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(06/21/07 4:00am)
1. Super Jam\nThe midnight show was a\nhistoric jam in every sense.\nBen Harper's voice and guitar\nsoared over masterful\nbass from Led Zeppelin's\nJohn Paul Jones and deep\ngrooves from Questlove, who\nlooked like a king atop his\nhigh-rising drum kit.\nThe trio created a soundscape\nof classic Zeppelin\nsongs for the fi rst set, weaving\nthem together in a collage\nwith a soulful, extended\njam on "When the Levee\nBreaks" and "Good Times\nBad Times" continuously returning\nto riffs from "Dazed\nand Confused."
(06/21/07 4:00am)
Most people have a favorite person they've always wanted to meet. My short list includes David Byrne, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bill Clinton and, right at the top, David Cross. \nI always thought I'd shared something special with all these guys over the years after all the times they've made me laugh and think, but Cross has always hit me on a different level. \nA bunch of you probably don't even know who he is, but I've always found a connection with the characters he plays on TV, and his comedy CDs have just spoken to me the last few years in a way that not much else has.\nI'd been warned David Cross could be kind of a dick, but I figured I could make him smile. I spent the last few years trying to get anyone who came over to my apartment to watch DVDs of "Mr. Show" and "Arrested Development" and have listened to his comedy albums so much I could recite them in my sleep. \nWhen I found out he was going to be at the press conference, I was giddy with excitement and hoped that I could contain my near obsessive love of his comedy when I met him.\nI started by thanking him for "making me laugh more during college than anything else." He thanked me, but right away I could sse he was in a hurry as his eyes roamed the room.\nHe was gracious, but not particularly nice. I asked him if OnDemand video and YouTube would make it easier for him to follow passion projects. He said, "It's great, but as with everything, there's a lot of shit but there's a lot of good stuff on there, too." \nThen I moved on to politics, thinking that he'd be excited to talk about it since his comedy is often focused on his hatred of the Bush administration. When asked to assess the 2008 presidential candidates, he said, "I think it's too early to tell, but the Republican's are fucked. The democrats are just barely not fucked … I like Edwards personally."\nI asked him which issues were most important to him and he said, "It's not even the issues so much. It's just a feeling of honesty and integrity and, uh, I don't get that with Hilary. I don't know Obama enough."\nThen I went for what I thought would be a question he'd enjoy. I asked him which character that he's portrayed over the years he would like to play the rest of his life. Between Tobias Funke from "Arrested Development," and "Mr. Show" characters Ronnie Dobbs (a coke-head who always ends up on "Cops," ) The Queen of England or the lead singer of Wicked Sceptor (a gay '80s hair band). \nThat's when he rolled his eyes. \nI guess I understand that he was in a rush and didn't feel like playing a game with me, but he decided to indulge me and said, "Ronnie Dobbs as The Queen of England." He took a quick picture and he ended up smiling more than I did. Something about the whole experience just rubbed me the wrong way , and I still can't quite put my finger on it. I got my picture and two minutes with him, but I'd always thought if I ever got to hang out with him, he'd be more laid back and I'd be able to make him laugh. \nI wanted to have a beer with him and have him ask me who I was seeing at the festival. I wanted to make fun of the weird hippies with him and do impressions of them dancing. \nTo be fair, I guess it was just the wrong time and place to try to force my love of his comedy into a friendship, and it was certainly better than nothing, but all in all I feel a little hollow and have had to rethink my "who would I meet" question. \nI guess I'll have to try to meet Bob Dylan at the concert in Indy next month. I think he'll enjoy my impression of him.
(06/14/07 4:00am)
Get acquainted with some of Bonnaroo's \nbiggest artists\nwhether you make it down to the festival or not
(05/31/07 4:00am)
It's time to get to know the two most promising young, creative minds in Hollywood, Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen. Collectively, their credits include pop culture phenomena like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Anchorman" and "Da Ali G. Show," as well as cult successes like "Freaks and Geeks," "Donnie Darko" and "Heavyweights." This film ranks right up there with these past great works and will finally put these two geniuses firmly on the map.\nIn "Knocked Up," Seth Rogen is finally given his first leading role, and he absolutely nails it. He plays Ben Stone, a 20-something stoner who has no job and spends his days lying around, getting high and joking around with his guy friends. On a night out with the boys, he meets and impregnates the attractive Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl), an up-and-coming entertainment journalist.\nThe movie makes pregnancy seem easier than it is, but Apatow keeps the right tone for the film at every step. Through Apatow's direction and script, every moment feels authentic and dead-on accurate. Even though its plot points are predictable, the film feels fresh and exciting because of his excellent storytelling and wonderfully developed characters.\nApatow assembled a solid group of actors pulled from his various shows and projects and found fitting roles for many of them here. Jason Segel and Martin Starr are perfect as Rogen's best friends, and Paul Rudd is his typically sadistic self. Apatow's actual wife, Leslie Mann, plays Rudd's wife and Heigl's older sister to perfection. A quick cameo from Harold Ramis as Rogen's dad adds a lot.\nThis film is consistently laugh-out-loud funny, and even the plot points that would feel bogged down in a typical romantic comedy are perfect here.
