VOL. 29 ISSUE 25 ISSUE #1276
VOICES / 3 NEWS / 5 THE BIG STORY / 6 SCREENS / 12 VISUAL / 15 FOOD / 16 MUSIC / 18 // SOCIAL
What class do you think students should be required to take in school? // OUR TEAM
16
12
Mae Maples
Christopher Brush
Anna Sayers
We NEED in-depth, age-appropriate sexual education starting from grade school.
Civics, without question. We have lost any sense of our personal responsibilities as participants in a democratic society.
Adulting 101. Subjects taught would include personal finance, human interaction, cooking, basic car repair, etc.
Katherine Coplen
Dan Grossman
Cavan McGinsie
Brian Weiss
Kevin McKinney
EDITOR
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PUBLISHER
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dgrossman@nuvo.net @nuvoartsdan
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bweiss@nuvo.net @bweiss14
kmckinney@nuvo.net
Civic literacy
La inmersión lingüística
Life skills: living in the real world > algebra+geometry +trig+calct
Media literacy.
Will McCarty
Haley Ward
Joey Smith
Caitlin Bartnik
Kathy Flahavin
CREATIVE MANAGER
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wmccarty@nuvo.net
hward@nuvo.net
How to adult
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kflahavin@nuvo.net
Sociology
317.808.4618 jsmith@nuvo.net
Math. All of the math.
Conflict resolution.
Think critically
Straw Wars
Columbus
18
Chreece
Need for health, car, and house (renter’s) Insurance
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Computer programming/ computer science.
317.808.4612 vknorr@nuvo.net
Personal finance / economics
317.808.4613 jdavis@nuvo.net
History class: Days of dial-up & printing out directions
FILM EDITOR: Ed Johnson-Ott, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: David Hoppe, CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Wayne Bertsch, Mark Sheldon, Mark A. Lee, CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rita Kohn, Kyle Long, Dan Savage, Renee Sweany, Mark A. Lee, Alan Sculley DISTRIBUTION SUPPORT: Mel Baird, Lawrence Casey, Jr., Bob Covert, Mike Floyd, Zach Miles, Steve Reyes, Harold Smith, Bob Soots, Ron Whitsit, Dick Powell and Terry Whitthorne
IN THIS ISSUE GADFLY ......................................................... 4 SOUNDCHECK...........................................21 BARFLY ........................................................21 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY...................... 23
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TRUMP’S TRANS BAN IS SHAMEFUL By: John Krull
HORRORHOUND’S 10 YEARS OF SCARES
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JOHN KRULL is a veteran Indiana journalist and educator.
TRUMP TRUMPS TRUMP // OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD
BY JOHN KRULL // EDITORS@NUVO.NET
S
oon, Donald Trump is going to emerge from a fight with the one person he can’t possibly beat. Himself. The longer Trump lingers in the Oval Office, the more his contradictions and self-destructive statements pile up like discarded and unwashed laundry tossed into a corner until the untidy and unstable mess collapses in a heap. Consider the hurried and breathless disarray of just a few days. On a Monday, he delivers a muted address on his policy regarding the 16-yearold war in Afghanistan. On the campaign trail, he’d promised a bold departure and said he’d yank U.S. troops out, but, confronted with both the counsel of his military advisers and the reality of the situation, Trump vows, basically, to continue the approach of former President Barack Obama, albeit with a bit more bluster. He also calls on all Americans to join hands, to meet shared challenges with one resolve. His somber, slightly more presidential
tone draws plaudits from his critics, but supporters in the white nationalist sphere bemoan this rare display of relative maturity as a betrayal. The next day in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump is back to unleashed or unhinged form. He attacks the state’s two Republican U.S. senators — one of them, John McCain, a decorated war hero who now is battling brain cancer — and unloads on the media and everyone else who has the temerity to disagree with or even question him. He rambles for so long that even the faithful begin to walk out on him. Then, in Reno, Nevada, he’s back to calling for national unity, seemingly unaware of what he said in Arizona. Along the way, he announces that his much-criticized response to the horrors in Charlottesville, Virginia was “perfect” (that makes one person who thinks so), that, absent any supporting evidence, North Korea is learning to “respect” the United States and that he’s considering shutting down the U.S. government if Congress doesn’t appropriate money to For more opinion pieces visit nuvo.net/voices
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NUVO.NET/VOICES build the wall he wants along the Mexican he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act border — the wall he promised, again and or enact tax reform. again and again, that the Mexican governThe second is that he’s not adverse to ment would pay for. selling them out. His line-in-the-sand All in all, it’s a series of performances statement about forcing Congress to pay so disjointed and so disconnected from for the wall means that he wants U.S. reality that one GOP U.S. senator — Bob taxpayers, including those who voted for Corker of Tennessee — does publicly what him, to pay for it. It’s not enough that he many Republican members of Congress took them for a ride. He also wants them have been doing privately for months. He to pay for the gas. questions both the mental health and baPerhaps the fact that the earth once sic competence of the pressecure beneath his feet has ident of the United States. begun to crack accounts, Other observers toss around Observers toss at least in part, for the terms like “schizophrenic” freneticism, his around terms like president’s and “delusional.” incoherent and unbridled “schizophrenic” lurches back and forth, his Most of Trump’s hardcore supporters seem unand incomprehensiand “delusional.” abrupt bothered, for the moment, ble about-faces. by all this. The bulk of them Donald Trump seems to aren’t discouraged by the president’s be fighting as much with himself as he failures of governance and leadership beis with others. He acts as if he not only cause they remain thrilled by the fact that doesn’t know what he wants, but even he uses Twitter by typing exclusively with who he wants to be — one moment, the his middle finger. great unifier, the next great divider. Even so, for the first time, the polls When men — even presidents — go to reveal signs of erosion in that dedicated war with themselves, there are no victors. support — perhaps because the discernOnly casualties. ing Trump voters are beginning to realize That’s the fight President Trump is wagsome things. ing right now, a fight with himself and all The first is that they’re unlikely to get the contradictory promises he’s made to from him what they voted for — particuhimself and others. larly if he continues angering the memThat’s a fight he can’t win. And he bers of Congress whose votes he needs if won’t. N
GADFLY
BY WAYNE BERTSCH
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Want to see more Gadfly? Visit nuvo.net/gadfly for all of them.
BEST TWEET: @IN_Task_Force_1 // Aug. 27
BACK TALK
#Breaking: INTF-1 14 member water rescue team has been activated to respond to Texas in support of #hurricaneharvey
WORST TWEET: @realDonaldTrump // Aug. 27
With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other.
