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FAMILYSEUSS
(06/24/04 4:00am)
If the creatures from a psychedelic-colored Dr. Seuss book jumped off its pages and picked up a fiddle, guitar, bass, banjo and drums, they would call themselves the Snake Oil Medicine Show. A bright and lively bluegrass, jazz and reggae ensemble from Appalachia -- Asheville, North Carolina to be exact -- this family-oriented team of songwriters offers something with which few other modern musicians have experimented. The internationally-themed Snake Oil Medicine Show, while presenting a performance appealing to anyone aged infant to grandparent, concisely merges music with live art that grows into a painted canvas before your eyes.\nAfter experiencing a tour bus breakdown at the beginning of their current tour, the members of Snake Oil were forced to cancel their first gig in seven years. Fortunately, the band was able to return to the road. En route to Bloomington for an upcoming show at Uncle Fester's, the performers spoke to Weekend on a cell phone while driving over the mountains of Wyoming.\nGuitarist and bassist George Pond founded the Snake Oil Medicine Show with his brother Andy (banjo) in the siblings' basement in the early 1990s. Caroline Pond, George's wife, found her lyrical calling from contra dancing, studying yoga and practicing the ukulele, while tuning her classic 1920's voice as the band's co-frontperson, along with husband George. Fourth member, Billy Seawell, incorporates eastern Indian styles with gypsy jazz percussion. Finally, and also a full-fledged member of the band, is artist Phil Cheney, who complements the live music by painting various multi-colored animal and scenic-themed, swirling murals for an audience. \n"Phil pushes the music and paints vivid, family-oriented art on a large canvas," says promoter Michael Brand of the Blue Dolphin Music Group -- the band's label. "Their bus pulls a trailer that carries his past murals. As space will allow, they put the paintings around them (during shows)." \nStoring Cheney's works-in-progress in the bay of a moving truck, the musicians bring out the art for every concert, hanging the pieces around the stage where they perform as a sort of art gallery in motion. Constantly painting new scenes and colors as the band plays its worldly styles, Cheney reflects the mood of the music through his hands, to his paints, and finally, to his canvases.\n"My paintings have childlike imagery. They're allegorical," says Cheney. "I like animals, especially whales and other creatures of the sea. I also use the recurrent themes of Easter Island, peace, harmony and respect for all beings in my paintings. I tend to use very bright color, primitive images and ancient hieroglyphics as well."\n"My mom's a painter," continues Cheney. "I've enjoyed music all my life and wanted to be in a musical group but never learned an instrument. Snake Oil wanted a visual artist to perform with them. Now I do CDs, press kits, posters and other forms of art."\nNamed after the covered wagon days of the 1800s, when, according to Caroline, who also plays the fiddle, "people would try to sell their wares and musical minstrels would play," the Snake Oil Medicine Show presents itself as a satirical yet magical project.\nReferring to themselves in a press release as "jazz thugs with a hillbilly fetish" who promote "world peace and whale awareness through music and art," Snake Oil's mission is both honorable and unique. \nAccording to Cheney, the band plays music that sends a message of "peace, hope and higher consciousness."\n"There's no cussing!" he says. "It's happy and positive music and color."\nInfluenced by the Beatles, Monet and Vincent van Gogh, among others, Cheney dedicates his work to family-friendly visuals.\n"We bounce off each other," says Caroline. "It would not feel like a show if I didn't turn around and see Phil painting. He's been with us for eight years. It's so neat that we can combine a visual and musical show together."\nIn prior years, the band has expanded its appeal to wide audiences by leading children's parades and voice and instrument workshops to promote musical awareness.\n"Children love them," says Brand. "They're classic from six to 65-years-old. They're so eclectic-blues, reggae, zydeco -- (with) a whole mish-mash of influences."\n"You know how they say every snowflake's different? Well, every Snake Oil show is different," says Caroline. "We're not trying to put any more negativity out in the world … It's high-powered, energetic music. We're smiling; they're smiling. We're dancing; they're dancing. I've seen toddlers and grannies get up and dance!"\n"Everyone dresses up and wears costumes -- brightly-colored, goofy stuff that's fun and also classy. We wear boots, ties, funny dresses and big hats," adds Cheney.\nVisiting the Yonder Mountain String Band in Colorado last November, Snake Oil kept to its widely-influenced tradition and practiced songs with them, as well as with the band Leftover Salmon. \n"We'll get together with our friends in Leftover Salmon and pick," says Caroline.\nIn January, Snake Oil traveled to Jamaica, where they performed and studied with native musicians, the Overtakers -- introducing bluegrass and jazz to them and learning reggae styles of songwriting in return.\n"They spent the last two years, a week each year, touring in Jamaica with the Overtakers, a popular band in the '70s," says Brand. "They write their own reggae tunes and get influenced by where they travel. They're incredibly beautiful people."\n"The Overtakers are from the west end of the island. We consider them family," says Caroline. "When I went to yoga school, the guys went to Jamaica into sort of a reggae boot camp... When we travel, we tend to meet other musicians and trade songs."\nAccording to Caroline, Cheney even painted pictures of Snake Oil while they visited Jamaica.\n"I went to yoga school in March and got inspired to write songs there," says Caroline. "'Lotus Queen' is my peace song. Our new album, (We Make it Nice), which is coming out next month, includes mostly songs from yoga school and the reggae styles that the boys taught me."\n"We're kind of a band with ADD," she continues. "We like to mix it up a lot"
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2004/06/familyseuss
FAMILYSEUSS
(06/24/04 3:40am)
If the creatures from a psychedelic-colored Dr. Seuss book jumped off its pages and picked up a fiddle, guitar, bass, banjo and drums, they would call themselves the Snake Oil Medicine Show. A bright and lively bluegrass, jazz and reggae ensemble from Appalachia -- Asheville, North Carolina to be exact -- this family-oriented team of songwriters offers something with which few other modern musicians have experimented. The internationally-themed Snake Oil Medicine Show, while presenting a performance appealing to anyone aged infant to grandparent, concisely merges music with live art that grows into a painted canvas before your eyes.\nAfter experiencing a tour bus breakdown at the beginning of their current tour, the members of Snake Oil were forced to cancel their first gig in seven years. Fortunately, the band was able to return to the road. En route to Bloomington for an upcoming show at Uncle Fester's, the performers spoke to Weekend on a cell phone while driving over the mountains of Wyoming.\nGuitarist and bassist George Pond founded the Snake Oil Medicine Show with his brother Andy (banjo) in the siblings' basement in the early 1990s. Caroline Pond, George's wife, found her lyrical calling from contra dancing, studying yoga and practicing the ukulele, while tuning her classic 1920's voice as the band's co-frontperson, along with husband George. Fourth member, Billy Seawell, incorporates eastern Indian styles with gypsy jazz percussion. Finally, and also a full-fledged member of the band, is artist Phil Cheney, who complements the live music by painting various multi-colored animal and scenic-themed, swirling murals for an audience. \n"Phil pushes the music and paints vivid, family-oriented art on a large canvas," says promoter Michael Brand of the Blue Dolphin Music Group -- the band's label. "Their bus pulls a trailer that carries his past murals. As space will allow, they put the paintings around them (during shows)." \nStoring Cheney's works-in-progress in the bay of a moving truck, the musicians bring out the art for every concert, hanging the pieces around the stage where they perform as a sort of art gallery in motion. Constantly painting new scenes and colors as the band plays its worldly styles, Cheney reflects the mood of the music through his hands, to his paints, and finally, to his canvases.\n"My paintings have childlike imagery. They're allegorical," says Cheney. "I like animals, especially whales and other creatures of the sea. I also use the recurrent themes of Easter Island, peace, harmony and respect for all beings in my paintings. I tend to use very bright color, primitive images and ancient hieroglyphics as well."\n"My mom's a painter," continues Cheney. "I've enjoyed music all my life and wanted to be in a musical group but never learned an instrument. Snake Oil wanted a visual artist to perform with them. Now I do CDs, press kits, posters and other forms of art."\nNamed after the covered wagon days of the 1800s, when, according to Caroline, who also plays the fiddle, "people would try to sell their wares and musical minstrels would play," the Snake Oil Medicine Show presents itself as a satirical yet magical project.\nReferring to themselves in a press release as "jazz thugs with a hillbilly fetish" who promote "world peace and whale awareness through music and art," Snake Oil's mission is both honorable and unique. \nAccording to Cheney, the band plays music that sends a message of "peace, hope and higher consciousness."\n"There's no cussing!" he says. "It's happy and positive music and color."\nInfluenced by the Beatles, Monet and Vincent van Gogh, among others, Cheney dedicates his work to family-friendly visuals.\n"We bounce off each other," says Caroline. "It would not feel like a show if I didn't turn around and see Phil painting. He's been with us for eight years. It's so neat that we can combine a visual and musical show together."\nIn prior years, the band has expanded its appeal to wide audiences by leading children's parades and voice and instrument workshops to promote musical awareness.\n"Children love them," says Brand. "They're classic from six to 65-years-old. They're so eclectic-blues, reggae, zydeco -- (with) a whole mish-mash of influences."\n"You know how they say every snowflake's different? Well, every Snake Oil show is different," says Caroline. "We're not trying to put any more negativity out in the world … It's high-powered, energetic music. We're smiling; they're smiling. We're dancing; they're dancing. I've seen toddlers and grannies get up and dance!"\n"Everyone dresses up and wears costumes -- brightly-colored, goofy stuff that's fun and also classy. We wear boots, ties, funny dresses and big hats," adds Cheney.\nVisiting the Yonder Mountain String Band in Colorado last November, Snake Oil kept to its widely-influenced tradition and practiced songs with them, as well as with the band Leftover Salmon. \n"We'll get together with our friends in Leftover Salmon and pick," says Caroline.\nIn January, Snake Oil traveled to Jamaica, where they performed and studied with native musicians, the Overtakers -- introducing bluegrass and jazz to them and learning reggae styles of songwriting in return.\n"They spent the last two years, a week each year, touring in Jamaica with the Overtakers, a popular band in the '70s," says Brand. "They write their own reggae tunes and get influenced by where they travel. They're incredibly beautiful people."\n"The Overtakers are from the west end of the island. We consider them family," says Caroline. "When I went to yoga school, the guys went to Jamaica into sort of a reggae boot camp... When we travel, we tend to meet other musicians and trade songs."\nAccording to Caroline, Cheney even painted pictures of Snake Oil while they visited Jamaica.\n"I went to yoga school in March and got inspired to write songs there," says Caroline. "'Lotus Queen' is my peace song. Our new album, (We Make it Nice), which is coming out next month, includes mostly songs from yoga school and the reggae styles that the boys taught me."\n"We're kind of a band with ADD," she continues. "We like to mix it up a lot"
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2004/06/familyseuss-5b9c359cbfe75
FIFTIES FLASHBACK
