NUVO: Indy's Alternative Voice - August 29, 2012

THIS WEEK

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in this issue

AUG. 29 - SEPT. 05, 2012 VOL. 23 ISSUE 24 ISSUE #1168

cover story

14

THE ART OF THE SPRAY CAN

PHOTOS AND STORY BY MIKE ALLEE

10

HIGH SCHOOL SAGAS OF A TRANSGENDER TEEN

A high school reporter tells the story of how her peer embraced female gender, began learning to resist punching bullies, navigated loo taboos and embraced sobriety to beat the enemy within.

BY CHLOE SELL, PHOTOS BY MARK LEE

from the readers NUVO & NUVOer

The Obama-Biden ticket is a middle finger to Traditional America, The Constitution, Successful people, US Citizens, the unemployed, and lots of other groups. If Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels aren’t available, Hammer and Hoppe could fill in for a sequel. But look at the positive side. You got me reading your articles.

Marty Kavanaugh

To NUVO, with love

I appreciate your paper, as it provides the only alternative views that I can access in this city.

Myra Mason

Protecting asses from asses

Michael G. McGill II posted that we basically need the rich (“Taking the radical right to the furthest extreme,” Steve Hammer, August 15).

Without them we would have no business, so where would we work? That is the thinking that created the dearth of human decency that made unions necessary, unions that are currently being relentlessly dismantled. Even professional sports teams have unions to protect

their rich buff asses from richer, more selfish, economically relentless asses. It sounds like to the rich, American exceptionalism is taking any Joe Job and shutting the hell up. We can’t keep doing business like this.

BerneThau

Talk to the hand(outs)

NUVO.NET

I agree that most Presidents take too much time off (“Romney’s record will hurt him,” Steve Hammer, August 1). That’s not really the point, though. The problem is that neither side will tell their hardcore followers what they need to realize--it’s time for many of the handouts to end. The Dems cater too much to lower classes looking for handouts in the form of earned income credit, refundable child tax credit and so forth. The GOP caters too much to upper classes looking for handouts in the form of government contracts, subsidies and lower relative tax rates. It’s time to let both groups know that it’s not the government’s responsibility to solve all their problems, many of which they created for themselves.

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EDITOR & PUBLISHER KEVIN MCKINNEY // KMCKINNEY@NUVO.NET EDITORIAL // EDITORS@NUVO.NET MANAGING EDITOR/CITYGUIDES EDITOR JIM POYSER // JPOYSER@NUVO.NET NEWS EDITOR REBECCA TOWNSEND // RTOWNSEND@NUVO.NET ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR SCOTT SHOGER // SSHOGER@NUVO.NET MUSIC EDITOR KATHERINE COPLEN // KCOPLEN@NUVO.NET DIGITAL PLATFORMS EDITOR TRISTAN SCHMID // TSCHMID@NUVO.NET CALENDAR // CALENDAR@NUVO.NET FILM EDITOR ED JOHNSON-OTT COPY EDITOR GEOFF OOLEY CONTRIBUTING EDITORS STEVE HAMMER, DAVID HOPPE CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS WAYNE BERTSCH, TOM TOMORROW CONTRIBUTING WRITERS TOM ALDRIDGE, MARC ALLAN, JOSEFA BEYER, WADE COGGESHALL, SUSAN WATT GRADE, ANDY JACOBS JR., SCOTT HALL, RITA KOHN, LORI LOVELY, SUSAN NEVILLE, PAUL F. P. POGUE, ANDREW ROBERTS, CHUCK SHEPHERD, MATTHEW SOCEY, JULIANNA THIBODEAUX EDITORIAL INTERNS ELISSA CHAPIN, ANDREW CROWLEY, HANNA FOGEL, JUSTIN FOX, MEREDITH A. LEE, ANGELA LEISURE, ELISE LOCKWOOD, JACK MEYER, JORDAN MARTICH, JENNIFER TROEMNER, TIMOTHY BYDLON, SARAH SHEAFER

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The graffiti collective Subsurface is taking it up a notch for its 10th anniversary festival, which features a visit by renowned by graffiti artist and writer Dave Chino and a weekend of live painting in Fountain Square and beyond.

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3

HAMMER NFL glory for unemployed, armchair quarterbacks Gamer fever rages on

O

BY STEVE HAMMER SHAMMER@NUVO.NET

n Tuesday, Electronic Arts released Madden NFL 13, the latest annual version of their long-running and best-selling video game. Like every year, the company tried to build hype for the game by hosting midnight release parties at stores, sponsoring tournaments and celebrating “Maddenoliday,” a day upon which people call in sick to work or school to play the game.

And, like every year, the company touts a series of new features and modifications to the game, all of which are designed to make the people who shelled out $60 for last year’s game do the same this year.

This year’s game is supposedly all-new, replacing the much-despised announcing team of Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth with Jim Nantz and Phil Simms and adding new animations, menus and game modes.

Having played an early release version, it’s hard to notice the changes to the game. The commentary repeats itself, the new modes are incomprehensible and the action looks and feels exactly like Madden NFL 12.

Someone who hated that game is unlikely to be swayed by the new one.

However, the game seems likely to retain its main reason for existence: to give our nation’s unemployed, stay-athome, stoner dads something to do all day while watching their kids.

During several periods of convalescence or involuntary unemployment over the past 10 years, I was a member of their ranks, playing a dozen or more games per day while chatting with my opponent over a Bluetooth headset.

Retailers will take in millions of dollars from unemployment and welfare checks for the game, as it seems to be an essential coping tool for our country’s long-term jobless people. During hundreds of game sessions, I’ve listened as my opponent asked permission to pause the game in order to roll a joint, scold misbehaving children, take phone calls from an irate spouse or all of those things.

Nothing on the game cover explicitly states “Best Played While Stoned,” but the majority of players I’ve encountered have told me the game works well with a chronic marijuana habit.

Any researcher looking to probe the minds of the chronically unemployed would be better off playing a few hundred online games of Madden than conducting field interviews. And any marketer of products aimed at the poor, the disaffected and the stoned should consider the game as a perfect tool to reach that audience.

Madden fans come from all regions, span all male demographic groups and share two critical attributes: a devotion to the intricacies of NFL football and hours of spare time.

Our men may not be able to name more than two presidents or any members of the Supreme Court but, thanks to this game, are able to debate the effectiveness of the cover2 defense or the play-action pass.

The other chief attribute of Madden is its utter and complete effectiveness as an anti-girlfriend device. If you’re looking to alienate and/or annoy your wife or girlfriend, developing a serious Madden habit is the quickest path.

While that’s true of NFL football and video games in general, the annoyance factor of Madden among females is exponentially multiplied. It’s not hard to see why. A typical online game lasts about an hour, not counting drug or alcohol breaks.

It’s also an hour where no communication is allowed, since the game requires complete concentration.

It’s also an hour during which nothing else can be done: no household chores, no online searches for jobs, no changing of the baby. The game is responsible for at least three breakups I know personally and probably millions over its 20-year existence.

The first thing I had to give up when I got married was my Madden addiction. Our marriage is strong and could survive any number of other forms of adversity, but even my wife draws the line at Madden. She will endure a four-hour game on TV under protest but, quite reasonably, will not tolerate the same amount of video-game football.

In summary, any discussion of Madden NFL 13 must be divided into two sections, one for males and one for females.

For the men: Madden NFL 13 is a very slight improvement over last year’s game.

The menus are simplified and the onfield action is more fluid and realistic.

For the women: Yes, he really is paying $60 for a game whose trade-in value will be less than $5 in six months. It still takes forever to play a game and, no, he still won’t be able to listen to you, pay attention to you or help you with the house while he’s playing it.

The games give our nation’s unemployed, stay-at-home, stoner dads something to do.

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5

HOPPE A jobs program that could work

Turning a problem into a solution

E

BY DAVID HOPPE DHOPPE@NUVO.NET

conomic downturns have a way of shaking up the way we understand our place in history. One day we’re making plans for the future, thinking about all the opportunities before us. Then pfffft. Suddenly, we’re grateful for whatever we can get.

The latest meltdown, ironically labeled the “great” recession, is still making itself felt in the form of high structural unemployment, meaning the increasing sense that, this time, whole categories of jobs may never come back.

Recessions, of course, come and go. They are built into our economic DNA. I graduated from college in the 1970s. Having grown up during the go-go ’60s, I suppose I thought that progress was a given, that life was like an escalator always headed up. So I went to a liberal arts college and majored in English.

A recession hit about the time I was ready to graduate. It was a doozy. They called it “stagflation,” a gnarly term meant to suggest the double whammy of high unemployment and high inflation. Oil prices spiked and the American steel industry, once an engine of our economy, would never be the same.

Needless to say, it was a lousy time to be looking for a job with a liberal arts degree.

I took whatever came my way — from unloading trucks to painting people’s apartments, trimming hedges and answering phones. I was beginning to wonder if my education would ever be put to use.

Then I found out about CETA. The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act was a federal program that made workers available to nonprofit organizations for 12-24 months.

In my case, this meant being assigned a job as a reading specialist in a public high school. I tutored kids who were reading at or below a third-grade level; a large part of my job also involved writing things older kids would actually want to try to read.

CETA didn’t just put me to work. It actually provided a way for me to use my education in a meaningful way.

I was reminded of my CETA experience the other day when I ran across an essay by a sociologist named Salvatore Babones

entitled, “To End the Jobs Recession, Invest an Extra $20 Billion in Public Education.”

Babones points out that while the Great Recession was declared over in 2009, its deleterious impact on American employment continues. In public education alone, over 306,000 jobs have been cut across the country, with more layoffs expected.

The problem, Babones writes, isn’t a lack of money, it is where the money is going.

He points out that, in the name of jobs protection, Congress is trying to preserve funding for the M1 tank. But the Army reportedly doesn’t want these tanks anymore and has half its existing fleet in mothballs.

Each tank costs $8 million to produce at a plant in Lima, Ohio. That plant, according to Reuters, employs 920 people. About half the plant’s output is devoted to making tanks.

But Babones quotes a University of Massachusetts study that shows that every dollar spent on education creates more than twice as many jobs than a dollar spent on defense. According to Babones, that $8 million being spent on a tank that Defense News reports the Army doesn’t want could be creating 122 direct education jobs.

Indeed, Lima’s Shawnee Township public schools, which educate over 6,700 kids a year, maintain 949 jobs on an annual budget of $73 million — or the cost of about nine tanks. “Schools are an investment,” Babones writes, “tanks are an expense.”

Babones argues that if the government wants to create an effective jobs program, public schools provide a ready arena that can use the help. I would go even further and suggest that now, when so many of us seem determined to try and reinvent our schools, we should also be trying to involve college graduates with liberal arts degrees in these efforts.

For the first time, people are beginning to question the worth of a college degree. Sure, if you major in engineering, accounting, business or computer science, a degree is great. But this reduces the college experience to a glorified trade school. Worse, it belittles learning in those fields that help us better understand ourselves as individuals and as members of a larger community.

If a history major dreams of being a barista, fine. But maybe that person would like to put what they’ve learned about research and writing, critical thinking and analysis to work in service to the next generation — in a public school. “These jobs are better than shovel-ready,” writes Babones. “Everything needed to productively employ these people is already in place: the administrative systems, the facilities, the books, the students, everything.”

Too often, we think of our schools as a problem. In fact, they could be a solution encompassing generations. Schools can not only be about educating kids, they can be centers where we make the most of the educated people we already have.

Too often, we think of our schools as a problem.

In fact, they could be a solution encompassing generations.

6

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GADFLY

by Wayne Bertsch

HAIKU NEWS

by Jim Poyser

Romney energy plan demonstrates he’s just one more fossil fuel foil negativity grows about candidates which plays into Koch’s schemes a former Iraq ambassador, Crocker, charged with driving while smashed “Doing a Romney” means acrobatic attempts to avoid taxes “Pulling an Akin” means making the mistake of speaking your thick mind Lance capitulates finally, he’s giving up on his tour de force Neil Armstrong dies and takes the next small step — unless it’s a giant leap federal jury says Samsung iganked Apple’s itechnology fed judge says graphic tobacco warnings disturb right to kill oneself an Indiana farm might be the one slammed for salmonella mess

GET ME ALL TWITTERED!

Follow @jimpoyser on Twitter for more Haiku News.

THUMBSUP THUMBSDOWN ROCKIN’ THE RIVER

The Second Annual White River Festival — a month-long celebration of the city’s signature drinking water source and defining landscape feature — kicks off with a Community Fun Day from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 1, Downtown at White River State Park. Art, science and activities await all who visit. Also on Saturday, the first beginning at 10:15 a.m., AfricanAmerican heritage tours touching on the White River Canal and expanding to Indiana Avenue and Ransom Place. For info on these and a robust schedule of events throughout September, from fly fishing and river cleanups to green ordinance workshops and bird walks, set for Sept. 27. Visit whiteriverfestival.org.

DOMESTIC PARTNER BENEFITS / COMPLETE STREETS

It’s true Indy has a lot of work ahead of it: Urbanofile blogger Aaron Renn made sure we knew it, too, with his recent posting “Why I Don’t Live in Indianapolis,” which offered a damning critique of the city’s lack of design vision in a new parking garage planned for primo Downtown real estate along New York Street between Capitol and Illinois. (Nearly 200 comments followed the posting in response.) But amidst all the frustrations of life in a modern Rust Belt and ag capital, signs of progress are evident. Hearty congratulations to Mayor Greg Ballard and the City-County Council for passing several visionary measures, including the provision of benefits for their colleagues in domestic partnerships and for a “complete streets” ordinance that will nurture a culture of inclusive intentions for street users of all types, from wheel chairs and pedestrians to car poolers and bus riders.

IDENTITY CRISIS

A report excoriating the performance of the Indiana Department of Child Services led the front page of The Indianapolis Star last Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday afternoon, however, the primary focus of IndyStar.com’s homepage shifted to other “hot” news — mac ‘n cheese to be exact. Journalists have been wringing their hands over the future of their profession for decades. To be sure, The Star’s remaining journalists continue to serve the craft by shining light in dark places to the best of their downsized ability. But when comfort food knocks the discomforted off the home page, one can only question the future.

THOUGHT BITE

By Andy Jacobs Jr. Mars money for Curiosity vehicle: in the billions. How many citizens are that interested in knowing about water on a planet they’ll never set a foot on? Bureaucrats CURIOSITY killed a cat, er, taxpayer.

