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(02/03/06 5:03am)
With an expected forecast of rain and snow throughout the weekend, students and Bloomington residents can further the human tradition of huddling for body heat in the middle of the woods, just a few gallons of gas away from campus.\nLocated a few rolling hills further than Lake Monroe, still heading south along State Road 446, lies one entrance to the 200,000-acre Hoosier National Forest. Nature lovers are allowed to pitch a tent or build a fire pit anywhere set back from the beginning of a trail.\nWinter camping in southern Indiana takes some courage, as freezing temperatures provide a frost instead of warmer conditions ideal for sleeping underneath the stars. \n"Know where you are going, have a plan and realize that plans can change. You are just out there to have fun," said IU Outdoor Adventures Office Manager Skippy Baker said. Some suggestions offered for winter camping include "preparing for extreme weather," according to The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, a non-profit organization dedicated to responsible outdoor education. \nIU senior Peregrine Bosler, an employee at outdoor retailer J.L. Waters & Company Inc., 109 N. College Ave., said a quality wintertime sleeping bag can cost $80 to $280, depending on whether the material is down or synthetic. Bosler said campers can also acquire a durable three-season tent from her outdoor recreation shop for about $100. \nBaker said first-time winter campers should stay near a marked trail when deciding where to rest their heads for the evening. She suggested students bring plenty of water, a basic first-aid kit, a flashlight with extra batteries, snack food, a map and compass, a backpacking stove for longer trips and some form of shelter.\nStudents can rent a two-person tent for $8.40 and one sleeping bag with an accompanying pad for $5.60 for one night from IU Outdoor Adventures. Students can bill all these items to their bursar accounts.\nNature's furnace requires a little more effort than flipping on the thermostat. Nyle Johnson, owner of Traildust Army and Navy Surplus, 4700 W. State Rd. 45, offered campers some fire-sparking ideas.\n"Preparation of the timber before the match is struck makes or breaks the fire. That's the secret," he said.\nJohnson suggested students use only dry wood and that cotton is also a good kindling. Tee-pee style campfires offering a more controlled flame are better for cooking, he said, while cabin-log shaped campfires that gobble ricks of wood are better for group and party-like settings.\nBaker said feeling safe and in control while still frolicking in the great outdoors is often more important than water, fire and shelter combined.\n"Being comfortable while outdoors is part of a good camping experience," she said. "If you are not comfortable yet with camping in the woods, hang out with people from IU Outdoor Adventures on a camping trip and we can teach you how to enjoy your camping experience"
(02/02/06 5:50am)
Is peace possible? Let's look at one case of animal friendship instead of lunch.\nA 3.5-inch dwarf hamster named Gohan and a four-foot rat snake named Aochan have become loving buddies at the Tokyo Zoo, according to a story from Yahoo News. Instead of demonstrating Darwinism at its finest -- i.e. snake swallows hamster as were the zookeeper's intentions -- Aochan passed on eating Gohan and instead befriended the rodent.\n"Gohan," according to the story, means "meal" in Japanese.\n"I've never seen anything like it," Aochan's keeper Kazuya Yamamoto said. "Gohan sometimes even climbs onto Aochan to take a nap on his back."\nAochan still munches on frozen rodents but "has so far shown no signs of gobbling up Gohan," according to the story. Instead of providing a meal for mouth, the two have instead become friends and they continue to share a cage.\nA friend of mine once proclaimed Aochan and Gohan's friendship provides proof "peace is possible." If a snake and a hamster can become friends, he said, anything is possible -- including peace.\nAochan and Gohan's love affair is an example of possible peace on the one hand. But on the other hand, their journey provides proof that other animals besides humans can feel alone and seek companionship.\nAochan did not eat Gohan because he wanted a friend. Might the snake have befriended the hamster and denied himself a just-due meal because he wanted another living creature to keep him company while he slithers around in his "cage?"\n"Aochan seems to enjoy Gohan's company very much," Yamamoto said.\nZoos are incredible resources for a community. The animals' zoo homes are often far better than life in the "wild," and the animals are often befriended and loved by their human keepers and visitors. In a very sad sense, might even the best treatment of a wild animal in captivity only further deepen the void of natural instinct the animal no doubt possesses?\nThe Tokyo Zoo should be applauded for allowing Aochan the opportunity to befriend Gohan, and visitors now have the opportunity to observe a very unlikely union existing in a very unpredictable world. Aochan and Gohan are reminders that snakes and hamsters, like humans, adapt to the existing conditions of their environment using whatever coping mechanisms are available.\nAochan and Gohan did not choose one another in the name of peace. They chose one another because they are in the same position together -- they are caged in a glass sideshow within an exhibit at a zoo. Why not hug instead of battle?\nNow I say to my friend, show me a Hamas-led Palestine that recognizes Israel and renounces violence, an extremist-led Iran that recognizes the Holocaust existed and a nuclear weapon-free world and I would then agree that peace is possible. Until then, Aochan and Gohan only prove peace can happen if animals are put together in a situation where violence is the expected norm and life is but a sideshow.
(02/01/06 9:14pm)
Photographer Ansel Adams once said "it is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment." At the time, Adams was probably referencing Yellowstone National Park, a sanctuary for some of his most picturesque landscape still-frames.\nBut today, the environmental battle on Capitol Hill involves a land far removed from the mass transit hustle and concrete shuffle of Washington, D.C. The rope around the neck of the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge tightened during the holiday season as Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, upped the ante between the partisan aisles. \nThe controversy to drill oil and natural gas from the 1.5 million-acre sliver has brewed on Capitol Hill since 1987, when the Department of the Interior recommended Congress open the land for oil and gas exploration and development, according to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That group is a grassroots organization of miners, fishermen and loggers, among others from Anchorage, Alaska, dedicated to the issue of drilling oil in the wildlife refuge. \nThe ANWR kettle of controversy boiled over in 1995 when then-President Clinton vetoed a U.S. House and Senate approval to suck the land dry of oil.\nI watched C-SPAN in utter horror Dec. 21 as each U.S. senator muttered "yea" or "nay" to pass a defense appropriation bill that included slicing off 1.5 million acres of ANWR's legislatively-protected 19 million acres. Stevens had tacked a clause onto the bill that would have authorized the drilling of about 10 billion barrels of oil from one of America's most precious wildlife refuges.\n"Our military is being held hostage by ... Arctic drilling," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., told the Senate. The Senate later rejected the bill.\nCommentary from economic analyst Ben Lieberman in the Dec. 20 issue of The Washington Times praised the House of Representatives for voting in favor of a bill Dec. 19 that authorized aforementioned drilling in ANWR. He proclaimed several ANWR "tall tales" from "environmental activists and like-minded journalists" are creating a stink about "environmentally responsible \ndrilling." \nLieberman further stated that "high oil prices and political turmoil in many oil-producing nations" are due cause for his exposure of several ANWR "myths."\nAmong his most notable claims: "The current version of the bill limits the surface disturbance to 2,000 acres, a small piece of a big coastal plain in a very big wildlife refuge in the biggest state in the Union," and "there are plenty of truly pristine places in Alaska worth preserving, but ANWR's coastal plain isn't one of them."\nThe United States imported about 59 percent of the more than 20 million barrels of oil a day it consumed, according to government data interpreted by The Washington Post. We are talking about America's need to bucket about 12 million barrels of oil a day from foreign wells.\nIn that sense, ANWR is a quick fix for the black gold habit that is America's gluttonous thirst for oil. When is our government going to insist on national research and development of improved solar and wind technologies instead of gorging on a limited supply of fossil fuels?