THE CONTAMINATION OF SITE 0153 IDEM, EPA, Kheprw Institute work together to protect drinking water on Westside BY MICHAEL RHEINHEIMER // NEWS@NUVO.NET
R
esidents of part of Northwest Indianapolis received a letter in July that they were likely not expecting. They — citizens and shop owners — were living and working on 0153 Ground Water Contamination Site. According to the letter from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), the groundwater between the Riverside and White River wellfields has been found to contain low levels of contamination. IDEM said that despite the ground water contamination, the finished water is safe for consumption. Drinking water in the area currently shows no trace of the chemicals that had been discovered in the ground water. However, the department’s site says that if left unchecked, the contaminants could pose a threat to the drinking water in the future. According to IDEM, Contamination Site 0153 was first reported in 2013. Citizens Water reported finding trace amounts of trichloroethylene, cis-1, 2-dichloroethylene, vinyl chloride and 1,1,1-trichloroethane. “These contaminants are man-made chemicals associated with historic manufacturing and dry-cleaning processes,” reads the fact-sheet provided by IDEM. The organization “has begun investigation into the sources of the contamination and … [will be] implementing a cleanup and monitoring plan.” When that testing was first performed, it was believed that the contaminants posed a major threat to the area’s drinking water. According to a memo from IDEM to the EPA, it was then placed on the EPA’s National Priorities List. The EPA classifies these “superfund sites” as sites that warrant further investigations after “known or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants.” However, the memo reveals that the earli-
LETTER TO RESIDENTS OF SITE 0153 //
MAP OF SITE 0153 WITH DOTS INDICATING CHEMICALS FOUND //
er test was “only a snapshot in time.” In April of 2016, further information from Citizens Water was provided to IDEM. This information revealed that between 2006 and 2016, the level of contaminants in the wellfields was decreasing. Therefore, the state agency rescinded its recommendation to the EPA to treat Site 0153 as a superfund, and returned decontamination efforts to Indiana. The cleanup will take several years, but the monitoring will last much longer. At an Aug. 17 public meeting, lead project manager Ryan Groves announced that the investigation alone will take two to three years, while the cleanup process could last two to five years. The cleanup process would not begin until after the conclusion
of the investigation, meaning from start to finish, the project could last between four to eight years. After the cleanup, the site will be monitored for up to forty years to ensure that the chemicals have been completely removed, he said. The wellfield takes up much of the northwest section of Downtown, spanning roughly from just above Washington Street in the south, to 33rd Street at its northernmost spread. IDEM’s interactive map shows where the chemicals have been found. Some sites are located east of the wellfield in question, but most are concentrated within it. Site 0153’s contamination has brought together several groups, including North-
west Quality of Life, Flanner House, and the newly formed Indiana Environmental Justice Assembly (IEJA), supported by the Kheprw Institute, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit involved in diverse aspects of community development. Two of its leaders attended IDEM’s Aug. 17 public meeting, including Alvin Sangsuwangul, a project manager for Kheprw Institute and a resident of the Riverside neighborhood, and Anne Reynolds, a flute instructor at DePauw University. Sangsuwangul said that he would have preferred that the EPA had treated the site, given their track record. “Our goal [with IDEM] is transparency,” Sangsuwangul said. “We want to be sure the IDEM sees this [the cleanup] through and continues to monitor it.” IEJA will host monthly meetings on every first Friday at The Kheprw Institute at 3549 Boulevard Place. The first meeting is Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. N NUVO.NET // 08.30.17 - 09.06.17 // NEWS // 5
THE HISTORY OF ALL OF US
Schools work to implement new Indiana law requiring ethnic studies elective BY LORI LOVELY // NEWS@NUVO.NET
I
mmigration and diversity are fundamental characteristics of the American experience, but all too often history is taught from the point of view of the white majority. This can give rise to racism, harmful stereotypes and alienation of students of color in their own classrooms, according to research from organizations like the National Education Association. Senator Greg Taylor (D-Indianapolis) laments the fact that he didn’t learn much about contributions by Native Americans, African Americans or other races until he was in law school at Indiana University. Living in a multicultural
home and raising biracial children, he began to contemplate how to teach his children about the authentic, complete history of this country – and how to bring together people of diverse backgrounds and cultures. Now, as a lawmaker in the Indiana Senate, he hopes these gaps in education are rectified in part by Public Law 231, sponsored by Taylor, passed during the 2017 legislative session and signed by Governor Eric Holcomb. “There is a void in the system, so I drafted a bill for students to learn about contributions by all races,” Taylor said. The purpose, he explains, is to learn
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about history so we don’t repeat it. But he also seeks to both empower racial minorities with cultural pride and engender acceptance and understanding among all.
I HAVE A DREAM … The country’s first ethnic studies department was created at the University of California, Berkeley in 1969, which also developed the first ethnic studies Ph.D. program in the 1980s. But only Florida and one county in California have similar programs at the K-12 level, Taylor points out, and in Florida it covers only Hispanic culture.
The National Council for the Social Studies curriculum guidelines stress that “the total school environment should reflect commitment to education about ethnic diversity, including pervasive treatment of this subject matter in standard courses, unbiased curriculum materials and teachers who are educated to understand and appreciate cultural pluralism.” Education about the achievements of ethnic groups can enhance the self-image of students who identify with them. Studies by the National Education Association’s research review Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies indicate this leads to self-confidence, a feeling of belonging and higher academic
NUVO.NET/THEBIGSTORY achievement because students typically learn more when they feel accepted and valued. A new study by the Stanford Graduate School of Education indicates that a high school ethnic studies course pilot study boosted attendance and academic performance of at-risk students. Nationally, non-white students constituted a majority of America’s public school students for the first time in 2014. Notably, Indiana has a significant Native American population. Census reports indicate that 18,462 Indiana residents reported Native American as their only race in 2010. Native Americans comprised 0.3 percent of the state’s population that year, with the population exceeding 0.5 percent in Miami and Wabash counties. “This course opens up a dialogue about all races and ethnicities – and real history,” Taylor says.
HOW A BILL BECAME LAW Taylor’s proposal began as Senate Bill 337 to amend the Indiana Code regarding education. Supported by the Indiana State Teacher’s Association and signed into law by Governor Eric Holcomb on July 1, it requires all schools within the state to offer at least one semester of study of ethnic and racial groups to high school students. Before SB 337, a similar bill passed the Senate in 2016, making ethnic studies mandatory not just for schools to offer, but as required coursework for all students. “The Chairman for Education in the House doesn’t like to make things mandatory,” Taylor explains, “so he wouldn’t hear the bill.” There was also a prior attempt by Sen. Taylor in 2014. He drafted and submitted SB 47, which would have added the “Study of Black History” to the curriculum of elementary and high school social studies classes. That bill failed.
NATIVE AMERICANS BY COUNTY, 2010 // MAP VIA INCONTEXT
That’s when Taylor’s legislative assistant, Garry Holland — also interim education chair of the NAACP branch in Indianapolis — “started making contact with Sen. Taylor to introduce a less specific course known as an ethnic studies course,” Holland said. Holland had organized a team of African American, Native American, Latino and Asian cultural education experts from the faculty at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis for input, but the proposal “didn’t go anywhere for a few years,” he said. In 2017, Taylor and co-author Senator Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn), with Holland’s assistance, made the course an elective. As an elective, it is not part of the Core 40, except as one of the number of possible electives needed to graduate. Once they decided to pursue it as an elective course, it became more palatable to the GOP education leaders in the General Assembly and at DOE. NUVO.NET // 08.30.17 - 09.06.17 // THE BIG STORY // 7
The Big Story Continued...
Specifically, the law requires that after July 1, 2017, all school corporations, charter schools and accredited nonpublic schools shall offer the study of ethnic studies and racial groups as a semester elective course in its high school curriculum at least once every school year.
A MANDATORY ELECTIVE
“If we do it right, it could cause people to embrace other cultures. Division benefits no one.” — SENATOR GREG TAYLOR
The problem is that ethnic studies is already in the elective course study in the state standards, Taylor acknowledges. In fact, according to Michael Brown, Director of Legislative Affairs with the Indiana Department of Education, it is acceptable for schools to use the pre-existing course to meet their legal obligation. The difference is that now it’s mandatory for schools to offer it. “Not many schools were offering it. Only one jurisdiction offered it,” Taylor states. “This makes it mandatory for all schools to offer it.” The bill initially decreed that ethnic studies be offered as a regular class only if nine or more students signed up. “Schools often terminate courses because of a lack of participation,” Brown explains. “For example, it’s not cost effective to pay a teacher to teach three students that sign up for an ancient civilization course. So, I suppose that schools could cancel the class due to not enough students signing up for the course.” But if a law requires that a class be offered, and if some students sign up for it, is it a violation of that law to cancel it? Sidestepping questions about compliance with the law if low turnout resulted in canceling the class under the new law, Taylor says that plan “didn’t work; some schools still wanted to provide it.” Thus, the legislature created an amendment: if not enough sign up for the class, it can be offered online as a
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course access program administered by the DOE. As Brown says, “if an organization or school wishes to teach racial and ethnic studies online, the school (as long as the organization/school is on DOE’s approved catalog) would have to let the student take the course.” However, he indicates that the DOE is “still working out the details of the course access program and its parameters since this law passed last session.”
SENATOR GREG TAYLOR //
As Taylor acknowledges, the “timing was off” to commence immediately, so the new program will be implemented in the spring. “When we’re in session, kids are already signing up for classes. There wasn’t time to start this in the fall.”