8

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news

Transgender teen faces taboos, bullies and inner demons High school peers have more questions than problems

BY CHL O E SELL EDITO RS@ N UVO.NET

W

alking into the library, no one gave us a second look. Jas wore yoga pants, a weave and hot pink acrylic nails. Her car was stuffed to the brim with “Hello Kitty” products.

Mascara and fake eyelashes circled her eyes. All this might seem unremarkable regarding most teenage girls, but Jas is not an ordinary girl.

Standing 6 feet tall and developing breasts at 18, Jas was born as Joe — a boy, but she considers herself female.

“Transsexual, in my definition, means that you’ve had an operation,” she said, noting that sex is defined by anatomy, as opposed to gender, which transcends the physical body and ties to a person’s broader sense of individual identity.

“I haven’t had any surgeries at all; I’ve only done hormone replacement therapy, so I’m transgender.”

Jas came to this conclusion during her freshman year of high school, after years of questioning her gender identity. In seventh grade, she thought she was gay. In eighth grade she thought bisexual. Watching a transgender video blog during her freshman year brought clarity.

“I talked to my counselor about it,” Jas said. “I’m like, ‘I’ve been watching a lot of these transgender vlogs, and they’re really cool.’ And she was like, ‘Well, why do you think that?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, they’re really inspirational.’”

Jas then began to identify as transgender.

When she told her family, her mother was not surprised. In fact, her mother said she always knew her daughter, born her son, was different.

“I always suspected from the time she was very young; when she was 3 years old, she begged for a pink Barbie house,” said Jas’ mother in a recent interview. “She wanted to wear girl’s clothes. She wanted to wear makeup. She told me she was a girl, and she wanted me to call her by a girl’s name. I always wondered whether she was one of those people that was trapped in the wrong body.”

One’s true self

PHOTO BY MARK LEE

Jas proudly embraces her female nature.

10

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Living as a trans woman in Indiana is not easy, Jas said.

“When coming to the realization that I was trans — even though it’s a beautiful thing and it’s so great to be yourself — it was really hard,” Jas said. “I didn’t feel comfortable and I’ve never felt comfortable, but I never knew why. In the beginning, I felt everyone would judge me, even when my friends and family were completely there for me.”

Her mother was the sole parent during Jas’ adolescence. Her father was absent for most of her life. Jas’ mother remarried and had a son when Jas was in grade school. Both her stepfather and brother are very accepting

of her. Jas does not know if her biological father knows that she is transgender.

Eventually, she said she became more comfortable with her gender identity with the help of new clothes, the right weave, and a better understanding of how to be a woman. Last September, she started hormone replacement therapy, which is developing her breasts.

Though not without challenges, she said her journey has been easier than many other men and women in her situation.

At LGBT youth group events, Jas has met transgender and transsexual people who have been disowned and bullied.

“This sounds really bad, but I often just forget about it a lot,” she said. “I’ve never had my family judge me. I’ve never been put out on the street. I’ve never lost friends over it. And I know there are tons of trans people who have.

So I kind of take [support] for granted a lot.”

“She really doesn’t understand prejudice,” her mother said. “I think she can be naive because she’s always had support.”

Confident in her ability to protect herself, Jas laughed at the idea of someone trying to hurt her.

“I think if I was this little tiny thing, then maybe,” she said. “Maybe someone might try to rape me. But I can take care of myself. I’m not afraid someone else is going to hurt me. If it’s a gun, maybe I’ll get shot, maybe I’ll die. But I’ll still be that bitch that’ll be like, ‘You ain’t even holding the gun right.’ Things don’t scare me. I don’t think of consequences, ever.”

Hate crimes against people based on their sexual orientation are tracked by the FBI. Of the 12 instances of these type of crimes reported in Indiana in 2010, seven came from Indy. [See sidebar.]

At least one of Indy’s attacks involved a transgender person. In December 2010, Adrian “Angel” Johnson was shot multiple times after an intruder kicked down her chain-locked door.

Hate crimes like Johnson’s reminds Jas’ mother what could happen to her daughter if she does not protect herself.

“There are people out there that are cruel and evil,” she said. “This isn’t something that anyone would want for themselves or their child. I worry if she’s ever going to be happy.

I worry about her finding a partner and finding love. It’s incredibly hard, but that’s what love is, allowing people to be what they are.”

One’s own worst enemy “I was a wild child,” Jas said, speaking of her earlier years in high school, “and I still am.

I would skip school, not show up, get in trouble a lot with teachers. I had a lot of issues.”

Issues such as drinking, smoking and fighting — Jas has had the police called on her because of violence.

“I’ve gotten into fistfights before,” she said. “I have the worst temper in the world. When someone acts like an asshole

to me, I have to act like a bigger asshole back. I love confrontation.”

She knew she had to stop her behavior to improve her grades, but felt overwhelmed and depressed. Over time Jas felt her life improve.

“It was really hard because I really didn’t understand the whole thing,” she said. “I was so confused and not comfortable with myself.

“I take it one day at a time, every day.

Eventually I realized smoking and drinking all my problems away wasn’t helping me whatsoever because I would go out and get hammered on a Tuesday night and be way too hungover to go to school.”

In response to a question about selfdestructive behavior, Jas replied, “I know that it is. I do go see a counselor, and I do go to classes, but it’s hard because I see myself as I love to fight.”

Engaging in fights with disapproving people did not hurt her the most, though.

“I was the one who was worst to myself,” Jas said, “rather than friends, family or strangers.”

Q&A WITH THE REPORTER CHLOE SELL NUVO: How did you become aware of Jas’ story?

CHLOE SELL: I will always remember the first time I saw Jas. It was in the corridor at school and I was walking toward the cafeteria when I saw her. And it’s sort of hard not to see her! She had on Hello Kitty pajamas and lip gloss. And I knew right away she was a trans.

NUVO: What was your first impulse when you saw her?

SELL: I was speechless. My first thought was incredulity, because it’s so rare to see someone like that in school.

Then I went into journalist mode, and thought, “Oh my God, I have a story.”

NUVO: Why wouldn’t your school newspaper publish the story?

Loo Taboos Surprisingly, Jas encountered few problems when she went to her high school in Fishers.

She said people more often showed interest in her transformation, asking how she has breasts or why she wears female clothing.

Only one issue presented a particular challenge.

“Fishers has specifically told me I am not able to use the women’s restroom,” she said.

Jas said her teacher discussed it with the school’s administration, and they told her she could not use the women’s facility because it is considered to be a form of sexual harassment. But if she were to use the men’s bathroom, it would be provocation.

A Fishers High School administrator who asked not to be named denied knowing a transgender person attended the school, but said given the unique situation, “It’s all about community norms, what would shock the conscience.

For our school, a mini skirt up above the thigh is going to be more shocking to us than other communities around the country.

So if [Jas] walks into the girls’ bathroom, it is going to shock the community. I think it would cause some concern for a lot of females in that bathroom.”

Unisex and one-seat restrooms are becoming more popular in public places and colleges to accommodate people in the trans community. A smartphone app, TranSquat, lists gender neutral bathrooms for users looking to avoid the issue.

Fishers High School has a strong committee on bullying and holds several antibully campaigns each year to educate people against discrimination.

“We’re always trying to teach that tolerance and respect of others, no matter what religious background, whatever you look like, whatever your personal sexuality or gender choice,” said the school administrator.

“We’re always trying to teach acceptance.”

Acceptance is easier said than printed, I came to find out, when I pitched the idea of profiling Jas in a campus publication.

Immediately, the newsroom was abuzz with arguments. How would we go about

PHOTO BY MARK LEE

Jas, pictured here with her best friend, Evalyn-Averis Baumgartner, said she enjoys more support than many transgender teens she knows

this? What would the administrators do?

How would our audience react?

“While I think that the story could have been well-written and an interesting piece to write, it would also end up having consequences,” said Jordyn Didier, editor-inchief of Fishers High School’s newsmagazine N the Red Tiger Topics.

Didier became editor-in-chief after two years as a staffer. The decision on whether to write about Jas was a difficult one, she said. While some staff members deeply opposed it and others thought the story had great potential, Didier said she had to pull the story.

“We have to consider who is going to see the paper and what could come out of it,” Didier said. “While the student may have been fine with being interviewed and having their story told, bullying became an issue for us. We are students in high school and the simple fact is that — Jas some people are immature or don’t believe that being a transgender is OK. We didn’t want to be the reason that bullying started or got worse in anyway.”

Didier added, “I also considered what parents’ views could be. There are many parents who would call into the school to address how they don’t think that it would be an appropriate story to be in the school paper. These complications would have been a large risk if we pushed forward with the story and it’s a big part of why I decided not to put it into the story.”

If the risky nature of the story had not been present, Didier said, she would have pursued it. But she does not regret her decision, maintaining that the consequences are still there.

Jas attended public high school for only part of the day; the balance she spent at J. Everett Light Career Center. Though she wanted to drop out of school, she was compelled, for financial reasons, to

“Eventually I realized smoking and drinking all my problems away wasn’t helping me …”

continue attending because Fishers High School paid her tuition at the career center.

Jas eventually dropped out of high school three days before the end of the school year. She is enrolled at cosmetology school and has received a GED.

Going under the knife The details of a sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) are not for the faint of heart.

Doctors slice through the shaft and use the whole penis to craft a vagina. The testicles are cut off and thrown away, and the empty penile shaft is simply inverted into the pelvic cavity and turned into the vagina. The tip of the penis is used to shape a clitoris and parts of the scrotal tissue are used to create the labia.

“I want to have [a sex-change] so I can feel comfortable in my own body — the body I should have been born with but unfortunately wasn’t,” Jas said.

She wants to get the surgery done as soon as possible, but admits it will be a risky procedure with chances of infection and extensive bleeding. There is also a possibility that the man-made canal might close up if she does not dilate through the routine use of a device to expand the canal following the procedure.

Still, Jas must contend with several health problems before undergoing SRS. “The biggest concern is me having a blood clot or heart attack,” Jas said. “I have high blood pressure, and then you add smoking onto that. ... I could quit, but I don’t want to.

And you put the estrogen on top of that … I could possibly get a blood clot and die.”

Currently, she is undergoing hormone replacement therapy, injections of antimale hormones and estrogen.

To go through the therapy, Jas had to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria — the condition of feeling there is a mismatch between a person’s biological sex and their gender identity — and attend counseling.

Since beginning treatment, she has begun developing breasts and said she experiences mood swings and crying associated with an “emotional period.” After two years of hormone injections, she wants to get breast enhancement surgery. She said her SRS will

SELL: There were a lot of reasons, but it was mainly because we were afraid of how the other students would react.

Because we live in the suburbs, it is a fairly conservative area. There are some exceptions, but overall, Fishers is very different from Broad Ripple.

Another issue was that because the newspaper is school-funded, administrators have the right to pull anything they feel is inappropriate. And it’s a very sensitive topic, my team agreed on that. We wanted to look into the story, but felt there were too many complications for a high school newspaper.

NUVO: What is your purpose, or goal, in writing this story?

SELL: I have many reasons. First off, I wanted to share Jas’ journey. Though so many people encounter trans people, they don’t always understand it. Many FHS students were probably intimidated or afraid of Jas, and fear only creates more problems. Another reason was that I was tired of the “sweep-it-under-the-rug” mentality so many people I know embrace. I wanted to send a message that this is not something we should be ashamed of — in fact, we should be proud that our country is so great that we allow people like Jas to be themselves.

NUVO: How do you think people will respond to this article?

SELL: I just hope they’ll respond, honestly. I don’t care if it is enthusiasm or anger, as long as there is a reaction. I want people to talk about this issue, and I want people to think: How many kids nowadays are being bullied, being beaten, committing suicide because they don’t feel accepted?

I want there to be a little controversy, as long as there is discussion. And if it means a few angry letters in my inbox, I’ll feel I succeeded.

Chloe Sell has won two journalism awards from the Women’s Press Club of Indiana, and won a regional Gold Key for poetry in the Scholastic Art and Writing Contest. She is a senior at Fishers High School, where she is a copy editor for her school newspaper.

CONTINUED ON PG 12 100% RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // news

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CONTINUED FROM PG 11 probably be done in Canada, though the surgery is least expensive in Thailand.

Besides the risks associated with a sex change, Jas is also thinking about the surgeries’ expense. Breast enhancement costs about $6,000,while the charge for SRS is about $20,000. Insurance companies define such operations as cosmetic and will not cover them.

Education, society and her future In early May, President Barack Obama sent tidal waves of controversy across the nation when he announced he supported same-sex marriage. This is a sign, Jas said, that the future of the LGBT society will improve. And more recently, the American Psychiatric Association’s 2013 release of their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) will reclassify transgendered individuals. Previously categorized as a sexual disorders, gender identity disorder is now replaced with gender dysphoria, a separate category from sexual disorders.

Both events indicate, Jas said, that the future of the LGBT society will improve.

“Over time, things are going to get more liberal — the more people are educated about it, the more people will talk about it,” she said.

Jas has her own YouTube channel, detailing her hormone journey and the changes she experiences. She is also a part of the LGBTQ Indiana Youth Group, where she was named prom queen last June. Her goal as an activist is to educate people about what transsexuality means. People

Q&A W/ MICHELE O’MARA, LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER NUVO: What is the typical age people identify their gender?

MICHELE O’MARA: In my practice, it’s usually one of three time frames. It’s either really early, like 3-5, when [in kindergarten] the division between males and females really starts.

That’s usually the earliest time frame. If it doesn’t happen then, it usually happens during puberty. If it doesn’t happen then, it happens at some point in adulthood. Sometimes even after a person gets married and has kids. The oldest person I have worked with had the realization about gender dysphoria when he was in his 60s. There isn’t a solid time frame, but I would say it is most common for people to identify very early or during puberty.

NUVO: Is it normal to see transgendered teenagers?

O’MARA: It is very common for me to receive phone calls about young people.

And, frankly, there aren’t a lot of services around …

NUVO: Is it OK to put a teenager on hormone replacement therapy when they are already going through hormonal changes?

O’MARA: Typically, the earliest a doctor will put a young person on hormone replacement therapy is around 16. And it depends on something called a person’s Tanner stage. The Tanner stage has to do with

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in Indiana are close-minded, she said, recalling a woman who tried to convert her to Christianity to save her soul.

“I don’t have a problem with Jesus, I think he’s a really cool dude,” Jas said.