(06/10/04 4:00am)
Picture the 1950s: black and white television shows, root beer stands, Elvis Presley beginning to sway his hips, sweet southern ladies on the radio, greased-back hair, sock hops, knee-length skirts, pony tails and rolled-up jeans. Now fast forward that image to long after the birth of rock 'n' roll. It's 2004. The '50s, its music and style have given way not to Hank Williams but to the Reverend Horton Heat, not to Gene Vincent but to Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-fonics, not to broken curfews in the back of your dad's Cady, but to sleeves of tattoos, piercings, cherry print short dresses, pin-up posters of a classic Betty Page, hot rods and loud, hard country songs with a rock and blues beat -- rockabilly.\nFrom the flames of an underground revolution, rockabilly has merged many musical genres -- punk, rock and country -- to form a flashback to the '50s with an urban edge and bohemian flare. Now folks all over the globe are dressing up, paying tribute to their favorite decade and going to music festivals throughout the summer celebrating the rockabilly theme. After Nashville, Indiana's Livin' in the '50s festival, held in May, the closest festival of the sort to hit Indiana this summer will be the 12th Annual Rockabilly Rebel Weekend, which will be held June 24 through June 26 at Radio Radio and its surrounding areas in Indianapolis. The event will feature performances by the Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson, Deke Dickerson and a hot rod show to boot. Now let's learn a bit more about what it means to truly be livin' in the '50s.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2004/06/fifties-flashback
FIFTIES FLASHBACK
(06/09/04 11:28pm)
Picture the 1950s: black and white television shows, root beer stands, Elvis Presley beginning to sway his hips, sweet southern ladies on the radio, greased-back hair, sock hops, knee-length skirts, pony tails and rolled-up jeans. Now fast forward that image to long after the birth of rock 'n' roll. It's 2004. The '50s, its music and style have given way not to Hank Williams but to the Reverend Horton Heat, not to Gene Vincent but to Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-fonics, not to broken curfews in the back of your dad's Cady, but to sleeves of tattoos, piercings, cherry print short dresses, pin-up posters of a classic Betty Page, hot rods and loud, hard country songs with a rock and blues beat -- rockabilly.\nFrom the flames of an underground revolution, rockabilly has merged many musical genres -- punk, rock and country -- to form a flashback to the '50s with an urban edge and bohemian flare. Now folks all over the globe are dressing up, paying tribute to their favorite decade and going to music festivals throughout the summer celebrating the rockabilly theme. After Nashville, Indiana's Livin' in the '50s festival, held in May, the closest festival of the sort to hit Indiana this summer will be the 12th Annual Rockabilly Rebel Weekend, which will be held June 24 through June 26 at Radio Radio and its surrounding areas in Indianapolis. The event will feature performances by the Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson, Deke Dickerson and a hot rod show to boot. Now let's learn a bit more about what it means to truly be livin' in the '50s.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2004/06/fifties-flashback-5b9c358f3d655
Celebrating LIFE
(11/21/03 4:49am)
The sign above the door reads "Closed temporarily due to illness." But if passersby only knew ... this store isn't just any store. It's TD's CDs and LPs -- a local record shop widely known for years as the center of Bloomington's local music scene. The owner, Tom Donohue, is battling cancer -- and an attempt to remove a liver tumor last week failed. But as his fight against the relentless disease continues, so does his support network of friends, families and customers.\nTo benefit the man behind the records, supporters of the long time store owner are arranging benefit concerts throughout November to feature local bands while helping their ailing friend fight piling medical bills ... and show just how much he's appreciated by the community.\nThe shows follow a mid-October event event at Bear's that raised nearly $650.\nNobody has supported local music like Donohue.\n"You can walk into his record store any time of the day and hear records written and recorded right here in Bloomington and see flyers plastered all over his walls advertising local shows," says Kenny Childers, organizer of one concert and a musician in participating bands Brando and The Mysteries of Life. \nAlong with Childers, many local musicians who recognize Donohue's importance in the local music community have jumped on board for the shows, which begin Nov. 15 at Vertigo and conclude Nov. 26 with an eight to ten-band lineup at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, where all ages can attend. \nThe bands to headline the Nov. 15 Beatles tribute say they came together after Donohue's medical situation forced him to close his store. With his friend facing increasing medical bills, Childers decided to solve the problem the way Donohue does -- with music. \nFriends even offered to help keep the shop up and running for free. But while the store doors remain closed, friends of Donohue's flock across the way to Soma coffee shop where a sort of "healing crane" scene fills a box labeled, "For Tom," with the winged creations. The effort, sparked by Bloomington resident Sallie Moore, draws from an ancient Japanese tradition. If 1,000 cranes are folded in the name of an ailing person, the sick will supposedly be healed. The birds, which have migrated to Donohue's hospital room, foster hope that Donohue will soon return home.\nLocal musicians share fond memories of Donohue's store, on Kirkwood Avenue. They muse over his unceasing commitment to Bloomington's local music scene. \n"It's a small store, but it has thousands of recordings, most of them are scattered all over the place, however, if you ask him where a certain CD is, he knows exactly where it is, that's part of the fun of his store," says Josh Bennett of Angus Heartburn and Brando.\nBennett retains memories of Donohue as a great person and says that covering a Beatles song in Donohue's honor will be especially meaningful.\n"When my daughter was born in November of 2000, Tom gave me a CD called Bedtime with the Beatles, with symphonic renditions of Beatles songs," he remembers.\nAside from being a good friend, his peers say Donohue feverishly worked to get the word out on local music. His store was always playing local music, and he always took the time to mention local shows and bands, that were otherwise neglected, to his customers.\n"When our label wasn't helping us, Tom stepped in and helped to promote our album anyway he could," says Chris Kupersmith of local band UVULA.\nBennett had a similar experience.\n"He played our CD all day and night when it came out. He kept our poster up all year," Bennet says. "He does this for every local band. He really works day and night all about music, going to shows and promoting shows as well as his store."\nArea businesses helping out with the upcoming benefits include All Ears, Discount Den, Laughing Planet, Nick's English Hut, Rhino's All Ages Music Club, Roadworthy Guitar & Amp, Scholar's Inn, Soma Coffee House, The Video Saloon and Yogi's Grill & Bar.\nDonohue also worked outside the notorious CD store, manning his own radio show on WFHB, a local Bloomington radio station. \nJim Manion, programming director and a good friend of Donohue's, remembers Donohue before cancer struck.\n"Tom did a number of things for WFHB; he was a tireless volunteer for anything we needed. He was best known for his late night radio show, which he played pretty much anything he wanted and he also hosted a successful Sunday morning show as well, featuring world music," Manion says.\nA good friend of Donohue's, Manion joked about getting old in a predominantly young man's game of rock and roll.\n"You know, I'm almost 50 years old and when I would go to a show I always felt good because I wasn't the oldest guy there," Manion says. \nDonohue is set to have another year on Manion next week, as his 54th birthday rolls around Nov. 22. Perhaps happy birthday cranes are in store.\nOrganizers say the benefit concerts have wide commercial appeal even for those who may not be familiar with Donohue and his store.\n"The idea for a Beatles night was really first of all a way to try and draw as many people as possible to help Tom," says Jake Smith of The Mysteries of Life and The Vulgar Boatmen. "It's hard to pick songs to play -- the Beatles are notoriously hard to cover, mostly in terms of the vocals which are so hard to duplicate." \nDonohue is a guy who labors nonstop for local music. His store, kindness and hard work have touched the lives of musicians and music lovers for over a decade. TD's, CDs and LPs is a one of a kind local record store that put music first above anything else. According to Childers, Donohue has a similar philosophy in his own life. \n"Tom is someone who knows music. He is non-materialistic, genuine and wise, and it makes you feel good to buy music from him," Childers says. \nDonohue is currently being treated at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/11/celebrating-life-5b9c349438515
Local music shop owner remembered
(11/19/03 4:30am)
In the warm, wood-paneled back room of Soma's coffee shop, 322 E. Kirkwood Ave., a small crowd of people gathered Saturday night in memory of a man who trod the fine line between local shopkeeper and extended family. Thoughtful expressions lingered on their faces with the occasional painful smile as they remembered their favorite music enthusiast and realized once again just how much they were going to miss him.\nSaturday's "Fakin Bacon" poetry reading, presented by Matrix, a Bloomington literary organization, is only one of the many recent tributes to Tom Donohue, the owner of local music shop TD's CDs and LPs, who died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. Donohue's death at age 53 came suddenly for many locals who were just preparing musical benefit concerts to help him bear the immense cost of fighting his illness. \nDonohue's tiny one-room shop, which was housed in the adjacent space to Soma's back room, was the backdrop for the Matrix's poetry tribute. Closed since Donohue entered the hospital for surgery in October, its locked door still bears posters advertising benefit concerts on Donohue's behalf. Colorful paper cranes friends and customers made as part of a healing ritual in hopes that Donohue would recover float in midair, suspended from the ceiling nearby.\nNo one knows what will become of the little back room now. It is doubtful the shop will survive as anything more than a local memory, said Pete Smith, who owns the facilities for Laughing Planet and Soma's, including the space TD's occupied.\n"I don't know if somebody's planning to continue (TD's) or not," said Abraham Morris, 24, who had known Donohue for years. \nMorris' family bought albums from TD's since Morris was a child, and he almost considered Donohue a relative.\n"He was a family friend … we even kind of adopted him into our family and started calling him 'Uncle Tom,'" Morris said. "He was part of our holidays and stuff."\nAfter Morris returned to Bloomington as an adult and accepted a position as manager of Soma's, he had the chance to see Donohue at work on a daily basis. \n"That's a small shop. It's not a really easy place to make a profitable business," Morris said. "(Tom succeeded) because of what he brought to the table."\nOne of the strengths of Donohue's shop was the comprehensiveness of his music collection.\n"He had almost amazing superpowers to find music," Morris said. \nHe recalled one time when he heard a song and went to TD's in search of the album it came from. Although Morris thought he remembered the name of the album, it turned out he only knew the record label. But Donohue unearthed the album in less than two minutes.\nAccording to Donohue's friends, it was this personable approach to customers that made his small business into a community institution. Smith, who met Donohue in 1994, just before TD's CDs and LPs opened up, said the shop took off right away despite its small size. \n"He didn't advertise much, (but) … it was packed (with customers) in there all the time," Smith said. "If he didn't have (a CD) for you, he could get it for you, usually within three or four days."