(01/31/06 5:26am)
Every year local police encounter a wide variety of interesting behavior when they patrol the town late at night. They see people urinating in public, busting through bar windows and stumbling down Kirkwood Avenue, and often have to stop to settle the ruckus. IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said that scenes like this are not uncommon throughout Bloomington during the school year, and more times than not a student's public display of illegal activity is the result of drug or alcohol ingestion.\nMinger said the IUPD's formula for policing our college town where so many publicly-intoxicated students abound is simple: "illegal activity equals 'expect to be arrested'."\n"If you are too intoxicated to recognize your surroundings, and you are not making good judgment, and if an officer views that kind of conduct and feels a need to protect that person or protect other people from that person, the officer would be remiss in their duties not to confine or incarcerate that person until he or she sobered up," he said. "Illegal consumption and public intoxication are the small tip of an iceberg. The majority of thefts and assaults also involve alcohol. Our fear is people hurting themselves or others."\nFirst-time offending students, residents and guests who receive tickets for illegal activity or are arrested for crimes such as illegal consumption, public intoxication, possession of marijuana or driving while intoxicated, are often offered a pre-trial diversion program from Monroe County to avoid prosecution. For a fee slightly less than $400, one year of probation and attendance in a one-day alcohol and marijuana education class, the "dismissal" of a case can be earned pending the successful rehabilitation of each diversion program participant.\nAt 9 a.m. sharp the morning of Jan. 28., more than 40 students, including this reporter, filed into the Monroe County Justice Building's atrium to face their day-long lecture at the hands of an alcohol and drug educator. The only two listed requirements for class attendance: Report to class sober and maintain conduct conducive to the orderly operation of the class.\nOfficials had to breathalyze participants before entrance to ensure our compliance with the first requirement. One first-time offender was denied entry at the gate of the class because his breath registered due to the fumes of alcohol still churning in his stomach from the night before. \nAfter providing proof of deferral-program payment and flashing our personal identifications, my first-time offending peers and I split into two groups and were directed toward two different courtrooms.\n"Where the law ends, there tyranny begins," a quote by William Pitt, was on the wall of the courtroom to the left. After a brief introduction by alcohol and marijuana class educator Michelle Hall, a full-time county probation officer, my group of 20 was requested to reveal our first name, the legal definition of our charged offense and any lesson we might have learned from our legal troubles and personal tribulations.\n"Some degree of bad judgment has brought you here today," she said.\nI was there for having been in a public place in a state of intoxication some months before. I should not have drank to excess that night, and I should have asked friends for a ride home instead of stopping by a local tavern.\nOther class members admitted to abusing both drugs and alcohol in dorm rooms, cars and a variety of other places. One of the most common lessons learned seemed to be underage drinking is a bad idea.\nClass educator Hall reminded us that the law considers a car a "public place," and that it's not as kind for second-time drug offenders. She said many second-time drug possessors are charged with a felony instead of a misdemeanor.\nHall also reminded the class a binge drinking session equals "five or more drinks in one sitting" and social to moderate alcohol use equals no more than two drinks per sitting for men and no more than one drink per sitting for women.\nA Monroe County Justice Building security officer who is a former German philosophy and psychology professor said he has metal-detected and security-screened more than 2,000 first-time offenders Saturday mornings during the last two years. He said Monroe County collected more than $400,000 from the illegal activity of community members last year alone. \n"Students should take care of themselves and not do stupid stuff like running around the streets. Don't drink to get drunk, and stay at home or other safe places," he said. "You can drink in Germany when you turn 17, and young people drink as part of their normal lifestyle and not necessarily to get drunk ... but here young people go overboard."\nAlcohol and drug class participants had to watch two videos: a prison lecture on drug abuse by Delbert Boone and a Dec. 31, 2004 segment of the Dr. Phil television show on alcohol abuse.\nHall also discussed the topics of defining a drink, the places in the body where alcohol is processed, the physical effects of alcohol on the body, the effects of alcohol on the brain and the stages of substance abuse. She said alcohol is a toxic sedative and not a stimulant, and she proposed class members contemplate the question: "How do you know when your alcohol or drug use is a problem?"\nAfter handing out and explaining how to use Blood Alcohol Content cardboard gauges and allowing the class the opportunity to stumble along a straight line while wearing "drunk goggles," Hall instructed the class to retake an alcohol and drug quiz class members had taken at the beginning of the day.\nPassing out is not the same as blacking out, she said, as the first consists of falling asleep and the second consists of not knowing what happened the night before. \n"If you're to the point your friends are getting on you about drinking too much, you may have a problem," Hall said. "Beer, wine and hard liquor affect the body in the same manner, moderate drinkers can experience harmful physical effects from drinking and alcohol impairs decision-making abilities."\nLt. Minger said he hopes class participants turn their diversion program into an educational experience. He said intoxicated people often reveal themselves by stumbling into traffic, by instigating trouble or by otherwise behaving in a belligerent and socially-irresponsible way. \n"I hope students make good decisions and that they don't drink to excess," Minger said. "If you are making good decisions you won't get in any kind of trouble, but if you drank too much then you have made a bad decision. You have nobody to blame but yourself if you are doing an illegal activity and then drawing attention to yourself."\nIf the private need for community members to cope ever again supersedes their rational thinking for an evening, Lt. Minger suggested people keep their alcohol or drug abuse clear from the public sphere. By day's end, I for one, learned responsible alcohol and drug use most often involves not using alcohol or drugs in the first place.
(01/25/06 4:47am)
About 40 Monroe County juvenile offenders are currently located in other Indiana counties for their treatment and detention needs at a taxpayer cost of about $350 a day per child. \nMonroe County Circuit Judge David Welch told the Monroe County Council on Jan. 17 that a government decision needs to be made sooner than later on whether the community needs to build a local facility to treat and detain at-risk youth.\nDespite an 80-acre purchase along South Rogers Street and a $2 million reserve in start-up funds, council members are shuffling their feet ever closer to voting on the proposal for a juvenile facility. The Monroe County Council has reflected upon this issue for more than a decade.\n"The main reason for the delay in deciding on this issue is that there are many different ways to approach various treatment and detention options: what is the best and what can we afford," said newly elected Monroe County Council Vice President Mark Stoops. "If you talk to five experts, you get three or four different ideas of what to do."\nNewly elected Monroe County Council President Sophia Travis said a council fiscal vote for or against such a facility is not as black and white as saving taxpayers' money.\n"Several of us on the council strongly advocate for prevention being worth a pound of cure, but having that philosophy also means that we don't disrupt, duplicate or impede upon the shelter and prevention programs we already have for our youth," she said. "On behalf of the county council, I can say every one of us and the county commissioners really care about youth issues."\nTravis said a public discussion of the issue is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 2, although no date is finalized. She said she plans on touring a treatment and detention facility in Bartholomew County, after touring a similar facility in Kokomo last spring, in addition to a private facility.\nFor some community members serving current at-risk Bloomington youth and local juvenile offenders, the social benefits of housing them within Monroe County outweigh any future taxpayer costs.\nBloomington resident Robin Donaldson, assistant director of the Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County, said her experience working with at-risk youth has demonstrated prevention is much cheaper than intervention in the long-term. \n"The bottom line is these kids are coming back into our community because they can't stay away for ever. We need to make sure the money we are spending on treatment and detention is effective, instead of having a kid who comes back without making any progress at all," she said. "The difficulty is that juvenile offenders come back to a home environment that has not changed. The home environment can undermine the child's rehabilitation unless the family is also treated. Most families are willing to work with you, but they might not have the time or money to drive out-of-county to meet with their kids or a counselor."\nDonaldson said effective at-risk youth treatment often involves treating the family as a unit. Secondly, she said, keeping the children in Bloomington would enable them close access to their community support network: family members, a counselor who knows the child, a teacher or coach who is a strong role model, community services like the Boys & Girls Club or Big Brothers Big Sisters and other community mentors.\nAbout 80 percent of the shelter children from Monroe County come from single-parent or step-families, 60 percent of families have an income below $30,000 and 30 percent have reported that a parent is either a drug abuser or incarcerated, Donaldson said.\nPete Giordano, director of the Community and Family Resources Department for the City of Bloomington, said the building and upkeep of a local juvenile treatment and detention facility is "the right thing to do." He said some at-risk youth might still need treatment elsewhere, but the vast majority could benefit from staying close to home.\n"Making a difference in a child's life happens at earlier stages than much further down the line. Everything being equal -- to keep juvenile offenders here or not -- I think we should keep them here," Giordano said. "It's a matter of balancing the financial cost versus the social cost and coming to the most effective solution."\nStoops said the county government is determined to solve the problem, regardless of whether a local treatment and detention facility is the only answer or one piece of a more comprehensive community outreach program.\n"We are not going to continue to just send kids out of the county. If they are not treated effectively and their families are not treated as a whole, the kids will grow up and enter the justice system as adults," he said. "If we don't invest money to treat juvenile offenders when they are young, the taxpayer cost of future treatment and incarceration is going to increase. More than 70 percent of the jail population has been there before, and with the jail overcrowding situation as is, we need to take a closer look at this issue, reduce criminal recidivism and send juvenile offenders off in a direction that is more positive"
(01/23/06 5:31am)
To barter is to buy, and to buy is to compromise on a price, yet students and Bloomington residents can save their breath or weed the lawn while making transactions for food throughout town. \nAlso known as haggling, trafficking and dickering, the transaction of American currency for human fuel in the marketplace has long lost the glitter of "goods for other goods or services" principle, which was commonplace from the beginnings of trade. So what happens when a weary traveler stumbles into Bloomington and passes out from hunger-induced exhaustion on the steps of a local eatery?\nSome restaurateurs choose to feed that person.\n"There was a guy sitting on the back porch who said he was hungry and he asked for a meal," said Matt O'Neill, part owner of the Runcible Spoon Café & Restaurant, 412 E. Sixth St. "I asked him to help out and he pulled weeds for 20 minutes. It was a great deal on my part because I got better service than his paying for a meal, and I felt more gratitude toward him as a customer because he just pulled my weeds."\nO'Neill said the 30-year history of the Runcible Spoon is strewn with tall tales of customers with little or no pocket change still affording a plate chocked-full of breakfast, lunch or dinner munchies. Although his restaurant does not have a formal barter policy, O'Neill said he prefers instead to benefit from the skills, talents and artistic masterpieces of hungry students and travelers.\n"Students have abilities to barter with that they don't use enough. I have told a music student to bring in a violin to play, and I have told an art student to paint me something," O'Neill said. "The student is now gone, but he left beautiful art in this place. 99.9 percent of the time, I give students the benefit of the doubt because they are basically people you can trust. You get one or two who don't live up to expectations, but you get that with any segment of the population."\nO'Neill said Runcible Spoon can afford to possess a bartering attitude because decisions in absentee-owned or corporate restaurants are often regulated. \n"A guy came in to get a cake and he was $1 or $2 short. I said it was fine, and I spotted the money out of the tip jar," said senior Whitney McCurdy, shift leader at Cold Stone Creamery, 530 E. Kirkwood Ave. "I wouldn't do that every single day, but I was feeling generous, and I was in a good mood. In the long run, 50 cents is not going to kill anybody." \nMcCurdy said the fixed-price aspect of her ice cream shop enables the employees to know the value of each ice cream scoop, but she suggested the American food marketplace might benefit from improved human-to-human verbal transactions.\n"As a customer, bartering for food might make things more interesting," she said. "And in certain cultures, like Mexico, they are offended if you don't try to barter."\nBloomington resident Jeremiah Rice, manager of Swing-In Pizza, 301 W. 17th St., said his restaurant often trades food for food or food for services with other local small businesses. He said hungry folks with light pockets at the time of transaction are asked to sign their order ticket with the expectation that they will pay the food bill at a later time.\n"We trust students will come back when they have money or find the ticket, even if we don't hear from them for weeks," Rice said. "If I'm having a good night, or I'm in a good mood, I will tell them not to worry about it. They will get their food regardless."\nSimilar to the mainstream American food market, Scott Wilcox, general manager of Mad Mushroom Pizza, 601 N. Walnut St., said his food establishment's fixed-price attitude offers little or no latitude for hungry customers missing the exact currency needed to complete the transaction.\n"If the price is fixed, you have to pay it," Wilcox said. "To do otherwise is absolutely against the rules. You have to pay what the price is"
