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Friday, April 17
The Indiana Daily Student

Longform


The Indiana Daily Student

Chaotic genius, minus genius

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Throughout the Decemberists' career, they've fit each record into a series of sailors' tales -- stories featuring gloomy memories of mariners' travels. For the Portland, OR, band's fourth LP (its first on a major label), the U.S.S., or should I say, "Her Majesty's Decemberists" returns from the Pacific Rim to share the tale of the Crane Wife.



The Indiana Daily Student

WIUX offers tickets to sold-out show

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Even though Regina Spektor's weekend concert at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater sold-out Tuesday, student-run radio station WIUX will offer one last chance to win tickets during its "Evening Hour" program at 8 p.m. Thursday.


The Indiana Daily Student

Steady diet of rock

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I'll put it plainly: The Hold Steady are one of the great underground bands of the noughties, and you should get to know their music immediately. Now, many of you probably aren't familiar with The Hold Steady yet and, since Boys And Girls In America is their third album, the effort might seem somewhat daunting -- especially when you learn that songwriter Craig Finn has populated their albums with recurring characters, themes and locations.

The Indiana Daily Student

Eclectic Beck back again

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This summer at Bonnaroo, in front of a crowd of roughly 80,000 people, a mellow Beck was joined by a troupe of puppeteers and marionette likenesses of him and his band. He was shy, soft-spoken and unemotional, barely moving at all. Meanwhile, the jumbo screens flanking the stage exploded with psychedelic videos of a puppet Beck and his puppet band.


The Indiana Daily Student

Jordan River Forum

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Tyler Perry, Kirk Nathanson and Edward Delp's editorial column in the "Totally Coked out" Opinion front (Oct. 10) posits that No Sweat!'s opposition to IU's contract with Coca-Cola is based on a hatred of big businesses rather than an actual record of abuses. In fact, violent union busting in Colombian Coca-Cola bottling plants is quite well-documented.


The Indiana Daily Student

The Killers outthink themselves

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Brandon Flowers is a rock star. He's a rock star in the most self-aware sense of the phrase; he knows what being a rock star means, what one must look like, say, do, how one must blend Bono and Bowie to achieve both popularity and critical acclaim. The problem is that Flowers isn't quite as smart as he thinks he is. On The Killers' ambitious sophomore outing, Sam's Town, Flowers and the boys try to put one over on us, trying to convince us that the coke-and-mascara act of Hot Fuss is behind them. What they didn't remember to do is genuinely change their sound, to shift their paradigms. Sam's Town is Hot Fuss with a little Springsteen mixed in. It's much simpler than anyone - especially the band - realizes.


The Indiana Daily Student

Predictability so totally rules

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Many people have been successful with their chosen careers, have turned around and then failed to realize that success isn't always transferable. It seems simple: Dane Cook should stick to stand-up comedy and Dax Shepard should stick to "punking" celebrities. And above all, Jessica Simpson should stick to, well, being Jessica Simpson. It's obvious director Greg Coolidge, who helped with the "Employee" screenplay, put in more effort coming up with corny one-liners than he did casting this movie.


The Indiana Daily Student

Scorsese returns to his roots

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Some time ago, I penned an article condemning the frequent Hollywood practice of remaking Asian films, mentioning in particular "The Departed," a remake of the highly successful Hong Kong thriller, "Infernal Affairs." Any regrets I had were dashed as the end credits began to roll; I realized Martin Scorsese and writer William Monahan took great source material and improved upon it tenfold.


The Indiana Daily Student

Slavic sex, floor 5

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When Al Gore invented the Internet, lives of countless Americans were changed. Legless people with excessive nose hair growth, for instance, could now buy trimmers online, greatly increasing their ability to detect subtle farts. Obese people could now detail their personal weight struggles in their online blogs, allowing for normal-sized people to not care on six different continents.


The Indiana Daily Student

Grinning gains

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Some stereotypes are true: Lots of people in England have dental problems. The semi-socialist government covers most medical costs but charges fees for dental care. So, many people in England don't go to the dentist frequently, exchanging the prospect of straight teeth for low medical bills. Duly, then, at the American students' study abroad orientation session, the British director of the program told us that we had one infallible leg up in our attempt to get our own way in the town and university where we would be living. You guessed it: our big white American smiles.


The Indiana Daily Student

'Come out' as an ally

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Wednesday was the 19th annual National Coming Out Day, a celebration to empower gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to live openly, honestly and proudly. Since Oct. 11, 1987, when half a million people joined the second major March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the official National Coming Out Day has spread and grown around the country.


The Indiana Daily Student

Newsworthy Networks?

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A recent study conducted at IU found that the popular spoof news program "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" contains as much substantive news content as programs that appear on major news networks. How is this possible? The show itself states that it is the best fake news out there. Its Web page on comedycentral.com wryly proclaims that the show is "a nightly half-hour series unburdened by objectivity, journalistic integrity or even accuracy."


The Indiana Daily Student

Former Indiana first lady Josie Orr dies

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Joan "Josie" Orr, who spent eight years as Indiana's first lady while her husband, Robert Orr, was governor, has died. She was 85. Orr died Tuesday, Alpha Funeral Services in Indianapolis said. Her husband, a Republican, was governor from 1981 until 1989, following eight years as lieutenant governor.


The Indiana Daily Student

Search for Lake Co. suspect costs $40K

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The Lake County Sheriff's Department has spent $40,000 in overtime looking for a suspect who has shattered windshields in 16 or more vehicles since July. The Lake County Council on Tuesday authorized Sheriff Rogelio Dominguez to shuffle his 2006 budget to pay the 14 officers who have patrolled the four-lane highway on overtime. No arrests have been made.


The Indiana Daily Student

Cummins to build new diesel engine in Columbus

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Cummins Inc. plans to add 600 to 800 jobs as it begins production of a new diesel-powered engine at a plant near its central Indiana headquarters, the company announced Wednesday. The new light-duty engine will be offered in standard pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles that are expected to hit the market by the end of 2010, company officials said. The diesel engine is expected to average a 30 percent fuel savings over gasoline-powered engines for comparable vehicles.




The Indiana Daily Student

Totally Coked Out

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The protesting of No Sweat! against IU's contract with Coca-Cola is heating up. Are the views of the group misguided or is Coke an evil empire?


The Indiana Daily Student

Once a world leader, now an IU scholar

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He has led an entire nation during one of its most trying times. He has helped bring peace to a country struck by civil war. He has been thrown in jail for his efforts. But what's even more remarkable about this former president of Liberia is that he also works at IU.