(05/31/07 4:00am)
Forty-five seconds into Memory Almost Full's opening song, "Dance Tonight," Paul McCartney reminds us why we still love him at 64. He croons, "We can do anything we want to do" and turns the last "do" into three syllables, making me giddy as my mind flooded with images of the head-bobbing, charming, mop-top Paul who co-fronted my favorite band of all time.\nThe album peaks at the rhythmic second song, "Ever Present Past," which explores Paul's post-middle-aged mind, looking back on his childhood and questioning his current state. It's touching to hear Paul reminiscing about his childhood, but it is hard to believe über-stud McCartney when he claims in the song that he "don't have no time to be a decent lover." It's much more believable to hear him talking about his life later in the track, saying "It went by, it flew by in a flash." \nAt the classic Beatle age of 64, McCartney is often retrospective on the album, and by the middle of Memory, I was missing the first two tracks. The quality dips down with "See Your Sunshine," which sounds like standard, cheesy '80s McCartney, and "Gratitude," which is just painfully repetitive and sounds like it's addressed to his recent ex-wife. \nAs the album inches toward its end, it becomes underwhelming, except for the rocking, guitar-heavy "Only Mama Knows" and the menacing guitar solo halfway through the long-winded "House of Wax." \nMcCartney spouts off touching life lessons during the album's poignant second-to-last track, "End of the End," in which he adopts the perspective of a dying man giving his last words. He asks that his friends have "jokes to be told and stories of old" and that no one cry, because he's going to a better place. It features one of two whistle solos on the album, which would've both been far improved by a guitar or even a piano solo. McCartney ends with "Nod Your Head," the album's equivalent of "Dirt Off Your Shoulder." \nMemory is a sideways step from Chaos and Creation, which is logical, since a number of the songs are leftovers from those sessions.\nThe album falls short of classics like McCartney, Ram and some of the work Paul did with Wings, but it cracks his top 10 albums and is definitely worth a few listens.
(05/31/07 4:00am)
His Music:
(05/31/07 4:00am)
Paul is 64 and has put out half that many albums between his solo career and his work with a little band called The Beatles. As his latest album, Memory Almost Full, (reviewed on page 14) nears its release date of June 5 and his entire solo catalogue is made available on iTunes, the question is, do we still need him? Will we still feed him?\nTo help guide you through his diverse solo collection, we here at WEEKEND bought as many Paul albums as we could find, got a lot of help from some experts (rock music historians Glenn Gass and Andy Hollinden) and set out to give you a guide to post-Beatles \nPaul McCartney. \nGass, eager to get back to dissecting Paul after his year off from teaching the Beatles class he created, helped analyze how Paul's music has been received. Hollinden, fresh off a year of teaching the class, gave his insight into the songs and albums that made up the last 35+ years of post-Beatles Paul. \nWe analyzed his big albums like McCartney, Ram and Band on the Run and dug into the dollar bins to find lost treasures. We've got in-depth analysis of the rare (Rushes, which doesn't even have Paul's name on it), the average (Wings at the Speed of Sound and Tug of War) and albums not worth trading your lunch money for (Venus and Mars, Pipes of Peace). \nSince he spent six years co-headlining the world's biggest band, it's hard to dissect any of Paul's solo work fairly, especially after his songwriting partner, John Lennon, was martyred in 1980. In the wake of John's death, Paul's work of the 1980s became slightly more trivialized. Even his first albums, McCartney and Ram, really suffered because they were often compared to Lennon's first solo works, Plastic Ono Band and Imagine. The albums, "seemed to confirm the suspicion that John was the heavyweight Beatle, and Paul the fluffy 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' guy," Gass wrote in an e-mail. \nBut decades after these albums were released, Gass re-examined them and found little fault in much of Paul's solo career. "Now, all these years later, those early Paul albums have an offhand charm that is really appealing, and I think they have held up surprisingly well," Gass