\nHowever, Donohue's genie-like ability to provide customers with any CD at a moment's notice came with a few drawbacks, especially given the coziness of his establishment.\n"The organizational system was Tom's," Morris said, laughing.\nMorris recalled whenever he bought an album at TD's, Donohue would disappear behind the piles of CDs occupying the counter to ring up the sale. Eventually a hand would emerge with Morris' purchase. \nRex Miller, one of Donohue's close friends for over 25 years, said the décor of Donohue's house closely resembled that of his shop. \n"The guy was definitely a pack rat," Miller said. "I think at one time he (owned) over 10,000 records. I helped him move a couple of times and it was back-breaking work."\nMiller said he would miss Donohue's smile and his sense of humor the most.\n"We just bonded over the years like brothers from different mothers," Miller said. \n-- Contact staff writer Elise Baker at elimbake@indiana.edu.Saturday's "Fakin Bacon" poetry reading, presented by Matrix, a Bloomington literary organization, is only one of the many recent tributes to Tom Donohue, the owner of local music shop TD's CDs and LPs, who died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. Donohue's death at age 53 came suddenly for many locals who were just preparing musical benefit concerts to help him bear the immense cost of fighting his illness. \nDonohue's tiny one-room shop, which was housed in the adjacent space to Soma's back room, was the backdrop for the Matrix's poetry tribute. Closed since Donohue entered the hospital for surgery in October, its locked door still bears posters advertising benefit concerts on Donohue's behalf. Colorful paper cranes friends and customers made as part of a healing ritual in hopes that Donohue would recover float in midair, suspended from the ceiling nearby.\nNo one knows what will become of the little back room now. It is doubtful the shop will survive as anything more than a local memory, said Pete Smith, who owns the facilities for Laughing Planet and Soma's, including the space TD's occupied.\n"I don't know if somebody's planning to continue (TD's) or not," said Abraham Morris, 24, who had known Donohue for years. \nMorris' family bought albums from TD's since Morris was a child, and he almost considered Donohue a relative.\n"He was a family friend … we even kind of adopted him into our family and started calling him 'Uncle Tom,'" Morris said. "He was part of our holidays and stuff."\nAfter Morris returned to Bloomington as an adult and accepted a position as manager of Soma's, he had the chance to see Donohue at work on a daily basis. \n"That's a small shop. It's not a really easy place to make a profitable business," Morris said. "(Tom succeeded) because of what he brought to the table."\nOne of the strengths of Donohue's shop was the comprehensiveness of his music collection.\n"He had almost amazing superpowers to find music," Morris said. \nHe recalled one time when he heard a song and went to TD's in search of the album it came from. Although Morris thought he remembered the name of the album, it turned out he only knew the record label. But Donohue unearthed the album in less than two minutes.\nAccording to Donohue's friends, it was this personable approach to customers that made his small business into a community institution. Smith, who met Donohue in 1994, just before TD's CDs and LPs opened up, said the shop took off right away despite its small size. \n"He didn't advertise much, (but) … it was packed (with customers) in there all the time," Smith said. "If he didn't have (a CD) for you, he could get it for you, usually within three or four days."\nHowever, Donohue's genie-like ability to provide customers with any CD at a moment's notice came with a few drawbacks, especially given the coziness of his establishment.\n"The organizational system was Tom's," Morris said, laughing.\nMorris recalled whenever he bought an album at TD's, Donohue would disappear behind the piles of CDs occupying the counter to ring up the sale. Eventually a hand would emerge with Morris' purchase. \nRex Miller, one of Donohue's close friends for over 25 years, said the décor of Donohue's house closely resembled that of his shop. \n"The guy was definitely a pack rat," Miller said. "I think at one time he (owned) over 10,000 records. I helped him move a couple of times and it was back-breaking work."\nMiller said he would miss Donohue's smile and his sense of humor the most.\n"We just bonded over the years like brothers from different mothers," Miller said. \n-- Contact staff writer Elise Baker at elimbake@indiana.edu.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/11/local-music-shop-owner-remembered
Celebrating LIFE
(11/13/03 5:00am)
The sign above the door reads "Closed temporarily due to illness." But if passersby only knew ... this store isn't just any store. It's TD's CDs and LPs -- a local record shop widely known for years as the center of Bloomington's local music scene. The owner, Tom Donohue, is battling cancer -- and an attempt to remove a liver tumor last week failed. But as his fight against the relentless disease continues, so does his support network of friends, families and customers.\nTo benefit the man behind the records, supporters of the long time store owner are arranging benefit concerts throughout November to feature local bands while helping their ailing friend fight piling medical bills ... and show just how much he's appreciated by the community.\nThe shows follow a mid-October event event at Bear's that raised nearly $650.\nNobody has supported local music like Donohue.\n"You can walk into his record store any time of the day and hear records written and recorded right here in Bloomington and see flyers plastered all over his walls advertising local shows," says Kenny Childers, organizer of one concert and a musician in participating bands Brando and The Mysteries of Life. \nAlong with Childers, many local musicians who recognize Donohue's importance in the local music community have jumped on board for the shows, which begin Nov. 15 at Vertigo and conclude Nov. 26 with an eight to ten-band lineup at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, where all ages can attend. \nThe bands to headline the Nov. 15 Beatles tribute say they came together after Donohue's medical situation forced him to close his store. With his friend facing increasing medical bills, Childers decided to solve the problem the way Donohue does -- with music. \nFriends even offered to help keep the shop up and running for free. But while the store doors remain closed, friends of Donohue's flock across the way to Soma coffee shop where a sort of "healing crane" scene fills a box labeled, "For Tom," with the winged creations. The effort, sparked by Bloomington resident Sallie Moore, draws from an ancient Japanese tradition. If 1,000 cranes are folded in the name of an ailing person, the sick will supposedly be healed. The birds, which have migrated to Donohue's hospital room, foster hope that Donohue will soon return home.\nLocal musicians share fond memories of Donohue's store, on Kirkwood Avenue. They muse over his unceasing commitment to Bloomington's local music scene. \n"It's a small store, but it has thousands of recordings, most of them are scattered all over the place, however, if you ask him where a certain CD is, he knows exactly where it is, that's part of the fun of his store," says Josh Bennett of Angus Heartburn and Brando.\nBennett retains memories of Donohue as a great person and says that covering a Beatles song in Donohue's honor will be especially meaningful.\n"When my daughter was born in November of 2000, Tom gave me a CD called Bedtime with the Beatles, with symphonic renditions of Beatles songs," he remembers.\nAside from being a good friend, his peers say Donohue feverishly worked to get the word out on local music. His store was always playing local music, and he always took the time to mention local shows and bands, that were otherwise neglected, to his customers.\n"When our label wasn't helping us, Tom stepped in and helped to promote our album anyway he could," says Chris Kupersmith of local band UVULA.\nBennett had a similar experience.\n"He played our CD all day and night when it came out. He kept our poster up all year," Bennet says. "He does this for every local band. He really works day and night all about music, going to shows and promoting shows as well as his store."\nArea businesses helping out with the upcoming benefits include All Ears, Discount Den, Laughing Planet, Nick's English Hut, Rhino's All Ages Music Club, Roadworthy Guitar & Amp, Scholar's Inn, Soma Coffee House, The Video Saloon and Yogi's Grill & Bar.\nDonohue also worked outside the notorious CD store, manning his own radio show on WFHB, a local Bloomington radio station. \nJim Manion, programming director and a good friend of Donohue's, remembers Donohue before cancer struck.\n"Tom did a number of things for WFHB; he was a tireless volunteer for anything we needed. He was best known for his late night radio show, which he played pretty much anything he wanted and he also hosted a successful Sunday morning show as well, featuring world music," Manion says.\nA good friend of Donohue's, Manion joked about getting old in a predominantly young man's game of rock and roll.\n"You know, I'm almost 50 years old and when I would go to a show I always felt good because I wasn't the oldest guy there," Manion says. \nDonohue is set to have another year on Manion next week, as his 54th birthday rolls around Nov. 22. Perhaps happy birthday cranes are in store.\nOrganizers say the benefit concerts have wide commercial appeal even for those who may not be familiar with Donohue and his store.\n"The idea for a Beatles night was really first of all a way to try and draw as many people as possible to help Tom," says Jake Smith of The Mysteries of Life and The Vulgar Boatmen. "It's hard to pick songs to play -- the Beatles are notoriously hard to cover, mostly in terms of the vocals which are so hard to duplicate." \nDonohue is a guy who labors nonstop for local music. His store, kindness and hard work have touched the lives of musicians and music lovers for over a decade. TD's, CDs and LPs is a one of a kind local record store that put music first above anything else. According to Childers, Donohue has a similar philosophy in his own life. \n"Tom is someone who knows music. He is non-materialistic, genuine and wise, and it makes you feel good to buy music from him," Childers says. \nDonohue is currently being treated at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/11/celebrating-life
Walk the plank
(10/17/03 5:53am)
When sophomore Rachel Taxman received an e-mail last winter break telling her that she had downloaded illegal files and needed to delete them, she wasn't too concerned.\nBut when she returned to IU and found her Internet access shut off -- she began to pay attention. \nTaxman checked her e-mail on her sister's computer and found a message from the Student Ethics and Anti-Harassment Programs office telling her to delete the files or present contracts with record companies saying she had permission to have their music files on her computer. \nThe e-mail also gave her a phone number to call. The man she talked to told her why her Internet access was shut off and that she could be sued for $300,000 for using the IU server to download illegal files.\n"I had to go to a hearing where I was asked questions about ethics," Taxman said. "(For my punishment,) I made posters telling students that downloading music is illegal."\nIn recent years, several record companies have been cracking down on the illegal distribution of music. If students download music files and then allow the files to be shared, they are considered distributors and can be sued. \nAt a Union Board panel discussion Wednesday night, four members of IU's faculty spoke out against downloading illegal files. The panelists used their knowledge and expertise to discuss the legal aspects of file-sharing, what actions IU takes to punish students caught sharing files, how file-sharing affects the music industry and what other factors cause deterioration in the music industry. \nThe panelists were Associate University Council Beth Cate, Chief IT Security and Policy Officer Mark Bruhn, Associate Professor at the Kelley School of Business George Marakas and Associate Professor of Music Konrad Strauss. \nBruhn described the action IU takes to combat file-sharing. Although IU does not monitor illegal file use, copyright holders do. Since most students do not have permission from the copyright holder to distribute the files, they can be sued by the copyright holder if caught sharing files. Also, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, IU can force students to delete their files.