(01/19/06 5:00am)
College life is often portrayed as an "Animal House" of beer swigs and panty raids in between exam days, which results in wild-eyed freshmen roaming about campus in search of so-called thrills. But in between bouts of party hopping and furniture smashing, many IU students have discovered the inspiration and stimulation of college life in Bloomington.\nHere are 10 campus wonders you might want to explore before stumbling into the "real world" with a college degree in hand. Are you IU experienced?\n10. A Skip, Hop And Jump Through the "Old Crescent"\nLace your shoes, pocket your camera and grab your partner for a do-si-do steeped in more than 100 years of IU folklore. From the Sample Gates to the Herman B Wells sculpture, to the Rose Well House to the Adam and Eve statue, students can meander along the bricked trails slicing and dicing Dunn Woods on the western-most fringe of campus. Kirkwood Observatory's 12- inch refracting telescope also provides students an opportunity to glare into space Wednesday nights throughout most of the school year. The "Old Crescent" is meant as a "place of inspiration for the achievement of mind." \n9. Clubs, Drugs and Samurai Swords\nSkim through the A-Z Big List on the IU-Bloomington Web site, www.iub.edu/biglist/, to find a group before you don the cap and gown. From the Kendo Club, for those interested in learning the ancient art of Japanese sword-fighting or to the Citizens Alliance for the Legalization of Marijuana, students have ample opportunity to learn in and out of the classroom. Outdoor exploration clubs and tons of culturally diverse groups are available for participation, as are organizations for the sexually adventurous. \nHeadspace, which provides, "a forum for discussion and education for adults who share an interest in safe, sane and consensual exploration of bondage, discipline and sado-masochism," also provides an avenue for student expression.\n8. Wet Your Whistle and Climb Tall Buildings\nMost of the list focuses on activities throughout our almost dry-campus. But for those who enjoy the occasional cocktail, IU traditions abound in bars surrounding University property. "Sink the Biz," a drinking game involving beer and buckets which can be found at Nick's English Hut, 423 E. Kirkwood Ave., is a big hit with Hoosier students. The festivity was voted the best bar game in Bloomington by IDS Weekend readers in 2005. Or if special spirited drinks are your fancy, Upstairs Pub, 430 E. Kirkwood Ave., serves up a big, blue, sweet-tasting "Adios Mother Fucker," aka an "AMF," for the brave of heart. Another infamous alcoholic drink, the Hairy Bear, served at Bear's Place, 1316 E. Third St., will "make you want to climb tall buildings," according to its Web site. For those of you who can't handle that much booze, give the Hairy Beaver a taste.\n7. A Treasure Chest of Priceless Documents \n"The main reason to come to our library is you can see wonderful things that you can't see anywhere else in the world," says Becky Cape, head of reference and public services at the Lilly Library, IU's repository for rare books and manuscripts. The library is widely accessible to students and offers about 400,000 books and 6.5 million manuscripts, ranging from a 1455 pressing of the Gutenberg Bible to an Oscar award. The IU Art Museum also features rare and world-renowned works ready for your viewing pleasure. Both the Lilly Library and the IU Art Museum are free.\n6. Take a Tour of The Kinsey Institute\nFill your head with the sexually explicit art and exhibits at IU's world-renown and controversial Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, founded by biologist Dr. Alfred Kinsey in 1947. The Kinsey Institute promotes "interdisciplinary research and scholarship in the fields of human sexuality, gender and reproduction." Students interested in learning about the sexual anatomy, functions and behaviors that make us human beings can schedule a one hour tour of the institute, library and exhibition room by calling 855-7686 or by visiting www.kinseyinstitute.org. The Kinsey Institute is located on the third floor of Morrison Hall on East Third Street.\n5. Travel Back to Your Roots\nWhether it's breathing fresh air, wading in water or hugging a tree, students can migrate back to their roots in a number of local forests and waterways. Besides Bloomington's 18 city parks and Monroe County's 1,902 acres of park-like land, students can venture to Monroe Reservoir's 10,750 acres of man-made lake for a quick dip. Students can also make the trip to Griffy Lake for a canoeing or a row boat ride. Indiana State Forester John Seifert says students can seek the great outdoors "if for nothing else, to get away from other people." The Hoosier National Forest, Morgan-Monroe State Forest and Lake Lemon provide more than 40,000 acres of forest to hike and camp.\n4. Attend a Theatrical Spectacle\nStudents wishing to dazzle their dates or improve their worldview can purchase tickets for a show at the IU Auditorium, IU Department of Theatre & Drama or the Musical Arts Center. Performances at the IU Auditorium have included Les Miserables, comedian Bill Cosby and former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The Thomas Hart Benton "Century of Progress" 1933 Chicago World Fair mural, which documents the history of Indiana, also graces the walls of the auditorium. IU's world-renowned opera program also performs several operas throughout the school year. Interested students can visit the MAC box office or call 855-7433 to purchase tickets.\n3. Frolic in Dunn Meadow\nBefore you graduate make sure to waste part of a spring, summer or fall day in Dunn Meadow. Take advantage of some of the green space IU's former, and still beloved President Herman B Wells fought to protect for students. Toss a Frisbee with a friend, throw down a blanket and take a nap or even stage a demonstration or concert. Even if enjoying the meadow means sacrificing a class or two on a sunny day, go for it. Skipping work for a day in the meadow probably won't be an option after the flip of your tassel. \n2. Making-Out in the Herman B Wells Library "Stacks" \nIf you're ever stuck at the library for another late-night cramming session and your spirit begins to fluster, then the "Make-Out in the Stacks" Facebook group is intended for you. "You know you thought about it ... you've probably even done it," the group description of 46 members as of Jan. 13 stated. "Meet some others who are just like you ... new people to have sex in the stacks with." For students whose bare-all attitude in between shelves of musty books is still new, then the Facebook group "I Would Totally Have Sex in the Library" is for you. More than 1,813 members have identified themselves as getting "turned-on in the stacks." \n1. Take a Bath in Showalter Fountain\nWading in Showalter Fountain is a classic senior tradition for students to wet their feet before entering into the world of responsibility. "We find a lot of seniors going in the fountain during warm days of April, as graduation nears," Dean of Students Richard McKaig says. "We don't see much of it graduation day, however, when mother and grandmother are nearby, waiting to go somewhere." IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger says officers usually just ask students to get out of the fountain if caught, as long as students aren't creating damage, disturbance and there are no other aggravating circumstances. So to be on the safe side, stick to the calm cooling waters of the senior swimming hole and stay off the sculptures.
(01/19/06 2:46am)
College life is often portrayed as an "Animal House" of beer swigs and panty raids in between exam days, which results in wild-eyed freshmen roaming about campus in search of so-called thrills. But in between bouts of party hopping and furniture smashing, many IU students have discovered the inspiration and stimulation of college life in Bloomington.\nHere are 10 campus wonders you might want to explore before stumbling into the "real world" with a college degree in hand. Are you IU experienced?\n10. A Skip, Hop And Jump Through the "Old Crescent"\nLace your shoes, pocket your camera and grab your partner for a do-si-do steeped in more than 100 years of IU folklore. From the Sample Gates to the Herman B Wells sculpture, to the Rose Well House to the Adam and Eve statue, students can meander along the bricked trails slicing and dicing Dunn Woods on the western-most fringe of campus. Kirkwood Observatory's 12- inch refracting telescope also provides students an opportunity to glare into space Wednesday nights throughout most of the school year. The "Old Crescent" is meant as a "place of inspiration for the achievement of mind." \n9. Clubs, Drugs and Samurai Swords\nSkim through the A-Z Big List on the IU-Bloomington Web site, www.iub.edu/biglist/, to find a group before you don the cap and gown. From the Kendo Club, for those interested in learning the ancient art of Japanese sword-fighting or to the Citizens Alliance for the Legalization of Marijuana, students have ample opportunity to learn in and out of the classroom. Outdoor exploration clubs and tons of culturally diverse groups are available for participation, as are organizations for the sexually adventurous. \nHeadspace, which provides, "a forum for discussion and education for adults who share an interest in safe, sane and consensual exploration of bondage, discipline and sado-masochism," also provides an avenue for student expression.\n8. Wet Your Whistle and Climb Tall Buildings\nMost of the list focuses on activities throughout our almost dry-campus. But for those who enjoy the occasional cocktail, IU traditions abound in bars surrounding University property. "Sink the Biz," a drinking game involving beer and buckets which can be found at Nick's English Hut, 423 E. Kirkwood Ave., is a big hit with Hoosier students. The festivity was voted the best bar game in Bloomington by IDS Weekend readers in 2005. Or if special spirited drinks are your fancy, Upstairs Pub, 430 E. Kirkwood Ave., serves up a big, blue, sweet-tasting "Adios Mother Fucker," aka an "AMF," for the brave of heart. Another infamous alcoholic drink, the Hairy Bear, served at Bear's Place, 1316 E. Third St., will "make you want to climb tall buildings," according to its Web site. For those of you who can't handle that much booze, give the Hairy Beaver a taste.\n7. A Treasure Chest of Priceless Documents \n"The main reason to come to our library is you can see wonderful things that you can't see anywhere else in the world," says Becky Cape, head of reference and public services at the Lilly Library, IU's repository for rare books and manuscripts. The library is widely accessible to students and offers about 400,000 books and 6.5 million manuscripts, ranging from a 1455 pressing of the Gutenberg Bible to an Oscar award. The IU Art Museum also features rare and world-renowned works ready for your viewing pleasure. Both the Lilly Library and the IU Art Museum are free.\n6. Take a Tour of The Kinsey Institute\nFill your head with the sexually explicit art and exhibits at IU's world-renown and controversial Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, founded by biologist Dr. Alfred Kinsey in 1947. The Kinsey Institute promotes "interdisciplinary research and scholarship in the fields of human sexuality, gender and reproduction." Students interested in learning about the sexual anatomy, functions and behaviors that make us human beings can schedule a one hour tour of the institute, library and exhibition room by calling 855-7686 or by visiting www.kinseyinstitute.org. The Kinsey Institute is located on the third floor of Morrison Hall on East Third Street.\n5. Travel Back to Your Roots\nWhether it's breathing fresh air, wading in water or hugging a tree, students can migrate back to their roots in a number of local forests and waterways. Besides Bloomington's 18 city parks and Monroe County's 1,902 acres of park-like land, students can venture to Monroe Reservoir's 10,750 acres of man-made lake for a quick dip. Students can also make the trip to Griffy Lake for a canoeing or a row boat ride. Indiana State Forester John Seifert says students can seek the great outdoors "if for nothing else, to get away from other people." The Hoosier National Forest, Morgan-Monroe State Forest and Lake Lemon provide more than 40,000 acres of forest to hike and camp.\n4. Attend a Theatrical Spectacle\nStudents wishing to dazzle their dates or improve their worldview can purchase tickets for a show at the IU Auditorium, IU Department of Theatre & Drama or the Musical Arts Center. Performances at the IU Auditorium have included Les Miserables, comedian Bill Cosby and former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The Thomas Hart Benton "Century of Progress" 1933 Chicago World Fair mural, which documents the history of Indiana, also graces the walls of the auditorium. IU's world-renowned opera program also performs several operas throughout the school year. Interested students can visit the MAC box office or call 855-7433 to purchase tickets.\n3. Frolic in Dunn Meadow\nBefore you graduate make sure to waste part of a spring, summer or fall day in Dunn Meadow. Take advantage of some of the green space IU's former, and still beloved President Herman B Wells fought to protect for students. Toss a Frisbee with a friend, throw down a blanket and take a nap or even stage a demonstration or concert. Even if enjoying the meadow means sacrificing a class or two on a sunny day, go for it. Skipping work for a day in the meadow probably won't be an option after the flip of your tassel. \n2. Making-Out in the Herman B Wells Library "Stacks" \nIf you're ever stuck at the library for another late-night cramming session and your spirit begins to fluster, then the "Make-Out in the Stacks" Facebook group is intended for you. "You know you thought about it ... you've probably even done it," the group description of 46 members as of Jan. 13 stated. "Meet some others who are just like you ... new people to have sex in the stacks with." For students whose bare-all attitude in between shelves of musty books is still new, then the Facebook group "I Would Totally Have Sex in the Library" is for you. More than 1,813 members have identified themselves as getting "turned-on in the stacks." \n1. Take a Bath in Showalter Fountain\nWading in Showalter Fountain is a classic senior tradition for students to wet their feet before entering into the world of responsibility. "We find a lot of seniors going in the fountain during warm days of April, as graduation nears," Dean of Students Richard McKaig says. "We don't see much of it graduation day, however, when mother and grandmother are nearby, waiting to go somewhere." IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger says officers usually just ask students to get out of the fountain if caught, as long as students aren't creating damage, disturbance and there are no other aggravating circumstances. So to be on the safe side, stick to the calm cooling waters of the senior swimming hole and stay off the sculptures.