CURRICULUM Postponing the requirement until spring allows teachers time to determine exactly what they plan to teach and write a curriculum. Or not. According to Brown, they can simply rely on Course #1516, Ethnic Studies. “I think the law is pretty flexible on the courses used, especially with the course access option the law allows.” It’s up to the teachers to set their curriculum for every course, regardless
of whether the course is required for graduation or not, according to Brown, who adds that the DOE does not create standards for courses that are not required for graduation. “Teachers are charged with creating their curriculum, not the state. It’s up to the district or the teachers to determine what ethnicities and races they are going to teach. The DOE does not approve curriculum; that’s a local decision.” He believes the author of the bill did not want a defined set of standards, in part because each area of the state may want to concentrate on different ethnic and racial subject areas. For example, “Fort Wayne has a large Burmese population, so teachers in Fort Wayne may want to write a majority of their curriculum around this population so students have a better understanding of Burmese culture,” he writes in an email. School districts know the ethnic breakdown in their area, Taylor says, even if students don’t self-identify. “Some [Native Americans] never had a chance to identify with their heritage.” “To assist teachers, the DOE provides resources to help them write their curriculum. Also, we have a dedicated social studies specialist to help troubleshoot questions that teachers may have and to update our resources.” Bruce Blomberg, a former social studies teacher, is the DOE’s social studies specialist. As such, he provides teachers and schools with resources. Brown explains that assistance includes free resources for teachers to establish their curriculum, as well as links and ideas as to how teachers can take advantage of free or reduced admission to museums or historical places. “For example, if a district has a high concentration of Cambodian families and our resources are lacking for this demographic, I know that our specialist would provide resources to teachers so they can teach
NUVO.NET/THEBIGSTORY their students about Cambodian culture.” In addition, he says, many school corporations “bring teachers together to facilitate collaboration so teachers can create and drive the curriculum that best fits the needs of the students they serve.” Therefore, it’s likely that teachers will design and teach curricula differently, depending on the ethnic composition of the class or school. This creates the potential that studies of some ethnicities will never be offered by certain schools, which begs the question: who is the target audience of these classes – the minority being studied or the general population who, it is hoped, will gain an appreciation of other cultures? The goals are different for different audiences. The National Education Association references three studies and research on five curricula that determined that ethnic studies curricula designed primarily for students who are members of the group under study result in high levels of student engagement. A positive impact on student achievement and attitudes toward learning is another result of this curricula. Ethnic studies curricula designed for diverse student groups that include white students, however, tend to focus more on influencing their understanding of, and attitudes about, race and/or people who differ from themselves.
VETTING RESOURCES Taylor wants to reach both audiences and achieve both goals, but tailoring the message for two different audiences requires maintaining a sensitive balance in dealing with cultural differences while targeting common misconceptions and fallacies. Indiana Native American Indian Affairs Commission executive director Kerry Steiner says the INAIAC trusts “Indiana teachers to deliver a quality education to our students.” However, textbooks and lesson plans are littered with misinformation and myths at all levels of education. Textbooks aren’t all that’s wrong with racial studies education. Learning facts directly from the source is important. The danger of not vetting people presenting themselves as Native American is that
misinformation can then be passed along, perpetuating myths and stereotypes – the very things the new law seeks to remedy. “Ensuring that only vetted Native Americans speak to Indiana students is important because it means gaining knowledge from a qualified source,” Steiner elaborates. “Let’s say, for example, that you’re interested in learning more about the solar system. Your next-door neighbor has a telescope and has been gazing at the stars for years. You would probably learn something by talking with your neighbor, but if you want accurate, in-depth information from a qualified source, you’d probably want to talk with an astronomer as an expert in this field. We see similar situations in Indiana. There are a lot of people who have immersed themselves in the Native American community and who are knowledgeable, but it’s not their history they are talking about when they visit a classroom. The story belongs to the Native people — the experts when it comes to conveying information about their tribe and culture.” Indiana Department of Education and INAIAC are already working together to make resources available to educators. “The INAIAC wants to help teachers ensure that their students are receiving accurate information from qualified Native American Indians, so we are asking that guest speakers who come to the classroom to talk about Native American culture are vetted through our office in advance,” Steiner says, adding that a qualified speaker is someone who has been approved by their tribe to talk about their history and culture.
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COMPROMISES In a perfect world, education about ethnic diversity would permeate the social studies curriculum in every grade of elementary and secondary schools. However, fear of offending students led to elevating ethnic studies to a high school-level class instead of a course for middle school students, which is what Sen. Taylor originally wanted. NUVO.NET // 08.30.17 - 09.06.17 // THE BIG STORY // 9
The Big Story Continued...
The National Council for the Social Studies curriculum guidelines stress that “the total school environment should reflect commitment to education about ethnic diversity, including pervasive treatment of this subject matter in standard courses, unbiased curriculum materials and teachers who are educated to understand and appreciate cultural pluralism.
“I was told it would be too shocking for kids,” he reveals, pointing out that a class about the Holocaust is mandatory for Indiana students. “We don’t worry about Holocaust being offensive; it’s required here, even though it didn’t happen here.” Waiting until students are in high school may not be the right time to introduce ethnic studies. According to the National Education Association’s research review, research indicates that the overwhelming dominance of Euro-American perspectives leads many students of color to disengage from academic learning. High school students of color cite it as a factor in their disinterest in studies and even middle school students expressed a dissatisfaction with “learning about white people all the time,” according to the NEA’s research review. Taylor believes ethnic studies are more important now than ever and that it benefits the community. He cites police shootings and the “Trump effect” that has brought racism out of the shadows. “People worry about how to overcome it. We need to talk about it. If we can [implement this], there’s nothing we can’t do,” he says, noting that teachers in Indiana receive cultural competency training to help them teach sensitive material. “It will take the school board and administration to take this seriously if it’s to succeed,” Taylor says.
EVALUATION As Sen. Taylor explains, the legislature passed the bill, and it is now law, but it’s up to the DOE to implement it. He doesn’t know how the DOE will evaluate the success of the program. “The administration has to adopt a policy.” The DOE is not an investigative agency, so it does not provide oversight, Brown explains. “The only check or approval will come
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in the course access area, which still is a work in progress. It’s up to the teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of the courses by testing students. Teachers would be the ultimate evaluators of this course.” However, Indiana’s standards are reviewed periodically. The next social studies standards review will take place in 2020. Brown points out that when he sat down with the social studies specialist Bruce Blomberg and Sen. Taylor, they asked him to gather members of different ethnic and racial communities so they could be members of the committee that will review Indiana’s standards. One unscientific and long-term method of determining the value of the classes could come from looking at academic achievement. A K-12 study by Stanford University in January 2016 consulted during the drafting of this bill indicates that when students of color with below 2.0 grades are provided with culturally-relevant studies, their overall academic performance improves markedly. “If you put cultural competency into the classroom, it changes [the students’] analytical reasoning,” Taylor concludes. “It’s about
student achievement, not just learning about other cultures. You will see school districts with an uptick in academic performance because people will get along through better understanding.” That kind of evaluation again brings up the question of who is the intended audience, but it also raises another: will white students take the class? Sen. Taylor expresses some concern that it will offend a parent who might pressure a legislator to get rid of the program. “This is a conservative state; that lends it to more opposition.” Challenges aside, Sen. Taylor says Indiana has “started down the path” – a bit surprising for a very conservative state legislature. It was a tough bill to pass, he confesses, but he hopes for change and says he expects to be pleasantly surprised by the results. He considers the program “very important” and says it “moves Indiana forward.” As Sen. Taylor says, “If we do it right, it could cause people to embrace other cultures. Division benefits no one.” N
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MIDWEST MODERNIST MECCA ON FILM
Kogonada’s Columbus is built as carefully as the town itself BY DAN GROSSMAN // DGROSSMAN@NUVO.NET
C
olumbus is having a moment. Opening last weekend was Exhibit Columbus, a showcase of installations by leading designers and architects scattered throughout Downtown Columbus. And opening this weekend in Indianapolis is a feature film that takes its name after the town often described as a Midwest modernist mecca. Columbus is the the first feature of Nashville-based director Kogonada, who was born in South Korea and raised in the Midwest. It might be easy to see lead actor John Cho (of Harold and Kumar and Star Trek fame), who also came to the U.S. from South Korea as a young child, as a biographical stand-in for the director. But that’s probably too easy. Cho plays Jin, the South Korean-born son of a famous architectural theorist. He would have no business or interest being in Columbus if his father hadn’t collapsed during a tour of local landmarks with his associate (Parker Posey). Since his father is in a coma in the local hospital, Jin has nothing to do but wait. It isn’t long before he runs into Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a 19-year old woman with an interest in architecture, who is trying to figure out what to do with her life. But since her mom happens to be a recovering meth addict — and Casey is keeping a watchful eye on her mom — this fact looms large in her thoughts as she con-
templates her aspirations. Before directing Columbus, Kogonada (His moniker is an homage to Kogo Nada, the screenwriting partner of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu) was known for his video essays for Sight & Sound, where he explored techniques of directors ranging from Yasujiro Ozu to Richard Linklater. In his video “What is Neorealism?” he performs a thought experiment, contemplating how an old Hollywood director might slice and dice up the celluloid of an Italian neorealist film until only segments with major plot points would be left off the cutting room floor. Kogonada speaks in that video essay of “a different kind of cinema … in which in-between moments seem to be essential, in which time and place seem more critical than plot or story.” And Columbus is filled with many of these in-between moments. Too much for NPR’s Mark Jenkins, who telegraphed his displeasure with the title of his Aug. 3 review “Columbus is Soulless by Design” in which he compares the characters to “miniature humans in a 3D model of a modernist structure.” (Columbus has, however, generally received positive reviews.) There are, it is true, moments where the characters spout philosophical texts at each other (as in many a film by Richard Linklater, a clear influence) that may test the patience of some viewers. But there is also much that is
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truly remarkable, and soulful, about this film. There’s the lush, lingering cinematography, dwelling as much on the iconic architecture as the characters. There’s the Asian-American romantic lead — a rarity in American film — with a hugely confident presence. But most of all, it’s genuinely felt moments of emotion conveyed by the actors that gives this “modernist structure,” electricity. NUVO spoke by phone with Kogonada before the film’s opening.