wrote. "Shows what expectations can do ... Everyone was comparing them to "Penny Lane" at the time, and nothing is going to hold up well under that kind of scrutiny." \nBy most historians accounts, Paul was the Beatle who wanted to continue touring and longed to be in the spotlight. He fufilled this desire by forming Wings, who stayed together from 1971 to 1981 with some lineup variations. Gass said that Wings got off to an even worse-received start than Paul's solo career with their first album, the unimpressive Wild Life. He agrees with Hollinden that Paul finally hit his stride with Band on the Run, which he called a great album by any measure. Wings' albums were so succesful that if you grew up in a certain time period, you'll remember McCartney as that guy from Wings, but anyone born after 1980 remembers him first and foremost as a Beatle, who happened to also have a solo career. Gass put it best, saying, "'Did you know Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?' was a joke that you really did hear quite often in the late seventies. Needless to say, you never hear it anymore. Time has a way of sorting things out."\nPaul has had a resurgence over his last couple albums and wildly successful world tours, but there was a time when he struggled creatively post-Wings. His albums London Town and Tug of War rarely come off the shelf, Venus and Mars is a pretty dated and tacky Wings album and Pipes of Peace, one of his collaborations with Michael Jackson, is weak except for the title track. Even some of his big '80s singles like "Ebony and Ivory" come across as simplistic today. "Through the 1980s and 1990s Paul kept busy -- too busy, as even he admits now," Gass wrote. "He did too many albums, included many half-baked ones. His collaborations with Elvis Costello were interesting, and his ones with Michael Jackson were appalling." \nDespite Paul's less than stellar solo work at the tail end of the 20th century, his career seems to be rebounding a bit in the 21st. His last two albums, Chaos and Creation in the Background and Memory Almost Full, carry more reflective tones and seem to harness some of his youthful charm. He appears to have accepted his place.\n"He did, though, finally let enough water go under the bridge to quit fighting and embrace his Beatle past," Gass wrote. "His tours became, and remain, joyous events, and he seems finally OK with the fact that his best and most popular work was done before he was 28. Happily, his last album, Chaos and Creation, was terrific, and I am really looking forward to the new one. He may be going through a late-career renaissance similar to Dylan's. Lord knows, no one deserves it more."
(05/24/07 4:00am)
The line:\n"I'll take anything you can fit in my box before 2:30." -- anonymous professor
(05/10/07 4:00am)
Bonnaroo isn't just for hippies anymore, but you'll feel like one by the end of the weekend. It's a marathon of shows from noon until 4 a.m., day after day, and no matter how tired you are, you'll be up with the Tennessee sun at 7 a.m. Bring lots of snacks, soap and sandals you can leave behind.
(05/10/07 4:00am)
Lollapalooza's artists are making daddy Perry Farrell very happy by bringing home lots of A's on their report cards. WEEKEND gave A's to many of the artists' new albums, including TV on the Radio, Modest Mouse and Peter Bjorn and John. Bloomington also caught glimpses of Spoon and G.Love at Bluebird and they're worth traveling to Chicago for.
(05/10/07 4:00am)
Umphrey's and moe are like the Welch's and Smuckers of the jam scene. They often tour together and transition from one band to another, one musician at a time. As one member's guitarist leaves, the other's gets on stage, etc. Both have extensive histories of playing in Bloomington (moe played an acoustic set in Borders last semester).
(05/10/07 4:00am)
If a Wisconsin music festival is good for anything, it's good for old-school acts ripped straight from the '70s and onto the stage (probably because much of the state still operates in this era). Aside from the likes of Roger Waters (Pink Floyd fame) and Peter Frampton, you also have Heart, REO Speedwagon, Blue Oyster Cult, Buddy Guy and The Family Stone Experience -- a tribute to Sly and company.
(05/10/07 4:00am)
"I believe in rock 'n' roll," he said. "It's about getting a feeling. When I'm on stage I do it 100 percent."
(05/10/07 4:00am)
"He's (G.Love) one of those guys you'll be learning about in rock class 30 years from now."
