Region

Clap your hands say 'meh'

By C. Warner Sills and Brian J. McFillen · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:24 p.m.

If there's one lesson to take away from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's second album, Some Loud Thunder (out Jan. 30), it's this: Ambition is a fine thing, but ambition alone is not enough. Indeed, for those of us who love out-of-the-mainstream music, it could serve as an aesthetic test: Can we distinguish complexity from quality? Can we tell the difference between something that's difficult-but-rewarding and something that's simply difficult?

Grammys album a rocky road of good, bad and awful

By C. Warner Sills and John Barnett · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:22 p.m.

As usual, 2007's Grammy nominees are an extremely mixed bag. Playing as a kind of semi-discerning alternative to the NOW! That's What I Call Music compilations, this particular mix showcases both a tiny bit of the best and a whole mess of the worst of what 2006 had to offer, with everyone from Paul McCartney to the Pussycat Dolls chipping in. As with any record-exec-arranged mix, especially one that's been hastily compiled by a label dubiously known as "Strategic Marketing," it's best to separate the good from the bad and the bad from the just plain ugly.

The birds and bees of indie electronica

By C. Warner Sills and Craig Shank · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:20 p.m.

If you're part of an electronically inclined indie duo, odds are that last year went well for you. Over the past 12 months, we've seen outstanding new works from twosomes including The Knife's Silent Shout, The Blow's Paper Television and the Junior Boys' So This is Goodbye, among others. This year may be young, but another duo is poised to continue the streak with an infectious new LP released on the legendary Blue Note record label.

All hail the Good Queen

By C. Warner Sills and Eric Smith · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:18 p.m.

Blur's Damon Albarn has created a new side project, and unlike the surprisingly transcendent experiment that was the Gorillaz, this new group may only be around for one shining moment. The Good, the Bad and the Queen is the improbable combination of vocalist/pianist Albarn, the Verve guitarist Simon Tong, the Clash bassist Paul Simonon and afrobeat legend Tony Allen on drums.

Suburbia under a magnifying glass

By Chris Wisner and compiled by Chris Wisner · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:16 p.m.

As I watched "Little Children," I felt like I was on one of the worst emotional rollercoasters in a long time: One long moment of laughter followed by a sudden 50-foot plummet into anxiety only to gaze at a horrific corkscrew in the distance. After it ended, I felt blown away by all the forces thrown at me in succession. Director Todd Field ("In the Bedroom") takes the New York Times best-selling book by Tom Perrotta (they also collaborated on the screenplay) and places the world of suburbia under the magnifying glass. Only unlike so many portraits of that world, this time the sun is shining to burn away the seams.

Whitaker takes the crown in 'Scotland'

By Olivia Morales · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:15 p.m.

Living in Scotland in the 1970s, a new young doctor decides to spin a globe with his eyes closed and make a new life for himself wherever his finger happens to point when the globe stops spinning. "The Last King of Scotland" is partly about choice and partly about fate. It is fate we witness when Dr. Nicholas Garrigan's finger lands on Uganda, and it is the choices he makes that concern the rest of the film.

What were they 'Smokin'?

By C. Warner Sills and Zack Teibloom · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:13 p.m.

As the kid behind me in the theater put it, the preview for this movie made it look "fuckin' bad ass." Looks can be deceiving. I expected a stylized action movie where top-flight actors run around trying to kill Jeremy Piven's latest incarnation since Ari Gold, Buddy Israel, with witty, quick dialogue and terrific action scenes.

'Letters' from Eastwood

By Chris Wisner and compiled by Chris Wisner · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:11 p.m.

As I walked out of the theater last October after viewing "Flags of Our Fathers," the disappointment in my mind only reminded me that "Letters from Iwo Jima," Clint Eastwood's companion piece from the Japanese perspective (filmed almost entirely in Japanese, save two English segments), would be a better film. What I did not expect upon viewing "Letters" is that it would join "Saving Private Ryan," "The Thin Red Line" and "The Longest Day" as one of the greatest WWII films ever made.