\n"When (IU) receives a notice from a copyright owner that a student has been sharing copyrighted files, the student is told to go through an Oncourse tutorial, pass a quiz and remove the material," Bruhn said in an e-mail.\nHe added that if the student completes the steps within 24 hours, nothing else happens. But, if the student does not, the University has to block the student's connection until he or she takes the tutorial and passes the quiz.\nAccording to the IU Information Technology Policy Office, the number of copyright infringement notices IU received increased over the last year reaching a high of more than 300 in April 2003.\nIllegal file-sharing affects not only students who download but also everyone involved in the music industry.\nThe Record Industry Association of America estimates the music industry loses $4.2 billion each year due to illegal sharing. \nRIAA's Web site argues that everyone loses when music is pirated. The site states that pirates lose because law officials are cracking down on them, consumers lose because pirated music causes the cost of legitimate music to rise, honest retailers lose because they cannot compete with prices offered by pirates, the record companies lose because 85 percent of recordings released do not generate enough revenue to cover their costs and artists lose because they do not get the royalties and fees they earned.\nBrett Hayden, manager of Tracks, 415 E. Kirkwood Ave., said that he has seen an increase in sales since the music industry's recent legal offensive toward illegal music file-sharing.\n"At the beginning of the school year, we had a jolt in business over last year," he said. "You can't just get everything online like you used to."\nEven though many students continue to download music illegally, some students have started getting their music from legal Web sites that charge a small amount for the downloads. These sites include listen.com, which charges 79 cents and MusicMatch, which charges 99 cents. Apple iTunes Music Store, which also charges 99 cents per song, launched its Windows music store on Thursday. Other legal vendors can be found at the IT Policy Office Web site.\nAlthough Hayden does think it is cool that people can get music online, he thinks it is wrong because some artists are not going to be able to survive.\n"We can't totally kill off the music industry," Hayden said. "I'd go crazy."\n-- Contact staff writer Stephanie Susman at ssusman@indiana.edu.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/10/walk-the-plank
HIPHOP hits the heartland
(09/25/03 4:00am)
The windows are down, a cool breeze counters the sun's heat and of course, music fills the air. It's a typical drive through Bloomington for Marquis Vaughn, IU alum and co-founder of the young Knock 'Em Dead Records, Inc. \nOnly this particular day was Wednesday, the day Vaughn drives home elementary school kids from the after-school program where he mentors. So when the opening chorus to Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady" hits his ears while waiting for a light to change, Vaughn reluctantly quiets the rapper's words, breaking his habit of allowing the entire neighborhood to hear his music choice.\nJust as Vaughn feels satisfied with his good judgment, groans emanate from the back of the van. Aiming to please, he turns the music back up and stares at the 10-year-olds as they bop their heads and begin rapping: "I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady / All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating / So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?"\nVaughn says he was surprised by what he heard that day. "I knew the craze was spreading," he says. "I just never knew it had gotten that far." \nHip hop is a culture invisible to many Bloomington residents. Yet the music, culture and fashion of hip hop made their way to this small town and are now alternatives to the Bloomington entertainment scene.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/09/hiphop-hits-the-heartland
HIPHOP hits the heartland
(09/24/03 11:58pm)
The windows are down, a cool breeze counters the sun's heat and of course, music fills the air. It's a typical drive through Bloomington for Marquis Vaughn, IU alum and co-founder of the young Knock 'Em Dead Records, Inc. \nOnly this particular day was Wednesday, the day Vaughn drives home elementary school kids from the after-school program where he mentors. So when the opening chorus to Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady" hits his ears while waiting for a light to change, Vaughn reluctantly quiets the rapper's words, breaking his habit of allowing the entire neighborhood to hear his music choice.\nJust as Vaughn feels satisfied with his good judgment, groans emanate from the back of the van. Aiming to please, he turns the music back up and stares at the 10-year-olds as they bop their heads and begin rapping: "I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady / All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating / So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?"\nVaughn says he was surprised by what he heard that day. "I knew the craze was spreading," he says. "I just never knew it had gotten that far." \nHip hop is a culture invisible to many Bloomington residents. Yet the music, culture and fashion of hip hop made their way to this small town and are now alternatives to the Bloomington entertainment scene.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/09/hiphop-hits-the-heartland-5b9c343f13fcf
My dream for America
(04/24/03 4:00am)
I have a dream -- to get you tuning into NBC every Sunday night to watch the television series, "American Dreams." The drama centers on a middle class Philadelphia family during the 1960s as it deals with social challenges brought forth by an era of great transformation. It demonstrates how many found refuge in music and dancing by presenting us with a backstage pass to the show "American Bandstand." Much of the cultural turmoil depicted still echoes today as loudly as the upbeat music of the time. \nBut the odds are stacked against my crusade for "American Dreams." The time slot's jammed with steep competition, the show appears cheesy on the surface and viewers are still devoting their TV watching allotments to shows like "Friends," which ran out of material four years ago. Will nothing short of the introduction of a seventh friend communicate this to people? This reality has left the program with no promise of a second season. \n"American Dreams" is reminiscent of "The Wonder Years" in its innocent view of America, but projects a more serious tone. The show's theme song ("Our Generation" by Emerson Hart) is one of the catchiest opening tunes ever. Dick Clark, who hosted "American Bandstand" from 1957 to 1987, serves as an executive producer of "American Dreams," allowing it to capture credibility and the true essence of his original show. \nThis drama struts its creativity by using chart-topping stars from today's music world to portray legends of the past. Some of the cameos from this season include LeAnn Rimes as Connie Francis, Usher as Marvin Gaye and Ashanti as Dionne Warwick.\nThe most appealing aspect of "American Dreams" is its ability to elicit nostalgic feelings, even if we didn't grow up in the 1960s. Maybe we've never spontaneously jumped out of our car at a drive-through movie to dance (my favorite scene from this season), but seeing this transpire reminds us of simpler times -- times that were more carefree, like childhood. \nThe acting is solid and the characters are genuinely interesting. Upon sight, the show's poster girl, Meg Pryor (Brittany Snow) is instantly captivating. The adorable teenager illuminates the screen as she juggles her "American Bandstand" commitments and the trials of adolescence. The program reveals our resistance to change through Meg's father, Jack Pryor (Tom Verica), as he battles to preserve conservative American values. \n"American Dreams" treats us to an experience, not just a story. And the experiences are plentiful as it tackles a variety of issues. When we read about harsh discrimination in history books or observe it blatantly acted out in a movie, it's easy for us to dismiss the injustices as something we'd never do. \nBut "American Dreams" effectively shows us the American oppression that saturated the early '60s, with characters like Sam (Arlen Escarpeta), Henry (Jonathon Adams) and Helen (Gail O'Grady). We see African-Americans and women denied assistance in times of desperation, overlooked for deserved promotions, longing for self-fulfillment and to hear the words, "anything's possible."\nOf course, no television show could ever fully capture the hardships endured while pursuing civil rights, but this program at least helps us understand we don't always practice what we preach. To see how our unconscious prejudgment can undeservingly discourage good people, "American Dreams" thus formulates the desire within us to be better individuals. \nThe show also examines the "ignorance is bliss" stance, the stresses of being a small business owner and the struggles to maintain righteous values in the countenance of peer pressure. It illustrates the challenges of marriage, such as poor communication and disagreements of the size of the family. Its portrayal of infidelity explains how quickly and easily we can give into temptation without realizing the external and internal ramifications. \nWe become allergic to ineffective parenting practices through the displeased reactions of the Pryor children to their father, Jack. We feel JJ (Will Estes) being pushed to live out his father's dreams, Meg's need for her dad to be involved in her interests and the youngest child Will's (Ethan Dampf) search for support as polio steals any hope for achievement. \nTurning points in American history are brought back to life as each passing episode enhances our identification with the characters. We experience a family feeding off one another to cope with the Kennedy assassination, a child's innocence as he enlists into the Marines just prior to Vietnam and the word "frenzy" defined through the eyes of a giddy teenager engulfed by Beatlemania.\nThere's no single "American Dream." It varies for every race, gender and even each member of a family. To truly appreciate this, join me at 8 p.m. every Sunday night in watching "American Dreams." If nothing else, you're going to learn some pretty sweet dance moves.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/04/my-dream-for-america
My dream for America
(04/23/03 8:39pm)
