the pretense of being 'dressed up.'\nIn fact, the majority of Oscar fashions displayed Sunday were in the "worst-dressed" category. Most of the women present, including people like Jennifer Connelly and Gwyenth Paltrow, who usually exude taste and elegance, ended up looking just plain weird.\nMaybe it was out of confusion of how dressed up to get for an awards ceremony that, like everything else, is colored by the tragedy of Sept. 11. So perhaps the Hollywood rich and famous were at a loss when choosing clothes because they didn't want to appear too dressed up and make light of the war on terrorism and the ongoing recession. This could be the reason that Barbra Striesand chose to recycle a tablecloth to use as a dress; why Jennifer Lopez decided not to buy a comb to loosen up her astronomically bouncy curls and why Sharon Stone was nice enough to have her dress go without the whole back half.\nThen there were those who had perfectly nice outfits, colored by one weird little detail that was just enough to drive vicious viewers like me insane. Take Marisa Tomei's dress, for example. It was a nice black number unfortunately colored by wacky asymmetrical spaghetti straps. Personally, I spent the entire night wishing I could transport myself to Hollywood with a big pair of scissors to snip them off her. Or how about Gwyneth Paltrow, sporting a nice dress with a top that was sheer to the point of scary.\nIf only all the stars had taken a page from the books of people like Halle Barry and Reese Witherspoon, both of whom looked great in two completely different dresses (Barry's was sheer and red and flowery while Witherspoon's was black and lacy).\nWatching the Oscars (or any award show for that matter) can teach the viewers and the wearers of the dresses one of two lessons. First, even if your friends, your fashion magazines, Georgio Armani and Bagdley Mischka all say something is in style, that doesn't mean you have to wear it. Second, if you like what you're wearing and you think it looks good, then everything is fine, and you should ignore snarky columnists like myself (but don't expect us to stop talking about it).
(02/28/02 6:04am)
The Indiana House of Representatives passed House Bill 351, which increases the number of members of the IU Board of Trustees permitted to reside in Monroe County and adds a tenth, non-voting faculty representative to university governing boards around the state. \nIn order to become law, the bill must now go to a conference committee where the House and Senate must compromise on the final draft. There it faces groups sharply divided over several issues. Some are concerned over how a faculty trustee would change the make-up and mission of its governing boards. Others question the need of having faculty input to help trustee boards navigate the changing face of higher education. \nHouse Majority Leader Mark Kruzan, D-Bloomington, said the faculty trustee amendment to the bill faces a long road to become law.\n"Many legislators are influenced by lobbyists for universities," Kruzan said. "Faculty are only represented by a handful of legislators so it's an uphill fight." \nThe bill arose out of a lack of communication between faculty and administration at other universities, circumstances which trustee Stephan Backer said don't exist at IU.\n"Our faculty council president comes to all of our meetings and attends our executive sessions on 99 percent of what we do," Backer said. \nInitially introduced by Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, the bill only expanded the number of IU trustees able to reside in Monroe County from two to three. This would eliminate the problem the Board faced when trustee Fred Eichhorn moved from Lake County to Monroe County last year, making him the third trustee living in the county. The University obtained a legal opinion on the issue it will not release to the public. Because of that decision, Kruzan said he opposes the amendment.\n"They are not acting as a liberal arts institution should if they're refusing to release an opinion," he said. "It seems that the opinion would say this legislation isn't necessary. Right now three members of the board are from Monroe County; the law says two and if the University has a legal opinion that says that's OK. If it's OK by way of legal opinion, I haven't had it explained to me why the bill is needed." \nIU spokesman Bill Stephan said that opinion simply said that Eichhorn was considered a resident of the county where he lived at the time he was appointed to the board, which is different from the issue addressed in the bill, which expands the number of trustees allowed to live in one county under normal circumstances. \nAn amendment putting a faculty member on the board of trustees was added to the bill last week. Similar initiatives have died in the past. \nHaving faculty input on decisions would make the Board's decision-making process more effective, said Bob Eno, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council and a professor of Eastern Languages and Cultures.\nEno said the administration told the faculty that the University would take no official position for or against the bill. Don Weaver, director of government relations, did express the University's concerns about the bill when it was still in the committee stage.