DAN GROSSMAN: What inspired you to make Columbus. Was it the town? Was it the architecture? KOGONADA: Partly. I was sort of working on a script that had to do with the burden that children have in regard to their parents, whether leaving them or having to deal with losing a parent through age. So I was working out some ideas, exploring those characters. But I hadn’t really put pen to paper and then I visited Columbus, separate from working on the script. And I had read about it in The New York Times so I wanted to visit. It was inspiring; almost immediately I felt so many feelings towards the town and the way it was making me think about being a modern human being and yet [it was] being contextualized in such a small town or a smaller city, also had a certain effect on me. And so, I started talking with my wife during
lunch: I need to film in this town. Once I articulated this desire, the story that I had been working on really fleshed itself out; so really once I found a place for these characters in such a unique place, I think Columbus was really born there.
DAN: Is this film in any sense autobiographical, more than just, say, any work of art is autobiographical because you’re investing your life in it? KOGONADA: Right. I think it’s the latter. I think there’s a lot of autobiography in the film. But it’s spread throughout. I think it would be easy for someone to [see Jin as] my story. There’s certainly elements of Jin that I relate to. But there are also certain elements of Casey that I really relate to. There was a moment in my life — for her, it’s architecture — for me it was cinema. But it came at a really important time in my life that created space for me to breathe and it was valuable. I came from more of a working class, immigrant family… once you have access to something in the realm of art that can speak to you, it can change you, and it can help you navigate life. And so there’s certainly autobiography there, and I think, honestly, it’s not located precisely in Jin.
DAN: What was the experience of working with the actors like?
NUVO.NET/SCREENS
JOHN CHO IN COLUMBUS // PHOTOS BY ELISHA CHRISTIAN COURTESY OF SUPERLATIVE FILMS
KOGONADA: It was the unknown for even my producers and financiers. They knew that I had thought about film quite a bit and that I had a very strong idea about the aesthetic of this film. But that was an element that I didn’t have a lot of experience with. But it really did turn out to be one of the most meaningful parts of the process … There’s a lot of form in this film, architecture … But I don’t think the film has a soul without the actors. I think that they bring what is absolutely necessary or it’s purely about the cinematography. But it’s our desire to bring humanity into this story and the actors were so generous and so talented and so committed to this project that I really feel grateful. DAN: I watched some of your video essays in which it seemed like you were talking about the architecture of film. I thought maybe there might be a connection there. KOGONADA: I do think that they’re related in some ways and I do think the reasons I’m drawn to architecture are probably similar to the reasons why I’m drawn to film. In cinema there is a kind of construction of film. And I’ve said this in the past: I do feel like the material of cinema is time. And other people have said it long before I have. So I’m borrowing an insight. I do think that cinema is about time and that architecture is about space and of course, you can’t separate space and
time … But there’s some sort of relationship between those two art forms that really are interesting to me.
DAN: Another thing about Columbus; it seems different from its surroundings. You drive half a mile from downtown and suddenly you’re in strip mall suburbia. It seems like what America could have been if people cared more about the buildings they made. Did anything similar occur to you, or was it something else? KOGONADA: I think that’s the question that is so fascinating about Columbus is; does art and design matter? There’s this town, as you say, in the middle of strip malls and corn fields that almost made it a case study and it does suggest a town that has been very thoughtful about their building, that has brought in people who approach design in a very thoughtful way, and what does that mean? When I spent time there, there was this real feeling of promise and possibility but there was also some melancholy. There are limits to the town. It’s not utopia. It doesn’t change everyone. But that fundamental question is right. All buildings have architecture. All buildings have someone designing them. And a lot of those designs are less thoughtful, I suppose. I didn’t want to suggest that any architect is not doing its job but
HALEY LU RICHARDSON AND JOHN CHO IN COLUMBUS //
maybe there are some limitations that they have to be frugal and utilitarian. You have these incredible masters of architecture who are designing for a small town. And they’re not trying to do something that’s ostentatious or costly. I think that they’re just being thoughtful. And some of these buildings are thoughtfully humble, you know?
DAN: You have that wonderful moment in the film where Casey says, and I think I’m paraphrasing, “Most people really don’t give a shit,” [when it comes to Columbus architecture.] And Jin says something to the effect that he doesn’t really care much about architecture either but it becomes apparent in the film that he cares more than he lets on. How did that scene develop? KOGONADA: Yeah. I do think there is something about growing up with something. I remember talking to the daughter of this very well-known art collector. She had grown up with Picassos on the wall. … And I remember her telling me that they had meant absolutely nothing to her. They were just things that were on the wall … and then realizing as she got older that these were things to pay attention to, whether she liked them or not, that there might be something more there. I’ve thought about that too in my own life. When things become familiar, they might lose significance to you. And when
I went to Columbus — when I returned to Columbus — I remember talking to some local people there about this incredible architecture and getting this feedback that for a lot of people it’s just there. Everybody knows that this town has some kind of significance but their own response that they’ve seen it all their lives … that they don’t see what other people may see. So I do think that part of that dialogue and part of that experience for both of them is seeing something that has always been there. And I think that’s sort of true for all of us. Maybe we’re always searching for some truth that is out there, that we imagine … is in some cave in a desert or something. … But there’s a kind of duty and truth and poetry in our everyday lives that we’re just not attuned to. That we are searching for something that is outside the thing that is right before us, which might be as beautiful.