(05/10/07 4:00am)
We -- this summer's WEEKEND caretakers -- need your advice and opinions as the magazine expands on the Web and in print. If you love music, movies, DVDS, videogames, popculture or the Internet as much as we do -- trot on down to Ernie Pyle Hall and get yourself a job.
(04/26/07 4:00am)
It's time to get to know the two most promising young, creative stars in Hollywood. Collectively, their credits include pop culture phenomena like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Anchorman" and "Da Ali G. Show" as well as cult successes like "Freaks and Geeks," "Donnie Darko" and "Heavyweights." This film ranks right up there with any of these past great works and will finally put these two geniuses firmly on the map.\nSeth Rogen and Judd Apatow have been quietly writing, directing and, in Rogen's case, starring in these instant classics for years but are shockingly not household names. Rogen is the guy whose first line in "Donnie Darko" is "I like your boobs," and he starred in the cult hit shows "Undeclared" and "Freaks and Geeks." In "Knocked Up," he is finally given his first leading role, and he absolutely nails it.\nRogen plays Ben Stone, a twentysomething stoner who has no job and spends his days lying around getting high and joking around with his guy friends. On a night out with the boys, he meets the attractive Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) who is gaining success at the E! Entertainment Network. After a one-night stand, with some miscommunication on condom usage, she gets knocked up. Stone doesn't even remember they had sex.\nApatow's direction and script make every moment feel authentic and spot-on accurate even though the plot points are predictable. This movie is, on the surface, your typical romantic comedy, but Apatow has a way of telling a run-of-the-mill relationship story and making it seem fresh and exciting because of his storytelling and wonderfully developed characters.\nThe story progresses as they both freak out about the pregnancy and come to terms with it thanks to their friends and family members, who are all played by a extraordinary cast. \nApatow has assembled a solid group of actors to pull from through his various shows and projects and finds perfect roles for many of them here. Jason Segel and Martin Starr are perfect as Rogen's best friends because they starred in "Freaks and Geeks" together. \nPaul Rudd is his typical, sadistic, "I do what I want" self, and Apatow's actual wife Leslie Mann play's Rudd's wife and Heigl's older sister to perfection. A quick cameo from Harold Ramis as Rogen's dad rounds out the cast nicely.\nThe movie makes pregnancy seem easier than it is, and there are certainly more challenges that come with it than I can imagine, but Apatow keeps the right tone for the film at every step. There is a scene of overwhelming shock value at the end of the movie that could be seen as excessive, but it's played up in a way that makes it seem necessary and hilarious. This film is consistently laugh-out-loud funny, the rapport between the guys, especially Rudd and Rogen, is dynamic and I can't wait to see it again.
(04/12/07 4:00am)
Seniors Zach Pollakoff and Brian Kerr remember a scarcely attended Culture Shock from two years ago. Only six or seven dedicated concertgoers made it to the headlining band playing behind the radio station. Pollakoff says Culture Shock wasn't nearly as good in the past because it was full of bands he didn't want to see, but both he and Kerr said they are excited to see every band on the lineup this year.\nMajor improvements last year saw a big increase as an estimated 1,000 fans filled Dunn Meadow and this year looks to expand even more as Culture Shock expands into a new venue filled with national acts, adds an indoor after party and delivers a day filled with music for free. \nWith big-name national headlining acts and tent-covered stages, Culture Shock's organizers say they are getting "more excited and less nervous" as each day passes. Their event of the year takes over IU DeVault Alumni Center Field behind Alumni Hall for a full day and night of free concerts.\nMusic Director Craig Shank got on stage to introduce and welcome guests to last year's festival and hopes to see the acts, if he can make it out of his other responsibilities. Shank plans to spend this year's Culture Shock the way he spent last year's festival. A "utility man" -- hauling equipment for bands and being a runner to make sure everyone enjoys the show and it runs more smoothly. \n"We've been doing this every year since 1991 and it's kind of like a reward to everyone for working so hard," Shank said. "We don't make money from it and don't intend to. It's just a really great way to enjoy live music outside in the fresh air."