“But when people try to turn religion against everything that it stands for ... I feel like they’re the ones that should be asking their god for forgiveness. They say God made everyone. Well, OK, then God must have made me like this, too, because I sure as hell wouldn’t have chosen to make my life harder and to be in debt.”

She looks to transgender spokesperson and pre-op porn star Kimber James for inspiration.

“She’s done a lot for the [transgender] community, she’s gorgeous, (and) she’s really into activism, which is something I would like to see myself doing,” Jas said.

“She’s actually getting off her ass and giving herself what she should have had at birth. I think it’s cool the way she’s doing it, because porn is so hush-hush, taboo. But it really would be a great way to make money.”

Jas currently works at a beauty salon and answers the phone as Joe. She plans to legally change her first name to Jasmine and eventually move to Seattle.

HATE CRIME: A ROUGH SKETCH “Transgender street youth are one of the least studied populations of sexually exploited youth. Only a few studies exist that provide beginning estimates of their number (San Francisco Human Rights Commission, 1994; Xavier, 2000) but, unfortunately, even these studies do not provide estimates of the number of such youth living on the streets at the present time. However, and on the basis of both consultations with knowledgeable experts and transgender youth living on the streets, we have put a “place holder” number of 3,000 in the table, albeit their numbers across the country are believed to be much higher.”

Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner, University of Pennsylvania, 2001-2002. “The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada and Mexico”

2010 HATE CRIMES INDIANAPOLIS* / STATEWIDE RACE: 30 / 57 RELIGION: 2 / 12 SEXUAL ORIENTATION: 7 / 12 ETHNICITY: 4 / 17 DISABILITY: 0 / 0 *From a reporting population base of 822,211

WEEKLY SUPPORT GROUP

NATIONWIDE

TransParenting, for parents/teens Where: Christian Theological Seminary Counseling Center, September-November • For more info, contact Kelsey Hanlon at 317-931-2379, ext.5143 or ext.5016

The FBI received 6,624 reports of single-bias incidents. The percentage breakdown attributed to particular biases is as follows: RACE: 47.3 RELIGION: 20 SEXUAL ORIENTATION: 19.3 ETHNICITY: 12.8 DISABILITY: 0.6

where a person is in their sexual development. There are two lines of treatment when it comes to medically intervening.

One is to stall or stop puberty. So people that are prepubescent or in puberty will usually be treated with a substance that will stop the progression of puberty. [After puberty] you’re just stopping either testosterone, if it’s a biological male, or estrogen, if it’s a biological female, and adding the opposite hormone.

NUVO: What do parents need to know if their child thinks they are transgender?

O’MARA: They need to know who to contact to get that child support. Because that’s probably not going to be something that most parents are equipped to deal with. They need to know that it is usually not a phase, something they’ve made up or trying to do to get attention, which are all things that I have heard parents suggest. And that is a very painful experience.

If their child has come to them, they’ve taken a huge risk, a huge leap of faith that the parent is going to be understanding.

NUVO: Could it be confusion or an emotional phase? Could they think they are transgender but they’re mistaken?

O’MARA: No. There was one client that did not identify with gender dysphoria but had some gender confusion, but I’ve never had anyone say, “I really think I’m a girl”, or “I really think I’m a guy”, but [then say] “Oops, I was wrong, I was just having an emotional breakdown.” I don’t think it’s one of those things that people experience lightly.

NUVO: What concerns should parents have?

news // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // NUVO // 100% RECYCLED PAPER

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

Born with a boys’ anatomy, Jas’ female gender defines her identity.

O’MARA: Parents should be concerned about the emotional well-being of their children. The doctors are usually really good at taking care of the physical aspect of the transition. And parents need to be concerned about managing their own shame and misunderstanding, and any phobias that they have about their child’s gender, and what their own friends and family will think of them … . A lot of people in our culture just don’t understand what being a transgender person means.

Parents need to deal with that - participate in therapy, doctor’s appointments, that sort of thing.

NUVO: What are some of the emotions friends and family should expect from someone who has begun the transition?

O’MARA: Often transgender folks who are beginning a transition experience a combination of excitement and relief, for having honored one's truth. Depending on how a person feels about their loved ones, there may also be fear of disappointing family, fear of being disowned and rejected, fear of always being alone, and unloved, fear of being viewed as a "freak," and there may be some extreme self-focus in order to see the transition through.

Many of my clients also fear for their safety, and struggle with decisions we take for granted, like: “Which bathroom should I use?” … For many people, it is a process of trading losses: … live as you have been and remain untrue to yourself and unhappy in most cases, or risk losing friends, family, and life as you've known it but gain your sense of self. It has been my observation that the younger a person is, the less there is to lose, and the more success he or she is likely to experience.

The 1,277 incidents recorded nationally pertaining to hate crimes thought to be based on sexual orientation include 1,470 separate documented offenses against 1,528 victims perpetuated by at least 1,516 known offenders.

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports Note: Officials caution against comparing crime stats between cities or states because of variations in reporting patterns. Actual occurrences of hate crimes are likely undercounted but these reports provide some documentation.

ADVOCATES’ ESTIMATES • At least one transgender person is murdered every month; several more are assaulted.

• 55 percent of transgender youth report being physically attacked.

• Nearly half of young transgender people have seriously thought about taking their lives, and one quarter report having made a suicide attempt.

• More than half of transgender and gender non-conforming people who were bullied, harassed or assaulted in school because of their gender identity have attempted suicide.

Source: The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)

FOR MORE INFORMATION …

For more information on transgender resources, O’Mara suggests: YOUTH: transyouth.org, indianayouthgroup. org, transkidspurplerainbow.org, genderconnection.com, True Selves, by Mildred Brown FAMILY: pflag.org Michele O’Mara is a licensed clinical social worker and therapist based in Plainfield who specializes in gender dysphoria, including homosexual and transgender issues.

Subsurface S TTO O RY R Y A N D P H O TO T O S BY B Y M IKE I KE A ALLLLEEEE

Timber, a member of Metal Fingers, believes some fear graffiti because they don’t understand it.

Local graffiti writer Gems, one of many scheduled to attend the Subsurface 10th anniversary Paint Jam.

A solitary writer in early December touches up a wall on Palmer Street.

MFK (Metal Fingers), a crew comprised of national talent, paint the west wall of the American Tent and Awning building during Subsurface 2011.

Momentum Art Tech, a crew based in Chicago, works on a large scale mural during last year’s Subsurface.

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cover story // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // NUVO // 100% RECYCLED PAPER

012 marks the 10th year for Subsurface, a collective of some of the best graffiti artists from across the nation. This year, they’re going big; it might even be considered their coming out party, complete with celebrity artists, panel discussions, gallery showings and after-parties.

In addition to the complete makeover of the two Near Southside buildings on Palmer Street that have been home to the event since 2004, five additional walls are slated for painting in the Fountain Square area. That means more artists and many more cans of paint.

Last year, anywhere from 750 to 1,500 cans of art-quality spray were used during the three-day paint fest. Big Car Gallery and iMOCA have signed on as sponsors.

An estimated 40 to 50 artists, or “writers,” as they refer to themselves, are scheduled to attend. Crews from Chicago, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Portland have already been assigned wall space, in addition to several high-profile teams from across the state.

Dave Chino, former graffiti editor of The Source magazine and a world-renowned graffiti artist and documentarian, will fly in from New York to take part.

“This is without question the finest collection of talent that we’ve ever assembled,” says Dan Thompson of Fab Crew, a major organizer of Subsurface.

“I don’t think we’ve yet created the event that we want to show people.

This year I think could be it.”

The pre-history behind the — Gems annual gathering a local graffiti writer began years ago when Thompson and fellow writer John Moore, aka Gems, began attending similar events in other major cities.

“We went to a thing in ’98 called Paint Louis that was like nothing we’d ever seen,” says Thompson. “This wasn’t the East Coast, or California. This was smack dab in the heart of the Midwest.

And because there was no other event like it, everybody was there. All of the guys we’d heard of or seen work from in graffiti magazines were painting. The vibe was amazing. It’s been our dream

to do something on that scale here in Indianapolis ever since.”

The American Tent and Awning building at 205 E. South Palmer St., along with the Koch building across from it, have been ground zero for the Labor Day paint party since 2004. The site has transformed an otherwise nondescript near Southside neighborhood into a colorful backdrop frequented by photographers, video crews or merely the curious for prom photos, music videos and any project that has an edgy urban feel. It’s an ever-evolving landscape; no panel is sacred. Some artwork may last only long enough to snap a photograph to prove it was once there. It is not unusual to find a solitary writer or out-of-town crew at work in the dead of winter, adding some new vision, stylized signature or random squiggle over the top of someone else’s.

Then, on Labor Day weekend, Subsurface crews return in mass to wipe everything out with a coat of solid base paint and transform the entire brick canvas once again.

Attendees of this free event will be exposed to a wide variety of styles and combinations of color, from complex “wild style” lettering to full-scale visionary murals.

Metal Fingers (MFK), a crew comprised of top-notch writers from across the nation plan to incorporate oversized photorealistic portraits into their artwork.

Developed over years of trial, error, influences and practice, each crew and individual has worked to carve out a style that can be recognized as their own.

According to Thompson of Fab Crew, style is “like an accent in speech.”

Fellow artist Gems relates it more to an individual fingerprint. “Each one is unique,” he explains, “like a snowflake.”

The Fountain Square area is a major focus this year as the annual jam seeks to expand its presence. Local team Fab Crew plans a large-scale mural of oversized moles riding coal cars through an underground mine on one sidewall of the Koehring building located on Prospect Street. DF Crew, one of the most respected graffiti teams worldwide, has been assigned prime wall space in the area. Metal Fingers will also be painting in Fountain Square.

What goes on each assigned panel will be at the discretion of each artist or crew. The amount of space allotted can be anywhere from a few square feet to half a block long.

FRIDAY, AUG. 31

Artist Meet & Greet and Photography Retrospective Curated by Ish Muhammad 7 - 10 p.m.

Big Car Service Center 3819 Lafayette Road

Gallery Show Featuring: Dan Thompson and Bill Long 4 - 6 p.m.

Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center University of Indianapolis 1400 E. Hanna Ave.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 1

Live Painting throughout Fountain Square and An original sketch being compared to final art. The King Kong-like character is from the “Monster’s Unleashed” mural produced b y crew Momentum Art Tech at last year’s Subsurface.

An after-paint-party will be held Saturday night at White Rabbit Cabaret, where several local acts will perform. And a one of a kind sketchbook containing handdrawn original artwork from most of the participants will be raffled off as part of the evening’s festivities.

Graffiti in some form or another has been traced back thousands of years, but a real explosion came out of New York in the mid1960s. Some say this came about as teens scribbled on train cars to see their names and street numbers travel across town. As this grew in popularity, more elaborate and stylized signatures developed as ways to stand out from the pack. Others trace the roots to vandalism or gang tagging of territory.

Over the years, the artwork has become more creative, exploratory and ambitious.

Its embrace by current hip-hop culture only solidifies its relevance.

Nonetheless, the roots remain in the vandalism, and the graffiti community makes no serious attempt to run from it.

According to Thompson, “Most writers aren’t purely out to destroy. Nonetheless, the true essence of graffiti is in the vandalism.

There is no writer out there that got good without tagging or bombing or illegally piecing something somewhere.”

Timber, one of several Subsurface attendees from Cincinnati is more blunt.

“I don’t care how many murals you paint, or how many pictures you sell.

If you didn’t pay your dues, you’d be shunned by the graffiti community. You’d just be considered a clown.”

Many of the writers attending

Subsurface enjoy successful careers in commercial art, design and books. Some have held major art gallery showings.

Thompson, along with Fab Crew partner Ben Long, produced two murals for the 46 for XLVI Super Bowl project and continue to be a presence in other large-scale local community projects.

Yet the warehouses, bridge underpasses and train cars many associate with the lifestyle remain the training ground where new talent go to pay their dues, develop personal style and hope for discovery.

Cincinnati’s Timber feels society fears graffiti because it signals a loss of control.

Where some see art, others see anarchy.

“I’ve never been one to believe that just because someone has a million dollars, that they have a right to control what is acceptable, what constitutes beauty and what does not,” he says, “Art should be free to everyone; art can’t be owned. People in power see graffiti and they don’t understand it. And because they don’t understand it, it scares them. It scares them because they realize there are people out there who think different than them. If they can control what we see, then they think they can control what we think.”

Other writers, like Ish Muhammad from Hammond, take a more laid back approach. He likens painting to going out to play a round of golf.

“You’ve got your diehards and then you’ve got your weekend golfers,” he says. “You get your group together, get out your set of clubs and you go play a round, You get points for style, palette choice, difficulty. Some courses

are more difficult than others. It’s all unofficial, you know. This ain’t the Olympics.”

Muhammad has been a well-known figure on the graffiti scene for over a quarter of a century. Members of his crew, CISA (Crazy Indiana Style Artists), are considered pioneers. He’s held major gallery showings and works within the community placing large murals to brighten depressed areas with art reflecting playful and positive viewpoints.

But even after almost 30 years in the field, he admits to going out occasionally for a little “re-appropriation of space.”

Mark Ruschman, a curator at the Indiana State Museum and University of Indianapolis, feels that competition among writers may be one reason that graffiti manages to be viewed as current and fresh product, even after years in the public eye.

“These guys constantly push themselves to create new and exciting pieces,” he says, “competing not only against each other, but also against themselves.”

Ruschman sees excitement and a raw energy in the image, commenting that graffiti reflects many of the values he associates with folk or outsider art: “born not out of an academic environment, or for financial reward, but out of desire to create and an appreciation for the genre.”

Subsurface members have worked to change graffiti’s negative image.

“People from the neighborhood come out every year to watch us work,” says Gems. “It brings the community together.

They’ve come to view the event as something that belongs to them, something that they enjoy showing off to other people.

Artwork that belongs to everybody, which means it also belongs to them.”

off South Meridian Featuring: DF Crew, FAB Crew, Higher Level Art, Metal Fingers, Momentum Art Tech, Crazy In Style Art, Like One and more …

8 a.m. - 8 p.m.

SubSurface Official After Party Live music featuring TopSpeed, Proforms, Echomaker, Pope Adrian Bless & Salazar Doors at 9 p.m.

Show at 10 p.m.

White Rabbit Cabaret 1116 Prospect St.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 2

FAB Crew panel discussion with Dave Chino Moderated by Ish Muhammed 6 - 8 p.m.

Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center University of Indianapolis 1400 E. Hanna Ave.

100% RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // cover story

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go&do

For comprehensive event listings, go to nuvo.net/calendar

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STICK ‘EM UP!

STARTS 29 WEDNESDAY

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Stewart Huff @ Crackers Downtown

(Top)The first page to the score for Sonatas and Interludes specifies how to prepare a piano using bolts and other hardware. (Bottom) Kate Boyd and a prepared piano.

Fresh off his run at IndyFringe with Donating Sperm to My Sister’s Wife, the Atlanta-based Stewart Huff stops by Crackers.

Here’s Kat Coplen on his Fringe show: “It was an inspirational show about love and hate and understanding, and Huff has a few zingers we won’t spoil here ... At the end of the set, Huff was hugging, laughing and shaking hands — exemplifying the love that he so obviously believes in ... A snappy, delightful success.”

Aug. 29 and 30, 8:30 p.m. ($10-12); Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, 8 and 10:30 p.m. ($15-20) @ 247 S. Meridian St., stewarthuff.net

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FRIDAY

Mezzotints and book art @ Herron School of Art + Design FREE

Herron closes out its summer season this weekend with a couple shows. Both Sides of the Brain: An International Mezzotint Portfolio Exchange and Exhibition is the brainchild of Herron alumnus Aaron Coleman, who’s been working for a couple years in mezzotint, a printmaking technique dating from the 16th century that involves a tiny, toothed tool called a rocker with which artists create thousands of impressions upon a metal printing plate. The show, which includes prints by 17 artists who together represent six countries, was put together

by Coleman in the effort to trade his work with others working in the same medium, as well as popularize the technique. The title to the other exhibition, IT’S A BOOK! Recent Productions from the new Book Arts Program at Herron, pretty much says it all.

Both Sides runs Aug. 31-Sept. 18 in the Marsh Gallery; It’s a Book runs Aug. 18-Sept.

29 in the Basile Gallery @ Eskenazi Hall, 735 W. New York St., free, herron.iupui.edu

onnuvo.net 16

SUBMITTED PHOTO

George Clinton is going to eat that whole rack.

STARTS 31 FRIDAY

Rib America Festival Mmm, yup. On Friday, you got yourself George Clinton and ParliamentFunkadelic (slurp, munch), Eddie Money. Then (crunch, gnaw, gnaw) moe. and Ivan Neville’s Dumpstafunk Saturday (gurgle, slurp, growl). On the Lord’s Day is Tesla, Night Ranger and Hunter Smith Band (sigh, lick). And then Monday’s kick-butt conclusion of Cheap Trick (crush, chaw, chaw), Blue Oyster Cult (gulp, rinse, repeat).

Aug. 31, Sept. 1 and 2, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sept. 3, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. @ Military Park; $7 (free Aug. 31, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sept.

1-3, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.), ribamerica.com

STARTS 01 SATURDAY

FREE

White River Festival Community Fun Day The White River Festival, a month-long celebration of the White River and all the wildlife, plants, streams and people that depend on it, kicks off Saturday with a Fun Day at the Indiana State Museum featuring programming from Big Car, Sierra Club and the Upper White River Watershed Alliance. See the White River’s water under a microscope, become a water molecule and track your route along the water cycle — and, hey, play tag or three-legged soccer, just for the fun of it.

Sept. 1, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. @ 550 W. Washington St., free, whiteriverfestival.org

BLOG

Stewart Huff interview

by Katherine Coplen

go&do // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // NUVO // 100% RECYCLED PAPER

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TUESDAY

Kate Boyd plays John Cage @ Butler

FREE

Kate Boyd was hoping her spring sabbatical would be “contemplative, meditative.”

After all, the Butler professor was to spend it learning works by John Cage, in particular his prepared piano pieces, which involve affixing objects to the strings of piano to create different noises than one would usually expect to hear.

As it turns out she didn’t exactly have any epiphanies; learning his Sonatas and Interludes — a set of 20 short pieces by Cage for prepared piano that she’ll perform Tuesday at Butler — turned out to be just like learning any other piece. But she did absorb some of his other teachings, namely his “idea of embracing all sounds as music and not privileging concert music or a concert experience.”

Cage has been known to have that indirect effect on people, as Boyd herself explains: “Some of Cage’s concerts were 30 hours long; they’d start out with a full house and end up with two people in the audience. That really didn’t faze him; he thought that if somebody didn’t like his music, he was doing them a favor because maybe they would hear something afterwards that they wouldn’t have liked but now like because it wasn’t as disagreeable to them as his music. He hoped, by contrast, to open people’s ears to other new sounds and new impressions.”

Boyd’s concert won’t quite clock in at 30 hours, and she notes that his Sonatas and Interludes — a cornerstone of 20th-century piano repertoire that’s rarely performed because of the difficulties involved with preparing a piano per Cage’s specifications — isn’t particularly difficult listening, compared to some of Cage’s later works. “My best advice to anyone wanting to listen to the piece is to let the sound wash over you; let go of expectations and just enjoy the suspended time,” she

Reviews of The Fourth Wall ensemble, Symphony on the Prairie, Herron art shows

PHOTOS

Dig-IN

by Stacy Kagiwada

says of the concert, following which attendees will have an opportunity to look inside the prepared piano. Here are a few more exchanges from our talk: NUVO: Does Cage include a schematic for how to prepare the piano?

KATE BOYD: As Cage matured as a composer, he became more interested in using chance events to dictate pitch selections and other kinds of things involved in the composition process. Now, this piece was written before he got into “chance,” so it’s very specific about exactly what he wants the pianist to do to prepare the piano. The very first page of the score is a table listing all the notes that are to be prepared on the piano. It then has the object you’re supposed to put in the piano, which strings you’re supposed to put it in between, and the measurement, in inches, down to the sixteenth of an inch, of how far it has to be from the dampers. He really invented the idea of a prepared piano — the idea that if you put a threaded screw between strings, you’ll actually be able to, for the duration of a performance, change the piano.

NUVO: That wasn’t thought of before Cage?

BOYD: It had been thought of to put things on the strings or to play inside the piano, but he coined the term “prepared piano,” and he was the first person to put things in, quasi-permanently, that wouldn’t just bounce off. [Maurice] Ravel had a piece where he put paper on the strings, and Henry Cowell, who wrote in the 1910s, was doing a lot of exploratory and experimental things inside the piano, but Cage came up with the idea in 1940, when he was working with a dancer on a different piece. She really wanted percussion for a piece, but the stage was too small for a percussion ensemble. So Cage said he’d try to make a piano more percussive. That’s when he started putting things on strings — but they were just bouncing off, and that’s when he realized that if he had just the right diameter of bolt, he could thread it between the strings and it would stay.

Naptown Roller Girls vs.

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GO&DO NUVO: So at this point in his work he really needed to have a predictable outcome.

NUVO: Have you encountered any practical difficulties in preparing the piano?

BOYD: Exactly! Some of the pitches are altered by putting rubber in between the strings, which makes for a dull sound; some are altered with bolts or screws; and some are altered by putting a bolt in and then a larger nut around it, so that it vibrates like a little cymbal.

BOYD: One thing that’s really interesting, at least for me, is that Cage is very detailed in his chart about distance and the object he wants in there, but he doesn’t say the diameter or length of the bolts he wants in there. He says “long bolt,” “short bolt,” “furniture bolt,” “medium screw.” So you go to the hardware store, and you’re in the aisle at Lowes ... so at the beginning, I just got a whole bunch of options, brought them home, put them in my piano and listened to how they sounded. Through that I came up with, basically, a kit that I use to prepare.

But then I have these spare parts. Because every piano is a little different, a screw that fit really well in one piano may be too loose or too tight in another. So then I’ll be able to swap it out because I have extras.

NUVO: And you’ve tried to follow his directions as closely as possible.

BOYD: Right. I’ve played with it a few times; it takes about two hours to prepare the piano for this piece because he alters 35 of the piano’s 88 notes, which makes for a very extensive preparation process, by contrast to a lot of the prepared piano pieces he did where he changed just seven notes, for example. Every piano I play on sounds a little bit different, because every piano is a little bit different and resonates slightly differently. Cage was all about Zen practice and impermanence, so it’s fitting that it’s a lesson in impermanence to play this piece because from one performance to the next I can’t predict exactly what the piano will sound like.

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— SCOTT SHOGER

Sept. 4, 7:30 p.m. @ Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall, Butler University; free and open to the public; butler.edu

FRIDAY

The Fourth Wall @ Indiana Landmarks Center The three multi-faceted performers who make up The Fourth Wall are a new art form by fusing music with dance, drama with slapstick comedy.

Two of the trio’s members — trombonist C. Neil Parsons and percussionist/ accordionist Greg Jukes — have been long interested in hybridity.

While an undergrad at Oberlin, Parsons made up an individualized major, Interdisciplinary Performance and Education, to allow him to follow his many blisses. Now a Bloomington resident, he’s collaborated with both Bloomington Playwrights Project and Windfall Dancers, a modern dance collective for whom he’s choreographed several pieces.

Jukes has worked with orchestras around the world as both narrator — reading scripts for Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and Russell Peck’s The Thrill of the Orchestra, among other works — and percussionist. He’s also been involved with a rock band, electro-acoustic ensemble and chamber music groups over the years.

Parsons and Jukes met as performers in Tales & Scales, an Evansville-based musical storytelling, or “musictelling,” ensemble that has since 1986 presented out-of-the-box productions designed to interest young people and their families in the arts.

The other member of the Fourth Wall is flutist Hilary Abigana, who had earned plenty of awards as a soloist and ensemble player on her instrument of choice, but had never been challenged to play difficult lines while pirouetting and plie-ing, before playing with Fourth Wall.

Following well-received performances at Spotlight 2012 and White Rabbit Cabaret, NUVO checked in with the group.

PHOTO BY MARK LEE

NUVO: What’s unique about what you do?

HILARY ABIGANA: I wanted to perform a recital that involved elements of dance and theatre throughout to create a well-rounded audience experience. So I asked Neil and Greg to help put together a program, and voila! — The Fourth Wall was born.

NUVO: What do you want audience members to take away from a performance?

JUKES: Our hybrid arts approach allows us to tap into all the different ways people experience a performance — being moved by the beauty of the music, the grace of a movement or the lyricism of a text.

ABIGANA: We encourage active participation, and we often ask audiences to help u s perform our pieces. We want our audiences to leave feeling they just experienced a really cool roller coaster ride.

PARSONS: We don’t want audiences to respect our art form; we want them to be excited by it.

NUVO: How do you build your performance arc?

JUKES: Instrument logistics is a major factor.

We put the pieces with the most involved percussion setups at the beginning of the show and first after intermission. Hilary’s shoes make some of our decisions. While it’s awesome having a flute player en pointe, she can’t CONTINUED ON PG 18 100% RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // go&do

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The Fourth Wall performs Aug. 31, 7:30 p.m. @ Cook Theater, Indiana Landmarks Center, 1201 N. Central Ave.; $10 adult, $8 student; thefourthwallensemble.com

SAMPLE FOURTH WALL PIECES

Subadobe by Fredrik Högberg: A madcap work for solo trombone.

Masks by Oliver Knussen: A virtuosic work for solo flutist.

From One, Apart by Jeremy Van Buskirk: Each performer starts on the same note, which spreads out through the ensemble; new ideas and motives are added creating more complex interactions. The music converges back to unison at key points. Repeat as needed.

“Grammophone” from Four, 2-Bit Contraption

by Jan Bach.: A flute and trombone dance a Charleston, but keep getting interrupted by the clicking of the broken record.

in memoriam

SCAN FOR EXCLUSIVE ACCESS

STEWART HUFF LADIES IN FREE

PARSONS: There is an inherent variety due to our shifting focus between music, dance and theatre elements. Lacking an established repertoire of pieces for flute, bass trombone and percussion provides us a certain freedom and we are constantly developing new pieces, either through commissioning new compositions or adapting established works for our instrumentation and eclectic performance style.

— RITA KOHN

DOWNTOWN

WEDNESDAY

CONTINUED FROM PG 17 exactly sustain that for a 90-minute to twohour show, and those shoes don’t just slip on.

So we take similar considerations with shoe changes as with percussion setups.

AUG 29-SEPT 1

THURSDAY

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“So much more to come” Remembering Jane Rulon

BY PAUL F.P. POGUE EDITORS@NUVO.NET

As head of the Indiana Film Commission from 1992 to 2005, Jane Rulon was a vital part of the city’s cultural scene during a period of tremendous growth. She was a tireless mover and shaker behind the scenes, with an equally vivid public face.

Rulon died Aug. 22 at age 59. The cause was ovarian cancer.

Rulon could frequently be spotted at art exhibits and local film premieres, a dashing presence in an impeccable scarf, wide smile and dazzling shock of white hair.

“She exuded a certain elegance, grace and poise that’s rare in our generation,” said longtime friend Mary Lee Pappas.

Though she engaged in numerous public relations jobs over the years, it was with the Indiana Film Commission that she really left her mark. The commission, now FILM Indiana, promotes the state as a viable place to make a film, and acts as a liaison between the community and filmmakers in order to ensure smooth projects.

“You kind of just grow into this,” she said in 2002, when she graced the cover of NUVO. (She also received a NUVO Cultural Vision Award for her work with the Indiana Film Commission in 2004).

“I’ve really fallen in love with this process of facilitating people who have a vision and are trying to get it up on the big screen.”

To that end, she had a remarkable knack for improvisation. Savvy local filmmakers knew to have Rulon on speed-dial if they wanted to get a road closed off for a couple of hours or speed

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SUBMITTED PHOTO

Rulon in 2004.

through the process of getting permits in a particular municipality.

In perhaps the most iconic of Rulon’s problem-solving moments, she took a midnight call in 1996 from a manager for the film Going All The Way after their special low-light film stock arrived late at the airport. They had exactly six hours to complete a night shoot with the special film, and the airport was closed. Rulon called someone, someone called someone else, and the producers had their film stock within an hour.

“She was very adventurous, and everything was an event,” said longtime friend Emily Ehmer. “She’d start out New Year’s Eve at one person’s house, stop in somewhere else for dinner, then off to another party and maybe two or three more parties. People have called her quirky, and that’s definitely true. She liked things to be different from the norm.”

The Jazz Kitchen, where she was a longtime customer, will hold a memorial service Sept. 23 from 3 to 7 p.m.

Always one to keep an eye on the future, Rulon once noted of the film community, “We’re just beginning to scratch the surface. I see so much more to come.”