(12/16/05 6:15pm)
Beginning last weekend and continuing through the rest of the week, Mars and Earth are aligned with the sun and the two planets are separated by a mere 43 million miles -- the closest they've been since August 2003 when they were 35 million miles apart. \nMars is Earth's closest neighbor, even though a gap of more than 140 million miles usuallly separates the two planets' oval-shaped orbits within the solar system. \nAbout 300 campus community members examined the so-called Red Planet through the Kirkwood Observatory's 12-inch refractor telescope lens Saturday night to capitalize on the closeness.\nMars and the Earth will not orbit together as close as they are this week for another 13 years or so, astronomers predict, and the 43 million miles currently separating the two planets is the closest gap in thousands of years besides their 2003 encounter.\n"Try to put it into context. Mars is a planet humans will potentially walk on or have a colony there someday," said Heather Jacobson, an astronomy graduate student, before she rotated the slit-like opening in the observatory's wooden dome clockwise. \n"Light is emitted from the sun to Mars. The light is reflected off of the planet back to Earth through the telescope's lens to your eye," she continued. "That makes you part of the solar system. It gives you a sense of the size and scale of the planet, which is similar to Earth in many ways. It also gives you a sense for how big the universe is."\nJacobson prepped the crowd before they stepped up to the telescope lens by describing what they might see -- "a bright orange dot shimmering a little bit with a darkish center that is a canyon and a white tip that is a polar ice cap."\nBeginning at 10 p.m. Saturday in the Kirkwood Observatory, Mars-viewing participants formed a single file line, which then wrapped around the telescope, down a flight of stairs and out the observatory door about 50 yards into Dunn Woods toward the Student Building. Similar to an amusement park ride, would-be viewers spent an hour or so in line before reaching the telescope for a brief look at Mars from the comfort of Earth.\nSt. Louis resident Art Stanze said he visited the Kirkwood Observatory Saturday night with his wife, Bloomington resident Rebecca Stanze, because it was "something to do," and they are both interested in astronomy.\n"(Mars) was cool, and it was interesting to see an antique observatory," Art said. "All I could see was an orange disc because of the distortion from the atmosphere. I could see how someone who was expecting to see detail on Mars would be disappointed."\n"But it is very important for everyone to understand their place in the universe," Rebecca added.\n"And it helps your psyche to look up once and a while," Art concluded.\nCatherine Pilachowski, an IU astronomy professor who directed the Mars-viewing show Saturday night, said space telescopes offer the only clear view of Mars thus far for humans because the atmospheric distortion produced when light travels millions of miles affects the sharpness of the telescopic image from Earth.\nShe said the best telescopic view of the Red Planet on land is found on mountain tops in colder regions of the planet. \nMars rises into the sky about 15 minutes after the sun dips below the horizon, and the Red Planet moves east to south throughout the night. Students and residents searching for Mars this week using their naked eyes should look for a bright orange dot dominating the otherwise white-starred nightscape.\nJacobson said Mars provides a reference for where Earth is located in relation to the other planets. She said the planet Venus, a bright white dot, can also be spotted due west at sunset during the fall starscape.\n"When I think about the planets and the solar system it makes me feel insignificant, and I actually enjoy feeling that way," she said. "If I have a bad day or I am feeling stressed out, I am reminded of the tiny part I play in life, and it makes my problems and stresses go away. The planets are beautiful to see and remarkable to think about"
(12/16/05 5:52pm)
Besides abstinence and long-term mutually monogamous relationships with uninfected partners, latex condoms are the most effective method for reducing the risk of infection from sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy and HIV/AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\nRegardless of whether or not students are using condoms each time they engage in sexual contact, the question still remains: Are students using condoms correctly?\nIU applied science professor William Yarber said abstinence-only sexuality education often ignores the topic of condom use altogether for middle and high school students. He said teenagers are often never provided clear and detailed instructions on how properly to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy if they ever do decide to engage in sexual contact as adults.\n"If students take classes about human sexuality in college, their professor or textbook provides a description of how to use a condom safely," Yarber said. "If students are never exposed to correct condom education, they might fumble around when trying to use them and make mistakes that expose them to (STIs) and unintended pregnancy. Sexual penetration is a risky behavior and correct condom use is something a person can do to remain a healthy person."\nBecause most young adults have never received correct condom-use education, some sexually active adults have reported they or their partners have made mistakes while attempting to otherwise protect themselves during sexual contact. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, male latex condoms are about 86 percent effective against \nunintended pregnancy during typical use -- which includes occasional incorrect use -- and about 97 percent effective if used correctly during every act of sexual intercourse.\nIn an exploratory study pertaining to the condom use of 75 rural Hoosier men published in the November issue of "The Health Education Monograph Series" journal, Yarber and his research colleagues discovered many condom use errors and problems related to condom failure as a preventative method of safer-sex behavior. \nOf particular note: The study indicated more than 85 percent of men did not use a new condom after switching between penile-vaginal, anal or oral sexual behaviors during the same episode of contact; more than 80 percent of men did not use a water-based lubricant inside or outside the condom; and more than 70 percent of men did not check the condom for visible damage prior to sexual contact. \nKathryn Brown, a certified health and sex educator from the IU Health Center, said correct condom use also involves knowledge about what a condom is and isn't, the limits of condom protection and the signs and symptoms of common sexually transmitted infections.\n"A condom is a physical barrier, a sheath, a man puts over his penis to stop ejaculation and sperm. The problem is with STIs. It's not rocket science, although certain infections like HPV (or human papillomavirus) can still be transmitted in ways the condom doesn't always protect against," she said. "Condoms provide a reduced risk but there are no 100 percent guarantees against sexually transmitted infections."\nBrown said people can transmit infections inadvertently.\n"They don't have any symptoms, so they don't know they're infected," she said. "Sexual health involves more than trust. Sexual health also means a person needs to be tested for STIs." \nYarber said the research results are similar to those reported among college-age samples during a 2001 study, "Condom Use Errors and Problems Among College Men," from the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and the Kinsey Institute. In that particular survey, 40 percent of college-age men reported not leaving a space at the tip of the condom, 30 percent said they placed the condom inside out and had to flip it over before use and 15 percent took a condom off before sexual contact was finished.\nOther findings from the survey included four out of 10 college men stated they did not put a condom on before starting any sexual contact, about two out of 10 said they used a nonlubricated condom and about 13 percent said the condom slipped off while withdrawing the penis. More than 40 percent of men also indicated they wanted to use a condom but did not have one available at the time of sexual contact, and about 60 percent of men reported they did not discuss condom use with their partner before engaging in sexual contact.\nBrown said communication about condom use also includes learning about sexually transmitted infections and knowledge of the risks associated with all sexual contact. \nHPV, she said, is so prevalent for women, most sexually active students are at risk for infection even if condoms are used correctly every time. \n"If students are going to engage in sexual contact I say, 'Please do it in the context of caring, trusting relationship where you can talk about condom use with your partner.' Always think in the back of your mind, 'What if I give my partner an STI?' Condoms will help reduce that risk," Brown said. "But even with trust and communication you are still at risk for infection, so don't go around blaming your partner because they might not have known they were infected."\nYarber said a different study about condom-use errors among women revealed more than 60 percent of women are responsible for putting condoms on their partner before sexual contact, although about one-third of that group does so each time. As a result, he said, the "opening line" about condom use is often up to the woman.\nBrown recommended students scatter safe sex pamphlets from the IU Health Center onto the living room table as a possible method to instigate condom use conversation between partners. When a partner asks "What are these?" she said the other partner can say something like, "I picked up those when I grabbed some free condoms from the health center. I had no idea herpes in males often results in atypical symptoms. Have you ever been tested?" \n"A student could then say: 'I really appreciate that you let me know I have nothing to worry about, and I'm not blaming you, but I read somewhere we could be infected and not even know it because condoms don't always block everything and there aren't tests for everything," she continued. "'It's not you, it's me, and I just want both of us to be safer than sorry.'"\nIf a student discovers he or she has any number of STIs after being tested, both Yarber and Brown said his or her partner should try to normalize the situation because he or she is not alone. A student's health care provider can discuss possible treatments, they said, and most, but not all, STIs are curable so future protected sexual contact can occur without infecting the other partner.\nFor correct condom application, Yarber recommended students use only latex or polyurethane protective barriers; use a new condom for each different sexual behavior; not use teeth or fingernails when opening the condom wrapper; visibly inspect the condom for damage before use; leave an empty space at the end of the condom to collect the semen; remove any air remaining in the tip of the condom before use by gently pressing the air out; use water-based lubricants like KY Jelly and not oil-based like Vaseline; put the condom on after the penis is erect and before the penis touches the partner; and carefully withdraw the condom-covered penis after ejaculation but while it is still erect. \nHe further suggested either partner should hold the rim of the condom as the penis is withdrawn so the condom does not slip, that students should never reuse condoms and that students should seek a health care provider if the condom slips off or breaks.