\nKerr, special events director for WIUX, said the station began planning and advertising earlier than usual. The station has developed more "contacts and clout in the small little circle" of indie rock, which has allowed it to put on a festival to draw fans from all over the Midwest. \n"As cliché as it sounds, I hope everyone has a great time," Kerr said. "I feel fortunate to help bring something like this to IU."\nFans are getting excited about the soulful voiced Catfish Haven, a band that has played at the station and one which WIUX Director Zach Pollakoff called the most accessible band at the festival. In addition to their normal lineup, Catfish is adding a keyboardist and extra vocalists just for the show.\n"A lot of frat guys listen to them, but for good reason," he said.\nPollakoff also expressed excitement about a number of bands, from the jazzy styles of Nomo, who performed at Lotus Fest this year, to Sunset Rubdown, a band Pollakoff said is "worth catching for sure." \nAll those involved say this year's Culture Shock will be marked by the addition of After Shock after party. Junior Jon Coombs, who helped plan the event, said it will be a perfect extension of the eclectic group of artists at the festival and a way to see great local DJ's in addition to The Mudkids' DJ Rusty. He said he is especially excited about Totally Michael.\n"Totally Michael is a blast," Coombs said. "He's skinny as hell, 6 feet tall and wears booty shorts. He's a lot of fun."\nWhile some of the acts are local, those involved behind the concert said they expect the natural foot traffic from Briscoe and McNutt to be supplemented by fans across the Midwest. Shank said he knows of people coming in from Chicago, Michigan, Cincinnati. Senior Hannah Fidell even said her mom is coming in from New York. \nFidell said she had a great time at last year's Shock. She brought a few blankets and sat around with friends enjoying the music and getting up to dance for higher energy performers. The acts that caught her attention this year are David Vandervelde and Catfish Haven, two bands she said she enjoyed over spring break at the South by Southwest music festival.\nHer mom is coming in, as Fidell says, "to see what the hip kids are listening to these days." She plans on spending the day with her mom and her aunt and uncle going to After Shock that night, but thinks she'll be the only Fidell there.\n "I'm sure she'll be in bed by then," she said.
(04/12/07 4:00am)
A decade ago G. Love (Garrett Dutton) told a friend he would get a tattoo of “lemonade” on his arm if he ever got a record contract. Thirteen years and seven albums deep into his career he not only decided to get the tattoo but also named his most recent album “Lemonade.” \nFor G. Love, lemonade means more than just lemons, sugar and water. It symbolizes a time before he was famous when he would play the streets and make a pitcher of lemonade on his porch, where he did a lot of his “shredding and writing,” according to a press release.\nG. Love and Special Sauce swing through Bloomington after kicking off their current tour with a sold-out show at Chicago’s House of Blues to benefit charity. Tickets are $20 and doors open at 8 p.m. for tonight’s show at the Bluebird, which features The Expendables as the opening act.\nThe Philadelphia trio is made up of G. Love on vocals, guitar and harmonica; Houseman on drums and vocals and Jimi Jazz on bass. Bluebird will be treated to the intimate trio, but the three are bolstered on the new album by a number of collaborators including Jack Johnson, Blackalicious and Ben Harper. \nComparisons to Jack Johnson are frequent, but Bluebird promoter, junior Aaron Estabrook attempted to categorize the versatile singer and songwriter by coming up with a recipe for G. Love and Special Sauce. \n“It’s one part Johnny Lee Hooker, one part Beastie Boys, with some Jack Johnson and Bob Dylan thrown in there,” Estabrook said. \nBluebird owner Dave Kubiak said G. Love has played Bloomington several times, including last March, and Kubiak said he sells out or close to it every time. \nEstabrook echoed his popularity and said he feels G. Love is a performer unlike any other. He said that even though he’s gained popularity, G. Love is on the verge of becoming a lot bigger.\n“He’s one of those guys you’ll be learning about in rock class 30 years from now,” Estabrook said. \nG. Love’s albums and music have a summertime feel, and the artist’s recent blog posts reveal a man who’s excited about life, his music and is happy where he is.\n“I’m in a real comfortable place musically and in my life,” G. Love said in a press release. In regard to his latest album he said, “Lyrically, I wanted to talk about what I always talk about: finding love, making love, losing love, life and lemonade.”