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Wenck and Irwin in Going...Going...Gone.

Why Ed won’t take off his shirt A Fringe-y tale of cervixes and scars

BY ED WENCK EDITORS@NUVO.NET I was sitting at the kitchen table with my 20-year-old son, gnawing on a sandwich.

“I’ve got that Fringe improv thing on Tuesday, y’know,” I mentioned.

The kid looked at me, studying.

“Yeah,” he said, “I don’t know what you were thinking, either.”

Fourty-eight hours later, as I was pouring apple juice into a prop bottle of Jack Daniel’s, I was still wondering what I was thinking. I was about to step on stage with a veteran actress and no script to try to hold my amateurish own for about an hour.

It had been two months since Lou Harry had pitched me the idea. The 2012 IndyFringe show he’d concocted with John Thomas was devious and brilliant: “Going...Going...Gone,” an improvisational one-act play about three characters, one of whom is dead.

The theater becomes an auction house for the show, the very same auction house owned by the late Ed. (A fictional Ed. I was very much alive during the show, thanks.)

Actor A steps onto the stage to say a few words about the departed while Actor B reveals that there’s stuff left behind, and it must be sold. It’s in the will.

Now comes the tricky part — the audience.

The crowd has been given play money.

Some have a little, some have a bunch — just like in real life, no? They bid on the items. They buy the items. And the actors have no idea what the items are.

Everything’s in boxes, covered and concealed. The actors are responsible for quite a bit here: not only do they have to construct their relationship to one another and to the deceased, they also have to create backstory for the bits of garage sale flotsam

and jetsam, improvising dialogue on the fly.

John and Lou had held workshops where we talked about stuff that was kicking around our homes — stuff we’d gotten rid of, stuff we’d never part with for sentimental reasons.

“Ed,” said Lou, “we’re pairing you with Karen Irwin. It could be really explosive.”

Irwin is the queen of fringe. She’s been entertaining this town for years. She’s incredibly talented, imposingly charismatic — and sometimes a little dangerous.

I’d run into Karen before and found her to be disarmingly direct in a way that some folks find inappropriate — and I’m sure some men find terrifying. Me, I’ve been around showbiz and art-types all my life.

My definition of “normal” is … well, I don’t have one yet.

We met twice at a coffee shop at 54th Street and College Avenue to talk about our characters. We went with the brother/sister bit: Dad was an ass, I took care of him for three years in hospital and hospice while Karen was living on an ashram or something.

I was put-upon-Eddiejunior, she was a nowdivorced serial bride with a penchant for mysticism and certain recreational drugs.

Our second meeting was a dive into our personal histories. I told her how my wife and I met, how my relationship with my dad had been strained after he and Mom split and he remarried, how my brother and I seemed to have very little in common.

She told me about her acting background, her late fiance, and then she went down a road that really grabbed the attention of our fellow al fresco Sunday brunchers. Her eyes got big, very big.

“Jesus Christ,” I rumbled. “You’re freaking me out. You look like Squeaky Fromme or something.”

“There were a few years where about a third of the IU medical school saw my cervix,” she announced in a loud, clear voice that had clearly channeled Janis Joplin in a one-woman show. I heard the legs of metal

chairs scraping across the concrete patio.

Some folks were turning to get a better listen, some folks were hiding the children.

Karen explained how she’d been a training subject for pelvic exams. She instructed wanna-be OB/GYNs on what was creepy and what was comfortable: “You don’t say lie down, you say lie back; you tell me what you’re checking, not what you’re feeling — I don’t care about your feelings …”

It was Karen’s mission to make both physicians and patients understand that the exam didn’t have to be painful or weird. It was a monologue delivered with passion and grace. My mind was sufficiently blown.

And I’ve never seen a waitress give a twopatron table more attention than ours.

OK, I thought. Game on.

Five minutes before the show, I stood backstage, shaking my arms and trying to somehow wring the tension out of my torso.

I’d done improv before, done stand-up comedy for years, done radio for decades, but this was Out There. The room was full — a feat for a Tuesday — and then the lights went up and the lunacy began.

Karen’s character was all chakras and sunshine and trippiness, a Gracie-Allen— Karen Irwin on-acid free spirit who wanted to give away the goods and sell hugs.

My character was, well, problematic. I was going for a Paul Giamatti type, but my face is structured so that world-weary can easily look angry. My Ed Junior became something more like Giamatti playing the Ed Norton character in Fight Club.

We worked it out — some moments were flat, some moment were transcendent, and I know from friends that the thing played better than we thought. We sold trophies, cookware, even a Buttmaster — the Thighmaster’s weird cousin. Still, in the heat of the action, there is one moment that I’d really, really like to get back.

Karen’s auctioning of hugs led to an offer to take off her bra — which led to an offer for me to take off my shirt.

“There were a few years where about a third of the IU medical school saw my cervix.”

Slowly.

For 70 bucks.

That offer came from my wife. Some were in on the joke, knowing who she was. Some weren’t. Didn’t matter.

It was a great line. The room exploded.

We began to play with it. Karen pulled off my tie. I turned my back to the crowd and began to unbutton my shirt.

And then, all of my reservations about this thing zeroed in on my stomach.

I have a scar — a weird, four-inch purple hack into my belly that’s evidence of a medical event that saw me in very bad trouble.

I won’t bore you with the gore, but genetics visited upon me a condition only very old men should see. That scar’s not even a year old. It’s a reminder, a daily look-in-themirror reminder of something really, really awful. I’m certain my wife doesn’t even notice it anymore.

I do.

And it was all I could think about. My character was gone. I was just stupid, vulnerable Ed, an amateur among real, committed actors; just another hack, another dilettante. I was panicked. Mortified.

And then, of all things, my cell phone rang.

I’d arranged with John Thomas beforehand that he could call me on my cell if he felt any moment needed some kind of Bob-Newhart-style one-sided-dialogue punch. We exchanged a few words — and then I got out of it.

“Phone-in bid! Two hundred bucks to keep my shirt on!” I announced.

And … scene.

The ruse worked for a moment — but then I could feel the crowd’s disappointment.

We went on. We sold. I found my character again. I stood taller. I chugged my fake whiskey for laughs. Karen received huge roars of approval for her loopy takes. We finished. We exhaled. We got through.

After the show, over beers at a little bar up the street, Karen deconstructed the moment. “You know, if you’d taken your shirt off, that would have sent the thing into the stratosphere. Nudity always wins.”

She was right. I told her she was right.

That’s why she’s an actor, and I’m still simply a comic. Many comedians often hold a few select cards very, very close. Actors never get that luxury.

And I’m not ready to show my cervix to strangers yet, y’know?

100% RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // a&e feature

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Will Sheff talks shop

Okkervil River’s frontman on Robert Burns and Lou Reed

BY KATHERINE COPLEN KCOPLEN@NUVO.NET Okkervil River’s Will Sheff decided after the release of The Stage Names and The Stand Ins — records released a year apart that share themes and album art — to become purposely harder to understand.

With his 2011 album, I Am Very Far, Sheff left behind the tight narratives that characterized his previous releases for myths, mermaids and spare arrangements. It was not a choice lightly made — read on for Sheff’s explanation.

(Editor’s note: Here lies merely 1,500 words of a massive 7,000-word interview.

Log on to NUVO.net to see the rest.)

NUVO: I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of songwriters as English majors and how the exposure to the mass of literature trains your brain. Do you feel like your brain was shaped by the literature that you’ve read, and do you feel like, though you exist in most people’s minds as a musician, that you also exist as a writer?

SHEFF: Well, for whatever reason, I have a difficult time distinguishing between different kinds of art. Obviously I do distinguish between them, but I tend to lump film and writing and songs all together in my mind. So I never really thought very concretely about how writing prose affected my songwriting, just like I never thought concretely about how being a

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go&do // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // NUVO // 100% RECYCLED PAPER

hobbyist in certain film things every now and then affects my songwriting. They’re all related, I guess, in a way.

I came up really fascinated with prose poetry and with prose writers who had a really insanely poetic style, like Dylan Thomas’s prose, like Under Milk Wood.

The very florid William Faulkner stuff.

That was something that I came up reading a lot. At the same time, I was reading a lot of poetry — this was sort of in high school — and I think that it just really left a stamp on my brain and my tastes. It’s not something I meant to do literally, but I do think that when you talk about songwriters being English majors, I think that that’s slightly receded now because the taste for songwriting is not as keen as it was before. Even five years ago there was a higher appreciation for songwriting in music than there is now.

I think right now people are really interested in a vibe and a sound, and that’s more interesting to them. If you listen to the actual writing in songs, it’s taken quite a steep nosedive in quality. But these things are cyclical, and there could come a time again, even soon, when songwriting becomes popular again. All it really takes is somebody who makes people really enthusiastic in that sort of harder to find way than happens sometimes.

But I do think that songwriting has kind of re-emerged — not just in the last 10 years or the last 50 years, but in the 20th century — as a popular form of poetry. Of course there was always that; folk songs and pop songs are the same thing in a lot of ways. It’s just that pop songs are now the dominant form, and it wasn’t quite the same before the media connected everything globally. It’s like lyric poetry, Robert Burns and stuff like that. That’s what it always reminds me of when I think of really good songwriting, and the link to poetry is a lyric writer like Robert Burns who did both. And the really great songwriters do that. They give you the feeling of a poem, but it’s not exactly a poem, because room CONTINUED ON PG 24

BOOKS CONTINUED FROM PG 22 has been made for melody in there, so the language is simpler.

That’s why whenever you hear a Shakespeare sonnet set to music, it kind of sucks, even though Shakespeare was one of the greatest writers in human history.

That stuff wasn’t really made to be sung.

You have to leave space. Lou Reed is better at writing lyrics than Shakespeare. If Shakespeare was trying to write song lyrics, he probably would have been better than Lou Reed, but that’s why it’s weird to add music to old poetry. I think that Robert Burns hit that perfect halfway point where it’s not too busy, it stands up really strongly as a poem but there’s room for melody. I feel like that’s what the best songwriters who are writer-writers do; they walk that kind of special line where it’s an enriched, heightened form of poetry that is wide open for music to fit in there.

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NUVO: I’ve always conceived of Stage Names and Stand Ins as kind of almost a series of short stories under a larger narrative. How do they connect for you?

SHEFF: A lot of people say the short story thing. It’s not really how I think of it, but that’s not a bad thing. I don’t even really know how I would describe it if it were up to me. I think of it as maybe more related to poetry but definitely there’s, especially in older songs of mine, a very strong sense of a character. I guess that after a certain point, when I was doing that again and again and again, it started to feel like something that was expected of me, and I’m this kind of contrary person who, when I start to feel like people want me to do something, it’s like I can’t help but start trying to not do it. I think that was one of the things that was happening.

NUVO: In I Am Very Far, definitely.

SHEFF: Yeah, I think that’s one of the things that’s happening in I Am Very Far is that I’m trying to not do a lot of the things that people wanted me to do. And that’s not just me being a stubborn bastard, although I am. It’s partially not wanting to feel like I’m full of shit, not wanting to feel like I’m doing an impression of myself. I don’t mean to say I’m good at anything, but once you get vaguely used to doing something, you start to learn the tricks to make it work.

And then once you start to learn the tricks to make it work, you start to realize how you could employ them very cynically, and you start to notice how people do that.

There are ways that writers that you like start to do exactly what they know how to do, and they do it again and again and again, and after a while it starts to lose its magic. It starts to feel like they’re kind of just doing an impression of themselves, or they’re telling you what you want to hear, or the novelty of it is gone. But at the same time, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they became less successful; there are albums out there that are some of the most successful albums by a band that was not the best album at all.

I actually like this record, but a good example is David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. That’s

sort of like his most successful album, and no real hardcore Bowie fans would call that his best album. He basically gave people sort of a watered-down, friendly version of what they had come to assume that David Bowie was, kind of a candy-colored version of that. That’s all well and good, I actually like that record, but I just felt like I was doing the same thing, not intentionally like that, but I felt like I was in danger of doing a Will Sheff impression, and I wanted to take it away from being so clear and lucid, and I wanted to make something that was a lot harder to penetrate and a lot more sort of intricate and pushed you away instead of inviting you in, that was sort of thorny and you couldn’t get inside of it and you couldn’t figure it out and it had a sense of mystery to it.

NUVO: It kind of reminds me of a recent disappointment for me, which was reading what Jane Austen’s estate commissioned P.D. James to write, a sequel to Pride and Prejudice called Death Comes To Pemberley.

The writer was incredibly adept, but it felt like she was kind of like just employing all of Austen’s tricks, but it was bloodless.

SHEFF: I had a similar experience. I got really into Raymond Chandler and I read all the Raymond Chandler books, and the last Raymond Chandler book that he was in the middle of writing when he died, his estate got Robert B. Parker, the mystery writer, to write the second half of it, so the first half is Chandler and the second half is Robert B. Parker. And Robert B. Parker did an amazing job of being a ventriloquist of this Raymond Chandler style, but that means nothing. It’s not Raymond Chandler.

I don’t want to read fan fiction. If you’re a really big fan …I always think of that as like smoking resin, when you’re like a burnt-out teenage pothead and there’s no more weed in the house and you’re scraping out your disgusting bong and smoking that because you’re desperate.

That’s sort of what I do — I’m a big fan of David Bowie, so I’ll read these trashy David Bowie biographies that I know are terrible, and I’m just doing it for some kind of really sad fanboy kick, ’cause I’ve listened to the albums so much and I’ve read anything legitimate that there is to write about him. So now I’m watching those weird Netflix documentaries where it’s like a bunch of critics saying things you already know about David Bowie, or David Bowie’s ex-bassist’s sister’s friend talking about him or something. But that’s what you do if you’re a fan.

SHEFF PERFORMS WITH HIS BAND OKKERVIL RIVER ON Friday, Aug. 31, 6 p.m. @ Upland Brewing Co., 250 W. 11th St., Bloomington $20 advance, $25 door; uplandbeer.com.

The event is a fundraiser for the Sycamore Land Trust and also features White Lightning Boys and Barbecue James.

MOVIES

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg trying to be happily divorced in Celeste and Jesse Forever.

Celeste and Jesse Forever r Celeste and Jesse are best friends that married a few years ago. They’re getting a divorce now — Celeste is a razor sharp trend predictor and the aimlessness of her aspiring artist husband was just maddening — but they still spend all their time together. Who better to soothe the trauma of a divorce than your best friend?