I have a dream -- to get you tuning into NBC every Sunday night to watch the television series, "American Dreams." The drama centers on a middle class Philadelphia family during the 1960s as it deals with social challenges brought forth by an era of great transformation. It demonstrates how many found refuge in music and dancing by presenting us with a backstage pass to the show "American Bandstand." Much of the cultural turmoil depicted still echoes today as loudly as the upbeat music of the time. \nBut the odds are stacked against my crusade for "American Dreams." The time slot's jammed with steep competition, the show appears cheesy on the surface and viewers are still devoting their TV watching allotments to shows like "Friends," which ran out of material four years ago. Will nothing short of the introduction of a seventh friend communicate this to people? This reality has left the program with no promise of a second season. \n"American Dreams" is reminiscent of "The Wonder Years" in its innocent view of America, but projects a more serious tone. The show's theme song ("Our Generation" by Emerson Hart) is one of the catchiest opening tunes ever. Dick Clark, who hosted "American Bandstand" from 1957 to 1987, serves as an executive producer of "American Dreams," allowing it to capture credibility and the true essence of his original show. \nThis drama struts its creativity by using chart-topping stars from today's music world to portray legends of the past. Some of the cameos from this season include LeAnn Rimes as Connie Francis, Usher as Marvin Gaye and Ashanti as Dionne Warwick.\nThe most appealing aspect of "American Dreams" is its ability to elicit nostalgic feelings, even if we didn't grow up in the 1960s. Maybe we've never spontaneously jumped out of our car at a drive-through movie to dance (my favorite scene from this season), but seeing this transpire reminds us of simpler times -- times that were more carefree, like childhood. \nThe acting is solid and the characters are genuinely interesting. Upon sight, the show's poster girl, Meg Pryor (Brittany Snow) is instantly captivating. The adorable teenager illuminates the screen as she juggles her "American Bandstand" commitments and the trials of adolescence. The program reveals our resistance to change through Meg's father, Jack Pryor (Tom Verica), as he battles to preserve conservative American values. \n"American Dreams" treats us to an experience, not just a story. And the experiences are plentiful as it tackles a variety of issues. When we read about harsh discrimination in history books or observe it blatantly acted out in a movie, it's easy for us to dismiss the injustices as something we'd never do. \nBut "American Dreams" effectively shows us the American oppression that saturated the early '60s, with characters like Sam (Arlen Escarpeta), Henry (Jonathon Adams) and Helen (Gail O'Grady). We see African-Americans and women denied assistance in times of desperation, overlooked for deserved promotions, longing for self-fulfillment and to hear the words, "anything's possible."\nOf course, no television show could ever fully capture the hardships endured while pursuing civil rights, but this program at least helps us understand we don't always practice what we preach. To see how our unconscious prejudgment can undeservingly discourage good people, "American Dreams" thus formulates the desire within us to be better individuals. \nThe show also examines the "ignorance is bliss" stance, the stresses of being a small business owner and the struggles to maintain righteous values in the countenance of peer pressure. It illustrates the challenges of marriage, such as poor communication and disagreements of the size of the family. Its portrayal of infidelity explains how quickly and easily we can give into temptation without realizing the external and internal ramifications. \nWe become allergic to ineffective parenting practices through the displeased reactions of the Pryor children to their father, Jack. We feel JJ (Will Estes) being pushed to live out his father's dreams, Meg's need for her dad to be involved in her interests and the youngest child Will's (Ethan Dampf) search for support as polio steals any hope for achievement. \nTurning points in American history are brought back to life as each passing episode enhances our identification with the characters. We experience a family feeding off one another to cope with the Kennedy assassination, a child's innocence as he enlists into the Marines just prior to Vietnam and the word "frenzy" defined through the eyes of a giddy teenager engulfed by Beatlemania.\nThere's no single "American Dream." It varies for every race, gender and even each member of a family. To truly appreciate this, join me at 8 p.m. every Sunday night in watching "American Dreams." If nothing else, you're going to learn some pretty sweet dance moves.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/04/my-dream-for-america-5b9c33b7bcf5f
What a dude wants
(04/10/03 4:00am)
The world we're living in right now is certainly a ridiculous one. Soldiers -- men, women, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends and even children (If you can't legally have a drink here in the great, old U.S. of A, you're still a child in my book.) are fighting a commerce fueled war in Iraq, and for what? So we can sit on our fat, predominantly ignorant, all-American rumps watching stupefyingly bad reality television and pinning hopes on cheaper prices at the gas pump.\nDriving around Bloomington even has social/political ramifications these days. I drive past protests in the square as hippies both young and old sport placards suggesting I honk if I'm against the war. I'm not for the war, and I'm not entirely against it either. But I'd be far more inclined to chime in with the sound of my horn if those signs read, "Honk if you're horny." This is college after all. Shouldn't we be making love as opposed to war? \nThis insanity even permeates into popular culture. The new Amanda Bynes teenybopper vehicle, "What a Girl Wants," had its poster altered at the last minute because the young starlet was flashing the peace symbol. Warner Bros. (the studio releasing the aforementioned tripe) feared that some might interpret the ad as an anti-war statement. First off, when the advertised film is unlikely to be of any merit, let alone making some sort of sociopolitical commentary, why sweat some stupid poster? Sadly, the studio's fear may be legitimate.\nJust look at the media thrashing documentarian Michael Moore has taken as of late. So the guy said some things that don't exactly gel with popular convention. Need he be booed off stage and incessantly harangued in print, radio and television? No. Those of us possessing half a brain should have realized that this is exactly what Moore was going to do. The man has made a career out of being ultra left-wing. Just because he didn't French kiss Halle Berry or make shout-outs to his boys in Baghdad, should he really be ostracized? \n"Bowling for Columbine" is not only the most liberal film of last year, but also the best. Moore deserved his accolade, and had every right to say whatever it is he wanted on that podium. After all, our soldiers are fighting to preserve the American way worldwide -- what's more American than freedom of speech? Should these freedoms only be extended to those saying things likely to appease the consensus? It's not as though Moore's tirade was broadcast on Al-Jazeera. He needn't fear being anally branded via a hot poker brandished by Saddam himself. \nIn this haze of war-spurred ultra-sensitivity, many are turning their backs to the very things that make this country so great.\nFat documentarians and air-headed, silver screen nymphets aren't the only ones taking the heat. Musicians ranging from Bloomington's very own John Mellencamp to the Beastie Boys have taken flack for producing anti-war songs. These fellas have entertained us for years -- why can't we reciprocate by listening to whatever it is they have to say for several minutes without bitching? Pearl Jam fans staged a walkout at a recent show in protest of lead singer Eddie Vedder's anti-Bush and anti-war sentiments. Why pay thirty bucks to simply walk out? Wouldn't it make more sense to bail on the dentist's office or math class? This dude had quite the beef with Ticketmaster a few years back, and fans seem to think he'll simply sit back and remain mum about Bush's somewhat dubious war plans. I think not. Meg Ryan's recently shelved, female-oriented boxing flick, "Against the Ropes" was delayed because Paramount didn't know how to properly market the film amid war. Just release the thing, and speed-up its inevitable placement in video store discount bin obscurity. \nSo, in a nutshell, what this dude wants is for stateside Americans on a whole to grow some stones, and let your fellow man speak, record or advertise without fear of social leprosy. Clichéd as this might sound, I want our troops to return home safely and as soon as possible, and for this war to run its course and be done with, just not at the cost of our civil liberties. If I want to drive down the strip in a gas-guzzling SUV adorned with American flags, while smoking a cigarette and blasting Outkast's "Bombs Over Baghdad" or get a tattoo of a smiling Saddam Hussein replete with mortar board on my right butt cheek, let me do so.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/04/what-a-dude-wants
What a dude wants
(04/09/03 6:04pm)
The world we're living in right now is certainly a ridiculous one. Soldiers -- men, women, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends and even children (If you can't legally have a drink here in the great, old U.S. of A, you're still a child in my book.) are fighting a commerce fueled war in Iraq, and for what? So we can sit on our fat, predominantly ignorant, all-American rumps watching stupefyingly bad reality television and pinning hopes on cheaper prices at the gas pump.\nDriving around Bloomington even has social/political ramifications these days. I drive past protests in the square as hippies both young and old sport placards suggesting I honk if I'm against the war. I'm not for the war, and I'm not entirely against it either. But I'd be far more inclined to chime in with the sound of my horn if those signs read, "Honk if you're horny." This is college after all. Shouldn't we be making love as opposed to war? \nThis insanity even permeates into popular culture. The new Amanda Bynes teenybopper vehicle, "What a Girl Wants," had its poster altered at the last minute because the young starlet was flashing the peace symbol. Warner Bros. (the studio releasing the aforementioned tripe) feared that some might interpret the ad as an anti-war statement. First off, when the advertised film is unlikely to be of any merit, let alone making some sort of sociopolitical commentary, why sweat some stupid poster? Sadly, the studio's fear may be legitimate.\nJust look at the media thrashing documentarian Michael Moore has taken as of late. So the guy said some things that don't exactly gel with popular convention. Need he be booed off stage and incessantly harangued in print, radio and television? No. Those of us possessing half a brain should have realized that this is exactly what Moore was going to do. The man has made a career out of being ultra left-wing. Just because he didn't French kiss Halle Berry or make shout-outs to his boys in Baghdad, should he really be ostracized? \n"Bowling for Columbine" is not only the most liberal film of last year, but also the best. Moore deserved his accolade, and had every right to say whatever it is he wanted on that podium. After all, our soldiers are fighting to preserve the American way worldwide -- what's more American than freedom of speech? Should these freedoms only be extended to those saying things likely to appease the consensus? It's not as though Moore's tirade was broadcast on Al-Jazeera. He needn't fear being anally branded via a hot poker brandished by Saddam himself. \nIn this haze of war-spurred ultra-sensitivity, many are turning their backs to the very things that make this country so great.\nFat documentarians and air-headed, silver screen nymphets aren't the only ones taking the heat. Musicians ranging from Bloomington's very own John Mellencamp to the Beastie Boys have taken flack for producing anti-war songs. These fellas have entertained us for years -- why can't we reciprocate by listening to whatever it is they have to say for several minutes without bitching? Pearl Jam fans staged a walkout at a recent show in protest of lead singer Eddie Vedder's anti-Bush and anti-war sentiments. Why pay thirty bucks to simply walk out? Wouldn't it make more sense to bail on the dentist's office or math class? This dude had quite the beef with Ticketmaster a few years back, and fans seem to think he'll simply sit back and remain mum about Bush's somewhat dubious war plans. I think not. Meg Ryan's recently shelved, female-oriented boxing flick, "Against the Ropes" was delayed because Paramount didn't know how to properly market the film amid war. Just release the thing, and speed-up its inevitable placement in video store discount bin obscurity. \nSo, in a nutshell, what this dude wants is for stateside Americans on a whole to grow some stones, and let your fellow man speak, record or advertise without fear of social leprosy. Clichéd as this might sound, I want our troops to return home safely and as soon as possible, and for this war to run its course and be done with, just not at the cost of our civil liberties. If I want to drive down the strip in a gas-guzzling SUV adorned with American flags, while smoking a cigarette and blasting Outkast's "Bombs Over Baghdad" or get a tattoo of a smiling Saddam Hussein replete with mortar board on my right butt cheek, let me do so.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2003/04/what-a-dude-wants-5b9c339fe1fe7
Breast Cancer gets a voice in 'Sing for the Cure'
(10/31/02 4:48am)
