Longform

Hitchens: Orwell is journalistic guide

By Christina Stigliani · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 11:53 p.m.

"Was George Orwell a journalist?" controversial foreign correspondent and essayist Christopher Hitchens asked a large audience Wednesday night in Alumni Hall at the Indiana Memorial Union.

New student group enables global travel

By Ryan McLaughlin · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 11:51 p.m.

A new program at IU will give students the opportunity to interact with hundreds of students from more than 100 countries in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, this February. Education Without Borders is an international organization that holds student conferences every two years in the United Arab Emirates. The organization helps build networks and bring people from across the globe together to discuss and create solutions to some of the world's greatest social problems, according to the group's Web site.

TV's Back -- can you feel it?

By C. Warner Sills and Michael Mellini · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 11:18 p.m.

It's here, it's finally here: TV premiere week! Sure this summer had "Entourage" and Tim Gunn's stroke victim--like squeals of "make it work" to hold us over, but there's no better feeling than rejoining old friends and making new ones. My poor TiVo, I'm not sure if she'll be able to handle the overload of recording her master has thrust upon her. But how else to decide which new shows to get addicted to and which to cancel? Fortunately for you, I'm here to clue you in.

Karaoke kraze

By C. Warner Sills and Molly Brush · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 11:12 p.m.

Though I love to sing, my years of classical voice training have foiled all my previous attempts at karaoke. My operatic soprano seems ill-suited for popular karaoke numbers like "Respect" and "Proud Mary." Add to that a nasty streak of stage fright from my childhood, and I tend to avoid the karaoke stage altogether, unless I'm in the company of a large group of drunken friends.

Skin~Scapes

By Audrie Garrison · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 11:09 p.m.

It wasn't an everyday baby shower. Rather than giving her a three-tiered "cake" made out of diapers, Sharon Wailes' friend painted a ceremonial henna peacock on her stomach while she was pregnant with her second child. Her doctor was slightly alarmed at the sight of the bird, Wailes says, but the experience is what inspired her to find out more about the art of henna. Fifteen years later, as an IU doctoral student in the department of Germanic studies, Wailes does several how-to shows every year to help other people have their own unique first experiences with henna.

It came from beneath the Cinemat

By Sarah Core · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 11:06 p.m.

It's three a.m. and a small, motley group is standing outside of the Cinemat on the corner of Walnut and 4th Street, practicing some fire-eating techniques. "It's a cold fire," explains a short, round-faced woman with spiky black hair as she lights another metal stick with what looks like Pennzoil. She is one of the fire-eaters who are trying to convince me to try to eat some flames myself, but I, never being one to stick strange objects in my mouth without at least learning their name first, am obviously hesitant.

My name is goofball comedy

By C. Warner Sills and Zack Teibloom · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 11:01 p.m.

Ever since the last hilarious scene in the movie "Mallrats" where Jason Lee takes over "The Tonight Show," I've thought, "Man, that guy really should have his own show." Now he does. I typically don't enjoy hick-based jokes, and "My Name is Earl" isn't the format I would've expected Lee to be in -- but it works. Lee still has that impeccable timing and as a big fan of karma, it's nice to see it appreciated and passed on here.

Reinventing the western

By Chris Wisner and compiled by Chris Wisner · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:58 p.m.

The sky is a burning mixture of reds and oranges as the sun sets upon the horizon. For miles all one can see is nothing but the dusty, tree-less plains, with not even a mountain in sight. It looks just like a Western, yet we learn we aren't in the American west; rather, the Australian outback of the late 19th century.

Mama Lisa? Scan suggests subject of da Vinci masterpiece was pregnant

By Angela Doland · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:57 p.m.

PARIS -- Researchers using three-dimensional technology to study the "Mona Lisa" say the woman depicted in Leonardo da Vinci's 16th-century masterpiece was either pregnant or had recently given birth when she sat for the painting.

Imperial shrinkage

By C. Warner Sills and Brian J. McFillen · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:56 p.m.