Celeste and Jesse Forever is an agreeable indie reverse rom-com — even the reverse rom-com conceit fades after a while — with an immensely likable cast. Rashida Jones, so good as Ann in Parks and Recreation, does equally fine work in the lead role here. Like Ann, Celeste is adept professionally but gawky on the dating scene. Jones, by the way, cowrote the screenplay with Will McCormack (he appears briefly as a frustrated weed dealer). Lee Toland Krieger directs.

Andy Samberg, best known for his years on Saturday Night Live and his Digital Shorts (including the celebrated “Dick in a Box”), ditches his exaggerated comic personas and plays Jesse as an easygoing soul with a sharp intellect that makes it easier to navigate through life as an arrested adolescent.

Marital breakup aside, he and Celeste make a credible pair — how can you fault a couple whose favorite joke is teaming up to “masturbate” a small tube of lip balm until it squirts?

Shortly into the film, Celeste and Jesse’s

relationship is challenged by two of their friends, who contend that the couple is using their friendship to insulate themselves from the post-breakup rebuilding process. To placate various friends, they finally agree to start dating again and life gets rocky, especially for Celeste.

At first the movie tries to have its cake and eat it too, with director Krieger overreaching for indie cred with too much hand-held camera jerkiness, while the screenplay turns various rom-com mainstays upside down (one of Celeste’s work colleagues, played

by Elijah Wood, fumbles while trying to deliver a sassy one-liner, part of his attempt to become Celeste’s quip-ready, advicedispensing gay sidekick).

But the film also uses rom-com traditions like Starbucks compilation CD tunes for scene transitions and occasional sitcom bits (Celeste roots around in Jesse’s trash dumpster and drops her bracelet — oh my, who will soon pop up with his new girlfriend to catch Celeste in the act?)

Those who can roll with the rom-com/ anti-rom-com head butting will be rewarded with a bittersweet comedy that focuses believably on the experience of rebuilding one’s life after a breakup. It’s a horrible thing to go through, but Celeste and Jesse Forever manages to present the pain while maintaining a breezy enough tone to keep the production from devolving into pathos.

The film may be a bit slick beneath its indie wool cap, but the emotions are genuine, the laughs are plentiful, and Jones and Samberg make a winning team, before and after they start their respective rebuilding.

— ED JOHNSON-OTT

FILM CLIPS 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK y

THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) JAN SVANKMAJER

Julie Delpy’s sequel to her well-regarded 2007 film is set in NYC, where French photographer Marion (Delpy) and her two kids live with her talk show host boyfriend Mingus (Chris Rock). When Marion’s father (played by Delpy’s real-life father Albert), her sister and her boyfriend come to visit, all hell breaks loose. There are numerous funny moments, but for the most part the family is more annoying than amusing. The most laidback, likeable character is the one played by Rock, who drops his screechiness and exercises his non-strident side. Thanks, Chris! Delpy, to her credit, makes her character just as annoying as her kinfolks. In French and English with subtitles. 91 minutes. — Ed Johnson-Ott Climb ev’ry mountain to get to the IMA for its final Summer Nights film. Aug. 31, 7:30 p.m. @ Indianapolis Museum of Art amphitheater; $10 adults, $6 members Bloomington’s IU Cinema features 35mm prints of three features ( Little Otik, Conspirators of Pleasure, Lunacy) and several shorts by Svankmajer, the preeminent Czech surrealist. Aug. 30-31

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FOOD what you missed

Dig-IN: Tale of two tacos

PHOTOS BY STACY KAGIWADA

Among the dishes created especially for Dig-IN, the annual celebration of Indiana’s top chefs, vintners, brewers and artisans, were a waygu tongue and cheek taco (bottom; created by Aaron Butts, executive chef at Roanoke’s Joseph Decuis: A Gourmet Experience) and a barbacoa de chivo walking taco (right; created by Goose the Market and Smo king Goose owner Christopher Eley). Dig-IN was held Aug. 26 at White River State Park.

BEER BUZZ

BY RITA KOHN

Pumpkin Ale, previewed at DigIN, will be on draft and in bottles beginning Sept. 3. Half Cycle IPA bottles in 6 packs are already distributed statewide.

No w t h e la rg est e st b u f f e t s e l e c t i o n i n t o w n !

SEPT. 4 HISTORIC BUZZ

Kwang Casey, founder of Oaken Barrel in Greenwood, brings us into greater Oktoberfest season with Frederick the Great’s 1777 comment on the state of economy: “It is disgusting to note the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects and the amount of money that goes out of the country inconsequence. If possible, this must be prevented. My people must drink beer.”

OKTOBERFEST CALENDAR, AT A GLANCE: Sept 4: Thr3e Wise Men leading off with Oktoberfest tapping.

Sept. 6: Sun King Oktoberfest tapping in the tasting room; starting Sept. 10, Sun King Oktoberfest available in cans for the first time.

Sept. 22: Upland event in Indy at Military Park, 3-11 p.m.

Oct. 6: Crown Brewing event in Crown Point, 3-11 p.m.

DAILY BUZZ: AUGUST 29

Twenty Tap First Birthday Party, 6 p.m., 5406 College Ave., 317-602-8840

AUGUST 30

Sun King tapping Grapefruit Jungle.

AUGUST 31

Heartland Film Festival Short Short Film Festival at Flat 12 Bierwerks. The notice reads: “It works like this: you visit Flat12 and make a $5 donation to Heartland. When the brewery taproom closes at 8 p.m,. you stick around for a special screening of Heartland short films. Heartland will have tickets for the film festival to give away. Flat 12 will have some swag and possibly a few beer festival tickets to give away.” Flat 12 Joe Brahma Coffee Brown Ale will see a limited release in the tap room, while Flat Jack

Thr3e Wise Men tapping of Antonius 1742 Oktoberfest at 6 p.m., followed by the first of their weekly Trivia Tuesdays, 9-11 p.m.

NEW ON TAP

The RAM: Doomsday Scenario an Imperial Red; Bayside Steam (Downtown only); Omnipotent Ale (Coming to Fishers) Crown Brewing: The 2012 Crown Challenge Winner Kolsch. Crown brewmaster Steve Mazylewski reports, “Bob Heinlein, owner of Kennywood Home Brew Supply in Crown Point, won for his delicious Kolsch. This beer is extremely drinkable and has a very effervescent character.”

Steve and Bob brewed together as a Pro-Am team.

Oaken Barrel, Greenwood: American Brown Ale and Kolsch, a specialty traditionally brewed in Cologne, Germany. Kwang Casey describes it as “Clear beer with bright straw-yellowish hue, lightly hopped making it an easy drinking beer.”

Half Moon, Kokomo: Dastardly Dunkelweizen is a dark German-style wheat beer. Brewmaster John Templet says, “It has the same banana and clove flavors of Half Moon’s Heavenly Hefeweizen and the roasted and toasted flavors of a good brown ale that comes from the carabrown and midnight wheat malts.”

Darren Conner reports Bier Brewery expansion is underway and reminds us changing seasons means “bringing in some new yeast strains to prepare for our fall and winter lineup--all our Scottish ales, Autumn Marzen, Pumpkin, Porters, Stouts and some Bourbon Aged Goodness and new recipes.”

This week Bier’s summer brews are still on tap at the tasting room and in bars and restaurants around Indianapolis.

If you have an item for Beer Buzz, send an email to beerbuzz@nuvo.net. Deadline for Beer Buzz is Thursday noon before the Wednesday of publication.

HOURS

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Daily Lunch Buffet: 11am-2:30 pm Dinner: Mon-Thurs. 5-10 pm, Fri. 5:00-10 pm Sat. 2:30-10 pm, Sun. 2:30-9:30 pm

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Catering for private parties! Call for carryout! | THE SPOT for vegan and vegetable dishes! (non-veggie too!)

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27

music Our native sons Native Sun to release ‘Step into the Light’

BY W A D E CO G G E S H A L L M U S I C@ N U V O . N E T

C

ollectively the members of Native Sun have more than 20 years of professional and music performing experience. With the impending release of their debut, Step into the Light, the trio is ready to show Indianapolis, and beyond, what they’re all about.

It’s a Sunday afternoon when bassist Brandon Meeks, drummer Richard “Sleepy” Floyd and emcee Bobby Young convene at the Music Garage on the Northeastside for rehearsals. It’s a space they’ve been utilizing since 2006, almost as long as they spent writing Step into the Light.

That latter fact, they say, was by design.

“Had we come out with a project four or five years ago, there may have been some joints in there people could’ve felt,” Young says. “But if you could compare it to where we are now, there would be no comparison.

The maturity on the record comes through.”

It gave them the time they needed to hone their production skills and create the choicest beats they could –– all of which populate Step into the Light. The title track seamlessly integrates part of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” while a spokenword segment by Tariq Aamir underscores “Fresh Heir.” Each member contributes to the creative process.

“Whatever sounds best is what we roll with,” Young says. “It’s not, ‘You get this many beats.’ It’s whatever works best for the group. That’s been our mentality from day one.”

Meeks and Floyd combine for one funky, bottom-heavy rhythm. Just the fact they use live instrumentation makes Native Sun something of an anomaly among hip-hop acts.

“When we started nobody was doing it except one other band,” Floyd says.

Young likes rapping over live instruments because it offers more energy than just two turntables and a microphone.

“Floyd and Brandon can pick up on cues from the crowd or whatever I’m doing and accentuate it,” he says. “And if people are really feeling it, we can extend whatever song we’re playing on the fly. We have the autonomy to do whatever we want.

That makes me feel more energized than I would just performing a track.”

It’s been Young’s goal from the beginning for Native Sun to be considered more than just hip-hop.

“I always tell people the greatest compliment I’ve ever received, as far as Native Sun is concerned, is ‘I don’t know what to call it’,” he says. “To me that’s a compliment, because if you can’t char-

onnuvo.net 28

acterize it you can’t put it in a box. That allows us to be free.”

Meeks and Floyd have played music since they were children. Originally from Gary, Meeks started on classical guitar at age 9, switching to bass when he joined his high school’s jazz band. After studying graphic design in Chicago, he moved to Indianapolis looking for work.

That’s when he met Floyd. A Kokomo native, Floyd (who got his nickname from his high school baseball coach after snoozing through a study hall and even detention despite not having it) got into drums as early as age 3 after watching others play in church.

“Back in the ’80s, they made drum sets with paper heads,” Floyd says. “I don’t know how they figured they’d make those last. My grandma bought mine for me for Christmas, and I busted them the same day. So I just turned all my toys into drums.”

He met Meeks through a Martin Luther King Jr. Day church concert that his cousin organized. Meeks’ brother-in-law, a saxophone player, was the headliner. Floyd filled in on drums. The two became fast friends and started regularly playing jazz gigs together around Indy.

Young was late to the emcee game, even though he grew up loving hip-hop. An older cousin who worked as a DJ introduced him to the likes of Public Enemy and Redman.

“Lyrically, there were things I wasn’t supposed to be listening to, but just the art form really intrigued me,” Young says.

He wanted to try rhyming himself, but always lacked the confidence. As a student at Indiana University, he often hung out with a group of guys he also went to high school with, who had their own hip-hop group. They were always spontaneously starting freestyle battles, a concept popularized at the time by the Eminem movie 8 Mile.

“That just made me more comfortable with it,” Young says. “I always knew I had the ability, but it was just about doing it.”

Floyd met Young while also attending IU. “I walked in on him at a party,” he says.

“He was freestyling to some beats. We ended up kickin’ it for a long time down there.”

They played occasional gigs as Native Sun after everyone returned to Indianapolis. It didn’t become serious until 2007, when work on Step into the Light commenced. In the meantime Meeks and Floyd have become “first-call cats” when backing musicians are needed around the city. Last year Native Sun was recruited to play behind Slum Village’s Elzhi for a local gig and also served as openers.

“We’re trying to use that as leverage to push what Native Sun does,” Floyd says.

They feel like they’ve earned the respect of the local music community. Beyond that, however, lies a persistent apathy about how the Circle City compares to other music scenes.

“It’s like playing basketball at IU,” Young says of being a professional musician in

FEATURES / REVIEWS Insanity at the Gathering of the Juggalos A Silent Film at the Biergarten

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SUBMITTED PHOTO

Native Sun

Indianapolis. “You can pretty much be assured you won’t make it to the [NBA], but you’ll get the fundamentals down.”

Native Sun doesn’t look at that as an obstacle though –– more like a challenge.

Their attitude is, why not us? Better yet, why can’t Indianapolis be on the hip-hop map? Young doesn’t disparage any artist who’s left here for better opportunities, but he figures if Native Sun can’t make any noise in their hometown, they cannot think they’ll make any waves on a national scale.

That’s why the Step into the Light is permeated with piety toward Naptown and hip-hop in general. On “Circle City Renaissance,” Young raps, “Damn, Naptown got its own sound / Damn, Naptown got its own style / I know my people ain’t heard this in a while / It’s the Circle City renaissance, starts right now.”

Young conscientiously works to keep his lyrics positive.

“That’s how I try to live my life,” he says. “It’s very easy to be negative, but my attitude is the good Lord saw fit to wake me this morning, so the day’s already started good. There are a lot of people who didn’t wake up this morning for whatever reason.”

Now that their debut is ready for mass consumption, its creators have made

Cherry Bombs, ‘Punks on Parole’ Cataracts 2012 Review Dr. Manhattan, Dormlife Split 7’’

PHOTOS

Native Sun their focus.

“I’ve stopped playing with like 10 bands to focus on moving this project forward,” says Meeks, who adds as hired hands they could have a gig every night if they wanted.

But after a while, it feels like something that’s not leading to anything.

“Sometimes it feels like we’re on tour, but we haven’t actually gone outside [Interstate] 465. We’re trying to allow ourselves time to focus on building this project now.”

Same with Floyd. He considers his dues paid and is ready for more.

“We kind of removed ourselves from the scene in order to build it up, if that makes sense,” he says about the extended process behind Step into the Light.

The goal is for Native Sun to tour nationally. To help make that happen, they’re working on collaborating with like-minded acts in other major cities to play shows together both there and here. They hope it helps their hometown too.

“The more we build up Indianapolis, the more attention that will draw from other cities,” Meeks says.

Shy Hunters, United States Three Heavy Hanging Return Arkestra Ancient Slang, Tubax, KO, Magic Milk

NATIVE SUN ALBUM RELEASE Saturday, Sept. 1, 10:30 p.m.

