Region

Sunny SIDE UP

She can already hear the waves crashing, feel the wind blowing and smell the salt water churning. Spring break is so close she can taste it. Lounging on the beach, soaking in the sun and truly taking the definition of vacation into context, junior Lida Coalter is hours away from spending her break in the Bahamas. Many students have been preparing for this magical week off in mid-March by packing and finishing up school work. Coalter has other plans. She's been preparing for spring break in a manner that has been catching on around campus and the nation in the past few years. A few weeks ago, Coalter started going to a tanning salon.

'Phoenix' rises to the occasion

The DVD release of "Flight of the Phoenix" is a lot like the movie itself: mediocre fluff, but ultimately a little less than good. The movie is good, in a Saturday-afternoon-at-the-movies sort of way. It's a popcorn flick, without any real cinematic value, but I liked it. A team of humanitarians involved with a Red Cross-like agency are flying across Mongolia on their way home. Naturally, the plane crashes in the least accessible part of the desert, and because their agency was already strapped for cash, it doesn't look like anyone is going to be coming for them.

Movies make the best medicine

I had a friend come down with mono last week, so I did what any good friend would do: I swooped in with a box of popsicles and an armload of DVDs. But this wasn't any hasty rescue mission, mind you. It was a well-planned humanitarian act. And she needed my help; when I arrived at her apartment she was watching an Oprah movie. And it wasn't even a good Oprah movie. Poor thing.

'Bringing Up' a classic

What happens when you combine Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, a dog and a pet leopard all into one movie? You end up getting one of the greatest comedies of the classic Hollywood era, that's what!

Fitty avoids sophomore slump

Even for someone possessing the brash bravado of Curtis Jackson (aka 50 Cent), following up a record as brutally loaded as his own debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', would prove an overwhelming task. With 11 million copies sold, Get Rich threw 50's intimidatingly talented hat in the ring while doing its part to bring back some of rap's ferocity lost after the deaths of Biggie and Tupac. It's also become somewhat of a modern rap classic.

Johnson's latest 'Dreams' a success

Jack Johnson traded in his surfboard for a guitar when he was 14 and has since secured international success with On and On, and his January 2001 debut, Brushfire Fairytales. His latest album, In Between Dreams, was released March 1, and the first single "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing," already has people anticipating that sweet, Cat Stevens-esque simplicity that he mastered on his first two recordings.

Don't ever put 'Frances' on 'Mute'

It's been almost five years since post-hardcore act At the Drive-In parted ways and went on to form all new musical incarnations. While three-fifths of ATDI created the atmospheric Sparta, the rest of the band, singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, would go on to form the highly experimental group the Mars Volta. And while Sparta is pretty good and the old tunes of At the Drive-In are simply unforgettable, the Mars Volta does an amazing job on its latest release, Frances the Mute.

WINE: Uncorked

Wine had a stigma once upon a time. Anyone who drank it was seen as a pretentious, self-absorbed and erudite snob who used words like "erudite" and preferred to be called an enophile instead of what others all knew they really were: a manic lush.

CHEAP THRILLS

Dinner at an average restaurant -- $10 per person. Movie at Showplace East or West -- $8 per person. A night of drinking at a bar -- $25. Having a good time without spending a ton of money -- priceless. Luckily for a college student on a budget, there are many ways to have a great week in Bloomington without spending a lot of money.

Close cities offer spring break shows

Bloomington may not be very exciting during spring break, but Chicago and Indianapolis provide plenty of entertainment for anyone willing to take a short road trip.

Too much plot, not enough time

What happens when a musclebound action hero finds himself bound by circumstances to protect a house full of children in the land of suburbia? Who knows? But here's a better question: didn't Hulk Hogan already make this movie a few times a decade before Vin Diesel became "The Pacifier"? And wasn't Hogan a lot cooler?

Support for a free Lebanon

RAKOW, Poland -- Once the greatest power in Eastern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland ceased to exist as a sovereign nation less than two decades after the United States declared its own independence. In one of the most criminal land grabs in history, the Russian, Prussian and Austrian empires carved the nation up for themselves in three partitions during the late 18th century. The foreign powers exploited their neighbor's internal strife simply to increase their own powers.

Getting what you want on Spring Break

House Republicans hope to revise at least 40 bills

INDIANAPOLIS -- Republicans who control the Indiana House pledged Wednesday to use all their power to revive at least 40 bills that failed to clear their chamber by a key deadline last week, many of them derailed because of a walkout by Democrats.

State Supreme Court limits judges' power

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that parts of the state's prison sentencing laws were unconstitutional -- a decision that will forbid judges from going beyond standard sentencing for crimes without a jury's approval.

Prayers, protests planned as Wallace execution nears

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- A man who spent nearly a quarter century on Indiana's death row was scheduled to be executed early Thursday for murdering an Evansville family of four in 1980. Donald Ray Wallace, 47, had declined to seek clemency from Gov. Mitch Daniels after exhausting his appeals.

Prosecuters seek to detain Indiana man charged with Iraq dealings

INDIANAPOLIS -- A man accused of trying to conspire with Saddam Hussein's government to undermine the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq lived in Indianapolis under two identities with different wives, an FBI agent testified Wednesday.

City smoking ban creates big butt problem

Since Bloomington head-butted second-hand smoke with the recent smoking ban, cigarette butts outside of the city's bars have multiplied. The ban, requiring smokers to abstain from smoking inside Bloomington buildings and preferably at a "reasonable distance" from them, has meant more maintenance work for custodial employees at Kilroy's Sports Bar.

Actors struggle with the agent game

If job security and steady pay are a priority, mark "actor" off the list of potential careers.

Spring break hierarchy

Spring break is a time of rest, relaxation and humiliation.