(12/06/05 5:00am)
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once said: "Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war." It seems he was right.\nAs the U.S. soldier death count continues to climb -- more than 2,100 thus far in Iraq -- some Americans and congressional leaders have continued their plea for President Bush to offer a timetable to withdraw the U.S. military from Iraq. \nIn response to growing tensions on Capitol Hill about Bush's proposed strategy to win the war in Iraq, Bush has embarked on a media campaign to counter protestor pleas to bring the troops home sooner rather than later.\n"As we fight the enemy in Iraq, every man and woman who volunteers to defend our nation deserves an unwavering commitment to the mission, and a clear strategy for victory," Bush said last Wednesday during a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. "Victory will come when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens and when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot new attacks on our nation."\nPresident Bush also referred Americans to his 35-page "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," located at www.whitehouse.gov, which he said should provide a "clear understanding" of how his administration looks at the war, defines the enemy, defines victory and the steps by which the United States will defeat terror in Iraq.\nAccording to the strategy guide, President Bush's mission to "win the war" in Iraq utilizes an integrated plan along three broad tracks: political, security and economic. \nOn one hand, some Americans are rejoicing at the sound of an articulated strategy for defeating terror, considering the fear of terrorism is an emotion no doubt persisting in the back of many a global citizen's mind. \n"We will take the fight to the terrorists. We will help the Iraqi people lay the foundations of a strong democracy that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself," Bush stated. "And by laying the foundations of freedom in Iraq, we will lay the foundation of peace for generations to come."\nThe strategy guide also states that "increasingly robust Iraqi political institutions" are needed to "expose the falsity of enemy propaganda that Iraq is 'under occupation. \nOn the other hand, some Americans are left scratching their heads in utter bewilderment because terrorism can happen at any time, in any city, anywhere around the world and for any reason. And here is where divergent exit strategy opinions collide.\n"The large presence of American troops in Iraq gives credence to the notion of occupation and in fact delays the willingness and ability of Iraqi troops to stand up," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said last Thursday during an interview on NBC's "Today" show, according to Associated Press reports. "Until the president really acknowledges that the large presence (of U.S. soldiers in Iraq) is part of the problem, and begins to set a benchmark process for transferring responsibility to the Iraqis, we're going to continue with more of the same."\nMore of the same in Iraq, Bush told the midshipmen Wednesday, involves not permitting al-Qaida "to turn Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban -- a safe haven for terrorism and a launching pad for attacks on America."\nConsidering the United States has not yet secured Afghanistan from the Taliban, when will the empty rhetoric about winning the war on terror in Iraq cease? President Bush's strategy guide and his recent "Victory in Iraq" speeches have said nothing of how to win the hearts and minds of future would-be terrorists. \nAt least 25,000 to 100,000 Iraqis have died by the hands of their liberators, according to the Pentagon or the Lancet Medical Journal, respectively. Iraq is destined to become a terrorist melting pot unless the next generation of Iraqis are taught lessons of American humanity not involving bombers and military bases. \nVictory in Iraq can only occur if the entire Middle East believes in the democratic process, which will not happen through continued nation building. Unlike America's Cold War with the Soviet Union, containing terrorism and defeating terror is an impossible dream at best if some global citizens continue their willingness to murder themselves and others because of the belief that U.S. foreign policy does not have their best interests in mind.
(12/01/05 5:14pm)
One digital photograph too many of an Iraqi marketplace almost cost New York documentary filmmaker Micah Garen his life. \nGaren and his Iraqi translator, Amir Doshi, were kidnapped from a gun market in Nasiriyah and held captive for 10 days by members of the Iraqi militant group Martyrs Brigade, which threatened to behead him. \nSimilar to the recent kidnapping of four Christian peace activists by the Iraqi militant group Swords of Righteousness Brigade, Garen's family and friends learned of his abduction after viewing an Al-Jazeera broadcast of the terrorists and their captives. \nGaren and his fiancée Marie-Helene Carleton, spoke to a Bloomington crowd about their August 2004 ordeal at Borders Bookstore recently before reading excerpts from and signing copies of their co-authored book, "American Hostage: A Memoir of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq and the Remarkable Battle to Win His Release."\nGaren spent five months shooting more than 200 hours of film footage during the summer of 2004 that detailed the continued looting of archaeological sites in southern Iraq.\nGaren told the audience the primary mission during their trip to Iraq was to expose and document the destruction occurring at archeological sites throughout the country. \nHidden beneath a haircut styled to match local trends, a beige-plaid polyester shirt and a bushy mustache, Garen told the audience he and his translator stopped by the Iraqi market because they "had an hour to kill" on their way to a scheduled meeting at the Nasiriyah Museum. \nAfter a brief run-in with an "enraged man" toting a machine gun, Garen said he was identified by a shout of "Foreigner!" and the crowd mobbed him before he was whisked away by the blade of a large knife and the barrel of a gun into the backseat of a waiting car.\n"I thought of running, but I would have to break free from this man with the knife. The others had guns. I wouldn't make it a block and what about Amir?" Garen read to the audience from his book. "If I said I was an American, I was dead."\nGaren said he instead told the enraged man he was a French journalist and a "sadiqi," which means "friend." He said he also resorted to shouting the Iraqi tribal-traditional phrase "Ana bisharbic," or "I am in your mustache," which his driver taught him to say for occasions when a person has no other options and has to beg for protection.\n"There was intense fighting in the area at the time between coalition forces and the Madhi Army," Garen said. "My kidnapping became political because I was the only card (the Madhi Army) had to stop the fighting." \nGaren said he and Doshi were held captive in an enclosure made of date palms surrounded by a remote marsh somewhere in southern Iraq. \nCarleton, Garen's mother and his sister directed an international grassroot effort to free him after transforming Garen and Carleton's New York City apartment into a "war room," Carleton said. She said she left Iraq about two weeks before Garen was abducted.\nEven before the Martyrs Brigade released the video threatening Garen's life, Carleton said friends and family decided to petition radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for Garen's freedom as opposed to U.S. government intervention. Carleton said the FBI supported their efforts, although a network of international journalists and Middle Eastern friends tracked down the radical cleric, who was in hiding and on the run from Coalition forces, via satellite phones and the Internet. \n"When I saw the video I thought it was the worst thing to happen," Carleton said. "But then I thought it was a good thing because it was proof of life."\nSeventy-four journalists have been killed in Iraq and two are still missing since the March 2003 invasion, according to Reporters Without Borders, who have declared the country "the world's most dangerous place for journalists."\n"I am both sad and happy. I am happy (Garen) came back alive, but I'm sad because that Iraq is not the Iraq I have known for 40 years," said Bloomington resident and IU Professor Emeritus Salih J. Altoman, who teaches Arabic and comparative literature. "I left the country in 1964, and I consider myself a Hoosier. There was no kidnapping in Iraq before the current conflict -- it's a new phenomenon."\nCarleton, a member of Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist association claiming more than 12 million members in 190 countries worldwide, said she and other members of the Soka chapter in Bloomington, Chicago and New York City took shifts to chant during Garen's captivity in the hope they might communicate with him. Garen said he could feel their collective energy. \nBloomington resident and SGI member Chris Jaffe, who chanted with about 40 other local SGI chapter members for a week straight, said he joined the spiritual chorus for Garen's release immediately after he found out about the kidnapping. \n"We chanted for (Garen's) safety and for his release," Jaffe said. "The whole purpose was to help him overcome his individual suffering." \nGaren and Carleton said they are still working to edit the archeological documentary that almost cost Garen his life. He said protecting the remnants of the Sumerian and Babylonian kingdoms, among other archeological sites throughout Iraq, was worth the threatened beheading.