Jazz Kitchen, 5377 N. College Ave. $10, 21+

B-52s at the Palladium Linkin Park, Incubus at Klipsch Def Leppard, Poison at Klipsch FS Grand Prix Fashion Show

A CULTURAL MANIFESTO

WITH KYLE LONG

Kyle Long’s music, which features off-the-radar rhythms from around the world, has brought an international flavor to the local dance music scene.

Sweet Poison Victim “Before we can continue, you need to drink some sweet poison,” Kwesi Brown insists as he pours me a cup of the dangerously potent homemade Ghanaian alcohol.

It’s a frightening looking concoction, stored in a glass jar and overflowing with a variety of oddly shaped twigs and branches.

“There’s over 40 different kinds of roots in there,” Brown boasts. “It’s used as a medicine, but it will knock you down and it can kill you.”

The drink has become the inspiration for Brown’s current musical project, Sweet Poison Victim. Out of the dozen or so SPV shows I’ve attended, I’ve never seen the expert Ghanaian drummer without a jug of sweet poison in tow. Don’t get me wrong, Brown is not over-imbibing. He just loves to share all aspects of Ghanaian culture with nearly everyone he meets –– which might give you a hint about Sweet Poison’s sound.

Sweet Poison Victim is a loose collective of about 10 musicians who all bring a unique musical background to the band.

Their sound encompasses indie rock, soul, hip-hop and Latin music all underpinned

by Brown’s buoyant African rhythms.

“The music we’re playing in this group is kind of universal,” says multi-instrumentalist Clarence Jones –– better known as Gritts –– who is also a member of local hip-hop act Hinx Jones.

“So far we really have our ‘Western’ songs and ‘African’ songs. At this point you can definitely tell the two styles apart,” says bandmember Karl Selm.

I recently spoke with Brown after a Sweet Poison practice session. We discussed music and his childhood in Ghana as we shared a glass of sweet poison.

NUVO: How did you become interested in the traditional culture while growing up in Ghana?

KWESI BROWN: I grew up in a family where I was torn between the Christian religion and the traditional religion of my ancestors. My grandmother is a traditional priestess and my dad is a Christian preacher.

The Western world perceives the traditional African religion as voodoo. During the colonial period, the missionaries said the traditional drums were associated with godlessness and you couldn’t go to heaven if you played those drums. The British banned traditional music from the schools.

I would be in my father’s church and I would hear the drums in my grandmother’s shrine and I would go run over there.

From the beginning when I would hear the sound of the traditional drums it would draw me in and pull me to that place.

My dad did not want me to go to my grandmother’s place. Anytime I went there I would be punished and I had to spend the whole weekend at the mission learning how to play trumpets, wind instruments and keyboards. But he couldn’t stop me –– I was always more interested in the traditional music.

NUVO: So you studied traditional music at your grandmother’s shrine?

30

music // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // NUVO // 100% RECYCLED PAPER

PHOTO BY ARTUR SILVA

Sweet Poison Victim

BROWN: I got into music through worshipping at my grandmother’s shrine. I didn’t know that I was studying, but in a way you could say I studied music there. When you go to the ceremony, you are a part of it. No one sits you down and tells you to do this or do that.

I watched and learned all the time by observing the elders and then doing it myself. That’s how we learned back home. If you don’t know how to do it right they will kick you out.

NUVO: You have a doctorate in ethnomusicology; how did this childhood interest in music lead to a career in academics?

BROWN: I joined many cultural dance groups when I was growing up. Eventually I formed my own cultural group with my brothers. We did a performance for the British Consulate in Ghana. There was a British guy there who was very interested in my music and through him I traveled with my brothers to play music in England.

We received a grant from the government and we taught African music and culture in schools all over Europe.

I came to America to get a master’s degree in ethnomusicology. There are a lot of scholars in the West who write about African culture and music. I was reading these books and I thought they were flawed with inaccuracies. So I thought the best thing was for me to get myself equipped to write my own and that brought me to America for grad school.

I currently teach Ghanaian performance and culture at IU-Bloomington.

NUVO: You’ve recently shifted your primary focus from teaching music to teaching public health. Do you find ways to connect these two disciplines?

BROWN: For me, music is a part of everything and it’s part of the reason I went into public health. When I was doing research for my doctoral dissertation I was studying how music was used in healing. I went to some shrines in Ghana and I didn’t like what I saw. During the ceremonies they would cut young children to protect them, but by doing that, they were spreading diseases and tetanus. So I needed to study health to correct these things.

I grew up in music; there’s no way I can forget it. In Africa, music is a big part of our lives. When you see Africans play music, the rhythmic patterns we play, the different layers of rhythms –– that is how we see life.

Life is not a single line, we have different rhythms in this world.

Kyle Long creates a custom podcast for each column. Hear this week’s at NUVO.net.

MUSIC

PHOTO BY STACY KAGIWADA

See slideshows of previous performances at NUVO.net.

So long, Earth House

All-ages venue closes under financial woes B Y K A T H E RI N E C O P LE N K CO P L E N @N U VO . N E T When you step into the Earth House Cafe to order a coffee, a gigantic eye stares back at you. A jewel-encrusted eye, sparkly and huge.

We know that eye well –– we made it.

It’s the NUVO 2010 Cultural Vision Award, which we handed over to the Earth House Collective for providing a “major hub for creative, provocative and alternative ideas and programs” to Indianapolis.

Much went on at the Earth House, including a fully vegan cafe menu, a coffee bar piled with freshly roasted organic coffee beans, a frequently changing collection of art posted to walls by local visual artists, a lending library and many comfortable nooks to rest your feet and sip a drink.

Occupying this variety of spaces were open mic-ers, tai chi and yoga enthusiasts and audiences set to enjoy Indy Film Fest short films.They enjoyed Pay What You Can meals and the Really Really Free Market.

Growing outside was a flourishing urban garden, including ripe watermelons, corn, squash, herbs and a planned biergarten complete with Earth House-grown hops.

But perhaps our favorite use of the Earth House was for the regular concerts held inside the sanctuary. The beautiful, open space held not only the weekly services of the Lockerbie Central United Methodist congregation, but a widely varied program of local, regional and national acts who filled the stage with music. In the last year alone, Earth House hosted a collection of local roots musicians at The Wake, songstress Laura K. Balke, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, Black Joe Lewis, The Civil Wars, Rodeo Ruby Love and many First Friday events, Shows were often under $20 and always all-ages.

But it is no more.

“The [Earth House Collective] Board met several times to review where we are, and it just became clear to everybody that we couldn’t keep going. We didn’t have a model that was sustainable long-term,” says Brenda Freije, current pastor of Lockerbie Central United Methodist and former Earth

House Collective Board member.

Freije was previously volunteer pastor at the church, but was appointed full-time on July 1.

“The church owns the building, and Earth House is a supporting organization of the church. The church has control to some extent over the appointment of the majority of the board,” says Freije.

Although Lockerbie Central UMC plans for now to continue to meet in the space, the collective will officially cease operations on Friday, Aug. 31.

“Earth House is closing. There’s always the possibility we can figure out a model that works in this building, but there is a lot in terms of the support of this building that has to be taken into account,” says Freije.

“This is a beloved place. I was just walking the grounds this morning, looking at the art in the garden. It’s a fantastic place and it’s just very sad,” says Freije.

The venue was a favorite of local promoters, who took advantage of the lack of age restriction and treasured the beautiful space. “[Former Executive Director] Jordan Updike and his team put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into making that venue a success. MOKB Presents tried to support him and it in every way that we could –– even helping to raise over $15,000 for a PA system,” says Craig “Dodge” Lile.

Another local promoter, Andy Skinner of A-Squared Industries, laments the closure.

“Of course, there are always little things that every venue in the world can improve, but for what it is –– a centrally located all-ages venue that perfectly caters to midlevel national indie rock acts –– it has been perfect,” says Skinner.

He’ll miss the amenities the venue offered.

“There was a tower green room for the bands; there was a coffee shop downstairs for the younger crowd. It was everything you would want for every age group at a live show and it will be sorely missed,” says Skinner.

Musician Jake Satterfield of Verdant Vera, performed at one of the last scheduled shows on Saturday as part of the band’s self-titled album release show.

“We chose the Earth House because of its reputation and beauty. Also, being that it was Indianapolis’ largest independent allages venue, made it a lot better of a choice, because a lot of our fans and friends are still under 21,” says Satterfield.

Knowing the venue would be closing created an emotional atmosphere for Verdant Vera’s show.

“Going in knowing that it was going to be the first and last time we ever get to play CONTINUED ON PG 32 100% RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // music

31

CONTINUED FROM PG 31 Earth House, I really just wanted to soak it all in,” says Satterfield. The feelings that night were definitely bittersweet but, to play such an absolutely stunning venue, made everything worth it.”

“My favorite musical memories were when we had small gatherings of artists in the cafe. The whole atmosphere was just fantastic,” says Freije.

“For me, a lot of local musicians also played at the church. We did reggae worship music –– we always had a really great caliber of artists for the worship [service],” says Freije.

Although the future for the collec-

tive is unclear, there is one more show scheduled for lovers of the Earth House to enjoy. Electronic musician Dan Deacon will perform with Height With Friends, Chester Endersby Gwazda and Alan Resnick on the official closing date for the venue, this Friday.

“None of us expect any problems or changes that day, other than possibly being a bit emotional and wistful,” says Skinner, one of the event’s promoters. 

DAN DEACON

Earth House, 237 N. East St. Friday, Aug. 31 8 p.m., $13, all-ages

SOUNDCHECK OTHER WEDNESDAY PICKS: Open Stage at Rock House Cafe Blackberry Jam at Eagle Creek State Park Rha Goddess at the Walker Theatre Buddy Rich Band at Jazz Kitchen

Thursday

COMEDY STEWART HUFF

Crackers Downtown, 247 S. Meridian St. 8:30 p.m., prices vary, 18+

PHOTO BY KATHERINE COPLEN

Dan Deacon at Bunbury Music Fest

Wednesday

ANNIVERSARY TWENTY TAP 1ST BIRTHDAY PARTY Twenty Tap, 5406 N. College Ave. 7 p.m., free, 21+

We love Twenty Tap, one of Indy’s newest relaxed brewpups with some truly excellent cheese curds.

Show your love this Wednesday as part of their first anniversary party. Don’t mind the name though –– within the course of the year, they’ve managed to install over 38 taps. The night will feature a performance by The Woodstove Flapjacks, raffles, food specials and lots o’ beer. Pull up a seat, order a burger –– just don’t try to drink 20 beers.

We know, we know. This is comedy, not music. We just loved Stewart Huff at this year’s Indy Fringe Festival so much, we had to include him. He’ll be at Crackers Downtown location from Wednesday-Saturday. See our full review of his Fringe show as well as an interview with Huff on NUVO.net

OTHER THURSDAY PICKS: Souldies at the Melody Inn Latin Dance Party at the Jazz Kitchen Champagne Disco at The Casba Altered Thurzdaze at the Mousetrap

Friday

DANCE DAN DEACON, HEIGHT WITH FRIENDS, ALAN RESNICK Earth House Collective, 237 N. East St. 8 p.m., $13, all-ages

This may be the very last time you’ll see a show at the Earth House Collective listed here

Be A Vendor Applications can be obtained on the website or by calling 317-431-0118.

A monthly Saturday marketplace showcasing local vintage & antique dealers side-by-side with contemporary craft & food vendors.

September 1

Be A Shopper Glendale Town Center on the east side of the mall.

Parking is free & plentiful! $4 admission. Rain or Shine.

9am-4pm

An Artisanal Flea Market 6151 N. Rural St. Indianapolis, IN 46220

www.indieartsvintage.blogspot.com 32

music // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // NUVO // 100% RECYCLED PAPER

SOUNDCHECK –– as you read on page 31, the venue is closing for live shows on this very day. Experience the madness of Dan Deacon’s live show and the sadness of Earth House’s last show at this concert presented by A-Squared Industries, Keepin’ It Deep and MOKB Presents. Dan Deacon’s notorious for creating a riotous live show with mounds of audience participation.

His 2007 album Spiderman of the Rings made its way onto many year-end Best Of lists; tracks from that pop-tinged release earn a particularly spirited response at live gatherings. Deacon previously toured with a full ensemble for album Bromst. Log on to NUVO.net for a video of the dance-off he organized at Bunbury Music Festival in July.

restaurant and a ‘90s rock bar –– and now, courtesy of the owners of the just-closed Locals Only, it will become Sabbatical. Much beloved among Bears fans and music lovers alike, Locals had a specifically tight tie with our city’s hiphop talent. Fittingly, some of these talented individuals will help celebrate the soft opening of the new venue and bar. Join DJ Helicon, Sirius Blvck and former NUVO cover dudes Hinx Jones to celebrate Ace One’s album release party. Come visit the best porch in town on its opening night –– it’s sure to be a great one.

This soft opening is also an official Oranje preview event.

ROCK OKKERVIL RIVER

Bishop Bar, 123 S. Walnut St., Bloomington 10 p.m., free, 18+

Upland Brewing Co., 350 W. 11th St. 6 p.m., $20 in advance, $25 at door, all-ages

Supporting: White Lightning Boys and Barbecue James. See our profile on page 21. This event is a fundraiser for the Sycamore Land Trust.

ROCK GOLIATHON ALBUM RELEASE Radio Radio, 1119 N. Prospect St. 8 p.m., free, 21+

We gave Southside rockers Goliathon’s new album Pretend It’s Not Happening four great big stars. Now’s your chance to hear it all live. They’ll be joined by Harley Poe and Leopold and His Fiction at this free show. Reviewer Wade Coggeshall said of their new album, “It may seem like too much for a band this early in their career, but Goliathon clearly aren’t waiting on anyone.

The chimera of Pretend It’s Not Happening may not make for Top 40 material, but it is a thrilling odyssey that should continue ameliorating from sound to stage.” Before the show, pop over to Revolucion to grab some tacos before the show –– they’re buy-one-get-one-free this Friday.

OTHER FRIDAY PICKS: The Side Room at Talbott St. Strange Arrangement at The Mousetrap

Down South, another bar is celebrating a milestone. Bloomington’s the Bishop Bar –– formerly The Cinemat –– is celebrating three years as a combo bar / music venue. Featuring some of Bloomington’s most beloved bands, including Memory Map, Tammar, Cooked Books and Sleeping Bag, grab one of The Bishop’s suspiciously cheap local brews –– we’re giving them the side-eye for their low prices, which seem too good to be true –– and say hello to bar owner Andy. The Bishop is just around the corner from Bloomington’s finest comedy venue, The Comedy Attic, whose weekend program is Best of the Fest –– a collection of favorites from the Bloomington Comedy Fest. You’ll see locals like Tom Brady, Joshua Murphy, Josh Cocks and this year’s Comedy Fest winner, Jamison Raymond.