\n"This bill has been introduced on and off in various forms and we always had concerns," Weaver said. "One major concern is that the board of trustees were set up statutorally to represent the legislature and citizens of the state, not to represent employee groups."\nThat a faculty representative of the board that makes decisions on issues such as salaries would represent a conflict of interest is another concern University representatives have expressed to legislators. Stephan said IU president Myles Brand met with the Bloomington Faculty Council and said he thought any conflict of interest on the part of a faculty member could be managed.\nKruzan said making the faculty trustee a non-voting member of the board resolves the issue.\n"I would hope trustees are already doing everything they can to better compensate the faculty and staff so that the faculty have no greater incentive than anyone else," he said. \nKruzan said he is disappointed by the lack of support universities have shown for the faculty trustee amendment.\n"It never ceases to amaze me the narrow-mindedness sometimes displayed by what are supposed to be liberal arts universities," he said. "It's a shame that universities don\'t trust their own faculty enough to let them be at the table when important decisions are being made."\nBacker stressed that adding a faculty trustee represents a more far-reaching issue to university governing boards charged with interacting with legislators, faculty, staff and citizens.\n"The issue isn't 'do you want a faculty member on the board' as much as that we really have to define what the board is to do, and how it is to interact with all these groups," Backer said. "If we include faculty on the board, what does that do to your ability to act as an impartial arbiter between these groups"
(02/28/02 5:00am)
Always Got Tonight\nChris Isaak\nReprise\nCombining twangy country sounds with rock and roll guitars, Always Got Tonight is the eighth album from Chris Isaak, an artist probably best known for rolling around in the sand with supermodel Helena Christensen in the video for his song "Wicked Game." \nThis album doesn't really cover any new ground musically but that's OK because Isaak's usual formula of incorporating several different styles of music with his distinctively great voice helps him hit the ground running whether he tries something unique or not.\nWhile nothing new happens with his music, the album does represent something fairly new happening in Isaak's career, namely "The Chris Isaak Show," his TV show that airs on Showtime and VH1. "American Boy," the show's fun theme song is featured on Always Got Tonight along with a few others songs that were included in some of the episodes.\nBesides "American Boy," which has the catchy lyrics needed for any good TV theme song, Always Got Tonight includes eleven other solid tracks. Among the best is "One Day," the album's first track. The lyric "Give me one day in your life," is repeated several times as Isaak sings about trying to convince a girl to give him a chance. That line and the rest of the song is a perfect example of how a song can become infinitely more interesting and listenable based on the way an artist chooses to sing words. The next song on the album, "Let Me Down Easy," isn't as layered or as interesting but it's more listener-friendly, which is probably why it's the one you might have already heard on the radio.\nI listened to this CD during a three-hour shift at my other job; I didn't bring three hours worth of music and ended up going through all of Always Got Tonight three times. But I didn't get bored of the music; in fact I found a new song to claim as my "favorite" each time. While this CD isn't the most innovative in the world, it's fun to listen to and doesn't get dull.\n
(01/30/02 5:00am)
The Sims: Hot Date Expansion Pack\nRating: T for Teen\nFor: PC\nBy: EA Games\nHave you ever dreamed of making out with Matthew Perry? Sleeping with Jennifer Lopez? Living in a large mansion with luxury furnishings? Being abducted by aliens? Playing "The Sims" can make all these dreams and more come true -- at least on your computer screen.\n"The Sims" is a game where you create a person and then control how they live their lives. From building a house to finding a job to making friends to cooking food and taking a shower -- it's all under your control. Thanks to a variety of Web sites devoted to providing downloadable "skins," you can also add Sims body types that look like TV, movie and music personalities, including the cast of "Friends" and Hugh Jackman. \nWith the new "Hot Date" expansion pack you can truly take friendships between your Sims to another level. Instead of being confined to your house and the houses of your Sim's friends, the characters can now venture Downtown. Sims can go on dates to the mall, eat a candlelight dinner or hang out on the beach. The game also provides several new objects you can purchase for your Sims after you make the needed amount of money. These include the "Cuddle Couch," for Sim make-out sessions and a "Love Tub" for romantic hot tub dates. \nTo use the "Hot Date" expansion pack you also need to have the original Sims game. Two other previously-released expansion packs, "Livin' Large" and "House Party," are also available but aren't needed to use "Hot Date." \nAll versions of the Sims are dangerously addictive (don't play on the same night you plan to write a paper or study for a test if you actually want a good grade). "Hot Date" offers more realism to the game alleviating the sometimes-boring tasks (like eating and sleeping) you must make your Sims do to live by offering trips out of the neighborhood. Taking on the challenge of making the intended boy/girlfriend actually fall in love with your Sim is challenging but a good break from the far more stressful real-life world of dating.\n
