A&E

Latino Fest hits Bloomington

The IU Festival Latino is coming to Bloomington this weekend in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. The event will take place from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at La Casa Latino Cultural Center, 715 E. Seventh St. The event will feature authentic food and music as well as the 2004 Mini-Soccer Tournament, in which four local teams will be competing.

Weekend festival offers taste of Mongolia

Traditional and contemporary Mongolian music, traditional wrestling, contortionists, religious talks, food and various arts and crafts will be part of the Mongolian Festival Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hosted by the Tibetan Culture Center, the festival will take place during the same weekend as the Lotus Festival, which TCC Director Jigme Norbu hopes will increase Mongolian Festival attendance.

The Dorkestra reunites tonight

What do you call it when a guitar player, a bass player and a classically trained fiddle player mix together in New York? The Dorkestra. This year's Lotus Festival will see the 10-year reunion of The Dorkestra, a unique-sounding band that will be playing at the Bloomington Convention Center from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Friday and then again at Second Story from 10:45 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

Around The Arts

At 8 p.m. Saturday, the Bloomington Playwrights Project will hold a night of comedy. The season premiere of the original sketch comedy troupe All Sorts of Trouble for The Boy in The Bubble will be kicking off its third fall season after a short summer hiatus.

The MAC reopens with IU Philharmonic

After months of nail-biting and negotiating, the music school has at last reopened the doors to its monumental Musical Arts Center, complete with updated heating, cooling and sound systems, but more importantly, sans the asbestos. Following a benefit dinner for the Friends of Music Society, the IU Philharmonic, under the able baton of maestro David Effron, gave the MAC its first public performance since its closing at the beginning of the summer for renovations.

'BloomingOUT' celebrates one year of promoting diversity

WFHB, Bloomington's community radio station, is celebrating the one year anniversary of "BloomingOUT," Indiana's first and only locally produced Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender-themed radio program Oct. 7. The hour-long program airs 6 p.m. Thursdays on 91.3 and 98.1 FM.

WFIU celebrates music professor's 80th birthday

Classical music fans in the Bloomington area have just two chances left to hear broadcasts of selected performances by Janos Starker, internationally acclaimed cellist and IU distinguished professor of music. In honor of Starker's 80th birthday, which he celebrated over the summer, WFIU, IU's educational radio station, has declared Starker its Artist of the Month for September.

'Snobbed Out' in a black dress

Creating A Musician

When Jonathan Biss left the auditorium after playing with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, his father remembers him looking back and saying, "This is where I want to be." After playing in venues all over the world, concert pianist Jonathan Biss returns to his childhood home of Bloomington to play a concert at 8 p.m. Friday in Auer Hall with his mother, Miriam Fried, a violinist and IU music professor.

'Oprah' giveaway closely watched

CHICAGO -- Pontiac wanted to draw attention to its brand-new sport sedan, and Oprah Winfrey wanted to celebrate the start of her 19th season. The result was a Pontiac G6s for 276 surprised audience members on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" -- and an event that marketing executives say could set a new bar for product placement.

Fall drama line-up offers unique mix of plays

Audiences will see a blood-sucking villain and a half-boy, half-bat, get a lesson on the human condition and meet a hero resembling Odysseus from the "Iliad." All these and more will be features in this semester's IU's Department of Theatre and Drama productions.

Buskirk screens film competition

The first page of the program for the annual Manhattan Short Film Festival boldly announces that this year is "undoubtedly the most exciting year in the festival's history." With a total of 621 entrants, the most in the festival's history, each of the 12 finalists has been chosen for public viewing out of hundreds of internationally submitted films, as well as American films.

Usher leads American Music Award nominations

LOS ANGELES -- R&B casanova Usher, whose album "Confessions" steamed up the charts with songs about sex, affairs and breakups, received a leading four nominations Tuesday for the American Music Awards.

Sounds of Poland come to Lotus Fest

In ancient Greek mythology, the lotus was a fruit that was said to produce a drug-induced state in those who ate it. The flower was mentioned by Homer in "The Odyssey," "all they wished was to stay in the land of the eaters of lotus/ drowsily nibbling the fruit and forgetting their hopes of return."

An Irish wedding party

I broke out of my American nutshell Thursday with the beautiful Guinness and a wedding party south of Dublin. Though I was off to a very rocky start, things turned out to be literally better than I ever could have imagined.

Fred Ebb, lyricist for 'Chicago,' 'Cabaret' dies

NEW YORK -- Fred Ebb, who wrote the lyrics for such hit Broadway musicals as "Chicago" and "Cabaret" as well as the big-city anthem "New York, New York," has died of a heart attack.

Fashion Week continues in NY

Bloomington Area Arts Council offers classes to the public

Students looking for a way to release their creative talents in college are not limited to the classes offered to them through the University. Several area venues offer classes to the general public in a wide array of arts genres. The Bloomington Area Arts Council is among these institutions and provides classes in the fine arts, jewelry making, photography, art appreciation, woodworking, music, dance, acting, creative writing and magic, among others.

Entertainers perform for church's Third and High Street Festival

The clacking of tap shoes blended with the 'ahs' of the gathered crowd watching trapeze artists. Shoppers browsed the offerings of local artists and craftsmen while chatting with each other. Children squealed as they were towed by a tractor loaded with hay in front of St. Charles School and Church.

Manhattan Short Film Festival visits Buskirk

This Sunday, Bloomington residents will have the opportunity to join the ranks of Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Roger Corman, Eric Stoltz and Laura Linney. The Manhattan Short Film Festival, a competition evaluating quality film submissions, is coming to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, and viewers will help determine the competition winner.