DAN: I think you talked about “in-between moments” in regard to Italian neorealism, in comparison to some of the old Hollywood directors. Do you come down on the side of giving the characters breathing room and letting the story develop in those in between moments? KOGONADA: I’m not trying to make a full judgement in that piece, that one is more important, but I wanted to point out that there NUVO.NET // 08.30.17 - 09.06.17 // SCREENS // 13
NUVO.NET/SCREENS are different kinds of cinema. And I think if you judge all movies by the same criteria. … you may wonder why certain movies seem much slower or seem to be diverting and kind of just dismiss it because you’re used to a kind of cinema where every moment is about a plot point. And it’s value is only as it serves the plot, and you have other filmmakers … I could name a number of them, who value moments in and of themselves. And they think that those moments are significant. Every cut in a film is a choice. And it is a choice based on something that you are valuing. So personally I’m really drawn to certain kinds of films that explore everyday moments, there’s no doubt. And I like other films that are not. But I think the films that stay with me are the kind of films that have everything to do with everyday life. I think a lot of films are escape from everyday life and they serve a purpose. Sometimes everyday life is hard and burdensome. You want some time away. But when you leave those films, sometimes everyday life feels even less significant to you, you know? But then there are films that bring value to those in-between moments and when you leave those films, you do feel like your own life even in the quiet moments of waiting, have value. And so yes, I do think that I’m drawn to that kind of film.
DAN: There’s one remarkable scene that HALEY LU RICHARDSON AND JOHN CHO IN COLUMBUS //
you have. Jin asks Casey what really moves her about the architecture and you see her
through the glass explaining it but you don’t hear what she says. And you’re wondering. And there’s this sense of mystery there. And there’s other times when there seems to be a sense of mystery. I was unsure what exactly happened in that hotel room at night between Jin and Casey. Is that sense of mystery important to you? KOGONADA: Yeah, I think having a certain kind of absence that we have to fill is the kind of cinema that engages me. I think in a lot of movie-going experiences, if a character is looking at a book and saying something about the book, the next shot is going to be a closeup of the book. They are always going to give you access to all the information. And so we did make a choice to not always give all the information at times. So there are times when they’re referencing a notebook and we don’t cut into the notebook. Or, as you say, Casey is about to answer a question that’s pretty important and we don’t hear the answer. Playing with absence was a big part of the film, I think. In many ways thematically, the relationship between absence and presence in everyday life, in architecture, in film itself, was something that was being explored. And you’re right, I think absence in and of itself has a mystery to it. Even the absence of our loved ones, when they’re gone; we have to make sense of that. We all understand absence. It’s something that’s rational as well. But it’s also very mysterious. I’m drawn to that. N
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SEPT.
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EVENT // Twin Peaks WHERE // Tube Factory Artspace TICKETS // FREE, all-ages
JOIN US ON THE PLINTH 18 jaw-dropping installations dot Columbus
CONVERSATION PLINTH // PHOTO BY DAN GROSSMAN
BY DAN GROSSMAN // DGROSSMAN@NUVO.NET
I
f you’re walking through the streets of Downtown Columbus over the next three months, you will see some unusual structures. Some of the works project sharply into the sky with welded rebar and steel. Others you can walk into like a maze, or climb up. WHAT // Exhibit Columbus WHEN // Now - Nov. 26
These temporary installations are designed to have a visual conversation, as it were, with the epic landmarks of modernist architecture they stand beside. One of the goals of this exhibition, in its inaugural year, is to inspire architects, designers and particularly students — the next generation of architects — to consider making their mark on this Southern Indiana town, according to Richard McCoy, director of Landmark Columbus. “The main purpose of Exhibit Columbus is to make Columbus a better place to live,” McCoy said about the project in 2016. “To get people to have pride in their community, where they live, work and study. To show that JOJO // PHOTO BY YOUR MOM excellent designers are a great way to solve community challenges. And to encourage
people to come move to Columbus.” And Exhibit Columbus is doing that, he said, by reinvesting in the value of good design. “At Exhibit Columbus, we created something called the Miller Prize Competition,” he said, before giving a brief description of the program that he’s shepherded over the past several years with his team. “We invited 10 designers, all excellent; we had 10 amazing ideas; with a jury that then had to had to decide the [five] winners; it was almost like the flip of a coin; super-close.” Not just the Miller Prize-winning installations are on display, however. There are 18 installations all and all, in and around Downtown Columbus, including installations built by high school and university students. (Exhibit Columbus is also about environmental sustainability. To that end, Indianapolis-based nonprofit People for Urban Progress took last year’s Exhibit Columbus banners and used them to make handbags, for sale in the Upland Columbus Pump House and in the Columbus Area Visitor Center.) One of the jaw-dropper among the Miller Prize winners is Conversation Plinth, a structure made from Indiana hardwoods that sits smack between the First Christian Church designed by Eliel Saarinen,
completed in 1942, and the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library designed by I.M. Pei 25 years later. As if that’s not enough in the iconic name-dropping department, Conversation Plinth wraps itself around the Henry Moore sculpture Large Arch. Plinths are pedestals; the installation itself is formed by stacked a series of wood pedestals accessed by a walkway around the Henry Moore sculpture that leads you up into a round circular space some 20 feet up where you can sit down with your friends and have a conversation. “The plinth signifies importance, something that elevates,” said Tomomi Itakura, a partner in the Boston-based firm IKD, that designed the installation. “The landmarks are all lifted up, all elevated. So Conversation Plinth elevates, creates this series of plinths for people to enjoy… When you get up there you see, you’re at eye level with the buildings now. We all talk about the heros of architecture are so important but we through this project wanted to celebrate the community.” Yugon Kim, also a partner in IKD, described the exhibit as partly an homage to J. Irwin Miller and the company that he directed as chairman and CEO. “It’s a mashup of an homage to J. Irwin
OCT.
8
EVENT // Hoosier Salon Exhibition WHERE // Indiana State Museum TICKETS // $14.95, all-ages
Miller and Cummins,” he said. Through the Cummins Foundation Architecture Program, Miller spurred architectural innovation in Columbus after World War II, helping finance public buildings like schools and firehouses, paying the architectural fees, provided that the architects chosen were from a list provided by the Cummins Foundation. In Miller’s former residence, known simply as the Miller House — an iconic pilgrimage site for architecture geeks and lovers of fine design — there is a feature called the conversation pit, a sunken square of floor space lined with sofas. (At the Columbus Area Visitors Center you can sign up for a public tour of the Miller House, which is administered by the Indianapolis Museum of Art.) “What we thought, it’s a little bit sad that the conversation pit is private, that you can’t actually go into it, so how do you bring that out to the public?” said Kim. Part of the answer lay in the materials used for the construction of Conversation Plinth, which utilizes a cutting-edge material; cross-laminated timber, or CLT. “This is the first ever commercial pressing of hardwood CLT. The first structure of hardwood CLT ever in the United States,” said Kim. “What’s interesting about it is that we’re taking low value wood which amounts of about 50 percent of every log that is cut down in Indiana. Usually that material goes to low value items. So what we thought is just by rethinking distribution streams to reassemble in this type of assembly, we are able to negate all the items that make it low value and create this very high value structural panel.” And, it turns out, that CLT has some metaphoric resonance to all things Columbus, and this is something that Kim is well aware of. He describes CLT as “massive plywood on steroids” using some materials that might be weak on their own, but combined with other materials are made strong. And that almost to a T describes the culture of collaboration and innovation that make Columbus, pop. 45,0000, not your typical Midwestern town. “There’s a saying here, the Columbus Way; this a prime example of it,” said Kim. “So this is a large endeavor; we worked with people who were local, people who were national to achieve this.” N NUVO.NET // 08.30.17 - 09.06.17 // VISUAL // 15
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NEW RESTAURANT // Tio Chpie’s Taqueria WHAT // A new authentic taco shop on the city’s westside COST // $
EVENT // Meadful Things & Outciders Festival WHAT // A celebration of mead and cider WHEN // Sept. 2, 2 p.m. WHERE // Circle City Industrial Complex
A GROUP OF STUDENTS WITH THE STRAWBALE. RIGHT, DOWNTOWN INDIANAPOLIS AND LEFT IN BROAD RIPPLE. //
