Community Arts

IUSA seeks to provide new initiatives to aid students

The IU Student Association will begin this year with new promises and objectives to make life more enjoyable for IU students. Members of IUSA hope the work they put in during the summer will pay off. The underlying goal on IUSA's agenda is to give students a clear path to express their opinions and give input on matters that might affect them.

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.

Groups demand explanation for revoking scholar's work visa

INDIANAPOLIS -- Scholars and critics worldwide are demanding the U.S. government explain why it revoked the work visa of a Muslim scholar hired at the University of Notre Dame, saying the action threatens academic freedoms. But few answers are forthcoming from the Department of Homeland Security, which cited security concerns when it barred Tariq Ramadan from entering the country.

Senate blocks new overtime rules

WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee voted Wednesday to scuttle new rules that critics say would deny overtime pay to millions of workers, as Democrats won the latest round in their election-year bout with President George w. Bush over the issue. The 16-13 vote by the Republican-run Senate Appropriations Committee came less than a week after the GOP-led House embarrassed Bush by approving a similar measure.

'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.

Braking away

Last week, I kid you not, I was afraid to ride my bike to class. I felt like a freaking 3-year-old. Seriously, an 18-year-old guy who is legally allowed to be in control of a motorized vehicle should not be losing sleep over two wheels connected by a piece of metal.

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.

Let's get subversive

Are you ready to get subversive? I am. I'm ready to honk off parents, librarians and ministers everywhere. The American Library Association's Banned Books Week is coming up, Sept. 25 through Oct. 2. It celebrates books that are challenged or banned, and the ALA's efforts to keep challenged or banned books in libraries.

Jesus is NOT your homeboy

I am so sick of people using Jesus as a personal trump card. From national elections to conflicts homegrown on our otherwise idyllic Bloomington campus, people on the right and the left are using Jesus like Green Bay uses Brett Favre.

'Snobbed Out' in a black dress

Letter Spotlight

I was distressed by the Indiana Daily Student's editorial about the governor's race that appeared Wednesday. The piece completely missed the point of the story.

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.

Publicize our suicide hotline prevention

Pop Quiz: What is the IU suicide prevention hotline? Answer: There isn't one. Not exactly. For a suicidal emergency, the Counseling and Psychological Services department of the IU Health Center is open from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. After 4:45 p.m., when the CaPS staff leaves, there is no University-affiliated service in operation on campus for suicidal students. If someone calls 5-IUIU with a suicide emergency after hours, he or she will be directed to the Bloomington Hospital Emergency Center or the Center for Human Growth in the School of Education, which is open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 5 p.m. Friday. Neither CaPS nor CHG is open on weekends.

Slam poet shows his hip-hop style

Fresh. That's the first word that comes to mind after listening to Saul Williams' new self-titled album. The slam poet gives us the same intriguing lyrical sets he is famous for, but throw in some smooth jazz riffs and a few edgier hip-hop and rock-inspired beats, and the final product is a professional-sounding album that gets better each time you listen to it.

Anatomy of a mosh pit

Nowadays, guttural vocals, double bass drumming and mosh pits are not only common but expected elements in the world of heavy metal and punk rock. Moshing is a form of dance interpreting angry, loud, rebellious and masculine music.

(Literally) Underground Rock

Four up-and-coming rock bands played to a packed venue last Friday night. Holy Bible, Verktum, Lords and Raiders of the Lost Sparks came, saw and rocked the house. Literally.

Buckley left quite a legacy

I downloaded the song "Grace" when I was a junior in high school, but for some reason it never really clicked. I had always heard how great this guy was, but it wasn't until the summer after my freshman year that I finally got the album.

'80s band still 'Shout'ing

They've been out of the game for a while, but '80s synth-pop group Tears for Fears have broken out of their hiatus with an album that's as "sweet as homemade apple pie," as they call one song in their liner notes.

The future for Kevin Smith fans

Kevin Smith fans, I hope you're reading. It was just three years ago this fall that Kevin came to the IU Auditorium and talked for hours. In fact, the people running the Auditorium had to stop him and kick everybody out.

For the Love of The Gamble

For freshman Gregg Arenson, the world of no-limit Texas hold 'em poker began in 2002 when an amateur poker player named Robert Varkonyi went head-to-head with the best poker players in the world and took home the coveted World Series of Poker bracelet.