| Maps inspire design, home decor
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Whether you are fascinated by the Old World or prefer a modern look, there's a map for your home.It's easy to find antique-inspired sepia maps of the world that are full of mountain ranges and place names and look as if they belong in your grandfather's study. But there are also more glamorous maps, streamlined of all topography and made of clear acrylic that seems to float when hung on the wall. Fully illuminated maps look like high-def televisions, techy enough to make a gadget geek swoon.But all maps share this: They transport us back in time to the places we have traveled, as well as to the places we dream of going. Maps represent who we are, making them good conversation pieces in the home, says Larry Compeau, associate professor of marketing at Clarkson University in New York and executive officer of the Society for Consumer Psychology.Maps also can signify who we wish we were."Those who haven't really traveled, who have a map displayed, want to convey that they're knowledge-seeking, intelligent people," Compeau says.
Tower in sight for USI
Courtesy of Holzman Moss Architecture This is an artist's rendering of how the new University Center would look after the first phase of a project to link the existing center and the old library at the University of Southern Indiana. The dominant feature after the two buildings are linked would be a conical tower with a masonry exterior. USI trustees heard an update of the architectural plans for the University Center on Thursday. .
Laurie Metcalf
Right out of college, she and a group of Chicago friends started Steppenwolf Theatre, which grew into one of America's most distinguished companies. (Her 20-minute monologue in Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead is an off-Broadway legend.) Later, she picked up a little sitcom called Roseanne, which rewrote the rules of television comedy with its unblinking look at blue collar life. Now Metcalf is exercising her gift for being up to the minute on Broadway, co-starring in David Mamet's new comedy November. It's a Mamet play unlike any other, with the structure of a classic comedy in the Kaufman & Hart vein but filled with scabrous jokes on such hot-button topics as the torture of prisoners, campaign fundraising, the Middle East and gay marriage. Nathan Lane stars as a U.S. President willing to shake down the national turkey lobby to save his faltering re-election campaign, with Metcalf as his lesbian speechwriter, who's not above a little blackmail to get married on national television.
willy waterton the sun times
With her comic Minnie Pearl bits, her fancy footwork and her 50,000-watt smile, it's easy to overlook how much music Linsey makes as part of this old-time country music variety show. Pianist Mel Aucoin, a regular with the Becketts in recent years, has more than four decades in the music business behind him, including a lengthy stint on the old Tommy Hunter show. He grew up in the thick of Cape Breton fiddle culture and has high praise for Tyler and Linsey and their place within the Ontario fiddle music continuum. "I'm out of breath when I'm watching those two," Aucoin said after Monday's first show. "They're as fine a fiddlers as you'll hear, wherever you go. They're as good as you're going to get. It doesn't get any better." Sometimes we forget that around these parts, where as Sun Times columnist Jim Merriam once wrote, "the first family of fiddling" is a Grey-Bruce treasure we tend to take for granted.
Kerry Hart: The danger of interdisciplinary arts education
Wouldn't it be great if we could read a couple of books on brain surgery and be ready to perform an operation? In arts education, that is the type of miraculous feat we often expect from our teachers. Every academic discipline requires a unique intellectual function — from quantitative reasoning to philosophical inquiry. The arts are no different. Dance requires a physical-kinesthetic brain function; music requires an auditory function; visual art requires a visual-spacial brain function; and drama incorporates a combination of several, including the verbal-linguistic function that is important to the literary arts. The college and university curriculum in each arts discipline is rigorous and, indeed, it takes a lifetime to acquire mastery in one subject area. Yet when it comes to teaching students who do not have a background in any of the arts, we create interdisciplinary arts courses that provide a superficial overview — usually from a historical perspective.
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