"We will keep on singing 'till we're heard," reads the closing piece, "One Voice."\nAnd they will be heard. \nAt 7 p.m. on Sunday evening at the IU Auditorium Singing Hoosiers -- under the direction of Michael Schwartzkopf, Bloomington Instrumentalists and Singers, and IU alumnus and two time Grammy award winner Sylvia McNair -- will hit the stage for the highly anticipated Sing for the Cure event to raise awareness about and funding for breast cancer research.\n"I think that the concert has come along really well. Everyone has captured the spirit of it and I think is really totally committed to this cause which makes this an extra special event," Schwartzkopf said. "It's the most emotional piece I've ever been involved with."\nDuring the concert, a trio of Singing Hoosiers will also perform a song whose lyrics were written from the perspective of a mother with breast cancer as a part of the piece entitled "Who Will Curl my Daughter's Hair." Junior Hannah Willman said the lyrics are particularly poignant: "Let me see another year, give one more hug, dry one more tear, mark one more inch upon the wall, live to see them standing tall." \nWillman is more than familiar with the disease. Her mother, who will be in the front row Sunday night, is a breast cancer survivor. She also lost her aunt three years ago to the disease.\n"I went home and read the lyrics and it just meant so much, everything hits home," Willman said. "I feel I was really blessed to even be given the chance to be a part of this."\n"Who Will Curl my Daughter's Hair" is one of the many high emotional points in the work as a whole, which consists of 10 movements, or pieces, all from different family member's eyes -- including the partner's and child's -- in addition to the mother battling the disease. Each piece is also based on a true story.\nThe pieces are performed not only from different perspectives, but also in different styles, Schwartzkopf said the concert will include a gospel piece sung by everyone, a piece sung only by women, a jazz piece sung only by men and straightforward choral pieces. \n"It's a combination of setting -- to music, to narration," Schwartzkopf said. "Sylvia McNair will set the mood, her narration is extremely, extremely emotional."\nMcNair will arrive Saturday for the dress rehearsal.\nThe Hoosiers have now rehearsed with the community choir, said design team member Jennifer Naab, and the orchestra has also begun rehearsals, all of which have gone smoothly. \n"I'm really looking forward to Saturday because it's the first time everyone involved will come together," Naab said. "What's also so great are the different age groups involved. It's very inter-generational and it's cool to see everyone come together."\nThe ensemble includes a 57-piece orchestra from the IU School of Music, 50 community singers who are donating their time and a chorus of 115 Singing Hoosiers.\n"What really started off great was Sunday," senior Lauren Orenga said. "We worked with the older choir and I talked to some of the women and they're really excited about it; it will be really fun."\nSchwartzkopf said it was a "great collaboration" and a "community spirit kind of effort." \nThe performance will be different for the Singing Hoosiers in that most of their past shows involved a lot of choreography and repertoire consisting of Broadway and contemporary music. \n"Most of our performances are just that -- they're performances," Willman said. "This concert is benefiting a cause and it's a cause that the Singing Hoosiers truly supports."\nBenefits from the show go to Bloomington Hospital's Olcott Center for Breast Health, the G.I.R.L. Friend Fund, and the local Wabash Valley Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. \nIt is likely the show will strike a soft point among audience members at some point or another. \n"One of these songs, if not all, is going to hit everybody at some point," said Orenga, whose mother also has breast cancer. "'Come to me Mother, the child's voice,' hits me because of my mom. For me, it's going to be a little more powerful because I've been there." \nOrenga said almost everyone has cried at least once at practice because one piece or another has struck them.\n"It spans the whole gamut of what a person goes through with breast cancer and that's what people will take home," said Barbara Light, event chair. "People who haven't been affected are going to see how this affects a patient."\nSo what it comes down to is three more days. Three more days until Barbara Light can see her dream of the Sing for the Cure performance coming alive here in Bloomington and hitting the IU Auditorium stage for a night of truly touching musical storytelling. After two years of planning and preparation the event has finally come together.\n"It's going to be great," Light said. "Things are going very well. I'm very excited and glad that I did it. I'm scared to death, but it's great! It's been well, well worth it."\nThe community support that Light and her team have received has been outstanding. \nBloomington Hospital Foundation has provided administrative support, the Bloomington Hospital and Healthcare System provided the printing, and Hirons and Company Advertising Inc. has done all of the posters and programs.\nNaab said they're expecting a large turnout; she encourages people to pick up their tickets in advance.\n"The word has gotten out and it's a really great way to get the word out about breast cancer awareness," Light said. "I think one of the best things about it is that it's different. I feel music touches people in a whole different way."\nTickets, which cost $12 for IU students and $22 general admission, are still available at the IU Auditorium Box Office; by phone through Ticketmaster (812-333-9955); and on the internet by visiting www.iuauditorium.com.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2002/10/breast-cancer-gets-a-voice-in-sing-for-the-cure
La Cara Latina
(09/26/02 4:00am)
With popular artists like Ricky Martin and Shakira, Latin music has been hitting the radio airwaves in the past few years. Held during a weekend when musical diversity is celebrated on campus, Saturday's Festival Latino will focus on local Latino talent from around Bloomington and Indiana.\nWhile many people might be busy planning their weekends around -- and buying tickets for -- Lotus Fest, the members of La Casa, IU's Latino Cultural Center, are holding their own mini-festival for free. \nLillian Casillas, director of La Casa, says she knows there are some people who can't afford admission to Lotus Fest. Festival Latino, she says, gives people an opportunity to participate in Lotus Fest without having to buy tickets. Like in previous years, La Casa is working in conjunction with Lotus Fest to put on Festival Latino.\n"The people who run Lotus Fest really do a lot for us to make sure we have a great partnership," Casillas says. "They give us a lot of access to great Latino music groups."\nFestival Latino, which will run from noon until 5 p.m. on Saturday, will be an afternoon of music, food, information booths and interaction with people from the community. The information booths will spotlight various Hispanic clubs on campus.\nSponsors for Festival Latino include IU's Office of the Vice President for Student Development and Diversity, the FASE Mentoring Program, Union Board and Lotus World Music Festival.\nSome of the musical artists scheduled to appear include three groups from the Indianapolis area. Conjunto Urbanos, which plays Cuban music; Tresuno-7, a 10-piece, a multinational band known for its Latin Tropical music from the Caribbean; and the Cool Chilies, who specialize in a variety of Latin dance music, will be making their way down from central Indiana; they have covered such songs as "La Bamba" and "Mambo No. 5." The show will feature one local act, the Brazilian-style Abacaxi.\nCasillas is excited about the performers this year and hopes the music is a great success.\n"We want to bridge that gap where we see not only bigger names from all over but the local talent as well," Casillas says.\nFestival Latino was first held in the fall of 1998, and Casillas says the event has been a popular attraction for many. Casillas hopes for a large turnout this year and says the festival's publicity committee has been advertising since August when freshman came down to campus for orientation. The festival's brightly-colored posters are visible all over campus, and Casillas recently publicized the event on a local radio station.\nSince Festival Latino has become such a large family event, La Casa has added something for the kids this year -- there will be a children's area featuring activities dealing with Latino culture. There will be six different tables in the children's area that will have crafts and games for children. The FASE Mentoring program and teachers from the community are sponsoring the children's area.\nCasillas said she loves to see all the children with their familes, but she wanted something special this year strictly for the kids. Casillas hopes to see Dunn Meadow full of students and families who come out to listen to the music and enjoy the free afternoon on Saturday. \n"What's really cool about it is it brings people together, not only people from campus, but also Latinos from off campus as well," she says.\nCasillas says she likes the fact that the festival falls during National Hispanic Heritage Month. She especially sees the festival as a way to celebrate Latino music and its influences.\nDonna Colon, a junior, likes many different things about Festival Latino but especially notices the variety of people who attend. \n"I like the fact that when I go there, I see all the different people dancing and the different cultures that kind of blend together," Colon says. "You see Hispanics there, you see whites there, and all sorts of races." \nColon will be working as a stage manager for the music at Festival Latino and says this year there will be a great variety of performers. She says she doesn't have a favorite group out of the line-up but looks forward to listening to them all.\nFreshman Jacqueline Ann Lopez recently became a part of La Casa and says she has heard a lot about the festival and the great music that is showcased. She says she is looking forward to her first experience at Festival Latino.\n"It will be a new experience for me, and I am really looking forward to the music and variety of people who attend," Lopez says. "I'm of course looking forward to the food as well."\nLopez says that, more than anything, she is excited about interacting with other students she hasn't met yet, and she can't wait to take her friends to the afternoon of hanging out and having fun.\nCasillas says the festival is starting to feel like a tradition and already has certain followers.\n"We usually have people who come and bring blankets and a picnic basket," she says. "They have a picnic and listen to the music and dance."\nColon says it's gratifying to see people having so much fun at the festival.\n"You see all sorts of people dancing, people who don't even know how to dance, but are having a great time," she says. "It's nice to see the kids, the college students and adults enjoying the festival. The community comes together and we get to share our Latino culture with them"
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2002/09/la-cara-latina
La Cara Latina
(09/26/02 12:24am)