(01/29/02 5:52am)
At first Sean McKinney laughed when he approached his house and saw friend Ross Greathouse\'s car still parked in the driveway. Although Greathouse lived in an apartment of his own, he usually spent several nights a week at the house shared by McKinney and several other friends. \nOn the way back home after classes last Tuesday, McKinney and his roommates had stopped by Greathouse\'s apartment looking for him. They discovered he wasn't at home. Now they approached the driveway and saw both Greathouse\'s car and two other friends standing on the front porch. It was there that they told McKinney bad news that he still has trouble believing. \nRoss Greathouse, a senior, died last Tuesday of what police said was an apparent drug overdose. He was 21. \nAlthough a toxicology report has not yet come back, Steven Chambers, detective captain with the Monroe County Sheriff's office, said all indications are that Greathouse took a combination of cocaine and heroin sometime early Tuesday morning. \nLess than a week later, Greathouse's wood-paneled Jeep still sits at the end of McKinney's driveway. Inside the house, he and other friends sit together in the living room telling stories about Greathouse, laughing, crying and trying to understand why this happened to the friend McKinney described as being "full of life and love." His friends knew that Greathouse had used drugs before. But they remember the friend who called himself "Old Dad," a strange nickname that stuck. They remember the person who always made an entrance when he came over. They remember that he attended and enjoyed his classes, that he spent time with friends and family and had hobbies that ranged from juggling to playing Ping Pong to cooking. \n"It was a shock. It was a surprise," McKinney, a senior, said. "It wasn't like we saw him spiraling downhill."\nAbout 18 percent of full-time undergraduate college students use drugs, the same rate for students aged 18 to 22 not enrolled in college, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, a report from a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Office of Postsecondary Education, a division of the U.S. Department of Education, reports that 147 IU students were arrested off-campus for drug-related citations in 2000.\nIn other words, Greathouse was not alone in his choices. \nDee Owens, director of IU's Alcohol Drug Information Center, said the number of people who use drugs is "more than we would like to see," but not close to the number of people who abuse alcohol.\nOwens, director of IU's Alcohol Drug Information Center, opposes the term "recreational" in connection with drugs because she feels it condones using illegal substances.\n"It's not recreational if one of your possibilities is being dead," she said.\nGreathouse's cousin Cy Greathouse last spoke with him at Christmas and remembered that "everything was going good," for the cousin who used to live with and work for him in the summer.\nAlthough Greathouse's family and friends can sit and remember thousands of good times with their friend, Petra Slinkard, a senior who dated Greathouse since freshman year and ending this summer, worried that outsiders will simply remember him as being the stereotype of anyone who uses drugs. \n"One thing I want people to know is drugs don't make him who he is," she said. "It was something that he did." \nOwens said what happened to Greathouse doesn't just happen to those whom people would define as "drug addicts."\n"It happens to anybody and everybody if they make uninformed decisions," she said.\nWhen talking about Greathouse's death, the same refrain keeps coming up among his friends: What happened to him could have happened to anybody. \nMcKinney said, "There's a million kids on this campus who don't remember going to sleep last night," who party and don't remember what happened the next day. His friends say Greathouse didn't party more or less than anybody else. But the last time he didn't wake up.\n"Unfortunately, I think if I look at it realistically, he could have been anybody on this campus who made those choices," Slinkard said. "He could have been anybody. He had great friends, he had a great family, he had pets, he kept his apartment clean. He could have been anybody." \nSlinkard met Greathouse during their freshman year when they both lived in Collins Living-Learning Center. They dated from that April until June of last year. He was her only boyfriend through college and she was his only girlfriend. \"He had a great smile and the most beautiful eyes," Slinkard said. "They changed like the sea from blue to green to gray."\nLast Tuesday, Slinkard and a friend who also knew Greathouse were getting ready to go on a walk. While her friend was returning another call, Slinkard\'s roommate called looking for her. Her roommate asked if Slinkard was sitting down.\n"As soon as (she) said that I knew it was him. I knew something had happened. I didn't expect that to be the reason. Then I think I puked," she said.