A&E

New Orleans ends hiatus of famous jazz funerals

NEW ORLEANS -- This city's historical jazz funeral procession returned to debris-lined streets Sunday to honor a famous chef who died last month in Atlanta, where he had evacuated after being rescued from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters.

Syrian TV show sends message that terrorism gives Islam bad name

DAMASCUS, Syria -- A new television series being broadcast around the Middle East tells the story of Arabs living in residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and the militant Islamists who want to blow them up so they can collect their rewards in heaven -- 72 beautiful virgins.

Tibetan Cultural Center hosts song lessons

Bloomington is home to many cultural centers. One such center is the Tibetan Cultural Center, located at 3655 S. Snoddy Rd., which is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the community about Tibetan culture. The center plays host to many programs, such as yoga classes, meditation sessions, cooking classes and lectures. A program titled "Songs of Marpa" has been running since Sept. 27 and will continue until Dec. 6.

Student photographer's work on display at local café

Leah Cornwell waits to be seized by the beauty of an object, and then she takes a picture of it. Her keen eye for the sublime has landed her work in a local gallery for the second time this year. A collection of the IU senior's photographs, taken while she was studying in Italy, is on display at Tutto Bène wine café through Oct. 30.

Fall Ballet features variety of music, dance during weekend

IU's ballet season is not limited only to "The Nutcracker" every Christmas. The IU Ballet Theater gave its first performances of the year Friday and Saturday at the Musical Arts Center which consisted of four pieces, including two world premieres. Many different styles of ballet were put on display by the dancers.

Award-winning 'Blast!' reconnects with Hoosier roots

Marching bands are not only a staple of high school football games, but occasionally one blasts off to international fame. "Blast!," which performed Thursday through Saturday at the IU Auditorium, is based on marching material standard to American high schools. "Blast!" tweaked the style and added its own flair to become a unique and award-winning production.

Artist captures the spirit of fallen soldiers

EDMONDS, Wash. -- The images capture tender moments shattered by the brutality of war. Each one is a comfort to those left behind. In Tennessee, a grandmother says good morning to the portrait of her smiling grandson.

Fall ballet shows dance's many styles

The fall ballet promises to be a night of excitement and entertainment with four varied performances including two world premieres, both created by IU faculty members.

'Lord of the Rings' museum exhibit opens

INDIANAPOLIS -- A mishmash of hairy feet, pointy ears and gnarled noses is artfully arranged in a display case in a darkened gallery, looking more suited to a mad scientist's lab than a museum. The odd lot of latex body parts is part of "The Lord of the Rings" exhibition, opening Thursday for a three-month run at the Indiana State Museum.

Noah Bambach returns with 'Squid and Whale'

NEW YORK -- It's taken Noah Baumbach 10 years to get back to where he started. The director of "The Squid and the Whale" was considered a wunderkind at 25 when his 1995 debut, "Kicking and Screaming," played at the New York Film Festival. A decade later, the native New Yorker finally returned.

New nickel gets a facelift

WASHINGTON -- After nearly 100 years of depicting presidents in somber profiles on the nation's coins, the U.S. Mint is trying something different: The new nickel features Thomas Jefferson, facing forward, with the hint of a smile.

Sweatshop cutie

Murals to liven up concrete floodwalls for Hoosiers

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. -- Scenes of ferry boats and stately mansions are unfolding along the floodwall in Jeffersonville, linking southern Indiana to an Ohio River art project that stretches from Steubenville, Ohio, to Paducah, Ky.

Supporters see better future for Harriet Beecher Stowe house

CINCINNATI -- The two decades that Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in Cincinnati helped shape the feelings and beliefs that led to her anti-slavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Now, several groups are working to make more people outside Cincinnati aware of the importance of her 19th century home to America's heritage.

Benigni's new film to take place in Iraq war

ROME -- Like the Oscar-winning "Life Is Beautiful," which tackled the Holocaust, Roberto Benigni's new film, "La Tigre e la Neve (The Tiger and the Snow)," is a comedy set against a tragic backdrop -- the war in Iraq. The movie is an anti-war statement in Benigni's preferred style -- a love story driven by the 52-year-old actor-director's exuberant and sometimes slapstick humor.

Count Basie Orchestra still alive and well

Friday featured one of the oldest and finest big bands in existence at the IU Auditorium: the Count Basie Orchestra. It might be incredible to imagine that this big band, first devised by Count Basie in 1936, is still going strong today. Many band members have come and gone through the years, but there are still members playing today who actually played with Count Basie, namely Clarence Banks on trombone, John Williams on baritone saxophone, Butch Miles on drums and James Leary on bass.

Restorers work to conserve art battered by Katrina

CHICAGO -- Helen Conklin whisks a cotton swab delicately across a 19th century painting of silvery fish set in deep earth tones. She's looking for, of all things, mud on the canvas -- and sure enough, there it is. She peers at another painting through a microscope, focusing on a cardinal's rich crimson robes that have faded to a sickly pink. That's the mark of floodwaters.

Gallagher gives 'smashing' performance Sunday

Loud laughter filled the IU Auditorium, coming from all directions. Comic and entertainer Gallagher, who has been making people laugh for 35 years, put Sunday's audience into hysterics. Gallagher's act included a little bit of everything, from simple jokes to twisted talks about everyday life to smashing pies. The infamous "Sledge-o-Matic" has been a staple at Gallagher shows for many years and hasn't disappeared yet.

'Star Wars' draws residents, alumni

Every time IU graduate George Starkey sits down for a cup of coffee at the Starbucks in Broad Ripple, a neighborhood on the north side of Indianapolis, someone wants to know. It happens so often that Starkey even has a name for it: He gets "Lucas-ized." "First someone turns around, and then you can start hearing necks snapping," said Starkey, who learned as a teenager of his uncanny resemblance to "Star Wars" creator George Lucas. "People say, 'Are you him?' I say, 'Just call me George.'"

Soviet Union art comes to Midwest

PEORIA, Ill. -- Call it a glimpse of a lost world, a world that never was but remains still, preserved in oil and canvas -- a world of workers united and equal, struggling to build a new society of justice and peace. Such was the Soviet Union's official view of itself in state-sanctioned artwork created between 1917 and 1991, a selection of which goes on display in "Behind the Iron Curtain: Russian Impressionism," which opened recently at Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences. The exhibit is testimony to the power of art -- and the eagerness of revolutionary leaders to use that power to help build a new kind of society. It is also testimony to the resilience of the artists themselves, who managed to create notable work even within the rigid strictures of a totalitarian state that banned abstraction and other forms of nonrepresentational 20th century art.