With popular artists like Ricky Martin and Shakira, Latin music has been hitting the radio airwaves in the past few years. Held during a weekend when musical diversity is celebrated on campus, Saturday's Festival Latino will focus on local Latino talent from around Bloomington and Indiana.\nWhile many people might be busy planning their weekends around -- and buying tickets for -- Lotus Fest, the members of La Casa, IU's Latino Cultural Center, are holding their own mini-festival for free. \nLillian Casillas, director of La Casa, says she knows there are some people who can't afford admission to Lotus Fest. Festival Latino, she says, gives people an opportunity to participate in Lotus Fest without having to buy tickets. Like in previous years, La Casa is working in conjunction with Lotus Fest to put on Festival Latino.\n"The people who run Lotus Fest really do a lot for us to make sure we have a great partnership," Casillas says. "They give us a lot of access to great Latino music groups."\nFestival Latino, which will run from noon until 5 p.m. on Saturday, will be an afternoon of music, food, information booths and interaction with people from the community. The information booths will spotlight various Hispanic clubs on campus.\nSponsors for Festival Latino include IU's Office of the Vice President for Student Development and Diversity, the FASE Mentoring Program, Union Board and Lotus World Music Festival.\nSome of the musical artists scheduled to appear include three groups from the Indianapolis area. Conjunto Urbanos, which plays Cuban music; Tresuno-7, a 10-piece, a multinational band known for its Latin Tropical music from the Caribbean; and the Cool Chilies, who specialize in a variety of Latin dance music, will be making their way down from central Indiana; they have covered such songs as "La Bamba" and "Mambo No. 5." The show will feature one local act, the Brazilian-style Abacaxi.\nCasillas is excited about the performers this year and hopes the music is a great success.\n"We want to bridge that gap where we see not only bigger names from all over but the local talent as well," Casillas says.\nFestival Latino was first held in the fall of 1998, and Casillas says the event has been a popular attraction for many. Casillas hopes for a large turnout this year and says the festival's publicity committee has been advertising since August when freshman came down to campus for orientation. The festival's brightly-colored posters are visible all over campus, and Casillas recently publicized the event on a local radio station.\nSince Festival Latino has become such a large family event, La Casa has added something for the kids this year -- there will be a children's area featuring activities dealing with Latino culture. There will be six different tables in the children's area that will have crafts and games for children. The FASE Mentoring program and teachers from the community are sponsoring the children's area.\nCasillas said she loves to see all the children with their familes, but she wanted something special this year strictly for the kids. Casillas hopes to see Dunn Meadow full of students and families who come out to listen to the music and enjoy the free afternoon on Saturday. \n"What's really cool about it is it brings people together, not only people from campus, but also Latinos from off campus as well," she says.\nCasillas says she likes the fact that the festival falls during National Hispanic Heritage Month. She especially sees the festival as a way to celebrate Latino music and its influences.\nDonna Colon, a junior, likes many different things about Festival Latino but especially notices the variety of people who attend. \n"I like the fact that when I go there, I see all the different people dancing and the different cultures that kind of blend together," Colon says. "You see Hispanics there, you see whites there, and all sorts of races." \nColon will be working as a stage manager for the music at Festival Latino and says this year there will be a great variety of performers. She says she doesn't have a favorite group out of the line-up but looks forward to listening to them all.\nFreshman Jacqueline Ann Lopez recently became a part of La Casa and says she has heard a lot about the festival and the great music that is showcased. She says she is looking forward to her first experience at Festival Latino.\n"It will be a new experience for me, and I am really looking forward to the music and variety of people who attend," Lopez says. "I'm of course looking forward to the food as well."\nLopez says that, more than anything, she is excited about interacting with other students she hasn't met yet, and she can't wait to take her friends to the afternoon of hanging out and having fun.\nCasillas says the festival is starting to feel like a tradition and already has certain followers.\n"We usually have people who come and bring blankets and a picnic basket," she says. "They have a picnic and listen to the music and dance."\nColon says it's gratifying to see people having so much fun at the festival.\n"You see all sorts of people dancing, people who don't even know how to dance, but are having a great time," she says. "It's nice to see the kids, the college students and adults enjoying the festival. The community comes together and we get to share our Latino culture with them"
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2002/09/la-cara-latina-5b9c328be5c53
Dar Williams
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
There is not a trace of bitterness in the stories Dar Williams tells about the sometimes rocky road to her present gig as crown princess of American contemporary folk music.\n"Nobody liked me when I was 12," Williams says. "I remember babysitting for a kid, and his dog was mean to me! And the kid was mean to me, and I was like, 'Oh my God, children and dogs don't even like me!'"\nWilliams will follow that road to Bloomington for a concert Tuesday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre. Her journey -- she is coming up on her 35th birthday -- began with a childhood in Chappaqua, N.Y., an upscale suburb north of New York City.\n"I think maybe I was very kind in high school, but very mean in elementary school. Kids were just horrific to me when I was 12 and 13," Williams says, laughing. "And I remember when I was young, two of them said, 'I'm being mean to you because you were so incredibly mean to me.' It was very hard because -- talk about kick a girl when she's down -- at 12 or 13 you're basically in a big pool of molten lava. Who knows what form you're going to come out as." \nAlthough Williams can confidently and willingly deconstruct the evolution of that form in her music and writing, it is the subject of those liminal moments of her youth that seems to awaken her enthusiasm. \nShe chuckles at the fact that her graduating class at Horace Greeley High School narrowly voted her "most talented," and then took her by surprise by voting her second place for "straightest arrow." \n"I have a dimple. I have blue eyes. I guess that's how I must've been perceived," Williams says, although the clear affection she expresses for the risk-takers and outsiders she looked up to back then makes it difficult to imagine her as anything but one of the cool kids.\nAre you out there?\nBy opening her latest CD, Out There Live, with "As Cool As I Am," Williams implicitly acknowledges her status as a poster child for coolness. Yet her own use of the word veers away from the self-conscious living wardrobe of adolescent cool so often typified by aloofness or angst. \nWilliams' heroes are the trailblazers who are faithful to human rights and environmental causes as an example. \n"The ones who were into the sound of their own voices are now lawyers for oil corporations, but the ones who retreated into the hills to actually start something, like an organic broccoli farm, they're still cool. They think a lot about other people," she says. "I think people who can have radical beliefs and still live in a community with other people are cool to me, and the eccentrics in my town always seemed great to me."\nWilliams easily localizes her point. "I met a lesbian couple who live in Indiana, outside of Indianapolis, and they run a retreat center, and across the street there's a guy who baptizes people in his pool. They live amicably. They say, 'Well he does what he does, so we do what we do.'"\nWilliams also looks back fondly on adults in the community she grew up in who occasionally broke with protocol to communicate with unusual or refreshing honesty.\n"I remember a friend's mother who was probably just kind of narcissistic and didn't notice that we were kids, but she would tell us things about her sex life, and I thought that was cool," Williams remembers.\n"I also liked it when another friend's father, on the sly one afternoon as I happened to be sitting with him, turned and said, 'I don't understand Modern Art. I really just don't get it.'" \nHer friends\n"There is a culture of kindness around Dar Williams," says Gail Cohen, founder and administrator of www.darwilliams.net, the central online resource for Williams' fans.\n"Kindness gives it a nice daily ring," Williams says, noting that global labels such as "compassion" and "interdependence" don't capture the same spirit.\n"I think the thing I'm most grateful for is that I at some point -- and it might have been in high school -- I got it. I just got it, about what it is to be alive. That hoarding and everything doesn't work." \nSo what happened to the 12-year-old with the kids-and-dogs problem?\n"A couple of kids whose true hearts shone reached out to me for no good reason. These people came through for me in a really genuine way, and I 'got it' that being meaner was not going to be a way to address this, and that I had to kind of surrender. So I just surrendered early, and it works, you know?"\nWhat do you hear in these sounds?\nWilliams speaks confidently and incisively about the healing process associated with personal growth, and describes it as obtaining a widened sense of roles, and a widened sense of what's permissible and achievable. \n"My eyes were opened to the fact that there are so many ways to be, and so many ways to be happy and to get it right."\nShe describes a key moment of realization that occurred as a result of an especially nasty bout with depression during her senior year in college. Her sister stepped in having recognized the symptoms, and helped her to seek help. \n"I guess that became a pretty central theme of my writing: How people either find a daily experience or one life-changing experience to pull themselves out of the rut of a strong faith in their inabilities," Williams says.\nCohen points out that Williams' music is somewhat therapeutic for her fans, but in an open sort of way.\n"She doesn't preach to you," Cohen says. "Even when she is talking about the depths of despair there's always sort of a sense of hope with what she's saying."\nAnd she's so kind, I think she wants to tell me something,\nBut she knows that it's much better if I get it for myself.\n-- from the song "What Do You Hear in These Sounds"\nWilliams knows that there is sometimes an ambiguity to her lyrics that leaves room for the listener to personalize a song.\n"Early on I realized that if you write something that can have five interpretations, but all five of them really work, there's no harm in that," she says.\nBut Williams also notes that it's unmistakable when she has stumbled into saying things in a way that strikes a special chord in a more universal way. \n"There are some songs that I have written, like the song 'When I was a Boy,' that I thought wouldn't go over very well because nobody had really said it the same way before," she recalls. "I remember the first night I played it there was this sustained applause with no cheering, and it was great. I could tell something was a little different."\nCohen specifically remembers the first time she heard that song, because it was the first song she ever heard by Williams. \n"It was jaw-dropping," she says. "It was just this kind of overwhelming feeling of being home. Like this is where I really belong."\nIt looks like plenty of jaws might be dropping in Bloomington on Tuesday night. Buskirk-Chumley Theatre Director Danielle McClelland says the number of telephone inquiries about the show has been especially high.\n"We are very excited about this show," McClelland says.\nThe great unknown\nWilliams has begun the process of recording her next CD and acknowledges that she is seeing themes emerge.\n"In this one the themes are more intimate and more conversational," she says. "The songs are a little shorter, and while The Green World was about a lot of different types of religions and people falling from and rising to grace and cosmic special red-letter days, this is very different. This is actually about non-red-letter days, and the beauty of them."\nWilliams has a busy spring planned filled with red-letter days of the landmark variety. In addition to the celebration of her 35th birthday on April 19, she will be getting married to her fiancé next month. As to expanding her new family in the future to include children, she warmly enthuses, "Oh, I'd love to have kids," then quickly adds a scenario that harmonizes the idea with her career.\n"My hope would be that I would get pregnant at just that moment that I came out with an album that completely bombs. It's not worth publicizing. It's not really worth touring. It didn't do well. People hate it. That's when you go sneak off and have a baby."\nIt looks like the "sneaking off" might have to wait a little while longer.\n"I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I don't think this is that album," she says.\nIf these words had come from the mouth of any other pop star, the horn-tooting police would already be on the way to make an arrest. From Williams, they sound more like another kind secret revealed on the sly. By now dogs and kids would have to agree that Williams is one cool folksinger.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2002/07/dar-williams