(04/05/07 4:00am)
Will Ferrell is at his best for much of the movie playing the standard Ferrell role of a guy who is funny because he takes himself more seriously than anyone else does and sees no humor in his garish ways. A solid, quiet performance by Jon Heder and a wide array of interesting cameos help to carry the movie, but a reliance on an endless stream of bad physical humor makes this a renter. \nDon't get me wrong, there are several laugh-out-loud moments and every scene on the ice is pure gold, but most of the movie is like a "Saturday Night Live" skit: one joke stretched too thin. Those ice scenes really are fantastic with a lot of laughter coming from the preposterous moves and the ridiculous song choices (especially Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing"). \nThe action picks up at the 2002 Olympics where Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) puts "sexy" back in Olympic figure skating exhibition as he thrusts and humps his way through his raunchy routine. Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) comes out as a peacock and wows the crowd with his flawless routine. The event is ruled a tie and a fight on the podium leads to both men's lifetime ban from individual skating.\nIn one of a series of montages, we see Michaels go on a three-year binge, which leaves him drunkenly throwing up on himself and being wildly inappropriate inside a costume at a kids' ice-capades-esque show. Meanwhile MacElroy, abandoned by his adopted father after being kicked out of skating, is working in a skate shop until he is united with Michaels as they find a loophole that allows them to compete as a doubles team.\nReal life husband and wife Will Arnett and Amy Poehler play the brother-sister skating pair well, but they're basically playing cookie-cutter versions of the characters they always play. Arnett's best scene is the one in which he awkwardly lies across a bearskin rug and Poehler is an ice-queen who has too much of a relationship with her brother for comfort.\nThe cameos are plentiful and quite entertaining, but the filmmakers severely underused the best talent in the movie. Luke Wilson is funny as a sex therapist Michaels is assigned to, Romany Malco (Conrad on "Weeds") has a too brief stint as a dance instructor, and most professional skaters and announcers you've heard of have quick appearances.\nOne role that baffled me was Craig T. Nelson as the duo's skating coach. Granted, he played "coach" in that lame TV show, but that shouldn't have led to him getting this role. He couldn't have been less funny or inspiring, while William Daniels (aka Mr. Feeny) was wildly underused.\nWhen you consider the world-class level of comedy these stars have been in before ("Anchorman," "Arrested Development," "Weeds," "Wet Hot American Summer," "Bottle Rocket," etc.) I expected a little better. Nonetheless, I was content with the movie as a way to kill an hour and a half before the Final Four started and there were enough laughs to make me want to check out the DVD to see more classic Ferrell ad-libbing at his best--even if I can't remember any lines from it.
(04/04/07 4:00am)
Senior Michael Steinhoff wants to leave his mark on the world by leaving no mark at all. \nWhether riding his bike everywhere he goes or using super efficient fluorescent bulbs, he’s dedicated to conserving energy and dedicating his life to making the world more energy efficient. \nAfter a busy year during which he helped plan Earth Week, Steinhoff, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs’ Volunteer of the Year, organized an event planting 700 trees in Carbon Grove on campus – the number of trees selected was to counteract the amount of carbon burned to get all the attendants to the event. \nSteinhoff’s effort at Carbon Grove is only a small example of what he would like to accomplish over the long term.\n“It would be exciting to be working on something that had never been done before,” he said. “Most of the cutting-edge research goes on in the Northwest, but I would like to see it applied everywhere in the world. I think I could make more of a difference spreading these ideas.”\nLiving in a bicycle-friendly town like Bloomington helps him get around and has him thinking about mass transit. One of his missions is adding more bike lanes and turning better public transit and electric cars into the norm instead of depending on oil.\nWhen conducting an inventory of greenhouse gases released in Bloomington, it was “pretty shocking” how quickly bad trends are increasing and how reversing the damage looks difficult, he said. Though evidence of global warming is evident, Steinhoff said it’s difficult to get people to take action. He said that as long as people are comfortable in the moment, they feel no reason to change. \n“I hope it doesn’t take a huge disaster to convince people that caring about energy is important and will have impact on their future,” he said.\nFlashy ideas such as electric and hydrogen cars draw a lot of attention. But practical ideas like energy efficiency, which might not be as exciting, are far more realistic, Steinhoff said. That mind-set has people within SPEA excited about his potential.\n“Among the SPEA community, Michael is considered to be the next Al Gore,” SPEA’s executive director of external affairs, Susan Johnson, said in a letter sent to INside magazine nominating Steinhoff for the publication’s “Future Famous Alumni” feature. “We have no doubt that Michael is going to be a major player in sustainability issues of our planet.”\nDuring his time at IU, Steinhoff has gathered a “wide breadth of knowledge” he can use in a number of areas. But he’s still searching for a specific focus after he graduates in May.\nThe first big plan in his immediate future is getting married to his girlfriend of eight years, whom he started dating when he was a freshman in high school.\nWhen asked where he sees himself 10 years from now, Steinhoff shrugged and said, “I don’t even know what I’m doing a year from now.”