(12/01/05 1:01am)
Worldwide earthquakes, floods, \nhurricanes, tornados and tsunamis have claimed more than a quarter of a million human lives since 2004. \nSome Americans question: Are \nnatural disasters Mother Nature's way of global cleansing, or is God \ninflicting a deadly wrath on certain morally deficient populations?\nConstance Brown, an assistant professor of atmospheric science for the IU Department of Geography, said the answer to explaining increased worldwide natural disasters isn't cleansing in any sense.\n"Mother Nature does not discriminate against people. However, humans have placed themselves in populated areas that are susceptible to extreme living conditions and extreme weather patterns," she said. "From a religious standpoint, I believe God created this world and put certain things in motion -- atmospheric processes, winds, the movement of water and energy -- but there is an underlying scientific basis in how weather patterns function."\nThe quarter of a million deaths since last year includes more than 150,000 people killed in a December 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia and more than 80,000 people killed in an October 2005 earthquake in the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan, among other natural disasters, according to the Weather Channel Web site. \nThat number does not include the 15 deaths reported thus far from an earthquake Saturday in central China, nor the at least 10 deaths reported from an earthquake in southern Iran Sunday. More than 500 people were injured in the two earthquakes this weekend, according to Associated Press reports. \nRabbi Sue Shifron, executive director of the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center, said people should be wary of political agendas that search for religious explanations for natural disasters that are beyond the scope of humane control.\n"People shouldn't use natural disasters to say we have to behave in certain ways because the death and destruction are punishments. I don't believe that any of us know God's will," she said. "So much of what we believe in our lives is faith and not fact. God does not create natural disasters, but is instead found in our reflection of outpouring support. Millions and millions of people are reaching out to each other and we are recognizing our responsibility to one another."\nAmong the recent natural disasters to torment the United States this year are three Category 5 hurricanes -- Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma -- which wreaked havoc along the U.S. Gulf Coast from Florida to Mexico and claimed more than 1,000 lives. Twenty--three Hoosiers also died during a November tornado that swept through Evansville among other southern Indiana communities. Sara Pryor, an IU professor of atmospheric science, said catastrophic weather events are likely to increase throughout the 21st Century as both global temperatures and the world population increase. \n"We as a society need to become more 'risk adverse' in our climate change commitment by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases we emit, and in the way we perceive severe weather events," she said. "In terms of the latter, we need to take forecasts or severe weather warnings much more seriously. (Two weeks ago) very few (IU) students went to tornado shelters or safe places even though the siren sounded twice."\nNoted television and radio evangelists from Hal Lindsey to Charles Colson remain skeptical about the processes behind natural disasters. Lindsey and Colson have instead offered casual claims supporting God's vengeance as a plausible explanation for why and where natural disasters have occurred. \n"'Did God have anything to do with Katrina?' people ask," Colson said during a Sept. 12 broadcast of his BreakPoint Christian radio program, during which he discusses current news and trends. "My answer is, he allowed it and perhaps he allowed it to get our attention so that we don't delude ourselves into thinking that all we have to do is put things back the way they were (before the war on terror) and life will be normal again."\nTwenty-three Atlantic Ocean tropical storms have warranted naming this year, including a single-year record 13 hurricanes that have threatened U.S. coastal waters, according to the Weather Channel. A dozen hurricanes formed in the Atlantic Ocean in 1969, the previous record for named hurricanes in one season before this year.\nFather Bob Keller, the pastor of St. Paul's Catholic Center in Bloomington, said he feels disturbed and angry when he hears individuals say cities like New Orleans were "sin cities," so God purified them for morally apocalyptic reasons. \n"I don't see God's wrath and natural disasters as being connected at all. In terms of valuation, if we ask 'why here' or 'why now,' the answer is we are living in these places and these kinds of phenomena happen," he said. "I would ask, 'how has God treated you?' and 'how does God deal with justice and mercy?' Would you wipe out an entire city? If you decide 'no,' do you think God is less compassionate?"\nPryor said heat waves often inflict the most casualties on global human populations each year, as exemplified in 1995 by more than 800 deaths from excess heat in Chicago. Flooding and other precipitation events, she further stated, often cause the most economic loss in the United States.\nShifron said everyone is a member of the global community and all are responsible for one another, so even if God's wrath created natural disasters -- which she does not believe -- we should all understand that catastrophe could happen to any of us at almost any time.\n"There is a lot of hope. Absolutely, bad things happen, but our lives are about making the most of what we can each day," she said. "We all have a limited time on Earth and none of us knows for sure if we will be here tomorrow. It is up to each of us to make the most of each day. Maybe God cries with us when these tragedies happen."\nBrown said a higher occurance of extreme weather conditions does not presuppose something apocalyptic is imminent, especially when the entire timeline of the Earth and humanity is taken into account. \n"We as human beings place ourselves in the path of natural disasters, it's not God's wrath," she said. "It's our choice to locate ourselves where certain phenomena occur. God created the earth but we make the choice to live somewhere or to not"
(11/21/05 4:38pm)
As a college student learning to live and work as a theatrical artist, I am always weary of play reviews. Because, after all, who decides what is good theater? \nDespite my appreciation for tried-and-true classic theater from the likes of Sophocles and Shakespeare, this reviewer left "Chicks With Dicks," written by Chicago playwright Trista Baldwin and directed by Bloomington Playwrights Project's Artistic Director Richard Perez, speechless.\nI flipped my notebook to the last page as the audience exited and wrote the first words that came to my mind. "Fucking wild," I penned.\n"Chicks With Dicks" took the audience on the most maddening ride my eyes had ever witnessed. The play, set in the Hoosier heartland town of Bedford, offered the audience a bosom of biker babes, radioactive feminine sexuality and a glimpse of American life akin to a B-parody kung fu fighters crossed with a pissed-off chick flick.\nThe show began before the curtain call as a foursome chorus of leather and lace clad Go-Go Girls, played by Echaka Agba, Justina Batchelor, Annie Kerkian and Amanda Smith, seduced the audience from the moment they entered the BPP's new space, 107 W. Ninth St.\nAll four women tantalized the audience members' hormones by seductively parading throughout the crowd, offering a few men and women lap dances and stripteases before the show started. \nRuth Hartke, who portrayed local beauty pageant runner-up Vespa D'Amour, ignited the dramatic buffoonery after she joined the Satan Cherries to get back at her boyfriend, played by Alexander Gulck, for breaking up with her. Gulk acted as the "everyman" during the play and got pinched, punched, kicked, bitten and tossed by the predominantly female cast.\nAnneliese Toft, who portrayed Satan's leader Varla, provided the audience with a bad-ass woman vibe. She complimented the sexually boisterous Dixie, portrayed by Lindsey Charles, who is the leader of Satan's rival biker gang BadSnakes. The other characters seemed to feed off of Toft and Charles' heightened energy, and the scenes in which the different gangs squared off were superb.\nDJ McCartney, who portrayed the shoe-licking Joe, offered the audience a look into the fetish-filled world of domination and subordination. His character contributed to the "women power" ruggedness of the show through his submission to his female handlers.\nThe remaining cast included Amy Wendling, who portrayed the French-accented and eloquent Chantalle, Alex Young, who portrayed the sensual yet biker-wannabe Cindi, and Joanne Dubach, who portrayed the misguided and often dancing Kitten. \nPerez, whose talented direction seeped through the actors by their comfort and camaraderie on stage, offered the audience a myriad of spectacular drama, including a beautifully choreographed pudding fight between Cindi and Vespa in "Matrix"-style slow motion toward the end of the show. The actors seemed to channel their vocal inflection and rising moods depending on audience response, although Perez's ability to rein in the actors' collective enthusiasm while offering them free reign to throw caution to the wind was reflected throughout the performance.\nDiscussion among audience members after the play seemed to revolve around the rubber dildo that grew from Vespa's head during the show and her double rubber dildo holster she wore by the end of "Chicks With Dicks." Ash Williams' soundscape also seemed to rock the audience and the stage props, which included makeshift motorcycles and a wooden-car cutout.\n"Chicks With Dicks" rocked this reviewer's world and turned him on his head for at least a couple hours. The BPP again pushed the boundaries of local theater and, most importantly, Perez's talented crew provided the audience with a worthwhile night of entertainment.
(11/21/05 4:35pm)
While Americans celebrate Thanksgiving this week by gnawing on turkey legs before eating pumpkin pie, millions of Iraqis continue to suffer from the murderous oppression of, well, just about everybody from our global neighborhood and their militant-idolizing brother.\nAs Americans spend time gathered around buffet-style dining tables to ponder the contributions of American Indians to our forefathers' dreams of Manifest Destiny, millions of Iraqis will spend Thanksgiving Day scrounging for food before dining by candlelight as far away from the entrance as possible, just in case their door gets kicked down in the middle of the night by the black boots of American soldiers. \nThe problem with the current course of the U.S. War on Terrorism, playing out like a bad dream outside the Green Zone of Iraq, is manifold, with too many complicated creases to reduce any proposed exit strategy as "cut and run" or to label the enemy as "evil but not insane," as President Bush said during a Nov. 14 speech at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.\nCan the United States do no right in Iraq? Yes, of course we can, but who is the judge and what moral scale is our prescription?\nIf we ask the more than 2,000 American soldiers who have died in Iraq, well, they of course can't answer.\nIf we ask the 25,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilians who have been killed for nothing more than maintaining a residence between the Tigres and Euphrates rivers, well, they of course can't answer that question either.\nTo whom do we turn for a reflection of our righteousness at a time when the United States is waging an overt global war against terror in the mountains of Afghanistan, the streets of Iraq and the shadows of Italy? \nLet's start with one global perception that presupposes Bush, as commander in chief, and what protesters call "war-mongering cronies" -- for example, Vietnam non-veteran Dick Cheney and otherwise "Secretary of War" Donald Rumsfeld, among others -- are fueling a rabid insurgency hell-bent on mass-murdering Americans and burning American interests into the ground.\nIraq then becomes a convenient front for fighting a war against proper nouns that will no doubt last into the 22nd century and beyond, despite billions of dollars spent, thousands of American soldiers dead and tens of thousands of volunteers maimed.\n"Victory in Iraq is key to prevailing in the war on terrorism and laying the foundation of peace for children and grandchildren," the White House press secretary said in a Saturday statement.\nAnother global perception might presuppose Bush did in fact ask the U.N. Security Council, Congress and the American people to wage war on an otherwise sovereign country presided over by a tyrannical and insane leader, despite the fact the war on terrorism was never won in Afghanistan.\nBush himself, after all, told Alaskan military personnel and their families the "Islamic radicals," "militant jihadists" and "Islamo-fascists" are killing Americans to establish a "radical Islamic empire that reaches from Indonesia to Spain."\nYet another global perception might presuppose Bush is indeed a right-doer in the 21st century struggle of humanity to win the hearts and minds of oppressed and impoverished people worldwide because, after all, the would-be evil-doers need a reality check by any means necessary to secure the paranoid-futuristic fears of America.\n"In Iraq, we have brought down a murderous regime. We have stood by the Iraqi people through two elections, and we will stand by them until they have established a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself," Bush said during an Oct. 15 national radio address. "When we do, Iraq will be an ally in the war on terror and a partner for peace and moderation in the Muslim world. And because America stood firm in this important fight, our children and grandchildren will be safer and more secure."\nAnd still another global perception might accuse Bush of leading our democratic empire into a tilt-a-whirl, self-fulfilling national prophecy that is inviting the same terror in Iraq and abroad our soldiers are supposedly defending.\nUnlike American militiamen who utilized guerrilla tactics to dust the British empire back to its motherland and unlike American cavalrymen who engaged in terror-like behaviors to eliminate the American Indian threat to colonization, President Bush said during his speech in Alaska that our American all-volunteer military did not ask for this "global struggle" -- a war against humanity, he said.\nA final global perception might presuppose the "every-person Iraqi" is not better off than before the fall of Saddam, although Thanksgiving week in Iraq during years to come might involve dinner-table discussions of how America offered butter and guns to the Iraqi people in exchange for knowledge needed for survival -- like how to survive suicide bombers or how to spot a stealth bomber.\nThe Iraqi people can now write the holiday into their constitution and the Iraqi people can now vote to include the holiday in their calendar because Bush has said over and over again America is not going to cut, run or establish a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. \nIn the meantime, millions of Iraqis will spend our Thanksgiving week praying for clean water, all-day electrical power and no more bombed-out buildings in a country not occupied by American soldiers.