\nAs far as I know he had never done heroin and he always told me he never would. But he had done coke before. I was surprised and angry and really frustrated."\nConflicting feelings aside, Slinkard easily described the things she remembered about Greathouse. \n"He was incredibly funny and he always wanted to have fun," she said. "He was really kind of goofy. He was extremely tolerant and patient."\nMany of the friends gathered at McKinney's home knew Greathouse since they were all kids together in North Vernon, Ind. Sami Ezzo, a sophomore, met him when they played soccer together and he and McKinney used to skip lunch in school to play endless games off foosball. Growing up, he lived in a house that was over 100 years old and would spend his time fishing in the nearby Muscatatuck River and swimming in the "Blue Hole." His family had a hardware store in the city's historic downtown. Greathouse's grandfather, father and mother all ran the store and he used to work there as well. \n"He knew all about appliances and tools," Cy said. "He could talk hardware for hours."\nHe attended the Indiana Academy, a Muncie school with accelerated programs in math and science. Although Greathouse had several passions, the number one thing all his friends and relatives remember was his love of maps and travel. \nTom Evans, an assistant professor in geography, had Greathouse in one of his classes last semester. He remembers Greathouse, who was a geography major, as being interested in the course and a person liked by the other students in the class. \nHis favorite place was the Geography and Map Library on campus. Slinkard said he would often bring her there and specifically remembered being there on a day when the library was having a big sale.\n"He was appalled they were going to throw away all these big, beautiful maps, so he bought them all," she said. "He gave some to his mom but they were like wallpaper in his apartment."\nLast week, Cy Greathouse took those maps down from the wall. He said all of them are now spoken for and that any memorials Greathouse's mother, Phoebe Greathouse Greemann, received from people were donated to the geography library.\nHis favorite regions of the world were Central America, South America and the Carribean. \n"He was in love with that flavor," Slinkard said. \nCy remembered taking a trip to Puerto Rico with his cousin, camping, traveling and watching Greathouse entertain young children with his juggling skills.\nGreathouse was still the entertainer when hanging out with his friends in Bloomington. He wasn't afraid to make a fool out of himself but when he did, "it would be the coolest thing," friend Thad Struck, a senior, said. \nPeople who had only met him once would recognize his name when it was mentioned months or years later. His friends describe him as confident and spontaneous.\n"He had a chicken strut like nobody else," friend Neil Murrman, a senior, said.\nEzzo said Greathouse's death has brought his group of friends closer together.\n"We've all been so close," she said. "I don't know what I'd do without my friends right now because you know they know what you're going through."\nLosing their friend has also forced them to think about changing their own lives.\n"I feel like I have to live every day for Ross," Cy Greathouse said.\nFor Neil Murrman, losing Greathouse has given him new resolve to make at least one of the plans they made together -- plans that included moving to Budapest and driving to Alaska in a bus -- a reality. Struck said the experience has left them all with one important thing in common.\n"You appreciate all the things he gave you," he said. "We all realize what we had and we all have that in common."\nWhen asked what she wanted Greathouse to be remembered for, Petra Slinkard said she hoped one thing people can learn is "when to say no; that there's a time for everything." She sat back in her chair, smiled then looked serious when asked what she wanted him to know.\n"I guess if I wanted him to know anything, what I hope he knows now, one that I love him," she said. "And, two, that I don't think he ever realized how many lives he touched"
(01/16/02 5:00am)
Love, Faith and Inspiration\nLindsay Pagano\nWarner Brothers\nAdd Lindsay Pagano to the list of young, female singers producing albums that try to prove how efficiently they can imitate Britney Spears. Pagano isn't as well-dressed and perky as Mandy Moore or as annoying as Jessica Simpson; in fact she doesn't really try anything with her image or music to even minutely distinguish herself from her fellow clones. This is unfortunate because it proves yet again that record execs haven't realized that dressing up a teenage girl in slinky outfits and giving her obsessively perky songs to sing isn't going to sell millions of copies the way it did for Britney.\nAt least it's not likely towork in Pagano's case. Although the album starts out strong with the upbeat, catchy "Everything U R" and "Love&Faith&Inspiration" it quickly goes downhill. As with many "teen pop" albums, too many of the songs sound exactly alike. Even worse, far too many songs contain choruses full of just the kind of insipid lyrics that will drive you nuts by getting stuck in your head all day long. For example "Number One With A Bullet" repeats the same inane chorus so many times that I thought the CD had accidentally gone on repeat.\nMaybe Pagano could get away with such things if she put more emotion into her voice when she sings. The album has a pretty diverse mix of ballads and bubbly pop tunes, but Pagano sings all of them in the same dry monotone. Songs like "Cryin' Shame" and "So Bad" are supposed to express the pain created by relationships that don't work out but you wouldn't know it from listening to Pagano sing. Strangely enough, Paul McCartney sings a duet with Pagano on "So Bad." \nBut don't worry Britney; your dubious position in the music industry won't stand any serious threat from Lindsay Pagano.\n