Dar Williams
(03/27/02 5:00am)
There is not a trace of bitterness in the stories Dar Williams tells about the sometimes rocky road to her present gig as crown princess of American contemporary folk music.\n"Nobody liked me when I was 12," Williams says. "I remember babysitting for a kid, and his dog was mean to me! And the kid was mean to me, and I was like, 'Oh my God, children and dogs don't even like me!'"\nWilliams will follow that road to Bloomington for a concert Tuesday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre. Her journey -- she is coming up on her 35th birthday -- began with a childhood in Chappaqua, N.Y., an upscale suburb north of New York City.\n"I think maybe I was very kind in high school, but very mean in elementary school. Kids were just horrific to me when I was 12 and 13," Williams says, laughing. "And I remember when I was young, two of them said, 'I'm being mean to you because you were so incredibly mean to me.' It was very hard because -- talk about kick a girl when she's down -- at 12 or 13 you're basically in a big pool of molten lava. Who knows what form you're going to come out as." \nAlthough Williams can confidently and willingly deconstruct the evolution of that form in her music and writing, it is the subject of those liminal moments of her youth that seems to awaken her enthusiasm. \nShe chuckles at the fact that her graduating class at Horace Greeley High School narrowly voted her "most talented," and then took her by surprise by voting her second place for "straightest arrow." \n"I have a dimple. I have blue eyes. I guess that's how I must've been perceived," Williams says, although the clear affection she expresses for the risk-takers and outsiders she looked up to back then makes it difficult to imagine her as anything but one of the cool kids.\nAre you out there?\nBy opening her latest CD, Out There Live, with "As Cool As I Am," Williams implicitly acknowledges her status as a poster child for coolness. Yet her own use of the word veers away from the self-conscious living wardrobe of adolescent cool so often typified by aloofness or angst. \nWilliams' heroes are the trailblazers who are faithful to human rights and environmental causes as an example. \n"The ones who were into the sound of their own voices are now lawyers for oil corporations, but the ones who retreated into the hills to actually start something, like an organic broccoli farm, they're still cool. They think a lot about other people," she says. "I think people who can have radical beliefs and still live in a community with other people are cool to me, and the eccentrics in my town always seemed great to me."\nWilliams easily localizes her point. "I met a lesbian couple who live in Indiana, outside of Indianapolis, and they run a retreat center, and across the street there's a guy who baptizes people in his pool. They live amicably. They say, 'Well he does what he does, so we do what we do.'"\nWilliams also looks back fondly on adults in the community she grew up in who occasionally broke with protocol to communicate with unusual or refreshing honesty.\n"I remember a friend's mother who was probably just kind of narcissistic and didn't notice that we were kids, but she would tell us things about her sex life, and I thought that was cool," Williams remembers.\n"I also liked it when another friend's father, on the sly one afternoon as I happened to be sitting with him, turned and said, 'I don't understand Modern Art. I really just don't get it.'" \nHer friends\n"There is a culture of kindness around Dar Williams," says Gail Cohen, founder and administrator of www.darwilliams.net, the central online resource for Williams' fans.\n"Kindness gives it a nice daily ring," Williams says, noting that global labels such as "compassion" and "interdependence" don't capture the same spirit.\n"I think the thing I'm most grateful for is that I at some point -- and it might have been in high school -- I got it. I just got it, about what it is to be alive. That hoarding and everything doesn't work." \nSo what happened to the 12-year-old with the kids-and-dogs problem?\n"A couple of kids whose true hearts shone reached out to me for no good reason. These people came through for me in a really genuine way, and I 'got it' that being meaner was not going to be a way to address this, and that I had to kind of surrender. So I just surrendered early, and it works, you know?"\nWhat do you hear in these sounds?\nWilliams speaks confidently and incisively about the healing process associated with personal growth, and describes it as obtaining a widened sense of roles, and a widened sense of what's permissible and achievable. \n"My eyes were opened to the fact that there are so many ways to be, and so many ways to be happy and to get it right."\nShe describes a key moment of realization that occurred as a result of an especially nasty bout with depression during her senior year in college. Her sister stepped in having recognized the symptoms, and helped her to seek help. \n"I guess that became a pretty central theme of my writing: How people either find a daily experience or one life-changing experience to pull themselves out of the rut of a strong faith in their inabilities," Williams says.\nCohen points out that Williams' music is somewhat therapeutic for her fans, but in an open sort of way.\n"She doesn't preach to you," Cohen says. "Even when she is talking about the depths of despair there's always sort of a sense of hope with what she's saying."\nAnd she's so kind, I think she wants to tell me something,\nBut she knows that it's much better if I get it for myself.\n-- from the song "What Do You Hear in These Sounds"\nWilliams knows that there is sometimes an ambiguity to her lyrics that leaves room for the listener to personalize a song.\n"Early on I realized that if you write something that can have five interpretations, but all five of them really work, there's no harm in that," she says.\nBut Williams also notes that it's unmistakable when she has stumbled into saying things in a way that strikes a special chord in a more universal way. \n"There are some songs that I have written, like the song 'When I was a Boy,' that I thought wouldn't go over very well because nobody had really said it the same way before," she recalls. "I remember the first night I played it there was this sustained applause with no cheering, and it was great. I could tell something was a little different."\nCohen specifically remembers the first time she heard that song, because it was the first song she ever heard by Williams. \n"It was jaw-dropping," she says. "It was just this kind of overwhelming feeling of being home. Like this is where I really belong."\nIt looks like plenty of jaws might be dropping in Bloomington on Tuesday night. Buskirk-Chumley Theatre Director Danielle McClelland says the number of telephone inquiries about the show has been especially high.\n"We are very excited about this show," McClelland says.\nThe great unknown\nWilliams has begun the process of recording her next CD and acknowledges that she is seeing themes emerge.\n"In this one the themes are more intimate and more conversational," she says. "The songs are a little shorter, and while The Green World was about a lot of different types of religions and people falling from and rising to grace and cosmic special red-letter days, this is very different. This is actually about non-red-letter days, and the beauty of them."\nWilliams has a busy spring planned filled with red-letter days of the landmark variety. In addition to the celebration of her 35th birthday on April 19, she will be getting married to her fiancé next month. As to expanding her new family in the future to include children, she warmly enthuses, "Oh, I'd love to have kids," then quickly adds a scenario that harmonizes the idea with her career.\n"My hope would be that I would get pregnant at just that moment that I came out with an album that completely bombs. It's not worth publicizing. It's not really worth touring. It didn't do well. People hate it. That's when you go sneak off and have a baby."\nIt looks like the "sneaking off" might have to wait a little while longer.\n"I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I don't think this is that album," she says.\nIf these words had come from the mouth of any other pop star, the horn-tooting police would already be on the way to make an arrest. From Williams, they sound more like another kind secret revealed on the sly. By now dogs and kids would have to agree that Williams is one cool folksinger.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2002/03/dar-williams
Nelly concert short but sweet
(04/20/01 4:08am)
Thousands of students went to the IU Auditorium Wednesday to see rapper Nelly perform. Union Board brought the concert to the student body as part of MTV's Campus Invasion. The sold-out concert featured four other bands that played before Nelly took the stage.\n"I have been rapping for years and have even released a previous album," said Alley Life, a solo artist who opened for Nelly. "I was on a small local label and it was not very successful, but now I'm on Interscope Records, and this is the new me."\nSticky Fingaz, also known as the former leader of the rap group Onyx, is starting a solo career. He opened for Nelly and featured fellow Onyx member Fredro Starr. \n"I wanted to perform with Sticky to promote his new album dropping May 22 and to get the public hyped about the new Onyx record we are working on," said Starr, who stars on the TV sitcom "Moesha" and has a role in the film "Save The Last Dance." \nTickets went on sale at ticket stations across Indiana. Freshman Annie Medsker said she believed that is why she got such a good deal. \n"I like Nelly, and this was a great time to go to a school event," Medsker said. "My dad got my tickets in another town, and I'm glad he did because we got front row."\nDuring the concert, promotion agents were eager to give away new artist merchandise to the crowd. They were running up and down the aisles throwing posters, CDs, shirts and videocassettes. \n"This crowd is so hype. I love to promote new artists; Alley Life is the hypest band out there right now, you'll see, check them out May 15 when they release their new album 'That's How We Roll,'" said freshman Ryan Stonehouse, a local promotion agent.\nMany of the new artists said they really did not have much clout in following Nelly on tour, but they were glad to be able to open for such a prominent artist. \n"I'm glad I got to follow Nelly because he's hot right now," Sticky Fingaz said. "We found out his tour dates and my schedule fit right into his, so my manager thought this would be a good opportunity for me."\nAlthough the auditorium was an electric environment throughout the concert, the crowd went wild when Nelly took the stage. Sophomore Mike Crafton said he liked seeing the other acts, but his main reason for coming was to watch Nelly perform.\n"I like Nelly; he's a great rapper who started small and made his way to the top," Crafton said. "The only problem I had with the concert was the ticket prices. They were just too steep."\nBut Shareeka Tolbert, a senior, said she thought the tickets were set at the right price.\n"I enjoy his music, plus he's very attractive," Tolbert said. "I think the price was very fair considering how close we got to the stage."\nAt midnight, Nelly came to the stage with the audience screaming and jumping at his arrival. He started his act with the hit single, "Country Grammar." When the part of the song came to give shout outs to Indiana, the crowd went wild. \nSome in the crowd said they were were disappointed that Nelly performed for only 25 minutes, but Nelly said the crowd was excited regardless.\n"The crowd was so hype tonight, Indiana surely represented. I love doing college tours, and I chose Indiana because they were one of the main ones that really wanted me," Nelly said in an interview with the IDS. "I really don't have a favorite song, but 'E.I.' really sticks out in my mind -- still I would not consider it my favorite; all my songs are good."\nNelly said he plans to become a music producer when his rap career is over, but he said he does not look forward to that any time soon. After he is finished with the Campus Invasion tour, he is going on a major city tour with Destiny's Child.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2001/04/nelly-concert-short-but-sweet
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