(11/04/05 4:25am)
You won't hear a peep out of the chicks, but you might hear a scream, catcall, whistle, moan or groan tonight and throughout the month, claims the Bloomington Playwrights' Project.\n"Chicks with Dicks," written by Trista Baldwin and directed by Richard Perez, is billed by the BPP as a tongue-in-cheek B-movie-like play with a nuclear twist chronicling two rival biker-girl gangs that includes kung-fu fighting, hardcore hair-pulling, mud wrestling and leather bustiers. The play premiered at the Empty Space Theatre in Seattle, and the show ran for one year at the Planet Earth Theatre in Phoenix. \nHaving worked with Baldwin on a previous production in town titled "Patty Red Pants," Perez, who is also the BPP artistic director, said he decided to bring "Chicks with Dicks" to Bloomington after witnessing the spectacle during an extended off-off Broadway run at the Kraine Theater in New York City.\n"People could get thrown by the title, but it's an over-the-top parody that is just pure fun. I'm usually attracted to more kitchen-sink types of realism but this is a complete departure from that," Perez said. "There is a thread of reality running through the play -- subtle themes and questions of gender roles, women's solidarity or lack thereof, gang mentalities, family relationships and responsibilities we have to the planet."\nPerez said "Chicks with Dicks" addresses some of the responsibilities of big business as they pertain to the little guy, among other social and cultural themes, like the detrimental effects of pollution on human populations. The plot details the misadventures of Vespa D'Amour, who is a prom queen runner-up that takes control of the all-girl biker gang Satan's Cherries after the accidental death of her sex-shy boyfriend.\n"The play is a big challenge because it questions ideas of morality, but it's been so much fun it hasn't felt that challenging," said actor Amy Wendling, who portrays the character Chantalle of the Satan's Cherries biker gang. "The show is for everybody to have a good time. It's good entertainment and better than staying home and watching television."\nPerez praised the costume contributions of Alexandra Morphet, Mike Price's lighting and Ash Williams's soundscape. He said he experienced a "breath of fresh air" during every rehearsal because of the great talent of the actors and crew.\n"Some of Bloomington's best theater talent is in this show, which has really made my job easy because casting for the director is 90 percent of the battle. I feel very blessed," Perez said. "Plus, this is the first show in the BPP's gorgeous new space, so there is an edgy feel to the action with the fresh paint on the walls. 'Chicks with Dicks' is audience friendly, and on top of that, the show itself is nothing most people have seen before."\nOne of only two male actors in the show, Alexander Gulck, who portrays the Everyman as six different characters, said the other 10 female actors seemed to accept him throughout the theatrical process despite the antagonistic nature of the otherwise feminine-themed plot. He said he expects "Chicks With Dicks" to provide a "sexy-rockin' time" had by all. \n"I can't say I've ever been beaten up so much on stage or off-stage for that matter," Gulck said. "I guess I really relate to the girls and their quest to find love and happiness while dealing with gender issues like having a penis. The audience is going to get their balls blown off so I recommend men wear a cup."\nThe play's plot thickens as the BadSnake biker gang abducts a lifelong friend of the Satan's Cherries. The friend, Cindi, grew up with Vespa next to a nuclear power plant.\nWendling, who described herself as a cherry of the Satan's Cherries, said her French-accented character is "total girl all the way," even though most of the other female characters are rough, rugged and possess sadomasochistic tendencies.\n"I love my character -- she's good, she's bad, she's loving and she's mean," Wendling said. "I am the more self-conscious of the group. I was nervous at first, but after several rehearsals, I got over my fragility. For the more voluptuous women in the cast, this play is a great opportunity to show their stuff. Having a wild character is great for the imagination."\nTo shake up the redundant and monotonous nature to the college weekend party scene, Wendling also recommended interested audience members have a cocktail or two before the 90 minute show to frame the proper state of mind to truly appreciate the comedy.\nPerez said he thinks "Chicks with Dicks" is a show the Bloomington community will relish because of the absurdity of the plot and the real-life connections to daily living.\n"The story is so tongue-in-cheek, over the top, that it pokes fun at things more than playing for heavy situations," he said. "People will come back more than once, and hopefully they will invite family and friends"
(11/03/05 3:47am)
Forget the pumpkin pie and the turkey legs. Sleigh bells are ringing, and winter snow is falling, if only in the mind of the playwright. \nThe Bloomington Playwrights' Project is seeking at least 30 ultra-short plays, three to five minutes or three to five pages in length, due by 5 p.m. Friday for the 2005 Ballot Box Blizzard production titled "Holidazed & Confused." \nIn lieu of the wintry holiday spirit, scripts should deal with a holiday theme -- albeit Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice or any other "winter time" scene -- but playwrights are also encouraged to write about any topic of choice. \n"I encourage all Hoosiers to just do it and turn in a script to see what happens," said Blizzard Producer Rachael Himsel, who is also the BPP public relations director. "It's a great way to get your feet wet in theater and script writing. The show gives writers a great opportunity to see their script performed on a stage, and it is a fun night of theater because the audience gets to choose the winning play."\nBPP Ensemble of Artist members Pat Anderson and Anneliese Toft will join Alexander Gulck in directing 10 ultra-short plays each with a cast of four actors. Himsel said she is looking for scripts that are unique, challenging and entertaining, although any storyline is acceptable as long as the dialogue pushes the action forward.\n"I wrote several pieces last year for the Blizzard so I know how hard it is to write an ultra-short play. Theater to me is about transformation -- learning to work with other people and other personalities," she said. "Theater uses the imagination and creativity toward a greater understanding of our self and each other. Theater can change lives, build self-esteem and provide a sense of community not just for the crew involved, but for kids as well. The sense of satisfaction from a performance is a beautiful feeling."\nInterested playwrights should deliver their scripts to their new location at 107 W. Ninth St., Attention: Rachael Himsel. Scripts need to include the playwright's name, contact information and e-mail address. \nFor more information, contact the BPP at 334-1188 or e-mail Himsel at bppwrite@newplays.org.