STRAW WARS
Restaurants deputized to help reduce straw waste BY CAVAN MCGINSIE // CMcGINSIE@NUVO.NET
S
traws. Those tiny plastic tubes that come in nearly every beverage we consume. We don’t ask for them, but invariably they are there, waiting for us to suck our soda, water, tea, iced coffee, etc. through. Then we toss them in the trash, or the recycling bin. Or you’re a complete asshole and we throw them on the ground or out of our car window. The fact is, no matter where we throw them — even if we’re eco-conscious and make sure they go into the recycling — they inevitably end up in our environment. In America, according to the National Park Service, 500 million plastic straws end up going into our landfills every day, which in turn end up most often in our waterways. For the mathematicians out there, that is
175 billion a year pouring into our creeks, rivers, lakes and oceans. Jim Poyser, former NUVO managing editor and current executive director of Earth Charter Indiana, learned this and it infuriated him. If you know Jim, it doesn’t seem like that’s a common occurrence — he’s a pretty chill dude, especially when you’re sitting on the comfortable back porch of his home with the birds chirping and the White River trickling in the background. But he’s also a passionate environmental advocate, and that pushed him to try and get Indianapolis restaurants to make a stand against plastic straws. He calls the project Strawbale. “The inception of Strawbale, I believe, was actually in a restaurant,” Jim says. “I don’t remember which one, but I was
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sitting there and thinking about big issues, like climate change, and how intimidating they are and how we’re going to talk to each other about it. And I looked out across the sea of this restaurant and there were straws out of every single glass, and I just thought, ‘That is so silly. That’s just a lot of straws that are going to end up somewhere they shouldn’t end up.’” From there he decided he would do what he could to impact this ridiculous use of straws in the restaurant industry. “It popped into my mind as a visual pun, the idea of taking those straws and putting them into a straw bale,” he says. And so, “I began to collect straws,” he says, describing the simple beginnings to the project. He reached out to some restaurants around the city and asked if they could keep the straws that they went
through and he would come by and pick them up. He tapped someone he knew shared his views on unnecessary waste to kick the project off. “The first person I contacted was Neal Brown,” the owner of Pizzology in Carmel, Libertine and Stella on Mass Ave, and the soon-to-open Ukiyo in SoBro. “He was immediately excited about this project,” continues Jim. “I collected most of my straws for the first Strawbale from Neal and his Downtown Pizzology (which is now Stella).” For Brown it was a no-brainer, “Strawbale was proposed to us as a mobile art installation to inspire restaurants to reduce their waste,” he says. “It seemed like an easy and impactful place for us to start reducing waste.” After many bike and bus rides around
NUVO.NET/FOOD+DRINK CONSTRUCTING THE STRAWBALE //
town collecting straws, Jim crafted the first Strawbale. “The first Strawbale succeeded in creating a visual pun of used straws, but it was ugly as it could be,” he says with a laugh. “That’s because I’m not an artist; I’m not a sculptor. I’m a person who hates straws, and I like to take my anger about things and sort of sublimate it and work it through writing, visual art or whatever.” From that first artwork, the initiative has grown, with the subsequent Strawbale being more presentable since Jim worked with a professional artist, Nate Garvey, a graduate of the Herron School of Art. And while the sculpture is still the centerpiece, Jim quickly recognized an issue. “It’s kind of beyond me to do this on my own,” he explains. “There are a lot of restaurants out there. So, what I did in Broad Ripple is find a local school to help me. I approached Broad Ripple Montessori School.” Bringing in children from the local school, Jim gets them to have mini parades with the sculptures. They trek through neighborhoods to the different restaurants and ask the owners and managers to sign a resolution saying that they won’t hand out straws unless they are requested. He says he likes working with the children because, “when kids get involved and they can see the impact of their actions in the surrounding community, this fulfills numerous Indiana standards, incidentally, it also fulfills the intrinsic desire of kids to work on and solve problems.”
And for the restaurants, it makes a positive impact on their businesses. According to Brown, “It has reduced our disposable cost over the three years we’ve been participating. We’re integrating this policy into all of our restaurants. We’ve already introduced paper straws at Libertine.” And that brings up something Jim wishes could happen everywhere. As much as he hates straws, he understands that some people need to use them, whether it be due to disabilities, tooth sensitivities, or, you know, if you’re an astronaut. But, he wants to push alternatives to the classic, wasteful straw. “There are paper straws and there are reusable straws,” he says. “I know so many people now that will walk up to me and show me, proudly, their reusable straws. I’m like ‘Yes! Give me a hug.’” As for the Strawbales, they still go on parades, but they are also being shown around the city at events and art galleries. “It was displayed at one of the Big Car galleries recently, “ says Jim. “It’s been invited to appear at the Indiana Recycling Coalition ... I know the White River Alliance has some plans for it, they’d actually like to display it along the White River to call attention to the waste that is getting into the White River.” “It’s frustrating when you think about how much we have to do to keep this planet livable for all of the species on it,” Jim says while the birds chirp in his backyard. “For me, there is just so much we have to solve and the Strawbale is just the start.” N
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CHREECE III FILLS SQUARE Hip-hop filled Fountain Square for a full day on Saturday for the third annual Chreece music festival. Founded by Oreo Jones as a benefit for Musical Family Tree, Chreece brought together rappers, DJs, producers and huge crowds at Thunderbird, Pioneer, Fountain Square Plaza, the Hi-Fi, White Rabbit Cabaret. Clockwise from top left: Maxie at Hi-Fi; rapper Raggs and photographer Sydney Webster; Mula Khan at Hoosier Dome; three festival-goer friends get down to the DJ set up outside on the Square blasting “Shake that Ass” by Mystikal; Willis at Hoosier Dome; hula hooper Iris (a.k.a. Cassidy Raley), A.C.E. O.N.E. and Sonny Paradise onstage at // PHOTO BY GAGE HEIN
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the Hi-Fi.
KYLE LONG is a longtime NUVO columnist and host of WFYI’s A Cultural Manifesto.
NUVO.NET/MUSIC
L4D’S NEW JAMS T BY KYLE LONG // MUSIC@NUVO.NET
he latest release from the Irvington-based Timechange Records adds a critical new chapter to the library of early Indianapolis punk rock. Don’t Move: Essential Synth/Wave from the American Rust Belt (1980-1982) collects the entire canon of recorded work from The Last Four Digits, a fantastic art-punk collective that deserves the deluxe packaging treatment accorded to this excellent anthology disc. The Last Four Digits released just one EP during their original incarnation, 1980s Big Picture on Hardly Music. Clocking in at a scant four songs, the EP did manage to blast its way into punk rock notoriety with the pulsating “City Streets.” Written by drummer John Koss, “City Streets” featured the searing atonal synth work of Dave Fulton. The song became an anthem for the group, and has since been comped on bootleg reissue discs like Rave Up Records’ Killed By Synth. Don’t Move collects the Big Picture EP, as well as the band’s contribution to the legendary Gulcher Records’ Red Snerts comp, a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Diddy Wah Diddy.” But it’s the previously unreleased material that will be of greatest interest to most hardcore punk rock fans. And some of this music is a real revelation. Don’t Move features unissued studio recordings from an expended version of the band featuring Dow Jones and the Industrials’ synth maestro Brad Garton. “Liquids” provides a particularly interesting snapshot of the group during this period. Juxtaposing chanted vocals over spoken word audio samples, “Liquids” leans toward a new kind of music making that mirrors concurrently unfolding experiments by Talking Heads and Brian Eno. One wonders what the group could’ve achieved if they’d hung on long enough to continue this exploration. Punk rock fans will also rejoice at the inclusion of a 30-minute live set featuring The Last Four Digits in performance at the East Village’s Mecca of punk, CBGB. The
band sound confident and tight as they rip through a spirited 10-song set in one of the most important music venues of the late 20th century. Don’t Move is available in digital form, but collectors will undoubtedly gravitate to the limited edition clear vinyl pressing, which includes excellent notes, vintage photos and a CD of the CBGB’s performance. It’s Timechange mastermind Rick Wilkerson that brought this important Indianapolis group’s music back into focus, and the Last Four Digits deserve this renewed scrutiny. The band is still active as a live unit, with semi-regular shows in Indy. I recently spoke with The Last Four Digits’ Dave Fulton on the occasion of this reissue. Check out my conversation with Dave below, and tune in to Cultural Manifesto this week on 90.1 WFYI to hear my interviews with L4D’s guitarist Steve Grigdesby and bassist Julie Huffaker.