Beyond all others, two words apply best in describing Kasabian's Empire. These words aren't original, or witty, or bold -- but they are nonetheless true. And, ultimately, this reviewer can only call 'em as he sees 'em. So, what are these two words? "Sophomore slump."

Books Don't Bore

Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:56 p.m.

In the Monroe County Public Library there is a special enclosed zone where children play as their parents look on. It is symbolic of how parents are the last gatekeepers between young adults and books now that are rarely banned. On the 25th year of the American Library Association's commemoration of Banned Books Week -- Sept. 23-30 -- Bloomington is a shining example of a town that promotes open learning with few or no banned books.

Kweller doing what he does best

By C. Warner Sills and Ryan Corazza · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:55 p.m.

He's a little goofy, perhaps even a little neurotic, but that's precisely what we've come to love about Ben Kweller since his 2002 full-length debut, Sha Sha. And with his new self-titled effort, we're treated to plenty of that, but also Kweller at his best musically -- an eclectic blend of piano and acoustic guitar -- a sound a bit absent from his harder, more in your face disc -- 2004's On My Way.

Art Museum features tribute gallery for former professor

By Lindsey Landis · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:54 p.m.

Budd Stalnaker was an artist, a faculty member in the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts and a collector. Stalnaker died in May of this year, and the IU Art Museum is honoring his passion and life's work with a special exhibition that will open Saturday and run through Dec. 17.

Ugly Dutchess

By Eamonn Brennan · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:52 p.m.

If you're a particularly non-enterprising music consumer, you might not download your music. You might, if you're completely missing the point of Internet access, buy albums in CD form from Amazon.com instead of downloading them from one of a dozen legal or hundred illegal music sharing sites.

Jordan River Forum

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:51 p.m.

Columnist brings doom Response to "No Hard Drugs" by Jacob Stewart, Sept. 22: We're doomed. If the incoherent ramblings of Jacob Stewart in his column published in the IDS Sept. 22 are any indication of the thought processes as well as the writing ability of his generation, we are all doomed. Bruce Symington Medicine Hat Alberta, Canada

Kanye protege doesn't disappoint

By C. Warner Sills and Eric Smith · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:50 p.m.

Kanye West's first graduating class of protégés is exceeding expectations this summer. Rhymefest's Blue Collar hit stores with little anticipation in July but was highly praised by critics. Lupe Fiasco's debut album, Food & Liquor, spent the better part of 2006 having its release delayed by Internet leaks and record company disputes. In fact, anybody with BitTorrent and a general interest in hip--hop probably had half the album in May.

Ph.D. candidate solving history's mystery abroad

By Lindsey Landis · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:50 p.m.

Every day doctoral student Charles Stewart spends hours writing and researching in the library- but not at the Herman B Wells Library or anywhere on campus. Stewart has been studying at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus, since Sept. 5, and he will spend the next nine months doing the same. When he is not pouring through volumes of Greek, Russian, French and German texts, he drives around the churches of the Mediterranean island to count domes and analyze frescoes.

A cup half full

By Alyson Brodsy and Colin Dugdale · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:47 p.m.

Coffee is hot. According to a recent beverage statistics report, it's the most popular beverage in the world. There are more than 400 billion cups consumed each year -- more than eggnog, Fresca, celery juice, Panda breast milk, lava and Ovaltine combined.

Nameless at IU

By Alyson Brodsy and Ayesha Awan · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:46 p.m.

I have two classes in which the professor doesn't know my name or really anybody else's for that matter. Big deal, you say; it's college. Classes are too big for professors to know the names of their students. But that's the kicker, you see. Each of these classes is about 20 students strong. Is it really that hard to memorize our names, or do they simply not care? Gasp. Did she just imply that a member of the distinguished IU faculty does not care about his or her bright and impressionable students? Yup. I did.

4 Russians detained for spying

By Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili · Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 10:46 p.m.

TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgian authorities detained four Russian military officers on spying charges Wednesday, and security forces surrounded Russia's military headquarters in Tbilisi to demand that another suspect be handed over, the interior minister said.