A&E

Rhino's offers creative outlet

Bloomington's nonprofit, all-age music venue, Rhino's, offers more than music to local teenagers and IU students. With afternoon programming, Rhino's, located at 325 ½ S. Walnut St., is a place where teens can hang out with their friends and role models. The club puts out a weekly radio show and organizes weekly live music events.

Local artists use postcards for expression

For three straight years, Jan Ley entered the Bloomington Area Arts Council's annual postcard competition. The first two times, nothing happened. After two years of waiting and anticipating, this year, for the first time, she was selected among the top 10 in the competition with her photograph titled "Farmers' Market: August 5, 2000."

A nightmare or a trip to Spain?

I'm leaving for Spain soon and all I can think is disaster. A friend that was in the program with me just backed out, leaving me with a two-room reservation in a hostel and five days to roam Seville by myself.

Record crowds at Burning Man festival

BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. -- As jugglers danced with hoops and spirals of fire, vehicles belched flames and hypnotic drums echoed through the night, more than 35,000 costumed revelers ritually burned a 40-foot neon-and-wooden icon of a man deep in the Nevada desert.

Local playwright's work opens at Rose Firebay Theater

Local playwright Thomas Kristopher originally wrote his two one-act plays for a competition connected with the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. In addition to winning the competition's $1000 cash prize and having his work performed in New Orleans next spring, Kristopher recently was able to have his play performed in Bloomington. Kristopher's plays, "Loose Hog in the House of God" and "On How to Accommodate Marlo's Frying Pan," opened this past weekend at the John Waldron Arts Center.

Two exhibits open at Waldron Arts Center

Queen Elizabeth's ancient adornments and the newest cutting-edge photographic technologies inspired two local artists to pursue the enigma of personal space. Friday night, the dance photography of Tom Stio and copper accessories created by Jesse Mathes opened to the public in the Rosemary P. Miller Gallery at the John Waldron Arts Center. The Bloomington Area Arts Commission also presented the 2004 Monroe County Postcard Competition Award Winners Exhibition at the center.

Artists sell masterpieces on Fourth Street

Underneath the beating sun, hundreds of Bloomington residents and IU students guzzled lemonade and fanned themselves as they sweltered in the heat. They were not tailgating before IU's football victory in the home opener -- they were browsing the booths of artists and community groups at the Fourth Street Festival of Arts and Crafts. The Fourth Street Festival, a Bloomington staple since its inception in 1976, celebrated its 28th year of displaying the arts Saturday and Sunday on Grant and Fourth Streets.

HipHopera adds rap, pop to familiar art

LONDON -- Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" tackled interracial love and U.S. imperialism in Asia; Verdi's "La Traviata" put a tubercular prostitute center stage. Odd to think that opera has a stuffy reputation. Now a new batch of contemporary operas rangingfrom rappers rhyming about Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to an experimental musical about Microsoft boss Bill Gates sets out to change that image.

Graffiti event hits Indy

Aerosol cans will click-clack and the fizzing spray of paint might induce light-headedness or contact highs this weekend as Broad Ripple, one of Indianapolis' most vibrant and unique neighborhoods, holds its second Midwest graffiti expo. Subsurface, sponsored by the Indianapolis Arts Center in conjunction with the Broad Ripple Village Association, will publicly showcase 40 Midwest artists creating a graffiti mural 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. both Sept. 4 and 5.

The right time

'Black Woodstock' documentary to hold broadcast premiere on PBS

LOS ANGELES -- On Aug. 20, 1972, seven years after the urban upheaval in Watts, some 112,000 people came together for a daylong concert that would become known as the "Black Woodstock." They filled Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to hear performances by Isaac Hayes, Albert King, the Staple Singers, Rufus and Carla Thomas, the Bar-Kays, and more.

Mr. Morley blitzkriegs Europe, Part 2

We traversed the French plains to the center of Bohemian life -- gay Paris. The first thing most people envision when they think of Paris is the Eiffel Tower. Built in 1889, it is still the tallest structure in Paris and was the tallest in the world until the Empire State Building was constructed.

Around The Arts

Bluegrass award winner plays at Buskirk-Chumley Bluegrass music's four-time Female Vocalist of the Year Rhonda Vincent will perform 8 p.m. Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Vincent began performing with her parents' bluegrass band when she was 3 years old and appeared on their local television show when she was 5 years old. Before she reached her teen years, she had performed with several house bands.

IU's art administration masters program offers hands-on experience in management to participating students

Behind the scenes of every great opera, Broadway production or museum exhibit, someone is pulling the right strings to make the event happen. Beyond the costumes, make-up and lights, someone sits calculating ticket sales and strategizing audience development and marketing techniques. Without the arts administrators who work diligently behind the scenes, none of what is seen on a stage or in a gallery could be possible.

'The Color Purple' becomes a musical

ATLANTA -- After seven years of acquiring rights, finding backers and putting together a creative team, Scott Sanders is ready to present his musical version of "The Color Purple" to an audience, hoping it's the last step before Broadway. And Sanders' partner is Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, where a tryout engagement begins Sept. 9 for a five-week run.

Music Works to perform opera

Opera fans, do not despair. Your wait is over. While IU's opera season does not kick off until late September with "La Bohème," Bloomington Music Works is presenting "Three For All," a trio of one-act operas, beginning Sept. 2 at the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium. Included in the evening's repertoire is "The Impresario" by Wolfgang Mozart, "The Telephone" by Gian Carlo Menotti and "The Stoned Guest" by P. D. Q. Bach. Bloomington Music Works chose to perform three one-act operas instead of a longer, more traditional piece for a number of reasons.

Activities at Latino Fest interrupted by rainstorm

Despite the ominous dark clouds over Bloomington, Karst Farm Park was crowded during Latino Fest Saturday. More than 30 tables were staffed by various local organizations such as Ivy Tech State College, Mujeres en Conexion, Culture Week and League of Women Voters, among others.

MTV Music Awards tamer, but still explosive

MIAMI -- There was no Madonna-Britney Spears kiss, no partially-clad Howard Stern coming down from the rafters, and certainly no wardrobe malfunctions. The MTV Awards show Sunday featured typical frenetic energy and sexy style -- and a few musical surprises -- but it was mostly a kinder, gentler version of past shows.

Play takes on excessive police force

The idea of police brutality and use of excessive force has been presented to the public in the form of news stories, fiction and non-fiction books, and now, thanks to the Bloomington Playwrights Project, in the form of a theatrical play.

The joy of budget travel

In 2000, I spent two weeks touring England and Scotland and fell in love with the adventure travel creates. I'd always wanted to go back to Europe and see more. The opportunity to travel to Europe came alive my sophomore year at IU. I'd researched the variety of programs the Office of Overseas Study had to offer where you could study in the land by which you've always been fascinated and get college credit at the same time.