KYLE LONG: The Last Four Digits were one of the earliest punk rock groups in Indianapolis. What was your first exposure to the genre? DAVE FULTON: I had the good fortune to be in London in the summer of 1977 when punk and new wave music was exploding over there. I had a chance to pogo at the Marquee Club in London, and I met Sid Vicious
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NUVO.NET/MUSIC and hung out with him a little one evening. A lot of legendary bands like Eddie and The Hotrods, The Vibrators, The Damned, I had the luxury of seeing them firsthand in little clubs in London. Of course when I came back there was no way I couldn’t have been influenced by that.
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informed the work you did here in Indy. After transitioning through a couple different projects, you formed The Last Four Digits in 1980 and began steadily gigging around the city. But I understand you didn’t actually appear onstage with the group? DAVE: I did not appear on stage because I didn’t like the way anyone else mixed the band. So I’d be set-up in the back at the soundboard, and I would play keyboards and do vocals from the soundboard. So we’d do a song like “Coughing Up Blood” and everyone would look at the stage like, “Where’s the keyboard? Who’s singing? I don’t see anyone singing up there.”
KYLE: Your synth work was a big part of The Last Four Digits sound. What kind of equipment were you using at that time? DAVE: I had a Roland SH-1, which Rick Wilkerson now owns. I also had this cool little outboard thing that had plugs and wires and I could patch this into that and get different sounds. My favorite was the ring modulator which turned whatever you input into it into noise. I remember Steve Grigdesby [Last Four Digits’ guitarist] and I had a company called Defoliant Sound and we would occasionally do sound reinforcement at Crazy Al’s. On one famous New Year’s Eve, The Jetsons were playing there. A few days before the show Jamie Jetson came into the record store where I worked and said, “When you do the audio for us, I want you to do something kind of fun and interesting with it.” That was probably the wrong thing to say to me, because we ran the entire P.A. system through the ring modulator. Every once in a while, all people heard in the audience was just noise. So they’d see the band playing and singing, but all they’d hear was sssssskkkrrrrssssshhhhhh. [imitates ring modulator noise]
KYLE: How did The Last Four Digits go over in the Indianapolis live music scene? What kind of responses were you getting from local crowds? DAVE: We didn’t tailor our sound after anyone else. We didn’t really have a handle that people could grab on to and say, “Oh, The Last Four Digits sound like this.” We never really made any effort to sound like anyone else. I think we were more into Throbbing Gristle, and Pere Ubu, more of the art rock kind of genre. We had one song where each each member of the band played in a different time signature. One of us played in 3/4 time, one of us would play in 4/4, one would play in 7/8, and I think the drums were in 5/4. It kind of kept a beat, but I don’t know that Indianapolis audiences really wanted to hear a song where every member of the band was playing in different times. We brought in a professional heckler for our live show too. We knew a guy with a pretty sharp wit and we actually said, “We will let you in free if you heckle us during our set.” So he sat there and told us how bad we were, that we were the worst band he’d ever heard, and things a little bit more clever than that. It made for a fun show.
KYLE: Initially, some of the critical response to punk viewed the genre as a sort of disposable artistic spasm that would burn itself out very quickly. Are you surprised the culture has had such an enduring impact, and that this music you recorded almost 40 years ago is still so relevant today? DAVE: Punk rock was a tsunami that washed over all of culture. Maybe it took a year, or two years, or five years or 10 years, but eventually it got into every element of our society. I think the big lesson is that the most creatively successful bands you can ever think of always made music for themselves, music that satisfied something deep within them that they wanted to get out — whether it was The Beatles, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols or whoever. If you always make music for yourself, you will be more creatively successful than trying to second guess what somebody else wants. I honestly believe that. N
OUT THIS WEEK
ARTIST // Lil Uzi Vert ALBUM // Luv is Rage 2 LABEL // Atlantic
ARTIST // Queens of the Stone Age ALBUM // Villains LABEL // Matador
WEDNESDAY // 8.30
THURSDAY // 8.31
THURSDAY // 8.31
FRIDAY // 9.1
SATURDAY // 9.2
SUNDAY // 9.3
MONDAY // 9.4
Alice Cooper, Deep Purple 7 p.m., Klipsch Music Center, prices vary, all-ages
Serengeti 8 p.m., The Bishop (Bloomington), 18+
Busman’s Holiday 8 p.m., Indianapolis Arts Center, all-ages
John Butler Trio 7 p.m., Egyptian Room, all-ages
Dietrich Jon Album Release 8 p.m., Blockhouse (Bloomington), 18+
John Mayer 7 p.m., Klipsch Music Center, all-ages
Labor Day Street Fair 2:30 p.m., Jazz Kitchen, 21+
Chicago’s Serengeti is
Nothing like beautiful
The latest in this Australian
Alice Cooper’s major heyday
an unstoppable rhyme
local music in a beautiful
jam/roots group’s discog-
may have been back in the
monster, but don’t miss
setting — don’t pass up the
raphy is a 12” EP called
1970s, when tours behind
him in other projects, like
Indianapolis Arts Center
Ocean and a re-release of a
albums like Billion Dollar Ba-
Sisyphus (with Son Lux
as an interesting all-ages
20-year-old cassette called
Yats deliciousness to nom
bies were breaking Rolling
and Sufjan Stevens). Jeron
space to see tunes.
Searching for Heritage.
on, too.
Stones concert attendance
Braxton opens.
800 lb Gorilla, The Trip, Fountain Square Brewing Co., 21+ Collin Fiol, Alec Harter, Hoosier Dome, all-ages Aaron Kamm and The One Drops, Indyca, Mousetrap, 21+ Collin Fiol, Alec Harter, Hoosier Dome, all-ages
The Madeira, Tracksuit Lyfestile, Frankie Camero, Radio Radio, 21+ North Coast Music Festival, Union Park, all-ages Purple Veins, Conner Prairie, all-ages The Late Show, The Rathskeller, 21+
Clifford Ratliff and Friends, Will 25,000 or so bodies that
Pavel and Direct Contact
Sleeping Bag and Har-
also function as wonderlands
and Rob Dixon and Friends
pooner open.
pack Klipsch for this late
play this annual street fair.
summer show? Probably.
Yep, there’ll be plenty of
records, but the man born Vincent Damon Furnier is still creatively vibrant nearly four decades later.