(11/01/05 5:27am)
ELLETTSVILLE -- Halloween is often associated with ghouls, ghosts, goblins and costumed children and adults prowling community streets in search of candy and other festive treats from neighbors and local businesses. \nBut for Pastor Larry Mitchell of the House of Prayer Ellettsville, 4100 N. Hartstrait Rd., Halloween is a night in which "millions of Christians will encourage their children to pay respect to the devil and his gang of evil spirits," according to a church pamphlet. Pastor Mitchell's parish, in response, has continued its holiday tradition of furthering the Rev. Jerry Falwell's three-decade evangelistic quest to proselytize community members about Jesus Christ during the Halloween season by transforming their church into a "HELL HOUSE."\nIn a document titled "The HELL HOUSE Outreach Manifesto," the House of Prayer Ellettsville, a Pentacostal church known for HOPE Ministries and the Un-Chained Gang of motorcycle evangelists, states the ultimate purpose of its "real life," no-nonsense haunted house is to "proclaim the love and hope of Jesus Christ and the truth of God's word to our world so that lives will be changed." \nPastor Mitchell's document further states the method of presentation in HELL HOUSE is to propagate the message of "Satan as destroyer" and "Jesus as Savior."\nParticipants are asked to arrive 30 minutes before their scheduled tour. I was assigned to group 16 Friday night, the last pack of 15 to 20 people to receive a "demon-guided tour through reality," a church representative said.\nBefore departing, participants are informed they can ask for an escort out at any time throughout the tour. Brother Mike, who was standing at the tail end of the single file line with his arms crossed, the group is told, is acting as security and was instructed to remove anyone for any reason at any time.\nAnd then the journey into HELL HOUSE began.\nThe first room revealed a funeral scene in which about 10 church members, all draped in black with tissues at their noses, sat weeping on the left side of the church. Each participant was handed a black rose and escorted to the pews on the right side of the church.\nA demon-costumed tour guide emerged and began the scene by informing the audience that the body in the coffin is that of a man named Jason. Jason, the participants learned, was born gay.\n"What kind of idiot believes a lie like that?" the demon screamed, a few inches from a teenage participant's face. "What kind of fool believes something like that?"\nJason, the demon continued, is off to the eternal fire with the other sinning souls to practice their alternative lifestyle in hell. \n"AIDS got Jason," the demon said, before instructing the audience members to place their black roses into the open coffin one by one before leaving the scene. "Demons one. God zero."\nThe second scene in HELL HOUSE involved a Ku Klux Klan cross-burning ritual in which a black woman was whipped.\n"Lies of racial hatred and prejudice," the demon stated, while pointing his index finger into another participant's face.\nDomestic abuse took center stage during the third scene, in which a wife attempted to leave her husband before he strangled her to death.\n"If I can't have you, nobody can," the husband declared before the lights faded out.\nFrom one bedroom to another, the fourth scene involved a teenager named Kevin contemplating death by suicide. A demonic-spirit type, dressed in all-black, danced around the young man before he a strobe light illuminated the youth's body laying in a pool of his blood. The demon instigated the action, leading the youth to chant: "No more pain, no more problems."\nHELL HOUSE's brief fifth scene highlighted a fortune teller, but the action did not include anything other than the demon's ability to tell the character what to say.\nParticipants are then led to the sixth scene: an abortion room, in which the "product of young love in the backseat of a '69 Camaro" is vacuumed from a teenager. In front of blood splatters on the wall and a pool of blood covering the sheet between her legs, the demon informs participants that the mother has made the "wonderful choice to murder her baby."\n"Shut up," the nurse screams at the teenager. "I told you there is no pain -- it's only a medical procedure."\n"I want my baby," the girl screamed back.\n"(The baby) would have been a preacher," the demon told the audience. "It was a tissue with a brain and a heartbeat."\nThe seventh scene involved a drunken-driving accident in which a car slammed head-first into a telephone pole. A bloodied man, whom the audience is told was a factory worker on his way home from the bar after work, whimpered on the ground in front of the wreckage.\n"You and your alcohol have killed your wife and daughter," the demon mocked before addressing the audience. "Look at this picture. In doing so, you are gazing into your future. One day I'll be standing over you. Think about it."\nHELL HOUSE did not include a literal representation of hell until scene eight, in which a winged and tailed devil appeared and reminded the audience that "Mommy and Dawddy cannot save you now." The "lake of fire" backdrop included skeletons, bats hanging from the ceiling, sounds of groans and screams, multiple hexagrams and various hellish-looking characters with medieval weapons of all kinds.\n"I'm Lucifer, the adversary of your soul. You will burn in hell forever," the devil declared several inches from a participant's face.\nSeveral teenagers from group 16 burst into tears by the end of the scene, and the demon guide then escorted the audience past five or so persons behind jail bars begging for Jesus' forgiveness.\nWith white blankets on all walls and covering the ceiling, scene nine involved numerous angels and a Jesus character whose lips did not move despite a soundtrack of dialogue playing throughout the action. \n"Do not let your heart be troubled," the Jesus-like voice said, as an angel placed a purple sash over Jesus' shoulders. "Believe in me ... Confess that I, Jesus, is the Lord and that God raised me from the dead. I stand at the door of your heart. Open the door and have fellowship with me."\nAt this point in the scene, a congregation member stepped forward, knelt in front of Jesus and the son of God dropped to his knees. When the soundtrack called for audience members to recommit their lives to Jesus, no other participant stepped forward from group 16. \nHELL HOUSE concluded in scene 10, in which participants were shuffled into a trailer next to the church and asked to fill out comment cards among several religious and moral instruction pamphlets strewn about school desk tops. Church members offered immediate fellowship for any interested participants, although the mostly teenage audience filed immediately out the door into the parking lot.\nHalloween festivities at the House of Prayer Ellettsville were both bold and shocking, not to mention at times offensive, exactly as Pastor Mitchell declared in his HELL HOUSE manifesto.\n"God does not send people to hell," as stated in the manifesto. "People choose it by rejecting God's gift of salvation through His (sic) beloved son, Jesus Christ."\nThe participants in group 16 did indeed choose to attend HELL HOUSE, but they did not choose to receive messages of guilt and fear. Because the primary audience demographic consisted of young people aged 10 to 18, the House of Prayer Ellettsville's Halloween show seemed to terrify and frighten the participants more than educate them about modern politically polarized issues facing the nation in the 21st century.\nScene two, in which the Ku Klux Klan is represented, seemed especially out of place considering the stereotypical religious-based themes involved in most of the other scenes. In addition, the abortion scene seemed problematic because of the misrepresentation of the medical staff and the actual psychological issues associated with the procedure.\nMight the House of Prayer Ellettsville construct a HEAVEN HOUSE next year to provide teenagers with a more positive spin on the difficult choices and issues they face each day living within contemporary American society?
(10/28/05 4:28am)
Despite a new venue, a new scoring system, an increased purse and the first out-of-state winner in the event's history, one thing remained constant during the 2005 Miss Gay Bloomington pageant Wednesday night at Axis Night Club: the crowning of a citywide champion.\nBrittany Taylor, a self-identified transsexual woman who lives in Orlando, Fla., earned the title after dazzling a six-judge panel. In doing so, she pocketed more than $1,000 in awards and booty, including a rhinestone-studded crown, a $600 cash prize and a $50 Wigs Unlimited gift certificate. \nTaylor won two of the four categories: personal interview and on-stage interview. Her talent performance consisted of a theatrical show based on the musical score "Rita's Confession."\n"I agree with the judges on everything. I wasn't first in all the categories but my character traits overpowered the negatives," Taylor said while surrounded by audience well-wishers and hug-happy former Miss Gay Bloomington winners. \nMiss Gay Bloomington producer Jason Ervin, owner and operator of Storm Productions, a Bloomington-based company, said he moved the contest to Axis Night Club this year based on the performers' feedback and failure to reach an agreement with Bullwinkle's Nightclub. Bullwinkle's, a dance club that caters to the greater Bloomington queer culture, had hosted the pageant the previous 22 years.\nHe said his long-term goals include marketing the contest and confirming the validity of the title to a state and national audience.\n"Miss Gay Bloomington is one of the oldest pageants in the state of Indiana," Ervin said. "The list of former winners is impressive -- women who have won other state and national pageants. It was great to see someone outside the state win."\n"This is a perfect opportunity to take the pageant to a different level of national promotion and contestant recruitment," he added. "I don't want Miss Bloomington to be secluded from the rest of the community because she is very much a representative of our community." \nThis year's theme was dubbed "Phantom of the Opera," and participants were encouraged to display costumes representing a "vintage masquerade." Seven Miss Gay Bloomington contestants competed in four categories with varying point totals: a personal interview with the judges, evening gown, on-stage question and talent. The panel of judges rated each contestant's performance in each category according to a predetermined scale, and each contestant's lowest and highest awards were dropped from her overall total in each category.\nUnlike previous Miss Gay Bloomington pageants, in which judges merely tabulated the total points accumulated by each contestant to determine a winner, this year's event marked the debut of a "comparative ranking" system similar to other beauty and talent pageants, such as Miss America. The judges were instructed to make notes during each performance but to hold off awarding any points until all the competitors had completed any given category. \nIndianapolis resident Tim Mullet, one of the contest's judges and a representative from the pageant's sponsor Smirnoff Vodka, said he looked for the "total package" from each contestant: talent, beauty and pose. He said he has attended his fair share of drag shows but had never judged a drag show pageant.\n"A lot of contestants put a lot of effort on talent and beauty, although I appreciate pose," Mullet said. "When you're a Miss Gay Bloomington title holder, there are much more important things than talent and beauty."\nTaylor said she is looking forward to representing the Bloomington community locally, nationally and throughout her travels across the country. She said she has performed her entire life, although her drag show is only four years old.\n"I have made a promise to fulfill the duties of Miss Gay Bloomington, and I do not think that will be an issue because I plan on traveling back to town at least three or four times during the next year," Taylor said. "This title is another opportunity to get my name out there, to get the name of Florida out there and to get the word out that they do it right in Indiana"
(10/17/05 4:25am)
When I observed a flier hailing the arrival of Eroticon at Axis Saturday night, I knew immediately what to do -- find a female reporter to escort me to cover the show. For the last two months I have attempted to explore the overall BDSM scene in person, online and within books, but somewhat to no avail.\nFor those who lose themselves in acronyms, we are talking about "bondage & discipline," "dominance & submission" and "sadomasochism."\nGraduate student Elisha Sauers, a former Indiana Daily Student opinion editor and current staff reporter, showed up at my doorstep costumed in leather and high-heel black boots, with a dog-collar wrapped around her neck. She handed me the leash and, in doing so, jokingly invited me to take control of her.\nAfter a brief trip through Wal-Mart's Halloween costume section where I procured a devil-like costume for myself -- a red-hooded cape with wizard-like cuffs -- Elisha and I embarked to Eroticon. \nWhile undressing to my skivvies in her car before putting on my costume -- the first act of "trust" between us -- Elisha and I discussed the night's rules with my hand figuratively around her neck. For the first time in my life I was acting the role of a BDSM dominant, or "dom," for the remainder of the evening.\nElisha trusted me enough to lead her around town and within Axis by a collar around her neck, and she submitted herself to a night of public perception as my "slave." On the other hand, our exchange of power was based on journalistic enterprise instead of sexual tension. \nThe BDSM literature describes the "dom" as often fulfilling his or her needs by pleasuring their "sub" partner, which can create an intense emotional relationship between the two persons based on a mutual desire to satisfy one another.\nEroticon offered participants a wide variety of BDSM stimuli, referred to as "eye candy" by other participants, in addition to educational programs, audience contests and BDSM booths like a foot-massager. I lost myself in the erotic-event -- imagery of naked humans decorated in body paint, women bound in ropes, and dog-collared men waddling in tow. \nRenee, the foot masseuse, said her foot-worship style consisted of soaking the feet in oils, cleaning the feet in a lathering wash, getting the ruff spots off of the soles and concentrating on the arches with rose-petal oils. Watching Elisha derive pleasure from the foot rub reminded me of my role as "dom" -- to ensure my "sub's" needs, wishes and desires were met. \nWhile we did not volunteer ourselves to experience a free-flogging by "Mistress Moth's" posse of Panopticon dominatrices, Elisha and I did partake in "Edible Beauties," which consisted of scrapping a strawberry across a duo of chocolate-covered women before consumption.\nEroticon enables local and visiting BDSM-lifestyle Hoosiers a "safe place" to share their sexuality and fantasies with other like-minded folks.\nAs I learned Saturday night, BDSM-relationships are about communicating limits before engaging in fantasies. \nI do not think I will ever depart from the thought of devoting myself entirely to the needs, wishes and desires of another human being, or two or three.