OPENING NIGHT SABBATICAL OPENING NIGHT, RAP MONSTER ALBUM RELEASE Sabbatical, 921 Broad Ripple Ave. 10 p.m., $5, 21+

In the last year, this space has held a Mexican

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SUN 09/30

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GET TICKETS AT BIRDY’S OR THROUGH TICKETMASTER

HIP-HOP NATIVE SUN ALBUM RELEASE Jazz Kitchen, 5377 N. College Ave. 11 p.m., $10, 21+

Featuring performances by Oreo Jones, Dorsch Deans, DJ Action Jackson, Son of Thought, Mr. Kinetik and more. See our profile of Native Sun on page 28.

OTHER SATURDAY PICKS:

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See complete calendar listings on NUVO.net and our brand new mobile site.

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NEWS OF THE WEIRD

A short-sighted solution Plus, feast on a camel’s eyeball

Unclear on the Concept (and the Image): The Associated Press, reporting in August from Jerusalem, noted that the ultra-Orthodox community’s “modesty patrols” were selling eyeglasses with “special blur-inducing stickers” that fuzz up distant images so that offended men will not inadvertently spot immodestly dressed women. (The stickers apparently simulate nearsightedness, in that vision is clear in the near-field.)

The “modesty patrols” have long tried to shame women dressed in anything other than closed-neck, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts, but may be losing that fight. A columnist for the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz praised the eyeglasses for shifting the responsibility to men for their priggishness.

NOTE: Once again, have a look at some recent weird news that sounds a lot like old weird news (our “Recurring Themes”), plus updates on some all-time-favorite weirdos.

• Periodically, News of the Weird reports on foreigners’ cuisines that most Americans find “undelectable.” A June Wall Street Journal story featured a hardy, fun-loving group of New Yorkers (the “Innard Circle”) who dine monthly at out-of-the-way ethnic restaurants in order to sample such dishes as camel’s eyeball (“way different from a goat’s eyeball,” said one member) and “crispy colorectal,” and had recently learned, from a non-English-speaking waitress, that they had just consumed bull’s diaphragm. Another member admitted “an element of showing off” to the exercise, and acknowledged that not all rookie members return for a second meal. The one body part that no one seems to recall having tried yet: uterus.

• The way it usually happens is Mom and Dad start a road trip with their children, but after a rest stop, they fail to notice that one of the kids is not on board, and they may be well down the road before they turn around.

However, in June, the family member left behind at a Memphis, Tenn., rest stop was Dad, and for 100 miles, no one grasped that he was missing. The family was traveling in a van, and everyone presumed Dad was in the back. He was still at the gas station, calling his own phone (which was in the back of the van). Dad finally reached Mom in the van by posting to Facebook.

• In June, inmate Michelle Richards, 33, was about to begin her sentence at the Albany County (N.Y.) jail when guards discovered a hypodermic needle and seven packets of heroin inside her vagina. (She had been arrested for possessing a needle and heroin in her bra.) Richards’ arrest came about a week after inmate Andrea Amanatides was caught at the very same jailhouse using the same hiding place to sneak in heroin and 256 prescription pills (reported in News of the Weird eight weeks ago). (Amanatides’ stash was discovered when the baggie holding it became dislodged and broke open on the floor.)

• Stores and transportation carriers are, after all these years, still unsure about which “assistance animals” they must allow without violating the federal Americans With Disabilities Act. Under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s latest draft guidelines for airlines, released in February, miniature horses and pot-bellied pigs are allowed on board under certain conditions, but not ferrets, rodents, spiders, snakes or other reptiles. Apparently there is a North American Potbellied Pig Association, whose vice president pointed out to CNSNews.com that swine can be trained to open and close doors and to use a litter box.

• Another Fortuitous Injury: Fortunately, 9-year-old Jacob Holdaway got hit in the head so hard during a game of kickball in Fairland, Ind., in July that he started vomiting and having severe headaches. Because his parents took him to a hospital for that head smack, doctors found a golfball-sized tumor that might not have been discovered until after it had become dangerously large.

Doctors were able to remove most of it and suspect it was benign.

• Another Absent-Minded Musician: The most recent musician to carry a rare, expensive instrument on public transportation but then forget to take it with him was the person who in July left a borrowed Stradivarius violin on a train when

he got off in Bern, Switzerland. Initially, the musician panicked, but the violin was eventually turned in by a good Samaritan.

(The last News of the Weird report of such a Stradivarius was the one accidentally left in a New York City taxicab in 2008. That instrument, reported as worth $4 million, was also returned.)

• Several inventors have attempted over the years to transport bodily sensations over the Internet so that couples separated by distance can simulate personal affections to each other. Now comes Hooman Samani of the Singapore company Lovotics, introducing his “Kissenger” at a design conference in Newcastle, England, in June. Kissenger is a large, soft ball with human-like lips and many pressure points, connected in tandem by the Internet, so that the unique lip movements by one lover are received precisely by the other as if their mouths were actually working the kiss. (In May 2011, Kajimoto Lab in Tokyo introduced a machine with a strawlike device that, when rotated by one lover’s tongue, theoretically rotated one in the partner’s device, thus simulating a “French kiss.”

That simulator, though, lacked the pillowlike facial feel of the Kissenger.)

• Attendance is still strong in tiny Shingo, Japan, where villagers are certain that Jesus Christ is buried. About 500 tourists joined the celebration on June 3 (an event first held in 1964), in honor of Jesus’ relocation there (presumably a voluntary journey from Calvary after the crucifixion). According to legend, he lived out his life in Shingo uneventfully, and a festival with dancing girls marks the anniversary.

• News of the Weird has reported several times on farmers who are certain that treating their cows to better lifestyles improves the quality of their milk and their meat. In July, London’s Daily Telegraph, in a dispatch from Paris, touted Jean-Charles Tastavy’s experiment feeding three cows with a fine wine for four months (in a mixture, along with their usual barley and hay). (They “loved” it and consumed it “with relish,” said the farm’s owner.) The resulting meat, labeled “Vinbovin,” is now a delicacy in Paris restaurants (despite steeper prices to reflect the increased feeding costs for the cows).

©2012 CHUCK SHEPHERD DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@ earthlink.net or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com.

CONTINUED TO PG 38

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classifieds TO ADVERTISE: Phone: (317) 254-2400 | Fax: (317) 479-2036 E-mail: classifieds@nuvo.net | www.nuvo.net/classifieds Mail: Nuvo Classifieds 3951 N. Meridian St., Suite 200 Indianapolis, Indiana 46208

GENERAL SERVICES

PAYMENT, & ADVERTISING DEADLINE All ads are prepaid in full by Monday at 5 P.M. Nuvo gladly accepts Cash, Money Order, & All Major Credit Cards.

POLICIES: Advertiser warrants that all goods or services advertised in NUVO are permissible under applicable local, state and federal la ws. Advertisers and hired advertising agencies are liable for all content (including text, representation and illustration) of advertisements and are res ponsible, without limitation, for any and all claims made thereof against NUVO, its officers or employees. Classified ad space is limited and granted on a first come, first served basis. To qualify for an adjustment, any error must be reported within 15 days of publication date. Credit for errors is limited to first insertion.

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SALES/MARKETING Here We Grow Again! Want to work for NUVO? NUVO is seeking an experienced Account Executive to join our high-performing sales team. Ideal candidate should thrive in a fast paced, deadline driven environment while excelling in organization and attention to detail. This outside sales position cold calls consistently and fearlessly, presents all aspects of NUVO media, meets weekly and quarterly goals and monitors all aspects of clients advertising campaigns. Candidate must offer supreme customer service and thrive on helping locally owned businesses grow.

Qualified candidates will possess: One year outside sales experience, strong customer service orientation, excellent written and verbal command of the English language; Organization of time with laser focus attention to detail plus amazing follow through; ability to multitask, enjoy and thrive around creative thinkers and energetic co-workers. Ideal candidate will take pride in their work and posses a sense of humor.

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CONTINUED FROM PG 37

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classifieds // 08.29.12-09.05.12 // NUVO // 100% RECYCLED PAPER

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

© 2012 BY ROB BRESZNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’m afraid your vibes are slightly out of tune. Can you do something about that, please?

Meanwhile, your invisible friend could really use a Tarot reading, and your houseplants would benefit from a dose of Mozart. Plus -- and I hope I’m not being too forward here -- your charmingly cluttered spots are spiraling into chaotic sprawl, and your slight tendency to overreact is threatening to devolve into a major proclivity. As for that rather shabby emotional baggage of yours: Would you consider hauling it to the dump? In conclusion, my dear Ram, you’re due for a few adjustments.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Is happiness mostly just an absence of pain? If so, I bet you’ve been pretty content lately. But what if a more enchanting and exciting kind of bliss were available? Would you have the courage to go after it? Could you summon the chutzpah and the zeal and the visionary confidence to head out in the direction of a new frontier of joy? I completely understand if you feel shy about asking for more. You might worry that to do so would be greedy, or put you at risk of losing what you have already scored. But I feel it’s my duty to cheer you on. The potential rewards looming just over the hump are magnificent.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I’ve got some medicine for you to try, Gemini. It’s advice from the writer Thomas Merton. “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns,” he wrote, “to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.”

It’s always a good idea to heed that warning, of course. But it’s especially crucial for you right now.

The best healing work you can do is to shield your attention from the din of the outside world and tune in reverently to the glimmers of the inside world.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I dreamed you were a magnanimous taskmaster nudging the people you care about to treat themselves with more conscientious tenderness. You were pestering them to raise their expectations and hew to higher standards of excellence. Your persistence was admirable! You coaxed them to waste less time and make long-range educational plans and express themselves with more confidence and precision. You encouraged them to give themselves a gift now and then and take regular walks by bodies of water. They were suspicious of your efforts to make them feel good, at least in the early going. But eventually they gave in and let you help them.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the spirit of Sesame Street, I’m happy to announce that this week is brought to you by the letter T, the number 2, and the color blue. Here are some of the “T” words you should put extra emphasis on: togetherness, trade-offs, tact, timeliness, tapestry, testability, thoroughness, teamwork, and Themis (goddess of order and justice). To bolster your mastery of the number 2, meditate on interdependence, balance, and collaboration. As for blue, remember that its presence tends to bring stability and depth.

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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In the creation myths of Easter Island’s native inhabitants, the god who made humanity was named Makemake. He was also their fertility deity. Today the name Makemake also belongs to a dwarf planet that was discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune in 2005. It’s currently traveling through the sign of Virgo. I regard it as being the heavenly body that best symbolizes your own destiny in the coming months. In the spirit of the original Makemake, you will have the potential to be a powerful maker. In a sense you could even be the architect and founder of your own new world.

Here’s a suggestion: Look up the word “creator” in a thesaurus, write the words you find there on the back of your business card, and keep the card in a special place until May 2013.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): When novelist James Joyce began to suspect that his adult daughter Lucia was mentally ill, he sought advice from psychologist Carl Jung. After a few sessions with her, Jung told her father that she was schizophrenic. How did he know? A telltale sign was her obsessive tendency to make puns , many of which were quite clever. Joyce reported that he, too, enjoyed the art of punning. “You are a deep-sea diver,” Jung replied. “She is drowning.” I’m going to apply a comparable distinction to you, Libra. These days you may sometimes worry that you’re in over your head in the bottom less abyss. But I’m here to tell you that in all the important ways, you’re like a deep-sea diver. (The Joyce-Jung story comes from Edward Hoagland’s Learning to Eat Soup.)

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): No false advertising this week, Scorpio. Don’t pretend to be a purebred if you’re actually a mutt, and don’t act like you know it all when you really don’t. For that matter, you shouldn’t portray yourself as an unambitious amateur if you’re actually an aggressive pro, and you should avoid giving the impression that you want very little when in fact you’re a burning churning throb of longing.

I realize it may be tempting to believe that a bit of creative deceit would serve a holy cause, but it won’t. As much as you possibly can, make outer appearances reflect inner truths.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In Christian lore, the serpent is the bad guy that’s the cause of all humanity’s problems.

He coaxes Adam and Eve to disobey God, which gets them expelled from Paradise. But in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, there are snake gods that sometimes do good deeds and perform epic services. They’re called Nagas. In one Hindu myth, a Naga prince carries the world on his head. And in a Buddhist tale, the Naga king uses his seven heads t o give the Buddha shelter from a storm just after the great one has achieved enlightenment. In regards to your immediate future, Sagittarius, I foresee you having a relationship to the serpent power that’s more like the Hindu and Buddhist version than the Christian. Expect vitality, fertility, and healing.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice that she is an expert at believing in impossible things. She brags that there was one morning when she managed to embrace six improbable ideas before she even ate breakfast. I encourage you to experiment with this approach, Capricorn. Have fun entertaining all sorts of crazy notions and unruly fantasies. Please note that I am not urging you to actually put those beliefs into action. The point is to give your imagination a good work-out.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I’m not necessarily advising you to become best friends with the dark side of your psyche.

I’m merely requesting that the two of you cultivate a more open connection. The fact of the matter is that if you can keep a dialogue going with this shadowy character, it’s far less likely to trip you up or kick your ass at inopportune moments.

In time you might even come to think of its chaos as being more invigorating than disorienting. You may regard it as a worthy adversary and even an interesting teacher.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You need more magic in your life, Pisces. You’re suffering from a lack of sublimely irrational adventures and eccentrically miraculous epiphanies and inexplicably delightful interventions. At the same time, I think it’s important that the magic you attract into your life is not pure fluff. It needs some grit. It’s got to have a kick that keeps you honest. That’s why I suggest that you consider getting the process started by baking some unicorn poop cookies. They’re sparkly, enchanting, rainbow-colored sweets, but with an edge. Ingredients include sparkle gel, disco dust, star sprinkles -- and a distinctly roguish attitude. Recipe is here: tinyurl. com/UnicornPoopCookies.

Homework: Forget about “less is more” for now. How are you going to apply the principle of “more is more”?

Freewillastrology.com.

100% RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO // 08.29.12-09.05.12 classifieds

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