WEDNESDAY // 8.30 Blues Jam, Slippery Noodle, 21+ Under the Influence Showcase, Fountain Square Brewing Co., 21+ Tim Brickey, Jazz Kitchen, 21+ Bloody Show, JR and The Cobblers, Holy Sheets, Mr. Clit and The Pink, State Street Pub, 21+ Lifehouse and Switchfoot, Farm Bureau Insurance Lawn at White River State Park, all-ages Mobina Galore, Cairo Jag, Black Recluse, Sonora, Melody Inn, 21+ Savage Wednesdays, Tiki Bob’s, 21 +
THURSDAY // 8.31 Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Austin Stirling, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Altered Thurdaze with Jantsen, Mousetrap, 21+ Black Voodoo, The Rathskeller, 21+
The Cocaine Wolves, The Great Terror, Vodka De Milo, Melody Inn, 21+ Stick Men, The Irving, all-ages Purple Veins, Conner Prairie, all-ages
FRIDAY // 9.1 DJ Metrognome, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Bashiri Asad, Jazz Kitchen, 21+ Hyryder, The Bluebird (Bloomington), 21+ ‘90s Hip-Hop Party with DJ Cadillac G, DJ King, DJ DJ, DJ Reddy Rock, The Vogue, 21+ Delta Duo, Gene Deer, Quinn Deveaux, Stuart Poe, DNA, Irving Theater, all-ages Too Hip for Words, Radio Radio, 21+ Rick Dodd and The Dickrodds, The Common, Phyllis, Howard, Melody Inn, 21+ Wilsen, Harpooner, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Travis Feaster, Flannel Jane, The District Tap, 21+
Complete Listings Online: nuvo.net/soundcheck
BARFLY
Bruce Katz Band, Slippery Noodle, 21+
SATURDAY // 9.2 The Roundups, Tilford Sellers, State Street Pub, 21+ Stay Outside, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Steven Dunn, Square Cat Vinyl, all-ages
BY WAYNE BERTSCH
Jennie DeVoe, The Rathskeller, 21+ Fishers Blues Fest, Nickel Plate District, all-ages Queen Delphine and The Crown Jewels, Slippery Noodle, 21+ George Porter, Jr., Mousetrap, 21+ Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band, Klipsch Music Center, all-ages Bollywood Bhangra, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Will Scott, Flat12 Bierwerks, 21+ George Porter Jr., Mousetrap, 21+ Rahsaan Barber and Everyday Magic, Jazz Kitchen, 21+ Lit with Slater Hogan and DJ Rayve, Tiki Bob’s, 21+ Zoso: Music Of Led Zeppelin, Conner Prairie, all-ages Psychobilly NIght with The Koffin Kats, The Loveless and MG and The Gas City 3, Melody Inn, 21+
Festejando Labor Day, Los Huracanes Del Norte, Regulo Caro, Revanch, Chispas Discoteque, 21+ PB&J: Making Music with Daniel, Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts, all-ages
SUNDAY // 9.3 Life Lessons, Hoosier Dome, all-ages Kris Hitchcock, Tin Roof, 21+ Authority Zero, The Supervillains, Dissonance and Dissent, Jon Gazi, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Sin Bandera, Murat Theatre at Old National Centre, all-ages Esso Afrojam Funkbeat, Square Cat Vinyl, all-ages DJ Badfaerie, Melody Inn, 21+
TUESDAY // 9.5 Pigeons Play Ping Pong, Flamingosis, The Hi-Fi, 21+ The Hollows, Wild Colonial Bhoys, Melody Inn, 21+
NUVO.NET // 08.30.17 - 09.06.17 // SOUNDCHECK // 21
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ARIES (March 21-April 19): “We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems,” said businessman Lee Iacocca. You are currently wrestling with an example of this phenomenon, Aries. The camouflage is well-rendered. To expose the opportunity hidden beneath the apparent dilemma, you may have to be more strategic and less straightforward than you usually are — cagier and not as blunt. Can you manage that? I think so. Once you crack the riddle, taking advantage of the opportunity should be interesting.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The sadness you feel might be the most fertile sadness you have felt in a long time. At least potentially, it has tremendous motivating power. You could respond to it by mobilizing changes that would dramatically diminish the sadness you feel in the coming years, and also make it less likely that sadness-provoking events will come your way. So I invite you to express gratitude for your current sadness. That’s the crucial first step if you want to harness it to work wonders.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Close your eyes and imagine this: You and a beloved ally get lost in an enchanted forest, discover a mysterious treasure, and find your way back to civilization just before dark. Now visualize this: You give a dear companion a photo of your face taken on every one of your birthdays, and the two of you spend hours talking about your evolution. Picture this: You and an exciting accomplice luxuriate in a sun-lit sanctuary surrounded by gourmet snacks as you listen to ecstatic music and bestow compliments on each other. These are examples of the kinds of experiments I invite you to try in the coming weeks. Dream up some more! Here’s a keynote to inspire you: sacred fun.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Don’t hoot with the owls at night if you want to crow with the rooster in the morning,” advised Miss Georgia during the Miss Teen USA Pageant. Although that’s usually good counsel, it may not apply to you in the coming weeks. Why? Because your capacity for revelry will be at an all-time high, as will your ability to be energized rather than drained by your revelry. It seems you have a special temporary superpower that enables you both to have maximum fun and get a lot of work done.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): On its album Jefferson’s Tree of Liberty, Jefferson Starship plays a song I co-wrote, “In a Crisis.” On its album Deeper Space/ Virgin Sky, the band covers another tune I co-wrote, “Dark Ages.” Have I received a share of the record sales? Not a penny. Am I upset? Not at all. I’m glad the songs are being heard and enjoyed. I’m gratified that a world-famous, multiplatinum band chose to record them. I’m pleased my musical creations are appreciated. Now here’s my question for you, Gemini: Has some good thing of yours been “borrowed”? Have you wielded a benevolent influence that hasn’t been fully acknowledged? I suggest you consider adopting an approach like mine. It’s prime time to adjust your thinking about how your gifts and talents have been used, applied, or translated. CANCER (June 21-July 22): Author Roger von Oech tells us that creativity often involves “the ability to take something out of one context and put it into another so that it takes on new meanings.” According to my analysis of the astrological omens, this strategy could and should be your specialty in the coming weeks. “The first person to look at an oyster and think food had this ability,” says von Oech. “So did the first person to look at sheep intestines and think guitar strings. And so did the first person to look at a perfume vaporizer and think gasoline carburetor.” Be on the lookout, Cancerian, for inventive substitutions and ingenious replacements. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): When famous socialite Nan Kempner was young, her mother took her shopping at Yves Saint Laurent’s salon. Nan got fixated on a certain white satin suit, but her mean old mother refused to buy it for her. “You’ve already spent too much of your monthly allowance,” mom said. But the resourceful girl came up with a successful gambit. She broke into sobs, and continued to cry nonstop until the store’s clerks lowered the price to an amount she could afford. You know me, Leo: I don’t usually recommend resorting to such extreme measures to get what you want. But now is one time when I am giving you a go-ahead to do just that. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the miraculous communication system that we know as the World Wide Web. When asked if he had any regrets about his pioneering work, he named just one. There was no need for him to have inserted the double slash — “//” — after the “http:” in web addresses. He’s sorry that Internet users have had to type those irrelevant extra characters so many billions of times. Let this serve as a teaching story for you, Virgo. As you create innovations in the coming weeks, be mindful of how you shape the basic features. The details you include in the beginning may endure.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): During this phase of your astrological cycle, it makes sense to express more leadership. If you’re already a pretty good guide or role model, you will have the power to boost your benevolent influence to an even higher level. For inspiration, listen to educator Peter Drucker: “Leadership is not magnetic personality. That can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people.’ That is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, raising a person’s performance to a higher standard, building a personality beyond its normal limitations.” CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “One should always be a little improbable,” said Oscar Wilde. That’s advice I wouldn’t normally give a Capricorn. You thrive on being grounded and straightforward. But I’m making an exception now. The astrological omens compel me. So what does it mean, exactly? How might you be “improbable”? Here are suggestions to get you started. 1. Be on the lookout for inspiring ways to surprise yourself. 2. Elude any warped expectations that people have of you. 3. Be willing to change your mind. Open yourself up to evidence that contradicts your theories and beliefs. 4. Use telepathy to contact Oscar Wilde in your dreams, and ask him to help you stir up some benevolent mischief or compassionate trouble. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A modern Israeli woman named Shoshana Hadad got into trouble because of an event that occurred long before she was born. In 580 B.C., one of her male ancestors married a divorced woman, which at that time was regarded as a sin. Religious authorities decreed that as punishment, none of his descendants could ever wed a member of the Cohen tribe. But Hadad did just that, which prompted rabbis to declare her union with Masoud Cohen illegal. I bring this tale to your attention as a way to illustrate the possibility that you, too, may soon have to deal with the consequences of past events. But now that I have forewarned you, I expect you will act wisely, not rashly. You will pass a tricky test and resolve the old matter for good. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Want to live to be 100? Then be as boring as possible. That’s the conclusion of longevity researchers, as reported by the Weekly World News. To ensure a maximum life span, you should do nothing that excites you. You should cultivate a neutral, blah personality, and never travel far from home. JUST KIDDING! I lied. The Weekly World News is in fact a famous purveyor of fake news. The truth, according to my analysis of the astrological omens, is that you should be less boring in the next seven weeks than you have ever been in your life. To do so will be superb for your health, your wealth, and your future.”
HOMEWORK: Send news of your favorite mystery — an enigma that is both maddening and delightful. Freewillastrology.com
NUVO.NET // 08.30.17 - 09.06.17 // CLASSIFIEDS // 23
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