House textbook bill passes first test

By Beka Mech · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:06 p.m.

A House bill that could eliminate taxes on college textbooks passed through the state's Committee on Education with a unanimous vote of 12-0, said IU Student Association Vice President Andrew Lauck. The IUSA-supported bill also saw a change that added graduate textbooks to the tax exemption. The bill now moves on to the Ways and Means Committee, which will decide if the bill receives funding.

Online Only: The L-word

By Indira Dammu · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:03 p.m.

It's official. Sen. Hillary Clinton became the latest Democrat to announce a presidential run -- I mean, a Presidential Exploratory Committee. Undoubtedly, Clinton gives hope to many: She is the best shot to be this country's first woman president. Such an achievement would establish equality more than any other, unless, of course, we could elect a black president.

Old like me

By Kirk Nathanson · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:02 p.m.

Take a trip back with me, back to the time when Pogs were heading for extinction and "Goosebumps" books became the treasured most assets of savvy, in-the-know 10-year-old collectors. In those days, what I had learned in kindergarten really was all I needed to know, and by middle school my staggering sixth-grade genius seemed unmistakable. Yet despite my best efforts, adults still ran my life.

Dances with princes

By Johnathan P. Rossing and Jonathan P. Rossing · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:02 p.m.

Someday my prince will come -- but if my 3-year-old niece has any say, I won't be dancing with him at the ball. My niece loves Cinderella, and on a recent trip to visit my family, she instructed us to pretend that we were all attending Cinderella's ball. So I asked, "Can Uncle Jonathan have a turn dancing with the prince?"

State of reality?

By Rachel Fullmer · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:01 p.m.

After 365 days of unrealized promises, wasted time and flagrant abuse at the hands of a do-nothing congress, a war-weary American public gathered in anticipation of another attempt to, in 50 minutes, dress up our political reality in pretty prose.

High concern with low interest

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 7:53 p.m.

Like the ubiquitous "Hit the monkey and win a free iPod!" pop-up banners, a headline screaming that student loan interest rates had been halved by a congressional bill yielded immediate feelings of wariness.

McRobbie outlines next decade of changes for IU

By Ab D. Phillip · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 2:26 p.m.

Interim Provost Michael McRobbie spoke to the Bloomington Rotary Club Tuesday, outlining his vision for change at IU over the next decade. The speech, titled "Seven Directions of Change: The Next Decade at Indiana University," outlined seven areas he sees the University exploring in the near future.

ARTiFACTS

Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 2:25 p.m.

What: Self-portrait (torso with head bent to right) by Egon Schiele of Austria in 1910. Crayon, gouache and watercolor on paper.

Stiff competition

By Jennifer Miller · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 12:18 p.m.

Apparently Peyton Manning isn't the only one hoping for a good performance on a Sunday night. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. has recently been slapped with a lawsuit regarding the advertisement of its blockbuster erectile-dysfunction drug, Viagra. A nonprofit AIDS organization alleges its ad campaigns, newly aimed at a broader age range, promote its use as a party drug.

4 Americans shot execution style in Iraq helicopter crash

Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 9:12 a.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Four of the five Americans killed when a U.S. security company's helicopter crashed in a dangerous Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad were shot execution-style in the back of the head, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Around the World

Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 9:11 a.m.

The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President Bush's plans to increase troops strength in Iraq on Wednesday as "not in the national interest," an unusual wartime repudiation of the commander in chief.

Palestinian conflict

By Aparna Venkatraman · Thursday, Jan. 25,2007 8:23 a.m.

A recent report out of North Carolina tells of three Palestinian students who were attacked by at least 15 members of the Guilford College football team, according to court records. Some were said to be under the influence of alcohol. The attack occurred late Friday night or early Saturday morning on the campus of the Quaker-affiliated college. Three of the football players were arrested on charges of assault and battery on Monday.