(01/09/02 5:00am)
The Majestic - PG\nStarring: Jim Carrey, Martin Landau\nDirected by: Frank Darabont\nShowing: Showplace West 12\nTo promote post-Sept. 11 patriotism, movie theaters are showing a short film before "The Majestic" filled with clips from old movies about American idealism and courage. This little film is definitely schmaltzy, but at the same time the intent behind it is so genuine that a viewer can't help but get shivery and teary.\nThe makers of "The Majestic" also attempt to create emotion from the more innoncent times reflected in old Hollywood movies. Unfortunately, director Frank Darabont and star Jim Carrey are so sure they have achieved this goal that their egomania turns "The Majestic" into a product that produces shivers of disgust.\nSet in the mid-1950s, the movie tells the story of Peter Appleton (Carrey), a smarmy B-movie screenwriter who faces being blacklisted by the American government after he is falsely accused of being a communist. Attempting to escape from his destroyed career, Appleton takes an inebriated drive, hits his head and ends up an amnesiac washed up on the beaches of Lawson, Calif. The townspeople of Lawson think Appleton is Luke Trimble, the town hero who went MIA in World War II. Appleton eventually embraces his new identity as Trimble, helping his father (Martin Landau) re-open the run-down Majestic movie theater and romancing Trimble's childhood sweetheart (Laurie Holden, playing a role you just know Charlize Theron turned down).\nAlthough the sets and costumes look great and the references to movies of the era are fun, the movie is so cloyingly sweet that it could induce several cavities. The only bright spots acting-wise come from voice cameos by several Hollywood directors and by actor Matt Damon as the voice of the real Luke Trimble (although the thought of a guy with Carrey's body and Damon's voice is really kind of scary).\nIn the trailers for the film, Jim Carrey says "The Majestic" came out of his wish to "put something good-hearted into the world." That's great Jim, but if this movie is your idea of good-hearted you should have kept that wish to yourself.\n
(01/07/02 5:48am)
Evansville attorney Patrick Shoulders was appointed by Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon as the newest member of the IU board of trustees. \nShoulders, who received his undergraduate degree from IU Bloomington and attended law school at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis, will finish out the term of former trustee John Walda. Walda left his position Dec. 31 to become IU's new executive director of federal relations, creating liaisons between the University and branches of the federal government. \nAlthough O'Bannon didn't announce the appointment until Friday, Shoulders received a telephone call from the governor the week before Christmas informing him that he had the job.\n"It was one of the best Christmas gifts I ever received," he said. "I'm thrilled and honored and very excited about this opportunity."\nShoulders, past chairman of the IU Alumni Association executive officers, also serves on the search committee looking for a replacement for Alumni Association president Jerry Tardy, who died in September. \nWhen he heard of the opening on the board, Shoulders wrote a letter to O'Bannon expressing his interest in and qualifications for the position. His term expires June 30. At that time, O'Bannon will choose whether to reappoint Shoulders. \nHe is the first trustee from Evansville to be appointed to the board in 25 years. IU President Myles Brand said he welcomed Shoulders as an addition to the board.\n"(Shoulders) has demonstrated an exceptional passion for our great institution," Brand said.\nHis willingness to devote free time to work for IU as president of the Alumni Association board was one thing that impressed Frederick Eichhorn, vice president of the board of trustees.\n"The legal profession can consume all your time," Eichhorn said. "That you can carve out a portion of that for IU is a sacrifice."\nShoulders is currently preparing to attend his first board of trustees meeting Jan. 24.\n"I've already been provided with the first of what I am told will be a great deal of reading material, and I'm going to immerse myself in that," he said. "I hope to hit the ground running on the 24th."\nEichhorn said learning about all of the issues facing the University is important when taking a trustee position.\n"Initially he'll have to listen a lot to get tuned in," he said. "But he'll have a lot of help."\nCuts in the state budget allocations to IU will be one of the most important issues facing the board of trustees this semester, Shoulders said. \n"I hope to be able to assist the administration in serving the academic mission of the University and assuring that although we all have to share in these cuts, our academic side won't suffer," he said.